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

[Rick Halperin]

Aug. 28



MISSOURI----impending execution

Doubting Jennifer Herndon ---- An appeals lawyer who has represented more than 
a half-dozen men put to death in Missouri faces questions about her competency.


In 6 days, on Sept. 1, Missouri is scheduled to execute 50-year-old Roderick 
Nunley, who was condemned for the 1989 rape and murder of 15-year-old Ann 
Harrison. The high school freshman was abducted while in her driveway, waiting 
for the school bus.

If the execution takes place, one of Nunley's attorneys, Jennifer Herndon, will 
have represented 8 of the last 19 men executed in Missouri. And those 8 men 
will have been executed in a span of 4 1/2 years.

The Marshall Project profiled Herndon in June, describing how she juggles a 
debilitating workload as a capital appeals attorney with a separate career as 
an internet marketer, sending out inspirational messages along with product 
pitches geared for online entrepreneurs. The story also detailed Herndon???s 
financial and professional struggles; in 2013, her law license was suspended 
for 4 months because of delinquent state income taxes.

On Tuesday, 2 other attorneys who once assisted in Nunley's case filed a motion 
with the Missouri Supreme Court, asking that Nunley's execution warrant be 
recalled because of "severe doubts" about Herndon's fitness as a lawyer. Their 
motion cited The Marshall Project's story, in which Herndon said, among other 
things, "I feel like I'm not doing the best work I can or should be doing for 
my clients right now."

With Herndon, the quantity of her legal work was already an issue. Because 
relatively few attorneys handle capital appeals in Missouri, the state's 
accelerated pace of executions in recent years has created unusual stress for 
the defense bar. Of the 19 executions held nationally this year, Missouri has 
5, 2nd only to Texas.

But the motion went as much to the quality of Herndon's work, and whether she 
has met her ethical obligations as an attorney.

In years past, the Missouri Department of Revenue filed three liens against 
Herndon, saying she owed more than $47,000 for unpaid state income taxes from 
2006 to 2012, according to court records. But two months ago, the department 
filed a fourth lien, saying Herndon owes $2,077.85 for unpaid taxes in 2013 - a 
delinquency that could once again place her law license in jeopardy.

The motion filed by the 2 other attorneys said "equally troubling" was a 
lawsuit filed against Herndon last month. That suit, an unlawful detainer 
action, alleges that Herndon's house was purchased on July 14 in a foreclosure 
sale, but Herndon has failed to leave the residence.

"Ms. Herndon appears to lack the time and capacity to competently represent Mr. 
Nunley," the motion says. "Her online career and pending legal and financial 
problems raise substantial questions about her competence."

In an email sent to The Marshall Project, Herndon wrote of how the court system 
has placed her in the unfair position of handling "a never-ending string of 
back-to-back executions," while simultaneously refusing to approve additional 
funds.

"I have rejected opportunities to make money in my other business, opting 
instead to work on Mr. Nunley's case because his life matters more than money 
to me. I have laid out money from my own pocket, in excess of $300 to date, to 
cover copy costs, postage and filing fees. I will not be reimbursed for this, 
but can't take that into consideration when his life is at stake.

"I am doing everything I can for Roderick. Is it enough? No. Do I think I could 
save his life if I had all the resources in the world? Not without a miracle. 
Over the last 2 years, just considering my clients, I have seen the state 
execute 2 men who were incompetent, 1 who was mentally ill, 1 who was mentally 
retarded, and 1 who made such a transformation in prison that he would have 
made a fine next door neighbor. I have filed motions supported by case law the 
state couldn't refute, hired experts whose opinions were uncontroverted, 
drafted clemency petitions the size of a book, and yet Missouri continues to 
execute men, no matter how legally or morally wrong it is under the specifics 
of each case. That's why I want out. Not because I don't care anymore, but 
because the system is broken here. I can't fix it, and being a part of it makes 
me feel like an enabler of the executioner."

The motion filed Tuesday included affidavits from Lindsay Runnels and Jennifer 
Merrigan, the two attorneys who once assisted in the case, and from Shynise 
Nunley Spencer, who is Nunley's daughter. Runnels, in her affidavit, said that 
in the summer of 2010, she agreed to help the defense team search for evidence 
in Nunley's past that might mitigate the crime, such as childhood trauma or 
mental illness. But because of Herndon, Runnels wrote, she encountered 
obstacles with such basic steps as obtaining a copy of the trial file, which 
"was mostly missing and what did exist was in disarray."

Herndon told Runnels she had never requested the file from the Missouri State 
Public Defender, nor had she checked with the trial attorneys - because 1 was a 
friend and the trial had been difficult for her, and Herndon was hesitant to 
"bring it all up again," according to Runnels's affidavit.

In the fall of 2010, Nunley received a stay of execution based on a due process 
issue. Afterward, Runnels wrote, she "had essentially no contact" with Herndon, 
despite informing her that she was "able and willing" to continue working on 
the case.

This year, when Runnels learned through The Marshall Project's story of 
Herndon's previous law suspension, Runnels sent a copy of the article to 
Nunley's daughter. Afterward, Runnels spoke with Nunley on the phone. A rule of 
the Missouri Supreme Court says lawyers who are suspended must notify their 
clients. But, Runnels wrote, "Mr. Nunley told me that Ms. Herndon never 
informed him that she had been suspended from the practice of law, nor had Ms. 
Herndon obtained his consent to continue representing him ..."

Nunley also told Runnels that he had tried to fire Herndon in 2009 or 2010, but 
Herndon would not withdraw from the case, according to Runnels's affidavit.

Shynise Nunley Spencer, in her affidavit, wrote that she has kept a 
"consistent, close and loving relationship" with her father. Despite that, she 
wrote, "I have never, not once, spoken with Jennifer Herndon. She has never 
called me. She has never returned my calls. My brother has never spoken to her 
either."

Reading the story about Herndon made her feel "sick," the daughter wrote. "I 
was shocked to learn that she had been suspended from practicing law. ... I do 
not understand how the system allows someone in Ms. Herndon's situation to 
represent people in the most serious of all criminal cases, where their lives 
are at stake."

Herndon's last client to face execution was Richard Strong, condemned for the 
stabbing deaths of his girlfriend and her 2-year-old daughter. Herndon pleaded 
for a stay from the U.S. Supreme Court, but came up a vote short. Strong was 
put to death on the evening of June 9.

That same evening, Herndon went on her business's Facebook page and posted this 
message:

"I'm in the midst of a sad day. Then I watch the woman in front of me at the 
store pull out every card she has to try to cover her $20 grocery bill. In the 
end, she's 31 cents short.

Ponder for a moment what it's like not to have 31 cents to your name. Suddenly 
I'm feeling very grateful, and happy I could help someone out with a mere 31 
cents. It's nothing until you don't have it!"

3 days after Herndon gave her fellow shopper 31 cents, Missouri filed its lien 
against Herndon, saying she owed the state more than $2,000.

(source: The Marshall Project)






KANSAS:

Judge Approves Continuance for Kansas City Death Penalty Trial


A decision in the Frazier Glenn Cross death penalty trial will have to wait 
until Friday at the earliest, according to Kansas City's KSHB 41.

In what is expected to be a long, drawn-out court process, Johnson County Judge 
Thomas Kelly Ryan approved Cross's continuance request, as both parties will 
continue to battle it out in court on Friday, taking Thursday off to mull over 
strategies.

Prosecutors believe that the admitted perpetrator, who took the lives of 3 
innocent by-standards at Jewish Community Centers, is attempting to sabotage 
the proceedings.

The trial comes nearly 1 year after the shooting, in which the 74-year-old 
anti-Semite sought and killed Jewish citizens after finding out he had 
emphysema.

According to FOX 4, Judge Ryan opted to push the trial back a day to give Cross 
time to prepare his evidence and also because the witness he had planned to 
call wasn't available on Thursday.

The trial will resume action on Friday.

(source: jpupdates.com)

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

Man charged in Jewish site deaths accuses judge of denying fair trial


A white supremacist charged with killing three people at Kansas City-area 
Jewish sites accused a judge on Thursday of denying him a fair trial for not 
allowing him to present evidence explaining his mindset at the time.

Frazier Glenn Miller Jr., 74, is defending himself at his capital murder trial 
and could face the death penalty if convicted. He has admitted several times 
during his 4-day trial that he killed 3 people and shot at 3 others, but has 
argued that he was compelled to do it because Jewish people are trying to wipe 
out the white race.

Prosecutors rested their case Thursday morning, barely 4 days into a trial they 
had predicted could last 3 to 4 weeks.

Miller is charged with killing William Corporon, 69, and Corporon's 14-year-old 
grandson, Reat Griffin Underwood, at the Jewish Community Center in Overland 
Park, and Terri LaManno, 53, at the nearby Village Shalom retirement center on 
April 13, 2014. None of the 3 was Jewish.

After jurors were sent out of the courtroom, Miller asked for a postponement 
until Monday so he could work on his defense and rest up because the trial had 
taken a toll on his health. Miller fired his lawyers in May.

"It's not my fault I'm not prepared," Miller said.

The judge asked Miller to summarize the evidence he planned to present. Prior 
to the start of the trial, the judge ruled that Miller could not use a 
"compelling necessity" defense, claiming he was compelled to kill Jewish people 
because they pose a threat to the white race.

Miller, who also was known as Frazier Glenn Cross Jr., said he was planning to 
introduce books, CDs and news articles to illustrate his state of mind at the 
time of the shootings, but Ryan responded that it was unlikely those materials 
would be allowed to be admitted into evidence during the current phase of the 
trial.

Miller responded angrily that by denying him a chance to explain his actions, 
Ryan was violating his constitutional rights.

"Making it impossible for me to explain what was on my mind prevents me from 
getting a fair trial and guaranteeing a guilty verdict," Miller said. "I'm 
thoroughly convinced I was justified."

After a testy exchange in which Miller repeatedly talked over the judge and 
prosecutors, Ryan loudly warned him several times that he could be removed from 
the courtroom if he didn't show more respect for the court.

Ryan sent the jury home at noon and told Miller he could have until 9 a.m. 
Friday, when he would be expected to present his defense.

(source: CBS news)

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

Right about death----GOP students call for Kan. party to seek death penalty's 
demise


Young people aren't afraid to speak up when they think their elders are 
misguided, and sometimes they're right. That's the case with a recent 
resolution from the Kansas Federation of College Republicans calling for the 
party to push to end the death penalty in Kansas.

For too long conservatives in the party have blindly supported the death 
penalty on one hand, while spouting support for being "pro-life" on the other. 
One view cancels out the other.

"More young conservatives like myself recognize that our broken and fallible 
system of capital punishment in no way matches up with our conservative 
values," the group's chairman, Dalton Glasscock, said in a statement. "By 
ending the death penalty, Kansas has an opportunity to promote a culture of 
life and fiscal responsibility. As Republicans - whether young or old - this is 
a smart reform that we should support."

The organization wants the Republican Party to create a plank in its political 
platform that vows to work to end the death penalty, then follow through by 
repealing the law allowing executions.

Republicans throughout Kansas history have supported banning the death penalty 
and the state itself has wrestled with capital punishment way too long. Kansas 
repealed the death penalty the 1st time in 1907, then reinstated it in 1935. 
The death penalty was struck down again in 1976 and then reinstated again in 
1994. No execution has been carried out here since 1965.

It's not only life or death that should concern conservatives. The death 
penalty is also fiscally irresponsible.

Study after study has shown the death penalty is more costly to taxpayers than 
putting someone in prison for life with no chance of parole. The Republican 
Party is the one we look to take care of our state funds and spend them 
responsibly. The death penalty should be at the top of their list of cuts.

But as we saw this last legislative session, Kansas Republicans aren't the 
responsible party of the past. They would rather push for the death penalty as 
a misguided "tough on crime" stance that really does nothing to cut crime or 
protect society.

Rep. J.R. Claeys, R-Salina, used a modern social media tool, Twitter, to voice 
the tired old rhetoric: "(College Republicans) want cop killers to have a shot 
at adding child rape to their record," Claeys tweeted, adding a hashtag that 
said "#over my dead body."

One look at that statement and we know voices such as Claeys are simply talking 
loud without concern for making much sense.

It's time to make room for new, more reasonable voices, like the young people 
speaking up on our college campuses. Here's hoping they'll soon reach the age 
where they can run for public office, and in the meantime, the rest of the 
Republican Party will grow up.

(source: The Hutchinson News)






OKLAHOMA----impending execution

Susan Sarandon near tears as she considers the death of convicted killer


Susan Sarandon fought back tears during a recent taping of U.S. TV show DR. 
PHIL as she imagined losing her battle to keep a death row inmate in Oklahoma 
alive. The actress, who played anti-death sentence advocate Sister Helen 
Prejean in Dead Man Walking, is among the activists fighting to stop officials 
from killing Richard Glossip next month (Sep15).

She agreed to talk to TV therapist Dr. Phil McGraw about Glossip's plight as 
part of an episode of his show which will air in America on Monday (31Aug15), 
and when the host asked her to imagine how she'd feel the morning after the 
convicted killer is terminated, she teared up and said, "I'll feel ashamed and 
sad for us all, not just for him. I mean it's hard to even put an animal down, 
but to put a man down, it's just not the way we should be living our lives."

Glossip was handed the death penalty in 1988 for his part in the death of a man 
in an Oklahoma motel. Another man confessed to the baseball bat murder, but 
told investigators that Glossip, the motel's handyman, had paid him to commit 
the murder.

Sarandon has added her name to a petition to keep Glossip alive, and she's 
hoping Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin will cancel plans to give the death row 
inmate a lethal injection on 16 Sept (15).

She tells People magazine, "We're hoping that the governor will give a stay and 
ask for a clemency hearing so they can look at this information that hasn't 
really been looked at before. "The only thing linking Richard Glossip to the 
murder is the testimony of the murderer, who was 19 at the time, and gave 8 
statements that all contradict each other... There's no physical evidence or 
motive linking him to the crime. "In Oklahoma alone, of the 10 people that have 
been exonerated so far, four of them were based on the discrediting of a 
snitch, and we feel that's what's happening in this case."

Governor Fallin recently released a statement insisting she would not delay 
Glossip's execution, prompting the Oscar winner to tell Sky News, "The governor 
of Oklahoma is just a horrible person - and a woman, so it's even more 
discouraging." Sarandon has since apologized for the comments, stating, "I got 
very emotional about it and I feel that she's doing a horrible thing but I 
don't know that she's a horrible person."

(source: philly.com)






COLORADO:

Dexter Lewis gets life sentence for Fero's Bar massacre----Jury decides on life 
in prison after second phase of sentencing


When a Denver jury on Thursday spared a convicted mass killer the death 
penalty, a confused silence enveloped the courtroom. Dexter Lewis, who stabbed 
5 people to death in 2012, will spend the rest of his life in prison. But the 
complex wording on the verdict forms that the judge read initially caused 
quizzical looks instead of tears or smiles.

Attorneys sat stoically at their tables, the family of one of the victims 
quietly bowed their heads and Lewis stared down at his hands.

His family ran out into the hallway. The 1st thing to break the silence in the 
courtroom - unclear whether it was joy or anger - was the sound of their 
screams. Only after the judge thanked the jury for their service did the abrupt 
conclusion of the 6-week trial become abundantly clear.

Almost 3 years after Lewis joined in on a robbery that spiraled into a gruesome 
massacre, the case came to a blunt and dazed ending.

After deliberating for less than 3 hours Thursday, at least 1 member of the 
jury of 10 women and 2 men found that the details of Lewis' life that suggested 
mercy - including chronic abuse and neglect - outweighed the heinous details of 
the crime that suggested death.

That finding means Denver District Judge John Madden IV will sentence Lewis, 
25, to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the murders of 5 
people at Fero's Bar & Grill.

Young Suk Fero, 63; Daria M. Pohl, 21; Kellene Fallon, 44; Ross Richter, 29; 
and Tereasa Beesley, 45, were killed in the attack on Oct. 17, 2012.

"Nobody is walking away a winner or loser today," chief deputy district 
attorney Joe Morales said after the verdict was read. "There are no winners in 
these cases."

Lewis' sentence is the final 1 handed down in connection to the attack.

Brothers Joseph and Lynell Hill planned the robbery before Lewis joined. The 2 
were charged with similar counts and accepted plea agreements, agreeing to 
cooperate with prosecutors.

Joseph Hill, who was sentenced to life in prison without parole, violated his 
plea agreement and refused to testify during Lewis' trial. He previously had 
stated that he wants to withdraw his plea, but prosecutors do not appear 
willing to grant the request.

Lynell Hill, sentenced to 70 years in prison, was the 1st witness called and 
testified that Lewis fatally stabbed all 5 victims.

A 4th man connected to the crime, Demarea Harris, also testified during the 
trial. Harris was working as a confidential informant for the Bureau of 
Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives at the time of the attack and 
reported it to his handlers hours later. He was never charged or arrested in 
the case.

After the jury filed out of the courtroom Thursday, defense attorneys embraced 
and patted Lewis on the back. Morales spoke in hushed tones with family members 
of the victims.

He held one woman's hand as they spoke.

For the 2nd time in the same month, a mass murderer was spared the death 
penalty in the state. No jury in Colorado has sentenced a defendant to death 
since 2009.

But unlike the Aurora theater shooting trial, which also ended in a life 
sentence for the gunman, jurors in this case stopped one step short of 
completing all 3 phases of the sentencing hearing.

Lewis was convicted Aug. 10 of 1st-degree murder for all 5 victims, launching 
the case into the sentencing hearing.

Jurors quickly completed the 1st phase of the hearing by finding that the 
details of the crime were so horrible they could warrant a death sentence. But 
during the past week, as part of the 2nd phase, defense attorneys presented 
details of the abuse Lewis suffered even before his birth.

His mother, Tammesa Jones, drank heavily during her pregnancy and hit her 
stomach while she was pregnant with Dexter. Lewis' father, a well-known member 
of the Crips, was shot and killed in a gang-related attack in early 1994.

As a child, Lewis watched his stepfather at the time, Phillip Nash, beat his 
mother, Jones said. He listened as Jones was sexually assaulted in the next 
room.

Lewis' mother testified that she routinely hit her young son - often with a 
closed fist.

During his closing arguments Thursday, defense attorney Christopher Baumann 
leaned heavily on testimony from Lewis' family about the abuse he experienced 
as a child, coupled with expert testimony about the long-term impacts of such 
abuse.

"Some may think that this is an excuse," Baumann said, "but which of these life 
stories would anyone take as their own?"

Baumann urged the jury to look at a photograph of a young Lewis smiling with 
other children at a summer barbecue. He asked them to look into the eyes of a 
young boy who, just hours after the photograph was taken, would be bloodied and 
beaten by his mother.

But Morales asked the jury to look at a different photograph.

He asked them to look at the autopsy photo of Daria Pohl. She and the rest of 
the victims died with their eyes open - alert and screaming.

Morales forcefully rejected the defense attorney's plea for mercy for Lewis. He 
detailed the multiple stab wounds on each of the victims and the brutality of 
the crime.

"What could possibly mitigate that?" he asked the jury.

Morales ticked off what Lewis' family glowingly described as his many roles: 
artist, musician, church leader.

"He is also a killer of 5 innocent victims. He is Dexter Lewis," Morales said. 
"You can add up the stab wounds. You can add up the pints of blood."

Had the case reached the 3rd and final phase of the sentencing, the victims' 
families would have testified about how the deaths of their loved ones changed 
their lives.

Many of those families were not at the courthouse when the decision was read. 
Pohl's family gathered at their home as the news came down. Her mother, Zinaida 
Pohl, declined to speak Thursday evening when reached by phone.

After the verdict was read, Morales said he still believes death was the 
appropriate sentence in this case.

"We have no regrets about what we've done in this case or what we sought in 
this case. There are cases that are going to come across our community where 
the death penalty is the appropriate penalty. It is one that needs to be 
sought," Morales said. "And if the jury does not decide unanimously that it is 
the right penalty, we respect that."

Morales and deputy district attorney Matt Wenig thanked the jurors for their 
service.

8 of the jurors left in a group and were escorted out of the courthouse by 3 
sheriff's deputies, and the jurors who left individually also had a deputy 
escort. All refused to speak to the media.

Defense attorneys also declined to comment Thursday.

A group of Lewis' family members came out of the courthouse together, and one 
woman gave a loud "whoop!" but did not stop to talk with reporters.

Attorneys and Lewis will return to the courthouse at 10 a.m. Friday to set a 
date for a formal sentencing hearing. On that date, the judge will formally 
impose the sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The victims

Ross Richter, 29, of Overland Park, Kan., had worked as a river ranger for the 
Bureau of Land Management since 2009. "You always smiled when you saw him, no 
matter what mood you were in," park ranger Teri Parvin said.

Kelline Fallon, 45, was known affectionately as "crazy Kelly" because she liked 
to make people laugh by acting silly. A regular patron at the bar, she stayed 
in a motel in the area and worked assorted jobs, friends said.

Tereasa Beesley, 45, grew up in the eastern Montana town of Sidney and recently 
had bought the Maxim Lounge, about 4 miles from Fero's. She left behind a 
daughter who was 15 and a son who was 20.

Young Suk Fero, 63, owned the bar. "Customers were her life. They were her 
friends - people she knew and trusted," her estranged husband, Danny Duane 
Fero, said. "She didn't have a mean bone in her body."

Daria "Dasha" Pohl, 22, worked at the Holiday Inn near the bar. She was a 
sophomore at Metropolitan State University of Denver and planned to transfer to 
the University of Colorado Denver to pursue a business degree.

(source: Denver Post)

**********

Dexter Lewis verdict sends a message on Colorado's death penalty


For the 2nd time this summer, a first-rate team of Colorado prosecutors could 
not secure a death sentence for the perpetrator of crimes of almost 
indescribable horror.

Dexter Lewis, like James Holmes, will spend the rest of his life behind bars 
instead. Never mind that he is guilty of stabbing 5 people to death 3 years ago 
in an orgy of utter depravity. 1 or more jurors obviously concluded that his 
woefully sad and painful childhood made him an inappropriate candidate for 
capital punishment.

This is no criticism of the jury. That conclusion is entirely defensible and 
perhaps even predictable - just as it was always plausible that defense 
attorneys would convince at least one juror in Holmes' trial that he was too 
mentally ill to be put to death.

Moreover, a death sentence for Lewis - a black man - would have raised equity 
questions after Holmes, who is white, was able to secure life without parole.

But if both verdicts in those cases are reasonable, what do they say about the 
death penalty statute in Colorado?

They say that it's in tatters.

They say a prosecutor would have to be very reckless to seek the death penalty 
anytime soon in this state.

They say it's time to rethink whether we should have such a sentence on the 
books.

There will never be crimes any worse than those committed by Holmes and Lewis. 
There may be crimes that are their equal in cruelty, but how often are they 
likely to occur? And why should those criminals be put to death if Holmes and 
Lewis were not?

Is the death penalty really only for people who commit crimes of similar 
magnitude who are neither mentally ill nor the product of childhood abuse? How 
often do such monsters come around?

The death penalty in Colorado has effectively expired. And it didn't happen 
because of bleeding-heart lawmakers or activist judges. It happened because 
juries themselves wanted no part of it.

(source: Denver Post Editorial Board)

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

There are too few arguments left in favor of death penalty----2 juries in 
horrific mass murder trials have spoken: The death penalty doesn???t fly in 
Colorado

The death-penalty conversation we have been promised in Colorado may be over 
before it has had a chance to begin.

What else is there to think after a jury rejects the death penalty for 
convicted mass murderer Dexter Lewis only weeks after another death-qualified 
jury rejected the penalty for convicted mass murderer James Holmes?

If Lewis and Holmes don't get death, who does? It's with that question - and 
with the near-certain answer - that the conversation almost certainly has to 
end.

A jury decided that Holmes was too mentally ill for the state to execute. And a 
separate jury found that Lewis's upbringing was so violent that the state 
couldn't reasonably execute him for his own violent crimes.

Both juries had voted unanimously to convict. But neither jury could make the 
necessary unanimous decision to execute.

If you were surprised in either case - and many were stunned by the Holmes 
decision - you may not have weighed just how hard it is for a juror, a person 
not unlike you or me, to have to make a life-or-death judgment. Now think how 
much harder it is to get 12 people to agree.

What is increasingly clear is how few arguments are left to make in favor of 
the death penalty (and I say this, admittedly, as a long-time opponent). 
Colorado has executed one person in the past 48 years. It currently has 3 
people on death row. There's no deterrence argument left, if there ever was 
one. For that matter, it's hard to see where there???s a justice argument left.

It's a punishment that is used so rarely - with decades-long waits on death row 
for the few assigned there - that any execution now seems to be little more 
than random, an accident of time or place. And a random punishment, as Supreme 
Court Justice Steve Breyer recently wrote, can't, by definition, be just. He 
called it "the antithesis of justice."

We're told that the ultimate penalty is reserved in Colorado for the ultimate 
crimes. Obviously, these cases qualify. There won't be more horrifying crimes. 
The Aurora theater shootings unsettled not just our community, but an entire 
nation. Lewis, meanwhile, was convicted of stabbing to death 5 people in a 
robbery gone terribly wrong at Fero's Bar and Grill in Denver. According to 
testimony from others in the gang, Lewis went down the line, stabbing the owner 
and 4 customers as they were held at gunpoint because he was afraid they would 
be witnesses against him. And then the robbery crew burned the place down to 
cover up their crime - one, we're told, that netted $170.

The bar wasn't far from my house. I must have passed it hundreds of times, and 
each time I looked at its boarded-up door and windows, I couldn't help but 
imagine the horror of those deaths that took place inside.

But the jury was asked to weigh mitigating circumstances against the weight of 
the crimes. And so in the 2nd phase of the sentencing procedure, the jurors 
were told by Lewis' mother of how she beat him as a child, as a toddler, as an 
infant. Of how he was hit with a 5-pound barbell.

It's a strange thing to be asked to do - to measure the crimes Lewis committed 
against the crimes committed against him. At what point should abuse as a child 
translate into life in prison instead of the death penalty? What juror should 
be forced to make that decision? Which of us is even remotely qualified?

John Hickenlooper made that decision himself in the case of Nathan Dunlap, 
granting him a "temporary reprieve" rather than letting an execution go 
forward. He didn't say that Dunlap deserved any form of mercy. He wouldn't even 
bring himself to use Dunlap's name. Hickenlooper said his problem was with the 
system of capital punishment and whether it delivers the justice that it 
promises. He said you can't have an imperfect system and also have justice.

The imperfections are there for all to see, in matters of race, gender and 
class. It's no wonder that only 7 states executed anyone last year. The botched 
execution in Oklahoma of Clayton Lockett led the Nebraska legislature, of all 
places, to end the death penalty there, even overriding a governor's veto to 
make it happen.

The arguments in Nebraska were familiar. The long, expensive appeals process. 
The DNA tests freeing those wrongly convicted decades ago. The stories of 
pharmaceutical companies getting out of the death business - leaving some 
states forced to buy the lethal-injection cocktail from a London middleman who 
shared space with a driving school.

We don't know what arguments were made in those 2 Colorado jury rooms. We do 
know, though, where the arguments led. And we can now guess, after the 2 
verdicts in 2 different jurisdictions in 2 very different cases, how the 
argument will end.

(source: mike Littwin, The Colorado Independent)

*********

2 Colorado juries reject death penalty in a month: Will Colorado ever execute a 
criminal again?


2 Colorado juries have rejected the death penalty for mass murderers in a 
single month. Add to that the governor's controversial decision to grant 
clemency to the last killer who was supposed to be executed, and it begs a 
question: Will Colorado ever use the death penalty again?

Jurors in Arapahoe County, the only Colorado County that currently has killers 
awaiting the death penalty, could not unanimously agree to sentence the Aurora 
movie theater gunman to die by lethal injection. Instead, the man who killed 12 
people and wounded 70 others during a movie premiere was sentenced to 12 
lifetimes in prison plus 3,318 years -- one of the longest prison terms in 
history.

Just days later, a Denver County jury decided that mitigating factors were 
sufficient to stop the process in pursuit of the death penalty for the man who 
stabbed 5 people to death in a bar that was subsequently set on fire. The 
mitigating factors included an abusive childhood.

"The question everybody is asking is if these cases didn't justify handing out 
the death penalty, executing somebody, what case could possible merit that?" 
said former Douglas County judge Jim Miller.

Miller says concerns ranging from the cost of trying a death penalty case to 
morality are fueling opposition.

"I think a combination of those factors make it very unlikely that you'll 
anyone executed in Colorado again," said Miller.

Yet, just last month, a poll found Colorado voters wanted death, 2-to-1, in the 
theater shooting case.

"I think it's worth a conversation, but the idea that Coloradans have moved on 
from the death penalty is not accurate," said Arapahoe district attorney George 
Brauchler, who prosecuted the theater shooting case.

Under Colorado law, juries must unanimously agree to impose death sentences. In 
the theater case, 1 juror was steadfast against the death penalty and at least 
1 juror sided with Lewis' defense team's presentation of mitigating factors.

The Colorado legislature last tried to repeal the death penalty in 2013. 
Supporters of repeal argued that the death penalty is applied unfairly and 
arbitrarily. But the bill died in committee as Democratic lawmakers wavered on 
doing away with capital punishment. Governor Hickenlooper, a fellow Democrat, 
had signaled he might veto the bill. His office had issued a statement saying, 
"the governor has conflicting feelings about the death penalty. Those feelings 
are still unresolved."

Death penalty facts:

No Denver jury has sentenced someone to death since 1986.

Colorado has not executed anyone since 1997.

State law requires the Colorado Supreme Court to review all death sentences and 
defense appeals typically last more than a decade. Afterward, the court that 
oversaw the case must issue a death warrant indicating the week in which the 
lethal injection would occur.

Colorado law dictates that the death penalty can only be carried out by means 
of a "continuous intravenous injection of a lethal quantity of sodium 
thiopental or other equally or more effective substance."

3 other convicted killers are currently awaiting executions in Colorado, but 
they were all sentenced between 5 and 20 years ago.

Sir Mario Owens: A jury sentenced Sir Mario Owens to death on June 16, 2008 for 
the 2005 ambush murders of Vivian Wolfe and her fiance, Javad Marshall-Fields, 
who were gunned down in their car at an Aurora intersection. Javad 
Marshall-Fields was scheduled to testify against Owens' friend Robert Ray.

Robert Ray: A jury sentenced Robert Ray, a 23-year-old drug dealer, to death on 
June 8, 2009, for planned and ordering the killings of Javad Marshall-Fields 
and his fiancee Vivian Wolfe.

Nathan Dunlap: He was sentenced to death in 1996 for shooting to death four 
employees at an Aurora Chuck E. Cheese's restaurant in 1993. In May 2013, 
Dunlap was 3 months from a scheduled execution when Gov. John Hickenlooper 
granted him a controversial "temporary reprieve." In a move that outraged 
Dunlap's victims, the governor said, "Colorado's system of capital punishment 
is imperfect and inherently inequitable." While it's unlikely that Hickenlooper 
will reconsider executing Dunlap, a future governor could agree to carry out 
the execution.

(source: thedenverchannel.com)






USA:

Former chief justice Norman Fletcher speaks out against death penalty at Rotary


When the state executes a criminal, it is doing the same thing the accused did 
in the first place and takes the life of someone "created in the image of God."

Those were the words of former Georgia Chief Justice Norman Fletcher as he 
explained to the Rome Rotary Club on Thursday why the death penalty should be 
abolished nationwide.

The death penalty is "morally and spiritually indefensible," Fletcher told the 
club, and he has been working for more than a decade to stop it.

The death penalty has no long-term deterrent effect, makes no business sense 
and is not fairly and consistently applied, Fletcher argued.

In Georgia, death penalty cases take up 10 % of all court resources but 
represent less than 1/10 of 1 % of all court filings.

A sentence of life without parole costs much less, he said.

2 cases in Georgia heard by the U.S. Supreme Court played large roles in the 
handling of death penalty cases nationwide.

In 1972 case, Furman v. Georgia, a decision by the federal court requiring some 
consistency in applying the death penalty, led to a 4-year hiatus in 
executions.

Guidelines established in Gregg v. Georgia in 1976 restarted the execution 
process again.

Fletcher said when he served on the bench he was shocked to see the legal 
representation many people received in death penalty cases, particular the 
poor.

Fletcher said at one time he supported the death penalty in extreme cases, but 
his mind was changed after "much thought and prayer."

Part of his reasoning came about because of the inequality of the defense 
available to the poorest Americans.

"Lawyers fell asleep, some were prejudiced against their clients, and sometimes 
civil attorneys who never tried a case were appointed," Fletcher said.

In the U.S., 18 states and the District of Columbia have no death penalty, 
Fletcher said. 3 states never had it. Connecticut's high court struck down the 
death penalty there last week.

"I, too, believe it is time we quit tinkering with the machinery of death and 
totally abolish this barbaric system," Fletcher said.

He was partially drawing on a quote from U.S. Supreme Court Justice Harry A. 
Blackmun, who in 1994 wrote: "From this day forward, I no longer shall tinker 
with the machinery of death." Blackmun was the lone dissenter when the high 
court refused to hear the appeal of a man on death row in Texas.

Fletcher gave a similar speech when he received the Gideon's Promise Award 
earlier this year in Atlanta.

When asked by a club member if he thinks the death penalty will be abolished in 
his lifetime, Fletcher initially joked: "I think so. I plan to live a long 
time."

While he said he would prefer to see the death penalty erased legislatively, he 
predicted the U.S. Supreme Court would strike it down sooner than later.

Justice Anthony Kennedy has already said the death penalty is cruel and unusual 
punishment and will like likely be the swing vote should the high court issue a 
ruling.

Ultimately, Fletcher said, it is better to use the money being funneled into 
death penalty cases to improve people's lives, better our educational system 
and support programs to keep people away from drug abuse and alcoholism.

(source: northwestgeorogianews.com)