[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, KY.

[Rick Halperin]

Feb. 4


TEXAS:

Texas court vacates death sentence in 1990 Houston slayings



The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has thrown out the death sentence of a 
Harris County man convicted of the slayings of a Houston couple more than 2 
decades ago.

The state's highest criminal court ruled Wednesday that jurors who sent Daryl 
Wheatfall to death row in 1992 had instructions during his trial's punishment 
phase that have been found unconstitutional. His trial was held at a time when 
the Texas jury instructions covering mitigation issues in death penalty cases 
were evolving under U.S. Supreme Court decisions.

The appeals court has ordered his case be returned to the trial court for a new 
sentencing hearing.

The now 49-year-old Wheatfall was convicted of the December 1990 slayings of 
James Fitzgerald and his wife, L.B., in southeast Houston following an argument 
over $50.

(source: Associated Press)








KENTUCKY:

Man exonerated from Maryland's Death Row urges end to Kentucky's death penalty



A Maryland man who was wrongfully convicted of sexually assaulting and 
murdering a 9-year-old girl brought his convictions against the death penalty 
on Wednesday to the Kentucky Capitol, where lawmakers are considering the 
abolition of capital punishment.

"It's easier to free a man from prison than to free a man from the grave," said 
Kirk Bloodsworth, 54, in a news conference with state Senate Minority Caucus 
Chairman Gerald Neal, D-Louisville, and state Rep. David Floyd, R-Bardstown.

Neal and Floyd have filed legislation to abolish the death penalty and replace 
it with life imprisonment without parole. Both lawmakers said they believe 
support against the death penalty is growing in the state legislature but would 
not predict how their legislation will fare in this year's General Assembly.

"If you support the death penalty, come and shake hands with this man, who was 
wrongfully convicted," Floyd said of Kirk Bloodsworth. "We have a system that 
condemns to death the innocent as well as the guilty. Reasonable people will 
cry for change."

Bloodsworth was in prison for almost 9 years, 2 of those on death row not far 
from a gas chamber, for sexually assaulting and killing a young girl in 1985 in 
Maryland.

In 1992, while in jail, the former Marine read a book that mentioned DNA 
fingerprinting. Hoping to prove his innocence, he pushed to have the evidence 
against him tested by the new method.

Testing proved the traces of semen in the victim's underwear did not match 
Bloodsworth's DNA profile.

Bloodsworth was released from prison in 1993 and became the first person in the 
United States to be exonerated from death row through post-conviction DNA 
testing. He now is a member of Witness to Innocence, a non-profit organization 
of death row exonerees that educate the public about innocence and wrongful 
conviction.

"2 juries were wrong. 2 judges were wrong," Bloodsworth said at the news 
conference. "The state of Maryland was wrong. I am not here because the system 
worked. I am here because a series of miracles happened."

The actual killer was later found and convicted, he said.

Bloodsworth said he still would be against the death penalty even if a member 
of his family was murdered and there was overwhelming evidence against the 
murderer.

"You can't have it both ways," he said.

There are 34 people on death row in Kentucky. The last execution in the state 
was in 2008.

Floyd and Neal said the state spends about $10 million a year prosecuting and 
defending the death penalty.

They have filed resolutions in their respective chambers to establish a task 
force to study in more detail the costs of administering the death penalty in 
Kentucky.

Bloodsworth's week-long tour in Kentucky is sponsored by Witness to Innocence, 
the ACLU of Kentucky and the Kentucky Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty.

(source: Herald-Leader)

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

Death penalty foes press case with lawmakers



Death penalty opponents looking to make inroads with Kentucky lawmakers are 
getting help from a former death row inmate who was exonerated with DNA 
evidence.

Kirk Bloodsworth, a Maryland man who spent more than 8 years in prison until 
his release, visited the Kentucky Capitol on Wednesday to endorse efforts to 
abolish the death penalty.

Bloodsworth calls capital punishment a social injustice due to the potential 
that innocent people will be put to death. He says being confined in a tiny 
prison cell without parole is a better punishment.

Kentucky has executed 3 people since 1976 and 34 inmates are currently on death 
row.

Bills introduced by Democratic Sen. Gerald Neal and Republican Rep. David Floyd 
would abolish the death penalty and replace it with life in prison without 
parole.

(source: Associated Press)