[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, VA., OHIO, MO., S. DAK., N.M., ARIZ., CALIF.

[Rick Halperin]

Oct. 27



TEXAS----impending execution

Convicted Murderer to be Executed Tuesday


A San Antonio man is set to be executed this week for the murder of 3 people in 
2000.

32-year-old Miguel Angel Paredes will be executed by lethal injection Tuesday. 
He's a member of a Texas prison gang.Paredes, along with 2 fellow gang members, 
shot and killed 3 people in Bexar County during a meeting with a member of the 
Texas Mexican Mafia.They burned the bodies, rolled them up in a carpet and 
tossed it in a Frio County field near a peanut farm.

Paredes' co-defendants are serving life terms.

(source: Time Warner Cable news)






VIRGINIA:

Court in Va. examines death row isolation policy


Virginia's practice of automatically holding death row inmates in solitary 
confinement will be reviewed by a federal appeals court in a case that experts 
say could have repercussions beyond the state's borders.

U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema in Alexandria ruled last year that 
around-the-clock isolation of condemned inmates is so onerous that the Virginia 
Department of Corrections must assess its necessity on a case-by-case basis. 
Failure to do so, she said, violates the inmates' due process rights.

The state appealed, arguing that the courts should defer to the judgment of 
prison officials on safety issues. A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit 
Court of Appeals will hear arguments Tuesday.

The lawsuit was filed by Alfredo Prieto, who was on California's death row for 
raping and murdering a 15-year-old girl when a DNA sample connected him to the 
1988 slayings of George Washington University students Rachel Raver and Warren 
Fulton III in Reston. He also was sentenced to death in Virginia, where he has 
spent most of the last six years alone in a 71-square-foot cell at the Sussex I 
State Prison.

Some capital punishment experts say a victory by Prieto could prompt similar 
lawsuits by death row inmates elsewhere.

"It gives them a road map," said northern Virginia defense attorney Jonathan 
Sheldon, who noted that the due process claim succeeded where allegations of 
cruel and unusual punishment have routinely failed. "It's not that common to 
challenge conditions of confinement on due process grounds."

Even the state says in court papers that Brinkema's ruling "would do away with 
death row as it is currently operated in Virginia and numerous other states."

Andrea Lyon, a death penalty lawyer and dean of the Valparaiso University Law 
School in Indiana, agreed that the case could have a ripple effect nationally 
but said prisons would not become more dangerous as a result.

"This is not stepping on the right of prisons to make their own determination 
of whether or not someone needs this level of confinement," she said. "Just 
don't do it if there's no reason."

Lyon, who has represented 138 murder defendants, co-authored a 2005 report on 
Missouri's policy of "mainstreaming" death row inmates into the general prison 
population. She said a study of 11 years of data from that state's prison 
system disproves the "mythology" that death row inmates are more dangerous than 
other prisoners.

But where Lyon sees mythology, Virginia prison officials see sound judgment 
rooted in common sense and years of experience dealing with death row inmates.

"They're segregated because we see those individuals as potentially the most 
desperate of all offenders," state prisons chief Harold C. Clarke said in a 
deposition in the Prieto lawsuit. "Again, they have been sentenced to die. They 
have nothing to lose."

He pointed to the 1984 escape by six death row inmates who had been allowed to 
congregate at the since-closed maximum security prison in Mecklenburg, saying 
the jailbreak "could have been catastrophic" had the convicted killers not been 
quickly apprehended. Virginia was not automatically isolating death row inmates 
at the time.

Prieto is not arguing that solitary confinement should be abolished - just that 
the decision should be based on the same risk factors that are used to 
determine the security classification for the approximately 39,000 prisoners 
who are not facing execution. His lawyers say Prieto "likely would be assigned 
to less harsh conditions" if death row inmates were assessed in the same manner 
as other prisoners.

Under the current policy, death row inmates are allowed to leave their tiny 
cell only three times a week for 10-minute showers and five times a week for an 
hour of solitary exercise in a separate and slightly larger cell, devoid of 
workout equipment, that prisoners call "the dog cage." They eat every meal 
alone, are not eligible for work or education programs or congregational 
religious services, and are allowed strictly limited visitation. The inmates 
are allowed to purchase a small television and CD player for their cell.

Sheldon, who represents three of Prieto's fellow death row inmates, said prison 
officials have made some modest adjustments to Prieto's visitation and exercise 
privileges in response to Brinkema's ruling.

Department of Corrections spokeswoman Lisa Kinney said prison officials have 
"taken steps in cooperation with the plaintiff's counsel to address the judge's 
order, pending appeal," but she declined to provide specifics. Prieto's lawyers 
declined to comment.

(source: Associated Press)






OHIO:

Ohio prosecutors argue to stay on slayings case


Prosecutors in northeast Ohio are arguing to remain on the case of a man 
accused of killing 3 women.

Attorneys for convicted sex offender Michael Madison want the Cuyahoga County 
prosecutor's office off the case. The defense wants special prosecutors to 
handle the potential death penalty case.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer reports that in a new court filing, prosecutors say 
they should remain on the case. They dismiss the attempt as a legal ploy meant 
to criticize their office and prolong the case.

The 37-year-old Madison is accused of killing 3 women and leaving their bodies 
in trash bags in a rundown East Cleveland neighborhood where they were found 
last year. He pleaded not guilty to aggravated murder and other charges.

(source: Associated Press)






MISSOURI----impending execution

Lawyers, judges seek stay for Missouri inmate Christenson


A national group that says it tries to reach consensus on difficult 
constituional issues, and a numberr of former state and appellate judges warn 
that the execution of Mark Christensen tomorrow night would "cast a pall" over 
the judicial process. They claim Christenson has been denied his legal rights.

Mark Christenson was 18 when he and a 17 year old cousin murdered a woman and 
her 2 children and threw their bodies into a pond near Vichy in 1998. He is the 
only condemned Missouri prisoner whose case has not been reviewed at the 
federal level.

The judges and the Constitution Project are asking the Eighth District federal 
appeals court to stay the execution and to throw Christenson's attorneys off 
the case.

Constitution Project counsel Sarah Turberville says Christenson's lawyers 
missed the deadline by 117 days for filing a federal appeal and that's why they 
should no longer represent him. She says it's a conflict of interest for his 
attorneys to represent him because they have "blown any attempt he would have 
at federal review."

Turberville says the issue is not whether Christenson should be executed - an 
issue the lawyers, judges, and the Constitution Project does not address She 
says it's about whether he is being denied his constitutional rights of federal 
review of his death sentence.

Christenson is to executed just after midnight tomorrow night.

The Christenson case file: http://missourideathrow.com/2008/12/Christeson-Mark/

(source: missourinet.com)

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

Vigils Planned in Several Mo. Cities Protesting Execution


Missourians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty will be having a Vigil for 
Life at 10 cities around Missouri in protest to the execution of Mark 
Christeson, who faces death by lethal injection Oct. 29.

Mark Christeson is scheduled to die by lethal injection early on the morning of 
Oct. 29 at the prison in Bonne Terre and the MADP will be holding a Vigil for 
Life in Bonne Terre, Jefferson City, Columbia, Kansas City, Joplin, Kirksville, 
St. Joseph, St. Louis, St. Peters, and Springfield, Mo. on Oct. 28 at 12 p.m. 
at the Park Central Square.

Christeson, 35, was sentenced to death in 1999 for the murders of Susan Brouk 
and her children, 9-year-old Kyle and 12-year-old Adrian, at the Brouk's home 
near Vichy.

If the execution takes place this will be the 9th execution in the state of 
Missouri in 2014.

(source: KOLR news)



SOUTH DAKOTA:

1st man freed by using DNA speaking at USF


32 states in the country have the death penalty -- South Dakota is one of them.

Our state's Attorney General Marty Jackely said it is reserved for the most 
heinous and serious crimes.

"We are very conservative and cautious when we prosecutors in South Dakota look 
to the death penalty as an option of last resort in order to protect the public 
and other inmates, correction officers and medical personnel," said Jackley.

Kirk Bloodsworth is visiting South Dakota this week, he is trying to eliminate 
capital punishment all over the country because he was wrongly convicted of a 
crime.

He said if it can happen to him, it can happen to anyone.

He was the 1st person in the United States to use DNA evidence to overturn a 
wrongful murder conviction in the early 80's.

Now he's telling his story to help himself find peace.

"8 years, 10 months and 19 days. 2 years on death row. I was 23 years old when 
I was arrested and I was in my early 30s when I got out," said Bloodsworth.

He lost nearly a decade of his life after being wrongfully convicted of 
murdering a 9-year-old girl in Maryland.

He said he was an honorably discharged Marine with no criminal record or 
criminal history.

Bloodsworth explained police and prosecutors used a witness description to 
convict him of the murder.

"I guess another way to describe it is instead of eating bubble gum, chew on a 
pack of razor blades. That's about how my life felt," he said.

He was freed in 1993 after he learned of Genetic Fingerprinting.

He was the 1st person in the United States to use DNA to clear his name.

"You just keep hoping and praying that something good is going to happen and in 
my case that was DNA," he said.

He's already helped eliminate the death penalty in Maryland and Connecticut, 
and now he's working to get rid of it across the country.

I want to kill the thing that almost killed me. The death penalty is a failed 
policy and practice and it's had its time and it needs to be abolished," said 
Bloodsworth.

He said his biggest fear is that a person has already been executed for a crime 
they didn't commit because it almost happened to him.

"Some of these people, you might humanely believe that they deserve to die and 
maybe they do, but people like me do not and you can't walk over us to kill the 
guilty," said Bloodsworth.

Bloodsworth will be speaking in the Jeschke Auditorium at the University of 
Sioux Falls Monday night at 7.

(source: KSFY News)






NEW MEXICO:

New Mexico court to hear death sentence appeals


New Mexico's only inmates facing possible execution want the state Supreme 
Court to declare their death sentences unconstitutional because capital 
punishment was abolished after their convictions.

The court is to hear arguments from lawyers on Monday but the justices aren't 
expected to issue a ruling until months later.

New Mexico repealed the death penalty in 2009 for future murders but left it in 
place for Timothy Allen and Robert Fry, who were sentenced to die years before 
the Legislature and then Gov. Bill Richardson agreed to end capital punishment.

No execution has been scheduled for either Fry or Allen, who contend their 
death sentences violate constitutional provisions against cruel and unusual 
punishment and equal-protection guarantees.

The attorney general's office disagrees and says their death sentences should 
remain in place.

(source: Associated Press)






ARIZONA:

News outlets sue for lethal injection information


Several news outlets are suing to gain information on the procedures and 
sources of drugs used to carry out lethal injections for death row inmates, The 
Arizona Republic reported (http://bit.ly/1tapLO1) Saturday.

The newspaper has joined other news organizations in a federal lawsuit against 
the Arizona Department of Corrections and Attorney General Tom Horne. Other 
media organizations acting as plaintiffs include Guardian News and Media and 
the Arizona Daily Star.

According to the complaint, the media outlets argue that withholding 
information about executions is unconstitutional. They argue that executions 
are public events. As a result, denying information about how they are carried 
out violates freedom of the press and equal protection under the law.

The lawsuit follows the July 23 execution of inmate Joseph Rudolph Wood. It 
took Wood nearly 2 hours and 15 dosages of lethal injection drugs before he 
died.

His attorneys say the execution was botched, a claim the Department of 
Corrections denies. Wood's defense team and attorneys for other death row 
inmates filed a lawsuit seeking to know which drugs will be used in executions, 
where they come from and who will administer them. The First Amendment 
Coalition of Arizona joined that suit in September.

The standard drug used in executions in Arizona since the 1970s became 
unavailable in 2010. The Republic reported that the Arizona Department of 
Corrections used a law guaranteeing confidentiality of executioners' identities 
to conceal it was illegally getting the drug from Great Britain. As a result, 
the U.S. Justice Department prohibited the use of imported drugs for executions 
in the U.S. Since then, Arizona has switched to a two-drug combination already 
used in Ohio.

The execution brought new attention to the death penalty debate in the U.S. as 
opponents said it was proof that lethal injection is cruel and unusual 
punishment.

(source: Associated Press)






CALIFORNIA:

Survey Reveals How Asian Americans Feel About Death Penalty


In a recent survey of California registered voters, the National Asian American 
Survey found that like most Californians, Asian/Pacific Islander Americans were 
in favor of keeping the death penalty, with 47.1 % in favor. Overall, 55.9 % of 
Californians were in favor, with 57.3 % of non-Hispanic whites, 57.5 percent of 
Latinos, and 46.4 % of African Americans in favor of keeping the death penalty.

However, when asked about a federal ruling that California's death penalty law 
is unconstitutional because it takes so long for the state to carry out, 
answers were more ambivalent, with 43.8 % of Asian/Pacific Islander Americans 
in favor of speeding up the process and 39.4 % in favor of replacing the death 
penalty with life in prison.

"More AANHPIs [Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders] are 
undecided about the death penalty," said Paul Jung, a Law Fellow at Asian 
Americans Advancing Justice, "indicating that we need more community education 
on criminal justice issues and particularly in Asian languages."

Latinos were similarly ambivalent. Overall, 51.9 % of respondents were in favor 
of speeding up the process and 39.6 % were in favor of replacing with life in 
prison.

This issue is of historic importance to the Asian/Pacific Islander American 
community. "One of the first national pan-Asian movements was the campaign to 
free Mr. Chol Soo Lee who was wrongly convicted of a killing in 1973," said 
Jung. "Due to the investigative reporting by K.W. Lee and Asian-American 
organizing that led to the Free Chol Soo Lee Defense Committee, Mr. Lee was 
freed from death row in 1983."

(source: NBC news)