From rhalperi at smu.edu Tue May 1 09:24:06 2012 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Tue, 1 May 2012 09:24:06 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, USA, ARK., MONT., CALIF. Message-ID: May 1 MAY 1, 2012: TEXAS----3 new execution dates The following men have all received execution dates: Yokamon Hear, for July 18, Marvin Wilson for August 7, and John Balentine for August 22; all dates should be considered serious. (source: TDCJ & Rick Halperin) USA (federal death penalty case//Louisiana): Death row saga of killer cop Len Davis continues The 18-year legal drama of convicted killer cop Len Davis continued this week, with the government seeking to thwart appeals filed on Davis' behalf and set the stage for his execution. Federal prosecutors filed a motion Monday asking a judge to strike a recent request for post-conviction relief filed by 2 attorneys without Davis' knowledge. In a court filing Monday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael McMahon asked that U.S. District Judge Ginger Berrigan sanction the 2 attorneys, Rebecca Hudsmith and Sarah Ottinger, noting that Berrigan previously ordered them not to file anything without Davis' consent. Davis, a crooked New Orleans police officer who ran a drug-protection racket, was convicted in 1996 and sentenced to death for a hit he ordered on Kim Groves in 1994. Davis, the only police officer to have received a federal death sentence, is imprisoned in Terre Haute, Ind. "Right now we are trying to keep him alive and in the court system," said Hudsmith, the federal public defender for the Western and Middle Districts of Louisiana. She and Ottinger, a local attorney, are acting as Davis' standby counsel. In a court telephone conference weeks ago, Davis, 47, told the judge he did not authorize the recent filing on his behalf, but noted that he would like to adopt portions of the filing. He also noted that he does not want anyone to argue his competency. His standby attorneys are arguing that Berrigan should grant a new trial or toss Davis' conviction or his death sentence. The lawyers had argued that the Justice Department had a conflict in prosecuting the former NOPD officer. The attorneys also argued that they have an ethical obligation to represent Davis, who has sought to represent himself. As part of their representation, the standby defense team has hired former NOPD Lt. Dwayne Scheuermann as an investigator. Scheuermann was charged and acquitted in the civil rights case of Henry Glover, who was fatally shot and burned by police. Berrigan has yet to rule on the recently filed motions. (source: New Orleans Times-Picayune) ********* Death penalty outdated... Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy just singed the bill that replaces the death penalty in his state with a sentence of life imprisonment without the possibility of release. More than 180 murder victims' family members supported this bill, believing the death penalty does not serve their needs or provide the promised closure after the loss of a lvoed one. Replacing the death penalty with alternative sentences of long-tem incarceration, and without the possibility of parole in certain cases, reduces the risk of executing the innocent and better serves the needs of victims' families. Capital punishment belongs to an earlier period in human social evolution and has no place in a modern society. Timothy Bell, Carrollton **** ...Let's ensure guilt first Texas and the other death-penalty jurisdictions in America should adopt a "we won't actually kill you until we are 100 % sure you are guilty" procedure. Guilt and sentencing can remain under current rules but we -- the state -- should not acutally put the needle in someone's arm until guilt is certain beyond all doubt. Unless we do this, there is always the risk that we may kill someone who didn't derserve to die. I for one will sleep better at night if I know this won't happen. David Richardson, Dallas (source for both: Letters to the Editor, Dallas Morning News) ************ Sometimes the death penalty is warranted If anyone personifies evil, it is Anders Breivik. The 33-year-old Norwegian violently disrupted his country?s usual peace on July 22, 2011, by gunning down 69 mostly young people at a summer camp. A bomb he planted in Oslo killed eight others. He did it all to defend Norway against multiculturalism, he later raved. Yet, on one point, Breivik is not talking crazy. At his trial, which began April 16, he pronounced the maximum penalty for his actions ? 21 years in prison, or longer if the government meets certain conditions ? ?pathetic.? He ?would have respected? the death penalty, Breivik said. Of course, he won?t get it; Norway abolished capital punishment long ago. Norway has suffered deeply because of Breivik, and I don?t mean to add insult to injury. But this situation illustrates what?s wrong with banning the death penalty in all cases. If executing an innocent man is the worst-case scenario for proponents of the death penalty, then threatening Breivik with prison is the reductio ad absurdum of death-penalty abolitionism. Anti-death-penalty sentiment is hardly limited to Europe. Last week Connecticut Gov. Dan Malloy signed a bill abolishing capital punishment, which means that no future Anders Breivik need fear execution in that state. Sixteen other states have no death penalty; California voters will get a chance to join them in a November referendum. In the United States, abolitionist arguments are gaining traction, especially claims about the high cost of lengthy death-penalty litigation and the risk of executing people by mistake. Malloy also cited a ?moral component? to his decision. Such practical and moral concerns are at their most understandable in run-of-the-mill convenience-store murder cases, where the risk of error seems relatively high compared with the benefits of punishing murder with death. But Breivik?s was no ordinary crime. It presents the special case of a cold-blooded massacre of children by a political terrorist whose guilt is unquestionable and who remains utterly unrepentant; indeed, he told the court that he would kill again if given the opportunity. What is morally worse: putting the author of this bloodbath to death or letting him live, with the accompanying risk ? however small ? that he might broadcast his message to receptive audiences from jail, or escape, or one day litigate his way to freedom? There is no scientific answer. To oppose the death penalty regardless of the crime or the consequences of letting the perpetrator live is a consistent and principled position. If Norwegians consider doing so a point of pride, that?s their choice. In Connecticut, 62 percent of registered voters support the death penalty for murder, according to a Quinnipiac University poll published last month ? so it took some political courage for the legislature and governor to do what they did. But note that the Connecticut law is not retroactive: It does not apply to the 11 men already on death row, including 2 sentenced to death for a 2007 home invasion in which they raped and strangled a mother, murdered her two daughters and then set the bodies ablaze. It seems a tad inconsistent, and somewhat less than courageous, to condemn the injustice and immorality of the death penalty while allowing it in 11 more cases. This tells me that the Connecticut politicians who voted to ban future capital punishment still find it hard to argue against the death penalty in every specific case, no matter how ghastly. The stubborn fact is that death-penalty abolitionism runs counter to one of humanity?s oldest and most persistent moral intuitions: that there should be condign retribution for the most monstrous transgressions. Even in Norway, Breivik?s rampage caused some 2nd thoughts. Immediately after his crimes last summer, a man named Thomas Indrebo observed online that ?the death penalty is the only just sentence in this case!!!!!!? Indrebo was later assigned as a lay judge in Breivik?s trial and had to be dismissed because of his comment. That was the right call, legally. But I wonder if the Breivik case will cause more people in Europe to ask whether there really is no place in civilization for capital punishment. Both abroad and at home, we need less polarized debate, less moralizing ? and more honest legislative efforts to reconcile valid concerns about the death penalty with the public?s clear and consistent belief that it should remain available for the ?worst of the worst? offenders. (source: Charles Lane, Letter to the Editor, Washington Post; Lane is a Post editorial writer, specializing in economic policy, financial issues and trade) ARKANSAS: Ex-death row inmate due back in Ark. court in June A former Arkansas death row inmate whose conviction was overturned because 1 juror slept and another tweeted during court proceedings is due back in court this summer. Lawyers in Erickson Dimas-Martinez's case say he has another pre-trial hearing on June 4. Dimas-Martinez appeared in court in northwest Arkansas on Monday as a judge went through a few pending motions. Dimas-Martinez was convicted in 2010 in the shooting death of a 17-year-old. He was sentenced to death, but the Arkansas Supreme Court overturned his conviction last year. He's slated to go on trial in August. Prosecutors say they're seeking the death penalty again. (source: Associated Press) MONTANA: Death row Canadian to plead for clemency Condemned murderer Ronald Smith will again plead for clemency from a Montana parole board Wednesday in his ongoing bid to avoid the death penalty. A 3-member hearing panel will consider Smith's application for executive clemency in a Deerlodge, Mont., courtroom. Smith, originally from Red Deer, Alta., has been on death row in Montana for nearly 30 years after being convicted of intentional homicide and aggravated kidnapping in the Aug. 4, 1982, drug and alcohol-fuelled deaths of 2 men on a Montana roadside. Smith and another man, Rodney Munro, were hitchhiking through Montana when they were offered a ride by Harvey Mad Man and Thomas Running Rabbit while playing pool. Smith and Munro later shot and killed the pair in an attempt to steal their car. Smith initially demanded the death penalty after being convicted, but had a change of heart after kicking his addiction to drugs and alcohol. Munro was sentenced to life in prison after accepting a plea deal and was released on parole more than 10 years ago. Smith's lawyers expressed disappointment in early April when a 4-page report by a parole board employee, which recommended rejecting his appeal, was accidently sent to them. The April 2 report stated "there doesn't appear to be any compelling reasons that are persuading enough to believe that a commutation is merited," and recommended his request be denied. Smith's lawyer, Don Vernay, said at the time the report showed bias against his client. Smith was scheduled to be executed Jan. 31, 2011, but the Montana Supreme Court granted an indefinite reprieve, pending the outcome of a legal challenge by the American Civil Liberties Union against Montana's lethal injection protocol. If Smith's request for clemency is granted, a decision on whether to commute his sentence to life in prison with no chance of parole would be in the hands of retiring Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer. (source: Calgary Sun) ***************** Most governor candidates favor death penalty All 7 Republican candidates for governor are opposed to and most want to restrict abortion, while the two Democrats support a woman's right to have an abortion. On the death penalty, 6 Republican candidates and Democratic Attorney General Steve Bullock support it. Opposing capital punishment were Republican Bob Fanning of Pray and Democrat Heather Margolis of Helena. Death penalty: The candidates for governor were asked for their personal view on capital punishment. Bullock, who is the state's chief legal official as attorney general and whose office represents the state in death penalty appeals, said, "In limited circumstances, I personally support the death penalty." Hill and Stapleton said they support the death penalty but didn't elaborate. In expressing his support for the death penalty, Miller quoted Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, who said, "The death penalty is intended to affirm the value (and) sanctity of every single human life, and thus by the extremity of the penalty to make that visible and apparent to all." Added Miller: "If no crime is considered serious enough to warrant capital punishment, then the gravity of the most atrocious crime is diminished accordingly." Livingstone said he supports the death penalty because "it brings needed closure to many of the families of murder victims." He favors limiting the number of appeals in death penalty cases. If elected, Lynch said, "I will uphold all laws of the state of Montana, which include capital punishment." O'Hara said he believes the death penalty "should be used only in especially violent murder crimes, whether there is no doubt about the guilt of the accused, like the (U.S. Rep.) Gabby Giffords shootings." Fanning was the lone Republican candidate to oppose the death penalty. "I don't believe the federal or state government should be allowed to take the life of anyone at either end of the actuarial bell curve or any one of its prisoners," Fanning said. "Citizens do have the right to use lethal force." Margolis argued that Montana should repeal the death penalty, as some have tried but failed to do in the Legislature, quoting the Montana Abolition Coalition as saying, "We cannot release an innocent person from the grave." She added, "Our justice system makes mistakes, and our resources are too thin. We have to be a better society than turning to killing people in order to protect ourselves." (source: Billings Gazette) CALIFORNIA: POLL: Should the Death Penalty Be Abolished? An initiative to end capital punishment has qualified for the November ballot. Join our conversation. Long Beach residents will have a chance this fall to vote on an initiative that, if passed, would abolish the death penalty in California. Called the Savings, Accountability, and Full Enforcement for California Act, the measure commonly known as the SAFE California Act would immediately commute the sentences of 725 Death Row inmates to life sentences without the possibility of parole. Also, the measure would make the sentence of life without parole the toughest penalty that California prosecutors could seek, the Associated Press reported. The measure?s backers say doing away with the death penalty will save California millions of dollars by eliminating the nation's largest death row at San Quentin prison. California has not put anyone to death since 2006 and is one of 35 states that still carry the sentence. poll to vote: http://belmontshore.patch.com/articles/poll-should-the-death-penalty-be-abolished-0fb467ca) (source: BelmontShore-Naples Patch) From rhalperi at smu.edu Tue May 1 16:52:02 2012 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Tue, 1 May 2012 16:52:02 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] [SPAM] death penalty news----TEXAS, OKLA., USA, CONN., MONT., PENN. Message-ID: May 1 TEXAS----impending execution Execution set in Texas motorcycle theft killing Ex-con Anthony Bartee, released from prison after spending more than a decade locked up for two rapes, admired the cherry red Harley Davidson motorcycle that belonged to a friend and neighbor in San Antonio. So much so, he killed the neighbor and stole the bike, evidence showed at his trial. Bartee, 55, is scheduled to be executed Wednesday for the killing of 37-year-old David Cook more than 15 years ago. Defense attorneys were working Tuesday to try to block the lethal injection, arguing Bartee may be innocent, that he had poor legal help at his trial and that prosecutors have cigarette butts and drinking glasses from the crime scene that still need testing. Bartee had won a reprieve in February when his lawyers won additional DNA testing on two strands of hair found in Cook's hands, but the tests using more showed the hair was Cook's. Bartee had served nearly 12 years for 2 counts of aggravated rape before he was released on mandatory supervision in May 1995. Evidence presented at his murder trial showed a neighbor heard gunshots from Cook's home the night of August 16, 1996, then heard Cook's motorcycle fire up. Relatives concerned when Cook failed to show up for work went to his house and found his body. He'd been stabbed in the back, his throat was cut and he had 2 gunshot wounds to the back of his head from what investigators determined was his own 9 mm pistol. Both the gun and his bike were missing. Investigators determined that the night before the shooting, Bartee tried to hire someone to kill a man he identified as David. The day after the killing, he was seen with the red motorcycle and told people it was his, according to court records. "I remember it just being a cold and senseless killing," said Jill Mata, who prosecuted the case. "David had something he wanted and he took it." When police questioned Bartee after receiving a report about the motorcycle, he initially said he was unaware of Cook's death. When confronted about having the bike, Bartee said he had been working on it in Cook's garage and took off after hearing gunshots because he feared for his own safety. At his trial, defense attorneys tried to pin the slaying on two gang members Bartee identified only as "Snake" and "Throw Down." "It defies credibility to suggest that, the day after Bartee solicited help in robbing and killing Cook, two random gang members happened to shoot and kill Cook while Bartee sat unsuspectingly in the garage," state attorneys said in 2009, responding to an appeal where Bartee claimed actual innocence. "Instead of reporting the incident to police, or checking back with Cook to see whether he was OK, Bartee rode around on his motorcycle claiming it as his own." Prosecutors believed Bartee stabbed Cook and that he was shot in a struggle over the gun, which Cook kept at home for protection. Evidence showed Cook already was dead when his throat was cut. "There was just too much damning evidence," said Joel Perez, one of Bartee's trial attorneys. Bartee declined to speak from death row with reporters as his execution date neared. At least four other Texas inmates have executions scheduled in the coming months, including another in 2 weeks. (source: Associated Press) ********************** 1996 slaying victim's family awaits killer's final hours For more than 15 years, David Cook's mother waited for the day her son's convicted killer would be executed. Barring last minute appeals, that day has been set for a 2nd time and Anthony Bartee, 55, is scheduled to die by lethal injection Wednesday. If the execution proceeds as planned, it comes 2 months after Bartee received a stay from his 1st scheduled date in February. Phyllis Jean Cook, her granddaughter and a daughter were there on Aug. 17, 1996 when police officers used her extra key to get into her son's house after he failed to show up for work, something he never did. David Cook was her only son of 6 children and for 2 days he lie dead in his bedroom after being shot in the temple, the back of the head and the neck. He had been stabbed in the back and his throat was slit. He was 37. His prized Harley Davidson motorcycle was gone as was his handgun ? the same weapon used to kill him, according to court documents. ?My mother was never the same after that,? said the family's youngest child, Linda Cook, 46. ?None of us were. We've always been a close-knit family.? Her brother was a longtime bachelor, someone who liked to play pool, have a beer with friends and go out on the occasional date, Linda Cook said. He had put himself through San Antonio College and worked his way up to supervisor at Electronic Data Systems. It was standing room only at his funeral, she added. ?He was just loved by everybody,? she said. The 2 men met in the neighborhood where David Cook had bought his home on Timberhill Drive. It wasn't long before Bartee was asking for rides here and there on David Cook's new motorcycle. The 2 would hang out, drink beer and occasionally smoke pot, according to the statements given to police by friends of Cook. But her brother sensed something was off about his new acquaintance, Linda Cook said. She never met Bartee but said her brother told their father he didn't think Bartee could be trusted. According to police documents, David Cook told more than one person the same thing, including that he thought ?Tony? might break into his house. What the Cook family didn't know was that Bartee, 39 at the time, was out on parole after serving time for 2 aggravated rape convictions in 1983. He had been out of prison just 15 months at the time of the killing. In 1998, Bartee was found guilty of stabbing his new friend in the back with a pocket knife and when that didn't kill him shooting him multiple times in the head, according to documents. He dropped off the stolen motorcycle at a friend's house in Corpus Christi. Prior to Cook's slaying, Bartee talked of killing a guy named David and asked at least two people for help, according to case documents. Bartee declined a request for an interview as did his family. He has maintained his innocence but his story has changed. He 1st denied being at the house or even knowing of the slaying. Bartee later admitted being there but said he was in the garage when he heard gunshots he claimed were fired by 2 gang members. He said he fled on the motorcycle out of fear. David Dow, Bartee's attorney won the stay just days before the Feb. 28 execution date because DNA testing previously ordered had not been done on hairs found on the victim's hand. Those results were returned in mid-April and the report showed the mitochondrial DNA ? shared by maternal relatives ? matched that of David Cook. State District Court Judge Mary Rom?n ruled the results wouldn't have impacted the outcome of the trial and said Bartee's new execution date would not be withdrawn. Dow appealed that decision Monday arguing that glasses and cigarettes collected at the time of the killing should also be tested. Dow also is asking his client's sentence be commuted to life without parole or that he get a 120-day reprieve to go over additional tests. In those documents Bartee is described as a model prisoner who comes from a hard-working family, many of whom served in the military, as did Bartee. He is also 1 of 6 children and his mother has health problems, the documents said. Linda Cook understands the difficulty Bartee's family must be having. But she points out that her family too has a military history ? along with several family members currently serving, her father Marvin Cook, 85, is a veteran. He plans to attend Bartee's execution. David Cook's mother, however, is no longer waiting. Already in failing health as Bartee's first execution date approached, Phyllis Jean Cook didn't outlive the man convicted of killing her son. Surrounded by family, she died on March 20. (source: San Antonio Express-News) **************************** Filing by Cook Alleges Prosecutor Kept Murder Weapon The prosecutor who sent Kerry Max Cook to death row in 1978 for a gruesome stabbing death has kept the blood-soaked murder weapon at his home for the last decade as a macabre ?souvenir? of one of Tyler?s most infamous and brutal killings, according to a motion the former inmate?s lawyers filed Monday in Smith County. Along with the knife, former Smith County District Attorney A.D. Clark III ? now with the Texas attorney general?s office ? also kept a slide with samples of Cook?s hair, the former inmate?s lawyers allege. ?The rather odd practice of Mr. Clark keeping evidence of a murder case in his personal possession raises many questions, both legal and psychological,? lawyers wrote in a motion asking an administrative judge to reconsider his decision last month to allow Cook?s case to remain in Smith County despite court findings of prosecutorial misconduct there in the past. What?s more, Cook?s lawyers argue, former Smith County prosecutors illegally destroyed much of the remaining evidence in the case that may have contained DNA that could have been tested to help prove Cook?s innocence. And, they said, the current district attorney lied about facts of the case during a court hearing last month. ?These acts of prejudice and malice have crippled Mr. Cook's efforts to defend himself and establish his innocence over the past 35 years,? Cook?s lawyer, Marc McPeak, wrote. ?For the reasons stated and discussed herein, among many others, no Smith County judge should be permitted to preside over Mr. Cook's case.? Clark declined to comment on the record, and Smith County District Attorney Matt Bingham did not return phone calls seeking comment. Cook, then 22, was convicted of the 1977 murder of Linda Jo Edwards after prosecutors convinced the jury that he bludgeoned and stabbed her to death, cut out her genitalia and stuffed them in the leg of one of her stockings. He professed his innocence, and the guilty verdict was ultimately overturned. A second trial ended in a mistrial, and he was again found guilty and sentenced to death in a third trial. But an appeals court overturned that decision, finding ?egregious prosecutorial misconduct? in the case. When Smith County offered Cook a plea deal in 1999 before what was to be his fourth trial, he agreed. He pleaded no contest and was set free. Cook avoided the risk of another trial, but he is still legally considered a murderer. Only after Cook signed the agreement with prosecutors did DNA testing reveal that the semen of James Mayfield ? with whom Edwards had an extramarital affair ? was on the victim?s panties. Mayfield, who told authorities on the night of the murder that he was with his wife and daughter, has never been charged in relation to the crime. And Smith County prosecutors have said the DNA results don't mean Cook didn't commit the crime. In the years since his release, Cook has steadfastly maintained his innocence and is now seeking legal exoneration. He filed motions earlier this year requesting to test any and all DNA that remains in the case and to move the case out of Smith County. Cook argues that because of the long history of prosecutorial misconduct in his case, he can?t get a fair hearing there. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals found that, among other things, prosecutors did not reveal that Mayfield?s daughter was known to police to be mentally unstable and had made death threats against Edwards. According to the court ruling, prosecutors also misrepresented a deal they made with a jailhouse snitch who testified that Cook confessed to the crime. And, the court found, prosecutors pressured a police sergeant to give misleading and unscientific testimony that Cook?s fingerprints in Edwards' apartment were fresh. Former prosecutors in Cook?s case have denied allegations of misconduct. Bingham, the current district attorney, argued in an April 9 hearing that Cook is guilty and that current court personnel have no connection to previous alleged wrongdoing. ?The current administration in the Smith County district attorney's office is far removed from that which was held responsible for the defendant?s 1st 2 jury trials,? he said during the hearing. Administrative Judge John Ovard granted Cook?s request for DNA testing, but he declined to remove the case from Smith County. Cook?s lawyer, in the motion filed Monday, asked Ovard to reconsider his decision not to move the case based on the new discoveries about the destroyed evidence and ?souvenirs? and based on what he described as misrepresentations of the facts by the current district attorney, Matt Bingham. In an April 20 phone conference call with Ovard, Cook?s lawyer wrote that Mike West, an assistant district attorney for Smith County, said that former district attorney Clark had kept the murder weapon, along with a slide containing biological material, in his possession for nearly a decade. ?Mr. West's explanation for this bizarre and improper circumstance was that Mr. Clark had retained the evidence as ?souvenirs,?? McPeak wrote. ?The circumstances of Mr. Clark's acquisition of this evidence is required, as is an explanation as to why a former prosecutor would even want to keep such a grotesque item in his personal possessions.? An investigator named Eddie Clark was also involved in the case, and McPeak acknowledged there could have been confusion about the names involved. But, McPeak said, West made no effort to correct the record if there was confusion, and even if someone else kept the knife as a souvenir, the concern remains about the ethical behavior of law enforcement in the county. In addition, McPeak wrote in the filing, the defense learned that in December 2001, Smith County prosecutors destroyed much of the key physical evidence in the murder case without notifying Cook?s lawyers. The destruction came just months after lawmakers passed the 2001 law that allowed for post-conviction DNA testing and required prosecutors to notify defendants before destroying evidence that might contain biological material. Among the items destroyed were Edwards? bra, panties and jeans ? during Cook?s 2nd trial in 1992, jurors found the stocking that was alleged to have contained her genitalia, empty inside the pair of jeans ? and all the latent fingerprints found at the scene. Cook?s lawyer also argued that Bingham was untruthful during the April 9 hearing when, among other things, he told the court that Robert Hoehn, who has since died but was a witness at Cook?s original trial, confessed that he and Cook had committed the murder together. ?No such testimony, or frankly anything even remotely similar, exists; the district attorney knew as much yet proceeded to offer these inflammatory and highly prejudicial misstatements in open court,? McPeak wrote. The motion also cites the personal relationships of Judge Christi Kennedy, who would be assigned to oversee the Cook case. Kennedy serves on the bench alongside state District Judge Carole Clark, the wife of A.D. Clark III, who tried Cook originally. She also serves with state District Judge Jack Skeen, who was the prosecutor during Cook?s subsequent trials. Skeen is also former prosecutor Clark?s first cousin. And Kennedy?s husband was an assistant district attorney under Skeen when he was prosecuting Cook. The recent revelations, Cook?s lawyer wrote, spark more serious questions about the ability of Smith County to fairly determine whether the man who spent 2 decades on death row and is now a father and husband is actually innocent. ?A reasonable member of the public at large will also ask these very same questions,? McPeak wrote. (source: The Texas Tribune) OKLAHOMA----impending execution Convicted killer is set to be executed tonight Oklahoma State Penitentiary death row inmate Michael Bascum Selsor, 57, is set to be executed today at 6 p.m. in the prison?s death chamber. On April 16, the convicted killer was denied clemency by a 4-1 vote of the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board. Selsor was set to be served his last meal at about noon today. Selsor received his death sentence for the Sept. 15, 1975, murder of 55-year-old Clayton Chandler. Selsor was also convicted of shooting with the intent to kill 20-year-old Ina Morris. Both crimes took place on the same day when Selsor, along with accomplice Richard Eugene Dodson, now 71, robbed a Tulsa convenience store. In 1976, Selsor was tried by a jury and sentenced to death. Later that year, Oklahoma?s death penalty was ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court and the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals adjusted Selsor?s sentence to life without the possibility of parole. In 1996, the U.S. Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned Selsor?s conviction. During a retrial in 1998, Selsor was again convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death. Selsor is also serving a 20-year sentence for shooting with the intent to kill. Dodson was acquitted for the murder of Chandler but was convicted of robbery and shooting with the intent to kill Morris after a former felony conviction. Dodson was sentenced to 50 years for armed robbery, and 199 years for shooting with intent to kill. Dodson is currently in custody at the Davis Correctional Facility in Holdenville, where he has been since January of 1977. Dodson?s parole hearing is scheduled for November 2013. During the robbery, Chandler was shot six times and died. Morris was also shot several times but survived. Along with the murder conviction, and shooting with intent to kill, Selsor is also serving 10 years for robbery with a dangerous weapon, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and robbery with a firearm. He is also serving 18 months for a 1985 conviction of attempted escape from a penal institution. According to the Oklahoma Department of Corrections website, Selsor has been housed at OSP since April 24, 1985. (source: McAlester News-Capital) USA: Feds Seek Death Penalty in Somali Yacht Hijacking Federal prosecutors say they will seek the death penalty against three Somalis charged with murder in the fatal shooting of four Americans aboard a hijacked yacht last year. Ahmed Muse Salad, Abukar Osman Beyle and Shani Nurani Shiekh Abrar could also face the death penalty on numerous other charges related to the February, 2011 hijacking. They include hostage taking resulting in death, violence against maritime navigation resulting in death and kidnapping resulting in death. In total, 22 of the 26 counts are death-eligible offenses. The decision to seek the death penalty is made by U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder. A document disclosing the prosecutors' intent was filed on Monday. The owners of the yacht Quest, Jean and Scott Adam of Marina del Rey, Calif., along with friends Bob Riggle and Phyllis Macay of Seattle, were the first Americans to be killed in a wave of pirate attacks off the coast of east Africa despite an international flotilla of warships that regularly patrol the area. The Adamses had been sailing full-time on their 58-foot yacht since December 2004 after retiring when their boat was boarded by 19 men several hundred miles south of Oman. Ships and their crews are typically targeted by pirates in hopes of securing multi-million dollar ransoms. Pirates had been hoping to bring the Americans back to Somalia to conduct ransom negotiations, but that plan fell apart when U.S. Navy warships began shadowing the Quest. The Navy had told the pirates that they could keep the yacht in exchange for the hostages, but they refused to take the deal because they didn't believe they would get enough money. The only person authorized to negotiate the Americans' release was also based in Somalia. The destroyer USS Sterett was maneuvering between the Quest and the Somali coast when a rocket-propelled grenade was fired at it. Soon after, shots were fired on board the Quest. Court documents say the Americans were being held in the yacht's steering wheel house by seven men when gunfire directed at the Americans erupted. Other pirates have said they tried to stop the shooting once it started. By the time Navy SEALs scrambled aboard the yacht, each of the Americans had already been wounded. Four of the hijackers died on board ? including two who have also been identified in court records as those who shot at the Americans. One person was released by authorities because he is a juvenile. Eleven other men have pleaded guilty to piracy and been sentenced to life in prison for their roles in the case. However, their sentences could eventually be reduced for cooperating with authorities as they prosecute others. A 12th man who never boarded the Quest and was identified as the lead hostage negotiator was convicted of piracy on Friday. He also faces a mandatory life sentence. Prosecutors wanted to wait until that case was over before unsealing their filing to seek the death penalty involving the 3 Somalis because they were concerned about the publicity it might bring. The filing submitted Monday seeks to unseal that filing. A status hearing in the case against the three Somalis charged with murder is set for May 22, where a trial date is expected to be set. Each of the men have pleaded not guilty. (source: Associated Press) *************************** The Death Penalty Option: I Support It A New York Times editorial on April 27 continued the paper?s ongoing campaign over the years to end the death penalty in the United States. The editorial points out that only 33 states retain the death penalty. New York is not one of them. Wikipedia notes how that came to be. It reports: ?People v. LaValle, 3 N.Y.3d 88 (2004), was a landmark decision by the New York Court of Appeals, the highest court in the U.S. state of New York, in which the court ruled that the state?s death penalty statute was unconstitutional because of the statute?s direction on how the jury was to be instructed in case of deadlock. New York has since been without the death penalty, as the law has not been amended.? The Times cites a recent report issued by the National Research Council. The Council ?has now reached the striking and convincing conclusion that all of the research about deterrence and the death penalty done in the past generation, including by some first-rank scholars at the most prestigious universities, should be ignored.? Why? The Times editorial continued, ?A lot of the research assumes that ?potential murderers respond to the objective risk of execution,? but only one in 6 of the people sentenced to death in the last 35 years have been executed and no study properly took that diminished risk into account.? Is it reasonable to believe that potential murderers were aware of the statistic that most death penalty sentences were not being carried out? I, having a scholarly interest in the topic, was not aware of this fact. Putting aside deterrence, supporters emphasize a second reason for continuing the death penalty: society needs to show its moral outrage at particularly heinous crimes, such as the one committed in Connecticut in July, 2007. That crime involved the brutal raping of a 48-year-old woman and one of her daughters. Both daughters, one 17-years old and the other 11-years old, were tied to their beds and perished when their house was set on fire. The 2 men apprehended and convicted of the crimes in separate trials were sentenced to death. Last week Connecticut?s governor, Dannel Malloy, signed a law abolishing the death penalty in that state. Amazingly, after the incessant campaign by death penalty opponents, an October, 2011 Gallup Poll showed that 61 % of Americans still support the penalty, down from an all-time high of 80 % in 1994. I remain one of those who support the death penalty and, as of this moment in time, the U.S. Supreme Court?s decision finding the death penalty constitutional remains the law of the land. I do not believe there is a single case in the U.S. where academics and law enforcement authorities agree that an innocent person has been put to death. Yes, innocent people have been convicted at trial, but as a result of appeals, they have been exonerated before the sentence was carried out. Even if opponents were to cite such a case, I would still support having the penalty available as an option in particularly heinous murders. The reason being that many more innocent lives would be saved because of the deterrence factor. Death penalty opponents always claim racism in the meting out of the penalty, conveying that blacks and Hispanics are victims of that racism. What they rarely state is that while proportionate to the population whites commit fewer murders than blacks and Hispanics, they receive the death penalty in greater numbers. The cry of racism by the opponents really stems from the contention that the murderers of minority victims are given prison sentences to a greater degree than death sentences, whereas the murderers of white victims are more likely to be given death sentences. Those opponents don?t urge that more minority murderers of minorities be given the death penalty in larger numbers upon conviction, but rather that no one suffer that penalty. Also, did anyone at the Times editorial board consider what the effect on the murder rate in the U.S. might be if instead of one in six executions being carried out, six in six were timely executed and reported on the front pages of the Times and other papers? Death penalty opponents certainly have the right to express their views as they have successfully done for many years, causing a reduction in support for the penalty. Regrettably, their editorials have frightened many in the public from speaking out in favor of retaining the death penalty for fear of being labeled racist when such a charge is manifestly unfair. I hope those ?first-rank scholars at the most prestigious universities? supporting the death penalty (I don?t recall the Times referring to their opinions in its prior editorials) will now speak out. I also hope that other death penalty supporters get involved in this discussion. Don?t be frightened into silence. (source: Editorial, Ed Koch, The Algemeiner) CONNECTICUT: Fixing death penalty was just too much work I think legislators took the easy way out when they repealed the death penalty. They didn't want to spend the time and suffer the heavier workload debating how many appeals are enough, and how many years on death row are too many. It was simply easier to repeal it. The victims, their families, the jurists and witnesses at the trial as well as the rest of the innocent public will be endangered as long as these fiends are alive. Murders have been ordered from jail cells (e.g. Russell Peeler). Dangerous criminals have escaped. There can be no peace until they've been returned to their makers like defective merchandise. Prisoners are treated better than the innocent homeless. Inmates get a roof over their heads, controlled temperature, clean blankets, entertainment, 3 meals a day, and medical expenses -- all paid for with our tax dollars. The homeless should have it so good. Prisoners on death row should live like the homeless do: cardboard boxes for shelter, 1 small meal a day, minimal medical opportunities, and discarded newspapers for blankets. Anything else donated by concerned citizens. We hear complaints about overcrowding, yet encourage it by keeping these monsters alive. It's not possible to calculate how much it costs -- much more than ending all such expenses quickly with humane euthanasia. With today's forensics, and technological advances, it is now almost impossible to convict and execute an innocent person. Using the death penalty more liberally, limiting the number of appeals, and limiting the number of years a prisoner can stay on death row would reduce crime, reduce overcrowding, reduce expenses (and, thus, taxes) and increase public safety. But this would take a lot more work, a lot more time and discussion, and more public input than simply voting once to repeal it. I want politicians who will work hard to do what the public wants and needs. The majority of the public wants a more effective, better utilized death penalty. Shirley B. Backus, Stratford (source: Letter to the Editor, Connecticut Post) MONTANA: Capital Punishment: Ronald Smith, death row clemency, and the cost of conscience Time may be running out for Ronald Smith, the Alberta man currently awaiting execution in Montana. Smith has been on death row for almost 30 years. His final appeal for clemency is being heard this week. The facts of Smith?s brutal double homicide are not in dispute. The only real question the appeal panel is asking, is whether his years in prison have reformed him enough to warrant mercy. Just how hard should Canada be fighting for Ronald Smith?s life? Foreign Affairs has written a formal letter in support of Smith, seeking clemency on humanitarian grounds. But it?s fair to say that the Harper government hasn?t exactly pulled out all the stops in support of sparing a Canadian citizen from death by lethal injection. With Smith?s life hanging in the balance, I?d like to repost a column I wrote in December of 2007, at a time when Ottawa was trying to calibrate its degree of outrage at Smith?s fate. I think the questions I asked back then are just as relevant today. It?s not easy to summon up much sympathy for Ronald Smith. The 50-year-old Albertan, who has been sitting on death row in Montana for 25 years, sounds every bit your Hollywood stereotype of a stone cold killer. Smith was born in Wetaskiwin in 1957. His dad worked the oilpatch, and Smith spent his childhood travelling from work site to work site. His relationship with his father was, by all accounts, violent and volatile. Smith started stealing as a kid, taking money he found around the house. ?I was a little light-fingered. If there was extra cash around it would be gone. I made a career out of that,? he once told a reporter. He was drinking by the age of 10, taking drugs by 12 or 13. His 1st time in jail came when he was 15. By Grade 9, he dropped out of school. After that, he was in and out of jail for selling drugs, stealing cars, breaking into houses. In August 1982, Smith decided to hitchhike from his home in Red Deer to Mexico, accompanied by two buddies. In his luggage, Smith packed a sawed-off .22 calibre rifle. The trio made it across the Montana border and went to a bar. They drank beer and played some pool with two Blackfoot cousins, Harvey Mad Man, 23, and Thomas Running Rabbit, 20. Running Rabbit was the pride of his family, a second-year college student, a gifted competitive athlete who planned to become a teacher. Mad Man was a father of 2, the idolized eldest brother in his family. Eventually, the Canadians left the bar and they started hitchhiking. But they had trouble getting rides. The 2 cousins they?d met in the bar drove by and offered the trio a lift. But their generosity was poorly rewarded. When Mad Man and Running Rabbit stopped the car by the side of the road to relieve themselves, Smith marched them into the forest and shot them in the head. Smith and his buddies stole the car. They made it as far as California, where they robbed a grocery store. Police caught up with them not long afterwards. Smith pleaded guilty to two murder and kidnapping. He actually requested the death penalty in lieu of a 110-year prison term. ?I wanted to find out what it would be like to kill somebody,? he told the judge who sentenced him. Despite his initial request for a lethal injection, Smith has spent most of the past 25 years appealing his sentence through the U.S. courts, and fighting to be sent to a Canadian prison. Until last month, Ottawa was in his corner. Canada abolished the death penalty in 1976. It has long been our policy to appeal for clemency for Canadians convicted abroad. The principle is simple. As a nation, we believe the death penalty is morally abhorrent. Even when a citizen commits a heinous act abroad, we uphold our belief that capital punishment is wrong, by lobbying governments to commute death sentences imposed on Canadians abroad. But something odd happened last month. On Oct. 27, the Ottawa Citizen ran a front-page story about efforts by the Department of Foreign Affairs to win clemency for Ronald Smith, including complaints from Montana?s governor about Canadian pressure. On Oct. 31, 4 days after the story ran, the Department of Foreign Affairs made an abrupt change in policy. No longer, said Ottawa, would it seek clemency for Canadians convicted in democratic countries after fair trials. Last week, Justice Minister Rob Nicholson modified that stance, saying Ottawa would not ?necessarily? intervene to help those convicted of multiple murders. Now, Smith is taking the Canadian government to court, demanding a judicial review. His lawyers argue that the government has an obligation under the Charter of Rights to protect Smith?s right to life and his right not to be subjected to cruel and unusual treatment, and that abandoning their support for him at this point is an act of bad faith, and violation of his rights under the Vienna Convention. Smith is no poster boy for the abolition of the capital punishment. He committed a vicious, pointless murder. His guilt is not in doubt. He?s had a competent American legal team to represent his interests in the U.S. courts ? he?s getting his due process. And you could certainly argue Smith chose to murder in Montana and should be prepared to be punished according to Montana law. Still, as a nation, we made up our minds 30 years ago that we would no longer countenance the death penalty, even for the nastiest killers. The Harper government shouldn?t change such fundamental policy on the fly, spurred by one embarrassing newspaper article. How capricious, how knee-jerk, would it be, to make such a life-and- death decision on an ad hoc, political basis? Smith is not a sympathetic figure. But few murderers are. Either we uphold the fundamental principle that we as a nation deplore capital punishment, or we don?t. It?s tempting to disown Smith. But for better or worse, he?s our responsibility. The world needs to know that we will defend our citizens ? right or wrong. Otherwise, when some Canadian faces a death sentence in China or Sudan or Iran or Thailand, our moral authority to lobby for clemency could be fatally diminished. If Stephen Harper?s Conservatives want to reopen the capital punishment debate in Parliament, that?s their prerogative. But to do an end-run around public debate to score ideological points with Smith?s life hanging in the balance, is distasteful and disturbing. By all means, let Ronald Smith rot in a U.S. jail for the next 50 years. It?s no more than he deserves. But as a nation, let?s not collude in his execution. Smith has already shamed our country. Let?s not let him damn us, too. Let?s not have his blood on our hands. (source: Opinion, Edmonton Journal) PENNSYLVANIA: Washington County DA to seek death penalty in fatal stabbing Washington County District Attorney Gene Vittone filed a notice today indicating he will seek the death penalty for Jordan Clemons, who is facing trial in the death of ex-girlfriend Karissa Kunco. Police said Mr. Clemons, 23, stabbed her to death and dumped her body on the side of Sabo Road in Mount Pleasant Township. She was reported missing Jan. 11 and found a day later. Today, Mr. Vittone filed a notice of aggravating circumstances, writing that Mr. Clemons had a "significant history of felony convictions involving the use or threat of violence." Additionally, he wrote, Ms. Kunco had filed for a protection-from-abuse order against Mr. Clemons in mid-December after she accused him of beating her up. (source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) From rhalperi at smu.edu Tue May 1 22:06:58 2012 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Tue, 1 May 2012 22:06:58 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----OKLAHOMA Message-ID: May 1 OKLAHOMA----execution Okla. death row inmate executed in shooting death An Oklahoma man convicted of murdering a Tulsa convenience store manager almost 37 years ago was executed by lethal injection Tuesday. Michael Bascum Selsor, 57, was pronounced dead at 6:06 p.m. Tuesday at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary. Selsor's execution ends more than 3 decades of legal proceedings in which Selsor was twice convicted of 1st-degree murder and sentenced to die for the Sept. 15, 1975, shooting death of Clayton Chandler. The 55-year-old Chandler was shot 8 times during an armed robbery in which the thieves got away with a little more than $500. Selsor and Richard Dodson, were arrested a week after Chandler's death in Santa Barbara, Calif., where their car with Oklahoma tags had been spotted. Selsor was originally convicted and sentenced to death following a 1976 trial, in which Dodson was a co-defendant. Later that year, the U.S. Supreme Court invalidated Oklahoma's mandatory death penalty statute. The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals modified Selsor's sentence to life in prison without parole. Selsor initiated a new round of appeals challenging his conviction and in April 1996, the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals threw out Selsor's murder conviction, as well as two related convictions. In 1998, Selsor was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death following a retrial. The same jury recommended Selsor serve a life term as an accessory to Dodson's shooting of Chandler's co-worker, Ina Louise Morris, who survived multiple gunshot wounds. The jury also imposed a 20-year term for armed robbery. On April 16, the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board voted 4-1 against commuting Selsor's death penalty to life in prison without parole. The U.S. Supreme Court rejected his request for a stay of execution Friday. Defense attorneys had argued that executing Selsor after he has been in prison for almost 2 generations lacked any deterrent value and would "amount to cruel and unusual punishment" in violation of his constitutional rights under the Eighth Amendment. Dodson, now 71, was convicted of robbery and shooting with intent to kill and is serving a prison sentence of 50 to 199 years. Dodson is imprisoned in the Davis Correctional Facility in Holdenville and has a parole hearing scheduled for November 2013, according to Department of Corrections records. Selsor becomes the 3rd condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Oklahoma and the 99th overall since the state resumed capital punishment in 1990. Only Texas (482) and Virginia (109) have executed more inmates since the death penalty was re-legalized in the USA on July 2, 1976. Selsor becomes the 18th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 1295th overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977. (sources: Associated Press & Rick Halperin) ************** Okla. death row inmate executed in shooting death The clanging of prison bars coincided with a death row inmate's last breaths Tuesday night as was he executed for killing a Tulsa convenience store manager almost 37 years ago. Michael Bascum Selsor, 57, had already uttered his last words to his son and his sister at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary. It was the end of more than 3 decades of legal proceedings, in which Selsor was twice convicted of 1st-degree murder and sentenced to die for the Sept. 15, 1975, shooting death of Clayton Chandler. "My son, my sister, I love you till I see you again next time," Selsor said. "I'll be waiting at the gates of heaven for you. I hope the rest of you make it there as well." He didn't address Chandler's relatives, some of whom were watching him. Chandler, 55, was shot 8 times during an armed robbery in which the thieves got away with a little more than $500. Selsor and Richard Dodson were arrested a week after Chandler's death in Santa Barbara, Calif., where their car with Oklahoma tags had been spotted. Selsor said he was ready and soon the lethal 3-drug mixture was administered. The clanging began. Prison officials said it was other death row inmates showing respect for Selsor. He breathed heavily a couple of times, and then stopped. The clanging did, too. He was pronounced dead at 6:06 p.m. Selsor's son and sister wept quietly in the family viewing room. Shortly after, Debbie Huggins, one of Chandler's daughters, said her family has waited for almost 37 years for justice. "Today, we got that justice," she said. "We're glad that it's finally over. Be at peace. The race is finally over." She said she thought about her father as she watched Selsor die. "This was much kinder what we did to him today than what he did to my dad," Huggins said. Selsor was originally convicted and sentenced to death following a 1976 trial, but the U.S. Supreme Court invalidated Oklahoma's mandatory death penalty statute. The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals modified Selsor's sentence to life in prison without parole. In 1996, the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals threw out Selsor's murder conviction, as well as 2 related convictions. And in the 1998 retrial, Selsor again was convicted of 1st-degree murder and sentenced to death. Last month, the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board voted 4-1 against commuting Selsor's death penalty to life in prison without parole. The U.S. Supreme Court rejected Selsor's request for a stay of execution Friday. Dodson, meanwhile, is serving a prison sentence of 50 to 199 years after he was convicted of robbery and shooting with intent to kill. Now 71, he has a parole hearing scheduled for late 2013, according to corrections department records. In the state capital, about 25 people protested in front of the governor's mansion on Tuesday. The group fell silent a couple of minutes before the scheduled execution time, and about 10 minutes later, they formed a circle to pray. Ellen Watson, a nurse who previously worked with adolescent psychiatric patients, was among the protesters. She said she believes a proactive approach to combatting crime would be a better solution than executing criminals. "I just don't believe in killing people," Watson said. Vince Kish, 70, an Air Force veteran from Moore, said he hoped drivers who passed the group would take notice. "Whether they agree with us or not, at least they can be thinking about it," he said. Selsor was the 3rd Oklahoma death row inmate to be executed this year after Gary Welch in January and Timothy Stemple in March. State prison officials say they have enough of one of the drugs ? pentobarbital ? used in the lethal injection mixture for 1 more inmate. But Gary Allen's April 12 execution was postponed, and no other executions have been scheduled. (source: The Oklahoman) From rhalperi at smu.edu Tue May 1 22:09:44 2012 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Tue, 1 May 2012 22:09:44 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide Message-ID: May 1 IRAN: Iranian Faces Death Penalty for Watching Satellite TV An Iranian political prisoner, following 2 years of detention in various solitary prisons, has received a death sentence from a criminal court in Tehran for having watched and contacted an Iranian dissident television program, Simay-e Azadi, says HRDIA.net which is a Persian language website with a focus on human rights situation in Iran. Simay-e Azadi is a program in Farsi language that is broadcast from abroad presenting the views of the Iranian opposition, the Mujahedin-e Khalq or MEK. Mullahs consider the MEK to be their arch foe enemy. Gholamreza Khosravi, 47, is said to support the MEK. He was previously jailed for his political activities during the 80s. He had earlier received a much lighter sentence in his hometown but when his case was transferred to a court in Tehran, he received the death sentence. A review court later turned down the sentence but another court immediately reinstated it. Khosravi told reporters that he will not ask for a pardon and that his death sentence is illegal and he did not commit any crime to deserve such punishment. The Iranian people are, more than ever, using externally produced satellite television programs as their main source of information, news and entertainment. But the mullahs? regime, on the other hand, considers the free flow of information to be a growing threat to its authoritarian rule. Along with internet and the new mobile phone technology, satellite TV leaves no room for control of information and censorship the way a dictatorial regime prefers to have. Iranian police attacks houses and neighborhoods at nights, collecting satellite dishes from atop buildings and apartments. Those arrested receive harsh punishments. But this may be the first instance of a death sentence being handed down for charges related to satellite TV. (source: stopfundamentalism.com) From rhalperi at smu.edu Wed May 2 12:02:02 2012 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Wed, 2 May 2012 12:02:02 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] [SPAM] death penalty news----TEXAS, VA., PENN., ARK., MONT., CALIF., USA Message-ID: May 2 TEXAS----impending execution Execution in Texas motorcycle theft killing A paroled rapist sent to death row for killing a neighbor in San Antonio and stealing the murdered man's cherry red Harley Davidson motorcycle is counting on appeals to the courts to keep him from execution in Huntsville. Anthony Bartee is set for lethal injection Wednesday evening for the shooting and stabbing death of 37-year-old David Cook more than 15 years ago. Attorneys for the 55-year-old Bartee argue he may be innocent and that prosecutors had cigarette butts and drinking glasses from the crime scene that still needed DNA testing to possibly exclude Bartee. They also contend his trial lawyers were deficient for not pursuing the tests. State lawyers contend the evidence isn't new and the appeals are delay tactics. The execution would be the 6th this year in Texas. (source: Associated Press) VIRGINIA: Trial Delayed for Fulks Run Woman Facing Death Penalty The trial for a Virginia woman charged in the 2009 slayings of a West Virginia family is delayed to February 11, 2013. Lorie Ann Taylor-Keller and her husband, Nakia Keller, were scheduled to stand trial in August 2012. Taylor-Keller's lawyers requested more time to gather all of the evidence. The Fulks Run couple is charged with crossing state lines to kill Taylor Keller's ex-husband, 36-year-old Dennis "Chip" Taylor, in October 2009 at his home in Hardy County, W.Va. The couple also faces charges stemming from the deaths of Taylor's wife and her 5-year-old daughter. Authorities found Taylor and his family shot to death in the basement of their home, which was then set on fire. If convicted, Lorie would become the 3rd woman since 1953 to be put to death in Virginia by federal prosecutors. Keller does not face the death penalty. (source: WHSV News) PENNSYLVANIA: Death penalty sought in Washington County Washington County District Attorney Gene Vittone filed a notice Tuesday that he will seek the death penalty against Jordan Clemons, who faces trial in the stabbing death of his former girlfriend, 21-year-old Karissa Kunco. Clemons, 23, was formally arraigned Tuesday of charges of homicide, aggravated assault, abuse of corpse and other crimes. Police said he stabbed Ms. Kunco to death and dumped her body on the side of Sabo Road in Mount Pleasant Township. The 21-year-old Baldwin woman, who had a volatile off-and-on relationship with Clemons, was reported missing Jan. 11 and was found dead the following morning. Tuesday, at Clemon's formal arraignment, Mr. Vittone filed a notice of aggravating circumstances, which signals his intent to ask for the death penalty for Clemons. First, he wrote, Clemons previously had been convicted of violent felonies. Second, Ms. Kunco had obtained a protection-from-abuse order from Clemons after she accused him of beating her up in mid-December. (source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) ARKANSAS: Ex-death row inmate due back in Ark. court in June----Another pre-trial hearing on June 4 A former Arkansas death row inmate whose conviction was overturned because 1 juror slept and another tweeted during court proceedings is due back in court this summer. Lawyers in Erickson Dimas-Martinez's case say he has another pre-trial hearing on June 4. Dimas-Martinez appeared in court in northwest Arkansas on Monday as a judge went through a few pending motions. Dimas-Martinez was convicted in 2010 in the shooting death of a 17-year-old. He was sentenced to death, but the Arkansas Supreme Court overturned his conviction last year. He's slated to go on trial in August. Prosecutors say they're seeking the death penalty again. (source: Associated Press) MONTANA: Only Canadian on death row in US asks parole board to let him live out his life in prison The only Canadian on death row in the United States is asking the Montana Parole Board to instead let him live the rest of his life in prison. Ronald A. Smith of Red Deer, Alberta, was sentenced to death in 1983, 7 months after he marched cousins Harvey Mad Man, 23, and Thomas Running Rabbit, 20, into the woods just off U.S. 2 near Marias Pass and shot them both in the head with a .22-caliber rifle. They had picked up Smith, who was partying his way around northern Montana with some friends. Smith, 24 at the time of the killings, originally sought the death penalty, spurning a plea deal that would have spared his life. The board is scheduled to listen to testimony from more than 2 dozen witnesses in a hearing that could extend through Thursday. Smith, 54, is scheduled to testify himself. A document inadvertently released by the board last month showed that parole board staff is recommending that Smith?s request be rejected. But the board says the staff letter was just a recommendation for them to consider as they look at the case. After the hearing, the board will consider whether to recommend that Smith?s sentence be commuted to life in prison. The ultimate decision lies with Gov. Brian Schweitzer. Schweitzer in the past has told the family of the victims that he will think of them, and their desire to see the death penalty carried out, in making any decision. He has also said he does not take lightly any decision to execute a man. Smith argues he?s now a far different person than the out-of-control youth who took the lives of 2 young Blackfeet Indian men. Smith has said he was heavily intoxicated that day and doesn?t have a strong recollection of the men he killed. Smith has exhausted his legal appeals and faces the death penalty once a lawsuit over the method used by the state is cleared up. The Canadian government, which does not believe in capital punishment, had initially refused to support Smith, saying he had been convicted in a democratic country. It now formally supports clemency for Smith, in accordance with a long-standing policy of seeking clemency for Canadians sentenced to death in foreign lands. Smith says he doesn?t expect the lukewarm support will have much bearing on the case. The Blackfeet Tribal Council, and most of the family members of the victim from that area, have spoken out in favor of carrying out the death penalty. The Montana attorney general?s office is also defend the original conviction. (source: Associated Press) CALIFORNIA: Keep death penalty off chopping block There is a certain way humans respond to death. The death of a loved one is mourned; the death of a villain is celebrated. Either way, it is still death and we react to it with deeper emotions than we do to a lot of other things. Last week, the California legislature announced the death penalty ban would appear on November?s ballot, turning the death sentences of roughly 725 inmates in state prisons into life without the possibility of parole. The ballot measure has been named the ?Savings, Accountability, and Full Enforcement for California Act,? or SAFE California Act. Supporters argue too much money has been spent on prosecutors and the death row inmates? defense attorneys during the appeals process; as well as the cost of maintaining the largest death row in the country, San Quentin prison. They say the funding could be better used to investigate unsolved crimes and give closure to families still seeking it. But what is closure, really? We hear this term a lot; closure and justice. That?s the funny thing about death, we savor it when it?s ?justified.? Families who have lost loved ones go to extreme lengths to ask for justice, and oftentimes death is included in their requests. Life in prison hardly seems like a threat when compared with death, and we certainly have enough repeat offenders to prove our prison system isn?t horrible. These days, the inmates in our state prisons may sometimes enjoy nicer amenities than lower and middle-income families struggling to put food on the table. How will the families feel about that? In addition, without execution as an option, what will deter murderers and rapists from committing illegal acts? According to the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, capital punishment does not deter crime: ?Scientific studies have consistently failed to demonstrate that executions deter people from committing crime any more than long prison sentences. Moreover, states without the death penalty have much lower murder rates. The South accounts for 80 percent of U.S. executions, and has the highest regional murder rate.? California?s finances are in need of help, and California has always made money its priority. Oh, wait. Gov. Jerry Brown believes the speculated $100 million in savings would alleviate some of the stress of California?s never-ending budget crisis. Supporters of the November ballot measure believe the money will be shifted to law enforcement in order to help solve crimes. First, we vote on saving a speculated amount of money, and then California lawmakers will fight about how to spend it? Sounds about right. Brown has always appeared to be opposed to capital punishment. For example, he convinced his father, who was governor at the time, to spare the life of the Red Light Bandit in 1960. He also protested Aaron Mitchell?s execution in 1967. Will the initiative pass? The truth is, many people like the death penalty. While legislators are determining how to make money to spend money, voters have shown an appetite for capital punishment. Since 1978, all of California?s death penalty laws have been created using ballot measures. From that time until 2000, the number of crimes punishable by death has risen from 12 to 39, all at the hands of state voters. This initiative, however, is the first with costs attached to it. Every time Californians have been asked to expand the death penalty, they were told the costs were ?unknown? or ?minor,? according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Now the numbers are on the table and voters will see a $100 million price tag on their ballot at the end of the year. As of April 6, California has roughly 17 million registered voters in the state; of those, turnout in a general election is about 70 % on average. In order for the ballot initiative to pass, a simple majority is needed. It takes 50 % of voters plus one to abolish the death penalty. At that time, more than 700 state prison inmates will be transferred from death row to life in prison. (source: The Daily Aztec) USA: 9/11 TRIAL----KSM, 4 others to face murder charges again in Guant?namo The Pentagon brings the five long-held accused architects of the Sept. 11 terror attacks to the Guant?namo war court on Saturday to face charges that seek the death penalty. The ringleader is the U.S.-educated one-time chief of al-Qaida operations who bragged that he was responsible for the Sept. 11 terror attacks ?from A to Z.? He was held for years in CIA detention, where agents waterboarded him 183 times. The others include a one-legged militant, a self-described wannabe 9/11 hijacker, a money manager and the mastermind?s nephew, who has introduced himself in court as a Microsoft-certified software engineer. All 5 are being brought to the Guant?namo war court Saturday to face arraignment as the architects of the worst terror attack on American soil in U.S. history. And if that all sounds familiar, it is, because, yes, we?ve been here before. The Pentagon is resetting the clock and restarting the Sept. 11 terror trial of Khalid Sheik Mohammed, 46, and four alleged accomplices, seeking to write the final chapter of the five men nearly a year to the day after Special Forces hunted down and killed Osama bin Laden. These are the men whom President George W. Bush had brought to the U.S. Navy base in southeast Cuba for trials by military commissions in 2006, proceedings that President Barack Obama had halted to reform them with Congress in a bid to make them more credible in international law and human rights circles. All 5 are accused of conspiring to organize, train or funnel funds to the 19 hijackers who flew four airliners into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a Pennsylvania field on Sept. 11, 2001. Each is charged with killing 2,976 people. Each faces execution, if convicted, by a method yet to be decided by Defense Secretary Leon Panetta or his successor. And, if past court appearances are any indicator, Mohammed will take the lead defendant?s seat ? and center stage ? at the Guant?namo war court where he has described himself as a warrior for radical Islam and told a military judge that he welcomed martyrdom. ?We don?t care about the capital punishment,?? Mohammed said at his last war court appearance in 2009. ?We are doing jihad for the cause of God.? Since arriving at Guant?namo, Mohammed has portrayed himself as a grandiose mystic ? posing for a Red Cross photo kneeling on a prayer rug, flowing white robe and mammoth beard in one appearance, bragging to a military panel that he beheaded Wall Street Journal correspondent Daniel Pearl ?with my blessed hand? in another, and calling himself a revolutionary just like George Washington. He has signed his court documents as ?KSM,? the nickname American law enforcement gave him in a worldwide manhunt. In his war court charge sheet he comes off as a meticulous micromanager of the largest mass murder in American history ? coaching the mostly Saudi hijackers on the most basic brutish English for their mission ? ?if anyone moves, I?ll kill you? ? then having them practice the art of slaughter on sheep, goats and camels. Nowhere does it mention that the CIA waterboarded him an unrivaled 183 times to break him at secret overseas prisons, using interrogation techniques the Obama administration now brands as torture. Nor does it note that he became so accustomed to the treatment that he counted off the seconds of near-drowning with his fingers, having realized that the CIA was not authorized to actually kill him. ?I think at his core, KSM is rotten. There?s something really, really wrong,? says Terry McDermott, co-author of The Hunt for KSM. The book, recently released, tracks Mohammed?s path from his youth in Kuwait through North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University in Greensboro to Bin Laden in Afghanistan. It concludes all the harsh interrogation techniques got the United States no closer to finding bin Laden. A differing account, just written by the ex-CIA official who oversaw the secret interrogations, Jose Rodriguez, argues the techniques were crucial to national security. But on Mohammed?s ambition the men agree. ?As near as we can tell, from 1992 until he was captured, he did nothing but terrorism,? McDermott said. ?In that time he probably came up with 100 different ideas for how to kill people. It was nonstop.? Now, he faces off with the new chief judge of military commissions, Army Col. James L. Pohl, as the lead defendant in the complex conspiracy prosecution that Attorney General Eric Holder wanted put before a civilian jury in Manhattan ? ?in a courtroom just blocks away from where the Twin Towers once stood.? Congress thwarted that ambition. So now, all five men will be brought before Pohl at Guant?namo?s maximum-security court complex in a rare Saturday arraignment that starts the so-called speedy time clock toward trial before a military jury of 12 or more field-grade officers, called a Military Commission. Attendance at the arraignment is mandatory, to hear the charges against them and answer the judge on whether they?ll accept their Pentagon-paid defense teams. They are: Walid bin Attash, 33, a Yemeni who lost his leg in a 1997 battlefield accident in Afghanistan, sits behind Mohammed in court and is cast in the charge sheets as the No. 2 of the so-called ?Planes Operation.? He?s a former al-Qaida training camp instructor who allegedly handpicked some of the Sept. 11 hijackers out of a hand-to-hand combat training course 2 years before 9/11 ? and brought them to Mohammed in Pakistan. There they practiced on a computer-driven flight simulation program and learned the English they needed for their mission. Ramzi bin al Shibh, 40, sits behind bin Attash in court. Bin al Shibh is another Yemeni who is described in the charge sheets as applying four times to get a U.S. visa, starting more than year before the terror attacks, and failing each time before ultimately serving as a Hamburg, Germany, based deputy, transferring funds to some of the hijackers as well as trying to enroll himself along with the actual hijackers in Florida flight schools. In 2009 at Guant?namo, before the Bush-era trial was abandoned, bin al Shibh was never able to persuade the court that, like Mohammed and bin Attash, he was competent enough to function as his own lawyer in court. Instead, he was prone to outbursts ? from interrupting proceedings to offer Muslim holiday greetings to bin Laden to observing that then-judge Ralph Kohlmann, a Marine colonel, had a Jewish-sounding name. He was the 1st of the 5 to be captured, according to news reports, in a Pakistani-U.S. intelligence raid a year to the day after the 9/11 attacks, on Sept. 11, 2002, in Karachi, Pakistan. ? The computer engineer who introduced himself in court as Ammar al Baluchi, 34, is identified as Ali Abdul Aziz Ali in court documents. A nephew of Mohammed, he?s a Pakistani by nationality who speaks excellent English and is accused of moving money and making travel arrangements for the hijackers. His charge sheet describes him as a would-be martyr who, just weeks before Sept. 11, sought a 1-week visa to visit the United States on Sept. 4. He was turned down, and seized by Pakistani authorities on April 29, 2003, in Karachi along with bin Attash. Mustafa al Hawsawi, 43, a Saudi national, also is accused of moving money and credit cards to some of the hijackers, helping some buy clothing while in transit from Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, to Orlando, via London. At one point he sent a package to one of the United Airlines hijackers in Delray Beach. CIA agents captured him on the same day as Mohammed on March 1, 2003, in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, according to leaked documents. Like the other alleged 9/11 conspirators, he disappeared into the agency?s secret prison network, only to surface at Guant?namo in September 2006, a transfer Bush announced in a White House press conference. (source: Miami Herald) ****************** Judge presiding over 9/11 trial no stranger to tough cases When President George W. Bush proposed razing Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison in 2004, this American Army judge declared it a crime scene and forbade its demolition. When five years later President Barack Obama asked the Guantanamo war court to freeze all proceedings, the same judge refused the brand-new commander-in-chief's request. He's Col. James L. Pohl, who has appointed himself to preside at the war crimes trial of the five men accused of orchestrating the Sept. 11 attacks. It's not that Pohl is unaware of rank after 3 decades in the Army. It's simply not relevant in this colonel's court. Here's how he scolded a prosecutor when the prison commander, an admiral, was late for court to testify after lunch recess in January: "Witnesses should be waiting either in the trailer at the back or outside," the judge bristled, "and I really don't care what their rank is." A soldier since the '80s and a judge since 2000, Pohl has had judicial oversight of some of the most notorious Army cases of the post-Sept. 11 era. -He presided at the trials of 9 soldiers found guilty of abusing detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. -He decided that U.S. Army psychiatrist Maj. Nidal Hasan should get a death-penalty trial for the 2009 shooting spree that killed 13 soldiers and wounded dozens more at Fort Hood, Texas. -In September, however, he found the opposite at a show-cause hearing for Army Sgt. John Russell. Unlike Hasan, Pohl ruled, Russell had "an undisputed mental disease or defect" that made it "inappropriate" to pursue a capital case for allegedly killing 5 troops at the combat stress center at Iraq's Camp Liberty in May 2009. -Pohl also presided at the so-called "mercy killing" trial of an Army captain, a tank commander, who killed a critically wounded insurgent in May 2004, and was captured on an aerial drone's videocam doing it. Now, at a moment when most 60-year-old colonels are retiring from service, Pohl is chief military commissions judge, and has chosen to take on 2 of the most high-profile trials of his career: the 9/11 trial, and the trial of a man who allegedly engineered al-Qaida's 2000 USS Cole bombing. Each case seeks the death penalty. Each is to be heard by a military commission, the tribunals that Bush had created after Sept. 11 and Obama ordered reformed upon taking office. Saturday, Pohl will face off for the first time with Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who bragged that he masterminded 9/11 for al-Qaida - wading into the case that's been a lightning rod for criticism that the court was created to cover up torture. "All judges should be like him," says Indiana Supreme Court Justice Steve David, a retired Army colonel. Pohl "takes what he does very seriously but not himself. He is fair and firm with a great sense of humor and a keen mind. If I were prosecuting or defending, he would be a great choice for judge." He's by far the most experienced military judge currently in the Army, adds retired Marine Lt. Col. Guy Womack, a veteran military defender of Pohl courts-martial from the Green Zone in Iraq, Germany and the United States, notably the Abu Ghraib case. There, Pohl caused a mini-stir by refusing a guilty plea by Pfc. Lynndie England, the soldier photographed with a detainee on a leash. At her hearing, another soldier testified that England was ordered to pose for that picture, casting doubt on her admission of conspiracy. Pohl ordered a trial. She was found guilty. Womack also described Pohl as one of the military's most methodical and careful crafters of judicial rulings to make sure they stand up to appellate scrutiny, a skill set he likely acquired in the early 1990s while working at the government appellate division in Falls Church, Va., defending Army convictions. When he got the Abu Ghraib case, said Womack, Pohl kept "all of them, which is typical" - a practice Pohl has repeated at Guantanamo by handling all the trials of the former CIA captives. Womack called Pohl's judicial style "dictatorial," and said the judge preferred to meet defense and prosecution attorneys in chambers, out of earshot of the public and off the record, before each day to map out how the session would proceed. Of the 9/11 trial, said Womack, "Col. Pohl would be the judge of choice for this case either because he doesn't want to be reversed, or because he wants to mean well. You need a strong judge; a weak judge would never get it done." At the same time, he has shunned the spotlight. Pohl wouldn't be interviewed for this profile. He travels incognito, in jeans and polo shirt, no colonel's uniform for him. And he has stood in line to check in for the war court charter flight from Andrews Air Force Base undetected by reporters, legal observers, enlisted troops, even some lawyers going to Guantanamo, too. An ex-Army prosecutor calls him "ego-less." David calls him "humble," and, oddly for a man so private, "someone that could do those commercials for Dove soap for men. He is very comfortable in his skin!" Omitted from Pohl's terse court biography is that he was sworn in as a judge on May 19, 2000, after completing the Army's "Military Judge Course" with perfect scores on his final exams and graded practical exercises. That makes him the longest serving judge currently in the U.S. military. His biography also does not mention that he's been retained past his retirement date, Oct. 1, 2010, and serves in a special status that requires renewal each year. At Guantanamo, it's hard to spot him around the base, where he mostly splits his time between the court and his quarters. On a sticky evening in April, military lawyers donned crisp uniforms and civilians put on suits and ties to climb a hill to the old tribunal building and meet the judge in his chambers. They found Pohl in jeans and loafers, no socks, and a pink sports shirt. By gavel-down the next morning, he was in his Class Bs, the new Army uniform with a gold stripe down the trousers, topped by a black robe - commissions business attire. Sometimes, you can see him at dinner in a corner booth at O'Kelly's pub. But, unlike the lawyers and reporters, who mingle and make small talk, he keeps the company of his staff, and he doesn't linger at the bar. Pohl comes to the 9/11 case from the peculiar position of having been passed over for promotion to general and retained past retirement, meaning "he's got nobody he has to please," says retired Lt. Col. Victor M. Hansen, who spent 20 years as an Army lawyer and now teaches at New England Law School. Hansen says Pohl has the judicial independence to throw out a case for insufficient evidence, no matter how high profile. "He would not bat an eye, and sleep like a baby that night." Guantanamo's death penalty cases present Pohl with grave issues in a still-evolving system. CIA torture is alleged - some of the accused were waterboarded, threatened at gunpoint, sleep deprived, hung by their wrists, had their families threatened. A jury of U.S. military officers decides guilt or innocence, life or death. It's Pohl's job to decide what charges go to the jury and to make sure no evidence derived from abuse or worse is used at trial. Pohl has yet to tip his hand on what he'll do if he's confronted with proof that U.S. agents tortured a captive. By international law, it's a war crime. He has told defense lawyers it'll be their job to instruct him on how to regard the treatment, what rules apply, and it'll be his job "to follow the law and the preferences given to me by counsel and as I interpret it." Hansen predicts that Pohl "will take the prosecution through the wringer" to make sure no "derivative evidence from coerced confessions comes in." Earlier in their careers, Hansen was an Army prosecutor who worked opposite Pohl, who was taking a turn as defense attorney, typical of the Army legal career track. Hansen predicts the judge will be "tough on both sides" at the 9/11 trial. "He's lived as a defense counsel in the Army, when you've got the whole prosecution against you. And so he's very good on keeping the government's feet to the fire." Lawyers who've watched Pohl for years say he sweats the details, and demands the same of those who come to his court. Pohl's an intensely private man. Friends likewise declined to answer the most innocuous human interest questions. Not even what he does when Army plays Navy, a football rivalry that's a rite. Public records show that James Lancaster Pohl earns $10,557 a month plus a housing allowance. He turns 61 this month. He has served a stint in Korea, at least five years in Germany and is now based at Fort Benning in Georgia, where he registered as a voter in September 2008. He's voted once since - on Nov. 4, 2008, the historic elections that put the 1st African-American in the White House. He's a 1974 graduate of UCLA, where records show he got a bachelor of science degree in psychology. He went up the road to Malibu's Pepperdine University to get his law degree in 1978, and was admitted to the California Bar after Thanksgiving that year. Several friends mentioned his hilarious sense of humor, which you only glimpse at court. Once, a defense attorney invoked the estimate that it costs $800,000 a year per Guantanamo detainee and called it "a monument to waste." Pohl retorted: "Let's say it is robustly resourced." When a Saudi in his court pulled out a poster showing Obama's pledge to close Guantanamo, the judge dryly asked the man's attorney whether this should be marked as evidence. "For as many big cases as he's had, that he's tried, the man really is ego-less," said former Army Maj. Christopher Graveline, who prosecuted the Abu Ghraib case and left the military in 2006. "It's never about him, it's about doing the process and trying to reach a fair result." So when Pohl was holding hearings in Baghdad and President George W. Bush remarked back home that the prison should be demolished, the judge ruled for defense attorneys that the place needed protection. "He gave a restraining order to the president and didn't bat an eyelash," said Graveline, who called it unprecedented and seemed genuinely dumbfounded by the order even now. "It wasn't like a chest thumping thing for him. He said, 'This is a crime scene and we're going to allow them to take a look at it.' " In the same hearing Pohl ordered numerous officers in the military chain of command, notably the Central Command's chief, Army Gen. John Abizaid, to undergo questioning by defense lawyers trying to make the case that the guards were following policy by posing detainees for humiliating photos. (They weren't, and all the soldiers were convicted.) "I was shocked," Graveline said. "I was a captain at the time. I had to go back and tell my boss!" The judge drew the line, however, when lawyers asked to question Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Stephen Cambone, his undersecretary for intelligence. Pohl ruled the defense had not drawn a clear enough line to the political hierarchy to merit a subpoena. But, he told them, if they could make a better case for it later, he'd reconsider the request - not unlike what he's been telling defense lawyers in the USS Cole case when their motions fail. It was his handling of the Cole case that confounded the freshly minted Obama administration. Just hours in office, Obama sent word to the Pentagon that he was suspending the trials at Guantanamo to review all the cases. Obama had campaigned on a promise to close the prison in Cuba, and prosecutors filed motions to delay the arraignment of Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, who'd been waterboarded by the CIA. Bush-era lawyers approved death-penalty charges in the dwindling days of the administration, and served al-Nashiri on Christmas Eve. A statutory 30-day speedy trial clock was ticking. And Pohl ruled against the new president. "The Commission is bound by the law as it currently exists not as it may change in the future," he wrote. A continuance, he added, would "not serve the interests of justice." The Pentagon had an out: It could withdraw the charges, without prejudice, and preserve the option to try al-Nashiri later. A Defense official ultimately did that. But not before a mini-maelstrom questioned Pohl's motives. Anthony D. Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union, blamed Bush administration holdouts for "exploiting ambiguities in President Obama's executive order as a strategy to undercut the president's unequivocal promise to shut down Guantanamo." Former USS Cole commander Kirk S. Lippold countered that the judge had delivered "a victory for the 17 families of the sailors who lost their lives on the USS Cole over 8 years ago." An online bulletin board for the military law community posted the development with the headline, "Army Judge Pohl Sticks it to Obama Administration" Lawyers who had worked with the judge weighed in, and disagreed. Pohl had applied the law, as written, to the government motion and could not find a reason to grant it. "On its face, the request to delay the arraignment is not reasonable," he had ruled. Classic Pohl, it reflects the judge's penchant for noting the political and then arguing it's irrelevant. At a hearing weeks after Obama was elected, but before he took office, Pohl announced the obvious: "This court is aware that on Jan. 20 there will be a new commander-in-chief, which may or may not impact on these proceedings." Meantime, he advised, everyone should stay focused "unless and until a competent authority tells us not to." Guantanamo has a court like no other. It gets turned off and on by a charter flight carrying staff, and follows its own rulebook, not the Uniform Code of Military Justice used to try American soldiers. In between court sessions, Pohl issues instructions by email. He's announced that he'll accompany al-Nashiri prosecutors and defense lawyers to Yemen this summer, as deposition officer overseeing sworn testimony from Yemenis who can't be subpoenaed to the war court in Cuba. "Location does not matter to Judge Pohl," said Graveline. "I know he's gone to Afghanistan, he's gone to Iraq - in that sense, he's very Army." He's held court at a forward operating base in Baghdad's Sadr City, the mostly Shiite slum that often simmered with anti-American unrest. Once, during an Abu Ghraib hearing, the courtroom building shook with the thud of insurgent mortars striking inside Camp Victory in Baghdad. Pohl told everyone "to stop in place" for a few moments; the attack over, he ordered court to resume. For the upcoming hearing, the Pentagon is bringing up to 60 reporters. Pohl's made clear from the bench that he's a proponent of transparency but will close the court if the rules require it. "I don't think he worries about the media scrutiny or the military scrutiny," said Hansen. "But he doesn't want to make a bad ruling or a rash ruling." Plus, said Hansen, "He's certainly not afraid to ruffle feathers, to call it like he sees it and not necessarily worry about the long-term consequences." At the end of the day, those who know him say, Pohl will play the role of referee at Guantanamo through the prism of 3 decades of service to the Army that honors judicial independence guided by what the rules created by Congress and the White House require. Says Graveline, the Abu Ghraib prosecutor: "Judge Pohl knows what the law is - that's military law and U.S. law - and he follows the law. There's always evolving areas of law, but we try to analogize it to bedrock principles of justice, and it always goes back to, is this a fair process?" Defense attorney Womack, who argued opposite Graveline, says that Pohl is capable of delivering that kind of justice. "He knows the law. He has a strong personality. And you can't have referees that vacillate." (source: Bellingham Herald) From rhalperi at smu.edu Wed May 2 12:09:36 2012 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Wed, 2 May 2012 12:09:36 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide Message-ID: May 2 ETHIOPIA: PEN honours jailed Ethiopian journalist An imprisoned Ethiopian journalist and blogger who could face the death penalty for advocating peaceful protests in his Horn of Africa homeland has been honoured with PEN America's "Freedom to Write" award. Eskinder Nega was arrested in 2011 under Ethiopia's sweeping anti-terrorism laws, which PEN says criminalise any reporting deemed to "encourage" or "provide moral support" to groups and causes the government deems "terrorists." Nega is still in jail after a judge in Addis Ababa found him guilty January 23 on terror charges. He could face the death penalty at sentencing. Ethiopia has arrested close to 200 people, among them journalists and opposition politicians and members, under last year's anti-terrorism proclamation. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, more journalists have fled Ethiopia than any other country in the world over the past decade. Nega was honoured at PEN/America's annual gala dinner on Tuesday at the American Museum of Natural History, with some 500 PEN members and supporters in attendance. PEN/America granted him the year's PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award. 46 women and men have received the award since 1987; 33 of the 37 honorees who were in prison at the time they were honoured were subsequently released. Accepting the award was his wife, Serkalem Fasil, a free expression advocate in her own right, who served 17 months in prison for treason starting in 2005 and gave birth to their child behind bars. She won the International Women's Media Foundation Courage in Journalism Award in 2007. "The Ethiopian writer Eskinder Nega is that bravest and most admirable of writers, one who picked up his pen to write things that he knew would surely put him at grave risk," said Peter Godwin, president of PEN American Centre. "Yet he did so nonetheless. And indeed he fell victim to exactly the measures he was highlighting, Ethiopia's draconian 'anti terrorism' laws that criminalise critical commentary." (source: The Age) NORTH KOREA: North Korean leader redeems honor of 6 purged senior officials North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (Photo courtesy of Korean Central News Agency)North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has redeemed the honor of 6 senior state officials who had been purged under the late Kim Jong Il administration, it has been learned. Sources close to the leadership of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) have told the Mainichi that Kim Jong Un nullified the purges of at least six senior officials with government institutions in February, after having investigative groups review the legitimacy of their liquidation and concluding that there were no reasons to purge them. The move by the younger Kim, who has been putting forth "benevolent" policy measures since taking office, is apparently aimed at bolstering his centripetal force in the reclusive country. At the same time, however, he has been continuing with tight control of his aides and crackdowns on the borders between North Korea and China -- which suggests that he is applying a carrot-and-stick policy in governing his country. According to the sources, the first vice director of the Ministry of Public Security was accused of espionage and was sentenced to death by firing squad during Kim Jong Il's administration. After Kim Jong Il's death, the vice director submitted a note of repentance to his superior, in which he denied the spy allegations but confessed that he had once accused innocent people, adding that he deserved the death penalty. Upon receiving a report on the matter, Kim Jong Un ordered the Ministry of Public Security to reinvestigate the case in February this year. The ministry subsequently reported that although the vice director had rounded up innocent citizens out of his extreme loyalties to the state, there was no sign of him having committed espionage. The firing squad death sentence was eventually dismissed, and his honor was redeemed. Likewise, the younger Kim ordered the reinvestigation of over 10 officials who were given such punishments as "re-education" or "transfers to local regions," among whom at least 5 officials subsequently had their honor redeemed. According to the sources, Kim Jong Un has told his aides that there shouldn't be so many "villains" in his country and that North Korea would not have persisted as a socialist state if it was laden with villains. The sources said that unlike his father and former leader Kim Jong Il, who conducted a reign of terror, the younger Kim is promoting governance under the banner of benevolence, which is helping boost his popularity among senior WPK officials. During Kim Jong Il's administration, the government suppressed insurgency and uprising in order to maintain his dictatorship and stepped up monitoring of residents and the rounding up of spies and adversaries. The punishment of the senior party officials was reportedly decided and ordered by Ri Je Gang, a high-ranking WPK official, on behalf of Kim Jong Il. Ri died in June 2010. After Ri's death, a large volume of decision papers were found in his office, most of which were related to heavy punishment such as execution by firing squad, according to a senior party official who was close to Ri. The official told the Mainichi that Ri would not listen to his subordinate's recommendation that the punishment should be re-education. The senior party official also testified that criticism against Ri has been arising across North Korea lately, but that the decisions on the purges were not made by Ri independently, but were apparently the results of consideration that Kim Jong Il would not be held responsible for the purges. (source: The Mainichi) IRAN: Judiciary Representative Takes Statement Kurdish Death Row Prisoners After months of receiving no response to their letters, Zanyar and Loghman Moradi, 2 Kurdish prisoners on death row, were finally visited by a Judiciary representative on Tuesday, 24 April. A Mr. Khodabakhshi, who identified himself as a representative of the Head of the Iranian Judiciary, met with Zanyar Moradi and Loghman Moradi (no relation) about their case. A source close to the two prisoners? families told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that on Tuesday, 24 April, ?A man named Khodabakhshi, who introduced himself as a representative of the Head of the Iranian Judiciary, met with Zanyar and Loghman Moradi at the Head Warden?s Office at Rajaee Shahr Prison. He told them that following a letter they had sent to the Head of the Judiciary last month, he had been appointed by the Judiciary to review their cases. He proceeded to listen to what the 2 prisoners told him.? Security forces arrested Zanyar Moradi, 23, and Loghman Moradi, 25, on 2 August 2009, for the July 2009 murder of the son of Marivan?s Friday Imam. They spent nine months inside the Sanandaj Intelligence Office Detention Center, under severe pressure and physical and psychological pressure to make confessions against themselves. About 6 months after that, the 2 prisoners were transferred to the Sanandaj Central Prison and then to Evin Prison?s Intelligence Ministry Ward 209. According to the source, the visit lasted about 4 hours. ?The 2 prisoners took this time to describe their situation. After he wrote down the statements made by the 2 political prisoners, the statements were signed by the two men and sent to the Head of the Judiciary.? On 22 December 2009, Judge Salavati of Branch 15 of Tehran?s Revolutionary Court sentenced Zanyar and Loghman Moradi to death by public hanging on the charges of ?moharebeh? (enmity with God) and ?murder of the Marivan Friday Imam?s son.? Under Iran?s penal code, moharebeh is meant to criminalize acts of armed action against the government. The 2 men were then transferred to Rajaee Shahr Prison in Karaj, where they later wrote letters alleging they had been tortured in prison and forced to make false confessions. The 2 convicts objected to their sentence in February 2010 and the case was forwarded to the Supreme Court for review. ******************** Supreme Court Unlawfully Confirms Kurdish Prisoner?s Execution Shirkoo Moarefi, a Kurdish political prisoner on death row, has embarked on hunger strike to protest the ambiguous legal status of his. Saeed Sheikhi, Moarefi?s lawyer, told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that the Supreme Court unlawfully intervened in his client?s case. On 30 September 2008, authorities arrested Shirkoo Moarefi on the Iran-Iraq border, while he was attempting to return to Iran from Iraqi Kurdistan. He was sentenced to death on the charge of ?moharebeh,? or enmity with God and ?acting against national security.? Under Iran?s penal code, moharebeh is meant to criminalize acts of armed action against the government. ?The confirmation of his sentence was against clear legal principles and it is final and since it was issued last year, none of my objections have been addressed ? The Supreme Court should have never been involved in this case,? said Saeed Sheikhi, adding that his client?s execution may be carried out at any moment. Sheikhi explained that a lower court in Saghez initially issued Moarefi?s death sentence. Sheikhi took on the case at the appeals level, a request that Branch 4 Four of Saghez Appeals Court rejected. When Sheikhi requested a retrial, the Supreme Court confirmed the execution sentence once again. ?Using Article 18, we then asked the Head of the Judiciary and the General Prosecutor to review the sentence. Fortunately, the Head of the Judiciary recognized the death sentence as against Sharia law and ordered a retrial,? added Sheikhi. On 4 April 2012, Shirkoo Moarefi embarked on a hunger strike in Saghez Prison, where he is currently being held. Moarefi has repeatedly embarked on hunger strikes to protest his conditions and his sentence. According to the Iranian judicial process, Sheikhi said, the case should have been sent to a court that was lateral to the initial court, but instead the Supreme Court intervened in the process. ?The Supreme Court can only review cases in 2 instances, when a ruling is issued in an appeals court and the Supreme Court is asked for assistance, or when when a case is referred to them under extraordinary circumstances, none of which were valid in Shirkoo?s case.? Saeed Sheikhi told the Campaign that despite his many objections, his client?s death sentence has not been adequately reviewed. ?After the sentence was confirmed again, I objected again to the Prosecutor General, Head of the Judiciary, and the Prosecutor at the Saghez Revolutionary Court, but my objections remain unaddressed.? (source for both: Iran Human Rights) UNITED KINGDOM/CARIBBEAN: Britain says it will continue to work with the Caribbean to abolish death penalty The British government says it will continue to work with a number of countries including those in the Caribbean to abolish the death penalty. In its newly released ?Human Rights and Democracy Report? the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) said that the United Kingdom?s long-standing policy to oppose the death penalty in all circumstances remains as a matter of principle. ?We consider that its use undermines human 43 dignity, that there is no conclusive evidence that it has any value as a deterrent, and that any miscarriage of justice is irreversible and irreparable. Global abolition of the death penalty continues to be a priority for the UK Government. ?The international trend towards abolition of the death penalty was maintained in 2011 and we are keen to see this trend continue,? the FCO said in its newly released report, noting that in October last year, the government published an updated Strategy for Abolition of the Death Penalty, setting out its ?three goals to support our overarching objective of global abolition of the death penalty?. It said among the goals are to increase the number of abolitionist countries, or countries with a moratorium on the use of the death penalty and ensure that the European Union (EU) minimum standards on the death penalty, such as fair trial rights and non-execution of juveniles, are met in countries which retain the death penalty. ?Following careful review, our priority countries - China, the US, Belarus, Commonwealth Caribbean and Iran - remain the same, London said, adding that it has raised the death penalty bilaterally with a number of our priority countries at both official and ministerial level, including Japan, the Commonwealth Caribbean, Belarus and Singapore. London said that it would continue to work with the European Union Commission to improve the effectiveness of the various strategies against the death penalty in 2012. ?We believe that the UK has most directly impacted on progress towards global abolition of the death penalty through our project work,? adding that through the United Nations ?we continued to raise the death penalty in the Universal Periodic Review process, and encouraged countries including Trinidad and Tobago, Singapore and Antigua to formally establish moratoriums on the use of the death penalty with a view to abolition. ?In 2012, we will continue to implement our strategy and its 3 goals. We will work hard to ensure that the biennial UN General Assembly Resolution on the Moratorium on the Use of the Death Penalty again achieves record support, as it did in 2010. This will truly reinforce the international trend towards global abolition,? it added. (source: Jamaica Observer) INDIA: SC transfers plea of Rajiv's killers from Madras HC The Supreme Court on Tuesday decided to adjudicate itself the pleas of Rajiv Gandhi's [ Images ] killers against their death penalty. A bench headed by Justice G S Singhvi directed that their petitions, pending with the Madras high court, be sent to it and listed the case for hearing on July 10. The court passed the order on a petition by L K Venkat seeking transfer of their pleas out of Tamil Nadu as he feared that free and fair hearings would not be possible in the state due to the surcharged atmosphere there favouring the death row convicts. The Tamil Nadu government had earlier opposed the plea to shift the case out of the Madras high court, denying allegations that the atmosphere in the state was too "vitiated and surcharged" to hold a free and fair hearing in the case. Senior counsel Ram Jethmalani, appearing for the 3 death row convicts -- Santhan, Murugan and Perarivalan alias Arivu -- had opposed the transfer plea on the ground that Article 139A (related to transfer of certain cases) gives power only to the Attorney General of India [ Images ] or the aggrieved parties to file a petition for transfer. Venkat's counsel had submitted that free and fair hearing of the proceedings cannot be held in the Madras high court owing to the "surcharged, hostile and vitiated" atmosphere prevailing there. Acting on a petition by the 3 death row convicts, the Madras high court had earlier stayed their hanging and had issued notices to the Centre and the Tamil Nadu government. The three convicts had challenged the sentence before the high court. The apex court had earlier upheld the sentence and the President had rejected their mercy pleas subsequently. (source: Rediff News) From rhalperi at smu.edu Wed May 2 22:26:48 2012 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Wed, 2 May 2012 22:26:48 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] [SPAM] death penalty news----TEXAS, MONT., USA, OKLA., ARIZ., N.C. Message-ID: May 2 TEXAS----stay of impending execution Convicted killer's death postponed A San Antonio man convicted of stabbing his friend in the back before killing him with a gunshot to the head so he could steal the man's prized Harley Davidson escaped his own execution for the second time Wednesday. Anthony Bartee, 55, was scheduled to die by lethal injection at 6 p.m., but because of a civil rights lawsuit filed by his Houston-based attorney David Dow against the Bexar County District Attorney's Office, Bartee will not be facing the gurney again until after May 10, according to Bexar County officials. He was convicted for the robbery and murder of David Cook, 37, in 1996. Upon hearing the news Bartee reportedly called out ?yes, yes? and then thanked his supporters, according to Jason Clark, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. ?I'd like to thank everyone for supporting me through these trials and tribulations,? Bartee said in a statement to Clark. ?Put peace in your heart. God is working through all of us. God bless us all.? In the legal wrangling that is typical of capital cases, Dow filed a flurry of appeals Wednesday, all of which were denied, including by the U.S. Supreme Court. The appeals dealt with what Dow said was DNA testing that had not been completed. It was the same issue that won Bartee his first stay just days before his original execution date of Feb. 28. A judge granted a reprieve in that instance to allow for additional mitochondrial DNA testing of hairs found on Cook's hand. Last week, a district court judge ruled that all testing previously ordered had been completed, that the court's order was therefore fulfilled and the results from the tests, that the hairs matched Cook's DNA profile, would not have altered the trial or the outcome. Because of that, Bartee's newly set date of Wednesday at 6 p.m. was not withdrawn. Wednesday's last-minute lawsuit filed by Dow argues that his client's civil rights were violated when prosecutors opted not to test glasses and cigarette butts gathered as evidence from Cook's house. With fewer than 4 hours until Bartee would be put to death, Chief U.S. District Judge Fred Biery, based in San Antonio, granted a stay in response to the civil rights suit brought by Dow against District Attorney Susan Reed. The DA's Office appealed that ruling to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which decided Wednesday night that additional briefs needed to be filed by both sides. First Assistant District Attorney Cliff Herberg said the trial courts as well as higher courts already have affirmed the conviction, and the most recent decision concerning the newest DNA results. ?This is a meritless defense tactic that is designed to do nothing but delay the execution,? Herberg said. ?They've had 15 years to seek to test this evidence, and the fact is it wouldn't prove anything one way or another. This is not a DNA case. It's not an issue.? DNA wasn't what convicted Bartee and it won't exonerate him, prosecutors have argued in response to the multiple appeals. They say Bartee changed his story, was seen on Cook's motorcycle, lied to friends about how he got the bike, and before the killing told people he wanted to ?ace a white dude named David.? Rico Valdez, an assistant district attorney in the Appeals Division, said the court asked for their briefs by May 8 and the response from Dow by May 10. Even after the 5th Circuit ruling, however, that opinion can also be appealed to the Supreme Court. For now, with no action by the court, Biery's order for the stay of execution remains in place and the execution warrant expires at midnight. A new date will have to be set, Valdez said. The news angered Cook's family, several of whom traveled to Huntsville, including his father Marvin Cook, 2 sisters and a brother-in-law. ?I think it's unfair,? said sibling Linda Cook, 46, who stayed in San Antonio with her daughter. ?Our family is going to have to endure even more of this but in the end it won't matter. It's just a delay not the end. We will see justice for my brother's murder.? (source: San Antonio express-News) ************** Texas man's execution halted for now A Texas man was spared from the death chamber Wednesday after a federal appeals court refused to overturn a district judge's reprieve for the prisoner who's facing execution for killing a neighbor more than 15 years ago. The decision by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals came after attorneys for Anthony Bartee filed a civil rights lawsuit against the district attorney in Bexar County, where Bartee was convicted of the 1996 shooting and stabbing death of David Cook in San Antonio. "I'd like to thank everyone for supporting me through these trials and tribulations," Bartee told a Texas Department of Criminal Justice official who informed him of the reprieve. "Put peace in your heart. God is working through all of us. And God bless us all." The court decision came about 90 minutes after Bartee could have been put to death. Texas prison authorities won't carry out the lethal injection if appeals are unresolved. The civil rights action was filed just hours before the 6-hour execution window opened at 6 p.m. CDT Wednesday. The U.S. Supreme Court already had rejected other appeals from Bartee's lawyers. Linda Cook, the sister of the man who was killed, had planned to witness the execution in Huntsville. She said the reprieve was "just a delay, not the end." But she called it unfair and said it means her family will have to "endure even more of this." Bartee's attorneys argued his civil rights were violated because prosecutors were withholding additional crime scene evidence that could possibly exclude him as the killer. They want the evidence tested for DNA. A federal judge in San Antonio, acting on the lawsuit, gave Bartee the reprieve. Prosecutors immediately appealed to get it overturned, calling the lower court's reprieve improper and arguing that letting it stand would "reward late filers and create a perpetual motion machine of last-minute attempts to stay executions." A 5th Circuit panel reviewing the case said it wanted more information but put off a ruling Wednesday night. If the court eventually rules against Bartee, it could be another couple of months before he is set to die. Bartee was removed from a small holding cell adjacent to the death chamber and returned to a prison about 45 miles to the east where the state's male death row inmates are housed. Both the civil suit and the appeals rejected by the Supreme Court focused on Bartee's goal to win additional DNA testing of crime scene evidence. Bartee was convicted of killing the 37-year-old Cook at Cook's home in San Antonio and stealing his prized cherry red Harley Davidson motorcycle. Bartee was on parole at the time of the crime. He had been released 15 months earlier after serving nearly 12 years in prison for raping 2 women. The reprieve isn't Bartee's 1st. He won an execution delay in February so 2 strands of hair found in the victim's hand could undergo further DNA testing using more sophisticated techniques. The tests showed the hair was the victim's. Bartee's attorneys now want DNA testing on drinking glasses and cigarette butts found at the crime scene, hoping to bolster his contention that others were responsible for the killing. State attorneys said the evidence is not new and that "multiple rounds of DNA testing" have already been done, leaving nothing left to test. Cook was found dead by relatives who went to his home after he didn't show up for work. He had been shot twice in the back of his head and stabbed in the back. His throat was also cut. His 9 mm pistol was gone. So was his prized cherry red Harley Davidson motorcycle. A neighbor had heard gunshots from Cook's home followed by the sound of Cook's motorcycle starting. Investigators have said that the night before the shooting, Bartee tried to hire someone to kill a man he identified as David. They said he was seen with the red motorcycle the day after the killing and told people it was his bike. Bartee denied having any knowledge of Cook's death. But when confronted about having Cook's motorcycle, he told detectives he had been working on it in Cook's garage. He said he took off after hearing gunshots because he feared for his own safety. He blamed the slaying on 2 gang members he identified only as "Snake" and "Throw Down." Their existence never was confirmed. ************** Judge Temporarily Delays Execution Of Convicted Texas Killer Anthony Bartee, 55, a paroled rapist who was sent to death row for killing his neighbor and stealing the murdered man?s cherry red Harley-Davidson motorcycle more than 15 years ago, won a temporary last-minute stay Wednesday as Texas prison officials prepared to execute him. U.S. District Judge Fred Biery granted the reprieve Wednesday afternoon after Bartee?s lawyers filed a civil rights lawsuit against Bexar County District Attorney Susan Reed. His lawyers want additional items from the crime scene to be tested for DNA. The prosecutor's office immediately appealed the court order to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Bartee also had an appeal before the U.S. Supreme Court, but it was rejected within about 30 minutes of Biery's order. Bartee was scheduled to die just after 6 p.m. Wednesday for the August 1996 shooting and stabbing death of David Cook, 37. The death warrant is valid until midnight. Cook was stabbed in the shoulder and shot twice in the head with his own 9-millimeter pistol, according to court documents, and the gun and the motorcycle were both missing from his home when his body was discovered on Aug. 17, 1996. According to court documents, Bartee had asked an acquaintance earlier that summer to help him rob and kill a neighbor who had some credit cards and a motorcycle that Bartee wanted. 2 days before the body was found, court documents show that Bartee approached another acquaintance and said he was going to ?ace some white dude out,? court documents say. Later that day he showed up at the acquaintance?s home, riding a Harley-Davidson motorcycle and claiming to be carrying a gun. Witnesses described the motorcycle as being similar or identical to the one that belonged to the victim. Bartee?s attorneys, however, argue that the inmate may be innocent and say prosecutors had cigarette butts and drinking glasses from the crime scene that still needed to be tested for DNA, possibly to exclude Bartee. They also contend his trial lawyers were deficient for not pursuing the tests. State lawyers contend the evidence isn't new and the appeals are delay tactics. The execution would be the 6th this year in Texas. (source for both: Associated Press) MONTANA: Death row Canadian ?horrendously sorry' but victims' families show no mercy A Canadian on death row in Montana for killing two men said he is ?horrendously sorry? Wednesday, but the passage of time appeared only to have steeled the resolve of the victims' families to show him no mercy. A visibly angry Thomas Running Rabbit, son of one of the victims, said he would seek justice for the father he never knew until ?Ronald Smith's last breath.? ?The decisions he made he has to pay for,? Mr. Running Rabbit told Mr. Smith's clemency hearing. ?He had no mercy for my father ? a person I have never met.? He then pointed at Mr. Smith and said: ?I'm Thomas Running Rabbit. I do not fear you.? A cousin, Camille Wells, called Mr. Smith ?an animal.? ?He is the scum of the earth and I will hate him until the day I die.? And an uncle told the Montana Board of Pardons and Parole that 30 years was too long to wait for justice. William Talks About said the victims' mothers never got to see justice done before they died. ?Ronald Smith needs to be executed,? said Mr. Talks About. ?30 years is too long.? Mr. Smith, 54, has been on death row ever since he admitted to shooting Thomas Mad Man Jr. and Harvey Running Rabbit in 1982. He originally asked for the death penalty, but soon after changed his mind and has been fighting for his life ever since. He is asking the board to recommend his death sentence be commuted. The board is to give its recommendation the week of May 21. Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer will have the final say. Originally from Red Deer, Alta., Mr. Smith was 24 and had been taking LSD and drinking when he and Rodney Munro marched the 2 men into the woods where Mr. Munro stabbed one of them and Mr. Smith shot them both in the head. Mr. Munro accepted a plea deal, was eventually transferred to a Canadian prison and has completed his sentence. It was a cold-blooded crime. They wanted to steal the men's car, but Mr. Smith also said at the time he wanted to know what it was like to kill someone. Mr. Talks About said both victims were much loved by their families. They searched for them for a month after they disappeared. ?Up and down both sides of the highway,? he said. ?This is how much we loved our boys. This is how much we cared for them.? Earlier during the hearing, Mr. Smith faced the families and said he didn't expect them to forgive him, but hoped to be given the chance to get on with his life. ?I do understand the pain and suffering I've put you through,? he said. ?It was never my intent to cause any suffering for anybody. I wish there was some way I could take it back. I can't. ?All I can do is hope to move forward with my life and become a better person.? Mr. Smith broke down and cried when his sister, Rita Duncan, read a letter he had written to their mother after her death last year. Mr. Smith covered his eyes, brushed away tears and was patted on the shoulder by his lawyer. Ms. Duncan said although she shut Mr. Smith out of her life for years, he has always loved her and she is proud to be his sister. ?I honestly do not know what I would do without my brother by my side. I can't bear the thought of losing another brother and I'm sorry if this sounds selfish. I don't know what I would do without him,? said Ms. Duncan, her voice quavering. She asked people in the packed courtroom to put themselves in her place. ?Wouldn't you want grace and mercy to be shown to him when he's done everything in his power to change himself and become the man he is today?? she asked. ?Mercy is not about getting something that we deserve. Grace is getting something that we do not deserve, so today I am here pleading for both mercy and grace for my brother Ron.? Mr. Smith was long thought to be the only Canadian facing execution in the United States, but a Canadian connection recently emerged in another case. Court documents say Robert Bolden, currently on death row for murdering a bank security guard in Missouri, has Canadian citizenship. He was born to a Canadian woman in Newfoundland where his father was stationed with the U.S. air force. The family moved back to the U.S. when Mr. Bolden was a young child. Mr. Smith's daughter, Carmen Blackburn, also spoke at the hearing. She said she didn't know the man her father was in 1982, but she knows who he has become. ?This situation is not easy on anybody involved, but I can only hope that everyone can look into their hearts and listen to the real facts about my dad, because I truly don't know what I would do without him in my life,? she said, crying as she spoke. ?I've seen a man who has many regrets about the things that he has done. He shows his remorse in his eyes and in his voice and every time we talk. I wish I could take away that pain.? A psychologist told the hearing that Mr. Smith is a model prisoner and poses little threat to the people around him. Dr. Bowman Smelko said Mr. Smith has shown improvement during his time in prison and his cognitive ability has jumped 16 points from low to high average. ?He was not exposed to drugs and alcohol. He was not exposed to chaos. He has demonstrated significant change in attitude, thoughts and behaviour,? Dr. Smelko said. The hearing also heard that Mr. Smith is well-liked by prison guards. Joe Warner, who has now retired, was there the day Mr. Smith arrived at the prison 30 years ago. Over the years, he said, Mr. Smith showed him nothing but respect and he considers Mr. Smith a friend. Once a proponent of the death penalty, Mr. Warner said he now feels differently. ?I've kind of changed my mind,? said Mr. Warner, who added that getting to know Mr. Smith contributed to that. Mr. Warner drew disapproving murmurs from the families of the victims when he said he would like to see Mr. Smith eligible for parole some day. After decades of appeals, the clemency hearing is Mr. Smith's last chance to make a case before the board as to why he should not be executed. Mr. Smith's lawyer Greg Jackson told the hearing that the bid for clemency isn't meant to minimize the ?terrible crime? that Mr. Smith is guilty of, but ?is a request for mercy.? Mr. Jackson said Mr. Smith is not the same man who killed the young men. ?He is a changed man,? said Mr. Jackson. ?He has reformed his life. He has expressed deep remorse and deep regret. ?He has a life that is worth preserving.? When the state asked if Mr. Smith had any comment to make about the testimony of the witnesses, he replied: ?I wish there were words I could say that would help ease their pain. How do you apologize? Sorry just doesn't cover it. ?My words of sorrow don't mean anything to these people. I wish they did.? (source: Toronto Globe and Mail) ************************ Death row Canadian Ronald Smith weeps as clemency hearing continues Double-murderer Ronald Smith wiped tears from his eyes Wednesday morning as his sister and daughter asked a Montana parole board to spare him by commuting his death sentence to life in prison. The dramatic testimony came during the first morning of a two-day clemency hearing at the Powell County courthouse for Smith, who was sentenced to death for the 1982 shooting deaths of Harvey Mad Man and Thomas Running Rabbit. Relatives of Mad Man and Running Rabbit, cousins from the Blackfeet Indian reservation, filled one side of the courtroom and watched impassively as Smith's sister, Rita Duncan, began her testimony by turning to face them and offering condolences. "Our hearts have broken along with yours," said Duncan, who told the gallery her brother is a changed man. "The Ron Smith who is sitting in front of you today is not the same man who committed those crimes 29 years ago." For the victims' relatives, those words offered little solace. Cherie Bear Medicine, a cousin of Running Rabbit said Smith had manipulated the justice system to survive the intervening decades. "I'd say 'I've changed' too," she testified. Another relative, Camille Wells had stronger words: "Ronald Smith is an animal, he is the scum of the Earth and I will hate him until the day I die." Smith, 54, is the only Canadian facing execution in the U.S., and Canada's official opposition to the death penalty has given the case an added political dimension and subjected it to scrutiny on both sides of the border. Smith was a drifter from Red Deer, Alta, who sneaked across the border into Montana with two friends in August 1982. Smith also came armed with a concealed .22-calibre, sawed-off rifle. The group met Mad Man, 23, and Running Rabbit, 19, at a bar in East Glacier and the five men spent the afternoon socializing and playing pool. Later that afternoon, the cousins encountered the Canadians hitchhiking on the highway and offered them a ride. Under the influence of drugs and alcohol, Smith forced Mad Man and Running Rabbit from the car and shot them so he could steal the vehicle. Following the killings, Smith rejected a plea agreement that would have sentenced him to life in prison with no parole and asked instead for the death penalty. The state set an execution date in May 1983 ? but Smith changed his mind weeks after the sentencing, and the case has been tied up in various appeals since. As she addressed the three-person parole board that will make a non-binding recommendation to Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer on whether to uphold the death sentence or commute it to life in prison with no parole, Duncan said executing Smith would have a devastating effect on his family. Despite being in prison for nearly 30 years, Smith's regular counsel and advice to his sisters, his daughter, nieces and grandchildren via telephone help hold the family together, said Duncan. "Ron's influence on our family is very strong. He is the pillar," she said. Smith spent much of the morning intently listening, but largely expressionless as a succession of former law enforcement professionals and correctional officials testified he has been a model prisoner and eager student during his time at Montana State Prison, just outside Deer Lodge. As Duncan began to read a letter Smith wrote to their mother after her death in 2011, he began to break down. Smith was handcuffed and wearing ankle shackles over his orange prison jumpsuit, but guards freed one of his hands during the hearing ? he used it several times to wipe tears from his eyes as Duncan read the letter. "I'm sorry I never told you often enough how much you meant to me," Smith wrote. Smith's daughter, Carmen Blackburn, spoke to the hearing following Duncan. "I'm a crier," she began, choking back tears. "I'm here for my dad." Blackburn described Smith as a typically over-protective father, who would joke about sending her to a convent as she got older and discovered boys. When she got pregnant at a young age, Smith also overreacted like a typical father, Blackburn added, but never turned his back on her. Recalling the 1st time Smith held his infant grandson nearly 20 years ago, Blackburn said: "It was like somebody handed him the world." Running Rabbit's daughter, Jessica Crawford, grew up in her father's absence. She said she was jealous she never could have the kind of relationship Blackburn had. "I want what she has," Crawford testified. "I want what he took." The hearing before the three-person parole board is scheduled for 2 days. The board must forward its recommendation within 30 days to Schweitzer, who will decide if Smith will be executed by lethal injection. Parole board member Mike McKee, who is chairing the hearing, began the day by saying the panel will not issue its recommendation at the conclusion of the hearing. McKee said the board needs time to confer and will make its recommendation public during the week of May 21. Among other things, the parole board will weigh evidence indicating Smith has demonstrated what Montana legislation calls an "extended period of exemplary performance" while in prison. The morning's testimony largely consisted of former correctional officers and educators detailing Smith's good behaviour and efforts at rehabilitation. One retired Montana State Prison correctional officer said on his last day of work, he roused Smith from his cell at 2 a.m. so he could say goodbye. "He gave me nothing but respect, and I gave him respect back," said Robert Jordan, who retired in 2005. Jordan drew quiet gasps and murmurs from the victims' families in the gallery when he said he not only supported Smith's clemency application but would allow him to one day seek freedom. "If I had my druthers, I wouldn't commute it to life without (parole), I would change it to a timed sentence," he said. Smith's clemency application seeks to have his death sentence commuted to life, with no parole. Richard Wood, a retired probation officer who works as a private investigator in death penalty cases, told the hearing he extensively researched Smith's prison records and found documented evidence of Smith's good behaviour and of instances when he worked to help other inmates. People who work in law enforcement are keen observers of character, said Wood, and develop what he called a "BS detector." In 2 interviews with Smith ? 1 in 1995 and 1 just prior to the hearing ? Wood said he could sense his sincerity. That, along with an unblemished record in prison, demonstrates Smith's remorse, Wood said. "You can't fake it for 29 years," he said. The case for Smith is scheduled to conclude Wednesday afternoon with him testifying on his own behalf. More than 20 witnesses for the state ? many of them related to Mad Man and Running Rabbit ? will follow Smith's case. (source: Postmedia News) USA: 6 Canadians who faced death row in U.S. Ronald Smith, set to be executed in Montana, is a rare case of a Canadian sentenced to die in America. He is 1 of only 6 Canadians known to have been on death row in the U.S. over the last 60 years. The Alberta-born Smith is expected to plead for his life Wednesday morning in Montana, where he has been sentenced to die by lethal injection for murdering 2 men while he hitchhiked across the state in 1982. Smith's 2-day clemency hearing before the Montana Board of Pardons and Parole begins at 9 a.m. MT in Deer Lodge, north of Butte. It's one of his last chances to stave off execution, after the U.S. Supreme Court turned down his legal appeal in 2010. Smith, 54, from Red Deer, Alta., is 1 of only 2 Canadians currently facing execution in the U.S. He's been on death row since 1982, far longer than his compatriot Robert Bolden, who was sentenced to die in 2006. In 2007, the Canadian government controversially changed its long-standing policy of routinely seeking clemency for Canadian citizens who were sentenced to death in other countries. Here's a look at other Canadians who have been on death row in the U.S., or otherwise stared down possible execution, over the last 60 years: Crime: Murder-robbery on Oct. 7, 2002 Convicted: 2006 Result: Habeas corpus petition filed; expected to take years to resolve Besides Ronald Smith, Bolden is the only other Canadian on death row in the U.S. He was convicted in May 2006 for murdering a security guard at a Bank of America branch in St. Louis during a botched robbery attempt. Because it involved an attempted robbery of a federally insured bank, the case was tried as a federal crime, for which the then U.S. attorney general, John Ashcroft, had to approve seeking the death penalty. Only three federal inmates have been executed since the resumption of the U.S. federal death penalty in 1988. Bolden, 48, was born in Canada but moved to the U.S. when he was young and also has American citizenship. One of the submissions in his current legal appeal is that he did not have access to assistance from Canadian consular officials after he was arrested and charged ? assistance that Canada usually provides to all its citizens, regardless of whether they hold another passport, but which the U.S. has often failed to tell prisoners is available. Crime: Murder-robbery on July 8, 1975, in Texas Convicted: 1981 Result: Executed by lethal injection on June 17, 1999, at age 61 Faulder is the only Canadian to be executed in the U.S. in the so-called modern era, since the Supreme Court allowed states to resume administering the death penalty in 1976. He was found guilty of brutally beating and stabbing a wealthy, 75-year-old matriarch while trying to rob her in 1975. Faulder, from Jasper, Alta., was convicted twice for the murder ? the first result was overturned because his confession was ruled inadmissible by an appeal court. Through it all, he was never told of his right under international law to contact the Canadian embassy in Washington. Also notable in his case was that he was refused a commutation of his sentence by the then Texas governor, George W. Bush. The Canadian government and even the U.S. secretary of state had pleaded on Faulder's behalf. Crime: Murder-burglary on Feb. 1, 1950 Result: Executed by gas chamber on May 9, 1952, at age 26 Buckowski, from Toronto, was tried along with his wife in the death of an 80-year-old Los Angeles woman. Prosecutors alleged the couple broke into her home and killed her with a shotgun. Buckowski was convicted, but his wife ? who contended that she had stayed outside while he entered the victim's home ? was found not guilty. His appeals were denied, and he was executed at San Quentin prison in Marin County, Calif., in 1952. Crime: Murder-robbery in early 1983 near Port Angeles, Wash. Convicted: Nov. 5, 1983 Result: Death sentence reduced to life in 1997 Jeffries was serving a 12-year sentence for robbery at a medium-security prison in British Columbia when he met and befriended Phillip and Inez Skiff of Washington state. When Jeffries was freed in January 1983, he went to live with them. Sometime around March of that year, he shot and killed them both, firing 7 bullets into Phillip Skiff and 10 into Inez Skiff. Jeffries snatched money, gold, weapons, a TV and other items from the Skiffs' home before fleeing for Canada, but he was caught in Wenatchee, Wash., tried and convicted of 2 counts of aggravated murder. The jury sentenced him to death. In 1997, an appeal court ruled that there had been jury misconduct and his sentence was reduced to life in prison with no chance of parole. Jeffries died in Washington State Penitentiary in April 2006 at age 71. Crime: Murder-robbery on May 6, 1994 Convicted: June 11, 1997 Result: Death sentence reduced to life in September 2002 Michael Roberts of Pembroke, B.C., escaped from a Canadian prison in 1994 (the 2nd time he had done so), fled across the U.S. border and launched into a brief spree of thefts and robberies with an accomplice that saw them kill Elijio (Eli) Cantu and steal his Chevrolet Blazer SUV. He was caught that night, then tried and convicted in 1997, and spent 5 years on death row. His punishment was reduced to a life sentence without parole in 2002, after an appeal court found there had been errors in the trial judge's instructions to the jury. In a couple other notable cases, Canadians who committed capital crimes in the U.S. were on track for execution, only to see prosecutors back down in favour of a life sentence: Paul and Cherie Pilipow of Melville, Sask., were convicted of murdering 68-year-old Eloise Doyle in Arizona in July 1999. The Pilipows moved to Arizona the month before, but when Paul couldn't find work, the couple decided to steal a motorhome and drive it back to Canada. They killed Doyle, got behind the wheel of her motorhome and then ran her over several times in the middle of the desert before setting her body on fire. Prosecutors in notoriously draconian Maricopa County initially said they would seek the death penalty against Paul Pilipow, but just before the trial was to begin, they accepted a plea deal for the lesser sentence of life in prison without parole. Accounts differ as to what motivated the change, with some reports saying it was intervention by Canada's consul-general in Los Angeles and, in particular, a promise from him that Canada would not seek to have Pilipow transferred back to Canada to serve out his sentence. Glen Burns and Atif Rafay, both from B.C., were convicted of murdering Rafay's parents and sister at their home in Bellevue, Wash., in 1994. Prosecutors said the pair, who were 18 at the time, did it so they could cash in on an insurance policy and the sale of the home. After committing the crime, the teens fled back to Canada, but they were caught and arrested pending extradition. Authorities in Washington were initially adamant that they would seek the death penalty in the killings. But Burns and Rafay took their case to the Supreme Court of Canada, which ruled in 2001 that they could not be extradited unless U.S. officials provided assurances they wouldn't be executed if found guilty. Prosecutors renounced their death-penalty aims, and the men were sent south for trial. (source: Yahoo News) OKLAHOMA: Oklahoma says running out of death penalty drug Oklahoma, which executes more prisoners per capita than any other state, said on Wednesday it has only 1 remaining dose of pentobarbital, a key drug used to kill condemned prisoners. One reason the state is running out is because of a ban on the sale of drugs for such purposes by the European Union, which opposes the death penalty. Oklahoma has a single vial of pentobarbital left after the execution on Tuesday night of 57-year-old Michael B. Selsor, prison spokesman Jerry Massie said. Oklahoma is the 1st state to publicly admit it has nearly exhausted supplies of the drug but other states may follow because of the EU clamp down, said Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington, D.C. Pentobarbital is a sedative that is the first of a 3-drug cocktail administered by Oklahoma. It is followed by vecuronium bromide, which stops breathing, and potassium chloride, which stops the heart. Oklahoma was the 1st state in the country to use pentobarbital in 2010 after a shortage of another anesthetic, sodium thiopental, caused penal officials in death penalty states to look for an alternative. 11 other states also use it. Arizona and Ohio use a single injection of pentobarbital for executions while nine states use the multi-drug protocol, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Lundbeck Inc, the only manufacturer of pentobarbital, is located in Denmark and forbids its U.S.-based wholesalers from selling the drug for lethal injections, while the European Union forbids its member countries from exporting drugs for executions. Oklahoma could resort to another anesthetic never used before in executions, Massie said, or it could try to tap existing supplies of pentobarbital. A 3rd option, he said, would entail going back to sodium thiopental. "It's available but you run into the same kind of problem. Companies don't want to use it for executions," Massie said. The only manufacturer of sodium thiopental in the United States, Hospira Inc, halted production last year. Dieter said even if states have stockpiled a large supply of pentobarbital, expiration dates eventually will require new orders, he said. Any change in death penalty procedures typically are met with legal challenges and sometimes lengthy administrative reviews, Dieter added, noting that California has not had an execution since 2006 because of exhaustive review procedures. A measure has qualified for the ballot in November in California calling for repeal of the death penalty. Oklahoma has executed 3 men so far this year but has no more executions scheduled. There are 60 people on death row in the state, Massie said. The state has the highest number of executions per capita since the death penalty was restored in the United States in 1976. Texas has executed more people but has a far larger population. (source: Reuters) ARIZONA: Halt to execution sought over inconsistent procedures Attorneys for an Arizona prisoner who is scheduled to die later this month on Tuesday asked for a preliminary injunction against his execution because the state Department of Corrections repeatedly varies from its own policies in carrying out death sentences. Samuel Lopez is scheduled to be executed on May 16 for the murder of a Phoenix woman in 1987. Similar arguments were knocked down in U.S. District Court last December and again in February. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals weighed in on the February case and put Corrections Department lawyers on notice, though the court allowed two executions to go forward. A third execution since then was carried out in April. The argument has swirled since 2007, when the Department of Corrections and attorneys representing prisoners began hammering out a protocol for executions. Tuesday's filing claims that the protocol has been changed numerous times, most recently in January, and that the department has not been able to adhere to it. In February, for example, the department switched from a 3-drug to a one-drug protocol 2 days before an execution because it discovered that one of the other required drugs had passed its expiration date. In March, a federal judge ruled that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration had illegally allowed Arizona and other states to import death-penalty drugs from England in 2010 and 2011. Among the ongoing issues have been the backgrounds and qualifications of the medical staff who perform the executions, and their repeated use of a catheter that is surgically implanted in an artery in the prisoner's groin. "I'm astounded that Arizona is the only state that has to perform surgery to carry out an execution," said Assistant Federal Public Defender Dale Baich. In a memorandum accompanying Tuesday's motion for preliminary injunction, Baich noted that the so-called femoral catheter was used in the February execution of Robert Towery and the April execution of Thomas Kemp, even though autopsies showed that both men had suitable veins for easy catheter insertion in their arms. Towery, the memorandum said, was stuck 11 times in his arms, wrist and groin before the execution doctor succeeded in inserting a catheter in his groin. The process requires a long needle that threads a wire into the vein, along which a plastic tube is slid, followed by the catheter itself, which is stitched or stapled into place. Towery also asked to speak to Baich, his lawyer, during the time the surgery was being performed, but was denied, the memorandum says. In his motion, Baich asked the court to stop the Lopez execution and allow time to further argue the protocol lapses. (source: Arizona Republic) **************** Lawyers fighting Arizona death-row inmate's upcoming execution Lawyers for an Arizona death-row inmate are fighting his upcoming execution, arguing in 1 filing that 3 newly appointed clemency board members are unprepared to consider his arguments for mercy and in another, that the state Department of Corrections is violating his constitutional rights. Samuel Villegas Lopez's attorneys filed the 1st request with the Arizona Board of Executive Clemency, often a death-row inmate's last chance to argue that they don't deserve to be executed. Lopez, 49, is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on May 16 at the state prison in Florence in what would be the fourth execution in Arizona this year. In the Tuesday filing, attorney Kelley Henry argues to the clemency board to recommend delaying Lopez's execution so that three newly appointed board members, including its chairman, can get additional training on considering death-penalty cases. Gov. Jan Brewer overhauled the five-member board last month, replacing two voting members and longtime Chairman Duane Belcher with three new people in what some defense attorneys and anti-death penalty advocates said was a political move. In his filing, Henry cites an Arizona law that says each new board member must undergo a 4-week course before beginning their new duties. "Indeed it appears that if the newly appointed board members were to vote on Sammy Lopez's application, such vote would be in violation of the statute," according to the filing. "This board should not sit in judgment on Sammy Lopez's very life without proper training and preparation." New board Chairman Jesse Hernandez did not return a call for comment Wednesday. In the Tuesday filing, attorney Kelley Henry argues to the clemency board to recommend delaying Lopez's execution so that three newly appointed board members, including its chairman, can get additional training on considering death-penalty cases. Ultimately, Henry wants to ask the board to recommend to Brewer that Lopez's death sentence be overturned, arguing that he had a difficult childhood during which he "grew up in constant terror," hunger and poverty, and began inhaling paint and glue at a young age. Henry also argues that Lopez's attorneys never informed the trial judge of those so-called "mitigating factors," and if he had known about them, Lopez never would have gotten the death penalty in the 1st place. The board is expected to consider Henry's request on Monday at a hearing in Florence. Lopez is expected to attend. In a separate filing in federal court also Tuesday, Lopez's attorneys ask that his execution be put on hold because the Arizona Department of Corrections has continuously violated and changed its own written protocol for executing death-row inmates. Attorneys argue that a new execution protocol released in January loosened requirements for those who inject inmates with lethal drugs and gives far too much discretion to corrections Director Charles Ryan to make last-minute changes. Similar arguments on behalf of 2 other Arizona inmates failed to stop executions in February and March, but they did cause a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco to issue a strong warning to the department. The judges wrote on Feb. 28 that Arizona forced the court "to engage in serious constitutional questions and complicated factual issues in the waning hours before executions." "This approach cannot continue," the panel wrote. "We are mindful of the admonition requiring us to refrain from micro-managing each individual execution, but the admonition has a breaking point." (source: Associated Press) NORTH CAROLINA: Death penalty sought in Durham tire store shooting Durham County prosecutors said Wednesday that they plan to seek the death penalty against a man charged in a fatal March shooting at a local tire store. O'Brian McNeil White, 24, of Durham, is charged with 2 counts of 1st-degree murder, 3 counts of assault with a deadly weapon and 1 count of robbery with a dangerous weapon. He is being held without bond in the Durham County jail. A gunman opened fire inside J.T. Tire, at 2202 E. Geer St., on March 23, killing store employee Naomi Wright, 65, and customer Abdelgadir Mergany Abdelganir, 32. Store employee Terry Shaw, 51, and customer Javier Ramirez were critically wounded in the shooting. Police have said that evidence at the shooting scene links White to the crime, but they have declined to be more specific. Friends and relatives of White maintain that police have arrested the wrong man. They say officers picked White up simply because he has a tattoo on his face similar to one witnesses described on the gunman's face. Army officials have listed White as a deserter, saying the private second-class went absent without leave from Fort Bragg in December 2009. (source: WRAL News) From rhalperi at smu.edu Thu May 3 10:26:25 2012 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Thu, 3 May 2012 10:26:25 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] [SPAM] death penalty news----TEXAS, S.C., CALIF. Message-ID: May 3 TEXAS: Top Criminal Court to Hear Hank Skinner's DNA Plea Death row inmate Hank Skinner?s decade-long fight for DNA testing, which he hopes will prove his innocence in a grisly West Texas triple murder, will take center stage this morning in the state?s highest criminal court. Skinner, now 50, was convicted in 1995 of the strangulation and beating death of his girlfriend Twila Busby and the stabbing deaths of her two adult sons on New Year?s Eve 1993 in Pampa. Skinner maintains he is innocent and was unconscious on the couch at the time of the killings, intoxicated from a mixture of vodka and codeine. A decision from the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals could take weeks or months. For more than a decade, Skinner has asked the courts to allow testing on a slew of evidence that was not analyzed at his original trial: a rape kit, biological material from Busby?s fingernails, sweat from a man?s jacket, a bloody towel and knives from the crime scene. Lawyers in the Texas attorney general?s office argue that Skinner is only trying to put off his inevitable execution and that the evidence of his guilt is so overwhelming that DNA testing is unwarranted. But Rob Owen, one of Skinner?s lawyers and the co-director of the University of Texas at Austin?s Capital Punishment Clinic, said he is hopeful the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals will finally allow the testing. ?The facts of Mr. Skinner?s case bear some of the hallmarks of wrongful conviction cases from around the country,? Owen said. ?For all these reasons, none of the state?s arguments diminish the urgent need for DNA testing in his case.? The appeals court has denied Skinner's previous requests for testing, citing restrictions in the 2001 post-conviction DNA testing law. Lawmakers over the last several years, though, have repealed the restrictions that the court cited. Most recently, during the 2011 legislative session, lawmakers repealed part of the law that allowed DNA testing only in cases where analysis was not done during the original trial because the technology did not exist or for some other reason that was not the fault of the defendant. In Skinner?s case, his original trial lawyers chose not to request DNA testing on all of the evidence available because they worried that it would further implicate him. Lawmakers referred to his case when they repealed the provision last year, and the court of appeals stayed Skinner?s execution date in November so it could ?take time to fully review the changes in the statute as they pertain to this case.? Today, lawyers for Skinner, who is at the Polunsky Unit in Livingston, will argue to the court that legal impediments to the testing that previously existed are gone. DNA testing, they say in court documents, could reveal not only that the death row inmate is innocent, but it could point to the real perpetrator. ?The State may well have the wrong man, and, in combination with exculpatory DNA results, evidence that would very likely leave a rational jury harboring reasonable doubt about his guilt,? Skinner?s lawyers wrote in a brief to the court. The court must only decide whether the results of DNA testing, combined with other evidence, could cause a jury to have reasonable doubt about Skinner?s guilt, his lawyers argue. Skinner's lawyers theorize in court filings that it was Busby?s uncle, Robert Donnell, who killed her. Witnesses reported seeing Donnell, who has since died, harass Busby at a party the night before the killing. The 2 had previously had sexual encounters, he had a violent history and neighbors reported seeing him cleaning his truck with a hose and stripping the carpet from it days after the murders. Skinner?s lawyers contend that toxicology reports show that Skinner would have been too inebriated at the time of the crimes to have been physically capable of strangling Busby to unconsciousness, beating her at least 14 times with a mattock handle and then stabbing her 2 large sons to death. Additionally, the one witness who said Skinner confessed to the murders ? an ex-girlfriend of his ? has since recanted her testimony, saying authorities coerced her. But lawyers for the state argued in a court brief that ?nothing that DNA testing might reveal would lead a jury to acquit Skinner of involvement in these murders.? Skinner?s former girlfriend?s recantation, they charge, was untruthful. Skinner, an admitted alcoholic, they say, would have been more tolerant of the chemicals he had ingested. State lawyers also submitted a statement that Skinner gave to the sheriff just hours after the murder in which he described a fight he had with Busby the night she was killed. ?I can see me arguing with Twila. I can might even see maybe I might have killed her. But I can't see killing them boys,? he said. (That statement was not admitted during trial because, Skinner?s lawyers wrote, it was taken while Skinner was deprived of sleep and still under the influence of painkillers he was given for an injury to his hand the night of the murders, and the prosecutor didn?t attempt to have it admitted because he said he "knew darn well it wasn't admissible" because "it was so blatantly violative of the defendant's rights.") The state also argues ? despite the repeal of the provision prohibiting testing in cases where inmates chose not to have evidence analyzed previously ? that the court should deny the testing because Skinner elected not to do it at his trial. Lawmakers, state lawyers said, did not intend to allow a defendant to ?lie behind the log? during trial and then seek DNA tests later to prolong his life. ?Skinner's transparently false claims of innocence do a grave disservice to the truly innocent prisoners who sit behind bars, who are less likely to be believed when inmates such as Skinner demand post-conviction DNA testing as a means of subverting capital punishment and delaying their eventual execution date,? state lawyers wrote in their March brief to the appeals court. ?The State of Texas would never oppose the efforts of a wrongfully convicted inmate to clear his name and vindicate his innocence in court.? (source: Texas Tribune) *************** Earl Rose, Coroner When Kennedy Was Shot, Dies at 85 Earl Rose, who as the Dallas County medical examiner when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated insisted that he should do the autopsy, only to be overruled in a confrontation with presidential aides, died on Tuesday in Iowa City. He was 85. The cause was complications of Parkinson?s disease, said his wife, Marilyn. On Nov. 22, 1963, Dr. Rose was thrust into the thick of a 20th-century American nightmare. He performed an autopsy on J. D. Tippit, the police officer who was believed to have been killed by Lee Harvey Oswald, the lone suspect in the assassination. Two days later, he performed an autopsy on Oswald himself after the nightclub owner Jack Ruby shot him in the basement of Dallas police headquarters. Four years later, Dr. Rose performed an autopsy on Ruby, determining that he had died of a blood clot in a lung. But it was the autopsy he did not do that has become the most historic. After demanding to conduct an autopsy on the president, as he was legally required to do in any murder, Dr. Rose reluctantly stepped aside to allow the president?s body to be returned to Washington, as the president?s widow, Jacqueline Kennedy, and his aides insisted. The autopsy was later performed at Bethesda National Naval Medical Center in Maryland. The pathologists there did not know that a doctor at Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas, where the stricken president had been taken, had performed a tracheotomy on Kennedy that obscured a gunshot wound in his neck. Nor did they have access to the clothing the president was wearing. A forensic panel commissioned by Congress determined in 1978 that the Bethesda doctors had failed to dissect a wound in Kennedy?s upper back and had only probed it with a finger. The same year, pathologists involved in the autopsy admitted that they had been in ?hurry up? mode. Conspiracy theorists have questioned whether high-ranking civilian and military officials who were present during the autopsy may have influenced its results. Dr. Rose said in 1992 that an autopsy performed in Dallas ?would have been free of any perceptions of outside influence.? His confrontation with the president?s party occurred outside Trauma Room 1 at Parkland. Dr. Rose, a physician and lawyer who had become county medical examiner less than six months earlier, informed the Secret Service and other aides traveling with Kennedy that state law required that an autopsy in a murder be performed in the county where the crime had taken place. He said that it would take no more than 45 minutes, and that the doctors who had treated the president were there to advise. Critical evidence could be gathered at a time when the assassin or assassins were still at large. ?You can?t break the chain of evidence,? Dr. Rose was quoted as telling them. Dr. George Burkley, Kennedy?s physician, reminded Dr. Rose that the country was dealing with the president and said he must waive local laws. At the time, however, there was no federal law expressly addressing assassinations. Any suspect would have been tried in a Texas state court. But historians have said that Mrs. Kennedy insisted on returning to Washington as soon as possible and that she would not leave without her husband?s body. Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, who was to be shortly sworn in as the 36th president aboard Air Force One, supported the first lady?s decision. As Mrs. Kennedy emerged from the trauma room beside a gurney carrying the casket, tension mounted. Roy Kellerman, head of the White House Secret Service detail, squared off against Dr. Rose. Obscenities were shouted. Unconfirmed accounts said Mr. Kellerman had pointed a gun at Dr. Rose. Years later, Dr. Rose said that might have happened but that he was not sure. ?Finally, without saying any more, I simply stood aside,? Dr. Rose said. Earl Forrest Rose was born on Sept. 23, 1926, in Eagle Butte, S.D. His father worked on a ranch, and Earl rode his horse 5 miles to school. He dropped out of high school in 1944 to join the Navy, where he served on a submarine in the South Pacific. He graduated from Yankton College, now closed, in 1949, and went on to study medicine at the University of South Dakota for 2 years before finishing his medical studies at the University of Nebraska. He earned his law degree from Southern Methodist University while working as medical examiner in Dallas. After working in private medical practice in Lemmon, S.D., in the mid-1950s, Dr. Rose continued his medical education, completing residencies in surgical pathology at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas, in clinical pathology at DePaul Hospital in St. Louis, and in forensic pathology at the University of Virginia. He moved to Dallas in June 1963 at the age of 36, hired by the county to establish a scientifically valid medical examiner?s system to replace its existing system of elected lay coroners. Dr. Rose taught pathology at the University of Iowa from 1968 until his retirement in the early 1990s. He took writing courses, carved sculptures from cow bones and, with his wife, was a mediator in small claims court. Each Nov. 22, he could count on hearing from assassination buffs. He personally rejected conspiracy theories, however, believing that the Warren Commission had rightly concluded that three shots were fired by a single assassin and that Kennedy was struck from the rear by 2 of them. In addition to his wife, the former Marilyn Preheim, Dr. Rose is survived by his daughters Elise, Cecile, Karen, Miriam and Carol Rose, and 12 grandchildren. His son, Forrest, died in 2005. After witnessing several executions, Dr. Rose became an outspoken opponent of capital punishment. Several years ago he wrote that the most poignant tragedies usually do not involve important people. ?Rather,? he wrote, ?the most tragic deaths involve the people who have no reserve of emotional support, many of whom are poor.? (source: New York Times) SOUTH CAROLINA: Death penalty sought in case spanning many miles and 2 murders----Prosecution builds cross-country case against man convicted in deaths of West Columbia woman and her granddaughter . Those were among the things Circuit Judge Eugene Griffith pondered before finding Kenneth Lynch guilty Wednesday of murdering Portia Washington and her 7-year-old granddaughter Angelica Livingston in June 2006, when they vanished from their West Columbia apartment. Their bodies have never been found. The case enters the penalty phase today at Lexington County?s Westbrook courthouse. Prosecutor Donnie Myers will try to convince the judge to impose the death penalty against the 52-year-old Lynch, who did not testify during trial. Getting a guilty verdict in a double murder with no bodies is rare enough. But more unusual is that for almost 2 years after Lynch was arrested and charged with stealing Washington?s car, prosecutors refused to charge him with murder, let alone seek the death penalty. ?They (police) just need to produce more evidence,? Myers, who has more death penalty convictions than any other S.C. prosecutor, said in 2007. So in the years that followed, from roughly 2008 to the present, West Columbia police and Myers? prosecutors launched one of the most complex, expensive and time-consuming hunts for evidence seen in a Midlands murder case in years. In the end ? with no bodies and no eyewitnesses ? Myers and his prosecution team, Rick Hubbard and Shawn Graham, were forced to piece together an elaborate mosaic of evidence, spanning multiple states and roughly 3,500 miles, to prove Washington and Livingston were killed on or about June 12, 2006, and Lynch killed them . Over the past 2 weeks at trial, the case against Lynch was laid out, including some 55 witnesses and more than 200 exhibits, among them a Texas state trooper and a U.S. guard at the Canadian border. The prosecution team ? some 10 lawyers, investigators and other members of the 11th Circuit Solicitor?s office ? has been working from a locked ?war room? at the courthouse, lined with five large dry-erase chalkboards with witnesses? names and descriptions of their evidence. A West Columbia police officer kept track of hundreds of bits of evidence, much of it gathered by more than a half dozen West Columbia police investigators. Among SLED agents testifying were experts on DNA, fingerprints, handwriting and blood spatter. A 3-foot-wide U.S. map hung on one wall, festooned with the dates and times of places that Lynch had stopped in his odyssey across the country ? a Motel 6 in Mississippi when Lynch spent a night; a Family Dollar store in Waksom, Texas, where Lynch bought mouthwash and Barbasol; and the Canadian border north of Seattle, where Lynch was finally seized on June 17, 2006, after 5 days on the lam. 2 years ago, prosecutors traveled to Nashville, Tenn., where they presented their evidence to crime analysts and lawyers in the Regional Organized Crime Information Center. The federally-funded agency helps prosecutors gather and sift through evidence in complicated crimes that cross state lines. Help provided by the center was apparently instrumental in presenting the prosecution?s case in court in easily understandable ways. But with the trial still ongoing, and all lawyers under a gag order not to discuss the case, officials declined to make public details. To get their conviction, Myers and his team set out to prove Washington and Livingston never would have disappeared on their own from the apartment they shared with Lynch. Washington was a doting 53-year-old grandmother raising her granddaughter in a predictable routine that included school, Sunday school and frequent visits with family and friends, prosecution witnesses told the judge. They described Washington?s loving actions toward her granddaughter, included sleeping on a mattress on the floor so the little girl could have a nice bedroom with a comfortable bed. Washington always paid her bills on time, and prosecutors put up officials from the telephone company, Ford Motor Credit (which held the loan on her car), the electric company and the rental agency showing that once she went missing, she never again paid another bill. Washington had perfect attendance at her job at Bob Bennett Motors, but after the weekend she vanished, she never again showed up for work or contacted her boss. Washington always brought her plants inside for the night, but a neighbor testified that Sunday morning, June 11, 2008, the plants had been out all night. Livingston, who was planning to go to cheerleading camp, never went anywhere overnight without her teddy bear. Yet that was found in the West Columbia apartment after their Saturday night disappearance, along with a cherished pink toy computer. The child?s Sunday clothes were found, too, neatly laid out for church. Witnesses also said Washington told them she planned to leave Lynch because he was abusive. Testimony from SLED and West Columbia investigators established that the 7-year-old, at least, had met a violent end. SLED experts testified her blood was found on a chair, a rug and in 2 sinks in the West Columbia apartment where she lived. DNA tests showed that in some spots, her blood was mixed with Lynch?s. Trial testimony also depicted the five-day period after June 12, 2006, when Lynch took flight in Washington?s stolen 2005 Ford Focus. At places he stopped, he gave conflicting stories about where he was going. At noon June 14, Lynch was stopped for speeding outside El Paso, Texas, by state trooper Shane Ramirez. At that point, neither Lynch nor the car had been entered in the National Crime Information Center database, so Ramirez let Lynch go. Lynch told Ramirez he was on his way to meet Washington in Arizona, Ramirez testified at trial. It was in Seattle that Lynch ditched Washington?s car. On June 17, he bought a 1-way Greyhound bus ticket to Vancouver, Canada. But at the U.S.-Canadian border on the Pacific Highway near Blaine, Wash., Canadian officials wouldn?t let him enter. A few minutes later, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol officer Nathan Bresee interrogated Lynch, finding his name along with Washington?s and Livingston?s, in a missing persons database. Bresee, who traveled to Lexington County to testify, called the West Columbia Police Department, which faxed out an arrest warrant charging Lynch with grand larceny in the theft of Washington?s car. Before dawn June 18, 2006, Lynch was served with the warrant. Lynch gave different versions to local law officers and an FBI agent of how he got to the Washington area. Lynch denied taking Washington?s car and said he came out West with friends. Later June 18, Seattle police found Washington?s Ford Focus near the Greyhound bus terminal, its tag missing. A SLED crime scene expert who flew to Seattle testified he processed the car and found Lynch?s DNA on the steering wheel and his fingerprints on the car. Meanwhile, officers who searched 2 bags Lynch had with him found a ring of Washington?s keys. They also found receipts from all the motels Lynch had stayed in during his cross-country trip. Lynch had used ATM machines to tap his savings and checking accounts and paid cash for his lodging. The prosecution used the receipts he kept to track his travels. Normally, death penalty trials are conducted before a jury. But Lynch waived his right to a jury trial, so the judge is trying the case. Defense lawyers haven?t commented on that strategy. But Lexington County juries for years have been noted for rarely declining to sentence a convicted murdered to death. The trial began April 18 and concluded Monday. Griffith said he reached his decision on Lynch?s guilt Tuesday, but ?wanted to sleep on it.? (source: The State) CALIFORNIA: Prosecutors seek to resume California executions after 6-year ban Los Angeles prosecutors asked a judge on Wednesday to order the execution of 2 condemned killers using a single drug for lethal injections, a move intended to end a 6-year hold on the death penalty in California over the method used by the state. The move comes days after Democratic Governor Jerry Brown told prison officials to consider using the single-drug execution protocol, and ahead of a November ballot measure that seeks to repeal capital punishment in the state. A federal judge halted all California executions in 2006 after finding that the 3-drug method that has been used for lethal injections in the state carried the risk of causing the inmate too much pain and suffering before death. California revised its protocol, but an appeals court has blocked a resumption of executions over the same objections. Motions filed by Los Angeles District Attorney Steve Cooley's office in Los Angeles Superior Court on Wednesday asked that the warden of San Quentin State Prison put convicted murderers Mitchell Carleton Sims and Tiequon Aundray Cox to death by the single-drug protocol or show cause why the executions cannot proceed. Sims, 52, and Cox, 46, have both been on California's death row at San Quentin, near San Francisco, for more than a quarter century. "It is time Sims and Cox pay for their crimes," Cooley said. "I am joining with the California District Attorney's Association and other district attorneys throughout California in asking the Superior Courts throughout the state to hold these killers responsible for the lives they took so many years ago." Sandi Gibbons, a spokeswoman for Cooley, said the district attorney had been working with prosecutors across the state for months on the strategy, and that it would soon be used against other convicted murderers in California. Sims was sentenced to die in 1986 for murdering a pizza deliveryman and also faces the death penalty in South Carolina in the murders of 2 co-workers there. Cox was convicted of 4 counts of 1st-degree murder in January 1986 in the killing of a grandmother, her daughter and 2 grandchildren. He was sentenced to die that April. APPEALS EXHAUSTED Gibbons said both men had exhausted their appeals and that only the ruling against California's three-drug protocol was stopping the state from putting them to death. Los Angeles prosecutors said in court papers that the 1-drug protocol, which was being used in Ohio, Washington and Arizona for lethal injections, had been upheld by courts as constitutional. The ballot initiative focuses on the high cost of the death penalty in a state that has executed 13 people since capital punishment was reinstated in the United States in 1976. Another 723 inmates sit on death row pending lengthy and expensive appeals. If the anti-death penalty measure passes, California would join 17 other states and Washington, D.C. without capital punishment. Richard Dieter, executive director of the nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center in Washington, was skeptical that prosecutors could persuade a judge to approve executions by a protocol that had not been fully vetted by the courts. "The D.A. can file and request this but the larger question is whether California has a working protocol for carrying out executions, and I don't think it has," Dieter said. "It's not as simple as just changing to one drug." Dieter said the move could force courts to more quickly take up the issue of using the single-drug protocol in California. Appellate attorneys for Sims and Cox could not immediately be reached for comment. A spokesman for SAFE, the group behind the anti-death penalty initiative that qualified last month for the November ballot, declined to comment on Cooley's move. (source: Reuters) ************ DA Asks Court to Order Execution of 2 Death Row Inmates District Attorney Steve Cooley asked the Los Angeles Superior Court today to order the execution of 2 long-time death row inmates with a court-approved single-drug protocol currently used in other parts of the country. In motions filed by Deputy District Attorney Michele Hanisee, the court was asked to order the executions of Mitchell Carleton Sims, 52, and Tiequon Aundray Cox, 46, each of whom have been on San Quentin?s Death Row for a quarter of a century. "Mitchell Sims and Tiequon Cox were tried and convicted of first-degree murder by juries. The jurors in each case also found the special circumstances alleged against each defendant to be true. The same juries recommended that each die for their crimes. Judges reviewed the jury recommendations and agreed, formally sentencing each man to death. Each killer appealed the conviction and sentence. Every appellate court turned them down," the District Attorney said in a written statement. "It is time Sims and Cox pay for their crimes," he added. "I am joining with the California District Attorneys Association and other District Attorneys throughout California in asking the Superior Courts throughout the state to hold these killers responsible for the innocent lives they took so many years ago." In the motions filed with the court, Hanisee asked that the executions be ordered using a single-drug method or that the warden at San Quentin show cause why the death penalty by lethal injection should not be imposed. Executions in California have been on hold for years. The most recent stay was granted by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals after the Riverside County District Attorney obtained an execution date for condemned inmate Albert Greenwood Brown. The stay was based on allegations that a 3-drug protocol that California used for executions put the condemned at risk of pain and suffering. Sims was sentenced to death on May 7, 1986, after being convicted of murdering a Domino's pizza deliveryman in Glendale on Dec. 8, 1985. Sims was found guilty in the strangulation and drowning of 21-yaer old John Steven Harrigan. Police found Harrigan's hog-tied body submerged in the motel-room bathtub. A washcloth had been stuffed in his mouth and a pillowcase tied over his head. Sims was also is charged with 2 counts of robbery and attempted murder in an assault against 2 of Harrigan's co-workers at the Brand Boulevard pizza establishment later that night. Sims, a disgruntled pizza delivery driver, had fled the restaurant where he worked in Hanahan, S.C., after murdering 2 co-workers. He fled to California with his girlfriend, who also was convicted and is serving a life sentence. Sims was also sentenced to death in the South Carolina murders. Cox, a Rollin 60s gang member, slaughtered a grandmother, her daughter and 2 grandchildren - one 8 and the other 13 - on Aug. 31, 1984. Armed with a .30 caliber military rifle, Cox shot the grandmother 3 times in the head and went on to execute her grandsons as they slept in their beds. The 24-year-old mother of the two boys woke up and screamed before Cox shot her dead. A 14-year-old male cousin hid in a closet, which saved his life. Hanisee noted in her motions filed today with Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Patricia Schnegg that the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has acknowledged at various court hearings - one as recent as Feb. 14 of this year - that it is fully capable of performing a single-drug execution. "It is time to enforce the law of the state and carry out the death sentences that have been returned by juries, imposed by trial judges and affirmed by our appellate court system," Cooley added. (source: KTLA News) From rhalperi at smu.edu Thu May 3 10:28:48 2012 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Thu, 3 May 2012 10:28:48 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide Message-ID: May 3 INDIA: Youth gets death for beheading girl Ranchi A year after he hacked to death his girlfriend inside St Xavier?s College here, Vijendra Singh was awarded death penalty by a local court on Wednesday. Judicial Commissioner S H Kajmi had convicted him for the murder of Khushbu Kumari. Pronouncing the verdict on Wednesday, he said the major charge under Section 302 (murder) of the IPC had been proved beyond ?an iota of doubt? against the accused. ?This is the fittest case for awarding him sentence to death,? said the judgment. Earlier, the accused and the victim were neighbours in Jamshedpur. But the girl?s family later shifted to Ranchi. On April 27, 2011, Vijender went to St Xavier?s College where Khushbu was appearing for an exam. ?Minutes after the exams got over... the accused stopped her. Soon, he took out a bhujali (a knife) and beheaded her,? the police chargesheet alleged. The accused said he would challenge the death penalty judgment in the Jharkhand High Court. (source: Express India) From rhalperi at smu.edu Thu May 3 17:06:18 2012 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Thu, 3 May 2012 17:06:18 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----MONT., N.C. Message-ID: May 3 MONTANA: Death row Canadian says Harper government reneged on offer----Consulate official attended clemency hearing but left without speaking to panel Lawyers for convicted double killer Ronald Smith are accusing the Canadian government of reneging on an offer to speak on his behalf at a hearing in Montana to determine whether he will get the death penalty or clemency. The Harper government offered only tepid support for Smith's plea for clemency with its initial response and made it clear there would be no one making a presentation at the hearing in Montana on Wednesday. But Smith's lawyers were excited on Monday when they received news that Marie-Eve Lamy, a consul at the Canadian Consulate General in Denver, was going to read a statement on behalf of the Harper government. Lamy attended Smith's clemency hearing Wednesday morning and was added as a last-minute witness for Smith's defence team. But in the afternoon, Lamy was gone, which prompted lawyer Don Vernay to read the copy he had of her statement into the official court record. "We were really somewhat surprised and she said the Government of Canada wants me to read this," he said, holding a copy of her statement. "Then this morning she comes up and says, 'I just heard from headquarters that they don't want me to read this.' They want her to read the original one instead. She said to me, 'This is what they want and what do you want?' I said nothing. I said, 'Thank you very much,' and let her go her way." 'It's been treachery. It's almost Shakespearean in nature ... They still supported clemency but they withdrew their enthusiastic suppor.' ?Greg Jackson, lawyerThe original letter, signed by Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird in December 2011, was short and to the point. "The Government of Canada does not sympathize with violent crime and this letter should not be construed as reflecting a judgment on Mr. Smith's conduct," reads the letter. "The Government of Canada ... requests that you grant clemency to Mr. Smith on humanitarian grounds." Greg Jackson, Smith's lawyer for 25 years, didn't mince words about what he called an unexplainable change once again in the Canadian government's position. "It's been treachery. It's almost Shakespearean in nature ... They still supported clemency but they withdrew their enthusiastic support," he said. "It's incomprehensible. It's been devastating to the family, it's been devastating to Ron particularly when they're going around the world now where they're enthusiastically throwing support to other Canadians facing death in other countries." The letter read in court said Lamy was providing testimony at the hearing on behalf of the Canadian government. "The Government of Canada is confident that the Montana Board of Pardons and Parole will carefully review the case before you today concerning Mr. Ronald Smith, a Canadian citizen." The letter, although not a glowing endorsement, was considerably more enthusiastic than the original. "Mr. Smith has served 29 years in prison for his crime and he has expressed remorse for his actions. The Government of Canada is seeking clemency for Mr. Smith on humanitarian grounds." The Department of Foreign Affairs didn't immediately respond to a request for an explanation. Jackson said Smith had enjoyed good support from Canada until Harper's Conservative Party government was elected. Now he doesn't know what to think. "I just don't understand it. I guess they claim that because this is a civilized country we have due process," he said with a shrug. "But regardless, a stance against the death penalty should be universal as far as the Canadian government is concerned. How do they pick and choose?," Jackson said. Smith, 54, has been on death row ever since he admitted to shooting Thomas Mad Man Jr. and Harvey Running Rabbit in 1982. He originally asked for the death penalty, but soon after changed his mind and has been fighting for his life ever since. He is asking the board to recommend his death sentence be commuted. After yesterday's hearing, the Montana Board of Pardons and Parole intends to release its recommendation on clemency the week of May 21. Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer will have the final say. (source: CBC Bews) NORTH CAROLINA: Prosecutors will seek death penalty in killing of restaurant manager Mecklenburg prosecutors announced in court Thursday morning that they are seeking the death penalty against the man accused of slaying Ballantyne restaurant manager Danielle Watson in January. Watson, a 25-year-old manager at the Flying Biscuit Cafe, was killed Jan. 13 at the restaurant off Rea Road in the StoneCrest shopping center. She was 2 months pregnant. Mark Anthony Cox, a former co-worker, has been indicted in her murder and the death of her unborn baby. Cox was in court for the death-penalty announcement, as were friends and relatives of Watson, and Charlotte-Mecklenburg homicide investigators. Cox, a 22-year-old convicted felon, has been indicted on charges of murder, murder of an unborn child, robbery with a dangerous weapon and felonious larceny. Cox was released from prison in November after serving time on robbery and breaking and entering charges, according to N.C. Department of Correction records. The police department's 911 system came under fire after Watson's body was found behind a Dumpster about 6 hours after her boyfriend, Keith Smith, called police saying he thought a robbery was happening at the Flying Biscuit Cafe. When Smith called 911, the call-taker typed in the wrong address. The call-taker was placed on administrative leave. The responding officer searched a business park near the erroneous address but not the Flying Biscuit, located about 4 miles away. The department changed its policy to require 911 call-takers to confirm addresses. After Watson's slaying, the Flying Biscuit Cafe also came under criticism for hiring Cox. Cox told his sister he had killed the caf? manager, then left his bloody clothes and a butcher knife in his apartment before fleeing, according to a search warrant. Cox told his sister he stabbed Watson multiple times during an argument inside the caf?, the warrant says. Cox was arrested at a friend's house in the Fayetteville area. (source: Charlotte Observer) From rhalperi at smu.edu Thu May 3 17:13:03 2012 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Thu, 3 May 2012 17:13:03 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide Message-ID: May 3 KUWAIT: Kuwait close to death penalty law for blasphemy Kuwaiti lawmakers endorsed a legal amendment on Thursday which could make insulting God and the Prophet Mohammad by Muslims punishable by death, in a 2nd reading that brings the proposal a step closer to passing. The plan still needs approval by Kuwait's ruler before it becomes law and follows a high-profile case of suspected blasphemy on Twitter which caused an uproar in the Gulf state. The draft now includes a new clause which will mean the death penalty will only be applied if the person stands by their actions when questioned by a judge. This would give defendants the opportunity to repent and face a prison term or a fine instead. The amendment, which would apply the death penalty only for Muslims, was backed by 40 members of parliament, while six opposed it - slightly more than in the previous reading. Around 85 percent of Kuwait's inhabitants are thought to be Muslim. Expatriate Christians and Hindus are the next largest groups. Blasphemy is illegal under Kuwait's publications law and under the penal code as slander or libel. At present it carries a jail term, the length of which depends on the severity of the comments and their perceived effect on society, lawyers say. Islamist MPs proposed toughening the law in March after authorities arrested a Kuwaiti man they said had defamed the Prophet, his companions and his wife on the Twitter messaging site. The man, identified by his lawyer as Hamad al-Naqi, has told police his account was hacked. He is now in pre-trial detention. Dozens of Sunni activists protested to condemn Naqi, who is from Kuwait's Shi'ite Muslim minority. Other countries which have used the death penalty in blasphemy cases include Kuwait's neighbor Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, according to Amnesty International. (source: Reuters) From rhalperi at smu.edu Fri May 4 10:55:54 2012 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Fri, 4 May 2012 10:55:54 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] [SPAM] death penalty news----TEXAS, DEL., FLA., ARIZ., N.C., CALIF. Message-ID: May 4 TEXAS: It's time to abolish the death penalty Last week, Connecticut joined with 16 other states and with the rest of the civilized world when it abolished the death penalty. But the very next day, Texas chose to remain in darkness when it executed Beunka Adams, making him the 5th victim this year of the state's anachronistic practice of killing people. If not for a last-minute stay, on Wednesday Texas would have put another human being to death. Since the death penalty was re-instated in the United States, 1,295 human beings have walked that cruel corridor to the death chamber. Our country ranks number 5 among nations willing to kill people, surpassed only by Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Iran and China. What is almost as disturbing as the killing is the fact that 61 % of the American population approves of this barbaric practice. Many of the country's God-fearing Christians believe that killing someone who has been convicted of murder is a proper means to achieve justice. They incorrectly equate death with justice. Killing a human being is more tantamount to revenge. Families of murdered victims travel to Huntsville to watch the murderer of their loved one suffer the same fate. They call that closure. However, closure should come knowing that their family member is in the hands of God. According to the National Research Council, there is no evidence that the death penalty serves as a deterrent to murder. The major problem that death penalty proponents do not want to discuss is the possibility of killing an innocent person. There have been three very strong cases of possible wrongful execution in Texas. Todd Willingham, executed in 2004, Ruben Cantu in 1993, and Carlos De Luna in 1989, all went to their deaths with serious doubts of their guilt. Since 1975, there have been 140 people released from death row in 26 states, 12 of them in the state of Texas. They all could have easily been killed because of our need for revenge. If that many have been released, just imagine how many were executed who were innocent. Dr. Roger Barnes is chairman of the Sociology and Criminal Justice Department at the University of the Incarnate Word. He believes that we should be ashamed and hugely embarrassed that our country is the only Western industrialized democracy that uses execution, and Texas does it more than any other state. The late Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun, a conservative judge when appointed by President Richard Nixon, changed his mind about capital punishment. ?I can no longer tinker with the machinery of death,? he wrote. ?We are just not equipped to get this right.? It is time for Texas to join with Justice Blackmun and the rest of the civilized world and do away with the bloody practice of killing people. (source: Fred Williams, San Antonio Express-News) DELAWARE: Cooke jury votes for death penalty After about 4 hours of deliberation a Superior Court jury returned 2 votes recommending death today for James E. Cooke Jr. in the 2005 rape and murder of Lindsey M. Bonistall. Cooke had been convicted of 2 separate counts of 1st-degree murder and the jury voted 10-2 in favor of death on the 1st count and 11-1 in favor of death on the 2nd count. The vote is just a recommendation and the final decision on life in prison or execution for Cooke will be up to Superior Court Judge Charles H. Toliver IV, though he must give "appropriate weight" to the jury vote. Toliver did not immediately set a sentencing date. Cooke, 41, chose not to be in the courtroom when the jury came back to report its recommendation around 1:30 p.m. Afterward, Lindsey Bonistall's mother Kathleen said she was just grateful that the re-trial was now at an end and that her family could get back to their lives. "This is the end of a difficult time for my family," she said, adding that she now hopes the healing process can re-start. Today, like most days she appeared in court, Bonistall wore a necklace with a picture of Lindsey on it. Shortly after Bonistall made her comments in the lobby of the New Castle County Courthouse, jurors who had just been released from their duty happened to be exiting and spontaneously lined up to offer hugs to Bonistall and their condolences at the loss of Lindsey, who had been a sophomore at the University of Delaware. One juror who did not wish to give his name said that he felt good about the decisions the panel had reached. "For every action there is a reaction," he said. And while the fact that this was a re-trial for Cooke - whose previous conviction and death sentence for Bonistall's murder were overturned - and that Cooke was stripped of his right to represent himself early in the trial, the juror said those facts were clear to the jury because of Cooke's statements in court. Deputy Attorney General Diane Coffey said she thought the jury vote of 11-1 sent a strong message and prosecutors hope that Judge Toliver will follow the recommendation. (source: The News Journal) FLORIDA: Death row inmate returns to Brevard for prosecution in 2003 slaying----Henry Lee Jones, 48, is accused of 1st-degree murder A death row inmate convicted in 2 other killings in Tennessee has been returned to Brevard County where he faces prosecution in a 2003 slaying in Melbourne. Henry Lee Jones, 48, is accused of 1st-degree murder in the death of 19-year-old Carlos Perez. Perez was found dead in room 217 at Super 8 motel on U.S. 1 on Aug. 27, 2003. ?We have a victim who deserves justice, as does his family, for his death,? Assistant State Attorney Michael Hunt said. ?The fact that he?s been given the death penalty in Tennessee does not stop us from going forward, because we have a heinous and vicious crime in our county.? Jones? 1st formal court appearance is scheduled for May 25. He was booked into Brevard County jail last week . Perez was found with his hands and feet bound and his neck slashed five days after Jones fatally slashed an elderly couple near Memphis. Jones stole one of the couple?s credit cards, which officials said was used 2 days later in Brevard. According to newspaper archives, Jones was named a suspect in the 2003 killing shortly after Perez? body was discovered. Following his arrest, Jones was sent to Tennessee for prosecution. In October Jones was indicted by a grand jury in Brevard County and assistant state attorneys began a process to extradite him for prosecution. The agreement between states requires Jones to be returned to Tennessee following outcome of the Brevard case. (source: Florida Today) ARIZONA: Death sentence tossed out for 3rd time The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has again vacated the death sentence imposed by a Pima County Superior Court judge in the murder of a Tucson hitchhiker. David Detrich and Alan Charlton picked up hitchhiker Elizabeth Souter in November 1989 and bought $75 worth of cocaine, according to court documents. When the trio were unable to shoot up the drug, Detrich became irate with Souter, stabbed her 40 times and slit her throat, nearly decapitating her. Charlton entered a plea agreement and was sentenced to 10 1/2 years in prison. Detrich was convicted and sentenced to death in 1990. The Arizona Supreme Court threw out the conviction and sentence in 1994, ruling the judge did not give the jury proper instructions. Detrich was retried, convicted and again sentenced to death, but the 9th Circuit tossed out Detrich's sentence in August 2010, saying defense attorney Harold Higgins didn't do a proper job presenting mitigating evidence or rebutting the aggravation case put on by prosecutors. The judges said Higgins didn't begin working on the mitigation case until after Detrich was convicted, 2 weeks before the sentencing hearing. They also noted he didn't hire a mitigation investigator despite knowing Detrich had an "extremely troubled childhood," nor did he consult with a mental-health expert. The Arizona Attorney General's Office appealed the 9th Circuit's decision to the U.S. Supreme Court, which sent the case back to the 9th Circuit. On Tuesday, Judges Harry Pregerson and Richard Paez released an opinion again vacating Detrich's death sentence. They noted if the state chooses not to resentence Detrich, his sentence will automatically become a life sentence. Judge M. Margaret McKeown dissented, saying that while Higgins was ineffective, Detrich wasn't prejudiced by that fact. Pima County Attorney Barbara LaWall said the Attorney's General's Office will file a petition for a rehearing on the issue and, if denied, will again appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. The 9th Circuit's analysis of the law applied in the case is simply "incorrect," LaWall said. Pima County Superior Court Judge Richard Nichols said that even if he'd been aware of some of the mitigation not presented by Higgins, he would still have imposed the death penalty, LaWall said. Higgins declined to comment. (source: Arizona Daily Star) NORTH CAROLINA: Death penalty sought in tire store shootings Prosecutors will seek the death penalty against a 24-year-old Durham man charged in 2 fatal shootings in March at J.T. Tire store in East Durham, Durham County District Attorney Leon Stanback said Wednesday. "We think that we have enough aggravating factors in that case to seek the death penalty," Stanback said. "So we'll proceed with that." Obrian McNeil White is charged with 2 counts of 1st-degree murder, 3 counts of assault with a deadly weapon and 1 count of robbery with a dangerous weapon. A gunman opened fire March 23 at the tire store at 2202 E. Geer St., killing store cashier Naomi Wright, 65, and customer and taxi driver Abdelgadir Mergany Abdelganir, 32. 2 other men were wounded, but recovered. Stanback said his office will oppose bond for White, who remains in the Durham County Jail. (source: The Herald-Sun) CALIFORNIA: Cooley Urges Execution for death row Inmate Convicted in Glendale Hotel Room Murder ---- District Attorney Steve Cooley urged court officials to approve an execution order for San Quentin death row inmate Mitchell Sims. Sims was convicted of 1st-degree murder of 21-year-old John Steven Harrigan, who was killed in a Glendale hotel room. District Attorney Steve Cooley asked the Los Angeles Superior Court Wednesday to execute a death row inmate convicted in the 1985 murder of a pizza deliveryman in a Glendale hotel room. Mitchell Carleton Sims, 52, was convicted of 1st-degree murder 21-year-old John Steven Harrigan who was found strangled and drowned, according to the Glendale News-Press. Sims also faces a death sentence in South Carolina, according to a news release. Sims was a disgruntled pizza delivery driver and had fled the restaurant where he worked in Hanahan, S.C., after murdering 2 co-workers. He moved to California with his girlfriend, who was also convicted and serves a life sentence. Cooley asked the same order for Tiequon Aundray Cox, 46, who was convicted of 1st-degree murder of a grandmother, her daughter and 2 grandchildren - one 8 and the other 13 - on Aug. 31, 1984, officials said. Cox, a Rollin 60s gang member, shot a grandmother 3 times in the head with a .30 caliber military rifle, then killed her grandsons as they slept in their beds, officials said. The 24-year-old mother of the 2 boys woke up and screamed when Cox shot her dead. A 14-year-old male cousin survived the shootings by hiding in a closet. ?Mitchell Sims and Tiequon Cox were tried and convicted of 1st-degree murder by juries. The jurors in each case also found the special circumstances alleged against each defendant to be true. The same juries recommended that each die for their crimes. Judges reviewed the jury recommendations and agreed, formally sentencing each man to death. Each killer appealed the conviction and sentence. Every appellate court turned them down,? the District Attorney said in a prepared statement. In the past 23 years, California has executed 13 inmates, according to the Los Angeles Times. Cooley requested the court-approved single-drug protocol--used in Ohio, Washington and Arizona for death row inmate executions. ?It is time Sims and Cox pay for their crimes,? Cooley said. ?I am joining with the California District Attorneys Association and other District Attorneys throughout California in asking the Superior Courts throughout the state to hold these killers responsible for the innocent lives they took so many years ago.? A federal judge stopped California executions in 2006 after findings showed that the three-drug method for lethal injections caused too much pain and suffering for the inmate before death, according to the Chicago Tribune. An appeals court blocked a resumption of executions over the same reasons. Governor Jerry Brown told prison authorities to consider using the single-drug execution protocol, The Tribune reported. This comes before a November ballot measure that seeks to repeal capital punishment in California, the Times reported. ?The death penalty was voted into law by the citizens of this state and continues to be supported by a majority of the citizens,? Cooley said. He noted that it has been six years since the last California execution. ?It is time to enforce the law of the state and carry out the death sentences that have been returned by juries, imposed by trial judges and affirmed by our appellate court system,? Cooley said. (source: Montrose Patch) ***************** California to end 6-year hold on death penalty? Los Angeles prosecutors asked a judge on Wednesday to order the execution of 2 condemned killers using a single drug for lethal injections, a move intended to end a 6-year hold on the death penalty in California over the method used by the state. The move comes days after Democratic Governor Jerry Brown told prison officials to consider using the single-drug execution protocol, and ahead of a November ballot measure that seeks to repeal capital punishment in the state. A federal judge halted all California executions in 2006 after finding that the three-drug method that has been used for lethal injections in the state carried the risk of causing the inmate too much pain and suffering before death. California revised its protocol, but an appeals court has blocked a resumption of executions over the same objections. Motions filed by Los Angeles District Attorney Steve Cooley's office in Los Angeles Superior Court on Wednesday asked that the warden of San Quentin State Prison put convicted murderers Mitchell Carleton Sims and Tiequon Aundray Cox to death by the single-drug protocol or show cause why the executions cannot proceed. Sims, 52, and Cox, 46, have both been on California's death row at San Quentin, near San Francisco, for more than a quarter century. ?It is time Sims and Cox pay for their crimes,? Cooley said. ?I am joining with the California District Attorney's Association and other district attorneys throughout California in asking the Superior Courts throughout the state to hold these killers responsible for the lives they took so many years ago.? Sandi Gibbons, a spokeswoman for Cooley, said the district attorney had been working with prosecutors across the state for months on the strategy, and that it would soon be used against other convicted murderers in California. Sims was sentenced to die in 1986 for murdering a pizza deliveryman and also faces the death penalty in South Carolina in the murders of 2 co-workers there. Cox was convicted of 4 counts of 1st-degree murder in January 1986 in the killing of a grandmother, her daughter and 2 grandchildren. He was sentenced to die that April. Gibbons said both men had exhausted their appeals and that only the ruling against California's three-drug protocol was stopping the state from putting them to death. Los Angeles prosecutors said in court papers that the 1-drug protocol, which was being used in Ohio, Washington and Arizona for lethal injections, had been upheld by courts as constitutional. The ballot initiative focuses on the high cost of the death penalty in a state that has executed 13 people since capital punishment was reinstated in the United States in 1976. Another 723 inmates sit on death row pending lengthy and expensive appeals. If the anti-death penalty measure passes, California would join 17 other states and Washington, DC without capital punishment. Richard Dieter, executive director of the nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center in Washington, was skeptical that prosecutors could persuade a judge to approve executions by a protocol that had not been fully vetted by the courts. ?The DA can file and request this but the larger question is whether California has a working protocol for carrying out executions, and I don't think it has,? Dieter said. ?It's not as simple as just changing to 1 drug.? Dieter said the move could force courts to more quickly take up the issue of using the single-drug protocol in California. Appellate attorneys for Sims and Cox could not immediately be reached for comment. A spokesman for SAFE, the group behind the anti-death penalty initiative that qualified last month for the November ballot, declined to comment on Cooley's move. (source: Reuters) ********************* 4 Could Face Death Penalty in 2010 Triple Homicide ---- A 21-year-old San Mateo man is among those allegedly linked to the 2010 triple homicide in South San Francisco. For nearly a year and a half after bullets flew and left 3 men dead on Eighth Lane, there have been no public developments in the investigation into who killed Gonzalo Avalos, 19, Omar Cortez, 18, and Hector Flores, 20 on Dec 22, 2010 and left three others injured. Now the authorities say they?ve got the perpetrators. This morning, federal agents from the ICE Homeland Security Investigations unit arrested 13 suspects in 11 Bay Area locations and 3 cities who they say were members and associations of the 500 Block/C Street Gang. Together with an additional 6 suspects who were already in custody, the U.S. Attorney has charged 19 people with crimes relating to the murders in an indictment filed in federal court on April 24. The investigation involved local, state and federal law enforcement into a crime the indictment characterizes as a violent dispute between rival gang members. ?This was ground zero for the 500 Block/C Street violence,? said U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag. ?The violence must stop.? The indictment charges that Joseph Ortiz, 22 (?Little Vicious?), of South San Francisco, Victor Flores, 20 (?Little Creeper?), of Petaluma and Justin Whipple, 19 (?Teddy?), of San Bruno shot at seven people who they believed were rival gang members in South San Francisco on Dec. 22, hitting 6 and killing 3. Benjamin Campos-Gonzalez, 21 (?BG?), of San Mateo served as their driver, according to the indictment. All 4 have been charged with racketeering murder and face the death penalty if convicted. Ortiz is also charged with 4 additional attempted murders and a firearms offense related to a Dec. 18, 2010 shooting in Daly City. Of the remaining defendants, 12 were charged with racketeering conspiracy in relation to the murders, facing life in prison, and 3 are charged with being accessories after the fact. Clark Settles, Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent in Charge in San Francisco, said the arrests and charges send an important message to gang members. ?Be looking over your shoulder because there?s a good chance we?re coming for your next,? he said. The arrests will ?have a significant impact on the gang,? said South San Francisco Police Chief Michael Massoni. ?The people responsible for the murder are in custody.? ?I think there?s going to be a sense of relief in the community,? said Mayor Richard Garbarino. ?Today?s news sends a huge message out there that the bad guys aren?t always going to get away with stuff, and if you continue, you?ll get caught.? Garbarino, who stood behind the podium with the rest of the city council alongside South San Francisco and Daly City police and representatives from the U.S. Attorney?s office and federal law enforcement officials at a large press conference called to announce the arrests and charges Thursday afternoon, said he didn?t know Homeland Security Investigations or the U.S. Attorney?s office was involved with the case until this morning. But the charges should buttress the community?s faith in the police department and elected officials, he said. Three ICE Homeland Security Investigations agents were injured after being fired at by an assault rifle while trying to arrest one of the suspects in Petaluma, but their injuries aren?t life-threatening, Haag said. The White Pages list Victor and Ana Flores as the tenants of the home where the assault took place. ?This underscores how daring this gang is,? Haag said. The mother and brother of victim Gonzalo Avalos say they?re happy the legal process is moving forward. ?It brought her back to the day when my brother was killed,? Ramon Olmos, 31, Avalos? brother, said of his mother, Carmen Ruiz. ?But now I think the true test is forgiving [the suspects]. God is a forgiving God, and we have to forgive them as well for what they did.? (source: San Mateo Patch) From rhalperi at smu.edu Fri May 4 16:27:22 2012 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Fri, 4 May 2012 16:27:22 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS Message-ID: May 4 TEXAS: DEATH ROW INMATES SUE TEXAS GOVERNOR RICK PERRY AND SENATOR JOHN WHITMIRE FOR ABUSIVE CONDITIONS Thomas Whitaker, an inmate on Texas death row, has filed a class action lawsuit against Texas Governor Rick Perry, Senator John Whitmire, and the Texas Department of Criminal Justice for the inhumane and unconstitutional conditions under which the men on death row must live. Allegations include taking away wheelchairs from those who cannot walk, denying mental and physical health care, being held in solitary confinement for over ten years without any legal justification based on their conduct, dangerously unsafe living conditions, inadequate nutrition, inadequate exercise, denial of adequate access to telephones, destruction and loss of necessary legal documents, denial of religious freedom, denial of fair administrative process, failure to timely deliver mail including legal correspondence, and other abuses. In the case of Ruiz v. Estelle, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District held that conditions for the Texas prison system were unconstitutional but also held that the inmates of death row would need to bring a separate lawsuit to address their unique situation. That is the action now being taken by Whitaker. There have been acts of retaliation by TDCJ toward men who have been a part of this suit or similar litigation. Thomas Whitaker, No. 999522 age 32, from Fort Bend County, Tx----Residing on Texas Death Row since March 2007, convicted under the Law of Parties. Contact Information Robert B. Wells, Co-Director Descending Eagles email: mfelps at descending eagles. org O. Box 49339, Austin, Tx 78765<>P> 3724 Jefferson, Ste. 309, Austin, Tx 78731 ### _______________ The following acts and omissions of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice have caused irreparable harm to all residents of death row at the Polunsky Unit in Livingston, Texas. These acts and omissions continue to harm the residents of death row at the Polunsky Unit. All residents now housed at Polunsky, previously housed at Ellis, on death row were put in solitary confinement in administrative segregation improperly and in violation of the existing plan for incarceration of those persons on male death row. Although most of the residents had not been charged with or found guilty of any conduct that would be punishable by solitary confinement, they have been retained in solitary for over ten years (since 2000). No less than a full due process hearing is required to determine whether there is a valid reason for the continued confinement in solitary. No such hearings have been held. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice regulations require a hearing with attendance by the Plaintiff, the warden, and the Classification Committee of the unit to determine if administrative segregation is appropriate or to extend such conditions beyond a limited period. There have been no such hearings. Those so held do not meet the Texas Department of Criminal Justice [TDCJ] requirements for such confinement because there has been no determination that each individual is in need of segregation for his protection or safety; there is no violation of the regulations of TDCJ for which a hearing is pending, there is no reason to assume that all are "custody risks" when they have shown no signs of being such. The fact that another person attempted escape does not make this entire class any more of a custody risk than the average person incarcerated in the general population. By both action and inaction basic human needs of adequate food, safe shelter, adequate exercise, medical care and living conditions conducive to mental health are being denied every resident of death row. There are frequent failures to provide sufficient nutrition for the residents of death row in their daily food provision. Housing conditions include unsanitary living conditions due to inadequate cleaning of the cells and shower areas. At times, no cleaning product other than water is used by those performing general cleaning. Residents are not given access to cleaning products to maintain their cells in a sanitary condition and to kill black mold. Although security might dictate precluding caustic chemicals in the area housing those who might be a security risk, there is no reason to deny them ordinary cleaning products to keep their living area safe from disease causing bacteria. The food trays are often placed on the floors where there is sewage or spittle. The showers have inadequate ventilation causing it to be so humid and hot that residents have been made ill. The attorney visitation booths are not adequately ventilated for the residents. When an unruly resident is being gassed for misconduct, the other are exposed to so much of the caustic and harmful fumes as to also suffer from the contact. There is inadequate exercise. One hour a week is inadequate for the maintenance of physical health. There is no reason access to the outdoors and vigorous physical activity daily should be denied. The cells have inadequate ventilation and they effectively shut off the residents from all contact with the outside world. The occupants of the cells are subjected to harsh temperatures. The ceilings of some cells leak and there is black mold growing in some cells. Lights are controlled by officers who turn them off and on at their discretion exposing those trying to sleep to light that awakens them and prevents adequate rest. Food is served at hours not usually considered appropriate for meals with no justification for such a schedule. Clothing also is delivered at hours designed to interrupt sleep. Other than the brief periods they are allowed out to shower and one time a week they are allowed recreation, they are in solitary confinement 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The prolonged period of sensory deprivation has resulted in serious mental health conditions. No effort has been made to examine the residents of these isolation cells to see how they have been damaged by these conditions. There has been a frequent lack of care used in regard to legal documents. When their cells are searched for contraband, their legal documents are often tossed in with other property and subsequently lost or damaged. In violation of the regulations of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, "legal visits" between offenders in order to obtain needed assistance in their legal cases have been curtailed. Adequate postage is denied which prevents corresponding with legal counsel when necessary. Mail sent to or received from legal representatives has been opened and read. Access to law books is very limited and difficult as well as access to information that could be gained from having greater access to the library and to television. Telephone access so as to be able to contact their legal representatives is not permitted. Residents of death row are denied adequate telephone access to contact legal counsel. At times, the transport of the resident is so slow that they are denied access to legal counsel. Counsel often is forced to wait for up to an hour or completely denied a legal visit. Residents of death row have been denied reasonable treatment for diagnosed medical conditions. Medical staff exhibits indifference or is unavailable. Dental care is extremely inadequate as is care of vision. Those in need of wheelchairs are now being denied access to a wheelchair and required to walk using a walker out of an excessive reaction to one person having been a security risk because he was being transported in a wheelchair when a weapon was found in the wheelchair. There is a concerted effort to avoid identifying the mentally handicapped for fear it will lead to them getting their sentences reduced to life rather than execution. Further, the mentally ill are not housed separately as is required by the regulations. Those nearby are kept awake by the shouts of those who are psychologically disturbed. There is inadequate treatment of the mental health issues that incarceration in these conditions necessitates. There is totally inadequate screening to determine whether mental health issues have arisen. There is inappropriate supervision of the mentally ill in terms of their maintenance on the prescribed treatment. The seriously mentally ill are not transferred to more suitable facilities nor is staff trained to deal with them properly. Prescribed medications and "over the counter" medications are not provided promptly or consistently so as to allow maintenance of the health of all residents, both mentally and physically in need ofregular treatment. Both the mentally and physically ill have had the water turned off in their cells to prevent them from urinating due to dehydration. They have been denied food so as to not have fecal matter if the mentally ill individuals throw feces at guards. The physically ill had hemorrhoids and was bleeding excessively. At such time as each such sick individual became unable to move, they were finally given some degree of treatment at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Texas. Contrary to the ethical standards required, no physician or guard or warden reported these crimes of abuse. The elderly, diabetic or mentally ill have been abused because they could not move quickly or fell due to their fragile condition. The very severely mentally ill are incapable of completing their administrative appeals due to their condition. Everyone suffers emotional trauma from witnessing these episodes of abuse of weak and fragile individuals. The mentally challenged or mentally ill are subject to punishment for their failure to understand the regulations they must follow. Their non-compliance due to confusion leads to longer and longer confinement in segregation without clothes, mattress, linens, and inadequate food and medication. Guards are poorly trained in mental health so as to recognize whether there is real misconduct or a lack of comprehension. Those who are delusional are harassed and tormented by some guards. These guards are not disciplined or terminated, but are allowed to continue to abuse the mentally ill. Those who are mentally ill are incompetent to personally bring any grievance or complaint on their own behalf. Assistive devices such as braces, medical issue boots, and wheelchairs have been confiscated and not provided to those requiring them for proper function of their extremities or movement from location to location. Adequate pain medication is routinely withheld. All residents are denied activities that would be conducive to good mental health such as an opportunity to engage in creative work or crafts which are allowed those in the general population of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice and only denied to residents of death row, including those who have nearly perfect conduct records. They are further denied access to television. These activities were allowed until recently. Some men escaped from Ellis, as a consequence of their conduct - not the conduct of the current residents of death row at Polunsky, all previous activities that actually provided the residents with an incentive to improve their conduct so as to be able to engage in such activities, have been curtailed. It should be noted that the residents of death row purchase the materials with which to do crafts from the commissary operated by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice which provides money for the operation of the prison system. The men then were able to sell their work and spend the money paid for the completed craft project at the commissary, which actually recirculates the money again into the income of TDCJ. There is no security reason for denial of this activity. Furthermore, when a resident attempts to design his own craft activity, it is destroyed because using shoe strings or thread or plastic lids to make a craft is deemed using the item for a purpose other than the one originally intended. This is cruel and an absurd abuse of authority. The residents of death row are thwarted in their attempts to pursue their administrative appeals as these appeals are mislaid either accidentally or intentionally or by there being a denial of the right to pursue their administrative appeal to conclusion due to action designed to delay or circumvent the administrative process. Access to religious literature and other religious objects is denied in an indiscriminate manner. Those on death row are also denied the right to attend a religious service. No religious service is available for them to attend. Some are denied access to a representative of their faith as a spiritual adviser. In regard to adequacy of food, food that is Halal or Kosher is being exposed to pork grease. The mail room is one of the worst situations for those men on death row. Entire publications are being withheld because the newspaper or magazine contains one article that the particular person screening the mail found unacceptable without applying the written standard as set out in Department regulations. Correspondence is very, very frequently mishandled. There is an ongoing retaliatory process to prevent some residents from sending or receiving their mail or to delay receipt of their mail unnecessarily. The amount of postage actually physically permitted each individual has been unduly and unreasonably curtailed. Access to postage at all has also been unreasonably curtailed. Legal mail has been opened before being delivered and has been read. Outgoing legal mail has been read. The is no justification for denial of access to television. Television was available until death row was moved to the Polunsky Unit. Charitable groups have offered to donate televisions, there is an empty rack for holding a television in the day room, but no television. There is no valid security reason for denying access to the educational and recreational benefits of television. No other residents of penal institutions in Texas are denied televisions. This, on occasion, denies access to information that would be beneficial in regard to their legal defense. The opportunity to work in a job in the Department of Criminal Justice is now suspended. That suspension needs to be ended. Other men found guilty of murder who are in the general population are permitted to work. This would be a very strong incentive for the men to maintain good conduct. Many, if not most, men on death row would be eager to have an opportunity to perform work. This would reduce the cost of maintaining their pod. They would willingly clean their pod themselves. They would maintain their own living area better than it is now cleaned. Giving any person who is incarcerated incentives for good conduct is going to result in fewer disciplinary problems. Treating people fairly and with decent concern for their health and safety and emotional needs will result in a group that is easier to discipline. Those who do not respect the opportunity, then deserve to have opportunities denied. (source: Minutes Before Six) From rhalperi at smu.edu Sat May 5 11:17:48 2012 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Sat, 5 May 2012 11:17:48 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., USA, MONT., DEL. Message-ID: May 5 TEXAS: Death penalty isn't solution Re: "Think of victims instead" by Don Skaggs, Tuesday letters As Daniel Patrick Moynihan famously said, "Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts." In just 134 words, Don Skaggs manages to bring his own freshly minted facts to the death penalty discussion. He writes, "If you had a loved one raped, murdered and killed, you have to hold The News in contempt for its misplaced sense of justice." This is a doozy of a statement. Does Skaggs mean that newspaper editorials shouldn't be protected as free speech? More important, many families of victims supported the Connecticut repeal of its death penalty. Skaggs also repeats the old chestnut that the death penalty deters murders. The News' source editorial pointed out the the nonpartisan National Research Council has determined there is not enough information to either support or confirm this contention. Other studies over the years have echoed this conclusion. Kudos to Connecticut for abolishing the barbaric practice of capital punishment. More states are lined up bumper to bumper to do the same. Texas may be dead last in this long march, but it will happen. That's a fact. Tom Heines, Far North Dallas (source: Letter to the Editor, Dallas Morning News) PENNSYLVANIA: How a jury reaches a death sentence According to Pennsylvania law, there are 18 aggravating circumstances -- factors that enhance the severity of an alleged crime -- that can compel a district attorney to pursue the death penalty. When a defendant is convicted of a death penalty-eligible offense and the district attorney has indicated an intent to pursue the death penalty, the jury will then have to decide unanimously whether to sentence the defendant to death or life in prison. To order death, a jury must unanimously find that at least one aggravating circumstance existed beyond a reasonable doubt and those circumstances must outweigh any possible mitigating circumstances, which a jury must find to exist beyond a preponderance of the evidence. If a jury can't do that, a life sentence is ordered. Some of the aggravating circumstances include the victim being a police officer or other public servant; the defendant committing the murder during the commission of a felony; the defendant knowingly creating a grave risk of death to another person in addition to the victim in the commission of the offense; the victim being a child 12 or under; the defendant having already been convicted of murder; the victim being tortured; the victim being held hostage; or the victim being killed in an aircraft hijacking. There are 8 mitigating circumstances by law, including the defendant having no significant criminal history; the defendant being under the influence of extreme mental or emotional disturbance; the defendant not having the capacity to appreciate the criminality of the conduct or having a substantially impaired ability to conform to the requirements of the law; the age of the defendant; the defendant acting under extreme duress or under the substantial domination of another person; the victim having participated in or consented to the homicidal acts; the defendant having a very small level of participation in the act; or any other evidence of mitigation concerning the character and record of the defendant and the circumstances of the offense. (source: The (W. Va.) Dominion Post) USA: What Timothy McVeigh can teach us about Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's trialThe inherent challenge in trying high-profile terrorism cases is not made any better by the secrecy of a military commission As Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and 4 other September 11 suspects face a military commission hearing at Guantanamo Bay on Saturday, the US finds itself on a collision course between its own high-minded ideals of justice and a baser ? but undeniably powerful ? desire for vengeance. While liberals worry that the Obama administration is betraying its own earlier promises and endorsing a shamefully compromised form of trial, conservatives and law-and-order hawks are less interested in due process than in seeing the men executed by the fastest means possible. The truth, though, is that high-profile cases involving terrorism or other acts of political violence are notoriously difficult to try under any circumstances ? either by military commission or in the civilian courts. Whether or not lawyers and judges brandish the constitution and tout the benefits of an open, democratic system, emotions invariably run high, public opinion and the media invariably bay for blood, and defense lawyers get accused of apologizing for the heinous acts with which their clients stand charged. Liberals point, correctly, to the ignominious history of previous military commissions in the US, which condemned an innocent woman, Mary Surratt, to death in the wake of the assassination of President Lincoln and brought about the execution of six Germans accused of acting as Nazi saboteurs in 1942, even though they had planned little and seemed capable of less. Then, as now, the military tribunals were criticized for their lack of openness, their predisposition to find defendants guilty, and rules of evidence that admitted testimony obtained under duress or torture. But civilian courts have their own problems. When Timothy McVeigh was tried for the Oklahoma City bombing 15 years ago, the government promised an unprecedented degree of openness, all the better to get to the truth. But prosecutors ultimately mounted a case that played heavily on the jury's emotions and emphasized, over and over, the horror and suffering caused by a bomb that killed 168 people, including 19 babies and toddlers, inside the Alfred P Murrah federal building. The reason: they felt they had to obtain the maximum sentence, no matter what, and that required papering over some gaping holes in their case. "If you convicted him but did not get the death penalty, that would not be okay," prosecutor Scott Mendeloff told me. "A lot of the victims were pinning some sense of resolution on us getting justice for this guy. We couldn't lose this... It was like a pressure cooker." While McVeigh's guilt is not in doubt ? he later confessed everything in the book American Terrorist ? the government had no coherent explanation of how McVeigh learned to build such a devastating device, no conclusive evidence that McVeigh had rented the Ryder moving truck used to deliver it, and no eyewitnesses that the prosecution was willing to call who could place McVeigh in Oklahoma City on the morning the bomb went off. Mendeloff and his colleagues relied instead on wrenching pictures of dead babies and the tear-filled testimony of their loved ones. And it worked. The problem, of course, is that it is not the job of the courts to run on emotion, but rather to examine the hard evidence and see how far it really leads. Such serene detachment from the crime is rare in terrorism trials, not because prosecutors are themselves over-emotional, but because they become reluctant to answer some of the hard questions that researchers interested in unearthing the full story invariably come back to. Has the government really made its case, or is it cutting corners? Are the defendants really the biggest culprits, or just the ones the government managed to find and arrest? Are there other conspirators still out there? The Oklahoma City trials ? McVeigh's, and the 2 faced by his old Army buddy Terry Nichols in federal and state court ? are an instructive counterpoint to the debate about KhalId Sheikh Mohammed, because they embraced, at least in theory, all the ideals of full disclosure and due process that critics of the Guantanamo court now yearn for. The government promised to give the defence unprecedented access to its case files, and the 2 sides cut a deal on disclosure going well beyond the Supreme Court's 1963 Brady v Maryland ruling. >From the beginning, though, the prosecution dragged its feet, especially when it came to material pointing to possible co-conspirators beyond McVeigh and Nichols. The defense counted at least 16 separate occasions when the government claimed to have disclosed everything, only to have that claim countermanded by an order from Judge Richard P Matsch to produce something that had in fact been withheld. "It's about the worst I've ever seen", said Rob Nigh, the number 2 on McVeigh's trial team. Judge Matsch himself ended up complaining about "a number of questions unanswered" and urged the government to keep investigating after McVeigh and Nichols were convicted. He was largely ignored. Behind the scenes, the prosecution team had furious internal disputes about other possible conspirators, the extent of Nichols's guilt, and the wisdom of calling certain witnesses who might, under other circumstances, have been pursued as suspects instead. None of this was made public at the time. Ultimately, it was incumbent on the defense teams to conduct their own investigations and develop a fuller picture. Broadly speaking, the McVeigh team did a poor job of this, while the Nichols team did much better in unearthing some extraordinary material going well beyond the FBI's efforts. It was partly for this reason that Nichols was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter, not murder, and escaped the death penalty. Still, only slivers of the vivid new material could be introduced in court, because the trials were ultimately about determining the guilt or innocence of the defendants, not the shortcomings of the investigation as a whole. That's the reality of all trials, not just terrorism cases. The full story almost always remains elusive. None of this should detract from the clear differences between civilian and military courts. An adept defense team in a civilian trial undoubtedly has more leeway to make the challenges and do the digging necessary to unearth a more complete picture ? an important public service, regardless of the verdict. And the full documentary record in civilian trials is far more likely to become public, as it now has in the Oklahoma City bombing case. So there is an opportunity, however belated, for full scrutiny. Ultimately, the debate over KSM's trial is not so much wrong as missing the bigger picture. The question here is not just whether his rights as a defendant are being sufficiently upheld; it is also about getting to the truth. A secretive process with less than rigorous standards of proof is not conducive to establishing that truth or disclosing it. It's a problem in all high-profile cases, whatever the rules of the game. And the best corrective is constant public pressure. This is not just about President Obama placating his Republican adversaries in Congress, or going back on his campaign pledges; it's about having the information to be able to learn from the past and prevent future September 11. Everyone should be able to agree on the wisdom of that. (source: Andrew Gumbel is co-author of the just-published Oklahoma City: What The Investigation Missed - And Why It Still Matters; The Guardian) MONTANA: Montana should commute Canadian Ronald Smith?s death sentence Ronald Smith, a Canadian, committed brutal crimes in Montana 30 years ago. Drunk and stoned on LSD, he marched Thomas Running Rabbit and Harvey Mad Man Jr. into the woods and shot them. He has spent the last 3 decades on death row and is now awaiting word on his final appeal to have his sentence commuted. In a wrenchingly emotional clemency hearing this past week he said he is ?horrendously sorry,? and wept. His lawyer argued that at 54 ?he is a changed man? whose life is worth preserving. His sister asked for ?grace and mercy? in the case. But relatives of the victims called him ?the scum of the earth? and ?an animal,? and demanded that he be made to pay the full price for his crimes. Whatever the Montana review panel recommends later this month, Gov. Brian Schweitzer will get the final say on Smith?s fate. When that time comes, he should let grace and mercy temper justice. The argument that the state must kill to uphold the sanctity of life has never been a strong one. In 2012, it is less persuasive than ever. It does Prime Minister Stephen Harper?s Conservative government no great credit that it has intervened only minimally in this case, requesting clemency only after it was ordered to do so by Federal Court in line with long-standing federal policy. Amnesty International rightly calls the death penalty ?the ultimate denial of human rights? and a violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Most of the world agrees. Since Smith committed his crimes more than 65 countries, Canada and most Western democracies included, have abolished it. Of 198 countries, 141 are abolitionist in law or practice and only 57 are retentionist. Even of those, just 20 executed people last year. This dramatic trend away from barbarism leaves the U.S. and states such as Montana in the unsavory company of China, Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia as active executers. Even in the U.S., 17 of the 50 states have now abolished the death penalty, and with good reason. Capital punishment reduces the state to the same moral level as the most violent criminals, piling violence upon violence. It is used, disproportionately, by repressive regimes and against the poor and marginalized. Mistakes cannot be remedied. And the deterrent value is minimal, arguably no more than a life sentence. We have come to expect better of ourselves. Beyond this global swing in public opinion, specific factors argue for clemency in Smith?s case. He was an abused youth. He was drunk and high on hallucinogens when he committed his crimes, and his judgment was impaired when he actively asked for the death penalty. Rodney Munro, an accomplice who stabbed one of the victims, wisely accepted a plea deal, was eventually shipped home to Canada and has served his time. Finally, those who know Smith best agree that after decades on death row, most of it in isolation, he has defied all odds and changed for the better, showing remorse and regret for the ?so many lives? he has destroyed: those of his victims, their families, his own life and that of his family. Better to let him live behind bars with that remorse rather than snuff it out with yet another act of violence. (source: Editorial, Toronto Star) DELAWARE: Should Delaware execute its death row 'volunteers'? The April execution of Shannon Johnson, a man who ?volunteered? to give up all appellate rights and hasten his own death, was preceded by an examination of only two issues: was he ?competent? [mentally capable] to give up those rights and did he do so as a matter of ?free will?? Those are the tests articulated by courts nationally, and Mr. Johnson was deemed to meet them. I write this article not to dispute that determination, although there are substantial questions about how it was arrived at, in particular whether Mr. Johnson?s lawyer should have stepped aside, as she was in the Catch-22 position of advising a client to waive his rights including the right to see if she had previously been ineffective. Instead, I write to address the question that the hearing never examined, one that is critical if Delaware is to strive toward having a constitutionally sound death penalty process. Law professors teach with hypotheticals, so I offer one here. Imagine a murder case where everyone thought the accused committed the crime after he turned 18 years old, but it turns out the crime happened when he was still 17. The U.S. Supreme Court has held it to be cruel and unusual punishment to execute those who commit murder before they turn 18. Would we let that defendant tell his lawyer ?don?t tell the court my real age?? The answer must be ?no,? because the prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment is a limit on us, on the people and their government. It forbids the government to impose punishments of certain types. And how does that hypothetical relate to Shannon Johnson? Another aspect of death penalty jurisprudence requires that the death penalty be imposed only on those who are in a category described as the ?worst of the worst,? and one can be in that narrow grouping only after a full assessment of the crime and of that person?s background (what the law calls ?mitigation? evidence). The problem here is simple. Having read a transcript of the penalty phase proceeding from Mr. Johnson?s case, it is clear that there was an inadequate presentation ? so much so that the ?mitigation? witnesses ended up giving testimony that helped the prosecution and failed to provide critical background evidence of the type that could show Johnson is not among the ?worst of the worst.? So Delaware has never had an accurate determination of whether Johnson deserved the sentence of death that he received. The normal course in a death penalty case is for new counsel to enter after an appeal and to review the preparation and presentation of the penalty phase. That there was much more to learn about Mr. Johnson ? about learning deficits, possible mental retardation and a family history of mental problems ? came out in the recent federal court pleas. It is the type of information that, clearly, could have supported a life sentence. What does this mean? Delaware does not have to accept ?volunteers,? or can conditions allowing the waiver of appeals only [apply] upon a second-round review to ensure that the penalty jury did hear all the evidence needed to make a reasoned and just sentencing decision. If it persists as it has, we will allow defendants to volunteer us into violating the Eighth Amendment by permitting the execution of persons who are not the ?worst of the worst.? (source: Opinion; Jules Epstein, associate professor at Widener University School of Law, has taught death penalty law to judges, prosecutors and defense counsels throughout the United States----The News Epstein) From rhalperi at smu.edu Sat May 5 11:19:21 2012 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Sat, 5 May 2012 11:19:21 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] [SPAM] death penalty news----N.C., UTAH, ORE., CALIF., WASH. Message-ID: May 5 NORTH CAROLINA: Put To Death For Being Black: New Hope Against Judicial System Bias----North Carolina's Racial Justice Act finally acknowledges that there is a huge bias in who gets the death penalty The wind of revolution is beginning to blow through the halls of justice. It?s a small breeze now and the impact of what many consider one of the worst Supreme Court decisions of the 20th century still weighs heavily, but in North Carolina something called the Racial Justice Act is suggesting that a change is gonna come. Many studies have shown that there is significant racial bias in the administration of the death penalty. Defendants are more likely to be sentenced to death for killing whites than for killing blacks and black defendants are more likely to get the death penalty than whites, as was referenced in David Baldus?s 1998 report ?Racial Discrimination and the Death Penalty?. But a study by Jennifer Eberhardt found the impact of race to be even more nuanced: judges and juries perceive defendants who have physical traits that are stereotypically associated with blackness (broad nose, big lips, dark skin) to be more ?death worthy.? What a horrific term. In Eberhardt?s study, stereotypically black-looking defendants were twice as likely to be sentenced to death. Sociologists know that race matters in capital punishment, but the Supreme Court has refused to notice since a 1987 decision in McClesky v Kemp. A Los Angeles Times survey of liberal legal scholars named McClesky one of the worst decisions since World War II. NYU law professor Anthony Anderson called it ?the Dred Scott of our time,? referencing the 1857 decision that upheld slavery. Ohio State University Professor Michelle Alexander told me it was the Plessy v Ferguson of our time, referencing the 1896 decision to justify racial segregation. Justice Lewis Powell, who wrote the majority opinion on McClesky, later told his biographer that was 1 of 2 votes he regretted. Warren McClesky was a black man who was convicted of killing a Georgia police officer in 1978. His legal team produced a study showing racial inequality in the death penalty ? specifically that blacks convicted of killing whites in Georgia were 4 times more likely to be sentenced to death than those convicted of killing non-whites. The court accepted the statistics but rejected McClesky?s appeal and wrote, ?disparities in sentencing are an inevitable part of our criminal justice system.? So racism is in the mechanism of administering death but ? so be it. Bias was found to shape capital punishment and that was acceptable? In dissent, Justice William Brennan wrote, ?That a decision to impose the death penalty could be influenced by race is a particularly repugnant prospect, and evidence that race may play even a modest role in levying a death sentence should be enough to characterize that sentence as ?cruel and unusual.? ? In another dissenting opinion in a different capital punishment case, 1994's Callins v Collins, Justice Harry Blackmun famously wrote that it?s impossible to rid racial bias from the death penalty so ?I no longer shall tinker with the machinery of death.? Since McClesky, judges have not allowed defense attorneys to show juries studies proving racial bias in death sentencing, making it impossible to challenge bias at any stage of the judicial process. It?s as if racism only matters when it operates as a specific stated conspiracy rather than a ghost in the machine animated by an accumulation of bias. But 2 challenges have arisen. >From the South. Racial Justice Acts were passed in Kentucky in 1998 and in North Carolina in 2009, stipulating that if race is found to be a significant factor in the imposition of the death penalty, then death will be commuted to life without parole. North Carolina?s act allows 3 areas in which to argue significant racial bias: that a death sentence is more likely because of the race of the defendant; that a death sentence is more likely because of the race of the victim; or that jury selection was racially biased. Almost as soon as North Carolina?s act was passed, nearly all death row inmates began challenging their sentences. The first challenge to reach the court was filed by 38 year-old Marcus Reymond Robinson, who was sentenced to death for the 1991 kidnapping and murder of a 17-year-old from whom he stole a car and $27. Robinson was convicted by a jury composed of 9 whites, 2 blacks and 1 American Indian in a county that?s 40% black. Last month, Robinson?s sentence was commuted to life because his legal team successfully argued that race was a significant factor in the dismissal of potential jurors. A racially diverse jury is crucial to countering stereotypes and getting fairness. Imagine, white readers, being on trial for murdering a black person and watching the prosecutors remove white people from the jury pool just because they?re white, and finding yourself in a room all but filled with blacks who would judge your guilt and whether or not you would die for killing a black person. Does that sound fair? Or frightening? Linking who lives and who dies to race is unacceptable but we do it. Even if you believe in the death penalty from a moral standpoint, racial disparities and other human errors make it hard to trust humanity with the ultimate penalty. (source: TIME; Tour? is the author of 4 books, including Who's Afraid of Post-Blackness? The views expressed are solely his own) UTAH: Attorneys say refugee murder suspect may be too young for death penalty ---- Defense wants death penalty off the table. Defense attorneys for a Burmese man accused of killing a young refugee girl more than 4 years ago are questioning the man?s age ? and asking a judge to remove the possibility of a death penalty in the murder case because of that. In court documents, Esar Met is listed as a 25-year-old, born in January 1987. But the man?s attorneys say even Met and his own family are unsure of his age, and that he could have been too young at the time of the slaying to qualify for the death penalty. "Neither Mr. Met nor any of his family knows the date [including the year] of Mr. Met?s birth," defense attorneys wrote in a motion filed this week in 3rd District Court. "There is no existing paperwork, and there likely never was any paperwork, documenting the date of Mr. Met?s birth in Burma." Met and 7-year-old Hser Ner Moo, who police found slain in Met?s South Salt Lake apartment in March 2008, lived in refugee camps in Thailand before coming to the United States. Patrick Poulin, executive director at the International Rescue Committee in Salt Lake City, said it?s not uncommon for refugees to lack official birth documentation. It generally depends on the country in which the refugee lived. "For some countries, they may actually have ID cards or maybe even access to birth certificates," he said. "For a lot of refugees that are coming out of camps, they don?t." Instead, those refugees typically have documents from medical screenings before they immigrate to the United States. Without official documentation, birth dates are often self-reported, Poulin said. Prosecutor Rob Parrish declined to comment on the motion other than to say his office is further researching the issue and will soon file a reply. Defense attorney Michael Peterson has asked Judge Judith Atherton to consider the issue in advance of a preliminary hearing in June that would determine whether Met should stand trial on the charges of aggravated murder and child kidnapping for allegedly killing Hser Ner Moo. The girl went missing March 31, 2008, prompting a massive search by hundreds of volunteers and law enforcement. She was found the next day, beaten and raped inside Met?s apartment, according to court documents. At the time of the slaying, Met listed his age as 21. (source: Salt Lake Tribune) OREGON: Jury considering death penalty hears stories of Brian Bement as comedic kid Family and friends of Brian Bement recalled a funny, outgoing, caring child growing up in a Midwestern suburb when they testified this week in the sentencing phase of his aggravated murder trial. Washington County jurors convicted Bement of aggravated murder last week in the 2010 shooting death of David Greenspan, a Tigard naturopath. Defense attorneys are now presenting evidence the jury will consider as it decides whether to impose the death penalty. Before Bement became a heroin addict and dealer, selling drugs out of a downtown Portland office building, he was an energetic kid with a knack for telling jokes, his friends and family testified on Thursday. Several witnesses testified that he won a contest with his stand-up comedy routine when he was a kid and traveled to a national competition. Lorraine Planek, Bement's aunt, testified that her nephew was "the life of the party" as a boy and in more recent years. "He liked to make people laugh," she said. "He was good at. He still is." Another aunt, Rose Pontow, testified that as an 8-year-old, Bement would entertain a roomful of adults at family gatherings with his joke-telling. Brothers Michael and Joshua Beyne told jurors that Bement spent much of his time playing at their house as a kid. They started drinking alcohol and smoking marijuana in junior high, and Bement began selling pot in 7th grade, they testified. He was always trying to make people laugh, they said, even in high school when he became involved with heroin. After serving a few years in prison for robbery, he overcame the addiction for a while, started a painting company and performed stand-up comedy in Chicago, they said. Auna Foote, 34, testified that she met Bement when she was a new student in their 4th-grade class in West Chicago, Ill. She stayed mostly to herself until Bement approached her one day as she read on a bench and invited her to join him and his friends. After that, they shared friends, ran for student council and sold newspaper subscriptions together. They started dating in seventh grade, she said. She described him as "very sweet," funny and a good boyfriend. He was upset by their break-up, she said. "He said he loved me and cared a lot about me and was very sad," she said. Foote told jurors kids in their neighborhood started drinking and using drugs early in life and as a result many have ended up in trouble, incarcerated or dead. She said Bement may have been a different person if it weren't for the drugs and alcohol that plagued his early years. "He's a really great guy; he's always been there for everybody," she said. "I feel like the circumstances that we all grew up in did not leave everybody with a great avenue to have a great future." Jamison Storey testified he was about 17 when met Bement, shortly after Storey's mother died in a car accident. Not knowing how to handle his mother's death, Storey said, he "stayed wasted" and his brother introduced him and Bement to heroin. Storey's house became a hangout, where other teens stayed and used drugs, he said. Bement was one of the few real friends among them, he said. "He's got a good heart," Storey said. "When I was in need, he stuck by me, that's the most I remember of him." (source: The Oregonian) CALIFORNIA: Death Penalty Needs Streamlining, Not Repeal The death penalty has no middle ground - you are either for or against it. In November, voters will decide whether to replace the death penalty with a sentence of life in prison without parole. Death penalty opponents are now trying to appeal to our pocketbooks saying that it simply "costs too much." Can a price on be put on justice? Like countless other Californians, I support the death penalty because it is the strongest statement that we as a society can make against the cold-blooded killers of innocent human beings. The death penalty deters crime and ensures that those who have murdered can never murder again. Opponents have put forward the argument that the endless prisoner appeals and court delays have driven up costs over the years. But who is responsible for the endless prisoner appeals and court delays? The very same people now arguing for repeal! They have created the very atmosphere that they rail against in which the death penalty is too costly. The death penalty opponents are the ones that use our legal system to create costly appeals, and these continuous appeals create the high costs they like to protest about. A verdict, already arrived at by a jury of peers, is not carried out because of their legal wrangling. When I think about delays, I think about the victims of death row inmate Kevin Cooper, who has been awaiting justice for almost three decades. Cooper was correctly convicted of the savage murders of a Chino Hills family in 1983. A DNA test that he claimed would prove his innocence, instead proved his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. Yet one excuse after another has delayed his execution. Legal technicalities and concerns that the execution process is flawed and inhumane have essentially imposed a moratorium on his penalty as well as others. Keep in mind that these delays have little to do with an inmate's innocence. Nobody sitting on California's death row has ever been proven innocent. It is true that California has spent a lot of money on only 13 executions since 1978. It is also true that there are more than 700 inmates on death row still awaiting justice. The best way to reduce costs is to remove unnecessary delays that have created unnecessary costs. If other states can spend less implementing the death penalty, California can do the same. In 2010, I introduced legislation that would have trained staff in the Department of Corrections in administration of the death penalty. This would have eliminated frivolous lawsuits filed by lawyers to stop the death penalty and California would comply with a federal court ruling requiring even more safeguards. When given the chance to vote for the bill, liberal Democrats voted "no." They have also rejected other reforms that would have reduced costs and streamlined the process. If death penalty skeptics are truly concerned about costs, they should work with us to lower them, but that is not their real goal. The death penalty exists because of the horrific crimes committed against the citizens of California. And the high cost of implementing the law is driven by the very people that are against the law. (source: California State Assemblyman, Curt Hagman (R) represents the 60th District, including Anaheim, Chino Hills, Diamond Bar, Industry, La Habra, La Mirada, Orange, Rowland Heights, San Dimas, Walnut, & more; chinohills.com) WASHINGTON: Woman won't face death penalty in Everett killings An Oregon woman won't face the possibility of the death penalty for her alleged role in killing an Everett couple, Snohomish County Prosecutor Mark Roe said Friday. Holly Grigsby, 25, is charged with 2 counts of aggravated 1st-degree murder. Her co-defendant, David J. "Joey" Pedersen, previously pleaded guilty to the same charges and has been sentenced to life in prison. Aggravated 1st-degree murder in Washington carries two possible sentences: death or life in prison with no chance for parole. The Oregon pair, with ties to white supremacists, are accused of killing Pedersen's estranged father, David "Red" Pedersen and his wife, Leslie "DeeDee" Pedersen, in September. The defendants also are suspects in slayings in Oregon and California. The pair could still face the death penalty in the slayings in Oregon and California. Federal prosecutors could consolidate the cases and prosecute the killings as hate crimes. In Oregon, the Lincoln County district attorney has announced plans to prosecute the couple for a killing there and has been waiting for the case here against Grigsby to be resolved before he seeks their extradition. Prosecutors allege that Red Pedersen, 56, was shot once in the back of the head while he drove the young couple to the bus station in Everett. Joey Pedersen was accused of firing the fatal shot. Investigators believe the pair returned to the Everett couple's home to kill DeeDee Pedersen, 69. Police found her bound with duct tape. Her throat had been slashed. The evidence suggests that Grigsby wielded the knives, court papers said. Prosecutors charged the case based on the theory that the killings were committed during a robbery that included stealing a Jeep and multiple credit and debit cards. Roe said he weighed several factors in deciding how to approach Grigsby's case. "There is ample evidence that co-defendant David J. Pedersen's hatred for his father was the primary motivation for these crimes," Roe said. "Inarguably, the nature of this defendant's alleged physical acts, committed against a completely innocent victim, Leslie Pedersen, almost defy description." Roe said he had to take other factors into consideration. Grigsby had no previous violent criminal history, is relatively young and appears to have been following Joey Pedersen's lead. "Proportionality also weighs against seeking death for (Grigsby) after declining to do so for her co-defendant who was older, instigated the crimes, and had more criminal history, some of it violent," Roe said. In the decision not to seek the death penalty against Joey Pedersen, Roe said the police investigation turned up "significant and credible" evidence that Red Pedersen had sexually abused his children and others decades ago. Joey Pedersen went public with the allegations after his arrest in October. He claimed the abuse was the reason why he chose to kill his father. DeeDee Pedersen had nothing to do with the abuse, and wasn't married to Red Pedersen at the time, the prosecutor said. Lori Nemitz, one of DeeDee Pedersen's grown children, said she anticipated the prosecutor's office would make the decision not to seek the death penalty against Grigsby after declining to do so against Joey Pedersen. (source: Everett Herald) From rhalperi at smu.edu Sat May 5 11:20:59 2012 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Sat, 5 May 2012 11:20:59 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] [SPAM] death penalty news----worldwide Message-ID: May 5 IRAN: 2 Kurdish prisoners sentenced to death The Iranian judiciary has handed death sentences to two Kurdish political prisoners in Mahabad. The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran quoted an informed local source saying Ebrahim Issapour and Sirvan Nejavi, who were arrested last July, have been sentenced to death for the charge of ?enmity against God.? The report indicates that their sentence has been appealed and sent to the Supreme Court. According to the UN Special Rapporteur?s report from October 2011, 15 Kurdish activists have been reported to be on death row in Iran for charges relating to national security threats and spying. In recent years, at least 8 Kurdish political prisoners were hanged by the Iranian judiciary, including Ali Keydari, Farhad Vakili, Ehsan Fatahian, Farzad Kamanfar and Shrin Alam Holi. According to Amnesty International, in 2011 at least 360 people were executed in Iran and 156 others were sentenced to death. According to Ahmad Shaheed?s report for the United Nations, executions in Iran have been on the rise since 2003. (source: Radio Zamaneh) SAUDI ARABIA: On trial----What has been the impact of the Ahmed El-Gizawi case on Egypt and its relations with Saudi Arabia, asks Doaa El-Bey Charges were officially brought in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday against Egyptian lawyer and human rights activist Ahmed El-Gizawi for possessing illegal pharmaceutical drugs. The case will now be passed from the country's drugs administration to the pre-trial committee, and the verdict is expected in 18 days. The committee will decide whether to call for the death penalty, amputation or stoning, possible penalties under Saudi law, before passing the case to a religious court. The detention of El-Gizawi in Saudi Arabia over two weeks ago led to strains in Egyptian-Saudi relations and the temporary closure of the Saudi embassy in Cairo and two Saudi consulates in Alexandria and Suez. The case also cast light on issues such as the role played by Egyptian embassies abroad, the fate of Egyptian prisoners detained in Saudi Arabia, and the post-revolutionary opinions of the Egyptian people. Egypt's Foreign Ministry and the Egyptian consulates in Saudi Arabia were accused this week of failing to provide information on the case, commentators arguing that had information been provided this could have stopped protesters from marching on the Saudi embassy in Cairo in order to show their anger. Yet, apart from sporadic statements, no official statement giving details of the case was issued. Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamel Amr said last week that the ministry was committed to providing legal support to El-Gizawi. Ministry spokesperson Amr Roshdi said the Egyptian embassy in Riyadh and the consulate in Jeddah were making urgent contacts with the Saudi authorities in order to try to secure El-Gizawi's release. The ministry statement came one day after an official statement was released by Ahmed El-Kattan, Saudi ambassador in Egypt, explaining the details of the case. The statement said that El-Gizawi has been apprehended at Jeddah airport, allegedly in possession of more than 21,000 narcotic pills. El-Gizawi was at first reported to have been detained for insulting the Saudi monarch, which can be punished by one year in prison and 20 lashes. Al-Kattan denied these reports, saying that Saudi law does not punish foreign citizens for crimes committed outside the country. Mohamed El-Meneisi, head of expatriate affairs at the Egyptian Foreign Ministry, said that consular staff had done all they could to assist El-Gizawi. Judicial investigations carried out in any country were a matter for that country's authorities, he said. "The diplomatic mission cannot attend the investigation of its citizens, or provide legal support unless it is given permission to do so by the authorities of the country concerned," El-Meneisi told Al-Ahram Weekly. Egyptian consul in Jeddah Maher El-Mahdi visited El-Gizawi late last week to check on his condition and to inquire on the legal support he needs. Meanwhile, some commentators have been arguing that the El-Gizawi case is an opportunity to raise the cases of other Egyptians detained in Saudi Arabia. Some human rights activists have claimed that thousands of Egyptians are currently being detained in Saudi Arabia, but Ahmed Ragheb, head of the Foreign Ministry department for consular and expatriate affairs, told Al-Ahram this week that the true number was 70. Of these, 34 have been released, eight have been sentenced to life in prison, and the fate of the rest is being discussed, Ragheb said. However, Al-Kattan told Egyptian MPs that there were between 600 and 700 sentenced Egyptian prisoners in Saudi Arabia, in addition to a further 63 detained without sentence. One diplomat who talked on condition of anonymity told the Weekly that at a time when Egypt is keen to bring its relations with Saudi Arabia back to normal, it would be reluctant to open the controversial issue of Egyptian prisoners in the country. "Besides, Egyptian officials have more pressing issues to deal with," he said. Abdel-Raouf El-Reidi, a senior diplomat and former ambassador to the US, said the file "should remain open until we reach fair rules and laws for Egyptians working in Saudi Arabia." However, El-Reidi added, "we can give it a break until the tension eases. Then we can reopen it and discuss it in a quiet and diplomatic manner away from provocation," he told the Weekly. Khaled Abu Bakr, a lawyer, preferred not to talk until the trial of El-Gizawi concludes. "If he is guilty, we apologise, and if he is not guilty, we can discuss it," Abu Bakr told the Weekly. Bahieddin Hassan, director of the Cairo Centre for Human Rights Studies, said that he wished to keep the issue open until it is resolved. "But, now when Egypt is in a deep political crisis, the issue will not move forward in our favour," he said. "Besides, El-Gizawi's case put us in a weak position in which the authorities seek to appease Saudi Arabia rather than look for the dignity of the Egyptian citizen," he added. El-Gizawi had previously filed a lawsuit against Saudi monarch king Abdullah and the Saudi authorities, accusing them of the arbitrary detention and physical abuse of Egyptians in Saudi Arabia. Many commentators think that this lawsuit could have been the reason for his subsequent arrest and detention. Demonstrators in front of the Saudi embassy in Cairo protested against the arrest of El-Gizawi, and the chaotic scenes may point to serious post-revolutionary problems among Egyptians. The Muslim Brotherhood's political arm, the Freedom and Justice Party, defended the protests as a reflection of Egyptians wanting to stand up for their rights and preserve the dignity of fellow citizens visiting, living or working in Arab countries. The protests began last week and led to Saudi Arabia's decision to temporarily close its embassies and consulates in Egypt and to recall its ambassador. Ali Leila, a sociology professor at Ain Shams University in Cairo, said that the protests were evidence of behavioural problems. Over the last 30 years, he told the Weekly, people have suffered politically, economically and morally. Egypt's rulers had subjected the population to repression and corruption, and people were now expressing their anger indiscriminately. "We need at least 5 years to restore the economy, 10 years to attain a proper political life, and at least 15 years to re-establish morals," Leila said. Egyptians need to understand how to differ with others, said El-Meneisi. "It's good to differ with others as it creates an opportunity for discussion of differences and reaching compromises. However, differences should be governed by the manner, principles and morals that we are brought up on." (source: Al-Ahram Weekly) ****************** Saudi Arabia Extends Pardon Process for 4 Death Row Indonesians The Saudi Arabian government has extended the pardon process by another 3 months to 4 Indonesians facing the death pnelaty in the kingdom. The decison of King Abdullah on the matter on Thursday was delivered via a diplomatic note by the Saudi Arabian Ambassador in Jakarta. The Indonesian Foreign Ministry in statement on Friday said the decision of the Saudi Arabian King was a positive repsonse to a request by Indonesian President Susilo Bamban Yudhoyono based on the good and cordial relations between the 2 coutnries. The decision was issued ahead of a meeting between Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa and Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal scheduled for May 8 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The extension of 3 months was given so that efforts to seek forgiveness from the victims families could continue to be carried out. Under Saudi Arabian laws, an aggrieved family was 1 of the parties who could forgive the offenders and save them from the death penalty. Since the middle of 2011 till now, of 62 Indonesian nationals given the death penalty in Saudi Arabia, 23 were freed from the punishment. (source: BERNAMA) KUWAIT: Death penalty for Muslims in Kuwait who curse God, Quran or Prophet Kuwait has moved to stiffen penalties for religious crimes. Kuwait?s parliament on Thursday passed a bill stipulating the death penalty for Muslims who curse or mock God, the Muslim holy book, all prophets and the wives of Islam?s Prophet Mohammed. The same punishment is applied to those who ?describe themselves as new prophets or messengers from God,? the Kuwaiti state news agency KUNA reported. ?But if the accused is a non-Muslim, the punishment would be lowered to jail for no more than 10 years,? the report added, according to the bill. 40 MPs, including cabinet ministers, voted for the bill in the 2nd and final round of voting, against 6 opponents who included all 5 Shi?ite MPs present and liberal MP Mohammad al-Sager. The bill introduces 2 new articles to the Gulf state?s penal code specifically to stiffen penalties for such offences. Defendants who repent in court will be spared capital punishment but will get a jail sentence for 5 years and a fine of $36,000 or one of them, while repentance by those who repeat the crime is not acceptable, the bill says. ?We do not want to execute people with opinions or thought because Islam respects these people... But we need this legislation because incidents of cursing God have increased. We need to deter them,? opposition MP Ali al-Deqbasi said during the debate. The bill becomes effective after the government accepts it, the emir signs it and it is published in the official gazette within one month. Minister of Justice and Islamic Affairs Jamal Shehab told reporters after the vote that the government will accept and implement the law. Shiite MPs also demanded that the bill impose the death penalty on anyone who curses their sect?s 12 revered Imams, but the Sunni-dominated parliament rejected their request. Shiite MP Abdulhameed Dashti said the bill breaches the Kuwaiti constitution and the principles of Islam. ?Why are we trying to show Islam as a religion of death and blood when it is actually the opposite of that,? Dashti said. The move to stiffen penalties for religious crimes came after authorities in March arrested a Shi'ite tweeter for allegedly cursing the Prophet Mohammed (pbuh), his wife and some companions. The suspect, Hamad al-Naqi, is being detained pending trial later this month. Kuwaiti courts have in the past several months jailed activists from both sects over religious offences. (source: Al Arabiya News) UNITED ARAB EMIRATES: Death penalty of housemaid?s rapist-murderers commuted The death penalty awarded to 2 men for gang-raping 2 Filipina housemaids and killing 1 of them in the process was commuted by the Fujairah Court of Appeal recently. Another convict, who is a minor, was acquitted after the blood heirs of the deceased surrendered their rights in the case and reached a reconciliation agreement with his father. Presiding Judge of an appellate court bench Abdullah Al Salami quashed the death penalty of a 25-year-old B.H.G and 21-year-old M.A ? both Emirati ? and sentenced them to 6 months in prison each. The judge also acquitted 15-year-old A.H, who was the prime accused, after the blood heirs of the maid who was strangled to death after being raped had given up their rights. The court turned down the appeal by the public prosecution against him. The incident happened in A.H?s house in the Mirbih locality of Fujairah in mid-October in 2009. The Fujairah Police were informed by the Emirati minor?s father that his maid was raped and murdered and another domestic servant was also gang-raped by unknown persons at 3am. The cops collected pieces of evidence from the crime scene and interrogated the surviving maid, who said she had an affair with A.H. She allowed the trio to sneak into the bedroom of the maids after A.H. convinced her to allow him to bring in her friends for a drinking session. The 2 men gang-raped her fellow maid and strangled her to death after she started screaming loudly. They were arrested but denied the murder was premeditated. They said they did not intend to kill her, but her scream forced them to gag her, lest they be discovered. They were referred to the Criminal Court of First Instance, which sentenced B.H.G and M.A to capital punishment and acquitted A.H. However, the court ordered A.H be kept in the Juvenile Home as the heirs of the victim had surrendered their rights after they reached a reconciliation agreement with the teen?s father. B.H.G and M.A contested the verdict at the Court of Appeal. Though the heirs of the deceased maid pursued the case during several sittings, they finally surrendered their rights and the court commuted their death penalty. (source: Khaleej Times) INDIA: Khusboo killer on death row It had taken a khukuri-wielding Bijendra Prasad a fleeting 2 minutes to decapitate estranged lover Khusboo Kumari on a college campus teeming with students last April. The court today took less than half that time to send him to the gallows. After 1 year and 4 days of legal formalities, judicial commissioner of Ranchi S.H. Kazmi ' who had pronounced the 24-year-old wannabe engineer guilty of a "well-planned" murder last Thursday ' awarded him death penalty at 10.30am in a packed courtroom, barely leaving any time for argument. On April 27 last year, 19-year-old Khusboo ' a resident of Tupudana on the outskirts of Ranchi and student of arts at Ram Manohar Lohia College ' was fatally attacked outside her economics exam hall at St Xavier's. Armed with a khukuri, Bijendra, who was then pursuing an engineering diploma in Jamshedpur, managed to sneak into the college despite half a dozen surveillance cameras at strategic points and decapitated the girl who he claimed to be his beloved of five years. He was chased and nabbed by a security guard, and later arrested. Today, as Bijendra, sporting an orange shirt and blue jeans, and his lawyer Nityanand Sinha, who had earlier sought leniency on the ground of his client's "youthful" age, looked up expectantly, the nib of the pen was broken as a seal on the capital punishment announced. While the entire courtroom eagerly wanted to hear the sentence to an unprecedented murder that left Jharkhand numb with shock, the final words were audible only to a select few who sat close to the judge, including prosecution lawyer B.N. Sharma, Khusboo's father Lal Maheshwar Nath Shahdeo and some of his relatives. Sharma later confirmed the verdict, saying the court had termed the incident as "a rarest of rare crime" and awarded death sentence to Bijendra. "With this, justice has finally been done in the Khusboo murder case. It is a victory for the society," he added. Khusboo's father and relatives heaved a sigh of relief. "After a year's wait, the court has ordered that my daughter's killer be hanged. I am happy and her (Khusboo) soul will finally rest in peace. Her life was taken away in 2 minutes on the premises of a reputable college of the state. I thank everyone who played a proactive role to ensure that justice was done within a year," he said. Defence counsel Sinha refused to comment on the verdict, saying he had not seen a copy of the judgment yet. Bijendra's father Raghu Nandan Prasad, however, admitted defeat. "We tried to save him (Bijendra), but failed," he said, adding that he would make "any further comment in the matter of court". Despite being on death row, Bijendra stood his ground. Very vocally expressing his dissatisfaction over the judgment, he said: "No one saw me killing Khusboo Witnesses produced in court were wrong. I am innocent." Noting that the girl was killed on a campus teeming with intermediate examinees, prosecution lawyer Sharma said Bijendra had been misleading the court since the very beginning. "After police submitted the chargesheet in court, he pretended to be mentally unstable and wasted more than 3 months at an asylum. He never spoke the truth and always misguided the court though forensic reports and 23 witnesses confirmed his involvement in the murder," Sharma added. (source: Yahoo News) From rhalperi at smu.edu Sun May 6 15:55:02 2012 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Sun, 6 May 2012 15:55:02 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] [SPAM] death penalty news----N.C., USA., COLO., FLA., S.C., ORE. y Message-ID: May 6 NORTH CAROLINA: DA seeking death penalty in Durham slayings Prosecutors say they are seeking the death penalty for the man charged with killing two people and wounding 2 others during an attempted robbery at a tire shop in Durham County. District Attorney Leon Stanbeck says there are several factors that make the case against O'Brian McNeil White appropriate for the death penalty. White is charged with 2 counts of 1st-degree murder, three counts of assault with a deadly weapon and one count of robbery with a dangerous weapon. Police say White shot 4 people at J.T. Tire in March. Sixty-five-year-old Naomi Wright and 32-year-old Abdelgadir Mergany Abdelganir died, and 2 other people were injured. Wright worked at the store, and Abdelganir was a customer getting a tire changed on his taxi. A hearing is scheduled for May 9. (source: Associated Press) USA: 9/11 attack suspects face death penalty The self-confessed mastermind of the 9/11 attacks and 4 co-accused appeared in a Guantanamo Bay court on Sunday, all facing the death penalty if convicted. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his co-defendants ? being seen in public for the 1st time in 3 years ? were to be formally charged with planning and executing the September 11, 2001, attacks that killed 2,976 people in New York, Washington and Shanksville, Pennsylvania. ?Prosecution is ready to proceed in the case of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed,? chief prosecutor Brigadier General Mark Martins told the military tribunal. The men, dressed in white jumpsuits and some wearing a white head covering, sat some distance from each other. None of them was handcuffed, while Mohammed sported a long, flowing beard. One of the last steps before the so-called ?trial of the century? takes place, the arraignment marks the second time the United States has tried to prosecute the 9/11 suspects. It comes more than a decade after the most lethal attacks on US soil in modern history, and about one year after President Barack Obama ordered the US Navy SEALs raid that killed the man behind it all ? Osama bin Laden. ?There is a desire for justice. It is an important moment for all of us,? said Marc Thiessen, a former speechwriter for president George W. Bush who has defended that administration?s use of what it called ?enhanced interrogation? techniques ? which rights groups have denounced as torture. Mohammed appeared in the military tribunal along with Ramzi Binalshibh of Yemen, Mohammed?s Pakistani nephew Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali ? also known as Ammar al-Baluchi ? Walid bin Attash and Mustapha al-Hawsawi of Saudi Arabia. The 5 have been held for years at the US-run prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, while a legal and political battle has played out over how and where to prosecute them ? and debates have raged over how they were treated. It has been nine years since Mohammed?s 2003 arrest, three of which he spent in secret CIA jails, confessing to a series of attacks and plots after being subjected to harsh interrogations, including waterboarding. Some analysts say Mohammed could try to take advantage of the intense interest in the proceedings to deliver a scathing attack on the US government. (source: The Nation) COLORADO: It's time to kill the death penalty No one likes to go easy on crime in an election year and there was no attempt to end Colorado?s death penalty law during this session of the Colorado General Assembly. Too bad, because the ultimate sanction is unevenly applied in Colorado, it?s irrational, it does not serve as a deterrent to murder and costs us a lot of money. And there?s always that chance that we convict people who are innocent. Last week, Robert Dewey, 51, was exonerated of the rape and murder charges he was convicted of in 1996 in Mesa County after DNA evidence proved he could not have been the killer. Good thing we didn?t execute Mr. Dewey, right? Rev. Roger Butts of Colorado Springs recently joined Coloradans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty. He has been a minister at High Plains Church Unitarian Universalist. Why this cause? ?I?ve always had an interest in human rights,? Butts said. ?We?re trying to educate the community on the cost and the arbitrariness.? In a comment Robert Dewey would appreciate, Butts said, ?You can release someone from prison, but you can never release them from the grave.? Lisa Cisneros, executive director of Coloradans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, said ?Killing one person doesn?t do anything for society.? Cisneros noted that pursuit of the death penalty varies widely from state to state, and even within Colorado there is great disparity among judicial districts and the district attorneys who make the decisions. In the last decade, for instance, Arapahoe County has sought the death penalty while three cop killers in El Paso and Fremont counties received life sentences. ?What is the mentality?? Cisneros asked. ?It comes down to geography. It?s completely based on where you live.? Here are some facts: ? Colorado has executed 1 person, Gary Lee Davis, since 1974. In 2010 the state?s murder rate was 2.4 per 100,000 people. ?Texas has executed 464 people since 1974. In 2010 the Texas murder rate per 100,000 people was 5, or twice Colorado?s rate. ?Other states where the death penalty is popular, including Georgia, Florida, and Alabama, also have higher murder rates than Colorado, proving the death penalty does not serve as a deterrent. ?In the U.S., 140 death row inmates have been exonerated since 1973. That includes Joe Arridy, who was granted a full posthumous pardon in 2011, 72 years after Arridy died in the gas chamber. Overwhelming evidence showed Arridy was not guilty. Cold-blooded killers belong in prison for life, but death penalty cases cost more money than the cost of a prison cell. And lethal injections don?t make us safer. (source: Barry Noreen, Colorado Springs Gazette) FLORIDA: Florida's death penalty a legitimate form of punishment, a deterrent and should continue to be used----Should Florida continue to execute inmates? Yes: It's a deterrent; retribution legitimate form of punishment Thomas Bakkedahl is chief assistant state attorney in the 19th Judicial Circuit, which includes Indian River, St. Lucie and Martin counties. What sentence is just and appropriate under these facts? A 21-time convicted felon and his co-defendant escaped a North Carolina prison work camp and embarked on an armed rein of terror. The 2 reprobates end up at a fast-food restaurant in a sleepy bedroom community on Florida's Treasure Coast. Inside, the three employees, including husband and wife, were restrained while the defendant ordered the manager to open the safe. Securing the contents, the defendant turned to the store manager's wife. In the presence of the manager, the defendant undressed his wife and violently raped her. He abused and tortured his victims for more than 20 minutes before summarily executing them. Before the murders the manager begged and pleaded with his tormentor, informing him that he and his wife had a beautiful, little 2-year-old girl. His plea for mercy fell on deaf ears as the defendant shot him in the chest. Upon witnessing the coldblooded murder of her husband, the manager's wife began to cry hysterically. The defendant's "compassionate" response was to shoot her in the head as she knelt over her husband's body. He then turned his attentions to the remaining victim and only witness to these heinous, atrocious and cruel acts. He approached this man, who was clearly terrified and cognizant of his own impending death, put the gun to his ear and in a final act of utter depravity told him, "Listen real close and you'll hear the bullet coming." During their flight from this crime, the 2 abducted and murdered their fourth victim unceremoniously dumping her lifeless body on the side of the road. A refusal to recognize these acts as among the most aggravated and thus warranting the imposition of the ultimate sentence belies common sense and debases the value of innocent human life. A jury in Sarasota, when hearing these facts, unanimously recommended the only just sentence, death, for Indian River County's infamous "Domino's" murderer Tommy Wyatt. Need we ask ourselves if the government should sanction the death penalty? The death penalty, in the end, is a clear and unequivocal recognition by society that retribution is a legitimate justification for the punishment. Philosopher Immanuel Kant wrote that restoration of the moral imbalance caused by the act of murder warrants and demands imposition of the death penalty. The retributive theory of justice recognizes that government must mete out punishment in proportion to the crime to ensure respect for the law. Death penalty abolitionists, invoking utilitarianism theories of justice, argue that empirical data doesn't establish that the penalty is a general deterrence to murder. They should consult a correctional officer who works with the most violent inmates sentenced to life. What incentive, short of their own deaths, would these inmates have to refrain from killing in the absence of the death penalty? It's absurd to suggest that not once, in mankind, has anyone considered the prospect of losing his own life in deciding against the commission of a murder. The preservation of that one innocent life alone justifies the existence of the death penalty. Furthermore, it is a specific deterrent as the likes of David Alan Gore will never kill again. Abolitionists argue life without parole adequately addresses society's concerns. Don't be lulled into a false sense of security by this bait-and-switch tactic, which leads us down the "slippery slope." The death penalty has the historical support of a significant majority of the public, yet the courts have steadily diluted its enforcement by invoking the amorphous concept of "evolving standards of decency." Drawing upon European doctrine and U.N. resolutions, the Supreme Court has defined decency for us. Is it really hard to imagine a future when the court determines that the denial of any chance for release from prison is "indecent" and hence violative of the Eighth Amendment? Guess what group will be out front making this argument? Mark my words! (source: Commentary, Thomas Bakkedahl, TC Palm) ************************** Why Florida should abolish death penalty Wake up, Florida. We have been sold a pig in a poke. If what we've got is not totally defective, it is redundant and far less satisfactory than a comparable product which is efficient and cost-effective. I am talking about the death penalty and why it should be abolished. It should be acknowledged that we have two death sentences in Florida: death by execution and death by prison. Both accomplish the same purpose: The condemned will never leave prison alive. Further, it is far from certain which sentence will be carried out first. This article is in opposition to the "death by execution" alternative and is based on the law as it now is and will continue to be, and not on the law as it was in some bygone era when a death sentence was imposed within a reasonable time following the conviction. This article does not urge that we end the death penalty on either moral or religious grounds. Others can better speak to that. And although it is of great concern, and should concern all Floridians, this article does not urge the end of the death penalty based on the fact that innocent people may be executed under our present system. (We have had more people exonerated and released from our death row (25) than any other state.) My opposition is based on more practical grounds: First, the death penalty is not needed since the Legislature adopted the ?life in prison without parole? alternative. This was a wise action but it has rendered death by execution redundant and the amount we spend on it wasted. Second, death by execution is excessively expensive. Most people who support the death penalty believe it is more cost-effective than life in prison. Perhaps at one time, when executions were swift and sure, this may have been the case. It is not now. Most people knowledgeable about the subject will agree that the delays now built into the system ? more trial preparation, much longer time to get to trial, much longer jury selections and trials, much more complicated and far more frequent appeals, and continuous motions ? have increased the cost of capital punishment so that it is now many times the cost of keeping a prisoner in prison for life. One study has shown it costs Florida $51 million per year more to support the death penalty than the costs of keeping our murderers in prison for life. For example, it costs the state more than $10 million annually to fund the Capital Collateral lawyers who represent those who have been sentenced to death only after the sentence is entered, and this expense must be paid whether or not here is an execution. Quite obviously, a large amount of the money spent on capital punishment goes for legal expenses. That should not be criticized. Proper legal representation of the accused, particularly those sentenced to death, is an essential element of due process. The only way to end the enormous expense is to end the unnecessary reason for it. The $51 million listed as the extra expense for the death penalty is the annual cost of retaining the death penalty apparatus, whether or not we have any executions. We have averaged two executions per year over the past decade. If we take the $51 million we spend annually merely to be in a position to execute someone and divide it by the two executions we normally have each year, the cost would be about $25 million each. What do we get for our money? If the death penalty is not a deterrent (and it is not) and if the death penalty does not make us safer (and it does not) then it is only high-cost revenge. There are those who look at Ted Bundy, Danny Rolling and Aileen Wuornos and say that at least they won?t kill again. It is unlikely that they would have killed again in any event while confined forever to their 12-by-7-foot cell, but more importantly to the issue of the death penalty being a deterrent is the fact that although Florida has had the death penalty for many generations, these serial killers murdered almost a score of our residents before they were caught. They were not deterred by the threat of death. Law enforcement officers, or at least the chiefs of police, realize the futility of the death penalty, or at least believe the money spent on it can be better spent. A recent survey of police chiefs found that a lack of resources and drug/alcohol abuse tied for what most interferes with effective law enforcement. Of the 9 categories, insufficient use of the death penalty was a distant last. Why would anyone ignore the death penalty while considering killing someone? The answer is that the potential killer, for good reason, does not think the death penalty will apply to him. As Justice William J. Brennan said in his Furman concurring opinion: ?Proponents of this argument (that the death penalty is a deterrent) necessarily admit that its validity depends upon the existence of a system in which the punishment of death is inevitably and swiftly imposed. Our system, of course, satisfies neither condition. A rational person contemplating a murder ... is confronted, not with the certainty of a speedy death, but with the slightest possibility that he will be executed in the distant future.? In order to point out the applicability of Brennan?s analysis as it applies to Florida, we have come to the third reason for ending the death penalty. It is unbelievably inefficient. Through 2009, Florida had sentenced 977 people to death but had executed only 68. (U.S. Department of Justice, Capital Punishment, 2009: Statistical Tables). That?s a 7 % execution rate! The Orlando Sentinel reported a poll taken to determine the popularity of the death penalty. 67 % favored the death penalty. But the telling point, I believe, is the comment made by a reader who voted in favor of the death penalty: ?He or she should be executed within the year.? Have any such polls asked how many would support the present capital punishment system after explaining to them exactly what the system is today? We now have 399 people on death row after the most recent execution. From David Sparre, received by the prison on April 2, 2012, through and including Pedro Hernandez-Alberto, received on June 10, 2002, over a 10-year period, 111 condemned individuals were placed on death row. That is 28 percent of the total population on death row, leaving 72 percent who have been there for more than 10 years. An additional 211 condemned individuals were received on death row through April 16, 1987, when Carlos Bello arrived, meaning that the remaining 77 individuals not included in the two previous numbers (or 19 %) have been on death row for more than 25 years. There are three individuals who have been on death row for more than 40 years. With the aging population on death row, as pointed out by Dean Cannon more than a year ago, more people have simply died in prison than have been executed since 2000 (30 have died, 25 have been executed). Has justice not been served on those who merely died whether they died as a result of death by prison or death by execution? Over the last 10 years, we have added an average of 11 people per year to our death row. They would fit much better in the general population of a high security prison at much less cost than on death row with its ever increasing population. Where are you, Gov. Rick Scott? You want to make the state operate like a well-oiled business. Do a cost/benefit analysis. How about a commission composed of prosecutors, public defenders, law professors, law enforcement officers and a few interested lay people to see if we can?t get the same benefit for far less money? Could we not spend the over half billion dollars that will be wasted on capital punishment over the next 10 years for a better law enforcement purpose? (source: Charles M. Harris is a former circuit and appellate judge who now serves as a senior judge in Gainesville. He also served on the Governor's Commission on Capital Cases until it was disbanded by the Legislature; Ocala Star-Banner) SOUTH CAROLINA: Rate of death sentences, executions slows in SC The number of people on South Carolina's death row is at a nearly 2-decade low. Just 51 people are currently awaiting execution. There were 72 people on death row at the end of June 2005, and the state has performed just 10 executions since then. Prosecutors in South Carolina didn't send anyone to death row in 2011, the first time that has happened since at least 1994. And South Carolina has executed just one inmate in the past 3 years. Prosecutors worry that complex death penalty trials are too expensive except in the most extreme cases. Also, state law has banned parole for life sentences since 1995, making "life means life" an attractive option for juries and prosecutors who can use the death penalty to leverage a guilty plea. (source: Associated Press) OREGON: Death penalty foes set film, speaker A film and a former superintendent of the Oregon State Penitentiary will be presented by a group opposed to Oregon?s death penalty. The program will start at 7 p.m. Wednesday, at the Ike Box, 299 Cottage St. NE, Salem. Information can be found at the website of Oregonians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, oadp.org, or at (503) 990-7060. The film is ?Race to Execution,? and the speaker is Frank Thompson, who supervised Oregon?s most recent executions in 1996 and 1997 while superintendent of the Salem prison. Thompson, who is retired, has announced his opposition to the death penalty. Gov. John Kitzhaber announced Nov. 22 he would not permit any executions during the rest of his term, and issued a reprieve to Gary Haugen, an inmate who is challenging the action in Marion County Circuit Court. As of mid-2011, there are 36 men and one woman on Oregon?s death row. (source: The Statesman Journal) From rhalperi at smu.edu Sun May 6 15:56:33 2012 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Sun, 6 May 2012 15:56:33 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide Message-ID: May 6 JORDAN: Of death penalty While Jordan has not applied the death sentence since 2006, in respect for international calls for the abolition of the death penalty, it is not completely off the hook due to the fact the death sentence is still being given and applied by the Criminal Court. The fact that the execution of people found guilty of the commission of very serious crimes has been "suspended" in deference to Article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which Jordan signed and ratified in 1977, as well as Article 2 of the Second Optional Protocol to ICCPR, that Jordan has yet to sign or ratify, does not absolve the country completely. Neither does is hide its desire to appear complying with the calls for the abolition of the capital punishment. The UN Human Rights Committee mandated to monitor the application of the ICCPR found, as far back as the mid1990s, that people whose death punishment is suspended and are left "on death row" are in effect being tortured and subjected to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. This finding suggest that suspension of the death penalty, rather than its abolition, runs counter to ICCPR's Article 7 which states that "no one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment". In other words, in order for Jordan to move completely in the direction of the objectives of the Second Protocol of the ICCPR, it must commute death penalty sentences to a lesser punishment immediately after they are rendered or, better still, courts should automatically commute their sentences where the capital punishment is legal to life imprisonment. According to this jurisprudence, leaving convicted people on death row is in violation of Article 7 of the ICCPR. The preamble paragraph of its Second Protocol claims that "the abolition of the death penalty would contribute to the enforcement of human dignity and progressive development of human rights". I have a reservation here; one cannot be sure ending the capital punishment does indeed contribute to human dignity and the progressive development of human rights. Human dignity of who, one may ask? It clearly does not help the right to life of victims of first-degree crimes! Even more interesting is the proposition that whereas the Second Protocol aims to abolish the death penalty altogether, it allows for the entry of a reservation thereto. Article 2 of this protocol stipulates that "no reservation is admissible to the present Protocol, EXCEPT for a reservation that provides for the application of the death penalty in time of wars pursuant to a conviction for a most serious crime committed during wartime". So the death penalty is not outlawed in absolute terms. (source: The Jordan Times) KUWAIT: U.S. Challenge on Kuwait?s Death Penalty for Blasphemy: How Far to Intercede ---- The relatively liberal Kuwait has approved the death penalty for citizens mocking any aspect of Muslim religion. David Keyes on the problem that poses a dilemma for its U.S. ally?and whether the law can be overturned. Yesterday, nearly every member of the Kuwaiti Parliament voted for a law that mandates the death penalty for anyone who mocks God, the Koran, Muslim prophets, or Muhammad?s wives. Most of the 6 parliamentarians who voted against the bill did so because it did not stipulate death for anyone who insults Shiite imams as well. Non-Muslims who mock God will be sentenced to a mere 10 years in prison. Ah, the intoxicating freedom of the Arab Spring. ?The friendship between our two countries is rooted in our shared values,? U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said of Kuwait last year. This sentiment is increasingly difficult to reconcile with developments in the Gulf. The Parliament took up this issue following the arrest of Hamad al Naqi, a Kuwaiti who is to be tried for ?defaming the Prophet? on Twitter. Though he denies even writing the tweets in question, Naqi is one of a number of online activists who have recently been detained for criticizing religion or the emir. Though Kuwait has long been considered one of the most liberal and moderate Arab governments, both terms remain highly relative in the Middle East. Women can vote and drive in Kuwait, unlike in Saudi Arabia, and the government is an open ally of the United States, unlike Syria. Nevertheless, Kuwaiti parliamentarians do not share Western ideals of free speech and separation of religion and state. A few months ago, a Kuwaiti diplomat boasted to me that his country was fully democratic and completely respects freedom of speech. ?In my country,? he said proudly, ?you can walk directly up to the prime minister and criticize him to his face and you are free to do so.? ?What about Mohammed Abdul Qader Al Jasem?? I asked, referring to the former editor of Newsweek Arabic who was imprisoned for insulting the Kuwaiti emir on his blog. ?Nobody likes Al Jasem!? he shot back. ?But should he have been imprisoned for a blog post?? I asked. "Absolutely,? the diplomat replied. ?He crossed the red line?criticizing the emir. According to our constitution, that is illegal.? Article 54 of the Kuwaiti constitution stipulates that the emir is ?immune and inviolable.? When Jasem went to prison, the Kuwaiti foreign minister said predictably that the U.S. had no right to interfere in Kuwait?s internal affairs. ?Kuwait is a sovereign state with its own systems and authorities,? he said. Funny how Kuwait did not seem to mind American interference when the U.S. military saved it from Saddam Hussein?s tyranny in 1991. The new law is seen by many as a test case of America?s role in Middle East. Liberals throughout the region are watching President Obama?s reaction. If the emir signs the law?a move that Minister of Justice and Islamic Affairs Jamal Shehab assured reporters will happen?then this will be a tremendous setback for freedom in the Gulf. The U.S. is Kuwait?s largest trading partner and billions of dollars in advanced arms have been shipped to Kuwait in recent years. Precisely because of this tremendous leverage, firm opposition by the Obama administration could convince the emir not to sign this law. Oil will eventually run out in Kuwait and the country will be entirely dependent on a far more precious resource: the creativity and ingenuity of its people. One parliamentarian said, ?[W]e need this legislation because incidents of cursing God have increased. We need to deter them.? Minds silenced into submission are never as productive or reliable as those encouraged to dissent and critique?particularly in faith and ideology. Firm opposition by the Obama administration could convince the emir not to sign this law. An Arabic proverb states: ?The red bull said, ?I was slaughtered on the day the white bull was slaughtered.?? Oppression, in other words, always begins with a particular individual (the white cow) but invariably spreads to unsuspecting others (the red cow). President Obama should place a simple choice before the Kuwait ruler: veto this outrageous and anti-democratic law or start looking elsewhere for arms. Some will paint this as naive idealism, but the only true long-term guarantor of peace and stability is freedom. (source: The Daily Beast) From rhalperi at smu.edu Mon May 7 11:11:42 2012 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Mon, 7 May 2012 11:11:42 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide Message-ID: May 7 IRAN----executions Iran Executes 9 Convicted Drug Traffickers Iran has executed 9 convicted drug traffickers at a Tehran prison. 7 of the men were hanged in connection with the confiscation of 500 kilograms of methamphetamine from a cargo ship bound for Southeast Asia. Iranian media did not say when that seizure was made. The other 2 men were hanged after being convicted of trafficking another 420 kilograms of the same drug. Together with China, Saudi Arabia, and the United States, Iran is one of the world's leading practitioners of the death penalty. Amnesty International reported that Iran executed at least 360 people in 2011, most of them on drug-related charges. (source: Radio Free Europe) INDONESIA: Bali bomb maker knew Westerners were targets Karlis Salna The terror suspect accused of building the explosive devices used in the 2002 Bali bombings has told a court he knew Westerners were to be targeted in the deadly plot. But Umar Patek, who could face the death penalty if convicted over his alleged role in the bombings which killed 202 people, including 88 Australians, claims he did not know the planned locations of the attacks or that they had been financed by al-Qaeda. Patek, also known as the Demolition Man, has admitted for the first time that he was aware the bombs, which he is accused of playing a key role in constructing, would be used to target ''bule'' - a term used in Indonesia to describe Westerners. ''Mukhlas said that they're going to take revenge over the slaughter of Muslims in Palestine by bombing a place used by bule,'' Patek, 45, told the West Jakarta District Court yesterday. ''This didn't make sense to me. Why if we are to help Muslims in Palestine would we bomb Bali?'' Mukhlas, whose real name is Ali Ghufron, was executed in 2008 with two others convicted over the attacks, Amrozi and Imam Samudra. Patek, who is suspected of having been involved in terrorist activities since the early 1990s, was trained in explosives at a Mujahideen camp on the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan. However, he said yesterday that he played only a minor role in building the bombs for the Bali attacks and did not know exactly where the devices would be detonated. ''I helped to mix the chemicals,'' he said. ''They loaded explosives onto the car while I stayed inside my room and read the Koran.'' The Sari Club was bustling with locals and tourists when a massive bomb loaded into a van parked outside was detonated just after 11pm on October 12, 2002. About 20 seconds earlier, a suicide bomber had detonated a backpack loaded with explosives inside Paddy's Bar. Patek also said he had made an 11th hour bid to convince members of the Jemaah Islamiah terror cell responsible for the bombings to call them off. He sobbed as he apologised to the victims of what remains Indonesia's deadliest terrorist attack - the first time during the trial that he has shown any remorse. ''I ask for forgiveness from the victims, from the families of victims, and from everyone who has suffered loss.'' Patek was captured in January last year in the Pakistani town of Abbottabad, where US forces killed al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden less than 4 months later. FBI agent Frank Pellegrino said earlier in the trial that intelligence gathered during the interrogation of another terrorism suspect known to Patek confirmed he had travelled to Pakistan in an effort to meet with bin Laden. But Patek told the court no meeting took place. He also said he had no idea that money used to finance the 2002 bombings had come directly from bin Laden. Whether his belated act of contrition will sway prosecutors, or whether they will demand a death sentence, will be known in two weeks when they make their sentence request. A panel of 5 judges is expected to hand down its decision a month later, on June 21. (source: Sydney Morning Herald) PAKISTAN: Facing the death penalty, the pregnant Briton caught smuggling ?3.2 million of heroin in Pakistan A pregnant British woman could face the death penalty in Pakistan after she was caught trying to smuggle heroin worth ?3.2million. Khadija Shah, 25, was attempting to return to Birmingham with her 2 children when she was arrested by police officers who uncovered 140lb of the drug concealed inside clothes in three suitcases. She claimed she took the bags as a favour for men she met in Pakistan and did not know what was in them. Authorities in the capital Islamabad suspect the men were gangsters. The haul is believed to be the biggest of the Class A drug ever recovered at Islamabad airport destined for the streets of Britain. Under Pakistani law, anyone arrested with drugs weighing more than 22lb (10kg) faces at least life imprisonment and at most the death penalty.<>P> She had been on holiday in Pakistan for a month and a half, staying with relatives in Mirpur, before lodging at a guest house in Islamabad. Her children, Aleesha Munir, 4, and Ibrahim Munir, 6, are from a previous relationship, and she is now pregnant by her boyfriend Amar Ali. Mr Ali, who plans to travel to Pakistan to pick up her children, revealed that she ?stupidly? agreed to take the bags even though he told her she should not do it. He said he spoke to Miss Shah on the phone before she left for the airport. She said men had approached her asking if she could do them a favour by taking luggage back to the UK for them. She said: ?This morning when I was coming out of the guest house to leave for the airport, someone came to the guest house and requested me to carry his bags along with me and hand them over to his relative in Birmingham. I had no idea what was inside.? At Miss Shah?s home yesterday, Mr Ali said: ?She was supposed to be coming home today. ?I spoke to her on the phone but got cut off. I told her not to do that. I told her to trust no one. 'When I was there recently everyone there wants to be your friend because you?re from England. People try to get you to take bags to the UK for them. ?I said, ?Make sure you don?t take any luggage for anyone?.? Speaking to Mr Ali while in custody in Islamabad yesterday, Miss Shah claimed she had been beaten up by police and feared for the safety of her children. Senior officials in Islamabad said Miss Shah had been acting suspiciously at the airport. ?Her movements compelled us to check the luggage properly,? said one. ?The 3 bags were apparently filled with household goods and clothes. When properly checked, contraband was recovered.? (source: The Daily Mail) UNITED ARAB EMIRATES: Death sentence debate The death penalty tends to spark heated debate. There are those who see it as a strong deterrent, while others believe it is justice - an eye or an eye. Many, though, oppose the death sentence, believing it to be barbaric in the modern world. So, it will be interesting to see how people react to the story of the 20-year-old Emirati who plotted the murder of a teenage friend after the pair fell out. He lured him to a remote area under the pretence of resolving their differences. He then fired off some blanks in a handgun, before switching them for real bullets. His unsuspecting victim had no idea that he was staring down the barrel of a loaded weapon when it was pointed at his head and fired. The murder was as premeditated and cold blooded as any in the UAE in recent years. I wonder what answer you would get from the victim's family if you asked them whether they agree with the death penalty? (source: 7daysindubai.com) From rhalperi at smu.edu Mon May 7 14:50:29 2012 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Mon, 7 May 2012 14:50:29 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, OHIO, ARIZ., S.D. Message-ID: May 7 TEXAS: Death penalty trial to start for man accused of killing 2 brothers in southeast Dallas robbery RelatedTestimony is set to begin Tuesday in the capital murder trial of a man accused of killing 2 brothers in a robbery that netted $2 and a ring. Roderick Napoleon Harris, 27, faces a possible death sentence if convicted. Alfredo Gallardo, 45, and Carlos Gallardo, 36, were shot to death while trying to protect Alfredo?s wife and three of his children, then ages 5, 8 and 13, at a small trailer in southeast Dallas in March 2009. One of the family members sneaked out through a window during the robbery ? and before the shootings ? and alerted neighbors, who called police. Inside the trailer, police said, Harris kept asking for money after herding the family into a closet and tying their hands with belts. They told Harris that they had none, and he threatened to leave with Alfredo Gallardo?s wife or daughter. The brothers then fought back and were shot multiple times. The rest of the family was not injured. Police heard the gunshots as they arrived. Harris tried to flee, police said. As he saw the officers, he started firing. They fired back, injuring Harris. The officers were not injured. Police have said they had no reason to believe that any family members knew Harris, and that the Gallardos, who were watching TV when Harris forced his way inside, seemed to be randomly targeted. Alfredo Gallardo?s wife, Carmen Gallardo, no longer lives at the trailer where her husband and brother-in-law were killed. Neighbors who knew her said they did not know where she currently lives, and she could not be reached for comment. But after the killings, she remarked on how little the robber got and how much her family lost. ?For only $2, he took the lives of my husband and my brother-in-law,? Carmen Gallardo has said. Alfredo Gallardo had five children. He and Carlos Gallardo worked in construction but had been jobless at the time of the slayings. The family was here illegally from Mexico, family members have said. Carmen Gallardo had said she came to the United States to create a better life for her kids and was worried about their future. ?I have a son who?s sick,? she said in the prior interview. ?He had surgery on his stomach. I?m scared for him. He loved his father very much.? One of Harris? attorneys, Brad Lollar, declined to comment, as did the Dallas County district attorney?s office. Harris turned down an interview request from the Dallas County Jail, where he is awaiting trial. Dallas police say they believe Harris is linked to another robbery and murder earlier the same month as the Gallardo slayings. Police say Harris and 2 gunmen targeted a north Oak Cliff apartment, where they held an 11-month-old at gunpoint to rob the child?s mother. Police say the robbers then went to another apartment, where Harris shot 3 brothers, killing 1. (source: Dallas Morning News) OHIO: 3 more years for ex-death row inmate from Scotland A Scotsman released from prison 4 years ago after spending 2 decades on Ohio's death row is going back to prison for threatening a judge who prosecuted his original case. A visiting judge sentenced Ken Richey on Monday to the maximum of three years. He pleaded guilty last month to a felony retaliation charge. The target of his threat, Putnam County Judge Randall Basinger, said Richey had made many threats against him and others, The (Toledo) Blade reported. Richey "has never taken responsibility for any of his actions, has blamed others for the crimes that he commits, and consistently misrepresents the events of his criminal activity," Basinger said, according to The (Findlay) Courier. Investigators said Richey was at his home in Tupelo, Miss., when he left the threatening message for Basinger, warning that he was coming to get him. Richey said he'd been drinking heavily and was depressed. He apologized on Monday for making the call. Basinger was an assistant prosecutor in the 1980s when Richey was accused of starting a fire that killed a 2-year-old girl in 1986. Richey was sentenced to death and spent 21 years on death row. He denied any involvement in the fire and became well-known in Britain, where there is no death penalty, as he fought for his release. Among his supporters were several members of the British Parliament and Pope John Paul II. Following years of appeals, a federal court determined that his lawyers mishandled the case, and his conviction was overturned. Putnam County prosecutors initially planned to retry him, but Richey was released in 2008 under a deal that required him to plead no contest to attempted involuntary manslaughter. He also was ordered to stay away from the northwest Ohio county and anyone involved in the case, including Basinger. Richey, though, carried a lifetime of bitterness over his conviction, his friends said. He returned to Scotland in 2008 and later came back to the U.S., where he was arrested in Minnesota in 2010 and charged with assaulting his 24-year-old son. The charge was dropped after he was brought back to Ohio on the charge of threatening the judge. (source: Associated Press) ARIZONA----impending execution Death-row inmate's case before AZ clemency board Arizona's largely new clemency board on Monday is expected to consider the case of a death-row inmate set for execution next week. But Samuel Villegas Lopez's attorney has asked the 5-member board, which has 3 new members, to delay the execution and a decision in the matter. She argues the new board should have additional training before considering Lopez's request for mercy. Gov. Jan Brewer overhauled the board last month, replacing 2 voting members and longtime Chairman Duane Belcher with three new people in what some defense attorneys and anti-death-penalty advocates said was a political move. Lopez is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection next week at the state prison in Florence in what would be the 4th execution in Arizona this year. The clemency board often is a death-row inmate's last chance to argue he doesn't deserve to be executed. In a filing with the board last week, Lopez's attorney, Kelley Henry, cited an Arizona law that says each new board member must undergo a 4-week course before beginning their new duties. "This board should not sit in judgment on Sammy Lopez's very life without proper training and preparation," according to the filing. New board Chairman Jesse Hernandez has not returned repeated calls from The Associated Press for comment. If the board decides not to delay considering Lopez's case Monday, Henry plans to ask it to recommend that Lopez's death sentence be overturned. She argues Lopez had a difficult childhood during which he "grew up in constant terror," hunger and poverty, and began inhaling paint and glue at a young age. Henry also argues Lopez's attorneys never informed the trial judge of those so-called "mitigating factors." She says if the judge had known about them, Lopez never would have gotten the death penalty. The board is expected to consider Henry's request at its Phoenix office. Lopez has declined to attend. In a separate filing in federal court last week, Lopez's attorneys ask that his execution be put on hold because the Arizona Department of Corrections has continuously violated and changed its own written protocol for executing death-row inmates. Attorneys argue a new execution protocol released in January loosened requirements for those who inject inmates with lethal drugs and gives far too much discretion to corrections Director Charles Ryan to make last-minute changes. Similar arguments on behalf of two other Arizona inmates failed to stop executions in February and March, but they did cause a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco to issue a strong warning to the department. The judges wrote on Feb. 28 that Arizona forced the court "to engage in serious constitutional questions and complicated factual issues in the waning hours before executions." "This approach cannot continue," the panel wrote. "We are mindful of the admonition requiring us to refrain from micromanaging each individual execution, but the admonition has a breaking point." (source: Associated Press) SOUTH DAKOTA: AG responds to SD death row inmate's appeal South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to reject a death row inmate's plea to overturn his conviction for raping and killing a Sioux Falls girl 22 years ago. Donald Moeller last month petitioned the court to overturn his conviction based on what he described as incomplete jury instructions. Moeller maintains that the jury that sentenced him to death for the 1990 rape and murder of 9-year-old Becky O'Connell should have been told he would not have been eligible for parole had jurors sentenced him to life in prison. He contends that he might have received the death penalty because jurors falsely thought he could eventually be released on parole if given a life sentence. Jackley on Monday said that the brief filed by the state in response to Moeller's claim says jury instructions "fully comply with settled law and constitutional standards." Moeller was convicted and sentenced to die in 1997. The state Supreme Court affirmed the sentence, and Moeller has lost appeals on both the state and federal levels. Moeller was convicted of abducting the girl from a convenience store, driving her to a secluded area, then raping and killing her. Her body was found the next day with a slashed throat and stab wounds. Moeller initially was convicted in 1992 but the state Supreme Court ruled that improper evidence was used at trial and overturned the conviction. "2 juries of South Dakota citizens have heard the facts of this case and both unanimously decided that Moeller's crime warranted a death sentence," Jackley said in a statement. "22 years and 7 appeals to hold Moeller accountable and to await justice for Becky and her family is clearly too long." (source: Associated Press) From rhalperi at smu.edu Mon May 7 16:48:25 2012 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Mon, 7 May 2012 16:48:25 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] [POSSIBLE SPAM] death penalty news----VA., CALIF. Message-ID: May 7 VIRGINIA: Gleason: 'People think I'm doing this because I want to die' Death row inmate Robert C. Gleason Jr. says he wants to live, despite his legal fight to be executed. ?People think I?m doing this because I want to die,? he said in a Friday telephone interview from Sussex 1 State Prison near Waverly, Va. ?No. Nothing could be further from the truth.? Dying, he said, just happens to be the only way he can keep a promise made to ?someone close? not to hurt any prison guards. But he said he?s growing increasingly agitated over the prison system?s restrictions against in-person visits with some people. Is it enough of a hassle for him to break that promise? ?It?s getting to that point,? he said. In 2009, the former tattoo artist and hit man hogtied, beat and strangled to death a cellmate. He threatened to kill again unless executed and, in 2010, murdered an inmate in a supermax security prison. Last year, Wise County Circuit Court Judge John C. Kilgore sentenced him to death for each murder. The inmate told his lawyers not to fight the sentencing and he waived his appeals. Now, waiting for Virginia?s Supreme Court to decide his case, Gleason ponders whether electrocution is more painful than lethal injection. ?I?ve been reading up on this since all this started,? he said. ?I think electrocution?s quicker.? Promises As part of an automatic appeal, Virginia?s highest court heard arguments for his death in mid-April. There were no defense requests to spare his life. A decision on life or death should be rendered in early June. If the verdict is death, the case returns to Wise County Circuit Court for an execution date to be set. Much of the media coverage of Gleason?s case paints him as a man with a death wish. Capital punishment expert David I. Bruck, in a recent Richmond Times Dispatch interview, questioned whether the notion of death by the state actually motivated the convict?s attacks instead of acting as a deterrent. ?This is the kind of case that turns the whole death penalty on its head,? said Bruck, director of the Virginia Capital Case Clearinghouse at Washington and Lee University. But a review of court transcripts and telephone interviews with Gleason seems to trace his death bid to an odd and unexplained turn of events involving metal shavings found in his lunch soon after his 1st in-prison killing. Gleason, 43, initially earned life in prison without parole for the 2008 shooting death of a man in Amherst County to cover any tracks leading to a methamphetamine ring. A year later, he ended up in a cell with 63-year-old Harvey Gray Watson Jr. at Wallens Ridge State Prison in Big Stone Gap. Watson was mentally impaired and known for such antics as drinking spoiled milk and frequently masturbating in front of other inmates. Gleason quickly tired of Watson and attacked him on May 8, 2009. Soon after, Gleason said, he accidentally swallowed metal shavings that had been ground up in a meal, and was angered when prison officials ignored his complaints. ?I kill people because I was hired, you hurt me or you hurt somebody that?s close to me,? he said. ?I feel they [prison officials] were trying to hurt me.? The metal incident coincides closely with a promise he made to leave prison guards alone, however. ?I know I can?t keep my promise,? he said. Death row, he explained, is the only way for him to keep his word. Otherwise, he envisions a series of prison policies that would place him in a lower security setting as long as he plays by the rules. ?I know if I go to [general] population I will get one of them,? he said. He fired the lawyers overseeing the Watson case because they were trying to work out a deal to avoid the death penalty. ?I murdered that man cold-bloodedly. I planned it, and I?m gonna do it again,? he told the Associated Press in June 2010. ?Someone needs to stop it. The only way to stop me is put me on death row.? Weeks later, on July 28, 2010, he killed convicted carjacker Aaron Alexander Cooper in the recreation yard of Red Onion State Prison near Pound. Cooper, 26, was strangled with a braided bed sheet that had been threaded through the chain link fence separating him from Gleason. ?Once I get back [to maximum security], your honor, the clock starts ticking - for the ones that messed with me,? Gleason warned Judge Kilgore moments after being sentenced to death in September 2011. Execution Pentobarbital is the 1st of a 3-drug cocktail that Virginia pumps into its condemned inmates as part of the lethal injection process. The Department of Corrections says the 1st drug relaxes the muscles and sends the inmate into a deep sleep while the other 2 stop breathing and then the heart. Some people have their doubts about pentobarbital, however. ?It would be like a seizure, like drowning without the 1st drug,? said Richard Dieter, director of the Death Penalty Information Center. ?A lot depends on this 1st drug and not everyone is confident that it?s been administered properly.? Gleason is among them. He fears the injections leave inmates paralyzed and unable to scream out and warn of the agony. So, he?ll go with the 2nd option afforded the condemned ? electrocution. It seems quicker and less painful, he said. Dieter has his doubts on that, too. One person survived Louisiana?s electric chair, he said, only to be returned for a 2nd go at the switch. ?It?s not as smooth and predictable as one might think,? he said. The opportunity to choose the terms of death comes 15 days before the execution, DOC spokesman Larry Traylor said. Absent a decision, the state goes with lethal injection as the default option. Until that time, Gleason says, he is trying to stay out of trouble on death row. It?s not easy, he said. ?I can?t see people that are close to me,? he said. ?I can?t see my own preacher.? DOC policy allows death row inmates to see immediate family members, spiritual advisers and attorneys. On the day of execution, inmates are allowed one visit with immediate family. Attorneys and spiritual advisers are allowed to visit up until the time of execution. Traylor refused to discuss Gleason?s complaints about visitation. ?If an inmate feels he is being denied a right or privilege, he may file a grievance,? he wrote in an email. (source: tricities.com) CALIFORNIA: Man Indicted by Grand Jury for Double-Execution Murder A man was indicted Thursday by the Orange County Grand Jury for using a firearm to murder his neighbor for financial gain and murdering the victim?s friend in an effort to derail the investigation by framing the 1st victim. Daniel Patrick Wozniak, 28, Costa Mesa is charged with 2 felony counts of special-circumstances murder with special-circumstance sentencing enhancements, including multiple murders, murder for financial gain, and the personal discharge of a firearm causing death. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty. Wozniak is being held without bail and was scheduled to be arraigned on the indictment Friday at the Central Justice Center in Santa Ana. Senior Deputy District Attorney Matt Murphy of the Orange County District Attorney?s Homicide Unit said he sought the indictment to speed up the legal process. Defense attorneys kept saying they weren?t ready for the preliminary hearing, so the indictment takes away the need for that type of hearing, he said. In a press release on June 10, 2010, the Orange County District Attorney?s Office gave the following information on the case, which was investigated by the Costa Mesa Police Department (CMPD). The OCDA is handling this case as a special prosecutions case, supervised by District Attorney Tony Rackauckas and prosecuted by a specially selected OCDA team. Wozniak is accused of plotting the murder of his neighbor, 26-year-old Samuel Herr, who lived in the same apartment complex in Costa Mesa, with the intention of stealing the victim?s substantial savings. On the afternoon of May 21, 2010, Wozniak is accused of luring Herr from their apartment complex and driving him to the theater facility at the Los Alamitos Joint Forces Training Base. The defendant was familiar with the theater because he had previously acted in plays there. Once inside the theater, Wozniak is accused of murdering Herr by shooting him twice in the head, leaving the body in the theater and stealing the victim?s ATM card, wallet, and cell phone. Later that evening, Wozniak is accused of using Herr?s cell phone to text-message Herr?s friend, 23-year-old Juri ?Julie? Kibuishi. The defendant was acquainted with Kibuishi and was her ?friend? on Facebook. Wozniak is accused of pretending to be Herr in the text messages and arranging with Kibuishi to come to Herr?s apartment in the Camden Martinique complex at 2855 Pinecreek Dr. Shortly after midnight on May 22, Kibuishi arrived at Herr?s apartment. Wozniak is accused of meeting her at the door of Herr?s apartment and luring her into the bedroom, where he murdered her by shooting her twice in the head, then partially removing Kibuishi?s clothing to stage the crime scene to appear as though the victim had been sexually assaulted. On the afternoon of May 22, Wozniak is accused of returning to the theater, cutting off Herr?s clothes and dismembering the victim?s body by removing his head, left arm, and the lower portion of his right arm, then leaving the victim?s torso and legs in the theater and taking the dismembered body parts to discard them in El Dorado Park Nature Center in Long Beach. The park is a large nature reserve with trails and two lakes. At approximately 9:20 p.m. on May 22, officers from CMPD discovered Kibuishi?s body upon responding to a call regarding a possible murder from Herr?s father, who had gone to the apartment to check on his son. Herr?s whereabouts at that time were unknown and he initially became the primary suspect in Kibuishi?s murder. Following the 2 murders, Wozniak is accused of giving Herr?s ATM card to a 17-year-old acquaintance and instructing the minor to withdraw money from the victim?s account at various ATMs in Long Beach. Costa Mesa detectives investigating the case learned of the ATM withdrawals and arrested the minor after observing him using the victim?s bank card. In all, $2,000 was taken from Herr?s account. Based on information learned through the ongoing investigation and the arrest of the juvenile, Wozniak was arrested for the murders of Herr and Kibuishi on May 26 at Tsunami restaurant in Huntington Beach. He was at dinner celebrating his bachelor party in anticipation of his upcoming wedding, planned to take place in Long Beach on May 28. CMPD detectives discovered Herr?s body on May 27 at the base. A search for the dismembered body parts at El Dorado Park Nature Center was conducted by CMPD with assistance from the Long Beach Police Department (LBPD) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), search and rescue personnel from Orange, Los Angeles, and Ventura counties, and investigators from the Los Angeles Coroner?s Office (LACO). The victim?s head and parts of his left arm, which were decomposed and scavenged by animals, were found over the next 2 days. On May 27, Wozniak was transported from the jail to Western Medical Center to be treated for self-inflicted head injuries and was released back to the jail May 29. The OCDA charged the defendant May 28. Herr and Kibuishi were both students at Orange Coast College and Herr was a military veteran. Kibuishi?s friends set up a memorial fund to help her family transport her ashes back to Japan. (source: The Rafu Shimpo) From rhalperi at smu.edu Mon May 7 16:50:33 2012 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Mon, 7 May 2012 16:50:33 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide Message-ID: May 7 IRAQ: Hashimi expects death penalty if judged in absentia Iraqi vice-president Tariq al-Hashimi expected to receive a death penalty if Premier Nouri al-Maliki insisted on his "legal mistake" of judging him in absentia, according to a Turkish newspaper. In a press conference, covered by Turkish Hurriyet daily, he added "my life will be in danger if I attended the trial". The trial was postponed till the end of this week. Hashimi left Baghdad last December for Kurdistan. Following a stay there, he left for Istanbul, where he resides now. >From Istanbul, he called Iraqi President Jalal Talabani "to practice his role as supervisor on the constitution and stop these violations". He called the international community to practice its responsibility "as soon as possible", but he denied he was "a fugitive" as described by some media organs. Hashimi disclosed that he will return to Arbil next Tuesday, "but my friends requested me to postpone it for few days". He concluded that he is awaiting the results of the National Conference due to be held soon, but excluded having "quick solutions". (source: Aswat al-Iraq) INDONESIA: Bali bomber begs forgiveness The bombmaker accused of masterminding the Bali attacks that killed 202 people begged forgiveness from the victims' families on Monday and said the explosions had been a "total failure". Umar Patek is accused of being a central figure in the 2002 attacks on 2 nightclubs on the Indonesian resort island, which killed many Western tourists including 88 Australians. In an emotional appearance at his trial, Patek, 45, who faces a possible death penalty but says he was only a bit player in the attacks, spoke in a voice cracking with emotion. "I am taking this opportunity to seek forgiveness from the victims, their families and whoever suffered losses," including the Indonesian government, he said, before repeating the apology to reporters and shaking hands with prosecutors. "I was very sad and regret the incident happened, because I was against it from the start. I never agreed with their methods," said Patek, wearing a white shirt and trousers that stopped short of his ankles, his hair dyed henna-red in keeping with the Prophet Mohammed's custom. Patek, who was arrested in the same Pakistani town where Osama bin Laden was killed just months before the Al-Qaeda chief's death, said the attacks on October 12, 2002, had been a "total failure". He said the plans were drawn up at the home of Dulmatin, another Bali plotter, who was killed by police in 2010. "The reason was to retaliate the killing of Muslims in Palestine but the people killed had no link to Palestine," he said during his three-hour testimony at the West Jakarta district court. "Who were the victims, they were Westerners, they weren't Israelis. In fact many Indonesians were victims. They had no link to Palestine," he said, speaking calmly and gesturing with his hands. When the idea of attacking Bali was brought up, Patek claimed he raised objections. "I questioned why in Bali? Jihad should be carried out in Palestine instead. But they said they did not know how to get to Palestine," he said, adding: "Dulmatin told me not to think so hard, just help." Patek allegedly used simple household tools including a rice ladle to assemble the Bali bombs, which according to the court indictment were housed in ordinary filing cabinets. "The defendant filled up the black powder in four filing cabinets, in the meantime, Dulmatin made the bomb's electronic circuit," the indictment said. With bombmaker Azahari Husin, a Malaysian later killed at a hideout on Java island, Patek assembled the detonating cord and then loaded the filing cabinets into a car, the document added. But Patek said on Monday his role went no further than mixing the explosives. "I helped to mix the chemicals," he confessed. "Azahari assembled the bombs. They loaded explosives onto the car while I stayed inside my room and read the Koran." Patek is accused of being the expert bombmaker for Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), a Southeast Asian terror network linked to Al-Qaeda. He is also accused of attacking churches in Jakarta on Christmas Eve in 2000. He was arrested in January last year in the Pakistani town of Abbottabad, where US commandos killed bin Laden 4 months later. During the trial, evidence has emerged that Osama gave JI $30,000 to wage jihad in the region and Patek might have met him when he was in Abbottabad, a claim Patek has repeatedly denied. "I don't know about the source of funds," he said on Monday. "In the name of God, I have never met the man named Osama bin Laden," he added. US Federal Bureau of Investigation Special Agent Frank Pellegrino testified in April that Patek was widely known as an expert bombmaker. According to Pellegrino, a witness interviewed by the FBI in the Philippines reported Patek as saying he "was interested in going back to Pakistan and Afghanistan and working with Osama bin Laden". Patek was once the most-wanted terror suspect in Indonesia and spent nearly a decade on the run with the US offering a $1 million bounty on his head under its rewards for justice programme. Prosecutors have said they will seek the death sentence on charges of premeditated murder, but will make their formal recommendation on May 21. The verdict is expected June 21. (source: Ther Bangkok Post) SAUDI ARABIA----execution Saudi Arabia beheads citizen for killing wife Saudi Arabia on Monday beheaded one of its citizens accused of killing his wife, the interior ministry said in a statement carried by state news agency SPA. Abdullah Adawi suffocated his wife Rihab Harithi, also a Saudi, as she slept, the ministry said. He was executed in Jizan, in the kingdom's south. His beheading brings the total number of executions in the ultra-conservative kingdom to 24 so far this year, according to an AFP tally based on official reports. Under the AFP count, at least 76 people were beheaded in 2011 in Saudi Arabia, while rights group Amnesty International put the number of executions last year at 79. The death penalty in Saudi Arabia applies to a wide range of offences including rape, apostasy, armed robbery and drug trafficking, as well as murder, as stipulated by Islamic Sharia law. (source: Agence France-Presse) MALAYSIA: Woman freed of murder of Singapore businessman The High Court here today acquitted a motivator of a charge of murdering a Singaporean businessman last year. Judicial Commissioner Mohd Zaki Abdul Wahab freed Tan Chia Mooi, 39, without her defence being called, ruling that the prosecution had failed to establish a prima facie case against her. Tan was charged with the murder of Arthur Lee Wee Guan, 59, between 9.30pm on March 20 and 2.30am on March 21, 2011 at Km8.3, Jalan Gunung Jerai, Gurun. The charge under the Penal Code carries the death penalty upon conviction. (source: The Star) From rhalperi at smu.edu Tue May 8 09:33:44 2012 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Tue, 8 May 2012 09:33:44 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----IND., ALA., NEV., USA, ARIZ. Message-ID: May 8 INDIANA----foreign national found on death row Man on death row for murdering guard in United States born in Newfoundland A lawyer representing a Canadian on death row in Indiana wants Ottawa to advocate to save her client's life, but isn't sure what kind of support, if any, the case will get. Jennifer Merrigan said she carefully watched the political drama unfold at last week's clemency hearing of another Canadian death row inmate, Ronald Smith in Montana. Smith's lawyers accused the Canadian government of reneging on an offer to speak at his hearing and called their tepid support in his case "treachery." "That's been pretty disappointing," said Merrigan, an attorney with the Death Penalty Litigation Clinic in Kansas City. She has been talking with Canadian officials about providing help for her client, Robert Bolden. "To be honest, we really haven't been able to ascertain what (support) that would be." Smith had been considered the only Canadian currently on death row in the United States until Bolden's new team of defence lawyers made a discovery 2 years ago. He was born north of the border in Newfoundland. His lawyers have since found a copy of his birth certificate and determined that not only does he have Canadian citizenship, he may not officially be American. The revelation only recently made its way to the Canadian public, including officials with Amnesty International. Court documents show Bolden was born in Stephenville, N.L., in 1963. It's believed his mother was a prostitute and his father, a military serviceman, was stationed at the nearby U.S. air force base. Merrigan said Bolden's father, who was black, was not involved in his life. His mother, who was white, struggled on her own to raise the biracial child in the small, mainly white community. When Bolden was three years old, he and his mother moved to the U.S., but it appears they never applied for American citizenship. Forged documents were used to enrol Bolden in school. Eventually, his mother abandoned him with another family and Bolden grew up having no contact with his Canadian relatives. 3 decades later, Bolden was a father of four children and suffering from a serious drug addiction. He was separated from his wife and needed $2,000 to avoid being evicted from his home. So he hatched a plan to rob a bank in St. Louis. Documents show he recruited two other men, and on Oct. 7, 2002, they drove to a Bank of America branch. One of the co-accused testified at trial that Bolden planned to disarm the bank guard outside then use the guard as a hostage. But when Bolden brandished a handgun and confronted the guard in the parking lot, the guard tried to grab his gun and the pair struggled. The jury heard that Bolden shot Nathan Ley in the jaw and, after the guard fell to the ground, shot him in the head. The jury convicted Bolden of murder during the commission of a robbery and sentenced him to the death. Now 48, he is on federal death row at Terre Haute prison, southwest of Indianapolis. Merrigan said Bolden's case was appealed all the way through the court system before she was appointed to handle another appeal. That's when she found out he was Canadian and that officials in Canada had never been informed about his case. She said she spoke with consular officer Sharon Simpson in Detroit in July 2010, eight years after Bolden's arrest. Simpson wrote in an affidavit that she was able to verify Bolden's birth certificate. "I think she was surprised by that," Merrigan said. "This is a case in which Canada was not even notified that one of its own citizens was facing capital prosecution in another country. Canada was never notified that its citizen was sent to death row." She said Simpson and another consular official have since met with Bolden at the prison. And they have written letters to prison officials to inquire about his health. Bolden was born with diabetes but has been refused a special diet behind bars and prison staff have often changed his insulin levels without consulting a doctor, said Merrigan. She said Bolden's kidneys are deteriorating and he may need to go on dialysis. "If Canada is not interested in the rights of its citizens abroad on death row, we think that they are still interested in their citizens not receiving adequate medical care," Merrigan said. She said records show the U.S. government has always known Bolden was Canadian and its failure to notify Canada violated Bolden's rights under the Vienna Convention. The claim is made in the latest appeal documents. The appeal also cites the racial make-up of the jury and questions the impartiality of the trial prosecutor, who knew the victim's family. Merrigan said the appeal could take several years and it's a shame Canada hadn't been involved in Bolden's case from the beginning. A Liberal Canadian government would likely have been more helpful, she said. The Canadian government had a history of automatically seeking clemency for Canadians facing the death penalty abroad. But Stephen Harper's Conservative government decided it would no longer intervene in cases in democratic countries. A court ruling later forced the government to abandon the policy. But critics say the government remains lukewarm on offering support in some cases. "Had the United States government fulfilled its duty and contacted Canada when Robert was first arrested," Merrigan said, "we think there would have been a significantly different level of involvement by Canada." (source: Winnipeg Free Press) ALABAMA: Jurors recommend death for Marquese Smith A Morgan County jury took less than an hour to recommend the death penalty for 32 year old Marqueze Smith. Smith was found guilty of Capital Murder last week in the 2003 shooting death of Jeremy Black. In dramatic testimony Thursday, one of Smith's former co-defendants told a chilling story about Smith laughing about shooting Black after stealing items out of the victim's car. The jury's opinion is not binding. The ultimate decision is now on Judge Sherrie Paler, who will sentence Smith in August. (source: WAAY News) NEVADA: Sentence in Denison killing appealed to high court Lawyers trying to get James Biela off Nevada's death row said Monday his sentence was emotionally motivated by an avalanche of news coverage and a public campaign for justice for the 19-year-old woman he was convicted of raping and strangling. The appellant lawyers told the Nevada Supreme Court during oral arguments that Biela deserves a new trial in the 2008 killing of Brianna Denison and the sexual assaults of two other college coeds around the campus of the University of Nevada, Reno. John Petty, the chief appellate deputy public defender who wrote the appeal brief, said even if Biela is guilty of the crimes, he didn't deserve the death penalty. He said the jury's excessive penalty was motivated by passion generated by news coverage, a huge volume of secret witness reports, a public campaign in Brianna's name and the work of the Bring Bri Justice Foundation. "This homicide became a media case resulting in becoming a death penalty case," Petty said. Prosecutors said in court documents that no errors were made during Biela's 2010 trial, and his convictions and death sentence should be affirmed. Appellate Deputy District Attorney Terry McCarthy said nothing in the record supports the argument that the verdict was "a product of passion or prejudice." He said there was a thorough jury selection process "and at the end all parties were satisfied that the jurors would not be influenced by the publicity." The justices took the appeal under submission and did not indicate how long it would take for them to rule, the Reno Gazette-Journal reported. The string of crimes around the campus north of the downtown casino district began in October 2007 and culminated in Denison's death in early 2008. Denison, a sophomore at Santa Barbara City College in California, was home visiting friends when she was kidnapped in January 2008 while sleeping on a friend's couch at a residence across the street from the UNR campus. As a manhunt intensified, blue ribbons in honor of her appeared on fences, posters and lapels throughout the Reno area. Her body, clothed only in socks, was found in a vacant field in Reno about a month later with a pair of thong underwear. In November 2008, police arrested Biela, 30, thanks to a tip from his former girlfriend who reported that he had an obsession with thong panties. 2 other women identified him as the man who sexually assaulted them in the months before Denison's disappearance. Judge Robert Perry said at the sentencing that the string of attacks had the entire city on edge. Perry initially set the execution for Aug. 16, 2010. McCarthy said the judge and jury followed all of the rules and that Biela's execution should go forward. "Perhaps it was because of the evidence that Biela was a serial rapist who then graduated into murder," McCarthey said. "It seems most likely that our community avoided a serial killer only because we were able to catch the killer before his next graduation ceremony." Cheryl Bond, a deputy public defender also representing Biela, told the justices that his convictions were tainted because the judge tried the 3 cases together. By bundling them, the jurors confused some of the evidence, making a guilty verdict easier, she said. McCarthy disagreed. He told the justices there was "sufficient connectedness" to place the cases before one jury at the same time. It was a crime spree that occurred within a 400-yard radius, he said. Many of the witnesses were the same and there was an overlap of evidence, he said. Bond said the crimes were committed under different circumstances, the assailant used different methods of attack, his treatment of the victims was different, and the type of sexual attack also differed. "They were not connected together in a scheme," she said. "The cases should have been severed." The evidence was strong in one case, she said, while a witness statement was used in another. But when all three were bundled together, the jury likely confused the evidence and concluded "we have a bad person here. He must be guilty," she said. (source: Associated Press) USA (RHODE ISLAND)----federal death penalty case S. Attorney: Pleau custody case not about death penalty The U.S. Attorney?s officehad a major victory in the legal tug-of-war over the custody of accused murder suspect Jason Pleau. The first U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the state must surrender Pleau to the Federal Government to face prosecution. Governor Chafee has been trying to keep Pleau in state custody because he is a strong advocate against the death penalty and says Pleau may face the death penalty if prosecuted by the Federal Government. U.S. Attorney Peter Neronha said this case is not about the death penalty. ?There should not be a situation where a governor or anyone else in state government can prevent the federal government from pursuing a federal case. The death penalty, in my view has been something of a red herring in the discussion,? Neronha told the WPRO Morning News with Tara Granahan and Andrew Gobeil. Chafee?s office as maintained that there are also ?considerable states? rights issues involved.? Neronha rejected the notion. ?I don?t think this is about state?s rights, in fact I think it is about the Federal government?s rights,? said Neronha. ?When a grand jury indicts an individual on federal charges the federal government has the right to try that person in court.? Neronha said he is ?committed to pursuing this case.? He noted that if Governor Chafee prevailed that it could prevent the federal government from prosecuting any case with death resulting. ?If the governor?s position is taken to a larger conclusion that would effectively prevent the United States government, me, the U.S. Attorney?s Office from bringing any case where a death resulted and that simply can?t be the result,? said Neronha. This is the 1st time a governor has refused to surrender a state inmate to the federal government. Neronha said Chafee will ultimately do what he believes is the right thing to do but noted that he believes, ?our position is the right position.? Pleau is charged with gunning down gas station manager David Main outside a bank in Woonsocket while Main was trying to make a deposit. (source: WPRO) ******************* Rhode Island must turn over suspect in death-penalty spat Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee must surrender a state prisoner to federal authorities to potentially face the death penalty on charges of killing of a gas station manager, a federal appeals court ruled on Monday. The Boston-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit ruled in a 3-2 decision that Chafee could not keep shooting suspect Jason Pleau in state custody to shield him from capital punishment. Ruling otherwise would undermine the federal government's ability to prosecute federal crimes, the court ruled. "Instead of a place of confinement, the state prison would become a refuge against federal charges," Judge Michael Boudin wrote for the majority. Pleau was serving an 18-year sentence in state prison for parole violations when he was indicted on federal charges for the 2010 murder and robbery of David Main outside a bank. The federal government asked for custody of Pleau under a federal law that governs the transfer of prisoners between states and the U.S. government. But Chafee refused, asserting Rhode Island's policy of opposing the death penalty. In 2011, a three-judge panel of the 1st Circuit had upheld Pleau and Chafee's right to resist the federal request. But a majority of the full 1st Circuit reached the opposite conclusion on Monday, finding the federal government's right to prosecute federal crimes trumped the state's interest in opposing capital punishment. "State interposition to defeat federal authority vanished with the Civil War," Boudin wrote. 2 judges dissented, defending the governor's right to refuse the request. Robert Mann, a lawyer for Pleau, was not immediately available for comment. U.S. Attorney Peter Neronha said in a statement his office was prepared to move forward with the prosecution, which could carry the death penalty. (source: Reuters) ********************* US seeks more time for death penalty decision on Iowa woman Prosecutors want more time to determine whether to continue seeking the death penalty against a woman convicted in the 1993 slayings of 5 Iowans. The Department of Justice has asked for 30 extra days to determine whether to withdraw its request for the death penalty against Angela Johnson or to ask jurors to return the sentence during a new trial to determine her punishment. U.S. District Judge Mark Bennett in March threw out Johnson?s death sentences, ruling her lawyers failed to present evidence about her mental state that could?ve convinced jurors to let her live. The decision does not affect her conviction. If prosecutors drop the death penalty request, Bennett says he?ll change Johnson?s sentence to life in prison. Johnson had been one of two women on federal death row. (source: Associated Press) ARIZONA: Arizona death row inmate's case up for review Arizona's largely new clemency board on Monday delayed considering the case of a death row inmate set for execution next week after the man's defense attorney said three new board members didn't have the legal authority to make such a decision. Samuel Villegas Lopez's attorney had asked the 5-member board to delay her client's execution and a decision about whether he deserves mercy over questions about the legality of the 3 new members' appointment by Gov. Jan Brewer. Attorney Kelley Henry told the board members that the new members didn't get the four weeks of training required under Arizona law and there were other problems surrounding their appointment. "We just have to start the training process. We don't have to complete it,'' new board Chairman Jesse Hernandez told The Associated Press. "We are in the process of training. We are within the law.'' Hernandez said Henry wanted to stop the hearing, and when she couldn't, she and her legal team walked out. "I ended the meeting,'' Hernandez said. "We wanted to give Mr. Lopez a fair hearing. But (his lawyers) decided to exit the process. I presume it was a legal maneuver on their part to buy Mr. Lopez time. "We did not make a ruling. What happens now is we are waiting for their response, to see if they want to come back for another hearing or go to court,'' Hernandez added. In a 1-sentence emailed response, Henry said "we are reviewing our legal options'' but she didn't elaborate. Dale Baich, a federal public defender in Phoenix, said "the question about the board's legal authority to act needs to be addressed before it can give full attention and consideration to the clemency request by Mr. Lopez. The governor should direct the attorney general to move to vacate the execution date so that the legal questions can be sorted out.'' The clemency board often is a death row inmate's last chance to argue against being executed. Lopez is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection May 16 at the state prison in Florence in what would be the fourth execution in Arizona this year. Lopez was convicted of raping, robbing and stabbing a 59-year-old woman to death in her Phoenix apartment on Oct. 29, 1986, after what court records described as a "terrible and prolonged struggle.'' Brewer overhauled the board last month, replacing two voting members and longtime Chairman Duane Belcher with three new people in what some defense attorneys and anti-death-penalty advocates said was a political move. In a filing with the board last week, Henry cited an Arizona law that says each new board member must undergo a four-week course before beginning their new duties. "This board should not sit in judgment on Sammy Lopez's very life without proper training and preparation,'' according to the filing. When the board does meet to consider whether to recommend mercy for Lopez, Henry plans to ask its members to recommend that Lopez's death sentence be overturned. She argues Lopez had a difficult childhood during which he "grew up in constant terror,'' hunger and poverty, and began inhaling paint and glue at a young age. Henry also argues Lopez's attorneys never informed the trial judge of those details, which she says are mitigating factors. She says if the judge had known about them, Lopez never would have gotten the death penalty. If the board votes to recommend that Lopez's execution be reduced to a life sentence or delayed, Brewer would need to give her approval in order for that to happen. In a separate filing in federal court last week, Lopez's attorneys ask that his execution be put on hold because the Arizona Department of Corrections has continuously violated and changed its own written protocol for executing death row inmates. Attorneys argue a new execution protocol released in January loosened requirements for those who inject inmates with lethal drugs and gives far too much discretion to corrections Director Charles Ryan to make last-minute changes. Similar arguments on behalf of two other Arizona inmates failed to stop executions in February and March, but they did cause a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco to issue a strong warning to the department. The judges wrote on Feb. 28 that Arizona forced the court "to engage in serious constitutional questions and complicated factual issues in the waning hours before executions.'' "This approach cannot continue,'' the panel wrote. ``We are mindful of the admonition requiring us to refrain from micromanaging each individual execution, but the admonition has a breaking point.'' (source: KTAR) From rhalperi at smu.edu Tue May 8 09:36:16 2012 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Tue, 8 May 2012 09:36:16 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide Message-ID: May 8 BURMA: Phyo Wai Aung Receives Death Sentence Phyo Wai Aung, an engineer who was arrested for his alleged involvement in a spate of bombings at the Thingyan water festival in Rangoon in April 2010, was sentenced to death by a special closed court on Tuesday. He was arrested on April 23, 2010, after being accused of involvement in the Buddhist New Year explosions that killed 10 people and injured over a hundred at the crowded X2O Pavilion in the former capital. Various sentences handed down include the death penalty for murder, life sentences under the Criminal Act, three years detention with labor under the Immigration Act, 10 years with labor under the Demolitions Act, and 3 years with labor under the Unlawful Association Act. ?These are the highest sentences ever,? said Kyaw Hoe, his lawyer. ?We are disappointed as the court sentenced him because of evidence submitted by the authorities which they received through torture. We will submit an appeal to Divisional Court?, Family members were not allowed to enter the court and had to wait outside instead, close relatives told The Irrawaddy. ?We hoped that we would not get this kind of sentence,? said his wife, Htay Htay. ?We are so disappointed with the judicial system for these unlawful and illegal proceedings. However, we will submit appeals.? According to his family, Phyo Wai Aung needs immediate medical attention as he is suffering from osteoarthritis on his back which prevents him from sitting or walking. He is also suspected of having liver sclerosis and his family worry that he may be moved to another prison without notice. ?The prison authorities allowed some doctors from outside to give a check-up few weeks ago,? said Htay Htay. ?But the ultrasound machine in the prison hospital is not working properly so the doctors can?t diagnose the exact problem. ?He is only given painkillers and now has to move from the prison hospital to the psychiatric ward as he received a death sentence. We?ve submitted appeals to give him medical care with physicians or specialists but have not yet received a reply.? Meanwhile, by pointing out human rights abuses in the case of Phyo Wai Aung, the Hong Kong-based Asian Human Rights Commission said in their May 6 report that the recent political transformation in Burma has not been accompanied by wider institutional reform. The report said that Phyo Wai Aung has been tortured and illegally detained and was forced to confess about the bomb blast with these illegally obtained confessions submitted to the court. Moreover, the closed trial at a special court inside Insein Prison used fabricated evidence and denied him the right to a defense, claims the AHRC. (source: The Irrawaddy) KUWAIT: Death penalty for Muslims in Kuwait who curse God, Quran or Prophet----Kuwait?s parliament on Thursday passed a bill stipulating the death penalty for Muslims who curse or mock God, the Muslim holy book, all prophets and the wives of Islam?s Prophet Mohammed. Kuwait?s parliament on Thursday passed a bill stipulating the death penalty for Muslims who curse or mock God, the Muslim holy book, all prophets and the wives of Islam?s Prophet Mohammed. The same punishment is applied to those who ?describe themselves as new prophets or messengers from God,? the Kuwaiti state news agency KUNA reported. ?But if the accused is a non-Muslim, the punishment would be lowered to jail for no more than 10 years,? the report added, according to the bill. 40 MPs, including cabinet ministers, voted for the bill in the 2nd and final round of voting, against 6 opponents who included all five Shi?ite MPs present and liberal MP Mohammad al-Sager. The bill introduces 2 new articles to the Gulf state?s penal code specifically to stiffen penalties for such offences. Defendants who repent in court will be spared capital punishment but will get a jail sentence for 5 years and a fine of $36,000 or one of them, while repentance by those who repeat the crime is not acceptable, the bill says. ?We do not want to execute people with opinions or thought because Islam respects these people... But we need this legislation because incidents of cursing God have increased. We need to deter them,? opposition MP Ali al-Deqbasi said during the debate. The bill becomes effective after the government accepts it, the emir signs it and it is published in the official gazette within one month. Minister of Justice and Islamic Affairs Jamal Shehab told reporters after the vote that the government will accept and implement the law. Shiite MPs also demanded that the bill impose the death penalty on anyone who curses their sect?s 12 revered Imams, but the Sunni-dominated parliament rejected their request. Shiite MP Abdulhameed Dashti said the bill breaches the Kuwaiti constitution and the principles of Islam. ?Why are we trying to show Islam as a religion of death and blood when it is actually the opposite of that,? Dashti said. (source: Ahlul Bayt News Agency) IRAN: Iranian pastor's attorney arrested An attorney who represented an Iranian Christian pastor under the death penalty has been ordered to prison for "a very broad crime." Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani has been in prison 938 days under the death penalty for his role in the house church movement in Iran. Jordan Sekulow of the American Center for Law & Justice (ACLJ) tells OneNewsNow that the pastor's attorney, Mohamad Ali Dadkhah, has previously served time in jail for representing clients in human rights cases. "... Even though they might not share the faith of a minority religious group or the political position of someone who's in the opposition, they're willing to represent them in court," he reports, "because they believe in at one day attaining the rule of law and the respect for the rule of law that we're used to here in the United States, where anyone can have representation in court and that you're innocent until proven guilty -" Dadkhah, who recently represented 12 Christians in a separate case, now faces 3 charges himself. "He was accused of crimes against national security, a very broad crime there -- spreading propaganda against the regime and then having illegal books in his home," Sekulow details. Dadkhah now faces 9 years in prison, but that has been delayed, as he is appealing the verdict. If the attorney goes to prison, it will be difficult for Pastor Nadarkhani to find other representation. (source: onenewsnow.com) INDIA: Karnataka Cabinet rejectes serial rapist, killer's mercy plea The Karnataka Cabinet on Monday rejected serial killer Umesh Reddy's mercy plea. Reddy was convicted and sentenced to death by a Fast Track Court in 2006 for the rape and murder of Jayshree Maradi Subbaiah. Reddy's death sentence was upheld in 2007 by a Bangalore High Court division bench for the 1998 case of rape and murder of Jayshree, a widow. The Supreme Court had on February 1, 2011 upheld his death penalty. Reddy is a former police constable from Hiriyur taluk, in Chitradurga of Karnataka. He had raped Jayshree on February 28, 1998 in Peenya police limits. Umesh Reddy has committed crimes in Mysore, Pune, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Baroda, Hubli and Bangalore. Reddy who has committed crimes in Mysore, Pune, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Baroda, Hubli and Bangalore, has 20 cases against him. His mother had petitioned President Pratibha Patil for clemency under Article 72 of the Constitution. (source: IBN Live) SWEDEN: Death penalty or penal labor for poachers In Sweden, hunting has been an important part of life for both the elite and people at large ? yet the 2 groups have not enjoyed quite the same opportunities. For example, from 1600 to 1789, hunting was reserved for the nobility, and non-compliance with the law could lead to a death penalty or penal labour for life. A new doctoral thesis from the University of Gothenburg sheds light on the history of hunting rights. In his thesis, Ulf Nyr?n goes to the bottom with the legal and political implications of hunting rights, with a focus on Sweden during the period 1647/64-1789. During this period, hunting of edible animals was reserved for the crown and the nobility. 'But despite the risk of capital punishment, flogging, imprisonment, hefty fines or penal labour for life, the laws were frequently violated by both farmers and more marginalised citizens,' says Nyr?n. In feudal European communities, exclusive hunting rights were a way for elites to demonstrate their power and privileges. In several countries, not least in England, the struggle for hunting rights developed into a deep conflict between the nobility and poacher groups. The level of conflict was lower in Sweden, despite the king claiming monopoly on his land and over certain species such as deer and swan. The nobility was inspired by the kings, and monopoly laws were established during the nobility's prime era. However, the hunting monopoly was not broadly accepted. In Sweden it was primarily the priests who protested against the hunting rights of the nobility. 'I unexpectedly found that the farmers in the parliament remained very passive for a long time. But the peasantry generally didn't respect the hunting laws. Poaching was very common, and I see this as a sign of silent resistance,' says Nyr?n. The fact that the population of hooved game went down in the 1700s suggests that poaching indeed was common. Not many poachers were taken to court, though, mainly due to the difficulty of proving that a crime had been committed. However, on the royal hunting grounds on the island of ?land, poaching was discouraged in all imaginable ways. For example, to make dogs useless for hunting, they were mutilated by having one leg removed, and farmers were not allowed to carry a weapon. The punishments were also harsher on ?land than elsewhere ? at least five individuals were sentenced to death in the 1600s. The situation on ?land resembled the situation in continental Europe, and was due to the attempts of the crown to maintain private hunting grounds like those seen in some other countries. Nyr?n's study shows that the hunting legislation was part of the formation of the elite and that it represented conflict in the relation between superior and subordinate. The situation on ?land points to the immense importance of the hunting rights issue to the highest elite. 'But members of the lower nobility seem to mostly have been interested in protecting their formal rights. In daily life they seem to have been rather lenient, as they normally did allow various subordinate groups to hunt.' Title of the doctoral thesis: R?tt till jakt: en studie av den svenska jaktr?tten ca 1600-1789 (Hunting rights in Sweden: a study of the segregated hunting laws circa 1600-1789; in Swedish with an English summary) (source: Eurekalert.org) From rhalperi at smu.edu Tue May 8 21:58:34 2012 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Tue, 8 May 2012 21:58:34 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] [SPAM] death penalty news----VA., ARIZ., USA, NEV., FLA., CALIF., UTAH Message-ID: May 8 VIRGINIA: Anesthetic in short supply stockpiled for Va. executions, critics say Critics say the Virginia Department of Corrections has a stockpile of an anesthesia drug for use in executions that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration lists as in short supply. According to Reprieve, an anti-death penalty group, the department has 60 vials of pancuronium bromide used to induce paralysis as the second of three drugs employed in lethal injections. However, documents obtained by two Northern Virginia lawyers under the Freedom of Information Act show that as of last November the department had as many as 95 vials of the drug ? with 15 vials apparently used in one execution. Reprieve says 60 vials could be used to treat roughly 50 to 60 patients to relax muscles during surgeries. The FDA maintains a list of drug shortages in an effort to prevent them and to restore their availability. Warnings about a shortage of pancuronium bromide date back to 2010. The American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, which also has the drug on its shortage list, says another manufacturer stopped producing it two years ago. Hospira is now the only manufacturer and has it on back order due to manufacturing delays. ?We don?t discuss our execution protocols," said Larry Traylor, a corrections spokesman. "The Virginia Department of Corrections is tasked by the General Assembly to carry out court ordered executions and has the means to do so.? Officials with Hospira Inc., which manufactures the drug, could not be reached for immediate comment. Virginia, which has about 12 people on death row, has conducted 79 lethal injections since it became an option to the electric chair in 1995. The 3-drug procedure is similar to that used in other states and has withstood court challenges. (source: Richmond Times-Dispatch) ARIZONA: Defense lawyer leaves Samuel Lopez's clemency hearing----She takes issue with Brewer appointees A defense attorney walked out of a clemency hearing for a death-row prisoner Monday, claiming that Gov. Jan Brewer violated state statutes in appointing 3 new members to the Arizona Board of Executive Clemency. Samuel Lopez is scheduled for execution May 16. But his attorney, Assistant Federal Public Defender Kelley Henry, told the clemency board that she could not go ahead with the hearing until it was determined whether the board was authorized to hear the case. To do so, she said, would essentially waive her client's right to a fair hearing. Among Henry's allegations are that the new members have not completed training required by state statute, that their interviews violated open meeting laws by taking place behind closed doors, and that one new member is a lobbyist for a police association that advocates the death penalty. Henry intended to file a writ of mandamus in Maricopa County Superior Court by this morning, asking for a stay of execution until the questions can be cleared up. If the court were to rule that the board members were improperly appointed, it could call into question 56 decisions the board has made since the new members began considering clemency, parole and parole revocation cases April 23. Brewer spokesman Matthew Benson said the appointments were in full accordance with the law. Lopez, 49, was sentenced to death for the brutal 1986 murder of a Phoenix woman. According to court records, on Oct. 29, 1986, Lopez gagged and blindfolded Estefana Holmes, 59, raped and sodomized her, stabbed her more than 20 times in the chest and head, then slit her throat. The disarray in her apartment showed "evidence of a terrible and prolonged struggle," the record said. He was convicted and sentenced to death the next year. Henry, his current appeals attorney, had intended to present expert testimony that Lopez suffered brain damage from huffing glue, and to argue that he had been denied effective assistance of counsel in his trial because his lawyer did not present mitigating evidence that might have persuaded a judge not to sentence him to death. Ineffective assistance of counsel claims are a recurring question before the U.S. Supreme Court, with several recent rulings on the subject, particularly regarding claims that are not raised during the prisoner's first appeals. Instead, Henry confronted the board with 16 apparent violations of state statute stemming from the appointments last month of clemency board members Brian Livingston, Mel Thomas and the new chairman, Jesse Hernandez. Henry said the commission that appointed the new members appeared to have violated state laws by not notifying the public or the candidates in advance that the interviews would be held in executive session; by not telling the appointees they could choose to be interviewed in open session; by not holding a public vote on going into executive session; by not considering enough candidates for each position; and by not sending the governor three candidates for each position as specified by statute. Though state statutes require the board to send the governor three candidates for each position, records show the commission interviewed just 8 candidates in total. According to Benson, the commission sent Brewer at most 5 candidates for the 3 positions, which he termed standard practice. Benson declined to speak to the conflict-of-interest allegations raised by Henry, but said the governor was entitled to staff the board "with people with whom she's comfortable." Henry also argued that Brewer violated state laws by appointing the 3 and having them sign loyalty oaths before they were confirmed by the Arizona Senate. Copies of the oaths show they were signed April 9 and 10, more than a week before the their appointments were confirmed. "We believe, at this point, that this renders the appointment of the three new members null and void," said Henry. "That means you don't have the authority to take any action at this time." While the statutes allow the chairman to declare a quorum with just two members, she told Hernandez that because his appointment wasn't legal: "Our position is that you don't have the authority to declare a quorum." Henry also said the new board members had not received the 4 weeks of training specified in state law. While the statute does not specify whether the training must be completed before board members vote, she said that given the life-or-death decision facing the board, such training is essential. By a 3 to 2 vote, with the new members in the majority, the board retired to "executive session" Monday to discuss the matter with an attorney from the Arizona Attorney General's Office, then returned to continue the hearing. Henry claimed that to present her case for reprieve would invalidate any further claims to receive a fair hearing. She left and the hearing was adjourned. The board members were uncertain what would happen next. Veteran board member Jack LaSota, a former Arizona Attorney General, at first opined that Lopez had effectively waived his right to a clemency hearing. "This is tantamount to, they don't want a hearing," he said. Hernandez vacillated in his response. "They were offered a process, they declined it," he said at first. Interviewed after the hearing, Hernandez claimed he did not know details of how he was appointed to the board. And he said the new members already had undergone 80 hours of the required training in the first two weeks of their tenure. He suggested he would consult with the Governor's Office, then denied he took direction from the governor. The outgoing board members have already said that they were not reappointed because of Brewer's displeasure with some of their decisions. In the end, Hernandez said he expected Lopez to get his clemency hearing after all. LaSota took it further. "I don't think (Lopez will) be executed on the 16th," LaSota said. A U.S. District Court judge in Phoenix, meanwhile, on Monday denied a request by Lopez's legal team to stay his execution because of recurring lapses in the Arizona Department of Correction's execution protocol. The Federal Public Defender's Office has already filed noticed that it will appeal the ruling to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. (source: The Arizona Republic) ***************** Death row inmate's case up for review Arizona?s largely new clemency board on Monday delayed considering the case of a death row inmate set for execution next week after the man?s defense attorney said three new board members didn?t have the legal authority to make such a decision. Samuel Villegas Lopez?s attorney had asked the 5-member board to delay her client?s execution and a decision about whether he deserves mercy over questions about the legality of the 3 new members? appointment by Gov. Jan Brewer. Attorney Kelley Henry told the board members that the new members didn?t get the four weeks of training required under Arizona law and there were other problems surrounding their appointment. ?We just have to start the training process. We don?t have to complete it,? new board Chairman Jesse Hernandez told The Associated Press. ?We are in the process of training. We are within the law.? Hernandez said Henry wanted to stop the hearing, and when she couldn?t, she and her legal team walked out. ?I ended the meeting,? Hernandez said. ?We wanted to give Mr. Lopez a fair hearing. But (his lawyers) decided to exit the process. I presume it was a legal maneuver on their part to buy Mr. Lopez time. ?We did not make a ruling. What happens now is we are waiting for their response, to see if they want to come back for another hearing or go to court,? Hernandez added. Dale Baich, a federal public defender in Phoenix, said ?the question about the board?s legal authority to act needs to be addressed before it can give full attention and consideration to the clemency request by Mr. Lopez. The governor should direct the attorney general to move to vacate the execution date so that the legal questions can be sorted out.? The clemency board often is a death row inmate?s last chance to argue against being executed. Lopez is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection May 16 at the state prison in Florence in what would be the fourth execution in Arizona this year. Lopez was convicted of raping, robbing and stabbing a 59-year-old woman to death in her Phoenix apartment on Oct. 29, 1986, after what court records described as a ?terrible and prolonged struggle.? Brewer overhauled the board last month, replacing two voting members and longtime Chairman Duane Belcher with three new people in what some defense attorneys and anti-death-penalty advocates said was a political move. In a filing with the board last week, Henry cited an Arizona law that says each new board member must undergo a four-week course before beginning their new duties. ?This board should not sit in judgment on Sammy Lopez?s very life without proper training and preparation,? according to the filing. When the board does meet to consider whether to recommend mercy for Lopez, Henry plans to ask its members to recommend that Lopez?s death sentence be overturned. She argues Lopez had a difficult childhood during which he ?grew up in constant terror,? hunger and poverty, and began inhaling paint and glue at a young age. Henry also argues Lopez?s attorneys never informed the trial judge of those details, which she says are mitigating factors. She says if the judge had known about them, Lopez never would have gotten the death penalty. If the board votes to recommend that Lopez?s execution be reduced to a life sentence or delayed, Brewer would need to give her approval in order for that to happen. In a separate filing in federal court last week, Lopez?s attorneys ask that his execution be put on hold because the Arizona Department of Corrections has continuously violated and changed its own written protocol for executing death row inmates. Attorneys argue a new execution protocol released in January loosened requirements for those who inject inmates with lethal drugs and gives far too much discretion to corrections Director Charles Ryan to make last-minute changes. Similar arguments on behalf of two other Arizona inmates failed to stop executions in February and March, but they did cause a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco to issue a strong warning to the department. The judges wrote on Feb. 28 that Arizona forced the court ?to engage in serious constitutional questions and complicated factual issues in the waning hours before executions.? ?This approach cannot continue,? the panel wrote. ?We are mindful of the admonition requiring us to refrain from micromanaging each individual execution, but the admonition has a breaking point.? (source: TriValleyCentral.com) USA (RHODE ISLAND): Rhode Island must turn over suspect in death-penalty spat Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee must surrender a state prisoner to federal authorities to potentially face the death penalty on charges of killing of a gas station manager, a federal appeals court ruled on Monday. The Boston-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit ruled in a 3-2 decision that Chafee could not keep shooting suspect Jason Pleau in state custody to shield him from capital punishment. Ruling otherwise would undermine the federal government's ability to prosecute federal crimes, the court ruled. "Instead of a place of confinement, the state prison would become a refuge against federal charges," Judge Michael Boudin wrote for the majority. Pleau was serving an 18-year sentence in state prison for parole violations when he was indicted on federal charges for the 2010 murder and robbery of David Main outside a bank. The federal government asked for custody of Pleau under a federal law that governs the transfer of prisoners between states and the U.S. government. But Chafee refused, asserting Rhode Island's policy of opposing the death penalty. In 2011, a three-judge panel of the 1st Circuit had upheld Pleau and Chafee's right to resist the federal request. But a majority of the full 1st Circuit reached the opposite conclusion on Monday, finding the federal government's right to prosecute federal crimes trumped the state's interest in opposing capital punishment. "State interposition to defeat federal authority vanished with the Civil War," Boudin wrote. Two judges dissented, defending the governor's right to refuse the request. Robert Mann, a lawyer for Pleau, was not immediately available for comment. U.S. Attorney Peter Neronha said in a statement his office was prepared to move forward with the prosecution, which could carry the death penalty. (source: Reuters) NEVADA: Top Nevada court reviews death penalty sentence of convicted killer A convicted killer does not have to show by a preponderance of the evidence that he does not deserve a death sentence, a defense lawyer says. John R. Petty of the Washoe County public defender's office told the Nevada Supreme Court that it should nullify the death penalty given murderer James Biela because a wrong instruction was given to the jury during the penalty phase of the trial in Reno. But Terry McCarthy of the Washoe County district attorney's office said each juror makes his or her own decision. And the death penalty should be upheld. But Justice Kristina Pickering said there could be confusion in the jury instruction. On Jan. 20, 2008, 19-year-old Brianna Dennison disappeared while sleeping on the couch of the home of a friend in Reno. Her body was found Feb. 15 in a field. She had been raped and strangled with a pair of thong panties. Petty, the chief appeal deputy in the public defender's office, said the jury was wrongly instructed that the mitigating circumstances must outweigh the aggravating circumstances to eliminate the possibility of the death penalty. But Justice Michael Douglas noted the defense at the trial never objected to the jury instruction. Nor did the defense attorney argue against it in his closing argument. But Petty said the court should either grant a new penalty hearing or reduce the death sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Deputy District Attorney McCarthy told the court there was no requirement at trial that the death penalty be imposed. He said it was a moral judgment by the juror. In his brief to the court, McCarthy quoted the instruction as saying, "If you find unanimously and beyond a reasonable doubt that at least one aggravating circumstance exists and each of you determines beyond a reasonable doubt that any mitigating circumstance do not outweigh the aggravating, the defendant is eligible for a death sentence." The court took the arguments under submission. Biela is 1 of 82 men on death row in the state prison in Ely. There has not been an execution by lethal injection in Nevada since Daryl Mack was put to death on April 26, 2006. (source: Las Vegas Sun) FLORIDA: Greg Gardner: Evolution from cub reporter to execution witness ends watching killer Gore with 'fear in his eyes' ---- 30-plus years later, reporter witnesses death of serial killer he wrote about decades before; Greg Gardner, Jensen Beach, is a freelance journalist who has worked at newspapers and a TV station in each of the Treasure Coast counties As a cub reporter responsible for bringing a serial killer onto law enforcement's radar, I never dreamed it would take more than 30 years to witness the final chapter of the story with the April 12 execution of David Alan Gore. Gore, admitted murderer of six women in Vero Beach, went quietly to death in front of 34 witnesses in the death chamber at Florida State Prison ? unlike his victims who suffered terror at the hands of him and his cousin, Fred Waterfield. It was 1981 when I wrote a story about an Indian River County sheriff's auxiliary deputy who stopped a woman under suspicious circumstances. Her girlfriend's father worked for the Vero Beach Press Journal and we ran the story without Gore's name only to find out the next day that he had resigned, ending a brief internal investigation. 2 weeks later with lifesaving luck, a sheriff's deputy leaving a doctor's office heard a woman scream and rushed to her car to find Gore in the back seat with vodka, handcuffs, a loaded .357 magnum and a police scanner. We ran numerous stories before the trial, including the search for three missing women, who lawmen were certain Gore had murdered. The glares from Gore at the trial were creepy, but nothing compared to staring evil face-to-face two years later without the protection of court bailiffs. Gore was found guilty and given the maximum five years in prison. Two years later, he was introduced to me in a Port St. Lucie nightclub. It was pretty scary until he and another man finally left with two young women. To this day, we will never know if the women were dropped off safely or never seen again. When Gore was arrested in 1983 for the murder of 17-year-old Lynn Elliott, she was the third woman murdered after his early parole from prison. "It doesn't bring closure, but it ends a chapter," said Joe Byer, whose 14-year-old niece was Barbara Ann Byer. "It can't bring anyone back. With 6 victims, he hurt a lot of people. Gore got to say goodbye to his family but the victims never did." While her father witnessed the execution, his brother waited outside with the eight pro-death penalty advocates just yards away from 40 anti-death penalty protesters. Among the pro-death penalty protesters were the twin daughters of Fred Waterfield, Gore's cousin and co-conspirator serving several life terms in Okeechobee. They were overheard saying, "He (Gore) was a heinous man," adding they don't believe their father is guilty. If you can pass a background check, any Florida resident can witness an execution, although family members of the condemned inmate are never allowed in the witness room ? a 12- by 20-foot box crammed with chairs in four rows, facing a large picture window. Unfortunately, the sound system to hear the dying man's last words is chronically dysfunctional, said a reporter who has witnessed 53 executions. As reporters, the 10 trained, professional observers had to agree afterward on Gore's final statement. If we couldn't understand all of what was being said, how could the witnesses? Robert Stone, 19th Judicial Circuit state attorney for 14 years and prosecutor in the case, sat on the front row, seats away from the Elliotts. "I don't know why they have witnesses," Stone said. "All I could see was his nostrils. The Elliotts could not see his face. They agonized for 29 years. They should be able to look him in the eye. He should have been sitting up. Let them see each other." At a kind of debriefing, after the execution, Stone said he spoke to every one of the witnesses he knew. "They all felt some satisfaction and relief," he said. "Now they can begin to forget about it as much as is possible." In his last words spoken on this Earth, Gore said, "I do not fear death. Thank you." >From the end media seat on a riser 2 feet above the witnesses, I saw the fear in his eyes before he took his last deep breath and closed them for the last time. (source: TC Palm) CALIFORNIA: State Supreme Court Upholds Death Sentence for Riverside Man Who Killed Neighbor The state Supreme Court yesterday unanimously affirmed the death sentence for a Riverside County man convicted of raping and killing his elderly next-door neighbor, then setting her house afire. William Alfred Jones, a convicted sex offender who was 39 years old when he killed Ruth Eddings, 81, in 1996, failed to demonstrate prejudicial error at his 1996 trial before then-Riverside Superior Court Judge Robert Spitzer, Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye said. Sheriff?s deputies who investigated the crimes focused on Jones from the beginning of their investigation. Interrogated at home the morning and afternoon of the crime?which occurred during early morning hours?and later at the police station, he admitted responsibility for the sexual assault, the death, and the fire. Prosecutors charged Jones with first degree murder?with special circumstances of rape, sodomy, and burglary?as well as arson. They argued that Jones entered the Eddings residence with intent to assault the victim sexually, raped and sodomized her, then strangled her and tried to burn down her mobilehome in order to destroy the evidence. The defense contended that Jones went over to the house to check in on Eddings, who had not taken in her newspaper, but was heavily intoxicated at the time and accidentally fell on her. Any sexual contact, the defense argued, was not intended at the time of entry and occurred postmortem. Jones admitted starting the fire, saying he panicked because he didn?t want to go back to prison, from which he had recently been paroled. Jurors found Jones guilty of murder with special circumstances and of arson, and returned a death penalty verdict. On appeal, the defense argued that Spitzer erred in allowing a forensic pathologist who had conducted the autopsy to opine that the sexual assault occurred while Eddings was still alive. Not being a psychologist or other specialist in necrophilia, or a criminologist, the pathologist was not qualified to render an opinion on the issue, defense counsel claimed. The standard of review regarding the court?s determination to allow a witness to testify as an expert, the chief justice noted, is manifest abuse of discretion. A pathologist?s opinion regarding how a fatal injury did or did not occur is generally regarded as within his or her area of expertise, she added. ?The question of whether a victim was raped and sodomized prior to or after dying is a relevant circumstance of death for which a qualified forensic pathologist might offer an opinion in an appropriate case,? Cantil-Sakauye wrote. She also noted that a defense expert, who testified that the sexual assault occurred postmortem, also lacked the credentials the defense argued were required. The chief justice also rejected defense arguments concerning the admission of evidence of prior criminal assaults by Jones and the related jury instructions. At the guilt phase, Spitzer allowed a woman, identified as Toni P., to testify that when she was 16 years old and living with her aunt, who was Jones? sister, Jones came over and had forced oral sex with her after her aunt and uncle had left for work. He told her that she would ?regret it? if she told anyone. Jones was subsequently convicted in that case, and was paroled 18 months before he killed Eddings. The judge admitted the evidence as bearing on Jones? state of mind and intent in going to Eddings? home on the occasion of the killing. Spitzer also allowed prosecutors to impeach Jones? direct testimony with evidence that he had stabbed a teacher in high school with a knife, and sexually assaulted the mother of his then-girlfriend three years after the incident with the teacher. Evidence of several attacks on women he dated were admitted in the penalty phase. Cantil-Sakauye said the evidence regarding Toni P. was admissible to show a predisposition to commit a sexual assault against Eddings, and that the evidence was sufficiently probative to outweigh any prejudice. The chief justice acknowledged that the jury instructions regarding the other-crimes evidence ?were not entirely consistent? with the judge?s rulings limiting the purposes for which the evidence could be considered. But there was no cause for reversal, she said, because the standard instruction that was given, CALJIC No. 2.50, correctly stated the law; the evidence was clearly admissible; the evidence of intent was strong; and the arguments of counsel made clear what the purpose of admitting the evidence was. The case is People v. Jones. 12 S.O.S. 2163. (source: Metropolitan News Company) ************ Joshua Graham Packer Faces Death Penalty For Stabbing Couple & Unborn Baby To Death A sexual assault count has been added to charges against a man facing trial in the stabbing deaths of a couple and their unborn child in their Southern California beach house. A grand jury last week indicted 22-year-old Joshua Graham Packer on a charge of using a knife to force a pregnant Davina Husted to perform a sex act with him before she was stabbed to death. Packer is facing a death penalty trial on accusations that he killed Brock and Davina Husted and their unborn child inside their Faria Beach home on May 20, 2009. Packer appeared in court Monday on the latest indictment, but arraignment was postponed until May 16. The prosecutor and defense lawyer wouldn't comment. (source: Huffington Post) UTAH: Judge deciding if alleged Utah cop killer qualifies for death penalty ---- Court ? Psychologists disagree on whether the accused is mentally retarded. With doctors split on the mental capacity of the man charged with killing a Millard County sheriff?s deputy, it will be up to a judge to decide whether to remove the possibility of death in the capital murder case. In court this week, two psychologists testified Roberto Miramontes Rom?n?s IQ falls below 70 ? generally considered the threshold for determining mental retardation under the law ? and that the alleged killer also has adaptive functioning deficits indicative of mild mental retardation. 2 other psychologists, however, disagreed. It is now up to 4th District Judge Donald Eyre to rule on whether prosecutors could seek the death penalty if Rom?n is convicted of the 2010 murder of Deputy Josie Greathouse Fox. Following a 2-day hearing that concluded Tuesday, attorneys will submit briefs on the issue after which Eyre will make his ruling. Stephen Greenspan, a psychologist who did not evaluate Rom?n but reviewed the reports of three other doctors, called Rom?n "the odd man out" in his family, and said he has always needed others? care to survive. "They are all competent adults," Greenspan said. "Mr. Rom?n on the other hand clearly was not competent at that level." Doctors said Rom?n, who was born in a home in Mexico, could have been impacted by perinatal anoxia, a shortage of oxygen during birth. That would be a "major risk factor" for mental retardation, Greenspan said. Doctors also said Rom?n?s drug and alcohol use, which started at an early age, could have damaged his brain. "The damage that you do to your brain [with drugs and alcohol] when you?re an adult is severe, but it?s nothing compared to what you do to your brain in adolescence," said Dr. Ricardo Weinsten, who also found Rom?n to be mentally retarded. Doctors said Rom?n struggled with impulse control and decision making. When he was younger, he would walk in front of trucks "and thought he had superhuman abilities" to make them stop, Greenspan said. But prosecutors and two other psychologists doubted the diagnosis. Assistant Attorney General Patrick Nolan questioned how Rom?n could have then sold drugs and engaged in other criminal activities for which he has been convicted. According to charging documents, Rom?n, 39, shot and killed the 37-year-old Fox during a traffic stop on Jan. 5, 2010. Fox had stopped the car because Rom?n had allegedly been involved in a drug deal just minutes before. When Fox walked up to the car and asked for license and registration, Rom?n pointed the barrel of an AK-47 out the driver-side window and fired, according to preliminary hearing testimony. Another man, Rub?n Ch?vez-Reyes, is serving time in prison for helping Rom?n evade police following the shooting. A trial for Rom?n is scheduled for August. (source: Salt Lake Tribune) From rhalperi at smu.edu Wed May 9 20:18:07 2012 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Wed, 9 May 2012 20:18:07 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] [SPAM] death penalty news----OHIO, S.C., VA., NEV., ILL., USA Message-ID: May 9 OHIO: Murderer ask judges to spare his life An Ohio man who fatally stabbed his ex-girlfriend and their 2 children, one of them a 2-year-old son, pleaded with judges to spare him the death penalty. Caron E. Montgomery, 37, apologized Tuesday in a Franklin County Common Pleas courtroom for the Thanksgiving Day 2010 killings in a Columbus apartment, The Columbus Dispatch reported. The 3 victims -- his ex-girlfriend, Tia Hendricks, 31; their daughter, Tahlia Hendricks, 10; and son, Tyron Hendricks, 2 -- all died after their throats were slashed. "I'm sorry for what I did," Montgomery said. "I took my family. It's a selfish act. I hurt a lot of people. ... I hope you all have mercy on my soul." Judges Guy Reece, Pat Sheeran and Richard S. Sheward ruled Tuesday morning Montgomery is eligible for the death penalty. A unanimous decision by the three judges would be required for the death penalty to be imposed. Montgomery gave the judges no explanation for the killings. His 2 oldest sons, ages 17 and 18, a brother, a cousin and the cousin's wife testified Montgomery was a good person despite the killings. "I still have family and my boys, and they want you all to spare my life," Montgomery said. "I hope you all spare my life so I can at least be some type of dad from prison for them." Relatives of Tia Hendricks said she had broken up with Montgomery but was allowing him to stay at her home. (source: United Press International) SOUTH CAROLINA: ?You will not walk free?: Convicted killer gets life----Lynch spared the death penalty despite prosecutor Myers? pleas Disregarding impassioned pleas from prosecutor Donnie Myers to give convicted killer Kenneth Lynch the death penalty, Circuit Judge Eugene Griffith on Tuesday sentenced Lynch to life in prison without parole for killing Portia Washington and her 7-year-old granddaughter. Their bodies were never found after they disappeared in 2006 from their blood-soaked West Columbia apartment, where Lynch, now 52, was living with Washington. ?In the coming weeks, months and years,? Griffith told Lynch, ?you will come to realize what the rest of your days on this Earth will be like, and that your actions are the cause of your fate. You may decide to reveal what you have not yet revealed (where the bodies are). ?However, you will not walk free amongst us again, and someday you will die in prison. May God have mercy on your soul.? It was a rare defeat for Myers, who on Monday had begged the judge to give Lynch ? whom he called a ?parasitic leech? and ?a ticking time bomb? ? the ultimate punishment for killing Washington and 2nd-grader Angelica Livingston. Over the 35-odd years he has been 11th Circuit prosecutor, Myers has successfully persuaded juries to give dozens of killers the death penalty. But in this case, Lynch?s 2 defense lawyers, Ben Stitely and Bill McGuire, gambled and chose, along with the defendant, to try the case without a jury. That put the decision to find Lynch guilty or innocent ? as well as the punishment ? squarely in the hands of the judge. ?It?s incredible to think that 1 man ? the judge ? has to make that call,? Stitely said later Tuesday. ?We of course were disappointed with his guilty verdict, but we respect the judge?s decision. But were very happy he made the call for a life sentence.? The judge?s decision was also right on a philosophical level, Stitely said. ?As Gandhi said, if everyone believed in ?an eye for an eye,? soon all the world would go blind.? Stitely said Lynch was ?obviously relieved? at the judge?s decision. A defense appeal of both the guilty verdict and the sentence is likely, Stitely said. In his final argument to the judge Monday, Stitely said that apart from a few minor scrapes, Lynch had lived a crime-free life and had posed no problems to anyone the past 6 years he has been in jail. Thus, Lynch is not the ?worst of the worst? kind of killer for whom the ultimate punishment should be given, Stitely said. Lynch chose not to testify during the trial. Griffith began deliberating on the punishment late Monday afternoon and reached his decision around 11 a.m. Tuesday. A subdued Myers said: ?It was a rough case. Like he said, a jury might have reached different decision. We?ll live with it.? ?A couple of years ago,? Myers said, ?we sent word to the defendant we wouldn?t seek the death penalty if he would tell us where the bodies are. His response wasn?t too nice. His response was something like, ?You don?t have the evidence to convict me and some cuss words.?? That?s the reason he pushed for death, Myers said. ?I?m not giving him a bag of air to breathe. I?m not giving him a break. All we can do is put up our case.? Stitely confirmed that Myers had made the offer but added, ?We?ve maintained he?s not guilty. He?s never told us anything to change our minds of that.? ?This case is unusual in that it is the only non-jury capital case in which I am aware that the judge has assumed the role of fact-finder in both the guilt and sentencing phases of the trial,? said Griffith, 47. ?It is possible that another judge, or a jury, would view the same evidence and find a different verdict, or impose a different sentence,? said Griffith, who is in his 1st term as judge. This was his first death penalty trial. In interviews afterward, members of Washington?s and Livingston?s family said they accepted the sentence. Many had attended the entire trial, which began April 18 and was one of the longest murder trials ever held in Lexington County. ?We want him to live with what he did. We want him to be reminded of it every day,? said Vernell Bellamy, Washington?s aunt. Sam Brown, Washington?s son, said, ?We really would like to know where they are.? Washington, 53 when she disappeared, had been living with Lynch but had told friends he had turned her once-happy apartment, where she was raising Livingston, ?into a hellhole.? She told friends and family she was taking steps to leave him when she and the girl disappeared in June 2006. Livingston?s blood was found in the apartment mixed with Lynch?s blood. Lynch was apprehended by the U.S. Border Patrol north of Seattle, Wash., as he tried to cross into Canada a week after Washington and Livingston vanished. The car he had stolen from Washington to make his getaway was found abandoned in Seattle, witnesses testified. (source: The State) VIRGINIA: Group Protests VA's Use of Sparse Anesthetic For Executions A group that opposes the death penalty is criticizing Virginia's use of an anesthesia drug for executions. Reprieve says in a news release that the Food and Drug Administration lists the drug, pancuronium bromide, as being in short supply for hospitals. The group says Virginia has a stockpile of 60 vials. That amount could be used to relax the muscles of 50 to 60 patients during hospital surgeries. Virginia Department of Corrections spokesman Larry Traylor told media outlets that the agency doesn't discuss its execution protocols. In Virginia, condemned inmates are allowed to choose between injection and electrocution. If they decline to choose, they get the injection. (source: Associated Press) NEVADA: Nevada Department of Corrections lacks plan for executions due to prison closure, drug shortage The last execution in Nevada was of convicted murderer Daryl Mack on April 26, 2006. A court convicted him in 2002 of the 1988 rape and strangulation of Betty Jane May. Other Northern Nevadans on death row include: Tamir Hamilton: Washoe County; sentenced March 27, 2008; Hamilton raped and murdered Holly Quick, a Sparks student found dead in her bed in 2006. Several injuries indicated that she was tortured. Robert McConnell: Washoe County; Aug. 28, 2003; McConnell pleaded guilty to fatally shooting Brian Pierce on Aug. 7, 2002. Pierce was engaged to McConnell's former girlfriend. Siaosi Vanisi: Washoe County; Nov. 22, 1999; Vanisi killed a University of Nevada, Reno police officer in 1998. Sgt. George Sullivan had been struck at least 20 times with a hatchet. Shawn Harte: Washoe County; May 7, 1999; Harte fatally shot John Castro Jr., a Reno cab driver, in 1997. David Middleton: Washoe County; Sept. 18, 1997; Middleton, a former Miami police officer, killed Sun Valley teacher Katherine Powell and Circus Circus Reno employee Thelma Amparo Davila. Carlos Gutierrez: Washoe County; Aug. 10, 1995; Gutierrez pleaded guilty to beating to death his 3 1/2-year-old stepdaughter, Mailin Stafford, in Reno in 1994. Michael Sonner: Pershing County; Oct. 28, 1994; Sonner, a North Carolina jail escapee, killed Carlos Borland, a Nevada Highway Patrol trooper, during a stop on Interstate 80 east of Lovelock in 1993. David Bollinger: Washoe County; Sept. 28, 1994; Bollinger kidnapped James Vertres, 79, and his wife, Rose, 74, from their Sparks trailer park in April 1992, murdered them and set their bodies on fire at a Colorado rest stop. Avram Nika: Washoe County; July 10, 1992; Nika killed Edward Smith of Fallon after Smith stopped to help Nika, whose car had broken down on I-80 east of Sparks. Nika beat Smith and shot him in the head. Roger Libby: Humboldt County; June 25, 1990; Libby murdered Charles Beatty and James Robertson, whose bodies were found in the desert near Winnemucca. William Leonard: Carson City; Aug. 25, 1989; Leonard stabbed fellow inmate Joseph Wright 21 times with a prison-made knife in 1987. It was his 3rd murder conviction. John Bejarano: Washoe County; May 11, 1988; Bejarano murdered Reno cab driver Roland Wright in March 1987 during a robbery. Ricky Sechrest: Washoe County; Oct. 28, 1983; Sechrest bludgeoned to death 10-year-old Maggie Schindler and 9-year-old Carly Villa, who disappeared in May 1983 and later were found in shallow graves. Nevada death row statistics 82: Number currently on death row 12: Number of executions since 1976 16.9: Average number of years spent on death row 31: Longest number of years spent on death row 1: Number of innocent people freed from death row 1: Number of clemencies granted [source: Death Penalty Information Center] 4 months after shutting down Nevada State Prison in Carson City, site of the state?s only death chamber, officials have no solid plan for carrying out executions and no access to a lethal injection drug. As Nevada?s death row inmates continue to appeal their convictions and sentences, the Nevada Department of Corrections has continued to lose its ability to hold an execution. Corrections officials shut down the Nevada State Prison in Carson City, site of the state?s only death chamber, early this year, and they have no solid plan in place for transporting and holding an inmate who is about to be executed, the Reno Gazette-Journal found. In addition, 1 of the drugs used during a lethal injection has not been available for more than a year, and the state?s execution protocol has not been updated to address the drug shortage, the Gazette-Journal found. The department plans to submit a bill draft request to the Legislature next year asking for $385,000 to build a new execution chamber at the Ely State Prison, said Steve Suwe, a department spokesman. The Nevada Attorney General?s office sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder early in 2011 seeking help to deal with the lethal injection drug shortage, spokeswoman Jennifer Lopez said. But no resolution has been found. ?Should any executions be scheduled, we will do the best to help the Department of Corrections have the drugs necessary to carry out a lawful execution order,? Lopez said. Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, said the lack of a solid plan could be problematic, especially if an inmate were to suddenly stop the appeals process and ask to be killed. Eleven of the 12 inmates executed in Nevada since 1976 ?volunteered? to be executed. ?When it comes time, they just can?t say, ?Trust us,?? Dieter said of corrections officials. ?They have to have a very specific protocol. Either a state or federal court would want them to produce that information. They?ll want to make sure this isn?t done in a slipshod way.? (source: Reno Gazette-Journal) ILLINOIS: Jury Foreman in McKinney Case: "Justice Was Perverted" It is a saga of murder and injustice that spans three decades, and even now a surprising new chapter is being written. Anthony McKinney, a black teenager, was convicted of the 1978 shotgun slaying of white security guard Donald Lundahl in South Suburban Harvey. Prosecutors sought the death penalty, but McKinney had no history of violence and the judge sentenced him to life without parole. A quarter century later, my journalism students re-investigated the case, unearthing evidence that pointed to McKinney's innocence: a confession coerced by a brutal cop, witnesses who admitted they had lied at the trial, viable alternative suspects and an alibi nailed down by the TV log of a Muhammad Ali championship fight. Based on this evidence, lawyers at the Center on Wrongful Convictions filed an innocence petition in 2008 seeking a new trial for McKinney and the Chicago Sun-Times ran a front-page story that exposed the injustice. But Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez turned the tables in 2009 by subpoenaing the students' grades, notes and memos about the case. McKinney's plight was lost in the media uproar that followed. One man, however, remained intently focused on the evidence. Meet Donald Gemmell, Ph.D., a retired physicist at Argonne National Laboratory -- and the foreman of the jury that decided McKinney's fate. Gemmell, now 77-years-old, has been haunted by the verdict for most of his adult life. Last month, he called me to confess: The jury that he led had made a tragic mistake. "We convicted an innocent man," he said in a voice filled with pain. Gemmell's doubts about McKinney's guilt first surfaced during the trial, he said. He was skeptical about the credibility of the lead detective in the case and the testimony of a supposed eyewitness. And, he wondered why the state was unable to produce the murder weapon since police had apprehended McKinney near the scene. But mostly he was confused by the state's time-line of events. "It was hard to figure out where the witnesses were in relation to the shooting," he said. Nevertheless, after he was elected foreman. the initial vote was 8-4 to convict, and two days later. the verdict was unanimous: Guilty. "We figured McKinney probably did it because he confessed," Gemmell explained. "Why would an innocent person admit to murder? And we saw pictures of that poor man's brains splattered all over his car. It was troubling that [McKinney] didn't seem remorseful about that." Gemmell said he "didn't sleep for weeks" following the verdict and began methodically reviewing the evidence in his head, as a scientist would. Logic gradually replaced the emotion of the trial. As time passed, his doubts became "more nagging." He followed the recent controversies about the case on the Internet and was not surprised to read about the new evidence of McKinney's innocence. He also became "not as naive" about the problem of false confessions. Finally, consumed by remorse and having moved from the Chicago area, he called to repudiate the verdict. Reflecting on the case, an interracial crime, Gemmell chides 2 white jurors for showing "racial bias." A female juror, he says, made overtly racist comments about McKinney. He says their votes for conviction were predictable -- and not based on the evidence. He similarly recounts a black juror's pronouncement that "Hell is gonna freeze over before I'll cast a vote against my black brother." When he switched his vote to guilty at the end of deliberations, Gemmell asked for an explanation. "'I have a job on the overnight train to Seattle and if I'm not on board... it'll cost me two days' pay!'" he told Gemmell. "So [the black juror] caught his train to Seattle without losing any pay. And Anthony McKinney went to prison for life." Gemmell has "come to the conclusion that Mr. McKinney has indeed been wrongfully imprisoned and that the case against him was flawed." How flawed? "[T]he course of justice was perverted...," he believes. "It's really a shame that a blameless young fellow who liked to go out with his friends was found guilty of murder," he continues. "I feel terrible that I didn't question it more." Legal experts downplay the significance of juror recantations, considering them to be buyer's remorse. Famously, a juror in the Troy Davis case led the charge to spare his life when new evidence of innocence emerged, but that didn't stop the authorities from putting him to death last year. Still, Gemmell hopes his voice will be heard in the decision whether to grant McKinney a new trial. That decision will be made by criminal courts Judge Diane Cannon following the impending hearing on the innocence petition. "I'm willing to come to Chicago, if necessary," Gemmell says. "I want him to go free someday soon." Anthony McKinney was 18 years old at the time of his arrest. He will turn 50 next Monday. (source: David Protess.President, Chicago Innocence Project; Huffington Post) USA (MICHIGAN): Federal prosecutors weigh death penalty in Flint 'Howard Boys' gang prosecution If convicted, the federal case against the alleged ?Howard Boys? gang could present a rare question to possible future jurors: Should these Genesee County residents be put to death? That?s a question the federal government is weighing now, as it decides whether to pursue the death penalty in the federal case against the group of men prosecutors claim ran a drug and gun-dealing operation from their south-side public-housing complex. A federal indictment against the men alleges that the group used violence and murder to help protect their operation. Cooley Law School Professor Kathy Swedlow, who specializes in federal death penalty prosecutions, said the cases against the men will have to be reviewed before prosecutors decide to move ahead with seeking the death penalty. A new review process for these types of cases was recently enacted in a 2011 memo from Attorney General Eric Holder. ?Department policy requires that all potential federal capital cases be submitted for review by the department and a decision by the Attorney General regarding whether to seek the death penalty,? the memorandum states. The memorandum also lays out a number of factors that are considered when deciding to move ahead with the death penalty. Included in those factors is the strength of evidence, the role of the defendant in the alleged offense, the defendant?s willingness to plead guilty to a life or near-life sentence and other factors that would determine a jury?s likelihood of imposing a death sentence. Gina Balaya, public information officer from the U.S. Attorney?s Office for the Eastern District of Michigan, said it is not yet known if prosecutors will pursue capital punishment in the Howard Boys case. ?The case is death-penalty eligible,? said Balaya. ?But, a decision has not yet been made whether to seek the death penalty or not.? Balaya declined to comment on the status of the review process. ?Normally, the process that is involved in requesting the death penalty is something that is not public record,? Balaya said. Federal law allows for capital punishment for dozens of charges, regardless of whether the state the crime was committed in uses the death penalty itself. Included in those charges is murder involved in a racketeering offense. 8 of the 12 men indicted in federal court in the Howard Boys case are charged with variations of murder in aid of racketeering. 4 of the men, none of whom have been arraigned, are charged with murder in aid of racketeering. The other 4, 2 of which have been arraigned, are charged with attempted murder in aid of racketeering. Swedlow said attempted murder falls into a gray area when it comes to prosecuting it as a capital crime. If prosecutors do decide to move forward with a capital punishment case, Swedlow said it would dramatically change how the case moves forward. ?A death penalty case is very, very different to handle,? Swedlow said. Finding an attorney for the defendant is more difficult, since the pool of attorneys qualified to handle a capital punishment trial is limited. ?This is very specialized work,? said Swedlow. It can also change how many defendants actually face a trial, particularly in cases with a large amount of defendants. ?The possibility of death opens different avenues of possible plea negotiations,? Swedlow said. However, Holder?s 2011 memorandum prevents attorneys from seeking the death penalty solely to try and obtain a more-favorable plea deal. The trial process also differs from a non-death penalty trial. Capital punishment cases are bifurcated, or broken down into 2 separate parts, with 1 portion focusing on guilt or innocence and the other focusing on punishment. Defendants convicted in a death penalty case also have different appellate options open to them. And, it?s these changes, Swedlow said, that makes death penalty cases much more expensive than traditional cases. ?These capital prosecutions are incredibly expensive,? Swedlow said. According to a September 2010 report on the cost and quality of defense representation in federal death penalty cases, the median cost of death-eligible non-authorized cases from 1998-2004 was $44,809, compared to $353,185 for death-eligible authorized cases. However, federal cases in which the death penalty is actually sought is rare. According to the same report, only 19 federal cases in Michigan have had the death penalty authorized from 1989-2009, more than 25 % of all such authorized cases nationwide. The last Michigan man to be convicted and sentenced to death in a federal crime, Swedlow said, was Marvin Gabrion in 2002. Gabrion was convicted of drowning Rachael Timmerman in a lake on federal land in 1997 to prevent her from pursuing a rape case against him. However, a federal appeals court overturned the death sentence in 2011 because of apparent uneven treatment of pro-death penalty and anti-death penalty jurors. The last man tried in Michigan?s Eastern District in a capital punishment case was for Timothy O?Reilly in 2010. A jury found O?Reilly guilty of murdering an armored-truck courier in Dearborn in 2001, but jurors sentenced him to life in prison without parole. As a state, Michigan abolished the death penalty in 1847. Anthony Chebatoris is the only person executed in Michigan since its inception as a state. He was convicted of killing a man during a botched bank robbery in Midland in 1938. It was a federal execution. (source: Michigan Live) ****************** Lawyer on the defense at Guantanamo Attorney Cheryl Bormann is no stranger to defending unpopular clients. She spent several years with the Cook County Public Defender?s Office supervising lawyers handling death penalty trials. Then she joined a state office that provided assistance to attorneys in death penalty cases across Illinois. Now Bormann is defending Walid bin Attash, 1 of 5 top al-Qaida operatives on trial in Guantanamo Bay for allegedly conspiring in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The 5 men, who have come to be known collectively as the Gitmo 5, were arraigned there on Saturday. It was then that Bormann gained national notice, and a measure of criticism, for appearing in court in traditional Muslim clothing that left only her face showing and for asking one woman on the government team to consider dressing more modestly so her client could focus on the proceedings. Bormann would not discuss reports of threats against her. For her, the issue is a simple one of respecting the religious and cultural beliefs of a client. She said that since she was appointed to bin Attash?s case last year, she has always dressed conservatively out of deference to a client who believes he will violate a religious tenet if he looks at a woman who is immodestly dressed. ?My client has never seen my hair, has never seen my arms, has never seen my legs,? Bormann said in an interview. ?All of the defense counsel, all of the guards, and everybody who works in Guantanamo Bay camp has seen me dressed like this. ? I never thought in my wildest dreams that this would become an issue.? Bormann?s actions at Guantanamo Bay are especially interesting because the crimes bin Attash and his co-defendants are accused of have stoked hatred of their religion among some Americans. Expecting others to show the same respect she displayed seems bold to some. But for the 52-year-old attorney from Chicago, buying the abayas in preparation for meetings with her client and then donning them in court over a suit was the right thing to do. ?There is nothing provocative about what I did. This is a religious issue and a cultural issue for (some of these defendants),? Bormann said in the interview. ?I want him to be able to fully concentrate on the proceedings at hand without any kind of interference or loss of focus.? Joseph Margulies, an attorney at the MacArthur Justice Center at Northwestern University law school who has represented prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, said some women attorneys dress conservatively out of respect for their clients, donning a shawl and a long skirt, for instance. Others, he said, do not, in part because some of the men being held at Guantanamo Bay do not find typical Western dress offensive. ?For some of these guys, it really doesn?t matter. But it would facilitate a relationship that?s fragile to begin with,? said Margulies, who has argued detentions at the U.S. Supreme Court and is currently the lawyer for Abu Zubaydah, whose interrogation prompted the Bush administration to draft the so-called torture memos. Amina Saeed, the president of the Muslim Bar Association of Chicago, said she could appreciate Bormann?s decision if it were part of an effort to respect the wishes of a client or to connect with him, calling it ?thinking out of the box? and reflecting a large measure of understanding and religious tolerance. Saeed said she would never expect an attorney to do that in response to a demand from any client, however. ?He should respect her for who she is and the services she provides. It has absolutely nothing to do with what she wears on her head and on her body,? Saeed said. ?I would never expect anyone to conform themselves like that in public to my beliefs.? Bormann, citing national security rules that make what bin Attash says classified, would not say if he had requested she dress modestly. But she said her co-counsel, Capt. Mike Schwartz, a military attorney from the U.S. Air Force, had suggested she wear the abaya in court. Bormann?s career has been spent representing clients who do not engender sympathy. Those who know her say that she believes fervently in protecting everyone?s civil liberties no matter what they are accused of doing. She graduated from Loyola University and its law school, then went to work in 1989 at the public defender?s office. She was there for a decade before she left to start her own practice. But she returned in 2003 as a supervisor, directing attorneys in death penalty and other cases and trying capital cases herself. She directed the state appellate defender?s office?s Capital Trial Assistance Unit in 2008. She is a staunch opponent of capital punishment and spent much of her career fighting it. She cheered its end in Illinois, even though its abolition ended up costing Bormann her job. She now is a civilian defense counsel in the Office of Chief Defense Counsel at the Department of Defense. ?She?s a 1st-rate lawyer, highly committed to her clients. She?s a fierce advocate,? said Jeffrey Urdangen, the director of the Center for Criminal Defense at Northwestern University law school. ?She?s not afraid to take on a tough case with a difficult client or a difficult situation.? Michael Pelletier, the state appellate defender, said he hired Bormann for her administrative experience and her trial skills. He said that she was adept at getting along with both prosecutors and judges, keeping her passion in check so that she would not burn any legal bridges. ?She had a good reputation for being a zealous advocate, but a reasonable advocate. She was assertive and aggressive in representing her clients,? said Pelletier. Attorney Allan Sincox, who worked with Bormann, said she always had ideas for lawyers going to trial and itched to try cases herself. ?She knew what she was doing and could easily understand the issues around a trial and help with planning a trial,? Sincox said. Bormann has taught at Loyola?s law school and at Chicago-Kent law school. She lectures frequently on issues in criminal law. She also had been active in the Constitutional Rights Foundation of Chicago, teaching public school students. She said the dust-up over her request has been blown out of proportion. She plans to dress in the same fashion when she returns to court June 12. ?I will be wearing abaya every time I meet with my client and every time I appear in court if my client or others of the accused are present in the room.? (source: Morris Daily Herald) From rhalperi at smu.edu Wed May 9 20:19:34 2012 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Wed, 9 May 2012 20:19:34 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide Message-ID: May 9 SINGAPORE: Singapore authorities urged to save Malaysian man from execution A young Malaysian man under threat of imminent execution in Singapore for drug trafficking should be granted clemency, Amnesty International and the Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network (ADPAN) have said. Yong Vui Kong, who was 19 when he was first arrested for possessing 47g of heroin in 2007, has no other options left. On 4 April, the Supreme Court rejected his 3rd and final appeal, which was made on the basis he was subjected to unequal treatment before the law. ?Countries around the world have abolished the mandatory death penalty because it does not allow courts to consider the circumstances of the defendant and the crime - Yong Vui Kong must be spared this cruel and degrading punishment,? said Lance Lattig, Amnesty International's Singapore researcher. In an open letter, Amnesty International and ADPAN urged the Minister for Law and Foreign Affairs and other Cabinet members to intervene and recommend clemency for Yong Vui Kong, to establish a moratorium on the death penalty and suspend executions. Clemency granted by the President, following advice from the Cabinet, is Yong?s last hope. Yong?s lawyer cited the Singapore attorney general's decision not to prosecute the alleged mastermind of the drug operation, dropping 26 charges against the Singaporean who was Yong?s boss. "The Boss of the drugs syndicate has had the charges against him dropped, while Yong Vui Kong, poor and only 19 at the time of his arrest, will be put to death. No enlightened legal system could justify this result," said Mr. M. Ravi, counsel for Yong Vui Kong and ADPAN member. Yong was sentenced to death in 2008 under Singapore?s Misuse of Drugs Act, which requires the death penalty for anyone caught with more than 15g of heroin. The case has sparked concern around the world. In Malaysia, Foreign Minister Anifah Aman and legislators requested the Singaporean authorities to grant clemency in 2010. The President of Singapore can only grant a presidential pardon upon the advice of the Cabinet. Clemency for a death sentence has only been granted 6 times since independence in 1965. Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases and without reservation. ADPAN is an independent regional network comprising lawyers, NGOs and civil society groups from 24 countries including Singapore. It campaigns for an end to the death penalty across the Asia-Pacific region. (source: Amnesty International USA) BELARUS: Lukashenka: countries which have abolished the death penalty, ?climbed the shit? The retention of the death penalty capital punishment in Belarus will continue. On the 8 may, Alyaksandr Lukashenka said, answering questions after the reading of the message to the Belarusian nation and the National Assembly, correspondent BakuToday . ?Parliament has no competence to declare a moratorium on the death penalty, but the President never goes?, Lukashenka said, referring to ?the view.? He also noted that the decision to pardon takes it, but sees no reason to review their views. The head of Belarus brought an example of cruel murder, noting that justice should apply capital punishment, and he endorsed the decision. ?Or are these 2 the villain?, Lukashenka continued, pripomniv attack in Minsk metro, the investigation of which were shot Vladislav Kovalyov and Dmitry Konovalov. ?If not I blame!? exclaimed Alexander Lukashenko, saying the reaction to the imposition of the death penalty ?Vitsebsk terrorists?. The head of Belarus also noted that in making the decision, he was subjected to severe pressure from the international community, whereas in countries which have the death penalty, hears voices for return of this punishment. ?If you have GAD and villain and go on a wild crime you should be held accountable,? Lukashenka said. He cited the words of foreign politicians in calling for a return to the death penalty: ?that?s climbed the shit -?. The decision to abolish the death penalty in Belarus must be accepted by the people, Lukashenka noted, but before that you should ?walk?. The head of Belarus approved a reform of the judicial system and said: ?We actively move to models that have already been tested in the world-the Assize Court, administrative courts?. As reported BakuToday, November 30, 2011, the Supreme Court of Belarus sentenced Vladislav Kovalev and Dmitry Konovalova to death by shooting for the blasts in Vitsebsk and Minsk, as well as a number of other crimes. The loud episode of criminal proceedings has become an attack in Minsk underground, by April 11, 2011, that killed 15 people and about 200 (other sources say up to 400) were injured, including citizens of Russia. In mid-March of convictions Kovalyov and Konovalov were shot-event caused international outrage and opposition. The UN Human Rights Committee has considered petition Kovalev, but the official Minsk has ignored the appeal of the international organization, citing the execution pending ?Kovalev? UN experts. Remember, 17 April Belarusian oppositionist Zmitser Bandarenka said that political prisoners tried to make ridiculous confessions, for example, was accused in the bombing of April 11, 2011, in the Minsk metro. Bondarenko explained that suspects in the terrorist attack at the Metro station ?Kastrychnitskaya? by Dmitry and Vladislav Kovalev Konovalova led for night interrogations. On a number of grounds Bondarenko concluded that in addition to the 2 persons involved in the case of the terrorist attack in ?American woman? (KGB) could be the third extra in remaining anonymous. (source: Baku Today) IRAN: The Salman Rushdie of music? Iran calls for killing of ?apostate? rap artist The death sentence was issued against rap artist Shahin Najafi after he released a controversial song called ?Naqi.? Ayatollah Safi Golpayegani, a Shi?ite cleric based in the holy Iranian city of Qom, has issued a death sentence against rap artist Shahin Najafi for apostasy, the Persian-language Al Arabiya website reported on Wednesday. The sentence was issued after Najafi released a controversial song called ?Naqi.? The song sparked a furor among protesters who believe it to be offensive to Imam Naqi, the tenth Imam in Shi?ite Islam. News website Asr Iran, which is closely tied to the regime in Tehran, launched an online campaign calling for the hanging of Najafi. The website stated that the aim of the campaign was to have Najafi condemned for apostasy, a crime that carries the death penalty in Iran. The campaign organizers have called on all Shi?ites and Muslims in general to find and kill Najafi and ?send him to hell,? according to the website. Najafi, 31, was an underground artist during his time in Iran, and was banned by the authorities from performing in the country. He moved to Germany in recent years where he joined a group called ?Tapesh 2012? which performs politically-motivated songs in Persian. In 1989 a novel by British author Salman Rushdie created a similar response from Iran, when a fatwa (religious edict) was issued by Iran?s highest authority, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, calling for his killing for what was considered a disrespectful depiction of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh). More recently, Christian pastor Youcef Nadarkhani has been charged with apostasy by Iranian authorities and sentenced to death for leaving Islam and converting to Christianity, creating uproar across the Christian community worldwide. (source: Al Arabiya) MALAYSIA: Nayati?s kidnappers face death penalty The kidnappers arrested in Malaysia for the abduction of 12-year-old Nayati Moodliar could be executed, the country?s government has confirmed. Police this morning confirmed that 5 people had been arrested - 4 men and a woman. Reports said a 6th, the alleged mastermind, had fled the country. Interpol?s help was now being sought to track him down as well as another suspect. Bakri Zinin, federal criminal investigation chief, said the suspects were arrested in separate raids from Sunday until early Wednesday in Kuala Lumpur and nearby areas.. The New Straits Times said the arrested suspects were aged between 30 and 50. ?Sources said part of the 300 000 ringgit (R768 745) ransom paid to secure the boy?s release last Thursday was also recovered. ?Nayati?s parents, Shamelin Moodliar and Janice Smith, both originally from Cape Town, communicated with the kidnappers via Facebook to negotiate the ransom down from one million ringgit. ?Police also seized laptops and cellphones said to be used to demand for ransom.? The Malaysian Insider reported today: ?The mastermind behind the sensational abduction of 12-year-old Nayati Shamelin Moodliar fled the country immediately after the Dutch boy was released last week.? Federal CID chief Datuk Seri Bakri Zinin said police were seeking Interpol?s help to trace the man. He confirmed today that 5 people - 4 men and a woman - had been arrested in connection with the abduction. The arrests followed several days of surveillance by a task force headed by city Criminal Investigation Department chief Datuk Ku Chin Wah, and police picked up the suspects? trail not long after Nayati was dropped off at the Rawang rest and recreation area on the North-South Expressway last Thursday morning. ?The suspects had allegedly gone separate ways after collecting the ransom,? the Malaysian Insider said. The kidnappers had apparently been assigned different duties during the abduction. ?One was tasked with kidnapping him, another hiding and taking care of him, one to negotiate with the parents and another to collect the ransom,? a source of the New Straits Times said. Kuala Lumpur police chief Mohmad Salleh spelt out the possible punishment the four faced, if found guilty, saying at a press conference, according to the Malaysian Insider: ?Police are still investigating the case under the Kidnapping Act, and if found guilty, the suspects will receive the death sentence.? (source: The Star) **************** SA boy's kidnappers face death penalty Malaysia?s government confirmed the kidnappers arrested in Malaysia for the abduction of 12-year-old Nayati Moodliar could be executed, the Cape Argus reported on Wednesday. ?Police are still investigating the case under the Kidnapping Act, and if found guilty, the suspects will receive the death sentence,? Kuala Lumpur police chief Mohmad Salleh said at a press conference. Police confirmed that 5 people, 4 men and a woman, were arrested on Wednesday morning. The alleged mastermind reportedly fled the country. The arrested suspects were aged between 30 and 50. Nayati was kidnapped on the morning of 27 April while walking to the Mont Kiara International School. Witnesses said they saw him being bundled into a black car by 2 men. Reports of his abduction went viral within hours through social networking websites. Nayati's father, South African-born Sham Moodliar, appealed to the kidnappers to release the boy. The kidnappers made contact with Nayati's parents via a social networking website within 24 hours of his abduction, demanding a ransom of nearly R2.6m. This was later negotiated down to about R770 000. Nayati was freed along a highway the next morning, "hungry and tired", but unharmed. (source: news24.com) From rhalperi at smu.edu Thu May 10 10:57:51 2012 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Thu, 10 May 2012 10:57:51 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, LA., CALIF., S.C., TENN. Message-ID: May 10 TEXAS----impending execution Staley's 4th Execution Date Approaches----A paranoid schizophrenia diagnosis could disqualify him After the U.S. Supreme Court declined to agree to a last-minute stay of execution for Beunka Adams, the 29-year-old became the 482nd person executed in Texas since reinstatement of the death penalty (see "One Slated, One Stayed," April 27). The state has its 483rd scheduled for next week, when it intends to put to death Steven Staley. But whether Staley will actually be executed is, at press time, unclear; his 3 previous dates with death have been stayed in order to determine whether he is sane enough for execution. Staley was convicted of the 1989 robbery with two accomplices of a Fort Worth Steak & Ale restaurant and the kidnap and murder of the restaurant's general manager, 35-year-old Robert Dorsey Read. Reportedly, Staley suffers from paranoid schizophrenia and has declined to take stabilizing meds because he believes they are poison; at one point a state judge ordered him to be forcibly given the medication, but that was later stopped. If it's determined Staley can comprehend the reason for his execution, the state can go through with the lethal injection scheduled for next Wednesday evening. (source: Austin Chronicle) LOUISIANA: Death-penalty case may be tried this year The trial of a Houma man facing death for allegedly killing 3 people in a matter of days may go forward this summer, prosecutors said. Jocobby Lee, 24, was arrested the same day he shot Gail Collins in the head as she watched television in her Dunn Street home in July 2009, police said. Later, Lee was tied to the deaths of cousins Michael D. Hebert, 33, of Houma, and Michael G. Herbert, 25, of Belle Rose, who were killed 2 days earlier, as well as the shooting of Collins' son Sean as he escaped out of a window. Collins initially survived the shooting but died in February 2011 at age 55. Later, Lee was indicted by Terrebonne grand juries on 1st-degree murder, robbery and weapons charges. He is being held without bond in the Terrebonne Parish jail, and also has pending cases on charges of purse-snatching, drugs and battery on a correctional officer. Terrebonne First Assistant District Attorney Carlos Lazarus has said the ?execution-style? killing of the victims led to his decision to seek the death penalty from day one. In September 2009, shortly after Lee was indicted for the 1st time, Lazarus called Lee ?a 1-man crime spree.? Lee's July trial is scheduled in front of District Judge George Larke. Lazarus, who is prosecuting the case along with Assistant District Attorney Jason Lyons, said Wednesday his office is prepared to go forward with the case. However, as is standard for most death-penalty cases in Louisiana, defense attorneys have continuously filed motions in the case. If they are denied, they are then appealed to higher courts. ?We're ready. That's the bottom line,? Lazarus said. Attorneys from the Baton Rouge Capital Conflict Office couldn't be reached for comment Tuesday afternoon. A trial where prosecutors are seeking the death penalty is separated into two phases. First, the jury hears evidence and decides whether to convict the accused. Following a conviction, the penalty phase commences, and the jury decides whether to impose the death penalty or life in prison. Lazarus said he expect's Lee's trial to last a few weeks, while the penalty phase will most likely take a few days. More motions for the case will be heard May 24. This is the sole remaining death-penalty case pending in Terrebonne and Lafourche parishes. In February, prosecutors decided to amend 23-year-old William Henderson's charge to second-degree murder. Henderson, 25, is charged with smothering 10-month-old Kaleb Nelton, his girlfriend's son, when the baby would not stop crying. Chief of Trials Mark Rhodes said the family was consulted on the decision to reduce the charges. The change will help bring the case to a faster conclusion and ?was in the best interest of justice.? (source: Houma Today) CALIFORNIA: Alameda County's only pending death penalty case begins A dispute over a gun and a simmering feud between 2 men led to a triple murder, a prosecutor said Wednesday, that now leaves David Mills facing the death penalty in the only such case pending in the Alameda County courts. Mills, 37, is accused of systematically executing 3 people, trying to kill a 4th and killing a dog and injuring another in a 2005 shooting in East Oakland. That 4th person, Elizabeth Martinez, 26, survived the shooting and identified Mills immediately after the killings, which helped lead to his arrest the next day. The shootings, senior deputy district attorney Jim Meehan said, were "horrific." Photos shown to the jury during opening statements of the trial showed 3 blood-soaked bodies lying dead in a car, a pit bull with a bullet hole in his chest lying dead in the street and another pit bull with blood soaked fur being taken from the scene by animal control officers. The photos also included images of Martinez looking hysterical with blood streaming down her neck. Somehow, Meehan said, Martinez survived the shooting and went to a house on St. Elmo Drive in East Oakland for help. There, she spit a bullet out of her mouth and told a mother and daughter that, "Shulk shot them." Mills, who served prison time after pleading no contest to involuntary manslaughter for a killing in 1997, is nicknamed Shulk. "Almost the 1st words out of her mouth were, 'Shulk shot them,'" Meehan said. "There has never been a point ... in which Elizabeth Martinez in any way has deviated in her statements that the person who shot (them) was David Mills." Meehan accused Mills of shooting the group because he did not get along with Martinez's longtime boyfriend, Dale Griffin, 36, who was killed instantly with a bullet to the back of his head. Meehan admitted that all involved in the shooting were living on the edges of society. Each had drug addictions, and Martinez's sister, Rebecca Martinez, 22, was a drug addict and part-time dealer. Mills also was a drug dealer and user and knew all the people he killed, including James Martin, 28, who was dating Rebecca Martinez. Meehan said the killings were calculated and conducted by Mills in a calm, systematic fashion as he walked behind the car, fired a bullet into Griffin's head and then "firing as he walked in a clockwise fashion around the car." A total of 10 shots were fired. Mills' defense attorney, William DuBois, agreed that the crime scene was horrific but said his client was not the shooter. DuBois said he will prove that Mills was in a hotel room getting high and drunk at the time of the shooting and that the killings were ordered by Rebecca Martinez's former boyfriend, who was upset that she began dating another man when he got sent to jail. Although the killings occurred in front of Mills' father's home, and cellphone records show Rebecca Martinez had made and received a call from Mills' cellphone minutes before the killing, DuBois said his client was not guilty. DuBois said his client is accused of the crime because of a shoddy police investigation into the killings. "Elizabeth Martinez's account of what happened is entirely inaccurate," DuBois said. "When you have all the evidence, the defense suggests you are going to have a hard time (reaching a conviction)." (source: Oakland Tribune) ***************** Sister Helen Prejean implores PUC students to ?End the machinery of death? Sister Helen Prejean, author of ?Dead Man Walking,? called for the end of the death penalty and a shift in focus from retributive to redemptive justice at a recent appearance at Pacific Union College in Angwin. Prejean?s talk came as an initiative to end the death penalty in California qualified to appear on the ballot in the November election. ?The Supreme Court says that the death penalty should only be reserved for the worst of the worst murder cases ? but how in the Sam Hill do we know which is the worst of the worst?? said the Louisiana-born nun who was portrayed by Susan Sarandon in a 1995 film based on her book. ?Every murder is the worst of the worst ? we don?t even know how to apply the standards.? A nun in the Congregation of St. Joseph, Prejean called attention to what she sees as an extreme paradox ? the religious justification for executing criminals and the merciful figure of Jesus Christ found in the Bible. ?We have gotten ourselves to a point in this country where we try to make violence redemptive,? she said. ?Nothing could be further from the gospel of Jesus.? She related how she at first tried to focus on the moral arguments for ending the death penalty, only to discover that for many, the practical arguments were just as compelling. ?You spend $4 billion to execute 13 people. You pay $180 million a year to keep this death machinery in place, and on average you execute someone every 20 years,? she said. For her, those numbers raised the question of how states that practice the death penalty could be putting that money to better use. ?Can we end the machinery of death and put those resources into at-risk kids? Into health care for people? Into affordable housing? Into education?? she asked. ?Look at California. In 28 years, you?ve built 27 prisons and one university, and you?re cutting the education budget.? Prejean concluded her presentation to a standing ovation from the campus audience. Following the program, she signed copies of ?Dead Man Walking,? as well as her follow-up book ?Death of the Innocents,? which details cases of wrongful convictions that led to executions. At a luncheon following the morning programs, PUC president Heather J. Knight hosted Prejean, as well as college administrators, faculty, and student leaders of the PUC chapter of Amnesty International. Prejean encouraged the student activists to prepare for a hard fight on the November vote. If the measure passes, the 720 California inmates currently on death row would have their sentences changed to life without the possibility of parole. Prejean said she sees capital punishment as just one part of a struggle against economic and social inequality in the United States. ?Look who?s on death row across the United States. 98 % or higher are poor people,? she said. ?The street saying is, ?Capital punishment means them without the capital gets the punishment.?? She said California has the most inmates on death row, far surpassing even the swath of the Deep South that she calls the ?Execution Belt states.? ?It?s up to the discretion of the prosecutor whether to pursue the death penalty,? she said. ?It?s pure political symbolism ? get a death sentence and you?ll look tough on crime. It couldn?t be more superficial.? Despite her claim that the U.S. has become a ?punishing society,? Prejean is optimistic that with education, the American public will eventually come around to her side. ?I?ve discovered that most people aren?t wedded to the death penalty ? they just never think about it,? she said She called on college students and other activists around the state to help with spread her message in advance of the November election. ?They get awake on it. They get that knowledge and get really active in their state,? she said. ?It?s gonna take massive education, because if [the death penalty] is upheld, it?s going to be much more difficult.? (source: Napa Valley Register) SOUTH CAROLINA: Fewer death penalty cases The tendency of South Carolina prosecutors to go after sentences of life without parole instead of the death penalty probably does not result from squeamishness about executing criminals. But the result is the same: Fewer people on death row than at any time in nearly 2 decades. Regardless of the motivation behind pursuing fewer death penalty cases, that result is welcome for a variety of reasons. For one, it alleviates concerns about the basic unfairness and uncertainty of the nation?s system of capital punishment. With the advent of more widespread DNA testing, we have learned that many innocent people end up on death row ? and one is too many. In addition, African Americans are disproportionately represented on death row. But the chief motivating factor in the reduction in death penalty cases in South Carolina most likely is the high cost of putting people to death. Some might assume that it is cheaper to strap those convicted of capital crimes to a gurney and inject them with deadly chemicals than to house them in a cell for life, but that doesn?t account for the enormous cost of trying capital cases and then going through multiple appeals. Kenneth Lynch of West Columbia was convicted this year for killing a 7-year-old girl and her grandmother, whose bodies have not been found. If the judge had sentenced the 52-year-old Lynch to death, he would have been the 52nd inmate on South Carolina?s death row, boosting the lowest number in nearly 20 years. But that didn?t happen. Instead, Circuit Judge Eugene Griffith sentenced Lynch to life without parole. That means prosecutors haven?t sent anyone to death row in the past 14 months. This change might also reflect a changing attitude toward the death penalty. Americans may be increasingly satisfied with assurances that those who commit heinous crimes will spend their lives behind bars with no chance of ever being released. Prosecutors also have found the so-called ?life means life? sentence useful as a bargaining tool. It is easier to persuade defendants to plead guilty and serve a life sentence by threatening to pursue a death sentence if they don?t. Again, though, the decline in death sentences is welcome whatever the reason. Illinois and Connecticut banned the death penalty within past 2 years, joining 14 other states and the District of Columbia. Other states, while not banning the death penalty outright, have virtually quit pursuing it. South Carolina is not likely to ban the death penalty anytime soon. But its growing reliance on life sentences as the ultimate punishment may have much the same effect. The motives may not be entirely humane, but the results are. (source: Editorial, Herald Online) TENNESSEE: Death penalty off the table for second suspect in Kingsport murder case The death penalty and life without parole are no longer possibilities for the second of 2 Kingsport double-murder and robbery suspects still awaiting trial. Sullivan County District Attorney Barry Staubus said Wednesday that the state?s decision to cease pursuit of these possible sentences for Jawaune Massey, 36, was linked to the earlier decision to do the same in the case of Leslie Ware Jr., 33. The death penalty was initially dropped in Ware?s case to settle the defense counsel?s demand for a mistrial due to discovery issues that arose amid Ware?s trial in January. A mistrial that was later prompted by Ware?s alleged attempt to have drugs smuggled into the jail through attorney Steve Finney meant Staubus could have sought the death penalty once again, but he said he chose not to in order to expedite prosecution. On Wednesday, Staubus cited what happened in the Ware case and a desire to likewise expedite the Massey case among his reasons for ceasing to pursue the death penalty or life without parole, as well as the fact that the men are facing the same charges. Ware and Massey are each charged with 2 counts of premeditated 1st-degree murder and felony murder and 1 count each of especially aggravated robbery and criminal conspiracy to commit aggravated robbery. They also face charges of criminal conspiracy to possess more than 26 grams of cocaine with intent to sell or deliver, possession of over 26 grams of cocaine for resale, and maintaining a dwelling where controlled substances are used or sold. The murder and robbery charges stem from the Nov. 18, 2006, robbery and execution-style shooting deaths of Jeffrin Nolan and Terrance Alexander inside the former Sol? candle shop on Myrtle Street in Kingsport, owned by Nolan. The drug charges stem from their alleged participation in a drug operation headed up by Jawaune Massey?s half-brother, Osheene Massey, who has already pleaded guilty to a litany of charges. Massey appeared with attorneys Douglas Payne and William Ricker Wednesday afternoon in Sullivan County Circuit Court. Citing that the death penalty is off the table, Ricker asked Judge Jerry Beck to lower Massey?s bond from $1 million to $100,000. Beck denied the motion, noting that the warrant for Massey?s arrest was issued May 24, 2006, and it took police until Sept. 24, 2009, to locate him in Baltimore and bring him into custody. Payne asked the judge to grant a change of venue, citing pretrial publicity. He cited the media coverage in the Times-News from 2005 to the present alongside a readership of 46,000 plus, and noted some readers had posted ?inflammatory? comments in response to articles posted online. He also noted that Massey?s name was mentioned in the questionnaire that had been submitted to 450 prospective jurors in Sullivan County in the Ware case. Staubus noted that very few prospective jurors called for possible service on the Ware trial were dismissed for having prior knowledge of the case, and he expressed the opinion they should try to find a jury in Sullivan County before going to the expense of securing one in another county. Beck agreed with Staubus and denied Payne?s motion. Beck granted Payne?s request to submit a questionnaire to prospective jurors before Massey goes to trial, but advised he intends to delete some of the questions from the 25-page document, which he described as ?overly broad.? Payne also requested a transcript of Ware?s trial. Beck agreed to order a transcript only of the witness testimony ? not opening statements. Staubus told the judge he believed they had only heard testimony from 3 or 4 witnesses before the proceedings were halted. (source: Times News) From rhalperi at smu.edu Thu May 10 10:59:44 2012 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Thu, 10 May 2012 10:59:44 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----USA, FLA., PENN., OHIO Message-ID: May 10 USA (RHODE ISLAND): Chafee appeals federal decision on state inmate A tug-of-war over an inmate in Rhode Island custody in a possible death penalty case escalated Wednesday as Gov. Lincoln Chafee said he will appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court a federal court ruling allowing the inmate to stand trial in federal court Chafee said the court's close vote shows a split in the interpretation of the Interstate Agreement on Detainers Act, which allows governors to refuse to surrender inmates. The U.S. 1st Circuit Court of Appeals voted 3-2 on Monday that Jason Pleau, 34, may stand trial in federal court where he faces a possible death penalty prosecution over a fatal robbery. Rhode Island does not have the death penalty. The governor invoked the concept of states' rights in the fight over Pleau, who is accused of fatally shooting a gas station manager outside a Woonsocket bank in 2010. "Given the close vote of the full court, which demonstrates a genuine split in the interpretation of the law, the state of Rhode Island must seek to protect both the strong states' rights issues at stake and the legitimacy of its longstanding public policy against the death penalty," Chafee said in a statement. The Appeals Court in Boston sided with federal prosecutors, saying the state prison would serve as "a refuge against federal charges" if Pleau were allowed to remain in the custody of Rhode Island authorities. The custody battle over Pleau dates to June 2011, when Chafee, an independent, refused a request to surrender him to federal authorities. Chafee said prosecutors want to try Pleau federally to make the death penalty a possible punishment. The Appeals Court ruling said that if Pleau and Chafee prevail, Pleau could be permanently immune from federal prosecution and the use of the detainer system would be badly compromised. Federal prosecutors have not said whether Pleau would face the death penalty if convicted of killing 49-year-old David Main. Rhode Island-based U.S. Attorney Peter F. Neronha said in a statement after the Appeals Court ruling that his office is ready to move forward with the case. A spokesman for Neronha would not comment on Chafee's announcement. Robert Mann, one of Pleau's lawyers, said he is grateful for the governor's decision to appeal. Main's sister, Deborah Smith, told Chafee in an email Tuesday that his fight to keep Pleau in state custody is "obstructing justice." She told the governor it is time to stop wasting taxpayers' money. Chafee said he regrets that the case continues to cause pain for Main's family. "I extend once again my most sincere condolences to them for their terrible loss, which resulted from such a senseless crime," he said (source: Associated Press) FLORIDA: Death row inmate's fate now up to Judge Berger----James Daniel Turner in court seeking retrial A death row inmate convicted in a brutal stabbing death in a motel room in 2005 now must do what probably is familiar to him: wait. James Daniel Turner was in court Wednesday for the 2nd day of an evidentiary hearing in which his attorneys asked for a new trial. They said Turner?s former attorneys didn?t make the jury aware of significant mental health illnesses he had when Renee Boling Howard, 37, a mother of 5, was stabbed to death at a Comfort Inn. The hearing concluded before noon, and now Circuit Judge Wendy Berger will think over the matter before making a decision. No date has been set for a decision. On Tuesday, an expert witness for the defense said Turner suffers from bipolar and borderline personality disorders and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and that the jury was not made aware of those diagnoses. On Wednesday, an expert witness for the state said he does not believe Turner suffers from bipolar or borderline personality disorders. Dr. Jeffrey Danziger, a Maitland-based psychiatrist and medical doctor, said the symptoms that led to those diagnoses were induced by Turner?s dependence on powdered methamphetamine, cocaine and alcohol and did not appear in the 7 years he was in prison. Danziger said Turner ?does not suffer from bipolar disorder because he hasn?t had a manic episode that I am aware of.? He said accounts of manic activities such as Turner?s spending of a $25,000 settlement in 1 week and unstable romantic relationships, including 3 failed marriages, could be attributed to the effects of the substances. Rather, ?he has some situational unhappiness, and that?s to be expected? because he is in prison and sentenced to death, Danziger said. He said Turner had not exhibited borderline behavior while in prison, such as cutting himself, banging his head against a wall or attempting suicide. And the ADHD? ?Maybe,? Danziger said. But even if he does suffer from that disorder, ?it has little to do with (the murder) in 2005.? Danziger agreed with several previous diagnoses that found that Turner has frontal lobe damage. He said those findings were ?not surprising for someone who has a history of heavy substance abuse and maybe suffered some knocks to the head,? including head trauma in substance-induced car accidents. A jury in 2007 found Turner, then of Silverstreet, S.C., guilty of stabbing Howard on Sept. 30, 2005, at the St. Augustine motel off State Road 207 and Interstate 95 after escaping from a South Carolina prison and stealing a police car. Prosecutors said he stabbed Howard several times before turning to see her crawling toward the door and stabbing her again. 2 of Howard?s children, a 10-month-old and a 2-year-old, were in the room, as was her 10-month-old grandchild. They weren?t injured, but Howard?s friend Stacia Raybon was attacked twice before locking herself in the bathroom. If Berger grants a new trial, it would be the third for Turner. Berger declared a mistrial during Turner?s first trial in July 2007 when a juror had a seizure during consideration of the fifth and final charge against the defendant. Jurors found him guilty Nov. 29, 2007, during his retrial and later recommended the death penalty. Dr. Miguel Mandoki, a Jacksonville psychiatrist, said during the first trial that he believed Turner was insane when Howard was killed in St. Augustine. In addition to the death sentence, Berger sentenced Turner to life in prison for home invasion robbery with a deadly weapon, five years for the grand theft of Howard?s Ford F-150 pickup truck and 15 years for aggravated assault on a police officer. St. Johns County Deputy Graham Harris had testified that he chased Turner south on State Road 207 at speeds between 90 and 100 mph. He said Turner put the pickup truck in reverse and rammed his patrol car before jumping off the Deep Creek bridge. (source: St. Augustine Record) PENNSYLVANIA: District Attorney seeking death penalty for accused Chester killer The Delaware County District Attorney?s office will pursue the death penalty for accused killer Jamir Williams, who is facing charges in 2 separate shooting deaths in the city of Chester last year. Assistant District Attorney Eileen Courtney filed notice that her office would be seeking capital punishment during an abbreviated formal arraignment this week before Judge Patricia Jenkins. Williams, 26, of the 3000 block of West Second Street in Chester, is charged with 1st- and 3rd-degree murder for the Oct. 30, 2010, shooting death of Emerson Price, 22. Price and another man were walking on the 1000 block of Madison Street in the early morning hours when gunshots rang out. Both men were hit multiple times and Price died a short time later at Crozer-Chester Medical Center. Williams is also facing murder and related charges for the shooting death of 21-year-old Rahim Hicks on July 24, 2010. Hicks was killed while standing in the doorway of the J&S Seafood on the 800 block of Kerlin Street, after he and Williams had a confrontation, authorities said. Williams did not have an attorney present for his arraignment. Courtney indicated she had received word from defense attorney Mike Malloy, who represented Williams at a preliminary hearing, that he had not been retained for the case. Williams said he was unaware Malloy would not be representing him and asked for time to gather funds for his defense. Jenkins rescheduled the arraignment for May 22. (source: Delaware County Daily Times) OHIO----impending execution Man who killed 2 in Cuyahoga County Courthouse seeks mercy from parole board A condemned Ohio inmate who killed his estranged wife and brother-in-law in the Cuyahoga County Courthouse in 1992 is asking the state parole board for mercy. Abdul Awkal is scheduled to die June 6, 1 of 11 executions scheduled over the next 2 years. Awkal was sentenced to die for killing his estranged wife, Latife Awkal, 22, and brother-in-law Mahmoud Abdul-Aziz, 24, in the Lakeside Courthouse basement while disputing custody of their daughter, Zaynab, then 17 months old. A deputy shot him as he tried to leave the courthouse with the girl. She was eventually raised by her mother's family. The Ohio Parole Board will hear arguments for and against clemency Thursday. They will then make a recommendation in about a week to Gov. John Kasich, who has the final say. At Awkal's trial, his lawyers argued unsuccessfully that he was depressed and under pressure from the wife's family. The Ohio Supreme Court refused to accept his appeal in 1996, but a U.S. Court of Appeals panel ordered a new trial for him in 2009, ruling that an expert witness should not have been called in the penalty phase of the trial. A year later, Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason won an appeal of that ruling, placing Awkal back on death row. (source: Plain Dealer) From rhalperi at smu.edu Thu May 10 11:01:19 2012 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Thu, 10 May 2012 11:01:19 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide Message-ID: May 10 ETHIOPIA: Journalist Could Face Death Penalty At Friday Verdict A verdict in the trial of Ethiopian journalist Eskinder Nega and other activists accused of inciting terrorism is expected on Friday, 11 May, report PEN American Center and other IFEX members, whom Nega has worked with. If convicted, Nega could face the death penalty. Nega was arrested in September 2011 for an article questioning the arrests of journalists and the actor Debebe Eshetu under the country's sweeping anti-terror legislation, under which he himself is now being tried. The laws criminalise any reporting deemed to "encourage" or "provide moral support" to groups and causes which the government considers to be "terrorist". Nega was accused of affiliation with the banned political party Ginbot 7, and of allegedly receiving weapons and explosives from Eritrea so he could carry out terrorist acts in Ethiopia. He's among 5 journalists - including two Swedish reporters - jailed under the anti-terrorism laws that the Ethiopian government, concerned by the Arab Spring protests last year, has increasingly used to quash independent reporting, according to PEN American Center and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). About 150 Ethiopian journalists live in exile - more than from any other country in the world, CPJ says. Nega and his wife Serkalim Fasil, also a journalist, have remained in the capital, Addis Ababa. In 2005, they were jailed together in Kaliti Prison for treason because of their coverage of a disputed parliamentary election. The couple's son, now 7, was born in jail. After protests began sweeping across the Arab world, Fasil told "The New York Times" that police started threatening her husband. She said the police warned that if he continued to cover protests and opposition politics in Ethiopia, he would be violating the law and could face the death penalty. "With that kind of threat, you can't function as a journalist," she said. But Nega - who had previously been imprisoned at least six times under Prime Minister Meles Zenawi for his work as a journalist - has continued to write. His defiant stance in defence of human rights in Ethiopia earned him a prestigious press freedom award from PEN American Center. PEN said it was both recognition of his past work and an attempt to pressure the Ethiopian government into halting its prosecution of journalists. 32 IFEX members have also spoken out against Ethiopia's jailing of journalists and other critics on terrorism charges, and called for their immediate release. And the International Press Institute (IPI) asked 20 of its World Press Freedom Heroes - renowned courageous journalists worldwide - to condemn his imprisonment. The authorities now appear to be tightening their hold on local media. Just last week, Temesgen Desalegn, another local editor, was fined 2,000 Birr (US$114) for his newspaper's "biased reporting" of that trial, reports IPI. IFEX members argue that Western governments are unlikely to press Zenawi on human rights abuses in Ethiopia, a strategic partner for the West in combating terrorism and instability in the Horn of Africa. "But can you really be crowned a "champion of development" if you lock up all your critics?," asks Tom Rhodes, CPJ Africa correspondent. "Ethiopians and the international community will never be able to truly determine whether the prime minister is an 'advocate of the development state' if only yes-men and blind supporters are allowed to speak of his achievements." (source: All Africa News) IRAN: Iranian Pastor Nadarkhani Calls Possible Execution ?Trial Of Faith? Iranian Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani still in prison awaiting a possible death sentence for refusing to abandon his faith in Christ and return to Islam. Iranian Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani, who faces the death penalty for abandoning Islam and converting to Christianity, says he faces "a trial of faith" in a new letter attributed to him. The letter, dated May 7, 2012, was released by Christian advocacy group Present Truth Ministries and obtained by BosNewsLife late Wednesday, May 9. Nadarkhani, 35, said he wanted to "inform all of my beloved brothers and sisters that I am in perfect health in the flesh and spirit," despite difficulties in prison. This is "the day of exam and trial of my faith," added the pastor of the Church of Iran, one of the nation's largest evangelical house church movements. "Though my trial...has been so long, and as in the flesh I wish these days to end, yet I have surrendered myself to God's will," Nadarkhani wrote from Lakan Prison near the northern city of Rasht, where he has been held since 2009. "HARD DAYS" "These days...are hard" but "to prove [my] loyalty and sincerity to God, I am trying to do the best in my power to stay right with what I have learned from God's commandments," he said. Though Nadarkhani said he appreciates news media covering his case and "various churches and famous politicians" asking for his release, he expressed concerns over unspecified "insulting activities" by activists towards Iranian authorities. "I'd like to announce my disagreement with the insulting activities which cause stress and trouble, which unfortunately are done with the justification [or] excuse of defending human rights and freedom, for the results are so clear and obvious for me," the pastor explained. "I try to be humble and obedient to those who are in power [showing] obedience to those in authority which God has granted to the officials of my country." He added: "I am neither a political person nor do I know about political complicity...But I know that while there are many things in common between different cultures, there are also differences between these cultures around the world." CRITICISM CONCERNS That, he said, "can result in criticism [and] response to this criticism [from Iran] will be harsh and as a result lengthen our problems." It was not clear whether some aspects of the letter attributed to him had been written under duress, but they appeared to be aimed at Western protests against his imprisonment. The pastor stressed that he continues to "pray for [Iranians] to rule the country according to the will of God and be successful in doing this." This way, he explained "I have obeyed God's word." Nadarkhani suggested he tried to support those in a similar situation as him, apparently referring to fellow jailed Christians. "They never had any complaint [but] just let the power of God be manifested in their lives," he noted in comments resembling letters of jailed Apostle Paul in the Bible. Yet, "sometimes we read that they have used [the] right to defend themselves, for they had this right... I am not an exception as well and have used all possibilities and so forth and am waiting for the final result," the pastor wrote. LONG YEARS Nadarkhani has been behind bars since 2009 when he was captured in his home city of Rasht to register his house church, which is part of the Church of Iran movement. He was later sentenced to death, though a court in Gilan province asked a final opinion from Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Khameini, a move critics saw as an attempt to make someone else responsible for executing the married father of 2 children. Iranian officials indicated in December however that they could release the pastor if he agreed to make a statement saying Islam's Prophet Mohammed was "a messenger sent by God" Christians with close knowledge about the situation told BosNewsLife earlier. Pastor Nadarkhani reportedly refused to do so saying that statement would "amount to abandoning" his faith in Jesus Christ. "So I ask all the beloved ones to pray for me as the holy Word has said," he stressed in the latest letter, referring to the Bible, regarded by Christians as God's Word. FREEDOM DREAM? "At the end I hope my freedom will be prepared as soon as possible [and that] the authorities of my country will act with [a] free will according to their law and commandments which [they] are answerable to." The church leader ended his letter with a wish for readers that "God's Grace and Mercy be upon you now and forever." Youcef Nadarkhani has become a symbol of what Christians and rights activists view as widespread suffering of devoted Christian converts, including many former Muslims, who face prosecution in the strict Islamic country. Iranian officials have denied the accusations. Gholam-Ali Rezvani, deputy governor general of the northern province of Gilan, where the pastor's case was being reheard, denied to government linked Fars News Agency (FNA) that Nadarkhani faces execution for "apostasy", or abandoning Islam. "The issue of crime and of capital punishment of this individual is not a question of faith or religion," he claimed, despite confirmation from several written court verdicts seen by BosNewsLife. The European Union and United States have demanded Nadarkhani's release from prison. (source: BoxNewsLife) INDIA: Govt may relax 'death penalty' clause under Narcotics Act The government proposes to drop the mandatory death penalty provision for drug offences through an amendment of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act. "In view of the observations of the Standing Committee on Finance made in its report on the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (Amendment) Bill, 2011, it is proposed to amend Section 31A of the NDPS Act and replace the words 'shall be punishable with death' with the words 'may be punishable with death'," finance minister Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday told Rajya Sabha in a written reply. The NDPS Act, 1985 has provision for a graded system of punishment, with the quantum of punishment varying with the quantity of drug or substance involved in a case, he said. The Bombay high court had in June 2011 held that the Section relating to mandatory death penalty was violative of Article 21 of the Constitution (right to life). However, the court's verdict was given for the accused convicted twice for the offense. The court had observed that second conviction in NDPS case need not be death penalty and it was the sole discretion of the judge of the special court to decide about the capital punishment. The Rajya Sabha was told there was a surge in the number of people prosecuted under the NDPS Act in the last three years and decline in the cases of conviction. As many as 20,364 people were prosecuted in 2011 for their involvement in offenses under the Act as against 19,720 in 2010 and 19,377 in 2009, Mukherjee said. Whereas, 7,857 and 9,819 people were convicted in 2011 and 2010 respectively. In 2009, a total of 11,418 were convicted for the offenses, he added. According to a recent report by an international narcotics control body, India is witnessing an increase in abuse of prescription drugs and over-the-counter pharmaceutical preparations which contain psychotropic substances. "In India, 681 hectares of cannabis plants were eradicated in 2010, and 95 hectares were eradicated in the first half of 2011," it said. The country also reported having seized a total of 173 tonnes of cannabis herb and 4.3 tonnes of cannabis resin in 2010. In the first half of 2011, 2.66 tonnes were reported to have been seized in the country, the report added. According to the report by United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), India is both the largest producer and consumer of heroin with a value of $1.4 billion or over Rs. 6,000 crore (as per 2009 data). (source: Hindustan Timse) From rhalperi at smu.edu Thu May 10 15:42:40 2012 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Thu, 10 May 2012 15:42:40 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] [POSSIBLE SPAM] death penalty news----ARIZ., WASH., USA, ORE., OKLA. Message-ID: May 10 ARIZONA----impending execution Arizona death-row inmate sues Brewer Lawyers for an Arizona death-row inmate set for execution next week have sued Gov. Jan Brewer and the state's clemency board. In a filing in Maricopa County Superior Court late Wednesday, attorneys for inmate Samuel Villegas Lopez argue that three newly appointed board members were picked to ensure that no recommendations for clemency in high-profile or controversial cases land on the governor's desk. The attorneys are asking Judge Joseph Kreamer to declare the new board members' appointments null and void and to delay the execution until the matter is resolved. Arguments in the case are set for Monday, 2 days before Lopez's scheduled execution. Lopez was convicted of raping, robbing and stabbing a 59-year-old woman to death in her Phoenix apartment on Oct. 29, 1986, after what court records described as a "terrible and prolonged struggle." (source: Associated Press) WASHINGTON: Man on death row 18 years will get new trial----18 years after Darold Stenson was condemned to death for killing his wife and business partner, the Washington Supreme Court has overturned his convictions and ordered a new trial. Stenson's attorney Sheryl Gordon McCloud said she was "gratified" by the court's 8-1 ruling, announced Thursday morning. The crux of the reversal was based on possibly tainted gunshot residue on the jeans Stenson wore on the night of the slayings in March 1993, McCloud said. McCloud said that she discussed the ruling with Stenson by phone this morning. "He was crying," she said. McCloud said the defense argued that a Clallam County sheriff's investigator handled the jeans after the slayings, possibly getting residue from his own handgun on the pants. When the defense realized this possible evidence tainting, more than a decade after the murders, they had what McCloud describes as an "Oh my God moment." "We're gratified that the court agrees that you cannot execute a man based on evidence this unreliable," McCloud said. Clallam County Prosecutor Deborah Kelly said, "I don't think anyone was prepared for this." Kelly defended the actions of investigators and said she's "deeply disappointed in the decision to force a retrial." Kelly said it will be a few weeks before Stenson returns to Clallam County. She plans to prosecute him, again for aggravated murder, but is undecided on whether she will seek the death penalty. Kelly said that she will consult the victims' families. "It's an utter tragedy for the victims' family that this is the outcome," she said. Stenson, 59, was an exotic-bird dealer living near Sequim when he allegedly shot his wife, Denise Stenson, at their home in what prosecutors called an effort to collect $800,000 in insurance. They claim he also shot and killed Frank Hoerner to make it look like a love-triangle murder-suicide. Stenson's three children were asleep nearby when the slayings occurred. Stenson and Hoerner had been embroiled in a dispute over the cost of ostriches, which Stenson handled on his five-acre Dakota Farms. Hoerner's widow testified that Stenson persuaded her and her husband to invest their life savings of $48,000 in ostriches, but the big birds never materialized. In his dissent, Justice James M. Johnson said the majority opinion failed to take into account the "totality of evidence" against Stenson and "exaggerates the potential prejudice of a late-discovered photo of Stenson's pants." Denise Hoerner, the slain man's wife, could not be reached Thursday, but she has been in support of Stenson's execution. "He needs to freaking die," she said during a 2010 interview with the Peninsula Daily News. (source: Seattle Times) USA (MASSACHUSETTS)----federal death sentence overturned Judge overturns killer Gary Sampson?s death penalty U.S. District Court Chief Judge Mark L. Wolf has formally vacated the death sentence of convicted spree killer Gary Lee Sampson, whose rampage in the summer of 2001 claimed the lives of 3 strangers here and in New Hampshire, including a Kingston college student who picked him up hitchhiking. The order issued today affirms a decision Wolf made in October. Sampson?s conviction for the murders still stands. The decision is stayed while the U.S. Attorney?s Office appeals. Sampson?s lawyers argued that a juror had lied on her questionnaire about her history as a victim of domestic violence. Sampson?s Washington, D.C., public defender, Thomas Windom, declined comment on Wolf?s order. Sampson is 52 and on death row at the federal penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana. Prosecutors could not immediately be reached for comment. (source: Boston Herald) ************************************** USA (RHOSE ISLAND): State, Pleau preparing death penalty appeal to high Court Gov. Lincoln Chafee and the attorney for Jason Pleau are preparing an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, to keep the suspected Woonsocket bank shooter from facing a possible death penalty prosecution. Chafee said attorneys for the state would pursue an appeal of this week's 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals split ruling that the state surrender Pleau to face prosecution by the federal government, in the 2010 shooting death of David Main, as Main, a gas station manager deposited receipts at a Woonsocket bank. And, Pleau's attorney, Robert Mann said he is preparing an appeal to the Supreme Court. "It's an issue where even in the most difficult situations, you're going to stand up for the state's policy and opposition to the death penalty, or you're going to have gray areas," said Chafee. "In our case, in the state, we arguably executed an innocent man, and since then, we have been opposed to the death penalty, and that's been the Rhode Island position." Chafee was asked about an angry email from one of David Main's sisters, Deborah Smith, asking how he would feel if it was his son, Caleb who had been gunned down. "You are obstructing justice," Smith wrote to Chafee. "If your son Caleb was shot in the head, in broad daylight while doing his job you would be horrified, as we were!" "That's fair, I think that's fair to bring that up," Chafee said. He maintains that he has considered the feelings of the Main family in reaching his decision to pursue a Supreme Court appeal. Pleau's attorney, Robert Mann is preparing to file an appeal to the Court. "We're working on pleadings right now, and I'm not prepared to discuss them yet," said Mann. "It's fair to say that we're working on them right now." Pleau has indicated that he would accept a life sentence without the possibility of parole in state court, over the risk of facing the death penalty in a federal prosecution. The U.S. Attorney for Rhode Island, Peter Neronha has not indicated whether he would seek the death penalty if Pleau is convicted, but says that any decision to seek the death penalty rests with U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder. Mann said that he has spoken with Pleau since the 1st Circuit rendered its 3-2 decision earlier this week. "Of course," Mann said. "I'm not going to get in to my discussions with Mister Pleau. I communicate with him, but I'm not going to get into my discussions with him." (source: WPRO News) OREGON: Brian Bement's mother tells jury deciding death penalty: 'I can't have him die.' Jurors could begin deciding whether to impose the death penalty for Brian Bement as soon as Friday afternoon. The Washington County jury found the Portland-area heroin dealer guilty of aggravated murder in the 2010 shooting and robbery of David Greenspan, a Tigard naturopath. After 3 weeks of trial, which began April 3, jurors deliberated about a week before issuing a verdict on April 27. The sentencing phase, which has lasted nearly 2 weeks, is expected to conclude Friday. Thus far, jurors have heard testimony from Greenspan's family, Bement's friends and family, Chicago- and Portland-area law enforcement officials, Bement's past girlfriends, his prior robbery victims and other witnesses. The state's sentencing-phase case centered around Bement's lengthy criminal history and evidence of violent behavior throughout his life, including incidents of domestic violence and robberies with weapons. Attorneys for Bement have focused their mitigation case on testimony that Bement is caring and funny but has dealt with troubled family relationships and drug addiction from an early age. Bement's mother, Cathy Bement, and his girlfriend, Pam Wager, also testified that he told them of sexual abuse by a family friend that occurred when he was a child. Wager testified Thursday that after Bement's prior prison stint in Illinois, he told her he'd been encouraged in counseling to tell those he trusted about his experiences with sexual abuse. He told her a man had molested and raped him as a child, she said. Much of his drug use, he told her, was because of the abuse. On Wednesday, Cathy Bement described a difficult experience parenting her son, for whom she first sought counseling when he was 4 or 5 years old in West Chicago, Ill. By the time he reached junior high, she said, he was skipping school often and she found marijuana seeds in his room. In his sophomore year, he dropped out of school and started getting in trouble with police, she said. Weeks later, he moved out, she said, and for the next several years, his parents were constantly bailing him out of jail. After serving 3 years in prison, Bement lived with his parents again for about a month, she said, until they kicked him out because he was so hard to live with. "Anything he did, it was not his fault," she said. "There was a lot of arguing." In an interview with a defense investigator, Cathy Bement said she didn't believe her son was a good person, but she testified that she no longer feels that way. Her comment came from anger, she said, because of the hurtful things he'd said to her in the past. "I believe if Brian had not gotten into drugs, he would be somebody ? really great man," she said. "I don't think that he meant to hurt anyone personally; I know the drug thing was hurting people, but I mean to hurt ? I don't know the man's name ... I believe he was scared." Growing more emotional, she told jurors, "I can't have him die." (source: The Oregonian) OKLAHOMA: The Execution of Michael Selsor Oklahoma carries out more executions per capita than any other state in the USA (though things might slow down as the state is currently down to its last dose of pentobarbital, the anesthetic in its lethal injection cocktail). In September 2010, Al Jazeera reporter John Rushing put together a video piece on the Oklahoma and U.S. death penalties. Now, he has supplemented that with his interview of Michael Selsor, who was first sent to Oklahoma?s death row in 1976, and a blow-by-blow description of Selsor?s execution on May 1, 2012 for the 1975 killing of convenience store clerk Clayton Chandler in Tulsa. The interview with Selsor (which took place back in 2010 and was the only one he ever gave) is particularly interesting and reveals a man who was remorseful, reflective, somewhat resigned but also prideful. He was sorry for his crime, but never reached out to the victim?s daughter: ?And really if I could say look I?m sorry for what I?ve done, I?m sorry I killed your dad, what the hell would that mean to her?? Like Merle Haggard in the country classic Mama Tried (?That leaves only me to blame ?cos Mama tried?), Michale Selsor didn?t fault others for his crime: ?No. It would have to be a different me. I don?t wanna blame my parents for my shortcomings.? Selsor comes across as a plain-spoken man who accepted his guilt, and his punishment. But he also observed that ??somewhere along the road there should be some kinda redemption.? Sadly, there isn?t, not with the death penalty. There is only retribution. Was the 57-year-old man put to death in Oklahoma?s execution chamber last week the same person who committed that terrible crime 36 years ago? From the article describing the execution we learn this: ?When school children visited the prison, Selsor played a regular part in the tour. From behind bars he shared his life lesson about the consequences of one?s actions with the children.? This would seem to suggest that Oklahoma authorities believed Michael Selsor had become a better man. At his clemency hearing, corrections workers testifed that: ?Selsor was a model inmate who often looked out for younger men and helped them adjust to prison life.? But whatever self-improvements Michael Selsor made were meaningless under a law that places no value on the human capacity for change. (source: Amnesty International USA blog) From rhalperi at smu.edu Thu May 10 17:41:24 2012 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Thu, 10 May 2012 17:41:24 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----CALIF., OKLA. Message-ID: May 10 CALIFORNIA: Client dies in prison, but lawyer still seeks to prove innocence----ATTORNEY ASKS THE CALIFORNIA SUPREME COURT TO DECIDE THE CASE OF DENNIS LAWLEY, WHO WAS CONVICTED AND SENTENCED TO DEATH IN A 1989 MURDER FOR HIRE. THE BID FOR FREEDOM WAS FILED IN 2008 AND HAD LANGUISHED. A convicted killer who died on death row while his appeal languished before the California Supreme Court should have his case decided posthumously, his attorney told the state high court. Scott F. Kauffman, who represented Dennis Lawley for 19 years, contends that his client was innocentof a 1989 murder for hire that sent him to San Quentin. Lawley, he said, deserves a ruling on his claims, even if the outcome will have no practical consequence. "Mr. Lawley's death does not erase the injustice of his conviction and sentence," Kauffman told the court in a written motion. "It would be a disservice to justice and to Mr. Lawley, who has always maintained his innocence, for this court to [dismiss the case] as moot." Lawley was sentenced to death after he was convicted of hiring 2 men to kill Kenneth Stewart, a recently released prisoner who had been robbing drug dealers. Prosecutors contended that the murder weapon was a gun found in Lawley's cabin in Modesto. Years after Lawley's conviction, Brian Seabourn, the admitted triggerman, said he was ordered to shoot the victim by the Aryan Brotherhood, a prison gang. Seabourn, serving a life sentence, had long confided in others that he had buried the murder weapon in a Modesto field. A search of that field in December 2007 turned up a rusty revolver, the type of gun Seabourn had described. The discovery came too late for an innocence case that Lawley had pending before the California Supreme Court. The court rejected that petition, ruling that Lawley had not proved his innocence, but gave him the opportunity to file a new challenge based on the gun's discovery. Kauffman filed the new challenge in April 2008, and written arguments were completed in January 2009. After hearing nothing from the court for 23 months, Lawley filed another motion in December 2010 asking the court to move more quickly. 15 additional months had passed when Lawley, 68, was found dead in his cell March 11, a victim of heart failure triggered by methamphetamine use. His motion asking for a speedy resolution was still pending. Courts sometimes decide cases after they have become moot, to resolve important legal issues. But in fact-specific cases such as Lawley's, they generally decide that their time would be spent better elsewhere. Deputy Atty. Gen. David A. Eldridge, representing the prosecution in the case, could not be reached for comment. Kauffman said he wants "the state of California to acknowledge there was a giant miscarriage of justice." "Mr. Lawley is dead, but his case should not be buried with him," Kauffman told the court. The court has not responded to his request. (source: Los Angeles Times) **************** see: a link to a current poll on the S.A.F.E. California Initiative; http://www.mountain-news.com/opinion/poll_a172c6c6-9a27-11e1-afba-0019bb2963f4.html (source: Mountain News) OKLAHOMA: Anatomy of an American Execution In 2010, while making an episode of Fault Lines on the death penalty in the US, Josh Rushing interviewed death row inmate Michael Selsor. It was the only interview Selsor ever granted. 2 years later, Rushing returned to watch Selsor die. In this special report, he takes an unflinching look at an American execution. I came to Oklahoma to witness a killing, a homicide in fact. At a microphone Debbie Huggins fights tears and with a strong southern drawl says slowly, emphatically: "What we did to him today was much kinder than what he did to my dad." "Him" refers to Michael Selsor and "what" to the murder of Clayton Chandler, a clerk shot 6 times during a gas station robbery in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Selsor pulled the trigger even after Chandler had complied and volunteered the loot. "In 1975 I never would have thought that it would take 37 years for justice," Huggins says. Today's justice was delivered about half an hour before Huggins approached the microphone; it is why I am here. The only interview Michael Selsor ever granted was to Al Jazeera's Josh Rushing. There are few acts graver than when a government takes the life of one of its own citizens. Executions often get a lot of coverage in the US, when there is something controversial about the case or enough people believe the condemned might be innocent. These scenarios attract media attention and fuel vigils. This was not the case with Michael Selsor. Everyone agreed that he did it, including him. The reporters who cover Selsor's execution will focus on Huggins and her family. Perhaps you cannot blame them. The only interview Selsor ever granted was to me. Even though executions are conducted on behalf of the citizens of the state, very few are allowed to witness it: families of the condemned and their victims, lawyers, law enforcement, and journalists. This is why I felt a responsibility to witness Selsor's end and then to report it as dispassionately and honestly as I could. The following attempts such an account. About an hour before Huggins gives her statement, I am led from a makeshift media centre to the notorious H Unit, home of Oklahoma's death row. A pat down ensures our escorts that I carry no possessions other than the clothes on my back. They give me paper and a pen so I can take notes. I am joined by five other reporters. We manoeuvre through a set of gates that open to a large passageway. The walls and floor are made of smooth concrete. The passage feels stark, modern, like a secret missile silo - and incongruous with the century-old prison famous for inmate rodeos and executions. Eventually we turn through a large yellow door into the death chamber's viewing room. I have been here before, but then the space was empty and part of the tour - now it is ready for business. A handful of prison officials and guards are waiting for us in the viewing room, a narrow rectangle about four times as long as it is wide. A long series of windows to my right are covered by drawn blinds. 2 rows of 12 brown metal folding chairs - the kind dragged out of a storage closet at a school picnic - are lined up. I am the first reporter in the room and told to go to the end of the second row and take a seat. As I sidestep down the row I notice for the 1st time another set of windows on the left side of the room. The tinted panes conceal the identity of those on the other side. I suppose the setup is not unlike a wedding with two families to attend to and keep separated. The original victim, Clayton Chandler, is represented by an unknown number of family members behind the dark glass. It is hot in the room - at least 90 degrees and rising as people file in. Movement behind the opaque windows catches the light and my eye; at least 2 people are fanning themselves with white paper. Chandler's family members must already be in place, watching us nervously find our seats. 3 lawyers in dark suits representing Selsor enter next and sit directly in front of me. Selsor's family follows. His son wears a grey t-shirt, shorts and a military-short haircut. Tattoos cover his neck and arms. Selsor's sister, with a shock of blonde hair, looks tired. Her bright blue, short-sleeved shirt contrasts a suntanned face, wizened beyond her years. A box of cheap tissues rests in the son's chair, courtesy of the state. Once Selsor's family is settled, a small contingent of law enforcement file in, including Jeff Jordan, who investigated Chandler's murder as a rookie homicide detective. He is now Tulsa's police chief. A cacophony of banging echoes throughout the prison. We have been warned not to be alarmed by the noise - it is how inmates say their goodbyes. Selsor is respected on death row. He is seemingly regarded as a serious and contemplative individual who became an asset of sorts to prison inmates and staff alike - though officials always caveat the sentiment with a reminder that his crime was inexcusably wrong and such actions must bear consequences. As the run guy, a job given to the toughest of the condemned, Selsor made deliveries to other cells and kept fellow inmates in line. When school children visited the prison, Selsor played a regular part in the tour. From behind bars he shared his life lesson about the consequences of one's actions with the children. The appointed time nears and the banging becomes rhythmic - quick at first, but slowing now to a steady, dirge-like pace. The director of Oklahoma prisons, Justin Jones, who has twice appeared on Fault Lines, enters. The yellow door shuts behind him. Rather than taking a chair, he is handed a phone, a hotline to the governor's office. Though not far from me, I cannot hear what he is saying. Jones hangs the receiver up, picks up a different phone connected with the execution chamber and tells them to proceed. It is exactly 6 pm local time. The curtain goes up as guards raise the mini-blinds inside the execution chamber. Selsor's family in front of me gasps at the sight of him. He is strapped to the bed with his arms padlocked down and covered in a sheet up to his chest. Selsor's pinched eyebrows convey a look between fear and guilt. The son waves to his father for what turns out to be the last time and reaches for the tissues. The son and sister begin to cry. Selsor lifts his head as much as he can and turns toward his small audience: "My son, my sister, I love you 'til I see you again next time. Be good. Eric, [Selsor's lawyer] keep up the struggle." His eyes scan the viewing room: "I'll be waiting at the gates of heaven for you. I hope the rest of you make it there as well." There have been at least 1,121 executions by lethal injection in the US since 1979. He turns his head toward the prison official standing over him and says: "I'm ready." Relaxing back to the bed, he turns his head to the side and focuses on his son. Though we cannot see it, we all know what is happening now. 2 intravenous lines run from Selsor's arms to 2 holes in a wall about three feet behind his head. >From a hidden room, three executioners each press a plunger sending lethal doses into his veins: one with pentobarbital, another with vecuronium bromide and a third with potassium chloride. The executioners are each paid $300 in cash, so no paper trail leads to their identity. With a tilted head still looking at his son, Selsor's gaze begins to fade, his eyelids half closing. A final breath exits his body with a visible puff from his lips. His body stills, eyes half open and locked on his son. It is roughly 6:03 pm. The next 3 minutes pass painfully slowly. No one moves in the death chamber or viewing room. I hear barely perceptible sounds of crying from the row in front of me. A medical examiner in the chamber approaches the bed, checks for signs of life and pronounces Michael Selsor dead at 6:06 pm. We solemnly return to the media centre. Huggins holds a press conference and tells us that the execution did not bring closure or the kind of justice it seems she was seeking, but it is easy to see her relief from the death of Selsor. The ultimate boogeyman in her mind was finally gone. In time a death certificate will be issued from the state of Oklahoma. For cause of death, it will say Selsor died from a homicide. Though it took nearly 4 decades to find its target, it is clear now that the trigger Selsor pulled that fateful day in 1975 ended not only Chandler's life, but his own as well. (source: Truthout.org) From rhalperi at smu.edu Fri May 11 09:53:45 2012 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Fri, 11 May 2012 09:53:45 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----GA., ALA., DEL., ARIZ., MONT. Message-ID: May 12 GEORGIA: Wife may testify to avoid death penalty in husband's slaying----Schoeck expected to testify against accused triggerman in 2010 Valentine's Day shooting Stacey Schoeck, who could face the death penalty if convicted of hiring a man to kill her husband in 2010, likely will testify against her alleged co-conspirator next week. In exchange, Hall County?s district attorney won?t seek the death penalty against her, according to statements made Thursday in Hall County Superior Court. Schoeck?s former co-worker, Lynitra Ross of Austell, will stand trial for what prosecutors say was her role in the 2010 Valentine?s Day slaying of Richard Schoeck in Belton Bridge Park. Ross is accused of being the go-between for Stacey Schoeck and accused triggerman Reginald Coleman, also of Austell. Prosecutors say Stacey Schoeck paid Coleman $10,000 to kill her husband at the Lula park on the banks of the Chattahoochee River. Ross, they say, connected Schoeck, her supervisor at a DeKalb County spine clinic, with Coleman. Prosecutors plan to seek the death penalty against Coleman. According to statements made in court Thursday, they likely will seek the same punishment for Schoeck if she refuses to testify in Ross? trial. If Schoeck testifies, she will plead guilty to murder and avoid the death penalty. ?We expect her to be testifying truthfully,? District Attorney Lee Darragh told Hall County Superior Court Judge Jason Deal. Ross? attorneys likely will emphasize the deal with prosecutors in their cross-examination if Schoeck testifies, asking ?what happens if you don?t do this?? Ross? attorney, Rodney Williams, said. Attorneys for both the defense and the prosecution refused to comment after the hearing. Ross will not be handcuffed during her trial, and Deal said Thursday that he will allow her to wear clip-on earrings during court proceedings. Both are efforts at keeping the jury from knowing that she is currently incarcerated and making assumptions of guilt or innocence. The trial of Ross, the first of three alleged to have conspired to kill Richard Schoeck, is expected to last nearly 2 weeks. Because of a county furlough day, the trial won?t begin until Tuesday. State prosecutors plan to present all of their evidence by the end of the first week. Jurors, who were chosen Thursday, have been instructed to make arrangements to miss work until the Memorial Day holiday. Deal, too, is planning for long days in the courtroom, offering his office refrigerator to attorneys who might want to bring lunch to court. The Hall County jury, including two alternates, that will decide Ross? fate comprises 7 women and 7 men. Originally, defense attorneys sought to move the trial, citing the saturation of pretrial publicity and its impact on Ross? ability to receive a fair trial. Deal has allowed the case to continue in Hall. A few of the potential jurors said during a jury selection process this week that they knew many details about the case. Deal has also instructed the jury to stay away from local news, to refrain from visiting the scene of the crime and to avoid posting about the case on social media sites like Facebook or Twitter. (source: The Gainesville Times) ALABAMA: Lee Co. man could face death penalty in sheriff's deputy murder The man convicted in the capital murder of a Lee County Sheriff's deputy learned he will be eligible for the death penalty. Entered the courtroom Thursday in shackles and chains, Gregory Henderson learned on June 27 Judge Jacob Walker could sentence him to die for the murder of Lee County Sheriff's Deputy James Anderson back in September of 2009. Henderson's defense had claimed their client was mentally unfit to be sentenced to die, but it appears the experts who evaluated Henderson disagreed. Defense attorney Jeremy Armstrong says, "Based on some evaluations we had done, we did not think we would be successful in the Atkins request, so we withdrew that and based on that withdrawal obviously Judge Walker can consider the death plenty in the case and override the juries recommendation of life without parole." Now it's up to Judge Jacob Walker to decide of Henderson will face lethal injection for killing Deputy James Anderson, or if he will uphold the juries recommendation of life in prison. "I'm very concerned Judge Walker will override the juries but we are going to present any information we can in mitigating circumstances to hope that judge walker upholds the juries recommendation." (source: WTVM News) DELAWARE: Former Calif. death row inmate to speak in Del. A man who once spent time on California' death row is speaking to opponents of the death penalty in Delaware. Ernest "Shujaa" Graham was to give a speech Friday night at the Hockessin United Methodist Church. Groups sponsoring his visit include Delaware Citizens Opposed to the Death Penalty, the Campaign to End the Death Penalty, the ACLU and Pacem in Terris. Graham and another inmate were charged with killing a prison guard in 1973. His 1st trial resulted in a mistrial, but he was sentenced to death in 1976 after his 2nd trial. The California Supreme Court reversed the conviction because prosecutors improperly excluded prospective jurors who were black. Graham eventually was acquitted at his 4th trial in 1981. (source: Associated Press) ARIZONA: Lawyer for man in death penalty case alleges judicial misconduct An attorney in the Cesar Garcia-Soto death-penalty murder trial has filed a motion asking that Yavapai County Superior Court Judge Cel? Hancock be removed from the case because, he claims, she has violated ethical rules. Garcia-Soto, now 30, was arrested in February 2008 and charged with 1st- and 2nd-degree murder and 2 counts of child abuse in connection with the death of his 3-month-old son. Deputies also arrested the child's mother, Gladys Yamileth Rodriguez-Paz, who was not home at the time of the 911 call, saying she could have acted to stop the abuse. The couple's other two young children were placed in the custody of Child Protective Services. Rodriguez-Paz pleaded guilty to one count of child abuse in 2008 and was sentenced to a year in prison. Michael Terribile, an attorney for Garcia-Soto, alleges that Hancock communicated with a non-party to the case regarding a pending issue, disclosed confidential reports regarding the defendant's I.Q., and threatened to file a bar complaint against Garcia-Soto's lead attorney, John Napper, all of which are evidence of "bias and prejudice against the defendant," he wrote. Napper has been arguing that, because this is a death penalty case, he is obligated to undertake "an exhaustive investigation into the history and life of Mr. Garcia-Soto," but the fact that Garcia-Soto is a citizen of Mexico means that would have to take place in Mexico, and "the United States State Department has issued a warning asking all American citizens not to travel to that portion of Mexico (Cuidad Juarez in Chihuahua)." Napper said he did not want to send anyone to Mexico to do the investigation because he found it "morally and ethically repugnant to risk innocent lives attempting to conduct a mitigation investigation." He had first asked that Judge Hancock dismiss the death penalty, but when she denied that motion, he then asked that he and his co-counsel, Phoenix attorney Dennis Jones, be allowed to withdraw as counsel for Garcia-Soto. Hancock denied that motion as well; she said that there was evidence available to Napper and Jones that could be used in mitigation, specifically mental health evaluations; these, she said, "include information on the defendant's upbringing in Mexico." Terribile argued that her "reference to and reliance on the contents of (those 2 mental evaluations) was highly improper," because they were sealed and, he asserted, were intended to be "available only to the defendant." Hancock, in an earlier hearing, referred to Napper's complaint that he could not, in good conscience, send investigators to Cuidad Juarez, saying, "I have done a lot of research on this on my own. This is not an isolated issue. It is occurring in Phoenix as well. "It is my understanding that there are individuals who will travel to these areas to gather mitigation and there are attorneys who don't seem to have a problem (hiring them)," she said, referring to information she gained in a phone call she had placed to the Director of Public Defense Services for Maricopa County. Terribile called that an "unauthorized" conversation, and cited an ethical rule which he said prohibits a judge from "considering other communications made to the judge outside the presence of the parties." He also took issue with the fact that, after Napper had said in court that he would not take part in the mitigation phase of the trial if his client was found guilty, calling it a "farce," Hancock said that if he refused to do so, "the court is duty-bound to report such action to the State Bar of Arizona." Terribile characterized that as a "threat" and said Hancock was "compelling (Napper) to provide ineffective assistance to the defendant." He concluded that Garcia-Soto could not get "a fair and impartial hearing of trial" if the case stayed before Hancock, and that her actions violated his 5th, 6th, 8th and 14th amendment rights. Presiding Judge David L. Mackey currently has the case and will rule on the motion as well as hearing a settlement conference, which could lead to a plea agreement. (source: The Daily Curier) MONTANA: Change of Montana governor could impact Canadian's bid to avoid execution Just a week after Canadian killer Ronald Smith made a high-profile plea at his clemency hearing for Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer to spare him from the death penalty, Postmedia News has learned that Schweitzer will not be the state's governor if and when Smith is scheduled for execution. Lawyers on both sides of the case ? Smith's defence team as well as the state's assistant attorney general, who's leading the push for Smith's execution ? now say there's no chance the Alberta-born double-murderer could be put to death until 2013, after Schweitzer's 2nd and final term as governor ends on Dec. 31, 2012. Montana's constitution imposes a 2-term limit on the state's top political post, the holder of which has the exclusive authority to commute a death sentence. Schweitzer, first elected governor in 2004, was in office for the 2006 execution of Montana inmate David Dawson, who had not requested clemency. Schweitzer has remained non-committal in his public statements about whether he would consider commuting Smith's death sentence, though he has repeatedly said he is deeply moved by the torment suffered by the families of Smith's 2 victims ? Blackfeet Indian cousins Thomas Running Rabbit and Harvey Mad Man. The latest surprising twist in the Smith saga could mean a whole new round of legal battles ? in a case that has already spent close to 30 years in the courts ? over the implications of the coming change in governors for the Canadian's bid to avoid execution. The lawyers in the case acknowledge that it could even result in the launch of a fresh clemency petition, under Montana's next governor, by the 54-year-old Smith. The situation arises because of an ongoing U.S. lawsuit ? filed jointly in 2008 by Smith's defence lawyers and the Montana branch of the American Civil Liberties Union ? over the protocols involved in administering Montana's lethal-injection method of capital punishment. Smith and the ACLU have argued that flaws or potential flaws in the 3-drug regime for executing prisoners in Montana amount to "cruel and unusual punishment" and violate the condemned individual's constitutional rights. A trial in the lawsuit has been scheduled for Sept. 4, and both Ronald Waterman ? the lawyer representing Smith in the case ? and Montana's assistant attorney general, Mark Fowler, told Postmedia News this week that the inevitable appeals following that hearing will push resolution of the matter into 2013. In 2010, a Montana judge imposed a stay of execution in the Smith case until the lethal-injection lawsuit is concluded. "Right now, the state of Montana cannot seek an execution date, not only until the lethal-injection decision is made by the trial judge, but also until the appeal of that decision one way or the other is resolved," said Fowler, the state's pointman on the Smith file. "So we're looking well into next year, 2013, before the state could even entertain any possibility it could set an execution date." Asked it the change of governors on New Year's Day 2013 could trigger a second clemency bid by Smith, Fowler answered: "Is a death-row inmate only entitled to one clemency petition during their time on death row? I don't know the answer to that." He then wondered aloud if, perhaps, Schweitzer "could postpone or defer to another administration? I don't know if that is a lawful thing to do, either. I don't want to speculate on that." Waterman, also asked if the change of governors could make the current clemency process under Schweitzer's administration moot, replied: "Your question raises an issue which has never occurred in Montana ? could a condemned inmate who had sought and been denied clemency, but whose execution had not occurred, then ask a new sitting governor to consider a renewed clemency petition? I don't know that answer to this question." Waterman added that "the statute is silent as to whether a person can seek clemency more than once" because of a change in governors. "If the current petition fails and assuming my efforts ultimately fail to totally stop Montana from proceeding forward with a lethal injection protocol, then we may find out the answer to this question in 2013 or 2014." Smith, originally from Red Deer, Alta., committed the shotgun killings of Running Rabbit and Mad Man just south of the U.S.-Canada border in August 1982. Smith initially requested the death penalty for his crimes, but has since waged a decades-long court fight to avoid execution. In 2007, in response to a Postmedia News report on a fresh bid by Canadian diplomats to help Smith win clemency from Schweitzer, Canada's recently elected Conservative government abruptly ended the diplomatic effort and announced a new "case-by-case" policy of not automatically intervening to prevent the execution of Canadians on death row in the U.S. or other democratic countries. But after an opposition uproar over the policy shift and the launch of a lawsuit by Smith's lawyers, the Federal Court of Canada ruled in 2009 that the Conservative government had acted "unlawfully" and ordered it to re-launch clemency efforts on Smith's behalf. The government agreed to do so. In December, Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird sent letters to Montana's parole board and to Schweitzer seeking clemency for Smith. The letter, however, was slammed by opposition critics for its lukewarm expression of support for Smith's bid to avoid capital punishment, which was abolished in Canada in 1976. Last week, a three-member panel of Montana's parole board heard statements from Smith, his sister and daughter urging the state to grant clemency because of Smith's rehabilitation efforts in prison. The families of Running Rabbit and Mad Man made passionate pleas for Smith to be executed for robbing them of two greatly missed loved ones, men who had kindly offered the hitchhiking Smith a ride in their car before they were brutally murdered by the drunk and drugged-up Canadian. The parole panel is expected to make its recommendation to Schweitzer later this month or in early June. Unless he promptly grants clemency to Smith, the controversy over the Canadian's death sentence is likely to be faced by Montana's next governor, as well. Among both the Republican and Democratic fields of contenders to succeed Schweitzer are avowed opponents of the death penalty, meaning Smith's bid to win clemency could become a major issue in upcoming state elections. (source: PostMedia News) From rhalperi at smu.edu Fri May 11 09:55:37 2012 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Fri, 11 May 2012 09:55:37 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide Message-ID: May 12 INDIA: Convert Sarabjit's death penalty to life, Burney tells Zardari Leading rights activist Ansar Burney on Friday appealed to President Asif Ali Zardari to convert the death sentence of Indian national Sarabjit Singh, facing gallows on charges of involvement in bomb blasts in Pakistan, to life imprisonment on humanitarian grounds. Noting that Sarabjit had been on death row for nearly 21 years, Burney said in a letter sent to the President that the Indian national's possible hanging should be halted and his death sentence converted to life imprisonment "in the greater interest of humanity, human dignity, justice and human rights". Burney noted that he had submitted several mercy petitions on Sarabjit's behalf to the President. He said any move to hang a prisoner who had already spent such a long time in jail would be tantamount to a "murder of justice". "I would like to mention here that one day in a death cell is equal to one year in a normal jail and that prolonged detention in the worst and inhuman circumstances on death row is, at the very least, cruel treatment and the worst kind of human rights violations...," Burney said in his letter. Burney's request was made against the backdrop of the Indian Supreme Court's order allowing 82-year-old Pakistani national Khalil Chishti to travel back home after being granted bail. Chishti was accused of involvement in the murder of a man during a brawl in Ajmer in April 1992. At the time, he was visiting India to meet relatives. In January last year, Chishti was given life imprisonment after an 18-year trial. (source: The Times of India) From rhalperi at smu.edu Fri May 11 17:54:37 2012 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Fri, 11 May 2012 17:54:37 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] [SPAM] death penalty news----TEXAS, WASH., CALIF., IND., MO., USA Message-ID: May 11 TEXAS: TDCJ Public Information Officer charged for responding to Backgate and Senator Whitmire via email regarding misconduct by the agency, resigns amidst false claims, retaliation. TDCJ Public Information Officer (PIO) Michelle Lyons resigned this morning after being targeted by TDCJ's Bryan Collier and others for simply reporting the truth. Lyons, who has been employed by TDCJ for the past 11 years, resigned after enduring retaliation and harassment by agency officials for several months. Michelle had been nothing but cordial and professional throughout our years of exchanges as the website sought out answers to questions regarding policy, statistics or contraband issues. Many of our inquiries were also forwarded to state Legislators for their knowledge as well. Ultimately, this action (forwarding emails to Legislators) is what is believed to have put Michelle on the radar with her TDCJ bosses. She responded to us like she would have any other entity seeking answers. Certain TDCJ administrators didn't appreciate the fact that we were in the loop as we are sometimes critical of TDCJ policies and other issues. Last Friday, Michelle responded to a request for information we filed the week prior for a statement about the ongoing facebook privacy story. She stated that she had been removed from that position, and explained why she had been. She had raised concerns to her bosses about the way time was being kept months ago within the department, and brought it forward. That's were it all began. A few trumped up charges later, one for not helping a subordinate by not supplying a statement for him to use in her name, and one for explaining to us via email why she wasn't able to answer our "official request" and the rest is history. Michelle emailed us this statement this morning; "When I received the email from Duane on Friday and when I responded to him and everyone who he had originally copied on the message, it set in motion a chain of events. Within a couple of hours, my email account was 'frozen' and I was told I was under investigation. Before I was charged with failing to obey an order, I was told that I should not have responded to Duane because he is considered media. At this point, I would note that some time ago, I was tracking down an answer to a question Duane had asked me and I went to Mr. Collier. He asked why I was responding to Duane since "he's not media." It's interesting to me that he wasn't 'media' several months ago, but now he is? At the time, I said that while Duane may not meet the definition of media in TDCJ's own media policy, that he is a TDCJ employee and member of the public and that I respond to as many inquiries I can from the public in addition to those I receive from the media. That's exactly what I did on Friday. I view it as responding to a message from a colleague about possible federal labor law and privacy violations and including on it my union representative and 2 state lawmakers. Why is that an issue? " Michelle went on to say; "I know that what I've gone through these last 6 months is similar to what so many other TDCJ employees have had to endure during their own tenures with the agency. I just really didn't understand until it happened to me. I'll never know exactly what initiated the discriminatory measures they took against me with my demotion and pay cut, but I can pinpoint that the retaliation began as soon as I questioned the way TDCJ requires employees to track their time and how they appear to be circumventing federal labor laws through some policies (although an agency policy obviously shouldn't trump federal law). Within 2 weeks, Mr. Collier told me "I should have just fired you," and it only escalated from there. " It's ashamed that any employee with TDCJ must endure these types of retaliation and harassment. But it hits home when it's an employee in the public eye, and with media connections like those of Michelle Lyons. TDCJ has become so comfortable with it's unchecked retaliation and harassment that it doesn't skip a beat in mistreating employees statewide. As the Sunset Commission Hearings with the Legislature approach us soon, i am almost positive these issues will be heard by Legislators. Michelle Lyons was the last line of defense and the open door that provided some sense of transparency for an agency still living and operating in the dark ages. With her gone, the agency will surely suffer a huge blow to their ability to be believable and honest. We wish you the best Michelle. (source: Duane Stuart, the backgate.org) WASHINGTON: Court throws out death sentence of accused double-murderer The state Supreme Court on Thursday reversed the conviction and death sentence of a man accused of killing his wife and business partner and called for a new trial in his double murder case. In an 8-1 ruling, the state high court said that Darold Stenson's rights were violated because the state "wrongfully suppressed" photographs that raised questions about mishandling of evidence as well as an FBI file that wasn't provided to the defense until 2009, years after Stenson was convicted. Stenson was sentenced to death in 1994 for the 1993 slaying of his wife, Denise, and a business partner, Frank Hoerner, at Stenson's Clallam County exotic bird farm. Sheryl McCloud, an attorney for Stenson, said she was pleased that the court so overwhelmingly sided with their position. "I was just so gratified that the court was willing to make a decision that might be unpopular but is really necessary given what we discovered almost 20 years after the conviction about the evidence being so unreliable," McCloud said. The high court noted that other than 2 key pieces of evidence that tied Stenson to the shootings, the remainder of evidence provided at trial was "largely circumstantial." Those 2 pieces of evidence - gunshot residue found inside the front pocket of the jeans Stenson was wearing when officers arrived, and blood spatter on the front of those jeans "consistent with Hoerner's blood protein profile" - were at the heart of Stenson's most recent appeal to the high court. At issue were photographs showing sheriff's Detective Monty Martin wearing Darold Stenson's jeans with the right pocket turned out and Martin's ungloved hands and an FBI file indicating an agent who testified did not perform a gunshot residue test, which the court said was implied at the trial. Stenson had claimed that he kneeled next to Hoerner's body, accounting for the blood on the jeans. But an expert witness called by the prosecution had testified that was not possible. "Had the FBI file and photographs been properly disclosed here, Stenson's counsel would have been able to demonstrate to the jury that a key exhibit in the case - Stenson's jeans - had been seriously mishandled and compromised by law enforcement investigators," wrote the majority for the high court, led by Justice Pro Tem Gerry Alexander. Clallam County Prosecuting Attorney Deborah Kelly said she was deeply disappointed by the decision. "It is my firm belief that all involved in the investigation and prosecution of this case acted conscientiously and in good faith towards a just outcome. It is an utter tragedy for the victim's family that they are forced to relive this." Kelly said she expected a retrial on murder charges but would consult with the family about whether to seek the death penalty again. Stenson has long claimed he didn't commit the murders. When Stenson called authorities in 1993 to report the deaths, he suggested that his business partner, Frank Hoerner, had killed Denise Stenson and then shot himself in another room. Prosecutors have said Stenson, struggling financially and in dire business straits, shot the 2 in order to collect $400,000 in life insurance. Stenson has filed multiple appeals to his death sentence, and courts have stayed his execution 3 times, most recently in 2008 when he was less than 2 weeks from a scheduled execution. In January 2011, a Superior Court judge ruled that the prosecuting attorney did not meet its legal obligation to provide the evidence to the defense but also found it wouldn't have changed the outcome of the trial, something the high court disagreed with in its ruling Thursday. The high court noted that it had already once affirmed both of Stenson's convictions and the death sentence in 1997, and has since rejected four prior personal restraint positions filed by Stenson. But the current petition cited due process violations of the so-called Brady rights. Those rights are named after the Supreme Court's Brady v. Maryland case, which says prosecutors violate a defendant's constitutional rights by not turning over evidence that could prove a person's innocence. The high court on Thursday said that those rights were violated. "We are left with the fact that constitutionally significant mistakes were made in Stenson's trial, resulting in imposition of the ultimate punishment without the full benefit of due process protections," the majority opinion read. Alexander was joined on the majority in Thursday's ruling by Chief Justice Barbara Madsen, Justices Charles Johnson, Debra Stephens, Tom Chambers, Charles Wiggins, Mary Fairhurst and Justice Pro Tem Teresa Kulik. Justice Jim Johnson, the lone dissenter, argued that the Supreme Court has "reviewed and affirmed both guilt and sentence over the intervening 18 years" since Stenson was sentenced. "The interests of finality in justice to provide peace for the families of Stenson's victims argue for the same result," he wrote. With Stenson's death sentence now overturned, 7 men remain on death row at the state penitentiary. Washington state's last execution was in September 2010, when Cal Coburn Brown died by lethal injection for the 1991 murder of a Seattle-area woman. He was the 1st Washington inmate executed since 2001, after spending nearly 17 years on death row. Since 1904, 78 men have been put to death in Washington. (source: Associated Press) ******************* Reversal of inmate's death sentence shocks victim's widow Denise Hoerner, the widow of 1993 murder victim Frank Hoerner, said Thursday she was shocked the state Supreme Court has overturned the double-murder conviction of death-row inmate Darold R. Stenson, her husband?s accused killer. ?I couldn?t believe it,? Denise Hoerner, 45, said in a telephone interview. ?I was shocked. I feel like I just relived everything. I?m not having a very good time right now.? Stenson, 59, owned an exotic-bird farm near Sequim when he was convicted in 1994 for the shooting deaths of his wife, also named Denise, and Hoerner, his business partner. Clallam County Prosecuting Attorney Deb Kelly said Thursday in a statement that she was ?deeply disappointed? by the state Supreme Court?s decision. ?It is an utter tragedy for the victims? families that they are forced to relive this,? she said. Kelly said in an interview that she will not seek review from the state Supreme Court because the decision was 8-1 but will consult with appellate attorneys to determine if she will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review the ruling. Kelly has 30 days from the issuance of the ruling to file an appeal. That means that the earliest Stenson, who had filed numerous appeals before Thursday?s ruling, could return to Clallam County from the Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla would be after June 10 for a retrial on 2 aggravated-murder charges. A county Superior Court status hearing would be held the day after Stenson?s return to Clallam Count and an arraignment held the following week, Kelly said. Kelly said that if Stenson returns for a retrial, she would refile the murder charges against Stenson but would ask family members of the murder victims whether she should again seek the death penalty. ?I?m going to have to sit with family members to obtain their input and discuss with them what their wishes are,? Kelly added. If Kelly seeks the death penalty, the presiding Superior Court judge would be required to appoint a special attorney qualified to try death penalty cases to represent Stenson, Kelly said. Denise Hoerner told the Peninsula Daily News on March 25, 2010 ? the 17th anniversary of her husband?s death ? that she could not handle a new trial and that Stenson?s execution would allow her to move on with her life. On Thursday, she said she wants Stenson to be tried again for the murders of her husband and Stenson?s wife. Stenson ?doesn?t scare me,? Denise Hoerner said. ?My husband was a wonderful man,? she added. ?God will make it right.? In overturning Stenson?s convictions, the court cited the withholding of evidence from the defense by the county Prosecuting Attorney?s Office. Kelly was an appointed District Court judge in 1994, when Stenson was tried. The evidence the court cited consisted of FBI lab notes and photographs of then-county Sheriff?s Detective Monty Martin wearing the same bloody jeans worn by Stenson the day Stenson?s wife and Frank Hoerner were murdered. Kelly said Martin wore the pants at the request of a Prosecuting Attorney?s Office expert witness who never testified at the trial. Stenson had claimed he kneeled by the victims. The expert witness ?was having [Stenson] move in ways to see if the blood on the pants could be created by the movements that Stenson described,? Kelly said. (source: KOMO News) CALIFORNIA: Death row inmate faces additional death sentence A man already on death row for killing 2 Marymount College students in a San Pedro supermarket parking lot was sentenced to death again today for killing a fellow jail inmate while awaiting trial in the double slaying. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Ronald Coen imposed the term on 36-year- old Raymond Oscar Butler after denying the defendant's motion for a new trial. "I've known you now for many months, Mr. Butler, and you're a very intelligent man," Coen said. "You're a killer, but you're a very intelligent man." Asked by the judge if there was any legal cause why sentencing should not be carried out, Butler replied, "Other than I'm innocent and I shouldn't be sentenced to death, no." Butler occasionally glanced at the audience during the hearing and smiled. "I intend on being an active participant in my appeal," Butler said after hearing his punishment. After Coen told Butler he would have to talk to a jail liaison about his request to have his legal materials forwarded with him to state prison, Butler replied, "Thank you, your honor, I appreciate it." Jurors recommended Feb. 6 that Coen sentence Butler to death for the March 26, 1995, jailhouse stabbing death of Tyrone Flemming. Butler was already on death row for the March 25, 1994, shooting deaths of Takuma Ito, a Japanese citizen, and Go Matsuura, a U.S. citizen who grew up primarily in Japan -- a crime that made headlines in both countries. The California Supreme Court upheld his conviction and death sentence for the slayings of Ito and Matsuura, who were shot in the head in the parking lot of a Ralphs store in San Pedro. But the state's highest court reversed his original conviction and death sentence for Flemming's murder, ruling that a judge had erroneously decided he could not act as his own attorney. Butler represented himself during his retrial. He also acted as his own attorney while making his plea for a new trial on various grounds, including his lack of privacy while interviewing witnesses in jail. "I did not have access to my witnesses without having the sheriff saddled to me," Butler said. "It had a chilling effect on me and my witnesses thereby being able to talk to me." Deputy District Attorney David Barkhurst said the jury's verdicts were proper and that the alternative sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole should not be imposed. "The people have always felt the appropriate punishment was death," Barkhurst said. During the penalty phase of his retrial, prosecutors introduced into evidence Butler's convictions for murdering Ito and Matsuura. Barkhurst told jurors that the evidence they heard during the guilt portion of the trial was "the tip of the iceberg." Butler has had a series of run-ins with fellow jail inmates, has had a number of weapons -- including jail-made shanks -- recovered from his cell, and has unleashed containers with feces and urine at prison guards who were bringing him library books or cleaning up trash, Barkhurst said. During the penalty phase, Butler called his mother -- Donna Ray Butler -- to the stand to testify on his behalf. "You love me, correct?" Butler asked his mother. "Yes, I do, very much," she responded. She said, "I stick behind my children. I love them unconditionally," adding that he was "the apple of my eye" when he was born. "Thank you, mother, I love you," the defendant told his mother as he finished questioning her. The murders of Ito and Matsuura stunned Japan and prompted expressions of regret from President Bill Clinton and Walter Mondale, who was then the U.S. ambassador to Japan. Ito and Matsuura, both aspiring filmmakers, were shot once each in the back of the head. Ito's Honda Civic was then stolen. (source: Daily Breeze) INDIANA: Trailer park babysitter who bludgeoned a 9-year-old girl to death before dismembering her is spared death penalty--Michael Plumadore, of Fort Wayne, Indiana, bludgeoned Aliahna Maroney-Lemmon to death 'Put body in his trailer park freezer and later dismembered it with hacksaw' -- Sentenced to life without parole A man who confessed to bludgeoning a 9-year-old girl to death then dismembering her body three days before Christmas pleaded guilty today after prosecutors said they would ask for the death penalty. Michael Plumadore, 39, from Indiana, also pleaded guilty to abuse of a corpse and removing a dead body from the scene in Aliahna Maroney-Lemmon's December 22 death at a Fort Wayne trailer park. He'll be sentenced June 18 to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Plumadore's attorneys and prosecutors had told the judge last week they were ready for his trial to start that day. But defense attorney Anthony Churchward said today that they agreed to the guilty pleas after prosecutors indicated they would pursue the death penalty if Plumadore was convicted by trial. Plumadore was looking after Aliahna and her 6-year-old sister because their mother was sick. He was a trusted family friend who had looked after Aliahna's dying grandfather at the trailer park where the family lived. The grandfather - who died 3 weeks before the girl's death - was a convicted sex offender. The family moved to the trailer park - where 15 sex offenders lived - to take care of him in his final days. Plumadore told police he repeatedly hit Aliahna in the head with a brick, chopped up her body with a hack saw, stashed her head, hands and feet in the trailer where he lived and dumped the rest of her remains nearby. She weighed only 41 pounds when she died. The other girls weren't harmed. Plumadore has previously been convicted of trespassing, assault and forgery in 3 different states and there had been a warrant out for his arrest 11 years before the murder. He was charged with battery of a 1st-responder in 2000 and was given felony probation. But he failed to report to his probation officer, fulfill his community service hours or complete an anger management course. Plumadore was reported an absconder in June 2000. Greg Shumaker, one of 15 convicted sex offenders who lives at the park, recalled Aliahna's family moving to the trailer park to help take care of 66-year-old James E 'Shorty' Lemmon. Mr Shumaker said he introduced Plumadore to Mr Lemmon shortly after Plumadore moved into the trailer park, and Plumadore moved in with Mr Lemmon a few days later. Mr Shumaker said he knew Mr Lemmon because they were both sex offenders and were in jail together. Plumadore is not a registered sex offender in Indiana. But Mr Lemmon had assured Ms Souders that there was nothing to worry about, Mr Shumaker said. Paulette Hair, 45, a former manager at the trailer park who lives at a nearby trailer park, said she also knew Mr Lemmon was a sex offender. 'He stayed out of everybody's way,' she said. Mr Shumaker said Plumadore briefly moved away, but returned when Ms Souders, 28, asked him to care for her father. Aliahna's father, Dawayne Maroney of Centerville, Iowa, said he knew Plumadore through Ms Souders and had no reason to distrust him. 'I can't talk about it because I'm still coping with it. It's too hard to talk about,' he said. 'I had no reason to suspect anything.' (source: Daily Mail) MISSOURI: Collings gets death sentence A judge has formally sentenced a 37-year-old southwest Missouri man to death for raping and killing a friend's 9-year-old stepdaughter. A jury that convicted Christopher Collings, of Wheaton, in March had recommended the death penalty. Phelps County Circuit Judge Mary Sheffield imposed the sentence Friday. Collings and David Spears were both charged in the November 2007 rape and killing of Spears' stepdaughter, Rowan Ford, of Stella. Spears is awaiting trial. Collings said in a videotaped confession that he "freaked out" and strangled the child because she looked at him as she was being raped. His defense lawyer had requested a life sentence. The judge did not set an execution date for Collings. (source: Associated Press) USA (MASSACHUSETTS): Judge says prosecutors can appeal decision to order second death penalty hearing for serial killer Gary Lee Sampson A federal judge has authorized prosecutors to appeal his decision to order a 2nd sentencing hearing to consider whether serial killer Gary Lee Sampson should be executed for carjacking and killing two people in 2001. US District Judge Mark Wolf granted prosecutors? request for an interlocutory appeal -- an appeal lodged before legal proceedings end -- to the First US Circuit Court of Appeals. Wolf rejected arguments by Sampson?s lawyers that prosecutors could not appeal until the 2nd hearing was over. Sampson was sentenced in the 1st hearing to be executed. It was the 1st death penalty to be handed down in federal court in Massachusetts and the 1st in the state in more than half a century. But Wolf found last year that Sampson?s constitutional rights to an impartial jury had been violated because a juror had lied about ?important questions relating to her ability to be impartial.? He then ordered a new hearing. In today?s ruling, Wolf officially vacated Sampson?s death sentence. Proceedings in his court will now be put on hold, pending the appeal. Wolf said ?a 2nd hearing to determine whether Sampson should live or die will be lengthy, expensive, and anguishing for the families of Sampson?s victims.? ?It is, therefore, appropriate,? he wrote, ?to give the First Circuit the opportunity to decide whether the decision that a second sentencing hearing is legally required is now appealable.? If it finds that an appeal is in order, he said, the appeals court could also decide whether to take it up, and then decide whether he correctly interpreted the law in ordering the new sentencing hearing. Sampson killed 2 men, Jonathan Rizzo and Philip McCloskey, in Massachusetts in July 2001. He pleaded guilty to federal charges, which carried the possibility of the death penalty. A jury found in 2003 that he should be sentenced to death. Sampson was also convicted in state court in New Hampshire on charges of killing Robert ?Eli? Whitney in Penacook, N.H., later the same month. (source: Boston Globe) From rhalperi at smu.edu Sat May 12 11:43:31 2012 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Sat, 12 May 2012 11:43:31 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] [SPAM] death penalty news----TEXAS, USA, UTAH, ORE., MONT., CALIF. Message-ID: May 12 TEXAS----impending execution Texas Wants To Drug a Prisoner So They Can Kill Him----It?s a macabre spectacle, and it should be stopped. Can the state force a person to take drugs in order to execute him? That is the grisly question raised by the case of Steven Staley, a convicted murderer who believes polygraph machines are controlling and torturing him. Even though he?s psychotic, Staley is scheduled to be executed next week, based on a judge?s order requiring him to take medication he has refused. If Texas actually goes ahead with this deeply disturbing plan, it will be the first state, as far as I can tell, to drug someone in order to carry out a death sentence. That is a distinction that no one on the planet should want to have. Here are the facts of Staley?s crime: In September 1989, he escaped from a Denver jail and went on an armed robbery spree, hitting up nine businesses in four states. The last one was the Steak and Ale Restaurant in Tarrant County, Texas. Just before closing, Staley and two friends came in, and Staley herded the employees into a kitchen storeroom and made manager Robert Read open the cash registers and the safe. He then took Read as a hostage, forced him into the back of a car, and shot him dead during a high-speed chase by the police. And here are the facts of Staley?s mental illness: He has a long history of paranoid schizophrenia and depression. Staley was abused as a child by his mother, who was also mentally ill; when he was 6 or 7 she tried to pound a wooden stake through his chest. His father was an alcoholic. Staley tried to kill himself as a teenager. Doctors who have examined Staley on death row have said that he talks in a robot-like monotone yet has ?grandiose and paranoid? delusions, including the beliefs that he invented the first car and marketed a character from Star Trek. He has given himself black eyes and self-inflicted lacerations and has been found spreading feces and covered with urine. Medicated with the anti-psychotic drug Haldol, Staley complained of paralysis and sometimes appeared to be in a catatonic state. He has worn a bald spot on the back of his head from lying on the floor of his cell. Staley was found competent to stand trial back in 1991. The standard is low: A defendant has to be able to understand the charges against him and consult rationally with his lawyer so he can aid in his own defense. The standard for competency at execution was set by Ford v Wainwright, a 1986 case in which the Supreme Court said that the Eighth Amendment?s bar against cruel and unusual punishment forbids execution of the ?insane.? Indeed, at the time no state permitted such an execution. The court quoted British judges in the 17th century worrying about the ?miserable spectacle? of ?extream inhumanity and cruelty? presented by executing a ?mad man.? It served no retributive purpose, Justice Thurgood Marshall wrote, to execute a person ?who has no comprehension of why he has been singled out.? He also noted ?the natural abhorrence civilized societies feel at killing one who has no capacity to come to grips with his own conscience or deity.? The problem with Ford is that the justices? holding didn?t match their rhetoric. A defendant can be executed as long as he shows some rational understanding that he is about to die and why. Many people with serious mental illness can grasp those basic facts, at least on some level. Among the many examples of seriously mentally ill people who have been found competent to be tried and executed is Scott Panetti, a delusional schizophrenic who represented himself in 1995 dressed in a purple cowboy suit. Panetti tried to call Jesus Christ and John Kennedy as witnesses. Then there?s the case of Andre Thomas, which is so horrific that I?m sorry to ask you to read the next 2 sentences. Thomas was tried and sentenced to death, for triple murders in which he cut out the hearts of his victims, 6 weeks after gouging out his right eye. In 2008, on death row, he gouged out his left eye and ate it. (Both Panetti and Thomas?s executions are on appeal in the Texas courts.) OK, deep breath. In 2006, after Staley stopped his medication, Judge Wayne Salvant, in a moment of mercy, found him incompetent to be executed. The District Attorney for Tarrant County, Joe Shannon, Jr., unmercifully asked Salvant to order Staley to be forcibly medicated. Salvant entered the order, finding that medicating Staley was the only way to ensure his competency to be executed, and that ?the State has an essential interest in ensuring that the sentence of this Court is carried out.? What is behind Judge Salvant?s chilling decision? In two cases in the 1990s, the Supreme Court said that the government can forcibly medicate a mentally ill inmate if he is dangerous to himself or others, the treatment is in his medical interest, and there is no less intrusive alternative. In 2003, the court acknowledged concerns about side effects of the drugs, and emphasized that the treatment had to be medically appropriate. None of these cases involved pending executions, however. When death is the state?s end goal, how can anyone argue that forcible medication is in a prisoner?s medical interest? The Louisiana and South Carolina supreme courts have both rejected that macabre contention in ruling that to drug someone in order to execute him would violate their state constitutions. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit cracked open the door to forcible medication in 2003, in ruling that the state could execute a man who?d regained competency by taking medication on death row. The constitution doesn?t preclude executing someone who is ?artificially competent,? the court said. In that case, the prisoner wasn?t refusing to take his meds, so the scenario is different than Staley?s. But this is the legal precedent that Judge Salvant cited when he ruled that forcing Staley to take Haldol would be ?medically appropriate??even though the purpose of drugging him is to make him rational enough to kill him. I will pause in this grim tale to note, with relief, that the American Medical Association and the American Psychiatric Association hold that it is ethically unacceptable for doctors to prescribe drugs to restore competency for the purpose of execution. This should be an easy call for the Texas courts as well. If it?s awful to imagine psychotic prisoners going without their meds, it?s more awful to force shots on them so the state can kill them. If Texas fails to grasp this, other inmates will follow Steven Staley. Mental illness is common on death row. The only reason that the issues raised in Staley?s case haven?t been decided before, defense lawyers tell me, is that humane prosecutors and judges don?t insist on executing people whose sanity is so uncertain. There?s a larger question here, beyond the one about forcible medication. It?s about halting the execution of the seriously mentally ill in the same way, and because of similar concerns about a defendant?s impairment, that the states have stopped executing the mentally disabled. Kentucky recently considered such a law and Connecticut has one. If Texas and other states followed suit, we would be spared the miserable spectacle of executing people who commit terrible crimes, but also have terrible deficits. People like Steven Staley and Scott Panetti and Andre Thomas. (source: Slate.com) **************** Change on TDCJ Public Information Office: Public Information Office The Public Information Office works with news media throughout the world to tell the TDCJ story, and to assist reporters in covering prison events and understanding the objectives of the agency. Information is given to news media as allowed by TDCJ policy and according to current state public information laws. TDCJ Public Information Office: Jason Clark, Public Information Officer jason.clark at tdcj.state.tx.us To contact the Public Information Office: Huntsville: P.O. Box 99 Huntsville, TX 77340 Ph: (936) 437- 6052 Fax: (936) 437-6055 (source: TDCJ) USA (RHODE ISLAND): Death Penalty Causes State-Fed Clash Over Accused Murderer In Rhode Island The U.S. Supreme Court may be faced with another case pitting the federal government against a state. But unlike the health care law or immigration, the 2 sides -- Washington versus Rhode Island -- are fighting over a man in state custody facing capital murder charges that carry the death penalty. Rhode Island is trying to prevent the accused, 34-year-old Jason Pleau, from being handed over to the federal government to stand trial for the shooting death of a gas station manager in a 2010 botched robbery outside of a bank. The state's governor is refusing to cooperate with the federal government because of his opposition to capital punishment. Following a defeat in the tug-of-war over Pleau at the 1st Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Monday, Gov. Lincoln Chafee said he will ask the Supreme Court to take the case. Chafee asked on Friday for a delay in the order to give up Pleau pending a Supreme Court petition, according to the Associated Press. "The State of Rhode Island must seek to protect both the strong states' rights issues at stake and the legitimacy of its longstanding public policy against the death penalty," Chafee, an independent who was formerly a Republican, said in a statement. Rhode Island's top federal prosecutor, U.S. Attorney Peter Neronha, rejected Chafee's states' rights claim. "The governor does not have the right to prevent a defendant properly charged by a federal grand jury from appearing in federal court to face federal charges," Neronha said. Turning Over Pleau Nearly 3 months after David Main, the gas station manager, was murdered September 2010 during a stop at a Woonsocket, R.I., bank, a federal grand jury indicted Pleau for capital charges that could allow prosecutors to seek the death penalty, a decision that has not been yet been made. When the indictment came down, Pleau was in state custody, serving an 18-year sentence for parole violations. After a federal judge ordered him to be taken into federal custody to answer the indictment, he appealed to the 1st Circuit. Chafee intervened in the case to keep the defendant in Rhode Island to face life in prison. The appeals court initially sided with Pleau, but a 5-judge panel, in what is known as an en banc hearing, said the defendant can stand trial in the federal case. The battle at the 1st Circuit involved a 1970 interstate pact called the Interstate Agreement on Detainers that provides an expedited way for prisoners to be extradited to other states for trial proceedings. The federal government cited the agreement to avoid having to file a formal order for Pleau. Once Chafee rejected the request, the U.S. issued an order known as a habeas writ. At issue is whether the federal government must abide by the pact it invoked, instead of the mandatory order, and whether a governor has discretion to ignore the order. Chafee argued transferring of a prisoner "depends upon comity" that "the governor may withhold," according to the court opinion. He based the argument on old court decisions that cited a 1922 Supreme Court case involving Charles Ponzi, the infamous Italian con artist whose name is associated with the investment scam. With Ponzi in a federal prison and Massachusetts attempting to prosecute him, the Supreme Court ruled that the U.S. Attorney General had discretion to hand Ponzi over to Massachusetts authorities. The appellate judges in Pleau's case, however, rejected the idea that "comity" goes both ways to allow a governor to hold onto a prisoner. The Ponzi case, the judges wrote, "simply had nothing to do with a federal court's order to a state." "[The Ponzi case] neither held nor said that a state governor may invoke comity principles to disobey a federal court habeas writ," the appeals court wrote. Regardless of the comity issue, the appeals court said even if the U.S. was bound by the interstate prisoner pact, that does not diminish the authority of a federal order demanding the transfer of a prisoner. "State interposition to defeat federal authority vanished with the Civil War," the appellate judges said. Should Chafee win, "the state prison would become a refuge against federal charges." (source: International Business Times) UTAH: Ogden visitor facing death penalty in St. George slayings Perea to serve life in prison for gang-related double homicide in Ogden A man with Ogden ties, shot in retaliation for a double homicide here almost 5 years ago, is now himself charged with a double homicide in St. George. Paul Ashton was shot multiple times and left for dead on Aug. 6, 2007. The attack came a day after his friend, Riqo Perea, shot up a wedding party in Ogden in a gang dispute, killing two and wounding 2 others. Ashton was targeted in retaliation for Perea?s violence, police said, kidnapped by a carload of gangmates of Perea?s victims. Perea narrowly avoided the death penalty and is serving a prison term of life without parole. Ashton, 33, is facing the death penalty on two counts of aggravated murder in December 2010 slayings in St. George. Numerous pre-trial motions typical of any death penalty case were recently resolved, allowing a preliminary hearing to be scheduled. The preliminary hearing is set for 6 days beginning Aug. 2, according to court records. Ashton is in jail, held in lieu of $1 million bail. He is accused in the shooting deaths of Brandie Sue Dawn Jerden, 27, and Jerrica Christensen, 20. Police have not revealed a motive, according to news reports, but Ashton shared an apartment with Jerden. Christensen was reportedly helping Jerden prepare to move out. ?Yes, that is the same Paul Ashton,? said Capt. Kyle Whitehead, head of the St. George Police Department?s detective division. His office and prosecutors have researched the 2007 circumstances in Ogden involving the Perea case and the retaliation against Ashton, he said. Weber County Attorney Dee Smith also said it?s the same Paul Ashton, noting St. George officials contacted his office last year about the 2007 incident involving the fallout from the Perea case. As late as 2006, Ashton had a Davis County address, according to court records, but was living in St. George when he was shot in 2007 while visiting the Ogden area. The head of the Ogden-Metro Gang Unit, Lt. Scott Conley, recalls his detectives having to travel to St. George to interview Ashton during the investigation of his shooting. Conley said Ashton was a friend of Perea?s, not a member of Perea?s gang, Ogden Treces. ?He was not a Trece. He was just an associate,? Conley said. ?He was a friend. He hung out with them at the time.? Smith said his office paid Ashton?s expenses to travel from St. George to Ogden for court hearings after one of Ashton?s assailants was arrested. Only one suspect was prosecuted in Ashton?s shooting. Adrian Alvarado, believed to be the driver of the car, was charged with attempted murder. He was initially given a suspended prison term, earning a year in jail. But a recent drug arrest violated the terms of his probation, according to court records. Last month, Alvarado was sentenced by 2nd District Judge Michael Lyon to a 1-to-15-year prison term for his part in the Ashton shooting. (source: Standard-Examiner) OREGON: Jurors spare Brian Bement from death sentence, vote for life without parole Washington County jurors spared Brian Bement from the death penalty Friday and voted to impose a sentence of life in prison without parole. The same jury convicted the Portland-area heroin dealer last month of aggravated murder in the 2010 shooting and robbery of David Greenspan, a Tigard naturopath. Jurors deliberated for a little more than 4 hours Friday before reaching a decision. Circuit Judge Rick Knapp read the verdict a little before 8 p.m. Bement's sentencing hearing is set for June 1. Friday morning, Bement, wearing a dark suit and glasses, stood in the dark wood-paneled courtroom and asked jurors to spare his life. "Since my earliest memories, I have had major problems," he said. "For reasons unknown, I just can't deal with myself." He told jurors that sexual abuse as a child led to his drug addiction and crimes. He asked them to let him live so that even if he spends the rest of his days in prison, he might make amends. "I can only hope to atone for (Greenspan's) death by being there for other inmates in prison," he said. "Maybe, just maybe, I can say or do something that will put someone on the right path." The prosecution case for the death penalty focused on Bement's lengthy criminal history and lifelong violent behavior, including domestic violence incidents and armed robberies. The defense case for mitigation relied on testimony that Bement is caring, funny and unlikely to commit violence in the future, and that he has dealt with troubled family relationships and drug addiction from an early age. Defense attorney Devon Fooks told jurors that Bement's execution would not rectify Greenspan's loss. It would only cause more suffering to Bement's family, including his teenage son, Fooks argued. "Dr. Greenspan is dead and we cannot change that, but sentencing Mr. Bement to death isn't going to accomplish anything other than multiplying the damage," he said Friday. Deputy District Attorney Jeff Lesowski asked jurors not to be persuaded by feelings of sympathy for Bement or his family. "He committed a violent, brutal, premeditated murder," he said. "That calls for the death penalty, and that's what we're asking for." Jurors remained expressionless as Knapp read their verdict. Bement let out a visible exhale at the first word of a no-death verdict. Defense attorney Conor Huseby patted his back and put his arm around Bement. The victim's mother and sister, the lead detective in the case and a defense investigator listened to the verdict quietly. The courtroom was nearly empty after hours at the county courthouse in Hillsboro. The jury then left the courtroom. Bement received pats on the back and hugs from his attorneys. As a deputy fastened a chain with wrist constraints around his waist, Bement smiled broadly and saluted Fooks. "Have a drink on me," he said. (source: The Oregonian) MONTANA: Albertan Ronald Smith on death row in U.S. simply waits to learn his fate----Nearly 30 years after Canadian Ronald Allen Smith murdered two men in Montana, he still waits to learn his fate. The Montana parole board held a clemency hearing earlier this month after Smith applied to have his death sentence commuted to life in prison without parole. The day before the hearing Smith sat down with Calgary Herald reporter Jason van Rassel in the State Prsion in Deer Lodge. They discussed his remorse, his rehabilitation, and how he feels he is atoning for his crimes. Here are some excerpts from that conversation.For a man who has spent nearly 30 years fighting his death sentence, Ronald Allen Smith is surprisingly comfortable with the prospect of being executed. As a Montana parole board weighs Smith's bid to commute his death sentence to life in prison without parole, the double murderer from Alberta says he's not worried about his own fate. "Personally, I'm good to go with this thing," he says during an interview this month inside Montana State Prison, a sprawling facility tucked in the foothills just outside Deer Lodge. "The only people that I'm concerned about if it goes the other way is my family. This is going to have a huge detrimental effect on them, and that bothers me a lot." With only 2 inmates currently awaiting execution in Montana, the state doesn't have a death row in the physical sense. Smith is confined in 1 of 2 maximum-security units on the prison grounds, a squat concrete box with only small windows to let in light from the outside. Policy dictates death row inmates are kept in maximum security because they are seen as having "nothing to lose," but Smith has long been considered a model prisoner. It emerged during Smith's clemency hearing that an official once recommended moving Smith to a lower-security cellblock until it was discovered he was facing the death penalty. Policy notwithstanding, some prison staffers say privately Smith's track record inside doesn't warrant keeping him locked in a cell 23 hours a day. Nevertheless, policy is strictly observed by everyone as correctional officers handcuff Smith, 54, and lead him from his upper-tier cell to a manager's office for the interview. Smith remains handcuffed during the visit and an officer stands watch in the doorway behind him. "How are you doin', Ron?" one asks Smith during the move. "Same old, same old," Smith answers. The journey that landed Smith on death row in the United States began on a summer day in 1982 when he and 2 friends, Rod Munro and Andre Fontaine, decided to get out of Red Deer and head south. Under the cover of night, they sneaked across the border into Montana. The trio of drifters ended up at a bar in East Glacier Park on the Blackfeet Indian reservation, where they met Harvey Mad Man and Thomas Running Rabbit, who were cousins. The men then spent a friendly afternoon shooting pool and drinking beer. The groups parted ways at the bar but met up again on the highway, where Mad Man, 23, and Running Rabbit, 19, spotted the Canadians hitchhiking and offered them a ride. The generous gesture was met with treachery from Smith and his companions, who had discussed stealing the car. Smith says his recollection of the murders is hazy because he was drunk and high on LSD, but in one previous account the plan was set in motion during a bathroom break at the side of a lonely highway near the Marias Pass: Smith pulled a sawed-off rifle he had smuggled across the border and Munro brandished a knife. They marched Mad Man and Running Rabbit into the dense brush, where Smith shot them both in the head. Smith and Munro initially faced the death penalty, but prosecutors offered them both life in prison if they pleaded guilty. Munro took the deal, but Smith turned it down and asked for the death penalty. A judge quickly granted Smith's request, which met with little opposition from the public defender assigned to represent him. Smith changed his mind in the weeks that followed, and has spent 3 decades trying to get the state to change its mind. "I was looking at a life sentence. All I could think of is, 'I have no interest in spending another 20 years sitting in prison,'" Smith says. The irony isn't lost on Smith, who chuckles and allows a brief smile to flash across his face. "It's a little bit odd considering how long I've been here, but that was the thought process: I had no interest in spending my life sitting around." And so, a man who asked for a death sentence because he couldn't face the prospect of growing old in prison now seeks to live the remainder of his natural life behind bars. It's just 1 paradox in a case replete with them. Consider Smith's family, described by 1 witness as dysfunctional and "fragmented" in the years immediately following the killings. Somehow, from behind the walls of a prison hundreds of kilometres away, Smith has managed to forge positive relationships with his father, sisters, daughter and grandchildren. Then there are the politics of the case: a Canadian government nominally opposed to capital punishment has offered only grudging support for Smith's clemency bid. Meanwhile, a retired prison guard who worked 32 years for Smith's jailer and would-be executioner testified he supports the clemency application and has reconsidered his support of the death penalty. Only one thing has remained straightforward amid the legal appeals and political machinations: the unwavering desire of the victims' families, Blackfeet tribe members and prosecutors to see Smith's death sentence finally carried out. "This man needs to be executed," said William Talks About, an uncle who discovered the decomposed bodies of Mad Man and Running Rabbit after more than 6 weeks of searching by dozens of family members and volunteers. "30 years is too long for the state and the taxpayers to be taking care of him." The case is now in the hands of a three-person parole panel, which has retired to weigh the evidence given by more than 30 witnesses who testified during last Wednesday's clemency hearing at the Powell County courthouse in Deer Lodge. The board has 30 days after the hearing to deliver a non-binding recommendation to Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer, who will ultimately decide if Smith will be executed by lethal injection. The board has said it will announce its recommendation the week of May 21. Smith will pass the time awaiting news about his fate the same way he has passed almost every day for nearly 30 years: spending 23 hours in his cell, with one hour a day to shower and exercise by himself in a common area. "It's pretty blah, actually. I work out, I write letters, I watch TV, I read when I can get the books. You fill your day up with pretty much anything you can," he says. For a man destined to spend the rest of his life behind bars - however long or short that may be - fantasy novels that allow him to escape, if only mentally, are frequent choices. "I'm into the fantasy world, books that if it's a good storyline, you can involve yourself and pretty much lose yourself," says Smith, naming Robert Jordan as a favourite author. Over the years, Smith finished high school and is a few credits short of 2-year associate degree. He also trained himself in paralegal work, which Smith describes as a constructive outlet for his energy. Although Smith has no physical contact with other inmates, they can talk between their cells or send "kites" - tossed written messages that are retrieved by the recipient or someone who agrees to pass it along. Smith says he helped clear an inmate facing institutional charges and win compensation for another whose property was lost by prison staff. "It's quite an uplifting feeling to be able to do that," he says. Above all, Smith looks forward to contact with his family in Alberta, who visit once or twice a year. In between, there are weekly phone calls. "Short of actually being there to give them a hug, I'm there more so than you might be able to imagine. It's still playing the big brother role, giving them a shoulder to cry on, somebody to talk to, offering advice," he says. Some argue Smith's tightly controlled environment leaves little room for violence or misconduct, but a psychologist who testified on his behalf said his good behaviour is unusual among inmates facing the death penalty. "A high number commit suicide or go insane," said Dr. Bowman Smelko. Over the years, the federal government had lent its voice to Smith's cause, based on Canada's official position to the death penalty since abolishing capital punishment in 1976. At one time, the former Liberal government was working to have Smith returned to Canada under a bilateral treaty that allows prisoners to finish their sentence in a Canadian institution. That changed with the election of the Conservatives in 2006, with Prime Minister Stephen Harper saying that supporting clemency would send the "wrong signal" at a time when it was implementing a tough-on-crime agenda in Canada. In 2009, the Federal Court of Canada ordered the government to continue support for Smith. Its response was a brief letter to Montana officials from Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird asking them to commute Smith's sentence but adding the Canadian government "does not sympathize with violent crime," and the request "should not be construed as reflecting a judgment on Smith's conduct." Baird's terse missive may have complied with the letter of the ruling, but Smith and his supporters criticized the Conservatives for failing to live up to its spirit. "It's like a petulant child: 'We're being forced into this, but whatever you want to do, go ahead.' I don't think it benefits me, but I don't think it really hurts me, either. We can present a good enough argument to show I'm not the same person I was 30 years ago. I think that's going to be of more benefit than anything the Canadian government does, did or did not do," Smith says. The controversy flared anew at Smith's clemency hearing, when a Canadian consular official was added to the list of defence witnesses at the last minute. The official was apparently supposed to read a new, presumably more supportive letter to the parole board, but did not testify. Smith's lawyers allege the government once again reneged on its duty to help. In large measure, Smith's clemency bid rests on demonstrating what Montana law calls an "extended period of exemplary behaviour" and evidence of remorse. Smith and his lawyers feel they have met that test, and Smith issued a direct apology to the families of Mad Man and Running Rabbit during his clemency hearing. But the parole board will also consider the circumstances of the crime itself and the impact it had on the victims and their loved ones. Smith killed Mad Man and Running Rabbit, but a dozen family members told the parole board the crime hastened the deaths of victims' grandmother, their mothers and other relatives. Running Rabbit had a young daughter and an infant son who grew up without him. While Smith can enjoy visits with his daughter and grandchildren, all Jessica Crawford and Thomas Running Rabbit IV have left of their father is a grave marker. "I have a great deal of jealousy toward what (Smith's daughter) has and I don't," Crawford told the parole board. "I want what she has. I want what he took." Smith's lawyers also argued he was poorly represented at trial by an inexperienced and indifferent public defender. Munro was "equally culpable," said Don Vernay, yet the plea agreement he accepted allowed him to finish his sentence in Canada. He is now free on parole while Smith sits on death row. (Fontaine, who co-operated with investigators and didn't have a hand in the killings, has long since finished serving the five-year sentence he received.) Former prosecutors say Smith received fair trials, each of which ended in the same result: a death sentence. The punishment fits the crime, and justice for Mad Man and Running Rabbit's relatives - living and dead - dictates the death sentence is carried out, former state attorney Tom Esch told the parole board. "To bestow mercy now is not justice," he said. (source: The Calgary Herald) CALIFORNIA: End death penalty, says judge "Moral leadership needed to end state's death penalty" (Insight, April 29): After nearly 19 years presiding as a state court judge in Santa Clara County, I am certain that the SAFE California initiative to replace the death penalty with life without parole will pass in November. Yes, there have been failed efforts to end the death penalty. This time it is different because it's about our safety. Californians are facing a serious public safety gap. A shocking 46 % of murders and 56 % of rapes in California are unsolved. This means that murderers and rapists are on our streets because the money to pay for investigations to apprehend them is not there - it's in death row. Once we pass the SAFE California Act, we can fund investigations. Public opinion has shifted, too. When offered a choice between the death penalty and permanent imprisonment, all recent polls show majority preference for life in prison without parole. The failed promise of the death penalty is now obvious to all. Death penalty cases in California take an average of 25 years from conviction to execution. A quarter of a century is not justice for the families of murder victims. It is agony, insulting and unacceptable. California looks different today than it did in 1978. Forecasts of voter turnout for the presidential ballot suggest that SAFE California will win. No one, not even professors from Berkeley, can predict the future. Those who want to try should wake up to the fact that these are the final days for the death penalty in California. LaDoris H. Cordell is a retired Santa Clara County Superior Court judge. (source: Letter to the Editor, San Francisco Chronicle) From rhalperi at smu.edu Mon May 14 09:44:27 2012 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Mon, 14 May 2012 09:44:27 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] [SPAM] death penalty news----TEXAS, ILL., N.M., KAN., USA, ARIZ. Message-ID: May 14 TEXAS: Texas death row inmate's mental health questioned The outcome of legal wrangling about condemned killer Steven Staley's mental health is likely to determine if the former laborer is put to death this week in Texas for a slaying almost a quarter-century ago in Fort Worth. Prosecutors contend he's competent to be executed. His lawyer says Staley is severely mentally ill, suffering from paranoid schizophrenia, and has been observed catatonic or lying on the floor of his jail cell covered in urine. Staley, 49, faces lethal injection Wednesday evening for the fatal shooting of a Steak and Ale restaurant manager who was taken hostage during a botched robbery in October 1989. The arrest of Staley and two accomplices after a wild 20-mile car and foot chase ended a series of robberies, assaults and at least one other killing as the trio wreaked havoc in Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas. In a written statement, Staley implicated himself in the slaying of 35-year-old Bob Read. And since he arrived on death row in 1991, his mental competence became an issue as his punishment neared. Prosecutors say he's legally competent, and state District Court Judge Wayne Salvant has ordered him to be medicated, by force if needed. "If he was found not to be competent, the trial judge would just withdraw the (execution) date," said Jim Gibson, an assistant district attorney in Tarrant County, where Staley was tried and convicted. Staley also has been examined by psychologists, who determined the prisoner was competent. "Everybody agrees he's competent," Gibson said. "... I think the issue is going to be why he's competent." Staley's lawyer, John Stickels, calls the competency artificial. "The state has given him enough psychotropic drugs that the judge found he met the definition to be competent to be executed," said Stickels, who is asking the courts to halt the execution. "The whole reason he's been medicated is to make him competent to be executed." Staley's previous attorney called him "too nuts to be executed" when the courts stopped a scheduled execution in 2005. And Stickles said Staley's severe mental illness has existed for several years and has been exacerbated by the forced drug regimen Stickles argues was illegally ordered by Salvant. If lower courts refuse to stay the execution, Stickles said he'll take his case to the U.S. Supreme Court, which he said has not addressed the question of involuntary medication for the purposes of execution. When administered, the drugs leave Staley "with extreme sedation and zombie-like effects," Stickles said in an appeal to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. Salvant, in his order, pointed to a 2003 ruling from the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that said forcible medication is appropriate if it's likely to make the condemned inmate competent, if the side effects wouldn't be worse than the benefits and if it's in the prisoner's best medical interests. In 1986, the U.S. Supreme Court said it is unconstitutional to execute someone who is insane. The justices didn't define insanity, but did say a person may be executed if he's aware of the punishment and the reason for it. Then in 2002, the court barred execution of mentally impaired people. Stickles said Staley's IQ of 70 ? considered the threshold for mental impairment ? also could disqualify him from the punishment. Staley, from death row, declined to an interview request from The Associated Press. In Texas, the nation's most active death penalty state, Monte Delk was executed in 2002 despite questions about his mental health. Before dying, he spouted obscenities and declared he was the prison warden and on the island of Barbados. In 2007, a 5-4 high court vote stopped Scott Panetti's execution as his lawyers successfully argued Panetti was delusional and incapable of comprehending the reason for his death sentence. Staley had escaped from a Denver halfway house where he was awaiting parole on robbery and auto theft convictions. In Fort Worth on the evening of Oct. 14, 1989, he and accomplice Tracey Duke ended a meal by pulling semiautomatic weapons from the purse of Duke's girlfriend, Brenda Rayburn. They herded customers and employees to the back of the restaurant, then forced Read to open cash registers and the store safe. An assistant manager slipped out and called police. Read, married and a father of 3, urged the robbers to take him and leave the hostages alone when the police arrived. Officers watched Read walk out the door of the restaurant, guns poked in his ribs. The robbers hijacked a car and police moved in as Read was being forced into the back seat. Evidence showed Staley shot Read, then Staley and Duke fired on the officers. They then lead authorities on the 20-mile chase, and were caught after the car broke down and they tried to flee on foot. Duke, 45, is serving 3 life sentences in Texas and has a 30-year sentence in Colorado for murder and armed robbery. Rayburn accepted 30 years in a plea bargain. (source: Associated Press) ILLINOIS: Exhibit on anti-death penalty activist opens An exhibit dedicated to the life of a nationally known Roman Catholic anti-death penalty activist is opening in Chicago. Sister Helen Prejean wrote the book "Dead Man Walking," which later became a film starring Susan Sarandon and Sean Penn. The exhibit at DePaul University looks at notable moments in her activism over the decades and includes correspondence with people on death row. Prejean donated her papers to DePaul in 2010. The exhibit is called "In Deeds and Words: The Prejean Ministry Against the Death Penalty." The ribbon cutting is Monday. (source: Associated Press) NEW MEXICO: Closing arguments slated in NM death penalty trial Closing arguments are scheduled in the sentencing phase of a man convicted of murdering a Bernalillo County deputy and who could face the death penalty. The prosecution and defense are slated Monday to give their last arguments to jurors who could then begin deliberations this week in the sentencing trial of Michael Astorga. Jurors will be asked to sentence Astorga, who was convicted in the 2006 killing of James McGrane, to life in prison or to death, even though New Mexico repealed the death penalty in 2009. Astorga is still eligible for the death penalty since the crime occurred before the repeal. 2 others remain on the state's death row. (source: Associated Press) KANSAS: No traction on Kansas death penalty repeal Former Topekan Phillip Cheatham would be among Kansans taking more than passing interest in attempting to end the death penalty. Cheatham, who awaits resentencing after receiving the death penalty for gunning down 2 women and shooting a third in 2003, could be spared the ultimate punishment. 9 other men sit on death row in Kansas. During the 2012 legislative session, which is nearly completed, a House committee conducted a hearing on a death penalty repeal bill. Discussion was termed "informational" to signal the committee had no intention of advancing the bill. House Speaker Mike O'Neal, R-Hutchinson, said he didn't believe a majority of colleagues in the chamber supported ending capital punishment. "I'm not sure there is a great deal of interest in trying to revisit that," said House Minority Leader Paul Davis, D-Lawrence. No substantive development on the issue has transpired since 2010 when the Senate split 20-20 on a bill written to sustain death sentences for people previously sentenced for capital murder and to create a substitute category for murder cases punishable by life in prison without parole. "I've heard nothing this year," said Senate President Steve Morris, a Hugoton Republican who voted to enact the death penalty and subsequently endorsed abolition. Gov. Sam Brownback, who takes a hardline pro-life view on abortion, said his support of the death penalty was limited to instances in which the state couldn't protect society from killers. Shari Silberstein, executive director of Equal Justice USA in New York City, said she understood formidable obstacles to reshaping political attitudes in Kansas before arriving recently at the Statehouse on a mass reorganizing excursion. Similar opinion existed in Illinois, New Mexico, New Jersey and New York before those states took capital punishment off the table, she said. Gov. Dannel Malloy signed legislation in April making Connecticut the 17th state, and fifth state in five years, to step away from the death penalty. ?This takes the momentum for repeal up a notch. We have another state saying, ?we?ve tried this experiment and the death penalty has failed,?? Silberstein said. She said states recognized the death penalty was prone to false conviction, unfairly applied, ineffective as deterrent, unhelpful to family survivors and impossible to correct once the sentence has been carried out. Jeremy Schnoeder, a Chicago field worker for the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, said rhetoric accompanying passage of capital punishment statutes had moderated as practical implications emerged. Dozens of people placed on death row across the United States have been exonerated, Schnoeder said. "Everything has changed on the death penalty," he said. "It's not the political issue it once was." Silberstein said members of evangelical communities were increasingly supportive of repeal campaigns because of sentiments about "sanctity of life." "Some conservatives we talk to say, 'We don't trust government to fix potholes. Are we going to trust them to determine who lives and dies?'" Silberstein said. Nine inmates have death sentences pending in Kansas, and Cheatham could join them as the 10th on the list if resentenced to death. Capital punishment returned to Kansas statute books in 1994 when Democratic Gov. Joan Finney allowed a bill to become law without her signature. The state hasn't executed anyone since 1965. (source: The Topeka Capital-Journal) USA: Husband of 9/11 Victim Goes To Gitmo To Spare Pllotters From Death Sentence The husband of a woman killed on 9/11 went to Guantanamo Bay on a shocking secret mission ? to try to save the lives of the al-Qaeda monsters who planned the murder. Blake Allison ? 1 of 10 relatives of victims to win a lottery for tickets to the arraignment of confessed 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed and 4 of his evil accomplices ? had told people he was making the trip because ?I wanted to see the faces of the people accused of murdering my wife.?? But while there, the 62-year-old wine-company executive held a clandestine meeting with the terrorists? lawyers, in which he offered to testify against putting their clients to death. A vocal critic of capital punishment, Allison wants to convince the US government to spare the lives of KSM and his minions even if a military commission convicts them of a slew of death-penalty charges. ?The public needs to know there are family members out there who do not hold the view that these men should be put to death,? Allison told The Post. ?We can?t kill our way to a peaceful tomorrow.? Allison?s 48-year-old wife, Anna, was a software consultant on her way to visit a client in Los Angeles when her plane, American Airlines Flight 11, was smashed into World Trade Center Tower 1 on Sept. 11, 2001. In a lengthy conversation from his home in New Hampshire, Allison explained his controversial view ? one he admits is not shared by his late wife?s relatives or by the other family members of victims he met at Guantanamo. ?My opposition to the death penalty does not say I don?t want the people who killed my wife and [the other 911 victims] brought to account for their crimes,? he said. ?But for me, opposition to the death penalty is not situational. Just because I was hurt very badly and personally does not, in my mind, give me the go-ahead to take a life.? (source: The Yeshiva World) ************** Death penalty harms society Charles Lane writes ("Some belong on death row," May 3) that the death penalty should remain available for "the worst of the worst" offenders. That might be what these rare offenders deserve, but we must consider what moral damage administering the death penalty will cause to our country. Do we want to be party to an officially sanctioned murder? A murderer who has to live out his/her life locked up with nothing to do can no longer kill anybody and will suffer from excrutiating boredom even if he or she does not have a conscience. It is not up to us to seek revenge. We must certainly insure the safety of all members of society by insuring that these offenders never get the opportunity to harm anyone again, but not at the cost of our own moral well-being. It is quite probable that these criminals are beyond redemption. That is why they must be securely sequestered for life. This will protect us without doing emotional harm to society. Hannah Benson-Bernstein Clifton Park (source: Letter to the Editor, Albany Times Union) **************************** Death penalty argument misguided In response to the May 4 column by Charles Lane: ?Why the death penalty abolitionists are misguided?: Lane takes a cheap shot at the abolition of the death penalty when he uses the case of Anders Breivik for his lead argument. How would the vengeful execution of this criminally insane individual advance the cause of justice? To call a 21-year prison sentence too lenient and potentially dangerous is to make a presumptuous critique of Norway?s judicial and penal systems. Though their prison sentences are shorter and less harsh, the rate of recidivism in Norway is one-tenth of ours. Next, to condemn Gov. Dannel P. Malloy for signing into law in April the abolition of the death penalty in Connecticut, Lane invokes (1) a death penalty poll by the Quinnipiac University and (2) the inconsistency of the Connecticut bill where it does not apply retroactively to 11 men already on death row. The non-retroactivity clause was undoubtedly a political pre-condition for the passage of the bill, which passed by strong majorities, first in the state senate 20-16 and then in the house 86-62. The poll does report that 62 % of registered voters in Connecticut support the death penalty. But that figure is open to serious questioning: typical of such public opinion studies, the April 25 Quinnipiac poll suffers from statistical shortcomings. Nowhere in the published results could I find information on the polling sample. How many respondents did they have? How did the pollsters select their respondents? Indeed, when given a clear choice between state executions and a life sentence without parole, most verifiable polls show that a majority of respondents would choose the life sentence. No matter how appalling and reprehensible it was, the public reiteration of the crime by premeditated state execution serves no purpose beyond that of giving a model of vengeance; it brings back no deceased victim. By contrast, a life in prison condemns the killer to live the consequences of his crime in a cage forever. George T. Diller lives in Gainesville. (source: Letter to the Editor, Gainesville Sun) ARIZONA----impending execution Death-row prisoner's lawyers to make final push Lawyers in Phoenix and San Francisco Monday will make a final push to keep death-row prisoner Samuel Lopez from being executed on Wednesday. Lopez, 49, was sentenced to death for the murder of a Phoenix woman in 1986. Estefana Holmes was raped and sodomized in her apartment and stabbed more than 20 times before Lopez slit her throat. But lawyers will argue in Maricopa County Superior Court that Lopez was not allowed a fair hearing for reprieve or commutation of his death sentence because new members on the Arizona Board of Executive Clemency were not qualified and were not legally appointed. His attorney walked out of his hearing in protest on May 7. And more lawyers will appear before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco to claim that the state's corrections department cannot be trusted to follow its own rules in carrying out the execution. In a 2nd hearing, they will argue that Lopez did not have effective legal assistance during his two murder trials or during his early appeals. The 1st of the hearings is the most likely to buy time for Lopez. Members of the clemency board have suggested Lopez will get another chance to make his case for a life sentence. But with an execution slated for Wednesday, time is running out. The 9th Circuit has issued warnings to the Arizona Department of Corrections over its variances in execution protocol, although it has allowed executions to go forward. Attorneys for Lopez will call the judges' attention to further lapses since the last of such hearing. But courts are hesitant to stop executions, especially after so many years of appeals -- in this case 25 -- have failed to spare a prisoner's life. Lopez's attorneys will argue that mitigating evidence of his horrific life was not adequately presented in trial or post-conviction hearings. Lopez grew up in abject poverty in southwest Phoenix. His mother, Concha, was born in Texas, but was thrown out of her parents' house after she became pregnant. She came to Phoenix, where she worked in the fields, and there she met Lopez' father. Arcadio Lopez, who was born in Tombstone, drove the bus that took the workers to the fields. He took a liking to Concha. He moved into her home against her wishes and stayed long enough to father 8 children. A drunk, he would beat Concha and the children. They were relieved when he finally moved to California, where he drank himself to death. The new man who moved into Concha's life forced her children out of the house. Samuel Lopez dropped out of school in the 9th grade and lived in fields and a cemetery. He robbed houses to get by, and he sniffed paint and glue to get high, which caused brain damage. And like his father and brothers, he became a drunk; the court record shows that his behavior became even more erratic when he drank. Lopez was 25 when he murdered Holmes; she was 59. Nothing in the court record explains why he was in her home. But on Oct. 29, 1986, he gagged her and blindfolded her, raped her, then stabbed her repeatedly in the head and chest. The apartment was bloodied and torn apart, indicating "a terrible and prolonged struggle," according to court records. In 1987, Lopez was convicted of 1st-degree murder, kidnapping, 2 counts of sexual assault and burglary. Lopez was sentenced to death. The death sentence was overturned on appeal, but his re-sentencing trial ended the same way. (source: Arizona Republic) From rhalperi at smu.edu Mon May 14 09:47:05 2012 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Mon, 14 May 2012 09:47:05 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide Message-ID: May 14 INDONESIA: Bali 9 mastermind appeals for clemency Bali 9 mastermind Andrew Chan, who is on death row for his role in a plot to smuggle eight kilos of heroin into Bali, has appealed for clemency from Indonesia's president. Officials at Kerobokan prison say Chan has appealed for Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to pardon him from execution so he has a chance to live and reform. Chan, 28, lost his final court appeal against the death penalty in June 2011. He is 1 of 2 members of the Bali 9 on death row. Myuran Sukumaran, the other man charged with masterminding the smuggling plot, also faces execution by firing squad. The rest of the Bali 9 are serving lengthy sentences, including life terms. Kerobokan's prison chief, Gusti Ngurah Wiratna, says the appeal was based on Chan's age and that last week was the deadline for his clemency request. He says the appeal was submitted last Thursday. Shortly after last June's court decision, Prime Minister Julia Gillard said Australia was strongly opposed to capital punishment and that she would try to have Chan's sentence commuted. Indonesia enforces stiff penalties for drug trafficking, including life imprisonment and death. (source: Australian Broadcast Corporation) IRAN: Imprisoned Iranian pastor alive, in good spirits Though Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani remains in prison in Iran, a new letter gives reason to believe he is still alive. Jason DeMars of President Truth Ministries received the letter that Nadarkhani reportedly wrote from prison. But it actually addresses "all those who are worried about [his] current situation." "He wanted to let everybody know that he's in perfect health in the flesh and in the Spirit, and he looks at the days that he's being persecuted as 'a day of exam and trial' of his faith," DeMars reports. "He's using them as a trial in order to prove his loyalty and sincerity before God, and he's doing everything he can to stay right with what he's learned from God's Word." The pastor writes that though he wants his ordeal to end, he has surrendered himself to God's will. He also addresses another point of controversy. "He just wanted to make a statement that he does not agree with the burning of the Quran, as we read about in the news, by Terry Jones," DeMars clarifies. "He didn't agree with that, and he didn't believe it was the right thing to do." Nadarkhani was given the death penalty for converting from Islam to Christianity, although he has stated frequently that he never practiced the Muslim faith to begin with (see earlier story). Now, he is asking "all the beloved ones to pray" for him. (source: One News Now) EGYPT: Mubarak?s tainted legacy hangs over Egyptian vote----Mubarak may be gone, but his legacy lingers. Then vice-president, he was catapulted into office in October 1981 after surviving the gunfire from religious army soldiers who assassinated his predecessor, Anwar Sadat Military police idly guard the gates of Egypt?s presidential palace in Heliopolis, built as a 400-room luxury hotel in 1910 and vacant since a popular uprising deposed Hosni Mubarak 15 months ago. Egyptians, who never stormed in to gawk and plunder their fallen leader?s home as Tunisians and Libyans did last year, vote on May 23 and 24 for a new president, the latest stage of an uncertain transition guided bumpily by the military. People who live in the wealthy Cairo district around the palace are delighted to be spared the road closures that snarled traffic for hours every time Mubarak went anywhere. But some, such as 24-year-old Sara Hussein, find it harder to perceive any other changes wrought by the uprising she had so ardently supported. ?Like everything, the palace is still not free of the Mubaraks. The palace, and the country, are not for the people,? she says. ?His regime is still in power.? Still, Egypt will soon have a freely elected - and probably civilian - president for the first time in the republic?s 60-year history, assuming the generals who sealed Mubarak?s fate by refusing to shoot at crowds baying for his downfall keep their promise to hand over by July 1. Little else is clear. Attempts to craft a new constitution have stalled. No one knows how power will be divided between the president and parliament, dominated by religious groups. The military, wary of religious groups and jealous of its own power, perks and privileges, may step back from day-to-day affairs but is likely to seek an as-yet undefined political role, seeing itself as the paternal guardian of the state. The generals effectively removed Mubarak to safeguard the system, not to promote revolutionary change. So far reform has not touched that system?s main pillars - the military, the judiciary, the police, security and intelligence agencies. ?We have not had regime change in Egypt, only change within the regime, with a lot of street noise outside,? said Robert Springborg, a professor at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, and a specialist on the Egyptian military. Mubarak may be gone, but his legacy lingers. Then vice-president, he was catapulted into office in October 1981 after surviving the gunfire from religious army soldiers who assassinated his predecessor, Anwar Sadat. He brought calm and kept Egypt at peace for 30 years, crushing an armed rebellion in the 1990s, until political and economic frustrations with his stagnant rule boiled over in the cauldron of Cairo?s Tahrir Square, where wild rejoicing greeted his departure on Feb. 11, 2011. Many compare Mubarak to his predecessors - Sadat, who made peace with Israel and forged an alliance with the United States, and Gamal Abdel Nasser, an Arab nationalist who once inspired those fighting colonial powers in the Arab world and beyond. ?Sadat was exceptional in his intelligence, Nasser in his charisma. Mubarak was half-talented at everything and had no exceptional quality,? said Ayman Nour, who ran in a 2005 election against Mubarak and was later jailed for his pains. ?Mubarak had the kind of tyranny that is typical of half-democracies,? the 47-year-old lawyer told Reuters. ?He was a tyrant under the umbrella of the law.? That did not stand in the way of Mubarak?s friendship with the West, which valued him for upholding Sadat?s 1979 peace treaty with Israel, deeply unpopular with many Egyptians. He was also a close ally of Saudi Arabia, which was dismayed at Washington?s failure to prevent the fall of a pillar of a US regional political and security order that included Egypt and conservative Arab monarchies from Morocco to the Gulf. ?Without Mubarak, it will be harder for the United States to do the things it has done in the past,? said Steven Cook, a Middle East expert at Washington?s Council on Foreign Relations. US-Egyptian relations have become tetchier since Mubarak?s ouster, but military aid and cooperation continue, as does the treaty with Israel, although the peace is colder than ever. Now on trial for his life, Mubarak, who turned 84 this month, spends his days in the capital?s International Medical Center, sitting in a lounge, walking in the garden, watching television and seeing relatives, according to a hospital source who offered a rare, unauthorised glimpse of his activities. This suggests he is healthier than the image projected at his court appearances, when he showed up lying on a stretcher, wearing dark glasses and taking little part in proceedings. He and ex-Interior Minister Habib al-Adly both deny ordering the killing of protesters. If convicted, they could face the death penalty, but appeals will follow and the military may well protect Mubarak, a former airforce chief, from execution. The judge has promised a verdict on June 2, a date that falls between the first presidential election round and a likely run-off between the 2 top vote-getters on June 16 and 17. Mubarak?s 2 sons, Gamal, once seen as his heir-apparent, and Alaa are also on trial with him on corruption charges. Many Egyptians see the trial as a test of accountability and want justice for the 800 or so people killed during the revolt, but Mubarak, if not his unloved sons, still has a following. A 62,000-member Facebook page called ?We are sorry Mr President? says: ?You made your mistakes and you disappointed some. You trusted men around you with no conscience, but you will stay in the heart of every Egyptian who loves you.? Weariness with post-uprising chaos and shattered livelihoods may also feed nostalgia for Mubarak?s staid order. ?The economy is in terrible shape. It?s not as if his passing has led to a golden era for Egypt, so lots of Egyptians are already yearning for the good old days,? Springborg said. (source: Reuters) CHINA: Death for Chinese man accused of lethal blast A man was sentenced to death on Monday after being convicted of causing a blast in central China that killed 2 people and wounded several others, state media reported. Wang Haijian was given the death penalty at a court in Wuhan city, and his associates Wang Wei and Wang Anan were jailed for 10 and 6 years respectively, the China News Service said. The 3 were found responsible for an explosion that went off near a bank in Wuhan in December, which authorities at the time said occurred during an attempted robbery, killing 2 passers-by. It was unclear if the 3 are related, and calls made to the Wuhan Intermediate Court - where they were tried - went unanswered. Bomb attacks have been increasingly frequent in China in recent years, and are often carried out by individuals angry over perceived injustices, business disputes or other pressures associated with rapid modernisation. On Thursday, a woman blew herself up to protest the demolition of her house in the southwestern province of Yunnan, killing 2 people and injuring 14, the official Xinhua news agency said. The woman, who also died on the spot, was at a local government office negotiating compensation for the loss of her home when she detonated explosives attached to her body, it said. Late last year, a man who set off explosives in 2010 at a tax office in the central province of Hunan - killing 4 people and injuring at least 17 others - was executed. Liu Zhuiheng, who sold hardware, was reportedly frustrated over the state of his business, which had sustained losses. According to the rights group Amnesty International, China executes more people every year than the rest of the world combined. These have in the past typically carried out by a bullet to the back of the head, but in recent years the state has increasingly been using lethal injection. (source: Asia One) From rhalperi at smu.edu Mon May 14 15:24:12 2012 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Mon, 14 May 2012 15:24:12 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, OHIO, ARIZ., WASH. Message-ID: May 14 TEXAS----impending execution Denver Escapee Facing Execution In Texas----Steven Staley's Mental Health Questioned A man who escaped from a halfway house in Denver is facing execution in Texas after a 4-state crime spree. Steven Staley, 49, escaped from a Denver halfway house where he was awaiting parole on robbery and auto theft convictions. After a series of robberies and assaults in Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas, Staley, was arrested after a botched robbery that ended in the death of a restaurant manager in October 1989 in Texas. Staley's Mental Health Questioned Staley is scheduled for execution on Wednesday. Prosecutors contend he's competent to be executed. His lawyer says Staley is severely mentally ill, suffering from paranoid schizophrenia, and has been observed catatonic or lying on the floor of his jail cell covered in urine. In a written statement, Staley implicated himself in the slaying of the restaurant manager, 35-year-old Bob Read. And since he arrived on death row in 1991, his mental competence became an issue as his punishment neared. State District Court Judge Wayne Salvant has ordered him to be medicated, by force if needed. "If he was found not to be competent, the trial judge would just withdraw the (execution) date," said Jim Gibson, an assistant district attorney in Tarrant County, where Staley was tried and convicted. Staley also has been examined by psychologists, who determined the prisoner was competent. "Everybody agrees he's competent," Gibson said. "... I think the issue is going to be why he's competent." Staley's lawyer, John Stickels, calls the competency artificial. "The state has given him enough psychotropic drugs that the judge found he met the definition to be competent to be executed," said Stickels, who is asking the courts to halt the execution. "The whole reason he's been medicated is to make him competent to be executed." Staley's previous attorney called him "too nuts to be executed" when the courts stopped a scheduled execution in 2005. And Stickles said Staley's severe mental illness has existed for several years and has been exacerbated by the forced drug regimen Stickles argues was illegally ordered by Salvant. If lower courts refuse to stay the execution, Stickles said he'll take his case to the U.S. Supreme Court, which he said has not addressed the question of involuntary medication for the purposes of execution. When administered, the drugs leave Staley "with extreme sedation and zombie-like effects," Stickles said in an appeal to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. Salvant, in his order, pointed to a 2003 ruling from the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that said forcible medication is appropriate if it's likely to make the condemned inmate competent, if the side effects wouldn't be worse than the benefits and if it's in the prisoner's best medical interests. In 1986, the U.S. Supreme Court said it is unconstitutional to execute someone who is insane. The justices didn't define insanity, but did say a person may be executed if he's aware of the punishment and the reason for it. Then in 2002, the court barred execution of mentally impaired people. Stickles said Staley's IQ of 70 -- considered the threshold for mental impairment -- also could disqualify him from the punishment. Staley, from death row, declined to an interview request from The Associated Press. Crime Spree Staley had escaped from a Denver halfway house where he was awaiting parole on robbery and auto theft convictions. In Fort Worth, on the evening of Oct. 14, 1989, he and accomplice Tracey Duke ended a meal by pulling semiautomatic weapons from the purse of Duke's girlfriend, Brenda Rayburn. They herded customers and employees to the back of the restaurant, then forced Read to open cash registers and the store safe. An assistant manager slipped out and called police. Read, married and a father of three, urged the robbers to take him and leave the hostages alone when the police arrived. Officers watched Read walk out the door of the restaurant, guns poked in his ribs. The robbers hijacked a car and police moved in as Read was being forced into the back seat. Evidence showed Staley shot Read, then Staley and Duke fired on the officers. They then lead authorities on the 20-mile chase, and were caught after the car broke down and they tried to flee on foot. Duke, 45, is serving 3 life sentences in Texas and has a 30-year sentence in Colorado for murder and armed robbery. Rayburn accepted 30 years in a plea bargain. (source: Associated Press) OHIO: Judges consider death penalty for man who admitted to killing girlfriend, 2 children 3 Franklin County Common Pleas judges began deliberating the fate of Caron E. Montgomery this morning after hearing closing arguments from the prosecution and defense about whether he should be sentenced to death or life in prison. Judge Guy Reece said the panel will deliberate most of the day and may not announce a decision until Tuesday morning. A unanimous decision is necessary to impose the death penalty for Montgomery, 37, who pleaded guilty to fatally stabbing his former girlfriend, Tia Hendricks; their 2-year-old son, Tyron Hendricks; and her 10-year-old daughter, Tahlia Hendricks, on Thanksgiving Day in 2010. The judges ruled last week that Montgomery is eligible for the death penalty because he purposely killed 2 or more people, including 2 victims under the age of 13, and killed the 10-year-old to escape detection. The defense presented mitigating evidence on Tuesday to persuade the judges that they should impose a life sentence. In her closing argument, defense attorney Isabella Dixon said that Montgomery suffered traumas throughout his childhood, beginning when he was raped at age 4. She said he had no positive role models, was raised by a crack-addicted, negligent mother, and was dumped on a Children Services? system that failed him. Assistant Prosecutor Jennifer Rausch told the judges that the aggravating circumstances were ? overwhelming? and far outweighed any mitigating factors. ?Death is the only appropriate penalty in this case,? she said. (source: Columbus Dispatch) ARIZONA: Arizona death-row inmate's lawsuit heads to court Lawyers for an Arizona death-row inmate will make a last-minute bid to stop his execution. Attorneys for Samuel Villegas Lopez plan to argue Monday in Maricopa County Superior Court that his execution should be delayed until an issue with the state's clemency board is resolved. Lopez is scheduled to be executed Wednesday. His attorneys filed a lawsuit saying 3 newly appointed board members were chosen to ensure no recommendations for clemency in high-profile or controversial cases land on Gov. Jan Brewer's desk. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is also scheduled to hear arguments Monday in a separate filing by Lopez's attorneys regarding the conduct of the Arizona Department of Corrections. Lopez was convicted of raping, robbing and stabbing a 59-year-old Phoenix woman to death in 1986. (source: Associated Press) WASHINGTON: A death-row inmate's murder conviction was overturned Thursday after the state Supreme Court ruled the prosecution "wrongfully suppressed" evidence, including a picture of a county detective wearing the defendant's jeans. Prosecutors used the jeans, which were spattered with blood and contained gunshot residue in the pocket, as a key piece of evidence to convict Darold Stenson of murdering his wife Denise and his business partner Frank Hoerner. Prosecutors say Stenson attempted to make the killings look like a murder-suicide. Investigators later found that Hoerner had not committed suicide, but had been "beaten unconscious" and dragged from Stenson's driveway into the house, where he was shot in the head. Denise Stenson was found shot in bed. The state claims Stenson wanted to collect his wife's life insurance policy and killed Hoerner because he owed Hoerner money. Stenson was sentenced to death in 1994 for the 1993 slayings. The state had access to the photographs and an FBI file at the time of trial, but did not provide the evidence to Stenson's attorneys until 2009. In an 8-1 decision, the court said Stenson should get a new trial because his Brady rights were violated. In Brady v Maryland, the Supreme Court found that prosecutors violate a defendant's constitutional rights by not turning over evidence that could prove a person's innocence. The court said the 2 pieces of evidence -- gunshot residue found inside the right front pocket of the jeans Stenson was wearing when the officers arrived at his house and Hoerner's blood spattered on the front of those jeans -- were the only forensic evidence linking Hoerner to the shootings and the remainder of evidence was "largely circumstantial." Photographs showing a detective on the case wearing Stenson's jeans with an ungloved hand and with the right pocket turned out and an FBI file that indicated an agent who testified did not actually perform a gunshot residue test, were not properly disclosed to the defense. "Had the FBI file and photographs been properly disclosed here, Stenson's counsel would have been able to demonstrate to the jury that a key exhibit in the case Stenson's jeans -- had been seriously mishandled and compromised by law enforcement investigators. It is also likely that exposure of the State's mishandling of the jeans with regard to GSR testing would have led to further inquiry by Stenson's counsel into possible corruption of the blood spatter evidence," according to the ruling written by Justice Pro Tem Gerry Alexander for the majority. The court found the newly discovered evidence "undermines confidence in the jury verdict" and reversed the convictions and death sentence and ordered a new trial. Justice James M. Johnson dissented, saying the court failed to consider the "mountain of other evidence linking Stenson to the crime" and that there was never another viable suspect. Stenson's has been on death row for 18 years and this was his 6th appeal to his death sentence. Courts have stayed his execution 3 times. (source: Courthouse News) From rhalperi at smu.edu Mon May 14 15:30:58 2012 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Mon, 14 May 2012 15:30:58 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] [SPAM] death penalty news----worldwide Message-ID: May 14 IRAN: Parents of American 'Spy' Held by Iran Issue Tearful Plea For the 1st time the parents of an American who could face the death penalty in Iran for alleged espionage have gone before a camera in stirring video to speak about their young son and the suffering they've endured since the arrest of the "typical American boy." "Everywhere I go I see him. His face is in front of me everywhere," Behnaz Hekmati, mother of arrested Amir Hekmati, says as tears stream down her face in the new video posted on FreeAmir.org. "I miss him so much. I miss him so much? [But] I keep myself strong because I know my boy needs me. I need to help him." Amir Hekmati, an Arizona-born ex-U.S. Marine, was arrested in August 2011 while his family said he was on his 1st trip ever to Iran to see his grandmother. Iran accused Amir of being a spy, and in December an Iranian television station broadcast a "confession" from the 28-year-old in which he says he was sent into Iran by the CIA to become a double agent hidden inside Iranian intelligence. A day after the broadcast, Amir's father, Ali, told ABC News in an exclusive interview that the Iranian claims were "lies." "My son is no spy. He is innocent. He's a good fellow, a good citizen, a good man," the elder Hekmati said then. "These are all unfounded allegations and a bunch of lies." The next month, an Iranian court found Amir guilty and sentenced him to death. However, Iranian media reported in March that the death sentence had been annulled and Amir would be retried. In the new video, neither Amir's father nor mother mention Iran or the allegations against their son, but talk about Amir when he was a charming boy and describe the effect his arrest has had on the family. "I am in very bad shape. I am just deteriorating every day. Every day I get worse and worse," Hekmati's mother says. "I try to be strong because maybe it's only me and his family... we are his voice. He doesn't have a voice." Hekmati's father says he thinks about his son "all the time" and says he sometimes prays to dream about him, if only to see his face. "Maybe I will share a dream of him," Ali Hekmati says. "I sure miss him." (source: ABC News) *********** Malekpour Family Allowed Visit After 3 Months The family of Saeed Malekpour, an Iranian-Canadian who was sentenced to death in January 2012, was finally allowed to see him after three months of not being able to visit him. His sister, Maryam Malekpour, told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that Saeed?s interrogators have prevented him from seeing his family. ?During these 3 months, authorities never answered any of our requests or questions, and the numerous letters I wrote were left unanswered. Only some reliable sources whose names I cannot reveal said that Saeed?s interrogators do not authorize visits for him. Even when the case judge issued a permit for visitations for Saeed, we were not allowed to see him. We guess that because they took Saeed in front of a television camera 3 times in order for him to make confessions and to show that he was remorseful and each time Saeed refused to give a confession, perhaps they did not allow him to have visitors to punish him,? said Maryam Malekpour. 36-year-old Saeed Malekpour, a web developer and resident of Canada, has been sentenced to death on the charge of ?insulting Islamic sanctities,? for alleged ?management of pornographic websites.? Malekpour?s family has maintained that he simply developed image-sharing software that was used, without his knowledge, to post pornographic photos. Maryam Malekpour told the Campaign that authorities have not given her brother clear information about his upcoming execution: ? ? [W]e were able to see Saeed 2 weeks ago. Saeed?s morale was good. They had not informed him of the confirmation of his death sentence, so we didn?t tell him anything either, lest the news upsets him. His death sentence remains in the Judiciary?s Sentence Enforcement Unit. Neither he nor his lawyers have been served the confirmation, but we are really fearful that his death sentence may be carried out suddenly.? ?I heard a while back through Saeed?s cellmates that he has developed kidney stones and is in a lot of pain. His cellmates had also asked the prison guards several times to take him to a doctor, but they only transferred him to the prison infirmary. When I heard this I spoke with a specialist and got him his medicine and sent it to him,? added Maryam Malekpour, explaining that since he has begun taking the medicine, his condition has improved. Security forces arrested Canadian resident Saeed Malekpour, 36, when he returned to Iran in 2008 to visit his ailing father. He appeared on Iranian state TV in 2009 and confessed to charges raised against him. In October 2010 he was sentenced to death on charges of ?insulting Islamic sanctities? for alleged ?management of pornographic websites.? The Supreme Court overturned the sentence in November 2011 because of deficiencies in investigations and insufficient evidence, and forwarded his case to the Revolutionary Court. Even so, the Supreme Court upheld his death sentence on 30 January 2012. (source: Iran Human Rights) ***************** Iranian Rapper Faces Calls For His Execution Over 'Insulting' Song Iranian rapper Shahin Najafi?s new song, "Naghi," contains the perfect ingredients for controversy. The lyrics include joking references to Naghi, the 10th imam of the Shi?ites; a penis; Viagra; and the breasts of an Iranian actress. The image that accompanies the song on YouTube depicts the dome of what appears to be a religious shrine as a female breast, with a rainbow flag -- the symbol of the gay community -- flying over it: Naghi, I swear on your sense of humor On this exile that is far from [you] On the great organ of life That sits behind us in a threatening mode Naghi, I invoke you on the length and width of sanctions On the rising value of the dollar and the feeling of humiliation Naghi, I swear on the cardboard imam On the baby who was saying ?Ali!? while stuck in his mother?s womb The song has been condemned by some inside Iran as disrespectful and insulting to Imam Naghi, while others have praised it for breaking religious taboos. Najafi, who moved to Germany in 2005, told RFE/RL that his aim was not to insult religious sanctities. ?I had done something similar in the past. I have another song titled 'Mahdi' [and] there hasn?t been any such reaction to it," Najafi says. "Also, I thought many would like the song. It?s satirical. When I [create] something, I never think about its consequences.? The consequences this time include a $100,000 bounty on his head and calls for his execution. The hard-line website Shia-online is offering the reward and says the sum will be paid by an unnamed Arab country in the Persian Gulf. Call To Violence The hard-line semi-official Fars news agency, which is affiliated with the Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), claimed earlier this week that senior Ayatollah Safi Golpayegani had issued a fatwa against Najafi and declared him an apostate. The punishment for apostasy in Iran is death. The ayatollah issued a written statement in response to a question about the song. Without naming names, he said, ?If they have insulted the imam, they are apostates.? Whatever is not in praise and approval of the political and religious system is dismissed and declared as apostasy----Rapper Shahin Najafi Najafi says that?s a call to violence. He says he has had to take measures to ensure his safety. ?When you issue a death sentence for someone ? even under the assumption that that person has insulted [religious sanctities -- that?s [spreading] violence, and it?s unacceptable,? Najafi says. The song touches on social problems in Iran, mentioning "prayers rugs made in China," "fossilized opposition in the diaspora," and the reported "3 % of Iran's population that reads books." But it also mentions sensitive religious issues, including the return of the Hidden Imam. In the song, Najafi calls on Naghi to appear and redeem the world instead of Imam Mahdi or the Hidden Imam, who Shi?ites believe will reappear and bring justice to the world. O Naghi, now that the Hidden Imam is asleep, we call upon you, O Naghi Appear, for we are ready in our burial shrouds, O Naghi , O Naghi, O Naghi, O Naghi. It?s not just religious hard-liners who are offended. Some members of the Iranian opposition believe Najafi has crossed a line. ?It is our right for our beliefs and sanctities not to be insulted,? a reformist activist based in Tehran wrote on Facebook. No Regrets Religious Iranians consider their imams to be saints. For Najafi, who is an atheist, Naghi is merely a "historical figure.? Najafi says the definition of what constitutes an insult should be reviewed. ?This is the problem of those who have dogmatic and ideological views on issues," he says. "That is why in Iran?s history, art has not been accepted as it should be. Whatever is not in praise and approval of the political and religious system is dismissed and declared as apostasy.? Despite the threats, Najafi says has no regrets, however. ?If I regretted what I did for a second," he says, "I would say farewell to music." (source: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty) From rhalperi at smu.edu Mon May 14 19:21:51 2012 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Mon, 14 May 2012 19:21:51 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, TENN., CALIF. Message-ID: May 14 TEXAS----stay of impending execution Texas inmate set to die Wednesday gets reprieve The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on Monday stopped this week's scheduled execution of a convicted killer whose mental health had become an issue in his appeals. The state's highest criminal court gave a reprieve to Steven Staley, 49, who was set for lethal injection Wednesday evening in Huntsville for the 1989 shooting death of a Fort Worth restaurant manager during a botched robbery. "This is great," said Staley's attorney, John Stickels. "I'm very happy." Prosecutors contended Staley was competent for execution, but Stickels in his appeal to the court said that was accomplished only because a state judge in Fort Worth improperly ordered Staley be given drugs to make him competent so the state of Texas could kill him. The appeals court spent much of the ruling's three pages recounting Staley's case in the courts and only in a final paragraph specifically addressed the appeal, saying the court had determined the execution should be halted "pending further order by this court." It gave no reason. Justice Lawrence Meyers dissented from his 8 colleagues but issued no dissenting opinion. "I don't know what's next," Stickels said. "It just orders the execution stayed and doesn't order anything else. I'm not going to do anything until they tell me." Staley escaped from a Denver halfway house when 35-year-old restaurant manager Bob Read of Fort Worth was killed in October 1989. Staley and 2 accomplices were arrested after a wild 20-mile car and foot chase ended a series of robberies, assaults and at least 1 other killing as the trio traveled from Colorado, through Kansas and Oklahoma and into Texas. In a written statement, Staley implicated himself in Read's slaying. His lawyers contended his mental abilities have deteriorated while in prison. The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled forcible medication is appropriate if it's likely to make the condemned inmate competent, if the side effects wouldn't be worse than the benefits and if it's in the prisoner's best medical interests. The Supreme Court hasn't addressed the issue. In 1986, the high court said a person may be executed if he's aware of the punishment and the reason for it. Then in 2002, the court barred execution of mentally impaired people. Stickels said Staley's IQ of 70 ? considered the threshold for mental impairment ? also could disqualify him from the punishment. Staley had fled the Denver halfway house while awaiting parole on robbery and auto theft convictions. In 1989 in Fort Worth, he and accomplice Tracey Duke ended a meal by pulling semiautomatic weapons from the purse of Duke's girlfriend, Brenda Rayburn. They herded customers and employees to the back of the restaurant, then forced Read to open cash registers and the store safe. An assistant manager slipped out and called police. Read, married and a father of three, urged the robbers to take him and leave the hostages alone when the police arrived. Officers watched Read walk out the door of the restaurant, guns poked in his ribs. The robbers hijacked a car and police moved in as Read was being forced into the back seat. Evidence showed Staley shot Read, then Staley and Duke fired on the officers. They then led authorities on the 20-mile chase and were caught after the car broke down and they tried to flee on foot. Duke, 45, is serving 3 life sentences in Texas and has a 30-year sentence in Colorado for murder and armed robbery. Rayburn accepted 30 years in a plea bargain. (source: Associated Press) TENNESSEE: Son could face death penalty for mom's murder The Memphis man charged with stabbing his mother to death has a new court date. William Walsh was ordered to be back before a judge June 6. "It's kind of the beginning of the journey," public defender Gerald Skahan, who was appointed defend Walsh. "We'll start looking into the case and have a mental evaluation done and see what we learn." Skahan said he's decided to not ask for a bond for his client right now. "I imagine that he is in a cell by himself- most people on the medical floor are, but you know, they are taking good care of him in the jail and I'm sure he's behaving himself." Walsh has been in jail since Saturday, April 21, the day his mother Elaine Walsh was found stabbed to death on a sofa in her home. Walsh and his mother got into an argument about loud noises he was making, according to a police report. While his father, attorney Kevin Walsh, slept in another room, the son attacked his mother with a knife, investigators say. Skahan said that several of Walsh's supporters were in court Monday, but they didn't comment publicly on the case. If he's convicted of 1st degree murder, Walsh could be sentenced to life in prison or the death penalty. (source: WMC TV News) CALIFORNIA: California ballot measure on death penalty faces legal challenge The Sacramento-based Criminal Justice Legal Foundation petitioned the 3rd District Court of Appeals today to remove from the November ballot a proposal to abolish the death penalty in California, arguing it violates the state's "single-subject rule" for initiatives. The foundation said abolishing the death penalty while also authorizing the distribution of $100 million to local law enforcement agencies to help solve murder and rape cases violates a requirement that ballot measures address only one subject. "This kind of manipulation, forcing the people to vote on 2 different measures as an all-or-nothing choice, is exactly what the single-subject rule was put in the Constitution to prevent," the foundation's Kent Scheidegger said in a prepared statement. Supporters of abolishing the death penalty said the litigation is baseless. Former San Quentin Warden Jeanne Woodford said in a prepared statement that the ballot measure is "about one thing and one thing only: ensuring that those who commit the most serious crimes in our state are caught and held accountable. Every aspect of the initiative is connected to that goal." (source: Sacramento Bee) ********************** Bump California death penalty measure from November ballot, group says A law-and-order organization on Monday asked a state appeals court to bump a measure off the November ballot that would repeal California's death penalty, arguing that it violates the so-called "single subject" rule because it proposes multiple reforms. The ballot language is "deceptive" and conflicts with state rules that limit voter initiatives to a single subject the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation argues in a petition filed with the Sacramento-based 3rd District Court of Appeal. The foundation brought the lawsuit on behalf of Phyllis Loya, the mother of a Pittsburg police officer fatally shot in 2005 whose killer was sent to death row by a Contra Costa County jury. The SAFE California Act would abolish the death penalty, clear the state's death row and replace capital punishment with life in prison without the possibility of parole. But the measure also provides for shifting as much as $100 million used for death penalty costs to a fund that would pay for solving murder and rape cases. The lawsuit argues that the measure contains conflicting proposals that combine unrelated reforms into a single ballot argument. "This kind of manipulation ... is exactly what the single-subject rule was put in the constitution to prevent," said Kent Scheidegger, the foundation's legal director. Supporters of the ballot measure predicted the appeals court would reject the legal arguments. "We are confident that the courts will agree that a fully informed electorate should decide on this critical issue," Jeanne Woodford, the former San Quentin warden heading the campaign, said in a statement. (source: San Jose Mercury News) From rhalperi at smu.edu Tue May 15 16:18:44 2012 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Tue, 15 May 2012 16:18:44 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] [SPAM] death penalty news----TEXAS Message-ID: May 15 TEXAS: Carlos De Luna Execution: Texas Put To Death An Innocent Man, Columbia University Team Says One of the strongest arguments against the death penalty is the frightening chance of executing an innocent person. Columbia University law professor James Liebman said he and a team of students have proven that Texas gave a lethal injection to the wrong man. Carlos De Luna was executed in 1989 for stabbing to death a gas station clerk in Corpus Christi 6 years earlier. It was a ghastly crime. The trial attracted local attention, but not from concern that a guiltless man would be punished while the killer went free. De Luna, an 8th grade dropout, maintained that he was innocent from the moment cops put him in the back seat of a patrol car until the day he died. Today, 29 years after De Luna was arrested, Liebman and his team published a mammoth report in the Human Rights Law Review that concludes De Luna paid with his life for a crime he likely did not commit. Shoddy police work, the prosecution's failure to pursue another suspect, and a weak defense combined to send De Luna to death row, they argued. "I would say that across the board, there was nonchalance," Liebman told The Huffington Post. "It looked like a common case, but we found that there was a very serious claim of innocence." Police and prosecutors treated the killing of Wanda Lopez at the Sigmor Shamrock gas station on February 4, 1983, like a robbery gone bad. A recording of the chilling 911 call from Lopez, a 24-year-old single mom working the night shift, captured her screaming and begging her killer for mercy. De Luna, then 20, was found hiding under a pickup truck a few blocks from the gory crime scene. A wad of rolled-up bills totaling $149 was in his pocket. Eyewitness testimony formed the bedrock of the case against him. Now, that testimony is perhaps most contested aspect of his conviction. Cops brought De Luna back to the Shamrock. A customer filling his tank before the murder told police that De Luna was the man he saw putting a knife in his pocket outside the store. Another customer who rushed to the store's entrance when he heard Lopez struggling identified De Luna as the man who emerged. A married couple saw a man running a few blocks away and later identified De Luna in police photos shown to them. With De Luna's record of numerous arrests for burglary and public drunkenness, plus a conviction for attempted rape and auto theft, it seemed like police had found the perp. But Liebman said De Luna took the fall in a case of mistaken identity. Among the key findings in the Columbia team's report: ?The eyewitness statements actually conflict with each other. What witnesses said about the appearance and location of the suspect suggest that they were describing more than one person. ?Photos of a bloody footprint and blood spatter on the walls suggest the killer would have had blood on his shoes and pant legs, yet De Luna's clothes were clean. ?Prosecutors and police ignored tips unearthed in the case files that Carlos Hernandez, an older friend of De Luna, who had a reputation for wielding a blade, had killed Lopez. The defense failed to track down Hernandez, who bore a striking resemblance to De Luna. "If a new trial was somehow able to be conducted today, a jury would acquit De Luna" said Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, who read a draft of Liebman's report. "We don't have a perfect case where can agree that we have an innocent person who's been executed, but by weight of this investigation, I think we can say this is as close as a person is going to come." In 1983 and during the appeals process, officials handling De Luna's case saw the opposite -- a slam-dunk conviction. The prosecution and the court-appointed defense lawyer didn't put much stock in De Luna's claim that Hernandez plunged a knife into Lopez's chest. Record-keeping was so lax there's no clear evidence the gas station was robbed during the slaying, Liebman said. In trying to clear his name, De Luna didn't help himself. For months after his arrest, he refused to reveal the name of the real killer, because he feared Hernandez. His credibility plummeted when other parts of his alibi for the night of the murder were disproven by the prosecutor. The fateful night began, according to De Luna, when he went to a skating rink, where he met Hernandez and two sisters. De Luna admitted that he was near the gas station later, but said he was across the street in a bar. While he nursed his drink, Hernandez bought cigarettes in the Shamrock. He said he emerged from the bar to see Hernandez fighting with Lopez. Hearing police sirens, he said he fled, because he didn't want to get into trouble. The prosecution, however, discredited De Luna's version of events. One of the sisters who was allegedly with him at the rink testified that she was at her baby shower that night. "I had blown his alibi to bits," said Steve Schiwetz, one of the prosecutors. A guilty verdict was reached with little delay. The capital murder trial lasted 6 days in July 1983. "I'm open to the argument that somebody named Carlos Hernandez really did it," said Schiwetz, "but everything I know confirms the original impression that De Luna did it." The apparent random targeting of Lopez wasn't Hernandez's style, Schiwetz said. Hernandez's tendency was to unleash violence on the his girlfriends and wife, not strangers, he said. In 1986, Hernandez was accused of murdering another woman with a knife, but the case was dismissed. Several of Hernandez' family members interviewed for the Columbia University report said pictures of the murder weapon found at the gas station looked like the knife Hernandez habitually kept with him. In all of De Luna's numerous arrests, police never found him carrying a blade, according to the Columbia report. The relatives' portrait of Hernandez's disheveled appearance gelled with a description of the suspect seen fleeing the convenience store. Witness Kevan Baker said the killer looked like a "derelict," wearing a flannel jacket and gray sweatshirt. Hernandez's relatives said he often wore a flannel coat. De Luna was fastidious with his appearance and always wore black slacks and dress shirts, the report said. Liebman sought more scientific proof. Fingerprints taken from the knife and cigarette pack found at the crime scene were sent to a former Scotland Yard investigator for comparison with Hernandez's prints. But the evidence had been so poorly collected by police, Liebman said, that the results were inconclusive. The Columbia University team's report, more than 400 pages long, also is a biography of the central players, emphasizing the troubled upbringings and hard-drinking adulthoods of De Luna and Hernandez. Liebman learned about De Luna roughly 10 years ago, when he began examining convictions in which a single eyewitness testified. As he and a student delved into the files, they became convinced De Luna wasn't guilty. They turned over their findings to the Chicago Tribune which published a three-part series in 2006 that found evidence suggesting Hernandez killed Lopez. Multiple people told the Tribune that Hernandez -- who died in 1999 in prison from cirrhosis of the liver -- had confessed to killing her. Revisiting questions about Lopez's death would be too painful, her nephews said. "That's something our family has had to deal with," Louis Vargas told The Huffington Post. "We've had closure with it and we don't want to reopen it. We believe the justice system did what it had to do." One of De Luna's attorneys, James Lawrence, told HuffPost he doesn't count him among the clients who've been wrongfully accused of capital crimes. "The fact that he wouldn't help us and this was his life on the line -- that's the one thing that kept bothering the living daylights out of me," Lawrence said. Since the Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976, there have been 1,295 executions, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Texas leads with 482 executions. The ease with which De Luna was prosecuted and the obscurity of his death are what makes his case so important, said Liebman. "There are many cases out there that nobody has ever looked at and are probably at risk of innocence," said Liebman. "It's a cautionary tale about the risks we take when we have the death penalty." (source: Michael McLaughlin, Huffington Post) *************** The wrong Carlos: how Texas sent an innocent man to his death----Groundbreaking Columbia law school study sets out in shocking detail the flaws that led to Carlos DeLuna's execution in 1989 A few years ago, Antonin Scalia, one of the 9 justices on the US supreme court, made a bold statement. There has not been, he said, "a single case ? not one ? in which it is clear that a person was executed for a crime he did not commit. If such an event had occurred ? the innocent's name would be shouted from the rooftops." Scalia may have to eat his words. It is now clear that a person was executed for a crime he did not commit, and his name ? Carlos DeLuna ? is being shouted from the rooftops of the Columbia Human Rights Law Review. The august journal has cleared its entire spring edition, doubling its normal size to 436 pages, to carry an extraordinary investigation by a Columbia law school professor and his students. The book sets out in precise and shocking detail how an innocent man was sent to his death on 8 December 1989, courtesy of the state of Texas. Los Tocayos Carlos: An Anatomy of a Wrongful Execution, is based on 6 years of intensive detective work by Professor James Liebman and 12 students. Starting in 2004, they meticulously chased down every possible lead in the case, interviewing more than 100 witnesses, perusing about 900 pieces of source material and poring over crime scene photographs and legal documents that, when stacked, stand over 10ft high. What they discovered stunned even Liebman, who, as an expert in America's use of capital punishment, was well versed in its flaws. "It was a house of cards. We found that everything that could go wrong did go wrong," he says. Carlos DeLuna was arrested, aged 20, on 4 February 1983 for the brutal murder of a young woman, Wanda Lopez. She had been stabbed once through the left breast with an 8in lock-blade buck knife which had cut an artery causing her to bleed to death. >From the moment of his arrest until the day of his death by lethal injection 6 years later, DeLuna consistently protested he was innocent. He went further ? he said that though he hadn't committed the murder, he knew who had. He even named the culprit: a notoriously violent criminal called Carlos Hernandez. The 2 Carloses were not just namesakes ? or tocayos in Spanish, as referenced in the title of the Columbia book. They were the same height and weight, and looked so alike that they were sometimes mistaken for twins. When Carlos Hernandez's lawyer saw pictures of the two men, he confused one for the other, as did DeLuna's sister Rose. At his 1983 trial, Carlos DeLuna told the jury that on the day of the murder he'd run into Hernandez, who he'd known for the previous five years. The 2 men, who both lived in the southern Texas town of Corpus Christi, stopped off at a bar. Hernandez went over to a gas station, the Shamrock, to buy something, and when he didn't return DeLuna went over to see what was going on. DeLuna told the jury that he saw Hernandez inside the Shamrock wrestling with a woman behind the counter. DeLuna said he was afraid and started to run. He had his own police record for sexual assault ? though he had never been known to possess or use a weapon ? and he feared getting into trouble again. "I just kept running because I was scared, you know." When he heard the sirens of police cars screeching towards the gas station he panicked and hid under a pick-up truck where, 40 minutes after the killing, he was arrested. At the trial, DeLuna's defence team told the jury that Carlos Hernandez, not DeLuna, was the murderer. But the prosecutors ridiculed that suggestion. They told the jury that police had looked for a "Carlos Hernandez" after his name had been passed to them by DeLuna's lawyers, without success. They had concluded that Hernandez was a fabrication, a "phantom" who simply did not exist. The chief prosecutor said in summing up that Hernandez was a "figment of DeLuna's imagination". 4 years after DeLuna was executed, Liebman decided to look into the DeLuna case as part of a project he was undertaking into the fallibility of the death penalty. He asked a private investigator to spend one day ? just one day ? looking for signs of the elusive Carlos Hernandez. By the end of that single day the investigator had uncovered evidence that had eluded scores of Texan police officers, prosecutors, defense lawyers and judges over the 6 years between DeLuna's arrest and execution. Carlos Hernandez did indeed exist. Liebman's investigator tracked down within a few hours a woman who was related to both the Carloses. She supplied Hernandez's date of birth, which in turn allowed the unlocking of Hernandez's criminal past as the case rapidly unravelled. With the help of his students, Liebman began to piece together a profile of Hernandez. He was an alcoholic with a history of violence, who was always in the company of his trusted companion: a lock-blade buck knife. Over the years he was arrested 39 times, 13 of them for carrying a knife, and spent his entire adult life on parole. Yet he was almost never put in prison for his crimes ? a disparity that Liebman believes was because he was used as a police informant. "Its hard to understand what happened without that piece of the puzzle," Liebman says. Several of the crimes that Hernandez committed involved hold-ups of Corpus Christi gas stations. Just a few days before the Shamrock murder he was found cowering outside a nearby 7-Eleven wielding a knife ? a detail never disclosed to DeLuna's defence. He also had a history of violence towards women. He was twice arrested on suspicion of the 1979 murder of a woman called Dahlia Sauceda, who was stabbed and then had an "X" carved into her back. The first arrest was made 4 years before DeLuna's trial and the 2nd while DeLuna was on death row, yet the connection between this Hernandez and the "phantom" presented to DeLuna's jury was never made. In October 1989, just two months before DeLuna was executed, Hernandez was setenced to 10 years' imprisonment for attempting to kill with a knife another woman called Dina Ybanez. Even then, no one thought to alert the courts or Texas state as it prepared to put DeLuna to death. Hernandez himself frequently told people that he was a knife murderer. He made numerous confessions to having killed Wanda Lopez, the crime for which DeLuna was executed, joking with friends and relatives that his "tocayo" had taken the fall. His admissions were so widely broadcast that even Corpus Christi police detectives came to hear about them within weeks of the incident at the Shamrock gas station. Yet this was the same Carlos Hernandez who prosecutors told the jury did not exist. This was the figment of Carlos DeLuna's imagination. Many other glaring discrepancies also stand out in the DeLuna case. He was put on death row largely on the eyewitness testimony of one man, Kevan Baker, who had seen the fight inside the Shamrock and watched the attacker flee the scene. Yet when Baker was interviewed 20 years later, he said that he hadn't been that sure about the identification as he had trouble telling one Hispanic person apart from another. Then there was the crime-scene investigation. Detectives failed to carry out or bungled basic forensic procedures that might have revealed information about the killer. No blood samples were collected and tested for the culprit's blood type. Fingerprinting was so badly handled that no useable fingerprints were taken. None of the items found on the floor of the Shamrock ? a cigarette stub, chewing gum, a button, comb and beer cans ? were forensically examined for saliva or blood. There was no scraping of the victim's fingernails for traces of the attacker's skin. When Liebman and his students studied digitally enhanced copies of crime scene photographs, they were amazed to find the footprint from a man's shoe imprinted in a pool of Lopez's blood on the floor ? yet no effort was made to measure it. "There it was," says Liebman. "The murderer had left his calling card at the scene, but it was never used." Even the murder weapon, the knife, was not properly examined, though it was covered in blood and flesh. Other photographs show Lopez's blood splattered up to three feet high on the walls of the Shamrock counter. Yet when DeLuna's clothes and shoes were tested for traces of blood, not a single microscopic drop was found. The prosecution said it must have been washed away by the rain. There appeared to have been an unseemly scramble to wrap up the crime scene. Less than 2 hours after the murder happened, the police chief in charge of the homicide investigation ordered all detectives to quit the Shamrock and allowed its owner to wash it down, sweeping away vital evidence that could have saved a man's life. The exceptionally lax treatment of evidence continued even beyond the grave. When Liebman asked to see all the stored evidence in the case, so that he could subject it to the DNA testing that was not available to investigators in 1983, he was told that it had all disappeared. Having lived and breathed this case for so many years, Liebman says the most shocking thing about it was its ordinariness. "This wasn't the trial of OJ Simpson. It was an obscure case, the kind that could involve anybody. Maybe those are the cases where miscarriages of justice happen, the routine everyday cases where nobody thinks enough about the victim, let alone the defendant." The groundbreaking work that the Columbia law school has done comes at an important juncture for the death penalty in America. Connecticut last month became the 5th state in as many years to repeal the ultimate punishment and support for abolition is gathering steam. In that context, Liebman hopes his exhaustive work will encourage Americans to think more deeply about what is done in their name. All the evidence the Columbia team has gathered on the DeLuna case has been placed on the internet with open public access. "We've provided as complete a set of information as we can about a pretty average case, to let the public make its own judgment. I believe they will make the judgment that in this kind of case there's just too much risk." As for the tocayos Carloses, Carlos Hernandez died of natural causes in a Texas prison in May 1999, having been jailed for assaulting a neighbour with a 9in knife. Carlos DeLuna commented on his own ending in a television interview a couple of years before his execution. "Maybe one day the truth will come out," he said from behind reinforced glass. "I'm hoping it will. If I end up getting executed for this, I don't think it's right." (source: The Guardian) *************************** Columbia Law School Investigation Uncovers New Evidence Suggesting Texas Executed Innocent Man New York, May 15, 2012?A groundbreaking investigation by Professor James Liebman [www.law.columbia.edu] and a team of Columbia Law School students has revealed new evidence demonstrating that the State of Texas likely executed an innocent man in 1989. The investigation, published today by the Columbia Human Rights Law Review (HRLR) and at the website thewrongcarlos.net [www.thewrongcarlos.net], represents one of the most comprehensive collections of materials and evidence about a criminal case ever released to the public. It describes the case of Carlos DeLuna, a poor Hispanic man in his 20s with childlike intelligence who was convicted on the thinnest of evidence for the 1983 murder of a convenience store clerk. The materials include video and notes from hundreds of interviews with witnesses and key participants, the complete case files from police and prosecutors, and previously unreleased police audiotape of the manhunt that resulted in DeLuna?s arrest. The HRLR has devoted its entire Spring 2012 issue to this book-length anatomy of a wrongful execution, titled Los Tocayos Carlos. ?No one cared enough about the defendant or the victim to make sure they caught the right guy,? said Liebman, a leading death penalty litigation expert and the Simon H. Rifkind Professor of Law at Columbia Law School. ?Everything that could go wrong in a death penalty case did go wrong for DeLuna.? The article documents how DeLuna was convicted on the basis of a single, nighttime, cross-ethnic eyewitness identification with no corroborating forensic evidence. He claimed from the start that another man named Carlos?Carlos Hernandez?stabbed clerk Wanda Lopez to death with a lock-blade buck knife at a convenience store in Corpus Christi, Texas. DeLuna?s assertion was derided by some as the ?some other dude named Carlos? defense, and the lead prosecutor told the jury that Carlos Hernandez was a ?phantom? of DeLuna?s imagination. Liebman and his co-authors, however, uncovered evidence showing that not only did Carlos Hernandez exist, but he was known to police and prosecutors at the time of the trial as someone with a long history of crimes similar to the one for which DeLuna was executed. The police audiotape that Liebman and his authors have released?suppressed during DeLuna?s trial?shows that police chased another man who matched Hernandez?s (but not DeLuna?s) description for 30 minutes immediately following the crime. Hernandez had been arrested for murdering another woman with a lock-blade buck knife, and he stabbed and attempted to rape another woman while DeLuna was confined to death row. Hernandez spent years bragging around Corpus Christi that he, not his tocayo (?twin? or ?namesake?), Carlos DeLuna, committed the murder. Indeed, families of both Carloses mistook photos of the men for each other. "Sadly, DeLuna?s story is not unique,? Liebman said. ?The very same factors that sent DeLuna to his death?faulty eyewitness testimony, shoddy legal representation, and prosecutorial misfeasance?continue to put innocent people at risk of execution today.? The astonishing collection of primary documents and interviews allows readers to come to their own conclusions regarding DeLuna?s guilt or innocence. ?My co-authors and I present the story as best we can tell it, and invite readers of all stripes to consider for themselves what happened and how concerned we should be about it,? Liebman said. The materials presented in the article and at the website include: ? complete files of police, sheriff?s office, district attorney, county court, trial transcripts, and federal court records ? all of the police photos (which, via digital enhancement, revealed key evidence never recognized by the police, including the assailant?s bloody footprints) ? a police audiotape of the 40-minute manhunt that led to Carlos DeLuna?s arrest ? full criminal records of the key actors ? a raft of television news clips and newspaper articles ? 20 videotaped interviews of key participants ? notes from 100 witness interviews ? an interactive map tracking key people, places, and events For more information, please visit thewrongcarlos.net, or contact the Columbia Law School Public Affairs office at publicaffairs at law.columbia.edu to arrange an interview. # # # Columbia Law School [www.law.columbia.edu], founded in 1858, stands at the forefront of legal education and of the law in a global society. Columbia Law School combines traditional strengths in corporate law and financial regulation, international and comparative law, property, contracts, constitutional law, and administrative law with pioneering work in intellectual property, digital technology, tax law and policy, national security, sexuality and gender, and environmental law. (source: Columbia University Law School) ******************* Wrong man was executed in Texas, probe says He was the spitting image of the killer, had the same 1st name and was near the scene of the crime at the fateful hour: Carlos DeLuna paid the ultimate price and was executed in place of someone else in Texas in 1989, a report out Tuesday found. Even "all the relatives of both Carloses mistook them," and DeLuna was sentenced to death and executed based only on eyewitness accounts despite a range of signs he was not a guilty man, said law professor James Liebman. Liebman and 5 of his students at Columbia School of Law spent almost 5 years poring over details of a case that he says is "emblematic" of legal system failure. DeLuna, 27, was put to death after "a very incomplete investigation. No question that the investigation is a failure," Liebman said. The report's authors found "numerous missteps, missed clues and missed opportunities that let authorities prosecute Carlos DeLuna for the crime of murder, despite evidence not only that he did not commit the crime but that another individual, Carlos Hernandez, did," the 780-page investigation found. The report, entitled "Los Tocayos Carlos: Anatomy of a Wrongful Execution," traces the facts surrounding the February 1983 murder of Wanda Lopez, a single mother who was stabbed in the gas station where she worked in a quiet corner of the Texas coastal city of Corpus Christi. "Everything went wrong in this case," Liebman said. That night Lopez called police for help twice to protect her from an individual with a switchblade. "They could have saved her, they said 'we made this arrest immediately' to overcome the embarrassment," Liebman said. 40 minutes after the crime Carlos DeLuna was arrested not far from the gas station. He was identified by only 1 eyewitness who saw a Hispanic male running from the gas station. But DeLuna had just shaved and was wearing a white dress shirt -- unlike the killer, who an eyewitness said had a mustache and was wearing a grey flannel shirt. Even though witnesses accounts were contradictory -- the killer was seen fleeing towards the north, while DeLuna was caught in the east -- DeLuna was arrested. "I didn't do it, but I know who did," DeLuna said at the time, saying that he saw Carlos Hernandez entering the service station. DeLuna said he ran from police because he was on parole and had been drinking. Hernandez, known for using a blade in his attacks, was later jailed for murdering a woman with the same knife. But in the trial, the lead prosecutor told the jury that Hernandez was nothing but a "phantom" of DeLuna's imagination. DeLuna's budget attorney even said that it was probable that Carlos Hernandez never existed. However in 1986 a local newspaper published a photograph of Hernandez in an article on the DeLuna case, Liebman said. Following hasty trial DeLuna was executed by lethal injection in 1989. Up to the day he died in prison of cirrhosis of the liver, Hernandez repeatedly admitted to murdering Wanda Lopez, Liebman said. "Unfortunately, the flaws in the system that wrongfully convicted and executed DeLuna -- faulty eyewitness testimony, shoddy legal representation and prosecutorial misconduct -- continue to send innocent men to their death today," read a statement that accompanies the report. (source: Yahoo News) ************ Killing The Innocent With Indifference----Carlos DeLuna was executed by the state of Texas in 1989. A new study by Columbia University could prove his innocence. The USA has almost certainly executed innocent men in the so called ?modern? era of capital punishment, since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. One of them may have been Carlos DeLuna, who was put to death in Texas in 1989 for the killing of gas station attendant Wanda Lopez in Corpus Christi. Today, a comprehensive report and website by James Liebman and a team of students in the Columbia University Human Rights Law Review makes a compelling case for DeLuna?s innocence. To explain how this wrongful conviction and execution could have happened Liebman et al. point to the ?failure of lawyers on the defense as well as the prosecution side to have the curiosity and gumption to look just an inch or two below the surface.? This is an all-too common occurrence, argue the authors, when there is a general indifference to an ?obscure? victim like Wanda Lopez, making such cases ?ripe for miscarriage? of justice. This report, Los Tocayos Carlos, follows on the heels of an investigation by the Chicago Tribune, amplified by the film At the Death House Door, which already made it fairly clear that Texas authorities had the wrong Carlos. Carlos Hernandez was the other Carlos, the man Carlos DeLuna said had stabbed Wanda Lopez. At trial, prosecutors declared that Hernandez was a ?phantom? made up by DeLuna, but this wasn?t true. He was in fact well-known to Corpus Christi law enforcement as a man with a propensity to frightening violence and a love of knives. A career criminal who was almost always out on parole, he continued to assault women after DeLuna was sent to prison. In November 1983, Hernandez was arrested for attacking his wife with an axe handle. He got 30 days in jail for a misdemeanor, but his parole wasn?t revoked. The judge who issued this light sentence was the father of the lawyer who had inadequately represented Carlos DeLuna. Carlos Hernandez repeatedly told others that he killed Wanda Lopez and that a tocayo (namesake) was paying for the crime. Hernandez also told people he was responsible for a 1979 murder for which he was indicted but never tried. A former detective admitted that tipsters had told him Carlos Hernandez was the real killer of Wanda Lopez, but that information was apparently never pursued. The failure to investigate Carlos Hernandez for the killing of Wanda Lopez, or to adequately punish him for other crimes, suggests a cruel indifference to the people of the community he was terrorizing. As the authors put it: Wanda Lopez?s worthy and unimpeachable life was dishonored not only by the inattention to her plight on the night of February 4, 1983, by everyone in a position to help her, but also by the nonchalance with which everyone in a position to find her killer carried out that responsibility. The people in this Corpus Christi community paid the price for this nonchalance, and it appears Carlos DeLuna paid the ultimate price. If you think the death penalty is wrong and the risk of executing the innocent is too high then do something about it by joining our fight to abolish the death penalty in every US state. (source: Amnesty International USA Blog; Brian Evans) *************************** Yes, America, We Have Executed an Innocent Man----Carlos DeLuna was put to death in December 1989 for a murder in Corpus Christi. But he didn't commit the crime. Today, his case reminds us of the glaring flaws of capital punishment. Even for Justice Antonin Scalia, the crassest of the current United States Supreme Court justices, it was a particularly callous piece of writing. In 2006, in a case styled Kansas v. Marsh, the Court's 5 conservatives had just upheld a portion of Kansas' capital punishment law. The statute was interpreted to direct a sentence of death even if a jury found the "aggravating" and "mitigating" sentencing factors in equilibrium -- "equipoise," the Court lyrically called it. A tie, in other words, would mean death, not life. For the majority, Justice Clarence Thomas had bent over backward to overturn a ruling by the Kansas Supreme Court that had declared the law unconstitutional. The High Court's 4 liberal justices had voted to uphold the Kansas ruling. Justice John Paul Stevens, the Ford appointee, chastised Thomas for reaching out so aggressively to overturn a state court on a matter of state law. And Justice David Souter, the Bush I appointee, wrote about how such "equipoise" necessarily precluded a death sentence. Mocking the rationale of both, and unsatisfied with the scope of Justice Thomas' majority opinion, Justice Scalia wrote a concurrence he will have to live with the rest of his life. As he sought to destroy Justice Souter's argument about the doubts reasonable people have about the accuracy and reliability of America's death penalty regime, Justice Scalia described a criminal justice system unfamiliar to anyone who has ever covered a murder case, read a book about one, or watched television news. Justice Scalia wrote: It should be noted at the outset that the dissent does not discuss a single case -- not one -- in which it is clear that a person was executed for a crime he did not commit. If such an event had occurred in recent years, we would not have to hunt for it; the innocent's name would be shouted from the rooftops by the abolition lobby. And then... Capital cases are given especially close scrutiny at every level, which is why in most cases many years elapse before the sentence is executed. And of course capital cases receive special attention in the application of executive clemency. Indeed, one of the arguments made by abolitionists is that the process of finally completing all the appeals and reexaminations of capital sentences is so lengthy, and thus so expensive for the State, that the game is not worth the candle. The proof of the pudding, of course, is that as far as anyone can determine (and many are looking), none of cases included in the .027% error rate for American verdicts involved a capital defendant erroneously executed. There are 2 obvious and basic explanations for Justice Scalia's strident concurrence. Either he truly believed that capital cases are "given especially close scrutiny at every level," in which case he hadn't been paying attention to his work all those years. Or he did not truly believe that "capital cases receive special attention in the application of executive clemency," in which case his concurrence was just a thoughtless, reflexive reaction to Justice Souter's compelling case. Either way, he was wrong. Terribly wrong. THE ARTICLE The DeLuna case was flawed at virtually every level.At 11 p.m Monday, the Columbia University Human Rights Review published and posted its Spring 2012 issue -- devoted entirely to a single piece of work about the life and death of two troubled and troublesome South Texas men. In explaining to their readers why an entire issue would be devoted to just one story, the editors of the Review said straightly that the "gravity of the subject matter of the Article and the possible far-reaching policy ramifications of its publication necessitated this decision." The article is titled "Los Tocayos Carlos: Anatomy of a Wrongful Execution" and it was written by James S. Liebman, Shawn Crowley, Andrew Markquart, Lauren Rosenberg, Lauren Gallo White, Lauren Rosenberg and Daniel Zharkovsky. Los Tacayos can be translated from Spanish as "namesakes" and the two men at the heart of the story were, indeed, named Carlos DeLuna and Carlos Hernandez.. On December 7, 1989, this intense piece establishes beyond any reasonable doubt, Texas executed the former for a murder the latter had committed. The Review article is an astonishing blend of narrative journalism, legal research, and gumshoe detective work. And it ought to end all reasonable debate in this country about whether an innocent man or woman has yet been executed in America since the modern capital punishment regime was recognized by the Supreme Court in 1976. The article is also a clear and powerful retort to Justice Scalia in Kansas v. Marsh: Our capital cases don't have nearly the procedural safeguards he wants to pretend they do. Soon to be published as a book, Los Tacayos Carlos is a seminal piece of online advocacy as well. Not only is the article itself now available on the web in its entirety (at www.thewrongcarlos.net) but so are all of its supporting materials. "The web version of the Article contains approximately 3,469 footnotes," the Review editors tell us, which in turn "provide hyperlinks to view the cited sources," including a great deal of the evidence relevant to the case. Now, everyone in the world who is interested can learn how bad it all can go when human beings try to administer what's supposed to be a fair, just and accurate death penalty. THE HISTORY Kansas v. Marsh was decided on June 26, 2006. The very next day, on June 27, 2006, two decorated Chicago Tribune reporters, Steve Mills and Maurice Possley, published the last of a three-part, groundbreaking series about the legal and factual problems with the DeLuna case. The headline that day was: "The Secret That Wasn't" and here was their lede: It was a secret they all shared. Some kept it out of fear. Some because no one ever asked. Whatever their reasons, it was a secret that might have saved Carlos De Luna from the execution chamber. 23 years after Wanda Lopez was murdered in the gas station where she worked, family members and acquaintances of another man, Carlos Hernandez, have broken their silence to support what De Luna had long asserted: Hernandez, a violent felon, killed Lopez in 1983. A Tribune investigation has identified five people who say Hernandez told them that he stabbed Lopez and that De Luna, whom he called his "stupid tocayo," or namesake, went to Death Row in his place. They also say he admitted killing another woman, in 1979, a crime for which he was indicted but never tried. Although some aspects of De Luna's actions on the night of Lopez's killing remain suspicious, the Tribune uncovered substantial evidence that undermines his conviction. I met Possley while we were both covering the McVeigh bombing trial. That was before his groundbreaking work a decade ago exposing the arbitrary and capricious nature of the death penalty in Illinois. Last year, when Illinois ended its experiment with capital punishment, it was in large part because of the Tribune and the work of Mills, Possley and fellow reporter Ken Armstrong. So why had he chosen back in 2005 to focus upon the DeLuna case? What had struck him? Last week, Possley told me via email: When I reflect back on the series, what I think about most is how this case was a sensational case in a small arena. It didn't play out on a national stage and it happened so quickly -- so little time between arrest, conviction and execution. I remember that what really got me interested in the case was seeing the crime scene photos with all of the blood and then learning that there was no blood on DeLuna. It just didn't seem possible that he committed such a crime and was caught so quickly and had no blood on his clothing.That fact was so startling to me. I really haven't changed my view of the case from back then. I thought it was a colossal, global failure of every corner of the criminal justice system. The media failed to question the case (not unusual in smaller markets where police and prosecutors are the best sources) as well. Possley says the new piece "takes a giant step beyond our reporting because it's such a comprehensive and detailed account" of the DeLuna case. And why wouldn't it be? It was Liebman who first came to Possley and Mills, in November 2005, to see if the two veteran journalists couldn't independently investigate what his own team had discovered about the two Carloses. The resultant series became a finalist that year for a Pulitzer Prize in National Reporting. Someone was shouting from the rooftops, Justice Scalia. Like a Karmic game of leapfrog, the two investigations have enabled one another. For their 2006 series, Possley and Mills got new information that Liebman initially had not uncovered. And now, today, Liebman has uncovered new information that in 2006 was unavailable to Possley and Mills. And what is the point of all? Why spend the inordinate time and energy writing about the guilt or innocence of a man dead now more than 20 years? In the Epilogue, Liebman makes it clear: With the publication of this book, we make our voices heard. At the same time, we have attempted to present the case so that our readers can consider the evidence for themselves, reach their own conclusions about what happened, and let their own consciences dictate how much tolerance for doubt is allowable when human life is on the line. Whatever else is true, we owe it to the Carlos DeLunas of our nation, as well as the Wanda Lopezes, to ask these questions and to shout out the answers. THE STORY Like Possley and Mills in 2006, I don't have the space here to do justice to the facts of the DeLuna case. But I will try. Carlos DeLuna was executed in December 1989 for murdering Wanda Lopez in a February 1983 robbery in Corpus Christi. A jury convicted him in an afternoon of deliberation and sentenced him to death shortly thereafter. No appellate courts came to his rescue. And the 6 years it took from crime to execution was surprisingly -- suspiciously -- fast; nationwide, it's usually twice that long. Texas convicted and executed DeLuna, all right, despite the fact that there was no blood or DNA evidence linking him to the scene of the crime. The state executed him despite the fact that the only eyewitness to the crime identified DeLuna while the suspect was sitting in the back of a police car parked in a dimly lit lot in front of the crime scene. Texas executed him despite the lack of DeLuna's fingerprints at the crime scene and the lack of the victim's hair and fibers on DeLuna. From a bloody scene, there was nothing. No one can ever say again with a straight face that America doesn't execute innocent men. No one. Texas convicted and executed DeLuna despite the fact that the police and prosecutors knew or should have known that Lopez's real murderer was a man named Carlos Hernandez, a violent criminal who looked almost exactly like DeLuna. Why? Because Hernandez was known to use the sort of knife used as the murder weapon. Because he matched initial descriptions of the suspect. Because he was known to be violent toward women. Oh, and because he evidently couldn't stop bragging about how he had murdered Lopez and gotten someone else to take the fall for him. "... [It] is no overstatement to call it 'common knowledge' in 1980s Corpus Christi that Carlos Gonzalez Hernandez killed Wanda Lopez," Liebman and Co. conclude. Yet Texas executed DeLuna despite the fact that key evidence in the case went missing both before and after trial; that DeLuna initially was appointed a lawyer without criminal law experience; and that law enforcement failed to provide the defense with exculpatory evidence. Any one of these factors might warrant a new trial. Taken together they portray appalling injustice. THE BACKSTORY Reading through the manuscript last weekend, jarred by what I was seeing, I began to jot down a list of things that went terribly wrong in the DeLuna case -- issues of fact, of evidence, of testimony, of motives, of incompetence, of indifference, of fraud, of morality, of integrity, of constitutionality -- that should have been raised and answered long before DeLuna was convicted, much less executed, back in the 1980s. I stopped when I got to 10. Here's the list. 1. There was no DNA or blood evidence on DeLuna despite bloody murder scene. There were no fingerprints. There was only 1 eyewitness and he was sketchy about what he had seen. 2. Police/prosecutors knew the whereabouts of another, more likely, suspect. But they didn't tell the defense this before or after the trial. 3. When the defendant identified the likely killer shortly before trial, the police and prosecutors did not reasonably follow up even though they knew that the man identified was capable of committing the crime. 4. Based upon early witness reports, the police at first sought another suspect. They did not share this information with the defense even though the 2 men (the 2 Carloses) looked eerily like one another. 5. The police officer collecting witness accounts relayed inaccurate and incomplete descriptions of suspects to the police dispatcher, who radioed them to officers in manhunt. 6. Police investigators botched the crime scene by turning it back to the store manager just 2 hours after the murder to be washed down and reopened immediately. 7. Evidence from the initial investigation was checked out by a prosecutor the day after the trial and was never returned. Any usuable DNA thus was lost. 8. The trial judge appointed a solo civil practitioner without any criminal trial experience much less any capital trial experience. The defense did not call a single "mitigating" witness in the sentencing phase of trial. 9. Police investigators did not measure a bloody footprint they photographed at the scene of the crime or test a cigarette butt they found on the floor of the store where the victim died. 10. A 9-11 dispatcher failed to quickly dispatch police to the scene of the crime, despite the fact that the victim had called for help. Later, the "manhunt tape" made by dispatchers was taped over and not turned over to the defense by the police. Surely this epic malfeasance and misfeasance cannot be what Justice Scalia had in mind when he wrote in Marsh about capital cases getting "especially close scrutiny at every level." Indeed, as here, the opposite was true. The DeLuna case was flawed at virtually every level. And all it would have taken to do justice would have been for one prosecutor or cop, one judge or witness, to step up and tell the truth. That didn't happen. And when it did, thanks to Liebman, Mills and Possley, it was too late for Carlos DeLuna. What do I think happened? All of the things that go wrong every day in capital cases in this country, all of the human failings and official, institutional biases and prejudices and self-justifications and self-delusions that turn Justice Scalia's Marsh concurrence into a farce. The bottom line? The criminal justice system decided, combustibly, that Carlos DeLuna was bad enough to be executed without a remotely fair process. The community was fine with the result. The media didn't care. And the rule of law "covered" it all. THE EXPERTS The answer to Los Tocayos Carlos, if there can be one, is that the case is so old its failings are now outdated and irrelevant. The district attorney lobbyists will argue that capital cases, in Texas and elsewhere, are handled much more professionally today than they were 30 years ago. And because both of the Carloses are now long dead, there isn't much of a media hook here, either. Posthumous exonerations don't give the cameras the just-out-of-prison "walk shot" television producers love. But it would be a shame if we were to view the DeLuna case through the prism of legal history. There is nothing ancient about the lessons it teaches. DeLuna may be gone. But the problems his case represents still are here, in virtually every jurisdiction that still imposes capital punishment. So last week I asked some of the most prominent death penalty experts in the country to look at my DeLuna "list" and then identify pending cases that were similarly marked with such obvious reasonable doubts. I asked Richard Dieter, at the Death Penalty Information Center, and Barry Scheck, co-director of the Innocence Project. I reached out to professors like Eric Freedman, Sean O'Brien and Bennett Gershman, to practitioners like George Kendall, and to earnest other lawyers who handle capital cases from more of a ground-level view. They all agreed that today in America there are plenty of more recent cases where these sorts of issues have arisen or could arise. Here are links to just a few of the cases they cited (again, I stopped at the count of 10) ?D'Ambrosio v. Bagley (Ohio- faulty crime scene analysis, information withheld by law enforcement, other known viable suspects.) ?Elmore v. Ozmint (South Carolina--ineffective counsel, no eyewitnesses, evidence fabricated) ?Keith v. Bobby (Ohio-- no DNA, blood or fingerprint evidence, other known viable suspects) ?Noling v. Bradshaw (Ohio--unreliable eyewitness identification, other known viable suspects) ?Arkansas v. Howard (Arkansas -- DNA withheld) ?Skinner v. Switzer (Texas -- DNA withheld following Supreme Court intervention.) In Georgia, Troy Davis was executed last year despite a dearth of physical evidence and only a single eyewitness linking him to the crime. In Texas, Claude Jones was executed in 2000 because of DNA evidence we now know did not belong to him. In North Carolina, it took officials ten years to release Darryl Hunt after DNA tests exonerated him of murder. Justice Scalia is either kidding himself, or being disingenuous, when he proclaims the justice system goes out of its way to protect these people. THE LESSON On the day, sooner than you think, when the United States Supreme Court again outlaws the death penalty, the justices will almost certainly cited the DeLuna case as one of the prime reasons why. It is not the first recent instance where smart, reasonable people have compellingly proven that an innocent man was executed in Texas. And it's certainly not the first time we've read the details of a capital case where the work of government officials -- police, prosecutors, judges -- was so profoundly and consistently shoddy. But there is something especially compelling about the DeLuna case. It's what drew Possley to it. It's what haunted the lone eyewitness for all these years. A legendary case of injustice deserved -- it needed -- a legendary treatment. And it got one. No one can ever say again with a straight face that America doesn't execute innocent men. No one. Barry Scheck told me Friday: "If Carlos DeLuna were still alive, [the Article] would form the basis of a habeas petition that would have exonerated him." Anyone who cares about the integrity of our justice system, and the constitutional values it is supposed to reflect, should expect Justice Scalia to read the Review article this summer -- and certainly before he writes another word for the Court about the death penalty. We'll see. I also especially recommend Los Tocayos Carlos to anyone and everyone -- judge, prosecutor, police official, witness, medical expert, etc -- who had anything at all to do with making the DeLuna case the symbol it will now become. DeLuna was reportedly slow as a child and tested as mildly mentally retarded as a juvenile. Later, he was in and out of trouble with the law until he was found (and was perhaps beaten) by the police on the night of the Lopez murder. There is great doubt even today that he fully understood the magnitude of the trouble he was in, even as he was nearing the end in 1989, which is why he made such a perfect patsy for Carlos Hernandez. The ultimate villain of this awful story, Hernandez died in prison, in 1999, boasting to the end that he had killed Wanda Lopez and allowed another man to take the fall for it. The cops knew this. The prosecutors knew or should have known it. Witnesses knew it. And yet no one did anything to stop the state executioners from carrying out their job. Why no one listened to Hernandez for all those years, and why no one hears the cries of others today, is a question Justice Scalia and many others have to answer for themselves. (source: Andrew Cohen is a contributing editor at The Atlantic and legal analyst for 60 Minutes. He is also chief analyst and legal editor for CBS Radio News and has won a Murrow Award as one of the nation's leading legal analysts and commentators; The Atlantic) From rhalperi at smu.edu Tue May 15 16:22:01 2012 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Tue, 15 May 2012 16:22:01 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] [SPAM] death penalty news----CALIF., USA, ARIZ., CONN., N.M., OHIO, WASH. Message-ID: May 15 CALIFORNIA: Jurors to weigh death penalty for Jamiel Shaw II's killer Jurors who found a gang member guilty of killing Los Angeles High School football star Jamiel Shaw II are to return to court Tuesday to determine if Pedro Espinoza should be put to death. Espinoza, now 23, was accused of gunning down Shaw in March 2008 because he was wearing a red Spider-Man backpack. Jurors deliberated for barely half a day last Wednesday before returning a guilty verdict. They found to be true allegations that Espinoza committed the crime in association with a gang and that he personally discharged a firearm, circumstances that made the death penalty an option. Prosecutors had argued that Espinoza shot the 17-year-old in the belief that he was a Bloods gang member because he was a black man wearing a red backpack. Shaw was shot near his Arlington Heights home as he walked back from a friend's house after a day of shopping at the mall. Espinoza, who had been released from custody just 28 hours earlier, asked Shaw, ?Where are you from?? before shooting into his abdomen, then again into his head in an execution-like manner, prosecutors contended. Driving away from the scene, he boasted to a fellow 18th Street gang member, ?I'm a killer,? according to testimony. Shaw's slaying touched off an outcry over the Los Angeles Police Department's practices regarding arrestees who are illegal immigrants, because Espinoza was in the U.S. illegally. After the verdict, Shaw's family said they wanted Espinoza to be executed. ?We want the death penalty bad. We want to set a precedent,? said the victim's father, Jamiel Shaw Sr. (source: Los Angeles Timse) *************** Lawsuit seeks to keep death penalty off ballot A victims' rights group is seeking to remove from the November ballot a measure that would abolish the death penalty. The Criminal Justice Legal Foundation filed a petition with the California Court of Appeal on Monday. The Sacramento-based group argues the initiative violates a state law limiting propositions to single subjects. If passed, the measure would abolish the death penalty and allocate $100 million saved from eliminating death row to law enforcement agencies to help solve murder and rape cases. The group charges the ballot measure is driving a "wedge" between 2i types of crime victims, those who support the death penalty and those yearning for solutions to unsolved cases. Backers of the proposition say the measure is solely about abolishing the death penalty. (source: Associated Press) USA (FLORIDA): Hate Crime Could Mean Death Penalty For Zimmerman George Zimmerman, the volunteer neighborhood watchman from Florida charged in the killing of unarmed black teen Trayvon Martin, could face federal hate crime charges, WFTV reports. Zimmerman profiled and stalked Martin before allegedly shooting and killing him Feb. 26, state prosecutors have said, so the FBI is looking into charging Zimmerman with a hate crime, the television station reports. Zimmerman has said he acted in self-defense. If Zimmerman is convicted of the 2nd-degree murder charge, he could face life in prison, but a hate crime charge could mean he would face the death penalty, WFTV reports. FBI representatives are interviewing residents of Zimmerman's neighorhood in Sanford, Fla., looking for evidence of a hate crime, according to WFTV. WFTV legal analyst Bill Sheaffer said, "What the government would have to prove is that Mr. Zimmerman acted out of hatred toward African Americans. That's why he came into contact with him. That's why he shot and killed him." Zimmerman lawyer Mark O'Mara tells WKMG television that he received a threat Monday. He said police officers were at his office investigationg, WKMG reports. No further details were available. (source: digtriad.com) ARIZONA----impending execution Appeals court refuses to block Arizona execution A federal appeals court is refusing to block an Arizona execution scheduled for Wednesday. Separate 3-judge panels of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco on Tuesday each denied an appeal filed on behalf of Samuel Villegas Lopez. One of the appeals challenged the state's execution procedures while the other argued that Lopez was denied effective legal representation. Meanwhile, Lopez's lawyers have asked the Arizona Supreme Court to block his execution so a lower court can consider whether Lopez's rights to a fair clemency hearing have been violated. Lopez is scheduled to be executed for the 1986 murder of Estefana Holmes of Phoenix. (source: Associated Press) ******** Judge doubts Samuel Lopez's clemency hearing's fairness, can't block execution A Maricopa County Superior Court judge ruled Monday that death-row inmate Samuel Lopez may not have received a fair state clemency-board hearing, but he added that he did not have the power to stop Wednesday's scheduled execution. Judge Joseph Kreamer partially agreed with Lopez's attorneys' challenge of actions by the Arizona Board of Executive Clemency, and he set a July 16 hearing on the matter. But the judge added that only the state Supreme Court could halt Lopez's execution. A July hearing on that case against the clemency board will be moot if Lopez's execution occurs as scheduled. The state Attorney General's Office said it would ask to have the hearing vacated, because there would no longer be a plaintiff with legal standing if Lopez is executed Wednesday. Lopez also had hearings Monday before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, where it was argued that the state's Corrections Department cannot be trusted to follow its own rules in carrying out the execution. In a second hearing, it was argued that Lopez did not receive effective legal assistance during his two murder trials or during his early appeals. Both also sought to delay Wednesday's execution. The federal court had not issued a decision late Monday. Lopez, 49, was sentenced to death for the murder of a Phoenix woman in 1986. Estefana Holmes was raped and sodomized in her apartment and stabbed more than 20 times before Lopez slit her throat. Julie Hall, an attorney for Lopez, argued in state court Monday that her client did not get a fair hearing before the clemency board because its members were not qualified and their appointments did not follow state law. His hearing ended in protest May 7. Kreamer agreed that Lopez's attorneys had "established a strong likelihood of success" on the claim the state failed to comply with the minimal requirements of the law and that his due-process rights were violated because he was "not afforded a hearing in a substantial sense." Kreamer set a hearing for July to determine if the clemency board was illegally constituted. At issue is whether 3 new appointed members -- Brian Livingston, Mel Thomas and new chairman Jesse Hernandez -- had received the 4 weeks of training required by state law before they considered Lopez's case. Another issue, according to the judge, is whether Hernandez had demonstrated an interest in the state's correctional programs, as required by law, and was qualified to be on the board. Gov. Jan Brewer's office has denied any violations in the appointment process and said state law does not specify that the four weeks of training must be completed before board members consider cases. (source: Arizona Repuoblic) ******************* AZ inmates receive health care some law-abiding citizens can?t Lynette Barrett's eyes well up with tears when she talks about her husband, Murray, his struggle to survive and their family's struggle to keep up with medical bills. "9 years ago last December," Barrett said is when she discovered Murray had liver failure. "He needs a new liver," she said. But her sorrow quickly turns to confusion after learning that life-saving medical procedures for Arizona death-row inmates are paid by the state while families like the Barretts no longer qualify for state assistance. Unable to work and with no health insurance, the Barretts found themselves under a mountain of debt and with an even larger bill on the horizon. "He's had 3 hospital stays in the last year and each of them has been over $50,000. Without insurance, we had to have $100,000 up front before they'd even consider a transplant," said Barrett. To raise money, the Barretts and other families in similar situations have had to become creative. They've held pancake breakfasts, auctions, car washes and accept donations on their blog. Since 2010, the state indigent healthcare system has purged more than 100,000 people from its rolls. The Barretts are among those who no longer qualify for state money. State leaders say helping them is a luxury they just can't afford. But a CBS 5 investigation found cases where state dollars have gone to lifesaving operations in one of the unlikeliest places: death row. Every inmate there is awaiting execution and in a strange quirk of the law, some of those condemned inmates are receiving the kind of state-funded medical care being denied to law-abiding citizens who don't have health insurance. In 1984, Robert Moorman murdered his adoptive mother and chopped her into pieces. But in November of last year, Moorman received a quintuple heart bypass surgery at the taxpayers' expense. He was executed three months later. Why does the state pay for healthcare for prison inmates? "Because there's no choice," said Daniel Pachoda, who is the legal director for the Phoenix office of the ACLU. He said he can't explain what happened to Moorman, but the requirements of the death penalty may help explain it. "That is a quirk in the law that people have to be medically and physically competent before they're allowed to be executed," said Pachoda. But according to Pachoda, it would be a mistake to think that all inmates get the same treatment. The ACLU recently sued the state, citing dozens of cases where basic medical treatment or antibiotics would have saved the lives of inmates or spared them from serious illness. Lynette Barrett says the Moorman case does not make any sense to her. "It's really hard to see somebody they're going to execute in 3 months ... what was the point of the bypass?" she asked. Department of Corrections officials would not discuss any specific inmate medical questions, but they said medical professionals are the ones who make the decisions about healthcare for inmates. And they insist that all inmates receive the same constitutionally required medical care. (source: KCTV News) CONNECTICUT: Conn. home invasion killer tries not to think about murders The Connecticut killer who once called himself one of the most hated men in America said in a death row interview that he tries not to think about the murder of a suburban mother and her 2 daughters, suffers no nightmares and has nothing to say to the only survivor of the brutal 2007 attack. Joshua Komisarjevsky told the Associated Press in his 1st interview since he was convicted that there isn't anything he could say to Dr. William Petit "that will restore the lives lost." He also declined an opportunity to express remorse for the killings. "I guess my reaction is not the reaction society expected," Komisarjevsky said. Wearing a yellow prison jumpsuit, Komisarjevsky kept direct eye contact during the one-hour interview Monday, smiling at times as he spoke by telephone from behind a glass window at Northern Correctional Institution in Somers, Conn. He had the same short hair and facial stubble that he wore during the trial, but the once-slender inmate has since put on 30 or 40 pounds, which he blamed on depression and lack of movement. He said he agreed to speak to a reporter out of curiosity. By turns jovial and introspective, he made references to an afflicted conscience but said he fills his time in solitary confinement by drawing, watching television and reading and responding to hate mail as well as notes from supporters. "Some days you're just overwhelmed by the isolation and the difficulties in communicating with loved ones, dealing with your own crisis of conscience," Komisarjevsky said. Komisarjevsky, 31, was convicted last year in a crime that unsettled notions of suburban safety and featured prominently in Connecticut's death penalty debate. He and his co-defendant, Steven Hayes, were convicted of killing Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her daughters. Hayes raped and strangled Hawke-Petit, while Komisarjevsky sexually assaulted her 11-year-old daughter, Michaela. Michaela and her 17-year-old sister, Hayley, were tied to their beds and died of smoke inhalation after the house was doused in gas and set on fire. Last month, Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy signed a new law that ends the state's death penalty for future crimes, but it does not apply to those already on death row. Many had insisted that the death penalty remain for previous cases so that Komisarjevsky and Hayes would not be spared. "In order for some to swallow this bitter pill, it was inevitable that we would be left out," Komisarjevsky said. In the last half-century, Connecticut has executed only one inmate ? serial killer Michael Ross, who was put to death in 2005 after voluntarily waiving his appeals. "I don't think I'll be executed against my will," Komisarjevsky said. "I think if I volunteer the state will execute me." Asked if would consider volunteering, Komisarjevsky said, "I have my days. I think everybody on death row has their days. Some days you'd consider it. Some days you don't." Still, he said he feels a responsibility to supporters, saying they would be hurt by his execution. He said his parents and a few friends visit him in prison. "The reality of my situation is that I'm going to die in prison," he said. "It's simply a matter of what age. It's a very surreal experience to be judged so worthless that society wants you dead." Asked if he is remorseful, he did not offer a direct answer. He said he has trouble expressing emotion. "I like everyone else has to get up every day and look in the mirror," Komisarjevsky said. Komisarjevksy said he has not spoken to Hayes, but has seen him passing by on death row, where a total of 11 inmates are each held in individual cells. During separate trials, Komisarjevksy and Hayes each blamed the other for escalating the crime. "Frankly, we don't have anything to talk about," Komisarjevsky said. "I'm sort of taking the stance let bygones be bygones. I know what I'm culpable for and he knows what he's culpable for." For the interview, Komisarjevsky was escorted into a room where his handcuffs were removed through a slot in the door. "I try really hard not to think about it," Komisarjevsky said of the crime. Among the ways he occupies his time is by drawing. He said one depicts a biblical scene of Daniel in the Lion's Den that he did for a friend. Komisarjevsky said he gets 2 hours per day of recreation time, but he has a television in his cell that gets several channels including the Spanish-language network Telemundo. "No hablo espanol, so that doesn't do me much good," Komisarjevsky said with a laugh. Komisarjevsky declined to comment directly about the crime, citing the advice of lawyers who are expected to file an appeal. In an audiotaped confession played for the jury in his trial last year, Komisarjevsky admitted that he spotted Hawke-Petit and 11-year-old Michaela at a supermarket and followed them to their house in Cheshire, a suburb of New Haven. After going home and putting his own daughter to bed, Komisarjevsky and Hayes returned to the Petit house in the middle of the night, while the family was sleeping, to rob it. William Petit was beaten, tied up and taken to the basement. He managed to escape and hop, roll and crawl across a yard to a neighbor's house for help. Petit advocated keeping the death penalty in Connecticut and last year successfully lobbied state senators to hold off on repeal legislation while Komisarjevsky was still facing a death penalty trial. Petit declined to comment through a spokesman. "July 23, 2007, was our personal holocaust," Petit said after Komisarjevsky was sentenced to death. "A holocaust caused by two who are completely evil and actually do not comprehend what they have done." (source: Associated Press) NEW MEXICO: Jurors deliberating in Astorga's NM death penalty trial Jurors on Monday began deliberating whether to allow prosecutors to seek the death penalty in the case of a man convicted of murdering a Bernalillo County sheriff's deputy. The prosecution and defense delivered their closing arguments in the case of Michael Astorga after more than two weeks of testimony. It will be up to jurors to decide whether the prosecution proved the aggravating circumstances required for the state to seek the death penalty. Astorga's attorney, Gary Mitchell, continued to argue that his client did not kill the deputy. "This is a new jury," Mitchell said during closing arguments. "This is a new presentation far greater than what any jury has ever heard with more witnesses, more clarity and frankly more information." Mitchell attacked the state's evidence during his closing arguments. He contends there's no evidence that Astorga's pickup truck was ever pulled over the night Deputy James McGrane was killed in the mountains east of Albuquerque. Astorga was convicted of the 2006 killing of the deputy during a traffic stop. He faces life in prison or death, even though New Mexico repealed the death penalty in 2009. He is eligible for the death penalty since the crime occurred before the repeal. District Attorney Kari Brandenburg said jurors should use their own common sense about what had happened, the Albuquerque Journal reported (http://bit.ly/JRBaYZ). Brandenburg argued that Astorga lied on the stand about possessing a gun, and she mocked what she called his "psychic abilities" that led him to flee to Mexico before he was identified as a suspect. Astorga was convicted in 2010. By Monday afternoon, jurors had sent several questions to state District Judge Neil Candelaria. They asked if Astorga would get a life sentence if they did not find the required aggravated circumstances. The judge answered yes. (source: Associated Press) OHIO: Death penalty pondered for man who killed 3----3 judges hear arguments before deciding fate 3 Franklin County judges are to decide today whether to impose the death penalty or sentence a man to life in prison for fatally stabbing his former girlfriend and her 2 children. The judges heard closing arguments yesterday in the case of Caron E. Montgomery, who pleaded guilty last week to murdering Tia Hendricks; their 2-year-old son, Tyron Hendricks; and her 10-year-old daughter, Tahlia Hendricks, on Thanksgiving Day 2010. Defense attorney Isabella Dixon told the judges that Montgomery should be spared the death sentence because his mother and the system failed him. But prosecutors argued that the aggravating circumstances that make Montgomery, 37, subject to the death penalty are ?overwhelming? and far outweigh any mitigating factors. ?Death is the only appropriate penalty in this case,? Assistant County Prosecutor Jennifer Rausch said. Common Pleas Judges Guy Reece, Pat Sheeran and Richard S. Sheward heard arguments in the morning and spent the rest of the day deliberating. A unanimous decision by the judges is necessary to impose the death penalty. The judges ruled last week that Montgomery is eligible for the death penalty because he purposely killed two or more people, including two victims under 13 years old, and killed the 10-year-old to escape detection. The defense presented mitigating evidence last Tuesday to convince the judges that they should impose a life sentence. All 3 victims died after their throats were slit, autopsies found. No motive was presented, but Montgomery was convicted of domestic violence against Tia Hendricks in 2009. Members of the victims? family told TheDispatch that Tia Hendricks had broken up with Montgomery but allowed him to stay in her apartment on Broad Meadows Boulevard on the North Side. She called 911 from her cellphone on the morning of Nov. 25, 2010, crying and screaming, ?Caron!? Because of problems tracing the call, the bodies weren?t found until the next afternoon. Montgomery was found in the apartment with a self-inflicted knife wound in the neck. In closing arguments, Dixon said that Montgomery suffered traumas throughout his childhood, beginning when he was raped by a group of boys at age 4. She said he had no positive role models; was raised by a crack-addicted, negligent mother; and was dumped on a Children Services system that failed him. Dixon said he ?took responsibility immediately? for his crimes by remaining at the apartment rather than fleeing. But Assistant County Prosecutor Doug Stead told the judges that Montgomery cut his own neck to make it appear that he was a victim. ?This wasn?t a suicide attempt,? Stead said. ?He knows how to slice a neck. This was superficial. So was his acceptance of responsibility.? (source: Columbus Dispatch) WASHINGTON: Pierce County jury deliberates whether to reinstate man?s death sentence A Pierce County jury is deliberating whether a man who had his death penalty overturned on appeal should again be sentenced to die for raping and killing a Tacoma woman. A jury in 2001 convicted Allen Eugene Gregory of aggravated 1st-degree murder in the 1996 death of Geneine Harshfield. Prosecutors alleged Gregory, now 39, attacked Harshfield, 43, in her kitchen, tied her hands behind her back, raped her and then slashed her throat and stabbed her. He wasn?t charged in Harshfield?s death until his DNA was drawn after being arrested for allegedly raping another woman 2 years later. The DNA from that case matched evidence found at the scene of Harshfield?s murder. The same jury that convicted him of killing Harshfield also recommended he be put to death, and Superior Court Judge Rosanne Buckner followed that recommendation. In 2006, the Washington state Supreme Court ratified Gregory?s murder conviction but overturned his death sentence, citing judicial and prosecutorial error. Prosecutors decided to try again for the death penalty, and his trial solely on that provision began two months ago. Lawyers in the case delivered their closing arguments Monday. If the jury decides Gregory should not be put to death, he?ll serve the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole. (source: Bellingham Herald) From rhalperi at smu.edu Tue May 15 16:24:56 2012 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Tue, 15 May 2012 16:24:56 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] [SPAM] death penalty news----worldwide Message-ID: May 15 CANADA: The Victoria Stafford file: Should Canada bring back the death penalty? The tragic and horrific death of eight-year-old Victoria ?Tori? Stafford has caused many Canadians to question whether Canada should reinstate the death penalty. On May 11, a jury of 9 women and 3 men convicted Michael Rafferty of 1st-degree murder, sexual assault causing bodily harm and kidnapping in the death of the Grade 3 student. Tori vanished outside her school in Woodstock, Ontario in April 2009. Her remains were found 3 months later under piles of rocks. According to Amnesty International?s 2011 death penalty report, death sentences were pardoned or commuted in 33 countries, compared to just 19 in 2010. Canada abolished the death penalty for murder in 1976. The last execution in Canada was at Toronto?s Don Jail on December 11, 1962. In the wake of Rafferty?s trial, several petitions have been set up online urging the death penalty be reinstated for violent crimes against children. Outside the courtroom in London shortly after Rafferty?s verdict was handed down, motorists drove by yelling, ?hang him.? In 2010, Rafferty's ex-girlfriend Terri-Lynne McClintic pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in Tori's death and is currently serving a life sentence. During Rafferty?s trial, McClintic described the gruesome details of Tori?s kidnapping and death and testified that she killed the young girl using a hammer. On Tuesday, Rafferty was formally sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years. He was also sentenced to 10 years to be served concurrently for sexual assault causing bodily harm and kidnapping. Global News spoke with Aubrey Harris, co-ordinator of the Canadian Amnesty International Campaign to Abolish the Death Penalty about whether or not Canada should reinstate the death penalty. What is your definition of capital punishment or the death penalty? Capital punishment, also called the death penalty, is the deliberate killing of someone (execution) as part of a sentence following a judicial procedure in response to an offence under the law. This can be differentiated from extrajudicial executions, which lack a judicial process (e.g., armed forces are sometimes accused of extrajudicial executions when executing prisoners of war without trial). Why do you think such highly-publicized cases like the Rafferty trial cause Canadians to question whether the death penalty should be reinstated? As with any violent description of a crime, it is quite normal for us to be angry and repulsed by the suggestion that a young person could have been treated in such a way. Public opinion polls taken at such times don?t usually ask what sort of justice system do you want to have, but whether it?s OK to execute someone convicted of a violent crime. These are really distinct questions. The distinction becomes clearer when presented with alternative punishments. Support for the death penalty plummets when given the option of life imprisonment, though death penalty proponents are unlikely to offer that when they claim to be seeking public opinion. The difference was also highlighted in the Abacus poll last year that claimed a majority support of the death penalty but also a majority of Canadians opposed to reinstatement. There is another dimension to this question in Canada also ? Canada cannot legally reinstate the death penalty without violating international law and destroying Canada?s trustworthiness for international treaties and agreements. It is also extremely unlikely that it could survive a Constitutional challenge today given that the grounds used in the Burns decision 10 years ago have strengthened even more. Today more than two thirds of the countries in the world have abandoned the death penalty in use or law. There is an international consensus that the death penalty is now a minority practice in the world with only a handful of countries regularly executing prisoners. Overall, do you think Canadians would like to see the death penalty reinstated? Why or why not? The result of a reinstatement of the death penalty, even if it were legally possible, would be detrimental to Canada. Foreign relations would be grossly affected by the destruction of our reputation in trustworthiness, in the giant step backwards in human rights and the cost of implementing a death penalty system would put our domestic finances in peril. The cost of the death penalty has been cited as one of the driving forces behind the gradual abolition of the death penalty in the United States. Fortunately I don?t think it would get to this point. Not only do the legal prohibitions make it unlikely, but public opinion generally moves against the death penalty once the population becomes more informed on the facts, in particular: it is costly, does not reduce crime and there is no way to guarantee an innocent person will not be executed. Are there cases where the death penalty would be suitable? For example, in a case where a child is the murder victim or in a case where the jury concludes that, after examining all of the evidence, they believe that without a doubt the accused is guilty of 1st or 2nd degree murder? The death penalty corrupts justice. Sacrificing human rights to obtain a sense of vengeance is no way to achieve a just society. Even for the worst of crimes, the International Criminal Court, which hears the cases of those charged with crimes such as genocide, does not have the death penalty. There is also an argument to be made that the most violent cases are also those where the greatest care must be taken over evidence. The pressure to find ?the killer? is going to be heaviest on the authorities and in some cases on the jury as well to convict. This is especially the case, for example, in the United States where many positions such as District Attorney or Sherriff are elected. Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases on the grounds that it is a violation of the most fundamental human rights: the right to life and the right to be free from cruel or inhumane treatment or punishment. These rights are enshrined in founding documents of the United Nations and are rights that were agreed to by all nations. Even the largest executing nations in the world acknowledge that there will be a day when they too will abolish the death penalty. Advocates tend to argue that the death penalty acts as a deterrent for criminals yet some studies show that threat of execution is no more effective as a deterrent to murder than the punishment of life in jail. Why could that be? Advocates making that claim have been proven wrong time and again. There have been countless studies on whether the death penalty acts as a deterrent. Nearly all come to the conclusion that the death penalty does not deter violent crime. The few that have made the claim that it does deter have all been shown to be seriously flawed. Some studies have even suggested that the death penalty may increase the rate of violent crime. Part of the reason the death penalty does not reduce violent crime is that violent crime is not typically planned-out. The action is not a rational one and it is hard to expect that someone in the midst of irrational thinking would have the ability to stop and think rationally about consequences until after. Having the death penalty may also increase the risk of violent crime against authorities. Once a person has reason to fear being executed it is quite rational for them to do everything possible to avoid being caught. There is a contradiction in the system when capital punishment is at play. Put simply, it is contradictory to say killing is wrong and to prove it, we are going to kill someone. Does a death penalty sentence tend to provide more closure for families of murdered victims than a life in prison sentence? No ? there is no indication that a family actually gets ?closure? through an execution. In fact there is a growing number of organizations in the United States and around the world, of survivors of violent crime and the families of victims of violent crime, that oppose the death penalty. Murder Victims Families for Human Rights is one such organization. In some cases also, because of the mandatory appeals processes built into the death penalty system, many families feel re-traumatized during each hearing. In the end family members are subjected to watching a human being be strapped down and killed. Afterwards the public often expects them to feel healed when in fact they have gained nothing. In examining the question of closure, psychiatrists have come to the conclusion that witnessing an execution is highly traumatic and not healing. Dr. David Spiegel studied the witnesses of several high-profile executions in recent years and concluded ?the theory that execution provides ?closure? is a ?na?ve, unfounded, pop psychology idea? perpetuated by politicians and the media.? I had the privilege of meeting and hearing the testimonies of several members of Murder Victims Families for Human Rights in 2010. One of the key points they made was that for healing to really work, they needed to be able to reach out and understand from the perpetrator why they did the crime. In many cases this would not be possible with a death penalty. Others noted that they felt that having someone executed was no way to honour the life of their loved one. What are the consequences and benefits of reinstating the death penalty back into our society? Into our legal system? There really is no benefit to reinstating the death penalty. There will be no reduction in the rate of violent crime, costs on the justice system will skyrocket and Canada's international reputation will be ruined. We are bound by the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights not to reinstate the death penalty. There is no mechanism to withdraw from the protocol (unlike with the Kyoto Protocol). We would not only be violating the protocol, but also the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties. What state is likely to want to sign into any agreement with Canada when we have demonstrated our word is no good on such agreements? A treaty on arctic sovereignty? Forget it. Extraditing people from other countries for crimes they committed here? Not without diplomatic assurances that the death penalty will not be applied ? but what value would those diplomatic assurances be with our ruined reputation for agreements? Trade agreements with European Union countries? Still no good. Pleas with other countries not to execute Canadian citizens? On what grounds if we have decided that our government can have the ability to execute their citizens? Should the debate regarding reinstating the death penalty be reopened? Should Canadians even care about this debate? The death penalty cannot be reinstated in Canada. One day people will look back on the question of the death penalty the same way today we look back on slavery and wonder how we ever let it happen anywhere in the world. There is still room for debate in Canada but the frame of the argument is wrong when we argue about whether to bring it back in Canada. We should be asking is Canada doing enough to help other countries advance their human rights. Canada was once a world leader in the abolition movement. This not only helped to protect citizens in other countries from facing execution, but also helped to protect Canadians. Today there are at least 6 Canadians facing execution in other countries, many of whom face execution on incredibly weak cases and questionable charges. When we ask Iran not to execute Saeed Malekpour, sentenced to death for writing internet coding to allow photos to be uploaded, or with Saudi Arabia not to execute Mohamed Kohail, sentenced to death after he went to help his little brother get safely away from a crowd of armed youths at school, we argue most convincingly when we demonstrate that Canada opposes capital punishment always and are not just selective about whose justice system we recognize. We must argue from principle not by special request. (source: Global News) CHINA: Wuhan bank bomber given death sentence A man who shocked China by detonating a bomb in front of a bank in Wuhan, Hubei province, was sentenced to death on Monday, according to the city's intermediate people's court. Wang Haijian, 25, was convicted of using explosives in a robbery attempt on a China Construction Bank branch in Hongshan district of Wuhan with self-made explosives on Dec 1. 2 people were killed and 15 injured. The convict said at the 5-hour trial that he began learning to make explosives using the Internet and books in October 2010, and he originally intended to sell them to mine developers and companies. In March 2011, Wang, a resident of Zaoyang, first met Wang Wei, his co-defendant in the case and moved to Wang Wei's rented room n Hongshan district, where the two made explosives, according to court papers. 2 months later, Wang Haijian asked Wang An'an, another friend of his, to join his explosives business. The three started planning to rob a bank after they failed to sell their explosives, Wang Haijian told the court. Wang Haijian's left eye was injured during one of the explosives experiments the three conducted when they were planning the robbery, according to the verdict. The three had divided their work. Wang Haijian was responsible for choosing a target bank as well as installing and detonating the explosives, Wang An'an was responsible for committing the robbery and preparing a motorcycle for escape, and Wang Wei was supposed to hide the money after the robbery, according to the court. After the bank was chosen, the 3 did some tests and made preparations for the robbery. But Wang An'an and Wang Wei quit the robbery plan in August, saying they were afraid of punishment, according to the verdict. Wang Haijian was not deterred by his accomplices' quitting. He covered the explosives in cement and placed them in front of the bank. After detonating them, he did not carry out the robbery as planned and sped away on a motorcycle on the night of Dec 1, according to the court. He was captured 2 weeks later. Wang Wei was sentenced to 10 years in prison, and Wang An'an received 6 years. In addition, the judge did not ask Wang Haijian to compensate victims, because he has no fixed income and got a death penalty. Instead, Wang An'an and Wang Wei should pay compensation of 80,000 yuan ($12,680), including about 50,000 yuan to the victims. Zhao Li, a criminal lawyer from the Zhen Bang Law Firm in Beijing, said the death penalty for Wang Haijian is fair, given that the crime was intentional. Locals hailed the verdict. (source: China Daily) IRAQ: Tariq Al Hashemi Trial: Iraq Vice President Trial Starts In Baghdad Former bodyguards for Iraq's fugitive vice president testified Tuesday that they were ordered to kill security officials and plant roadside bombs as a politically charged terror trial against the Sunni leader got under way. Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi, who was in Turkey but faced trial in absentia, has denied all charges against him. If convicted, he could face the death penalty. The case threatens to paralyze Iraq's government by fueling simmering Sunni and Kurdish resentments against Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who critics claim is monopolizing power. Al-Hashemi is an ardent critic of al-Maliki, whose government issued a warrant for the vice president's arrest the day after U.S. troops left Iraq last December. Al-Hashemi has been accused of playing a role in 150 bombings, assassinations and other attacks from 2005 to 2011, according to the judicial council. The Iraqi government alleges that Sunni death squads were largely composed of his bodyguards and other employees. The charges against the vice president span the worst years of bloodshed that followed the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq as retaliatory sectarian attacks between Sunni and Shiite militants pushed the country to the brink of civil war. He has been in office since 2006. Tuesday's testimony focused on more recent years, when violence ebbed but insurgents continued to attack security forces and other targets in a bid to undermine the Iraqi government in the run-up to the U.S. withdrawal in December. Bodyguard Odai Ghazi Amin, who served in the Iraqi army under Saddam Hussein, said he joined al-Hashemi's staff in 2008 and was ordered by the vice president's son-in-law in 2009 to escort bomb-planting missions on roads across Baghdad. In 2011, Amin said he was told to assassinate an army general and a lawyer ? orders he tried to avoid by asking for a job transfer. But he said he was threatened by the son-in-law, who ran al-Hashemi's office, that he would be killed and his family in danger if he refused the deadly missions. Last September, Amin testified, he was summoned to meet with the vice president. "Al-Hashemi told me that he is going to assign me to kill some officers who work against the interests of the state and to carry out operations on security checkpoints," Amin said. Amin testified that after the meeting, al-Hashemi's son-in-law Ahmed Qahtan, who also faces terror charges, gave him and 2 other bodyguards silenced guns and told them to assassinate army Brig. Gen. Talib Balaasim. The bodyguards tracked down Balaasim in western Baghdad, and Amin testified that he killed the general, in a Sept. 26 drive-by shooting before returning to al-Hashemi's office in the heavily guarded Green Zone. "About 2 days after the attack, al-Hashemi received us (in his office) and said to us, `God bless your efforts,'" Amin testified. He said the bodyguards shared a $3,000 payment. Amin's account was later contradicted by testimony from another bodyguard, Yassir Saadi Hassoun. Hassoun said he and his brother opened fire on Balaasim, not Amin. A 3rd bodyguard, Ahmed al-Jubouri, described a November 2011 shooting that killed national security official Ibrahim Saleh Mahdi and his wife. Al-Jubouri said Mahdi was ordered killed because he had become "a source of annoyance" to al-Hashemi. Al-Hashemi is in Turkey, where he has said he is receiving medical treatment. His spokesman, Fahad al-Turki, said al-Hashemi was not available to comment on Tuesday's proceedings. Ahmed Qahtan also is in Turkey. He has hotly denied the charges, and accuses the government of torturing his bodyguards to obtain confessions from them. The Iraqi judiciary last month investigated and dismissed his claims. The vice president believes he will not get a fair trial in Baghdad's criminal court, and has asked that the case be heard by a special tribunal appointed by parliament. His allies see the trial as another political power battle in Iraq. "As far as I'm concerned, the issue of al-Hashemi is more political than a legal one," said Sunni lawmaker Hamid al-Mutlaq of the Iraqiya political bloc that opposes al-Maliki. Al-Hashemi's trial has also strained relations between Iraq and several of its mainly Sunni neighbors, including the Gulf states and Turkey. Earlier this month, Interpol issued a so-called "red notice" on al-Hashemi, which puts member countries on alert that he is wanted for arrest in Baghdad. But Turkey, which has provided sanctuary to al-Hashemi and is on tense terms with his opponents in the Iraqi government, is hesitant to pursue the Sunni vice president. The trial was scheduled to resume on Sunday. Underscoring the continued violence in Iraq, a suicide bomber drove an explosives-rigged fuel truck into the front gate of an army post in the northern city of Mosul, a former al-Qaida stronghold, wounding 15 people, authorities said. (source: Huffington Post) IRAN----execution A prisoner charged with espionage for Israel and killing an Iranian nuclear scientist, was hanged this morning A prisoner identified as "Majid Jamali Fashi" was hanged in Tehran this morning. According to the official site of the Iranian judiciary in Tehran," Majid Jamali Fashi" was convicted of "Moharebeh" and "corruption on earth" for murdering the Iranian nuclear scientist "(Masoud) Ali Mohammadi" and espionage for Mosad (the Israeli intelligence). He was sentenced to death in September 2011. Iranian state media on Sunday announced that the trials of 10 to 15 "convicts of collaboraion with Mosad (the Israeli intelligence service) took place in Tehran. According to these news "most" of those charged were sentenced to imprisonment. According to the Iranian opposition website Kalemeh the Iranian student Omid Kokabee was among those convicted for espionage on Sunday. Iran Human Rights has now confirmed that Omid Kokabee, the Iranian graduate student at the University of Texas, who was arrested by the Iranian authorities when he was visiting Iran, has been sentenced to 10 years in jail. According to the state run Mehr news agency the verdicts can be appealed within 20 days. Iran Human Rights spokesperson condemned today?s execution and the heavy jail sentences issued on Sunday. He said: "We have many reports indicating that prisoners are subjected to torture and forced confessions". He added: "Often the prisoners are sentenced based on the confessions they have made under torture". (source: Iran Human Rights) ************************* Iran Executes Assassin Of Nuclear Scientist Iran on Tuesday executed a young man convicted of assassinating an Iranian nuclear scientist in 2010 and spying for Israeli intelligence agency Mossad, state media reported. "Majid Jamali Fashi, the Mossad spy and the person who assassinated Masoud Ali Mohammadi, our nation's nuclear scientist was hanged on Tuesday morning," the IRNA news agency reported. Iranian media reported that 24-year-old Fashi was hanged to death at Tehran's infamous Evin prison. He was sentenced to death by an Iranian court in August last year for murdering the nuclear scientist. During his trial, Fashi was accused of having received training and money from Mossad for killing the nuclear scientist. He was charged with 'moharebeh,' which means 'enmity against God' and faced death penalty if convicted. In an appearance on Iranian state TV in January after his conviction, Fashi confessed to the killing of Mohammadi, a professor of nuclear physics at Tehran University, and admitted to receiving orders from Mossad to carry out the killing along with 5 others which he did not carry out. Mohammadi was killed in a bomb explosion near his home in Tehran's Qeytariyeh district on January 12, 2010. He was killed by a remote-controlled bomb hidden in a motorcycle parked near his home. Iran's Foreign Ministry had then said that "in the initial investigation, signs of the triangle of wickedness by the Zionist regime, America and their hired agents, are visible in the terrorist act." But the United States dismissed the allegation and the State Department described the Iranian claim as "absurd." However, Iran announced in January, 2011 that it had dismantled a network "comprising of Israeli spies and terrorists" and arrested "the main agents" responsible for the nuclear scientist's killing. It is not clear what happened to the other suspects. In addition to Mohammadi, several other Iranian scientists have been killed or injured in attacks in recent months. Daryoush Rezaei, a physicist at a Tehran University, was shot dead by unidentified gunmen outside his home in Tehran in July last year. Prior to that incident, one Iranian nuclear scientist was killed and another injured in separate but identical bomb attacks in Tehran in November, 2010. The scientist killed in one of those attacks was Majid Shahriari, a member of the nuclear engineering department of the Shahid Beheshti University. The scientist injured in the 2nd attack on the same day was identified as Fereydoon Abbasi, a nuclear physicist who did research at the Defense Ministry. Soon after those attacks, Iran blamed Israeli and other foreign intelligence agents for the incidents, alleging that the attacks were part of efforts by the West to undermine the Islamic Republic's disputed nuclear program. (source: RTT News) SAUDI ARABIA: Saudi beheads Yemeni convicted of murder Saudi Arabia on Tuesday beheaded a Yemeni national, convicted of killing a fellow Yemeni in the kingdom, the SPA news agency reported quoting the interior ministry. Ibrahim Zouani was convicted of clubbing to death fellow Yemeni Khalid Saafan, the ministry said, adding that he was executed in the southwestern Saudi city of Abha. His beheading brings to 25 the total number of executions in the ultra-conservative kingdom so far this year, according to an AFP tally based on official reports. Under the AFP count, at least 76 people were beheaded in 2011 in Saudi Arabia, while rights group Amnesty International put the number of executions last year at 79. The death penalty in Saudi Arabia applies to a wide range of offences including rape, apostasy, armed robbery and drug trafficking, as well as murder, as stipulated by Islamic Sharia law. (source: Agence France-Presse) PAKISTAN: Govt urged to stay hanging in Karachi The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) on Monday noted with alarm that, despite an informal moratorium on executions, a man on death row is scheduled to be hanged in a Karachi prison on May 23. In a statement, the commission said: ?The HRCP has called upon the government to stay the hanging and announce a formal moratorium on executions. The HRCP has received with serious concern and dismay reports that Behram Khan, a death row prisoner in Karachi, is set to be hanged on May 23. The last execution of a death row prisoner in the country had taken place in late 2008. Executions have since been suspended. The HRCP has welcomed the suspension of executions in the country and has on numerous occasions called upon the government to keep the promise it had made in 2008 to convert almost all death sentences into life imprisonment. The HRCP wishes to remind the government that the reasons that had caused the stay of executions in 2008 have not changed. These include the well-documented deficiencies of the law, flaws in administration of justice and investigation methods and chronic corruption and on account of these factors a very high probability of miscarriage of justice prevails. Capital punishment remains on the statute books for 28 offences, and the courts continue to award death sentences. Against this backdrop, the report of Behram?s planned execution on May 23 is a regressive step and raises concerns at several levels. The HRCP calls upon the government to immediately halt this and any other executions that might be under consideration and make the informal suspension of executions formal forthwith. Such a decision would do away with the need for the president to issue orders staying executions every 6 months or so. We also urge the president to favourably consider mercy petitions and convert capital punishment to life imprisonment. The HRCP demands that the government takes urgent measures towards abolition of capital punishment in Pakistan, including deletion of the death penalty from the statute books, at least for all but the most serious offences. The HRCP also urges the government to sign the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, aimed at the abolition of the death penalty. The Commission calls upon parliamentarians, political parties and the civil society to join the campaign for abolition of the death penalty in Pakistan and enhance respect for the right to life in Pakistan.? (source: Dawn) From rhalperi at smu.edu Tue May 15 19:34:54 2012 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Tue, 15 May 2012 19:34:54 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] [SPAM] death penalty news----MONT., NEB., PENN., WASH. Message-ID: May 15 MONTANA: ?I?m good to go?: Ronald Smith, Canadian on death row in U.S. ready for any fate For a man who has spent nearly 30 years fighting his death sentence, Ronald Smith is surprisingly comfortable with the prospect of being executed. As a Montana parole board weighs Smith?s bid to commute his death sentence to life in prison without parole, the double murderer from Alberta says he?s not worried about his own fate. ?Personally, I?m good to go with this thing,? he says during an interview this month inside Montana State Prison, a sprawling facility tucked in the foothills just outside Deer Lodge. ?The only people that I?m concerned about if it goes the other way is my family. This is going to have a huge detrimental effect on them, and that bothers me a lot,? he said. With only 2 inmates currently awaiting execution in Montana, the state doesn?t have a death row in the physical sense. Smith is confined in 1 of 2 maximum-security units on the prison grounds, a squat concrete box with only small windows to let in light from the outside. Policy dictates death row inmates are kept in maximum security because they are seen as having ?nothing to lose,? but Smith has long been considered a model prisoner. It emerged during Smith?s clemency hearing that an official once recommended moving Smith to a lower-security cellblock until it was discovered he was facing the death penalty. Policy notwithstanding, some prison staffers say privately Smith?s track record inside doesn?t justify keeping him locked in a cell 23 hours a day. Nevertheless, policy is strictly observed by everyone as correctional officers handcuff Smith, 54, and lead him from his upper-tier cell to a manager?s office for the interview. Smith remains handcuffed during the visit and an officer stands watch in the doorway behind him. ?How are you doin?, Ron?? one asks Smith during the move. ?Same old, same old,? Smith answers. The journey that landed Smith on death row in the United States began on a summer day in 1982 when he and two friends, Rod Munro and Andre Fontaine, decided to get out of Red Deer, Alta., and head south. Under the cover of night, they sneaked across the border into Montana. The trio of drifters ended up at a bar in East Glacier Park on the Blackfeet Indian reservation, where they met Harvey Mad Man and Thomas Running Rabbit, who were cousins. The men then spent a friendly afternoon shooting pool and drinking beer. The groups parted ways at the bar but met up again on the highway, where Mad Man, 23, and Running Rabbit, 19, spotted the Canadians hitchhiking and offered them a ride. The generous gesture was met with treachery from Smith and his companions, who had discussed stealing the car. Smith says his recollection of the murders is hazy because he was drunk and high on LSD, but in one previous account the plan was set in motion during a bathroom break at the side of a lonely highway near the Marias Pass: Smith pulled a sawed-off rifle he had smuggled across the border and Munro brandished a knife. They marched Mad Man and Running Rabbit into the dense brush, where Smith shot them both in the head. Smith and Munro initially faced the death penalty, but prosecutors offered them both life in prison if they pleaded guilty. Munro took the deal, but Smith turned it down and asked for the death penalty. A judge quickly granted Smith?s request, which met with little opposition from the public defender assigned to represent him. Smith changed his mind in the weeks that followed, and has spent 3 decades trying to get the state to change its mind. ?I was looking at a life sentence. All I could think of is, ?I have no interest in spending another 20 years sitting in prison,?? Smith says. The irony isn?t lost on Smith, who chuckles and allows a brief smile to flash across his face. ?It?s a little bit odd considering how long I?ve been here, but that was the thought process: I had no interest in spending my life sitting around.? And so, a man who asked for a death sentence because he couldn?t face the prospect of growing old in prison now seeks to live the remainder of his natural life behind bars. It?s just 1 paradox in a case replete with them. Consider Smith?s family, described by one witness as dysfunctional and ?fragmented? in the years immediately following the killings. Somehow, from behind the walls of a prison hundreds of kilometres away, Smith has managed to forge positive relationships with his father, sisters, daughter and grandchildren. Then there are the politics of the case: a Canadian government nominally opposed to capital punishment has offered only grudging support for Smith?s clemency bid. Meanwhile, a retired prison guard who worked 32 years for Smith?s jailer and would-be executioner testified he supports the clemency application and has reconsidered his support of the death penalty. Only one thing has remained straightforward amid the legal appeals and political machinations: the unwavering desire of the victims? families, Blackfeet tribe members and prosecutors to see Smith?s death sentence finally carried out. ?This man needs to be executed,? said William Talks About, an uncle who discovered the decomposed bodies of Mad Man and Running Rabbit after more than 6 weeks of searching by dozens of family members and volunteers. ?30 years is too long for the state and the taxpayers to be taking care of him." The case is now in the hands of a three-person parole panel, which has retired to weigh the evidence given by more than 30 witnesses who testified during last Wednesday?s clemency hearing at the Powell County courthouse in Deer Lodge. The board has 30 days after the hearing to deliver a non-binding recommendation to Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer, who will ultimately decide if Smith will be executed by lethal injection. The board has said it will announce its recommendation the week of May 21. Smith will pass the time awaiting news about his fate the same way he has passed almost every day for nearly 30 years: spending 23 hours in his cell, with 1 hour a day to shower and exercise by himself in a common area. ?It?s pretty blah, actually. I work out, I write letters, I watch TV, I read when I can get the books. You fill your day up with pretty much anything you can,? he says. For a man destined to spend the rest of his life behind bars ? however long or short that may be ? fantasy novels that allow him to escape, if only mentally, are frequent choices. ?I?m into the fantasy world, books that if it?s a good storyline, you can involve yourself and pretty much lose yourself,? says Smith, naming Robert Jordan as a favourite author. Over the years, Smith finished high school and is a few credits short of a 2-year associate degree. He also trained himself in paralegal work, which Smith describes as a constructive outlet for his energy. Although Smith has no physical contact with other inmates, they can talk between their cells or send ?kites? ? tossed written messages that are retrieved by the recipient or someone who agrees to pass it along. Smith says he helped clear an inmate facing institutional charges and win compensation for another whose property was lost by prison staff. ?It?s quite an uplifting feeling to be able to do that,? he says. Above all, Smith looks forward to contact with his family in Alberta, who visit once or twice a year. In between, there are weekly phone calls. ?Short of actually being there to give them a hug, I?m there more so than you might be able to imagine. It?s still playing the big brother role, giving them a shoulder to cry on, somebody to talk to, offering advice,? he says. Some argue Smith?s tightly controlled environment leaves little room for violence or misconduct, but a psychologist who testified on his behalf said his good behaviour is unusual among inmates facing the death penalty. ?A high number commit suicide or go insane,? said Dr. Bowman Smelko. Over the years, the federal government had lent its voice to Smith?s cause, based on Canada?s official position to the death penalty since abolishing capital punishment in 1976. At one time, the former Liberal government was working to have Smith returned to Canada under a bilateral treaty that allows prisoners to finish their sentence in a Canadian institution. That changed with the election of the Conservatives in 2006, with Prime Minister Stephen Harper saying that supporting clemency would send the ?wrong signal? at a time when it was implementing a tough-on-crime agenda in Canada. In 2009, the Federal Court of Canada ordered the government to continue support for Smith. Its response was a brief letter to Montana officials from Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird asking them to commute Smith?s sentence but adding the Canadian government ?does not sympathize with violent crime,? and the request ?should not be construed as reflecting a judgment on Smith?s conduct.? Baird?s terse missive may have complied with the letter of the ruling, but Smith and his supporters criticized the Conservatives for failing to live up to its spirit. ?It?s like a petulant child: ?We?re being forced into this, but whatever you want to do, go ahead.? I don?t think it benefits me, but I don?t think it really hurts me, either. We can present a good enough argument to show I?m not the same person I was 30 years ago. I think that?s going to be of more benefit than anything the Canadian government does, did or did not do,? Smith says. The controversy flared anew at Smith?s clemency hearing, when a Canadian consular official was added to the list of defence witnesses at the last minute. The official was apparently supposed to read a new, presumably more supportive letter to the parole board, but did not testify. Smith?s lawyers allege the government once again reneged on its duty to help. In large measure, Smith?s clemency bid rests on demonstrating what Montana law calls an ?extended period of exemplary behaviour? and evidence of remorse. Smith and his lawyers feel they have met that test, and Smith issued a direct apology to the families of Mad Man and Running Rabbit during his clemency hearing. But the parole board will also consider the circumstances of the crime itself and the impact it had on the victims and their loved ones. Smith killed Mad Man and Running Rabbit, but a dozen family members told the parole board the crime hastened the deaths of victims? grandmother, their mothers and other relatives. Running Rabbit had a young daughter and an infant son who grew up without him. While Smith can enjoy visits with his daughter and grandchildren, all Jessica Crawford and Thomas Running Rabbit IV have left of their father is a grave marker. ?I have a great deal of jealousy toward what (Smith?s daughter) has and I don?t,? Crawford told the parole board. ?I want what she has. I want what he took.? Smith?s lawyers also argued he was poorly represented at trial by an inexperienced and indifferent public defender. Munro was ?equally culpable,? said Don Vernay, yet the plea agreement he accepted allowed him to finish his sentence in Canada. He is now free on parole while Smith sits on death row. (Fontaine, who co-operated with investigators and didn?t have a hand in the killings, has long since finished serving the five-year sentence he received.) Former prosecutors say Smith received fair trials, each of which ended in the same result: a death sentence. The punishment fits the crime, and justice for Mad Man and Running Rabbit?s relatives ? living and dead ? dictates the death sentence is carried out, former state attorney Tom Esch told the parole board. ?To bestow mercy now is not justice,? he said. (source: Postmedia News) NEBRASKA: Neb. lawmakers want fresh look at execution method Some Nebraska lawmakers say questions about the state's supply of a lethal injection drug should prompt the state to reconsider its execution protocol. Nebraska's protocol was developed by the state Correctional Services department and approved by the governor. It calls for the administration of 3 drugs, including sodium thiopental, which is hard to obtain in the United States. Nebraska has twice obtained supplies of the drug. The 1st batch, obtained from an India-based drug company in January 2011, was ruled to have been illegally imported. Questions are mounting about the importation of the 2nd batch, delaying executions. Omaha Sen. Brad Ashford told the Lincoln Journal Star (http://bit.ly/KeUsKE) that if there are problems with Nebraska's method of execution, then lawmakers are obligated to re-examine it. "If any system was this dysfunctional anywhere else in state government, we would have a committee, we would have a commission, we would have subpoena power and we'd do all sorts of things," said Ashford, who chairs the Judiciary Committee, which considers measures related to the courts. "But because it's the death penalty, there is a reticence to look closely at it. I think we should. I think it's our obligation." Omaha Sen. Scott Lautenbaugh, another committee member, agreed. He told the newspaper he'd be willing to take another look at the protocol approved in 2010, after the state changed its method of execution from electrocution to lethal injection. A Swiss pharmaceutical company has issued a voluntary recall of the drug, saying the product was "illegally diverted from the company's supply chain." Nebraska state officials have said they obtained the supply in a legitimate manner and will not return it. In March, a U.S. judge found the FDA wrongly allowed other states to import the drug. The judge ordered the federal agency to immediately notify any state correctional department with foreign-manufactured thiopental that its use is prohibited by law, and that the drug must be returned to the FDA. The Nebraska attorney general's office has refused a request from the FDA to turn over Nebraska's batch of sodium thiopental. The attorney general instead suggested the FDA appeal the federal judge's ruling. Correctional Services Director Bob Houston has said the execution protocol would not be changed, as it has in other states dealing with similar drug problems. Those states have switched to a 1-drug protocol that relies on barbiturate pentobarbital. Omaha Sen. Steve Lathrop, vice chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said he worries that changing the protocol will bring new challenges, such as a new round of appeals from death row inmates. "The big issue with the protocol is whether it is a humane way to kill someone," he said. "The current protocol essentially puts someone to sleep, then the other drugs stop their breathing and heart. A 1-drug shot in the arm may not work the same way." Lathrop suggested Nebraska may want to abolish the death penalty altogether. "The system encourages decades of litigation while the victim's families wait for finality," he said. "For the sake of the victim's families who deserve the finality of a true life sentence, and for taxpayers whose hard-earned taxes are paying for this litigation, the death penalty should be repealed and replaced with incarceration until dead." (source: The Independent) PENNSYLVANIA----2 new death sentences Jury gives death penalty in case of slain rapper It took a Lancaster County jury 8 hours to decide Jakeem Towles should die for killing a young hip-hop artist 2 years ago in Columbia. At 4:10 p.m. Tuesday, the jury foreman, a man in his 40s, confirmed aloud the decision that was written on a verdict sheet: death. Towles, in silence, held his hand to his chin and stared down ? a stature he maintained for most of the 7-day trial regarding the death of Cornell "Young E-Z" Stewart. The courtroom gallery, however, exploded in noise. Towles' family members shrieked and cried loudly, prompting deputy sheriffs to physically remove them. One deputy hopped over a bench to reach Towles' supporters, some of whom flailed and screamed. On the way out, Towles' teenage sister screamed at Stewart's supporters: "He's dead! He's dead!" Towles, now 22, is the 1st person sentenced to death in Lancaster County since 20-year-old Abe Sanchez in 2009. Sanchez was convicted of killing 65-year-old Ray Diener during a botched robbery at Diener's West Donegal home in 2007. The jury that labored 8 hours over 2 days in deliberation was visibly distraught Tuesday afternoon. None of the them looked directly at Towles as they were led into the courtroom. When asked by county Judge Howard Knisely for the verdict, the foreman bowed, exhaled and spoke. A woman on the panel struggled to speak when Knisely asked each juror if they agreed with the verdict. All 12 said they did. A male juror was consoled by another male juror, and asked if he was okay. The distraught juror nodded that he was. Towles never looked directly at the panel, even as the judge polled them one-by-one. Towles had a quiet exchange with defense lawyer Sam Encarnacion, only nodding his head. Stewart's family bowed and cried quietly while holding one another. Stewart's brother leaned forward and rocked nervously. Both sides were at the courthouse all day Tuesday awaiting the decision. Just before 4 p.m., the jury informed a bailiff they had come to unanimous agreement. (source: Lancaster Intelligencer Journal) ********************* Parrish Heading to Death Row A man was ordered to death row Tuesday afternoon in Monroe County. Michael Parrish of Effort, convicted of shooting to death his girlfriend and toddler son, was formally sentenced to death. Just before the judge sentenced the convicted killer, he made a statement to the court. Half of the statement was in another language. In Arabic Parrish told reporters, ?Peace be upon you,? as he was escorted into the courtroom for his formal sentencing. Last month, a jury found Parrish guilty of shooting Victoria Adams and their young son, Sidney, in 2009. The murders happened at the couple?s home near Effort. That same jury decided Parrish should get the death penalty for his crimes. Now it was the judge?s turn to formally sentence Parrish. In court, only 1 family member spoke on behalf of the victims? family. The judge then asked if Parrish would like to make a statement and he did. First in English, then he translated what he said into Arabic. He told the judge, ?I bear witness that Allah is the only one true God and Muhammad is his messenger,? stated Parrish. Then the judge formally sentenced Parrish to death row. ?May God, in His infinite wisdom, have mercy on your soul,? said President Judge Margherita Worthington. ?It was really nice to hear the judge say sentenced to death. That really gave me a good feeling,? said Malcom Adams, Victoria?s father. The family member who spoke inside the courtroom was Victoria?s aunt, who was also pleased with the death sentence, however she told the judge she would prefer life in prison for the convicted killer. ?So he could sit there and think about what he did for the rest of his life,? said Anne Adams Wagner. ?I wanted to hear an apology. I wanted to hear something, some kind of remorse from him, and there was nothing,? said Kim Adams, Victoria?s mother. ?He apologized in a 4 page letter shortly after being taken into custody. His apology is of long standing. He felt that after careful reflection, what he said in court was the most appropriate thing to say at this time,? said Parrish?s attorney Wieslaw Niemoczynski. ?Out of everything here there?s no winners, there?s all losers. Everybody lost. That?s it,? said Joseph Parrish, Michael Parrish?s father. ?The good thing is he?s on death row and is safe from the public and will perpetrate no more evil on law-abiding citizens,? said Monroe County District Attorney David Christine. According to the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections website there are 202 people listed on death row, not including Parrish. The last person executed in Pennsylvania was Gary Heidnik in 1999. (source: WNEP News) WASHINGTON: Share on twitterShare on emailMore Sharing Services0Jury again chooses death penalty in Tacoma rape, murder ---- A Pierce County jury on Tuesday decided Allen Eugene Gregory should die for raping and murdering Tacoma resident Geneine Harshfield in 1996. A Pierce County jury on Tuesday decided Allen Eugene Gregory should die for raping and murdering Tacoma resident Geneine Harshfield in 1996. The jury of 8 women and 4 men deliberated over part of 2 days before reaching the decision, which was announced before lunch in the courtroom of Superior Court Judge Rosanne Buckner. Gregory, 39, gave no reaction as Buckner read the verdict form and chatted quietly with his lawyers as they filled out paperwork. Harshfield?s mother, Lee Peden, cried quietly in the front row of the gallery. Deputy prosecutor John Neeb turned and gave her a quick nod. It will be up to Buckner to officially impose the death sentence at a hearing June 13. She ordered Gregory jailed without bail until then. It was the 2nd time a Pierce County jury decided Gregory should die for what he did to Harshfield, 43, in the kitchen of her home 16 years ago. Police said she was tied up, raped and slashed and stabbed with a knife. Police later matched his DNA to the crime scene. Gregory was convicted of killing Harshfield and first sentenced to death in 2001. 5 years later the Washington State Supreme Court ratified Gregory?s murder conviction but overturned his death sentence, citing judicial and prosecutorial error. Prosecutors decided shortly thereafter to try again for a death sentence, and Gregory?s penalty trial began in March. Neeb and defense attorneys Zenon Olbertz and Brett Purtzer delivered closing arguments Monday. Peden sat through every day of testimony in Gregory?s most recent trial. She said Tuesday it was difficult to hear again the brutal details of her daughter?s death and to be reminded of her loss. ?This certainly slammed it right back to the forefront again,? she said. ?You?re just not supposed to bury your children.? Peden said the end result was what she wanted. The jury?s only other choice was to give Gregory life in prison without the possibility of parole. ?I thought the verdict was right the first time,? she said. ?I think it?s right this time.? Olbertz said outside court he thought jurors could not get past the terrible act his client committed and see him as a human being. Crime scene and autopsy photos admitted for the trial were horrific, he said. ?I think they?re supposed to get beyond that, but it?s kind of blinding,? Olbertz said. (source: The News Tribune) From rhalperi at smu.edu Tue May 15 19:36:27 2012 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Tue, 15 May 2012 19:36:27 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] [SPAM] death penalty news----worldwide Message-ID: May 15 VIETNAM: US-Vietnamese prisoner's wife appeals for US help The wife of a US citizen held in Vietnam urged Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Tuesday to push for his release, as a senior US official said Hanoi's respect for human rights is deteriorating. A House of Representatives panel heard the plea from Mai Huong Ngo, the wife of Nguyen Quoc Quan who was reported arrested on April 17 in Ho Chi Minh City. "I come here to appeal for your assistance in securing my husband's release from arbitrary detention in Vietnam," Mai Huong Ngo told the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission panel. Her voice breaking at times during the testimony, Ngo personally appealed to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the US ambassador to Hanoi, David Shear, to "call for the immediate release of my husband." She was due later to meet with Michael Posner, the assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labor who told the commission that Vietnam's "respect for human rights continues to deteriorate." Ngo said US consular staff have visited her husband once and were due to visit him again at the end of May. She said he needed cooler clothes to make him more comfortable in the hot weather. State media said Quan, also known as Richard Nguyen, was detained at Tan Son Nhat airport upon "trying to enter Vietnam to instigate a demonstration and undermine celebrations" on the anniversary of the 1975 fall of Saigon. The Vietnam News Agency (VNA) said he will be detained for 4 months pending an investigation for the charge of "terrorism against the people's administration," which could lead to the death penalty if convicted. Communist Vietnam, however, has never executed a foreign citizen for political charges. The 59-year-old Nguyen, a member of the outlawed Viet Tan Party, received a 6-month jail sentence for terror charges and was deported out of Vietnam in May 2008, VNA said. Viet Tan, the Vietnam Reform Party, describes itself as non-violent and pro-democracy group. Vietnam however labels it as "terrorist." Posner said Vietnam continues to "unjustly detain and imprison individuals for exercising their basic human rights," estimating the government holds around 100 "prisoners of conscience." He also charged that there is growing restrictions on the print media, television and the Internet, citing recent decrees that "stifle an already restricted press." Posner complained about legal provisions that allow the government to target peaceful protesters and outlaw "propaganda," which he said was used against a musician who posted a political song on the internet. He also said the United States is concerned about harassment of Christian groups and disputes with Buddhist groups, even though Vietnam's constitution guarantees freedom of religion. Activist Vo Van Ai told the panel that many Americans "believe that the strengthening of US relations with Hanoi means that human rights are improving in Vietnam." "But this is far from the case," according to the president and founder of Que Me: Action for Democracy in Vietnam. "The government has pursued a systematic crackdown on freedom of opinion, expression, religion and assembly," he said. "Arbitrary detention, torture and harassments are the daily lot of citizens who express opinions in contradiction with the ruling Communist Party of Vietnam," he said. President Barack Obama's administration has frequently urged Vietnam to make progress on human rights but it has nonetheless rapidly expanded relations, which both sides have sought amid the rise of China. During a speech in Hawaii in November, Clinton said that Vietnam must improve its human rights record if it seeks better relations as the two countries held talks on the issue. (source: Agence France-Presse) INDIA: Will life term now mean 30 years in jail? Increasingly reluctant to award death penalty even in the "rarest of rare cases" involving unspeakable brutality, the judiciary appears to be gradually enhancing the spell of life term to not less than 30 years in order to meet society's cry for adequate punishment for heinous crimes. Those sentenced for life, strictly speaking, are supposed to spend their remaining years behind bars. In practice, however, life imprisonment means incarceration for 14 years when lifers become entitled to remission of the rest of the sentence as per Prison Manual provisions. That might change as the apex court seeks to balance the growing judicial aversion towards imposing death sentences with the need to deter heinous crimes. In potentially trendsetting verdicts, an SC bench of Justices B S Chauhan and F M I Kalifulla set the 30-year imprisonment benchmark for 2 accused - a father who raped and killed his 4-year-old daughter and the other who brutally killed his girlfriend after she refused to abort her pregnancy. Justice Chauhan wrote the judgment for the bench in punishing the father while Justice Kalifulla imposed the 30-year prison term on the boy who killed his girlfriend for her refusal to abort the fetus after having lured her away to Haridwar with the promise to marry her. The common thread in the two judgments separated by three days, one on May 8 and the other on May 11, was the well-settled principle "life sentence is the rule and death is an exception", and that the application of "rarest of rare case" principle differed from case to case. In the May 8 judgment awarding 30-year jail term to the accused father, Justice Chauhan said, "We are of the considered opinion that the case does not fall within the rarest of rare cases. However, considering the nature of offence, age and relationship of the victim with the appellant and gravity of injuries caused to her, appellant cannot be awarded a lenient punishment. Thus, in the facts and circumstances of the case, we set aside the death sentence and award life imprisonment. The appellant must serve a minimum of 30 years in jail without remission, before consideration of his case for premature release." In the May 11 judgment, Justice Kalifulla explained that the "rarest of rare case" principle could be applied in a "deliberately planned crime, executed meticulously in a diabolic manner, exhibiting inhuman conduct in a ghastly manner touching the conscience of everyone, thereby disturbing the moral fiber of society", which would call for imposition of capital punishment in order to ensure that it acted as a deterrent. The bench of Justices Chauhan and Kalifulla was convinced that the boyfriend, Sandeep, deserved no leniency given the manner in which the young woman became a victim of the "avaricious conduct and lust" of the appellant and the manner in which her life was snatched away by causing multiple injuries all over her body with all kinds of weapons. The bench said, "Imposition of death penalty to the accused Sandeep was not warranted and while awarding life imprisonment, we hold that accused Sandeep must serve a minimum of 30 years in jail without remission before consideration of his case for premature release." In the Swami Shraddhanand case, the apex court had set aside the death penalty but ordered that the accused would remain in prison till the end of his life. There are other instances where the court has specified that the accused must spend at least 20 years in prison before being entitled for remission. But these 2 consecutive judgments asking the accused to spend a mandatory 30 years in prison has set the bar up in murder cases where the court awards life sentence while setting aside death penalty given to him by the trial court and upheld by the high court. Times View The world over, the trend is towards abolishing the death penalty. We have advocated that India too should move in that direction, except in cases of crimes like terrorism. What complicates the debate, however, is the fact that a life sentence in India has more often than not actually meant 14 years. We have consistently argued that life must mean life. Where the courts feel 14 years is sufficient punishment for a crime, they should spell it out as a 14-year sentence. And life sentences should mean imprisonment till death. That would strengthen the case for doing away with the death penalty without seriously harming the idea of punishment as deterrent. Seen in this context, the move from 14 years to 30 years is a step in the right direction, but perhaps not enough. (source: The Times of India) DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO: British man charged over African massacre after discovering bodies A pilot from North Yorkshire is being held in prison in Africa after discovering 'bodies with machete wounds'. David Simpson, moved from his home near Pickering to the Central African Republic 2 years ago to work on a game reserve. However, the 24-year-old was arrested 6 weeks ago after stumbling upon a gruesome scene, in which he reported to the local police that he had discovered 18 mutilated bodies. His family says Mr Simpson, who works as a manager and pilot for a Swedish safari company, is now being treated as an official murder suspect following his arrest. He is being held along with his boss, Swede Erik Mararv, and 10 Central Africans. Mr Simpson says that he is innocent, but could face the death penalty if found guilty. He told the Daily Mail in a mobile phone conversation: "It's like a nightmare. I just want this to be over". Mr Simpson's family have told ITV Tyne Tees that he has spent time in a crowded cell though his conditions have now improved. His brother Paul told ITV News reporter Geraint Vincent, that the Foreign Office has not done enough to aid his release. The Foreign Office has responded: ?Consular staff have visited Mr Simpson regularly since his arrest and are also in regular contact with his family in the UK. We have asked the CAR authorities for assurances that the legal process will be followed and for the matter to be concluded as swiftly as possible. Following the incident, his family set up a Facebook group to campaign for his release, which now has more than 3,000 members. Many commentators have linked the killings to supporters of the Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity. (source: ITV) ZAMBIA: 2 Ex-Soldiers to Hang 2 former Zambia Army soldiers have been sentenced to death for the brutal killing of 2 Finance Bank employees and stealing more than K900 million which was being transported to Kaoma. The 2 former staff sergeants, Festus Shandulu and Namushi Ngundamai, who were based at Luena Barracks, ambushed a vehicle in 2009 which was transporting cash meant for Government workers' salaries and shot dead Chisala Chishimba, a driver, and Chrispin Mushele, a bank teller. The duo also got away with K958,550,000 from John Kaunda, an employee of Finance Bank. Delivering his judgment in Lusaka, Kabwe-based High Court Judge, Freddie Sikazwe, said the bloody attack resulted in the death of 2 innocent people who were carrying out their duty. Mr Justice Sikazwe said that there was, therefore, no other punishment for aggravated robbery when a weapon is used more so that the soldiers shot dead 2 people. "I have no other option other than sentencing you to death by hanging until you are pronounced dead," Mr Justice Sikazwe said. Mr Mushele and Mr Chishimba were killed at Namusheshe area on their way from Mongu to collect money for civil servants in Kaoma. Shandulu and Ngundamai, who were charged with 2 counts of murder and 1 count of aggravated robbery while armed with an AK47 rifle, shot dead the duo while they were in their vehicle seats. "I have no doubt this type of robbery was organised by a band of expert armed robbers as could be seen from the way the murder and aggravated robbery was committed. "Mr Chishimba and Mr Mushele were shot dead in cold blood and whoever killed them must have known that such an act would cause death or grievous bodily harm," the judge said. Mr Justice Sikazwe noted that the witnesses were reliable and as such the prosecution proved the offences against Shandulu and Ngundamai beyond reasonable doubt. He said it was not in dispute that the money found in different situations was part of the one snatched from the cash-in-transit van. "The AK47 rifle, GC 1674 and 30 live ammunition which were recovered in the bush where Shandulu led a team of police officers were part of the guns used to shoot the occupants of the cash-in-transit van," Mr Justice Sikazwe said. He said there was overwhelming evidence that the armed men who snatched the money were the same ones who murdered the 2 bank employees. The Zambian Constitution under Part III on the Protection of Fundamental Rights and Freedom of the Individual allows for death penalty. Article 12 in this section, dealing with the protection of the right to life, clause (1) states that: "No person shall be deprived of his life intentionally except in execution of the sentence of a court in respect of a criminal offence under the law in force in Zambia of which he has been convicted". The Technical Committee on Drafting Zambia's next Constitution has upheld the death penalty.Zambia, has, however, not witnessed any hanging of convicts since 1997. Then president, Frederick Chiluba authorised hanging of 8 prisoners, the only executions he assented to during his 10 years in office. (source: All Africa News) From rhalperi at smu.edu Wed May 16 09:40:10 2012 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Wed, 16 May 2012 09:40:10 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] [SPAM] death penalty news----TEXAS, OHIO, ARIZ., CONN., USA, N.M., PENN. Message-ID: May 16 TEXAS: New Proof of an Old Fear: Execution of the Innocent The State of Texas, long the nation's leader in executions, has now earned the dubious title of the state most likely to execute the innocent. In 2004, Texas executed Cameron Todd Willingham, despite compelling evidence that he was actually innocent of the arson which caused the death of his three small children. Now, newly assembled evidence suggests that Carlos DeLuna, executed by Texas in 1989, was also innocent. A team of researchers from Columbia Law School today released a new report about DeLuna's case, Los Tocayos Carlos: An Anatomy of a Wrongful Conviction. The full report, along with video clips and interviews about the case, are available at the Columbia Human Rights Law Review's website. In 1983, Wanda Lopez was a 24-year-old single mother working at a gas station in Corpus Christi, Texas, when she was tragically stabbed to death. The central proof against DeLuna was the testimony of a single eyewitness (mistaken eyewitness identifications are the single largest cause of wrongful convictions). In DeLuna's case, the eyewitness described the murderer as a Hispanic man with a full mustache. Although the eyewitness identified DeLuna ? who had no mustache ? after DeLuna was arrested, the witness later admitted that he was uncertain about the identification. Worse than the mistaken identification is the failure of the police to investigate evidence pointing to a different killer, and the failure of the police and prosecutors to turn over or even acknowledge the evidence existed. >From the time of his arrest until the time of his execution, DeLuna insisted on his innocence, saying that the crime was committed by an acquaintance named Carlos Hernandez. Hernandez had a long history of violent knife assaults against women and had bragged that he killed Wanda Lopez and that his "tocayo" (meaning a person with the same name) took the fall. The two men looked so much alike that even friends and family couldn't easily tell their photos apart. Although the police had leads that pointed to Hernandez ? who later died in prison ? as the killer, they failed to give that information to the defense. The prosecution argued in court that Hernandez was just a figment of DeLuna's imagination. The new report documents these failures and others, and presents compelling evidence of Hernandez's guilt. It shows the numerous systemic breakdowns that allowed Texas to convict, and then execute, an innocent man. Get Involved End the Death Penalty Act Now The problem of executing the innocent is not confined to Texas, as anyone who followed the Troy Davis case knows only too well. As Justice Antonin Scalia has bluntly told us, we cannot rely on our Constitution to protect the innocent from execution. The only guarantee that this tragedy will not be repeated is to end the death penalty. (source: ACLU Blog) *************************** A Routine Execution in Texas Carlos DeLuna, who was executed in 1989 by the state of Texas, was almost certainly wrongly convicted of stabbing a young woman to death with a knife in a gas station robbery in Corpus Christi. Carlos Hernandez, who died in a Texas prison while serving time for stabbing someone else, almost certainly killed the young woman and repeatedly told others that he had committed the murder. This case is the subject of an extraordinary project at Columbia Law School, which this week released a book-length account ? called ?Los Tocayos Carlos,? or the namesake Carlos ? detailing the errors in the investigation and prosecution of Mr. DeLuna from the moment of his arrest. Texas has executed 482 people since it reinstated the death penalty in 1982, 4 times the number of any other state. A grievous injustice was very likely done in the DeLuna case. But the errors documented by Prof. James Liebman and his team are routinely found in other capital cases in Texas and other states. In 2006, The Chicago Tribune presented evidence casting doubt on Mr. DeLuna?s conviction, based largely on Professor Liebman?s initial research. This account, based on new evidence and a 30-month inquiry, supports an even firmer conclusion that Texas executed an innocent man. It shows grossly inadequate police work that missed critical evidence; unreliable evidence, like witnesses? patently unfair identification of Mr. DeLuna as he was handcuffed in a police car; repeated prosecutorial misconduct, like failure to turn over exonerating evidence; and incompetent counsel, who did scant investigaton to find support for their client?s claim of innocence and put on no mitigating evidence at the penalty phase of the trial to avoid a death sentence. Carroll Pickett, a chaplain in the Texas prison system, presided over Mr. DeLuna?s execution among the 95 executions that he witnessed. After he left the prison system, he declared his opposition to capital punishment as ?a blight on our society? and a failure as a form of sanction. The new examination of Mr. DeLuna?s case provides further evidence that he is right. (source: Editorial, New York Times) OHIO: Death penalty for Ohio man in triple stabbing----A 3-judge panel on Tuesday handed down a death penalty verdict for an Ohio man after he pleaded guilty to killing a woman he lived with and her 2 children on Thanksgiving Day in 2010. A 3-judge panel on Tuesday handed down a death penalty verdict for an Ohio man after he pleaded guilty to killing a woman he lived with and her 2 children on Thanksgiving Day in 2010. The Franklin County death verdict for Caron Montgomery of Columbus was the county's first in a decade and also a relatively rare case of a death penalty verdict following a guilty plea. The panel will formally sentence Montgomery to death May 22. On Tuesday, the judges found that the circumstances of the crime outweighed evidence that Montgomery presented as to why he should be spared, and that a death sentence was the appropriate punishment. The 3-judge panel "followed the law and rendered their verdict based upon the overwhelming evidence presented," Prosecutor Ron O'Brien said in a statement. Montgomery's attorney, Scott Weisman, declined to comment. Montgomery, 38, pleaded guilty earlier this month to multiple counts of aggravated murder and single counts of murder and domestic violence. Police found Tia Hendricks and her 2-year-old and 10-year-old children stabbed to death inside Hendricks' Columbus apartment the day after the killings. At least 7 defendants have received the death penalty after pleading guilty before such panels over the past 30 years in Ohio, including another Franklin County man, Michael Turner, who pleaded guilty in 2002 to killing his estranged wife and her boyfriend. That's compared to dozens of cases where 3-judge panels found defendants guilty and then sentenced them to death. Turner remains on death row. 4 of the 7 defendants who pleaded guilty have since been executed. (source: Associated Press) ARIZONA----stay of imminent execution//new execution date set Arizona's high court issues stay of execution Questions about the competency of Gov. Jan Brewer's recent appointees to the state clemency board prompted the Arizona Supreme Court to stay today's scheduled execution of death-row prisoner Samuel Lopez, saying he is entitled to a fair hearing before the board. The state high court's decision late Tuesday was not a permanent reprieve for Lopez, who was sentenced to death for the 1986 rape and murder of a Phoenix woman. The justices set a new execution date of June 27, allowing time for issues raised by the recent clemency-board appointments to be worked out. Lopez's defense team claimed that he was denied a fair clemency hearing on May 7 because three members of the Arizona Board of Executive Clemency were improperly appointed and had not undergone mandatory training. The high court in its order Tuesday only acknowledged the lack of training and set the new execution date to allow the instruction to take place. Lopez's attorney walked out of last week's clemency hearing in protest, claiming that the board was not qualified to hear the case. On Monday, a Maricopa County Superior Court judge agreed in part and set a July hearing date to examine the matter. Lopez's attorneys then took their concerns to the Arizona Supreme Court, the only state court that could stop the execution. Word of the stay came after other motions failed in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Earlier Tuesday, a 3-judge appeals panel denied a motion claiming that Lopez's attorneys had failed to present adequate mitigating evidence during his trials and early appeals. A separate 3-judge panel of the 9th Circuit criticized the Arizona Department of Corrections for repeatedly altering its manner of execution with each prisoner -- what the judges referred to as a "rolling protocol" -- but a majority did not think it merited a stay of execution. A key issue was the department's apparent inability to insert catheter lines into the arm veins of the condemned prisoners. Generally, when that fails, a doctor inserts a line surgically into an artery in the prisoner's groin. The judges did not think the lapses in protocol rose to the level of "cruel and unusual punishment" forbidden by the U.S. Constitution. One dissenting appeals judge, however, objected to the secrecy the department maintains in its executions and called on the media to push for access to observe the pre-execution procedures, as has been done in other states. Lopez's final appeal rested with the Arizona Supreme Court. In addition to raising questions about whether three members of the clemency board were qualified to hear Lopez's case, his attorney alleged that the new board members' appointment interviews had violated Open Meeting Law by taking place behind closed doors and that one member was a lobbyist for a police association that advocates the death penalty. The Arizona Attorney General's Office maintained that by walking out of the meeting, Lopez's attorney had waived the prisoner's right to the hearing. In its ruling Tuesday, the Supreme Court focused only on the training issue. Lopez was convicted of first-degree murder, kidnapping, two counts of sexual assault and burglary. According to court records, on Oct. 29, 1986, Estefana Holmes, 59, was found gagged and blindfolded in her apartment, bloodied and disheveled, as if there had been "a terrible and prolonged struggle." She had been raped and sodomized and stabbed more than 20 times before her throat was slit. Lopez was sentenced to death in 1987, and though the death sentence was initially overturned on appeal, he was sent back to trial and sentenced to death again. (source: Arizona Republic) CONNECTICUT: Killer of 3 says he considers requesting death A man on Connecticut's death row for the murder of a suburban mother and her 2 daughters says he believes the only way he will be put to death is if he volunteers for the lethal injection. Joshua Komisarjevsky, who was condemned to die for a brutal 2007 home invasion, told The Associated Press in an interview that he considers volunteering to be executed on his darkest days, but not on other days. In the last half-century, Connecticut has executed only one inmate ? a serial killer who was put to death in 2005 after voluntarily waiving his appeals. "I don't think I'll be executed against my will," Komisarjevsky said in his first interview since he was convicted last year. "I think if I volunteer, the state will execute me." Wearing a yellow prison jumpsuit, Komisarjevsky kept direct eye contact during the one-hour interview Monday, smiling at times as he spoke by telephone from behind a glass window at Northern Correctional Institution in Somers, Conn. He had the same short hair and facial stubble that he had during the trial, but the once-slender inmate has since put on 30 or 40 pounds, which he blamed on depression and lack of movement. He said he tries not to think about the crime, he suffers no nightmares and has nothing to say to the only survivor of the attack. He said there isn't anything he could say to Dr. William Petit "that will restore the lives lost." He also declined an opportunity to express remorse for the killings. "I guess my reaction is not the reaction society expected," Komisarjevsky said. Cynthia Hawke-Renn, the sister and aunt of the victims' told NBC she wasn't expecting Komisarjevsky to say he was sorry. "He doesn't have nightmares, but I have nightmares and I can't stop thinking about it," she said. "I wish I could. And I think it's really sad that he doesn't have a conscience and have remorse and apologize to my brother-in-law or my parents." By turns jovial and introspective, Komisarjevsky made references to an afflicted conscience but said he fills his time in solitary confinement by drawing, watching television and reading and responding to hate mail as well as notes from supporters. "Some days you're just overwhelmed by the isolation and the difficulties in communicating with loved ones, dealing with your own crisis of conscience," Komisarjevsky said. Komisarjevsky, 31, was convicted last year in a crime that unsettled notions of suburban safety and featured prominently in Connecticut's death penalty debate. He and his co-defendant, Steven Hayes, were convicted of killing Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her daughters. Hayes raped and strangled Hawke-Petit, while Komisarjevsky sexually assaulted her 11-year-old daughter, Michaela. Michaela and her 17-year-old sister, Hayley, were tied to their beds and died of smoke inhalation after the house was doused in gas and set on fire. Last month, Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy signed a new law that ends the state's death penalty for future crimes, but it does not apply to those already on death row ? a provision that makes it possible for Komisarjevsky and Hayes to still face the possibility of death. "In order for some to swallow this bitter pill, it was inevitable that we would be left out," Komisarjevsky said. Asked if would consider volunteering to be put to death, Komisarjevsky said: "I have my days. I think everybody on death row has their days. Some days you'd consider it. Some days you don't." Komisarjevsky's lawyers are expected to file an appeal. But if he waived his appeals, that would remove a major obstacle to execution. Komisarjevksy said he has not spoken to Hayes, but has seen him passing by on death row, where 11 inmates are each held in individual cells. During separate trials, Komisarjevksy and Hayes each blamed the other for escalating the crime. "Frankly, we don't have anything to talk about," Komisarjevsky said. "I'm sort of taking the stance let bygones be bygones. I know what I'm culpable for and he knows what he's culpable for." Among the ways he occupies his time is by drawing. He said one of his works depicts a biblical scene of Daniel in the Lion's Den that he did for a friend. Komisarjevsky said he gets 2 hours per day of recreation time, but he has a television in his cell that gets several channels including the Spanish-language network Telemundo. "No hablo espanol, so that doesn't do me much good," Komisarjevsky said with a laugh. Komisarjevsky declined to comment directly about the crime, citing the advice of lawyers. In an audiotaped confession played for the jury in his trial last year, Komisarjevsky admitted that he spotted Hawke-Petit and 11-year-old Michaela at a supermarket and followed them to their house in Cheshire, a suburb of New Haven. After going home and putting his own daughter to bed, Komisarjevsky and Hayes returned to the Petit house in the middle of the night, while the family was sleeping, to rob it. William Petit was beaten, tied up and taken to the basement. He managed to escape and hop, roll and crawl across a yard to a neighbor's house for help. Petit advocated keeping the death penalty in Connecticut and last year successfully lobbied state senators to hold off on repeal legislation while Komisarjevsky was still facing a death penalty trial. Petit declined to comment through a spokesman. "July 23, 2007, was our personal holocaust," Petit said after Komisarjevsky was sentenced to death, referring to the day his family was killed. "A holocaust caused by 2 who are completely evil and actually do not comprehend what they have done." (source: Associated Press) USA: Guantanamo 9/11 Trial: Senior U.S. Officials Sought To Testify Defense teams in the Sept. 11 case at Guantanamo are asking a military judge to order senior U.S. government officials to testify at the U.S. base in Cuba as part of a motion to dismiss charges, a lawyer for one of the defendants said Tuesday. The motion to dismiss includes a request to compel testimony from eight "top officials" from the administrations of President Barack Obama and President George W. Bush, said Navy Cmdr. Walter Ruiz, who represents Saudi defendant Mustafa Ahmad al-Hawsawi. Ruiz declined to identify the officials, and the motion has not been released pending a security review. A Pentagon spokesman also declined to release the list until it has been cleared for release. Lawyers for 3 of the 5 Guantanamo prisoners charged with aiding and planning the Sept. 11 attacks have joined the motion, which seeks a dismissal of the charges under what is known in the military legal system as "unlawful influence," or an improper attempt to sway the case. Ruiz said American officials have made statements that have "tainted the entire process" of prosecuting the five Guantanamo prisoners, who include the self-proclaimed mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. "In the military, a commander of an installation or of a ship can't make public statements about what they believe to be the person's guilt or innocence and what kind of punishment they ought to get," Ruiz said in a telephone interview. "The only difference in this case is you have basically higher ranked officers and administration officials who are making much more public statements about the process and the expectations of the process." Mohammed and his 4 co-defendants were arraigned May 5 on charges that include terrorism and murder and could get the death penalty if convicted. Lawyers for Mohammed and Walid bin Attash have not joined the motion to dismiss but might do so later, Ruiz said. It was not clear when the judge might rule on the request. The next hearing in the case had been scheduled for June 12 but several of the defense teams have requested a postponement. (source: Huffington Post) NEW MEXICO: Jury gives guilty decision in NM deputy killed case; Death penalty hearing set for Astorga A Santa Fe jury decided Tuesday that a man convicted of killing a Bernalillo County Sheriff's deputy is guilty of aggravated circumstances in the murder, setting up a hearing for a possible death penalty. The guilty decision Tuesday means that the jury now has to hear testimony about whether Michael Astorga should get the death penalty for the crime. The hearing is slated to begin Wednesday in Santa Fe. Astorga was convicted of the 2006 killing of Deputy James McGrane during a traffic stop. He faces life in prison or death, even though New Mexico repealed the death penalty in 2009. He is eligible for the death penalty since the crime occurred before the repeal. Astorga's attorney, Gary Mitchell, had argued that there was no evidence that Astorga's pickup truck was ever pulled over the night McGrane was killed in the mountains east of Albuquerque. But District Attorney Kari Brandenburg argued that Astorga lied on the stand about possessing a gun, and she mocked what she called his "psychic abilities" that led him to flee to Mexico before he was identified as a suspect. The state Supreme Court ruled that Astorga was eligible for the death penalty since the crime occurred before the repeal. The court ruled that the repeal applied to crimes committed after July 1, 2009, when it took effect. New Mexico has executed 1 person since 1960 ? child killer Terry Clark in 2001. Two other inmates remain on death row in the state. In another trial, jurors in Las Cruces found Astorga guilty of 2nd-degree murder, tampering with evidence and being a felon in possession of a firearm in connection to the death of 27-year-old Candido Martinez over a car back in 2005. That trial moved to Las Cruces after a judge ruled Astorga wouldn't get a fair trial in Albuquerque. (source: Associated Press) PENNSYLVANIA: Convicted killer Parrish heads for Pennsylvania's death row Given the opportunity to address the court before being sentenced to death Tuesday, Michael Parrish stood and in a clear voice declared: "I bear witness that Allah is the one and only true God and Muhammad is His messenger." Wearing the kufi and long beard customary to the Islamic faith, Parrish then made a statement in Arabic before again taking his seat between Monroe County Public Defender Wieslaw Niemoczynski and defense attorney James Gregor. Michael Parrish joins 205 other death row inmates in Pennsylvania. Executions are carried out by lethal injection at the State Correctional Institution at Rockview, Centre County. The last Monroe County resident sentenced to death prior to Parrish was Manuel Sepulveda. Sentenced in 2004 for brutally murdering 2 men with a shotgun, ax and rope in Polk Township in 2001, Sepulveda, 32, is still on death row. The last inmate executed in Pennsylvania was Gary Michael Heidnik. In late 1986 and early 1987, Heidnik, 56, kidnapped 5 women and raped and tortured them in his Philadelphia basement, killing 2 of them. He was sentenced in 1989 and executed in 1999. County President Judge Margherita Patti Worthington then sentenced Parrish to death for the July 2009 fatal shootings of his girlfriend, Victoria Adams, 21, and their son, Sidney Parrish, 19 months, in their Effort home. The sentence will be carried out after all of Parrish's appeals have been exhausted in state Supreme Court, a process that could take years or even decades, District Attorney David Christine said. Once the appeals process is completed, a date of execution by lethal injection will be set and the governor will sign off on the order. Addressing the court on the family's behalf moments before the sentence was imposed, a tearful Ann Adams Wagner, Adams' aunt, read a prepared statement. Wagner described her niece as a loving, devoted mother who was by Sidney's side from his birth, through his heart transplant and as he was just starting to explore the world around him as a toddler. "I still don't understand how someone can do something like this, especially to their own child," Wagner said. "In a split second, so many lives were shattered and crushed. Michael took not only 2 lives, but a third, the life of the child whose heart was donated to save Sidney's life. "Our wish is that (Parrish) be sentenced to life without parole so that he can think every day about what he did," Wagner said. "Giving him a needle and putting him to sleep is the easy way out for him." Under Pennsylvania law, the judge must impose whatever sentence the jury deems appropriate, be it death or life in prison without parole, Christine said. Though the prepared statement read in court indicated the family preferred life without parole for Parrish, the family later said they were pleased the judge had imposed the death penalty. "It gave me a good feeling," said Adams' father, Malcolm Adams. Victoria Adams' mother, Kim Adams, said she was "ecstatic." "When the judge said, 'May God have mercy on your soul,' I thought, 'He has no soul,'" she said. Joseph Parrish, the defendant's father, testified on his behalf during the trial. He was at his son's sentencing Tuesday. "There are no winners here, only losers," the senior Parrish said. "Everybody lost." (source: Pocono Record) From rhalperi at smu.edu Wed May 16 11:29:35 2012 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Wed, 16 May 2012 11:29:35 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide Message-ID: May 16 NIGERIA: Senate Refuses to Intervene on Death Sentence Passed on 16 Nigerians in Indonesia 16 Nigerians sentenced to death for drug trafficking in Indonesia may eventually have to face the hangman?s noose as the Senate in their home country, Nigeria, has said it can do nothing to intervene in their plight. Over 300 Nigerians are said to be serving various jail terms in Indonesian prisons for peddling hard drugs while 16 of them are on death row. During a sitting of the senate yesterday, Senator Mathew Nwagwu, who chairs the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs, raised a motion concerning the plight of the Nigerians. He had argued that the persons numbering 16, were languishing in Indonesian jails, and called for an intervention of the government to either reduce or review the cases against them. He said, ?I have called Minister of Foreign Affairs and he assured me that he will get in touch with our mission in Jakarta, although he was of the opinion that most of the issues related to drug related offences. I wish to suggest that we invite the Minister of Foreign Affairs to address the Senate on what is happening and what can be done to reduce and review some of these cases.? However in response, the Senate President, David Mark dismissed the motion saying there was little or nothing the government could do to save them, since their actions were in complete violation of the laws of Indonesia. Mark said the prisoners had themselves to blame because they knew the consequences of trafficking in drugs, yet went ahead to commit the crimes. ?Unfortunately in the Sixth Senate we took up this matter and we sent a delegation to Indonesia. I think it was Uche Chukwumerije who raised the issue; to Indonesia, Singapore and China and they brought a report back that all the people on death row were people who had gone for trafficking in drugs. And they had exhausted all the legal system possible,? he said. The laws of Indonesia clearly state that the penalty for drug trafficking in some stipulated quantities is death. The same goes for countries like Saudi Arabia, Singapore and China. According to China?s criminal law, trafficking of more than 50 grams of heroin can warrant the death penalty. Malaysia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates also have strict punishments for drug trafficking, sometimes resulting in death penalty. Hundreds of Nigerians are languishing in prisons either awaiting execution or serving life jail sentences in such countries. These people went against the laws of those countries and must be made to face the punishment for their offences. However, what is sad is that they wouldn?t have been sentenced to death if they had committed similar offences in their home country as the death sentence is not passed for drug related offences in Nigeria. Although Nigeria is one of the 58 countries still practicing the death penalty, it does not sentence people to death for drug trafficking. Civil rights groups and non-governmental organizations have not relented in their call for the abolition of the death penalty in countries that still practice it. (source: bellanaija.com) IRAQ: Iraqi VP's ex-guards say they had orders to kill Former bodyguards for Iraq's fugitive vice president testified Tuesday that they were ordered to kill security officials and plant roadside bombs as a politically charged terror trial against the Sunni leader got under way. Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi, who was in Turkey but faced trial in absentia, has denied all charges against him. If convicted, he could face the death penalty. The case threatens to paralyze Iraq's government by fueling simmering Sunni and Kurdish resentments against Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who critics claim is monopolizing power. Al-Hashemi is an ardent critic of al-Maliki, whose government issued a warrant for the vice president's arrest the day after U.S. troops left Iraq last December. Al-Hashemi has been accused of playing a role in 150 bombings, assassinations and other attacks from 2005 to 2011, according to the judicial council. The Iraqi government alleges that Sunni death squads were largely composed of his bodyguards and other employees. The charges against the vice president span the worst years of bloodshed that followed the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq as retaliatory sectarian attacks between Sunni and Shiite militants pushed the country to the brink of civil war. He has been in office since 2006. Tuesday's testimony focused on more recent years, when violence ebbed but insurgents continued to attack security forces and other targets in a bid to undermine the Iraqi government in the run-up to the U.S. withdrawal in December. Bodyguard Odai Ghazi Amin, who served in the Iraqi army under Saddam Hussein, said he joined al-Hashemi's staff in 2008 and was ordered by the vice president's son-in-law in 2009 to escort bomb-planting missions on roads across Baghdad. In 2011, Amin said he was told to assassinate an army general and a lawyer ? orders he tried to avoid by asking for a job transfer. But he said he was threatened by the son-in-law, who ran al-Hashemi's office, that he would be killed and his family in danger if he refused the deadly missions. Last September, Amin testified, he was summoned to meet with the vice president. "Al-Hashemi told me that he is going to assign me to kill some officers who work against the interests of the state and to carry out operations on security checkpoints," Amin said. Amin testified that after the meeting, al-Hashemi's son-in-law Ahmed Qahtan, who also faces terror charges, gave him and 2 other bodyguards silenced guns and told them to assassinate army Brig. Gen. Talib Balaasim. The bodyguards tracked down Balaasim in western Baghdad, and Amin testified that he killed the general, in a Sept. 26 drive-by shooting before returning to al-Hashemi's office in the heavily guarded Green Zone. "About 2 days after the attack, al-Hashemi received us (in his office) and said to us, 'God bless your efforts,'" Amin testified. He said the bodyguards shared a $3,000 payment. Amin's account was later contradicted by testimony from another bodyguard, Yassir Saadi Hassoun. Hassoun said he and his brother opened fire on Balaasim, not Amin. A 3rd bodyguard, Ahmed al-Jubouri, described a November 2011 shooting that killed national security official Ibrahim Saleh Mahdi and his wife. Al-Jubouri said Mahdi was ordered killed because he had become "a source of annoyance" to al-Hashemi. Al-Hashemi is in Turkey, where he has said he is receiving medical treatment. His spokesman, Fahad al-Turki, said al-Hashemi was not available to comment on Tuesday's proceedings. Ahmed Qahtan also is in Turkey. He has hotly denied the charges, and accuses the government of torturing his bodyguards to obtain confessions from them. The Iraqi judiciary last month investigated and dismissed his claims. The vice president believes he will not get a fair trial in Baghdad's criminal court, and has asked that the case be heard by a special tribunal appointed by parliament. His allies see the trial as another political power battle in Iraq. "As far as I'm concerned, the issue of al-Hashemi is more political than a legal one," said Sunni lawmaker Hamid al-Mutlaq of the Iraqiya political bloc that opposes al-Maliki. Al-Hashemi's trial has also strained relations between Iraq and several of its mainly Sunni neighbors, including the Gulf states and Turkey. Earlier this month, Interpol issued a so-called "red notice" on al-Hashemi, which puts member countries on alert that he is wanted for arrest in Baghdad. But Turkey, which has provided sanctuary to al-Hashemi and is on tense terms with his opponents in the Iraqi government, is hesitant to pursue the Sunni vice president. The trial was scheduled to resume on Sunday. Underscoring the continued violence in Iraq, a suicide bomber drove an explosives-rigged fuel truck into the front gate of an army post in the northern city of Mosul, a former al-Qaida stronghold, wounding 15 people, authorities said. (source: CBS News) INDONESIA: Aussie 'forced' to smuggle drugs to Bali An Australian man accused of trying to import a large quantity of drugs into Bali in his stomach will claim he was forced into the high-risk mission, which could see him sentenced to death if found guilty. Edward Myatt faced court for the first time on Wednesday since his arrest in February at Bali's Ngurah Rai Airport, where he was allegedly caught with 1.1kg of hashish and four grams of methamphetamines in plastic casings he'd swallowed. The 54-year-old showed no emotion and said little as the indictment against him was read out in the Denpasar District Court. He faces 3 charges, including trafficking and 2 counts of possession. Myatt, from Ballarat, Victoria, but who has lived in England for several years, could be sentenced to death if convicted on the drug-trafficking charge. The possession charges carry a maximum penalty of life in jail. He was not required to enter a plea on Wednesday. Authorities remain convinced he was part of an international drug-smuggling syndicate and may have successfully imported drugs into Bali in the past. Myatt has allegedly told investigators he bought the drugs in Delhi from a man he knew as "Dr Steve" after travelling to India from Yorkshire, England, where he had been living. He then allegedly separated the drugs into smaller quantities and wrapped them in 72 plastic casings at his hotel before swallowing them and travelling to Bali. But his lawyer, Maya Arsanti, told AAP outside the court that he only made the trip under pressure from another man, identified as Roger, who he knew in India. "Roger forced him to do this," Ms Arsanti she said after the hearing. Ms Arsanti did not give any more details about the mysterious "Roger", but said the claim will form a major part of the defence's case. She added that Myatt, a yoga instructor, was a long-term user of drugs. If this is accepted by the prosecutors and judges, it could see him given a lighter sentence. People caught with drugs in Indonesia are often treated more leniently by the courts if they can prove they have an addiction. Bali's chief prosecutor, Gusti Gede Putu Atmaja, however, said he would explore the allegations from narcotics officers that Myatt's trip to Bali in February was not his first as a drug courier. "That's what we want to find out. I hope not, for his sake," Mr Atmaja told AAP. "We will find out if this is the 1st time or 2nd time, or one of many." Mr Atmaja added he was yet to form an opinion about what kind of sentence would be sought, but said that the evidence against Myatt was overwhelming. "This is a strong case," he said. The trial continues next Thursday. (source: Sydney Morning Herald) PAKISTAN: On death row: President rejects mercy plea as activists oppose execution ---- Lawyer?s say that their support of the execution is not fraternal but for justice While Behram Khan counts down the last 8 days of his life, his execution on May 23 remains a topic of debate between the legal fraternity, who want to make an example out of him, and human rights activist who have appealed for a stay order against the death sentence. Khan was found guilty of killing advocate Mohammed Ashraf on April 15, 2003 in the courtroom of Justice Zawar Hussain at the Sindh High Court (SHC). Last Thursday, an Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) issued a black warrant for the execution after President Asif Ali Zardari rejected his mercy petition. If Khan is hanged, his execution would be the 1st one since the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) came into power in 2008. Against death penalty The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan?s (HRCP) chairperson, Zohra Yusuf, while expressing hope that the president would issue a stay, called for the abolition of the death penalty altogether. ?Usually the president first rejects the mercy plea and then at the last moment stays the execution,? she said. ?But all that time the prisoner is in limbo.? According to the HRCP, there are 8,000 prisoners on death row who have written to the president to ask for a stay on Khan?s execution. ?To give Khan capital punishment just because he killed a lawyer is not justified,? said Iqbal Haider, a human rights activist. In his opinion, the president rejected the mercy petition only to please lawyers. He pointed to Governor Salmaan Taseer?s murderer and asked why Mumtaz Qadri was not awarded the same punishment. ?If the government wants to hang people, it should start with the executions of those who are involved in the brutal murder of its party member.? No mercy On the other hand, lawyers made it clear that they were in favour of the execution. The SHC advocate and former general secretary of the Karachi Bar Association (KBA), Haider Imam Rizvi, clarified that he did not support the execution just because the victim was a lawyer. ?If the man had thrown acid on someone, I would have still supported the punishment. The fact remains that shooting a lawyer in courtroom is a violation of law and thus, he should definitely be hanged.? The KBA president, Mehmoodul Hasan, said that until and unless people like Khan are hanged, crime won?t go down. ?The prosecution and investigation in some cases are weak, but in this case, witnesses were present. Every life, including a lawyer?s, is precious.? The president?s spokesperson, Farhatullah Babar, was unavailable for comment.However, PPP Sindh general secretary Taj Haider said that it was up to the president to pardon or reject any plea. However, he believes that the petition was rejected because of the nature of the case. ?If those who attack lawyers just get away with a few years in prison, the whole justice system will collapse. If such murderers are not punished, then no lawyer will step forward to fight cases.? The Sindh law and prisons minister Ayaz Soomro concurred. ?If a man comes into courtroom, shoots a lawyer and is not punished, then it will set a wrong example to others.? (source: Express Tribune) ********************* Halt Execution of Lawyer?s Killer ---- Don?t Break 3-Year Moratorium on the Death Penalty The Pakistani government has rightly not carried out executions since 2009. Instead of resorting to this barbaric practice, the government should declare the moratorium officially, commute all existing death sentences, and then abolish the death penalty for all crimes. The government of Pakistan should halt the scheduled hanging on May 23, 2012, of Behram Khan for the murder of a lawyer in 2003. On May 10, Judge Ghulam Mustafa Memon of Karachi?s Anti Terrorist Court directed officials at the central prison in Karachi to hang Khan, who has been on death row since June 2003. Khan had been convicted of the killing of the lawyer, Mohammad Ashraf, on the premises of the Sindh High Court in Karachi. The hanging would end Pakistan?s unofficial moratorium on the death penalty in place since 2009. ?The Pakistani government has rightly not carried out executions since 2009,? said Ali Dayan Hasan, Pakistan director at Human Rights Watch. ?Instead of resorting to this barbaric practice, the government should declare the moratorium officially, commute all existing death sentences, and then abolish the death penalty for all crimes.? On April 15, 2003, Khan and Police Sub-Inspector Pir Bux entered the Sindh High Court intending to kill Qurban Ali Chauhan, the lawyer for an accused under trial for the killing of Khan?s uncle. Khan killed Ashraf in a case of mistaken identity. An anti-terrorist court sentenced Khan to death on June 25, 2003. Pir Bux was sentenced to life in prison for abetting the murder. An appeal against the execution sentence in the Sindh High Court was rejected, as was a subsequent appeal in the Supreme Court of Pakistan. A mercy petition filed with President Asif Zardari was also rejected earlier in May, leading to the order by Memon. Human Rights Watch opposes the death penalty in all circumstances as an inherently irreversible, inhumane punishment. A majority of countries in the world have abolished the practice. On December 18, 2007, the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution by a wide margin calling for a worldwide moratorium on executions. In June 2008, Human Rights Watch wrote to Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani urging action to abolish the death penalty and to impose a moratorium pending abolition. In a meeting with Human Rights Watch the following month, Gilani agreed to enforce a moratorium on executions. Soon after military ruler Gen. Pervez Musharraf was ousted from office in 2008, Pakistan imposed a widely hailed de facto moratorium on judicial executions. ?Under military rule, the number of people executed every year in Pakistan was among the highest in the world,? Hasan said. ?It would be a tragedy if Behram Khan?s execution goes ahead and derails one of the government?s most tangible human rights successes.? (source: Human Rights Watch) From rhalperi at smu.edu Wed May 16 15:26:33 2012 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Wed, 16 May 2012 15:26:33 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] [SPAM] death penalty news----TEXAS, CALIF., OHIO, N.M. Message-ID: May 16 TEXAS: The Wrong Carlos: Texas' Fatal Error----Groundbreaking Columbia law school study sets out in shocking detail the flaws that led to Carlos DeLuna's execution in 1989. A few years ago, Antonin Scalia, 1 of the 9 justices on the US supreme court, made a bold statement. There has not been, he said, "a single case - not one - in which it is clear that a person was executed for a crime he did not commit. If such an event had occurred - the innocent's name would be shouted from the rooftops." Scalia may have to eat his words. It is now clear that a person was executed for a crime he did not commit, and his name - Carlos DeLuna - is being shouted from the rooftops of the Columbia Human Rights Law Review. The august journal has cleared its entire spring edition, doubling its normal size to 436 pages, to carry an extraordinary investigation by a Columbia law school professor and his students. The book sets out in precise and shocking detail how an innocent man was sent to his death on 8 December 1989, courtesy of the state of Texas. Los Tocayos Carlos: An Anatomy of a Wrongful Execution, is based on six years of intensive detective work by Professor James Liebman and 12 students. Starting in 2004, they meticulously chased down every possible lead in the case, interviewing more than 100 witnesses, perusing about 900 pieces of source material and poring over crime scene photographs and legal documents that, when stacked, stand over 10ft high. What they discovered stunned even Liebman, who, as an expert in America's use of capital punishment, was well versed in its flaws. "It was a house of cards. We found that everything that could go wrong did go wrong," he says. Carlos DeLuna was arrested, aged 20, on 4 February 1983 for the brutal murder of a young woman, Wanda Lopez. She had been stabbed once through the left breast with an 8in lock-blade buck knife which had cut an artery causing her to bleed to death. >From the moment of his arrest until the day of his death by lethal injection six years later, DeLuna consistently protested he was innocent. He went further - he said that though he hadn't committed the murder, he knew who had. He even named the culprit: a notoriously violent criminal called Carlos Hernandez. The 2 Carloses were not just namesakes - or tocayos in Spanish, as referenced in the title of the Columbia book. They were the same height and weight, and looked so alike that they were sometimes mistaken for twins. When Carlos Hernandez's lawyer saw pictures of the two men, he confused one for the other, as did DeLuna's sister Rose. At his 1983 trial, Carlos DeLuna told the jury that on the day of the murder he'd run into Hernandez, who he'd known for the previous five years. The 2 men, who both lived in the southern Texas town of Corpus Christi, stopped off at a bar. Hernandez went over to a gas station, the Shamrock, to buy something, and when he didn't return DeLuna went over to see what was going on. DeLuna told the jury that he saw Hernandez inside the Shamrock wrestling with a woman behind the counter. DeLuna said he was afraid and started to run. He had his own police record for sexual assault - though he had never been known to possess or use a weapon - and he feared getting into trouble again. "I just kept running because I was scared, you know." When he heard the sirens of police cars screeching towards the gas station he panicked and hid under a pick-up truck where, 40 minutes after the killing, he was arrested. At the trial, DeLuna's defence team told the jury that Carlos Hernandez, not DeLuna, was the murderer. But the prosecutors ridiculed that suggestion. They told the jury that police had looked for a "Carlos Hernandez" after his name had been passed to them by DeLuna's lawyers, without success. They had concluded that Hernandez was a fabrication, a "phantom" who simply did not exist. The chief prosecutor said in summing up that Hernandez was a "figment of DeLuna's imagination". Four years after DeLuna was executed, Liebman decided to look into the DeLuna case as part of a project he was undertaking into the fallibility of the death penalty. He asked a private investigator to spend one day - just one day - looking for signs of the elusive Carlos Hernandez. By the end of that single day the investigator had uncovered evidence that had eluded scores of Texan police officers, prosecutors, defense lawyers and judges over the six years between DeLuna's arrest and execution. Carlos Hernandez did indeed exist. Liebman's investigator tracked down within a few hours a woman who was related to both the Carloses. She supplied Hernandez's date of birth, which in turn allowed the unlocking of Hernandez's criminal past as the case rapidly unravelled. With the help of his students, Liebman began to piece together a profile of Hernandez. He was an alcoholic with a history of violence, who was always in the company of his trusted companion: a lock-blade buck knife. Over the years he was arrested 39 times, 13 of them for carrying a knife, and spent his entire adult life on parole. Yet he was almost never put in prison for his crimes - a disparity that Liebman believes was because he was used as a police informant. "Its hard to understand what happened without that piece of the puzzle," Liebman says. Several of the crimes that Hernandez committed involved hold-ups of Corpus Christi gas stations. Just a few days before the Shamrock murder he was found cowering outside a nearby 7-Eleven wielding a knife - a detail never disclosed to DeLuna's defence. He also had a history of violence towards women. He was twice arrested on suspicion of the 1979 murder of a woman called Dahlia Sauceda, who was stabbed and then had an "X" carved into her back. The first arrest was made four years before DeLuna's trial and the 2nd while DeLuna was on death row, yet the connection between this Hernandez and the "phantom" presented to DeLuna's jury was never made. In October 1989, just two months before DeLuna was executed, Hernandez was setenced to 10 years' imprisonment for attempting to kill with a knife another woman called Dina Ybanez. Even then, no one thought to alert the courts or Texas state as it prepared to put DeLuna to death. Hernandez himself frequently told people that he was a knife murderer. He made numerous confessions to having killed Wanda Lopez, the crime for which DeLuna was executed, joking with friends and relatives that his "tocayo" had taken the fall. His admissions were so widely broadcast that even Corpus Christi police detectives came to hear about them within weeks of the incident at the Shamrock gas station. Yet this was the same Carlos Hernandez who prosecutors told the jury did not exist. This was the figment of Carlos DeLuna's imagination. Many other glaring discrepancies also stand out in the DeLuna case. He was put on death row largely on the eyewitness testimony of one man, Kevan Baker, who had seen the fight inside the Shamrock and watched the attacker flee the scene. Yet when Baker was interviewed 20 years later, he said that he hadn't been that sure about the identification as he had trouble telling one Hispanic person apart from another. Then there was the crime-scene investigation. Detectives failed to carry out or bungled basic forensic procedures that might have revealed information about the killer. No blood samples were collected and tested for the culprit's blood type. Fingerprinting was so badly handled that no useable fingerprints were taken. None of the items found on the floor of the Shamrock - a cigarette stub, chewing gum, a button, comb and beer cans - were forensically examined for saliva or blood. There was no scraping of the victim's fingernails for traces of the attacker's skin. When Liebman and his students studied digitally enhanced copies of crime scene photographs, they were amazed to find the footprint from a man's shoe imprinted in a pool of Lopez's blood on the floor - yet no effort was made to measure it. "There it was," says Liebman. "The murderer had left his calling card at the scene, but it was never used." Even the murder weapon, the knife, was not properly examined, though it was covered in blood and flesh. Other photographs show Lopez's blood splattered up to three feet high on the walls of the Shamrock counter. Yet when DeLuna's clothes and shoes were tested for traces of blood, not a single microscopic drop was found. The prosecution said it must have been washed away by the rain. There appeared to have been an unseemly scramble to wrap up the crime scene. Less than two hours after the murder happened, the police chief in charge of the homicide investigation ordered all detectives to quit the Shamrock and allowed its owner to wash it down, sweeping away vital evidence that could have saved a man's life. The exceptionally lax treatment of evidence continued even beyond the grave. When Liebman asked to see all the stored evidence in the case, so that he could subject it to the DNA testing that was not available to investigators in 1983, he was told that it had all disappeared. Having lived and breathed this case for so many years, Liebman says the most shocking thing about it was its ordinariness. "This wasn't the trial of OJ Simpson. It was an obscure case, the kind that could involve anybody. Maybe those are the cases where miscarriages of justice happen, the routine everyday cases where nobody thinks enough about the victim, let alone the defendant." The groundbreaking work that the Columbia law school has done comes at an important juncture for the death penalty in America. Connecticut last month became the 5th state in as many years to repeal the ultimate punishment and support for abolition is gathering steam. In that context, Liebman hopes his exhaustive work will encourage Americans to think more deeply about what is done in their name. All the evidence the Columbia team has gathered on the DeLuna case has been placed on the internet with open public access. "We've provided as complete a set of information as we can about a pretty average case, to let the public make its own judgment. I believe they will make the judgment that in this kind of case there's just too much risk." As for the tocayos Carloses, Carlos Hernandez died of natural causes in a Texas prison in May 1999, having been jailed for assaulting a neighbour with a 9in knife. Carlos DeLuna commented on his own ending in a television interview a couple of years before his execution. "Maybe one day the truth will come out," he said from behind reinforced glass. "I'm hoping it will. If I end up getting executed for this, I don't think it's right." (source: readersupportednews.org) CALIFORNIA: Appeals for Last 2 Inmates Executed in California Cost $1.76 Million Records obtained by the Bay Area News Group in California show that the appeal costs for the last 2 men executed in the state were $1.76 million. At that rate, the cost of carrying out the executions of the 724 inmates still on death row could exceed $700 million if the death penalty is not repealed in November. Records show that the state and federal appeals for Clarence Ray Allen, the oldest and most recent death row inmate executed in the state, cost more than $761,000. Appeals for Stanley ?Tookie? Williams cost the public nearly $1 million. These costs do not include the state's expenses in defending the convictions, the trial costs, or the extra costs attributed to death-row incarceration. If the death penalty is repealed by ballot initiative in November, some of the money saved will be used for pursuing unsolved cases. Moreover, those convicted of murder will be required to work and make compensation to victims' families. Carlos Moreno, who reviewed such appeals as both a California Supreme Court justice and Los Angeles federal judge said it would not be easy to reduce the costs: "That's what it costs," Moreno said. "I've seen it. I don't think we're overly generous." Jeanne Woodford, a former warden at the San Quentin prison where death row is housed, said, "We're spending this amount of money for a handful of people and it doesn't really do anything for public safety." (source: Death Penalty Information Center) OHIO: Critics accuse Ohio prosecutor of using death penalty threat as bargaining chip Within days of a drug-related slaying in suburban Cleveland, six men were indicted on charges that carried the possibility of a death sentence. 6 months later, all had been allowed to plead to lesser charges, including four who received probation and never went to prison. In short, the men quickly went from facing the possibility of being strapped to a gurney and having 5 grams of pentobarbital injected into their veins, to prison sentences more typical for robbers and thieves. ?It probably was a negotiating tool,? said defense attorney Reuben Sheperd, who represented defendant Alex Ford. ?You?ll be more motivated than you were in other circumstances.? Such scenarios are typical in the county home to Cleveland, where prosecutor Bill Mason pursues dozens of offenders on capital charges each year at added expense to taxpayers and at the risk of some defendants ending up on death row for charges that would be minor elsewhere, even as the number of death penalty prosecutions plummets in Ohio and nationwide, according to an analysis of records by The Associated Press. Elsewhere in Ohio, prosecutors are pursuing only the most heinous crimes as death penalty cases and are refusing to plea bargain, or are using a 2005 law that allows them to seek life with no chance of parole and never place capital punishment on the table. Mason denies he uses the death penalty as a negotiating tool but also says he never rules out the possibility of lesser charges as more information about a case comes to light. The 2010 case in the suburb of Parma cost Cuyahoga County taxpayers more than $120,000 ? the price of the experts and attorneys appointed because the cases involved the death penalty. Defense attorneys have long complained about the high number of capital indictments in Cuyahoga County, a practice that precedes Mason but that he continued after first taking office in 2000. But now one of the state?s most conservative and pro-death penalty prosecutors is weighing in. Joe Deters, prosecutor in Hamilton County, renewed questions about Cuyahoga County?s approach during meetings of an Ohio Supreme Court task force. The group, which meets again Thursday , is looking for ways to improve the state?s death penalty law. ?To use the death penalty to force a plea bargain, I think it?s unethical to do that,? Deters said in an interview. Hamilton County, home to Cincinnati, has sent the most inmates to Ohio?s death row ? 61 over 30 years ? though the county has indicted fewer than 200 people in 3 decades. Deters doesn?t accept plea bargains once he decides to pursue a death penalty case. Mason says a committee of assistant prosecutors reviews the evidence of each death penalty case and encourages defense attorneys to produce reasons that could weigh against the death penalty. ?When we seek the death penalty it is not to secure a plea bargain, but instead to equally apply the law,? Mason said. Despite the higher number of capital indictments, Mason?s record of winning death sentences is no better than other counties, some of them smaller than Cuyahoga, with about 1.3 million residents. (source: Associated Press) NEW MEXICO: Astorga sentence testimony gets personal Witnesses are on the stand again in the Michael Astorga death penalty hearing offering starkly different opinions on whether he should live or die. But these weren't just any witnesses: They were family members of slain Deputy James McGrane Jr. asking the jury to execute his killer and friends and family of Astorga who want his life spared. A District Court jury in Albuquerque convicted Astorga of the murder in 2010, and a new jury is now will determine whether he is sentenced to death or to life in prison. The sentencing hearing was moved to Santa Fe due to the extensive media attention given the case in Bernalillo County. Rita and James McGrane Sr. and their daughter spoke about the night in 2006 when Astorga killed the Bernalillo County sheriff's deputy during a nighttime traffic stop near Tijeras. McGrane's father testified that when he saw the sheriff at his door, no one had to tell him what had happened. He then had to tell his wife and daughter. His son, he added, had been proud to be a New Mexico State Police officer before joining the Bernalillo County Sheriff's Department. Ida Tingley, McGrane's sister, said her brother's death changed the course of their lives forever leaving pain and grief that never go away. Rita McGrane described James--Jimmy, she calls him--as a happy and loving son and that she visits his grave several times a week. She continues to have nightmares of her son dead on the highway, she added. After that, the defense started calling its own witnesses whose testimony they hope will save Astorga from death by lethal injection. A private investigator hired to look into his background told the court Astorga's younger years were turbulent, that he was born to a 16-year-old mother. He had almost no male role models growing up and was mostly raised by his grandmother, investigator Tom Garrity testified. He also was placed in special education from kindergarten on and was married while completing high school. Friends and family of Astorga also testified late Wednesday morning talking about how he helped a friend's family when it was in financial trouble. His step-mother Rosemary Astorga blew Astorga a kiss as she took the stand to tell the jury everyone is human and makes mistakes. Astorga's current wife, Marcella, testified the elder son is becoming old enough to wonder what's going old enough wonder what's up with his father and why they are separated by glass when they visit. She also said their last name was causing their son trouble in school, and that the principal had gone out of her way to attack her son. At that, point, however, District Judge Neil Candelaria stopped her from saying anything more on that topic. When her testimony finished, Candelaria recessed court for lunch. Additional testimony is scheduled for the afternoon session. (source: KRQE News) From rhalperi at smu.edu Thu May 17 17:26:15 2012 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Thu, 17 May 2012 17:26:15 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----IDAHO, CONN. Message-ID: May 17 IDAHO----impending execution Idaho set to execute 2nd death row inmate within a year A 7th District Judge has signed a death warrant for condemned inmate Richard Albert Leavitt, ordering that he be executed by lethal injection. Barring any last-minute court intervention, Leavitt will be put to death on June 12. Leavitt was convicted in the July 18, 1984, brutal death of Danette Elg in Blackfoot. Prosecutors said he stabbed her repeatedly with exceptional force, and then cut out her sexual organs. Leavitt's defense attorneys have argued that he sustained brain damage and has a mental disorder that contributed to his actions. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to consider Leavitt's appeal Monday, and Judge Jon Shindurling signed the death warrant Thursday. If Leavitt's execution moves forward as planned, he will become the second person executed by the state in the last 7 months. Paul Ezra Rhoades, who was convicted of killing three people in eastern Idaho in 1987, was put to death on Nov. 18, 2011. Before Rhoades' death, executions were rare in Idaho, with only one other inmate put to death in the last half-century. But several death row inmates appear to be reaching the end of the appeals process, and last year Idaho Department of Correction officials predicted there could be as many as four people executed before the end of 2013. Leavitt's defense attorneys have tried several times to get his death penalty overturned. In 2007, U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill agreed after concluding defense attorney David Parmenter was ineffective for failing to investigate if brain damage found years later could explain Leavitt's personality disorders at the time of the crime. But in a divided opinion issued in 2011, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed Winmill and put Leavitt back on death row. Leavitt, who has long maintained his innocence, was arrested after authorities discovered Elg's body in her blood-spattered bedroom four days after she'd been killed. During his trial, a court-appointed psychologist who examined Leavitt said he had an antisocial personality disorder and intermittent explosive disorder, which could cause him to lose control of aggressive impulses. | What's it like on Death Row? Former district Judge H. Reynold George noted that Leavitt came from a law-abiding family, was married and steadily employed before his arrest and that while he had a criminal record, it mostly contained misdemeanors and traffic infractions. Still, George said at the sentencing, those mitigating factors were only "feathers on the scale when balanced against the grossly inhumane act of murder that went beyond all decency." In April, Leavitt was one of four death row inmates to sue the state, contending Idaho's new execution procedures give too much power to prison officials, create a risk of severe pain and would allow unqualified workers to carry out medical procedures. In the lawsuit Leavitt, Thomas Creech, James Hairston and Gene Stuart ask a judge to stop all executions until the problems are fixed. That lawsuit is still active; the state has asked U.S. District Judge Edward Lodge to throw it out because Idaho's protocol matches the procedures in other states that have been upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court. (source: Associated Press) CONNECTICUT: Dr. Petit blasts Roraback on death penalty, backs Wilson-Foley Dr. William Petit, who has been an outspoken advocate of the death penalty since his wife and two daughters were murdered and their killers put on Connecticut?s Death Row, blasted 5th District Congress candidate Andrew Roraback Thursday and expressed continued support for his Republican rival, Lisa Wilson-Foley. Petit was upset with comments Roraback made about the death penalty on WNPR?s ?Where We Live? program Wednesday morning. Roraback explained why he has always opposed Connecticut?s death penalty, but voted against repeal this year because he felt the bill, which still called for the execution of the 11 men on death row, was ?disingenuous.? First of all, he said, there?s no way that the courts would allow those men to be executed after Connecticut banned the death penalty ?going forward.? Second, he said, it was wrong to say we are claiming the ?moral high ground? on the death penalty by starting with calling for the government to kill 11 people. Roraback referenced the Petit case a few times during his remarks, because that?s the reason that Gov. Dannel Malloy and some legislators gave for wanting to exempt the existing Death Row inmates from repeal. ?Sen. Roraback cited the plight of our family as a reason the law was ?disingenuous,? since the effect of the new law would not lead to justice for current Death Row convicts,? Dr. Petit and Hanna Petit Chapman said in a written statement posted on The Laurel blog. ?We are very disappointed and hurt that Sen. Roraback would use our family name without our permission to provide him political cover when the repeal legislation was essentially the same bill he supported in 2009 ? which he admitted in the interview.? The statement went on to push Wilson-Foley?s candidacy: ?One of the many reasons we support Lisa Wilson Foley is her consistency on this issue. Sen. Roraback?s attempt to interpret our emotions is simply politics. When we met with Sen. Roraback, we respected his initial position to oppose the Death Penalty. His comments Wednesday, in our minds, cast doubt on whether Sen. Roraback has any core convictions on important issues. As Republicans from Plainville, we are supporting Lisa Wilson Foley because she is the best qualified to represent us in Washington, based in part, on her core principles.? There was more than one connection between Wilson-Foley and Roraback?s appearance on WNPR Wednesday. Originally, she was scheduled to appear on the program on that day, but her campaign canceled with 2 days notice because they objected to host John Dankosky?s plan to ask her about the controversy surrounding her connections to former Gov. John Rowland. (source: Register Citizen) From rhalperi at smu.edu Fri May 18 10:59:57 2012 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Fri, 18 May 2012 10:59:57 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] [SPAM] death penalty news----TEXAS, IDAHO, VA., N.C. Message-ID: May 18 TEXAS: Death penalty opponent to lean on Dallas DA----SMU professor acting after report suggests innocent man died The Columbia Human rights Law Review opened up a new can of worms on the death penalty in Texas this week with its book-length examination of the 1989 execution of Carlos DeLuna. The bottom line, according to the report, is that the state executed the wrong man for the stabbing death of 24-year-old Wand Lopez in a Corpus Christi convenience store. Researchers say prosecutors bypassed another person who bragged of killing Lopez. On the heels of that report, death penaltu abolitionist Rick Halperin, a professor at Southern Methodist University, told the website Dallas South News he would be on the courthouse steps in Dallas on Friday to lean on Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins to stop seeking lethal injection in capital cases. Asked Thursday whether Watkins had read the Columbia report and, if so, would altter his stance on the death penalty, spokeswoman Jamille Bradfield relwased this terse statement: "We are declining comment." "This report highlights only the tip of the iceberg," Halperin says. "The DeLuna case is not a singular aberration of a person who has been wrongfully convicted and executed in Texas. In fact, there have been and remain numerous innocent people who have been sent to death row and executed, or people currenly on death row waiting to be executed." Haperin notes that the community need only consider the Dallas County Jail, where 32 men have been released after being wrongfully convicted. Others such as Ben Specner remain. Spencer has been in jail 22 years, and "despite the judge who sentenced hm now admitting he belives Ben is innocent, Watkins won't re-open the case, which defies his own commments that the main job of a DA is to do justice," Halperin says. "But seeking death and leaving innocent people in jail is not justice. It's morally unacceptable and violative of people's rights and dignity." Dallas County leads the U.S. in the number of people exonerated after being wrongfully convicted, Halperin says. "These are not death row cases but they're symptomatic of continued mistakes within the criminal justice system. Craig Watkins keeps saying that he is morally opposed to the death penalty, yet he continues to go into the courtroom to seek death. Either he is or isn't for the death penalty. This is an opportunity for him to deliver consistency and stop being hypocritical about what he says and how he acts." As the Dallas Morning News has reported many times, Watkins' view on capital punishment swings like a pendulum. When first taking office in 2007, Watkins declared that he personally opposed the death penalty on moral and religious grounds. Recently, he reveled that his own great-grandfather had been executed by the state and said the state needed to look into reforms. TIMELINE: Craig Watkins' evolving position: January 2007----The newly elected DA told The News' editorial board that he would not shy away from employing the death penalty to seek a new trial for Thomas Miller-El, whose 1986 death penalty conviction had been overturned by teh U.S. Supreme Court over concerns that prosecutors had intentionally excuded minorities from his jury. "He [Miller-El] needs to be on death row. He should have been dead a long time ago," Watkins said. The following year, Watkins' office agreed to a plea deal that took the death penalty off the table but sent Miller-El to prison for life. November 2007----Newsweek reported that Watkins was not sure how he felt about the death penalty and that "it depends on which day you ask me." September 2008----Troubled that innocent people had ben imprisoned by faulty prosecutions, Watkins announced that his office would re-examine nearly 40 death penalty convictions and would seek to halt executions, if necessary, to give the reviews time to proceed. "It's not saying I'm putting a moratoium on the death penalty," he said. "It's saying that mayabe we should withdraw those dates and look at those cases from a new perspective to make sure that those individuals that are on death row need to be there and they need to be executed." August 2009----Watkins said a particularly cold-blooded Dallas county double killing had made him rethink hsi position. While still conflicted, he said, "I'm starting to change a little bit....You know this guy didn't have any remorse whatsoever. And maybe it's true that there are just people out there that need to be dealt with in this way." August 2010----Watkins, while mired in a rough re-election race, said he had changed his mind about capital punishemt. "I came in with a certain philosophical view. I don't have that anymore." he told the News. "From a religious standpoint, I think it's an archaic way of doing justice. But in this job, I've seen people who cannot be rehabilitated." Watkins said he still had concerns that prosecutors somewhere might send the wrong person to death row. But he said that even when he was opposed to the death penalty, he still allowed his office to seek it when warranted. "I cannot argue against it morally, but I car argue against it broadly," Watkins said. "Given the DNA exonerations, there's a chance we've executed someone in Texas who did not commit crime." February 2012----Watkins made this extrraordinary revelation in passing at a news conference: His great-grandfather was executed byt he state of Texas. He balked at explaining his reason for the disclosure to the newspaper but later told The Associated Press that he was calling on state legislators to review death penalty procedures to ensure that they were fairly administered. "I don't know if I'm the voice to that," he told the AP. "I just know, here I am, and I have there experiences." He later told The News that the spark for such a debate "is going to come from someone in a district attorney's seat." (sources: Dallas Morning News & Dallas South News) ***************** Carlos DeLuna And Cameron Todd Willingham: The Sad Similarities During the Supreme Court's 2006 adjudication of Cameron v. Marsh, Justice Antonin Scalia had this to say about what would happen if an innocent person was put to death by the criminal justice system: "If such an event had occurred in recent years, we would not have to hunt for it; the innocent's name would be shouted from the rooftops." The last time I had the occasion to dredge up that bit of Scaliana, it was in reference to Cameron Todd Willingham, who was executed in 2004, wrongly accused of setting a fire in his home that claimed the lives of his children. The Willingham case had become newsworthy again in 2011 because of Texas Gov. Rick Perry's possible ascension to the presidential stage and a new documentary, "Incendiary: The Willingham Case," which chronicled the deeply flawed evidence used to convict Willingham and the political pressure exerted by Perry and his political allies to quash an investigation that was on its way to proving Willingham's innocence. As such, the Willingham case hasn't resulted in much shouting from the rooftops. But if the Columbia Human Rights Law Review has anything to say about it, that won't happen a second time. Under the leadership of James Liebman, a Columbia law professor, the Review has devoted its entire issue to another man put to death in Texas for a crime he didn't commit: Carlos DeLuna. The details of the crime, DeLuna's arrest and subsequent prosecution as well as the later investigation into DeLuna's innocence have already been chronicled on this site by Michael McLaughlin, so be sure to read the whole thing. But to briefly summarize, on Feb. 4, 1983, Wanda Lopez, a cashier at a Shamrock gas station in Corpus Christi, Texas, was stabbed to death with a buck knife during a robbery. Police who were sent to canvass the scene of the crime and its immediate vicinity found Carlos DeLuna nearby, hiding under a parked pickup truck. DeLuna was apprehended and brought back to the Shamrock, where he was fingered by an eyewitness as the man seen fleeing the scene. There were, however, discrepancies among the reports from the other eyewitnesses, who described the assailant as a Hispanic man with a mustache, wearing a gray flannel shirt. DeLuna, when apprehended, was clean-shaven and wearing a white dress shirt. DeLuna eventually offered an explanation for the discrepancy: The real killer was Carlos Hernandez, whom DeLuna knew. (Knew and feared: DeLuna did himself no favors by waiting to accuse Hernandez; he stayed mum for months because he was afraid of reprisals.) According to DeLuna, Hernandez had spent the evening with DeLuna at a nearby bar during the night of the crime. While they were together, Hernandez excused himself to go to the Shamrock. DeLuna was under the impression that he was going to purchase something from the store. When Hernandez did not return, DeLuna went looking for him. He told the jury at his trial that when he arrived at the Shamrock, he saw Hernandez inside, attacking Wanda Lopez. DeLuna, who had a record (for sexual assault), was out on parole and afraid that being caught drinking would get him sent back to jail, ran from the scene. Police gave DeLuna's story short shrift, calling Hernandez a "figment of [his] imagination," and no effort was made to chase down the possibility that the wrong man had been apprehended. And it didn't help matters that DeLuna had more than a passing resemblance to Hernandez. DeLuna would eventually be convicted of the murder and executed by lethal injection on Dec. 8, 1989, declaring his innocence to the very last. As McLaughlin reports, James Liebman started delving into the case "roughly ten years ago." His initial findings formed the basis of a 3-part series published by the Chicago Tribune in 2006. This recent issue of the Columbia Human Rights Law Review provides the culmination of this mammoth effort. Obviously, the Lopez murder is distinct in many ways from the Willingham case. Most importantly, in DeLuna's case, an actual crime had been committed. In Willingham's instance, when fire scientists applied their forensic expertise to the available evidence, they were able to demonstrate that the prosecutors, having relied on what amounted to folklore about how fires spread, had failed to make their arson case. The science plainly suggested that an accidental fire had occurred. Another key difference is that the DeLuna case has not become consumed by the same intense, top-down political pressuring and posturing that came to the fore during the investigation into Willingham's execution. But the similarities are depressing enough. As Liebman found, the investigation into Lopez's murder was a badly bungled mess. In fact, as the Guardian's Ed Pilkington reports, it only took Liebman a single day to begin destroying the prosecution's case against DeLuna: 4 years after DeLuna was executed, Liebman decided to look into the DeLuna case as part of a project he was undertaking into the fallibility of the death penalty. He asked a private investigator to spend one day -- just one day -- looking for signs of the elusive Carlos Hernandez. By the end of that single day the investigator had uncovered evidence that had eluded scores of Texan police officers, prosecutors, defense lawyers and judges over the six years between DeLuna's arrest and execution. Carlos Hernandez did indeed exist. Liebman's investigator tracked down within a few hours a woman who was related to both the Carloses. She supplied Hernandez's date of birth, which in turn allowed the unlocking of Hernandez's criminal past as the case rapidly unravelled. So, not only was Carlos Hernandez not a figment of anyone's imagination, he had a record. And that record was pretty specific, according to the Guardian: Several of the crimes that Hernandez committed involved hold-ups of Corpus Christi gas stations. Just a few days before the Shamrock murder he was found cowering outside a nearby 7-Eleven wielding a knife -- a detail never disclosed to DeLuna's defence. He also had a history of violence towards women. He was twice arrested on suspicion of the 1979 murder of a woman called Dahlia Sauceda, who was stabbed and then had an "X" carved into her back. The first arrest was made four years before DeLuna's trial and the second while DeLuna was on death row, yet the connection between this Hernandez and the "phantom" presented to DeLuna's jury was never made. It gets worse, according to these 2 passages from the Guardian: In October 1989, just two months before DeLuna was executed, Hernandez was se[n]tenced to 10 years' imprisonment for attempting to kill with a knife another woman called Dina Ybanez. Hernandez himself frequently told people that he was a knife murderer. He made numerous confessions to having killed Wanda Lopez, the crime for which DeLuna was executed, joking with friends and relatives that his "tocayo" had taken the fall. His admissions were so widely broadcast that even Corpus Christi police detectives came to hear about them within weeks of the incident at the Shamrock gas station. So how did it come to pass that Hernandez was never treated as a suspect in Lopez's murder? I saved this key detail from the Guardian's report for last: Over the years he was arrested 39 times, 13 of them for carrying a knife, and spent his entire adult life on parole. Yet he was almost never put in prison for his crimes -- a disparity that Liebman believes was because he was used as a police informant. So DeLuna, just like Willingham, appears to have been partially victimized by some scandalously bad police procedures. But the most striking similarity I see between these two cases is that in the end, the lives of those involved just weren't important enough to anyone tasked with ensuring that justice was done. Willingham was an unemployed, impoverished knockabout with a bad reputation. DeLuna was a Hispanic parolee with a criminal record. Those who perished in these incidents were mostly invisible denizens of the lower-class fringes -- a couple of children born into grueling poverty, a gas station attendant. What they'd amounted to -- in life -- didn't seem enough to inspire much of an effort to provide a fully professional investigation of their deaths. In the end, neither case demanded a titanic amount of effort to arrive at the truth. Just a nominal amount of mere curiosity. This is precisely what Liebman observed in an interview with the San Antonio Express News: ?This case changed my whole view ... I had thought the problem cases were ones where you have an out-of-town defendant, a scary person who commits a really bad crime that grabs the whole community ... Now, I think the worst cases are those that likely happen every day in which no one cares that much about the defendant or the victim.? And that's why you don't hear DeLuna's name being shouted from the rooftops. (source: Jason Linkins, Huffington Post) IDAHO----new execution date Idaho judge sets Leavitt execution for June 12 A 7th District Judge has signed a death warrant for condemned inmate Richard Albert Leavitt, ordering that he be executed by lethal injection. Barring any last-minute court intervention, Leavitt will be put to death on June 12. Leavitt was convicted in the July 18, 1984, brutal death of Danette Elg in Blackfoot. Prosecutors said he stabbed her repeatedly with exceptional force, and then cut out her sexual organs. Leavitt?s defense attorneys have argued that he sustained brain damage and has a mental disorder that contributed to his actions. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to consider Leavitt?s appeal Monday, and Judge Jon Shindurling signed the death warrant today. If Leavitt?s execution moves forward as planned, he will become the second person executed by the state in the last seven months. Paul Ezra Rhoades, who was convicted of killing three people in eastern Idaho in 1987, was put to death on Nov. 18, 2011. Before Rhoades? death, executions were rare in Idaho, with only one other inmate put to death in the last half-century. But they could become much more common, with Idaho Department of Correction officials predicting last year that there could be as many as four people executed before the end of 2013. Leavitt?s defense attorneys have tried several times to get the death penalty overturned. In 2007, U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill agreed after concluding defense attorney David Parmenter was ineffective for failing to investigate if brain damage found years later could explain Leavitt?s personality disorders at the time of the crime. But in a divided opinion issued in 2011, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed Winmill and put Leavitt back on death row. Leavitt, who has long maintained his innocence, was arrested after authorities discovered Elg?s body in her blood-spattered bedroom four days after she?d been killed. During his trial, a court-appointed psychologist who examined Leavitt said he had an antisocial personality disorder and intermittent explosive disorder, which would cause him to lose control of aggressive impulses. Former district Judge H. Reynold George noted that Leavitt came from a law-abiding family, was married and steadily employed before his arrest and that while he had a criminal record, it mostly contained misdemeanors and traffic infractions. Still, George said at the sentencing, those mitigating factors were only ?feathers on the scale when balanced against the grossly inhumane act of murder that went beyond all decency.? In April, Leavitt was 1 of 4 death row inmates to sue the state, contending Idaho?s new execution procedures give too much power to prison officials, create a risk of severe pain and would allow unqualified workers to carry out medical procedures. In the lawsuit Leavitt, Thomas Creech, James Hairston and Gene Stuart ask a judge to stop all executions until the problems are fixed. That lawsuit is still active; the state has asked U.S. District Judge Edward Lodge to throw it out because Idaho?s protocol matches the procedures in other states that have been upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court. (source: Associated Press) ********************** Out of appeals; death row inmate learns of execution date On Thursday at around 4:00 p.m., Idaho death row inmate Richard Leavitt was served his official death warrant. He is set to be executed by lethal injection, June 12th. In just 7 months, Idaho will have 2 executions. 53-year-old, Richard Leavitt has been behind bars since 1985 for the murder of an eastern Idaho woman. Leavitt was convicted and sentenced to death for the murder and mutilation of 31-year-old Danette Elg of Blackfoot. A 7th District Court judge signed the death warrant early Thursday; Leavitt was moved to an isolation cell at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution, which is policy. Years of appeals followed the murder conviction. Attorneys claimed Leavitt suffered a brain injury which made him unstable at the time of the murder. On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear his final appeal. The Idaho Attorney General's office says Leavitt came to the end of his road of appeals. ?It takes a long time for justice to be done in a capital case,? said LaMont Anderson with the Idaho Attorney General?s office. ?But at the same time we can?t be too speedy because we do want to make sure that it is justice that is done and that we are doing the right thing in these cases.? In July of 1984, Elg was found stabbed 15 times and her body was sexually mutilated. Police said the 2 were acquainted and even days before her murder, Elg reported Leavitt was prowling around her Blackfoot home. Upon her disappearance, Leavitt expressed concern to police, so much concern; police records indicated he was allowed to enter Elg's home with police where her body was found. 14 people are now on Idaho's death row, including Leavitt. Paul Rhoades was put to death in November of last year, for the 1987 murders of two women. Until that execution, Idaho had not carried out the death penalty since 1994. (source: KTVB News) VIRGINIA: Roanoke County prosecutors to seek death penalty in slaying of woman----Carey Shane Padgett faces capital murder charges in the death of Cara Marie Holley, who was beaten to death in July 2010. Prosecutors will seek the death penalty against Carey Shane Padgett, the man facing capital murder charges in the death of Cara Marie Holley. "We have given notice of an intention to do that," Roanoke County Commonwealth's Attorney Randy Leach said Thursday. "We are proceeding as if we're going forward seeking the death penalty." That word came soon after a Circuit Court hearing at which Judge James Swanson granted a motion by Padgett's lawyers to hire an expert who would evaluate the degree of danger Padgett poses. For Padgett to be sentenced to death, a jury would have to find either that he is a future danger to society or that the crimes he committed were vile, "horrible or inhuman in that it involved torture, depravity of mind or an aggravated battery to the victim," by legal definition. "You don't need an expert to tell you about his behavior," Leach told the court during the hearing. "If it's required by due process, it's a path I'm required to take," Swanson said. Padgett's lawyers, who did not immediately return calls Thursday, told Swanson they had approached a prison violence risk assessment expert whose rate is $400 an hour and who anticipated needing 24 hours of preparation time, totaling $9,600, not counting the time required for testimony. Earlier this year, his defense was also granted permission to have a doctor evaluate Padgett's possible intoxication from the drugs mephedrone and salvia divinorum. Salvia is a psychoactive herbal drug and mephedrone is a synthetic stimulant found in drugs known as bath salts. Padgett, 23, appeared in court wearing a dark yellow prison uniform and orange-and-maroon sneakers. He affirmed to the judge that he understood the motion. The motion has been sealed, a Circuit Court clerk said Thursday. Padgett told police in July 2010 that he smoked marijuana with 18-year-old Holley - whom he called a friend - in a Roanoke County field, then beat her with a tire iron and buried her body in a wooded area in Franklin County, according to a warrant. He is charged with capital murder as well as rape, robbery, forcible sodomy and abduction. Padgett's trial is scheduled to begin in late October. (source: Roanoke Times) NORTH CAROLINA: Prosecutors will learn how to fight Racial Justice Act A month after a Cumberland County judge ruled for the defendant in the 1st case under the Racial Justice Act, about 60 prosecutors from across North Carolina are coming to Forsyth County today to learn how to fight motions filed under the law. Forsyth County prosecutors are preparing for 2 pending motions under the Racial Justice Act, a law adopted in 2009 that allows defendants and death-row inmates to use statistics and other evidence to prove that race played a significant role in their cases. The motions filed under the act deal with statistics from a study by 2 Michigan State University law professors finding racial disparities in the application of the death penalty. Successful motions can lead to changing a death sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Forsyth County prosecutors are consulting with statistical experts and other witnesses who might be used in other Racial Justice Act cases across North Carolina. Forsyth County District Attorney Jim O'Neill said giving other prosecutors a chance to hear those experts in a one-day session saves money. He declined to comment on specifics of the training because it deals with pending litigation, but he said in general that the Racial Justice Act has resulted in expensive legal actions. O'Neill said he and other prosecutors tried to warn legislators that the Racial Justice Act would cost millions of dollars in taxpayer money, to no avail. "This training session is my attempt to save at least some money for the taxpayers," he said. He said any training session expenditures, such as traveling expenses for witnesses, will be billed to the N.C. Administrative Office of the Courts, as would be done in any other criminal case. He said he does not know the cost yet. The training session, to be held at an undisclosed location, is not open to the public. O'Neill and other prosecutors have opposed the Racial Justice Act, calling it a backhanded attempt to end the death penalty. They have also said the law would clog the court system. More than 95 percent of the people on death row have filed under the act. Last month, Cumberland Superior Court Judge Greg Weeks commuted Marcus Robinson's death sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole after finding that race played a "persistent, pervasive and distorting role" in jury selection. Robinson, who is black, was convicted of killing 17-year-old Erik Tornblom, who was white. Forsyth County held the first hearing ever under the Racial Justice Act last year when Judge William Z. Wood ruled that the law was constitutional in the cases of Carl Stephen Moseley and Errol Duke Moses. Their cases likely will not be heard until 2014. Peg Dorer, executive director of the N.C. Conference of District Attorneys, said the Racial Justice Act cases are unusually complex because they deal with statistics. "It has nothing to do with the facts of the case," she said. "It has to do with statistical cases in the study." Tye Hunter, executive director of the Center for Death Penalty Litigation in Durham, said he has no problem with prosecutors having a training session but hopes they also deal with the racial disparities the Cumberland judge said are inherent in the death penalty. "I think what Judge Weeks said in his order was that he hoped this would be an opportunity for prosecutors to look at what they had done in the past and avoid making the same mistakes in the future," he said. (source: Winston-Salem Journal) From rhalperi at smu.edu Fri May 18 11:03:21 2012 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Fri, 18 May 2012 11:03:21 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----WASH., USA, CALIF. Message-ID: May 18 WASHINGTON: Allen Eugene Gregory Gets the Death Penalty ... Again A Pierce County jury has given 39-year-old Allen Eugene Gregory the death penalty. Again. In 2001 a jury convicted Gregory of 1st-degree aggravated murder stemming from the brutal 1996 killing of 43-year-old Tacoma bartender Geneine "Genie" Harshfield - who was tied up, raped and stabbed in the kitchen of her home some 16 years ago. Most damning for the defendant's chances in court, Gregory's DNA was eventually matched to the crime scene. The Pierce County Prosecutor's Office provides this description of the crime: On July 27, 1996, 43-year-old Genie Harshfield failed to appear for her shift as a bartender at a Tacoma restaurant. A concerned coworker went to Harshfield's home and found her body in the bedroom. Harshfield was lying face down on her bed, naked with her hands bound behind her back. She had been stabbed 3 times in the back and her throat was slit. The medical examiner found evidence of sexual assault and determined Harshfield's cause of death was multiple sharp force injuries and blunt force trauma to the head. Gregory lived across from the victim at the time of the murder. He gave detectives inconsistent information about his whereabouts during the time of the murder. DNA analysis of semen found at the scene indicated a likelihood of fewer than one in 180 billion that Gregory was not the source. But in 2006 the Washington Supreme Court overturned Gregory's death sentence, citing judicial and prosecutorial error. In 2000 Gregory was convicted of 3 counts of 1st-degree rape, information that his 2001 jury was privy to in deciding to sentence Gregory to death in the murder of Harshfield. However, the 2000 rape conviction was later overturned by the Washington State Supreme Court, which ruled the court abused its powers when it refused to review evidence related to the victim's history of drug use that could have aided Gregory's defense. Since the jury in Gregory's 2001 aggravated 1st-degree murder trial heard evidence of his now-invalid rape conviction during sentencing, and it likely impacted the decision to hand down his initial death sentence, that death sentence was also overturned. While the conviction stood, prosecutors in Pierce County were left with a decision: Try for the death penalty again, or go another route? If you've read this far you're obviously well aware of their decision. The Pierce County Prosecutor's Office, led by Deputy Prosecutor John Neeb (who also tried Gregory's 2001 murder trial), decided to retry the penalty phase of the case and once again aim for the death penalty. Yesterday, as the culmination of a penalty trial that started in March, Neeb and the Pierce County Prosecutor's Office got the decision from the jury they were hoping for. "I tried the case the 1st time. In our opinion, it was a fair trial and a fair conviction," says Neeb. "There's nothing different this time." The task required the rehashing of a mountain of powerful evidence, including gruesome crime-scene photos and autopsy reports. While going through the process again was difficult, Neeb says Harshfield's mother staunchly supported once again trying for the death penalty. "The victim's family's wishes are always important," says Neeb. "In [Harshfield's mother's] opinion [the death penalty] was appropriate. She never wavered about this office going forward with the case." One of Gregory's attorneys, Zenon Olbertz, told Tacoma's News Tribune in the aftermath of yesterday's court ruling that this moving evidence played a part in the jury's ultimate decision to sentence his client to death once again. >From The News Tribune: Olbertz said outside court he thought jurors could not get past the terrible act his client committed and see him as a human being. Crime scene and autopsy photos admitted for the trial were horrific, he said. "I think they're supposed to get beyond that, but it's kind of blinding," Olbertz said. Neeb, by contrast, is pleased by yesterday's ruling. "The results are what matter," he says. Gregory is now scheduled to have his death warrant signed by Superior Court Judge Rosanne Buckner on June 13. The case, of course, is subject to appeal once again, meaning there's a strong possibility this isn't the last we've heard of it. (source: Seattle Weekly) USA: Solitary confinement for the mentally ill challenged in courts, report says A clash is brewing nationwide between prison wardens and inmate advocates over long-term detentions of mentally ill prisoners in solitary confinement, according to an Associated Press report. The report highlights several recent cases. Advocates in several states are fighting over cases of mentally ill inmates being held in long-term solitary confinement. They include a $22 million jury award to a New Mexico prisoner who "extracted a tooth by hand, rocking it back and forth in the socket for hours, after going without medical or dental care while in solitary confinement for 2 years." Advocates for other mentally ill inmates have failed to persuade judges that staying locked away for as much as 23 hours a day amounts to cruel and unusual punishment. According to the report, prison officials say keeping some mentally ill inmates in long-term isolation amounts to a safety benefit, both for the prison population and the inmates who are deemed dangerous enough to be kept in "administrative segregation." Advocates, however, including the American Civil Liberties Union, say it only exacerbates the troubles of mentally ill inmates. Activists are pushing the issue in several states, the report says. It is unclear just how many of the nation's inmates are held in long-term solitary confinement. The arguments against solitary confinement for the mentally ill appears similar to a debate over the death penalty for the mentally ill. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2002 that executing mentally retarded criminals amounts to cruel and unusual punishment. In 2007, the high court found that courts weighing execution need to consider whether a condemned inmate is so out of touch with reality that he can't understand the link between the crimes and the ultimate punishment, or the point of it. (source: New Orleans Times-Picayune) CALIFORNIA: Shaw family urges death penalty for Espinoza Prosecutors are urging jurors to recommend the death penalty against Pedro Espinoza, a gang member convicted of murdering high school football star Jamiel Shaw II. Espinoza's gang affiliation makes him eligible for the death penalty. He was also reportedly in the country illegally when he murdered Shaw. The prosecution is seeking the death penalty with the support of Shaw's family. For three days, probation officers and jail personnel described Espinoza as a persistent troublemaker, attacking other inmates and deputies more than a dozen times. His defense team says Espinoza was neglected and abused as a child. That's a stark contrast to how Shaw, 17, was raised. Jamiel Shaw II was gunned down just three doors away from his Arlington Heights home after leaving a friend's house in 2008. He was confronted by Espinoza, who thought he was a member of a rival gang. Shaw had been attracting attention for his athletic talents from schools like Rutgers and Stanford at the time of his death. The parents say the death penalty for Espinoza is justified, and ask that it be done without years of delay. Shaw's mother Anita, an Army sergeant, was in Iraq when she was notified of her son's death. "He came in and he killed him quickly, so let his death be quickly," said Shaw. "Listen to all the stuff that he has done while my son was doing nothing but good. His life speaks for what he deserves. He's guilty. He deserves death." (source: Los Angeles News) From rhalperi at smu.edu Fri May 18 11:05:08 2012 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Fri, 18 May 2012 11:05:08 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide Message-ID: May 18 PAKISTAN----stay of execution Zardari stays Pakistan's 1st hanging in 4 years President Asif Ali Zardari on Thursday stayed the hanging of a man convicted of killing a lawyer, putting off the first execution scheduled since an informal moratorium was put in place in Pakistan nearly 4 years ago. The stay order issued by the President was received by jail officials in the southern port city of Karachi on Thursday morning. The execution of Behram Khan was scheduled for May 23. DIG (Prisons) Nusrat Mangan said the stay order postponed Khan's hanging till June 30. An anti-terrorism court gave the death sentence to Khan nearly a decade ago after he was found guilty of murdering lawyer Mohammad Ashraf within the Sindh High Court complex in April 2003. Khan's mercy petition had been rejected earlier this month, following which the anti-terrorism court issued a black warrant for his execution at 4:30 am on May 23. Rights groups, including the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan and Human Rights Watch, had urged the Pakistan government to halt the scheduled hanging of Khan. The HRCP had expressed "alarm" at the scheduled hanging and called on the government to announce a "formal moratorium on executions". "The Pakistani government has rightly not carried out executions since 2009," said Ali Dayan Hasan, Pakistan director of Human Rights Watch. "Instead of resorting to this barbaric practice, the government should declare the moratorium officially, commute all existing death sentences, and then abolish the death penalty for all crimes". On April 15, 2003, Khan and policeman Pir Bux entered the Sindh High Court intending to kill Qurban Ali Chauhan, the lawyer for an accused under trial for the killing of Khan's uncle. Khan killed Ashraf in a case of mistaken identity. The anti-terrorist court sentenced Khan to death on June 25, 2003 while Pir Bux was sentenced to life imprisonment for abetting the murder. HRW said the number of people executed every year in Pakistan under military rule was among the highest in the world. Indian death row prisoner Sarabjit Singh is among those who benefited from the Pakistan government's decision to suspend executions. (source: PTI) SOMALILAND: Somaliland military court sentences 17 civilians to death A military court in Somalia's autonomous northern region of Somaliland has sentenced 17 civilians to death for attacking a military base, the BBC reports. According to the report, 30 armed members of a clan attacked soldiers in a camp on Tuesday. 7 people, including 3 soldiers, were killed in the resulting firefight. Following the attack, 28 people were arrested and held overnight. A military trial followed, in which 3 people were acquitted and the trial of 3 others was postponed. 5 minors were given life sentences, and the remaining 17 civilians were sentenced to death, after reportedly confessing to conducting the attacks. According to the BBC, the attackers claimed the military had built on land that they had owned for generations. An attack on Somaliland's military carries a mandatory death penalty for adults, the BBC says. Somaliland, a breakaway, semi-desert territory on the coast of the Gulf of Aden, has been spared by much of the violence plaguing Somalia, but the BBC says land disputes are common. (source: MSNBC News) IRAQ: Ex-guards testify against Iraqi vice president in death squad trial Former bodyguards for Iraq?s fugitive vice president have testified that they were ordered to kill security officials and plant roadside bombs as a politically charged terror trial against the Sunni leader got under way. Vice President Tariq Al-Hashemi, who was in Turkey but faced trial in absentia, has denied all charges against him. If convicted, he could face the death penalty. The case threatens to paralyze Iraq?s government by fueling simmering Sunni and Kurdish resentments against Shiite Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki, who critics claim is monopolizing power. Al-Hashemi is an ardent critic of Al-Maliki, whose government issued a warrant for the vice president?s arrest the day after US troops left Iraq last December. Al-Hashemi has been accused of playing a role in 150 bombings, assassinations and other attacks from 2005 to 2011, according to the judicial council. The Iraqi government alleges that Sunni death squads were largely composed of his bodyguards and other employees. The charges against the vice president span the worst years of bloodshed that followed the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq as retaliatory sectarian attacks between Sunni and Shiite militants pushed the country to the brink of civil war. He has been in office since 2006. The testimony focused on more recent years, when violence ebbed but insurgents continued to attack security forces and other targets in a bid to undermine the Iraqi government in the run-up to the US withdrawal in December. Bodyguard Odai Ghazi Amin, who served in the Iraqi Army under Saddam Hussein, said he joined Al-Hashemi?s staff in 2008 and was ordered by the vice president?s son-in-law in 2009 to escort bomb-planting missions on roads across Baghdad. In 2011, Amin said he was told to assassinate an army general and a lawyer ? orders he tried to avoid by asking for a job transfer. But he said he was threatened by the son-in-law, who ran Al-Hashemi?s office, that he would be killed and his family in danger if he refused the deadly missions. Last September, Amin testified, he was summoned to meet with the vice president. ?Al-Hashemi told me that he is going to assign me to kill some officers who work against the interests of the state and to carry out operations on security checkpoints,? Amin said. Amin testified that after the meeting, Al-Hashemi?s son-in-law Ahmed Qahtan, who also faces terror charges, gave him and 2 other bodyguards silenced guns and told them to assassinate army Brig. Gen. Talib Balaasim. The bodyguards tracked down Balaasim in western Baghdad, and Amin testified that he killed the general, in a Sept. 26 drive-by shooting before returning to Al-Hashemi?s office in the heavily guarded Green Zone. ?About two days after the attack, Al-Hashemi received us (in his office) and said to us, ?God bless your efforts,?? Amin testified. He said the bodyguards shared a $3,000 payment. Amin?s account was later contradicted by testimony from another bodyguard, Yassir Saadi Hassoun. Hassoun said he and his brother opened fire on Balaasim, not Amin. A 3rd bodyguard, Ahmed Al-Jubouri, described a November 2011 shooting that killed national security official Ibrahim Saleh Mahdi and his wife. Al-Jubouri said Mahdi was ordered killed because he had become ?a source of annoyance? to Al-Hashemi. Al-Hashemi is in Turkey, where he has said he is receiving medical treatment. His spokesman, Fahad Al-Turki, said Al-Hashemi was not available to comment on Tuesday?s proceedings. Ahmed Qahtan also is in Turkey. He has hotly denied the charges, and accuses the government of torturing his bodyguards to obtain confessions from them. The Iraqi judiciary last month investigated and dismissed his claims. The vice president believes he will not get a fair trial in Baghdad?s criminal court, and has asked that the case be heard by a special tribunal appointed by parliament. His allies see the trial as another political power battle in Iraq. ?As far as I?m concerned, the issue of Al-Hashemi is more political than a legal one,? said Sunni lawmaker Hamid Al-Mutlaq of the Iraqiya political bloc that opposes Al-Maliki. The trial was scheduled to resume on Sunday. SINGAPORE: OPEN LETTER: CLEMENCY FOR YONG VUI KONG Mr. K. Shanmugam Law Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs The Treasury, 100 High Street, #08-02 Singapore 179434 Dear Minister OPEN LETTER: CLEMENCY FOR YONG VUI KONG URGENTLY REQUESTED Amnesty International and the Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network (ADPAN) urge Singapore?s Cabinet to advise the President to grant clemency to Yong Vui Kong, a young Malaysian who faces imminent execution for drug trafficking. Clemency granted by the President, following advice from the Cabinet, is Yong?s last hope. On 4 April, Singapore?s Supreme Court rejected Yong Vui Kong?s third and final appeal submitted by his lawyer, M. Ravi. The appeal argued that Yong Vui Kong was subjected to unequal treatment before the law when the Attorney-General?s Chamber decided not to prosecute the alleged mastermind of the drug operation, a Singaporean who was Yong Vui Kong?s former boss. He remains free from prosecution now that all 26 charges against him were withdrawn by the Attorney-General?s office. Yet his former employee, Yong Vui Kong, has spent almost four years on death row and now faces imminent execution. Yong Vui Kong was 19 when first arrested in 2007 for possessing 47g of heroin. In 2008 Singapore?s High Court sentenced him to death under the Misuse of Drugs Act ? which provides a mandatory death sentence for anyone caught with over 15g of heroin. The law strips the judiciary of discretion to pass a lesser sentence, or to individualize the sentence in conformity with the degree of culpability of the accused. In 2005 the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions said that Singapore?s execution of another prisoner sentenced to death for trafficking heroin, Nguyen Tuong Van, would violate international legal standards relating to the imposition of the death penalty. ?No international human rights tribunal anywhere in the world has ever found a mandatory death penalty regime compatible with international human rights norms,? the Special Rapporteur stated. In resolution 2005/59, adopted on 20 April 2005, the UN Commission on Human Rights urged all states that still maintain the death penalty ?to ensure- that the death penalty is not imposed- as a mandatory sentence?. Amnesty International and ADPAN urge Singapore to follow the worldwide trend among common-law countries to ban the use of the mandatory death penalty. The US Supreme Court struck down mandatory penalty in 1976, ruling in Woodson v. North Carolina that ?fundamental respect for humanity - requires consideration of the character and record of the individual offender and the circumstances of the particular offense.? In 1983, the Indian Supreme Court ruled that the penalty was unconstitutional in Mithu v. Punjab, stating that ??[t]he legislature cannot make relevant circumstances irrelevant, deprive the courts of their legitimate jurisdiction to exercise their discretion.? More recently, in Attorney-General vs Kagula, the Supreme Court of Uganda in 2009 struck down the mandatory death penalty because it prevented courts from considering all specific circumstances of the defendant and of the crime. Yong Vui Kong?s case has sparked widespread concern around the world. In his own country, Malaysia, Foreign Minister Anifah Aman and Malaysian legislators requested the Singaporean authorities to grant clemency in 2010. The President of Singapore can only grant a presidential pardon upon the advice of the Cabinet. Clemency for a death sentence has only been granted 6 times since independence in 1965. Amnesty International and the Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network call on you and other members of the Cabinet to ensure respect for international legal standards by recommending the commutation of Yong Vui Kong?s death sentence. Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases and without reservation. ADPAN is an independent regional network comprising lawyers, NGOs and civil society groups from 24 countries including Singapore. It campaigns for an end to the death penalty across the Asia-Pacific region. More than 2/3 of states have abolished the death penalty in law or in practice. Death sentences and executions are decreasing globally and in Asia. Out of 41 countries in the Asia-Pacific, 28 have abolished it in law or in practice. 5 out of the 10 ASEAN-member states have also abolished the death penalty in law or in practice. Singapore is one of the few remaining countries in the region that still carries out executions. Amnesty International and the Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network are appealing to the Singapore authorities to stop the execution of Yong Vui Kong, to establish a moratorium on the death penalty and to suspend executions. Sincerely yours, Donna Guest Asia Deputy Director International Secretariat Amnesty International M. Ravi Counsel for Yong Vui Kong ADPAN member (source: The Online Citizen) From rhalperi at smu.edu Fri May 18 18:50:49 2012 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Fri, 18 May 2012 18:50:49 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] [SPAM] death penalty news----US MIL., IDAHO, N.C., IND. Message-ID: May 18 US MILITARY: Sgt. John Russell Will Face Death Penalty for 2009 Camp Liberty Massacre, Army Decides Joint Base Lewis-McChord officials today announced that Sgt. John M. Russell, accused of murdering five fellow service members in Iraq two years ago, has officially been charged with the massacre and will face the death penalty if convicted at court-martial, despite a judge's earlier recommendation that Russell not face execution because he is mentally ill. Base spokesperson Joseph Kubistek says the Army's General Court-Martial Convening Authority this week referred the following charges for court-martial under the Uniform Code of Military Justice: 5 specifications of premeditated murder; one specification of aggravated assault; one specification of attempted murder. "If convicted of all charges," Kubistek says, "the maximum possible punishment is death." As recounted in a 2009 SW cover story, Russell, now 47, attached to a Germany-based U.S. engineering battalion under Fort Lewis Stryker command, was on his 3rd tour in Iraq and had turned suicidal. His commander confiscated his rifle and put him on unit watch, with a soldier-buddy to keep him company. But Russell obtained a gun and drove to a military stress center at Camp Liberty, killing 4 soldiers and a Navy officer. Last year, Col. James Pohl, chief judge of the Guantanamo Bay war crimes court and investigating officer into the Ford Hood massacre by Major Nidal Malik Hasan, presided over Russell's competency hearings, finding that Russell has an "undisputed mental disease or defect" that makes "the death penalty inappropriate in this case." The Army has not explained why it has decided to seek the penalty anyway. Russell is being defended by Texas attorney James Culp, who last month told us he's being stalled by the Army and has sought removal of the colonel overseeing the case after an angry episode between the defense and prosecution teams at JBLM, where Russell is being held. No date has been set yet for the court-martial. (source: Seattle Weekly) ************* JBLM Sgt. John Russell Faces Death Penalty in Court Martial ---- Russell allegedly shot 5 military personnel on May 11, 2009 at the Camp Liberty Combat Stress Center in Iraq. He deployed with the the 370th Engineer Company, 54th Engineer Battalion from Bamberg, Germany, which later was assigned to JBLM. The General Court-Martial Convening Authority this week referred court-martial charges against Sgt. John Russell, to a General Court-Martial empowered to adjudge a capital sentence. No trial date has been set. Charges against Sgt. Russell include: ?Uniform Code of Military Justice, Article 118 - Premeditated Murder; 5 specifications of murder ?UCMJ, Article 128 ? one specification of Aggravated assault ?UCMJ, Article 80 -- one specification of attempted murder If convicted of all charges (and specifications), the maximum possible punishment is death. These charges result from an investigation into Sgt. Russell's alleged shooting of five military personnel on May 11, 2009 at the Camp Liberty Combat Stress Center in Iraq. Sgt. Russell is currently in pretrial confinement at the Northwest Joint Regional Confinement Facility at JBLM. Sgt. Russell deployed to Iraq with the 370th Engineer Company, 54th Engineer Battalion from Bamberg, Germany. Once in theater, the 54th was assigned to a unit from Joint Base Lewis-McChord. The charges are merely accusations and Sgt. Russell is presumed innocent until proven guilty. (source: Patch.com) IDAHO: Duncan now wants to appeal his death sentence Notorious multiple murderer Joseph Duncan was back in a Boise courtroom on Friday morning, as lawyers and a federal judge wrangled over setting a date for a new hearing into whether Duncan was mentally competent when he waived appeals of his triple death sentence for torturing and murdering a 9-year-old North Idaho boy. Duncan, brought to Boise from federal death row in Terre Haute, Ind., his hair close-cropped and graying and wearing a baggy white T-shirt, left all the talking to his attorneys on Friday morning. But in December of 2010, he submitted a hand-written, 2-page letter to the court saying he now wants to appeal after all. Duncan in the past has strongly opposed contentions that he wasn?t mentally competent to make that decision in 2008. He underwent two lengthy mental evaluations before U.S. District Judge Edward Lodge ruled him competent and allowed him to dismiss his lawyers in that sentencing trial and represent himself; he already had pleaded guilty to all charges. The lawyers filed an appeal to the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals against Duncan?s wishes, arguing he was mentally incompetent. ?I have been very stubborn about not appealing my death sentence,? the condemned killer wrote. ?My belief is that if I appeal, then I am acknowledging the system?s authority to commit murder.? But he wrote that more recently, his younger brother had died, making Duncan his mother?s only surviving son. ?It would be utterly cruel, and indeed, inhuman, for me not to consider my mother?s love when deciding what to do in regard to my own life,? Duncan wrote. ?So I hereby inform you, and any others concerned, that I withdraw my waiver of appeal, and consent fully to all efforts and advice given by my attorneys to appeal.? He added, ?I love my mother, and if I could only regret one thing, it would be how I have hurt her. I am the biggest fool that I know.? In 2008, a federal jury sentenced Duncan to death for the kidnap, torture and murder of 9-year-old Dylan Groene. He also received 9 life sentences for a murderous rampage in 2005, in which he killed 3 members of Dylan?s family in order to kidnap and molest the family?s 2 youngest children; only Dylan?s then-8-year-old sister, Shasta, survived. Since then, Duncan also has been convicted of kidnapping and murdering a 10-year-old California boy, drawing 2 more life sentences; in that case, after weeks of expert testimony, the court ruled him mentally competent. In the Idaho case, however, the judge never held a competency hearing in open court, meaning all the information on Duncan?s mental competency remained secret. The 9th Circuit ruled that without such a hearing, there was ?reasonable doubt? about Duncan?s competency, and ordered Lodge to hold a ?retrospective? competency hearing on Duncan?s mental state in 2008. If, after the hearing, Lodge rules that Duncan was competent when he waived his right to appeal, the death sentence stands. But if not, Lodge would then have to hold another hearing to determine if Duncan was mentally competent when he waived his right to an attorney in his 2008 sentencing trial and instead represented himself. That could force a replay of the whole sentencing trial. In his closing statement in that trial in 2008, Duncan told the jury, ?You people really don?t have any clue yet of the true heinousness of what I?ve done.? While on the run from a child-molesting charge in Minnesota in 2005, Duncan said he?d plotted terrible crimes targeting random children, from invading day-care centers to kidnappings at campgrounds. ?I was not searching for a child but rather I was on a rampage,? he said. ?My intention was to kidnap and rape and kill until I was killed, preferring death easily over capture.? He traveled across 8 states looking for child victims before attacking the Groene family in their home along I-90 at Wolf Lodge, just east of Coeur d?Alene. On Friday, federal defender Dick Rubin told the court that Duncan now wants to be represented by an attorney for the competency hearing, and said Duncan shouldn?t answer any questions until his new attorney is appointed. He asked the court to appoint Michael Burt of San Francisco, a death penalty defense attorney who specializes in cases involving mental health. However, Burt told the court Friday that he has another trial in the fall, and wouldn?t be available for Duncan?s competency hearing until December. Lodge had asked the attorneys to be ready for the hearing by this July, but prosecutors said they had other cases and wouldn?t be ready until October. ?The court?s not going to agree to that,? Lodge said. ?This has drug on. Memories get faulty.? He told the attorneys for both sides, ?October-November is the latest. How you work that out is up to you.? Calling a 2-week recess, Lodge said, ?We?re going to get the matter resolved.? (source: Spokesman-Review) ************** Duncan begins review of Idaho death penalty case A man convicted of killing children in Idaho and Southern California has returned to U.S. District Court in Boise to prepare for a review of part of his death penalty case. Joseph Edward Duncan III was in court Thursday while U.S. District Judge Edward Lodge began the process of selecting an attorney to represent him in a competency hearing. An appellate court ordered the hearing last year after Duncan's former attorneys argued he wasn't competent to waive his appeals. Duncan was sentenced to death for the 2005 murder of 9-year-old Dylan Groene. Prosecutors said Duncan snatched Dylan and his sister from their Coeur d'Alene home after killing 3 family members. Duncan also was convicted in California in 2011 of killing 10-year-old Anthony Martinez near Beaumont in 1997. He also confessed, but wasn't charged, to killing 2 Washington girls. (source: KESQ News) NORTH CAROLINA: Behind the Barbed Wire: Inside Central Prison Death Chamber It?s arguably one of the most debated topics in our country. The death penalty Recently there have been several cases in our state, including some right here in the east, where the people charged with a crime could face the ultimate punishment. In Farmville, 3 men charged with the murders of 3 convenient store workers back in April, could be facing the death penalty. In Wake County, if Jason Williford is found guilty for the murder of school board member Kathy Taft, he could face a death sentence. But recently, several sets of legal challenges have put the death penalty nearly on hold in our state. 9 On Your Side decided to take you on an inside tour of Central Prison inRaleighfor a rare look at the execution chamber. It?s a place you never want to find yourself in but currently in North Carolina there are 156 prisoners on death row. The video will give let you see what it?s like behind the barbed wire, and walk through an inmate?s final steps before execution. Central Prison is the 1st prison built in North Carolina and home to the state's death row inmates. The facility is enclosed by guard towers, and double fencing wrapped in razor wire. Inside, iron doors echo through the halls. More than 1,000 inmates have been sent to death row since the state assumed responsibility for executing criminals. After an execution date is set, the inmate is moved to the death watch room where they are under 24-7 supervision. A tiny cell is where they will spend their last three to 7 days. Inside each cell is a bed and just inches away, a toilet a sink. The inmates will spend their entire day locked inside the cell, with an exception of 15 minutes for a shower. On the day of the execution, witnesses file into this viewing room. A small group of chairs face a thick piece of glass, separating the witnesses from the execution chamber. Family of the inmate, as well as some of the family of the victim of the crime, is allowed to watch the execution. When the time arrives, the inmate will make a final walk across the hall from the death watch room, to room 111...the execution chamber. The room is the prison's former lethal gas chamber. In 1998, a statutory amendment made lethal injection our states only method of execution. Finally the inmate is restrained to the gurney. 2 IVs are inserted into the inmate?s arms, and they are covered with a sheet. After informing the witness the warden enters the chamber and gives the final order and the inmate is executed. Our state has executed 43 inmates since 1976, the last one was in 2006. Experts say because of the legal litigation facing the death penalty, there's no telling when or if the remaining inmates on death row will carry out there sentence. (source: WNCT News) INDIANA: State renews Corcoran penalty 18 months ago, the U.S. Supreme Court sent Joseph Corcoran?s case back to the lower courts for the second time, effectively reinstating the death penalty against him. But a few issues remained unresolved in Indiana?s fight to execute Corcoran, 37, who killed at least four people before he turned 23. On Thursday, in U.S. District Court in South Bend, Judge Jon E. DeGuilio heard arguments about three of the remaining issues ? whether Allen Superior Court Judge Fran Gull improperly used ?non-statutory? factors against Corcoran when she sentenced him to death; whether she failed to properly consider factors in his favor; and whether Indiana?s death penalty statute is unconstitutional. DeGuilio took the matter under advisement, and when Indiana Deputy Attorney General Steve Creason reminded him that the case has been pending since 2005, he said he would rather get it right than have the attorneys get a quick ruling. Should DeGuilio rule in favor of the state?s desire to enforce the death penalty, the courts will then likely have to consider Corcoran?s remaining claim, whether he is incompetent because of his mental illness and should be spared the death penalty. Corcoran shot and killed his brother, James Corcoran, 30; his sister?s fianc?, Robert Scott Turner, 32; and two of his brother?s friends, Timothy G. Bricker, 30, and Douglas A. Stillwell, 30, at a Bayer Avenue home in July 1997. Creason said in court Thursday that Corcoran, in the years since his conviction, has bragged about fatally shooting his parents with a shotgun in Steuben County in 1992, a crime for which he was charged and acquitted. The state of Indiana can request the death penalty if a defendant is found to have committed murder with at least one ?aggravating circumstance,? such as the age of the victim, multiple victims, while committing another crime, or killing a law enforcement officer. In Corcoran?s case, Gull found that one of the aggravating circumstances existed, specifically the multiple victims. But when she sentenced Corcoran to death, she noted a number of factors against him ? the innocence of the victims, the heinousness of the crime and the likelihood Corcoran would kill again. Corcoran?s attorneys ? Lawrence Komp and Alan Freedman ? argued that in her first sentencing order, and another one later ordered by the higher courts, Gull improperly considered those factors in sentencing Corcoran to death. But Creason, Indiana deputy attorney general, said Gull was right to note those in explaining her decision, not why Corcoran may have qualified for the death penalty under Indiana law. He noted an Allen Superior Court jury unanimously recommended the death penalty. The U.S. Constitution requires trial court judges, such as Gull, to specifically review the nature of the crime and the character of the defendant in figuring out the right sentence, Creason said. ?The fact that she did that, can?t be a (constitutional) violation,? he said. DeGuilio must also consider whether Gull failed to consider specific factors in Corcoran?s favor when she sentenced him. Corcoran?s attorneys argue that when Gull said she found factors such as Corcoran?s age and good behavior in the jail to not be ?mitigating,? she must not have considered them. ?In this case the trial court didn?t listen,? Komp said. ?Saying ?it?s not mitigating? is not considering it.? Creason argued Gull did consider them and didn?t give them any weight. ?This is essentially an argument about semantics,? Creason said. ?She listened and found it didn?t matter.? Corcoran?s attorneys also argued that Indiana?s death penalty statute is unconstitutional because it does not differ enough from how defendants can be eligible for both the death penalty and life in prison without parole. Creason said all the U.S. Constitution requires is that who is eligible for the death penalty ? which in Indiana includes life in prison without parole ? be a smaller number than those who have committed murder. ?It?s not death or nothing,? he said, adding that the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals found this particular argument by Corcoran?s attorneys to be frivolous. After his conviction and death sentence in 1999, Corcoran failed to file a petition in a timely manner to have the trial court review his case, refusing to sign the paperwork because he believed he should be put to death for his crimes, court documents said. Then in 2003, after it was determined he was a paranoid schizophrenic who understood his legal position, Gull found him capable of making the decision to refuse appeals, a decision the Indiana Supreme Court upheld. Corcoran changed his mind in early 2005 and tried unsuccessfully to seek a trial court review of his case. He then filed a petition in federal court but changed his mind again, saying he never wanted to appeal his sentence, court documents said. Against Corcoran?s wishes at the time, the late U.S. District Judge Allen Sharp overturned the death sentence, ruling that then-Allen County Prosecutor Robert Gevers inappropriately punished Corcoran by pursuing the death penalty against Corcoran because, as a defendant, Corcoran demanded a jury trial instead of a trial by judge. According to Sharp, the decision violated Corcoran?s Sixth Amendment right to a speedy trial and right to have criminal charges clearly explained. But the 7th Circuit overturned Sharp?s decision in 2008, saying it is constitutionally permissible to use threat of more serious punishment to encourage a plea. But when the 7th Circuit issued its 2008 ruling, it dealt only with the Sixth Amendment question that Sharp had ruled on. In an October 2009 ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court determined the appellate court should have addressed all of Corcoran?s claims, and it sent the case back for another ruling. In January 2010, the 7th Circuit handed the case back to the state courts, ordering the state court to hold a resentencing hearing to correct errors it said it found in Gull?s original sentencing order. The Indiana attorney general appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which reviewed the case again this month. In November 2010, the nation?s highest court said the 7th Circuit erred when it said the sentencing order violated state law, which the state?s highest courts said it did not. Federal courts cannot review state court cases because of allegations of state law violations, only for violations of federal law, according to court documents. (source: Journal Gazette) From rhalperi at smu.edu Sat May 19 13:55:27 2012 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Sat, 19 May 2012 13:55:27 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] [SPAM] death penalty news----TEXAS, USA, OHIO, MO., US MIL., FLA. Message-ID: May 19 TEXAS: Cameron Todd Willingham Exoneration Was Written But Never Filed By Texas Judge A Texas judge who reviewed the controversial 2004 execution of Cameron Todd Willingham planned to posthumously exonerate the father who was put to death for killing his 3 daughters in a house fire. Scientific experts who debunked the arson evidence used against Willingham at his 1992 trial and a jailhouse witness who recanted his shaky testimony convinced District Court Judge Charlie Baird in 2010 that "Texas wrongfully convicted" him. But Baird's order clearing Willingham's name never became official, because a higher court halted the posthumous inquiry while it considered whether the judge had authority to examine the capital case. While waiting for permission to finish the case from the Third Court of Appeals, Baird put together the document that "orders the exoneration of Cameron Todd Willingham for murdering his 3 daughters," because of "overwhelming, credible and reliable evidence" presented during a 1-day hearing in Austin in October 2010. "You can't do anything for Willingham except clear his name," Baird told The Huffington Post. "When they tried Willingham, I'm convinced that everyone worked in good faith. The problem is that up until the execution, everything had changed so dramatically that you realized the science relied upon at trial was not reliable enough to take a man's life." Baird's intended order never came to light because the court of appeals criticized his handling of the case and prevented him from resuming work on it before he left the bench at the end of 2010 after choosing not to seek re-election. No one asked him for it after the court of appeals blocked him, he said. Baird, now an attorney in private practice, said he was moved to share the document with HuffPost after reading about Carlos DeLuna, a Texan who a Columbia University team said this week may have been wrongly executed in 1989. The 18-page unissued order closely examined the arson evidence presented during the trial, including claims that investigators found patterns on the floor where an accelerant was poured and traces of it on the porch. But Baird said he was persuaded by other experts that the initial investigative techniques were out of date. The judge faulted Gov. Rick Perry and the state Court of Criminal Appeals, because they "ignored" exonerating evidence in 2004. Baird, a Democrat, is now running for district attorney in Travis County, which includes Austin. The Willingham opinion is undated. Baird said he wrote it in the weeks after the Oct. 14, 2010, hearing. District court planner Kasey Hoke and court administrator Debra Hale told HuffPost they remember him preparing it in late 2010. With Baird pushed to the sidelines that year, the fire that tore through Willingham home in Corsicana on Dec. 23, 1991, remained on the books as a triple homicide. Willingham escaped the burning house, but his three daughters -- a 2-year-old and 1-year-old twins -- were trapped inside and died from smoke inhalation. (His wife was out running errands for Christmas.) Investigators concluded the blaze had been deliberately set with an accelerant. 2 weeks after the fire, they arrested Willingham, a 23-year-old high school dropout with a rap sheet that included shoplifting and driving under the influence. Willingham, maintaining his innocence, turned down a plea deal offering him life behind bars. At his August 1992 trial, the 2 fire investigators testified for the prosecution that Willingham torched his own home. The prosecution also called a jailhouse snitch, Johnny Webb, to the stand. Webb claimed that Willingham admitted in jail after his arrest that he killed his children. The jury convicted him in about an hour. State and federal courts upheld Willingham's conviction, and in 2003 the U.S. Supreme Court declined to get involved. During the appeals process, Baird was on the Circuit Court of Appeals that twice ruled against Willingham. But doubts about Willingham's guilt emerged. In 2000, Webb recanted his testimony. Forensic science had evolved since his trial, too. In 2004, Gerald Hurst, a chemist, released a report days before Willingham's execution that said the testimony of the fire investigators was wrong and that the fire was accidental. The report was rushed to Gov. Perry, but he denied a request for a reprieve, allowing the state to put Willingham to death by lethal injection on Feb. 17, 2004. (The New Yorker and the Chicago Tribune had written extensively about Willingham's case prior to Baird's involvement.) Baird's proposed order -- which drew upon Hurst's report and the findings of other experienced arson investigators -- came as a welcome surprise to Willingham's relatives and attorneys, who continue to believe he was innocent. "I'm very thankful he did this," said Eugenia Willingham, Todd Willingham's stepmother. "I'm sure this will have a good impact for Todd. I raised that boy and I believed him," Willingham told HuffPost. "He adored those children. I never thought he could have done that." The fire occurred in Navarro County, but lawyers for Willingham's family brought the case to Baird under a provision of the Texas Constitution that says all courts are open for people claiming harm to their reputation. Using the same arcane provision, Baird issued the state's 1st posthumous exoneration in 2009 to Timothy Cole, who died in prison for a rape he didn't commit. R. Lowell Thompson, Navarro County's district attorney, sought to derail the inquiry into Willingham, who was prosecuted by a predecessor. The prosecutor filed the petition with the court of appeals that froze Baird's investigation and is critical of the former judge for writing the proposed order. "it's very surprising to me that he would enter some sort of opinion without hearing all the evidence, because none was presented by the state," Thompson told HuffPost. Baird said Thompson had the chance to argue his side, but left the court. Thompson said he departed because he wanted to get the court of appeals to step in immediately. "I was doing my job and he thought he was doing the right thing," said Thompson. "To me, it looked like he wasn't applying the law." Some of the harshest criticism in Baird's writing is directed at Perry. The governor's role in refusing to postpone Willingham's execution was closely examined by The Huffington Post during his presidential campaign. "By 2004 there was no doubt that every single indication of arson had been debunked by the scientific community," Baird wrote. "This fact was staring Governor Perry in the face; nevertheless, he refused to grant a reprieve." Perry has stood by decision when questioned previously about Willingham. His office didn't flinch from the latest criticism. "Nothing the Austin court could have done would change the fact that Todd Willingham was convicted and sentenced to death by a jury of his peers for murdering his 3 daughters," said a statement from his spokeswoman Lucy Nashed. "He had full access to every level of the appeals process, and his conviction was reviewed and upheld by multiple levels of state and federal courts. ... The governor reviewed all of the facts of the case and agreed with the jury, and state and federal courts that Willingham was guilty." With Baird's opinion revealed, lawyers for Willingham's family members continue pushing for a pardon that would clear his name. Last year, the Texas Forensic Science Commission issued a report saying the evidence from the fire investigators was no longer valid. "It's an awful shame that this opinion was sitting in his desk gathering dust and nobody could see it," said Barry Scheck, a lawyer from the Innocence Project working for Willingham's relatives. "This opinion will stand the test of time, because it faces the facts." (source: Michael McLaughlin, Huffington Post) ********************** Texas prison system has drugs for 23 executions----After prodding from Texas AG, prison system says it has enough drugs to execute 23 inmates Texas prison officials disclosed Friday they have enough lethal drugs to execute as many as 23 people. In response to this week's opinion from the state attorney general's office that said the Texas Department of Criminal Justice could not withhold information about the drug supply, the department said it currently has 46 2.5-gram vials of pentobarbital. A 5-gram dose ? about 3.4 ounces ? is the 1st lethal drug used during each execution in Huntsville, according to Texas execution procedures. The prison agency said it had similar supplies of 2 other drugs also administered to condemned inmates. It did not, though, identify suppliers of the lethal drugs, which the opinion also had addressed. Executions also involve 100 milligrams of pancuronium bromide and 140 milliequivalents of potassium chloride. Texas has 290 10-milligram vials of the pancuronium bromide ? 10 are required per execution ? and 737 20-milliequivalent vials of potassium chloride ? 7 per punishment. The department's written procedures call for a matching set of drugs and syringes "in case unforeseen events make their use necessary." But in a brief statement emailrd to reporters late Friday, the agency said a backup set of lethal drugs for executions "is not actually prepared, but an additional dose is available if needed." The attorney general's opinion, dated Monday, was an answer to public information requests filed earlier this year by the Austin American-Statesman and British newspaper The Guardian. Prison officials had argued that releasing the information could be harmful to employees and provide death penalty opponents a way to harass the drug suppliers with the hope firms would refuse to do business with the state. "We find your arguments as to how disclosure of the requested drug quantities would result in the disruption of the execution process or otherwise interfere with law enforcement to be too speculative," Sean Opperman, an assistant attorney general, wrote in the opinion. The prison agency had 30 days to comply with the opinion or to challenge it in court. The status of the supplier question was not immediately clear. Opperman said that, while the attorney general's office "acknowledge(s) the department's concerns," the corrections department didn't show how disclosure of the information "would create a substantial threat of physical harm to any individual." Department officials previously had indicated they had a sufficient supply to handle upcoming executions. At least five are scheduled for this summer, including one early next month. Last year, one of the drugs Texas had used in the process, sodium thiopental, became unavailable when its European supplier bowed to pressure from death penalty opponents and stopped making it. No other vendor could be found, so the drug was replaced by pentobarbital. The physical effects of pentobarbital on condemned inmates have not been noticeable during the executions, but the financial cost to the state has risen considerably. Prison officials put the cost of the previous mixture at $83.35. It's now $1286.86, with the higher cost primarily due to pentobarbital. (source: Associated Press) USA: U.S. Can Boost HR Credibility by Abolishing the Death Penalty So far this year, we have seen many headlines featuring the U.S. urging leaders of other nations to democratize and ensure its citizens basic civil and human rights. In Myanmar, the administration has been responding to the country's political transformation and is supportive of Aung San Suu Kyi?s new role in the government. In China, it has been weighing a delicate balance between maintaining good political relations while urging human rights consideration in the case of Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng. And in Syria, it has continued to support the opposition group that is fighting against tyranny. However, for all of its efforts in fighting injustices abroad, the U.S. has its own serious form of injustice at home ? the death penalty. As an Atlantic article points out, the U.S.?s support of the death penalty puts it into the same category as the world?s worst dictatorships and autocracies, such as North Korea, Iran, and Syria; and the world?s failed or failing states, such as Somalia, Afghanistan, and Sudan. The death penalty may be one of the greatest violations of civil and human rights, particularly when there has been a large number of cases where innocent people ? often having been proven innocent too little too late ? are the victims of state-sponsored execution. According to Amnesty International, ?The death penalty, both in the U.S. and around the world, is discriminatory and is used disproportionately against the poor, minorities and members of racial, ethnic and religious communities. Since humans are fallible, the risk of executing the innocent can never be eliminated.? Since 1976, 1,264 Americans have been executed, according to The Guardian. Texas has executed the most number of people ? 474. The next state with the largest number of executions is Virginia at 109, followed by Oklahoma at 96. Other states are within ranges from 0-15, 20-30, or 40-70 executions. What these numbers do not reveal to us, however, is how deeply flawed and racist the death penalty system is. A large number of cases remain incomplete, carrying clouds of doubt, at the time the accused are sent to the death chambers, and a larger proportion of the American black population find themselves on death row. A controversial case of last year was that of Troy Davis, who was accused of killing a police officer in 1989. Despite seven out of nine key witnesses recanting their evidence and explaining that they were forced by police into giving false statements; and lack of forensic or DNA evidence, or a murder weapon typing Davis to the crime, he was kept on death row for 20 years until finally executed last September. Davis? case is not the only one in American history that ? despite the existence of ?a shadow of a doubt? during the trials ? has sentenced innocent people to life in prison or death row. The Innocence Project has a compiled a dizzying list of those convicted of crimes, were incarcerated for a range of years, and were then fortunately exonerated. Some exonerations included those on death row. With these cases in mind, our justice system has been suffered from a 180 reversal. It seems that the burden of proof has been lifted off of prosecutors and has in these cases been placed on the defense. Instead of presuming innocence until proven guilty, these cases demonstrate that some inmates may actually be presumed guilty until proven innocent. In this case, one of the most basic concepts of our system of justice has been violated. Nonetheless, the Supreme Court allows for the death penalty, with Justice Antonin Scalia explaining that ?Capital cases are given especially close scrutiny at every level, which is why in most cases many years elapse before the sentence is executed. And of course capital cases receive special attention in the application of executive clemency.? However, the Innocence Project?s records of 289 exonerated cases have shown that our justice system is not free from error; it would seem that in reality, capital cases are not given the ?close scrutiny? or ?special attention? that Justice Scalia mentioned. In particular, there are at least ten cases similar to that of Davis? ? those that lacked evidence and whose facts presented at trials were questionable, but which ended in the prisoner on death row being executed anyway ? only to be proven innocent or carrying a strong case of innocence after their deaths. The most notorious of this type of case is that of Carlos DeLuna, who was executed even in the light that the real killer had been bragging to others that he?d committed the crime and that he let another fall for his actions. While life sentences are just, as they allows life and time for prisoners and lawyers to appeal what may be doubtful cases, the death sentence does not allow either and should be abolished nationwide. Concrete action that everyday citizens can take include signing petitions led by organizations like Amnesty International that place pressure on representatives to take action; or joining coalitions (such as the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty or People of Faith Against the Death Penalty) that organize events and campaigns around the issue. (source: Jessica Pham is a senior at Stanford University majoring in International Relations; policymic.com) OHIO: Convicted Murderer Denied Clemency The Ohio Parole Board recommended Friday that the governor deny clemency for a man sentenced to death for killing his estranged wife and brother-in-law in a basement room at a courthouse in 1992. Abdul Awkal is slated to be put to death June 6 in one of 11 executions scheduled over the next 2 years. Awkal's lawyer argued the 53-year-old man suffers from severe mental health problems and should be spared, but the state said Awkal carefully planned the killings and should be executed. The parole board voted 8-1 against recommending mercy, with most members concluding that Awkal planned the shooting and that it wasn't the result of a psychotic breakdown. While he had asserted remorse, "he clearly blames the victims for allegedly creating the circumstances that forced him to kill them," the board said. Its decision goes to Gov. John Kasich, who has the final say on whether to grant clemency. "This defiant killer executed his 22-year-old wife and 24-year-old brother-in-law simply because his wife was seeking a divorce," Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason said in a statement Friday. "Awkal shook the foundations of the justice system by committing these heinous acts in the County Courthouse, a place where citizens should be assured safety." A message seeking comment was left for Awkal's attorney. Awkal was sentenced to death for killing his estranged wife, Latife Awkal, and brother-in-law Mahmoud Abdul-Aziz, in January 1992 in a room where the Awkals were to take up divorce and custody issues. Their 1989 marriage, arranged by Awkal's family, had dissolved as Latife Awkal and her brothers "felt that Awkal was not a good Muslim," according to the report. The Awkals divorced and then remarried under Islamic law in 1991, but Awkal's wife moved out and filed for a legal divorce days later after discovering she had contracted a sexually transmitted disease from him. In the months before the shooting, Awkal bought a pistol and threated to kill his wife and her family if they didn't dismiss the divorce proceedings. Prosecutors said Awkal also changed his address and wrote his brother a check for most of his assets before heading to court on the day of the shooting. He was accused of chasing his wife and brother-in-law into a room, shooting them at close range and trying to flee with the Awkals' 15-month-old daughter. A court initially found him not competent to stand trial because of his severe depression. He was sent to a mental health center and put on antidepressant and anti-anxiety medications before the court found him competent for trial, where he was convicted of aggravated murder. In an interview this month with the parole board, Awkal admitted his actions were wrong. He spoke of having a previous nervous breakdown and said that he had not cheated on his wife but that she had been with other men. He said he "snapped" at the courthouse when his wife prevented him from holding his daughter, and he denied using the child as a shield when he tried to flee and was shot by officers. One member of the parole board dissented in its vote, citing concerns about Awkal's mental state, his history of apparent mental breakdowns and the usefulness of expert testimony in the case. (source: Associated Press) MISSOURI: Missouri finds a drug option for executions----Alternative anesthetic lets Missouri develop new protocol for lethal injections, the 1st of its kind. The state of Missouri is back in the execution business with a drug that?s never been used to put prisoners to death in the United States. Stymied by a chemical shortage affecting every death-penalty state, the Missouri Department of Corrections said this week that it now will carry out death sentences with propofol, a widely used surgical anesthetic that also was a factor in singer Michael Jackson?s death. Attorneys representing some of the state?s death row inmates learned of the plan Thursday after corrections officials met with some inmates and informed them of the new protocol. Defense attorneys said it?s too early to say what, if any, legal challenges might be mounted in regard to the new 1-drug execution protocol that replaces Missouri?s previous 3-drug cocktail. ?It?s something we will have to look at very carefully,? said Joseph Luby, an attorney with the Death Penalty Litigation Clinic in Kansas City. ?Propofol has no track record in executions.? Missouri is the first state to formally adopt the use of propofol, also known by the brand name Diprivan, for use in lethal injections, said Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington, D.C. ?No one has used it yet,? Dieter said. ?Other states may have considered it.? Deborah Denno, a law professor at Fordham University in New York and nationally known expert on lethal injection issues, called it a ?pretty extraordinary development? that raises many questions. ?I would anticipate legal challenges,? she said. Missouri?s last execution took place in February 2011. Since shortly after that, the state has been unable to obtain the anesthetic that puts inmates to sleep before they are injected with two other chemicals that stop the lungs and heart. Officials also had been unable to obtain an alternative drug that some states had adopted to take its place. With news that the corrections department had obtained a different drug, Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster on Thursday asked the state Supreme Court to set execution dates for 19 inmates. They include Michael Taylor, one of the killers of Ann Harrison, a Kansas City teenager kidnapped in 1989 while waiting for the school bus in front of her house, and Allen Nicklasson, convicted of kidnapping and killing Excelsior Springs businessman Richard Drummond in 1994 after Drummond stopped to help Nicklasson and a co-defendant when their car broke down. Koster said in his motion that there are no legal impediments or stays now in place to stop the executions. ?Unless this court sets an execution date after a capital murder defendant?s legal process is exhausted, the people of Missouri are without legal remedy,? Koster said in his motion. According to Supreme Court procedures, lawyers for the inmates must be given the opportunity to file responses before the Supreme Court sets execution dates. ?There is no timetable as far as when the court would rule (on dates),? said spokeswoman Beth Riggert. ?The court rules when it deems it appropriate.? Missouri and every other state using lethal injection once used the same 3-drug mixture that employed sodium thiopental to anesthetize prisoners. The drug has been employed in all 68 executions Missouri has carried out since 1989. Inmates in Missouri and across the country had filed numerous legal challenges to the method, alleging that it created the risk of inflicting cruel and unusual punishment if not administered properly. However, the U.S. Supreme ruled in 2008 that the method was not unconstitutional. In early 2010, shortages of sodium thiopental began cropping up, and in early 2011 the only domestic supplier announced it would no longer manufacture the drug. States also had difficulty obtaining it from foreign sources, and on March 27, a federal court in Washington, D.C., banned any importation of sodium thiopental and ordered the Food and Drug Administration to contact every state that it believed had any foreign-manufactured thiopental and instruct them to surrender it to the FDA. It also permanently prohibited importation of the drug. With thiopental in short supply, some states began to substitute another anesthetic, pentobarbital, for use in the 3-drug method. In February 2011, Ohio began using pentobarbital by itself to execute prisoners. Earlier this year, Arizona became the 2nd state to switch to 1-drug executions using pentobarbital. Dieter, with the death penalty information center, said pentobarbital has been used, either by itself or in combination with other drugs, in the last 45 executions in the United States. But last July, its Danish manufacturer announced that it was imposing restrictions on how pentobarbital was distributed to prevent its use in executions. Since its on-hand supply of thiopental expired in March 2011, Missouri had been unsuccessful in finding it or pentobarbital. In announcing its new protocol this week, Missouri Department of Corrections officials did not comment on when they obtained the new drug or where it was obtained. According to Missouri?s new written protocol, inmates will be injected with 2 grams of propofol. An area anesthesiologist said that amount is 10 times the dosage that would be used in a surgical setting for a 220-pound patient. According to Missouri?s new protocol, the chemical will be prepared by a doctor, nurse or pharmacist. An intravenous line will be inserted and monitored by a doctor, nurse or emergency medical technician. Department employees will inject the chemicals. Doctors say the drug is used widely in medical settings and does not have some of the side effects, like post-operative nausea and vomiting, of previously used anesthetics. It was developed in England in the late 1970s. Currently, only 1 execution date is pending in Missouri. Michael Tisius, convicted of killing 2 jailers in Randolph County, is scheduled to be put to death Aug. 3. An attorney representing Tisius could not be reached for comment Friday. (source: Kansas City Star) *************** Koster urges Supreme Court to set executionsMissouri AG questions why dates have not been set Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster is urging the state Supreme Court to move forward with the execution of several condemned killers or explain why it won?t. Koster filed a motion on Thursday seeking execution dates for 9 men. The motion also questions why the court has not set execution dates for 10 others whose execution dates were previously requested. ?Silence is not an option in this matter any longer,? Koster said in an interview on Friday. ?The court needs to give us the word that we can move forward with these, or they need to articulate why not.? Beth Riggert, spokeswoman for the Missouri Supreme Court, declined to speculate on why execution dates have not been set for the 10 earlier inmates. As for the 9 new ones, she said each has 5 business days to respond to Koster?s call for execution dates. ?The court will rule when it deems it appropriate,? she said. Meanwhile, Missouri?s next execution will apparently use a new process. Previously, the state used a three-drug protocol. But a shortage of 1 of those drugs, sodium thiopental, has prompted the state to go to a single-drug method. Between 1989, when executions resumed in Missouri, and 2005, the state put to death 66 convicted killers. But in the 7 years since then, only 2 men have been executed ? Dennis Skillicorn in 2009 and Martin Link last year. Other states have seen similar reductions. Nationwide, there were 98 executions in 1999, but just 43 in 2011, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. So far in 2012 there have been 18. In Missouri, the attorney general typically requests an execution date after traditional court appeals are exhausted. In years past, the state Supreme Court would then establish a date, setting in motion last-minute court appeals as well as a clemency request before the governor. But it has been 6 years since Koster?s predecessor, now Gov. Jay Nixon, requested an execution date for Jeffrey Ferguson. Execution dates for 5 inmates have been pending since 2007. Koster acknowledged that 2 issues may have made the Supreme Court reluctant to move forward. Death penalty opponents have filed several claims that lethal injection violates a constitutional guarantee against cruel and unusual punishment, saying it potentially causes extreme pain that the drug-induced inmate cannot articulate. A 2010 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the use of the drugs. Then a shortage of 1 of the 3 drugs emerged. Some states halted executions because of the inability to obtain sodium thiopental, which renders the inmate unconscious. After that pancuronium bromide is administered to stop breathing and potassium chloride to stop the heart. Missouri has revised its protocol and will now use just one drug, propofol (marketed as Diprovan), which will be administered intravenously, Dave Dormire, director of the Missouri Department of Correction?s Division of Adult Institutions, said in a statement on Friday. Corrections officials did not say when the new protocol was adopted. Koster also noted that there has been a change in ?political sentiment? toward the death penalty, with an increasing number of states reluctant to carry it out and prosecutors becoming more reluctant to seek it. Still, he said that as long as it is law in Missouri, there is an obligation to move forward with executions. (source: Associated Press) *********************** Loggins Sentencing Hearing Monday; Facing Life in Prison or Death Sentence A Pacific man who murdered his girlfriend then mutilated her body will learn Monday if he will spend the rest of his life in prison or face execution. Circuit Judge Gael Wood has scheduled a 2:30 p.m. sentencing hearing Monday for Vernell Loggins Jr. who was found guilty earlier this year of 1st-degree murder and armed criminal action in the Nov. 3, 2009, slaying of Stephanie Fields, Pacific. After finding Loggins guilty a Franklin County jury deliberated more than five hours before imposing the death sentence in the case. Judge Wood could agree with jury and order that Loggins be executed or he could sentence the man to life in prison with no chance of parole. Sentencing had been set for April 17, but Judge Wood continued the case to May 21 and directed attorneys on both sides to submit briefs over concerns raised by a Missouri Supreme Court judge in a 1988 death sentence case. Judge Wood has had those briefs under review for about the last 2 weeks. He ordered the briefs after researching an issue regarding the Supreme Court?s decision in State v. Gerald Smith. Smith, who was found guilty of murdering a woman in 1981, was sentenced to death in the case. On appeal, the Missouri Supreme Court affirmed Smith?s conviction and the death penalty ruling. He was executed in 1990. Judge Charles Blackmar concurred with the other justices, but in a separate opinion he raised a concern about the death penalty aggravator that was applied in the case ? depravity of mind ? which is the same as in the Loggins ruling. ?I doubt very much that a finding based on ?depravity of mind,? without ?torture,? would suffice to authorize a death sentence,? Judge Blackmar wrote in his opinion. The prosecution team cited a number of rulings in death sentence cases since the 1988 case and concluded in its brief that Missouri?s death penalty law ?has repeatedly been found constitutional. The jury found beyond a reasonable doubt that the statutory aggravating circumstance alleged in this case did, in fact, exist.? The defense team, likewise, cited a number of cases and argued in its conclusion that the aggravator cited is ?vague and so broadly constructed that it fails to provide clear and specific direction to the sentencer, resulting in the arbitrary and capricious imposition of a death sentence? in violation of Loggins? rights. The Murder Authorities said Loggins stabbed Fields 25 times, then cut off her head and hands, placed them in a plastic bag and threw them in the Meramec River east of Eureka. Searchers later found the bag containing the head and hands where it had washed up on the riverbank. Maintenance workers at the Monroe Woods apartment discovered Fields? body Nov. 3, 2009, in a plastic trash can that had been placed near a dumpster. The St. Louis Area Major Case Squad was activated shortly after Fields? body was found in the trash can and within hours had identified Loggins as a key suspect. When investigators entered the apartment they found a ?substantial amount of blood? along with pieces of skin and other tissue. The last time a defendant in a Franklin County murder case was executed was Aug. 31, 1990. It was nine years after the defendant was tried and found guilty. (source: The Missourian) US MILITARY: Soldier faces murder charges in deaths of 5 comrades at Iraq mental health clinic Murder charges have been filed against a sergeant accused of killing 4 other soldiers and a Navy officer in May 2009 at a mental health clinic in Iraq, the Army said Friday. The charges against Sgt. John Russell were referred Wednesday and announced Friday in a statement from Joint Base Lewis-McChord. He faces 5 charges of premeditated murder, 1 of aggravated assault and 1 of attempted murder. If convicted, he could face the death penalty. The charges result from an investigation into the shooting at the Camp Liberty Combat Stress Center near Baghdad. No date for the court-martial has been set. Russell is being held at the base about 40 miles south of Seattle. Russell is from Sherman, Texas, and is now about 47 years old, said Lt. Col. Gary Dangerfield. The delay since the killings has been filled with the process of determining whether Russell is fit to stand trial. Russell has an Army defense attorney but it is standard procedure for them not to comment to the media, Dangerfield said. The shooting was one of the worst instances of soldier-on-soldier violence in the Iraq war and raised questions about the mental health problems for soldiers caused by repeated tours of duty. ?I don?t know of any other worse blue-on-blue in Iraq,? Dangerfield said. A hearing on possible charges was held in August 2009 at Fort Leavenworth, Kan. 2 evaluations presented during that hearing said Russell suffered from severe depression with psychotic features and chronic post-traumatic stress disorder. A March 2011 evaluation said the major depression with psychotic features was in partial remission. Russell was nearing the end of his third tour when his behavior changed, members of his unit testified in 2009. They said he became more distant in the days before the May 11, 2009, attack, and that he seemed paranoid that his unit was trying to end his career. On May 8, Russell sought help at a combat stress clinic at Camp Stryker, where his unit was located. On May 10 Russell was referred to the Camp Liberty clinic, where he received counseling and prescription medication to treat his symptoms. Witnesses said the following day they saw Russell crying and talking about hurting himself. He went back to the Camp Liberty clinic, where a doctor told him he needed to get help or he would hurt himself. Russell tried to surrender to military police to lock him up so he wouldn?t hurt himself or others, witnesses said. Military prosecutors say Russell left the clinic and later returned with a rifle he took from his unit headquarters and began firing. He was arrested afterward. Killed in the shooting were Navy Cmdr. Charles Springle, 52, of Wilmington, N.C., and four Army service members: Pfc. Michael Edward Yates Jr., 19, of Federalsburg, Md.; Dr. Matthew Houseal, of Amarillo, Texas; Sgt. Christian E. Bueno-Galdos, 25, of Paterson, N.J.; and Spc. Jacob D. Barton, 20, of Lenox, Mo. Russell deployed to Iraq with the 370th Engineer Company, 54th Engineer Battalion from Bamberg, Germany. In Iraq the 54th was assigned to the 555th Engineer Brigade, based at Lewis-McChord, which is responsible for the court martial. (source: Associated Press) FLORIDA: How to fix Florida's death penalty law Before reading this, you should know that I am an opponent of the death penalty. It should be abolished immediately. However, since I live in the conservative South and it isn't going away any time soon, I have to be realistic. So long as abolition is off the table, I must consider any policy that at least reduces how often capital punishment is applied. This requires finding new ideas that might appeal a greater base of people, rather than just those who already believe the government should not be trusted with the power of executing its own citizens. So this time I would like to appeal to those who believe in "personal responsibility." Recently, I was watching "Game of Thrones" on HBO and was introduced to what I will call the "Ned Stark Rule" of capital punishment. Basically, it boils down to this quote from the show: "The man who passes the sentence should swing the sword." Maybe this is not a new idea, but it got me thinking that that those who sit in judgment are too far removed from the sentence to feel personal responsibility for it. This distance leads to cavalier attitudes and "liberal" application of the sentence, especially here in the South and especially when the victims are white and the alleged perpetrator is not. What is needed is a way to put those who judge in front of the incredible responsibility they are being asked to wield. Perhaps then, they will think a bit harder about what the penalty really means and whether or not they really want to apply it. The solution is simple: The acting governor must be the one to execute the sentence. That means this person must be in the room with the inmate and push the button that leads to the execution, whether it be by lethal injection or electric chair. The governor must stand there and watch the person die and have this death on his conscience. He must eventually go before whichever god they pray to and justify the action. Now, you could argue that it should be the jury or the judge and not the governor, since the governor did not actually pass the sentence and may not have even been governor when it was handed down. However, jurors or judges come and go and won't likely be around when the sentence is executed. And, in the end, it is the governor who has final say over who lives and who dies. Therefore, the governor must "swing the sword." When faced with the prospect of actual blood on their hands ? not just an inkstain from the wave of a pen in some room in Tallahassee ? a governor might take a personal interest in whether or not the sentence was passed fairly. And if the inmate was truly a monster and the governor can sleep at night, then so be it. Now, before you say that the governor doesn't have the time to do this, can you think of anything more important than the government deliberately taking the life of a fellow citizen? This responsibility ? above all others ? warrants personal attention and should not be cowardly delegated to subordinates. Let's face it, a person has no business being governor and wielding the power associated with the position if he cannot do his own dirty work. Besides, how time-consuming can it be to travel to Starke (no pun intended) a few times a year? Anybody up for amending the Florida Constitution to reflect this change? (source: Tom Lyons lives in Gainesville; Gainesville Sun) ***************** Calhoun sentenced to death Johnny Mac Sketo Calhoun was sentenced to death Friday for the murder of Mia Shay Brown after being convicted at trial earlier this year. The jury recommended the death penalty, and Judge Christopher agreed. In an order describing how he reached his decision, Patterson wrote, ?Mia Chay Brown burned to death in a fiery tomb, only to be found by chance 3 days later.? He found that Calhoun acted with cold, calculated premeditation when he put her in the trunk of a car and set the car on fire in a wooded area in rural Alabama after kidnapping her from the Esto store where she worked. Paterson has the power to overturn the jury?s decision if the judge sees there was an error, however this rarely happens. Patterson found mitigating circumstances presented by the defense during a recent hearing were not enough to outweigh the aggravating circumstances. Brown had been missing for several days before her body was recovered. Calhoun was arrested at a trailer he owned. He told investigators with the Holmes County Sheriff?s Office that he had been kidnapped by an unknown man, and he?d spent several days hiding out in the woods after escaping. Patterson?s order called Calhoun ?deliberately ruthless,? and noted Brown was still alive after 14 hours with Calhoun. ?He had ample opportunity to release the victim, but instead after ample reflection acted out his plan,? Patterson wrote. The final sentencing came 5 minutes into the court session with Paterson stating that for the 1st-degree murder of Brown, Calhoun would be sentenced to death and for the 2nd charge of kidnapping he would serve 100 years imprisonment to be served in the Florida Department of Corrections. ?The defendant shall be remanded to the Florida Department of Corrections for execution of his sentence,? Paterson said. ?May God have mercy on your soul.? (source: Panama City News Herald) From rhalperi at smu.edu Sat May 19 13:57:43 2012 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Sat, 19 May 2012 13:57:43 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide Message-ID: May 19 INDIA: No bail for Italian sailors in India despite envoy protests An Indian court denied bail on Saturday to 2 Italian sailors charged with the murder at sea of 2 Indian fishermen they mistook for pirates, hours after Rome recalled its ambassador from New Delhi in an increasingly surly diplomatic row. The court rejected the bail pleas on grounds the 2 men might try to escape, said a public prosecutor in the southern state of Kerala, where the men are detained. "The judge accepted the prosecution's apprehension that the accused may escape from the country and tamper with the evidence," D. Mohanraj, a prosecutor handling the case, told Reuters. A lawyer for the defence said they would appeal. In a further escalation of the spat, India's ambassador in Italy was summoned to the foreign ministry which "firmly signalled the unacceptable judicial developments related to the Italian sailors," the ministry said in a statement. India says the case of marines Massimiliano Latorre and Salvatore Girone is a matter for the courts and cannot be influenced by political or diplomatic pressure. Italy wants the men tried at home and says the government should intervene. Italy called back its ambassador for consultations shortly after murder charges were formalised on Friday to express "profound displeasure" with the Indian government's handling of the case. "We are sending a strong signal to avoid damaging our relationship," said Italy's deputy foreign minister, Staffan de Mistura, on his third mission to India to push for the sailors to be released into Italian custody. The ambassador was recalled after three telephone calls by Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti to his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh, a visit by Italy's defence minister and his own missions to India, de Mistura told Reuters from Kerala. An official at India's foreign ministry, who asked not to be identified, said it was unusual that a person of de Mistura's rank would spend so much time on a case of this nature. "It does not bother us, but he needs to understand that it is not a U.N. job in Iraq or Afghanistan, where hands-on diplomacy might help," the official said. "It doesn't work here like that, he needs to understand we are slow, things move through a glacial process, but that's how it is, diplomatic pressure won't work." PIRATE ATTACKS The 2 sailors were stationed on a merchant ship passing the southern Indian coast and were tasked with protecting it from pirate attacks. They fired warning shots at the fishing boat on February 15, believing it to be a pirate vessel, they said. Investigators say the fishing boat was unarmed and the shots killed the 2 fishermen, who were part of a larger crew. Italy says the incident occurred in international waters and that jurisdiction over the marines should lie with Rome. In April, it paid $190,000 to each of the victims families as compensation. In return, the families dropped their cases against the marines, but the state's case continues. Latorre and Girone are expected to be moved from prison to a juvenile detention facility in the next few days. The next hearing in the case is due on May 25, Kerala's deputy public prosecutor said on Friday. Attacks on ships have increased in the eastern side of the Arabian Sea, as better security around the Horn of Africa has pushed Somali pirates to make raids as far over as the Maldives. The waters close to India are generally considered safer. The marines were charged with murder soon after the incident in February. Under Indian law, initial charges are formalised by police after investigation and before a trial can begin. One of the murder charges carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment, but another can be punished by death, though the central government would have to approve that. India has not used the death penalty for several years. (source: Reuters) IRAN: In memory of Farzad Kamangar, Iranian Kurdish teacher----Kamangar, a teacher in Iran's Kudistan region, was hanged in May 2010 for being "an enemy of God" This month marks the 2nd anniversary of the execution of a primary school teacher, who paid with his life for refusing to make televised confession about a crime he didn't commit. Farzad Kamangar was 31 when he was detained by the security forces in July 2006 for allegedly collaborating with the Kurdish opposition groups. The government accused him of being "an enemy of god". His mother believes that her son's only crime was his 'Kurdishness' and his lawyer Khalil Bahramian maintained that "there was not a shred of evidence" against him. Interrogators in numerous prisons where Farzad was held for four years, put him through severe physical and mental torture to break his resistance. Farzad's letters and articles about the inhumane conditions inside prison helped to bring international condemnations from many organisations including UNICEF and the Education International which represents teachers across the globe. When the authorities realised that they could not break Farzad under torture, they decided to silence him for ever. In the early hours of the 9th May 2010, Farzad and four other prisoners were lead to the gallows. Contrary to Iranian law his lawyer and his family were not informed. Within a few minutes, his lifeless body was hanging from a noose in Evin prison in Tehran. His death was another reminder to the Iranian people that the Islamic Republic maintains its grip on power through creating a climate of fear and disregarding its own laws. Even in death, Farzad managed to unite the people of Iran as the Kurdish region went on strike and many mourned his death across the country and in the diaspora. Fearing more unrest, the Islamic Republic, contrary to the basic tenets of Islam, refused to hand over his body and those of his co-defendants, depriving their families of a dignified burial for their loved ones. In his last message smuggled out of prison, Farzad wrote: "Is it possible to be a teacher where there is a drought of justice and fairness and not teach the alphabet of hope and equality?" (source: The Guardian) CHINA: Gambler Gets Death for Murdering Children A gambling addict received the death penalty Thursday for murdering 2 kids in Beijing last year. The Beijing Municipal No. 1 Intermediate People's Court also stripped Wen Quan, 43, of his political rights for life and ordered him to hand over 1.4 million yuan (221,293 U.S. dollars) in compensation to the victims' families. The court found that Wen kidnapped a 5-year-old boy and a 6-year-old girl from his community in Xicheng district on May 21, 2011. He suffocated them to death on separate occasions and dumped their bodies. The jobless Wen confessed that he was angry after losing 2 million yuan of his life-savings through gambling online. He was envious of his neighbors as he considered their lives better than his, and decided to murder the 2 children next door before killing his own son and committing suicide. He said that on the day of the murder he gambled online again but lost another 300,000 yuan. He killed the 2 children as he planned, but did not have the heart to kill his own son, he said. (source: CRI English) NORTH KOREA: Korea 'executes 3 people found guilty of cannibalism'----North Korea has publicly executed at least 3 people in recent years after they were found guilty of cannibalism, according to a think tank in Seoul Some of the 230 defectors interviewed by the Korean Institute for National Unification told of witnessing executions of people who had either eaten or sold human flesh. There were reports of outbreaks of cannibalism in the isolated state in the late 1990s after a disastrous famine led to the deaths of an estimated 2 million people, but the new reports are more recent, according to the Yonhap news agency. The most recent case occurred in 2011 in the town of Musan, a defector told the institute, while a father and his son were executed by a firing squad in the town of Doksong in 2006 after being found guilty of consuming human flesh. In a 3rd case, a man was executed in Hyesan in December 2009 for killing a girl and eating her. The man reportedly resorted to cannibalism after supplies to the city dwindled in the wake of the government's disastrous efforts to reform the currency triggered rampant inflation and worsened already critical food shortages. The study is to be published in South Korea next week, but appears to corroborate North Korean police documents that were smuggled out of the country by the missionary group Caleb Mission and detailed several more cases of cannibalism. In one case, a starving man used an axe to kill a work colleague, ate some of the flesh and sold the rest in a local market as mutton. Pyongyang has been accused of using food supplies as a weapon to cow its own people, effectively turning a blind eye to illegal markets when food is scarce but then cracking down on private sales again and limiting deliveries when supplies are more abundant. It is also accused of failing to pass on food aid that it receives from international aid agencies to those most in need. A survey of 500 refugees from the regime conducted by the Network for North Korean Democracy and Human Rights in March 2011 showed that 391 had never received food aid and, of the 109 who had been given food, 29 said they had been forced to hand it over to North Korean officials when the aid agency's representatives had departed. China is also investigating allegations that capsules of drugs being smuggled into South Korea contain the powdered remains of dead babies. (source: The Telegraph) From rhalperi at smu.edu Sun May 20 17:21:39 2012 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Sun, 20 May 2012 17:21:39 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] [SPAM] death penalty news----N.M., ARIZ., GA., MISS. Message-ID: May 20 NEW MEXICO: An end to the death penalty Robert Fry of Farmington and Timothy Allen of Bloomfield will remain the last 2 inmates on New Mexico's death row after a Santa Fe jury spared the life of Michael Astorga on Friday and instead sentenced him to life in prison for the murder of Deputy James McGrane during a 2006 traffic stop. The New Mexico Legislature repealed the death penalty in 2009, and then-Gov. Bill Richardson earned an audience with the pope by signing the bill into law. New Mexico has had only one execution since 1960. Richardson had opposed repeal of the death penalty when he first took office. In a statement issued at the time he signed the bill, he explained why he had changed his mind, describing it as "the end of a long, personal journey for me. "Throughout my adult life, I have been a firm believer in the death penalty as a just punishment ? in very rare instances, and only for the most heinous crimes. I still believe that," he said. After being elected governor, Richardson realized he would likely have to make a choice one day: "I would either have to take action on legislation to repeal the death penalty, or more daunting, I might have to sign someone's death warrant." Richardson was able to avoid that dilemma until his second term, as the Legislature tried and failed several times to pass the bill. When the legislation finally landed on his desk, he said he was swayed by the finality of the death penalty and the imperfections of our court system. "Regardless of the opinion about the death penalty, I do not have confidence in the criminal justice system as it currently operates to be the final arbiter when it comes to who lives and who dies for their crime," he said. "If the state is going to undertake this awesome responsibility, the system to impose this ultimate penalty must be perfect and can never be wrong. "But the reality is the system is not perfect ? far from it." He went on the discuss the possibility for manipulation of evidence, prosecutorial abuse and the disproportionate percentage of minorities on death row nationally. "In a society which values individual life and liberty above all else, where justice and not vengeance is the singular guiding principle of our system of criminal law, the potential for wrongful conviction and, God forbid, execution of an innocent person stands as anathema to our very sensibilities as human beings," he said. "That is why I'm signing this bill into law." Richardson and I didn't always see eye to eye, but on this issue his reasoning almost exactly mirrors my own. I've never opposed the death penalty on moral grounds. I simply don't trust a legal system where defendants too often get whatever justice they can afford. I was working in Cheyenne, Wyo., in the late 1980s when Mark Hopkinson was set to be executed. Hopkinson was accused of the ordering the murders of Evanston lawyer Vincent Vehar, his wife and 14-year-old son. Unfortunately for Hopkinson, Vehar happened to be a close personal friend of Gerry Spence, arguably the greatest trial attorney of that era. And so, for one case only, Spence switched sides and took the role of lead prosecutor to avenge the death of his friend. The theatrical attorney showed up for court wearing a bulletproof vest and escorted by bodyguards, explaining to the jury nobody was safe in a world where Vehar could be killed by a dynamite blast, according to the Casper Star-Tribune. The overmatched defense attorney never stood a chance. Hopkinson was executed in 1992, professing his innocence until the end. And that got me to thinking. How often are trials decided based on the skill of the lawyers? If the facts and evidence of the case were exactly the same, but the two attorneys had switched sides, would Hopkinson have been put to death? I doubt it. (source: Editorial; Walter Rubel is managing editor of the Las Cruces Sun-News) ARIZONA: Federal judges: Consider victims? pain over that of death row inmates Some federal judges considering death penalty cases say their colleagues should take notice of the suffering of crime victims, not just the possibility that an inmate being executed may feel pain. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday refused to block an Arizona execution, rejecting a challenge that injection methods could cause unconstitutional pain and suffering for inmates. Several 9th Circuit judges? dissents in the case of Samuel Lopez cited the possibility of pain during injections, but 3 other judges said Friday in an amended order that such concerns are groundless and misdirected. While there?s always going to a risk of some pain in an execution because it can be difficult to find veins, the ?incomparable suffering the victim endured during the last desperate minutes of her life? must not be ignored, Chief Judge Alex Kozinski wrote for himself and 2 other judges. Kozinski quoted from a state court ruling that said there was evidence of a ?bloody struggle? throughout 59-year-old Estefana Holmes? apartment. Holmes she was gagged, blindfolded, sexually assaulted and stabbed at least 26 times. ?The panel delicately omits these facts, as did our previous opinion, which merely referred to the crime as ?brutal,? but common decency surely calls on us to acknowledge that Lopez is not the victim here, and whatever pain he may suffer incident to his execution pales in comparison to the agony and terror he inflicted on a defenseless woman whose body he used to sate his lust,? Kozinski wrote. Lopez had been scheduled for execution Wednesday, but after the 9th Circuit ruled on the execution methods issue and on a separate claim of inadequate legal representation, the Arizona Supreme Court on Tuesday rescheduled the lethal injection for late June. That ruling was based on a claim that Lopez was denied a fair clemency proceeding. (source: Associated Press) GEORGIA: Valdosta High grad on 9/11 mastermind defense team J. Connell believes providing a fair trial to even the people charged with masterminding the 9/11 terrorist attacks emphasizes that the United States is a nation of laws, not retribution. ?It?s a tribute to American values that we understand that how we treat even those we view as our enemies is the true test of American freedoms,? said Connell, who is one of the attorneys assigned to defend the five prisoners being held in Guantanamo Bay. ?We are either a nation where the government can do what it wants or we are a nation of laws.? Earlier this month, James Connell was quoted in an Associated Press article detailing how the trials for the five Guantanamo prisoners will likely occur years from now. Upon the article?s publication, several Valdosta Daily Times readers called the newspaper?s offices to note that the Washington, D.C.-based attorney grew up in Valdosta. Known to friends and family as J., Connell is the son of Julia Ariail and step-son of Julius Ariail of Lowndes County. His father, Jim Connell, spent several years in Valdosta but now lives near J. in the Washington, D.C., area. Born in Rhode Island, where his father worked at the War College, Connell?s earliest memories formed in Valdosta. Jim Connell accepted a teaching position at Valdosta State, and the Connells moved to South Georgia before young J. reached his 1st year. His younger sister is Ashley Connell Meade. The family attended Christ Episcopal Church. J. Connell attended S.L. Mason Elementary School, West Gordon, Valdosta Junior High, and Valdosta High School. There, young Connell joined the debate team led by VHS teacher Frank Hjort. In debate, Connell realized he ?liked the clash of ideas and the courtroom drama.? Though he never had Hjort as a classroom teacher, Connell selected him as his academic inspiration upon being named Star student his senior year. Connell credits Hjort?s debate team with leading him to become an attorney. In 1989, Connell graduated Valdosta High. He enrolled in Florida State University. He attended law school at the prestigious William & Mary in Virginia. In 2000, Connell opened his law practice in Fairfax, Va. As a defense attorney, Connell became a vigorous trial lawyer. During this time, he worked death-penalty cases. Of the clients whom he represented in the initial trial, Connell says he was able to save them from the death penalty; however, he was unable to stop the executions of three clients whom he acquired after they had been sentenced to the death penalty. He describes his clients? executions as ?the three worst days of my life.? Still, even though he opposes the death penalty, Connell says, ?I?m not trying to convince people that the death penalty is unnecessary but convince people that it was unnecessary? in his particular cases. In 2008, his death-penalty work attracted the U.S. Department of Defense. As part of the military commissions related to 9/11, the DOD wanted civilian attorneys to work pro bono, donating time to represent the defendants coming before the military commissions. In 2009, when the presidency moved from George W. Bush to Barack Obama, the military commissions stalled. Connell returned full-time to his practice. In 2011, when the Obama administration revived the military commissions, the DOD approached Connell. Knowing the time and commitment necessary from his past experiences, he turned down the offer, saying he could not fit the pro bono work into his practice. The DOD offered to hire him for the duration of the 9/11 cases. Connell accepted the offer. He resigned from his law firm and went to work full-time for the Pentagon. Connell is part of a series of defense teams working to defend five Guantanamo (Gitmo) prisoners linked to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and the hijacked plane that crashed in a Pennsylvania field. The most infamous of these defendants is Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, who has reportedly described himself as the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks. Connell does not represent him. He is lead counsel, along with an Air Force lieutenant colonel co-counsel and a defense team, for Ali Abdul Aziz Ali. Other than saying whom he represents, Connell cannot speak about his client. Ali is accused of transferring money to the 9/11 hijackers, according to media accounts. He reportedly ?helped them with plane tickets, traveler?s checks, and hotel reservations,? and ?taught them about everyday aspects of life in the West, such as purchasing clothes and ordering food,? according to the 9/11 Commission report. As Connell told AP earlier this month, he reiterates to The Times: These trials are years away. Connell will regularly work the case in his office. He regularly travels to Gitmo and other locales. In June, hearings have been scheduled to hear preliminary evidence, but these sessions will be the first on ?a long road of hearings ...,? Connell says. Given the time and the work as well as the defendants, the devastation and unforgettable images of Sept. 11, 2001, some may wonder why an attorney would accept what will likely be a thankless job? Partly, he accepted the job because he recognizes that the DOD needed attorneys with specific skill sets: a person with extensive death penalty experience, since this will be a capital case; a person who can pass extensive top-secret clearance and background checks; a person who can either fit ?such a gigantic case? into their law practice or is willing to walk away from private practice for several years. Connell fit all of these descriptions. As for defending people accused of being or abetting terrorists, Connell says defense attorneys are accustomed to the concept that both sides must receive legal representation, despite how the public may perceive such representation. Connell also believes that a defense attorney can vigorously represent his client without causing additional harm to the victims and their families. He learned this working death penalty cases. ?I have a real feeling for victims even though I am working for the defense,? Connell says. ?There may not be much I can do for the victims but I can do some things not to make their lives worse.? If victims call him, Connell does not avoid them. He talks to them. He tells them what he can. He recalls one death-penalty case where he was able to arrange a requested meeting between the victim?s family and one of his clients in the hours prior to execution. He believes he can bring a similar sensitivity to the concerns of the 9/11 victims in this case. Connell also believes that this case has a place in history as well as confirming America?s role in the world. ?It?s more important that this case is done right than any case in recent history,? Connell says. The case may also be the only thorough examination of what Connell describes as the ?torture years,? when terrorism suspects were waterboarded, etc. Connell sees his job as not only defending his client but confirming America?s rule of law. As for Valdosta, even with the hard work involved in this case, Connell, his wife of 14 years, their 9-year-old adopted son, and hopefully soon a newly adopted daughter, regularly visit family and friends in Valdosta, often to celebrate something as all-American as the Fourth of July. (source: Valdosta Daily Times) MISSISSIPPI: Inmates: State failed to publicize lethal new drug The Mississippi Supreme Court has on its docket an appeal by 2 groups challenging how Mississippi conducts its executions. The lawsuit by 2 anti-death penalty organizations was filed last year on behalf of 3 inmates. 2 of the 3 have been executed. Oral arguments have not been scheduled. Mississippians Educating for Smart Justice and Mississippi Cure Inc. sued the state, hoping to stop the executions because the state switching to a different lethal injection drug. They said corrections officials failed to properly publicize the change as required by the Administrative Procedures Act. In April of 2011, Hinds County Circuit Judge Bill Gowan rejected the challenge. The Supreme Court then denied a request to stop the scheduled executions while the groups appealed. ************* Lawsuit challenges Mississippi's use of new drug in executions A lawsuit contending that state corrections officials failed to properly publicize as required by law its switch to a new lethal injection drug is before the Mississippi Supreme Court. The case is among dozens on the court's current docket. The court will not hear oral arguments. The lawsuit by 2 anti-death penalty organizations was filed last year on behalf of 3 inmates. 2 of the 3 have been executed. Mississippians Educating for Smart Justice and Mississippi Cure Inc. sued the state, hoping to stop the executions because the state switched to a different lethal injection drug. They said corrections officials failed to properly publicize the change as required by the Administrative Procedures Act. The 2003 law requires state agencies to notify the public of proposed rule and regulation changes. The law gives citizens the right to offer opinions on proposed changes to rules and regulations, ask for hearings and request official opinions from state agencies. In April of 2011, Hinds County Circuit Judge Bill Gowan rejected the challenge. The Supreme Court then denied a request to stop the scheduled executions while an appeal was pending. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of inmates Benny Joe Stevens, Rodney Gray and Robert Simon Jr. Stevens was executed May 10. 2011; Gray was executed May 17, 2011. Simon has appeals pending in federal court. The Mississippi Department of Correction said in April of 2011 that it would switch to a different drug, pentobarbital, for the state's next execution because of a nationwide shortage of one drug it has used in the past. Mississippi has used a 3-drug mixture for its lethal injections for many years. Last year, 1 of the drugs Mississippi had used in the process, sodium thiopental, became unavailable when its European supplier bowed to pressure from death penalty opponents and stopped making it. No other vendor could be found, so the drug was replaced by pentobarbital. (source for both: Associated Press) From rhalperi at smu.edu Sun May 20 17:24:16 2012 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Sun, 20 May 2012 17:24:16 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide Message-ID: May 20 SAUDI ARABIA----executions Saudi beheads 2 Pakistanis over murders Saudi authorities on Sunday beheaded 2 Pakistanis in the holy city of Mecca after finding them guilty of 2 murders, the interior ministry said. Bashir Afridi and Rahmulwahab Abdullah, both of them Pakistanis, murdered and robbed Mohammed Haji, a fellow Pakistani, the ministry said in a statement carried by state news agency SPA. The 2 also killed a woman and caused the death of another, SPA reported, without revealing the nationalities of the 2 women. His beheading brings to 28 the total number of executions in the ultra-conservative kingdom so far this year, according to an AFP tally based on official reports. Under the AFP count, at least 76 people were beheaded in 2011 in Saudi Arabia, while rights group Amnesty International put the number of executions last year at 79. The death penalty in Saudi Arabia applies to a wide range of offences including rape, apostasy, armed robbery and drug trafficking, as well as murder, as stipulated by Islamic Sharia law. (source: Agence France-Presse) IRAN----executions 2 prisoners hanged in central Iran 2 prisoners were publicly hanged in Isfahan (central Iran) early Thursday morning May 17, reported the Iranian state media today. According to the state run Iranian enws agency Fars, 2 prisoners identified as Farshid and Bagher were convicted of raping 2 women (mother and daughter) and stealing their belongings in 2009. The execution took place in the central prison of Isfahan, said the report. According to another Iranian news agency Mehr, Farshid was 24 year old. The report did not mention how old Bagher was at the time of committing the alleged crime. Along with these executions, Iranian authorities have executed 14 people between May 13. and May 17. Iran Human Rights has also received reports of additional 16 executions on May 17. which have not been announced by the official Iranian sources. (source: Iran Human Rights) ********* Trial of Ahwazi Arabs raises concern Amnesty International reports that 6 members of Iran?s Ahwazi Arab minority will go on trial on May 20 amid fears that they will not receive a fair trial and may face the death penalty for the charge of ?enmity against God.? The 6 detainees were reportedly arrested without charges for nearly 1 year. Amnesty International says their arrest was "in connection with their activities on behalf of Iran?s Ahwazi Arab community.? Amnesty identifies the six as ?Mohammad Ali Amouri, blogger; Rahman Asakereh, teacher; Hashem Sha?bani Amouri, teacher; Hadi Rashidi, teacher; Sayed Jaber Alboshoka and his younger brother Sayed Mokhtar Alboshoka.? They were all arrested at their homes this February and March, in advance of the anniversary of the Arab community?s popular protests in Ahwaz in 2005. The men are reportedly being held in Karoun Prison and, according to Amnesty International, many of them have been denied access to a lawyer. Amnesty alleges that they were charged during ?5-minute court sessions with the vaguely-worded offences of ?enmity against God and corruption on earth?, ?gathering and colluding against state security? and ?spreading propaganda against the system?.? Under the Iranian legal system, the charges of enmity against God and corruption on earth can carry the death sentence . (source: Radio Zamaneh) **************** Ahwazi Arabs facing unfair trial, risk torture URGENT ACTION AHWAZI ARABS FACING UNFAIR TRIAL, RISK TORTURE 6 members of Iran?s Ahwazi Arab minority are due to go on trial in Iran on 20 May. The men were detained without charge for almost a year and all were arrested in connection with their activities on behalf of Iran?s Ahwazi Arab minority. It is feared they will not receive a fair trial and may be at risk of torture or other ill-treatment. The 6 men, all from Khalafabad in Khuzestan province, south-west Iran, were arrested at their homes in February and March 2011 in advance of the 6th anniversary of widespread protests by Ahwazi Arabs in April 2005. Blogger Mohammad Ali Amouri, chemistry teacher Rahman Asakereh and teacher Hashem Sha?bani Amouri were arrested on 16 February. Teacher Hadi Rashidi (or Rashedi) was arrested on 28 February, and Sayed Jaber Alboshoka and his younger brother Sayed Mokhtar Alboshoka were arrested in March. The men are now held in Karoun prison in the city of Ahwaz, Khuzestan province. At least four of them were denied access to a lawyer for at least 8 months after arrest. In or around February 2012, they were all charged in separate 5-minute court sessions with the vaguely-worded offences of ?enmity against God and corruption on earth" (moharebeh va ifsad fil-arz), ?gathering and colluding against state security? and ?spreading propaganda against the system?. The charge of ?enmity against God and corruption on earth? carries a possible death sentence. They are due to be tried before Branch 2 of the Dezful Revolutionary Court on 20 May 2012. Mohammad Ali Amouri, who fled to Iraq in December 2007and was forcibly returned in January 2011, was reportedly tortured and otherwise ill-treated during his first seven months in detention. Hadi Rashidi was hospitalized after his arrest, apparently as a result of torture or other ill-treatment, and is said to be in poor health. According to their family, Sayed Jaber Alboshoka lost 10 kg and Sayed Mokhtar Alboshoka experienced depression and memory loss as a result of torture or other ill-treatment. Please write immediately in Persian, Arabic, English or your own language: Calling on the authorities to ensure that the men (naming them) are tried according to international fair trial standards and without recourse to the death penalty; Urging them to make sure that the men are protected from torture and other ill-treatment, and that they are allowed regular access to lawyers of their choosing; Calling on them to ensure that Hadi Rashidi and the other 5 men are given immediate access to adequate medical treatment. PLEASE SEND APPEALS BEFORE 29 JUNE 2012 TO: Leader of the Islamic Republic Ayatollah Sayed ?Ali Khamenei--The Office of the Supreme Leader--Islamic Republic Street ? End of Shahid--Keshvar Doust Street, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran--Email: info_leader at leader.ir --Twitter: "#Iran Leader @khamenei_ir must ensure 6 Ahwazi Arab men are tried fairly? Salutation: Your Excellency Head of the Judiciary Ayatollah Sadegh Larijani [Care of] Public Relations Office Number 4, 2 Azizi Street intersection Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran Email: bia.judi at yahoo.com (Subject Line: FAO Ayatollah Sadegh Larijani) Salutation: Your Excellency? And copies to: Secretary General High Council for Human Rights Mohammed Javad Larijani--c/o Office of the Head of the Judicary--Pasteur St, Vali Asr Ave South of Serah-e Jomhouri-Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran Email: info at humanrights-iran.ir (Subject line: FAO Mohammad Javad Larijani) Also send copies to diplomatic representatives accredited to your country. Please insert local diplomatic addresses below: Name Address 1 Address 2 Address 3 Fax Fax number Email Email address Salutation Salutation Please check with your section office if sending appeals after the above date. URGENT ACTION AHWAZI ARABS FACING UNFAIR TRIAL, RISK TORTURE Additional Information The Ahwazi Arab minority is one of many minorities in Iran. Much of Iran's Arab community lives in the south-western province of Khuzestan. Most are Shi?a Muslims but some are reported to have converted to Sunni Islam, heightening government suspicion about Ahwazi Arabs. They often complain that they are marginalized and subject to discrimination in access to education, employment, adequate housing, political participation and cultural rights. There were mass demonstrations in Khuzestan province in April 2005, after it was alleged that the government planned to disperse the country's Arab population or to force them to relinquish their Arab identity. Following bomb explosions in Ahvaz City in June and October 2005, which killed at least 14 people, and explosions at oil installations in September and October 2005, the cycle of violence intensified, with hundreds of people reportedly arrested. Further bombings on 24 January 2006, in which at least 6 people were killed, were followed by further mass arbitrary arrests. At least 15 men were later executed as a result of their alleged involvement in the bombings. Mohammad Ali Amouri fled from Iran to Iraq in December 2007: he was said to have been sought by the authorities for organizing protests during the widespread anti-government demonstrations in April 2005. He was arrested in the southern Iraqi city of Basra, charged with entering Iraqi territory illegally and sentenced to serve 1 year?s imprisonment in al-?Amara prison. He completed his prison sentence (see UA 3/09, MDE 14/001/2009, 7 January 2009, http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/MDE14/001/2009/en) and was forcibly returned to Iran in January 2011. He was arrested 20 days after his forcible return from Iraq. Scores, if not hundreds, of members of the Ahwazi Arab minority were reportedly arrested before, during and after demonstrations on 15 April 2011. The demonstrations had been called a ?Day of Rage? to mark the sixth anniversary of the 2005 mass demonstrations. At least three (according to the authorities) - and possibly many more - people were killed in the April 2011 demonstrations during clashes with the security forces, including some in the Malashiya neighbourhood in Ahvaz. Amnesty International received the names of 27 people said to have been killed. Ahwazi Arab sources have claimed the casualty figures were even higher. Amnesty International has been unable to confirm the reports as the Iranian authorities do not allow the organization to visit the country. The authorities maintain a tight control on the flow of information in and out of the province, preventing foreign journalists from visiting Khuzestan. At least four Ahwazi Arab men reportedly died in custody between 23 March and mid May 2011, possibly as a result of torture or other ill-treatment. Others ? including Hadi Rashidi - were hospitalized around the same time, apparently as a result of injuries sustained from torture or other ill-treatment. Between 10 January 2012 and the beginning of February, in the lead-up to parliamentary elections held on 2 March, between 50 and 65 people were reportedly arrested in at least three separate locations in the province; at least two deaths in custody were also reported. Some Ahwazi Arabs, mostly in Shoush, north-central Khuzestan, called for a boycott of the elections and arrests in Shoush, reportedly followed the appearance of anti-election slogans painted on walls. Others may have been pre-emptive arrests aimed at preventing any gathering of Ahwazi Arabs either on the anniversary of country-wide demonstrations held on 14 February 2011 in support of the people of Tunisia and Egypt which were violently repressed, or on the 15 April anniversary of the ?Day of Rage?. In the immediate lead-up to the 15 April anniversary, from late March until mid-April 2012, at least 25 Ahwazi Arabs were reportedly arrested following protests in cities across the province. Name: Mohammad Ali Amouri, Rahman Asakereh, Hadi Rashedi, Hashem Sha?bani Amouri, Sayed Jaber Alboshoka and Sayed Mokhtar Alboshoka (source: Amnesty International) VIETNAM: Man arrested again after exoneration on rape, murder charges A man who's appeal trial acquitted him of raping and murdering a girl after being sentenced to death has been arrested again for a new investigation into the same crime. A source told Thanh Nien Friday that police in the southern province of Binh Phuoc had taken Le Ba Mai, 30, into custody under a decision approved by the People?s Supreme Court. The decision, issued on May 15, said the custody was necessary for ?securing an appeal trial and verdict execution,? without stating how long the detention will last. The new arrest came nearly one year after provincial prosecutors filed an appeal that again charged Mai with murdering and raping 11-year-old Thi Ut in November 2004, and called for a new trial after Mai was acquitted in June last year. On May 24 last year the Binh Phuoc Province?s People?s Court declared that Mai was not guilty, saying that there was insufficient evidence to charge Mai with the crime. It also found conflicts in the testimonies of the only witness, Ut?s younger sister Thi Hang, as well as in Mai?s statements, including his so-called confession. Critical mistakes were also made in both legal and investigative procedures, court officials said at that time. The Binh Phuoc People?s Court held the trial after the People?s Supreme Court ordered a fresh investigation into the case in February 2007. The Supreme Court then approved an appeal by the People?s Supreme Procuracy, the country?s highest prosecutors' office, annulling the death penalty that Mai received at the two trials held in March and August 2005. According to the original indictment, in November 12, 2004, Mai, who was working for a farm, saw Ut and Hang picking cassava in a garden. Mai persuaded Ut to go with him on his bike to a jackfruit garden nearby, raped her, and strangled her to death with her pants. Five days later, he was arrested and gave a full confession to the police, the indictment said. However, Mai and his family maintained his innocence, claiming that his confession was coerced by the police. They submitted several letters to related agencies calling for a retrial. (source: Thanh Nien News) From rhalperi at smu.edu Mon May 21 11:27:41 2012 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Mon, 21 May 2012 11:27:41 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, DEL., USA, OHIO, MISS. Message-ID: May 21 TEXAS: Death-penalty foes rally at courthouse About a dozen protesters, led by longtime death penalty opponent Rick Halperin, gathered at the Dallas County criminal courthouse Friday afternoon to press District Attorney Craig Watkins to quit seeking the death penalty. The protest was spurred by the latest report on the possible wrongful execution of Carlos DeLuna 13 years ago for a Corpus Christi slaying. According to a new report by James Liebman, a Columbia University law professor, another man confessed to the killing repeatedly but was never found by police. DeLuna was convicted primarily on eyewitness identification. Halperin, a human rights professor at Southern Methodist University, called Watkins a hypocrite for saying he is "on the fence" about capital punishment but continuing to seek death in some cases. Watkins did not attend the protest. Later, through a spokeswoman, he declined to comment. (source: Dallas Morning News) DELAWARE: Death penalty law needs reviewing A group of Cornell University law professors believes Delaware?s death penalty laws are wrong, unfair and racially prejudiced. In an upcoming law review article, the professors take Delaware to task for imposing the death sentence far above the national average. Delaware officials, many of whom are charged with enforcing the death penalty, vigorously disagree with the Cornell study. They say that the state?s small size distorts the numbers. In a state as small as Delaware, a single instance can change percentages dramatically. They?re right ? death penalty rates are easily skewed when dealing with small numbers. However, we believe that the Cornell professors are on to something when they lay the blame on a 1991 state law that gave judges the power to impose the death penalty even when the jury vote is not unanimous. The General Assembly hastily changed the law after the failure of a New Castle County jury to reach a unanimous decision in the cold-blooded murders of security guards. The jury vote spared the killers from execution and led to life sentences instead. Public outrage led to the change. The professors behind the study are associated with the Cornell Law School?s Death Penalty Project. The school?s website describes the project as an even-handed, evidence-based examination of the death penalty in America. It says, ?Because the history of the death penalty in the United States is rife with mistake, arbitrariness, and discrimination, it should be studied for the extent to which arbitrariness, mistake and discrimination persist, and the ways they can be minimized.? The supposed arbitrariness and discrimination of Delaware?s law is the subject of the study. The state should take that charge seriously. Was the 1991 law passed too hastily? Does it give judges too much power? Other states are now reviewing their statutes and procedures. Given what is at stake when the state executes someone, Delaware should do likewise. (source: Opinion, Delawareonline) USA: US death row inmates exonerated 9 times more often US death row inmates are ending up exonerated 9 times more often than any other prisoner convicted of murder, according to a new report made public Monday. Anti-death penalty campaigners stage a demonstration in Los Angeles in 2010. US death row inmates are ending up exonerated 9 times more often than any other prisoner convicted of murder, according to a new report made public Monday."The most important thing we know about false convictions is that they happen and on a regular basis... Most false convictions never see the light of the day," said the authors of the study, professors of law Samuel Gross and Michael Shaffer of the University of Michigan. After 3 years of research, the 2 experts, aided by their students, came up with the names of 2,000 inmates exonerated from 1989 to 2012. They were able to develop profiles of 885 cases in a national registry, which is constantly updated and now includes 891 names listed on their website, exonerationregistry.org. A quarter of prisoners exonerated of murder -- 101 out of 409 -- had been sentenced to capital punishment, according to the report. And nearly 1/2 of all rape or murder convicts who had been later found innocent -- 341 out of 721 -- were about to be executed or remain in prison for the rest of their lives, the study said. 10 were found innocent after their death. "Most innocent defendants with short sentences probably never try to clear their names," Gross said. "They serve their time and do what they can to put the past behind them. "Death sentences produce exonerations at 9 times the rate for all homicide convictions". (source: Agence France-Presse) **************** INNOCENCE: Leading Researchers Release Report and National Registry of Exonerations in U.S. On May 21, the University of Michigan Law School and the Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern University announced the start of the 1st National Registry of Exonerations and released an extensive report discussing the problem of wrongful convictions in the U.S. The Registry contains information on nearly 900 people who were falsely convicted of serious crimes, including many who were sentenced to death, and who have been exonerated since 1989. It is by far the largest collection of such cases and will be updated on an ongoing basis. The authors believe that many more such cases exist, including over 1,000 cases from "group exonerations" involving official misconduct that are discussed in the report. The report accompanying the registry, Exonerations in the United States, 1989-2012, was written principally by Professor Samuel Gross (pictured) of Michigan's Law School. It discusses the most common errors that led to these miscarriages of justice. Rob Warden, Executive Director of the Center on Wrongful Convictions, said, ?The National Registry of Exonerations gives an unprecedented view of the scope of the problem of wrongful convictions in the United States. This is a good start?a milestone?but there?s a long way to go before we have a complete picture of wrongful convictions in the United States.? Prof. Gross added, ?The more we learn about false convictions, the better we?ll be at preventing them ? or if that fails, at finding and correcting them as best we can after the fact.? The report notes that about 37% of exonerations occurred with the help of DNA evidence. The average time of imprisonment before exoneration was 11 years. About 62% of those exonerated were members of minorities. (source: Death Penalty Information Center) *********** Prejean: Scales tipping against death penalty 30 years into her campaign against the death penalty, Sister Helen Prejean can feel the scales tipping in her favor. ?The use of the death penalty has greatly diminished since 1999,? Prejean said. ?We just have to build up the number of states (abolishing the death penalty) until we reach that tipping point, and it's not that far off.? Prejean, 73, was in Omaha Sunday to give the commencement address for the College of St. Mary. Prior to her speech, the diminutive nun with a rich Southern drawl talked about her work at the Death Penalty Discourse Network in New Orleans, Nebraska's adoption of lethal injection and her meeting with Pope John Paul II. Prejean, a Louisiana native, began a prison ministry in 1981 when she dedicated her life to the poor of New Orleans. While living in the St. Thomas housing projects, she became pen pals with Patrick Sonnier, the convicted killer of 2 teenagers who was sentenced to die in the electric chair of the Louisiana State Penitentiary, also known as Angola. She turned her experiences into a book, ?Dead Man Walking: An Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty in the United States.? The book was nominated for a 1993 Pulitzer Prize. In 1995, the book was developed into a movie, ?Dead Man Walking,? starring Susan Sarandon as Sister Helen and Sean Penn as a death row inmate. 5 states ? New York, New Jersey, New Mexico, Illinois and Connecticut ? have recently ended the death penalty, and there's a moratorium in Oregon. That leaves 32 states with the death penalty, 17 without it and Oregon on the fence. ?We've made a lot of progress in the last 2 years,? Prejean said. Prejean said she will campaign in California, urging voters there to vote in November to abolish the death penalty. ?I'm not seeing much heart among the people of this nation for killing,? Prejean said. ?I think that's one of the reasons why some states like Nebraska are turning to lethal injection. They keep trying to clean up death and make it antiseptic.? In 2008, the Nebraska Supreme Court declared that electrocution, then the state's method of carrying out the death penalty, was a form of ?cruel and unusual punishment.? Nebraska turned to lethal injection. ?A fiscal analysis would tell you that it's costing more and more money to even try putting these prisoners to death and that's hard to justify in these (economic) times,? Prejean said. ?California has spent $4 billion for 13 executions. How is that fiscally responsible?? In a private audience with Pope John Paul II during his 1999 visit to St. Louis, Prejean said she was buoyed by his determination to make the fight against the death penalty ?part of the seamless garment? of the Catholic Church. ?John Paul II was insistent that the church not only stand against abortion but against the death penalty,? she said. ?Life should be protected not only for the innocent but for the guilty, too.? (source: Omaha World-Herald) OHIO: Death-penalty cases drop----New sentencing options and changes in attitudes mean fewer are being sent to death row Franklin County sent 17 people to death row from 1985 to 2003, an average of nearly 1 a year. Then things changed. The death sentence imposed last week on Caron E. Montgomery was the county?s 1st in nearly 9 years. The numbers have declined statewide, as well. Since the state?s current death-penalty statute was enacted in 1981, the number of Ohioans sentenced to death fell from a record 24 in 1985 to 1 in 2009. Last year, 3 people were sent to Ohio?s death row. ?I don?t think there?s any one reason for it,? said Ohio Public Defender Timothy Young. ?I think it?s a combination of reasons.? The reasons include a change in cultural attitudes about the death penalty, the financial burden associated with trying and appealing such cases and the availability of life without parole as an alternative, he said. Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O?Brien said his office began reassessing how it handles potential death-penalty cases in 2005. ?We?re looking at mitigating factors now, just as a judge or jury would, and not just at the crime,? he said. ?We?re asking, ?What is the realistic possibility of obtaining the death penalty in this case????? Death-penalty indictments in Franklin County dropped dramatically as a result, from 34 in 2004 to 5 in 2005. Last year, 3 death-penalty indictments were filed in the county. O?Brien said he changed his approach to the cases after working with the U.S. attorney?s office in early 2005 on the federal death-penalty case against Daryl Lawrence, who was convicted of murdering Columbus police Officer Bryan Hurst and sentenced to death by a federal jury. O?Brien said federal prosecutors put cases through a rigorous review process before seeking death-penalty indictments. The Lawrence case also coincided with a 2005 change in state law that allowed a life sentence without parole to be imposed for aggravated-murder cases that didn?t qualify for the death penalty. Previously, life without parole was only possible in death-penalty cases. ?Suddenly, prosecutors didn?t have to file a death-penalty indictment to get to life without parole,? Young said. He thinks that?s among the reasons for a statewide decline in death-penalty indictments, from 98 in 2004 to 56 in 2011. Only Cuyahoga County continues to indict a significant number of death-penalty cases. In the past 3 years, 115 were indicted there, accounting for 53 % of all death-penalty cases in the state. The numbers are misleading because the Cuyahoga County prosecutor?s office has a committee that thoroughly reviews the death-penalty cases after they are indicted, said Assistant Prosecutor Richard Bell. ?We indict everyone equally on the merits and review the mitigating factors afterward,? he said. ?We dismiss the death-penalty specifications if there is appropriate mitigation.? Mitigating factors, such as the traumatic childhood of the defendant, are presented by defense attorneys in an effort to spare the life of someone facing the death penalty. Bell didn?t have figures to show how often the committee?s review process results in reduced charges. But for all those indictments, Cuyahoga County sent only 3 defendants to death row in the past 3 years. All 33 states with the death penalty on the books now allow judges and juries to consider life without parole as an alternative, said Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington, D.C. That has helped fuel a national decline in executions, from 98 in 1999 to 43 in 2011, he said. ?Juries are hesitant about the death penalty because of all the revelations about wrongful convictions,? Dieter said. ?Life without parole is seen as an acceptable alternative.? Caron E. Montgomery decided to place his fate in the hands of a three-judge panel because of concerns that a jury would more likely be swayed by the ?terrible? facts of the case, said J. Scott Weisman, one of his attorneys. But the judges still chose death for Montgomery, who pleaded guilty to the stabbing deaths of his former girlfriend and her two children, including his 2-year-old son. Weisman expects the death penalty to be abolished eventually because it?s so expensive for the state to pursue from the trial through years of appeals. ?I?d like to think we?ll do away with it because it?s barbaric, but I think it will be because of the costs,? he said. In the past 5 years, 5 states have abolished the death penalty, with Illinois joining the list last year, Dieter said. Even many of the states that retain it haven?t executed anyone in years. ?At some point,? he said, ?the Supreme Court may have to look at how unusual it has become and decide whether it?s so outside the norm that it should be struck down.? (source: Columbus Dispatch) MISSISSIPPI: Inmates riot in Mississippi prison, one guard killed Inmates seized control of a privately owned prison in Mississippi on Sunday after riots broke out, and a guard was killed in the chaos in the low security facility, authorities said. Adams County Coroner James Lee said the 23-year-old guard died of blunt trauma to the head during the riot at the Adams County Correctional Center, a privately owned prison that houses mostly illegal immigrants for the Federal Bureau of Prisons. "This is an ongoing riot that still has not been rectified because the prisoners are in still in charge of the prison," Lee said, speaking at around 9 p.m. local time. The disturbance in the 2,567-bed prison began on Sunday afternoon inside the facility in Natchez, Mississippi, the Corrections Corporation of America, which owns the prison, said in a statement. Photographs of the scene showed white smoke lingering above the prison yard. The Natchez Democrat newspaper said a SWAT team was stationed outside the prison and, at one point, prisoners lit a fire. The paper quoted Adams County Sheriff Chuck Mayfield as saying eight prison employees remained in the prison and authorities were working to get them out. "I personally saw the fire start outside the prison but within the fences. ... It looked like they launched tear gas," local resident Sessions Vestal, who lives about a mile down the road from the prison, told Reuters. 5 prison employees and an inmate were injured and sent to a hospital outside the facility. Most of the prison's inmates are illegal immigrants from Mexico. Many were arrested on drug-related charges and awaiting deportation. The company that owns the prison deployed several special response teams - both from that facility and from others it owns - to quell the riot while state and local law enforcement agencies secured the outside perimeter, the statement said. "The disturbance is contained within the secure perimeter of the facility, with no threat to public safety," it added. There was no immediate word on what sparked the riot. (source: Reuters) From rhalperi at smu.edu Mon May 21 11:29:24 2012 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Mon, 21 May 2012 11:29:24 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide Message-ID: May 21 KUWAIT: Kuwaiti pleads innocent in Twitter trial A 26-year-old Kuwaiti pleaded not guilty on Monday to charges he insulted the Prophet Mohammad and the Sunni Muslim rulers of Saudi Arabia and Bahrain on social media, the first day of a high-profile and divisive court case in the Gulf state. Charges were brought by a civil plaintiff, who called for Shi'ite Muslim Hamad al-Naqi to be put to death, saying he must be made an example of to others. The case has stoked tensions between Kuwait's Sunnis and minority Shi'ites. Naqi's lawyer asked for his client, who has been in prison since his arrest in March, to be released on bail. The judge declined the request and adjourned the trial until next week. Sitting in a wooden and metal cage guarded by armed guards in black balaclavas at the start of the trial, a bearded, tired-looking Naqi sat quietly clasping his hands, occasionally rubbing the back of his shaved head and looking at the floor. Wearing a blue prison uniform and glasses, Naqi was escorted from the cage to face the judge, confirmed his personal details and entered his innocent plea. The case has caused uproar in Kuwait, where dozens of Sunni Muslim activists and lawmakers have protested against Naqi some calling for the death penalty and accusing him of links to Shi'ite regional power Iran, something he has denied. Shi'ites make up about 1/3 of Kuwait's 1.1 million nationals and vocal members can be found in senior positions in parliament, media and business. Although Kuwait has largely avoided the sectarian violence and pro-democracy uprisings seen elsewhere in the region, it is concerned its sizeable Shi'ite minority may turn restive. Kuwaiti authorities have been closely watching Shi'ite-led protests in Bahrain and unrest in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia, home to more than 2 million minority Shi'ites. Kuwait's parliament, where opposition Islamists have grown in influence, endorsed a legal amendment this month that would make insulting God and the Prophet Mohammad by Muslims punishable by death instead of a maximum penalty of 10 years in jail. Naqi's lawyer and Amnesty International say the death penalty cannot be applied in the Naqi case because the alleged crime took place before the change in legislation. But civil plaintiff Dowaem al-Mowazry, who is arguing the case against Naqi, said this was a special case. "We will ask for the implementation of the death penalty for Naqi because he insulted Allah, the Prophet Mohammad and his companions," he told Reuters after the opening of the trial. "He will be an example for anyone who thinks he can do such a thing." Naqi has told police that he did not write the comments and that his Twitter account was hacked. His lawyer Khaled al-Shatti argued that Naqi should be granted bail because Kuwaitis charged with similar crimes had been granted it in the past. "He denied the charges. But even if we were to imagine hypothetically that he did say something, this would be an "opinion crime", not a crime threatening state security," he told Reuters. (source: Yahoo News) CANADA: Steven Truscott fights another battle for his life As a teenager, he faced the hangman?s noose, condemned as a child killer and a rapist. For more than 50 years, he fought to clear his name of a crime that he insisted he did not commit. But now Steven Truscott, one of Canada?s most famous victims of a wrongful conviction, is fighting one final, daunting battle ? against cancer. Truscott, a 67-year-old grandfather, had his entire prostate removed last year in an attempt to destroy a potentially deadly tumour. He has since undergone 33 radiation treatments and doctors continue to test him for any warning signs that the cancerous cells may have returned. ?Worrying about it isn?t going to make it go away,? Truscott told the Toronto Star in an exclusive interview at his home. ?I figured if the government couldn?t get rid of me, this wasn?t going to get rid of me either.? At age 14, Truscott faced execution for the murder and rape of a classmate, Lynne Harper, in 1959 near the air force base where they lived in Clinton, Ont. His sentence was commuted to life in prison just weeks before the scheduled hanging. That early brush with death seems to have informed Truscott?s resolve to fight his cancer. ?You?re put on this earth and what?s thrown at you ? you either handle it or you don?t,? he said. Inspired by the very public battle waged by the late NDP leader Jack Layton, Truscott agreed to discuss his medical condition to send a message to Canadian men to regularly take a simple test for prostate-specific antigen (PSA), a possible early indicator of cancer. ?I?d always been healthy. I figured you don?t need the test if I feel fine,? he said. ?It takes two minutes to take the PSA test. If you know someone who has died from prostate cancer, it is not a pretty picture.? Truscott spent 10 years behind bars and then a lifetime on parole as a convicted murderer. In 2007, after a decade-long legal battle to reopen his case, the Ontario Court of Appeal unanimously overturned his conviction as ?a miscarriage of justice? that ?must be quashed.? The following year, the Ontario government awarded Truscott $6.5 million in compensation. He moved into an expansive home on the outskirts of Guelph with his wife Marlene and looked forward to a comfortable life with their 3 children and 4 grandchildren. Then, the devastating news. Truscott, who says he never spent a day in his life in the hospital, had not visited his family doctor in 2 years. When he finally booked a visit, a routine checkup and blood test found dangerously high levels of PSA. A subsequent biopsy confirmed he had prostate cancer. ?I can remember thinking: ?Why does this have to happen to him??? said Marlene, Truscott?s wife of 42 years and the driving force in her husband?s battle to prove his innocence. ?I was just sick, absolutely, completely sick from worry.? Truscott, who had learned to control his emotions after years in prison and frustrated legal appeals, was more reserved ? at least outwardly. ?He handled it almost stoically; none of this ?poor me? stuff, just about the way you would expect Steve to react,? said Mac Stienburg, who was Truscott?s prison chaplain in the 1960s and, later, his parole officer. He has remained a close family friend. ?This (cancer) would sound like peanuts in comparison with a death sentence to hang,? said Stienburg. ?This paled in comparison.? Still, when Stienburg got a late night call from Truscott, he sensed the man he had known since he was a teenage inmate was more concerned than he would admit. ?What?s God doing to me?? Stienburg remembers Truscott asking, only half-jokingly. ?I don?t know, but I?ll ask him and put in a good word,? said the former chaplain. Last summer, Truscott underwent surgery for a prostatectomy, the complete removal of his infected gland. It went well but Dr. Timothy Wesley-James, the urologist who performed the operation, found the cancer had infected 40 % of Truscott?s prostate and ?microscopic? traces had spread locally. ?You have concerns,? Wesley-James told the Star. Then late last year, a blood test detected PSA again ? bad news because with the prostate removed the only explanation for PSA readings was that some of the cancerous cells indeed were still present. So over the winter, Truscott began intensive radiation treatments, 5 days a week for almost 2 months. In April he walked into the office of Dr. Joda Kuk, his radiation oncologist at the Grand River Regional Cancer Centre in Kitchener, to get the latest test results. Kuk had drawn a smiley face and the scrawled the word ?YAY!? on Truscott?s medical folder: The PSA levels were undetectable. ?It was evidence that I had hit the target of cancer cells,? Kuk said. About 40 % of men like Truscott who had high-risk features in their prostate cancer might see a recurrence of the disease, Kuk explained, but effective radiation treatment can cut that danger in half. ?The outlook is good but you monitor these patients for 15 years because it could still come back,? said Wesley-James. The surgery, radiation and stress over the past year have taken an obvious toll on Truscott. Once a strong, fit man with the ramrod-straight bearing of a boy who grew up on an air force base, Truscott has put on weight, walks more slowly and lacks the energy he once had. ?I tire out faster,? he admits. Marlene has also spotted a ?big personality change,? noting her usually easygoing husband at times is ?far more distant, more irritable.? The Truscotts have largely stepped out of the public limelight since Steven?s acquittal in 2007 after a gruelling decade of appeals, hearings and campaigns against wrongful convictions. The family has quietly launched the Truscott Initiative in Justice Studies at the University of Guelph, funding two scholarships for students in the field and working toward setting up a chair devoted to justice and social issues. They still get letters and emails regularly from supporters and schoolchildren working on projects about the famous legal case. Truscott said there is only one thing that would bring him back into the public eye: ?If they ever try to bring back the death penalty,? he said, referring to occasional murmurs from some Tory politicians. ?How many wrongful convictions have there been in Canada, and how many of those people would be dead (under capital punishment)?? he asks. ?I would come back for that.? But for now, Truscott wants to think about life, not death. He and his wife dream of spending more time with their grandchildren and taking a road trip to explore Canada. ?I was given two chances,? Truscott says, escaping a hanging death after a criminal conviction and ? for now at least ? a lingering death from cancer. ?My cat has 9 lives, so I have 7 more to catch up.? He breathes heavily as he rolls his 270-kilogram Kawasaki motorcycle out of his garage. So far this spring he has found the energy to take the bike out for a spin 3 times, an exhilarating jolt of freedom for the grandfather who still chafes at the memory of spending his teenage years behind bars. ?You just get out there and feel free,? Truscott says, a hint of that boyish twinkle in his eyes. ?Nothing holds you back.? (source: Guelph Mercury) CHINA: Cheating Chinese businesswoman gets reprieve from death sentence A self-made Chinese businesswoman convicted of cheating investors out of millions had her death sentence commuted on Monday, state media said, following thousands of Internet pleas urging leniency. Wu Ying, 31, the daughter of a peasant, was convicted in 2009 of cheating investors out of 380 million yuan ($60 million) by offering returns as high as 180 %, while she spent the money on a lavish lifestyle, including buying 4 BMWs and a Ferrari. She was sentenced to death by a court in eastern Zhejiang province, a ruling that was overturned by the Supreme Court in April. On Monday, she was handed down a death sentence "with a two-year reprieve", Xinhua news agency said, a sentence which usually translates into life in prison. Wu's case became a touchstone issue for China's vocal Internet campaigners and newly rich private entrepreneurs who saw the original sentence as too harsh as Beijing struggles to deliver social harmony while wealth inequality soars. Wu's humble beginnings in business started when she opened a hair salon in 1997 to become the president of her own, unregulated, investment firm, Bense Holding Group. Many people, especially on China's vibrant microblogging sites, believed she did not deserve the death penalty for a crime that was seen as more akin to money lending than a pyramid scheme. Beijing has frowned on such unregulated investment operations and is running a program to bring private capital into the state-controlled banking sector. (source: Reuters) *********** Former China police chief faces treason trial: report The former police chief at the centre of the biggest political scandal to engulf China's communist leadership in decades will be tried for treason, a report said Monday. Former Chongqing municipality police chief Wang Lijun, who fled to a US consulate in February reportedly seeking asylum, would be tried as early as next month, the South China Morning Post reported, quoting unnamed sources. Wang had been the right-hand-man of Chongqing party boss Bo Xilai, who had been widely expected to ascend to the all-powerful Politburo later this year until he was ousted over a scandal involving alleged murder and corruption. Bo is under investigation for "serious discipline violations" -- party code for corruption -- while his wife Gu Kailai has disappeared into custody accused of involvement in the alleged murder of a British businessman. Wang reportedly confronted Bo with information related to the murder before fleeing to the US consulate in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province, where he spoke with US officials for several hours. Security forces surrounded the consulate and Wang was subsequently handed over to Chinese custody, but the incident triggered the rapid unravelling of Bo's fortunes and those of his high-flying family. The Hong Kong English-language daily reported that Wang's trial would take place in Sichuan and a "special legal team" had been established to handle the case. Wang could face the death penalty if convicted of treason but Hong Kong-based Chinese law analyst Ong Yew-kim said he would probably only get "8 to 10 years". Sources told the paper the swift handling of the trial would indicate the authorities want to resolve the Bo matter quickly to clear the air ahead of a once-in-a-decade leadership transition later this year (source: Asia Pacific News) IRAN--executions 14 Convicted Drug Traffickers Hanged In Tehran Iran has hanged 14 people in Tehran after they were convicted of drug trafficking. A statement from the Tehran prosecutor's office on May 21 identified them only by their initials. The London-based Amnesty International rights group said in its annual review of death sentences and executions worldwide published in March that Iran executed at least 360 people in 2011, three-quarters of them for drugs offenses, up from at least 252 in 2010. Tehran considers the death penalty essential for maintaining law and order, and insists that it is only applied after exhaustive judicial proceedings. Murder, rape, armed robbery and trafficking more than five kilograms of drugs are among crimes punishable by death. The Islamic republic is one of the world's main users of capital punishment, along with China, Saudi Arabia, and the United States. (source: Radio Free Europe) ************** 18 NEW EXECUTIONS IN IRAN: 53 EXECUTIONS IN ONE WEEK- IHR URGES THE WORLD COMMUNITY TO REACT According to the Iranian state media 18 people were executed in four different Iranian cities yesterday and today. Thus Iranian authorities have confirmed execution of 30 prisoners during the last seven days. In addition IHR has received reports of 23 executions that have not been announced by the official Iranian media. Iran Human Rights strongly condemned the execution wave going on in Iran and urged the international community to react. Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, the spokesperson of IHR said: "We are puzzled by the silence of the international community despite the fact that about 50 people have been executed in Iran just in 1 week". More than 80% of all those who are executed in Iran are convicted of drug trafficking, who are tried buy the revolutionary courts behind the closed doors. The spokesperson of IHR asked the UN to reconsider its cooperation with the Iranian authorities and siad: "We know that the UN and several Western countries cooperate with the Iranian authorities in order to fight "drug trafficking". Many of those arrested as a consequence of this cooperation are executed. World community must condemn these executions and stop any cooperation with Iran until they are 100% assured that their cooperation doesn?t contribute to the Iranian regime?s execution policy". 14 PRISONERS EXECUTED IN TEHRAN TODAY: According to the state run Iranian news agency ISNA 14 prisoners were executed in one of the prisons of Tehran early this morning. All those executed today were convicted of drug trafficking. Names of those executed today will be published in a short while. 2 PEOPLE EXECUTED IN