[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, VA., N.C., LA., KAN., USA

[Rick Halperin]

April 8


TEXAS:

Video Examines Extraordinary Racial Bias in TX Death Penalty Case on Final 
Appeal to U.S. Supreme Court


A newly-revised video about one of the most extraordinary cases of racial bias 
in a death penalty case was released today by attorneys for Texas death row 
prisoner Duane Buck. Mr. Buck is an African-American man who was sentenced to 
death after his own lawyer introduced "expert" testimony and an "expert" report 
stating that Mr. Buck was more likely to be dangerous in the future because he 
is Black. His case, Buck v. Stephens, is now on appeal to the U.S. Supreme 
Court and is expected to be conferenced on April 22, 2016.

"This case offers the United States Supreme Court a critically important 
opportunity to reaffirm the fundamental principle that racial bias has no place 
in the administration of criminal justice," said Christina Swarns, Director of 
Litigation at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. and Counsel of 
Record for Petitioner in Buck v. Stephens. "By ensuring that the courts do not 
turn a blind eye to the explicit racial discrimination in Mr. Buck's case, the 
Supreme Court ensures the integrity of not only Mr. Buck's sentence but the 
criminal justice system overall."

Narrated by former Texas Governor Mark White, the video demonstrates how Mr. 
Buck's case exemplifies the concerns raised by people throughout the country 
about the fairness of the American criminal justice system. The injustice of 
Mr. Buck's case is described through a series of powerful interviews with 
leading figures in the Texas civil rights movement, state politicians, the 
surviving victim in the case, one of the trial prosecutors and Mr. Buck's 
family members, all of whom call for a new, fair sentencing hearing free of 
racial bias.

A Broken Promise in Texas: Race, the Death Penalty and the Duane Buck Case can 
be accessed here: 2-minute version: https://youtu.be/-ev67uDm5D4 10-minute 
version: https://youtu.be/TzjVcuKKqZY

Mr. Buck was condemned to death in 1997 after his own trial attorneys 
introduced testimony and a report from a psychologist, Dr. Walter Quijano, 
stating that Mr. Buck was more likely to be dangerous in the future because he 
is Black. Under Texas' law, a death sentence can only be imposed if the 
prosecutor can prove future dangerousness to the jury. In Mr. Buck's case, the 
prosecutor relied on this "defense evidence" to argue that the jury should find 
Mr. Buck a future danger. The jury agreed and Mr. Buck was therefore sentenced 
to death. (cert petition, pp. 4-6; the link to the cert petition is at end of 
press release)

Shockingly, Mr. Buck's trial counsel presented the race-as-dangerousness 
evidence to the jury and never objected to the prosecutor's questions or 
arguments about that testimony. Mr. Buck's initial appellate counsel never 
challenged Mr. Buck's trial counsel's conduct on appeal. Because of this 
succession of severely deficient lawyers, Mr. Buck's current counsel argues 
that his Sixth Amendment right to the effective assistance of counsel at trial 
was violated.

In 2000, then-Texas Attorney General (now U.S. Senator) John Cornyn admitted 
that Dr. Quijano's testimony linking race to dangerousness was 
unconstitutional. The Attorney General's office identified seven cases, 
including Mr. Buck's, where-because of Dr. Quijano's testimony-new, fair 
capital sentencing hearings were required. Texas promised to admit error in 
each of these cases. The State kept its promise, ensuring new sentencing 
hearings for all the identified defendants, in every case except Mr. Buck's. 
(cert petition, pp. 8-9)

Texas has never offered a valid explanation for its failure to keep its promise 
to admit that Duane Buck's capital sentencing hearing was rendered 
unconstitutional by the admission of racially-biased testimony. Texas 
prosecutors have stated that notwithstanding their promise, Mr. Buck's case is 
different from the other six because Dr. Quijano was a defense witness in Mr. 
Buck's case. However, Dr. Quijano was also a defense witness in two of the 
other cases (Carl Henry Blue and John Avalos), and Texas kept its promise, 
conceded constitutional error and allowed new, fair sentencing trials for both 
of those defendants. Consequently, Texas has never offered an accurate 
explanation for its failure in Mr. Buck's case to concede the 
unconstitutionality of the racially-biased expert testimony and waive its 
procedural defenses so that Mr. Buck could receive a new, fair sentencing 
trial.

Mr. Buck's case is an extraordinary instance of racial bias. Before the U.S. 
Supreme Court changed the law to remove procedural barriers to claims like Mr. 
Buck's, Justice Alito called Dr. Quijano's testimony that Mr. Buck's race made 
him more likely to be dangerous in the future "bizarre and objectionable." 
Justice Sotomayor wrote that Mr. Buck's death sentence was "marred by racial 
overtones" that "our criminal justice system should not tolerate." (cert 
petition, pp. 12-13)

As the video explores, racial discrimination has historically pervaded the 
Harris County District Attorney's office, including at the time of Mr. Buck's 
case. A study from 2013 revealed that between 1992 to 1999 (a time period which 
includes Mr. Buck's case), the Harris County D.A.'s Office was over 3 times 
more likely to seek the death penalty against African American defendants like 
Mr. Buck than against white defendants, and Harris County juries were more than 
twice as likely to impose death sentences on African American defendants like 
Mr. Buck. 
http://www.naacpldf.org/press-release/new-research-harris-county-district-attorneys-
office-was-three-times-more-likely-seek

These results are corroborated by earlier comprehensive studies reflecting that 
at the time of Mr. Buck's capital trial, the Harris County D.A.'s Office sought 
death for black defendants but did not seek death for similarly situated white 
defendants in cases like Mr. Buck's.

Approximately 1/2 the African American prisoners on Texas' death row are from 
Harris County. Disturbingly, the problem of racial discrimination in Harris 
County capital cases persists today: since December 2004, all of the new death 
sentences in Harris County have been imposed on men of color (3 Hispanic men 
and 13 African-American men). See infographic from Texas Defender Service: 
http://bit.ly/1UMGLXn

There is widespread support across the political spectrum for a new, fair 
sentencing hearing for Mr. Buck. One of Mr. Buck's trial prosecutors, former 
Harris County Assistant District Attorney Linda Geffin, has urged the State to 
agree to a new sentencing hearing for Mr. Buck, stating: "No individual should 
be executed without being afforded a fair trial, untainted by considerations of 
race." The surviving victim, Phyllis Taylor, has forgiven Mr. Buck and does not 
want to see him executed.

Other supporters include former Texas Governor White and more than 100 civil 
rights leaders, elected officials, clergy, former prosecutors and judges, and 
past ABA presidents. All agree that Mr. Buck is entitled to a new, fair 
sentencing hearing where race is not a factor. http://bit.ly/1QIZfVF

Additionally, a bipartisan amicus brief in support of Mr. Buck was filed in the 
case on March 7, 2016. Hon. Mark L. Earley, former Attorney General of 
Virginia, Hon. Timothy K. Lewis, former federal Judge and prosecutor, Hon. 
Gregory B. Craig, former White House counsel, and Hon. Sheila Jackson Lee, who 
represents Texas's 18th Congressional District in the United States House of 
Representatives, are the signatories of the brief. This bipartisan amicus brief 
emphasizes the fact that the "noxious and deeply prejudicial use of race... has 
no place in our criminal justice system" (p. 4) and urges the Court to grant 
Mr. Buck's request for Supreme Court review.

The video is produced by award-winning documentarians Emily Kunstler and Sarah 
Kunstler and the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, Inc. which is 
co-counsel to Mr. Buck with the Texas Defender Service.

"The U.S. Supreme Court is now quite literally the court of last resort," said 
Kathryn Kase, Executive Director of Texas Defender Service and co-counsel to 
Mr. Buck. "It is up to the Supreme Court to ensure that Mr. Buck does not face 
the ultimate sentence based on his race."

For additional background on Mr. Buck's case, please go to: 
http://bit.ly/1PquEKK.

Mr. Buck's Petition for Certiorari can be accessed here: http://bit.ly/1QfUfp

The bipartisan amicus brief in support of Petitioner can be accessed here: 
http://bit.ly/1UaYXJP

(source: yubanet.com)






VIRGINIA:

Death penalty on the table for man accused of Norfolk murder, sexual assault


Mike Brown and Angie Lechlitner's friendship was an unusual one. As she was 
driving one day during a nor'easter, Lechlitner spotted a young man on a bike 
who was getting pounded by wind and rain, said Janice Franklin, Brown's mother. 
The 28-year-old Lechlitner offered him a ride.

It turned out Brown didn't have a car, lived in the neighborhood and needed a 
ride to Lake Taylor High School to finish getting his GED, Franklin said.

Brown and Lechlitner would even work together for a time at the Norfolk 
Botanical Garden, where Lechlitner had a job as a nursery technician, Franklin 
said. In their spare time, they would team up to cut grass and trim trees for 
their neighbors.

Now, Lechlitner is dead. She was strangled, stabbed and raped with an object in 
her Fox Hall house in 2008. And Brown could face the death penalty after grand 
jurors this week indicted him with two counts of capital murder. They also 
indicted him on charges of object sexual penetration, malicious wounding and 
abducting Lechlitner with the intent to defile her.

Brown, now 27, faces 2 counts of capital murder in Lechlitner's death because 
prosecutors allege he killed her during an abduction and while raping her with 
an object. Murder combined with either crime makes the death penalty an option, 
so long as the defendant is at least 18 years old.

If convicted, Brown would be executed or spend the rest of his life in prison. 
Prosecutors haven't decided whether they'll push for the death penalty because 
they're still reviewing the evidence and the law, said Amanda Howie, 
spokeswoman for the Norfolk commonwealth's attorney.

Brown declined to talk about the case through Norfolk Sheriff's deputies. So 
did his lawyer, deputy capital defender Katherine Jensen.

The last capital murder case in Norfolk was against Jamiel Douglas Graves, now 
33, who murdered Phylicia Robinson in 2012. He pleaded guilty in 2014 in a deal 
that gave him a life sentence without the possibility of parole. He's at Sussex 
State Prison in Waverly.

Lechlitner was strangled in her home in January 2008, and detectives have said 
DNA and fingerprints link Brown to the crimes. Brown used to hang out with 
Lechlitner at her home, so it makes sense that police would find his DNA and 
fingerprints inside, Franklin said.

Based on the prosecution's evidence, Norfolk General District Judge S. Clark 
Daugherty at a February court hearing certified a 2nd-degree murder charge 
against Brown, sending the case to a grand jury. Norfolk prosecutors on Monday 
upped the charges, and the grand jury set the capital murder case on a path to 
trial.

Brown was charged with murder in September and extradited from Goldsboro to 
Norfolk 2 months later. His arrest came nearly 8 years after one of 
Lechlitner's co-workers found her body inside her house in the 2400 block of 
Shafer St.

An electric cord was tied in a double knot, tightly around Lechlitner's neck, 
Norfolk police said during the February court hearing. Her hands were bound 
with electrical tape. She was stabbed in the back, a wound that nicked her 
lung.

An autopsy revealed Lechlitner had been sexually penetrated several times 
before she died, said Elizabeth Kinnison, pathologist with the chief medical 
examiner's Norfolk office. Lechlitner died from the combination of being choked 
and stabbed, Kinnison said.

Detectives homed in on Brown early in their investigation after learning 
Lechlitner had given him rides to work, Norfolk Detective Richard Brady said 
during the February court hearing.

Lechlitner's mother, Grace, declined to talk about Brown's capital murder 
charges on Friday, but she spoke about his relationship with her daughter last 
year.Grace Lechlitner said she raised concerns to her daughter about giving 
rides to a relative stranger. Angie dismissed her mother's worry - Brown was an 
OK guy, she told her. Everything was fine.

"She was basically being a good Samaritan, helping the guy out," Grace 
Lechlitner said. "She just trusted people."

(source: The Virginian-Pilot)






NORTH CAROLINA:

NC listed among states with the most death row inmates


Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders have 
made criminal justice reform a key campaign issue in their party's race for the 
presidential nomination. After an early February Democratic debate dove into 
aspects of the topic, Newsweek pointed out that little separates the 2 when it 
comes to criminal justice reform.

But a difference arises when looking at the death penalty. During the February 
debate, Clinton said she supports capital punishment "for very limited, 
particularly heinous crimes ... but I deeply disagree with the way that too 
many states are still implementing it." When posed with a similar question, 
Sanders said that for perpetrators of these types of crimes, "you lock them up, 
and you toss away the key. They're never going to get out. But, I just don't 
want to see government be part of killing. That's all."

As the visualization shows, Sanders' position puts him more in line with 
Democrats, while Clinton's perspective aligns with Independents and 
Republicans. Overall, data from a 2015 survey conducted by the Pew Research 
Center indicated that while the majority of Americans are in favor of the death 
penalty for people convicted of murder, support has decreased in recent years.

In 1996, 78 % of Americans supported the death penalty, according to Pew's 
report. By 2011, that number went down to 62 %. The 2015 study found 56 % of 
Americans support capital punishment.

In the U.S., 31 states have the death penalty. In 2015, Nebraska became the 
19th state to end capital punishment when lawmakers voted to abolish the 
practice - and then voted to override the governor's veto of the measure. 
However, supporters of capital punishment in the state gathered enough 
signatures to suspend the new rule and get a statewide referendum put on the 
ballot. Nebraska voters will decide in November 2016 whether their state will 
have the death penalty.

Since 1976, 1,432 executions have been carried out, according to the Death 
Penalty Information Center. In 1999, there were 98 executions, the most in one 
year. That number has decreased significantly since then, with 28 taking place 
in 2015. This year, 10 executions have been carried out so far. The Marshall 
Project, a nonpartisan news organization covering criminal justice, tracks the 
state-by-state schedule of upcoming executions as part of its Next to Die 
endeavor. According to its assessment, the next executions are slated to take 
place in Georgia, Texas and Missouri

With a decent amount of controversy and politicking surrounding the issue, 
Graphiq politics site InsideGov wanted to find out more about the data 
surrounding death row inmates. Using data from the Death Penalty Information 
Center, InsideGov examined the 31 states where capital punishment exists and 
ranked them by the number of inmates currently on death row. Although states 
with larger populations are toward the top of the list, it's worth noting that 
smaller states like Alabama and Louisiana are fairly high up.

We've also included the racial breakdown of each state's death row inmates, as 
well as the number of people executed in each state since 1976, when the 
Supreme Court effectively reinstated the death penalty with Gregg v. Georgia 
after a 4-year pause. In 1972, the court found that the death penalty violated 
the Eighth and 14th Amendments in Furman v. Georgia, but reversed itself in the 
1976 case.

(source: Fox News)






LOUISIANA:

On death row, Terrance Carter found a deep belief in God


Those who follow capital punishment arguments hear quite a lot about why the 
death penalty is not a deterrent, how terribly expensive it is with all the 
appeals and even how hard it is on many correction officers who carry out our 
laws to kill people. Many, if not most, of the surviving victims receive no 
comfort when the offender is executed. What is less discussed is how people on 
death row can and do change, just like all of the inmates who may have been 
convicted of terrible crimes.

For the past 3 years I have visited my friend Terrance Carter on "the row" at 
Angola most months as his spiritual advisor. Over the seven years of his 
incarceration, Terrance changed from someone society wanted to throw away to 
someone deeply spiritual. He spent many hours reading the Bible, praying for 
his family and friends and for those he hurt over the years.

He would always begin his letters to me "An incredible God deserves incredible 
praise." Once he told me that before he was incarcerated, he believed that even 
God couldn't deliver him from his sadness. "I was imprisoned in my mind, not in 
a real prison. I was eaten up with cancers of guilt, shame, and many regrets. I 
was a miserable soul then, but now I feel different even here on death row."

Here is an excerpt from my favorite letter: "An incredible God deserves 
incredible praise. I pray for you and Miss Corinne [my wife] all the time. On 
December 29 my son turned 7 years old. I never seen him a day in my life. But I 
love and miss him as if I were privileged to spend every waking moment with him 
since he was born. At night he is my last thought before I fall asleep and the 
first when I wake up every morning. I wonder how he looks and would I be able 
to recognize him if I ever saw him. ... As every father, I pray my son is the 
splitting image of me but just the good part. As I go to sleep, I ask God to 
kiss my son for me."

Terrance and I would spend many hours on my visits talking through the glass 
partition, discussing St. Mark's Gospel, a verse at a time. I sometimes used 
his Biblical insights in my sermons. Each time I visited death row, I found all 
the staff, including the correction officers, most polite and helpful. The 
former warden of death row, Angela Norwood, once told me that she avoided 
learning what crime each of the then 84 inmates was convicted of. She said, 
"What I try to do most of all is to honor the humanity of each of the men. They 
are human just like the rest of us and need to be treated that way. And just 
about all of them [she said 99.99 %] respond as caring human beings."

With his own commitment to change and with the supportive environment on the 
row, Terrance was doing about as well as he could. But then for an infraction 
of prison rules he was transferred to Camp J, a lockdown place of punishment. I 
visited him there in late February and found that place that houses up to 300 
people a truly terrible place - solitary confinement for many months, even 
years, no friendly people to talk to, nothing more than what it takes to keep a 
person alive. On April 2, Terrance could take it no longer in Camp J and hanged 
himself, along with another inmate in Camp J who that same day took his life.

The former warden of Angola, Burl Cain, deserves much credit for making Angola 
a much less violent and a much more humane place. Jimmy LeBlanc, secretary of 
Public Safety and Corrections, deserves credit for his effective efforts to 
make all state prisons more humane with his strong emphasis on re-entry, 
preparing inmates to live among us when released. Somehow, however, the 
officials who manage our state prisons have not made any real attempt to move 
men out of dehumanizing solitary confinement, in places like Camp J, as soon as 
possible. Since the inmates get out of the cells 1 hour a day, the Department 
of Corrections doesn't even use the term "solitary confinement."

I will be with Terrance's family next week during his home-going, and I will 
say that even though he took his life, Terrance was redeemed. His praise for 
the "incredible God" will not die but will live on in the soul of a good man 
who once did a terrible thing.

(source: Opinion; Rev. William H. Barnwell of New Orleans is a volunteer with 
Kairos Prison Ministry International and serves as Episcopal pastor at Angola. 
He is author of "Called to Heal the Broken Hearted: Stories from Kairos Prison 
Ministry International."----nola.com)






KANSAS:

Sedgwick County DA asking for death penalty for 2014 triple slaying


A Vietnamese man accused of killing his girlfriend and 2 of her family members 
in 2014 could face the death penalty if he's convicted of capital murder.

During Vinh Van Nguyen's arraignment Friday morning, Sedgwick County District 
Attorney Marc Bennett announced that he will ask jurors to consider execution 
as a punishment option if Nguyen is found guilty of the charge.

Prosecutors charged Nguyen with the death-eligible count nearly two years ago 
in connection with the June 24, 2014, slayings of 45-year-old Tuyet T. Huynh, 
and her daughter and future son-in-law Trinh and Sean Pham, 20 and 21. Officers 
found Huynh was shot dead in the master bedroom of their home at 2207 S. Beech, 
near Pawnee and Webb.

The Phams' bodies were found in a hallway and basement bedroom. Officers who 
responded to the house after one of the victims called 911 found the Phams' 
5-month-old baby inside, alive and unharmed.

Nguyen, 42, also is charged with 3 counts of 1st-degree premeditated murder as 
an alternative to capital murder. Jurors could convict him of either 1st-degree 
or capital murder, but not both.

Nguyen waived his right to a preliminary hearing in January, according to court 
records. He was bound over on capital and 1st-degree murder charges at that 
time.

In Kansas, capital murder carries a presumed punishment of death by lethal 
injection or life in prison without parole. Jurors, however, rather than judges 
must be the ones to decide whether the evidence in a case warrants execution.

Nguyen, through one of his defense attorneys, on Friday waived his right to 
have the charges against him read aloud in court. District Judge Warren Wilbert 
entered a not guilty plea on his behalf.

"Do you wish to waive your right to a speedy trial?" Wilbert asked Nguyen.

Nguyen nodded and said "Yes" through a Vietnamese interpreter. He sat silently 
through the remainder of the hearing with his attorneys, Tim Frieden and 
Jeffrey Wicks of the state's Death Penalty Defense Unit, at his side.

Nguyen is due back in court July 5. Attorneys at that time will give the judge 
an update on the case's progress and possibly argue pretrial motions, Wicks 
said in court.

Nguyen is due back in court July 5. Attorneys at that time will give the judge 
an update on the case???s progress and possibly argue pretrial motions.

A jury trial date has not yet been set.

Progress of the case had been on hold while Nguyen received a mental exam at 
Larned State Hospital, according to court documents, but he was found competent 
to stand trial in December. Nguyen's attorneys in a March 2015 court filing 
questioned his ability to comprehend the charges and their possible 
consequences; it was unclear at the time of the filing whether that was "the 
result of language barrier, culture, competency, of a combination thereof," the 
document says.

Nguyen waived his right to a preliminary hearing in January, according to court 
records. He was bound over on capital and 1st-degree murder charges at that 
time.

Huynh's father told The Eagle shortly after the killings that his daughter, a 
custodial worker at Wichita State University, and Nguyen had lived together for 
about a year at her house but that she had repeatedly tried to kick him out. 
When he returned, he threatened Huynh, her father has said.

In Kansas, capital murder carries a presumed punishment of death by lethal 
injection or life in prison without parole. Jurors, however, rather than judges 
must be the ones to decide whether the evidence in a case warrants execution.

Nguyen immigrated to the United States less than 10 years ago. One of 11 
children, he was raised in a poor farming community in a rural region of 
Vietnam, according to the March 2015 court filing.

He remains in Sedgwick County Jail in lieu of $2 million bond.

(source: Wichita Eagle)






USA:

Judge grants new lawyers in Alfonso Rodriguez Jr. death penalty case


A judge has approved a new legal team for the death penalty appeal by a man who 
killed a University of North Dakota student in 2003.

Lawyers for Alfonso Rodriguez Jr. say the change is needed because of staffing 
and personnel changes in the federal system and the Minnesota federal public 
defender office.

Rodriguez, of Crookston, Minnesota, sits on death row for kidnaping and killing 
Dru Sjodin, of Pequot Lakes, Minnesota. Rodriguez filed what is considered his 
final appeal more than 5 years ago.

U.S. District Judge Ralph Erickson says the Minnesota public defender office 
doesn't have enough money to pay the attorneys. The case will now be handled by 
the Federal Community Defender Office in Pennsylvania.

Federal prosecutors argued against the change, calling it a "disguised delay 
tactic."

(source: Associated Press)