[Deathpenalty]death penalty news-----N.C., N.Y., ALA.

[Rick Halperin]

Nov. 12




NORTH CAROLINA----execution

Frank Ray Chandler executed for 1992 killing of elderly woman


Frank Ray Chandler, whose death sentence for accidentally killing a woman
during a 1992 robbery was opposed even by some capital punishment
supporters, was executed early Friday for the crime.

Chandler, 32, was put to death by injection at Central Prison for killing
90-year-old Doris Poore, who surprised him when he broke into her house on
a misguided search for drugs. He was pronounced dead at 2:13 a.m., a
Corrections Department spokeswoman said.

Chandler had stopped pursuing court appeals, and Gov. Mike Easley turned
down his request for clemency shortly after 8 p.m. Thursday.

Poore, who lived alone in Mount Airy, was killed on Dec. 11, 1992. Her
body was found the following day by a housekeeper.

Chandler's fingerprints were found in the house and he was arrested less
than a month later. He testified at his trial that he was looking for
marijuana and thought he had broken into the house of drug users.

Poore died of head injuries she suffered when Chandler, startled in the
dark by her scream, swung his hand and hit her.

The jury agreed with prosecutors that he killed Poore "for pecuniary gain"
during his attempted theft, an "aggravating factor" that made him eligible
for the death penalty.

But State Supreme Court Justice Robert Orr, a death penalty supporter,
argued that Chandler shouldn't be executed since he didn't kill Poore for
money.

"I think the whole pecuniary gain aggravator has been stretched well
beyond the intent of the law," Orr said Thursday. "This case stretched it
even farther."

Chandler becomes the 4th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in
North Carolina and the 34th overall since the state resumed capital
punishment in 1984.

Chandler becomes the 58th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in
the USA and the 943rd overall since America resumed executions on January
17, 1977.

(sources: Associated Press & Rick Halperin)





NEW YORK----re: federal death penalty

U.S. to Seek Death Penalty For Mob Boss


The Justice Department is to announce this morning that it will seek the
death penalty for Joseph C. Massino, the convicted boss of the Bonanno
crime family, his chief defense lawyer said last night.

The decision would be a milestone, as legal authorities could not recall a
case in which federal prosecutors had sought the execution of a top Cosa
Nostra boss for many decades.

The case in which the prosecutors are to make the announcement in federal
court in Brooklyn involves a charge that Mr. Massino ordered the killing
of a Bonanno captain in 1999.

That murder charge was filed more than a year ago, but federal prosecutors
in Brooklyn have been awaiting instructions from the Justice Department in
Washington on whether to seek capital punishment before proceeding to
trial.

Mr. Massino, 61, was convicted in July of seven murders and other crimes
and is awaiting sentencing. But the prosecutors had kept the 1999 murder
separate because it was the only one of the murders that was eligible to
be considered for capital punishment. The killing of the captain, Gerlando
Sciascia, 65, a Sicilian-born mobster who had crossed Mr. Massino,
occurred after a new era of federal death penalty laws began in 1988.

In potential capital cases, the decision of what penalty to seek is
typically approved by Attorney General John Ashcroft. Mr. Massino's case
drew wide attention because Mr. Ashcroft has fostered more aggressive use
of the death penalty nationally, and some critics have said black and
Hispanic defendants face execution in disproportionately high numbers.

At least 129 minority gang members, many of whom had leadership positions,
have faced the federal death penalty since 1988, according to the Federal
Death Penalty Resource Counsel Project, which provides information to
lawyers defending in capital cases.

Only once, according to the project, did federal prosecutors seek death
against a white Mafia member, in 1992. In that case, a jury in Federal
District Court in Brooklyn rejected the death penalty for a Bonanno
killer, Thomas Pitera, who is serving a life term.

But according to the project, no federal prosecutor in modern times has
sought the execution of a top Cosa Nostra boss.

Greg D. Andres, the lead prosecutor in Mr. Massino's cases, declined to
comment yesterday.

Mr. Massino's lawyer, David Breitbart, said federal prosecutors told a
member of the defense team of the decision to seek the death penalty
yesterday. He called the decision "a parting gift from Ashcroft," who
announced his resignation this week.

Mr. Breitbart has been sharply critical of the prosecutors' star witness
against Mr. Massino, Salvatore Vitale, Mr. Massino's brother-in-law and
former underboss. Yesterday, Mr. Breitbart said it was shocking for
prosecutors to base a death penalty case on Mr. Vitale, who he said was a
liar and a killer.

Mr. Vitale pleaded guilty to participating in 11 murders, but Mr.
Breitbart has often claimed that he had admitted others.

"It's absurd,'' Mr. Breitbart said yesterday, "to base a death penalty
case on someone who has admitted upwards of 15 or 20 murders."

(source: New York Times)






ALABAMA:

[Friends----re: conditions pertaining to Alabama death row; I have been
asked to disseminate the following information; inmates names are
withheld.....thanks!]




"I am a death-row inmate at Holman Prison in Atmore, Alabama.   I am
writing you about the poor health care and treatment of prisoners.  I have
a life debilitating illness, call Crohn's disease.  I have had an
operation years ago. They removed a large mass from my intestine and most
of my ileum.  After I was issued a special diet.

The steward will not comply. On October 10, 2004, they sent me dressing
corn and greens.  Three things that I cannot eat.  I sent the tray back to
the kitchen.  I was told to eat it or not.  And again I had to go another
day without anything to eat. On my menu was bake chicken but the steward
wouldn't bake any for me.  Everyone els got fried chicken.  I didn't get
any chicken at all.  My diet is an ongoing problem.  People with Crohn's
disease should eat bake chicken. I can't eat spicey foods but they don't
care.

Also on the day of Oct. 10, 2004 at about 3:35 pm I ask the officer to
take me to the hospital.  I was vomiting what looked like blood and I was
in a lot of of very bad pain.  And I only went to the hospital around 8:50
pm.....

When I complain things only get worse.

If you can help me I realy need your help.  Alone there is nothing that I
can do. The inmates with health problems get treated very badly. At the
time before my operation I only weighed 105 pounds...my tremendous weight
lost could have been characterized as cachexia, the physical condition of
a concentration camp survivor.

I do not want to get that sick again but that is what is going to happen
if I am given the wrong diet and poor medical attention.

I need your help please."


*********************************************



"The info I am sending is concerning medical issues for the elderly and
infirm here at Holman because I have personal experience.

I used to take care of an elderly inmate [name withheld].  During that
time he fell, injuring his hip in two seperate indecences.

When I wrote the warden, he wrote a response in the margin of my letter;
it reads: "Capt/ Bishop made several suggestions to me on today that seem
feasible.  I think we will end up taking one section of d/r bottom tier to
be used for _______ type cells."

None of this was ever implemented and [name withheld] fell a second time,
breaking his hip and requiring surgery to repair it.

About one month later [name withheld] was returned to his cell which still
had not bee altered. That night he shit all over himself because he could
not get onto to that toilet.  First thing the next morning I cleaned him,
then refused to return him to his cell, telling the guard that [name
withheld] needed to be in the hospital.  The nurses refused to take him.
So, the shift commander put him on another tier that is now being used for
the infirm as the warden mentioned in his note to me.  It is inmates who
do the work.  The cells or showers are not handicap accessible, and they
are left there, alone, overnight,  The inmates who volunteer return to the
tiers on which they live.

The medical staff here refuses to take care of these people.  The reason
is that they know one of us will volunteer to take car of them.  They all
have smart-ass attitudes wheyn you try to talk to them, saying that is is
not their bob to take care of these guys who cannot take care of
themselves because they whould be held liable if something happened to
them.  I have witnessed this time and again."


---the (June) letter to the warden:

Warden Culliver,

I am writing to ask for your help.  I volunteer to help [name withheld]
keep his cell clean and that sort of thing because he is elderly and
cannot get around too well.

On June 12, 2004 he fell while trying to get out of bed and has a nast
bruise on his hip. Since then, his ability to get around is even worse.

He is having trouble sitting on his toilet because there is nothing for
him to hold on to. He has asked the nurse to help him onto the toilet
and she refused to help him.  That seems a bit extreme to me since the
cell is not handicap accessible and that most days the nurses have to get
his cell opened to give him his medication because he can not get to the
door......."


----letter #2  August 18

Warden--

I have noticed that {name withheld] was trembling, and that something was
mentally wrong. When he got out of the shower, he was just staring off
into space...when I returned to his cell after passing out trays, he was
still sitting on the edge of his bed just staring off into space once
again.  I called his name and asked him if he was going to eat.  I noticed
that he had urinated on himself.  I got him a shower and washed his soiled
linen.  I then went to Lt. Kirk and told him my concerns about [name
withheld] becuase he had been in this condition before which resulted in
him falling down and injuring his hip in June. Nurses said they would look
at his medication to see if that may be the cause of his problems. Nothing
was done beyond that, no nurses came to check on him or anything.

On Aug. 17 he fell coming out of the shower....now he is in the hospital,
having had surgery to repair a broken hip.

***********************


"Sir:

I am not very well written on any subject, but with things pertaining to
my health, I will attempt to make known my experiences of health care at
this facility towards death row.

I am a mental patient that is disabled to a great degree physically. I
have gone through many doctors here.  I have been refused all efforts to
have an MRI on my neck and leg and back.

I have known since 1980 that I have severe arthritis because of accidents
(automobile and industrial type.) I know arthritis does not go away,
I need something donet oremedy thie problems that I have.   I had
surgeries done in the gree world, because of my left leg, ankle, foot and
neck.  I am always told that i am a death row prisoner and surgery
couldn't be done.  I have many sleepless nights because of pain.  I even
furnished my surgeon's name and address to the doctor here so I could
properly be deatl with.

I have never received adequate medical care.....I am enclosing a long
record of my surgeries due to my industrial accident.  I was told I would
need further surgeries on my ankle, left leg and foot.

Other personal health problems I have also (are not treated).

Please help."



********************************************************************

"Sir:

There are several areas in which complaint about conditions at Holman
Prison is justified.  A primary concern is the miserable food, which is a
major factor in the deterioration of the health of many prisoners here.  I
can only speak reagrading death row during the 10 1/2 years I have been
here, during which time the quality, quantity and variety of the food has
steadily diminished.  Former Alabama DOC Commissioner Michael Haley
actually boasted that the average cost of meals per prisoner per day was
at that time (2001-2002) 68 cents.

According to those who were brought here before I was brought here, a
lawsuit and federal oversight had in the late 1980s resulted in some
actually decent food; but as oversight slackened so did the quality and
type of food.

The Alabama DOC has vegetable farms, livestock ranches, catfish farms,
etc. but all food produced, except for some items such as vegetagles, is
sold--and the Alabama DOC buys experimental, synthesized, contaminated
rubbish to feed us.

Fresh fruit is vitrually non-existent.  When I came here an occasional
apple, orange or even grapefruit was provided, but gradually this practice
dwindled to a point at which no fresh fruit was seen for 2 or more years.
This year, over a few-day period, about 5 peaches were given to each
prison on death row. It will be next year before any more fruit is
provided, and then only if we are fortunate.

For a period of time around the year 2000 a small lettuce salad was
provided once a week, but this vanished and hasn't been seen since.

A lawsuit forced the provision of 1/2 pint of skim milk per day, which
continues to this time due to a lack of calcium in the prison-issue diet.

On alternate Sundays a large pseudo-meat burger is provided, and a couple
of smaller ones during the week.  On some mornings we are provided a
pseudo-sausage patty.  These consist primarily of soybeans, the actual
small beef content in them being stuff rejected by dog food manufacturers,
the recongnizable bits being cartilage and gristle.  Indeterminate fillers
are probably also used.  On alternate Fridays we get a processed fish
patty, the quality of which is well below the ussual commercial standards.
2 frankfurters are provided about once per week, of the lowest grade.  In
the past we got a processed turkey patty once per week but that has also
vanished.  Powdered eggs are prepared as "scrambled eggs" on breakfast
trays.

Some synthesized pseudo-meat has recently appeared, composition unknown,
in the form of chunks of something pretending to be "beef tips" and
"chicken", always served in some thick gravy or other goo which prevents
close examination of the material.  I don't touch this stuff either.  They
also have nasty fake meatloaf.

The vegetables served are for the most part edible, with exception of the
instant mashed potatoes.  The problem is largely in the preparation.  Most
vegetables are cooked excessively, and the cook peppers nearly everything,
often to the point that it cannot be eaten.  The vegetables are nearly
always oiled with vegetable oil of unknown type-which warrants
investigation because it may be  the cheap "Carola" oil (rapeseed oil)
which is toxic.  The entire time I have been here unadulterated peanut
butter has only appeared ona couple of occasions, but is nearly always
mixed with jelly as an extender and is ofter further extended with water.

Grits are served most days at breakfast, while oatmeal is served about
twice a week.  Peculiarly both are diluted with vegetable oil.  The
cornbread is more often excessively salty than edible, and is served
alternately with white flour bread.  Pancakes were usually served once a
week at breadfast but disappeared a couple of months ago.

About twice a week there are some stewed prunes on the breakfast tray,
only a couple of which will be in edible condition.  Occasionally we get
apple cobbler or cooked apples with raisins.  However, the last 3 times
such was listed on the menu it was not provided.

We on death row do not go to the dining hall.  The trays are prepared
beforehand and the cook adds pepper, gravy and copped onion without
exception, so those of us who dislike such things have only the option of
not eating the affected items.  I believe the purpose of the gravy is to
add to the calorie count.

The most dependable thing printed on the prison menu is "menus are subject
to change."  Items are often substituted or omitted.  Embellished
descriptions (of food) are to fool the observer from outside.  The
portions are relative small--obviously, at an average 23 cents per meal.
As can be seen the diet is lacking in essential vitamins and protein, and
contains harmful things, and therefore itself constitutes a form of
torture.  Not surprisingly once a sandwich line was added to the canteen
list this was one point at which the issue food worsened by another
increment, to "encourage" us to buy our food from the canteen and thereby
provide profit for the prison.  This is of course available only to those
with a source of outside financial support.


THE PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT, GENERALLY

Cells for death row prisoners at Holman Prison measure a tiny 5'x 8'x 8',
closed except for bars which form the front wall.

Recently a new heating system was installed, consisting of roof-mounted
gas-fired hot air furnaces. On each tier there is a large pre-existing
central duct which tees into a full-length-of-tier distribution duct.
HOwever, the heating unit discharge was foolishly not connected to this
but was connected to vertical ducts which discharge only at the far end of
the tier, which casses the last 4 or so cells of the 14 to be excessively
warm and the first 5 or 6 to be cold.  There is no tier thermostat, the
only control being integral to each unit.  An officer must to onto the
roof to either switch the unit on or off or adjust the discharge air
temperature.....in sum, the engineering of the new heating system is
stupid, and provides neither uniform nor consistent cell temperatures in
the winter.

In the summertime it is simply very hot in here.  The stipulations in a
recent lawsuit provide that cell temperatures, which do exceed 100 degrees
F in mid-summer are to be monitored-but when temps began to exceed 90
degrees F the officers ceased checking temps during the datyime and only
did so at midnight or later.

And I will be unpopular making this complaint, but those of us who don't
smoke are subjected to the smoke of the majority who do smoke in the
cells. I believe smoking in the building is contrary to Ala DOC plicy but
it's not enforced.


THE MAIL

Under warden Grantt Culliver mail restrictions, only the most onerous of
which I'll mention here, have been instituted which go beyond Ala. DOC
Admin Reg. #303 and which constitute harassment for the purpose of
limiting the information, even legal information, available to us, as
follows:

He will reject photocopies of pages of books, even of law books, and has
limited to 4 pages anyting downloaded from the Internet, or photocopied
from some, even though, regarding both sources, no objection to content is
made.  Regarding a ban on Internet-source information a California US
District Court has said this is illegal (Clement v Calif. Dept of
Corrections, 220F. Supp. 2d (N.D. Cal 2002), affirmed in Clement v Terhune
by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals earlier this year.  The fact that
Culliver allows 4 pages is no defefnse because the discriminatory element
remains.  The amilroom, when rejecting such mailings, refuses to identify
the nature of the content.  Culliver will also reject a letter which does
not bear an external return address, even though such may be inside, and
even though-again-there is no objection to content.  And obviously if
there is no return address known return is impossible.  There can be no
honest description for these actions, other than harassment.


MEDICAL TREATMENT

I initially refused to volunteer for the medical exam is a belief that
the personnel were incompetent and even dangerous.  At least 4 others have
died since I've been here who would probably have survived with outside
medical help.  The present provider, a private corporation under contract,
does have a bad reputation in other states.  (some) Recent improvements
are due to the fact the the last provider was sued by several prisoner.
The fear of a lawsuit has probably "encouraged" at least a temporary
greater degree of attentiveness to the medical needs of (some)
prisoners--though this is undoubtedly balanced bgy a natural inclination
toard a more profitable minimal level of treatment.


BRUTALITY

Fortunately the majority of the "old guard" of Klan-mentality people have
been gradually replaced by some who are less vengeful - and the
aforementioned federal oversight tamed the Alabama system to a great
degree- so even though an occasional beating does occur against a
particularly unruly prisoner they have not during my imprisonment been of
the deadly sort which have occured in Florida.  In fact I have not
witnessed such activity but have been told of some activity which was
done as secretly as possible.  In most cases harassment and lockup are the
devices of choice.


RACISM

An interesting situation has developed here, where Warden Culliver and
Asst. Warden Thomas are both black, and so is Commissioner David Campbell:
That is an appearance of racism against some white prisoners--such as
myself, because I protest Culliver's habit of making up oppressive rules
arbitrarily and capricously.  Commissioner Campbell has NEVER answered a
letter of mine- or even replied to the presentation to him of a quantity
of evidence by afriend on the outside- related to Culliver's mail abuses.
Some black prisoners have even raised the subject of this apparent racism
which is opposite the usual type, in conversation with me.  Nevertheless,
it's obvious that system-wide, and in general population here, the
majority of prisoners are black.  Death Row, on the other hand, is
carefully maintained to be politically correct, with approximately equal
numbers--and care is taken to arrange the killing of an approximately
equal number of whites and blacks, in order to avoid effective race-based
legal challenges.  Actually, even a 50-50 population mix is
disproportionalte to the outside population figures which show a majority
of whites."