[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----KAN., COLO., CALIF., USA

[Rick Halperin]

Oct. 23



KANSAS:

Former DA Foulston: Brownback's Carr brothers ad 'beyond disgraceful'


The former district attorney who prosecuted the Carr brothers murder case said 
Wednesday she thinks it's "reprehensible" for Gov. Sam Brownback to use the 
case as fodder in a re-election campaign ad.

"This case has devastated our community for almost 14 years," former Sedgwick 
County District Attorney Nola Foulston said in a statement sent to Kansas news 
media. "It is beyond disgraceful that Sam Brownback would exploit this tragedy 
and make the victims' families relive that horrific crime every time they turn 
on their television just for the sake of getting re-elected."

Foulston, who retired last year as district attorney, is the most recent 
Democrat to hold a countywide elected office in Sedgwick County.

In a statement issued by his campaign staff, Brownback, a Republican, said he 
appreciated Foulston's service in prosecuting the Carr brothers, but he 
reiterated that he thinks his opponent, House Minority Leader Paul Davis, would 
appoint judges who are more liberal than those Brownback would select.

At issue is a Brownback campaign ad that attempts to link Davis to a 
controversial decision by the Kansas Supreme Court to vacate the death 
sentences of Jonathan and Reginald Carr. The brothers were convicted of 
murdering 5 people, including a brutal execution-style quadruple murder, during 
a weeklong crime spree of killing, rape and robbery in Wichita in December 
2000.

"Brownback panders to the emotions of citizens to suggest that in some way Paul 
Davis caused or created the Kansas Supreme Court's ruling in the Carr cases," 
Foulston said. "I am very disappointed that the governor, who is also an 
attorney bound by the Rules of Professional Responsibility, has forgotten his 
legal obligations in a political last ditch effort to recklessly undercut the 
qualifications and integrity of the Kansas Supreme Court and Paul Davis."

Davis, a lawyer, had no role in the original case or the appeal.

In setting aside the Carrs' death sentences, the Supreme Court ruled that the 
trial judge, the late Sedgwick County District Court Judge Paul Clark, erred by 
refusing to hold separate sentencing proceedings for the 2 brothers. Their 
lawyers had argued that trying the brothers in the same penalty phase forced 
them to damage each others' defenses.

The Supreme Court also found that jurors had not been properly instructed in 
the required standards of proof for a death sentence and that the Carrs' rights 
were violated by admission of hearsay evidence during the penalty phase.

The state Supreme Court upheld their convictions on 1 count of capital murder 
and they remain in prison.

Foulston, who is now in private practice, said she was disappointed in the 
state Supreme Court decision and noted it has already been appealed to the U.S. 
Supreme Court. "There will ultimately be justice for the victims and their 
families," she said.

Brownback said during and after a debate Tuesday that he thinks it's justified 
to link Davis to the Supreme Court decision because Davis would appoint judges 
who are more liberal than those Brownback would pick.

Davis also opposes Brownback-proposed legislation to expand the governor's 
power in appointing Supreme Court justices.

"The Kansas Supreme Court is a very liberal court," Brownback said Tuesday. 
"Paul Davis wants to continue to appoint liberal judges to that court. I want 
to appoint judges who will interpret the law, not rewrite it as they choose to 
see it."

Foulston said: "If Sam Brownback wants to have a debate about judicial 
selection or the death penalty, that is an appropriate discussion to have. But 
to try to exploit this (Carr) case and reopen the wounds and pain experienced 
by the families and this community for political gain is reprehensible."

(source: kansas.com)






COLORADO:

Nun discusses death-row visits----Author talks to students about capital 
punishment


Sister Helen Prejean, one of the nation's most ardent advocates against the 
death penalty, held the rapt attention of Animas High School students Wednesday 
with an interactive presentation.

Prejean, in town to discuss her book, Dead Man Walking, the Common Reading 
Experience for incoming freshmen at Fort Lewis College, squeezed in an hour 
with AHS students in a seemingly perpetual-motion schedule.

Prejean, 75, walked students through what can go wrong with all the delivery 
systems used in capital punishment in the United States - hanging, firing 
squad, electric chair and lethal injection.

Students in Matt Dooley's humanities class who are spending the week addressing 
issues on capital punishment were able to answer some of the questions Prejean 
posed.

Prejean, who has accompanied 6 inmates to their execution, then related her 
experience with Elmo Patrick Sonnier, the title character in Dead Man Walking.

She established a pen pal relationship with Sonnier, who with brother, Eddie, 
executed David LeBlanc, 16, and Loretta Bourque, 18, with 3 shots each in the 
back of the head. She ended up as his spiritual advisor.

Brother Eddie, who drew 2 life sentences, died in prison in January 2014.

Prjean recounted the apprehension that gripped her as she heard gates clang 
behind her on her 1st visit to Sonnier on death row.

But through the wire mesh screen in the holding pen where Sonnier sat, "his 
face was human," Prejean said.

After writing the draft of Dead Man Walking, Prejean met the parents and family 
members of the young victims.

Prejean used numbers to make some points.

California has 744 people on death row.

On average, Texas has double the number of murders compared with states that 
don't have the death penalty.

Prejean urged her listeners to sort out their feelings on capital punishment.

"I ask you," Prejean said, "how are we going to respond to society's need to 
make ourselves feel safe?"

(source: Durango Herald)






CALIFORNIA:

Jury to weigh death penalty in 1983 Garden Grove killing


More than 30 years after raping a woman and stabbing her to death in a desolate 
alley behind a Garden Grove bar, a convicted killer once again faces the 
possibility of returning to death row.

Jurors will decide whether Richard Raymond Ramirez should spend the rest of his 
life in prison or be sentenced to death for the rape and murder of 22-year-old 
Kimberly Gonzalez in November 1983.

Ramirez met Gonzalez at Mr. Barry's Bar on Westminster Avenue, played pool and 
danced with her, kissed her and then walked with her to an alley behind the 
business, where he attacked her and stabbed her more than 20 times.

"As she fought for her life, that man raped her, stabbed her and killed her," 
Deputy District Attorney Larry Yellin told a jury Wednesday in the Santa Ana 
courthouse. "For that he deserves the ultimate penalty."

Prints on a beer bottle found near her body led police to Ramirez, and DNA 
evidence processed years later tied him to the rape.

Ramirez's attorney acknowledged that his client killed Gonzalez, warning the 
jury that facts that will arise during the ongoing trial will only worsen their 
view of Ramirez. The attorney asked the jurors to try to understand the trauma 
that shaped Ramirez's life in deciding whether to sentence him to death, 
however.

"He has spent the last 31 years in prison, every single hour, every single day. 
We are not asking that he be anywhere else," Deputy Public Defender Mick Hill 
told the jury. "He deserves to spend the rest of his life in prison. He just 
doesn't deserve the death penalty."

Ramirez grew up in a home dominated by his alcoholic and abusive father, a man 
left permanently damaged by his time in the Korean War, Hill said. His mother, 
who endured constant beatings and at times rapes during her relationship with 
Ramirez's father, ultimately escaped the relationship, only to leave her 
children to fend on their own as she tried to enjoy her newfound freedom, the 
attorney added.

Hill acknowledged that Ramirez had been tried as a juvenile for the rape of 
another woman. The rape and killing of Gonzalez occurred shortly after Ramirez 
was released from the California Youth Authority.

A jury in 1985 convicted Ramirez of rape, sodomy and murder, and he was sent to 
San Quentin. The conviction was overturned in 2008, however, when a federal 
judge determined that the jury foreman had lied about his job status, not 
telling the court that he was a candidate for a job with the FBI, a position he 
later attained.

Prosecutors decided to re-try the case. Ramirez was convicted for a 2nd time in 
2013. But a jury that same year deadlocked on whether he should receive the 
death penalty, leading the judge to declare a mistrial.

(source: Orange County Register)

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

4th penalty phase underway in 1983 killing


A prosecutor on Wednesday portrayed a convicted rapist and killer as a 
knife-wielding misogynist who deserves the death penalty.

A defense lawyer countered during opening statements at the sentencing retrial 
of Richard Raymond Ramirez that his life should be spared due to a 
dysfunctional childhood with an alcoholic father.

Ramirez was first convicted of the rape and murder of Gonzalez in March 1985. 
The current proceedings mark the fourth time a jury will try to decide his 
punishment in the attack on 22-year-old Kim Gonzalez in an alley behind a 
Garden Grove bar in 1983.

City News Service said Senior Deputy District Attorney Larry Yellin told jurors 
in a Santa Ana courtroom that the 55-year-old Ramirez loathed women, having 
raped another victim in 1977.

In November 1983, Ramirez danced, played pool and kissed Gonzalez at the bar 
before leaving with her. Hours later, her body and a beer bottle with Ramirez's 
fingerprints were found outside.

"She's nearly naked, bloody and dead," Yellin told the jury.

The 1st jury could not reach agreement on a verdict; a 2nd jury recommended he 
receive a death sentence.

The case took an unusual turn 6 years ago when a federal judge overturned 
Ramirez's initial conviction after finding a juror had failed to disclose that 
he was applying to become an FBI agent.

Last year, Ramirez was convicted again of the crimes, and this time, DNA linked 
him to Gonzalez. But again, jurors could not agree on what penalty he should 
face.

Defense attorney Mick Hill said there was no excuse for the crimes his client 
committed but asked jurors to consider Ramirez's childhood with an alcoholic 
father who subjected him and his brother to "human cockfighting" with other 
neighborhood children.

"He's spent the past 31 years in a jail cell," Hill said of his client. "We're 
not telling you he deserves to be anywhere else."

(source: Associated Press)

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

Testimony: Mom planned murder of children with Cobb ties


Disturbing new details emerged last week in a California court in the year-old 
case of a mother charged with killing her son and daughter just days after her 
ex-husband was granted full custody of the children in Cobb County.

Marilyn Kay Edge was arrested in September 2013, and charged with 2 counts of 
murder after 13-year-old Jaelen and his 10-year-old sister, Faith, were found 
dead in a motel room in Santa Ana, Calif.

Police allege that Edge poisoned, then suffocated and drowned the children, who 
were both found in the bathtub of the motel room.

The Orange County Register reported this week that according to Orange County 
Grand Jury testimony made public last week, Edge methodically planned the 
murders as she drove her children from Cobb County to Arizona - where she had 
moved a year earlier after her ex-husband was granted visitation rights - and 
on to the California coast.

"She wanted the children to have a nice day, a nice time," Santa Ana police 
Det. Eddie Nunez told the grand jury. "They liked the beach, so she took them 
to Huntington Beach. And then she was going to take them to dinner and then she 
was going to kill the children."

According to the Register, a Cobb judge ordered Edge to turn the children over 
to their father 3 days before they were killed.

Instead, she "left the courthouse in a car that she borrowed from her parents 
and drove toward Arizona," Orange County Deputy District Attorney Larry Yellin 
told the grand jury. "She decided that rather than do what the court had 
ordered, she was going to kill her children and herself."

Yellin told the grand jury that on the way back to Arizona, Edge bought packets 
of over-the-counter sleeping pills at different stores, and shopped for more 
medicine in Arizona before traveling on to California.

But Edge had a hard time getting the children to take the sleeping pills when 
the 3 got back to the Santa Ana Hampton Inn & Suites after a day at the beach 
and dinner.

"She had crushed them up and put them in liquid," Yellin told the grand jury, 
according to the Register. "It was juice or soda or something like that, but it 
had made the taste unappealing and so the children were resistant to drinking 
it.

"But ultimately, she was able to get enough of it in them to where they lost 
control of their abilities to fight what was coming."

Yellin said Edge then decided to drown the children, and put them in a tub full 
of water.

Nunez, the Santa Ana police detective, told the grand jury that Edge told him 
Jaelen stayed in the tub, but Faith got out and laid down on the couch, 
according to the Register.

Nunez said Edge grabbed a pillow, "put it over Jaelen's face and held him under 
the water until he stopped kicking and he was dead."

Edge then gave Faith more of the medicine, according to Nunez.

"She tried to get her back in the bathtub, and what she did is she lied to her 
and told her there was a fire in the building and that they needed to go and 
get in the bathtub and get under the water for safety reasons," Nunez 
testified. "But that didn't work. She ends up getting the pillow that was in 
the bathtub and puts the pillow over Faith. When she was on the couch, she 
smothered her."

As previously reported by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Edge then attempted 
to commit suicide, crashing her car into an electrical box outside a shopping 
center, and trying to choke herself with a belt or rope as rescuers worked to 
free her from the car.

Edge is being held in the Orange County Jail without bond. The charges carry a 
maximum penalty of death, but prosecutors have not said if they will seek the 
death penalty.

(source: Atlanta Jounral-Constitution)






USA:

Americans' Support for Death Penalty Stable


6 in 10 Americans favor the death penalty for convicted murderers, generally 
consistent with attitudes since 2008. Since 1937, support has been as low as 
42% in 1966 and as high as 80% in 1994.

Americans' support for the death penalty has varied over time, but apart from a 
single reading in 1966, the public has consistently favored it. Support ebbed 
from the 1960s to the mid-1970s, when the application of the death penalty was 
questioned and ultimately led to the Supreme Court's invalidating state death 
penalty laws. Subsequent to that, newly written laws passed constitutional 
muster and states began to use the death penalty again in the late 1970s, with 
support among Americans increasing to 70% or more in the mid-1980s to the late 
1990s.

The broader trend over the last 2 decades has been diminished support for the 
death penalty, including a 60% reading last year, the lowest since 1972.

Over the last 2 decades, Democrats' support for the death penalty has dropped 
significantly, from 75% to 49%. Now, Democrats are divided on whether it should 
be administered to convicted murderers. Republicans' and independents' support 
is also lower now - down 9 and 18 % points, respectively - though both groups 
still solidly favor the death penalty.

Americans Tilt in Favor of Death Penalty Over Life Imprisonment

Gallup's long-standing question asks about basic support for the death penalty, 
but does not explicitly mention an alternative punishment for murderers. Gallup 
separately asks Americans to choose between the death penalty and "life 
imprisonment with absolutely no possibility of parole" as the better punishment 
for murder. Support for the death penalty has been significantly lower using 
this approach, but Americans still tilt in favor of it by 50% to 45%. These 
attitudes are similar to recent years, but show reduced support for the death 
penalty from the 1980s and 1990s.

Democrats' opinions have also shifted markedly on the death penalty vs. life 
imprisonment question. 2 decades ago, Democrats preferred the death penalty by 
a wide margin, but they now prefer life imprisonment by nearly the same margin. 
Independents' and Republicans' views have changed less, although both show 
increases in support for life imprisonment.

Implications

The death penalty has always been controversial, and this year, the issue made 
headlines again amid a botched execution attempt in Oklahoma.

Americans' support for the death penalty has stabilized at a lower level than 
was the case prior to 2008, and is well below the highs from the mid-1980s to 
mid-1990s. And in recent years the public has shown only a slight preference 
for the death penalty over life imprisonment as the better penalty for murder. 
These trends toward diminished support seem to be reflected in state death 
penalty laws, as 6 U.S. states have abolished the death penalty since 2007, and 
no new states have adopted it.

Democrats are mostly responsible for this shift in attitudes, and thus it is 
not surprising that most of the states that have abolished the death penalty in 
recent years are Democratic leaning. The death penalty is another example of 
how Democrats' and Republicans' opinions on political matters have become 
increasingly divergent compared with recent decades, including their views of 
the job the president is doing and on issues such as global warming and labor 
unions.

Survey Methods

Results for this Gallup poll are based on 1,017 telephone interviews conducted 
Oct. 12-15, 2014 (for the favor/not in favor question), and 1,252 telephone 
interviews conducted Sept. 25-30, 2014 (for the death penalty vs. life 
imprisonment question). Each is based on a random sample of adults, aged 18 and 
older, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia.

For results based on the total sample of national adults, the margin of 
sampling error is ???4 percentage points at the 95% confidence level.

Each sample of national adults includes a minimum quota of 50% cellphone 
respondents and 50% landline respondents, with additional minimum quotas by 
time zone within region. Landline and cellular telephone numbers are selected 
using random-digit-dial methods.

(source: gallup.com)

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

Death penalty urged for Blackwater guards


4 former Blackwater guards found guilty for their role in the 2007 massacre of 
at least 14 civilians in Baghdad's busy Nisur Square should be executed, 
relatives of victims say.

Their convictions followed a 2-month trial that heard how they opened fire with 
sniper rifles, machine guns and grenade launchers in Baghdad's bustling Nisur 
Square as they escorted a diplomatic convoy.

The shooting exacerbated Iraqi resentment toward Americans and exemplified the 
impunity enjoyed by private security firms on the US payroll in Iraq.

"They should be executed in the same place in Nisur Square where they committed 
the crime," Hussein Ali Abbas, the brother of one of the victims said on 
Thursday.

His brother Saadi was on the way to visit a friend when the shooting occurred, 
and tried to flee but was gunned down anyway, Abbas said.

"The conviction is not enough," he said. "Justice was not achieved."

Khaled Walid, whose father was among those killed, agreed: "Everyone said they 
should be sentenced to death."

"I demand the harshest sentence," said Saddam Jawad, whose mother was killed. 
"If there is the death penalty in America, we demand the death penalty."

But the death penalty is not on the table for any of them.

1 guard, Nicholas Slatten, was convicted of 1st-degree murder, which carries a 
potential life sentence. The others were found guilty of voluntary manslaughter 
and will be jailed for at least 15 years for each killing.

Before the incident, Slatten allegedly told acquaintances he wanted to "kill as 
many Iraqis as he could as payback for 9/11," court documents showed.

Iraqi officials say 17 civilians were killed, while US investigators recorded 
14 deaths. A further 18 Iraqis were wounded.

In the aftermath of the killings, Blackwater was forced to cease operating in 
the country.

But a US diplomatic cable released by whistleblower website WikiLeaks said 
hundreds of former Blackwater guards kept working in Iraq for other companies.

(source: Agence France-Presse)

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

Statement of Richard Dieter, Executive Director of the Death Penalty 
Information Center, on Today's Gallup Poll


"Within the margin of error, the Gallup Poll continues to register historic 
lows in support for the death penalty. Support has dropped over 15 % points 
since its high of 80% in 1994. This overall decline in public support is also 
reflected in the decrease in executions, death sentences, and the number of 
states carrying out the death penalty. The recent exonerations from death row 
and the botched executions earlier this year have likely contributed to the 
public's growing dissatisfaction with a flawed system. Other recent polls have 
indicated that when given a choice between a sentence of life without parole 
and the death penalty, the life sentence is the public's first choice.

(source: Death Penalty Information Ceneter)

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

Better reason to oppose death penalty


I found the Oct. 21 Commentary piece by Meg Penrose ("Implementing the death 
penalty has become too costly") very disturbing because she suggested that 
execution should be decided on economic grounds.

I believe the death penalty must be eliminated entirely. No, I do not feel 
compassion for some of the most despicable humans who commit the most heinous 
crimes. Such people should be incarcerated for their rest of their lives.

The real problem with the death penalty is that a jury might be wrong. If a 
jury became infallible, I'd have no problem with the death penalty.

Harvey Waxman

North Kingstown

(source: Letter to the Editor, Providence Journal)