[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, ARK., CALIF., USA

[Rick Halperin]

July 24



TEXAS----impending execution

Rally Questions Death Penalty for Texas Man Who Didn't Pull Trigger


Supporters of Jeff Wood gathered on July 23, 2016, in front of the Governor's 
Mansion to rally against his scheduled August execution.

On Saturday, relatives and supporters of death row inmate Jeff Wood braved the 
Texas summer heat to gather outside Gov. Greg Abbott's mansion, hoping their 
state's leader will halt the execution and commute Wood's sentence for one 
reason - Wood never killed anyone.

On Jan. 2, 1996, Wood, 22 at the time, waited in a car while Daniel Reneau 
robbed a Kerrville convenience store and shot the clerk, Kriss Keeran, 
according to a clemency petition from 2008.

Wood was charged with capital murder under Texas' law of parties, which states 
that a person can be charged of a crime he didn't commit if he helped or 
"should have anticipated it as a result" of another crime, like a robbery, 
according to the Texas penal code. Wood was sentenced to death as was Reneau, 
who was executed in 2002.

Huddled under the shade of trees outside the mansion's gates in the 100-degree 
heat, Wood's family and about 30 other people carried signs with Wood's face on 
them and wore T-shirts that said "Punish action. Not affiliation."

Terri Been, Wood's sister, told the small crowd that her brother did not commit 
or conspire to commit murder and that he didn't even know Reneau had a gun when 
he entered the store.

"So I ask you, Governor Abbott, how is this justice?" Been said toward the 
mansion. "My brother is not a monster; he is not a killer."

A spokesman for Abbott's office didn't immediately respond to a request to 
comment for this article.

At Saturday's rally, Tommy Ramirez, a trial lawyer from Devine, held a sign 
calling to save Wood, but said he is not against the death penalty or the law 
of parties. The law was meant for mobsters or someone who paid to have someone 
killed, he said.

"In this case, we got a ... kid, with no record, hanging with the wrong 
people," Ramirez said. "He did not know anyone was going to be murdered."

Executions under the law of parties or similar laws in other states, are rare. 
The Death Penalty Information Center has confirmed only 10 cases, 5 of which 
were in Texas.

In 2007, then-Gov. Rick Perry changed Kenneth Foster's sentence from death to 
life in prison hours before his execution. Like Wood, Foster was the getaway 
driver in a robbery that turned to murder.

But 2 years later, Perry refused to halt the execution of Robert Thompson in a 
similar case after the Board of Pardons and Paroles recommended clemency, 
according to the Houston Chronicle. The triggerman in that murder received 
life, not death.

Jeff Wood was originally scheduled to be executed in 2008, but the execution 
was stayed by a federal district court, according to court documents. He has 
been on death row for more than 18 years.

A petition asking the governor and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles to 
stay the execution and commute Wood's sentence will be sent early next month, 
according to Scott Cobb of Texas Moratorium Network.

With sweat on their brows, Wood's supporters hoped Abbott would hear their 
cries from his gate and stop his execution, scheduled for Aug. 24.

"We do not want Jeff Wood to be executed. Not on the 24th, not ever!" said 
Gloria Rubac, an anti-death penalty activist. "We got a stay for Jeff [before], 
and we're gonna do it again!"

(source: Texas Tribune)

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

The Life of Texas Death Row Inmate Teddrick Batiste


We periodically publish letters from death row inmates. Today we hear from a 
29-year-old Texas inmate who describes his life and horrific upbringing, and 
offers a look behind the walls of a prison from which he will never emerge.

Teddrick Batiste was convicted of the 2009 shooting and killing a Houston man 
during an attempted robbery. Batiste, a Houston native, was a member of the 
Crips at the time of his crime. He has been on death row in Texas since 2011.

Last month, Batiste wrote to me to share his memories of Ray Jasper, a fellow 
Texas death row inmate who was executed in 2014. Shortly before his death, 
Jasper wrote us a letter that was viewed more than 2 million times, becoming 
the most widely read ever in our "Letters from Death Row" series. Batiste told 
of his close friendship with Jasper, and of Jasper's fierce physical resistance 
on the day of his execution, forcing a riot team to remove him from his cell.

I wrote back to Batiste asking for any further memories of Ray Jasper, and sent 
him a standard set of questions about his life on death row and his thoughts on 
the justice system. His letter in response is below.

Batiste recounts his relationship with Ray Jasper and his recollections of the 
time leading up to Ray Jasper's execution. "He decided to not cater to a person 
smiling in your face to get you to hurry up and sign a piece of paper saying 
that your going to willingly let them kill you."

Batiste describes the chaos surround Ray Jasper's last days. "He told me that 
he didn't care if they put his body on top of another inmate that has been 
killed by the state, he was going to fight for his life no matter what."

Final thoughts on Jasper, and Batiste begins responding to our questions about 
his case and the burdens of life on death row. "You can spend your time being 
mad at the world, but you have to look in the mirror and not out the window."

Batiste discusses his past and his life inside. "I had a real dark childhood 
and fear was taken from me when I was young."

Batiste describes his daily routine in prison. "I aint had no physical contact 
since April 2009. Any contact I have had since then has been me fighting with 
the riot team here. No touch of my son, no family, a woman, no friends, no hand 
shakes, no high fives, no nothing at all."

Batiste talks about his childhood and growing up in Houston. "My mom had me 
when she was 15 years old in the bathroom of my grandmother's house on the 
floor... I saw people break and fall every day. I saw people speak of endless 
pain and defeat in life."

More on Batiste's youth. "This guy would physically abuse [my mom and me] and 
when she fought or cried I was right there with her. We were face to face tear 
to tear. You ever tasted a tear? I have."

More on Batiste's past and his thoughts on religion. "I felt like nothing bad 
happens at church so why did god allow this or do this to my grandmother... 
That was the last time I ever went to church."

Further thoughts from Batiste on religion and on the media. "I got tired of 
saying I pray and he don't talk to me, my knees bleed because I pray so much."

Batiste contrasts media perception and reality of his neighborhood and prisons. 
"There is no media when the aid centers are over packed and things like that, 
only crime brings the media where I'm from."

Batiste's final thoughts. "As a man I'm always willing to deal with what comes 
my way, but I also know that I would like to not have what came my way as my 
identity."

(source: Hamilton Nolan, gawker.com)






ARKANSS:

Illness resets trial in child's death


A judge delayed the jury trial for a man accused in the death of his son 
because one of his defense attorneys has developed a medical condition.

Mauricio Torres, 46, and his wife, Cathy, are charged with capital murder and 
first-degree battery in the death of their 6-year-old son. Prosecutors will 
seek the death penalty for the Bella Vista couple.

Maurice Isaiah Torres was pronounced dead at a hospital March 29, 2015. A 
medical examiner determined the boy suffered from chronic child abuse and that 
his death was from internal injuries caused by rape, according to court 
documents.

A jury trial for Mauricio Torres was scheduled to begin Aug. 22. It is now set 
for Nov. 1, according to Tuesday's ruling by Benton County Circuit Judge Brad 
Karren.

Torres' attorneys, Jeff Rosenzweig and Bill James, requested a delay in the 
trial. Mauricio Torres was in the courtroom Tuesday, but his attorneys 
participated by telephone.

Rosenzweig said he had been diagnosed with acute deep vein thrombosis and had 
blood clots in his leg. Rosenzweig said he had been placed on blood thinners 
and that his health problems prevent him from traveling.

He is unable to go to California to talk with witnesses and prepare for the 
August trial, Rosenzweig said. He has made one trip to California, he said.

Karren wanted to know whether James or the defense's investigator and 
mitigation specialist could travel in his place. Rosenzweig said he's the one 
who has already met with Torres' father and is trying to gain his cooperation.

He did not know whether his health condition would affect an Aug. 22 trial. The 
concern is that a blood clot could break free and further risk his health, 
Rosenzweig said.

James argued the trial should not take place in August since Rosenweig needed 
to rest.

Nathan Smith, Benton County's prosecuting attorney, objected to delaying the 
trial for a 3rd time. Smith said he was sympathetic of Rosenzweig's medical 
condition but believes the trial can be held and still protect his health.

Smith said many witnesses are ready for the August trial, adding the case is 18 
months old and that Mauricio Torres had three other attorneys before they were 
replaced by Rosenzweig and James.

James said most capital cases take at least 2 years to try.

"This is a death-penalty case," he said. "It needs to be done right. We don't 
want to lose Jeff because the state wants to kill him [Mauricio Torres] 
sooner."

"I object to that," Smith said.

Smith asked the judge to appoint a third attorney for Torres if the judge 
postponed the trial.

"We need all to understand that come hell or high water ... we are having it," 
Smith said of the November trial.

Karren will request the Arkansas Public Defender Commission appoint a third 
attorney to Torres' defense team. Karren also rescheduled a suppression hearing 
that was set for Friday until Sept. 16.

Cathy Torres' trial was set to begin Nov. 1, but her husband's trial now will 
take place instead of hers. A new date was not scheduled for Cathy Torres' jury 
trial.

The Torreses are being held without bail in the Benton County jail.

(source: arkansasonline.com)






CALIFORNIA:

Proposition 62 Would Finally Halt The 'Machinery of Death' in California


45 years ago in a bone-chilling, blood-curdling cover story for The Los Angeles 
Free Press about California's gas chamber - "How Long Can You Hold Your 
Breath?" - author, musician and beatnik activist Ed Sanders, decried 
state-sponsored, taxpayer funded executions as a "ritual of filth." Sanders 
exhorted: "Isn't it time to crush that cruel nose-cone at San Quentin in the 
jaws of the nearest auto compactor or in the nearest junk yard?"

Close to half a century later - but, better late than never - when Californians 
head to the polls on Nov. 8, we can do just what Ed Sanders suggested: We can 
toss out what former Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun called our broken and 
vile 'machinery of death," relegating it to the dust-heap of our shared, dark, 
wayward humanity.

Opinion LogoIf we vote for Proposition 62 and against Proposition 66, we can 
finally be rid of the gruesome gas chamber which Sanders wrote, "drools for its 
next victim." It might surprise you to know this man-made room of depravity 
with its glistening, antiseptic floor, could under current California law, 
still be used.

And what about those grim, ghastly gurneys and the nasty life-sucking needles, 
no better than chemical nooses? They'll be gone for good if we just vote for 
Proposition 62 and against Proposition 66.

If we vote for Proposition 62 and against Proposition 66 (which promises to 
speed up executions, but underneath its sheen, is nothing more than 24 carat 
fool's gold), California can forever be free of the infamy of having executed 
an innocent person - that is, if we haven't done so already. With the too-large 
number of exonerations of the wrongfully convicted in California and 
nationally, a number that keeps rising as faithfully as the tide, it may be too 
late for us to prevent such an abomination - but what does it say about us as 
human beings if we don't act now to prevent more!?

My fellow citizens, if we just vote for Proposition 62 and against Proposition 
66, finally, we can put an end to the extremely costly, time-sapping, 
never-ending death penalty appeals that have clogged and paralyzed our court 
system for decades, and that would do so even more under Proposition 66. If we 
just vote for Proposition 62 and against Proposition 66, we can end the 
ghoulish grandstanding over the procurement and planning by our elected 
officials to administer potentially defective, death-inducing drugs to our 
citizens - drugs that have the potential, as we've seen in recently botched 
executions around the country, to torture - thereby demeaning us all.

At least 18 death row inmates in California are out of appeals and ripe for 
execution; 730 more are in the pipeline, ready to follow suit. We can 
exterminate them all, and going forward we can choose to kill the many hundreds 
and thousands of Californians that will sadly, but as surely as human nature, 
take their place. We can do so in the name of so-called "justice," and on 
behalf of the great state of California.

Or, finally, as the Los Angles Free Press implored close to a half a century 
ago, we can as free Californians break from the yoke of state-endorsed murder - 
a vulgar practice of vengeance that has masqueraded far too long in this 
country as "justice."

If we do that - if we Californians vote for Proposition 62 and against 
Proposition 66 - we can fulfill the hopeful promise of our goodness as a people 
upon which the Eighth Amendment of our United States Constitution depends. In 
1958, the Honorable Earl Warren, a native Californian, our state's 30th 
governor, and a former chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, wrote that the 
Eighth Amendment "must draw its meaning from the evolving standards of decency 
that mark the progress of a maturing society." If we vote for Proposition 62 
and against Proposition 66, our standards of decency will finally have evolved 
such that we can mark - I daresay, we can celebrate - the progress of the 
maturing society conscientious Californians long have craved.

(source: Stephen Cooper is a former Washington, D.C., public defender who 
worked as an assistant federal public defender in Alabama between 2012 and 
2015----timesofsandiego.com)

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

On Human Rights, California is Better than Japan, Thailand, Taiwan, Singapore, 
and Texas!


Speaking in favor of Proposition 66, the ballot initiative that seeks to speed 
up executions in California to Texas-like levels of lethality, Los Angeles 
deputy district attorney Michele Hanisee told legislators during testimony 
before the Public Safety Committee in May: "The suggestion that civilized 
societies don???t support the death penalty is inaccurate. Many countries such 
as Japan, Thailand, Taiwan, and Singapore have the death penalty."

Ms. Hanisee is President of the Association of Los Angeles Deputy District 
Attorneys. She is being sued for lying in a declaration she made under oath 
during a murder prosecution and, just recently, her claims of "absolute 
immunity" for that egregious conduct were rejected by the Ninth Circuit Court 
of Appeals. While this alone clouds Hanisee's credibility on the death penalty 
debate in California (whether the punishment should be ended forever or be 
"speeded up"), the countries whose justice systems Hanisee extols are even more 
troubling. Perhaps, in addition to remedial ethics courses on an attorney's 
duty of candor to the court, Ms. Hanisee should also take a closer look at the 
countries she is suggesting Californians emulate with their vote on the death 
penalty this fall.

For example, in Japan, it has been documented that death sentences are 
"implemented with disregard for international law, including denying the right 
of prisoners to seek appeal." The condemned are subject to "degrading and 
inhuman treatment" which includes "prolonged solitary confinement." Japan even 
executed an 89-year-old man last year who spent 46 years on death row 
protesting his innocence - all the way to his long-awaited, abominable end.

In Thailand, Taiwan and Singapore, death sentences can be meted out for drug 
crimes alone. Furthermore, in Thailand, allegations of the torture of suspects 
charged with capital offenses have been substantiated by the Thai National 
Human Rights Commission. Taiwan, which is moving toward abolishing the death 
penalty, has a record of executing "psychologically or mentally impaired 
prisoners," and failing to have "a clear and complete procedure for appeals for 
clemency." Last fall, in an article for Slate called, "Singapore's harsh death 
penalty: Inside the fight to save 1 man from the city-state's death row," 
Kirsten Han wrote about, "Singapore's mandatory death penalty regime" where, 
under Singapore law, "anyone convicted of murder must be sentenced to death, 
with no chance for mitigating factors to be taken into account." (In Singapore, 
prisoners convicted of low-level property crimes can even be caned, a 
punishment Berkeley Law Professor Jerome H. Skolnick called "brutal," 
describing how a "martial artist strikes the offenders" with "a half-inch 
rattan cane moistened to break the skin and inflict severe pain" often causing 
significant "loss of blood" and "shock.") Like Ms. Hanisee, Ms. Bethany Webb, 
who lost her sister in the 2011 mass shooting at a hair salon in Seal Beach, 
also got a chance to address the Public Safety Committee this past May. In her 
courageous testimony, Ms. Webb explained her support for Proposition 62 (which 
would, among other things, replace the death penalty in California with a 
sentence of life without the possibility of parole). In voicing her opposition 
to the countervailing initiative, Proposition 66, Ms. Webb told lawmakers: "We 
could be more like Texas. We could start mass producing murder. Well, I'm 
sorry, California is better than Texas .... We're better than Texas."

Ms. Webb is right. When it comes to respecting human rights, California is 
better than Texas, where the lust for speedy executions has led to the 
execution of a panoply of potentially innocent men. And, despite what Ms. 
Hanisee thinks, we are also better than Japan, Thailand, Taiwan, and Singapore. 
Or, at least, we will be - as soon as we vote for Proposition 62 and against 
Proposition 66 - ending capital punishment forever in California.

(source: Stephen Cooper is a former D.C. public defender who worked as an 
assistant federal public defender in Alabama between 2012 and 
2015----themoderatevoice.com)

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

Yes on Prop. 66 - Death Penalty Reform - Fixing California's Broken System


Historically, Californians have overwhelmingly supported the death penalty. 
Yet, during every election cycle a ballot measure comes up looking to repeal 
it. Well this year is no different. Governor Brown and a host of Hollywood 
elite are actively pushing Prop. 62, which would repeal the death penalty, 
granting criminals convicted of murder with special circumstances, a life 
sentence instead.

Opponents of the death penalty try to point out the possibility of persons 
being wrongly convicted of capital offenses, sentenced to death and then being 
executed. The fact is there is no documented case of this EVER taking place in 
California due to the expertise and painstaking quality of investigation and 
prosecutorial work that has gone into death penalty cases.

Instead of abolishing the death penalty altogether, a smarter move is to mend a 
broken system. Prop. 66 is the answer Californians are looking for. The goals 
behind Proposition 66 are laudable and more in line with the thinking of the 
California electorate that voted to reinstitute the death penalty to begin with 
mend it, don't end it.

Prop. 66 reforms will speed up the appeals process, ensuring appeals are heard 
within 5 years and no innocent person is executed. It doesn't do so in a hasty 
way intended to cut corners. It does so by eliminating legal and procedural 
delay tactics while still respecting the legal rights and recourse for those 
convicted.

Proposition 66 would ensure that every person sentenced to death has qualified 
death penalty appeals counsel assigned immediately, eliminating the current 
wait of 5 years or more. The appeals would then be expedited without 
endangering due process, and initiated at the trial court level where the facts 
of the cases are best known.

Death row inmates have murdered over 1000 victims, including 226 children and 
43 police officers; 294 victims were raped and/or tortured. It's time 
California reformed our death penalty process so it works and provides murder 
victims and their families with some sense of closure. Instead of talking about 
how barbaric and unfair the death penalty in California is, those seeking to 
abolish it should give thought to those victims who had their lives taken from 
them, often in truly brutal and horrific ways, and their families who have had 
to live with the knowledge that the murders of their loved ones continue to 
live at the expense of the taxpayer.

And regarding the expense, those backing repeal of the death penalty try to 
point to a great windfall of savings for the taxpayer if those on death row 
simply spend that time in prison for life rather than face execution. Even at 
an estimated $150 million reduction in annual costs, one would still have to 
concede that the savings is a paltry drop in the bucket compared to the vast 
size of California's budget and hardly the worst use of taxpayer funds. 
Instead, under Prop 62, taxpayers are on the hook to feed, clothe, house, guard 
and provide healthcare to brutal killers until they die of old age costing 
taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars.

Criminals don't end up on death row unless they are convicted of the worst 
crimes. Victims left behind, grieving families throughout California and their 
loved ones, don't deserve anything less than justice. Justice is a reformed, 
not eliminated death penalty.

We urge a No vote on Proposition 62 and a Yes vote on Proposition 66.

(source: Guest Opinion; Michael Hestrin was sworn in as the Riverside District 
Attorney in 2015. Prior to being sworn as the DA, Hestrin spent 18 years as a 
line prosecutor in the DA's Office----The Desert Independent)






USA:

Tim Kaine Has A Long, Complicated History With The Death Penalty----While Kaine 
has said he personally opposed capital punishment, he is one of the few 
Democrats in recent years to have carried out executions.


By selecting Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine as her running mate, Hillary Clinton chose 
one of the few Democratic governors who has put people to death. In his 4 years 
as governor of Virginia, Kaine carried out 11 executions.

Over the course of the 2016 campaign, Clinton has said that she has concerns 
about how the death penalty is implemented in the states, and that she would 
"breathe a sigh of relief if either the Supreme Court or the states themselves 
began to eliminate the death penalty."

But Clinton has reiterated that she supports the death penalty being an option 
for the federal government in cases like terrorism.

Of current governors, the only Democrats to have carried out executions are 
Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon and 1 of Kaine's successors, Virginia Gov. Terry 
McAuliffe.

Although Kaine carried out 11 executions, his stance on the death penalty is 
much more complicated than that. Before he became governor in 2006, Kaine 
served as a civil rights lawyer, and represented several capital defendants.

In 1987, he told the Washington Post that "[m]urder is wrong in the gulag, in 
Afghanistan, in Soweto, in the mountains of Guatemala, in Fairfax County ... 
and even the Spring Street Penitentiary."

Kaine was attacked for his work as a pro-bono attorney for death row defendants 
when he ran for governor. His opponent, Jerry Kilgore, wanted to expand the use 
of the death penalty - and ran attack ads with families of victims in cases 
Kaine represented.

"Tim Kaine says that Adolf Hitler doesn't qualify for the death penalty," one 
victim's father said in one of the ads.

Kaine, a devout Catholic, responded in a follow-up ad.

"My faith teaches that life is sacred," Kaine said in the ad. "That's why I 
personally oppose the death penalty. But I take my oath of office seriously, 
and I'll enforce the death penalty ... because it's the law."

Once in office, Kaine did so, declining to grant clemency and allowing his 1st 
execution to proceed as governor in his 3rd month on the job, April 2006.

Kaine commuted only 1 death sentence as governor, citing inmate Perry Walton's 
mental deficiencies. Walton had pleaded guilty to killing 3 people in 1997.

"One cannot reasonably conclude that Walton is fully aware of the punishment he 
is about to suffer and why he is to suffer it," Kaine said in a statement at 
the time.

Kaine believed there was "significant evidence that Walton had schizophrenia," 
and that "there was more than a minimal chance that Walton no longer knew why 
he was to be executed or was even aware of the final punishment he was about to 
receive."

Of the 11 people - all men - executed under Kaine, 6 were black.

In a 2012 interview after he had left the governor's office, Kaine told the 
Washington Post he was conflicted over the executions.

"I really struggled with that as governor. I have a moral position against the 
death penalty," he said. "But I took an oath of office to uphold it. Following 
an oath of office is also a moral obligation."

"I hope I can give a good accounting of myself on Judgment Day."

(source: buzzfeed.com)

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

Give killers taste of their own medicine


Cops killing people, people killing cops, terrorists killing people, people 
killing each other - it seems our world has been turned upside down by 
violence. If the perpetrators of such heinous acts don't kill themselves or are 
not killed by others, I must assume they will be tried in a court of law. If 
found guilty, the majority end up with prison sentences, though many will be 
eligible for parole down the road. Those who receive the death penalty spend 
decades in prison before they die of natural causes or are executed.

In either case, why should law-abiding, tax-paying citizens have to pay for 
their incarceration? Some may argue that potential rehabilitation justifies the 
expense. Frankly, I am not interested in rehabilitating someone who willingly 
kills - self-defense being the only exception. Others will defend insanity as a 
reason to minimize a murderous act. In reality, anyone who kills another human 
being is insane. It doesn't matter if the act is premeditated or spontaneous.

Perhaps an eye-for-an-eye approach to justice would drastically reduce the 
volume of murderous acts. A killer who willingly drives his or her vehicle 
through a crowd and takes many innocent lives should be punished by being run 
over by a similar vehicle. A terrorist who beheads his victims should also be 
beheaded. More civilized alternatives include a public firing squad or hanging. 
Do these solutions seem inhumane? Perhaps, but how humane is murder? Of course, 
none of these punishments will ever happen, but if they did, I believe murders 
of all kinds would be drastically reduced.

Dick Southmayd, Oak Ridge

(source: Letter to the Editor, Knoxville News-Sentinel)