[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, CONN., N.C., GA., LA., OHIO, OKLA., NEB., COLO., CALIF.

[Rick Halperin]

Aug. 12




TEXAS----stay of impending execution//impending (volunteer) execution

Texas Inmate Set to Die for Killing His Mother Gets Reprieve


A 54-year-old East Texas man set to die this week for his mother's slaying more 
than 11 years ago has won a reprieve from Texas' highest criminal court.

Tracy Beatty had been scheduled for lethal injection Thursday evening for the 
death of 62-year-old Carolyn Click in November 2003. Beatty recently had been 
paroled.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, in a brief order Tuesday, stopped the 
execution pending further orders from the court. It gave no timetable.

Click's body was found buried near her trailer home outside Tyler in Smith 
County. By then, Beatty already was in jail on auto theft and weapons charges.

His attorneys argued Beatty had deficient legal help at his 2004 trial and 
during early appeals and that prosecutors used improper testimony at his trial.

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

Texas inmate who dropped appeals headed to execution


Texas inmate Daniel Lee Lopez has been trying to speed up his execution since 
being sent to death row 5 years ago for striking and killing a police 
lieutenant with an SUV during a chase.

On Wednesday, he's hoping to get his wish.

The 27-year-old prisoner is set to die in Huntsville after getting court 
approval to drop his appeals. A second inmate scheduled to be executed this 
week in Texas, the nation's most active death penalty state, won a court 
reprieve Tuesday.

Lopez is facing lethal injection for the 2009 death of Corpus Christi Lt. 
Stuart Alexander. The 47-year-old officer was standing in a grassy area on the 
side of a highway where he had put spike strips when he was struck by the sport 
utility vehicle Lopez was fleeing in.

Last week from death row Lopez said: "It's a waste of time just sitting here. I 
just feel I need to get over with it."

Attorneys representing Lopez refused to accept his intentions, questioning 
federal court findings that Lopez was mentally competent to volunteer for 
execution. They appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court to halt the punishment, 
arguing his crime was not a capital murder because he didn't intend to kill the 
officer, and that Lopez had mental disabilities and was using the state to 
carry out long-standing desires to commit suicide.

"It is clear Lopez has been allowed to use the legal system in another attempt 
to take his own life," attorney David Dow told the high court.

Lopez, who also wrote letters to a federal judge and pleaded for his execution 
to move forward, said a Supreme Court reprieve would be "disappointing."

"It's crazy they keep appealing, appealing," he said last week of his lawyers' 
efforts. "I've explained it to them many times. I guess they want to get paid 
for appealing."

Lopez was properly examined by a psychologist, testified at a federal court 
hearing about his desire to drop appeals and was found to have no mental 
defects, state attorneys said in opposing delays in the punishment.

Alexander had been a police officer for 20 years. His death came during a chase 
that began just past midnight on March 11, 2009, after Lopez was pulled over by 
another officer for running a stop sign in a Corpus Christi neighborhood. 
Authorities say Lopez was driving around 60 mph.

Lopez struggled with the officer who made the stop and then fled. He rammed 
several patrol cars, drove at a high speed with his lights off and hit 
Alexander like "a bullet and a target," said an officer who testified at 
Lopez's 2010 trial.

When finally cornered by patrol cars, Lopez used his SUV as a battering ram 
trying to escape and wasn't brought under control until he was shot, officers 
testified.

"It's a horrible dream," Lopez said from death row. "I've replayed it in my 
mind many times."

Deputies found a dozen packets of cocaine and a small scale in a false 
compartment in the console of the SUV.

Records show Lopez was on probation at the time after pleading guilty to 
indecency with a child in Galveston County and was a registered sex offender. 
He had other arrests for assault.

Lopez would be the 10th inmate executed this year in Texas. Nationally, 18 
prisoners have been put to death this year, with Texas accounting for 50 % of 
them.

On Tuesday, another death row prisoner, Tracy Beatty, 54, received a reprieve 
from the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. He had been scheduled for lethal 
injection Thursday. He's on death row for the 2003 slaying of his 62-year-old 
mother, Carolyn Click, near Tyler in East Texas.

At least 7 other Texas inmates have execution dates in the coming months.

(source for both: Associated Press)

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

Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present----9

Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982----present-----527

Abbott#--------scheduled execution date-----name------------Tx. #

10---------August 12----------------Daniel Lopez----------528

11---------August 26----------------Bernardo Tercero------529

12---------September 29-------------Perry Williams--------530

13---------October 6----------------Juan Garcia-----------531

14---------October 14---------------Licho Escamilla-------532

15---------October 28---------------Christopher Wilkins---533

16---------November 3---------------Julius Murphy---------534

17---------January 20 (2016)-----Richard Masterson--------535

(sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin)






CONNECTICUT:

Death penalty prosecutor turned supervisor


But for a twist of fate and a restrictive job market Margaret Kelley could have 
been counseling youthful offenders instead of becoming the 1st female 
supervising prosecutor in the history of the 127-year-old Golden Hill Street 
courthouse.

"When I graduated from law school I really wanted to become a juvenile court 
prosecutor because I wanted to work with children," Kelly said. "But there were 
never any openings."

Instead Kelley, 58, would go on to prosecute 80 serious felony cases including 
2 death penalty cases - one of the only female prosecutors in the state to do 
so.

"I am delighted that Peggy has agreed to accept this leadership position," said 
State's Attorney John Smriga. "Her outstanding legal ability, extensive 
experience and compassionate disposition will benefit everyone who has contact 
in our court."

As supervisor of the Golden Hill prosecutor's office, she is now in charge of 
an office of 10 prosecutors.

"I'm excited to be here because I believe there is a lot of talent here and I 
think I have the experience I want to share," she said.

A native of Shelton, Kelley graduated from St. Joseph's High School and later 
from St. Joseph College in West Hartford with a degree in social work.

"I began doing internships in the state's juvenile court and that got me 
interested in working with kids but there was also this attraction for the law, 
which may be hereditary," she explained.

Kelley's grandmother, Susan Keefe Kelley, was one of the first female lawyers 
in the state.

After graduating from the Western New England University Law School, Kelley 
applied to become a juvenile prosecutor but was told there weren't any 
openings. Instead she went to work for the chief state's attorney's office.

"I was assigned to the statewide trial unit, which meant I was sent all around 
the state trying cases that for one reason or another the local prosecutors' 
offices couldn't do," she said.

1 of her first trials was prosecuting New York stockbroker Michael Murphy for 
the death of State Trooper Jorge Agosto.

On Thanksgiving Eve, 1989, Agosto had pulled over a car on Interstate 95 after 
noticing it had been driving erratically. He was standing outside the driver's 
window when he was struck by a car driven by Murphy, who was on his way to Cape 
Cod to have Thanksgiving dinner with his family. Murphy was subsequently 
charged with manslaughter in Agosto's death.

Edward Gavin was one of Murphy's defense lawyers.

"It was really a high profile trial at the time," Gavin said. "Every day about 
40 state troopers in uniform would show up and sit in the courtroom. Our 
defense was that Murphy had gone into a diabetic shock and that caused him to 
veer into Agosto and we brought in a number of doctors to support that."

In the end Murphy was found not guilty, but Kelley said she learned a lot from 
the trial, including that she liked trying cases.

"I like the challenge of trying a case, facing the unexpected, having to think 
on your feet," she said.

For his part, Gavin gained a lot of respect for Kelley's abilities.

"She is an extremely competent and a top flight prosecutor," he said. "I'm glad 
she has become a supervisor."

Jewelry store murders

In February 2005, 26-year-old Christopher DiMeo walked into a small Post Road 
jewelry store in Fairfield and fatally shot the owners Tim and Kim Donnelly.

It was a crime that shocked the community and officials immediately called for 
DiMeo, a career criminal, to get the death penalty.

Kelley, who is married with 3 adult children, was working as a prosecutor with 
the Bridgeport state's attorney's office at the time.

"I wasn't really sure I could do it in the beginning because philosophically I 
wasn't really for the death penalty," she said. "But it was a horrible crime 
and I really felt bad for the Donnelly family."

In the end, the jury convicted DiMeo of the murders, but it couldn't decide on 
the death penalty. DiMeo later agreed to take a term of life in prison without 
the possibility of release.

The next case brought an even greater challenge to Kelley's personal philosophy 
and legal ability.

The last death penalty case

On Sept. 7, 2006, Richard Roszkowski, a former tree cutter from Trumbull with a 
record of drug and burglary convictions, fatally shot his former neighbor, 
Holly Flannery, her 9-year-old daughter, Kylie, and Thomas Gaudet, a landscaper 
from Milford, on Seaview Avenue in front of a half-dozen horrified witnesses.

As the case was being readied for trial, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy signed a law 
eliminating the death penalty in Connecticut for any new crimes. Kelley and 
Supervisory Assistant State's Attorney C. Robert Satti Jr. were faced with 
trying to convince a jury to make Roszkowski the last person sentenced to death 
in Connecticut.

"The situation made it especially hard, knowing the death penalty had been 
repealed," she said. "But I was determined to follow the law that was in place 
and do the best I could."

Roszkowski is now the 11th person on Connecticut's death row.

(source: Connecticut Post)






NORTH CAROLINA:

Adding secrets a grave matter in Raleigh

About 2 dozen bills are floating around the General Assembly in Raleigh that 
would reduce access by the press and public to state records.

Last week, Gov. Pat McCrory signed into law one of the most troublesome: a bill 
that makes it a secret where the lethal drugs come from for executions.

By pushing back the public's right to know, the state gains an efficiency in 
the execution process. It can obtain lethal paralytics and barbiturates for the 
death chamber at Central Prison in Raleigh without disclosing the source.

American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina, the N.C. Press Association 
and the Carolina Justice Policy Center, among other groups, opposed the law. 
Objections included making the mechanics of the death penalty more secretive 
and increasing the chance of a botched chemical execution.

Lethal injection - once seen as a more humane method than electrocution, the 
gas chamber or hanging - is under attack in many death penalty states after a 
series of executions in recent years where problems occurred.

States are also having trouble obtaining the death drugs as manufacturers come 
under attack by death penalty opponents.

Neither North Carolina nor South Carolina are viewed as particularly 
record-friendly states. Both have broad restrictions on what the press and 
public can see. Florida, with its expansive Sunshine Law, is widely considered 
in media circles as the most open state; New York is probably the most 
restrictive.

(source: charlotteobserver.com)






GEORGIA:

Accused serial killer Aeman Presley appears in court


Accused serial killer Aeman Presley appeared before a DeKalb County judge 
Tuesday afternoon as part of the 1st phases of a trial that could lead to the 
death penalty.

Both Fulton and DeKalb county district attorneys have announced their 
intentions to seek the death penalty against Presley, accused of murdering 4 
people within less than 4 months.

DeKalb District Attorney Robert James will seek the death penalty in the 
December killing of 44-year-old Karen Pearce, shot to death as she left a 
Decatur restaurant. The other DeKalb County case -- the death of 53-year-old 
Calvin Gholston, believed to be homeless -- will not be tried as a death 
penalty case. Presley will first go on trial for Gholston's murder.

Tuesday afternoon, Presley sat silently as his attorneys presented a number of 
motions to Judge Gregory Adams. When Judge Adams addressed him directly, 
Presley exercised his 5th amendment right to remain silent.

Presley is also charged with the Fulton County murders of Dorian Jenkins and 
Tommy Mims last November. Both men were believed to be homeless. Fulton County 
DA Paul Howard will also seek the death penalty in those cases.

Presley is expected back in DeKalb County court on September 11th. His 1st 
trial in the county is expected to begin in February.

(source: WXIA news)



LOUISIANA:

Cost of capital punishment in Louisiana


A state panel is looking at the cost of the death penalty in Louisiana.

New Orleans Senator JP Morrell says the purpose of the Capital Punishment 
Fiscal Impact Commission is to determine whether the public believes that 
enforcing the death penalty is worth the cost.

Morrell says the legislature has noticed that it takes several years to 
implement capital punishment.

"We're just trying to get a real idea on what those costs are because you have 
some people saying it could be as much as tens of millions of dollars to 
execute a single person."

Morrell says the cost to execute someone includes the cost of the numerous 
appeals that are associated with the process. He says a big problem they are 
having is determining what costs should be included in the overall figure.

"This commission's job is to give a report to the legislature as far as, these 
are the objective, agreed upon numbers, as far as what the ultimate cost is, 
and we're not anywhere near there, yet."

He says the commission report is due to the legislature during the next 
legislative session. Morrell says the ultimate goal is to present these figures 
to the public and let them decide if it is worth having the death penalty in 
Louisiana.

"Are we willing to have the death penalty if it costs 5 to 10 million dollars 
to execute one person, when that money could be going to fully funding higher 
education?"

(source: WWL news)



OHIO:

Deters seeks death penalty in Springdale stabbing


Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters announced Wednesday an aggravated murder 
indictment for 20-year-old Akihiko Clayton in the July 2 stabbing of a 
Springdale man and four children.

Deters' office will seek the death penalty for Clayton. A Wednesday news 
release noted a death-penalty sentence would require convictions on all 
charges.

Clayton was charged with 2 counts of aggravated murder, 4 counts of attempted 
murder, 8 counts of felonious assault, and 1 count each of aggravated robbery 
and aggravated burglary.

Emilio Ramirez, 33, was killed and four children stabbed when authorities 
arrived to an apartment at 1108 Chesterdale Circle in Springdale on July 2. 
Ramirez was stabbed multiple times, according to Deters.

The children - twin 2-year-old girls, a 7-year-old boy and a 14-year-old boy - 
all survived.

Springdale police ID stabbing victim; following 'leads'

"This is a terrible crime," Deters said in the release. "To break into 
someone's home and stab him to death and stab four innocent young children for 
absolutely no reason is horrific."

(source: cincinnati.com)


OKLAHOMA----imending execution

Susan Sarandon: Governor Rejects Execution Delay Request For Death Row 
Prisoner, Inmate Thanks Actress For Support


Richard Glossip, 52, is a death row inmate scheduled to be executed on 
September 16 for a murder that he says he did not commit. Susan Sarandon, who 
is an anti-death penalty advocate, supports Glossip and believes in his 
innocence.

In fact, Sarandon requested the Governor of Oklahoma, Mary Fallin, to delay 
Glossip's execution in order for the defense to come up with more evidence to 
show that he is indeed innocent.

Glossip is accused of murdering motel owner,Barry Van Treese in 1997. Back 
then, Glossip was working as a hotel manager at Best Budget Inn In Oklahoma. 
Although Van Treese didn't die in Glossip's hands, the one who committed the 
crime, motel handyman Justin Sneed, confessed that it was Glossip's idea to 
murder their boss. Sneed said that he used a baseball bat to kill Van Treese, 
allegedly following Glossip's orders. Glossip has maintained his innocence ever 
since he was sentenced to death in 1998. Sneed, on the other hand, received a 
plea deal and was sentenced to life without parole for testifying against 
Glossip.

(source: inquisitr.com)

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

It's difficult to predict what juries will decide


In November 2012, James Holmes walked into a crowded movie theater in a Denver 
suburb and opened fire, first with a shotgun, then with a semi-automatic rifle 
and a handgun. The result: 12 people dead, 70 injured.

A dozen jurors spent more than four months listening to testimony in Holmes' 
trial. In finding him guilty of murder, they rejected his insanity defense and 
determined he knew right from wrong. As they began deliberating the proper 
punishment, they agreed that the heinousness of the crimes outweighed his 
mental illness.

These things indicated the jury would likely recommend the death penalty. 
Instead, last week the 12 failed to reach a unanimous verdict on each murder 
count, which automatically took the death penalty out of the equation and, 
understandably, left some on the courtroom in tears.

A juror told reporters that a lone member of the panel refused to give Holmes 
the death penalty, and that 2 others were wavering. "It's a devastating result 
no matter what," she said. "I am deeply, deeply sorry - that isn't even the 
word."

Oklahomans know the feeling, in a case where mental aptitude was not an issue. 
In 2004, a jury in McAlester spent 62 days on the state trial of Oklahoma City 
bombing conspirator Terry Nichols. Jurors convicted Nichols of 161 counts of 
1st-degree murder, for the deaths of 160 people and the loss of an unborn girl.

But members of the jury deadlocked on whether Nichols should be given the death 
penalty, and so the judge sentenced him to 161 consecutive sentences of life 
without parole. The judge later said 3 of the jurors told him they believed 
life without parole was a tougher punishment than death.

Nichols had also escaped the death penalty in his federal trial in Denver, 
again due to a jury deadlock. He was convicted in that trial of conspiracy and 
the manslaughter of eight federal agents killed in the bombing.

Nichols' state trial, and the Holmes trial, may reflect a growing reluctance by 
juries to impose the ultimate punishment. Yet they also are evidence that there 
is no sure thing with jury trials. The case of pharmacist Jerome Ersland is 
Exhibit A.

In 2011, Ersland was convicted of 1st-degree murder for fatally shooting an 
unarmed robber inside a southside Oklahoma City pharmacy. Ersland said he was 
defending himself and 2 female co-workers, and that the 16-year-old robber was 
getting back up after having been hit by a previous shot. Prosecutors said the 
teen was unconscious when Ersland got a 2nd gun and shot him 5 more times.

Public opinion was strongly on Ersland's side, beginning from the time of his 
arrest shortly after the 2009 shooting. District Attorney David Prater was 
roundly criticized for pursuing the case. So too was the jury, which could have 
acquitted Ersland or convicted him of manslaughter, but instead found him 
guilty of murder and recommended a life term.

"All of us took this seriously," one Ersland juror said at the time. "We're 
judged by the laws of our society. You have to live within those laws. Tough or 
not, you still have to live within those laws."

That case, like those of Holmes and Nichols, was an example that in this 
imperfect but still greatest of all legal systems, jurors - those most invested 
in seeing that justice is served - can surprise.

(source: Editorial Board, The Oklahoman)



NEBRASKA:

Heineman: We never quit on executions


Former Gov. Dave Heineman rejected the contention that Nebraska put the brakes 
on the death penalty during the last years of his administration.

In an article in Sunday's World-Herald, Kirk Brown, the longtime capital 
punishment specialist in the Nebraska Attorney General's Office, said he was 
told 4 years ago to not pursue changing the state's lethal injection protocol, 
a change that could have restored the state's ability to carry out the death 
penalty.

That decision, Brown said, effectively put a hold on executions in Nebraska.

But in a Monday email to The World-Herald, Heineman said his administration 
never let up on the issue.

The former governor, who left office in January, said that capital punishment 
has been "complicated by constant legal challenges, the availability of the 
drugs necessary for an execution and the expiration of those drugs before being 
used."

"The attorney general and I talked several times about changing the protocol," 
Heineman wrote, "but moving forward was complicated by the ongoing legal 
challenges and the Department of Corrections' sentencing problems."

"I strongly support the death penalty, and we worked closely with the Attorney 
General's Office to try to carry out death sentences," he wrote.

Brown, who retired a year ago, said he believed the order to not pursue a new 
lethal injection protocol came from the governor's office, but he said he had 
no idea why that decision was made.

Because the state had no ability to carry out a death sentence, the attorney 
said the state could not ask for execution dates for those on death row, thus 
putting in limbo their legally imposed sentences.

"I was in charge of a death penalty that wasn't going anywhere," Brown said.

Heineman did not return messages left last week seeking comment on the 
assertions by Brown, who served as the state's top capital punishment lawyer 
for more than 30 years and has lectured nationally on the issue. Sunday's story 
incorrectly stated that Heineman declined to comment.

Heineman also did not respond to requests for an interview on Monday. In his 
email, Heineman said he talked to former Attorney General Jon Bruning, Brown's 
former boss, and was told Brown was "a disgruntled and ineffective employee."

The former governor said the state is currently pursuing the purchase of a new 
supply of drugs that will allow it to once again carry out the death penalty 
under its current protocol.

"I want to emphasize again that I strongly support the death penalty, and I am 
confident that Nebraskans will reinstate the death penalty when they have the 
opportunity to vote on the issue in November of 2016," Heineman wrote.

The Nebraska Legislature repealed the death penalty earlier this year, over a 
veto by Gov. Pete Ricketts. A petition drive is underway to allow the state's 
voters to decide the fate of capital punishment in the 2016 general election.

Nebraska has not carried out an execution in 18 years.

The state changed its execution method to lethal injection in 2009 but has 
never used it due to legal challenges and problems in importing the necessary 
drugs. The state's supply of sodium thiopental, 1 of 3 drugs in the state's 
current protocol, expired in December 2013 and Nebraska has been unable to 
obtain a new supply.

At least 25 states have changed their lethal injection protocols to different 
drugs since late 2010 due to difficulties in obtaining sodium thiopental. There 
have been nearly 180 executions in the U.S. since then.

Bruning - who declined last week to comment about Brown's assertions - told The 
World-Herald in January 2012 and again in October 2013 that Nebraska should 
consider changing its protocol. But the protocol was not changed.

In October 2014, a couple of months before leaving office, Bruning said the 
state had been diverted from addressing the lethal injection issue because of 
the sentence miscalculation fiasco involving hundreds of state prison inmates. 
That issue was first reported by The World-Herald in June 2014.

In a court ruling in April 2014, Nebraska Supreme Court Judge William Connolly 
wrote that "by simply altering its method of execution," Nebraska could resume 
imposing the death sentence.

Brown, who was the attorney of record for the 3 executions carried out in 
Nebraska during the 1990s under then-Attorney General Don Stenberg, 
acknowledged in Sunday's story that he was accused by Bruning of poor job 
performance and demoted.

Monday, Brown said it wasn't constructive to get into a "he-said, she-said" 
over Heineman's comments.

"I think it's safe to say that there were issues that Jon (Bruning) and I 
didn't see eye to eye on," he said. "I don't think that changes the facts of 
what happened."

(source: lexch.com)






COLORADO:

Death Penalty Debate Back in Colorado


2 high-profile murder cases have brought the death-penalty debate back to life 
in Colorado.

Days after James Holmes was sentenced to life in prison without parole for 
killing 12 people at an Aurora movie theater, all eyes are on the sentencing of 
Dexter Lewis, who was found guilty in the deaths of 5 people in a Denver bar.

"The death penalty is an easy answer to an emotional wish for vengeance. But in 
reality, for survivors - and for the public at large, for taxpayers - it simply 
doesn't fill that emotional need; it actually can make it worse," said Jean 
Fredlund, legislative action committee chair at the League of Women Voters of 
Colorado, a group urging the governor and Legislature to abolish the death 
penalty.

Gov. John Hickenlooper said in a statement after the Holmes sentencing that "no 
verdict can bring back what survivors have lost."

State Senate President Bill Cadman, R-Colorado Springs, responded that Colorado 
should keep the death penalty option for, in his words, "crimes that call for 
the ultimate punishment."

Lewis, like Colorado's 3 men currently on death row, is black. Holmes is white. 
Fredlund pointed to racial disparities in death-penalty cases as one reason its 
opponents push for repeal.

She added that the execution process is far more costly for taxpayers than life 
in prison, and noted that European Union nations and Canada abolished the death 
penalty as a violation of human rights.

"We have seen the mistakes over and over again, people who are on death row who 
have been found to have not been guilty," she said. "Once you make a mistake 
with the death penalty, you can't rectify it."

Fredlund, a psychiatric nurse and grief counselor, said survivors of murder 
victims tend to fare better when the perpetrators get life sentences. She 
explained that there are more complications to healing for survivors facing the 
decades-long death-penalty appeals process.

The last time Colorado considered repealing the death penalty was in 2013.

After Hickenlooper voiced opposition to it, the bill never cleared committee.

(source: Eric Galatas, Public News Service)

**********

A looming crisis for death penalty


Denver District Judge John Madden IV was, of course, correct this week when he 
advised jurors who'd just convicted Dexter Lewis of 5 murders at a local bar 
that "another prominent case in our state" - meaning the James Holmes trial - 
"doesn't have anything to do with this case."

>From a legal standpoint, that's true. But outside Madden's courtroom, the life 
sentence for Holmes colors everything the jury in the Lewis case does now.

If the jury chooses a life sentence for Lewis, too, it will underline once more 
the farcically arbitrary nature of capital punishment in Colorado and the 
urgent need for the legislature and governor to repeal the statute. If the 
murderers responsible for the massacres at the Aurora theater and Fero's Bar & 
Grill don't deserve the death penalty, then no one does. It is hardly possible 
to imagine more heinous crimes.

Surely the death penalty doesn't exist solely to handle the unlikely event that 
a criminal someday will exceed the monstrous depravity of Holmes or Lewis.

A sentence of death for Lewis, meanwhile, will also be awkward for death 
penalty proponents, whether they wish to admit it or not. And that's because 
Lewis is black and Holmes is white - and the only 3 men now on death row also 
are black.

We don't think it's fair to make too much of this racial angle, since the only 
two executions in Colorado over the past half century involved white and 
Hispanic men (1997 and 1967, respectively). And Holmes' attorneys aggressively 
emphasized his mental illness, going so far as to push, unsuccessfuly, an 
insanity defense.

But Lewis has his own tale of woe - broken family, dad shot to death in a gang 
incident when Lewis was 4, and a diagnosis of bipolar disorder and 
post-traumatic stress disorder, according to a defense attorney in 2009.

By contrast, Holmes' upbringing was idyllic. And he was, after all, found 
legally sane, capable of knowing the difference between right and wrong.

The racial component aside, a death sentence for Lewis at the very least would 
highlight the capricious manner in which the punishment is applied in this 
state. It isn't just Holmes who has escaped death row despite horrific crimes. 
Killers responsible for some of the most sickening murders in recent decades 
either have been spared by juries who rejected the death penalty or by 
prosecutors who failed even to seek it. Its application defies all logic.

Colorado briefly abolished capital punishment in 1897 but brought it back a few 
years later. It's time to retire the penalty again - for good.

(source: Editorial Board, Denver Post)






CALIFORNIA:

DA: Toddler case 'such an evil act': Suspect allegedly sexually assaulted 
17-month-old girl before beating her to death, could be death penalty case


The man accused of murdering and molesting his girlfriend's 17-month-old 
daughter could be sentenced to death if convicted, according to the San Mateo 
County District Attorney's Office.

Daniel Contreras, 27, is being charged with murder, felony child abuse 
resulting in the death of a child and multiple counts of performing lewd acts 
on a child, San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said Tuesday.

Contreras allegedly sexually assaulted the toddler who then would not stop 
crying so he beat her to death Thursday, Wagstaffe said.

The victim had multiple head injuries, he said.

"I can't really imagine what could be worse," Wagstaffe said. "I've been 
watching murders for four decades but this one causes one to work hard to 
maintain a calmness. It's such an evil act."

He allegedly repeatedly molested the toddler, he said.

Contreras made his 1st appearance in court Tuesday after being arrested 
Saturday.

The toddler, Evelyn Castillo, was found unconscious and unresponsive in an 
apartment in the 400 block of Madison Avenue around 2:30 p.m. Thursday after 
police and medics were called to the scene.

Contreras claimed the toddler fell from a table but an autopsy on Friday 
determined the death was a homicide.

In a rare move, Judge Hugo Borja allowed 2 television cameras into the 
courtroom as Contreras was being arraigned.

Contreras said he understood the complaint against him and will be represented 
by the county's Private Defender Program.

The arraignment was continued to Aug. 18.

Acquaintances of Contreras attended the court proceeding but declined to speak 
to the press.

Contreras, who was dating Evelyn???s mother, had been caring for the toddler at 
the time of her death, according to prosecutors.

He is being charged with 5 felony counts including murder with special 
circumstance of murder during child molestation; assault on a child resulting 
in death; oral copulation on a child; lewd act with a child; and sexual assault 
on a child under 10 years old. He faces a maximum of life without parole or 
death, Wagstaffe said.

(source: San Mateo Daily Journal)

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

A Visit to San Quentin Museum


They had me at homemade shiv wall. "Shiv" is a slang term for an improvised 
weapon. I heard the San Quentin Museum has enough shivs to make an entire 
display and I want to see them all.

I go through a checkpoint and sign-in, but it's easy to forget that I'm on a 
prison campus, because there are manicured trees and fluffy bushes. The guard 
at the gate smiles and jokes as he asks for my ID and points me in the right 
direction.

The museum building itself is a Tudor-style house done in olive drab stucco. A 
sign hanging from the awning reads simply "museum open". This is where I meet 
my 2 tour guides for the day, Jeff Craemer, curator of the San Quentin Museum 
and Lieutenant Sam Robinson, public information officer for San Quentin State 
Prison.

Robinson points at the photos of all the past wardens lining the wall and asks 
me to guess which guy died at his desk. It's like a macabre game of "Where's 
Waldo?"

"We took a photo and then wheeled him out of the office," he says. "So I just 
want you to look around at these photos and see if you can pick out who that 
individual is."

Just off the tile floor lobby there's a huge display. It's a timeline of the 
prison from 1852 up until the 1980's. There are photos, drawings and lots of 
text. Words are fine, but the best way to view this prison's history is by 
looking at the objects here.

Wanna learn about the death penalty and the gas chamber? Robinson has you 
covered. He shows me a bright green metal scale model. It's an octagon with a 
door, windows and a pointed roof. There are 2 seats inside.

"The 1st execution here at this facility was actually a double execution. 2 
people, who murdered the warden at Folsom State Prison back in 1937, were the 
1st 2 people to be executed here 1 year later in 1938," Robinson says. "And so 
the facility was designed to accommodate 2 and over the course of its history, 
22 times we've utilized it for multiple people at once."

Craemer shows me the item he says draws the most curious stares from patrons.

"This was the noose that hung Rattlesnake James, the man that killed 6 wives 
with a rattlesnake," he says. "I got this noose from the hangman's daughter."

That same hangman's daughter also gave the museum a wooden cigar box filled 
with tiny nooses. Her father made one for each person he executed and tagged it 
with the prisoners number.

Craemer points out more scale models.

"That's what the gallows looked like in the prison and then it was torn down 
and replaced by the gas chamber," he says.

There is no shortage of dark humor in this place. Craemer and I look at the 
hanging record for Rattlesnake James and notice that in addition to a 
description of James' height, weight, his drop, and how long it took him to 
die, there is a line of remarks. Craemer reads it to me.

"It says 'very successful'."

We leave the death wing and go up three steps to a large carpeted room filled 
with lit display cases. In those cases are straight jackets, guns and an actual 
ball and chain. Craemer has got a story for every object. He points out a 
little steam engine made by an inmate named William Wells in the 1950's.

"He was a nice man in San Rafael and he made things, but he got fingered with 
something, something like an assault on a child or something like that and he 
was so taken by it and shocked , he couldn't speak," Craemer says. "Poor 
Willie, all he could do was bark so he got the name of 'Barking Willie' and so 
he wandered around here and he made this little steam engine and it actually 
works."

My eyes get wide looking inside the contraband case. There are homemade shovels 
and a zip gun from the 1960's.

"This is a piece of toilet paper that has a piece cut out to hide some 
narcotics or something like that in there and then the shaft the toilet paper 
spindle is on, is a stabbing weapon," he says. "You kinda use everything you 
can."

Speaking of stabbing, I spy what really drew me to this museum, the shiv wall. 
Robinson has a story for one particular item on display.

"This weapon here kinda mirrors a weapon that was utilized to murder the last 
employee here at San Quentin. The inmate was actually inside of his cell, he 
got some news paper, he rolled it up let it dry out and when it dries, it dries 
like a broomstick or a handle and what he did is, tied a little weapon onto the 
end of that handle," he says. "From inside of his cell, as the employee walked 
by, he thrust it out through the cell bars and stabbed him in his heart."

Robinson's story shows just how much harm can be caused when a innocuous item 
is weaponized. He acknowledges that special precautions must be taken here.

"Its just kind of one of those things that in society you don't think about, 
you don't even have to worry about," he says. "But in prison everything we have 
to be accountable for."

Murder aside, these shivs are a showcase of ingenuity. There are sharpened 
screwdrivers, nails hidden inside of pen cases, filed down paint rollers, just 
loads of pointy things that someone put a handle on. But the museum isn't all 
about weapons. There's info on the short-lived women's wing, a display of 
military supplies the prisoners made during World War II and photos showing 
some of the inmate's recreational activities.

To get a sense of what it's like to live here, I step inside the model cell at 
the museum. It's the same size of the ones inside the prison. It's long and 
narrow, with a toilet at the back. When I stretch my arms out, I can touch both 
sides of the wall at the same time. It's easy to imagine how being confined to 
such a small space would make you dream of busting out.

Craemer points out the wall of escapes. "In the early days people would braid 
bed sheets together and there's a grappling hook that was made, [they'd throw 
it] over the wall and climb over and go."

Craemer has a twinkle in his eyes as he tells the adventure of a posse car 
chase and eventual capture of the escapees. It's like he's reliving memories. 
In a way he is. He grew up nearby and remembers what a company town this area 
was when he was a boy. He's a storehouse of fascinating tales and definitely a 
must-see when you visit. Just be glad this is one trip to prison, where you get 
to come and go voluntarily.

(source: Chris Hambrick, KALW public radio)