[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, FLA., OHIO, MO., ARK., ARIZ., USA

[Rick Halperin]

Oct. 29



TEXAS:

In Texas, the Death Penalty is Slowly Dying Out----The Lone Star State carried 
out its fewest executions since 1996 this year.


On Tuesday night, the state of Texas executed Miguel Paredes by lethal 
injection for murdering a woman and her 2 children 16 years ago. With no 
executions scheduled by the state department of criminal justice for November 
or December, Paredes' death marks the 10th and final execution for Texas this 
year - the fewest in almost 2 decades.

2014 wasn't anomalous either. Executions in Texas, the most prolific 
death-penalty state in the country, spiked after Congress restricted federal 
appeals in death-penalty cases with the Antiterrorism and Effective Death 
Penalty Act in 1996. Since then, however, the death penalty has been in overall 
decline both in Texas and nationwide. 30 people have been executed so far this 
year in the entire United States, whereas Texas alone executed 40 people at its 
peak in 2000.

What's driving the decline? Since executions peaked nationally in the late 
1990s, multiple Supreme Court rulings have limited the death penalty's scope 
and application. The justices barred executions of the mentally disabled in 
Atkins v. Virginia in 2002, for example, and eliminated the death penalty for 
individual crimes other than 1st-degree murder in their 2008 decision in 
Kennedy v. Louisiana. (In the latter case, the court expressly left the death 
penalty intact for so-called crimes against the state - treason, espionage, 
terrorism, and "drug kingpin activity" - without ruling on the 
constitutionality thereof.) This resulted in fewer cases with which the death 
penalty could be applied, while also imposing new legal hurdles before it could 
be carried out.

But for Texas, the greatest shift came in 2005. First, the Supreme Court ruled 
in Roper v. Simmons that executing defendants who were minors when they 
committed the crime violated the Eighth Amendment. Texas had led the nation in 
imposing the death penalty on under-18 defendants prior to Roper; 29 inmates 
had their sentences reduced accordingly after the ruling. More inmates left 
Texas' death row alive than dead that year for the 1st time since 1989. At the 
same time, legislators gave Texas juries the option to sentence murder 
defendants to life without parole, thereby lowering the number of new 
death-penalty convictions.

Other extrajudicial factors are also slowing down the death penalty in Texas 
and around the United States. Thanks to a European Union embargo that bars the 
sale of lethal-injection drugs to the U.S., executions nationwide have slowed 
precipitously as states scramble to find replacements and substitutes. The few 
companies willing to provide the drugs are also feeling the impact: After Mylan 
provided Alabama with the paralytic drug rercuronium bromide, a German 
investment firm divested $70 million from the U.S. drug manufacturer earlier 
this month.

This doesn't mean executions will completely halt any time soon in Texas. State 
officials say they have a sufficient supply of pentobarbital for upcoming 
executions thanks to a secret supplier they refuse to name through 2015. 6 in 
10 Americans still support the death penalty according to a recent Gallup poll, 
and Greg Abbott, who will likely be elected governor of Texas next week, is 
also a staunch proponent.

Reversing the overall downward trend, however, would require either a drastic 
shift in the Supreme Court's jurisprudence or a complete overhaul of Texas 
sentencing law. Neither are imminent.

(source: The Atlantic)

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

Houston protest: 'Death row must go!'


The 15th annual march in Houston to abolish the death penalty brought together 
200 people on Oct. 25. The families and friends of loved ones on Texas death 
row, which has the highest number of inmates of any state in the U.S., were 
joined by political activists, many of them young, from around the state. 
Harris County, where Houston is located, sends more people to death row than 
any other U.S. county.

The protest was organized by the Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement.

The protesters gathered at the infamous 400-year "Old Hanging Tree" in 
Tranquility Park, where speakers made the links between the lynchings of Black 
people during slavery and Jim Crow and today when executions of mainly Black 
and Brown people take place in the death house in Huntsville, Texas. The march 
was followed by an outdoor rally at the Multicultural Education and Counseling 
through the Arts center.

Numerous signs showed the faces and names of those on death row, some of whom 
are facing execution dates as soon as Oct. 29. Many signs featured Texas Gov. 
Rick Perry, with "serial killer" written under his name and headshots of the 
hundreds of prisoners who have been executed under his watch.

Activists called for the abolishment of the death penalty as a cruel weapon 
targeting the poor, people of color and those who have legally proved their 
innocence.

Endorsers of the march included S.H.A.P.E. (Self-Help for African People 
through Education) Community Center, Houston Anarchist Black Cross; death row 
exoneree Clarence Brandley; Campaign to End the Death Penalty, Austin; Minister 
Don Muhammad, Nation of Islam; Workers World Party, Houston; Kids Against the 
Death Penalty; End Mass Incarceration, Houston; New Black Panther Party, 
Houston; and Texas Moratorium Network.

Pam Africa, a leader of International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia 
Abu-Jamal, was the keynote speaker.

(source: Workers World)






FLORIDA:

Jury recommends death penalty for man convicted of killing wife in Seminole 
County; Dwayne White convicted of first-degree murder last week


A jury recommend the death penalty Tuesday afternoon for a man convicted of 
killing his wife.

Dwayne White was convicted last week of 1st-degree murder in the 2011 stabbing 
death of his estranged wife, Sarah Rucker, outside a Miami Subs shop in 
Longwood.

The testimony in the penalty phase took just a couple of hours. The prosecution 
had a victim's advocate read a letter written by Rucker and White's oldest 
daughter who is in pharmacy school.

"How are my siblings going to go through life without her? How are they going 
to wake up every day knowing my mother was killed by their father, who for some 
reason they also loved?" read Pamela Theiss, victim's advocate.

White chose not to take the stand.

During closing statements, the defense played an excerpt from a 911 call Rucker 
had made during an earlier confrontation with White on the day she was killed. 
The defense suggested to jurors they remember those screams when they consider 
the suffering Rucker endured.

"Do you think he was smiling as he was cutting her throat and reaching around 
time after time pulling that knife from her left throat over to his right 
side?" said Jeffy Dowdy, defense attorney.

Ultimately the decision will be made by Judge Kenneth Lester. It is unclear 
when Lester will give his ruling.

(source: WESH news)

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

Dead Man Walking's Sister Helen Prejean to Lead Anti-Death Penalty Event in 
Fort Lauderdale, November 8th ---- An all-star lineup of local and national 
death penalty activists will convene at 6 pm, Saturday, November 8th at The 
Sanctuary Church in Fort Lauderdale to demand a repeal of Florida's capital 
punishment law. Speakers include "Dead Man Walking" author Sister Helen 
Prejean, Broward Public Defender Howard Finkelstein, Florida death row survivor 
Herman Lindsey, and many more.


Is the death penalty immoral? Is there a legitimate, rational justification for 
maintaining the death penalty in a modern, civilized society? These are just a 
few of the questions that will be addressed Saturday, November 8th at 6:00 pm 
when top national and local anti-death penalty activists convene at The 
Sanctuary Church in Fort Lauderdale (located at 1400 N. Federal Hwy) to demand 
an end to Florida's capital punishment law. The event, called "Thou Shall Not 
Kill," is expected to bring in over 700 participants who will also be signing a 
petition to repeal Florida's death penalty law.

Headlining the November 8th event is Sister Helen Prejean, a leading American 
advocate for the abolition of the death penalty. Best known as the author of 
"Dead Man Walking," which was turned into an award-winning film starring Susan 
Sarandon and Sean Penn, Prejean has served as a spiritual counselor to death 
row inmates for over 30 years.

"As a Christian church, we think it's time to ask ourselves, our community and 
our government, is there ever a moral justification for murdering another human 
being?" said Dwayne Black, pastor of The Sanctuary Church and organizer of the 
November 8th event. "The purpose of this event is to refocus the public's 
attention on a fundamentally important issue in our society. There is no 
asterisk after 'Thou shall not kill.' Murder, whether it's committed in a back 
alley or in Florida's execution chamber, should be equally offensive to 
people's moral sensibilities. There is no moral, legal or practical 
justification for putting another human being to death, aside from the 
political points it may gain certain elected officials who claim to be 'tough 
on crime,' despite the fact that executions have no meaningful deterrent 
effect."

In addition to Sister Prejean, the November 8th anti-death penalty event will 
include a number of other prominent officials and activists:

-- Broward Public Defender Howard Finkelstein

-- Death row survivor Herman Lindsey, who spent 3 years on Florida's death row 
before being acquitted in 2009

-- Ron McAndrew, former warden, Florida State Prison and writer

-- Melisa McNeill and Betsy Benson, Assistant Public Defenders, Homicide 
Division

-- Terry Lenamon, founder and former executive director of the Florida Capital 
Resource Center, a non-profit organization that provides support to Florida's 
death penalty attorneys

-- Other prominent organizations also participating include The Innocence 
Project, Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, and Conservatives 
Concerned About the Death Penalty

Founded in 1961, The Sanctuary Church of Fort Lauderdale is an active member in 
a number of social causes, including prison ministry, substance abuse, racial 
justice, homelessness and more. The Sanctuary recently served as the funeral 
site for Fort Lauderdale Fire Lt. Kevin Johns, who was killed September 30th 
while changing a flat tire on I-95.

For more information about the November 8th "Thou Shall Not Kill" event, please 
visit http://www.sanctuarychurchftl.org or contact Pastor Dwayne Black at 
954-564-7600, dwayne(at)sanctuarychurchftl(dot)org.

(source: PR Web)






OHIO:

Death penalty phase of sledgehammer murder case enters 2nd day


A jury that convicted a 20-year-old man of bludgeoning a New Franklin Township 
couple to death in April 2013 will continue hearing testimony on Wednesday in 
the death penalty phase of the case.

Defense attorneys Donald Hicks and Jonathan Sinn began presenting evidence 
Monday in to convince a jury to spare Shawn Ford from being put on death row.

The jury can recommend death, life in prison, life in prison with no parole 
eligibility or life in prison with parole eligibility in 25 or 30 years.

Ford was convicted of killing his ex-girlfriend's parents, Jeffrey and Margaret 
Schobert, and attacking his then-girlfriend, Chelsea Schobert a month earlier.

The jury convicted him of 5 counts of aggravated murder, 2 counts of aggravated 
robbery, and 1 count each of petty theft, grand theft, aggravated burglary and 
felonious assault.

(source: Cleveland.com)

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

Court: Conviction, death penalty upheld in Twinsburg officer's death; The court 
unanimously affirmed Thompson's convictions but split 4-3 on imposing a 
sentence of death.


The Ohio Supreme Court has ruled in the case of Ashford L. Thompson, convicted 
in 2010 for the murder of Twinsburg police officer Joshua Miktarian during a 
traffic stop.

In an opinion written by Justice Judith L. French, the court unanimously 
affirmed Thompson's convictions for the murder and other crimes. However, the 
court split 4-3 on imposing a sentence of death.

In July 2008, Thompson picked up his girlfriend after midnight, and they went 
to a bar. An hour or two later, Officer Miktarian started following Thompson's 
car because of loud music coming from the vehicle.

Thompson turned into his driveway, and the officer called dispatch to report 
that he was making a traffic stop and pulled in behind Thompson.

The officer's police dog Bagio was in the cruiser. A few minutes later, 
Miktarian requested backup. A dispatcher relayed that Thompson had a license to 
carry a concealed handgun, but Miktarian never responded.

Witnesses reported yelling and popping sounds. When additional officers arrived 
at the scene, Miktarian was found on the ground next to his cruiser, and no 
other vehicles were in the driveway. Thompson's driver's license and insurance 
card were in Miktarian's front shirt pocket. Miktarian had been shot four times 
in the head.

Soon after, police went looking for Thompson at a prior address - his sister's 
house in Bedford Heights. When an officer stepped into the house, he found 
Thompson with a pair of handcuffs dangling from 1 wrist. The handcuffs were 
later determined to belong to Miktarian. Thompson struggled with the officer 
but was eventually arrested. A handgun found on the stove was also seized.

A jury convicted Thompson of aggravated murder with specifications that carried 
the death penalty, including purposely killing a police officer. He was also 
found guilty of escape, resisting arrest, tampering with evidence, and carrying 
a concealed weapon. The jury recommended a death sentence, and the court 
agreed.

Thompson appealed the conviction and death sentence directly to the Ohio 
Supreme Court. He presented 18 claims of errors during his trial.

One issue raised was a mistake in the trial court's June 23, 2010, sentencing 
opinion. The opinion merged 2 felony escape charges, even though one of the 
charges had already been dismissed. The opinion then claimed to sentence 
Thompson on the dismissed escape offense, which carried a longer prison term.

However, in the trial court's journal entry the next day, the court correctly 
sentenced Thompson on only the single felony escape offense for which he was 
found guilty. The entry eliminated any reference to the dismissed escape charge 
and the incorrect prison sentence.

Justice French explained that the Supreme Court may consider both the trial 
court's sentencing opinion and the subsequent journal entry to determine 
whether it has jurisdiction to consider Thompson's appeal. Together, the 
documents met the necessary requirements for a final appealable order.

Thompson also made several claims of prosecutorial misconduct, which he argued 
deprived him of due process and a fair trial. Justice French concluded that 
some statements made by the prosecutor were inappropriate.

In closing arguments during the trial phase, the prosecutor asked, "How much 
more do you think the Defense is willing to deceive you to find out - find the 
defendant not guilty?" Justice French noted that the state may not suggest that 
the defense's case was dishonest. The prosecution also improperly suggested 
that Thompson had pressured his girlfriend to lie in the trial with no evidence 
to support the claim and that Thompson was "obsessing and controlling," 
implying negative conclusions about Thompson's character, Justice French added.

While these comments were not acceptable, none were so substantial that they 
changed the outcome of Thompson's trial, Justice French reasoned.

The court rejected Thompson's numerous other charges of misconduct by the 
prosecution. Thompson's other arguments - related to the selection and 
dismissal of some jurors, pretrial publicity concerning Thompson's original 
guilty plea that was withdrawn, and comments by a bar patron - also lacked 
merit, Justice French wrote.

The court concluded that the evidence supported the jury's finding of 2 
aggravating circumstances - that Thompson murdered an on-duty law enforcement 
officer and that he committed the murder to escape detection for another 
offense, such as resisting arrest or carrying a concealed weapon.

The court reviewed factors that might lessen Thompson's punishment. Thompson 
was a licensed practical nurse who assisted patients who lived in difficult 
neighborhoods. As a result, he obtained a license to carry a concealed weapon 
to protect himself. He had a stable upbringing and was close to his family. He 
did not have a significant criminal history, and he expressed remorse for the 
murder.

However, the court found that the aggravating circumstances outweighed the 
mitigating factors, and the death penalty in this case was proportionate to 
death sentences imposed in other similar cases.

Joining the 4-justice majority opinion affirming the death sentence were Chief 
Justice Maureen O'Connor and Justices Terrence O'Donnell and Sharon L. Kennedy.

Justice Paul E. Pfeifer, in an opinion joined by Justice Judith Ann Lanzinger, 
concurred with the majority in affirming Thompson's convictions but dissented 
on the death sentence. He concluded that Thompson's history, character, and 
background were sufficient to outweigh the aggravating circumstances in the 
case, so he would have sentenced Thompson to life without parole.

In a separate opinion, Justice William M. O'Neill also concurred in the 
convictions but dissented on the death penalty. He took issue with contention 
that Thompson killed the officer to escape detection or punishment for another 
offense. While the record showed that Thompson did violate a noise ordinance 
and resisted arrest, the testimony of Thompson and his girlfriend refuted the 
theory that Thompson was trying to avoid responsibility, Justice O'Neill wrote.

Instead, he added, the evidence indicated that Thompson was confused and 
frightened and incorrectly thought that Miktarian was going to release his 
police dog or shoot him. Justice O'Neill concluded that the allegation that 
Thompson killed the officer to escape detection or punishment was not proven 
beyond a reasonable doubt.

Justice O'Neill expressed gratitude and sympathy for the officer's family. 
However, he reasoned that the only aggravating factor remaining for Thompson - 
killing a police officer - did not outweigh the mitigating factors in the case 
to justify imposition of the death penalty.

"[T]he evidence in this record establishes that this was a routine traffic stop 
gone tragically wrong," he wrote. "This case is not in the same category as the 
premeditated intentional taking of the life of another."

(source: WKYC news)






MISSOURI----stay of execution

Mark Christeson granted stay of execution in Missouri; Concerns raised in court 
that convicted triple murderer has not received adequate legal representation

The US supreme court has halted the execution of a Missouri man who killed a 
woman and her 2 children, with judges citing concerns that his legal counsel 
was ineffective.

Mark Christeson, 35, had been scheduled to die by lethal injection at 12.01am 
on Wednesday at the state prison in Bonne Terre before the late stay of 
execution was issued. Missouri corrections department spokesman Mike O'Connell 
said the next move would be decided in court.

Jennifer Merrigan, one of Christeson's attorneys, declined comment.

The appeal to the supreme court raised several concerns about legal counsel 
Christeson has received over the years, including the failure of some of his 
attorneys to meet a 2005 deadline to file for an appeal hearing before a 
federal court. It is uncommon for someone to be executed without a federal 
court appeal hearing.

The high court denied a 2nd appeal challenging the state's planned use of a 
made-to-order execution drug produced by an unidentified compounding pharmacy.

Christeson would have been the 9th man executed in Missouri this year, matching 
an all-time high for the state set in 1999.

When he was 18, Christeson and his 17-year-old cousin, Jesse Carter, came up 
with a plan to run away from the home outside Vichy where they were living with 
a relative. A plot to steal a Ford Bronco escalated into the rape and murder of 
its owner, Susan Brouk, 36, and the murder of her 12-year-old daughter Adrian 
and nine-year-old son Kyle.

Christeson and Carter drove to California, selling household items stolen from 
Brouk along the way. They were eventually arrested eight days after the 
killings.

Carter was sentenced to life in prison without parole after agreeing to testify 
against Christeson.

(source: The Guardian)






ARKANSAS:

Arkansas Attorney General Candidates Talk Death Penalty


The Arkansas Attorney General race has been a heated one, fueled by political 
ends in the final weeks of campaign season.

The candidates for the position, Republican Leslie Rutledge, Democrat Nate 
Steel, and Libertarian Aaron Cash, held a forum at the Fayetteville Chamber of 
Commerce on Tuesday (Oct. 28), where they answered questions from the public.

One of the topics brought up during the forum was death penalty laws in 
Arkansas.

Cash said he was opposed to the death penalty.

"Life in prison is definitely an adequate punishment, it keeps society safe," 
Cash said.

The other 2 candidates said there needs to be reform in the way the death 
penalty is administered.

"Right now the statute is not the problem, ascertaining the drugs is the 
problem," Steel said.

"It is a matter of obtaining the drugs," Rutledge said. "But, it is also a 
matter of writing the statutes, so that way we can enforce the statutes."

The questions at the forum were not planned, but there was a moderator. Each 
candidate had 2 minutes to answer each question and 30 seconds for rebuttal.

Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 4.

(soruce: KFSM news)






ARIZONA:

Jodi Arias trial shown intimate photos of her that boyfriend took hours before 
murder - as she fights to avoid execution; Arias, 34, was convicted of murder 
last year but the first jury was deadlocked on whether to give her the death 
penalty or life in prison


A jury has been shown intimate photographs of murderer Jodi Arias that were 
taken by Travis Alexander in the hours leading up to his death.

While prosecutors have now closed their case in the sentencing retrial of Arias 
- convicted of murdering her ex-boyfriend - their evidence required jurors to 
sit through several days of lurid evidence involving intimate photos and 
phone-sex recordings.

Arias was convicted of the murder of her ex-boyfriend last year, but a retrial 
was ordered after the jury was deadlocked on whether to give her the death 
penalty or life in prison.

Following a prosecution claim that Alexander was afraid of 'stalker' Arias, 
defence attorney Kirk Nurmi responded by displaying to jurors pornographic 
images of Arias' private parts, AZ Central reported.

The photos were taken by Alexander in the hours leading up to his death - Mr 
Nurmi then asked the jury if they suggested Alexander was afraid of Arias as 
the prosecution had claimed.

Mr Nurmi then spent time going through photos showing Alexander in the shower - 
before replaying in full a 40-minute long phone sex conversation in which the 2 
moan as if they were having orgasms.

The retrial opened a week ago with prosecutors telling jurors the Arizona 
murderer deserves the harshest sentence of them all.

'The only just punishment in this case is death,' Juan Martinez told the 
Maricopa County Superior Court.

Arias had her hair cut to shoulder-length for her return to the courtroom and 
appeared to have it dyed darker.

She has also been wearing a new pair of nude-framed glasses - perhaps because 
earlier this month, a Phoenix food bank auctioned off the glasses she wore at 
the original trial and raised close to $1,000 for charity.

Last week defense lawyer Kirk Nurmi began opening statements, telling jurors it 
was up to them to write the final chapter to the story.

The jury had been warned that it would see graphic evidence about the killing 
and relationship between Arias and victim Travis Alexander - but he said she 
should not be executed because she is mentally ill.

Prosecutor Martinez proved his point by showing jurors a picture of Arias' 
victim, ex-boyfriend Travis Alexander, with his throat slit.

'This is how much she loved him,' Martinez told the jury, according to ABC.

The victims' siblings were in court today along with Arias' parents and 
brother.

Arias was convicted of murder last year but the 1st jury was deadlocked on 
whether to give her the death penalty or life in prison.

That required a new jury and trial to decide her punishment.

A new jury that was picked over the past several weeks will listen as the 
former waitress tries to make another case that her life should be spared.

400 people were called as prospective jurors. Many of them were cut after they 
said they either made up their minds about the case or knew too much to be 
impartial. Some jurors cited their objection to the death penalty.

They won't consider whether or not she's guilty - that's already been decided.

The retrial is expected to last into December.

Arias stabbed and slashed Alexander nearly 30 times, slit his throat so deeply 
she nearly decapitated him and shot him in the forehead.

She left his body in his shower where friends found him about 5 days later at 
his suburban Phoenix home.

She acknowledged she killed Alexander, but claimed it was self-defense after he 
attacked her.

Prosecutors said it was premeditated murder carried out in a jealous rage after 
the victim wanted to end their affair and planned a trip to Mexico with another 
woman.

Weeks after Arias was convicted, the jury failed to reach a unanimous decision 
on her punishment.

Her attorneys have since sought, unsuccessfully, to dismiss the death penalty 
as an option.

If another deadlock occurs, the death penalty would automatically be removed as 
an option, leaving a judge to sentence Arias to 1 of 2 options: life in prison 
or life in prison with the possibility of release after 25 years.

The sentencing retrial will be a mini-trial of sorts to get a fresh jury - of 
12 women and 6 men, including 6 alternates - up to speed on the case.

At her last trial, she testified for 18 days, describing for jurors an abusive 
childhood, cheating boyfriends, dead-end jobs, a shocking sexual relationship 
with Alexander, and her contention that he was physically abusive.

Her 1st trial drew a global following and inspired spectators to wait in line 
in the middle of the night to get a coveted seat in the courtroom.

This time around, the judge has ruled that cameras can record the proceedings, 
but nothing can be broadcast until after the verdict.

Judge Sherry Stephens has shut the media and public out of nearly every hearing 
in the case and drawn complaints from First Amendment lawyers that she has gone 
too far.

Judge Stephens said the hearing closures are intended to protect Arias' right 
to an impartial jury.

Attorney David Bodney, who represents several media outlets fighting for 
transparency in the case, said there have been repeated violations of the 
public's constitutional right to attend proceedings in the case.

The costs of defending Arias have topped $2.5 million and will mount during a 
2nd penalty phase. Prosecutors have declined to provide their costs to try the 
case.

(source: Daily Mail)






USA:

Moral Disengagement and the Death Penalty


One of the overlooked aspects of the death penalty is what it does to those who 
inflict it. Combox executioners, who so easily thirst for the blood of others 
and whose overriding question is "When do we *get* to kill?" are, like 
warmongering chickenhawks and torture defenders, never the people who have to 
do the dirty work. That's for little people to do. The Combox Death Eaters are 
the Big Picture Thinkers, the geniuses who are smarter than the Magisterium and 
who leave others to suffer the damages they rationalize.

But, in fact, killing people does something to the killer. The killer has to 
break something in himself to find a way to morally disengage from the fact 
that he is taking a human life. And very similar breakage goes on whether the 
killer is an abortionist, a soldier, an executioner, or somebody administering 
euthanasia. Sometimes the killer may learn to *like* the damage killing does to 
himself (one thinks of a monster like Jack Kevorkian). Most times, the killing 
creates a kind of interior void where the victim has to be turned into 
something other than a person in order to kill a "blob", "the enemy", "a life 
unworthy of being lived", "a criminal". But that distance is always a move in 
the opposite direction from the gospel which insists that the person about to 
be killed is the image and likeness of God and one for whom Christ died.

This, ultimately is what governs the Church's teaching, not only about the 
death penalty, but about all questions of life and death. It's why the Church's 
approach, even with guilty human life, is always ???How can we preserve human 
life, even guilty human life, unless it is absolutely necessary to harm or 
kill?" I call this the "preferential option for life". And it's why all 
reactionary dissent on war, torture, gun rights, and the death penalty is 
fundamentally tin-eared to that question since it, just as much as pro-abortion 
reasoning, always begins, not with "When might we tragically have to kill???? 
but with the question "When do we get kill?". Reactionary dissent, like 
progressive dissent on abortion, spends its energies eagerly searching for a 
rationale to slake its thirst for human blood. It, like proabortion reasoning, 
lacks the fundamental reluctance to kill a sought-after victim that marks 
Catholic thinking on all life issues. And it gives no consideration at all to 
the effects on the people tasked with the job of doing the killing.

(source: Mark Shea; patheos.com)

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

Unsolved Murder Case Tied To Short North Posse, According To U.S. Prosecutors 
---- The unsolved murder of Quincy Battle has weighed on his family for years, 
now that investigators have filed charges in the case, his brother says his 
family is beginning to feel peace again


"It's been closure. We've been waiting for this for four years. We needed 
closure on this," says brother Ricky Battle.

Battle was an imposing figure, but despite his size, his brother says he was a 
big softy. "He was like big teddy bear. The kids would jump on him like big 
pillow."

Christopher Wharton, Jonathan Holt and Lance Reynolds were named in a federal 
indictment in the murder of Battle. Prosecutors say all of them were part of 
the Short North Posse.

A gang the U.S. attorney's office says operated as one of the largest criminal 
enterprises in the state. "Murders, attempted murders, robberies and breaking 
and entering's," says Assistant US Attorney David Devillers.

A federal grand jury indicted 3 more people in connection with a series of 
violent crimes including 13 unsolved murders as well as other attempted 
murders, drug trafficking, weapons trafficking, extortion and robbery. The 
addition to the indictment includes an additional 23 felonies, including 1 
murder and 9 attempted murders.

Seventeen individuals were indicted in the racketeering case in July. All of 
the defendants are accused of being an organized criminal enterprise known as 
the Short North Posse. 11 defendants could face the death penalty if convicted 
of the crimes in the indictment.

Andre M. Brown, aka 'Paco', 33, of Columbus; Jonathan Holt, aka 'Dough Boy', 
22, of Columbus and Christopher V. Wharton, 25, of Columbus were added to the 
indictment. Previous defendant Lance Reynolds, 31, of Columbus, was also 
charged with 1 count of racketeering conspiracy in the superseding indictment.

The indictment charges one or more of the defendants with 13 unsolved 
homicides, 33 attempted homicides, 56 violent felonies and 73 weapons offenses. 
The crimes occurred in Canal Winchester, Chillicothe, Columbus, Pataskala, 
Pickerington, and Zanesville, between 2005 and 2012.

For the family of Quincy Battle, they say their son was never in a gang, and 
they never knew why someone targeted their son. "I think he just got around 
with the wrong crowd," says Battle

Prosecutors his killers robbed him of cash and drugs.

The family says over the years, they heard whispers about who may be behind the 
murder of the 32-year old, but kept it quiet.

"We heard names, but we just kept it to ourselves. The detectives, we spoke to 
them, but they told us to keep everything quiet," Battle explains.

Now that his brother's murder is no longer an unsolved case, he says it's hard 
to put into words what he would say to those responsible. "I just don't know 
what to say. Pray we got this far."

(source: 10tv.com)

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

The Rare Psychological Disorder That Only Affects Death Row Inmates


Imagine being told you are going to die in a month. Then it's a few hours. Then 
another month. You may be set free or you may be killed, and it all depends on 
events that are completely out of your control. How long could you stand it?

The poem, "O Death, rock me asleep," is rumored to have been written by Anne 
Boleyn in her cell as she awaited execution. While in prison, Anne was reported 
to have fallen into laughing spells and claimed that it would not rain until 
she was released or that doom would befall the kingdom seven years after she 
was executed. One morning, believing she was to be executed that day, she burst 
into tears upon being informed that her execution was delayed. She declared 
that she had hoped to be "past her pain" by the end of the day. A few years 
later Anne's sister-in-law, Jane Rochford, also went insane awaiting execution.

Regardless of the legality or morality of the death penalty, the process of 
sitting on death row, waiting to be executed, is incredibly painful. Some now 
argue that the protracted uncertainty, the rapidly changing execution dates, 
and the terrible isolation of death row, induces a form of insanity. People 
lose their minds, they commit suicide, and most importantly, they stop using 
the legal system to appeal their executions. It's called death row syndrome.

Mock Executions and Delayed Executions

Mock executions, procedures that cause people to think they are about to be 
executed, have long been established as a means of psychological torture. 
Victims are prepared for an execution, sometimes blindfolded or made to kneel, 
but the execution is not carried out. The procedure not only terrifies people, 
but makes them feel tortured hope should time come for their real execution. 
They lose all control, even the control of knowing when they are about to be 
executed.

No execution proceeding on death row is a mock execution. That would require 
deceitful intent on the part of those conducting it. Still, death row prisoners 
have been made to expect imminent death, only for the execution to be delayed. 
It's not unusual for people to come within 24 hours of their official time of 
execution only for the executions to be delayed. One man, Warren Hill, was 
strapped to a gurney, sedated, and thirty minutes away from being executed, 
when he was granted a stay of execution. People spend years thinking they're 
going to be executed in a few months, or a few days. They spend the last few 
minutes before their execution believing there might be a reprieve.

Appalling Conditions

Death row syndrome is not just the result of the appeals process, but the life 
that people lead while they appeal. Though conditions vary widely, most death 
row cells are small. Many of them are roughly the size of parking spaces, and 
depending on the country, they can have multiple people inside them. Although 
some death rows are rows of open cells, allowing inmates to see and hear each 
other, others are a series of steel containers, so the inmates see no one.

Inmates rarely leave their cells. Most inmates are in their cells 22 to 23 
hours a day. If they leave, they don't go outside. They have no contact with 
anyone except, occasionally, their legal representatives. Guards slide food to 
them through a slot.

No Way Out

It's not surprising that these conditions take a toll on people's minds. Death 
row prisoners, and prisoners who have been exonerated, often describe the way 
that their fellow death row inmates deteriorate over time. They describe some 
prisoners smearing feces on the wall and having psychotic delusions. Other 
prisoners hold long conversations with themselves. Many attempt suicide. Others 
simply sleep 20 hours a day.

Still others attempt suicide through legal means. It's not unusual for 
prisoners on death row to give up making appeals, and cooperate as much as they 
can with the execution process. One inmate's own lawyer, who had represented 
him for months on the understanding that the inmate would drop all appeals out 
of respect for the victims' families, stopped the process 75 minutes before the 
man was to be executed. The lawyer stated that he no longer believed his client 
was competent. The man had claimed that he wished to spare the victim's 
families any more pain. After spending time with the man, the lawyer unearthed 
letters in which the man confessed that he now knew why people on death row 
chose to embrace the idea of execution as escape, and that he could no longer 
stand the isolation and the cycle of appeals.

It's this wide range of responses that keeps death row syndrome from being 
recognized as a psychiatric disorder. Many argue, quite reasonably, that it 
can't be an actual mental illness if the expression of it varies so widely. 
Death row prisoners also don't make an easy group to study, as most of them are 
severely disturbed before they go on death row.

The Soering Case

Conditions on death row are not just a moral problem. They're a diplomatic 
problem as well. In the 1985, a young German man named Jens Soering was 
accused, along with his girlfriend, of murdering the girlfriend's parents. The 
murder was committed in Virginia, where S???ering was studying. The pair fled 
to the United Kingdom, where they were caught. The United Kingdom was ready to 
send Soering back to the United States, when Soering appealed. His lawyers 
argued, in front of the European Court of Human Rights, that conditions on 
Virginia's death row were so harsh, and the delays so long, that a stay on 
death row was "inhuman or degrading treatment." Soering was extradited, on the 
understanding that the state of Virginia would not seek the death penalty. It 
wasn't the death penalty itself that was the human rights violation. It was the 
experience of being on death row.

Over the years, other courts have decided that long stays on death row 
constitute inhumane punishment. Kenya, Uganda, and Zimbabwe have all passed 
laws, or made court decisions, that limited time on death row. (Many of those 
laws have been subsequently overturned because of political shifts or changes 
to the countries' constitutions.) In countries that have abolished the death 
penalty the point is moot. The United States supreme court has, so far, refused 
to hear cases which might limit the time allowed between the pronouncement of a 
death sentence and its execution.

In the end, the problem with death row syndrome is not just that it indicates 
inhumane treatment. The problem is that the very process that's meant to save 
people from unjust execution is so painful that it causes those people to seek 
their own execution. The check on the system, which people should use to fight 
injustice, has become a tool to break down resistance to the system.

(source: io9.com)