[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----GA., LA.

[Rick Halperin]

April 27



GEORGIA----execution

Georgia executes Daniel Anthony Lucas for 1998 triple murders


Daniel Anthony Lucas, who confessed to the 1998 murders of a Middle Georgia man 
and his 2 children, has been executed by lethal injection.

Time of death tonight was 9:54 p.m., not long after the United States Supreme 
Court said no to Lucas' request for a stay of execution. The court's response 
came about 2 hours after the originally scheduled 7 p.m. execution time had 
passed.

Lucas, 37, is the 5th inmate Georgia has executed this year. Only twice has 
Georgia executed as many as 5 people in a year - in 2015 and in 1987.

Earlier today, the Superior Court of Butts County, followed by the Georgia 
Supreme Court, said no to halting Lucas' lethal injection.

The Georgia Supreme Court even expressed its displeasure that Lucas' lawyers 
filed their appeal a mere 31 hours before the slated hour of death:

"This Court notes that this successive habeas corpus proceeding was not 
initiated until the day before Lucas's scheduled execution. Despite this late 
filing, the Court has fully considered Lucas's application on the merits," the 
judges wrote.

Lucas' lawyers, however, filed that "last minute" court challenge several 
months after they'd exhausted the usual capital punishment appeals last fall.

The State Board of Pardons and Paroles rejected his plea for mercy Tuesday, 
leaving it up to the courts to delay or stop his scheduled lethal injection for 
the April 1998 murders of Steven Moss and his children, 11-year-old Bryan and 
15-year-old Kristin.

Lucas and Brandon Rhode, then 18, were ransacking the Moss house near the 
Middle Georgia town of Gray when Bryan got home from school. The boy saw Lucas 
and Rhode through the window, so he armed himself with a baseball bat as he 
went inside his house. But Lucas and Rhode saw the boy coming, so they had 
their guns at the ready.

First Lucas shot and wounded Bryan.

When they saw his sister get off the bus and head up the driveway, the men 
moved Bryan into another room. They grabbed Kristin when she came through the 
door and tied her to a chair.

They shot Bryan again, killing him. Then they murdered his sister.

Their father, Steven, came home soon after his children were murdered. He was 
also shot and killed.

Lucas then shot all 3 several times more to be sure they were dead.

Lucas and Rhode were arrested 2 days later and both confessed.

Rhode was executed in September 2010.

Lucas becomes the 5th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Georgia 
and the 65th overall since the state resumed capital punishment in 1983.

Lucas becomes the 13th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA 
and the 1435th overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977. 
The next scheduled execution in the USA is set in Missouri for May 11.

(source: Atlanta Journal Constitution & Rick Halperin)

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

'Beyond Reasonable Doubt' at Synchronicity


Synchronicity Theatre is presenting a compelling drama based on real-life 
events called "Beyond Reasonable Doubt: The Troy Davis Project," written by Lee 
Nowell and directed by Rachel May, running through May 1.

The playwright notes that the play is based on trial transcripts, legal 
documents, photographs, letters, interviews, blog posts and published articles 
about the 2011 execution of the African-American Troy Davis, convicted of 
killing white police officer Mark MacPhail in Savannah 20 years earlier.

Artistic Director May mentions that the current show, a world premiere, was 
commissioned by Synchronicity almost four years ago, just prior to the deaths 
of Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, Michael Brown, and other high profile cases. 
The Troy Davis Case gained world-wide attention; many believed that there was 
insufficient and tainted evidence; many believed he was guilty. Needless to 
say, the use of the death penalty was and is supremely controversial.

The play is not a biography; it has several fictitious characters but is based 
on real events. The two acts are played in alternating order each night: Act I 
shows evidence pointing to Troy Davis' guilt, and Act II points to his probable 
innocence. But the entire play is shown every night.

There is a discussion following each performance, if one wishes to participate.

You may be thinking: This will simply be a dreary polemic, but you are 
mistaken. Of course the play is polemical, but it is also character driven. 
This is its special triumph. When you???re dealing with the 2 most divisive 
issues in America, race and capital punishment, there will certainly be 
passionate controversy. But the playwright is wise enough to show us real human 
beings, so we have real theatre, not just a policy debate.

The audience is not told what to believe; you are free to examine your own 
convictions, as Ms. May says, "and the very nature of truth." But can you deal 
with ambiguity? Tennessee Williams once said, "Truth is at the bottom of a 
bottomless well." If you see "Beyond Reasonable Doubt," you'll know what he 
meant.

2 scenes I especially loved: Alison (Lane Carlock) and Bob (Eric Mendenhall) 
are a couple who have been together for ten years. Alison, a former activist, 
is stirred from a depression by Lucy (Cynthia D. Barker), an African-American 
worker for Amnesty International; Lucy wants Alison to sign up and protest Troy 
Davis' impending execution. Alison, at first reluctant, agrees and then becomes 
enthusiastic. Lucy's persistence has paid off.

Bob, who studied law, is firmly against Alison's involvement and believes Davis 
is guilty. "He was convicted; the law must be enforced." Alison and Bob's scene 
is extremely well-written and expertly performed by Ms. Carlock and Mr. 
Mendenhall.

Another believable and powerful relationship in the play is seen in longtime 
civil rights activist Mary (Terry Henry) and her grandson Curtis (Stephen 
Ruffin). Curtis, a Morehouse student, believes racial concerns are a thing of 
the past. He attended Westminster, an exclusive, liberal (mainly white) prep 
school and had many white friends. Both Mary and Curtis learn that the world is 
bigger and more complex than their own personal experiences. "There are more 
things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy." Ms. Henry 
and Mr. Ruffin are excellent.

As a matter of fact, this is an outstanding cast: John Benzinger, Eddie 
Bradley, Jr., Danielle Deadwyler (an increasingly powerful and versatile 
actor), Britny Horton, and Brad Brinkley are all excellent, as are the actors 
mentioned above.

Set designer Barrett Doyle succeeds brilliantly with a set that is minimalist 
yet fluid and powerful, with moving panels and backgrounds of documentary film 
and courtroom transcripts. Here he is aided in projection design by Dale Adams.

Sometimes the re-creation of demonstrations and personal testimonies comes at 
us a bit fast and furiously, and the audience can feel bombarded. I know I'm 
being picky here; we're dealing with a subject that is both tragic and highly 
emotional. Furthermore, there are no winners in this situation, as one of the 
characters remarks. But this production is a powerful, significant achievement. 
Lee Nowell, Rachel May and Synchronicity have created a drama all too relevant 
for our times, and it will endure.

(source: Manning Harris; atlantaintownpaper.com)






LOUISIANA:

Few on Louisiana's death row are ever executed, largely owing to reversals, 
analysis finds


Louisiana, which has led the nation in homicide rates every year since 1989, 
sentences plenty of murderers to death but rarely executes them, in part 
because a huge proportion of death verdicts are reversed on appeal, according 
to a new study slated to come out Thursday.

The report, to be published in the Southern University Law Center's "Journal of 
Race, Gender and Poverty," examined each of the 241 death sentences handed down 
in Louisiana over the past 30 years.

Just 28 of those sentenced to death - less than 12 % - have been executed. 
Meanwhile, 127 of the death verdicts, more than 1/2 the total, have been 
reversed, meaning that either a new trial was ordered or the death sentence was 
rescinded. That number includes 9 exonerations.

The "extremely high" reversal rates in parishes throughout Louisiana, combined 
with what political science professor Frank Baumgartner and statistician Tim 
Lyman call "shocking" racial discrepancies, make the state's experience with 
capital punishment "deeply dysfunctional," the authors said.

The 2 published an earlier article based on their data that focused on racial 
disparities in the application of the death penalty. They found that those who 
killed white people were more than 10 times as likely as those who killed black 
people to be executed.

Their latest article homes in on the modern era of the death penalty, starting 
after the 1976 Gregg v. Georgia decision, in which the Supreme Court reaffirmed 
the constitutionality of capital punishment.

The trends the authors identified also are seen in other death penalty states, 
but they are exaggerated in Louisiana. For instance, Louisiana's rate of 
executions is 4.5 % points lower than the national average, and the rate of 
reversals is almost 10 % points higher.

"People don't realize, nationally speaking, that after you're handed down a 
death sentence, your odds of being executed are 13 %," said Baumgartner, a 
professor at the University of North Carolina who has been studying the death 
penalty for 15 years. "The numbers we see in Louisiana are even worse than 
nationally, which is amazing."

To have a death sentence reversed, serious flaws in a trial must be 
demonstrated, such as withheld evidence or improper jury instructions.

The reasons for the reversals run the gamut, according to the authors, with 
errors evident in pretrial, guilt and penalty phases. Prosecutors, defense 
counsel and even judges have been responsible for the errors, the study adds.

In recent years, the death penalty has inspired intermittent debated in 
Louisiana, particularly since the exoneration of Glenn Ford, a man who spent 
nearly 30 years on death row before the state determined he was innocent in 
2014.

At the time of his release, he was the nation's longest-serving death row 
exoneree, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

But while some states, like Texas and Oklahoma, continue a robust business in 
executions, Louisiana hasn't executed a convict since 2010. Prosecutors around 
the state have been increasingly reluctant to seek the ultimate penalty in 
recent years - in part, perhaps, for pragmatic reasons.

In East Baton Rouge Parish, there have been 32 death sentences in the "modern 
era" of the death penalty but only 8 since 2000, according to Lyman. In 
Jefferson Parish, there have been 31 death sentences but just 5 since 2000.

And in Orleans Parish, although there have been 37 death sentences since 
capital punishment was reinstated, only 1 death sentence has been handed down 
since 1997, and it eventually was thrown out, Lyman said.

Data suggest most district attorneys are now seeking death only in the most 
heinous of crimes.

In East Baton Rouge Parish, for example, there have been only 2 death penalty 
trials in the past 8 years, according to District Attorney Hillar Moore III. 
The Jefferson Parish district attorney has filed only 1 1st-degree murder 
indictment - a prerequisite for the death penalty - during the past 10 years, 
according to a spokesman. And in that case, the defendant pleaded guilty last 
month in exchange for the state agreeing to not seek the death penalty.

And in New Orleans, there is only 1 active capital murder case, that of Travis 
Boys, who is accused of killing a police officer.

In all states, death verdicts are harder and more expensive to obtain than life 
sentences. That's particularly true in Louisiana, which is 1 of 2 states where 
juries can convict on a 2nd-degree murder charge by a 10-2 vote. The charge 
carries an automatic life sentence.

Death cases, conversely, require all 12 jurors to agree in both the guilt and 
penalty phases of trial. For some Louisiana prosecutors, the higher burden of 
reaching a unanimous verdict in a capital case, and the cost of defending it 
over decades, has made the death penalty a less attractive option.

A study on the cost of the death penalty in Louisiana is pending. Studies in 
other states, however, have found that seeking the death penalty over life 
without parole adds as much as $1 million in prosecution costs alone. And 
roughly 1/3 of the money Louisiana spends on public defenders goes to private 
firms representing capital murder defendants, one reason the state's indigent 
defense system is strapped for cash.

In an interview, Baumgartner said it would be easier for states to simply 
eliminate death penalty as an option, as it also would eliminate costly appeals 
- especially because a death sentence is statistically likely to be overturned 
anyway.

"We have to look the death penalty in the eye and understand how it truly does 
function," he said. "Not how we wished it functioned but how it really does 
function. And every time we do that, it really is disturbing."

(source: The Advocate)