[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, MD., N.C., GA., MISS., MO., CAL., USA

[Rick Halperin]

Dec. 8



TEXAS:

New TV show to feature death row inmate Coble, Vicha family


A prosecutor once said that Billie Wayne Coble has a heart full of scorpions.

Now, a new television series is calling him "Most Evil."

Coble, 66, a Texas death row inmate from McLennan County, will be featured at 9 
p.m. Sunday on a new Investigation Discovery channel television series called 
"Most Evil."

The new series premiered Sunday night with an episode named "Manipulators." 
Coble, who killed his estranged wife's brother and parents in Axtell in 1989, 
is featured in an episode called "Control Killers."

"Each episode of 'Most Evil' looks at 3 cases meticulously dissected by Dr. 
Kris Mohandie to get to the heart of the terrifying question: What drives 
someone to murder?" a release from Investigation Discovery says.

Mohandie, a forensic psychologist who has worked with the FBI and other law 
enforcement agencies, interviewed Coble on death row for the program.

The program will delve into the reasons people kill and will rate Coble on an 
"official scale of criminal behavior," ranging from 1 to 22, to create a 
"hierarchy of evil," the network release says.

Besides Coble, Waco attorney and former McLennan County District Attorney's 
Office prosecutor J.R. Vicha will be featured in the episode.

Vicha, 36, was 11 when Coble, distraught at his impending divorce from Vicha's 
aunt Karen, killed Vicha's father, Waco police Sgt. Bobby Vicha, and Vicha's 
grandparents, Robert and Zelda Vicha, at their Axtell homes.

Coble tied up J.R. Vicha and his cousins and told the girls to say goodbye to 
their mother. He then kidnapped Karen, who was his estranged wife, and fled 
before they were injured in a wreck after a high-speed chase with police in 
Bosque County.

Coble twice was given the death penalty, the last time in 2008. He has had 
several stays of execution and his latest application for writ of habeas corpus 
is pending with the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans.

J.R. Vicha, who became a prosecutor because of his father's law enforcement 
influence, said he initially declined to be interviewed for the "Most Evil" 
show, thinking, "What's the point?"

He said he changed his mind after show producers told him that they were 
talking to Coble.

"Coble didn't testify at either of his trials, so who knows what he was going 
to get on there and say," Vicha said. "I didn't really want to do it, but I 
thought I had better agree to go on to rebut whatever lies he was going to 
tell."

Vicha said he has vivid memories of the incident in which his father and 
grandparents were shot and killed. He says he didn't know they had been killed 
while Coble was restraining him and his cousins and said he remembers thinking 
that nothing that bad was happening.

"It never crossed my mind one time that anything like that was going on," he 
said. "I didn't know people were capable of that."

(source: Waco Tribune)

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

Penalty phase begins for ex-Texas justice of peace


Jurors are considering life in prison or the death penalty for a former justice 
of the peace convicted of killing a prosecutor's wife in North Texas.

The trial of Eric Williams enters the punishment phase Monday in Rockwall.

Williams was convicted Thursday of capital murder in a revenge plot against a 
Kaufman County district attorney, his wife and a top assistant.

He lost his judicial job and law license after being prosecuted and convicted 
in 2012 of stealing county computer monitors.

Williams was found guilty in the March 2013 fatal shooting of Cynthia 
McLelland. Her husband, Kaufman County District Attorney Mike McLelland, was 
also found slain at their home. Williams is also charged with killing assistant 
prosecutor Mark Hasse in January 2013.

Williams did not testify at trial

(source: Associated Press)






MARYLAND:

Arguments to be heard in Wicomico death penalty case


Attorneys for Jody Lee Miles, on death row since 1998 in the murder of a 
Wicomico County man, say his death sentence is illegal.

Maryland Attorney General Doug Gansler says otherwise, though he agrees it's 
not possible Miles could be executed.

Both sides in the case of Jody Lee Miles v. State of Maryland are set to state 
their positions during oral arguments at the Court of Special Appeals, 
Maryland's lower appellate court, in Annapolis on Monday morning.

The parties will head to court on Miles' 3rd motion to correct illegal 
sentence, according to the appellant's brief, filed by Miles' defense. A Queen 
Anne's County Circuit Court judge denied the motion and a motion for 
reconsideration, the brief states, and Miles appealed the case.

The trial was held in Queen Anne's County Circuit Court in 1998, though the 
April 2, 1997, shooting death of Edward Atkinson happened in Wicomico County. 
The body of the musical theater director was found off Old Bradley Road in 
Mardela Springs, the town in which he lived.

Gansler said in November the state's position is that the judge must impose a 
life without parole sentence. But defense attorney Robert Biddle said in 
November the defense plans to seek a sentence of less than life without parole.

He said Jody Miles' defense - which consists of Biddle and Erika Alsid Short, 
who are of different firms, and Brian Saccenti of the Office of the Public 
Defender - will be asking for a sentence that would allow Miles to leave prison 
before he dies.

"Mr. Miles looks forward to having an opportunity to pursue a just, fair, and 
appropriate sentence other than death following the removal of the death 
sentence," a November statement from the defense on Biddle's letterhead read.

Both sides agree that Maryland does not have the authority to create protocols 
to use for the death penalty, and that Miles wouldn't be able to be executed, 
according to a legal stipulation.

Although Attorney General Doug Gansler and the defense agree on that point, 
Wicomico County State's Attorney Matt Maciarello voiced his opinion in November 
that by not executing Miles, the state "is letting the family down."

The defense, according to its brief, believes the act that repealed the death 
penalty on Oct. 1, 2013, is retroactive because, for one, the Department of 
Public Safety and Correctional Services can no longer execute the death penalty 
legally.

The state in its brief, written by Attorney General Doug Gansler and Assistant 
Attorney General James E. Williams, disagrees, saying that even the language of 
the statute brings an "unavoidable conclusion" that it is not meant to be 
retroactive.

The defense argues in its brief that "Mr. Miles' sentence is illegal as it is 
unenforceable and therefore must be vacated." The defense also argues that it 
is illegal because it exceeds the maximum sentence, and that it would be cruel 
and unusual to have Miles held under a death sentence when that can't happen.

While the state writes in its brief that the sentence is not and was not 
illegal, it feels the death sentence should not be kept because of due process 
- without the death sentence being dropped, Miles would continue to be held for 
a death penalty that would not happen.

The state's brief says that because Miles' sentence is not illegal and related 
to repeal legislation, his sentence should be changed to life without parole.

"Life imprisonment, instead of life imprisonment without the possibility of 
parole, was only available to Miles if: (a) the State did not prove beyond a 
reasonable doubt that Miles was a principal in the first degree murder; (b) 
that Miles did not commit murder in the course of a robbery; (c) that 
aggravators did not outweigh the mitigating circumstances," the state wrote in 
its brief.

The jury did find those things were met in this case, according to the state's 
brief. The state also cites part of the death penalty repeal legislation.

The defense writes in its reply brief that it wants a new sentencing hearing 
for Miles. The defense brief states that the jury wasn't allowed to consider 
whether a life sentence should be with or without parole.

Additionally, the defense writes that Miles has much remorse about taking 
Atkinson's life and that there are at least 11 letters from correctional 
officers that speak highly of Miles. The defense brief also discusses how Miles 
was sexually abused as a child and the effect that had on him with 
post-traumatic stress disorder and in how that impacted his actions on April 2, 
1997.

A decision in the case is not expected Monday.

(source: delmarvanow.com)






NORTH CAROLINA:

State set to wrap up case in pawnshop murder trial


The prosecution is looking to wrap up state testimony around lunch today in the 
7-week-long Kyle Harris murder trial in Cumberland County Superior Court.

The timing could depend on the medical condition of defense lawyer Steve 
Freedman, who was hospitalized Wednesday at Cape Fear Valley Medical Center 
after experiencing a flare-up of high blood pressure in the courtroom.

District Attorney Billy West said late last week that the prosecution needed 
roughly a half-day to finish its evidence in the case.

Defendant Cedric Theodis Hobbs Jr. is charged with 1st-degree murder, armed 
robbery and kidnapping. He is charged with killing Harris, a 2009 graduate of 
Cape Fear High School, in the Cumberland Pawn Shop on Grove Street during a 
robbery on Nov. 6, 2010.

If found guilty of 1st-degree murder, Hobbs could face the death penalty.

Hobbs, 33, also is suspected of killing Rondriako Burnett in Georgia and 
stealing his Suburban SUV the day before Harris, who was 19, was killed. 
Prosecutors say Hobbs then killed Harris in the pawnshop after the Suburban 
broke down in Fayetteville. After allegedly ditching the Suburban for Harris' 
Saturn Ion, Hobbs and his fiance and accomplice, Alexis Mattocks, were arrested 
in Washington, D.C.

The defense has indicated that it needs at least a couple of days for evidence. 
Should the trial proceed as expected, closing arguments could be heard toward 
the end of the week or near the beginning of the week of Dec. 15.

Dr. Daniel Brown, a former eastern regional medical examiner for the Georgia 
Bureau of Investigation, had just started his testimony Wednesday when Freedman 
exited the courtroom not feeling well.

Hobbs has admitted in Superior Court that he shot Harris and robbed the 
business. But he said in a taped 2010 interview with investigators that it was 
an accident. Hobbs said he only wanted to scare the pawnshop employees into 
giving him the money from the cash register.

Hobbs also said in the taped interview that he wanted to get cash and guns 
during the store robbery.

Defense lawyer Lisa Miles told the jury that Hobbs suffered from post-traumatic 
stress disorder and substance abuse at the time of the Fayetteville homicide.

(source: Fayetteville Observer)






GEORGIA----impending execution

Clemency hearing to be held for death row inmate


The State Board of Pardons and Paroles plans to hold a clemency hearing for a 
Georgia death row inmate convicted of killing a sheriff's deputy.

The clemency hearing for Robert Wayne Holsey is set for Monday. Holsey is to be 
executed Tuesday. A jury in February 1997 convicted Holsey of killing Baldwin 
County sheriff's deputy Will Robinson.

Holsey robbed a Milledgeville convenience store in December 1995. The clerk 
called police immediately afterward and described the robber and his car.

Robinson pulled Holsey over minutes later. Authorities say Holsey fired at 
Robinson as the deputy approached the vehicle.

Holsey's lawyers say he shouldn't be executed because his trial lawyer failed 
to present evidence that could have spared him the death penalty.

Clemency hearings are closed to the public and media.

(source:Associated Press)

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

Inmate Execution Scheduled for Tuesday


Condemned murderer Robert Wayne Holsey is scheduled for execution by lethal 
injection at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, December 9, 2014, at Georgia Diagnostic and 
Classification Prison in Jackson. Holsey was sentenced to death for the 
December 1995 murder of 26-year-old Deputy Sheriff Will Robinson in Baldwin 
County.

Media witnesses for the execution are: Kate Brumback, The Associated Press; 
Malcolm Johnson, WGXA; Randall Savage, WMAZ-TV; Walter Geiger, The 
Herald-Gazette; and Liz Fabian, The Macon Telegraph.

There have been 54 men executed in Georgia since the U.S. Supreme Court 
reinstated the death penalty in 1973. If executed, Holsey will be the 32nd 
inmate put to death by lethal injection. There are presently 85 men and 1 woman 
on death row in Georgia.

The Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison is located 45 minutes south of 
Atlanta off Interstate 75. From Atlanta, take exit 201 (Ga. Hwy. 36), turn left 
over the bridge and go approximately 1/4 mile. The entrance to the prison is on 
the left. Media covering the execution will be allowed into the prison's media 
staging area beginning at 5 p.m. on Tuesday.

(source: Coosa valley News)






MISSISSIPPI:

Miss. court won't toss rape conviction appeal


The Mississippi Supreme Court has denied a prosecutor's motion to throw out a 
death row inmate's appeal of his 1994 rape conviction.

Charles Ray Crawford is on death row for the 1992 slaying of Kristy Ray in the 
Chalybeate community in Tippah County.

In his appeal, Crawford says he received ineffective counsel to defend himself 
against the rape charges, which were used by prosecutors to seek the death 
penalty. Few details of the rape conviction are discussed in earlier briefs in 
the death penalty case.

The attorney general's office argued in requesting the dismissal that Crawford 
got a fair trial and that if there was any error, it was Crawford's for waiting 
20 years to file an appeal.

The Supreme Court denied the motion Thursday without comment.

(source: Associated Press)



MISSOURI----impending execution

State should spare man-child's life


Missourians might feel that actions by officials suggest a more fitting new 
motto: the Shame Us State. There have been the sorry scenes in Ferguson and the 
continued executions in our state - 10 since last November - with Paul Goodwin, 
who is intellectually disabled, pitifully set to be killed Dec. 10, recognized 
elsewhere around the world as Human Rights Day.

If courts fail to intervene, hopefully Gov. Jay Nixon will spare his life and 
bolster our state's moral standing. By so extending mercy, he would also be 
affirming the relevancy of Missouri law and U.S. Supreme Court decisions. His 
Democratic predecessor Gov. Bob Holden, after all, signed legislation in 2001 
prohibiting the death sentencing of individuals formerly termed "mentally 
retarded."

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled the practice unconstitutional the following year 
in the Atkins decision. The court cited factors including Missouri's law as 
proof of an "evolving standard of decency" nationwide, realizing that because 
intellectually disabled individuals are less culpable of their crimes, they 
should be spared the harshest punishment (as should be all human beings, we 
furthermore believe).

A few years before Atkins, Paul Goodwin killed Joan Crott in 1998. We mourn 
with her loved ones over Crott's death by Goodwin's awful actions. There is, 
however, much explanatory information never heard by jurors in St. Louis County 
(where more people than any other state jurisdiction have been death-sentenced 
- the 9th-most nationally - under the direction of Prosecutor Bob McCulloch).

Executing Goodwin would be akin to killing the intellectual equivalent of a 
child. Denis Keyes, a psychologist who specializes in identifying mental 
deficits, conducted a battery of tests on Goodwin in 2001 and again last month. 
In the earlier report he found Goodwin "functioned below the intellectual 
cut-off level of mental retardation," roughly at the "age equivalent of 7 year 
olds." Keyes also interviewed more than 20 of his relatives, former teachers 
and other acquaintances. He reported Goodwin's adaptive skills, a measure of 
one's ability to function independently as an adult (manage money, attend to 
personal health needs, etc.) were "within the moderate to severe range of 
retardation," Keyes wrote, similar to "the level of a child between 3 and 5 
years of age."

Goodwin meets the criteria for mental retardation under Missouri law - 
including evidence of his intellectual disability present before age 18. In 
1980, when he was 13, his full-scale IQ was estimated to be 72, well within the 
standard of error for sub-average intellectual functioning. Keyes reported in 
2001 that school records indicate Goodwin was initially enrolled in special 
education classes in 1st grade, then throughout his schooling. He had to repeat 
an elementary grade t3 times.

Due to inadequate legal representation at trial and other legal snafus, the 
courts have yet to consider Goodwin's disability. Jurors heard from prosecutors 
a tale of premeditation not intellectually possible by Goodwin, but one mapped 
out publicly for Goodwin, who would be the 79th person executed by state 
officials since 1989.

Goodwin's family recently wrote that "Paul was distraught over the death of his 
longtime girlfriend. His mental retardation left him unable to deal with his 
grief as most adults would do, and unable to make rational decisions. He tried 
to drown his grief in alcohol, and as a result, lost control during a 
confrontation with Ms. Crotts. Paul was remorseful and shocked at what he had 
done, and he willingly reenacted the events of the night for police." The 
family's statement insists, "He had no intention of killing Ms. Crotts."

Executing him would cause immense grief for them and many others who have come 
to know Goodwin, who is 6-foot-5 and weighs about 280 pounds and is seen as a 
gentle giant. He had no prior violent criminal record. Caryn Platt Tatelli, a 
mitigation specialist working with Goodwin's clemency attorneys, interviewed 
eight prisoners in Potosi last month to get their perspectives on him for an 
affidavit (officials have discouraged correction workers from sharing insights 
about condemned prisoners with the attorneys representing them). Prisoner 
Walter Storey says Goodwin's a kind man "just like Lennie, the slow-witted 
character in 'Of Mice and Men.'"

He and other prisoners shared their concerns that Goodwin has been unable to 
properly care for himself, as his mother and sisters had assisted him before 
the crime. Another former cellmate, Charles Armentrout, said he, for example, 
"worried about Paul Goodwin's consumption of sweets because he knew that (he) 
was diabetic," according to the affidavit. He successfully urged Goodwin to 
stop "drinking soda, but he would still eat something like twenty (20) 
Honeybuns in a sitting." He explained, "I do not think it was that Paul did not 
care about his health; it was more that he was not able to think through the 
consequences of his eating habits."

Further confirmation of his childishness has come in game-playing. Carmen Deck, 
another prisoner, noted that Goodwin had begun to enjoy some physical 
activities like racquetball, though he's not very coordinated. Deck recounted 
that whenever "Paul did something good, he will make the 'W' sign on his 
forehead and jump around happily shouting 'I'm a Winner, I'm a Winner' - just 
like a child would."

Please urge Gov. Nixon to halt the execution of this man-child if courts don't; 
call his office at 573-751-3222, or write him a letter, faxing it via 
573-751-1495 or emailing via http://governor.mo.gov/contact/. If the execution 
still seems possible, join Vigils for Life from noon to 1 p.m. Tuesday outside 
the governor's office, 2nd floor of the Capitol in Jefferson City and/or from 5 
to 6 p.m. in front of the Boone County Courthouse in Columbia. For more 
information, call 573-449-4585.

(source: Jeff Stack is coordinator of the Mid-Missouri Fellowship of 
Reconciliation; Columbia Daily Tribune)






CALIFORNIA:

Chol Soo Lee, Who Sparked Early Pan-Asian American Movement, Dies at 62


Chol Soo Lee, a Korean American whose wrongful conviction in a 1973 San 
Francisco murder case galvanized a historic pan-Asian American movement to win 
his freedom, died Tuesday at age 62.

He passed away at a San Francisco hospital, after suffering medical 
complications stemming from a digestive system problem that had him 
hospitalized for 2 weeks, according to friends.

Lee, an immigrant from South Korea who came to the U.S. around middle-school 
age, was arrested by San Francisco police in June 1973 for the murder of Yip 
Yee Tak, a local Chinatown gang leader, who was shot dead in broad daylight.

Chol Soo Lee and K.W. Lee spoke last year at the National Japanese American 
Historical Society in San Francisco.

Though Lee was convicted of 1st-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison a 
year later, he maintained his innocence. Thanks to the persistence of a group 
of Asian American supporters who rallied to his side, a Korean American 
journalist by the name of K.W. Lee (no relation to Chol Soo Lee) began 
investigating the case in 1977.

K.W. Lee, then a staff writer for The Sacramento Union, would write more than 
100 articles that raised troubling questions about Chol Soo Lee's conviction. 
Chol Soo was much shorter than eyewitness descriptions of the gunman and had a 
mustache that not a single witness mentioned to police. Notably, Lee was often 
identified as Chinese during his trial. There was also a spate of Chinatown 
gang violence during this period, and political pressure on local authorities 
to make an arrest in the Yip Yee Tak murder.

The series of news articles would help spark the Free Chol Soo Lee Movement, 
which was one of the earliest pan-Asian American movements, bringing together a 
diverse group of supporters that included third-generation Asian American 
college students and community activists, as well as Korean immigrant 
grandmothers.

While incarcerated, Chol Soo Lee got into a prison yard brawl with a white 
supremacist gang member, whom Lee killed in self-defense. The incident led to a 
conviction of murder with special circumstance and the death penalty.

Lee was on death row as his supporters were raising money, holding 
demonstrations and hiring new attorneys to fight for his freedom.

On Sept. 3, 1982, a San Francisco jury acquitted Lee of the Yip Yee Tak murder. 
And by March of 1983, he was a free man, after a California appeals court 
nullified his death sentence in the jailhouse killing.

Over the years, following his release, it was no secret that Lee had a 
difficult time adjusting to life after 10 years in prison and had some brushes 
with the law. Lee himself had said part of him remained in prison.

Hollywood made a 1989 film, "True Believer," starring James Woods and Robert 
Downey, Jr., based on the Lee case, but the movie left out the key role of the 
Asian American community. Lee, however, never forgot.

Just a year ago, on Dec. 7, 2013, Chol Soo Lee joined several of his most 
ardent supporters - including K.W. Lee and community activists Peggy Saika, 
Grace Kim, Jai Lee Wong and Warren Furutani - at Kardia United Methodist Church 
in West Los Angeles for an event that commemorated the 30th anniversary of his 
release from death row.

A 2013 edition of Amerasia Journal marked the 30th anniversary of Chol Soo 
Lee's release from death row.

Chol Soo Lee talked about the continuing need to speak out for justice and 
expressed his deep gratitude to his supporters, many of whom were inspired by 
the case to seek careers that worked toward social justice, as attorneys, 
activists and political leaders.

Before his death, he wrote his memoir, "Freedom Without Justice," which he 
worked on with Asian American studies scholar Richard S. Kim of UC Davis. It is 
not yet published.

In a 2005 interview with Kim, Chol Soo shared these words about lessons from 
his own painful brush with injustice: "I feel that the greatest message that 
could be given from the Chol Soo Lee movement is that, as Mr. K.W. Lee said, 
the purity, the unselfishness, the integrity of people, giving to a stranger. 
And I think that message needs to be brought back to the Asian community....The 
need to give today is far greater than in my own time."

A memorial service will be held on Tuesday, Dec. 9, at 11 a.m. at the Yeo Lai 
Sah Buddhist Monastery, 200 San Bruno Ave. W., San Bruno (in San Mateo County, 
just south of San Francisco).

To read K.W. Lee's reflections on the Chol Soo Lee case from a January 2013 
column in Nichi Bei Weekly, go online to 
www.nichibei.org/2013/01/parting-shots-names-of-coalition-builders-that-glow-in-ou-memory/.

(source: rafu.com)






USA:

Suspected LAX Gunman Due in Federal Court


The man charged in a deadly shooting rampage at Los Angeles International 
Airport is due in court and prosecutors could announce whether they will seek 
the death penalty.

Paul Ciancia is scheduled to appear Monday for a status hearing in Los Angeles 
federal court.

Prosecutors said this summer that they expected a decision in November from the 
attorney general about whether to pursue the death penalty in the killing of a 
Transportation Security Administration officer and the wounding of 3 other 
people at LAX last year.

A federal prosecutor said Thursday that the attorney general had not yet made a 
decision about the death penalty.

Ciancia, a New Jersey native, has pleaded not guilty to murder and other 
charges.

The judge wants the case to go to trial next year.

(source: ABC news)

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

Johnson wants change of venue for death penalty hearing


A former north Iowa woman sentenced to death in 2005 is asking for her new 
sentencing hearing to be moved out of Iowa.

According to federal court documents filed last week, Angela Johnson's defense 
is asking that proceedings be moved to Minnesota because of extensive publicity 
the case has received in Iowa. Johnson was convicted of helping her boyfriend, 
Dustin Honkin, kill 5 people including 2 children in 1993. Their bodies were 
found in a shallow grave in Mason City.

In 2012, a federal judge determined that Johnson's defense was inadequate, and 
vacated her death sentence. A trial is scheduled in the coming months for a new 
jury to hear the case again and determine what her final sentence should be.

According to the recent documents, Johnson's defense is asking - if the case is 
not moved to Minnesota - that jurors be chosen from parts of Iowa where people 
are less familiar with her case and previous death sentence. The defense has 
also ask that a judge rule that a new death sentence would be unconstitutional 
before trial even begins.

(source: KIMT news)

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

Crazy Justice, and Murder, Mayhem and the Death Penalty


A federal appeals court has halted Texas' execution of convicted killer Scott 
Panetti, who, while allegedly suffering from religious delusions, murdered his 
wife's parents.

The appeals court considered Panetti's history of mental illness in ruling that 
he may be exempt from execution. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled nearly 30 years 
ago that mentally incompetent persons could not be executed as that would be 
cruel and unusual punishment prohibited under the Eighth Amendment.

Justice can have some very fine lines, and determining mental fitness for 
execution is certainly one of them. In addition to insanity, courts have ruled 
that convicted murderers can be too young, or have too low an IQ to receive the 
death penalty. This leads to some interesting questions about rehabilitation, 
guilt and innocence, and public safety.

A person can commit horrific crimes, claim innocence due to insanity, and 
eventually rejoin society as a free person.

Last month, convicted murderer Theodore LeLeaux, who, in 1984 murdered a 
coworker, cut out his heart and put it in his jacket, was paroled in San Luis 
Obispo County by a judge who decided he was rehabilitated. LeLeaux had claimed 
he suffered a psychotic delusion when he committed the savage murder. But he is 
all right now? Really? If Charles Manson is all right now should he be released 
into society?

It can all be a bit ironic. If Panetti is too crazy to execute, then maybe his 
murder conviction should be overturned. Then, he could be retried, found 
innocent by reason of insanity, and afterward if he could convince some judge 
that he was no longer insane he could be a free man. So, one can be crazy 
enough to commit murder, but too crazy to be fully punished for it.

How can it be accurately determined who is or is no longer a psychotic killer? 
And what is insanity anyway? Panetti's defense is that he suffered from 
psychotic religious delusions; you know, the devil made him do it.

It can be argued that all religious beliefs are delusions; therefore any 
religious person committing a crime could be innocent by reason of insanity. 
So, all those Islamic State barbarians butchering people in the name of god 
could be innocent. They simply suffer from religious delusions.

It challenges both the notions of logic and justice that some people committing 
murder are evil and deserve punishment, including the death penalty, while 
others are mentally ill and deserve rehabilitating therapy. If the latter are 
innocent and not evil, then there is no guilty party; the murder victims are 
simply victims of an unfortunate accident. That can be difficult for the 
victims' loved ones to accept. Somehow a tree falling on daddy is not the same 
as some lunatic cutting out daddy's heart.

While some murders are committed out of mercy, as when someone kills a loved 
one who is suffering a painful terminal illness and wants to die, most murders 
are either cold-blooded or acts of rage. Why are they not acts of insanity? 
What is sane about cold-blooded or enraged murder? All such murderers are 
crazy, so why is it OK to execute any of them and not all of them?

However, who is nuts and who is not isn???t the most critical issue in deciding 
justice for murder, the death penalty itself is. While the courts are 
deliberating over whether a murderer is sane or not, or who is too young or not 
smart enough to execute, or what method of execution is constitutional, the 
larger problem is the many instances of failed justice that result in wrongful 
convictions. Time and time again innocent people have been sent to death row.

Unless justice can be absolutely infallible, all cops and prosecutors honest, 
and all juries impartial, the death penalty is not appropriate. With police 
around the country executing people on the streets with impunity, and with the 
federal government using drones to assassinate, without due process of law, 
U.S. citizens, we sure don't need more state-sanctioned executions by a 
fallible, sometimes corrupt, judicial system.

The widespread police thuggery, the emerging police state that spies on and 
bullies the public, the twisted justice that punishes victimless drug users 
while it ignores fraudulent bankers who victimize millions of people has made 
American justice suspect. Public trust in the judicial system is in jeopardy.

Justice in America is the best money can buy, and for that reason and others it 
is not always impartial, honest or fair. It is certainly not infallible. 
Allowing such a system to put people to death is not only barbaric; it is a 
lethal threat to every citizen.

(source: Randy Alcorn is a Santa Barbara political observer; noozhawk.com)