[Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----USA, MD., VA., OKLA.

Tue May 27 10:31:40 CDT 2008

May 27

USA----television note

A Prison Chaplain's Death-Row Choice----Television | Review of: At the
Death House Door

'At the Death House Door," which premieres Thursday at 9 p.m. on IFC, is a
somber, moving, and slightly manipulative examination of the Texas death
penalty system. It is also a riveting character study of Pastor Carroll
Pickett, a sturdily built, white-haired man who, as a prison chaplain,
reluctantly, stoically, and at times even heroically presided over 95
executions at the "Walls" prison in Huntsville, Texas, until he could
stomach no more and quit after 13 years' service in 1995.

Mr. Pickett's decision to retire came six years after the execution of
Carlos De Luna, a 27-year-old petty criminal who was the first American to
be put to death by lethal injection, and of whose innocence Mr. Pickett
was and is convinced. That conviction, as well as his experiences
ministering not only to De Luna but to 94 other condemned men during their
final hours, led him to his current position as a restrained but
passionate advocate against the death penalty, on the grounds that it is
"cruel and unusual punishment," although, it has to be said, it is not all
that unusual in Texas.

Co-directed and produced by Steve James and Peter Gilbert, the men behind
"Hoop Dreams," the critically acclaimed 1994 basketball documentary, "At
the Death House Door" might have proved unwieldy in less skilled hands,
since it is really 2 movies in one. At its heart is its meditative
portrait of Mr. Pickett, his life, his family, and his wrenchingly
conflicted thoughts about his time at Huntsville, and whether  as someone
else puts it  he was serving God or the state of Texas in his effort to be
a "friend" to those on Death Row. This is brilliantly done, and Mr.
Pickett's dilemma is all the more affecting for his soft-spoken, modest,
and emotionally frugal demeanor.

Intersecting and at times overwhelming this central narrative comes the
much more exhortatory account of how De Luna, only recently out of jail,
was arrested for killing a gas station attendant in Corpus Christi in
1983. According to Steve Mills and Maury Possley, reporters for the
Chicago Tribune who have written about the case at length and are featured
in the documentary, it is a crime he almost certainly did not commit.

The problem with the film is that while the men from the Tribune are
investigative reporters, marshalling facts and logic, De Luna's death, and
particularly its traumatic effect on his sister, Rosa Rhoton, is milked a
little too freely for emotional effect by Messrs. James and Gilbert
without any corresponding investigative work of their own. While it's true
that De Luna's execution is the one that haunted Mr. Pickett the most
(making matters worse, the lethal injection was botched, and it took
several minutes for De Luna to die), repeated close-ups of his face, or
for that matter of a smiling Karla Faye Tucker (the 1st woman to be
executed in America since the Civil War, on the orders of Governor George
W. Bush in 1995), aren't a substitute for intellectual argument about the
pros and cons of capital punishment.

Most of the Western world has abolished the death penalty, and a case like
De Luna's can make for an almost impregnable argument against it, and
that's without even debating a government's right to take away human life.
Nonetheless, there is another side to the debate, and the film fails to
give it its due. For instance, in his memoir, "Experience," Martin Amis
recounts a conversation he had in a Boston coffee shop with Saul Bellow
around the time of Karla Faye Tucker's execution in 1998. Mr. Amis was
castigating Americans for being so indifferent to the barbarity of the
executions taking place in their midst, only to notice that the great
Nobel laureate sitting across from him didn't appear to be all that
sympathetic to his abolitionist stance. Somewhat astonished, he inquired
if Bellow actually supported the death penalty.

"Well," Bellow replied. "Look at ... Eichmann. What are you supposed to do
with a son of a bitch like that?"

It's a good question. Armed with a gold mine of a protagonist and
tasteful, mournful music, "At the Death House Door" can seem a little glib
in its conflation of a gross miscarriage of justice with the death penalty
per se (even if the two are morally bound at the hip), and is not always
as forthcoming as it might be about what some of the people on death row
actually did to earn their place there.

One of the most horrifying things I've ever seen on television was the
sight of the German cannibal, Armin Meiwes, who ate someone after meeting
him over the Internet, genially shaking hands with his lawyer in the
courtroom. There are times (very few, admittedly, but no less important
for that) when it almost seems more humane to kill than not. In fact, when
Mr. Pickett's daughter asks him what he would advocate if she were
sadistically raped and then murdered (the infamous Michael Dukakis
question), he replies that a lifetime of solitary confinement, with only 1
hour outside the cell a day, would actually be a more cruel fate for the
perpetrator than putting him to death. Perhaps.

Mr. Pickett, who recorded the details of each of the executions he
presided over on 95 separate cassettes, is a pensive, conscientious man
who became a prison chaplain without wanting to be, only to discover that
part of his job would be comforting those about to die. If one suspects
that his abolitionist position is in part a form of therapy for all he has
been through, it's hard to begrudge him it.

However, that doesn't alter the fact that there is something just a touch
too smooth about this impressive and at times deeply poignant documentary.

(source: New York Sun)

MARYLAND:

Death penalty protocols----Our view: Repeal of the law must be pursued

Gov. Martin O'Malley has reluctantly set in motion the process to resume
state executions. He didn't really have much of a choice after the U.S.
Supreme Court last month upheld the constitutionality of lethal injection.
That's when Mr. O'Malley lost his main reason for delaying a redrafting of
the execution protocols that had been invalidated by the Maryland Court of
Appeals more than a year ago.

Last week, he ordered state public safety officials to begin the rewrite.
Capital punishment has lost support among Marylanders, but it remains the
law, unfortunately, and governors often are called upon to enforce laws
that they morally oppose.

Mr. O'Malley's opposition to the death penalty may be rooted in his faith,
but there are plenty of reasons for the governor to mount a determined
fight for repeal during next year's legislative session. As a crime
deterrent, the impact of capital punishment is unproved. Taxpayers bear
much of the costs of defending someone charged with a capital crime, and
for victims' families, the appeals process is interminable.

And in Maryland, the death penalty has rightly come under attack because
of concerns about racial and geographic bias. Only one vote has stopped
bills to repeal Maryland's death penalty law from getting out of a state
legislative committee in recent years. But Mr. O'Malley won't be called
upon to sign a death warrant any time soon - he's asked state public
safety officials to consult with an array of medical professionals as they
redraft the protocols for lethal injection. Many doctors have refused to
participate in an execution, and a lack of experienced personnel in the
execution chamber has led to bungled administrations of the drugs.

The revised protocols also could get stuck in the General Assembly's
Administrative, Executive and Legislative Review Committee, which is
co-chaired by Prince George's Sen. Paul G. Pinsky, a death penalty
opponent.

And if new rules are passed by lawmakers and an execution is imminent, Mr.
O'Malley should invoke the other powers of his office: staying an
execution or commuting a death sentence to life without parole.

(source: Baltimore Sun)

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

Death penalty protocols----Our view: Repeal of the law must be pursued

Gov. Martin O'Malley has reluctantly set in motion the process to resume
state executions. He didn't really have much of a choice after the U.S.
Supreme Court last month upheld the constitutionality of lethal injection.
That's when Mr. O'Malley lost his main reason for delaying a redrafting of
the execution protocols that had been invalidated by the Maryland Court of
Appeals more than a year ago.

Last week, he ordered state public safety officials to begin the rewrite.
Capital punishment has lost support among Marylanders, but it remains the
law, unfortunately, and governors often are called upon to enforce laws
that they morally oppose.

Mr. O'Malley's opposition to the death penalty may be rooted in his faith,
but there are plenty of reasons for the governor to mount a determined
fight for repeal during next year's legislative session. As a crime
deterrent, the impact of capital punishment is unproved. Taxpayers bear
much of the costs of defending someone charged with a capital crime, and
for victims' families, the appeals process is interminable.

And in Maryland, the death penalty has rightly come under attack because
of concerns about racial and geographic bias. Only one vote has stopped
bills to repeal Maryland's death penalty law from getting out of a state
legislative committee in recent years. But Mr. O'Malley won't be called
upon to sign a death warrant any time soon - he's asked state public
safety officials to consult with an array of medical professionals as they
redraft the protocols for lethal injection. Many doctors have refused to
participate in an execution, and a lack of experienced personnel in the
execution chamber has led to bungled administrations of the drugs.

The revised protocols also could get stuck in the General Assembly's
Administrative, Executive and Legislative Review Committee, which is
co-chaired by Prince George's Sen. Paul G. Pinsky, a death penalty
opponent.

And if new rules are passed by lawmakers and an execution is imminent, Mr.
O'Malley should invoke the other powers of his office: staying an
execution or commuting a death sentence to life without parole.

(source: Editorial, Baltimore Sun)

VIRGINIA----impending execution

Va. killer to be executed tonight

Kevin Green is scheduled to die by injection tonight for the 1998 capital
murder of a Dolphin woman during a robbery.

Green shot Patricia L. Vaughan 4 times inside Lawrence's Grocery, a small
business that she and her husband, Lawrence T. Vaughan, opened in 1981 in
the small community where they grew up in rural Brunswick County.

Green's execution is set for 9 p.m. at the Greensville Correctional
Center, unless the U.S. Supreme Court or Gov. Timothy M. Kaine intervenes.

If carried out, it would be the 1st execution in Virginia since 2006 and
just the 2nd in the country since the Supreme Court upheld the use of
lethal-injection procedures last month.

The courts have held that Green, 31, is not retarded and, therefore,
eligible for the death penalty. However, Green has a clemency petition
before Kaine in which advocates for mentally retarded people argue the
evidence shows Green is mentally retarded.

Last week, Green asked the U.S. Supreme Court to stay his execution and
consider his appeal. Ultimately, he is seeking a new capital-murder trial.

Green, who did not complete middle school, was 21 when he robbed the store
with his nephew, David Green, then 16. Green previously worked at a nearby
lumber company and had cashed his paychecks at the store.

Lawrence Vaughan was shot in the neck and elbow during the 2-minute
robbery on the afternoon of Aug. 21, 1998, but he survived to testify
against his wife's killer.

The store was robbed on a lumber yard payday, and Green fled with $9,000.
He and his nephew fled to Washington, where they spent the money on
prostitutes, drugs, clothes and partying. They returned a few days later,
were arrested and confessed.

David Green was sentenced to 23 years in prison. Kevin Green was sentenced
to death twice. His juries heard conflicting evidence on whether he was
mentally retarded.

A federal magistrate judge who held a hearing on the issue last year
decided that while Green's IQ was below 70, he functioned well enough in
daily life not to be considered retarded.

Green's would be the 99th execution in Virginia since the U.S. Supreme
Court allowed the death penalty to resume in 1976. Only Texas, with 405
executions, has conducted more.

(source: Richmond Times-Dispatch)

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

Virginia ready to hold 1st execution since 2006 tonight

The state tonight could hold its 1st execution since 2006.

Attorneys for Kevin Green have filed a last-minute appeal with the U.S.
Supreme Court and a clemency petition with Gov. Timothy M. Kaine.

Green, 31, was convicted of shooting a husband and wife who owned a
Brunswick County grocery store in 1998. The wife died.

Greens attorneys have argued that he is mentally retarded and should not
be executed in light of the U.S. Supreme Courts 2002 ruling that executing
a mentally retarded person is unconstitutional.

Kaine issued a moratorium on executions 18 months ago while the Supreme
Court decided the legality of lethal injection. The court found the
measure to be constitutional and Kaine lifted the moratorium.

(source: The Virginian-Pilot)

OKLAHOMA:

A list of death row inmates freed in Oklahoma

8 death row inmates in Oklahoma have walked out of prison as free men
after their convictions were overturned. They were acquitted or charges
were dropped, according to the Death Penalty Information Center:

-- Charles Ray Giddens was convicted in McCurtain County of the September
1977 slaying of Idabel grocery store clerk Beulah Fay Tapley during an
armed robbery. The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals reversed the
conviction, saying it was based on insufficient evidence. Charges against
Giddens were dropped.

-- Clifford Henry Bowen, convicted in Oklahoma County in 1981, was the
first capital case prosecuted by District Attorney Bob Macy. Bowen was
sentenced to three death sentences for the shooting deaths of 3 people in
Oklahoma City in 1980. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
overturned his conviction in 1986, ruling prosecutors failed to disclose
information to the defense. Charges were dropped.

-- Richard Neal Jones was convicted in Grady County in 1983 in the slaying
of a B. Charles Keene, a 26-year-old Chickasha man. The Oklahoma Court of
Criminal Appeals ruled Jones' trial was unfair because a prosecutor made
improper comments, and a jury heard improper hearsay evidence and saw
inflammatory photographs of the victim's body. He was acquitted during a
second trial in 1988 in Caddo County.

-- Gregory R. Wilhoit was convicted in Osage County in 1987 for the
stabbing death of his wife, Kathryn, in 1985. During his 1st trial, 2
state dentists said a bite mark on the woman's body matched Wilhoit, but
during the appeals process, a forensic dentist said he and 10 other
experts in the field determined the bite marks came from someone else. The
Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals ordered a new trial, citing ineffective
assistance of his attorney. He was acquitted at a retrial in April 1993.

-- Adolph Munson was convicted in Custer County in 1985 for the kidnapping
and shooting death of Clinton convenience store clerk Alma Hall in 1984.
In 1993, a district judge overturned the convictions and ordered a new
trial, in part because the state withheld evidence that could have
exonerated Munson. He was acquitted by a Custer County jury in 1995 after
spending 10 years on death row.

-- Robert Lee Miller Jr. was convicted in Oklahoma County in 1988 in the
separate rapes and murders of two elderly women in Oklahoma City. In 1995,
Miller won a new trial when DNA evidence collected from the scene matched
another suspect. He was freed in 1998 after prosecutors dismissed the
murder charge against him.

-- Ronald Keith Williamson, who came within 5 days of being executed, was
convicted and sentenced to death in Pontotoc County in 1987 for the rape
and killing of Deborah Sue Carter in Ada in 1982. After DNA collected from
the crime scene matched another suspect, Williamson and a co-defendant
sentenced to life in prison both were released in April 1999 when all
charges were dismissed against both men.

-- Curtis Edward McCarty was convicted in Oklahoma County in 1986 for the
killing of Pamela Kaye Willis in 1982 in Oklahoma City. A district judge
ordered his release in 2007 after determining the case against him could
not escape the taint of former police chemist Joyce Gilchrist and that
Gilchrist acted in "bad faith" by losing and destroying evidence that
could have been used to show McCarty's innocence.

(source: Associated Press)