[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----KY., IOWA, UTAH, ORE., USA

[Rick Halperin]

Feb. 17



KENTUCKY:

Ky Senator Files Bill to Reform Death-Penalty Laws



On the same day Pennsylvania's governor placed a moratorium on the death 
penalty in the Keystone state, a Kentucky lawmaker filed a bill to make what 
she says would be moderate reforms to Kentucky's laws. State Sen. Robin Webb 
maintains there are so many problems with Kentucky's death penalty that Gov. 
Steve Beshear should do what Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf did last Friday - 
suspend the death penalty.

"You know, we've had a lot of litigation over our manner of execution and 
lethal injections, and the cocktail and the protocol and all of that, which is 
expensive for the state," Webb points out. "And, you know, again there's a 
humanitarian aspect of this, but there's also a fiscal impact of this."

It was 3 years ago December that the American Bar Association (ABA) released a 
report outlining a myriad of problems with Kentucky's death penalty - citing 95 
specific things that needed to be fixed. Webb's bill calls for more law 
enforcement training on the use of lineups, interrogations, eyewitness 
testimony and biological evidence. It also proposes more training for judges on 
mental-health issues. And, it attempts to improve DNA storage and testing - a 
crucial piece of the bill, says Webb, because of the dozens of wrongful 
convictions across the country.

"It's, you know, not too comprehensive," she concedes. "I'm a realist. I think 
it's things that we've talked about in the past and hopefully can reach a 
consensus."

Pennsylvania's governor said his state's moratorium will remain in effect until 
problems cited by an advisory commission are addressed - a situation similar to 
Kentucky's. When the ABA issued its report in December 2011 the panel of 
lawyers, professors and retired judges recommended a temporary suspension of 
the death penalty.

(source: Public News Service)








IOWA:

GOP senators seek to reinstate limited death penalty



9 Senate Republicans want to reinstate a limited death penalty in Iowa that 
would be available to a judge or juries in cases where a perpetrator is 
convicted of kidnapping, sexually assaulting and murdering a minor.

Senate File 239, which was filed Monday, would reinstate capital punishment 
effective Jan. 1, 2016, as a means of deterring an adult offender who kidnaps 
and rapes a victim under the age of 18 from killing the victim, proponent said.

"This is the sickest of crimes," said Sen. Randy Feenstra, R-Hull, 1 of the 
bill's co-sponsors. "There's got to be some reason for a person to stop."

Fear of being put to death could be that incentive to make an offender think 
twice before murdering the victim to silence possibly the only witness to a 
crime, he said.

"If there's capital punishment, you might have the opportunity where the person 
just stops at kidnapping and rape," said Feenstra, who noted that no such 
deterrent currently exists in the Iowa criminal code where the maximum penalty 
for committing 1 or more Class A crimes is life in prison.

"The intent is to discourage the type of heinous crime that's described" in 
S.F. 239, added Sen. Dennis Guth, R-Klemme. "We have a very narrowly defined 
situation here. I don't think there's just any way that we should let people 
off in that particular case."

Democrats who control the Iowa Senate with a 26-24 majority said the issue has 
been raised in the Legislature before and has failed to gain support even when 
Republicans had control of both House and Senate chambers and the governorship 
in the 1990s.

"It's not a deterrent," said Sen. Steve Sodders, D-State Center, chairman of 
the Senate Judiciary Committee. "It's a bad piece of legislation. It's been 
tried in the past. Iowans don't want this and so we're not going to bring it 
up. It's not an issue for the Judiciary Committee this year."

Sen. Rob Hogg, D-Cedar Rapids, vice chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, 
said a similar measure was filed in the 85th General Assembly and failed to 
gain support.

"The last time the death penalty was voted on in the Iowa Senate, a majority of 
both parties opposed it," he said.

"I haven't seen anything that says that a death penalty is needed in Iowa," 
Hogg added, saying he would rather see the governor, legislators and 
policy-makers put limited resources toward prevention and solving murders that 
already have been committed.

"I'd be shocked to see any action on this in either chamber," Hogg added. "I 
don't think that there's any realistic chance that that legislation will move 
forward."

Jimmy Centers, spokesman for Gov. Terry Branstad, said the 6-term governor 
supports reinstatement of a limited death penalty in Iowa. Branstad supported 
efforts in the 1990s to apply the death penalty to anyone aged 18 years or 
older who commits 1st-degree murder and another class A felony, such as rape or 
kidnapping, or who already had been convicted of a class A felony and then 
commits a subsequent murder - such as an inmate serving a life term who kills a 
correctional officer.

"Should Senate File 239 pass both chambers of the Iowa Legislature, the 
governor will carefully review it before taking action," Centers said.

Senate File 239 would apply to offenders at least 18 years of age who committed 
the multiple offenses of 1st-degree murder, kidnapping and sexual abuse of a 
minor. No method of execution was specified in the legislation.

A death penalty hearing could take place no sooner than 24 hours after a 
conviction on the Class A offenses. If a convicted offender was pregnant, 
capital punishment would not take place until the convicted offender had given 
birth.

The bill includes provisions for an insanity defense and an indigent defendant. 
In cases where a jury could not unanimously agree to a death-penalty sentence 
for a convicted offender in a follow-up proceeding, the offender automatically 
would receive a sentence of life in prison without parole.

(source: Muscatine Journal)








UTAH:

Utah should let death penalty go ---- Time to let the death penalty go.



Utah lawmakers have a golden opportunity to slip quietly into the ranks of 
civilized societies that have effectively turned their backs on the thuggish 
and expensive practice of capital punishment. All they have to do is stop 
struggling and allow nature to take its course.

Sadly, though, the Utah House Friday narrowly missed a chance to take a giant 
step toward doing away with the death penalty, effectively if not officially. 
It passed a bill that would, under certain circumstances, bring back the firing 
squad.

The fact that those certain circumstances exist should have been a huge hint 
that the bill that barely passed, House Bill 11, is a very bad idea.

(source: Editorial, Salt Lake Tribune)








OREGON:

Don't commute sentences----Gov. Brown can continue death penalty moratorium



Among the many pieces of unfinished business during John Kitzhaber's 4th term 
as governor is a statewide conversation about the death penalty. The 
presumption underlying the governor's call for such a conversation is that the 
state would ultimately act in accordance with the people's will. That remains a 
worthy goal. Kitzhaber should not abandon it during his final hours in office, 
and Secretary of State Kate Brown should adopt it as her own after she is sworn 
in as governor on Wednesday.

Oregonians voted to reinstate capital punishment in 1984, but Kitzhaber, who 
oversaw two executions during his 1st term, imposed a moratorium on the death 
penalty after returning to the governor's office in 2011. The expectation that 
the moratorium would stand through 2018 has been upset by Kitzhaber's 
resignation amid an influence-peddling scandal.

Death penalty opponents are calling on Kitzhaber to commute the death sentences 
of the 36 inmates awaiting execution in Oregon. Unlike the moratorium, 
commutations would be permanent and irreversible. The moratorium means that 
those 36 inmates won't be put to death as long as Kitzhaber is governor, while 
commutation would mean they would not ever face execution. For that reason 
commutation would defy the will of voters in a way that the moratorium does 
not.

Voters knew they were getting an anti-death-penalty governor when they 
re-elected Kitzhaber last year. But the voter-approved 1984 law remains in 
effect, and executions could resume if Oregonians elected a pro-death penalty 
governor in the future. That possibility should remain open until voters 
reverse the decision they made in 1984.

Brown, for her part, should announce her intention to keep the moratorium in 
place until after 2016, when voters will choose a governor to finish the final 
two years of Kitzhaber's term. Kitzhaber's re-election last year showed that 
Oregonians were willing to accept a governor who declined to have the death 
penalty imposed on his watch. That was far from the only basis for voters' 
support for Kitzhaber, but to the extent that the moratorium was a factor in 
their judgment, Brown should honor it.

In the meantime, the Legislature should refer to the 2016 ballot a measure that 
would abolish the death penalty in Oregon. That would ensure a conversation 
like the one Kitzhaber hoped for, and could bring the state's law into 
alignment with its practices. If voters repealed the death penalty, 
commutations of existing death sentences could follow. If voters reaffirmed 
their 1984 decision, Oregonians would retain the option of electing governors 
willing to allow executions.

Voters actually approved 2 death penalty measures in 1984 - one that removed 
constitutional impediments to capital punishment, and another that allowed the 
death penalty in cases of aggravated murder. The latter passed by a ratio of 3 
to 1, while the margin for the constitutional change was much narrower. The 
results suggest that many Oregonians who harbor doubts about the death penalty 
in the abstract are ready to support capital punishment for specific crimes. 
Such an interpretation is in accord with poll results showing that support for 
the death penalty declines if people believe that inmates sentenced to prison 
for life will never be released.

Questions about the responsibility of governors, the credibility of life 
sentences and the efficacy and morality of capital punishment are all parts of 
the conversation Kitzhaber wanted. Kitzhaber will soon be gone, but Oregonians 
can still have that conversation. It should not be short-circuited by the 
commutations of death sentences imposed by juries under existing law.

(source: Editorial, Register-Guard)








USA:

Feds want East Chicago defendant's tattoos as death penalty evidence



Federal attorneys say new tattoos an alleged member of the East Chicago 
Imperial Gangsters has gotten since he was arrested help show he should get the 
death penalty if convicted of murdering 6 people.

The government filed a motion Monday asking to take pictures of Juan Briseno's 
tattoos, one of which they claim says "(Expletive) the feds."

Briseno is on trial right now, although the court took Monday off for the 
federal Presidents Day holiday. Along with the murder counts, he's also charged 
in 7 attempted murders, drug trafficking and conspiracy to racketeer as part of 
the Imperial Gangsters.

The government has said they would seek the death penalty against him if he's 
convicted and now argue in the new motion that his new tattoos show he will 
remain a danger even in prison.

The tattoos are "particularly poignant because Mr. Briseno intentionally 
adorned himself with these permanent sentiments during the pendency of 
death-eligible charges against him," the motion says.

The images of the tattoos, which also supposedly include "South" and "Side" 
tattoos on his hands, along with his inmate number, would only be presented 
during the penalty phase, if the case gets to that point.

The motion says the government learned about the new tattoos from other people 
who have roomed with Briseno since he was arrested in 2011.

The trial is expected to enter its 3rd week Tuesday. It's supposed to last 4 to 
6 weeks.

(source: Chicago Tribune)