[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, MD., MO., N.Y.

Wed Nov 12 22:43:34 CST 2008

Nov. 12

TEXAS----execution

Harris County man executed for 1994 slaying

A Houston-area man condemned for fatally shooting his ex-girlfriend's
sister during an attack that also seriously wounded the former
girlfriend's mother and another sister was executed Wednesday.

George Whitaker III expressed love to family members and asked for
forgiveness.

"I apologize for your pain and suffering," he said, mentioning the parents
of his victim by name. None of her relatives were present.

Whitaker asked that the Lord give them strength, adding, "I pray Lord,
please forgive me."

He asked his stepfather, brother and a friend who watched through a window
to take care of his 2 daughters.

"Continue to pray for me. I am fine. I've made peace with God. Please
don't ever forget me," he said.

As the lethal drugs began flowing, Whitaker said, "Take care. I'm going on
to sleep." 8 minutes later at 6:15 p.m. CST, he was pronounced dead.

Whitaker had exhausted his appeals and also lost a clemency bid before the
state parole board, clearing the way for him to become the 16th Texas
prisoner executed this year. Another lethal injection was set for Thursday
evening in the nation's busiest capital punishment state.

Whitaker, 36, was convicted of gunning down 16-year-old Shakeitha Carrier
in 1994 at her family's home in Crosby, just east of Houston in Harris
County.

The slain girl's older sister, Catina, was engaged to Whitaker and had
been living with him but ended the relationship and moved out amid
accusations of abuse. Whitaker showed up at her parents' home on a June
afternoon under the guise of returning some of her items, pulled a gun and
demanded to get in.

Catina Carrier, who had known Whitaker since high school, wasn't there.

Her mother, Mary, pleaded that he not hurt anyone. Testimony at his trial
showed he shot the woman in the shoulder, then ran upstairs where
Shakeitha, known as Kiki, cried out Whitaker's name and said: "Please
don't hurt me!" Then she was shot.

Court records show Whitaker went outside to an SUV  where the occupants
included his estranged wife and their two young daughters  to reload his
.45-caliber pistol. He returned to shoot Mary Carrier again at close range
before leaving. She was able to call for help and found her daughters
sitting against a wall in Kiki's bedroom.

Kiki died of a gunshot wound to the head. 5-year-old Ashley was left with
brain damage after suffering severe head injuries from being
pistol-whipped. Mary Carrier had permanent nerve damage and lost the use
of her right hand from her wounds.

Whitaker was shot and wounded later by Harris County deputies trying to
arrest him at an apartment where he was drinking beer with another
girlfriend. Authorities said he had jumped from a window and was shot in
the hip as he appeared to be reaching for a pistol.

Whitaker, a former mechanic, declined to speak with reporters as his
execution date neared.

Catina Carrier testified at Whitaker's trial that she left him because he
became abusive and often took the money she was making. At the time of the
shootings, she was living in secret with a friend because she feared
Whitaker.

Mary Carrier also testified against him at his trial. Another witness
testified how she was abducted a few days before the shootings and forced
at knifepoint to call Catina Carrier as Whitaker attempted to lure his
ex-girlfriend to a meeting place. A previous girlfriend told jurors how he
hit her on several occasions, once leaving her with a black eye.

Whitaker's mother testified his father was a strict disciplinarian, that
her son never was violent in her presence and that Whitaker twice had
tried to kill himself when he was 20. He had no previous prison record.

Whitaker's unsuccessful court appeals had contended his trial lawyer was
ineffective in not calling a mental health expert to testify, that Harris
County jurors who decided he should die should have been told a life
sentence would have ensured him at least 40 years in prison, and that his
death sentence was unconstitutional.

On Thursday, Denard Manns, 42, faced execution for the 1998 fatal shooting
of Michelle Robson, 26, at her apartment in Killeen. Robson, from Iowa,
was a Fort Hood soldier living off the base. Manns was known as a subway
robber in New York and at the time of the slaying was on parole from New
York after serving nearly 6 years of a 5- to 10-year term for armed
robbery.

Whitaker becomes the 16th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in
Texas, and the 421st overall since the state resumed capital punishment on
December 7, 1982. Whitaker becomes the 182nd condemned inmate to be put to
death since Rick Perry became Governor in 2001. 3 more Texas prisoners are
set to die next week.

Whitaker becomes the 32nd condemned inmate to be put to death this year in
the USA and the 1131st overall since the nation resumed executions on
January 17, 1977.

(sources: Associated Press & Rick Halperin)

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

Texas man blogs about waiting for execution

Rogelio Reyes Cannady dreams of earning a degree that would lift him from
his hardscrabble Texas roots to become a paralegal.

But he is most unlikely to realize that hope. On November 19, Texas plans
to execute Cannady for murdering three people, 2 of them teenagers he
killed in 1990 and left in a ditch.

In the runup to his scheduled execution, Cannady has put his daily life on
display via an Internet blog, published in English, French and German,
that has gotten over 17,000 views.

"I'm waking up again to the sight of this cold steel door," Cannady wrote
on September 24. "I am staring down an actual day when the state plans to
take my life."

Barring the unexpected, Cannady will end 11 years on Texas' death row when
he is injected with a mix of drugs to render him unconscious, paralyze him
and stop his heart.

He is one of the more than 3,000 people awaiting execution in 36 states
across the country, according to the NAACP.

Texas officials presented Cannady, 36, with his execution date on August
22. Since then he has been hand writing the daily diary he mails to a
friend, who posts it onto the blog, giving the world a rare glimpse into
the life of a condemned man.

That friend, Juan Palomo, has visited him on death row at least 30 times.
During those meetings, "At various points he has expressed remorse ...
about the way he lived his life, about the deaths of those two young
people and the heartache it brought to their families and his family,"
Palomo said.

"In the past he (Cannady) has said if he had only two choices, life behind
bars in the Texas prison system or death, he'd choose death," Palomo
added.

That attitude may have shifted. "I won't give in to the idea that my life
will end on the 19th of November. I still harbor thoughts about a future
... although it hasn't always been this way," Cannady observed on
September 19.

A week earlier, with Hurricane Ike bearing down on Texas, Cannady wrote,
"I love the cleansing nature of rain. I like to watch it come down but,
more, I love to walk in it."

3 MURDERS

Cannady's lyrical writing contrasts with a Texas official's stark
description of the scene investigators found 15 years earlier, after the
third murder: "Someone stomped in a puddle of blood or stomped on the
victim lying in the blood or that the victim's head bounced up and down in
the blood."

He first entered prison after being convicted in a double-murder just
after his 18th birthday.

According to a 1991 Dallas Morning News story, the victims, a 16-year-old
boy who was stabbed to death, and his 13-year-old girlfriend who was
strangled, were found dead in a ditch. She was naked.

Cannady was sent to prison for life. But on October 10, 1993, he committed
his third murder, according to Texas law enforcement documents, when he
brutally kicked and beat his cellmate, who was serving a 15-year sentence
for murder.

In one of the few diary references about what landed him on death row,
Cannady claims his cellmate made sexual advances.

Now, his days are a mixture of isolation and mundane tasks, sometimes
interrupted by the oddities of prison life, such as the tour groups that
come through to look at the condemned.

At times, the nuts-and-bolts of death row operations preoccupy him: "Who
gets executed 1st if 2 death row inmates are scheduled to die on the same
day?" he wondered.

Other days, Cannady is still able to look with amusement at his
predicament, as when a letter arrived "advising me that they rescheduled
my execution date, yet failed to tell me for when the date was
rescheduled. Very funny."

Writing on September 25, he said: "I think about a friend who was
executed. I was told by a witness how it seemed that he fell asleep once
the poisons began to flow. Minutes later, he was pronounced dead and his
eyes came open. His eyes started blinking into the ceiling."

Since 1977, shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court let a 10-year death
penalty hiatus end, Texas' death row has been the most active, killing 420
of the 1,130 convicts who have been executed in the United States over the
past 31 years, according to records.

Amnesty International says the United States was fifth in the world in the
number of executions in 2007, behind China (470), Iran (317), Saudi Arabia
(143) and Pakistan (135). Those 5 countries accounted for 88 % of all
known executions.

Cannady's "DeathWatchJournal Weblog" can be accessed here

With the possibility he may have only days left to live, Texas prisoner
999245 is doing what he can to create something distinctive about himself,
beyond the notoriety of his crimes. He has grown a beard, in violation of
prison rules.

"I'll keep this little bit of personality," he wrote.

(source: Reuters)

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

Outdoors notes: death sentence for warden's killer

Death sentence for warden's killer

Jurors in Wharton County decided on a death-penalty sentence for
27-year-old James Garrett Freeman, who was convicted of killing Texas game
warden Justin Hurst last year.

Hurst was shot one day before his 34th birthday after he answered a call
about possible illegal hunting from a roadside Freeman ended a high-speed
chase through two counties by leaving his vehicle and opening fire on
Hurst and other officers.

Hurst had been a waterfowl biologist with the Texas Parks and Wildlife
Department before he entered the game warden academy in 2002 and drew an
assignment to Wharton County, southwest of Houston.

Hurst left behind his wife and infant son.

(source: Austin American-Statesman)

MARYLAND:

Commission Votes To Abolish Death Penalty In Md.

A Maryland commission voted Wednesday to recommend abolishing the death
penalty in the state, citing jurisdictional and racial disparities in how
it is used and the possibility that an innocent person could one day be
executed by mistake.

The Maryland Commission on Capital Punishment voted 13-7 to make the
recommendation in its report to lawmakers and the governor next month.

Death penalty opponents hope the commission's vote will sway lawmakers
toward repeal. Repeal efforts failed last year in a tight Senate committee
vote and were put on hold this year until the commission could do its
work.

The commission's vote came after the failure of a proposed compromise to
keep the death penalty for a prison inmate serving life or life without
possibility of parole who kills another inmate or a correctional officer
or someone who kills a police officer.

Benjamin Civiletti, a former U.S. attorney general who chairs the
commission, said he doesn't have a fixed view on the morality of the death
penalty. However, he said he opposes it for pragmatic reasons, such as the
cost, the potential for an innocent person to be executed and
jurisdictional disparities.

"It's haphazard in how it's applied, and that's terribly unfair,"
Civiletti said.

Baltimore County State's Attorney Scott Schellenberger, a commission
member who supports the death penalty, said he would author a minority
report.

"It will be simple and direct and to the point," Schellenberger said. "I
believe, and obviously six other commissioners believe, that the death
penalty is still an important and viable option here in the state of
Maryland."

The commission also voted on several findings that it will submit in its
report, which is due Dec. 15.

Panel members decided that there's "a real possibility" an innocent person
could someday be executed in Maryland.

Schellenberger argued against the language, saying it makes the
possibility sound greater than it is. He also said there was no evidence
that an innocent person has ever been executed in Maryland or is currently
on death row.

"Not one person came in and offered one shred of evidence to that effect,"
Schellenberger said, citing testimony the commission has heard over
several months.

But Kirk Bloodsworth, another commission member who once was on death row
for a murder he didn't commit, said his colleagues didn't need to look any
farther than him to see that it's possible for an innocent person to end
up on death row.

"In 1985, I went to death row for two years," Bloodsworth said. "Now, if
that's not real, I don't know what is." He was ultimately cleared by DNA
evidence.

The panel also found that there was no persuasive evidence the death
penalty deters homicides in Maryland.

The commission was created in the last legislative session to address
several concerns, including racial, jurisdictional and socio-economic
issues in the death penalty.

Its members decided there was not enough information to make a decision
about socio-economic issues.

There is currently a de facto moratorium against capital punishment in
Maryland because of a ruling in late 2006 by the state's highest court.
The Court of Appeals found that the state's lethal injection protocols
weren't properly approved by a legislative committee. Executions can't
resume until a new protocol is created for the committee to approve.

Gov. Martin O'Malley, a death penalty opponent, has directed the state to
begin working on the protocol, a process that could be finished by the end
of the year.

O'Malley, a Democrat, supports a repeal, but a measure to abolish the
death penalty during his 1st legislative session failed by 1 vote in a
Senate committee. This year, a Senate committee voted to create the
commission when it was clear the votes weren't there to send the bill to
the full Senate.

Maryland has 5 men on death row. Only 5 inmates have been executed since
Maryland reinstated the death penalty in 1978.

Wesley Baker, who was put to death in December 2005, was the last person
to be executed in Maryland.

(source: Associated Press)

MISSOURI:

Judge sentences Dorsey, affirms jury's death penalty recommendation

Brian Dorsey moved one step closer to his fate on Monday as Judge Gene
Hamilton reaffirmed a jury's death penalty recommendation.

In sentencing, Hamilton upheld the jury's choice in Callaway County's
first death penalty case since the state moratorium was lifted last year.
He also overruled a motion for a new trial filed by the defense.

A jury found Dorsey guilty on Aug. 28 of 2 counts of 1st-degree murder in
the Dec. 23, 2006, slaying of Ben and Sarah Bonnie at their home in New
Bloomfield.

Hamilton heard from Gregg Bonnie - Ben Bonnie's father - who testified
about how the murder affected his family in a victim impact statement.

Defense attorney Chris Slusher said his client and he were disappointed,
but not surprised by the judge's sentence.

"It certainly wasn't unexpected; it would be very, very unusual for the
judge to not follow the jury's recommendation of the death sentence and
I'm not sure if that has ever happened," Slusher said. "We filed a motion
for a new trial that the judge denied, but we had to do that in order to
start his appeal process."

But that next step also means the process isn't quite over.

The next step will take Dorsey's case before the Supreme Court. It
automatically reviews every death penalty case in a compulsory appeal that
goes straight to the state's highest court.

Every death penalty case, whether the defendant requests it or not, is
required by law to be appealed to that court," Callaway County prosecuting
attorney Bob Sterner said. "What happens now is a transcript of all court
proceedings is prepared and sent to the Supreme Court.

"A defender in the appellate defender's office will be assigned to prepare
a brief for Mr. Dorsey's side arguing that errors were made at a trial
level and then the attorney general's office will file a brief in response
saying that they believe Judge Hamilton didn't make errors."

Slusher - who was contracted to serve as Dorsey's public defender - will
not represent him in the appeal. The public defender's office will appoint
a lawyer who specializes in appeals to represent Dorsey in this final leg
of his legal battle.

"The court will decide whether any legal mistakes were made by the trial
judge," Slusher said. "That could be a lot of different things: evidence,
jury instructions, those types of issues.

"(Dorsey) will now get new lawyers who specialize in appeals who will take
the case through this appeal."

While this process will take months or years, eventually both sides will
make oral arguments before the Supreme Court makes a decision.

If the ruling and sentence are upheld, Dorsey will join almost 50 other
inmates on death row awaiting execution. While Missouri's Supreme Court
ruled last year that the death penalty is legal and not cruel and unusual
punishment, no inmates have been executed since a moratorium was
instituted in 2005.

Now both sides will wait until the case comes up for review.

"There's no date set for the appeal and the process will likely take many
months, Sterner said. The Missouri Supreme Court will set an execution
date only after it reviews the case and makes a decision."

(source: Fulton Sun)

NEW YORK:

Sister Prejean shares lessons she learned from death-row inmate

Fasten your seat belts because we're going on a ride. I'm going to take
you on a journey with me," Sister Helen Prejean told an audience who had
gathered Tuesday to hear her presentation at St. Bonaventure University.

Sister Prejean then proceeded to take her audience on an hour-long trip
through the death penalty, an unjust legal system and her best-selling
book "Dead Man Walking."

The book is the story about a man to whom Sister Prejean provided
spiritual counseling while he was on death row in Louisiana in the early
1980s. The story was later made into a movie with the same title starring
Susan Sarandon and Sean Penn, earning Ms. Sarandon an Oscar.

Introducing the speaker was Sister Suzanne Kush, director of the
Franciscan Center for Social Concern at St. Bonaventure. Sister Kush said
the speaker has witnessed executions in Louisiana, Virginia and Texas.

"She continues to educate the public about the death penalty," Sister Kush
said of Sister Prejean. "She also continues to not only comfort inmates on
death row but families of murder victims as well."

Sister Prejean said she grew up in Baton Rouge, La., in a very loving
family, studied hard during her school and college years and became a nun.

"I never dreamed that one day if you went on Google and put in 'death
penalty nun,' my name would come up," Sister Prejean said while bringing a
laugh from the audience.

She said she began looking at social justice issues while living in New
Orleans with the Sisters of St. Joseph of Medaille order. After receiving
a challenge from God during a conference she attended, she said she moved
into the housing projects in New Orleans to be closer to the poor. While
living there, a friend asked if she would be pen pals with a death row
inmate named Patrick Sonnier who was convicted of the murder of 2 young
people. Sonnier's brother was also in prison serving a life sentence for
his participation in the same crime.

Sister Prejean said she accepted the offer and later agreed to be Sonniers
spiritual adviser. She said that, at the time, she never thought that 2
1/2 years later Sonnier would be looking at her face when he died in the
electric chair.

Sister Prejean admitted that when she went to the prison for the 1st time
to visit Sonnier "it was very scary."

"When I walked into the prison, I thought 'I cannot play the nun card
here,'" she said. Even more startling to her was her first encounter with
Sonnier.

"What shocked me about his face was how human he looked," she said. "And I
thought no matter what he did, he was worth more" than the death penalty.

Sister Prejean said over a period of time, she learned more about
Sonnier's crime. During the incident, Sonnier and his brother murdered a
teenage boy and girl they encountered on a lovers' lane after a football
game. Sister Prejean said she stayed away from the victims' families while
counseling Sonnier, which was something she came to regret.

She said she finally met the victims' families at a pardon board meeting,
to determine if Sonnier should be pardoned from the death penalty.

"The girl's family was furious with me because I did nothing to reach out
to them," Sister Prejean said. In contrast, the boy's father approached
her and asked her to pray with him because he didn't like holding hatred
against the man who killed his son.

"He (boy's father) was the first one who taught me not to let love be
overcome by hatred," Sister Prejean said.

She went on to say that Sonnier's death penalty was not overturned, and
how she attended the gruesome execution at the prison.

"He (Sonnier) said Look, Sister Helen, I appreciate you coming to see me
but you can't be here in the end,'" she said. Sister Helen replied to him
that she would stay and be "the face of Christ" for him in his final
moments. Following the execution, she said she left the chamber and
immediately threw up.

"When you see it (execution) close up, you know people are not worthy of
this," she said. The incident was so upsetting to her that she decided she
had to tell the story in a book. Since that time, she also has been
speaking out against the death penalty, which she said disproportionately
targets more blacks.

She also has remained busy lecturing throughout the country, advocates for
the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, and has penned
another book titled "The Death of Innocents."

"I stay on the road a lot," she said. "I'm a roaming Catholic nun."

Book details Sister Klimczak's paths to nonviolence

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

During Sister Helen Prejean's presentation Tuesday at St. Bonaventure
University's Reilly Center, a nun from the area was introduced who had
experienced the loss of a relative to violence.

Sister Prejean introduced Sister Jean Klimczak, whose sister, Sister Karen
Klimczak of Buffalo, was murdered in 2006 by a young man she was trying to
help.

"My sister Karen was murdered on Good Friday two years ago," Sister
Klimczak said in comments made after the presentation. "Last year, we
wrote a book about Karen called "Peaceprints, Sister Karens Paths to
Nonviolence," Sister Jean Klimczak said.

Sister Jean Klimczak said Sister Prejean became acquainted with Sister
Karen Klimczak when she spoke at the University of Buffalo several years
ago.

Sister Jean Klimczak said the Sisters of St. Joseph have used funds
donated in Sister Karen's name to open the Sister Karen Klimczak Center
for Nonviolence in Buffalo.

Sister Jean Klimczak said the book about her sister is available in local
book stores as well as on the Internet.

(source: Olean Times Herald)