[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, N.C.

[Rick Halperin]

Sept. 10



TEXAS----imminent execution

High court rejects condemned Texas inmate appeals


The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected last-minute appeals from a Texas death row 
inmate.

It clears the way for Willie Trottie's execution more than two decades after he 
was convicted of slaying his former common-law wife and her brother.

Trottie, who turned 45 on Monday, has acknowledged shooting 24-year-old Barbara 
Canada and her 28-year-old brother, Titus, at their parents' Houston home. 
Trottie said the 1993 shootings were accidental and in self-defense.

Canada had a protective order against Trottie.

About an hour before Trottie's lethal injection scheduled for Wednesday, the 
high court turned down two appeals. One contended Trottie's lawyers at his 1993 
trial were deficient. The other argued the pentobarbital to be used to execute 
him was past its effectiveness date and could subject Trottie to 
unconstitutional "tortuous" pain.

(source: Associated Press)






NORTH CAROLINA:

NC prosecutor weighs reopening infamous 1983 case


The prosecutor who cleared the way for North Carolina's longest-serving 
death-row inmate and his half brother to walk free says the case disproved his 
previous public comments that no innocent men were on the state's death row.

Robeson County District Attorney Johnson Britt said in an interview that he 
hasn't made up his mind on whether to reopen the case on Sabrina Buie's 1983 
slaying after new DNA evidence freed Henry McCollum from death row and Leon 
Brown from a life sentence. The DNA evidence points to another man serving life 
in prison for similar killing, and Britt is considering whether to pursue 
charges against that inmate.

A judge's decision last week to free McCollum and Brown hinged largely on 
Britt's conclusion that new DNA evidence negated the case put forward at their 
trials in Buie's slaying.

The new DNA evidence lifted from a cigarette butt was disclosed in June to 
Britt. "I was stunned," said the prosecutor, who was a 1st-year law student 
when one of his predecessors first tried Brown and McCollum.

Several years ago, Britt said during a televised forum that there were no 
innocent men on death row. Now, he says: "I stand corrected."

The inmate whose DNA was found on the butt left near Buie is serving life in 
prison for the rape and murder of an 18-year-woman about a month after Buie's 
death. The Associated Press has not named the inmate because he hasn't been 
charged.

A sheriff's deputy who questioned Brown was the lead investigator on the 
Brockman case, and there were several similarities between the 2 killings.

"It's hard to fathom that they didn't make the connection," Britt said.

Britt said he would meet with Buie's family and consider their wishes before 
re-opening the case.

"They were very shocked by last week's hearing and the outcome. Understandably 
so. They've been through 3 trials," he said.

Relatives of Sabrina Buie didn't return messages left earlier this week seeking 
comment on the case.

Britt, who previously served as the president of the state Conference of 
District Attorneys, said the case has heightened his concerns about the costs 
of death penalty litigation, noting that the Innocence Inquiry Commission spent 
more than $100,000 investigating Brown and McCollum's claim.

He said he's not opposed to the death penalty and that his office has even been 
criticized for pursuing too many capital cases. Not long after becoming 
district attorney in 1994, Britt sought death sentences for the 2 men who 
killed Michael Jordan's father, but both were given life in prison by a jury.

But he said he has concerns about the expense of capital punishment and whether 
it deters would-be criminals. He said the state legislature should re-examine 
the death penalty.

"Take the political philosophies out of it. What's the cost of it? What benefit 
does it serve? It's not a deterrent. It never has been a deterrent. The only 
person the death penalty deters is the person who was sentenced," Britt said.

(source: Associated Press)