From rhalperi at smu.edu Fri Jan 1 09:14:29 2016 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Fri, 1 Jan 2016 09:14:29 -0600 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, CONN., PENN., VA., N.C., ALA. Message-ID: January 1 TEXAS: Texas' top criminal court halted far more executions in 2015 The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals granted an unprecedented number of execution stays in 2015, the 1st year on the court for 3 judges elected in 2014. "There's absolutely been a change, and we're still seeing where the splits are," said Scott Henson, author of Texas criminal justice blog Grits for Breakfast. An analysis of data from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice and annual reports from the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, which tracks executions and stays, shows that Texas courts halted 14 executions this year. 2 of those were later rescheduled and carried out. That's nearly twice the number of stays granted most years. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, long known as one of the most conservative, tough-on-crime courts in the nation, gave 8 death row inmates more time to appeal their sentences in 2015. That is more than double the number of stays the court has granted in any year since at least 2007. Trial courts or prosecutors withdrew the remaining execution dates in 2015. Legal experts say the increased number of stays from the state's top criminal court might be the result of its changing membership. In 2015, 3 new judges joined the bench: Bert Richardson, a former state and federal prosecutor; Kevin Yeary, who worked as a defense lawyer and prosecutor; and David Newell, a former prosecutor. But the change could also reflect the increasingly skeptical attitude of the public nationwide toward the death penalty, experts said. The number of executions in the United States hit a 24-year low in 2015, dropping to 28. Nearly 1/2 of those took place in Texas. "You're seeing a national trend show up in state-level decision-making," said Lee Kovarsky, a professor at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law who works on Texas death penalty cases. State and national polls show public support for the death penalty on a steady decline over the last decade. At the same time, the number of new death sentences and executions in Texas and other death penalty states has also decreased. Appeals court orders granting the 8 execution stays in 2015 provide something of a window on divisions among the 9 judges. Just 1 of the 8 stays was granted unanimously. All 9 judges agreed to stay the execution of Julius Murphy, whose lawyers argued that prosecutors coerced false testimony from 2 witnesses who were key to his 1998 conviction in a robbery that turned deadly. Presiding Judge Sharon Keller, who has been on the court since 1994, and Judge Lawrence Meyers, who joined in 1992, partnered to dissent in 1/2 of the stays granted this year. Meyers disagreed with the majority in all the remaining stays. In the case of Randall Mays, Keller and Meyers wrote the lone dissenting opinion objecting to a stay of execution. Mays was convicted and sentenced to death in 2008 in the fatal shooting of a sheriff's deputy. The majority of the court chose to stay his execution, allowing more time to determine whether Mays is mentally competent to face the ultimate punishment. Keller and Meyers disagreed with the majority's decision. While Mays' lawyers had shown he was mentally ill, the 2 judges believed his attorneys failed to prove he did not understand how and why he was being punished. "Mental illness and incompetence to be executed are not the same thing," Keller wrote in the dissent. In the other stays the court granted last year, lawyers for death row inmates sought clemency for a variety of reasons. Some said they needed more time to investigate new evidence. Others argued that new scientific developments could help prove their innocence. A few contended they had shoddy legal help. Shannon Edmonds, staff attorney for the Texas District and County Attorneys Association, said the new judges might have been more likely to agree to stays out of a desire to be more cautious. Since 1989, there have been 240 exonerations in Texas, according to the National Registry of Exonerations, including 11 men who had been on death row. "For lack of a better term, [the judges] might not be as jaded as they might be in the future after they see these kinds of claims brought up time after time after time," Edmonds said. But Kovarsky said the increase in stays might have less to do with the makeup of the court than with the general shift away from the death penalty nationally and in Texas. According to Gallup Poll data, the number who don't favor the death penalty for murderers grew from about 28 % of respondents nationally in 2000 to more than 37 % in 2015. In 2015, Texas courts issued just two new death sentences, the lowest since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976 after a 1972 Supreme Court decision led to a de facto moratorium on capital punishment. "I strongly suspect that the [Court of Criminal Appeals] would still rank very close to the pole representing the least hospitable areas, although the spectrum itself may have shifted a little," Kovarsky said. "I think the drift of the court is certainly toward a little bit more caution in allowing executions to go forward." (source: Dallas Morning News) ***************** Record low number of killers sent to death row in 2015 Only 2 death sentences were handed down in Texas in 2015. This is the lowest number since the death penalty was reinstated nearly 40 years ago. Texas was responsible for nearly 1/2 of the nation's death row executions this year, but death penalty cases are becoming more rare. One reason for this change is the amount of money that goes into death penalty cases. Randall County District Attorney James Farren says the judicial process is the biggest expense in these cases. That is in large part because inmates can sit on death row for decades before being executed. Juries are also more likely to opt for life in prison without parole "if they believe the person will actually die in prison," said Farren. A majority of the population still favors the death penalty, but Attorney Dean Boyd said that belief is tested in court. "You don't really know if you believe in the death penalty until you are sitting there in judgment on someone's living or dying," said Boyd. "That is a hard, hard thing to do. It's easy to have an opinion, hard to actually do. They'd better be right, and the evidence better be crystal clear." Nationally, there were 49 new death sentences in 2015. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, this is a 33% decline from the previous low of 73 in 2014. The next execution in Texas is scheduled for January 20, 2016. (source: newschannel10.com) CONNECTICUT: Allowing Retired Conn. Justices to Vote Creates Unsettling Situation We recently applauded the Supreme Court's complete abolition of the death penalty in State v. Santiago, and nothing we say today is intended to detract from our applause. Justice Flemming Norcott Jr., 1 of the 4 justices in the majority and long an opponent of the death penalty, turned 70 in October 2013. Article Fifth, # 6 states: "No judge shall be eligible to hold his office after he shall arrive at the age of 70 years, ... [except for situations not relevant here]." Even so, Norcott voted on the decision and on the denial of reconsideration because a statute, # 51-198(c), says he could as long as he heard the case before he turned 70. The Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of that statute in 2009. Justices Joette Katz and Peter Zarella dissented in separate opinions. The events surrounding the decision in Santiago show the wisdom of their dissents. In the first place, it was unnecessary for Norcott to invoke the statute. The appeal was originally argued in 2011, decided in 2012 just after the statute prospectively abolishing the death penalty was enacted, and then, after further briefing, reargued in April 2013, 6 months before he turned 70. If # 51-198(c) had never been adopted, we have no doubt the Supreme Court, with Norcott voting, would have issued its opinion before his 70th birthday. In fact, there is history to support our lack of doubt: the Supreme Court was under pressure to decide a number of cases, including one involving the death penalty, before Justice Robert Berdon retired in December 1999, and it did so. By taking advantage of the statute, Norcott voted long after his successor, Justice Richard Robinson, was appointed and confirmed. Such a long gap increased the risk that appeals raising similar arguments would be wending their way up the appellate ladder during the very time that Robinson was sitting on the sidelines for more than 18 months while the rest of the Supreme Court deliberated in their chambers and in conference. The risk became reality in the pending death penalty appeal of State v. Peeler, which was argued in July 2014, with Robinson sitting on the Supreme Court. Peeler will no doubt be vigorously arguing stare decisis or more now that the Supreme Court, with Norcott voting, denied a stay of execution in the Santiago appeal pending a decision in Peeler. Peeler would of course make the same argument if Santiago had been decided before Norcott turned 70. But there is something very unsettling about having a parallel Supreme Court for months or even years on end. Suppose that Robinson agreed with the dissenters in Santiago and those 4 justices insisted on issuing Peeler at the same time as Santiago. What then? This is to be distinguished from the situation with Senior Justice Christine Vertefeuille, who usually sits only when another justice is disqualified. Section 51-198(c), permitting a justice to vote on a case after age 70, has created a governance problem for the Supreme Court that never occurred before its enactment in 2000. That statute should be repealed. Failing that, its constitutionality should be reconsidered. (source: Editorial, Connecticut Law Tribune) PENNSYLVANIA: State supreme court upholds death penalty moratorium The legal wrestling over the death penalty in Pennsylvania seems to be on hold, for now, with the state Supreme Court upholding Gov. Tom Wolf's temporary moratorium on executions until a review of the death penalty system has been concluded. In February 2015, Wolf imposed a moratorium on state executions until the study by the Pennsylvania Task Force and Advisory Commission on Capital Punishment was complete. Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams was among other state prosecutors opposing the moratorium and the constitutionality of the action. Williams' office took issue with the fact that the execution of convicted murderer Terrence Williams would not be carried out. "While we had hoped for a different outcome, the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office respects the Supreme Court's decision," Cameron Kline, a spokesman for Williams said. "And, as always, we extend our condolences to the victims of these horrendous crimes, who will not soon see the justice that was imposed by the jury and upheld by the courts." The defense attorney's for Terrence Williams - Shawn Nolan, chief of the Capital Habeas Corpus Unit and Timothy Kane, assistant federal defender, both of the Federal Community Defender Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania - said they were pleased by the ruling. "In 300 years, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has steadfastly refused to interfere with any governor's act of clemency and today the court unanimously adhered to that tradition. Governor Wolf's action was indistinguishable from actions taken by previous Pennsylvania governors and governors of numerous other states," they said in a statement. "All of them have used reprieves to establish moratoria on executions while problems with the death penalty system are examined. The court today recognized that Governor Wolf's reprieve in Terry Williams' case fits well within the scope of a governor's constitutional authority. This decision is entirely appropriate in light of Pennsylvania's deeply flawed capital punishment system." In February 2015, Wolf granted a temporary reprieve for Williams, a convicted murderer. His reasoning was to wait until he received and reviewed the forthcoming report of the task force on capital punishment. The report will be issued by a bipartisan committee and will be a full examination of the Commonwealth's use of capital punishment. The declaration of a moratorium on the death penalty in Pennsylvania goes back to 2011 when Resolution 6, a legislative proposal by state Sen. Stewart Greenleaf, was adopted. At the time, Greenleaf indicated the American Bar Association identified several areas in which Pennsylvania's death penalty system faltered in guaranteeing each capital defendant fairness and accuracy in all proceedings. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court Committee on Racial and Gender Bias in the Justice System also determined that racial, ethnic and gender biases exist, and that those biases significantly affect the way parties, witnesses, litigants, lawyers, court employees and potential jurors are treated. Post-conviction DNA testing showed that there are wrongful convictions, even in capital cases. The bipartisan task force was formed to conduct a comprehensive study and report those findings to the governor. The Terrence Williams murder conviction goes back to the night of June 11, 1984. Williams beat Amos Norwood to death with a tire iron then set the body on fire. During the investigation and subsequent trial, it was determined that the Norwood murder was Williams' 2nd killing. Williams had been sexually involved with Norwood and Herbert Hamilton, a relationship that prosecutors pointed out he had previously denied. Hamilton was stabbed multiple times. During the 1986 trial Williams took the stand in his own defense and testified under oath that Michael Hopkins and Marc Draper, mutual friends, killed Norwood. He told the court he didn't know Norwood and had never met him before the night of June 11, 1984, the night of the slaying. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court concluded that the defendant's claim was built on perjury. In his declaration of a moratorium Wolf said the action was not an expression of sympathy for those on death row and who have been convicted of heinous crimes. His decision, he said, was based on a flawed system that was proven to be an endless cycle of court proceedings as well as ineffective, unjust and expensive. The moratorium would remain in effect until the task force has produced its recommendations and all concerns are addressed, Wolf said. State Sen. Daylin Leach (D-Montgomery/Delaware) said the governor's actions were appropriate. Leach is the primary sponsor of Senate Bill 493, which would abolish the death penalty in Pennsylvania. He is also a member of the Pennsylvania Task Force and Advisory Commission on Capital Punishment that was established in 2011. "Since 1973, 156 people have been sentenced to death in the United States and subsequently exonerated," Leach said. "The moratorium courageously issued by Governor Wolf and upheld by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ensures that our Commonwealth will not commit the ultimate miscarriage of justice, the shame of which would be borne by all Pennsylvanians. With the moratorium in place, the task force can continue to diligently study concerns about our capital punishment system." (source: Philadelphia Tribune) *************** Pennsylvania justices uphold death penalty for Point Marion man The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has affirmed the death penalty for a Fayette County man convicted of 1st-degree homicide in the beating death of a 4-year-old boy. A jury in March 2014 convicted Patrick Ray Haney, 31, of Point Marion of first-degree homicide and imposed the death penalty for the September 2011 beating of Trenton Lewis St. Clair. Trenton's mother, Heather Louise Forsythe, testified Haney slapped and kicked Trenton on Sept. 10 and would not let her take the boy to a hospital until he stopped breathing on Sept. 13. A medical examiner testified Trenton died of peritonitis after suffering a closed abdominal injury caused by battering. Haney's attorney, Jeremy Davis of Uniontown, appealed the sentence to the state Supreme Court. He argued 9 photographs depicting Trenton's badly beaten body should not have been shown to jurors as they deliberated Haney's sentence because they "inflamed the passions of the jury." In affirming the sentence on Tuesday, Justices Max Baer and Debra Todd noted Judge Nancy Vernon allowed jurors to view the photos "to demonstrate the amount of deadly force" used. The justices said they looked at the photos and found "no abuse of discretion" in Vernon's decision to show them to jurors. Chief Justice Thomas Saylor offered a dissenting opinion. "I would hold that the trial courts erred in admitting into evidence color photographs of nude, battered, open-eyed, deceased children taken during autopsies, encompassing full body portraits and facial close-ups," Saylor wrote. "I believe that such graphic, visceral portrayals of dead children create an unacceptable risk of influencing jurors to reach conclusions based on factors other than a strict application of the law to the facts." Haney is lodged in the State Correctional Institution at Greene in Greene County. (source: triblive.com) VIRGINIA: Virginia Death Row Inmates Ask Court to Keep Expanded Privileges Virginia's death row inmates say they fear the expanded privileges they recently received are only temporary and are asking a judge to forbid the state from reinstating what they consider to be "dehumanizing conditions." Prison officials overhauled Virginia's death row policies this year after several inmates sued the state. Officials granted the 7 men awaiting execution more recreation time, among other things. But the inmates' attorneys say unless the court intervenes, there's nothing stopping officials from rolling back those changes and reinstating restrictions that they argue amount to cruel and unusual punishment. Prison officials reject the inmates' claim that their prior treatment was unconstitutional. Furthermore, they've asked the judge to rule in their favor, saying a trial is unnecessary because the previous policies are no longer in effect. (source: Associated Press) NORTH CAROLINA: Mecklenburg prosecutors pared down homicide backlog in 2015 Despite a jump in killings throughout 2015, Mecklenburg County enters the new year with a smaller backlog of homicide cases moving through the courts. County prosecutors now have 79 active homicide cases, down from 146 when District Attorney Andrew Murray first took office 5 years ago. The backlog is 10 cases shorter than it was a year ago despite a 43 % leap in murders across Mecklenburg County over the past 12 months. The decrease - along with a trend that saw the average age of pending homicide cases drop by almost 20 % in 2015 - also occurred despite one of the county's 3 courtrooms reserved for felony cases being tied up with the 5-week-long trial of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Officer Randall "Wes" Kerrick, who was charged with manslaughter in the shooting death of an unarmed black man. The case ended in a mistrial, and the charges were dropped. Assistant District Attorney Bill Stetzer, head of Murray's homicide team, said his prosecutors benefited from 2 years of reduced instances of violent crime to pare down the homicide backlog. When the surge of killings began in 2015 - 60 to date compared with 42 for all of last year - he says prosecutors and police adjusted their handling of the resulting caseload to compensate. In 2014, Murray had emphasized whittling down the murder cases by importing prosecutors from other departments to get more pleas or verdicts. This year, the homicide team returned the favor. Stetzer's group took 16 cases to trial, four of them involving rape or child sex offenses. Stetzer said prosecutors took pleas in about 40 other homicide cases. In North Carolina, prosecutors control the court docket and the scheduling of hearings and trials. In 2016, with 15 scheduled court slots available, Stetzer says he has scheduled 24 defendants for trial and hopes to add up to 6 more. At Murray's request, the attorney general's office handled the high-profile Kerrick case. Murray's office accepted a plea agreement that sent Linny Barcliff to multiple life sentences for the August 2011 triple slaying on a 4-year-old girl and her parents. The child was believed to be hiding near her parents when she was stabbed to death. Before his plea, Barcliff faced the death penalty in the case. Stetzer says no capital cases are scheduled for 2016. Death-penalty cases take far longer to investigate, plan and prosecute. The trials alone can tie up personnel and court space for months. In the last 5 years, the DA's office has reduced its death-penalty caseload from 16 to 1 - Colin Latta, 38, accused of a fatal Charlotte shooting in 2013. Latta has not entered a plea and his trial remains unscheduled. Among the cases pending in 2016: -- Todd Boderick, 28, accused of the beating death of his infant daughter, is scheduled for trial in March. Boderick was to be tried last February, but the self-styled member of Moorish Nation has fired his four court-appointed attorneys and was given the right to defend himself. As of now, he still doesn't have an attorney. In 2010, Boderick and his girlfriend were charged with felony child abuse of their then 7-week-old son, but the charges were dropped. If convicted, he faces life without parole. -- Raphael White, 31, accused of the shooting death state corrections officer Bias Easley, could be before a judge and jury by late February. One of White's preliminary hearings was marred by a brawl between his brother and Easley's. Prosecutors say Easley died following an argument with one of the White brothers. -- Emmanuel Rangel, 20, accused of 4 murders in Mecklenburg County last February. A month after his arrest, Rangel became the subject of a Capitol Hill debate when congressional Republicans discovered that he received protective immigration status despite an apparent gang background. He faces life without parole on each of the counts. He is scheduled for trial in October. (source: Charlotte Observer) ALABAMA: Man accused of killing daughter wants death penalty off the table The Etowah County dad accused of killing his little girl is trying to take the death penalty off the table. Stephon Lindsay's lawyers filed new motions Thursday challenging whether lethal injection is constitutional and challenging the judge's authority to override the jury and turn a life sentence into the death penalty. Lindsay's family says he killed his daughter Maliyah as part of a ritual. (source: WTVM news) From rhalperi at smu.edu Fri Jan 1 09:15:43 2016 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Fri, 1 Jan 2016 09:15:43 -0600 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----MO., UTAH, WYO., CALIF. Message-ID: January 1 MISSOURI: Juror who voted to execute killer now hopes for mercy 18 years ago, Andrew Dazey thought David Barnett's murder of his grandparents in Glendale was so heinous that he and 11 other jurors voted to put Barnett to death. But a federal judge overturned the sentence in August. If the state's appeal of that order fails, it will leave prosecutors to decide whether to settle for a life term or seek a new hearing to try again for an execution, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (http://bit.ly/1J8kBvN ) reports. U.S. District Judge E. Richard Webber wrote that although some of the evidence about Barnett's difficult past had been presented at his murder trial, "horrors," including sexual abuse, were missed. Webber reasoned that "at least 1 juror would have determined the balance of aggravating and mitigating circumstances did not warrant death in Mr. Barnett's case." Dazey would have been that juror. "David should not be on death row," said the former jury foreman in a recent interview. "There's no way" he would vote for death, knowing what he now knows, he explained. Dazey, now 63, said that he was "very, very comfortable" with what the jury did at the time. Even as recently as 2013, Dazey wrote to Barnett in prison, telling him that although he thought of Barnett and prayed for the condemned man, his actions had been "reprehensible." But after reading Webber's opinion, Dazey believes that the majority of jurors would have decided differently "had a fraction of this information been available." That part remains unknown. Juror James Chickos said he had not reviewed Webber's ruling in detail. "I don't know if I would have changed my mind," he said. "I'm glad that the federal judge did what he did. It certainly could have made a difference." Another juror declined to review the new data, saying that she had needed therapy after the trial. The others either could not be reached or didn't respond to messages. St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Robert McCulloch's office referred questions to Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster's office, which has filed the appeal of Webber's ruling. Koster's office declined to comment. 5 different knives On Feb. 4, 1996, Barnett, now 39, used 5 knives to stab Clifford Barnett, 82, and Leona Barnett, 75, more than 20 times. He broke into their home and waited for them to return from church and brunch. They were his adoptive father's parents. Barnett then stole their car and $120 in cash. The next morning, he confessed and later even re-enacted the crime for investigators. After his conviction on two counts of first-degree murder, his attorneys argued for leniency in the penalty phase, saying he had suffered from depression, bipolar disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder from a troubled and unstable childhood. Barnett had mulled suicide at 8 and again at 15, and later overdosed on prescription drugs and once set himself on fire. Prosecutors cited aggravating factors, including that Barnett had murdered for money and the crime was "outrageously vile." After deliberating for 16 hours over two days, jurors voted for death. They found aggravating circumstances, including that the killings were "unreasonably brutal," that he "committed repeated and excessive acts of physical abuse" on each grandparent, and that each murder took place while Barnett was committing other crimes, Webber's ruling says. Trial failures Barnett's current attorneys have long argued that Dazey and other jurors should have been presented in the penalty phase of the trial with more evidence to mitigate the severity of his crime. Barnett's 1999 appeal did not detail the witnesses who should have been called. It was a failure that would dog him through years of unsuccessful appeals. In 2012, his attorneys appealed again, citing a new U.S. Supreme Court ruling. Again, they were turned down. But Barnett's attorneys asked Webber to reconsider and he did, triggering nine days of hearings in August and September of 2014. "The increased quantity and detail of the evidence presented before this Court cannot be ignored, as they are directly relevant in determining how much the scales would likely have shifted in favor of Mr. Barnett in the eyes of the jury," Webber wrote in his opinion a year later. He called the sexual abuse allegations "powerful evidence" for the jury to weigh. Dazey said the jury had heard some claims about physical and sexual abuse. But with more time and more people to work on the case, Barnett's appellate lawyers had found his biological father, and new information about alleged physical and sexual abuse. Jurors didn't hear 11 witnesses with "critically important (and potentially juror-persuading) evidence," including Barnett's mother, Shirley Pullen Acree, the judge noted. During her pregnancy, Acree allegedly drank and took diet pills so she could stay awake and "party" more. She would have left the newborn Barnett in the hospital had her friend not intervened, and repeatedly gave him away - once to a suicidal, drug-addicted prostitute with the nickname "Crazy Jane," and several times to the boyfriend of the sister of a friend, according to testimony. That man was a mean, violent alcoholic, court testimony said. In his care, Barnett recalled being touched sexually by female house guests, having his nose smashed in by someone and having someone pour dishwashing liquid down his throat. At age 5, Barnett was taken away and shuffled through a series of foster homes before being adopted by the son of his eventual victims. There were new allegations of abuse by a relative, who in a recent brief interview with the Post-Dispatch denied it. Said Dazey, the juror: "I have never read where there was so much rejection in one life." He also said, "If this wasn't a case I was involved in, I would have thought it was a fiction novel. Everybody failed to recognize what was going on here." Moving forward The attorney general's office has focused on the technical aspects of Barnett's case, rules and procedures, not the abuse. The state said Barnett's time to appeal had expired, and complained that Webber's overturning of the sentence was a "novel proposition" unsupported by the law. They also raised concerns about a flood of state and federal prisoners launching new appeals using the same grounds. Defense attorney Richard Sindel hopes that Dazey can influence politicians to change their minds about pursuing a fresh penalty hearing. "We're hopeful that anyone who could have a decision in the process would be willing to look at what the jurors thought," he said. Sindel said information from Dazey is compelling, as only jurors would know what had happened in their deliberations. He also said that Barnett "is a totally different human being than he was when he went in." (source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch) UTAH: Utah death row inmate asks judge to order his former attorney to hand over case file A new murder trial begins for Douglas Anderson Lovell, 57, center, charged with aggravated murder for allegedly kidnapping and killing 39-year-old Joyce Yost in 1985 to keep her from testifying against him in a rape case. Lovell who appeared in 2nd District Court, in Ogden on Monday, March, 16, 2015, is seen facing into the courtroom gallery where the jury was being selected for his trial. Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) A new murder trial begins for Douglas Anderson Lovell, 57, charged with aggravated murder for allegedly kidnapping and killing 39-year-old Joyce Yost in 1985 to keep her from testifying against him in a rape case. Lovell who appeared in 2nd District Court, in Ogden on Monday, March, 16, 2015, is seen facing into the courtroom gallery where the jury was being selected for his trial. Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Douglas Anderson Lovell, in court for the death penalty phase, in Judge Michael DiReda's 2nd District Court in Ogden, Friday, March 27, 2015. Lovell, has been convicted of aggravated murder for kidnapping and killing 39-year-old Joyce Yost in 1985 to keep her from testifying against him in a rape case. Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) A new murder trial begins for Douglas Anderson Lovell, 57, center, charged with aggravated murder for allegedly kidnapping and killing 39-year-old Joyce Yost in 1985 to keep her from testifying against him in a rape case. Lovell who appeared in 2nd District Court, in Ogden on Monday, March, 16, 2015, is seen facing into the courtroom gallery where the jury was being selected for his trial. Douglas Lovell -- Sentenced to death for aggravated murder. 9 months after Douglas Anderson Lovell was sentenced to die for killing a woman in 1985, he will back in an Ogden courtroom - this time fighting against his former attorney. Lovell, 57, was found guilty in March of aggravated murder in Joyce Yost's strangulation death. Two weeks later, jurors determined Lovell should be executed for killing the woman to prevent her from testifying against him in a rape case. The defendant is expected to be in court in mid-January as his appellate attorney asks 2nd District Judge Michael DiReda to order one of Lovell's trial attorneys, Sean Young, to hand over all of the papers he has gathered while representing Lovell the past 4 years. Lovell's appellate attorney, Samuel Newton, wrote in court papers filed in October that he has tried for months to get Young to give him his case file. Newton said Lovell's lead lawyer at trial, Michael Bouwhuis, had turned over his entire case - which included a large electronic file and several boxes of materials - to the appellate attorneys within days of their request. Newton said he talked with Young numerous times about handing over his materials, but the public defender never did so. Newton references a number of emails in which he asks Young for the materials, and Young responds by telling him, "I don't have much else to turn over," saying he only had the same evidence Bouwhuis had already sent over, as well as his own notes taken during trial and during prison visits with Lovell. In a May email, Young wrote to Newton, "I am more than willing to meet with you and hand over whatever you deem necessary. I just don't see the relevance of my work product notes, but if you think they are important, we can meet, discuss and [hand] over whatever you need." Newton said that meeting never happened, and he is now asking the district court judge to order Young to give him those documents. "Appellate counsel cannot be reasonably prepared for a capital appeal without reviewing prior counsel's file," Newton wrote. "The preparation necessary in this case is not minimal. ... Mr. Lovell cannot make claims about the adequacy of the defense representation or the effectiveness of his trial counsel without having an opportunity to review counsel's file." Lovell's attorneys filed a notice of appeal with the Utah Supreme Court in August, though the case has had little movement since then. In October, the Supreme Court case was stayed so the issue over Young's case materials could be decided at the district court level, according to court records. Oral arguments on the case will be held in DiReda's courtroom Jan. 13. Newton said in a Wednesday email to The Salt Lake Tribune that Young's refusal to turn over his case file has stalled the appellate process. "The takeaway is that citizens of the state of Utah would feel that before we choose to execute a person, we should ensure that he was represented by competent counsel who zealously represented his client at a trial," Newton said. "Giving that file to his appellate attorney is the very minimum standard an attorney should follow. ... Unfortunately, the jury [in Lovell's case] did not get to hear a lot of compelling testimony about Doug because his lawyer was not adequately prepared for trial." Young did not respond Thursday to a request for comment for this story. In April 1985, Lovell followed Yost, 39, home from a Clearfield restaurant, kidnapping her from her apartment parking lot and sexually assaulting her in the parking lot and at his home, according to trial testimony. After she reported the crime to authorities, Lovell began to plot the woman's death to keep her from testifying at his upcoming trial, according to testimony at Lovell's murder trial. He tried twice to hire men to kill the woman, then decided to do it himself Aug. 10, 1985. He kidnapped the woman again from her South Ogden apartment and took her to the mountains east of Ogden, where he strangled her and left her body under handfuls of dirt and leaves. The body was never found - despite an extensive search of the area by police in 1993, after Lovell struck a plea deal that spared him the death penalty if he could lead authorities to her body. After the fruitless 1993 search, an Ogden judge sentenced Lovell to death by lethal injection. But, in 2011, the Utah Supreme Court ruled he could withdraw his guilty plea because he should have been better informed of his rights during court proceedings. (source: Salt Lake Tribune) WYOMING: Prosecutor: Wyoming needs to reconsider death penalty A prosecutor who secured a death sentence against Dale Wayne Eaton for the murder of a woman nearly 30 years ago says the lingering appeal in the case shows the Wyoming Legislature must decide if it's willing to provide the resources necessary to handle capital punishment. The call came from Casper District Attorney Mike Blonigen, who prosecuted Eaton in 2004 for the 1988 killing of Lisa Kimmell of Billings, Montana. For years, Eaton was the only man on death row in Wyoming. His death sentence was overturned last year. "You keep going, and you tell yourself that this is about what the man actually did," Blonigen said. "But it seems the further we get removed from what he actually did, and out from his trial, the less and less that seems to matter," Blonigen said of Eaton. "Instead, we're tied up in all this other stuff that has nothing to do with the truth or untruth of any of the allegations made, but have everything to do with the procedure." Kimmell disappeared while driving across Wyoming and fishermen later found her body in the North Platte River. In 2002, DNA evidence linked Eaton to the case while he was in prison on unrelated charges. The Wyoming Supreme Court upheld Eaton's death sentence, but U.S. District Judge Alan B. Johnson of Cheyenne overturned it last year, ruling that ruled that Eaton hadn't received an adequate defense. Johnson said the Wyoming Public Defender's Office had tried to scrimp on expenses and failed to follow American Bar Association staffing recommendations on providing qualified lawyers, an investigator and a mitigation expert. Johnson gave the state the choice of allowing Eaton to serve life in prison or seeking the death penalty against him at a new sentencing hearing with the requirement that the state appoint lawyers for him not associated with the Wyoming Public Defender's Office. Blonigen began pressing in state court to hold a new death penalty hearing for Eaton. But Johnson ruled this summer that the state had failed to follow his order by not appointing new lawyers for Eaton fast enough. In his order last week, Johnson prohibited the state from holding a new death penalty hearing while Eaton appeals aspects of the order Johnson issued last year. Eaton's current legal team is asking a federal appeals court in Denver to rule that too much time has passed for Eaton to get a fair death penalty hearing. Gov. Matt Mead's budget recommendations, released before Johnson's order, called for the Legislature to appropriate over $1 million for the coming 2-year state funding cycle to pay for Eaton's defense in state court. Mead also is calling for $25,000 to study whether prosecutors and the Public Defender's Office are receiving adequate funding. Wyoming last carried out the death penalty in 1992, when it executed convicted murderer Mark Hopkinson. Several other death sentences have been overturned on appeal since then on the grounds of ineffective legal representation from the Public Defender's Office. Attempts to reach Wyoming Public Defender Diane Lozano and Cheyenne lawyer Terry Harris, who represents Eaton, for comment Thursday were not immediately successful. The Legislature has rejected bills to abolish the death penalty in recent years despite support from religious groups. Blonigen said Eaton's case underscores the need for the state to provide adequate support if it wants to keep the death penalty on the books. "You've got to have the resources and have the commitment to it to carry through with it," Blonigen said. "I think the Legislature has to decide do we really want this or not. If we really want it, then we have to change some things." (source: Associated Press) CALIFORNIA: Stealth juror poisoned Scott Peterson's trial, death sentence appeal says A woman assaulted when she was 4 1/2 months pregnant wanted so badly to sit in judgment of Modesto's Scott Peterson a little more than 3 years later that she lied before being picked as a juror, then helped send him to death row in 2004, Peterson's latest appeal says. The 285-page document, filed Nov. 24, also heaps blame on Peterson's celebrity defense attorney, Mark Geragos, for lapses in the sensational trial, including failing to fulfill promises to jurors that he would prove Peterson "stone cold innocent" or to call witnesses who might have debunked prosecution evidence, the appeal says. "In view of (Geragos') broken promises, the jury - not without reason - concluded that Scott was 'stone cold guilty,'" says the document, written by Berkeley appeals attorney Lawrence Gibbs. Substitute teacher Laci Peterson, 27, was 8 months pregnant when she disappeared on Christmas Eve 2002. Her husband, then 30 and now 43, said he had been fishing in a newly purchased boat in San Francisco Bay and returned to an empty house, and the badly decomposed bodies of mother and fetus washed ashore nearly 4 months later. The revelation of juror Richelle Nice's deception, combined with recent testimony from prospective witnesses ignored by Geragos, constitute new evidence warranting reversal of Peterson's conviction and death sentence, Gibbs says in the habeas corpus appeal aimed at winning Peterson's release. "It turns out that (Richelle Nice), herself, had been a victim of a crime that endangered the life of her unborn child - a crime similar to that for which Scott stood accused. Ms. Nice suppressed this information, however, in an apparent attempt to gain a spot on Mr. Peterson's jury."----Lawrence Gibbs, appellate attorney A 2nd legal team based in Oakland previously presented separate pending appeals claiming missteps by Judge Al Delucchi, who died of cancer in 2008. California Supreme Court justices could elect to weigh the appeals separately or together. Media, afforded a rare visit on Tuesday to California's death row at San Quentin Prison, reported seeing Peterson playing basketball with other inmates in a section housing those with the fewest behavioral problems. He turned his back to photographers and declined to speak, reporters said. Gibbs' appeal details 19 reasons for overturning the conviction that captivated people across the United States and beyond. Some points cover ground similar to the previous appeals, casting doubt that a certified dog with a poor track record could have picked up Laci Peterson's scent at the Berkeley Marina four days after authorities believe her husband launched his 14-foot boat to dump her body, and on expert testimony about water currents carrying bodies. "In each of these forensic areas (gestational age, scent-tracking dogs, water currents), police told their experts the result they hoped the experts would arrive at, thus introducing a form of 'expectation bias.'"----Lawrence Gibbs, appellate attorney But Gibbs delves into other areas, often blaming authorities for overstepping, and concluding that Geragos was sloppy. "It turns out that the jury deciding this case did not have the whole truth - or anything close," Gibbs said in the appeal. Geragos, of Los Angeles, initially provided television legal commentary on the Peterson matter before taking over the defense team as the case ballooned to blockbuster status. He came on strong early in the trial but jurors ultimately did not buy his theory that unidentified vagrants must have kidnapped Laci Peterson and disposed of her body in the bay to frame her husband. Nice, nicknamed "Strawberry Shortcake" by observers during the trial for her flamboyant hair dye, was asked in a pretrial questionnaire for prospective jurors whether she had ever been in a lawsuit or trial and whether she, family or friends had been crime victims. She checked "no" boxes - all false answers, the appeal reveals. In 2000, when Nice was pregnant, her boyfriend's ex-girlfriend stalked and threatened them and spent a week in jail, and Nice said nothing about it when she was considered for Peterson's jury. In fact, Delucchi, knowing the trial would stretch several months, started to excuse Nice because her job would stop paying her after 2 weeks, but she asked to stay on anyway and later bummed $1,000 from a fellow juror, Gibbs said. "Ms. Nice wanted to sit in judgment of Mr. Peterson in part to punish him for a crime of harming his unborn child - a crime that she personally experienced when (the assailant) threatened her life and the life of her unborn child," the appeal reads. Gibbs quoted from 6 letters sent by Nice after the trial to Peterson on death row, all fixating on his dead boy, including one in which she visualized what he might have looked like. "My heart aches for your son. Why couldn't he have the same chances (in) life as you were given? You should have been dreaming of your son being the best at whatever he did in life, not planning a way to get rid of him!"----Richelle Nice, in a post-trial letter to Scott Peterson "Damit (sic) Scott that was your son! Your first born. If you never wanted children you should have married someone with the same wants as you," reads one. Gibbs later obtained a statement from Geragos, who said he would have kept Nice off the panel had he known her history. "There is no way in the world I would have wanted a juror to sit in judgment of Mr. Peterson, when that juror had been a victim of the very crime for which Mr. Peterson was on trial," Geragos reportedly said. Geragos told jurors early in the trial that he would call to the stand people who had seen Laci Peterson walking the family dog after the time authorities said she was killed, but he never produced those witnesses. Geragos later admitted, in Gibbs' investigation, that he had not read a "critical police report" and said he would have called the eyewitnesses had he realized that the document undermined the prosecution timeline. "(Geragos') broken promises deprived Scott of effective assistance of counsel," Gibbs said. "Mr. Geragos' deficient representation - in which he gave an opening statement in which he promised the jury it would hear these witnesses, but then failed to call a single one of them - was prejudicial." ----Lawrence Gibbs, appellate attorney Also, a man convicted of burglarizing a house across the street from the Petersons' Covena Avenue home later told people that he verbally threatened Laci Peterson when she confronted him, Gibbs said. The burglary occurred shortly after her husband left to go fishing; if the burglar's story is true, Scott Peterson must be innocent, Gibbs said. The appeal castigates Geragos for calling a fertility doctor, whose testimony ended in a train wreck, to estimate the gestational age of Conner Peterson. The prosecution's counter-expert, using a special computation, calculated that Conner died by Dec. 23, 2002 - fitting authorities' theory. But Gibbs tracked down the doctor who invented the computation, and he told Gibbs that the prosecution's witness botched the calculation. In fact, Conner probably died Jan. 3, 2003, and might have lived as late as Jan. 5, the doctor told Gibbs, who wrote, "The jury never knew any of this." "The state's case was riddled with false evidence," Gibbs said. "(Geragos) failed to expose the falsity of this evidence, he failed to deliver on promises made to jurors in opening statements, and he failed to support the theory of defense he himself had selected." Gibbs' appeal also claims that the death penalty amounts to unconstitutional cruel and unusual punishment. California has 745 condemned inmates but has not executed any since 2006. A federal judge declared executions unconstitutional last year, but appellate justices overturned that ruling and competing initiatives could appear on the ballot next fall, one asking to abolish the death penalty and the other hoping to fast-track it. (source: modbee.com) From rhalperi at smu.edu Fri Jan 1 09:16:28 2016 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Fri, 1 Jan 2016 09:16:28 -0600 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide Message-ID: JANUARY 1 SAUDI ARABIA: Saudi beheadings soar in 2015 under discretionary rulings Saudi Arabia carried out at least 157 executions in 2015, with beheadings reaching their highest level in the kingdom in 2 decades, according to several advocacy groups that monitor the death penalty worldwide. Coinciding with the rise in executions is the number of people executed for non-lethal offenses that judges have wide discretion to rule on, particularly for drug-related crimes. Rights group Amnesty International said in November that at least 63 people had been executed since the start of the year for drug-related offenses. That figure made for at least 40 % of the total number of executions in 2015, compared to less than 4 % for drug-related executions in 2010. Amnesty said Saudi Arabia had exceeded its highest level of executions since 1995, when 192 executions were recorded. But while most crimes, such as premeditated murder, may carry fixed punishments under Saudi Arabia's interpretation of the Islamic law, or Shariah, drug-related offenses are considered "ta'zir", meaning neither the crime nor the punishment is defined in Islam. Discretionary judgments for "ta'zir" crimes have led to arbitrary rulings with contentious outcomes. In a lengthy report issued in August, Amnesty International noted the case of Lafi al-Shammari, a Saudi national with no previous criminal record who was executed in mid-2015 for drug trafficking. The person arrested with him and charged with the same offenses received a 10-year prison sentence, despite having prior arrests related to drug trafficking. Human Rights Watch found that of the first 100 prisoners executed in 2015, 56 had been based on judicial discretion and not for crimes for which Islamic law mandates a specific death penalty punishment. Shariah scholars hold vastly different views on the application of the death penalty, particularly for cases of "ta'zir." Delphine Lourtau, research director at Cornell Law School's Death Penalty Worldwide, adds that there are Shariah law experts "whose views are that procedural safeguards surrounding capital punishment are so stringent that they make death penalty almost virtually impossible." She says in Saudi Arabia, defendants are not provided defense lawyers and in numerous cases of South Asians arrested for drug trafficking, they are not provided translators in court hearings. She said there are also questions "over the degree of influence the executive has on trial outcomes" when it comes to cases where Shiite activists are sentenced to death. Emory Law professor and Shariah scholar Abdullahi An-Naim said because there is an "inherent infallibility in court systems," no judicial system can claim to enforce an immutable, infallible form of Shariah. "There is a gap between what Islam is and what Islam is as understood by human beings," he said. "Shariah was never intended to be coercively applied by the state." Similar to how the U.S. Constitution is seen as a living document with interpretations that have expanded over the years, more so is the Quran, which serves as a cornerstone of Shariah, he said. The other half to Shariah is the judgments carried out by the Prophet Muhammad. Virtually anything else becomes an interpretation of Shariah and not Shariah itself, An-Naim said. Of Islam's four major schools of thought, the underpinning of Saudi Arabia's legal system is based on the most conservative Hanbali branch and an ideology widely known as Wahhabism. A 2005 royal decree issued in Saudi Arabia to combat narcotics further codified the right of judges to issue execution sentences "as a discretionary penalty" against any person found guilty of smuggling, receiving, or manufacturing drugs. HRW's Middle East researcher Adam Coolge says Saudi Arabia executed 158 people in total in 2015 compared to 90 the year before. Catherine Higham, a caseworker for Reprieve, which works against the death penalty worldwide, says her organization documented 157 executions in the kingdom. Saudi Arabia does not release annual tallies, though it does announce individual executions in state media throughout the year. Saudi law allows for execution in cases of murder, drug offenses and rape. Though seldom carried out, the death penalty also applies to adultery, apostasy and witchcraft. In defense of how Saudi Arabia applies Shariah, the kingdom's representative to the U.N. Human Rights Council, Bandar al-Aiban, said in an address in Geneva in March that capital punishment applies "only (to) those who commit heinous crimes that threaten security." Because Saudi Arabia carries out most executions through beheading and sometimes in public, it has been compared to the extremist Islamic State group, which also carries out public beheadings and claims to be implementing Shariah. Saudi Arabia strongly rejects this. In December, Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir told reporters in Paris "it's easy to say Wahhabism equals Daesh equals terrorism, which is not true." Daesh is the Arabic acronym for the IS group. Unlike the extrajudicial beheadings IS carries out against hostages and others, the kingdom says its judiciary process requires at least 13 judges at three levels of court to rule in favor of a death sentence before it is carried out. Saudi officials also argue executions are aimed at combating crime. Even with the kingdom's record level of executions in 2015, Amnesty International says China, where information about the death penalty is a "state secret," is believed to execute more individuals that the rest of the world's figures combined. Reprieve says that in Iran, more than 1,000 people were executed in 2015. Another organization called Iran Human Rights, which is based in Oslo, Norway, and closely follows executions, said at least 648 people had been executed in the first 6 months of 2015 in the Islamic Republic, with more than 2/3 for drug offenses. Reprieve says Pakistan has executed at least 315 people in 2015, after the country lifted a moratorium on executions early last year following a December 2014 Taliban attack on a school that killed 150 people, most of them children. Only a fraction of those executed since then have been people convicted of a terrorist attack. (source: Associated Press) IRAN: The Names Of 27 Death Row Sunni Prisoners In Rajai Shahr Prison The following list is the names of 27 Sunni death row prisoners in Rajae Shahr in whose sentences have been confirmed by the Supreme Court. According to the report of Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), after transferring many Sunni prisoners of hall number 10 to other halls, all of the remaining prisoners are death row prisoner. The fact that all of the prisoners of hall number 10 in ward number 4 are death row prisoners, has concerned the families of these prisoners. These Sunni prisoners are sentenced to death on the charges like propaganda against the regime, membership in Salafi groups, corruption on the earth and belligerent, and details of their cases are not transparent. Most of these prisoners are arrested by the intelligent service between 2009 and 2010 in Kurdistan, and have been kept in solitary confinements for months before the trial, without having access to lawyer, or having contact with their families. There is a concern that they might have been tortured or been under pressure during that time. According to available information, prisoners have rejected the charge of armed protest and said that they were prosecuted because of their beliefs and attendance in religious sessions or distributing religious materials. Need to be mentioned, at least 1 prisoner with the name Barzan Nasrollahzade was under 18 years old at the time of arrest. The list below is the names of these prisoners: 1) Kaveh Vaisi 2) Behrooz Shanazari 3) Taleb Maleki 4) Shahram Ahmadi 5) Kaveh Sharifi 6) Arash Sharifi 7) Varia Ghaderi 8) Kayvan Momenifard 9) Barzan Nasrollahzadeh 10) Alem Barmashti 11) Pouria Mohammadi 12) Ahmad Nasiri 13) Idris Nemati 14) Farzad Honarjoo 15) Seyyed Shahoo Ibrahimi 16) Mohammad Yavar Rahimi 17) Bahman Rahimi 18) Mokhtar Rahimi 19) Mohammad Gharibi 20) Farshid Naseri 21) Mohammad Kayvan Karimi 22) Amjad Salehi 23) Omid Payvand 24) Ali Mojahedi 25) Hekmat Sharifi 26) Amr Abdullahi 27) Omid Mahmoudi (source: HRANA) PHILIPPINES: Death penalty and exasperation If and when he becomes President, Davao City Mayor Rodrigo R. Duterte wants more criminal courts and the restoration of death penalty. We may not be so het up about his stand on the death penalty, but we understand where he's coming from. "Rampaging man gayud ang problem sa drugs ug dili jud ma serious (The drug problem is rampaging, if it's not contained it can become a) national threat and that will give me an excuse to use the military. I will have to convince congress to create something like 30 criminal civil courts to try down cases only para mabilisan and I will recommend to congress the restoration of death penalty by hanging in public," Duterte said. While we agree that nationwide, the drug problem is on a rampage, our hesitation to support such a proposal is also rooted on our lack of confidence on the justice system. Admit it, this is all about exasperation. We have seen how the justice system can be corrupted such that the New Bilibid Prison has become the kingdom of the crooks. >From initial discoveries that high-profile convicts have been allowed to go in and out of the national penitentiary, this soon became worse as it was later discovered that rich prisoners were actually living the good life complete with sexual services and the state-of-the-art music studio, a mansion, aside from regular supplies of drugs, and a cache or arms. Now there is even a rooftop swimming pool. Who wouldn't itch to just snuff off these low life forms? But, no, we can't do that. It will anger the Church and the pro-lifers. After all, these men can still change for the better. But only if there is indeed a justice system that works and not one that allows the rich to just go on a guarded vacation that limit the number of guests to their parties. It is this same justice system that can send to the gallows the innocents, especially the poor. Indeed, a lot has to be done and only a committed citizenry can get it done. For as long as the people will let things pass, or maybe express outrage only when it's still being shown as a Senate or Congress investigation aired live on television and then forget all about it once the live coverage is over, then we will have the same justice system that will allow the rich to live their rich lives behind bars and the poor to be all stacked up one on top of the other in cramp prison cells, and be the first to be led off to the gallows. The way the moneyed are getting away with their crimes can be exasperating, but the root cause that we should attack is the impunity by which those in power are allowing these to happen. Let's focus on that. (source: Editorial Sun Star) JAMAICA: Human rights body closes doors to public - To continue giving legal advice via phone The Independent Jamaica Council of Human Rights (IJCHR) has all but closed its doors to the public. The council, which is the oldest non-governmental human-rights organisation in the Caribbean, no longer has an office that is open to the public but now only accepts calls to give legal advice. In its heyday, the IJCHR was very active in taking on cases pro bono, which dealt with human-rights and constitutional issues. One of its most famous cases was a 2005 Privy Council appeal which challenged the constitutionality of a bill which sought to establish the Caribbean Court of Justice as Jamaica's final appellate court. As the chief advocate against the death penalty in Jamaica, IJCHR was heavily funded by the European Union (EU). The EU, which had launched a global campaign for the abolition of the death penalty, provided funding to organisations which advanced this cause. Since that time, the death penalty issue has reached as far as it can go with litigation. The likelihood of anyone being hanged in Jamaica has been reduced to zilch, and the two men who remain on death row are proceeding with what are expected to be successful appeals. Success lead to funding cuts In what can perhaps be considered an ironic twist of events, this successful advocacy of the council against the death penalty has led to a crippling reduction in its funding particularly from the EU. "We did other things; we did educational things; we did represent people in other matters - lots of court matters (and) lots of advocacy. We have not been able to get necessary funding for that ... so we don't have an office for people to go to," council member Nancy Anderson explained to The Gleaner. Although the council still meets on a regular basis, the operational functions once carried out by its administrative office have ceased. When it was fully operational, the IJCHR formed part of a legal ecosystem which advised citizens on their human rights, provided support to the legal-aid sector and made referrals to other lawyers in civil matters. The office was a place where people could go with complaints and get solid legal advice. However, that no longer obtains. According to Nancy Anderson, the scale-down in operations has left a gap in human-rights advocacy, particularly as it regards legal matters. Anderson agreed that the lack of funding continues to be a threat to human-rights organisations. "I have not done any study of it, but I think there is a gap. Some other organisations have taken up giving legal advice but we still get referrals from the individual attorneys from those organisations ..., but I really think there is a gap," she said. (source: Jamaica Gleaner) PAKISTAN: Army courts in Pakistan sentence 9 militants to death Pakistan military courts have sentenced 9 men to death for terrorism-related offences or attacks on minority Shiites, the army said on Friday. Pakistan has hanged more than 300 people since lifting a moratorium on the death penalty in December 2014, many of them convicted in closed military courts which critics say fail to meet fair trial standards. "Today, (the) Chief of Army Staff confirmed death sentences (were) awarded to another 9 hardcore terrorists, who were involved in committing heinous offences relating to terrorism," an army statement said. They include Muhammad Ghauri, a Pakistani Taliban member linked to an attack on a garrison mosque in Rawalpindi which killed 38 people and injured 57 in December 2009. Also sentenced were Harkatul Jehad-e-Islam activist Abdul Qayyum, who was linked to a car bomb suicide attack on the Inter Services Intelligence headquarters in the central city of Multan which killed 7 people and wounded 72 in December 2009. 2 others were linked to attacks on soldiers, while 5 were said to be members of the Sunni sectarian outfit Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan who had killed 5 Shiites in the eastern city of Lahore. Their trials took place behind closed doors, with no information on where or when they were held, how proceedings unfolded and scant details about their crimes. Pakistan has been battling a homegrown Islamist insurgency for over a decade following its decision to side with the US-led coalition against the Taliban in Afghanistan. Its troops have been engaged in a full-scale offensive against Taliban and other militants in North Waziristan and Khyber tribal districts since June 2014. The fight gained renewed impetus following a massacre at a Peshawar school in December 2014 in which 134 children were killed, leading to widespread outrage and a series of measures aimed at combating terror. After the school attack the government ended a 6-year moratorium on executions -- initially only for people convicted of terrorism but later for all capital offences. Pakistan also amended its constitution to allow military courts to try terror suspects for a 2-year period. Supporters of the courts say cases previously dragged on for years and many suspects escaped punishment due to legal loopholes or intimidation of witnesses. (source: Hindustan Times) From rhalperi at smu.edu Sat Jan 2 08:15:53 2016 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Sat, 2 Jan 2016 08:15:53 -0600 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----ALA., CALIF. Message-ID: Jan. 2 ALABAMA: Lawyers for man accused of killing toddler in 'ritual' argue against death penalty Lawyers for a Gadsden man accused of killing his toddler daughter in 2013 with either a sword or knife have filed several motions to prevent his execution if he is convicted. Stephon Lindsay, 38, is accused of killing his daughter, 20-month-old Maliyah Tashay Lindsay. Gadsden police discovered the body of Maliyah Lindsay in a wooded area at the dead end of Plainview Street in Gadsden on March 12, 2013 after Stephon Lindsay was arrested in connection with the child's disappearance. Relatives later said Lindsay may have killed the child as a result of some kind of satanic ritual. An autopsy ruled the child died of blunt force trauma and that a knife or sword was used in her death. Lindsay is set for trial Feb. 22. According to court documents filed this week, Lindsay's lawyers challenged the constitutionality of lethal injection and the ability of the judge hearing the case, District Judge Billy Ogletree, to override the jury's suggestion of a life sentence in a penalty phase. In response, Etowah County Chief Deputy Marcus Reid argued in a motion that Stephon Lindsey had previously been convicted of at least 1 felony involving a threat of violence. In addition, Maliyah's death, he argued, was "especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel." Ogletree on Wednesday ordered that he would hear arguments on the issues during the trial's penalty phase, if it should be necessary. (source: al.com) CALIFORNIA: Worst mass killer in OC history should continue making headlines in 2016 Scott Evans Dekraai, the worst mass killer in Orange County history, was one of this year's biggest news makers, and the case against him and allegations of misconduct in the use of jailhouse snitches is bound to continue generating headlines in 2016. A legal move to dismiss the death penalty as an option for Dekraai that was filed in early 2014 led to legal earthquake in March when Orange County Superior Court Judge Thomas Goethals recused the Orange County District Attorney's Office from further prosecuting the case. The judge concluded that Dekraai's rights were violated by the use of jailhouse snitches. Goethals laid most of the blame on Orange County sheriff's deputies in the Special Handling Unit, but added he no longer believed prosecutors could be trusted to police their law enforcement partners in the case. That prompted the Attorney General's Office to appeal, which is still pending. The Attorney General's Office argued that Goethals overstepped his authority while Dekraai's attorneys are arguing the judge had the discretion to boot Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas' office from prosecuting the death penalty. The attorneys are expecting to make oral arguments before the Fourth District Court of Appeal after the Attorney General's Office files its response to defense attorneys on Jan. 11. Dekraai, who pleaded guilty in May of last year to murdering his ex-wife and 7 other people in and around a Seal Beach salon where she worked, has been waiting for the penalty phase of his trial to begin since then. The allegations of outrageous governmental conduct regarding the use of jailhouse informants to gather information against inmates stemming from the Dekraai case has affected several other cases, including one in which the defendant was granted a new trial scheduled for 2016. Meanwhile, the Attorney General's Office has been investigating the use of the informants and is expected to issue a report in the coming year. One law enforcement source said it could be as early as January. Also anticipated soon is a report from an independent committee Rackauckas organized to evaluate the use of jailhouse informants. The Informant Policies and Practices Evaluation Committee includes retired Orange County Superior Court Judge Jim Smith, retired Los Angeles County Assistant District Attorney Patrick Dixon, former Orange County Bar Association President Robert Gerard and Blithe Leece, described by Rackauckas as a specialist in ethics law and professional responsibility. Loyola Law School professor Laurie Levenson will serve as an adviser for the committee. Then there was a recent call by top legal officials to have the U.S. Department of Justice investigate the use of informants. It's not clear if the prosecutors in Washington will take action in 2016 on the request led by UC Irvine Law School Dean Erwin Chemerinsky and former Attorney General John Van de Kamp. The Fourth District Court of Appeal has also been called on to sort out a legal skirmish in Orange County Superior Court that some say stems from the Dekraai allegations. This month, Orange County Superior Court Judge Richard King turned down four bids from prosecutors to disqualify Goethals from cases, arguing they were mucking up the court process to essentially punish the jurist for his ruling in the Dekraai matter. Rackauckas' office has appealed that ruling and sources say Chemerinsky will be asked to handle the legal arguments in defense of King's rulings. The case against Eric Ortiz, which was outlined in Dekraai's motion alleging his constitutional rights were violated, unraveled in November when 2 sheriff's officials who factored into the subsequent evidentiary hearing on the accusations invoked their rights against self-incrimination on a motion for a new trial that was before Judge King. King granted the new trial, tentatively scheduled in February, for Ortiz, who was convicted last year of 1st-degree murder. Henry Rodriguez, who was twice convicted in a double murder of a Fullerton woman and her unborn daughter, will continue his pursuit of a new trial based on similar allegations that defense attorneys weren't given relevant information about informants. Rodriguez, who was last convicted in 2000, is due back in court before Goethals in February for further arguments. Also pending in 2016 is the sentencing of Fernando Perez, the central informant in Dekraai's case. Perez claimed her overheard Dekraai's statements about his case and did not solicit information from the defendant, which would be illegal. Prosecutors are seeking leniency for Perez, scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 29 in a gun possession case. Because he's a 3rd striker he faces a life sentence. The other key informant in the Dekraai case was Oscar Moriel, who just completed testimony in the trial of alleged Mexican Mafia Orange County leader Peter Ojeda, whose trial continues in January. Moriel's attempted murder case dating back to 2005 is also pending with the defendant due back in court Jan. 8. Another offshoot of the Dekraai case is the expansion of the Office of Independent Review, which until this month was a watchdog for the Orange County Sheriff???s Department. Orange County Board of Supervisors, annoyed that they weren't getting more information about key cases such as Dekraai's, decided to expand the watchdog agency to also oversee the Probation Department, District Attorney and Public Defender's offices and the Social Services Agency. That move faces a legal challenge in 2016 from the union representing the county's attorneys. (source: mynewsla.com) From rhalperi at smu.edu Sat Jan 2 08:18:26 2016 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Sat, 2 Jan 2016 08:18:26 -0600 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide Message-ID: Jan. 2 PHILIPPINES: Government did everything to save OFW from Saudi execution - Palace The government did everything to save overseas Filipino worker (OFW) Joselito Zapanta from execution in Saudi Arabia, contrary to allegations that it was remiss in its duties, a Malacanang official said yesterday. Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. of the Presidential Communications Operations Office said all forms of diplomatic and legal assistance were extended to Zapanta since he was convicted of murder with robbery by a Riyadh court on April 10, 2010. Coloma said the death sentence on Zapanta was carried out because the family of his victim refused to execute an affidavit of forgiveness or tanazul in exchange for blood money. Diplomatic and legal efforts were exhausted to ensure that Zapanta's rights were respected, including appeals that had to be made during the trial of his case, Coloma said. The government assisted Zapanta's family members so they could visit him at Malaz Central Prison from Nov. 28 to Dec. 2, 2015 and also in November 2012 and March 2013. "So there is no basis and there is no truth to the allegations that Mr. Zapanta was not given enough assistance," Coloma said. He said consulates and embassies are required to provide assistance to Filipino workers abroad and that the form and substance of the country's diplomacy were changed to focus on their welfare. He appealed to Filipinos abroad to follow the laws of the states where they are staying and avoid criminal activities. Earlier, Rep. Roy Seneres Sr. of the OFW party-list blamed President Aquino for the death of Zapanta, saying he should have appealed to the Saudi king for clemency. The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) had said executions in Saudi Arabia are not announced. The DFA said the government did everything to save Zapanta from death. OFW advocate Susan Ople urged the government to review existing policies on blood money, considering that there were 90 Filipinos on death row all over the world and some of them need blood money. In Zapanta's case, the government was able to raise P23 million but the family of his Sudanese victim refused to accept the money as the demand was reportedly P48 million. Ople proposed the creation of a special unit to handle death penalty and blood money cases involving OFWs. She said a more cohesive and transparent mechanism and policy were needed as more OFWs in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait are on death row. OFW's remains buried in Saudi The remains of Zapanta would not be brought home to the Philippines as the body was immediately buried after his execution in Saudi Arabia last week, the DFA said. "He was buried right after his execution based on Saudi law," DFA spokesman Charles Jose said in a text message to The STAR. Zapanta's family asked the DFA for the repatriation of his remains. "We should respect the laws of other countries the same way we would like our laws to be respected by others," Jose said. The 35-year-old Zapanta was beheaded on Dec. 29 in Saudi Arabia for the murder of his Sudanes employer. However, in Bacolor, Pampanga, the family of Zapanta urged President Aquino to talk to the Saudi king so that his remains could be flown home soon. ****************** Erap to endorse presidential bet based on death penalty stance The stand of presidential wannabes in the May elections on the proposed reimposition of the death penalty for drug offenders would be among his bases for endorsing a candidate, Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada said on Thursday. Estrada, who led the countdown for New Year 2016 at Rajah Sulayman on Roxas Boulevard, said that the re-imposition of the death penalty should be included in the platform of presidential candidates. "We must all do something about the country's problem on illegal drugs. We must not allow our country to become another Colombia," he said. "This is too much. I will endorse the presidential candidate whose stand on the re-imposition of the death penalty jibes with mine," Estrada said. He said illegal drugs have affected thousands of young Filipinos on whose talents and skills the country depends. Estrada also urged all local and national government officials to join forces to control the proliferation of illegal drugs in the country, specifically in Metro Manila. Estrada said the drug menace has become so serious that it needs the concerted effort of local and national government officials. He said that illegal drugs, which have affected 92 % of barangays in Metro Manila, is now threatening the "moral fiber" of the youth. (source for both: The Philippine Star) ***************** Church leaders, De Lima slam Duterte's disrespect for human rights, stand on death penalty Members of the clergy have slammed presidential aspirant Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte over his plan to revive the death penalty once he becomes president. Retired Archbishop Oscar Cruz said he was shocked upon hearing about the plan, noting that reviving the death penalty by public hanging is against human life and not anymore attuned with the time. "This is very shocking. At this age and time, doing these atrocities, which are against human life, is a pity precisely because civilization has already moved forward. In short, they seemed to have been born too late and the times of the barbarians are gone," said the Catholic prelate in an interview. He added, "I don't agree with Mayor Duterte as far as taking human life so cheaply, so likely as if it is just getting rid of mosquitoes, getting rid of rats and the like. I'm sorry, I hope I'm wrong." EFFECTIVE LAW ENFORCEMENT Cruz said he is saddened that "there will be a candidate of this kind during this century." On the other hand, Fr. Jerome Secillano, executive secretary of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines-Public Affairs Committee (CBCP-PAC), opined that the presidential aspirant is misinformed that the death penalty prevents crimes. "Duterte is misled into thinking that death penalty deters crimes. You do not deter crimes by hanging criminals. You deter crimes by having efficient and effective law enforcers, incorruptible judges and lawyers and strict and fearless prison administrators," he said. "On impulse, it appears that killing criminals is effective. But if criminals believe that they can buy their freedom, of what use then is the death penalty? Reforming our criminal justice system is the ultimate solution to crimes," Secillano added. Duterte earlier aired his plan to revive the death penalty and the public hanging of convicted criminals in the early part of his administration if he is elected president. He would ask Congress to restore the death penalty by public hanging. NO RIGHT TO LEAD Meanwhile, senatorial aspirant former Justice Secretary Leila De Lima said Duterte has no right to lead the country because he shows no respect for human rights. If a person has no respect for human rights, De Lima, the former chairperson of the Commission of Human Rights said that person also has no respect for the law. "Digong Duterte keeps on advocating for that brand of justice. I continue to fight him because that is wrong. Hindi po tama 'yon (That (killing) is not right," De Lima told a recent gathering in Dagupan City. "I have nothing personal against Mayor Duterte. He's a fellow Bedan. But I am puzzled because despite his unlawful pronouncements, some people tend to agree with him and embrace what he is saying," De Lima said. "Is it right to have to force a criminal or an offender to eat bullets? Is it not barbaric?" she asked, recalling that she had in fact asked the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to investigate Duterte and issued to the latter a subpoena in connection with the summary killings of street criminals by supposed members of the so-called Davao Death Squad (DDS). NO WHISTLEBLOWERS She admitted that even if the DOJ and NBI believe that there is really a group such as the DDS and which is linked to Duterte, they found difficulty convincing people in Davao willing to execute sworn statements about the reported summary killings. De Lima said the latest is that a special team from the NBI has a self-confessed DDS member in its custody whom it placed under the Witness Protection Program (WPP) but the team is still gathering corroborative evidence to pin down the DDS to some of the summary killings. As to Duterte's pronouncement that he would advocate public hanging for people found guilty of heinous crimes, De Lima reminded Duterte that the Philippines has no death penalty now. Even if the Constitution says that death penalty could be reinstated, it is in the hands of Congress if this is reinstated. (source: Manila Bulletin) INDIA: Why the death penalty should stay If acts of barbarism are committed in this day and age, why should the punishment not be commensurate? Recently, we have witnessed a lot of debate pertaining to abolishing capital punishment. The detractors of death penalty term it as obsolete, barbaric and an uncivilised act unworthy of a country like ours. The law as it stands today however provides for capital punishment to be awarded by Courts in rarest of rare cases. Law is meant to protect the rights of citizens, ensure their safety, well being and treat everyone equally without discrimination. Indian law recognises the right to life as a general rule and death penalty is a remote exception to this general rule. While we as a nation we protect and respect life, we do, in exceptional cases, provide for a law which awards death penalty in cases where the gravity of an offence shakes the conscience of the society. An important function of law, and perhaps above any other, is to impart justice. The rule of law in a civilised society is linked to the concept of justice. The efficacy of a legal system is equated and measured accordingly. Are we ready? The concept of justice is perhaps a fundamental non-derogable part of natural law. The purpose of a legal system is not only to protect the citizens and tell right from wrong, but also to ensure that the people see and feel that the cause of justice will be upheld, that wrong will be punished and that punishment will be commensurate to the gravity of the offence in question. When we talk of abolishing death penalty and indulge in an intellectual debate on the issue, a question which arises is whether India is ready for such a measure. There is some strength in the reasons put forth for those against capital punishment. Those who advocate abolishing the death penalty do cite a growing international trend where a number of countries have done away with capital punishment from their statute books. However, to find out whether we as a nation ought to follow suit, one need not look too far to answer that question. In December 2012, a young girl, who was travelling with her male friend, was ravaged and gangraped by a group of 6 in the middle of a bustling metro, in a moving bus. Not only this, an active attempt to kill her is made and she is left to die on the streets. Within a few days she succumbed to the trauma. Now that the perpetrators of this ghastly bestiality have been apprehended, a pertinent question to ask would be, what punishment should be imposed that would be proportionate to the ghastly crime committed, should these perpetrators finally be held guilty? Commensurate penalty Should these perpetrators be allowed to languish in a prison for life at the expense of the Indian tax payers? What punishment would do justice to the girl who lost her life in a most brutal manner? What would serve the ends of justice for a nation whose mind and spirit has been scarred forever? What justice should be done to those who tarnished the reputation of the nation before the global community? For those who say death penalty is an obsolete measure and a relic, it may be worth noting that this incident did not take place in 1912 or in the immediate post independence era, say in 1952. It took place in December 2012. If acts of barbarism may be committed in this day and age, why should the punishment not be commensurate? The incident did not take place in some remote village in the rural interiors, it took place in the heart of India's capital city. It took place at a time when the leader of one of the largest regional parties in India goes on record while talking of rape saying that "boys will be boys, they make mistakes". It took place at a time when we talk of development and globalisation. It took place at a time when India and China are looked upon as future economic superpowers. Take another example, that of a dreaded terrorist who mercilessly gunned down hundreds of people at a railway station, in an attempt, albeit unsuccessful, to strike terror in the hearts and minds of the Indian citizens. Would it serve the ends of justice to keep him alive in some Indian prison? Is even the most liberal of thinkers contemplating reforming this terrorist? Is it worth spending crores a year to provide for his security? Will the families of those innocent individuals who were massacred get closure knowing that he is alive and well in some Indian jail, while their lives have been abruptly and permanently derailed? Will the ordinary citizen repose faith in the efficacy of a legal system which allows such an eventuality? Above all, are we willing to risk another hijack akin to that of Indian airlines flight IC 814 and another Kandahar just in an effort to keep these dangerous terrorists alive in an Indian prison? Are we willing to condemn more innocent individuals to a fate like that of Rupen Katyal who was brutally murdered by the hijackers of IC 814 while seeking the release of the dreaded terrorist, Maulana Masood Azhar? Is the liberal intellectual idealism worth all this? After his release Maulana Masood Azhar formed the Jaish-e-Mohommad which has taken responsibility for the attacks on Indian Parliament and many other terrorist attacks in India resulting in the loss of numerous innocent lives - a case perhaps for punishment to be imposed swiftly and decisively to prevent another Kandahar or another Masood Azhar from unleashing terror. Protect we must While the right to life may be respected, cherished and protected, at the same time India's sovereignty, integrity and the well being of its citizen is equally in need of protection. It may be naive to suggest that capital punishment does not act as a deterrent. The fear of death does play on the human psychology and it does have a deterrent effect. It is, in fact, a message, that India will not take these violations lightly and all necessary action will be taken to ensure that the rule of law is upheld. I recently read somewhere that a terrorist who carries out a terror attack does not fear death, comes with the mindset to die and that death penalty would not be a deterrent for him. Well, one just needs to look at the number of mercy petitions filed by terrorists such as Yakub Memon and Afzal Guru in an attempt to avoid the death penalty, which will shatter the myth that a terrorist or for that matter any wrongdoer would happily embrace death and that death penalty does not act as a deterrent. Capital punishment has its efficacy and ought to be imposed only in the rarest of cases in accordance with the procedure prescribed by law. Law has sufficient safeguards and checks and balances against misuse and the there are sufficient layers of appeal before the sentence can actually be carried out. The concept of "an eye for an eye makes the world blind" may be true in the context of private retributive acts and not where punishment is imposed by the State in accordance with the procedure prescribed by law. (source: The writer is Partner, J Sagar Associates. The views are personal -- The Hindu) BANGLADESH: Full verdict in Sayedee's review case released The Supreme Court yesterday released the full judgement of the appeals case of condemned war criminal Delawar Hossain Sayedee, delivered nearly 16 months ago. The release of the full verdict paves way for the state to file a review plea seeking death penalty for the war criminal. Sayedee, known as "Deilya Razakar" in 1971, was given death penalty on two counts of crimes against humanity by the International Crimes Tribunal in 2013. After the Jamaat-e-Islami leader appealed to the apex court seeking acquittal, the Appellate Division delivered the verdict on September 17 last year commuting his death sentence to imprisonment until death. It was a majority judgement by the 5-member bench. Justice Abdul Wahhab Miah acquitted Sayedee of all the charges but Justice AHM Shamsuddin Choudhury supported the death penalty. On the other hand, then Chief Justice Md Muzammel Hossain, (current Chief Justice) Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha and Justice Hasan Foez Siddique backed the reduced sentence. Of the 20 charges brought against him, Sayedee was given death penalty for the murders of Ibrahim Kutti and Bisabali, and for setting fire to Hindu households in Pirojpur during the war. The Supreme Court reduced Sayedee's death sentence in Ibrahim Kutti's murder to imprisonment for 12 years and awarded him imprisonment until death on 3 other charges - for murder, rape and forceful conversion of Hindus. 6 other charges were also proved beyond doubt but no sentencing followed as he had already been given the death penalty. (source: dhakatribune.com) PAKISTAN: The year of most executions As many as 301 people were executed in the Punjab last year. Thousands of prisoners on death row continue to wait for verdicts on their appeals. There are at least 5,145 people on death row. Of these, there are 42 women whose appeals are pending before the high court and the Supreme Court, sources in the office of the Punjab inspector general (prisons) told The Express Tribune. Recently, 63 appeals against death penalty were dismissed by the president. Dates of execution are to be notified soon. There are 4,213 appeals pending in the Lahore High Court and its allied benches; 743 in the Supreme Court, 124 with the president and 3 with the Pakistan Army GHQ. After the deadly attack on Army Public School in Peshawar on December 16, 2014, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had lifted the moratorium on death penalty. The first execution was then carried out on April 8 in Machh Jail in Balochistan. These executions were stayed during a month's reprieve in Ramazan. However, they resumed at the end of July. As many as 301 people were executed in 7 months. Most had been languishing in jails for more than 20 years. Kanizan, a prisoner on death row, has exhausted her appeals and is waiting for her turn to be hanged. She is currently being held at Lahore's Kot Lakhpat Jail. Prison authorities have moved her to a psychiatric ward, saying she is not mentally stable. She was sentenced to death for killing 6 children and their mother in connivance with their father in Toba Tek Singh. Most of those executed had been convicted of murder over personal enmity, kidnapping for ransom, rape and robbery. Less than 30 people were executed for terrorist activities. Among those executed for terrorist activities, 13 were tried under the Anti-Terrorism Act, while 12 were hanged after being punished by Field General Court Martial. 8 people were executed for assassination attempts on former president General (r) Pervez Musharraf and 1 person for the attack outside the US Consulate in Karachi. A man was hanged for attacking the General Headquarters (GHQ) of the Pakistan Army in Rawalpindi. Among those convicted by Field General Court Martial, three were former officials of the Pakistan Air Force, three of Pakistan Army, one was the son of a retired army official and one was a sepoy, who had killed a colleague in Peshawar Cantt while on duty. Of the 13 people tried by Anti-Terrorism Courts, 8 belonged to the Lashkar-i-Jhangvi. They had been convicted for sectarian killings. 3 among them were those who had hijacked a PIA plane from Turbat to Karachi in 1998. Supreme Court advocate Tipu Salman Makhdoom says the worst in terms of executions is yet to come. "More executions are expected in 2016. This is going to bring a bad name to Pakistan," he says. "People are being hanged over personal enmities, not because of their involvement in terrorism. The government should arrest real terrorists, establish cases against them and give them exemplary punishment." (source: The Express Tribune) SAUDI ARABIA----executions Saudi Arabia executes prominent Shiite cleric and 46 others in 12 cities Prominent Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr was among 47 people executed by Saudi Arabia on Saturday, triggering an angry response from across the Shiite world, including the kingdom's archenemy, Iran. The official Saudi Press Agency listed Nimr's name among 47 people who were executed on Saturday morning in the capital Riyadh and 12 other cities. Some were beheaded, others were killed by firing squads, according to Saudi Arabia's Interior Ministry. Nimr, 56, was a key figure in the protests that erupted among Sunni Saudi Arabia's Shiite minority in 2011, inspired by the Arab spring revolts elsewhere in the region. The execution risks stirring renewed unrest among Shiites in the kingdom, and drew an immediate harsh response from Iran, which has warned in the past that carrying out the death sentence on Nimr could cost Saudi Arabia dearly. It could also ignite unrest in neighboring Bahrain, where widespread protests among the country's Shiite majority against the Sunni royal family were quelled by Saudi military intervention in 2011. Police in Bahrain fired tear gas to disperse several dozen people who took to the streets to protest the execution in a village west of the capital Manama, Reuters reported, citing eyewitnesses. Iran's Foreign Ministry swiftly condemned the execution, calling it "the depth of imprudence and irresponsibility" on the part of the Saudi government. "The Saudi government will pay a heavy price for adopting such policies," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossein Jaber Ansari, according to the semi-official Fars news agency. Nimr's brother, Mohammed al-Nimr, pledged on his Twitter account that the pro-democracy movement among Saudi Shiites will continue. "Wrong, misled and mistaken (are) those who think that the killing will keep us from our rightful demands," he tweeted after the execution was announced. Condemnations also began pouring in from Shiite figures and organizations around the region, with a prominent Iranian cleric predicting that repercussions of the execution would herald an end to the Saudi royal family. "I have no doubt that this pure blood will stain the collar of the House of Saud and wipe them from the pages of history," Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami, a member of the Assembly of Experts and a Friday prayer leader, was quoted as saying by the Mehr news agency, according to Reuters. In an angry statement, Lebanon's Hezbollah movement said it held the United States and its allies responsible for Nimr's execution, because they are "giving direct protection to the Saudi regime." The execution "will destroy the Saudi dynasty's injustice," the statement said. "This crime will remain a black mark that will plague the Saudi regime, which has been committing massacres since its inception." In Iraq, there was an outpouring of anger from Shiite leaders and politicians, with the influential Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr calling on Shiites in Iraq and around the region to take to the streets to protest the execution. He told Iraqis to take their demonstrations to the newly re-opened Saudi embassy in Baghdad???s fortified Green Zone, which welcomed a new Saudi ambassador to Iraq only the day before for the 1st time in nearly 25 years. Lebanon's Sumeria television later reported that Shiites were staging protests in the Shiite city of Karbala demanding that Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi close the Saudi embassy. Yemen's Houthi rebels also denounced the execution on their website, and the Lebanese Supreme Shiite Council, the country's top Shiite religious authority, called it a "grave mistake." Iran had earlier warned Saudi Arabia on several occasions not to go ahead with the death sentence, first handed down by a court in October 2014. "Saudi Arabia will pay a heavy price for the execution of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr," Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian said after an appeals court upheld the sentence last October. Leading Shiite figures around the world had also urged Saudi Arabia not to execute the cleric, including the widely influential Ayatollah Ali Sistani, who lives in the Iraqi city of Najaf, and the head of Lebanon's Hezbollah militia, Hassan Nasrallah. State television also reported the executions, posting mugshots of all those who were executed while playing solemn music, the Associated Press reported. Nimr was arrested by Saudi security forces in 2012, after being shot in the legs during a car chase in the mostly Shiite eastern province of Qatif, where the protests had been concentrated. He had been charged with "instigating unrest and undermining the kingdom's security," as well as delivering speeches against the government and defending political prisoners. His nephew, Ali Mohammed al-Nimr, was sentenced last year to death by crucifixion for participating in the protests while he was 16 or 17 years old, also drawing widespread international condemnation. Saudi Arabia has carried out at least 157 beheadings in the past year, a record number according to human rights groups. Most of the 47 executed on Saturday had been convicted for participating in Al Qaeda related attacks in the past decade, the Associated Press said. 2 were citizens of Egypt and Chad, and the rest were Saudi nationals. (source: Washington Post) **************** Saudi Arabia executes 47 people, incl prominent Shiite cleric, on terror charges Saudi Arabia has executed 47 people for terrorism, including the prominent Shi'ite Muslim cleric Nimr al-Nimr, the Interior Ministry said Saturday. His execution has stirred particular outrage among the kingdom's critics, saying the cleric's death aims to "set the region on fire." Most of those executed were said to be involved in a series of attacks carried out by Al Qaeda between 2003 and 2006. Iran has warned that executing al-Nimr "would cost Saudi Arabia dearly," Reuters reported. A prominent state-affiliated Iranian cleric, Ahmad Khatami, said the execution of Nimr al-Nimr was something to be expected from "criminal" Saudi Arabia, Iranian Fars agency reported. He added that Saudi ruling family would be "wiped from the pages of history" for executing the cleric, Mehr reported. An MP from the ruling Shi'ite coalition in Iraq said Nimr's execution aimed to "set region on fire," Sumaria TV reported. The Lebanese Supreme Shi'ite Council has condemned al-Nimr's execution, calling it a serious "mistake." Nimr, along with 6 others, were accused of orchestrating anti-government protests between 2011 and 2013 in which 20 people died. Earlier this year, the kingdom's Supreme Court rejected an appeal against the death sentence passed on the Shia cleric. The brother of the executed cleric said he hopes that any reaction to Nimr al-Nimr's killing will be peaceful. "Sheikh Nimr enjoyed high esteem in his community and within Muslim society in general and no doubt there will be reaction," Mohammed al-Nimr told Reuters by telephone. "We hope that any reactions would be confined to a peaceful framework. No one should have any reaction outside this peaceful framework. Enough bloodshed" The Interior Ministry statement announcing the executions began with verses from the Koran, justifying the use of the death penalty, while state television showed footage of the aftermath of Al Qaeda attacks over the last decade. Shortly afterward, Saudi Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdulaziz Al al-Sheikh appeared on Saudi Arabian television, hailing the executions as just. In its statement, the ministry listed the names of all those it said were convicted on charges of terrorism, Al Jazeera reported, including Al-Qaeda-affiliated Faris al-Zahrani, who was once on the list of Saudi Arabia's "most wanted terrorists." Last year a Saudi Arabian court sentenced him to death, and ordered his body to be displayed in public after the capital punishment was carried out. Among those executed were also one Egyptian and one Chadian, the ministry reportedly stated. The absolutist Sunni Muslim monarchy carried out at least 158 executions in 2015, with beheadings reaching their highest level in 2 decades, according to human rights groups. Adam Coolge, Middle east researcher for Human Rights Watch, told AP that Saudi Arabia had executed almost twice as many people in 2015 as the year before. The horrific figure is 2nd only to 1995, when the Gulf kingdom executed 192 people. Saudi Arabia carries out most executions through beheading and often in public, giving rise to comparisons with terrorist group Islamic State (which also claims to be implementing Shariah law) while carrying out public beheadings. The Gulf monarchy, however, has rejected parallels with Islamic State (IS, previously ISIS/ISIL). Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir told reporters in Paris in December that "it's easy to say Wahhabism equals Daesh equals terrorism, which is not true," referring to the Arabic acronym for IS. The absolutist monarchy argues that its judicial processes require at least 13 judges in three tiers of its courts system to rule in favor of a death sentence before it is carried out. According to Saudi officials, the executions are aimed at curbing crime. Saudi law allows for execution in cases of murder, rape and drug offenses. The death penalty also applies to adultery, apostasy and witchcraft. The number of prisoners put to death for non-lethal offenses, such as illicit drug use, have also skyrocketed. A royal decree issued in Saudi Arabia in 2005 to combat narcotics further codified the right of judges to issue execution sentences "as a discretionary penalty" against any person found guilty of smuggling, receiving or manufacturing drugs. In November 2015, at least 63 people (including 45 foreign nationals) were executed since the start of the year for drug-related offenses, Amnesty International said. That figure accounted for at least 40 % of the total number of executions in 2015 (compared to less than 4 % for drug-related executions in 2010). "Foreign nationals, mostly migrant workers from developing countries, are particularly vulnerable as they typically lack knowledge of Arabic and are denied adequate translation during their trials," Amnesty said. According to Human Rights Watch, of the first 100 prisoners executed in 2015, at least 56 sentences were carried out based on judicial discretion, not for crimes for which Saudi law requires a mandatory death penalty. Delphine Lourtau, research director at Cornell Law School's Death Penalty Worldwide, told AP that defendants in Saudi Arabia are not provided with defense lawyers and in numerous cases of South Asians arrested for drug trafficking, are not even provided translators in court hearings. There are also concerns "over the degree of influence the executive has on trial outcomes" when it comes to cases where Shi???ite activists are sentenced to death, she said. Emory Law professor and Shariah scholar Abdullahi An-Naim has said that since there is an "inherent infallibility in court systems," no judicial system can claim to enforce an immutable, infallible form of Shariah, AP reported him as saying. After an avalanche of international criticism from human rights groups, Saudi Arabia???s representative to the United Nations Human Rights Council, Bandar al-Aiban, claimed in a speech in Geneva in March that capital punishment applies "only [to] those who commit heinous crimes that threaten security." (source: rt.com) ************** Nimr al-Nimr execution: Iranian cleric says death penalty will bring down the Saudi Arabia's ruling family----Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami's comments came as Iran's foreign minister warned Saudi Arabia would pay a 'high price' for the execution One of Iran's most senior clerics has predicted the fall of Saudi Arabia's ruling family following the kingdom's execution of Shi'ite preacher Nimr al-Nimr. Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami's comments came as Iran's foreign minister warned Saudi Arabia would pay a 'high price' for following policies that led to the execution of al-Nimr and 46 others for 'terrorism offences'. Ayatollah Khatami who branded the House of Saud 'treacherous', told the Mehr news agency: "I have no doubt that this pure blood will stain the collar of the House of Saud and wipe them from the pages of history. "The crime of executing Sheikh Nimr is part of a criminal pattern by this treacherous family... the Islamic world is expected to cry out and denounce this infamous regime as much as it can." His comments follow a warning last year from Iran that the execution of al-Nimr would "cost Saudi Arabia dearly", while the sentiment was echoed by a spokesman for Iran's foreign ministry, Hossein Jaber Ansari, following al-Nimr's death. He told the official IRNA news agency: "The Saudi government supports terrorist movements and extremists, but confronts domestic critics with oppression and execution... the Saudi government will pay a high price for following these policies." The 2012 arrest of al-Nimr, who supported anti-government protests in the country???s Eastern Province in 2011, prompted civil unrest, which some fear could be repeated in the aftermath of the weekend's mass execution. Al-Nimr had long been a critic of the Saudi government, jailed on a number of occasions previously for his involvement in protests, and was found guilty by the country's Specialised Criminal Court in 2014 of crimes including calling for the collapse of the state and failing to pledge allegiance to the government. (source: The Independent) ****************** Beheadings reach 20-year high in Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia carried out at least 157 executions in 2015, with beheadings reaching their highest level in the kingdom in two decades, according to several advocacy groups that monitor the death penalty worldwide. Coinciding with the rise in executions is the number of people executed for non-lethal offenses that judges have wide discretion to rule on, particularly for drug-related crimes. Rights group Amnesty International said in November that at least 63 people had been executed since the start of the year for drug-related offenses. That figure made for at least 40 % of the total number of executions in 2015, compared to less than 4 % for drug-related executions in 2010. Amnesty said Saudi Arabia had exceeded its highest level of executions since 1995, when 192 executions were recorded. But while most crimes, such as premeditated murder, may carry fixed punishments under Saudi Arabia's interpretation of Islamic law, or Shariah, drug-related offenses are considered "ta'zir," meaning neither the crime nor the punishment is defined in Islam. Discretionary judgments for "ta'zir" crimes have led to arbitrary rulings with contentious outcomes. In a lengthy report issued in August, Amnesty International noted the case of Lafi al-Shammari, a Saudi national with no previous criminal record who was executed in mid-2015 for drug trafficking. The person arrested with him and charged with the same offenses received a 10-year prison sentence, despite having prior arrests related to drug trafficking. Shariah scholars hold vastly different views on the application of the death penalty, particularly for cases of "ta'zir." Delphine Lourtau, research director at Cornell Law School's Death Penalty Worldwide, adds that there are Shariah law experts "whose views are that procedural safeguards surrounding capital punishment are so stringent that they make death penalty almost virtually impossible." She says in Saudi Arabia, defendants are not provided defense lawyers and in numerous cases of South Asians arrested for drug trafficking, they are not provided translators in court hearings. She said there are also questions "over the degree of influence the executive has on trial outcomes" when it comes to cases where Shiite activists are sentenced to death. Emory Law professor and Shariah scholar Abdullahi An-Naim said because there is an "inherent infallibility in court systems," no judicial system can claim to enforce an immutable, infallible form of Shariah. "There is a gap between what Islam is and what Islam is as understood by human beings," he said. "Shariah was never intended to be coercively applied by the state." Similar to how the US Constitution is seen as a living document with interpretations that have expanded over the years, more so is the Quran, which serves as a cornerstone of Shariah, he said. The other 1/2 to Shariah is the judgments carried out by the Prophet Muhammad. Virtually anything else becomes an interpretation of Shariah and not Shariah itself, An-Naim said. Of Islam's 4 major schools of thought, the underpinning of Saudi Arabia's legal system is based on the most conservative Hanbali branch and an ideology widely known as Wahhabism. A 2005 royal decree issued in Saudi Arabia to combat narcotics further codified the right of judges to issue execution sentences "as a discretionary penalty" against any person found guilty of smuggling, receiving or manufacturing drugs. HRW's Middle East researcher Adam Coolge says Saudi Arabia executed 158 people in total in 2015 compared to 90 the year before. Catherine Higham, a caseworker for Reprieve, which works against the death penalty worldwide, says her organization documented 157 executions in the kingdom. Saudi Arabia does not release annual tallies, though it does announce individual executions in state media throughout the year. Saudi law allows for execution in cases of murder, drug offenses and rape. Though seldom carried out, the death penalty also applies to adultery, apostasy and witchcraft. In defense of how Saudi Arabia applies Shariah, the kingdom's representative to the UN Human Rights Council, Bandar al-Aiban, said in an address in Geneva in March that capital punishment applies "only (to) those who commit heinous crimes that threaten security." Because Saudi Arabia carries out most executions through beheading and sometimes in public, it has been compared to the extremist Islamic State group, which also carries out public beheadings and claims to be implementing Shariah. Saudi Arabia strongly rejects this. In December, Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir told reporters in Paris "it's easy to say Wahhabism equals Daesh equals terrorism, which is not true." Daesh is the Arabic acronym for the IS group. Unlike the extrajudicial beheadings IS carries out against hostages and others, the kingdom says its judiciary process requires at least 13 judges at 3 levels of court to rule in favor of a death sentence before it is carried out. Saudi officials also argue executions are aimed at combating crime. Even with the kingdom's record level of executions in 2015, Amnesty International says China, where information about the death penalty is a "state secret," is believed to execute more individuals than the rest of the world's figures combined. Reprieve says that in Iran, more than 1,000 people were executed in 2015. Another organization called Iran Human Rights, which is based in Oslo, Norway, and closely follows executions, said at least 648 people had been executed in the first 6 months of 2015 in the Islamic Republic, with more than 2/3 for drug offenses. Reprieve says Pakistan has executed at least 315 people in 2015, after the country lifted a moratorium on executions early last year following a December 2014 Taliban attack on a school that killed 150 people, most of them children. Only a fraction of those executed since then have been people convicted of a terrorist attack. ((source: Associated Press) ************** The death sentences hanging over 6 young men should worry supporters of our alliance with the kingdom----With British officialdom so reluctant to say anything that might ruffle this gruesome regime's feathers, it is up to the rest of us to make our dismay about the case of these 6 young men heard The dreadful fate awaiting 6 young Saudis - condemned to death in 2011 for terrorism and whose sentences were confirmed in October - should disturb and indeed shame all those who continue to defend our close alliance to this despotic country. A letter that we publish today from the mothers of the 6 youths, and from the mother of a prominent cleric who has also been sentenced to death, notes that the new year marked the point at which their children had spent almost 4 years behind bars. They have also been held in solitary confinement for 90 days now, following confirmation of the verdicts, and "could be beheaded at any moment", the mothers write, thanking campaigners in the outside world for the interest they have taken in the case, which they say could yet "help save our children from death". Mothers of Saudi youths condemned to death complain of wall of silence We hope the mother's optimism is well founded and that clemency prevails, although if it does, it will hardly be because of anything that our own Government has done. This is, after all, the same government that grovellingly ordered the Union Flag to be flown at half-mast last year following the death of the late King Abdullah. Fans of the British connection with Saudi Arabia will be quick to point out that the 6 men were sentenced to death for terrorism, which might suggest that the government in Riyadh has done us all a favour by putting terrorists out of harm's way. Closer examination of the case, however, which a number of human rights groups have undertaken, suggests the 6 could not have been less like the Paris bombers and that their only real crime was to protest against the Sunni monarchy's highly discriminatory policy against the country's Shia minority, to which they belong. Were this Iran, or some other less favoured country, the Foreign Office might well have something to say about the matter but, this being Saudi Arabia, the great rock on which British foreign policy in the Middle East has long rested, the result has been virtual silence. Using less than robust language, the Foreign Secretary, Philip Hammond, last October confined himself to saying that he did "not expect" one of the youngest of those accused, Ali al-Nimr, to be executed. That month, the Ministry of Justice did drop its contract to train prison staff in Saudi Arabia but that decision was hardly taken voluntarily and was initially opposed by the Prime Minister, David Cameron - and a sudden change of heart on the ministry's part followed a sustained campaign which, to his credit, the Justice Secretary, Michael Gove, lent backing. It is worth remembering that 3 of the 6 activists were handed the death penalty for crimes committed while they were children, and that they have also since said that they were tortured into making confessions. It would be one thing if the case of these 6 men was an isolated one - the fruit of complex local or religious feuds that we cannot understand and should not interfere with, but this is far from the case.The justice system of our principal ally in the Middle East is if anything getting worse rather than better, with the authorities making ample use of a proclaimed "war on terrorism" to deal with their enemies as they think fit. More than 150 people were executed in 2015, a sharp rise on the 88 executed in 2014. With British officialdom so reluctant to say anything that might ruffle this gruesome regime's feathers, it is up to the rest of us to make our dismay about the case of these 6 young men heard. (source: Editorial, The Independent) GREECE: Socrates' Trial and Subsequent Death Penalty Were Legally Just Over the centuries, historians have presented the trial of Socrates as a parody of that time, claiming that the Athenian philosopher was forced to face charges invented by his fellow citizens because of ignorance. In the 399 BC trial, Socrates was found guilty of impiety and corruption of youth and the court sentenced him to death by swallowing conium. A recent study, however, tries to overturn the theories that are accepted so far. Cambridge Professot Paul Cartledge argues that the trial was legally just and Socrates was indeed guilty as charged. "Everyone knows that the Greeks invented democracy, but it was not the republic as we know it today. As a result, History has been misinterpreted," the professor says. "The accusations Socrates faced may seem ridiculous to us, but in Ancient Athens they seemed to serve the common good," he adds. Historians have traditionally claimed that Socrates created many enemies by openly criticizing prominent politicians. The trial gave them an opportunity to get rid of him. The Athenian philosopher was the scapegoat of a series of disasters that befell Athens, including a plague and a military defeat. Professor Cartledge argues that some people interpreted those events as a sign of displeasure of the gods. They claimed that Socrates had offended the gods because the philosopher used to question the authority of several deities. Cartledge believes that the charges of impiety against Socrates were not only fair - given the beliefs of the time - but also attributed to the common good. The study concludes that Socrates essentially caused his own death. According to the Athenian legal system, the defendant could suggest his own sentence. In the beginning Socrates joked saying that he should have been rewarded instead. Eventually he suggested a small fine, but the jury did not find his joke funny and decided the death penalty. (source: greekreporter.com) From rhalperi at smu.edu Sat Jan 2 14:29:04 2016 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Sat, 2 Jan 2016 14:29:04 -0600 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., MO., WYO. Message-ID: Jan. 2 TEXAS: Ted Cruz really, really loves the death penalty Ted Cruz would represent a lot of firsts should he be elected president: He'd be the 1st Hispanic president, and the 1st president to be born in Canada (or anywhere outside the 50 states, for that matter). But he'd also be the 1st president ever to have clerked for the Supreme Court. And Cruz has cited his subsequent record before the court, where he has presented oral arguments times (8 as solicitor general of Texas), as an important credential both in this presidential campaign and in his come-from-behind 2012 run for Senate. 5 of his 9 Supreme Court appearances related to the same issue: the death penalty. In each case, Cruz represented the state of Texas and defended capital punishment in cases where even many advocates would normally be squeamish. He defended executing rapists who had killed no one; executing the mentally ill; and executing a man with an IQ of 78. He lost those 3 cases, all by narrow 5-4 votes. But his 2 other appearances related to the same case, in which Cruz was opposed by the Bush administration, the Mexican government, and the International Court of Justice. Cruz won, and the defendant was executed 5 months later. The Jose Medellin case Whatever one thinks about his death sentence and eventual execution, Jose Medellin was hardly a sympathetic character. At age 18 he, by his own admission, orchestrated the gang rape and murder of 2 girls, ages 14 and 16, in 1993, committed in conjunction with 5 other members of his gang. Afterward, he joyfully bragged about the crime to Joe Cantu, 1 of the gang member's brothers, and Joe's wife Christina, as described in a 1997 state appeals court ruling upholding Medellin's conviction: [Christina] asked the group what had occurred and appellant responded that they "had fun" and that their exploits would be seen on the television news. Appellant [Medellin] was hyper, giggling, and laughing. ... As if to accentuate his conquest, appellant showed Christina his blood soaked underwear. Appellant related that after another gang member sexually assaulted the second girl, he "turned her around" and anally raped her. Appellant also bragged of having forced both girls to engage in oral sex with him... When Christina asked the group what happened to the girls, appellant told her that they had been killed so that they could not identify their attackers. Appellant then elaborated that it would have been easier with a gun, but because they did not have one at the scene of the incident, he took off one of his shoelaces and strangled at least 1 of the girls with it. Both Joe and Christina noted that appellant complained of the difficulty group encountered in killing the girls. After appellant related the difficulty he encountered in strangling one of the girls, he said that he put his foot on her throat because she would not die. He proceeded to confess to his participation in the crimes in a written statement to police. He and 4 of the 5 other participants were sentenced to death. Jose's little brother Venancio, who was 14 at the time, confessed to participating in the rape of 1 of the girls but not the murder, and received a sentence of 40 years (he has been denied parole 5 times, most recently last month). 2 of the 5 perpetrators sentenced to death - Raul Villareal and Efrain Perez - saw their sentences commuted in 2005 after the Supreme Court ruled that it was unconstitutional to execute offenders for crimes committed while they were under 18 (Villareal and Perez were both 17). The other 3 participants - Medellin, Peter Cantu, and Derrick Sean O'Brien - were executed in 2008, 2010, and 2006, respectively. The Supreme Court did not take up Cantu and O'Brien's cases. But it did take up Medellin's, twice, because his death sentence appeared to run afoul of international law. Medell'n was a Mexican citizen, and under the Vienna Convention of 1963, foreign nationals must be informed by authorities arresting them abroad of their right to contact their consulate for support. Medellin was never informed of this right. In 2004, the International Court of Justice - the judicial organ of the United Nations, which arbitrates disputes between countries - ruled, in response to a complaint by Mexico, that the US had violated the Vienna Convention by not informing Medellin and 50 other Mexican nationals on death row of these rights, and ordered US courts to review all 51 convictions and sentences. That opened the door for Medell'n to launch a new appeal, which Texas (represented by Cruz) rigorously fought. The Bush administration - not especially known for its fondness for the UN and other multilateral institutions - nonetheless took the ICJ's side, telling courts that reconsideration was obligatory given the US's treaty obligations. The case first hit the Supreme Court in 2005, when the justices ruled that Medellin hadn't exhausted his state-level appeals. Once Medellin had exhausted them, the case went back to the Court, with arguments in October 2007. Cruz's contentions were that: 1 Merely ratifying the Vienna Convention, and its "Optional Protocol" allowing for ICJ jurisdiction over related issues, did not make the ICJ's decisions binding US law. In other words: US courts have no obligation to obey ICJ rulings. 2 Bush's memorandum to courts instructing them to obey the ICJ ruling had no binding authority. The Court agreed with him on both counts, ruling 6-3 that the ICJ ruling was not binding and Texas could execute Medellin if it so chose. John Paul Stevens - normally a liberal vote - joined with the Court's conservatives in ruling for Texas, and against Bush and the UN. The decision brought widespread condemnation both from human rights groups like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch and from veteran diplomats who worried about the precedent it set; Jeffrey Davidow, a former ambassador to Mexico, Zambia, and Venezuela, called Medellin's execution "an irrevocable violation of the most important treaty governing consular assistance for our citizens detained in other countries," a violation that could endanger hundreds or thousands of American citizens in legal jeopardy abroad. But Cruz seized on the victory. In a 2010 article for the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy boisterously titled, "Defending US Sovereignty, Separation of Powers, and Federalism in Medellin v. Texas," he characterizes the issues raised by the case this way: "Are the American people governed by judges, courts, and laws of nations other than our own, or are they governed by the United States Constitution, by the U.S. Congress, the United States government, and ultimately by 'We the People'? It is difficult to imagine a more fundamental question." At points, the grandiose constitutionalist rhetoric reads less like scholarship and more like campaign literature. And sure enough, the case would become campaign literature. A 2012 TV spot for Cruz's Senate primary campaign touted the Medellin case, with a narrator booming, "When the UN and the World Court overruled a Texas jury's verdict to execute an illegal alien for raping and murdering 2 teenage girls, Ted Cruz fought all the way to the Supreme Court, and he delivered." The rest of Cruz's death penalty record The other 3 death penalty cases that Cruz argued before the Supreme Court, however, weren't as ready-made for campaign advertising, not least because Cruz lost all 3. Seriously. None. Zero relation. In 2008, Cruz intervened in the case of Kennedy v. Louisiana. Patrick Kennedy was convicted of raping his 8-year-old stepdaughter, and while the Supreme Court had ruled in 1977 that death sentences for raping adults were unconstitutional, it had left vague whether sentences for raping children were. Cruz filed a brief on behalf of a coalition of 9 states - Texas, Alabama, Colorado, Idaho, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Washington - which supported Louisiana, and defended the brief in court, emphasizing the uniquely grave harm rape inflicts upon children. Another amicus brief from a group of nonprofits, including the Louisiana Foundation Against Sexual Assault and the National Alliance to End Sexual Violence, countered that death sentences for child rape increased the odds that child molesters would kill their victims, and deterred victims and their guardians from reporting family members or family friends. Louisiana, and Cruz, lost 5-4, with the Court ruling that the death penalty was only constitutional as punishment for murder and crimes against the state. Embarrassingly, Cruz and his allies didn't know that the US military had in 2006 adopted the death penalty for child rape, a fact that hurt the Court majority's argument that "evolving standards" about punishment precluded the use of capital punishment in such cases; if standards in the military were evolving the other way, that's quite good evidence in Cruz's favor. But it's evidence Cruz didn't uncover in time, nor did anyone else on the case. In 2007, Cruz argued before the Court in Panetti v. Quarterman, a case that weighed whether Texas could execute Scott Panetti, a clearly mentally ill man convicted of killing his estranged wife's parents. Panetti, who is schizophrenic, has said that a figure named "Sarge" controlled him during the murders, and claimed that "demons had been laughing at him" after the murders. He represented himself at his first trial, wearing a cartoon cowboy outfit and "summon[ing] the pope, John F. Kennedy and Jesus Christ as witnesses." Panetti's psychiatric evaluation found that while Panetti was clearly delusional about the context of his case, he was aware that he murdered his parents-in-law, aware of his punishment, and aware of why Texas wanted to execute him. Lower courts had ruled this was enough, and that Panetti was sane enough that an execution would not constitute cruel and unusual punishment. Cruz, defending Panetti's execution, didn't argue on substantive grounds but claimed that Panetti could not validly bring up the issue, as he did not raise mental incompetence-based arguments in his first habeas corpus petition seeking reprieve from execution. The Court ruled against Cruz and Texas, 5-4, noting that Cruz's position has some bizarre implications, such as that a prisoner who becomes insane on death row after filing his 1st habeas petition cannot seek relief, even though executing him would be clearly unconstitutional under a decades-old Supreme Court decision. Panetti is still fighting his execution in court, most recently getting a stay last December. Also in 2007, Cruz argued before the Court in Smith v. Texas. LaRoyce Lathair Smith had killed a Taco Bell worker in Dallas in 1991, and received a death sentence. But the jury was not allowed to consider that Smith had an IQ of only 78, and that he was a 19-year-old still in the 9th grade, when it sentenced him. Because of that, the Supreme Court overturned his sentence 7-2 in 2004. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals then reimposed the sentence, saying the jury not considering Smith's mental disabilities hadn't caused any "egregious harm" to the fairness of his sentence. By a 5-4 ruling, the Court disagreed with that Court (and with Cruz), rejecting the Texas Court's "egregious harm" standard and overturning his sentence yet again. The next year, prosecutors reached a plea deal with Smith under which he received life in prison instead of death. The unifying feature of these 3 cases - other than the fact that Cruz lost them all - is that they concern boundary cases of capital punishment in which even many people who are for the death penalty in general would object to its use. Executing people for non-murder crimes is not a particularly popular policy. Nor is executing paranoid schizophrenics or the mentally disabled. But Cruz defended each of these. Cruz can claim he was merely defending Texas, but that would negate his ability to call upon his solicitor general record as a credential, as a source of personal achievements. Either he owns his entire history before the Supreme Court, or he owns none of it. And owning all of it means defending some fairly unsavory losses. (source: vox.com) PENNSYLVANIA: State Supreme Court upholds conviction, death penalty in abuse slaying of girlfriend's toddler The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has upheld the death penalty and 1st-degree murder conviction of a man charged in the physical abuse death of his girlfriend's 4-year-old son. 31-year-old Patrick Haney Jr., was convicted and sentenced by a Fayette County jury last year in the 2011 death of 4-year-old Trenton St. Clair. Haney has denied harming the boy and his attorney argued that even if the abuse occurred as prosecutors claimed, they didn't prove Haney specifically intended to kill the boy. The high court rejected that in upholding the conviction and death sentence on Thursday. The boy's mother, Heather Forsythe, is serving 2 1/2 to 5 years in after pleading guilty to child endangerment by not seeking immediate medical attention for the boy, who was abused over several weeks. (source: Associated Press) MISSOURI: It's All In the Past: Civil War execution of Thomas J. Thorpe Federal executions of Missourians for bushwhacking and other disloyal activities were not uncommon during the Civil War. However, they were not everyday occurrences. Authorities were usually reluctant to impose the death penalty except for very serious cases and even more reluctant to carry it out. Even when a man was condemned to death, the execution sometimes got postponed repeatedly. Such was the case of Thomas J. Thorpe of Oregon County. Thorpe, according to his own statement, joined Thomas Freeman's Missouri State Guard regiment (part of Gen. James McBride's division) early in the war. Freeman and 29 of his men were captured in February 1862 at the Battle of Crane Creek (near present-day Crane), and Thorpe might have been among those taken prisoner, although this is not altogether clear. Regardless, Thorpe said he remained with McBride after he left Freeman's regiment. So, he apparently did have some standing as a regular soldier, at least during the early part of the war. However, later in the war, he operated as a partisan or guerrilla in his home territory. In October of 1863, he was taken into custody and transported to Pilot Knob. According to his own account, he surrendered, but Union authorities reported only that he was arrested as a rebel. On the 19th, he took an oath of allegiance and gave a $1,000 bond. The dark-eyed, dark-haired Thorpe was 28 years old at the time and stood 5 feet, 7 inches, tall. The terms of his oath specified that he must not go south of Oregon County and must report to the provost marshal???s office at Pilot Knob on the last day of each month. Sometime after his release from custody at Pilot Knob, he and 2 other men were accused of killing a citizen named Obediah Leavitt. On March 20, 1864, Thorpe was arrested in Oregon County and charged with murder, violating his oath, and being a guerrilla. He was tried around July 1 and found guilty of murder and being a guerrilla. On July 6, he was transported to St. Louis and imprisoned at Gratiot Street Prison to await the promulgation of his sentence. The sentence was announced on July 29 - to be hung by the neck until dead. The execution was scheduled to be carried out on Sept. 2 at Pilot Knob. Thorpe appealed to the president of the United States for a new hearing, but Lincoln denied the request and also declined to pardon Thorpe. However, on Sept. 1, the day Thorpe was to be escorted back to Pilot Knob to meet his death, the sentence was temporarily suspended by Gen. William Rosecrans, commanding the Department of the Missouri. On Dec. 3, Thorpe was sent in irons to Alton, Illinois, Military Prison to await his fate. The reason for the 1st postponement of Thorpe's execution is not clear, but it was postponed 3 more times during February and March of 1865 on account of his poor health. Finally, in late April, he was deemed sufficiently recovered that he could be put to death. He was scheduled to hang on May 1. On April 30, Thorpe was taken from Alton, Illinois, back to Gratiot Street Military Prison, where the execution was to take place. The next day, he was escorted to the prison yard, where a gallows awaited him. A few spectators and 2 or 3 reporters were there to witness the event. Asked if he had any last words, Thorpe replied that he had been accused unjustly and that he had never killed anyone nor been a guerrilla. A recent convert to Catholicism, he said he would die happy, and he expected to go to heaven. He left a note to his wife asking her to make sure their kids received schooling and requesting they be baptized by a priest. The rope was then placed around Thorpe's neck and he dropped to his death at 10:48 a.m. He died almost instantly, his neck broken by the fall, but he was not declared dead until 11:21 a.m. (source: leaderjournal.com) WYOMING: Prosecutor Says Legislature Must Decide About Death Penalty The prosecutor who secured a death sentence against Dale Wayne Eaton for the murder of a Montana woman nearly 30 years ago says Eaton's continuing appeals signal that the Wyoming Legislature must decide whether it truly supports capital punishment. A federal judge last year set aside Eaton's original death sentence in the 1988 killing of Lisa Kimmell, of Billings, Montana. The judge ruled Eaton had received inadequate representation from the Wyoming Public Defender's Office. The judge last week blocked the state from holding another death penalty hearing for Eaton while his federal appeals are pending. Casper District Attorney Mike Blonigen was the original prosecutor in Eaton's 2004 trial. Blonigen says that if state lawmakers want Wyoming to have the death penalty, they must adequately fund both the prosecution and defense. (source: Associated Pres) From rhalperi at smu.edu Sat Jan 2 14:30:12 2016 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Sat, 2 Jan 2016 14:30:12 -0600 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide Message-ID: Jan. 2 IRAN----executions Iran regime hangs 2 prisoners Iran's fundamentalist regime on Thursday hanged 2 prisoners in Mashhad, north-eastern Iran. The 2 prisoners were not identified, but one of them had been imprisoned for more than 4 years and the other for the past 14 years. They were hanged at dawn on Thursday, December 31 in Mashhad's central prison. (source: NCR-Iran) SAUDI ARABIA: At least 4 protesters killed in Saudi mass executions At least 4 people convicted of offences related to political protest are among the 47 reportedly executed by Saudi Arabia earlier today (Saturday). Sheikh Nimr, Ali al-Ribh, Mohammad Shioukh and Mohammad Suweimal were all arrested in 2012 following their involvement in anti-Government protests, and subsequently sentenced to death. Ali was 18 when he was arrested, and sentenced to death for organizing and participating in demonstrations; vandalism; helping to organize demonstrations through the use of his BlackBerry; attending an address of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr. Mohammad Shioukh, 19 at the time of his arrest, was sentenced to death for a number of offences, including writing anti-Government graffiti and filming demonstrations for the purpose of documenting and publishing their content. Both were tortured while in custody. Their names were included on a list of executions carried out today by the Saudi Government and published on the website of the Kingdom's official press agency. In total, 47 people were executed at various locations across the country. In the statement, the ministry of the interior quoted the Quran, saying that "The recompense of those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger and do mischief in the land is only that they shall be killed or crucified or their hands and their feet be cut off from opposite sides, or be exiled from the land. That is their disgrace in this world and a great torment is theirs in the Hereafter." The list did not include the names of a number of people sentenced to death as children who are still facing execution. Ali al Nimr (Sheikh Nimr's nephew), Dawoud al Marhoon, and Abdullah al Zaher were also sentenced to death over their alleged involvement in the 2012 anti-Government protests, despite having been aged 17, 17, and 15 respectively at the time. All 3 were also badly mistreated in custody, and tortured into signing 'confessions' to the offences alleged against them. Commenting, Maya Foa, Director of the death penalty team at international human rights organisation Reprieve said: "2015 saw Saudi Arabia execute over 150 people, many of them for non-violent offences. Today's appalling news, with nearly 50 executed in a single day, suggests 2016 could be even worse. Alarmingly, the Saudi Government is continuing to target those who have called for domestic reform in the kingdom, executing at least 4 of them today. There are now real concerns that those protesters sentenced to death as children could be next in line to face the swordsman's blade. Saudi Arabia's allies - including the US and UK - must not turn a blind eye to such atrocities and must urgently appeal to the Kingdom to change course." (source: reprieve.org) From rhalperi at smu.edu Sun Jan 3 14:28:14 2016 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Sun, 3 Jan 2016 14:28:14 -0600 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----VA., ALA. Message-ID: NOTE----News posts to this listserve will resume on Jan. 13 VIRGINIA: LIFE ON DEATH ROW ---- Don't execute Sussex Prison inmate No. 1100057 It was with heartbreaking irony that the Richmond '80s-era rock group, the Dads, performed their reunion show the same week former member Bryan Harvey's murderer, inmate No. 1100057 at Sussex State Prison in Waverley, lost an appeal in the Federal 4th Circuit Court of Appeals to save his own life. Harvey, his wife Kathyrn and daughters Stella and Ruby along with Percyell and Mary Tucker, their daughter Ashley Baskerville, Treva Terrell and Sheryl Warner were all victims of Offender No. 1100057 and his nephew's murdering rampage from late 2005 to New Year's Day 2006. Convicted and sentenced to death for the unspeakable murders of 9-year-old Stella and 4-year-old Ruby Harvey, No. 1100057 has now spent an entire decade on death row at Sussex maneuvering through the labyrinthine appeals process trying to evade execution. Despite this most recent setback, he can still appeal to either the entire 4th Circuit or the U.S. Supreme Court. This is all death penalty protocol, designed to provide condemned inmates all the considerations they never gave their victims. Social media and the Richmond Times-Dispatch comments section reflected deep-rooted vitriol toward No. 1100057's seemingly endless appeals process "Fry him," reader after reader wrote, "just kill him already." Don't fry No. 1100057 - it lets him off too easily. Here's why: According to a complaint filed in United States District Court in Alexandria on Nov. 20, 2014, No. 1100057 was a party with first 4, then 3 other plaintiffs in a lawsuit against Virginia Department of Corrections Director Harold Clarke and Sussex 1 Prison Warden Keith Davis. The suit protests "cruel and unusual punishment" at that maximum-security facility. *** The suit's document is a sobering look at No. 1100057's 1st decade on death row. He is locked in a 9-foot by 8-foot concrete box for 22 or 23 hours a day, with only a sink, toilet, a thin mattress and 4-inch wide window. The door is solid steel, with a tiny slit at eye level and a slit at the bottom for meal delivery. The lights are never completely turned off. He is video-monitored 24/7 from a computerized control room, where corrections officers armed with shotguns can blast him if necessary with rubber pellets from ports built in the walls. Up until October, No. 1100057 was only allowed to leave his cell for a supervised 10-minute shower 3 days per week, and for 1 hour of outdoor recreation 5 times per week in a small outdoor cage with no exercise equipment. The document reiterates that No. 1100057 "is not allowed to use the gymnasium or prison yard, nor is (he) given an opportunity for in-pod recreation." More specifically, No. 1100057 is cut off from human contact and spends nearly every minute of every day alone. Although Sussex's death row currently houses seven inmates, they are separated by several empty cells within a 44-unit pod, making communication impossible. No. 1100057 is never allowed access to general-population inmates for any educational, vocational, or behavioral programming, and he is not allowed to attend group religious services. According to the complaint, No. 1100057's treatment "inflicts great mental suffering as well as physical distress. It is unrelated to any legitimate penological goal, and constitutes a form of psychological torture that amounts to the gratuitous infliction of cruel and unusual punishment upon (him)." *** In the face of this legal challenge, Virginia quietly granted a few more privileges to death row inmates, but its policies are still among the most stringent in the nation. For example, instead of 1 hour, the prisoner now gets 90 minutes a day in the "dog yard." He was granted restricted television privileges and a few minutes a day to send monitored emails. Certainly no one who knew and loved the Harvey family feels sorry for those who inflicted such cruel and unusual punishment on them. But we are a far more civilized people than No. 1100057 and his nephew. Instead of exercising vengeance, Virginia should keep twisting the screws of this deliberate form of execution - a lingering, eventual death at the end of a deprived and unnatural existence. While the Dads' musical reunion celebrated the lives and talents of our friends, it should also serve as a reminder that the Harveys' killer is a lifeless shadow, sealed inside a 71-square foot cement coffin. There will never be scholarships or remembrances in his name. Let the appeals end, and leave him to an unbearably sluggish minute-by-minute, decades-long existence of denied freedoms, maddening isolation and constant armed surveillance. Forget the death penalty. No. 1100057 should survive for his crimes. Alone and forgotten, just a shackled and fading number on a prison ledger. (source: Dale Brumfield is an author and adjunct university professor living in Doswell----richmond.com) ALABAMA: Court records show pharmacists refused death penalty drugs At the height of Alabama's search for lethal injection drugs, state officials were turned down by every pharmacy they contacted for help, according to court records filed Wednesday. State officials asked every licensed compounding pharmacist in Alabama to make batches of pentobarbital - once the primary drug used to kill inmates - and all refused. Attempts to buy the drug from four other states also failed, court documents state. Those refusals could point to a rough road ahead for the death penalty, despite a U.S. Supreme Court ruling last year that cleared another drug, midazolam, for use in executions. "Alabama's experience is not at all unique," said Robert Dunham, director of the Death Penalty Information Center, a Washington-based group that studies the death penalty. "This is part of the medical community's rejection of lethal injection as a practice." Alabama officials are trying to resume executions by lethal injection after a 2-year hiatus caused by legal challenges and shortages of key execution drugs. Tommy Arthur, condemned to death for the 1980s murder-for-hire of Muscle Shoals resident Troy Wicker, is one of several inmates who have challenged the state's current approach to execution: injecting an inmate with midazolam to deaden pain, rocuronium to still the muscles and potassium chloride to stop the heart. Midazolam has been used in botched executions in other states, including an Oklahoma execution in 2014 in which it took an inmate more than 30 minutes to die after the drugs were injected. Inmates say the use of midazolam is cruel and unusual, but the U.S. Supreme Court approved its use in an Oklahoma case last summer, seemingly clearing the way for executions in Alabama as well. Lawyers for the state on Wednesday asked a federal court for a summary judgment that would end Arthur's appeals and send him to the execution chamber. But Arthur's lawyers are trying to flip the script in the case. Before the state adopted midazolam as a death penalty drug, Arthur filed a similar challenge against the use of pentobarbital, Alabama's main execution drug before 2014. Now that he's faced with execution by a new drug, Arthur wants to switch back to pentobarbital, a drug he claims is less cruel than midazolam. Lawyers for the Alabama attorney general's office say they can't return to pentobarbital, because no one will sell the drug to the Department of Corrections. "These sources have either indicated they cannot obtain the ingredients for compounded pentobarbital, were not capable of compounding pentobarbital, or refused to be a supplier for the ADOC" lawyers for the attorney general's office wrote in a court document. Mysterious source The court documents, among hundreds of pages filed in Arthur's case last week, shed light on Alabama's often secretive attempts to obtain drugs for use in lethal injection. Several states have struggled to get their hands on drugs because a growing number of drug suppliers refuse to sell them, citing ethical objections or opposition to capital punishment. In 2014, lawmakers considered a bill that would make the sources of execution drugs a state secret, not subject to open records laws. Lawmakers at the time said drug companies feared backlash from death penalty opponents. "The people who make the drugs are subject to lawsuits and harassment," Rep. Lynn Greer, R-Rogersville, said at the time. "It gets to the point where nobody wants to make the drug." A month after Greer filed his bill, state officials acknowledged that they had no pentobarbital on hand - which explained why no inmate has been executed since 2013. The secrecy bill never passed, but state officials still refuse to release the names of death penalty drug suppliers, citing a gag order in the Arthur case. The new court documents show that even with that secrecy in place, the state simply couldn't find a supplier, despite contacting "nearly 30" sources. Compounding problem The state sought those drugs from compounding pharmacies, specialty pharmacies that mix small batches of drugs on-site. They had to: Pharmaceutical companies will no longer sell pentobarbital to prison systems. Fewer than 2 dozen pharmacies in the state are accredited to make injectable drugs that way. Arthur???s lawyers supplied the state with a list of 19 Alabama pharmacies they said were potential sources of pentobarbital. (All 19 names are blacked out in court documents.) But the state's lawyers argue they've contacted all 19, plus others, and been turned down. "While Arthur alleged that as many as 10 states intend to use compounded pentobarbital for executions, the process of obtaining compounded pentobarbital is difficult to impossible for most," the state's lawyers wrote. That might not matter now, given that Alabama has switched to midazolam, a drug that's more readily available on the market. But pharmacists' resistance to compounding execution drugs may soon turn out to be important in the search for midazolam as well, said DPIC's Dunham. "In the future, midazolam is going to be available from compounding pharmacies if it's available to prisons at all," Dunham said. Big pharmaceutical companies are beginning to back away from supplying the drug to prison systems, he said, after some companies discovered their drugs were being used by states for execution without the company's permission. 2 major suppliers of midazolam - Illinois-based Akorn and New Jersey-based Becton-Dickinson - have declared in the past year that they're opposed to selling the drug to Alabama for executions. While the state hasn't identified its midazolam supplier, the state's lawyers used "package inserts," essentially instructions for use of a midazolam, from Akorn and Becton Dickinson in court filings this year. Both companies have denied selling the drug directly to Alabama prisons, and Akorn even asked the state to return any Akorn-made midazolam it had on hand for executions. Individual pharmacists are also backing out of the lethal injection business. Last year, the International Academy of Compounding Pharmacists and the American Pharmacists Association both voted to discourage their members from supplying drugs for executions. Akorn and Becton-Dickinson both got another mention in court documents last week, when Arthur's lawyers filed a transcript of a deposition in which an expert witness says he found the Becton-Dickinson insert on the Internet. "It was one of the available generic package inserts for midazolam," the expert witness, Stephen Bannister, says in the deposition. Bannister said lawyers later told him the Akorn insert was the "reference" in the Arthur case. Attempts to reach Arthur's lawyer, Suhana Han, for comment were unsuccessful. Joy Patterson, a spokeswoman for the Alabama attorney general's office, said the office wouldn't comment on the filings. Arthur's case is scheduled for a final hearing later this month. Summary: Alabama execution drugs, past and present Thiopental: Also known as sodium pentothal - the drug cited as a "truth serum" in countless dime-store spy novels - thiopental was once the key drug in Alabama's execution protocol. A general anesthetic, thiopental was given to condemned inmates to deaden the pain of the drugs later administered to stop the heart. Supplies grew short after the drugmakers stopped selling it to prisons. In 2011, the state handed over its supply to the Drug Enforcement Agency, which had seized drugs other states obtained on the black market. Alabama got its thiopental from Tennessee. Pentobarbital: After thiopental, Alabama switched to pentobarbital, commonly used to put down injured or stray animals. By March 2014, the state had run out of the drug. Neither pharmacists nor other states would sell the drug to the prison system, court documents revealed last week. Midazolam: In September 2014, Alabama replaced pentobarbital with midazolam. Opponents say it's primarily an anxiety drug, not a painkiller with the potency of thiopental. The U.S. Supreme Court, however, approved the use of thiopental last summer, possibly clearing the way for executions to resume after a 2-year hiatus. (source: Anniston Star) From rhalperi at smu.edu Sun Jan 3 14:29:41 2016 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Sun, 3 Jan 2016 14:29:41 -0600 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide Message-ID: Jan. 3 IRAN----executions Iran Ends 2015 & Begins 2016 with Executions: 9 People Hanged On Thursday December 31, 6 prisoners were reportedly hanged at Tabriz Central Prison (northern Iran) on drug charges and 2 young prisoners were reportedly hanged at Mashhad's Vakilabad Prison (northern Iran) on murder charges. On Saturday January 2, a prisoner was reportedly hanged at Khorramabad's Parsilon Prison (central Iran) on drug charges. According to Iran state run news media, Jam News, the prisoners from Mashhad were executed on murder charges. The report identifies one of the prisoners as "A", committed murder in 2001, and does not mention any information about the other prisoner except that he was hanged for murder. According to the Kurdistan Human Rights Network, about 4 years ago, the s6 prisoners from Tabriz were arrested and sentenced to death for possessing and trafficking 10 Kilograms of methamphetamine. The report identifies the prisoners as: Amir Ahmadi, Jahangir Saeedi, Javad Rahnama, Reza Mohammadpour, Javad Gharehbaghi, and Hossein Hassanzadeh. According to the human rights group HRANA, the prisoner from Khorramabad is Mehdi Ranjkesh. This prisoner was able to smuggle out a video message before he was transferred to solitary confinement and later executed. The video is available online. In the video Ranjkesh claims he suffers from mental and physical disabilities, but Iranian authorities denied him medical care and treatment. Ranjkesh also says that during his time in prison, he has been helping advocate for an end to the death penalty for drug offenses. Ranjkesh's execution is the first reported for 2016 in Iran. (source: Iran Human Rights) *********** Disabled man hanged in western Iran prison Iran's fundamentalist regime on Saturday hanged a disabled man in a prison in Khoramabad, western Iran. The executed prisoner was identified as Mehdi Ranjkesh. He had spent the past 5 years behind bars. Ranjkesh, who was accused of a drugs-related charge, was both physically and mentally disabled and was denied proper medical treatment while in prison. The human rights situation has been deteriorating rapidly in Iran. More than 2,000 individuals have been executed during Hassan Rouhani's tenure as President of the regime. This is the highest rate of executions in the past 25 years, and it reflects an increase over figures that had already secured Iran's place as the nation with the most executions per capita. On December 17, 2015, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution strongly condemning the brutal and systematic violation of human rights in Iran, in particular the mass and arbitrary executions, increasing violence and discrimination against women and ethnic and religious minorities. Following the adoption of the 62nd UN resolution censuring human rights abuses in Iran, the Iranian Resistance's President-elect Maryam Rajavi called on the UN Security Council to hold the leaders of the clerical regime accountable and prosecute them for crimes against humanity. She underlined that this is a necessary step towards respecting the international community's vote that condemned the systematic and flagrant violations of human rights in Iran. ****************** 10 prisoners at imminent risk of execution in Iran 10 death-row prisoners were on Sunday transferred to solitary confinement in the notorious Gohardasht (Rajai-Shahr) Prison in Karaj, north-west of the Iranian capital Tehran, in preparation for their imminent execution. Iran's fundamentalist regime has upheld the execution sentence for all 10 of the prisoners. Among the prisoners at imminent risk of execution is Farajollah Hatami who has been imprisoned for the past 12 years. The other prisoners are yet to be identified by name, but they were transferred to solitary confinement from wards 3, 4 and 6 of Gohardasht Prison. The human rights situation has been deteriorating rapidly in Iran. More than 2,000 individuals have been executed during Hassan Rouhani's tenure as President of the regime. This is the highest rate of executions in the past 25 years, and it reflects an increase over figures that had already secured Iran's place as the nation with the most executions per capita. On December 17, 2015, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution strongly condemning the brutal and systematic violation of human rights in Iran, in particular the mass and arbitrary executions, increasing violence and discrimination against women and ethnic and religious minorities. Following the adoption of the 62nd UN resolution censuring human rights abuses in Iran, the Iranian Resistance's President-elect Maryam Rajavi called on the UN Security Council to hold the leaders of the clerical regime accountable and prosecute them for crimes against humanity. She underlined that this is a necessary step towards respecting the international community's vote that condemned the systematic and flagrant violations of human rights in Iran. (source for both: NCR-Iran) QATAR: 5 expats sentenced to death penalty for killing employer in Qatar A criminal court in Qatar this week has sentenced 5 men in absentia to death by firing squad for murdering their boss. According to court documents, the incident took place in January 2014. 4 of the men who were convicted are from Bangladesh: Rebon Khan, Din Islam Aziz al-Rahman, Muhammad Rashid Muhammad and Muhammad Ruseil. A 5th, Sahtaj Sheikh, is from Nepal. They had been charged with 1st degree, premeditated murder, theft and forgery. The men were not in Qatar when the verdict was read on Dec. 31, 2015. What happened According to court testimony, the victim and several of his employees had gone to an under-construction home at 6am on Jan. 9. At some point, the 5 defendants threatened the rest of the workers and shut them into a bathroom, closing the door. The defendants could be observed holding hammers. Some of the men trapped in the bathroom testified that while inside, they heard loud voices and screams from the victim, but added that they were too scared to call the police. The victim's body was found the next day by his brother, who had gone to the construction site searching for him after his wife reported him missing. A forensics report stated that the victim was struck several times on the head with hammers, resulting in his death. After the employer was killed, the defendants stole the victim's smart card, the court heard. They then used an electronic device to issue exit permits for themselves by entering the victim's data and making it look like as if he had agreed to the issuing of the permits. The court documents did not include the name and nationality of the victim. Kafala debate The case comes less than a year after a Doha court sentenced 4 other expats in absentia to jail time for abducting 1 of their Qatari sponsors. Those defendants were acquitted of an attempted murder charge, but had been found guilty of beating and robbing the sponsor. They had also forced him to sign their exit permits before they left Qatar. The verdict prompted a flurry of debate about Qatar's restrictive kafala sponsorship system, with critics saying freedom of movement should be a universal right, and the defendants may have had no choice but to resort to extreme measures. Others, however, countered that torturing a person is always unjustified and breaking the law is not the answer. (source: Doha News) SAUDI ARABIA: EU, US Condemn Saudi Executions, Especially Concerned Over Al-Nimr Execution The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia carried out 47 executions earlier Saturday, including that of Saudi Shi'ite Cleric Nimr Al-Nimr. Following the news of the executions, the European Union reiterated its strong opposition to the use of the death penalty in all circumstances, and in particular in cases of mass executions. Federica Mogherini, the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission, said, "The specific case of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr raises serious concerns regarding freedom of expression and the respect of basic civil and political rights, to be safeguarded in all cases, also in the framework of the fight against terrorism." According to Mogherini, "This case has also the potential of enflaming further the sectarian tensions that already bring so much damage to the entire region, with dangerous consequences." The EU called on the Saudi authorities to promote reconciliation between the different communities in the Kingdom, and all actors to show restraint and responsibility. Similarly, the executions have drawn the ire of the United States. "The United States also urges the Government of Saudi Arabia to permit peaceful expression of dissent and to work together with all community leaders to defuse tensions in the wake of these executions," said John Kirby Spokesperson for the US Bureau of Public Affairs in a statement. "We are particularly concerned that the execution of prominent Shia cleric and political activist Nimr al-Nimr risks exacerbating sectarian tensions at a time when they urgently need to be reduced," Kirby said. "In this context, we reiterate the need for leaders throughout the region to redouble efforts aimed at de-escalating regional tensions," Kirby added. (source: eurasiareview.com) ********************* Shia cleric among 47 executed by Saudi Arabia in a single day Saudi Arabia's authorities have demonstrated their utter disregard for human rights and life by executing 47 people in a single day, said Amnesty International yesterday. Those put to death earlier today included prominent Shi'a Muslim cleric Sheikh Nimr Baqir al-Nimr, who was convicted after a political and grossly unfair trial at the Specialized Criminal Court (SCC). With the exception of the Sheikh and three Shi'a Muslim activists, the others were convicted of involvement with al-Qa'ida. "Saudi Arabia's authorities have indicated that the executions were carried out to fight terror and safeguard security. However, the killing of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr in particular suggests they are also using the death penalty in the name of counter-terror to settle scores and crush dissidents," said Philip Luther, Director of Amnesty International's Middle East and North Africa Programme. Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr had been a vocal critic of the Saudi Arabian government and was among 7 activists whose death sentences were upheld earlier this year. They had all been arrested for participating in protests in the Kingdom's predominantly Shi'a Eastern Province in 2011, and for calling for political reform. "It is a bloody day when the Saudi Arabian authorities execute 47 people, some of whom were clearly sentenced to death after grossly unfair trials. Carrying out a death sentence when there are serious questions about the fairness of the trial is a monstrous and irreversible injustice. The Saudi Arabian authorities must heed the growing chorus of international criticism and put an end to their execution spree," said Philip Luther. Also sentenced to death following their participation in these protests were Ali al-Nimr, the Sheikh's nephew, Abdullah al-Zaher and Dawood Hussein al-Maroon, all of whom were under 18 at the time of their arrest. All 3 remain at imminent risk of execution, after being convicted in deeply unfair trials and claiming to have suffered torture and other ill-treatment. "A 1st step would be for them to remove the threat of execution currently hanging over individuals sentenced for 'crimes' they committed while they were children," said Philip Luther. International law prohibits the use of the death penalty against anyone under the age of 18. Saudi Arabia has long been one of the most prolific executioners in the world. Between January and November 2015, Saudi Arabia executed at least 151 people, amounting to its highest recorded number of executions in a single year since 1995. In many death penalty cases defendants are denied access to a lawyer and in some cases they are convicted on the basis of "confessions" obtained under torture or other ill-treatment. Amnesty International opposes the death penalty at all times and in all cases without exception - regardless of who is accused, the crime, guilt or innocence or method of execution. (source: Amnesty International) ************** Saudi Arabia executions: The death penalty is abhorrent and our leaders should say so at every opportunity----It would enhance Britain's standing in the world if our Government condemns the beheading of 47 people in clear and forthright terms Any British prime minister taking office is required to undergo a secret ritual. He or she has to kiss the monarch's hand, write letters for the commanders of the nuclear submarines, and agree to defend the UK's alliance with Saudi Arabia. The best that can be said about David Cameron's discharge of this 3rd obligation is that at least he has the decency to look embarrassed about it. He seemed uncomfortable in a television interview in October when he was asked about the squalid deal in which the two governments agreed, in 2013, to support each other's election to the UN Human Rights Council. "We have a relationship with Saudi Arabia," was all the Prime Minister could manage. He said he "completely disagreed" with the country's "punishment routines", but the relationship was important for our national security. Saudi executions were worthy of Isis - so what now for the West? The problem with this claim is that it is impossible for the average citizen to verify. We can all have a view on the arms trade, or of the value of trading generally with an authoritarian theocracy. But the claims of intelligence co-operation have to be taken on trust. "There was 1 occasion since I've been Prime Minister where a bomb that would have potentially blown up over Britain was stopped because of intelligence we got from Saudi Arabia," Mr Cameron said. Even if this is the case, and such intelligence would not have been shared with us if our relationship had been slightly less close, we still have moral obligations as a nation. If Saturday's 47 beheadings does not prompt those obligations, Britain's ethical stature is diminished. The death penalty is abhorrent and our leaders and diplomats should say so at every opportunity, but this is a particularly shocking example. The Saudi law of January 2014 does not merely criminalise dissent, it defines it as terrorism and imposes the harshest penalties. The early silence from Mr Cameron was deafening, and the failure of the Foreign Office to put out more than a vague statement of disapproval of the death penalty was feeble in the extreme. This is all the more disappointing because, a few days after the awkward interview already quoted, Mr Cameron sided with Michael Gove, the Justice Secretary, to resolve a Cabinet dispute with Theresa May, the Home Secretary, to cancel a contract to supply prison services to Saudi Arabia. It was after that decision that the Saudi ambassador to London wrote that he felt there had been "an alarming change in the way Saudi Arabia is discussed in Britain". If the ambassador is alarmed, this confirms that British disapproval does count for something. We had hoped that the cancellation of the prisons contract might mark a recalibration in our relationship with Saudi Arabia. It would make sense, even in cynical terms, over the medium to long term, to downgrade it. The Kingdom is not the fabulously rich country it once was. Even if the best way of persuading Saudi Arabia to respect human rights is as a candid friend, it might be more persuasive if its rulers were in a permanent state of incipient alarm about the strength of that friendship. The Independent on Sunday understands that compromises are needed in life and diplomacy. We do not advocate the end of the British arms industry, or a foreign policy that refuses to work with any government that fails to live up to the best human rights norms. But we believe that it would enhance Britain's standing in the world if our leaders would condemn the Saudi government in clear and forthright terms. It might be diplomatic if our PM could tell the Saudis that he understands their problem with dissidents. But if only he could say, in the words of Iyad El-Baghdadi, the Arab Spring activist expelled from UAE for his ideas: "The antidote to bad ideas is better ideas, not beheadings." (source: Editorial, The Independent) ************* UN chief expresses 'dismay' at Sheikh Nimr's execution by Riyadh United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon says he is "deeply dismayed" by Saudi Arabia's execution of prominent Shia cleric, Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, calling on the Riyadh regime to commute all death sentences handed down in the kingdom. "Sheikh Nimr and a number of the other prisoners executed had been convicted following trials that raised serious concerns over the nature of the charges and the fairness of the process," Ban's spokesman quoted him as saying in a statement released on Saturday. Earlier in the day, the Saudi Interior Ministry announced that Sheikh Nimr along with 46 others, who were convicted of being involved in "terrorism" and adopting a "Takfiri" ideology, had been put to death. The UN chief had raised the case of Sheikh Nimr with Saudi leaders on several occasions, the statement read, reiterating Ban's stance against the death penalty and urging the kingdom to commute capital punishment. In October 2015, Ban had called on the Al Saud regime to revoke Sheikh Nimr's death sentence. He called for "calm and restraint" in the face of the execution in a bid to avoid the exacerbation of strife in the region, according to the statement. Sheikh Nimr, a critic of the Riyadh regime, was arrested in 2012 in the Qatif region of Shia-dominated Eastern Province, which was the scene of peaceful anti-regime demonstrations at the time. He was charged with instigating unrest and undermining the kingdom's security, making anti-government speeches and defending political prisoners. He had rejected all the charges as baseless. In 2014, a Saudi court sentenced Sheikh Nimr to death, provoking widespread global condemnations. A year later, the sentence was upheld by the appeal court of Saudi Arabia. The religious figure's execution has drawn angry reactions worldwide. Widespread protest rallies have been held across the world to condemn the killing. Saudi authorities also refused to hand over the cleric's body to his family and buried him at an undisclosed cemetery, according to the Sheikh's brother, Mohamed Nimr. (source: presstv.ir) *************** Saudi Arabia's execution of cleric ignites fury in Iran Iran's Supreme Leader warned on Sunday that there would be divine retribution for Saudi Arabia's rulers after the execution of a renowned Shiite cleric, sustaining the soaring regional tensions that erupted in the wake of the killing. The warning came hours after crowds of protesters stormed and torched the Saudi embassy in Tehran to vent their anger at the execution of Nimr Baqr al-Nimr, who was among 47 people put to death in the kingdom on Saturday. In a posting on his website, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned that the execution "will cause serious troubles for the politicians of this [Saudi] regime in a very short time....The hands of divine vengeance will surely snatch - by their necks - those cruel individuals who took his life." The execution of Nimr, an outspoken critic of the Saudi royal family, has ignited sectarian tensions across the already inflamed region and jeopardized U.S. diplomacy aimed at tamping down conflicts in the Middle East. Most of the 47 executed on Saturday were Sunnis accused of participating in Al Qaeda attacks. According to Saudi Arabia's Interior Ministry, some were beheaded and others were shot by firing squad in 12 different locations around the kingdom. Nimr, however, was 1 of 4 Shiites put to death for political activism and the leading figure in the anti-government demonstrations that swept the mostly Shiite east of the country in 2011, inspired by the Arab Spring protests elsewhere in the region. A photo montage also posted on Khamenei's website showed a split image of an Islamic State fighter preparing to carry out a beheading and a Saudi executioner. The caption asks the question "Any difference?" The photograph echoed numerous Iranian accusations that Saudi Arabia supports the Islamic State. In response, Saudi Arabia issued an angry statement pointing out that Iran is often accused by many countries of supporting terrorism. Iran "is the last regime in the world that could accuse others of supporting terrorism, considering that [Iran] is a state that sponsors terror, and is condemned by the United Nations and many countries," said a Foreign Ministry statement carried by the official Saudi news agency. The Saudi statement also pointed out that Iran also is frequently criticized by the international community for carrying out large numbers of executions. Iran carried out 694 executions in the 1st half of last year, according to an Amnesty International statement in July. Saudi Arabia, with a population nearly 1/3 smaller than Iran's, carried out 157 in 2015, according to Amnesty and media reports. There was no immediate indication however that either Tehran or Riyadh planned to take their spat beyond trading barbs, at least for now. The authorities in Tehran announced that they had made a number of arrests in connection with the rampage at the Saudi embassy in Tehran, and the Foreign Ministry pledged to secure Saudi Arabian diplomatic facilities against further attack. "The diplomatic police are responsible for confronting any aggression against the diplomatic sites of Saudi Arabia and will act according to its duties to maintain public order and restore security to such places," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossein Jaber Ansari said. The Saudi consulate in the Iranian city of Mashad was also set on fire during the protests that erupted after Nimr's execution was announced. The death sentence was carried out despite international appeals for clemency and repeated warnings from the kingdom's arch???enemy in the region, Iran, that there would be consequences if the popular cleric were killed. The U.S. State Department, which had refrained from publicly joining the appeals for Nimr's life, said it had raised concerns at the highest levels of the Saudi government about the judicial process. In a statement, it called on Saudi Arabia "to respect and protect human rights" and to permit "peaceful expression of dissent." "We are particularly concerned that the execution of prominent Shia cleric and political activist Nimr al-Nimr risks exacerbating sectarian tensions at a time when they urgently need to be reduced," the State Department said in a statement. "In this context, we reiterate the need for leaders throughout the region to redouble efforts aimed at de-escalating regional tensions." Shiites around the world expressed outrage, potentially complicating a surge of U.S. diplomacy aimed at bringing peace to the region, according to Toby Matthiesen, an expert on Saudi Arabia at the University of Oxford. "Nimr had become a household name amongst Shiite Muslims around the world. Many had thought his execution would be a red line and would further inflame sectarian tensions," he said. "So this will complicate a whole range of issues, from the Syrian crisis to Yemen." Saudi Arabia and Iran are backing rival sides in Syria's war, and their enmity risks derailing a diplomatic effort led by the United States and Russia to convene peace talks between the factions in Geneva this month. The 2 feuding powers also support opposing sides in the war in Yemen and more broadly find themselves in opposition in the deeply divided politics of the mixed Sunni-Shiite nations of Iraq and Lebanon. The Obama administration's hopes that the conclusion last summer of an agreement limiting Iran's nuclear program would help bridge the sectarian divide between Tehran and the United States' biggest Arab ally were further diminished by the eruption of fury that followed Nimr's death. Iran summoned the Saudi charge d'affaires in Tehran to complain about the execution, and Saudi Arabia reciprocated by calling in the Iranian ambassador in Riyadh to protest the "hostile" remarks made by Iranian officials. The execution also triggered renewed unrest in both Saudi Arabia and neighboring Bahrain, after years of calm following the suppression of the demonstrations in 2011. Activists from both countries used Twitter and other social media to appeal for an uprising. In the eastern Saudi city of Qatif, hundreds took to the streets, and Saudi officials expanded patrols and bolstered checkpoints to deter further upheaval, according to a Qatif activist who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he feared for his safety. The Nimr family issued a statement expressing shock and dismay at the execution, and urging "restraint and self-control" among Nimr's followers. The cleric's brother, Mohammed al-Nimr, pledged on his Twitter account that the democracy movement would endure. "Wrong, misled and mistaken [are] those who think that the killing will keep us from our rightful demands," he tweeted after the execution was announced. In Bahrain, where demonstrations by the country's Shiite majority against the ruling Sunni royal family were quelled by the intervention of Saudi troops in 2011, there were reports of scattered protests in several Shiite towns and villages. Videos posted on YouTube by Bahraini activists showed hundreds of people, some wearing T-shirts featuring the bearded cleric's face, marching through the streets in at least 4 locations. Nimr had long served as the voice of Saudi Arabia's Shiite minority, the target of discrimination, but he rocketed to prominence in 2011, articulating the sentiments not only of Shiites but also of many others in the region demanding change after decades of authoritarian rule. He had consistently advocated nonviolence, and his views transcended the Sunni-Shiite divide, said Maryam al-Khawaja, a Bahraini human rights activist with the Gulf Center for Human Rights who lives in exile in Denmark. "He said Sunnis and Shiites should unite and that anyone who supports the oppressors should be condemned," she said, citing a 2012 speech in which Nimr condemned Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who is from the Shiite-affiliated Alawite sect and is backed by Iran, and the region's Sunni authoritarian leaders, including the Saudi royal family. "This was a big part of why he became problematic for the Saudi regime, because he refused to abide by the sectarian discourse that is basically enforced on everyone," Khawaja said. Nimr was arrested by Saudi security forces in 2012, after being shot in the legs during a car chase. He had been charged with "instigating unrest and undermining the kingdom's security," as well as delivering speeches against the government and defending political prisoners. Condemnations also poured in from other Shiite figures and organizations. Lebanon's Hezbollah movement said it held the United States and its allies responsible for Nimr's execution because "they are giving direct protection to the Saudi regime." "This crime will remain a black mark that will plague the Saudi regime, which has been committing massacres since its inception," Hezbollah said in a statement. In Iraq, there was an outpouring of anger from Shiite leaders and politicians, with the influential cleric Moqtada al-Sadr calling on Shiites in Iraq and across the region to protest the execution. He told Iraqis to take their demonstrations to the newly reopened Saudi Embassy in Baghdad's fortified Green Zone, which welcomed a new Saudi ambassador to Iraq on Friday for the first time in nearly 25 years. Iraq's al-Sumaria television channel reported that Shiites in Karbala were demanding that Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi close the Saudi Embassy. Abadi condemned the execution but offered no immediate response. Yemen's Houthi rebel movement also issued a condemnation on its website. The advocacy group Amnesty International criticized all of the executions, including those of the accused al-Qaeda operatives, saying those killed had not been given fair trials. Nimr's execution, in particular, suggested that Saudi authorities "are using the death penalty, in the name of counter terror, to settle scores and crush dissidents," Amnesty International said in a statement. Saudi Arabia carried out at least 157 executions in the past year, a record number according to human rights groups. Nimr's nephew, Ali Mohammed al-Nimr, is on death row - he was sentenced last year to death by crucifixion for participating in the protests while he was 16 or 17 years old, also drawing widespread international condemnation. (source: Washington Post) INDONESIA: Lindsay Sandiford was sentenced to death in 2013 for cocaine smuggling A British grandmother on death row in Bali for smuggling cocaine has set up a knitting venture behind bars to provide desperately needed funds for a final appeal. As her execution date draws close, Lindsay Sandiford, 59, has taught 20 other inmates to knit, and they now work in their cells making teddy bears, jumpers, shawls, Nativity scenes and Easter boxes, which are sent to church groups in Australia. Sales of the items have so far generated more than 7,000 pounds towards Sandiford's appeal, as well as money for wool and extra meals and provisions for those inmates who make the items in sweltering conditions inside Bali???s Kerobokan jail. The items have become crucial to Sandiford's chances of survival as she tries to lodge her appeal. The Indonesian authorities are poised to resume executions after a temporary moratorium on the death penalty ended on Friday. Sandiford was sentenced to death in January 2013 and could face execution at any time. Her chances of having a final appeal are in jeopardy after her lawyer Chris Harno was arrested last month for corruption. He has yet to be replaced. Even if another lawyer is found, Sandiford remains 15,000 pounds short of the 40,000 pounds needed to pay for legal fees for the hearing. She has already missed a November deadline for filing her appeal papers, and Indonesia's attorney general said last week that a new list of convicted drug traffickers to be executed in 2016 was being prepared. Sandiford set up the knitting operation with the support of Christian pastors who visit her in prison after she was denied funding by the UK Government for her appeal against the death penalty. Speaking exclusively to The Mail on Sunday from Kerobokan prison, Sandiford said she began with wool brought in by her sister to make a Christening blanket for her granddaughter Ayla, who was born after Sandiford's arrest in 2012 for smuggling 10.6lb of cocaine. 'Knitting stops me from going insane,' she said. 'I can blank everything out. It calms me down and I'm doing something useful. 'For the other women, they earn money to pay for food and learn a skill they can take out of prison.' Sandiford was initially listed for execution in September last year following the killing of 14 other drug traffickers earlier in the year. They included her friend and mentor, Australian Andrew Chan. 'Andrew told me to treat each day as if it were my last,' she said. 'I do but sometimes it is overwhelming. Every 10 minutes there is a story about when I'll be executed. 'Sometimes it would be better not knowing. I don't want to wallow in self-pity, so I feel sorry for myself for 5 minutes and then get on with things.' Sandiford claims she was forced to carry cocaine from Bangkok after threats to the life of her younger son, and she received the death penalty despite co-operating with police in a sting operation to arrest people higher up in the syndicate. The plot's alleged ringleader, Briton Julian Ponder, who conducted a behind-bars romance with British Vice-Consul Alys Harahap that led to her sacking, is expected to walk free next year after serving a 6-year term with remission. Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond has repeatedly refused to help fund Sandiford's appeal, despite a recommendation to consider doing so from 5 Supreme Court judges in London. The judges said 'substantial mitigating factors' had been overlooked in her original trial. (source: Daily Mail) INDIA: Civilized killing----Execution is unlikely to be outlawed in India at the moment Is anything new about this 'new' year for us ? Not in our way of punishing the guilty, or those thought to be guilty. Death has been ordered by the Ruler of India, over centuries. The way of executing has changed, but executing stays. As we enter 2016, it is instructive to see how and where the death penalty stood in 1516, 1616, 1716, 1816 and 1916. And where it stands, or how it drops into the scaffold's dark well, in 2016. 1516 Sikandar Lodi is enthroned in Delhi. A Persian scholar, he attempts versifications under the effete pen name of Gulrukhi, "Of Flower-like Countenance". He is fond of creating gardens, beautiful buildings. But he is a bigot and inflicts bigoted punishments. Notoriously, he has a sadhu called Bodhan burnt alive for saying Islam and Hindu dharma are equally acceptable to the creator. Krishnadevaraya is king of Vijayanagara. A strong administrator, he is proud to be personally and politically tough. He believes his task is to preserve the dharma. But he "maintains the dharma by killing". Fernao Nuniz, a Portuguese traveller says of Krishnadevaraya's punishments: "Nobles who become traitors are sent to be impaled alive on a wooden stake thrust through the belly..." Hundred years on, in 1616 The Mughal emperor, Jahangir, loves the arts, miniature painting, animals and birds. Mansur, the greatest of miniaturists, paints Jahangir's birds including the rare dodo. Jahangir's court dazzles. But he shows nothing of his father's - the great Akbar's - pluralism when he orders Guru Arjan Dev, the fifth Sikh Guru, to be executed. The Guru is tortured before being killed. Jahangir has earlier had his rebellious son, Khusrau, blinded. A painting of great sadness shows Khusrau being taken on elephant back past a row of his friends and followers impaled on stakes. Vijayanagara is in its last gasp. The new king Sriranga II, in a palace coup led by Jagga Raya, is thrown into Vellore Fort prison with his entire family and put to death. The practice of royalty murdering its own kind is now established in India's north and south as a form of political power-games. Capital punishment is the preferred weapon. Another hundred years later, by 1716 The Mughal Empire is in decline. It has not forgotten - how can it? - Aurangzeb's executions of his brothers, nephew, of Sarmad the Sufi saint, of Guru Teg Bahadur, of Sambhaji, head of the Maratha Confederacy. A grandson of Aurangzeb, Farrukhsiyar, is on the shaky throne. His grandfather's example before him, he has the incumbent Mughal vizier and several nobles executed in mere whimsy. And he orders the execution of the poet laureate Jafar Zattalli, on the assumption that he had composed poems critical of his regime. Banda Singh Bahadur, a Sikh leader of great courage and charisma, has established his authority in Punjab and won great renown as an abolisher of the zamindari and one who gave tillers proprietory rights. In 1716, Farrukhsiyar moves against Banda, captures him after a grim battle in Gurdaspur, brings him to Delhi, tortures and then executes him. In the south, Vijayanagara has disintegrated and the Marathas are down. But the Peshwas are rising to the fore. There is something elevated about the Peshwa mind, but this does not redeem the Peshwa system of punishment which is carried out either by hanging the condemned man, cutting him to pieces or being decapitated. A further refinement includes breaking the skull under mallets. But Brahmins, if sentenced to death, are to be poisoned. A further century on, by 1816 On the relics of a vanished Vijayanagara, a debilitated Mughal empire and a directionless Maratha conglomerate, India's new guest, Britain's East India Company, makes determining inroads. In 1799, the collector of Tinnevelly gives mouth-foaming chase to Kattabomman, the defiant ruler of Panchalankurichi and on capturing him, has him hanged from a tamarind tree. Several of Kattabomman's associates are also executed. 20 years on, in 1816, the example is still strong on every colonial and colonized mind. Lord Hastings, as governor general of India by 1816, wants to be different. In the Maratha war that he wages, he exacts heavy casualties yet eschews bloody reprisals, retributive hangings and decapitations. But this is just for the now. A mere 40 years later, no more, after the Great Rebellion of 1857, the British Raj is also going to become merciless as a punisher. Savage, in fact, with the death penalty being its absolute favourite. By 1916 The need to protect the colony from insurrection is seen as paramount. But the raj's brutality, post-1857, has raised such a stench that the mood in London is for punishment to be awarded lawfully, under a law, not capriciously or whimsically. The Indian Penal Code has come into effect in 1860, listing a number of 'capital offences' which include 'waging war against the State'. The Partition of Bengal and its reversal have seen a great new energy unleashed that threatens the raj with home-devised bombs and bullets. A Defence of India Act is brought into being in 1915. Hangings and firings are back. In London, Curzon Wyllie, the political aide-de- camp to the secretary of state for India, Lord George Hamilton, is assassinated on July 1, 1909, by the Indian revolutionary, Madan Lal Dhingra. And after a trial in the Old Bailey, an unrepentant Dhingra is hanged on August 19, 1909. And, now, in 2016 Independent India has inherited capital punishment from its blood-smeared history. Its emancipating founders do not dispense with that 'king' of punishments. The first to be hanged in free India, within months of freedom, is Nathuram Godse, assassin of the Father of the Nation. The threat to 'high functionaries' remains great. Hangings have made no difference to that form of privileged crime, not to speak of humbler murders. Thanks to the Supreme Court's mature orders the death penalty is now ordered only in 'the rarest of rare' cases. Rajiv Gandhi's family saying that it does not believe in the death penalty has been hugely civilizing, as is the Indian Left's consistent support for its abolition. The forward logic of all this points to its abolition. But public opinion in India remains 'death-penalty minded'. Terrorism and the deaths of innocents at the hands of cynical cabals entrench that opinion, as does the brutal rape and murder, in Delhi, of Nirbhaya. The present Parliament of India too is similarly minded. Many, very many, outside the State's anatomy but within its embrace, also want the death penalty to stay. Not just stay but stay tight and get tighter. They are like the ulema who goaded and then applauded medieval executions of 'unbelievers'. Bodhan, Sarmad and Zattalli were all killed by the Lodi and Mughal states for something like un-belief. Today's India is divided into 'believers' in bhakti and shakti on the one hand and those who believe in a liberal State on the other. A wise and brave law commission, headed by the perspicacious judge, A.P. Shah, has recommended doing away with the death penalty. But it has said also that acts against the State, in other words, terrorists, should remain visitable by death.Terrorism has weighed on its recommendation. In the three years of his incumbency, President Pranab Mukherjee has brought a glitter of his own to Rashtrapati Bhavan. Like Jahangir's menagerie, he has had the birds of his garden documented in a book, Winged Wonders of Rashtrapati Bhavan. And like that great Mughal, he has had to deal with, and deal, the death penalty. Three persons found guilty of terrorist acts, have gone to the gallows under the ink of his pen. More await his decision. The law does not, will not, tolerate acts against the State. But will the Indian State let go of the death penalty, a grand perquisite of authority, be it imperial, colonial or republican? Unlikely. We may not burn, decapitate, crush heads under mallets as before but we will 'hang by the neck till death'. We may not put needles through eyes, we will use other means of the third degree in thanas. We are not uncivilized. What, then, is new about 2016? Nothing? Not so. Over the frenzy and the froth, there are those, neither insignificant in numbers nor in stature, who are thinking what Amartya Sen said in Delhi just the other day to a hall packed to overflowing: Killing for killing is like the market economy - a system of exchange. We are under a market economy; we need not be under a market scaffold. (source: Opinion, Gopalkrishna Gandhi; Telegraph India) From rhalperi at smu.edu Wed Jan 13 14:42:13 2016 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Wed, 13 Jan 2016 14:42:13 -0600 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, FLA., ALA., USA Message-ID: Jan. 13 TEXAS----new execution dates Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present----13 Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982----present-----531 Abbott#--------scheduled execution date-----name------------Tx. # 14---------January 20---------------Richard Masterson-----532 15---------January 27---------------James Freeman---------533 16---------February 16--------------Gustavo Garcia--------534 17---------March 9------------------Coy Wesbrook----------535 18---------March 22-----------------Adam Ward-------------536 19---------March 30-----------------John Battaglia----------537 20---------April 6------------------Pablo Vasquez-----------538 21---------April 27-----------------Robert Pruett------------539 22---------June 2-------------------Charles Flores-----------540 (sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin) FLORIDA: Supreme Court: Florida death penalty system is unconstitutional Florida's unique system for sentencing people to death is unconstitutional because it gives too much power to judges - and not enough to juries - to decide capital sentences, the Supreme Court ruled Tuesday. The 8-1 ruling said that the state's sentencing procedure is flawed because juries play only an advisory role in recommending death while the judge can reach a different decision. The decision could trigger new sentencing appeals from some of the 390 inmates on the Florida's death row, a number second only to California. But legal experts said it may apply only to those whose initial appeals are not yet exhausted. The court sided with Timothy Lee Hurst, who was convicted of the 1998 murder of his manager at a Popeye's restaurant in Pensacola. A jury divided 7-5 in favor of death, but a judge imposed the sentence. Florida's solicitor general argued that the system was acceptable because a jury first decides if the defendant is eligible for the death penalty. Writing for the court, Justice Sonia Sotomayor said a jury's "mere recommendation is not enough." She said the court was overruling previous decisions upholding the state's sentencing process. "The Sixth Amendment requires a jury, not a judge, to find each fact necessary to impose a sentence of death," Sotomayor said. The justices sent the case back to the Florida Supreme Court to determine whether the error in sentencing Hurst was harmless, or whether he should get a new sentencing hearing. Justice Samuel Alito dissented, saying that the trial judge in Florida simply performs a reviewing function that duplicates what the jury has done. Under Florida law, the state requires juries in capital sentencing hearings to weigh factors for and against imposing a death sentence. But the judge is not bound by those findings and can reach a different conclusion. The judge can also weigh other factors independently. So a jury could base its decision on one particular aggravating factor, but a judge could then rely on a different factor the jury never considered. In Hurst's case, prosecutors asked the jury to consider 2 aggravating factors: the murder was committed during a robbery and it was "especially heinous, atrocious or cruel." But Florida law did not require the jury to say how it voted on each factor. Hurst's attorney argued that it was possible only 4 jurors agreed with 1, while 3 agreed with the other. Sotomayor said Florida's system is flawed because it allows a sentencing judge to find aggravating factors "independent of a jury's fact-finding." 3 of Florida's current death row inmates were sentenced over the jury's life recommendation. But no judge had overridden a jury recommendation in a death penalty case since 1999, according to state officials. The Supreme Court ruled in 2002 that a defendant has the right to have a jury decide whether the circumstances of a crime warrant a sentence of death. Florida's American Civil Liberties Union is calling on state officials to re-examine the sentences of all death row inmates. But Stephen Harper, a law professor who runs the Death Penalty Clinic at Florida International University, said it's unlikely the Supreme Court ruling will open the door for most Florida death-row inmates to new sentencing hearings. He said the Florida decision is based on a previous Arizona ruling that was already found not to be retroactive. "In general, it will not be retroactively applied," Harper said. But he added that Florida inmates whose initial appeals have not been exhausted may be able to argue that the latest decision applies to them. And, he said, any capital cases that are awaiting trial would likely be delayed while state legislators and the Florida Supreme Court sort out the next steps. Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi said her office is reviewing the ruling. News of the high court's decision stunned Florida legislators. Florida House Speaker Steve Crisafulli, who learned of the ruling while he was giving a speech to open the state's annual legislative session, said the Supreme Court had "impeccable timing." Crisafulli said House legal experts would begin to review the ruling. Rep. Matt Gaetz, an attorney who has dealt with capital punishment during his legislative career, predicted that Florida legislators would act swiftly to get the death penalty "right back on track." Alabama also allows judges to override a jury's findings in death penalty sentencing hearings, but it's not clear whether its system is affected by the case. Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange issued a statement saying the Florida ruling does not affect Alabama law. Bryan Stevenson, director of the Alabama legal advocacy group Equal Justice Initiative, said Alabama's system is identical to Florida's in most respects and could be affected. (source: Associated Press) ***************** Florida's death penalty has a long, tortured history Renegade. Immune to national trends. Often tested, never defeated. Until this week. On Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Florida's unique capital sentencing system, saying the state gives too much power to judges, and not enough to juries, to sentence someone to death. The ruling threw Florida's nearly 400 death row cases into disarray. But upheaval is common to capital punishment in Florida, which is compelled again to fall into constitutional line. In 2005, our own state Supreme Court urged the legislature to reform Florida's system of capital punishment, which was followed a year later by a warning from the American Bar Association that the state law was likely unconstitutional. Still, executions continued. In fact, the Sunshine State is always near the top for the number of people put to death each year. We also lead the nation in exonerations. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, 26 inmates have been freed from Florida's death row since 1973, either because their charges were dismissed, they were pardoned or they were cleared of guilt. One prisoner walked off death row in 2015. Derral Wayne Hodgkins was cleared in June after the Florida Supreme Court ruled that the state's case was "purely circumstantial" and skewered prosecutors for mischaracterizing crucial DNA evidence. Hodgkins, now 56, had been convicted of the first-degree murder of Teresa Lodge, a 46-year-old woman who served breakfast daily at Frank's Cafe in Land O'Lakes. Hodgkins, who had earlier been convicted of a violent sexual assault on a minor, was freed in October with fewer restrictions on him than if he'd never been convicted of murder. Since 2008, Florida has carried out executions by lethal injection. For seven decades before that though, inmates died in the electric chair. Questions about the performance of Old Sparky clogged the courts with appeals, and public opinion polls showed voters preferred lethal injection. Even after several inmates in the 1990s caught fire and bled during their executions, Florida lawmakers stood firm. It took a U.S. Supreme Court review, which threatened to declare the electric chair "cruel and unusual punishment" and therefore unconstitutional, to prompt the state to switch to lethal injection (though the new law left inmates the option of choosing electrocution). "What I hope is that we become like Texas," then-Gov. Jeb Bush's top policy adviser said. "Bring in the witnesses, put (the condemned) on a gurney and let's rock 'n' roll." The new method proceeded until the end of 2006, when convicted killer Angel Diaz winced, shuddered and remained alive for 34 minutes until the three-drug cocktail finally stopped his heart. Bush halted all executions and convened a panel to study procedures. Several changes were made, but executions were delayed again when the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to review a challenge to lethal injection protocols in Kentucky. Scrutiny of lethal injection - here and around the country - has amped up again in the last couple years because of several botched executions. That, combined with a shortage of the drug used in the procedure, has brought the debate full circle. Several states once again have begun considering reviving use of the electric chair. And yet, use of the ultimate punishment is on the decline, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Last year, there were 28 executions in 6 states, the fewest since 1991. 2 were in Florida. That belies the mood in Tallahassee. In 2014, legislators passed the Timely Justice Act, intended to speed up executions. And under Gov. Rick Scott, Florida has been executing death row prisoners at a faster rate than under any governor since the death penalty came back into use in 1977. Of course, all of that is in flux now after the Supreme Court ruling. (source: Tampa Bay Times) ******************** Attorneys file motion to remove death penalty in Donald Smith case Attorneys for the man awaiting trial in the kidnapping, rape, and murder of 8-year-old Cherish Perrywinkle want the death penalty off the table in his upcoming trial. The motion filed on behalf of Donald Smith came the same day the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Florida's death penalty. In an 8-to-1 ruling, justices said the sentencing procedure is flawed and unconstitutional because juries only play an advisory role in deciding a death penalty. The judge actually makes the ruling. Smith's trial is set for April 4, 2016. The state filed a notice to seek the death penalty. According to police, Smith met Cherish Perrywinkle's mother, Rayne, at a local store and accepted his offer of help in buying her clothes for Cherish. They traveled to another store, and police say Smith managed to walk out with the 8-year-old girl who was found dead the next morning on the Northside. (source: news4jax.com) ALABAMA: Attorneys for convicted killer argue death penalty 'cruel & unusual' Attorneys for a convicted killer will be going back to federal court Wednesday trying to prove Alabama's death sentence is cruel and unusual punishment. Tommy Arthur was convicted in the early 80s in a murder for hire scheme out in the Shoals. Arthur was sentenced to death in March of 1983 and has managed to avoid his execution ever since. Governors have set several execution dates for Arthur, but each time, attorneys have been able to delay it. Last February, his legal team was able to cancel his execution by arguing that the drugs used in Alabama's execution have caused botched executions in other states. This week, his attorneys have been making their case in front of a federal judge in Montgomery. They say the drugs used to sedate prisoners do not work properly. They also allege that prison officials don't administer a so-called "pinch test," which is done to ensure that prisoners are unconscious before the lethal drugs are administered. They also argue state prison officials have been hiding that information from attorneys for years. According to the Montgomery Advertiser, people who've witnessed recent executions in Alabama told the judges yesterday about what they saw, and they seemed to back up Arthur's attorney's claims. Arthur's attorneys are expected to call more witnesses to the stand Wednesday. (source: Associated Press) USA: Con-ui's defense argues death penalty is unconstitutional The defense for gang assassin Jessie Con-ui argued in court Wednesday morning that a district judge should throw out the federal death penalty, finding it unconstitutional because there is "no rhyme or reason" to how it is implemented. Con-ui, 38, is slated to stand trial in July on charges alleging he kicked correctional officer Eric Williams, a Nanticoke native, down a flight of stairs at U.S. Penitentiary Canaan before beating and slashing him to death with 2 shanks on Feb. 25, 2013. According to prosecutors, Con-ui - who is already serving 25 years to life for a 2002 murder - was caught on surveillance video during the attack. He appeared at the hearing by video from U.S. Penitentiary Florence in Arizona, wearing an orange jumpsuit. He did not address the court. During arguments in federal court Wednesday morning, Montclaire, New Jersey-based defense attorney David A. Ruhnke argued that evolving standards of decency in the community warrant the death penalty being struck down as unconstitutional. Although the U.S. Supreme Court has upheld the law, the way it has been carried out in recent years makes it ripe for reconsideration, he said. "State after state after state is repealing their capital punishment," Ruhnke said. "Things are evolving for sure in the area of capital punishment." There are currently 60 inmates awaiting execution in the federal system, but since the federal death penalty was restored in 1988 there have been only 3 executions - and none since 2003, Ruhnke argued. Some inmates have been on death row for more than 20 years, showing the punishment is not being carried out, he said. "The federal death penalty is essentially fading away," he said. Ruhnke pointed to the "arbitrary" nature of the death penalty's implementation based on region, noting that in Texas 66 % of death row cases result in a death sentence, compared to 8 % in New York. About 2 % of counties account for most death penalty cases, most of them in the south, he said. U.S. District Judge A. Richard Caputo cut in and asked if the evolving standards of decency argument considered the beliefs of southerners. "You talk about evolving societal standards. Are we including those states in the society?" Caputo asked. "Even states like Texas and other Southern states, there's a precipitous decline," Ruhnke said. The defense attorney also noted the huge disparity in the death penalty's implementation along racial lines, noting that about 75 % of those targeted for capital punishment are minorities. Con-ui, who is an American citizen of Filipino descent, falls into that category, he said. The U.S. Attorney's Office was expected to offer its arguments this afternoon. Con-ui has expressed an interest in a plea bargain in exchange for taking the death penalty off the table, but prosecutors have refused to do so. As a result, his defense has been seeking to have aggravating factors that could result in a death sentence upon conviction stricken from the case. He was also seeking to have Caputo declare the federal death penalty entirely unconstitutional on grounds that the standards of society have changed since the Federal Death Penalty Act was enacted and that the punishment has been implemented in an "arbitrary, capricious, irrational and invidious manner." Prosecutors responded that the death penalty is appropriate in the case because of aggravating factors including future dangerousness, that the alleged crime was committed in an "especially heinous, cruel or depraved manner," and victim impact. The defense, prosecutors argued, has failed to cite any case law to back up the assertion that those factors should be removed from consideration. And the argument that the entire death penalty should be declared unconstitutional amounts to little more than a "boiler plate" assault on a well-established federal law, they argued. Con-ui's trial is scheduled to begin with jury selection on July 11. (source: Citizen's Voice) ************************ Could these cases, including some from Louisiana, end America's death penalty? Last June, Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer suggested that the death penalty might be close to its ultimate demise. "Rather than try to patch up the death penalty's legal wounds one at a time," he wrote in a dissent to Glossip v. Gross, to which Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg added her name, "I would ask for a full briefing on a more basic question: whether the death penalty violates the Constitution." Attorneys for death-row inmates, generally a tight-knit group, immediately started talking about what to do next. While some urged caution - arguing that if the court upholds capital punishment it could set their cause back indefinitely - others sensed a rare opportunity. The most outspoken advocates for a more aggressive strategy have been the 8th Amendment Project, a group of lawyers who oppose the death penalty and are tracking cases that might allow the court to strike it down for good. On Friday (Jan. 15), the high court will discuss whether to hear a challenge to the death sentence of a Pennsylvania woman named Shonda Walter. Her case is one of several posed as direct responses to Breyer's invitation to attack the death penalty head-on. The cases include several from Louisiana. There is no way to know whether the justices will take any of these cases; for the court to take a case, four justices must agree, and aside from Breyer and Ginsburg, no other justices have indicated their views on whether to take such a challenge. If they do take a case, there is also no way of knowing which one they will position as the next potential landmark, the next Brown v. Board of Education or Miranda v. Arizona or Roe v. Wade. But each of those historic cases was preceded by numerous appeals of the sort that are now reaching the court. Death penalty abolitionists are braiding the details of these cases to the legal arguments they believe have the best shot at swaying the court. Shonda Walter, whose case will be discussed in a conference of the judges on Friday, was convicted in 2005 of killing 83-year-old James Sementelli with a hatchet in the small, central Pennsylvania town of Lock Haven. She was 24 years old. Walter's current defense team argues that her trial was unfair in part because her trial lawyer openly conceded her guilt to the jury (she tried to have a new lawyer appointed, but the judge refused). In an appeal, the trial lawyer made arguments that one judge described as "unintelligible." Her new lawyers argue that Walter "emerged from an arbitrary process which fails to limit the death penalty to the worst offenders." Several independent groups have weighed in on Walter's case with briefs that aim to tie it to broad arguments over the death penalty's fairness as it is practiced around the country. In one, a group of social scientists declare that an "extensive body of academic literature" shows prosecutors pursue the death penalty disproportionately against blacks (Walter is black) and discriminate to keep blacks off capital juries. A brief by the group, Witness to Innocence, argues that innocent people are often sent to death row. Walter's own petition notes that the kind of bad lawyering that got her to death row is present in many of these wrongful convictions. A third brief, by several groups of French, British, and Irish lawyers, urges the court to follow the lead of other Western countries that have abolished the death penalty. They note that prior U.S. Supreme Court decisions limiting the death penalty's use have cited foreign law. Louisiana case may reach Supreme Court If the court decides not to take Walter's case, they will have another case to review almost immediately. In late January, several attorneys will petition the Supreme Court to take up the case of a young man named Lamondre Tucker, on Louisiana death row for the 2008 murder of his ex-girlfriend Tavia Sills and her unborn child. The child counted as a second victim, which made Tucker eligible for the death penalty. His attorneys contend that his age, 18, and his IQ of 74 should have disqualified him for the death penalty because the punishment should be reserved for the "worst of the worst," and his immaturity made him less culpable. The Supreme Court has generally been sympathetic to this line of thinking; in 2002, the justices struck down the death penalty for those with an intellectual disability, and then in 2014 said that Florida could not rely entirely on an IQ score - they were using 70 as the cutoff - in determining whether a person was eligible for death. The court has also ruled against the death penalty for murders committed by anyone under 18. There are other cases working their way through the lower courts that hinge on issues of intellectual culpability, and form part of the defense community's belief that the death penalty as a whole cannot be fixed. One such case is that of David Dickerson, who was convicted of the murder of his ex-girlfriend and assessed to have an IQ of 71. When he lost an appeal to the Mississippi Supreme Court, one justice wrote a passionate dissent, arguing that the legal standard of intellectual disability remains far from resolved, since every state has a different cutoff for who qualifies for death. Other Caddo Parish raise questions A 2nd argument that anti-death penalty lawyers are sure to make before the court is that the punishment has become arbitrary because so few counties currently send people to death row. Breyer pointed to studies of these disparities in his dissent, including one by the Death Penalty Information Center finding that only 15 percent of U.S. counties account for every death sentence handed down since the 1970s. At least symbolically, it may help these lawyers if the court picks a case that emerged from a county known for being particularly strident in its support for capital punishment. Tucker, for example, was convicted in Caddo Parish, where prosecutor Dale Cox recently told reporters that Louisiana should "kill more people." Tucker's lawyer, Ben Cohen, also represents two other men from Caddo Parish whose cases will likely come before the court later this year or next. These include Rodricus Crawford, who was sentenced to death in 2013 for the death of his infant son, and Marcus Reed, sentenced to death the same year for shooting three men he believed were stealing from him. The Caddo Parish district attorney's office did not respond to requests for comment, but other prosecutors argue - and may argue to the Supreme Court - that since district attorneys are elected, they are exercising the will of the people. Johnny Holmes, the longtime district attorney in Harris County, Texas, who sought and won an average of 12 death sentences every year from 1992 to 2000, recently told The Marshall Project, "The public could have thrown me out if that's what they wanted." Justices will have many options Regardless of what case they pick, the justices have many options; they could restrict the death penalty without abolishing it altogether. They could raise the age of who qualifies for the punishment or define more stringent tests for IQ or other indicators of mental ability. They could strike down the laws governing how juries make death decisions in some states but not others, or strike down laws keeping information about execution drugs secret. They could restrict the death penalty to the most heinous crimes, such as mass acts of terrorism or killing a police officer or prison guard. These options would pare the death penalty down to a "smaller, more carefully defined set of defendants," says Evan Mandery, the author of "A Wild Justice," a history of efforts to bring down the death penalty in the 1960s. But this could be an unsatisfying victory for abolitionists, since "it might have the side effect of making it appear that the problems with the death penalty have been fixed and restore public confidence." The key swing vote in all of this, as in much else, is Justice Anthony Kennedy. In the past, he has written opinions striking down both the death penalty and life without parole sentences for juveniles - in both cases he cited "international opinion," giving hope to death penalty abolitionists - but he has never given an unambiguous sign of his views on capital punishment as a whole. During the public arguments over the Glossip case, which spurred the current push, Kennedy did not say much. Dale Baich, an Arizona defense attorney, was watching. "His head was in his hands," the lawyer recalled, "and he just had a troubled look on his face." (source: New Orleans Times-Picayune) From rhalperi at smu.edu Wed Jan 13 14:44:46 2016 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Wed, 13 Jan 2016 14:44:46 -0600 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide Message-ID: Jan. 13 GAZA----new death sentences Gaza court sentences 4 to death for 'spying for Israel' A military court in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip on Wednesday sentenced 4 Palestinians to death on charges of spying for Israel, a statement and court sources said. The court said in a brief statement that a 23-year-old man from the Zeitoun area south of Gaza City had been sentenced to death on espionage charges. It did not provide his name. 3 other men who "fled from justice" were also found guilty in absentia, it said. A court source told AFP the 4 were convicted on "charges of spying for the occupation", including "surveillance" and providing information about cars and homes to help Israel plan alleged assassinations. Before these sentences, 167 people had been sentenced to death by courts in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, according to the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights. Hamas took over the Gaza Strip in 2007 after a battle with Fatah, which runs the Palestinian Authority. 80 of the death sentences have been given in Gaza since that date. Islamists Hamas have previously carried out executions against those accused of dealing with Israelis, with the killings sometimes taking place in public squares. Under Palestinian law, collaborators, murderers and drug traffickers can face the death penalty. (source: Al Arabiya News) EGYPT: Founder of Opposition Party Risks Death Penalty If Found Guilty By Military Court On 22 November 2015, the detention of Hany Mohamed Hassanin Sharaf, founder of the Civilized Alternative Party and former Egyptian Air Force pilot, was renewed for 45 days pending investigations. While Hany's arrest appears to have been triggered by his political activism and in particular his work on the creation of a new opposition party, the military prosecution justified his detention by charging him with various trumped-up military crimes, using the pretext of his former occupation as an Air Force Pilot. Should Hany be found guilty before the Cairo Military Court, which postponed his trial to 17 January 2016, he risks to be sentenced to death without being given the possibility to fairly defend himself. In view of these facts, Alkarama sent an urgent appeal to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD), hoping this UN Special Procedure for the protection of human rights could help make him benefit from a fair trial, by ending his prosecution before the Military Court of Cairo, which lacks the necessary independence and impartiality to try civilians. Hany was abducted by Egypt's Homeland Security on 18 November 2015 as he made his way through Cairo International Airport to visit his daughter who studies medicine in Astrakhan, a city in southern European Russia. Fearing that he could be tortured in detention in retaliation for his political affiliations, his family contacted Alkarama which sent a 1st urgent appeal to the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID) to clarify his whereabouts on 24 November 2015. A week later, Hany's family was informed that he was detained in a military facility and that he had been referred to the Military Court of Cairo under the suspicion that he had stolen and shared documents related to his former occupation as an Air-Force Pilot, accusations that were fully refuted by his family. Nonetheless, several military intelligence officers let themselves into Hany's house without any warrant in November and December 2015, confiscating all the documents that were related to his former work as a pilot. The military prosecution then charged him with "stealing flight maps and routes of aircrafts" and "disclosing military information via satellite broadcasting outside of Egypt," on the sole basis of evidence provided by the military intelligence and without allowing Hany's lawyer to consult it. Hence, his case was referred to a military court, even though the accusations brought against him are related to a time where Hany was already a civilian and not an Air-Force pilot anymore, a former occupation that gave the authorities a pretext to prosecute him. Under Egyptian military law, such accusations could lead Hany to be sentenced to death by the Military Court of Cairo, which postponed his trial to 17 January 2016. Trials of civilians before military courts are considered as "in breach of the fundamental requirements of independence and impartiality and of guarantees for a fair trial" by the UN WGAD, which reiterated its position in its Opinion 35/2014 regarding the detention of Khaled Hamza and others following a trial before a military court. "Referring civilians before military courts has been increasingly used against political opponents in Egypt in the past year, especially since a Decree adopted in October 2014 has greatly extended the jurisdiction of military courts to judge civilians," declared Thomas-John Guinard, Alkarama's Legal Officer for the Nile region. "In a case like Hany's, given the accusations brought against him and the fact that he was creating an opposition party, it is highly likely that he will be found guilty and sentenced to death. That is the reality of military courts in Egypt: to serve justice in a manner that satisfies the executive." To remedy to Hany's situation, Alkarama solicited the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) to ask the Egyptian authorities to halt the military prosecution of Hany Mohamed Hassanin Sharaf and to release him immediately. Alkarama also invites the authorities to urgently repeal the decree that extended the jurisdiction of military courts to try civilians and to amend the 2014 Egyptian Constitution accordingly to end this practice. (source: All Africa News) BELARUS: EU condemns continued use of death penalty by Belarus The EU Spokesperson made a statement today following the handing down of a death sentence to Mr. Yakavitski by the Minsk Regional Court of the Republic of Belarus. The statement, published by the European Union External Action Service (EEAS), highlights the EU's opposition to capital punishment in all cases and without exception. This is in line with a key objective of the EU???s human rights policy. "We urge Belarus, the only country in Europe still applying capital punishment, to join a global moratorium on the death penalty as a 1st step towards its abolition" reiterates the EU Spokesperson. (source: enpi-info.eu) ZIMBABWE: Rights Lawyers Hope to Outlaw Death Penalty in Zimbabwe Zimbabwe's Constitutional Court began its year Wednesday with a request from 15 death row prisoners for their sentences to be commuted. Rights lawyers are hoping the death penalty will be outlawed in Zimbabwe this year. The lawyer for the 15 said they have been waiting for their executions for periods ranging between 4 and 20 years. All have been convicted of murder or treason, which carry capital sentences in Zimbabwe. Their lawyer, former Zimbabwe finance minister Tendai Biti, said after this case is over he wants the death penalty completely outlawed. "When someone has been sentenced to death, he cannot be subjected to death row for so long and wait for so many years on death row.We are saying that is unconstitutional. We would want to challenge the death penalty. And I believe we will do so this year, once parliament passes amendments to Criminal and Evidence Act. We do not believe in the death penalty," he said."You can also see that some of the judges do not believe in it, including the minister of justice who is now vice president who does not believe in it. They just have not had the courage to simply say, 'Let us outlaw it.'" The vice president Biti refers to is Emmerson Mnangagwa, who opposes the death penalty. In 2013, Mnangagwa said he would "rather resign than sign certificates for executions." "We have 89 people on death row. 2 of them are women. They are lucky, I did not sign the papers for their execution. At the end of the day, we have commuted [their sentences] to life imprisonment," he explained. Since those comments, the number of prisoners awaiting execution has risen to more than 100. Biti said a ban on the death penalty must come from the courts, instead of depending on the benevolence of 1 politician. On Wednesday, he argued that Zimbabwe's constitution protects everyone, including convicted prisoners, against torture or cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment. He said the long periods his clients have spent in prison, never knowing when they might be hanged, amount to such punishment. Death-row prisoners in Zimbabwe are not told in advance of the date and time of their execution. (source: Voice of America News) ************ 117 Zim inmates on death row The 14 inmates are seeking an order to have their cases remitted for resentencing so that their sentences can be commuted to life sentences. Zimbabwe has 117 inmates on death row at a time the country does not have a hangman, a situation that has left a number of the condemned prisoners subjected to psychological torture as a result of the delays in carrying out the executions. This was revealed at the Constitutional Court in Harare Wednesday where Shadreck Chawira and 14 others are challenging the constitutionality of their continued incarceration while they await the hangman's noose. Harare Central Prison is the only prison designed for death row inmates but some of the prisoners sentenced to death were now being kept at Chikurubi Maximum Prison because of shortage of space, the court heard. Justice Luke Malaba, leading a full bench of the Constitutional Court, reserved judgment on the case. The 14 inmates are seeking an order to have their cases remitted for resentencing so that their sentences can be commuted to life sentences. The lawyer for the inmates, Tendai Biti, told the court that his clients had been on the death row for periods ranging from 3 to 21 years and had suffered enough punishment that there was no need for them to be executed. He said their continued incarceration was in violation of sections 51 and 53 of the Constitution and infringed on their rights to life and human dignity, which were the most important in the Bill of Rights. Biti said he had 14 separate affidavits from the inmates explaining the conditions in prisons and the psychological torture that they suffered as a result of their placement on death row. Given that his clients had served lengthy prison terms with various problems associated with incarceration in Zimbabwean prisons, Biti submitted that the correct remedy was to for the court to declare unconstitutional the continued incarceration and the blanket imposition of the life sentence. "The court can make any order which is in the interest of justice... refer back to the High Court or resentencing taking into account the delay and what would have taken place over the years," he said. State Counsel Olivia Zvedi said the severity of the crimes committed by the applicants warranted the treatment they were getting from the State, including being kept in solitary confinement for more than 20 hours per day. Biti later told journalists that he would soon be challenging the death penalty as it was discriminatory and unequal. "We would like to challenge the death penalty and we believe we will do so this year once parliament has passed amendments to the Criminal Procedures Amendment Act," he said. "Some of the judges also don't believe in the death sentence. The fact of the matter is that there are some people, like the Minister of Justice, now the vice president, who feel that it is not right, they just don't have the courage to say let us outlaw it .The Constitution itself is discriminatory, women cannot be executed but men can be. Anything that is discriminatory and unequal is unconstitutional." (source: African News Agency) INDONESIA: West Jakarta Prosecutors office will continue to seek death penalty for drugs lords The West Jakarta Prosecutors Office will continue to seek the maximum sentence of death for big players in the drug trafficking world. The West Jakarta Prosecutors Office head Reda Manthovani said on Tuesday that last year, his office handled 721 drug cases and sought the death penalty for 25 suspects, particularly for those who were involved in the trafficking of large amounts of narcotics. According to Reda, his office would seek the death penalty for at least 11 "big drugs suspects," this year. "The people have sent tons of narcotics to Indonesia. They did not merely sell narcotics here, but even established a drug factory," Reda said during a press conference. Many human rights activists have complained about his firmness against drugs suspects, Reda said, adding that he believed that firm action against the drugs traffickers should be implemented so as to protect young people from drugs. "Just imagine if one of the members of your family became a narcotics user," said Reda. "China is a great country, but they were defeated because of opium. We don't want to be like that," Reda said, citing the history of China, a nation that was defeated by invaders during the opium war. He said that the West Jakarta Prosecutor's Office had demanded the death penalty for Iwan Setiawan, who is accused of possessing 450 kilograms of marijuana, but the West Jakarta District Court chose to punish him with a life sentence. "We will file an appeal," Reda said. (source: The Jakarta Post) IRAN----execution Prisoner Executed on Moharebeh Charge----Iranian official sources report on the execution of a prisoner in Zanjan's central prison on a Moharebeh charge (commonly translated as "enmity against God"). The Zanjan Prosecutor, Hassan Mozaffari, has reported on the execution of a prisoner on a Moharebeh charge at Zanjan's central prison. According to the report, a crowd of people watched as the prisoner, only identified as "H.S.", was hanged in the prison's vicinity on Tuesday January 12. According to Mozaffari, the prisoner was arrested in July 2014 after he and an accomplice, identified as A.A., allegedly committed rape, piracy, extortion, armed robbery, and torture & physical assault. A.A. was reportedly hanged on rape charges on the morning of Sunday April 26 2015. (source: Iran Human Rights) From rhalperi at smu.edu Thu Jan 14 10:21:18 2016 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Thu, 14 Jan 2016 10:21:18 -0600 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., N.C., GA., FLA. Message-ID: Jan. 14 TEXAS----impending execution Death Watch: Unhappy New Year----Masterson found guilty of capital murder of Shane Honeycutt, set to die Jan. 20 Texas goes to the gurney Wednesday, Jan. 20, with its 1st execution of the calendar year. Set to die is Richard Allen Masterson, 43, who's spent the past 14 years on death row for the murder of Darin Shane Honeycutt. Masterson and Honeycutt knew each other for very little time. They met at a gay bar in Houston just before 2am on Jan. 26, 2001. Dressed in drag that night, Honeycutt introduced himself as Brandi Houston. He offered Masterson a ride home from the bar and on the way proposed that they go back to Honeycutt's apartment for the night. On the morning of Jan. 27, a friend, Larry Brown, coerced Honeycutt's landlord into letting him into the apartment, and found his friend Shane naked and not breathing on his bed. Masterson had stolen Honeycutt's car and hightailed to Georgia. He was later arrested in Florida - picked up for stealing a 2nd car - and brought back to Harris County. Jurors reportedly took only 90 minutes to determine his sentence. Unquestioned during the trial was whether Masterson killed Honeycutt - he admitted as much on his return to Houston. During an interrogation, in which no attorney was present, he allegedly "add[ed] elements that would elevate the case to capital murder," saying he'd rather die than serve a life sentence. But the way in which he killed his recent acquaintance - and whether or not he intended to kill him - was not so easily discernible. He said in a statement during the interrogation (which played to jurors at trial over objections from his attorney) that he killed Honeycutt by putting him into a sleeper hold as soon as the 2 undressed, and that he never actually planned to have sex with him that night. "Something just told me in my mind - I said to myself that I was going to kill him," Masterson said. However, Masterson recanted on those statements in his trial testimony, saying that he lied about his actions because he was too embarrassed to tell the officer taking the confession that he planned to have sex with a man. Instead, he said, Honeycutt requested that Masterson choke him during sex. Something "went wrong" and Honeycutt fell forward, gurgling. Masterson said he got up and left the room; when he came back, Honeycutt was dead. The jurors didn't think long on Masterson's intentions, finding him guilty of capital murder. During the punishment phase, a litany of witnesses were brought out to testify to Masterson's violent past - including accusations of domestic violence and reported incidents while incarcerated - and the jury ruled that he represented a future danger to society. It did not help his cause that, against his attorneys' wishes, he testified that he would defend himself in prison, "whether it's against a guard or inmate or anybody else by any means necessary." Masterson had very little chance of winning his trial all along. In a Jan. 2012 letter written to his judge, Masterson claimed his attorneys had been assigned to his case only "a few weeks" before jury selection, and that the investigator hired to "ask questions about the deceased['s] background and sex practices" never questioned Masterson, among other concerns. A Dec. 2011 letter to that same judge elaborated further, listing a number of individuals charged with heinous crimes who received lesser sentences. "They all had good lawyers they paid," he wrote. "Poor people like me get death." Masterson has railed against his attorneys in letters and waffled on attempts to withdraw various petitions for relief. He's now represented by D.C. attorney Gregory Gardner, who on Dec. 21 filed a application requesting that Masterson be assigned to an expert doctor for a brain scan to determine whether he suffers from organic brain damage. That request was granted Dec. 22, giving Masterson 29 days to complete the necessary procedures. Gardner has not replied to the Chronicle's requests for updates. Masterson would be the 13th Texan executed under Gov. Greg Abbott's reign and the 532nd since the state's 1976 reinstatement of the death penalty. 6 inmates are currently on the death row docket with set dates, including James Freeman on Wednesday, Jan. 27. (source: Austin Chronicle) PENNSYLVANIA: Freemansburg cop killer on death row asks for stay of execution A Freemansburg man sentenced to death for killing a police officer has filed court papers asking for a stay of execution. George Hitcho filed papers on his own behalf last week accusing his trial attorneys of botching his case. The 50-year-old wants a stay of execution until his appeal against his trial attorneys is resolved. The typewritten papers were sent from the State Correctional Institution in Greene County and docketed in Northampton County on Jan. 4. On Wednesday, Northampton County Judge F.P. Kimberly McFadden appointed attorney James Brose to handle Hitcho's appeal. The decision could keep death row inmates George Hitcho and Michael Ballard from being executed. Hitcho fatally shot Freemansburg police officer Robert Lasso on Aug. 11, 2011, when Lasso responded to a disturbance complaint from neighbors about Hitcho. Chief Public Defender Michael Corriere argued the killing was voluntary manslaughter, committed out of stress and confusion but not malice. Hitcho's death sentence was upheld by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in September 2015. In the papers Hitcho filed last week, he said Corriere should have argued Hitcho killed Lasso in self-defense. Hitcho wants a new trial and wants his death sentence vacated. "My trial counsel committed multiple instances of ineffective assistance of counsel by failing to effectively object, raise and/or challenge meritorious claims," Hitcho typed onto the appeal form. "No search warrant, or probable cause, false and forged evidence and testimony entered into trial and brought before the jury," he typed. "The trial court erred and committed multiple abuses of discretion. Prosecutorial misconduct before trial, during and after trial. And my direct appeal counsels provided ineffective assistance of counsel by failing to raise multiple meritorious issues. Violations of due process and denial of a fair trial." Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf has granted numerous death penalty reprieves since taking office, including one filed by 5-time killer Michael Ballard of Northampton. According to the Associated Press, Wolf said the reprieves will remain in effect at least until he reviews a forthcoming report of the Pennsylvania Task Force and Advisory Committee on Capital Punishment and its recommendations are addressed. (source: lehighvalleylive.com) ******************* Defense: Bar death penalty in murder case against inmate Defense attorneys asked a federal judge Wednesday to bar prosecutors from seeking the death penalty against an inmate accused of using a homemade weapon to attack and kill a guard at a federal prison in northeastern Pennsylvania. Attorneys for Jessie Con-ui, 38, asked the judge to declare capital punishment unconstitutional in the case against their client. Con-ui is charged with 1st-degree murder in the February 2013 stabbing death of Eric Williams at the Canaan federal prison in Waymart. Dressed in an orange jumpsuit, he said little during his appearance by video Wednesday from a federal super-maximum prison in Colorado. Prosecutors argued last fall that execution would be justified if Con-ui is convicted, citing what they called the defendant's history of violence, including a 2002 murder conviction and what they allege was a premeditated attack on a federal public servant. Defense attorney David Ruhnke cited declining use of the death penalty and called the system "just too imperfect." He said the federal death penalty "evolves as our society evolves" and should be barred as a violation of the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment. But Justice Department attorney Amanda Haines cited a recent survey she said showed that 60 % of Americans support capital punishment, particularly in violent cases. "We haven't quite evolved to the point where we don't want to seek it or impose it, especially in egregious cases like this," Haines said. Williams, 34, was working in a housing unit at the prison when he was attacked. Prosecutors allege Con-ui was angry after the guard ordered a search of his cell the previous day. They say in court documents that Williams was stabbed more than 200 times; they allege Con-ui also stomped on Williams' head and throat and slammed his head onto the floor. Jury selection for Con-ui's trial is to begin July 11. (source: lancasteronline.com) NORTH CAROLINA: District attorney's office to pursue death penalty against 2 in Greensboro homicide 2 men charged in the September shooting death of a woman could face the death penalty if convicted. The Guilford County District Attorney's Office announced this week it would seek the death penalty if Jeffrey Bernard Cobb, 29, of 314 Lawrence St., and Takwan Dequinten Luster, 26, of 1112 Morris St., are found guilty, said Howard Neumann, chief assistant district attorney. Both are charged with 1st-degree murder, attempted robbery with a dangerous weapon and 1st-degree burglary in connection with the death of Doris Hampton Leach, 72, of Huffine Mill Road. Leach was shot in the head in her house Sept. 1 and died Sept. 7 from her injuries. Investigators believe the intruders entered the house to rob it, not knowing she would be there. They also shot and killed her dog. 3 others also face charges: Tyriq Christopher McCain, 16, of 1214 Valley View St.; Crystal Lavern Whack, 28, of 1308 Bothwell St.; and Keoshea Quanvette Gattis, 31, of 900 McCormick St. McCain will not face the death penalty because he is too young. The district attorney's office does not plan to pursue the death penalty against Whack or Gattis, Neumann said. "Evidence is they did not go into the house," he said of the women. "Mr. McCain did appear to go in, but he's too young (for the death penalty)." In North Carolina, a person must be 18 at the time of a crime for the death penalty to be sought. Neumann said the district attorney's office will pursue the death penalty against Cobb and Luster because the killing was committed during 2 other crimes - burglary and an attempted robbery - and because both have at least 1 prior violent felony conviction. Cobb and Luster are both affiliated with gangs, but are not validated members, said Capt. Mike Richey with Greensboro police. A person is affiliated with a gang, rather than validated, if he or she takes part in activities with gang members but isn't identified as a member by other gang members. Richey declined to say if Cobb and Luster are affiliated with the same gang. (source: greensboro.com) GEORGIA----new execution date Oldest man on Ga. death row to be executed A signal that Georgia is continuing its stepped-up pace in carrying out the death penalty, a judge signed a warrant Wednesday authorizing the execution of the oldest man on Georgia's death row. Brandon Astor Jones will be put to death for the 1979 murder of the manager of a Cobb County convenience store who had stayed late to do paperwork. If the lethal injection is carried out as planned, Jones will die just 11 days shy of his 73rd birthday and almost 31 years to the day after his co-defendant was electrocuted for Roger Tackett's June 16, 1979, murder. Co-defendant Van Roosevelt Solomon's execution came relatively quickly, on Feb. 20, 1985, less than 6 years after Tackett's murder. Jones was 1st sentenced to die on Oct. 11, 1979, but a federal court ordered him re-sentenced because there was a Bible in the jury room during deliberations. Jones was sentenced to death a 2nd time on Sept. 23, 1997. At one time, Jones had argued that sentencing him after he had spent almost 2 decades on death row was an affront to human dignity and "waiting for execution is intolerably cruel." The appellate courts disagreed. Jones exhausted all the regular appeals last October when the U.S. Supreme Court refused to take his case. He does, however, have a complaint pending in U.S. District Court regarding Georgia's law that allows the Department of Corrections to keep secret the identify of the pharmacist who will make the pentobarbital that will be used to put Jones to death. Jones stands to be the oldest man Georgia has executed since the death penalty was reinstated in the 1970s. The oldest man so far was Andrew Brannon, 66 when he died by lethal injection a year ago. Jones and Solomon were captured just moments after they killed Tackett, who was shot in the head at almost point-blank range. A Cobb County policeman had driven a stranded motorist to the Tenneco convenience store to use the pay phone around 1:45 a.m. when he noticed a car parked in front with the driver's side door open and lights on inside the business, which should have closed almost 2 hours earlier. The car belonged to Tackett. Looking through a window, the officer saw Jones stick his head out of the storeroom door in the back before closing the door. Moments later, the policeman heard shots, and he found Jones and Solomon inside the storeroom and 2 .38-caliber revolvers - a large Smith & Wesson and a smaller Colt - nearby. Tackett was shot 5 times from behind - twice in his right hip and once in the jaw, behind his left ear and in his thumb. The medical examiner said Tackett was lying on the ground when he was shot behind the ear. Jones told the officer they found Tackett "bad hurt" in the back of the store when they broke in to take money from the register. Jones' execution could be the 1st of 5 lethal injections expected to be scheduled over the next few weeks and months as other men on Georgia's death row have exhausted their appeals. That number could increase as there are 10 now before the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Last year Georgia put to death 4 men and a woman, the largest number of executions this state has carried out in a year since 1987, when Georgia also executed 5 murderers, all electrocuted. (source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution) ****************** Georgia to execute its oldest death row inmate next month The state of Georgia plans to execute its oldest death row inmate next month. Attorney General Sam Olens' office said in a news release Wednesday that 72-year-old Brandon Astor Jones is scheduled for execution on Feb. 2. Jones was convicted in the 1979 killing of Cobb County convenience store manager Roger Tackett. A federal judge later granted Jones a new sentencing hearing because jurors had improperly been allowed to bring a Bible into the deliberation room. Jones was resentenced to death in 1997. The U.S. Supreme Court in October rejected an appeal from Jones. A divided Georgia Supreme Court and the federal appeals court in Atlanta had previously upheld his death sentence. Another man convicted in the killing, Van Roosevelt Solomon, was executed in 1985. (source: Associated Press) FLORIDA: Death penalty on hold for local cases----U.S. Supreme Court ruled Florida's death penalty system unconstitutional 3 local death penalty cases are up in the air after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Florida's death penalty system is unconstitutional. The ruling Tuesday came in a challenge filed by death row inmate Timothy Lee Hurst, who was convicted of murdering his co-worker Cynthia Harrison in 1998. She was bound, gagged, and stabbed more than 60 times. Trials that were set to begin over the next couple of months will now be changing with this ruling. Some attorneys have filed motions to strike the death penalty from these cases because basically it doesn't exist right now. Attorney Randy Reep said the death sentence will be off the table for a while. "A defendant who is facing the death penalty currently, now is not facing the death penalty," Reep said. Within hours of the ruling on Tuesday, lawyers for Donald Smith filed a motion to bar the prosecution from seeking the death penalty if he's convicted in the kidnap, rape and murder of Cherish Perrywinkle. This is just 1 case among others that will be affected by the change. Luis Toledo's trial in connection with the deaths of his wife and 2 children was supposed to begin in St. Augustine next week. James Rhodes' case could also be affected. He's charged with the murder of Shelby Farah. "Certainly, a defendant facing the death penalty, this is a benefit to them, they are no longer facing the death penalty, until the law in Florida changes to comport with the ruling that came out this week," Reep said. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Florida's death penalty system was unconstitutional because the jury only advises a judge on the death sentence. The judge has the final say and doesn't have to agree with the jury's recommendation. Reep said this is different from the standard that's been held in other situations. "In almost every other sentencing scheme, it is solely in the purview of the judge to impose a sentence whether its prison, probation, all different types of that falls directly into the scope of the judge and now you're putting that in the hands of the jury or at least requiring a recommendation from the jury," Reep said. When it comes to the future of these cases, Reep said many people will probably go forward with a life sentence instead of staying on "hold" for the death penalty. "I think there's more questions than answers in that, does it have to be unanimous on the part of the jury, it wasn't really clear on that, conviction has to be unanimous, now you might find that a majority is probably satisfactory, but I think there's questions as well as answers in this ruling," Reep said. Reep said the ruling this week is clear that people who have already been given a death sentence will still go through with that sentence. (source: WJXT news) **************** Poll: Should Florida require unanimous jury decision to impose death penalty? The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that Florida's death penalty system is unconstitutional because it gives too much power to judges - and not enough to juries - to decide capital sentences. Currently, juries play only an advisory role in recommending death. Judges have discretion to reach a different decision. State Sen. Thad Altman, R-Rockledge, has filed a bill that would require a unanimous jury decision to impose the death penalty. poll--see: http://www.tcpalm.com/polls/opinion/Poll-Should-Florida-require-unanimous-jury-decision-to-impose-death-penalty-365199361.html (source: tcpalm.com) ******************* An in-depth look at Florida's death penalty comes from a surprising source Protesters to the death penalty demonstrate across the highway from the Florida State Correctional facility near Starke, Fla.,Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2013. (AP) An impressive death penalty investigation rolled out last weekend by a somewhat surprising source - The Villages Daily Sun, which serves a sprawling retirement community in Central Florida - was a must-read even before today's US Supreme Court decision declaring Florida's death penalty sentencing process unconstitutional. The Supreme Court today ruled that Florida's unique procedure for meting out the death penalty violates a defendant's Sixth Amendment right to trial by jury. In Florida, a jury issues an advisory verdict that does not have to be unanimous. A judge then decides separately whether the facts surrounding a murder include aggravating factors that warrant the death penalty. All of which raises the question posed in the headline of the Daily Sun's investigation: "How would Florida's death row look if it had to play by the same rules as other states?" Daily Sun reporter Katie Sartoris told me that her investigation was prompted by the fact that the youngest death row inmate in Florida is from the newspaper's circulation area. He did not have a unanimous verdict from the jury during the penalty phase (a unanimous verdict is required to convict). "It got us thinking about how Florida is an outlier," Sartoris said. Alabama and Delaware are the 2 other states that don't require a unanimous verdict at the penalty phase. Reporters around the state may be surprised that the Daily Sun - a paper that is not traditionally known for its investigative work and has been criticized for 1-sided political coverage - did this kind of ambitious project. Last summer, the paper created its first so-called SWAT Team devoted to special projects and investigations "so we can dedicate more resources to in-depth work," Sartoris said. A combination of 7 reporters, editors and producers are contributing to the effort. "We're very excited about it," she said. Sartoris started out at the Daily Sun straight out of college in 2012, first covering education. She's now the associate managing editor for special projects. And the death penalty investigation, complete with a look at the secrecy behind the death warrant process and the lethal injection method, isn't Sartoris' 1st. She produced a sharp investigation into dog racing deaths in December. She also dug up a number that is important to consider as Florida's death penalty process is in the headlines: How many inmates on Florida's death row were sent there without a unanimous jury verdict during the penalty phase of the trial? It took Sartoris 18 months of digging through online and paper archives, but she determined that 287 of the 390 men and women on death row in this state fall into that unique category. With all the scrutiny the death penalty receives, it';s surprising no one had tracked down this number before. "All of the state agencies we talked to told us they didn't have the numbers," Sartoris said. So she and Curt Hills, the paper's managing editor for special projects, and production editor Amy Johstono headed up to Tallahassee to dig through the records.* In some cases, they were able to find the information on jury verdicts from online records of the Florida Supreme Court, but for many they had to dig through the Florida Archives. Reporters covering today's Court decision can get a lot of the background they need from Sartoris' wide-ranging investigation. For one small point, I've seen reports today that put the number of inmates on Florida's death row at 400 but there are, as Sartoris reported, 390 right now. I've also seen reporting that the Supreme Court's decision will only affect the cases of a few of the inmates on Florida's death row, but that's not actually clear. Sartoris quoted Stephen Harper, a professor at Florida International University and coordinator of the Florida Center for Capital Representation, saying the ruling could throw Florida's system "into chaos." Bruce Fleisher, a Miami criminal defense attorney who has tried more than 30 death penalty cases, told me he expected a lot of cases may be affected by the decision. "Anyone who has been sentenced to death in the state of Florida, or any other state with similar provisions, will be filing motions for post-conviction relief," he said. "The opinion doesn't say what the next step is and who is going to be entitled to relief or what they will be entitled to." Although today's decision did not address the main reason Florida's death penalty process is such an outlier - the failure to require a unanimous jury decision - it did leave Florida without a constitutional death penalty law. Fleisher said he expects the legislature to act very quickly, simply because as it stands right now current cases could be in jeopardy. A state lawmaker who represents The Villages community has filed legislation changing Florida's statute to bring it in line with most of the rest of the country and require a unanimous verdict at the penalty phase. In other words, there is much work still ahead for reporters on this story. Meantime, anyone in need of a detailed primer can turn to, yes, the Daily Sun. * This sentence has been revised to correct the spelling of Curt Hills' last name. (source: Susannah Nesmith is CJR's correspondent for Florida and Georgia----Columbia Journalism Review) **************** DELTONA FAMILY KILLED----Prosecutors seek to delay Luis Toledo's death penalty murder trial A day after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Florida's death penalty, prosecutors are seeking to delay the trial of Luis Toledo, who had faced possible death sentences if convicted. A hearing is set for 8 a.m. Thursday before Circuit Judge Raul Zambrano at the Volusia County Courthouse in DeLand on a motion by prosecutors to delay Toledo's trial. Toledo's defense attorneys are objecting to the state's request to delay the trial which was set to start on Tuesday in St. Augustine. Toledo, 33, is charged with 2nd-degree murder in the killing of his wife, the 28-year-old Yessenia Suarez, and 2 counts of 1st-degree murder in the deaths of her children, Thalia, 9, and Michael, 8. The mother and children were reported missing Oct. 23, 2013, from their home at 317 Covent Gardens Place in Deltona. Their bodies have not been found. The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday issued a ruling in Hurst v. Florida striking down the state's death penalty as unconstitutional, because a judge makes the decision to impose death instead of the jury which is relegated to an advisory role. "The State respectfully requests a continuance of the above-styled matter in order to allow time for the issues raised in Hurst to be properly addressed," according to the motion filed by prosecutor. If Toledo goes on trial next week, he would not face the death penalty. If convicted, Toledo's maximum punishment would be life in prison without parole. Last year, Toledo's defense attorneys had sought to delay the trial until the Supreme Court ruled on the case of Hurst v. Florida. Prosecutors opposed the delay and the judge ruled against it. Now, it is prosecutors who are seeking a delay. Under Florida's now unconstitutional procedure, a majority vote of 7 to 5 jurors recommending death was sufficient for judges to impose death. Judges could even override a jury recommendation for life, although that has not happened in at least 15 years. The state Legislature has already introduced bills to change Florida's death penalty scheme so that the dozen jurors on a panel must unanimously vote for the death penalty. (source: Daytona Beach News-Journal) ***************** Supreme Court decision likely to lead to fewer death penalty verdicts, experts say Home to the 2nd-largest death row in the nation, Florida may be on a path to executing fewer prisoners as a result of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling Tuesday that requires juries, not judges, to impose the death penalty, experts said. "Whatever the Legislature does" in response to the court's ruling, "there are bound to be some cases where a jury doesn't reach the same decision that a judge would have," said Ronald J. Tabak, chair of the Death Penalty Committee of the American Bar Association. "And most likely, there will be fewer death sentences." In the 8-1 opinion, the court overturned Florida's unusual capital sentencing system, finding it unconstitutional because juries play an advisory role in recommending life or death, and are not required to give a factual basis for their opinion. By law, judges make the ultimate decision after giving "great weight" to jurors' recommendations. The court's ruling has thrown the state's death penalty process into chaos and tasked Florida lawmakers with rewriting the capital punishment scheme. In interviews on Wednesday, legal experts said that regardless of the precise language that emerges from Tallahassee, there's little doubt Florida will have to transfer power from judges to juries, shouldering ordinary citizens with a grave duty. "That'll just up the degree to which the jurors will feel some sense of responsibility for their decision," said Mona Lynch, a criminology professor at the University of California at Irvine. Lynch, who has studied how juries reach decisions in capital cases, said that in states like Florida and Alabama where juries give advisory verdicts, there tends to be a "diffusion of responsibility." Aware that a judge might override them, jurors often feel less pressure, making it easier for them to sentence the inmate in front of them to death. "Right now, Florida juries can feel like, well, we're just making a recommendation," she said. Florida is 1 of only 3 states - the others are Alabama and Delaware - where judges can override a jury, but that power is used sparingly. It has been 17 years since a Florida judge intervened in a case to override a jury's recommendation. But between 1972 and 1999, judges reversed jurors' advisory verdicts of life 166 times in order to impose a death sentence, according to one study. At least 2 of the 390 inmates on the state's death row are there because judges overruled a jury that voted for life. "The idea that somebody else may correct the sentence if you get it wrong - that does tend to lessen your sense of responsibility and it therefore makes you more likely to vote for death, even if you may not really be that convinced the person should get death," Tabak said. "That has been a problem with the Florida system all along." A second factor, he said, is whether Florida's Legislature decides to require unanimous jury verdicts in capital cases. Although the Supreme Court's opinion didn't address unanimity, Florida is the only state where a simple majority of jurors, by a 7-5 vote, can recommend the death penalty. Despite years of effort by some in the Legislature to change this, the practice has stood, and most people on death row today received non-unanimous jury recommendations. "If they require unanimity, they're going to have fewer death sentences," said Michael Radelet, a University of Colorado professor and expert on the death penalty. "It'll be more focused on the worst of the worst." Radelet, who has studied Florida's death penalty system, said the number of defendants sentenced to death has fallen gradually since the 1990s, a shift he attributed in part to the practice's declining popularity nationwide. If Florida's Legislature requires 12-0 jury verdicts for death penalty sentences, prosecutors, facing tougher odds and the high cost of pursuing the death penalty, might choose to file fewer capital cases, he said. Some prosecutors have argued that imposing a unanimous verdict requirement would benefit some of the state's most notorious killers, such as Ted Bundy, who was executed in 1989 after a jury voted 10-2 to recommend death. Harry Shorstein, former state attorney for the 4th Judicial Circuit, which includes Jacksonville, said he doubted there would be a dropoff in death penalty cases. "It's politically driven," he said. "Maybe in Miami and Broward, the more liberal circuits, they might reconsider. But the rest of them are going to seek it as long as they feel it helps them get elected." ******************** Chaos and uncertainty cloud Florida's death penalty after Supreme Court ruling Florida's death penalty fell under a huge cloud of uncertainty Wednesday as legal experts weigh the impact of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling striking down the state's sentencing system as unconstitutional. The day after the court's 8-1 decision, chaos prevailed on many fronts in Florida: -- Public defenders from Miami to Tallahassee, who represent defendants in murder cases, called for a halt to all executions and trials that could result in the death penalty. -- The Florida Supreme Court told the state to explain why the Hurst vs. Florida decision should not apply retroactively to the case of Michael Ray Lambrix, set to be executed Feb. 11 for 2 murders. -- The veteran prosecutor in Gainesville told legislators that he's not sure how to handle a murder case. "I don't know what to do," Bill Cervone said. The role of the jury in a death penalty case in Florida is a recommendation, not binding on a judge, but the nation's highest court said Tuesday that the jury - not the judge - should have the final decision on every fact that results in a death sentence. The decision came in the case of Timothy Lee Hurst, 37, on death row for killing a co-worker at a Pensacola restaurant in 1998. Gov. Rick Scott provided no specifics on what steps the state might take or whether he would lift pending death warrants for Lambrix and a 2nd double murderer, Mark Asay. "We're reviewing that decision," Scott said Wednesday in Brandon on the second stop of a statewide bus tour to promote his tax cut proposals. "I can tell you as a governor, it's a solemn duty, it's the law of land. What I think about it when I'm involved in that is the victim. Those are not easy. My heart goes out (to the victims)." Attorney General Pam Bondi had no comment Wednesday. Experts who closely monitor Florida's troubled death penalty record said the state could have avoided its current problems if it had acted more than a decade ago in response to a similar case. "It's a self-inflicted wound," said Robert Dunham of the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington, D.C. "Unless Florida redresses this issue, it's going to be in the national spotlight again." In Ring vs. Arizona in 2002, the Supreme Court ruled that juries and not judges should decide the fate of defendants in capital cases. But on several occasions until the Hurst ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear Florida death penalty appeals that were based on the Ring case, so the state Supreme Court said it didn't apply. As long ago as 2006, legislators in both parties filed bills to review and reform Florida's death penalty sentencing system. But they focused on a different issue: that a simple majority vote by a 12-member jury is sufficient to recommend death and that a requirement to cite aggravating circumstances to justify the death penalty, such as the severity of the crime, also does not need to be a unanimous decision. Then-Attorney General Charlie Crist was locked in a primary fight for the Republican nomination for governor. Nicknamed "Chain-Gang Charlie" for his tough-on-crime political stances, Crist insisted no changes be made. A Times/Herald review of 10 years of legislation turned up no bills that would have addressed the issue in the Hurst case. "I can't even remember that it came up," said former Sen. Paula Dockery of Lakeland, who chaired the Criminal Justice Committee for 6 years from 2004 to 2010. A total of 390 inmates are on death row, but many of their sentences are on appeal. Many more cases are on trial, or are about to go to trial. Miami-Dade Public Defender Carlos Martinez said he has several dozen capital murder cases awaiting trial. For now, he said, the Hurst decision means that a defendant could not be given a harsher sentence than life imprisonment without parole, which death penalty opponents have sought for decades. "There is no death penalty right now," Martinez said. "A clarification needs to come quickly." If every Florida death sentence were reduced to life without parole, Martinez said, it would save taxpayers millions of dollars and avoid years of legal battles that clog court dockets. Nancy Daniels, the public defender in Tallahassee for 25 years, said the state should suspend all legal activity on death cases immediately. "The prudent thing to do is to put a moratorium on all pending death cases until this is clarified," Daniels said. "Everything needs to be put on hold." Daniels said she believes that every Florida inmate sentenced to death after the Ring decision has a new avenue of appeal. In the Hurst decision, the U.S. Supreme Court sent the case back to the Florida Supreme Court for clarification. Legal experts said that at a minimum, Florida will have to rewrite the complex legal instructions that are explained to jurors in capital cases. An order issued by the Florida Supreme Court on Tuesday (and announced a day later) orders attorneys for the state to answer how Hurst vs. Florida applies to Lambrix's case. The Florida Supreme Court ordered the state to respond by Jan. 20 with answers to: "the retroactivity of Hurst, the effect of Hurst in light of the aggravating factors found by the trial court in Lambrix's case, and whether any error in Lambrix's case is harmless." An ominous legal sign for Florida is that the U.S. Supreme Court's Hurst decision also invalidated two cases that the Florida Supreme Court cited in upholding numerous death penalty cases: Spaziano vs. Florida and Hildwin vs. Florida. "Time and subsequent cases have washed away the logic of Spaziano and Hildwin," Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote for the majority. The decision would appear to be vindication for Florida Supreme Court Justice Barbara Pariente. She authored the dissent in the Hurst case in 2014 and wrote: "I continue to believe that, in light of Ring, Florida's death penalty statute . . . is unconstitutional." (source for both: Tampa Bay Times) ******************** Editorial: High court decision allows chance to rethink broken system The U.S. Supreme Court's surprising decision Tuesday striking down Florida's capital punishment sentencing system was not only just, but generous. Just, because our state's long and troubled history with the death penalty has only gotten more controversial in recent years as we've rushed to execute inmates. And generous, because Florida legislators now have an opportunity to fix a broken system that has been challenged for being arbitrary, racist and cruel. They should take it. They should also halt all executions - including 2 Gov. Rick Scott has scheduled in February and March - until they have done a fair-minded review of the process. The high court's monumental 8-1 decision in the Timothy Lee Hurst case surely allows legislators that pause. Justice Sonia Sotomayor, writing for the majority, declared that the process by which we impose the death penalty unconstitutionally violates the Sixth Amendment right to a trial by jury. Florida law allows juries to recommend a death sentence, but gives judges the power to ultimately decide on imposing it. "The Sixth Amendment requires a jury, not a judge, to find each fact necessary to impose a sentence of death," Sotomayor wrote. "A jury's mere recommendation is not enough." We agree. The high court was right to intervene. Tuesday's decision came 3 years after state lawmakers passed, and Scott signed a bill sponsored by Stuart Sen. Joe Negron and Fort Walton Beach Rep. Matt Gaetz aimed at reducing delays in death penalty cases. The 2013 Timely Justice Act, gives the governor 30 days to sign a death warrant once the Clerk of Court certifies that appeals have been exhausted. After that, the state has 180 days to carry out the execution. Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, who has defended the current system, released a statement Tuesday noting that "the state will need to make changes to its death-sentencing statutes." And both Negron and Gaetz told the News Service of Florida they expect the Legislature to "remedy the defects in our death penalty process so that this issue is quickly resolved." But given Florida's spotty history with the death penalty, would it not be better to focus less on quickness and more on fairness? The number of minorities sentenced to death in Florida remains so disproportionate to their size of the population. Florida has had 26 wrongful convictions that resulted in death sentences, the most of any state. And the state hasn't even been competent at executing inmates. In 2000, Florida had to create a lethal injection system when the electric chair had repeated malfunctions. In 1 case, the chair may have caused flames to ignite on 1 prisoner's head. Last year, executions were halted while the courts considered whether 1 of the drugs in the lethal cocktails being used to execute prisoners was actually causing the inmates to feel as if they were being burned alive. While very few, understandably, are sympathetic to those guilty of murder, a civil society should ensure that we are doing justice fairly, and without cruelty or torture. Also, there is great political pressure on elected trial court judges to be tough on crime. No judge wants to be painted as soft or sympathetic to an alleged murderer. The jury system serves as an important check that allows the community, and a defendant's peers to consider the weight of the evidence. According to a recent report, 287 of the 390 men and women currently on Florida's death row were sent there without a unanimous jury recommendation. Yes, there are few issues with more political support in Florida than capital punishment. But lawmakers must use this opportunity given to us by the high court to rethink the frequency and application of the death penalty. At the minimum, change the law to require a unanimous jury verdict. (source: Editorial, Palm Beach Post) ******************* 390 death row sentences may be appealed The Supreme Court's decision to void Florida's death penalty could trigger new sentencing appeals for Florida's 390 death row inmates, including 25 cases stemming from the 5th Judicial Circuit comprised of Lake, Sumter, Marion, Citrus and Hernando counties. Lake has 10 cases and Sumter has 1. "The ruling could have a broad impact," said Robert Dunham, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center in a telephone interview Tuesday. But it is no guarantee any of the inmates will get new sentencing hearings. Dunham said death row inmates would have to file appeals and prove their judges harmed their cases. Brad King, state attorney for the 5th Judicial Circuit, said his office will look at each individual on a case-by-case basis as state legislators work to rewrite the statute so it falls in compliance with the ruling. King added there could still be several reasons why the law won't affect some cases. He said he anticipates state lawmakers will address the statute before his circuit's 2 upcoming capital trials this spring, including one in Sumter County. The justices on Tuesday ruled 8-1 that the state's sentencing procedure is flawed because juries play only an advisory role in recommending death while the judge can reach a different decision. The court ordered a new sentencing hearing for Timothy Lee Hurst, who was convicted of the 1998 murder of his manager at a Popeye's restaurant in Pensacola. A jury divided 7-5 in favor of death, but a judge imposed the sentence. Florida's solicitor general argued that the system was acceptable because a jury first decides if the defendant is eligible for the death penalty. Hurst's attorneys argued, in part, that a 2002 U.S. Supreme Court ruling requires that determination of aggravating circumstances be "entrusted" to juries, not to judges. They also took issue with Florida not requiring unanimous jury recommendations in death penalty cases. Florida is 1 of only 3 states that does not require a unanimous jury verdict when sentencing someone to death. The others are Alabama and Delaware. In 3 of Lake's 10 death row cases, jurors were unanimous in recommending a death sentence. But in 7, the votes were split, and a judge decided to send those defendants to death row: J.P. "Pig" Parker was convicted of robbing and kidnapping a convenience store clerk in Stuart in 1982, stabbing the woman so she fell to her knees then shooting her execution-style in the back of the head. His take from the store was about $30. The case was moved to Lake County because of intense press coverage. The death penalty vote came in at 11-1. Allen Cox was already serving several life sentences for kidnapping, sexual battery and aggravated battery when someone stole $500 from him at Lake Correctional Institution in 1998. He used a prison shank to stab a suspect 3 times, causing the man to bleed to death. Cox also beat up the man's cellmate. His death penalty vote was 10-2. Guy Gamble told his girlfriend he was going to kill his landlord 6 days before repeatedly hitting the man in the head with a claw hammer in 1991. He then stole the man's car and took his girlfriend out to dinner. Gamble's death penalty vote was 10-2. Jason Wheeler ambushed and killed a Lake County Sheriff's deputy responding to a domestic call at his Paisley residence in 2005. 2 other deputies were also shot. Wheeler's death penalty vote was 10-2. Donte Hall burst into a house filled with female strippers, robbing and opening fire on the male guests in 2006. 2 people were killed with an AK-47 assault rifle. His death penalty vote was 8-4. Donald Williams helped an 81-year-old woman shop for groceries in a motorized wheelchair then robbed and kidnapped her from the supermarket's parking lot in 2010. Her body was found in the woods several days later. His death penalty vote was 9-3. James Duckett, a Mascotte police officer in 1987, was convicted of raping and killing an 11-year-old girl and tossing her body in a local lake. At his trial, 3 other girls said he had made sexual advances toward them. His death penalty vote was 8-4. (source: Daily Commercial) ****************** Attorneys: No death penalty for Donald Smith Attorneys for the man accused of raping and killing 8-year-old Cherish Perrywinkle say he should not get the death penalty, because the death penalty fundamentally does not exist in Florida in the wake of a momentous Supreme Court decision yesterday. "It's my position that there is no death penalty," Julie Schlax, attorney for its Donald James Smith, told First Coast News. It's an argument Schlax made in a court filing Tuesday, which notes that since the high court struck down the constitutionality of Florida's Death Penalty law in Hurst v. Florida, there is effectively no legal form of capital punishment in the state. Therefore, she argues, "until such time as a new sentencing scheme is passed by the Florida Legislature, the only possible penalty for 1st degree murder is life imprisonment without the possibility of parole." The state attorney's office released a statement saying "It is inappropriate and premature to comment on the issue. The defense has filed a motion and we will respond accordingly, in court, on the record." The Hurst decision was already predicted to be disruptive for the roughly 400 inmates on Florida's death row. In their decision, justices found Florida's practice of allowing judges, not juries, to make the final determination about a death sentence unconstitutional. Schlax said she intends to file similar motions in all of her death penalty cases. No hearing date has been set to hear arguments about the motion in the Smith case. (source: firstcoastnews.com) From rhalperi at smu.edu Thu Jan 14 10:23:30 2016 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Thu, 14 Jan 2016 10:23:30 -0600 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----ALA., KY., MO., CALIF., USA Message-ID: Jan. 14 ALABAMA: Expert: Lethal injection consciousness check 'inadequate' In a lawsuit challenging Alabama's death penalty protocol, Dr. Alan Kaye, chair of Louisiana State University's Department of Anesthesiology, testified Wednesday that the "consciousness check" used by the Alabama Department of Corrections during lethal injections is inadequate. Specifically, he said the check for consciousness does not ensure condemned inmates won't feel the sensation of being buried alive or burned from the inside as a result of the drugs. But the court is primarily trying to determine if the consciousness checks are performed at all. This litigation began in 2011 when attorney Suhana Han filed suit against Jefferson Dunn, ADOC Commissioner; Walter Myers, warden of Holman Correctional Facility; and others on behalf of Thomas Arthur, a death row inmate who was convicted in 1982 in a murder-for-hire plot. A final hearing for this litigation began on Tuesday in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama. Alabama's current death penalty process uses a 3-drug injection lethal cocktail to carry out executions: 500 milligrams of midazolam, 600 milligrams of rocuronium bromide and 240 "milliequivalents" of potassium chloride. The 1st drug, midazolam, is supposed to sedate inmates so they won't feel the effects of the rocuronium bromide, a paralytic, and the potassium chloride, which stops the heart. Kaye said that if inmates are not properly sedated, they could feel the effects of the paralyzing drug, which would induce the feeling of being buried alive, and the potassium chloride, which would cause a burning sensation. In addition, no Alabama inmate has yet been executed using midazolam. Pentobarbital was the sedative of choice until the state ran out of its supply. According to ADOC's protocol, correctional officers are supposed to perform a consciousness check after the sedative is administered. That involves a correctional officer saying the inmate's name, gently brushing his eyelashes, then pinching his arm. The consciousness check is vital in determining if condemned inmates have been properly sedated, Kaye testified. "(The consciousness check) is all we have in this protocol," Kaye said. "It's a safeguard, albeit a limited safeguard." That consciousness check is inadequate for several reasons, Kaye testified. Based off testimony he's read, Kaye said correctional officers performing the check aren't adequately trained on how to do so. He said they don't pinch hard enough and there is little communication between those performing the check and those administering the drugs. "(The consciousness check) can't tell you, even if done properly, if a person is at a deep level of anesthesia," Kaye said. But the issue at hand in this trial isn't necessarily the adequacy of the consciousness check. It's if that check is regularly performed at all. Kaye said he doesn't believe this check is always performed. On Tuesday during trial, 3 people who have witnessed 2 executions in 2010 and 2011 testified that they did not see the pinch test performed. On Wednesday, a video deposition of a volunteer minister for death row inmates testified that the consciousness check was not performed on 6 executions he's witnessed. Thomas Govan, an assistant attorney general representing the defendants in this case, pointed out to Kaye upon cross examination that correctional officers testified that the consciousness check was always performed. Kaye's opinion remained unchanged. U.S. District Judge Keith Watkins, who is presiding over this litigation, isn't expected to rule until higher courts rule on other death penalty litigation motions which are tangentially related to Arthur's case. He is tasked with deciding if ADOC committed a violation by allegedly not performing the consciousness check, and if the plaintiffs have proved that there is a readily available alternative method to the state's current lethal injection protocol. (source: Montgomery Advertiser) ********************* Marshall County death row inmate hopes for reduced sentence A Marshall County man on death row for the killing of his wife and her unborn child returned to court Wednesday. Jessie Phillips is hoping to have his sentence reduced. This after an appeals court seeks clarification from the judge on his 2012 sentence. Prosecutors in the case are asking the judge to clarify to the appeals court, reasons why he ordered the death penalty. But defense attorneys see this as an opportunity for Phillips to be re-sentenced to life without parole. More than 3 years after he was sentenced, Jessie Phillips was back before his trial judge Wednesday morning. Phillips was sentenced to death in 2012 for the shooting death of Erica Droze. Droze was 8 weeks pregnant when she was shot in the head by Phillips at Lakeside Car Wash back in 2009. On Wednesday, the parties began revisiting the aggravating and mitigating circumstances surrounding the decision to sentence Phillips to death. Defense attorneys argued he should be given life without, because there were several mitigating circumstances including Phillips bad childhood, mother had drug problems, he was in foster care, as well as he had no significant criminal history. Prosecutors argued the single aggravating circumstance of taking the life of the mother, and giving no life opportunities for the unborn child outweighs those mitigating circumstances. "Our position is the judge doesn't need to change his sentence. In fact, he simply needs to amend his order and allow the sentence that was imposed and recommended by the jury and by him to be eventually carried out," says Marshall County District Attorney Steve Marshall. The judge asked both sides to submit their briefs to the court by the end of the month and a future hearing date will be set. (source: WAFF news) KENTUCKY: Suspect in 7-year-old's murder could face death penalty The man accused of raping and killing a 7-year-old Allen County girl was in court Wednesday. Timothy Madden was formally arraigned in the death of Gabbi Doolin of Scottsville. Doolin disappeared from a football game at Allen County High School in November. Her body was found a short time later in the woods near the school. A not guilty plea was entered on Madden's behalf. "I am only aware of some DNA testing or remaining that's being done that is not to us ...the majority of it, we should be able to comply with any deadline the court sets," the prosecutor said during the arraignment. The courtroom was packed with family members on both sides. Madden told WDRB in a jailhouse interview right after his arrest in November that he's innocent, despite DNA evidence pointing to him as a suspect. His attorney, Travis Lock, says Madden maintains his innocence and remains upbeat. "He is as positive as can be would be the way I would describe him," Lock said. "Obviously I can't discussed my communications with him but nothing with Mr. Madden has changed." Lock admits he has even taken some heat for representing Madden. "This is a very high profile case and obviously, there is negative feedback and negative opinions in our community," Lock said. Madden is being held at the Barren County jail on a $1 million full cash bond. Prosecutors are still deciding whether they will seek the death penalty in the case. (source: WDRB news) ************* Judge sets deadline for pursuit of death penalty in Doolin case The prosecutor in the case involving the death of Gabriella "Gabbi" Doolin will have until March 31 to decide whether to seek the death penalty against her suspected killer. Timothy Wayne Madden, 38, of Scottsville, was arraigned Wednesday afternoon in Allen Circuit Court on charges of murder, kidnapping, 1st-degree rape and 1st-degree sodomy. Madden is accused of killing 7-year-old Gabriella, whose body was found Nov. 14 in a creek in a wooded area behind Allen County-Scottsville High School, where her brother was participating in a youth football game. Manual strangulation and drowning are the listed causes of death in court records. This was Madden's 1st court appearance since his indictment last month by a special grand jury. He was clean-shaven on Wednesday, as opposed to his bearded appearance during previous court hearings. Doolin's and Madden's families sat on separate sides of the courtroom where cameras were not allowed. Madden's attorney, Travis Lock of Bowling Green, entered a not guilty plea on his client's behalf. Allen Circuit Judge Janet Crocker ordered Madden to return to court July 13 for a pretrial conference. Madden is being held without bail in the Barren County Detention Center in Glasgow due to the potential of this case becoming a death penalty prosecution. Defendants in capital cases are not entitled to bail. In Kentucky, a murder case may be eligible for the death penalty if there is evidence of aggravating circumstances, such as if the murder occurred during the course of another violent act. Crocker imposed a March 31 deadline on Allen County Commonwealth's Attorney Clint Willis to file a motion of intent to seek the death penalty against Madden. Willis said in court that he could "easily" meet the deadline. After the hearing, Willis said he planned to meet with Doolin's family sometime in the next couple of weeks to discuss how to proceed with the case and answer their questions. Willis said it was important to give the family time to process Wednesday's court appearance before meeting with them. "Every time you go to court, you're reopening new wounds and they've got to be able to absorb some of this stuff," Willis said. Evidence that has been gathered by law enforcement is anticipated to be turned over by Willis' office to Lock and Madden ahead of the pretrial conference in July. Willis said in court that some DNA testing remains to be done in the case. After Wednesday's hearing, Lock said he is awaiting receipt of evidence from Willis' office. Kentucky courts operate under open discovery, in which the prosecution shares its evidence with the defense ahead of a trial. "I know nothing more about the evidence than what I knew last December," Lock said after the arraignment. "I think it's important for everyone to know ... the defense is entitled to all evidence the commonwealth possesses and that's not true in all jurisdictions." Before the arraignment, Lock had served subpoenas on two area convenience stores for video footage believed to depict Madden at both locations on the day of Gabbi's death. Lock said that he has received video from one of the locations and that Madden is shown on the footage. The other business has not responded to its subpoena, Lock said. A member of Madden's extended family who had been a client of Lock's contacted the attorney Nov. 20, the date of Madden's arrest by the Kentucky State Police. Lock agreed to represent Madden after meeting with him and his family. The arrangement has led to Lock receiving some criticism from people in a community that has been stung by 2 homicides in recent months. "Public opinion is out there and it's a high-profile case, but as I've said before, any person who is accused of even a heinous crime has to have counsel," Lock said. "Any person who is aggrieved by that doesn't understand how the system works. For the system to work, the accused has to have counsel and someone has to fulfill that role for justice to happen." Lock said that a motion to move the trial out of Allen County remains a possibility, while Willis said the prospect of a change of venue motion seems highly likely. "I fully anticipate the defense will be filing a motion like that someday," Willis said. "The timing of that is simply when they feel it's appropriate. If the defense doesn't file it, I suspect the court ... on its own will address that one way or another." (source: Bowling Green Daily News) MISSOURI: Appeals court hears arguments in Columbia death penalty case Missouri's method of execution and the timeliness of the argument made its way to the 28th floor of the Thomas Eagleton Courthouse Wednesday afternoon. A 3 judge panel of the U.S. 8th Circuit Court of Appeals will decide whether Ernest Lee Johnson, convicted of killing 3 people in northeast Columbia in 1994, should have his case sent back to Missouri's Western District court, or go through with an execution by lethal injection. The U.S. Supreme Court issued a stay in Johnson's execution the day it was set to happen in November. The Court cited Johnson's lawyers' claim that lethal injection would cause "severe and uncontrollable" seizures. According to a medical affidavit filed in 2015, Dr. Joel Zivot said scar tissue that formed after a 2008 brain surgery would cause those seizures when reacting to pentobarbital, the single drug used in Missouri's lethal injection. Judge Lavenski Smith, flanked by Judges Steven Colloton and Raymond Gruender, asked about the use of lethal gas. Johnson's attorney Brian Gaddy said that since the state allows for its use by law, it constitutes a "feasible" and "readily implementable" alternative - the legal bar established by the Supreme Court. "A lot's been made of the gas chamber," Gaddy told ABC 17 News after the hearing. "I think technology has advanced to where you may not need an official gas chamber, and those are items that we hope to litigate of the case is sent back down to the district court." Johnson murdered Mabel Scruggs, Mary Bratcher and Fred Jones in February 1994, as the 3 closed the Casey's General Store at the corner of Rice Road and Ballenger Lane. Johnson was convicted of the murders the next year, but various courts overturned the death penalty sentence. A Pettis County jury last upheld that punishment in 2006. Assistant Attorney General Gregory Goodwin said Johnson's attorneys have never proved that the chemicals used in lethal gas would not cause the same result they allege with pentobarbital. Johnson could also not prove that lethal gas was a "readily implementable" form of execution, simply because state law allowed it. Missouri has not conducted an execution with the gas chamber since 1965. Department of Corrections spokesperson David Owen told ABC 17 News the state does not currently have an operational gas chamber. Goodwin also claimed Johnson filed his petition for a new form of execution too late. Both sides agreed that the statute of limitations for such a claim is 5 years. Goodwin said the brain surgery in 2008 started the "clock," but Gaddy rebutted to say the discovery of the scar tissue in a follow-up MRI in 2011 would have given Johnson any claim under the Eighth Amendment. The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals does not have timetable on handing down an opinion. (source: KMIZ news) CALIFORNIA: Alejandro Guerrero Ruiz of Orange May Face Death Penalty in Slayings of 4 Men A 23-year-old Orange man has been charged with the murders of three men whose burned bodies were found in an SUV ablaze in a quiet Orange neighborhood and a fourth man whose body was found in the back seat of a car in Fontana. Alejandro Guerrero Ruiz, who is awaiting extradition proceedings in Texas, where he is being held on a separate matter, faces special circumstance allegations of multiple murders and murder during the commission of a robbery, according to Orange County Senior Deputy District Attorney Scott Simmons. Those allegations would make it possible to seek the death penalty, Simmons noted. Speaking with City News Service, the prosecutor declined to comment further on the nature of Ruiz's arrest in Texas or the motive for the Southern California murders, except to mention "drugs were definitely involved." Simmons' office released a statement saying no further information is being released at this time, nor is a booking photo of Ruiz. Orange Police Lt. Fred Lopez said at the time his dispatchers received a call about a vehicle fire at 2:18 p.m. Monday, Nov.. 9, in the 500 block of East Oakmont Avenue, near Shaffer Street and Orange High School. Witnesses at the scene said the driver was seen running away from the black, full-size GMC SUV as it caught fire and rolled to a stop in the driveway of a yellow house. The bodies of 3 men were pulled out. There was a license plate on the GMC that was legible so investigators quickly discovered the SUV had not been reported stolen, Orange Police Sgt. Phil McMullen said at the time. Also on Nov. 9, 19-year-old Antonio Medina of Glendale, Arizona, and 20-year-old Fernando Meza of Phoenix were reported missing, according to a Facebook page titled "Searching for Fernando Meza and Antonio Medina." The Orange County coroner later identified them as two men found in the back seat of the flamed-out SUV. The Orange Police Department previously said the 3rd dead man, who was in the front right passenger seat, was an Orange resident in his late 20s. He was later identified as 26-year- old Edgar Berrelleza-Soto, whose 35-year-old brother, Joel Mauricio Berrelleza of Orange, had been found dead (but not burned) in the back seat of a car in Fontana on Nov. 15, Simmons said. The date of all 4 murders was listed as Nov. 9 in an arrest warrant attached to the criminal complaint, City News Service reports. Simmons, who believes all 4 victims were shot to death, said the special circumstance allegation of murder during a robbery applies to all 4. He declined to say whether Ruiz was the driver who bolted out of the SUV. The OCDA says the investigation is ongoing. (source: Orange County Weekly) USA: US authorities agree not to seek death penalty for "Shorty" Guzman US Authorities who are applying for the extradition of detained Sinaloa drug cartel leader Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman, have agreed not to seek the death penalty, if he's convicted of homicide. The concession is key for a successful extradition of the accused leader of a Mexican drug cartel. The Mexican constitution forbids extradition if there is a possibility that an accused will suffer the death penalty. Guzman was re-captured last Friday and returned to the same maximum security prison from which he was rescued by his henchman 6 months ago by tunneling into his cell. The difference now, however, is that the floor has been reinforced with concrete. Other security measures have been taken, including that Guzman will be moved from cell to cell on a continuous basis. Outside the prison's perimeter fence, tanks and armoured cars are on constant patrol. Guzman's lawyers are filing injunction after injunction in an attempt to prevent or at least delay the day when Guzman will have to face US justice. (source: radiovaticana.va) ******************** The End of the Death Penalty Isn't Near The U.S. Supreme Court struck down Florida's death penalty Tuesday, but if you think this is a harbinger of the end of capital punishment, think again. The 8-1 decision was joined by Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, who have no intention of ever ruling death sentences unconstitutional as a general matter. The reason these archconservatives held Florida's death-penalty system unconstitutional was highly specific. The state gave a judge, not a jury, final authority to decide facts that would determine a capital sentence. This arrangement violated a principle that Scalia and Thomas adopted in 2000 as part of their goal to strike down federal sentencing guidelines. According to that principle, any fact that's necessary to increase a defendant's punishment must be submitted to the jury for proof beyond a reasonable doubt. The Florida structure didn't satisfy that requirement, the court held. So Scalia and Thomas had no choice but to join the opinion. The constitutional back story is fascinating. It begins with a 1998 decision, Almendarez-Torres v. U.S., in which Scalia wrote a dissent that was joined by 3 of the court's 4 liberals at the time: Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, John Paul Stevens and David Souter. Scalia said there was strong reason to believe that the Constitution requires any fact increasing punishment to be decided by a jury. Thomas didn't join Scalia's dissent, and neither did the usually liberal Justice Stephen Breyer. Thomas's refusal to join wasn't yet noteworthy. But Breyer's was. The most probable explanation was that Breyer had helped dream up and then draft the U.S. sentencing guidelines that governed almost all federal sentencing at the time. One central element of the guidelines was that judges would make findings about the degree of harm and nature of the crime which they then applied according to an elaborate grid designed to reduce judicial discretion. Scalia's dissent hinted that this arrangement might violate the Constitution, upending the sentencing guidelines. Two years later, in Apprendi v. New Jersey, Scalia took the next step. He joined an opinion by Stevens squarely holding that any fact (except the fact of a prior conviction) that enhanced a sentence beyond the statutory maximum must be found by a jury. This time, Thomas joined him, reversing his vote from Almendarez-Torres and saying he'd gotten that result wrong. The result was a 5-4 opinion with a bizarre judicial lineup: Scalia and Thomas joined 3 of the liberals, while Breyer, committed to the sentencing guidelines, joined the court's conservatives. The conservatives' reasoning was historical and originalist. But one issue in particular may have been important to Thomas. The idea, first mentioned in a 1999 opinion that helped pave the way for the Apprendi decision, was that common-law juries had the de facto power to block the implementation of criminal laws that they didn't like. The great 18th century English legal thinker William Blackstone called such nullifying verdicts "pious perjury." The jurors perjured themselves by breaking their oath to find the fact accurately, but they were acting piously because the laws were wrong. In particular, Blackstone had in mind the common-law rule that stealing goods of a certain value constituted a felony punishable by death. Juries fudged the facts to find defendants guilty of misdemeanor, thus mitigating the harshness of the laws while simultaneously expressing their dissatisfaction with them. Thomas never said so explicitly, but it seems probable that he liked the idea of an empowered jury casting doubt on laws it didn't like. The sentencing guidelines, perceived as inflicting especially harsh punishments on black defendants, probably seemed like good targets for such jury repudiation. In 2005, Scalia and Thomas provided their votes to strike down the sentencing guidelines on the same grounds. In any case, Thomas has consistently stuck with the principle ever since, as has Scalia. The Florida sentencing system deviated from it. The reason was that the jury's findings regarding the death penalty were merely advisory. The ultimate decision was made by the judge. The court said the Apprendi precedent controlled, and found Florida's system unconstitutional. In case you're wondering if Scalia and Thomas are somehow softening, proof to the contrary may be gleaned from the fact that last week, the court refused to stay the execution of a Florida death row inmate. Ordinarily, if the court knew that a forthcoming opinion would save a defendant's life, it would issue a stay -- a decision that requires 5 justices. The court didn't give a reason for refusing the stay. But the defendant, Oscar Ray Bolin Jr., had waived the jury's part of the process at his 2001 trial and chosen to go straight to the judge for sentencing. Thus, the court could've concluded that he wouldn't have benefited from the constitutional rule requiring submission of facts to the jury. You're entitled to waive your constitutional rights, and 5 of the justices must've thought that Bolin would've done so even if he'd known he had the right to demand a jury finding. And what about Breyer? He still hasn't given up on the constitutionality of the sentencing guidelines. He concurred separately in the Florida case to explain that he still doesn't think that facts enhancing punishment must be submitted to a jury. He gave a different reason for striking down the sentence, namely that the death penalty in particular must be decided by a jury, not a judge. The upshot is that the Florida case wasn't about the death penalty for Scalia and Thomas -- it was about the old fight over the sentencing guidelines, which Breyer hasn't forgotten either. (source: Noah Friedman, bloombergview.com) ******************* On death penalty, is this the company we want to keep? Saudi Arabia's mass execution of Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr and 46 others has sparked tumult in the Middle East and underscored the brutality of the Saudi government. Al-Nimr was convicted of political crimes in a rigged trial by a corrupt judiciary, as were some of the others, who reportedly included juveniles and people with mental disabilities. Mass executions are something of a habit in Saudi Arabia. While this one was the worst in 35 years, they aren't uncommon. Nor are the arguments about Western complicity: While professing outrage, Canada's new prime minister, Justin Trudeau, a progressive on most issues, stated his continuing commitment to a $15 billion arms deal with the desert kingdom despite the killings. The United States is also standing by its commitments: In 2015 alone, the United States agreed to sell Saudi Arabia $46 billion worth of military hardware. That Saudi Arabia, our closest Arab ally, is one of the world's worst human rights offenders (it still sometimes executes women by stoning for "moral" violations of Sharia law) seems to be of little consequence to the U.S. government. However, Saudi Arabia is just one of the world's worst perpetrators of capital punishment. Shockingly, we're another. In that context, our complicity isn't all that surprising. In 2015, 2,984 convicts sat on death row in the United States, a staggering figure. The number of executions in the United States each year is exceeded only by Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Iran and China. Clearly, we're not keeping very good company, and Amnesty International has blasted us for the discriminatory and disproportionate way we condemn people. All of the Western democracies, excluding the United States, have abolished the death penalty; altogether, more than 150 countries no longer use it. The death penalty as applied in the United States defies constitutional and judicial guarantees of equal justice under the law. An Atlantic article in 2014 reported on the landmark research of University of Iowa Professor David Baldus, who, with associates, studied 2,000 homicides in Georgia in the 1970s and 1980s and found vast racial disparities in sentencing. Baldus also researched 677 homicides in Philadelphia and determined that blacks were condemned 4 times more than whites for similar crimes. Baldus' work, which also debunked the myth that blacks were condemned more than whites because they commit more crimes, was cited by the late Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun in finding that "both fairness and rationality cannot be achieved (by) the death penalty." A geographical bias, too The death penalty is also geographically biased. Altogether, 1,157 people have been executed in the South since the death penalty was reinstated, compared with 177 in the Midwest, 85 in the West and only 4 in the populous Northeast. Sometimes the bias is local: In California, someone convicted of murdering a white person in a rural area is three times more likely to be sentenced to death than someone who commits the same crime in a city, according to researchers Glenn L. Pierce and Michael Radelet in the Santa Clara Law Review. And The Guardian reported in 2012 that Harris County, Texas, led the nation in executions, accounting for more than 1/3 of Texas' 305 death row inmates and half of its 121 black death row prisoners. Sometimes, the bias is both geographic and racial: No white person has ever been executed for killing a black person in Louisiana, according to a 2015 Loyola University study cited recently in an online article by researcher Josie Duffy. There's also the matter of wrongful conviction. Florida, which has been racing ahead with executions under Gov. Rick Scott, a "tough on crime" tea party favorite, has had 26 exonerations, the most of any state. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that Florida's death penalty was unconstitutional because of the way judges can ignore the wishes of juries. Like Saudi Arabia, we execute the mentally ill and disabled, despite laws against it, according to a report by the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice at Harvard University. It found recently that more than 2/3 of those executed in the United States in 2015 suffered from severe mental disabilities. Several, it said, suffered from "multiple mental impairments." We should also consider cost. The death penalty has cost cash-strapped California $4 billion since 1978, according to a study by Judge Arthur Alarcon of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court and associate Paula Mitchell. Finally, the death penalty has no deterrent value. The FBI Uniform Crime Report for 2014 showed that the South had the country's most murders despite having more than 80 percent of its executions. 88 % of criminologists believe it is not a deterrent, according to the Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology. And police chiefs surveyed in 2009 by the nonpartisan Death Penalty Information Center rated the death penalty the least effective way both to reduce violent crime and spend taxpayer dollars. Like it or not, we are judged by the company we keep. We would be better off joining the ranks of the countries that have abolished the death penalty rather than tacitly endorsing the practices of countries like Saudi Arabia and continuing down our own dubious path. (source: Op-Ed; Martin W.G. King is the former senior writer at the National Crime Prevention Council in Washington----News & Observer) From rhalperi at smu.edu Thu Jan 14 10:24:42 2016 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Thu, 14 Jan 2016 10:24:42 -0600 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide Message-ID: Jan. 14 SAUDI ARABIA----execution Saudi executes Yemeni for killing employer Saudi Arabia on Thursday executed a Yemeni man for murdering and robbing his employer, raising the number of death sentences already carried out by the kingdom this year to 52. Yaser Qawza broke into the home of his Saudi employer Falwa al-Jarad, tied her up and beat her to death before robbing her money and jewellery, according to an interior ministry statement. Qawza was executed in the southern region of Aseer, said the statement, published by the official SPA news agency. Most executions in the country are carried out by beheading with a sword. Last year Saudi Arabia executed 153 people, most of them for drug trafficking or murder, according to an AFP tally. Amnesty International says the number of executions in Saudi Arabia in 2015 was the highest for 2 decades. The kingdom practises a strict Islamic legal code under which murder, drug trafficking, armed robbery, rape and apostasy are all punishable by death. On January 2, the kingdom executed 47 men convicted of "terrorism", including al Qaeda-linked Sunni militants and Shia cleric Nimr al-Nimr, whose death sparked a diplomatic crisis with Iran. (source: The Tribune) SOMALILAND: Heads of Missions of the European Union and Member States condemn executions carried out in Mogadishu and Dararwayne and Mandera The Heads of Missions of the European Union and Member States strongly and unequivocally oppose the death penalty in any circumstances. It is a serious violation of human rights and human dignity and cannot be used as an instrument for justice. In this context, we are deeply concerned by reports of at least 4 executions in Somaliland on 11 January and by the authorities renewed use of the death penalty. We are similarly concerned with reports of an execution in Mogadishu on 3 January. The EU and Member States' Heads of Missions call upon the respective authorities to halt executions and to apply a moratorium of the death penalty. We are committed to support and work with the respective authorities in achieving a full abolition of the death penalty and in the strengthening of institutions to provide justice to all Somali people in a fair and transparent manner. (source: somalilandpress.com) PAKISTAN: ATC sentences SHO Shehzad Warraich to death for killing Daska Bar president, other lawyer The Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) on Thursday sentenced former Senior House Officer (SHO) Shehzad Warraich to death 4 times for killing Daska Bar Association President Rana Khalid Abbas and advocate Irfan Chauhan. The verdict was announced by a special anti-terrorism court's judge Chaudhry Imtiaz Ahmad. Besides the death penalty, the accused will pay Rs 4 lac to the victims' family. The court has also ordered 30 years imprisonment to the accused for injuring 5 lawyers. In May 2015, 2 lawyers including Daska Bar Association President Rana Khalid Abbas - were killed during a clash between protesting lawyers and police. Officials of Daska Tehsil Municipal Administration (TMA) along with SHO of Daska city police station Shehzad Warraich were conducting an anti-encroachment drive in Sialkot's Daska tehsil when local residents and lawyers staged a protest, seeking more time from authorities. The SHO opened straight fire to disperse the protesters as a result of which a pedestrian and three lawyers, including the Daska bar president, sustained gunshot wounds. Later, Rana Khalid Abbas and another lawyer succumbed to their wounds during treatment. (source: Daily Pakistan) BANGLADESH: Sayedee now to appeal for acquittal War criminal and Jamaat-e-Islami leader Delawar Hossain Sayedee will file a petition with the Supreme Court seeking review of its verdict that commuted his death penalty to jail unto death. He would seek acquittal from the charges in which he was found guilty, Masud Sayedee, son of the convict, told The Daily Star after meeting his father at Kashimpur Jail-1 in Gazipur yesterday. 3 lawyers accompanied Masud during the visit. Earlier on Tuesday, the government filed a review plea seeking death penalty fro Sayedee. "My father has decided to file a review against the Supreme Court judgment. He has given necessary instructions today to his lawyers in this regard," Masud said, adding that the plea would be filed by January 21, as his father was officially informed about the SC's full judgment on January 6, though it was released on December 31 last year. The review petition has to be filed within 15 days from the date when the accused receives a certified copy of the full judgment or is officially informed about it, according to the SC judgment on the review petition of Abdul Quader Mollah, who was executed in December 2013. The International Crimes Tribunal-1 on February 28, 2014 sentenced Sayedee to death for killing Ibrahim Kutti and one Bisa Bali in 1971. Following 2 appeals by Sayedee and the government, a 5-member bench of the apex court on September 17 last year delivered a short order based on majority views commuting Sayedee's death sentence to imprisonment until death. (source: The Daily Star) IRAN: Iran's High Volume of Executions----Iran is likely the world's 2nd-most prolific user of the death penalty. Iran uses the death penalty more than any other country except China. Iran executes people in part to punish violations of personal morality laws. As of July 2015, 101 countries had abolished the use of capital punishment in law for all crimes. 1. Carrying out at least 289 executions in 2014 - ranking 2nd in the world - Iran uses the death penalty more than any other country except China. 2. Iran executes people in part to punish violations of personal morality laws, such as rape and adultery. 3. Iran also executed people for politically motivated offenses such as terrorism and treason. 4. Together, Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia carried out almost 90% of the confirmed executions in the Middle East North Africa region in 2014 5. The 3 countries made 72% of the 607 confirmed executions worldwide in 2014. 6. This number excludes executions that took place in countries where this information is classified or otherwise impossible to verify. 7. China is believed to lead the world in annual executions, but government secrecy veils the exact number. China is estimated to execute thousands of prisoners each year. 8. Iran and the other 20 countries that executed prisoners in 2014 are an ever-shrinking group. 9. As of July 2015, 101 countries had abolished the use of capital punishment in law for all crimes - up from just 59 countries in 1995. 10. Another 42 countries have abolished the death penalty in practice - by limiting its use to exceptional and rare circumstances (such as crimes under military law) or by not having carried out an execution in the last 10 years. (sources: Amnesty International and The Globalist Research Center) GLOBAL: New resource helps innocent drug mules fight cases overseas People scammed or manipulated into becoming unwitting drug mules and facing death penalties as a result are being offered a lifeline. A new online portal provides documents and advice to people who may have been unwittingly caught up in a criminal network and are facing the death penalty or lengthy jail terms. It was created by a group of lawyers, technology experts and media advisors, led by the Asia Pacific Lawyers Network. The portal's release follows a series of cases where people have been lured over the internet to travel overseas, particularly to South-East Asian nations, and unknowingly carrying drugs on the return trip. New Zealand defence lawyer Craig Tuck said it was crucial those arrested for serious crimes in foreign countries got immediate help to maximise the chances in their legal cases. The portal provides referrals to defence lawyers in the country of arrest who speak English, a checklist of advice to find diplomatic support, and educational resources from past victims. Mr Tuck, a legal advisor to Bali death row inmate Lindsay Sandiford, said the project was a "world first" in combating unwitting drug mules, those forced into slavery and other victims of human trafficking. The portal is available at www.stopmulevictims.org. (source: The Chronicle) From rhalperi at smu.edu Thu Jan 14 15:19:10 2016 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Thu, 14 Jan 2016 15:19:10 -0600 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----FLA., MO., OKLA. Message-ID: Jan. 14 FLORIDA----impending execution Florida asks court to deny inmate's execution-delay request Florida asked the state's high court on Thursday to reject a condemned inmate's request to delay his execution based on the U.S. Supreme Court's finding that its procedure for imposing the death penalty is illegal. Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi's office said the U.S. Supreme Court's finding should not be applied retroactively to already-settled death penalty cases. Ruling on the Hurst v. Florida case Tuesday, the nation's highest court ruled 8-1 that Florida's procedure is flawed because it allows judges, not juries, to decide death sentences. Michael Lambrix is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on Feb. 11, and there are questions about how the Supreme Court's ruling will affect his case and those of Florida's 390 death row inmates. Lambrix was sentenced to death for the 1983 slayings of 2 people he met at a bar. Prosecutors said he killed them after inviting them home for a spaghetti dinner. Attorneys for Lambrix cited the ruling in their request for a new sentencing hearing. "The potential retroactivity of Hurst ... to Mr. Lambrix's ... case and potentially to many, many other cases ... is an issue that demands ... an oral argument before this Court," Lambrix's attorney William Hennis wrote. In its reply, Bondi's office cited a previous U.S. Supreme Court ruling on a similar Arizona case to bolster its argument that the court's decisions cannot be applied retroactively to condemned inmates who have already exhausted their appeals. "Lambrix's request for a stay should be denied," Bondi's office wrote. "It is time for Lambrix's sentence for these brutal murders to be carried out." It wasn't clear when the court would rule. (source: Associated Press) MISSOURI: Cape Republican co-sponsors bill to end death penalty State Rep. Kathy Swan wants to see the Missouri Legislature repeal the death penalty. Swan is 1 of 5 Republican lawmakers and one Democratic representative who have signed on to the bill. In addition, the measure would mandate any person sentenced to death before Aug. 28, 2016, be given life imprisonment without eligibility for probation or parole, except by act of the governor. The Cape Girardeau Republican said her co-sponsorship of the bill is rooted in her pro-life beliefs. "Pro life doesn't just mean pro-life at conception," said Swan, who is Catholic and the only House member from Southeast Missouri to back the bill. The Roman Catholic Church repeatedly has come out against the death penalty. She acknowledged past legislative efforts in the state House have failed to garner enough votes to repeal the death penalty. But she said such legislation at least has started the "conversation." She added, "It creates an awareness about this issue." Swan said, "I am absolutely not soft on crime." But she insisted there is no justification for the death penalty, regardless of how horrific the crime. If this bill, HB 2064, became law, convicted murderer Russell Bucklew would not be executed. Bucklew is on death row for the 1996 killing of a man during a crime spree in Southeast Missouri. Bucklew was convicted in 1997 for fatally shooting Michael Sanders of Cape Girardeau County in front of his 2 young sons, then kidnapping Sanders' girlfriend at gunpoint and raping her. Bucklew had his death sentence stayed by the U.S. Supreme Court in May 2014. Attorneys for Bucklew and fellow Missouri death-row inmate Ernest L. Johnson claim medical conditions would make lethal injection too painful and have suggested the gas chamber as an alternative way to carry out their death sentences. Bucklew's attorneys also have suggested death by firing squad. State Rep. T.J. Berry, a Republican from Kearney, is the chief sponsor of the bill. Berry, who proposed similar legislation last year, has argued the death penalty is not a deterrent to crime when it takes an average of more than 18 years to execute someone. (source: Southeast Missourian) OKLAHOMA: Pittsburg County Killer nears execution as Federal Court rejects appeal despite claims of mental illness A Pittsburg County Killer will be executed soon as a federal court rejects his appeal for habeas relief. Judges said that the man could have avoided death penalty if jury learned about his mental illness. A man from Pittsburg County convicted of double slaying received a death penalty and will be executed soon, reported News 9. On Monday, the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected petitions made by James Chandler Ryder, also known as Mitch Ryder. Ryder, 53 years old, was pronounced guilty of murdering Daisy and Sam Hallum in 1999 in Pittsburg County. The court maintained the decision to convict Ryder with death penalty. There were claims that Ryder's lawyer did not thoroughly probe his mental health and ability to undergo trial. Judges claimed that things might have turned out differently for Ryder had he mentioned about his mental illness to the jury during trial. He could have been sentenced only with life in prison and not death penalty, judges said. In a document stating the court's decision, judges wrote: "about his mental disorder."We acknowledge the tragic reality in this case: that Mr. Ryder's untreated mental illness may have influenced his decision to withhold mitigating evidence from the jury." They added that the evidence Ryder withheld regarding his mental disorder could have saved him from execution. The judges also said that at the time of conviction, Ryder's mental health had not "yet deteriorated to the point where he was no longer legally competent to make that decision." Thus, they considered him as legally competent based on the court's retrospective competency determination, News OK reported. Ryder said that he would rather be executed than spend the rest of his life in prison. According to McAlester News-Capital, Ryder was responsible for shooting Sam Hallum and bludgeoning to death Daisy Hallum in Longtown on April 9, 1999. The bodies were found on the Hallums' property, with Daisy Hallum found 100 yards from the house wrapped in a shower curtain. Authorities believe that Ryder used a shotgun to kill Sam Hallum. It is uncertain when executions will resume in Oklahoma following failures by the state's Department of Corrections to perform the penalties. (source: lawyerherald.com) From rhalperi at smu.edu Thu Jan 14 15:19:57 2016 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Thu, 14 Jan 2016 15:19:57 -0600 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide Message-ID: Jan. 14 ZAMBIA: Abolish death penalty, says prisons deputy Zambia Prisons Service deputy commissioner-general Lloyd Chilundika says the death penalty is inhuman and should be abolished. Mr Chilundika told the Parliamentary committee on legal affairs, governance, human rights, gender matters and child affairs yesterday that taking of life can never be done humanely no matter the circumstances. "The death penalty amounts to cruelty. It is my considered view that it be abolished and substituted with progressive types of punishments that should address that which death penalty has failed," he said. Mr Chilundika, who was flanked by Zambia Prisons Service senior assistant commissioner in charge of research, planning and information and technology Chrispin Kaonga, said imprisonment alone is severe punishment enough. "We are living in a dispensation of human rights and most countries in the Southern African Development Community have abolished the death penalty," he said. Mr Chilundika said hanging is not done publicly contrary to views that death penalty serves as a deterrent to would-be offenders. "Death may be calculated as punishment but what is punishment if it does not make one feel the pain and be remorseful to change for the better. "Death is the end of one's life and therefore there is no lesson to the one that is punished with death sentence," Mr Chilundika said. He said most times, people on death row reform by the time their execution period matures. "The State is a rational being. We want to be a good State. We counsel these prisoners in the condemned section and by the time they are about to be executed, they are no longer the hardcore criminals they were," Mr Chilundika said. He explained that every human being has the inherent right to life and no one should be arbitrarily deprived of life. Meanwhile, Mr Chilundika has commended President Lungu for commuting to life imprisonment the sentences of prisoners on death row. He said there were over 342 offenders waiting to be executed in cells meant for 48 people. (source: Daily Mail) BELARUS: Statement by the Spokesperson on a death sentence in Belarus A death sentence was handed down last week to Mr Henadz Yakavitski by the Minsk Regional Court of the Republic of Belarus. Mr Henadz Yakavitski's legal right to appeal should be fully guaranteed. Mr Yakavitski was convicted of a serious crime and we extend our deepest sympathy to the family and friends of the victim. Nevertheless, the European Union is opposed to capital punishment in all cases and without exception. We urge Belarus, the only country in Europe still applying capital punishment, to join a global moratorium on the death penalty as a 1st step towards its abolition. Commuting the sentences of persons sentenced to death and launching a public debate on the death penalty with Belarusian society would be an important move in this regard. (source: diplomaticintelligence.eu) SAUDI ARABIA: Writers join worldwide action to protest Palestinian poet's death sentence in Saudi Arabia ---- Hundreds of writers in 44 countries take part in coordinated readings to support Ashraf Fayadh, condemned to death for allegedly promoting atheism Hundreds of writers including Irvine Welsh, Ruth Padel and AL Kennedy are taking part in a worldwide reading in support of the Palestinian poet Ashraf Fayadh, who has been sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia after being accused of renouncing Islam. The readings of Fayadh's poetry at 122 events in 44 countries on Thursday are part of a campaign organised by the International literature festival Berlin calling on the UK and US governments to halt his beheading and to put pressure on Saudi Arabia to improve its human rights record. The action comes ahead of a panel of judges considering Fayadh's appeal next week, where it will be contested that the poet???s conviction for apostasy is seriously flawed and based on false and uncorroborated allegations. Poems being read at the worldwide event include a selection from Fayadh's 2008 book, Instructions Within, which his accuser claimed promoted atheism, a charge the poet has denied. AL Kennedy, who is participating in a reading organised by PEN England at the Mosaic Rooms in west London, said Fayadh's persecution was "very obviously unjust and morally repellent". Calling on the Saudi authorities to show mercy and wisdom, the novelist also offered the poet her "admiration for his courage and his devotion to truth and justice" and hoped that the international show of solidarity would "provide a measure of comfort in what must be a horrifying situation". Irvine Welsh, who will read at the Two Hearted Queen coffee shop in Chicago, said he hoped the campaign would put "pressure on governments who espouse democracy and freedom to consider their actions in dealing with [Saudi Arabia]". The Trainspotting author added: "I have distaste for all clerical regimes. I believe that people should be free to practice and renounce any religion they see fit. If you believe in human rights and are anti-fundamentalist terrorism, then isolate the regime in Saudi Arabia. Otherwise, you are guilty by association." Earlier this month, organisers of the Berlin festival sent a letter, signed by 350 writers' associations and authors, including Nobel laureates Orhan Pamuk and Mario Vargas Llosa, to Barack Obama, David Cameron and the German foreign ministry calling on them to intervene in the imprisoned poet's case. The letter also demanded that the United Nations suspend Saudi Arabia from its Human Rights Council until the country's "abysmal record on upholding civil liberties improves". British author Priya Basil, who co-wrote the letter, said Fayadh's poem Frida Kahlo's Moustache would be read at the Berlin event because "it's addressed to a lost love but if you read it now ... it's an elegy to a lost life". She added that this illustrated how "his poetry can't be condemned because it can be read so many different ways". Fayadh was born in Saudi Arabia to Palestinian refugee parents, and under Saudi law is classed as a refugee himself, without Saudi citizenship. He co-curated a Saudi art show at the 2013 Venice Biennale, and has been in prison since January 2014 after a man accused him of making blasphemous remarks during an argument in a cafe in the conservative city and for renouncing Islam in Instructions Within, charges Fayadh denies. He was originally sentenced to 4 years in prison and 800 lashes for apostasy by the general court in Abha, a city in the south-west of the ultraconservative kingdom, in May 2014. After his appeal was dismissed, Fayadh was retried and in November 2015, a new panel of judges ruled that he should be executed. His father died of a stroke after hearing of his death sentence, but the poet was not allowed to attend the funeral. British Palestinian author Selma Dabbagh, who is also reading at the Mosaic Rooms, said she hoped the campaign would "raise the profile of a man and his work, who is at risk of losing his life due to what appears to be ... a personal vendetta against him". It was remarkable that Fayadh, as a Palestinian refugee in a small town, had achieved so much in terms of promoting Saudi art internationally and writing his own work, she added. "If Saudi nationality laws were different ... Fayadh would be an exemplary citizen [of Saudi Arabia]" she said. Last month, UN human rights experts called on the Saudi authorities to halt Fayadh's execution, which they condemned as a grave violation of artistic freedom of expression. (source: The Guardian) IRAN: 'Iran would've handed Al-Nimr death 7 times' Despite Iran's criticism of Saudi Arabia's judiciary, its own courts would have given Nimr Al-Nimr 7 death sentences for the same charges, according to a legal expert. Lawyer Ahmed Al-Jamaan Al-Malki told a local publication that Al-Nimr, 1 of the men executed in the Kingdom recently for terrorism, would have received 2 death sentences for 2 charges. This would be for calling for the government's overthrow and allegiance to Wilayat Al-Faqih (Rule of the Jurist). According to Iranian Criminal Law endorsed in 1992 these are seen as treasonous acts. He said that Article 504 of Iranian Civil Law regards these as acts of aggression. For these and other charges there would be an additional 5 death penalties. Al-Nimr had confessed to all these violations, he said. "When he waived his rights to be prosecuted by a civil court, he would have been referred in accordance with Articles 183, 185 and 504 of Iranian Criminal Law to the Military Revolutionary Court established in 1979 by Ayatollah Khomeini." If he had done so, he would have lost many rights, including to have his case heard in public and access to a lawyer. "According to the Iranian justice system, Al-Nimr deserves 7 death sentences in the country's military and revolutionary courts," he said. (source: The Guardian) ZIMBABWE: Death row inmates in Zimbabwe ask for life sentences instead Inmates who have spent years on death row in Zimbabwe's prisons approached the country's highest court on Wednesday in a bid to have their sentences commuted to life imprisonment. Zimbabwe's Constitutional Court heard the accounts of 15 inmates, some of whom have been waiting to be executed for 18 years. "Because of the torture we have been subjected to whilst waiting for a long time on death row, it will be unconstitutional to execute us," Cuthbert Chawira, a murder convict on death row for 15 years, said in an affidavit submitted in court. Prison guards regularly taunt inmates about their imminent executions, he said. Vice President and Justice Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa, who is in charge of authorizing executions, refuses to sign any execution orders for Zimbabwe's nearly 100 death row inmates due to his personal objections to the death penalty. While Zimbabwean law allows capital punishment, no one has been executed in the county since 2005 because there was no qualified executioner until 2013. The death penalty is only handed down to men convicted of murder. The inmates' lawyer, Tendai Biti, described Zimbabwe's harsh prison conditions, saying they only added to his clients' woes. "There are no newspapers or tissues in these toilets and sometimes prisoners resort to using the Bible as toilet roll," Biti told the court. "The prisons are cold and lifeless." Rights group Amnesty International has urged the southern African country to do away with the death penalty completely. (source: Associated Press) ****************** Abolish Death Penalty, Urges Biti's PDP As Prisoners Wait 20 Years for Hangman The opposition People's Democratic Party (PDP) has urged government to consider an abolition of capital punishment as it breaches the country's constitution. In a statement Wednesday, the PDP's deputy secretary general Tongai Matutu said it is inhumane for death-row inmates to await their fate for as long as two decades. "The PDP calls for the immediate abolition of the death penalty in the country as it is totally inhumane, degrading and against the international best practices," he said. "Capital punishment is in breach of the country's Constitution, which guarantees and protects the right to life for every citizen. "As PDP, our call comes when they are 117 convicted inmates on the death row in Zimbabwe who are facing death and are reported to be being subjected to physical and psychological torture." He was referring to media reports that 17 death-row inmates have taken government to court demanding that capital punishment be removed from the country's statutes and a review of their sentences. Zimbabwe adopted a new constitution in 2012 in which the death penalty is qualified and can now be administered to women and people above 70 years old or on a convict who would have committed the crime before they turned 21. Matutu said some of these condemned prisoners have been "waiting for the hangman for between three and 21 years living under squalor at Harare Central Prison or Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison where they are kept in solitary confinement for 23 hours every day". "They are living a life without hope, alienation and vilification and the prison for them has become a prison within a prison. Some of these condemned prisoners have gone insane or are terminally ill," the former Masvingo Urban lawmaker said. "As the PDP we are fully behind the constitutional challenge that has been brought to the Constitutional Court by 17 prisoners who are on death row seeking review of their sentences and that they are allowed to go for retrial. "It is within their constitutional mandate to approach the Constitutional Court as any aggrieved person has a right to approach the courts." "However, as PDP we are aware of the heinous crimes that prisoners facing murder charges would have committed but the act of hanging an accused person is barbaric and outdated and Zimbabwe should follow international standards and the solution is to abolish the death penalty." The PDP, whose leader Tendai Biti is legal representative for two human rights activists seeking a Constitutional Court order to compel President Robert Mugabe to set up an independent complaints mechanism to investigate military excesses, said it supported the challenge. "Zimbabwe's security forces have a dark history when it comes to violations of citizens' rights and various case have been recorded such as the Gukurahundi massacres in southern Zimbabwe soon after independence ... " ... the murder of student activist Batanai Hadzidzi, the slaughter of hundreds of opposition activists like Tonderai Ndira and others, the abduction and torture of human rights defender Jestina Mukoko and the general heavy handedness of the police is crushing peaceful demonstrations which has become a norm in this country," the party said. Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa is on record as saying capital punishment will not be implemented under his watch. Mnangagwa who survived the hangman's noose during the Rhodesian era doubles up as Justice Minister. (source: All Africa News) From rhalperi at smu.edu Fri Jan 15 10:04:28 2016 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Fri, 15 Jan 2016 10:04:28 -0600 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., DEL., FLA. ALA. Message-ID: Jan. 15 TEXAS: State has enough drugs to carry out scheduled executions With the 1st execution of the new year scheduled next week, Texas prison officials said Wednesday that the state has a large enough supply of drugs to carry out the executions already scheduled for 2016. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice has been forced to find nontraditional suppliers of execution drugs in recent years because the usual vendors refused to make their drugs available following scrutiny from death penalty opponents. The state was struggling to replenish its supply of the powerful sedative pentobarbital over the summer, but was able to obtain enough doses to execute 6 inmates between June and November. There are 9 lethal injections scheduled this year. "The agency's supply of pentobarbital was purchased from a licensed pharmacy that has the ability to compound," TDCJ spokesman Jason Clark said Wednesday. Condemned murderer Richard Masterson is set to be put to death Jan. 20 for the 2001 slaying of female impersonator Darrin Honeycutt in Houston. Masterson strangled the victim and stole his vehicle following the murder. The Houston Chronicle reports that the Texas Criminal Court of Appeals recently denied a petition filed by Masterson's attorneys to stay Masterson's execution, bringing into question the findings of the medical examiner who performed Honeycutt's autopsy. The petition also stated that Masterson was suffering from withdrawal symptoms when he confessed to the murder to authorities. According to the Chronicle, the high court rejected the petition because the arguments could have been brought up in previous appeals. Masterson's attorneys plan to file additional appeals at the federal and state level. There is 1 more execution scheduled this month, 1 in February, 3 in March, 2 in April and 1 in June. 1 of the inmates scheduled to die this year is Robert Pruett, who was given a new execution date this week. His lethal injection has been set for April 27. Pruett came within hours of being put to death last April for the 1999 murder of a correctional officer over a dispute about a sack lunch at the McConnell Unit in South Texas. He was granted a reprieve to allow additional DNA evidence to be tested. Testimony and evidence at trial showed that Pruett was upset that officer Daniel Nagle wrote him up for eating in an unauthorized area. Nagle was found stabbed to death in his office. The disciplinary reports was found torn up by the body. (source: Huntsville Item) **************** Echoes of 'Making a Murderer': The man released after 10 years on death row Last summer, a man won freedom after spending a decade on death row in Texas for a crime he says he didn't commit. But 7 months out, his fate continues to hang in the balance, as a new investigation into the case remains ongoing. Alfred Dewayne Brown - known as Dewayne to his family - was released from prison in June after prosecutors dismissed charges against him, following revelations of key evidence withheld in the case. Brown on Wednesday spoke to MSNBC in an exclusive interview - his first on television - about life on death row. "I didn't let myself think like that, that I was gonna die," Brown told MSNBC. "I was thinking that I was gonna go home." Brown was sentenced to death in 2005 for the armed robbery of a check-cashing business that ended in the murder of the store clerk and a Houston police officer on April 5, 2003. At trial, Brown's attorney said Brown had been at his girlfriend's apartment at the time. Jurors were told that Brown called his girlfriend from the apartment after he saw reports of the shooting, but telephone records, which would have supported Brown's alibi, were never found. In 2013, a Houston homicide detective discovered the phone records in a box of documents while cleaning his garage. The records show a phone call from the apartment's land line that day around the time of the murders. According to the Houston Chronicle, the district attorney's office sent the phone records to Brown's attorneys, and agreed to a new trial. In order to clear the way for a new trial, the Texas Criminal Court of Appeals reviewed Brown's case, and in November 2014 an order was issued throwing out Brown's 2005 conviction and death sentence. As prosecutors prepared a new trial, they determined they didn't have enough evidence - and dropped the charges against Brown. On June 8, Brown walked out of prison a free man. Brown told MSNBC that during his time behind bars, he taught himself how to read, draw, corresponded overseas with pen pals, and even practiced yoga in his cell. "Have you ever seen a person who is claustrophobic and you put em in a closet. That's what it's like ... If you don't get control of it right then you're going to be forever messed up." Harris County District Attorney Devon Anderson said during a press conference on the day of Brown's release that they had come up short. "We re-interviewed all the witnesses. We looked at all the evidence and we're coming up short," Anderson said, according to the Houston Chronicle. "We cannot prove this case beyond a reasonable doubt, therefore the law demands that I dismiss this case and release Mr. Brown." However, the case remains an open investigation, and according to the Chronicle, law enforcement officials have said they continue to suspect Brown is guilty. "I'm convinced that this is the person that we need to focus on," Houston Police Chief Charles Mclelland told reporters after Anderson, the DA, announced she would dismiss Brown's case. It is not clear if prosecutors plan to re-charge Brown. MSNBC's reporting comes as the popular Netflix series "Making a Murderer" entrances viewers with its examination of the case of a Wisconsin man serving a life sentence for a murder more than 10 years ago. The series has inspired a discussion about the criminal justice system, and has raised questions about the man's guilt. Brown's journey from death row was covered in detail by Houston Chronicle columnist Lisa Falkenberg, who won a Pulitzer Prize last year for her coverage of Brown's story. The Chronicle's reporting also pointed to problems with the Texas grand jury system. Citing a transcript of the girlfriend's 2003 grand jury testimony, which was entered into the public record by attorneys for Brown, the Chronicle reports that grand jurors pressured Brown's girlfriend into testifying against him. Reached by MSNBC on Wednesday, the Harris County District Attorney's office said it had no comment on Brown's case. The Houston Police Department, also reached by MSNBC, declined to comment. In the meantime, Brown remains free after prosecutors dismissed the charges. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, Brown is among 6 death row inmates freed from death row during 2015. The group, which tracks death penalty convictions, says more than 150 people have been released from death row since 1973 on evidence of their innocence. (A 1972 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court halted executions; a separate decision in 1976 reinstated executions.) Even after spending 10 years behind bars for a crime he didn't commit, Brown is not angry or bitter. "I wake up every day and am happy," Brown said. "I get to smell odors and it's not another inmate, and I get to smell food cooking on the stove and it's not Ramen noodles." (source: msnbc.com) PENNSYTLVANIA: Defense: Bar death penalty in murder case against inmate Defense attorneys asked a federal judge Wednesday to bar prosecutors from seeking the death penalty against an inmate accused of using a homemade weapon to attack and kill a guard at a federal prison in northeastern Pennsylvania. Attorneys for Jessie Con-ui, 38, asked the judge to declare capital punishment unconstitutional in the case against their client. Con-ui is charged with 1st-degree murder in the February 2013 stabbing death of Eric Williams at the Canaan federal prison in Waymart. Dressed in an orange jumpsuit, he said little during his appearance by video Wednesday from a federal super-maximum prison in Colorado. Prosecutors argued last fall that execution would be justified if Con-ui is convicted, citing what they called the defendant's history of violence, including a 2002 murder conviction and what they allege was a premeditated attack on a federal public servant. Defense attorney David Ruhnke cited declining use of the death penalty and called the system "just too imperfect." He said the federal death penalty "evolves as our society evolves" and should be barred as a violation of the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment. But Justice Department attorney Amanda Haines cited a recent survey she said showed that 60 % of Americans support capital punishment, particularly in violent cases. "We haven't quite evolved to the point where we don't want to seek it or impose it, especially in egregious cases like this," Haines said. Williams, 34, was working in a housing unit at the prison when he was attacked. Prosecutors allege Con-ui was angry after the guard ordered a search of his cell the previous day. They say in court documents that Williams was stabbed more than 200 times; they allege Con-ui also stomped on Williams' head and throat and slammed his head onto the floor. Jury selection for Con-ui's trial is to begin July 11. (source: Associated Press) DELAWARE: Will the Supreme Court ruling on Florida's death penalty affect Delaware? A U.S. Supreme Court decision striking down part of Florida's death penalty system will not immediately impact cases in Delaware, but could pave the way for future legal challenges in both states, experts say. On Tuesday, the Supreme Court ruled 8-1 that Florida's procedure for death sentences is unconstitutional because it gives too much power to judges - and not enough to juries. Delaware, Alabama and Florida are the only states that allow judges to override a jury's recommendation of life, and, instead, impose a sentence of death. However, judges in Delaware have not been using that power. For that reason, the U.S. Supreme Court ruling is not expected to impact the 14 people currently on death row in Delaware, according to Robert Dunham, executive director of the nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center in Washington, D.C. Local attorneys are still reviewing the decision - and are waiting to see what the impact will be on Delaware's death penalty statute. The Department of Justice issued a statement saying the opinion is still under review. Brendan O'Neill, the state's chief defender, said the court opinion could restrict the application of the death penalty in Delaware. "It's my opinion that it really casts doubt on the validity of Delaware's death penalty scheme," he said. The ruling comes at a time when Delaware's death penalty statute is being scrutinized. Lawmakers attempted to repeal Delaware's death penalty in May, but were blocked in a 6-5 vote by a crucial House committee for the 2nd time in 2 years. Gov. Jack Markell has said he would sign a repeal bill if it made its way to his desk. Juries that are not in agreement The Supreme Court ruling Tuesday is part of a larger trend of the courts trying to eliminate death penalty practices in states that deviate from the norm. The most obvious deviation that will have to be considered in the future is the practice of allowing juries that are not unanimous to recommend death sentences, Dunham said. If the Supreme Court were to consider that narrow issue, it could affect Delaware, he said. "Almost the entire country rejects the practice of non-unanimous juries, except in Delaware, Alabama and Florida," he said. "Delaware's practice of permitting non-unanimous jury recommendations will remain in the spotlight, and it is very likely there will be constitutional challenges." Kristin Froehlich, of Delaware Citizens Opposed to the Death Penalty, agreed that legal challenges could be coming. "I definitely think [Tuesday's decision] will make everyone take a look at Delaware's death penalty law," she said. "I would rather have Delaware as a state make the choice to get rid of the death penalty, instead, of waiting for the Supreme Court to do that for us." A Harvard Law School study found that requiring juries to be unanimous in Florida, Alabama and Delaware would have caused a drop in death sentences over the last 5 years. The 3 states would have returned 26 death sentences since 2010, instead of 117, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Had these states followed the sentencing system used by all other death penalty states, the total number of death sentences imposed in the United States would have decreased by 21 %. The process of sentencing someone to death in Delaware requires three steps. Once a person is found guilty of 1st-degree murder, the jury must unanimously agree that the evidence shows beyond a reasonable doubt that at least 1 of 22 statutory aggravating factors has been met. Factors can include that the victim was an on-duty law enforcement officer, pregnant, severely handicapped, over age 62, under age 14, or was killed to prevent he or she from testifying in court. Finally, each juror has to decide whether the aggravating factors outweigh the mitigating factors. That decision does not need to be unanimous, and the judge is not bound by those findings and can reach a different conclusion. For example, in the case of Derek Powell, the man accused of killing a Georgetown police officer, the jury found two statutory aggravators beyond a reasonable doubt. On the 2nd issue, the jury found 7-5 that the aggravating factors outweighed the mitigating factors, and recommended Powell be sentenced to death. The judge evaluated the evidence and sentenced Powell to death. Powell is currently Delaware's youngest death row inmate. The Pensacola murder The Supreme Court opinion for Florida did not consider the issue of unanimous juries - only the issue of judge's having the final say for death sentences. The opinion in Florida stemmed from the case of Timothy Lee Hurst, who was convicted of the 1998 murder of his manager at a Popeye's restaurant in Pensacola. A jury was divided 7-5 in favor of death, and a judge imposed a death sentence. Florida's solicitor general argued that the system was acceptable because a jury first decides if the defendant is eligible for the death penalty. Writing for the court, Justice Sonia Sotomayor said a jury's "mere recommendation is not enough." "The Sixth Amendment requires a jury, not a judge, to find each fact necessary to impose a sentence of death," Sotomayor said. The justices sent the case back to the Florida Supreme Court to determine whether the error in sentencing Hurst was harmless, or whether he should get a new sentencing hearing. Justice Samuel Alito dissented, saying that the trial judge in Florida simply performs a reviewing function that duplicates what the jury has done. Sotomayor said Florida's system is flawed because it allows a sentencing judge to find aggravating factors "independent of a jury's fact-finding." Three of Florida's current death row inmates were sentenced over the jury's life recommendation. But no judge had overridden a jury recommendation in a death penalty case since 1999, according to state officials. Froehlich said Delaware's death penalty statute, which is similar to Florida, needs to be examined. "In Delaware, people say we have such a strong law, it will prevent errors, but in fact, we have one of the broadest death penalty statutes," she said. "We have the highest number of aggravating factors; we don't require unanimous juries; and we have the judge override. It really is ripe for error." (source: The News Journal) FLORIDA: New study finds vast racial, geographic disparities in Florida executions 2 days after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Florida's death sentencing system as unconstitutional, a new report says the state???s death penalty is plagued by vast racial, gender and geographic inequities. The report, written by University of North Carolina political science professor Frank Baumgartner, looked at executions carried out in Florida between 1976 and 2014. His conclusion includes that the race and gender of the victim, as well as the county where the crime occurred, improperly influences who's sentenced to death and executed. "The most troubling finding is that these racial and geographic disparities are not measured by a few percentage points of difference," Baumgartner writes. "Rather, they differ by orders of magnitude, demonstrating that Florida's death penalty is plagued by vast inequities, which will undermine public confidence in the state's ability to carry out the death penalty in a fair and impartial manner." "This research raises troubling questions about the administration of the death penalty in Florida," said John K. Cochran, a professor in the Department of Criminology at the University of South Florida. "The race or gender of a victim, and the location of the crime, should not influence who is sentenced to die, but this new study shows that it does. Florida citizens and lawmakers should review the findings of this important research." Among the findings produced in the report: --Homicides involving white female victims are 6.5 times more like to result in an execution than homicides involving black male victims. --72 % executions carried out in Florida between 1976 and 2014 were for crimes involving white victims despite the fact that 56 % of all homicide victims are white. --Only 26 % of all homicide victims are female, but 43 % of all executions carried out in Florida were for homicides involving female victims. --To date, no white person has been executed in Florida for a homicide involving a black victim. In contrast, 71 % of the executions carried out against black inmates were for homicides involving white victims. In cases where black inmates were executed, 56 % of the victims were white. --Just 6 out of Florida's 67 counties are responsible for more than 1/2 of the state's 89 executions. --Only 4 counties (Miami-Dade, Orange, Duval, and Pinellas) have produced more than 5 executions. More than 1/2 of all Florida counties (36) have never produced an execution. --7 Florida counties (Bradford, Wakulla, Santa Rosa, Madison, Columbia, Lake, and Hernando) have execution rates that are more than triple the state's average execution rate of 0.30 executions per 100 homicides. --The homicide rate in counties that have produced no executions (1.11 homicides per 1,000 population) is significantly lower than the homicide rate in counties that have produced executions (1.62 homicides per 1,000 population). The information collected in this report is consistent with national studies on the administration of the death penalty. According to the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, in 1990 the Government Accountability Office conducted a review of over 25 studies of capital sentencing procedures. Its analysts concluded that 82 % of the studies found that the victim's race influenced the likelihood of the defendant being charged with capital murder or receiving the death penalty. They also concluded that the synthesis of the studies showed a pattern of evidence indicating racial disparities in capital sentencing. Although there are comparable numbers of black and white murder victims in the United States, 77 % of the people executed since 1976 were convicted of killing white victims and only 13 % were convicted of killing black victims. "Florida executions are supposed to be reserved for the 'worst of the worst.' However, as this report indicates, it's more about the race of the victim and the extreme application of the death penalty by a handful of counties," said Mark Elliot with Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty. "Add to this that almost all those convicted could not afford a lawyer and that the only jury decision in Florida law that's not required to be unanimous is the simple majority jury vote to recommend a death sentence. It's no wonder that we have a government program that is not only biased and uneven in application, it has also sent more innocent people to death row than in any other state." "Elected officials frequently justify the use of the death penalty by citing the needs of the victims' families for 'justice' and closure," said Punta Gorda resident, Marietta Jaeger Lane, whose 7-year-old daughter Susie was kidnapped and subsequently killed by a mentally ill man in 1973. "I know that this is a fallacy. For many of those families, the outrageously prejudicial (as reported by Baumgartner) death penalty prolongs their anguish and grief by dragging them through years of waiting and uncertainty, having their wounds opened raw and bleeding again with each Supreme Court???mandated appeal. "We should be looking for meaningful ways to support families touched by violence instead of relying on a costly, racist death penalty system plagued by inequalities, error, and which demeans and degrades Floridians' own worth and dignity, insulting the victim by taking on the same means of resolution, which was used by the offender," said Jaeger Lane, a member of Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty. (source: Florida Politics) *************** Attorney to attempt to get Bessman Okafor off death row Bessman Okafor's attorney said on Thursday he will be trying to get his client off death row using the Supreme Court decision on the death penalty. "We're going to definitely include it in there. Definitely. We couldn't ignore it," said Dean Mosley, Okafor's attorney. Okafor was sentenced to death for the execution-style shooting death of Alex Zaldivar, 19, in 2012. Zaldivar was set to testify against Okafor in a separate home invasion case. Thursday, prosecutors and Okafor's defense attorney gathered for a hearing at the Orange County Courthouse, where they began tracking transcripts and evidence in the case. They're getting them ready to send to the Florida Supreme Court for Okafor's 1st appeal. On Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the court procedures used to sentence defendants to death was unconstitutional. Justices ruled judges had too much power in the decision, and juries didn't have enough power. Outside the Orange County Courthouse Thursday, State Attorney Jeff Ashton took questions for the 1st time surrounding Okafor's case as it pertains to the U.S. Supreme Court ruling. He said Okafor's case won't be affected by the ruling. "The United States Supreme Court has had the opportunity to stay executions of a number of individuals who were similarly situated with Mr. Okafor," he said. "That is they had prior convictions, and so on, and they chose to let those executions go forward." His comments come as lawmakers in Tallahassee craft new laws regarding how the death sentence is handed down by a jury. House Bill 157 and Senate Bill 330 both would require a jury's unanimous vote on the death penalty. They would also require unanimous votes by the jury on aggravating factors, such as a defendant's lack of remorse, the violence of the crime or if a child witnessed the crime. "I think Florida is coming to the reality of this late, but thank God they're coming to the reality that it should be unanimous," said Mosley. Ashton said he's not in favor of the bill. "That particular bill, I think, is honestly a death penalty killer bill. Its intention is to make the death penalty almost impossible to obtain," Ashton said. (source: clickorlando.com) ************** U.S. Supreme Court death-penalty ruling will have little effect 2 days after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Florida's death penalty, questions are lingering in Central Florida over how the historic ruling will affect ongoing and past capital cases. As lawmakers puzzled over a recent U.S. Supreme Court opinion dismantling Florida's death-penalty sentencing processes, Orange-Osceola State Attorney Jeff Ashton offered his 1st public remarks on Thursday, anticipating the decision would have little impact on local capital cases. "So, what [the justices] basically said is, 'Your statute has the potential to render a death sentence that is unconstitutional,' but that's going to be in a very rare set of circumstances," Ashton told reporters outside the downtown courthouse, referring to the Hurst v. Florida opinion that was handed down on Tuesday. "We believe that even if the statutes were not to be changed, we can still proceed under the existing statute." His comments came on the heels of the high court's 8-1 opinion finding that Florida's capital sentencing scheme - in which a jury makes an "advisory recommendation" to a judge, who then makes the final decision - violates the Sixth Amendment. While Ashton declared the ruling was narrow in its scope, the decision has left many with questions over how to proceed. There are 22 inmates on death row from sentences handed down by judges in Orange and Osceola counties, according to Ashton's office. One of them, Bessman Okafor, convicted in August of first-degree murder in a witness execution, had a hearing on Thursday. His attorney did not raise the Hurst issue at the hearing, which had been previously scheduled for different matters. But afterwards, Dean Mosley, who is representing Okafor, said he believes the decision will help convert his client's maximum punishment to life in prison instead of lethal injection. "Any lawyer representing him on appeal would be committing malpractice not to use this," Mosley said. Like the state's other criminal defense attorneys, Mosley must wait until the Florida Supreme Court and the Legislature clarify what changes could stem from Hurst. Still, Mosley believes the ruling will help Okafor because he is just starting his appeals process and can raise the issue. It remains unclear as to whether the Hurst decision applies to Florida's death row inmates who have exhausted their reviews. Another issue is ongoing capital cases. There are currently 7 death-penalty cases pending in Orange and Osceola counties. "As to existing cases, since the court has oxnly found our process to be procedurally flawed and not substantively flawed, the courts have the authority to create new procedural rules to effect the will of the legislature in a constitutional manner," Ashton said in a statement. Though Ashton believes he could move forward with the cases if he needed to, his attorneys will be urging judges to delay any capital cases until the legislative session ends in March. Some other prosecutors agree that cases should be on hold due to the uncertainties. In Volusia County, prosecutors have asked to postpone the upcoming trial of Luis Toledo, a gang member accused of killing his wife and her two children, in light of the high court's ruling. Toledo's trial is due to begin Tuesday in St. Augustine. In a motion filed on Wednesday, prosecutors in the Toledo case asked for the trial continuance "to allow time for the issues raised in Hurst to be properly addressed." They have requested a delay of 60 days, according to a spokesman from the 7th Judicial Circuit State Attorney R.J. Larizza's office, which is prosecuting the case. The extra time is needed to ensure the death penalty remains on the table as questions swirl about whether Florida's statute is currently functional. Defense attorneys for Toledo have opposed the delay, according to news reports. They insist the trial should move forward and that Toledo, if convicted, can receive only a maximum punishment of life in prison since Florida's law guiding a death sentence is now defunct. Circuit Judge Raul A. Zambrano said he would issue his decision on Friday. Exactly how broad the Hurst ruling is remains unclear. The U.S. Supreme Court ruling found Florida's death-penalty sentencing procedure unconstitutional because it gives too much power to the judge. A 12-person jury should be the only entity deciding whether a factual-basis has been met to impose the death penalty, the court held. Under the past death-penalty sentencing scheme, a jury made an advisory recommendation, which the judge considered with "great weight." But the judge made the final call. Jurors were required to submit in writing a recommendation of life in prison or death, but did not put on paper whether an aggravating circumstance justifying the death penalty was proven. Ashton said the questions about whether a unanimous jury must impose the death penalty was not addressed in the Hurst ruling, adding that he wouldn't support a bill that required the condition. Such a bill has already been filed in the Florida House and Senate. "That particular bill, I think, honestly, is a death-penalty killer bill," Ashton said. "Its intention is to make the death penalty virtually impossible to obtain." (source: Orlando Sentinel) ************** Getting death sentences right in Florida So the U.S. Supreme Court has declared unconstitutional our state's way of sentencing killers to die - a method that gives judges, and not juries, the final say. The news, reverberating to Tallahassee and beyond, made me think of one case where this might have actually worked. Except it didn't. Humberto Delgado, once a police officer himself, had a history of delusions and psychotic behavior and had at some point believed police were out to kill him. Tampa police Cpl. Mike Roberts could not have known this on the night in 2009 when he stopped Delgado, who was homeless and pushing a shopping cart on his way to a veterans hospital. The officer could not have known about the four guns in Delgado's shopping cart. Death penalty cases are always terrible, and that courtroom filled with sorrow for the senseless loss of a father, husband and cop. Death, a jury of ordinary citizens recommended by an 8-4 vote. It should also be noted that this was no bank robber who murdered a cop to get away or a serial killer who had lain in wait. Doctors testified that Delgado was paranoid and bipolar with degrees of psychosis, that he was mentally ill. So here is the unusual way we get to a death sentence in Florida: A jury hears evidence and recommends death or life in prison, knowing the judge will have final say. The judge, who is supposed to give the jury's recommendation great weight, decides whether sufficient specific aggravating circumstances exist to justify death. Some examples: The murder was especially heinous, atrocious or cruel; it was cold, calculated and premeditated; the defendant killed for monetary gain; the victim was a police officer. I always assumed Florida adopted this method so dispassionate, level-headed judges were the final gatekeepers in cases that are tragic and emotional. You would hate to believe anyone decided we should do it this way so jurors would find it easier to say death knowing it was a mere recommendation. Or that anyone was thinking elected judges might be loath to appear soft on murder. Some legal experts thought Delgado could rate a judicial override for a life sentence, something that has been sparingly applied in Florida. The judge said death. Last year, the Florida Supreme Court overturned his death sentence in favor of a life in prison - not surprising, given evidence of extreme mental illness. I guess you could argue the system worked, though a state-ordered execution is a scary thing with which to gamble. This week's U.S. Supreme Court decision took specific issue with Florida's sentencing "scheme" - an interesting word choice - that gives judges final say. State officials are now grappling with fixing this. Smart people who deal in death cases say some remedies are obvious: Juries should be required to name aggravating factors that led to their decision. Juries, not judges, should make the call. It's too bad the opinion did not address another critical aspect: whether a jury's decision for death should be unanimous. We are the only state in which it takes just a simple majority - 7 of 12 jurors. Many are on Florida's death row on a split vote. Lawmakers would be wise to address that now, too. As this week's decision made clear, if we are going to sentence people to die for their crimes, that ultimate penalty is far too important not to get the rules right. (source: Sue Carlton, Tampa Bay Times) ALABAMA----impending execution Alabama death row inmate waiting to see if court will block next week's execution With a week to go until his execution, Christopher Brooks is now awaiting a decision by the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals to step in to halt Alabama from carrying out his death sentence. It would be the first execution in Alabama since July 2013 and the 1st using a new cocktail of lethal injection drugs - a combination Brooks and other death row inmates say could cause cruel and unusual punishment. Attorneys for the Alabama Attorney General's Office, however, argue that Brooks was late in filing his challenges to the state's new lethal injection protocols as well as his motion to stay the execution. "In this case, appellees (the state) would be harmed by the granting of the stay, as would the people of the State of Alabama, who are entitled to have their criminal laws enforced," according to a brief the the AG's Office filed with the 11th Circuit on Wednesday. Brooks was convicted in the 1992 murder and rape of Jo Deann Campbell at her Homewood apartment. Brooks' attorneys on Tuesday had asked that appeals court for an emergency stay of his scheduled Jan. 21 execution at Holman prison in Atmore until the litigation challenging Alabama's new lethal injection protocol is fully decided. Brooks also had appealed to the 11th Circuit the federal judge's denial of a stay. Brooks' attorneys say that a judge doesn't have a hearing scheduled until April 18 for a group of 5 death row inmates who filed lawsuits that say the 1st drug in the new cocktail - the sedative midazolam - doesn't work well enough to ward off the pain of the 2 other drugs designed to stop breathing and the heart. Brooks joined in on the lawsuit in November, after the Attorney General's Office had requested the state's supreme court set an execution date. Suicide burden Brooks also contends that this is the 1st time an appeals court will have addressed the scope of new rules for inmates to challenge the constitutionality of an execution method as cruel and unusual punishment. The new rules - further defined in the 2015 Glossip case out of Oklahoma - require the inmates to plead an alternate form of execution that wouldn't be cruel and unusual. The requirement to suggest an alternate way of execution has been referred to by death row inmates as the "suicide burden." "Glossip clarified, to a certain extent, what plaintiffs challenging a method of execution are required to plead," the motion states. "It said that they had to plead an available and feasible method of execution that significantly reduced the risk of pain as compared to the challenged protocol. What the opinion did not do is define what "available" and "feasible" meant in this context. This case is the first case to raise this issue to this Court, or indeed to any Circuit Court, and directly ask that question." Brooks' attorneys have proposed 3 alternative methods - a single dose of pentobarbital, sodium thiopental, or midazolam. Each carries less risk of pain and suffering than Alabama's new 3-drug protocol which uses midazolam, a drug implicated in a series of botched executions, the attorneys argue. The lawsuit involving Brooks and the 5 other inmates say the Alabama Department of Corrections has not proved that it is unable get pentobarbital, a powerful barbiturate that was used as the anesthetic in Alabama's lethal injection protocol until September 2014, when the state announced it was switching to midazolam, an anti-anxiety medication often used to help individuals relax prior to surgery, according to a statement from assistant federal public defender John Palombi, who represents Brooks. An attorney for the Alabama Department of Corrections testified on Tuesday in the trial of another lawsuit filed by death row inmate Tommy Arthur that she had tried unsuccessfully to get pentobarbital through more than 2 dozen sources - compounding pharmacies and other states' prison systems. Arthur makes similar claims as the lawsuit involving Brooks and the other inmates. Arthur's attorneys argue that other states have supplies of pentobarbital and that compounding pharmacies also can make the drug. Some pharmacies and drug manufacturers in the U.S. and Europe have refused to allow their drugs to be used in executions. "Brooks is well aware that unless he receives clemency or obtains relief in different litigation, it is inevitable that he will be executed. What is not inevitable is Brooks being executed in an unconstitutional manner," according to Brooks' motion to stay the execution. Midazolam, a sedative in the same family as Valium and Xanax, has been involved in several botched executions, including the April 29, 2014 execution of Oklahoma inmate Clayton Lockett, Palombi wrote. According to reporters who witnessed the execution, Lockett "writhed, groaned and convulsed as the 3-drug cocktail was being administered," dying 43 minutes after the 1st drug, midazolam, was injected, according to the statement. "After Lockett's torturous ordeal, attorneys for four other Oklahoma inmates requested stays of execution to give time for a court to hear evidence about the problems with midazolam, which is not FDA-approved for the induction of anesthesia. They ultimately petitioned the United States Supreme Court for certiorari on the issue of whether the stay should have been granted. Their request was granted, but not before one of their number, Charles Warner, was executed," Palombi wrote. Palombi argues Brooks is in the same position as Warner. Brooks' attorneys are asking the 11th Circuit "not to let Alabama experiment on Mr. Brooks, but rather to wait until the district court holds a full evidentiary hearing on the suitability of midazolam as the first drug in a three-drug procedure," Palombi writes. "It is in the public interest for this Court to decide these nationally important issues raised in Brooks' appeal in a reasonable time, not in a timetable pushed by the Attorney General's Office and set by the Alabama Supreme Court," Palombi wrote. Allowing Alabama to change its protocol without showing what it has done to obtain pentobarbital, the court "allows a state to control the meaning of the Eighth Amendment merely by what efforts they take, or do not take, to obtain drugs that would allow for a more humane execution," according to one court brief filed by Brooks' attorneys. That "will encourage states to look for the easiest way to carry out the most solemn duty that a State can undertake." Attorneys for the Alabama Attorney General's Office argued in briefs to the 11th Circuit this week that Brooks asked to intervene in the other death row inmates' lawsuit late and also missed the deadline for filing an emergency stay. The Alabama Supreme Court announced on November 3 that Brooks would be executed on January 21, 2016, the AG's office stated. Later that day, the district court agreed to allow Brooks to intervene in the "midazolam litigation." "Although Brooks styles his request to this Court as an 'Emergency Motion,' this designation does not meet the plain requirements of this Court's local rules. To qualify as an emergency motion, the motion must be filed 'within 7 days of the filing of the district court order or action sought to be reviewed,'" the AG's office argued. The federal judge denied Brooks'request for a stay of execution on Dec. 22 and the "emergency" motion was not filed until Jan. 12, which was long past the deadline, the AG's Office stated. Palombi responded on Thursday. "The State argues that Brooks' motion should be denied because it is untimely and does not meet the standards of this court for granting emergency relief. Neither of these statements is true. Brooks' motion is timely under this Court's rules," Palombi wrote in a brief. (source: al.com) ********** Executions should be outlawed There are plenty of reasons Alabama should ban execution in favor of life sentences without chance of parole. The current lethal-injection execution method is rightly stalled here and in other states by legal challenges and because pharmaceutical companies have backed off supplying fatal drug-cocktail components. One case now being litigated is that of Thomas Arthur, in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama. Part of the death-row inmate's complaint protests use of midazolam, the 1st of 3 drugs in the state's execution protocol, claiming it fails to sufficiently anesthetize prisoners from pain before the next 2 drugs are given. Questions about midazolam aren't just legal ploys - it has been linked to at least four botched executions in 4 states. Even if a noncontroversial drug cocktail were readily available, executions should still be halted. Alabama's sordid history of racial bias in the application of death-penalty sentences is beyond dispute. Black defendants are far more likely to receive death-penalty verdicts than white defendants, for the same crimes. Add in the heinous matter of eight Alabama death-row prisoners being exonerated since 1973 after serving decades in prison for crimes they didn't commit. On those grounds alone, executions should surely be outlawed. But the U.S. Supreme Court this week supplied another strong argument against the death penalty. The case came out of Florida, but likely also applies to Alabama's sentencing system. The high court ruled Florida's death-penalty process violates Sixth Amendment guarantees of an impartial jury trial because it lets judges impose death sentences even if a jury calls for a life sentence. The ruling has thrown Florida's judiciary into chaos and could necessitate appeals and re-sentencing procedures for some of the 390 individuals sitting on death row in that state. Get ready for similar, costly upheaval in Alabama courts, which allows judges to dole out death penalties against the recommendation of the jury with even fewer restrictions than Florida. The override loophole opens the door to political corruption in capital cases, especially by judges eager to show they're tough on crime in an election year. It also greases the door for racial bias. Research by the Montgomery-based Equal Justice Initiative shows judges ignore life-sentence recommendations from juries more frequently when a white victim is involved. Alabama judges have overridden jurors to hand out death-penalty sentences 98 times since 1976, according to EJI. The Legislature would be well advised to quickly halt the tainted practice. Otherwise, the nation's high court may just come knocking at Alabama's death row door, with a big legal bill. (source: Editorial, Montgomery Advertiser) From rhalperi at smu.edu Fri Jan 15 10:05:58 2016 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Fri, 15 Jan 2016 10:05:58 -0600 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----LA., IND., OKLA., CALIF. Message-ID: Jan. 15 LOUISIANA----new execution date//not serious Judge sets March execution date for convicted serial killer A state district judge has set an execution date for serial killer Daniel Blank after rejecting a bid to overturn his death penalty conviction. The Advocate reports (http://bit.ly/1SRqLmk) Judge Jessie LeBlanc ruled Thursday that Blank should be executed March 14. Blank's appellate attorney Gary Clements says Blank won't be executed then because he has more appeals left and Louisiana lacks drugs for lethal injections. In September, LeBlanc rejected Blank's claims of ineffective defense counsel and upheld his 1`st-degree murder conviction and death sentence in 72-year-old Lillian Philippe's 1997 murder. Blank's appellate attorneys said prosecutors withheld investigative reports that would have challenged the reliability of Blank's confession to Philippe's and others' murders - and to armed robberies - and that his trial attorneys failed to do enough to exclude use of the multiple-crime confession. (source: Associated Press) INDIANA: A man facing death penalty charges for allegedly killing an Indianapolis police officer is suing the city for excessive force and seeks $2.3 million in damages A man facing death penalty charges in connection with the slaying of an Indianapolis police officer is suing the city for excessive force and seeks $2.3 million in damages. Major Davis II filed a complaint this week in federal court in Indianapolis alleging slain Officer Perry Renn and another officer shot him at close range while Davis was unarmed. He claims he was shot 11 times. Davis, who's incarcerated at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City while awaiting trial, is seeking a court-appointed attorney to represent him in the case. A message seeking comment was left with an attorney for the city. Authorities have said Renn was fatally shot with an assault rifle on July 5, 2014, in a gun battle in an alley on the city's north side. (source: Associated Press) OKLAHOMA: DA seeking death penalty in slaying of elderly Cherokee County rancher 2 men accused of murdering a Cherokee County rancher during a home invasion in July could be put to death if convicted on the allegations. Paul Dean Newberry, 25, and Cheyenne Mason Watts, 23, both of Park Hill, are charged with 1st-degree murder stemming from the shooting death of rancher Charley Kirk, 88, in July. Newberry and Watts also are charged with robbery with a weapon, 1st-degree burglary, 1st-degree attempted arson, larceny of an automobile and 3rd-degree arson, court records indicate. On Thursday, District Attorney Brian Kuester filed a court document requesting the death penalty for both men. Kuester and his staff considered the list of aggravating factors that by Oklahoma statute could validate seeking the death penalty, along with a list of mitigating factors, he said. "Analysis of the evidence caused us to believe that those aggravators were certainly present, and therefore we filed the bill of particulars seeking the death penalty," Kuester said. The filing alleges that Newberry and Watts broke into Kirk's home near Tahlequah sometime July 26 or 27. The 2 are accused of shooting Kirk multiple times, breaking 1 of his arms, stealing his property by force and trying to burn down his home. The request for the death penalty cites an earlier burglary that Newberry is alleged to have committed and also notes that he escaped from the Muskogee Jail on Dec. 14 and is accused of stealing a vehicle in order to flee to Texas. Kuester said the decision to pursue the death penalty was not made lightly. "As with any other defendants, they are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law," he said. "Just because it's the death penalty doesn't take away the standard or burden of proof." About 6:30 a.m. July 27, a ranch hand discovered Kirk's body and notified authorities. Investigators found that the home had been ransacked and that a gas line to the kitchen stove had been cut, with newspapers that had been burned in an apparent attempt to start a fire, according to an affidavit. There were signs of forced entry. The Medical Examiner's Office determined that Kirk had died from multiple gunshot wounds, the affidavit states. Missing from the home were guns, prescription medications and an all-terrain vehicle, among other things. The vehicle had been burned near Keys High School, according to the affidavit. Choctaw Nation tribal police arrested Newberry and Watts days later on unrelated offenses, and some of the stolen items were recovered at that time. During a police interview, Newberry claimed that he had brought members of a drug cartel, along with Watts, to Kirk's residence to steal cattle as a way to pay for drugs that Newberry had lost, the affidavit states. By Newberry's account, Kirk was already dead when he followed the cartel members into the home. The supposed cartel members also brought Newberry and Watts a bag of stolen items and tried to set fire to the home, according to the affidavit. During Watts' interview, he told investigators that he and Newberry had broken into Kirk's home, shot him multiple times with rifles and stolen multiple items, including the guns, medications, vehicle, a frozen pizza and batteries, according to the affidavit. There was no mention of a drug cartel. (source: Tulsa World) CALIFORNIA: Fewer in state support capital punishment in latest Field Poll Californians are evenly divided on 2 competing death penalty proposals they may face on the November ballot: 1 seeking to speed up executions, the other to abolish them, the Field Poll reported Friday. A telephone survey of randomly selected voters between Dec. 15 and Jan. 3 found 48 % in favor of taking "steps to speed up the execution process" and 47 % in favor of repealing the death penalty and replacing it with a prison sentence of life without the possibility of parole, the Field Research Corp. said. The remaining 5 % had no opinion. The results represent a shift against the death penalty since the last Field Poll in September 2014, which found 52 % favoring faster executions and 40 % preferring a repeal. It is also in line with other polls showing a gradual decline in support for the death penalty in both California and the nation, a trend applauded by backers of an initiative to eliminate death sentences. "There continues to be a very strong movement away from support for the death penalty in California," said Matt Cherry, executive director of Death Penalty Focus and a leader of the campaign for the proposed ballot measure. He said support for the repeal initiative should increase when voters are told of the cost savings from eliminating capital punishment - as much as $150 million a year, according to the Legislature's fiscal analyst. Kent Scheidegger, legal director of the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation and a supporter of the initiative aimed at accelerating executions, said the poll probably reflects "an increase in people who don???t believe that it's feasible to have an effective death penalty because it's been obstructed so long." "The challenge for the campaign is to make the case that yes, we can fix the problems," Scheidegger said. Both ballot measures are being circulated for signatures. Californians overwhelmingly approved pro-death penalty initiatives in 1972 and 1978 and voted narrowly, 52 to 48 %, against a 2012 measure that would have abolished capital punishment. The state has nearly 750 prisoners on death row but has executed only 13 since the current law took effect in 1977. Shortly after the last execution, in January 2006, a federal judge ruled that the state's lethal injection procedures and staff training were so badly flawed that they posed an unacceptable risk of a botched and agonizing execution. Gov. Jerry Brown's administration recently settled a lawsuit by death penalty advocates with an agreement to use a single dose of a powerful sedative in executions, rather than the 3-drug combination employed in the past. One provision of the proposed initiative to speed up executions would eliminate the currently required period of public comment on the single-drug plan. Other provisions would limit appeals of death sentences, set deadlines for state Supreme Court rulings on appeals, and expand the pool of defense lawyers by requiring attorneys who accept court appointments to represent the indigent on criminal cases to also take capital cases. The Field Poll found voters divided on the subject, as usual, by age, gender, race and religion. A majority of respondents age 50 or over favored speeding up executions, while a slight majority of younger voters preferred a repeal. By small margins, men preferred faster executions and women preferred abolishing them. Majorities of non-Latino white and Asian American respondents endorsed faster executions, while larger majorities of Latinos and African Americans - the latter taken from a small number of respondents - opposed the death penalty. Among religious respondents and those with no religious preference, only Protestants, by 58 %, favored speeding up executions rather than eliminating them. Pollsters said 1,003 registered voters were surveyed, and the margin of error was plus or minus 3.2 % points. Poll highlights Among all voters, 48 % favored speeding up executions and 47 % favored abolishing them. Among men, 51 % favored speedups and 45 % favored abolition. Among women, 46 % favored speedups and 49 % favored abolition. By religion, 58 % of Protestants favored speedier executions, while 52 % of Catholics, 62 % of those of other religions, and a plurality of 49 R of those without religious preference favored abolishing executions. By race and ethnicity, 52 % of non-Latino whites and 51 % of Asian Americans favored speedier executions, while 54 % of Latinos and 61 % of African Americans favored abolition. (source: sfgate.com) ********** Long Beach man could face death penalty in December murder of ex-girlfriend A Long Beach man accused of fatally shooting his ex-girlfriend in front of their son during a December domestic violence incident pleaded not guilty Thursday to several felony criminal charges, and could face the death penalty. Eric Jerome Williams, Jr., 29, has been charged with 2 counts of injuring a child's parent and 1 count each of murder, child abuse, possession of a firearm by a felon and resisting or delaying a peace officer, officials from the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office said Thursday. Williams and the victim, Jerica Owens, 26, were in a relationship for several years and lived together before they broke up, according to a statement from Deputy District Attorney Troy Davis, who is prosecuting the case. The 2 also shared a son. A history of violence Williams met with Owens Oct. 10 to exchange their son when he reportedly became angry with her and choked her, according to Davis. Owens lost consciousness and when she awoke, he allegedly choked her again. It was not clear whether police were involved in that incident. Williams met with Owens and their son the morning of Dec. 22 in the 1900 block of Chestnut Avenue in Long Beach when the 2 got into argument, according to Davis. At some point, he pulled out a gun and shot her several times in the head in front of their son before he took the child and fled, the prosecutor said. Following the shooting, Long Beach police located Williams at a friend's home, but he refused to come out. Williams was subsequently arrested and charged Dec. 24. Additional allegations The felony complaint includes a special circumstance allegation that Williams killed Owens because she was a witness to a crime, and a 2nd special allegation that he personally and intentionally discharged a firearm, causing great bodily injury and death. Williams was previously convicted of battery in 2008 and unlawful driving or taking of a vehicle in 2010. He is scheduled to return to Long Beach Superior Court March 16 for a preliminary hearing setting. If convicted as charged, Williams faces the death penalty or life in state prison without the possibility of parole. The District Attorney's Office will decide whether to seek the death penalty at a later date. (source: Press-Telegram) From rhalperi at smu.edu Fri Jan 15 10:06:48 2016 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Fri, 15 Jan 2016 10:06:48 -0600 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide Message-ID: Jan. 15 THAILAND: Myanmar migrants accused of killing Thai Just weeks after a Thai court sentenced 2 Myanmar migrants to the death penalty for the murder of 2 British tourists in Koh Tao, a similar case involving the killing of a young Thai woman appears to be headed to trial. 4 Myanmar migrant fishermen arrested in October 2015 stand accused of stabbing to death a 19-year-old Thai woman in the southern town of Ranong on September 28, 2015. Ko Moe Zin Aung, 19; Ko Zaw Lay, 25; Ko Mang Sein, 20; and Ko Kyaw Soe Win, 18, could face the death penalty, but their families claim to have security camera video evidence that they were working at the time of the murder. After admitting to the act in official statements to the police, the men have retracted their confessions and now say they were tortured during police interrogation. The suspects' relatives and lawyers have reported that the men were tortured between October 20 and October 24 while in custody, alleging that they were blindfolded, threatened at gunpoint, suffocated with plastic bags and kicked in the genitals. They also have disputed the age of the 2 youngest suspects, saying that Ko Moe Zin Aung and Ko Kyaw Soe Win had misrepresented their birthdates so as to find jobs in the fishing industry and are in fact, 15 and 14 years old, respectively. A medical examination has indicated that 3 of the 4 suspects were physically harmed during interrogations, reported the Bangkok Post. The case bears similarities to the Koh Tao murder trial. 2 Myanmar workers were convicted of the murders of the UK backpackers and charged with the death penalty, but many believe they were scapegoats. Both men in that case retracted their confessions and said they were coerced by police. After their convictions on December 24, angry Myanmar activists led protests around the region. Some border crossings between the neighbouring countries were closed due to demonstrations, and the Thai foreign ministry stated that it would close its embassy in Yangon for three days due to the uproar. Police Lieutenant Colonel Cherdpong Chiewpreecha, an investigator who was involved with and testified in the Koh Tao case, is heading the Ranong investigation. If details emerge that the 4 men have faced unjust treatment, Ko Win Ko Ko Lat, the chair of the Myanmar National Network, said his group might organise protests as they did following the Koh Tao trial. "As far as I know, the case is just an accusation at this point," he said. "We are trying to confirm the exact details of the case, so we have not planned any demonstrations or protests yet." He added that his group has been trying to contact the workers' families and their crewmates from the fisheries to find out more information. (source: Myanmar Times) MALAYSIA: Altantuya killer to make plea for clemency from Pardons Board The Federal Court had on January 13 last year found former chief inspector Azilah Hadri and fellow cop Sirul Azhar Umar guilty of murdering Altantuya Shaariibuu, by reversing an earlier acquittal by the Court of Appeal. In a last throw of the dice to save his life, one of the former police commandos on death row for the murder of Mongolian woman Altantuya Shaariibuu, will apply for clemency from the Selangor Pardons Board. Former chief inspector Azilah Hadri's petition for clemency will be submitted to the board today, his lawyer Datuk Hazman Ahmad said. "However, I am not at liberty to reveal the contents of the petition due to solicitor-client privilege," he told The Malaysian Insider. Hazman said copies of the petition will also be sent to the Attorney-General Tan Sri Mohamed Apandi Ali and Selangor Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali. The Sultan of Selangor chairs the board and members include the A-G and the menteri besar. The petition for pardon will be submitted to the board in Selangor as the offence was committed in the state. Former attorney-general Tan Sri Abu Talib Othman said the board's secretariat should fix the hearing of the petition as soon as possible as the condemned person has been in prison for a year. "It is inhumane to keep a person found guilty of capital punishment on death row for a year without referring the case to the pardons board for a decision," he told The Malaysian Insider. He said the board was the final court of clemency although it could not substitute the finding of guilty with that of not guilty. "Under our Federal Constitution, no death penalty can be executed without going to a Pardons Board," he said. He said the board could consider any relevant matter in coming to a just decision. He said the board could commute the death sentence to life imprisonment or in appropriate cases, grant the convict a pardon. Abu Talib said the lawyer for Azilah would have made a representation in the petition why his client should not be executed. Abu Talib, the A-G between 1980 and 1993, said the Federal Court was also obliged to give its legal opinion whether the execution should be carried out. Similarly, he said the A-G or his representative, the state legal adviser, would give his advice but the board was not bound by the opinion. He said Azilah was sentenced to death because the law had not provided the judges with any other option after he was found guilty. On January 13 last year, a five-man Federal Court bench chaired by Chief Justice Tun Arifin Zakaria reversed the Court of Appeal's acquittal of Azilah and ex-commando Sirul Azhar Umar. However, Sirul was not present in the apex court when judgment was delivered. It was later revealed that he had left for Australia in October 2014. He was later arrested in Brisbane, and is currently being held at an immigration detention centre in Sydney. Attempts are being made to extradite Sirul to Malaysia but Australian law dictates that a person facing the death penalty in his or her home country cannot be extradited. Evidence in court revealed that Altantuya, a Mongolian translator, was murdered before her body was blown up by C4 explosives on October 18, 2006, on the outskirts of Shah Alam, near the capital city Kuala Lumpur. Former political analyst Abdul Razak Baginda, a confidant of then deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, was charged with abetting Azilah and Sirul but was acquitted by the High Court in 2008 without his defence being called. The government did not appeal. Despite the conviction of the 2 former police commandos, the motive for the murder was never established. (source: themalaysianinsider.com) IRAN----executions 11 Prisoners Executed in Central and Northern Iran----Reports of 1 execution in central Iran and ten prisoners in the north of the country. Iran state run media, Ashkezar News, reports on the execution of 1 prisoner on the morning of Thursday January 14 at Yazd's central prison (central Iran). According to the report, the prisoner, identified as "A.B.", was a Wahhabi. According to the Kurdistan Human Rights Network, 6 prisoners were hanged at Orumiyeh's central prison (northern Iran) on murder charges. The executions were reportedly carried out on Wednesday January 13. On Tuesday the prisoners had been transferred from their cells to solitary confinement in preparation for their executions. The prisoners have been identified as Aref Shahindeji, Hossein Ezzataleb, Rahman Ranjbar, Alireza Akbari, Arsalan Badyaneh, and Abdul Wahab Hatami. According to the human rights group, HRANA, 4 prisoners were hanged at Karaj's central prison (northern Iran) on drug charges. The executions were reportedly carried out on the morning of Tuesday January 12. The prisoners have been identified as Seyed Hamid Hajian, Hossein Toutiannoush, Mostafa Jamshidi, and Mohsen Nasiri. (source: Iran Human Rights) BAHAMAS: Chief Justice Calls For Juries To Be Scrapped In Death Penalty Cases Jury trials should be abolished or restricted to criminal cases where the potential for the imposition of the death penalty arises, Chief Justice Sir Hartman Longley said yesterday. During his remarks at the 2016 Legal Year Opening Ceremony held in the Supreme Court, the chief justice expressed grave concern with jury candidates and the ability to comprehend their role in the justice system. He said a "more fundamental reform needs to occur" if stakeholders want criminal matters heard quickly, "in addition to removing a large number of cases through nolle or otherwise." The present jury system, he noted, lacks accountability and proper vetting of jurors on whether they comprehend the directions and instructions of judges regarding the law in criminal cases. "No one who has ever been convicted or acquitted by a jury knows the periphery reason why he or she was convicted or acquitted. There's simply no accountability." "Even if the judge gets it right, we have no way of knowing if the jury truly understood the instructions and indeed got it right. It is only an assumption," the chief justice added. He also said given the country's "hush-hush level" of the national grade average, there is cause for concern for the future of the jury system. "I recently went to a school where it was frightening to hear teachers complaining of having to teach Phonics and basic stuff to assist 10 and 11-year-olds that are normally taught by preschool teachers." "These are surely to be our next level of jurors, a most frightening thought," the chief justice said. In December 2011, former Chief Justice Sir Burton Hall, while speaking at a lecture series at the Harry C Moore Library hosted by the Eugene Dupuch Law School, recommended the Bahamas move away from a jury system, as it is "inefficient" and "costly". Then Chief Justice Sir Michael Barnett dissented at the 2012 Legal Year Opening, arguing that as long as it remains a constitutional right, serving on a jury is a fundamental right in our society. Court of Appeal president, Justice Dame Anita Allen at the time admitted that the jury system was not perfect but noted that bench trials were not without flaws notwithstanding they were less costly and more efficient. (source: tribune242.com) SAUDI ARABIA: Palestinians Call for Release of Poet Awaiting Saudi Execution ---- Intellectuals and writers gather in Ramallah as part of campaign for works of Ashraf Fayadh to be read in 42 countries to press that his life be spared. Palestinian intellectuals and writers have gathered in the West Bank to read poems and call for the release of a Palestinian poet awaiting execution in Saudi Arabia. Thursday's readings in the city of Ramallah were part of a campaign launched by the International Literature Festival in Berlin for works of Ashraf Fayadh to be read in 42 countries to press that his life be spared. Human Rights Watch says Fayadh was convicted and sentenced to death on charges of blasphemy, spreading atheism and having illicit relationships with women, based on photographs found on his mobile phone. He told the court the photographs were of women he had met at an art gallery. Poet Mahmoud Abu Hashhash says no poet "should be punished for his creation" but awarded for his art. (source: Ha'aretz) From rhalperi at smu.edu Fri Jan 15 14:50:05 2016 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Fri, 15 Jan 2016 14:50:05 -0600 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, DEL., FLA., MO., OKLA. Message-ID: Jan. 15 TEXAS----new death sentence Cop Killer Gonzales Sentenced to Death More than 4 years after he murdered Bexar County Sheriff's Sergeant Kenneth Vann as the lawman sat in his patrol car at a red light in Southeast San Antonio, Mark Anthony Gonzales, 45, was formally sentenced to death today by State District Judge Mary Roman. Gonzales scanned the crowd in the courtroom this morning as he was brought in, chained at his wrists and ankles and wearing a red jail jumpsuit. A series of mandatory appeals will now kick in, and after those are completed, Judge Roman will set an execution date. Vann fired 46 shots from a high powered rifle at Vann's patrol car after Gonzales pulled up next to him at the red light. More than 2 dozen of the shots hit Vann, who was pronounced dead at the scene. Gonzales says drinking and taking prescription drugs led to a condition called automatism, in which he was essentially operating on auto pilot and didn't remember his actions. But testimony indicated that shortly after the shooting, Gonzales told a friend, "I just killed a cop, don't tell anybody." Gonzales underwent a special psychiatric evaluation after he was convicted and a jury recommended a death penalty, to make sure he is mentally capable of being executed under U.S. Supreme Court guidelines. The test determined that he is competent. It is likely to be several years before Gonzales gets an execution date. He will be transferred to death row at the Polunsky Unit in Livingston to await that decision. (source: woai.com) **************** Texas court denies condemned murderer Paul Devoe's appeal Paul Gilbert Devoe, 50, sits on death row after a Travis County jury in 2009 found him guilty of killing two teenage girls in Jonestown in 2007. He was then sentenced to death. And after the Court of Criminal Appeals rejected his motion to appeal the conviction and subsequent penalty, it looks as if that???s where he will remain. Texas highest criminal court handed down the decision Jan. 13. Devoe was convicted of killing Haylie Faulkner, 15, and Danielle Hensley, 17, at a Jonestown residence. He was also accused of killing ex-girlfriend Paula Griffith and her boyfriend, Jay Feltner, at that same residence in August 2007. The murderous road started in Marble Falls, where on Aug. 24, 2007, Devoe entered O'Neill's Sports Tavern and pulled a gun on a woman. But the gun didn't fire. When a bartender, 41-year-old Michael Allred, tried to intervene, Devoe turned the gun on the man and fired. Allred died. Prosecutors believe Devoe then traveled to Jonestown, where he killed 4 people at the residence. After that, Devoe fled north out of Texas before being arrested in Central Islip, New York, on Aug. 27. During the investigation, authorities traced the car Devoe was found in possession of in New York back to a Greencastle, Pennsylvania, residence. Upon investigating the home, authorities found the body of 81-year-old Betty Jane Dehart, reportedly with a gunshot wound to the head. On Oct. 9, 2009, a Travis County jury recommended the death sentence after finding Devoe guilty of murdering the 2 teenaged girls. The district judge then sentenced the man to death. According to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Devoe is currently being held on death row at the Jester IV unit in Richmond. No date has been set for his execution at this time. (source: dailytrib.com) DELAWARE: Former death row inmate heads back to prison Jermaine Wright, a former death row inmate who was freed last year, is turning himself in Friday morning as a crowd of emotional well-wishers gathered to say goodbye. A group marched from Wright's home in Eastside down Market Street, before stopping outside the office of his attorney, Eugene Maurer. Wright is expected to turn himself in at State Police Troop 2 in Bear this morning. The move follows a Delaware Supreme Court ruling this week that his videotaped confession can be used by prosecutors at his retrial. In a unanimous court opinion released Tuesday, the state's top 5 justices overturned a lower court's decision to toss the videotaped confession in which Jermaine Wright admits to the 1991 murder of Phillip Seifert, a disabled liquor store clerk. The confession was the linchpin of the state's death penalty case against Wright more than 2 decades ago - and would have made it nearly impossible to prosecute Wright at a retrial had the court not allowed the tape to be played. Wright was one of Delaware's longest serving inmates on death row before he was freed last year. He was accused of shooting Seifert, 66, 3 times - once in the neck and twice in the head - during a robbery of the former Hi-Way Inn on Governor Printz Boulevard on Jan. 14, 1991. There were no eyewitnesses and no physical evidence from the murder, but an anonymous tip led police to Wright. Police did not have probable cause to charge him so they arrested him as a suspect in 2 unrelated shootings. While being interviewed by police at the Wilmington Police headquarters, he confessed on camera to the Hi-Way Inn murder. The state then used the videotaped confession to convince a jury to convict Wright and sentence him to death in 1992. Since then, his case wound its way through the lengthy appeals process that is often standard in death penalty cases. His break came in 2014 when the Supreme Court overturned his conviction and ordered a retrial on the grounds that prosecutors withheld evidence in 1991 about a 2nd robbery that occurred at Brandywine Village Liquors, a store about a mile and a half away from the Hi-Way Inn. In anticipation of the retrial, Wright's attorneys filed a motion to suppress the videotaped confession, saying Wright was highly susceptible to suggestion and was not properly read his Miranda rights when he confessed at age 18. (source: The News Journal) FLORIDA----impending execution Despite U.S. Supreme Court ruling, state of Florida insists next execution go on 2 days after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Florida's method of death penalty sentencing, the state said Thursday that the next execution should go on as planned. Cary Michael Lambrix, 55, is set to die Feb. 11 for murdering two people in Glades County in 1983. He has been on death row for 31 years. Lambrix's taxpayer-funded lawyers asked the Florida Supreme Court for an indefinite stay of execution, citing the Tuesday decision in the case of Pensacola killer Timothy Hurst, in which justices said juries, not judges, should make every fact-finding decision that leads to a death sentence. "This Court should grant an immediate and indefinite stay of execution and schedule full briefing so that the implications of the Hurst decision may be conducted in a reasonable manner and not under the circumstances of an active death warrant," wrote Lambrix's lawyers, Neal Dupree, William Hennis III and Jessica Houston, with the state's Capital Collateral Regional unit in Fort Lauderdale. In response, Attorney General Pam Bondi said that Lambrix should die as scheduled because he has used "dilatory" tactics to delay his date with the executioner, including seven post-conviction motions, and that the Hurst ruling should not apply retroactively to his case. "It is time for Lambrix's sentence for these brutal murders to be carried out," Bondi's petition said. "The equities in this case tilt decidedly against Lambrix in favor of the state and the victims' family members." Bondi told the Times/Herald she was unsure of the death penalty's future in Florida. "I wish I knew the answer," Bondi said after a speech to the Florida Chamber of Commerce. "The way the opinion was written, it didn't give us an instruction manual on how to handle these cases." Bondi's death penalty expert, Assistant Attorney General Carolyn Snurkowski, and prosecutors across the state are trying to decide how the Hurst decision should be interpreted and whether it applies retroactively to earlier cases - in which case the death penalty in Florida would come to a halt. "No one can come to a consensus of what to do next," Bondi said, but what's certain is that the Legislature will have to pass legislation quickly to reflect the high court's opinion. Lambrix escaped from a work-release program in 1982 while serving a 2-year sentence for violating probation. The governor's office said he and girlfriend Frances Smith met the victims at a bar and invited them to their trailer, where Lambrix beat Clarence Moore Jr. to death with a tire iron and strangled Aleisha Bryant. Lambrix stole Bryant's gold chain, buried them in a shallow grave and stole Moore's car. Gov. Rick Scott signed Lambrix's death warrant on Nov. 30. Scott has signed more death warrants than any governor since Florida reinstituted the death penalty in 1976. (source: Tampa Bay Times) MISSOURI: Missouri Conservatives Urge Legislature to Repeal Death Penalty For the first time in decades, a Missouri Senate committee is set to consider a Republican bill to repeal the death penalty in Missouri. A recently-formed group of conservative grassroots leaders applauded Sen. Paul Wieland (R - Imperial), the bill sponsor, for his fiscal responsibility and commitment to protecting innocent life from conception to natural death. "Sen. Wieland is the true pro-life leader in the Jefferson City," said Daniel Blassi, the President of Students for Life at Southeast Missouri State University and member of Missouri Conservatives Concerned about the Death Penalty. "We may aim to execute only the guilty, but in practice the death penalty puts too many innocent lives at risk." Since last year's near-execution of Kimber Edwards, a death row inmate whose sentence was commuted after the State's key witness recanted his testimony, a growing number of conservatives have begun questioning whether the government can effectively carry out capital punishment. In October, the National Association of Evangelicals approved a resolution to change its 1973 resolution which favored the death penalty. Though the NAE's new standing policy does not completely reverse their prior position, it does acknowledges the growing number of evangelicals who oppose the death penalty and increasing concerns with its application. The conservative case is straightforward: the death penalty is at odds with the core conservative values of fiscal responsibility, limited government, and value for life. "Heinous criminals deserve swift justice, but it's difficult to justify a government program that siphons millions of dollars from Missouri taxpayers despite the lack of evidence that it deters crime," said Jake Buxton, Chair of the Truman State University College Republicans. "Our State can't afford the death penalty as it stands." "In my mind, it is impossible to be an advocate for liberty and the death penalty at the same time," said Anthony Vibbard, President Emeritus of the University of Missouri Federalist Society. "Young conservatives across Missouri are joining together on this and I firmly believe that decades from now, our children will be appalled that we once condoned murder as punishment." The Senate hearing will be held Tuesday, January 19, ???at 3 p.m. in Senate Committee Room 1 of the State Capitol. Please contact: Josh Schisler, Executive Director for Missouri Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty (a project of MADP) (source: MADP) OKLAHOMA: Death penalty an option in Kirk case Capital punishment will be one of three available sentences if 2 men accused of killing longtime Keys-area rancher Charley Kirk are found guilty by a jury. District 27 prosecutors on Thursday filed "bills of particulars" in the cases against Paul Dean Newberry and Cheyenne Mason Watts, who are charged with 1st-degree murder in the death of 88-year-old Kirk. First Assistant District Attorney Jack Thorp said the filings "put the defendants on notice" that prosecutors intend to offer the death penalty as a sentencing option. According to death penalty records from the Oklahoma Department of Corrections dating back to 1915, there have been no previous Cherokee County cases that resulted in an execution, though capital punishment has been presented as a possible sentence in at least one prior case, which ended in a plea deal. A local jury has also handed down a death sentence in a Muskogee County case that was tried in Cherokee County. Thorp said Thursday's filings mark the first time the office of District Attorney Brian Kuester, who represents Cherokee, Adair, Sequoyah and Wagoner counties, has considered capital punishment as a sentence. Watts and Newberry are accused of breaking into Kirk's Keys-area home last summer to burglarize the rancher. According to investigators, Kirk awoke and confronted the men before he was shot several times. "A lot of thought has gone into this. The death penalty is a very decisive issue," Thorp said Thursday. "Death penalty cases are expensive. They take a lot of time; courts review them stringently." Inmates sentenced to die have spent an average of 4,529 days - nearly 12-1/2 years - on Oklahoma's death row since capital punishment was reinstated in 1990, according to statistics from the DOC. Thorp said Newberry and Watts could also face life, or life without parole, if found guilty. Kirk's family was told the death penalty will be an available sentence, but Thorp declined to say whether they support capital punishment in this case. According to the filings, Kirk's death was "heinous, atrocious, and cruel." "On or about July 26-27, 2015, Paul Dean Newberry and his accomplice, Cheyenne Mason Watts, did attack an aged and decrepit man named Charley Kirk by assaulting him physically, causing injuries, and by shooting Charley Kirk multiple times, at different parts of his body, causing blunt force trauma, a broken arm [ a serious physical injury, and gunshot wounds to vital parts of his body, causing Charley Kirk to consciously suffer pain, before he did languish and die as a result," one of the filings reads. Prosecutors also say Newberry, 24, has demonstrated himself to be a "threat to society," and that he could continue to be a threat in the future. In the bill of particulars, prosecutors point to previous felony cases filed against Newberry, along with specific allegations made during the probe of Kirk's death - including the accusation that Newberry and Watts robbed Kirk and tried to burn his home. They also point to Newberry's escape from the Muskogee County/City Detention Facility in mid-December, and his subsequent theft of a vehicle that he allegedly used to flee Oklahoma. Newberry was captured by federal authorities in Texas and returned to Oklahoma a few days after his escape. He is now being held in Sequoyah County. Newberry and Watts, 22, both appeared before District Judge Darrell Shepherd Thursday. Cherokee County sheriff's investigators ushered Newberry into court first at the request of District 27 prosecutors, who had filed a writ to have Newberry brought to court. Thorp told Shepherd he had Newberry brought to the county "in an abundance of caution," with the possibility of an arraignment looming. Newberry's court-appointed attorney, Peter Astor, spoke with Shepherd via phone and agreed to have Newberry's formal arraignment Jan. 21 at 1 p.m. Once Newberry was escorted out of the courthouse, Watts appeared with Angela Jones, his court-appointed attorney. Jones explained that a new attorney has been chosen for Watts as a result of the death penalty's introduction as an optional sentence. She asked that the new attorney be given about 3 months to review evidence. "There is a lot of evidence in this case," Jones said. Shepherd scheduled Watts to be back in district court April 7 at 1:30 p.m. Watts told Shepherd he understood the requested delay and didn't object to it. He also told Shepherd that Jones had explained the bill of particulars and that prosecutors may seek the death penalty. (source: Tahlequah Daily Press) From rhalperi at smu.edu Fri Jan 15 14:52:52 2016 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Fri, 15 Jan 2016 14:52:52 -0600 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide Message-ID: Jan. 15 AFGHANISTAN----execution Badghis Taliban execute man in public on adultery charges Taliban have publically executed a man on adultery charges in northwestern Badghis province. The incident took place in Nakhjiristan area of Qadis District earlier this week after reportedly a Taliban desert-court announced the punishment to Abdul Ahad, the man killed. Mirza Ali, Governor of Qadis while confirming the incident said that Abdul Ahad was shot dead by Taliban 2 days before. He added that security agencies have launched an investigation into the incident. This is not the 1st time a man is being executed by the order of a Taliban desert court but the group kills dozens of people on similar charges every year. (source: rawa.org) UNITED KINGDOM/SAUDI ARABIA: UK knew lobbying Saudi Arabia against executions was pointless The UK left Saudi Arabia off a list of countries to lobby on abolishing the death penalty because the government knew Riyadh was not open to reform. Conservative MP Matthew Offord recently sent a written question to Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond asking why the government did not include Saudi Arabia in its report "Strategy for the Abolition of the Death Penalty 2010-2015". Minister for Europe David Lidington replied to the question on Thursday and, while he did not name Saudi Arabia specifically, he said the decision had been a strategic one based on resources. "The judgement made in 2010 was that available government resources would focus on countries ready to engage in a dialogue about capital punishment likely to lead to reform," he said. The government's 5-year plan in 2010 aimed to increase the number of countries who have abolished or suspended using the death penalty. Lidington said that over this period many of the countries prioritised by the government have made reforms - including Tunisia, Morocco, China, and the United States. As a close ally of the UK, Foreign Secretary Hammond has been criticised for his limited response to the rising number of executions in Saudi Arabia. When asked to respond to the mass 47 executions meted out by Riyadh on 2 January Hammond told the BBC: "Just to be clear, these people were terrorists." Rights group Reprieve, which campaigns against the death penalty, accused Hammond of "parroting Saudi Arabian propaganda". Among the 47 people executed was prominent Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, whose killing sparked protests inside the kingdom as well as regionally, leading to a diplomatic fallout between Saudi and Iran. Prisoners convicted of involvement in al-Qaeda attacks were also executed on 2 January. Among them, as revealed by Middle East Eye, were inmates arrested as juveniles and others apparently suffering from mental illness. Executions in Saudi Arabia have soared since King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud came to the throne in January last year, following the death of his brother Abdullah. At least 157 people were put to death in 2015, which was the highest number since 1995 when 192 people were executed. The majority of those executed were convicted of either drugs or murder charges. Authorities have not explained the spike in executions, however; on a visit to London this week Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said the world must respect sovereign decisions taken by his country. "On this issue [of the death penalty] we have a fundamental difference," he told Channel 4 News's Jonathan Rugman. "In your country you do not execute people, we respect it. In our country, the death penalty is part of our laws and you have to respect this." (source: middleeasteye.net) ************ Britons do not respect our death penalty laws - but they SHOULD----Saudi Arabia's foreign minister wants Britons to respect their controversial death penalty laws. Saudi Arabia's foreign minister wants Britons to respect their death penalty laws. The Saudi politician has urged people in the UK to respect his country's death penalty as it is causing a strained diplomatic relationship and tensions between the 2 countries. Adel Al-Jubeir was questioned on Channel 4 News by Jonathan Rugman, who asked: "You don't have to execute as many people as you do, do you?" The minister responded: "We have a fundamental difference, in your country, you do not execute people, we respect it. In our country, the death penalty is part of our laws and you have to respect this as it is the law." There has recently been a number of high-profile executions in Saudi Arabia, including the death of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr earlier this month. The execution of the top Shia cleric sparking outrage in Iran - who warned Saudi Arabia they would pay "a heavy price" for it. Sheikh al-Nimr was among 47 prisoners were executed in the space of one day for alleged acts of terrorism. In the aftermath, demonstrators in Iram broke into the Saudi embassy and started fires. Mr Al-Jubeir said: "With regards to the perception of Saudi Arabia among the British public, this is a problem that we need to work on. We have not been good at explaining ourselves. "We have not done a good job at reaching out to the British media or the British public or to the British institutions, academic institutions, think tanks and so forth. We maybe not have been as communicative as we should be." At the time of Sheikh al-Nimr's execution, Maya Foa, director of the death penalty team at international human rights organisation Reprieve said: "2015 saw Saudi Arabia execute over 150 people, many of them for non-violent offences. Today's appalling news, with nearly 50 executed in a single day, suggests 2016 could be even worse. "Alarmingly, the Saudi Government is continuing to target those who have called for domestic reform in the kingdom, executing at least 4 of them today. "There are now real concerns that those protesters sentenced to death as children could be next in line to face the swordsman's blade. "Saudi Arabia's allies - including the US and UK - must not turn a blind eye to such atrocities and must urgently appeal to the Kingdom to change course." (source: The Telegraph) From rhalperi at smu.edu Fri Jan 15 15:43:37 2016 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Fri, 15 Jan 2016 15:43:37 -0600 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----ARIZ., USA Message-ID: January 15 ARIZONA: Arizona Wants To Speed Up A Death Penalty Case Because Its Drugs Are Expiring----Arizona's supply of midazolam expires at the end of May. The state is hoping that a challenge brought by death row inmates can be wrapped up with enough time to carry out the executions. Arizona is trying to carry out more executions after a brief moratorium brought about after the state carried out the longest execution in American history. In that execution, Joseph Wood took nearly two hours to die, and witnesses reported him gasping during that time. After the state commissioned a review, U.S. District Judge Neil Wake is allowing a lawsuit brought by five death row inmates challenging the state's new methods to go forward. The problem for Arizona: They need the case to wrap up soon because their sedative expires at the end of May. At a status hearing on Tuesday, Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey Sparks said the state was having problems getting more. The judge seemed receptive to speeding up the case, saying he would be "expecting accelerated discovery." As of yet, the inmates haven't even filed their new complaint yet - but summarized it at the hearing as asking for more transparency and asking that the 2nd drug be removed. The 2nd drug in a 3-drug protocol is a paralytic, and is used to cover any movement or twitching by the inmate. The inmates seem prepared to argue that it's a "cosmetic" drug used only to mask any pain the inmate may be feeling due to the other drugs. The inmates' attorneys were only informed of the drug???s expiration date on the day of the status hearing, and said the case shouldn't be in "crisis litigation" to meet the May deadline. 5 inmates brought the lawsuit, and the case would have to wrap up fairly quickly for the state to be able to execute all 5 of the inmates. Executions take considerable amounts of planning, and as a result, states try to space out when they occur. In Oklahoma, for example, when the state had a 43-minute botched execution in 2014, officials and executioners there blamed scheduling 2 executions for 1 day as a big reason why things went wrong. The state didn't offer a date to the judge on when the case would have to be wrapped up to carry out the executions, and Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich's office didn't respond to a request when asked by BuzzFeed News. The shortest time frame the state has carried out 5 executions was in 2012. But in that case, the 5 executions took place over a span of 5 1/2 months. (source: BuzzFeed News) USA: Where the Democratic Presidential Candidates Stand on Criminal Justice The 3 rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination will debate Sunday night in Charleston, S.C., their 4th debate of the campaign season. In the Republican debate, on Thursday, gun control and policing took center stage for a brief period. With Charleston's recent history of violence - the massacre of nine parishioners in a black church last June and the police killing of an unarmed black motorist in North Charleston in April - criminal justice issues are likely to arise again. Here's how the 3 Democrats stand on some of those issues, as reviewed by The Marshall Project. Hillary Clinton In the 1970's, Hillary Rodham was a young, idealistic lawyer who represented people convicted of rape and murder and opposed the death penalty. Then she was the wife (and a vocal supporter) of Bill Clinton, the tough-on-crime, pro-death penalty governor of Arkansas. Then she was First Lady, and in 1994, vouched for a crime bill that significantly contributed to mass incarceration. After that, she was a senator, and said that the death penalty had her "unenthusiastic support." Now, as she seeks the Democratic nomination for the presidency, she sounds more like the young lawyer she once was, saying, ":It's time to end the era of mass incarceration." Clinton has tried to use her support for gun control against her main Democratic rival, Bernie Sanders, whose positions on the issue are complicated. As a senator, for example, she voted against a bill - supported by Sanders - that immunized most gun sellers from liability following shootings. But in 2008, as she vied in the primary with then-Sen. Barack Obama for mostly white states like West Virginia and Pennsylvania, she often positioned herself as a supporter of gun rights. "You know," she said, "my dad took me out behind the cottage that my grandfather built on a little lake called Lake Winola outside of Scranton, and taught me how to shoot." Her position on the death penalty has also undergone changes. In 1976, Hillary Rodham Clinton was the director of the legal aid clinic at the University of Arkansas, where she defended inmates, many of them black, on death row. But when her husband became governor, she stood by as he oversaw the state'i s 1st executions since 1964, including that of a mentally-disabled man who did not understand he was about to die. In 2000, she said that the death penalty had her "unenthusiastic support"; more recently, she has said that she supports it but only in "limited and rare" circumstances. On racial justice, Clinton explained to Black Lives Matter activists last August why she has taken an evolving approach: "Your analysis [of racism] is totally fair," she told them. "It's historically fair. It's psychologically fair. It's economically fair. But...there was a different set of concerns back in the 80s and the early 90s. We have to look at the world as it is today and try and figure out what will work now." Bernie Sanders Bernie Sanders is a liberal mainstay on nearly every policy issue, except when it comes to guns. The senator hails from Vermont - a state with an entrenched hunting and gun culture, as well as lax gun laws. His actions as a lawmaker have produced a mixed record, and he has upset gun-control and gun-rights advocates alike. He has D- rating from the N.R.A.. Shortly after his election to the House of Representatives in 1990, Sanders voted against the Brady Bill, which mandated federal background checks and a waiting period for gun purchases. In total, he voted against the bill 5 separate times. He also supported allowing Amtrak riders to carry guns in their checked luggage. In 2005, Sanders voted in favor of an N.R.A.-backed bill that protects gun makers from being sued for negligence when people use the guns to commit crimes. He recently changed his stance, saying he would support revising the law to allow gun manufacturers who "act irresponsibly" to be held liable. In the Senate in 2013, shortly after the massacre of 20 children at Sandy Hook elementary school in Connecticut, Sanders voted for a bill that would have established universal background checks and an assault weapons ban, and also would have closed the "gun-show loophole," though the bill failed to pass. He has insisted that those who support strict gun control fail to understand the position of constituents like his. "I think that urban America has got to respect what rural America is about, where 99 % of the people in my state who hunt are law abiding people," he said recently. As a liberal politician who represents a rural state, he contends that he's the best candidate to find a consensus on gun policy. Sanders has been opposed to the death penalty throughout his political career. In Congress, he voted against the expansion of capital punishment at every opportunity, with one exception: in 1994, he voted in favor of the final version of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, which expanded the federal death penalty. An amendment to that bill, which Sanders voted for, would have replaced all federal death sentences with life in prison, but that amendment ultimately failed. In October, he took to the Senate floor to argue that the government "should itself not be involved in the murder of other Americans." Sanders has been active in civil rights work since his college years. He attended the 1963 March on Washington and saw Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., give his "I Have A Dream" speech. But as a legislator from the overwhelmingly white state of Vermont, he has come under pressure from rights advocates for his failure to specifically address racial-justice issues. Shortly after Black Lives Matter activists jumped on stage and shut down a Sanders rally this summer, he won praise from the movement when he unveiled a racial justice platform that focuses on different forms of violence against people of color in the United States: physical, political, legal, and economic. He laid out proposals to address each category, from passing "ban the box" laws (removing questions about a job applicant's criminal record from employment applications) to restoring provisions from the 1965 Voting Rights Act to outlawing for-profit prisons. Martin O'Malley As governor of Maryland, O'Malley signed legislation that made it the 18th state to repeal the death penalty. Now on the campaign trail, ending the federal death penalty is part of his criminal justice platform. After Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was sentenced to death for the Boston Marathon bombings, O'Malley told reporters, "The death penalty is ineffective as a deterrent, and the appeals process is expensive and cruel to the surviving family members." On gun regulation, O'Malley pushed through a package of reforms in 2013 that made Maryland one of the strictest states in the country. The laws included a ban on multiple kinds of assault weapons, limits on magazines, fingerprinting for a handgun license and the denial of guns to anyone who has been committed to a mental institution. His platform on guns is the most expansive of the 3 Democratic candidates. In addition to the list of changes that Sanders and Clinton are calling for, he has also suggested creating a national firearms registry, setting an age threshold of 21 for all gun sales, and mandating fingerprints for all gun licenses. While O'Malley often mentions his concern for people of color in his economic and criminal-justice policy proposals, his relationship with those communities has been fraught. O'Malley angered Black Lives Matter protesters in July, when he responded to their interruption of his speech by saying that "all lives matter." He later apologized and embraced the slogan at a Democratic debate. His record as mayor of Baltimore, where protests erupted after Freddie Gray died in police custody last April, has also drawn criticism. O'Malley has been accused by many of establishing a zero-tolerance policing strategy, aimed at reducing the city's high murder rate but that instead led to the targeting and abuse of black communities. (source: themarshallproject.org) From rhalperi at smu.edu Sat Jan 16 08:24:48 2016 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Sat, 16 Jan 2016 08:24:48 -0600 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., VA., FLA., ALA., LA., CALIF., USA Message-ID: Jan. 16 TEXAS----impending execution Texas Prepares to Execute Richard Masterson While Autopsy Data Suggests Death Was Not Murder At All As Texas readies itself to execute Richard Masterson, his lawyers have filed new pleadings questioning whether any murder occurred at all and are seeking a stay of execution based on what they say is "evidence of State fraud, misconduct, and his actual innocence." Masterson's filings challenge the forensic testimony presented by the prosecution in the case, the accuracy of instructions given to jurors, and the constitutionality of Texas' lethal injection secrecy law. Masterson is scheduled to be executed on January 20 for the death of Darrin Honeycutt, which medical examiner, Paul Shrode, testified had been caused by strangulation. His attorneys argue in a new federal court filing that prosecutors concealed evidence that their expert witness and attending medical examiner was unqualified to perform Mr. Honeycutt's autopsy, botched the autopsy, falsified his credentials, and gave false testimony in this case and other capital murder trials. 2 pathologists who examined autopsy data say that the Shrode was unqualified and incorrectly ruled Honeycutt's death a homicide, when it was most likely caused by a heart attack. In 2010, Ohio Governor Ted Strickland commuted the death sentence of Richard Nields based upon concerns about Dr. Shrode's assertion that the victim in that case had been strangled. Shrode was subsequently fired as chief medical examiner in El Paso County, Texas, after discrepancies were found in his resume and revelations were made about his unsupported testimony in the Ohio case. Masterson's attorneys also argue that Masterson falsely confessed to the murder charges during a period of withdrawal from addictive stimulants in which he exhibited suicidal behavior. In a separate filing, they challenge the fairness of his trial because the judge failed to inform jurors that they could convict Masterson of a lesser offense, rather than capital murder. A third filing challenges the constitutionality of Texas' lethal injection secrecy law, which prevents inmates from obtaining information about the source of the state's execution drugs. (source: Death Penalty Information Center) PENNSYLVANIA: DA: Death penalty warranted for Cruz 2 days after his 55th birthday, Abraham Cruz Jr. learned the Adams County District Attorney's office would be pursuing the death penalty against him. ???As far as I???m aware, this is one of the most heinous murders ever committed in Adams County," Adams County District Attorney Brian Sinnett said. In August, Cruz was arrested and charged with two counts of criminal homicide and one count each of conspiracy to commit criminal homicide, arson and burglary in connection with the deaths of 17-year-old Deborah Patterson and her mother, Nancy Patterson, according to charging documents filed by state police. It???ll be the first case to seek capital punishment in Adams County since 2012 when Christopher L. Johnson was convicted of a 2010 murder of conservation officer David Grove. Not all first-degree murder cases warrant the death penalty, Sinnett said. Pennsylvania has a set of 18 aggravating circumstances that warrant trying a defendant for capital punishment. If the prosecution can match at least one of the circumstances, they can file papers to have the defendant tried for capital punishment, he said. Around 3 a.m. on August 30, 1980, Cruz and three other individuals allegedly traveled to the Patterson's home, throwing bottles filled with flaming gasoline into the home's kitchen, according to the affidavit of probable cause filed with District Judge Mark Beauchat. As the family fled the home, Cruz allegedly fatally shot Deborah Patterson and Nancy Patterson with a shotgun. A third person was shot, but survived, according to the affidavit. Two others were in the house at the time of the arson but were not injured. After the shootings, Cruz threw the gun in the Susquehanna River, the affidavit states. Based on the description presented, Cruz matches several of the aggravated circumstances criteria, Sinnett said. The death of more than one person, the alleged burglary and arson of the home and putting other people in danger were all factors into pursuing capital punishment, he said. Prior criminal history also plays a factor, Sinnett said. Cruz has been arrested 24 times since 1980 prior to being charged in August, according to the affidavit. "Aggravated circumstances exist that warrant the death penalty with this case," he said. "You had a firebombing of a house and execution of witnesses. The death penalty is reserved for those types of 1st-degree crimes." Sinnett, who was just sworn in as the county's district attorney at the beginning of the year, has some challenges facing the case itself, he said. The murder took place 35 years ago, meaning that witness availability and recollection could be a challenge, he said. Still, the prosecution feels confident they have enough evidence to convict, because they've been able to do it before, Sinnett said. The Adams County District Attorney's office was able to charge and negotiate guilty plea deals with two other co-defendants related to the case, according to court documents. Cruz's uncle, Erasmo Cruz, pleaded guilty in 2014 to criminal homicide and is serving 16 to 40 years in prison, according to court documents. A third man, Ruperto Garcia Jr., pleaded guilty in 2014 to conspiracy to commit burglary, documents state. A fourth man, Adalberto Andujar, was allegedly involved but died in 2005, according to the affidavit. "We took all of the information into account for the prosecution of the other co-defendants, and we did the same here," Sinnett said. If the jury convicts Cruz of murder, the same jury would then hold another proceeding to determine if Cruz would face the death penalty, Sinnett said. If they can't come to a unanimous decision on sending Cruz to death, a more standard punishment, like life in prison, would be issued by the judge, he said. Even if Cruz is found guilty and does get sentenced to death, the process likely won't end, Sinnett said. There???s the possibility of appeals, which could go anywhere from the U. S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals to the state Supreme Court, he said. The appeal process, as it currently stands, is not a quick process, Sinnett said. For example, John C. Lesko and Michael J. Travaglia, convicted of a "kill for thrill" murder spree in Westmoreland County, originally had executions scheduled for Nov. 19, 1985. More than 3 decades later, the men are still awaiting rulings from the state supreme court, according to reports from the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. ???Essentially defendants are able to delay and frustrate the system so that no one has been able to carry out the death penalty for years and years," Sinnett said. "If we streamline the appellate process for finite and reviewable cases, executions could be carried out. There's a process and law on books, if it was just adhered to we could do it." Since 1985, which is just a few years after the death penalty was reinstated after a 10-year national moratorium, over 400 death warrants have been signed by the state, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections website. However, only 3 executions have been carried out -- 2 in 1995 and 1 in 1999 -- and all 3 had voluntarily abandoned their appeal right to further due process, Sinnett said. There are 181 inmates currently on death row, according to the department. None of them will be put to death in the immediate future, because Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf ordered a temporary reprieve of capital punishment in February, said Jeff Sheridan, Wolf's press secretary. The bipartisan Pennsylvania Task Force and Advisory Commission on Capital Punishment is putting together a report addressing issues like cost and time, among others, for the governor to review, Sheridan said. "This moratorium is in no way an expression of sympathy for the guilty on death row, all of whom have been convicted of committing heinous crimes. This decision is based on a flawed system that has been proven to be an endless cycle of court proceedings as well as ineffective, unjust, and expensive," Wolf said in a February news release. The Pennsylvania District Attorney's office issued a challenge over the reprieve, claiming Wolf overstepped his executive power, but the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled in favor of the governor in a December hearing, letting the reprieve carry on, Sheridan said. Sinnett and other district attorneys around the state see the reprieve as something else, he said. Wolf should not be allowed to issue the reprieve with an indefinite timetable, he said. "I think he would tell you he's opposed to the death penalty," Sinnett said. "The committee hasn't met yet, at least to my knowledge. It's a misnomer, I think he's using it as a means to just prevent the death penalty from being carried out" The reprieve isn't a ban of capital punishment, it's just a way to critically reflect on the system, Sheridan said. There's no timetable on when the reprieve will end or if any change will come from it, he said. In the meantime, those sitting on death row can do nothing but appeal their rulings and wait for the reprieve to end, Sheridan said. (source: Evening Sun) VIRGINIA: Setting of Ricky Gray execution date may be affected by appeals court order The Richmond Circuit Court has scheduled a hearing Tuesday to set an execution date for Harvey family killer Ricky Javon Gray, but a federal appeals court order Friday may make it moot. In a 2-1 order, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals approved a motion by Gray???s lawyers to stay its final order in the case while he asks the U.S. Supreme Court to take up his appeal. Michael Kelly, a spokesman for the Attorney General's Office, said Friday that the situation may not become clear until Tuesday morning because Monday is a holiday. "We will make sure the Richmond Circuit Court is notified of this development and are working to determine whether it affects the scheduled hearing on Tuesday," Kelly said. Gray, 38, was convicted of the murders of Bryan Harvey, 49; his wife, Kathryn, 39; and their daughters, Stella, 9, and Ruby, 4, in their Woodland Heights home on New Year's Day 2006. Their home was set on fire. Gray and Ray Dandridge killed the Harveys in a string of slayings that left 7 people dead in Richmond. Gray was sentenced to life in prison for the slayings of Bryan and Kathryn Harvey, and to death for their daughters' killings. Dandridge was sentenced to life in prison. Last November, a split 3-judge panel of the Richmond-based 4th Circuit upheld a lower court ruling rejecting Gray's claims that his lawyers did not perform up to constitutionally acceptable standards. Last month, the appeals court declined to rehear Gray's appeal. If Tuesday's Richmond Circuit Court hearing proceeds, the execution date will be set for no more than 60 days later. Gray's lawyers could not be reached for comment Friday. Spokesmen with the Virginia Department of Corrections also could not be reached for comment on whether the state has an adequate supply of drugs on hand to conduct an execution by injection. Condemned prisoners in Virginia are given a choice between lethal injection and the electric chair. Last year, Virginia authorities had to get 1 of the 3 drugs used in lethal injections from Texas in order to execute Alfredo Prieto, leading to last-minute legal challenges. (source: Richmond Times-Dispatch) FLORIDA: Florida High Court To Hold Arguments In February On Effect Of Death Penalty Ruling----After the state's death sentencing scheme was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court, what comes next? The Florida Supreme Court will hear arguments on that question on Feb. 2. The Florida Supreme Court appears to want to move quickly on addressing the effect of the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling that the state's death penalty scheme is unconstitutional. Earlier this week, the state high court told state officials and lawyers for Cary Michael Lambrix, scheduled for execution on Feb. 21, to submit briefing on the effect of the Supreme Court's ruling in Hurst v. Florida on Lambrix's death sentence. Lambrix was convicted and sentenced to death in 1984 for the murders of Clarence Moore and Aleisha Bryant. In Hurst, the U.S. Supreme Court held 8-1 that Florida's death sentencing scheme was unconstitutional under the Sixth Amendment because it violated the right to a jury by making the imposition of a death sentence - specifically, the finding of aggravating circumstances - the responsibility of a judge and not a jury. On Friday, the state high court announced it would be not be putting Lambrix's scheduled execution on hold at this time, as his lawyers requested. Instead, the court scheduled arguments for 9 a.m. Feb. 2 on the Hurst-related questions. The court told the parties to be prepared to discuss the effect of Hurst on Lambrix's convictions and death sentences. Specifically, it wants to hear arguments on whether the U.S. Supreme Court's decision is retroactive to cover Lambrix's 1984 conviction, whether it applies given the specific facts of Lambrix's case, and whether any error that was committed by the state is harmless. (source: buzzfeed.com) ****************** Suspend executions in light of Supreme Court ruling When the U.S. Supreme Court this week invalidated Florida???s death-penalty process, justices were telling the state to put jurors back in control of deciding who gets the ultimate punishment and who does not. Florida is an outlier - no surprise there. Justices ruled unconstitutional the state's unique system that gives judges the ultimate power to impose the death penalty. That power belongs to the jurors, the court said in an 8-1 decision that united both liberal justices and most of the conservatives on the high court. Justice Samuel Alito Jr. cast the dissenting vote. And with this ruling, the relatively smooth ride that state lawmakers were aiming for during this legislative session in Tallahassee just got a little bumpier. In fact, the court's decision has thrown much of the legal system into uncertainty, sending defense lawyers, prosecutors, the state attorney general's office, legislators and death row inmates themselves scrambling to figure out where to go from here. This case dates to 1998, when Timothy Lee Hurst was convicted of murdering his boss at a Pensacola Popeye's restaurant. The jury, voting 7-5, recommended death. Jurors cited 2 aggravating circumstances in making their recommendation. But it is not clear if all seven agreed on both. The jury was told that, despite its recommendation, the final decision would be left to the judge, who could consider evidence that the jury did not. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote that the decision to sentence Hurst to death must be based "on a jury's verdict, not a judge's fact-finding. Florida's sentencing scheme, which required the judge alone to find the existence of an aggravating circumstance, is therefore unconstitutional." Florida's approach reduces the role of a jury to an advisory position, simply making a recommendation to the judge. This is 1 of only 4 states that give judges unique authority either to make the final call or, as can happen in Alabama, overrule a jury's findings for or against the death penalty. The Constitution calls for "a jury, not a judge, to find each fact necessary to impose a sentence of death," Justice Sotomayor wrote. "A jury's mere recommendation is not enough." Now, in Florida, the search is on for what's next. Most immediately, it is incumbent on state lawmakers, already in session in Tallahassee, to pass clear legislation to ensure that Florida's death-penalty process is in compliance. They should work closely with Attorney General Pam Bondi. The Florida Supreme Court wants the state to defend its plans to execute murderer Michael Ray Lambrix. He's scheduled to die on Feb. 11 for a double murder. Lambrix's lawyers are seeking an indefinite stay of execution. Ms. Bondi, in response, said that because Lambrix used a series of delaying tactics to avoid execution that his court-ordered fate should not be put off any longer. But the U.S. Supreme Court's finding of unconstitutionality is no mere tactic. Its very pointed and resolute ruling leaves little room to do anything else but place a stay on this and all other executions until the issue of whether it will apply to those already sentenced to die can be determined. And in a state that continues to lead the nation in exonerations of wrongfully convicted death row inmates, freed before the needle entered their arm, the court decision is just one more imperative for Florida to get it right first. (source: Editorial, Miami Herald) **************** Florida lawmakers to look at ways to fix state's death penalty system Florida lawmakers are pledging to remedy the state???s death-penalty sentencing structure after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled this week that the state's method of giving judges the power to impose death sentences is unconstitutional. But legal experts fear that the Legislature's fix may only be a temporary solution for the capital punishment process, one of the most complicated legal arenas rendered even thornier after Tuesday's decision. Days after the 8-1 ruling, leaders in the Republican-controlled Legislature - as well as judges, defense lawyers and prosecutors - were scrambling to sort out the implications of what some called a deceptively simple order. What is clear is that lawmakers intend at the very least to resolve the main issue addressed by the court in the case, known as Hurst v. Florida. "This is something that we have to do," House Judiciary Chairman Charles McBurney, R-Jacksonville, said. "We will be addressing the issue which was raised specifically by the Supreme Court in that decision, and then looking beyond the narrow decision to see how it affects other aspects of the death penalty statute to ensure its future constitutionality as well." Florida requires juries to make recommendations to judges regarding the death penalty after considering aggravating and mitigating circumstances, with judges ultimately imposing the sentences. But Florida's unique law giving judges the power to decide whether defendants should face death equates to an unconstitutional violation of the Sixth Amendment right to a trial by jury, Justice Sonya Sotomayor wrote in the majority opinion. The ruling did not address whether juries??? decisions about imposing death sentences should be unanimous, as is required for convictions. Lawmakers are exploring the issue of unanimous decisions and whether the Hurst ruling should apply retroactively to inmates already sentenced to death - Attorney General Pam Bondi's lawyers, who represent the state in death penalty cases, contend that it should not. And, in an election year in which swing-state Florida is considered critical for a Republican White House win, whether GOP lawmakers will pass any legislation that could be perceived as watering down the death penalty is questionable. But doing the minimum to conform Florida law with the high court ruling is problematic, said Florida International University law professor Stephen Harper, who runs the school???s Death Penalty Clinic. "My hope is that the Legislature goes far enough to require unanimity in both the decision that somebody is death eligible and that somebody will get the death penalty. And if they don't do that, they're only inviting more litigation and waiting for the next shoe to drop," Harper said. The Hurst decision also likely comes with a price tag for Florida taxpayers. Prosecutors, public defenders and state-paid lawyers representing death row inmates told lawmakers this week that Tuesday's ruling will increase their workloads. It is unclear how many of the 390 prisoners on Florida's death row - the 2nd highest-number in the nation - may be affected by the decision. "In theory, any defendant who raised this specific issue on appeal would have an argument to go back," said Rep. Jose Javier Rodriguez, a Miami Democrat who has renewed his push for unanimous jury verdicts to impose the death penalty. The sentencing issue has a special sense of urgency because 2 death row inmates are scheduled to be executed in February and March. (source: Palm Beach Post) ******************** Supreme Court Update: Hurst v. Florida (14-7505) Greetings, Court Fans! ... and Happy New Year! Judging by the votes in its first 2 decisions of (calendar year) 2016 - an 8-1 decision striking down Florida's capital sentencing regime and 9-0 decision addressing filing fees under the Prison Litigation Reform Act - you'd think The Nine had resolved to set aside their differences and work towards unanimity in the new year. But judging by history, we know they're just saving the tough cases for later. The death penalty rarely yields agreement among the justices (last year's term ending 5-4 decision in Glossip v. Gross was one of the most divisive in recent memory), but yesterday's decision in Hurst v. Florida (14-7505), proves there's an exception to every rule - especially when the case turns on the Sixth Amendment, rather than the Eighth. By an 8-1 vote, the Court held that Florida's capital sentencing scheme, which permits a judge to have the final say over whether a defendant is to be put to death, violates the Constitution. The Court has long held that the Eighth Amendment requires certain extra procedures before a defendant may be put to death. There must be a factual finding of aggravating factors, and consideration must be given to whether any mitigating factors outweigh those aggravating factors. This job - finding aggravating factors and mitigating factors, and weighing those factors - is ordinarily done by a jury. If the jury doesn't issue a death sentence, then death is off the table. Not so in Florida. While the Sunshine State hasn't entirely done away with this process, the jury's determination is merely "advisory." It is the judge who must independently find and weigh the aggravating and mitigating circumstances, and ultimately decide whether to enter a sentence of life or death. Writing for the Court, Justice Sotomayor had little difficulty concluding that this sentencing procedure violates the Constitution, under the Apprendi line of cases. In Apprendi v. New Jersey (2000), the Court held that the Sixth Amendment requires that any fact that "expose[s] the defendant to a greater punishment than that authorized by the jury's verdict" must be submitted to a jury. In Ring v. Arizona (2002), the Court found that this rule extends to capital punishment. As the majority saw it, these precedents dictated the outcome in Hurst. It didn't matter that Florida's statutory scheme contains an advisory jury recommendation. In fact, the Court that this advisory verdict was "immaterial" in view of the fact that a judge has the final say, and must make independent factual findings. Justice Breyer concurred in the judgment only. Breyer, of course, has been on the prosecution side in the Apprendi line of cases, including Ring, and he reiterated his disagreement with the Court's Sixth Amendment analysis here. However, he (alone, it appears) concluded that, while the Sixth Amendment does not require a jury to make the final decision on a death sentence, the Eighth Amendment does. Alito alone dissented, pointing out that the Court had twice before approved of Florida's sentencing approach, albeit in pre-Apprendi cases. In his view, before the Court decided to overrule those decisions, it should revisit Ring and the other Sixth Amendment sentencing cases, whose constitutional underpinnings Alito questioned. He also believed that, given the depravity of Hurst's crime and Florida's unique procedure - which does require the jury to recommend a death sentence - any error in this case was harmless. That question remains open, as the Court remanded the case for consideration of harmlessness by the Florida courts. (source: Tadhg Dooley, Kim Rinehart; jusupra.com) ALABAMA----impending execution Alabama Inmate Seeks Stay Of Execution Following U.S. Supreme Court Ruling----Alabama's capital sentencing scheme comes under scrutiny after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Florida's death sentencing law earlier this week. Just 6 days before his scheduled execution, the lawyer for Christopher Brooks has asked the Alabama Supreme Court to put Brooks's execution on hold so the court can assess whether its capital sentencing laws remain constitutional following this week???s U.S. Supreme Court decision striking down Florida's capital sentencing scheme. Alabama, like Florida, places the final decision of whether to impose death on the judge - not a jury. On Jan. 12, the U.S. Supreme Court held that "Florida's sentencing scheme, which required the judge alone to find the existence of an aggravating circumstance, is therefore unconstitutional." Since that ruling, Alabama officials have defended their state's law as having been previously upheld as constitutional and as being distinguishable from the part of the Florida law struck down this week. Criminal defense attorneys have said otherwise, and now - in Brooks's case - 1 of those lawyers is asking the Alabama Supreme Court to step in. "Mr. Brooks' death sentence might be unconstitutional under Hurst v. Florida and, if it is unconstitutional, he is entitled to relief," the lawyer for Brooks wrote, referring to this week's decision. "Mr. Brooks' death sentence should not be carried out while critical questions concerning the constitutionality of Alabama's capital sentencing scheme remain unanswered." Brooks was sentenced to death in 1993 for the 1992 murder of Jo Deann Campbell, a sentence imposed by Judge James Hard. The jury had recommended a death sentence to the judge on an 11-1 vote. "Mr. Brooks respectfully requests that this Court temporarily stay his execution currently scheduled for January 21, 2016, direct the parties to present briefs on the applicability of Hurst, and undertake a thorough consideration of Hurst's impact on Alabama's capital sentencing scheme," attorney Leslie S. Smith, from the Federal Defenders' Office in the Middle District of Alabama, wrote in the petition to the Alabama Supreme Court. After detailing at length the comparisons between the Florida and Alabama death sentencing laws, the Friday filing for Brooks cites to a friend-of-the-court brief filed by Alabama's own lawyers in the Florida case, stating that the arguments made by the state there showed it "recognized that the Supreme Court's rejection of Florida's sentencing scheme ... would mean that Alabama's nearly identical scheme would almost certainly fail to meet constitutional standards." Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange's office, however, maintains that the state's death sentencing statute - which only requires the judge to give "consideration" to the jury's sentencing recommendation - remains constitutional. More than 20 years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Alabama's death sentencing scheme in a case brought by Louise Harris in which she questioned whether the state's law violated the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishments. "The Constitution permits the trial judge, acting alone, to impose a capital sentence," Justice Sandra Day O'Connor wrote for the court. "It is thus not offended when a State further requires the sentencing judge to consider a jury's recommendation and trusts the judge to give it the proper weight." Since that time, however, an entire area of caselaw has developed at the Supreme Court regarding the Sixth Amendment's guarantee of a jury trial. A 1999 decision noted that the court has "suggest[ed]" that "any fact (other than prior conviction) that increases the maximum penalty for a crime must be charged in an indictment, submitted to a jury, and proven beyond a reasonable doubt." In the landmark Apprendi v. New Jersey case in 2000, that principle was made law. 2 years later, in Ring v. Arizona, the court expanded that reasoning to the capital sentencing realm. Overturning a prior decision of the Supreme Court holding Arizona's death sentencing scheme to be constitutional, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote for the court, "Capital defendants, no less than non-capital defendants, we conclude, are entitled to a jury determination of any fact on which the legislature conditions an increase in their maximum punishment." On Tuesday, the Supreme Court responded to any perceived ambiguity in Ring, with Justice Sonia Sotomayor writing for the court: "The Sixth Amendment requires a jury, not a judge, to find each fact necessary to impose a sentence of death. A jury's mere recommendation is not enough." Nonetheless, on Wednesday, a spokesperson for Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange told BuzzFeed News that the "ruling regarding the Florida death penalty does not affect Alabama's law" - relying in part upon the Eighth Amendment-based decision from 1995 in explaining why that was so. "The U.S. Supreme Court specifically upheld Alabama's current system as constitutional in the case of Harris v. Alabama in 1995," spokesperson Joy Patterson wrote. She also pointed to other cases to buttress her point - 3 of which were cases from recent years in which the Supreme Court declined to hear challenges to the Alabama system, which is not a decision on the merits of the issue. The other 2 were lower court decisions addressing the Alabama law that were handed down before the Supreme Court even accepted the Florida case. Patterson also attempted to distinguish Alabama's system from the parts of the system held to be unconstitutional in Florida. "In the Florida case, the holding is that a jury must find the aggravating factor in order to make someone eligible for the death penalty. Alabama's system already requires the jury to do just that," she stated. "The jury must unanimously find an aggravating factor at either the guilt or sentencing phase - such as when the murder was committed during a robbery, a rape, or a kidnapping." In response, attorney John Palombi - also from the Federal Defenders??? Office in the Middle District of Alabama - told BuzzFeed News on Friday night, "That is the same argument that Florida made in the Supreme Court and was rejected. In Alabama, just like in Florida, there is no death sentence until the judge makes the finding of the aggravating circumstance." As Brooks's lawyer put it in the Friday filing, "As with Timothy Hurst, in the absence of the trial court's fact-findings and imposition of sentence, Christopher Brooks would not have received a death sentence." (source: BuzzFeed News) LOUISIANA: Serial killer Daniel Blank is given March execution date A judge has set an execution date for serial killer Daniel Blank after rejecting a bid to overturn his death penalty conviction. The Advocate reports that Judge Jessie LeBlanc of Louisiana's 23rd Judicial District ruled Thursday (Jan. 14) that Blank should be executed March 14. Blank's appellate attorney, Gary Clements, says Blank won't be executed then. He said his client has more appeals left and that Louisiana lacks drugs for lethal injections. In September, LeBlanc rejected Blank's assertions of ineffective defense counsel. He upheld the 1st-degree murder conviction and death sentence in the 1997 killing of 72-year-old Lillian Philippe. Among Blank's other victims was Joan Brock, 55, of LaPlace, who was beaten to death in her backyard in 1997. In exchange for a life sentence, he pleaded guilty in 2009 to killing her. Blank's appellate attorneys said prosecutors in the Philippe case withheld investigative reports that would have challenged the reliability of Blank's confession to Philippe's and others' murders - and to armed robberies. They also say his trial attorneys failed to do enough to exclude use of the multiple-crime confession. (source: Associated Press) CALIFORNIA: Inside Death Row, Inmates Disagree on Capital Punishment Among my 1st impressions of death row when I recently toured San Quentin Prison: It's loud. Dimly lit. There's really no privacy. And so many of the inmates are elderly that it can at times resemble a high-security old folks home. It's been 10 years since California executed its last death row inmate. Since then, the death row population has grown to 745 (all but 21 are men, and the women are kept at the Central Women's Facility in Chowchilla). Since 1978, 117 death row inmates have died, the vast majority from natural causes and suicide. It's very rare for the media to see death row. But recently the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation offered about 20 journalists a tour. And of course I went. I've been to the rest of San Quentin numerous times, and I was struck by how different death row is. Members of the general inmate population at San Quentin walk around with relative "freedom," creating the feel of a college campus. They attend group classes, performances, religious services, etc. 'Some of us are against the death penalty, some of us not so much.'- Charles Crawford II, death row inmate Nothing could be less true for the inmates on death row. Their movement is highly restricted. When I was there, one inmate sat in a metal cage in East Block (the largest death row housing with 520 cells), waiting for an escort to the law library. No one walks around death row alone without a guard and restraints. During psychotherapy sessions, the inmates sit in individual cages to protect the therapists or, if it's group therapy, the other inmates. If you violate the rules on death row, you???re sent to the "Adjustment Center." But even they get some time outside each week. Robert Galvan was standing, shirtless, outside in a 12-by-9 rectangular cage the day I was there. His body is covered in tattoos. Galvan was sent to Corcoran Prison in 1996 - he got a life sentence for robbery, a kidnapping for ransom and assault with a deadly weapon. While he was at Corcoran a few years ago, he killed his cellmate. It was gang stuff, he says. That's when he got the death sentence - and was sent here. Galvan took a break from doing pullups to talk through a chain-link fence. What's his day like? "Day at a time, you know," he says. "Work out, same routine every day. Get up, eat breakfast, work out. Just take it a day at a time." Galvan is 42 years old (another thing I noticed - inmates generally look much older than they are). He tells me he deserves to be on death row for killing his "cellie." In 2006, federal Judge Jeremy Fogel suspended executions over concerns about the state's lethal injection process. With executions on hold for a decade now, I ask Galvan if men here think they'll ever resume. "Some think it ain't going to happen, some think it's, you know, they're going to start firing it up, me I'll cross that bridge when I come to it," Galvan says. I ask if he worries about being executed, but he doesn't answer. Nearby, Charles Crawford II is standing in another cage outside. The left side of his head is shaved, the rest is tied into a ponytail. Crawford won't talk about the double homicide that sent him here because he says his case is under appeal. He spends his days reading and writing letters to his family and friends. I ask him what death row inmates think about capital punishment. "Opinions vary, just like I'm sure they vary on the outside," he says. "Some of us are against it, some of us not so much. Some of us, it's like if they're going to do it, do it and not have us sittin' here for 20 or 30 years." Even before the federal judge put executions on hold 10 years ago, death row inmates easily spent more than 20 years while their cases made their way through the courts. Crawford says death just isn???t at the front of their minds. "You know what I mean, it's like an abstract thought," he says. "So it's not something that happens every day. Since I've been here they've only carried out 2 executions, so it's not even like it's a real punishment for a lot of people." East Block is the largest housing unit at death row, with 520 single-cell units. As I walked around past the cells, I saw men lying on their beds or reading, writing or watching TV. Some joked with corrections staff as they walked by. Others shouted out, complaining about the conditions there. Understandably, many of the men aren't interested in talking to journalists. But some are. Richard Hirschfield says he's against capital punishment on moral grounds. "If society says that's it's wrong to kill and then they turn around and kill people they think are bad and killed other people, then that means that it's OK to kill," he reasons. Apparently Hirschfield, now 66, thought it was OK to kill back in 1980. 33 years later, he was convicted of killing 2 18-year-old UC Davis freshmen, John Riggins and Sabrina Gonsalves, who were dating at the time. They were found dead in a ditch. Their throats had been slit and their heads wrapped in duct tape. Hirschfield denies he did it. "I'm not too concerned about being executed," Hirshfield says, "because I really don't think that I'm going to be killed." Raymond Anthony Lewis was sent to death row March 13, 1991. Lewis stood up in his cell, leaning close to the bars enforced by metal mesh so I could hear him. "I'm ready to leave here," he says, meaning he's ready to die. "Just recently within the last year I've asked my attorneys to stop my appeal," he says matter-of-factly. I ask him why. "This is not living," he says. "This is no life in here. It's just existing. There's nothing. No emotions. No life. No nothing. And after so long you just become numb to it. You know?" So, I ask, do you think most people here would rather be dead than living here? "Oh, yes," Lewis says emphatically. "We talk about it every day in the yard. People are just tired of it. The state is not killing nobody. Guys here are dying from health reasons, old age or committing suicide." That's one thing I noticed - how old many of these inmates are. Some look so frail it's almost hard to imagine the terrible, gruesome crimes they committed. Lewis is 54, which surprised me. That's 3 years younger than I am, but he looked a lot older. He's been on death row since 1991. "This is the hardest part," he says. "Dying is easy." And yet some say life is too good on death row. For example, if they follow the rules and aren't considered too high-risk, they get certain privileges, like basketball. On the day I was there, 5 inmates were shooting hoops on an enclosed cement court. As a group of journalists approached, 2 of the men stopped playing and turned their backs to us. One of them was Scott Peterson, who was convicted of murdering his pregnant wife, Laci, and dumping her body near the Berkeley Marina. Steven Livaditis takes a break from playing basketball to talk with us through the fence. He describes the 1986 crime in Beverly Hills that resulted in his death sentence. "I attempted to rob a jewelry store, and (3) people ended up being killed because of my actions," Livaditis says. I ask why he killed them. Livaditis, 51, seemed to be fighting back tears as he answered. "Because uh, I was an evil person," he says. "I don't know any other way to put it, you know?" Asked if he's still evil, Livaditis says no, because he's accepted Jesus Christ as his savior. No matter how you feel about capital punishment, almost everyone agrees the system is broken in California. 2 very different solutions to this legal quagmire are being proposed for the November ballot - 1 to ban executions, the other to speed them up. A new Field Poll shows Californians are evenly split on the 2 alternatives, with both getting about 47 % support. If proponents collect enough signatures, either or both measures will get a hearing from voters later this year. (source: Scott Shafer, KQED news) USA: US Judge Dismisses Death Penalty Appeal for Boston Bomber The death penalty appeal for the surviving Boston bomber has been rejecetd by a U.S. District Judge although it could be years before the sentence is carried out. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was denied a new trial to appeal his death sentence Friday for his participation in the Boston Marathon bomb attack in 2013. His lawyers presented several arguments in an attempt to get a retrial, including that Tsarnaev didn't have an impartial jury due to the intense media publicity of the attacks. The blasts injured more than 260 people, and killed three, including 1 child aged 8 years-old. Judge George O'Toole denied this request in a court ruling, stating that media in any district would have given the same coverage to the attack. "There is no reason to think that if the trial had been moved to another district, the local media in that district would not also have given it attentive coverage," O'Toole wrote in his 37-page ruling. The judge also noted comments made by defense attorney Judith Clarke in her opening statements that Tsarnaev, along with his older brother Tamerlan, carried out the attack, saying "It was him." Tsarnaev, 22, was sentenced to death by lethal injection in June 2014. His older brother Tamerlan also participated in the attack, but died 3 days after in a standoff with police, that left an officer dead. According to evidence from the trial, both brothers were inspired by Al-Qaeda ideology. Tsarnaev is currently in a high security prison in Florence, Colorado, and has been ordered to pay more than $100 million dollars as restitution to the victims. His defense is still working on appealing the death penalty although they do not proclaim the American citizen's innocence. Some relatives of the victims fear that the appeals could delay Tsarnaev's fate for decades. There have been 74 people sentenced to death for federal crimes in the U.S. since 1998, of which only 3 have been executed to date. (source: telesurtv.net) From rhalperi at smu.edu Sun Jan 17 09:08:26 2016 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Sun, 17 Jan 2016 09:08:26 -0600 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, N.J., FLA., ALA. Message-ID: Jan. 17 TEXAS: An appeal of the death penalty by a man convicted of murdering 2 people in Texas and accused of murdering a State Line woman during a crime spree nearly a decade ago was rejected by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Jan. 13. The court declined to rule on the merits of Paul G. Devoe's appeal. Devoe, now 52, killed Betty Dehart of State Line on Aug. 26, 2007. He had fled Texas after shooting 5 people to death, and in his cross-country journey to New York, stopped off I-81 in southern Pennsylvania. He randomly chose Dehart's residence on North Young Road to steal her car, and left behind a stolen vehicle. Dehart, 81, was on the porch, so he shot her in her home when she screamed. He was captured in New York on Aug. 27 by the New York/New Jersey Fugitive Task Force. Devoe was convicted in the murders of 2 teenage girls and Dehart. He was sentenced to death in October 2009. Franklin County District Attorney Matt Fogal chose not to prosecute, but to let Devoe face the Texas criminal justice system. (source: Echo-Pilot) NEW JERSEY: Lesniak honored with Liftetime Achievement Award Recognizing his lifetime of achievements and commitment to social justice and civil rights, Senator Raymond Lesniak was honored with the "Alone We're Good - But Together We're Better Liftetime Achievement Award" by the United Youth of New Jersey before the premiere of a play about Martin Luther King, Jr. The award honors Lesniak for "his continued efforts to keeping Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream alive." It was presented by the United Youth of New Jersey, a non-profit organization that aids at-risk youth, during the premiere presentation of a play honoring Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday at the Union County Performing Arts Center in Rahway on Saturday, January 16. "I am both honored and humbled to be receiving this award," said Lesniak. "The fact that it invokes the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. makes it especially meaningful. Dr. King embodied the values and aspirations that provide motivation and inspiration for anyone who strives for justice, civil rights and equality. I don't want awards to outpace my efforts, so I will continue to be an advocate for progress." Lesniak sponsored the repeal of the death penalty and replaced it with life without parole, making New Jersey the 1st state in the nation to abolish the death penalty in over 30 years. He was in the forefront of the successful efforts to achieve marriage equality, and he sponsored legislation to reform the criminal justice system, to put the focus on drug treatment, rather than incarceration, to expand drug courts and to create recovery high schools. Lesniak has authored 2 books: "The Road to Abolition: How New Jersey Abolished the Death Penalty," and "What's Love Got to Do With It?: The Case for Same Sex Marriage," co-authored with Senator Loretta Weinberg. Lesniak also founded The Road to Justice and Peace, a non-profit organization devoted to promoting social justice causes in New Jersey and abroad, and NJ4Haiti, a nonprofit humanitarian organization created in the aftermath of the devastating earthquake in Haiti in 2010. In 2009, Lesniak became only the 2nd American, in its 20 year history, to win the prestigious international human rights award at Le Memorial de Caen, the D-Day and Human Rights museum in Normandy, France. Senator Lesniak is founder of "Imagine The Possibilities," a charity which helps soup kitchens, senior centers, nursing homes and veterans homes. (source: njtoday.net) FLORIDA: Catholic Bishops support Supreme Courth death penalty ruling Bishops back high court death penalty decision Editor: I am pleased with the U.S. Supreme Court decision Tuesday, Jan. 12, that found Florida violates the Constitution which requires a jury, not a judge, to find each fact necessary to impose a death sentence. Florida currently requires unanimous verdicts in every case in which juries are summoned, with the exception of sentencing someone to death. The Catholic Bishops of Florida have long identified the need to address Florida's flawed death sentencing scheme despite our position that life imprisonment without parole is an alternative that keeps society safe and renders the death penalty unnecessary. The U.S. death penalty is mainly driven by a small minority of counties that use it aggressively, while the overwhelming majority of counties in the United States do not resort to it at all. For the past few years, Florida has led the country in the number of death sentences and has the second largest death row in the country. Florida has also found more innocent people on its death row than any other state. Duval County, by itself, is one of the top 10 counties in the country for sending people to death row. Our 4th Judicial District, including Duval, Clay and Nassau Counties, is responsible for more than 28 % of the most recent death sentences in Florida. I hope and pray that the Hurst decision will also bring about a much-needed reevaluation of the purpose and futility of Florida's use of capital punishment. This should begin where the death penalty is being used the most - right here in Northeast Florida. In addition, I join my brother Bishops of Florida in urging the Florida legislature to respond to this decision by passing legislation which requires juries, as a collective body and conscience of the community, to be unanimous in the finding of aggravating circumstances and in recommending death over life imprisonment - a choice, I hope, will be very rare or almost nonexistent. (source: Letter to the Editor; Bishop Felipe J. Estevez is the spiritual leader of the Catholic Diocese of St. Augustine. The diocese encompasses 17 counties of Northeast and North Central Florida serving more than 250,000 Catholics in 61 parishes and mission churches----St. Augustine Record) *************** More death penalty evidence I wish were not true Some topics of national debate are so dominated by the loudest mouths on both extremes that, to me, it seems that almost all the reasonable points are made by people in the middle. Gun control issues come readily to mind. But not so with the death penalty. Though there are adamant voices for and against, and some are emotional and accusatory, I usually hear more from people on both sides who make good points and often don't call anyone names while doing it. Maybe that's why I've long been somewhere near the middle. I'm not against the death penalty. As a moral issue, I think execution is sometimes totally justified. Shirking away from carrying it out in such cases is not, as I see it, the moral high ground. But I do give much weight to our history of convicting innocent people. Black people especially, and often on weak and sometimes bogus evidence. Today, even after lots of reforms, the system still has only a hazy dividing line between death penalty cases and those that result in a life sentence. Yes, I know how expensive the long appeals process is, and that streamlining it to save time and money would likely result in more horrific mistakes. At the same time, some crimes are so terrible that anything less than execution seems absurdly lenient. I really don't want those who commit such crimes to benefit unjustly from our necessary and proper fear of making a fatal mistake. So now I'm trying to figure how much to be pushed by a new study that seems to be a fair but incomplete report on the roles that gender, race and geography play in who is and isn't executed in Florida. Not to my surprise, the report by Frank Baumgartner, a University of North Carolina professor, shows that all 3 factors play a part. Statistically, being black no longer makes a murder defendant more likely to be executed, it seems, but defendants in cases with a white victim certainly are. That difference when the victim is white is not a few percentage points. It is huge. A white female victim ups the odds even more, and the numbers also seem to show that committing murder in some counties in Florida may increase the odds even more. All of that seems like strong evidence of bias and injustice on our justice system, and on a scale that ought not be ignored. But Baumgartner's report does not conclude with a statement calling for change. It does not lambast Florida's courts or laws and call for abolishing the death penalty. It just shows the numbers. So I talked to him on Friday. He said he hopes the numbers speak for themselves. To him, they clearly say that the system - despite decades of reform - is way too broken and unfair to be trusted with a matter like dealing out death sentences. "You have to conclude that the government hasn't been very good at it," Baumgartner told me. "That's the point we're trying to make." But I think we need to know more. The truth isn't made clear enough by those numbers. In some ways, it is hidden. As shown in faulty medical studies that have missed significant causes of bad results from prescribed drugs, for instance, some important statistical tendencies that don't show up when you look at just a few factors like the race and gender of victims. Most murders involve strong emotions. Usually the killer has some history with the victim and is of the same race. Emotional crimes are generally seen as less worthy of the death penalty than those committed against blameless strangers. So how might that impact the numbers? Are whites who are murdered - by white and black killers alike - somehow more likely than blacks to be victimized during robberies and rapes and as blameless victims? Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe it is just that when the victim is white, our system often responds more zealously than when the victim is black. I think that is probably true. And if so, it just isn't fair. But as I said, Baumgartner didn't look into that. All in all, his study does look like more evidence that what was once a flagrantly race-biased system strongly bent on executing black people is improved after decades of reform, yet is still way too influenced by race in a different way. Black people who murder black people may now tend to fare no worse than white killers when it comes to death sentences carried out. But unless there is a big factor this study ignored, it seems our system makes killing white people a far more serious crime than killing black people. Unless you are a racist who prefers it that way, this certainly looks like an argument against the death penalty. I'm not there yet. Some people deserve execution so much that I still prefer fixing the death penalty system to scrapping it. Sorry. As I've said before, I've probably just spent too much time with families of murder victims. (source: Commentary, Tom Lyons, Sarasota Herald Tribune) **************** After U.S. Supreme Court decision, old cases hint at what's next for Florida's death penalty system In the wake of a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down the way Florida sentences people to death, the 1st glimpse of what comes next may lie in the case of a man who is weeks away from an executioner's needle. Right now, Cary Michael Lambrix, 55, sits inside a death watch cell in Florida State Prison, 1 of 2 inmates with active death warrants. He is set to die Feb. 11. Lambrix, convicted of a 1983 double murder in Glades County, is 1 of more than 140 of Florida's 390 death row inmates who have exhausted their appeals. Theoretically, all it would take is the stroke of the governor's pen to send any of those 140 condemned prisoners on a path to the execution chamber. But Tuesday's decision in the case of Hurst vs. Florida has put Lambrix's execution in doubt. His attorneys have asked the state Supreme Court to spare his life. At the same time, the state is pushing to have Lambrix executed as scheduled. The Florida Supreme Court will hear oral arguments Feb. 2. Whatever the court decides for Lambrix could set the tone for the rest of the 390 inmates on death row, including those who have long exhausted their appeals. Will the Hurst decision re-ignite those old cases? Will long-condemned prisoners suddenly face the possibility of new trials? Recent legal developments provide a few hints. "Each case will have to be looked at individually," said Marie Louise Samuels Parmer, a Tampa lawyer whose focus is death penalty appeals. "But it certainly calls into question the validity of many death sentences in Florida." What happens next in Florida could be similar to what happened in Arizona and 3 other states in the wake of Ring vs. Arizona in 2002. Like Hurst, that landmark Supreme Court ruling dictated that juries, not judges, must make the ultimate decisions about the death penalty. When it came down, many anticipated the Ring decision would overturn hundreds of death sentences. But a second decision two years later declared that Ring was not retroactive. It applied only to about 30 cases still in their early stages of appeals. But Florida has its own issues relating to retroactivity. A number of state Supreme Court cases have grappled with it. At the heart of many of those is a rule which says that a change in law has to be "fundamentally significant" to be considered retroactively in a capital case. In 2015, the Florida Supreme Court examined the issue of retroactivity in a case spawned from an earlier U.S. Supreme Court ruling, one that barred juveniles from serving life sentences. The state court said that decision was fundamentally significant, applying it to long-closed cases in Florida. The pair of decisions helped usher in new sentencing hearings for hundreds of Florida prisoners serving life sentences for crimes committed when they were younger than 18. "Florida's retroactivity rule turns on the fundamental significance of the decision," said Karen Gottlieb, co-director of the Florida Center for Capital Representation at Florida International University. "Hurst, I believe, is fundamentally significant." The machinery of the state's death penalty system began to slow even before the Hurst decision. Last year, federal judges in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida in Tampa, bracing for Hurst, halted ongoing appeals in several local cases. Those included the Pasco County case of Samuel Jason Derrick, now 48. He was convicted in the 1988 of stabbing a convenience store owner during a robbery. During his sentencing in 1991, jurors told a judge they were deadlocked - 6 votes for death, 6 for life. A judge explained that a death sentence required a majority. They returned with a death recommendation. The vote was 7 to 5. Derrick's attorney, Harry Brody, has argued that the split vote merited a life sentence for his client. Citing that and other issues, he has tried to negotiate a deal with prosecutors. "As of right now, it seems like he should get a new trial," Brody said. "We'll ask for as much as we can get." Other death row cases whose federal appeals are on hold pending Hurst include: -- Milford Byrd, now 66, who assisted 2 other men in strangling his wife, Debra Byrd, in Hillsborough County in 1982. In his case, the jury unanimously recommended the death penalty. Litigated for more than 30 years, Byrd's is the oldest death row case from the Tampa Bay area. -- William Deparvine, now 63, who killed Richard and Karla Van Dusen after he met the Pinellas County couple to purchase a pickup truck they were selling. A jury recommended death by a vote of 8 to 4. -- Terance Valentine, now 66, who tortured and killed his ex-wife's new husband in Tampa in 1988. Convicted twice, his most recent trial saw a jury recommend the death penalty by a vote of 10 to 2. -- Willie Crain, now 69, who kidnapped and killed 7-year-old Amanda Brown in 1998. A jury's vote for the death penalty was unanimous. -- Ray Johnston, now 61, who beat and strangled 2 women in Hillsborough County in 1997. A jury was unanimous in recommending death in one case; in the other, a 2nd jury voted for death 11 to 1. All those cases appear poised to raise the issue. None of those inmates is on the Florida Supreme Court's list of 140 inmates who have exhausted their state and federal appeals and are now eligible for a death warrant. "You sort of had a feeling this was going to happen when the court took a case that has a 7 to 5 jury vote," said Charles Rose, a professor at Stetson University College of Law. "I think every single one of them will be appealed, because death is different." (source: Tampa Bay Times) ***************** U.S. Supreme Court ruling a setback for Fla. death penalty The 1st big murder case I covered was a 1990 quadruple homicide south of here, in Floral City. The killer, John Barrett, was found guilty. The state sought the death penalty. The defense fought against it. At the end of the proceedings, just before the jury went back to consider what sentence --- life in prison or death by electric chair --- to recommend, Barrett's mother staggered to the witness stand. She was so overcome with emotion that she could barely remain erect, let alone speak. "Look at him, please. Please don't take my baby's life," she cried to the jury. I have been practicing journalism for 27 years. That remains the saddest moment I've ever seen. The jury granted Mrs. Barrett her wish. It recommended a life term. "John Barrett lives," a colleague told me. Actually, she spoke too soon. In Florida, the sentencing judge must give the jury's recommendation "great weight." But the judge makes his or her own findings, and is not obliged to follow that recommendation. And, in this case, he didn't. One month later, engaging in what's known as a "jury override," the judge sentenced Barrett to death. (Barrett's conviction was later overturned; he was re-tried, found guilty again, and sentenced to life in prison. The Florida Supreme Court said he could not face the possibility of a death sentence again.) The notion that the judge, not the jury, has the final say on sentencing makes sense. In other criminal cases the jury has no role in sentencing. The judge follows legal guidelines and uses his/her discretion. But death cases are different. The U.S. Supreme Court has found that systems like Florida's, in which the judge makes his/her own findings and decides the penalty notwithstanding the jury's recommendation, amount to a violation of the Sixth Amendment. Last week, the high court specifically struck down Florida's system. Cases like Barrett's, when the judge imposes death despite the jury recommendation of life, are fraught enough. But the Supremes took issue with the judge's role even when he/she follows a jury recommendation of death. Basically, Florida's system requires the judge to make findings independent of those made by the jury. And a system like that exposed defendants to a greater punishment than what the jury authorized with its guilty verdict. "The Sixth Amendment protects a defendant's right to an impartial jury. This right required Florida to base Timothy Hurst's death sentence on a jury's verdict, not a judge's fact finding. Florida's sentencing scheme, which required the judge alone to find the existence of an aggravating circumstance, is therefore unconstitutional," Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote for the 8-1 court. (Hurst was the man whose death penalty case was on appeal.) Florida is 1 of 3 states that does not require a unanimous jury vote for the death penalty. A simple majority will do. The Supreme Court case didn't address that issue, but Florida lawmakers certainly will now that the Supremes have forced them to entirely re-think the state's capital punishment system. "I think that when we consider how our death penalty system is structured, we need to be clear-eyed in making sure that it can withstand not only the current legal situation but future legal challenges," state Sen. Rob Bradley, R-Fleming Island, told the News Service of Florida. He is a former prosecutor. Me? I would throw out the death penalty altogether. I oppose it on moral grounds. If that doesn't happen, then I welcome any new court ruling, or new state law, that makes imposition of capital punishment more difficult. (source: Jim Ross, Managing Editor; Ocala StarBanner) ALABAMA----impending execution Sisters remember Homewood victim as convicted killer nears execution 23 years after her brutal death, and with her convicted killer just four days from his execution, Jo Deann Campbell's 2 sisters remember her as a bubbly person who was friends with everyone she met. "She was a really happy-go-lucky, fun person ... always smiling," said her oldest sister, Corinne Campbell. Jo Deann, a graduate of Leeds High School who also attended Jefferson State Community College, was working as a training manager at Chili's on U.S. 280 in December 1992. She wanted to travel to other restaurants in the chain around the country to train others, said Corinne Campbell, who lives in Vestavia. Jo Deann, 23 when she died, had also worked the two previous summers as a counselor and tennis instructor at a camp on a lake in the Adirondack Mountains of upstate New York. Jo Deann, who loved to travel and the outdoors, would often write camp counselors and kids she had met at the camp, her sisters said. Her sister Fran Romano said she had lived with Jo Deann during part of that period and remembers Jo Deann working 2 jobs and not getting back until late at night. "I'd wake up the next day and there would be 5 or 6 letters she had written to kids or counselors," said Romano, who resides in Guntersville. Jo Deann would sometimes suggest that if any of the kids or counselors were ever in the Birmingham area, they should stop in and see her. Her sisters say they don't know if Jo Deann had ever written or extended that invitation to Christopher Eugene Brooks, a man she had met and dated her first summer at the camp in 1991. Brooks had worked at another camp on the same lake. But Jo Deann obviously wasn't expecting Brooks to show up at Chili's on Dec. 30, 1992. "People at Chili's said she was totally caught off guard," Romano said. A friend would later testify that, in a phone conversation with Jo Deann that same night, Jo Deann mentioned a friend would be sleeping on the living room floor of her Homewood apartment. Brooks, who had moved to Columbus, Ga., also had brought his friend and roommate, Robert Patrick Leeper. "She was pretty trusting, I guess, and she allowed them to stay," Corinne Campbell said. The next day, Dec. 31, 1992, after Jo Deann didn't show up for work, her co-workers and family became concerned. Later that day, Jo Deann's parents went to her apartment at the Ski Lodge 1 complex with Homewood police. Jo Deann's body was found under her bed. She had been bludgeoned to death, by what was believed to be a barbell, and was naked from the waist down. Police quickly linked Brooks to the crime through forensic and other evidence, according to court records and trial testimony. A bloody fingerprint matching Brooks was found on a doorknob in Jo Deann's bedroom, as were 2 other fingerprints. A palm print matching Brooks was found on Jo Deann's left ankle. And Brooks' thumbprints were found on a note in the apartment. An expert would later testify DNA found in semen on Jo Deann was a statistical match to Brooks, with the odds of finding another person with the same DNA being 69,349,000 to 1. Brooks also was seen driving Jo Deann's 1988 Volkswagen Fox, which was found at his apartment complex in Columbus. A package in the car was addressed to Brooks. When he was arrested, Brooks also had Jo Deann's car keys and her Shell Oil Company credit card, which he had used, according to court documents. He also had cashed her paycheck and one of her personal checks. Several items of Jo Deann's also had been pawned at shops around Columbus, according to the court records. Police also testified to finding Jo Deann's answering machine hooked up inside Brooks' apartment. Her message wishing "Happy holidays" to callers was still on the tape, which had been flipped over to record a message for Brooks' and Leeper's incoming calls. She would go out of her way to make people smile and had a dynamic personality." - Sister Corinne Campbell Death sentence Brooks was convicted by a jury at his 1993 trial. The jury recommended 11 to 1 that he be sentenced to death. The judge agreed and sentenced Brooks to die. Leeper, who also had been charged initially with Jo Deann's murder, was freed after pleading guilty to a charge of using Jo Deann's credit card and given a sentence of time served. He had denied any knowledge of the murder, no forensic evidence linked him to it, and he passed a lie detector test. Leeper had said Brooks told him Jo Deann had let them borrow her car and her credit card. Brooks denied killing Jo Deann and, after he was sentenced to death, he turned toward Jo Deann's family and yelled, "Ain't over yet," as he was led away. "It was just a smirk," Romano said. "That made me so upset." Romano said she believed the outburst was aimed at their dad, Joe Campbell. Jo Deann's murder had devastated their father, Romano said. "My dad was the kindest, most gentle person I've ever known. ... That broke him. That hurt him so bad," she said. Joe Campbell, who died in 1997, was the 1st inductee in the Alabama Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 1999. He was a former professional baseball player in the Brooklyn Dodgers farm system and later a scout for the Los Angeles Dodgers. He served as a coach in Jefferson County Schools for 27 years. Scheduled execution After years of appeals, Brooks is scheduled to be put to death at 6 p.m. Thursday by lethal injection at Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore. It would be Alabama's 1st execution since 2013. As of Friday, Brooks was still awaiting word from the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals on his request for an emergency stay of execution. He argues he should be given a chance to have his execution delayed, at least until lawsuits by he and other inmates challenging Alabama's new 3-drug lethal injection protocol have been decided. Other last-minute appeals also could occur, including one to Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley. Romano and Corrine Campbell said they and their mother, who lives in Leeds, will travel to Atmore, but have not decided whether to witness the execution. "I've been very nervous about it ... It's not anything any of us are looking forward to," Romano said. "We just didn't want Jo Deann's name to be forgotten." The sisters also were reluctant to talk about their views on the death penalty. "I have gone through torn feelings," Corinne Campbell said. "Nothing is going to bring her back. It's very tough." "My sister had integrity and character, which our parents worked diligently to instill in each of us," she continued. "She was the kind of person who easily made friends because she was one. She would go out of her way to make people smile and had a dynamic personality. "Jo Deann was generous, kind-hearted, trustworthy, optimistic, and energetic. She absolutely lit up a room. ... "She would tell us (family and friends) to not worry about her because she is with the Good Lord and our dad in heaven. Additionally, she would work to make us smile in such a grievous situation. Her joyous bubbly personality and lively smile is missed incredibly by those who knew her." (source: al.com) From rhalperi at smu.edu Sun Jan 17 09:09:58 2016 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Sun, 17 Jan 2016 09:09:58 -0600 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----CALIF., USA Message-ID: Jan. 17 CALIFORNIA: Wozniak case likely to illustrate long road to execution in California Steve Herr assumes he won't live to see the execution of the man convicted of murdering and then decapitating his son in the attic of an Orange County theater. "Realistically, I'm not going to be around when he's put to death," Herr, 67, said a few days after a jury recommended the death penalty for Daniel Wozniak. "I'll be dead." Orange County Superior Court Judge John Conley is scheduled in March to render the official sentence for Wozniak, 31, for the slayings of 26-year-old Army veteran Sam Herr and his friend Juri "Julie" Kibuishi, 23, in May 2010. Wozniak, a community theater actor from Costa Mesa, was desperate for money to fund his upcoming wedding, so he killed the 2 as part of a plan to steal $62,000 from Herr's bank account, according to prosecutors. After his conviction last month, jurors took less than an hour of deliberation Monday to decide that Wozniak deserved death for the murders. Orange County District Atty. Tony Rackauckas said it was the fastest decision on capital punishment he could recall. * Executions take decades to be carried out Wozniak's case took more than 5 years to go to trial, and despite the jury's decisiveness, its death sentence verdict is just the beginning of another long process that may or may not end with Wozniak's execution. In California, where capital punishment has been on hold for a decade, it's an open question whether convicts sent to death row today will ever have their sentence carried out. The state put a moratorium on the death penalty in 2006 when a judge ruled that a 3-drug lethal injection could cause inhumane suffering. In November, officials unveiled a 1-drug injection that could restart executions, but the method still faces months of public vetting and possible legal challenges. Even before the moratorium, however, "the reality in California is that, of those who are sentenced to death, very few have been executed and it's taken an enormously long time," said Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the UC Irvine law school. Since the death penalty was reinstated in California in 1977, juries have sent 900 inmates to death row - 13 have been put to death, according to court papers authored by Judge Cormac Carney of the U.S. District Court in Orange County. On average, there is a 25-year delay between a death sentence being handed down and it being carried out, and that gap is getting longer, according to the judge. * Why does it take so long? Many factors add up to the decades of lag time between a death sentence and an execution, according to Chemerinsky. To begin with, all death sentences in California are automatically appealed. Before any work can be done on the case, a lawyer must be appointed. That in itself can take years. A 2004 report commissioned by the California Legislature blamed that on budget cuts at the state public defender's office and on a low rate of pay offered to private attorneys willing to take the assignments. Another factor is that all such appeals go directly to California's Supreme Court, which hears only about 20 to 25 such cases a year, according to Carney. After years of reviewing and briefing their cases, attorneys might wait 2 to 3 more years before the court has time to hear their arguments, the judge wrote. Inmates who lose their appeal to the Supreme Court can appeal again for the court's consideration. If those appeals are exhausted, inmates can petition a federal court for review, further extending the process. * Is it cruel and unusual? The future of capital punishment in California became even more uncertain in 2014 when Carney ruled the state's death penalty unconstitutional, saying the long and unpredictable waits had made the system cruel and unusual and undermined its effectiveness. In November, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals overruled Carney, but the decision was on procedural grounds, leaving the possibility of another challenge at the state level based on the same arguments, Chemerinsky said. More condemned inmates die of natural causes than are put to death, according to California Department of Corrections figures that Carney cited in his decision. "As for the random few for whom execution does become a reality, they will have languished for so long on death row that their execution will serve no retributive or deterrent purpose and will be arbitrary," Carney wrote. But such arguments and the death penalty's murky future did not deter the Orange County district attorney's office from pursuing capital punishment for Wozniak. "Cases like this are a perfect example of why the death penalty is appropriate," Senior Deputy District Atty. Matt Murphy said in a news conference after the jury's decision. Prosecutors in Orange County seek capital punishment on only about 4% of eligible cases, but the brutality of Wozniak's crimes called out for the highest available penalty, Murphy said. During the trial, jurors heard testimony that Wozniak dismembered Herr's body before tossing some of the parts in a Long Beach park in a failed attempt to throw police off his trail. To further the coverup, Wozniak used Herr's phone to lure Kibuishi to Herr's apartment, then killed her and staged her body to make it seem as if Herr had raped her and fled, according to Murphy. * State's voters may play a big role Wozniak's final fate, however, may rest with what voters decide this year. Competing propositions, one intending to abolish the state's death penalty and the other to speed it up, are expected to appear on the November ballot. Steve Herr is aware the question of Wozniak's execution may be moot for him. But whether Wozniak lives or dies, Herr said, the jury's decision carries a comforting weight. "You have 12 people from different backgrounds, different genders, different religious beliefs - all of them agree that this crime was so heinous, so evil, it warranted the ultimate punishment," he said. "That was important to me." (source: Los Angeles Times) USA: Can a brain scan uncover your morals and determine whether a prisoner dies? Brains images are becoming standard evidence in some of the country's most controversial and disturbing death penalty cases It's hard to imagine Steven Northington killing 2 people. The 43-year-old says he likes to make people laugh, "like a comedian". He's a loyal son to his troubled mother and father. He sends his younger sister birthday cards from prison and draws elaborate smiley faces on them. His defense team laughs with affection when they hear his name because he is, they say, "a character". Between 2003 and 2004, Northington was slinging for a drug ring that flooded his Philadelphia neighborhood with bloodshed. The Kaboni Savage Organization was responsible for 9 murders during those 2 years alone, including the firebombing of a house that killed 2 women and 4 children. The government was after them, and they knew it: 7 of the 9 victims were murdered in retaliation against witnesses who had agreed to cooperate with prosecutors to bring the kingpin down, according to the FBI. It wasn't until 2013 that the federal court started its trial against ringleader Kaboni Savage, as well as his sister Kidada Savage, accomplice Robert Merritt, and Northington. The 4 were tried together for a total of 12 murders dating back to 1998. Northington stood apart because he was arrested a month before the firebombing, and only charged for two of the murders - those of Barry Parker, a corner competitor of the ring, and Tybius Flowers, a childhood friend. In Flowers's case, the execution happened hours before he was supposed to take the stand as the star witness against Savage in a 1998 murder case. Northington was convicted by the state court in Philadelphia in 2007 for the murder of Parker. In 2013, the federal trial combined the 2 murders and found Northington guilty of aiding both. And since the murders were an attempt to intimidate witnesses and in support of racketeering, federal prosecutors wanted him dead. They asked for the death penalty. -- Days before he was sentenced, one of Northington's lawyers, William Bowe, showed the jurors something they never saw during the 6-month trial: images of Northington's brain. He told them that Northington was developmentally stunted by homelessness, abuse and prenatal exposure to drugs and alcohol. Bowe said the deficiencies the scans revealed provided some explanation for Northington's actions - not an excuse, but an extenuating set of circumstances. "What does that mean? It means that Steven Northington doesn't think like you and me. It means his brain doesn't function like ours. It means when he makes a decision, he doesn't do it like you or me. It's broken," he told the jury. Brain images are becoming standard evidence in some of the country's most controversial and disturbing death penalty cases. In March, Barack Obama's bioethics commission released a report stating that neuroscience is used in about a quarter of capital cases, and that percentage is rising quickly. Lawyers use scans in a few principal ways. Sometimes it's to explain a psychiatrist???s diagnosis to help a plea of insanity, or to help prove intellectual disability. Most often they are used to ask juries for mercy during the sentencing phase of the grimmest trials. Since the inner workings of a criminal's mind are central to a case, any tool that might shed light on the 3-lb organ is worth considering. And brain scans have diagnostic credibility: they are fundamental in clinical settings for spotting tumors, cancer or traumatic injuries. They have been used to study aspects of behavior, such as decision-making, depression and impulse control. But in death penalty cases, the images are taken out of that medical or experimental context, and used to clarify nuances of criminal actions. It remains unclear whether pictures of neural processes or of brain anatomy can reveal a person's morals or the substance of their character. But despite incomplete science, brain scans are becoming crucial arbiters of life and death. -- The 1st criminal to use brain images for his defense was Jonathan Hinckley, who at age 25 shot president Ronald Reagan and 3 other people in 1981. The defense team argued that Hinckley was mentally incapacitated when he fired the gun because of his severe schizophrenia and depression, and hence should not be held responsible for the crime. They contended images of his brain supported that diagnosis. The judge permitted David Bear, the psychiatrist who diagnosed Hinckley, to exhibit a Cat scan of the outer layer of his brain. Bear said Hinckley's sulci, the medical term for the valleys that run across the cerebral cortex, were wider than average; he cited a published paper correlating wider sulci to schizophrenia (this observation has not changed over time: some people with schizophrenia do indeed have wider cortical grooves - but so do many people who are not schizophrenic or suffering from any other mental disorder). Neuropsychologist Dr Helen Mayberg of Emory University, known for her work on depression, said during an interview that Hinckley's case demonstrates fundamental problems that brain images bring into the courtrooms. Mayberg, who is often paid by the prosecution to cripple a defense team's brain imaging science in high-profile cases, said that if Bear had not diagnosed Hinckley with schizophrenia, the scan would not have meant anything. And conversely, if Hinckley's brain had appeared normal, it would not have negated Bear's psychiatric diagnosis. "The guy was psychotic," she said, regardless of the scans. If the same trial took place today, she said, the technology would be newer but the argument the same: a neuroscientist would say that parts of Hinckley's brain has traits that some scientific papers could correlate with some mental disorder. But unless the scan shows something like a tumor, they are never powerful enough to diagnose. "The irony is, using imaging evidence just obfuscates the issue," she said. Hinckley's defense team used a Cat scan in 1981 - just 2 years after the producers of the technology had been awarded the Nobel Prize. But MRI scans soon replaced Cat scans: an MRI can see right through the bone of the skull, whereas a Cat scan cannot. By the early 1990s, expert witnesses were showing Pet scans, which record the brain's metabolism. Pet maps where the brain is burning glucose for energy, which is interpreted as bursts of neural activity. The subject has to be pumped with a radioactive glucose tracer; when the brain metabolizes the glucose it emits photons, which are recorded in color: flaming yellow often means the brain is burning more glucose, blue means the opposite. Hinckley won the insanity defense with the Cat scan, though its weight on the verdict is unclear. Mayberg and others argue that it was insignificant to the insanity plea. At the time, it was up to the prosecution to prove Hinckley sane - after the trial, jurors said in news reports the government had failed to do so. Regardless, the verdict led to a revolution in how the courts evaluate mental health and changed the standards in federal court. Upheaval over the decision prompted Congress to alter what defendants had to prove to be acquitted on grounds of insanity. The federal government and many states also shifted the burden of proof to the defense, which raised the bar for lawyers seeking an acquittal based on mental incapacity. And since then, advances in neuropsychological science have become more attractive to defense attorneys. Northington's lawyer said he has noticed that over the last 20 years defense teams are also being held to a higher standard. "What constitutes effective counsel has become much more rigorous," said Bowe. "As that becomes more rigorous, the courts are essentially telling the lawyer, 'You've got to look into all this stuff.' So I think there has been a natural growth and it's naturally going to lead to more brain imaging and scanning." The Bioethics Commission cited a report that analyzed 1,586 judicial opinions that used neurological or behavioral genetics evidence between 2007 and 2012; 40% of them were to defend the death sentence, and 28% were to compensate for ineffective counsel. -- Northington and his 2 older brothers grew up nomadic; they lived in train stations, homeless shelters and hotels. Their mother was around, but they were often left on their own without food or money. In 1987, he was in 7th grade at age 15 and had 138 absences that school year. He had been held back in 1st, 4th, and 6th grades. His long relationship with the legal justice system started one year later. He was arrested for possessing a controlled substance, as was his mother in a separate case that year, but both their charges were dismissed. His mother, Annette Northington, recently said she started smoking crack around that time, and had turned to prostitution to support the habit. "That area, when you move in there, it's like you're entrapped," she said of their Philadelphia neighborhood. "If you didn't know what was going on you would have thought they were giving out free food, that's how long the drug lines were. And I never thought it'd be me standing in that line, and I ended up one of them. So it's not a happy story and it's not a good story but it happened to me and I regret it." She said she had named her son after her brother Steven Northington, who was sentenced to life in prison when he was a teenager. "I remember I named him the same name as my brother and I was thinking please don't let this be like a whammy or something ... and it's just like a nightmare." At 18, Northington was convicted for the 1st time for aggravated assault and robbery. He was sentenced to 5 to 10 years with a chance of parole. In 1991, the court had ordered Northington's 1st mental evaluation. An investigator found that the government psychiatrist diagnosed him with Paranoid Personality Disorder, but did not recommend treatment because he was "particularly distrustful". Instead, Northington spent most of the last 7 years of his sentence in solitary confinement - 23 hours a day alone in an 80-square-foot cell - as punishment for more than 100 disciplinary infractions. Most of them were for nonviolent breaches, such as refusing to take orders, spitting, cussing or outbursts, while some were assaults that included kicking and throwing feces. In 2000 he maxed-out his sentence and was released to the neighborhood he knew best, without a home. During the next 2 years, he was rearrested twice, the 2nd time costing him 7 months in jail because the government had mistakenly thought he was violating his nonexistent parole. He was released again around May 2002, less than a year before Parker was shot to death. -- By introducing brain scans, Northington's lawyers were hoping to show that he was intellectually disabled. If they could prove it, the court would not be able to punish him with death, even if he was found guilty. In 2002, the US Supreme Court had ruled that it would be cruel and unusual punishment to execute a person with such an impairment. He or she can still be found guilty for the crime, but not killed for it. The ruling was left to the judge, who had to decide before the trial began whether Northington was intelligent enough for the death penalty. At that time the court was using a revised version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual IV, or the DSM IV-TR, as one of a few guides to define someone with intellectual disability: an IQ of approximately 70 or lower, with trouble learning or intellectually functioning since youth (the newest version of the DSM puts less emphasis on IQ, but still cites a measure of approximately 70 or below). Northington's lawyers wanted to use brain images to meet the criteria by showing he may have had severe mental setbacks while growing up. They turned to Dr Ruben Gur, a leading neuroscientist at the University of Pennsylvania. The director of the Center for Neuroimaging in Psychiatry and Brain Behavior Lab, Gur testifies in many courtrooms about how brain scans might explain a criminal's behavior. His wife directs the Neuropsychiatry Section of the Psychiatry department from an office just across the hall from him. One of her latest cases entails the psychiatric evaluation of James Eagan Holmes, the man who said he thought he was the Joker when he killed 12 people at a Batman screening in Colorado. In 1997, Gur and his wife were asked to analyze Ted Kaczynski, also known as the Unabomber. It was their 1st criminal case. "We spent a nice weekend in Helena. I tested him and Raquel gave him a psychiatric interview," Gur said during an interview in his office. Gur said he would never work for the prosecution; since he is among few doctors in the country who can analyze scans the way he does, he feels obliged to protect people who may have mental ailments, not work against them. Mayberg is his nemesis: she thinks Gur lets his opinion about the death penalty cloud his scientific testimony. Mayberg often argues that no scientific data can support what Gur says in court, while he often says he is not diagnosing, just emphasizing correlations (they both charge $500 an hour for their expertise). Their differences are most apparent when they talk about their roles in the 2007 Lisa Montgomery case. Montgomery had been accused of strangling a pregnant woman to death, then cutting the baby out of her womb. Montgomery's lawyers were trying to win the insanity defense. They said Montgomery could not be held responsible for the crime because she was so mentally unstable when she committed it that she could not understand it was wrong. They argued that she had a rare mental illness called pseudocyesis that made her believe she was pregnant. Before the trial, the judge had to decide whether the lawyers could use her brain scans as evidence in the trial. Gur, who was testifying about their validity, said the scans showed that Montgomery suffered from functional abnormalities that could be consistent with that diagnosis. He singled out her hypothalamus, an almond-sized hormonal regulator in the core of the brain, because the PET showed that it was overactive. He cited a scientific paper from 2006 in which a biology student had stimulated female rats. The stimulation had caused their hypothalamuses to release hormones and physiologically prepare for pregnancy. Mayberg, for her part, said it was inappropriate for him to be relating Montgomery to rats. The judge agreed that the science was irrelevant and excluded Gur's testimony from the trial. Montgomery was found guilty, and sentenced to death. -- Testing the brain of a defendant is a rigorous and expensive practice that, in federal cases, requires the judge's permission. The scans alone can cost around $6,000 and then experts are paid to analyze the results and testify in court; Mayberg and Gur say their bills are on average about $10,000 for 20 hours. Northington's request was approved, but lawyers say it's not always easy: in their experience, it depends on the jurisdiction. After weeks of memory, spatial, speed processing and other performance tests, Northington was escorted to a hospital by prison staff. Technicians there performed the scans in 2 machines - MRI and Pet devices. Gur brought his analysis to the stand during Northington's 5-day pretrial hearing: he said Northington's brain was oversized and out of balance structurally and actively; flaming yellow areas were overcompensating for blue ones. He walked the court through Northington's brain piece by piece, emphasizing each element that looked too big, too small, over or under active. He said the hindrances could have affected his capacity to control himself, his motivation at school, and his ability to read or comprehend spatial layouts. All of it, Gur said, was likely from a blow to the right backside of the head and exposure to alcohol while his mother was pregnant. Fetal Alcohol Spectrum disorders are the number one cause of intellectual disability. 2 doctors also testified about Northington's IQ. The defense found it was 67 and the prosecution found it was 64, but argued that he had sabotaged the tests on purpose. After that testimony, Northington told the judge he was tired of being harassed by the prosecutor and asked if the judge could get him out of solitary confinement, or "the hole". "I need to be in population. It's messing with me. It's messing with me. I'll do the test all over again. I don't care. I want to go to trial. You can give me the death penalty. I want to go to trial. I want to prove my innocence. That's it. I got rights," he told the court. Northington's defense lawyers say the judge tried to help accommodate Northington, but that he remained in and out of solitary. A couple weeks after the hearing, the judge, in a 61-page statement, said that there was not enough evidence to convince him that Northington was intellectually disabled. "With respect to the neuroimaging data, while [the Court] find[s] that the data demonstrates that areas of the defendant's brain are functioning abnormally, Dr. Gur's testimony did not convince the Court that the totality of the defendant's brain abnormalities would lead to a diagnosis of sufficiently sub-average intelligence." The decision triggered the start of the trial with the death penalty looming. Northington's mother said she watched almost every day of it. She traveled back and forth from court to the hospital because her oldest son Michael had colon cancer. In 2011 she had found her youngest son, Kadrice, dead at 35 from a drug-related heart attack. 5 years before that, her other son Jamal had been shot to death by a robber at 25. Shaken by the prospect of Northington's execution, Annette Northington said she prayed for help when she left the court the day the jury found him guilty. "I was [going] home all the way with tears knowing that my son was facing the death penalty, thinking 'Dear God, what is it that I can do ... they gonna kill Steve.'" -- If a murderer is convicted and the crime is punishable by death, the trial moves on to the penalty phase where the same jury hears about the defendant's background before sentencing. This is the most common way lawyers in criminal courts use brain scans: to mitigate against the death penalty. Since the defendant has already been found guilty, the jury has to answer the gravest question: should he or she die? And because it is a person's life, lawyers bend over backwards to bring science or other evidence into the courtroom that might otherwise not be permitted. It is the defendant's constitutional right to show their arbiters every piece of evidence that could sway that judgment, even if the science is premature. This phase can free scientists from the thorough peer review that otherwise validates their theories. When neuropsychologists, such as Gur, are asked to testify, it is because they are esteemed within the field and have published scientific papers that have been meticulously vetted by other independent scientists. In other parts of the trial, these experts can only testify about what has been published in journals, but in the sentencing phase, these same scientists are asked to make novel leaps or educated guesses. Gur has published more than 350 papers that often depict differences in people's brains, but none of them identify behavioral markers in criminal minds or test the hypotheses he makes about individuals in court. This time, because the rules are more relaxed, Gur was able to paint a picture of how the damage he found might affect a person's character and intellect. "Such an individual can run into trouble on several counts ... It's likely to lead to bad decisions and difficulty to adjust behavior to the context," he said. "Somebody with that brain would be vulnerable to talk out of turn, tell off-color jokes in the wrong company, not being able to adjust...." He also implied Northington was vulnerable to coercion. "It turns out people with frontal lobe damage tend to respond very well to authority and to structure ... they almost naturally gravitate toward somebody who will tell them what to do." Mayberg, who was not a part of Northington's case but read the testimony, was appalled by Gur's interpretations. "Clearly it's not good to have a mother that drinks when you're in utero. It is not good to be in a home that is poor. That said there are people who have those same experiences and become very successful. You can spin that either way," she said. "He doesn't speak to data, he doesn't speak to literature, he makes it up. He interprets as he sees fit in a given case and makes inferences that are his alone." It's not hard to deflate testimony about behavioral brain scans in court, especially at the sentencing phase. Academics have written many papers that explain why group level data does not accurately represent an individual. Scientists in forensics also ask whether it is appropriate to compare a supposed criminal's brain to a dataset composed of the brains of healthy people. People with criminal records may have caused damage by doing drugs or getting into physical fights, while people within the control group are less likely. Since it's rarely clear what caused which deviations, it's also unclear to what extent the defendant should be held accountable. Lawyers trained in neuroscience also argue that there is an undeniable difference between a hospital and the scene of the crime. They ask how scientists can be sure a brain scanned in a machine would look and operate the same way if it were scanned while the person was committing the crime. The defendant's brain is often analyzed years after the crime was committed - Northington was scanned in 2012, the murders were in 2003 and 2004. Limitations are rarely discussed in media reports, which tend to embellish new brain studies. Sensational news may have a powerful influence on judges and juries. Executive Director of the Bioethics Commission Lisa Lee said this type of misleading information has the power to affect important legal decisions, such as who should get the death penalty. "Headlines are just crazy about what neuroscience can and cannot do," Lee said. "Given what's on the line, it should be something we pay close attention to in terms of hype." These studies are coming from a newer, more accessible technology called fMRI, which is seen as less credible than PET. fMRI illustrates gushes of blood and is more attractive because it produces results faster and without a radioactive tracer, but it's unclear how blood rushes relate to brain function. Regardless, fMRI literature is growing so fast that if death penalty defendants bring it into court, there's more room for it to backfire. Defense lawyers already run the risk that scans will just convince juries that there's no cure, that the defendant will keep committing crimes. With fMRI, prosecutors will also have access to studies that can emphasize that mentality, such as one that predicts recidivism by measuring blood gushes in a limbic system linked to impulse control. Gur only uses PET for testimony because it's what the court accepts, though he switched to fMRI for his own research many years ago. A judge in 2009 allowed an expert like Gur to testify about the results from an fMRI during sentencing, though he didn't let the jury see the images. "This is where it's headed," said Gur. "But you need to have a brave lawyer who is ready." -- When the time came for Gur to testify for the 2nd time in Northington's case, he did so for the jury, amid about a dozen other mitigating witnesses, including Northington's mother, Annette. She told emotional stories about being poor, reckless, homeless, in abusive relationships and disappearing to speakeasies or crack houses while Steven and his siblings were growing up. She said that she never visited or wrote to Steven those first 10 years he was in jail, and that she didn't recognize him when he returned to the streets. Another psychologist familiar with trauma also testified. He had evaluated Northington, his academic record, his family, history of solitary confinement and criminal record, concluding that Northington was a victim of trauma and mental health issues that were exacerbated by prison, yet never addressed. A special educator familiar with Northington's old school district found that it failed to provide Northington with special education services while he was there; he had not received the support he deserved. Over 6 days, lawyers questioned many more witnesses, including Gur, helping them describe to the jurors a caring man who was manipulated by Savage, and was being held more accountable than bigger players in the drug trade despite a sea of setbacks. Then the jury heard closing arguments and went to deliberate. "When [the jury] came out...I could actually see their eyes looking directly to me and I knew then that they weren't sending my son to the death penalty," said Annette Northington. "I just touched my grandson's hand and he was really nervous ... and they said they sentenced him to life and then my heart just got like you know, I felt a little free." They unanimously decided the death penalty was too harsh. As for Savage, he was sentenced to death; his sister Kidada Savage and Merritt were both sentenced to life. When Gur was asked about the outcome of the case he said, "we won." But teasing out the role of the brain scans is tricky. None of the 12 jurors thought Northington had organic brain damage before the year 2000, which means they probably didn't think he had it in 2003 or 2004. 10 of them thought he had organic brain damage at the time of the verdict. And while only one of them thought he was mentally ill, they all agreed he had symptoms of mental illness and that his "brain damage and/or mental illness made him susceptible to the influence of Kaboni Savage." -- Until recently, Northington remained in solitary confinement at a federal prison in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, where the warden refused to let media visit him, saying it would be a security concern and threaten orderly operations. Northington was recently transferred to a prison in another state. Nearly every letter he writes starts with Assalamu-Alaikum. He talks about passing the GED and writing a book. He says the scans explain why he "couldn't grab it" in school, that they show why he didn't perform well and that he has to strain the parts of his brain that are working when he's focusing. He also says that every day, he wonders about his appeal. The bioethics report provides little resolution with regard to using scans - it states that the outcome for the defendants have been mixed while avoiding criticism of the science. Though Lee, the executive director of the Bioethics Commission, said there's an expectation now for both the prosecutors and defense lawyers to consider how brain scans can help them present the best case possible. Meanwhile, the federal government is pumping millions of dollars into fMRI research on mental diagnoses, partly in anticipation of the judicial system benefitting from it. Everyone who has a stake in the science is hoping the scans will some day provide an unbiased truth. But there is a systematic problem because the law needs finality, while science relies on continued research. And for now, there is no way to see intention in the scans - there is no record of a crime, of innocence, of morality, of honesty. Behavioral brain scans are as objective as their interpreters. (source: The Guardian) ********************** The Death Penalty Endgame How does the death penalty in America end? For decades that has been an abstract question. Now there may be an answer in the case of Shonda Walter, a 36-year-old black woman on Pennsylvania???s death row. On Friday, the Supreme Court met to discuss whether to hear a petition from Ms. Walter, who is asking the justices to rule that in all cases, including hers, the death penalty violates the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishments. Ever since 1976, when the court allowed executions to resume after a 4-year moratorium, the abolition movement has avoided bringing a broad constitutional challenge against the practice, believing that it would not succeed. In that time, 1,423 people have been put to death. Yet there is no question that the national trend is moving away from capital punishment. Since the late 1990s, almost every year has seen fewer executions, fewer new death sentences and fewer states involved in the repugnant business of killing their citizens. In 2015, there were 28 executions and 49 new death sentences, the lowest numbers in decades. Seven states have abandoned the practice entirely since 2004, for a total of 19 that no longer have the death penalty. Many others have not executed anyone for years. And only 3 states - Texas, Georgia and Missouri - were responsible for almost all of last year's executions. A majority of Americans still support capital punishment, but the percentage favoring it has dropped from around 80 % in the 1990s to about 60 % now. When polls offer a choice between death and life without parole, people roughly split evenly. In the past 14 years alone, the Supreme Court has barred the execution of several categories of people: minors, the intellectually disabled, and those convicted of a crime other than murder. In that last case, decided in 2008, Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote for the court, "When the law punishes by death, it risks its own sudden descent into brutality, transgressing the constitutional commitment to decency and restraint." Taken together, these signs have led some abolitionists to conclude that the conditions for ending capital punishment entirely are now as favorable as they might ever be. That argument got a major boost last June, when Justice Stephen Breyer, in a long dissent from a 5-to-4 ruling that allowed Oklahoma to proceed with its inhumane lethal-injection drug protocol, suggested he would be open to a case challenging the constitutionality of the death penalty itself. In his dissent, which was joined by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Justice Breyer explained in detail how the death penalty was unreliable, arbitrary and racially discriminatory. He said it was no longer sufficient simply "to patch up the death penalty's legal wounds 1 at a time," because the practice as a whole "most likely" violates the Eighth Amendment. Shonda Walter's case is the 1st to take up Justice Breyer's challenge. Ms. Walter was convicted of murdering an 83-year-old man named James Sementelli. Her appointed lawyers put on no defense and offered no argument that might have spared her from a death sentence. Pennsylvania appeals courts agreed that she had inexcusably bad representation, but they still upheld her conviction and sentence. Since Ms. Walter does not fit the special categories of defendants who are shielded from the death penalty, her appeal is based on the claim that all executions violate the Constitution. The justices may not grant Ms. Walter's petition (others are also expected to be filed in the coming weeks), but they can no longer ignore the clear movement of history. They already have all the evidence they need to join the rest of the civilized world and end the death penalty once and for all. (source: Editorial Board, New York Times) ************************ United States: Cruel and Unusual----There is a recent decline of capital punishment in one of the two remaining industrialized nations with the death penalty. Among the democracies in the industrialized world, only the US and Japan continue to execute people. 1. The number of executions carried out each year in the United States has gone down over the last decade and a half. After reaching a high of 98 in 1999, their number declined to 37 in 2008. 2. The 35 U.S. executions that were carried out in 2014 were the 5th-highest number worldwide. 3. Those executions were carried out in just 7 of the 50 U.S. states. Death Penalty: A "Just The Facts" Series 4. Moreover, 28 of those executions were carried out in only 3 states: Texas (10), Missouri (10) and Florida (8). Arizona, Georgia, Ohio and Oklahoma were the other 4 states. 5. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, fewer than 2% of U.S. counties sentenced a majority of current death row inmates. 6. 19 U.S. states have abolished the use of the death penalty. The most recent state to do so was Nebraska, whose predominately Republican legislature voted in May 2015 to ban the practice. Nebraska had not carried out an execution since 1997. 7. While some states abolished capital punishment on the grounds that it constitutes cruel and unusual punishment, other states (such as Maryland) have objected to the disproportionate use of the death penalty for poor and African American offenders. 8. It also costs a state like Maryland 3 times as much to prosecute a death penalty case (through all its appeals) as a life-without-parole case. 9. The European Union has quietly applied strategic pressure and sanctions in recent years to deter the United States from using the death penalty. 10. Among the major democracies in the industrialized world, only the United States and Japan continue to execute people. (sources: Amnesty International, Death Penalty Information Center and The Globalist Research Center) From rhalperi at smu.edu Sun Jan 17 09:11:15 2016 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Sun, 17 Jan 2016 09:11:15 -0600 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide Message-ID: Jan. 17 SOMALILAND----executions State carries out Executions for the 2nd time in a month Somaliland government has for the 2nd time in a month carried out executions among them Ms. Muna Mohamed, 37yrs and her son and her son Mohamed Ahmed Abdi, 22yrs jointly convicted for the cold and brutal murder of the late Ruqiya Said Ayaanle. The family of the late Ruqiya Said Ayaanle was present at the spot to witness the executions of Ms. Muna Mohamed and her son took place in Mandhera district in Sahil region as confirmed by Mr. Abdirizaq Ayaanle Said the secretary general of Somaliland House of Representatives and brother of the deceased woman. The late Ms. Ruqiya Said Ayaale was killed after she went to the claim repayment debt she had lent to her assailants who murdered her after the quarrel went sower, her remains were later found buried in a pit inside the compound of the residence of. Ms. Muna Mohamed situated in the new hargeisa suburb.The murder of the late Ruqiya Said Ayaanle shocked the nation. On the other hand , a former solider convicted for the murder of a senior officer was also executed today. 4 convicts were executed on the 11th of January after Somaliland authorities renewed use of the death penalty. (source: Somaliland Press) VIETNAM: Death penalty ends in some cases How do you respond to a change to the 2015 Penal Code that says the death penalty will not apply for officials who pay back at least 75 per cent of illicitly obtained profits? This is regulated in Point C, Clause 3 in Article 40 of the 2015 Penal Code. Some people think this is too lenient, but in my opinion, it is not. The most severe penalty for the crimes of embezzlement and bribery was capital punishment under the previous Penal Code. During discussions regarding revisions to this law, legislators agreed to keep capital punishment as deterrent for the two crimes, but reduce it to life imprisonment if the criminal is able to pay back at least 75 per cent of the profits they illicitly obtained. Can current prisoners be given amnesty if they repent and adhere to the new law? These cases will be treated carefully. The criteria for considering whether they should be granted amnesty would be much stricter and tougher than for other prisoners serving life sentences. For example, lifers could have their sentence reduced to 20 years for good behaviour. If a death sentence is reduced to life imprisonment, they must serve at least 30 years. As I have mentioned above, officials convicted of corruption could be spared if they pay back at least 75 % of the profits they illicitly obtained. In addition, there are other requirements that these prisoners would have to meet, including helping authorities to conduct investigations into other corruption cases. If an official stole VND100 billion (US$4.45 million) and received the death sentence, they could pay back 75 % and have their sentence reduced. What would happen to the other VND25 billon ($1.11 million)? Under the 2015 Penal Code, any public official who illegally obtains VND1 billion upwards could receive capital punishment. Point C, Clause 3 of Article 40 of the 2015 Penal Code applies to all prisoners who receive death sentences relating to corruption, regard less of the amount of money. However, during their prison terms, they may enjoy clemency for good behaviour. (source: vietnamnet.vn) PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY: Aide to Palestinian negotiator arrested over 'spying for Israel' Palestinian intelligence officers have arrested an employee of top negotiator and PLO secretary-general Saeb Erekat on accusations of "spying for Israel", a security source said on Sunday. The high-ranking official said on condition of anonymity that the man employed in the negotiations department of the Palestine Liberation Organisation was arrested around two weeks ago. According to the official, the man, whose identity was not revealed, was an "administrative employee without access to political files." He was arrested "for spying on behalf of Israel," he said. The suspect is said to have confessed after being arrested in the occupied West Bank town of Ramallah, where the Palestinian Authority is based. He had been under surveillance for a long period of time, according to the source. Palestinian security forces were in the process of evaluating any potential damage caused by the suspect's activities. Erekat, a close ally of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, has been the top negotiator in peace efforts with Israel. Talks have been at a standstill for nearly 2 years. Under Palestinian law, those accused of spying for Israel risk the death penalty. (source: Yahoo.com) IRAQ: Iraq: Executing Terrorists-----Has Iraq's extensive use of the death penalty done anything to deter terrorism? Iraq carried out the 4th-most executions (behind China, Iran and Saudi Arabia) in 2014. In 2003, the United States temporarily suspended Iraq's use of executions. The vast majority of executions in Iraq have been carried out for terrorism-related offences. 1. Iraq carried out the fourth-most executions (behind China, Iran and Saudi Arabia) in 2014, with at least 61 executions, according to Amnesty International. Escalation of armed conflict in some parts of the country during the year - including the rise of ISIS - makes the actual number difficult to confirm. 2. Shortly after invading Iraq in 2003, the United States temporarily suspended Iraq's use of executions. 3. The deposed Ba'ath Party had used the punishment as a means of religious and political oppression. Existing death row inmates had to be sorted out. Death Penalty: A "Just The Facts" Series 4. Iraq's death penalty was reinstated a year later and was used, most notably, in the December 2006 hanging of Saddam Hussein for crimes against humanity. 5. Over the past decade, the vast majority of executions in Iraq have been carried out for terrorism-related offences. 6. A 2005 Iraqi law made death the mandatory sentence for conviction for acts of terrorism or even support for terrorism. Many less serious offenses also carry the death penalty, contrary to global standards. 7. The 61 confirmed Iraqi executions in 2014, however, are a dramatic reduction from the 169 in 2013. 8. The frequent number of large-scale prison breaks in Iraq, particularly by terrorist groups freeing their fighters, may be a factor in the reliance on the death penalty to give more finality to the capture of major threats. 9. Iraqi officials, however, tend to claim more simply that frequent executions are legitimately grounded in local tradition. (sources: Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and The Globalist Research Center) JAPAN: Travesty of justice: legal reform unlikely despite erroneous convictions 2 elderly men fighting for decades to clear their names are poised to receive high-profile retrials in 2016 and yet their ordeals are unlikely to trigger wide-ranging reform to the country's justice system, experts say. Even after being sent to prison for murder, Iwao Hakamada at first trained like the prizefighter he was. Fellow death-row inmate Kazuo Ishikawa used to watch him shadowbox and punch the walls of his cell till his knuckles turned bloody. The pain seemed to mean little to him, Ishikawa recalls. "He was very strong." Today, Hakamada, now a stooped, fleshy 79-year-old, strolls daily through the streets of his native Shizuoka Prefecture communing with ghosts. After 48 years in jail, the large majority of it in solitary confinement waiting for his execution, he is temporarily free but appears to have retreated deep inside his own head. He answers questions about his ordeal in the third person, if at all. "The guy called Hakamada could not have committed a crime because he wasn't in Japan," he says during an interview at an apartment he shares with his sister. "He was born in Buckingham Palace, in Hawaii." On his daily walks, he explains, he hears the souls of the dead from the surrounding buildings, pleading for help. Hakamada was arrested in August 1966 on suspicion of murdering a family of 4. After years of appeals, Shizuoka District Court said in 2014 that police evidence against him was probably fabricated and revoked his death sentence. The prosecution disagrees and, as a result, Hakamada awaits retrial and the possibility that the police will return him to a 5-square-meter cell. Flanked by his sister, Hideko, Hamakada still believes he is 22. He gives no clue that he entered the history books in 2011 as the world's longest-serving death-row prisoner. "He has built a high wall around his heart to stay strong," says Nobuhiro Terazawa, a friend of the Hamakadas. "That's how he survived." Where Hakamada is withdrawn and inarticulate, Ishikawa is angry and outspoken, demanding the state overturn his conviction for murdering a Saitama schoolgirl in 1963. His death sentence was later commuted to life. Since Ishikawa's parole 2 decades ago, he has relentlessly fought for a retrial. Justice, he believes, is finally near. "I am not supposed to utter a word about my innocence but the police are withholding a mountain of evidence," he says, following a protest with his wife and supporters - his 120th - outside Tokyo District Court. "Once they disclose it, I will be proven innocent, no question." Ishikawa reels off a handful of other cases where death-row inmates have had their convictions overturned: Sakae Menda, Masao Akabori, Yukio Saito and now Hakamada. The only reason these 4 lived and others didn't, he says, is because they fought until the state caved in. "The police disclosed the evidence (they were concealing). They were all granted retrials," he says. "A prison guard once told me that I would be executed in a couple of years even if I were innocent. 'There is only 1 way you can be saved,' he told me. 'You need to study so that you can appeal your innocence to the people of Japan in a letter. There is no other way you can survive.' He (then) taught me how to read and write." Hakamada and Ishikawa represent the country's highest-profile modern legal miscarriages. Hakamada's release made global headlines and briefly shook public confidence in the nation's justice system. Sometime in 2016, their cases are finally expected to get another legal airing. Reformers, however, are pessimistic that the system will change. Judicial officials are fighting to protect the status quo, says Yoshihiro Yasuda, arguably the country's most famous death-penalty opponent. "The prosecution and judges have not accepted they did anything wrong (in the Hakamada case)," he says. "They should be shocked that such a thing could happen and try to do better. Instead, they always try to prove that they were right." Hakamada's freedom was soon followed by the release of Keiko Aoki, who had spent 20 years in prison for lighting a fire that killed her 11-year-old daughter in September 1995. Many now believe leaking gasoline in the family garage started the blaze. The murky legal process that put all 3 in prison, largely on the basis of confessions extracted through intimidation and torture, has been under scrutiny for decades. Ishikawa endured 30 days of interrogation and signed a confession under psychological duress, although he was illiterate at the time. Hakamada was interrogated for 20 days with no lawyer present, says Amnesty International. He later retracted his confession, claiming the police had beaten and threatened him. Still, Shizuoka District Court sentenced him to death in September 1968. Aoki lasted a single day in a police station, where she had gone voluntarily, before putting her name to a statement admitting arson and murder. Detectives played on her grief by repeatedly screaming that she was responsible for the death of her child. She retracted the confession the next day. Even critics of the country's justice system accept that it gets a lot right. Rates of recidivism are comparatively low and the emphasis is on rehabilitation. A lot of effort is made to keep young offenders out of the prison system. Citizens are incarcerated at a far lower rate than in most developed countries: 55 per 100,000 people compared with 149 in Britain and 716 the United States. Nevertheless, the entire system would collapse without confessions, David Johnson, a judicial expert on Japan at the University of Hawaii recently told The Economist. Confessions underpinned 89 % of domestic criminal cases in 2014. With up to 23 days to interrogate a suspect, police have the legal means to extract confessions. Suspects are almost always convicted once indicted. And, like anywhere, bias can affect police procedure: Aoki's partner, who was convicted of the same crime, was ethnically Korean; Ishikawa came from the "burakumin" underclass; and Hakamada was poor and, to the eyes of the police, his supporters say, thuggish. "I think there are many, many more wrongful convictions in Japan," says Kana Sasakura, an associate professor of law at Konan University. Sasakura leads a movement in Japan, modeled on the U.S. Innocence Project, to right miscarriages of justice. Although nobody knows how many innocent people are in Japanese prisons, some experts believe 1,500 convictions a year may be flawed. More than 1/2 of the 131 people on the country's death row are challenging their convictions. The postwar Allied Occupation modernized the country's courts by introducing legal protections for the criminally accused - most notably, the right to silence and the presumption of innocence. The reforms attempted to steer courts away from reliance on confessions and stop prosecutors appealing verdicts of not guilty. As with so many of the Allied reforms, some were tolerated and took root, others tossed out or ignored. In practice, silence is deemed to be indicative of guilt and confessions are still treated "almost like a religion," Sasakura says. "The police believe that expression of remorse is a key part of the system." If, as expected, Hakamada and Ishikawa are exonerated, the legal authorities will likely argue that the system has changed in the half century since their convictions. Physical abuse is rarer and lawyers more likely to be present. The Justice Ministry says bills to revise criminal procedure are making their way through the Diet. "These include mandatory monitoring (voice recording and videotaping) of interrogations," says a ministry spokesman, who declined to be named in accordance with departmental policy. Yasuda, however, is skeptical that much will change. The proposal to record interrogations may actually make things worse by forcing these abuses off camera, he says. Police will still be in almost complete control. And in any case, the proposal - agreed after a string of miscarriages and years of discussion - will affect less than 3 % of all interviews conducted by the police. Suspects still have very little protection from the police, says Fumito Morikawa, a defense lawyer who represented people arrested outside the Diet during summer protests against security legislation in 2015. Morikawa says abuses of suspects in the form of verbal insults, sleep deprivation and threatening behavior are "too numerous to mention." "The key violence," he says, "lies in the length of detention." Morikawa says miscarriages will continue until the extended use of detention cells in police holding areas is scrapped. The system, known as daiyo kangoku (substitute prison), is key to extracting statements from suspects because it gives police so much control over the interview process. He says he recently won just his 4th court victory in a legal career spanning 25 years. "The fact is," he says, "my client would have lost had he confessed." Critics campaigning for reform put their hopes in the country's lay judge system, which injected some civilian input into the cloistered professional world of prosecutors, lawyers and judges. Since 2009, more than 50,000 people have served in trials for serious crimes. Yet, the system has done nothing to lower the conviction rate or reliance on confessions. If anything, lay judges appear to hand down harsher sentences in serious crimes. In October 2013, for example, the Tokyo High Court overturned a death penalty handed down by a lay judge panel, calling the sentence an "error." It was the 2nd time a high court abrogated a death sentence rendered by a lay judge panel that year. A possible reason why the introduction of lay judges has not changed the system is that decisions cannot be reached without the agreement of professional judges. "My view of the lay judge system is it exists to allow judges to continue generating similar results with less criticism of them," says Colin P.A. Jones, a professor at Doshisha Law School in Kyoto. Public prosecutors drive the entire system and their careers sometimes take precedence over justice. Nearly 1/3 of prosecutors believe that a verdict of not guilty hurts their promotion prospects, according to an official survey in 2010 - 1 reason why many weaker cases are dropped. 1/4 of respondents said they had been instructed to write confession statements bearing no relation to what suspects actually said. Misconduct often goes unchecked; prosecutors can block inquiries. They put pressure on the police to extract confessions. And, despite occasional high-profile releases from prison such as Hakamada, the media and the public largely back them because they appear to produce low rates of crime and recidivism. As a result, prosecutors are left secure in their self-appointed role of maintaining social order. Reforming this system is a mammoth task, Yasuda says. At a minimum, he says, prosecutors should be forced to disclose all evidence to the defense - evidence that would help exonerate suspects such as Hakamada and Ishikawa. The length of detention should also be brought into line with international norms and Japan should introduce a third-party body to oversee miscarriages and free the unjustly convicted, he says. The political motivation to push these reforms, however, has weakened. For one thing, Supreme Court justices are appointed by the Cabinet. For another, Sasakura says, the government is currently focused on the economy and larger political issues. "The justice system is the least of their priorities," Sasakura says. In any case, reform has come too late for Ishikawa. "If I hadn't signed a statement, I'd never have been convicted of a crime," he says. "I was 24 at the time; I'm 76 now. I would have never said I'd done it even if I went through harsh interrogation because I didn't do it. However, I confessed to a crime I never committed. For that, I must apologize to the people of Japan. For that, I still blame myself to this day." Death-row inmates in daily wait for execution notice Kazuo Ishikawa was sentenced to death for the kidnap, rape and murder of 16-year-old Yoshie Nakata, whose body was found on a farm in Saitama Prefecture in May 1963. The crime shocked Japan and put enormous pressure on police and prosecutors. Ishikawa confessed to the crime on June 20, 1963. He says the police told him if he signed a statement they wrote he would get a maximum of 10 years in prison and save his family from disgrace. Instead, he was sentenced to death and his family members were harassed out of school and work. Each morning in prison, he would wait for the executioner. "In Japan, if you are not executed between 8 a.m. and noon, you are safe till the next day," Ishikawa says. "The inmates wait, seated with their legs folded and facing the wall. Every morning, I also waited as I sat properly with my legs folded." He befriended other inmates, including Iwao Hakamada. "The rules are stricter today, but then, if you survived the morning, you were allowed to visit others in their cells freely," he says. "Now they can't even meet family members 4 times removed. I hear their cells are also locked." That change in policy was designed to avoid disturbing the prisoners' "peace of mind," Justice Ministry officials say. In fact, says Yoshihiro Yasuda, officials were worried inmates might attempt to cheat the executioner. "There are no handles or bars (in their cells), nothing to allow them to hang themselves," he says. Hakamada was monitored day and night in a 5-square-meter cell not knowing which day might be his last. Friends say he gradually become uncommunicative, at one point refusing all visits from his closest relatives, including his sister, for well over a decade. Japan is 1 of 22 nations and the only developed country apart from the U.S. that retains capital punishment. It is one of the oddities of the system that a stricken conscience can bring it grinding to a halt. Several justice ministers have refused to sign execution orders; Seiken Sugiura, a devout Buddhist, oversaw a 15-month gallows strike in 2005-06. In 2009, Keiko Chiba, a lifelong opponent of capital punishment, became justice minister. She was expected to begin a new moratorium. Instead, she sat ashen faced through the hangings of Kazuo Shinozawa and Hidenori Ogata after being "persuaded to do her duty" by Justice Ministry bureaucrats, it was later reported. Chiba has never commented publicly about her about-face. Moratoriums are always temporary. Despite falling crime rates, death sentences are increasingly common: the number of inmates on death row has nearly tripled over the past 2 decades. The government's coalition partner, the Buddhist-backed Komeito, reportedly opposes the death penalty but does little to stop it. According to a rare book by Toshio Sakamoto, a former executioner, prison guards are rotated every 3 years to prevent them developing empathy with their charges. Like the prisoners, guards are also told on the day of an order when an execution is to be carried out. 3 guards wait with hands on buttons to release the bound and hooded prisoner, unaware of which one has been rigged to open the trapdoor beneath his or her feet. Prisoners sometimes defecate themselves in death. Faces can be contorted or disfigured. Many bodies are not collected and are buried in the prison graveyard or donated to hospitals for medical research. The mental wear and tear on prison employees is one reason why some officials reportedly want to replace hanging with lethal injection, a claim denied by the Justice Ministry. "There is no concrete discussion on changing the method of execution," a Justice Ministry spokesman says. However, Yasuda says switching methods would invite unwanted scrutiny of the details of execution. The Justice Ministry bureaucrats who zealously protect the system, Yasuda says, "are absolutely opposed to starting a debate on the death penalty." (source: Japan Times) From rhalperi at smu.edu Sun Jan 17 09:12:31 2016 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Sun, 17 Jan 2016 09:12:31 -0600 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwidey Message-ID: Jan. 17 PHILIPPINES: Death for foreign drug traffickers - lawmaker The death penalty for foreigner drug traffickers in the country has been proposed in the House of Representatives. Senatorial candidate Samuel Pagdilao, also ACT-CIS party-list congressman, made the proposal, citing cases of Filipinos convicted of drug trafficking in China, Indonesia and Saudi Arabia, among other countries, who face capital punishment while foreigners do not get the same harsh punishment when they commit such crime within Philippine territory. "The death penalty, which was abolished in 2006, should be reinstated for foreigners who smuggle or trade illegal drugs in our country. The principle of reciprocity should apply," Pagdilao, a former Philippine National Police general and director of the Criminal and Investigation and Detection Group, said. The life of Filipino Mary Jane Veloso was spared by Indonesian officials at the last minute before her scheduled execution last April 29, 2015 for her drug trafficking conviction in 2010. Veloso, who initially applied for a job as a household service worker in Malaysia, was nabbed in Indonesia's Yogyakarta airport in 2010 for bringing in 2.6 kilos of heroin sewn in the lining of her suitcase by her recruiter without her knowledge. She said she accepted the suitcase as a gift because she did not have one. "Many Filipinos sentenced to capital punishment abroad were only victims of poverty and of false accusations," Pagdilao said. A 2014 report of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency said 67 out of 13,792 drug traffickers caught were foreigners, mostly from China. Last Wednesday, the National Capital Region Police Office Regional Anti-Illegal Drug Special Operations Task Group arrested 2 Chinese in Quezon City for smuggling 30 kilos of shabu worth P150 million. : This happened a day after P180 million worth of shabu was also confiscated from 2 other Chinese in a storage facility in Valenzuela City, Metro Manila. "It is high time that the problem of drug trafficking be curbed through penalties that will deter the continued incidences of drug abuse, especially among the Filipino youth," Pagdilao, also a lawyer, said. (source: The Manila Times) BANGLADESH: Sayedee files review petition War criminal Delwar Hossain Sayedee has filed a plea seeking review of the Supreme Court verdict that awarded him imprisonment till death. Sayedee's lawyer Khandakar Mahbub Hossain said they filed the 90-page plea on Sunday morning, seeking acquittal of the Jamaat leader on 16 grounds. Earlier on January 12, the state filed a review petition with the apex court against its judgement that reduced the death penalty of the notorious war criminal. Sayedee, known as "Deilya Razakar" in 1971, was given the death penalty on February 28, 2013 after the war crimes tribunal found him guilty of committing crimes against humanity during the 1971 Liberation War. He was sentenced to death for killing Ibrahim Kutti and one Bisa Bali in Pirojpur. The tribunal did not deliver sentence on the 6 other proven charges. The Jamaat-e-Islami leader appealed against the tribunal verdict seeking acquittal while the state pleaded for sentence on the 6 other proven charges. On September 17, 2014, the Appellate Division's 5-member bench headed by the then Chief Justice Md Muzammel Hossain delivered its short verdict based on majority judgement. The full verdict was published on December 31 last year. According to the rules, a review petition has to be filed within 15 days after the full verdict is published. . (source: dhakatribune.com) PAPUA NEW GUINEA: Tkatchenko Calls for Death Penalty on Kokoda Rape Suspects Just a few hours after officially assuming his role as Tourism Minister Justin Tkatchenko firmly suggested the application of the country's death penalty on the perpetrators of the Kokoda Track rape. "As far as I'm concerned, if I had it my way, I would castrate these criminals that raped this innocent woman, castrated - they don't deserve to live. In my personal opinion, we have the death penalty and we should use it," said Minister Tkatchenko. 2 prime male suspects allegedly involved in the rape of an American woman on Monday, along PNG's prime tourist hotspot, have been apprehended by police and will be flown into Port Moresby for further interrogation. A 3rd male suspect, engaged to assist both tourists in their journey, fled the scene, leaving them at the mercy of the attackers who were allegedly armed with bush knives and a spear. This was confirmed by Provincial Police Commander, Laimo Asi. The American and her companion, a British male, were trekking through Efogi Village, along the Track around 8am on Monday, when they were allegedly stopped and attacked by 2 local men. The British male was allegedly stripped of his clothes then blindfolded and tied to a tree while his partner was repeatedly raped for 2 hours, just meters away. "So far, with the assistance of the community in Efogi and Maraba, 3 suspects have been arrested - one of the suspect is in possession of all the victims belongings, including their phones. The suspects were flown to Port Moresby, arrested and charged. Now they are behind bars at Boroko Police cell. (source: onepng.com) UNITED KINGDOM/PAKISTAN: British aid helps Pakistan to put drug traffickers to death ---- Government made 5.6m pounds donation to counter-narcotics operations in Pakistan despite capital convictions The UK taxpayer has given millions of pounds to help Pakistan's counter-narcotics force target and arrest drug traffickers, at least five of whom have been sentenced to death. The revelation has raised questions about the UK's commitment to opposing the death penalty in other countries. Last year Sir Simon McDonald, permanent under-secretary at the Foreign Office, said that human rights no longer had the profile within his department that they had in the past. The UK's 5.6m pounds donation was made to Pakistan's anti-narcotics force, through a 5-year UN Office on Drugs and Crime project, despite the fact that the Pakistan government insisted donors could not demand that it be linked to human rights considerations. A UNODC valuation of the programme, published in April 2014, observed that: "UNODC was strongly advised by the GOP [government of Pakistan] to exclude [human rights] considerations from the CP [country programme] design and to advance with an oblique approach, where human rights issues would be addressed indirectly through training and improving criminal justice results [prosecutions based on evidence not interrogation] but not explicitly mentioned." The project paid for the acquisition of surveillance vehicles, drug-testing kits and the construction of border control posts, places where drug carriers are frequently arrested, according to human rights groups. It was assessed according to key performance indicators - notably the number of arrests and successful prosecutions carried out by the ANF. Human rights groups claim the targets encourage capital convictions because drug seizures of more than a kilogramme are punishable by death in Pakistan, which last year executed more than 300 people, overtaking Saudi Arabia to become the world's 3rd most prolific executing state. In its annual report filed last year, the ANF boasted that it was achieving the sort of results demanded by the UNODC. It noted that it had a successful prosecution rate of 89% "which includes 5 death penalties". "It is a scandal that the government is using public money to support raids that send people to death row," said Maya Foa, director of Reprieve's death penalty team. "Pakistan's anti-narcotics force aggressively pursues death sentences for people convicted of non-violent drug offences in deeply flawed drug courts." The UK funding of the United Nations project project began when Pakistan was holding a moratorium on the death penalty. "We are not aware of any executions in Pakistan as a result of UK counter-narcotics co-operation," a Foreign Office spokeswoman said. "The UK and Pakistan have a shared interest in working to tackle organised crime including the trafficking of drugs, which is a threat to both our societies." But even after the moratorium was lifted the UK continued to run counter-narcotics training operations in Pakistan. In November 2015, Border Agency staff were helping to train staff at Karachi airport to detect drug smugglers as part of a programme that is to be rolled out toother airports including Lahore and Islamabad. The UNODC is now seeking donors for a new counter-narcotics programme in Pakistan that will run from 2016 to 2019 and aims to increase "interdiction, investigations and prosecution of drug traffickers". It remains unclear as to whether the UK will commit to the programme. The government discontinued funding counter-narcotics programmes in Iran amid concerns about the country's use of the death penalty. The Foreign Office insists that all government departments must adhere to clear guidance when deciding on funding programmes abroad that have human rights implications. But Foa said this does not go far enough. "The UK must freeze all funding for law enforcement-led narcotics operations in states which retain the death penalty for drug offences - whether that's Pakistan, Iran or Saudi Arabia." (source: The Guardian) ZIMBABWE: We've no right to play God Zimbabwe's last hangman - some say he was of Malawian origin while others say he was a former Zambian police officer - retired after carrying out his last job on the 2 notorious murderers, Admore Edward Edmund Masendeke and Stephen Chidhumo over 10 years ago. At the time of his departure, the executioner was said to be struggling with his conscience. The man was reported to be always extremely remorseful about his job. His workplace was inside Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison and the gallows, built long before independence, are said to be made of scaffolding and wood. chikurubi-maximum-prison Work for the hangman has no routine. One day he would execute between 2 and 4 prisoners at dawn then go for months before other hangings are carried out. A brief look at the qualification requirements for the eccentric job of killing people will tell you the profession, if one would call it such, demands a few but curious skills. The job requires basic education, perhaps anything above Grade 7 - but a bit more training seems in order since execution by hanging involves knowledge of ropes, knots, basic mechanics, body weight and general human physiology. The hangman's job is reserved only for men. According to experts, the job demands strength and unwavering focus. It is not for the faint-hearted. A hangman cannot have second thoughts just before he pulls the lever. If a hangman is found, jail officials will teach him how to tie the noose and train him to maintain the correct posture while executing as this is vital. But it appears the toughest part of the job is not about ropes and levers. It is about conscience. "A hangman should never have second thoughts, if he does he should be retired," a former principal prison officer said. The most evil aspect of the death penalty is the painful reality of one "dying" several times over before they actually die. Last week 14 prisoners that have been sentenced to death, challenged the legality of their pending executions, citing the fact that the present legal framework does not allow anyone to be hanged and also on the grounds that their lengthy stay in prison awaiting the noose was punishment enough to warrant commuting the death sentence to life imprisonment. There are 117 people waiting to be killed by hanging in Zimbabwe at the present moment and no one has been hanged since Masendeke and Chidhumo were hanged in 2005. The condemned prisoners' constitutional argument appears to hold a lot of water on the grounds that Zimbabwe does not have an Act of Parliament stipulating how capital punishment may be implemented in terms of the new constitution. In other words, the law that is expected to permit the death penalty in the new constitution has not yet been passed by Parliament - Therefore, it will be unlawful to punish anybody by killing them or to put anybody on death row under the present laws of the country. The other argument that some of the prisoners have waited to be killed for up to 20 years and, therefore, feel they have taken part of the death penalty already, also sounds reasonable. Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who himself experienced life on death row, has publicly condemned the practice of revenging death by death and has openly vowed he will never, as Justice minister - which he still is - sign the death warrants as is required by law before anybody can be hanged. Yes, condemned murderers have taken innocent lives, often brutally, senselessly, callously and without any justification whatsoever and therefore, would seem to deserve no mercy. However, a relook at the meaning of deliberate, sober and conscious decision to avenge death by death and the conditions that the condemned must face the so-called justice should give us second thoughts. The prisoners must sit in the solitary confinement of their cells for years, waking up every morning and expecting to be dragged to the gallows. In my view, a human being does not deserve to be subjected to this mental torture on a daily basis for over 20 years - it does not matter that they committed the most heinous crime of taking another person's life. This is why I agree with agitations from various quarters for the abolition of capital punishment for the many humane reasons proffered. I find it reasonable that while this battle for and against the death sentence continues, society must have a position on the fate of those awaiting the noose. The absence of an executioner is a mixed blessing for the condemned but it is also an agonising and indefinite wait on death row in a jail dubbed a "gulag" because of its inhumane conditions. Chikurubi maximum Security prison is notorious for its grimy, icy and overcrowded cells infested with lice, maggots and rats. An inmate on death row, Shepherd Mazango, made an emotional plea to the Supreme Court in 2010 in his appeal against his death sentence. He wrote in his court deposition on March 30 2010: "God knows when I am going to be executed. I am anxious about this every day." "The very thought that I am dying steals all my hope for the future, makes me restless and the delay traumatises me. It causes me emotional and psychological trauma. Worse still, to think that I can spend 13 years before execution, like my colleague George Manyonga, crushes me." Several prisoners on death row have had their sentences commuted to life imprisonment after the Supreme Court ruled it inhumane to delay their execution. Justice minister, Mnangagwa echoed the same sentiments, saying death row was a harrowing experience. "My views on the death penalty are, to a large extent, informed by the harrowing experiences I went through while on death row, the sanctity of life and the need to rehabilitate offenders," Mnangagwa said, referring to the pre-independence horrors he experienced while on death row, from which he was saved by an age technicality. Apparently, Mnangagwa has gained some ground and, by his word, Cabinet is now divided over the issue. Former High Court judge Justice Simpson Mutambanengwe, who has in his career sentenced convicts to death, has also come out clear about what he thinks about the death penalty. He wishes it were abolished and says many judges feel the same, but are forced by law to sentence convicts to death. He said judges go to great length to find extenuating circumstances in a bid to avoid reaching the capital sentence verdict. "We take an oath to do justice according to the law. As a judge, you do the best you can with the evidence given to you and some judges strain to find the extenuating circumstances just to evade the death penalty," said Mutambanengwe. Jenni Williams, the director of rights group Women of Zimbabwe Arise, aptly said only God had the right to take life. "Who are we to hold power over life and death? Who are we to play God? That is God's place and no one else's," said Williams. (source: The Standard) From rhalperi at smu.edu Mon Jan 18 07:12:36 2016 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Mon, 18 Jan 2016 07:12:36 -0600 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, CONN., VA., FLA., ALA., LA., KY., CALIF. Message-ID: Jan. 18 TEXAS: San Antonio man gets death sentence for slaying of deputy A man convicted of fatally shooting a Central Texas sheriff's deputy as both were stopped at a San Antonio traffic light more than 4 years ago has been sentenced to death. The San Antonio Express-News (http://bit.ly/2089eIJ ) reports 46-year-old Mark Anthony Gonzalez was sentenced Friday after a jury found him competent on Jan. 11. In October, a jury found him guilty of capital murder and recommended the death penalty, but sentencing was delayed so another jury could weigh his lawyers' arguments that he wasn't competent. Gonzalez fired dozens of bullets at Bexar County Sheriff's Sgt. Kenneth Vann in May 2011. Authorities said Vann was hit 26 times. On investigator testified that no motive could be established. Gonzalez's attorneys said he was saddled by drugs and alcohol at the time. (source: Associated Press) CONNECTICUT: Hearing on Connecticut death penalty: Did court get it wrong? On Jan. 7, less than 5 months after a bitterly divided Supreme Court decided by a 4-3 majority in State of Connecticut v. Eduardo Santiago to abolish the death penalty, the issue was back before the court in a hearing on Russell Peeler's appeal of his death sentence. Peeler was convicted and sentenced to death in 2007 for arranging the murders in 1999 of Karen Clarke and her 8-year-old son, Leroy "BJ" Clarke, potential witnesses against Peeler in another homicide. But the hearing had little to do with the notorious Peeler case. It focused, instead, on the question of whether the court erred in deciding in Santiago that the General Assembly's 2012 prospective-only repeal of the death penalty violated the state's constitutional prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. Public Act 12-5 repealed the death penalty for all crimes committed on or after April 25, 2012, the date the act took effect. 2 months after 12-5 took effect, the Supreme Court upheld a habeas court decision affirming Santiago's conviction for participating in a murder-for-hire scheme. But it overturned his death sentence because the trial judge had not allowed the jury to see certain potentially mitigating evidence in the penalty phase and remanded the case for another determination of the penalty. The Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution prohibits cruel and unusual punishment, which includes punishment that is excessive and disproportionate. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that, in determining whether a punishment is excessive and disproportionate, a court must first determine whether it comports with contemporary standards of decency and then whether it promotes a legitimate penological goal such as deterrence or retribution. The state Supreme Court likewise has said that whether a punishment is cruel and unusual is determined by considering whether it comports with the "evolving standards of decency that mark the progress of a maturing society" and is penologically justified. Santiago appealed the decision to remand his case for a new penalty phase on the grounds that 12-5 represented a fundamental change in the contemporary standards of decency and a rejection of the penological justification for the death penalty, thereby eliminating the constitutional basis for the penalty. Arguments were heard on his motion in 2014. Last August, the Supreme Court decided Santiago was right and the General Assembly was wrong. Writing for the majority, Justice Richard N. Palmer said that, following the prospective repeal of the death penalty, it no longer comported with contemporary standards of decency and no longer served any legitimate penological purpose. For those reasons, the execution of those who committed capital felonies prior to April 25, 2012, would violate the constitutional prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. After the Santiago decision was published in August, the state filed a motion for argument and reconsideration which was denied by the same 4-3 majority. It then filed a motion to postpone the application of Santiago pending resolution of Peeler's appeal. That motion was denied by the same 4-3 majority and Santiago was subsequently resentenced to life without parole. The state then filed a motion to present arguments against the Santiago decision in the Peeler case. Such requests are rarely granted but last month the court agreed to hear oral arguments. It had been apparent for some time that the General Assembly was skating on thin ice, constitutionally speaking, in enacting a prospective-only repeal of the death penalty. It enacted such a repeal in 2009. Coming as it did less than 2 years after the murders of Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her daughters Hayley and Michaela in Cheshire in July 2007 but before the men charged in that horrendous crime had been tried, that formula appealed to many legislators. But in testimony before the Judiciary Committee, Chief State's Attorney Kevin T. Kane warned presciently that if the proposed legislation became law the Supreme Court would probably decide, under the evolved community standard of decency doctrine, that the death penalty constituted cruel and unusual punishment. And it was likely the selective retention of the death penalty for some but not for others who committed the same crime, where the only distinction between the 2 was the date on which the crime was committed, would be regarded as unconstitutional. The act was adopted by the General Assembly but vetoed by Gov. M. Jodi Rell. 3 years later, the General Assembly, spurred on by an active anti-death penalty movement, again passed a prospective-only repeal. And again, in hearings before the Judiciary Committee, Kane warned that, after enacting such a repeal, an effort to execute any of those on death row - which by then included the men who murdered the 3 members of the Petit family - would not pass constitutional muster and would in effect nullify the death penalty for those not yet executed. But coming as it did only months after Joshua Komisarjevsky had been sentenced to death in January 2012 - Steven Hayes had been sentenced in 2010 - a prospective-only repeal was politically irresistible. The General Assembly approved 12-5 by 30 to 16 in the Senate and 86 to 62 in the House, after which Gov. Dannel Malloy signed it into law. If the General Assembly was on thin ice in adopting a prospective-only repeal of the death penalty, the Jan. 7 hearing - in particular, the lengthy interchange between Palmer and Senior Assistant State's Attorney Harry Weller - suggested the court may have erred in Santiago and that, rather than sweeping away what remained of the death penalty, it should have either deferred to the General Assembly and accepted its prospective-only repeal or ruled Public Act 12-5 unconstitutional and left it up to the General Assembly to decide whether to abolish or retain the death penalty. Weller made a strong case for the view, forcefully argued by the three dissenting justices in Santiago, that the court erred in concluding that 12-5 demonstrated that the death penalty no longer comported with contemporary standards of decency in the state. The U.S. Supreme Court said in Atkins v. Virginia (2002) "the clearest and most reliable objective evidence of contemporary values is the legislation enacted by the country's legislatures." Weller argued that 12-5 reflected the clear intention of the General Assembly to maintain the death penalty for individuals who committed certain crimes prior to the statute's effective date and was the result of a democratic legislative process, one in which the General Assembly rather than the court has the final word and to which the court should defer. He also noted more than once the court in State v. Rizzo in 2011, 2 years after the General Assembly had approved a prospective-only repeal for the 1st time, said, "as long as there remains powerful evidence of strong public support for the death penalty in the form of long-standing laws enacted by the democratically-elected representatives of this state...we will not attempt to discern a contrary view of the public will, or to answer complex policy questions best answered by the legislative process." Surprisingly, in view of what it said in Rizzo, the Santiago majority didn't consider the public's view of the death penalty. Had it done so, it would have found ample evidence of strong public support for retention of the death penalty, not just for crimes committed prior to the effective date but for crimes committed in the future as well. A Quinnipiac poll of 1,745 registered voters in the state conducted in the week before 12-5 took effect in April 2012 found that 62 % supported the death penalty while 30 % opposed it and that 62 % thought the decision to abolish the death penalty was bad. Given that contemporaneous evidence, it's not at all obvious that the death penalty no longer comports with contemporary standards of decency in the state. The state also challenged the Santiago majority's claim that, after enactment of 12-5, the death penalty was devoid of any legitimate penological justification. The majority stated that the primary rationale for the prospective-only repeal was neither deterrence nor retribution - both legitimate justifications - but rather vengeance against those on death row - in particular, against the men who murdered 3 members of the Petit family. It argued that, while retention of the death penalty for those already sentenced may serve some minimal retributive function, the prospective repeal, coupled with the lengthy, if not interminable delays, in applying the penalty - the state has executed only one person in the last 55 years, Michael Ross, who insisted on being executed - has deprived it of any retributive justification. Weller argued, probably correctly, that, for many in the General Assembly who supported 12-5 as well as for many in the public as well, the desire to retain it for those on death row had nothing to do with personal, emotional vengeance and everything to do with retribution for the crimes they committed. In concluding, Weller suggested, albeit fleetingly, that rather than transforming 12-5 into something the General Assembly didn't intend - a blanket abolition of the death penalty - the court should have declared it unconstitutional on the grounds that allowing the death penalty to be applied to some and not to others for the same crime solely on the basis of the date when the crime was committed violated the Eighth Amendment. At least a few observers left this month's hearing convinced that is what the court should have done - and left it up to the General Assembly to decide whether it wanted to eliminate or retain the death penalty for all who committed certain crimes regardless of date. Will the court reverse its decision in Santiago? Probably not. Stare decisis - to stand by that which has been decided - is a powerful doctrine. Chief Justice Chase T. Rogers, despite her very forceful dissents from the Santiago majority, was clearly concerned, as were others, about reversing the decision, especially with a new justice having just come onto the court in place of one who retired. In all likelihood, the Santiago decision will remain in force and, sooner or later, Peeler and the others on death row will be resentenced to life without parole. And the question will remain: Did the court get it right? (source: David R. Cameron is a professor of political science at Yale----Register Citizen) VIRGINIA: Imperfect justice system executes innocent people I am not sure what Maurice S. Fisher, Sr. wanted to accomplish with his bizarre Jan. 11 commentary, "Making Virginia's death row a well-executed system." But he repeats false stereotypes about the system of capital punishment in the commonwealth. First, the penalty of life in prison without parole is cheaper than the death penalty. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that "death is different," and have accordingly required a complex punishment phase in capital trials as well as mandatory state and federal court appeals of death sentences. These legal expenses far exceed the cost of lifetime incarceration. 2nd, our criminal justice system often makes mistakes. Since 1976 there have been 155 exonerations from death row across the nation compared to 1,423 executions. That is a ratio of 1 innocent person sentenced to death for every 9 executions. 3rd, Virginia is the fastest in the nation from death sentence to execution - just over 7 years on average. For most of the 155 death row exonerations, it took far longer than that for evidence of innocence to be found. Who knows how many innocent men are among the 111 executed by Virginia since 1976? Imperfect human beings have created a death penalty system here in Virginia that is far from perfect. Abolition of the death penalty is needed to ensure that no more innocent people are executed by the commonwealth. MICHAEL STONE, Executive Director Virginians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty RICHMOND (source: Letter to the Editor, Roanoke Times) FLORIDA: Florida judges must decide how to implement Supreme Court decision on death penalty The U.S. Supreme Court tossed out Florida's death penalty statute last week.. Still unclear, though, is who will live and who will die. That decision now falls to the Florida Supreme Court. The 7 justices must answer 2 key questions that will largely determine who among the 390 inmates on Florida's death row will get relief. Lawyers, judges and death penalty specialists disagree on what that court will do. Many, though, say it's a good bet that the U.S. Supreme Court decision will affect all the defendants who have not exhausted their appeals. That could be about 60 percent of Florida's death row population. For those, the benefit may not be an automatic conversion of their sentence to life in prison. It might be a new sentencing hearing, which could leave inmates right back where they started, with new death sentences, should the Florida Legislature, as expected, rewrite the state's capital punishment statute. The death penalty cases, said Michael Pirolo, chief assistant to the Public Defender in Brevard County, "are coming back, but it's 1 by 1. It's not just some blanket order." The 2 key questions before the Florida Supreme Court are: --Is the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling retroactive? --Was the ruling a fundamental change in the law or merely procedural? The Florida court could provide answers in the next 3 weeks, because the state is scheduled to execute a 2-time murderer, Cary Michael Lambrix, on Feb. 11. On Friday, the court refused to halt the execution. A few days earlier, Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi had said there was no need for a stay because the new ruling does not apply to him. The court will hear arguments Feb. 2, and then rule. By an 8-1 vote the U.S. Supreme Court declared Florida's capital sentencing system unconstitutional, ruling that in death penalty cases, juries - not judges - must specify at least 1 reason why the defendant should be put to death. Under the old system, jurors listened to evidence, and then voted on whether to recommend death or life in prison without the possibility of parole. Their decision did not have to be unanimous. The final decision was left to a judge. In Tuesday's majority opinion, Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote that by having the judge make the final decision, Florida was violating a defendant's right to be tried by a jury of his peers. The test case involved Timothy Lee Hurst, who was convicted of murder in 1998. The U.S. Supreme Court did not convert his sentence to life in prison. It merely threw out his death sentence. He is still a convicted murderer. It's now up to the state to figure out what sentence to impose and how to do it. The U.S. high court said the Florida Supreme Court, or perhaps a trial court, must now determine whether Hurst would have been given the same sentence if a jury - rather than a judge - had pronounced sentence. Last week's ruling was broad. It means that everyone on Florida's death row was sentenced under a law that has now been ruled unconstitutional. But there is a wide span of opinion on how it will affect the people on Florida's death row. Some lawyers argue that everyone there should have their sentences converted to life in prison. Others say they should all get new sentencing hearings. Orlando criminal appeals specialist Paula Coffman and Orange-Osceola State Attorney Jeff Ashton predicted that the sentences of a few death row inmates would be reduced. "It's going to apply to very few inmates," Coffman said. Retired Circuit Judge O.H. Eaton Jr. of Sanford, a death-penalty scholar, predicted that in several months, the Florida Supreme Court would make a single ruling involving every condemned murderer who is still has an active appeal, and reduce their sentences to life. The court would do that, he said, to spare the expense and danger of transporting inmates back to the counties where they were originally tried. Despite the wide range in opinion, many experts agree on some basics: The new ruling is likely to do nothing to help at least 150 death row inmates who have exhausted their appeals. Defense attorneys are expected to flood state courts with paperwork because of the new ruling. Maria DeLiberato, a Tampa-area attorney, works for Capital Collateral Regional Counsel, a state agency that represents indigent death row inmates. She has 11 clients on death row. "Certainly we will be arguing that all of those people, most if not all have been sentenced under an unconstitutional statute and they should be given a new hearing," she said. "Certainly the Florida Supreme Court will weigh in on whether the decision is retroactive and how many people it ultimately affects." One of the biggest issues Florida judges will face is whether the error harmed a defendant. That is something that must be reviewed case by case basis, Pirolo said. It's a complex set of issues, said Robert Wesley, the elected public defender for Orange and Osceola counties. "Nothing could be more important. ... This is going to foster a lot of litigation, and it's not going to be easy and a quick fix by the Legislature and by the Florida courts." (source: Orlando Sentinel) ************** High court decision allows chance to rethink broken system John Barnes, spokesman for Montana Attorney General Tim Fox, said juries in Montana still must decide whether an "aggravating circumstance" exists in a murder case - and that a judge can't impose a death sentence unless there is an aggravating circumstance. Gov. Jack Markell has said he would sign a repeal bill if it made its way to his desk. "One of the tragedies, I think, that's unfolding before us is, how many people have their lives been taken by a state, and it's found that they didn't commit the crime?" And generous, because Florida legislators now have an opportunity to fix a broken system that has been challenged for being arbitrary, racist and cruel. The jury voted 7-5 in favor of death, and a judge imposed the death sentence. "I would rather have DE as a state make the choice to get rid of the death penalty, instead, of waiting for the Supreme Court to do that for us". Where Florida's death penalty system goes next, may be in the hands of lawmakers. The case, Hurst v. Florida, involves Timothy Lee Hurst's conviction for the murder of his co-worker Cynthia Harrison in 1998. The state, which has the second-highest number of inmates on death row in the country, received a request from a condemned inmate shortly after the high court's ruling to delay his execution. The ruling's direct impact is limited to Florida and does not include the bigger and more divisive question of the constitutionality of the death penalty in general. Dimmig said prosecutors may argue in some cases that juries did make those determinations, so death sentences in those cases should stand. More than 20 percent of death sentences imposed in the US since 2010 have been the product of non-unanimous jury recommendations of death-a practice barred in all states but Florida, Alabama, and Delaware. In addition to the content, no one yet knows whether the ruling is retroactive, potentially affecting all death row inmates. The US Constitution guarantees criminal defendants the right to a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury. The ruling was opposed by Justice Samuel Alito, who called the Florida judge's process in the Hurst case a "harmless error". He argues that the Court has purportedly reversed its course that strikes down Florida's capital systems. Sotomayor said Florida's system is flawed because it allows a sentencing judge to find aggravating factors "independent of a jury's fact-finding". In an interview, Bondi told the Herald/Times she was unsure of the death penalty's future in Florida. When Jeb Bush was governor, he pushed for a 10-year limit on death row appeals, even after 2 Florida Supreme Court justices cautioned against it. But it's the judge who's charged with finding facts, and judges can and do frequently disregard the jury's recommendation. Michael Radelet, an expert on the death penalty in Florida, says the bottom line after today's ruling is uncertainty. (source: leadercall.com) ALABAMA: Supreme Court decision raises questions about Alabama death penalty A U.S. Supreme Court decision released this week deemed part of the Florida death penalty system unconstitutional. Hurst vs. Florida addresses the issue of judicial override, something only legal in Florida, Delaware and Alabama. Here's how it works. If a jury recommends a sentence, the judge has the power to overrule its decision to sentence someone to life in prison or to death. The Supreme Court decision that came out this week doesn't make that illegal, but it does rein in the judge's power. In the Hurst case, the judge held an independent fact-finding hearing to determine the sentence. According to SCOTUS opinion, "The Sixth Amendment protects a defendant's right to an impartial jury. This right required Florida to base Timothy Hurst's death sentence on a jury's verdict, not a judge's factfinding." Although judicial override wasn't completely struck down by the decision, some experts say it was weakened. According to attorney David Kochman, judicial override was originally created to eliminate jury bias in sentencing. It was believed judges would remain more level-headed in the face of gruesome details and thus less likely to sentence convicts to death. But according to the Equal Justice Initiative, since 1976 judges in Alabama have overruled jury verdicts 111 times. And in 91 % of those overrides, judges chose the death penalty. "We have a scheme now where a system that was predicated upon mercy and compassion has instead become a scheme of almost a punitive nature," Kochman said. The attorney of death row inmate Christopher Brooks is asking for a stay on his execution in light of this decision. Brooks was supposed to be executed on January 21st. But Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange says our system is constitutional, and so is the one in Florida. He filed a friend of the court brief with the Montana attorney general, saying judicial sentencing is less arbitrary and more consistent than jury sentencing. Alabama's system was last challenged in 2013 in Mario Dion Woodward v. Alabama. SCOTUS declined to hear the case, but Justice Sotomayor wrote in dissent, "No other State condemns prisoners to death despite the considered judgment rendered by a cross-section of its citizens that the defendant ought to live. We owe the validity of Alabama's system a fresh look." (source: WAAY news) LOUISIANA: Derrick Todd Lee gets medical treatment outside of Angola; officials mum on location for 'security reasons' Convicted serial killer and death row inmate Derrick Todd Lee on Sunday was receiving medical care outside the fences of the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola. Corrections Department spokeswoman Pam Laborde confirmed in a statement that Lee, 47, was transported away from the Angola prison for medical care but declined to say where he'd been taken or what medical issues he is being treated for, citing state and federal privacy laws. "Due to security reasons and offender privacy under state and federal laws, the Department (of Corrections) cannot provide any additional information at this time," Laborde said. Lee was sentenced to death for the 2002 murder of 22-year-old LSU graduate student Charlotte Murray Pace in her Baton Rouge home. A jury also convicted Lee of 2nd-degree murder in the 2002 killing of 21-year-old Geralyn Barr DeSoto, of Addis, for which he was sentenced to life in prison. Lee is suspected by authorities of killing 5 other women in south Louisiana between 1998 and 2003: Gina Wilson Green and Carrie Lynn Yoder, of Baton Rouge; Trineisha Dene Colomb, of Lafayette; Randi Mebruer, of Zachary; and Pam Kinamore, of Briarwood. Lee has not been tried in those cases. According to prosecutors, DNA evidence linked Lee to those 5 slayings. Evidence from these cases was introduced during the penalty phase of Lee's 2004 trial in Pace's murder. Lee is appealing his conviction and death sentence in federal court. The Louisiana Supreme Court rejected Lee's final state court appeal in September. (source: The Advocate) KENTUCKY: Man Accused In Stabbing Death Of 6-Year-Old Pleads Not Guilt The Indiana man accused of stabbing and killing a 6-year-old Versailles boy during a home invasion pleaded not guilty. Police say Ronald Exantus stabbed Logan Tipton to death during a home invasion last year. Officers said Logan was in his room asleep when Exantus allegedly entered the home and stabbed him. Police said after the stabbing, Logan's father got into a fight with Exantus in the home's hallway. Logan's sisters were also assaulted. Officers arrested Exantus at the scene. It was the first time that Logan Tipton's family had seen Exantus since that tragic night in December. Family members filled the first two rows of the courtroom. Afterwards, Logan Tipton's mother issued a statement to the media. "I just wanted to say thank you to the whole community and everyone for their thoughts and prayers and support and just continue to keep my family especially my children in your prayers," Heather Pujol-Tipton told reporters. Exantus' attorney, Bridget Hofler told LEX 18 that her client is mentally unstable. "His mental state is in and out. Some days are better than others. He is obviously not himself, nor has he been since I've come to know him." Hofler told LEX 18. The hearing was held in Woodford County's District Court building. Exantus waived formal arraignment. A Woodford County grand jury indicted Exantus for murder, burglary and assault. He could face the death penalty. (source: lex18.com) CALIFORNIA: O.C. victim's father doesn't expect to see death penalty carried out Steve Herr assumes he won't live to see the execution of the man convicted of murdering and then decapitating his son in the attic of an Orange County theater. "Realistically, I'm not going to be around when he's put to death," Herr, 67, said a few days after a jury recommended the death penalty for Daniel Wozniak. "I'll be dead." Orange County Superior Court Judge John Conley is scheduled in March to sentence Wozniak, 31, for the shooting and beheading of 26-year-old Army veteran Sam Herr and the shooting of Herr's friend Juri "Julie" Kibuishi, 23, in May 2010. Wozniak, a community theater actor from Costa Mesa, was desperate for money to fund his upcoming wedding, so he killed the 2 as part of a plan to steal $62,000 from Herr's bank account, according to prosecutors. After Wozniak's conviction last month, jurors took less than an hour last Monday to decide that he deserved to die for the slayings. Orange County Dist. Atty. Tony Rackauckas said it was the fastest capital punishment decision he could recall. Wozniak's case took more than 5 years to go to trial, and despite the jury's decisiveness, its death sentence verdict is just the beginning of another long process that may or may not end with Wozniak's execution. In California, where capital punishment has been on hold for a decade, it's an open question whether convicts sent to death row today will ever have their sentences carried out. In 2006, the state placed a moratorium on the death penalty when a judge ruled that a 3-drug lethal injection could cause inhumane suffering. In November, officials unveiled a 1-drug injection that could lead to a resumption of executions, but the method still faces months of public vetting and possible legal challenges. Even before the moratorium, "the reality in California is that, of those who are sentenced to death, very few have been executed and it's taken an enormously long time," said Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the UC Irvine law school. Since capital punishment was reinstated in California in 1977, juries have sent 900 inmates to death row and 13 have been executed, according to court papers written by Cormac Carney, a federal judge in Orange County. On average, there is a 25-year delay between a death sentence being handed down and it being carried out, and that gap is getting longer, according to the judge. Many factors contribute to the decades of lag time between a death sentence and an execution, Chemerinsky said. To begin with, all death sentences in California are automatically appealed. Before any work can be done on the case, a lawyer must be appointed. That in itself can take years. A 2004 report commissioned by the California Legislature blamed that on budget cuts at the state public defender's office and on the low pay offered to private attorneys willing to take the assignments. Another factor is that all such appeals go directly to California's Supreme Court, which hears only about 20 to 25 such cases a year, according to Carney. After years of reviewing and briefing their cases, attorneys might wait 2 to 3 more years before the court has time to hear their arguments, the judge wrote. Inmates who lose their appeal to the Supreme Court can appeal again for the court's consideration. If those appeals are exhausted, inmates can petition a federal court for review, further extending the process. More condemned inmates die of natural causes than are put to death, according to California Department of Corrections figures that Carney cited in his decision. "As for the random few for whom execution does become a reality, they will have languished for so long on death row that their execution will serve no retributive or deterrent purpose and will be arbitrary," Carney wrote. But such arguments and capital punishment's murky future did not deter the Orange County district attorney's office from pursuing a death sentence for Wozniak. "Cases like this are a perfect example of why the death penalty is appropriate," Senior Deputy Dist. Atty. Matt Murphy said at a news conference after the jury's decision. Prosecutors in Orange County seek capital punishment on only about 4% of eligible cases, but the brutality of Wozniak's crimes called for the severest penalty, Murphy said. During the trial, jurors heard testimony that Wozniak dismembered Herr's body before tossing some of the parts in a Long Beach park in a failed attempt to throw police off his trail. To further the coverup, Wozniak used Herr's phone to lure Kibuishi to Herr's apartment, then killed her and staged her body to make it seem as if Herr had raped her and fled, Murphy said. (source: Los Angeles Times) ************** 10 Years After Last Execution, California's Death Row Continues to Grow 10 years ago today, on January 17, 2006, California executed Clarence Ray Allen, the oldest person ever put to death in the state. It was just after midnight - the day after Allen's 76 birthday - and the execution was couched in controversy. Allen was legally blind, diabetic, and relied on a wheelchair. He had suffered a heart attack the previous fall. Later, when he asked that they just let him die if he were to have another heart attack before his execution date, prison officials said they could do no such thing. Yet when the press told the story of Allen's death, the prevailing descriptions were of a man in fine health - not nearly as weak as described by the attorneys who had tried to save his life. "In final moments, killer didn't seem so frail," read the headline in the San Francisco Chronicle, which noted Allen's "robust ability": how he stood up on his own from his wheelchair before being helped to the gurney by 4 prison guards; how he "vigorously craned his head" toward his supporters in the viewing chamber. California Assemblyman Todd Spitzer, who witnessed the execution, called it "incredibly humane," remarking, "For 76 years old, he looked to be in remarkably good shape." When it was revealed that officials at San Quentin had to inject Allen with a second deadly dose of potassium chloride - raising potential questions about the efficacy of the state's execution protocol - the Associated Press presented this as proof that the "barrel-chested prisoner's heart was strong to the end." The narrative was comforting in its reassurances: Regardless of any last legal challenges or activist hysterics, this was a dangerous killer, not a feeble old man. And Allen certainly had much blood on his hands: Sentenced to life in prison for killing his accomplice in a 1974 robbery, he was then convicted and sentenced to death a few years later for ordering 3 more murders while behind bars at Folsom Prison. In a state that had struggled to carry out executions for decades, Allen's death could be seen as a righteous way to usher in what was expected at the time to be a busy era for the execution chamber. With appeals running out for a number of prisoners, 2006 was to be the year California resumed executions "at a pace unseen in more than a generation," according to the Sacramento Bee. Yet a full decade later, California has not executed a single person. Soon after Allen's death in 2006, problems with state's lethal injection protocols brought the state's execution machinery to a halt. It has never restarted. In the meantime, California's death row, by far the largest in the country, has continued to grow, from 646 people in January 2006 to some 750 today. Last year, California officially ran out of space for its condemned prisoners, prompting Gov. Jerry Brown to request $3.2 million from lawmakers to expand its death row cells. But the past decade is only the latest chapter in California's long and sordid death penalty saga, a history that has seen the state pour resources into a punishment regime that, when measured in executions at least, exists more in theory than in practice. To date, only 13 people have been executed since the state brought back the death penalty in 1977. Meanwhile, more than 100 have died facing execution - 1/4 of these prisoners have committed suicide, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR). The cost to California taxpayers, according to a 2011 study, has been more than $4 billion - and by 2030, the projected cost will reach $9 billion, with more than 1,000 people on death row. Today, a growing number of Californians have reached the inevitable conclusion that it's time to get rid of the death penalty once and for all. In 2012, a hard-fought ballot initiative to replace capital punishment with life without parole lost by a narrow margin - and in 2014 support for the death penalty dropped to a 50-year low. Yet some remain committed to reviving executions in California - and late last year the state took a number of steps in that direction. In November, the same month a federal judge overturned a ruling that had declared the state's death penalty unconstitutional on 8th Amendment grounds, officials introduced a new "humane and dignified" lethal injection protocol, replacing its embattled 3-drug cocktail with an array of one-dose options. In December, pro-death penalty activists began collecting signatures in support of a ballot measure that would jumpstart executions by quickening the appellate process and shorten the amount of time between conviction and execution. This coming November, backers of the measure will face off against an opposing measure that again seeks to abolish the death penalty. Last week, a field poll found California voters evenly divided on the 2 ballot initiatives. None of this activity makes executions imminent in California. The state's new lethal injection protocol will be subject to a lengthy public vetting process. And even if the pro-death penalty ballot measure prevails, implementing its changes would be costly and complicated. Still, should the state start killing again, Californians can expect to see a lot more prisoners who look like Clarence Ray Allen make their way to the gurney. As of now, the next 16 prisoners in line to die are mostly old men, all of whose sentences date back to the 1980s. 1/2 are in their 60s, and 2 are more than 70; the oldest is 78. TO JEANNE WOODFORD, who once oversaw executions as the warden at San Quentin, killing these men "serves no penological purpose." The murders they committed "are horrible crimes, no doubt about it," she says. But decades later, their executions seem senseless and arbitrary, devoid even of any retributive value. In Allen's case, the father of 1 of his victims waited 25 years for his execution, only to die months before it was carried out. Nor do such executions keep Californians safer, Woodford says. It is understood that for a punishment to be a deterrent to crime, it must be "swift and certain." Today, more than ever, the death penalty in California is the exact opposite. Jeanne Woodford, former San Quentin Warden an now Executive Director of Death Penalty Focus, a national non-profit organization dedicated to educating the public about the death penalty and its alternatives, stands for a portrait in her new offices on Market Street on May 27, 2011 in San Francisco, Calif. She says overseeing four executions convinced her that putting people to death is not right. Woodford worked at San Quentin for more than 25 years. When she started, there were only 6 people on death row. By the time she left in 2006, the number was more than 700. A lot of the prisoners she saw were young men - "gang members," she recalls, "the very people whose behavior changes over time." "These were not the people most Americans would imagine as the 'worst of the worst,'" she says. Many had been convicted under a 1978 ballot measure known as the Briggs initiative, which significantly expanded the kinds of crimes eligible for the death penalty. "When they widened the net, they included a lot of people who aren't serial killers," Woodford said. As she reached the end of her time at San Quentin, Woodford saw a death row population that was increasingly aging and infirm - "guys with dementia," she says. Dozens had died of old age, illness, and suicide. "There is a wide gap between who the public thinks is on death row and who is actually on death row." After she left the CDCR, Woodford became an anti-death penalty activist, briefly heading the group Death Penalty Focus, which led the fight for Proposition 34, the 2012 ballot measure to abolish the death penalty. In doing so, she encountered the unlikeliest of allies: The man who authored the Briggs initiative, a former prosecutor-turned defense attorney named Donald Heller. Once a staunch supporter of capital punishment - he once said he would "throw the switch??? for a criminal defendant - Heller designed the 1978 ballot initiative at the behest of California State Senator John Briggs, a right-wing conservative who aspired to join the U.S. Senate. The measure was designed to increase the number of eligible death penalty crimes through the use of "special circumstances" - aggravating factors that would automatically set the range of punishments for a criminal defendant as either death or life without parole. "Unfortunately," Heller recalls, "I did a really good job." The initiative passed overwhelmingly. A Loyola law professor who conducted a study of the death penalty for the Senate Judiciary Committee later decried the "reckless drafting" of the initiative as well as the political campaign around it: the ballot pamphlet told voters that only those who intended to carry out a murder would receive the death penalty under Briggs, but this did not turn out to be true. After the Briggs measure passed, prosecutors rushed to seek the death penalty - "Everyone was trying to put a notch on their gun," Heller recalled. "There were a tremendous number of capital cases filed." As Heller watched the wave of new death sentences, "I had second thoughts about what I wrote." He started to realize that he had made a number of erroneous assumptions about the death penalty. "The 1st was that it would deter murders," he says, a claim for which he says there is no empirical evidence. "The 2nd: I assumed defendants would have competent representation." Heller was "shocked" to see just how shoddy the representation could be for people facing death row. But the case that ultimately turned Heller against the death penalty for good was that of a man named Tommy Thompson, one of the few people in California whose death sentence has culminated with his execution. Sent to death row in 1984 largely on the word of a jailhouse snitch, Thompson was convicted for a rape and murder that prosecutors later pinned on his codefendant - but only after Heller had already been condemned to die. Once the state "switched theories," Heller told the Los Angeles Times in 2011, "the prosecutor made no effort to notify Thompson's trial judge that evidence now showed that Thompson was not the actual murderer." Heller was so disturbed by Thompson's case, he agreed to testify at his clemency hearing, "I laid out in detail the reasons that I felt this was wrong, that it violated the letter and spirit of the initiative, the fundamental law, the prosecutor's obligation, and was an injustice," he told the Times. But Governor Pete Wilson declined to commute the sentence and Thompson was executed in 1998. His last words were read by the warden after his death at 12:06AM. "For 17 years the AG has been pursuing the wrong man," Thompson said. "I don't want anyone to avenge my death. Instead I want you to stop killing people. God bless." The experience forever altered Heller's feelings about capital punishment. "Something I wrote was utilized to execute someone who was innocent," Heller says. He no longer believes the death penalty is worth the financial or human cost. "If you have imperfect system taking someone's life, it's a little bit frightening," Heller says. "Especially with the number of people who have been shown to be actually innocent. It makes you think." Not everyone in the state is learning from the past. Indeed, as far as stalled executions are concerned, California has been here before. It took 15 years, after bringing back capital punishment in 1977, for the state to carry out its 1st execution, in 1992. In the meantime, hundreds were sent to death row. In 1990, a year that saw 33 new death sentences in the state, the Los Angeles Times ran an article titled: "Next To Die In Gas Chamber: It's Anybody's Guess." Of the 275 people on death row at the time, the story speculated, only those who were willing to drop their appeals and be executed were likely to be executed anytime soon. But even that was no guarantee. One man, on death row since the 80s for killing his wife, told the Times, "I don't wish to die, but I don't wish to live under these conditions." More than 25 years later, that man, Jerry Stanley, is still alive and now in his 70s. He has continued to ask for death. In 2011, as dubious lethal injection drugs made national news, he wrote to the Times, "I am willing to be the experimental guy to see whether or not they work." These days California sends fewer people to death row. But the state still appears to be in denial about its death row crisis. In 2008, after four years of studying the state's death penalty system, the bipartisan California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice declared it "dysfunctional." In addition to raising alarm about wrongful convictions, the commission warned lawmakers that sentencing an average of 20 prisoners per year to death - while executing no one - was creating "a backlog ... so severe that California would have to execute 5 prisoners per month for the next 12 years just to carry out the sentences of those currently on death row." The backlog, the commission found, is inextricable from the fact that virtually every person on California???s death row is indigent - and thus reliant on the state for representation. But even as California has added scores to death row, it has defunded the office of the State Public Defender. So, while death penalty supporters like to blame prisoners??? lengthy appeals for clogging the path to justice, in reality condemned inmates spend years just waiting to be appointed lawyers who can handle their case. Indeed, the commission found "excessive delay" delay at every stage of the review process: Prisoners sentenced to death wait between 3 to 5 years for an attorney to be assigned to their direct appeal. Longer still is the wait for counsel for state habeas petitions (8 to 10 years). These are followed by additional years of waiting for courts to rule: the commission found a more than 6-year wait for a decisions on federal habeas petitions. In all, the commission found, "the total lapsed time from judgment of death to execution is 20-25 years." That prisoners spend so long languishing on death row was at the heart of a 2014 ruling by U.S. District Judge Cormac Carney, who overturned the death sentence of a California man who had spent 20 years facing execution - and at the same time declared the state's death penalty system unconstitutional on 8th Amendment grounds. For most prisoners on California's death row, he wrote, their sentence "has been quietly transformed into one no rationale jury or legislature could ever impose: life in prison, with the remote possibility of death." Compounding the problem are prosecutors who continue to seek death sentences despite the state's clear inability to carry them out. In 2015, which marked historic lows in new death sentences across the country, California condemned more people to die than any other state. As in the rest of the country, these sentences were clustered in specific jurisdictions, where a single stubborn DA can still send a lot of people to death row. Of California's 14 new death sentences last year, prosecutors in Riverside County were responsible for 8. In Slate last fall, Robert J. Smith called Riverside "the buckle of a new Death Belt," a place that has "produced more death sentences since 2010 than any other county in America except one - Los Angeles County, which is 4 times its size." "In one sense, it's irrational," Heller says of prosecutors currently seeking death sentences in California. But more obviously, it is political. "Prosecutors still use it as a notch, I think, more than anything else." It also means that the state will continue to invest in its death row infrastructure. "Honestly, I don't think they have a choice," says Woodford. "The death penalty is in place because of the voters in the state of California." Keeping it in place means meeting certain constitutional standards. Most recently, responding to a ruling by a federal judge, prison authorities hastily revamped a new medical unit at San Quentin to convert it into a 39-bed psychiatric unit for prisoners with mental illness. ("We are curing them to make them executable," Berkeley law professor and death penalty scholar Frank Zimring told the L.A. Times.) But perhaps the ultimate emblem of capital punishment in California is the death chamber at San Quentin - a $853,000 renovation project completed years ago, and built by prisoners themselves. In 2010, members of the press were invited to inspect the new and improved death chamber. Reporters noted the roominess of the space (4 times larger than the old one); its hexagonal shape, and the "pistachio-colored vinyl" covering the gurney (the "only splash of color" in the sterile room). The warden told reporters at the time that the prison was "fully prepared to carry out an execution," anticipating it would do so within a week. More than 5 years later, the execution chamber remains unused. Last December, just 2 days after Christmas, the CDCR once more allowed journalists inside the death chamber. ("It smells of new paint," an L.A. Times reporter observed.) 20 media outlets participated in the 6-hour tour, which gave rare access to San Quentin's death row corridors, along with the solitary confinement unit the CDCR calls the Adjustment Center (otherwise known as "the hole"). The department denied there was any specific reason for the timing. ("One reporter recently asked to visit, and then another," a CDCR official wrote in an email to The Intercept.) The subsequent stories portrayed a grim universe, a prison within a prison that has grown out of the long legal limbo of its inhabitants. ???Some two dozen wheelchairs sit parked outside the cells of aging men no longer able to walk," the Times noted. Meals are eaten in their cells, behind mesh screens. "Group therapy" is an assembly of men in metal cages. (The 21 women on death row are housed in a different prison in Chowchilla, 2 1/2 hours away.) With no end in sight to their time on death row, prisoners do what they can - writing, exercising, listening to the radio. But there is no escaping the sense of neglect - of being forgotten. Speaking to the alternative weekly Metroactive, one prisoner summed up his life as "being left on a shelf." Another said he had just ended a 27-day hunger strike to protest the absence of capital defense attorneys. "Guys are dying," he said, "and nobody is up here saying, 'You are a human being.'" (source: theintercept.com) From rhalperi at smu.edu Mon Jan 18 07:15:48 2016 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Mon, 18 Jan 2016 07:15:48 -0600 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide Message-ID: Jan. 18 ZIMBABWE: Zimbabwe Faces Hangman Crisis: At least 117 prisoners are on death row in Zimbabwe and no executions have been carried out for the past 12 years due to the unavailability of a hangman, the Constitutional Court heard recently. Zimbabweans are shunning the job. Appearing for 14 death row prisoners who are challenging the constitutionality of the death penalty despite spending lengthy periods in custody, Harare lawyer Mr Tendai Biti said the number of condemned prisoners awaiting death stood at 117. He said the automatic appeals in respect of some of the inmates had not been exercised owing to delays in the transcription of court records and the disappearance of some. He said preparation of records was done on time only for those who paid the requisite fees. Mr Biti claimed timeframes were not being respected for condemned prisoners who did not pay. "The system has abandoned them. If you do not pay the fee for the preparation of the record, the timeframes will not be respected," said Mr Biti. Justice Chinembiri Bhunu, who was part of the 9-member bench hearing the constitutional matter, questioned why the prisoners were not being executed. Mrs Olivia Zvedi, a law officer in the Attorney- General's Office, said Government was still looking for a hangman. "There is no hangman at the moment. The one who was there previously left. "We can only get one when an appropriate advertisement for the job is done and interviews are conducted," she said. Asked why they were not getting a new hangman, Mrs Zvedi said the job was not an easy one and people were shunning it. "It is not a job that one can easily apply for. The State is also in a predicament on how to proceed in the absence of a hangman," she said. (source: The Herald) IRAN----executions 5 Prisoners Including Possible Juvenile Offender Hanged in Iran Iranian authorities have executed 4 prisoners in northern Iran and 1 prisoner in southern Iran who may have been under the age of 18 when he allegedly committed the murder that Iranian courts sentenced him to death for. Gilan Judiciary's press department reports on the exeuction of 4 prisoners at Lakan, Rasht's central prison, on the morning of Saturday January 16. According to the report, 3 of the prisoners were sentenced to death on drug charges. Their names have been identified as: S.Gh., 50 years old; M.F., 35 years old; and A.A., 24 years old. The report identifies the other prisoner as: H.R., 27 years old, sentenced to death for rape. According to the human rights group, HRANA, on Wednesday January 13, a prisoner, identified as Houshang Zare, was hanged at Shiraz's Adelabad Prison on murder charges. A close source who asked to be anonymous tells IHR that Zare was under the age of 18 when he allegedly committed the murder that Iranian courts sentenced him to death for. (source: Iran Human Rights) NIGERIA/SAUDI ARABIA: Soyinka leads march against death sentence on Saudi poet Nobel Laureate Prof. Wole Soyinka has led many practitioners in the creative industry in a protest march to save Palestinian writer and artist, Ashraf Fayadh (35), from being hanged by the Saudi authorities. Fayadh is facing a death sentence for posting online a video showing women being flogged by Saudi Arabia authority ostensibly for some religious infractions. He also renounced his Islamic faith. In Lagos, the 'Free Ashraf Fayadh Now' campaign had the Nobel laureate leading the charge for the freedom of the Palestinian artist residing in Saudi Arabia who faces certain death if the world sat back and merely watched. Soyinka said the need to hold global reading for Fayadh was necessary because "this poet is one of us." He condemned any form of religious practice that sentences people to death for their opinion. Soyinka wondered: "Why should we not be partisan on this? Religion is a personal affirmation. We should not subscribe to any article of faith that says ours is superior to the other. We do not deserve to be sentenced to death, harassed or imprisoned for practising a different faith". To Soyinka, perhaps the world holds too much respect for the dogmatism of others which has continued to fuel the impunity perpetuated in the name of religion all over the world. He said religion should simply be a matter of followership or otherwise with no one being compelled one way or the other. Soyinka who said humanism was his religion, added that it was time to uphold humanism as the global ideal. He blamed its promoters for being too tepid and not insisting on certain tenets of humanism that should be upheld. "Too bad we have not structured what we call humanism which is perhaps the problem we are having, which makes a minority to impose their will on the rest of us. We ought to confront the absence of humanism. We allowed the sacred texts to overwhelm our lives. Why should a bunch of mortals sit down and pass death on others. What kind of arrogance is that?" The literary giant and human rights activist also condemned what he described as the slavery and second class status of women who are confined to wearing hijab in the name of religion and called for its abrogation. He said ECOWAS Heads of government argument about the hijab is a wrong, advising that instead, the argument should be for humanism that would not enslave women the way the hijab does. What we should ask is: what is human dignity? Why is that a minority imposes its own on the rest of the world? Women should be left alone to wear what they want and not be imposed upon. It's slavery; it's subjecting women to humiliation. We need to know what the Prophet said about it or is it an imposition? Islam has to talk to Islam to prevent interlopers like myself from talking about it. But we don't want the explanation to be at the expense of human life and dignity. "We are not doing Ashraf Fayadh a favour by this protest. We are doing ourselves a favour. We are saying religion is a personal thing". Executive Director, TheNews, Mr. Kunle Ajibade, read from his prison memoir, Jailed for Life, written during the Gen. Sanni Abacha years of dictatorship, bringing the terrible conditions of condemned persons close home to the audience made up of writers and other members of the creative community. (source: The Guardian) GREAT BRITAIN: World War 1 soldier executed for mutiny to be honoured at National Memorial Arboretum In the mist of an anaemic French dawn, the weak sunlight burning through leaden skies, they placed the blindfold over Jack Braithwaite's eyes. He stiffened against the whitewashed wall, the wisps of breath from his open mouth quickening. These were Jack Braithwaite's horrifying last moments. At 6.05am on October 29, 1916, Jack was executed by firing squad, joining the ranks of those slaughtered by his own side. His death on that barren patch of land in Rouen came minutes after one Gunner Lewis was shot. Jack, aged 31, heard the rifles' crackle and the sound turned his legs to jelly. His crime: mutiny. But that incendiary word paints a picture that does not fit the act that cost Jack his life. Jack, who openly admitted at his court martial, "I am not a born soldier, just a Bohemian journalist", was guilty of a misdemeanour, not mutiny. On August 28, 1916, the New Zealander, who had proved truly troublesome to Army top brass, found himself at Number 1 Prison, Blargies, a military lock-up noted for its toughness. The simmering ill-feeling among inmates turned into open rebellion on that day. A tough Aussie named Private Little complained bitterly and loudly about the lack of hot water in the showers. The matter escalated, with Little banging on tables and demanding his meal. Others joined the insurrection, seizing the moment to air their own grievances. It was then Jack, known as "Bohemian Jack" because of his artistic bent, made his fatal mistake. In a bid to defuse a potential riot, Jack, who was on mess duty, led furious Little to his tent and fed him. He had, however, taken Little from the custody of a staff sergeant. And that, in the army's book, constituted mutiny. Now, following a lobby by New Zealand historian Geoff McMillan, together with Richard Pursehouse and Lee Dent of Cannock-based Great War group The Chase Project, the trooper is to be honoured at a Staffordshire war memorial. Jack's name will be included in the 'Shot at Dawn' tribute at the National Memorial Arboretum in Alrewas. Created in 2000 by Birmingham artist Andy DeComyn, the area is a circle of 306 stakes, bearing the name of men posthumously pardoned after being executed by their own side, surrounding a statue of a blindfolded soldier. It is hoped Jack's stake will be installed before the centenary of his death. At the court martial, Jack, who spent every day of active service wondering what he was doing amid the mud, blood and brutality of the trenches, pleaded for his life. He was attempting to stem trouble, he insisted, and pointed out that in Egypt, where he had served, such actions had been punished with 14 days imprisonment. "I cannot understand that a simple act of peace-making could be brought to look like deliberate mutiny," he protested. Jack, a member of 2nd battalion Otago Regiment, also pointed out the sacrifices his family had made for the war effort. 2 brothers had been killed in action, 2 wounded and invalided back home. 2 more were training to join the fray. The Braithwaites had paid a heavy price. In an attempt to win sympathy, Jack added to the mix the fact he was due to marry "the best girl in the entire world". He partially won over the trial's convening officer, Lieutenant-General Clayton, who recommended that the sentence be commuted to 10 years penal servitude, concluding the evidence bore out the defendant's version of events. But his recommendations were not accepted by the court. Jack and 3 Australians involved in the prison clash were sentenced to death by firing squad. There is credence in claims made by Jack's family that he was a "sacrificial lamb". Despite being sentenced to death, the Army knew there was little chance that the Australians would face a firing squad. The execution of any trooper from Down Under needed the approval of the Australian Governor General. And he did not share Allied chief Sir Douglas Haig's appetite for killing our own men. The 3 Aussies, who all played a greater role in the near jail riot than Jack, had their sentence commuted to 2 years hard labour. But Haig and his cronies had to make a point, had to show that flagrant disobedience would result in death. That factor, plus the powder keg atmosphere at the prison and Jack's poor disciplinary record meant clemency was not an option. He had, after all, proved more than problematic during his stint on The Front. In May, 1916, Jack lost his stripes for going AWOL and didn't seem to give a fig about it. He allegedly retorted: "Let duty and soldiering go to hell." His only time in the trenches, from May 14 to 22, ended ignominiously. He again went missing from his unit, armed with a forged "leave pass". That earned him 60 days field punishment, but by this time Jack had decided war was not for him. He again escaped on July 7, was caught and sentenced to 2 years hard labour. Even then, he tried to do a runner while being transferred to the British Army's Blargies prison. Jack's own family seems to have been ashamed of the reluctant trooper. His own uncle, Brigadier W. Braithwaite, urged authorities to lock up his nephew and send him back to New Zealand as soon as possible. Quite simply, in the British Army's eyes, Jack was a coward. In reality, the man was a sensitive soul, intelligent enough to realise the madness he was immersed in. The Bohemian had been flung into a meat grinder and wanted none of it. In all, he was court martialled 4 times. His approach to military life is best summed up by writer Mary Vidal in a superb blog on the Western Front Association website. She said: "Poor Jack. He seems to have been somebody who was totally unsuited to become a soldier and perhaps left to himself, and without the patriotic fervour sweeping Britain and the Empire in 1915, he would not have enlisted. "He was unable to accept military discipline and acted in a foolhardy, perhaps stupid, manner and was dealt with firmly by the authorities. "In his final, fatal, brush with military law he found himself cast in the role of a sacrificial victim. It would seem that he was in the wrong place at the wrong time and his luck had run out. In his last hours how much he must have wished he had stayed a 'Bohemian' journalist." Great War historian Ian McGibbon wrote: "Braithwaite was foolhardy, even stupid, in his failure to take military discipline seriously and was treated firmly by the New Zealand divisional authorities. But in his final hearing he was more unlucky than criminal. "But he found himself cast in the role of sacrificial victim and paid the supreme penalty." In his last, poignant written missive to the court, Jack, pinning his hopes on his prowess as a writer, stated: "Unfortunately I have made a serious mess of things, and where I came to win honour and glory, I have won shame, dishonour, and everlasting disgrace." > : He was wrong. Disgrace did not last forever. His pardon was signed by British Secretary for Defence Des Browne in 2006. Jack's tribute at the National Memorial Arboretum was secured after Geoff McMillan, from Waikanae Beach, New Zealand, visited the site last April. "I could only find 4 stakes for the 5 New Zealanders executed during the Great War," he said. "There was not one for Jack Braithwaite, who had been pardoned by the New Zealand Government in 2000 along with the other four under the Pardon for Soldiers of the Great War Act." News of Jack's honour has been welcomed by Richard Pursehouse. "I think it's great, like picking up on something that has been missed," he said. "I feel very humbled to have been involved. ???There is no date yet, but we hope it happens before the centenary of his death. "What happened was the law at the time, you had to have the ultimate deterrent. In contrast, not a single servicemen was executed in World War II." Bohemian Jack is buried in St Sever Cemetery, Rouen. (source: birminghammail.co.uk) MALAYSIA: Commute sentence of Altantuya's convicted murderer Malaysians Against Death Penalty and Torture (Madpet) prays that the sentence of death on Azilah Hadri, who was convicted for the murder of Altantuya Shaariibuu, be commuted. It was recently reported that former special action force officer Azilah has filed a petition to the Selangor sultan, being the ruler of the state of Selangor, seeking a royal pardon over his conviction for the murder of the Mongolian translator (The Star, Jan 15, 2016). In Malaysia, conviction for murder carries the mandatory death penalty. Article 42(1) of the Malaysian federal constitution provides that: 'The Yang di-Pertuan Agong has power to grant pardons, reprieves and respites in respect of all offences which have been tried by court-martial and all offences committed in the Federal Territories of Kuala Lumpur, Labuan and Putrajaya; and the Ruler or Yang di-Pertua Negeri of a State has power to grant pardons, reprieves and respites in respect of all other offences committed in his State. In a reply to a parliamentary question by Member of Parliament M Kulasegaran (DAP - Ipoh Barat), dated Nov 3, 2015, it was disclosed that since 1998 until Oct 6, 2015, 127 death row prisoners have had their sentence commuted. As of Oct 6, 2015, there still remain about 1,022 persons on death row. In Thailand, Royal Pardons have resulted in about 90 % or more persons sentenced to death having their sentence commuted to imprisonment. On 18/12/2014, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) adopted a Resolution to establish a moratorium on executions with a view to abolishing the death penalty. This is the 5th time this resolution has been tabled since the first in 2007. One hundred and seventeen member states voted in favour of the 2014 resolution, indicating the continuing growing global support for the abolition of the death penalty. As such, taking also into consideration the various arguments for the abolition of the death penalty including that any miscarriage or failure of justice in the implementation of the death penalty is irreversible and irreparable, Madpet urges the HRH the sultan of Selangor to exercise his power to commute the death sentence faced by Azilah Hadri into one of imprisonment. Madpet reiterates its urging that Malaysia abolish the death penalty. Madpet also urges a moratorium on all executions pending abolition. (source: CHARLES HECTOR is a coordinator of Malaysians Against Death Penalty and Torture (Madpet)----malaysiakini.com) EGYPT: Egypt's parliament endorses controversial anti-terrorism law Egypt's parliament on Sunday overwhelmingly endorsed a controversial anti-terrorism law that sets up special courts and shields its enforcers from legal ramifications. The law is one of roughly 400 that were issued by executive decree during the more than 3 years in which Egypt was governed without a parliament after its democratically elected chamber was dissolved in mid-2012. It details sentences for various terrorism-related crimes ranging from 5 years to the death penalty, and shields the military and police from legal penalties for what it calls proportionate use of force. The law also fines journalists for contradicting the authorities' version of any militant attack. The original draft was amended last year following a domestic and international outcry after it initially stipulated imprisonment for such an offence. The newly elected legislature is constitutionally obliged to review the executive decrees within 15 days of its 1st session, which was on Jan. 10, and either approve or reject them. The anti-terrorism law passed by an overwhelming 457 votes to 24 without a single amendment to the original decree issued by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi last year, parliamentary sources said. Egypt's new parliament, which has 568 elected members plus another 28 appointed directly by the president, is dominated by the "Support Egypt" coalition, an alliance of over 400 MPs loyal to Sisi. Human rights groups accuse Sisi, who as military chief deposed a freely elected Islamist president in 2013, of rolling back freedoms won in the 2011 uprising that toppled veteran autocrat Hosni Mubarak. Opposition legislator Mohamed Salah Khalifa, a leader of the Islamist Nour Party, which holds just 12 seats after controlling about a quarter of the previous parliament, said the law employed ambiguous wording. "I fear that it will be used broadly when it is applied," he said. "The (anti-terrorism) law was imposed during exceptional circumstances when the country was exposed to danger but, after these dangers subside, there should be a balance between protecting the state and its institutions and preserving human rights." Parliament also approved a 2014 decree on the protection of critical government facilities. The law increases the jurisdiction of military courts, allowing them to try civilians accused of attacking buildings and cutting off roads. Egypt, the Arab world's most populous country, is confronted by an increasingly violent insurgency in North Sinai, where the most active militant group has pledged allegiance to Islamic State. Cairo and other cities have also suffered Islamist attacks. Sisi has presided over a no-holds-barred crackdown on Islamists. Thousands of alleged Islamist supporters have been jailed and scores have been sentenced to death. (source: Reuters) From rhalperi at smu.edu Tue Jan 19 08:33:40 2016 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Tue, 19 Jan 2016 08:33:40 -0600 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, FLA., TENN., MO., ARIZ., CALIF. Message-ID: Jan. 19 TEXAS: Cardinal: Pope Francis is closely tracking death penalty case in Texas Vienna's cardinal says he is in touch with a man condemned to die in Texas, and that Pope Francis is following the case, too. Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn said Monday that he has been in close touch with Richard Masterson, scheduled to be executed on Tuesday. Masterson was convicted of strangling a man who was a female impersonator. Attorneys for Masterson have contended his earlier lawyers were deficient and that his confession about the death of Darin Shane Honeycutt, who went by the stage name of Brandi Houston, was improper. The cardinal mentioned the case while speaking at the Vatican about church initiatives to promote mercy, a quality Francis has been stressing. In June, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to review Masterson's appeal in the 2001 slaying. (source: Associated Press) FLORIDA: 390 FL death row inmates could appeal after Supreme Court ruling After the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Florida's death penalty system as unconstitutional, Florida's 390 death row inmates prepare to test the seismic ruling. Attorney Anthony Rickman explained, "it could open up a whole bunch of cases and a slough of litigation." On February 2, the Florida Supreme Court will hear the case of death row inmate Cary Michael Lambrix. He was convicted of a double murder in Glades County. As he sits just 30 feet away from the death chamber, his attorneys fighting to keep him out of it. Rickman explained what Lambrix's legal argument might be. "I want this new law to apply to me and it's applied to me even though I was sentenced to death 20 years ago," said Rickman. Jurors unanamously agreed Lambrix was guilty of 1st degree murder, but did not vote unanamously on whether he should received the death penalty. The nation's high court said the way Florida hands down death sentences is a violation of the Sixth Amendment, which Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor said, requires a jury, not a judge, to find each fact necessary to impose a sentence of death." While the ruling could affect Florida's 390 death row inmates, it is unclear how far it will go. "If they apply it retroactively across the board then every single inmate sitting on death row that has been sentenced under this sentencing scheme may be entitled to a new sentencing hearing," Rickman explained. If they don't, only death row inmates like cop-killer Dontae Morris, who have just started their appeal process, can be re-sentenced under this landmark ruling. In the Lambrix case, his attorneys want the high court to spare his life. The state wants the execution to go forward. Whatever they decide could set the trend for the rest of the state's condemned. Lambrix is set to be executed on February 11. (source: Fox News) ************* Death penalty trials up in the air 5 death penalty trials are scheduled between now and April 5 in the Jacksonville-based 4th Judicial Circuit, including for the suspect in the abduction, sexual assault and strangulation of 8-year-old Cherish Perrywinkle. That's a problem, considering the U.S. Supreme Court ruled last week that Florida's death-penalty procedures are unconstitutional. "The easy answer is that there is no easy answer," said attorney Abraham Laeser, co-chairman of The Florida Bar's Capital Cases Committee. The other co-chairman, Donald Murrell, said no lawyer knows what this means. "Until the Legislature acts, Florida does not have a death penalty," Murrell said. The U.S. Supreme Court said Jan. 12 it made its ruling because the final decision on death or life in prison is made by a judge instead of a jury. The Florida Legislature will likely have to pass new procedures that comply with the ruling, but that will likely take months, if not longer. So people facing the death penalty remain in limbo. Hours after the Supreme Court issued its decision, defense attorney Julie Schlax filed a motion that Donald James Smith cannot go to trial with the possibility of a death sentence because the state doesn't have any approved procedures in place to put someone on death row. Smith is scheduled to go on trial April 5, after Cherish was taken from a Jacksonville Wal-Mart and found the next morning in a wooded creek area in 2013. "Until such time as a new sentencing scheme is passed by the Florida Legislature, the only possible penalty for first-degree murder is life imprisonment without the possibility of parole," Schlax said. Schlax told the Times-Union she will file a similar motion in the case of James Leon Jackson, scheduled for trial March 14 in the 1984 rape and slaying of 10-year-old Tammy Welch. Jackson, 63, was not arrested until 2013, when DNA linked him to the crime. The State Attorney's Office has said it is ready to proceed. "We are continuing to prepare for trial in the death-penalty cases on the calendar in 2016," said spokeswoman Jackelyn Barnard. "... We are also prepared to address any motions filed by defense counsel in these cases, and we will respond accordingly in court, on the record." Attorney Ann Finnell represents Michael Renard Jackson, 46, scheduled to go on trial March 14 in Clay County. Jackson is charged with the rape and killing of 25-year-old Andrea Boyer in 2007. Finnell said that the Florida Supreme Court could issue an emergency ruling or the Legislature could act quickly to amend the death penalty sentencing laws. "I doubt that any case will move forward absent one of the above taking place," she said, "so I doubt that any case will be tried within the next 90 days." Laeser said judges will avoid taking any death-penalty case to trial until the Legislature acts. "If I were on the bench, I would wait for whatever scheme the Legislature had in mind," Laeser said. "Not to vouch for the collective wisdom of that branch of government, but why take the chance that whatever I were to cobble together would not pass muster and require a 2nd trial in the future?" Schlax said she will also argue that the state can't seek death for Smith or Jackson again once a new death-penalty procedure is approved because the state can't mandate death via a procedure that was passed after someone was charged with a crime. Murrell said Schlax has a strong argument. "Assuming it [the Legislature] acts this session, can the defendants be tried under a new statute passed after they committed their crimes? Or is that an ex post facto violation?" Murrell said. This issue is going on throughout the state, with some courts having a jury recommendation of death and judges unsure if they should impose the sentence, Murrell said. "Florida courts are going to be very busy sorting all this out. And you can blame it squarely on the Legislative branch," Murrell said. The Florida Supreme Court and the American Bar Association both warned over a decade ago that the state's death-penalty laws were constitutionally suspect, and the Legislature did nothing, Murrell said. Demetrius Kenyon Carter also is scheduled to go on trial Feb. 16. Carter, 22, is charged with the kidnapping and murder of 52-year-old Kenneth Mark Brown. The Public Defender's Office spokesman Sam Shiver said staff are reviewing the Supreme Court ruling and will take appropriate steps to defend Carter. Another upcoming Jacksonville death-penalty trial is planned for March 7 for Corey Jamaine Dozier, 35. He is charged with the 1st-degree murder of his 27-year-old girlfriend, Sherryne Desravines, in 2011. Attorneys for Dozier could not be reached for comment. (source: St. Augustine Record) ************************* Florida's death penalty chaos was no surprise Florida's criminal justice system has fallen into a mess of our own making. The U.S. Supreme Court issued a decision last week finding serious flaws in Florida's death penalty sentencing procedures. Suddenly, there's considerable uncertainty about the sentences imposed on the 389 condemned prisoners on death row. Except for the absolute certainty that their lawyers are about to flood Florida courts with petitions demanding reconsideration of their cases. And that even more time and money and paper and patience will be devoured by Florida's death penalty process. All of which was utterly predictable. Utterly avoidable. State legislators were warned by the Florida Supreme Court back in 2005 that the state's singular sentencing scheme needed fixing: "We ask the Legislature to revisit it to decide whether it wants Florida to remain the outlier state." Then-Gov. Jeb Bush urged the Legislature to heed the court and revisit the death penalty statute. Legislators ignored the state Supreme Court and ignored Bush. A year later, an American Bar Association panel of experts released a Florida Death Penalty Assessment raising similar concerns about the sentencing procedure and "Florida's failure to require jury unanimity when recommending a death sentence, in addition to the state's practice of allowing judges to override jury sentencing recommendations." Again, there was no legislative response. But lawmakers could hardly ignore the U.S. Supreme Court's 8-1 decision handed down on the very opening day of the 2016 legislative session. "The Sixth Amendment requires a jury, not a judge, to find each fact necessary to impose a sentence of death," Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in the prevailing opinion. "A jury's mere recommendation is not enough." Of the 33 states with the death penalty, Florida had been 1 of only 3 that allow a judge to override a jury recommendation. But here's the confounding thing behind the tough-on-crime Legislature's obdurate refusal to fix the problem. A change would have had no practical effect. A Florida judge hasn't overridden a jury recommendation for life imprisonment and imposed the death penalty since 1999. A Broward jury had voted 8-4 in favor of a life sentence for Jeffrey Weaver, who had been convicted in the 1996 murder of Fort Lauderdale Police Officer Bryant Peney. But Circuit Judge Mark Speiser, perhaps responding to public outrage around the case, imposed the death penalty. That was the last time a Florida judge ignored a jury recommendation for life. In 2004, the Florida Supreme Court ruled that Speiser had erred. Weaver was re-sentenced to life without possibility of parole. But who knows how the courts will deal with the 384 men and 5 women in Florida who were sentenced to die under a statute found constitutionally wanting? Florida judges must now wrestle with questions of whether last week's Supreme Court ruling applies retroactively. Not to mention the logistics associated with hauling dangerous convicts around the state to re-sentencing hearings. All of which could have been avoided if Florida's legislative leadership, terrified of looking soft on crime, had not been so pigheaded. (source: Commentary, Fred Grimm----Miami Herald) TENNESSEE: As Sullivan County weighs death penalty for Bristol teen, history says it won't stick Ronald Harries killed an 18-year-old store clerk in Kingsport. Bobby Godsey threw a 7-month-old child across a room, fracturing the child's skull, causing his death. Steve Rollins stabbed a bait shop owner more than 20 times. Nickolus Johnson shot and killed a Bristol police officer during a domestic dispute. All 5 of these men have 3 things in common. They all committed these crimes in Sullivan County, they were all sentenced to death, and they all had their sentences vacated during the appeals process. History may be a factor in whether prosecutors pursue the death penalty against Robert Seth Denton, the Bristol teenager who last year was accused of killing his mother, stepfather and grandmother. Sullivan County District Attorney General Barry Staubus said he has not made a decision about Denton's case. Staubus has a lot to consider before pursuing the death penalty. The very 1st step is whether the murder meets 1 of 17 statutory aggravating circumstances set out by the state of Tennessee. If the murder does not meet at least 1 of those factors, such as previous felony convictions of a violent crime or if the murder is especially heinous, atrocious or cruel, then the death penalty cannot be pursued. But that's just the beginning. "Of course, it's a very serious decision," Staubus said. "You have to look at things that are not set out in statute. You go beyond to see if they're eligible. If they're eligible, then you go beyond and you have to determine whether or not you should go and seek it." Staubus said his office examines a number of other factors when considering the death penalty. The strength of the case is a big factor along with examining past case law. Other factors considered are the age of the victim and the mental history and IQ of the defendant. What the court has done in similar cases is examined, and the victim's family is consulted about what they would like to see happen. The Times-News examined 5 death penalty cases in Sullivan County spanning 30 years and found each one had the death penalty vacated or new trials ordered. Leonard Smith In 1984, Leonard Smith, along with David Hartsock and Angela O'Quinn, robbed 2 grocery stores. Hartsock shot and killed a man during the 1st robbery, and Smith shot and killed a woman during the 2nd robbery. He was charged with 2 counts of 1st-degree murder. Both murders were joined for trial and Smith was convicted on both counts. The state declined to seek the death penalty for the 1st murder but did seek it for the 2nd. And a jury imposed it. On Smith's 1st appeal, the state upheld the 1st life sentence but vacated the death penalty. The reasoning was the 2 charges should not have been tried together. A new trial was ordered in which Smith was once again convicted of murder and sentenced to death. While the appeals court upheld the guilty verdict, the sentence of death was vacated. The Supreme Court of Tennessee said Smith's prior conviction of the 1st murder was improperly used as an aggravating circumstance. He was once again sentenced to death but it was again vacated because the presiding judge in the case had previously prosecuted Smith, and the appearance of bias was enough to vacate the death sentence. However, his life sentence was upheld. Ronald Harries Ronald Harries shot an 18-year-old woman during the course of a robbery in 1981. He was convicted of 1st-degree murder in 1981 and because of his prior convictions of a felony involving violence, the jury recommended the death sentence. On appeal, Harries claimed to have received ineffective assistance from his attorneys. In 2005, the Tennessee Supreme Court agreed and vacated his death sentence, but not his conviction. He was later sentenced to life. Bobby Godsey In the fall of 1995, Bobby Godsey was watching his girlfriend's 7-month-old son while she drove a friend home. During that time, he became angry with the victim because he would not stop crying. He grabbed the child by the arm and leg and jerked the child up, even though the child's arm was caught in the crib railing. Godsey threw the victim toward the toddler bed 2 feet away. But the child missed the bed and landed on the tile floor, slid under the bed and hit the wall. As a result, the child's skull was fractured and he later died at a hospital. Godsey was eventually charged with murder after giving police several different accounts of what happened. He was found guilty of 1st-degree murder by aggravated child abuse and aggravated child abuse. He was sentenced to death based on an aggravating circumstance of the victim being less than 12 years of age and the defendant being 18 or older. Godsey was 22 at the time. The Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the conviction of 1st-degree murder but reversed the death penalty, saying the punishment was disproportionate for the crime. Instead, Godsey was sentenced to life. Both Godsey and the state appealed the decision to the Tennessee Supreme Court, which upheld the sentence of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. Steven Rollins Steven Rollins was convicted in June 2003 of the premeditated murder of a bait shop owner in order to buy drugs. He was sentenced to death based on 5 aggravating circumstances including being convicted of a felony for a violent crime and the victim being 70 years of age or older. Rollins appealed and said he received ineffective assistance of his attorneys and that he was mentally retarded. The Tennessee Supreme Court agreed and ordered a new trial to be conducted. Rollins eventually pleaded guilty and received a life sentence. Nickolus Johnson In 2004, Nickolus Johnson went to the home of a 17-year-old woman whom he had gotten pregnant. He was angry because she wouldn't have an abortion and showed up at her house with 2 guns. The girl's father called the police and Bristol officer Mark Vance arrived at the home. Johnson shot Vance in the head. He was later convicted on 1 count of premeditated 1st-degree murder and sentenced to death. In April 2015, Johnson filed paperwork seeking a new trial, and in September Staubus and the Sullivan County District Attorney's Office were removed from prosecuting the case after Johnson's attorneys said the office looked at sealed records, which it was not allowed to do. (source: Kingsport Times-News) MISSOURI: Committee will consider today bill that would end death penalty in Missouri Senator Paul Wieland (R-Imperial) has sponsored a bill for the past 6 years that would repeal the death penalty in Missouri. Today is the 1st time a Senate committee will consider his proposal. Wieland said more money is spent on appeals for criminals given the death penalty than a sentence of life in prison. "I think it's fiscally responsible. From a moral standpoint, I'm a pro-life person. I don't think the state should be taking someone's life, especially because we are in a civilized society. If we lived in the old west and that guy was going to get out and kill more people, then I could see the need to protect society," said Wieland. Under his proposal, those on death row would instead be given a sentence of life without parole. "In some ways I think that by having the death penalty and allowing all these appeals, it creates more heartache for the families of the victims," said Wieland. Wieland used to support the death penalty but changed his mind because he doesn't believe it stops someone from committing a crime. He said it's possible to be against the death penalty and tough on crime. "I would argue in some cases it's tougher for a person to have to live their natural life in prison than for the state to execute them in a comfortable way," said Wieland. 6 Republicans and 1 Democrat are co-sponsoring this year's House bill. Missouri is 1 of 31 states that uses the death penalty. (source: missourinet.com) *************** Republicans vie for death penalty reconsideration The Senate Committee on General Laws and Pensions will hear a bill to repeal the death penalty Tuesday. The bill, SB 816, is sponsored by Sen. Paul Wieland, R-Imperial, has received immense grassroots support from a group called Missouri Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty. The group, which is joined in support by members of the Students for Life, College Republicans, and the Missouri Federalist Society, credits growing grassroots support for the early session hearing. "Sen. Wieland is the true pro-life leader in Jefferson City," said Daniel Blassi, president of Students for Life at Southeast Missouri State University and member of Missouri Conservatives Concerned about the Death Penalty. "We may aim to execute only the guilty, but in practice, the death penalty puts too many innocent lives at risk." A similar bill has been filed in the House by Republican Rep. T.J. Berry, R-Kansas City, and has received Republican co-sponsorship and support. Both Republican House and Senate members have filed legislation to repeal the death penalty. Lawmakers have shared various reasons for wanting to consider repeal, ranging from possible exonerations to cowardice. 1 of the 4 new Republican cosponsors of this year's House repeal bill, Rep. Jim Neely, R - Cameron, signed onto the bill for the 1st time this year after feeling that the death penalty is too easy of a way out for criminals that commit heinous acts. "The perverts that perpetrate horrific crimes - people like David Zink - deserve much crueler punishment than we can constitutionally carry out as a State," said Neely. "Our best legal option is to lock these people away and force them to do hard labor until they die." In June of 2015, Zink, 55, was executed in Missouri for the abduction, sexual assault and murder of 19-year-old Amanda Morton in 2001, a killing authorities described as "an unspeakable act of violence." "For those who remain on death row, understand that everyone is going to die," Zink said in his final statement. "Statistically speaking, we have a much easier death than most, so I encourage you to embrace it . . . before society figures it out and condemns us to life without parole and we too will die a lingering death," he said. Other grassroots supporters of the effort support it because of distrust in government competency. "The government is incompetent at just about everything," said Jennifer Bukowsky, Esq. on Fire, a Republican attorney who takes on pro bono cases for Missourians imprisoned for murder despite actual innocence claims. "So how can we trust them to kill the right people and to do it in the right way?" Gary Nolan, host of the nationally-syndicated conservative radio talk show, The Gary Nolan Show, agrees with Bukowsky. "I want to make it clear that I don't have a moral problem with executing some people; what I have a problem with is our system of justice," said Nolan. "If you've got people who are confessing to a crime of murder, who might ultimately get the death penalty even though they didn't commit the murder, then you have do a rethink." Others have begun to feel the death penalty is at odds with the core conservative values of fiscal responsibility, limited government, and value for life. "Heinous criminals deserve swift justice, but it's difficult to justify a government program that siphons millions of dollars from Missouri taxpayers despite the lack of evidence that it deters crime," said Jake Buxton, Chair of the College Republicans at Truman State University. "Our State can't afford the death penalty as it stands." The Senate hearing will be held Tuesday at 3 p.m. in Senate Committee Room 1 of the State Capitol. For more information visit moconservativesconcerned.org. (source: The Missouri Times) ARIZONA: The Keystone Kops of Capital Punishment There's nothing funny about executing someone. But if there were to be a movie about Arizona's bumbling, stumbling (but, for some reason, NOT humbling) experience with the death penalty it would have to be a comedy. A old Mack Sennett silent movie short, preferably, featuring the Keystone Kops of capital punishment - Arizona politicians. It's just 1 slapstick routine after another. Most recently, lawyers for the state told the federal judge hearing challenges to the state's execution procedures that Arizona's supply of the drug midazolam, part of the state's killer cocktail, will expire in May. According the reporting by The Arizona Republic's Michael Kiefer, lawyers for the Federal Public Defender's Office in Phoenix who filed the lawsuit on behalf of 5 death row prisoners facing imminent execution, the case won't be resolved by May. As you may recall the execution of Joseph Wood in 2014, which used midazolam that had not expired, was a cruelly botched affair in which the executioner had to administer the (eventually) lethal dose 15 times before Wood died. And there's a problem with getting any more of the drug. One manufacturer of midazolam sent a letter to the Corrections Department demanding it return the midazolam it had purchased from that company. It said that using the drug to execute someone "is contrary to Akorn's commitment to promote the health and wellness of human patients." Likewise, Kiefer has reported that Arizona was among several states that were illegally importing from Europe another execution drug, sodium thiopental. Now, the pharmaceutical firms in Europe are refusing to supply drugs to American prisons for use in executions. It could be that Arizona, after all the money and all the expense and all the horror, will have to start from scratch and devise some new protocol to execute the condemned. How far back will we want to go? We used to hang people, but then a condemned woman was decapitated by the noose and we stopped doing that. We tried the gas chamber, but that led to an entire new set of horrors, writhing deaths in front of witnesses. So we moved to a drug protocol, which hasn't gone well either. Still, the people we elect seem willing and eager to find a new method for execution, sparing no amount of effort or expense. If only they were that dedicated helping people. School children. The poor. The uninsured. A junkie doesn't heed warnings, however, and Arizona is addicted to the death penalty. Capital punishment costs more than keeping killers in jail for life. It wastes a tremendous amount of time and legal resources. It goes wrong. It's the slapstick burlesque show of Arizona's criminal justice system. Laughable. But not funny. (source: EJ Montini, The Arizona Republic) CALIFORNIA: Long Beach father pleads not guilty to killing ex-girlfriend A Long Beach man pleaded not guilty Jan. 14 to killing his 25-year-old ex-girlfriend in front of their son during an argument in December, according to the Los Angeles County district attorney's office. Eric Jerome Williams Jr. a 29-year-old black man, has been charged with murder, child abuse, possession of a firearm by a felon and resisting or delaying a peace officer, prosecutors said. Williams also faces 2 counts of injuring a child's parent, which are charges from a previous incident. The complaint also includes a special circumstance allegation that Williams killed Jerica Owens because she was a witness to a crime and a special allegation that he discharged a firearm which caused death. Williams and Owens were in a relationship for several years, had a son together and shared a home before they broke up, according to a news release from the district attorney's office. On Dec. 22, Williams met with Owens and their son in the 1900 block of Chestnut in Long Beach, where the 2 adults got into an argument, according to the release. Williams allegedly pulled out a gun and shot Owens in the head several times in front of their son, then fled the area with their child. He was arrested later that day after witnesses reported seeing a toddler running nearly naked in the area. A Long Beach police officer spotted Williams at a friend's home near the shooting scene. Williams refused to come out when police officers came to the door, and the officers forcibly entered out of fear for the child's safety. Williams was arrested at that time. One of the charges stems from an incident on Oct. 10, 2015, when Williams met with Owens to exchange their son, according to the release. Williams allegedly became angry with Owens, choking her until she passed out and choking her again when she regained consciousness, prosecutors say. Williams was previously convicted of battery in 2008 and unlawful driving or taking of a vehicle in 2010, according to prosecutors. If convicted, Williams faces the death penalty or life in prison without the possibility of parole, according to the release. The decision whether to seek the death penalty will be made at a later date. (source: Los Angeles Times) *********** Defense team in 2013 slaying case of young girl seek to have charges dismissed Defense attorneys for a Fairfield man facing a death penalty trial later this year have filed numerous motions, including requests to bar the death penalty, remove the Solano County District Attorney's Office from the case and dismiss the case entirely over an allegation prosecutors withheld information. The defense motions, filed last week by attorneys for murder defendant Anthony Lemar Jones, 35, accuse prosecutors of withholding a statement made by family members of the victim in the case in which they allegedly indicated they did not want the death penalty sought. Jones, 35, is accused of the strangulation death of 13-year-old Genelle Conway-Allen, whose naked and lifeless body was found Feb. 1, 2013, in Allan Witt Park. In April 2015, prosecutors announced they would seek the death penalty in the case. Prior hearings have indicated that Jones is alleged to have followed Genelle in his vehicle as she walked home from school on Jan. 31, 2013, before stopping to ask her name. A student who was walking home with her that day testified during a November 2014 hearing that he saw Genelle get in Jones' car. Genelle, according to testimony, did not return home that day, leading her foster mother to report her missing. She was found dead the following morning. In a motion to dismiss the case due to outrageous government conduct, defense attorneys for Jones stated in a court filing they presented evidence before a committee of prosecutors in March 2015, offering evidence that would mitigate a decision to seek death. Defense attorneys now allege that prosecutors knew as early as February 2015 that family members did not wish to have the death penalty sought in the case and did not share that information with the defense team prior to making a presentation to prosecutors. "The District Attorney's failure to turn over material relevant to punishment interfered with Mr. Jones's right to effective assistance of counsel and prejudiced him. Mr. Jones is entitled to counsel who advocate at every turn, using every mitigating circumstance, that death is not an appropriate sentence," defense attorneys wrote in their motion. In separate motions, defense attorneys are also asking a Solano County Superior Court judge to bar the death penalty in Jones' case and remove the Solano County District Attorney's Office and appoint the state Attorney General to assume the role of prosecutor. The motions, in part, reference issues that have already been litigated in the case. In making their argument, defense attorneys allege that prosecutors withheld an e-mail from Dr. Susan Hogan, former forensic pathologist for Solano County, to prosecutors, for 7 months. Hogan, who performed the initial autopsy on Conway-Allen, retired from the Solano County Sheriff's Office in December 2013, according to officials. Hogan's e-mail to the prosecutor, according to a copy of the message included in a prior defense motion to dismiss the case, suggests that the case is a "very straight forward ligature strangulation case..." Hogan also casually speculates in the e-mail that there may have been evidence of consensual sex. A 2nd autopsy was performed in the case. A motion to remove the District Attorney's Office followed as did months of repeated hearings regarding evidentiary issues in the case. A prior motion to recuse the District Attorney was argued before Judge E. Bradley Nelson in October 2014, and ultimately denied. Nelson, at that hearing stated that he hadn't seen the Solano County District Attorney's Office pursuing anything other than "impartial justice." In addition, Nelson acknowledging the prosecutor's willingness to comply with repeated discovery requests from defense attorneys, described it as being "above and beyond reproach." Despite that, the defense team's renewed motion to recuse the District Attorney's Office and a motion to bar the death penalty allege a "pattern and practice" of discovery violations and references a "penchant" for hiding and delaying the disclosure of exculpatory evidence. The motions are set to be heard Feb. 2. Prosecutors will likely file an opposition with the court. Jones is charged with murder with special circumstances in connection with Genelle's death. The special circumstance allegations prosecutors have included allege the murder was committed during the commission of a kidnapping, sodomy and lewd or lascivious act. Jones has pleaded not guilty and remains in Solano County Jail custody without bail. (source: The Reporter) From rhalperi at smu.edu Tue Jan 19 08:35:16 2016 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Tue, 19 Jan 2016 08:35:16 -0600 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide Message-ID: Jan. 19 THAILAND: David Miller's father opposes Koh Tao death sentence The father of slain British backpacker David Miller has said he does not want the men convicted of his murder to get the death penalty. Ian Miller told the Jersey Evening Post that although he was sure Myanmar migrant workers Zaw Lin and Win Zaw Htun were guilty of killing his son, he did not endorse the death penalty for them. "The message we want to get across is that there has been enough death," he told the newspaper, adding that his family had been vilified by internet users for supporting the conviction. Zaw Lin and Win Zaw Htun were convicted of the murder of Miller and of the rape and murder of fellow Brit Hannah Witheridge on Koh Tao in September 2014. They received death sentences from a Koh Samui court last month. The investigation into the case and court verdict have been widely criticised, with many claiming the 2 Myanmar nationals had been used as scapegoats by the Thai justice system. Hundreds of people protested outside the Thai embassy in Yangon while hackers attacked Thai police and court websites. David Miller's brother Michael read a statement after the verdict, saying "justice... has been delivered" and that the family believed "the correct verdict has been reached". However Hannah Witheridge's family were more circumspect immediately afterwards, saying they needed time "to digest the outcome of the trial" and "figure out the most appropriate way to tell our story". Hannah's sister Laura last week posted a note on her Facebook slamming Thai authorities over the "bungled" investigation into the murders. The note has since been removed. (source: coconuts.co) SRI LANKA: Death penalty to suspects of Mirasuvil murder 3 suspects responsible for the murder of an individual in the Jaffna, Mirisuvil area has been sentenced to death by the Jaffna High court judge, Eelancheliyan yesterday. The murder was committed in 2006 December 13th where the victim was attacked and killed after being hit with a mortar. The 1st suspect was arrested when he was riding a motorcycle. The other suspects were arrested later on. The murder weapon - a mortar was found disposed in a paddy field near the Kudameeyan Army camp. (source: hirunews.lk) BAHAMAS: Bran: 'How Many Must Die Before We Carry Out Capital Punishment?' Democratic National Alliance Leader Branville McCartney yesterday asked "how many more must die" to violence before lawmakers do what is necessary to protect the public and carry out capital punishment. The question was in direct response to the recent home invasion and attack on Pastor Rex Major. The pastor, 80, was gun-butted last Thursday after armed intruders broke into his home and attempted to sexually assault his daughter before fleeing the scene with electronics. A day before the attack, Chief Justice Sir Hartman Longley suggested that without changes to existing laws, it would take a massacre similar to the Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris for the death penalty to be imposed in the Bahamas. Mr McCartney said the incident and the distressing statement of the top judge were a glaring reminder of successive governments' "lack of political will" in dealing with the country's existing crime woes. So far this year, 3 people have been murdered and the country saw a record breaking 149 homicides in 2015. "Days into the start of a new year and already more families have had to deal with the pain of losing a loved one," the former Bamboo Town MP said. "But the question is: How many more must die? Have we not had enough? Has crime in this country not already reached catastrophic proportions? Do the lives of those already lost to us not warrant real, decisive and strong action on the part of our lawmakers? The answer is unquestionably 'yes'." "The comments of the chief justice, while distressing on their own, speak to an even more important issue: a lack of political will. For years now, the government has stood idly by and watched as the criminal element has grown stronger and more insidious," Mr McCartney said. "This and previous administrations have neglected to address shortfalls in the judicial system and have interfered consistently in the work of the Royal Bahamas Police Force and now, we are all paying the price." Last Wednesday, opening of the new legal year, Sir Hartman suggested that "having regard to the prevailing jurisprudence, that the death penalty is virtually dead." "I share the view expressed by the president of the Court of Appeal. Unless we have the experience of a Charlie Hebdo, or San Bernardino, the chances of ever imposing the death penalty under the present regime are virtually nil." "The question we have to ask ourselves is do we wish to retain the death penalty, and so if this is to become a reality, my view is that a constitutional amendment would be necessary, and not by some omnibus clause," Sir Hartman added. The last person executed in the Bahamas was David Mitchell in January 2000. He was convicted of stabbing 2 German tourists to death. Mitchell's execution was controversial because it was carried out while he had an appeal pending before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. International criticism of the move was followed by a moratorium on capital punishment, which lasted until the Privy Council's 2006 decision in the case of Maxo Tido. In 2011, after a ruling from the London-based Privy Council, the Ingraham administration amended the death penalty law to specify the "worst of the worst" murders that would warrant execution. Under the amended law, a person who kills a police or defence force officer, member of the Departments of Customs or Immigration, judiciary or prison services would be eligible for a death sentence. A person would also be eligible for death once convicted of murdering someone during a rape, robbery, kidnapping or act of terrorism. Mr McCartney yesterday said that Bahamians "should not be bound by senior men in England who wish to assert their beliefs against capital punishment on a country they have no knowledge about." The DNA leader stressed that the chief justice's statement was "clearly a challenge to the legislative and executive arms of government; an exhortation and a call to action." "For far too long, the criminal element has had the upper hand, while honest, hardworking Bahamians have been forced to live in fear," he added. "If we are to reverse this trend then we cannot and must not wait for a Paris-like attack before we are compelled to protect our people." (source: Bahamas Tribune) ZIMBABWE: Bring finality to constitutionality of death penalty The matter regarding the constitutionality of the death penalty and life sentences has been raging for some time now with cases of death row inmates rolling before the highest court on constitutional matters in the land.The coming into effect of the current Constitution brings to the fore contentious legal questions vis-a-vis the constitutionality of the death penalty. Sometime in mid-October last year 2 matters initiated by legal think- tank Veritas were brought before the court. 2 applicants, convicted in separate cases of murder and sentenced to death in July 2002 and May 2012 respectively, were challenging the legality of the death penalty in light of the new Constitution. There was the matter of Ndhlovu versus the Minister of Justice (case CCZ50/15) and the case of Makoni versus Commissioner-General of Prisons and Correctional Services and Another (CCZ48/2015) which involved a prisoner convicted of murdering his girlfriend in 1995. The two were convicted before the new Constitution came into operation. Veritas, therefore, cited that although the 2 were lawfully sentenced to death, the sentence now had to be set aside because of the provisions of the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act (CPEA) under which the condemned were sentenced which has since become inconsistent with Section 48 of the new Constitution. court-gavel According to Section 48(2) of the new Constitution: "A law may permit the death penalty to be imposed only on a person convicted of murder committed in aggravating circumstances." It is in this regard that the CPEA is not in conformity with the Constitution of Zimbabwe on the imposition of the death penalty. In other words, this law, contemplated in Section 48, is not yet in existence and therefore the death sentence cannot be passed. If this law is passed, then the death penalty can be passed under it. Otherwise, as things stand, this country cannot pass the death sentence and it thus remains important that finality is reached on the matter. The recent death penalty case challenge by Chawira and 14 others versus Minister of Justice has the prisoners seeking an order that their death sentences be commuted to life imprisonment as Section 53 of the Constitution protects everyone including convicted prisoners against torture or cruel, degrading treatment. They want the Constitutional Court to define their fundamental rights as enshrined in sections 51 and 53 of the national charter. They want the Constitutional Court to commute their sentences to life imprisonment and their plea is being facilitated by Veritas again. Convicted murderer Cuthbert Tapuwanashe Chawira (45) and 14 other murder convicts have been languishing in prison for periods of between four and 20 years.Chawira has been on death row since September 2000 over a 1999 armed robbery which led to a murder in Gweru. In their affidavit they state: "That being so because of the torture we have been subjected to while waiting for a long time on death row, it will be unconstitutional to execute us and therefore the sentence should now be committed to that of life imprisonment. The anguish of being not told the day of execution is unbearable. There is nothing as challenging to a human being as living a life without hope. Most of us have no hope that we will live and we are just sitting in dark waiting to be executed." Now, the matter has stood for long and it is overwhelmingly urgent that finality is reached. There have been 2 strong schools of thought with one group rooting for the abolition of the death penalty while others contend that those who don't value the lives of others ought not to be spared themselves. Without wading into the contentious debate, it is in the nation's best interest that this matter is conclusively dealt with as to settle the confusion surrounding the matter. Undeniably, in view of the new Constitution, Zimbabwe cannot pass the death sentence unless Parliament enacts a law which provides for it. The new order leaves the decision to the legislature. In the absence of the specific law providing for the death sentence, it cannot be passed. Also, it is a valid argument that the death penalty, to a huge extent, violates Section 51 of the current Constitution which unequivocally states: "Every person has inherent dignity in their private and public life, and the right to have that dignity respected and protected." Section 53 as well protects against cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment. The 15 death row inmates being represented by Tendai Biti would be right to seek the court to define their fundamental rights as espoused in both sections 51 and 53. It is crucial that conclusiveness is reached on the matter because, honestly, the anguish of prisoners not being told when they would be hanged is agonising. Finality, either way, it brings a sense of certainty as well as relieving prisoners of the psychological torture. Let's bring finality to the death penalty issue. (source: Learnmore Zuze is a legal researcher, author and media analyst. He writes here in his own capacity----Newsday) SAUDI ARABIA: UK's soft diplomacy approach to Saudi Arabia is not enough, say families of juveniles still on death row----Exclusive: Families of three juveniles on Saudi death row say nothing has changed and they still have 'the sword over their necks', despite apparent UK intervention Britain's soft approach to diplomacy with Saudi Arabia is not working - according to the families of 3 juvenile offenders held up by the UK as examples of its success. Ali al-Nimr, Abdullah al-Zaher and Dawoud al-Marhoon were all children when they were arrested by the Saudi authorities for attending protests, and yet they were sentenced to death after a secretive court process. When he defended the Government's meek response to the mass execution of 47 people in the kingdom on 2 January, Philip Hammond said the 3 juveniles showed Britain could get results in Saudi Arabia when it intervened in specific cases. But The Independent can reveal that almost exactly three months after the Foreign Secretary told Parliament "private" UK diplomacy had secured clemency for the child offenders, nothing has really changed. This newspaper understands Mr al-Zaher, the youngest of the boys who was just 15 when he was arrested, has been transferred to a prison in Riyadh where a number of the 47 executions were carried out at the start of the month. Mr al-Nimr and Mr al-Marhoon have also been moved since the mass executions from Riyadh to the infamous Dammam prison in the Eastern Province, a facility known for housing death row inmates in the past. According to Reprieve, a human rights organisation which is campaigning on behalf of the juveniles, sudden prison transfers are often a precursor to sentences being carried out, and the families say all three could be executed any day. Speaking exclusively to The Independent, the family of Mr al-Zaher was hesitant to accuse any one government of failure to intervene on his behalf. "Our son - who was just 15 when he was arrested and tortured - is awaiting execution in solitary confinement and being held miles away from his home," they said in a statement. "We are in agony wondering what will happen to him. Other governments keep saying they 'do not expect' him and the other juveniles to be executed, but where is the proof? "We sincerely hope that the international community will demand the release of Abdullah and the other juveniles arrested at protests." Mohammed al-Nimr, Ali's father and the brother of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, said his son and Mr al-Marhoon had been moved but no reason was given to explain it. He said the pair were "on death row with the sword over their necks". Maya Foa, head of Reprieve's death penalty team, said: "It is shocking that the Saudi authorities are still threatening to execute 3 juveniles who were arrested at protests, tortured into dubious 'confessions', and sentenced to death in flagrantly unfair trials. "The British government and others have spoken of Saudi assurances that Ali, Dawoud and Abdullah won't be killed - but this is cold comfort to the families who are terrified of what might happen, amid a surge in Saudi executions." She added: "Governments that are close to Saudi Arabia - the UK included - must firmly demand the release of the juveniles without delay." Speaking on the BBC's Today programme on Monday, David Cameron stood by Britain's relationship with Saudi Arabia in spite of growing concerns over human rights abuses in the kingdom. "First of all, our relationship with Saudi Arabia is important for our own security. They are opponents of Daesh [Isis] and the extremism [they spread]," the Prime Minister said. Mr Cameron's praise for the autocracy comes days after Saudi Arabia's foreign minister Adel al-Jubeir urged Britain to "respect" his country's use of the death penalty. He told Channel 4 News: "With regards to the perception of Saudi Arabia among the British public, this is a problem we need to work on." (source: The Independent) **************** 'He knew they'd kill him in the end': Son of prominent Shia cleric al-Nimr speaks to RT Mohammed al-Nimr, the son of Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, executed in Saudi Arabia in the beginning of the year, has told RT how his father fought for the rights of "all the people" while having been allegedly tortured after his arrest by Riyadh. "He spoke for all the people, he didn't speak only for the Shia [community]. He asked the [Saudi] government to release all political prisoners. They got mad because he defended everyone who was oppressed by this government," Mohammed al-Nimr said, adding that many people looked up to his father when he started talking about human rights. "That is one of the main things that they [Riyadh] didn't like about him," the cleric's son said. Nimr al-Nimr, described by his son as an "honest and a gentle man," was a staunch critic of the Saudi leadership. The cleric, who called for the self-rule of the Saudi Shia population, was among 47 people executed in Saudi Arabia at the start of the year on terrorism charges. The execution sparked not only a strong reaction in the Middle East, but also an international outcry. Hundreds of activists took to the streets of New York on Sunday, gathering in Times Square for an anti-Saudi rally. Protesters called for peace among the different branches of Islam, while condemning what they say is Saudi oppression of the Shias. "Most people who know about my father will act in a human way. They are sincere. They're seeing the truth, what is really going on," Mohammed al-Nimr told RT, adding that while "political activists and politicians... are aware of what is going on [in Saudi Arabia], the media here is not focusing on human rights very much." Riyadh acts as if it is still living in the 20th century, the son of the Shia cleric said. "Saudi Arabia still thinks it's 1980 and there is no internet, there is no international news. It's like they are living in a small box, but the whole world is watching what is going on there. They are the only ones not seeing what is going on outside that box," he said, adding that while Riyadh's leaders are "trying to prove themselves" to be a strong government by showing people "a strong fist," they have no right to do so "by killing their people." The Saudi foreign minister, when warning other countries against intervening in the Kingdom's affairs, has said the death penalty is part of Saudi law. Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr's son also told RT about how violently his father had been arrested and then treated while having been captured by the Saudis. "He told us exactly how he was arrested. He was driving his car and they followed him, they bashed his car from behind, so the car hit a wall. Then they went to his car and pulled him out. His seatbelt was on. The policemen pulled him out of the car very roughly. Even the buckle of his seatbelt came out of the car. They shot him at close range 4 times, hitting his leg. He was not armed," Mohammed al-Nimr said. Following the man's arrest, he wasn't given proper treatment for his injuries, his son said, adding that because his father had been deprived of sufficient pain medication, "he couldn???t sleep for basically 1 year" suffering from pain. "He was tied with 6 chains to his bed, even though he couldn't walk. They left 1 bullet in intentionally so it would stay in his thigh and bother him all the time," Mohammed al-Nimr said. After the man's execution, his family was not given the body for a proper burial, but it was instead hidden by the Saudis, his son said. "He didn't back out. He didn't change his opinion. He kept asking for justice. My father knew that they would kill him in the end. And he said that many times: 'Our blood is a cheap price to pay for our beliefs'," Mohammed al-Nimr told RT. (source: rt.com) NIGERIA: Reps Minority Whip canvasses death penalty, amputation for corrupt officials----Barde said: "We live in a funny country, where people steal N1,000 and they are put in jail for years, while some other people will steal billions of naira and use that same billions to escape justice The Minority Whip in the House of Representatives, Danjuma Barde, on Monday called for imposition of capital punishment on corrupt public officers in the country. The legislator spoke at a media forum in Kaduna organised by the Kaduna State chapter of the Correspondent's Chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists. Barde said: "We live in a funny country, where people steal N1,000 and they are put in jail for years, while some other people will steal billions of naira and use that same billions to escape justice. "If somebody steal from N1 million to N100 million, they should cut his hand and those who steal from N1 billion above should be hanged." The lawmaker said he was discussing with other members of the House to provide for the setting up of special courts to handle corruption cases and stiffer penalties for those convicted. Barde, a 3-time member of the House representing Chikun Federal Constituency, said the special courts would speed up the prosecution of those charged with corruption. He said: "I am a believer of the fact that people should be punished for their crimes, no matter how highly placed they are in the society. "I also believe that punishment should be segregated such that it should be commensurable to the crime and be punished according to the amount of money they steal. "I have started discussions with some of my colleague members of the National Assembly on the need to set up a special and dedicated court to try these kind of people so that justice will be dispensed off quickly." According to Barde, stiffer punishment like cutting-off of the arm of a convicted person or death sentence will deter other public office holders and individuals. He said: "If am a Judge and such case or person is brought before me, I will make sure I confiscate his property and sentence him to death." He noted that some corrupt public officers were exploiting the loopholes in the nation's legal system to delay justice. Barde said: "Some former governors have cases with the EFCC and the ICPC for the last 8 years without appearing in court even once. "There are other corruption cases against some public office holders still pending in the conventional courts and justice is being delayed as some of them even die and leave such cases pending in courts. "But if the Government establishes a special court to specifically prosecute those corruption cases, it would speed up justice and that would send a warning to people with tendencies of corrupt practices to change their minds." Barde, a member of the Peoples Democratic Party, commended President Muhammadu Buhari for the measures taken so far in the fight against corruption in the country. The legislator, however, urged the administration to respect the rule of law and allow those on bail enjoy their freedom pending the determination of cases against them. Barde said Nigerians must take bold steps to eradicate corruption by supporting ongoing efforts of government to eliminate the scourge. He said: "Corruption, hunger or poverty does not know party, tribe or religion. "We know how Nigerians are suffering, so there should be no sympathy for such persons who are involved in such acts." (source: theeagleonline.com.ng) IRAN: 52 executions in first 2 weeks of January ---- The religious fascism ruling Iran increases hangings concurrent with the implementation of the nuclear deal on the verge of sham elections The antihuman Iranian regime that closed its infamous dossier for 2015 with over 1,000 executions has begun the New Year by ramping up executions throughout the country such that in just the first 2 weeks of this year 52 executions have been registered. The forced retreat from the nuclear bomb and the implementation of the nuclear deal with the P5+1, the upcoming elections for the Assembly of Experts and the parliament, and the intensification of the power struggle within regime's factions have tightened the noose around the regime's neck. To confront these crises, the Iranian regime is planning to increase its death sentences and climate of terror in the society to thwart the expansion of popular protests and the explosion of popular wrath. Since the beginning of January to this day, the clerical regime has executed 52 prisoners, including 1 woman, in various cities. Four of the prisoners have been hanged in public and most prisoners were executed in groups. On January 16, 4 prisoners were hanged in Rasht's central prison and on January 14 1 prisoner was hanged in Yazd's central prison. On the previous day, there was a group hanging of 6 prisoners in Urmia prison and 1 prisoner was executed in Shiraz prison. On January 12, 4 prisoners were collectively hanged in Karaj's Central Prison and another prisoner was executed in Zanjan. On January 11, 3 prisoners were hanged in Sari prison and 1 was hanged in Mashhad prison. On January 9 and 10, 2 prisoners were hanged in Rasht's central prison, 3 were executed in Larestan (Fars Province), and 1 prisoner was hanged in Khorramabad prison. On January 7, 2 young men were hanged in public in Shabestar and Khoy, 3 prisoners were sent to the gallows in Ardabil's central prison, and 1 prisoner was executed in Hamadan's central prison. On January 6 there were 13 executions; 5 prisoners in Gohardasht (Rajai Shahr) Prison, 3 in Karaj Central Prison, and 5 prisoners, including a woman, in Tabriz central prison. >From January 2 to 5, 5 prisoners were executed in prisons in Noshahr, Khorramabad and Urmia and 1 prisoner was hanged in public in the town of Sourak Miandoroud in Mazandaran Province. ************************ Waves of executions in Iran condemned in the Netherlands Supporters of the Iranian Resistance staged 2 rallies on Saturday, January 16 in downtown Amsterdam and outside the Dutch Parliament in The Hague condemning gross human rights violations in Iran, especially mass executions by the Iranian regime. Participants in these rallies also called on the major world powers to set aside the appeasement policy vis-???-vis the "godfather of terrorism" in Iran. These protesters also called for practical measures by the international community in condemning the practice of executions and torture in Iran, and placing senior Iranian regime officials before international tribunals. The placards raised by the protesters read in part that the mullahs' president Hassan Rouhani is the president of 2,000 executions and any rapprochement with the Iranian regime must be contingent upon on the termination of executions in Iran. In the first 16 days of January, the mullahs' inhumane regime in Iran has sent 53 prisoners, including 1 woman, to the gallows in various towns. 4 of these prisoners were hanged in public and most of the prisoners were executed in groups. The human rights situation has been deteriorating rapidly in Iran. More than 2,000 individuals have been executed during Hassan Rouhani's tenure as President of the regime. This is the highest rate of executions in the past 25 years, and it reflects an increase over figures that had already secured Iran's place as the nation with the most executions per capita. On December 17, 2015, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution strongly condemning the brutal and systematic violation of human rights in Iran, in particular the mass and arbitrary executions, increasing violence and discrimination against women and ethnic and religious minorities. Following the adoption of the 62nd UN resolution censuring human rights abuses in Iran, the Iranian Resistance's President-elect Maryam Rajavi called on the UN Security Council to hold the leaders of the clerical regime accountable and prosecute them for crimes against humanity. She underlined that this is a necessary step towards respecting the international community's vote that condemned the systematic and flagrant violations of human rights in Iran. (source for all: Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran ************************ "No to Execution" and "No to Rouhani" rallies in Canada Freedom-loving Iranian-Canadians and Iranian Resistance supporters in Ottawa and Toronto held rallies on Saturday, January 16 protesting the upcoming visit by the Iranian regime's president Hassan Rouhani to Europe. These protesters demonstrated in downtown Toronto and outside the Federal Parliament in Ottawa against gross human rights violations in Iran, especially horrific executions in Iran. In the first 16 days of January, the mullahs' inhumane regime in Iran has sent 53 prisoners, including 1 woman, to the gallows in various towns. 4 of these prisoners were hanged in public and most of the prisoners were executed in groups. The inhumane mullahs' regime, unable to contain its domestic and international crises and finding itself incapable before the waves of popular protests by people in cities across Iran, especially those in poverty-stricken areas, sees the only solution to its in escalating crackdown measures. The human rights situation has been deteriorating rapidly in Iran. More than 2,000 individuals have been executed during Hassan Rouhani's tenure as President of the regime. This is the highest rate of executions in the past 25 years, and it reflects an increase over figures that had already secured Iran's place as the nation with the most executions per capita. On December 17, 2015, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution strongly condemning the brutal and systematic violation of human rights in Iran, in particular the mass and arbitrary executions, increasing violence and discrimination against women and ethnic and religious minorities. Following the adoption of the 62nd UN resolution censuring human rights abuses in Iran, the Iranian Resistance's President-elect Maryam Rajavi called on the UN Security Council to hold the leaders of the clerical regime accountable and prosecute them for crimes against humanity. She underlined that this is a necessary step towards respecting the international community's vote that condemned the systematic and flagrant violations of human rights in Iran. ***************** EU aid cash linked to death penalty in Iran----Campaigners call for suspension of EU funding to drug program operating in Iran as executions increase British aid money may be indirectly facilitating Iran's use of the death penalty, campaigners have warned. Reprieve, the anti-death penalty campaign, says it has established a paper trail that links British aid contributions via the EU to an Iranian police force responsible for hundreds of hangings last year. The charity has called for a suspension of payments to the training program, amid a sharp rise in executions by Tehran. The disclosure risks embarrassment for the European Union, given its public opposition to the death penalty, and comes amid a furious row between Saudi Arabia and Iran over the execution of a cleric by Riyadh. It will also raise concerns about Britain's inability to control how the EU spends its aid budget, which is funded by UK taxpayers. The concern centres on a programme run by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran and neighbouring countries. The $10 million project has provided training in forensics, communications and intelligence to police forces in the region in order to tackle smuggling gangs. An internal progress report on the scheme lists a series of arrests that the UN said were evidence that the scheme was bearing fruit. They include the arrest of 10 people, in 2 separate raids, by the Iranian anti-narcotics police for suspected trafficking of opium and hashish. Based on the quantities said to have been recovered, they will "inevitably" have been sentenced to death under the Iranian penal code, Reprieve said. The concern is compounded by widespread corruption in the Iranian justice system. According to the Foreign Office's own assessment, Iranian judges are accused of handing down convictions "almost exclusively" on the testimony of the police and "rarely considered evidence offered by the defence". The project's funding has included $2.4m from the EU's foreign aid fund, while in total EU has $171m committed in total to the agency's funding. Britain counts a share of spending by the EU - around 800 million pounds a year - towards its foreign aid target of spending 0.7 % of GDP on aid per year. Executions in Iran markedly increased last year to more than 830 up to November, the highest per capita rate in the world, with the vast majority for drug offences. Blasphemy, adultery and homosexuality are also capital offences. President Rouhani has justified the dramatic increase. "If we abolished the death penalty we would enhance their drug trafficking up to the European countries and that would be dangerous for you," he told an Italian newspaper. Dan Dolan, of Reprieve, said the UN had shown a "complete disregard" for human rights by assisting the Iranians, and called for a full review of the EU's support for the programme. "Iran's execution rate has skyrocketed, with hundreds sent to the gallows on drugs charges following trials that make a mockery of justice. The EU has no legitimate defence for supporting this, and it should reject the absurd claim by Iran's President Rouhani that these executions are somehow in Europe's interests. "If the EU is to maintain any credibility in opposing the death penalty it should end this grievous misuse of taxpayers' money." The UNODC did not comment on Reprieve's warnings, but said it "opposes the death penalty in all circumstances". "Under international law, if the death penalty is to be used at all, it should only be imposed for the most serious crimes, namely those involving intentional killing, and only with appropriate safeguards. Drug-related offences generally are not considered to fall under the category of 'most serious crimes.'" An EU spokesman said the focus of the programme was stopping drugs from Afghanistan reaching Europe. They denied there was a risk of aiding the Iranian regime carry out executions. "The ultimate objective is to keep dangerous illegal drugs off our streets and it does so in a way that respects human rights, as any EU projects do. All EU projects are prepared against a risk assessment methodology ensuring that EU funding do not facilitate death sentences in countries where it is enforced. This has obviously been the case with this project. "The EU is opposed to the death penalty the world over and consistently calls on all states which apply capital punishment to halt all pending executions and introduce a moratorium on the death penalty." (source: The Telegraph) From rhalperi at smu.edu Tue Jan 19 13:24:38 2016 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Tue, 19 Jan 2016 13:24:38 -0600 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, N.C., GA., FLA., OKLA. Message-ID: Jan. 19 TEXAS----impending execution Supreme Court refuses to review Texas death penalty case The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to review the case of a 42-year-old man set to die next month for the slaying of a suburban Dallas liquor store clerk. The high court, without comment Tuesday, rejected an appeal from Gustavo Garcia, who's scheduled for lethal injection Feb. 16. Garcia was 19 in December 1990 when 43-year-old Craig Turski was fatally shot during a holdup in Plano. Authorities tied him to a second slaying a month later, also in Plano. In earlier unsuccessful appeals, Garcia's attorneys contended his 2 written confessions improperly were admitted into evidence at his trial, that his trial legal help was deficient and that 2 prospective jurors improperly were excused. Garcia was 1 of 7 inmates involved in at attempted escape from death row in 1998. (source: valleycentral.com) NORTH CAROLINA: Reputed gang members could get capital punishment trial It's still yet to be decided if Jamell Cureton, along with reputed gang member Malcolm Hartley, will face the death penalty for crimes they allegedly committed as members of the United Blood Nation. In 2015, 6 other reputed gang members pleaded guilty for their role in a racketeering and conspiracy case involving the 2014 shooting deaths of Doug and Debbie London. Hartley is accused of shooting the Londons at Cureton's request. Prosecutors said the Londons were gunned down in their home to keep them from testifying against 3 United Blood Nation members in an earlier robbery case. Tuesday morning, prosecutors told a judge they are still waiting on a recommendation from the Department of Justice to determine whether or not they will pursue the death penalty. As part of discovery, federal prosecutors said they plan on using the interviews they conducted with the criminals who already pleaded guilty in connection to this case. Prosecutors said they hope formal proceedings will continue in February. (source: WBTV news) GEORGIA----impending execution Brandon Astor Jones - time is running out An execution date of 2 February has been set. Please write to the Governor of Georgia to appeal for clemency. Regular readers of New Internationalist magazine, and of our website, will be familiar with the name of Brandon Astor Jones. He has been an occasional contributor for many years. Nothing surprising in that: many of our contributors are longstanding, and many of them have become friends. What is unique about Brandon, however, is that for the many decades we have known him, he has written for us from a prison in the US state of Georgia. Convicted of killing a store clerk in 1972, Brandon, now nearly 73 years old, was sentenced to death in 1979; of his 36 years in prison, nearly 20 of them have been spent on death row. He is the state's oldest death row inmate and, following the failure of his latest appeal, is due to be executed at 7pm on Tuesday 2 February. Georgia executed 5 people in 2015, including 1 woman. In 2008, at a time when Brandon believed his execution was near, he wrote an article for us which contained what he called 'my last will and testament'. You can read it in full here: newint.org/features/2008/01/01/death-penalty. In it, he writes: I am under sentence of death here in the American Southland. Over a period of many years I have stretched and tested the limits of the so-called 'appeals process'. I am very likely to be killed in the near, as opposed to the distant, future. When New Internationalist gave me leave to write whatever I chose about the death penalty, I decided to take an unusual approach. I respectfully request that the reader absorb this more as my last will and testament than a mere essay. Brandon's association with New Internationalist predates my own by a long way. I have worked here for 18 years, yet this is just 1/2 the amount of time that Brandon has spent in prison. Over the past few years, while working on our blogs, I have had the pleasure of communicating with Brandon, and getting to know him through the pieces he has written for us. Through the blogs, he has exposed the reality of life in a high-security prison: the racism, the power struggles, the terrible conditions, the fear of enemies and the unwavering support of friends. One of those friends contacted me earlier this week with the news of the execution date. She has sent an email to Nathan Deal, Governor of Georgia, to appeal for clemency. Please follow her example. If you are writing from within the US, you should use this form: gov.georgia.gov/webform/contact-governor-domestic-form If you are writing from outside the US, please use this form: gov.georgia.gov/webform/contact-governor-international-form A full list of Brandon's more recent contributions to New Internationalist can be found here: newint.org/contributors/brandon-astor-jones (source: newint.org) ******************* Too Long on Death Row to Die In 1979, Jimmy Carter was President. Pink Floyd released their bestselling album "The Wall." Denim overalls were in, Mork and Mindy was on TV, and news about the Iranian hostage crisis dominated every headline. Some of you reading this weren't even alive in 1979. But in 1979, another, perhaps less well-known event, took place. Roger Tackett, a teacher, moonlighting as a convenience store attendant in a suburb of Atlanta, Georgia, was shot and killed. Brandon Astor Jones and his co-defendant Van Roosevelt Solomon were sentenced to death for the crime. Solomon was executed in 1985, but Jones has remained on death row for all this time. That's 38 years of waiting to be executed. The State of Georgia just set a February 2, 2016 execution date for Jones. A 2016 execution date for a murder that happened in 1979. I mean, what's the point? None of the reasons we punish hold true here. We punish people to deter others from committing the same crime. But who is likely to be deterred by a 38-year delay between sentence and execution? (And let's just put it out there, the death penalty is not a deterrent anyway). We punish people to incapacitate them so they can not harm anyone else. At 72 years old, statistics would suggest that Jones is unlikely to harm anyone else anyway. We punish people for retribution. And Jones' crime of murder is certainly serious and worthy of punishment. But it does seem a bit bizarre to put to death a 72 year old now for a crime he committed all those many years ago. The person Jones was then, and the person he is today, are entirely disconnected. Too much -- way too much -- time has passed. The idea of "too much time" on death row is not entirely new. International courts have found too-long stays on death row to be problematic. In 1993, a British court found that it was "inhumane and degrading" to hang anyone who spent more than 5 years on death row. The court said it felt too much like double punishment, and that the death sentences should be commuted to life. Closer to home, the United States Supreme Court has never ruled on the issue of whether keeping someone on death row for too long is cruel and unusual punishment. In 2009, Justice Stevens and Justice Breyer voted to grant review in a case involving a 32-year stay on death row. Since not enough Supreme Court justices agreed to take on that issue, it is still unresolved by our highest court. But the issue of "too long" death sentences remains ripe for our highest court to consider. Jones is now 72, and not in great health. He is a writer and a blogger who documents his experiences on death row. In other words, Jones may still have something to teach us; something perhaps that he can contribute to society were he permitted to serve out the rest of his life behind bars. I've written before that I am opposed to capital punishment in all cases. But in this case involving an ailing senior, Jones' pending execution really seems like overkill. (source: Jessica S. Henry, Associate Professor of Justice Studies----Huffington Post) FLORIDA----impending execution Death row inmate Mark James Asay seeks stay of execution But in this case, an attorney for Mark James Asay is citing lack of previous adequate representation for his new client along with questions over the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that strikes down the state's death penalty system. Asay, who was convicted of murdering 2 men in downtown Jacksonville 29 years ago, is scheduled to be executed on St. Patrick's Day. In a petition filed Tuesday with the Florida Supreme Court, attorney Martin J. McClain said he only began representing Asay on Jan. 13 after his death warrant had been signed by Gov. Rick Scott, and he found the files in his case "have either been destroyed or are unavailable." Asay's petition comes after condemned killer Cary Michael Lambrix also sought a stay of his execution, which is scheduled for Feb. 11. Lambrix' plea hinges on the recent Supreme Court ruling, Hurst vs. Florida, which deemed the state's sentencing procedure unconstitutional because juries play an advisory role in recommending life or death. State law requires judges to make the final decision, after giving "great weight" to jurors' recommendations. The Florida Supreme Court has denied an immediate stay for Lambrix and scheduled oral arguments for Feb. 2 on the question of whether the Hurst decision applies retroactively to his case. State lawyers have argued that if the case were applied retroactively, it would have a "severe and unsettling impact" on Florida's justice system. (source: Tampa Bay Times) ***************** Use pause to reconsider capital punishment Given the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling against capital punishment in Florida, this is a good time to reflect on the law of unintended consequences and the death penalty. It's worth noting that no definitive study has ever suggested, let alone proven, that the death penalty stops more people from murdering. In fact, the violence capital punishment begets violence in society. It's worth noting that each execution costs roughly $3.2 million. The cost of life imprisonment without parole is $600,000. Capital punishment certainly doesn't save the taxpayers money. It's worth noting that executions are not the best way to bring "closure" to the families of murder victims. My heart goes out to these families. There is nothing worse than having a loved one murdered. The pain never goes away. It's been said that grief is like climbing a spiral staircase. We may put some distance from the pain, but at any moment we look over the railing and still see the source of our grief. At the same time the necessity of adequate legal appeals and the congestion of our judicial system mean that it takes an average of 15 years between conviction and execution. There are 390 inmates on Florida's death row. If we executed 1 person a month, which in itself is unlikely, it would take 32 years to empty death row, assuming no one else was placed on death row during the ensuing years. And finally, it is worth noting that as we continue to execute people in Florida, we inevitably kill innocent people. Florida has the highest rate of exoneration of any state in the country, 26 since 1973, over twice that of Texas, and then exponentially more than states following. Even accounting for these exonerations, it is estimated that 4 % to 5 % of those executed are innocent. I have visited Florida's maximum security prisons for 30 years, and life imprisonment without possibility of parole is punishment enough for any soul. Gov. Rick Scott has executed 23 people, the highest number of any governor since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. I hope we Floridians use the pause in executions mandated by the U.S. Supreme Court to reconsider its financial, legal, ethical and moral challenge to our state and to our lives. The day will surely come when Florida will join the rest of America and most of the civilized world and ban capital punishment. Let us make it sooner rather than later. (source: Commentary; The Rev. Larry Reimer is pastor emeritus of the United Church of Gainesville----The Gainesville Sun) OKLAHOMA: Pair with McAlester ties face possible death sentence 2 men arrested in McAlester in the slaying of an elderly Oklahoma rancher face a possible death sentence if convicted of the crime. Prosecutors have filed court paperwork announcing they are seeking the death penalty for 2 men accused in the shooting death of a Cherokee County rancher during a home invasion, according to the Associated Press. The Tulsa World reports District Attorney Brian Kuester filed a court document requesting the death penalty on Thursday. 25-year-old Paul Newberry and 23-year-old Cheyenne Watts are charged with 1st-degree murder in the July death of 88-year-old Charley Kirk. Kirk's body was found in his home in Keys. Investigators have said that they believe he was killed when he interrupted a burglary at his home. Newberry and Watts were arrested in McAlester in August. They were apprehended with 2 Pittsburg County women outside the Choctaw Casino in McAlester just days after Kirk's body was found. Authorities at the time credited an alert Choctaw Nation Tribal Police Officer, Jermaine Riddle, for the arrests. Riddle was on routine patrol in the parking lot of the Choctaw Casino in McAlester and noticed the 4 in a vehicle with the engine turned off in 100-degree heat. He approached the vehicle, got a false name from the driver and eventually took all 4 into custody with the help of county deputies and others. Both men also face additional charges of robbery with a weapon, 1st-degree attempted arson, larceny of an automobile and 3rd-degree arson. Newberry also made headlines a month ago when authorities say he escaped from the county detention center in Muskogee. Federal authorities later nabbed him in Texas in a stolen semi taken from Muskogee County. Attorneys listed for Newberry and Watts did not immediately return calls from The Associated Pres. (source: Associated Press) From rhalperi at smu.edu Tue Jan 19 13:26:52 2016 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Tue, 19 Jan 2016 13:26:52 -0600 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide Message-ID: Jan. 19 INDIA: SC Allows Revival of Dismissed Petition of a Death Row Convict Mohd Arif, a Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) terrorist and lone death row convict in the sensational Red Fort attack case, today got another opportunity to assail the award of capital punishment, as the Supreme Court allowed revival of his already dismissed review plea by agreeing to accord it a fresh hearing. A 5-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice T S Thakur modified its September 2, 2014 verdict by which the benefit of open court hearing in a review petition was available to those convicts whose petitions were pending and also whose executions were not given effect. The apex court, by a majority verdict, had then said that an outer limit of 30 minutes be provided for oral hearing in such cases and made it clear that a condemned convict, whose review plea has been dismissed and sentence is still to be executed, can approach the apex court to re-open his case. "It will also apply where a review petition is already dismissed but the death sentence is not executed so far. In such cases, the petitioners can apply for the reopening of their review petition within one month from the date of this judgement. However, in those cases where even a curative petition is dismissed, it would not be proper to reopen such matters," it had said. Mohd Arif alias Ashfaq, a Pakistani who has already exhausted his review and curative remedies, today sought another chance to argue in open court his review plea saying that those pleas were dismissed before the historic verdict. His counsel said that Arif's was the case falling in a solitary category and he will be the only person who will be deprived of the benefit of the judgement that the review plea of a death row convicts should be heard in open court by a bench having corum of 3 judges. Allowing his plea, the bench also comprising Justices J S Khehar, J Chelameswar, A K Sikri and R F Nariman said, "the petitioner is entitled for re-opening of the review petition which is already dismissed". The bench said that Arif's counsel can supplement the grounds taken in the review petition. The apex court took on record the submission of Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta that there has been departure from ordinary course in hearing review petitions in death penalty cases and he does not dispute that some of the grounds can be supplemented by the convict. "Such being the case that even the curative petition filed by the convict has been dismissed by circulation without giving him oral hearing in open court," it said, adding that the petitioner cannot be deprived. Before the September 2014 verdict, the review and curative petitions of death row convicts were not heard in open courts but decided in chamber proceedings by circulation. Arif's review petition was dismissed on September 2, 2014. The apex court on April 28, 2014 had stayed Arif's execution in the case. 3 people, including 2 Army jawans, were killed in the December 22, 2000 Red Fort attack. On August 10, 2011, the Supreme Court had upheld Arif's death sentence and dismissed his appeal challenging the capital punishment awarded to him by a sessions court, which was affirmed by the Delhi High Court. (source: outlookindia.com) ***************** A death-row convict gets a fresh lease of life ; SC to re-hear ?Red Fort attack convict Mohd. On 2 September 2014, a Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court had deprived a death-row prisoner of the opportunity of open hearing of his review petition by 3 Judges of the Supreme Court, even while extending this right to other death-row convicts, whose earlier review petitions might have been dismissed by Judges in chambers. The reason which the bench offered then was that the prisoner, whose review as well as curative petitions were dismissed earlier, was not eligible to be considered for a 2nd hearing of his review petition in the open court. The opportunity of open hearing of a review petition in the open court by three Judges (rather than by just2) means much for a death-row convict, who clings to whatever hope that a legal system would offer till his last breath. The 2014 verdict appeared unjust because it deprived the opportunity of open hearing of review petition of the convict only on the ground that his curative petition was dismissed, although the same verdict upheld his challenge to the Rule which deprived such a hearing. The prisoner, Mohd Arif is a Pakistan national, and had been convicted and sentenced to death for conspiracy in the Delhi Redfort attack case. The Supreme Court's 2-Judge bench had confirmed his death sentence in 2011. The bench comprised of Justice V Sirpurkar and Justice T S Thakur, presently the CJI. The Supreme Court subsequently dismissed his review and curative petitions. In 2014, he challenged constitutionality of the Supreme Court Order XL, Rule 3, according to which, review petitions were heard in circulation in the chambers of the Judges. He contended that the Rule denied the death-row prisoners an opportunity of open hearing of their review petitions, and therefore, was violative of Article 21. The Constitution bench upheld his contention through a majority judgment (Justice J Chelameswar was the sole dissenter), but found him ineligible for the remedy which he won for other death-row convicts solely on the ground that he had also exhausted the curative remedy. The majority judgment then was authored by Justice Rohinton Nariman. On 19 January, another Constitution bench corrected its error, by accepting his petition seeking a review of the 2014 verdict. This bench comprised of all the four Judges who were part of the 2014 bench, and as Justice RM Lodha who had presided over that bench had retired, CJI Thakur, who incidentally confirmed his death sentence in 2011, was the 5th Judge to hear and decide his 2015 review petition. In the order issued today, the Court accepted the contention that dismissal of the curative petition should not have deprived the opportunity of open hearing of the review petition of the death-row convict. As in the case of other death-row convicts, Arif will now get one month time to get his review petition reopened, and get it listed for hearing in an open court by 3 Judges of the Supreme Court. He will also get another opportunity of filing a second curative petition, in case the 3-Judge bench dismisses his second review petition. The 2014 bench had made it clear that the right of a limited oral hearing in review petitions where death sentence was given, would be applicable only in pending review petitions and such petitions filed after the judgment. The bench extended the remedy to cases where a review petition was already dismissed but the death sentence was not executed. In such cases, the petitioners could apply for the reopening of their review petition within 1 month from the date of that judgment, it was held by the bench. The bench added without justification: "However, in those cases where even a curative petition is dismissed, it would not be proper to reopen such matters". Today's bench has now corrected this erroneous addition.Arguing for the petitioner, Senior Advocate R Basant stated that the case had come to him through the Centre on the Death Penalty at National Law University, Delhi. He said the Advocate-on-Record in the case had approached the Centre on the Death Penalty expressing his inability to find a Senior Advocate for the oral hearing. When the Centre on the Death Penalty briefed him on the matter, he submitted that he felt that the case raised issues that deserved the attention of the Bench. It was also submitted to the court that the Centre on the Death Penalty had supplied him with research that Mohd Arif would be the only person amongst current death row prisoners in India who would be adversely affected by the exception carved out in the 2014 judgment. (source: livelaw.in) PAKISTAN----executions 3 death row convicts hanged in various cities 3 death row prisoners were hanged on early Tuesday morning in the jails of Attock, Mianwali and Jhang, Dunya News reported. The dead bodies of the prisoners were handed over to their families. According to details, death row convict Sultan was executed in the District Jail Attock. Sultan had killed his wife in 2007 over a family dispute. Death row prisoner Ghulam Gilani was hanged in the District Jail Mianwali in a double murder case. Ghulam Gilani had killed 2 of his nephews over a family dispute in 2004. Another death row convict was executed in the District Jail Jhang. Prisoner Allah Ditta was hanged for murdering his friend over a small dispute in 1999. (source: Dunya News) ITALY: Italian teenagers would bring back the death penalty 1/2 of all Italian 16-year-olds would like to bring back the death penalty. They think it should be exemplary and feared by all. 2/5 of them even think it should apply to minors, while 43% think it should also apply to those with diminished responsibility. They would apply corporal punishment not just to murderers but also to those convicted of particularly serious offences, such as paedophiles and rapists. They also take a hard line with immigrants, who 51% of young Italians see as just a problem, with 19% saying Italy should not accept them and 30% saying that those with the proper papers should be allowed in - but only temporarily. They are more open to soft drugs, with 41% in favour of legalisation, and civil unions accepted by 74% of the total, for both heterosexual and homosexuals. These figures come from analysis by Skuola.net, based on some recent web surveys for teenagers. (source: west-info.eu) From rhalperi at smu.edu Tue Jan 19 14:40:33 2016 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Tue, 19 Jan 2016 14:40:33 -0600 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, USA Message-ID: Jan. 19 TEXAS----impending execution Did a Dubious Confession Sway a Medical Examiner's Autopsy in a Texas Death Penalty Case? WHEN HE HADN'T HEARD from his best friend, Darin Shane Honeycutt, by Saturday morning, January 27, 2001, Larry Brown was worried. Brown knew that Honeycutt often went to Houston's gay bars dressed as a woman named Brandy Houston, and that he'd intended to do so that previous Thursday night - that was the last Brown had heard from him. On Saturday he went to Honeycutt's apartment and asked the landlord to let him in. Inside, his fears were realized: Honeycutt was dead. Lying naked in his bedroom, Honeycutt was upside down with his legs still on the bed and his head face down on the floor. There was no sign of forced entry and the place hadn't been ransacked - only 1 drawer of a jewelry cabinet was out of place, though nothing appeared to have been taken. Honeycutt's ID and his red Ford Escort were missing. The next day, a Houston man named Richard Masterson went to his brother's workplace looking to borrow some money. His brother wasn't there, but the boss, Morgan Potter, was. Masterson was acting edgy and made an opaque admission: "I think I put someone to sleep," Potter, in court testimony, would recall him saying. Potter had once heard Masterson say that he knew how to perform a sleeper hold; he figured that's what Masterson was talking about. But Masterson allegedly told him no, it was "more than that." Masterson said he planned to drive to Georgia. Potter bought Masterson some gas and Masterson drove off - in a red Ford Escort. Afterward, Potter heard about Honeycutt's death. He called the police. Days later, Masterson confessed to Houston police that he'd killed Honeycutt by strangling him in a sleeper hold. After a 2-day trial in 2002, Masterson was found guilty of murder; a day later he was sentenced to death. This Wednesday, January 20, Texas plans to execute him by lethal injection - the state's 1st execution of 2016. But today Masterson claims he is an innocent man. At trial, he recanted his confession, testifying that although he was with Honeycutt the night of his death, he had died during a consensual sexual encounter - and Masterson panicked, fleeing in Honeycutt's car. Jurors were unconvinced, however, relying in large part on the testimony of Texas medical examiner Paul Shrode, who conducted the autopsy on Honeycutt and provided the critical evidence that Masterson was guilty of murder: Blood spots known as petechiae, caused by ruptured capillaries, had been found around Honeycutt's eyes. Shrode said this was an indication of death by strangulation. Yet there is evidence to suggest that Honeycutt was not murdered, but instead may have died from a sudden heart attack during sex that included erotic asphyxiation. Masterson's lawyer, Washington, D.C.-based attorney Gregory Gardner, believes that Shrode's analysis was skewed by his knowledge of the confession. Although Shrode conducted Honeycutt's autopsy on January 28, 2001, before Masterson was interviewed by police, he did not complete his autopsy report until February 23, well after Masterson made his confession. "It seems like primarily he reached his medical conclusion [based] on Richard's confession and then got some anecdotal evidence to back it up," Gardner told The Intercept. In the meantime, Gardner said, Shrode ignored evidence suggesting the death was accidental and "missed some very basic medical principles in this autopsy - and [in] other ones too." Indeed, since Masterson's conviction, serious questions about Shrode's qualifications and credibility have come to light. Shrode has drawn inaccurate conclusions about the cause of death in at least two different cases - including a death penalty case. In 2001, just months before Masterson's trial, Shrode was officially reprimanded by his supervisor in the Houston medical examiner's office for reaching an erroneous cause of death determination. Although they should have, prosecutors did not disclose the reprimand to Masterson's trial counsel during the evidence discovery process. Later, in 2010, Shrode was fired from his job as El Paso's medical examiner after officials found that he'd reached an erroneous cause of death determination in a capital case out of Ohio - a revelation that led to the commutation of the inmate's death sentence. In addition to these grave errors, Shrode has also had issues with his resume, once insisting during an El Paso court hearing that he had earned a "graduate law degree" at a Texas university that did not have a law program. (Shrode has never faced any state sanctions for his mistakes or alleged credibility issues. In the wake of his termination in El Paso, the Texas Medical Board dismissed a formal complaint about his work, finding in part there was "sufficient evidence" that Shrode was qualified "for the position of medical examiner.") While a flawed forensic examination doesn't necessarily mean that Masterson is innocent, it should, at least, trigger a detailed and competent review - particularly in a death penalty case. Still, even though questions about the reliability of certain forensic examinations have troubled criminal justice practitioners for a number of years, courts often seem reluctant to acknowledge the extent to which forensic errors contribute to wrongful convictions - and even to wrongful executions. With his execution scheduled for tomorrow, Masterson is running out of time and options. Gardner last week sought to file a second writ in federal court, a bid that the notoriously conservative 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied on January 15. He is currently preparing for his Hail Mary pass: asking the U.S. Supreme Court to stay the execution and order a hearing on the Shrode-related evidence. Unless that succeeds, Masterson will be executed on Wednesday, the 1st of 9 inmates slated for the Texas gurney through early June. BY THE TIME HOUSTON police received the call from Potter and alerted Georgia cops to be on the lookout for a red Escort, Masterson had already made his way to Florida. There, he was arrested and jailed for assault - an attack that had disturbing similarities to Honeycutt's case. Masterson had a chronic drug problem dating back to his teens, which Gardner traces to his traumatic childhood - he'd been abandoned and abused - and in jail, Masterson went into serious withdrawal, becoming suicidal. In Texas, not long after Honeycutt's death, Masterson had called the cops to say that he hadn't killed him. But now, jailed in Florida, he called them again, this time saying they should come talk to him. Police quickly made their way there. After an initial interview roughly an hour long - an interrogation that was not recorded - the investigators recorded a 2nd interview, during which Masterson confessed to the crime. He hadn't gone home with Honeycutt in order to have sex, Masterson said. He intended to kill the man. Gardner says Masterson's logic was suicidal: If he confessed to a death-eligible offense - murder in the course of robbery - he would quickly be sent to die. It was a brain chemistry problem, Gardner says - the inability to produce dopamine (a neurotransmitter that controls the brain's reward and pleasure centers) caused by years of drug abuse - that motivated Masterson's confession. But at trial, Masterson's recanted confession was undermined by ample evidence that he was no saint - he had a history of violence that prosecutors brought out in detail. He'd once thrown a bottle at his cousin, knocking out some of her teeth; he???d beaten up a girlfriend; he'd been convicted once for burglary and once for theft. The assault that landed him in jail in Florida was particularly damning. In that case, he met a man in a gay bar and went home with him after closing. He attacked the man at his residence, straddling him and choking him with both hands until the man passed out. Masterson then stole his car; he was picked up by Florida police who spotted the stolen Toyota in a trailer park. But despite the obvious parallels, there were key differences between the attack in Florida and Honeycutt's alleged murder. In Florida, Masterson's victim had "severe bruises around his throat, he lost his voice for a few days, and the blood vessels in his eyes were broken," the Texas attorney general's office wrote in a 2010 court filing. In Honeycutt's case, there were no bruises or signs of trauma found anywhere on his neck - not on the surface or in the internal musculature. In fact, apart from the burst capillaries around Honeycutt's eyes, there was no real trauma to the body at all. (Although Shrode testified that he found some bruising on Honeycutt's left knuckles - presumably consistent with fighting off an attack - there was no mention of this in the autopsy report, nor was any supporting photographic evidence introduced at trial.) While Shrode did note that Honeycutt had a 90 percent blockage of one artery in his heart, he nonetheless testified that it was not possible that Honeycutt had died of heart failure due to erotic asphyxiation. Honeycutt still had "collateral" blood flow through his other arteries, Shrode said - and besides, in cases of erotic asphyxiation, a person usually releases his grip on his partner's neck after the person passes out. The fact that Honeycutt died during the encounter, Shrode's logic went, meant that Masterson hadn't released his grip - so it couldn't have been erotic asphyxiation. At trial, there was no defense witness to challenge Shrode's conclusions. Although Masterson's attorneys consulted with a forensic pathologist beforehand to aid their cross-examination of Shrode, they failed to call an expert of their own. Had Masterson's lawyers presented such an expert, he or she could have pointed out problems with Shrode's testimony. According to Florida pathologist Dr. Christena Roberts, who reviewed Shrode's work for Masterson's most recent appeals, Shrode's autopsy was incomplete and his conclusions unsupported by evidence. Roberts concluded that Honeycutt had "severe coronary artery disease," which certainly could have caused his death during a sexual encounter. But Shrode failed to take any tissue samples from Honeycutt's heart, making further examination impossible. Roberts also noted that the petechiae found around Honeycutt's eyes could easily be the result of lividity (blood pooling) after death, as Honeycutt's blood settled to the lowest part of his body - his face. Instead, on the stand, Shrode attributed this to strangulation. In the end, Roberts was clearly skeptical of Shrode: The petechiae Shrode found could, at best, be "'supportive' of but not 'diagnostic'" of strangulation, she wrote in her report. "The pathologist appears to have relied on the 'confession' and not any independent scientific observation." THE ALLEGATIONS AGAINST Shrode are not entirely unique. Questions about how forensic pathologists are trained and monitored are an ongoing issue in forensic science. In the groundbreaking 2009 report from the National Academies of Sciences on the state of forensic sciences, the authors noted that the nation's system of death investigation is a mishmash of varied expertise and that, as a whole, the system is underfunded, suffers from a lack of standardized practices and procedures, and is seriously understaffed - among other deficiencies. "It is clear that death investigations in the United States rely on a patchwork of coroners and medical examiners and that these vary greatly in the budgets, staff, equipment, and training available to them, and in the quality of services they provide," reads the report. "If the death investigation does not include competent death investigation and forensic pathology services, both civil and criminal cases may be compromised." But even qualified forensic experts are no guarantee when defense attorneys drop the ball. For his state habeas writ, Masterson's then-attorney, J. Sidney Crowley, did consult with a forensic expert - but it was a "half-laid effort," said Gardner. The expert, Dr. Paul Radelat, wrote in an affidavit that Honeycutt could have died of a heart attack while involved in erotic asphyxiation and that Masterson simply didn't notice the attack and therefore didn't release his grip in time to save Honeycutt's life. But Gardner says that Crowley never reviewed the entire court record related to Masterson's case, nor did he uncover any of Shrode's professional problems. As a result, Crowley didn't know that he should have Radelat conduct a ground-up review of Shrode's work and conclusions. Crowley, Gardner said, should have said, "You really need to review everything this guy did." If he had, Garner believes, Masterson's situation would be "a completely different ballgame." Regardless, to the state of Texas, Shrode is little more than a distraction. In a response to Masterson's most recent state court filing highlighting Shrode's dubious work, Harris County Assistant District Attorney Lori DeAngelo wrote that the defense is relying "on previous professional issues ... which are wholly unrelated" to Masterson's case and which "do not constitute a basis for habeas relief." Indeed, she wrote, 2 other death row inmates have raised Shrode's work as an issue in their writs but have been denied by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. On January 11, the same court also dismissed Masterson's latest appeal. Shrode could not be reached for comment. As Gardner tries to save his client's life, he is once again raising the issue of Shrode's erroneous testimony. But whereas Masterson's previous appeals argued that his attorneys - both at trial and on his 1st writ - were ineffective for not challenging Shrode, this time, Gardner says, it's not about bad lawyering, but about innocence. "Richard is not a monster. He is not a sociopath. He is not even a murderer," Gardner wrote in a petition seeking clemency for Masterson. On Friday, Texas' Board of Pardons and Paroles denied the application. (source: The Intercept) USA: For Mormons, a Contested Legacy on Capital Punishment Over the past century and a half, numerous authors, from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to Jon Krakauer, have been fascinated - and horrified - by the nineteenth-century Mormon teaching of "blood atonement." Particularly during the Mormon Reformation of 1856-57, in which leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints sought to curtail apparent backsliding and inspire repentance through the use of forceful, often violent, preaching, Brigham Young and others taught that some sins, such as murder, were so grievous that only the voluntary shedding of the sinner's own blood could satisfy the eternal demands of justice and thus secure the possibility of salvation. Critics of Mormonism, then and now, have made much of this teaching - despite the fact that it was in fact never the consensus view of the church and, contrary to many colorful assertions, did not inspire a theocratic bloodbath in pioneer Utah. (Scholars have disagreed about the role of "blood atonement" in the horrific Mountain Meadows Massacre; I tend toward those who dismiss it as a significant motivating cause.) It seems that the vast majority of Mormons either understood their leaders' overblown rhetoric about blood atonement to be just that, or they simply rejected it as bad theology. In fact, beginning in 1889 and as recently as last year, the LDS Church has made repeated and consistent disavowals of the doctrine of blood atonement. In June 2010, the church issued a formal statement acknowledging the erstwhile teaching, only to dismiss it entirely. According to the statement, Mormons "believe in and teach the infinite and all-encompassing atonement of Jesus Christ, which makes forgiveness of sin and salvation possible for all people." Despite this clear and consistent rejection of blood atonement theology, over the decades some individual church authorities have privately connected the doctrine to state-sponsored capital punishment, teaching that is preferable for convicted murderers to shed their own blood as a punishment for their sins. Observers have noted how this teaching has evidently influenced some Latter-day Saints in shaping their support for the death penalty. This may be generational, as in this century fewer Mormons show any substantive knowledge of the 19th-century teaching, let alone its 20th-century interpretations. Nevertheless, the issue was raised again earlier this year when the state of Utah bucked the growing national trend toward the abolition of capital punishment by reinstating the firing squad as an acceptable option in the event that lethal injection drugs are unavailable. Utah is now the only state in the Union where a criminal might in fact legally shed his or her blood to atone for their sins. If the LDS Church has been public with its rejection of blood atonement theology, it has remained officially neutral on the question of capital punishment, leaving it to civil authorities to determine whether and how to punish certain convicted criminals. This failure to disavow capital punishment has been interpreted by many, if not most Mormons, as tacit approval for the practice. For instance, after reviewing a number of historical statements by church leaders, the quasi-official Encyclopedia of Mormonism concludes that "capital punishment is viewed in the doctrines of the Church to be an appropriate penalty for murder." The relatively small numbers of Mormons makes it difficult for national polls to track precisely their opinions about the death penalty. However, if Mormon views correspond to those held by their current cultural and political allies - white evangelicals and Republicans - then it would seem that a significant majority still support capital punishment despite declining overall support for it nationwide. Mormons who do advocate capital punishment will typically do so with essentially secular arguments, such as deterring future criminals or preventing convicts from committing further crimes. Insofar as they do express a religious argument in favor of the death penalty, they will be far more likely to appeal to scripture than to Brigham Young's 19th-century sermons. In doing so they are similar to most other supporters of the practice who argue for proportionality - that the punishment should fit the crime, or in biblical language, "an eye for an eye." Theologically, it is actually somewhat strange for Mormons to accept this argument. It is true that numerous scriptures, in both the Old Testament and Book of Mormon, clearly support and even command the people of God to inflict the death penalty on murderers and other sinners. Like most Christians, however, Latter-day Saints believe that the retributive Mosaic law was "fulfilled" by the gospel preached by Jesus Christ. Indeed, the Book of Mormon features the resurrected Jesus delivering a sermon in the Americas almost identical to the Sermon on the Mount, teaching that "those things which were of old time, which were under the law [of Moses], in me are all fulfilled. Old things are done away, and all things have become new." Mormons generally believe that although the moral law delivered to Moses and other pre-Christian prophets remains unchanged - the Ten Commandments being the most notable example - the ritual and legal aspects of Israelite religion are no longer in force in light of Christ's teachings and atonement. For the minority of Mormons, including myself, who favor the abolition of the death penalty, this theological argument is compelling, especially when combined with more temporal considerations such as humanitarianism, criminal justice reform, and fiscal responsibility. Yet the fact that many Latter-day Saints continue to cite scriptures antedating Christ's ministry to justify their support for capital punishment reveals a distinguishing feature of Mormonism, namely the persistence of Hebraisms within its theology, ritual, and worldview. In the Mormon mind, God's covenant with Israel has always remained in force, though it has now been broadened beyond its early tribal limits to include all those who accept the gospel. Mormons have not articulated a fully coherent rationale to explain why certain passages of pre-Christian scripture should retain their authority while others can be dismissed out of hand. For instance, I know of no Mormons who believe that the Mosaic law's prescriptions about menstruating women should be observed today. Most of the time, a kind of pragmatic common sense, in combination with deference to the teachings of the church's current prophet and apostles, prevails. But when the church leadership is studiously silent on an issue like the death penalty, it means that in practice 2 Mormons sitting in a Sunday School class - or in the Utah state legislature - can honestly, and sometimes vehemently, disagree about whether particular Old Testament or Book of Mormon verses about capital punishment remain morally, even legally, binding in modern times. Both scripture and history provide a competing set of authoritative texts as Mormons consider their position on the death penalty. Those justifying their respective views with scripture offer competing interpretations. As to the continuing specter of blood atonement, a disavowal of capital punishment, on whatever grounds, would provide the LDS Church the opportunity to put the unfortunate teaching behind it once and for all. Unless and until it does so, however, there will remain debate among Mormons about whether, in the Book of Mormon's words, "the law requireth the life of him who hath murdered," or whether only Christ's "great and last sacrifice; yea, not a sacrifice of man" provides redemption from even the most heinous of sins. (source: Patrick Mason, Religion & Politics) From rhalperi at smu.edu Wed Jan 20 11:58:08 2016 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Wed, 20 Jan 2016 11:58:08 -0600 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, DEL., VA., FLA., ALA. Message-ID: Jan. 20 TEXAS----impending execution Texas Set To Execute Man Amidst Claims That No Murder Took Place----Lawyers for Richard Masterson, convicted of strangling a man to death, say he is innocent and that the victim died of a heart attack. Texas is scheduled to execute Richard Masterson on Wednesday for the 2001 murder of Darin Honeycutt. Masterson, 42, was convicted and sentenced to death for strangling Honeycutt and robbing the victim's home. Masterson confessed to the police but later recanted his statement. Masterson could become the 2nd person to be executed in 2016 and the 1st inmate to be executed by Texas this year. Masterson's attorneys have appealed to state and federal courts to stop his execution, and have also asked Gov. Greg Abbott to grant clemency, on the grounds that he is innocent. They say that Honeycutt was not murdered, but died of a heart attack. None of those appeals have been successful, with most of the claims now pending in petitions before the U.S. Supreme Court. The state is opposing all of those pending petitions. 3 of the pending claims come out of state court denials, and one is an original action filed at the Supreme Court. A claim also is pending in the federal appeals courts. Masterson's main claim is that Texas convicted him based on "false scientific testimony" from Paul Shrode, a medical examiner described as a "fraud" who was unqualified to perform Honeycutt's autopsy. Shrode testified that Honeycutt died when Masterson put him in a sleeper hold, cutting off oxygen to his brain. According to Masterson's appeal, Shrode lied on his job application to the Harris County Medical Examiner's Office, botched multiple capital-murder autopsies including Honeycutt's, and gave false testimony in court. "The decedent's death was not a homicide at all. He died of a heart attack caused by a preexisting severe coronary artery disease," the one request stated. His lawyers say that Masterson initially confessed to the crime due to drug withdrawal and severe depression. Masterson testified that he voluntarily confessed to capital murder because he wanted the death penalty rather than a life in prison. He also said that he confessed to killing Honeycutt because he was embarrassed to admit that he was having sex with a man when he died. His statement to the police was given in exchange for an officer's promise to help see that charges against Masterson's nephew were dropped, according to his appeal. Masterson's appeal says that his lawyers were ineffective and had "failed him at every stage." As one of Masterson's filings states, Masterson and Honeycutt, who "was known to dress as a woman who went by the name of Brandy Houston," left a bar on Jan. 26, 2001, to have consensual sex. In his initial statement to police, Masterson said that he intended to kill Honeycutt in order to rob him. However, during his trial, Masterson said that the death was accidental. He said he complied with Honeycutt's request for autoerotic asphyxiation and applied pressure to his neck. After Honeycutt became unresponsive, Masterson testified that he believed he had died and panicked because of his prior convictions. He took a VCR from Honeycutt's apartment and opened several drawers "to make the scene look like a robbery," according to his lawyers. Masterson also fled in Honeycutt's car. Honeycutt's naked body was later found in his bedroom by a friend. "While his efforts to cut oxygen to Mr. Honeycutt's brain likely contributed to Mr. Honeycutt's death, Richard did not strangle him to death," Masterson's filing stated. The state has argued that Shrode's "unrelated professional difficulties" were not enough to prove Masterson's innocence and noted additional evidence of his guilt, including his statement to his brother's boss saying, "I think I put somebody to sleep." Masterson also told his brother, James Masterson, that the idea that Honeycutt died of heart attack was "bullshit. The state said that Masterson confessed to strangling another victim, who survived, within days of Honeycutt's death. Vienna's cardinal, who said that he was in close touch with Masterson, told reporters on Monday that Pope Francis - who has called for the abolition of the death penalty - was following the case, the Associated Press reported. "Richard has been waiting 12 years for his execution," Cardinal Schoenborn said. "It is frightening." (source: BuzzFeed News) DELAWARE: 4 unconstitutional death penalty laws are enough Last week in an 8 to 1 decision the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Florida death penalty was unconstitutional. Applying the reasoning of that decision, Hurst v. Florida, to the current Delaware death penalty statute should result in it also being found unconstitutional. If that happens, it will be the 4th time since 1972 that a Delaware death penalty statute has been invalidated. In 1972, as the Delaware Criminal Code was being enacted, the U.S. Supreme Court decided Furman v. Georgia, which rendered the new Delaware death penalty law unconstitutional, so the legislature amended the statute. A few years later, in 1977, another Supreme Court ruling, Woodson v. North Carolina, made the amended statute unconstitutional, so Delaware adopted yet another version. This corrected statute included the fundamental requirement that, before the state could execute a defendant, the jury would have to unanimously decide upon death. This unanimity requirement was (and still is) shared by the overwhelming majority of death penalty states. In 1991, Delaware eliminated the unanimity requirement and turned the jury vote on life or death into a mere recommendation, giving the judge alone the power to make the life or death determination. In 2002, another U. S. Supreme Court decision demonstrated that the 1991 statute was unconstitutional. The legislature changed the law again, but left the life or death determination in the hands of a single judge. That has now placed the validity of the 2002 Delaware statute in doubt. The current Delaware statute requires a "hybrid" form of sentencing to decide whether someone who has been convicted of first degree murder will be imprisoned for life without parole or put to death. First, after a sentencing hearing, the jury must tell the judge whether it has unanimously found at least one statutory aggravating circumstance. This unanimous decision is required for a death sentence. Next, the jury decides whether it recommends that the aggravating circumstances outweigh the mitigating circumstances, justifying a sentence of death. That weighing recommendation need not be unanimous. Finally, the judge independently decides whether the aggravating circumstances outweigh the mitigating circumstances, giving the jury recommendation whatever weight he or she deems appropriate. Upon a judge's finding that the aggravating circumstances outweigh the mitigating circumstances, the defendant is sentenced to death. Under longstanding Delaware criminal law, the jury must unanimously find every element of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt. Yet the Delaware Supreme Court has ruled several times that the current death penalty statute is constitutional even though it requires that the judge, not the jury, make the finding necessary for a death sentence. Hurst v. Florida ruled the Florida statute unconstitutional because it required the judge to "determine whether sufficient aggravating circumstances existed to justify imposing the death penalty." The Supreme Court did not limit its ruling to only a statute like Florida's, which required the judge to decide whether there was any aggravating circumstance. Instead, the Court expanded the impact of its ruling. It overruled older cases that had said "the Sixth Amendment does not require that the specific findings authorizing the imposition of the sentence of death be made by the jury." That and the result in Hurst imperil the validity of the Delaware statute. Because Delaware law must be consistent with controlling U.S. Supreme Court precedent, the courts will very likely to be asked to follow Hurst v. Florida, and rule that Delaware's statute is unconstitutional. But there is no reason to wait for another court decision and then have a legislative battle over whether Delaware should once again try to enact a constitutional death penalty statute. It is time, in the words of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun, for our state to "no longer tinker with the machinery of death." A bill to end Delaware's death penalty has passed the State Senate twice and has been bottled up in a House of Representatives committee during the past 2 legislative sessions. That bill, Senate Bill 40, should be brought to a vote in the House, so that if a majority of Representatives also agree, Delaware can be done once and for all with trying to figure out if there is a constitutional way to put its citizens to death. (source: Richard Morse is the Legal Diretor of the ACLU of Delaware----The News Journal) VIRGINIA----new execution date Ricky Gray execution set for March 16 Barring intervention by the courts or the governor, Ricky Javon Gray, who murdered a Woodland Heights family on New Year's Day 2006, will be executed on March 16, as ordered in Richmond Circuit Court Tuesday. Gray, 38, was convicted of the murders of Bryan Harvey, 49; Kathryn, 39; and their daughters, Stella, 9, and Ruby, 4. He and Ray Dandridge killed the Harveys in a string of slayings that left seven people dead in Richmond. Gray was sentenced to death for the girls' killings. Dandridge was sentenced to life. Meanwhile, the Virginia Department of Corrections said Tuesday that the department lacks the 1st of 3 chemicals used to conduct an execution by injection. The 1st chemical - which can be midazolam, pentobarbital or thiopental sodium - renders the inmate unconscious while the next 2 stop breathing and the heart. Because of a national shortage, Virginia authorities last year obtained midazolam from Texas to execute Alfredo Prieto, leading to last-minute legal challenges. Asked if the department was working to obtain the required chemical, a spokeswoman said, "the department works to maintain an adequate supply of lethal injection drugs so as to be able to carry out court orders; however, it has become extremely difficult to obtain lethal injection drugs." Condemned prisoners in Virginia have had the choice of execution by injection or the electric chair since 1995. If the inmate refuses to choose, lethal injection is the default means. Last November, a split panel of the 4th Circuit upheld a lower court ruling rejecting Gray's appeals and last month the appeals court declined to rehear the case. But last week the court agreed to hold off making its order final leaving it unclear if a Richmond Circuit Court judge could proceed with a hearing to set an execution date. The execution date must be set for no more than 60 days after the hearing. (source: Richmond Times-Dispatch) **************** Ricky Gray's execution set for March 16 Also Tuesday, the US Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals denied Gray's motion to halt proceedings. Gray could still appeal the case to the Supreme Court or have the governor intervene. Gray was sentenced to death in connection with the 2006 New Year's Day quadruple murders of the Harvey family in Richmond. In December, he petitioned to have his death penalty case reviewed by all 15 federal appeals court judges in Richmond. He remains housed on death row at Sussex I State Prison. Virginia does not currently have all the drugs needed for a lethal injection, according to the Department of Corrections. The department says it does not have the 1st drug needed, which can be Midazolam or Pentobarbital or Thiopental Sodium. Gray does have the option to select electrocution instead. He is set to be executed at Greensville Correctional Center. At least 6 citizens who are not Department of Correction employees must be present during an execution, with the method of death chosen by the inmate. Alfredo R. Prieto was the last inmate put to death in Virginia, on Oct. 1, 2015. Gray's death sentence was specifically for the murders of Stella and Ruby Harvey, daughters of Bryan and Kathryn Harvey, who were also killed with the help of Ray Dandridge. A week later, Percyell Tucker, his wife Mary and their daughter, Ashley Baskerville - who was an accomplice in the Harveys' murder - were also killed. (source: WWBT news) NORTH CAROLINA: Reputed gang members could get capital punishment trial It's still yet to be decided if Jamell Cureton, along with reputed gang member Malcolm Hartley, will face the death penalty for crimes they allegedly committed as members of the United Blood Nation. In 2015, 6 other reputed gang members pleaded guilty for their role in a racketeering and conspiracy case involving the 2014 shooting deaths of Doug and Debbie London. Hartley is accused of shooting the Londons at Cureton's request. Prosecutors said the Londons were gunned down in their home to keep them from testifying against three United Blood Nation members in an earlier robbery case. Tuesday morning, prosecutors told a judge they are still waiting on a recommendation from the Department of Justice to determine whether or not they will pursue the death penalty. As part of discovery, federal prosecutors said they plan on using the interviews they conducted with the criminals who already pleaded guilty in connection to this case. Prosecutors said they hope formal proceedings will continue in February. (source: WBTV news) FLORIDA----impending execution Execution Delay Sought Amid Missing Records Attorneys for a convicted murderer scheduled to be put to death on St. Patrick's Day are asking the Florida Supreme Court for a stay, arguing that records - including some stored in an insect-infested shed - were destroyed. Mark James Asay's case is even more troubling because the death row inmate hasn???' had a lawyer to represent him in state court for nearly a decade and had no legal representation when Gov. Rick Scott signed the warrant ordering Asay's execution, Asay's new attorney wrote in a motion filed Tuesday. A Jacksonville judge appointed Marty McClain to represent Asay last Wednesday, 5 days after Scott signed the warrant scheduling Asay's execution for March 17. A circuit judge gave McClain until Jan. 25 - 12 days after he was appointed to represent Asay - to file any motions for relief. That's not enough time, McClain argued in Tuesday's 27-page filing. Proceeding with the case "would be a violation of due process, equal protection and fundamental fairness," he wrote. "Providing an attorney without the client's files and records is the equivalent of providing no counsel at all," McClain wrote. Hours after McClain filed his request for a stay, the Supreme Court gave Department of Corrections Secretary Julie Jones until 5 p.m. Thursday to respond. Scott may not have been aware that Asay did not have a lawyer, as required by state law for inmates on death row, when the governor signed the death warrant. "Given that the statute requires that collateral counsel be in place at all times, I would think it would be wise for the governor's office to make sure that the statute has been complied with before a warrant is signed," McClain said in a telephone interview Tuesday. In the court filing, McClain wrote that Scott's staff contacted the state agency that represents death row inmates after the warrant was signed on Jan. 8. Capital Collateral Counsel for the Northern Region Robert Friedman told the governor's representative that his agency did not represent Asay. Scott's staff then contacted Thomas Fallis, a private attorney who had represented Asay in federal court, according to Tuesday's filing. Fallis told the governor's aide that he no longer represented Asay. "What additional steps the governor's office took to notify Mr. Asay's state court counsel of the death warrant is unclear," McClain wrote. "What is clear, however, is that despite being given information that at a minimum, Mr. Asay's representation was unknown, Governor Scott did not pause or delay the execution date in order to ensure that Mr. Asay was or would be represented by competent post-conviction counsel." A spokesman for Scott said that the governor's office contacted Fallis before the warrant was signed. "As is standard procedure in our office, we spoke to his counsel of record,' spokesman John Tupps said in an email. Fallis withdrew from Asay's case in mid-2014, according to McClain. Asay was convicted in 1988 of the murders of Robert Lee Booker and Robert McDowell in downtown Jacksonville. Asay allegedly shot Booker, who was black, after calling him a racial epithet. He then killed McDowell, who was dressed as a woman, after agreeing to pay him for oral sex. According to court documents, Asay later told a friend that McDowell had previously cheated him out of money in a drug deal. McClain said he and his partner, Linda McDermott, started trying to locate Asay's files after they were assigned to the case last week. "What was learned was quite disconcerting - numerous boxes, probably a majority, of Mr. Asay's files and records had been destroyed, while those records that theoretically still exist, have yet to be located," McClain wrote, adding that 33 boxes of records pertaining to Asay's file are missing or were destroyed. Asay was once represented by the predecessor of the Capital Collateral Counsel for the Northern Region, but the Legislature shut down the agency in 2004. At least some of Asay's records were transferred to Mary Katherine Bonner, a lawyer who once worked on his case, according to McClain's brief filed Tuesday. Fallis, who represented Asay in federal court from 2010 through 2014, obtained about 10 boxes of documents from a shed that was "infested with snakes, rats and insects" where Bonner stored them, McClain wrote. Fallis decided the files were "worthless due to the condition in which they were stored" and ultimately destroyed them, McClain wrote. McClain, who has worked on death penalty cases for nearly three decades and represented more than 250 clients, and his partner "have never found themselves in such dire and disturbing circumstances when representing a capital post-conviction defendant with an active death warrant," the lawyers wrote. During a case-management hearing Friday, lawyers with Attorney General Pam Bondi's office and the state attorney who prosecuted Asay told McClain they would provide copies of their records regarding Asay's case by the end of the day on Tuesday. Bondi's office was unaware that Asay had gone so long without a lawyer, McClain wrote. McClain is also trying to get copies of other case files from the Department of State's archives, but he is unsure when the documents will be provided, he wrote. As of Tuesday, he still did not have copies of the trial court transcripts. "Historically, this (Supreme) Court has been especially vigilant to the need for procedural fairness in capital proceedings, and has accordingly not hesitated to enter stays of execution in order to ensure that capital petitioners are treated fairly in the litigation of claims for relief during the pendency of a death warrant," McClain wrote. The Florida Supreme Court has granted stays in at least 2 other cases when new lawyers for inmates scheduled for execution needed more time. In 1990, the court delayed the execution of Paul Christopher Hildwin to give his lawyers extra time to review his files. In 2014, the court threw out Hildwin's death sentence based on new DNA evidence. (source: CBS news) ****************** February death penalty trial indefinitely delayed for Jacksonville man in roommate's death A Jacksonville death penalty trial scheduled for next month has been indefinitely delayed. Demetrius Kenyon Carter was scheduled to go on trial Feb. 16. Carter, 22, is charged with the kidnapping and strangulation of 52-year-old roommate Kenneth Mark Brown in 2012. At the request of Assistant Public Defender Al Perkins, Circuit Judge Mark Borello agreed to delay the trial Tuesday. Perkins said the delay was needed because more mitigation work had to be done on Carter's childhood and mental health issues. Perkins also said a recent staff shakeup at the office of 4th Circuit Public Defender Matt Shirk, with several lawyers leaving the case and several others coming on, was a factor. Assistant State Attorney Rich Mantei expressed frustration at the delay, but did not object, saying Perkins was citing valid issues. Perkins also said he plans to argue that Carter cannot face the death penalty because the Florida Supreme Court found the state's sentencing procedures to be unconstitutional last week. Borello said he saw no need to deal with that issue now since Carter is not going on trial anytime soon. Carter and John Michael Taylor Jr., 24, are accused of strangling Brown and then burying him the backyard of the Lamson Street home they rented. Taylor hasn't been found competent to go to trial. (source: Florida Times-Union) ****************** Victim's mom fights against death penalty A Jacksonville woman says she won't stop fighting for justice in the wake of a U.S. Supreme Court decision ruling Florida's death penalty unconstitutional. It was 2013 when 20-year-old Shelby Farah was shot and killed while working at a north Jacksonville Metro PCS. Wednesday marks the incident 2 1/2 years to the day. Her mom, Darlene, is adamantly against the death penalty. Farah can't stop thinking of the potential her 20-year-old daughter had, before police say she was shot and killed by James Rhodes during an armed robbery. "Always had a smile on her face, very outgoing, she just lit up the room," said Shelby's mother, Darlene Farah. With last week's ruling that Florida's death penalty is unconstitutional, Farah says she's worried how it could further delay the case. Right now, jury selection is scheduled for May 2. "I was glad it was going to be almost over with, and now it's like 'oh no... not again,'" said Farah. Farah says the 2 years of waiting for justice has been excruciating for her family. She says the whole process would take more time, and in turn be more grueling for family in the event of a death sentence. Farah believes only God should have a say when a life should end. "I sit there and I think what we could have accomplished as far as our healing process," said Farah. Farah says before state prosecutors told her they would push for the death penalty, they originally approached her about a possible life without parole sentence. "I just wish the state attorney's office would understand what we're going through," said Farah. Farah says she's scheduled a meeting with Bernie de la Rionda at the state attorney's office for Thursday in the wake of last week's decision. "I just want everybody to pray to God that everything works out Thursday," said Farah. Still, despite any potential delays the U.S. Supreme Court ruling may cause, Farah says she's hoping it's a step in the right direction in getting rid of the death penalty, something she says even Shelby would have fought for. "We just have to carry her legacy on," said Farah. Farah says if she doesn't get anywhere in her meeting on Thursday, she has a next step planned she will reveal when and if that time comes. (source: firstcoastnews.com) **************** Jacksonville coalition asks State Attorney to suspend seeking capital punishment The U.S. Supreme Court struck down Florida's death penalty sentencing system last week, declaring it violates defendants' Sixth Amendment Rights to trial by jury. In response to the Hurst v. Florida decision, a Jacksonville coalition of civic and faith groups - Justice 4 Jacksonville - is calling on State Attorney Angela Corey to stop action on all capital murder cases until Florida's sentencing statutes are repaired. Keyontay Humphries, campaign coordinator for Justice 4 Jacksonville, which is affiliated with the ACLU, issued this statement last week: "Today's ruling proves what the Justice 4 Jacksonville Coalition has been saying since its creation - that the 4th Judicial Circuit's outrageously high use of the death penalty is sending people into a system that can't be trusted. "400 people currently sit on Florida's death row because of a death sentencing scheme that has now been declared unconstitutional, and an enormous share of those 400 come from the 4th Judicial Circuit. All of their sentences should be re-evaluated now that the system that sent them to death row has been found unconstitutional. "It would also be unconscionable for more people to be sentenced under a scheme that has been found to be unconstitutional. For that reason, we are calling on State Attorney Angela Corey to pursue no further action in any capital cases until a more reliable - and constitutional - system has been put in place." The Fourth Judicial Circuit, comprising Duval, Nassau and Clay counties, was responsible for handing out 1/4 of all Florida's death sentences in 2012. In 2010 and 2011, almost 1/2 of all new Florida death sentences came from the Fourth Judicial Circuit. Duval County ranks 8th in the nation in administering death sentences. It's in a tiny minority of counties nationwide - only 2 % - that are responsible for doling out more than 56 % of all the death sentences in the United States. Through her spokesman, Corey responded to the call to halt death penalty action: "The death penalty is still a viable sentence in the state of Florida. We will follow the law, and in appropriate cases, State Attorney Corey will still seek the death penalty. This opinion deals with procedural issues which will be addressed by the Florida Supreme Court and the Legislature." Hurst v. Florida is expected to open the floodgates of death penalty litigation for up to 80 % of death row inmates, who were sentenced based on split, majority-only jury findings in the penalty phases of their trials. Justice Sonia Sotomayor, writing the majority opinion in the 8-1 decision, stated: "The Sixth Amendment requires a jury, not a judge, to find each fact necessary to impose a sentence of death. A jury's mere recommendation is not enough." Florida law authorizes judges to make the final decision on sentencing in death penalty cases, while requiring them to give "great weight" to the jury recommendation. Using split, majority-vote findings reduces the jury to "adviser" status, which the Court says violates the Sixth Amendment. While the Court did not mention jury unanimity in its opinion, attorneys say that the manner in which a jury makes findings is through unanimous verdicts, not majority-vote recommendations. In death penalty cases in Florida, a separate fact-finding analysis, which weighs aggravating and mitigating factors in the case, is conducted after a guilty verdict is reached. ACLU staff attorney Adam Tebrugge said changing the law to require unanimous penalty phase verdicts would go a long way toward satisfying Sixth Amendment requirements. He added that those unanimous verdicts should be binding in Florida law, instead of merely advisory, in light of Hurst. "There's a strong argument that a 7-5 finding is not sufficient to find any facts," Tebrugge said, referring to the split jury vote on which the trial judge based his death sentence in Hurst. "If you don't require a unanimous jury, it destroys the deliberations process," he added. "You just vote, and you don't even have to talk about it." Tebrugge believes that caution is in order, despite the Florida Supreme Court's expedited schedule for death row inmates. "The issues are very complex and the [state] courts don't have an answer for us. We need to slow things down ... Let's get it right." For a comprehensive history and analysis of the split jury issue, see Alexandra Zayas' article from 2013 by clicking here. To learn about a new study regarding racial disparities in Florida's application of the death penalty, see Mitch Perry's Florida Politics piece here. ---- (source: Julie Delegal, a University of Florida alumna, is a contributor for Folio Weekly, Jacksonville's alternative weekly, and writes for the family business, Delegal Law Offices----floridapolitics.com) ************************** Report Finds 74% of Florida Death Row Inmates Had Non-Unanimous Death Verdicts Florida's death row would be 3/4 smaller if the state followed the practice of all but 2 other states and required that a jury unanimously agree that a death sentence can be imposed before a defendant can be sentenced to death. Alabama and Delaware also permit judges to impose death sentences following non-unanimous jury recommendations for death. After an 18-month investigation into the cases of Florida's 390 death-row prisoners, The Villages Daily Sun found that judges had imposed death sentences 287 times (74%) after jurors had split on whether to recommend death. The paper found that 43% of the state's death-row prisoners would have received life sentences if, as is required in Alabama, the state required a "supermajority" vote of jurors (10 or more) before the jury could recommend death. Florida's high rate of death sentencing has driven up the costs of housing the state's death row, which state officials have estimated at between $8.7 and $9.6 million annually. The state's sentencing scheme was recently struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court in Hurst v. Florida because its statute permitted the judge, rather than the jury, to determine whether the prosecution had proven "aggravating circumstances" that make a capital defendant eligible for a death sentence. Although Delaware, like Florida, allows a recommendation for death by a simple majority of the jury (7 out of 12), it first requires the jury to unanimously find the aggravating factors that justify a death sentence. Florida's next scheduled execution is that of Michael Ray Lambrix, set for February 11. The Florida Supreme Court has ordered briefing in Lambrix's case on how the Hurst decision affects his case and whether it should be applied retroactively to other cases. The Court has scheduled oral argument for February 2. (source: Death Penalty Information Center) ALABAMA----imepdning execution Courts deny Alabama death row inmate request to halt Thursday execution 2 courts on Tuesday denied Alabama death row inmate Christopher Brooks' request to block his execution on Thursday. The U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals denied the request late Tuesday afternoon. So did the Alabama Supreme Court. Brooks' attorneys say they will appeal both the Alabama high court and 11th Circuit rulings to the U.S. Supreme court. Brooks is scheduled to be put to death at 6 p.m. Thursday by lethal injection at Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore. It would be Alabama's first execution since July 2013 and the first using the state's new three-drug combination. Brooks was convicted in the December 1992 rape and beating death of Jo Deann Campbell. Brooks had sought an emergency stay of execution from the 11th Circuit. He argued he should be given a chance to have his execution delayed, at least until lawsuits by him and other inmates challenging Alabama's new 3-drug lethal injection protocol have been decided at a trial in April. 23 years after her brutal death, and with her convicted killer just four days from his execution, Jo Deann Campbell's 2 sisters remember her as a bubbly person who was friends with everyone she met. Christopher Brooks is asked a court to stay his execution. In its opinion this afternoon denying the stay, the court noted that Brooks in November had joined a federal lawsuit filed by five other death row inmates challenging the constitutionality of Alabama's method of execution. The inmates in that lawsuit claim that Alabama's new 3-drug lethal injection protocol - which uses midazolam, rocuronium bromide, and potassium chloride - created a substantial risk of serious harm in violation of the Cruel and Unusual Punishments Clause of the Eighth Amendment. A federal judge denied his motion for a stay of execution in December and he filed the appeal to the 11th Circuit. The trial court denied his motion for a stay, explaining that Brooks had not shown a substantial likelihood of success on the merits of his Eighth Amendment claim because: he failed to show an available and feasible alternative method of execution as required by case law and he failed to show that he brought this claim within the applicable 2-year statute of limitations. "Moreover, the district court determined that the balance of equities weighed against granting a stay because Brooks unreasonably delayed bringing his lawsuit until it was too late to resolve the merits of his claim without staying his execution," the appeals court stated. In its ruling Tuesday afternoon the 11th Circuit affirmed the federal judge's ruling and denied Brooks' emergency motion to stay the execution. Brooks' attorneys on Friday also filed another request for a stay with the Alabama Supreme Court, which had already previously denied a stay request. In last week's request to the state high court Brooks' attorneys had also argued that the U.S. Supreme Court had ruled Florida's law allowing judge's to override jury sentence recommendations in capital cases was unconstitutional. Alabama also is 1 of 2 other states that have judicial override. Brooks' sentence did not result from a judicial override. At his trial the jury voted 11 to 1 to recommended death. The judge followed that recommendation. Under Alabama law fewer than 10 jurors voting to recommend a death sentence results in a recommendation of life without parole. But a judge can override a life without parole recommendation and impose a death sentence. Brooks' attorneys issued a statement Tuesday afternoon saying they will appeal both the 11th Circuit and Alabama Supreme Court denial of the stay requests. "We believe the 11th Circuit erred in denying Mr. Brooks' stay motion and his appeal, and we will be asking the United States Supreme Court to review the decision," the attorneys state. "As noted in our briefing, we believe the Supreme Court's ruling in Glossip v. Gross requires the 11th Circuit to overturn the District Court's ruling and allow Mr. Brooks to put on evidence showing that a 3-drug protocol involving midazolam will leave him aware but unable to communicate while he is tortured to death with the 2nd and 3rd drugs," Brooks' attorneys stated. "This question of what individuals challenging lethal injection protocols must prove in order to succeed affects other Alabama death row prisoners, not just Mr. Brooks, and should be considered at a measured pace." "Furthermore, major questions remain about whether midazolam is suitable as the first drug in a three-drug execution protocol like Alabama's, and those questions will be answered during the April hearing already set on the issue," Brooks' attorneys stated. "In 2015, courts in a very similar situation denied a stay to Oklahoma inmate Charles Warner, who was executed a week before the Supreme Court granted certiorari on the very question his request for a stay was connected to. It has since emerged that Mr. Warner was executed using the wrong drugs, and now all Oklahoma executions are on hold while the state investigates exactly what is going on in its department of corrections." "It would be a tragedy and a travesty if Mr. Brooks suffered the same fate as Mr. Warner and was executed while the rest of his co-plaintiffs benefited from having their claims heard and decided," Brooks' attorneys stated. Brooks' attorneys also stated they will be filing a separate petition asking the United States Supreme Court to review the Alabama Supreme Court's denial of a stay based on last week's ruling in Hurst v. Florida, in which the United States Supreme Court found Florida's death sentencing scheme to be unconstitutional. "Since Alabama's sentencing scheme is virtually identical to Florida's, we believe the Hurst decision is applicable here as well and that the Sixth Amendment requires that he get a new sentencing hearing," Brooks' attorneys stated. The Alabama Attorney General's Office has stated that the Florida ruling does not affect Alabama. (source: al.com) *********** Lawyers For Alabama Man Ask Supreme Court To Halt Thursday's Scheduled Execution A week after the Supreme Court struck down Florida's death sentencing scheme, lawyers for Christopher Brooks are asking the Supreme Court to put his execution on hold while the justices can decide whether Alabama's system is similarly unconstitutional. Lawyers for an Alabama man due to be executed on Thursday have asked the Supreme Court to step in and stop his execution because of claimed similarities between the death sentencing laws in Alabama and Florida - whose death sentencing scheme was struck down by the justices this past week. Alabama, like Florida, places the final decision of whether to impose death on the judge - not a jury. The petition for a writ of certiorari and application for a stay of execution in Christopher Brooks's case were filed at the court after business hours on Tuesday, lawyers for Brooks told BuzzFeed News. The filings, provided to BuzzFeed News, came hours after the Alabama Supreme Court had denied Brooks's initial request that the state court put his execution on hold while it determined the effect of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in the Florida case, Hurst v. Florida. Brooks was sentenced to death in 1993 for the 1992 murder of Jo Deann Campbell. The jury in his case had recommended a death sentence on an 11-1 vote. Judge James Hard, after hearing additional evidence, sentenced Brooks to death. (source: BuzzFeed News) From rhalperi at smu.edu Wed Jan 20 11:59:39 2016 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Wed, 20 Jan 2016 11:59:39 -0600 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----MO., KAN., COLO., USA Message-ID: Jan. 20 MISSOURI: Bill to abolish death penalty in Missouri being considered A move to abolish the death penalty in the Show-Me State is getting a hearing before a Missouri Senate committee. Senate Bill 816 is sponsored by Sen. Paul Weiland, R-Imperial. He told the committee on general laws that being a pro-life Republican should also include the end of life. "When I got involved in public life, one of my motivations was defending human life," Wieland said. "So to me it made logical sense, in order for me to be congruent with my conscience, that I would in fact be against the death penalty, and even further, I would work to try to end the death penalty here in the state of Missouri." Weiland also argued that the death penalty does not make Missouri, nor the rest of the United States, look good in the eyes of the world. Several people testified in favor of the bill, including Nimrod Chapel, president of the NAACP's Missouri state conference. He told the committee that the death penalty in Missouri is disproportionately pronounced against African Americans. "If you murder a white person, a white woman in particular, you're nearly 14 times more likely to get executed than those who murder black men," Chapel said. "The slogan that you hear, that 'Black Lives Matter,' is directly in response to this kind of disproportionate application of state law." Mark Richardson, prosecuting attorney for Cole County, strongly disagreed that racial disparities exist in the application of capital punishment in Missouri. "As of 2005, there were 46 prisoners under sentence of death in Missouri, (and) of those 46, 24 were white and 22 were African American," Richardson said. "Based on the murders committed, not the population statistically, but who's committing the murders, there appears in our state to be no disparity." Richardson, speaking on behalf of the Missouri Association of Prosecuting Attorneys, also testified that the death penalty not only protects the public, but staff members at state prisons. "Throwing the death penalty off the table," he said, "I would be forced to tell the victim's family of a murderer of a young man, say, that started as a corrections officer, who's murdered in prison, that we will just send that inmate right back to the prison where he came from, and have no ability to deter our worst offenders from attempting and committing murders against prison staff, guards or other inmates." The hearing had to recess because the Missouri Senate was scheduled to convene at 4 p.m., and Senate rules forbid committee meetings to occur while the full Senate is in session. The hearing on the death penalty abolition bill is scheduled to resume next week. The bill's chances of success appear remote, as most of the Republican majority in the Missouri General Assembly supports the death penalty, as does Gov. Jay Nixon, a Democrat. Missouri executed 6 death row inmates last year and 18 total since lethal injections resumed in late 2013. (source: stlpublicradio.org) KANSAS: Supreme Court restores death sentences in heinous Kansas murder spree Despite deep divisions over capital punishment, the Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that in the case of some particularly heinous Kansas murders, death was the appropriate penalty. The court ruled 8-1 that death sentences handed down against 3 men should not have been tossed out for procedural reasons by Kansas' highest court. Justice Antonin Scalia wrote the decision, with Justice Sonia Sotomayor the lone dissent. The case had exposed the same tensions and fault lines over the death penalty first revealed on the last day of the court's last term in June, when it ruled 5-4 to uphold a controversial form of lethal injection. Then, 4 justices spoke emotionally over the relative correctness or cruelty of capital punishment, and Justices Stephen Breyer and Ruth Bader Ginsburg said it might be unconstitutional. In the Kansas case, the state Supreme Court had struck down death sentences against 3 convicted murderers because of instructions given to the juries and, in the case of 2 brothers, the use of a joint sentencing hearing rather than separate ones. The state asked to restore the death sentences, and a majority of justices agreed. "These defendants tortured their victims, acts of almost inconceivable cruelty and depravity described firsthand for the jury by the lone survivor," Scalia said. Noting during oral arguments that 6 of the state's 9 death row inmates could win new hearings if the Kansas court's ruling remained, Scalia said, "Kansans, unlike our Justice Breyer, do not think the death penalty is unconstitutional and indeed very much favor it." He later went out of his way to read the gory details of the Kansas murder case, in which 5 men and women were repeatedly raped and abused before 4 were murdered and the 5th shot execution-style. Justice Samuel Alito, who wrote the court's June opinion in Glossip v. Gross upholding lethal injections, called the Kansas killings "some of the most horrendous murders that I have seen in my 10 years here, and we see practically every death penalty case that comes up anywhere in the country. These have to rank as among the worst." Nevertheless, the Kansas Supreme Court tossed out the death sentences for 2 reasons. It said the juries were not told that mitigating factors such as troubled childhoods did not need to be proven beyond a reasonable doubt, and it said brothers Jonathan and Reginald Carr should have had separate sentencing hearings. Sotomayor took the lead in questioning the death sentences, as she did last year in criticizing Oklahoma's lethal injection protocol. She said the state court's criticism of the jury instructions was reasonable. In her dissent, Sotomayor said the court never should have agreed to hear the case. "I worry that cases like these prevent states from serving as necessary laboratories for experimenting with how best to guarantee defendants a fair trial," she wrote. (source: USA Today) *************** Supreme Court sides with Kansas officials in upholding death penalty for brothers The Supreme Court on Wednesday sided with Kansas officials who want to execute 2 brothers who were involved in a brutal mass killing known as the "Wichita Massacre." The court ruled 8 to 1 that the Kansas Supreme Court was wrong to have overturned the death sentences of Reginald and Jonathan Carr for crimes that Justice Antonin Scalia described as including acts of "almost inconceivable cruelty and depravity." The justices were reviewing 2 issues from the Kansas court's decision: whether the jury received inadequate instructions on how to weigh evidence that might lead it to show mercy, and whether the men should have had separate sentencing trials. The answer to both was no, Scalia wrote. The notorious case shocked the state in 2000. The brothers' crime spree culminated in rape, robbery, forcing the victims to engage in sexual intercourse and the execution-style shooting of 3 men and 2 women. One woman survived when a bullet was deflected by her hair clip. Even with such gruesome details, a jury contemplating whether to impose the death penalty must weigh aggravating circumstances - which must be proved beyond a reasonable doubt by prosecutors - with mitigating factors offered by the defense, such as a troubled childhood or personality disorder. Those do not have to be proved beyond a reasonable doubt. The Kansas Supreme Court said that because the jury was not explicitly informed of that lesser burden, the death sentences were invalid. Scalia said that was wrong. "Jurors will accord mercy if they deem it appropriate, and withhold mercy if they do not, which is what our case law was designed to achieve," Scalia wrote. He also said sentencing the brothers at the same proceeding did not violate their rights. "Only the most extravagant speculation would lead to the conclusion that the supposedly prejudicial evidence rendered the Carr brothers' joint sentencing proceeding fundamentally unfair," Scalia wrote. Justice Sonia Sotomayor was the lone dissenter. She said the court should not have accepted the case. "I worry that cases like these prevent states from serving as necessary laboratories for experimenting with how best to guarantee defendants a fair trial," she wrote. The case was the 1st death penalty controversy the court considered after Justices Stephen G. Breyer and Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote last term that they thought the court should reconsider the constitutionality of the death penalty. But the case of the Carr brothers did not raise such a fundamental question, and both joined in Scalia's opinion. The case is Kansas v. Carr. (source: Washington Post) COLORADO: New bill aiming to make death penalty easier to impose in Colorado 6 Republican lawmakers in Colorado are pushing to pass a bill that will remove the unanimous voting requirement for death sentences. If passed, the law could make it easier to impose death penalties during court proceedings. The bill, called SB 64, is sponsored by State Representatives Kevin Lundberg, John Cooke, Vicki Marble, Laura Woods and Kevin Grantham. It is still awaiting to be discussed in the state's House of Representatives. In the current judicial system, the jury can only allow a death sentence to be ruled by the court if all 12 of its members agree on a unanimous vote. With the proposed law, the politicians are aiming to change this rule and reduce the number of votes to 9 instead of 12, The Denver Channel has learned. According to 9News, SB 64 was drafted by its sponsors in response to the mass shooting that occurred in 2012 during the midnight screening of Christopher Nolan's "The Dark Knight Rises" in a theater in Aurora, Colorado. The incident left 12 people dead. The gunman, who was identified by previous reports as James Eagan Holmes, was supposed to receive death penalty. Instead, he receive a life sentence because the votes of the jury members were divided. For the sponsors of the bill, this law would empower the court to lay down the most serious form of punishment for heinous crimes. However, the chances of the bill passing seem a bit dim given the current status of Colorado's House of Representatives. Currently, majority of the lawmakers serving the state are Democrats and most of them are against capital punishment. One of them, Representative Jovan Melton of Aurora, noted that the state should not consider loosening the requirement for death penalty. "[The death penalty] really is an archaic practice that needs to go away," he said according to 9News. "By reducing the threshold and making it easier, we're just doing the wrong thing." (source: lawyerherald.com) ************* Colorado law would make it easier for juries to sentence someone to death----If passed, only 9 out of 12 jurors would have to decide on a death sentence instead of a unanimous decision A group of Republican lawmakers introduced a bill today that would make it easier for juries to put someone to death in Colorado. Currently, all 12 jurors in a death penalty case must unanimously decide to call in the Grim Reaper; the new law would make it so only 9 out of 12 would be enough. State Sen. Kevin Lundberg of Berthoud, Colorado, revealed the bill today in the Senate. You can read the full text of it here. Lundberg and another of the sponsors are on the Senate Judiciary Committee in the upper chamber where Republicans hold control by 1 seat. 6 Republicans and no Democrats so far support the bill they've said is a direct result of a non-unanimous jury verdict that spared the life of the Aurora theater shooter this summer. Critics of the proposed law were quick to point out 1 particular irony. "I think what's most odd about this bill is that we require unanimous juries for a DUI conviction," says Stacy Anderson of the anti-death penalty Better Priorities Initiative. "So we're going to set a lower bar to send somebody to death? To actually send someone to death should be the highest bar that a jury has to reach, and a prosecutor has to reach." Public defenders in Colorado have argued that in recent years the state has, in a way, de facto abolition of the death penalty. Juries haven't put someone to death here since 2008. There haven't been any executions in the state since 1997. Currently Colorado's death row rolls 3 deep. In August, prosecutors were unsuccessful in convincing a jury to come to a unanimous decision to execute the convicted killer in the high-profile trial of the Aurora theater shooting in which 12 people were killed and 70 more injured. Arapahoe County District Attorney George Brauchler, who prosecuted the case, has said he believes the decision came down to one juror who didn't want to send the killer to the grave. In an interview with The Colorado Independent last month, Brauchler said while he's spoken to several other jurors from the trial who were in favor of execution he hasn???t yet heard from the one who opposed it. "I keep waiting on that holdout juror to reach out to us - and I hope it happens - and sit down and say 'Here's what went on, here's what got me, here's that point in the trial or here's that piece of evidence, or something when we were talking that got me,'" Brauchler said. Brauchler could not immediately be reached for comment about the proposed new law. Doug Wilson, head of the State Public Defender's office, said he'd just gotten the bill but after a quick perusal felt it was unconstitutional. "If it were to pass they will once again jeopardize their death convictions and death verdicts as they did when we had 3-judge sentencing as opposed to jury sentencing," he said. In 1995 lawmakers changed the law so a 3-judge panel could decide a death sentence, but that was deemed unconstitutional less than a decade later, and now only juries can deliver execution verdicts. At the start of this year's legislative session that began Jan. 13, Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper said he would not push for a repeal of the death penalty this year, but hopes to within the next few years. Democratic Senate Minority leader Lucia Guzman said she would not carry a repeal bill this year, though she's in favor of repeal. 2016 is an election year when many lawmakers are up for re-election. Efforts to abolish the death penalty in Colorado have failed 4 times in the past, most recently in 2013. It's possible even more might be on the legislative horizon this year for greasing the skids toward death row. Douglas County Republican Rep. Kim Ransom told The Independent before the session started that she was looking to carry a bill that would also help prosecutors secure a death sentence in capital cases. The proposed law would give prosecutors a 2nd chance with a new jury - a mulligan, a do-over - if they weren't able to convince the 1st to delete someone from the Earth. (source: The Colorado Independent) USA: Please find attached a recent publication on emotional language use in final words spoken before execution acknowledging the psychological terror associated with being executed which might be of interest to you. Please feel free to distribute the link to the publication on your webpage, facebook page and on twitter and I am happy to receive feedback. http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01985/abstract [journal.frontiersin.org] Yours sincerely Sarah Hirschmuller hirschmu at uni-mainz.de ********************** Famous US judge admits there's a punishment that's just as bad as the death penalty - if not worse Alex Kozinski, the famous former chief of the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, thinks solitary confinement is a punishment that's just as bad as the death penalty - if not worse. "Sending hardened criminals from death row to solitary confinement is no triumph," writes Kozinski in a January 15 editorial for the Yale Law Review Journal. "It merely swaps one type of death for another." Kozinski's sentiments are part of a broader movement to ban solitary confinement across the US that has had some success in recent months. The New York state government recently agreed to a host of reforms, including limiting the time served in solitary confinement to three months, and allowing inmates monthly phone calls and group recreation, following a lawsuit brought by the New York Civil Liberties Union, reports The New York Times. According to Kozinski, death penalty abolitionists are fighting the wrong fight. There are 3,000 prisoners on death row in the US, and while that's a huge number, it pales in comparison to the 100,000 suffering in administrative segregation (another term for solitary confinement) in prisons across the country, writes Kozinski, citing the Death Penalty Information Center. "Taking prisoners off death row and putting them in supermax prisons may soothe our collective conscience," writes Kozinski. "But we may be condemning those inmates to decades-long torture that may make a swift execution look like an act of grace." Indeed, some members of the public may share this view. Several potential jurors in the trial of Boston marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev told lawyers they believe "life imprisonment is the harsher of the two options while the death penalty is 'the easy way out,'" reports The Washington Post. It's clear that solitary confinement does take a toll on inmates. Inmates in solitary confinement are 5 times more likely to kill themselves than those in general population, according to a study of Maine state prisons cited by Kozinski. When confined to a single room with little outside contact, some inmates develop acute mental illness, become anxious and aggressive, and hurt themselves, according to a psychiatric evaluation of inmates cited by Kozinski. "You have nothing but 4 walls and a steel door ... You end up slowly slipping," exonerated death row inmate Anthony Graves told Business Insider. Graves added, "The situation makes you hopeless." Moreover, Kozinski argues, it's also much easier to consign someone to solitary confinement than it is to sentence someone to death. Even though the outcomes are comparably horrible, a death sentence involves a "decades-long, multi-jurisdictional tango," while inmates can be sentenced to long-term solitary confinement as long as prison officials justify it through "some kind of hearing," writes Kozinski. Those who want to fix the prison system, Kozinski writes, should spend their energy "agitating for reform in this dank corner of our criminal justice system." (source: Business Insider) From rhalperi at smu.edu Wed Jan 20 12:00:30 2016 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Wed, 20 Jan 2016 12:00:30 -0600 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide Message-ID: Jan. 20 ZAMBIA: Scrap death sentence - UNZA don A lecturer in the School of Law at the University of Zambia, Landilani Banda, says death sentence is "state-sanctioned murder" and must thus be abolished. Mr Banda says there is no legal, political or religious justification for maintaining the death penalty in the laws of the country. Mr Banda said yesterday when he appeared before the Parliamentary Committee on Legal Affairs, Governance, Human Rights, Gender Matters and Child Affairs, that has been receiving views on whether the death penalty should be abolished or not. "There is no valid reason to maintain death sentence in the statutes of Zambia. Being on death row alone causes so much anguish and suffering to the convict that most of them actually die on death row," Mr Banda said. He contended that death sentence has not acted as a deterrent to would-be offenders and it is, therefore, only logical that it is scraped. "Death penalty is retrogression to the right of life. It is the state violating the right to life. Which citizen deserves to be killed by the state? Death penalty is not defence of life of the state," Mr Banda said. Mpika member of Parliament Mwansa Kapeya asked Mr Banda on whether he thinks Zambians will be convinced to abolish death penalty through a referendum. Mr Banda said: "Zambians have a conscience. And Government needs to sensitise citizens on their rights, which includes the right to life". Committee chairperson Cornelius Mweetwa asked Mr Banda on what the best deterrent should be in an event that the death penalty is abolished. Mr Banda said life imprisonment would be ideal to replace death penalty. Last week, the Human Rights Commission said Amnesty International described death penalty as a "premeditated and cold-blooded killing of a human being by the State", and should therefore, be abolished because it is a violation of fundamental human rights. And Panos Institute Southern Africa (PSAf) has called on MPs to help promote transparency and accountability in the country by expediting the enactment of the Access to Information (ATI) Bill into law, which media practitioners have been fighting for since 1991, TEDDY KUYELA reports. Appearing before the Parliamentary Committee on Information and Broadcasting Services at the National Assembly last week, PSAf programme manager for media development and information communication technology, Elias Banda, said access to information is a basic human right for all citizens. Mr Banda urged Parliamentarians to support the enactment of the ATI into law to help promote accountability and reduce corruption. This is according to a statement issued by Panos yesterday. "Access to Information is a basic human right supported by Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international statutes of good governance and open societies," Mr Banda said. Among other benefits, Mr Banda informed the committee that the ATI will enable the state or public bodies to positively seek information through research and development in all spheres of life. Mr Banda said the enactment of the ATI Bill into law will also help to improve the knowledge base of an economy and help discover creative new ways of developing the country and its people. (source: Zambia Daily Mail) PAKISTAN----execution Death penalty: Murder convict hanged A murder convict was hanged at the Jhang District Jail on Tuesday morning. A Prisons Department spokesperson said Allah Ditta, a resident of Chak 161-JB, was sentenced to death by a trial court. He said Allah Ditta had killed a rival in 1996. The apex court had upheld the decision of the lower court and the president had turned down his mercy petition. A district and sessions judge had issued black warrants for Allah Ditta to be hanged on January 19. (source: The Express Tribune) ********* Qadri appeals for state's mercy Mumtaz Qadri, whose death sentence was upheld by the Supreme Court of Pakistan for shooting to death Punjab governor Salman Taseer, has appealed the President of Pakistan for mercy. According to sources at Interior Ministry, Mumtaz Qadri's appeal for mercy will be forwarded to the President's House. Mumtaz Qadri, who was part of the security detail of Salman Taseer, had shot the former Punjab governor multiple times in Islamabad on January 4, 2011 for allegedly committing a blasphemy. Qadri has, in his appeal addressed to President Mamnoon Hussain, stated that he is the only breadwinner in his family, and thus, deserves the state's mercy. President Mamnoon Hussain will decide whether or not to condone the death penalty of Mumtaz Qadri, who had confessed to murdering Salman Taseer. (source: thenews.com.pk) INDIA: SC to rehear death row convict's plea The Supreme Court today agreed to re-hear the plea of Pakistani terrorist Mohammad Arif, alias Ashfaq, seeking review of the death sentence awarded to him for his role in the attack on an Army battalion at Red Fort here in 2000. A 5-member Constitution Bench headed by Chief Justice TS Thakur said the review plea would be heard in open court by a Bench of 3 judges in the light of another Constitution Bench ruling in September 2014 acknowledging the need for transparency in such hearings. Ashfaq's counsel pleaded that his client had been convicted only for conspiracy and was not part of the terror team that had mounted the attack, killing 3 jawans. Further, Ashfaq was the only death-row convict who could not take advantage of the 2014 SC verdict as his curative petition had been dismissed ahead of that, he contended and pleaded for open court hearing by relaxing the norm. Confirming the death sentence awarded to Ashfaq, the SC had ruled on August 10, 2011 that he did not deserve anything less as he was part of both the conspiracy to wage a war against India and its execution. During the hearing of the appeal, Ashfaq could not cite a single mitigating circumstance warranting commutation of the death penalty, the apex court had pointed out. In all, 6 militants had sneaked into the fort on December 22, 2000, and opened indiscriminate fire, killing 3. After the attack, all of them escaped by scaling the rear boundary wall of the 17th century monument. (source: tribuneindia.com) BANGLADESH: 2 get death for murder in Ctg A Chittagong court yesterday gave death penalty to 2 persons in a case filed for killing a man at Chandanaish upazila more than 5 years ago. The convicts -- Md Shahid and Hesham Uddin of Bainjuri in the upazila -- are on the run, said public prosecutor Ayub Khan. The court, however, acquitted 6 persons as the charges brought against them were not proved, said the PP. On March 7 in 2010, Md Shahid and Hesham hacked one Masur Ahmed Khan on the premises of his Madhyam Bainjuri village house in Chandanaish over land dispute, according to the prosecution. Mansur was declared dead at Chandanaish Upazila Health Complex. (source: The Daily Star) ****************** Split verdict over death penalty of 6 in 2006 RAB, Coastguard personnel murder case Court has given a split verdict on the death penalty for 6 people in a case over the murders of one RAB member and 2 Coastguard personnel in Bagerhat in 2006. The bench of justices Md Nizamul Huq and M Faruque delivered it on Tuesday after hearings on death reference and an appeal by one of the death-row convicts. A Bagerhat court on Aug 19, 2014, ordered the death penalty for 6 and life imprisonment for 7 others for killing the 3 security personnel. Apart from the appeal, the case came to High Court later that year for death reference hearings for the other convicts. The court started the hearings from Jan 12 this year. In his verdict delivered 2 days later, Justice Huq had acquitted all 13 convicts as the charges against them 'could not be proved beyond doubt'. But disagreeing with his judgment, Justice Faruque on Tuesday reduced the death sentences for 6 to life imprisonment and retained the 7 others' life in jail verdict. State counsel Deputy Attorney General Md Moniruzzaman Rubel told bdnews24.com: "We had argued in favour of upholding the death penalty. But none of the verdicts have retained it. We will decide later whether we will appeal after evaluating the verdicts." The case will now go to the chief justice following the rules. The chief justice will then assign a new bench to settle it. According to the case details, RAB and Coastguard had conducted a joint operation on Dec 1, 2006, on Pashur River in Bagerhat to nab a gang of robbers. Following a shootout between the 2 parties, the security personnel managed to corner the robbers' vessel and board it. Some of the robbers dived into the river with Coastguard personnel MH Kabir and MA Islam and RAB personnel PC Kanchan after a scuffle broke out on the boat. The bodies of the 3 men were recovered from the river over the next few days. RAB later filed the murder case against several unknown people. Mongla police submitted the chargesheet in May 2007 accusing 15 people. The Bagerhat court then in August 2014 delivered the verdict based on statements from 11 state witnesses. Those awarded death sentences were Rafiqul Sheikh, Quddus Sheikh, Idris Sheikh, Babul Sheikh, Alkas Fakir and Elias Sheikh. Those awarded life sentences were Akram Sheikh, Alam Sheikh, Badshah Sheikh, Jamal Sheikh, Kamal alias Suman Sheikh, Reazul Sheikh and Aslam Sheikh. Of them, Elias was the one who appealed against the maximum punishment. He is also the only one convict behind bars. The rest are still on the run, said Deputy Attorney General Moniruzzaman Rubel. (source: bdnews24.com) **************** Hefazat leaders sign fatwa against militancy Several top leaders of radical Islamist platform Hefazat-e-Islam and teachers of its Hathazari Madrasa in Chittagong have signed on to an initiative of 100,000 clerics issuing a fatwa against militancy. Fatwa committee chief Maulana Md Fariduddin Masud, also the Imam of Sholakia Mosque, said that they had already collected around 15,000 signatures since January 2. He said that they would also collect signatures of scholars engaged with various political parties. 12 Hefazat leaders including its Secretary General Junaid Babunagari and some teachers including chief mufti Abdus Salam of Al-Jamiatul Ahlia Darul Ulum Moinul Islam, also known as Hathazari Madrasa, signed the fatwa recently, sources said. The platform's organising secretary, however, alleged that Maulana Masud had collected their signatures tactfully. Maulana Azizul Huq Islamabadi said that Hefazat had always been vocal against militancy. "Maulana Masud tactfully collected signatures from the Hefazat leaders during the Ijtema. He did not make it clear that it was part of his campaign," he alleged. Qawmi madrasa-based Hefazat came to limelight in 2013 by placing their 13-point demands that include the formulation of anti-blasphemy law after youths launched an unprecedented movement at Shahbagh demanding death penalty for all war criminals, most of who are from Jamaat-e-Islami. Hefazat leaders also termed the incumbent government a patroniser of atheists. Since the Hefazat movement, over a dozen secular activists, writers, publishers and teachers were attacked - many of them killed - by religious extremists and militant groups. At a recent Islamic conference in Chittagong, Hefazat chief Shah Ahmed Shafi said they were also against militancy and violence, but that their fight against the atheists would continue. The anti-militancy fatwa involving 11 questions explains the relevant verses of the Qur'an and the Hadiths to discourage extremism and militant activities in the country. Some 500 scholars present at Jamia Ikra of Khilgaon signed the fatwa on the inaugural day. The organisers will take signatures from female scholars too. Maulana Masud hoped that they would be able to complete collecting the signatures by February. They had sent letters to all mosques, madrasas and religion-based political parties urging them sign the fatwa, which would be sent to the president of the state, the prime minister, the chief justice, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation and the United Nations among others. Maulana Masud alleged that Jamaat-Shibir had instigated militancy in the country. A 7-member committee is working to collect the signatures. The initiative was taken after the police chief held series of meetings with Islamic scholars in December where they discussed ways to combat militant activities. A similar fatwa was issued by 1,000 Islamic scholars of India which says Islam is against terrorism, but Islamic State militant group is inciting terrorism. Also the secretary general of Jamaat-e-Ulema, Maulana Masud said they were trying to collect signatures from all Muslim scholars including Shia, Sunni or Ahle Hadith followers. "Islam does not support terrorism and militancy. Provoked by an international group, a certain quarter in the country is trying to encourage the youths in militant activities. If we can collect the signatures of 1,00,000 scholars, the world will know that Islam has nothing to do with militancy. It will also improve the image of the country," he said. (source: dhakatribune.com) INDONESIA: Coalition of human right groups ask Indonesian government to end unjust use of the death penalty The Indonesian government's decision to execute eight individuals for drug-related crimes last April led to condemnation of our country from governments and human rights advocates from around the world. Despite insisting at the time that the executions were essential to fighting a growing "drug crisis" in the country, government officials later said they would be focusing on improving the country's economy before moving forward with more executions. Recently, however, government officials have backtracked once again, indicating that they would continue to carry out executions this year. In an open letter released on Monday and addressed to Minister for Politics, Law and Security Affairs Lahut Panjaitan, numerous human rights and justice advocacy groups - including Amnesty International, the Community Legal Aid Institute (LBH) and KontraS (the Commission for the Disappeared and Victims of Violence) - criticise the government's decision to backtrack once again on their death penalty policy. They refer specifically to Attorney General M Prasetyo's statements in December that executions will resume in 2016. The letter asks that the government put an end to executions, arguing that there are "systemic flaws in the administration of justice in Indonesia" and "violations of fair trial" that amount to government-endorsed human rights violations. Many such violations of justice are noted in the letter, include not providing proper legal assistance to death row prisoners and the improper application of the death penalty to individuals who may have mental illnesses or be underage. It also notes that drug offenses do not rise to the threshold of serious crimes deserving of the death penalty as defined by the 1976 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, in which Indonesia is a signatory. The letter's cosigners argue that only remedy to these injustices would be for Indonesia to place a moratorium on further executions and to establish an independent body to monitor the human rights of prisoners and ensure they receive a fair trial. You can read the full text of the open letter below or on the website of the LBH Masyarakarat (Community Legal Aid Institute): Mr. Luhut Panjaitan, Coordinating Minister for Politics, Law and Security Affairs Coordinating Ministry for Politics, Law and Security Affairs Jl. Merdeka Barat No. 15, Jakarta Pusat 10110 Indonesia 18 January 2016 Dear Minister, Indonesia's authorities must end executions and abolish the death penalty We are writing to you on the issue of the application of the death penalty in Indonesia. It has been a year since your administration resumed executions in Indonesia on 18 January 2015, after a 4 year hiatus, despite strong protests from human rights organizations and the international community. Our organizations are concerned despite your public announcement in November 2015 that Indonesia government would suspend any executions in near future the Attorney General has recently announced that further executions will be carried out in 2016. As there continues to be serious concerns about violations of fair trial and other human rights in the use of the death penalty in Indonesia we ask for your immediate intervention to address these issues. In particular, we urge you to ensure all death sentences are reviewed by an independent and impartial body, with a view to their commutation. Research findings by the National Commission on Human Rights (Komisi Nasional Hak Asasi Manusia, Komnas HAM)[3] and additional independent research carried out by Amnesty International, ICJR (Institute for Criminal Justice Reform), and other human rights organizations, point to systemic flaws in the administration of justice in Indonesia and violation of fair trial and other international safeguards that must be strictly observed in all death penalty cases: Defendants in the cases under analysis did not have access to legal counsel from the time of arrest and at different stages of their trial and appeals; they were subjected to ill-treatment while in police custody to make them "confess" to their alleged crimes or sign police investigation reports. Prisoners were brought before a judge for the first time when their trials began, months after their arrest. In several cases involving foreign nationals, particularly those convicted of drug-related offences, the authorities failed to correctly identify or verify the identity of the prisoner and notify relevant country representations of the arrest. The authorities also failed to provide translation and interpretation to those prisoners who could not understand Bahasa, whether they were foreigners or Indonesian nationals. The death penalty continued to be used extensively for drug-related offences, even though these offences do not meet the threshold of the "most serious crimes", the only category of crimes for which the death penalty can be imposed under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Indonesia is a state party, pending its abolition. In addition, despite the clear prohibition under international law concerning the use of the death penalty against persons who were below 18 years of age or have a mental or intellectual disability, credible claims put forward by prisoners in relation to their age and mental illness were not adequately investigated by the authorities and have resulted in the unlawful imposition of the death penalty and, in at least 1 case, execution. While Indonesian law requires that all births be registered, in practice many people do not undergo this process, making the determination of one's age particularly challenging. This, coupled with a lack of legal assistance, increases the risk that persons who were below 18 when the crime was committed are exposed to the death penalty. Additionally, defendants and prisoners are not regularly and independently assessed, which can result in mental disabilities remaining undiagnosed and prisoners not being afforded the care and treatment they might need. Research findings also show that in some cases prisoners did not receive legal assistance when appealing against their conviction or sentence, or did not even submit an appeal application because they were not informed by their lawyers of their right to do so. Furthermore, the execution of some death row prisoners went ahead even though the Indonesian courts had accepted to hear their appeals. The announcement by President Joko Widodo in December 2014 and February 2015 that he would not grant clemency to any individuals convicted of and sentenced to death for drug-related crimes and information relating to some clemency rejections cast doubts on the meaningful exercise of the President's constitutional power to grant clemency and the country's compliance with the ICCPR. As of today, 140 countries are abolitionist in law or practice. 3 more countries - Fiji, Madagascar and Suriname- became abolitionist for all crimes in 2015 alone and the Parliament of Mongolia adopted a new Criminal Code at the end of last year, removing the death penalty as possible form of punishment under the laws of the country. The resumption of executions in Indonesia have not only set the country against its international obligations, but also against the global trend towards abolition of the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment. Our organizations reiterate our calls on the government of Indonesia to establish a moratorium on executions as a first step towards abolition of the death penalty. Pending full abolition, we urge you to immediately establish an independent and impartial body, or mandate an existing one, to review all cases where people have been sentenced to death, with a view to commuting the death sentences or, in cases where the procedures were seriously flawed, offer a retrial that fully complies with international fair trial standards and which does not resort to the death penalty. This letter is co-signed by the following organizations: Amnesty International Elsam (Institute for Policy Research and Advocacy) HRWG (Human Rights Working Group) ICJR (Institute for Criminal Justice Reform) Imparsial (the Indonesian Human Rights Monitor) KontraS (the Commission for the Disappeared and Victims of Violence) LBH Masyarakarat (Community Legal Aid Institute) Migrant Care PKNI (Indonesian Drug User Network) YLBHI (Indonesia Legal Aid Foundation) (source: coconuts.co) ZIMBABWE: Traditional leaders call for abolition of death penalty Traditional Chiefs from Mashonaland Central and East Monday endorsed the abolition of the death pnealty in Zimbabwe, arguing that their ancestors never practiced the "cruel and inhumane practice." The development ciomes at a time when prisones on death row, some for up to 20 yeasrs, never approached the Constitutional Court seeking to have their sentences commuted to life. The inmates are being represented by top Harare lawyer and opposition politician Tendai Biti. Speaking during the workshop hosted by Zimbabwe Association for Crime Prevention and Rehabilitation of the Offender (ZACRO) in Harare, Chiefs Council President Fortune Charumbira said cultural perspectives were crucial in considering the abolition of the death penalty. Out of the 45 Chiefs who attended the workshop, 34 voted for the abolition of the death penalty, 7 voting for it to stay, while 4 abstained in the 1st round of voting. The 2nd round of voting produced new results with 42 Chiefs saying 'yes' whilst only 2 said "no".1 Chief was still undecided. Chief Bepura said Zimbabwean traditional culture has never allowed the death penalty, arguing that the issue of avenging spirit (Ngozi) has used so that the aggrieved family can be appeased. Goromonzi's Chief Chikwaka weighed in saying the death penalty was brought in by the whites. Chief Musarurwa added: "You can kill the murderer but you cannot kill murder," adding killing of an offender is the result of ignorance as there are other means of solving the issue. Currently, 117 persons are on death row but the government has failed to employ a hangman. Amnesty International Roseline Muzerengi said the death penalty is not in line with Zimbabwean culture. "An eye for an eye makes the world blind and killing a murder convict is irreversible if mistakes are incurred during trial," Muzerengi lamented. Moerecountries are moving towards abolishing capital punishment and Zimbabwe's civic organisations, supported by Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa have been lobbying the government for the abolition of the capital punishment. (source: New Zimbabwe) NIGERIA: Legislator advocates death penalty, amputation for treasury looters Irked by the high level of corruption in the country, the Minority Leader and member, House of Representatives, Chikun/Kajuru federal constituency of Kaduna State, Umar Yakubu Barde, has advocated for capital punishment for those found guilty of looting the treasury. In the interim, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) legislator urged the Federal Government to immediately sponsor a law to be included in the country's legal statute for the amputation of the hands of those who looted public funds. He said those who stole in millions of naira should have their hands amputated, while those who looted billions of naira should be hanged until certified dead. Speaking yesterday at a press conference with Kaduna State chapter of correspondents chapel of Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Barde said that some members of the lower chamber who agree with his view are already looking at the prospect of implementing such law. The lawmaker called for special courts rather than the conventional court to try and sentence looters of public money. Barde said: "I am a believer of the fact that people should be punished for whatever offence they commit. And I am also of the belief that punishment should also be segregated according to the offence. At least, your punishment should be commensurate with what you have done." "For me, if you ask me, if someone steals from N1 million to N100 million, they should cut his hand. Yes, there is nothing wrong with that, so that when we see him, we will know yes, he stole. And those who steal from billions upward should be hanged and their property confiscated. "You can imagine this issue of arms deal. If you know this money is meant for the procurement of arms, weapons, my brothers and sisters here, if you have a brother in the army, he is sent to the war front and because his weapons are archaic and he is killed. Do you now want to have sympathy for someone who knows that the money was meant for arms and he pocketed it? It is so painful, we have lost loved ones." The legislator continued: "If I am a judge and such a person is brought before me, I will seize his property and make sure he is also killed. Because he is responsible the blood of the people killed in the war front. (soruce: The Guardian) From rhalperi at smu.edu Wed Jan 20 14:49:20 2016 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Wed, 20 Jan 2016 14:49:20 -0600 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, FLA., ALA., USA Message-ID: Jan. 20 TEXAS: As an Attorney, Death Penalty Enthusiast Ted Cruz Really Loved Describing Brutal Crimes Texas Senator and presidential candidate Ted Cruz has never exactly hidden his passion for the death penalty - it's a love that speaks its name over and over whenever he talks in public. As the New York Times lays out today, his passion took a somewhat more unseemly form when he was a Supreme Court Clerk, where he seemed to take unusual relish in laying out the details of violent crimes. Cruz has always been pro-death penalty and a staunch advocate for keeping the system churning along just as it currently kills people (except, as Mother Jones pointed out, in 2010, when as a private practice attorney, he represented a wrongfully convicted man who spent 14 years on death row). He may have gotten some of that from his father; Rafael Cruz has argued from the pulpit that God himself is pro-death penalty. That enthusiasm made itself evident when he was clerking for Supreme Court Justice William H. Rehnquist in 1996, the Times writes, and became known for his colorful briefs on death penalty appeals, which "often dwelled on the lurid details of murders that other clerks tended to summarize in order to quickly move to the legal merits of the case." That's unusual for a dry, dispassionate SCOTUS brief, and really made old Ted stand out at the office, a fact he himself was not unaware of. Per the Times: "I believe in the death penalty," Mr. Cruz wrote in his book "A Time for Truth." As he saw it, it was his duty to include all the details and "describe the brutal nature of the crime." "Liberal clerks would typically omit the facts; it was harder to jump on the moral high horse in defense of a depraved killer," he wrote. Cruz's love of death began even before that, in fact, during a clerkship at federal appellate court in Virginia with Judge J. Michael Luttig. Luttig's father was killed by a 17-year-old would-be carjacker named Napoleon Beazley in 1994. The horrible incident created a bond between Cruz and Luttig, who began working for the judge soon after. A very strong and slightly macabre bond, again, per the Times: Mr. Cruz became devoted to Mr. Luttig, whom Mr. Cruz has described as "like a father to me." During his clerkship, he presented his boss with a caricature of him and other clerks pulling a stagecoach driven by the judge. According to someone who saw the illustration, there was a graveyard behind them with headstones representing the number of people executed in their jurisdiction that year. One thing we can say about Ted Cruz: the man's character is consistent. (source: jezebel.com) FLORIDA: Denise Lee's killer among death penalty cases to be reviewed In another sign of the impact of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that struck down a key part of Florida's death-penalty sentencing system, the state Supreme Court has issued orders allowing 6 death row inmates to file briefs about how the ruling might apply to their cases. That includes the sentence of Michael King, who was convicted in September 2009 in the abduction, rape and killing of North Port's Denise Lee, 21. The same jury that convicted King also recommended 12-0 that he die for the crimes. The Florida Supreme Court's orders, issued Tuesday, are in cases that already had been scheduled for oral arguments during the `st week of February. The orders will allow lawyers for the inmates and the state to file briefs next week about the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in advance of the oral arguments. The U.S. Supreme Court, in an 8-1 decision, found Jan. 12 that Florida's system of imposing death sentences was an unconstitutional violation of the Sixth Amendment right to trial by jury because it gave too much decision-making power to judges instead of juries. A key question is whether - or how - the ruling might apply to people already sentenced to death. Besides King, Tuesday's orders allow briefs to be filed on behalf of Richard Knight, convicted in a Broward County case; Raymond Bright, convicted in a Bay County case; Dontae Morris, convicted in a Hillsborough County case; Jacob John Dougan, convicted in a Duval County case; and Eric Lee Simmons, convicted in a Lake County case, according to court documents. In a motion filed Friday in the Florida Supreme Court, Morris' attorneys said the breadth of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling was "unanticipated" and that it should apply to Morris' case. The Florida Supreme Court also will hear similar arguments Feb. 2 in the case of Cary Michael Lambrix, who is scheduled to be executed Feb. 11. Lawyers in Attorney General Pam Bondi's office have argued that the U.S. Supreme Court ruling should not affect Lambrix, who has been on death row for more than 3 decades. (source: Herald Tribune) ************* Shelby Farah's mother to ask state not to execute Rhodes if found guilty Shelby Farah's mother is scheduled to meet with a state attorney Thursday to request the death penalty be taken off the table for her daughter's accused killer. Darlene Farah lost her daughter, Shelby Farah, when Shelby was murdered during an armed robbery at the Metro PCS store where she worked. Police say James Rhodes walked in, robbed the store and shot her to death. Rhodes will go on trial later this year. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled Florida's system for sentencing people to death is considered unconstitutional. Justices of the Supreme Court ruled 8-1 that the state's procedure is flawed because juries work on an advisory role, and judges have the final say on sentencing. Farah will meet with State Attorney Bernie de la Rionda on Thursday. (source: actionnewsjax.com) ALABAMA----impending execution Catholic bishop asks Gov. Bentley to stop execution Birmingham Catholic Bishop Robert J. Baker today sent a letter to Gov. Robert Bentley asking the governor to commute the sentence of a convicted killer set to be executed on Thursday. Quoting an admonition by Pope Francis that "Justice is never reached by killing a human being," Baker wrote, "In addition, alternative approaches to serious crimes like murder, such as a life sentence without parole, give the opportunity for a person incarcerated to seek pardon, forgiveness, and conversion of mind and heart to the Lord." Attorneys for Alabama Death Row inmate Christopher Brooks are trying to stave off his execution Thursday night. The U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals and the Alabama Supreme Court both on Tuesday afternoon denied Brooks' requests for emergency stays of his execution. His attorneys say they are appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court. Brooks is scheduled to be put to death at 6 p.m. Thursday by lethal injection at Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore. It would be Alabama's 1st execution since July 2013 and the 1st using the state's new 3-drug combination. Brooks was convicted in the December 1992 rape and beating death of Jo Deann Campbell. (source: al.com) USA: Justices Only Tinker With Death-Penalty Rules Any remaining suspicion that the Supreme Court is soft on the death penalty should be dispelled by Wednesday's judgment in 2 cases challenging capital sentences in Kansas. In an 8-1 decision, the justices reinstated death sentences that had been overturned by the Kansas Supreme Court. The state court had said that jurors must be told expressly that mitigating circumstances introduced by the defense didn't need to be proved beyond a reasonable doubt, as findings for the prosecution must be proved. But the U.S. Supreme Court said no such instruction was necessary. Only Justice Sonia Sotomayor dissented, which means that the other 3 liberals joined the opinion, including Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer, who've said they think the death penalty in general is unconstitutional. To understand the ruling, you need to understand the formal way that juries in Kansas (and elsewhere) are asked to decide on a capital sentence. After the conviction of the basic crime, the trial enters a penalty phase. The prosecution introduces what're called "aggravating circumstances to show that a defendant should receive a sentence of death. The defense then introduces "mitigating circumstances," which are supposed to undercut the logic of execution. In the cases before the Supreme Court, Kansas v. Carr and Kansas v. Gleason, the jurors were told that "The State has the burden to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that there are 1 or more aggravating circumstances and that they are not outweighed by any mitigating circumstances found to exist." According to the Kansas Supreme Court, this language introduced a possible confusion. The jurors would've understood that the aggravating circumstances had to be proved beyond a reasonable doubt, which was legally correct. But they may also have thought that the mitigating circumstances had to be proved by the same standard. The justices at the U.S. Supreme Court found this argument unpersuasive. The opinion, by Justice Antonin Scalia, said that to the contrary, the jury instruction clearly stated that "both the existence of aggravating circumstances and the conclusion that they outweigh mitigating circumstances must be proved beyond a reasonable doubt." In contrast, he wrote, "mitigating circumstances themselves, on the other hand, must merely be 'found to exist.'" For Scalia and the other justices, the difference between something being proved beyond a reasonable doubt and something merely being "found to exist" was intuitively clear. But what's intuitive to a lawyer might not be intuitive to a jury member. Scalia had more to say, however. The official holding of the case is that under the Constitution, there's no need for a special jury instruction specifying that mitigating circumstances don't need to be proved beyond reasonable doubt. Yet Scalia added what lawyers call a "dicta" (short for "obiter dicta," an old form now rarely used in the U.S. courts) -- words not necessary to the holding but helpful for clarification. In the dicta, Scalia said that it didn't make much sense to think of mitigating factors as subject to a burden of proof at all. Aggravating factors under Kansas law are specific facts, he explained, which "either did or did not exist" and therefore could be found beyond a reasonable doubt. "Whether mitigation exists, however," Scalia wrote, "is largely a judgment call (or perhaps a value call); what 1 juror might consider mitigating another might not." Scalia's dicta introduced the hoary fact/value distinction to the area of death-penalty sentencing. He's saying that value judgments can't really be proved beyond a reasonable doubt. In dissent, Sotomayor singled out the dicta for special criticism. She pointed out that many states do in fact "specify a burden of proof for the existence of mitigating factors ... presumably under the belief that it is, in fact, 'possible' to do so." Sotomayor took her criticism further, arguing that the court shouldn't have taken the case in the first place. True, the Kansas Supreme Court was applying the U.S. Constitution, not its own state law, so the Supreme Court was technically empowered to review its ruling. But in Sotomayor's view, the court still should've resisted the temptation to weigh in, because by doing so, it reduced the likelihood of individual state experimentation with capital sentencing. Sotomayor's argument that the court should allow state supreme courts to function as laboratories of democracy for capital sentencing is a bit opportunistic. No doubt she'd acknowledge that federal intervention is completely justified when state supreme courts fall short of full constitutional protection of capital defendants. What she's arguing, therefore, is that the U.S. Supreme Court should allow state courts to protect defendants more than is required by the high court's jurisprudence, but not less. That's certainly true with respect to state constitutional law. But it isn't at all clear that it should be true with respect to the federal Constitution, which needs a uniform interpretation to satisfy the basic principle of equal protection. The fact that the rest of the court's liberals didn't join Sotomayor signals that for them, the death penalty is still business as usual. The Constitution specifies rules for operating what Justice Harry Blackmun called "the machinery of death." So long as those rules are followed, the machinery will be allowed to continue cranking away. (source: bloombergview.com) From rhalperi at smu.edu Wed Jan 20 14:50:21 2016 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Wed, 20 Jan 2016 14:50:21 -0600 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide Message-ID: Jan. 20 BAHAMAS: Tough Call: Time To Face Reality Over Death Penalty Last November, a regional conference in Guyana focused on abolishing the death penalty, which many Caribbean territories - including The Bahamas - want to keep on the books. Sponsored by the European Union (EU), the conference went completely unnoticed here. The main conclusion was that, although capital punishment did not deter crime, public support for it was closely linked to fear. As our murder rate rises to ever more "frightening" levels - which the authorities seem helpless to deal with - it is easy to see why ordinary citizens want to strike back. There is a strong sense that criminals are undermining our society. Former cabinet minister Leslie Miller recently excoriated the Chief Justice for pointing out that - under current law - it would take a massacre before the death penalty could be carried out here. Miller is one of a growing number of Bahamians who have had close relatives or friends murdered in recent years. He dismissed the judge's comment as "ridiculous and stupid" because it sent the wrong message to criminals. "It's sad that the courts are upholding the view that you have to have a massacre to consider you to be eligible for the death penalty. We must fight fire with fire. We have to wipe them out. It's either them or us," Miller said in typical bombastic style. Another politician who has lost a close relative to crime is Democratic National Alliance chief Branville McCartney. And he has been equally insistent on the need for executions. "How many more must die," he said recently, "before lawmakers do what is necessary to protect the public?" Fundamentalist preachers are even more unyielding. Consider this comment from Bishop Walter Hanchell: "As we can see from scriptures, the penalty for murder is death ... state killings should and must be resumed in order to rid the community of wicked persons, who have lost their right to live in our society." But all of these comments amount to spitting in the wind. There is a global trend towards abolition of the death penalty. Today, nearly 2/3 of all the countries in the world no longer execute people. Many CARICOM nations retain capital punishment on the books, but judges - whether at the Privy Council in London or the Caribbean Court in Trinidad - have gradually made the penalty almost impossible to carry out. The last executions in the region were carried out in St Kitts and Nevis (2008), the Bahamas (2000) and Trinidad and Tobago (1999). In St Kitts, the number of murders increased in the year following the 2008 execution. In Trinidad, after an appeals court determination limiting executions, the murder rate fell. Multiple studies have shown that while capital punishment does not deter crime, it does run the risk of executing innocent people. And abolitionists argue that the death penalty is often used in a disproportional manner against the poor and minority groups. As lawyer Dion Hanna has pointed out: "It's very easy to convict someone under our legal system who may be innocent, and there is no redress, unless you have public campaigns to overturn a decision, and we don't have that kind of culture in the Bahamas. So the death penalty really is a dangerous weapon in the hands of the legal system." According to a 2007 study by the United Nations and the World Bank, the causes of high crime rates in our region include the easy availability of guns, urban chaos, income inequality, and the prevalence of gangs, organised crime and drug trafficking. As the South African court which abolished the death penalty in 1995 said: "We would be deluding ourselves if we were to believe that the execution of ... a comparatively few people each year ... will provide the solution to the unacceptably high rate of crime ... The greatest deterrent to crime is the likelihood that offenders will be apprehended, convicted and punished. It is that which is presently lacking in our criminal justice system." Delegates at the Guyana conference called on Caribbean countries to formalise the unofficial moratorium on the death penalty that currently exists and respect international human rights laws. They argued that public opinion in favour of executions was not a major obstacle to achieving this. "Public support for the death penalty does not necessarily mean that (it) is right," an EU statement said, pointing to historical precedents where gross human rights violations had the support of a majority of the people, but were condemned vigorously later on. In dealing with crime, it was seen as far more important to strengthen the judicial system, while advancing public education on the issue of punishment. One of the top speakers at the Guyana conference was Navnit Dholakia, who was born in Africa and educated in India before emigrating to Britain in the 1950s. He is a member of the UK All Party Parliamentary Committee on Abolition of the Death Penalty. "Do we follow public opinion or do we lead?" Dholakia said in Guyana. "What do we mean when we talk about public opinion? Do politicians go around asking for a referendum on every issue ... the answer is no." Change, he said, can only happen if governments take the lead. The last time this issue was officially addressed in the Bahamas was in 2011, when the Ingraham administration amended the law to define just what crimes would be eligible for the death penalty. They include killing a uniformed officer or judge, and killing during a rape, robbery, kidnapping or act of terrorism. But the consensus among judges and legislators is that hanging is over here. We have a current de facto abolition of the death penalty, and it would be much better if politicos and religious leaders restrained themselves from pandering to public fears and talking nonsense. Common sense should tell us that a handful of executions following years of delay (from a handful of convictions) will have no meaningful effect, particularly on those we would most like to be deterred - like gangsters. Fixing the justice system is much more important than imposing the death penalty. (source: Bahamas Tribune) From rhalperi at smu.edu Wed Jan 20 16:27:41 2016 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Wed, 20 Jan 2016 16:27:41 -0600 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----PENN., ALA., NEB. Message-ID: Jan. 20 PENNSYLVANIA: Pennsylvania murder case could be first challenge to capital punishment in decades Can a convicted killer from Pennsylvania help topple the country's death-penalty laws? Activists who've long sought to abolish capital punishment are betting on it. The U.S. Supreme Court is assessing whether to hear a challenge to a Pennsylvania woman's death sentence that some hope might lead to a landmark decision to eliminate, or modify, the country's death penalty system. In June, Supreme Court Justices Stephen Breyer and Ruth Bader Ginsburg delivered comments that death-penalty critics viewed as a promising omen. Both raised constitutional questions about the death penalty in opinions on a case narrowly focused on whether Oklahoma's lethal injection method was legal. The high court ruled that, when carried out properly, capital punishment is constitutional. But the dissents sparked the recent momentum. "Rather than try to patch up the death penalty's legal wounds one at a time, I would ask for full a briefing on a more basic question: whether the death penalty violates the Constitution," Breyer wrote in his dissent. Seeing the remarks almost as an invitation, activists mobilized and cast about for the strongest petitioner, and they decided on Shonda Walter. "It's not that the death penalty is morally reprehensive, although a lot of people think it is. It's that the death penalty has so many problems to it that it can't be done in a constitutional manner," said Marc Bookman, who heads the Philadelphia-based Atlantic Center for Capital Representation. "Shonda Walter, in many ways, typifies the problems with the death penalty." Attorney: Executions 'no longer comport' with modern values In April 2005, Walter was sentenced to death for killing her elderly neighbor by striking him repeatedly with a hatchet. 2 years earlier, Walter of Lock Haven walked over to the home of the victim, 83-year-old James Sementelli, bent on killing and robbing him. It was part of an initiation, authorities said, to join the Bloods street gang. What happened next, prosecutors argued, underscored how callous and petty the murder was: she sat in Sementelli's house and watched television and ate ice cream following the lethal bludgeoning. Then she drove away in his car. Shortly after, Walter returned and stole $510 in quarters from the World War II veteran's home. But now, Walter's new defense team say her trial lawyers ill-served her. For instance, at one point, they admitted to the jury that "there was no way" she was not guilty. More than contending that she had lousy attorneys, though, is the heart of Walter's petition, which has a more philosophical thrust. "Whether, in all cases, the imposition of a sentence of death violates the Eighth Amendment's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishments," her Philadelphia attorney Dan Silverman wrote. It's not, Bookman said, that advocates think what Walter did was not an appalling act. "All 1st-degree murders are terrible crimes," Bookman said. "But the question goes beyond the facts of her case. We don't keep a failed public policy in place because of the visceral facts that may offend us. The alternative is not that Shonda Walter goes free. The alternative is that she spends the rest of her life in prison." In an emailed statement, Walter's attorney Silverman further said, "We're hopeful the court will recognize that the death penalty no longer comports with our values as a nation, and end the practice once and for all." On Friday, the high court rescheduled a meeting to discuss whether to take up the case. 4 of the 9 justices must agree to hear Walter's petition for the case to go before them. "From this point on, people will be bringing this allegation that the death penalty violates the Eight Amendment," Bookman said. "If the Supreme Court doesn't decide to take any action in Shonda Walter, there's going to be a number of other opportunities." Meanwhile in the commonwealth, executions remain on hold. Pennsylvania hasn't put an inmate to death since 1999 and only has executed 3 inmates since 1976. Still, there are 179 men and 2 women on death row, according to the state's Department of Corrections. It's one of the largest death-row populations in the country. Gov. Tom Wolf is intent on shrinking the number of people on death row; some have been awaiting execution for decades. In December, the state's high court backed Wolf's move to halt executions in Pennsylvania and issue reprieves, citing flaws with the system. Despite challenges from Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams and Attorney General Kathleen Kane, the effective moratorium will remain in place until a legislative commission that's been studying the issue for 4 years presents its report to the governor sometime this year. In response to the state's high court backing Wolf's moratorium, Williams' Office said that it extends condolences to the victims of horrendous crimes "who will not soon see justice that was imposed by the jury and upheld by the courts." (source: newsworks.org) ALABAMA----impending execution Courts deny Alabama death row inmate request to halt Thursday execution 2 courts on Tuesday denied Alabama death row inmate Christopher Brooks' request to block his execution on Thursday. The U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals denied the request late Tuesday afternoon. So did the Alabama Supreme Court. Brooks' attorneys say they will appeal both the Alabama high court and 11th Circuit rulings to the U.S. Supreme court. Brooks is scheduled to be put to death at 6 p.m. Thursday by lethal injection at Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore. It would be Alabama's 1st execution since July 2013 and the 1st using the state's new 3-drug combination. Brooks was convicted in the December 1992 rape and beating death of Jo Deann Campbell. Brooks had sought an emergency stay of execution from the 11th Circuit. He argued he should be given a chance to have his execution delayed, at least until lawsuits by him and other inmates challenging Alabama's new three-drug lethal injection protocol have been decided at a trial in April. 23 years after her brutal death, and with her convicted killer just four days from his execution, Jo Deann Campbell's 2 sisters remember her as a bubbly person who was friends with everyone she met. Christopher Brooks is asked a court to stay his execution. In its opinion this afternoon denying the stay, the court noted that Brooks in November had joined a federal lawsuit filed by 5 other death row inmates challenging the constitutionality of Alabama's method of execution. The inmates in that lawsuit claim that Alabama's new three-drug lethal injection protocol - which uses midazolam, rocuronium bromide, and potassium chloride - created a substantial risk of serious harm in violation of the Cruel and Unusual Punishments Clause of the Eighth Amendment. A federal judge denied his motion for a stay of execution in December and he filed the appeal to the 11th Circuit. The trial court denied his motion for a stay, explaining that Brooks had not shown a substantial likelihood of success on the merits of his Eighth Amendment claim because: he failed to show an available and feasible alternative method of execution as required by case law and he failed to show that he brought this claim within the applicable 2-year statute of limitations. "Moreover, the district court determined that the balance of equities weighed against granting a stay because Brooks unreasonably delayed bringing his lawsuit until it was too late to resolve the merits of his claim without staying his execution," the appeals court stated. In its ruling Tuesday afternoon the 11th Circuit affirmed the federal judge's ruling and denied Brooks' emergency motion to stay the execution. Brooks' attorneys on Friday also filed another request for a stay with the Alabama Supreme Court, which had already previously denied a stay request. In last week's request to the state high court Brooks' attorneys had also argued that the U.S. Supreme Court had ruled Florida's law allowing judge's to override jury sentence recommendations in capital cases was unconstitutional. Alabama also is one of two other states that have judicial override. Brooks' sentence did not result from a judicial override. At his trial the jury voted 11 to 1 to recommended death. The judge followed that recommendation. Under Alabama law fewer than 10 jurors voting to recommend a death sentence results in a recommendation of life without parole. But a judge can override a life without parole recommendation and impose a death sentence. Assistant Federal Public Defender John Palombi explained the Florida override case and their stance: "Although Florida's system, like Alabama's, allows for a judge override, the Court in Hurst reached its conclusion based on a different part of Florida's law that it found unconstitutional," Palombi stated in an email to Al.com. "Like Alabama's, Florida's death sentencing scheme has judges as the final finders of fact, and that is what the Supreme Court found unconstitutional." "As in Alabama, Florida judges hear and weigh evidence at a separate sentencing hearing, and based on that (plus what they hear at the jury's sentencing hearing), they determine whether the sentence is to be death or life without parole," Palombi wrote. "In Hurst, the Supreme Court found that it is a violation of the Sixth Amendment right to trial by jury to have a judge be the factfinder who determines that an individual is deserving of a death sentence." "The bottom line of Hurst is that the jury must have the final say in capital sentencing decisions -- its decision must be final, not advisory," Palombi stated. "Even though that's closely related to override, it's not the same issue, because even juries that "recommend" death in "advisory" capacities, as they do in Alabama and Florida, are not the final decision makers." In Brooks' case, the judge who sentenced him to death considered aggravating evidence which had not been presented to the jury, his attorneys said. Brooks' attorneys issued a statement Tuesday afternoon saying they will appeal both the 11th Circuit and Alabama Supreme Court denial of the stay requests. "We believe the 11th Circuit erred in denying Mr. Brooks' stay motion and his appeal, and we will be asking the United States Supreme Court to review the decision," the attorneys state. "As noted in our briefing, we believe the Supreme Court's ruling in Glossip v. Gross requires the 11th Circuit to overturn the District Court's ruling and allow Mr. Brooks to put on evidence showing that a three-drug protocol involving midazolam will leave him aware but unable to communicate while he is tortured to death with the 2nd and 3rd drugs," Brooks' attorneys stated. "This question of what individuals challenging lethal injection protocols must prove in order to succeed affects other Alabama death row prisoners, not just Mr. Brooks, and should be considered at a measured pace." "Furthermore, major questions remain about whether midazolam is suitable as the 1st drug in a 3-drug execution protocol like Alabama's, and those questions will be answered during the April hearing already set on the issue," Brooks' attorneys stated. "In 2015, courts in a very similar situation denied a stay to Oklahoma inmate Charles Warner, who was executed a week before the Supreme Court granted certiorari on the very question his request for a stay was connected to. It has since emerged that Mr. Warner was executed using the wrong drugs, and now all Oklahoma executions are on hold while the state investigates exactly what is going on in its department of corrections." "It would be a tragedy and a travesty if Mr. Brooks suffered the same fate as Mr. Warner and was executed while the rest of his co-plaintiffs benefited from having their claims heard and decided," Brooks' attorneys stated. Brooks' attorneys also stated they will be filing a separate petition asking the United States Supreme Court to review the Alabama Supreme Court's denial of a stay based on last week's ruling in Hurst v. Florida, in which the United States Supreme Court found Florida's death sentencing scheme to be unconstitutional. "Since Alabama's sentencing scheme is virtually identical to Florida's, we believe the Hurst decision is applicable here as well and that the Sixth Amendment requires that he get a new sentencing hearing," Brooks' attorneys stated. The Alabama Attorney General's Office has stated that the Florida ruling does not affect Alabama. (source: al.com) NEBRASKA: Nebraskans should end death penalty One important election that Kansans can't vote in but will watch later this year involves our neighbor to the north. Nebraskans will likely go to the polls in November to decide whether to uphold the repeal of the state's death penalty. Nebraska's Legislature in 2015 voted to repeal capital punishment and then overrode a veto by Gov. Pete Ricketts. By September, a campaign by death penalty supporters had successfully garnered enough valid signatures on petitions to put the issue on the ballot. Ricketts, in a highly unethical move, helped bankroll the petition campaign to the tune of $200,000. So much for grassroots. Ricketts' involvement in the petition effort faces a court challenge that could derail the election. If not, Nebraskans will go to the polls and we hope they vote to uphold the repeal. The costly and immoral policy of state executions needs to be put to rest in Nebraska and elsewhere, including Kansas. Sadly, Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback has made no move to abolish it here. The Kansas Legislature, likewise, has never seriously studied repeal. Legislative leaders last year hired out-of-state consultants to help them find budget efficiencies. If they are legitimately seeking to reduce costs, these consultants would advise that death row is fraught with costly appeals and isn't worth the expense. It also keeps victims' families on an emotional roller coaster for years and years. There is also the concern that an innocent person, wrongly convicted, will be executed. The best approach is repeal. A state should never have the power to put prisoners to death. Life imprisonment without parole is the more humane and cost-effective alternative for the most serious criminals. (source: Editorial, The Marysville Advocate) From rhalperi at smu.edu Wed Jan 20 21:48:44 2016 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Wed, 20 Jan 2016 21:48:44 -0600 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, FLA., CALIF. Message-ID: Jan. 20 TEXAS----execution Texas puts inmate to death for a killing 15 years ago in state's 1st execution of 2016 A Texas man put to death Wednesday for a killing 15 years ago became the state's 1st prisoner executed in 2016. Richard Masterson, 43, was pronounced dead at 6:53 p.m. after a lethal injection in the nation's busiest death penalty state. Texas carried out 13 lethal injections in 2015, accounting for nearly half of the 28 executions nationwide. Masterson had claimed the January 2001 strangulation of Darin Shane Honeycutt was accidental and had several appeals before the courts, including at four with the U.S. Supreme Court. His last-day efforts to stop his execution were rejected. He had testified at his trial that the death of the 35-year-old Honeycutt in Houston happened accidentally during a chokehold that was part of a sex act. The 2 had met at a bar and then went to Honeycutt's apartment. Honeycutt was an entertainer who performed dressed as a woman. Honeycutt's stage name was Brandi Houston. Court records showed Masterson confessed to police, told others about the killing and acknowledged Honeycutt was slain on purpose in a letter to the Texas attorney general in 2012. "I meant to kill him," Masterson wrote to then-Attorney General Greg Abbott, who is now the state's governor. "It was no accident." Evidence showed Masterson stole Honeycutt's car, dumped it in Georgia, and was arrested at a Florida mobile home park more than a week later with another stolen car. That car belonged to a Tampa, Florida, man who testified he was robbed by Masterson but survived a similar sex episode where he was choked. Masterson's attorneys argued Honeycutt's death was accidental or the result of a heart attack, that a Harris County medical examiner whose credentials have been questioned was wrong to tell jurors it was a strangulation, that Masterson's earlier lawyers were deficient and that his prolonged drug use and then withdrawal while in jail contributed to his "suicide by confession" when he spoke to police and in the letter to Abbott. Lawyers also contended trial jurors were given an incomplete instruction before their deliberations and that the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals denied Masterson his rights to due process and access to the courts by refusing their challenge to a new state law that keeps secret the identity of the provider of pentobarbital that Texas prison officials use for lethal injections. State lawyers argued that Masterson's attorneys offered no scientific evidence about Honeycutt's death that hadn't been previously raised and rejected, including by jurors at Masterson's 2002 trial. Federal courts had no jurisdiction in the execution drug secrecy because it was a state matter, they contended. Masterson had a long drug history and criminal record beginning at age 15. Court documents showed he ignored advice from lawyers at his trial for the killing and insisted on telling jurors he met Honeycutt at a bar and they went to Honeycutt's Houston apartment where Masterson said the chokehold was part of an autoerotic sex act. Honeycutt's body was found Jan. 27, 2001, after friends became worried when he failed to show up for work. Masterson also told jurors he was a future danger - an element they had to agree with in order to decide a death sentence was appropriate. Masterson's case recently drew the attention of Pope Francis, who has reinforced the Catholic Church's opposition to capital punishment. At least 8 other Texas death row inmates have executions scheduled for the coming months, including 1 set for next week. Masterson becomes the 1st condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Texas and the 532nd overall since the state resumed capital punishment on December 7, 1982. He becomes the 14th condemned inmate to be put to death in Texas since Greg Abbott became governor of the stat in Jan. 2015. Masterson becomes the 2nd condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 1424th overall since the nation resumed executions on Jasnaury 17, 1977. (sources: Associated Press & Rick Halperin) ********************** Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present----14 Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982----present-----532 Abbott#--------scheduled execution date-----name------------Tx. # 15---------January 27---------------James Freeman---------533 16---------February 16--------------Gustavo Garcia--------534 17---------March 9------------------Coy Wesbrook----------535 18---------March 22-----------------Adam Ward-------------536 19---------March 30-----------------John Battaglia--------537 20---------April 6------------------Pablo Vasquez---------538 21---------April 27-----------------Robert Pruett---------539 22---------June 2-------------------Charles Flores--------540 (sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin) FLORIDA: Lavar Monte Thompson Convicted, But A Potential Death Penalty Sentencing Is On Hold A Starke man was convicted Wednesday for the 2012 murder of William Couch. The prosecution's decision on whether to pursue the death penalty or not is on hold, the state attorney's office said. Lavar Monte Thompson, 35, was charged with 1st-degree murder in the killing of Couch, as well as home invasion robbery, burglary while armed with a firearm and battery, 2 counts of kidnapping and arson. With the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that Florida's death penalty sentencing system is unconstitutional, the prosecution will wait to decide whether to pursue the death penalty or not. Multiple agencies were involved in this case including the Union County Sheriff's Office, the Bradford County Sheriff's Office, The Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the State Fire Marshal's Office. The jury deliberated over the conviction for more than an hour. Sentencing for Thompson will be decided at a later date, until a decision over how to handle the death penalty has been made. 2 co-defendants in the case, Michael Pierce and Amanda Jeffrey, were previously sentenced in the case. Pierce previously served time in a state prison on an aggravated assault conviction, according to the Florida Department of Corrections. Thompson also served time in state prison for grand theft auto and cocaine charges. (source: WUFT news) CALIFORNIA: California death penalty: New execution method under scrutiny As California moves forward Friday with a crucial public hearing to air its new lethal injection procedures, death penalty foes are taking aim at the details in a plan that could lead to the resumption of executions after a 10-year hiatus. Calling the reforms "human experimentation," the American Civil Liberties Union and other death penalty critics say California's Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has proposed revised lethal injection methods that will lead to the type of botched executions that have plagued other states. "The proposed regulation is replete with legal, ethical, medical and logistical problems," said Megan McCracken, a lethal injection expert with UC Berkeley law school's death penalty clinic. State prison officials in November proposed an elaborate new execution procedure in an attempt to resolve a decade of legal battles over the state's execution method, with the centerpiece being a switch from a three-drug lethal cocktail to a single drug to put condemned killers to death. Death penalty supporters, however, say the criticism is just an effort to thwart executions. "Having failed for decades to convince the people of their view that the death penalty is wrong, their strategy is to make it impractical and then argue for repeal on the grounds of practicality," said Kent Scheidegger, legal director of the pro-death penalty Criminal Justice Legal Foundation. Under administrative rules the state must follow to enact the new procedures, prison leaders have received thousands of comments on the proposal and will hold a public hearing Friday in Sacramento. The lethal injection reforms, if approved, would likely take effect in November -- when voters also will be asked to decide a ballot measure that seeks to abolish the death penalty California is following the lead of many other states with lethal injection by choosing to opt for a single sedative to execute death row inmates. The new procedure includes four drug options: amobarbital, pentobarbital, secobarbital and thiopental. But death penalty opponents readying for Friday's hearing say 2 of those drugs, amobarbital and secobarbital, have never been used in executions, accusing the state of taking the risk of experimenting on the state's 750 death row inmates. In addition, critics of the state's plan note that California's procedures do not include any specifics on how prison officials will obtain these drugs for lethal injections -- a problem in other death penalty states that have had trouble securing a supply since pharmaceutical companies several years ago balked at providing them for executions. "It's a huge question mark," said Ana Zamora, the ACLU's criminal justice policy director. Death penalty supporters say the groups are putting up invalid roadblocks to executions. For example, Scheidegger said it is irrelevant that some of the drugs have not been used before because there is sufficient medical evidence they are lethal and "produce a less painful death than traditional methods of execution." He added that state methods of securing a drug supply do not belong in the regulations. State prison officials dispute that the regulations do not include mention of drug supply. In 1 passage, prison officials note that the drugs can be produced in the prison system's pharmacies, by other state-run pharmacies or obtained from private sources. Legal experts say California will have to provide details in its proposal on how it will secure execution drugs, because the overall plan must still survive court review. A San Francisco federal judge at some point is expected to consider the legality of the state's new procedures. "Traditionally, of course, requiring drug sources has not been part of a lethal injection protocol," said Deborah Denno, a lethal injection expert at Fordham University law school. "But the past few years have shown us that that drug-acquisition information is critically important." (source: Mercury News) From rhalperi at smu.edu Thu Jan 21 15:26:46 2016 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Thu, 21 Jan 2016 15:26:46 -0600 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----TEXAS, N.H., S.C., FLA. Message-ID: Jan. 21 TEXAS: New info cast light on execution of 17-year-old murderer Joseph John Cannon New information in the case of Joseph John Cannon, being revealed for the 1st time today, casts a fresh look at the murder trial that reached the Supreme Court, prompted reaction from the Pope, and caused a nation to debate executing someone who committed at crime at age 17. If Cannon was alive today, he would have turned 56 on January 13, 2016. But on April 22, 1998 the 38 year-old ate his last meal. Cannon ordered "fried chicken, barbecue ribs, baked potato, green salad with Italian dressing, chocolate cake or chocolate ice cream or both, a thick chocolate shake or malt and iced tea." The meal was delivered in the afternoon, not long after he entered a holding room located about 30 feet from where he was set to die. While eating, little did Cannon know that 160 miles away, at the State Capitol, Texas Governor George W. Bush had received pleas from Pope John Paul II at the Vatican, Archbishop Desmond Tutu from South Africa, and members from the Parliament in Italy, to stop the execution. About 3 p.m. Warden Jim Willett reviewed the file of Cannon, known as inmate 634. Willett said he prayed for Cannon and asked "God to make this a smooth and trouble-free day for him." By 4 p.m. Willett entered the holding cell to find that Cannon had completed his meal. He verified that Cannon would make a last statement as this would help the warden cue the execution's commencement. Chaplain Jim Brazel stayed with Cannon while Willett went back to the office. Wayne Scott, the director of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, along with a few regional and deputy directors waited with Willett until about 5:45 when they received a phone call from Gov. Bush's office confirming they could proceed. Shortly afterwards, the State's attorney general's office called to ratify the execution. Willett walked down to hall to the cell holding Cannon and the chaplain. "Inmate Cannon," Willett announced, "it's time for you to go into the next room with me." Cannon stood up and followed Willett without saying a word. When Cannon reached the doorway to the 9-by-12-foot death chamber, he paused. No one knows what was going through Cannon's mind at the moment, but what he saw was a tie down team of corrections officers waiting for him in the light green room with white floors and brown coving. He immediately walked to the gurney and laid down. The team began strapping Cannon in place with 5 yellowish-tan straps buckled across him. Looking up, he could see a 2-by-6 foot rectangle fixture crossing over him, casting light. As the straps began to tighten, he observed to the left of the light. Coming out of the ceiling, was a dark escutcheoned conduit bent to the right and downward so a microphone could record his last words. Looking downward to his left, Cannon saw the executioner's room through a window. He closed his eyes and gazed to his right. There were 2 curtained windows, both with light green colored jail bars. Each window represented 2 separate rooms, 1 for his family, and 1 for the victim's family to watch him being executed. Knowing Cannon was securely strapped, Warden Willett stood at the head of the inmate, while the chaplain stood at his feet. 2 members of the medical team entered the room, while the third member, the executioner, stayed in the room to Cannon's left. Typically, the medical team takes about 5 to 10 minutes to insert and secure 2 IVs into an inmate, with 1 serving as a backup. Willet and the chaplain could tell the medical techs were having difficulty as the female tech prodded and poked Cannon's arm. Later, Willett would admit it was the longest IV preparation he'd ever witnessed. It took over 20 minutes before the technician peered up and asked, "Warden, I think we've got a good one in this arm. Can we go with just the 1?" Willett nodded affirmatively and the technician left the room. Cannon gazed at the IV in his arm and looked right to see people entering the 1st witness viewing room. Through the window, Cannon saw his mother. He looked at her with no expression. When someone nudged her she moved in closer to the plate glass window. Cannon then looked over to the next window as members of his victim's family entered their viewing room. It was the 1st time some of them had seen Joseph John Cannon since the day he brutally murdered their mother. The 5 sons of Anne C. Walsh noticed the man strapped to the gurney appeared far different from the way he looked in 1977. After spending decades in prison, Cannon was now haggard and weighed far more than when he was 17, the age he decided to leave his home in Houston to hitchhike to Las Vegas, Nevada. In September 1977, the teenage Cannon thumbed a ride as far as San Antonio where he was soon arrested on a burglary charge. He was given a court-appointed attorney, Dan Carabin, who secured probation for Cannon. Knowing he was homeless, Carabin called his sister, Anne Walsh, also an attorney, to discuss the situation. Mrs. Walsh, the mother of 8, had teenage children living at her home on North Babcock Road and decided to allow Cannon to stay with them while they helped him locate a job. The teenagers found Cannon to be somewhat socially awkward, but kindly invited him to various social events and family activities. Walsh's 13-year old son became especially alarmed after a few nights of Cannon staying in their home. He later told an investigator assigned to the case that Cannon had threatened his family. It was a week into Cannon's stay with the Walsh family, on Sept. 30, 1977, that Cannon called Mrs. Walsh's brother, his attorney Dan Carabin. It was about 9:30 a.m. and Carabin had clients in his office, but took Cannon's call. The teenager wanted to know how he was going to pay him or his sister for staying in their home. Carabin, testified that this question didn't make much sense because there had no talk about Cannon having to pay them anything. He told Cannon he would call him back after he finished with the clients in his office. When he returned the call about an hour later, no one answered the phone at his sister's house. At about 10:30, Stephani Walsh, Anne's daughter went to her mother's office to trade their cars. After agreeing they would meet at home for lunch, Stephani drove off in her mother's stationwagon, leaving her 1974 white Ford Maverick for her mother. Shortly afterwards, Anne Walsh drove home and saw Cannon trimming bushes near the entrance to her property with a sickle. She rolled her window down and Cannon walked toward her. "That's looking good Joseph," commented Walsh. "I am going to make some sandwiches. Why don't you wash up and come in to get a bite and something to drink to cool off for lunch?" Later, downtown in an interrogation room of San Antonio Police Department, Cannon told Homicide Detective Frank Castillon that he guessed he "just went crazy...The next thing I knew was that Anne was on the floor of the den crying and saying ???please don't shoot again???" and I don't know why but I kept shooting." As Anne Walsh cried for him to stop, Cannon shot her 3 times in the chest, 1 in the center of the abdomen, once in her head and 2 in her arms. "While I was shooting her she crawled under the pool table. I then pulled her out from under the pool table and ripped her clothes off," Cannon continued as he explained he attempted her rape her dead body. ???I then got up and pulled up my jeans and went to the kitchen where I found Anne's purse on the counter." Cannon kept the gun while he gathered money and prescription drugs from Mrs. Walsh's purse. He ran outside to the white Maverick and sped off almost hitting a car on Babcock Road. Reserve Deputy Constable Robert Wenzel was driving by the Walsh home when he saw Cannon get into the Maverick. Through his rear view window, Wenzel saw the Maverick traveling erratically behind him. It soon sped past him and Wenzel gave chase. A bartender, Kenneth Kizer in "Al's Corner" bar, saw Cannon crash into a chainlink fence, get out and run across the street to a brushy wooded field at Babcock and Huebner Road. Kizer called the police as he noticed Cannon throwing his shirt down. About 20 minutes later, Cannon walked into the bar and bought a Coke. When Cannon heard police vehicles approaching, he tried to escape but Wenzel restrained him until officer Shelton Spears arrived. When Spears discovered Cannon was not the owner of the wrecked vehicle, he took the teenager to the Walsh home where he found Anne Walsh lying in a pool of blood. During his 1980 trial in Bexar County before Judge Mike Machado, Cannon was assigned a court appointed attorney, William Brown. Private investigator Jack Dennis was hired by Brown and the Sheriff's Department to assist in the case. Dennis was asked to track down Cannon's mother and any other family member who might be helpful to the investigation. After a few days of tracing Mrs. Cannon who was thumbing rides with truck drivers in truck stops along Texas highways, Dennis found her in a dance hall at the western city of Odessa and brought her back to San Antonio. On the return trip, Mrs. Cannon detailed her son's troubled history. At age four, Joseph was hit by a car and remained in the hospital for almost three months. Doctors told her Joseph had sustained brain injury. Mrs. Cannon said Joseph could barely talk "to where no one could even understand him until he was around 5 or 9." "He was also hard to handle and caused so much trouble that the schools would not keep him," Mrs. Cannon maintained. "He even broke one little girl's arm. That was, I guess, the last straw." As Dennis was able to gain more trust on the ride back, Mrs. Cannon revealed several bombshells. When Joseph was nine, and they were living in Louisiana, he pushed a boy into a bayou where he drowned. Before age 16, he had been arrested 6 times on burglary and theft charges. She blamed Joseph's violent tendencies on shocking reasons, including the brain injury. The other 2 explanations were family oriented. Mrs. Cannon admitted she had a big problem with relationships and that was why she traveled from truck driver to truck driver often. Although she???d been married and had several longer lasting relationships, she had a tendency to choose violent men. Some of these men had viciously and sexually abused Joseph. She then became very emotional and revealed a family secret that has never been publically revealed until this article. Joseph's mother said her own father had kidnapped her from her Houston residence after she was ran way as a teenager. Her father took her to his home in south Texas. He chained her to a tree or post and repeatedly raped her. "I think my father, his grandpa, may be Joseph's father," Mrs. Cannon sobbed. "It was after he let me go, that I found out I was pregnant with Joseph." When Mrs. Cannon revealed this to Joseph's attorney, William Brown, at his Tower Life Building office in San Antonio, he advised her to keep that information to herself unless she could prove it. He also asked Dennis to locate Mrs. Cannon's father, Joseph's grandfather so he could question him. Several days later the old man came to Brown's office and admitted his grandson "was crazy, but I think she (his daughter) is crazier and don't believe anything she tells you because everything out of her mouth is a lie." Brown elected not to have the grandfather testify at the 1980 trial. Cannon pleaded insanity with Brown presenting psychologists and other experts to testify to his low intelligence and mental instability. During a mid-morning break in Judge Machado's court, a bailiff and Dennis remained with Cannon in a holding room in the courthouse to keep from sending him back and forth from the Bexar County Jail. Cannon was sitting across a table from Dennis, when he suddenly admitted that a couple of nights before he murdered Walsh, "I woke up in the middle of the night feeling real sick and I could see like bubbles floating around. Something inside my brain kept telling me to kill everyone in the house that was sleeping." When Cannon saw Dennis and the bailiff look at each other in surprise, he followed up with "I don't know what was wrong with me. They were all very nice, very good to me. They were helping me. They were good people. I just don't know why I was thinking that way." The inmate then asked for a pencil so he could draw something. Cannon asked Dennis if he could tell what his drawing was. Dennis said it was a lightbulb. Cannon laughed as he sketched 2 lines to make it appear like someone was bending over exposing their buttocks. "It's magic," Cannon giggled and then tried to stab Dennis with the pencil. Dennis wrestled the pencil from Cannon as the bailiff ran to help restrain the inmate. "You are not treating me right and I will kill that DA (District Attorney) motherfxxxxr." The bailiff and Dennis went into the judge's chambers to explain what had occurred. When court was back in session the bailiff testified for the record about the threat to the district attorney. Mrs. Cannon testified about Joseph's violent childhood. The jury sentenced him guilty and to death. Cannon was granted a second trial in 1982, with new attorneys and was again sentenced to death. Because Cannon was 17 when he killed Anne Walsh, his case worked its way up to the U.S. Supreme Court. His attorneys argued Cannon should be spared because international law sets 18 as the minimum age for executions. The high court rejected the appeal without dissent. Laying strapped in the death chamber gurney in 1998, Cannon could see a dozen people peering at him through the plate glass window. In what was intended to be his last statement, he mumbled something no one could understand. He then closed his eyes for a moment and suddenly turned back to the witnesses. "It's come undone," he said. A prison official shut the draped curtain to block Cannon from the witnesses. "His blood vein blew. He's doing fine. They're just going to restart it," Chaplain Brazel told them. Awkwardly, the 2 groups of witnesses were escorted outside while the prison medical technicians attempted to establish another injection. It took about 15 minutes before they were led back into the rooms. "I kind of lost my cool a while ago," a smiling Cannon greeted the returning witnesses. He could see his mother and friends crying and praying for him. He peered over to the adult children of Anne Walsh and spontaneously gave last attempt of his final statement. "I'm sorry for what I did to your mom," Cannon stated. "It isn't because I'm going to die. All my life I have been locked up. I could never forgive what I done. I am sorry for all of you. I love you all. Thank you for supporting me. I thank you for being kind to me when I was small. Thank you, God. All right." Warden Willett gave the signal to the medical technician who released the first solution, sodium pentathol into Cannon's veins to shut down his central nervous system. This was followed by pancuronium bromide, a muscle relaxant causing his diaphragm to stop. When Cannon let out his last breath, potassium chloride flowed through the line to end his heartbeat. After several minutes, Willett called the doctor in to pronounce him dead. It was 7:28 p.m., 70 minutes from the time Cannon was originally escorted from his holding cell to the death chamber. The witnesses were then led outside separately where Cannon's mother fainted and was taken to a nearby hospital to be examined. Moments later, the family of Anne Walsh came out. When a reporter asked the sons for a comment, Christopher Walsh simply responded, "Job well-done, end of story." Note: Jack Dennis, the writer of this article, was the private investigator in the first trial of Joseph John Cannon in 1980. (source: The Examiner) ************* Death row inmate convicted in Houston murder becomes Texas' 1st 2016 execution A Texas man put to death Wednesday for a killing 15 years ago became the busy death penalty state's 1st prisoner executed in 2016. Richard Masterson, 43, was pronounced dead at 6:53 p.m., 25 minutes after the lethal injection began. "I'm all right with this," he said. "Sometimes you have to live and die by the choices you make. I made mine and I'm paying for it." He said he was being sent "to a better place." He mouthed a kiss to relatives and friends who were watching the execution through a window and told them he loved them. As the pentobarbital took effect, he began snoring. After about a dozen snores, he stopped moving. Masterson had claimed the January 2001 strangulation of Darin Shane Honeycutt was accidental and had several appeals before the courts, including 4 with the U.S. Supreme Court. His last-day efforts to stop his execution were rejected. Texas is the nation's busiest death penalty state, having carried out 13 lethal injections in 2015, which accounted for nearly 1/2 of the 28 executions nationwide. Masterson had testified at his trial that the death of the 35-year-old Honeycutt in Houston happened accidentally during a chokehold that was part of a sex act. The 2 had met at a bar and then went to Honeycutt's apartment. Honeycutt was an entertainer who performed dressed as a woman. Honeycutt's stage name was Brandi Houston. No family members or friends of Honeycutt witnessed Masterson being executed. Court records showed Masterson confessed to police, told others about the killing and acknowledged Honeycutt was slain on purpose in a letter to the Texas attorney general in 2012. "I meant to kill him," Masterson wrote to then-Attorney General Greg Abbott, who is now the state's governor. "It was no accident." Evidence showed Masterson stole Honeycutt's car, dumped it in Georgia, and was arrested at a Florida mobile home park more than a week later with another stolen car. That car belonged to a Tampa, Florida, man who testified he was robbed by Masterson but survived a similar sex episode where he was choked. Masterson's attorneys argued Honeycutt's death was accidental or the result of a heart attack, that a Harris County medical examiner whose credentials have been questioned was wrong to tell jurors it was a strangulation, that Masterson's earlier lawyers were deficient and that his prolonged drug use and then withdrawal while in jail contributed to his "suicide by confession" when he spoke to police and in the letter to Abbott. Lawyers also contended trial jurors were given an incomplete instruction before their deliberations and that the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals denied Masterson his rights to due process and access to the courts by refusing their challenge to a new state law that keeps secret the identity of the provider of pentobarbital that Texas prison officials use for lethal injections. State lawyers argued that Masterson's attorneys offered no scientific evidence about Honeycutt's death that hadn't been previously raised and rejected, including by jurors at Masterson's 2002 trial. Federal courts had no jurisdiction in the execution drug secrecy because it was a state matter, they contended. Masterson had a long drug history and criminal record beginning at age 15. Court documents showed he ignored advice from lawyers at his trial for the killing and insisted on telling jurors he met Honeycutt at a bar and they went to Honeycutt's Houston apartment where Masterson said the chokehold was part of an autoerotic sex act. Honeycutt's body was found Jan. 27, 2001, after friends became worried when he failed to show up for work. Masterson also told jurors he was a future danger - an element they had to agree with in order to decide a death sentence was appropriate. Masterson's case recently drew the attention of Pope Francis, who has reinforced the Catholic Church's opposition to capital punishment. At least 8 other Texas death row inmates have executions scheduled for the coming months, including 1 set for next week. (source: ABC news) ************** As Supreme Court Clerk, Ted Cruz Made Death Penalty His Cause The memos of Supreme Court clerks evaluating death row petitions usually consist of a brief review of the facts and then a dispassionate legal analysis as to whether the court should hear the case. Not so for Ted Cruz. Mr. Cruz, the most ardent death penalty advocate of Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist's clerks in the 1996 term, became known at the court for his signature writing style. Nearly two decades later, his colleagues recall how Mr. Cruz, who frequently spoke of how his mentor's father had been killed by a carjacker, often dwelled on the lurid details of murders that other clerks tended to summarize before quickly moving to the legal merits of the case. "That, I think, was a special interest of his," said Renee Lerner, then a clerk for Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, who said she was impressed with how deeply Mr. Cruz delved into the facts and history of a murder case. "It was unusual for a Supreme Court clerk to do that." Other clerks, however, had a less admiring view. In interviews with nearly two dozen of Mr. Cruz's former colleagues on the court, many of the clerks working in the chambers of liberal justices, but also several from conservative chambers, depicted Mr. Cruz as "obsessed" with capital punishment. Some thought his recounting of the crimes - "dime store novel" was how one described his style - seemed more appropriate for a prosecutor persuading a jury than for a law clerk addressing the country's 9 foremost judges. Melissa Hart, who clerked for one of the liberal justices, John Paul Stevens, said Mr. Cruz's memos on death penalty appeals basically boiled down to "frivolous, meritless, deny," and added that his writing approach "made a lot of people really angry." In Mr. Cruz's time as a Supreme Court clerk, a coveted step in a legal career that he had meticulously plotted out, he showed his now familiar capacity to infuriate colleagues. He also worked hard to please his boss, delved into the nuances of constitutional law for long, grueling hours and sought to smooth over harsh feelings at clerk happy hours. But when he left, he was most remembered by his fellow clerks for his fervor for capital punishment cases, a cause that would define his legal career and help him break into politics. "I believe in the death penalty," Mr. Cruz wrote in his book "A Time for Truth." As he saw it, it was his duty to include all the details and "describe the brutal nature of the crime." "Liberal clerks would typically omit the facts; it was harder to jump on the moral high horse in defense of a depraved killer," he wrote. As Texas solicitor general from 2003 to 2008, 5 of Mr. Cruz's 8 appearances before the Supreme Court were death penalty cases, including his successful advocacy for the preservation of the death penalty for a Mexican citizen convicted of raping and murdering 2 teenage girls. That case became a talking point in his campaign for Senate, just as his eye-for-an-eye sense of justice appeals to voters looking for a tough president. Mr. Cruz's path to the Supreme Court started early. As a member of a group called the Constitutional Corroborators, a teenage Mr. Cruz recited the founding document across Texas. At Princeton, he wrote his undergraduate thesis, titled "Clipping the Wings of Angels," on the Ninth and 10th Amendments. At Harvard Law School, he sought work as a researcher for ideologically diverse professors, among them Alan M. Dershowitz, whose recommendations carried weight with the justices. He landed a clerkship at the federal appellate court in Virginia with Judge J. Michael Luttig, a top feeder to the Supreme Court's conservative justices who was often mentioned as a potential one himself. Judge Luttig engendered enormous loyalty from his clerks, who sat behind him as he wrote multiple drafts of an opinion over 20-hour days. But the ideological and intellectual connection between Mr. Cruz and Mr. Luttig also had an emotional element. In 1994, a carjacker murdered Mr. Luttig's father in Texas. (The carjacker was executed in 2002.) When Mr. Cruz began clerking for the judge the next year, the wound remained raw. "Something that horrible creates some personal bond," said John Wood, another clerk for Mr. Luttig who went on to clerk for Justice Clarence Thomas. (Mr. Cruz and Mr. Luttig, now an executive at Boeing, declined to be interviewed.) Mr. Cruz became devoted to Mr. Luttig, whom Mr. Cruz has described as "like a father to me." During his clerkship, he presented his boss with a caricature of him and other clerks pulling a stagecoach driven by the judge. According to someone who saw the illustration, there was a graveyard behind them with headstones representing the number of people executed in their jurisdiction that year. Mr. Cruz's careful planning paid off when, at 25, he began a clerkship with Chief Justice Rehnquist, well known for his support of the death penalty. When Mr. Cruz began his one-year term, the number of executions in the country was surging, reaching a peak of 98 in 1999 (last year, 28 people were put to death). Only months earlier, President Bill Clinton, who faced a coming election in a tough-on-crime era, signed into law a bill that curbed the number of habeas corpus petitions by death row inmates. Mr. Cruz, a decorated college debater with a contentious streak, clearly loved his time in a workplace rife with ideological differences. In the glass-encased room of the cafeteria where clerks could discuss cases in confidence, he sharpened his arguments. Playing basketball in the building's "highest court in the land," he said "my bad" to the colleagues he elbowed wildly on his way to the hoop. He organized a poker game with conservative clerks, and in the courtyard, he participated in the weekly happy hour, with alternating chambers taking on catering duties. (Justice Sandra Day O'Connor's clerks impressed with fajitas. Justice Thomas's clerks did not with cereal.) Neal Katyal, a clerk for Justice Stephen G. Breyer who went on to become the principal deputy and later acting solicitor general of the United States under President Obama, said he had befriended Mr. Cruz on their 1st day at the cafeteria. He said that it was "superfun" debating politics and law with Mr. Cruz, and that they had also hit the library with legal pads together and discussed life, love and "who we wanted to spend our lives with." But Mr. Cruz mostly had time for Chief Justice Rehnquist. Mr. Cruz and he played croquet together, and on Thursday mornings, Mr. Cruz struggled through doubles matches with the tennis-loving chief and his 2 other clerks. (So as not to disappoint his boss, Mr. Cruz had taken lessons before officially starting the job.) In honor of Chief Justice Rehnquist's 25th year on the court, Mr. Cruz helped hold a reunion of his 70-plus former clerks. Among them was John G. Roberts Jr., the current chief justice, whom Mr. Cruz now laments as a traitor to the conservative cause for his 2 opinions upholding the Affordable Care Act. Instead, Mr. Cruz has suggested that, as president, he would appoint to the Supreme Court a more "rock-ribbed" conservative like "my former boss Mike Luttig." Clerks for liberal justices expressed the strongest distaste for Mr. Cruz's death penalty memos, and sometimes made their antipathy known. Several clerks for conservative justices said that while they usually agreed with his conclusions, his writing needlessly provoked the death penalty opponents working at the court. Those clerks declined to be quoted criticizing Mr. Cruz, however, saying they did not want to anger someone who could become the next president. The year Mr. Cruz and the others clerked, many of the roughly 80 cases taken up by the justices made major news. For a case about the constitutionality of a law regulating Internet pornography, Mr. Cruz watched X-rated sex scenes on a computer with Chief Justice Rehnquist and Justice O'Connor. There were cases about whether there was a constitutional right to assisted suicide, whether gun regulations infringed on states' rights and, in Clinton v. Jones, whether a private lawsuit against a sitting president needed to be postponed until he left office. (The clerks knew the case would break against Mr. Clinton as they watched his second inauguration on the Mall.) But Chief Justice Rehnquist often gave the historic decisions to his fellow justices to write, meaning that Mr. Cruz did not get much chance to draft landmark opinions. According to several other clerks, he wrote the draft decision for Ohio v. Robinette, a modest Fourth Amendment case giving the police more latitude for searches at traffic stops. Ms. Lerner, the clerk for Justice Kennedy, also recalled Mr. Cruz once excitedly rushing into her office after his research revealed that a liberal clerk had mistakenly recommended that the court hear a case based on a legal issue that was not actually part of the case. "It's not here!" said Mr. Cruz, whose discovery resulted in a rare (and mortifying for the clerk who made the error) dismissal of the case as "improvidently granted." But Mr. Cruz usually reserved his enthusiasm for his unsparing death penalty memos or the late nights when a prisoner from the appeals circuit under Chief Justice Rehnquist's oversight was slated for execution. On those nights, when he was responsible for addressing the flurry of 11th-hour defense motions, he would rouse the chief justice at home, give his recommendation, get the chief justice's vote and then write up a memo that explained why the chief justice had voted to deny an emergency postponement of the execution. Per custom, Mr. Cruz, whom some clerks recalled as speaking flippantly of the execution during those solemn nights, would circulate that memo to the other clerks on duty, who would then call their bosses to vote on the appeal. During one of those late-night executions, some clerks received an additional message from Mr. Cruz on the internal email pleading for more collegiality, especially toward him. "We should all try and get along," Mr. Cruz wrote. (source: New York Times) NEW HAMPSHIRE: Death penalty should be suspended in state Editor, Citizen Senate Bill 463-FN has been filed in the New Hampshire Senate by 2 Republican senators and 2 Democrat co-sponsors. New Hampshire voters are urged to contact their Senate members and ask them to vote yes on this bill, as it will create an indefinite suspension of the death penalty in New Hampshire until such time as a mechanism is in place to ensure that no one who is innocent can be executed. Since 1972, 156 death row inmates have been exonerated in the U.S. - 6 people just in 2015. We may never know how many more innocents are on death row now or have even been executed. As voters, we should urge our NH senators to vote yes on this bill. Ilse Andrews Coordinator, AIUSA Group 550 (source: Letter to the Editor, citizen.com) SOUTH CAROLINA: Alleged SC church shooter facing possible death penalty State prosecutors will be seeking the death penalty against the alleged South Carolina church shooter, they announced Wednesday. In a court filing released Wednesday, state prosecutors indicated that they will be seeking the death penalty when Dylann Roof, 21, is tried in the killing of 9 people at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston in June. That more than 2 people were killed and others' lives were put at risk were cited in the filing as the rationale for seeking capital punishment, ABC News reported. Solicitor Scarlett Wilson said that the decision came after "many, many meetings" with the survivors and the victims' relatives. "Many have expressed the need for the hope to find forgiveness in order to heal and to move forward in their lives," Wilson said this afternoon. "We all agree that forgiveness is an important part of the healing process, but know that forgiveness does not necessarily mean forgoing consequences, even severe consequences. "Some victims, some family members of victims, because of their faith, do not believe in the death penalty under any circumstances. Some believe the death penalty is just too easy. It's not a religious consideration. It's a philosophical consideration, a practical consideration," she said. (source: ABC news) FLORIDA: Grand jury issues 1st degree murder indictment against Egypt Robinson; Death penalty still an option A Bay County Grand Jury has issued an indictment for 1st degree felony murder and aggravated child abuse against Egypt Moneek Robinson, the woman accused of stabbing her 3-year-old son and stuffing him in a suitcase in late December. That leaves open the possibility of prosecutors seeking the death penalty. Right now, prosecutors tell WJHG/WECP that no decision has been made as to whether to seek the death penalty. But if the state attorney seeks the advice of a grand jury in a case like this, it usually means the death penalty is going to be sought. The indictment comes days before a memorial service that's scheduled to be held on Saturday for the victim, Aries "A.J." Acevedo. The service will be held at 4:30 p.m. at the Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church, 715 MLK Jr. Blvd in Panama City. Robinson is accused of stabbing her son and letting him bleed to death before stuffing him in a suitcase and putting the suitcase in a shallow body of water behind her Callaway home. An acquaintance turned Robinson in to authorities in the days after the killing allegedly happened. Investigators haven't been able to rule out "ritualistic sacrifice" as a reason for the killing. Robinson is being being held without bond in the Bay County jail. Her next court date is Feb. 2, 2016. (source: WJHG news) **************** Death Row Inmates In Limbo After Florida's Death Penalty Scheme Scrapped----A Supreme Court ruling has left the state's judicial system with a lot of question marks. The 389 inmates on Florida's death row gained something last week that they haven't had since before they were sentenced: the possibility -- however faint -- that they won't die in an execution chamber. The U.S. Supreme Court in Hurst v. Florida struck down Florida's death penalty sentencing scheme as unconstitutional, ruling that a jury, not a judge, must specify the reason a defendant should be punished with death. Florida's sentencing scheme has been an outlier: Unlike in most states, juries could recommend the death penalty without a unanimous decision, they did not have to reveal to the judge which aggravating factors informed their decision, and judges could ultimately override a jury's recommendation. While the high court made it clear that juries must determine sentences, its ruling leaves the fate of inmates who were sentenced under the now-unconstitutional scheme in cloudy waters. "It's all in the hands of the Florida Supreme Court. They could reverse every one of those sentences. They could reverse only those currently still on appeal," said Michael Radelet, a sociologist and capital punishment expert at the University of Colorado Boulder. "Predicting is pretty complex, because like all death penalty issues, it comes down to 3 things: 1 is politics, 2 is politics and 3 is politics." The Florida Supreme Court's ruling on a death row inmate facing execution next month will provide clues as to how the state will handle the cases of many inmates who were sentenced to death before the U.S. Supreme Court deemed the state's death sentencing scheme unconstitutional. No one knows how the Florida Supreme Court and the state legislature will move forward with capital sentences in one of the nation's most prolific death penalty states. Legal experts are further divided on whether the Hurst ruling will apply to some or maybe all of those already on death row. "There are really, really good arguments for the [state] Supreme Court to find this retroactive," said Seth Miller, a lawyer and the executive director of the Innocence Project of Florida. The Florida Supreme Court decided last year that 1 previous landmark rulings on juvenile sentencing by the U.S. Supreme Court applied retroactively to Florida inmates who were sentenced as juveniles, Miller noted. O.H. "Bill" Eaton, a retired Florida trial judge and death penalty expert who trains lawyers on capital cases, agreed there was a good argument for applying the ruling retroactively, even if just to a small group. "It's at least retroactive to all the cases pending 'in the pipeline' -- everyone arrested or will be arrested before the new statute is passed," Eaton said. "It could affect everybody on death row, depending on how the Florida Supreme Court reviews the retroactivity aspect." Florida Dept. Corrections The case of Cary Michael Lambrix could provide clues to how Florida's Supreme Court might retroactively apply the landmark Hurst v. Florida ruling to inmates who were sentenced to death row under a now-unconstitutional scheme. How Florida handles the case of Cary Michael Lambrix, who is scheduled to be put to death on Feb. 11, may provide clues as to how the state will proceed with the more than 140 inmates who have already exhausted their appeals at the state level. "We will get some hints with Michael Lambrix's execution," Radelet said. "If the court grants relief in his case, they're going to have to grant relief in a lot of other cases as well." Lambrix's attorneys cited the Hurst ruling as a reason to delay the execution and grant their client a new sentencing hearing. "The potential retroactivity of Hurst," attorney William Hennis wrote, applies to his client's case and "potentially to many, many other cases." But Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi argued that the Hurst ruling does not apply retroactively to Lambrix's case. The Florida Supreme Court declined Hennis' motion to delay the execution, though it will hear oral arguments Feb. 2 on whether Lambrix's case is eligible for relief. Several legal experts outlined various ways the Hurst ruling could affect Florida's condemned inmates. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the 1972 case Furman v. Georgia that the inconsistent way the death penalty was applied in various ways was unconstitutional. Florida's response, Eaton said, was to simply knock every death sentence down to life in prison without parole. "The Florida Supreme Court entered an order reducing all the Florida death sentences to life in prison to avoid transferring all the prisoners to county courthouses for re-sentencing," Eaton said. Teresa Reid, assistant director of the University of Florida College of Law, pointed to a section of Florida's statutes that could potentially be interpreted in a way that would give a do-over to anyone sentenced under the previous scheme. Reid noted that particular outcome is also rife with challenges. "What if the system says, 'everyone needs a new trial'? That would create such a thing -- there are witnesses who are dead, evidence that is gone," she said. "It would be almost impossible to have any fair trials." When the state legislature begins its 60-day session in March, it will have little time to craft a new death penalty statute that passes constitutional muster. If it can't do this, the state will need to get rid of the death penalty altogether, House Criminal Justice chairman Carlos Trujillo (R-Miami) told the Miami Herald last week. "Those are our 2 options," he said. Most experts do agree one 1 thing: Even if the Florida legislature finds a fix to the state's death penalty system, it won't be comprehensive. "I predict the Florida legislature will do the minimum of what they have to do," Eaton said, noting that trial judges have urged the legislature to address problems with Florida's death penalty for nearly 25 years. "And I predict in 10 years or less, we'll be back before the Supreme Court and a bunch of people will be released from death row with life sentences." Radelet said he's even more cynical about the prospect of a lasting legislative fix. "I would go further and say they'd just do a gloss-over repair job. If they don't fix it, someone else will," he said. "The chickens have come home to roost. [Lawmakers] have all these years to fiddle with it and no fiddling is done." (source: Kim Bellware, Huffington Post) ***************** Sorrento killer among death penalty cases to be reviewed In another sign of the impact of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that struck down a key part of Florida's death-penalty sentencing system, the state Supreme Court has issued orders allowing 6 death row inmates to file briefs about how the ruling might apply to their cases. This includes Eric Lee Simmons, 41, convicted and sentenced to death in the murder of Deborah Tressler, 48, whose body was found beaten, stabbed and raped in a wooded area in Sorrento in December 2001. Crime scene technicians determined Tressler was murdered elsewhere and dumped in the woods. Detectives went to the laudromat where she worked, found Simmons' name on a piece of paper in her purse and blood stains in his car. They never did find out where the murder took place. The Florida Supreme Court's orders, issued Tuesday, are in cases that already had been scheduled for oral arguments during the 1st week of February. The orders will allow lawyers for the inmates and the state to file briefs next week about the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in advance of the oral arguments. The Florida Supreme Court initially vacated Simmons' death sentence, imposed shortly after his 2003 murder conviction, due to questions surrounding the defendant's mental state and IQ. In 2014, he was re-tried and sentenced to death again, with the sentence up for automatic review by the Florida Supreme Court. The review is set for 9 a.m. on Feb. 4. The U.S. Supreme Court, in an 8-1 decision, found Jan. 12 that Florida's system of imposing death sentences was an unconstitutional violation of the Sixth Amendment right to trial by jury because it gave too much decision-making power to judges instead of juries. A key question is whether - or how - the ruling might apply to people already sentenced to death. (source: Daily Commercial) ************ Recent death penalty ruling won't impact local cases The recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down Florida's death penalty sentencing system will not have an immediate effect on 2 pending St. Johns County cases, the 7th Circuit State Attorney's Office has said. The 8-1 decision, announced Jan. 12, said the sentencing system in the state's capital cases is flawed because the ultimate decision between death or life in prison is made by a judge and not a jury. Under the current system, juries deliberate during the sentencing portion of the trial and submit a recommendation to the judge. That recommendation does not have to be unanimous, and the judge is not bound by it. Spencer Hathaway, spokesman for the 7th Circuit State Attorney's Office, said Tuesday that the 2 pending cases in St. Johns County aren't close enough to going to trial that any immediate action needs to be taken in light of the decision. State Attorney R.J. Larizza's office is seeking the death penalty in the case against 35-year-old James Colley Jr. A grand jury indicted Colley in September on 2 counts of 1st-degree murder in the Aug. 27 shooting deaths of his estranged wife, 36-year-old Amanda Cloaninger Colley, and her friend, Lindy Mosler Dobbins, 39, in a MuraBella home. He is also facing 2 counts of attempted first-degree murder with a firearm, burglary with assault or battery, armed burglary, and aggravated stalking after injunction. Colley is scheduled for a pretrial hearing on Feb. 3. Prosecutors are also seeking the death penalty in the case against Sean Bush, who is accused of killing his estranged wife, Nicole Bush, in 2011. She was found alive in her Fruit Cove home, suffering from multiple gunshot and stab wounds. She was taken to UF Health Jacksonville, where she later died from her injuries. Jury selection for Bush's trial is scheduled for April 18. Hathaway said the high court's decision "did raise a lot of uncertainties for the death penalty" in the state, and has already led to the postponement of Luis Toledo's trial in the 7th Circuit. Toledo, 34, has been charged with 2nd-degree murder in the death of his wife Yessenia Suarez, 28, and 2 counts of 1st-degree murder in the deaths of her 2 children. The mother and children were reported missing from their Deltona home in October 2013, but their bodies have not been found. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty in that case. Because of heavy media coverage, 7th Circuit Judge Raul Zambrano ruled in December that the trial should be moved from Volusia to St. Johns County. Jury selection was scheduled for Jan. 19, but prosecutors moved last week to have the trial postponed, Hathaway said. That isn't yet necessary for Colley's or Bush's cases, he said. "Neither of them are in a trial posture in the immediate future," he said. "I anticipate the legislature will address these uncertainties prior to them going to trial." But with Bush's date about 3 months off, that trial, too, might have to be postponed if the death penalty matter isn't solved by lawmakers. Prosecutors "will address that case as it gets closer if those uncertainties haven't been resolved,' Hathaway said. As for the 5 inmates from St. Johns County already sitting on death row, Hathway said it remains unclear what the Supreme Court decision means for them. "I think we are going to have to continue to review the decision and see how it will be applied to the cases that have already been litigated," he said. *** According to the Florida Department of Corrections' death row roster the 5 St. Johns County cases are: -- John Marquard: Convicted in 1993 for the 1991 murder of Stacy Ann Willets near State Road 13. -- Norman McKenzie: Sentenced to die in 2007 for murdering Randy Wayne Peacock and Charles Frank Johnston with a hatchet in 2006. -- James Turner: A South Carolina prison escapee. He was convicted in 2007 and sentenced to death in 2008 for the 2005 murder of Renee Boling Howard. -- Quentin Truehill: A Louisiana prison escapee. He was convicted and sentenced to death in 2014 for kidnapping and murdering Vincent Binder, a Florida State University graduate student, near Commercial Drive just off State Road 16 in 2010. -- Kentrell Johnson: A fellow escapee with Truehill, also sentenced to death in 2014 for the 2010 murder of Binder. (source: St. Augustine Record) ***************** State Attorney Hess authors death penalty amendment----A week after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Florida's death penalty sentencing system unconstitutional, State Attorney Glenn Hess of the 14th Judicial Circuit has drafted an amendment he says will correct the system to align with the decision. A week after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Florida's death penalty sentencing system unconstitutional, State Attorney Glenn Hess of the 14th Judicial Circuit has drafted an amendment he says will correct the system to align with the decision. Hess, who is President of the Florida Prosecuting Attorneys Association (FPAA), said the amendment will address two of the main concerns cited in the Hurst v. Florida ruling handed down by the nation's highest court earlier this month. If the amendment is approved, juries will be required to find by a 12-0 vote that the aggravators presented by the prosecution were proven beyond a reasonable doubt. The vote for a death sentence would have to be by a supermajority - 9-3 or more. They also will be required to specify what aggravators were proved. "We proposed amendments to the statute so our amendments look like Hurst." Hess said. The FPAA will vote on the amendments this week, Hess said, and they will be sent to staff attorneys in the state legislature. From there, he expects the changes to be taken up by lawmakers in a workshop by next week and hopefully brought to a vote soon. "Everyone seems to be hoping that the legislature can quickly pass these changes," he said. Florida is one of only three states, along with Louisiana and Oregon, where a death penalty sentence could be recommended by a jury without a unanimous vote. If the amendment passes, juries would have to present a 12-0 decision for the death penalty in the trial???s sentencing phase. Another change with Hess' amendment is the disclosure of what aggravators or mitigators were found and considered by the jury in their decision. Aggravators are factors that make an offense particularly worthy of the death penalty, like if the crime was committed during a robbery or with a firearm. Mitigators are factors that would promote life imprisonment such as the defendant's background or mental disturbance. Previously, the judge and jury could potentially find and factor in different aggravators and mitigators when handing down a sentence, leading to conflicting conclusions. 1 aspect of the Hurst decision not addressed by Hess' amendment is the fact that in Florida, a judge, not a jury, has the final decision on whether the death penalty is imposed. The jury could recommend life in prison, but afterwards, according to Hess, as the judge reviews the aggravators and mitigators, along with the jury's decision, they may instead settle on the death penalty. Hess stated the Hurst ruling does not address this particular aspect of Florida law. However, several Supreme Court justices cited it as unconstitutional in their decisions. Hess said it's possible lawmakers could tack on these changes later. "The bill the legislature might pass might very well say the judge can't override a jury," Hess said. With 390 inmates currently on death row, Hess said the Supreme Court's decision likely would not open the floodgates for a barrage of appeals and inmates hoping to have their sentence overturned or even a new trial. Ongoing cases, or those still in appellate court, would be subject to Hurst and could potentially be argued but Hess said any cases before 2002 would likely not be appealed. As for the 10 inmates from Bay County on death row, Hess said "it's possible" some of the more recent cases could be appealed. "We have a few out there," he said. "It just depends on how far back they go." (source: News Herald) From rhalperi at smu.edu Thu Jan 21 15:28:28 2016 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Thu, 21 Jan 2016 15:28:28 -0600 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news---ALA., LA., COLO., ARIZ., ID., CALIF. Message-ID: Jan. 21 ALABAMA----impending execution Governors almost never stop executions----For decades Alabama death row inmates died in the state's electric chair and it was rare for a governor to commute a sentence then or now As he prepared himself for death in his final years, Alabama Gov. George Wallace worried that he might be kept from heaven by 2 actions in his life: One was his military service aboard a U.S. bomber during World War II tasked with bombing Japanese cities -- an action that Wallace knew killed thousands of civilians. The other was his final decisions to allow executions by electric chair of death row inmates when he had the power to stop it. Gov. Fob James was known to almost always be in a foul mood on days when a state execution was scheduled during his time as governor. James always allowed the death sentence to be carried out until his very last day in office in mid-January of 1999. It was then, as his final act as governor, he commuted the death sentence of Judith Ann Neelley to life in prison for the sexual assault and murder of a 13-year-old girl. Even though Neelley was not facing execution soon, an aide said James did not want to awake one day to read that a woman had been put to death, one he had the power to save. Gov. Don Siegelman, a former Alabama attorney general and strong pro-death penalty advocate, required his staff to go through a rigorous review of each death row inmate's case as they approached their execution. An aide said Siegelman's central question was always "Is there anything that points to the conclusion that the person didn't do it?" Gov. Bob Riley, not long in office in 2003, became the 1st governor to walk the hallway between cells along death row and visit the death chamber where he watched a mocked execution. During that mock execution Riley kept looking at the ceiling in the chamber. Later he said he wanted to burn into his mind the last view that inmates brought there would have as they died. During his walk along death row, inmates called out to Riley to have mercy on them and commute their sentences. He never did. By the time his 2 terms were over in 2011, 25 inmates had been put to death but friends and associates say that experience has weighed on him till this day. Today, Gov. Robert Bentley is dealing with another execution in Alabama, the state's 1st since 2013. Barring intervention by the governor or even a more unlikely intervention by the courts, inmate Christopher Brooks will be executed at Holman Prison at 6 p.m. Brooks was convicted in 1992 for the rape and beating death of Jo Deann Campbell in Jefferson County. In 2011 Bentley was about to start his first term and said he would not have a problem carrying out the death penalty. As it turns out, all 6 executions during his 5 years in office have been difficult, Bentley said. "Have they weighed on me?" Bentley asked. "Yes they have. Very much so. And they should. We are talking about a human life in each case." In 1 case Bentley was so unsure about his decision to commute or allow the execution to proceed that he cried as he wrestled with it. Then he prayed. Then he allowed the execution to proceed. Wallace, James, Siegelman, Riley, Bentley -- all pro death penalty governors who have struggled to come to terms with the greatest power their office gave them: the power over life and death. In the 40 years since the U.S. Supreme Court lifted the moratorium on the death penalty only James has commuted the death sentence of an inmate on Alabama's death row. And he did it, an aide said, because he deeply believed the state should not use its ultimate power to execute women. An aide to Wallace in his later years said the former segregationist governor was not troubled about the afterlife as it related to the role he played in inciting racial turmoil. "The governor had apologized for what he did when it came to all the bad segregationist days and actions. He had sought forgiveness from those he had hurt and felt he had been forgiven," an aide said. Bentley, who before he became governor was a physician, said he will approach today's pending execution the way he has approached all 6 previous executions. "My people look at the trial, the evidence. They go over the crime looking for any evidence the person didn't do it and to make sure the process was carried out correctly" said Bentley. "Then they come to me, and we review it." Bentley said the process is always a serious one because a life hangs in the balance. "I took an oath to uphold the law of the state and the law allows the death penalty in certain cases," said Bentley. "Ultimately a jury makes a decision to impose the death sentence and my duty is to carry out that sentence barring a case of extraordinary circumstances." ******************* Death row inmates in Alabama spend an average of 14 years awaiting execution In 2011, Christopher Thomas Johnson was executed by the state of Alabama for the murder of his 6-month old son. Johnson's death came 6 years after the Atmore man was convicted of suffocating the infant in an act meant to spite his wife. The short period of time from Johnson's conviction to execution is not the norm, however. Statistics show most inmates on Alabama's death row spend more than a decade awaiting execution. Data from the Alabama Department of Corrections shows the average death row inmate in the state has been awaiting execution for 14 years. Alabama's average is within the national norm. For prisoners who are put to death, the average wait time in the U.S. is 16.5 years, up from 6r45 years in the mid-1980s. By their nature, death penalty cases move slowly through the trial phase and then trigger multiple appeals that can grind the process to a halt. In Johnson's case, time on death row was short because he pleaded guilty to capital murder, waived all appeals and requested to be put to death. In most death row cases, the emphasis is on delaying or preventing the execution and not speeding it up. Of the 187 inmates on Alabama's death row, 27 have been there for more than 20 years; 132 of them have been there more than 10 years. Alabama inmate Arthur Lee Giles went to Alabama's death row in 1979 for the murders of Wilene and Carl Nelson in Blount County. Another inmate, William Bush, has been on death row since 1982 for the shooting death of Montgomery convenience store clerk Larry Dominguez. Death row inmate Christopher Brooks, who is scheduled to be executed Thursday night at Holman Prison, was convicted in December 1992 for the rape and beating death of Jo Deann Campbell in Jefferson County. He was 21 when he was sentenced to death row. He is now 43. His execution would be Alabama's 1st since 2013 and the 1st to use the state's new 3-drug combination for lethal injections. Nationally, 49.8 % of inmates executed since 2010 served more than 20 years; 17 % served more than 25 years; 5 inmates were killed after delays of more than 35 years. The vast majority of those sentenced to death are never executed. Even death row inmates who are exonerated spend years awaiting execution before they are cleared, according to the Innocence Project, which estimates the average exoneration takes places after 14 years on death row. The delay between conviction and execution has been questioned by courts before. Last summer, a federal appeals court found that delays in California - where more prisoners have died on death row than have been executed - did not constitute cruel and unusual punishment. ************************ Vigils held statewide ahead of Christopher Brooks execution----Christopher Brooks scheduled to be executed for the 1992 rape and murder of Jo Deann Campbell A number of vigils are set throughout the state on Thursday in connection with the Alabama's 1st execution in 2 years. Barring any last minute stays, death row inmate Christopher Eugene Brooks is set to be executed by lethal injection at 6 p.m. in the execution chamber at the Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore. Brooks, now 43, was convicted in the December 1992 rape and murder of a Homewood woman, 23-year-old Jo Deann Campbell. Investigators linked Brooks to the crime through DNA, fingerprints, and Campbell's car and other items taken from her Homewood apartment, including a credit card he had used. Her partially clothed body had been found under her bed and she had been beaten with a barbell. Brooks would be the 57th death row inmate executed in Alabama since executions resumed in 1983 after an unofficial more than decade-long nationwide moratorium ended. Officials with Project Hope to Abolish the Death Penalty, an Alabama advocacy group, say that there will be a number of Alabama vigils held throughout the day: In Mobile, there will be a prayer vigil from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. in front of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception at Dauphin Street at Claiborne Street. In Montgomery, there will be a vigil on the steps of the state capitol at 5:30 p.m. There are 2 vigils scheduled in Birmingham. The 1st will be held from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the corner of Richard Arrington Jr. Boulevard and 8th Avenue North across from the Jefferson County Court Building. A 2nd prayer vigil will be held at 5:45 p.m. opposite the Martin Luther King Jr. statue at Kelly Ingram Park, off 16th Street North and 6th Avenue North. This vigil will take place whether there is a stay or not. > Inside the prison, the inmates will show their respect and solidarity by refraining from sports and wearing their dress whites in the yard when they observe moments of silence and prayer on Wednesday and Thursday. In France, Action of Christians for the Abolition of Torture and the Death Penalty will be praying ahead of the execution. And, the Birmingham Friends Meeting building, 4413 5th Avenue South, hangs a black flag from an upstairs window facing the street on all execution dates in the U.S. stating: TODAY WE MOURN THE DEATH OF A FELLOW HUMAN BEING. (source for all al.com) ********************* "I forgive him": Family of Jo Deann Campbell opens up before her killer's execution Brooks was convicted of raping, robbing and murdering Jo Deann Campbell in her Homewood apartment in 1992. She was 23 years old. Days before the scheduled execution, Jo Deann's older sister, Corinne Campbell, received a Facebook message from a close friend of Jo Deann's. The message contained an audio recording of Jo Deann's outgoing message on her answering machine. "Hi! It's that time of year again. I want to wish you and all a merry Christmas, a happy Hanukkah and a happy new year," the cheerful voice chimes. "It brings 2 feelings," Corinne Campbell said. "It brings one of just like - chilling, and one of just, wow! That's really her. And that was 23 years ago . "It's difficult to describe. She's just full of life and loved people, and people loved her." The message would eventually become one piece of what Campbell calls "overwhelming" evidence that Brooks killed her sister. It happened on Dec. 30, 1992. Brooks, who'd met Jo Deann Campbell when they worked at nearby summer camps, paid her a visit, unannounced. Corinne Campbell said Jo Deann and Brooks never had a romantic relationship, and that Jo Deann was known for staying in touch with her friends from camp. Jo Deann was working as a training manager at Chili's on Highway 280, when Brooks and a friend, Robert Leeper, dropped in. Campbell said Jo Deann agreed to let Brooks and Leeper spend the night at her apartment in Homewood. The next day, Jo Deann did not show up for work. Campbell remembers the moment when police found her sister's body, bludgeoned, naked from the waist down, and shoved under her bed. "You just lose every ounce of everything, when policemen saw the body under the bed and said, 'Everyone out,' Campbell said. It took investigators a few days to find their suspects. "Anyone that came in the house, I just - I just remember thinking, 'My gosh! Did you do this? Do you know anything about this?' Campbell said. "I just kind of remember just being real suspicious of everyone that came around, even though they loved her and had nothing to do with it. It just was a kind of edgy time." Campbell said police used a credit card that Leeper and Brooks had taken from Jo Deann to catch them in Columbus, GA, where they lived. Campbell said Leeper and Brooks stole Jo Deann's car and several objects from her apartment, including her answering machine. She said the 2 men had recorded their own outgoing message, but when police flipped the tape over, they heard Jo Deann's cheerful greeting. Leeper was sentenced to time served in jail, and was released after pleading guilty to using Campbell's credit card. He was cleared of his murder charge, as investigators found no DNA evidence linking him to Jo Deann's rape or killing. While Brooks awaits his execution, his lawyers have sought multiple appeals and stays, but none have been granted. On Wednesday, Brooks's attorneys petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court, while the Diocese of Birmingham asked Governor Robert Bentley to stay the execution. "He has a right to do that, and if it's granted, it's granted. We'll live through it," Campbell said. "We've lived through 23 years of missing (Jo Deann), so we'll live through another however many years it is of whatever it takes to end this." When asked if she felt justice was being done, Campbell said she was not sure. "I have to say that I've never been a big proponent of the death penalty. I don't know that I ever will be, but it is what it is, and it's fair," Campbell said. Campbell said while she and her family will be in Atmore, near the Holman Correctional Facility, where Brooks will be put to death, she is unsure whether or not the family will witness the execution. But Campbell knows what her last words to Brooks would be: "I forgive you." "I think all of us would love to hear him say, 'I did this. I'm sorry.' But that may not ever come, and that's probably reality," Campbell said. "So I forgive him. I did that a long time ago. It's the only way I can live, to get through every day, is just to forgive him." (source: WIAT news) LOUISIANA: Louisiana serial killer connected to 7 murders dies while awaiting execution A Louisiana serial killer linked to the gruesome murders of 7 women died Thursday as he awaited execution, officials said. Derrick Todd Lee's cause of death was not immediately released. The 47-year-old was moved from the Louisiana State Penitentiary's death row to a hospital Saturday for unknown medical reasons. An autopsy will be performed by the West Feliciana coroner's office, Pam Laborde, a spokeswoman for the Department of Public Safety and Corrections, told the Advocate. Lee - who was connected to 7 murders between 1998 and 2003 in the Baton Rouge and Lafayette - appealed his death sentence earlier this year. The Louisiana Supreme Court rejected his bid in September, putting him 1 step closer to execution. A date had not been set for the execution. Lee was sentenced to death in 2004 for killing and mutilating LSU graduate student Charlotte Murray Pace in her Baton Rouge home in 2002. The 22-year-old was raped, bludgeoned and stabbed more than 80 times, officials said. He received a separate life sentence for the 2002 killing of 21-year-old Geralyn Barr DeSoto, of Addis. "I've been prosecuting for over 40 years in the state of Louisiana, and some of the most horrible things I've ever viewed ... were committed by Derrick Todd Lee," said attorney John Sinquefield, who handled the death penalty phase in the Pace case. Authorities suspect Lee killed 5 other women - Trineisha Dene Colomb, Randi Mebruer, Pam Kinamore, Carrie Lynn Yoder and Gina Wilson Green - between 1998 and 2003, but he was never tried in those cases. The 6-year killing spree petrified Southern Louisiana, Sinquefield said. "For a period of time, you had 600,000 people in South Louisiana that were terrified. People afraid to go out of their homes, taking extra security precautions," he told the newspaper. (source: New York Daily News) COLORADO: Proposed legislation would reduce the number of jurors needed to vote in favor of the death penalty A tweak to Colorado's law could make it easier for juries to sentence a defendant to death. Sen. Kevin Lundberg, R-Berthoud, wants to change the standard for a jury from a unanimous decision to just nine out of 12 jurors voting for the death penalty. "I'm calling for a super majority," said Lundberg. "I believe that the standard should be high, but it shouldn't be unattainably high." Last year, 2 separate juries considered the death penalty and did not sentence the defendant to death. In August, a Denver jury found Dexter Lewis guilty of stabbing 5 to death at Fero's Bar. That jury stopped the sentencing process during the 2nd of 3 phases, determining that what Lewis experienced in his life outweighed the crime, resulting in a life sentence. In July, an Arapahoe County jury of 12 found the Aurora theater shooter guilty of multiple murder counts, but could not agree on sentencing the shooter to death. "I think it was 9 'firm,' 2 'on the fence' and 1 'absolute no,'" said one of the Aurora theater jurors who was in favor of the death penalty. That juror spoke with Denver7 reporter Marshall Zelinger on the condition that her identity remained unknown. "You get those 1 or 2 stubborn people and then everything just stops. For 1 person to be able to decide for everyone, it's kind of ridiculous," said the juror. "That's the way it was. It wasn't a unanimous decision. It was, 'Hey, we've been here for 4 months now, I kind of want to get my life back.' (Another juror was) that way. (They were) stubborn in (their) vote, so let's end it and go home." Colorado law requires a unanimous decision from all 12 deliberating jurors to sentence a defendant to death. This bill would change it so that the final vote on life or death would only need nine in favor of death. "If anything was deserving of the death penalty, I'd say that's it the Aurora (theater) shooting," said Lundberg. "I think we need to come to terms with; are we going to have a death penalty that functions in Colorado or are we just going to put it in name only and not really have the death penalty?" The Public Defender's Office, anti-death penalty attorneys and the Better Priorities Initiative are all against the idea of reducing the number of jurors needed to secure a death penalty verdict. "If you need a unanimous jury to get a DUI conviction or for convicting someone for stealing a candy bar, the bar should be absolutely just as high, if not higher, for executing someone," Colorado's Public Defender Doug Wilson told Denver7. "Colorado law seems to have such a high standard, that it's unattainable," said Lundberg. Of the 31 states that have the death penalty, only 3 -- Alabama, Delaware and Florida -- are the only states that do not require a unanimous jury decision. In December, State Rep. Kim Ransom, R-Douglas County, told Denver7 that she was going to propose a bill to allow district attorneys the opportunity to seat a 2nd jury for sentencing purposes only, if the 1st jury is hung when it comes to determining life or death. "When you're asking to seat a 2nd jury, without seeing all the evidence and listening to all the testimonies, I don't think I would agree," said the Aurora theater trial juror. (source: thedenverchannel.com) ARIZONA: Death penalty sought for man accused of killing, burying Maricopa couple The Pinal County Attorney's Office filed a death penalty notice Wednesday against the man accused of killing a Maricopa couple and burying them on his property in June 2015. Jose Valenzuela, 36, was arrested after authorities located the bodies of Micheal and Tina Careccia buried in a 6-foot grave on his property near Ralston and Papago roads in Maricopa, not far from where their vehicle had been previously found. The couple had been missing for more than a week. They allegedly left their home at 5 a.m. on June 22. They told family members the night before that they had an appointment in the East Valley and Tina Careccia was running an errand for her boss. But they never made it. Police received the 911 call at 7:16 p.m. that evening, from Michael's 17-year-old son. The Associated Press reported in June that authorities served a search warrant at Valenzuela's home, after he made some suspicious statements. Valenzuela allegedly told investigators he and the couple had been acquainted for the past 2 years and used methamphetamine together. Authorities told the AP Valenzuela brought meth to the couple's home the day before they went missing, Father's Day. The couple went to Valenzuela's home later that day, and Valenzuela brandished a weapon during a fight. Babeu said authorities believe Valenzuela was high on meth at the time. He was also found with a .22 caliber revolver. According to a news release, County Attorney Lando Voyles filed a notice of intent to seek the death penalty on Friday, Jan. 15, citing multiple aggravating factors. Among those factors is that Valenzuela allegedly committed the offense in an "especially heinous, cruel, or depraved manner." "I extend my deepest condolences to the Careccia family. I feel a personal responsibility to keep violent offenders off of our streets and out of our Pinal communities," Pinal County Attorney Lando Voyles said in the release. (source: tucsonnewsnow.com) IDAHO: Prosecution set to seek death penalty An Emmett man accused of stabbing his girlfriend to death in Nampa could face the death penalty if convicted. Canyon County prosecutors have filed a notice of their intent to seek the death penalty against 23-year-old Brandon J. Shaw. He is accused of stabbing his girlfriend to death in the street outside her home in November. Shaw is accused of stabbing Chelsey Rae Malone on Nov. 18 with kitchen knives at the home that the pair had shared in the 2700 block of Berlin Place in Nampa. Prosecutors filed the notice Jan. 7, citing aggravating circumstances that made the alleged crime eligible for a sentence of death. The notice stated the "murder was especially heinous, atrocious or cruel, manifesting exceptional depravity" and "by the murder, or circumstances surrounding its commission, the defendant exhibited utter disregard for human life." According to court documents, police say Shaw admitted to stabbing Malone after he went to the house and used a credit card to open the door. He had a rifle in hand, according to court documents. Shaw told police in an interview that he attempted to shoot Malone while she tried to call 911, but the gun didn't fire, according to court documents. Instead, he said he chased her with the knives when she fled the house, stabbing her multiple times. Canyon County public defenders are representing Shaw, and his next court appearance is set for 9 a.m. Friday. Shaw remains in custody at the Canyon County jail. Shaw is charged with 1st-degree murder with an enhancement for the use of a deadly weapon, assault with the intent to commit a serious felony and another enhancement for the use of a deadly weapon, and burglary. Malone was a single mother of three children. Of the 9 people currently sitting on Idaho's death row, 1 is from Canyon County. David Card, 56, has been on death row since September 1989 after he was convicted of murdering a Nampa couple in 1988. Only 3 Idaho inmates have been executed since the state enacted a new death penalty statute in 1977, according to the Idaho Department of Correction. (source: Idaho Press-Tribune) CALIFORNIA: On Lethal Injections, What is the CDCR hiding? In the latest chapter that is California's broken death penalty saga, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) is poised to repeat its mistakes of the past. Courts have already invalidated the CDCR's execution protocols as constitutionally inadequate or otherwise illegal 4 times. We are now in the midst of a public comment period on the CDCR's latest attempt at creating a lawful lethal injection protocol. The comment period was originally set to end this Friday, Jan. 22 at 5pm, culminating with a public hearing in Sacramento where members of the public could provide oral testimony. Last Friday, however, the CDCR extended the comment period to Feb. 22 in order to comply with a Court order in an ACLU lawsuit to turn over or properly justify withholding 79,000 documents related to lethal injection. Why did we sue the CDCR? Because we believe it is in violation of the California Public Records Act by failing to release to the public documents related to lethal injection - documents that could help us and the general public evaluate the proposed regulations. My response: What is the CDCR hiding? To make matters worse, what the CDCR has shared during this public comment period has left us with more questions than answers and a deep-seated concern that its plan is tantamount to human experimentation. Yes, it's as bad as it sounds: 2 of the 4 drugs the CDCR wants to use to carry out lethal injections are currently unavailable and the other 2 (amobartial and secobarbital) have never been used in an execution. When it comes to something as serious as the death penalty, CDCR should not be charting untested waters. But it doesn't end there. We're still left to wonder how the CDCR will legally obtain these drugs and why, out of all the drugs in the world, it chose these 2. In the end, the regulations are not based on sound medical and scientific research. Moreover, there is no evidence that the CDCR studied and learned from the gruesome botched executions last year in states like Arizona and Oklahoma. So it looks like the CDCR is setting us up to repeat the mistakes made in these states and to do so under a veil of secrecy. ? And once again California is left with proposed regulations that are fundamentally flawed and replete with legal, ethical, constitutional, and logistical problems. Take action Join us in asking the state of California to hold itself to a higher standard and put an end to this wasteful system that is broken from start to finish. We've been down this path before, but together we can make sure this nightmare doesn't become a reality. (source: Ana Zamora is the Criminal Justice Policy Director at the ACLU of Northern California----aclunc.org) . *********************** Man convicted in muder rape case; faces death penalty A Bakersfield man on trial for murder and serial rape was convicted by a jury Wednesday. The jury found Michael Charles Brown guilty on a 1st degree murder charge and enough of the sex crime charges to make Brown eligible for the death penalty. Michael Charles Brown was arrested in 2009 in connection with the murder of Ruby Lee Jackson-Merryweather in Bakersfield in 2000. Police said he's also a serial rapist. Brown was tried 24 felony charges in connection with alleged assaults on 4 different women. He already served time for manslaughter for running over a man on Union Avenue in 2003. The penalty phase for his current rape and murder case starts next Wednesday Jan. 27. (source: kerngoldenempire.com) ************ Suspected Downey home-invasion killers could get death penalty 2 men and a 17-year-old boy were charged Wednesday with murder and other counts for allegedly killing a Downey man during a weekend home-invasion robbery. Paul Darvis Misikei, 18, Henry Willie Sao, 27, and Sakaopo Atanasio Folau, who is 17 and charged as an adult, are scheduled to be arraigned Feb. 10 on 1 count each of murder, home-invasion robbery and 1st-degree burglary with a person present. The murder charge includes the special circumstance allegation that the victim, 59-year-old Jim Rudometkin, was killed during the crime of robbery and residential burglary. Prosecutors are expected to decide later whether to seek the death penalty against Misikei and Sao. Folau cannot face the death penalty because of his age, and faces up to life in prison if convicted as charged. An autopsy determined that Rudometkin died from blunt trauma - he had been struck multiple times on the head and been "bound by ligature" - with heart disease also a factor, according to Los Angeles County coroner's Assistant Chief Ed Winter. Authorities allege Misikei and Folau forced their way into the home, with Sao entering shortly afterward. A neighbor called police, who arrived at the home in the 10300 block of Lesterford Avenue about 11:15 a.m. Sunday and were told that men were seen running from the area, according to Downey police Sgt. Terry Goeckner. A witness had seen 2 suspects contact the homeowner near the side door and force him back inside, then observed a 3rd person enter the home. The officers gave chase after arriving and apprehended Sao, a Long Beach resident, and Misikei, an Anaheim resident, but the teenage suspect got away and wasn't apprehended until Tuesday. "Further information gathered during this investigation points to the victim being specifically targeted by the suspects," Downey police Lt. Alex Irizabal said. "We do not believe this was a random crime." Neighbors said Rudometkin was a well-liked local Realtor who had lived alone since his father's death. ******************* Prosecutors may seek death penalty in Marina del Rey teen killing A San Diego man was charged Wednesday with capital murder for allegedly gunning down a teenage girl in the parking lot of a Marina del Rey shopping center in what may have been a botched robbery involving marijuana. Cameron Anthony Frazier, 21, was ordered to be held without bail while awaiting arraignment Feb. 3 at the Airport Branch Courthouse in Los Angeles in connection with the Jan. 6 death of 17-year-old Kristine Carman. The murder charge includes the special circumstance allegation of murder during the commission of a robbery, along with an allegation that Frazier personally and intentionally discharged a handgun. Prosecutors have yet to decide whether to seek the death penalty against Frazier, who was arrested Monday by members of the FBI Fugitive Task Force outside his residence in Vista. Along with the murder count, Frazier is charged with 2 counts of attempted 2nd-degree robbery involving 2 other alleged victims. The victim lived in Houston, Texas, and was visiting relatives in the Southland at the time of the shooting, according to authorities. The teen was shot to death during a robbery attempt while she sat in an SUV with 2 other people at the Villa Marina Marketplace mall, according to Deputy District Attorney Keri Modder. Following the shooting, the person behind the wheel drove across the parking lot, stopping in a parking space outside a Panda Express, where the girl was ultimately found dead. The suspect fled the location in a dark-colored SUV, possibly heading toward the Marina (90) Freeway, police said. Lacey Carman of Marina del Rey wrote on Facebook that Kristine was her sister. She said she was the one driving the vehicle her sister was in, and that "my sister was just murdered in front of me in a robbery gone wrong." Her sibling, she wrote, was "beautiful smart and undeserving" of the fate that befell her. "I pray that God is real and holding my sisters hand right now. I pray that you never have to feel this pain or this self loathing," she said. Police have repeatedly declined to comment on a CBS2 report that the shooting may have been prompted by an alleged attempt by Lacey Carman's boyfriend to sell 2 pounds of marijuana. (source for both: mynewsla.com) From rhalperi at smu.edu Thu Jan 21 15:29:17 2016 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Thu, 21 Jan 2016 15:29:17 -0600 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide Message-ID: Jan. 21 NIGERIA: Ondo High Court Sentences Prof. Ilemobade's Killer Aides To Death By Hanging An Ondo State High Court in Akure has sentenced 2 domestic staff members of late Prof. Albert Ilemobade a former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Technology (FUTA) to death by hanging for killing the professor. The 2 killers, Olayemi Bamitale, a former driver, and Ita Enang, a night guard, confessed to killing the former university don in cold-blood at his private residence in Ijapo Estate, Akure, the Ondo State capital. A SaharaReporters correspondent who was at the trial venue reports that Justice Olamide Williams sentenced the 2 staff members to death after finding them guilty of murdering their boss. (source: Sahara Reporters) INDONESIA: Indonesia's death penalty lying in wait Indonesia's attorney-general has the funds and the will to wield the death penalty again, even though last year's record 14 executions failed to dent drug crimes as promised. On January 18 last year, 6 drugs prisoners were sent to firing squads; all but one of them was a foreigner. There would be more international condemnation when another 8 people were executed in April, including Australians Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran. Despite the diplomatic blowback, Indonesia is yet to retreat from the death penalty. No plans are in place and officially, Jakarta says its focus is on improving economic conditions. But the attorney-general's office has the budget to execute 14 prisoners in 2016. HM Prasetyo on Wednesday told lawmakers there's no connection between executions and the economy. According to reports, he admitted drug crime was still rising, and that was reason to push ahead with the "shock therapy" approach. "I'm confident that the death penalty is a kind of therapy," he said, as reported by The Jakarta Post. "It is an unpleasant action, but we must do it." Haris Azhar of rights group KontraS says it's clear there has been no deterrent effect. President Joko Widodo, he says, is saddled with a failed policy that remains popular with constituents. "In 2015 we saw a period where the new government was laying down its authority," he said. "This year, and into the future, there's no guarantee that when the government's popularity is down again, it wouldn't be used for grabbing public support." Migrant Care's Anis Hidayah says Indonesia will need a long road map towards abolishing the death penalty, with a moratorium as the 1st step. The organisation that assists Indonesian workers in trouble abroad argues Indonesia lacks "moral legitimacy" to save their lives when it practises the same policy. "Our demand is the same, whether it's to Saudi Arabia or to our own government," she said. News of Jakarta's preparations have horrified prisoners on death row, who include Mary Jane Veloso. The Filipino single mum was prepared for the firing squad alongside Sukumaran and Chan, but was given a last-minute reprieve pending the trial of the couple accused of setting her up as an unwitting drug mule. Veloso's family last week visited her in prison for the 1st time since that emotional night. Lawyer Edre Olalia trusts the Indonesian authorities will wait for the legal process, saying, "an honourable government will fulfil an honourable commitment". While publicity around Veloso's case may yet save her from the death penalty, the misfortune and corruption that lands others on death row never comes to light. The Institute for Criminal Justice Reform (ICJR) raises the case of Zainal Abidin, an Indonesian executed with Sukumaran and Chan. His chance for appeal vanished - literally - when the paperwork went missing for 10 years. The ICJR points out also that groups are still challenging the president's ability to reject clemency without actually reviewing the individual's case. None of this seems to impress those who still see capital punishment as the solution to a "drugs emergency". National Narcotics Board (BNN) spokesman Slamet Pribadi says in his opinion, the next 14 prisoners should be executed "as soon as possible". He says 33 Indonesians die every day as a result of illicit drugs - a revision of the 40-50 figure used by the president to justify the policy. "Human rights, this is for those western people to know, for those who are against death penalty, human rights does not only apply to the criminal perpetrators," he said. "What about the human rights of victims?" (source: NT News) ******************** Death penalty still needed: Attorney General Indonesia's attorney general insists that death penalties must be maintained in the country's judicial system as a shock therapy against serious crime. "I'm confident that the death penalty is a kind of therapy. It is an unpleasant action, but we must do it," said Attorney General HM Prasetyo in a working meeting with the House Commission III overseeing law and human rights, on Wednesday evening. The statement came in response to a question raised by a Commission III member from the Democratic Party, Ruhut Sitompul, who asked about the spirit behind the death penalty in Indonesia. In November 2015, the government suspended executions of death row convicts amid an economic slowdown. At that time, the government wanted to focus on improving the economy, which was expanding at a slow pace of 4.73 % in the 3rd quarter of 2015. "The death penalty has no connection with the economy," Prasetyo said, adding that the reactions of foreign countries about the issue are excessive. Foreign countries and human rights groups have slammed Indonesia for implementing capital punishment against convicts, as stipulated in the Criminal Code (KUHP). President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo had 2 groups of convicts, totaling 14 people, executed in January and April 2015. 2 of the convicts were Australian drug smugglers Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, who were executed in April 2015, causing bilateral tension and leading to Australia recalling its ambassador from Indonesia. "We need a similar policy to fight drug crimes," Prasetyo said, adding that Commission III should issue a statement to put to death some convicts who already on death row. (source: thejakartapost.com) THAILAND: Defence gets extension to appeal Koh Tao death penalties 2 Myanmar men sentenced to death in Thailand for murder have been given a momentary reprieve: The court yesterday allotted an extra month for their appeal. The defence team applied for and was granted the extension just four days before the initial court deadline. The lawyers said they have assembled over 100 points to contest in the appeal, which will seek to overturn the death penalty verdict handed down to Ko Zaw Lin and Ko Wai Phyo. On December 24, Thai courts found the Rakhine State natives guilty of murdering 2 British backpackers last year on the resort island Koh Tao. Much of the case rests on hotly contested DNA evidence. The defence team has been working with Australian DNA expert Jane Taupin to question the prosecutors' claim that forensic samples lead to a 100 % match with the defendants. In their ruling, the judges cite the claim as creditable, and added that the methods used to analyse the DNA evidence met international standards. Ms Taupin told the Bangkok Post earlier this month that the DNA testing was fraught with serious doubts. She said the 100pc guarantee boasted by the prosecutors cannot technically be made, especially since DNA matches are not about certainty but a sliding probability scale. DNA profiling alone should not form the basis of a criminal conviction, she said. According to the Migrant Worker Rights Network, which has been assisting the defence, the team has pored over nearly 4000 pages of court records, and has assembled an extensive list of appeal points. The extra time will be used to coordinate with Ms Taupin about the DNA evidence, U Sein Htay, chair of the MWRN, said. "The trial and sentence revolved around these DNA results which were not handled according to international norms," he said. "Additionally, police reported at the trial that not all DNA results were tested. We have to appeal these points." During the trial, which began last July, defence lawyers sought to draw attention to inconsistencies in the police work, including not sealing off the crime scene, and not following all potential leads. The defence maintains the 2 Myanmar men were tortured into making false confessions. The death sentence sparked outrage in Myanmar, where even Commander-in-Chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing weighed in, suggesting his Thai counterparts should "take another look". Protests led by nationalist monks have been scheduled every Sunday, with the demonstrators vowing to continue until the verdict is overturned. At the beginning of the month, President U Thein Sein assigned a cast of Myanmar lawyers to observe the case and report to the embassy. The delegation, made up of members of the Myanmar's Lawyers Council, met with Ko Zaw Lin and Ko Wai Phyo in prison. "The group will try their best to assist the appeal and report observations about the forensic data collection process," said a senior official from the President's Office. (source: Myanmar Times) MALDIVES: Maldives minor on death row asks court to recall witnesses 1 of the 2 minors sentenced to death over the murder of Abdul Muheeth in 2012 has asked the High Court to recall witnesses. Muheeth was murdered at an alley in front of the Finance Ministry in February, 2012. The State had charged 3 minors with 1st degree murder which had been denied by the accused. The 3rd minor was acquitted of the charges over a lack of evidence. The 2 were convicted based on witness statements, phone call recordings and CCTV footage. All 26 heirs of the victim had asked the court for the death penalty. The death sentence for the 2 is the 1st in the history of the Juvenile Court. Both the minors had appealed the sentence and the High Court had held a hearing of one of them. During the hearing on Thursday, the defence lawyer Husnu Suood argued that there were not enough evidence to prove that his client had stabbed Muheeth in the chest. Suood insisted that there were irregularities in the statements of prosecution witnesses. The court asked the defence to submit the questions for the witnesses for review. In response, the state insisted that the irregularities in the testimonies were not enough to affect the lower court verdict. Meanwhile, the State has also filed charges at the criminal court against Ali Mushahfau of Sultan Villa Seenu Atoll Maradhoo, Muhujath Ahmed Naasih of Abulagee Ge, Gaaf Dhaal Atoll Gahdhoo and Mohamed Maimoon of Zaithoonige, Lhaviyani Naifaru, for the murder of Muheeth. The trial at the Criminal Court is still ongoing. (source: Haveeru Online) SAUDI ARABIA: Return Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr's Body to his Family (UA 271/14) | Amnesty International USA http://www.amnestyusa.org/get-involved/take-action-now/saudi-arabia-return-sheikh-nimr-al-nimr-s-body-to-his-family-ua-27114 (source: Amnesty International USA) KUWAIT: Death Penalty in Flawed Trials----Reverse Sentences, Investigate Ill-treatment Allegations Kuwait's 1st instance criminal court sentenced 2 men to death on January 12, 2016, after a flawed trial. The authorities should drop the death penalty charges on appeal. The court convicted Hassan Hajiya, a Kuwaiti national, and Abdulreda Dhaqany, an Iranian national, of spying for Iran and Hezbollah, in both cases without adequate legal representation. "Issuing a death penalty sentence, especially after flawed proceedings, is a terrible way for the Kuwaiti authorities to begin 2016," said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director. "The authorities should commute the executions immediately and reinstate the moratorium that had been in place from 2007 to 2013." Hajiya's lawyer, Khaled al-Shatti, said that his client was held and interrogated on an almost daily basis from August 13 to September 1, 2015, by Homeland Security, the Interior Ministry body focused on internal terrorist threats, and the state's prosecution authorities, without any access to legal representation. His lawyer sought access to the interrogations but, al-Shatti said, the attorney general denied him and all of the other lawyers of the 24 other defendants who faced similar charges access to their clients. Al-Shatti finally was able to represent his client before a judge in a "renewal hearing" on September 2, when the prosecution requested an extension of a 10-day pretrial detention period to continue investigations, which the judge granted. Substantive trial proceedings began on September 15, with lawyers present, and the court held 11 hearings before sentencing Hajiya to death. Dhaqany was not arrested, nor was he represented by a lawyer before 3 judges in Kuwait's 1st instance criminal court sentenced him to death in absentia on January 12. He is currently outside the country. International law does not prohibit trial in absentia, but holds that it is an inadequate substitute for the normal trial process, where an accused is present to face his accusers. Courts trying defendants in absentia should institute procedural safeguards to ensure the defendants' basic rights, such as notifying them in advance of the proceedings, their right to representation in their absence, and affirming their right to a retrial on the merits of the conviction following their return to the jurisdiction. State prosecutors brought charges of espionage and possession of arms without a license against 26 people in all, many of whom alleged abuse during the interrogation period. Judges found 24 people guilty of possessing arms without a license and 18 among them for spying. One of those sentenced, Zuhair al-Mahmeed, in a note to one of the first instance judges during proceedings, alleged that during interrogations, officers from Homeland Security had beaten him in his head, neck, back, and face; kicked his legs; gave him electric shocks; made him stand for hours; and deprived him of sleep for 6 days. He also alleged that they threatened to strip off his clothes, hang him by his feet, mistreat other members of his family, and confiscate his and their citizenship. A forensics report issued on August 23, reviewed by Human Rights Watch, found that three suspects, not including Hajiya and Dhaqany, had abrasions to their wrists caused by metal shackles and had varying degrees of bruising and abrasions to different parts of their bodies caused by a solid object. A 4th suspect had bruising to the base and back of his right-hand index finger. Another forensics report issued on September 20, about 45 days after suspects alleged they were abused, found that five suspects showed signs of abrasions from shackles applied at various times to their wrists, and 3 showed signs that their ankles had been shackled earlier during their detention. The judge did not open investigations into any of the torture allegations. Judges cleared al-Mahmeed of all spying charges and sentenced him to 5 years in prison for the possession of weapons without a license. After a de facto moratorium on the death penalty since 2007, Kuwaiti authorities executed 5 people in 2013. In September 2015, a court sentenced 7 people to death in relation to the Shia Imam Sadiq Mosque bombing in June. On December 13, the appeals court upheld the death penalty for 1 of them and commuted the other sentences. Al-Shatti hopes to appeal Hajiya's death sentence within the next 3 weeks. Human Rights Watch opposes the death penalty in all circumstances as an inherently irreversible, inhumane punishment. A majority of countries in the world have abolished the practice. On December 18, 2007, the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution by a wide margin calling for a worldwide moratorium on executions. The UN Human Rights Committee has said that,"In cases of trials leading to the imposition of the death penalty scrupulous respect of the guarantees of fair trial is particularly important." (source: Human Rights Watch) From rhalperi at smu.edu Thu Jan 21 19:14:34 2016 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Thu, 21 Jan 2016 19:14:34 -0600 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, DEL., VA., FLA., ALA., MISS., MO., CALIF., USA Message-ID: Jan. 21 TEXAS----new execution date Perry Williams has been given an execution date for July 14; it should be considered serious. ********************* Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present----14 Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982----present-----532 Abbott#--------scheduled execution date-----name------------Tx. # 15---------January 27---------------James Freeman---------533 16---------February 16--------------Gustavo Garcia--------534 17---------March 9------------------Coy Wesbrook----------535 18---------March 22-----------------Adam Ward-------------536 19---------March 30-----------------John Battaglia--------537 20---------April 6------------------Pablo Vasquez---------538 21---------April 27-----------------Robert Pruett---------539 22---------June 2-------------------Charles Flores--------540 23---------July 14------------------Perry Williams--------541 (sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin) DELAWARE: Death penalty repeal bill headed to House vote A death penalty repeal bill that had been languishing in a House committee is headed to a vote by the full House next week after the committee chairman agreed to release it. Judiciary Committee members voted 6-to-5 last May not to send the bill to the full House after it cleared the Senate on an 11-to-9 vote. But committee chairman Rep. John Mitchell, D-Elsmere, who opposes repeal, said Thursday that he had signed it out of committee with an "unfavorable" endorsement, allowing the bill to move forward. Rep. Sean Lynn, a Dover Democrat and chief House sponsor of the legislation, said he believes it has enough support to pass the House. Democratic Gov. Jack Markell has said he would sign the measure if it reaches his desk. (source: Associated Press) VIRGINIA: Va. death penalty murder trial of Joaquin Rams is postponed The capital murder trial of Joaquin S. Rams, accused of drowning his 15-month-old son in 2012 to collect more than $540,000 in insurance proceeds, has been postponed from its Feb. 1 start date in Prince William County Circuit Court. Rams, 43, has been in the Prince William jail without bond for 3 years in connection with the October 2012 death of his son Prince McLeod Rams. But on Wednesday, his lawyers asked for a continuance, and Prince William Circuit Court Judge Craig D. Johnston granted it. No new trial date was set, pending a hearing next week. Defense attorney Daniel Morissette said the court-appointed defense team was concerned about the availability of some out-of-state witnesses and whether they would be present in Manassas when the defense presents its case. Rams has maintained he is innocent in his son's death. (source: Washington Post) FLORIDA----female to face death penalty Prosecutors seek death for woman charged with killing son Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against a Florida woman accused of killing her 3-year-old son and stuffing him into a suitcase. State Attorney spokesman David Angier says Bay County prosecutors filed a notice to seek the death penalty Thursday against 27-year-old Egypt Moneeck Robinson. A grand jury indicted her Wednesday on a 1st-degree murder charge. The sheriff's office reports that Robinson's boyfriend initially went to the 1st department last month to report the child's death. Firefighters contacted deputies, who went to Robinson's home near Panama City. Deputies found the suitcase containing the child's body floating in water behind the home. Sheriff Frank McKeithen has said investigators are looking at "ritualistic sacrifice" as a possible motive. (source: Associated Press) ALABAMA----execution Christopher Brooks executed for 1992 rape and murder Christopher Brooks, convicted of the 1992 rape, murder and robbery of Jo Deann Campbell, was put to death Thursday night in the first execution carried out in Alabama in almost 2 1/2 years. 2 media witnesses said Brooks was declared dead at 6:38 p.m. after being administered a 3-drug injection. Investigators found Campbell on Dec. 31, 1992, partially clothed and beaten with a weight in her apartment in Homewood. Police found a bloody fingerprint belonging to Brooks at the scene, and later found Brooks with Campbell's car keys and credit card. A jury convicted Brooks, 43, in 1993 of the crime, a conviction upheld in the state's appellate courts. Brooks met Campbell while working as a camp counselor. Alabama last executed an inmate on July 25, 2013. Executions came to a halt due to a shortage of drugs used in the execution, particularly the sedatives meant to render the condemned inmate unconscious before the injection of the fatal chemicals. Legal challenges to lethal injection also slowed the execution process. Alabama switched the sedative from sodium thiopental to pentobarbital after Hospira, the maker of sodium thiopental, discontinued its manufacture in the United States in 2011. The state acknowledged in early 2014 it had run out of pentobarbital. But in a filing with the Alabama Supreme Court in September, the Alabama Attorney General's office said it had secured midazolam hydrochloride as a sedative. Florida has used midazolam in its executions since 2013, without reported incident. But the drug was present in executions in Ohio, Oklahoma and Arizona in 2014, where inmates took a lengthy time to die. In 2 cases, reporters said inmates appeared to be gasping or choking through the process. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the use of midazolam in executions in a 5-4 decision. Writing for the majority, Justice Samuel Alito said three Oklahoma inmates challenging its use had failed to prove it violated the U.S. Constitution's prohibitions against cruel and unusual punishment. The court also ruled that the condemned had to suggest a more humane method of execution available to officials. After administration of the sedative, the state protocol calls for the injection of rocuronium bromide, which paralyzes the muscles. The inmate would next receive potassium chloride, to stop the heart. The drugs are administered from a room outside the execution chamber. Under state law, Holman warden Carter Davenport administers the lethal injection.,P. Brooks was moved to a holding cell on Tuesday in advance of the execution. He was given a breakfast at 6:10 a.m., but did not eat it. Brooks saw friends and attorneys until 4:15 p.m. Thursday, according to Corrections officials. There are 186 inmates on Alabama's death row. 5 have challenged the use of midazolam, saying it would not render them unconscious in time to avoid the pain from the other 2 drugs, which would be a violation of the Eighth Amendment's protections against "cruel and unusual punishment." The inmates also questioned whether Corrections officials consistently administer a consciousness test before administering the lethal drugs. Brooks filed a motion to join the case in November, and later to stay his execution. "Midazolam will not anesthetize Brooks, and regardless of the dose, will not eliminate the risk that a condemned inmate will experience pain from the paralytic or potassium chloride," his brief said. A district court allowed Brooks to join the lawsuit, known as the "Midazolam Litigation," but refused to grant a stay. A federal appeals court Tuesday refused to intervene, upholding the district judge's ruling that Brooks had not offered an alternative means of execution available to the Alabama Department of Corrections. The court also upheld the district court???s ruling that Brooks had run out of time to intervene in the case. The U.S. Supreme Court denied Brooks' requests for a stay of the execution Thursday evening. The majority did not explain its reasons. Justice Stephen Breyer wrote a brief dissent, saying the methods by which Brooks was sentenced resembled Florida's capital sentences, which the high court voted to strike down earlier this month in a case titled Hurst v. Florida. "The unfairness inherent in treating this case differently from others which used similarly unconstitutional procedures only underscores the need to reconsider the validity of capital punishment under the Eighth Amendment," Breyer wrote. Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, wrote a separate concurrence in the denial. Sotomayor wrote that "procedural obstacles" prevented the court from granting the stay, but added that the majority's decision to deny the ruling was based on two cases that Hurst overturned. A federal court last year scheduled an evidentiary hearing on the remaining inmates' challenge to the state's death penalty procedures for April. The long pause between executions in Alabama was unusual, but not unprecedented. The state resumed executions in 1983, but did not schedule any for almost 3 years after, following the gruesome death of John Evans in the electric chair on April 22, 1983. There was a 2 1/2 year gap in executions in the state between 1992 and 1995. Brooks' execution is the 7th to take place under Gov. Robert Bentley's administration. Brooks becomes the 1st condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Alabam and the 57th overall since the state resumed capital punishment in 1983. Brooks becomes the 3rd condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 1425th overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977. There is 1 more execution later this month, set for Jan. 27 in Texas. (sources: Monntgommery Advertiser & Rick Halperin) ************************* Does AL execution violate prisoner's 8th amendment right? A man arrested in Columbus, GA for the 1992 rape and murder of 23-year-old Jo Deann Campbell is set to be executed in Alabama on Thursday at 6 p.m. Christopher Eugene Brooks will be the first person executed in the state since July 2013, but it is the method in which he will be executed that is causing the most controversy. A new lethal drug combination will be used in Brooks' execution similar to the one used in Oklahoma for Clayton Lockett's 2014 execution that took 43 minutes. Many call into question if the new combination violates inmate's 8th Amendment right. "Especially when you had on record that there was a botch execution and then you have a drug that is untested that puts the question out there," says Dr. Fredrick Gordon, chair of CSU's Political Science Department. Gordon says he is neither for or against the death penalty but teaches his students how to analyze both sides of the issue. "A lot of death row inmates will try to look at every procedure to try to stay, or avoid or delay the death penalty. Yet at the same time we have to recognize there is a victim in the situation," says Gordon. Brooks was not granted clemency and on Tuesday his appeal to the Supreme Court was also denied. "The decision had already been made. It had been made by him when he committed the crime and it had been made by the courts with all of the reviews," said Governor Robert Bentley. Campbell was brutally beaten with a dumbbell and raped before she was murdered in 1992. Her sister Corrine says although she understands the court system, she has waited more than 2 decades for justice. "The justice system is set up the way that it is and he has a right to do so you know again my focus is definitely on my sister at this point and not him," Corrine said. For some the death penalty is retribution, for others it is a violation of their religious beliefs, but Gordon says regardless of where you stand you can't ignore the statistics. "Northern states have the death penalty banned, so it's not an option and people commit some very heinous crimes similar to this Alabama case, they don't get the death penalty they get life in prison," says Gordon. According to Deathpenaltyinfo.org when it comes to death row inmates, Alabama is the fourth highest state in the U.S. with 195 people on death row and Georgia is ninth with 95 people on death row. Out of more than 2,000 executions since 1976, over 1,100 of them happened in Southern states. (source: WTVM news) MISSISSIPPI: New appeal in death penalty case amid claim about bailiff A Mississippi death row inmate convicted of killing his roommate can file more appeals because white jurors might have been improperly influenced by trial court bailiffs expressing opinions to them about black jurors not favoring the death penalty, the state Supreme Court ruled in a split decision Thursday. The majority of the court said statements by bailiffs to jurors might have violated Bobby Batiste's constitutional right to an impartial jury. Batiste, a former Mississippi State University student from Preston, was convicted and sentenced to death in 2009 in Oktibbeha County in the 2008 slaying of Andreas Galanis of Biloxi. Prosecutors said Galanis died from a blow to the head after he and Batiste fought at their off-campus apartment in Starkville when Galanis discovered money missing from his checking account. Batiste told police that Galanis attacked him first, according to court records. The Mississippi Supreme Court in 2013 upheld Batiste's conviction and sentence, and the U.S. Supreme Court in 2014 said it would not hear Batiste's appeal for a new trial. The state Supreme Court said Thursday that after those appeals were rejected, juror Denise Cranford filed a sworn statement saying bailiffs were friendly and "explained the law" to jurors during the trial. Cranford wrote that she and some other jurors initially were concerned about the jury being all-white, but a bailiff said black and white people view the death penalty differently. "The bailiff said that black people will not consider the death penalty. After that explanation I was no longer concerned," Cranford said in her statement, according to Supreme Court records. Batiste, now 36, is black. During Batiste's earlier appeals, his attorneys had no reason to know jurors might have been influenced by bailiffs, Justice James W. Kitchens wrote in the order Thursday. "While such an explanation may have alleviated the concerns of jurors regarding the absence of African Americans on Batiste's jury, we cannot say that such remarks to jurors, if made, did not impact Batiste's fundamental constitutional right to a fair trial by an impartial jury," Kitchens wrote. "This case seems especially egregious in light of the heightened standard which we are bound to apply in cases which involve the death penalty." Justice Randy Pierce wrote in a dissent: "There is no indication that the bailiff expressed personal beliefs relating to Batiste's conviction or sentence, or that the comments influenced the jury's decision-making process." Batiste's attorneys have 60 days to ask the Oktibbeha County circuit court to file a petition for post-conviction relief in Oktibbeha County Circuit Court. In such a petition, an inmate argues he has found new evidence, or a possible constitutional issue, that could persuade a court to order a new trial. (source: sunherald.com) MISSOURI: Judge rules mistrial in murder case; too few jurors neutral on death penalty A judge declared a mistrial last week in a quadruple-murder case because not enough jurors could be found with neutral views of the death penalty. The court was to hear the case of a Doniphan, Missouri, man charged in connection in the 2010 deaths of two elderly couples whose bodies were found in their burned homes. Presiding Circuit Judge Michael Pritchett issued his ruling after it was determined not enough jurors remained after questioning by the state and defense attorneys to select a jury of 12 and alternates for the trial of Keith A. Boyles. Boyles, 23, was to stand trial on 4 counts of 1st-degree murder and 4 counts of armed criminal action. The state was seeking the death penalty. "We could not get enough jurors," said a court official. "We had to death qualify them, meaning a juror had to be able to consider each punishment -- death vs. life -- equally. "Too many said they could only consider 1 punishment. ... We started with 140. We needed to have 38 say they could consider both punishments so that each side could then make their strikes." Thursday was when "we couldn't get to 38," which led to the mistrial, the court official said. That was the day the jury-selection process began in Ste. Genevieve County. If jurors had been chosen, they would have been brought to Butler County for Boyles' trial. Because the state sought the death penalty, the jurors would have been sequestered for the duration of the trial. Boyles now will appear Feb. 23 before Pritchett to have his case reset for trial. Boyles is accused of killing Gladys Irene Piatt, 80, and Loyd Eugene Piatt, 77, as well as Edgar Atkinson, 81, and Bonnie Chase, 69. The Piatts were found dead inside their burned rural Doniphan home June 23, 2010. Authorities initially thought the couple had died of smoke inhalation. The bodies of Atkinson and Chase were found in their burning home in Current View, Missouri, on July 10, 2010. An autopsy determined Atkinson died of gunshot wounds to the head and upper torso. A cause of death for Chase was not known. After the deaths of Atkinson and Chase, the investigation into the Piatts' deaths was reopened, and their bodies were exhumed for autopsies. Both reportedly had been shot in the chest. (source: Southeast Missourian) CALIFORNIA: Supreme Court Upholds Death Penalty For OC White Supremacist Despite defense claims of prosecutorial misconduct, the California Supreme Court today affirmed the conviction and death penalty punishment for Billy Joe Johnson, a now legendarily wild Orange County white supremacist and killer. A 2009 jury convicted Johnson - a member of the Nazi-loving, criminal street gang Public Enemy Number One Death Squad (PEN1) - for the 2002, ambush, handgun murder of Anaheim's Scott Miller, a fellow hoodlum, who broke underworld rules by giving an on-camera interview to a Los Angeles television news station. Johnson, a product of Costa Mesa and methamphetamine addiction, is known also to have killed at least two other individuals - Clyde Nordeen (pick axe) and Cory Lamons (claw hammer) - in savage, sneak-attach fashion. During his sensational trial, a gang of sheriff's deputies escorted a heavily-shackled Johnson into the courtroom reminiscent of precautions taken for Hannibel Lecter in Silence of the Lambs. A young, Asian female juror had the misfortune of being seated closest to the killer, who visibly suggested he hadn't been in the company of the opposite sex in eons. Through the prominent gap in his mouth where you'd usually see front teeth, a wide-eyed Johnson smiled at the woman before darting his tongue in and out of his mouth. Yes, Johnson is a character whose been clinically declared a "psychopath," which is why it wasn't shocking that he literally begged the jury to give him death. Sure, insane ideas routinely swirl inside his skull, but the punishment request was soberly practical: This man, who'd spent more than 25 of his then-46 years on the planet locked up, argued life in prison without the possibility for parole inside Pelican Bay State Prison would be a far more painful existence than a trip to San Quentin State Prison's death row, where inmates enjoy more privileges. Johnson's appellate lawyer told the Supreme Court that Ebrahim Baytieh, the homicide prosecutor in the case, committed misconduct in his closing argument by individually addressing jurors and posing a question about the defendant's lifelong crime spree: "Are you indignant yet?" The court determined that the defense forfeited the argument by failing to object to the tactic during the trial. The judges did, however, split on whether Superior Court Judge William Froeberg improperly allowed Lamons' mother to testify during the penalty phase for the Miller killing. Justices Mariano-Florentino Cuellar, Goodwin H. Lui and Leondra R. Kruger opined that the testimony was "irrelevant" to the last murder and its inclusion, as authorized by the court's majority opinion, represents an unwise expansion of prosecutorial moves not permitted in other jurisdictions. But the minority called the miscue "harmless" to affirm the punishment. Right about now, Johnson is receiving a message of his triumph. He'll likely snort and, with that trademark hillbilly lisp, joyous utter profanity before his tongue dances outside of his mouth. The 52-year-old thug gets to remain where he wants: With about 60 other Orange County killers ahead of him on the state's execution list. (source: Orange County Weekly) USA: Still fighting the death penalty, Sr. Prejean gets Pope's blessing 2decades after her anti-death penalty work was transformed into the Oscar-winning movie Dead Man Walking, Sr. Helen Prejean's campaign continues with the backing of Pope Francis. Prejean met with the Pope on Jan. 21 to deliver a thank-you letter from Richard Glossip, whose execution in the United States was halted in September after intervention from the pontiff. But her celebratory meeting with the pontiff came just hours after another death row inmate, Richard Masterson, was put to death in Texas. "I said, 'They killed him.' And he (Francis) lowered his eyes and said, 'I pray, I pray.' He really feels for people on death row," Prejean said. Masterson was convicted for killing Darin Honeycutt in 2001, although the defense team argued that the victim died of a heart attack during consensual sexual relations. The Pope had been following the case closely, Cardinal Christoph Schonborn said on Monday. Francis voiced his opposition to capital punishment while addressing Congress during his U.S. visit in September. "Recently my brother bishops here in the United States renewed their call for the abolition of the death penalty. Not only do I support them, but I also offer encouragement to all those who are convinced that a just and necessary punishment must never exclude the dimension of hope and the goal of rehabilitation," Francis told lawmakers. Prejean remains hopeful in the case of Glossip, convicted of hiring a man to kill a motel owner. His execution was indefinitely postponed after it was discovered that the wrong drug had been presented for the lethal injection. The execution was stayed by Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin, who received a letter from the Vatican's top U.S. diplomat, Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, urging her to save Glossip's life on behalf of the Pope. "I sensed his innocence from the beginning. I'm with the 7th person on death row; 3 of the 7 have been innocent - that's how broken the thing (system) is." More than 150 people have been released from death row since 1973, following evidence of their innocence, according to the Death Penalty Information Centre. Executions are disproportionately high in southern states and people are more likely to be sentenced to death if their victim is white. Campaigning equally for those who are guilty and innocent, Prejean argued that those on death row feel deep remorse and should not be executed for one act. Discussing a particular case, she said a man asked for forgiveness and admitted to being so high on drugs he had no memory of the crime. The nun's fight against capital punishment began in the 1980s, when she became a spiritual adviser to Patrick Sonnier, who was put to death in Louisiana. Prejean presented the Pope with a Spanish copy of the book based on her experiences, Dead Man Walking, which was turned into a film for which Susan Sarandon won an Oscar for her role as Prejean. Prejean said she felt compelled to act after witnessing Sonnier's execution and realized the U.S. public could not see the reality of the death chamber. "I came out and I vomited. I'd never watched a human being be killed, that I knew, and I remember thinking it was very clear: People are never going to get close to this." Before discussing capital punishment it is important to talk to people about the crime scene itself, she said. "If you don't go to that place and let them know you feel the outrage too, they'll never be able to come over with you finally to the place where they can have compassion for the person (convicted)." Prejean said Francis' influence and support are never far away. "The Pope's like a little lighthouse, and he keeps sending out that beam - this is what it's about." (source: catholicregister.org) From rhalperi at smu.edu Thu Jan 21 19:16:06 2016 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Thu, 21 Jan 2016 19:16:06 -0600 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalety news----worldwide Message-ID: Jan. 21 BANGLADESH: Woman to die for killing infant A Satkhira court yesterday sentenced a woman to death penalty for killing her newly born girl 5 years back. Additional District Sessions' Judge Sharif AM Jaker announced the verdict against Rezia Khatun,25, daughter of Abdul Majed Gazi, a resident of Rahimpur upazila under Kaliganj upazila of the district, in a crowded courtroom. Rezia has remained absconding since she got bail. The court also acquitted Kashem Kopali as allegations could not be proved against him during prosecution. Public Prosecutor Advocate Osman Goni said police recovered the body of an infant from a pond on February 25, 2010. Then local people said the baby was a result of an illicit relationship between Rezia Begum and Kashem Kopali. Although an unnatural case was filed in this connection, later a murder case was filed against Rezia after investigation. Rezia strangled the infant soon after its birth to get rid of social stigma. Then, police arrested Rezia and Kashem. The court handed down the verdict after cross-checking 14 witnesses and documents. (source: Dhaka Tribune) From rhalperi at smu.edu Fri Jan 22 09:56:08 2016 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Fri, 22 Jan 2016 09:56:08 -0600 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, DEL., GA., FLA., ALA., CALIF. Message-ID: Jan. 22 TEXAS: Talking with Ivan, I found a flame of life on death row I was finally about to meet the man I had been writing letters to for 11 years. Separated by glass, and unable to hug or shake hands, we would have to use phone receivers to talk to each other. To my right and left, others were doing the same, a line of tete-a-tetes happening in unison, separated by booth dividers. My friend Ivan Cantu is on death row in Texas. I had left my harried life as a working mother in Washington, D.C., for 2 days this August to make the long-overdue trip. I considered it a pilgrimage of sorts. Ivan and I started writing when I was 29 and he was 32. He was 3 years into a death sentence, convicted of killing his cousin and his cousin's fiancee over drug money. I was just married and working in international development. Right from the start, Ivan told me he was wrongfully convicted. Back then, I didn't have an opinion about Ivan's guilt - it didn't matter to me one way or another. But I saw clearly that no one was listening to him. His trial attorney had refused to investigate anything. His appellate attorney never spoke or wrote to him before submitting the habeas corpus appeal. Maybe I could listen to him, I thought. Maybe that was the only thing I could do. The Polunsky Unit where Ivan lives is an oppressive complex of barbed wire and low gray buildings, incongruously situated on a winding farm road one hour north of Houston. I had never been to a prison before and everything about it intimidated me. "Washington, D.C., eh?" one guard said, eyeing my license. "Do y'all have many wildfires there?" "Oh no, we don't. ... Not many," I replied, trying to sound deferential. The invitation to write to someone on death row came through my connection to the Community of Sant'Egidio, a Catholic lay association that -- among many other activities -- supports prisoners and advocates for the abolishment of the death penalty worldwide. Pope Francis' recent words to Congress summarize the inspiration behind the community's work and the first reason why I don't believe in the death penalty (there are many). "Every life is sacred," the pope said. "Every human person is endowed with an inalienable dignity, and society can only benefit from the rehabilitation of those convicted of crimes." (source: Dani Clark, National Catholic Reporter) DELAWARE: Death penalty repeal bill headed to House vote A death penalty repeal bill that had been languishing in a House committee is headed to a vote by the full House next week after the committee chairman agreed to release it. Judiciary Committee members voted 6-to-5 last May not to send the bill to the full House after it narrowly cleared the Senate on an 11-to-9 vote. But House Judiciary Committee chairman Rep. John Mitchell, D-Elsmere, who opposes repeal, said Thursday that he withdrew his "no" vote and signed the measure out of committee with an "unfavorable" endorsement, allowing the bill to move forward to a House vote next Thursday. "After some long and serious consideration ... this was a tough decision for me," said Mitchell, a retired police officer who also has family members in law enforcement. Mitchell said he remains opposed to the bill but thought that House members should have an opportunity to vote on it. "I have a responsibility to members of my caucus to give them the opportunity to speak ... what happens will happen," he said. Rep. Sean Lynn, a Dover Democrat and chief House sponsor of the legislation, said he believes it has enough support to pass the House. "I'm sure it will be a close vote," said Lynn, who had previously threatened to try to bypass the committee process to bring the bill to a floor vote. Lynn expressed gratitude to Mitchell for his change of heart. "It's fairly magnanimous, and an act of leadership," Lynn said. Democratic Gov. Jack Markell has said he would sign the measure if it reaches his desk. The bill would abolish capital punishment for 1st-degree murder, although it would not apply to inmates now on death row. The bill has drawn renewed attention in Delaware after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling earlier this month that declared Florida's death penalty statute unconstitutional. The court said Florida's death penalty system was flawed because juries play only an advisory role in recommending life or death, allowing the judge to reach a different decision. Florida's system is similar to that used in Delaware, prompting concerns within the legal community that Delaware's system also could be declared unconstitutional. Citing the Supreme Court's ruling, a federal judge in Wilmington who is presiding over a death penalty appeal case ordered attorneys Thursday to file a status report by Monday indicating what impact, if any, the decision has on the case. On the state level, the same question is being certified to the Delaware Supreme Court for its opinion. (source: Associated Press) GEORGIA: Death-row inmate says state should get new source for execution drug "It is not with malice or glee that (state officials) are forced to conceal information. It is with forced resignation from the knowledge that those opposed to the death penalty will stop at no measure to thwart this constitutional means of punishment." Lawyers for a condemned killer are seeking to force the state to find a new source for its lethal-injection drugs, contending the compounding pharmacy being used now produces drugs that pose too great a risk of causing needless suffering during executions. Their court motion was recently filed on behalf of Brandon Astor Jones, 72, who is scheduled to be executed Feb. 2. As expected, Senior U.S. District Judge Charles Pannell dismissed the case on Thursday. Jones' lawyers had told Pannell their motion was foreclosed by recent precedents set by the federal appeals court in Atlanta, but they wanted the entire court to take a fresh look at the issue. Jones, the oldest inmate on Georgia's death row, is under death sentence for the 1979 robbery and murder of Roger Dennis Tackett, 30, a high school teacher working a 2nd job as manager of a convenience store in Cobb County. Jones's codefendant in the murder was executed 30 years ago. In a recent court filing, state attorneys said the last 7 executions carried out by the state used a compounded lethal-injection drug - pentobarbital - and all 7 inmates were calm, fell asleep and remained still until they were put to death. State attorneys also attached "execution timelines" compiled by officials who observed the most recent executions. The person observing Brian Keith Terrell's execution on Dec. 9, for example, wrote that Terrell was "still and quiet" at 12:32 a.m. when receiving an injection from a 2nd syringe. At 12:37, Terrell "appears to be asleep" and 3 minutes later was still, the observer wrote. At 12:52 a.m., after doctors checked for signs of life, the warden announced Terrell's execution had been carried out. But Jones' lawyers note that 2 prior executions were put on hold last year after batches of pentobarbital that were to be used in those lethal injections were found to be cloudy. This translates into an unacceptable error rate of about 20 percent, the motion said. Cloudiness poses a threat because the "injection of a precipitated solution would be akin to having small pieces of broken glass projected into your blood vessels," Jones' lawyers said. To avoid such a risk, the state should obtain its drugs from another source. The request by Jones' legal team is an unusual tactic. In 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court set an important precedent when upholding Kentucky's method of execution. To prevail when challenging an execution protocol, inmates must not only show that lethal injection poses a demonstrated risk of severe pain, the high court said; they also must show the risk is substantial when compared to other, reasonably available alternative methods. Jones' lawyers are saying that a better alternative is not another method of execution, just another source of pentobarbital. The lawyers are also asking that Georgia's lethal-injection secrecy law be declared unconstitutional. The law shields from public view many facets of the execution process, such as the identities of the compounding pharmacist, the prescribing physician and those who carry out the lethal injections. The law enables the state to carry out executions "with no scrutiny of any kind, save for their superficial and outcome-determinative self-investigation," the filing said. "In short, (the state carries out its) gravest duty with impunity and no accountability whatsoever." State attorneys responded by saying the secrecy law has been a success because the state's source of pentobarbital has been protected from the "rabid manipulations of death penalty opponents" during the past 7 executions. "It is not with malice or glee that (state officials) are forced to conceal information," the filing said. "It is with forced resignation from the knowledge that those opposed to the death penalty will stop at no measure to thwart this constitutional means of punishment." As for the cloudy drugs detected last March, that problem "has now clearly been solved," the state's motion said. It added there is no evidence that inmates Terrell, Kelly Gissendaner and Marcus Johnson suffered any pain when they were injected with compounded pentobarbital during the final 4 months of 2015. Jones' lawyers have noted that prior rulings by 3-judge panels on the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta sparked concern from 3 judges on the court. Writing either dissents or separate opinions, these judges questioned the legality of Georgia's secrecy law. The 11th Circuit currently has 11 judges, meaning 6 of its members must agree for the full court to hear Jones' appeal. (source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution) FLORIDA: Prosecutors oppose delay in executing Jacksonville white supremacist Prosecutors with the offices of State Attorney Angela Corey and Attorney General Pam Bondi are opposing any delay in the St. Patrick's Day execution of Jacksonville white supremacist Mark Asay. Asay attorney Martin McClain has argued that he cannot properly defend Asay because the Florida Supreme Court hasn't given him enough time to review the case. McClain was appointed Asay's lawyer Jan. 13 and is supposed to have his argument on why the 51-year-old shouldn't be executed filed by Jan. 27. In his motion to the Supreme Court for more time, McClain said many of the files in the case had to be destroyed after they were stored in an insect-infected shed by one of Asay's previous lawyers. But in a motion opposing a delay, Assistant Attorney General Charmaine Millsaps said McClain has been provided all the relevant files, and those that were destroyed are irrelevant. "Counsel ignores that he would be in much the same position if none of the files had been lost," Millsaps said in court filings. "In either case, he would be faced with reading thousands of pages of records regardless of the source." McClain knew he was unfamiliar with Asay's case when he agreed to take it on, Millsaps said. Gov. Rick Scott signed Asay's death warrant Jan. 9. When a death warrant is signed, a defendant gets one last expedited appeal before a trial court judge and if that judge rejects the appeal, the Florida Supreme Court reviews it. The Supreme Court told Jacksonville Circuit Judge Tatiana Salvador to review the case and have a ruling by Feb. 3. The Supreme Court will then review Salvador's ruling and hear oral arguments March 2. Asay is scheduled to die March 17. During a Thursday morning status hearing, Salvador said when Scott signed the death warrant she had her aide call around trying to find anyone to represent Asay and no local lawyers were willing to take the case. McClain, a Fort Lauderdale attorney who's handled multiple death penalty cases, agreed to take it on. He has requested the Supreme Court move the Feb. 3 deadline for Salvador to issue a ruling. Proceeding with the case "would be a violation of due process, equal protection and fundamental fairness," McClain said in his court filing. Moving the Feb. 3 deadline also would likely delay oral arguments to the Supreme Court and Asay's date of execution. Salvador cannot grant a delay to the deadline; only the Supreme Court can do that. A DECADE LOST In his motion, McClain said Asay hasn't had a lawyer representing him in state court in a decade. Jacksonville attorney Thomas Fallis was representing him in federal court, but withdrew from the case. Asay's arguments for a new trial have been rejected by judges in the Jacksonville-based 4th Judicial Circuit, the Florida Supreme Court and U.S. District Court. According to court filings, Asay still had a right to appeal his conviction to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta, but instructed Fallis not to bother. The Supreme Court will likely decide whether to delay the case early next week. Asay was convicted and sentenced to death for the murders of Robert Lee Booker and Robert McDowell in 1987. Both victims were black and McDowell was a cross-dressing prostitute. Asay was drinking with friends, and they decided to look for prostitutes after the bar closed. One of Asay's friends was asking Booker about where to find prostitutes when Asay called him a racial epithet and shot him in the stomach. Booker ran off and was later found dead. Asay and a friend continued looking for prostitutes and agreed to pay McDowell, who was dressed as a woman, for oral sex. But Asay then shot McDowell 6 times. If Asay is executed, he will be the 1st inmate put to death from Jacksonville since Allen Lee "Tiny" Davis in July 1999. Davis was the last person to be executed in Florida by the electric chair. The state switched to lethal injection in 2000. (source: Florida Times-Union) ALABAMA: What it's like to watch a man die Arthur James Julius seemed to welcome death. Many said it was too good for him. Too quick. Too easy. This was a guy who -- while free from prison on 8-hour leave - raped and killed his own cousin. What I recall most is his hands, the double thumbs up he gave those who gathered at Holman Prison in Atmore in 1989 to witness his death. Thumbs up, like some injured athlete signaling his A-OK as he was carted off the field. Or the earth. They strapped his hands down on Alabama's old "Yellow Mama" electric chair. He gave a statement, forgiving the warden who had to kill him, and professing his faith in a God that would not torment him. Julius offered a little smile, as if in farewell. And witnesses gathered in a little observation room adjoining the execution chamber said nothing. Nothing. We walked quietly away. To write our stories. To tell the world that Julius was dead. The sentence had been carried out, and Julius was officially the seventh person killed by Alabama since the re-instatement of the death penalty. It was sterile. It was clinical. It was over. That was 27 years ago, after a U.S. Supreme Court ban on executions had ended, when the state rushed to make up for lost time. Alabama executed 4 people in 1989, and 9 between 1986 and 1992. I saw a handful of them. I saw more than I wanted to see. Then again, I saw what I needed to see. I don't even remember all their names. I remember Horace Franklin Dunkins. He died in that chair 4 months before Julius. It would be almost impossible to turn Dunkins into a sympathetic character. He raped and killed a young mother from Warrior, a woman tied to a tree and stabbed 67 times. But Alabama did it. It strapped Dunkins - with his IQ of 69 - down and zapped him with what was supposed to be enough voltage to kill a man, and it didn't work. A guard scrambled over to pull the blinds down in the observation window. Another muttered how they'd put the jacks on wrong. Beside me in that quiet chamber Dunkins' father said, over and over, "they're torturing him." They hit him again and he died about 20 minutes after the 1st jolt. I don't want to make it too dramatic. It was not gruesome. The 1st electricity rendered him unresponsive, and I believe he felt no pain. I felt for his father, but in truth I felt little else. It was the same every time I witnessed an execution. I wanted to feel more. I expected to feel more. I felt bad, quite simply, because I did not feel bad. I was constantly overwhelmed by the ... nothingness. I was neither judge nor jury. Just a witness. And he was convicted of ghastly crimes. Who am I to say he did not deserve a similar death? But of late I have begun to feel. Not for Dunkins, or Julius, but for all of us. For one other thing sticks with me about that botched execution. It is the anguish of the prison official who stood shaking after it was done. "I regret very very much what happened,'' Alabama Prison Commissioner Morris Thigpen said then. "It was human error." That makes me feel. Because if human error can screw up the killing of a man, it can screw up justice, too. Alabama knows human error. Alabama has sentenced innocents to death. Alabama is the only state left in which judges can ignore juries and send people to die. At least one in five Alabama death row inmates are there because a judge overrode a jury. Don't misunderstand. This is not to say it is wrong for the state to kill people,. It's not to say it is right. I don't know. Decide for yourself. But I do know we can't be satisfied to feel nothing. And we can never go too far to be sure. Sure that we have the right men or women. Sure that we stand for justice, and not simply vengeance. Vengeance is too easy. Justice is hard. We have to be right and must be righteous. So we never look back at a human death and apologize. For human error. (source: John Archibald, al.com) CALIFORNIA: Death Penalty Possible in Marina Del Rey's Teen Murder----Cameron Anthony Frazier, 21, was ordered to be held without bail while awaiting arraignment Feb. 3. for the shooting death of a Texas teen. A San Diego man was charged Wednesday with capital murder for allegedly gunning down a teenage girl in the parking lot of a Marina del Rey shopping center in what may have been a botched robbery involving marijuana. Cameron Anthony Frazier, 21, was ordered to be held without bail while awaiting arraignment Feb. 3 at the Airport Branch Courthouse in Los Angeles in connection with the Jan. 6 death of 17-year-old Kristine Carman. The murder charge includes the special circumstance allegation of murder during the commission of a robbery, along with an allegation that Frazier personally and intentionally discharged a handgun. Prosecutors have yet to decide whether to seek the death penalty against Frazier, who was arrested Monday by members of the FBI Fugitive Task Force outside his residence in Vista. Along with the murder count, Frazier is charged with 2 counts of attempted 2nd-degree robbery involving 2 other alleged victims. The victim lived in Houston, Texas, and was visiting relatives in the Southland at the time of the shooting, according to authorities. The teen was shot to death during a robbery attempt while she sat in an SUV with 2 other people at the Villa Marina Marketplace mall, according to Deputy District Attorney Keri Modder. Following the shooting, the person behind the wheel drove across the parking lot, stopping in a parking space outside a Panda Express, where the girl was ultimately found dead. The suspect fled the location in a dark-colored SUV, possibly heading toward the Marina (90) Freeway, police said. Lacey Carman of Marina del Rey wrote on Facebook that Kristine was her sister. She said she was the one driving the vehicle her sister was in, and that "my sister was just murdered in front of me in a robbery gone wrong." Her sibling, she wrote, was "beautiful smart and undeserving" of the fate that befell her. "I pray that God is real and holding my sisters hand right now. I pray that you never have to feel this pain or this self loathing," she said. Police have repeatedly declined to comment on a CBS2 report that the shooting may have been prompted by an alleged attempt by Lacey Carman's boyfriend to sell 2 pounds of marijuana. (source: patch.com) **************** Critics question California's single-drug execution plan The state's plan for single-drug executions in California would give prison officials a choice among 4 lethal chemicals. But 2 of them are no longer available from the manufacturers, and the other 2 have never been used for executions. The proposal by the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation "is not based on sound research and amounts to experimentation" on human beings, said Megan McCracken, an attorney with the Death Penalty Clinic at UC Berkeley Law School. Lawyers from the clinic and the American Civil Liberties Union said the department has failed to disclose where the drugs would come from or how they would be tested. But the department says the drugs can be produced by its own pharmacies, or by private pharmacies if necessary. And a leader in the campaign to resume executions in California said Thursday the source of the chemicals is irrelevant. "If it can be confirmed that a drug is what it's supposed to be, that the substance in the bottle is of a given concentration and no impurities, it doesn't matter where it came from," said Kent Scheidegger, legal director of the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation. Scheidegger's organization filed a lawsuit on behalf of families of murder victims that the state settled in June by agreeing to switch from 3-drug executions, which it has used since 1996, to a lethal dose of a single sedative, the method now employed by many states. The change is intended to satisfy concerns raised by a federal judge, who halted executions at San Quentin State Prison in 2006 after finding that flaws in injection procedures and staff training raised an unacceptable risk of a botched and agonizing execution. Members of the public, who have already submitted thousands of written comments on the one-drug proposal, will have a chance to speak out Friday in Sacramento at the only public hearing scheduled on the issue. After another month of written comments, prison officials will have until November to respond to the public and submit a final proposal to a state legal office for review. But the plan's future could be determined at the ballot box before it has a chance to take effect. An initiative being circulated for the November election would repeal the death penalty and replace it with life imprisonment without parole. A competing initiative would seek to speed up executions by imposing new deadlines on courts and lawyers, and would also eliminate the need for administrative review, or public comment, on the single-drug proposal. In the meantime, execution drugs are in short supply nationwide, and opponents of the California proposal are questioning the availability and reliability of the 4 proposed lethal sedatives. 1 of the drugs, thiopental, which has been used in the state's 3-drug executions, is no longer manufactured commercially. A 2nd drug, pentobarbital, is produced by a single U.S. manufacturer that has prohibited the use of its product in executions. The other 2 drugs, amobarbital and secobarbital, have not been used in executions. Amobarbital is manufactured as a powder and is the active ingredient in the barbiturate amytal sodium. Secobarbital is sold in pill form as the prescription drug Seconal. The corrections department's proposal says the department has pharmacies that can produce the drugs in lethal doses, and if problems arise, it can obtain the drugs from private "compounding pharmacies" that would prepare them to order. Texas, Missouri and Georgia have carried out recent executions with pentobarbital from compounding pharmacies. But Jennifer Moreno, an attorney at the UC Berkeley Death Penalty Clinic, said those pharmacies are lightly regulated and have produced some contaminated drugs, like the one responsible for an outbreak of meningitis in Massachusetts in 2012. State prison officials haven't specified "how they will choose the pharmacy, what guidelines the pharmacy will use, what testing will be done, if any," Moreno said. "They haven't given any information about doses, concentration" and other critical details, she said. Department spokeswoman Terry Thornton said details of the proposal are available on the department's website, www.cdcr.ca.gov. Scheidegger, of the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation, said he wasn't concerned about the fine points. "I doubt that the level of regulation has much to do with the reliability," he said. The type of contamination that led to the meningitis outbreak "is irrelevant if the drug was intended to cause death." "If medical knowledge about a drug tells us that it produces anesthesia and in a higher dose causes death, that's really all we need to know," Scheidegger said. (source: San Francisco Chronicle) From rhalperi at smu.edu Fri Jan 22 09:57:42 2016 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Fri, 22 Jan 2016 09:57:42 -0600 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----USA Message-ID: Jan. 22 USA: Breyer renews call to review constitutionality of death penalty Justice Stephen G. Breyer has used an Alabama capital case to renew his call to examine the constitutionality of the death penalty. The U.S. Supreme Court refused to grant a stay of execution for the inmate, Chistopher Eugene Brooks, drawing a dissent (PDF) from Breyer, report BuzzFeed News, the Montgomery Advertiser and Al.com. Brooks was executed Thursday evening. Breyer said Alabama allows jurors to issue an "advisory verdict" in death penalty cases using a system that is much like the death penalty scheme struck down on Jan. 12 in Hurst v. Florida. "The unfairness inherent in treating this case differently from others which used similarly unconstitutional procedures only underscores the need to reconsider the validity of capital punishment under the Eighth Amendment," Breyer wrote. In a concurrence to the cert denial, Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg also pointed to possible problems with Alabama's capital sentencing scheme, but said they believed procedural obstacles would have prevented the court from granting relief. Breyer dissented a day before the U.S. Supreme Court was scheduled to consider a cert petition raising the Eighth Amendment issue in the case of Shonda Walter, BuzzFeed News reports. "The death penalty has outlived any conceivable use," Walter's cert petition asserts. "It is imperfect in application, haphazard in result, and of negligible utility." If the court is considering taking up the case, it probably won't act before its next conference on Feb. 19, BuzzFeed reports. At that time, a Louisiana case also raising the constitutional issue will likely be before the court. (source: ABA Journal) *************** Capital Punishment -- Justice or State Sanctioned Murder? State sanctioned execution of convicted criminals is a hotly-debated, life-and-death social issue and the subject of capital punishment pushes more emotional buttons than practical ones. There's a host of heated arguments to back up each camp's position. The Pros put forward justice, retribution, deterrence, cost-saving, and closure to victims as reasons to carry out the death penalty. The Cons defer to moral, religious, legal, unfair application, and danger of mistake as grounds not to kill condemned prisoners. So who's right? Both, if you listen to the emotional pleas. But set aside all the teeth-gnashing and hair-tearing and look at the practical benefits of having death penalty legislation. It goes without saying that punishment must fit the crime and execution must be reserved for the most despicable of criminals such as child-rapists, serial-killers, and mass-murderers. Some jurisdictions retain the right to execute lesser felons like mutineers, traitors, and spies, however it's sensible that only exceptionally dangerous people, for whom there's no chance of rehabilitation, or that their crimes are so horrific that there's no other just punishment, be executed. Serial killer Theodore (Ted) Bundy is a prime example as well as Timothy McVeigh who carried out the Oklahoma City bombing. I'm a supporter of capital punishment under the proper circumstances and I believe there are only 2 unshakable reasons for the state having and enforcing the power to execute a condemned prisoner. First, it's an indisputable fact that execution guarantees that person will never re-offend. Yes, the counter argument suggests that locking an inmate up for life with no possibility of parole achieves the same end, but it's not the same thing. There are cases where a dangerous criminal has escaped or found a legal means to roam free and kill again, but once a killer is dead -- that's the end of their threat to society. Period. There's a 2nd practical application of death penalty legislation that few people in the general public think about, but which police officers and prosecutors know to be valid. Capital punishment is an effective, persuasive tool in forcing caught killers to co-operate with authorities. Plea-bargains are done with accused murderers where the death penalty is waived in exchange for information. This leads to solving other homicides, recovering bodies, giving closure to victimized families, and studying the minds of these monsters in order to understand and prevent future miscreants. This "save-my-own-life" deal with Seattle's Green River Killer, Gary Ridgway, paid off big. There'll never be unanimous support for and against capital punishment, let alone on the method of how it should be carried out. Capital punishment arguments include these views: Moral. Practical. Economic. Vengeance. Justice. Retribution. Deterrence. Cost-saving. Closure. Moral, Religious. Legal. Unfair application. Danger of mistake. Capital punishment methods include these means: Lethal injection. Firing squad. Noose. Gas chamber. Electric chair. Beheading. Stoning. Burning at the stake. What are your thoughts? Is capital punishment deserved justice? Or is it state-sanctioned murder? And is there a humane method in carrying it out? I'm dying to hear your words. (source: Garry Rodgers is a retired homicide detective and forensic coroner, now bestselling crime writer----Huffington Post) ******************* Number of executions in US each year exceeded only by Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Iran and China Like it or not, we are judged by the company we keep. We would be better off joining the ranks of the countries that have abolished the death penalty, rather than tacitly endorsing the practices of countries like Saudi Arabia. Like it or not, we are judged by the company we keep. We would be better off joining the ranks of the countries that have abolished the death penalty, rather than tacitly endorsing the practices of countries like Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia's mass execution of Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr and 46 others has sparked tumult in the Middle East and underscored the brutality of the Saudi government. Al-Nimr was convicted of political crimes in a rigged trial by a corrupt judiciary, as were some of the others, who reportedly included juveniles and people with mental disabilities. Mass executions are something of a habit in Saudi Arabia; while this one was the worst in 35 years, they aren't uncommon. Nor are the arguments about Western complicity: While professing outrage, Canada[s new prime minister, Justin Trudeau, a progressive on most issues, stated his continuing commitment to a $15 billion arms deal with the desert kingdom despite the killings. The United States is also standing by its commitments: In 2015 alone, the United States agreed to sell Saudi Arabia $46 billion worth of military hardware. That Saudi Arabia, our closest Arab ally, is one of the world's worst human rights offenders (it still sometimes executes women by stoning for "moral" violations of Sharia law) seems to be of little consequence to the U.S. government. However, Saudi Arabia is just one of the world's worst perpetrators of capital punishment. Shockingly, the United States is another. In that context, our complicity isn't all that surprising. In 2015, 2,984 convicts sat on death row in the United States, a staggering figure. The number of executions in the United States each year is exceeded only by Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Iran and China. Clearly, we're not keeping very good company, and Amnesty International has blasted us for the discriminatory and disproportionate way we condemn people. All of the Western democracies, including Canada but excluding the United States, have abolished the death penalty; all together, more than 150 countries no longer use it. The death penalty as applied in the United States defies constitutional and judicial guarantees of equal justice under the law. An Atlantic article in 2014 reported on the landmark research of University of Iowa Professor David Baldus, who, with associates, studied 2,000 homicides in Georgia in the 1970s and 1980s and found vast racial disparities in sentencing. Baldus also researched 677 homicides in Philadelphia and determined that blacks were condemned 4 times more than whites for similar crimes. Baldus' work, which also debunked the myth that blacks were condemned more than whites because they commit more crimes, was cited by the late Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun in finding that "both fairness and rationality cannot be achieved (by) the death penalty." The death penalty is also geographically biased. All together, 1,157 people have been executed in the South since the death penalty was reinstated, compared with 177 in the Midwest, 85 in the West and only 4 in the populous Northeast. Sometimes the bias is local: In California, someone convicted of murdering a white person in a rural area is 3 times more likely to be sentenced to death than someone who commits the same crime in a city, according to researchers Glenn L. Pierce and Michael Radelet in the Santa Clara Law Review. The Guardian reported in 2012 that Harris County, Texas, led the nation in executions, accounting for more than 1/3 of Texas' 305 death row inmates and 1/2 of its 121 black death row prisoners. There's also the matter of wrongful conviction. Florida, which has been racing ahead with executions under Gov. Rick Scott, a "tough on crime" tea party favorite, has had 26 exonerations, the most of any state. Like Saudi Arabia, the U.S. executes the mentally ill and disabled, despite laws against it, according to a report by the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice at Harvard University. It found recently that more than 2/3 of those executed in the United States in 2015 suffered from severe mental disabilities. Several, it said, suffered from "multiple mental impairments." We should also consider cost. The death penalty has cost cash-strapped California $4 billion since 1978, according to a study by Judge Arthur Alarcon of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court and associate Paula Mitchell. Finally, the death penalty has no deterrent value. The FBI Uniform Crime Report for 2014 showed that the South had the country's most murders despite having more than 80 % of its executions. 88% of criminologists believe it is not a deterrent, according to the Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology. And police chiefs surveyed in 2009 by the nonpartisan Death Penalty Information Center rated the death penalty the least effective way both to reduce violent crime and spend taxpayer dollars. Like it or not, we are judged by the company we keep. We would be better off joining the ranks of the countries that have abolished the death penalty, rather than tacitly endorsing the practices of countries like Saudi Arabia and continuing down our own dubious path. (source: Martin W.G. King is the former senior writer at the National Crime Prevention Council in Washington, D.C.----Deseret News) ************************ Supreme Court Justice Again Urges: It's Time To Reconsider The Death Penalty----On the eve of a private conference in which the Supreme Court is due to consider hearing a case challenging the constitutionality of the death penalty, one justice made a point to remind his colleagues of the "need" to address the issue. Justice Stephen Breyer reiterated his call for the Supreme Court to reconsider the constitutionality of the death penalty on Thursday night, just hours before the justices are due to consider hearing a case that could do just that. The comments came in response to Christopher Brooks's request to the justices that they halt his pending execution in Alabama. The court denied the request, but Breyer objected - noting in a short, 2-paragraph statement that he would have granted the request. Breyer went further, though, stating that the treatment of Brooks's case "underscores the need to reconsider the validity of capital punishment under the Eighth Amendment." This past June, Breyer dissented from the court's decision in Glossip v. Gross upholding Oklahoma's use of the sedative midazolam in executions. He joined a dissenting opinion by Justice Sonia Sotomayor that detailed why the 4 more liberal justices believe Oklahoma's use of midazolam was unconstitutional. Breyer went further though, writing a 2nd dissenting opinion - in which he was joined by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. "But rather than try to patch up the death penalty's legal wounds one at a time," he wrote, "I would ask for full briefing on a more basic question: whether the death penalty violates the Constitution." He then spent 40 pages explaining why the court should do so, concluding, "I believe it highly likely that the death penalty violates the Eighth Amendment." Since that time, some advocates have taken the dissent as a sign that the time is now to get a case before the justices that would allow them to take such a step. Others, most recently the Brennan Center's Andrew Cohen, call a belief that the death penalty could be nearing its end "implausible." Breyer had not written further about his call in any of the death penalty cases the court has had before it since then - even in cases where his call was specifically referenced. Thirteen executions had been carried out between the court's opinion in Glossip and Thursday morning. Breyer chose Brooks's case - in which Sotomayor and Ginsburg noted that, despite questions about Alabama's death sentencing scheme, "procedural obstacles" ultimately would have kept the court from overturning his death sentence - as the moment to raise the issue again. He referenced those procedurals obstacles - noting that he had opposed the court's decision putting those obstacles in place in the first place - but then returned to his Glossip dissent. Although he did not explain why he chose now, and not any of the prior 13 executions, to raise the issue, Thursday's statement came as the justices are due to consider Shonda Walter's request out of Pennsylvania that the court reconsider the validity of capital punishment under the Eighth Amendment. The justices initially were scheduled to consider Walter's petition on Jan. 15 at their private conference, but, with no explanation given, the case was rescheduled to be considered at another time. On Tuesday, it was set to be considered at Friday's conference. Walter's case comes to the court on direct appeal after the Pennsylvania Supreme Court upheld her conviction - a distinction from the other, last-minute requests that have raised the question since Breyer's dissent this past June. In presenting her case, her lawyer told the justices: "Shonda Walter is an African American female, and the last woman on Pennsylvania's death row. Her case exemplifies what is wrong with the death penalty." The petition goes on to detail issues raised in her case, from the legal counsel she had at trial to her treatment in prison to the progress of her appeals to claims of arbitrariness and racial discrimination throughout the process. "The death penalty has outlived any conceivable use," Walter's lawyer, Daniel Silverman, writes in the petition. "It is imperfect in application, haphazard in result, and of negligible utility." Although it is possible that word of the outcome of the justices' consideration of Walter's petition could come on Friday, that is unlikely - unless there is a concerted effort to expand the court's calendar in order to hear the case this term. More likely, the soonest the outcome of the consideration will be known would be if the justices decline to take up Walter's case, in which the denial of certiorari would be noted in the orders scheduled to be released on Monday, Jan. 25. If, however, the justice are considering taking her case, they are - in accordance with the court's usual, though not exclusive, practice over the past few terms - likely to re-list the case for their next conference before granting certiorari. That itself adds another question to the mix. The justices' next conference is not until Feb. 19 - by which time at least 1 more petition seeking a full reconsideration of the constitutionality of the death penalty, in a case out of Louisiana, is expected to be before the justices. (source: buzzfeed.com) **************** Growing use of neurobiological evidence in criminal trials, new study finds In 2008, in El Cajon, California, 30-year-old John Nicholas Gunther bludgeoned his mother to death with a metal pipe, and then stole $1378 in cash, her credit cards, a DVD/VCR player, and some prescription painkillers. At trial, Gunther admitted to the killing, but argued that his conviction should be reduced to 2nd-degree murder because he had not acted with premeditation. A clinical psychologist and neuropsychologist testified that 2 previous head traumas - 1 the result of an assault, the other from a drug overdose - had damaged his brain's frontal lobes, potentially reducing Gunther's ability to plan the murder, and causing him to act impulsively. The jury didn't buy Gunther's defense, however; based on other evidence, such as the fact that Gunther had previously talked about killing his mother with friends, the court concluded that he was guilty of 1st-degree murder, and gave him a 25-years-to-life prison sentence. Gunther's case represents a growing trend, a new analysis suggests. Between 2005 and 2012, more than 1585 U.S. published judicial opinions describe the use of neurobiological evidence by criminal defendants to shore up their defense, according to a study published last week in the Journal of Law and the Biosciences by legal scholar Nita Farahany of Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, and colleagues. In 2012 alone, for example, more than 250 opinions cited defendants' arguments that their "brains made them do it" - more than double the number of similar claims made in 2007. Conventional legal wisdom holds that neurobiological evidence, such as functional magnetic resonance imaging scans, evaluations of cognitive impairment, or tests for genetic variants that might affect mental function, is primarily used to argue against the use of the death penalty in capital cases, Farahany says. By combing through tens of thousands of published judicial opinions with the help of 17 law students and three undergraduates, using search terms such as "brain disorder," "biological," and "CT scan," however, Farahany's team found that use of such evidence is growing for a wide range of violations including robbery, fraud, and drug possession. But bringing in neuroscientists doesn't necessarily get defendants anywhere. Most judges and juries are not persuaded by neurobiological evidence used to argue that a defendant was not fully responsible for his or her actions, as in Gunther's case, the analysis found. That's partly because of legal standards for insanity - which, in many states, require that a defendant have a "complete lack of understanding" of the difference between right and wrong. Even if a person is mentally ill, that usually results in "some degree, rather than complete impairment of understanding," Farahany and colleagues write. In general, neuroscientific insights about human behavior and decision-making often can't say much about why a particular individual behaved "voluntarily" or with "intention" and is therefore legally guilty, Farahany says. There are, however, some instances in which evidence from neurobiology is proving unexpectedly valuable, Farahany says. Her analysis found that the 2nd most common use of neurobiological evidence in court is to challenge defendants' competency to plead guilty, confess, stand trial, or be sentenced. In 1 such case, Farahany says, the defense established that a man was mentally incompetent to be sentenced after he had already been found guilty of fraud, she says. As a result, "he spent the rest of his life in a nursing home, rather than being sentenced." Overall, the new study suggests that neurobiological evidence has improved the U.S. criminal justice system "through better determinations of competence and considerations about the role of punishment," says Judy Illes, a neuroscientist at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, in Canada. That is not Farahany's interpretation, however. With a few notable exceptions, use of neurobiological evidence in courtrooms "continues to be haphazard, ad hoc, and often ill conceived," she and her colleagues write. Lawyers rarely heed scientists' cautions "that the neurobiological evidence at issue is weak, particularly for making claims about individuals rather than studying between-group differences," they add. "What we are faced with is trying to 'fit' the round peg of neuroscientific techniques and information into the square hole of the law," says James Giordano, a neuroethicist at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. What is needed, Giordano says, is a body of "neuroscience for law" that meets the needs of the courts, "while recognizing the actual capabilities and limitations of current neuroscientific tools." Illes agrees, saying that "better engagement of neuroscientists in the conversation on these matters should not merely be a call; it is an imperative." (source: sciencemag.org) From rhalperi at smu.edu Fri Jan 22 09:58:43 2016 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Fri, 22 Jan 2016 09:58:43 -0600 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide Message-ID: Jan. 22 SAUDI ARABIA: Saudi executions for 2015 set 20-year record Just 24 hours into 2016, Saudi Arabia made world headlines with the execution of a dissident Shi'ite cleric - sparking violent protests in Iran, and a breaking off of diplomatic relations. But this just punctuated a very busy year for the Saudi execution state, with most of the victims receiving little international attention, and many sent to the chopping block for victimless crimes - prominently including drug possession. Saudi Arabia carried out at least 157 executions in 2015, with beheadings reaching their highest level in the kingdom in 20 years, according to a Jan. 1 Associated Press report. Coinciding with the rise in executions is the number of people executed for non-lethal offenses that judges have wide discretion to rule on - particularly for drug-related crimes. Amnesty International found in November that at least 63 people had been executed in Saudi Arabia since the start of the year for drug-related offenses. That figure amounted to at least 40% of the total number of executions in 2015, compared to less than four percent in 2010. Amnesty said Saudi Arabia had exceeded its highest level of executions since 1995, when 192 executions were recorded. Saudi law allows for execution in cases of murder, drug offenses and rape. Though less often carried out, the death penalty also applies to adultery, apostasy and witchcraft. But while most of these charges carry fixed punishments under Saudi Arabia's interpretation of Islamic law, drug-related offenses are considered ta'zir, meaning neither the crime nor the punishment is defined in Islam. This leaves it up to the discretion of jurists. A 2005 Saudi royal decree issued to combat narcotics further codified the right of judges to issue death sentences "as a discretionary penalty" against any individual found guilty of smuggling, receiving or manufacturing drugs. (SMH) There's certainly some irony to the protests in Iran. According to the Norway-based International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, at least 648 people were executed in the Islamic Republic in the first 6 months of 2015 - more than 2/3 for drug offenses. (source: ww4report.com) ZIMBABWE: Death penalty befitting sadistic murderers "If we are to abolish the death penalty, I should like to see the 1st step taken by my friends the murderers," said 19th Century French critic, journalist and novelist Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr. One of the most complex moral issues - death sentence - is on the table again with Harare lawyer Tendai Biti representing 15 death row inmates in a case in which they want the Constitutional Court (ConCourt) to commute their sentences to life imprisonment, citing, among other issues, that capital punishment is not only unconstitutional, but cruel. This week, Biti also won a landmark case in which the ConCourt ruled that - with immediate effect - no child under the age of 18 should enter a valid marriage. Traditional leaders have also come out guns blazing against the death penalty on the grounds that "capital punishment (is) not cultural, but a relic of the colonial era". Yes, culture is not transient - here today, gone tomorrow - but is it that static and unchanging? And are we not using "colonial relics" like Roman-Dutch Law, police, judges and prisons to deal with crime? So, it's not really about "colonial relics", but efficacy, effectiveness, usefulness. Traditional remedies as they were constituted cannot work in the fast-paced, modern-day Zimbabwe. During those long-gone days, communities were small and sparse. Today the demographics have totally changed, communities are much bigger and complex. So new rules and methods have to apply. Said Chief Bepura: "... people compensated the victim's family with cattle and a wife to appease the grieving family." Well, it's unacceptable in this day and age to treat females - and invariably young girls - as commodities in a transaction. The perpetrator himself must be made to solely pay for his crimes, not to throw young girls into the deal as if women are mere objects. Thankfully, the ConCourt did away with this traditional relic when Biti skilfully and incisively argued against the obnoxious forced child marriages. Biti is back in his element: Law, not politics. I digress. The death sentence, if carried out, is irreversible. So are the murders committed by those sentenced to death not reversible - their victims' lives are gone forever. Nothing can bring them back. So, where do we draw the line in the interests of serving justice for both sides? On the one hand, we have abolitionists who are totally against the death sentence under any circumstances, who are of the view that execution is tantamount to legalised murder. No matter how wicked and vicious the crime, no matter how vile and degenerate the criminal, these death penalty opponents are adamant that nobody can ever deserve to die - even if that person burned children alive. Ironically, when it comes to another highly complex moral issue - that of abortion - those totally against the death sentence on the grounds that it is equally murder, are pro-choice. They say it is every woman's right to choose to have an abortion, itself an act of taking away innocent life. But when it comes to murderers, they are pro-life; they say lives that have deliberately taken other innocent lives must not be terminated under any circumstances. I find this illogical, unconscionable and outrageous. There are opportunistic low-lives among us who have no guilt over doing rotten or heinous things to other people. It's all in a day's work for them to hurt the innocent and defenceless. We are talking about people who are guilty as sin. Let's not go too far with this 'rights thing'. After all, the average person is not a murderer. It's the tiniest minority who kill gratuitously. Should we take up any and all causes? Let's not be voguish or politically correct about the death penalty. Yes, it is the ultimate punishment, but then it should be applied for the most hideous crimes. It's not like death row inmates are being executed every day. When people go beyond the pale - that is, throw away all the rules and wilfully and totally disregard all institutions of society that are synonymous with civilisation itself - then they fully deserve the ultimate punishment. If you deliberately choose to be outside of civilisation, then you should have no expectation at all to be treated in a civilised manner. Let's not be like incurable do-gooders who think they are helping society by championing oppressed minority groups' rights, when in fact they are ruining society and endangering the innocent. Let's not be nice about everything. Let's avoid misplaced pity. Do-gooder methods do not always create the positive outcomes intended; the complete, tragic opposite can occur. One such do-gooder in the United States befriended a serving prisoner and accommodated him in his own home after his release. Guess what? The convict went on to rob and kill him. A do-gooder is an earnest, but often naive person (typically educated) who wants reform through philanthropic or egalitarian means - such as prison welfare. Do-gooders always mean well, but may misinterpret opposing preferences - like not supporting a blanket ban of the death penalty - to be "Zanuist", cold, cruel or intolerant. As American Professor Robert Flecker rightly observed, we should guard against the prevailing academic assumptions about the evils of capital punishment. At Harvard Law School, where he won the prize for the best graduating thesis, Blecker was 1 of only 2 students to publicly defend the death penalty. He went on to prosecute corrupt lawyers, police, and judges and saw at close range how the rich and powerful were given breaks denied to poor and powerless offenders. So there is no contradiction in supporting the death penalty for deserving cases and advocating prison reform. The 2 should not be mixed - they are separate. Like criticising the despotic and corrupt Zanu PF regime should not stop us from pointing out the same tendencies in the private sector and elsewhere. Those few among us who go all out to distinguish themselves as most sadistic murderers - the worst of the worst - certainly deserve to be hanged. (source: Conway Nkumbuzo Tutani is a Harare-based columnist----NewsDay) UNITED KINGDOM/ETHIOPIA: UK urged to use Ethiopia summit to free death row Briton The government must use the African Union summit which runs from 21-26 January in Addis Ababa to urge the release of a British man kidnapped to Ethiopia nearly 2 years ago, says the human rights organisation Reprieve. Foreign Office minister James Duddridge is expected to attend the AU's annual summit in the Ethiopian capital. The AU recently named 2016 the 'Year of Human Rights in Africa.' Reprieve has written to Mr Duddridge asking him to use the forum to secure the release of Andargachew 'Andy' Tsege, a British father of 3 and political activist who is held in Ethiopia under sentence of death. Andy has been in incommunicado detention since his illegal kidnap and rendition to the country by Ethiopian forces in June 2014. A prominent critic of Ethiopia's ruling party, Andy Tsege was sentenced to death in absentia in 2009, and since his rendition, Ethiopian authorities have refused to allow him to see a lawyer or his partner and children. Torture is common in Ethiopian prisons, and there are fears that he has suffered mistreatment whilst detained. The UK government has so far refused to ask for Tsege's release (http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/21578), instead limiting itself to calling for regular consular access - which has been denied - and 'due process'. Ahead of last year's African Union summit, Foreign Office officials indicated to Tsege's partner that they planned to raise the case - however, an email later sent to her from a UK official said that the summit had been "unbelievably busy" and that "it wasn't possible to have a bilateral meeting." The summit comes amid concerns for Andy Tsege's mental state in detention. In an expert report published this week, Dr Ben Robinson of the South London and Maudsley NHS Trust concluded that: "Mr Tsege's mental health has declined precipitously since being detained in Ethiopia", and that there is an "urgent need" to remove him from his current conditions. The event also comes amid criticism of the Foreign Office for a recent decision to abandon its anti-death penalty strategy in countries including Ethiopia. Commenting, Maya Foa, director of the death penalty team at Reprieve, said: "The UK government must use this summit to make a concerted push for Andy Tsege's release. It is shocking that no progress has been made since last year's event - when British diplomats were 'too busy' to raise the case. Now that the African Union has made 2016 the 'year of human rights', the Foreign Office must tell Ethiopian officials to honour that pledge and urgently free Andy." (source: ekklesia.co.uk) IRAN: More child offenders executed under Hassan Rouhani The Iranian regime has executed more child offenders in 2014-2015 compared to any time during the past 5 years. Dr Ahmed Shaheed, the United Nations Special Rapportuer on the Situation of Human Rights in Iran, wrote in a piece published on his website on Wednesday: "Iran is 1 of a handful of countries that still executes child offenders, or boys and girls under 18 years of age at the time they commit a crime." "In 2015 human rights groups documented at least three executions of child offenders, with at least 160 others awaiting the same fate on death row." Mr. Shaheed said: "The number of child offenders executed in 2014-15 are actually higher than at any time during the past 5 years," adding "piecemeal" measures are not enough. "Today Iranian judges can, and have, sentenced girls as young as 9 lunar years and boys as young as 15 lunar years to death by hanging, in plain violation one of the most fundamental and sacrosanct rights recognized under international law," he said. On January 12, 2016, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child concluded its review of Iran's 3rd and 4th periodic reports on the implementation of the provisions of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The UN investigator has joined the members of the committee in calling on the Iranian regime to take more drastic and immediate measures to ensure that from this day on no child offenders are executed in Iran, regardless of the nature of their crime. There have been over 2,000 executions in Iran in the 2 years that Hassan Rouhani has been in office, more than in any similar period in the past 25 years. On April 20, 2014, Hassan Rouhani described these executions as "God's commandments" and "laws of the parliament that belongs to the people." (source: NCR-Iran) AUSTRALIA: Victoria's Nomination for 'Australian of the Year' Barrister Julian McMahon tried his best to save the lives of Bali 9 duo Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, becoming Victoria's strong contender for Australian of the Year award. As a critic of death penalty system and a defender of human rights, McMahon tried hard to save the lives of Australians facing death penalty in foreign nations for the past 13 years for free. He acquired his law degree in Melbourne and he decided to become a lawyer when he was in his secondary level of education in Sydney. McMahon told AAP that his interest in law grew when he was a teen as he watched Rumpole of the Bailey. His 1st case against death penalty was of Van Tuong Nguyen in Singapore. He fought the case in 2002 when he was just a "relatively new and raw barrister," having an experience of a mere 4 years. Despite efforts from McMahon, his team and also pleas for clemency by the Aussie government, the victim was executed over drug trafficking charges. Since then, the barrister has handled a number of cases to save Australians staying overseas from death penalty charges. The cases included George Forbes in Sudan who returned to Sydney and the Bali 9 duo cases. In April 2015, the Bali 9 pair was executed in spite of McMahon's severe trials. Since then, he has presented his views and work on death penalty at the Asian Regional Congress in Malaysia and he continues to oppose it throughout the globe. The barrister advocates continuing his trials to ensure the eradication of the death penalty system someday. "I would say that lots of people have difficult or demanding jobs and lives, but what I do is nothing compared to lifetime carers of people suffering serious disabilities," he told AAP. "I just feel embarrassed when people say 'you're so amazing,' when the fact is I'm doing my work the best I can and it's not as hard as what a lot of people have to do." McMahon stated that even if he has received a nomination for such a prestigious award such as Australian of the Year, he will be using it to aid people belonging to the marginalised sector of the society. The Sunshine Coast Daily reported that qualified former nurse, Anne Carey, who helped fight Ebola in Sierra Leone, has also been nominated for the Australian of the Year award. (source: Australian Network News) PHILIPPINES: Death penalty sought for local 'El Chapos,' protectors The local "El Chapos" and their protectors, such as military and police officials, must be sentenced to death, Senate President Pro-Tempore Ralph Recto said Friday. "El Chapo" is the moniker of the dreaded Mexican drug lord Joaquin Guzman, leader of the Sinaloa drug cartel, who was recaptured on January 8 after 6 months on the run following his escape from a Mexican prison. "Death penalty must be imposed for those involved in large-scale drug trafficking, including military and police officials who coddle and conspire with them," Recto said in a statement. The senator made the statement a day after a ranking military official and a former official of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (Pdea) was arrested along with a Chinese national in a drug bust operation. On Thursday, Lieutenant Colonel Ferdinand Marcelino, former director of the Special Enforcement Services of Pdea, was arrested in a raid in a house in Sta. Cruz, Manila. The operation yielded P320 million worth of shabu. Recto said he was against the capital punishment but involvement of military and police in drug trafficking had pushed him to support the restoration of death penalty in the country. "Although I am fundamentally against capital punishment, the impunity by which men in uniform coddle and align themselves with dangerous criminals they are supposed to stop, has led me to be open to the restoration of death penalty if attended by aggravating circumstances like the one I cited above," he said. Recto expressed alarm over the proliferation of illegal drug trade in the country, saying "wholesale drug operation does wholesale damage." He thus said those responsible for manufacturing and sale of illegal drugs, which he dubbed as "weapon of mass destruction," deserved a punishment "greater than a cushy taxpayer-paid stay in a Bilibid cell with spa and air conditioning." "A sack of shabu victimizes not just one person but many. There are millions of granules in a sack, and each can potentially fuel another crime by a user who steals money or snatches a phone to feed his habit, to cases of domestic violence," the senator said. "If the retail trade of shabu is booming, it is because the source is left untouched. The best way to stop water from flowing is not to close each and every faucet, but to shut down the main," he added. Meanwhile, Senator Grace Poe, chair of Senate committee on public order and dangerous drugs, has called on the Pdea to investigate the possible involvement of a ranking military officer in the illegal trade. "I urge the police and the government prosecutors to investigate the matter thoroughly and with full transparency to get to the bottom of this. This should send a strong message that no one is above the law," Poe said in a statement on Thursday afternoon. "I also urged the AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) to look into the matter seriously to ensure that no one from its ranks is involved this illegal trade," she added. (source: Sun Star) INDIA: Lifer not punishment enough: Jamanthi ---- Victim's close relatives upset Nisham has been spared death penalty. For an immensely rich and influential person like the convict Mohammed Nisham, the life in prison will not be a punishment, according to Jamanthi, wife of Chandrabose, the slain office assistant of Sobha City. "For us the sentence was not on the expected lines and we are not satisfied with his getting life term," she said reacting to the court order. The close relatives of the victim were upset over the court not awarding death sentence to Nisham. "For the gruesome way in which he murdered my son, he deserves the noose and we are concerned about his getting a VIP treatment throughout his term in the prison and his coming out on parole using his influence," said Ambujakshi, mother of Chandrabose. The family members, however, said that the prosecution team led by C.P. Udayabhanu along with lawyers C.S. Hrithwik, T.S. Rajan and K.A. Salil Narayanan along with their assistant C.R. Johnson had tried their best to send Nisham to the gallows. Kunnamkulam MLA Babu M. Palissery who was present at the court said that the compensation awarded to the family was meagre considering the Rs 5,000 -crore assets of the convicted beedi tycoon. "It is even less than the cost of tyres of the Hummer car that Nisham used to hit Chandrabose," he said. Special Public Prosecutor in the case C.P. Udayabhanu said that it was up to the state government to move the High Court seeking death penalty for Nisham. Meanwhile, former deputy director of prosecution, M. Mohammed, who was a part of the defence team of lawyers, was heard telling the close relatives of Nisham that even though life imprisonment means spending one's whole life in prison, most such convicts were released by the government after 14 years through special orders. "If a person is given life imprisonment, there is no point in the claims of prosecution lawyers that first the convict will serve 24 years' rigorous imprisonment for related crimes and then the lifer for murder," he said. (source: Deccan Chronicle) ****************** Compassion on death row cases Death row convict Mohammed Arif alias Ashfaq, a Pakistani national found guilty of conspiring to organise the attack on the Red Fort complex in Delhi in 2000, in which 2 Army soldiers and a sentry were killed, has been given 1 more opportunity of an oral hearing. His lawyers have been allowed by the Supreme Court to file a fresh petition seeking a review of the death sentence confirmed by the court in August 2011 so that the matter can be heard once again in open court. The court has once again demonstrated its inexhaustible capacity to deal with death penalty cases in a spirit of compassion. A September 2014 Constitution Bench judgment ruling that a 30-minute oral hearing in open court for every review petition involving the penalty is a constitutional requirement was not applicable to Ashfaq, one of the petitioners before it. This was because the limited oral hearing in death row cases was just an exception to the general rule that review petitions be decided by circulation of the papers among judges. The exception was limited to those cases in which both a review petition and a subsequent curative plea had already been rejected. In Ashfaq's case, the court declined to review his sentence in August 2012 and the curative petition was rejected in January 2014. Chief Justice T.S. Thakur has, however, decided that he deserves a concession in order that even the slightest possibility of error may be eliminated, for he was the sole convict who did not get the benefit of the earlier verdict. After upholding Ashfaq's death sentence and declining to review it, obviously because there was no apparent error, is it not mere moral tokenism to afford him another oral hearing? Howsoever one may answer this question, it cannot be disputed that the Supreme Court has been dealing with cases culminating in the death penalty in a liberal spirit in recent years. It has delivered a series of judgments widening the scope of the clemency jurisdiction. Even when constrained by an earlier judgment by another five-member Constitution Bench allowing the disposal of review petitions without an oral hearing, the Bench, in 2014, carved out an exception for death row cases alone by making oral hearing an integral part of 'reasonable procedure'. By extending the benefit to Ashaq, a Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist found guilty of plotting and facilitating an audacious attack , the court is enhancing the value of due process. Some critics may question the wisdom of being magnanimous towards such offenders and not taking a stern stand against all forms of terrorism. This apparent conflict between the thirst for condign punishment and the twinge of conscience about sending one to the gallows will persist as long as the death penalty remains on the statute book. Until it is well and truly abolished, it is only the court that can humanise the law and procedure relating to death and mercy. (source: Editorial, The Hindu) PAKISTAN: Death sentences : LHC admits petitions against 3 military court verdicts The Lahore High Court Rawalpindi bench on Thursday admitted petitions filed by 3 persons against death sentences handed down by military courts. Justice Abdul Sami Khan admitted the petitions filed by Javaid Iqbal Ghuari, Kalsoom Bibi, and Said Zaman after their lawyer Advocate Colonel (retired) Inam-ur-Rahim maintained before the court that due course of law was not followed when they were tried in military courts. The office of the LHC registrar had raised an objection against the petitions, saying that writ petitions could not be filed in the high court against military court verdicts. After hearing the arguments of Advocate Rahim, however, Justice Khan admitted the petitions and set January 25 for the next hearing. According to available information, Javiad Iqbal Ghauri, a former employee of the Federal Ministry of Information, informed the court that his son Muhammad Ghauri was a student in Islamabad. He said his son went missing a few years ago and he had no clue of his whereabouts. Ghauri said that in 2014, he was informed that his son was in the custody of intelligence agencies. He said that he was also informed that a military court had tried, convicted, and sentenced his son to death. The petitioner said that a meeting was arranged with his son 2 years ago. He noted that his son had become disabled. He said that he had not seen his son for the last 2 years. Separately, Justice Khan issued notices to the Adiala jail superintendent, asking for a response to the petition filed by Said Zaman. Advocate Rahim, representing the petitioner, said he approached the jail superintendent to get legal documents signed by Zaman, but the official did not allow him to see his client. The lawyer said that the jail authorities told him that Zaman's appeals against his death penalty had already been cancelled. Kalsoom Bibi, a resident of Jacobabad, stated in her petition that her son Abdul Qayyum had been given the death penalty by a military court. She said that she had no access to her son and did not know why he had been given a death sentence. Meanwhile, Justice Khan disposed off a petition filed by Musarat Bibi, a resident of Okara. The court asked her to file an appeal against the death penalty awarded to her son by a military court before the concerned authorities. In her petition, Musarat Bibi had maintained that her son Aqson Mahboob went missing from Lahore on July 14, 2014. Later, she learnt that Raiwind police had killed her son in an encounter. However, she was against informed that her son was alive and was given death sentence on January 1, 2016. (source: The Express Tribune) From rhalperi at smu.edu Fri Jan 22 11:03:46 2016 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Fri, 22 Jan 2016 11:03:46 -0600 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----CONN., FLA., KAN. Message-ID: Jan. 22 CONNECTICUT: Capital punishment a waste of energy and money As the 20th anniversary of the murder of my mom, Joyce Masury, approaches, I am amazed that we are still going back and forth about the death penalty. When the state Supreme Court declared the punishment unconstitutional this summer, I rejoiced that we could finally be done once and for all with this devastating system. It's disappointing to see that the court is re-visiting this decision, but I hope they will affirm the original decision and leave the death penalty behind us. I was a part of the legislative effort to repeal the death penalty. I did this in honor of my mom. I was fortunate to have had a discussion with my mom about the death penalty just months before her own death. We were as riveted by the events of the OJ Simpson trial, as was the rest of the country, and would often watch it together and deliberate our theories and predicted outcome. During that time my mom shared with me that she was opposed to the death penalty - a decision I had independently reached - and I have carried her strong conviction with me all of these years. It is a reminder of her integrity and empathy and the main reason for my participation in the repeal campaign. But as I delved deeper into the judicial system and explored the programs available for victim family members, I discovered there are varied and unique reasons why murder victims' families are often opposed to the death penalty. There are myriad ways the death penalty system is broken. We have wrongfully convicted and ultimately put to death innocent people. We spend millions of dollars every year on continual appeals and wasted breath that results in nothing and goes nowhere. It is harmful for victims' family members to see another's murder deemed more important than that of your loved one's and thus worthy of the ultimate punishment. And it is beyond frustrating to see millions of dollars invested into a single capital case while victims' services are perpetually underfunded. But all of these reasons, valid as they may be, can't compete with the grief and anguish of the uncertainty that comes with the death penalty - the distressing uncertainty of whether the person who killed your mom, son, sister, daughter, friend will ever be put to death. Victims' family members go through the pain of reliving their loved one's murder over and over again, year after year with endless appeals and no guarantee that capital punishment will ever happen. This is a waste of energy and money and it doesn't bring justice or closure. In fact, it is the opposite of justice and closure - even if the convicted offender is put to death in 1, 10 or 20 years, the anguish of losing your loved one never goes away and a state appointed execution doesn't make you feel any better. With the death penalty behind us we could instead be redirecting that energy and money toward increased resources and services for victim family members, and programs aimed at prevention and reformation. I hope the state Supreme Court will re-affirm its decision that our death penalty is no longer constitutional and will finally relieve us of the inherent uncertainty that comes with having this broken punishment on the books. It is time to give back our misplaced time and energy to the survivors of homicide for their healing and truly honoring their loved one. (source: Dawn Mancarella is a West Haven resident----The Register Citizen) FLORIDA: Mother of slain boy indicted for murder, faces death penalty----The execution prosecutors now intend to pursue for a woman accused of killing her 3-year-old son still would not match the death the child suffered at his mother's hands, according to the boy's caregiver. The execution prosecutors now intend to pursue for a woman accused of killing her 3-year-old son still would not match the death the child suffered at his mother's hands, according to the boy's caregiver. Egypt Moneeck Robinson, 27, was indicted Thursday on charges of 1st-degree murder and aggravated child abuse in connection with the death of 3-year-old Aries Juan "A.J." Acevedo. He had been stabbed in the chest days before officers found his body stuffed inside a suitcase in the swamp behind a Callaway home. Robinson allegedly admitted to killing the child to save him from a biblical "Noah's Ark"-type flood, and prosecutors are now seeking the death penalty in the case. However, Artavia Rodriguez, caregiver to Acevedo for years leading up to his death, said no punishment would match that of which A.J. suffered. "He died slowly, looking up at the one person he loved most; and he didn't know why," Rodriguez said. "For her to lay down and die in such a peaceful way, it doesn???t seem just. If it???s not cruel and unusual, she doesn't deserve it." Investigators have yet to rule out "ritual sacrifice" as a motive in the killing. Bay County Sheriff Frank McKeithen and prosecutor Bob Sombathy declined to comment on the evidence that has led to that conclusion in the pending investigation. The boy's body was discovered Dec. 29 after he was stabbed in the chest, stuffed into a suitcase and thrown in a swamp behind a home at 7023 Benton Drive in Callaway, where Robinson was living. Authorities also found "a 3-4 inch piece of concrete in the throat of the child" allegedly placed there by Robinson, according to BCSO reports. Officers reported the child had been dead since Dec. 26 and in the interim Robinson had been arranging to get a bus ticket out of town. As a deputy approached Robinson to arrest her, she allegedly told him she had killed her son to save him from a biblical flood and asked to be taken to jail, BCSO reported. "Just put me in handcuffs," officers quoted Robinson as saying. "I did it. ... I killed my baby and put him inside the suitcase ... He is floating on top of the water." In court documents announcing their intent to pursue the death penalty, prosecutors identified four aggravating factors in the case, including that the killing "was committed in a cold, calculated and premeditated manner without any pretense of moral or legal justification," the documents state. Robinson is scheduled to be arraigned Feb 2. The indictment comes days before a memorial service that???s scheduled to be held on Saturday for the victim, Aries "A.J." Acevedo. The service will be held at 4:30 p.m. at the Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church, 715 MLK Jr. Blvd. Rodriguez said the ceremony will be an informal celebration of A.J.'s life and will be held on the green outside. The ceremony is partly to honor the child's compassion and partly to raise awareness in the community, she said. "We don't need to give these people these chances," Rodriguez said, adding that she still can hear A.J. calling out for her help. "Not only have I lost a beautiful, loving child, I will carry that guilt with me forever. People need to be more vigilant to prevent this from happening again." (source: Panama City News Herald) KANSAS: Bill to End Death Penalty Introduced in Kansas Today, a group of 17 legislators, led by former judge, Representative Steven Becker, introduced a bill in the Kansas House of Representatives that would end the death penalty in Kansas. This group of 11 Republicans and 6 Democrats cosponsored Bill 2515, which would repeal the death penalty and replace it with a maximum punishment of Life Without Parole. This group of legislators plans to speak on the matter and address the media at 11:45 a.m. on Thursday, January 28th in the 2nd Floor Capitol Rotunda. They will be joined by recent exoneree, Floyd Bledsoe, who will also speak about his story and what happens when the justice system does not work as it should. Come join us all as we listen to these leaders speak about the practical and moral reasons to end the death penalty. Bill 2515 - This bill would save Kansas taxpayers millions of dollars over the next 10 years and would continue saving money into the future. The bill designates these savings to be captured and allocated to the budget-starved Department of Corrections. - This bill would also prevent Kansas from committing the gravest injustice thinkable -- sentencing an innocent person to death. - Finally, this bill would put Kansas on the right side of history, joining 18 other states, and the VAST majority of developed nations, by ending the morally bankrupt practice of executing its own citizens. (source: KCADP) From rhalperi at smu.edu Fri Jan 22 11:31:51 2016 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Fri, 22 Jan 2016 11:31:51 -0600 Subject: [Deathpenalty] HUMAN RIGHTS AWARD----call for nominations Message-ID: Please circulate this widely.....many THANKS!!!! From rhalperi at smu.edu Fri Jan 22 13:02:14 2016 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Fri, 22 Jan 2016 13:02:14 -0600 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----N.H., MO. Message-ID: Jan. 22 NEW HAMPSHIRE: Candidates for governor weigh in on Addison death sentence 2 of 4 candidates for governor this week ruled out any notion of commuting the death penalty sentence of convicted cop-killer Michael Addison, while 1 said new evidence might change his mind, and a 4th said he'd want to see all the facts before making a decision. The New Hampshire Union Leader questioned the 4 candidates this week after news emerged that the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal of Addison's death penalty sentence for the 2006 killing of Manchester police officer Michael Briggs. New Hampshire last executed a person in 1939. Since then, the death penalty has been a subject of debate within the state. 2 years ago, the New Hampshire House passed a death penalty repeal but it died in the state Senate. Democrat Colin Van Ostern and Republican Frank Edelblut both said they would support a repeal of the death penalty, but at the same time they ruled out any sentence commutation for Addison. "The murder of Officer Briggs was a horrible crime, and his sentence was justly rendered by a judge and jury," said Van Ostern, an executive councilor, in an email. "I would respect the laws in place at the time the crime was committed," said Edelblut, a 1-term state representative and technology investor. Republican Chris Sununu is the only 1 of the 4 to not favor repeal of the death penalty. He said the state's death penalty has served the state "fairly well." But he said he couldn't answer any question about a commutation for Addison until he knew all the details. "Something of that serious nature would require an in-depth analysis," said Sununu, an executive councilor. The 4th candidate in the race, Democrat Mark Connolly, said he would have to see new, substantive evidence before considering a sentence commutation. He said the death penalty is expensive, probelmatic and at times unconstitutional. "I believe it's clear that the death penalty no longer serves its intended purpose," said Connolly, a former securities regulator. State law allows a governor to reduce a death penalty to a prison term of life or less. The law requires a governor to seek the advice of the 5-member Executive Council. Currently, New Hampshire law allows the death penalty in several instances, including murder for hire, killing of a police officer or judge, a killing in connection with a rape and a killing involving a home invasion. The state has issued a bid request for lawyers to handle the habeas corpus portion of Addison's appeal. Lawyers familiar with the process said such reviews are lengthy and expensive. They involve searches for new evidence and often raise issues of whether a defendant's trial counsel was adequate. (source: Union Leader) MISSOURI----new execution date Earl Forrest has been given an execution date for May 11; it should be considered serious. (sources: MC/RH) From rhalperi at smu.edu Fri Jan 22 18:21:46 2016 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Fri, 22 Jan 2016 18:21:46 -0600 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----N.C., MO., MONT. Message-ID: Jan. 22 NORTH CAROLINA: Accused triple-murderer facing rare death penalty trial in Cumberland County Shawn Lee Legrand of Fayetteville goes to court on Feb. 1 for what has become uncommon in North Carolina: A death penalty trial. Legrand, 48, is accused of killing 3 people and of trying to kill 2 others in Fayetteville in November 2011. Police said he broke into a home on Ingram Street on Fayetteville's east side. There, he stabbed a woman and a man to death and shot 3 other people, 1 fatally. He fled from officers in a car chase, the Police Department said, then crashed and got into a shootout with the officers near downtown Fayetteville. No officers were hit, but they wounded Legrand and captured him. A psychiatrist wrote in September that Legrand was attempting to commit "suicide by cop" when he shot at the officers. As of September, Legrand was still suicidal and wanted to be sentenced to death, the doctor said. But the sister of one of Legrand's victims thinks he should serve life in prison without parole instead being executed. Capital murder trials once were common in this state. In 2000, according to the N.C. Center for Death Penalty Litigation, North Carolina had 57 death penalty trials, 18 of which ended in death sentences. This past year, there were four capital trials and no death sentences issued. Cumberland County last had a capital murder trial in fall 2014. A jury deadlocked on whether to sentence Cedric Theodis Hobbs Jr. to death for killing a teen during a robbery of a pawnshop. "I would say as a whole, we probably have less capital trials now than we did, say, maybe 10 years ago," said Cumberland County District Attorney Billy West. A change in death penalty law in 2001 is a major reason that the cases have declined. The prior law required prosecutors to seek the death penalty if any of 11 "aggravating circumstances" existed in the case. Those included murders in conjunction with other serious crimes such as kidnapping or rape, killings or that were especially cruel or murders committed for personal gain. Now prosecutors have the option to forgo seeking the death penalty even if an aggravating factor exists. Instead of death, the defendant automatically gets a sentence of life in prison without parole if convicted of first-degree murder. Prosecutors have good reasons to take the death penalty off the table in a trial or to accept a guilty plea to 1st-degree murder, West said. A death penalty trial is are far more time-consuming, expensive and resource-intensive than a non-capital trial or a court hearing for a guilty plea, West said. Death penalty trials usually take a bigger toll on the victim's family members, too, he said. If there is a death sentence, the appeals process can go for years before the execution is carried out, West said. Plus, still pending court challenges to the death penalty in court have blocked executions in North Carolina since January 2007 and it's unclear when or if they will resume. In light of those factors, prosecutors evaluate the likelihood of a jury returning a death sentence, West said. "You don't ever in our business know what a jury's going to do," West said. "But I think you can a lot of times gauge whether or not this is a case that a jury may think is truly worthy of the death penalty." Ken Rose, of the Center for Death Penalty Litigation, agrees that death trials are rarer these days. But he thinks prosecutors are unfairly using the threat of a death penalty trial to push defendants into guilty pleas. "In almost all our cases now ... they're using it as leverage," Rose said. "They believe that life sentences are acceptable punishment, and suitable and fit the crime. But then they see the death penalty as leverage to get to the life sentences without having to go to trial. "And what that does is, that penalizes people who assert their right to jury trials in a way that I don't think is right," Rose said. If the state is going to have a death penalty, Rose said, it should be sought "only in the circumstances where it's really the only fitting punishment for a particular crime." Despite the factors that weigh against seeking death, West is pushing for it in Legrand's case for several reasons. They include the fact that he is accused of killing 3 people and that he has a history of violence stretching back decades. The killings happened on Nov. 26, 2011, a Saturday morning, in a triplex on 288 Ingram Street. In a court document, Legrand's lawyer describes the residence as "a known drug house." According to news accounts and court records, Legrand is accused of tying up Krystle Price Papile and Gregory Steven Fitzgerald. He stabbed Papile to death. Fitzgerald briefly escaped, but a witness said Legrand chased him down in the back yard and stabbed him there. Fitzgerald died later in the day. Ardell Page Jr. was bound and killed with a head shot. 2 others, Bennie Darwin King and Stephanie Lashaun Croom, were shot in the face. They survived. A 911 caller reported a woman was bleeding on the front porch and saying a man had tried to kill her. The police received a description of Legrand's car. Police Sgt. Steven Bates spotted it in the Arch Street area near downtown, about 1.5 miles away from Ingram Street, and tried to pull him over. The driver fled, police said, and Bates and Officer Travis Smith chased the car to Legrand's house at 216 S. C Street. Legrand crashed, jumped out of the car with a handgun and began shooting, the police said. The officers shot back and severely injured him. Forensic psychiatrist Gorge P. Corvin wrote in September that Legrand is chronically depressed and was trying to kill himself when he shot at the officers. He also has tried to kill himself by overdosing on medications, Corvin said. Legrand has asked the court at least twice to dismiss his lawyers and let him represent himself. This is "with the clearly stated goal of doing whatever it takes to make sure that he is sentenced to death," Corvin wrote. Corvin wrote that he did not think Legrand was competent to stand trial. Legrand defense lawyer Michael Driver said he and lawyer Lisa Miles are still on Legrand's case. Legrand has been ruled competent to stand trial but not capable of representing himself, Driver said. Angelica Saint-Surin of Columbia, South Carolina, was Krystle Papile's sister. Saint-Surin said she has struggled with whether Legrand should be sentenced to death. At first she opposed it because "I was afraid he was going to ask for forgiveness and be granted forgiveness. And my heart was having a struggle with that." She changed her mind to favor death, she said, after seeing Legrand in court. He was arrogant, she said. "He hasn't even tried to ask for forgiveness or repent for his sins." But if Legrand has a death wish, it shouldn't be granted, Saint-Surin said. "He wants death. So yes, I don't think he should be able to get anything he wants," she said. (source: Fayetteville Observer) MISSOURI----new execution date Missouri Supreme Court sets execution date for Earl Forrest The Missouri Supreme Court has set a May execution date for a man convicted of killing a deputy and 2 other people 13 years ago. The court on Thursday issued a warrant of execution for 66-year-old Earl Forrest. His execution on May 11 would be the 1st in Missouri this year. Forrest was convicted of killing Harriett Smith, Michael Wells and Dent County Deputy JoAnn Barnes in December 2002. Smith was killed at her Salem home in a drug dispute, and Wells was visiting her. Barnes died in a shootout when officers went to Forrest's home to investigate the killings. Missouri executed 10 men in 2014 and 6 last year, but the pace is expected to slow because most of the remaining death row inmates still have court appeals pending. (source: Associated Press) *************** Execution date set for Forrest Earl Forrest, 66, is set to be executed in Potosi May 11 for killing 3 local residents in 2002 including Michael Wells, Harriet Smith and Dent County Sheriff's Deputy JoAnn Barnes. The Missouri Supreme Court set the date Thursday after affirming the sentence recommended by a Platte County jury in 2004 and denying Forrest an appeal. This is the 2nd execution date set for Forrest, the sentence was originally planned to be carried out in the Spring of 2006. If executed Forrest will be the 1st Missouri death row inmate executed in 2016. (soruce: thesalemnewsonline.com) MONTANA: When Does the Death Penalty Apply to Missoula County Court Cases? Missoula has seen 2 high profile murder cases in recent days and some citizens are wondering why the death penalty wasn't invoked in either instance. Missoula County Attorney Kirsten Pabst was on the other end of the phone on Talk Back on Friday to provide information. "There's a couple of reasons why these particular cases didn't qualify. Either that we show ambush or there was torture involved; They're really extremely egregious cases that would qualify, and arguably neither of the 2 cases pending in Missoula County qualified," Pabst said. "There's an even better reason than that. The United States Supreme Court basically just shot down our statutory scheme for the death penalty." Pabst said Montana's scheme was similar to a Florida case that was recently overturned by the Supreme Court because of their process for seeking and getting the death penalty. "If the death penalty is even going to continue in Montana, the legislature is probably going to have to overhaul the process," Pabst said. "The jury has to decide. Our statutory scheme requires that a judge decide and that's been held unconstitutional. And I'm grossly oversimplifying it. At this point in Montana, I just don't think we are going to be able to do it until we get those laws straightened out." Although she didn't know specific numbers, Pabst said it's been a while since a death penalty case was tried and convicted in Montana. (source: KGVO news) From rhalperi at smu.edu Fri Jan 22 18:22:32 2016 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Fri, 22 Jan 2016 18:22:32 -0600 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide Message-ID: Jan. 22 INDIA: HC upholds death sentence to man who raped and murdered a minor girl The Aurangabad bench of the Bomaby high court yesterday upheld the ruling of the Jalna district session court giving capital punishment to the accused in connection with rape and murder of a 2-year-old girl in 2012. The accused, Ravi Ashok Gumare of (25), a resident of Indiranagar of Jalna was arrested by Kadim Jalna police in 2012 in connection with rape and murder of a 2 1/2-year-old girl. On March 6, 2012 the accused Gumare lured the girl, when she was playing in front of his house, he then raped and murdered her. After the incident, irate people protested the incident and demanded a stern action against the rapist. Police registered a case and arrested him. Later filed a charge sheet in session court. On Septemebr 18, 2015 the district session court awarded him capital punishment after finding him guilty of kidnapping, sexual abuse and murdering the girl. A case was then transferred to the Aurangbad division bench of the Bombay high court for confirmationof the death penalty. (source: webindia123.com) From rhalperi at smu.edu Sat Jan 23 11:45:19 2016 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Sat, 23 Jan 2016 11:45:19 -0600 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, FLA., OHIO, MISS., LA. Message-ID: Jan. 23 TEXAS: 9th District Court candidates discuss death penalty With a decades-old capital murder case going back and forth in appeals that originated in the 9th state District Court, candidates gunning for the court's judge's seat weighed in on how they see the death penalty. Eric Yollick, Kate Shipman Bihm and Phil Grant each said they would follow the law if a jury assesses death after a capital felony case. But Bihm said while she would sign a death warrant for the condemned, it would be an occasion she takes seriously. "It should be uncomfortable," Bihm said. "It's not a matter of whether I will feel comfortable with it. It's a matter of whether I will follow the law, and I will follow the law." Yollick said death is, in some cases, a necessary punishment for those convicted of the most heinous crimes. "The purpose of punishment primarily is to incapacitate people who are convicted so that they cannot commit crimes again," Yollick said. "The death penalty is an appropriate punishment when someone has committed a serious enough capital offense that they need to be incapacitated forever." Grant said as judge, he'd help move death penalty cases through the appellate process faster. Each death penalty case has an automatic appeal, according to the District Attorney's Office. "I think it's important in death penalty cases especially to move the post-conviction appellate processes that are mandated by law through the court system as efficiently as justice allows," Grant said. "... I will give death penalty cases and the appeals that result from death penalty cases docket priority so that we can be thorough, efficient and fair." The 9th District Court is home to the Larry Swearingen case in which he was convicted of killing Melissa Trotter, an 18-year-old then-Montgomery College student who went missing Dec. 8, 1998. She was found dead in the Sam Houston National Forest north of Lake Conroe. His case is currently awaiting action from the Court of Criminal Appeals. (source: yourhoustonnews.com) DELAWARE: Death Penalty Repeal to Reach Delaware House of Representatives A death penalty repeal bill that had been languishing in a House committee is headed to a vote by the full House next week after the committee chairman agreed to release it. Judiciary Committee members voted 6-to-5 last May not to send the bill to the full House after it cleared the Senate on an 11-to-9 vote. But committee chairman Rep. John Mitchell, D-Elsmere, who opposes repeal, said Thursday that he had signed it out of committee with an "unfavorable" endorsement, allowing the bill to move forward. Rep. Sean Lynn, a Dover Democrat and chief House sponsor of the legislation, said he believes it has enough support to pass the House. Democratic Gov. Jack Markell has said he would sign the measure if it reaches his desk. (source: Associated Press) FLORIDA: Death row inmate's attorneys cite U.S. high court to delay execution A U.S. Supreme Court decision striking down Florida's death-penalty sentencing structure is a "tectonic shift" that should be applied retroactively to all inmates on death row, lawyers for a convicted murderer scheduled to be executed in February wrote in court documents filed Friday. Lawyers for Cary Michael Lambrix, who has been on death row for more than three decades, have asked the Florida Supreme Court to halt his execution and allow a lower court to sort out whether the U.S. Supreme Court decision, in a case known as Hurst v. Florida, applies to Lambrix. In an 8-1 decision this month, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Florida's method of using juries to recommend death sentences, but giving judges the power to impose the sentences, is an unconstitutional violation of the Sixth Amendment right to a trial by jury. The decision focused on what are known as "aggravating" circumstances that must be found before defendants can be sentenced to death. A 2002 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, in a case known as Ring v. Arizona, requires that determination of such aggravating circumstances be made by juries, not judges. The Jan. 12 ruling has "far-reaching effects on capital litigation in Florida," requiring more time to digest than is available under the current "expedited" court schedule prompted by the pending death warrant, signed by Gov. Rick Scott in November, Lambrix's lawyers argued Friday in a 106-page brief. "Each passing day brings new understanding of what Hurst means and implies for capital proceedings in Florida - past, present and future. ... A full airing and judicious consideration of Hurst and its implications cannot and should not be under the exigencies of a death warrant," the lawyers wrote. Attorney General Pam Bondi's lawyers argued earlier this week that the Hurst ruling should not affect Lambrix's case because his sentence came before the 2002 decision in Ring v. Arizona. Following the Hurst ruling, the state Supreme Court gave Lambrix's lawyers an extra 2 days - until Friday - to file a brief explaining its impact on his case and whether it applies retroactively to inmates already on death row. The Florida Supreme Court has typically given inmates condemned to death a year to interpret death penalty decisions issued by the U.S. Supreme Court, Lambrix's lawyers objected, reiterating their request that state justices postpone his execution, scheduled for Feb. 11. "Hurst requires a global paradigm shift in our understanding of the Sixth Amendment aspects of Florida's death penalty scheme. Hurst establishes that our most basic assumptions about the constitutional integrity of Florida's scheme were wrong. It necessarily opens up new approaches to understanding what is, and is not, unconstitutional in what remains of that scheme," the lawyers wrote. Lambrix was convicted of killing Aleisha Bryant and Clarence Moore in Glades County in 1983. He met the couple at a LaBelle bar and invited the pair to his mobile home for a spaghetti dinner, documents say. Lambrix went outside with Bryant and Moore individually, then returned to finish dinner with his girlfriend. Bryant's and Moore's bodies were found buried near Lambrix's mobile home. Lambrix was originally scheduled to be executed in 1988, but the Florida Supreme Court issued a stay. A federal judge lifted the stay in 1992. Lambrix has argued that his previous lawyers were ineffective, that he suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and that the trial court erred in denying DNA tests for a tire iron, Bryant's clothing and a shirt wrapped around the tire iron. Lambrix contends that Moore sexually assaulted Bryant and killed her and that Lambrix killed Moore in self-defense. A jury recommended that Lambrix be sentenced to death, and a judge imposed the death sentence under the process that the U.S. Supreme Court ruled was unconstitutional, Lambrix's lawyers wrote. The Florida Supreme Court should apply Hurst retroactively, as it did after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling about the constitutionality of juveniles being sentenced to life in prison, Lambrix's lawyers wrote. Last year, the Florida justices gave inmates who had been sentenced to life as juveniles two years to seek new sentences from trial courts. (source: tbo.com) ***************** End, don't mend, Florida's death penalty It is time to abolish the death penalty in Florida as an outdated form of punishment that is arbitrarily applied, costs too much time and money, and fails to deter criminals or provide timely comfort to victims' families. The Florida Supreme Court will hear arguments next month on whether a recent U.S. Supreme Court opinion that overturned the state's sentencing process in death penalty cases should apply to scores of death row inmates who already have been sentenced. Attorney General Pam Bondi and state lawmakers vow to overhaul the sentencing system, but the death penalty is not worth the trouble. It is time to abolish the death penalty in Florida as an outdated form of punishment that is arbitrarily applied, costs too much time and money, and fails to deter criminals or give timely comfort to victims' families. The U.S. Supreme Court struck down Florida's death sentencing laws this month, ruling in an 8-1 decision that Florida's system was unconstitutional because it vests final authority in death cases in judges instead of juries. The Florida Supreme Court will visit a narrow issue in oral arguments on Feb. 2: whether the decision in Hurst vs. Florida should be applied retroactively to the 390 inmates on death row. But there are much larger problems with the death penalty that cannot be resolved. Here are 6 reasons Florida should end rather than fix the death penalty: It's arbitrary. There are 31 states that allow the death penalty, but it is largely a punishment imposed by Southern states. Texas, Missouri and Georgia accounted for 86 % of all executions last year. In the past several years, Florida has ranked in the top 3 states for executions. While some states have stopped executions entirely over the past decade, with some abolishing them outright, the arbitrary nature of who is sentenced to death has grown more obvious as it is meted out in a shrinking sliver of the country. In 2012, 59 counties - fewer than 2 % of all those nationwide - accounted for all death sentences imposed in the United States. That speaks to the political pressure of individual cases that locally elected prosecutors and judges face. It's a trend that promises to become more pronounced as the number of death sentences continues to drop to the lowest levels since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated executions in 1976. Florida is on the wrong side of this trend. It's expensive. The financial cost of bringing a capital case to trial is another example of how similar crimes can be treated differently because of outside factors. Studies show that death cases cost four times or more as much as cases where the death sentence is not an option. Prosecutors and defense attorneys are forced to hire experts, travel and spend huge amounts of time preparing for trial, consuming resources that state attorneys, public defenders, private lawyers and the police could better spend on other law enforcement efforts. Death row inmates are also more expensive to house, and the appeals process can drag on for years, sapping even more public money and resources. The net effect is that states and local authorities must pick and choose, and in an era of tight government budgets, some defendants will benefit and some will lose merely on the basis of which jurisdictions can afford to prosecute a capital case. Its value as a deterrent is questionable. Those on both sides of the death penalty deterrence argument claim that research validates their position. But a landmark study in 2012 by the National Research Council of the National Academies, whose members are chartered to advise the federal government on the sciences, technology and public health, concluded that research over the past 3 decades "is not informative about whether capital punishment decreases, increases or has no effect on homicide rates." The academies found that the research to date was so fundamentally flawed that neither side could argue the deterrent effect. The finding reinforces the argument by opponents that the death penalty is too compromised by delays, procedural error and bias to deter the criminal population. It takes too long. The length of the average delay nationally between sentencing and death has increased significantly over time, from 11 years in 2004 to 17 years today. Of the 28 people executed nationwide in 2015, 3 waited nearly 30 years or longer. In Florida, the 20 inmates executed from 2012 to last year spent, on average, nearly 25 years on death row. It does not provide certain closure. The death penalty is also not a salve to the victims' families, who are forced the revisit the loss of a loved one multiple times over years of waiting for a final resolution. Trials in death cases involve 2 stages - a guilt phase and sentencing phase - meaning that victims must endure the heinous details of a murder over an extended period. That is just the beginning. The appellate process adds years if not decades to a capital case, and victims looking for comfort and certainty are left in a painful limbo for an indeterminate time. The constant reprise of the tragedy makes it harder for them to recover, and it forces families to continually focus on the worst times of their lives. It is not error-proof. Scores of people nationwide have been freed from death row after being wrongly convicted, revealing a troubled system that new advances in forensic science will continue to expose as vulnerable to error. There is no shortage of factors that can contribute to wrongfully sending a person to death row, from mistaken witnesses and forced confessions to perjured testimony, incompetent defense attorneys and false or planted forensic evidence. Nearly 160 people sentenced to death have been exonerated since 1973 - a figure that equals one of every 10 people executed nationwide since 1976. Florida, which leads the nation in exonerations, at 26, should be working to improve its criminal justice system, not looking for ways to speed up executions or to patch its procedural flaws. The death penalty is a relic of an earlier era that is increasingly avoided, marginalized geographically and takes decades to carry out. Rather than overhauling the sentencing system to comply with the U.S. Supreme Court, Florida should abolish the death penalty. (source: Editorial, Tampa Bay Times) *********** Colley decides to keep attorney without death penalty qualification The man deputies said shot and killed his wife and her friend last summer was back in court Thursday. The judge is sorting out some legal issues before James Colley Jr. heads to court to face a murder charge. Police arrested Colley in Virginia last August, days after he allegedly shot and killed his estranged wife, Amanda Colley and her friend, Linda Dobbins at his wife's St. Johns County home. Amanda Colley filed for a domestic violence injunction the month before, which Colley violated. He had a hearing on the violation just before deputies said he shot and killed the women. This latest hearing was to determine if Colley wanted to keep his attorney, knowing that he is not death penalty qualified. The judge told Colley if he said yes he wouldn't be able to appeal later. Colley is charged with 1st degree murder and his latest court appearance wasn't as much about those charges, as it was about his attorney's ability to defend him against them. Colley's attorney, Terry Shoemaker, spoke to News4Jax over the phone. "The whole meaning of the hearing was just to make sure that JR understood that because I'm not death penalty qualified for the Florida statue that he cannot later use that as an appellate issue," Shoemaker said. When a client is facing capital punishment in a Florida case, like Colley is, a lawyer has to meet qualifications to represent them. Attorney Gene Nichols, not affiliated with the case, know all about those qualifications. "It means having enough trials involving death penalty cases or in the alternative have been involved in enough high-profile cases understanding the nuances of expert testimony understand the nuances of forensic testimony to make sure that they are well qualified to represent a defendant," Nichols said. Colley told the judge, despite Shoemaker's lack of qualifications, he'd keep his attorney. "If the defendant loses and it comes back on appeal the State's position is going to be that the defendant waived his right to have somebody who met that requirement," Nichols said. For now Colley moves forward with his current counsel, which could soon include another attorney with death penalty qualifications. Shoemaker is aware of this. "That's been something we talked about since day 1 and that may be something that happens, but at this point we are not sure," Shoemaker said. (source: news4jax.com) ************************************* Good Shepherd seeks light on death penalty Mukweso Mwenene and Betty Serow sit quietly in a conference room at Good Shepherd Catholic Church on Thomasville Road. Across from them, Father Michael Foley smiles gently. There is a sense of peace in the room even as the 3 parishioners consider a thing many Americans feel strongly about: whether a human being should be put to death for his actions. That question, will be explored at the church Feb. 19 and 20 in a symposium titled "Human Rights and Religion - Dignity of the Individual and the Death Penalty." Opening with "Flowers in the Median," an adapted 1-act play about a man who killed a woman's daughter and her grandson and received her forgiveness, the meeting continues the next day with panel discussions by other parents whose children were victims, as well as an internationally-known roster of speakers: psychologists, prison chaplains, a police commissioner, as well as a man who himself spent 5 years on death row. Father Foley, who speaks with a soft Irish brogue, reminds listeners in the room that this is Pope Francis' "Year of Mercy" and that we should "go to the periphery" ... seeking out those in need. He pointedly specifies that Catholic teaching calls for justice and accountability, but that "human life is sacred." When asked, he affirms that for Catholics, "a life in prison is preferable to putting another human being to death." Foley says, "Revenge is a burden, both financial for our system, but personal as well. One can never move on holding it inside." Mwenene and Serow agree. They are among the organizers of this 3rd symposium at Good Shepherd Church addressing issues of Social Justice. "3 years ago our meeting introduced a "guide" which is derived from Catholic Social Teaching," says Serow. "It includes advocacy for our planet; caring for the vulnerable; for workers; upholding marriage and family; working for the right to life; and enhancement of the brotherhood of all human beings." Last year's symposium dealt with the problem of human trafficking. "This year's conference on the death penalty is to bring facts, figures and personal experience into people's consciousness. And then to help them decide how to do something about it," says Serow. How? Mwenene says, "As Catholics, we believe that change begins with prayer. That great good can be accomplished through prayer; through advocacy; and through direct action." One who accepted the call to "direct action" is Good Shepherd parishioner, Dale Recinella, a guest speaker. Recinella is an international attorney and professor who gave up a lucrative and thriving law practice to devote himself full-time to a prison ministry that takes him to death row and the death chamber itself. His own story is one of transformation. "The thing of it is - we must get beyond revenge," says Father Foley. "After the execution of someone, many studies have found that there is no relief for the survivors. That doesn't truly come until forgiveness had been given." In addition, he says, "Many people on death row have later been found to have been innocent. Once dead - an exoneration will never be possible." Mwenene, who is originally from Africa, points to the example of Nelson Mandela in South Africa and his calls for Truth and Reconciliation, and to Rwanda, where great numbers were killed, but forgiveness was ultimately bestowed. "America can do this too," he says. When asked for whom the February symposium on the Death Penalty is meant, Serow says that it may be most helpful for those who are undecided on the issue. "Our understanding is really a journey ... an evolutionary process about the way God works in our lives. It's about how justice and forgiveness can be a formula for peace, both without and within." IF YOU GO What: Human Rights and Religion - Dignity of the Individual and the Death Penalty Where: Good Shepherd Catholic Church, Parish Center, 4665 Thomasville Road When: 8:30 a.m.-9:30 p.m. Feb. 19; 9:30 a.m.-3 p.m. Feb. 20 Cost: Free Death penalty numbers Statistics from the Death Penalty Information Center: --Florida has the highest number (26) of death row exonerations in the U.S. --Florida has the second highest number (after California) of death row inmates --Since 1976, Florida has executed 92 persons, the 4th greatest number in U.S. --Estimated $51 million per year paid by Floridians to try to enforce the death penalty over and above the cost of seeking life in prison for same defendants. --Never in the state of Florida has a white person been executed for killing an African American. (source: Tallahassee Democrat) OHIO: Judge considers sanctions against prosecutors in Barberton triple-murder case A Summit County judge will decide if she will impose sanctions against prosecutors in a death-penalty triple murder case. Summit County Judge Amy Corrigall Jones set a hearing on the issue for Feb. 4. Eric Hendon, 31, could face the death penalty if convicted of fatally shooting John Kohler, 42, and his 2 children, Ashley Carpenter, 18, and David Kohler Carpenter, 14 on Dec. 31, 2013. His brother and co-defendant in the case, Michael Hendon, was convicted at trial and sentenced to life in prison without parole. Prosecutors said during that trial Eric Hendon killed all 3. The legal fight stems from records defense attorneys successfully sought after learning that prosecutors failed to provide them a diary entry in which surviving victim Rhonda Blankenship identified Michael Hendon as the shooter, rather than his brother Eric. Defense attorneys Brian Pierce and Don Malarcik asked Corrigall Jones to impose one of the following sanctions: dismiss the case, dismiss the death-penalty specifications or prohibit Blankenship from testifying at the trial scheduled to begin Feb. 17. In all of her statements before or since, she identified Eric Hendon as the shooter. Blankenship turned in her diary entry as her official written statement to Barberton police. Prosecutors are required divulge all evidence in a criminal trial. Defense attorneys successfully argued that more information was necessary to establish Blankenship's credibility as a witness, her state of mind at the time of her statements and her memory. Blankenship survived but lost an eye after being shot and stabbed in the face. Corrigall Jones ordered that Blankenship provide usernames and passwords to her various email and social media accounts. Corrigall Jones also ordered her mental health records be released to her. The judge will review those records without divulging anything to attorneys in the case. She will decide if anything should be used in the case. : Assistant Summit County Prosecutor Terri Burnside objected and said she believes the judge's order violates Blankenship's rights. Blankenship's attorney, Elizabeth Well of the Columbus-based Justice League, appealed Corrigall Jones' ruling. "I've never seen anything like this in 22 years I've been doing this," Burnside said Friday during a hearing. "It's very disturbing." Prosecutors said during a previous hearing that they were unable to subpoena Blankenship's email and social media passwords because they had to go through Well. They missed a deadline the judge set to provide the information. Well has since delivered the computers and cellphones Blankenship used to communicate with others about the case, including a laptop computer she delivered to the judge on Friday. Some of the mental health records were not turned over as of Friday. Prosecutors on Friday filed their response to the request for sanctions. Assistant Summit County Prosecutor Daniel Sallerson wrote that defense attorneys sought to "harass and further injure the victim" by forcing her electronic devices and social media passwords to be divulged to the court. He also wrote there is no legal standing for any of the sanctions to be imposed since they either have complied or are waiting for records to be delivered. (source: cleveland.com) ************************** Surviving victim hands over laptop to court in Eric Hendon's triple-murder case The surviving victim in Eric Hendon's triple-murder case surrendered her laptop to a Summit County judge during a hearing Friday, but the fight over how much personal information the victim must provide in the case is far from over. The attorney for Ronda Blankenship, who was shot and stabbed and lost an eye in the New Year's Eve 2013 incident at her boyfriend's Barberton home, provided Judge Amy Corrigall Jones with Blankenship's cellphone last week. At the request of defense attorneys, attorney Elizabeth Well handed over Blankenship's laptop Friday, telling the court it was the only other electronic device she is aware of that her client used to communicate about the incident. As soon as Well handed over the computer, Assistant Prosecutor Teri Burnside, stood up, saying she "couldn't help herself." "I ask the court to reconsider an order to violate this victim's rights to privacy," she said. "I've never seen anything like this in 27 years." Brian Pierce, 1 of Hendon's 2 defense attorneys, however, said Blankenship's information will be reviewed privately by Jones to determine its relevancy, which helps to balance Blankenship's right to privacy with Hendon's right to due process. The computer handoff was the latest in a strange, several-month battle between defense attorneys and prosecutors that began in October after defense attorneys discovered a journal entry by Blankenship that identified Michael Hendon, Eric's younger brother, as the main perpetrator in the incident. This contradicted Blankenship's testimony during Michael Hendon's trial that pointed to Eric Hendon as the primary perpetrator. Michael Hendon was convicted of multiple counts of aggravated murder and was sentenced by Jones in September to life in prison with no chance of parole. Eric Hendon's trial is scheduled to begin Feb. 17. He is facing the death penalty. Since Blankenship's journal entry was discovered, Eric Hendon's attorneys have sought additional information from Blankenship, including any electronic devices she used to communicate about the case and her email and social-media passwords, to see whether she made any other potentially exculpatory statements regarding their client. Blankenship, however, has her own attorney, Elizabeth Well from the Justice League of Ohio, a nonprofit group that provides legal assistance to crime victims in court proceedings. Well has filed an appeal in the Ninth District Court of Appeals that challenges Jones??? order for Blankenship???s personal items to be provided and has requested a stay from Jones pending the appellate court's ruling. She also asked Jones to quash the prosecutor's subpoenas. Blankenship, who was ordered to be at Friday's hearing, didn't speak during the hearing and left immediately afterward. She was comforted during the proceeding by her aunt, Rita Breton. Asked if she wanted to comment, Blankenship said, "I just want to get out of here right now!" before hastily leaving. Defense attorneys plan to have a computer expert make a forensic image of the items on Blankenship's computer. Jones said she will look over the computer material - as well as medical records also provided to the court - to see if it is relevant to the case. She has promised not to share any of the information with the attorneys without first having a hearing. Pierce and Don Malarcik, Eric Hendon???s attorneys, have asked Jones to dismiss the case, remove the death-penalty specification or now allow Blankenship to testify at trial. They argue such sanctions are warranted because prosecutors withheld evidence in the case and have been uncooperative. Assistant Prosecutor Dan Sallerson, however, filed a response Friday afternoon asking Jones to dismiss the request. He said it is baseless and argued the defense attorneys are trying to "create issues for appeal and/or somehow twist the State of Ohio's arm to dismiss a death specification." (source: ohio.com) **************************** Attorney asks for new jury pool for Logan County mom accused of killing kids Attorneys for the woman accused of killing her 3 young sons in Logan County want the court to use driver's license records to pull a jury from rather than the traditional method of using voter rolls when she goes to trial this year. Kort Gatterdam, one of Brittany Pilkington's 3 attorneys in her aggravated murder case, argued during a hearing in Logan County Common Pleas Court Friday that minorities and the poor are underrepresented in voter registration and that Pilkington is entitled to a diverse jury. "There needs to be people from all different backgrounds," Gatterdam told Judge Mark S. O'Connor. "Ms. Pilkington has a right to a fair cross-section of her community." The law allows a court to use either method or a combination of the 2. Pilkington, 23, has pleaded not guilty to 3 counts of aggravated murder in the deaths of sons, 3-month-old Niall, 3-month-old Noah and Gavin, 4. Police say she confessed that she smothered all 3 at separate times over a 13-month period. She was arrested in August after Noah became the last to die. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty. Gatterdam said he would prefer the court use only driver's license records but he would agree to using a combination of both lists. O'Connor said he wasn't opposed to it, necessarily, but pointed out that Montgomery County had once used Bureau of Motor Vehicles records for juries and eventually stopped the practice. "The no-shows from the driver's lists were greater than the no-shows from the voters lists," O'Connor said. He said he would get with the court's technical support staff to figure out how using both lists might work and that he would rule on the motion later. Attorneys on both sides dealt with dozens of motions on Friday. One of the motions to be addressed was a request from Pilkington's lawyers to remove Logan County Prosecutor William T. Goslee from the case because they said he improperly questioned her. But they withdrew their objection before the hearing, so Goslee will stay. Much of the rest of the hearing centered around pre-trial publicity and the defense's wish to move the trial to another county even without first attempting to find an unbiased jury locally. "The prejudice here is so great and the coverage is so saturating," Gatterdam said, "that in a small community like this that hasn't seen a death penalty case in years, and with the publicity of a purported confession, there is no ability to find a fair and impartial jury." Logan County's chief assistant prosecutor, Eric Stewart, said there is no way to measure how notorious Pilkington is and whether public opinion has been tainted. That will be decided once jurors are questioned. O'Connor didn't rule on the motion. but hinted that he may not be opposed to a move. The judge also said he wants Pilkington to have a psychological evaluation to determine whether she is competent to stand trial. That has not yet been scheduled. Gatterdam said he would prefer the court use only driver???s license records to pull prospective jurors from but he would agree to using a combination of both lists. O'Connor said that Montgomery County had once used Bureau of Motor Vehicles records for juries but eventually stopped the practice. "The no-shows from the driver's lists were greater than the no-shows from the voters lists," O'Connor said. He said he would get with the court's technical support staff to figure out how using both lists might work and that he would rule on the motion later. Both sides were in court today to deal with more than 40 motions pending in the capital case. Much of it was standard legal wrangling over language and evidence. A prior hearing had been held to discuss Pilkington's lawyers' request to remove Logan County Prosecutor William T. Goslee from the case because they said he improperly questioned her. But they withdrew their objection today so Goslee will stay. Much of the rest of the hearing centered around pre-trial publicity and the defense's wish to move the trial to another county even without first attempting to find an unbiased jury in Logan County. "The prejudice here is so great and the coverage is so saturating," Gatterdam said. "that in a small community like this that hasn't seen a death penalty case in years and with the publicity of a purported confession there is no ability to find a fair and impartial jury." Logan County's chief assistant prosecutor, Eric Stewart, said there is no way to yet measure how notorious Pilkington is and whether any of the news has tainted public opinion. That will be decided once jurors are questioned. O'Connor didn't rule on the motion. but hinted that he may not be opposed to a move. "This court has, prior to voir dire, moved a case before," he said. He noted, however, that moving the case to a bigger county with a larger jury pool, such as Columbus or Dayton, might not help because the coverage has been just as intense there. Gatterdam said it doesn't carry the same weight in urban areas, though. "Folks that live in the big city are used to crime. It permeates the local news every night," he said. "Coverage doesn't have the same impact." Pilkington was in court today in street clothes for the first time and unshackled. No one addressed why, but defense attorneys often ask to allow it as they move closer to a death-penalty trial. Her mother and an aunt were there to support here. The judge has said he wants Pilkington to have a psychological evaluation to determine whether she is competent to trial. That has not yet been scheduled. (source: The Columbus Dispatch) MISSISSIPPI: Mississippi death row inmate gets new appeal over bailiff conduct----Bobby Batiste sentenced to death in 2009 The Mississippi Supreme Court said a death row inmate convicted of killing his roommate can file more appeals because jurors might have been improperly influenced by bailiffs in the trial court. Bobby Batiste, a former Mississippi State University student, was sentenced to death in 2009 in Oktibbeha County. A jury convicted him of capital murder in the 2008 slaying of Andreas Galanis. Prosecutors said Galanis died from a blow to the head after he and Batiste fought at their off-campus apartment when Galanis discovered money missing from his checking account. Court records show Batiste told police that Galanis attacked him first. The state Supreme Court said Thursday that a juror filed an affidavit saying a bailiff told her the jury was all-white because black jurors wouldn't consider the death penalty. (source: WAPT news) LOUISIANA: Derrick Todd Lee dies without revealing what happened to Mari Ann Fowler - West Baton Rouge investigators say the case of her disappearance remains open In the end, all West Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff Mike Cazes was seeking from Baton Rouge serial killer Derrick Todd Lee was the location of Mari Ann Fowler's body. But that wish was dashed Thursday morning when Lee died from natural causes at an area hospital. For years, Cazes' investigators had Lee as their prime suspect in Fowler's disappearance and apparent abduction from a Port Allen-area shopping mall on La. 415 around 5:30 p.m. Christmas Eve 2002. But they never felt they had enough evidence to bring a case to prosecution. Cazes and his investigators said Friday they had collected some tantalizing bits of evidence pointing to Lee but, in retrospect, nothing definitive that could prove a case in court: - the fact that Gross Tete and St. Gabriel cell towers hit on Lee's cell phone in the general location of Fowler's disappearance the night she was abducted; The West Baton Rouge Sheriff's Office believes the 2 vehicles pictured in this still of a surveillance video, top right, belonged to Mari Ann Fowler and Derrick Todd Lee. The front grill of what investigators think was Lee's Chevrolet pickup truck can be seen in the parking lot. The wheels and body of Fowler's Mazda sedan are just above the truck. Investigators say some kind of struggle between two figures, not pictured, happens between the car and truck later in the videotape. - a fake nail found at the scene of the abduction that turned up no DNA; - the pickup truck Lee once owned that seemed, possibly, to match one visible in surveillance video from the night of Fowler's abduction, though the truck also had no DNA from Lee; or - the fact that Lee sold a maroon Chevrolet pickup just days after sheriff's investigators disclosed in the media that they were looking for that kind of pickup in Fowler's case. "We had a circumstantial case, at best," Bryan Doucet, sheriff's chief of detectives, said Friday. Fowler, 65, was the wife of now deceased Elections Commissioner Jerry Fowler. Her apparent abduction came during the height of fear over the then-unknown serial killer at work in string of brutal murders of women in the Baton Rouge area. A special joint task force had already been formed and, 1 day before Fowler disappeared, authorities announced four slayings had been tied to the same DNA profile. A former career education advocate and a former state secretary of education, Fowler was on her way to visit her husband at a Beaumont, Texas, federal prison for the holidays the night she disappeared. Jerry Fowler, who died in 2009, had been serving a 5-year prison sentence in a bribery and kickback scheme involving voting machines. Sheriff's deputies searched for Mari Ann Fowler for 12 days after she disappeared, covering 500 miles. A court declared her legally dead in May 2004. Lee was arrested a year earlier in Atlanta after he had been linked through DNA analysis to several slayings, though not Fowler's. Well after Lee was convicted in two of those murders and received the death penalty in one of them - the 2002 slaying of Charlotte Murray Pace, 22, in Baton Rouge - Cazes said he would visit Lee as he waited on death row at Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola for a sentence that would never be executed. But even when Cazes said he promised not to prosecute Lee for Fowler's murder if Lee would just say where her body was so the sheriff could bring some the closure for Fowler's grandchildren, Lee not only would not relent but would also go into a tantrum. "He would just go nuts," Cazes said. "He just he would like snap when I asked him that." Lee, 47, of St. Francisville, was taken from Angola on Jan. 16 for an undisclosed medical condition. State corrections officials have not released details about Lee's health problems, citing federal medical privacy laws. The East Baton Rouge Parish Coroner's Office conducted Lee's autopsy Friday morning on behalf of the West Feliciana Parish Coroner's Office. "At this point in our investigation, with the collected evidence, it is our belief that Mr. Lee passed from natural causes," West Feliciana Coroner Dr. Chaillie Daniel said in a statement Friday afternoon. "We will continue to await final reports regarding post mortem examination." Elizabeth Bourgeois, office manager for Daniel's medical practice, said the coroner told her it would likely take 2 to 3 weeks to get final pathology reports. While John Pritchett, the son of Mari Ann Fowler, has few kind words for former Baton Rouge Police Chief Pat Englade over his early role in the serial killer investigation, Pritchett said he believes Cazes and West Baton Rouge sheriff's investigators did the best they could in his mother's abduction. But anger with Derrick Todd Lee burns fiercely in Pritchett over what he believes Lee did to his mother, him and his family. Thoughts of the suffering his mom may have endured at Lee's hands, memories of Pritchett's last irritated call with his mom on Christmas Eve because she was going to visit his stepfather, Jerry Fowler, and not visiting friends with him, and the constant reminder that Pritchett has no grave to visit his mother in death, all haunt the 56-year-old to this day. He said he harbors thoughts of wishing he had killed Lee himself and welcomed his death Thursday. "I could care less about him or his family or anybody else. I have no sympathy, nothing for him or his family," said Pritchett, who works as a plant operator and lives in Brusly. Pritchett said a friend said he was going to pray for him so Pritchett could find forgiveness for Lee and the burden in his heart could leave him. "I just don't see it happening," Pritchett said. "Maybe I'm wrong for that. I got so much hate. I just don???t see it happening." West Baton Rouge Sheriff's Capt. Kevin Cyrus said the surveillance video that captured the apparent abduction was shot from inside a liquor and tobacco store 2 strip mall store locations away from the Subway restaurant Fowler had visited moments before she disappeared. Fowler's Mazda and what investigators think was Lee's pickup can be seen parked outside through the liquor store's windows. Though enhanced by the FBI, the VHS videotape shows, Cyrus said, some kind struggle of 2 people between the pickup and the Mazda after Fowler leaves the Subway. But Cyrus said it is hard to say if the figure is definitively Lee or if the pickup in the video is his. At the scene, Cyrus said, detectives found Fowler's car and her purse and items from it, including the fake nail, thrown about in an open parking space where the surveillance appeared to show a struggle. After Lee's arrest, detectives tracked Lee's former Chevy pickup to the current owner and searched it for DNA but found nothing, Cyrus said. Cazes said the owner worked in construction, and mortar and sand in the truck hindered any chance for DNA. "We'd like to say we did bring justice for her. We did everything we could trying to get it," Cazes said. Cyrus and Doucet explained that sheriff's investigators also made a calculation through the years. With Lee already convicted and facing the death penalty, it did not make sense to bring a prosecution that could fail when they had what appeared to be time on their side. They held out, they said, that one day they might find a key link or even Fowler's body to tie Lee to her death. Cyrus added that even with Lee's death, he has no regrets over that strategy because he would have wanted Lee convicted on Fowler's death and not on Lee's reputation from prior convictions. Cyrus and Doucet said the case against Lee is not closed. Land clearing for a new subdivision, high water in the swamp or hunters in the woods might one day find that conclusive link, Cyrus said. "Until a body is found, no, it's still considered to me, in my professional opinion, an open case," he said. (source: The Advocate) **************** 80 inmates remain on Louisiana death row after passing of Derrick Todd Lee With the death of Derrick Todd Lee, 80 individuals remain on death row in Louisiana. A majority of those individuals were convicted in Caddo Parish. Fifteen convictions occurred in that parish. Meanwhile, 13 were convicted in East Baton Rouge. Many of them have been on death row for decades, including Michael O. Perry and James E. Copeland, who have been there since 1986. The extensive stays on death row are in part the result of lengthy appeals processes that often go to the federal level. "These are costly endeavors, following these death penalty cases through," said Hillar Moore, District Attorney for East Baton Rouge Parish. During his wait on death row for more than a decade, tax payers spent more than $200,000 to cover Derrick Todd Lee's prison expenses. The appeals process itself costs much more. "You are talking hundreds of thousands of dollars, possibly a million, particularly throughout the entire 25-year period of time," Moore said. While the appeals process is important, because it serves as a safe-guard to protect innocent people, it can also be prolonged unnecessarily in Louisiana for several reasons, according to James Craig, co-director of the Roderick and Solange MacArthur Justice Center based in New Orleans. Craig said part of the problem is defense teams are often overworked and overextended. "If you've got 100 felonies that you're dealing with or more, and many more in some jurisdictions and then death penalty cases, the chance that you can get out and do the investigation that' s needed in your death penalty case. It's really just too much to ask," said Craig, who has defended people facing capital punishment in both Louisiana and Mississippi. Frequently, defense attorneys may have to work several other cases while also working capital cases, according to Craig. As a result, investigations may suffer, leading to appeals. "As a result, there's a lot of litigation about facts that should have been uncovered prior to trial and there have to be hearings about what the trial lawyers knew and why they didn't do the investigation that was required and quite often cases get reversed and have to be retried," he said. "Either we do these cases right when they're coming up to trial or we they have to be redone over and over again over the years." By contrast, he said in Mississippi there is a program in place giving each death penalty case its own specialty lawyer, making rulings more airtight and in effect helping speed up the appeals process. "As a result is now very rare for Mississippi cases to get reversed for an ineffective council," Craig said. Craig said there are several options to fix this. For one, the state could pursue less death sentences, thereby not stretching attorneys quite so thin. Alternatively, the state could provide more funding to defense attorneys. "They are given some state funded money, but the vast majority of the state public defender money comes from fines and fees on misdemeanor offenses, so it's a very uncertain source of income," Craig said. (source: WAFB news) ************ Daigle murders call for death penalty If ever there was a case calling for the death penalty it is the one against Kevin Daigle. No matter what side of the fence you may sit on when it comes to the death penalty, as long as it is going to be on the books this case shouts for the ultimate punishment to be on the table. Daigle is the 54-year-old man who is charged with the shooting death of Trooper Steven Vincent and Blake Brewer. Last week, Daigle's lawyers filed a number of motions, including asking Judge Guy Bradberry to take the death penalty off the table. Daigle is accused of shooting Vincent in the head with a shotgun on the morning of Aug. 24 as the trooper tried to help him after he drove a truck into a ditch. That came after Daigle allegedly shot and killed Brewer hours before. The shooting received state and national attention. We feel that it is important to keep all possible forms of punishment open when it comes to this case. We don't know yet where all the evidence will lead, but it seems that the jury should be able to consider everything when it comes to the shooting of not only a law enforcement officer but 2 people. However, shooting a police officer in cold blood is something that our society can never tolerate. If so, then the entire system of justice is called into question. And if we don't stand behind the men and women who are there for us when we need them most, it becomes harder and harder for those who are called to this line of work to answer those calls. They are there to protect us and serve us; the least we can do is stand up for them when it is time. This is not about the guilt or innocence of one man. A jury will make that decision. This is about allowing a system that allows for the death penalty as its ultimate punishment to keep it on the books. If the people of Louisiana don't want to have capital punishment, then it is up to them and their elected officials to do away with it through the legal channels. It is not up to lawyers in one case to circumvent that system, or the people for that matter, and have a judge take it off the books in one specific case. If it is not going to be on the table in this instance, then when exactly would it? This doesn't mean the jury can only deliver death as its sentence, just that it is up to the system to decide through the viewing of all the evidence to come up with the proper outcome. We must trust the system that has been in place. We should not play politics in this instance. It is important that we make sure those who put themselves in harm's way understand that we have their backs as much as they have ours. We may not stand with them at the critical moment, but we should not abandon them either after they have made the ultimate sacrifice. All we ask is that the law be followed. If it is to be changed in the future, fine, but for now, in this case, all legal options should be kept open. And let the evidence lead the jury to the right conclusion. We can all stand by their decision. (source: Opinion, The American Press) From rhalperi at smu.edu Sat Jan 23 11:47:20 2016 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Sat, 23 Jan 2016 11:47:20 -0600 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----KAN., CALIF., AK., USA Message-ID: Jan. 23 KANSAS: Becker promotes bill to abolish death penalty Nearly 20 Kansas lawmakers are lending their names to a new push to abolish the death penalty. A prior death penalty repeal effort by State Rep. Steve Becker, R-Buhler, went nowhere. The legislator said this new legislation intentionally lists multiple sponsors "to show leadership that this is supported by a wide spectrum." The state has not executed anyone under the death penalty re-established in 1994. The last execution occurred in 1965. The Kansas Coalition Against the Death Penalty cites a legislative post audit in 2003 that estimated death penalty cases, with their appeals, cost 70 percent more over their lifetime than similar cases without a death penalty. Introduced Friday, House Bill 2515 would create the crime of aggravated murder and provides for sentences of imprisonment for life without the possibility of parole. The legislation would not be retroactive to people on death row. Also, it would not apply in cases where the crime was committed before July 1, 2016. It would create a Kansas death penalty fund for the annual actual or projected cost savings from ending the death penalty. The Secretary of the Department of Corrections would have discretion over the fund. Becker is the 1st sponsor listed. Other sponsors are listed in alphabetical order and include: --Republicans: Reps. Steven Anthimides, Wichita; John Bradford, Lansing; Lonnie Clark, Junction City; Susan Concannon, Beloit; Diana Dierks, Salina; John Doll, Garden City; Michael Houser, Columbus; Connie O'Brien, Tonganoxie; Don Schroeder, R-Hesston; William Sutton, Gardner. --Democrats: Reps. Barbara Ballard, Lawrence; Jerry Henry, Cummings; Dennis "Boog" Highberger, Lawrence; Roderick Houston, Wichita; Annie Kuether, Topeka; Tom Sawyer, Wichita. >From within the Republican caucus, there is "very good representation from the moderates as well the conservatives," said Becker, a moderate. A lot of legislators don't like the high cost involved in death penalty cases, he said. Some favor repeal for moral reasons. Others are concerned about the execution of innocent people, he said. "If you're not going to use it, why not get rid of it," said conservative Rep. John Bradford, Lansing. Bradford voiced concerns about cost and the possibility of executing someone wrongly convicted. "To me, it's not a political issue," Bradford said. "Truthfully, I think we could pass it in the House," Bradford said. It needs 63 votes in the House to pass. A couple weeks ago, Bradford said, there might have been "70-plus" votes to repeal the death penalty. He thinks support might have dipped, but he still sees a House victory as possible. Becker said he "made a lot of phone calls" and "approached a lot of people" about the legislation. He credited the Kansas Coalition Against the Death Penalty for its advocacy. Asked if anyone declined to sponsor the bill out of concern for re-election this fall, Becker said no one said that. (source: The Hutchinson News) ************** The time is right to repeal the death penalty "The time is always right to do what is right." - Martin Luther King Jr. Activists for repeal of the death penalty are convinced that the time is right to abolish the death penalty in Kansas. There are many reasons why Kansas should get rid of capital punishment. One is the fact that the death penalty is fiscally irresponsible. Death penalty cases cost up to 4 times more than a case for life imprisonment. Another compelling argument for repeal lies in the human aspect, both on the part of the victim and the accused. Exonerations are in the media regularly, where new scientific methods clear innocent people of their conviction and sentence. However, the release from prison does not take away the stigma of having been on death row nor restore the time lost from their lives awaiting death. Repeal is the only way to ensure that an innocent person does not die due to false witness, corruption or honest mistakes made in the justice system. To learn more about the death penalty in Kansas and how to join the coalition for repeal, visit http://ksabolition.org. Using this website, www.kslegislature.org, please contact your state legislators and ask them to vote for repeal during the 2016 legislative session. DIANA CARTER, McPherson (source: Letter to the Editor, salina.com) CALIFORNIA: 24-Year-Old Charged With Killing Ex, Her New Boyfriend In Winnetka Authorities have formally charged a 24-year-old man with killing his ex-girlfriend and her new boyfriend at her Winnetka apartment building. The Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office announced Friday that Brian Gonzales, AKA Brian Hammons, faces 2 counts of murder with special circumstance allegations of murder during the commission of a kidnapping and multiple murders. Gonzales also faces allegations that he used and fired a handgun in the commission of the crimes in the incident. His arraignment is scheduled for next month at the Angeles County Superior Court, Van Nuys Branch. Prosecutors allege that on Jan. 17, Gonzales allegedly confronted his ex-girlfriend, Emily Fox, 22, and Jerred Scott, 24, in a hallway at her apartment building. While Scott attempted to escape, Fox dialed 911. Gonzales is accused of catching up to Scott and bringing him back at gunpoint to Fox's location before fatally shooting both of them. If convicted as charged, Gonzales faces the death penalty or life in prison without the possibility of parole. The DA said the decision on whether to seek the death penalty will be made at a later date. Gonzales is being held without bail. The case remains under investigation by the Los Angeles Police Department, Valley Bureau. (source: CBS news) ************** New California death penalty rules debated California's death penalty took center stage Friday as officials held a public hearing on proposed new rules that would allow the state to resume executions using a single drug in its lethal injections. Crime victim advocates, civil libertarians, lawyers, priests and others took turns in a state health services department auditorium debating the morality and legality of the death penalty and, at times, addressing the proposed regulations the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation is proposing. "We cannot overcome crime simply by executing criminals," George Horan, a Catholic priest from Los Angeles, told a room of about 50 spectators. Horan, who said he was speaking on behalf of California's Catholic bishops, decried the fact that spiritual advisers who attended to condemned inmates must leave 3 hours before an execution is carried out, and that witnesses are brought in to watch executions. "To me, it just seems insane that we invite people to witness executions," Horan said. "Gang members don't do that." Pro death-penalty speakers decried delays in the use of capital punishment, noting that California has gone a decade without executing an inmate. Kent Scheidegger, legal director for the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation in Sacramento, which helped force CDCR to draw up the new regulations through a lawsuit, said the process of obtaining drugs and executing inmates with injections is not complicated, adding that "veterinarians do it every day in America." Friday's public hearing attracted a much smaller crowd than the last time the department proposed new execution rules in 2009, when 100 speakers and dozens of others turned out for an emotional session. 20 people signed up to speak Friday and although the hearing was set to last until 3 p.m. - 5 hours - they ran out of speakers around 11:30 a.m. About 12,000 individuals submitted written comments. Originally, Friday was to be the deadline for submitting public comments about the proposed rule changes. But a lawsuit filed in November by the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California extended that period to Feb. 22. The ACLU contends the department is withholding 79,000 pages of documents about lethal injection that it is seeking in the suit. The hearing was scheduled in November after corrections officials published plans for a new lethal injection method that uses a single drug - a 7.5-gram dose of 1 of 4 barbiturate drugs that replaces the old, 3-drug cocktail used to execute inmates. The proposed change comes after officials nationwide found themselves facing a shortage of the drugs used in the old 3-drug system because manufacturers either stopped making them or refused to provide them for executions, or because of legal challenges over the 3-drug method. The new protocols allow for corrections officials to use one of 4 drugs: amobarbital, pentobarbital, secobarbital or thiopental. Lethal injections were used to put inmates to death at San Quentin 11 times from 1996 through Jan. 17, 2006, but no executions have taken place since then because of legal challenges. The state's regulations estimate the cost of a scheduled execution as $186,886, including $85,200 in staff training, $97,492 to contract with law enforcement to provide crowd control near San Quentin State Prison and about $4,200 to purchase the drug. Death penalty advocates have pushed for the new, single-drug method to help kick-start the use of executions in California, and Friday's hearing is part of the regulatory process required by the state before the new method can officially be adopted. In addition to comments Friday and written comments submitted by the public since November, officials also may consider input from condemned inmates, who all were given copies of the proposed change. The state's Office of Administrative Law must give final approval to the new method, and death penalty advocates say there are at least 17 inmates among the 746 on death row whose appeals have been exhausted and who can be put to death. But any effort to resume executions will face new legal challenges, and advocates who oppose and support the death penalty are circulating petitions to put competing initiatives on the November ballot that would allow voters to decide whether California should keep the death penalty. (source: Sacramento Bee) ************* A look at California's death penalty and proposed changes A look at California's death penalty and proposed changes: - The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation calculates the cost of an execution at nearly $187,000. - More than 900 killers have been sentenced to die in the state since the death penalty was restored in 1978. Only 13 have been executed amid legal challenges. - Under a proposal to use a single drug in executions, the warden at San Quentin State Prison could choose between amobarbital, pentobarbital, secobarbital or thiopental, depending on what is available. - The Berkeley Law Death Penalty Clinic, which opposes executions, says amobarbital and secobarbital have never been used in executions. - Inmates could choose the gas chamber instead of a drug injection. (source: Associated Press) ALASKA: Bill to update Alaska Military Code of Justice advances A bill to update Alaska's Uniform Code of Military Justice is making progress through the state House, advancing Friday from a judiciary committee review. It is expected to be scheduled for a vote by the full House. Lawmakers advanced the bill intended to strengthen the state's military code after a scathing report found that actual and perceived favoritism, ethical misconduct and fear of reprisal were eroding trust and confidence in the leadership of the Alaska National Guard. The National Guard Bureau Office of Complex Investigations also found the Alaska National Guard was not properly administering justice through the investigation or adjudication of guard member misconduct. Then-Gov. Sean Parnell asked the bureau in 2014 to investigate reports of sexual assault, rape and fraud among members of the Alaska National Guard. Investigators found that while the guard's sexual assault prevention and response program was well-organized, victims did not trust the system and the guard did not have a mechanism to coordinate prosecution with local law enforcement. Alaska's code was established in 1955 and has remained largely unchanged since then. According to the National Guard Bureau Office Of Complex Investigations, Alaska National Guard leadership seemed unaware that the state's code of military justice existed and the investigation found no record of a court martial since 1955. One issue with the state's current code was a lack of enforcement capability for the guard for any crime that could be tried by civil authorities. The new bill calls for potential jail time and dishonorable discharge for crimes such as writing bad checks, breach of peace and indecent exposure. It also includes several sections that apply to cases typically handled by civilian authorities including sexual assault and drunk driving. While the changes would empower the state's national guard to prosecute more crimes committed by service members than is currently allowed, the guard's prosecution process is limited to a maximum of up to 10 years in jail time and - unlike the federal Uniform Code of Military Justice - Alaska's guard would not be able to impose a death sentence. Rep. Wes Keller, R-Wasilla, said he noticed the sentencing maximum language and interpreted it to mean that the maximum penalty in a sexual abuse case was the same as the maximum penalty for a military crime such as collaborating with the enemy. "In the federal case, that could be a death penalty," Keller said. "I'm just wondering if there are any ramifications of having those two maximum penalties the same." U.S. National Guard Capt. Forrest Dunbar, who was tasked with helping to overhaul the state's code of military justice, told Keller that the state's National Guard felt the sentencing maximum was appropriate. He said the guard would not prosecute certain kinds of crimes that could be punished with harsher sentences in civilian courts. "We took a number of things out. Things like murder and the highest levels of sexual assault - sexual assaults of a child, those kinds of things - because we don't feel it's appropriate for our national guard to be prosecuting those things. Those are civilian crimes, primarily civilian crimes and they have much higher limits on sentencing," Dunbar said. Punishments that could include the death penalty at the federal level for certain military offenses - misbehavior toward the enemy or desertion - Dunbar said would typically occur in situations where service members were in active duty statues and therefore subject to prosecution under the federal code. "We acknowledge that there could be sort of a 1-in-a-million, who knows what the exact proportion is, but a very, very unlikely chance where we would have an enemy here in Alaska and for whatever reason the federal government hasn't responded and federalized us and in that brief window one of our soldiers could commit one of these very specific offenses. In which case we would be limited to ten years in prison," he said. (source: Associated Press) USA: Justice Breyer Is Dying For A Case That Will Kill The Death Penalty For Good He's ready. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer wants to hear a real death penalty case soon. The U.S. Supreme Court gets last-minute death penalty appeals all the time, even when it's on summer recess. It seldom grants them. It refused 2 requests late Thursday from Christopher Eugene Brooks, an Alabama inmate who was hoping to convince the justices that his death sentence was unconstitutional. He was executed less than an hour later. 1 of Brooks' 11th-hour appeals dealt with Alabama's planned use of midazolam, the same sedative the Supreme Court held was constitutional in an explosive case last year. The court rejected Brooks' petition without comment, presumably for that reason. But the inmate's 2nd request dealt with Alabama's process of putting people to death -- a judicial system in which judges essentially play God. The court also rejected Brooks' petition on that point. But this time, 3 justices spoke. And all 3 questioned whether Alabama's system can survive the weight of the Constitution much longer. First up was Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who last week, in Hurst v. Florida, led the court in striking down Florida's judge-centric sentencing scheme. Joined by Ruth Bader Ginsburg, she declined Brooks' petition due to "procedural obstacles." But she suggested that the changed legal landscape since the Hurst decision -- still causing chaos in Florida -- meant Alabama's capital sentencing scheme's days were numbered. The big surprise, though, was Justice Stephen Breyer, the only one who would have spared Brooks' life for a little while so the court could take a closer look at his claim that Alabama's sentencing regime violates the Constitution. "Christopher Eugene Brooks was sentenced to death in accordance with Alabama's procedures, which allow a jury to render an advisory verdict that is not binding on the court," wrote Breyer. This system, he added, "is much like and based on Florida's" now unconstitutional system. Then came the kicker. "The unfairness inherent in treating this case differently from others which used similarly unconstitutional procedures only underscores the need to reconsider the validity of capital punishment under the Eighth Amendment," Breyer wrote. As if to say, "I'm ready to consider whether the death penalty is unconstitutional once and for all." (source: Cristian Farias, Legal Affairs Reporter, The Huffington Post) ********************** World View: Death penalty opponents sense an opportunity----Abolitionists are now pinning hopes on the case of Pennsylvania woman Shonda Walter "His head was in his hands," the defence lawyer recalled of the hearing, "and he just had a troubled look on his face." Anthony Kennedy, the swing vote on the 9-member US Supreme Court, would rule in the case last June with the death penalty majority. But it clearly did not sit easily with him. Abolitionists who have for years studied every twist and turn, every nuance in the court's rulings on the issue, trying to find hints of a change in the judicial climate, sense that this at last might be a moment of opportunity. Kennedy has ruled both ways in cases where limits have been proposed on the scope of the death penalty - age, mental capacity, etc - but has not yet made explicit his view of its overall constitutionality. But, significantly, he has spoken of the need to take into account public and international opinion. And the tide has definitely turned. Opponents of capital punishment are now pinning hopes on the case of Pennsylvania woman Shonda Walter; the Supreme Court is this week considering whether to hear her case or not. Since Walter does not fit the special categories of defendants that the court has over the years gradually shielded from the death penalty, her appeal is based on the claim that all executions violate the US constitution. An opportunity, lawyers believe, Kennedy willing, for the US to this week break with a practice that has brought its justice system international opprobrium. International legal groups, including the Bar Council of Ireland and those of Australia, the UK, Canada and South Africa, have filed amicus curiae opinions in support of Walter; the UK pleading specifically refers to the danger of executing the innocent, exemplified in the capital convictions in the Birmingham 6 and Guildford 4 cases. Uneven application Walter was 24 when in 2005 she allegedly killed a neighbour, 83-year-old James Sementelli, with a hatchet. Although her lawyer told the jury she had committed the crime and on appeal made arguments the judge said were "unintelligible", the courts refused to accept an "incompetent counsel" plea. Her new lawyers argue that Walter "emerged from an arbitrary process which fails to limit the death penalty to the worst offenders". That arbitrariness, the uneven application of the state's most draconian punishment, as much as the cruelty of the punishment, will be central to the case. Only 15 % of US counties now account for every death sentence handed down since the 1970s, and countless reports show that black or poor defendants such as Walter are far more likely to face capital charges. Seven states have abandoned the practice since 2004, bringing the total to 19, while since the turn of the century executions and sentences have been declining more or less year on year. In 2015 there were 28 executions and 49 new death sentences, the lowest numbers in decades. Texas, Georgia and Missouri now account for the vast majority of death row cases. The decline in capital punishment, which steadily reinforces the legal "arbitrariness" argument, mirrors a decline in public support. Polls now show an even split between support for death and support for life without parole. Support for the death penalty in principle, though still a majority, has declined by a quarter since the 1990s. The legal battleground has in recent years largely been focused on eroding capital punishment at the edges. This week the Supreme Court ruled against Florida in a case in which judges rather than juries imposed the death penalty, opening up the potential for challenges to many ongoing cases as well as dozens of new appeals. The courts have barred the execution of several categories of people: minors, the intellectually disabled and those convicted of a crime other than murder. New DNA techniques have allowed campaigners to show that many on death row are innocent. Several states have abandoned the practice because of the excessive cost of capital trials, while challenges to the use of specific drugs as ineffective and cruel have delayed executions. Perhaps, however, the central issue can now be faced head on. As the New York Times legal correspondent Adam Liptak puts it: "They can no longer ignore the clear movement of history." (source: Irish Times) From rhalperi at smu.edu Sat Jan 23 11:48:16 2016 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Sat, 23 Jan 2016 11:48:16 -0600 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide Message-ID: Jan. 23 IRAN: The Artist Making Dolls of the Women Executed in Iran Women living in Iran have been executed for "crimes" like not wearing their hijab correctly or defending themselves from rape. While the country's government uses the death penalty as a silencing tactic, Iranian-American artist Sheida Soleimani is bringing attention to the women who were supposed to disappear. Iranian-American artist Sheida Soleimani has never been to Iran, and she most likely never will. After her 2014 photo series, National Anthem, which displayed chaotic iconography from the country's even more chaotic political history, appeared in the press, Soleimani started receiving threatening letters from members of the Iranian government. Now, she's pretty sure she's on their watch-list. However, her work provides such an incisive lens on the country that it wouldn't be completely accurate to call her an outsider looking in. As the daughter of 2 political refugees who were targeted by the government during the 1979 Iranian Revolution, the country's war-torn discourse has always been a part of Soleimani's life and her art. Her latest, untitled photo series aims to bring attention to women in Iran who have been executed by their government for "crimes" such as not wearing their headscarf correctly or defending themselves from rape. According to Iran Human Rights, 3,344 people have been executed in Iran since 2011 for minor offenses. The total number of women executed in the country per year is unknown; the government will report a certain amount of executions - sometimes adding false charges - but many go completely unacknowledged. Even without this context, it's clear that the women resurrected in Soleimani's surreal photographs - bloated and pixelated - have gone through something grotesque. Ahead of her solo exhibition in Cologne later this year, I talked to Soleimani about the emotional, and multi-media, process behind her photos, identity in art, and her deep connection to a place she'll never see. Broadly: A lot of the work you made is very much tied to Iran. As a woman of color, I'm always curious about how and why people choose to represent their racial and gender identity through art. There seems to be two different camps of artists of color: those who want to avoid the label and those who embrace it. Did you always know that you wanted to explore your Iranian heritage? Sheida Soleimani: Yeah, ever since I was young. I was raised in the United States, but I didn't learn how to speak English until I was 6. My parents were very specific about me learning my native tongue because they knew that I would learn how to speak English when I went to school and met other kids. So I was always really eager to share what was going with me when I learned how to speak English. I was really excited to be able to communicate with other kids and, once I started doing that, I felt like everything I had to say to them was so foreign. As I got older, that started to make me think about what people in the West are exposed to and how they are exposed to different things, specifically through the news and popular media. What's shown about Iran on the news is very specifically framed. My parents being political refugees really made me want to start talking about [what's happening in Iran] more. Were your parents open with you about their experience as refugees? They were always really candid with me. Sometimes I wonder if it was too much, but I don't think so. When I was five, my mom would put me to bed and tell me stories about when she was in prison and what the prison guards did to her. [She was arrested and tortured by members of the Iranian government.] I think part of that was because she didn't have anyone else to talk to about it. I kind of became my parent's psychologist. My dad, over dinner discussion, would talk about how his friends were executed and hanged and how he had to witness public hangings. As a child, it was definitely a lot to hear about, but I learned about the truth at a very young age. I'm thankful for that. My parents are always my go-to. Even when I'm making this work now, I'll call my parents and ask them what they think. The rest of my family still lives in Iran, and they're my news source for getting news that's not filtered by Western media. Anything that I can't find on the dark web comes from them, especially during times of revolution and protest. There were a lot of things that weren't talked about on Western TV when the Green Revolution started happening in 2008, for example. Family members were telling me, "It's bad here. There's sweepers cleaning up blood from the streets at night." What do your parents think of your work? It took them a little while, but my mom has always been really helpful. When I started taking self-portraits she would help me set up photos even though I was, like, half-naked. My dad is really interested in the activism of it. He was a political activist in Iran, and that's actually why my mom got arrested. He's definitely into displaying opinions - he thinks that's really important - and my mom is more interested in the artistic process of it. It seems like both of their philosophies influenced you in the way that your work is visual, but it's not just "retinal" art. What are your thoughts on art as activism? I would consider myself an activist in some means, but my work is just to raise questions. Everyone is going to take away something different from it, but at least they'll get to see it. That's my biggest concern. When did you start making work about Iranian women, specifically? This work is pretty new. I started this in November, but I've really been running with it because I have a few shows coming up. It's become really important to me, so I'm going to try to make a whole show's worth by April. I remember I was sitting in the car, having a conversation with my partner, and I was just coming down from finishing National Anthem. Those images addressed a lot of torture victims, whether they were male of female, and people who have been victimized for speaking out. But then I started thinking about it more, and I realized it was important for me, having a mother who went through what she did, to highlight the women who have been executed. No one is representing them or protecting them in the country of Iran, and they are killed if they try to have a voice. I started thinking about what would happen if I started forcing [people to look at] these images of these women on trial. And this just after I had learned about Reyhaneh Jabbari, a woman who was executed for killing her rapist. I was just thinking, "Wow, a woman can't even protect herself from someone who is trying to rape her. He walks free, and she gets killed. How can I start a conversation about this?" The resulting images look 3-dimensional or like they're from 3D forms. What's the process behind these compositions? The 1st thing I do is look at the numbers online. I'm on Iran Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International - which doesn't even cover 1/4 of the executions - and on the dark web, where there are forums that people can confirm casualties in Iran. If one of your family members has been jailed, no one in the government will tell you if they have been executed or what has happened to them. That's where these forums come in. The Humans Rights Watch put out a report in 2013 that said that over 200 executions were not even claimed, and last year saw the highest number of executions in 15 years. There are public executions as well, and that's how the government tries to instill fear in its citizens. They execute women in this way to send a message: don't do this or you'll be killed, too. Reyhaneh Jabbari was one of those women. The next thing I do is try to find images of these women. Very rarely are women even allowed to have trials - it's really just a matter of formality - but when they do have trials, sometimes images will be posted online. In the image I made of the woman crying, that's from her trial, but other source pictures come from mugshots. Since they're usually for web, the images are small and I need to upsize them. That's why they appear pixelated - I leave them that way as a nod to their online source. Then I print them on fabric and stuff them to make them plush. The next thing I think about are objects that can tell the story of the woman's execution. Most recently, I had an image of a woman who was handcuffed and led to her death. I sourced and cut-up images of her hands and placed handcuffs around her form. It's really all about playing with that language and thinking about what an image can contribute to another image. Then I set it all up in a corner of a room and photograph it. Oh, wow. So these are all photographs of physical installations. They're not digitally collaged at all? No, not at all. I'm really bad at Photoshop. Knowing that makes these images even more horrifying to me. The mangled doll aspect... You're quite literally making these invisible women visible, in a way that's fittingly disturbing. I knew I wanted to print the women's faces on some sort of fabric to make them plush, but I started playing around with things and then realized that when I created my 1st sculptural form it really resembled the form of a Bobo doll, which are those clown-looking dolls that are weighted at the bottom. The end result of the doll really does look like a punching bag. I mentioned this to a friend who is a psychologist, and she brought up Albert Banduras' social learning experiment. The experiment was done in 1961 using 2 control groups of children. One group gets to go into a room with various toys and they get to play without any direction. The second group of children, before they get to go into this room of toys, watches a video of a person displaying aggression toward a Bobo doll. After that group of children watches the video, every single one of those kids decided to play with the Bobo Doll aggressively. The first group didn't do that all. When started thinking about these forms I was making out of pictures of executed women, I couldn't help but see the link there. In a lot of villages in Iran, you are forced to go to the city square and witness a woman get killed. People take their kids - it's so normalized that it's like taking your kids to the circus. I was actually horrified myself the other night when I was photographing one them. I was positioning the dolls and touching them, and then I realized I was thinking about not touching the dolls too roughly. They're inanimate objects, but when I work with them I feel a connection and I feel like I have to treat them a specific way because of what's happened to the women behind them. It's like, I'm touching the face of this dead woman. It's strange. I get really sad. (source: broadly.vice.com) KUWAIT: Kuwait urged to commute death sentences in spying case Kuwait has been urged to drop plans to execute 2 men convicted of spying for Iran and Hezbollah, with an international rights group claiming their trial was "flawed". Kuwait's first instance criminal court sentenced Hassan Hajiya, a Kuwaiti national, and Abdulreda Dhaqany, an Iranian national, to death on January 12. In both cases, Human Rights Watch said they were convicted "without adequate legal representation". "Issuing a death penalty sentence, especially after flawed proceedings, is a terrible way for the Kuwaiti authorities to begin 2016," said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director. "The authorities should commute the executions immediately and reinstate the moratorium that had been in place from 2007 to 2013." Hajiya's lawyer, Khaled al-Shatti, said that his client was held and interrogated on an almost daily basis from August 13 to September 1, 2015, by Homeland Security without any access to legal representation, the rights group said in a statement. It added that his lawyer sought access to the interrogations but the attorney general denied him and all of the other lawyers of the 24 other defendants who faced similar charges access to their clients. Al-Shatti hopes to appeal Hajiya's death sentence within the next 3 weeks. Human Rights Watch also said Dhaqany was not arrested, nor was he represented by a lawyer before 3 judges in Kuwait's first instance criminal court sentenced him to death in absentia. He is currently outside the country. State prosecutors brought charges of espionage and possession of arms without a licence against 26 people in all. Judges found 24 people guilty of possessing arms without a licence and 18 among them for spying. After a de facto moratorium on the death penalty since 2007, Kuwaiti authorities executed 5 people in 2013. In September 2015, a court sentenced seven people to death in relation to the Shia Imam Sadiq Mosque bombing in June. On December 13, the appeals court upheld the death penalty for one of them and commuted the other sentences. (source: arabianbusiness.com) THAILAND: Senior cop gets death penalty for murdering official A former senior police officer has been sentenced to death for his involvement in the murder of a chief administrator of the provincial administration organisation (PAO) in 2013. The decision by the Region 4 Appeals Court overturns a lower court sentence of life in prison against Pol Lt Col Somjit Kaewphrom. The former deputy chief of Nong Rua district police station was convicted in the shooting death of Suchart Khotthum in front of his house in Muang district on May 3, 2013. The family of the slain official later appealed the lower court ruling. Pol Lt Col Somjit was 1 of 5 defendants in the case. The other 4 - Pol Snr Sgt Maj Veerasak Chamnanpol, Praphan Sripilai, Boonchuay Chungklang and Piyapong Meekambang - were given life imprisonment for colluding in the murder. Suthep Khotthum, head of the legal affairs unit of the Khon Kaen PAO, said on Friday that the family of the late PAO deputy chief was satisfied with the new ruling, given on Jan 19. Reporters were not allowed to attend. "The family members of the slain official are satisfied with the appeal court's decision. Justice has prevailed for all sides. Wrongdoers must be punished. As for the convicts, they have the right to appeal the ruling," said Mr Suthep. Pol Lt Gen Boonlert Jaipradit, chief of Provincial Police Region 4, said the alleged mastermind of the murder had recently contacted police to fight the case. However, police investigators had obtained solid evidence to link him with the murder, said the regional police chief. The investigation team has already submitted its report to prosecutors to indict the alleged mastermind, he added. Police earlier focused on adultery as the motive behind the killing. They believed the defendants had acted under orders of a superior whom they called "the boss" who was upset with the slain official's close relations with the woman he was courting. Daily News Online said the lower court had earlier sentenced Pol Lt Col Somjit to life in prison and Mr Praphan to 37 years in jail and acquitted the three other defendants of the murder charges. This prompted the family of the slain official to appeal. (source: Bangkok Post) UNITED KINGDOM/ETHIOPIA: Foreign Office 'has betrayed Briton on death row in Ethiopia' ---- Claims government has failed 'ghost prisoner' denied access to a lawyer or his family The partner of a British man sentenced to death in Ethiopia has accused the UK government of wilfuly ignoring his plight. Andargachew Tsege was given the death penalty at a trial held in his absence six years ago, in contravention of international law. A prominent figure in an Ethiopian opposition party, he disappeared in June 2014 during a stopover in Yemen while travelling from Dubai to Eritrea, in what campaigners regard as a politically motivated kidnapping. He was then illegally rendered to Ethiopia on the command of the Ethiopian government, as part of a crackdown on dissidents and civil rights activists. Speaking ahead of Foreign Office minister James Duddridge's arrival on Wednesday in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, for the annual African Union summit, Tsege's partner, Yemi Hailemariam, from north London, said she felt betrayed by the UK government's apparent indifference. Foreign Office officials, however, have yet to learn whether they will even be granted a meeting with Ethiopia to raise Tsege's case. "Since Andy disappeared in June 2014 our family has been living a nightmare," said Hailemariam. "My children are desperate to see their father again. Andy believed in democracy above all - that's what he respected about Britain, and it's what he hoped for in Ethiopia. He was sentenced to death for holding these very British values - we simply can't understand why the government he believed in isn't standing up for him." It is now 18 months since Tsege was put in jail and UK ministers have yet to request the 60-year-old's release. Letters to the Tsege's lawyers indicate that Duddridge believes the father of three from Islington should appeal his conviction through the Ethiopian courts, a stance his family fear reveals that the UK government has accepted the validity of Tsege's conviction. Despite being pressed last week on whether its position had changed, the Foreign Office remains unmoved. By contrast, the European Parliament cranked up the pressure on Ethiopia last Thursday, passing a resolution demanding the country release Tsege "immediately". Tsege, who fled the country in the 1970s and sought asylum in the UK in 1979, has been unable to contact a lawyer since his arrest, and his family have similarly been blocked from seeing him. A redacted transcript from a 30-minute meeting on December 26 last year between Tsege and a British official allowed to visit him apperared to confirm he is effectively a "ghost prisoner". The transcript states: "He [Tsege] had been told there was a problem in that he 'wasn't in the system and hadn't been given a prisoner number'. He was also denied other rights that other prisoners enjoyed such as watching TV, listening to the radio and reading newspapers." It added: "He didn't even know who was really responsible for him - he'd written to ask but hadn't received a response yet." Maya Foa, the head of Reprieve's death penalty team, said the time had come for the Foreign Office to abandon soft diplmacy and call for the Briton's release. She said: "Tsege has been subjected to an outrageous, unlawful ordeal, and if the Foreign Office disagrees, it must explain why. ???It is unacceptable that a British citizen was sentenced to death in a political show trial - where he wasn't present, and didn't even know about the court proceedings - and then kidnapped into indefinite detention by the same brutal regime. It's clear that there is no hope of 'due process' in Ethiopia's courts, and that Andy's very wellbeing is at stake." A psychological analysis of Tsege, based on the transcript from the prison visit suggest his mental state has deteriorated significantly. Dr Ben Robinson, of South London and Maudsley NHS Trust, said the transcipt suggests Tsege may have become suicidal. A Foreign Office spokesperson said: "The foreign secretary has raised Tsege's case with the Ethiopian government on 20 separate occasions, making it clear the way he has been treated is unacceptable. We welcome the improvement in access to Tsege, following the British Government's intervention, but it must be more regular and it must include access to a lawyer. The statement added: "Tsege has still not been given an ability to challenge his detention through a legal process. The foreign secretary has written formally to the Ethiopians requesting a timetable for that legal process." (source: The Guardian) JAMAICA: Waste of time - Death penalty won't make a difference, says UWI professor Given perennially low conviction rates by local courts of law in Jamaica, Alcan Professor of Caribbean Sustainable Development at the University of the West Indies (UWI) Anthony Clayton is suggesting that application of capital punishment will hardly serve as a deterrent to murder. "There are those who believe that if (Jamaica) re-introduces capital punishment, (it) will solve crime," asserted Clayton at a Gleaner forum yesterday. "But it won't because the chances of being convicted are only 5 %." Clayton brought empirical data to substantiate his claims: "It doesn't matter what the severity of the punishment is if the chances of being convicted are so small," he argued. The last incident of capital punishment in Jamaica took place in 1988. With the murder rate ballooning out of control over the last 40 years, debate has been raging in the public space about the effect of the death penalty. COMMON POSITION The debate on its retention reconvened in the House of Representatives in 2008, with strong views emanating from both sides, although the arguments for outnumbered those that were against. The common position was that steps should be urgently taken to advance the complete overhaul of the justice system to ensure that the process was fair and that the method of death should include the electric chair or death by injection, and should not be restricted to hanging. But Clayton, who has conducted a comprehensive study of criminal behaviour globally, is not convinced. "If the chance of convictions is very low, the severity of the punishment doesn't matter," he argued. He disclosed that the studies have found that a significantly higher number of the perpetrators of murders are themselves killed while on the run than are convicted by the courts of law for the crimes that they committed. Clayton noted that between 2004 and 2010, some 61 % of the homicide levels remained unsolved, while 39 per cent were 'cleared', which denotes that the alleged murderers were merely identified. CONVICTION RATES Clayton revealed as well that 1/3 of this category was eventually acquitted. "So only 12 of the 39 % survived long enough to get to court and were sentenced," he said. According to him, this means that the conviction rate overall was less than 5 % per year. "If you are a murderer, you are 3 times more likely to be killed and about 5 times more likely to be acquitted than you are to be sentenced," he said. This, he added, has a lot of consequences for crime solving. "Many believe that if capital punishment is re-introduced, it will solve the problem, but it won't," he stressed. "Because the chance of being convicted is only 5 %. Clayton noted that murder cases take up to 5 years to be concluded. He said that witnesses in some of the protracted murder cases are themselves killed, thereby affecting the outcomes of the trials. (source: Jamaica Gleaner) From rhalperi at smu.edu Sun Jan 24 08:54:49 2016 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Sun, 24 Jan 2016 08:54:49 -0600 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, N.C., KAN., ARIZ., CALIF. Message-ID: Jan. 24 TEXAS: Death penalty for juveniles?----Charles: A 17-year-old murderer deserves death This week, Arnold Loewy and Charles Moster debate whether juveniles should be subject to the death penalty. Moster is a former litigation attorney in the Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush presidential administrations who currently has offices in Lubbock and Amarillo. Arnold is the George Killiam Professor of Law at Texas Tech University School of Law. The eighth amendment prohibits cruel and unusual punishment. Within the context of the death penalty, the Supreme Court has held it is cruel and unusual punishment to sentence juvenile offenders with the death penalty. However, there is no constitutional basis for this position. Instead, the Court has decided in Roper v. Simmons that the definition of prohibiting cruel and unusual punishment is now based upon "evolving standards of decency that mark the progress of a maturing society." The problem with this standard for determining whether juveniles should be sentenced to death is that philosophy sounds beautiful but does not protect society from vile criminal acts. The case in Roper involved a 17-year-old high school student named Christopher Simmons who had discussed robbing and murdering someone for many months with his friends. Simmons finally broke into a woman's house, tied her up, beat her and drove her to a bridge, where he pushed her off the edge, and she drowned. Simmons later bragged about the murder to many different people, and was eventually arrested and sentenced to death. Now, according to the Supreme Court, it would be cruel and unusual punishment to sentence a man like Simmons to death for the murder of his victim. However, I do not believe such a sentence would be cruel and unusual punishment. The nature of the crime is such that society needs to be protected from heinous acts. Criminals should not receive clemency simply because they are a few years away from the age of 18. It is difficult to imagine that a man like Simmons should get away with his heinous and premeditated deed because the government has decided that 17 year olds are, in the eyes of the law, "children." Simmons was nine months away from turning 18. Do those nine months warrant treating him like a child and granting him juvenile status for purposes of sentencing? I don't think this rationale would be comforting to his victim's family. Because the wording of the Eighth Amendment is so broad, it is not unconstitutional to sentence juveniles with the death penalty so long as the crime merits the punishment. Certainly for lesser offenses rehabilitation or incarceration is warranted. But in situations where young criminals are guilty of murder, the death penalty should be an option. The risk that the killers will kill again outweighs the possibility of rehabilitation or incarceration for these most heinous crimes. As such, I believe the legislature should be free to determine that the death penalty is a viable option for juveniles who have demonstrated a disregard for human life. If we were to continue on with the philosophy that "evolving standards of decency" allow murdering teenagers to receive leniency for their crimes, society would not be better off, and it would not mark progress. Arnold: A 17-year-old's brain hasn't fully developed The question before us today is whether a young adult should be put to death for a crime that he committed as a child. Happily the Supreme Court has said "no." Why do I say happily? Don't we need protection from vicious cold-blooded murderers of any age? The answer is of course we do, but secure incarceration will do just fine on that score. And, for what it's worth, states that do not have capital punishment have a lower murder rate than states (like Texas) that have capital punishment. What Mr. Moster lampoons as "evolving standards of decency" includes evolving standards of scientific knowledge. We did not always know how brain function develops, but now we do. Today we know the ability to control one's conduct and be deterred by punishment develops significantly later than cognitive functioning. Science has told us that a 25 year-old is not likely to react to peer pressure and impulses in the same manner as an 18-year-old. Consequently, we should not write the law as if he would. To be sure there are occasional bad seeds who will continue to do horrible things as they age. But there are 2 problems with relying on this. First, they are a distinct minority, and second, it is impossible to tell whom they might be. At the time of trial, nobody knew whether the boy, Simmons (and he was a boy, not a man), would develop into a psychopathic killer, a pillar of his community, or something in between. We do know that the fact that he did something very bad as a boy doesn't give us the answer. Mr. Moster suggests that "Criminals should not receive clemency (assuming that 30 years in prison constitutes clemency) simply because they are a few years away from the age of 18." Well at what age (if any) should we not kill children? 15? 12? 9? In regard to the last example, the casebook that I edited for criminal law classes includes the case of Cameron Kocher, a 9-year-old boy who, on a snow day with no school, procured a key to his father's locked gun cabinet, retrieved a hunting rifle, removed a window screen, and shot and killed a classmate riding on a snowmobile. Undoubtedly, he should have been dealt with severely. But should he have been killed? I assume that Mr. Moster would say "no," but I'll let him speak for himself. To the extent that there is arbitrariness in the 18-year cutoff, it is that 18- and 19-year-olds, whose brains are not fully developed, are subject to capital punishment. But, as with voting and ability to serve in the military, there has to be a cutoff somewhere and 18 seems to be the favored line (though it is worth noting that 21 is the line for alcohol because of the belief that those under 21 lack the judgment to manage their consumption thereof). Maybe the age limit for capital punishment should also be raised to 21 to mirror the judgment about alcohol. Mr. Moster's proposal to overrule Roper would not only be bad law, but would actually be perverse. This is because the cognitive portion of the brain develops more quickly than impulse control portion of the brain. Thus, a 17-year-old may well have something intelligent to say about whether Donald Trump or Ted Cruz should be our next president, but the law denies him the opportunity to vote. Yet, if Mr. Moster's proposal succeeded, the boy's 17-year-old twin brother and perhaps even his 14-year-old younger sister who killed a grocery clerk because she refused to sell them beer, could in turn be killed by the state. If you like that dichotomy, perhaps you should support Mr. Moster's proposal. But I don't and I won't. Charles: Juries should decide case by case Allowing the death penalty for minors as an option is not the same as mandating it in all circumstances. The jury would make a determination on a case by case basis, and they should be free to do so. Juries need the versatility to consider such a sentence should the circumstances require. The focus should not be on impulse control, but rather whether an individual has the intellectual capacity to understand the difference between right and wrong. Human beings are held to standards of morality and decency at a much younger age - 16- and 17-year-olds understand the difference between right and wrong. They can understand that murder is wrong and punishable. Professor Loewy admits that although a teenager might not be emotionally fully matured, they certainly do have the intellectual capacity to understand that murder is wrong. Only those who have committed the worst crimes should be considered for the death penalty. If a 17-year-old intentionally commits a murder, and has the intellectual capacity to understand that what he did was wrong, he should be held accountable to the fullest extent, even if it means facing the death penalty, despite not being a fully emotionally developed adult. Certainly, an emotional crime of passion such as the one Professor Loewy cites in his example should not be classed the same as the premeditated actions of a serial killer. But emotional development is simply not an issue when dealing with a minor who has planned and killed several others, for example Mary Bell or Jesse Pomeroy, both responsible for multiple slayings of other children. For most of our history, whether a particular punishment violated the Eighth Amendment depended on whether it constituted an act or punishment which would be considered cruel and unusual at the time the Bill of Rights was adopted. At that time, the age of capacity to commit felonies was set at 14 years old. However, as has been discussed, the Courts now look at the "evolving standards of decency." As such, 14 is now seen as minor, but at the time the bill was adopted a 14-year-old was a capable of adult choices as an 18 year old, and considering that a 14-year-old could serve in the armed forces of the time, it would make sense they would be considered adults as well. Despite the Professor's assertion that someone who brags about killing in cold blood, or plans and carries out multiple ritualistic killings, could somehow develop into a pillar of the community, the death penalty for so called "bad seeds" must be an option for the safety of society. Arnold: Young murderers might grow up to be good Mr. Moster tells us he does favor a line below which no child can be executed, but his line is 14, the common law line for criminality. But this is no less arbitrary than the Roper v. Simmons line. Under Mr. Moster's rule, if 2 lifelong friends (1 a month under 14 and 1 a month over 14) set out to rob a store and kill the clerk, the 2-month-older child would be eligible for the death penalty whereas the younger child would not, even if the younger child were the primary planner. Mr. Moster relies on the fact that 14-year-olds were considered adults when the Constitution was framed. There are 2 problems with this. First, at that time, according to Mr. Moster, 14-year-olds could serve in the armed services and thus were treated as adults. Today, in nearly every respect a 14-year-old is treated as a child. Second, we now know scientifically that 17-year-olds do not have the capacity to appreciate consequences that is enjoyed by adults. We did not know that in 1791. The crimes that I discussed previously were calculated, not emotional crimes. Cameron Kocher, 9, was not angry at anybody; he just decided to use his classmate as target practice and then made an effort to cover up his role in the crime. The teenagers in my last hypothetical were guilty of classic felony murder for stealing beer at gunpoint from the clerk. I would underscore that for purposes of this debate, I am not arguing that Simmons, Kocher, or the hypothetical teenagers should be treated as juveniles and tried in juvenile court (although Kocher in fact was). What I am arguing is the penalty for these children should be limited to substantial confinement in the penitentiary. Of course, juveniles have a basic understanding of morality and decency. That is why they should be severely punished for their transgressions. But they do not have the same understanding that adults have, and that is why their punishment should not be irrevocable. Unfortunately, juries have no way of knowing which child will be irrevocably bad as an adult, and which, as a mature adult, will see the light. For what it is worth, while awaiting execution, according to his attorney: "Simmons became an active Christian, joined several prison ministry and youth programs, and helped as a hospice aide caring for inmates with AIDS." Thus, on the unanswerable trial question "Is Christopher Simmons a bad seed, or a good person who did one unbelievably horrible thing," the answer (however surprising to Mr. Moster) appears to the latter. In a way this should not be surprising. How many of us would want to be judged by the worst thing we ever did as a teenager? Of course, people who do what Simmons did are not free to simply outgrow their immature judgment. But they should, as they are, immune from being killed because of it. (source: lubbockonline.com) NORTH CAROLINA: Death sentence trial, now uncommon, scheduled to start in NC A Fayetteville man is going on trial for his life next month, now an uncommon occurrence in North Carolina. The Fayetteville Observer reports (http://bit.ly/1PL8BgI) the trial of 48-year-old Shawn Legrand is scheduled to begin Feb. 1. Legrand is charged with killing 3 people and trying to kill 2 others in November 2011. The N.C. Center for Death Penalty Litigation says North Carolina had 57 death penalty trials in 2000, with 18 resulting in death sentences. The state had 4 capital trials in 2015 and no death sentences. District Attorney Billy West says he's seeking the death penalty for several reasons, including the number of people killed. Legrand has asked the court to let him represent himself. Defense lawyer Michael Driver said he and lawyer Lisa Miles are still representing Legrand. (source: Associated Press) KANSAS: Rulings in Kansas cases revive conservatives' push on courts Republican Gov. Sam Brownback and his allies are trying to revive their push to remake Kansas' courts by stoking public outrage after recent abortion and death penalty rulings. Brownback has repeatedly advocated overhauling how Kansas Supreme Court justices are selected, potentially giving governors and legislators have more control. He and other prominent conservative Republicans renewed their calls for change over the past week. The current system relies on a lawyer-led commission to screen Supreme Court applicants. The governor must appoint one of its three finalists. Lawmakers have no role. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Jeff King said rulings voters dislike can get their attention and focus them on possible changes. The Independence Republican favors overhauling the selection system. Kansas Bar Association Executive Director Jordan Yochim called the push politically motivated. . (source: Associated Press) ************************* Efforts to repeal Kansas death penalty may be stymied by U.S. Supreme Court's decision Leading up to the start of the 2016 legislative session, Kansas death penalty opponents thought they had a good chance of passing a bill this year to repeal the law. In fact, a bill was formally introduced Friday in the House, with 17 cosponsors from both sides of the aisle, including religious conservative Republicans as well as liberal and centrist Democrats. It would prohibit death sentences for any crimes committed after July 1, and it would create a new crime of "aggravated murder" punishable by life in prison without the possibility of parole. But after the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling this week that put one of the most infamous mass murders in Kansas history back in the spotlight, some lawmakers say those chances may have dimmed. "Up until (Wednesday), we had enough votes that we could have passed it in the House," said Rep. John Bradford, R-Lansing, one of the conservative cosponsors. "Right now, after that decision, I think it's going to be questionable." On Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed a Kansas Supreme Court ruling and upheld the death sentences of 3 convicted murderers in Kansas, including Jonathan and Reginald Carr, the 2 brothers who killed 5 people and attempted to kill a 6th during a crime spree in Wichita in December 2000. In the same opinion, the court also reversed the Kansas court in another death penalty case, that of Sidney Gleason, who was convicted of the 2004 murder of a Great Bend woman and her boyfriend, because the decision in that case was based on the court's ruling in the Carr brothers case. Those were the 2nd and 3rd cases in which the U.S. high court reversed the Kansas court on death penalty cases. In 2013, the U.S. court also upheld the death sentence of Scott Cheever, who shot and killed Greenwood County Sheriff Matt Samuels in 2005. Kansas reinstated the death penalty in 1994, and since then several people have been sentenced to death. But so far, no one has been executed because the Kansas Supreme Court has consistently overturned or vacated their sentences, usually on procedural grounds. In 2014, in fact, the Kansas court vacated the Carr brothers' sentences, thrusting the court itself into the middle of election-year politics. 2 of the court's justices, Eric Rosen and Lee Johnson, were up for retention that year, and both of them won, but by much narrower margins than usual. Now, with that infamous massacre back in the spotlight, some supporters of repeal say it will be hard to vote for it without appearing like they're letting the Carr brothers off the hook, even though the repeal bill, as it's currently drafted, would not apply retroactively to them. "I'm sure some would perceive that," said Rep. John Barker, R-Abilene, who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, where the bill could be referred. "But I look at it from a different perspective. You have your personal convictions, whether you're pro-life or pro-choice, whether you're for the death penalty or against the death penalty. Normally (a court ruling) doesn't change your personal convictions. It may add pressure that they don't want to go forward this year, though." Rep. Boog Highberger, D-Lawrence, another cosponsor of the bill, said he is also hopeful that the Carr brothers decision won't affect how lawmakers vote on the issue. "The bill is not retroactive, so any existing death sentences could still be carried out," he said. Highberger also said the movement to abolish the death penalty has been gaining momentum among conservatives. "The conservative argument, as I understand it is, one, the death penalty is an inefficient government program," he said. "We've spent millions of dollars on it and we haven't executed anyone since 1965." "Also," he said, "I think people are finally realizing it might be inconsistent with conservative beliefs about small government and limited government. If you only believe in limited government, do you want government having the power to kill people?" But Sen. Jeff King, R-Independence, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee and is a supporter of the death penalty, said he doesn't buy the argument that the law is ineffective because it hasn't been used yet. "The 3 decisions of the Kansas Supreme Court that have prevented the death penalty have all been overturned by the United States Supreme Court," he said. "The misapplication of the federal Constitution by the Kansas Supreme Court cannot be used as a justification for repealing the law." On Monday, House Speaker Ray Merrick, R-Stilwell, is expected to refer the death penalty bill to a committee. Barker said it will be up to Merrick and the House GOP leadership team to decide whether the bill will get a hearing, and whether it will ever be voted on by the full House. (source: Lawrence Journal World) ****************** 3 court rulings not final word on issues Last week brought rulings of keen interest in Wichita and Kansas from the highest courts in the nation and the state on some of the most crucial issues of the day, from abortion to the death penalty to the drug war. First came the U.S. Supreme Court's 8-1 decision Wednesday overturning the Kansas Supreme Court's 2014 ruling vacating the death sentences of Wichita spree killers Jonathan and Reginald Carr and Great Bend double murderer Sidney Gleason. The ruling hands the cases back to the state Supreme Court and leaves more appeal phases to go. But it's a welcome relief that the families and survivors will not have to endure resentencing proceedings. Nor will our community - now linked to the Carrs' 2000 crimes in what is popularly known elsewhere as "the Wichita massacre" - have to see a re-examination of the "acts of almost inconceivable cruelty and depravity" that Justice Antonin Scalia's decision described in excruciating detail. Friday brought the state Supreme Court's decision striking down Wichitans' ballot initiative lessening penalties for marijuana possession and the Kansas Court of Appeals' split ruling further delaying implementation of a 1st-in-the-nation ban on a common 2nd-trimester abortion method. To their understandable frustration, the Wichita activists who tried to do everything right - twice - to get the marijuana reform question on last April's ballot saw the state Supreme Court throw out the vote over a petition filing technicality. Better city guidance might have spared them that stumble. The court's ruling didn't answer the question of whether Wichita could have lower penalties for marijuana possession than the state. But Wichita voters' 54 % approval of the ordinance stands as a strong public endorsement of efforts to reduce penalties for pot possession or otherwise pursue reforms, including the ongoing consideration in Topeka of a House-passed bill that also would authorize hemp treatments for seizure disorders and save the state $1.4 million a year and nearly 450 felony cases. Meanwhile, the historic 7-7 abortion ruling puts half the Court of Appeals on record as agreeing with the Shawnee County District Court that the Kansas Constitution Bill of Rights provides a right to abortion. It also keeps on hold the 2015 ban on the dilation and evacuation procedure and assures state Supreme Court consideration of the case - and additional legal bills for taxpayers, unfortunately. None of the 3 decisions was the last word - a frustration for those looking for certainty. Some will be political fodder, like it or not. But together the week's big rulings underscored how essential the appellate courts are to breaking impasses and ensuring accountability. They don't aim to please, just uphold the Constitution and rule of law. (source: Wichita Eagle Editorial Board) ARIZONA: 7 aggravating factors in death penalty case ---- Maricopa couple found dead in July; neighbor charged A murder case that captivated the nation was brought back into the spotlight this week when Pinal County Attorney Lando Voyles announced he would seek the death penalty against Jose Valenzuela. Valenzuela, 36, is charged with 2 counts of 1st-degree murder in the deaths of Michael and Tina Careccia, a Maricopa-area couple who went missing last June. The Pinal County Sheriff's Office discovered the bodies of the Careccias buried in Valenzuela's backyard in the early morning hours of July 2. Voyles, known for his aggressive stance on the death penalty, wouldn't share specifics on why he thinks this is a good case in which to pursue capital punishment. Proving the premeditated nature of a murder, among other factors, is usually a key to securing a death penalty conviction. "(Premeditation) is a fact that we'll have the opportunity to argue in court, and the defense will have the opportunity to challenge," he said at a press conference outside the Pinal County Superior Court on Wednesday. "The jury or the judge will decide whether or not we've met that burden." Valenzuela confessed to the murders on July 1 when speaking to a Pinal County Sheriff's investigator on the phone. He lived close to the Careccias and was friends with the couple. Sheriff Paul Babeu said there is no question the Careccias had a close relationship with their alleged killer. He mentioned the 3 of them attending the same barbecue on Father's Day, just hours before the Careccias were murdered. "The fact that they were close, their families associated, kids had relationships together ... There's (only) a few hundred yards separating the residences," he said. "And the fact that (the Careccias) went over, even after the barbecue, late at night in (Valenzuela's) home ... It's no doubt more disturbing for the surviving victims (the family). The sting is, I'm sure, that much more pronounced for them." Voyles wouldn't speculate on a judicial outcome for Valenzuela, but Babeu confidently stated the evidence provided in court would lead to a conviction. "I have no doubt the overwhelming evidence that we have, the premeditation of this murder and the subsequent burying of these 2 individuals on his property and the concealing of that crime, (means) he will face justice and he will go away for a very long time, as he should," the sheriff said. The Pinal County Attorney's Office, in its notice of intent to seek the death penalty, listed three aggravating factors in the death of Mike and 4 aggravating factors in Tina's death. In Tina's case, the county attorney's office argues the crime was committed in "an especially heinous, cruel or depraved manner." 1 factor that could complicate the case is drug use. Valenzuela told investigators he abused methamphetamine with the Careccias for 2 years leading up to the murders. He also told investigators he was high on meth when he committed the murders. An autopsy report conducted by the Pinal County Medical Examiner's Office showed both Mike and Tina had the drug in their system at the time of their death. The report also concluded both were homicide victims, each with gunshot wounds to their heads. Local residents, neighbors, friends and family searched the area for days after the Careccias were first reported missing on June 22. The story of a young, attractive couple that seemingly vanished into thin air overnight created a media sensation and made news broadcasts across the country. "Our hearts go out to the surviving victims and the community, anybody who knew Mike and Tina," Babeu said. "They didn't deserve this, and we're going to stand for justice in this case." Valenzuela has a court hearing at 2:30 p.m. Feb. 1 at Pinal County Superior Court in Florence. (source: Casa Grande Dispatch) CALIFORNIA: California Death Penalty Debate: Will The State Change Its Lethal Injection Procedure? California, the state with the most inmates on death row in the country, is debating whether to simplify its lethal-injection protocol, eliminating the 3-drug cocktail previously employed to put prisoners to death and replacing it with just 1 drug. The 3-drug concoction was deemed unconstitutional about 10 years ago because it was believed it might be too painful for the condemned convicts. Since then, some have grown tired of waiting for California to find a new way to execute those sentenced to death. "As of next month, the state will have been remiss in its duties for a decade," Michele Hanisee, vice president of the Los Angeles Association of Deputy District Attorneys, said at an informational hearing in Sacramento Friday, according to Reuters. "The family members of the victims are dying before the murderers." However, the planned change in the protocol may not go forward. A ballot measure has been proposed that would do away with the death penalty in California, replacing it with life in prison without the possibility of parole, the Sacramento Bee reported. The proposal indicates the state "spends millions of taxpayer dollars providing lawyers for death-row inmates, only to see the murderers it has sentenced to death by execution die of old age in prison." Advocates of the abolition of the death penalty hope to get the proposal on the ballot in November, when another measure designed to speed up executions also would be considered. The informational hearing Friday centered on the possible use of the single drug, a barbiturate, at a time when the state is divided over the effectiveness of the death penalty. Linda Fox, a member of Death Penalty Focus, a nonprofit group dedicated to the abolition of capital punishment, said at the hearing that using a barbiturate to execute prisoners could not be proved less painful than the current method. Clerics were also at the hearing to express their dissatisfaction with the concept of the death penalty. The Rev. George Horan, a Roman Catholic priest based in Los Angeles, said crime cannot be "overcome ... simply by executing criminals," the Sacramento Bee reported. As of July 1, California had 746 death-row inmates, followed by Florida with 400, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, a nonprofit group providing analysis and information on issues concerning capital punishment. Meanwhile, those on death row are more likely to die from either natural causes or suicide than from execution. (source: International Business Times) *************** Murder suspect tells his side in 1-on-1 interview Late Thursday evening, double murder suspect Anthony Baxter shuffled into interview booth number five to share his side of a very graphic and horrific story making headlines for the past 2 weeks. He sat quietly, without handcuffs, while he picked up the phone to say hello. At times, Baxter cried while he looked down. He seemed confused as he fumbled with his hands. He also seemed sorry for what he did, but defiant about why he did it. Baxter said he wants the death penalty for killing an Anderson couple last week, a crime he confessed in detail to police. "I don't want to have to go through prison for the rest of my life. I deserve what I did. I killed two people. I deserve the death penalty. I'd rather die than be alive," Baxter said. When asked about the two people he said he killed, it took awhile to respond. Tears started gathering in his eyes when he said, "I regret my action and yes, there was an alternative. I wish I made the choice not to do it." Baxter said he went over the victim's apartment, belonging to Michael Helsby, to "beat" Helsby up, but he "turned into an animal" and "flipped out." He said he never intended to kill Helsby or the other victim, Georgia Engelhaupt, but because she woke up in the middle of his attack on Helsby, "she was a witness." Baxter faced the glass as he described his pent up anger against Helsby after he learned Helsby was going to evict his girlfriend and her s6-year-old daughter. When questioned about his anger, Baxter admitted he had only met Helsby three times. He said he didn't actually know Helsby that well. Baxter insisted the killings stemmed from a lack of respect. He said Helsby had been disrespecting his girlfriend so he had to do something. "I am willing to give up life to fight for respect and that's what I did," Helsby shared as he looked down. Tears hit the ledge of the interview booth when Baxter was asked about his girlfriend and her 6-year-old daughter. In previous reports, she had told police Baxter threatened to kill her daughter in front of her, and then kill her if she ratted him out to police. Baxter admitted he threatened her, but said he would have never actually hurt her or her daughter. Baxter kept mentioning the word "respect." At one point, he said he is a respectful man, but he apologized when he was questioned about the definition of respect. Baxter cried and held his head down while he said over and over that he is sorry. "There's nothing I can say or do to take back what I've done," Baxter said with disgust. Baxter believes his rough upbringing has made it difficult for him to live a normal life. When asked about his past, Baxter referenced a song called "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" by Green Day. He directly quoted the song and said, "I walk this lonely world. I'm the only one that walks alone." Baxter will appear in court next on February 5 for further arraignment. (source: KRCR news) From rhalperi at smu.edu Sun Jan 24 08:56:26 2016 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Sun, 24 Jan 2016 08:56:26 -0600 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide Message-ID: Jan. 24 IRAN----executions 4 Prisoners Hanged In The Central Prison Of Karaj 4 prisoners were executed in Karaj prison. According to the report of Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), 4 prisoners with the names of Seyed Hamid Hajian, Hossain Tootian Noosh, Mostafa Jamshidi and Mohsen Nasiri were executed by hanging in Karaj prison on Tuesday, January 19. All of the prisoners were charged with drug related crimes and were transferred to solitary confinements on Sunday, January 10th. Authorities and judicial offices have not publicized any information in this regard yet. (source: HRANA) SAUDI ARABIA: Saudi Arabia executions: Son of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr calls on David Cameron to save his cousin from death sentence----The UK has an option either to stay with this regime or go to a better place and condemn these barbaric acts' The son of a senior Shia cleric executed by Saudi Arabia has challenged David Cameron to speak out about what he called the murder of his father, Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, and the death sentence that hangs over his cousin, Ali al-Nimr. Sheikh Nimr was beheaded on 2 January along with 46 others. Nearly all were alleged to be members of al-Qaeda. The cleric was 1 of 4 Shia men from the country's restive Eastern Province who were executed for allegedly plotting the overthrow of the government. Ali al-Nimr, a juvenile when he was arrested, and 2 other young Shia, also juveniles, face being beheaded at any time. Mohammed al-Nimr, 29, spoke to The Independent on Sunday from Indianapolis where he moved 5 years ago to study mechanical engineering at the University of Indiana. "The UK," he said "has an option either to stay with this regime or go to a better place and condemn these barbaric acts." He urged the Prime Minister to intervene with the Saudis to save his cousin. "I say to you, Mr Cameron, that if you as a British citizen value freedom and if you value human life, then please imagine Ali as your son and ask yourself what would you do?" Fearing for his own safety, Mr Nimr has not returned to Saudi Arabia for nearly two years. His uncle, the sheikh's brother, was detained on the day the death sentence was handed down in 2014 for tweeting about it. Mr Nimr said that the execution of his father and the continuing threat to his cousin have had a devastating impact on the family. In 2013, 1 year into his father's incarceration, his mother died while receiving treatment at a hospital in New York. "It is not easy at all. We are doing our best to save Ali and we live in hope that one day he will be free," he said. Exacerbating their grief is the fact the Nimr al-Nimr's body has not been returned to the family for burial. The Saudi authorities have said that all those executed were buried together in an unknown place according to Muslim practice. "There is no doctrine in Islam that would say do not return the body," his son said. "We have the right to a proper burial." The family does not know what was done to his father before he was executed. In the harsh Wahhabist version of Islam practiced in Saudi Arabia, the condemned can have hands or feet cut off before beheading. "The world should know what a brutal and barbaric regime this is." He described his father as an advocate of non-violent change. "He was a man who would not accept oppression or tolerate any tyrant, but he always spoke about the peaceful way to demand rights." In a memo released by the Saudi embassy in London shortly after the executions, Nimr al-Nimr was described as having direct involvement in terrorist activities. The memo claimed the cleric was "involved in incitement, planning terrorist attacks, arming militants, and was apprehended following a gunfight with security officials". Mohammed al-Nimr rejects all those charges. He says there is not a single piece of evidence to prove the allegations. "Bring 1 proof, 1 piece of evidence to show that he was armed or that he was violent, just 1. They cannot." Sheikh Nimr had been a long-time critic of the ruling House of Saud. He had repeatedly called for elections and an end to discrimination against the Shia. His popularity soared during the Arab Spring, and he condemned the Saudi-led invasion of neighbouring Bahrain that helped crush a largely Shia-led protest calling for democratic reform there. The cleric's arrest in 2012 led to massive street protests as thousands came out in the Eastern Province to demand his release. Ignoring the protests, the Saudi Specialised Criminal Court, which was established in 2008 to deal with terror suspects and human rights activists, sentenced him to death in October 2014. It was a decision that Amnesty International described as "part of a campaign by the authorities in Saudi Arabia to crush all dissent, including those [activists] defending the rights of the Kingdom's Shia Muslim community". Mohammed al-Nimr says his father's only crime was to call for freedom and humanity. "He told the people that 'the government wants you to be violent so they can have a legitimate cause to kill you, but the loud roar of words is mightier than the sound of bullets'." An only son, he remembers his father as one who took him for morning prayers just before sunrise and how after prayers they would walk through the palm groves in their hometown of Qatif. "He would put aside politics and his role as a cleric and we would discuss matters related to me and things I needed advice on. He was a father to me." Mr Nimr is fearful that if he returns to Saudi Arabia he will be arrested, but he is determined to carry on fighting for the sake of his father and to save his cousin's life. "It is a crime and one day I will prove it in a court of law - and before the whole world - that whoever was involved will get the justice they deserve for the crimes they have committed." (source: independent.co.uk) ZIMBABWE: Death penalty raises stink...Hangman holding the aces "The death sentence is a barbaric act . . . It is a reflection of the animal instinct still in human beings," once remarked former South African president and Nobel Prize Laureate, the late Nelson Mandela. He could not make head or tail of why the world was still holding on to capital punishment when humanity tells us that killing, for whatever reason, is wrong. The veteran human rights campaigner likened punishment by way of killing to a medieval way of instilling discipline in people. In more condensed terms, what Mandela was promulgating was that the death sentence is inhuman, wild and should, therefore, be abolished. In the same spirit last week, Zimbabwe's traditional leaders petitioned the Government to abolish the death penalty. They argued that the death penalty is alien to Zimbabwean culture and is a legacy of the colonial regime. About 45 chiefs from Mashonaland East and Central provinces unanimously agreed that the capital punishment should go. The decision was made at a workshop organised by the Zimbabwe Association for Crime Prevention and Rehabilitation of the Offender (ZACRO) in Harare last week. Explaining some of the reasons behind the decision, president of the Chiefs' Council, Chief Fortune Charumbira, said killing someone because they killed another creates a cycle of violence which can only go on and on. "We, as chiefs, have concluded that killing is an unacceptable form of punishment. When you kill, you kill only the person and you leave behind the spirit that made him to kill," he said. "In our culture, we used to order compensation. The murderer was made to pay several cattle or else an avenging spirit would torment the person." Chief Nechombo shared the same sentiments, arguing: "You can kill a murderer but you cannot kill murder." So adamant were the chiefs such that in a secret vote carried out at the workshop, 42 chiefs voted for the abolition of the death penalty while only 2 supported the law and 1 was undecided. Chief Charumbira went on to point that Zimbabwe has failed to do any executions during the past decade since Government has not found a suitable person for the job, a testimony that no sane person wants to be associated with the practice. ZACRO chief executive officer, Mr Edson Chiota, was impressed by the spirit displayed by the traditional leaders in condemning the law. "The discussion was so mature to the point that almost all the chiefs agreed that capital punishment must be abolished. They believe in appeasement. Chiefs said the act of punishing by killing will not in any way solve the problems of murder in Zimbabwe, hence other forms of punishment must be found," he said. Zimbabwe has for the past decade grappled with the death penalty dilemma as it has been failing to carry out any executions. Resultantly, 117 people are waiting to be hanged with some of them having been on death row for over 20 years. The development has been widely condemned by civic groups as they are of the view that the long wait has put those given death sentences grave emotional stress. Roselina Muzerengi from Amnesty International gave some of the reasons why civic organisations are advocating for the abolishment of the capital punishment. She said capital punishment is irreversible and could claim lives of innocent people as has often been proved that errors can be made in handing out of judgments. Roselina used an example of a Chinese man who was executed for murdering his wife, only for his wife to resurface about 5 years later. "It's not in line with our culture because an eye for an eye makes the world blind. We have discovered that there are some instances where the judiciary makes wrong judgements and wrongly sentences people to death," she said. "After these people are hanged, evidence may show they were wrongly accused but it will be too late since death is irreversible." In as much as the issue of abolishing the death penalty continues to command support the world over, it still remains a relatively fluid situation in Zimbabwe. Officials have on record indicated their intentions to put an end to the law but not much progress has been made in doing so. Experts point out that the fact that Government has failed to act quickly on the matter shows how complicated the process is. Research shows that prior to 1991, crimes such as attempted murder, rape, and a variety of offences relating to political violence were punishable by the death penalty. According to Cornell Law School, in the 1990s there was a period of restriction of the death penalty as Zimbabwe reduced death-eligible offences to murder, treason, and certain military crimes when it passed the Criminal Law Amendment Act. Research further shows that in 2000, the Genocide Act provided that the death penalty could be imposed for the crime of genocide resulting in death, and in 2004, the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act expanded the application of the death penalty to attempted murder, incitement or conspiracy to commit murder and terrorism-related crimes that result in death. Zimbabwe's Parliament has, nonetheless, interfered with the Supreme Court's jurisprudence limiting application of the death penalty, enacting constitutional amendments to negate court rulings that have questioned the constitutionality of hanging or held that long stays on death row constitute cruel and unusual punishment. Section 48 (1) of the new constitution abolished mandatory death sentence as every person has the right to life. However, in Article 2, it says a law may permit the death penalty to be imposed only on a person convicted of murder committed in aggravating circumstances. The new constitution also bars death sentences for women and men under the age of 21 and those over 70 years. Law expert Rutendo Mudarikwa said: "The exclusion of certain categories of persons from the death sentence were in line with Zimbabwe's obligations as member of the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights and the African Charter on Human and People's Rights. These excluded individuals below 18, pregnant women, intellectually disabled, mentally ill and the elderly," she said. "The Con Court has amended this to include all women and has changed the age from 18 to 21. Most of the exclusion can be justified. The exclusion of the mentally ill and those below 21 speak towards the mental capacity and one's ability to take full cognisant of their actions. A problem comes with the total exclusion of women from execution. The differentiation promotes gender imbalance within the criminal justice system." Of the inmates who have been on death row, 15 of them have sought to have the Constitutional Court commute their sentences to life imprisonment. However, some people who are still mindful of the terrorising trails of Edmund Masendeke, Elias Chau ke and Stephen Chidhumo, want the death sentence to stay. After a series of crimes as well as their supposed supernatural ability to escape the maximum prison, Chidhumo and Masendeke became the last people to be hanged in 2004. ****************** Hangman holding the aces Convicted of armed robbery and murdering a Fairmile Motel Manager in Gweru in 2000, Cuthbert Tapuwanashe Chawira (45) is on death row at the Chikurubi Maximum Prison. Only 1 thing is keeping him from the gallows - there is no hangman. No executions have been carried out for the past 12 years due to the unavailability of a hangman. Were it not for the unavailability of the hangman, some of the 117 prisoners on death row in Zimbabwe might have been executed by now. Chawira has since appealed to the Constitutional Court to reverse his and 14 other prisoners' death sentences. With the hangman's job far from being a glamorous profession, it seems few people have risen to take up the post. Zimbabweans are reportedly shunning the job. The selection and recruitment process for a hangman has, however, been shrouded in mystery, raising questions on Government's commitment to finding one. For years now, this publication has been scouting the local media with the hope of coming across an advertisement for the job so as to understand its requirements but that has not happened. There hasn't been any word on any interviews either. Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa is on record stating that no-one will be executed in Zimbabwe. The VP has been at the forefront advocating for the removal of the death penalty from the country's statutes. Given the country's high unemployment rate, and even the number of murders taking place (which indicate that there are many who could kill for a living), many people are baffled by the Government's claim that it is failing to find someone for the job. Mrs Olivia Zvedi, a law officer in the Attorney-General's Office was quoted in The Herald saying Government is still looking for a hangman. She said the hangman's job is not an easy one and people were shunning it. "This is not a job that one can easily apply for. The State is also in a predicament on how to proceed in the absence of a hangman," Mrs Zvedi was quoted saying. Questions sent to Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Permanent Secretary Mrs Virginia Mabhiza, regarding the perks and recruitment process for the hangman had not been responded to by the time of going to print. Sekuru Friday Chisanyu, the president of the Zimbabwe National Practitioners Association (ZINPA) says Zimbabweans are not keen to take the job for cultural reasons. He said the indigenous African tradition is against the shedding of blood. "In the indigenous African tradition, the death penalty is forbidden. The hangman will surely attract the wrath of the avenging spirits of those that he would have executed. It is for the simple reason that Zimbabweans are shunning this post," Sekuru Chisanyu said. Sekuru Chisanyu called for the scrapping of the death sentence, arguing that those that are convicted of serious crimes must be sentenced to life in prison. "In my opinion, it is better to sentence one to life that to kill the person. If a person is in jail, that person can be made productive. Having the death sentence does not mean that murder cases will cease to exist," Sekuru Chisanyu said. Pastor Emmerson Fundira of the Jehovah Sharma Ministries said the death penalty should be scrapped. "The Bible is clear on this one - it instructs us not to kill. There is no reason why a human being should take the life of another being," Pastor Fundira said. Over the years, finding a hangman has often proved to be a tall order for many countries. According to a BBC report, a newly recruited hangman in Sri Lanka resigned in shock after being shown the gallows for the first time. Sri Lanka has not carried out a judicial execution since 1976 but has over 400 prisoners on death row. The report states that last year alone, 3 recruits abandoned the job within a year after the previous hangman was promoted to become a prison guard. Sri Lankans had responded well to the job advertisement with 176 applicants. The BBC also reported that a former United States executioner is now leading a campaign for the scrapping of the death sentence saying doing so eases his "tremendous guilt". Allen Ault, who oversaw deaths via the electric chair in the late 1990s, claimed his campaign to prevent further executions was a way of finding forgiveness". "When you realise ... that you just murdered another human being and you were the one that gave the order, you feel totally responsible." (source for both: The Zimbabwe Daily) PAKISTAN: Justice: Death penalty awarded to 2 brothers Additional Sessions Judge Amjad Nazeer Chaudhary on Saturday sentenced two brothers he convicted of murder to death. Prosecution said Azam and his brother Arif had shot dead Ajmal Amir over a property dispute in Khurarianwala. After examining the evidence and hearing the witnesses, judge sentenced them to death and ordered them to pay Rs100,000 compensation to heirs of the deceased. In Bahawalpur, Additional Sessions Judge Muhammad Yaqoob on Saturday awarded death sentence to a man he convicted of murder. Prosecution said Umar Farooq, a resident of Chak 208-RB, and his father Muhammad Arshad and uncle Abdul Ghaffar had shot dead Gulzar, a resident of the same neighbourhood, after an argument. After examining the evidence and hearing the witnesses, the judge sentenced Farooq to death under Section 302-B of the Pakistan Penal Code. The convict was also directed to pay Rs100,000 compensation to heirs of the deceased. The court acquitted Arshad and Abdul Ghaffar, giving them the benefit of doubt. *************************** Pakistan Death penalty: EU urges moratorium revival The European Union continues to engage with Pakistan in an effort to convince it to reinstitute its moratorium on the death penalty. EU Ambassador to Pakistan Jean Francois Cautain has said that the EU is of the view that the death penalty is not a deterrent and may conversely be a factor which increases hatred for the state. He was speaking to The Express Tribune at the Dean of European Diplomatic Corps Emilian Ion, Ambassador of Romania's farewell to outgoing ambassadors of Argentina, the UK, Sweden, Bangladesh and Japan. He said that despite terrorist incidents in Europe there was no possibility that death penalty may be considered in Europe referring to the recent terrorist incidents in France. ************** Rule Of Law: 'Facilitators to get death penalty' Senior lawyer Salim Shah Hoti on Saturday said that 'facilitators' found aiding terrorists in terror attacks, are liable to be punished with the death penalty according to the law of the land. He added that those arrested by security forces for their involvement in the Bacha Khan University carnage will be dealt with accordingly. The interior ministry, he said, would send their cases to military courts for trial as the same law was applicable to them. He stated that military courts were set up after the passage of the 21st Amendment in January 2015 to adjudicate upon terror-related cases. PM Nawaz had abolished the moratorium on death penalty in terrorism-related cases soon after assuming office. (source for all: Express Tribune) ******************* 'Facilitators' to get death penalty as per law: legal expert 'Facilitators', found involved in helping out terrorists in terror attacks, are liable to death penalty according to law of the land, and those arrested by security forces for Bacha Khan University carnage will be dealt accordingly. Salim Shah Hoti, a senior lawyer, on Saturday said that military courts were set up after the passage of 21st Amendment in January 2015 to proceed terror related cases. (source: Associated Press of Pakistan) From rhalperi at smu.edu Mon Jan 25 09:27:59 2016 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Mon, 25 Jan 2016 09:27:59 -0600 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----VA., GA., MO., KAN., CALIF. Message-ID: Jan. 25 VIRGINIA: Virginia says it lacks drugs needed for lethal injections Texas owed Virginia a favor when it gave the state the 1st of 3 drugs it needed to execute serial killer Alfredo Prieto by injection in October. With a March 16 execution date set for Richmond's Ricky Javon Gray, the Virginia Department of Corrections says it currently lacks enough of that drug to put to death the killer of Richmond's Harvey family. Virginia has 3 drugs approved for use in the 1st step. But state officials said in September that, because execution drugs are increasingly unavailable, it was able to obtain only pentobarbital from Texas. The department said last week that it "has only 2" of the 3 pentobarbital vials it received from Texas in August, suggesting, perhaps for backup or other reasons, that 2 are not enough for an execution, even though it appears just 1 vial was used to execute Prieto. "The Department of Corrections doesn't currently have the step 1 drugs necessary to carry out a death sentence by lethal injection," spokeswoman Lisa Kinney said in an email. "The department can't comment further regarding the lethal injection drugs due to potential litigation," Kinney said. "The department works to maintain an adequate supply of lethal injection drugs so as to be able to carry out court orders; however, it has become extremely difficult to obtain lethal injection drugs," she said. *** Litigation over compounded pentobarbital obtained from Texas continued right up to Prieto's execution Oct. 1. The compounded pentobarbital was made in an undisclosed pharmacy rather than by a pharmaceutical manufacturer. This time, it does not appear Texas will be helping Virginia. "There are no plans to provide lethal injection drugs to Virginia," said a spokesman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Texas sent Virginia the 3 vials of pentobarbital last year because Virginia sent Texas some in 2013, the spokesman said. Gray, 38, was convicted of the New Year's Day 2006 murders of Bryan Harvey, 49; Kathryn, 39; and their daughters, Stella, 9, and Ruby, 4, in their Woodland Heights home. He and Ray Dandridge killed the Harveys in a string of slayings that left seven people dead in Richmond. Gray was sentenced to death for the girls' killings. Dandridge was sentenced to life. Also killed in the pair's crime wave were Ashley Baskerville, 21, who had been a lookout when Gray killed the Harveys; her mother, Mary Tucker, 47; and stepfather, Percyell Tucker, 55, in their Richmond home. The Virginia Attorney General's Office complained in court filings last year that the national shortage of execution drugs is the result of "well-recognized efforts by anti-death penalty advocates." Robert Dunham, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, disagrees. "Drug companies don't want their life-sustaining and life-preserving drugs to be used to kill prisoners," Dunham said. "As a result, they've taken the drugs off the market or refused to sell to prisons." In any case, many states that execute by injection are having problems. Just weeks after Prieto was put to death in Virginia, Ohio rescheduled 12 executions until 2017 because it could not obtain the required drugs. Much could happen between now and March 16 to make the question moot. The department could obtain the needed drug, courts or the governor could step in, or Gray could even choose the electric chair instead of lethal injection. Condemned inmates in Virginia have had the choice since 1995, although only 7 of the 87 executed since then have opted for the chair. The default method is lethal injection if the inmate refuses to choose. A bill under consideration in the Virginia General Assembly would give the corrections department director the ability to use the option not chosen by the inmate if that method of execution is unavailable. However, it is unlikely that could be made law by March 16. The department said it has not taken a position on the legislation. *** Virginia uses a 3-step lethal injection protocol similar to many other states. The state has approved 3 drugs - sodium thiopental, pentobarbital and midazolam - for the 1st step, which renders the inmate unconscious. Pancuronium bromide or rocuronium bromide causes paralysis in the 2nd step, and potassium chloride stops the heart in the third and final step. A saline solution flushes the IV line between the 1st and 2nd and the 2nd and 3rd chemicals. 2 IV lines are used, 1 as a backup in case there is a problem with the 1st. An officer pinches the inmate after the 1st drug is administered to test for consciousness. Kinney, the corrections spokeswoman, said last week that, in addition to the two vials of pentobarbital from Texas that expire in April, the department has potassium chloride that expires in June and rocuronium that expires in April 2017. Virginia used sodium thiopental in the 1st step for many years, but it no longer is available in the U.S. for any purpose. The state's supply of midazolam expired shortly before Prieto's execution last year, prompting the use of the pentobarbital from Texas. When Prieto's lawyers learned through the Freedom of Information Act that the state intended to use compounded pentobarbital from Texas, they went to court to block his execution until more could be learned about the drug. They asked if it was being stored adequately and about its shelf life and potency. The lawyers argued that, if an inmate is not sufficiently sedated by the first drug, it could lead to an agonizing death. Prieto's lawyers referred to executions in Oklahoma and South Dakota using compounded pentobarbital that had apparent problems. "Mr. Prieto alleges, based on the information available to him and this Court about the intended manner in which the (Department of Corrections) is prepared to kill him, that there is a substantial, unacceptable and unnecessary risk that his execution will amount to cruel and unusual punishment," the lawyers said. The day before Prieto's execution, the attorney general's office told a federal judge that the pentobarbital was compounded by a licensed pharmacy in Texas, which does not disclose the suppliers or manufacturers of drugs used in lethal injections. "The Texas pentobarbital is the only substance (Virginia) has been able to obtain for use in the 1st step of its 3-drug protocol," the Virginia Attorney General's Office said. Virginia authorities also said the pentobarbital had been independently tested and verified as potent, contaminant-free, maintained in appropriate conditions and used successfully in more than two dozen executions in Texas. Prieto's execution using the drug appeared to go smoothly. U.S. District Judge Henry E. Hudson dismissed Prieto's attempt to win a preliminary injunction that would have delayed his execution. "The difficulty states face in obtaining the appropriate drugs for conducting a lethal execution has been a topic of public debate for a number of years," Hudson wrote. The judge suggested Prieto's real intent was to delay his execution and that his lawyers should have anticipated Virginia might face problems obtaining drugs and acted sooner. Megan McCracken, a lawyer with the Death Penalty Clinic at Berkeley Law in California and an expert on lethal injection issues, said the current position of Virginia corrections officials has her stumped. Based on what little the department says, it appears it has the drugs to carry out one execution, she said. "All I can say is, something here isn't adding up," McCracken said. Dunham, with the Death Penalty Information Center, said the situation was reflective of the problems associated with the secrecy surrounding details of executions. "We simply cannot know what is going on," Dunham said. (source: Richmond Times-Dispatch) GEORGIA: Filings in capital case reveal evidence in pretrial dispute Motions filed in the capital murder case of a Columbus man accused of killing his wife and infant son before setting their house afire in 2014 reveal some evidence in the case. Brandon David Conner faces the death penalty if convicted in the Aug. 21, 2014, deaths of 32-year-old girlfriend Rosella "Mandy" Mitchell and their 6-month-old son Dylan Conner, whose charred bodies were found in their burned 1324 Winifred Lane home. Investigators said Mitchell was stabbed. They did not say how Dylan died, but they called his death a "homicide." Conner is represented by Columbus attorneys Mark Shelnutt and William Kendrick, who have filed dozens of motions to be heard before Judge William Rumer this week and the week of Feb. 15-19. Among those filings are motions to suppress evidence patrol officers found on Conner after the homicides, when they noticed him sitting in his 2001 BMW 740i on Cedar Avenue off Wynnton Road. The officers said they saw that Conner was "nervous, shaking, sweating profusely, and had blood on his face and clothing," according to prosecutors. After questioning him, police charged him with making false statements to law enforcement and impounded his car. Police by policy search suspects before putting them in a patrol car. Searching Conner, they found "a bloody glove, a bloody baby wipe, and two lighters in his pockets," according to filings by District Attorney Julia Slater. Investigators then got a warrant to search the BMW, in which they found "a knife and bloody clothing," Slater wrote. In moving to suppress such evidence, Conner's defense attorneys have argued police had no probable cause to detain and search him, because he had done nothing to arouse suspicion, as his car "was lawfully parked outside his place of employment, Davis Broadcasting on Cedar Avenue in Columbus ." Prosecution filings also show tests from the crime scene revealed evidence gasoline was used in the arson. Among the defense motions are filings asking Rumer to: Suppress evidence police got from Conner's cellphone and laptop. Declare Georgia's murder statute unconstitutional. Find Conner's indictment insufficient. Allow no witness to say the manner of death was homicide. Order prosecutors to show no photographs depicting the victims before the crime, nor any autopsy photos taken afterward. Find that African-Americans and other minorities were not sufficiently represented on the grand jury that indicted Conner. Ensure Conner wears no jail uniform or shackles at trial, as that could prejudice the jury. Bar prosecutors from seeking the death penalty because it would violate the Eighth Amendment prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. Issue a gag order prohibiting prosecutors from publicly discussing the case. Conner's indictment alleges he stabbed Mitchell in the throat and torso with a knife that had a blade longer than 3 inches. His malice murder charges allege he deliberately killed his girlfriend and child, and his felony murder counts accuse him of killing the mother and infant while committing the felony offense of aggravated assault. (source: ledger-enquirer.com) MISSOURI: Death penalty should not be partisan issue Efforts to repeal the death penalty in Missouri have gained momentum, and college conservatives are speaking out on the issue. Daniel Blassi, president of Students for Life at Southeast Missouri State University is among those lending a voice to the issue. Whereas there was a time when the death-penalty debate was divided down partisan lines -- with Republicans for and Democrats against -- it appears this line is becoming blurred. Blassi is Exhibit A; he recently joined Missouri Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty and believes his anti-death-penalty position is in accordance with his pro-life principles. < Cape Girardeau Republican Rep. Kathy Swan takes the same position and has co-sponsored a House bill to repeal the death penalty, similar to Missouri Senate Bill 816, which the Missouri Conservatives group supports. Beyond the sanctity of life in general, as some would term it, a major concern about the death penalty is the possibility of human error. "We may aim to execute only the guilty, but in practice, the death penalty puts too many innocent lives at risk," Blassi recently told the Southeast Missourian. Another concern is the cost of the death penalty to taxpayers, as one legal case costs $100,000 more than defending 1 case for life in prison, according to Missouri Conservatives. Cape Girardeau County Prosecuting Attorney Chris Limbaugh, however, takes the opposite position. He supports the death penalty and cites examples that prove it is a deterrent to crime. Perhaps people have been personally affected by the death penalty, or perhaps they have been influenced by the media, with Netflix's "Making a Murderer" garnering attention, for example. Whatever the reason and no matter the position, this issue has clearly become more mainstream, less partisan -- as it should be. Something this important should not be based on politics. It demands an open-minded approach and an honest evaluation. We, for sure, are keeping our eyes open, and it will be interesting to see how this unfolds in our state and in the nation this year. (source: Editorial, Southeast Missourian) ************** Attorneys for Missouri man charged with murder seek evidence Attorneys for a southwest Missouri man charged in the death of a 10-year-old girl want copies of evidence they say could help the defendant. Craig Wood is charged with murder, kidnapping, rape, sodomy and armed criminal action in the 2014 death of Hailey Owens. The Springfield News-Leader reports (http://sgfnow.co/1SbnCgt ) Wood's lawyers have filed a motion seeking video interviews police conducted in 2014 with 4 students at a school where Wood was a para-professional and coach. The motion says 2 of the students described Wood as "pretty cool" and "super nice." The prosecutor says he doesn't believe he's required to turn over the interviews. A trial's scheduled for Sept. 26 in Greene County, with a jury from Platte County. Prosecutors say they'll seek the death penalty if Wood is found guilty. (source: Associated Press) KANSAS: Efforts to repeal Kansas death penalty may be stalled----Supreme Court decision upholds 3 Kansas death sentences Some lawmakers say efforts to repeal the Kansas death penalty may be stymied by the U.S. Supreme Court decision upholding 3 Kansas death sentences. A bill repealing the death penalty in Kansas was introduced Friday in the House. The Lawrence Journal-World reports the measure would prohibit death sentences for any crimes committed after July 1. The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday reversed a Kansas Supreme Court ruling and upheld the death sentences of 3 convicted Kansas murderers, including Jonathan and Reginald Carr, who killed 5 people in 2000. A 3rd death sentence was also upheld. Co-sponsors of the repeal say it may be hard for some to vote for repeal without appearing like they're letting the Carr brothers off the hook. The measure, however, wouldn't apply to the Carrs. (source: Associated Press) CALIFORNIA: Manson Family Convicted of Brutal Murders On 25th January, 1971, Charles Manson, Susan Atkins, Leslie Van Houten, and Patricia Krenwinkle were convicted of the sickening murders of Sharon Tate and 6 others. The verdict brought to an end a trial which at several points had threatened to descend into farce, the actions of the Manson Family - the dangerous cult which had grown up around Charles Manson - turning the Grand Jury Testimony and Manson's trial into a bizarre, macabre circus. For months members of the Manson Family, hair shaved off and X's carved into their foreheads, had blocked the entrance to the courthouse while chanting and singing. The bizarre rituals, totally at odds with the brutal murders which had taken place, brought into shocking clarity the deranged reality of those who had been pulled in by Manson's aura. The murders had taken place over 2 nights in August 1969. On the night of the 9th August 4 members of the Manson Family, under Charles Manson's orders, burst into the Beverley Hills home of Sharon Tate, the pregnant wife of Roman Polanski. The 1st victim of the ferocious rampage was 18 year old Steve Parent, a friend of Tate's caretaker who was shot as the cult members approached the house. Tate, along with her guests: hair stylist Jay Sebring, writer Wojciech Frykowski and coffee company heiress Abigail Folger, were rounded up into the house's living room and tied up. Over the course of the evening the 4 were killed in shocking fashion, viciously and repeatedly stabbed and beaten. Susan Atkins used Tate's blood to write the word 'Pig' on the front door of the house, before the murderers left the bloody scene. The next night members of the Manson Family, this time accompanied by Charles Manson himself, murdered wealthy supermarket executive Leno LaBianca and his wife Rosemary. Again, the killings were carried out with cold brutality. Los Angeles was gripped with fear following the shocking, seemingly random homicides, yet for a year the grisly crimes went unsolved. Indeed, the Manson Family's involvement in the murders was only unearthed through chance. In 1969 Manson and several members of the family were arrested on suspicion of vandalising Death Valley National Park, the Mojave Desert location they had been hiding out in since the murders. At the same time Susan Atkins was being held in detention on suspicion of another, unrelated murder. Her confessions pointed to the Manson Family's involvement in the earlier crimes. In the trial, and over the years since, details of the time leading up to the murders and the nature of Manson's cult have come to be revealed. Manson arrived in San Francisco in 1967, after serving jail time in Washington. He quickly became involved in the counter culture movement surrounding the city's Haight-Ashbury district, gaining popularity with his guitar playing and song writing. By this point the idealistic, artist centered movement which had put Haight-Ashbury on the map had started to change, the early 1960s hippies replaced with a darker culture of narcotics and crime. The Manson Family would go onto to become the extreme embodiment of this dark undertone to 1960s counter culture. Manson formed a bizarre, surreal philosophy which took in biblical imagery, 1960s pop culture, and the growing racial tension in the United States. The late 1960s had seen a host of riots erupt in cities across the country, which Manson saw as precursors to an apocalyptic war between black and white people. He told the members of the cult that they could trigger this war, out of the destruction of which he would take on a Messianic role. He called the prophecy 'Helter Skelter', named after The Beatles' song and in reference to coded messages in the band's 'White Album' Manson claimed only he could understand. The brutal murders of high profile celebrities, according to Manson, was a necessary step towards bringing the Manson Family into the public eye, a means to bring more people into the cult. Manson and the 3 others found guilty on 24th January were all eventually sentenced to death, although California abolished the death penalty the following year, meaning their sentences were reduced to life imprisonment. How Manson managed to attract such a following is a dilemma discussed at length by historians and psychologists to this day. (source: newhistorian.com) From rhalperi at smu.edu Mon Jan 25 09:28:47 2016 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Mon, 25 Jan 2016 09:28:47 -0600 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide Message-ID: Jan. 25 SAUDI ARABIA: Saudi Executions: Rhetoric Versus Reality Since 2011, when the Arab Spring erupted in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the ruling family has faced a host of challenges to its legitimacy. Some of this opposition has manifested in the form of peaceful protests, calling for democracy and greater freedoms. The monarchy, which has been in power for almost 9 decades, sees these protests as an existential threat to its rule. It is important to take stock of the political calculations which drove the Saudis to carry out 158 executions in 2015 - the highest figure since 1995, which equated to roughly one execution every other day. Furthermore, the January 2, 2016 execution of the internationally revered Shi'ite cleric Nimr Baqir al-Nimr, along with 3 other Shi'ite activists, sheds light on Riyadh???s handling of political dissent in the Eastern Province (EP), where most of the nation's Shi'ites reside. The Koran and the Sunnah of the Prophet guide Saudi Arabia's political, social, and religious institutions. The Basic Laws (1992), which appear in the form of a constitution, confirm this religious-based set of institutions. Though the Basic Laws are legally binding, they can never take precedence over the Koran or the Sunna. They simply reaffirm or complement what is written in these 2 sources. In particular, several articles in the Basic Laws highlight this reality. In relation to the legal system, all laws governing Saudi Arabia are derived from the Koran and the Sunnah, in the form of Sharia (Islamic) law. Article 38 of the Basic Laws states that "there shall be no crime or penalty except in accordance with the Sharia." In turn, all courts at all levels within the Saudi state can only render rulings derived directly from Sharia law. Crime and Punishment under Saudi Arabian Law Although Saudi Arabia's legal system derives purely from the Koran and the Sunnah, there are a number of supplementary legal principles and procedures which have come into existence. These reaffirm and complement whatever is laid out in the Sharia, but also help bring the kingdom's legal system into the modern era. Before engaging in the crux of the discussion, it is vital to first define the criminal law process in Saudi Arabia and highlight the rights attributed to defendants under Sharia law. In 2001, Saudi Arabia passed The Regulation on Criminal Procedure, which stipulates that "no punishment may be inflicted except for crimes prohibited by Shariaa principles and Saudi national regulations." It is comprised of 3 categories, which are all derived from Islamic law. The 1st category is hadd (pl. haddud), a crime for which there are fixed Koranic punishments. The haddud entail crimes "that threaten Islam," and punishment for these crimes are fixed because they are "the right of Allah." Examples of these crimes include Koranic Verses 5:33 and 5:38, which define the punishments for robbery and civil disturbance and for theft, respectively. Robbery and civil disturbance are punishable by death, including by crucifixion, or by the amputation of limbs (5:33). Theft is punishable by amputation. There are also numerous hadith from the Prophet Muhammad, which are used to derive what defines a crime and what the punishment is for that crime. A clear example is the hadith from the Prophet, in which he declared the punishment for apostasy. He said "Whoever changes his religion, kill him." For one to be convicted and punished for hadd crimes, the strictest and strongest form of proof is required. Critically, there must be 2 to 4 witnesses, depending on the crime. For the majority of haddud crimes, 2 direct witness are required. However, for the crime of adultery or rape, Sharia law requires 4 witnesses. 2nd, the accused must confess. The different schools within Islamic law (Hanbali, Hanafi, Shafi'i, and Maliki) diverge on how many times a confession must be spoken. However, they all agree that a confession is legally required for the death penalty to be legally binding. This confession must come freely from the accused. If the accused were to revoke his confession (for example if it was coerced or forced), a judge cannot invoke the hadd punishment. Insistence on the highest standards of certainty of guilt for hadd crimes is an unquestionable premise of Islamic law. The 2nd category is Qisas (retaliation). This is an 'eye for an eye' situation, typically related to cases involving murder. It refers to the ability of the relatives of the murdered to forgive the murderer, seek financial compensation from them, or demand the murderer's death. The Koran refers to Qisas in verse 2:138. There are also several hadith on the subject of Qisas, most prominently coming from al-Bukhari. He is a revered historian, who formulated the first thorough compilation of scholarly work on hadith, deciding which actions and sayings could genuinely be attributed to the Prophet. Finally, there is the category of ta'zir (literally chastisement or castigation). The stringent conditions of proof required to convict a person of a hadd crime means that the vast majority of crimes brought before Islamic courts in the wider world are ta'zir cases. These cases are brought before a judge and all decisions on punishment are at the judge's discretion. It is important to note that that a judge can impose any punishment in a ta'zir case, except the death penalty. According to the Saudi legal system, the death penalty can only be imposed if one is accused and found guilty of committing a hadd crime. The Rights of the Accused Under the Saudi Legal System Numerous additional legal principles and procedures that protect the rights of the accused from the moment of arrest to the trial exemplify the stringent requirement of proof necessary to convict a person of a hadd crime in Saudi Arabia. Among these are 3 statutes in particular. The 1st is The Statute of Principles of Arrest, Temporary Confinement and Preventive Detention (issued on November 11, 1983). This prohibits arbitrary arrest and authorities are not allowed to detain suspects for longer than 3 days before formally charging them. 2nd is The Law of Procedure before Shari'a Courts (issued in September, 2001), which grants defendants the right to legal representation. 3rd is The Law of Criminal Procedure (issued in May, 2002), which protects a defendant's rights with regard to interrogation, investigation, and incarceration. Further, it outlines a series of regulations that justice and law enforcement authorities must follow during all stages throughout the judicial process, from arrest and the investigation process in particular, to the trial. This law prohibits torture and again protects the right of all suspects to obtain legal representation. The language of this last law was recently updated in 2013, and the language became more comprehensive in relation to arresting an individual or group. It states that "no person shall be arrested, searched, detained, or imprisoned except in cases provided by law, and any accused person shall have the right to seek the assistance of a lawyer or a representative to defend him during the investigation and trial stages." A Divergence between Rhetoric and Reality Having mapped out the kingdom's legal system, this author believes that political, not Islamic, considerations motivated many of the 158 executions which Saudi Arabia carried out in 2015. Moreover, these executions showed a disregard for Sharia law and broke the supplementary laws, which the Saudis established. Although on paper the system is in place to ensure that justice prevails, in practice the opposite appears true. Many of these cases which led to execution failed to meet the high standards set by Sharia law. (This is true with respect to the pre-trial processes, the actual trials, and the decision making for each punishment). It is not a coincidence that the executed individuals belonged to groups which challenged the ruling Saudi monarchy's legitimacy. (source: internationalpolicydigest.org) **************** Beyond the Numbers "Every nation that proclaims the rule of law at home must respect it abroad and every nation that insists on it abroad must enforce it at home." - Kofi Annan On 2 January 2016, Saudi Arabia executed 47 individuals accused of terrorism, in what Human Rights Watch (HRW) called a "shameful start to 2016." Among the 47 men was a prominent Shi'a cleric who was convicted, according to both Amnesty International and HRW, for his non-violent opposition to the Saudi regime. HRW had indicated in 2014 that "Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr was convicted on a host of vague charges, based largely on his peaceful criticism of Saudi officials," while Amnesty International described it as "a political and grossly unfair trial at the Specialised Criminal Court." In addition, today MiddleEastEye reported that "prisoners arrested when they were children and others suffering from mental illness" were also among those executed. There are 2 issues here. First, the opposition to the use of the death penalty as a matter of principle in criminal sentencing, i.e. a blanket opposition to its use in all circumstances, regardless of whether the accused is guilty or innocent, and regardless of the nature and severity of the crime. 2nd, even if one supports capital punishment, a key question remains in relation to Article 6(2) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights on 2 levels: (1), whether the offence meets the threshold of the "most serious crimes" as interpreted by the Human Rights Committee in its General Comment No. 6 on the "right to life". And (2), whether the conditions were met for a "fair hearing by an independent tribunal" and for the respect of the accused's rights during the investigative and criminal proceedings, according to international norms and standards. In dealing with the repercussions of the executions, Saudi Arabia and its supporters preferred to focus on the death penalty. It became clear that the pro-Saudi press was either unwilling or unable to condemn the executions. Thus, many observers were quick - and correct - to draw attention to the fact that Iran executes more people on an annual basis, as documented by Amnesty's annual review of the death penalty worldwide. Hence, the tu quoque argument was put to good political use. It is usually enough in political polemics to point out the opponent's double standards or hypocrisy to weather the storm of criticism in relation to controversial affairs or in dealing with 'bad press' - in this case, the executions and the counter-claim that Iran lacks the moral standing to point the accusing finger at Saudi Arabia. For Iran and its proponents, the focus was more on the unjust nature of the accusations against Sheikh al-Nimr specifically, rather than an outcry against the execution of 47 individuals. This is partly due to the fact that Iran has no objection to the use of the death penalty in the criminal justice system - but also because al-Nimr is Shi'a. The main issue became that of the unjust killing of a religious figure whose only fault was to call for a greater voice for the disenfranchised Shi'a minority in the Kingdom. Also, his reported principled defence (transcending the Sunni-Shi'a divide) of any victim or oppressed group - including in Syria - was further evidence for some that he was a prisoner and martyr of conscience and not a terrorist. On both issues - the death penalty and unjust criminal proceedings for political dissidents - the 2 regional rivals have a dismal record. Suffice it here to point the reader to reports conducted over the years by human rights organisations and United Nations committees and special rapporteurs on various aspects of these 2 countries' respect for the rule of law and their adherence to international human rights norms and standards. This comment does not seek to get into the "who is better or worst" argument - an argument that is conducted on a daily basis by both countries' officials, as well as by the 'more of a royalist than the king/ruler' pundits who present their reasons as to why either Saudi Arabia or Iran is the true backer of moderation and people's concerns in the region. Rather, the interest here is in exposing the danger to the culture of the 'rule of law,' which is undermined ever more deeply by the recent Saudi executions, as well as by the reactions we have seen from both sides of the conflict. The 'rule of law' is an all-encapsulating term for the values of freedom, democracy, equality and non-discrimination. It is a concept that is part and parcel of all United Nations and development agencies' work in the Middle East and beyond. It can be defined, as we see in UN documents, reports and resolutions, as follows: "The rule of law involves adherence to a principle of governance whereby all persons... including the State itself, are accountable to laws that are publicly promulgated, equally enforced... and which are consistent with international human rights norms and standards. It requires...equality before the law, accountability to the law, fairness in the application of the law...avoidance of arbitrariness, and procedural and legal transparency." In judging a state, regime, or any public policy and ruling, the benchmark should be the extent to which the 'rule of law' is upheld and the extent to which our states' institutions and practices measure up in terms of adhering to the above-mentioned definition, especially in terms of the laws being "consistent with international human rights norms and standards." This emphasis is important to avoid any confusion between the 'rule of law' and 'national laws,' which may or may not be consistent with international human rights norms and standards. For proponents of a secular Middle East where the rule of law and human rights are respected, the executions should be an issue that goes far beyond the 'tit for tat' arguments we have seen thus far in the press. If indeed the purpose of the Arab uprisings was/is to express popular dissatisfaction with autocratic regimes and to call for greater freedoms and participation in public life, the inability to recognise an affront to the rule of law reveals our region's dire state of affairs, politically, morally, and intellectually. It is an unfortunate reminder of our region's devotional partisanship to either Iran or Saudi Arabia that we do not have a wide condemnation of abuses, wherever they occur, and whoever the alleged perpetrator is. Political researcher Ziad Majed piercingly noted in the aftermath of the executions that "we have a public that increasingly only cares about the confessional identity of the killer and the victims whenever it is confronted with killings, repression, and aggression." I had similarly noted in an earlier piece regarding selective grief and solidarity that people in the Arab region. "could care less about the plight of victims from other sects or from opposing political parties...each side seems to only care about the crimes committed by the opposing parties domestically, and regionally. In Syria, media and individual solidarity is dependent on whether one supports Saudi Arabia or Iran, and in turn Assad or his opponents." The ability to maintain a critical eye and the ability to criticise the ruler - even if one has voted for him/her - is a hallmark of democratic societies. The rule of law is the antidote to the culture of partisanship based on tribal, familial, or religious affiliations. It is the ability to call for accountability for a wrongdoing, even if the perpetrator is the head of the state him/herself. That is the point of elections and a free press. A democratic leader is in principle a leader attuned to the needs of his/her electorate precisely because his/her re-election or approval rates depend on his/her performance and not simply on his/her authority. One commentator had insightfully argued in 2012 that Arab spring nations do not yet grasp freedom of dissent and that "Freedom is not only about majority rule, but ensuring that women, religious minorities and intellectual dissenters are able to flourish without fear." In other words, freedom is not just about elections. And it is not just about removing a dictator. Freedom is the ability to speak out, including against the ruler, according to one's opinions and beliefs, even - and especially - if those opinions and beliefs run counter to the ruling class or majority opinion. This is a crucial point for our societies. Let us not get lost in an argument about who executes more or fewer individuals every year, as if a lower ranking signals an achievement of sorts for us to take pride in. Instead, our concern should be whether the vision and struggle for a free pluralist democratic Middle Eastern region, where human rights are respected, is strengthened or undermined by the execution of 47 individuals in 1 day, and by the execution of a political dissident. And until we are able to assess such situations without a near-automatic resort to the tu quoque argument, i.e. that the other side also kills individuals, or that the other side kills more individuals every year, we remain completely disconnected from the people's rightful chants for dignity, life, social justice, freedom, and an end to autocratic political regimes who rule with no regard for human lives and individual freedoms. (source: Halim Shebaya, openDemocracy; Op-Ed----truth-out.org) EGYPT: Muslim Brotherhood conspired against state: Egypt's judiciary Egypt's judicial committee said Sunday that leading figures from the Muslim Brotherhood group had schemed against state affairs during former Islamist President Mohamed Morsi's one-year rule. "The Brotherhood's guidance office, the presidency, the government and the group's Freedom and Justice Party ran the state's affairs at that time," said Ezzat Khamis, chief of the judicial committee that is tasked with appraising the Muslim Brotherhood's funds and assets. The 4 entities were 4 faces of the same coin with no separation of powers between the presidency, the party, the guidance office nor the government, Khamis added. The accusations come a day before the 5th anniversary of the 2011 protests which ended former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's 30-year rule. "The documents also indicate that confidential papers related to national security were leaked from the presidency," Khamis added. The committee revealed a number of proposals discovered at the Freedom and Justice Party premises, including one concerning the Brotherhood's hostile stance towards the Supreme Constitutional Court and the judiciary in general. The groups drafted several laws to amend a number of articles in the judicial authority, including a proposal to appoint the prosecutor general via a presidential decree and to reduce judges' retirement age to 60, according to Khamis. He also referred to a document which included a Brotherhood plan to control the state's judicial system, and cancel the Supreme Constitutional Court and relocate its tasks to the Court of Cassation. Morsi, the Brotherhood's group member who became Egypt's 1st elected president, was deposed in 2013 by the army as a response to mass protests against his rule. The Muslim Brotherhood was later designated a terrorist organization in 2013 by Egyptian authorities. A number of its members and leaders, including the group's supreme guide, Mohammed Badie, were sentenced to death, but the sentences have not yet been carried out and may still be appealed. Brotherhood leaders, including Morsi, are imprisoned awaiting to be tried for charges related to inciting violence, conspiring with foreign powers to undermine Egypt, and the killing of protestors. Some charges carry the death penalty. (source: ghanaweb.com) UNITED KINGDOM/PAKISTAN: 2 Pakistani hitmen confess to killing of Imran Farooq in London ---- Exclusive: 2 alleged assassins have revealed details of murder of exiled politician as they testified that they travelled from Pakistan to carry out the killing 2 alleged assassins of a Pakistani politician knifed to death on a London street have testified that they travelled from Pakistan to commit the killing on the orders of rival British-based leaders of his party. The confessions are the latest twist in the grisly killing of Imran Farooq, an exiled leader of a controversial Pakistan political party who was stabbed outside his north London home in 2010. The murder brought Pakistan's violent gangster politics to suburban Edgware, where Mr Farooq lived an apparently low-key life with his wife and young sons in a quiet side street lined with apple trees. Unbeknown to his neighbours, Mr Farooq was also a leader of the the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), a party with a long association with violence in his homeland. He was granted asylum in Britain and later gained British citizenship, but he was believed to be planning to form a breakaway faction when he was murdered. Details of their confessions to a closed court hearing in Pakistan have now been leaked to The Sunday Telegraph by an official close to the investigation. They reveal how the killers allegedly bought a five-inch knife from a high street "pound store" and then struck at their victim as he arrived home from work. It was later recovered at the scene, along with a brick used to bludgeon their victim. The crude means of dispatching their target could not have been more different than the polonium used in the murder of former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko, which a public inquiry last week week blamed on the Kremlin. But it has demonstrated once again the relative ease with which foreign hitmen could fly into Britain to settle political scores on the streets of London. The 2 alleged Pakistani hit-men, Khalid Shahim and Syed Mohsin Ali, revealed details of the killings in "confessional statements", recorded and sworn before a presiding magistrate, that are considered court evidence under Pakistani law. Mr Mohsin Ali said that he grabbed Mr Farooq as he arrived outside his home, while another MQM operative slashed his neck with the knife He added that both had been monitoring his movements so that they knew his routine. The killers struck at 5.30pm on a September afternoon and then headed straight to the airport to flee back to Pakistan that night. They had travelled to Britain on student visas obtained by another alleged conspirator in Pakistan and stayed at an unidentified college hostel while they planned the attack, he added. A 3rd arrested man, Moazzam Ali, is alleged to have provided them with the logistics for their trip to Britain. The use of student visas will raise fresh concerns in Britain about the potential for abuse of that system. The 2 men were arrested last year as they tried to slip into Pakistan from Afghanistan and appeared before a special terrorism court last Thursday. They said that the murder plot was ordered because Mr Farooq was deemed a "potent threat" to the MQM leadership. Mr Khalid said that they operated under the direction of Mohammad Anwar, a senior lieutenant of Altaf Hussein, the London-based head of the MQM. The funds to execute the mission were also provided from London, he added. Scotland Yard detectives are understood to have travelled to Pakistan to interview the men in September. Although the 2 countries do not have an extradition treaty, proceedings are believed to have been underway and Pakistan has indicated that it would be willing to hand the men over. Since the arrests, Islamabad has attempted to intensify pressure on Britain to bring charges over the murder against Mr Hussein and other exiled party leaders in London. Mr Hussein has consistently denied any involvement in the murder of Mr Farooq. His supporters claim that the allegations against him are part of a long-running political smear campaign by political foes in Pakistan. But Pakistan's federal investigation agency (FIA) has now filed a court report naming Mr Hussein and several allies as co-conspirators in the murder for the 1st time. In the filing, seen by The Telegraph, the FIA's counter-terrorism wing states: "The assassination of Imran Farooq was the result of a conspiracy hatched in UK and Pakistan, by among others, Altaf Hussain, Mohammad Anwar [another senior member] and Iftikhar Hussain [the leader's nephew]." It claims that the Mr Farooq was murdered "to remove the threat to the leadership of the MQM of Altaf Hussain and to intimidate/overawe public in general and workers/members of MQM in particular by creating a sense of fear and insecurity in the community". The case, known as a "1st information report", covers charges of conspiracy, assistance, abetment and ultimate assassination and murder under sections of the Pakistan Penal Code and Anti-Terrorism Act. The crimes carry the death penalty. The Telegraph has learned that Pakistani officials have become frustrated that Scotland Yard has not launched any proceedings against MQM leaders in London. Mr Hussain has previously been questioned in Britain as part of a money-laundering investigation. Pakistan has now indicated that it might use the new testimony to apply for the extradition of Mr Hussain and his cohorts via Interpol. The request would go nowhere as Britain will not extradite to a country for a death penalty offence, but Islamabad may make a request as an attempt to try to exert further pressure on Britain. After the accused assassins gave their statements, the MQM issues a statement denying that any member of the party was involved in the murder. "We categorically state that no party personnel have had anything whatever to do with the tragic death of Dr Farooq. We mourn the loss of a man who was our friend and colleague for many years. "MQM welcomes any assistance that may be provided to the British Metropolitan Police Service, who continue to investigate the death of Dr Farooq." (source: The Telegraph) From rhalperi at smu.edu Mon Jan 25 15:27:15 2016 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Mon, 25 Jan 2016 15:27:15 -0600 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS Message-ID: Jan. 25 TEXAS----impending execution Man set to die in June for 1998 Farmers Branch slaying loses Supreme Court appeal The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to review the case of a man set to die later this year for the slaying of a 64-year-old Dallas-area woman 18 years ago. The high court, without comment, rejected Monday the appeal of 46-year-old Charles Don Flores. Flores is scheduled for lethal injection June 2 for the January 1998 shooting death of Elizabeth Black at her home in Farmers Branch. His trial attorneys argued another man was the shooter during a robbery attempt. Flores is 1 of at least 9 Texas death row inmates with an execution date for this year. *** 'Justice has been served,' daughter of Farmers Branch woman says after man gets death sentence in '98 murder Editor's note: This story appeared in April 2, 1999, editions of The Dallas Morning News. A man prosecutors described as the "face of evil" should die for the brutal murder of a 64-year-old Farmers Branch woman, a Dallas County jury decided Thursday. Charles Don Flores, 29, was convicted of capital murder Tuesday for the death of Elizabeth "Betty" Black, a grandmother of 5 who was shot to death in her home Jan. 29, 1998. Jurors decided on the death penalty Thursday in about 2 hours. The panel took less than an hour to convict Mr. Flores on Tuesday. "Whoever did that to Mrs. Black deserves to die," said Jason January, the lead prosecutor on the case. "Society is not safe from Charles Don Flores until he is dead." The verdict was read to a silent courtroom filled with Mrs. Black's family and friends. Sheila Brockman, the victim's daughter, expressed relief and joy that part of the painful period in their lives had ended. "Everything's finally coming to an end," Ms. Brockman said outside the courtroom, holding her husband's hand. "Justice has been served." In closing arguments, Doug Parks, one of Mr. Flores' lawyers, extended sympathy to the Black family and said he does not condone his client's actions, including involvement in the murder. But he repeated the defense position that Richard Lynn Childs - an alleged accomplice of Mr. Flores' - was the trigger man. No date has been set for Mr. Childs' capital-murder case. "Charlie Flores didn't kill Ms. Black," Mr. Parks said. "I suggest to you that that's mitigating." He reminded the jury that mitigating circumstances can lead to a sentence of life in prison rather than the death penalty in capital cases. Prosecutors argued that the evidence suggests Mr. Flores fired the fatal shot. In any case, they said, he could be convicted of capital murder as a party to the killing. Juror Frank Howard of Dallas said the panel carefully weighed all factors but agreed fairly quickly that Mr. Flores was guilty and should be put to death. "We went through and discussed each point," Mr. Howard said. "It was pretty cut and dry. The evidence in the case was just overwhelming. They just kept bringing it on." Prosecutors have said that Mr. Flores and Mr. Childs went to the Black home the morning of Jan. 29, 1998. Officials said they were looking for about $40,000 in cash - drug money that they heard about through Ms. Black's daughter-in-law, Jackie Roberts. They said that Mr. Flores and Mr. Childs entered the home through the garage and shot Mrs. Black and her dog. The men then rifled through the house in search of the money but came up empty, officials said. In the sentencing phase, prosecutors concentrated on portraying Mr. Flores as a continuing threat to society. A parade of witnesses testified about past violent actions by Mr. Flores, including an escape attempt and several threats allegedly made to jailers and bailiffs. In both portions of the trial, prosecutors charted alleged incidents involving Mr. Flores on a large map behind the witness stand. By the trial's end, the map was littered with tags representing a range of previous offenses he was accused of, including shoplifting, drug-dealing, terroristic threats and aggravated assaults of police officers. Witnesses also gave further details about the car chase and crash that ended Mr. Flores' 3-month flight from justice after the shooting, as well as an escape attempt last July in which he tried to take a sheriff's deputy's gun. Prosecutors asked the jury to think of his victims while deliberating Mr. Flores' sentence. "We have the death penalty today because Charles Don Flores exists," prosecutor Greg Davis said. "He's always looking for a victim. He's always going to show an absolute disregard for human life." The defense offered no witnesses to speak on Mr. Flores' behalf in either phase of the trial. Brad Lollar, Mr. Flores' lead attorney, said Wednesday without the jury present that he wanted to call his client's parents and wife to the stand. Mr. Lollar said that all 3 of them informed him that they would invoke their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination if called on to testify. Mr. Flores' parents, Lily and Catarino Flores, have been indicted on charges of hindering apprehension of a fugitive for helping their son after Ms. Black's death, officials said. The defense attorneys questioned the recollections of several witnesses who placed Mr. Flores at the scenes of long-ago incidents. They also criticized the prosecution for hinting that an assault of a woman in 1997 led to her miscarriage, though medical records suggest that her miscarriage occurred a year earlier. Before closing arguments, the jury heard from Roy Love , a jailer, who testified that Mr. Flores threatened him and threw juice on him during lunch Wednesday. Mr. Howard, the juror, said this testimony showed the jury that Mr. Flores had no remorse. "He demonstrated his true character," Mr. January said. "He couldn't hold it back long enough to get through the trial. . . . He's never going to stop, until the day he dies." *** Closing sentencing arguments postponed after murderer threatens jailer Editor's note: This story appeared in April 1, 1999, editions of The Dallas Morning News. Closing arguments in the sentencing phase of Charles Don Flores' capital murder trial were postponed Wednesday after he threatened and threw juice at a jailer during lunch. Mr. Flores, 29, was convicted Tuesday of the murder of Elizabeth "Betty" Black, a 64-year-old Farmers Branch woman who was gunned down in her home last year. Jurors were expected to begin deliberating Wednesday whether Mr. Flores should receive the death penalty or life in prison. Prosecutors called a series of witnesses Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning who testified to Mr. Flores' violent tendencies and threats. Mr. Flores has worn a 50,000-volt shock belt throughout the trial, and six Dallas County sheriff's deputies have watched his every move. Mr. Flores' outburst on Wednesday occurred when jail trusties brought him lunch in a jail holding cell. Jail Officer Roy Love controls the stun belt but has not had to activate it. Officer Love told state District Judge John Nelms that while escorting Mr. Flores to the holding cell, he warned the convicted murderer to stop reaching across the table to pour water. The officer said he told Mr. Flores that his sudden moves made people nervous. The jailer said Mr. Flores cursed him, then said, "If I wanted to hurt someone out there, and if I had a gun, I know how to use it." When jail trusties served Mr. Flores lunch, he threw juice at Officer Love and began to laugh, Officer Love said. After he heard about the lunchtime incident, Judge Nelms sent the jury home until 9 a.m. Thursday and ordered that Mr. Flores remain in a belly chain and handcuffs while in court during the rest of the trial. In his first public words since the trial began, Mr. Flores addressed the judge. "I have a question. Does that mean I can't get a drink of water?" he said, adding that the stun belt made him uncomfortable. "You're the one that's making it hard on yourself," Judge Nelms responded. "You have made yourself a security threat and risk." Doug Parks, one of Mr. Flores' lawyers, objected to the ruling, saying that Mr. Flores' jacket cannot fully cover the belly chain. He said jurors who see a defendant in handcuffs and chains would be prejudiced on the question of a future threat to society - one of the keys to deciding death-penalty questions. The judge agreed and reversed his ruling. "Zap the heck out of him if he creates any disturbance," Judge Nelms said. The exchange occurred without the jury present. But jurors heard testimony that Mr. Flores was a menace. He was involved in a more serious confrontation with a deputy last summer. He faked a leg injury to get transferred to Parkland Memorial Hospital July 10, according to testimony given during the guilt and innocence stage of the trial. At Parkland, he overpowered the deputy who was escorting him and grabbed the deputy's gun and chemical spray before hospital officials restrained him, according to testimony. On Wednesday, jurors heard from a fellow inmate who rode with Mr. Flores on the way back from the hospital. The inmate, Joseph Krivan, said that Mr. Flores told him "he wished he would have shot the officer." A jailer told the jury that Mr. Flores has worn his status as a capital-murder defendant as a "badge of honor." Timothy Dockery said jailers have found contraband such as concealed matches and safety pins on Mr. Flores several times. Once, he said, Mr. Flores tried to assault him and another jailer. Prosecutors have said that Mr. Flores and Richard Lynn Childs went to the Black home the morning of Jan. 29, 1998, in search of about $40,000 in cash - drug money that they heard about through Ms. Black's daughter-in-law. A trial date has not been set for Mr. Childs' capital-murder case. Mr. Flores and Mr. Childs entered the home through the garage and shot Ms. Black and her dog, prosecutors said. They then rifled through the house in search of the money but came up empty, according to prosecutors. *** Man found guilty of murder, could face death in Farmers Branch case Edtior's note: This story appeared in March 31, 1999, editions of The Dallas Morning News. A man prosecutors described as a drug dealer motivated by greed was convicted of capital murder Tuesday in the shooting death of a 64-year-old Farmers Branch woman. A jury of 8 men and 4 women needed less than an hour to find Charles Don Flores guilty of killing Elizabeth "Betty" Black in her home. Mr. Flores, 29, faces the death penalty or life in prison with no possibility of parole for 40 years. Prosecutors argued that Mr. Flores and Richard Lynn Childs went to Mrs. Black's home the morning of Jan. 29, 1998, in search of about $40,000 in cash - purported drug profits they heard about from the victim's daughter-in-law. Prosecutors said Mr. Flores and Mr. Childs entered through the garage and immediately shot Mrs. Black and her dog. They then tore through the house in search of the money but came up empty. "The very first thing these people did was shoot and kill Elizabeth Black," Assistant District Attorney Greg Davis said. "They were there for that money." No date has been set for Mr. Childs' capital murder trial. He is being held at the Lew Sterrett Justice Center. During closing arguments Tuesday, Mr. Flores' lawyer acknowledged that his client was at the house and fired a gun there that morning. According to testimony, Mr. Flores told friends he only shot the dog. Lead defense attorney Brad Lollar said jurors still could not convict Mr. Flores of capital murder because the state could not show that he intended for Mrs. Black to die. Mr. Lollar also said the state's case hinged on the testimony of Jackie Roberts, Mrs. Black's daughter-in-law, whom Mr. Lollar said organized a burglary plan that went awry when Mrs. Black ended up being home that morning. "Find him guilty of murder or whatever else you want, but it's not capital murder," Mr. Lollar said. "The evidence upon which they want you to convict is based on liars. . . . There are standards that are set in these [capital murder] cases." Mr. Lollar said a map that witnesses spoke of showed that Ms. Roberts organized the burglary for her boyfriend - Mr. Childs - and his friend, Mr. Flores. The map, which investigators never found, allegedly showed the route from Ms. Roberts' house to the home Mrs. Black shared with her husband, Bill Black. Before closing arguments Tuesday, prosecutors called a former baby-sitter for Ms. Roberts to testify. Elaine Dixon said a map was once drawn for her benefit but that Ms. Roberts kept it. Prosecutors said that while Ms. Roberts told the men about the cash, she never intended for anyone to steal it. According to her testimony, the money represented the drug profits of the Blacks' son, Gary Black, Ms. Roberts' imprisoned husband. "Ready to kill' Mr. Flores and Mr. Childs went to the Blacks' home intent on killing anyone who stood between them and the cash, prosecutors argued. Lead prosecutor Jason January said both men had handguns and brought 3 potatoes - presumably to use as silencers when shooting the dog, Mrs. Black and her husband, Bill Black, who was at work at the time. "They went in ready to kill," Mr. January said. "The defendant killed because of greed." Mr. January said the state believes Mr. Flores killed Mrs. Black. He said Mr. Flores' wild, 3-month flight from the law and his attempted escape while in custody showed that he is guilty and feared justice. But even if he was just there with Mr. Childs, egging him on or only shooting the dog, he could still be found guilty of capital murder, Mr. January told jurors. "The defendant's guilty whether he's a party or a shooter," he said. Mr. Flores looked up from the pad in front of him only occasionally during closing arguments. He was similarly impassive when the judge read the verdict. Softly sobbing The only display of emotion came from his mother, Lilly Garcia, who began to sob softly. Just before the sentencing phase of the trial began, Ms. Garcia was called before the judge and warned to stop making threatening glances at the Black family. Ms. Garcia denied giving any such looks. The Black family declined to comment on the verdict Tuesday. Mr. Black said the pain of their loss has not subsided. "It's devastated the whole family," he said. "When she was taken, a part of me was, too." The sentencing phase of the trial began shortly after the verdict was handed down. Prosecutors began charting Mr. Flores' previous run-ins with the law on a large map behind the witness stand. Jurors heard from victims and investigating officers in several incidents - including theft, terroristic threats, criminal mischief and drug possession - in which Mr. Flores pleaded or was found guilty. The offenses mentioned occurred in Mesquite, Irving, Dallas and Arlington between 1990 and 1993. State District Judge John Nelms told jurors that they probably would begin deliberating on Mr. Flores' sentence Wednesday afternoon. The jury will be sequestered if it is unable to reach a verdict by 9 p.m., he said. *** Student, doctor thwart murder suspect's escape Editor's note: This story appeared in July 11, 1998, editions of The Dallas Morning News. Charles Don Flores might be a big, tough capital murder suspect who managed to elude the law for months, but he messed with the wrong med student and anesthesiologist Friday. Mr. Flores, arrested in May and charged with killing a Farmers Branch woman, tried to escape custody by complaining of a leg injury. He then overpowered the deputy who took him to Parkland hospital. To the rescue came 4th-year medical student Ferhan Asghar and Dr. Andy Konen. Mr. Asghar relieved the suspect of the deputy's gun, and Dr. Konen and 2 other hospital workers wrestled him into handcuffs. Mr. Asghar, a 28-year-old University of Houston medical student, may have saved Deputy Bryan Sherman's life, officials said. "We believe the suspect had planned this and was intent on fleeing and was attempting to shoot the deputy," said Ed Spencer, a Sheriff's Department spokesman. "So the indications are that Mr. Asghar was instrumental in helping to bring the situation to a conclusion. We are grateful and appreciative to him and all those who came to the officer's assistance." Mr. Asghar and Dr. Konen could not be reached for comment, and Parkland officials said they had advised employees not to discuss the incident, pending the sheriff's investigation. Deputy Sherman was pushing Mr. Flores' wheelchair toward the double doors leading into Parkland's orthopedic clinic about 9:30 a.m. when Mr. Flores jumped him, officials said. Mr. Flores forced the deputy to the ground, doused him with his own pepper spray and went for his gun, Mr. Spencer said. In the struggle, Mr. Flores bit the deputy's arm and twice had his hands on the gun. As the temporarily blinded deputy tried to fight back, Mr. Asghar joined the fray, grabbed the weapon and tossed it into a nearby laundry hamper. At the same time, Dr. Konen and two technicians, Peter Palafox and Charlie Hewgley, jumped on Mr. Flores, subduing and cuffing him, Mr. Spencer said. Friday wasn't the 1st time Mr. Flores tried to get away, nor the 1st time a citizen had foiled him. Police say Mr. Flores and Richard Lynn Childs killed 64-year-old Betty Black during a botched burglary attempt Jan. 29 at her Farmers Branch home. While Mr. Childs was arrested within days of the crime, Mr. Flores stayed on the run for three months despite a flood of tips on his whereabouts. Authorities finally caught up to him May 1, as he drove away from an Irving house. He led them on a chase, driving over grass medians, ignoring traffic signs and heading the wrong way on 1-way streets. After driving on the rims of blown tires, Mr. Flores crashed head-on into another car and then took off running, with FBI agents close behind. When he tried to scale a fence, a citizen standing nearby grabbed him and pulled him down until the agents could take him away. Investigators will review the Friday incident to determine whether the deputy should have acted differently, Mr. Spencer said. Deputy Sherman, 24, was fine after having his eyes flushed. "At this point, we're relieved that there were no serious injuries," Mr. Spencer said. "That's the foremost concern." *** Suspect in Farmers Branch slaying captured after chase Editor's note: This story appeared in May 2, 1998, editions of The Dallas Morning News. A capital murder suspect who eluded Farmers Branch police for 3 months was captured Friday, but only after a wild car chase, a head-on crash and a citizen's intervention, authorities said. Charles Don Flores, 28, is the 2nd man arrested in the January slaying of 64-year-old Betty Black during a botched burglary attempt at her Farmers Branch home. Mr. Flores, described as armed and dangerous since police identified him as a suspect, was arrested about 2 p.m. Friday in Irving, when FBI agents spotted him leaving the home of a friend or relative in a blue Volvo. "I know the family has been anxious for an arrest in this case, and we'll be glad to tell them about it," Farmers Branch police Capt. Chuck Reeves said. Mrs. Black, a native of Scotland who moved to the United States with her husband 38 years ago, died of gunshot wounds to her body and extremities, an autopsy showed. Her husband, Bill Black, found her body the morning of Jan. 29 in the den of the Bergen Lane home they had shared since the 1960s. Their dining room and den were covered with the blood of Mrs. Black and the family dog, family members have said. Mr. Black could not be reached for comment Friday. His home telephone was answered by his wife's recorded voice. Richard Lynn Childs, 28, was arrested 2 days after Mrs. Black's death and charged with capital murder. He remains jailed on that charge at the Lew Sterrett Justice Center. Bail is set at $750,000. About the same time, police named Mr. Flores as the other suspect. Despite a flood of tips on his whereabouts, they were unable to locate him and asked the FBI for help when they determined he had fled to Mexico. The day Mr. Childs was arrested, a motorist reported being shot at on Interstate 30 in Arlington by two men who had been parked beside the highway. Arlington police filed an aggravated assault warrant for Mr. Flores in connection with that freeway shooting. Farmers Branch police would not say if the men had been trying to torch the multicolored Volkswagen Beetle, which matched the description of a vehicle spotted near Mrs. Black's home after her slaying. 2 weeks ago, police learned Mr. Flores may have returned to the Dallas area but arresting him wasn't easy, authorities said. When he realized his car was being followed Friday, he began driving over grass medians, ignoring traffic signs and heading the wrong way on one-way streets, said Special Agent Marjorie Poche, an FBI spokeswoman. "He had blown a tire and was driving on the rims of his tire and was heading the wrong way on a street when he had a head-on collision" with another vehicle, she said. Mr. Flores took off running, with FBI agents right behind. His luck ran out when he tried to scale a fence, Agent Poche said. "He had agents behind him coming from two different directions," she said. "There was a citizen right there, and he grabbed him and pulled him down." Mr. Flores was taken to Parkland hospital in Dallas, where he was treated for undetermined injuries, and was expected to be transferred to Lew Sterrett on the capital murder charge. "We're glad that he is in custody," Agent Poche said. "We are sorry that he is in custody at the cost of a civilian being injured. We would rather these bad guys not hurt other people." No information was available on the driver whose car Mr. Flores hit in the 1400 block of Irving Boulevard East on the city's south side near Heritage Park. Capt. Reeves has said Mr. Flores and Mr. Childs went into the Blacks' home to steal something they apparently never found. Police have declined to speculate on a motive for Mrs. Black's slaying but confirmed that someone in her family knew at least 1 suspect. Mr. Black and his daughter, Sheila Brockman, have said they didn't know either man. The Blacks' son, Gary Black, is serving a prison sentence for a drug-related conviction and has not responded to interview requests. *** Slain woman was not random victim, but Farmers Branch police doubt she knew her killers Editor's note: This story orignally appeared in Feb. 6, 1998, editions of The Dallas Morning News. Police issued a capital murder warrant for the arrest of Charles Don Flores, 28, a friend of Richard Lynn Childs, who was arrested Saturday in connection with Elizabeth Black's slaying Jan. 29. Mr. Childs remained jailed Thursday without bail. Mr. Flores, an Irving resident who was last seen in the area Saturday, is considered armed and dangerous, Farmers Branch police Capt. Chuck Reeves said. "We desperately need information on him," he said. "We think he is still in the mid-cities area somewhere." Mrs. Black, a native of Scotland who moved to the United States with her husband 38 years ago, died of gunshot wounds to her trunk and extremities, an autopsy revealed. Her husband, Bill Black, found her body in the den of the Bergen Lane home where they had lived since the 1960s. Police have said that nothing was taken from the home and that they found no signs of forced entry. They have repeatedly declined to speculate on a motive in the shooting. "We have determined through interviewing witnesses that it wasn't a random act," Capt. Reeves said Thursday. "But as to a motive, we'd rather not comment." Mr. Black found his wife slain about 9:30 a.m. after he returned from his part-time plastering job. He said Thursday that the family's dog also had been shot. Police have found no witnesses to the slaying, but several neighbors have reported seeing 2 men driving near the house in a 1965 Volkswagen Beetle that morning. Police have not said whether that car, recovered Saturday, led them to Mr. Childs. Mr. Flores and Mr. Childs, also 28, met in prison, police said. Mr. Flores was sentenced to 2 years for a robbery and possession of cocaine conviction in 1994 and released in November 1996. Mr. Childs, also of Irving, has an extensive criminal record that includes arrests for burglary, assault and drug possession with intent to deliver. He received a 5-year sentence for delivery of a controlled substance. Information on his dates of incarceration was not available Thursday. He also is being held in connection with bond forfeiture warrants on a drug possession charge and driving with a suspended license. Capt. Reeves said Mr. Flores and Mr. Childs are the only suspects in the case. Mr. Black, 64, said he was reassured to learn police have a 2nd suspect. "I just hope they find him," he said. "It has just been such a tragedy. I have been trying to keep busy around here. . . . It's hard to sleep. It will be a long, long time before this is behind me." Mr. Black said he had no idea who would target his wife for murder or why anyone would want her dead. Anyone with information on Mr. Flores is asked to call Farmers Branch police at (972) 484-3620. He is described as about 6 feet tall and 260 to 270 pounds. He has short dark hair and wears glasses, police said. (source: Dallas Morning News) From rhalperi at smu.edu Mon Jan 25 15:28:13 2016 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Mon, 25 Jan 2016 15:28:13 -0600 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----PENN., FLA., IND., MO., KAN., COLO. Message-ID: Jan. 25 PENNSYLVANIA: Supreme Court declines death penalty case The Supreme Court announced Tuesday that it would not hear a case challenging the constitutionality of the death penalty. The appeal was filed on behalf of Shonda Walters, who was sentenced to death in May 2006 for murdering her next door neighbor with a hatchet and stealing his car. The U.S. Supreme Court of Pennsylvania for the Eastern District upheld the lower court's death sentence, saying the court found the evidence sufficient to support her conviction for 1st-degree murder. In appealing the decision to the Supreme Court, Walters asked the justices to weigh in on whether the imposition of the death penalty violates the Eighth Amendment's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. The court did not give any statement supporting or dissenting from its decision to reject the case. Court watchers have been expecting the justices to take up the constitutionality of the death penalty in light of a dissent by Justice Stephen Breyer last year. Experts said Breyer's dissent provided a blueprint for a broad challenge to capital punishment. Justice Antonin Scalia, a member of the court's conservative wing, said in September that he "wouldn't be surprised" if the court ruled the death penalty unconstitutional, suggesting there are at least 4 justices who hold that view. The court appears to be waiting for the right case to weigh in. The case that was declined on Monday is Walter v. Pennsylvania. **************** Supreme Court Rejects Appeal to Outlaw Death Penalty The Supreme Court is rejecting a Pennsylvania inmate's appeal to consider banning the death penalty across the United States. The justices did not comment Monday in turning away a challenge from death row inmate Shonda Walter. Walter's appeal plays off Justice Stephen Breyer's call in an impassioned dissent in June to re-evaluate the death penalty in light of problems involving its imposition and use. Breyer renewed his plea last week when he was the lone justice willing to give a last-minute reprieve to an Alabama death row inmate who was later put to death. (source: Associated Press) FLORIDA: U.S. Supreme Court denies appeal from condemned killer Delmer Smith in Manatee murder case The United States Supreme Court has declined to hear an appeal from Delmer Smith, the man convicted and sentenced to die for the 2009 murder of Kathleen Briles at her home in Terra Ceia. The denial to hear Smith's case came on Monday, according to the website of the nation's highest court. In July 2015, the Florida Supreme Court upheld the conviction and death sentence for Smith. "After a thorough review of all the issues raised by Smith, and after our own independent review of the proportionality of Smith's sentence of death, we affirm Smith's conviction for 1st-degree murder and sentence of death," the Florida justices wrote in their opinion when they upheld the conviction last year. A jury convicted Smith on Aug. 2, 2012, of the 1st-degree murder of Briles, who was beaten to death with her cast-iron antique sewing machine in her Terra Ceia home on Aug. 9, 2009. When the verdict was read, Smith showed no emotion. On May 28, 2013, Circuit Judge Peter Dubensky sentenced Smith to death with a unanimous recommendation from the jury. Smith's appeal was based on claims that he was entitled to relief because the trial court made mistakes in denying his motion for judgment of acquittal, denying his motion for mistrial, in permitting one inmate to testify that he threatened a witness, denying a continuance, failing to find the murder heinous, atrocious or cruel amd rejecting 2 proposed mitigating factors. He also argued the state's death penalty scheme is unconstitutional. Messages for comment were left for both Smith's public defender, Julius Aulisio, and Senior Assistant Attorney General Carol M. Dittmar. (source: Bradenton Herald) ************ Death penalty ruling spurs legislative action A Senate committee this week will begin working on a legislative fix after the U.S. Supreme Court tossed out Florida's death-penalty sentencing method. The court Jan. 12 found that the method violates the U.S. Constitution's Sixth Amendment right to a trial by jury because it gives too much power to judges in imposing death sentences. That will force lawmakers to approve changes in the death-penalty system and has raised questions about death row inmates sentenced under the old method. The Senate Criminal Justice Committee on Wednesday has set aside an entire meeting to hear presentations from Senate staff members and representatives of several agencies and groups, including Attorney General Pam Bondi's office, Gov. Rick Scott's office, the Florida Prosecuting Attorneys Association, the Florida Public Defenders Association, The Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, the Office of the Capital Collateral Regional Counsel and The Florida Bar. (source: news4jax.com) INDIANA: Gary man sentenced to death begins post-conviction relief process A Gary man sentenced to death after being found guilty of killing his wife and 2 stepchildren has begun seeking post-conviction relief, according to court records. Attorneys for Kevin Isom, 50, recently filed in Lake Criminal Court a petition to seek post-conviction relief in the capital case. Acceptance of the petition was taken under advisement pending the filing of notarized affirmation of the documents, according to online court records. In the petition, Isom claims his attorneys did not effectively argue to exclude his statement to police, nor did they effectively present a plea agreement the state had offered that would have resulted in him being sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. He also alleges the attorneys didn't argue effectively that he wasn't competent to stand trial, because he had no memory of the homicides. The petition argues that Isom's attorneys during the penalty phase of the trial didn't effectively present his social and mental history, didn't present a mental health expert and didn't object to comments made by the prosecutor. Isom was represented by private and later by public defense attorneys the nearly 6 years the case was pending in Lake County Criminal Court before the 5-week trial started. Isom's current public defense attorneys note the petition is likely to be amended, because they are still reviewing the large volume of documents and evidence associated with the case. A Lake County jury in 2013 took 2 hours to find Isom guilty of killing Cassandra Isom, 40; Michael Moore, 16; and Andria Cole, 13, in their home in the 5700 block of Hemlock Avenue in Gary. Isom allegedly told officers after his arrest, "I can't believe I killed my family, this can't be real." The Indiana Supreme Court last year affirmed Isom's murder convictions and the jury's recommendation that he be sentenced to death. Post-conviction relief is o1 of 3 types of reviews that capital cases can be subject to, according to the Indiana Public Defender Council website. Capital cases can also be subject to a federal review to determine if a defendant's constitutional rights were violated. Isom is 1 of 13 men on Indiana's death row. Debra D. Brown, 53, was sentenced to death in 1986 by a Lake County jury, but she is currently being held in Ohio, according to the Indiana Department of Correction website. (source: nwitimes.com) MISSOURI: Prosecutors will re-try Reginald Clemons in Chain of Rocks murders Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce announced Monday she will re-try Reginald Clemons, whose 1st-degree murder conviction and death sentence were thrown out by the Missouri Supreme Court in November. Joyce said she will seek the death penalty again. Clemons had been fighting his death sentence for the 1991 murder of sisters Julie and Robin Kerry on the Old Chain of Rocks Bridge. In a 4-3 decision written by Chief Justice Patricia Breckenridge, the state's high court sent the case back to circuit court, giving Joyce 60 days to refile charges. In a comment posted to Twitter, Joyce said her office has reviewed the state's evidence, availability of witnesses and reporting officers and discussed the case with victims' families. She said she has filed charges of 1st-degree murder, rape and robbery. She said that "modern DNA testing" had corroborated the state's cases against Clemons and two other men convicted of murder in the case, Marlin Gray and Antonio Richardson. "2 charges of rape against Clemons were originally filed by prosecutors in this case," she said. "At the time of this incident, the law prohibited prosecutors from trying Clemons for both the murders and the rapes at the same time because the death penalty for murder was being sought. "After Clemons was convicted, prosecutors dropped the rape charges because Clemons had been sentenced to death," she said. Ginny Kerry, the mother of the victims, said in an interview that prosecutors were "doing what we want them to do." "We all met with the Circuit Attorney's Office weeks ago, and we want the new trial to go on," she said. "Why would we want him being set free for killing my kids? He's guilty, he's always been guilty and he knows he's guilty." Clemons' attorney, Joshua Levine, with the Simpson Thacher & Bartlett law firm in New York, could not immediately be reached for comment. The Supreme Court's decision to throw out the murder conviction cited the findings of Michael Manners, a retired judge appointed by the state's highest court as "special master" to review Clemons' case. Manners found that Clemons had failed to prove his innocence in the case, but concluded that St. Louis prosecutors wrongly suppressed evidence and also found that detectives had beat Clemons into confessing to the crimes. Manners said in his report that the jury in Clemons' case might never have heard his taped confession if the state had not failed to disclose a probation officer's statement that he saw injuries to Clemons' face after a police interrogation. The officer also claimed that one of his supervisors and the lead prosecutor in the case attempted to convince him to change his written report of the injury. He refused, but the report was altered anyway to remove any reference to the injury. In dissent, Judge Paul C. Wilson wrote that there had been no failure to produce evidence by the state. The state had given Clemons' attorneys the identity of the probation officer "and the document on which (he) supposedly noted this observation long before trial," Wilson wrote. And he said Clemons was not entitled to relief unless the evidence would have been likely to change the verdict. Clemons remains in prison on a 15-year sentence for his conviction in 2007 of assaulting a Department of Corrections employee. (source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch) KANSAS: Efforts to repeal Kansas death penalty may be stymied by U.S. Supreme Court's ruling Leading up to the start of the 2016 legislative session, Kansas death penalty opponents thought they had a good chance of passing a bill this year to repeal the law. In fact, a bill was formally introduced Friday in the House, with 17 cosponsors from both sides of the aisle, including religious conservative Republicans as well as liberal and centrist Democrats. It would prohibit death sentences for any crimes committed after Juy 1, and it would create a new crime of "aggravated murder" punishable by life in prison without the possibility of parole. But after the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling this week that put one of the most infamous mass murders in Kansas history back in the spotlight, some lawmakers say those chances may have dimmed. "Up until (Wednesday), we had enough votes that we could have passed it in the House," said Rep. John Bradford, R-Lansing, one of the conservative cosponsors. "Right now, after that decision, I think it's going to be questionable." On Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed a Kansas Supreme Court ruling and upheld the death sentences of three convicted murderers in Kansas, including Jonathan and Reginald Carr, the two brothers who who killed four people and attempted to kill a fifth during a crime spree in Wichita in December 2000. In the same opinion, the court also reversed the Kansas court in another death penalty case, that of Sidney Gleason, who was convicted of the 2004 murder of a Great Bend woman and her boyfriend, because the decision in that case was based on the court's ruling in the Carr brothers case. Those were the 2nd and 3rd cases in which the U.S. high court reversed the Kansas court on death penalty cases. In 2013, the U.S. court also upheld the death sentence of Scott Cheever, who shot and killed Greenwood County Sheriff Matt Samuels in 2005. Kansas reinstated the death penalty in 1994, and since then several people have been sentenced to death. But so far, none have been executed because the Kansas Supreme Court had consistently overturned or vacated their sentences, usually on technical procedural grounds. In 2014, in fact, the Kansas court vacated the Carr brothers' sentences, thrusting the court itself into the middle of election-year politics. 2 of the court's justices, Eric Rosen and Lee Johnson, were up for retention that year, and both of them won, but by much narrower margins than usual. Now, with that infamous massacre back in the spotlight, some supporters of repeal say it will be hard to vote for it without appearing like they're letting the Carr brothers off the hook, even though the repeal bill, as it's currently drafted, would not apply retroactively to them. "I'm sure some would perceive that," said Rep. John Barker, R-Salina, who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, where the bill could be referred. "But I look at it from a different perspective. You have your personal convictions, whether you're pro-life or pro-choice, whether you're for the death penalty or against the death penalty. Normally (a court ruling) doesn't change your personal convictions. It may add pressure that they don't want to go forward this year, though." Rep. Boog Highberger, D-Lawrence, another cosponsor of the bill, said he is also hopeful that the Carr brothers decision won't affect how lawmakers vote on the issue. "The bill is not retroactive, so any existing death sentences could still be carried out," he said. Highberger also said the movement to abolish the death penalty has been gaining momentum among conservatives. "The conservative argument, as I understand it is, one, the death penalty is an inefficient government program," he said. "We've spent millions of dollars on it and we haven't executed anyone since 1965." "Also," he said, "I think people are finally realizing it might be inconsistent with conservative beliefs about small government and limited government. If you only believe in limited government, do you want government having the power to kill people?" But Sen. Jeff King, R-Independence, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee and is a supporter of the death penalty, said he doesn't buy the argument that the law is ineffective because it hasn't been used yet. "The three decisions of the Kansas Supreme Court that have prevented the death penalty have all been overturned by the United States Supreme Court," he said. "The misapplication of the federal Constitution by the Kansas Supreme Court cannot be used as a justification for repealing the law." On Monday, House Speaker Ray Merrick, R-Stilwell, is expected to refer the death penalty bill to a committee. Barker said it will be up to Merrick and the House GOP leadership team to decide whether the bill will get a hearing, and whether it will ever be voted on by the full House. (source: Shawnee Dispatch) COLORADO: Why death penalty abolitionists hit the snooze button in Colorado this year Activists working to put a stop to Colorado???s death penalty have decided not to push a legislative agenda this year. Capital punishment advocates are moving forward to make it easier for prosecutors to secure a death sentence. One day in early December, a group of about two dozen activists, academics, lawyers, funders, and others gathered at the First Baptist Church in downtown Denver. Lawmakers were about to return to the Capitol for another year of legislative pugilism, and the meeting was set up to strategize about an issue the group had been working on for years: How to get rid of the death penalty in Colorado. In the spring, lawmakers next door in conservative Nebraska had voted to abolish capital punishment, overriding Gov. Pete Ricketts veto, and becoming the 1st conservative state to do so in 4 decades. But a measure to thwart abolition hit Nebraska's ballot soon after. Funded by that state's governor and his father, the ballot measure has put the issue on hold for Nebraska voters to decide later this year. Meanwhile, within the borders of our own square state, jurors in August decided not to sentence the killer in the Aurora theater shooting to death because they couldn't reach a unanimous verdict. Not long after, a different jury chose to give a man convicted of killing 5 people in Fero's Bar and Grill in Denver life in prison instead of lethal injection. Then, in December, a gunman had shouted out in a Colorado Springs courtroom that he was guilty of slaughtering 3 people at a Planned Parenthood clinic, perhaps setting the stage for yet another made-for-TV death penalty trial against the backdrop of the Rockies. In was around the time of the Colorado Springs rampage that a conservative Nebraska legislator named Colby Coash would travel to Colorado. His charge: Meet 1-on-1 and in groups with Republican lawmakers here to explain the success of repeal in Nebraska, and to talk about his personal Road to Damascus moment when he'd attended an execution rally outside a prison in college. On the pro-death side of the rally, he told lawmakers, he recalled a raucous bacchanal complete with fireworks, a band, and whoops and hollers as a clock counted down toward the execution. On the other side of the rally, people prayed silently and soberly in protest. That night, Coash saw an ugliness to state-sponsored execution that he didn't want to be a part of. In an interview, Coash told The Colorado Independent that he left his meetings with Colorado lawmakers feeling like he'd given them some new things to think about when it comes to the conservative argument for ending capital punishment. "My hope for Colorado is that they will follow Nebraska's lead ... and see the death penalty in the same way Nebraska saw the death penalty, which is a broken, inefficient government program that just doesn't need to be on the books anymore," he said. 'Quite divided' By the time of their December meeting, with the legislative session just around the corner, some of the anti-death penalty allies felt the time was ripe to get behind a big push to repeal capital punishment in Colorado once and for all. If, of course, lawmakers saw an opportunity to do so this year. After all, 2016 is an election year in a split-partisan Capitol when each member of the House is up for re-election along with half the Senate. "The group was quite divided about whether this was the right time or not," says Stacy Anderson who runs Colorado's anti-death penalty Better Priorities Initiative. There were essentially 3 camps. In one camp was Bob Autobee, the father of a prison guard who was killed in 2002 by an inmate already in prison for the death of his 11-month-old daughter. Autobee, a former corrections officer himself whose life unravelled after his son's murder, originally supported the death penalty for his son's killer, Edward Montour. But over the years, Autobee refound religion and became an ardent opponent of capital punishment. He's forgiven the man who fatally bashed his son's head with a giant soup ladle, and even protested outside the courthouse telling potential jurors in Montour's case, "My son wouldn't want the death penalty." Autobee doesn't want to see any time wasted in the legislature or at the ballot box. So he made his case at December's meeting to support a repeal bill he hoped lawmakers would introduce and try to pass by the end of the legislative session this spring. In an interview with The Colorado Independent, Autobee said he doesn't know if he has "10 good years left," and is sick of playing the waiting game. My point is we've got to do it now and we've got to do it loud and hard," he says, noting he doesn't see the point in putting legislative efforts on hold. "We've waited too long." Also at that meeting was Jeremy Sheets, an exoneree who spent 4 years on death row in Nebraska before the Supreme Court there overturned his conviction in 2000. He now lives in Aurora and wears a shirt almost every day urging people to talk to him about his experience as a death row survivor. He wants immediate action on abolition and was frustrated at the meeting by the presence of some who were there from out of state and were suggesting they all cool their heels a bit because one lawmaker or another isn't ready. At the time, Sheets remembers thinking: Why are you even wasting my time asking me to come here if you're just going to try and tell me not to do anything? "I'm kind of frustrated with what's going on- that there is really nothing much going on," Sheets told The Independent. His view: "We have to keep pushing to end the death penalty." In another camp were people like Michael Radelet, a professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder who studies the death penalty and takes the long view - a very long view - on abolition. The professor had earlier predicted that if Nebraska's legislature scrapped the death penalty, the issue would come right back on the 2016 presidential-election-year ballot. The chances, he believes, are good that voters in November might send abolition down in flames, setting the movement back who knows how long. Radelet isn't one for quick fixes. "I oppose the death penalty, and I think that to try to abolish the death penalty this year or next year would be the dumbest thing in the world for death penalty abolitionists," he told The Independent. At December's meeting, Radelet made his case for putting the issue on hold this year. He believes public opinion in Colorado right now is just about split between death and life without parole. An election-year bill to repeal capital punishment, he believes, would increase the likelihood of a ballot measure aimed at keeping the death penalty in place. His concern: an effort by death penalty proponents - police and prosecutors, among others - would wage a well-funded campaign to keep capital punishment on the books at a time when the Colorado electorate has yet to reach a tipping point on abolition. Public opinion just isn't there yet for a confident win for abolitionists at the ballot box, he asserted. Instead, Radelet would rather see Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper commute the 2 1/2 sentences for the 3 inmates currently on death row. Hickenlooper has already given a temporary reprieve to 1, Nathan Dunlap. Fully commuting Dunlap's sentence and those of Sir Mario Owens and Robert Ray would, in effect, push forward the next scheduled execution about 2 decades. By then, public opinion will shift in abolition???s favor, Radelet believes. "We know the direction that public opinion is going in," he says. "It's going firmly against the death penalty." Colorado hasn't executed anyone since 1997. The last time a jury unanimously sent someone to death was in 2008. Because of how long these cases drag out in Colorado's justice system, some death penalty opponents argue the state already has de facto abolition. Hickenlooper has no plans to commute sentences at this time, says his spokeswoman Kathy Green. In the 3rd camp at December's meeting were those on the fence between pushing immediately for abolition and waiting until after the election year. One of them was Carla Turner who runs Coloradans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty. "I feel divided," she says about it now. "I really see the reason on both sides." Ultimately, some in the group left the meeting that day in December feeling ambivalent. If a lawmaker were to introduce a repeal bill when the session started this month, they'd support it. If not, well, they'd continue their work outside the legislature, educating the public, holding forums, and generally tilling the soil of public opinion in a way they hope some day will better the conditions for their cause. 'The opposing team is going full speed ahead' Fast forward to this week, and no one has come forward with a repeal bill in the legislature. Hickenlooper told reporters at the start of the session he would not support one this year, though he believes Coloradans are moving in the direction of repeal. Democratic Minority Leader Lucia Guzman said she would not sponsor a repeal bill this year even though she'll work to fight for abolition over the next few years she's in the Senate. Over lunch on a recent Wednesday at his office across the street from the Capitol, Denver Democratic Sen. Pat Steadman said he's disappointed in the lack of legislative effort. "I thought we were going to do it this year, or at least make a good run at it," he said. But at the start of the session, legislative leaders, advocates, political consultants and funders had all circled the wagons and basically told him and others they were hitting the snooze button. For his part, Autobee says he plans to start picketing outside the Capitol just to let the political class know he's not going anywhere. "Every minute we waste is putting us further behind because the opposing team is going full speed ahead," he says. Indeed they are. Last week, Republican Sen. Kevin Lundberg of the Loveland area dropped something of a bombshell. He introduced a bill that would make it easier for juries in Colorado to put people to death. Currently, all 12 jurors in a death penalty case must unanimously decide on a death sentence. Lundberg's bill, if passed, would make it so only 9 out of the 12 jurors would be enough. The move was in direct response to the recent non-unanimous jury verdicts in the Aurora theater shooting trial and the Fero's bar killing trial over the summer, Lundberg says. 5 other Republican supporters are on the bill. No Democrats currently support it. In an interview with The Independent, Lundberg said he came up with the idea on his own and hadn't talked to the District Attorneys Council before he filed the bill. He said he isn't totally set on 9 jurors, either. Maybe it could be 10 or 11, but no fewer than 9. He just doesn't think 1 juror should poison the well in a death penalty trial. "Part of what I'm trying to do is say 'Let's look at it, let???s talk about it, le'???s determine what should be occurring here,'" he said. "If the policy is that the death penalty is appropriate for the worst of crimes, then a jury should not be composed of people who disagree with that basic point. And yet a juror could misrepresent their views until they get to that point, and I'm saying I don't think one juror should skew that principle." Death penalty opponents were quick to point out a particular irony: It would still take a unanimous jury to convict someone for driving under the influence or for shoplifting in Colorado, but not to sentence someone to death. Doug Wilson, the head of the State Public Defender's Office, said he'd been expecting such a bill to drop this session. He's not so sure it would pass constitutional muster. "If it were to pass, they will once again jeopardize their death convictions and death verdicts as they did when we had 3-judge sentencing as opposed to jury sentencing," he said. In 1995 lawmakers changed the law so a 3-judge panel could decide a death sentence, but that was deemed unconstitutional less than a decade later, and now only juries can deliver execution verdicts. Meanwhile, in the lower chamber, Republican Rep. Kim Ransom of Douglas County told The Independent she's considering a bill that would give prosecutors a do-over with a new jury if they fail to win a death penalty verdict with the 1st. A statewide conversation With no proposed legislation to roll back capital punishment this year, people with loud voices on the other side of the issue have been making noise. One of them is George Brauchler. Brauchler is the 18 Judicial District Attorney who prosecuted the Aurora theater shooting trial last year. For years, long before Brauchler took office, the 18th Judicial District had been a hub for death penalty prosecutions, something he calls a historical anomaly. Once the Aurora theater trial ended in August and the national reporters went away, Brauchler's profile did not diminish. In the weeks after the trial, Republicans courted him to get in the GOP primary so he could take on Democratic U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet who is up for re-election this year. In late September, Brauchler announced that he would pass on the U.S. Senate race, but he still remains a prominent political figure beyond his stature as a suburban prosecutor. In December, Robert Sanchez of Denver's 5280 magazine profiled Brauchler for a multi-page feature that called him "Colorado's most visible proponent of capital punishment." Among other personal details, the article examined how Brauchler's support of the death penalty runs up against his Catholicism. In a recent interview with The Colorado Independent, Brauchler said he did not feel Coloradans have had a substantial statewide conversation about the death penalty. This is despite 2 death penalty trials over the summer, and a 2014 gubernatorial race that at times seemed to revolve solely around the fate of Nathan Dunlap, the man who in 1993 murdered several people in a Chuck-E-Cheese and to whom Hickenlooper gave a temporary reprieve. Once a pro-death penalty governor, Hickenlooper has since come out against it after immersing himself in research as Dunlap's execution date neared. In his executive order granting the Dunlap reprieve, the Governor wrote that the "Repeal of the death penalty ought to be raised with the people of Colorado and not just their elected representatives." That's when he called for a statewide conversation on the issue. Nearly 3 years - and 1 re-election - later, some on both sides of the issue say that conversation hasn't happened. "My guess is the only person having this conversation is the guy you're talking to right now ... Nobody else is having this conversation," Brauchler said. "In what way has this conversation taken place? If it's the vote of a single juror in Aurora theater and a single juror in Fero's bar and therefore we've had a public discussion about it, that's nonsense. That's ridiculous." In the weeks prior to the start of the latest legislative session, Brauchler said he expected a repeal bill to come up this year. And if it did, similar to what's happening next door in Nebraska, Brauchler said he would like voters to decide whether to keep or scrap capital punishment at the ballot box this year. That, he says, would be a real conversation. "I'd want to participate in the information part of that and say 'Look, here's why I think the death penalty is appropriate to have and why [in] Colorado - unlike maybe Texas, Georgia, Kentucky and others - we use it the right way," he said. "I mean, we don't drag it out for murders of one in most cases. We don't drag it out for routine murders." On the other side of Brauchler on the death penalty debate is Doug Wilson, who runs the State Public Defender's Office and oversees the attorneys who represented Aurora theater shooter James Holmes and now the admitted Planned Parenthood shooter, Robert Dear. Lately, Wilson and Brauchler have been locking horns, sniping at each other in the press and on social media, largely about one key aspect of any informed conversation about the death penalty - how much it's costing Colorado taxpayers. In response to dozens of open records requests from media, Wilson's office has released an aggregate figure showing how much it spent on capital cases - $6.3 million on 10 cases since 2002 - but didn't break them down by case. Wilson says he's ethically bound not to divulge information about particular cases. Brauchler says that seems "silly." But the 2 agree on 1 thing: The public has no idea how much Colorado taxpayers spend on trying to carry out capital punishment - and not enough people are talking about it. To find out the true costs of the death penalty in Colorado will likely take a lot of open records requests, perhaps even a lawsuit. But there could be another way. Wilson says he'd like to see lawmakers this session convene a legislative hearing. That process could happen formally or informally. It could come in the form of an existing committee or a new select committee set up by leadership specifically to deal with this issue. Committee members could invite all the stakeholders to the table: prosecutors, public defenders, agency employees from the departments of Corrections, Human Resources, Public Safety and others, staffers from the attorney general's office, local law enforcement, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, members of the judicial department - whoever. They could bring in every government entity involved in dealing with death penalty cases (or just a specific case) to ask about particular costs. In Colorado, committees can obtain subpoena power and can put people under oath, but it's not necessarily easy and is rarely done. To issue a subpoena for someone to testify before a committee would require approval from the General Assembly. 'Live From Death Row' Whether such a committee will convene in the absence of a death penalty repeal bill this year remains to be seen, though some in the abolition movement are pushing for it. In the meantime, they plan to keep a conversation going as best they can. Carla Turner, who directs Coloradans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, a nonprofit educational campaign, is working with the Better Priorities Initiative, which is dedicated to ending capital punishment, on a string of public forums beginning next month. In February, the groups will kick off a 'State of the Death Penalty' lecture series on the 3rd Wednesday of each month when they'll talk about combating bad legislation, work on figuring out how to uncover the hidden costs of capital punishment in Colorado, and the possibility of pushing for a statewide commission or task force on the issue. In March, the groups are planning an event called 'Live From Death Row' in partnership with the Jesuit Regis University. A panel of experts will give a presentation along with family members of murder victims, and they hope to schedule a call-in from a death row inmate, though not from Colorado. For Radelet, the University of Colorado professor, more education on the issue and no executions scheduled for the near term is the best hope for abolition. "There are many kind Coloradans who think the solution is to go out tomorrow and abolish the death penalty," he says. "And I think if we did that it would come back and bite us in the ass." (source: The Colorado Independent) From rhalperi at smu.edu Mon Jan 25 15:28:58 2016 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Mon, 25 Jan 2016 15:28:58 -0600 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide Message-ID: Jan. 25 INDONESIA: Labourer to be hanged after death penalty appeal dismissed The Court of Appeal yesterday affirmed the death penalty of a former estate labourer for the murder of a man in a Sandakan oil palm estate squatter. Hasyim Rahman, 42, will now be sent to the gallows following the unanimous decision of the Appellate Court judges, Justices Dato' Setia Mohd Zawawi Salleh, Datuk Dr Prasad Sandosham Abraham and Dato' Zaleha Yusof. In affirming the lower court's conviction and sentence, the justices held that there was sufficient evidence to support the charge under Section 302 of the Penal Code for murder, hence dismissing Hasyim's appeal. Earlier, counsel Sharatah Lincoln, for the appellant, submitted on the issue of whether or not her client had any intention to murder the deceased. In her submission, Sharatah implored the court to consider the fact that her client had acted in self-defence, as the deceased was the one who had trespassed into the appellant's premises with threats of slapping and killing him. The appellant had only brandished a machete with the intention of deterring the deceased from approaching him because he felt threatened, said Sharatah. She also pointed out that the deceased had only sustained a slash wound across his cheek in addition to the fatal wound to the back of his neck. If the appellant did really intend to murder the deceased, said Sharatah, there would not have been a 2nd injury as the appellant would have used full force instead of swinging the machete around with his eyes closed. Sharatah also submitted on the fact that the prosecution did not establish a motive for her client's crime, therefore making it unsafe to convict him. There was also no history of hostility between the appellant and the deceased as the former had only arrived at the estate 10 days prior to the incident, said Sharatah. In reply, deputy public prosecutor, Hamdan Hamzah, for the respondent, urged the court to dismiss the appeal as the appellant had failed to raise reasonable doubt. The appellant also did not say anything about motive in his defence during trial, therefore making it an invalid ingredient to be considered, said Hamdan. Hasyim was convicted of murdering one Baharuddin Amir by hacking the back of the victim's neck with a machete on September 25, 2011 at around 9 pm. He had appealed unsuccessfully to the Sandakan High Court to have his sentence reduced. (source: theborneopost.com) BELARUS: see: http://www.amnestyusa.org/get-involved/take-action-now/belarus-commute-gennadii-yakovitskii-s-death-sentence-ua-1816 (source: Amnesty International USA) SAUDI ARABIA: Juvenile Protester among Saudi Mass-Execution Victims, New Information Shows A protester who was under 18 at the time of the alleged offenses for which he was convicted was among the 47 people executed in a single day in Saudi Arabia earlier this year, research by international human rights organization Repriev reported on Monday. Ali al Ribh was arrested while at school on February 12th, 2012 due to his involvement in activities calling for reform between February and October 2011 - when he was just 17 years old. Ali - whose date of birth was December 2nd, 1993 - should therefore have been treated as a juvenile by the Saudi legal system. His execution on January 2nd this year was a breach of the absolute prohibition on the execution of juvenile offenders, and illegal under international law. The Saudi authorities did not inform his family of the execution and are keeping the location of his burial secret. Ali's execution will raise concerns about the position of other juveniles convicted for protest-related offences in the Kingdom. Dawoud al Mahroon, Ali al Nimr and Abdullah al Zaher remain under sentence of death for alleged offences which took place when they were aged 17, 17 and 15, respectively. The British Government has said that it has raised their cases with the Saudi authorities and does not expect them to be executed. However, Reprieve is calling for renewed action in light of the fact that the Saudi authorities have executed at least one juvenile protester already this year. Maya Foa, director of the death penalty team at Reprieve said: "Ali al Ribh's tragic case shows that the Saudi authorities are quite happy to execute juvenile protesters if they think no one is looking. Ali was seized by police at his school and subsequently executed, even though he was a child when the alleged protest offences were committed. "Abdullah al Zaher, Ali al Nimr and Dawoud al Marhoon - all of whom were sentenced to death as children - remain imprisoned and could be executed at any time, without warning. "Until the Saudi Government officially commutes their sentences, the sword will continue to hang over their heads. Britain must redouble its efforts to convince the Saudi Government to commute Abdullah, Ali and Dawoud's sentences - and those of any other juveniles facing execution - before it is too late." (source: Tasnim News Agency) BANGLADESH: Bill with death penalty provision for mutiny in Coast Guard placed A bill, titled 'Bangladesh Coast Guard Bill, 2016', is placed in parliament having a provision of maximum punishment of death sentence for involvement in mutiny in the force. Photo grabbed from Coast Guard website A bill, titled 'Bangladesh Coast Guard Bill, 2016', was placed in parliament having a provision of maximum punishment of death sentence for involvement in mutiny in the force. Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan placed the Bill in the House which was sent to the respective parliamentary standing committee for further scrutiny. The committee was asked to submit its report within 20 days. The proposed law aims to make the Coast Guard a disciplined, skilled and effective one through updating the existing 1994 act. The proposed law defined various mutiny-related offences, trial procedure, capital punishment for mutiny apart from other offences. There will be 21 posts in the Coast Guard, including 1 director general, while there will be 3 courts in the Coast Guard, these are Special Coast Guard Court, Special Summery Coast Guard Court and Summery Coast Guard Court. (source: The Daily Star) From rhalperi at smu.edu Tue Jan 26 10:09:04 2016 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Tue, 26 Jan 2016 10:09:04 -0600 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, DEL., GA., FLA., ILL. Message-ID: Jan. 26 TEXAS: Texas Prepares for Execution of James Freeman on January 27, 2016 James Garrett Freeman's execution is scheduled to occur at 6 pm CST on Wednesday, January 27, 2016, at the Walls Unit of the Huntsville State Penitentiary in Huntsville, Texas. 35-year-old James is convicted of the murder of 34-year-old Wharton County Game Warden Justin Hurst on March 17, 2007, in Lissie, Texas. James has spent the last 7 years of his life on Texas' death row. James was known to be easily angered and had a progressive history of alcohol abuse. He had previously received citations for driving under the influence. He was also on probation for driving while intoxicated. James graduated from high school and worked as a welder prior to his arrest. After several complaints of shots being fired at night, Texas Game Warden Jonathan Blackburn surveilled the area on Friday, March 16, 2007. Around 11:00 pm, he saw a truck driving slowly and then heard a gunshot from a small caliber rifle, such as a .22. As it is against the law to fire shots or hunt from the side of the road, Blackburn investigated. As he drove towards the vehicle, Blackburn activated his "red and blue lights." The truck did not stop, driving past Blackburn. Blackburn followed the vehicle down various roads with speeds ranging from 45 to 100 miles per hour. He also requested back-up from Wharton County Sheriff's Office. 2 officers in marked patrol cars joined the pursuit and took over as the lead from Blackburn. 3 other officers also joined the pursuit. Texas Game Warden Justin Hurst, who was not part of the chase, told officers that he was going to attempt to set up a roadblock. The driver of the truck was able to avoid the roadblock, and Hurst joined the pursuit. The chase ensued for at least another 30 minutes. Blackburn indicated that there was no spot where the suspect could have pulled over to stop. The suspect also managed to avoid several spike strips. During the chase, a dispatcher determined, from the license plate, that the truck belonged to James Freeman. Blackburn, along with another officer, were both familiar with Freeman, as they had written him a ticket a year earlier. Initially, officers believed that the vehicle had been stolen, as the driver's behavior did not match what they knew of Freeman. Freeman was later determined to be the driver. Eventually, Freeman drove over a spike strip, causing him to pull over and stop. As Freeman exited the truck, keeping the truck between him and the police officers, he began firing on the officers. Freeman fired until he appeared to be out of ammunition, with the officers returning fire. He then "disappeared" and "came back out with a long gun," an AK-47 assault rifle. Freeman continued firing at the police. Hurst moved out from under cover for a clear shot. He was shot on his left side and died from his injuries. The Supreme Court of the United States has refused to review Freeman's case. The court gave no reason for actions. Please pray for peace and healing for the family of Justin Hurst. Please pray for strength for the family of James Freeman. Please pray that if James is innocent, lacks the competency to be executed, or should not be executed for any other reason, that evidence will be presented prior to his execution. Please pray that James may come to find peace through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, if he has not already. (source: theforgivenessfoundation.org) DELAWARE: Gallows or Gurney?: The last hanging in the U.S. was only 20 years ago today Back in 1979, a Delaware convict named Billy Bailey was assigned to a work-release facility in Wilmington. But one day, for whatever reason, Bailey decided he wasn't going back to the center. He turned up at his foster sister's house and went with her husband on an errand. While on the way, Bailey asked the man to stop at a liquor store. Bailey, armed with a gun, robbed the clerk. The foster sister's husband dropped Bailey off about a mile and a half from the liquor store. Bailey went to a house where an elderly man and his wife lived. He shot and killed them both. He was arrested as he fled the scene. Bailey was tried and convicted in 1980. He got the death penalty. It was 16 years later that he paid the ultimate price. On Jan. 25, 1996 - 20 years ago today - Bailey became the last man to be hanged in the U.S. That's right. He was hanged. You see, Delaware did not adopt lethal injection until after Bailey was sentenced. So he was given the choice of the gallows or the gurney. He opted for the noose. It was the 1st hanging in Delaware in 50 years. 1 of only 3 in the entire country since 1965. A new gallows had to be built. An inexperienced hangman trained. Today, hanging is considered by many to be barbaric. Only the states of Washington and New Hampshire still allow it under certain circumstances, though Washington has a moratorium on the death penalty and New Hampshire hasn't executed anyone since 1939. These days, lethal injection is the method of choice. But that's being challenged in courts across the land. Some say it is cruel because the condemned prisoner might feel pain. We don't agree. In our view lethal injection is much more humane than the suffering inflicted on the victims of these convicted killers. We suspect most readers feel the same. But, if lethal injection is ever found unconstitutional, there is always the rope. It may not have been used in 20 years, but it has never been thrown out by the Supreme Court. (source: Editorial, Texarkana Gazette) GEORGIA----impending execution Brandon Astor Jones asks appeals court to stay next week's execution Attorneys for Brandon Astor Jones on Monday asked the federal appeals court in Atlanta to stop his execution scheduled for next Tuesday. The lawyers say all 11 judges on the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals should have time, as a collected group, to hear them challenge the law that shrouds Georgia's execution process in secrecy. In a filing late Monday, Jones' lawyers wrote that at least 3 of the 11 judges on the court of appeals have questioned the legality of the state's secrecy law, but no 2 of them have been on the same panel at once. So far, each skeptical judge has been outnumbered whenever a 3-judge panel was convened. "In the 30 months since the secrecy act became law, 6 judges of this court have addressed whether (Georgia's) use of it comports with the Constitution," Jones' lawyers wrote. "6 have suggested that it does not. "But by the happenstance of how those judges were distributed among the panels" the law has withstood challenge by those facing death who say they have a constitutional right to know who makes the deadly doses of pentobarbital that Georgia uses to carry out lethal injections. "Given the division within the court on so grave a question, Mr. Jones respectfully submits that the time is ripe for this court to address these issues" as a group, Jones' lawyers wrote. At least 6 of the 11 judges on the appeals court must agree to hear Jones' appeal before the entire court will take it. To ensure a supply of lethal injection drugs, Georgia is one of several states that have laws protecting the identities of pharmacists who prepared the drugs. The statues were adopted as sources for lethal injection drugs became scarce because of public pressure on drug makers. Jones' lawyers have said condemned killers are entitled to know who made their lethal injection drugs and the pharmacist's qualifications to ensure that their deaths will not be torturous. So far, courts nationwide have supported secrecy laws like Georgia's, ruling that they are the only way to ensure that the death penalty can be carried out. But Jones' lawyers say the entire court hearing this issue now is more pressing because of problems with lethal injection drugs that were prepared for 2 executions early last year, but were delayed because the pentobarbital was cloudy. The state still supposedly uses the pharmacist who made drugs for the executions of Kelly Gissendaner and Brian Keith Terrell that were set for last March but delayed because the drugs were cloudy Jones' lawyers wrote in a complaint, which the district court threw out last week, that had the state moved forward with executions of Gissendaner and Terrell using the cloudy pentobarbital, the "injection of a precipitated solution would be akin to having small pieces of broken glass projected into your blood vessels." Both Gissendaner and Terrell have since been executed using new batches of the drug. Jones' lawyers said the Department of Corrections, which carries out executions for the state, should at least find another source for the drugs, rather than using the pharmacist who made the lethal injection drugs for Gissendaner and Terrell almost a year ago. Jones is scheduled to die next week for the 1979 murder of the manager of a Cobb County convenience store, Roger Tackett. Jones and his partner, Van Roosevelt Solomon, shot Tackett 5 times - once in the thumb and twice in his hip and head - leaving him dead on the storeroom floor. Jones and Solomon were captured as they emerged from the storeroom at the Tenneco gas station and convenience store. The state electrocuted Solomon in 1985. But a federal court threw out Jones' sentence in 1989 because jurors had a Bible in the room while they deliberated. But Jones was retried and re-sentenced to death in 1997. Jones is the oldest man on Georgia's death row. If he is executed, he will be the oldest man Georgia has ever put to death. He will be 11 days shy of his 73rd birthday. (source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution) *************** Capital case: Defense argues against showing jurors gruesome photos Jurors in the death penalty trial of Brandon Conner may need stout constitutions to withstand the evidence they'll be shown. That's because the evidence may include photos of the charred bodies of Conner's 32-year-old girlfriend Rosella "Mandy" Mitchell and their 6-month-old son Dylan Conner, found Aug. 21, 2014 in their burned 1324 Winifred Lane home. In a hearing on pretrial motions Monday before Muscogee Superior Court Judge William Rumer, defense attorneys William Kendrick and Mark Shelnutt made 2 arguments that became tied together: -- They claimed Conner's indictment is deficient in that it does not specify the infant's cause of death. -- They said showing the jury gruesome photos from the crime would serve only to inflame jurors' passions, subjecting Conner to unfair prejudice. 1 count in Conner's indictment says Dylan was killed in "a manner unknown to the grand jury at this time." Another says Conner assaulted the baby "with an object unknown to the grand jury at this time." The mother's autopsy showed she was stabbed to death before the fire, leaving wounds on her neck and torso, authorities said. Kendrick said the defense can't adequately fight Conner's murder charges regarding the infant if they don't know how he's accused of killing the child: "We're at a loss as to how to defend him on those counts." Prosecutor Wesley Lambertus said the baby's precise cause of death remains undetermined because the body was so badly burned the medical examiner was unable to specify what killed the child. He also said the law does not require such precision to sustain an indictment. The courts have held that the circumstances of some homicides do not permit greater certainty as to a cause of death, he said. He cited as an example the case of McKibbins v. State, a 2013 Georgia Supreme Court decision regarding the murder of a man suspected of stealing cocaine. The defendant and his accomplices cut the victim's body up with a chainsaw and buried the pieces. On appeal, the convict argued his indictment for "kidnapping with bodily injury" neglected to specify how he injured the victim. The justices ruled that detail was unnecessary as long as the defendant properly was charged under the law. Beyond that, the judges said the circumstances precluded such a determination, as the body "was so dismembered and decomposed that the medical examiner was unable to definitively ascertain his injuries and cause of death." As for admitting into evidence gruesome photographs, Lambertus cited court precedents in which judges allowed the introduction of crime-scene and autopsy photos to aid in the testimony of medical examiners, who typically explain how victims died, but also could be called to explain why autopsies failed to determine a cause of death. On that issue, the prosecutor referred to a Georgia Supreme Court case decided just last week, Simpson v. The State, an opinion delivered Jan. 19. In that case the defendant was convicted of beating a man to death with a 2-by-4 board, a computer and a computer monitor, and leaving the victim in a vacant house the 2 broke into. On appeal, the convict complained the crime-scene and autopsy photographs shown the jury were prejudicial. Some photos showed the victim's skull after the flesh was removed. "Those crime-scene and pre-autopsy photographs were properly admitted into evidence to show the nature and extent of the wounds and the location of physical evidence at the scene, as well as to assist the testimony of the medical examiner," the court ruled. It said the photos of the victim's skull were necessary to show "different injuries that were identified only upon examining the exposed skull.... Consequently, the trial court did not abuse its discretion when it admitted the post-autopsy photographs." Rumer did not immediately rule on these issues, and instead asked attorneys to file motions supporting their arguments by noon Monday, Feb. 8. The defense also argued Monday that Rumer should issue a gag order prohibiting prosecutors from publicly discussing the case, claiming the district attorney's staff risked tainting the jury pool with details of the investigation. District Attorney Julia Slater countered that her office has not released any details of the double-homicide, but said she would not object if a gag order applied to both the prosecution and defense. Rumer asked attorneys on both sides to draft gag orders for him to consider. The judge did not rule Monday on any of the dozens of defense motions filed in Conner's case. A 2nd round of pretrial hearings is set for Feb. 15. Other defense motions ask Rumer to suppress evidence patrol officers found on Conner after the homicides, when they noticed him sitting in his 2001 BMW 740i on Cedar Avenue off Wynnton Road. The officers said Conner was "nervous, shaking, sweating profusely, and had blood on his face and clothing," according to prosecutors. After questioning him, police charged him with making false statements to law enforcement, and impounded his car. Officers by policy search suspects before putting them in a patrol car. Searching Conner, they found "a bloody glove, a bloody baby wipe, and 2 lighters in his pockets," according to prosecutors. Court documents say police got a warrant to search the BMW, in which they found "a knife and bloody clothing." In moving to suppress such evidence, Conner's defense attorneys argue police had no probable cause to detain and search him, because he had done nothing to arouse suspicion, as his car "was lawfully parked outside his place of employment, Davis Broadcasting on Cedar Avenue in Columbus...." (source: ledger-enquirer.com) ************ Brandon Conner's attorney requests murder charges to be dropped During a preliminary motions hearing on Monday, the attorney of a Columbus man accused of killing his girlfriend and infant son argued the constitutionality of his death penalty sentencing. Brandon Conner faces 2 counts of malice murder, 2 counts of felony murder, 1 count of aggravated battery, 1 count of felony arson and using a knife to commit a felony. Police say he stabbed his girlfriend Rosella Mitchell and set their home on fire killing Mitchell and 6-month-old son Dylan Mitchell. Conner was indicted by a grand jury in April 2014, and shortly after the district attorney's office announced its plan to seek the death penalty. Nearly 30 motions were filed Monday by the defense, including a motion to exclude before and after life photos of the victims from the trial, a motion to include police body camera footage and a motion to include the 911 call as evidence in the jury trial. Defense attorneys Mark Shelnutt and William Kendrick presented the International Covenant of Civil and Political rights as a basis for their claim that the death penalty is a violation of international law. The district attorney's office opposed their motion on the basis that state law trumps international law. Shelnutt and Kendrick also requested 2 of the murder charges either be dropped or tried separately, arguing that malice murder requires a weapon and although the coroner confirmed stab wounds as the cause of death for Mitchell, the cause of death for the infant remains undetermined. Kendrick also mentioned investigating the DA's history of death penalty indictments to determine whether or not African Americans are disproportionately sentenced to death. We reached out to the district attorney for comment, but they declined saying that the attorney's on both sides have agreed to a gag order. The prosecution and defense agreed to finalize 11 motions before the next hearing. The other motions will be determined by Judge Rumor at the next preliminary hearing on Feb. 15. (source: WTVM news) FLORIDA: Death-penalty sentencing to get look----Senate committee to look at the issue afer U.S. Supreme Court tossed out state's method A Senate committee this week will begin working on a legislative fix after the U.S. Supreme Court tossed out Florida's death-penalty sentencing method. The court Jan. 12 found that the method violates the U.S. Constitution's Sixth Amendment right to a trial by jury because it gives too much power to judges in imposing death sentences. That will force lawmakers to approve changes in the death-penalty system and has raised questions about death row inmates sentenced in the past under the old method. The Senate Criminal Justice Committee on Wednesday has set aside an entire meeting to hear presentations from Senate staff members and representatives of several agencies and groups, including Attorney General Pam Bondi's office, Gov. Rick Scott's office, the Florida Prosecuting Attorneys Association, the Florida Public Defenders Association, The Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, the Office of the Capital Collateral Regional Counsel and The Florida Bar. (source: Florida Times-Union) ****************** Pinellas judge rejects death penalty request after Supreme Court ruling Days after the Supreme Court struck down the way Florida sentences people to die, a Pinellas County circuit judge has ruled that the death penalty cannot be pursued in a 1st-degree murder case scheduled for trial next month. In an order filed Friday, judge Michael Andrews rejected prosecutors' notice that they intend to seek the death penalty in the case of a Pinellas Park father, Steven Dykes, accused of fatally shaking and striking his 3-month-old daughter in February of last year. "This court concludes that there currently exists no death penalty in the State of Florida in that there is no procedure in place," Andrews wrote. The order is the first of its kind in the state following the Hurst vs. Florida decision on Jan. 12, said Pinellas-Pasco public defender Bob Dillinger. In an 8-1 opinion, the Supreme Court found Florida's death penalty procedures unconstitutional because juries play only an advisory role in recommending life or death. Judges make the ultimate decision after giving "great weight" to jurors' recommendations. Florida, Alabama, and Delaware are the only states that don't require a unanimous jury verdict in death penalty cases. Each also allows a judge to override a jury's recommendation. Dillinger, whose office is representing Dykes, said he agreed with Andrews' ruling. "What the judge has done is absolutely correct," Dillinger said, adding Andrews is "right on point." Prosecutors could file an appeal in the case. Another hearing is scheduled on Feb. 16, court records show, with the trial slated to begin Feb. 29. Chief Assistant State Attorney Bruce Bartlett said his office "respectfully" disagrees with judge Andrews, adding that the Hurst decision is not final yet. That will happen after the state asks for a rehearing. Bartlett also said the Legislature still has to create new sentencing guidelines in response to the court's decision. "They issue an opinion and they don't issue any guidelines on how to fix it, and what to do next," Bartlett said of the Hurst opinion. "It's just a dilemma that faces us because the question is how exactly do you fix it? And they didn't really lay out how they thought it should be fixed, so it kind of lends you to, you know, potentially all kinds of challenges." Lawmakers have previously said that they are making fixes to the death penalty sentencing system a priority this session. "It's not the Supreme Court's job to lay out the procedural guidelines," said Charles Rose, a Stetson University law professor and the director of the Center for Excellence in Advocacy. "That's an issue for every legislature in every state to deal with independently." The fate of other murder cases remains in flux until new sentencing guidelines are signed into law, said St. Petersburg criminal lawyer Marc Pelletier. "Until the Legislature does its part," he said, "we're still going to be in a situation where everything's unclear." Next month, the Florida Supreme Court also will hear oral arguments about whether Hurst vs. Florida should be applied retroactively to inmates currently on death row. In the meantime, law experts across the state agreed with Andrews' order. "The judge has it absolutely right," said Teresa Reid, a University of Florida Levin College of Law professor and assistant director of the Criminal Justice Center. "You need to have a statute in place regarding sentencing, and we don't have that right now." She said that the judge's responsibility is to make sure the trial is fair and is conducted under law. "It seems to me the appropriate thing to do is wait," she said. "We can't proceed when we don't have the procedure in place." Rose, the Stetson law professor, said the decision "makes perfect sense." "Judge Andrews should be commended for doing what the law requires," he said. "It's not only sound, it's courageous because he's the first to step out on the ledge on this issue." Rose predicted that judges across the state would and should follow suit. "My expectation is that there won't be any new death penalty cases tried," he said. (source: Tampa Bay Times) ***************** Supreme Court denies Delmer Smith appeal The U.S. Supreme Court has denied an appeal by Delmer Smith, convicted in the 2009 death of Kathleen Briles at her Terra Ceia home. The U.S. Supreme Court decision not to hear Smith's case came on Monday. His attorneys had petitioned the court to hear his case in October. In July, the Florida Supreme Court had denied an appeal from Smith on his conviction and death sentence. Smith, who was convicted in August 2012, has argued that should have been acquitted because his case was based on circumstantial evidence, that a circuit judge erred in not granting him a mistrial, that one of the witnesses in the case should not have been allowed to testify,and that a continuance should have been granted during the case and the judge erred in sentencing. He also has challenged the constitutionality of Florida's death penalty and the proportionality of a sentence of death in the case. After determining that Smith, 44, bludgeoned Briles to death with an antique sewing machine, a 12-person jury had unanimously recommended that he receive the death penalty. Defense attorneys had previously asked for a new trial, arguing that then newly discovered evidence warranted it: a medical encyclopedia allegedly taken from the Briles' home that had Smith's fingerprints on it. Smith's defense attorney had said he did not become aware until after the trial that the logo on the encyclopedia appeared different from the one on Briles' encyclopedia. The book placed Smith inside the victim's home. Smith's attorneys also had argued during his sentencing that medical scans showed damage to Smith's brain, warranting life in prison without parole instead of execution. When he was sentenced for Briles' murder, Smith already had been convicted of a robbery and home invasion in Sarasota, and was suspected in several other crimes in 2009 in Sarasota and Manatee counties. Smith is being held at Florida State Prison in Raiford, which houses one of the state's 3 death row cell blocks and the state's execution chamber. (source: Herald-Tribune) ILLINOIS: John Marshall Law School Professors Get Lifetime Achievement Awards 2 Consecutive Years For 2 years in a row, adjunct professors from The John Marshall Law School in Chicago have been awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Illinois Judges Association. Retired Judge Raymond McKoski recently was honored with the Illinois Judges Association Lifetime Achievement Award at the Illinois State Bar Association luncheon. Retired Judge Sheila Murphy, co-director of John Marshall's Restorative Justice Project, received the honor in 2014. The Lifetime Achievement Award is given as a token of appreciation for the time and valuable contributions recipients give to the Illinois Judges Association. Winners of the award are selected based on their many years of service and for promoting a strong and independent judiciary. Judge McKoski was first appointed to the bench in 1985. In his more than 25 years as a judge, he served as an Associate Judge, Circuit Judge and was later unanimously elected Chief Judge of the Illinois 19th Judicial Circuit. He is renowned for his expertise in judicial ethics and lectures to lawyers and judges in the U.S. and the U.K. He recently was the keynote speaker at the joint meeting of the Illinois Judges Association and Illinois State Bar Association. Judge McKoski has been an adjunct professor at John Marshall since 2010 and teaches Client Interviewing and Counseling, Professional Responsibility and Jury Selection. Judge Sheila Murphy is a retired judge from the Circuit Court of Cook County. Judge Murphy presided over the Sixth District Court in Markham, which encompassed 37 towns and more than one million people. She supervised 23 judges and was a pioneer in starting community treatment courts. After exonerating Verneal Jimerson - a man wrongly convicted of rape and murder - from death row in 1996, Judge Murphy retired and worked tirelessly to abolish the death penalty in Illinois. She has been an adjunct professor at John Marshall since 2001, as well as the co-director of the law school's Restorative Justice Program. Judge Murphy recently co-edited the book Restorative Justice in Practice: A Holistic Approach with John Marshall Restorative Justice Project Co-Director Michael Seng. About The John Marshall Law School The John Marshall Law School, founded in 1899, is an independent law school located in the heart of Chicago's legal, financial and commercial districts. The 2016 U.S. News & World Report's America's Best Graduate Schools ranks John Marshall's Lawyering Skills Program fifth, its Trial Advocacy Program 16th and its Intellectual Property Law Program 17th in the nation. Since its inception, John Marshall has been a pioneer in legal education and has been guided by a tradition of diversity, innovation, access and opportunity. (source: globenewswire.com) From rhalperi at smu.edu Tue Jan 26 10:10:32 2016 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Tue, 26 Jan 2016 10:10:32 -0600 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----MO., OKLA. S.DAK., COLO., NEV., CALIF., USA Message-ID: Jan. 26 MISSOURI: Mass killer Sheley seeks change of venue on Missouri murder charges that could bring death penalty An Illinois man already serving life sentences for 6 killings in his home state has asked a judge to move his next murder trial to another town in Missouri in hopes of increasing the likelihood of an unbiased jury. A team of public defenders appeared in court Monday afternoon with Nicholas Sheley, 36, in Jefferson County south of St. Louis. They argued that Sheley can't get a fair trial there on charges related to the deaths of an Arkansas couple during an alleged 2-state killing spree over 7 years ago. Prosecutors intend to seek the death penalty if he's convicted in the killings of Jill and Tom Estes of Sherwood, Arkansas. Police say the couple was attacked outside a Festus hotel after leaving a 2008 graduation party. The judge didn't immediately rule on the request, asking the attorneys on both sides to submit written arguments by mid-February. Sheley was extradited in February 2015 to Missouri from Illinois, where he was found guilty in a string of killings that began in his hometown of Sterling. Four victims who had been bludgeoned with a hammer were found in a Rock Falls apartment. They ranged in age from 2 years to 29. The other victims were a 65-year-old man whose body was found behind a Galesburg grocery store in northwestern Illinois and a 93-year-old man killed in Sterling. Unlike in Illinois, offenders can be sentenced to death in neighboring Missouri. A June court filing outlining the state's decision to pursue the death penalty cites Sheley's convictions in the 6 Illinois killings as well as 3 other aggravating circumstances, including his attempt to rob the Arkansas couple while committing an "outrageously or wantonly vile, horrible or inhuman" killing. The sole witness at Monday's nearly 3-hour hearing, University of Kansas communications studies professor Thomas Beisecker, testified on Sheley's behalf that any pool of prospective Jefferson County jurors would have been exposed to significant media coverage of the case. "There is a substantial amount of prejudice that currently exists in Jefferson County against Mr. Sheley," said Beisecker, who noted under cross-examination that he was paid $175 an hour as an expert witness, so far receiving about $12,000. Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Steve Jerrell questioned the statistical rigor of a telephone survey of county residents by Advocacy Research Institute, the Kansas professor's jury consulting business. Jerrell noted that while 180 of the 307 respondents said they had heard of the Sheley case, the interviewers failed to ask several questions that could have excluded prospective jurors, including whether any were convicted felons. The consultant's questions also contained several factual errors about the case, including the location of a pickup truck Sheley stole after killing 1 of his victims in Illinois. "If you ask the wrong questions, the answers are not credible," he said. 4 members of the Estes family attended the hearing but declined comment. (source: Associated Press) *************** Death penalty case to be re-tried in 1991 Chain of Rocks Bridge murders St. Louis Circuit Attorney Jennifer M. Joyce says she will retry 44-year-old Reginald Clemons for the murders of Julie and Robin Kerry, and says she will seek the death penalty against him. She is also filing charges of forcible rape and 1st-degree robbery. The state Supreme Court on November 24 overturned 1st-degree murder convictions for Clemons, who was sentenced to death in 1993. Clemons had appealed his convictions and a special investigator appointed by the Supreme Court found that prosecutors had wrongly suppressed evidence and that detectives beat Clemons to force a confession. That investigator, retired judge Michael Manners, said those were not harmless mistakes as the state had argued, though he said they were not likely to change the verdicts against Clemons. The rape charges were filed by the original prosecutors but a law at the time prevented him from being tried for those at the same time as the murders because the death penalty was being sought. Clemons remains in prison on a 15-year sentence for a 2007 assault on a Department of Corrections employee. Clemons and 3 other men were convicted of raping and murdering Julie and Robin Kerry in April, 1991. One of those men, Marlin Gray, was executed in 2005. Antonio Richardson was sentenced to death and his sentence was later changed to life without parole. Daniel Winfrey received a 30-year sentence in exchange for testimony and has been paroled. (source: missourinet.com) OKLAHOMA: 2 more death row inmates await execution dates amid probe The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals agreed Monday to wait to set execution dates for 2 more death row inmates until a grand jury finishes its closed-door investigation into drug mix-ups during the state's last 2 lethal injections. The court granted the stays for 2 convicted killers - Richard Stephen Fairchild and Jeremy Alan Williams - who have already exhausted all state and federal appeals of their convictions and death sentences. This brings to 5 the number of inmates whose executions have been put on hold while Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt's office continues to explore how the wrong drug was delivered for the state's last 2 executions. The 5-member court said it wouldn't be appropriate to set execution dates for Fairchild and Williams while the grand jury probe is ongoing. Fairchild, 56, was sentenced to die for the 1993 beating death of his girlfriend's 3-year-old son in Del City. Williams, 32, was given the death penalty for killing a bank teller during a robbery of Tulsa's First Fidelity Bank in 2004. The court already has issued stays of execution for 3 other death row inmates - Richard Glossip, Benjamin Cole and John Grant. Glossip was just hours away from his scheduled lethal injection in September when prison officials realized they received potassium acetate instead of potassium chloride, the 3rd drug in the state's execution protocol. Later, an autopsy report indicated the wrong drug was used in January 2015 to execute Charles Warner. After that revelation, Pruitt launched a multicounty grand jury investigation into the state's execution protocol and what went wrong. The grand jury conducts its investigations in secret, but the former warden of Oklahoma State Penitentiary and the ex-director of the Department of Corrections both have appeared to testify. Both have since left the agency. Ex-warden Anita Trammell retired in October, and Patton resigned in December to take a job with a private prison company in Arizona. When the grand jury concludes its investigation into the Department of Corrections' handling of its execution protocol, it will issue an interim report with its findings, said Pruitt spokesman Aaron Cooper. The grand jury also could issue indictments for criminal charges. Pruitt has said he will not request any execution dates until at least 150 days after his investigation is complete, the results are made public and his office receives notice that the prisons department can comply with the state's execution protocol. (source: Associated Press) SOUTH DAKOTA: Rodney Berget continues to fight death sentence Rodney Berget's death row appeal is back in court. A judge sentenced Berget to death for his role in killing correctional officer Ronald Johnson during a failed prison escape. Berget's attorney, Jeff Larson, brought forth 10 claims in his writ of habeas corpus, but the judge wasn't buying some of Larson's arguments. One of those claims was withdrawn, 6 were thrown out by the judge, while 3 were set for a hearing to be discussed at another time. The writ of habeas corpus proceeding is a chance for Berget's attorney to challenge how the court has handled this case. Aside from pointing out problems with the appeal, 1 claim stated there is an issue with the death penalty itself. Berget faces death while his attorney fights for his client's life by returning to court with a writ of habeas corpus. Mike Henderson, an attorney not connected to the case, offered some insigt. "It's a proceeding after there has been a final judgement, and appeal rights have been exhausted, and an appellate court has issued a decision. It's a procedure by which a party which is in prison, can challenge the fairness of the proceedings in some way, and assert that there was some structural defect or some problem with the proceedings that should entitle them to relief," Henderson said. Berget's attorney brought forth ten claims to challenge the proceedings, but a judge denied several of those claims which the courts have already heard before. "There is a final judgment or determination as to those issues involving the same parties and there was a fair opportunity to raise and litigate those issues fully and completely, you can't bring them up again, essentially it prevents you from getting that second bite at the apple," Henderson said. Whatever the judge may decide on Berget's claims, the center of the case remains the death penalty itself. "As I understand it, they're really making the argument that societal norms and decency have evolved, adapted and changed to the point where the court should determine, that in 2016 the death penalty is cruel and unusual punishment in and of itself," Henderson said. Eric Robert and Rodney Berget killed correctional officer Ronald Johnson in a botched prison escape in 2011. Robert was executed in October of 2012, while Berget continues to fight his death sentence. "The system that we have, has so many safeguards in it, in that is is a matter of life and death. It's the ultimate punishment that can't be reversed or changed, should there be determined that there's a mistake at a later time," Henderson said. A South Dakota lawmakers plans to introduce a bill to repeal the death penalty next week. (source: KSFY news) COLORADO: Wrong direction on Colorado death penalty----A death sentence should be unanimous It's not easy getting a Colorado jury to reach unanimous agreement that a killer should be put to death - in fact it's become next to impossible even in cases of mass killings. But rather than resign themselves to that reality, six proponents of the death penalty in the state Senate would rig the system to ensure more criminals are put to death. Perhaps "rig" is too harsh a word. But not by much. Lowering the threshold for a death sentence from 12 jurors to nine, as is proposed in Senate Bill 64, is a huge shift. It would put Colorado in a small minority of states - Florida, Alabama and Delaware - that either don't require unanimous juries to impose a death sentence or allow a judge to overrule a jury that prefers a life sentence. Sen. Kevin Lundberg, R-Berthoud, the bill's lead sponsor, freely admits that frustration with recent jury results led him to this proposal. "If anything was deserving of the death penalty, I'd say that's it the Aurora (theater) shooting," Lundberg told 7News. "I think we need to come to terms with: Are we going to have a death penalty that functions in Colorado or are we just going to put it in name only and not really have the death penalty?" Lundberg has a point in the sense that if juries are unwilling to put to death the likes of James Holmes, the theater shooter, or Dexter Lewis, found guilty last year of five murders at a bar in Denver, then the death penalty in its present form is no longer a viable option in the overwhelmingly majority of murders. But the logical response to that fact is to abolish the penalty, not lower the standard under which it is imposed. It's true, of course, that SB 64 would affect only the sentencing phase of the trial and that a unanimous jury would still be required to find the defendant guilty of a capital crime. But this isn't just any sentence. It's the only one that is irrevocable once carried out, the only one that nearly everyone recognizes is in a category of its own. If a jury that finds a defendant guilty can't agree that he deserves the death sentence, then it shouldn't be imposed. (source: Editorial Board, Denver Post) NEVADA: Court denies appeal of man in death of wife, daughter The Nevada Supreme Court denied the appeal of death row inmate Larry E. Adams, convicted in 1986 of the killing of his wife and 3-year-old daughter. But the court ruled Friday that the District Court should conduct a hearing on Adams' claim that the prosecution withheld evidence at his trial in Las Vegas. The court rejected his arguments that he should not have been found guilty and received the death penalty because of errors in his trial. Adams was convicted of 2 counts of 1st-degree murder in the fatal shooting of his estranged wife, Pamela, and daughter Laura in their home, according to court records. 3 other children were asleep in a bedroom at the time. A man who testified at a preliminary hearing and connected Adams to the killing could not be located for the trial and, therefore, could not be cross-examined, according to court documents. Adams alleged that the state also withheld information about the witness' past. The court, in an opinion written by Chief Justice Ron Parraguirre, said the "evidence overwhelming proves that Adams acted willfully and with premeditation and deliberation when he killed Pam and Laura." (source: Las Vegas Sun) CALIFORNIA: Dozens of potential jurors questioned for 'Grim Sleeper' trial of man charged with killing 9 women Attorneys and a judge Monday began questioning roughly 6 dozen prospective jurors for the trial of the man charged in the "Grim Sleeper" killings of 9 women and a teenage girl between 1985 and 2007. About 300 prospective jurors filled out questionnaires last month as attorneys began the process of selecting a panel to hear the case against Lonnie Franklin Jr. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Kathleen Kennedy told the prospective panelists the trial will be a "complicated" case that has "garnered a fair amount of publicity." Would-be jurors were asked to answer 176 questions covering an exhaustive range of issues, including their religious and political beliefs, attitudes toward law enforcement and mental health professionals, and understanding of DNA evidence. The prosecution is seeking the death penalty, and questions by Kennedy and attorneys for the prosecution and defense focused solely on the potential jurors' views on capital punishment. Kennedy spoke to each prospective juror individually, seeking to clarify contradictions and determine whether they could be fair and impartial in deciding the capital case. "The death penalty is a very sensitive subject and there are many different opinions," Kennedy told those assembled in the courtroom. Kennedy said she wasn't looking for a "right" answer from jurors, but to understand what was in any prospective panelist's "heart and mind." She asked one man to explain his written comment that he believed the death penalty was meant "to rid society of human garbage." The would-be juror told Kennedy he meant that the penalty should be reserved for the worst, most irredeemable criminals. He assured her that if the trial reached the penalty phase, he would be able to fairly weigh the aggravating and mitigating circumstances and choose either life in prison without the possibility of parole or death as the most appropriate punishment. Others said they couldn't condemn a man to death regardless of his crime. Still others said they favored the death penalty as a deterrent. At the end of the day, after the attorneys had a chance to ask questions of their own, Kennedy called the numbers of about 1/3 of the potential jurors and dismissed them from further service. The balance will return on Friday to answer questions on topics other than capital punishment. In the meantime, Kennedy warned them not to read any news coverage of the case. A 2nd, 3rd and 4th pool of possible jurors will be called tomorrow, Wednesday and Thursday to go through the same drill. Franklin, a 63-year-old 1-time city employee, sat quietly throughout the jury selection process, dressed in a well-pressed gray shirt and a silver gray tie that his defense attorney had fashioned in a Windsor knot before the panel of would-be jurors entered the room. Franklin is charged with the murders of 9 women - who were mostly in their 20s - and a 15-year-old girl. The bodies were dumped in alleys and trash bins in and around South Los Angeles, Inglewood and unincorporated areas. He is also charged with the attempted murder of another woman. The killings occurred between 1985 and 1988, and 2002 and 2007, with the assailant dubbed the "Grim Sleeper" because of the apparent 13-year break between killing sprees. Detectives have said since Franklin's arrest that they were also investigating whether he might be connected to the disappearances or deaths of 8 other women whose photos were found in his home near 81st Street and Harvard Boulevard. The trial is expected to last about 3 months. The lists of potential witnesses submitted by the prosecution and defense and included with the jury questionnaire run to more than 400 names. (source: mynewsla.com) ****************** Arcadia double murder suspect served restraining orders weeks prior to alleged attack As Arcadia High School held a vigil for 2 slain students, the suspect in the fatal beatings - their uncle - remained in Hong Kong Monday pending extradition to the United States. Deyun Shi told Hong Kong authorities he wanted to return to America and denied the allegations against him, according to media reports. Los Angeles County Sheriff's homicide detectives said Shi's next court hearing in Hong Kong is Feb. 11. Officials from the Hong Kong Department of Justice could not be reached for comment on Monday. The 44-year-old businessman is a Chinese national. Shi allegedly attacked his estranged wife Thursday night with a maul, a tool used to break up wood, at their La Canada Flintridge home then headed to his brother-in-law's home in the 400 block of Fairview Avenue in Arcadia where he allegedly beat to death his 2 nephews, 16-year-old William Lin and 15-year-old Anthony Lin, according to Homicide Lt. Eddie Hernandez. The boys' parents were at the hospital checking on Shi's wife at the time. They went home Thursday night but discovered their children dead when they woke up Friday. Hernandez said investigators plan to present their case against Shi with the District Attorney's Office this week. Jane Robison, a spokeswoman for the District Attorney's Office, said she cannot comment on possible charges until the charges are filed. The DA's Office has not decided whether it will seek the death penalty, which could be a sticking point in the extradition. The death penalty was abolished in Hong Kong in the mid 90s. Hernandez said the DA???s Extradition Services Section has to file the paperwork that will be sent to the U.S. Department of Justice. The DOJ will work with Hong Kong officials on the extradition. Ryan Foran, a spokesman for Arcadia Unified School District, said news of what happened to the brothers came as a shock. Counselors were made available to students at Arcadia High where William Lin was a junior and Anthony Lin was a freshman. "We brought in a lot of counselors and therapists. We have a pastor and a reverend on hand. We brought in a lot of resources," Foran said. A vigil for the Lins was held at the high school Monday night. "Both were well-liked, really nice young men," Foran said. William Lin was active in the Science Olympiad team and another science club, Foran said. "He had an absolute passion for science. He was hoping to be captain of the Science Olympiad Team next year," Foran said. "He was really a great student." Foran described Anthony Lin as an outgoing and funny kid. Detectives believe an unraveling marriage may have led to the attack on Shi's wife and the fatal beating of the nephews. Court records show the wife filed for a temporary restraining order alleging domestic violence on Dec. 31, 2015. On the same date, another temporary restraining order against him for elder abuse was filed by a woman who detectives identified as his mother-in-law. Shi was served with a temporary restraining order on Jan. 7. He was forced to move out of the family home in La Canada Flintridge and had been staying with a friend in Alhambra and at different motels in the San Gabriel Valley, Hernandez said. While in Pasadena Superior Court last week for the restraining orders, Hernandez said Shi found out his wife wanted a divorce. "He broke into their home sometime around 11 p.m. (Thursday) and attacked her," Hernandez said. "The only reason she survived was their 15-year-old son intervened. That's when he left." Shi's wife then called her brother who lives in Arcadia. The brother and his wife went to check on her. Detectives aren't sure when Anthony and William Lin were killed but believe it happened in the time period after their parents left the house and when the couple returned home. "I think he used a different weapon. We're still looking for it," Hernandez said. Investigators alleged Shi headed to Los Angeles International Airport and took a Cathay Pacific flight to Hong Kong on Friday morning. "He boarded sometime after 10 a.m.," Hernandez said. Shi was arrested in Hong Kong. (source: Pasadena Star-News) USA: Marvin Gabrion, facing death penalty, competent when he killed teen mom, prosecutors say Federal prosecutors say Marvin Gabrion's request to vacate his conviction and death sentence in the 1997 killing of Rachel Timmerman, should be denied. Gabrion filed a 604-page motion asking a judge to vacate the judgment and sentence or grant him a new trial. In the motion, he asked U.S. District Judge Robert Holmes Bell, who presided over the trial, to recuse himself. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer McManus, joined by other federal prosecutors, filed a 197-page response on Monday, Jan. 25. She said that "Gabrion mostly argues that his counsel rendered ineffective assistance of counsel, though he also asserts a potpourri of allegations of prosecutorial misconduct and various claims of alleged constitutional infirmity. "Many of those claims are procedurally barred because they were either already resolved during extensive appellate review of this case, or they are defaulted. In any event, none of the claims has merit: Marvin Gabrion was ably represented by experienced, diligent and conscientious counsel. He had a full and fair trial, and this Court should not cast aside the conscientious verdict reached, and sentenced imposed, by a jury of his peers." Gabrion has fought his 2002 conviction and death sentence all along. At one point, a federal appeals panel overturned his death penalty but the entire Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals re-instated the sentence. Timmerman, 19, was kidnapped and killed 2 days before Gabrion was to stand trial in Newaygo County Circuit Court for raping her. The government said he drowned her in Oxford Lake, a remote lake in the Manistee National Forest. Her body was found bound and gagged, chained to 2 cinder blocks. Her 11-month-old daughter, Shannon Verhage, has never been found. Federal prosecutors, who handled the case because the killing occurred on federal land, believe Gabrion killed the child and 3 men associated with him. While state law in Michigan does not allow for the death penalty, executions are possible under federal law. The government said aggravating factors included Timmerman being killed "in an especially heinous, cruel and depraved manner" with "substantial planning and premeditation" by Gabrion. An appeals panel found "overwhelming" evidence of Gabrion's guilt. Timmerman reported that Gabrion threatened to kill her if she reported being raped. He also said he would kill her daughter and make her watch, the prosecution says. In a call to Newaygo County Sheriff's Department, she told a receptionist she wanted to establish a "trail" in case Gabrion killed her. The defense contends Gabrion was brain damaged, and his mental state deteriorated so much at the trial that he punched his attorney during the sentencing phase. Prosecutors say Gabrion "exhibited bizarre behavior" after he was charged. He underwent three examinations and was found competent, McManus said. "To begin with, Gabrion is not mentally ill," McManus wrote. "Post-conviction counsel's conclusory, unsupported assertion that he is contradicts the vast evidence amassed in this case demonstrating that he was not mentally ill at the time he murdered Rachel Timmerman or at the time of trial." She said examiners found he was "feigning" mental illness. (source: mlive.com) From rhalperi at smu.edu Tue Jan 26 10:11:31 2016 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Tue, 26 Jan 2016 10:11:31 -0600 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide Message-ID: Jan. 26 INDONESIA/MALAYSIA: Indonesian Migrant Worker Faces Death Penalty in Malaysia Rita Krinsnawati, a 27-years old Indonesian migrant worker from Ponorogo, East Java, was charged with capital punishment after Malaysian authorities found her carrying four kilograms of crystal meth back in 2013. "Rita is a victim of an international drug trafficking ring," said Lily Jatmiko Kusnadi, Coordinator for Migrant Care to Tempo on Tuesday, January 26, 2016. Lily said that she will continue to attempt to relieve Rita, who originated from Gabel village, Kauman District from a death sentence by coordinating with the Foreign Ministry, Manpower and Transmigration Ministry, and the Indonesian Embassy in Malaysia. "We urged the government to carry out diplomatic efforts," Lily said. Lily said that Migrant Care will took Rita's family to meet with government officials, including Poniyati, Rita's mother who continue to request for support from the Ponorogo Regency Government and the Ponorogo Regional Representatives Council to safe her daughter from capital punishment. Sumani, Chief of the Ponorogo Social, Manpower, and Transmigration Agency said that her institution has coordinated with the central government and Migrant Care to discuss Rita's case. "The government will not stay put and will continue to provide counsel so that Rita is not executed and can be trialed in Indonesia," Sumani said. (source: tempo.co) PAKISTAN: Qadri's supporters 'occupy' Lahore's Mall Road The Mall Road of Lahore remained blocked for several hours on Monday as hundreds of supporters of convicted murderer Mumtaz Qadri staged a sit-in at Faisal Chowk demanding the removal of the death penalty served on the self-confessed killer of former Punjab governor Salmaan Taseer. Around 1,000 protesters stayed on the Mall Road late into the cold Lahore night reciting Na'ats and chanting slogans which mostly ranged from mild defiance to open threats and abuses. The protesters had erected barbed wires and did not let any traffic move causing a massive gridlock on adjacent roads. Mumtaz Qadri was awarded death sentence after he killed former Punjab governor Salman Taseer, while he was performing duties as his guard. Qadri exhausted his appeals options after the Supreme Court upheld his death penalty saying in its ruling that objections to blasphemy law did not constitute blasphemy and at any rate, Qadri had no authority to kill the governor. Qadri recently filed a mercy petition to the president to avoid the death penalty. Qadri's followers and sympathisers have since held a number of protest demonstrations against his conviction. On Monday, protesters caused a huge traffic deadlock on the Mall Road as they occupied the square in front of the Punjab Assembly causing nuisance to a number of commuters. A number of ambulances were seen stuck in the massive traffic jams. Several patients, lawyers, students, teachers and government employees were also held up in the traffic, some of them for hours. Many of them demanded stern action against the protesters. Arslan Maqsood, a student who is preparing for his CSS exam and was stuck in traffic, told Pakistan Today that it was unfair to block such an important road as it increased the misery of the commuters significantly. He said that the protesters had torn into pieces the National Action Plan (NAP) by showing open defiance and delivering provocative speeches against the government even as police and other law enforcement agencies kept their distance and let them do whatever they wanted. He said that it would be a defeat of the State if Mumtaz Qadri is released due to the pressure of these protesters. "The use of loudspeakers at a public place and inciting the participants to violence must be a crime keeping in view the critical security situation of the country," he maintained. The protesters were carrying placards to show support for Mumtaz Qadri and demand his release. The religious leaders hailing from the Sunni sect were taking promises from the participants that they would not allow the government to function if Qadri is not released. Some media persons were also asked to shout slogans in favour of Qadri if they wanted to cover the protest. Syed Tajammal Hussain, a government employee who works in Punjab Civil Secretariat told Pakistan Today that it took 3 hours to reach Ganga Ram Hospital from his office because of the traffic jam. He was of the view that government must not allow the protesters to block the Mall Road and should allot a permanent place of protest to them like Nasir Bagh or Race Course Park. "The traffic problems have significantly increased since the start of construction work on Orange Line Train and whenever a protest happens, commuters suffer badly," he concluded. Rana Abdul Rehman, a practicing lawyer, said that some of his clients could not reach his office due to the traffic gridlock on the Mall. He was critical of the protesters as he said that Qadri had been offered due process of law, which was a lot more than he offered to a representative of the State before he brutally gunned him down. He said that the State must not allow the protesters to make a joke of the constitution and judicial process of the country. (source: Pakistan Today) KENYA: Judiciary's New Policy Spells Doom for Death Row Convicts New guidelines on the sentencing of criminals have proposed a mandatory death sentence to capital offenders, dealing a blow to several death row inmates who wanted life imprisonment. The guidelines, however, bring relief to disabled, elderly and terminally ill convicts, who will now receive special treatment while in custody or have their jail terms reduced. "Since the death penalty has not been abolished, judges must impose the death sentence with respect to capital offences. To curb their stay in prison, the court should recommend to the president to have a fixed time for a review of the cases, after which they should face death," say the guidelines. The new policy further makes it possible for a convict to be sentenced to death in more than one case, although the individual will be hanged as per the first sentence, with the others being held in abeyance. In reviewing the sentencing for the disabled, the elderly and the terminally ill, it was discovered that prisons do not have special facilities to cater for their interests, which exposes them to inhuman treatment. As a result, the guidelines propose that the courts must ensure the sentencing does not amount to excessive punishment. (source: All Africa News) ZAMBIA: Prisons NGO calls for abolition of death penalty The Prisons Care and Counselling Association (PRISCCA) says the death penalty should be abolished because it goes against the declaration of Zambia as a Christian nation. PRISCCA executive director Godfrey Malembeka has told the Parliamentary Committee on Legal Affairs, Governance, Human Rights, Gender Matters and Child Affairs that the revenge mentality which goes with the death penalty should have no place in a Christian nation like Zambia. "An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind, death sentences do not deter other people from committing murders or other felonies. Emphasis should be on rehabilitation instead of retribution," Dr Malembeka said. He also said the Zambian justice system has lapses which could lead to the arrest of a wrong person. Dr Malembeka said mistrials and discriminatory application of the law on various grounds could lead to wrong persons being hanged. He contends that most people on death row are from low-income groups. Dr Malembeka said it is important for Zambians to realise that even prisoners have the right to life because the country is party to many regional and international instruments which promote human rights and respect the sanctity of life. He said retaining the death penalty in Zambian statutes is a crime against humanity. Dr Malembeka said prisons are originally a product of the church and were established for the purpose of realising remorse when one is locked up under heavy doors alone. He said it is better to give offenders long sentences because they become productive while in prison. Death row where they only fill up space in prisons in that no death penalties have not been executed from 1997. Dr Malembeka said PRISCCA appreciates the position taken by Presidents not to sign death warrants. (source: Zambia Daily Mail) SAUDI ARABIA: Report: Islamic Saudi Arabia Passes Law That May Impose Death Penalty on Bible Smugglers Recent reports state that officials in the Islamic country of Saudi Arabia have passed a law that may impose the death penalty on Bible smugglers and any others distributing religious materials that are not of the Muslim religion. "[T]he new law extends to the importing of all illegal drugs and 'all publications that have a prejudice to any other religious beliefs other than Islam,'" Paul Washer's HeartCry Missionary Society outlines in a post on their website. "In other words, anyone who attempts to bring Bibles or gospel literature into the country will have all materials confiscated and be imprisoned and sentenced to death." It points to an article on the Copts Today website, which notes that "indecent materials and publications" are also included in the customs prohibition. Reporters have attempted to obtain confirmation of the report from Saudi Arabia's U.S. Embassy press officer in Washington, but the information has neither been confirmed or denied. (source: Voice Observer) ****************** The truth about the Saudi executions Saudi Arabia's execution of 47 accused terrorists on Jan. 2 drew extensive condemnation in the United States. Further, because four of the men executed were Shiites, including in particular Shiite religious leader Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, Saudi Arabia's embassy in Tehran and consulate general in Mashhad were stormed the same day and set ablaze by rioting Iranian Basij and others. In response to these incidents, Saudi Arabia and many of its Arab allies severed diplomatic relations with Iran. Yet, in the face of criticism by US officials and pundits trying to twist the executions into an example of the state-sanctioned killing of innocent people, or a case of Sunni sectarian actions against a Shiite minority, the truth needs to be told: The 47 men executed were proven terrorists and criminals, all of whom had committed or inspired murder, and many of whom had direct links to al-Qaeda or the terrorist Shiite group Hezbollah al-Hejaz (Saudi Hezbollah). The al-Qaeda links were established legal fact. Indeed, 43 of those executed were tied to the men who carried out 9/11. They had been fighters, recruiters, senior commanders and theologians in the terrorist group behind the horrors of the attacks on the World Trade Center, United Flight 93 and the Pentagon. Furthermore, they had been part of the local Saudi branch of al-Qaeda that carried out a series of terrorist attacks between 2003 and 2006 in the kingdom in an attempt to foment mass murder on a scale equal to or beyond 9/11. Although these attempts ultimately failed, they nevertheless led to the deaths of numerous civilians, including many Americans. As noted, some critics have characterized the Saudi executions as an act of Sunni sectarian violence against members of a Shiite minority primarily because one of those executed, Nimr, was a renowned cleric in the Shiite enclave of Qatif. Leaving aside that only 4 of the 47 men killed were Shiites, thus totally debunking the accusations of sectarian violence, a closer look at Nimr suggests that he was nothing like the peaceful activist campaigning against an authoritarian monarchy and discrimination depicted in the press by certain White House officials. He was in fact a political extremist linked to a known terrorist group and numerous killings. In the words of Tawfiq al-Sayf, a prominent Shiite activist in Saudi Arabia, Nimr was fomenting a "Shi'a equivalent of ISIS." In his public life, Nimr had been closely tied to Hezbollah al-Hejaz, the armed, avowedly Khomeinist group established in Qatif and active in Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province, Kuwait and Bahrain. As a leadership figure in the organization, Nimr consistently preached that the Sunni ruling dynasties in the three countries were illegitimate and called for armed struggle against the Saudi government. Hezbollah al-Hejaz carried out the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing that killed 20 US service personnel and injured 498 people of various nationalities. The 4 senior members who led the attack, and who are on the FBI's Most Wanted Terrorists list, subsequently fled to Iran and continue to live there in hiding with the support of the mullahs in Tehran. The plot recently thickened. On Aug. 26, 2015, it was announced that Saudi intelligence officers had apprehended Ahmed Ibrahim al-Mughassil, leader of the Hezbollah al-Hejaz cell that carried out the Khobar Towers bombing, in a sting operation in Beirut. Since being whisked away under the eyes of Lebanese Hezbollah, Mughassil has been in Saudi custody divulging details about who carried out the Khobar bombings and how they did it. According to a Saudi security official who spoke on condition of anonymity, Mughassil has provided information on the structure of the organization, its funders, its members and its covert links to the current Iranian leadership. Mughassil fingered Nimr as a leading fundraiser, recruiter and facilitator for Hezbollah al-Hejaz in Qatif and Bahrain. Prior to his execution, Nimr had been directly implicated in the shooting deaths of several Saudi police officers in late 2011, early 2012. 3 of his young followers admitted that they had been inspired by Nimr's teachings and directly encouraged by him when they attended a "diwaniya" (gathering) in his home village of Awamiya, in Qatif. Nimr and the 3 accused killers were subsequently arrested. Convicted of several acts of murder by Saudi courts, they are the 4 Shiites the kingdom executed. Perhaps Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan best summed up the mood in Saudi Arabia and most of the Muslim world when he said, "The same people who keep silent during mass killings are now trying to stir up the world over the execution of 1 person. 4000,000 [Syrian] people have been killed ... You can never justify yourselves." Executions like those carried out Jan. 2 will continue as Saudi Arabia attempts to defend itself against terrorists. Mughassil, whose horrific crimes will eventually be made public, will most likely be among those executed. In time, such revelations may come as an embarrassment to the Barack Obama administration, which given the Iranian nuclear deal, seems much more concerned about legacy building than prosecuting Tehran-backed terrorists who have taken countless American lives. (source: al-monitor.com) IRAN----executions 2 Unidentified Prisoners Hanged 2 unidentified prisoners have been hanged by Iranian authorities. According to state run news agency Khabar Online, a prisoner was hanged at Yasuj's central prison on Sunday January 24. The prisoner, who has not been identified, was reportedly executed on murder charges. The unidentified prisoner was reportedly arrested 5 months ago. Yasuj is located in the Iranian Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad province (southwestern Iran). In another official report by Khabar Online, the execution of a prisoner in Kermanshah (western Iran) for the alleged murder of the Friday Prayer Imam of Savojbolagh (a county in the province of Alborz, northern Iran) was confirmed by the Iranian Judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Mohsen Eje'i. According to Eje'i, the prisoner was also charged with other offenses. Information about the date and location of the execution, the other offenses, or about the prisoner's identity were not mentioned in the report. (source: Iran Human Rights) *********************** Growing Up on Death Row: The Death Penalty and Juvenile Offenders in Iran Scores of youths in Iran are languishing on death row for crimes committed under the age of 18, said Amnesty International in a new report published today. The report debunks recent attempts by Iran's authorities to whitewash their continuing violations of children's rights and deflect criticism of their appalling record as one of the world's last executioners of juvenile offenders. Growing Up on Death Row: The Death Penalty and Juvenile Offenders in Iran reveals that Iran has continued to consign juvenile offenders to the gallows, while trumpeting as major advances, piecemeal reforms that fail to abolish the death penalty against juvenile offenders. "This report sheds light on Iran's shameful disregard for the rights of children. Iran is one of the few countries that continues to execute juvenile offenders in blatant violation of the absolute legal prohibition on the use of the death penalty against people under the age of 18 years at the time of the crime," said Said Boumedouha, deputy director of Amnesty International's Middle East and North Africa Program. "Despite some juvenile justice reforms, Iran continues to lag behind the rest of the world, maintaining laws that permit girls as young as 9 and boys as young as 15 to be sentenced to death." In recent years the Iranian authorities have celebrated changes to the country's 2013 Islamic Penal Code that allow judges to replace the death penalty with an alternative punishment based on a discretionary assessment of juvenile offenders' mental growth and maturity at the time of the crime. However, these measures are far from a cause for celebration. In fact, they lay bare Iran's ongoing failure to respect a pledge that it undertook over 2 decades ago, when it ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), to abolish the use of death penalty against juvenile offenders completely. As a state party to the CRC Iran is legally obliged to treat everyone under the age of 18 as a child and ensure that they are never subject to the death penalty nor to life imprisonment without possibility of release. However, Amnesty International's report lists 73 executions of juvenile offenders which took place between 2005 and 2015. According to the UN at least 160 juvenile offenders are currently on death row. The true numbers are likely to be much higher as information about the use of the death penalty in Iran is often shrouded in secrecy. Amnesty International has been able to identify the names and location of 49 juvenile offenders at risk of the death penalty in the report. Many were found to have spent, on average, about 7 years on death row. In a few cases documented by Amnesty International, the time that juvenile offenders spent on death row exceeded a decade. "The report paints a deeply distressing picture of juvenile offenders languishing on death row, robbed of valuable years of their lives - often after being sentenced to death following unfair trials, including those based on forced confessions extracted through torture and other ill-treatment," said Boumedouha. In a number of cases the authorities have scheduled the executions of juvenile offenders and then postponed them at the last minute, adding to the severe anguish of being on death row. Such treatment is at the very least cruel, inhuman and degrading. 'Piecemeal' reforms failing to deliver justice Iran's new Islamic Penal Code adopted in May 2013 had sparked guarded hopes that the situation of juvenile offenders under a death sentence would finally improve, at least in practice. The code allows judges to assess a juvenile offender's mental maturity at the time of the offence, and potentially, to impose an alternative punishment to the death penalty on the basis of the outcome. In 2014, Iran's Supreme Court confirmed that all juvenile offenders on death row could apply for retrial. Yet almost 3 years after the changes to the Penal Code, the authorities have continued to carry out executions of juvenile offenders, and in some cases, they even often fail to informed the juvenile offenders of their right to apply for a retrial. Tragically, the report also points to a growing trend where juvenile offenders retried under recent reforms are judged to have attained "mental maturity" at the time of the crime and resentenced to death, in blatant evidence of how little has changed. "Retrial proceedings and other piecemeal reforms had been hailed as possible steps forward for juvenile justice in Iran but increasingly they are being exposed as whimsical procedures leading to cruel outcomes," said Boumedouha. In some cases, judges have concluded that a juvenile offender was "mature" based on a handful of simple questions such as whether he or she understood that it is wrong to kill a human being. They have also repeatedly confused the issue of lack of maturity of children due to their age with the diminished responsibility of individuals with mental illness, concluding that a juvenile offender was not "afflicted with insanity" and therefore deserved the death penalty. Fatemeh Salbehi was executed in October 2015 for murdering her husband whom she was forced to marry at 16. She was resentenced to death after a retrial session lasting only a few hours in which the psychological assessment was limited to a few basic questions such as whether or not she prayed or studied religious textbooks. In 5 other cases Hamid Ahmadi, Amir Amrollahi, Siavash Mahmoudi, Sajad Sanjari, and Salar Shadizadi were resentenced to death after courts presiding over their retrials concluded that they understood the nature of the crime and were not insane. "The persisting flaws in Iran's treatment of juvenile offenders highlight the continuing and urgent need for laws that categorically prohibit the use of the death penalty against juvenile offenders," said Boumedouha. "The life or death of a juvenile offender must not be left at the whim of judges. Instead of introducing half-hearted reforms that fall woefully short, Iran's authorities must accept that what they really need to do is commute the death sentences of all juvenile offenders, and end the use of the death penalty against juvenile offenders in Iran once and for all." As Iran re-enters the world of international diplomacy it is also crucial that world leaders use such new channels to raise the cases identified in this report with the Iranian authorities and to urge them to immediately commute all death sentences for juvenile offenders. In June 2015 Iran introduced reforms specifying that juveniles accused of a crime must be dealt with by specialized juvenile courts. Previously juvenile offenders accused of capital crimes were generally prosecuted by adult courts. Although the introduction of specialized juvenile courts is a welcome step, it remains to be seen whether this will prevent further use of the death penalty against juvenile offenders in practice. Over the past decade, interdisciplinary social science studies on the relationship between adolescence and crime, including neuroscientific findings on brain maturity of teenagers, have been cited in support of arguments for considering juveniles less culpable than adults. Such findings were invoked during arguments which ultimately persuaded the US Supreme Court to abolish the death penalty against individuals convicted of committing a crime while under 18 years of age in 2005. (source: Amnesty International USA) *************** Dozens of young offenders face death penalty in Iran for crimes when they were teens Dozens of young offenders arrested in Iran for crimes committed before they turned 18 are at risk of the death penalty. A new report by Amnesty International identifies the names and locations of 49 juvenile offenders who face the death penalty despite recent reforms. But the group fears the official numbers could be higher after a UN report in 2014 claimed the number of juvenile offenders at risk of execution at more than 160. The London-based group also found that Iran has executed at least 73 juvenile offenders between 2005 and 2015. At least 4 were put to death last year alone. The majority of them were convicted of murder, according to the 110-page document. Others were executed for crimes including rape, drug-related crimes and national security offences such as "enmity??? against God. It comes as Tehran tries to rebuild relations with the West following last year's landmark nuclear deal. The agreement came into force this month after Iran took steps to curb its nuclear programme, which lead to international sanctions being lifted. Amnesty noted that reforms introduced in 2013 give judges more discretion to take into account young offenders' mental maturity and potentially impose softer punishments. "Iran continues to lag behind the rest of the world, maintaining laws that permit girls as young as nine and boys as young as 15 to be sentenced to death" ----Amnesty International The Supreme Court has since said juvenile offenders facing execution could have their cases retried. Additional reforms introduced last year also require cases involving juveniles to be heard in special juvenile courts. However the group called for more to be done. It said in a statement: "Despite some juvenile justice reforms, Iran continues to lag behind the rest of the world, maintaining laws that permit girls as young as 9 and boys as young as 15 to be sentenced to death." Last October, the UN's special investigator on the human rights situation in Iran, Ahmed Shaheed, warned that executions in Iran have risen at an "exponential rate" since 2005 and could top 1,000 in 2015. He said Iran puts more people to death per capita than any other country, adding that the majority of executions do not conform to international laws banning the death penalty for juveniles and non-violent offenders. But head of Iran's Human Rights Council, Mohammad Javad Larijani, dismissed the UN report as "a collection of baseless accusations". Iran is one of the world's largest users of the death penalty, ranking second behind China in 2014, according to the most recent figures from Amnesty. Most executions overall in Iran are carried out for drug smuggling. The country straddles a major narcotics trafficking route linking opium-producing fields in Afghanistan to Europe. (source: Sri Lanka Daily Star) JAPAN: Death penalty sought for man over 1998 murder of Aichi couple Prosecutors on Monday demanded the death penalty for a man indicted over the 1998 murder and robbery of a couple in Aichi Prefecture, central Japan. The death penalty was sought for Hiroshi Sato, 39, in a lay judge trial at the Nagoya District Court over the murder of company executive Ichio Magoori, 45, and his wife Satomi, 36, in the city of Hekinan. Prosecutors said Sato "committed a cruel and evil crime, taking the lives of a couple who had done nothing wrong just to get money." The court is expected to hand down a ruling on Feb 5. Sato's accomplice, Yoshitomo Hori, 40, who was sentenced to death in December, has appealed the ruling. According to the indictment, Sato conspired with Hori and Teruo Hayama to kill the couple at their home and stole approximately 60,000 yen in June 1998. The 3 men were co-workers at the time. Sato's defense counsel urged the court not to sentence him to death, saying he "just helped his accomplices and has reflected on what he did, praying for the repose of the couple's souls." Sato offered an apology to the relatives of the victims in the trial. Separately, Sato and Hori have been indicted for attempting to kill a woman in her 70s by strangling her at her home in Nagoya and robbing her of around 25,000 yen in 2006. (source: Japan Today) From rhalperi at smu.edu Tue Jan 26 14:22:53 2016 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Tue, 26 Jan 2016 14:22:53 -0600 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, ME., DEL., FLA. Message-ID: Jan. 26 TEXAS----impending execution Media Advisory: James Garrett Freeman scheduled for execution Pursuant to an order entered by the 329th Judicial District Court of Wharton County, James Garrett Freeman is scheduled for execution after 6:00 p.m. on January 27, 2016. On March 16, 2007, James Garrett Freeman shot and killed Texas Game Warden Justin Hurst, an on-duty peace officer. On November 7, 2008, the 329th Judicial District Court of Wharton County, Texas entered a judgment of conviction against him for capital murder and sentenced him to death. On January 25, 2016, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles voted not to recommend a commutation of sentence. FACTS OF THE CRIME On March 16, 2007, Texas Game Warden Jonathan Blackburn attempted to pull over Freeman suspecting that he discharged a gun from his truck. Freeman fled and led officers on a ninety-minute chase ranging in speeds from 45 to 100 miles per hour. After officers disabled Freeman's truck with spike strips, he emerged from the vehicle firing handgun at officers, emptying the magazine. Officers returned fire as Freeman used his vehicle for cover. Freeman then fired an AK-47 assault rifle at the officers. Game Warden Justin Hurst attempted to return fire, and Freeman shot and killed him. PROCEDURAL HISTORY On November 7, 2008, Freeman was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death in the 329th Judicial District Court of Wharton County, Texas. The Court of Criminal Appeals (CCA) affirmed the conviction and sentence on direct appeal in a published opinion on March 16, 2011. The Supreme Court denied his petition for certiorari on January 17, 2012. The CCA denied his state application for writ of habeas corpus on December 12, 2012. Freeman then filed a habeas petition in federal district court. The United State District Court for the Southern District of Texas, Houston Division, denied his claims, dismissed his federal habeas petition, and denied him a Certificate of Appealability (COA) on December 22, 2014. The Fifth Circuit also denied a COA on June 9, 2015. Finally, the Supreme Court denied his petition for a writ of certiorari on January 11, 2016. On August 12, 2015, the 329th Judicial District Court of Wharton County entered an Execution Order and issued a Death Warrant setting Freeman???s execution for January 27, 2016 after 6:00 p.m. (source: texasattorneygeneral.gov.) *************** Wharton County death row inmate denied clemency The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles denied clemency on Monday for a Wharton County man who killed a game warden. James Garrett Freeman's execution is scheduled for 6 p.m. Wednesday. Freeman, who has been on death row since 2008, is requesting that he be granted a life sentence instead. The board's vote not to recommend Gov. Greg Abbott grant Freeman clemency was unanimous, Public Information Director Raymond Estrada said. Freeman was convicted for the March 17, 2007, capital murder of Justin Hurst. Freemen led law enforcement on a 2-hour chase after another game warden attempted to pull him over after observing Freeman shoot a bird on a fence with a .22-caliber rifle. The chase ended with a shootout near the Lissie Cemetery, in which a pistol and an AK-47 were used. Hurst, 34, was struck by a bullet. Wharton County First Assistant District Attorney Nathan Wood said clemency is not about raising legal issues with one's case but persuading the governor to do something other than what the court decided. Clemency is not often granted, but Freeman, 35, has exhausted his appeals, Wood said. "Death penalty litigation is only limited by the creativity of the attorney for an inmate scheduled for execution," he said. "There are examples in history of last minute filings that have resulted in a stay of execution, which is why we can't ever say, 'it looks like the execution is going to go forward as scheduled.' You can just never tell." "I am both pleased and grateful for the board's decision as I believe his sentence is just," Wharton County District Attorney Ross Kurtz added. The attorney who sent the request for clemency to the Board, Donald Vernay, of Rio Rancho, N.M., could not be reached for comment Monday afternoon. (source: Victoria Advocate) MAINE: In a radio interview expressing his support for the death penalty, Maine Gov. Paul LePage says with a laugh that he wants to use the guillotine to execute drug traffickers The governor's office said Tuesday the remark on WVOM was just a joke to illustrate his support for tougher penalties for drug crimes. During the interview, LePage laughed when he talked about using the guillotine to chop off the heads of drug dealers at public executions. "I think what we ought to do is bring the guillotine back," he said. LePage in the past has voiced his support for the death penalty for drug dealers. The Legislature, however, has a long history of rejecting capital punishment, which was abolished in 1887 in response to a botched hanging. (source: Associated Press) DELAWARE: Death penalty repeal to get House hearing Jan. 28 Death penalty repeal will get a vote in the state House of Representatives Thursday. Senate Bill 40, sponsored by Sen. Karen Peterson, D-Stanton, and Rep. Sean M. Lynn, D-Dover, eliminates capital punishment in the state, except for those convicted of 1st-degree murder before the act goes into effect. The state has 14 men on death row, all convicted of 1st-degree murder. SB 40 has faced fierce opposition from Delaware's law enforcement community, including Speaker Peter C. Schwartzkopf, D-Rehoboth, a retired state trooper. Introduced in the Senate in March, the bill barely passed April 2 by an 11-9 vote. Assigned to the House Judiciary Committee 2 weeks later, it appeared to be stalled until Jan. 21, when committee Chairman Larry Mitchell, D-Elsmere, voted in favor of sending it to the full House. Mitchell said he still opposes the legislation, but wanted it to get a proper hearing. "As a retired New Castle County police officer, I am personally opposed to repealing capital punishment," he said in a statement. "However, it is clear to me that this issue deserves to be presented to all members of the House for debate and an up-or-down vote. "Some of my fellow colleagues in the Democratic caucus want to see this bill on the House floor, and I agree with them." Lynn said he was pleased. "I would like to thank Rep. Mitchell for recognizing the importance of bringing this bill forward and Speaker Schwartzkopf for keeping his commitment to putting SB 40 on the floor for a debate and up-or-down vote," Lynn said in a statement. In the past, Lynn has called the death penalty "intellectually, morally and legally bankrupt." "I feel strongly that capital punishment has no place in our criminal justice system today," he added. "I hope that my colleagues will have a healthy and civil debate on this important issue." Delaware abolished capital punishment in 1958 and reinstated it in 1961 when the General Assembly overrode a veto by Gov. Elbert N. Carvel. Gov. Jack Markell has said he supports efforts to pass SB 40. Delaware's death penalty could come under additional review following a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling. Ruling in a Florida case, the justices said a state law that allows judges instead of juries to impose capital punishment was unconstitutional. Delaware has a similar law, according to the state Department of Justice. (source: Sussex Countian) FLORIDA: Death penalty needs unanimous juries The Florida Legislature is on deck to respond to the U.S. Supreme Court's Hurst v. Florida opinion striking down Florida's capital case sentencing process on the opening day of the 2016 state legislative session. The nation's high court held Florida's process violated the Sixth Amendment under Ring v. Arizona (2002) that requires juries, not judges, to determine the requisite number of aggravating factors in any given capital case, essentially the legal threshold to impose a death sentence. In some respects, the Legislature has been on deck since 2005 when the Florida Supreme Court decided State v. Steele, which distinguished Ring while urging the Legislature to require unanimous juries to recommend death sentences. Florida is an outlier - the only state among 31 remaining death penalty states that allowed penalty phase juries to render advisory verdicts involving both the presence of aggravators and recommendations of death by 7-5 votes. A unanimous jury is required to convict at trial, and all other states except Alabama and Delaware require some form of unanimity in penalty phase proceedings. Before Hurst, penalty phase jurors considered an arguably unwieldy number of aggravators enumerated in Florida law without specifying. Hypothetically, 7 jurors could find different aggravators and five find none, which in practical terms was sufficient to recommend death despite no specific agreement on any aggravator. In 2006, an American Bar Association released a report that incorporated issues raised in Ring and Steele along with a range of other concerns involving the fairness, accuracy and impartiality of Florida's death penalty process - it took no position on capital punishment. In 2013, The Florida Bar Board of Governors reached consensus in support of state officials conducting a comprehensive review of Florida's entire death penalty process by all branches of government, which it reaffirmed last year and was one we initially proposed in 2011. Essentially, no such review has been conducted in Florida. Like the ABA report, the Florida Bar addressed process issues not capital punishment per se. The ABA passed a resolution last year urging all states to require unanimity for these purposes. Some claim requiring unanimous jury recommendations would allow serial killers like Ted Bundy and Aileen Wuornos to avoid death sentences because their penalty phase juries weren't unanimous. Not necessarily. Research by Scott Sundby from the University of Miami School of Law indicates if unanimity is required more rigorous analysis ensues which changes the nature of the deliberations - when 9 or more jurors favor a death sentence the likelihood of achieving unanimity is greater when a jury is so charged. While Hurst doesn't specifically address unanimity, a logical place for the Legislature to begin is a bill we helped shape that would require unanimity for findings of specific aggravators and recommendations of death. Sen. Thad Altman, a Viera Republican, has filed this bill repeatedly over the past several sessions - it can be readily modified to address Hurst. On Feb. 2, Florida's high court will hear oral arguments regarding how broadly Hurst should apply to Florida's death row population of nearly 400 within the context of a case wherein Gov. Rick Scott signed a death warrant and a Feb. 11 execution date is pending. The state will likely argue for limited application. Others will assert Hurst should be applied broadly given Florida's sentencing scheme was declared unconstitutional. When the Senate Criminal Justice Committee convenes Wednesday to take on the work necessary to restore Florida's process, taking a minimalist approach - a tack generally favored by prosecutors and Florida's attorney general - could risk further constitutional attack given the unanimity issue alone, apart from various other process concerns noted in credible studies like the 2006 ABA report. Regardless of whether one supports or opposes capital punishment, justice would be well-served if the Legislature were to require unanimous penalty phase juries and respond favorably to The Florida Bar's call for a comprehensive review when addressing the constitutional infirmities specifically raised by the U.S. Supreme Court in Hurst. (source: Op-Ed; Raoul Cantero is a former state Supreme Court justice and now practices law in Miami. Mark Schlakman is senior program director for Florida State University's Center for the Advancement of Human Rights, and served on the ABA's Florida Death Penalty Assessment Team----News-Press) From rhalperi at smu.edu Tue Jan 26 14:24:15 2016 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Tue, 26 Jan 2016 14:24:15 -0600 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide Message-ID: Jan. 26 IRAN: "THE SMILING FACE OF THE MULLAHS": HOC report on the Death Penalty in Iran In view of the visit to Italy by President Hassan Rouhani, scheduled for the 25th and 26th of January, Hands Off Cain presented the Report on the Death Penalty in Iran entitled "The Smiling Face of the Mullahs". The Report lists the executions carried out in Iran in 2015 and in first 2 weeks of 2016 and provides a comprehensive view of capital punishment under Hassan Rouhani's Presidency. The report also represents a "reminder" for the Italian State's highest authorities to bring the question of the death penalty and the respect of human rights to the center of every meeting and understanding with the representatives of the regime in Tehran. According to the report, in 2015 the regime in Tehran carried out at least 980 executions, a 22.5% increase compared to 800 in 2014 and a 42.6% increase compared to 687 in 2013. This is the number of executions among the highest in the recent history of Iran, which classifies it as the top "Executioner-Country" in the world in relation to population. At least 370 execution cases (37.7%) were reported by official Iranian sources (websites of the Iranian Judiciary, national Iranian broadcasting network, and official or state-run news agencies and newspapers); 610 cases (62.3%) included in the annual numbers were reported by unofficial sources (other human rights NGOs or sources inside Iran). The actual number of executions is probably much higher than the figures included in the Report of Hands Off Cain. (source: NCR-Iran) KENYA: Judiciary wants convicts on death row hanged The Judiciary now wants the Executive to hire a hang-man and allow him to deal with thousands of convicted Kenyans awaiting death sentence. High Court Judge Fred Ochieng says the Judiciary wants the death penalty imposed upon offenders as outlined in the new policy guidelines launched on Monday by Chief Justice Dr. Willy Mutunga. The new policy guidelines were prepared by a team of Judges at the Judicial Training Institute led by Justice Msagha Mbogholi. Former President Mwai Kibaki commuted the death sentences to life imprisonment in 2009 as human rights activists pushed Kenya towards eliminating the death penalty. His action reduced by 1/5 the 20,000 prisoners facing execution around the world. Kibaki signaled intentions to abolish the death penalty altogether but first called for a study to determine whether Kenya???s mandatory death sentence for murder, armed robbery or treason actually deters crime. His move reflected a trend beyond Europe and elsewhere to abolish capital punishment. Since 2008, Argentina, Burundi and Uzbekistan have abolished the death penalty. Kenya is one of the Sub-Saharan countries that have made steps toward reducing executions or doing away with them. The others include; Uganda, Tanzania, Mali and Nigeria. Only 25 countries actually carried out executions in 2008. In sub-Saharan Africa, only 2 countries - Botswana and Sudan - carried out executions 2008. China has the most executions, at least 5,000 in 2008, according to a July report by the anti-death-penalty group Hands-Off-Cain. China's highest court, which reviews all executions, recently called for the death penalty to be used less often. In the USA, about 35 people are executed per year. By Kenyan law, armed robbery carries a mandatory death sentence - for bank robbers with sub-machine guns or someone using a stick to snatch a chicken. Even though the death penalty has not been carried out since 1983, the population on death row kept expanding. Even, as the former President signaled an intention to push for abolition of the death the fact the new constitution retains provisions for the death penalty [The Penal Code] is an impediment. Kenya's Court of Appeal sitting in Nairobi on July 30th, 2010 declared unconstitutional the application of a mandatory death sentence on all prisoners convicted of murder. In their unanimous judgment, the Court of Appeal ruled that the automatic nature of the death penalty in Kenya for murder violates the right to life and amounts to inhuman punishment, as it does not provide the individuals concerned with an opportunity to mitigate their death sentences. As a result, hundreds of prisoners currently on death row in Kenya, including the Appellant, Godfrey Mutiso, were given a reprieve. The Court of Appeal said that the same reasoning given in the judgment would apply to other offences having a mandatory death sentence, such as treason and robbery with violence (Section 296/2 of the Penal Code). (source: citizentv.co.ke) From rhalperi at smu.edu Wed Jan 27 12:05:43 2016 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Wed, 27 Jan 2016 12:05:43 -0600 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, ME., CONN., DEL., FLA. Message-ID: Jan. 27 TEXAS----impending execution Texas Game Warden Killer Set to be Executed Wednesday A man convicted in the 2007 shooting death of a Texas game warden in Wharton County is scheduled for execution Wednesday evening. James Garrett Freeman, 35, shot and killed Justin Hurst, a game warden with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, following a 90-minute chase on country roads in the early morning of March 17, 2007, according to court documents. It was Hurst's 34th birthday. Unless there is a last-minute stay, Freeman will be the 2nd execution in Texas this year and the 4th in the United States. 8 more executions are scheduled in the state through July. Freeman was first approached by law enforcement after he shot and killed a possum from the side of the road, according to court documents. Another game warden patrolling the area heard the shot, and when he activated his emergency lights, Freeman sped away. Law enforcement from multiple agencies took part in the high-speed chase before Freeman ran over a set of spikes that officers had set up near a cemetery. Dashboard camera video shows he exited the car shooting at officers with a handgun, returned to his car while officers shot back, then came back out firing an assault rifle. Hurst came out from cover to fire at Freeman and was shot and killed. Freeman was also hit by several bullets, including one that penetrated his leg, Wharton County District Attorney Ross Kurtz said. "Justin was very loved and respected, as is his family who remains in Wharton," Kurtz said. "It was a great loss." Freeman would be the 1st person to be executed from Wharton County since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. There have been other capital murder cases in the county since Freeman's case in 2008, but none have sought the death penalty, Kurtz said. The county has a population of about 41,000. Freeman's lawyers said the unique thing about this case was Freeman's lack of a violent criminal history. He was on probation for a DWI at the time of the shooting, court documents said, but had never faced violent charges. During appeals, Freeman argued his good behavior in jail and lack of violent history indicated he would not be a future danger to society, an element that was necessary to sentence someone to death. "The most difficult thing for people to grapple with on all sides of this case is the lack of criminal history in this fellow's background and the extraordinary violence of this event," said Patrick McCann, Freeman's lawyer for his direct appeal to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. "It's so hard for people to look at the video of this encounter and not think that this was done by someone with a violent, vicious history." Freeman has no pending appeals in state or federal courts. On Monday, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles voted not to recommend a commuted sentence, a common occurrence immediately before a scheduled execution, according to the Attorney General's Office. (source: Texas Tribune) MAINE: Paul LePage Floats Idea of Publicly Beheading Drug Dealers With Guillotine Maine governor Paul LePage, who earlier this month said that drug traffickers "by the name D-Money, Smoothie, Shifty" were impregnating "young, white girl[s] before they leave," said today that he thought drug dealers should face the death penalty, or at least very long prison sentences. "I think the death penalty should be appropriate for people that kill Mainers," he told WMOV. "We've got to go 20 years, we've got to keep them here until they die. If you want my honest opinion, we should give them an injection of the stuff they sell." As his interviewers tried to wrap up the interviewer, LePage interjected to add one last joke with a laugh. "What we ought to do is bring the guillotine back. We could have public executions and we could even have which hole it falls in." (Huh?) "I like French history," he added. The death penalty is definitely history in France: No prisoners have been executed there in more than 30 years. The U.S. has never used the guillotine, although several states have been legalizing or debating decidedly retro forms of the death penalty, including firing squads and the electric chair, in the past year, as lethal injection has become nearly impossible. Back in 2014, a federal appeals judge wrote in a dissent that executing someone by guillotine was "probably best," although it also "seems inconsistent with our national ethos." However, this whole debate is a bit moot, as the death penalty has been illegal in Maine since 1887, after a man sentenced to death by hanging was slowly strangled. Earlier this month, when LePage explained that he didn't mean to say that white girls were getting impregnated by drug traffickers (he meant to say "Maine women"), the governor noted that he "was going impromptu and my brain didn't catch up to my mouth." LePage also said that he was just going to send his State of the State to legislators instead of giving an address, because he is just sick of everyone yelling at him. "It makes no sense," he complained. "Last week, they tried to impeach me. This week, they're throwing rotten tomatoes at me. Why would I go stand in front of them for an hour and a half?" New Jersey governor Chris Christie has received an endorsement from his fellow governor in the north, and said he didn't think LePage's flubs were a big deal a few weeks ago. "We can't judge people by one set of remarks they make, especially when they apologize and genuinely apologize afterwards," he said on MSNBC. "So from my perspective, Paul LePage is a good friend of mine, he is an outspoken guy, we all know that he shoots from the hip. And when he does that there's going to be times when he says things that even he in retrospect thinks he shouldn't have said." He did not say how many sets of bad remarks a politician had to accumulate before you could judge them. (source: nymag.com) CONNECTICUT: Law school hosts wrongfully convicted man An audience of 225 people gathered in the Yale Law School auditorium Tuesday night to hear a presentation by Anthony Ray Hinton, a former Alabama death-row inmate who was wrongfully convicted on 2 counts of 1st-degree murder and finally exonerated in April after spending 30 years in prison. At the event, which was organized by the Yale Law School's Capital Punishment Clinic and the nonprofit Equal Justice Initiative, Hinton spoke about flaws in the criminal-justice system and discussed his experience, expressing a message of forgiveness and optimism despite his 3-decade-long ordeal. "Make no mistake, no man or woman was made to survive 30 years in a 5-by-7 cell, but by the grace of God I survived," Hinton said. "There's an old saying: when you love something and you lose it, and it finds its way back to you, you learn to love it even more. I love life even more now." Hinton, who was 29 at the time of his conviction, was arrested for the murders of 2 restaurant managers. Prosecutors said the bullets taken from the victims' bodies matched a .38-caliber revolver owned by Hinton's mother, despite the fact that Hinton was at work at the time and there were no eyewitnesses. Additionally, the ballistics expert who testified against Hinton at his trial was blind in 1 eye. Hinton emphasized the role that race and status played in his conviction. According to him, being a poor, black man facing a white judge, prosecution and jury "spelled conviction." While on death row, Hinton saw over 50 men executed by electric chair and almost a dozen commit suicide. His cell was 30 feet away from the chair, he said, and he could smell burning flesh the day after an execution. He was in prison when his mother, whom he described as "he love of [his] life," passed away in 2002. Despite this, Hinton credits his imagination and sense of humor with sustaining him. "I read every book I could get my hands on for my mind to be free. I imagined being anywhere I wanted to be; my body couldn't come with me but I allowed my mind to travel," Hinton said. "I had the privilege of marrying ... Halle Berry, Sandra Bullock and Kim Kardashian." After a series of lawyers and many years on death row, living in a cell with a bed so small he had to sleep in the fetal position, Hinton reached out to Bryan Stevenson, founder and attorney at the Equal Justice Initiative. The EJI provides legal representation to prisoners who have been denied fair treatment in the legal system. The EJI brought Hinton's case to the United States Supreme Court, where the justices unanimously decided that the state of Alabama had to hear his appeal. Ballistics experts agreed that the bullets taken from the victims did not match Hinton's mother's pistol, and he was freed. Sia Sanneh LAW '07, senior attorney at EJI and visiting clinical lecturer at the Law School, worked on Hinton's case for several years and introduced him to the crowd as both a close friend and a hero, calling her time with him outside of prison one of the highlights of her life as a lawyer. Hinton's case was one of the first Sanneh worked on after joining the EJI. "Hinton has faced a remarkable injustice, and yet throughout his ordeal he has remained a person of remarkable faith, integrity, character and courage ... To watch him share his story with people in the free world as we work together for a more just system [is] hard to put into words how meaningful it is, for me and for all of us at EJI," Sanneh told the News. Hinton says he has forgiven the state of Alabama and the individuals involved in his case. He said that while 8 months cannot erase the past 30 years, he does not want to live with hate, but to appreciate his freedom and his new life: cell phone, GPS and all. "I forgive them not so that they can sleep good at night; I forgive them so that I can sleep good at night," he said. But he said he is still adjusting to life outside of prison: he sleeps in fetal position out of habit despite his new king-sized bed, and he still wakes up at 3 a.m. as he was forced to on death row. Both Sanneh and Hinton addressed the racial bias and corruption at the heart of his legal proceedings and advocated for the abolishment of the death penalty, to the applause of the crowd. According to Sanneh, the need for reform is demonstrated by the fact that for every 9 people executed on death row, 1 is identified as innocent and exonerated. Attendees, such as Jacob Li LAW '16, expressed their horror and shock at Hinton's story as a symbol of the flaws in America's criminal-justice system. "To be honest, I don't know that much about prison-reform policies, but I'm aware of the massive injustice that occurs within the system," said Clio Byrne-Gudding '19. "30 years on death row is appalling, and he's one of countless people that have been victims." Hinton spoke of using his experience to create positive change for others who might end up in similar situations. He asked audience members to write to Congress in favor of ending the death penalty, and he mentioned public-speaking opportunities at various states and universities. "I hope that Yale students understand that the justice system is not always fair, and I need young people to rise up," Hinton said. "I assume there are going to be some great lawyers that come out of Yale, and I just hope they were here tonight and will remember this speech in years to come." The Equal Justice Initiative was founded in 1989. (source: Yale Daily News) DELAWARE: Delaware Supreme Court asked to review death penalty law A Delaware judge is asking the state Supreme Court to determine whether Delaware's death penalty law meets constitutional muster in light of two recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings. In certifying several questions of law to the Supreme Court, Superior Court Judge Paul Wallace noted that there are more than 2 dozen pending capital murder cases in Delaware. But 2 U.S. Supreme Court rulings this month raise questions about Delaware's death penalty law because it gives judges, not juries, the final say in imposing a death sentence. While Delaware's courts consider the issue, the state House is scheduled to vote Thursday on whether to give final legislative approval to a bill abolishing Delaware's death penalty. Democratic Gov. Jack Markell has said he will sign the bill if it reaches his desk. (source: Associated Press) FLORIDA: Barahona attempted murder case set for Palm Beach County trial in July It's been almost five years since Jorge Barahona allegedly used toxic chemicals in an attempt to kill his adopted son, Victor, in Palm Beach County. Now plans are on track for the Miami man's high-profile trial this summer. Without Barahona in the courtroom Tuesday, Circuit Judge Samantha Schosberg Feuer set the case for jury selection to start July 25. The trial had been scheduled for last September until the attorneys requested more time to prepare. The former pest exterminator, 58, and his wife, Carmen, remain charged with first-degree murder in Miami-Dade County in the death of Victor's 10-year-old adopted twin sister, Nubia. Prosecutors there are seeking the death penalty against the couple, accused of torturing and abusing the siblings for years. That case will follow the trial in Palm Beach County, where Jorge Barahona alone faces charges of attempted first-degree murder with a weapon and aggravated child abuse with a weapon, concerning Victor's scary brush with death. It was early on the morning of Feb. 14, 2011, when Barahona's pest control truck was discovered along the side of Interstate 95 in West Palm Beach. Barahona was passed out on the ground, Victor was convulsing with chemical burns and Nubia's decomposing body was wrapped in plastic in the vehicle, authorities said. In 2014, Barahona's attorney tried unsuccessfully to get the case moved to Miami-Dade County, based on a argument that there is a lack of evidence the suspected crimes happened in Palm Beach County. Assistant State Attorney Jill Richstone told the court there's plenty of proof the boy was exposed to an acidic liquid after Barahona drove into Palm Beach County with him, sometime after midnight on Valentine's Day. Former Circuit Judge Sandra McSorley also denied a defense request to stop the jury from hearing all of Barahona's statements to three police detectives, which he gave from his hospital bed on Feb. 15 after waiving his right to speak first with his attorney. Assistant Public Defender James Snowden had argued Barahona's interview should be excluded from the trial because his client was too groggy. Barahona had recently awoken from a coma, was medicated and unable to think clearly, his lawyer insisted. But the prosecutor countered Barahona knew what he was doing, pointing to testimony from the detectives and a snippet of the recorded statement. Barahona spoke of pouring gasoline on himself, and mentioned he was "thinking of committing suicide" and was "running away" from Miami, according to court records. He denied pouring any liquids on the boy. During a previous hearing, witness Thomas Butler testified about his horrific discovery of Barahona's Toyota. The Interstate 95 road ranger opened the door to the pickup and "a strong odor came out and hit me right in the face," he said. Butler said he took Victor from the truck's front seat and carried the shivering, "incoherent" child back to the warmth of the ranger truck until city fire-rescue crews arrived. "When I ... picked him up to put him in my truck my hands started stinging, and like burning," Butler testified. Victor was soaked, he added, "from his hair to his shorts." Reports of the suffering endured by Victor and his sister led to changes in Florida's child-welfare system. Authorities found out the children's teachers and others had reported suspected abuse and torture by their adoptive parents on numerous occasions, but those calls were not properly investigated. Victor reportedly went to live with biological relatives in Texas to complete his physical recovery. The Florida Department of Children and Families agreed to a $5 million settlement with the boy. He received $1.25 million, but the rest depends on the state Legislature. The matter is among so-called claims bills that were filed for consideration during the current legislative session. (source: Sun-Sentinel) *************** Legislature should require unanimous juries for death penalty cases When the Florida Senate Criminal Justice Committee convenes a workshop today, legislators will have their first chance to find a fix for the state's unconstitutional sentencing process in death penalty cases. On the opening day of this year's legislative session, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Florida's system violates the Sixth Amendment because it allows judges, not juries, final say in capital sentencing. If history is a guide, the Legislature may take a minimalist approach - a tack generally favored by prosecutors and Florida's attorney general. But that path could risk further constitutional attack. If Florida is going to impose a death penalty, it would make sense for the Legislature to require a unanimous jury decision rather than to tinker around the edges of the problem. Writing for the majority in the 8-1 Hurst vs. Florida decision, Justice Sonia Sotomayor underscored that even though Florida's unusual process required judges to place great weight on juries' recommendations, that wasn't enough to pass constitutional muster - especially since judges could override them. Specifically, the nation's high court ruled that Ring vs. Arizona, decided 14 years ago, says that the Sixth Amendment requires juries, not judges, to determine whether a sufficient number of aggravating factors are present in a capital case to impose a death sentence. In 2005 in State vs. Steele, the Florida Supreme Court did not apply the Ring standard to give jurors final say but did urge the Legislature to require unanimous juries to recommend death sentences. The trial judge in Steele had ordered the jury to use special verdict forms to make specific findings regarding the presence of aggravating factors; however, Florida's high court opined that "the court's order imposes a substantive burden on the state not found in the statute and not constitutionally required." Simply put, Florida is an outlier. It is the only state among 31 remaining death penalty states that required unanimous verdicts only to convict, but not when considering either aggravating factors or whether the sentence should be death. In those instances a mere 7-5 vote suffices in Florida. Before Hurst, jurors in the penalty phase considered an arguably unwieldy number of aggravators enumerated in Florida law but didn't have to specify them. Hypothetically, seven jurors could find different aggravators and five find none, which in practical terms was sufficient to recommend death even if no one agreed on a specific aggravator. In 2006, the American Bar Association released a report that identified issues raised in Ring and Steele as areas of critical concern along with a range of other significant process issues involving the fairness, accuracy and impartiality of Florida's death penalty process. But it took no position on capital punishment. In 2013, the Florida Bar Board of Governors adopted a position in support of state officials conducting a comprehensive review of Florida's entire death penalty process by all branches of government, which the Bar reaffirmed last year; we initially proposed that position in 2011. Essentially, no such review has been conducted in Florida. Like the ABA report, the Florida Bar's position focused on process issues, not on capital punishment per se. Research by Scott Sundby from the University of Miami School of Law indicates if unanimity is required, that brings more rigor to deliberations, which changes their nature. He also found that when 9 or more jurors favor a death sentence, the likelihood of achieving unanimity is greater if a jury is so charged. The ABA passed a resolution last year urging all states to require unanimity for these purposes. While Hurst doesn't specifically address unanimity, a logical place for the Legislature to begin is a bill we helped shape that would require unanimity and the use of special verdict forms for specific findings of aggravators and recommendations of death. Sen. Thad Altman, a Viera Republican, has filed this bill repeatedly over the past several sessions. It can be readily modified to address Hurst. On Tuesday, Florida's high court will hear oral arguments regarding how broadly Hurst should apply to Florida's death row population of nearly 400. The context is a case in which Gov. Rick Scott signed a death warrant and a Feb. 11 execution date is pending. The state will likely argue for limited application. Others will assert Hurst should be applied broadly given that Florida's sentencing scheme was declared unconstitutional. No matter how anybody feels about capital punishment, justice would be well served if the Legislature were to require unanimous penalty phase juries and agree to the Florida Bar's call for a comprehensive review when addressing the constitutional defects specifically raised by the U.S. Supreme Court in Hurst. (source: Column; Raoul Cantero, a former state Supreme Court justice appointed by Gov. Jeb Bush, wrote the majority opinion in the 2005 Steele case. He now practices law in Miami. Mark Schlakman is senior program director for Florida State University's Center for the Advancement of Human Rights, and served on the ABA's Florida Death Penalty Assessment Team----Tampa Bay Times) From rhalperi at smu.edu Wed Jan 27 12:06:52 2016 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Wed, 27 Jan 2016 12:06:52 -0600 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----OHIO, TENN., MONT., ID., USA Message-ID: Jan. 27 OHIO: Ohio bill would spare severely mentally ill from execution A person judged to suffer from severe mental illness at the time of a killing that could result in a death sentence would be spared from capital punishment under a bill before Ohio lawmakers. The Senate Criminal Justice Committee was scheduled to hear additional testimony on the bill Wednesday. The legislation would allow a hearing before trial on an offender's mental illness and permit a judge to rule out the death penalty if severe mental illness is proven. Current death row inmates also could challenge their sentences on the basis of mental illness at the time of their crimes. Offenders still would face life in prison even if they're judged to have a severe mental illness. Diagnosed illnesses could include schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and major depressive disorder. **************** Justices hear Toledoan's appeal of death sentence A Toledo man who killed a convenience store clerk during a 2008 robbery should have been allowed to have a jury consider his sentence rather than the 3-judge panel he initially opted for, his attorney argued Tuesday before the Ohio Supreme Court. That 3-judge panel sentenced Anthony Belton to death. Belton pleaded no contest to aggravated murder and 2 counts of aggravated robbery for shooting Matthew Dugan, 34, a clerk in the back of the head during a holdup at the former BP gas station at Dorr Street and Secor Road, on Aug. 13, 2008. He waived his right to a jury, and a 3-judge Lucas County Common Pleas Court panel convicted him. But then Belton asked that a jury weigh the factors that would determine whether he would be executed or serve life in prison without parole. The judicial bench rejected that motion and ruled that the fact that Belton committed the murder during the commission of a felony, a robbery, was sufficient to outweigh mitigating factors such as Belton???s troubled childhood. "Your client [waived his right to a jury] on 3 occasions," Justice Terrence O'Donnell told Belton's Toledo attorney, Spiros Cocoves. "3 times your client had signed a waiver of this very argument you're making." Mr. Cocoves responded, "It's the nature of the death penalty." Lucas County Assistant Prosecutor Evy Jarrett argued that there is no such thing as a hybrid process. "The strategy behind that, of course, is to attempt to get a favorable judicial panel for the guilt phase followed by perhaps a more favorable review by the jury on the penalty phase," she said. Mr. Cocoves also urged the court to reweigh the mitigating and aggravating factors considered by the judicial panel when it opted for death over a life sentence. He pointed to Belton's youth, growing up with an addict and prostitute mother before moving to California to live with his father. But he also urged the justices to consider another factor, the cost to the public of litigating death penalty cases. "I think we all know intrinsically that it's expensive," he said. Chief Justice Maureen O'Connor said she didn't see this as justification for a lesser sentence. "Wasn't it always the case that it's more expensive to litigate a death penalty case than it is to impose life without parole?" she asked. "Some would argue that that's an appropriate use of state resources." Ms. Jarrett argued that the 3-judge panel properly weighed the sentencing factors. "There was actual video recording of the crime itself that showed the defendant leaned in to take the shot at the clerk that was cooperating with his demands," she said. "The clerk clearly posed no threat to the defendant and yet was essentially executed." The Supreme Court did not issue an immediate ruling. Belton, 30, is on death row at the Chillicothe Correctional Institution. (source: toledoblade.com) TENNESSEE: Tennessee Supreme Court to tackle warrant issue in torture-slaying case The ringleader of a January 2007 torture-slaying will try Wednesday to convince the state's highest court a flawed search warrant should rate him a new trial. The Tennessee Supreme Court will hear oral arguments Wednesday in Knoxville in an appeal of Lemaricus Davidson's conviction and death sentence in the carjacking, kidnapping, rape and slayings of Channon Christian, 21, and Christopher Newsom, 23. The appeal - granted as a matter of legal right in capital murder cases - will cover a plethora of topics, from the constitutionality of the death penalty to the victims' families' wearing of buttons bearing the couple's photo. But of all the issues facing the high court, one is particularly thorny for the state - the validity of the search warrant for Davidson's Chipman Street house that led to the discovery of Christian's body. The Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals already deemed the warrant flawed, thanks to a wrong paper size which led to a missing signature line which then led a Knoxville Police Department investigator to sign his name where it did not belong. It was in executing that search warrant that Christian's body was found stuffed inside a trash can. Under the law, if the search warrant is flawed, whatever is discovered as a result of it cannot be used at trial. There are exceptions, though, and the midlevel appellate court cited one in its March 2015 opinion upholding both the guilty verdicts and death sentence in Davidson's case. The Court of Criminal Appeals held that because police already had amassed evidence against Davidson as a suspect and had discovered Newsom's body and Christian's missing vehicle near his house, authorities inevitably would have found her body through legal means. It's known as the doctrine of inevitable discovery and, in Davidson's case, saved the day for prosecutors. Davidson's attorney, David Eldridge, will be asking the high court to take another look at the issue in today's arguments. The warrant snafu occurred because lead investigator Todd Childress chose the wrong size paper to fax a copy of the document and supporting affidavit to a Knox County General Sessions Court judge for approval. The signature line wound up cut off from the document, and Childress inadvertently signed the document in the wrong place. The mistake was discovered within minutes of the initial entry into Davidson's home, by then left vacant, but an officer found Christian's body before commanders ordered the raiding team to back out. A 2nd search warrant - with the proper signature line and signature - was then obtained. Christian and Newsom were carjacked and kidnapped outside the Washington Ridge Apartments and taken to Davidson's house, where both were beaten and raped. Newsom was taken from the house to nearby railroad tracks, where he was shot execution-style and his body set on fire. Christian was held captive for several more hours and repeatedly raped. She was stuffed alive inside the trash can and left to die. (source: Knoxville News Sentinel) MONTANA: Inside Montana's death row, 1985 I spend a lot of time in The Gazette photo archives, searching for pictures that might be interesting to readers and fans of Billings and Montana history. Though much of what I find might interest only a small number of readers, every so often I come across a photo or set of photos with a really interesting backstory that I think might appeal to a wider audience. I was recently scanning some photos that our chief photographer, Larry Mayer, took during a visit to the Montana State Prison in Deer Lodge in October, 1985. I figured we could use the photos if we ever had a story about the history of the prison. I knew there was some special feature story or package that these photographs accompanied in the paper, because it has always been rare for The Gazette to send photographers so far away for a story (Deer Lodge is 260 miles from Billings). But while I was looking at a photo from an envelope labeled "Death Row Inmates," Larry saw one and came over to my desk to see what I was working on. "That's a great photo," Larry said. He's a humble guy, so I knew he wasn't just praising his own work. What he meant was that the photo had real historical significance. The photo, which shows three men in prison clothes walking through a narrow corridor enclosed by chain link fence, does, indeed, have an interesting backstory. Or, rather, 3 interesting backstories. The men depicted in the photo, captured through the chain link fence, are Bernard Fitzpatrick, Dewey Coleman and Duncan McKenzie. All 3 men were convicted in separate murder cases and sentenced to death. At the time, Montana had not executed any prisoners since the 1943 hanging of Philip J. Coleman. It would be nearly a decade before the next execution. Bernard James Fitzpatrick was on death row for the kidnapping, robbery and murder of 18-year-old Monte Dyckman, a Hardin grocery store clerk, on April 5, 1975. Fitzpatrick and his accomplices, Gary Radi, Travis Holliday, Paul Bad Horse Jr. and Edwin Bushman, were tried together. Radi, like Fitzpatrick, received a death sentence, and Holliday and Bad Horse were given 40-year sentences. Bushman was granted immunity in exchange for testimony against the other 4. In October, 1977, 2 years after the trial ended, the Montana Supreme Court determined that the state had erred in trying all 5 defendants together. The convictions were reversed, and the men were tried separately. Fitzpatrick, who was determined to have shot Dyckman, was the only one to receive a death sentence on retrial. Radi was acquitted in his 2nd trial. Fitzpatrick had previously spent a number of years in prison for various incidents, including shooting his then-wife's ex-husband outside of a Billings bar, and for shooting another man in the cheek outside of the Western Cafe in 1971. He was also implicated in a burglary at a Billings pharmacy the same year, and was a suspect in several other killings and crimes in the area in the 1960s and 1970s. During his prison stint, Fitzpatrick was charged with killing a fellow inmate, which added years to his existing sentence for the earlier shooting. However, the Montana Supreme Court vacated the sentence for the killing after determining that Fitzpatrick was wrongfully convicted. Fitzpatrick was released from prison shortly thereafter. During his time in the Montana State Prison, guards claimed Fitzpatrick essentially ran the prison from the inside, exerting power over much of the inmate population. In 1981, Bernard Fitzpatrick wrote to The Gazette after reading that 15-year-old Tammy Miller was in need of a kidney transplant. Fitzpatrick offered to donate one of his kidneys and suggested transferring him to the Yellowstone County Jail to carry out the procedure. The offer was declined. While incarcerated, Fitzpatrick read a Gazette story about a Billings teenager who was in need of a kidney transplant. He offered to provide one of his kidneys, and suggested that officials transfer him to the Yellowstone County Jail, then located in an upper floor of the county courthouse, to carry out the procedure. The offer was declined. After a number of appeals, Fitzpatrick had his death sentence commuted in 1988. In March, 1990, Fitzpatrick was being temporarily held in the then-new Yellowstone County Detention Facility while he was being transferred to a federal prison in Leavenworth, Kan. On March 30, 1990, he and six other inmates escaped from the jail by cutting a hole in the chain link fence of the jail's recreation yard. Fitzpatrick and another escapee broke into Billings Senior High School and stole clothing and other items. The 2 were captured the following morning next to a house on O'Malley Drive. All of the other inmates were eventually captured. Following the escape, Fitzpatrick was handed sentences for the escape and burglary, and an additional 200 years as a persistent felony offender. He currently resides in a federal correctional institution in Sheridan, Ore. On July 4, 1974, 21-year-old Peggy Lee Harstad went missing. Her car was found the next day, abandoned just a few miles from her home in Rosebud. Her purse was found in a culvert a few more miles away. Harstad was driving between Rosebud and Harlowton when she offered a ride to two hitchhikers, later identified as Dewey Eugene Coleman and Robert Dennis Nank. Her body was discovered in late August on the north bank of the Yellowstone River near Forsyth. Nank and Coleman were arrested in October, 1974 in Boise. Nank confessed that he and Coleman had raped, beaten and drowned Harstad, while Coleman denied that he was involved. Both were charged with deliberate homicide, aggravated kidnapping and sexual intercourse without consent. At the time, a conviction of aggravated kidnapping had a mandatory death sentence attached, but that law was repealed in 1977. Nank entered a plea agreement, allowing him to have the kidnapping charges dropped, and thus avoid the death penalty, in exchange for testifying against Coleman. Coleman was convicted on all 3 counts, and was sentenced to 100 years for the homicide and 40 years for the rape charge. For the kidnapping, he received the mandatory death sentence. Nank later escaped from the Nevada prison in which he was being held in 1981, along with 3 other convicted murderers. He was transferred to the prison from Deer Lodge out of fear of retribution for testifying against Coleman. Coleman appealed the sentence, and the Montana Supreme Court determined the mandatory death sentence to be unconstitutional. Coleman was again sentenced to death in 1978 under a new statute. The execution was scheduled for late November of 1981. Though no executions had been carried out in Montana for more than 39 years, the primary means of execution was still hanging. However, Montana State Prison Warden Hank Risley had the prison's gallows removed, stating that he didn't want his institution to carry out executions. Yellowstone County Sheriff Richard Shaffer took matters into his own hands, secretly constructing a gallows over a stairwell on the ninth floor of the Yellowstone County Courthouse. Just days before the hanging was to take place, Coleman was granted a stay of execution. The gallows were dismantled. Shaffer is said to have taken the gallows when he left office, and they haven't been seen since. Coleman later argued that his death sentence was handed down because he was black, and that Nank was given preferential treatment because he was white. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of Coleman in 1988, commuting his death sentence to life imprisonment. Coleman is eligible for parole this year, though his previous hearing with the Montana Board of Pardons and Parole in 2011 did not go in his favor. His inmate profile on the Montana Department of Corrections' Correctional Offender Network Search says that he is currently held at the Department of Corrections' Lewistown Infirmary. The 3rd man in the photo, Duncan Peder McKenzie Jr., was not as lucky as the other 2 in his attempts to avoid capital punishment. McKenzie was convicted of the January 21, 1974 kidnapping, rape and strangling death of Conrad teacher Lana Harding. He received the same mandatory death sentence for aggravated kidnapping that both Bernard Fitzpatrick and Dewey Coleman did. Just like those 2 men, Duncan McKenzie hoped to use the unconstitutional death sentence statute to argue that his sentence should be repealed. 8 stays of execution were granted to McKenzie, which drew his time on death row out to more than 2 decades. Ironically, McKenzie argued for a 9th stay of execution by saying that his lengthy stay on death row had constituted cruel and unusual punishment on the part of the state. The 9th stay was denied, and on May 10, 1995, McKenzie became the 1st inmate to be executed in Montana in nearly 52 years. He was also the 1st in Montana to ever be executed by lethal injection, and the 1st in U.S. history to spend more than 20 years on death row and not be exonerated, pardoned or have his sentence commuted. Stories about the execution noted that one of McKenzie's last requests, which was granted, was to be allowed to listen to a Marty Robbins album while he received his injection. His last meal consisted of a steak, French fries, a salad, orange sherbet and a glass of milk. According to Larry, the photo was not planned. He and the reporter assigned to write the 1985 story that the photos were to accompany were on their way out of the prison when they saw the three men coming out of the maximum security area together. The story was part of a Sunday magazine package entitled "Inside the Montana State Prison," which ran on November 17, 1985. Duncan McKenzie saw the article and wrote a letter to Larry requesting 3 prints of the photo - 1 for each man. Larry obliged. (source: Chase Doak, Billings Gazette) IDAHO: Canyon County prosecution may seek death penalty for Shaw An Emmett man accused of stabbing his girlfriend to death in Nampa could face the death penalty if convicted. Canyon County prosecutors have filed a notice of their intent to seek the death penalty against 23-year-old Brandon Shaw. He is accused of stabbing his girlfriend Chelsey Malone to death in the street outside her home in November. Prosecutors filed the notice Jan. 7, citing aggravating circumstances that made the alleged crime eligible for a sentence of death. He is charged with 1st-degree murder with an enhancement for the use of a deadly weapon, assault with the intent to commit a serious felony and another enhancement for the use of a deadly weapon and burglary. According to court documents, police say Shaw admitted to stabbing Malone after he went to the house and used a credit card to open the door. He had a rifle in hand, according to court documents. Shaw is scheduled to appear in Canyon County 3rd District Court on Friday. Malone was a single mother of 3 children. (source: Messenger Index) USA: Fell death penalty trial to February, 2017 The federal death penalty retrial of a Vermont man charged with killing a Rutland supermarket worker in 2000 is being delayed until February 2017. In an order filed Tuesday, federal Judge Geoffrey Crawford said it would be too difficult to meet what had been the anticipated Oct. 3 start date for the 2nd death penalty trial of Donald Fell. Fell was convicted in 2005 and sentenced to death for the abduction and killing of Terry King in New York. A judge ordered a new trial because of juror misconduct. In his order, Crawford said one of Fell's attorneys will be busy with another case until late summer and he noted it would be too hard to find hotel rooms for potential jurors in Rutland during foliage season. (source: Associated Press) ******************** Judge orders some Tsarnaev trial documents released A federal judge has ordered the US District Court clerk's office to "expeditiously" unseal dozens of documents and exhibits related to the Boston Marathon bombing trial. US District Judge George A. O'Toole Jr. had allowed lawyers and prosecutors to file the documents under seal while preparing for and during the death-penalty trial of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. But after the trial, O'Toole ordered the parties to reach agreement on what documents to make public. Documents to be made available include FBI recordings of confessions and interviews, search warrant results, concerns raised during the jury selection process, and documents related to the controversial testimony of Sister Helen Prejean. (source: Boston Globe) From rhalperi at smu.edu Wed Jan 27 12:07:32 2016 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Wed, 27 Jan 2016 12:07:32 -0600 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide Message-ID: Jan. 27 SAUDI ARABIA----execution Saudi Arabia beheads Egyptian national Saudi Arabia has beheaded an Egyptian national after sentencing him to death on charges related to robbery and murder. The convicted Egyptian man, identified as Mahmud Jumaa Morsi, was beheaded in the capital Riyadh on Wednesday, the Saudi Interior Ministry said in a statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency. The man was found guilty of fatally strangling and robbing a Saudi citizen, the ministry added. According to AFP tallies, the latest execution brings to 54 the number of locals and foreigners put to death this year. In the most stunning case, Saudi Arabia executed on January 2 Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr along 46 other people in defiance of international calls for the release of the prominent Shia cleric and other jailed political dissidents in the kingdom. Saudi Arabia carried out 153 executions, including 71 foreign nationals, in 2015. This number of executions in terms of annual basis in Saudi Arabia has been unseen since 1995. Beheading with a sword is the most common form of execution in Saudi Arabia. Riyadh has been under fire for having one of the world's highest execution rates. The New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) has called on the Saudi regime to abolish its "ghastly" beheadings. Under the Saudi law, apostasy, armed robbery, drug trafficking, rape and murder carry the death penalty. Most Saudi executions are carried out by beheading with a sword. (source: presstv.ir) UNITED ARAB EMIRATES: Man demands death of brother for murder----Brother, wife charged with killing second wife A man demanded the execution of his brother and his brother's wife in court in Abu Dhabi, on charges of murdering his 2nd wife, insisting that he would not pardon them. The court asked the man to make a statement on the grounds he is the legal custodian of the victim's 2 children, who are too young to decide whether to accept diya (blood money) for the death of their mother. The defendant had confessed to locking up the 2nd wife and using a stick to beat her up for nearly 8 years on the grounds she was disobeying him. "The brother rejected blood money and insisted on the death penalty for his brother and his brother's wife for complicity in the murder," Al Bayan' daily said. (source: emirates247.com) MALAYSIA: 7 men plead not guilty to murdering Kevin Morais 7 men, including a military doctor, pleaded not guilty in the Kuala Lumpur High Court today for murdering and abetting in the murder of deputy public prosecutor Anthony Kevin Morais, whose body was found in a cemented drum. They made their plea before Judge Azman Abdullah after the charge was read to them, and the court fixed Feb 25 for mention of the case. 6 men - G Gunasekaran, 43; R Dinishwaran, 23; A Thinesh Kumar, 22; M Vishwanath, 25; S Nimalan, 22; and S Ravichandaran, 34 - pleaded not guilty to murdering Kevin, 55, between 7am and 8pm on Sept 4, 2015 while Kevin was on his way from Jalan Dutamas Raya Sentul to No 1 Jalan USJ1/6D, Subang Jaya. They face the mandatory death penalty if convicted under Section 302 of the Penal Code. The charge against them was read in Tamil. Meanwhile pathologist Col Dr R Kunaseegaran, 52, pleaded not guilty to abetting with the six men in the murder of Kevin at the same place, date and time. The charge against him was read in Malay. Kunaseegaran was charged under Section 109 of the Penal Code, read together with Section 302 of the same act. Earlier, Deputy Public Prosecutor Abdul Razak Musa applied for the court to fix the mention's date in three weeks' time to enable the prosecution to transfer a case involving another accused, A Murugan from the Shah Alam High Court, to be jointly on trial with the seven accused. Murugan was charged with abetting the 6 men in Kevin's murder at Desa Mentari, Kuala Lumpur between 9.30am and 8pm last Sept 4. Counsel M Manoharan and V Rajehgopal represented the 6 men, while N Sivananthan represented Kunaseegaran, and Simon Sabapathy was the watching brief for the deceased's youngest brother, Richard Dilaan Morais, who was also present today. Kevin's remains were found in a cemented drum at Persiaran Subang Mewah, Subang Jaya, near Kuala Lumpur on Sept 16 last year. Kevin was reported missing on Sept 4. He was last seen leaving his apartment at Menara Duta, Kuala Lumpur for Putrajaya in a Proton Perdana car bearing registration number WA6264Q. (source: malaysiakini.com) VIETNAM: Teacher arrested for raping 8-year-old student in southern Vietnam Police in Tay Ninh Province in southern Vietnam have arrested a teacher for allegedly raping a 2nd-grade student in their school. Investigators said that on January 22 Bui Khanh Hoang, 32, a gymnastics teacher, asked the 8-year-old girl to stay after class and raped her in a classroom. Her grandmother found scratches and blood while giving her a bath that day, and made the girl describe what had happened to her. Police arrested Hoang the next day and keeping him for questioning. The mother of the girl said her daughter is shocked and eats little. "She wakes up at night many times and screams," she said. The crime can be punished by jail terms of at least 12 years or even a death penalty. (source: Thanh Nien News) INDIA: Delhi HC commutes death sentence of serial killer, awards life term The Delhi High Court on Wednesday commuted to life capital punishment awarded to serial killer Chandrakant Jha in 2 identical cases of murder and upheld imprisonment of life till death awarded to him in a 3rd similar case by a trial court here. A bench of justices Sanjiv Khanna and R K Gauba upheld Jha's conviction in all the 3 cases but modified the death sentence awarded to him in 2 of the cases to life imprisonment till death. "We uphold the conviction in all the 3 cases. He is sentenced to life term without remission for rest of his life," the bench said. While commuting death to life term in 2 cases, the court said, "there was no eye witnesses" to these incidents. In 1 of the 3 cases of murder, the trial court on February 4, 2013 had awarded life term till death to Jha for decapitating his victim and dumping the body near the Tihar Jail daring the police to nab him. Jha, a native of Madhepura in Bihar, was sentenced to life term till death in a case relating to killing of one Dilip, whose headless body was dumped near Tihar Jail in 2007. On February 5, 2013, Jha was sentenced to death in the second case of identical crime by the same trial court, saying his offence fell under the "rarest of rare case" as the brutality committed by him showed he "cannot be reformed". The court awarded death sentence to Jha for taking away the life of 19-year-old Upender and dumping his headless body also near Tihar jail in 2007. On February 6, 2013, Jha was awarded death penalty in yet another crime of beheading and chopping the body parts of a victim by the trial court which said he committed the murder in an "extremely brutal, diabolical and revolting manner". In this case, Jha had murdered one Anil Mandal in 2006 and dumped his body outside the jail after chopping off the head and limbs. Jha was arrested by the Delhi Police in May 25, 2007 in Mianwali Nagar here. He was earlier arrested in 1998 in a murder case but was acquitted for want of evidence. In December 2007, a Delhi court had acquitted him in a case after the police failed to file charge sheet against him in another murder case. After committing the murders, Jha had even dared the police by writing several letters to them to nab him, saying he would send similar "gifts" after every 15 days. (source: Deccan Chronicle) From rhalperi at smu.edu Wed Jan 27 12:53:33 2016 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Wed, 27 Jan 2016 12:53:33 -0600 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, MD., FLA., LA. Message-ID: Jan. 27 TEXAS: Trial date set for man accused of killing Stripes store clerk Prosecutors have yet to decide whether they'll seek the death penalty in the Elizalde case.Prosecutors have yet to decide whether they'll seek the death penalty in the Elizalde case. The man accused of robbing and killing a store clerk will go on trial this summer. Judge Jose Longoria set James Elizalde's trial for August 15th. During his arraignment this morning, a prosecutor told the judge the D.A.'s office hasn't decided on whether it will seek the death penalty because Mark Skurka is involved in the Travis Magill case. Elizalde is facing Capital Murder charges, for the shooting death of Ignacio Rodriguez. Rodriguez was shot during a robbery at the Stripes store on Staples and Carroll Lane back in October. (source: KRIS TV news) MARYLAND: Public defender's office opposes Wilson's criminal bills Bills that would streamline sentencing for judges considering life-without-parole cases and raise the sentencing limit for 2nd-degree murder in Maryland met with spirited opposition Tuesday from the state public defender's office. Both bills are sponsored by Del. Brett R. Wilson, R-Washington, who also is a county prosecutor. They were heard in the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday afternoon. Wilson and Anne Arundel County State's Attorney Wes Adams said that the first bill would correct a flaw in the current sentencing in life-without-parole cases. When capital punishment was legal in Maryland, defendants were entitled to sentencing by jury in cases where a death penalty could be applied. Prosecutors were required to serve notice that they were seeking capital punishment, and if the defendant requested a sentencing by jury, the jury - rather than the judge - could determine whether he or she was given a capital sentence, life without parole or a life term, Wilson said. However, when capital punishment was repealed in 2013, lawmakers amended the criminal code to strike most references to the death penalty. But sentencing by jury was omitted. Wilson and Adams argued that defendants in cases where prosecutors seek life without parole had never been entitled to sentencing by jury. But since the death penalty was repealed, several defendants have used the remaining language to appeal their sentences, claiming they were entitled to a jury sentence, according to a letter from Attorney General Brian Frosh's office in support of Wilson's bill. Katie O'Donnell of the Maryland Office of the Public Defender argued that the language should be maintained, and the option of letting juries decide whether a defendant should be given life without parole should be on the table. "We are in a different legal landscape than we were when capital punishment existed in this state," she said. "Right now, life without the possibility of parole is the most severe punishment that can be imposed on any individual under any circumstances." Therefore, the whole framework of what criteria should be met for those sentences - and who decides whether they are given - should be revisited. But Wilson and the attorney general said the legislature had never intended to create a right to a jury sentencing in noncapital cases. The 2nd bill would add 10 years to the maximum sentence for 2nd-degree murder, raising the maximum from 30 to 40 years. Testifying before the committee, Adams noted that all surrounding states have maximum sentences of at least 40 years for that offense. Defendants sentenced under current statutes "represent a segment of violent offenders eligible to be out within 20 years," even if they are given the maximum sentence, he said. Adding 10 years to the maximum would give judges more discretion in sentencing, he said. Regarding both bills, Wilson said: "None of this happens if someone isn't killed, and the perpetrator has been convicted. We're not looking to do this just because we can." But O'Donnell also opposed the 2nd bill, saying it undermines the jury process, and 2 previous attempts to increase the maximum had failed. "What is the compelling reason to change the 30-year penalty that we have had for as long as I can remember?" she asked. Punishment is "based on the level of culpability ... for which the defendant is convicted," she said. (source: Herald-Mail Media) FLORIDA: Lawmakers ignored warnings about death-penalty sentencing law (1st of 3 parts) To find someone guilty of a crime - any crime - jurors have to agree unanimously. Not so to impose the death penalty. Not here in Florida. And that's why Florida's death penalty sentencing procedure is in constitutional hot water. As Florida law stands now, after jurors find a defendant guilty of 1st-degree murder, they aren't required to deliberate to the point of unanimity in order to sentence a murderer to death. They simply take a vote, and let the judge do the rest. Those split, majority-only sentencing votes reduce the jury's role from fact-finder to adviser, the U.S. Supreme Court said on January 12, which violates an individual's Sixth Amendment right to trial by jury. Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in Hurst v. Florida, "The Sixth Amendment requires a jury, not a judge, to find each fact necessary to impose a sentence of death. A jury's mere recommendation is not enough." And juries find facts, traditionally, by reaching unanimous verdicts. So why didn't the court mention the word "unanimous" in its opinion about juries as final fact-finders? "They frequently try to issue the narrowest opinion possible," says Adam Tebrugge, an ACLU staff attorney based in Tampa. "There's a strong argument that a 7-5 finding is not sufficient to find any facts," he added. Tebrugge is referring to the split-vote recommendation on which a Florida trial court imposed the death penalty for Timothy Hurst, whose case just became a U.S. Supreme Court landmark. Hurst's case will now go back to the Florida Supreme Court, which will determine whether the unconstitutional sentencing procedure resulted in "harmless error" for him. It's hard to see how violating the Constitution could be harmless in a death penalty case, attorneys say. In capital cases in Florida, the "penalty phase" is a separate proceeding that occurs after the jury convicts a defendant of 1st-degree murder. Aggravating elements of the crime are weighed against mitigating factors during the penalty phase. Florida law requires that judges give "great weight" to the jury's analysis of those factors in the form of their sentencing "recommendation." And that, according to the court's Hurst ruling, is simply not enough to satisfy the Sixth Amendment. "If you don't require a unanimous jury, it destroys the deliberations process," Tebrugge says. "You just vote. You don't even have to talk about it." That argument appears to cut both ways, says criminal defense attorney D. Gray Thomas. He says "fear-mongers" in the Legislature will point out that notorious serial murderers Ted Bundy and Eileen Wournos were sentenced based on split, majority-only jury recommendations. But, Thomas concedes, had those jurors been required to actually deliberate instead of merely voting, they might have reached unanimity on Bundy's and Wournos' death sentences, nonetheless. (source: Julie Delegal, Florida Politics) LOUISIANA: Louisiana Case Renews Push For Justices' Review of Death Penalty On the heels of the U.S. Supreme Court's refusal to hear a challenge to the constitutionality of the death penalty, a new case, this time from Louisiana, is being offered to the justices. Tucker v. State of Louisiana asks the high court whether the death penalty is cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth and Fourteenth amendments. The case also asks whether Louisiana's failure to require juries to find that death is the appropriate sentence "beyond a reasonable doubt" violates those same amendments and the court's recent decisions involving the role of juries in fact-finding. Death penalty litigators and anti-death penalty groups have renewed efforts to bring constitutional challenges to the punishment to the high court in the wake of last term's Glossip v. Gross decision. In that 5-4 lethal-injection case, Justice Stephen Breyer, joined by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, dissented, saying there was significant evidence of serious problems with the death penalty to justify full reconsideration of its constitutionality by the court. G. Ben Cohen of The Promise of Justice Initiative in New Orleans is counsel to Lamondre Tucker in the most recent challenge and is undeterred by the high court's refusal on Monday to review the death penalty challenge in Walter v. Pennsylvania. "In the end, the court will take the case it wants to take - at the time it wants to take it," Cohen said. "All we can do is give the court the opportunity to consider the question. Lamondre???s case is emblematic of what is wrong with the death penalty - not reserved for the worst of the worst, driven by unrestrained prosecutors, overwhelmed or indifferent defense counsel, geographic isolation, with the backdrop of a sordid racial legacy." Tucker's case played out in Caddo Parish where, according to a report by The New Orleans Advocate in April, capital punishment is a "cottage industry." Of the 12 death sentences handed down in Louisiana in the last five years, eight came from that parish. Tucker also was the last person sentenced to death while a Confederate flag flew next to the Confederate memorial outside the courthouse. Cohen said Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg???s comments after the Supreme Court's last term ended, "perhaps gives me hope that the court will consider the question here." Ginsburg noted the unfairness of a death sentence from a county in Louisiana versus a life sentence in Minnesota. In 2008, Tucker was 4 months past his 18th birthday, with a 74 IQ, when he was arrested and charged with the murder of Tavia Sills, a pregnant 18-year-old with whom he had a brief relationship. Jury selection began March 14, 2011, in Caddo Parish. 1/3 of the venire - and 1/2 of the African-American venire persons - were removed based upon their opposition to the death penalty, according to the petition. The defense objected, arguing that death-qualification, coupled with the effect of the Confederate flag atop the monument to the Confederacy's Last Stand outside the courthouse, distorted the racial makeup of the venire. (The NAACP successfully brought down the flag in late 2011 but the generals' monument remains.) The trial court noted that racial disparities were "troubling," but denied relief. Ultimately, in a parish where half the population is African-American, the 14 jurors (12 with 2 alternates) included 12 white jurors and 2 African-Americans. The prosecutor presented evidence that Tucker committed the killing with 21-year-old Marcus Taylor. The prosecution relied primarily on the statement taken from 18-year-old Tucker during a lengthy interrogation that began when Shreveport police officers checked him out of class at his high school on September 9, 2008, and continued intermittently, only partially recorded, over the next 4 days, states the petition. The defense called no witnesses and presented no evidence. The closing argument was 5 sentences that included: "Good evening ladies and gentlemen," and "Thank you." The defense attorney also said Tucker admitted guilt to 2nd-degree murder and feticide, which Tucker denied on appeal. The other man, Taylor, who was 3 years older than Tucker, received a 21-year sentence. The Louisiana Supreme Court rejected Tucker's constitutional challenge to the death penalty and also his claim that the Eighth Amendment and the U.S. Supreme Court's decisions in Apprendi v. New Jersey and Ring v. Arizona required the jury to find, beyond a reasonable doubt, that death was the appropriate punishment. Cohen said the high court's decision Monday in Montgomery v. Louisiana is additional evidence that the country is turning towards the possibility of redemption and away from retribution. In that 6-3 decision, the justices held that its 2012 ban on the mandatory imposition of life in prison without parole for juvenile murderers applies retroactively. Louisiana has yet to file a brief in opposition to Tucker's petition. If the high court were to grant review, the case would not be heard until next term. (source: nationallawjournal.com) From rhalperi at smu.edu Wed Jan 27 12:56:25 2016 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Wed, 27 Jan 2016 12:56:25 -0600 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide Message-ID: Jan. 27 IRAN: Christian pastor released by Iran vividly describes Tehran's executions of political prisoners One of the Americans recently freed from an Iranian prison has described the experience of being held in the Islamic theocracy for years on charges of setting up churches. Saeed Abedini, who was one of four Americans released in a prisoner swap with Iran earlier this month, talked to Fox News about how he was treated in prison and what he saw while he was there. Abedini said he and other prisoners were beaten and threatened. But he said the worst thing he saw were the executions. "Most of them are Sunnis, some of them are political prisoners, and I can say most of them are there for their faith," Abedini told Fox News' Greta van Susteren. When soldiers came to take prisoners for execution, Abedini said, they'd "take their hands, their feet, grab them, like when they take a lamb for slaughtering." "And they were yelling, some of them they were crying, and some of them they wet themselves, and so it was a very graphic things that I saw," Abedini said. In July, Amnesty International released a report on Iran's "staggering" execution spree in which the country reportedly killed 694 people in six months. Amnesty referred to it as an "unprecedented spike" in executions. Iran is also known to torture prisoners. Abedini described some of the brutal treatment to which he was subjected during his time in captivity. "When I was interrogated with my interrogator, he told me that, 'I'm going to do 3 things to you,'" Abedini said. The interrogator threatened to have other prisoners beat Abedini, told him that he would be sent to the worst prison in the country, and said they would be watching him if he ever returned to the US. "They said, 'When you finish your sentence and you go to the US, we'll always follow you, and if you continue the things that you did, we're going to kill you,'" Abedini said. Abedini was imprisoned in 2012 and is now back in the US recovering from the ordeal at a retreat on the East Coast, according to US News & World Report. (source: Yahoo News) From rhalperi at smu.edu Wed Jan 27 15:39:24 2016 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Wed, 27 Jan 2016 15:39:24 -0600 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, FLA., MISS., MO. Message-ID: Jan. 27 TEXAS----impending execution No late appeals expected in Texas execution----James Freeman, 34, is set to die Wednesday, Jan. 27, 2016, for a Texas game warden in 2007 No late appeals are expected for a man who is set to be executed for a Texas game warden's death during a 2007 shootout. James Freeman's scheduled lethal injection would be the 2nd in as many weeks in Texas, which carries out capital punishment more than any other state. The U.S. Supreme Court earlier this month refused to review Freeman's case, and his attorney, Don Vernay, said he doesn't plan any new appeals to try to block the execution from happening Wednesday in Huntsville. The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles on Monday declined a clemency petition from Freeman. Freeman was suspected of illegally hunting at night from his truck in Southeast Texas' Wharton County when a game warden spotted him. Freeman sped away, leading authorities on a 90-minute chase that reached 130 mph. It ended near a cemetery not far from his home in Lissie with Freeman stepping out of his disabled pickup truck and shooting at officers. He emptied his 11-shot .357-caliber handgun, then switched to an AK-47 assault rifle with a 30-round clip. When it was over, Freeman had been shot four times and Justin Hurst, a Texas Parks and Wildlife game warden who had joined the March 17, 2007, chase, was fatally wounded. It was Hurst's 34th birthday. Steve Lightfoot, an agency spokesman who knew Hurst, said the married father of a 4-month-old son represented "the very essence of what this agency is about and what game wardens are about." "He was very passionate in his role concerning the state???s resources and protecting those resources," Lightfoot said. 18 Texas game wardens, including Hurst, have died in the line of duty since game wardens began enforcing conservation laws in 1895. Hurst had been with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department for 12 years, the last 5 as a game warden. Hurst was an alligator and waterfowl specialist before moving to law enforcement. A state wildlife management area where he once worked in Brazoria County and about 60 miles south of Houston now carries his name. Vernay said Freeman's lack of a previous criminal record should have influenced jurors he didn't deserve the death penalty, which in Texas requires a jury to find a capital murder offender would be a continuing threat. "This is a troublesome case," the appeals lawyer said. "He never did anything wrong in his life other than a DUI. This kid was not a future danger, he was just a loser. ... He got drunk and got in a shooting." A psychologist testifying at Freeman's trial said Freeman told him he drank about 9 beers while watching a football game on TV at his home and then decided to drive around and shoot snakes and birds that night - something he enjoyed doing. Freeman's trial lawyer, Stanley Schneider, said heavy alcohol use and severe depression led the unemployed welder to try to commit "suicide by cop" in his confrontation with officers. "It was totally senseless," Schneider said of the fatal shooting. "It really is very sad that it happened, that 2 families are suffering like this." Prosecutors convinced jurors that Freeman had an uncontrollable and unpredictable temper. He was on probation after being convicted of driving while intoxicated, and it was about to be revoked because he had failed to comply with the terms, court records showed. Freeman, 34, is 1 of at least 8 Texas prisoners with execution dates in the coming months. Last year, Texas lethally injected 13 convicted killers, accounting for nearly 1/2 of the 28 executions carried out nationwide. (source: Associated Press) FLORIDA: Racial bias plagues Florida's death penalty This month, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Florida's death penalty statute because judges rather than jurors were making the ultimate decision about who should be sentenced to die. This narrow ruling highlights a serious problem with Florida's capital punishment scheme, but new research suggests that this is just one of many flaws in how the state determines who should be executed. I recently conducted a study that looked at the race of victims in all homicides in Florida since 1976, including those that resulted in execution. I found that executions are very rare: just 0.30 % of homicides lead to an execution. But there are tremendous disparities depending on the characteristics of the victim: homicides involving white female victims are 6.5 times more likely to result in an execution than those involving black male victims. In fact, 72 % of all executions carried out in Florida between 1976 and 2014 were for crimes involving white victims despite the fact that 56 % of all homicide victims are white. Similarly, only 26 % of all homicide victims are female, but 43 % of all executions carried out in Florida were for homicides involving female victims. What's even more shocking, though, is that no white person has been executed in Florida for a homicide involving a black victim to date. In contrast, 71 % of the executions carried out against black inmates were for homicides involving white victims. The vast majority of homicides occur with offenders and victims of the same race. With 40 years of experience with the modern death penalty, and over 30,000 homicides in Florida, the fact that no white person has ever been executed for killing a black person needs to be recognized for what it is: evidence of a severely broken system based on race. We can quibble about racial disparities that are measured by a few % points. But the results of my study are not like that. These are stark results with effects measured by orders of magnitude. They clearly show that Florida's death penalty system is plagued by vast racial and gender disparities, and that black lives are not valued the same as white lives. When a black male is murdered, chances that that offender will be executed are 0.23 %. When the victim is a white female, odds are 1.5 %. Those are all very low numbers, suggesting that the death penalty is not as central to the fight against crime as some might imagine. But one is 6.5 times greater than the other, and when we add in the race of the offender, we can't even calculate the statistics because the white offender-black victim category shows no executions in modern Florida history. Bias enters the process at many different points, from the prosecutor's initial decision about whether the charge the crime as 1st or 2nd degree murder, to their decision to seek either life in prison or the death penalty. This exacerbated by the fact that Florida's death penalty statute is so broad that the vast majority of homicides could be charged as 1st degree murders eligible for the death penalty and that decision is completely up to the discretion of the local prosecutor. It is also worth noting that Florida is the only state that doesn't require any unanimity in a capital jury verdict. Prosecutorial and judicial discretion may also explain dramatic geographic variation in the use of the death penalty. Just 6 out of Florida's 67 counties are responsible for more than 1/2 of the state's 89 executions. Only 4 counties (Miami-Dade, Orange, Duval and Pinellas) have produced more than 5 executions, while 36 counties have never produced an execution. The homicide rate in counties that have produced no executions is significantly lower than the homicide rate in counties with executions. It's difficult to argue that executions are deterring future murderers with numbers like these. With the Supreme Court ruling that Florida's procedures must be revised, and with this comprehensive review of the distribution of executions across different counties and categories of victims revealing shocking disparities in patterns of actual usage, maybe time has come to question whether the system is worth it. Florida had almost 30,000 homicides from 1984 through 2012, and 89 executions through 2014: Just 0.30 % of homicides result in an execution. Given the flaws and inequities my study revealed, maybe it's just not worth it. (source: Frank R. Baumgartner is a professor of political science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the author of "The Impact of Race, Gender, and Geography on Florida Executions." The full study can be found here: http://bit.ly/1RN4BAV----Gainesville Sun) MISSISSIPPI: Hood wants prison re-entry, election law, death penalty reforms Attorney General Jim Hood is calling on lawmakers to pass prison re-entry and election law reforms, adopt alternative methods of executing death-row convicts and to grant him authority to wiretap phones, at least for human trafficking investigations. "Our 2016 legislative agenda puts citizen safety at the forefront of this session, right where it belongs," Hood said, releasing his 2016 legislative agenda in a press conference on Wednesday. He said it prioritizes "key issues such as better laws for child victims including child victims of human trafficking." Hood is calling for the Legislature to create a re-entry program to provide inmates a better transition back into society, noting that more are being released from prison after lawmakers passed criminal justice reforms in 2014. Hood said he has pushed for such re-entry improvements for more many years, starting when he was a district attorney. "I wrote a letter to (former House Speaker) Tim Ford 25 years ago on this," Hood said. "We're just turning them out, not giving them any job training or other help." Hood said that with legal attacks on states' methods of execution, including Mississippi's, he wants lawmakers to provide for alternatives to lethal injection, "should the lethal injection drugs be unavailable or lethal injection itself be declared unconstitutional." Hood said he's not trying to start political debate over the death penalty, but wants lawmakers to provide alternate ways to carry it out given the way litigation is going. "Alternative means includes nitrogen hypoxia, electrocution or firing squad," Hood said. "... The old gas chamber is still there right beside the lethal injection chamber." Hood is also calling for the identities of the state execution team and lethal injection drug or other vendors to be exempt from public records law, because anti-death penalty advocates have targeted them with social media and other outing. Hood is pushing several election-law reforms, including measures to prohibit the personal use of campaign-finance funds by politicians and clarify that candidates must detail credit card purchases on their campaign finance reports. (source: Clarion-Ledger) MISSOURI: Bill to repeal death penalty moves to Senate floor Sen. Paul Wieland, R-Imperial, made headlines last week for his legislation that would repeal the death penalty in Missouri and now, he's made history. SB 816 has taken the next step to becoming law by moving onto the Senate floor after passing out of committee by a 4-2 vote in committee Tuesday after it was taken up again after the committee tabled the issue last week. It is the 1st time a death penalty repeal bill has moved onto the floor of the Senate. "One of my motivations [to run for office] was defending human life," Wieland said. "As a pro-life person, I needed to be congruent with my conscience." While Sen. Rob Schaaf, R-St. Joseph, the chair of the General Laws and Pensions Committee, was receptive to the idea, alluding to the racial disparity of death sentences, the other Republicans in the committee were not. Sen. Bob Onder, R-St. Charles, expressed his belief that some people were too dangerous to be left alive in prison, lest they do harm to their fellow inmates or prison guards. "Someone executed will never murder again," he commented. Sen. Dave Schatz, R-Washington, believed that the death penalty was an effective and necessary deterrent to heinous crime and rejected testimony that the criminal justice system did not do its job. "I don't think we have a broken criminal justice system that's the problem," Schatz said. "It's a morally bankrupt society." Sen. Joe Keaveny, D-St. Louis, an avid opponent of the death penalty, disagreed with Schatz' take. "I've fought this fight since I got elected," he said. "If the death penalty was actually a deterrent, we wouldn't be executing anyone, would we?" Many witnesses testified in support of the bill, including the Missouri Catholic Conference, the NAACP and the Missouri Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty. Each had their own concerns with capital punishment from the fact that it may be racist institution, that they could be executing innocent people that may be exonerated by new evidence, or that they simply don't trust the government to put people to death. Jennifer Bukowsky, a Columbia-based attorney that has worked as a public defender, said that her experience with the Missouri criminal justice system made her want to "hit the pause button" on such punishments because mistakes could be made in sentencing people to death. If the state carried out on those mistakes, Bukowsky argues that "history will not treat us kindly." "Public defenders are inadequately funded and we can't have enough confidence in the integrity of the results of our system to kill," she said Tuesday. "Just because a person's in prison doesn't mean the case is solved." (source: The Missouri Times) From rhalperi at smu.edu Wed Jan 27 15:40:34 2016 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Wed, 27 Jan 2016 15:40:34 -0600 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide Message-ID: Jan. 27 GRENADA: Grenada man charged with murder in death of US tourist A man accused of killing a tourist from Georgia in a machete attack on an isolated beach in Grenada made his 1st appearance Wednesday before a judge on the Caribbean island to face a charge of capital murder. Dave Martin Benjamin did not enter a plea and was not given an opportunity to speak in the brief hearing. A lawyer has not yet been appointed to represent him. The 27-year-old could get the death penalty if convicted. Grenada has not carried out an execution since 1978. Hundreds of people gathered outside the courthouse to get a glimpse of Benjamin as he was led into court in jeans and a checkered shirt. The suspect surrendered to authorities Monday, a day after the body of Jessica Colker, a 39-year-old physician's assistant from Atlanta, was found in a wooded area near an isolated beach where she had been walking with her husband. Benjamin became the chief suspect because people had seen him begging on the beach before the incident, Acting Police Commissioner Winston James said after the court hearing. He did not disclose what other evidence investigators had collected and said that Benjamin had not confessed to the crime. Police say Benjamin waylaid Colker and Brian Melito around noon on Sunday as they walked along the shore. The husband fled to get help and his wife was missing when he returned. Her body was found later that day in a wooded area. An autopsy found that she died from extensive skull fracture and asphyxia. James said there were signs of sexual assault. Colker worked as a physician's assistant at a children's hospital in metro Atlanta. Van Melito is a physician. The couple, who met at a dance workshop in Costa Rica, married in November 2014, according to an online wedding album. "Jessica could fill the room with laughter in a second," Kristin McManus, a friend from her hometown of Yorktown, Virginia told WAVY-TV. "And her smile just glowed, and she was such a caring person, an open person." Police said earlier that Benjamin was convicted of robbery and burglary in 2009 and of a rape in 2013. He was released early from prison in November because of good behavior. Benjamin's next scheduled court appearance is Friday. (source: Associated Press) IRAN----execution Political prisoner hanged on verge of Rouhani'd visit to Europe The Iranian Resistance calls on the international community and human rights defenders to condemn the criminal execution of dervish, political prisoner Fardin Hosseini. His secret execution in Kermanshah's prison on January 21 as Rouhani, the demagogue president of the Iranian regime, was about to travel to Italy, Vatican and France makes Rouhani's visit all the more illegitimate and makes holding Rouhani accountable for the severe violation of human rights 2fold necessary. The execution of over 2200 prisoners, including followers of various religions and faiths, is part of the infamous dossier of Rouhani's 2 1/2 years presidency. Rouhani, along with other leaders of this regime, should face justice for all their crimes, particularly for crime against humanity for the execution of 120,000 political prisoners. Mr. Fardin Hosseini was constantly under torture and interrogations in intelligence ministry cells and medieval prisons in Qom, Dieselabad of Kermanshah, and Gohardasht (Rajai Shahr). The henchmen also arrested his family and harassed them to extract forced confession from him. He wrote In a letter to Amnesty International and the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran in June 2015: I was numerously pressured by my torturers that if I accept the charges brought against me during my interrogation and if I confess and accept the fictitious charges in the courts, they would pay a large sum of money to me and my children and they can relocate me to any place in the world that I want and that I will be protected ... all this calamity was solely for my beliefs. Time and again he asked for an open court with the participation of the media, but the Iranian regime never accepted his request. Iranian regime's judiciary had accused Mr. Fardin Hosseini of killing Mullah Sabaei, the former Friday prayer imam of Savejbolaq, in mid June 2007 but he repeatedly denied the allegations. Sabaei working under Mullah Mohammadi Gilani's supervision was involved in issuing death verdicts and massacring prisoners in executions of political prisoners in 1981. (source: Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran) LIBYA: Whipped for drinking alcohol and executed for stealing: The horrific moment 3 men are shot dead in front of a mob by ISIS barbarians in Libya ISIS militants in the Libyan town of Sirte have executed at least 3 men and whipped another for drinking alcohol, according to a 'photo report', published by the terror group. Published on an anonymous content sharing website, it shows the deaths of 3 men and the whipping of 4 others. In 1 photo a man in a grey t-shirt, his face blurred, is led to his death - the caption says he was executed for the sin of 'banditry'. According to the 'report', the other men were executed for converting from Islam, for cursing god and for belonging to a militia loyal to Khalifa Haftar, the UN-backed government general deeply hostile to Islamist forces - both the self-appointed government in Tripoli and ISIS. The post is entitled 'Implementing punishment in the city of Sirte' and links to ISIS-related hashtags in Arabic. In the 7 photos, each is captioned with the sin the men are accused of committing and their punishment. A crowd of masked men stand to watch as the punishments are carried out - a mixture of executions and whipping. One photo shows a group of 4 of the accused on their knees in front of a crowd of masked men, as their 'sentence' is read out - the caption declares flogging is the punishment for drinking wine. ISIS reportedly has 3,000 fighters in Sirte and has imposed the strict rules familiar with residents in their defacto capital in Raqqa, Syria. Beheadings and crucifixions plague the town, which has been deserted by citizens by the thousands. It comes as analysts warn that the terror-group is rallying more and more groups under their banner, despite losing ground in its strongholds of Iraq and Syria. 'From the start, Islamic State has vowed to take its fight globally, but until recently it has been focused on managing its caliphate in Iraq and Syria,' said Michael Kugelman, of the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington. With the Iraqi army re-taking some of the territory the group had taken, IS 'has re-dedicated attention to focusing on a more global approach', he said. 'The big question, after the Jakarta attacks and all of these attacks around the world in recent months that have been claimed by ISIS is - are these militants only inspired by ISIS or have they been directly managed by ISIS?' he said, using another name for the group. Kugelman believes that IS is for now content to take credit for the attacks, using the 'brand recognition' of its name that has spread across the world, partly through social media, without necessarily dedicating resources or manpower to these groups. 'What you have here are disillusioned, alienated militants, who have been fighting with a different organisation, who are interested in identifying themselves with a more dynamic cause. And they see ISIS as a very dynamic cause - they are in the media all the time and commit spectacularly brutal attacks.' (source: Daily Mail) From rhalperi at smu.edu Wed Jan 27 20:48:43 2016 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Wed, 27 Jan 2016 20:48:43 -0600 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS Message-ID: Jan. 27 TEXAS----execution Texas executes man who fatally shot game warden A man convicted of killing a Texas game warden became the 2nd person executed by the state of Texas this year on Wednesday. James Freeman, 35, was killed by lethal injection just after 6 p.m. inside the Walls Unit, more than 9 years after he fatally shot Justin Hurst. Freeman was illegally hunting in Wharton County the evening of March 17, 2007, when a game warden stopped to cite him. Freeman fled the scene and led police on a 90-minute chase before bailing from his truck and firing on officers with a pistol. After he emptied his clip, Freeman pulled out an assault rifle and fatally shot Hurst, who was celebrating his 34th birthday. Freeman was shot 4 times. More than 100 game wardens with the Texas Parks and Wildlife stood outside the Walls Unit in support of Hurst on Wednesday. James Clark, spokesperson for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, said Freeman appeared unemotional in the hours before he was executed. "He didn't have anything to say, other than yes and no," Clark said. The U.S. Supreme Court earlier this month refused to review Freeman's case. On Monday, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles declined a clemency petition for Freeman. Freeman becomes the 2nd condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Texas and the 15th overall since Greg Abbott became governor in January 2015. Freeman becomes the 533rd condemned inmate to be put to death in Texas since the state resumed capital punishment on December 7, 1982. Freeman becomes the 4th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 1426th overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977. (sources: Associated Press & Rick Halperin) ********************** Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present----15 Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982----present-----533 Abbott#--------scheduled execution date-----name------------Tx. # 16---------February 16--------------Gustavo Garcia--------534 17---------March 9------------------Coy Wesbrook----------535 18---------March 22-----------------Adam Ward-------------536 19---------March 30-----------------John Battaglia--------537 20---------April 6------------------Pablo Vasquez---------538 21---------April 27-----------------Robert Pruett---------539 22---------June 2-------------------Charles Flores--------540 23---------July 14------------------Perry Williams--------541 (sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin) From rhalperi at smu.edu Thu Jan 28 09:39:11 2016 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Thu, 28 Jan 2016 09:39:11 -0600 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, N.H., PENN., DEL., S.C., FLA. Message-ID: Jan. 28 TEXAS----death penalty overturned Death penalty thrown out in College Station murder case A man sentenced to death in the 2010 strangulation of a College Station woman will receive a new punishment hearing, according to a Wednesday ruling by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals that said there wasn't enough evidence to prove capital murder. The 6-3 ruling from the state's highest criminal court throws out the death sentence for Stanley Griffin, though it agrees the now 50-year-old intentionally killed Jennifer Hailey, a 29-year-old acquaintance whom he met through his girlfriend. Griffin now will face 5 years to life in prison for the crime. Hailey's 9-year-old son - who awakened during the incident - was twice ordered by Griffin back to his room and eventually was stabbed by Griffin with a gardening trowel. The boy lost a significant amount of blood, but regained consciousness and called his grandmother, who called 911. To convict someone of capital murder, the state had to prove that Griffin killed a person while also committing another felony, such as kidnapping, robbery, aggravated sexual assault, arson or burglary. Capital cases don't allow for aggravated assaults, injury to a child or attempted murder as the secondary crime. At issue for the 6 appellate judges who remanded the case back to a Brazos County courtroom was whether the action taken by Griffin against the boy could be defined as a kidnapping, which is what prosecutors asserted and jurors believed. The 10-page ruling, written by Judge Cheryl Johnson, argued that there was no proof of a kidnapping, suggesting a more likely secondary charge could have been aggravated assault, injury to a child or attempted murder relating to the boy. "Griffin attacked the boy to delay the discovery of the woman's murder and the boy's injuries were sustained after the murder," Johnson wrote. In Kevin Yeary's 57-page dissenting opinion, he said the law did not require Griffin to truly hold the boy to be defined as kidnapping, but rather to only have had the intent to do so. Yearly said by ordering the child to his room, Griffin was preventing him from getting help for himself or his mother. The Brazos County District Attorney's Office declined to comment because the case is pending. The crime scene The boy testified during the trial that he had been asleep a few hours before getting up to get a drink of water when he saw his mother face down on the couch with Griffin on top of her, appearing to the boy like he was hugging his mother. The boy said he saw his mother slightly move her hand and could see Griffin's hands around his mother's neck. He called out to his mother and asked Griffin by name what he was doing. Griffin tried to convince the boy he wasn't Griffin and ordered him back to bed. The boy told jurors that he left his bedroom about 10 to 15 minutes later and stood in the hallway where he could see his mom lying face up on the floor of her bedroom. He couldn't tell whether she had fainted or was hurt, so as an effort to get closer to his mother, he told Griffin he had to use the bathroom. Griffin told the boy he wanted to "chill" with him, but the grade-schooler said he was going back to bed, in hopes the man would leave. Griffin instead grabbed him from behind, choked him and repeatedly struck his jaw, back and neck with a garden trowel that he plucked from a utility room. The boy testified that he passed out in the hallway and when he awoke he was lying on the floor in the living room under a comforter taken from his mother's bed. Griffin was gone. It was about 5 a.m. when he called his grandmother, who then alerted 911, as well as her son. He was able to get to the apartment before emergency crews, but his sister didn't respond to CPR. Both mother and son were rushed to the hospital where she was pronounced dead and the boy was admitted with serious injuries. Appellate disagreement In Johnson's ruling, he said kidnapping is defined as abducting a person by restraining or holding him in a place where he's likely not be found, or by using deadly force. "To equate the mere use of force with kidnapping is to make every assault into kidnapping," the opinion states, adding that to prove kidnapping the state must prove that he was restrained and there was an intent to keep him from getting free or by using deadly force. Yearly's dissenting opinion disagreed. "As an adult instructing the boy in no uncertain terms to go back to his bedroom, he effectively confined him there," Yearly wrote, adding that just because the boy acquiesced doesn't mean he did so consensually. "...The court should not construe the definition of restraint to require that the actor himself physically move his victim from 1 place to another. It is enough that he cause the victim somehow to move or be moved. Otherwise, it would not be possible purposes of "restraint" to move a victim by intimidation or deception. Not mentioned in Johnson's ruling was how Griffin met Hailey. The woman was a friend of Griffin's girlfriend, and the girlfriend's daughter occasionally babysat Hailey's son. The girlfriend moved out of the house she shared with Griffin after learning his abusive tendencies toward her extended to her son, not just her. She continued a romantic relationship with him but refused to let him return to her house, according to testimony that detailed how on Sept. 17, 2010 she went to church with him at Twin City Mission where he was living. The pair argued in the parking lot because she remained firm on not allowing him to move back in. The dispute prompted others to get involved and Griffin was barred from staying at the mission. 2 nights later he showed up at Hailey's house and unleashed the violence. (source: The Eagle) ************************** Death penalty still up in air Although Stephen Scott is charged with capital murder in the stabbing deaths of his parents, it will be months before prosecutors decide if they will seek the death penalty. Alongside the Denton police investigation, Denton County District Attorney's Office officials will conduct a thorough investigation of their own to determine if Scott will face the ultimate sentence for the crimes of which he is accused. "It does take quite awhile to do a complete investigation before making that decision," said Jamie Beck, first assistant district attorney. "And it's not limited to the facts of the offense. There's also an investigation of the individual defendant's background, which looks at past records, school history, medical records. Anything the investigation leads us to, we will go and dig it up." Scott was indicted by a Denton County grand jury on Jan. 21 in connection with the murders of Marion and Linda Scott. According to police, Scott stabbed them in their home Jan. 10. Scott is reported to have called police, and confessed to the stabbings to a 911 dispatcher. He was arrested later that day. Since being in Denton County Jail, Scott has been to the hospital to receive medical care for what is believed to be a self-inflicted head wound. Scott's court-appointed attorney, Lee Ann Breading, said she is not waiting for the prosecutors to decide, working from the assumption that they will go for the death penalty. "Until they tell me they are not seeking the death penalty, you approach it the same way," Breeding said. "Gathering as much information as you can that mitigates against the death penalty, trying to find out about your client [and] the situation. If they make the decision [to seek the death penalty], you don't want to be caught behind the 8 ball." With the offense happening a little more than 2 weeks ago and Scott being indicted, Breading said the prosecution, like herself, has not had a lot of time to do background work. Breading said she still does not have police reports related to the murders. This case will be the 2nd capital murder case Breading has defended. She said she prosecuted far more in her 7 years in the Dallas County District Attorney's Office and 16 years with the Denton County District Attorney's Office. Denton County courts have not had a death penalty case tried since Paul Johnson became district attorney. Previous cases include James Lee Clark, who had been paroled less than a week when he and fellow parolee James Brown were arrested and charged in the killings of Shari Catherine Crews and Jesus Garza in 1993. Clark was executed in 2007, while Brown was convicted of robbery and sentenced to 20 years. Christopher Swift, also executed in 2007, was found guilty in the 2003 strangling deaths of his wife in Dallas County and mother-in-law in Denton County. Both murders were witnessed by his 5-year-old son. Stephen Woods received the death penalty after a jury convicted him of the 2001 murders of Ronald Whitehead and Bethena Brosz in The Colony. Woods was executed in 2011. If the death penalty is not sought in the Scott case, the punishment would be automatic life sentence without parole, said Beck, adding there used to be a parole possibility, but it was changed sometime after 2000. (source: Denton Record Chronicle) NEW HAMPSHIRE: It's time for N.H. to abolish the death penalty Several years ago, on a hot July night, a little girl named Elizabeth Knapp was raped and murdered in Contoocook, N.H. The mother's live-in boyfriend, Richard Buchanan, became the prime suspect and was charged with 1st-degree murder. This quickly became a highly publicized case and the N.H. attorney general was being pressured in the press, and by members of the legislature to upgrade the charge to capital murder and seek the death penalty. As a public defender, I was assigned to represent Mr. Buchanan. The evidence against Buchanan seemed overwhelming. This little girl was raped and murdered just feet away from her mother's bedroom. She was sleeping virtually inches away from her sister in a very small cluttered apartment. It seemed impossible that a stranger could have entered the home and not wakened anyone. There were no signs of forced entry. And to make matters worse, after over seven hours of intense police interrogation, Elizabeth's mother told the police that she witnessed Buchanan rape and strangle Elizabeth. Even I assumed my client was guilty. However, Richard Buchanan was innocent. The real person who raped and murdered Elizabeth had not worn a condom, and the true killer's semen was collected from Elizabeth's body. DNA tests proved that Buchanan was not the assailant and the charges against him were dropped. Many people believe that innocent people can't be wrongfully convicted in New Hampshire. It may happen in other places, but not here. But my personal experience tells me that New Hampshire is not immune to human errors, mistakes and snap judgments and that an innocent person could be convicted and executed here for a crime they did not commit. Richard Buchanan was eventually freed, but I don't take much comfort in that. In Buchanan's case, he was lucky that the real assailant had not used a condom. If he had used a condom, there would have been no DNA evidence to exonerate Mr. Buchanan. The jury would have been rightly outraged by the brutality of this little girl being raped and strangled in her own bed and would have likely sentenced this innocent man to death. I have been a trial lawyer in N.H. for over 30 years, 14 of which I served as a public defender and prosecutor in the New Hampshire Attorney General's office. During those years I saw my share of mistakes: Incomplete investigations, false confessions, incorrect eyewitness testimony, lab technicians using outdated equipment, and attorneys who misunderstand or mischaracterize evidence. Any of these can lead to unfair results. Well-meaning, educated people, all wanting to do the right thing - and still mistakes get made. We don't use the death penalty often here in New Hampshire, but our system is flawed and as long as the law is on the books there is a real risk that we will execute an innocent person. (source: Barbara Keshen is a former homicide prosecutor for the New Hampshire Attorney General's Office and currently serves as Chair of The New Hampshire Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (NHCADP). NHCADP has been operating since 1999 and has more than 2500 members. The NHCADP's leaders include victim families, clergy, law enforcement, corrections officials, former Supreme and Superior Court Justices and former Attorneys General----seacoastonline.com) PENNSYLVANIA----new (NOT serious) execution dates Notice of execution signed for Adams County man The Pennsylvania Department of Corrections set execution dates for 3 convicted murderers Wednesday, but the executions are unlikely to be carried out as scheduled. Department of Corrections Secretary John Wetzel signed the notices for 3 death row inmates, including 32-year-old Christopher Johnson, who was convicted of killing Wildlife Conservation Officer David Grove in 2010, according to a news release from the department. The release states Johnson's date of execution as March 18, 2016. But the notice is more of a technicality than an actual determination of an execution date, according to past reports from the Associated Press. State law requires the corrections secretary to issue the notices if the governor doesn't sign execution warrants during a specified period, the Associated Press reported in March. Gov. Tom Wolf, however, ordered a temporary reprieve on capital punishment in early 2015. Wetzel has signed execution notices for several death row inmates since the moratorium was instated, but those dates have come and passed without executions, with Wolf issuing reprieves. In addition to Johnson, Wetzel's most recent list of execution notices includes Thomas Meadows, of Montgomery County, and Jeffrey Martin, of Greene County. Their execution dates were set for March 15 and 16, respectively. Since 1985, which is just a few years after the death penalty was reinstated after a 10-year national moratorium, over 400 death warrants have been signed by the state, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections website. However, only 3 executions have been carried out -- 2 in 1995 and 1 in 1999 -- and all 3 had voluntarily abandoned their appeal right to further due process, Adams County District Attorney Brian Sinnett said earlier this month. (source: The Evening Sun) DELAWARE: A quarter of millennials reject the death penalty Most Americans still favor the death penalty, but a quarter of young Americans would refuse to even consider the death penalty if they were on a jury Delaware may become the latest state to abolish the death penalty as the state House votes on whether or not to pass a bill abolish death row in the state. Florida's death penalty law was also recently ruled unconstitutional because it gave too much power to judges, not juries, to determine whether someone should be executed. Currently 19 states do not have the death penalty and the number of executions taking place each year has dropped from a peak of 98 in 1999 to 28 last year. YouGov's latest research shows that most Americans still favor the death penalty for people who have been convicted of murder. Support is highest among Republicans (71%) and over-65s (67%). Under-30s are the only group where there is not majority support for the death penalty, with 45% people aged 18 to 29 saying that they favor the death penalty and 35% saying that they are opposed. Despite the fact that only 58% of Americans actively support the death penalty 73% say that, if they were on the jury for a murder trial, they would consider all sentencing options, including the death penalty. 18% of Americans say that, regardless of their jury duty, they would never consider the death penalty. Younger Americans are the most likely to say that they could never consider condemning someone to death, with a quarter of under-30s (24%) stating that they'd never consider the death penalty. (source: yougov.com) *************** Delaware near historic vote on death penalty A week ago, a vote on legislation to repeal Delaware's death penalty was improbable, but now a historic decision that could end the practice in the state will be before the House of Representatives on Thursday. Both sides are gearing up for the vote - lobbying lawmakers who are on the fence, counting heads and making last-minute public pleas. Those in favor of the legislation say the death penalty is bad public policy and has unequally targeted African-Americans and the poor; those against it say capital punishment is an effective tool and gives family members justice after their loved ones are murdered. The debate heated up Wednesday when lawmakers, activists and pastors gathered at Legislative Hall to call for the bill's passage. Standing in the location where the vote will take place, Democratic Rep. Sean Lynn, the bill's main sponsor, said Delaware is on the edge of an important decision. "In the last few years, we've made huge strides in advancing civil rights," he said. "We have accomplished things that seemed impossible even a decade ago, ending the status quo in the interest of equality, fairness and tolerance. But out battle isn't over." Lynn said the worst affront to these equal justice efforts is the death penalty. "We are out of patience," said the Rev. Donald Morton, director of the Complexities of Color Agenda, an advocacy group seeking to raise awareness about race issues. "We are out of patience when black juries are being systematically barred from service; we are out of patience when blacks are frequently put to death for murdering whites, but whites are not put to death for murdering blacks." Tom Brackin, president of the Delaware State Troopers Association, said the death penalty law is not applied based on race. "It would be great if everything in society was done equally, if in every community there was an equal number of each race that the police could arrest and each case was identical, but that is not reality," Brackin said. "The reality is that each case is judged on its merits." "We believe that the death penalty does save lives," he added. "It is a vital piece of the criminal justice picture here." Many thought in May that the repeal bill would die after it was blocked in the House Judiciary Committee for the 2nd time in 2 years. It passed the Senate in April. The bill, however, got a 2nd chance last week after House leadership unexpectedly released it for a full vote on Thursday. Gov. Jack Markell has said he would sign the bill into law if it passes. Democratic Rep. Larry Mitchell, who chairs the House Judiciary Committee and is a former New Castle County Police officer, released the bill from his committee even though he opposes it, saying the issue deserved a hearing in the full House. Delaware is 1 of 32 states with capital punishment. The last execution occurred in April 2012. 14 inmates are currently on Delaware's death row and over 2 dozen more capital murder cases are pending trial in Delaware. In the last year, 2 death row inmates have had their cases overturned by the Delaware Supreme Court and granted a retrial. In another case, a Wilmington man who was once the state's longest serving death row inmate was released from prison while the court weighed whether his videotaped confession should be allowed to be presented during his retrial. Following a Supreme Court ruling granting use of the video, the man turned himself into State Police and will await a new trial. A Delaware Superior Court judge also asked the Delaware Supreme Court on Monday to consider whether Delaware's death penalty law is constitutional in light of 2 recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings for Kansas and Florida. If the state Supreme Court were to consider the matter, it could put on hold all pending capital murder cases - of which 4 were scheduled to go to trial in the next 120 days. These legal and legislative challenges are putting a spotlight on Delaware's death penalty law. Wilmington Councilwoman Sherry Dorsey Walker said Wednesday she supports the repeal bill. Her cousin was killed in 1986, and at first she thought vengeance was the best option. But she later turned her "pain into passion." "If we say we don't want these murders in Wilmington then why do we have state-sanctioned murder?" she said. "I ask any legislator who is on the fence to take a look at the murder victims families. We are not angry about what happened anymore. We want to turn our pain into passion." Mitchell said he has talked with the families of murder victims. "When you hear their stories, and you see realize how much they are suffering and how long they suffer for, to me there has to be a punishment that rises to that level," Mitchell said. "I think capital punishment is that punishment." (source: KREM news) ***************** Widener law prof opines on state Supreme Court death penalty review A Widener University law professor weighs in on Delaware's Supreme Court's review of the state's death penalty law. Judith Ritter told WDEL News the review comes after a couple of decisions by the US Supreme Court. "Mostly the Supreme Court ruling from last week--Hurst versus Florida--that struck down Florida's death penalty on grounds that it was unconstitutional, and there are similarities between Florida's death penalty and Delaware's death penalty," said Ritter. Ritter said a key difference is that in Florida, judges alone determine whether the defendant in a capital case is death penalty-eligible. "In Delaware, the jury does decide about death eligibility in terms of finding facts that would make a person eligible, but the judge still has the ability in Delaware to weigh mitigating factors against aggravating, and ultimately make that decision about what the sentence should be," said Ritter. Ritter said Superior Court judges here asked for the review to help them make the right rulings in capital cases set to come before them. She added it's coincidental that the state's highest court is reviewing Delaware's death penalty at the same time there's a movement here to repeal it. (source: WDEL news) SOUTH CAROLINA: Court documents: 600 potential jurors to be called for state's case against Dylann Roof The Charleston County Clerk of Court will call 600 potential jurors as attorneys work to seat a jury for the state's case against Emanuel AME Church mass shooting suspect Dylann Roof. The pool of potential jurors will report on June 28, some 2 weeks before the start of the July 11 trial, for questionnaires and basic qualifications. Then, the jurors not excluded in that initial round will report to court starting July 11 in groups of 20 until a full jury is seated for Roof's trial. Meanwhile, attorneys are finalizing the questionnaires. The court told attorneys in a separate filing that any changes to the jury survey must be submitted by Feb. 15. Two day later, attorneys have to complete any motions related to the surveys. In June, the court will let the defense and the state know which jurors can be excused, adding that a hearing could be held on the excusing of jurors on June 13. Attorneys have to file all pre-trial motions by June 14. The hearings on the pre-trial motions will be held over a 3-day period starting June 28. And that will lead everyone involved into the start of Roof's trial. Roof is accused of fatally shooting nine Emanuel AME Church parishioners in a racially motivated attack on June 17, 2015. Among the dead was the church's pastor, Rev. Clementa Pinckney, who was also a state senator. Roof sat in a bible study for about an hour before opening fire on the group, investigators say. The state is seeking the death penalty for Roof. His attorneys have said Roof is willing to enter a guilty plea if the state removes the possiblity of a death sentence. Roof is also facing federal hate crime charges for the shooting, and that trial will commence once the state trial has concluded. (source: WCIV news) FLORIDA: A Lion of the Law' Justice Thurgood Marshall honored by ASALH, ACLU The St. Petersburg chapter of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) held the Speakers for Justice Seminar last Sat., Jan. 23 honoring Justice Thurgood Marshall at the Dr. Carter G. Woodson African American History Museum. Thurgood Marshall is well known for his civil rights activities; however, his jurisprudential style tends to be overlooked. Master of Ceremonies Attorney Jacqueline Hubbard, president of the St. Petersburg Chapter of ASALH gave the audience a brief yet thorough history of Justice Marshall's academic, civil rights and legal accomplishments. According to Hubbard, one of Marshall's most notable accomplishments was his instrumental hand in developing the NAACP's Legal Defense Fund in 1940, which fights for racial justice through litigation, advocacy and public education. Hubbard also highlighted his victory in Brown vs. Board of Education ending legal segregation in public schools. Imam Askia Muhammad introduced Civil Rights Attorney Delano Stewart, the first African- American assistant public defender in Hillsborough County. Stewart, who started working as an attorney more than 50 years ago, is known for his candidness in the courtroom. "It doesn't matter if a man likes or loathes you, if he respects you, you cannot discern the difference," Muhammad quoted Stewart. Stewart known as the "shield for the oppressed" spoke passionately about civil rights focusing on a theme of respect. His powerful anecdotes triggered a vast range of reactions from laughter, applause in agreement and silence of solemnity as he rapped on the podium to emphasize his points. ACLU Attorney Adam Tebrugge spoke of Justice Marshall's efforts to discredit the death penalty. Marshall believed that the inconsistent death penalty convictions violated the Eighth Amendment. For some 20 years, Marshall traveled throughout the South defending death penalty cases earning Marshall his reputation. Tebrugge's acknowledgement of Marshall's efforts came 10 days after 8 Supreme Court Justices ruled in favor of striking down Florida's death penalty practices. Florida previously allowed the judge, not the jury, to hand down a defendant's sentence, a violation of a defendant's constitutional right to have a trial by jury. The debate that is sure to follow this decision could render all inmates on death row eligible for re-sentencing. "We have a historic opportunity at this moment in time to reach out to our elected representatives and to tell them that we here in the state of Florida do not need the death penalty and that we cannot afford the death penalty," said Tebrugge. The Honorable Charles Williams, Chief Judge of the 12th Judicial Circuit focused on Marshall as a person and his gregarious nature. Marshall's ability to be fluid in different societies and knowing when to be aggressive and when not to be aggressive advanced his position in the Civil Rights Movement. "He is the least known major civil rights figure in America and I think he has gotten the least credit," said Judge Williams. Dr. Gilbert King, author of "Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America," concluded the seminar. King will be the guest speaker at ASLAH's annual Black History Celebration event Feb.12 at the St. Petersburg Yacht Club. (source: The Weekly Challenger) ************************** 1 week ahead of the Florida Supreme Court Oral arguments in his case, Michael Lambrix releases a personal statement Michael Lambrix has faced already one execution by the electric chair when a warrant was signed in 1998; He now faces execution by lethal injection on February 11th, 2016 On February 11, 2016 the State of Florida will proceed to put Cary Michael Lambrix to death by lethal injection, despite the fact that on January 12th, 2016 the United States Supreme Court, in an unprecedented 8 to 1 decision, declared that the Florida death penalty process is unconstitutional. All eyes will now be on the Lambrix case - the 1st execution since the landmark Hurst v Florida case was released. The Florida Supreme Court will hear 'oral arguments' in Lambrix's case at 9.00 am on February 2, 2016. Today Michael Lambrix comments about the particularly unusual circumstances surrounding his imminent execution: What is most troubling about Florida's continued push to put me to death is that this will actually be the 2nd time that the U.S. Supreme Court specifically found that the process employed to sentence me to death was unconstitutional, only to have the State of Florida circumvent this illegal sentence of death by arguing that I am not entitled to relief for no other reason but that judicially created 'rules' prevent me from obtaining relief since my 1st round of appeals were completed and 'new rules' cannot be retroactively applied. See Lambrix v Singletary, 520 US 518 (1997)(Supreme Court decision, ruling by marginal 5 to 4 vote that although I was unconstitutionally sentenced to death, I was 'time-barred' from relief.) As if that wasn't enough, the State of Florida intends to put me to death despite my innocence. My consistently pled claim of innocence has been repeatedly presented to both the State and Federal courts, yet each time the courts have refused to address this innocence claim. What must be emphasized is that by the State's own admission, the evidence against Lambrix was totally circumstantial: According to his lawyers, there were no eyewitnesses, no physical or forensic evidence and no confessions. Post-conviction evidence was discovered substantiating Lambrix's consistently led claim of innocence, but relief was denied on procedural grounds. Michael Lambrix is an Honorably Discharged "Disabled Veteran" suffering from back injury. To read all appeals and records in Lambrix's case, visit www.southerninjustice.net To get informed about the ongoing campaign, go to www.save-innocents.com/save-michael-lambrix.html (source: save-innocents.com) *************** Florida experts offer fixes to flawed death penalty law The Florida Legislature got direct but conflicting advice Wednesday on how to fix a death penalty sentencing system ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court. The Senate Criminal Justice Committee heard testimony from prosecutors, public defenders, retired judges and death penalty experts. All suggested how the state should react to the high court's Jan. 12 decision in Hurst vs. Florida that said the advisory role juries play in death penalty cases is unconstitutional. But most testimony focused on an issue that was not part of the court's decision: whether Florida juries should be unanimous in recommending death sentences. Every expert except state prosecutors urged unanimity, and some warned that without it, Florida's deeply wounded death penalty law will remain under sustained legal attack. "This is your opportunity," said O.H. "Bill" Eaton Jr., a retired circuit judge and nationally recognized death penalty expert. "If you fix those problems, then you're going to have as good a death penalty as there is in the country." Eaton predicted that dozens of Florida inmates sentenced to death in which appeals have not been decided by the Florida Supreme Court will have their sentences reduced to life in prison without parole. Florida is 1 of 3 states that does not require that a jury be unanimous in recommending a punishment of death, and it is the only state that does not require that a jury be unanimous in finding at least one aggravating factor to warrant a death sentence over life in prison. State Attorney Brad King of the Ocala-area circuit said prosecutors statewide remain opposed to requiring that all 12 jurors be unanimous in supporting a death sentence. But in a significant policy shift, prosecutors now support changing state law so that at least nine jurors must be required to support a death sentence, and unanimous findings on aggravating factors. King said a requirement for unanimous jury verdicts in death cases would give a single juror veto power over his 11 colleagues. "You allow 1 juror with no contact with the system and with no education in the law ... absolute control over what that sentence is going to be," King testified. "They get to control that decision." Public defenders, many of whom oppose the death penalty, support the requirement for unanimity. Neal Dupree, a state-appointed attorney who represents death row inmates appealing their sentences, urged lawmakers to wait until the Florida Supreme Court takes up the case of his client, Michael Ray Lambrix, who's sentenced to die by lethal injection Feb. 11. The state's high court denied Lambrix's motion to delay his execution based on the Hurst decision. But justices will hear oral arguments Feb. 2 that Dupree said could provide valuable insight on how lawmakers should proceed. Florida's 2-stage death penalty system has a guilt phase and a sentencing phase. A defendant who is found guilty cannot be sentenced to death unless the jury finds at least 1 factor, known as an aggravator, to warrant the ultimate penalty. Solicitor General Allen Winsor, a lawyer in Attorney General Pam Bondi's office who unsuccessfully argued the state's position in the Hurst case, had no recommendations Wednesday. Legal experts also disagreed on whether the current 15 aggravating factors in Florida's death penalty law are too numerous and should be reduced. Aggravators include such factors as whether the defendant was on probation, whether the victim was under age 12 or whether the crime was especially vicious and cruel. Public defenders support reducing the number of aggravating factors and prosecutors oppose changes. More than a decade ago, the Florida Supreme Court urged the Legislature to require unanimous juries in death cases. But the state took no action, and 1 expert urged the Legislature to not make the same mistake twice. "Had the Legislature heeded that warning, we would not be in this posture today," said Robert Dunham of the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington, D.C. "You can respond narrowly, just to the words in Hurst, or you can respond more broadly to prevent future constitutional problems." 2/3 of the 389 people on Florida's death row were sentenced by juries that were not unanimous, Dunham said, citing a report in The Villages Daily Sun newspaper. "Those cases are in extreme constitutional jeopardy," Dunham said. The 5-member Senate Criminal Justice Committee that will craft the 1st version of a new law is chaired by a strong supporter of the death penalty, Sen. Greg Evers, R-Baker, who promised a quick legislative response. "It [the law] will definitely change in a way that we think will be more constitutional," Evers said. The panel's other Republican members are Sens Jeff Brandes of St. Petersburg and Rob Bradley of Fleming Island, and the Democrats are Sens. Jeff Clemens of Lake Worth and Audrey Gibson of Jacksonville. Florida has 389 inmates on death row, but the pace of executions under Gov. Rick Scott has slowed considerably because of the pending Hurst decision. 2 inmates were executed last year - the fewest since 2011. (source: miamiherald.com) ************** Judge: Florida has 'no death penalty' A Pinellas County Judge made a ruling that could set a trend in cases where the death penalty could be considered. Judge Michael Andrews rejected prosecutors' notice they plan to seek the death penalty against defendant Steven Dykes, who is accused of killing his 3-month-old daughter. The judge wrote, "this court concludes that there currently exists no death penalty in the state of Florida, in that there is no procedure in place." He was referring to a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision, saying the way Florida handles death penalty sentences is unconstitutional. Attorney Anthony Rickman says until legislators change the law, other judges will face the same dilemma. "I have a feeling that other judges will follow suit because its the right thing to do," Rickman said. The way it works now, juries recommend life or death, but a judge makes the ultimate decision. The nation's high court says the method is a violation of the Sixth Amendment. Only juries should be allowed to make the decision. Rickman said, "it's not the prosecutor's fault. It's not the defense's fault. It's the law as it stands right now and the law is in flux. It's in limbo." (source: Fox News) From rhalperi at smu.edu Thu Jan 28 09:40:35 2016 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Thu, 28 Jan 2016 09:40:35 -0600 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----MISS., MO., OKLA., COLO., ARIZ., CALIF., USA Message-ID: Jan. 28 MISSISSIPPI: Firing squads, electrocution; options for Mississippi's death penalty Attorney General Jim Hood outlined his legislative priorities Wednesday. During a news conference he outlined his focus on better laws for child victims and child trafficking. And when it came to the death penalty, he wants options so he can carry out the will of the court. In possibly the most controversial initiative, Hood told reporters he wants to have alternatives to the death penalty if the drugs become unavailable or lethal injection itself was declared unconstitutional. "In case somehow there is a lethal injection declaration that it's unconstitutional or something, we would have alternative means available in law such as nitrogen hypoxia. These are all alternatives, fallback positions such as execution by a firing squad," said Hood. According to deathpenaltyinfo.org, 3 states have recently passed laws allowing for alternative execution methods if lethal injection drugs are unavailable. Oklahoma's law, allows for the use of nitrogen gas asphyxiation. Tennessee allows for the use of the electric chair. Utah allows the firing squad to be used if the state cannot obtain lethal injection drugs 30 days before an execution. Late Wednesday afternoon, ACLU of Mississippi released the following statement on the Attorney General's Legislative Agenda: "The ACLU of Mississippi applauds Attorney General Hood's restorative justice efforts via creation of the re-entry pilot program, which would promote principles of restorative justice and rehabilitation. Mississippi must continue to evaluate its prison system to ensure that former offenders have a fair chance at living a crime-free life beyond bars. This will in turn reduce recidivism rates and decrease our prison population. However, we strongly oppose his intent to exempt from the Public Records Act the identities of the state execution team as well as the lethal injection drug supplier. Citizens have a right to this public information. Too often, states have been allowed to conduct executions cloaked in secrecy and free of public and judicial scrutiny, to rely on drugs from unknown and untested sources, and to employ personnel of unknown and unverifiable qualifications - with disastrous results. This pattern should be unacceptable in a civilized society dedicated to transparency and the rule of law. We vehemently oppose the articulated alternative barbaric means Attorney General Hood proposes. The American Civil Liberties Union believes the death penalty inherently violates the constitutional ban against cruel and unusual punishment and the guarantees of due process of law and of equal protection under the law. Furthermore, we believe that the state should not give itself the right to kill human beings - especially when it kills with premeditation and ceremony, in the name of the law or in the name of its people, and when it does so in an arbitrary and discriminatory fashion." (source: WDAM news) MISSOURI: Missouri Likely to See Change After Historic High in Executions A decline in executions is likely in Missouri after 2 years of unusually high numbers. In 2014, Missouri tied with Texas for the most executions in the U.S., and it was 2nd to Texas in 2015. However, changing attitudes about the death penalty--similar to national shifts--are evident in Missouri's sentencing trends: no one was sentenced to death in Missouri in 2014 or 2015, and less than 1 person per year has been sentenced to death in the past 7 years. Moreover, a bill with bi-partisan support has been introduced to repeal the death penalty. It passed the Senate General Laws committee in late January. An editorial in the Columbia Daily Tribune highlighted the political diversity in the legislative support for the measure. Among those who voted the bill out of committee were 2 Democrats and 2 Republicans. Sen. Paul Wieland cited his pro-life views as a reason for support, while Sen. Rob Schaaf said, as long as it is "not fairly applied...I'm going to be opposed to the death penalty." Staci Pratt, state coordinator for Missourians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, said the executions over the last two years reflect a bygone era: "Most were on death row for more than 15 years. We were looking at a snapshot of history. Today we are beginning to see a shift." (source: DPIC) OKLAHOMA: Ex-Oklahoma prisons director testifies on execution problems The Oklahoma Department of Corrections' former director has testified again before a multicounty state grand jury that is investigating problems with the state's last 2 scheduled executions. The Oklahoman reports that Robert Patton testified for about 90 minutes on Jan. 21. He first testified on Oct. 21. The grand jury is investigating, at the request of Attorney General Scott Pruitt, how the wrong lethal injection drugs were used in the execution of last January. Authorities say that potassium acetate was used in the execution of Charles Warner instead of potassium chloride, which is the last drug used in Oklahoma's 3-step lethal injection process. The same incorrect drug was delivered to the state prison hours before the execution of Richard Glossip was to be carried out last September. Glossip's execution was put on hold when prison officials realized the wrong drugs had been delivered. Warner was originally scheduled to be executed in April 2014, the same night as Clayton Lockett who died 43 minutes after his initial injection after writhing on the gurney. It was later revealed in an investigation that a faulty insertion of the intravenous line and lack of training contributed to problems with Lockett's execution. Patton resigned in December and accepted a position as a deputy warden at a private Arizona prison. The grand jury is expected to issue a report on the case Feb. 18. The attorney general has said that he will not request any execution dates until at least 150 days after his investigation is complete, the results are made public and his office receives notice that the corrections department can comply with the state's execution protocol. (source: Associated Press) COLORADO: Applying the Colorado death penalty Re: "Wrong direction on Colorado death penalty," Jan. 26 editorial. I oppose the death penalty, because I think it is a punishment that man lacks the moral authority to impose. But your editorial against it is illogical. Your editorial contends that if a jury cannot agree unanimously to impose the death penalty, after agreeing unanimously that the defendant is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of committing a crime for which the death penalty is sanctioned, then "the logical response to that fact is to abolish the penalty, not lower the standard under which it is imposed." Huh? But there is no "logic" in that at all. The citizens have voted to preserve the death penalty in rare circumstances, but it never gets imposed because a few jurors object to it in all circumstances. The "logical response" is not for those few jurors to thwart the will of the entire state. Glenn Beaton, Aspen (source: Letter to the Editor, Denver Post) ARIZONA: Rector prosecutors urge judge to keep death penalty on table The prosecutor in a Bullhead City capital murder case is asking the Superior Court judge to again reject a defense motion to take the death penalty off the table. Justin James Rector, 27, is charged with 1st-degree murder, kidnapping, child abuse and abandonment of a dead body in the kidnapping and murdering 8-year-old Isabella Grogan-Cannella Sept. 2, 2014, and leaving her body in a shallow grave near her Bullhead City home. Deputy Mohave County Attorney Greg McPhillips argued Monday in his motion that Superior Court Judge Lee Jantzen has already denied a defense motion on Dec. 9 to preclude the death penalty as punishment if Rector is convicted of 1st-degree murder. McPhillips argued that Rector has not been tried or convicted yet of murder and federal courts have ruled that a conviction and death sentence for 1st-degree murder is required before a defense attorney can challenge the death penalty in the appeals process. Rector's attorneys filed their 3rd motion Dec. 15 to dismiss the possibility of the death penalty because it endangers Rector's Eighth Amendment right to be free from a medical experiment and from suffering a painful death. The motion also stated that Arizona has botched several executions including Joseph Woods in July 2014, which took about 2 hours. Rector's attorneys also filed motions in August and in September to preclude the death penalty, citing that lethal injection is cruel and unusual punishment and that it is discriminatory and unconstitutional. In Arizona, a jury in a death penalty determines if a defendant is guilty or innocent of 1st-degree murder. If a defendant is convicted of that murder charge, the jury then determines if the defendant is to be sentenced to death or to life in prison. Rector's next status hearing is set for March 4. Rector's 10-week murder trial is set to begin Oct. 17 with a pre-trial hearing set for Aug. 23. (source: Mohave Daily News) CALIFORNIA: Capital Punishment Activists Battle over California's New Lethal Injection Plan Advocates and opponents of capital punishment sparred on Friday over California's proposed new lethal injection protocol, highlighting deep divisions in a state that houses a quarter of U.S. death row inmates but has not executed anyone in a decade. The plan to use barbiturates to execute inmates sentenced to die in the most populous U.S. state drew fire from religious activists, who called capital punishment grisly and anti-democratic at a hearing in Sacramento. Law-and-order advocates urged its adoption. "As of next month, the state will have been remiss in its duties for a decade," said Michele Hanisee, vice president of the Los Angeles Association of Deputy District Attorneys. "The family members of the victims are dying before the murderers." The informational hearing was part of the state's process for adopting a new protocol for lethal injection that would use one drug, a barbiturate, to put condemned inmates to death. It would replace a 3-drug cocktail that a California court declared unconstitutional 10 years ago because it could possibly cause pain. Under a court settlement, the state must develop a new procedure for executions. At the same time, Californians have grown more divided over capital punishment, with nearly 1/2 the electorate and many top officials now opposing the death penalty. Death penalty opponents hope to place an initiative on the November ballot that would outlaw capital punishment. On the same ballot, supporters back a different initiative to speed up executions. "The people on death row, most of them have perpetrated grave crimes," said Linda Fox, a board member of the group Death Penalty Focus, who spoke against the protocol. "But they are still human beings." There was no proof, she argued, that using a barbiturate to carry out a death sentence would not result in a botched or painful execution. California juries have sentenced nearly 900 people to death since 1978, but only 13 have been executed. 68 have died of natural causes, 36 for other reasons. Of more than 750 inmates currently on death row, 7 have been there since the 1970s. If the new protocol is adopted by corrections officials and voters do not outlaw the death penalty next November, the state could theoretically begin executing 18 prisoners who have exhausted their appeals. Legal challenges to the lethal injection drug, however, could drag on for years. (source: Reuters) ************** Jury recommends death penalty for man convicted of 15-year-old murder A Kern County jury has recommended the death penalty for man convicted of killing a woman in Bakersfield 15 years ago. Judge Kenneth Twisselman denied our cameras during Wednesday's penalty phase. Michael Charles Brown was arrested in 2009 in connection with the murder of Ruby Lee Jackson-Merryweather in 2000. Police say he was also a serial rapist, picking up prostitutes and sexually assaulting them. Brown was convicted of 17 charges in connection with alleged assaults on 4 different women. He already served time for manslaughter for running over a man on Union Avenue in 2003. Brown was linked to the Jackson-Merryweather murder through DNA. He will be sentenced March 9. (source: kerngoldenempire.com) USA: An Interview With the Unabomber's Brother----A deeply personal encounter with David Kaczynski and Linda Patrik, family members of the man who was once the most sought after terrorist in America. We meet in the middle of nowhere, a vast prairie in the Southwest. David Kaczynski and his wife Linda Patrik don't want it to be known where exactly they live, even after all these years. "My brother has a fan club," David says. Theodore "Ted" Kaczynski, the Unabomber, was once the most sought after terrorist in the US. Between 1978 and 1995, he mailed 16 bombs, killed three people, and injured 23. The FBI dubbed him the Unabomber, because he sent his bombs to universities and airlines. In David Kaczynski's forthcoming book Every Last Tie: The Story of the Unabomber and His Family (Duke University Press Books), he tells the story for the first time from his own perspective. Ted Kaczynski got a life sentence, but in some ways, his family did, too. Michaela Haas: Why did you spend the last 20 years advocating against the death penalty? David Kaczynski: Because the death penalty is a false solution; it just causes more pain. After the Unabomber crisis, I became a man on a mission, committed to putting a human face on my mentally ill brother and changing people's minds about the death penalty. The question is: How do we heal? How do we heal in a way that actually helps transform society? Over a 15-year period, I travelled to 39 states and gave more than a thousand public speeches in which I repeated my painful family story endlessly and outlined the reasons why I thought capital punishment was a terrible mistake. Is this why you have reached out to many of your brother's victims? DK: After Ted was arrested and we were haunted by the media, I got quite depressed and I went through this "poor-me" phase, because the government had betrayed us. They had assured us nobody would ever know that it was us who identified my brother as the Unabomber, but the same day my brother was arrested in April 1996, that same government turned into a leaky sieve of information about the Kaczynskis. Linda gave me a tough love talk, reminding me that others suffered much more, "You've got to think about all the other people who got hurt, it is not about you." I understood that I was part of a much bigger picture of suffering. Not long after that I decided to write letters to the victims and apologize. Most of them didn't respond, but I ended up having a phone call with one of them, Gary Wright, who became a very good friend. We need to make the world wider than our ego. How did you realize that your brother was the Unabomber? DK: I would never have guessed it. To me, he was my big brother I had always admired. The brother who had genuine empathy for children, animals, and people living on the margins of society.. The brother who looked out for me. The last time I saw him was in 1986, and I did not suspect anything. Then he broke off all contact. At its peak, 125 FBI agents were searching for the Unabomber full-time, but in the end it was Linda, a private citizen, who had never even met him, who cracked the case. Linda Patrik: I was the one who first thought his brother was the man they were looking for, and it took me 3 or 4 months to convince David that this was a real possibility. It's astonishing to me that you had this intuition though you had never met him. LP: He wrote us letters that made it clear to me that he wasn't mentally well. He told us he had a heart condition and was seeing a woman doctor in Montana, but in his letters to us he described how he wanted to date this woman (in 1991), and it was very creepy. I convinced David to take these letters to a psychiatrist, and the psychiatrist agreed that Ted was disturbed, but when we asked if anything could be done, the psychiatrist said that this was virtually impossible, because Ted hadn't committed any crimes. David phoned the doctor and followed up with a letter hoping to have his brother referred for mental health treatment In reality, though, he had already committed crimes. DK: Yes, he started in 1978, but the FBI concealed all the information. They had the strategy that they didn't want the public to know what they knew. After my friend Gary was hurt in 1987, the FBI acknowledged for the 1st time that these different events might be linked. LP: In August 1995, I couldn't keep my suspicion to myself anymore. We were actually in Paris, on a trip celebrating our 5th wedding anniversary, when I asked David: Do you think your brother might be the Unabomber? DK: I thought this was out of the question. Then we went through the process of comparing my brother's letters to the Unabomber's manifesto that the New York Times published in September 1995. When I read the manifesto I was no longer completely dismissive, but I still thought we would find out he wasn't. So it was a slow process for me to catch up with Linda's intuition. Where were you when your brother was arrested in his hut in Montana in April 1996? DK: We watched it on TV. I have never seen anybody who looked so tattered and bedraggled. They found a bomb under his bed, ready to be sent. So we had done the right thing. Immediately, the media hounded us. Reporters somehow gained access to our bank records. They dug through our garbage. They called our unlisted numbers. They besieged our friends and relatives with interview requests. It felt as if we had not a shred of privacy or dignity left. I'm surprised you speak with the media at all. DK: The media later became our ally when we fought against the death penalty. It would have been much easier for me to turn my brother in if I didn't potentially surrender him to being executed. I thought it would kill my 79-year-old mother too, having to watch the execution of her son, because her other son turned in his brother. How did you help spare your brother the death penalty? LP: Do you know about the Harvard experiments? Ted was highly intelligent and was admitted to Harvard University when he was only 16. They did a psychological study about him when he entered college as a freshman, and it showed indications of schizophrenia. Instead of helping him, or informing the family, they conducted experiments that some trace back to the CIA. Harvard was one of the few major universities that had not signed an agreement after World War II not to conduct experiments with human beings without telling them what the experiment is about and obtaining "informed consent" from the participants. They selected the most maladjusted, most alienated freshman. David's brother was the 2nd worst in terms of maladjustment. DK: Every week for 3 years, someone met with him to verbally abuse him and humiliate him. He never told us about the experiments, but we noticed how he changed. He became harder, more defensive in his interactions with people. If the case had gone to trial, what happened to Ted as a helpless guinea pig in a government-funded study would have come out in open court. Why did you decide to publish the book now? DK: Our story has been told so many times by other people. Almost always it came out a little wrong. I wanted to set the record straight and tell it from my perspective. It is also to memorialize a family, our parents, who were the best parents they knew how to be. And then I guess, I would like people to take away some degree of empathy, have greater awareness regarding mental illness and the struggles many families experience when a family member becomes sick. A lot of people have stereotypical notions about mental illness. i.e. that a person is completely disconnected from reality, or that none of Ted's ideas could be valid if he's "crazy." I think it is much more complicated. What I see in his diaries is a person drowning in their pain and loneliness and totally losing perspective on who they are, what the world is and what it means to be human. This is someone I once loves, and still love. Because I know his potential, the goodness buried in him somewhere. If there is something I would like the book to do is for people to think less simplistically about mental illness, to take it seriously and to understand it as a much more complex phenomena. You have worked with at-youth-risk, as the director of New Yorkers Against the Death Penalty, and as an advocate who met with countless family members of other terrorists or their victims. Did you find the healing you were seeking? DK: Yes and no. Yes, because through this work I have met so many incredible people. It is quite hard to listen to their stories, and yet inspiring, because they all have this arc of spiritual epiphany of some kind. And no, because I promised my mother on her deathbed not to give up on my brother, and yet he denies me any opportunity for reconciliation. I still write to him in the Supermax prison in Colorado. I never get a response. Maybe one day the door will open. (source: Huffington Post) From rhalperi at smu.edu Thu Jan 28 09:41:20 2016 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Thu, 28 Jan 2016 09:41:20 -0600 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide Message-ID: Jan. 28 BANGLADESH: 3 get death penalty, 1 life for murdering peasant in Rangpur 3 people have been awarded the death sentence and another person life term for killing a farmer in Rangpur over 2 decades ago. Rangpur Additional District and Sessions Judge Abu Jafar Mohammad Kamruzzaman delivered the verdict on Thursday noon. The death-row convicts are Farhad Hossain, 40, Nur Mohammad, 41, and Md Abdul, 40, all hailing from Chhoto Kalyani village under Pirgachha Upazila. Abdus Sattar, 70, has been awarded life term and fined Tk 10,000, in default of which he will have to suffer 6 more months in prison. Abu Siddique was killed on Oct 2, 1993 over a land dispute. The Criminal Investigation Department of police pressed charges against the 4 in October, 2003 in the case over the murder. The 4 accused were present in court during the delivery of the verdict, a public prosecutor said. (source: bdnews24.com) INDIA: 6 found guilty of gang rape, murder in India An Indian court convicted 6 men Thursday of gang-raping and murdering a student as she walked home after an exam in 2013, in a case that sparked outrage over women's safety. Security was tight outside the court in the eastern city of Kolkata for the verdict, with chanting protesters demanding justice and scuffling with police. Senior public prosecutor Dipak Ghosh told AFP that 6 accused were convicted of gang-raping the 21-year-old woman, as well as murder, interfering with evidence and other charges. Judge Sanchita Sarkar told the packed court that 2 others "are acquitted due to lack of evidence". "The... punishment will be announced after hearing the convicts on Friday," she said. The 6 face punishments ranging from 20 years in jail to the death penalty. The gang attacked the university student as she returned home to her village, 50 kilometres (30 miles) northeast of Kolkata, in June 2013. The victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was grabbed after getting off the bus before being dragged to a nearby abandoned farm. She was found gagged and laying in a pool of blood in a field the next morning. Evidence showed she had been repeatedly raped. The attack triggered anger in West Bengal state and came just months after the fatal gang rape of a student in Delhi in December 2012 that shone a global spotlight on violence against women in India. The 2012 incident led to an overhaul of India's rape laws including speeding up of trials and tougher penalties for offenders, but high numbers of assaults persist. About 200 protesters gathered outside the court for Thursday's verdict demanding justice, an AFP reporter said. 1 policeman was injured in scuffles as protesters tried to enter the court complex, police said. (source: Express Tribune) ********************** VHP demands amendment of Foreign National Act with provision of death penalty----VHP demands law to push back infiltrators Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) leader Praveen Togadia has asked the Centre to enact a law and formulate a time-bound action plan to push back Bangladeshi Muslim infiltrators. "A time-bound action plan to evict all Bangladeshi Muslims, for that the 1952 electoral roll should be based, for verification whether Indian or Bangladeshi paternity test should be done and centre should be established. Foreign Security Act should be amended especially for Bangladeshi Muslims. If any Bangladeshi Muslim is found, because they come to capture India they should be sentenced to death and with first trial court should be established," Togadia told reporters here. Togadia, currently on a 3-day visit to Tripura, claimed that over 15 million Bangladeshis were living illegally in the northeastern states and equal number was residing in other parts of India. The VHP leader demanded that the 1951 electoral rolls must be the base for identifying infiltrators. He urged the Centre to set up paternity test centers in all northeastern states to identify the infiltrators. "The BJP-led government must enact a 'foreign national act' to evict infiltrators, especially Muslims, to Bangladesh or their own country," he added. He said that India would set up health and educational centres across the country to provide free health service, education and employment to Hindu Bangladeshi those are persecuted to come to India. He further added that the VHP wants Hindus in India to be "protected, prosperous and honoured". Togadia added that if time bound initiatives are not take by the state government and the union government to protect Northeast, Assam and Bengal for infiltrated Bangladeshi Muslims then very soon these areas will turn into territory of greater Bangladesh. (source: Business Standard) CHINA----execution China Executes Tajik For Drug Trafficking Chinese authorities have executed a Tajik national convicted of drug trafficking. Tajik Foreign Ministry officials told RFE/RL that Hasan Yusufov, 51, was executed early in the morning on January 28. Tajik Embassy representatives were allowed to meet with Yusufov before his execution, the officials said. Yusufov was arrested in Urumqi, the capital of China's northwestern region of Xinjiang, in 2011 and was charged with drug trafficking. He was later found guilty and sentenced to death. All attempts by the Tajik Embassy to overturn the death sentence were fruitless, the Foreign Ministry officials said, adding that talks were under way to bring Yusufov's body home to Tajikistan. Tajik officials said earlier that 16 Tajik citizens were currently in China's prison system, 4 of whom are on death row while 5 are serving life terms. (source: Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty) IRAN: Death Row Iran: Inside the women's prison where inmates await execution, bring up their babies and struggle to survive against the odds; Sadegh Souri shot the collection of powerful images, which are titled 'Waiting for Capital Punishment' Sleeping in squalid conditions, queuing for hours on end for food and struggling to care for a newborn baby are just some of the horrifying challenges girls in Iran's grim prison's face. Dozens of juvenile offenders - some of whom are just 9 years old - are languishing on death row for crimes such as murder, drug trafficking and armed robbery. In Iran, the 2nd-biggest user of capital punishment in the world, young women can be hanged for crimes, following unfair trials, including those based on forced confessions extracted through torture and other ill-treatment. The frightened girls are imprisoned in a Juvenile Delinquents Correction Centre after their sentence verdict and a large number of the inmates are then killed when they reach 18. Last year there was a disturbing escalation in the use of the death penalty in Iran, with at least 830 people executed between 1 January and 1 November 2015. There were reports that at least 4 of these were juvenile offenders. Award-winning photographer Sadegh Souri, who lives in Tehran, has given an insight to the harsh conditions young people face in these grimy institutions as they anticipate their fate. Mr Souri, documentary winner at the 2015 Lens Culture visual storytelling awards, shot 17-year-old Mahsa. She was imprisoned after killing her father with a kitchen knife in a dispute over her future husband. (source: Daily Mail) ********************* The List Of 100 Death Row Prisoners In Sanandaj Prison https://hra-news.org/en/list-100-death-row-prisoners-sanandaj-prison (source: Human Rights Activists News Agency) From rhalperi at smu.edu Thu Jan 28 11:35:39 2016 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Thu, 28 Jan 2016 11:35:39 -0600 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----ARK., MO., USA Message-ID: Jan. 28 ARKANSAS: Prosecutor to seek death penalty in slaying of elderly woman A northeast Arkansas prosecutor is seeking the death penalty against a man charged in the abduction and slaying of a 90-year-old Bay woman. Prosecutor Scott Ellington announced Thursday that he is seeking the death penalty against 30-year-old Richard Tarver, saying the killing was conducted in an "especially cruel or depraved manner." Tarver is charged with capital murder, kidnapping, abuse of a corpse and several theft and firearm charges in the July death of Lavinda Counce. Counce went missing on July 3, and her car was found in a hospital parking lot the next day. Her body was found July 12 in a cornfield after an extensive volunteer search. Tarver has pleaded not guilty. Tarver's attorney is not listed in court or jail documents. A trial is scheduled for March. (source: Associated Press) MISSOURI: Missouri Senate committee votes to abolish death penalty A coalition of Republicans and Democrats voted Tuesday to send a bill repealing Missouri's death penalty to the state Senate for debate. The measure passed the Senate General Laws and Pensions Committee on a 4-3 vote with support from 2 Republicans and 2 Democrats. The measure will head to the full Senate, which has not debated a bill to repeal the death penalty in decades. "The death penalty isn't going to change without discussion," said the bill's sponsor, Sen. Paul Wieland, R-Imperial. "It's important we keep discussion open and allow everyone to share their opinions in order to make a change." The bill also had the support of the committee's chairman, Sen. Rob Schaaf, R-St. Joseph. Also voting for the measure were the committee's 2 Democrats, Sen. Joe Keaveny of St. Louis and Sen. Jill Schupp of Creve Coeur. The other 3 Republicans on the committee - Sen. Dan Hegeman, R-Maryville, Sen. Bob Onder, R-St. Charles, and Sen. Dave Schatz, R-Sullivan - voted against repealing the death penalty. Before the vote, the committee heard from Joshua Kezer, who served 16 years in a state prison after being wrongly convicted of the 1992 murder of a Southeast Missouri State University nursing student in Scott County. Kezer was sentenced to prison for 1st-degree murder, but Kezer's DNA was submitted to the FBI and was found to not be a match. Kezer was released from prison in 2009. "I'm the last one to advocate for the life of a serial killer, woman killer, or child killer," Kezer said. "But when we are talking about the death penalty we aren't just talking about serial killers, men killers, or race killers. We are just talking about killers. Unfortunately we are also talking about innocent men and women. And because we are talking about that, even though it might be a small percentage, we have to address the death penalty." Witnesses from the Missouri Sheriff's Association and the Missouri Police Chiefs Association both said they were against the bill. There are currently 46 prisoners awaiting execution on death row in Missouri. The state executed 16 people in 2014 and 2015, more than a 1/4 of all executions nationwide in that period. The state has put 86 people to death since 1989, when executions resumed after a 24-year hiatus. The last time the Senate debated whether Missouri should have the death penalty was in April 1974. If the bill passes, Missouri will join Illinois, New York, Iowa, and 17 other states that that do not have a death penalty. Wieland acknowledged his bill still has a long way to go to win passage in the Republican-dominated General Assembly. (source: Columbia Daily Tribune) USA: Gary Lee Sampson Death Penalty Sentencing Retrial Set The Gary Lee Sampson death penalty sentencing retrial has been set for Sept. 14 in federal court in Boston, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Massachusetts has announced. Sampson was condemned by a jury to die after pleading guilty to carjacking and killing 2 Massachusetts men in 2001. 18-year-old Jonathan Rizzo and 69-year-old Philip McCloskey lost their lives during the weeklong crime spree. In 2011, U.S. District Court Judge Mark Wolf ordered a new sentencing trial after finding that a juror had lied about her background. (source: necn.com) From rhalperi at smu.edu Fri Jan 29 10:39:22 2016 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Fri, 29 Jan 2016 10:39:22 -0600 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., DEL., W.VA., GA., FLA., MISS. Message-ID: Jan. 29 TEXAS----new execution date Robert Roberson has been given an execution date for June 21; it should be considered serious. (sources: MC/RH) *************************** Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present----15 Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982----present-----533 Abbott#--------scheduled execution date-----name------------Tx. # 16---------February 16--------------Gustavo Garcia--------534 17---------March 9------------------Coy Wesbrook----------535 18---------March 22-----------------Adam Ward-------------536 19---------March 30-----------------John Battaglia--------537 20---------April 6------------------Pablo Vasquez---------538 21---------April 27-----------------Robert Pruett---------539 22---------June 2-------------------Charles Flores--------540 23---------June 21------------------Robert Roberson-------541 24---------July 14------------------Perry Williams--------542 (sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin) PENNSYLVANIA----new (non-serious) execution dates: Death date set for man convicted in 1984 Cheltenham murder of Ottsville man The Pennsylvania Department of Corrections this week signed off on notices of execution for 3 death-row inmates. Of the 3, Thomas Meadows was sentenced by a Montgomery County jury to die while Christopher Johnson was co-prosecuted in Adams County by a Montgomery County prosecutor. The notices of execution, which list execution dates of March 15 for Meadows and March 18 for for Johnson, are a formality because there is a moratorium on executions that was signed by Gov. Tom Wolf while state lawmakers review the death penalty with an eye toward reforms. Formerly of Philadelphia, Meadows, who is now 69, has been sitting on death row since 1990 following his 1st-degree murder conviction for the 1984 drug-related killing of a Bucks County man at his girlfriend's apartment in Cheltenham. A Montgomery County jury handed Meadows the death penalty for the shooting death of James Hayes, 34, of Ottsville. Hayes died from a single gunshot wound to the heart. Johnson, 29, of Adams County, received his death sentence for the 2010 shooting death of state wildlife conservation officer David Grove during an alleged deer poaching incident. Grove is the only state game warden killed in the line of duty. New Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin R. Steele, who was Adams County's 1st assistant district attorney at the time, took vacation time in 2012 to help prosecute Johnson. "This is just another step that will lead to the ultimate penalty," said Steele, explaining that the execution date triggers other appeal rights available to the defendants. The last Pennsylvania execution occurred in July 1999 when Gary M. Heidnik, Philadelphia's "House of Horrors" killer, was put to death by lethal injection for the deaths of 2 of the 6 women he had kidnapped, raped and tortured in 1986 and 1987. The 3rd inmate, Jeffrey Martin, is scheduled to be executed March 16. He was prosecuted in Greene County. (source: Bucks County Courier Times) DELAWARE: A bill that would abolish Delaware's death penalty has failed to clear the state House An effort to abolish Delaware's death penalty failed in the state House on Thursday, but proponents of the measure say they will continue fighting until capital punishment is outlawed. The legislation, which would not apply to inmates currently on death row, received 16 votes, short of the 21 needed for passage. 23 lawmakers voted against the bill, which Democratic Gov. Jack Markell has said he would sign. "I had hoped that after giving the arguments careful consideration, the House would realize, as I did, that the death penalty is an instrument of imperfect justice," Markell said in a prepared statement. "I understand that it is an incredibly difficult issue, and I respect all viewpoints. While this was not the time to repeal the death penalty, I believe that time will come." Supporters of the bill, which cleared the Senate last year by a single vote, said they would try to resurrect the measure after a 5-week break for budget committee meetings. Under House rules, a bill that has been defeated can be recalled for another vote within 3 legislative days upon the request of a member on the prevailing side. Rep. Kim Williams, a Newport Democrat who supports abolishing the death penalty, deliberately voted against the bill so she could have it brought back up in March. Meanwhile, Delaware's Supreme Court agreed to accept and answer questions submitted by a Superior Court judge on the constitutionality of Delaware's death penalty statute in light of 2 U.S. Supreme Court rulings earlier this month. Delaware has 13 inmates on death row but does not have the necessary chemicals to carry out an execution if one were ordered. Supporters of the repeal bill, including many clerics, argue that the death penalty is morally wrong, racially discriminatory, ineffective as a deterrent to violent crime and far more costly than sentencing killers to life in prison without parole. "The death penalty is disproportionately applied to already marginalized populations," said chief House sponsor Rep. Sean Lynn, D-Dover, adding that the roots of capital punishment in Delaware are "forever mired in our history, our past, of slavery and segregation." Several other Democratic lawmakers also spoke in favor of the bill during an emotional, hourlong debate. The only person to speak against the bill was Mary Cairns, invited by House Minority Leader Danny Short, R-Seaford, to speak on behalf of the parents of Lindsey Bonistall. Bonistall, a 20-year-old University of Delaware student from White Plains, New York, was raped and murdered in 2005 by a man now on death row. "By a show of hands, how many of you sitting here today have had their daughter beaten, raped, choked to death and set on fire in a random act of violence?" Cairns asked as lawmakers sat in silence. "Anybody?" Opponents of the bill, including many in the law enforcement community, have argued that it is a necessary and just punishment for those who commit heinous murders. Among lawmakers voting against the bill were House Speaker Pete Schwartzkopf, D-Rehoboth, and Judiciary Committee chairman Rep. John Mitchell, D-Elsmere, both retired police officers. Judiciary Committee members voted 6-5 last May not to send the bill to the full House after it passed the Senate. The bill languished in the committee until last week, when Mitchell agreed to send it to the full House. "I remain hopeful," Lynn said after Thursday's vote. "This is going to happen.... It's going to happen, either by the courts or by the legislature." Delaware's death penalty has had a tortuous history over the past 50 years. In 1958, Gov. J. Caleb Boggs signed a bill abolishing the death penalty, making Delaware only the 2nd state in the nation, after Missouri, to abolish capital punishment. 3 years later, lawmakers passed a bill reinstating the death penalty after the killings of an elderly Sussex County farm couple. Gov. Elbert Carvel vetoed the measure, but Senate and House lawmakers overrode him. In 1991, lawmakers held a special session to change Delaware's death penalty law, giving judges the final say on whether to impose the death penalty after considering a jury's recommendation. The move came amid public outrage after 4 men convicted of robbing and murdering 2 armored car guards all received life sentences after jurors could not unanimously agree on the death penalty. (source: Associated Press) WEST VIRGINIA: Marshall anthropologist to hold book signing for capital case publication Dr. Robin Conley, assistant professor of anthropology at Marshall University, will sign copies of her latest book, "Confronting the Death Penalty: How Language Influences Jurors in Capital Cases," from 4 to 6 p.m. Friday, Jan. 29, at Empire Books and News in downtown Huntington. The publication explores the means by which language helps to make death penalty decisions possible - how specific linguistic choices mediate and restrict jurors', attorneys' and judges' actions and experiences while serving and reflecting on capital trials. "Language is one of the primary resources we use to make sense of our worlds and the things we do, so I was interested in how language might facilitate this very difficult task," Conley said. Drawing from her 15 months of ethnographic fieldwork in diverse counties across Texas, Conley noted the specific linguistic choices attorneys make to affect how juries and others view their clients and cases. "Calling a defendant 'that guy,' for instance, instead of by his first name, can dehumanize him and I found that jurors in fact used forms like this when talking about sentencing defendants to death," Conley said. "Another, less recognized linguistic choice that I write about is how jurors talked about their own role in defendants' death sentences. Many of them used language that decreased their own responsibility for defendants' deaths. "I argue that this is one of the ways they enabled themselves to render a death sentence." In addition to signing copies and taking part in a question-and-answer session, Conley will read a short excerpt from the 256-page book, as well as talk about how she came to research capital jurors, what it was like spending time in Texas death penalty trials and some of the goals she had in writing the book. (source: Herald-Dispatch) GEORGIA----impending execution Brandon Astor Jones says death sentence disproportionate for crime Attorneys for Brandon Astor Jones asked a court to stop his execution set for Tuesday because his death sentence is excessive given the crimes he committed. At the same time on Thursday, Jones lost in federal appeals court as he scrambled to stop the lethal injection set for next week for the 1979 murder of a Cobb County convenience store manager. Jones is the oldest person on Georgia's death row. If he is put to death as planned, he will also be the oldest person the state has ever executed as he will be 11 days from his 73rd birthday. Jones was sentenced to die for for robbing and murdering Roger Tackett, who had stayed after closing at the Tenneco convenience store and gas station to finish paperwork. Jones and co-defendant Van Roosevelt Solomon were convicted of shooting Tackett 5 times. They were immediately arrested because a Cobb County police officer had just pulled up with a stranded motorist who wanted to use a pay phone at the business. 1 reason Jones' case has survived almost 37 years is a federal court in 1989 ordered him re-sentenced because jurors had a Bible in the room while they deliberated his punishment. Solomon was electrocuted in 1985. In a filing in the Superior Court in Butts County, where the prison that houses death row is located, Jones' lawyers argued it's rare for a murderer to be sentenced to die if the crime that made the case eligible for the death sentence was armed robbery. A death sentence can be given only is certain circumstances such as when certain felonies were committed at the same time as the murder, if he crime was exceptionally horrendous or if a law enforcement officer was killed. His lawyers wrote that Jones' execution would be "unconstitutionally disproportionate and excessive" because "in Georgia today" his crime would not be considered the worst of the worst and deserving of capital punishment. "Even at the time of Mr. Jones' original sentence in 1979, a death sentence for a murder that occurred in those circumstances was an anomaly," his lawyers wrote. "Since the time of Mr. Jones' crime, a death sentence for a murder that occurs in the context of a place-of-business armed robbery has fallen into complete extinction," they wrote. "A death penalty has not been imposed in Georgia for a murder committed during an armed robbery in the last 20 years." Not long after his lawyers filed in the state court, he lost before the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Jones wanted to challenge the effectiveness of his lawyers during his re-sentencing in 1997, claiming those attorneys did not tell the jury about his abusive childhood or other details from his life that might have swayed the jury to choose for life instead of death. On Thursday, the 11th Circuit declined to re-open Jones' claims that his trial lawyers provided him ineffective counsel during the mitigation phase of his capital trial. Judge Stanley Marcus wrote for the majority that Jones "has offered no new arguments to reconsider the soundness of that decision." Jones' lawyers also have asked that all 11 judges on the court of appeals consider the constitutionality of Georgia's lethal injection secrecy law. So far, on 3-judge panels have decided when it has been raised by other condemned murderers. The 3-judge panel said in Thursday's 28-page ruling the court would address that request in a separate order. (source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution) *************** Death-Row Inmate's Case Targets Georgia's Strict Secrecy Law Lawyers for an inmate set to die in days are asking a conflicted federal appeals court to weaken Georgia's law that keeps secret the source of the state's lethal injection drug. It's the toughest of a number of secrecy laws passed in recent years by death penalty states eager to stabilize their execution drug supplies. States say the laws protect companies that fear retaliation for their association with the death penalty. Most were enacted after drug manufacturers, many of them in Europe, stopped selling their products for executions, citing ethical concerns. "There are certainly secrecy laws in other states, and some of them create extraordinary secrecy, but nothing reaches the level of Georgia," said Megan McCracken, a death penalty expert at the University of California at Berkeley. Georgia stopped a lethal injection in March because of a problem with the drug, the barbiturate pentobarbital made by a compounding pharmacy. A Department of Corrections video shows solid white chunks falling against the syringe's plunger in a solution that should be clear. Citing this example, some 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals judges have expressed concern about Georgia's secrecy law. Lawyers for death row inmate Brandon Astor Jones - convicted of killing a convenience store manager in 1979 and scheduled to die Tuesday - argue that Georgia's execution method carries "a substantial risk of significant harm," violating his constitutional right against cruel and unusual punishment. But because of the secrecy law, they say, they don't have enough information to make that claim, which violates his due process right. Similar arguments have been rejected by three-judge panels of the 11th Circuit, setting a binding precedent. Georgia's law says the identifying information of any entity or person participating in an execution is a "confidential state secret," meaning it can't be revealed - not even for a judge's review or under seal in a court case. After the defective drug halted Kelly Gissendaner's execution in March, officials investigated and took steps to ensure it wouldn't happen again, state lawyers argued in response to Jones' complaint. The problem was clearly rectified as Gissendaner and 2 other inmates were executed last fall with no sign of pain, state lawyers wrote. But Jones' lawyers say the investigation lacked transparency, and they aren't convinced officials determined the problem's cause. Gissendaner's lawyers, including at least one now representing Jones, raised similar arguments before her rescheduled execution in September. A three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit rejected those claims, but in a dissenting opinion Circuit Judge Adalberto Jordan said the state's secrecy was troubling. "Georgia can certainly choose, as a matter of state law, to keep much of its execution protocol secret, but it cannot hide behind that veil of secrecy once something has gone demonstrably wrong with the compounded pentobarbital it has procured," Jordan wrote. "It is not too much to require Georgia to put on some evidence that will provide some level of confidence that its compounded pentobarbital is no longer a problem." In December, the same attorneys represented another condemned inmate and again raised constitutional concerns about the law. Jordan was on that panel, too. This time, he conceded the challenge was barred by circuit precedent but said he believed that precedent was incorrect. Circuit Judge Beverly Martin, also on the panel, agreed. "Of course, I recognize the State's need to obtain a reliable source for its lethal injection drugs," Martin wrote. "But there must be a way for Georgia to do this job without depriving ... condemned prisoners of any ability to subject the State's method of execution to meaningful adversarial testing before they are put to death." Martin also worried about the lack of court access to the information. Federal courts routinely keep secret information revealed in judicial proceedings - for example, in the grand jury process or in trade secret cases - so surely there's a way to do so for death penalty cases, she wrote. State lawyers say Jones doesn't have a right to know every detail of the execution method, an argument that's been made in 11th Circuit opinions. State lawyers also say the law protects the source of the drugs from "rabid manipulations of death penalty opponents." Citing the doubts raised by Jordan and Martin - as well as a 2014 opinion by 11th Circuit Judge Charles Wilson noting "the disturbing circularity problem created by Georgia's secrecy law" - Jones' lawyers argue that three judges on that federal appeals court have now suggested that law doesn't comply with the Constitution. If the distribution of judges on the panels had been different, their opinion might be precedent, Jones' lawyers argue. They're requesting a full-court review by the 11th Circuit, which could overturn the established precedent. Any full-court ruling would be significant as it would be binding in Georgia pending any appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, said Robert Dunham with the Death Penalty Information Center, which tracks issues related to capital punishment. It also could serve as a reference for lawmakers in other states and would have persuasive, though not binding, authority in other federal courts, he said. (source: Associated Press) FLORIDA: Florida Lawmakers Urged to Require Unanimous Verdicts in Death Penalty Cases A Florida Senate panel heard Wednesday from prosecutors, judges, public defenders and experts about how to fix the death-penalty process after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the state's capital sentencing structure this month. The Senate Criminal Justice Committee workshop focused on the impact of the decision, known as Hurst v. Florida, which found the state's system of allowing judges - not juries - to impose the death penalty is unconstitutional. Much of the testimony from defense lawyers, judges and prosecutors also dealt with issues related to but not explicitly addressed in the Jan. 12 ruling. The 8-1 decision was centered on what are known as "aggravating" circumstances that must be found before defendants can be sentenced to death. A 2002 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, in a case known as Ring v. Arizona, requires that determination of such aggravating circumstances be made by juries, not judges. Under Florida law, juries make recommendations regarding the death penalty, based on a review of aggravating and mitigating circumstances, but judges ultimately decide whether defendants should be put to death or sentenced to life in prison. Florida law also does not require that the jury recommendations to impose death sentences be unanimous, making the state an "outlier" compared to others with capital punishment, Bob Dunham of the Washington, D.C.-based Death Penalty Information Center, told the committee. While Florida only requires a simple majority recommendation from juries, Alabama and Delaware - the only other states that do not require unanimity - both require at least nine jurors to vote in favor of capital punishment. Being so outside of the mainstream puts Florida at risk in a future Supreme Court ruling, Dunham said. Nearly all of the speakers Wednesday recommended that the Legislature require unanimous verdicts in death penalty sentences, as is required for all other verdicts under state law. Capital Collateral Counsel for the Southern Region Neal Dupree said the lack of unanimity is "disconcerting" in death sentences. "We require a jury to be unanimous in every other aspect of law, why shouldn't a unanimous jury be required in this instance?" said Dupree, whose state-backed agency represents death row inmates. O.H. "Bill" Eaton, a retired Florida judge and death penalty expert, told the panel that requiring unanimous verdicts in death penalty sentences would require jurors to be more deliberative. "When you have a unanimous verdict, everybody's got to work and they've got to come to grips with a decision," Eaton said. But Brad King, the state attorney for the 5th Judicial Circuit, which includes Ocala, said unanimous verdicts should be required for decisions regarding aggravating circumstances but not for whether the death penalty should be imposed. King suggested that 9-3 decisions for sentencing would suffice. Allowing 1 juror "with no qualifications" related to the death penalty to prevent a death sentence would "give them absolute control over what that sentence is," King said. "You allow them to control the entire process," he said. Committee Chairman Greg Evers assembled the speakers and asked them to make specific recommendations to the Legislature about how to fix the problem with the sentencing process. Florida Solicitor General Allen Winsor, who works for Attorney General Pam Bondi and who argued the Hurst case before the U.S. Supreme Court last fall, told the committee that his office did not have any suggestions about how the state should respond. "You're really not going to give us any recommendations?" Evers said. Under questioning from Senate Minority Leader Arthenia Joyner, Winsor remained reticent. "What he's going to do is he wants us to come up with the decision and then they're going to work with us on it," Evers, R-Baker, said. Lawmakers are also grappling with whether the Hurst ruling should apply retroactively to already-sentenced death row inmates, something the U.S. Supreme Court did not address in its ruling. Dupree is representing Cary Michael Lambrix, a death row inmate scheduled to be executed on Feb. 11. The Florida Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the case, including the impact of the Hurst decision, on Tuesday. Dupree said Florida lawmakers should follow their own example in a 1972 law passed in anticipation of a U.S. Supreme Court decision in a case known as Furman v. Georgia that resulted in a nationwide moratorium on the death penalty. The law, still on the books, required that all death sentences be reduced to life imprisonment if a U.S. Supreme Court decision finds that the state's death penalty statute is unconstitutional. Sen. David Simmons asked the panel whether the 1972 law would have to be applied in the wake of the Hurst ruling, but received mixed responses from the experts. Evers said the Senate will pass "some type of death penalty reform" during the legislative session. After the meeting, he said he intends to propose a measure that will require juries to impose death sentences and that it will also address how many jurors must decide on the sentence. "I can't guarantee it will be unanimous, but the numbers will change," Evers said. "We're going to look at it to where we don't have to come back here and we can put Florida's death penalty to rest." (source: flaglerlive.com) MISSISSIPPI: Death row inmate gains access to psychologist The Mississippi Supreme Court has ruled death row inmate Alan Dale Walker has a right to be visited by a neuropsychologist in preparation for a post-conviction evidentiary hearing. A 5-4 decision handed down Thursday said Dr. Robert Shaffer should not be denied access to Walker, who has been on death row since he received the death penalty Aug. 12, 1991. Walker, 50, was convicted in the Sept. 8, 1990, kidnapping, rape and drowning of Konya Rebecca Edwards, 19, at Crystal Lake in Harrison County. Walker was prosecuted in Warren County. Walker had asked that the doctor be allowed to visit him in preparation for a hearing. Harrison County Circuit Court Judge Chris Schmidt denied the request Nov. 4, 2015, with no finding that allowing the doctor access would violate rules and regulations of the state prison system, the order said. Death row inmates should have access to their experts as long as it violates no rules or regulations and doesn't violate an inmate's due-process rights, said Associate Justice James W. Kitchens, writing for the court. Walker has filed several appeals, to include claiming his legal representation was inadequate and wanting a new sentencing hearing. The costs of the latest appeal will be billed to Harrison County. (source: sunherald.com) From rhalperi at smu.edu Fri Jan 29 10:40:40 2016 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Fri, 29 Jan 2016 10:40:40 -0600 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----OHIO, ARK., KAN., MO., S. DAK. Message-ID: Jan. 29 OHIO: Study finds racial, gender bias in Ohio executions Ohio's 53 executions shown "vast inequities" in racial, gender and geography, a new study concludes. Research by Frank Baumgartner, a University of North Carolina political science professor, are not a revelation to those familiar with Ohio's death penalty, which resumed in 1999 after a 36-year hiatus. But it does underline a consistent pattern that has been pointed out in state, national and media reports for years. Baumgartner looked at Ohio's 53 executions between 1999 and 2014, finding "significant and troubling racial, gender, and geographic disparities with regards to who is executed in Ohio." Baumgartner concluded that the victim's race and gender, and the county where the murder occurred, influenced whether or not the killer was executed. "The most concerning finding is that these racial and geographic disparities are quite significant, and they demonstrate that Ohio's death penalty is plagued by vast inequities which will undermine public confidence in the state's ability to carry out the death penalty in a fair and impartial manner," Baumgartner concluded. Sharon L. Davies, the executive director of the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity at Ohio State University, said in response that the "race or gender of a victim, and the county of the crime, should not influence who is sentenced to die ... Ohio citizens and lawmakers should review the findings of this important research." The study found in 65 % of all executions the murder victim was white. However, overall only 43 % of all victims are white. In addition, murderers of white females are 6 times more likely to be executed than those who kill black males. Just 4 counties, Cuyahoga, Hamilton, Lucas and Summit, are responsible 1/2 of all executions. There are 69 of 88 counties where no one has been executed. Hamilton County's execution rate is almost 9 times that of Franklin County. Ohio Sen. Charleta Tavares, a Columbus Democrat, issued a statement condemning Ohio's death death penalty system. "When you don't prosecute the death of black males as you do white females, you are essentially telling black males they are not worth as much, and that their lives do not matter," she said. "It is reminiscent of the darkest eras in American history, when the death of a white woman was seen as the ultimate crime that must be punished to the fullest extent of the law, but the death of a black male was not a cause for concern." (source: Columbus Dispatch) ARKANSAS: Death penalty sought in Bay slaying case Prosecuting Attorney Scott Ellington of Jonesboro will seek the death penalty against a man charged with capital murder in the July slaying of an elderly Craighead County woman. Ellington said Thursday that he amended charges filed against Richard Jordan Tarver, 30, of Bay to include the imposition of a death sentence if a jury convicts Tarver of capital murder. Tarver is accused of killing Lavinda Counce, 90, of Bay on July 3. "After careful review of the investigative file, I believe the facts of this especially horrific case warrant its use and justice requires it," Ellington said in a news release. Police said family members reported Counce missing July 3. Her car was found a day later in the parking lot of NEA Baptist Memorial Hospital in Jonesboro, about 10 miles west of Bay. The hospital's surveillance video showed a man parking Counce's car in the lot at 12:56 p.m. July 4 and walking toward U.S. 49, which runs by the hospital. Searchers found Counce's body in a cornfield west of Bay on July 12. Counce had been shot in the head with a large-caliber weapon, Craighead County Sheriff Marty Boyd said. Tarver was arrested at his home on July 17. He lives in a home behind where Counce lived. Ellington said in the release that he considered several factors when deciding to include the death penalty in the case. He said Counce was slain for pecuniary gain; the defendant inflicted mental anguish prior to her death; Tarver inflicted serious physical abuse to Counce before killing her; he showed indifference to her suffering and "a sense of pleasure in committing the murder;" and the slaying was committed against a person Tarver "should have known was especially vulnerable to the attack because of her age and physical disability." Tarver is also charged with kidnapping, aggravated robbery, aggravated residential burglary, abuse of a corpse, theft of property and possession of a defaced firearm. He entered a plea of innocent in Craighead County Circuit Court, and authorities set his trial for March 14. (source: Arkansasonline.com) ***************** Death penalty sought for man accused of murdering elderly woman The District Prosecuting Attorney for the Second Judicial District of Arkansas is seeking the death penalty against a man accused of abducting and killing an elderly woman. District Attorney Scott Ellington filed amended capital murder charges Thursday in Craighead County Circuit Court against Richard Jordon Tarver, 30, of Bay. The amended felony information specifies circumstances that would allow justification for a jury to impose the death penalty if Tarver is convicted of capital murder. Tarver is accused of kidnapping and killing Lavinda Counce, 90, of Bay. Ellington said the following: "Today on behalf of Ms. Lavinda Counce, her family, and the good people of Bay, I have filed notice of my intent to seek the death penalty against Mr. Tarver," said Ellington. "After careful review of the investigative file, I believe that the facts of this especially horrific case warrant its use and justice requires it." Counce disappeared from her Lunsford Avenue home on July 3, 2015. Her car was located the next day at NEA Baptist Hospital in Jonesboro. After an exhausting 9-day search, a volunteer searcher discovered Counce's body on July 12 in a cornfield near Craighead County Road 607, west of Bay. In the days following the discovery of Counce's body, investigators developed information that Tarver may have been involved in her disappearance and sought a search warrant for his Bay residence from District Judge Curt Huckaby. Officers arrested Tarver on July 17 following the execution of a search warrant by the Craighead County Sheriff's Department and the Bay Police Department. On August 13, Ellington announced that he filed a 7-count felony information charging Tarver with capital murder, aggravated robbery, kidnapping, aggravated residential burglary, abuse of a corpse, theft of property, and possession of a defaced firearm. The prosecutor explained that the abuse of a corpse charge stems from Tarver allegedly placing Counce's body in a cornfield, where it laid for nine days before being discovered by a search volunteer on July 12. Tarver has been held in the Craighead County Detention Center since his arrest on July 17, 2015. (source: KATV news) *********** Family of Lavinda Counce supports death penalty decision The family of Lavinda Counce spoke out Thursday after an announcement was made to seek the death penalty in the Bay woman's case. Counce went missing in July 2015 and police arrested Richard Tarver for her murder a few weeks later. The 2nd Judicial District Prosecuting Attorney Scott Ellington filed amended capital murder charges Thursday seeking the death penalty for Tarver. Patsy Scott, a daughter of Counce, said her family supports his decision. Ellington spoke with Scott and her family before he announced the decision. Scott said they have been praying for justice for their mother since she went missing. They are not the only ones asking for this. Counce attended the NEA Wellness Center in Jonesboro to be a part of exercise classes. Kara Fowler, a fitness coordinator at the center, said they still miss Counce in their classes. She said she knows the time since they found her has been hard on the family. "Well I know it was a hard time over Thanksgiving and Christmas and the new year and her birthday," Fowler said. "So this will be a good closure hopefully in seeking justice for her and for her family." Scott knows they may not see anything for a while as the case moves through the court, but still cannot believe what happened. "It's not something that you ever think will happen to your family in a little town like it did, but we're living it," Scott said. To find some closure, the family erected a 12-foot cross in the spot where Counce's body was found. Tarver is scheduled to be back in court on Mar. 3. (source: KAIT news) KANSAS: Anti death penalty backers rally at Kansas state house A bipartisan group of Kansas lawmakers that gather at the state house Thursday claimed that the state's death penalty is broken, and needs to come to an end. House Bill 2515 would replace the death penalty with life in prison without parole. The bill has 17 co-sponsors, including 11 Republicans. Also in attendance was Floyd Bledsoe, who was recently exonerated for a murder he did not commit. (source: WIBW news) ******************** Floyd Bledsoe, exonerated in 1999 murder: 'The death penalty is unjust'----Bledsoe supports H.B. 2515, bipartisan bill to abolish the death penalty 51 days after he was released from prison, his conviction for a murder he didn???t commit wiped from the record, Floyd Bledsoe urged Kansas legislators to repeal the state's death penalty law Thursday. "We must stop the death penalty today," he said. "Tomorrow it might be too late for one person." Bledsoe spent 16 years behind bars for the 1999 murder of Camille Arfmann in Oskaloosa, a crime his brother admitted to committing in suicide notes last November. Bledsoe said his experience proves the state's laws and court system are imperfect. "The death penalty is unjust. Please stop it," he said during an anti-death penalty rally in the Statehouse Rotunda. Legislation introduced in the Kansas House on Jan. 22 would do that. House Bill 2515 was introduced by Rep. Steven Becker, R-Buhler, and co-sponsored by 16 other representatives - 10 Republicans and 6 Democrats. Becker, a retired judge, said his experience in the criminal justice system solidified his opposition to the death penalty. The "reasonable doubt" standard for proof in criminal cases is paradoxical to the death penalty, Becker argued. "How can we impose the absolute certainty of death when we don't require the absolute certainty of guilt?" Becker asked. Becker's bill would bar death sentences for anyone committing a crime on or after July 1, 2016. Defendants sentenced to death for a crime prior to July 1 could still be executed. Kansas has not executed an inmate in more than a half-century. Death sentences would be replaced by sentences of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. "When you kill somebody and realize you made a mistake, you can't make it right," said Rep. Barbara Ballard, D-Lawrence, a co-sponsor of the bill. H.B. 2515 would also create a "death penalty abolition fund" under the control of the Kansas Department of Corrections. The bill would require the state budget director to collect cost savings stemming from abolition of the death penalty into the fund for use by the corrections department. "Such cost savings shall include, but not be limited to, cost avoidance in the prosecution, defense, corrections and other associated costs resulting from the abolition of the death penalty," the bill states. A co-sponsor, Rep. Bill Sutton, R-Gardner, spoke at Thursday's rally about the high fiscal costs of the state's death row, listing price tags for death penalty appeals and unused execution drugs. Sutton said he came to the Legislature to shrink the size of government. "It doesn't make any sense. You get exactly nothing for your tax dollars," he said. H.B. 2515 will now be considered by the House Judiciary Committee. 3 members of the committee are co-sponsors of the bill: Becker, Rep. Dennis Highberger, D-Lawrence, and Rep. Annie Kuether, D-Topeka. Other co-sponsors of the bill are Reps. Steven Anthimides, R-Wichita, Lonnie Clark, R-Junction City, Susan Concannon, R-Beloit, Diana Dierks, R-Salina, John Doll, R-Garden City, Jerry Henry, D-Atchison, Michael Houser, R-Columbus, Roderick Houston, D-Wichita, Connie O???Brien, R-Tonganoxie, Tom Sawyer, D-Wichita, and Don Schroeder, R-Hesston. Asked about the bill's chances this legislative session, Donna Schneweis, chair of the Kansas Coalition Against the Death Penalty, said a majority of the Kansas House is opposed to capital punishment. "We are actively working to get the votes," she said. At Thursday's rally, Henry made the Christian case for ending the death penalty, telling attendees that abolition squares with his pro-life views. "Jesus Christ, our lord and savior, was himself a victim of capital punishment," he said. (source: Topeka Capital-Journal) MISSOURI: Missouri Paid Executioners $250,000 In Cash, Possibly Violating Tax Law The state pays its small team of executioners in cash to limit the paper trail. The state isn't sending proper paperwork to the IRS - experts told BuzzFeed News that it could be contributing to tax evasion. Shortly before each execution in Missouri, a high-ranking corrections official takes envelopes filled with thousands of dollars in cash to the state's executioners. The cash limits the paper trail - and helps keep the identities of the executioners hidden. Most of the envelopes are filled with hundred dollar bills. And on the outside, the envelopes carry instructions: They aren't to be opened until "completion of services rendered." The executioners are given pseudonyms to protect their identities: M2, the nurse, gets $2,400, while M3, the anesthesiologist, gets the envelope marked $3,000. M7, the drug supplier, gets the most, an envelope filled with $7,178.88. Missouri Director of Adult Institutions David Dormire has handed out nearly a hundred envelopes filled with cash since November 2013. Over that span of time, Dormire delivered $284,551.84 in cash to the small group of individuals who help the state carry out the death penalty, according to a BuzzFeed News review of receipts, an audit of the payments, a spreadsheet showing cash withdrawals, and memos marked "confidential" in which the payments were discussed. "It seems very strange to me," said Sandy Freund, a law professor at Rutgers School of Law-Newark. "How could they possibly be paying in cash? That seems so ridiculous." In fact, several experts who spoke with BuzzFeed News said the state???s methods raise serious questions about whether the state has followed federal tax law. The Internal Revenue Service requires those who pay contractors $600 or more to file a disclosure called a 1099 with the agency, as well as with the person receiving the money. The disclosures notify the IRS that the agency should be checking to make sure the recipient is paying taxes on those payments. But in response to a BuzzFeed News open records request, the Department of Corrections said it had no records about 1099s for the executioners. The department's internal procedures make no mention of 1099s or any other notice to the IRS. Dormire, who handles the cash payments, said in a 2014 deposition that he was unaware of any 1099s being issued to the executioners or the IRS. "You provide the Internal Revenue Service with proof they've been paid, do you not?" an attorney representing death row inmates asked him. "I do not know," he responded. The department of corrections was given more than 24 hours to respond to a request for comment, which it did not do. A spokesperson said only that the department was reviewing the inquiry. Without informing the IRS that the state is handing out this amount of cash, the federal government has no way to ensure that the recipients are paying taxes. Experts BuzzFeed News spoke with said Missouri could be contributing to considerable tax evasion. "I can't imagine why the state wouldn't be issuing 1099s here," said Bryan Camp, a former IRS employee who is now a law professor at Texas Tech. "I can't think of a good answer." Freund echoed that, adding that she saw no exception that would exempt the state from issuing a 1099 in these circumstances. The penalties for the state not issuing 1099s are relatively modest, the experts said - starting at $100 per 1099. But it can add up, especially if the violation was intentional. Another expert BuzzFeed News spoke with said he recently had advised a government entity that the IRS had assessed a penalty of more than $800,000 for not issuing 1099s. These would be penalties for the state. But there are other penalties for the recipient if they did not disclose the cash payments to the IRS and pay taxes on them. Without a 1099, however, the IRS would not have a way to know to check if the recipients had paid their taxes. "If they aren't state employees, then they should be receiving 1099s," Thomas Brennan, a law professor at Harvard who specializes in tax law, said bluntly. Questions about the cash payments have been raised before. A February 2015 audit by the Missouri Auditor's Office found that the Department of Corrections was not following its procedures for cash payments. "The DOC did not record the amount of the cash payments on receipt forms signed by execution team members and did not always require the exchange of the cash payments to be acknowledged by a witness signature, as required by DOC procedures," the audit found. That audit dealt with a small portion - $21,266 - of the cash that the Department of Corrections dispensed between March 2013 and February 2014. "I can't imagine why the state wouldn't be issuing 1099s here." An auditor that worked on the case told BuzzFeed News that they did not check to see if 1099s were being issued. Dormire told the auditors that the problems the auditor found were "an oversight," and the Department of Corrections said it would enact stricter guidelines to ensure compliance. But "confidential execution team member receipts" from well after the audit still show discrepancies. Some are lacking a witness signature, others are entirely blank, and many of the witnesses signed the receipts on different days than Dormire. The department of corrections has not provided any explanation of the discrepancies. In a brief statement, Auditor Nicole Galloway said that "it is the expectation of this office that audit recommendations are implemented." She also pointed to other audits that have criticized government agencies for not issuing 1099s. Galloway was appointed by Gov. Jay Nixon in April 2015, and, as such, did not oversee the department of corrections audit. Nixon also appointed the head of the department of corrections, George Lombardi. Nixon???s office declined to comment on this story, instead directing questions to the department of corrections. Lombardi defended paying the executioners in cash before a state legislative committee on government oversight in 2014. The committee did not ask about tax issues. The top corrections official appeared frustrated that he had to appear before the committee. At the time, he was facing questions over the state's practice of executing inmates while appeals were still pending in the courts, as well as the purchase of execution drugs from a pharmacy that was not licensed to sell in the state. "Yes, it is cash money," Lombardi told the committee. "They've made it clear that we wouldn't have the people required to carry out the death penalty" if it wasn't cash. Lombardi is the person who signs off on the procedures governing the cash payments, and he said it has been longstanding policy to pay those who participate in executions in cash. In a statement, Attorney General Chris Koster's office said "By law, we are charged with representing the Department of Corrections, and so we decline to comment." Missouri is not the only state that pays its executioners in cash. BuzzFeed News has found evidence that, at the least, Arizona and Oklahoma do as well. Arizona, though, has provided 1099s in conjunction with its executions. The state turned over redacted 1099s as part of ongoing litigation. The state's medical team leader, who was paid $18,000 per execution, also said in a deposition that Arizona gave him a 1099. Oklahoma uses cash payments as well - but in that state, the payments are much smaller. Each executioner in Oklahoma is paid only $300 per lethal injection. One doctor complained about his compensation for the 2014 botched execution of Clayton Lockett, a 43-minute lethal injection in which the inmate writhed and sat up on the gurney. Even though that execution was botched, and a 2nd one scheduled for that night wasn't carried out, the doctor was paid $600 - the price for both. "Well I know the doctor was" paid for both, then-Warden Anita Trammell told investigators afterward. "Cause [redacted] got blood all over his jacket and I mean, it was a bloody mess. [Redacted] was complaining about that. [Redacted] says [redacted] gotta get enough money out of this to go buy a new jacket." (source: BuzzFeedNews) **************** Missouri Senate Death Penalty Repeal Bill Reaches Historic Threshold For the 1st time in modern state history, a Missouri legislative committee on Jan. 26, voted a bill repealing the death penalty (Senate Bill 816) "Do Pass"-- moving it closer to being debated on the Senate floor. Following testimony from exonerees, conservatives, a murder victim family member, a former police officer, attorneys and other citizens in support during a public hearing, members of the Senate's General Laws and Pensions Committee voted 4-2 for passage. "We are moving this issue and the debate forward," notes a Wednesday press release from Sen. Paul Wieland of Imperial, sponsor of SB 816 and Missouri's 1st Republican senator to do so. "I am a devout Catholic and I believe if I'm going to be pro-life, I should be so on both ends of the spectrum - from conception to natural death." Among the 15 individuals to testify poignantly in support of (with four opposing) SB 816 over the course of 2 days were Josh Kezer and Kevin Green, each man wrongly convicted of murder and incarcerated for 16 years each, before being exonerated and freed. Both reported prosecutors had considered pursuing death sentences in their cases. Green, a Jefferson City resident, said he preferred "terminal incarceration" (life in prison without parole) to the death penalty - including for the man who later confessed to killing his daughter, a crime for which he was wrongly convicted in California. Rather than offer an apology to him after he was freed, Green recalled the prosecuting attorney told reporters, "'if it wasn't for DNA, I could still convict him today.'" Jennifer Bukowsky, a Columbia-based attorney and member of Missouri Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty (to view their website, log onto moconservativesoncerned.org), recommended the state "hit the pause button" and halt the death penalty because mistakes can and have been made. Bukowsky represented and helped secure the exoneration of Anthony Williams, who was wrongly convicted of a St. Louis murder at age 15 before being freed in 2014. "Just because a person's in prison doesn't mean the case is solved." Missouri's Public Defender Michael Barrett highlighted the extreme costs that come with capital punishment. Barrett reported his office in 2009, for instance, utilized about $5000 in resources defending each individual charged with 1st-degree murder and facing a sentence of life without the possibility of parole. That same year, in comparison, the public defenders committed $166,000 in resources to defend each trial involving a death sentence. The public defenders, he explained, are bound by federal requirements to dedicate extensive resources to those facing the harshest state sanction, hamstringing his office's efforts to diligently represent impoverished Missourians - an undertaking already severely compromised with the state's public defenders being the 2nd most poorly funded in the nation. End the death penalty, Barrett notes, and Missouri would also free funds spent by his office, prosecutors and other officials on a comparatively few murder cases - resources which could be made available to help address other unmet public safety needs, including dramatically expanding the testing of untested rape kits and investigating the hundreds of unsolved murders in the state. (source: MADP) SOUTH DAKOTA: Legislators attempt to repeal death penalty in South Dakota 2 dozen state legislators have sponsored a bill to repeal South Dakota's death penalty. Sen. Arthur Rusch, R-Vermillion, a retired circuit court judge, and Rep. Timothy Johns, R-Lead, serve as the prime sponsors on Senate Bill 94 to strike the death penalty from state law. The bipartisan bill is sponsored by a total of 15 Democrats and 9 Republicans. A Class A felony is currently the only capital offense in South Dakota and 18 people have been executed since South Dakota became a state in 1877, according to the state Department of Corrections. The most recent executions in the state occurred in Oct. 2012, when Eric Robert and Donald Moeller were executed in Sioux Falls by lethal injection. Robert was executed for the homicide of Senior Correctional Officer Ron Johnson while Moeller received a lethal injection for the rape and murder of a 9-year-old girl in 1990. There are currently 3 South Dakota inmates who have been sentenced to death. If approved, the bill would eliminate capital punishment for the law, but Class A felons would no longer be eligible for parole. The bill would also strike sections 3 and 4 of the law, which offer instructions to jurors in cases where the death penalty may be authorized. The bill, which was introduced Tuesday, was referred to the Senate State Affairs Committee, and if approved, South Dakota would become the 20th state to abolish the death penalty. A similar bill, 2015's Senate Bill 121, was deferred by the Senate State Affairs Committee in a 7-2 vote. (source: Grand Forks Herald) From rhalperi at smu.edu Fri Jan 29 10:41:30 2016 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Fri, 29 Jan 2016 10:41:30 -0600 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----NEV., ARIZ., CALIF., WASH., USA Message-ID: Jan. 29 NEVADA: Prosecutors likely to seek death penalty in double killing A Las Vegas prosecutor said Thursday there is "a substantial likelihood" he will seek the death penalty against a man charged in the execution-style slaying of 2 people. Authorities said the Nov. 16 deaths of Jamel Colbert and Shelby Robinson were prompted by drug and prostitution deals gone awry. In court Thursday, Marcial Manuel Casarez, 36, pleaded not guilty to murder with use of a deadly weapon, 1st-degree kidnapping, robbery with use of a deadly weapon and conspiracy to commit robbery in connection to the slayings. His co-defendant, 24-year-old Sergio Davila, did not enter a plea because he had not yet been appointed an attorney. Chief Deputy District Attorney David Stanton said it was unlikely that prosecutors would seek the death penalty against Davila. Casarez, who also goes by "Crook," had made drug deals with Colbert, 32, before the killings and was going to sell him $200 worth of methamphetamine. Colbert gave Robinson a black revolver and sent her to Casarez's apartment in the 2100 block of Sunrise Avenue, near 21st Street, according to police. "'Crook' became upset" when he found the gun in Robinson's purse and thought she was going to rob him, police said. Colbert left his home in the 2100 block of Ballard Drive just before dark and arrived at Casarez's apartment shortly after he found the gun. Casarez gave the gun to Davila, who took Colbert and Robinson's money, phones and clothes. Casarez grabbed a rifle, led Colbert and Robinson outside at gunpoint, forced them into a car and ordered another man to drive to the alley behind the Ballard home. Casarez shot Robinson "at least 10 times" in the back seat, turned the rifle on Colbert in the passenger seat and fire multiple rounds through the window, according to police. (source: Las Vegas Review-Journal) ARIZONA: Arizona Enlists Major Law Firm To Import Execution Drugs From India----National law firm Alston & Bird is fighting the FDA, asking it to release execution drugs that Arizona imported from India. The state has said it will sue if the FDA doesn't do so. The Arizona Department of Corrections has enlisted the help of a national law firm in its fight against the federal government to import execution drugs, BuzzFeed News has learned. Alston & Bird, an Atlanta-based law firm with more than 700 lawyers and offices across the country, has taken on representation of the department in its fight against the Food and Drug Administration, which has detained 1,000 vials of sodium thiopental since this past summer that were slated for delivery to the department. Arizona, Texas, and Nebraska purchased the drug from a man in India named Chris Harris - a man without a pharmaceutical background. Harris has been the subject of ongoing BuzzFeed News coverage. The FDA warned Arizona and the other states that importing the drug would be illegal, as it is an unapproved new drug and has no FDA-approved manufacturer. The states ordered the sodium thiopental anyway. Nebraska's shipment never left India, but Texas and Arizona's shipments did cross the ocean - only to be stopped by the FDA at U.S. airports. Alston & Bird, which identifies itself as "counsel for the Arizona Department of Corrections," is arguing on behalf of the department that the FDA should release the drugs since they would be used "only for law enforcement." "The restrictive legend on the label ('For law enforcement purpose only') makes that clear," Alston & Bird partner Daniel Jarcho wrote in a letter to the FDA dated Oct. 23, 2015. "The purpose of [the statutes] is to provide warnings to patients as they take their own drugs." "Here there will be no lay patient 'users' taking the detained drugs. This is a circumstance in which the imported substance is a drug that will not be used for medicinal purposes at all," Jarcho, based out of the firm's D.C. office, wrote. Arizona is arguing that, since the drugs are for lethal injection, they are exempt from the requirements the FDA cited in detaining the shipment. In the letter, Jarcho also "demand[ed]" that the FDA and Customs and Border Protection redact or omit information about the drug supplier "unless required by law to release it," citing Arizona's secrecy law surrounding executions. BuzzFeed News, however, previously was able to determine that Arizona and Texas purchased the drugs from Harris' company, Harris Pharma. Harris registered a site with the FDA claiming that it could be used to manufacturer drugs, although that site was just a small office space. The location he has provided to the DEA is an old apartment building he no longer lives in - and that he left while still owing rent. According to FDA documents, the drugs Harris sold were manufactured by a company in India called Health Biotech Limited. Arizona's letter to the FDA made no mention of a 2012 federal court order that the FDA had "a mandatory obligation ... to refuse to admit the misbranded and unapproved drug, thiopental, into the United States." The order also directed the FDA to stop "permitting the entry of, or releasing any future shipments of, foreign manufactured thiopental that appears to be misbranded or [an unapproved new drug]." A federal appeals court upheld the order in 2013. Arizona, like Texas and Nebraska, has also enlisted the help of a former FDA employee named Ben England who testified on the other side of the 2012 case. In that case, he argued on behalf of death row inmates that the drugs violated federal law. In a statement, an Alston & Bird spokesperson would only say, "[W]e are not at liberty to discuss the matter." According to his firm bio, Jarcho previously represented the FDA "in federal court civil and criminal litigation" while working as a trial attorney at Justice Department. England, who is cc'ed on the Jarcho letter and identified as "Co-counsel" to the Arizona Department of Corrections, has not responded to numerous requests for an interview. England, who previously was a longtime investigator for the FDA, also has been the subject of ongoing BuzzFeed News coverage. The FDA is continuing to detain the shipments, the Arizona Department of Corrections said. In a recent hearing in a death penalty case, an attorney with Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich's office said that the state would sue if the FDA did not release the drugs. "There's no further administrative exhaustion needed [if the FDA denies the request]?" U.S. District Judge Neil Wake asked. "No. At that point we would proceed in court to challenge," assistant attorney general Jeffrey Sparks said. The Arizona attorney general's office told BuzzFeed News this week that it was not representing the Department of Corrections on the FDA appeal, but it did not immediately respond when asked if the office would represent the Department of Corrections if they chose to sue. (source: BuzzFeedNews) CALIFORNIA: California faces pivotal juncture as death-row population swells Stacked in cells 5 stories high and dozens across, the death-row inmates at California's San Quentin prison embody a political stalemate that has swollen their ranks to more than 700 - 1/4 of all US prisoners awaiting execution. America's most populous state, which has not carried out an execution in a decade, begins 2016 at a pivotal juncture, as legal developments hasten the march toward resuming executions, while opponents seek to end the death penalty at the ballot box. One such opponent of the death penalty is the actor and activist Mike Farrell, who has been campaigning to end capital punishment for over 30 years. Farrell, best known for his portrayal of Army Capt. B.J. Hunnicutt in the TV-series "M*A*S*H, recently took a leave of absence from his role as president of the advocacy group, Death Penalty Focus, in order to launch a ballot initiative called The Justice That Works Act of 2016, which aims to end the death penalty in California. "California has almost 750 inmates on death row, that's almost 25 % of the entire death row population in the United States. If the people, the popular vote, ends the use of the death penalty in California it would be a thunder strike across the country to all the states that are considering giving it up, all the legislators that are looking at whether or not it makes sense for them financially, and to the Supreme Court," explains Farrell. Southern Californian counties, such a San Bernardino, have been sentencing more prisoners to death than most others in the state. San Bernardino District Attorney Michael Ramos is an ardent supporter of the death penalty. "Capital punishment, and the people believe in that, I think it is the most humane. I mean, we've come a long way from the electric chair and people burning, and remember the smoke coming out of people's heads'? We have the firing range, you know, people being taken out, and some people say, 'hey, maybe that's more humane?' It is more humane, again, than what has happened to the victims," argues Ramos. This month, California held a hearing on a proposed new protocol for lethal injection that would use one drug, a barbiturate, to put condemned inmates to death, rather than a 3-drug cocktail declared unconstitutional by a California court 10 years ago because it could possibly cause pain. The plan to use barbiturates to execute inmates sentenced to die in the most populous US state have drawn fire from religious activists, who call capital punishment grisly and anti-democratic while Law-and-order advocates urge its adoption. "I think of them as the death lovers, forgive me. They have sued the state to require that the state find a way and I don't know if they insisted or CDCR (California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation) came up with a response, which is a single drug protocol instead of the usual lethal injection procedure which is 3 drugs. That is now up for public questions and there are many because it is, again, we are talking about the possibility of human experimentation using drugs that have never been used before for such a procedure," says Farrell, of the proposal to use a barbiturate. But District Attorney Ramos argues it is important to think of the suffering of the victims. "Imagine a family that ... a parent, before watching their murdered, watching their baby murdered, stabbed to death. Ok, and I think people really need to, when you compare that to what we're talking about, whether it's a three-drug protocol or a single-drug protocol, it doesn't get more humane than that for the accused. You know, if you really wanted to do the eye for an eye, some people say they should die the way they killed their victims but we don't do that in a civilised society, we don't," says Ramos. With a decade since the last execution, Californians have grown more divided over capital punishment, with nearly half the electorate and many top officials now opposing the death penalty. "In order for the death penalty to be considered constitutional they've had to impose -- they, the courts -- have had to impose certain safeguards and that means that we -- they -- have to go through a process of once convicted going through the state process for their appeals and then going through the federal process. Here in California, that process now takes 25 years. Now, one being sentenced to death and being told that he or she is disposable and then having to wait for 25 years for the ax to fall is torture," says Farrell. Death penalty opponents hope to place an initiative on the November ballot that would outlaw capital punishment. On the same ballot, supporters back a different initiative to speed up executions. "Basically we'd like to cut down the time of the appellant process. There are so many unwarranted delays and it just continues to victimise the families of those who have lost loved ones. If you think about it, the murderers on death row, they've murdered over a thousand victims, you know, 43 of those police officers in the line of duty, 263 I believe are children that were murdered. Close to 300 victims were tortured and raped, kidnapped. These are the worst of the worst," says Ramos. California juries have sentenced nearly 900 people to death since 1978, but only 13 have been executed. 68 have died of natural causes, 36 for other reasons. Of more than 750 inmates currently on death row, 7 have been there since the 1970s. If the new protocol is adopted by corrections officials and voters do not outlaw the death penalty next November, the state could theoretically begin executing 18 prisoners who have exhausted their appeals. Legal challenges to the lethal injection drug, however, could drag on for years. The waning support for the death penalty in California reflects the tangled political climate in a state where voters have repeatedly endorsed capital punishment even as top officials have come to oppose it. The result is a situation in which execution remains a choice for juries and is favoured by many prosecutors, but where there is little political will to enforce the sentences. Last year, US states conducted 28 executions - the fewest since 1991 - and imposed the lowest number of death sentences since 1978. A majority of Americans, about 56 %, still support the death penalty, the lowest number in 40 years, a poll conducted last year by the Pew Research Center showed. (source: Reuters) ********************** Standing against the death penalty "Out of the depths, I call to you, Oh God. Hear my voice, may you be attentive to my cry for mercy." So the psalmist prayed, thousands of years ago. Sometimes, when we are in the depths and call out, we find true clarity about who we need to be as individuals and who we ought to strive to be as a nation. In times of despair, the voice of hope can come from afar and, no matter its provenance, if it is heard and turns our hearts toward mercy, it can be transformative. Last year, during the sentencing hearings for the Boston Bomber, those who suffered loss and injury felt their wounds torn afresh as they confronted the face of the one who brought immeasurable pain to their lives. Some of the families, forced to live every day with the pain of the loss of a precious loved one - or seeing a child, partner or friend struggle with a disability cast upon them by one so clearly guilty of acting out of hatred - called for the one thing they believe that would give them comfort: the death of that horrific human being. "Give him the death penalty," they cried, despite the plea to not respond with an act of taking life for life, by Sister Helen Prejean, author of "Dead Man Walking." Certainly, if anyone deserves the death penalty, some retorted, he does. And his death, they believe, will be a salve for their wounds. I wonder if that will indeed be the case. Few of us can understand the pain these loving families are experiencing. But as Sister Helen has shown in her work to end the death penalty, rarely does relief come for the bereaved after the death of the murderer. They remain in the depths, and so does the killer, as both live through countless appeals and retrials, often waiting 20 years or more until that final injection or shock is delivered by a state system in way that is surely cruel and inhumane. And we know too well there are times when we discover the one we as a community are about to put to death to satisfy this desire for closure, turns out not to have been guilty after all. Our legal system, as is our society, is fallible. Racism and economic inequality still pervade our everyday lives, and the halls of justice are not immune. Think of the deep cry of those killed by the state who truly were innocent, and the guilt of all of us when the state kills incorrectly in our name. Early in 2015, a voice of hope and salvation came from afar - as the State Legislature of Nebraska, dominated by those who are labeled politically conservative, took a stand against state executions. They understood what so many of us know: that the state should not be in the killing business, a conclusion reached by the rabbis of old, as well as so many teachers of diverse faiths. We are too limited as human beings to justly take a life. Let God take the life and not us, they concluded, interpreting the words of the Bible - to imply the murderer's future is up to God. Until then, let us do what is more economically feasible and morally correct and give them life without parole in order to prevent state-sponsored murder in the case of the innocent and a society that unequally and unfairly exacts a bloody retribution in the case of the guilty. I, along with clergy of so many faiths, am joining the Clergy Against State Executions, which comes together to empower California's diverse faith communities to end the death penalty through advocacy, education and prayer. We hope the State of California, a thought leader in so many ways, will hearken to the voice of hope coming from Nebraska and eliminate capital punishment as means of responding to the pain of even the most horrific crimes. As people of faith, we believe our society can and must do better, standing together against violence and reaching out the hand of comfort and support to those in pain, where with compassion and pursuit of justice we can help them, little by little, to come out of the depths. (source: Rabbi Jonathan Singer is the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Senior Rabbi at Congregation Emanu-El; San Francisco Examiner) WASHINGTON: UW Amnesty International hosts panel on the death penalty 66 Caucasians, 7 Blacks, 2 Asians, 2 Hispanics, and 1 Eskimo. Add them all together and you get 78. This is the number, and ethnic breakdown, of people executed in Washington state since 1904. The death penalty is still legal in Washington. On Thursday night, the UW chapter of Amnesty International hosted a panel on the death penalty. UW Amnesty International collaborated with a number of on-campus groups to host the event, including the UW Center for Human Rights, the department of Law, Societies and Justice (LSJ), and the philosophy department. "We wanted to host this event because even though the death penalty may not directly impact UW students, it's still Washington state law and something they should be aware of," said Anna Moretti, a member of UW Amnesty International. The panel was made up of UW professors Katherine Beckett, of the LSJ department, William Talbott of the philosophy department, and Seattle-based lawyer Michael Iaria. "The death penalty involves many issues ranging from economics to ethics," Moretti said. "We chose the panelists because they each bring an interesting perspective to the issue." Moretti explained that although Amnesty International officially supports the abolition of the death penalty, the UW chapter wanted the event to be a place where members of the community could openly express their opinions on the issue. Reilly Wynn, an undergraduate LSJ major, attended the event to supplement her own knowledge on the subject.M "I'm familiar with it, but not really with things happening locally," Wynn said. "As a student, it's helpful to have guest speakers because it gives me the opportunity to find out more." The event began with a screening of a short video produced by VICE News entitled "Should There Be A Death Penalty? - The People Speak." The video was a collection of street interviews in which pedestrians in cities all over the world were asked their opinions on the death penalty. After the video was shown, the panelists were asked questions prepared by UW Amnesty International. Talbott spoke briefly about the philosophical arguments for why someone would be for or against the death penalty. He explained that most argue the individual deserved death or that it helps deter future crimes, neither of which allow for the possibility of killing an innocent person. "Can you justify capital punishment knowing that for every hundred people killed, 5 are innocent? That's a tough question and it is what leads me to oppose the death penalty," Talbott said. Iaria agreed with Talbott about the death penalty's effect on deterrence of crime. "The death penalty is not necessary to incapacitate the person who committed the crime," Iaria said. "Life without parole is an option for people who commit heinous crimes." Beckett added that if life in prison does not deter someone from committing a crime, then the death penalty wouldn't either. "Certainty of punishment has more effect on deterrence than severity of punishment," Beckett said. Beckett also explained the issue of race and the death penalty. She stated that in Washington state, juries are 4 1/2 times more likely to impose the death penalty when a defendant is black. Iaria, a criminal defense attorney, elaborated on the flawed system for charging someone with the death penalty, stating that it is inconsistent and subjective. "It's the ultimate form of bullying," Iaria said. Beckett discussed that there are several misconceptions about the death penalty. She explained that many think it's more expensive than incarceration and that only "the worst of the worst" get it. "Several errors still occur. For example, people with mental disabilities are still being executed and those instances are well documented," Beckett said. Iaria spoke from personal experience with defendants facing the death penalty. "People facing the death penalty are among the most damaged of human beings," Iaria said. "So much so that it is beyond that person's ability to do anything about it." The panelists also discussed alternatives to the death penalty such as life without parole and restorative justice. Beckett was quick to point out that many human rights groups have now recognized life without parole as a human rights issue. "If you accept life without parole as an acceptable sentence," Beckett said, "then you're also accepting the notion that a person can never change." (source: The (Univ. Wash.) Daily) USA: Date set for Gary Lee Sampson's death penalty sentencing retrial Gary Lee Sampson's death penalty sentencing retrial date has been set. The retrial will take place on Sept. 14 in federal court in Boston, the U.S Attorney for Massachusetts announced on Thursday. Earlier this month, the federal judge presiding over the death penalty trial of a Massachusetts man announced he is stepping down from the case. Sampson was condemned by a jury to die after pleading guilty to carjacking and killing 2 Massachusetts men in 2001. In 2011, U.S. District Court Judge Mark Wolf ordered a new sentencing trial after finding that a juror had lied about her background. The decision by Wolf to step down comes after he refused a request from prosecutors to recuse himself over his past association with an inmates' rights advocate who may testify for the defense in Sampson's retrial. In a memorandum, Wolf noted that his status as a senior judge entitles him to reduce his caseload, and the Sampson case could require him to devote several years. (source: WHDH news) ********************** Judge: Prosecution can seek death penalty for Con-ui The federal death penalty is indeed constitutional and can be sought against drug dealing gang assassin Jessie Con-ui as he faces trial for brutally murdering a correctional officer, a federal judge ruled Thursday. Con-ui, 39, is slated to stand trial in September on charges alleging he kicked correctional officer Eric Williams, a Nanticoke native, down a flight of stairs before beating and slashing him to death with 2 shanks on Feb. 25, 2013. According to prosecutors, Con-ui - who is already serving 25 years to life for a 2002 murder - was caught on surveillance video during the attack. Although Con-ui has expressed interest in pleading guilty if prosecutors drop the death penalty, which Williams' family supports, the U.S. Attorney's Office has refused to do so. As a result, his defense had sought to remove aggravating factors that could result in Con-ui being sentenced to death stricken, as well as having the death penalty ruled unconstitutional in its entirety because they alleged it has been implemented in an "arbitrary, capricious, irrational and invidious manner" and evolving standards of decency have changed society's take on capital punishment. In his ruling Thursday, U.S. District Judge A. Richard Caputo upheld the federal death penalty, noting that its legality has long been debated and upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court. Changing standards of decency have resulted in capital punishment being declared unconstitutional for minors and the mentally disabled, but it has been upheld in other cases, he said. "I am bound by the Supreme Court's determination that, but for juveniles and the intellectually disabled, the death penalty does not violate the Constitution," Caputo wrote. "And, in any event, I do not find that societal standards of decency have, in the past several months, evolved to the point where the death penalty should be declared unconstitutional in this case." Williams' father Don expressed satisfaction with Caputo's ruling. "Our family sat in court for the hearing. We were hoping he would uphold the constitutionality of it being a death penalty case," he said. "It's as it should be. It's constitutional and I feel the judge ruled correctly." Caputo did grant defense requests for information about how the government plans to establish the death penalty is warranted, but also rule prosecutors would be able to use evidence not in the outlines at trial. Con-ui's trial had been set for July but it was pushed back earlier this month to September. He remains imprisoned at ADX Florence in Arizona, where he is serving 25 years to life for a 2002 murder. (source: Wilkes-Barre (Penn.) Citizzens Voice) *************************** Death row executioners discuss life on the other side of the needle In Missouri, one of a handful of US states where the death penalty still applies, executioners are handed an envelope filled with hundred-dollar bills. On the envelopes are instructions not to open until services have been completed. The envelopes vary in weight, depending on the nature of the assignment. The nurse, for example, gets less than the anaesthesiologist. The anaesthesiologist gets less than the drug supplier. Until this week, that information was kept a closely-guarded secret. It was revealed when Buzzfeed audited payments and cash withdrawals from Missouri Director of Adult Institutions David Dormire. They found almost $US300,000 had been paid in cash to a small group of individuals since November 2013. Those individuals were responsible for ending the lives of America???s condemned. It's easy to understand why the money is paid in cash. It's part of a culture of secrecy that helps maintain the executioners' anonymity, but not every executioner wants to remain anonymous. Over the years, those brave enough to pull back the curtain have spoken about a job that few people want and even fewer escape without some form of trauma. This is the other side of the story on death row. 'DADDY HAS TO WORK LATE TONIGHT' It's not your normal 9-5 job. In fact, nothing about it is normal. Kenneth Dean, 52, described in 2000 his role on the "tie-down team" in the busiest death row chamber in Texas. He said his colleagues described him as a "teddy bear" and he had been a part of more than 130 executions. Dean told The New York Times he survived in the job by embracing the routine. That routine meant including his family - Dean had a daughter, 7, and a son, 13, at the time - in the process. "I told (my kids) 'Daddy has to work late tonight, he has an execution'," he said. His daughter followed up by asking him to explain what he did in detail. "It's hard explaining to a 7-year-old," he said. "She asked me, 'Why do you do it?' I told her, 'Sweetie, it's part of my job'." Jerry Givens executed 62 inmates in Virginia between 1982-1999. Sometimes he used lethal injection. At other times he carried out the executions by electrocution. In an interview with The Guardian in 2013, Givens described his role in detail. He explained how long he waited in the room as 3000 volts rushed through a prisoner's body and what happened on the day of an execution. "We would test the equipment frequently, whether we had an execution or not. But on the day of an execution or during that week, we would have all sorts of training. We train for the worst. We train for the man to put up resistance. Most would not, but sometimes it would get rough. "Most of the time, during the actual execution, I'm back behind the partition, behind a curtain with my equipment. I'm alone as the executioner, but we had a crew that would go and escort the inmate and place him on the gurney or in the chair and strap him down and a doctor who would confirm the heart had stopped after." He said he preferred electrocution because it's simpler and "more humane". "That's more like cutting your lights off and on. It's a button you push once and then the machine runs by itself. It relieves you from being attached to it in some ways. You can't see the current go through the body. But with chemicals, it takes a while because you're dealing with 3 separate chemicals. "You are on the other end with a needle in your hand. You can see the reaction of the body. You can see it going down the clear tube. So you can actually see the chemical going down the line and into the arm and see the effects of it. You are more attached to it. I know because I have done it. Death by electrocution in some ways seems more humane." Givens said the role affected him in ways he didn't foresee. He "never enjoyed it" but after 25 years he said he wished he never started. 'I WOULDN'T WISH THAT ON ANYBODY' Executioner Fred Allen said he "snapped" several years after leaving his role in a Texas prison. In 2000, he told documentary makers his role on the tie-down team came back to haunt him. "I was just working in the shop and all of a sudden something just triggered in me and I started shaking ... And tears, uncontrollable tears, were coming out of my eyes. And what it was, was something triggered within and it just - everybody - all of these executions all of a sudden all sprung forward." His boss, prison warden Jim Willett, said no person can never prepare themselves for their 1st execution. "The 1st one was very difficult in more than one way. I had never witnessed an execution. I wouldn't wish that on anybody. "In the 1st one I had a lot of anxiety and worried about me a lot. I got caught up in that on the 1st one. The other thing that sticks out in my head is just the matter of dealing with an execution, of having somebody who is (healthy) strapped down to a gurney and in a few minutes you're going to give a signal to an executioner that's going to end this guy's life. I was going to do that and the guy was perfectly healthy." BOTCHED EXECUTIONS, TIDE TURNING Executions don't always go to plan. Clayton Lockett's 43-minute-long botched execution is a perfect example of that. Lockett, 38, was convicted of kidnapping, beating, raping, shooting and burying alive a 19-year-old woman and sentenced to death. His execution was supposed to be simple but turned into a nightmare for the inmate, those administering the drugs and the state's politicians. At 6.23pm on April 29, 2014, Lockett was administered with a sedative. It took 10 minutes for doctors to declare him unconscious. He wasn't. Doctors tried to administer 3 lethal drugs but 20 minutes into the execution the prisoner was still not dead. Lockett was lifting his head and writhing on the bed. The execution was called off before Lockett died at 7.06pm from a heart attack. Autopsy results showed Lockett's vein had collapsed and the drugs had absorbed into his tissue. Reporter Bailey Elise McBride witnessed the execution and said Lockett was "conscious and blinking, licking his lips even after the process began". She said Lockett was unconscious at 6.33pm and "began to nod, mumble, move body" at 6.34pm. Sometimes it's the fault of bad drugs. Sometimes it's incompetence, as was the case with Dr Alan Doerhoff. Dr Doerhoff, a Missouri surgeon, was banned by a federal judge in 2008 over the execution of Robert Comer and the testimony of fellow doctors. According to the St Louis Dispatch, a doctor told a Missouri court that Dr Doerhoff oversaw more than 54 executions despite being dyslexic and "improvising" dosages of deadly drugs. Experts say they are seeing a trend across America away from the death penalty, perhaps in part because of the testimony from those on the front line. 31 states including California, Florida, Oklahoma and Utah use the death penalty. Last year Nebraska became the 19th state to abolish the death penalty. Peter Norden, a member of the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty and adjunct professor at RMIT University, told news.com.au there's been a "big shift" in the way Americans view capital punishment. "It's happening," he said. "Abolition of the death penalty is happening throughout the world quite rapidly. The states are the toughest nut to crack but it'll definitely happen. There are signs of it already." (source: news.com.au) From rhalperi at smu.edu Fri Jan 29 10:42:20 2016 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Fri, 29 Jan 2016 10:42:20 -0600 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide Message-ID: Jan. 29 TURKEY: Reinstituting death penalty but for whom? Turkey's "high society" of beauty parlor blondes was shocked over reports in social media that a 19-year-old female university student was raped in the backyard of a Bagdad Caddesi apartment by a "married man with 2 kids." Would it make any difference if the despicable crime was committed somewhere else and not at Bagdad Caddesi of Istanbul? Would it make much difference if the dastard who committed that crime was nor married or did not have any kids? Unfortunately, while this country has been boasting about "equality of all in front of the law" as George Orwell wrote in his famous "Animal Farm," some animals have always been more equal than others, particularly if they are clever enough to appear in the court room with a shaved face, behave well and tell the presiding judge how sorry he was of undertaking such a horrible crime. And, irrespective how many times he might have stabbed his wife with the intention to kill or raped a young woman and condemned her to a life-long psychological problem if nothing else, the judge rules for reduced penalty on grounds of "good behavior." If the woman raped was wearing a mini skirt (worse if she was earning her living through selling her body), rape becomes all the more excusable. If society could turn a blind eye, judges would probably let the culprits free because of the "provocative actions" of the raped women... Sheer insanity. Don't the judges who make such verdicts have mothers, sisters or a bit of respect for the other half of man? Now a campaign is underway for the reintroduction of the death penalty so that such a horrible man could face the gallows. Sorry to say but that's total nonsense. As if anyone was ever executed because of such crimes those artificial blondes of the country's artificial high society are crying about and for which they are demanding the reintroduction of the death penalty. Do they know what the death penalty is? Do they have any idea what a great struggle was waged in this country to lift the death penalty at a time when its number one public enemy, a notorious chieftain of the separatist gang, was on death row? It is as if should the country reintroduce the death penalty, rapists would be sentenced to death and such sentences would be carried out. Come on, be serious! In this country, people still remember the executions of the 1980 military era. How many of these people demanding the reinstitution of the death penalty remember the name of 17-year-old Erdal Eren who was hanged by a ruthless regime to establish a balance of executed leftists and rightists? Turkey is becoming a ghastly totalitarian autocracy. The constitution is not yet there but de facto, the country has moved to a presidential system with the tenant of the exuberant palace dictating everything about the government, civilian and military bureaucracy. The situation of the Turkish media and the climate of freedoms in the country are awful. Many cities and towns have been under curfew and there has been constant confrontation between the military and separatist terrorists since the November 2015 elections. Citizens are leaving their homes and seeking refugee elsewhere while images of towns and cities resemble those of war-ravaged Syria. It's as if the government and the president are living in another country with no such problems; they appear to be bothered with writing a new constitution and giving all powers to the presidency in a system without checks and balances. Irrespective of what penalties this country might have in its penal code, rather than reintroducing the death sentence or introducing tougher penalties in hopes of providing domestic security, the mentality must change. The Turkish justice system must be reformed and become independent from politics. Would it mean much if under all that reform touting of the past decade, a prosecutor can still demand 2 aggravated lifetime jail terms plus 30 years of imprisonment (odd and incomprehensible, I know, but that was the demand of the prosecutor) against Editor-In-Chief Can Dundar and Ankara Bureau Chief Erdem Gul of daily Cumhuriyet just because they wrote 2 stories on National Intelligence Agency (MIT) TIRs carrying some nasty material to some people in Syria? Reading the indictment against these 2 colleagues, I could not stop myself from saying, "Thank God, the death penalty was lifted." Why? Because in this country people stealing, raping, siphoning public funds, constructing buildings without any permits, occupying public land... (You continue the list with all the petty crimes that culprits can get away with but talking about these crimes now means years in prison or worse.)...Remember, this week Turkish intellectuals are commemorating the anniversary of the Jan. 24, 1993, murder of Ugur Mumcu in Ankara. Mumcu, an investigative journalist, was last writing about the arms trafficking and finances of the separatist gang. Reinstitution of death penalty... For what? To hang the journalists? (source: Column, Yusuf Kanli, Hurriyet Daily News) FRANCE/IRAN: Almost naked Femen protester 'hangs' from Paris bridge during Iran president visit----Sarah Constantin, the Femen activist who hung from the bridge, said her protest was a call for attention to those executed for political reasons A near-naked woman hung from a noose-like rope from a Paris bridge to demonstrate against Iran's record on executions during president Hassan Rouhani's visit. "Welcome Rouhani, Executioner of Freedom" read a huge banner across the pedestrian bridge over the Seine River near the Eiffel Tower. The protest on Thursday by feminist group Femen was calling attention to the large number of executions in Iran. Iran is one of the world's largest users of the death penalty, ranking 2nd behind China in 2014, according to Amnesty International. Most Iranian executions are linked to drug smuggling. Sarah Constantin, the Femen activist who hung from the bridge, said they organised the "public hanging" to call attention to those executed for political reasons and put pressure on Fran???ois Hollande, French president, to bring up human rights in his meeting with Mr Rouhani. Mr Rouhani is reaching out to European businesses on the 1st visit by an Iranian president to Europe since 1999. (source: The Telegraph) UNITED KINGDOM//TEXAS: Corpus Christi case could influence death penalty in Britain----Daniel Lopez was executed in August 2015 for the killing of Lt. Stuart Alexander.Daniel Lopez was executed in August 2015 for the killing of Lt. Stuart Alexander. A local capital murder case could play a role in bringing the death penalty back to Great Britain. The British government is considering bringing back capital punishment. So, a news crew from the BBC was in Corpus Christi this past summer doing a report on the Daniel Lopez case. He was executed in August for the death of Lt. Stuart Alexander. The officer was run over by Lopez during a police chase in March 2009. During their visit here, a BBC crew interviewed all of the officers involved in the pursuit. They also interviewed Lt. Stuart Alexander's widow, Vicki. The piece will air on BBC overseas on February 16th. There's no word on when it will be shown in the U.S. (source: KRIS TV news) PAKISTAN----execution Death row convict sent to gallows in Mianwali A death row convict was hanged in Mianwali Central Jail on Thursday. According to details, Mumrez had been convicted in a double murder case. He had killed one Fateh Khan and his son Amir in 2005 over a marriage feud. His execution was carried out early in the morning. Pakistan has carried out over 330 executions of criminals and militants since lifting a moratorium on the death penalty in 2014. The National Action Plan (NAP) was unveiled to curb militancy after Taliban assailants gunned down more than 150 people, most of them children, at Peshawar's Army Public School on December 16, 2014. In accordance with the NAP, the 6-year moratorium on the country's death penalty was lifted and the constitution amended to allow military courts to try those accused of carrying out attacks. The army has launched the Operation Zarb-e-Azb in a bid to wipe out militant bases in North Waziristan tribal area and bring an end to the bloody decade-long insurgency that has cost Pakistan thousands of lives. (source: Pakistan Today) ****************************** LHC dismisses pleas against military courts' decisions The Lahore High Court here yesterday dismissed 3 petitions filed against death sentence in terrorism cases by military courts, saying the high court had no jurisdiction to hear pleas against decisions of the military courts. A division bench comprising Justice Abdul Sami Khan and Justice Shahid Mahmood dismissed the petitions without issuing notices to the respondents. The petitions were filed against death penalty of M Ghauri, Abdul Qayyum and Said Zaman. The bench while dismissing the petitions observed that the high court could not hear the pleas under article 199 (3) of the Constitution of Pakistan. Advocate Inam-ur-Rahim had filed the petitions against the death penalty, saying proper procedure had not been followed while trying and convicting 3 men by the military courts. Momina Bibi, mother of Said Zaman, had petitioned before the high court that her son had been given death sentence by a military court. She said that the military authorities did not inform her about the charges levelled against her son. She said that proper legal procedure was not followed before conviction of her son. In an identical petition, Javaid Iqbal Ghauri pleaded to the high court that his son Md Ghauri, a student, went missing from Islamabad in 2010. He said that in 2012, he was informed that his son was in custody of intelligence agencies and was being kept in an internment centre. He noted that in 2012 he met his son who had become crippled at the time. He informed the court that on January 1, 2016, he was informed about death penalty handed down to his son. The petitioner said that he was not aware of whereabouts of his son. In her petition Kalsoom Bibi, wife of Qayyum, said that her husband went missing in 2010. She said that in 2012, she learnt that her husband was in custody of the intelligence agencies. She said that a military court had handed down death sentence to her husband and she was not aware of the charges levelled against her husband. Advocate Rahim said that the petitioners on January 4, 2016 wrote letters to military authorities asking for copies of charge sheets against the death convicts. Commenting on the decision of the LHC, Advocate Rahim said that the court had observed that the petitioners had failed to point out legal or procedural shortcomings in the trials carried out by military courts. The lawyer said that the petitioners actually had no information about any kind of trial or charges against the 3 men. Advocate Rahim said that he would challenge the decision of the LHC in the Supreme Court. (source: The Nation) ******************* Execution: Death warrants issued A district and sessions judge on Thursday issued death warrants for a prisoner on death row. The judge ordered the execution of Zulifqar on February 3 at Kot Lakhpat Jail. The court passed the order while accepting an application moved by the Kot Lakhpat Jail superintendent. The superintendent had requested the court to issue death warrants for Zulifqar as his appeals had been rejected by the president. A sessions court had awarded death penalty to Zulifqar for killing Pervaiz in 1995 in Vehari. (source: Express Tribune) BANGLADESH: 3 to die for killing man in Rangpur ---- Another gets life term A Rangpur court yesterday sentenced 3 persons to death and another to life term imprisonment for killing a man at Chhoto Kalyani in the district's Pirgachha upazila over 2 decades ago. The court delivered the verdict in the presence of the 4, court sources said.Farhad Hossain, 40, Nur Mohammad, 41, and Md Abdul, 40, of the village, got death penalty. Lifer Abdus Sattar, 70, was also fined Tk 10,000, in default to suffer 6 more months in prison. According to the prosecution, 1 of the 4 used to stalk wife of the man, who was a vegetable vendor, and the trader protested against it. Following this, they killed him in October, 1993. The victim's body was found in a paddy field on October 3, 1993.His father filed a murder case with Pirgachha Police Station the same day. (source: The Daily Star) INDONESIA: Couple held at motel for drug trafficking A couple may face the death penalty after they were caught with 74.50 grams of Ketamin and 0.62 gram of Eramin 5 during a raid at a motel at Sadong Jaya Commercial Centre here on Wednesday. Both suspects, who are locals and aged 21, were caught by police from the narcotic division around 4.30am on January 27. City police chief ACP M. Chandra said the police had earlier stopped the man on suspicion of drug activities at a parking lot at Sadong Jaya Commercial Centre. The suspect then led police to a motel room where they found the woman inside. Investigation at the scene found a box containing 22 plastic packets with substance believed to be Ketamin weighing 74.50 grams, and 2 pills believed to be Eramin 5 weighing 0.62 gram, he said, adding that police also seized 10 empty plastic bags and an electronic weighing scale. The drugs, said Chandra, were believed to have a street price of RM5,000. Further investigation also revealed that the man was jobless while the woman worked in a beauty salon, he said. Preliminary urine tests on both suspects came back positive of drug abuse for the man while the woman was negative, said Chandra. Both suspects have been detained for further investigation and the case will be investigated under Section 39B of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 for drug trafficking which carries the death penalty, and Section 12 (2) of the same act for drug possession which carries a jail term of up to 5 years and a fine upon conviction. (source: theborneopost.com) From rhalperi at smu.edu Sat Jan 30 09:19:39 2016 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Sat, 30 Jan 2016 09:19:39 -0600 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, DEL., VA., GA., FLA., ALA. Message-ID: Jan. 30 TEXAS: Prosecutor who sent man to death row wrongfully seeks reversal of his disbarment Lawyers for Charles Sebesta, the ex-prosecutor who secured the wrongful death sentence of Anthony Graves, told a panel of the State Bar of Texas on Friday that he should not be disbarred based on technicalities in the rules that govern lawyer discipline. In June, the Texas State Bar disbarred Sebesta, the former Burleson County District Attorney, finding that he had engaged in prosecutorial misconduct in Graves' wrongful conviction. Graves was sentenced to death in 1994 and spent 18 years behind bars, including 12 on death row - twice nearing the execution chamber - for a fiery multiple murder. The U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned Graves' conviction in 2010. The court found that Sebesta secured Graves' conviction in a trial that was beset with prosecutorial wrongdoing, including withholding key evidence and suborning false testimony. Sebesta appealed the State Bar's disbarment, arguing that in 2007 the agency had already ruled that there was no cause to disbar him in response to an earlier complaint about his work in the Graves case. In 2007, while Graves was still in prison, the Bar dismissed a complaint from one of regarding Sebesta's conduct in the case, finding that the statute of limitations on the alleged wrondgoing had expired. Graves filed a new complaint in 2014 after lawmakers changed the statute of limitations for prosecutors accused of misconduct. Under the new law, those who have been wrongly convicted have up to 4 years after they are released from prison to file a complaint against and seek discipline of prosecutors who engage in conduct such as withholding evidence and eliciting false testimony. Jane Webre, who was defending Sebesta before the disciplinary board, argued that State Bar rules prevent the board from making a different ruling on Graves' recent complaint after it already determined the former prosecutor wasn't subject to disbarment for his role in that conviction. "In order for the system to function properly, it's important that the Bar apply the rules fairly and consistently," Webre told the Texas State Bar Board of Disciplinary Appeals. Sebesta argued that the Bar dismissed the previous complaint not only because of the time bar but also because they found no merit in the accusations against him. Cynthia Hamilton, senior appellate lawyer for the commission for lawyer discipline at the State Bar, told the panel that Sebesta's disbarment should remain in effect. In dismissing the previous claim, she said, the Bar did not address the merits of the claims of misconduct, only the statute of limitations, which lawmakers have since extended. "It was Mr. Sebesta's own flawed analysis of the definition of just cause that led him to that conclusion," Hamilton said. Additionally, she said if the disciplinary rules were applied as Sebesta contends they should be, lawyers would not face discipline in instances were additional evidence of serious wrongdoing came to light after an initial complaint was dismissed. Such a situation, she said, would give lawyers - who are not required to cooperate with State Bar investigators - an incentive to conceal information. Further, she argued, lawmakers changed the statute of limitations governing prosecutor discipline in 2013 specifically to allow the kind of sanction Sebesta is facing. "The Legislature gave the [Chief Disciplinary Counsel] its marching orders," Hamilton said. Graves and Sebesta both attended the hearing on Friday. Sebesta referred reporters to his lawyers for comment. Steve McConnico, another lawyer representing Sebesta, said that the Board???s ruling would give prosecutors who face potential sanctions for misconduct clarity about the process. "It's going to clear up some questions about what is finality," he said. The Board's decision on Sebesta's appeal, he said, will be final. Graves said he said he is confident the panel will uphold Sebesta's disbarment. And their decision, he said, will have consequences for prosecutors statewide. "If they uphold the ruling, it says we're not going to allow prosecutors to just do what they want in the courtroom and not be held accountable," Graves said. "If they reinstate him, it says to the public that we really don't care about you, we just protect our own." (source: Dallas Morning News) DELAWARE: Death penalty makes 2016 seem like 1816 Why kill people who kill people to show killing is wrong? That's a question I asked in a column way back in 2011, after convicted murderer Robert W. Jackson III became Delaware's 1st execution since 2005. Jackson was just 18 and a drug addict when he killed 47-year-old Elizabeth Girardi during a botched robbery. Jackson was given the death penalty and executed. Meanwhile Thomas Capano, convicted of killing 28-year-old Ann Marie Fahey and shoving her body into a cooler, ended up with life without parole. Capano was rich and white. Jackson was poor and black. You tell me why they ended up with their respective fates. I bring all this up because legislators once again decided to cling to a 19th century form of justice by voting down a bill that would have abolished the death penalty in Delaware. In recent years, this has become an annual game of bills getting voted down amid the heartfelt pleas from relatives of people who have suffered. "He victimized Lindsey again and again," a friend of the Bonistall family whose daughter, Lindsey, was raped and murdered in 2005 by James E. Cooke Jr., Mary Cairns said. "Her killer deserves the death penalty. Please don't fail us now." Of course, the circumstances are horrible, and it's easy to allow the notion of revenge to wash over you as Cooke waits for his inevitable execution on death row. But justice and revenge are two very separate things, and at this point the desire for payback seems to be the only justification for keeping this arcane and brutal form of punishment around. Despite what police officers say, there is no evidence the death penalty acts as a deterrent for criminals to avoid murdering someone. Plus, putting criminals on death row is far more costly than sentencing them to life without parole. The death penalty is also applied in a discriminatory manner, overwhelmingly targeting poor and minority defendants. In Delaware, 70 percent of all death sentences were imposed on cases where the victim was white, despite the fact the majority of murder victims during the same period were black. And if that's not enough to convince you, innocent people are killed on death row. Columbia University law professor James Liebman and a team of students published a 6-year study in the Human Rights Law Review that concluded Carlos DeLuna, executed in 1989 for stabbing a gas station clerk to death, was innocent. They note that shoddy police work, the failure to pursue a similar-looking suspect and a weak, government-provided defense led to DeLuna's downfall. Since 1976, 156 people awaiting their execution have been exonerated and freed, while 1,426 have been executed. That means for about every 10 inmates put to death, 1 was found innocent and freed. Is vengeance still a good enough reason to justify the death of an innocent person at the hands of the state? The obvious answer is no, and as a result neighboring states have done away with this cruel form of punishment. New Jersey banned the death penalty in 2007, and Maryland banned it in 2013. Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf issued a moratorium last year calling the death penalty, "A flawed system [that has proved itself to be] ineffective, unjust and expensive." Gov. Jack Markell has called the death penalty an "instrument of imperfect justice" and vowed to sign any repeal into law. Yet it continues, still unable to overcome the cabal of support from prosecutors and law enforcement officials who continue to wield too heavy a hand on our public policy. I'm not a religious person, but last time I checked the state of Delaware isn't God. And as one of the characters in Russian author Anton Chekhov's "The Bet" notes, "It has not the right to take away what it cannot restore when it wants to." He wrote those words in 1889. Welcome to the 21st century. (source: Rob Tornoe, newsworks.org) VIRGINIA: Trial for Lloyd Welch pushed back to October----The trial was scheduled to begin in March The man charged with murder in the Lyon sisters case appeared in Bedford County court Friday. A judge granted a motion delaying the start of the trial for Lloyd Welch to October 18. The trial was scheduled to begin in March. Lloyd Welch is charged with 2 counts of 1st-degree felony murder, as well as abduction with the intent to defile. Sheila and Katherine Lyon disappeared from a D.C.-area mall in 1975. Investigators believe the Lyon sisters were brought to Bedford County after being kidnapped. Welch was in court for the hearing. He sat quietly and wore a jail-issued jumpsuit. The judge also granted motions allowing for an expert criminal investigator, a mental health expert, and a mitigation specialist. A gag order was also placed on everyone involved in the case. The commonwealth is asking for the death penalty. (source: WDBH news) GEORGIA----impending execution Condemned murderer Brandon Astor Jones loses another appeal An appellate court on Friday rejected another attempt by Brandon Astor Jones to stop his execution scheduled for Tuesday for the 1979 murder of a Cobb County convenience store manager. Late in the afternoon, a judge in Butts County, which is where Georgia's execution chamber is located, said the issues raised in Jones' appeal were decided years ago and cannot be revisited. Jones' lawyers argued in the appeal that it's rare for a murderer to be sentenced to die if the crime that made the case eligible for the death sentence was armed robbery. A death sentence can be given only in certain circumstances, such as when certain felonies were committed at the same time as the murder, if the crime was exceptionally horrendous, or if a law enforcement officer was killed. "Even at the time of Mr. Jones' original sentence in 1979, a death sentence for a murder that occurred in those circumstances was an anomaly," his lawyers wrote. "Since the time of Mr. Jones' crime, a death sentence for a murder that occurs in the context of a place-of-business armed robbery has fallen into complete extinction," they wrote. "A death penalty has not been imposed in Georgia for a murder committed during an armed robbery in the last 20 years." They wrote Jones' execution would be "unconstitutionally disproportionate and excessive" because "in Georgia today" his crime would not be considered the worst of the worst and deserving of capital punishment. Jones also makes the same arguments in his clemency petition filed with the State Board of Pardons and Paroles. The Parole Board will hear from Jones' family and attorneys Monday morning. Tackett's widow and daughter, along with Cobb County prosecutors, are scheduled to speak to the board Monday afternoon. The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday rejected Jones' challenge concerning the state law that keeps secret the identity of the pharmacist who will make the pentobarbital that will be used to put him to death. Jones and co-defendant Van Roosevelt Jones were both sentenced to die for murdering Roger Tackett, who had stayed after closing at the Tenneco convenience store and gas station to finish paperwork. Tackett was shot 5 times early Father's Day morning almost 37 years ago. Jones and Solomon were immediately arrested because a Cobb County police officer was outside the store at the time, having driven a stranded motorist to the Tenneco to use the pay phone. Solomon was electrocuted Feb. 20, 1985, while Jones' execution was delayed when a federal judge ordered him re-sentenced because the jury that convicted him and voted for death in 1979 had a Bible in the room during deliberations. Jones was re-sentenced to death in 1997. Jones is the oldest man on Georgia's death row and stands to be the oldest person the state has executed. His 73rd birthday is Valentine???s Day. **************************** Watch killer die? Victim's kin won't. Co-defendant's son might The widow and daughter of the man Brandon Astor Jones murdered in 1979 don't plan to watch his execution, scheduled for Tuesday evening. They will be together at the Cherokee County home of Katie King, who was 7 when her father was killed. "I will be at peace, being with my mom," said King, referring to Christine Bixon. Bixon - who was Christine Tackett until she remarried 4 years after her husband's murder - said she did not attend the execution of Jones' co-defendant Van Roosevelt Solomon 30 years ago and she doesn't plan to attend the one set for Tuesday at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison outside Jackson. But Zuberi Solomon, who was 2 when his father and Jones murdered convenience store manager Roger Tackett, has asked the Department of Corrections to allow him to be a witness. He has not received an answer. He said he wanted to "see the face of the person that destroyed 2 families." "They've lost their father (and husband)," Solomon said. "You feel sympathy for them. I definitely know what it feels like. Senseless." Zuberi Solomon says all the blame for the murder should go to Jones and not his father, a 1-time Baptist preacher who by then had a painting business. Jones worked for Van Roosevelt Solomon. Zuberi Solomon said Jones forced his father at gunpoint to drive from Atlanta???s West End to Cobb County so he could buy drugs and it was Jones who decided they should break into the Tenneco on Delk Road. He said his father did not shoot Tackett, even though police found 2 guns that had been fired and gunshot residue on the hands of both men. Solomon and Jones were arrested because Cobb County police Officer Ray Kendall was outside the store when Tackett was shot. The officer had driven a stranded motorist to the Tenneco to use a pay phone and became suspicious when he found Tackett's car parked in front with the driver's side door open. Kendall was looking through a window when Jones peeked out of the storeroom door. Kendall found Tackett lying in a pool of his own blood inside the storeroom, shot once in the thumb and twice in the hip and the head. Each suspect blamed the other for firing the shot that killed Tackett. Van Roosevelt Solomon, who had been in prison in Oklahoma, was electrocuted in 1985. (source for both: Atlanta Journal-Constitution) FLORIDA: Lawmakers have chance to fix state death penalty - but will they? In the next few weeks, Florida lawmakers have a chance to rewrite the state's death penalty law, addressing many of the problems that judges, lawyers and legal scholars have highlighted over the years. But that's not likely to happen. Instead, the House and Senate are expected to move forward on bills that would more narrowly address the constitutional flaw that the U.S. Supreme Court found earlier this month. In the case of Hurst vs. Florida, the nation's highest court ruled Florida's death penalty procedure is invalid because it allows judges - not juries - to decide death sentences. The ruling is the latest example of the federal court finding fundamental problems in Florida's death penalty process and raising immediate questions about the Feb. 11 scheduled execution of Michael Lambrix as well as the fate of the other 388 prisoners on Florida's death row. Some have suggested it also gives Florida a chance to enact a long-term fix for the state's death penalty law. "What the U.S. Supreme Court has done has given the Legislature an opportunity to review this whole process and try to fix it because it has lots of problems," said retired Circuit Judge O.H. Eaton Jr. of Sanford, a death penalty expert. "This is your opportunity," Eaton told the Senate Criminal Justice Committee. "If you fix those problems then you're going to have as good a death penalty law as there is in the country. I'm not saying it will be perfect but it will be as good as any in the country." The immediate focus of lawmakers will be on the process where a jury decides on factors, known as aggravators, that are used to determine whether the death penalty applies, although judges ultimately decide whether defendants should be put to death or sentenced to life in prison. At least 1 aggravator must be found, with the law providing up to 15 possible aggravators. A broader fix would involve narrowing the field of aggravators, which originally started with 5 when the death penalty was reinstated in the 1970s. But state prosecutors are likely to oppose that. Florida is also an "outlier" among the states because it is only one of three that allow a jury to recommend a death penalty with less than a unanimous vote, along with Alabama and Delaware. But that is not likely to be addressed by lawmakers because it was not part of the Hurst decision, although many are urging the Legislature to consider it. In 2005, the Florida Supreme Court asked the Legislature to consider requiring a unanimous jury recommendations, with many judges, legal scholars and defense lawyers noting unanimous jury decisions are required in all other legal cases. "Florida requires unanimous verdicts in every situation except the recommendation of death," Eaton said. But Brad King, the state attorney for the judicial circuit that includes Ocala, told senators that the Florida Prosecuting Attorneys Association would oppose moving to a unanimous recommendation but would support changing the system, which now allows as little as a 7-5 majority, to a minimum 9-3 decision. The 2 lawmakers who head the House and Senate criminal justice panels said they will move quickly to preserve Florida's death penalty. "We will comply with the Supreme Court opinion," said Rep. Carlos Trujillo, R-Miami, whose Criminal Justice subcommittee will discuss a death penalty fix at a meeting scheduled for Tuesday. Trujillo said he does not expect a "sweeping" bill but rather legislation aimed directly at correcting the flaws cited by the federal court. "We will keep the death penalty in Florida," said Senate Criminal Justice Chairman Greg Evers, R-Baker. Another major issue facing lawmakers is how the Hurst ruling impacts all of the prisoners already sentenced to death, with the immediate focus on Lambrix, who is scheduled to be executed for 2 murders in Glades County. Eaton has suggested that all the prisoners whose cases are still on their initial appeals may have their death sentences converted to life terms by the state Supreme Court. The status of death row inmates whose appeals are exhausted or are in later stages is more in doubt. Evers said some guidance will come from the Florida Supreme Court, which will hear those issues in the Lambrix case on Tuesday and will have to make some type of a decision before the Feb. 11 execution date. Lawmakers must reach agreement on a bill before the March 12 scheduled ending of the 2016 session. (source: The Ledger) ALABAMA: Prosecutors will seek death penalty for Kenyatta Martin, charged with killing girlfriend in 2013 Prosecutors said today they will seek the death penalty for a Huntsville man charged with killing his girlfriend during an attempted sexual assault. Kenyatta Deshon Martin, 32, is charged with capital murder in the death of A???viona Bronson on Aug. 12, 2013. Bronson's body was found in the Executive Lodge Apartments in Huntsville. Martin was arrested after his wife reportedly called 911, saying Martin had told her he had killed someone and was planning to kill himself. Martin was indicted last month and Madison County Circuit Judge Alan Mann held a status hearing this morning to work out trial scheduling. Madison County Assistant District Attorney Tim Gann told the court the state plans to seek the death penalty for Martin. Mann offered 2 possible trial dates in late September and October. The 2 sides were directed to discuss scheduling and notify the court. Gann said following the hearing he wouldn't get into the facts of the case against Martin, but said pursuing a death sentence is justified. "We try to evaluate case by case, not every capital case is something we seek the death penalty on, just certain cases we feel like warrant that, and this one, reviewing it, I felt like it did," Gann said. Martin is represented by Huntsville attorneys Chris Messervy and Bruce Gardner. (source: WHNT news) ******************** South Huntsville strangling suspect will be tried on Halloween A Madison County judge today moved the trial of a man accused of strangling his wife and young son in south Huntsville to Oct. 31 - Halloween. Stephen Marc Stone had been scheduled for trial in February. Circuit Judge Donna Pate moved the trial after a status conference in the Madison County Courthouse at which Stone appeared. Because the trial could take up to 2 weeks, the move was to find that much time in the trial calendars of prosecutors and defense attorneys. Stone is charged with capital murder in the February 2013 strangulation deaths of his wife, Krista Stone and their son, 7-year-old Zachary Stone, at the home they rented on Chicamauga Trail in south Huntsville. Madison County District Attorney Rob Broussard has said the DA's office will seek the death penalty. According to AL.com news partner WHNT News 19, defense attorneys said today they will file a motion arguing that a recent Supreme Court decision makes Alabama's death penalty law unconstitutional. In January, the high court ruled in a Florida case that a jury, "not a judge, must find each fact necessary to impose a sentence of death," in the words of Justice Sonia Sotomayor. Alabama's death penalty law also gives a judge the final say on the penalty. Defense attorneys Brian Clark and Larry Marsili will file a motion "addressing those issues," Judge Pate's order said, "to which the State of Alabama will respond." The killings took place early on Feb. 24, 2013. Stone later told police he felt as if something had "broken" inside of him before the killings. He is expected to plead not guilty by reason of insanity. (source: al.com) *********************** Death penalty trial for Stephen Marc Stone, Chicamauga Trail suspect, moved to Halloween Halloween is now the expected start date for the capital murder, death penalty trial of Stephen Marc Stone. Stone is charged with killing his wife, Krista Stone, and 7-year-old son, Zachary, on Feb. 24, 2013, at their home on Chicamauga Trail in south Huntsville. Huntsville Police Department investigators said Stone turned himself into Leeds police the day after the killings and confessed to the crime. He left his 2 young daughters, unharmed with his parents in Leeds. Stone was set to go on trial on Feb. 22, but his attorney Brian Clark is scheduled to try an unrelated death penalty case beginning Feb. 8. That case involves John Clayton Owens, charged with killing his 91-year-old neighbor on Bide-a-wee Drive in 2011. Stone is expected to plead not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect - basically an insanity defense - but reports from defense experts concerning Stone's mental health have not been completed and provided to prosecutors. Stone was in court today, looking much more gaunt than in his last court appearance. He rocked in his seat during the hearing and often appeared to be laughing silently at something unrelated to the court proceedings. He also set his head face down on the defense table more than once. In a court hearing this morning, Madison County Circuit Judge Donna Pate settled on the Oct. 31 trial date. The defense also told the court it will file a motion arguing Alabama's current death penalty system is unconstitutional, based on the U.S. Supreme Court???s ruling in the case Hurst vs. Florida. The high court ruled in that case a jury, not a judge must have the final word in sentencing. Alabama's system is similar to Florida's. Alabama law requires that after finding a defendant guilty the jury makes a recommendation about whether the defendant should be given the death penalty or life in prison without parole. It takes 10 of 12 jurors for the recommendation to be the death penalty. But, Alabama law also gives the judge the last word. The judge can override a jury verdict recommending a life without parole sentence and impose a death sentence. (source: WHNT news) From rhalperi at smu.edu Sat Jan 30 09:21:13 2016 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Sat, 30 Jan 2016 09:21:13 -0600 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----KAN., UTAH, CALIF., USA Message-ID: Jan. 30 KANSAS: 2nd jury questioning would probe thoughts on death penalty A Franklin County District Court judge said a 2nd voir dire wouldn't be a waste of time if it helped Kyle Flack clarify jurors' stances on the death penalty. Judge Eric W. Godderz said he was leaning toward granting the process - though no action was taken - after a 2nd round of arguments from attorneys Friday afternoon in the west courtroom of Franklin County District Court, 301 S. Main St., Ottawa. Flack, 30, faces capital murder and other charges in connection with the spring 2013 quadruple homicide at 3197 Georgia Road, west of Ottawa. The case is slated to hit the jury trial stage Feb. 17. Timothy Frieden, Flack's leading defense attorney, made the request for a 2nd voir dire between the guilt phase and a possible penalty phase. The request stems from Frieden's concern that jurors won't fairly weigh mitigating factors with the prosecution's aggravating factors, such as criminal history, if jurors make up their minds about how Flack should be penalized once evidence unfolds. Mitigating factors and aggravating factors are presented during the penalty phase of a criminal trial, that in Flack's case would help guide the jury to impose either the death penalty or a life sentence. "The law is very clear a person is not a proper juror if they've already made up their mind," Frieden said. Godderz's consideration of Frieden's motion comes just days before panels of prospective jurors are expected to appear in district court for jury selection starting Feb. 1. The court and attorneys will narrow down the jury pool from about 100 people to 12 jurors and 6 alternates. Typically in criminal law cases, the purpose of voir dire is to determine before the trial starts whether jurors are death qualifying, or not opposed to the death penalty. Godderz said hypothetical questions can be posed next week that simulate what both sides might present in the event of a penalty phase, but do not divulge case specific evidence. However, Frieden said he would need to probe jurors a little deeper to get more than a "yes" or "no" opinion on death penalty. At Godderz's request, Frieden drafted multiple questions he would ask during a second voir dire, including one about whether jurors could consider mercy as a mitigating factor. "Are the jurors at that point in time so bound by aggravating factors they can't consider mitigating factors?" he said. "The only thing left is mercy and if they can't consider that, it's over." The state's single proposed question filed Thursday by Victor Braden, deputy attorney general, is "Will you base your decision on whether or not to impose the death penalty on the facts of this case and the law as the judge instructs?" Prosecution has objected to the defense's motion, stating the second jury questioning would come at a delicate stage in the trial. Braden said instructions read by the court before the trial are designed to address Frieden's concerns. Additionally, the prosecution has argued the process would lack framework because it would be the 1st time practiced in Kansas. "Everything that the court has looked up says there shouldn't be a 2nd voir dire," Godderz said, adding that Kansas statute says a single jury decides both guilt and penalty. Godderz said he would make a final ruling within the 2 weeks before the jury trial. (source: Ottawa Herald) UTAH: New death penalty bill moving through Utah Legislature A new death penalty bill is making its way through the Utah Legislature. Rep. Paul Ray, who made waves last year with his successful bill reinstating the firing squad, is sponsoring House Bill 136. It would make aggravated human trafficking a capital offense if a child dies in the process of being trafficked for forced labor or sex. "If we really want a deterrent to it, you have to take this step," Ray told 2News. Ray's bill would open the death penalty to anyone who was involved in trafficking that child - not just the person responsible for the child's death. "Whether you're the one that abducted the child or coerced the child or you're the one that was pimping the child at the time, you're potentially going to face the death penalty," said Ray. The legislation has been read on the House floor and has been referred to the House Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Committee. But the bill is also attracting some stiff opposition. Tune in to 2News at 10:00 to hear from some who don't think it's a good idea. (source: KUTV news) CALIFORNIA----new death sentence Death ordered for man who slaughtered Hawaiian Gardens family A Montebello man who murdered a former girlfriend, her brother and father during an early morning shooting rampage in Hawaiian Gardens nearly six years ago was sentenced Friday to death. Joseph Mercado. Joseph Mercado."Each killing was cold and calculated ... Their (the victims') pleas for mercy were ignored," Superior Court Judge Raul A. Sahagun said in rejecting the defense's request to modify the jury's recommendation of a death sentence for Joseph Mercado, 32, to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Mercado was convicted last Nov. 12 of 1st-degree murder for the May 6, 2010, killings of his ex-girlfriend, Serena Tarin, 23, and her father, Alfredo Tarin, 53, and 19-year-old brother, Alfred "A.D." Tarin. The same jury recommended a week later that he be sentenced to death. Just before being sentenced, Mercado apologized to the victims' wife and mother, Lucianna, who walked out during his brief statement. "Lucianna, I'm sorry for everything I've done ... I want you to know that I did not want to kill everybody in that house," he said, noting that the youngest victim was "like a little brother to me that I never had." Lucianna Tarin - who was injured in the attack and wears her left arm in a sling - told the judge that she can no longer drive or work and that her grandchildren are afraid to hug her out of fear that they will hurt her. She called Mercado "a cold-blooded killer" and said he will "burn in hell" for what he did. Serena Tarin's sister, Valerie Rodriguez, said the family experienced a "living nightmare" that morning, calling the man who had once been welcomed into the family's home an "evil monster that caused us so much harm and pain" and "wanted us all dead." "I hate you, Joseph, and I hate you for everything you've done to my family," she said, speaking directly to the defendant. She told the judge that a death sentence for Mercado will "help us end this horrible chapter of our lives," and said Mercado needs to stop sending letters to the family home. Deputy District Attorney Robert Villa told the judge that Mercado has made attempts to send mail through third parties to the family despite a court order. The judge reiterated that order, saying that Mercado is not to try to contact the victims' family. In urging the judge to go along with the jury's recommendation of a death sentence, the prosecutor called domestic violence a huge problem in the U.S. and said "what the defendant did in this case is taking it to a whole new level." "He showed no respect for life. He was on a mission to gun down anyone he saw," Villa told the judge. One of Mercado's attorneys, Daniel Nardoni, told the judge that there was "no motion any greater for a judge to rule on" than the automatic motion to reduce Mercado's punishment to life in prison. "You literally have the power to allow someone to live," Nardoni said, adding that life in prison was "not a walk in the park." The judge sided with the prosecution, saying that the crimes demonstrated "extensive planning and sophistication" and occurred in the early morning to increase the possibility of a surprise attack. Mercado gave meat to the family's dogs to stop them from barking, shot the family's patriarch "in cold blood" with an assault rifle, broke into the home, executed his former girlfriend at "point-blank range" after bursting through the bathroom door where she and 2 other family members, including their 8-month-old baby, were locked inside and then shot and killed his ex- girlfriend's brother, the judge said. At the start of the trial's penalty phase, jurors heard recordings of frantic 911 calls made by Serena Tarin and her younger brother shortly before they were killed. "I need an officer here. My ex-boyfriend's here and he's not welcome here ... He has no business being here ... I think he's trying to get inside," she reported in the call made at 3:41 a.m. 'Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God,' she said frantically after popping sounds can be heard in the background. "Please hurry. Oh my God, please hurry." The 911 operator asked, 'What was that noise?' with the young woman responding, "I don't know" and later informing them of Mercado's name and age when asked his identity. She is later heard saying, "Joseph, don't do this, please don't do this ... the baby," referring to their child. As the recording was being played in court, Mercado sat with his hands covering his face and appeared to be crying after jurors heard the recording. The panel also heard a recording of a 911 call made by the woman's brother shortly before he was killed. "You'll hear A.D. take his last breath," the prosecutor told jurors. "Please hurry, please help, please!" the 19-year-old could be heard pleading in the recorded 911 call in which he reported gunshots. A 911 operator could later be heard repeatedly asking if he was OK as a woman screamed in the background. Authorities said shortly after the crime that Mercado was involved in a child custody dispute with his ex-girlfriend and tried to set the home on fire. Mercado then broke into the back of the home and opened fire with an assault rifle, killing the mother of his young son and the other 2 victims. 2 others, including Lucianna Tarin, were wounded. About a half-dozen other family members escaped, with some hiding on the roof. The couple's son was later adopted by Serena Tarin's sister and her husband. Mercado was shot by a Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy as he emerged from the home that morning. Along with the 3 murders, Mercado was convicted of 3 counts of attempted murder and 1 count each of 1st-degree burglary with a person present, shooting at an inhabited dwelling, child abuse and arson of an inhabited structure, and jurors found true the special circumstance allegations of multiple murders, murder while lying in wait and arson during the commission of a murder. He was acquitted of 1 count of assault with a machine gun or assault rifle on a peace officer. (source: mynewsla.com) *************** Penalty Trial Begins Monday for Gang Member Who Robbed, Killed MoVal Man----A Riverside jury deliberated only a few hours Wednesday before convicting 40-year-old Romaine Ulyses Martin of 1st-degree murder. A penalty trial will get underway Monday for a Los Angeles gang member who robbed and participated in the fatal shooting of a Moreno Valley man. A Riverside jury deliberated only a few hours Wednesday before convicting 40-year-old Romaine Ulyses Martin of 1st-degree murder, and finding true special circumstance allegations of killing for the benefit of a street gang and killing a witness to a crime. Martin's co-defendant, 25-year-old Deontray Robinson of Palm Desert, was tried separately in November and was also convicted of murder with special circumstance allegations in the 2011 slaying of 29-year-old Jerry L. Mitchell Jr. Robinson's 1st penalty trial ended with a hung jury. He's facing a penalty retrial in the next 3 months. Both defendants are facing either life in prison without parole or the death penalty. They're each being held without bail at the Robert Presley Jail in Riverside. According to prosecutors, the 2 defendants targeted Mitchell because they learned from a fellow member of the Black P Stone Bloods gang that he was loaded with cash. Martin and Robinson attacked the victim on the night of May 27, 2011, outside his apartment in the 12000 block of Carnation Lane. The pair pistol-whipped him until he managed to run into his residence and barricade himself in the bathroom, prosecutors said. Martin fired a shot into the space before he and Robinson left the location, taking a number of Mitchell's belongings with them, according to the prosecution. There was no bundle of cash in the victim's possession. "After the assailants left, Mitchell went to a neighbor's apartment and called 911," according to the District Attorney's Office. "Mitchell then returned to his apartment to wait for (sheriff's deputies) to get there. While waiting, defendant Robinson came back and fired multiple shots at Mitchell, killing him." The victim died at the scene. Martin's 1st trial ended after weeks of testimony in September when the defense belatedly notified Superior Court Judge Bernard Schwartz that he had served as Martin's public defender in a 1997 robbery trial. Schwartz declared a mistrial and referred the case to the courtroom of Superior Court Judge Candace Beason, who handled the most recent trial and will preside in the penalty phase. Martin has prior convictions for robbery, being a felon in possession of a firearm and driving under the influence, according to court records. (source: patch.com) ******************** Penalty trial in home invasion murder begins Wednesday The penalty phase in a 2011 Moreno Valley home invasion robbery and shooting death is expected to start Wednesday, Feb. 3, where a jury will be asked to recommend the death penalty or life in prison without parole for 1 defendant. A Riverside County Superior Court jury found Romaine Ulyses Martin, 41, of Moreno Valley, guilty of charges including murder, robbery, being a convicted felon in possession of a fire arm and commission of a crime in furtherance of a criminal street gang on Wednesday, Jan. 27, according to court records. Riverside County Deputy District Attorney Jon Brandon told jurors during the trial that Martin controlled and influenced gang members half his age and ordered another previously convicted participate, Deontray Robinson, to go back to the Carnation Lane condominium after leaving with the loot to kill victim Jerry Mitchell Jr. who knew Robinson. Mitchell, 29, had no gang ties, but the robbers mistakenly thought he had $10,000 cash stashed in his home. At Robinson's trial last year, there was testimony that he regretted not killing a neighbor who witnessed the shooting. Defense attorney John Dorr told jurors that prosecution witnesses had motives to change their stories and lie, putting Martin at the crime scene as an active participant. One witness was not charged in the case and another may get only a 12-year prison sentence for his role in exchange for his cooperation. A jury deadlocked in the penalty phase for Robinson, now 26, of Palm Desert. A hearing is scheduled next month on a possible retrial to recommend the death penalty or life in prison. (source: Press-Enterprise) USA: Things to Know: The Death Penalty and Execution Drugs Executions in the United States have been on a fairly steady decline in recent years, dropping to 28 last year - the lowest since 1991. A peak of 98 came in 1999. Difficulty obtaining lethal injection drugs after many manufacturers stopped selling their products for use in executions has made it tough for some states to execute existing death row inmates. Other reasons for the decline include better legal representation for those facing the death penalty, life-in-prison sentences without parole, and the high cost of death penalty prosecutions. Georgia is set to execute its oldest death row inmate Tuesday. Brandon Astor Jones, 72, was convicted in the 1979 killing of convenience store manager Roger Tackett. Van Roosevelt Solomon, who was also convicted and sentenced to death for the killing, was executed in Georgia's electric chair in February 1985. Here's a look at some death penalty facts and figures. WHO ALLOWS THE DEATH PENALTY? Capital punishment is legal in 31 states. But only 6 states - Florida, Georgia, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas and Virginia - carried out executions in 2015. Texas had the most with 13, followed by Missouri with 6 and Georgia with 5. Michigan has the longest-standing ban on the death penalty; the state did away with capital punishment in 1846. 7 states have abolished the death penalty in the past 10 years: Nebraska (2015), Maryland (2013), Connecticut (2012), Illinois (2011), New Mexico (2009), New Jersey (2007) and New York (2007). But Nebraska's ban faces a test. Death penalty supporters launched a successful drive to get the issue on this year's general election ballot. And New Mexico's ban wasn't retroactive, leaving 2 people on death row. ---- FALLING NUMBERS Over the past decade, the number of executions has fallen pretty steadily in the U.S. 2006: 53 2007: 42 2008: 37 2009: 52 2010: 46 2011: 43 2012: 43 2013: 39 2014: 35 2015: 28 The last execution of 2007 was in September in Texas; after that, executions were effectively halted for about seven months while U.S. Supreme Court considered a challenge to a lethal injection method. The court in April 2008 upheld the method, and executions resumed with a May 2008 death in Georgia. That timeline helps explain why the number of executions nationwide dipped more dramatically in 2007 and 2008 and then increased for 2009. ---- EXECUTION DRUGS AND SECRECY LAWS States have scrambled in recent years to find sources of lethal injection drugs after pharmaceutical manufacturers, many of them in Europe, stopped selling their products for use in executions, citing ethical concerns. That has led a number of states to enact laws that shield the identities of their drug suppliers. The states say pharmacies and companies that are willing to make the drugs fear retaliation from death penalty opponents if their identities are made public. (source: Associated Press) From rhalperi at smu.edu Sat Jan 30 09:22:00 2016 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Sat, 30 Jan 2016 09:22:00 -0600 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide Message-ID: Jan. 30 SAUDI ARABIA----execution Saudi Arabia executes another prisoner, bringing to 55 number of convicts put to death this year Saudi Arabia on Thursday executed one of its citizens for murder, bringing to 55 the number of convicts put to death this year. Authorities in the southwestern region of Aseer carried out the death sentence against Owaidhah al-Saadi, the interior ministry said in a statement. A court found him guilty of shooting dead another Saudi following a dispute, it said. Most executions in Saudi Arabia are done by beheading with a sword. The kingdom on January 2 executed 47 people in a single day for "terrorism". According to an AFP tally, Saadi is among 8 other locals and foreigners put to death this year. New York-based Human Rights Watch on Wednesday urged the country to abolish its "ghastly" beheadings. "Saudi Arabia made positive changes for women and foreign workers in 2015, but these steps were overshadowed by its continued use of cruel punishments such as flogging and beheading," HRW's Sarah Leah Whitson said as the watchdog released its 2016 world report. "Saudi Arabia should reform its justice system and halt these ghastly punishments." Last year the kingdom executed 153 people, mostly for drug trafficking or murder, according to an AFP tally. Amnesty International says the number of executions in Saudi Arabia in 2015 was the highest in 2 decades. The kingdom practices a strict Islamic legal code under which murder, drug trafficking, armed robbery, rape and apostasy are all punishable by death. (source: therakyatpost.com) *********************** Artists to Saudi authorities: Free Ashraf Fayadh note: Ashraf Fayadh is a Palestinan poet and artist living in Saudi Arabia who has been sentenced to death on a charge of apostasy, or renouncing Islam. Saudi authorities claim his poetry has undermined Islam and spread atheism. In the following article, his friend, Halifax musician and filmmaker Fateh Ahmed, pleads for his innocence and calls for his release. There is an Amnesty International petition supporting Ashraf Fayadh at https://www.amnesty.org.uk/actions/free-ashraf-fayadh-saudi-arabia-palestinian-poetry-apostasy-execution Abha, where I met Ashraf Fayadh, is a small city in southwestern Saudi Arabia. It's rich in historical landmarks and breathtaking landscapes and is an artistic hub for poets, composers and painters. Saudi Arabia sponsors arts and culture by establishing innovative programs to match intermediate and professional artists. Its scholarships to European and North American countries have also brought to light talented artists such as Ahmed Mater and Ashraf, whose works have been acknowledged by British and New York museums. In early 2002, I met Ashraf, an artist and poet, through a very good friend, Ahmed Mater. Since then, we've introduced each other's art and discussed many thoughts and ideas on helping younger generations pursue their art. Ashraf was very welcoming and very open. You would always find him humble, patient and willing to exchange new artistic information. During those times, I demonstrated my 3rd symphony and a few additional concertos to Ashraf, who was delighted and made interesting remarks that related to his own work. He said the music sometimes reminded him of his own home in Palestine. For the next couple of years we would usually meet at local coffee shops in downtown Abha and discuss the latest in arts and technology. This is how I met Shaheen bin Ali Abu Mismar, who was a very quiet person and shared little information, mostly observing rather than taking an active role in any discussion. He seemed a bit controversial, neither an artist nor a contributor in any shape or form. Later we came to know he had strong ties with Saudi secret police as well as with the local court system. He started to attend most of our gatherings and discussions. Ashraf's book, Instructions Within, is a collection of thoughts and ideas, written philosophically, touching on matters that deal with purification of the soul, looking into the inner core of ourselves and the values we represent and how can we transform what we've learned into meaningful experiences. The book is an easy read and organized mostly in a diary format relating to Ashraf's background and personal life, including the adaptation process of a Palestinian refugee in an unwelcoming world and looking into the soul in search of equality and equal opportunities. Contrary to the state accusations against Ashraf, of insulting the belief and of apostasy, the book (which I have read cover to cover) is about reflecting on oneself and doesn???t address Islam or Muslims. Heated discussions took place in 2013 at a local coffee shop between Ashraf and Shaheen and were then taken to another level. Ashraf was targeted not for his art, but attacked on his character. Consequently he was sentenced to death on the claim that he renounced Islam. It's inhumane and degrading to have been given the maximum penalty for apostasy in a case that was very weak even based on Saudi Sharia Law. Many approached Shaheen to change his opinion and withdraw the case against Ashraf, but he would not change his mind. Islam is a religion that promotes peace, unity and understanding. It's a religion of mercy, not punishment. Ashraf Fayadh sought refuge in Saudi Arabia from the conflict in Gaza and it is another tragedy to see him suffering once again. Both Ashraf and the Saudi judicial system are victims in this case. This is not a regular everyday case. It is a demonstration of trying to use the judicial system to resolve personal conflicts by pulling strings and distorting information. Today we call for Ashraf's freedom. Many Saudi artists and the international artistic community stand by him and have called for his immediate release. You can sign the petition on Amnesty International to help support us with calls for his release. (source: Fateh Ahmed is a musician, documentary filmmaker and department head of digital filmmaking at daVinci College in Halifax----The Chronicle Herald) PHILIPPINES: What's your stand on the death penalty? ---- VACC asks presidentiables The country's leading anti-crime and corruption group has dared all presidential aspirants to formally declare their support for the restoration of the death penalty and the extent to which it can be imposed. Arsenio "Boy" Evangelista, a board member of the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption (VACC), said among the leading presidential aspirants, only Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte is pushing for the restoration of the death penalty. Evangelista said presidential bets seeking support of anti-crime advocates in the country may win their backing if they can present an acceptable death penalty option in their platform of government. "Presidential candidates should present a program of government that will include strong measures at addressing the country's rising crime incidence. Restoration of the death penalty for uniformed personnel involved in drug manufacturing or other heinous crimes is 1 death penalty option," he said. Evangelista, whose son, Benson was kidnapped and murdered in 2011 also challenged presidential bets to make public their program of government against drug abuse, particularly the involvement of politicians in drug trade. "Narco-politics in our country has obviously become a major serious crime threat," he said. Earlier, VACC officers, including Evangelista have aired support for Duterte whose platform of government is focused on anti-crime and corruption program. The administration bet, Mar Roxas has chided Duterte's anti-crime record saying Davao City remains plagued with high incidence of drug abuse. Another presidentiable, OFW Family Party-list Rep. Roy Seneres has rejected the revival of the death penalty. Evangelista lamented that the current drug abuse situation in the country remains high, thus posing a big challenge to the next administration. "This is why we want our presidential aspirants to present their respective peace and order and anti-corruption platform," Evangelista said. (source: manila Bulletin) BELARUS: Samoseiko: PACE wants to see Belarus Parliament in European family The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) wants to see the Parliament of Belarus in the European family, Nikolai Samoseiko, the head of the delegation of Belarus' National Assembly for contacts with PACE, a member of the House of Representatives, said during a videoconference on the website of the Sovetskaya Belorussiya newspaper, BelTA has learned. "Some positive changes have taken in PACE towards Belarus. They were primarily due to the thaw in the relations in recent years. We will not credit exclusively ourselves for this. With regard to PACE, in many ways the credit goes to newly appointed rapporteur Andrea Rigoni who works with us," the MP added. Nikolai Samoseiko explained that Andrea Rigoni criticizes the Belarusian side as mush as the previous special rapporteurs but the rhetoric is no longer directed at confrontation but at dialogue. It gets a response from the Belarusian MPs. Nikolai Samoseiko recalled that it was Andrea Rigoni who raised the issue of reinstating the special guest status at PACE for Belarus in 2009 which the country was stripped of in 1997. Nikolai Samoseiko noted that it was done on the far-fetched grounds. "Perhaps now Europe regrets this," he said. After the statements of Special Rapporteur Andrea Rigoni in 2009, a resolution was adopted to reinstate the special guest status. But in return they wanted Belarus to impose a moratorium on the death penalty, or abolish it. Also in 2009 the Belarusian Parliament established a working group to study the death penalty issues. The MP added that the requirement to abolish the death penalty does not seem tough for Europe. But for Belarus this is a very big issue which needs to be widely discussed. "As Belarus pursues a multi-vector foreign policy, it is important for us to have a presence in all international platforms," Nikolai Samoseiko said when speaking about the possible reinstatement of the special guest status. The MP attended a session of the commission for political affairs and democracy at the PACE winter session in late January. "I met with many PACE members. The most important meetings were with PACE President Pedro Agramunt, Andrea Rigoni who is already recognizable in our country," the MP noted. He said he also had meetings with Secretary General of the Council of Europe Wojciech Sawicki. "The issues were about the implementation of the European values in Belarus, in the Belarusian society," said the MP. We also discussed the programs to combat trafficking in human beings, against corruption, the reform of electoral legislation, etc. "We do not hide the fact that we are ready to ask for advice in these issues from the PACE and those who, let's say, have already gone this way," Nikolai Samoseiko said. (source: belta.by) CHINA----execution Serial human trafficker executed in China after abducting 22 children A man has been executed in China for the abduction and trafficking of 22 children over the space of 5 years. China's top court, The Supreme's People's Court, announced today that Tan Yongzhi had been 'condemned to death' in Zhengzhou, Henan Province, reports the People's Daily Online. Tan kidnapped the children between February 2008 and April 2013 from areas that stretched across south-west China's Yunnan Province to the central area of Henan. According to the report, the court said Tan's actions and the large number of children he abducted seriously damaged children's rights, which is why he was executed. The authorities have been unable to locate the birth parents of all the abducted children. The exact date of the sentencing or execution has not been released. There has always been a heavy penalty for those convicted of abducting a child in China, and the death penalty is still prominent. The country has intensified its crackdown on trafficking of women and children in recent years. In 2012, 1,918 abduction cases involving women and children were solved. The Supreme People's Court said that number declined massively to 858 cases last year - a drop of almost 50 %. The amount of people punished for abduction related charges in China declined by more than 1/2, from 2,801 in 2012, to 1,362 in 2015. Child abduction is a major problem in the country, and finding accurate figures is extremely difficult. A recent BBC report said that an illegal market in children has developed in the country, and it is estimated that 200,000 children are taken from their parents each year. In some cases of extreme poverty parents are forced to choose between selling their children and paying fines for having too many, which could explain why some of the birth parents of the children abducted by Tan could never be found. (source: Daily Mail) BAHAMAS: Bahamas called on to abandon Privy Council Retired Justice Neville Smith QC, said on Thursday the country should not allow itself to become a "hostage" to the Privy Council and recommended that The Bahamas set up its own final court of appeal rather than continue to "perch" on the British government's doorstep. "Who knows when the British government, bent on the restructuring of its courts ... will do away with the Privy Council that it created by an 1844 English act," said Smith at a special sitting at the Court of Appeal to mark the opening of the legal year. "Should we not set up our own final court in our own deliberate time rather that to continue to perch on the doorstep of the foreign office in London or wait to be embarrassed by the British government doing away with the Privy Council and cause us here to run ... to make up a replacement court? "We should not allow ourselves to become a hostage." He said the Court of Appeal is suited to fill the role of becoming the final court of appeal in The Bahamas. Smith noted that before the establishment of the Court of Appeal, The Bahamas operated on a 2-tiered court system, the Supreme Court and the Privy Council. "It therefore should not be earth shattering if we revert to a 2-tiered system minus the Privy Council with this court at the top, sometimes sitting with a 3-judge panel and for the more complex appeals with a 5-judge panel. "I am aware that there would be considerable criticism and disapproval of the idea of giving up the... Privy Council as the final decider of what is or should be." Smith said the country must come to the realization and acceptance that The Bahamas cannot indefinitely rely on the good graces of the British government to provide this service. "A well managed colony has to sooner or later, preferably sooner, take responsibility of choosing the court which will carry its cases," he said. Over the years, several observers, including MP Leslie Miller, have repeatedly called for the abandonment of the Privy Council. Miller said he can't understand why The Bahamas as an independent country continues to "rely on 10 or 12 old men in London" to decide who lives and who dies. The calls intensified following the March 2006 Privy Council ruling that the mandatory death sentence in The Bahamas was unconstitutional. Many condemned men at Her Majesty's Prisons escaped the death penalty because the Privy Council ruled in 1993 in the Jamaican case of Earl Pratt and Ivan Morgan that it would be cruel and inhumane for prisoners to wait more than 5 years on death row. Since the 2006 decision, the Privy Council has made it increasingly difficult for The Bahamas to carry out capital punishment. In a presentation before the Constitutional Commission in 2013, Justice Anita Allen, president of the Court of Appeal, suggested that the time had come to bring finality to the death penalty issue in The Bahamas, "and to give our citizens the opportunity to decide whether the death penalty should be retained as a mandatory, or as a discretionary punishment, or whether it should be abolished". "I encourage you to include the appropriate question on any referendum you may recommend," she said. She pointed to the Maxo Tido murder case and the decision rendered by Lord Kerr on behalf of the Board (of the Privy Council). Lord Kerr opined that even though Tido's crime was "dreadful" and "appalling," it was "not one that warranted the punishment of death" as it did not satisfy the criterion of "worst of the worst" and "rarest of the rare" even though the school girl who Tido lured from her home was so tortured and bludgeoned that "her brain tissue was spewed outside of her body." (source: caribbeannewsnow.com) INDIA: Kamduni gang rape: Sentence for accused to be announced by court on Saturday With the arguments on the quantum of punishment not concluded, a city court on Saturday will decide the sentence to the six people convicted in the brutal gang rape and murder of a college student in West Bengal's Kamduni village. The court of Additional District and Sessions Judge Sanchita Sarkar on Thursday convicted Saiful Ali, Ansar Ali and Amin Ali of gang rape and murder. The trio face a maximum punishment of death penalty. 3 other accused-- Sheikh Emanul Islam, Aminur Islam and Bhola Naskar have been convicted of gang rape, criminal conspiracy and causing disappearance of evidence and face a maximum punishment of life imprisonment. Amid tight security arrangements, the proceedings of the day began with the defence counsel pleading that the case did not warrant awarding death penalty. With the counsel yet to conclude their arguments, the court announced it will pronounce the sentencing on Saturday upon conclusion of the arguments. The 20-year-old girl was attacked while she was returning home from college on June 7, 2013. The 2nd-year BA student was forcibly taken inside a factory where she was gang-raped and then savagely murdered, sparking widespread outrage across the country. 9 people were arrested and charged for the crime, with the court on Thursday acquitting Rafiqul Islam and Nur Ali while the 9th accused Gopal Naskar died while the trial was on. The residents of Kamduni led by Tumpa Koyal and Moushumi Koyal continue to press with their demand for death penalty for the convicts and also opposed the acquittal of the 2 accused. Led by the 2 Koyals and several eminent personalities from the city, many of the friends and relatives of the victim, had floated a platform 'Kamduni Pratibadi Mancha' seeking speedy justice and capital punishment to the guilty. They knocked on the doors of top political and constitutional authorities including the president, demanding the trial be expedited. (source: newsx.com) PAKISTAN: Death penalty to killers of Justice Javed Iqbal's parents A sessions court yesterday awarded death sentence on two counts to three men accused of murdering the parents of Justice (r) Javed Iqbal. The court also imposed a fine of Rs550, 000 each on Naveed Iqbal, Abbas Shakir and Ameen Ali. Malik Abdul Hameed, 80, and Zarina, 70, were found murdered in their house on Jan 11, 2011. A case was registered against unknown robbers on the complaint of Saeed Iqbal, brother of Justice Javed. According to the prosecution, Naveed Iqbal, step brother of Justice Iqbal, in connivance with other 2 suspects had murdered the judge's parents. (source: The Nation) IRAN: Concerns over Iran executions as Rouhani visits Europe Concerns have been raised that new cooperation agreements between Europe and Iran could contribute to a surge in drug-related executions - including those of juvenile offenders. Iran's President Hassan Rouhani has been in Italy for talks, before travelling to France on (27 Janusary, in the 1st European state visit by an Iranian President for more than 16 years. Iranian media have reported that "Iranian officials accompanying the president will sign agreements for the expansion of relations in different fields." The EU recently helped negotiate a $20 million UN funding deal for counter-narcotics efforts in Iran that will increase the international funding available to the country's Anti-Narcotics Police. The Hhman rights organisation Reprieve has previously raised concerns that similar UN programmes in Iran have led to arrests and executions, including those of juveniles. They include Jannat Mir, who was arrested by Iranian drug police at the age of 15 and subsequently hanged for narcotics offences. Iran's authorities have recently executed large numbers of people convicted of drugs offences; 600 of 947 hangings in Iran in 2015 were drug-related, as were 31 of 47 executions carried out so far in 2016. Rouhani's visit is taking place as an Amnesty International report showed that Iran has continued to convict and execute juveniles since 2005, in violation of its international obligations. The report notes that at least one juvenile offender, Mohammed Ali Zehi, is currently awaiting execution for narcotics offences. The visit also follows the news that British Prime Minister David Cameron recently held a phone call with President Rouhani, as a step towards normalising ties with Iran. Britain's government, while not a funder of Iran programmes, is a donor to UNODC. Maya Foa, head of the death penalty team at human rights organisation Reprieve, said: "Iran's government is overseeing a horrifying surge in executions, the vast majority for drugs offences. Against this backdrop, it is deeply worrying to see European countries like France lining up to support a vast package of support for Iran's drug police. It is vital that European countries use their growing ties with President Rouhani???s government - including these donations - to urge an end to the use of the death penalty for drugs offences." (source: ekklesia.co.uk) *************** Iran's 'moderate' hangman The appalling human rights situation in Iran has not improved since Hassan Rouhani - touted in some circles in the West as a "moderate" and a "reformer" - became president of the Islamic Republic in 2013. Since taking office, more than 2,000 people have been hung under Rouhani's watch, the biggest scale of executions in the past 25 years, adding to the black pages of the regime's history of human rights violations since the Iranian revolution in 1979. The execution spree in the first half of 2015 was not missed by the human rights group Amnesty International, which noted that "death sentences in Iran are particularly disturbing because they are invariably imposed by courts that are completely lacking in independence and impartiality". The rights group added: "They are imposed either for vaguely worded or overly broad offences, or acts that should not be criminalized at all, let alone attract the death penalty. Trials in Iran are deeply flawed, detainees are often denied access to lawyers in the investigative stage, and there are inadequate procedures for appeal, pardon and commutation." As a result, Iran became the top country committing executions per capita - again under Rouhani's watch. Any use of the term "moderate" in connection with Rouhani's administration is ludicrous hyperbole; he is simply the president elected from the list of candidates chosen for the position by the Guardian Council, consisting of 12 Islamic theologians and jurists, in accordance with the Iranian constitution. Secular or non-Shia candidates have little chance of securing an approval from the vetting Guardian Council, nor are presidential hopefuls whose loyalty to the ideology of the revolution is not impeccable. The odds of being "elected" to parliament are relatively better, but the Majlis has little power over the regime's religious courts to stop or even slow down the rate of executions, with the courts routinely issuing verdicts without even hearing evidence or investigating the charges against accused individuals. One example of the Iranian regime's legal system is the common charge of "muharebeh" or "enmity to God," routinely used against human rights activists and dissidents and which invariably receives the death penalty, sometimes administered in public by mass hangings by cranes (although even stoning is not ruled out legally). Many of those hanged take up to 20 minutes to die slowly and painfully of strangulation. The victims' bodies are left for some time before being removed as a way of intimidating the public into silence. A lot of those who are executed come from minority communities such as the Ahwazi Arabs - who are predominately Shia - as well as Kurdish and Baluchi Sunnis. The targeting of minorities has not changed since the coming of Rouhani to office. Over the past decade, many Ahwazi Arab political prisoners, ranging from poets and teachers to bloggers and human rights activists, have been executed on trumped-up charges in kangaroo courts. Again, nothing has improved under Rouhani. Rather than finding reasonable evidence for the commission of a crime, judges generally rely on confessions, which have been drawn out from the accused through physical torture and psychological duress. Meanwhile, friends and relatives of the accused are kept in the dark, often not informed of where their loved ones have been imprisoned, or even buried. As I've previously argued, the rush to a nuclear deal with Iran has left human rights issues sidelined. Never mind that Iran is one of the few countries that continue to execute juvenile offenders, where according to the UN at least 160 are languishing on death row for crimes committed under the age of 18. The number of child offenders executed in 2014-15 - ie under Rouhani's watch - is higher than at any time during the past 5 years. According to an Amnesty International report released a few days ago, Iran's authorities have sought to "whitewash their continuing violations of children's rights and deflect criticism of their appalling record as 1 of the world's last executioners of juvenile offenders". These youths are "robbed of valuable years of their lives - often after being sentenced to death following unfair trials, including those based on forced confessions extracted through torture and other ill-treatment," according to Said Boumedouha, deputy director of Amnesty International's Middle East and North Africa Programme. The report has not stopped Rouhani receiving a warm welcome on his Europe tour, as he met with top politicians as well as the Pope. Much of the world wants do business with Iran, and they don't want a fuss over trivial things like the human rights of the people of Iran - not even prominent opposition voices in the West, who often complain about their governments' disregard of rights violations committed by their valuable trade partners. When it comes to Iran, those hypocrites would happily sacrifice Iranian blood - not for wealth or the wellbeing of Western citizens but for mere ideological reasons. (source: Rahim Hamid is a freelance journalist and human rights advocate who writes about the plight of his community - the Ahwazi Arabs - and other ethnic groups in Iran----Middle East Eye---The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye) From rhalperi at smu.edu Sun Jan 31 10:54:24 2016 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Sun, 31 Jan 2016 10:54:24 -0600 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----PENN., GA., FLA. Message-ID: Jan. 31 PENNSYLVANIA: Executed at 16, Delco boy was innocent, maintains Media author Sam Lemon of Media has spent more than 30 years researching what he believes was the unjustified execution of 16-year-old Alexander McClay Williams for the 1930 murder of a Glen Mills school matron. He is presenting a program on the subject Feb. 7 at Media Fellowship House. Lemon is director of the Organizational and Strategic Leadership graduate program at Neumann University, Aston. By the time he reached his 16th birthday, Alexander McClay Williams had achieved a dubious distinction at the Glen Mills School for Boys, a facility for adjudicated youth in Thornbury. Assigned there in 1926 when he was 12 by Delaware County Judge W. Roger Fronefield because he had set fire to a barn on Baltimore Pike, he became the reform school's longest resident "inmate." The way Glen Mills Superintendent Major Hickman saw it, the boy, who was the second oldest of a poor African-American family of 13 children, would probably have been "imprisoned" there until he was 21, the maximum age allowed, because of constant "disobedience" and "malicious mischief." Instead, Williams would achieve another, more grim distinction. At 7:03 a.m. on June 8, 1931, a little more than 6 weeks shy of Williams' 17th birthday, 2,000 volts of electricity were discharged into his body at Rockview Prison in Centre County. 5 months earlier, the boy, who was described in newspaper accounts as "slight," had been convicted by an all-white jury of fatally stabbing 34-year-old Glen Mills matron Vida Robare 47 times with an ice pick. "Alexander appears to be the youngest person executed by the state of Pennsylvania," said Sam Lemon, a Media author and educator who has spent more than 30 years researching the case. >From 2 to 4 p.m. Feb. 7 at Media Fellowship House, 302 S. Jackson St., Lemon will present a Power Point program open to the public about his findings on the case, which he expects to publish this spring in a book titled "The Case That Shocked the County." "This case has haunted me, a 16-year-old kid sitting in the electric chair with a hood over his head. I'm sure he was crying his eyes out, not understanding why he was there, how this all came to be," said Lemon, who was formerly employed as a social worker for 13 years with Delaware County Children and Youth Services. The 64-year-old Media resident first became aware of the case around age 10 when his grandmother, Maud Ridley, talked about it. Her father - Lemon's great-grandfather - William H. Ridley, in 1891 became the 1st African-American admitted to the Delaware County Bar Association. He was the son of Cornelius and Martha Jane Parham Ridley, who fled to Media after escaping slavery at a Virginia plantation. They were assisted by a Quaker family named Yarnall from Providence Friends Meeting, where Lemon is currently a member. In October 1930, William Ridley, who was the only African-American attorney in Delaware County, was ordered by the court to represent the young Williams. "He did not like the case," Lemon said. "It didn't make sense to him. The kid had signed a confession 2 weeks before he was assigned the case. His strategy had to be either to throw him on the mercy of the court or to impugn the integrity of the detectives." Lemon said his great-grandfather concluded there would be no benefit in discrediting the white detectives before an all-white jury of 3 men and 9 married women, the most women ever selected in Delaware County "on an important murder case," according to the Jan. 5, 1931, edition of the Chester Times, forerunner of the Delaware County Daily Times. Lemon's book will be another step in his mission to exonerate the teen who, by today's standards, appeared to have been developmentally disabled and who he believes was unwittingly forced into confessing to a crime most likely committed by the victim's ex-husband, Fred Robare. "Neither Vida or Alexander deserved to die. They both were murdered in a sense. On his death certificate, it says 'judicial execution,' but it was murder because he didn't do it," said Lemon, who is now director of the Organizational and Strategic Leadership graduate program at Neumann University in Aston. He believes at least 3 of Williams' constitutional rights were violated: his Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate himself; his Sixth Amendment right to confront any witnesses; and his 14th Amendment right to due process and equal justice under the law. "There was no physical evidence, no fingerprints, no witnesses, no parents or attorney present when he was questioned," said Lemon. Lemon is not alone in his assertion. He has shared his findings with legal experts, painstakingly culled from newspaper clippings of the Chester Times, Glen Mills School and Delaware County records, the Ancestry.com website, the Delaware County Library System's newspaper archives, and the official transcript of Williams' 2-day trial in January 1931. Robert Keller, a former Delaware County prosecutor who now is a criminal defense attorney, has reviewed Lemon's 95-page Power Point presentation on the case and has met with Delaware County judges who agreed to waive costs for the trial transcript to be copied so he can review it. "It is too early for me to formulate an opinion concerning the guilt or innocence of the child, but it is clearly an important case for all to hear about. The justice system of the '30s failed this young African-American and it is rewarding to see that our bar association and the county judges want the matter investigated and brought to the public's attention," said Keller, himself a former Delaware County assistant district attorney. He is a board member of the Delaware County Bar Association and is working with Lemon, who has a doctorate in education from the University of Pennsylvania, along with bar association executive director William L. Baldwin to present an educational program about the case for all Delaware County lawyers and the public. "More importantly, I am interested to represent this juvenile who was put to death, pro bono, to explore whether there is any possibility of redress in court. At a minimum I would like to explore a pardon," said Keller. He believes the cards were stacked against the boy from the beginning of the case. "He was questioned continually without counsel and his lawyer did not have the tools or manpower to properly represent him," Keller said. "The government brought in extra prosecutors and investigators to prepare their case and the defense had nothing." Keller noted that bloody fingerprints found at the scene apparently were not evaluated and that other suspects, including Robare's husband, were not investigated. The entire trial lasted only 2 days and Williams was executed 5 months later. "An all-white jury heard the case and it appeared that there was very little sympathy for the child defendant," said Keller. The Pennsylvania Innocence Project has also expressed an interest in the case, said Lemon. "It is my honor to play a part uncovering the dark history of our judicial past," said Keller. Despite the fact that the United States Supreme Court outlawed the death penalty for anyone under age 18 in 2005, Pennsylvania law still permits execution of people as young as 16, Williams' age when he went to the electric chair 85 years ago. "This is in conflict with the Supreme Court and the governor must be taking that into consideration," said Keller, referring to the moratorium Gov. Tom Wolf placed on executions when he took office last year. Williams' birth date of July 23, 1914, was correct on his June 8, 1931, death certificate, but his age was obviously altered by someone who changed the "6" to an "8" by writing over it, making him appear 18, the age that also was consistently misreported in news accounts of the case. Also apparent on the Oct. 4, 1930, death certificate of Vida Robare, who Delaware County Deputy Coroner George H. Rigby indicated in black ink died of "puncture wounds to the heart," is that someone later added in blue ink "caused by ice pick in hands of Alexander McClay Williams." Lemon noted that coroners' certificates of death typically do not identify assailants and Williams was not charged with the crime until several days after the autopsy. The 2 tampered documents are among many instances of what Lemon feel are questionable prosecutorial and judicial conduct uncovered in the case, not the least of which was that Fronefield, the same judge who committed the boy to Glen Mills, presided at his trial 4 years later and sentenced him to death. Fronefield also sustained an objection by Delaware County District Attorney William J. MacCarter Jr. when Ridley questioned Det. Michael C. Testrall on the legality of removing the boy from Delaware County Prison to obtain a 3rd confession during a car ride, when a court order indicated he was only to be released from prison to attend a magistrate's hearing. "It was a hostile court, a hostile prosecution and a hostile judge and it showed what a predicament Ridley was in. If the judge didn't care that the detective broke the law to get a confession, there was no hope of a fair trial at that point," maintained Lemon. When Vida Robare's body was initially discovered by her ex-husband around 5 p.m. Oct. 3, 1930, in her 2nd-floor bedroom of Cottage No. 5 where she had been on her bed reading a magazine love story and eating a pear, none of the 600 students - then referred to as "inmates" - were suspects. In addition to 47 stab wounds, suggesting the ferocity of a crime of passion, Mrs. Robare had suffered a fractured skull and broken ribs. According to an Oct. 4, 1930, Chester Times article, Glen Mills School Board Member George T. Butler said all the boys had been accounted for and noted, "I don't see how a boy could have done this deed." Butler would later testify in court that flogging students with a flat strap below the waist was considered a "humane form" of punishment at Glen Mills. Lemon said Williams had been flogged four times. One of his crimes was stealing 110 cans of boot black that Lemon theorized Williams liked to huff because it contained ethylene glycol, an ingredient no longer found in shoe polish. "The school is a far different and more progressive place today," said Lemon, who noted that without Glen Mills School officials' permission to review Williams' records, he never would have been able to uncover the facts that may help clear the teenager's name. Delaware County Chief Detective Oliver N. Smith told the Chester Times on Oct. 4, 1930, "This crime was committed by a full-grown and strong man. The woman was unmistakably athletic and could have fought off a boy." Lemon said it appears detectives did not realize that Fred Robare, the full-grown man who discovered the victim's body, was not her husband, but her ex-husband who had followed her to Glen Mills, where she lived with their 10-year-old son Dale, and had gotten a job as a farm instructor. Lemon was able to locate the divorce decree via the Internet. "They had divorced in 1921. The cause was 'extreme cruelty.' She had filed for divorce in Michigan. That fact never came out," said Lemon, who added that Mrs. Robare had also worked in Maryland and New Jersey after the divorce. When the prosecutor put Williams on the stand and asked him why he killed Mrs. Robare, the boy, who had lived in the dormitory connected to Cottage No. 5, testified it was to get back at Mr. Robare, who would often kick him. Williams said that Mrs. Robare would intervene and then Mr. Robare would beat her. Mr. Robare's assaults on Williams were so frequent that the boy eventually was transferred to Cottage No. 3. Lemon ssaid that both Mrs. Robare and Glen Mills School Assistant Superintendent B.E. Welch had apparently been kind to Williams during his time there. "I think it is a far more compelling case that Fred Robare is the killer because Alexander had no history of violence, and added to the fact they had been divorced 9 years on the grounds of extreme cruelty. The husband had a history of violence. Alexander did not. The husband had a reason to be angry with her. Alexander did not," said Lemon. Lemon also suggested it did not make sense that Williams would kill Mrs. Robare because she was 1 of his 2 allies at the school, she was taller than him and she outweighed him by about 25 pounds. Furthermore, at trial, August E. Schneider, who had been supervising Williams the afternoon of the murder and had sent him on 2 errands to pick up shovels, then deliver the receipt for the shovels, testified the teenager had returned from both errands in a timely fashion, appeared calm and was wearing the same clothes, which were not blood-stained. Lemon said that Williams would have had to get through several locked doors to reach Mrs. Robare. When her body was found, her watch and $15 - then during the Depression the equivalent of about $200 today - were still on her dresser. Only her keys were missing, which the assailant would not need to exit the building. They were later found in the school's power house reservoir. At trial Hickman, the school superintendent, said Williams led authorities to the ice pick, which was stowed in a hole in the wall of the tunnel beneath Cottage No. 5. Lemon said detectives had a mason break another hole in the wall, then instructed Williams "to reach in and grab that ice pick," 1 of 2 from Mrs. Robare's kitchen. "If his fingerprints weren't on the ice pick before, now they were and any other ones were smudged," said Lemon. During his first 2 interrogations, Williams denied murdering Mrs. Robare, said Lemon. Hickman testified on Jan. 6, 1931, that Williams "finally" confessed to the crime the night of Oct. 7, 1930, "after I left him alone for about 20 minutes. He sobbed out his story, 'I did it.'" Detectives extracted 2 more confessions from the boy, the third one on Oct. 9. Lemon said Hickman told Williams that he was "seen" in Mrs. Robare's cottage, but never said who had seen him. Lemon tapped 2 certified school psychologists with the Delaware County Juvenile Detention Center to evaluate Williams' history. They said Williams appeared to be intellectually deficient, had limited language comprehension and lacked the violent tendencies necessary to commit a spontaneous crime of passion, as it appeared Mrs. Robare's murder was. They said his confession was "typical behavior for lower-functioning, troubled juveniles." "Here's a very malleable suspect. The kid would say anything you wanted. He had already been flogged four times in school. He had been abused already and was mentally challenged," said Lemon. "I think Fred Robare did it and somehow led investigators in that direction." Lemon said Mr. Robare delivered 2 versions of how he discovered his ex-wife's body. He initially told authorities he had last seen Mrs. Robare around 1:30 p.m. Oct. 3, when matrons were on their break time and "officers" such as himself left to work with the boys at their various trades. "He came back at 5 o'clock to the cottage with a work crew of 11 boys and he gives the key to one of the boys to open the cottage and the boy tells him the door is already open. He goes up to the 2nd floor and finds her,'" said Lemon. However, Lemon said a newspaper in Michigan quoted a letter Robare wrote to his parents saying he returned to the cottage and waited downstairs for supper and when Mrs. Robare didn't appear he went upstairs and found her body. Their son, who was visually impaired, had returned home earlier but did not notice his mother's body. Lemon believes Mr. Robare may have returned to the cottage mid-afternoon and was spurned by his attractive ex-wife when he made sexual advances, causing him to fly into a rage. She may have also threatened to report him for being derelict in his school duties, speculated Lemon. At least 1 distant relative of Fred Robare agrees with Lemon's theory. Fred's brother, Daniel Robare, was the great-grandfather of Teresa Smithers, a 59-year-old Michigan writer and family historian who began researching the Vida Robare case about 10 years ago. Last year she was put in touch with Lemon by another distant Robare cousin, Jane Ward Hamilton, who Lemon had contacted via Facebook. "I do not officially represent all Robares, but as a part of that bloodline, I think it is high time we changed our family karma by finding out the truth of this murder and vindicating a wrongly accused boy. I want to leave my children a heritage of courage, strong women and resilience, not alcoholism and domestic violence," said Smithers last Thursday. Smithers noted that she has long felt Williams was innocent of Mrs. Robare's murder and that Mrs. Robare was killed by her ex-husband, but she never knew quite what to do about those feelings. "I truly didn't think anyone else would care besides me, so it was a great joy to find out Sam Lemon was even more committed to this story," she noted. Susie Carter, the last survivor of Williams' 12 siblings, was only 16 months old when her brother was executed, so she never really knew him. While growing up in Middletown, she would hear bits and pieces about him from various people who insisted the boy was innocent, but never knew all the details until Lemon contacted her in 2014. "Well, I was sure he hadn't done it then," said the Chester resident who will be 86 on Monday. "It's been like that for years and even today they're doing the same thing, saying the black man did it." Carter plans to attend Lemon's program next Sunday at Media Fellowship House along with her daughter, Osceola Williams of Upper Chichester, Williams' 2 daughters and 1 of Williams' brothers. Williams feels her uncle was done an injustice because he was poor and he and his parents probably did not understand what was happening. "His mother said police told him if he just said he did it, they would let him go home. He was a little slow and the cards were stacked against him. He was in reform school because he set a fire. It was not a violent crime he did," said Osceola Williams, who is named for her grandmother. Williams said she did not understand why her grandmother was always sad, until she learned about her uncle's execution at age 16. "Now I know why. She lost a child. She was a very loving mother but she never seemed happy," said Williams. She would also like to see Williams' name cleared. "He shouldn't have been killed," he said. "My grandmother has been dead for 50 years. It would be nice if she's up in heaven, that she could smile." 85 years ago Alexander Williams mother did try to vindicate her 16-year-old son with the help of a group called The Citizens Committee to Raise Funds for Alexander McClay Williams, chaired by the Rev. Arthur E. Mann, pastor of Trinity UAME Church in Media. By coincidence, Lemon now resides in the building that once was the church parsonage. "I'm living in Rev. Mann's old house. Maybe that is why I am a little bit haunted by this case," said Lemon. The group hired a white attorney, Henry A. Gouley, who first tried an insanity plea to delay or commute Williams' death sentence with the Pennsylvania Board of Pardons, then pursued a theory that a white schoolmate from Quakertown had goaded Williams into committing the murder. Neither attempt was successful, although they did get as far as a magistrate's hearing over the alleged accomplice, 2 days before the teenager's execution. It was painfully apparent even then that Alexander Williams did not understand what was happening to him, as reported in the June 6, 1931, Chester Times account of the hearing. When cross-examining Williams, the other boy's attorney asked him: "Do you know you are going to your death Monday?" "I didn't know it 'til you said so," Williams replied. Lemon noted that the vicious murder of Vida Robare, a beautiful white woman born on Valentine's Day in 1896, was "a horrible crime that repulsed people." It was reported in newspapers all across the country and in Canada. "I think there was a lot of anger and authorities wanted to solve it right away. The issues of racism and poverty played a huge role then as they do now," said Lemon. "Look at the disproportionate number of black men in prison. Look at the number of black men killed by police." Lemon likens Alexander Williams' case to such recent cases as 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, who in 2012 was fatally shot by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman as he returned from buying candy and soda at a convenience store in Sanford, Fla., and 12-year-old Tamir Rice, who was shot to death in 2014 by police in a Cleveland, Ohio, park where he was seen holding what turned out to be the replica of a gun as he sat on a swing. "My goal is not to prove Fred did it - although looking at the evidence I think he did it - but the goal is to see Alexander is exonerated and that his conviction is vacated because he did not do it," said Lemon. He does hold out hope. On Dec. 17, 2014, Fourteenth Judicial Circuit Court Judge Carmen Mullen overturned the 1944 conviction of George J. Stinney Jr. because she determined his confession had been coerced. Stinney was executed at age 15 in Alcolu, S.C., for killing 2 white girls he and his sister had been seen talking with a few days earlier. He was only 5 feet, 1 inch tall and 90 pounds when he was executed, so small that a Bible had to be used as a booster seat when he sat in the electric chair. According to a news service account of Alexander Williams' execution in the June 8, 1931, edition of the Chester Times, "Williams passed his last hours on Earth quietly. He conferred with Father McCreesh and walked to the death chamber early today without sign of visible emotion." A reporter from a Berks County newspaper saw things differently. "The Reading paper said he was sobbing and barely able to walk," noted Lemon. "He had to be carried by prison guards to the death chamber." IF YOU GO..."The Story That Shocked the County" featuring Sam Lemon, 2-4 p.m. Feb. 7, Media Fellowship House, 302 S. Jackson St., Media. Free and open to the public. (source: delcotimes.com) GEORGIA: Lawsuit seeks to end death row drug secrecy in Georgia Lawyers for an inmate set to die in days are asking a conflicted federal appeals court to weaken Georgia's law that keeps secret the source of the state's lethal injection drug. It's the toughest of a number of secrecy laws passed in recent years by death penalty states eager to stabilize their execution drug supplies. States said the laws protect companies that fear retaliation for their association with the death penalty. Most were enacted after drug manufacturers, many of them in Europe, stopped selling their products for executions, citing ethical concerns. "There are certainly secrecy laws in other states, and some of them create extraordinary secrecy, but nothing reaches the level of Georgia," said Megan McCracken, a death penalty expert at the University of California at Berkeley. Georgia stopped a lethal injection in March because of a problem with the drug, the barbiturate pentobarbital made by a compounding pharmacy. A Department of Corrections video shows solid white chunks falling against the syringe's plunger in a solution that should be clear. Citing this example, some 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals judges have expressed concern about Georgia's secrecy law. Lawyers for death row inmate Brandon Astor Jones - convicted of killing a convenience store manager in 1979 and scheduled to die Tuesday - argue that Georgia's execution method carries "a substantial risk of significant harm," violating his constitutional right against cruel and unusual punishment. But because of the secrecy law, they say, they don't have enough information to make that claim, which violates his due process right. Similar arguments have been rejected by three-judge panels of the 11th Circuit, setting a binding precedent. Georgia's law says the identifying information of any entity or person participating in an execution is a "confidential state secret," meaning it can't be revealed - not even for a judge's review or under seal in a court case. After the defective drug halted Kelly Gissendaner's execution in March, officials investigated and took steps to ensure it wouldn't happen again, state lawyers argued in response to Jones' complaint. The problem was clearly rectified as Gissendaner and 2 other inmates were executed last fall with no sign of pain, state lawyers wrote. But Jones' lawyers say the investigation lacked transparency, and they aren't convinced officials determined the problem's cause. State lawyers say Jones doesn't have a right to know every detail of the execution method, an argument that's been made in 11th Circuit opinions. State lawyers also say the law protects the source of the drugs from "rabid manipulations of death penalty opponents." Citing the doubts raised by Jordan and Martin - as well as a 2014 opinion by 11th Circuit Judge Charles Wilson noting "the disturbing circularity problem created by Georgia's secrecy law" - Jones' lawyers argue that 3 judges on that federal appeals court have now suggested that law doesn't comply with the Constitution. They are requesting a full-court review by the 11th Circuit, which could overturn the established precedent. Any full-court ruling would be significant as it would be binding in Georgia pending any appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, said Robert Dunham with the Death Penalty Information Center, which tracks issues related to capital punishment. It also could serve as a reference for lawmakers in other states and would have persuasive, though not binding, authority in other federal courts, he said. (source: Philadelphia Tribune) FLORIDA----impending execution His plea for life at Florida's highest court Michael Lambrix was supposed to die on Nov. 30, 1988. He was moved to a special "Death Watch" cell near the execution chamber. He met with the warden, who explained the process. He met with the chaplain. He met with the kitchen supervisor to plan his last meal. "As I sat only feet away from the electric chair, I could feel the hum of electricity as the guard tested the chair to make sure it was working properly," Lambrix wrote in his book titled, "To Live and Die on Death Row." "Every minute of every hour ticked, each that much louder than the last. Somehow I felt my heartbeat itself became synchronized to the clock on the wall - when that ticking came to a stop, so would my heart." The court issued an emergency stay on his execution, and it was rescheduled for the next day. THE RULING On Jan. 12, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Florida's system for sentencing people to death is unconstitutional, because it gives too much power to judges and not enough to juries. The ruling said juries play only an advisory role in recommending death while the judge can reach a different decision. The court handed down its decision in the case of Hurst v. Florida, siding with Timothy Lee Hurst, who was convicted of a 1998 murder. A jury voted 7-5 in favor of death, and a judge imposed the sentence. Under Florida law, the state requires juries in capital sentencing hearings to weigh factors for and against imposing a death sentence. But the judge is not bound by those findings and can reach a different conclusion. The judge can also weigh other factors independently. In the Supreme Court's opinion, Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote that "The Sixth Amendment requires a jury, not a judge, to find each fact necessary to impose a sentence of death." Roughly 10 hours before he was set to die, a full stay was granted so Lambrix's appeal could be heard in federal court. Lambrix, 55, has again been scheduled to die. Gov. Rick Scott signed the inmate's death warrant last year, setting his execution for Feb. 11. But that was before the U.S. Supreme Court earlier this month found that the way Florida handles death penalty cases is unconstitutional. Now, the question is whether that Hurst v. Florida ruling changes Lambrix's fate. "Some of the best legal minds in the country are trying to answer that question," said Adam Tebrugge, a Bradenton defense attorney who previously filed a motion for clemency in Lambrix's case. The Florida Supreme Court has refused to delay Lambrix's execution, which would be the 1st in the wake of the ruling. Attorney General Pam Bondi's office has said the new ruling doesn't apply to Lambrix. Oral arguments are scheduled Feb. 2 before the Florida Supreme Court. True crime Lambrix's case sounds like the plot of a true crime novel or the lyrics of an old country song. 2 people dead after a night on the town in the swamplands of Glades County. A woman reports her boyfriend as the murderer. An affair between that girlfriend - the star witness - and lead investigator. A man sentenced to death row. The twists and turns of Lambrix's case are many and complex. Lambrix sat down with a reporter from the Herald-Tribune in 2014 to discuss his case. It was 1983. Lambrix and his girlfriend, Frances Smith, ran off to Glades County. Lambrix was a fugitive, having walked away from a work-release center where he was serving time for a bounced check. Smith left behind her husband and children. On Feb. 5, a Saturday, the couple caught a ride into the town of LaBelle, halfway between Fort Myers and Lake Okeechobee and home of an annual Swamp Cabbage Festival. They met a man at a bar who called himself Chip, but his real name was Clarence Moore. Moore was waiting for his girlfriend, Aleisha Bryant, to end her shift as a waitress at a nearby restaurant. The 3 drank and talked. Then they met up with Bryant and headed to another bar to dance. As the bar cleared and closing time neared, the couples made a plan: grab a bottle of whiskey and some Coke, then head to the trailer where Lambrix and Smith were staying. Smith cooked up some spaghetti. Lambrix said he and Moore went outside, planning to play a prank on the women. Lambrix got Bryant to come outside and when she did, Moore jumped out and scared her. Lambrix said the couple began arguing, so he headed inside. Then, he heard a scream. Figuring the couple had run across an animal, Lambrix said he grabbed a tire iron and walked into the dark. When he got close enough, Lambrix said he saw Moore sitting on top of Bryant, slamming her head against the ground. Lambrix said he shoved Moore. "He immediately sprung back up toward me and came at me," Lambrix said. "I instinctively started swinging the tire iron." An autopsy report shows Moore was struck 4 times on both sides of his head. Lambrix tried to carry Bryant - who outweighed him - to the trailer, but he couldn't. When he put her down, he realized she wasn't breathing. "That's when I realized she was already dead," Lambrix said. Instead of going to the police, Lambrix and Smith dragged the bodies into the nearby woods and buried them in shallow graves. Lambrix tossed his bloody clothes and the tire iron over a bridge into a creek below. Then the couple left town in Moore's Cadillac. The plan was to abandon the car, but Smith got pulled over while driving it. She was arrested for aiding and abetting Lambrix, a fugitive. Authorities realized the vehicle belonged to a man who had been reported missing. Smith told the police several stories and, on Valentine's Day, she went with a lawyer to the State Attorney's Office. "That's when she said she knew where 2 bodies were buried," Lambrix said. Soon after, Lambrix was arrested on 2 charges of 1st-degree murder. His 1st trial ended in a hung jury after jurors deliberated late into the night without reaching a verdict. Because there was not a nearby hotel to sequester the jurors, the judge declared a mistrial. Before his 2nd trial, Lambrix said prosecutors offered him a deal: plead guilty to 2nd-degree murder in exchange for a prison sentence of 22 to 27 years. Lambrix refused, claiming that Moore killed Bryant and he killed Moore in self-defense. Authorities said Lambrix - with plans to rob the couple - lured them outside one at a time, choking Bryant to death and fatally beating Moore. After hearing the evidence at the second trial, it took the jury 45 minutes to reach a guilty verdict. They later recommended the death penalty in a 10-2 vote for Bryant's death and an 8-4 vote for Moore's. Lambrix has spent 3 decades on death row at Florida State Prison, filing unsuccessful appeal after unsuccessful appeal. Lambrix claims that the judge had it out for him and that members of the jury were too familiar with the case. He claims a tire iron presented as the murder weapon couldn't possibly have been the one he used, because storms would have washed it too far downstream to be found. The shirt presented as the one he was wearing was a small, which Lambrix explains would never have fit his 5-foot-10 frame. But the biggest problem, Lambrix said, is that a private investigator discovered Smith - the star witness - was allegedly having an affair with the lead investigator for the State Attorney's Office. "This is a 1 witness case and she's it," Tebrugge said. "There is a whole variety of evidence that Frances (Smith) is not a reliable witness." Tebrugge, the Bradenton attorney who spent 23 years as an assistant public defender for the 12th Judicial Circuit, filed a request for a new clemency hearing and interview in December 2014 for Lambrix. He wanted a chance to present the evidence that went unmentioned at trial and the positive qualities that Lambrix has demonstrated while incarcerated. He hoped that it might lead to having Lambrix's death sentence commuted to life in prison. Tebrugge only learned that the clemency request was denied when he received news that the death warrant was signed. Hurst v. Florida Citing the Hurst v. Florida case, Lambrix's attorney, William Hennis of the Capital Collateral Regional Counsel, requested a stay of execution. At the time, the Supreme Court had not ruled that Florida's death penalty is unconstitutional. Florida juries, after convicting someone of 1st-degree murder, take a vote on whether to recommend the death penalty as punishment then provide that to the judge. But the judge has sole discretion over sentencing someone to life or death. For death to be an option, at least one aggravating factor must be proven beyond reasonable doubt. Attorneys for Timothy Lee Hurst argued that handing that decision over to the judge instead of the jury is unconstitutional. In Hurst's case, a jury recommended a death sentence in a 7-5 vote, but did not present any findings of an aggravated factor. The judge, however, determined that 2 aggravators existed and imposed a death sentence. "It departs from the procedures that apply in every other state that allows death sentencing," states the Hurst brief filed in May 2015. "And it undermines the jury's basic Sixth and Eighth Amendment functions as responsible factfinder and voice of the community???s moral judgment." The high court ruled on Jan. 12 in an 8-1 vote that Florida's death penalty indeed violates the Sixth Amendment. "8 justices of the Supreme Court ruled that a jury must determine whether the ultimate penalty against someone - taking their life away - is imposed rather than the judge," said Michael Barfield, vice president of the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida. "Most people perhaps did think that that was always the case, but not in Florida. Florida is an outlier in the manner in which the death penalty is imposed." That ruling prompted Hennis to file an updated request for an indefinite stay of Lambrix's execution, which the Florida Supreme Court denied. Hennis, however, has been granted a request to provide oral arguments this week. Attorneys for Lambrix and the state will receive at most 20 minutes to argue whether Hurst v. Florida applies to Lambrix's case, "including whether Hurst is retroactive, the effect of Hurst given the aggravating factors in Lambrix's case and whether any error is harmless," according to a Florida Supreme Court order scheduling the arguments. Hennis did not return a message seeking comment. If Hurst v. Florida is deemed retroactive, it would apply to the 389 inmates on Florida's death row, including Lambrix. "He's the next scheduled execution so that's why all of the attention is starting to focus on this case," Tebrugge said. "That's why it's disappointing that the Florida Supreme Court has ordered this expedited briefing when the questions are very complicated." The Florida Supreme Court has ordered that 6 other death row inmates can file briefs on how Hurst v. Florida might apply to their death sentences before oral arguments are heard in their cases. One of those inmates is Michael King, who was convicted in 2009 for the abduction, rape and killing of North Port's Denise Lee. The same jury that convicted King also recommended 12-0 that he die for the crimes. Besides King, orders can be filed on behalf of Richard Knight, convicted in a Broward County case; Raymond Bright, convicted in a Bay County case; Dontae Morris, convicted in a Hillsborough County case; Jacob John Dougan, convicted in a Duval County case; and Eric Lee Simmons, convicted in a Lake County case. "The ACLU believes that the decision must be and will be applied retroactively, meaning that everyone who is currently sentenced to death under that defective system must be given a new sentencing hearing," Barfield said. "The ACLU doesn't believe the death penalty should ever be applied, but if we are going to apply it, it should be unanimous and it should be imposed by the jury." Left wondering Lambrix is left wondering when he'll die and whether it will be by natural causes or poison coursing through his veins. "You go through a process, and at the end of the process you have the acceptance that death is the probable outcome," Lambrix previously told the Herald-Tribune. "Some of the guys back here compare it to having a gun put next to your head. Each time you go through this clemency thing or the possibility of a warrant or an appeal being denied, it's like they're playing Russian roulette with you and pulling the trigger. "You're playing with powers bigger than you and there's not much you can do." ? Lambrix doesn't consider himself religious, but says he is spiritual. He says he believes things happen for a reason, though he can't figure out why things happened the way they did. Lambrix wonders if he could have done something different to change that night in 1983. Sometimes he wonders if karma caught up to him. Or maybe he simply overreacted. "You can't get away from the fact that 2 people died that night and 1 person died at my hands," Lambrix said. He's worked hard to find worth. Practically illiterate when he was sent to death row, Lambrix has learned to read and write. He's learned law to work on his own case and others. His real interest, though, inspired by the movie "Back to the Future," is theoretical quantum physics. "I'm completely infatuated, obsessed with this super string theory," Lambrix said. "I love thinking about it because it provides that escape mechanism - that fantasy of being able to go through this imaginary wormhole back to that night and change events. I could go back and be a good father, be a good husband, live a good life. "There is a certain measure of comfort thinking in an infinite number of these alternate realities, Chip and Aleisha are living a happy life wherever they might be." Lambrix tries to find redeeming qualities in people, even his neighbors who have committed horrendous crimes or been notorious serial killers, like Ted Bundy. "I try to see something good in everybody," Lambrix said. "If you go through life throwing stones, sooner or later, those stones are going to get thrown back at you." Lambrix said he also knows there are plenty of innocent people on death row. "Florida has had more people exonerated from death row than any other state in the nation," said Barfield, the ACLU of Florida vice president. Some have been exonerated by DNA evidence, but not all cases have that. Without DNA, exoneration can be nearly impossible. Lambrix doesn't feel that his case is an anomaly, but is, instead, indicative of the criminal justice system. He has evidence he wants to present, but it's not DNA, and no one wants to hear it. "I'm just another death row prisoner," Lambrix said. "The last thing I want is for anyone to blindly take my word for this. I just want a fair review." (source: Herald Tribune) ******************* Michael Ray Lambrix, a/k/a Cary Michael of Florida Receives an Execution Date of February 11, 2016 Michael Ray Lambrix, a/k/a Cary Michael, is scheduled to be executed at 6 pm EST, on Thursday, February 11, 2016, at the Florida State Prison near Raiford, Florida. 55-year-old Michael is convicted of the murder 35-year-old Clarence Edward Moore (a/k/a Lawrence Lamberson) and 19-year-old Aleisha Dawn Bryant on February 6, 1983, in Glades County, Florida. Michael has spent the last 31 years on Florida's death row. Michael had previously served time for check fraud. At the time of the murders, a warrant was out for Michael's arrest, as he had walked away from a State Halfway house. On the evening of February 5, 1983, Michael Lambrix and his roommate, Frances Smith, went out to a local tavern, where they met Clarence Moore and Aleisha Bryant. Lambrix and Smith invited Clarence and Aleisha back to their trailer to eat. At some point, Lambrix invited Clarence to go outside with him. Approximately 20 minutes later, he asked Aleisha to also come outside. Approximately 45 minutes after that, Lambrix returned to the trailer, along. He was wearing a bloody shirt and holding a tire iron. Lambrix told Smith that he had killed Clarence by hitting him with the tire iron and Aleisha by strangulation. Smith helped Lambrix clean up and bury the bodies. Lambrix also threw his bloody shirt and the tire iron into a nearby stream. On February 8, 1983, Smith was arrested on an unrelated charge. While in custody, she informed police about the buried bodies. Police investigated and found the bodies, along with the bloody shirt and tire iron. Lambrix insists that he is innocent of the crime for which he has been convicted. According to Lambrix, he and Smith spent the evening drinking and dancing at various clubs until the early morning hours of February 6, 1983. They then decided to go back to Lambrix's trailer for a few hours, until Aleisha had to return to work. Clarence was going to drop her off at work before heading to Miami, Florida. While at the trailer, Lambrix and Clarence went outside to retrieve something from the vehicle. While outside the 2 decided to play a prank on the 2 women, scaring them. They were only able to lure Aleisha outside. Clarence scared her by jumping out of a feed trough. When Lambrix and Clarence began laughing, Aleisha began verbally assaulting Clarence. Lambrix left the 2, whom he assumed were in a relationship. When Lambrix returned to the couple, he saw Clarence beating Aleisha. Lambrix claims that he pulled Clarence off Aleisha. When Clarence attacked Lambrix, Lambrix hit him several times with a metal rod (tire iron). Both Clarence and Aleisha died from their injuries. Lambrix was convicted on 2 counts of murder and sentenced to death. Lambrix and his attorneys have alleged that he had an unfair trial, that the prosecution withheld evidence, and misrepresented the facts of the case, including evidence. Lambrix also alleges that the trial judge prevented him from testifying. The Supreme Court of the United States recently ruled that Florida's death penalty sentencing structure was unconstitutional, as jurors only provided recommendations for sentencing to the judges, allowing judges to overrule the recommendation of the jury. Lambrix and his attorneys are arguing that the Supreme Court's ruling should be retroactive, meaning all inmates on death row should be given new sentencing hearings. Please pray for peace and healing for the families of Clarence and Aleisha. Please pray for strength for the family of Michael Lambrix. Please pray that if Michael is innocent, lacks the competency to be executed, or should not be executed for any other reason that evidence will be presented prior to his execution. Please pray that Michael will come to find peace through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, if he has not already. (source: theforgivenessfoundation.org) **************** How the nation's lowest bar for the death penalty has shaped death row Florida has more than 170 people on death row today who may not have been condemned to die in any other state - the result of its 1-of-a-kind law that allows a jury to recommend capital punishment by a simple majority vote, a Tampa Bay Times analysis has found. Unburdened by the need to reach a unanimous decision, Florida juries typically don't. 2/3 of the people Florida has executed since 1995 were condemned to die on the recommendation of fewer than 12 jurors, the Times analysis found. No other state allows juries to recommend death by a 7-5 vote. Of the 32 states that have the death penalty, 29 require a unanimous vote of 12. Alabama requires 10. Delaware calls for jurors to unanimously agree on whether the defendant is eligible for the death penalty, but their sentencing recommendation can be split. Jurors are divided on most Florida executions The number of inmates Florida has executed since 1995 might be very different if the state required more jurors to agree before sending prisoners to death row. First take away the 7-5 cases. No other state allows a single juror to decide. Then remove the 8-4s. The chart is now showing cases with at least 9 votes, which Florida prosecutors recently proposed making the state's new standard. Take away 9-3 cases to see how many others would meet the bar in Alabama, which requires at least 10 votes - the next most lax state after Florida. Remove the 10-2 votes. More than 1/2 of the cases are now gone. Take away the 11-1s. Only 1/3 of Florida's executions were unanimous - the level required in 29 of 32 states. Note: Analysis excludes death sentences ordered by judges without jury recommendations, and two cases where sentencing information was not available. This month, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Florida's death penalty statute, forcing the Legislature to rewrite it. Although the court did not explicitly address the issue of non-unanimous jury votes, legal experts say this part of Florida's law is in constitutional jeopardy. The Times reviewed more than 450 death penalty cases dating back decades to determine how juries voted in the penalty phase of capital trials. The juries' sentencing recommendations are merely advisory, another unusual feature, but no Florida judge has ignored a jury's guidance in nearly two decades. The Times found that prisoners who were sentenced to death based on non-unanimous jury recommendations were far more likely to have their cases overturned on direct appeal, or to be ultimately acquitted. Florida leads the nation in death row exonerations. Of the 20 people who have been exonerated and for whom sentencing information is available, 15 were sent to death row by a divided jury. 3 others were cases in which judges imposed the death penalty over a jury's recommendation of life in prison. "Those figures confirm our greatest fears about the Florida statute," said Robert Dunham, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center. "Because of the unreliability of non-unanimous sentences, it's long been felt they increase the risk of sentencing innocent people to death." The latest exoneree, a Pasco County man named Derral W. Hodgkins, was condemned to die in 2013 after a jury recommended the death penalty for the murder of his former girlfriend Teresa Lodge in 2006. Despite his previous conviction for a horrific crime - he admitted to raping and driving his car over a 12-year-old girl - only a bare majority of jurors agreed that he deserved the death penalty. They voted 7-5. Hodgkins walked off death row in October after the Florida Supreme Court threw out his conviction. The court called the prosecutors' case "purely circumstantial" and said they had mischaracterized crucial DNA evidence, portraying it in a light that flattered their narrative. Several years before Hodgkins there was Herman Lindsey, who was convicted and sent to death row for killing a woman during a Fort Lauderdale pawnshop robbery. The murder took place in 1994, but police pinned it on Lindsey 12 years later, and a jury voted 8-4 to recommend death. In 2009, the Supreme Court voted unanimously to overturn Lindsey's conviction. Laying out the evidence in the case, the justices said none of it linked Lindsey to the scene of the crime and all of it was circumstantial. "The state's evidence, while perhaps sufficient to create some suspicion, is simply not sufficient to support a conviction," they wrote. Of the 389 people currently on Florida's death row, 4 out of 5 were sent there by a non-unanimous jury that could not sentence them to death in almost any other state, according to the Times analysis. Only 77 are condemned to die because a jury voted unanimously, and 22 others waived their right to a jury. And yet, data on convictions, exonerations, and executions suggest that these non-unanimous jury verdicts often don't survive scrutiny by appellate courts. The Times analysis found that a person sentenced to death row by a unanimous jury is more likely to be executed than someone condemned by a divided jury. Over the course of the past 2 decades, the state has executed 59 people. 1/3 of them were sentenced to death by unanimous juries, compared with 1 in 5 of the prisoners in the state's general death row population. It's impossible to say with certainty whether Florida would send more or fewer people to death row if a future law required jurors to reach a unanimous decision. No one knows in which direction today's 7-5 or 9-3 juries would swing if everyone had to agree. "Florida has long been an outlier state with regard to our death penalty scheme," said Assistant Public Defender Pete Mills of the 10th Judicial Circuit, who chairs the Florida Public Defender Association's death penalty committee. "That's a polite way of saying that we are the kid everybody knew in grade school that ate paste." Most exonerated death row inmates were split votes More death row inmates are exonerated in Florida than anywhere else in America. But many of those cases might not have reached death row if Florida used even Alabama's lenient standard. At least 17 were sentenced to death on the recommendation of 9 jurors or fewer. Without those 17 cases, Florida would drop from 1st in the country to No. 10. The quality of the jury deliberations in the Hodgkins case may demonstrate how flawed cases can wind up on death row. After taking an initial vote, six jurors raised their hands in favor of condemning Hodgkins to death. 6 hands went up in favor of life in prison without parole. "There wasn't a person who didn't believe he was guilty," said juror Francine Gillam, 66. But that wasn't the question they were tasked with answering. Gillam, a devout Catholic, said she was one of several jurors who couldn't bring themselves to vote for capital punishment, not because they doubted the state's evidence, but because of their religious convictions. "We were just deadlocked," said juror Jay Stamper, 55. "For almost the whole time we were in there, it was 6-6." They went around 1 more time, each person giving the reasoning behind the vote. By the time everyone had spoken, 1 woman had changed her mind. Asked how long this process took, three jurors interviewed by the Times estimated deliberations lasted an hour or 2. "It wasn't that much of a discussion," Gillam recalled. "We kind of batted the issues around the table, like, should this monster live?" "1 person changed her mind and that was that," Stamper said. To the defense attorneys who represented Hodgkins at trial, the fact that their client's life hung on 1 juror's about-face was stunning. "That's crazy," defense attorney Bjorn Brunvand said. "First of all I'm shocked they didn't have problems with whether or not he was guilty. But then, just the fact that it's so whimsical ... it doesn't sound like their decision was based on any significant consideration of the aggravating or mitigating factors." In 2006, the Capital Jury Project, a consortium of researchers who study decision-making in death penalty cases, released the results of a survey of jurors from 13 states. In it, they found that jurors who were not required to reach a unanimous vote to recommend a death sentence were more likely to take less time to make a decision. Among all those surveyed, Florida jurors were the fastest decision makers - 38 % reported spending an hour or less on their sentencing recommendation. Florida jurors were also the least likely to ask to review testimony or read a transcript during deliberations, and the most likely to reach a decision after only 1 vote. The study called it "an apparent rush to judgment." Hodgkins' acquittal shocked the jurors who learned about it, several of whom said they feared he would murder again. But the fact that the Florida Supreme Court reversed a death sentence recommended by a closely divided jury is no surprise. Nearly 1/2 of all 7-5 jury decisions are overturned on appeal, according to a study by the Florida Senate's Criminal Justice Committee. Analyzing jury verdicts from 2000 to 2012, the committee found that 47 % of 7-5 decisions were either overturned and sent back for a new trial, or the defendant was acquitted. In some cases, the prisoner's sentence was reduced to life without parole. By comparison, 63 % of unanimous jury decisions over the same period were upheld by higher courts. It's not that state Supreme Court justices see the closely divided jury recommendations and decide to overturn the case. But experts in jury dynamics and death penalty cases say that because there's less discussion, Florida jurors are less likely to raise the specter of doubt or spend hours examining the case for possible holes. "When they can do less than a unanimous verdict, people on the jury can look around and see, well, we've got e8 people voting for death. If I vote for life, then I can go home and say I didn't vote for death, and the guy still gets the death penalty," O.H. Eaton Jr., a retired circuit judge and nationally recognized death penalty expert, testified before a state Senate committee last week. "Whereas when you have a unanimous verdict, everybody's got to work, and they've got to come to grips with the issue, and they've got to make a decision." Florida prosecutors are pushing a bill that would require jurors to reach a unanimous decision on whether the aggravating factors in the case outweigh the mitigating factors. But when it comes to recommending a sentence, the bill raises the standard only to a supermajority, a 9-3 vote. State Attorney Brad King of the Fifth Judicial Circuit in Ocala told lawmakers last week that jurors aren't always honest during voir dire - the questioning of prospective jurors - about their true feelings on capital punishment. "We need some safety valve for that 1 particular, or those 3 particular jurors that just say: 'I can't do this,'" King said. To many defense attorneys, the prosecutors' bill reads like an obvious attempt to hold onto their advantage in death penalty cases. Asked what would have happened if they had been required to reach a unanimous verdict, jurors in Hodgkins' case joked they might still be deliberating years later. Stacey Ness, a juror who voted in favor of the death penalty, speculated that the case would have ended in a life sentence. "You can only convince so many people, and if someone is truly set in their religious beliefs, like a real strong Catholic, they're not going to impose the death penalty," she said. Gillam, who opposed the death penalty at the time, guessed the opposite. Both sides had apparently been willing to bend, but the discussion never reached that point. (source: tampabay.com) ***************** The conservative case against the death penalty Last month the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Florida's death penalty statute by an 8-1 vote. The court's decision in Hurst v. Florida has once again brought the issue of the death penalty to the forefront. As a result, I felt this was a good time to ask my fellow conservatives who still favor the death penalty to re-think their positions. I will provide a few reasons why. Most conservatives share a deep and fundamental distrust of "Big Government," and its inability to effectively and efficiently carry out even the most menial tasks. The process of the death penalty is a prime example of Big Government inefficiency. Mistakes happen, and a mistake in imposing the death penalty can mean the wrongful killing of an innocent person. According to the nonpartisan Death Penalty Information Center, 156 people have been exonerated from death row since the death penalty was re-enacted following the 1972 Furman v. Georgia Supreme Court case, which struck down death penalty statutes across the country. Of those 156 death row exonerations, Florida has led the nation with 26, followed by Illinois with 20 and Texas with 13. In 2014 alone, 6 death row inmates were exonerated based on actual innocence. Many of the 156 death row inmates who have been exonerated had previous death warrants signed and some had come within hours of execution, only to later be exonerated by proof of actual innocence. Make no mistake about it: Innocent men have been executed. Cameron Todd Willingham was executed in Texas in 2004 for allegedly setting fire to his own home, killing his three daughters. Three subsequent investigations have shown that the fire was not arson, and probably caused by faulty wiring. In 2015, the prosecutor on his case was charged with misconduct by the Texas Bar for withholding material evidence from Willingham's attorneys. To some in our justice system, the execution of an innocent man is of no concern. Oklahoma County District Attorney Bob Macy, who personally sent 73 defendants to death row, was quoted by the New York Times as stating his belief that executing an innocent person is a sacrifice worth making in order to keep the death penalty in the United States. Also, when Louisiana death row inmate Glenn Ford was exonerated in 2014, the prosecutor on his case admitted that he was partly responsible for Ford's wrongful conviction because he was not as interested in justice as he was in winning. >From a taxpayer prospective, the cost of the death penalty far exceeds the cost of life without parole. In 2000, the Palm Beach Post reported that the 44 executions carried out in Florida between 1976 and 2000 cost an average of $24 million each. Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, recently testified that Florida spends $51 million a year above and beyond what it would cost to punish all 1st-degree murderers with life in prison without parole. The increased housing costs alone for the inmates on death row is $3.4 million a year more than the cost of housing the average male inmate, according to data collected by the Commission On Capital Cases in 2008. And the exorbitant cost is coming with little return. Florida has executed a total of 92 inmates since 1972. There are currently 389 inmates on Florida's death row, 13 having been there since the 1970s. At the current rate of execution, it would take over 150 years to execute just the inmates currently on death row. Conservatives who have publicly stated their opposition to the death penalty include former U.S. Sen. Jack Kemp, Col. Oliver North, columnist Tucker Carlson, talk show host Laura Ingraham and George Will. John McLaughlin, creator and host of "The McLaughlin Group," has called the death penalty the "biggest government waste." CNN Crossfire's conservative co-host S.E. Cupp has written an excellent editorial, "The conservative case against the death penalty," for the New York Daily News, which you can find on Google. The United States is the only Western nation that still retains the use of the death penalty. Europe rid itself of capital punishment in the early 1980s, and the U.S. is now 5th in the world for the greatest number of executions after China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq. Is this the company we wish to keep? (source: Opinion; James Purdy has served as public defender of the Seventh Judicial Circuit since 2005. He has practiced criminal law in Florida for over 36 years as both a defense attorney and prosector. As an assistant attorney general, he argued death penalty cases in the Florida Supreme Court on behalf of the state of Florida. He served as chairman of the Volusia County Republican Party in 1999----Daytona Beach News-Journal) From rhalperi at smu.edu Sun Jan 31 10:56:34 2016 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Sun, 31 Jan 2016 10:56:34 -0600 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----MO., KAN., CALIF. Message-ID: Jan. 31 MISSOURI: Kezer case reveals the sin of a nation In 2008, a young but talented cops and courts reporter stepped into my office and told me she wanted to dig into the Angela Mischelle Lawless murder case. A young managing editor myself, I knew this was an important decision, and I was apprehensive to pursue the subject. The 1992 case of a murdered nursing student from Southeast Missouri State University was being reopened by Sheriff Rick Walter in Scott County, a bold move. But did we really want to dive into the story and risk reopening old wounds? I hesitated, and told Bridget DiCosmo, who had previously worked at an Innocence Project, that she could start looking into it, but I wasn't convinced that we wanted to publish anything. She persisted with updates and reminders, and finally after several weeks of digging into the case, flatly told me, "Bob, I've gone through the whole file. There is not one single piece of evidence that holds up." So Bridget intensified her reporting and ultimately brought out the details that would explain to the public why, months later, a judge would throw out the murder conviction of Joshua Kezer. In fact, the judge did more than that, proclaiming "actual innocence" of Kezer. Bridget's reporting and Kezer's story changed my mind on the death penalty. If you're not familiar with the case, essentially Kezer was convicted on the testimony of 3 inmate snitches who cooked up a scheme, in exchange for lesser prison sentences, and told police Kezer had told them he had killed someone in Benton (though the snitches said it was Benton, Illinois, which didn't seem to matter to investigators.) All 3, at one point or another, recanted their testimonies, saying they had only done so to reduce their jail time. Kezer was also "identified" in a lineup by a very questionable witness. Kezer was the only person in the lineup whose photo was emblazoned with the words "police department." Then there was the dramatic prosecutor Kenny Hulshof, who lied when he told the jury in his closing statement that Kezer's jacket was covered in blood. And he completely mislead jurors in other aspects of his arguments. He also withheld evidence from the defense that the same witness who pointed out Kezer in a lineup had at one point identified a person he knew as a possible suspect. Kezer didn't even know Lawless. He had no motive. Add it all together and, truly, you have the ingredients to "Making a Murderer." After Kezer's tainted case was reopened by Walter, exposed in our paper and cleansed by the courts, I have paid much more attention to the death-penalty issue, and how wrongful convictions have trickled out to the masses, thanks in large part to the Innocence Project. I read John Grisham's "Innocent Man," a nonfiction story of a man wrongly convicted of the rape and murder of a woman in Oklahoma. He was sentenced to death, then later exonerated by DNA evidence. I listened to the entirety of the massively popular "Serial" podcast, a fascinating narrative produced by NPR's Sarah Koenig, that sheds light on shoddy defense attorney work and reasonable doubt in the killing of a teenage girl in 1999. The suspect in that case is serving a life sentence. Last week, I finished the Netflix documentary series "Making a Murderer." None of these stories are any more egregious than Kezer's. Kezer didn't do it. I have zero doubt, and had his case been followed by a major media outlet or personality, his story would've resonated across the country, too. Space prohibits me to include all the overwhelming details here. You'll have to trust me, and the judge, when I say it was a disaster of justice. Kezer was sent off to prison as a teenager for a crime he did not commit, and was finally freed with gray hair. 15 years he spent in one of the toughest prisons in the land. That brings me back to the death penalty. It's back on the front-burner of our political consciousness. On Thursday, Kezer, who was not on death row but received a 60-year sentence, was in Jefferson City, Missouri, testifying against the death penalty. A bipartisan coalition sent a bill repealing Missouri's death penalty to the state Senate for debate. It's a relief in some ways that the death-penalty debate is becoming less partisan. A growing number of Republicans are questioning the merits of the punishment. It's always puzzling to me how issues such as the death penalty are grouped into party affiliation rather than considered stand-alone issues. For me, it's not a matter of whether a guilty murderer deserves the death penalty. The sad fact is that we have too much room for error. We have imperfect people investigating and prosecuting crimes. For too many law enforcement officials, but certainly not all of them or even most, their motives are not necessarily steered by justice, but rather, perhaps, to bring closure to a case, or closure for the victim's family; or even the fear of losing a big case, or maybe an insatiable appetite to win, even if justice is compromised. Juries are instructed to presume a person is innocent, even as the defendant is shackled in an orange jumpsuit in some cases. It's sometimes easy to look at big-picture topics and tell yourself that this issue doesn't happen here, couldn't happen here. But it did. And it happens all over the country. Since 1992, the Innocence Project has helped produce 337 exonerations based on DNA, according to its website. And the organization can't keep up with the demands for its services. Studies have shown that between 2.3 % and 5 % of all prisoners in the U.S. are innocent, the organization reports, adding that if just 1 % were innocent, that would mean more than 20,000 innocent people are in prison. I don't know anyone who supports convicting innocent people, but it happens. It's woeful enough to send innocents to cages. It's the sin of a nation to kill them. It's just too much for a country that is built on life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It's time to end the death penalty in Missouri. (source: Op-Ed; Bob Miller, Southeast Missourian) KANSAS: Jury selection to start in quadruple murder case Jury selection is scheduled to begin in the capital murder trial of a man accused of killing 4 people in eastern Kansas in 2013. Kyle Trevor Flack is charged with capital murder in Franklin County in the shooting deaths of Kaylie Smith Bailey and her 18-month-old daughter. He's also charged with 1st-degree murder in the deaths of Andrew A. Stout and Steven White. Stout, White and Kaylie Bailey were found dead at Stout's farm in Ottawa, about 50 miles southwest of Kansas City. Bailey's daughter's body was found a few days later in neighboring Osage County. Flack has been in custody since shortly after the bodies were discovered. The Kansas City Star reports that jury selection is scheduled to begin Monday. Authorities say jury selection could take 2 weeks. (source: Associated Pess) CALIFORNIA: End to California Execution Moratorium Raises Controversial Death Penalty Case California lifted a moratorium on executions in November and is now set to execute Kevin Cooper - even though several federal judges say he may be innocent. Having exhausted all his options in court, Cooper, 57, is about to file a last-ditch appeal with Gov. Jerry Brown. In a new interview from death row, Cooper says he is pleading with Brown to bring "an open mind" about the evidence in his case. "I am the only person in the history of the state to have 5 federal circuit judges say that 'the state of California may be about to execute an innocent man,'" Cooper told NBC News. Cooper is referring to rulings by the top federal court in California, the Ninth Circuit, which found prosecutors illegally withheld evidence that cast doubt on his guilt. Still, the court upheld his conviction for an infamous quadruple murder. It all began in June 1983, when 4 people were found brutally murdered in a ranch house in Chino Hills, a Los Angeles suburb. Douglas and Peggy Ryen, their 10-year-old daughter Jessica, and 10-year-old Chris Hughes, who was staying at the house, were all hacked and slashed to death. They received over 144 wounds in four minutes, according to the coroner. Josh, the Ryens' 8-year-old-son, was found with his throat slit but managed to survive. The boy's memory of the murders would prove to be pivotal in the case, cited by prosecutors to prove Cooper was the killer - and by those who insist Cooper is innocent. Ryen initially said that 3 white or Latino men murdered his parents. That account, combined with physical evidence that suggested multiple killers, led police to release a criminal bulletin seeking 3 suspects who were "white or Mexican males." Other early clues supported that theory. On the night of the murders, 2 witnesses saw 3 white men driving a station wagon down the dead-end road away from the house. The family's station wagon was stolen that night. Then a local woman, Diana Roper, told police she thought her estranged husband was involved in the "Chino Murders," according to records from the sheriff department. The man, Lee Furrow, was a white convicted murderer. She said his hatchet was missing. And, most critically, she told police he left coverall pants, splattered with blood, at her house on the night of the murder. Roper gave police the bloody pants, but they did not test them. Instead they threw the pants out in a dumpster. Destroying evidence was not only bad police work - it was also illegal, as the Ninth Circuit court would later rule. But why did police scuttle a potential lead? They had begun zeroing in on Cooper. And they had a reason. Police discovered that before the murders, Cooper escaped a minimum-security prison and hid out at a house right by the Ryen residence. As a local NBC anchor reported during at the time, police began to think "the murderer may have stayed in the house next door," then attacked the Ryens. That led to a new theory: fugitive Kevin Cooper as the sole killer. Authorities began with circumstantial evidence for the theory. It was undisputed that Cooper was nearby, had a criminal record of burglary conditions, and was on the run from the law. Prosecutors, however, usually need more than circumstance for a murder conviction. At trial, they offered other evidence to physically link Cooper to the crime, such as blood, shoeprints and testimony from Josh Ryen, the 8-year-old survivor. When Cooper was first arrested and his face was shown on TV in June 1983, Josh Ryen said that was not the man who killed his parents. On 2 occasions, in fact, he told his grandmother and a sheriff's deputy that Cooper was not the killer. At trial, however, prosecutors were able to present different testimony. Prosecutors said Ryen no longer thought three white or Latino people killed his family, and that he had come to realize there was 1 killer - Kevin Cooper. They introduced that version of the testimony at trial. (In later hearings, Cooper's lawyers would argue that he was denied the right to fully cross examine the one eyewitness accuser). Prosecutors also argued that crucial shoeprints at the scene must be from Cooper, because they were prison-issued shoes which he owned that were not for sale to the general public. It sounded like damning evidence - although the warden at Cooper's own prison said it wasn't true. Prosecutors hid that rebuttal from the jury, which an appeals court later held was illegal. Finally, prosecutors said they had Cooper's blood in the house. They alleged that a drop on the wall matched Cooper's blood sample - a crucial allegation, since he claimed he had never been in the house, or met the Ryen family. After 7 days of deliberation, the jury found Cooper guilty and he was sentenced to death. "I MET THEIR VOLUNTEER EXECUTIONERS" Cooper maintained his innocence, but state courts rejected all his appeals. Then-Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger declined to intervene, saying evidence of Cooper's guilt was "overwhelming," and Cooper's execution was scheduled for Feb. 10, 2004. His only hope was intervention by a federal court. As the date approached, that seemed increasingly unlikely, and Cooper recalls being led into the death chamber that day. "I met their volunteer executioners," Cooper said. "They had me stand there butt-naked in that death chamber." "You watch the clock as your life goes off, minute by minute," Cooper told NBC News. "I was ten feet away from being murdered." Then with 3 hours left, the Ninth Circuit halted the execution. The judges decided to convene a special review of the case by every member of the court - which happens in less than 1 % of cases - and then they ruled that some evidence used against Cooper was flawed and illegal. The court found that the warden of the prison where Cooper served, in 1983, said that prison did not give out special prison shoes. That undercut the prosecution's claim. And the warden said he told investigators that fact before the original trial, which they hid. The court ruled prosecutors broke the law by withholding that evidence, and "Cooper was almost certainly not wearing" the shoes from the crime scene. If they weren't Cooper's shoeprints, whose shoes were they? That question has never been answered. The judges went further, probing the police destruction of Lee Furrow's bloody coveralls. They also noted a new jailhouse confession from an associate of Furrow's, who said he did the crime part of an attempted revenge killing, but it mistakenly "hit the wrong house." The court ordered new proceedings and blood testing, noting that "no person should be executed if there is doubt" about guilt. MORE EVIDENCE, MORE QUESTIONS As the evidence in the public record shifted, some jurors from Cooper's original trial expressed doubts. "I let the police misconduct go and sentenced Mr. Cooper to death," one wrote in 2004. "I now regret that decision." Others involved in the case vigorously disagreed. Dennis Kottmeier, the district attorney who prosecuted Cooper, maintained it was "the strongest evidentiary case" he "had ever seen." Bill Hughes, the father of victim Chris Hughes, said the 2004 ruling was "unfathomable." "We know he's guilty," he said after the ruling. "We know that we have the truth on our side." The Court's decision did not overturn Cooper's conviction. It stayed the execution pending further tests and fact-finding by a lower court. That process unearthed more irregularities. A "STARTLING" BLOOD DISCOVERY It turned out that the state's original test on blood in the house did not match Cooper. Then a later test did, and the state changed the criminologist's original notes about the shift. Then, when the state lab provided material for new tests under the 2004 court order, it accidentally sent out Cooper's original blood sample, drawn in August 1983, for testing. This was the 1st time that blood evidence was ever examined by independent experts who did not work for the prosecution. What they found was, as a judge would later write, "truly startling." The blood which had always been presented as a sample of solely Cooper's blood, drawn from his body, actually contained DNA from 2 different people. That meant either the original blood sample was compromised, such as by lab error, or someone with access to the sample deliberately, illegally tampered with it. When Cooper's lawyers asked for a hearing on this discovery - that the blood sample supporting his murder conviction was flawed - the judge denied any further inquiry into the issue. Speaking from death row now, Cooper says that evidence is critical. "We now know that was not my blood, it had somebody else's DNA in it," he said. "They put my blood in that container" for blood found at the crime scene, he alleged, "and that's why you've got two DNAs in there. That's what I believe." The issues with the blood evidence could raise reasonable doubts, but in the new proceedings, the state emphasized other evidence that it said proved Cooper's guilt, from cigarettes found in the Ryen family car to Josh Ryen's testimony. "HE SLIT MY THROAT" Ryen, then an adult, spoke at the new hearings and offered a powerful recollection of the crime. "The 1st time I met Kevin Cooper, I was 8 years old and he slit my throat," Ryen said. The judge did not allow Cooper's lawyers to cross-examine Ryen, who gave unsworn testimony. The judge also denied fact-finding on the reliability of Ryen's original memories, or the impact of police interviews when he was a child. The state insists Ryen's testimony, both from the original trial and as an adult, speaks for itself. Cooper's lawyers say experts suggest Ryen's initial account - of 3 white or Latino killers - is probably more accurate than a story which shifted after interrogation. When asked about Ryen's testimony, Cooper says "I don't blame him." "He told the truth - he saw my picture on TV and said, 'No that's not him,'" Cooper says, citing Josh's 1st reactions as an 8-year-old. "They manipulated him... So I am not angry with him, I understand what they did to him." The district court ultimately upheld Cooper's conviction. The Ninth Circuit again reviewed the case in 2009, this time upholding the conviction. That ruling featured an unusually blunt and vigorous dissent by 5 judges, which not only said Cooper may be innocent - as he has highlighted - but also suggested the lower court judge defied its 2004 order for new tests. "There is no way to say this politely," the judges wrote. "The district court failed to provide Cooper a fair hearing and flouted our direction" on testing. On the critical questions regarding Josh Ryen's memories, the judges wrote that police "misrepresented his recollections and gradually shaped his testimony so that it was consistent with the prosecution's theory that there was only one killer." To be clear, no court has ever established that the state framed Cooper, but the judges did call out California prosecutors for suspicious activity regarding the spot of blood at the crime scene. "The drop of blood has a history of being 'consumed' during testing," they wrote, "and then inexplicably reappearing in different form for further testing when such testing would prove useful to the prosecution." Taken together, the judges concluded the evidence against Cooper was so weak, it's "highly unlikely that Cooper would have been convicted" if prosecutors had not illegally denied exculpatory evidence at trial. It's a rare and detailed dissent - but in the end, more judges on the court upheld Cooper's conviction. That majority opinion stressed that the questions in Cooper's case are mostly old, known, and have been extensively litigated; that the California Supreme Court ruled the "volume and consistency of the evidence is overwhelming" for Cooper's guilt; and that any shortcomings discovered did not put that in serious doubt. Cooper has no more court appeals, so barring intervention by Gov. Brown, he will be executed. "I AM INNOCENT" Cooper says he is hopeful the public or Gov. Brown will focus on the evidence, not no him. "I'm not asking America as a whole, or any one person in particular, to believe me. Forget what I say," he told NBC News. "I'm asking people to believe those [judges]," he said. When asked about the murder and his criminal record, Cooper says he did not kill the Ryen family or enter their home, and that he didn't lie about his earlier crimes. "When I was convicted of burglary, I pled guilty to those," Cooper said, "because I did them." Asked about what he's learned through this process, Cooper said he thinks the justice system discriminates based on money. "The only people who are on death row are poor people," he says. "No matter what their culture, or their skin color, or their religion, we're all poor." Finally, when asked what he would want people to know about his case if he is executed, Cooper was unequivocal. "I am innocent," he said. "And it's not my execution, it's my murder." (source: NBC news) From rhalperi at smu.edu Sun Jan 31 10:57:27 2016 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Sun, 31 Jan 2016 10:57:27 -0600 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide Message-ID: Jan. 31 PAKISTAN: It's been 2 years since an Edinburgh businessman was sentenced to death in Pakistan ---- The family of Mohammad Asghar, who is mentally ill and becoming more frail in bad prison conditions, want him brought back to Scotland. The family of a pensioner condemned to hang in Pakistan have told how they fear he's become a forgotten prisoner 2 years after being sent to death row. Languishing in a secure Pakistan hospital, sentenced to death for blasphemy, Edinburgh businessman Mohammad Asghar can no longer read the newspapers that used to keep him occupied. Cataracts have robbed the 71-year-old of his vision, removing one of the last remaining links to the outside world from which he was removed 6 years ago. Mentally ill, frail and alone, the grandfather is confined to one windowless room except for the half an hour each day when he's allowed to walk in the corridor outside. He has suffered with vitamin D deficiency through lack of exposure to sunlight and muscles in his legs have wasted through lack of exercise. At home in Scotland, his heartbroken daughter Jasmine Rana is renewing her call to the governments of Britain and Pakistan to finally allow her father to come home. The mum-of-4 said: "I honestly thought that the Government would take action and get him back. "David Cameron said he would intervene. The Foreign Office send me emails on how he is, with messages from him. He always tells us not to worry, just to get on with our lives. But that???s him trying to protect us. "We are still no further forward in getting dad back where he belongs. "I'm terrified for him. I can't sleep, I wake up crying. My children forget what he looks like. 2 of his brothers have died since he's been in jail. Someone has to help him now." Mohammad, who ran several grocery shops in Edinburgh, was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. The father-of-5 had suffered seizures and depression since having a stroke. In 2010, he left Edinburgh for Pakistan - where he owned property - shortly after being discharged from hospital, where he had been sectioned under the Mental Health Act. Within weeks, he had been arrested in Punjab, accused of writing letters in which he claimed to be the prophet. In January 2014, he was sentenced to hang, despite his legal team insisting he was too sick even to stand trial. Blasphemy is such a highly charged crime in Pakistan that he is constantly at risk of vigilante attacks. He was only moved to hospital from jail after being shot in the back by a prison guard who was supposed to be protecting him. Human rights group Reprieve lobbied the British government for Mohammad's release and a 70,000- signature petition was delivered to Downing Street in October 2014. In 2014, Jasmine took a petition to Downing Street. But despite assurances of top-level intervention, he has remained locked up far from home. Jasmine said: "Now he's on his own, apart from the guards and the doctors who are allowed in to treat him. "We had to argue for him to get a radio and, even then, he's only allowed certain stations. "I send pictures of my children so he can see how they're growing. But I can't explain how terrible it feels. Whenever I'm ill, I find myself thinking it's nothing to how bad things must be for him." In December 2014, Pakistan lifted a 7-year moratorium on the death penalty. Amnesty International say 300 people have been executed since then. Jasmine added: "Every time I hear someone has been executed, I can't bear it. I would love to go out and see him but I'm told it's not safe for me. "I would plead with anyone who will listen - please let him come home." The family's lawyer, Aamer Anwar, said they had been told not to speak about the ordeal for fear of jeopardising their father's case. But they've become deeply frustrated by the government's failure to act. He said: "The Prime Minister said he was taking this case seriously but, 2 years on, the Asghars are no longer willing to wait for the call telling them their father is dead because of illness, a hangman's noose or a fanatic's bullet." The Foreign and Commonwealth Office insist Mohammad's case remains a high priority. They said: "We continue to raise it at senior levels in Pakistan to ensure he is receiving the best possible support." (source: dailyrecord.co.uk) INDONESIA----female may face death penalty Jessica Charged With Premeditated Murder, Could Face Death Police in Jakarta have charged Jessica Kumala Wongso, a suspect in the high-profile murder of her friend, Wayan Mirna Salihin, with premeditated murder, which means she could face the death penalty, an official said on Saturday. The 27-year-old was named a suspect at 11 p.m. on Friday, and investigators subsequently arrested her at 7.30 a.m. the next day at Hotel Neo, Mangga Dua Square, Central Jakarta. "She has been charged with Article 340 of the Criminal Code on premeditated murder," said Sr. Comr. Krishna Murti, general crimes director of the Jakarta Police. The article carries a minimum jail sentence of 20 years and a maximum penalty of life in prison or death. "[As this is a case] with a sentence [prospect] of more than 5 years, we could detain her," Krishna said. "We have 24 hours to question her before deciding [whether to extend] the detention." Jessica was brought in to the Jakarta Police headquarters at 10. p.m. for questioning, but as of 4 p.m., investigators were still waiting for the arrival of her legal defense team. "If her lawyers don't show up, the state will provide her with legal assistance," Krishna said. Contacted separately, one of Jessica's lawyers, Andi Yoesoef, said that his team would accompany her, but he also called Saturday's arrest deplorable, claiming his team was not informed of it beforehand. "It is the right of police, but at the very least, they should have provided prior notice," he said. "Yudi will attend today's questioning," Andi said, referring to another lawyer for Jessica, Yudi Wibowo Sukinto. Jessica has been at the center of police investigations into Mirna's case in recent weeks. Mirna, also 27, suffered convulsions on Jan. 6 at Olivier cafe in Grand Indonesia shopping mall shortly after taking a sip of her Vietnamese iced coffee. She was then taken to a nearby hospital, where she died. Lab tests confirmed there were traces of highly toxic cyanide inside her stomach, as well as in the drink she consumed. Police said the drink was ordered by Jessica, who arrived at the cafe almost an hour earlier. Investigators have questioned Jessica as a witness at least five times and searched her home, while at the request of police, the immigration office had also imposed a travel ban. (source: Jakarta Globe) IRAQ----executions ISIS Executes 18 Civilians in Mosul, Iraq The ISIS has recently executed a number of civilians across its territories in Northern Iraq, including a young Kurdish man in Mosul for allegedly cooperating with Kurdish Peshmerga forces against the terrorist group. ISIS militants executed a 17-years-old Kurdish man in a military base in their Northern Iraqi stronghold of Mosul. Sources revealed that the victim was from the predominantly Shabak village of Bajrbog near Bashiq district, and he was abducted by ISIS some 20 days ago. Since the northern province of Nineveh has fallen into the hands of ISIS in June 2014, the extremist group is conducting mass killings and arbitrary punishments against locals to spread fear in the area and, as a result, leave the civilians with no choice but obedience. Elsewhere in Salahaddin province, nearly 17 youths received the death penalty by ISIS as they had killed an ISIS member, raised an Iraqi flag on a telecommunication tower in Shirqat district and cooperated with the Iraqi government against ISIS. Local sources told to the Iraqi media that the insurgents hung the corpses from lamp posts after the executions. (source: AhlulBayt News Agency) CHINA: China Sentences 2 Men to Death in Slaying of Tibetan Monk A Chinese court sentenced two men to death in the 2013 killing of Akong Rinpoche, a well-known religious figure who founded the 1st Tibetan Buddhist monastery in the West and built an international network of spiritual retreats. Thubten Kunsal, a Tibetan man who had worked at Akong's monastery in the United Kingdom as an artist for 9 years, fatally stabbed Akong, his nephew and his driver after confronting him at his home in the city of Chengdu over $415,000 in wages he believed he was owed, according to a statement Sunday by the Chengdu People's Intermediate Court. Thubten and another man, Ciren Banyue, were given the death penalty while a 3rd man was sentenced to 3 years' prison for hiding daggers used in the killings. Thubten and Ciren said they planned to appeal, according to the court statement. Akong's monastery Kagyu Samye Ling, which is based in southwest Scotland with branches in Europe and Africa, has denied it owed Thubten pay. It did not immediately have comment on the sentences. Born in 1939, Akong was recognized at age 2 by a search party as a lama incarnate and entered the Dolma Lhakhang monastery before fleeing to India as Chinese forces moved in to stamp out the 1959 Tibetan uprising. He moved to Britain several years later, studied at Oxford University and founded his Buddhist center in Dumfriesshire, Scotland, in 1967. The monk, who became a British citizen, maintained friendly relations with the Chinese government and frequently visited the country to look after charity projects. Akong was on a fundraising trip when he was stabbed. (source: Associated Press) INDIA: Court holds 2 guilty of Yug Chandak's brutal killing A year after trial commenced in the sensational kidnap and murder case of 8-year-old Yug Chandak, the sessions court here found both accused - Rajesh Dhanalal Daware (19) and his friend Arvind Abhilash Singh (23) - guilty of diabolic killing on Saturday. The perpetrators, both BCom first year students of from PWS College, Kamptee Road, were convicted under Sections 302 (murder), 364A (kidnapping for ransom), 201 (destruction of evidence), and 120-B (criminal conspiracy). Principal judge KK Sonawane will pronounce the full verdict on February 3 after hearing arguments from both sides on quantum of punishment. Daware's 17-year-old younger brother, who assisted accused in conspiracy, was already referred to Juvenile Remand Home. About 26 injuries, including those on the neck, were found on the Yug's body. None of the 50 witness examined by the prosecution turned hostile, which is perhaps rare in such high-profile murder cases, as per additional public prosecutor Jyoti Vajani, Chandak family's counsel Rajendra Daga and investigation officer (IO) from Lakadganj Police Station Satyanarayan Jaiswal. According to them, they brought to fore as many as 20 circumstances to prove complicity of the accused in the crime. With a view to extract revenge from Dr Mukesh Chandak for what Daware claimed as humiliation meted out to him by the doctor and extract ransom, Daware hatched the conspiracy to kidnap and kill Yug, a second standard student of Centre Point School, Wardhaman Nagar branch. The duo executed their plan and brutally killed the child by strangulating him on September 1, 2014. They later buried his body in sand under pipes near a culvert on the desolate Gumthi-Gumthala Road near Patansawangi village, 27 kms from Nagpur. The duo had planned their escape after receiving money, but were arrested on the next day after Chandak family raised suspicion on Daware. During intense interrogation, both the accused confessed to killing the boy and led the investigators to the spot where they had buried the child's body. The incident shook the conscience of Nagpurians and most joined hands to condole Yug's death. Candle marches were taken out in support of the Chandak family and demanded death for the perpetrators of innocent child's killing. The court relied on a number of factors apart from strong testimony of 50 witnesses to nail the culprits. It included CCTV footage at a petrol pump where the accused filled up their bike's tank after kidnapping the child, last seen theory of many witnesses, recovery of child's clothes from the spot shown by accused and Yug's earring which was traced to Arvind Singh's home. Even the call details records and more importantly, the testimony of Daware's girlfriend, went against them. 2 school students from Patansawangi village, who saw the duo taking Yug on their bikes, were also made witnesses by the prosecution after requesting their parents. According to police, Daware was familiar with the place where body was buried as he often used to take his girlfriend to Adasa and take a break at the spot while returning. The prosecution lawyers had already cited three landmark Supreme Court verdicts including that of Bacchan Singh of 1983, to press for death penalty to the accused while terming the case as "rarest of rare" with no signs of reformation of the 2 accused. It was the second such diabolic killing in the city in three years after another 8-year-old boy Kush Katariya was similarly killed by Ayush Pugalia on October 11, 2011, to extracting Rs2 crore ransom from his parents. Fittingly, he was awarded a rare double lifer by the court, which was enhanced to triple lifer by the Nagpur bench of Bombay High Court. (source: The Times of India) ***************** Rapist father awarded death penalty A local court today awarded death penalty to 1 person on the charge of raping and strangulating his minor daughter. According to prosecution, Mehatlal Sanodiya (42) sexually assaulted and strangled his 13-year-old daughter when she was alone on the night of January 25, 2013. His wife had gone to her maternal home with her younger daughter. On the next day, the accused closed the door and went to farm. Police were informed about the crime by neighbours. Deputy Director (Prosecution) Narendra Singh Uike said as there were no eyewitnesses in the case, Sessions Judge Devendra Singh delivered the verdict on the basis of DNA test and other evidence. (source: webindia123.com) ******************** No illusions about keeping hangman busy but anything else will hurt community A city sessions court today handed death to 3 men found guilty of gang-raping and murdering a college girl in Kamduni in 2013, rejecting the argument of their lawyers that the crime didn't fall in the category of "rarest of rare". Judge Sanchita Sarkar, who sentenced three others to imprisonment till death, said if the rising trend of such crimes wasn't "nipped" in the bud, the "poison" could spread like wildfire. The sentences were handed down 2 days after the court had convicted Ansar Ali, Amin Ali and Saiful Ali - the trio sentenced to death - along with Emanul Islam, Bhola Naskar and Aminur Islam, jailed for life for gang-rape as their role in the murder couldn't be proved. The judge had acquitted 2 men, Rafikul Islam Gazi and Noor Ali. A ninth accused, Gopal Naskar, died in custody last year. The lawyers for Ansar, Amin and Saiful, the death-row trio, said they had decided to move the high court. Should the 3 - they have the option of taking the matter right up to the President if the high court and the Supreme Court uphold the judgment - fail to get clemency, they would be the 1st to be hanged in Calcutta since the August 14, 2004, execution of Dhananjoy Chatterjee. Chatterjee had raped and murdered a schoolgirl, a crime that was deemed rarest of rare. In her judgment today, additional district and sessions judge Sanchita Sarkar said a "strong message" needed to be sent. "It is true that it cannot be predicated that a crime-free society will dawn if the hangman is kept feverishly busy, but it is equally true that barbaric rapes and murders have become the order of the day and inadequate punishment may lead to the sufferings of the community at large," she said in her 113-page judgment. "I conclude by stating the obvious that a strong message needs to be sent to the perpetrators of such a ghastly crime against women that such crimes shall not be countenanced. I also feel that if the rising trend towards such crime is not nipped in the bud and arrested at its inception the poison is likely to spread like wildfire through the social order, rendering it hapless and defunct," the judge added. "To put the record straight, these persons have not been convicted only on account of conspiracy but also for their overt acts. The offence of gang rape in the instant case at hand compounded with murder has shocked the collective conscience of the society at large." On June 7, 2013, the 21-year-old second-year BA student was walking back to her home in Kamduni, a North 24-Parganas village 50km from the city, after a college exam when she was dragged into the caretaker's room of a compound with a boundary wall and gang-raped repeatedly. She died during the assault. Her body was found the next morning. "The acts of the convicts were committed with a deliberate pre-planned design to gain control over the victim. The antisocial or socially abhorrent nature of the crime is reflected from the fact that the said crime was committed not for personal reasons but to terrorise the people of the locality and to frighten them," the judge noted. There have been instances when a death sentence handed down by a lower court has been changed by an upper court. Aftab Ansari and Jamiluddin Nasir - both sentenced to death for their role in the 2002 attack on Calcutta's American Centre - escaped the gallows after the Supreme Court commuted their sentences. The top court ruled that Ansari would remain in jail throughout his life while Nasirwould have to serve a minimum of 30 years. Last year alone, Calcutta High Court sources said, 21 verdicts of capital punishment were converted to life imprisonment. This morning, the judge first heard the arguments of the defence counsel and the prosecution before she gave the convicts a chance to appeal individually. Senior lawyers said the practice of a judge hearing out the convicts one last time before handing down the verdict, when they face death penalty or life imprisonment, was common. Ansar's counsel Firoz Edulji argued that the crime didn't fall in the category of "rarest of the rare" and underscored the importance of the court to assess how harmful the convicts could be to society if they are released. Then public prosecutor Dipak Ranjan Ghosh said the crime was "heinous" and "brutal", before going on to describe how the victim's body had been subjected to "grievous, fatal injury". "Consider this. Saiful Ali, while giving his statement under Section 164, aggressively and enthusiastically re-enacted how the rape and murder was committed. I have not seen anything like this in my 33 years (in the profession). If that does not make it rarest of the rare, I do not know what does," Ghosh submitted. In an apparent endorsement of Ghosh's argument, the judge noted: "Exemplary punishment is, therefore, the need of the hour, for if this is not (among) the rarest of rare crimes, there is likely to be none." None of the 6 convicts betrayed any emotion as the judge pronounced the verdict. Ansar, who beckoned 1 of his lawyers, asked him to "get a copy of the judgment quickly". The ruling establishment claimed the judgment was a "victory". Urban development minister Firhad Hakim, who had joined his party's chorus in the past to ridicule a section of Kamduni residents for their campaign for justice, said: "We are happy with the judgment. The administration performed its duty by arresting the culprits and bringing them to justice." The family of the victim, according to her elder brother, said they would move the high court against the acquittal of Rafikul and Noor. "We will figure out our course of action after meeting chief minister Mamata Banerjee," he said while leaving the court premises. (source: The Calcutta Telegraph)