[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., ARIZ., NEV.

[Rick Halperin]

Dec. 2


TEXAS:

The atrocity of Texas killing a mentally ill man

Editor's note: Ron Powers is at work on a book about mental illness and the 
state of America's mental-health care. He is the author of, among other books, 
"Mark Twain: A Life" (Free Press) and "Tom and Huck Don't Live Here Anymore: 
Childhood and Murder in the Heart of America" (St.Martin's Press).

On Wednesday night, barring an intervention of common decency, common sense and 
common compassion, the state of Texas will execute a man who scarcely 
comprehends who he is, let alone the reason why he will be put to death.

The man is Scott Panetti, a hopelessly unhinged paranoid schizophrenic. No one 
disputes that in 1992, Panetti gunned down the mother and father of his 
estranged wife in cold blood. No one disputes that this was a horrendous 
wastage of innocent human life.

Nor does anyone dispute that at the time, Panetti was enmeshed in deep 
psychosis. His madness was no secret. He had been hospitalized 14 times before 
the killings.

The hospital system failed him. It could not or did not protect him from his 
demons, though regimens of medication and psychiatric supervision have 
repeatedly been shown to stabilize patients in his condition. Maybe his 
caregivers were overworked in an underfunded system.

Then the Texas courts failed him. At his murder trial, the judge permitted this 
manifestly brain-ravaged man to act as his own lawyer. What a hoot that must 
have been. Reporters in the courtroom described Panetti as duded up in cowboy 
clothes, prancing around and ranting about Satan, an obsession typical for the 
psychotically insane.

Perhaps the court anticipated this; calculated that his inevitably demented 
performance would solidify public opinion against him and thus hasten his 
convenient disposal via lethal injection. Hey, he was probably faking his 
craziness anyway, said prosecutors.

The Texas court system, the American court system and many Americans in general 
are failing the Scott Panettis among us, and they need to educate themselves.

Psychosis is not a condition of choice, like a cocaine high. Nor does it 
proceed from character flaws. Psychosis arrives in a person's psyche at 
conception via genetic transmission -- heredity -- and it devours character. It 
eats away at the circuitry of the prefrontal cortex, the command center of the 
brain, the regulator of thought, the behavioral choices that proceed from 
thought, the capacity to separate fantasy from reality.

Schizophrenia, the genetic flaw that produces psychosis, afflicts about one in 
100 Americans, an enormous figure.

Schizophrenia does not always lead to violence. In Panetti's case it did, and 
on Wednesday, barring a commutation by the Supreme Court or Texas Gov. Rick 
Perry, he will pay the ultimate price for suffering the ultimate bad luck.

Perhaps our national self-education should begin with some critical 
soul-searching.

Who would benefit from Panetti's extermination?

Would it protect society? Panetti is already sequestered from society, and 
should be forever. Would his execution serve as a deterrent? To believe this, 
you must believe that everyone will wake up on Thursday morning musing, "Gee, 
look what happened to Scott. I guess I won't turn psychotic after all!"

Conservatives vs. the death penalty

Would it be a stern reaffirmation of -- of what? Of our righteous national 
ideal that nobody had better go violently nuts if they know what's good for 
them?

Would it give comfort? It certainly would not give comfort to Sonja Alvarado, 
his former wife and the daughter of his victims, who filed a petition stating 
that because of his paranoid delusions at the time of the murders, he should 
never have been tried.

Nor would it give comfort to Victoria Panetti, his sister. She has waged a 
heartfelt national petition campaign to plead for her brother's life. To 
achieve this, the voices of her petition's signers must break through the moral 
anesthesia of the powerful pols and judges who have thus far shrugged at the 
manifest injustice of her brother's case.

Clearly, her prospects are not good. The Supreme Court upheld a 2004 federal 
judge's stay of execution of Panetti on the ground that a lower court's 
standard for determining a defendant's mental competency was unconstitutional. 
That was then.

The Texas court lawyers bulled ahead, getting the case sent back down to that 
same lower court-- the Fifth Circuit -- to correct "errors" in the prosecution. 
In 2013, a psychiatrist testified that he thought Panetti was "competent" 
enough to understand why he was being put down, despite mountainous evidence to 
the contrary that beggars belief.

So: Let us regretfully, and with apologies to the ravaged sensibilities of 
Victoria and the other Panetti family members, search for shards of redemption 
should the worst come to pass Wednesday night. After all, the rationale for 
executions, if there is a rationale, must be that they will make things ... um 
... better.

Will redemption come via a new surge of political backbone to stare down the 
NRA and strengthen laws to at least keep the mentally ill from possessing 
firearms? Don't hold your breath.

Will it come via kicking our society out of its denial about the disgraceful 
chaos of American mental-health care, and make us insist that its reform be a 
national priority? This has been a crying necessity for generations. So it can 
probably wait a few generations more.

Will it come via motivating people to enlarge their understanding by getting to 
know families with members afflicted with the disease? The nearest is not far 
away, I guarantee you. You will learn about torturous, nearly unbearable grief, 
and you will keenly perceive the need for compassionate activism. So, probably 
not.

Speaking honestly, I can envision only one certain consequence of Scott 
Panetti's execution:

A spiritually declining nation will have shoved the lethal needle a little 
deeper into its own vein.

(source: Ron Powers; CNN)






PENNSYLVANIA:

Execution dates set


Executions are scheduled for January for Christopher Roney, who was convicted 
in Philadelphia County of 1st-degree murder for shooting Officer Lauretha Vaird 
on Jan. 2, 1996, and Dennis C. Reed, who was convicted in Lawrence County Court 
of 1st-degree murder for shooting Wendy Miller, his girlfriend and mother of 
his son, on Dec. 16, 2001.

The 2 men, along with Mark Duane Edwards Jr., are incarcerated in the State 
Correctional Institution at Greene.

**

Indiana County man who survived attack that killed family yearns to tell 
murderer he's at peace


If Larry "R.J." Bobish Jr. could have his way, the Fayette County man who 
fatally shot his mother, father and pregnant sister 12 years ago would not pay 
with his life.

"I don't agree with it," said Bobish of Indiana, who is the lone survivor of 
Mark Duane Edwards Jr.'s deadly attack at his former home in North Union. "I 
honestly hope that he would not be executed."

Edwards, 32, was convicted of 3 counts of murder in 2004 and sentenced to death 
for shooting and stabbing Larry A. Bobish, 50; his wife, Joanna, 42; and their 
pregnant daughter, Krystal, 17, during a burglary and arson at the family's 
home on April 14, 2002.

Gov. Tom Corbett last month signed Edwards' death warrant.

Edwards is to be killed by lethal injection Jan. 13, but a motion seeking to 
stay the sentence was filed Monday in Fayette County.

Bobish said he wants to meet Edwards - but not in anger.

"I forgive him, even though my family was taken away from me," said Bobish, who 
spoke Monday at the Indiana home of his adoptive parents, Mark and Kristi 
Altrogge. "I know he (Edwards) has a son, and I would not want his son to grow 
up without a family."

Bobish said his father was a talented auto mechanic who specialized in body 
work. Knee surgery sidelined him, so he turned to selling "wet" or "water," a 
liquid containing PCP and embalming fluid that users ingest by smoking 
cigarettes dipped into the solution. Bobish said his mother and sister used the 
drug.

"I kept on begging my mom. ... I begged her to stop, but it's addictive," he 
said.

Bobish was 12 on that day in 2002, when Edwards awakened the family at 5:30 
a.m. to confront Bobish's father over a drug dispute. Bobish said Edwards had 
robbed his parents of drugs and money 2 days earlier, and his father was trying 
to recoup his losses.

Now 25, Bobish has not forgotten the attack.

Edwards took his father to the kitchen, pulled a gun and shot him twice, Bobish 
said. He heard his father fall to the floor, he said, then watched as Edwards 
came for him.

"He shot me," Bobish said, raising his hands to his face to show how he tried 
to protect himself. "It went through my hand and into my head, and then I hit 
the ground."

Edwards went into a bedroom and shot Bobish's mother as she slept. When Krystal 
shouted at Edwards to stop, Edwards shot his sister, Bobish said.

"Then he went through the house, looking for drugs, looking for whatever he 
could find, and then he came at me again," Bobish said. "That's when he cut 
me."

Bobish said he remembers Edwards stabbing him 5 times, then covering him with a 
blanket before he lost consciousness.

Edwards left the family for dead and set the house ablaze. Bobish said 
crackling flames and intense heat awakened him.

"I had to walk toward the fire to get out" the front door, Bobish said. "I 
walked out, stumbled and crawled to my driveway."

An off-duty state trooper delivering newspapers with his 2 sons happened upon 
the burning house and tried to rescue Bobish's family, but the flames drove him 
back, he said.

Bobish, who was hospitalized for a month, bears scars on his face, arm and back 
from the slashing. The bullet, which lodged near his skull, migrated to his 
back, where it remains.

Bobish said he forgave Edwards soon after the killings.

"I don't know how I did it, and I don't know why, but I was at ease, at peace 
with it, from the beginning," Bobish said. "Ever since everything has happened, 
I've forgiven him for what he's done. ... I believe Jesus died for us. God paid 
for our sins and gives mercy. If Jesus can do that, I can forgive someone."

He said he wanted to write Edwards during his trial, but prosecutors advised 
against it.

"I have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to talk to this guy, and if it makes a 
difference in his life, I would love for that to happen," Bobish said. "I would 
love to tell him, in person, that I forgive him."

Bobish said he wants his adoptive father, a pastor at Sovereign Grace Church in 
Indiana, to accompany him.

"The main thing to me is, if he's going to die, I want to hope he would get 
saved before it would happen," Bobish said. "I believe everyone should get a 
chance to have that happen."

Bobish said he thinks about his mother, father and sister daily, but he has 
made a life for himself. He works 2 jobs and recently partnered with a friend 
to form a real estate company, Bobish & Montoya LLC.

"It happened, and you have to make the best of your situation," Bobish said. "I 
have my real family (members) back home, and they support me, and my family 
here supports me. Thinking about it is only going to make it worse. If that's 
all that consumes your thoughts, it's not a good thing."

His uncle, William Bobish of Fairchance, Fayette County, said he intends to 
attend Edwards' execution.

In Monday's motion, U.S. Public Defender James Moreno seeks a stay so he can 
pursue an appeal through the Post Conviction Relief Act. A previous death 
warrant, signed in 2007, was stayed so Edwards could pursue federal appeals.

Pennsylvania last carried out an execution in 1999.

Bobish said he cried when he learned Edwards' death warrant had been signed, 
because it brought back memories of his family, and "then it went over to Mark 
Edwards, so it's happening, he's going to die."

Bobish said although he feels the death penalty is a justifiable punishment in 
some cases, he will not attend Edwards' execution.

"It's going to be a sad day for both families, honestly," Bobish said. "I don't 
want that to happen to their family, and I don't think my parents would want to 
be there, to watch that, if it was in another situation."

(source: triblive.com)






ARIZONA:

Can Jodi Arias get a fair trial in public?


We take you now to As the Cash Register Rings, the ongoing, never-ending 
daytime drama that is the trial of Jodi Arias.

When we last left the convicted murderer a month ago, Maricopa County Superior 
Court Judge Sherry Stephens was kicking the public out of the courtroom so that 
Team Arias could call a mystery witness to plead for her life.

Naturally, the media objected. The doors of America's courtrooms, after all, 
are supposed to swing wide as juries and judges seal the fate of those who 
stand accused and convicted of crimes.

Naturally, the Arizona Court of Appeals agreed and last week ordered Stephens 
to cease with the star-chamber treatment. The appellate court even clued in the 
public to the identity of that mystery witness, saying Stephens must stop 
"closing the courtroom to the public and press during any testimony by Jodi 
Arias."

Yeah, Arias. It appears that Stephens actually allowed a convicted murderer to 
plead for her life in secret.

So, now comes the pickle - and a colossal one it is. Given that Stephens has 
been ordered to follow the U.S. Constitution and keep the trial open, the 
question arises: can Arias get a fair hearing in her life-or-death retrial?

The retrial that convened after a jury last year couldn't agree on a death 
sentence after hearing 4 months of testimony?

Her attorneys say no. They say 3 defense witnesses - a longtime boyfriend, a 
former co-worker and some guy who claims to have some perverted dirt on the 
victim, Travis Alexander -- are refusing to testify in public.

It seems they don't relish the threats and harassment that such exposure 
inevitably brings from the Arias and/or prosecutor Juan Martinez groupies who 
breathlessly await ever sordid detail. (Sordid details that the media 
breathlessly supplies, I might add.)

Arias lawyer Kirk Nurmi on Monday asked that the death penalty be taken off the 
table given last week's ruling that the courtroom doors must remain open.

"This ruling has further inhibited Ms. Arias' ability to present a complete 
defense of her life to the point that should a sentence of death be imposed by 
this jury, said sentence would be unconstitutional," Nurmi wrote.

Here's the thing. He's right.

While it is a tenet of the constitution that we hold trials in public, it is 
another that those facing prosecution - not to mention a possible death 
sentence -- have the right to a full and vigorous defense.

If Arias has key witnesses who are refusing to enter the center ring in this 
circus and they can't be compelled to testify, well then the solution is simple 
- and cost effective.

Take death off the table. End this retrial so that Stephens can sentence Arias 
to life in prison, as she could have done a year ago had prosecutors not 
insisted on this do-over.

Taxpayers have already spent millions of dollars defending Jodi Arias. Spare us 
the expense of the endless appeals that would come with a death sentence that 
would inevitably be overturned, on grounds that she couldn't present a full 
defense.

It's not like Arias is going to skate. She'll spend the rest of her life in 
prison. No judge or clemency board is going to set her free in 25 years, 
knowing that she shot her ex-lover in the head, stabbed him nearly 30 times and 
slit his throat. Knowing that the world will be watching.

Not even a lifetime of good behavior could win this woman her freedom.

But surely even Arias, despised on a national scale, deserves fairness.

(source: USA Today)






NEVADA:

Nevada to release audit on cost of death penalty


State officials are set to release the results of an audit examining the cost 
of having the death penalty in Nevada.

Officials with the Legislative Counsel Bureau's Audit Division are expected to 
unveil their findings Tuesday at a meeting in Carson City.

Lawmakers passed a bill in 2013 that called for the report. Gov. Brian Sandoval 
had vetoed a similar bill in 2011, but signed the 2013 version after saying it 
addressed fairness concerns he had with the original proposal.

Nancy Hart of the Nevada Coalition Against the Death Penalty says she expects 
the audit will be in line with similar studies elsewhere that find it's far 
more expensive to have capital punishment than to cap sentences at life in 
prison.

Nevada has not executed a prisoner since 2006.

(source: Associated Press)