[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----IND., MO., KAN., OKLA., USA

[Rick Halperin]

Feb. 23



ILLINOIS:

The Innocence Project May Have Framed A Man For A Crime He Didn't Commit



Truth, conspiracy, guilt and innocence all collide when a wrongfully convicted 
man takes on the professor who got him convicted.

For years, investigative journalist Bill Crawford hounded the powers that be in 
Chicago telling anyone who would listen, and shouting at those who wouldn't, 
that an innocent man was in prison, framed for a crime he didn't commit. So 
Crawford should be celebrating now. After more than 15 years behind bars, 
Alstory Simon was released last October when his conviction on a double murder 
charge was overturned by the state of Illinois. Instead, Crawford says, 
"There's a goddamn sinister thing going on here."

There's no doubt that Crawford is glad to see Simon free and his own work on 
the case vindicated. But that feeling is tempered by his doubt that the people 
ultimately responsible will ever pay for their role in Simon's imprisonment.

"It took 2 sides to get this thing done," Crawford says of the forces that 
pulled Simon into the murder case and put him in prison.

"This thing" Crawford refers to darkly is the collusion between overzealous 
state prosecutors and a high-profile leader of a since disbanded franchise of 
the Innocence Project, a nationally lauded legal program that gathers evidence 
to exonerate wrongfully convicted prisoners. In this case Crawford and others 
allege that in its eagerness to free a prisoner on death row, the Northwestern 
University branch of the Innocence Project framed Simon, and Cook County 
prosecutors went along with it.

Simon was convicted in 1999 for a double-murder in Chicago in 1982 on the basis 
of what he says was a coerced confession and released on Oct 30, 2014 after 
being exonerated by a new investigation. Now, in a bid for restitution and 
maybe some justice, Simon has filed a $40 million lawsuit against Northwestern 
and former professor David Protess, famed founder of Medill???s Innocence 
Project.

According to Simon's lawsuit, "The horrific injustice that befell Simon 
occurred when defendants, Northwestern University professor David Protess, 
Northwestern University private investigator Paul Ciolino, and attorney Jack 
Rimland, conspired to frame Simon for the murders in order to secure the 
release of the real killer, Anthony Porter," the suit reads.

Porter was sitting on death row for the 1982 murders when Protess found him and 
decided to take up his case. Protess already had a national reputation from 
earlier work overturning wrongful convictions when he assigned Porter's case to 
his class at the Medill Innocence Project in 1998.

In the course of looking to exonerate Porter, Protess and his team landed on 
Simon and set about building a case against him. Simon had been one of several 
possible suspects identified earlier in the case dropped by police after 
multiple eyewitness accounts focused their investigation on Porter.

In 1999, Simon delivered a videotaped confession that he now says was made 
under false pretenses and duress. Protess's team delivered the confession and 
in a lighting turnaround Porter, who had been 48 hours from a scheduled 
execution, was free on bail 2 days later.

It was a high profile victory for the Innocence Project and, along with other 
cases, eventually led to Illinois abolishing the death penalty.

The problem, as Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez said in a statement 
after Simon's release, was that the "investigation by David Protess and his 
team involved a series of alarming tactics." Those tactics, "were not only 
coercive and absolutely unacceptable by law-enforcement standards," Alvarez 
said, "they were potentially in violation of Mr. Simon's constitutionally 
protected rights."

One of those potential violations concerns Simon's defense lawyer Jack Rimland. 
Simon was introduced to Rimland by Ciolino, the Medill Innocence Project's 
investigator. The private eye and the lawyer were personal acquaintances, and 
Simon's lawsuit alleges that Rimland, working in concert with Protess, 
convinced him to plead guilty, based on the fabricated evidence gathered by 
Ciolino.

In the past, Rimland has denied working with Protess and said that Simon never 
expressed his innocence while he was representing him. He declined to comment 
when contacted for this story.

"There's a goddamn sinister thing going on here."

Protess is no stranger to controversy. He retired from Northwestern in 2011 
after internal investigations alleged he had deceived witnesses in other cases 
to extract statements, and "knowingly misrepresented the facts and his actions 
to the University, its attorneys and the dean of Medill on many documented 
occasions. He also misrepresented facts about these matters to students, 
alumni, the media and the public."

The aftermath of the investigation into Protess and his departure from 
Northwestern prompted changes in Innocence Projects across the country.

"When allegations against David Protess came about and we found out about them, 
it prompted us to reevaluate the decision to allow journalism projects in the 
network," said Seth Miller executive director of the Innocence Project of 
Florida and president of the Innocence Network, the coordinating board for 
local Innocence Projects across the country. The Innocence Network is no longer 
open to journalist projects, like the one Protess ran, because "it was clear to 
us that the ethical considerations that journalists and lawyers use were 
different," Miller said.

Despite the shadow cast over Protess' work, years went by before Simon's case 
got another hearing.

But Crawford argues the injustice done by Protess' team at Northwestern is only 
part of the story. What it leaves out, he says, are the people who ultimately 
had the power to put Simon in prison - the prosecutors.

"The other side of the equation is Gainer and Devine," Crawford says. That's 
Thomas Gainer, and Dick Devine...the former assistant state's attorney and 
state's attorney, respectively, who headed the prosecution of Simon.

Gainer now serves as a judge in Illinois' Cook County and Devine works in a 
private legal practice. Crawford's "sinister thing" is that neither man 
currently faces any legal or civil action for their role in prosecuting Simon, 
despite what Crawford and others say is evidence of prosecutorial misconduct.

In the Cook County State's Attorney investigation that ultimately freed Simon, 
it focused on Team Protess. No mention was made of wrongdoing by state 
officials, who were former members of that same office.

Yet a review of the evidence in the case shows a number of troubling 
irregularities. Thomas Epach is the former chief of the Cook County Criminal 
Division. He was the lead investigator of the murders for which first Porter, 
and then Simon, were convicted.

Testimony from an affidavit sworn by Epach reads:

"At the time of the release of Mr. Porter, I was aware not only that the 
purported confession of Alstory Simon was obtained by Paul Ciolino, who was 
working on behalf of Anthony Porter, but also that Simon was being represented 
by attorney Jack Rimland, who had close ties to both Mr. Ciolino and David 
Protess. I believed at the time that the circumstances of this purported 
confession needed to be thoroughly investigated before a decision was made to 
either release Porter or to charge Simon with the crime. I was also aware that 
there were substantial credible evidence to support the conviction of Anthony 
Porter and that no physical evidence existed which tied Simon to these murders. 
Nevertheless, a decision was made by Mr. Devine to immediately release Porter 
and to charge Simon with the murders of Hillard and Green."

And there were other serious problems with the case against Simon. When a grand 
jury was convened to reconsider the evidence after Simon's confession, the 
evidence still strongly pointed to Porter's guilt. But that grand jury was 
disbanded without ever delivering a verdict on the case. Following that, the 
case was brought before another grand jury. Only this time none of the 
witnesses implicating Porter were called to testify and the jury indicted 
Simon.

Terry Ekl, 1 of Simon's lawers who filed the lawsuit on his behalf against 
Protess and Northwestern, is a former Illinois prosecutor himself. Ekl believes 
the State's Attorneys "did a very inadequate job of investigating this case 
before they made the decision to cut Porter loose and go after Simon." But he 
said that holding them accountable is outside of his power.

"We could not fashion a lawsuit against the State's Attorneys office that would 
survive a motion to dismiss based on prosecutorial immunity," Ekl said. "The 
only thing would be a political ramification for doing a poor job as a 
prosecutor."

Crawford, who is writing a book about Simon's case tentatively titled "Justice 
Perverted: Northwestern University and the Medill School of Journalism" tells a 
story that suggests "political ramification" may be hard to come by in Cook 
County.

Crawford says that he called Gainer, now an acting judge, "about 2 weeks ago" 
to ask him question about the Simon case for the book he's finishing. Gainer 
wouldn't talk to him on the phone but Crawford says he got a message soon 
enough.

"48 hours later I've got 2 guys holding up badges at my door, armed to the 
teeth," Crawford said.

After inviting them in he found out they were assigned to the criminal 
intelligence unit of the Cook County Sheriff's office, dispatched to 
investigate threats against judges. "I said I know why you guys are here, come 
on in. They turned out to be gentleman. We sat down at the kitchen table I 
explained to them what I'm doing writing the book and they left my house 
laughing."

Crawford's account could not be corroborated with the Cook County criminal 
court, which did not respond to a request for comment before this story was 
published.

But Crawford isn't laughing when he talks about the case. His voice jumps like 
a man worried he's running out of time. "I'm glad that we are where we are," he 
says "but if Gainer skates on this," and his voice trails off before it jumps 
again. "He is not named in this goddamned suit. I find that an outrage."

(source: The daily Beast)








MISSOURI:

Scherrer has 1st court appearance on murder charge



Melvin Scherrer appeared late last week for the 1st time in the St. Francois 
County Courthouse on his murder charge.

Scherrer, 50, of the Cedar Lake development outside Bonne Terre, is charged 
with 1st-degree murder, armed criminal action, abandonment of a corpse, 
felonious restraint and tampering with evidence in connection with the death of 
tattoo artist Samuel "Tick" Francis.

Francis went missing Dec. 15, 2012 and his body was found in a septic tank 
outside Bonne Terre on July 25, 2013.

On Friday, Scherrer was assigned a public defender and filed paperwork to waive 
his right to formal arraignment or formal reading of the charges.

His co-defendant, Brent Bouren was just sentenced to 24 months in prison for 
amended charges of second-degree assault and felonious restraint in connection 
with Francis' death.

Otto Plopper, 43, of French Village, is also charged in the death with the 
Class D felony of abandonment of a corpse. A trial has not been set.

At the time of Bouren's sentencing, Prosecuting Attorney Jerrod Mahurin said 
Bouren's involvement in the case was minimal but "important to us." He said 
even though the involvement was minimal, Bouren was able to provide them with 
information that was paramount to move forward with a possible death penalty 
sentence for Scherrer.

According to the probable cause statement, witnesses identified Bouren as being 
present when Scherrer assaulted Francis with a baseball bat and they also 
reported seeing Bouren assault Francis.

Witnesses reported Bouren threatened the same treatment toward them if they 
ever spoke of what they witnessed. They said Bouren held a gun in his hand and 
pointed it at others who were present at Scherrer???s home.

The witnesses said Plopper was present during the incident. They reported 
seeing him leave the home with Scherrer and Francis. They reported Plopper 
later admitted to helping Scherrer dispose of Francis??? body.

The murder charge wasn't their only legal trouble. Bouren and Scherrer were 
part of a 25-person drug indictment in the fall of 2013.

In December, a federal jury found Scherrer guilty of conspiracy to distribute 
meth, possession of meth with intent to distribute, 2 counts of felon in 
possession of a firearm and 1 of the 2 counts of possession of a firearm in 
furtherance of a drug crime.

A sentencing date has not been set since Scherrer was granted a request for a 
new attorney.

Bouren pleaded guilty and received 24 months in prison for the federal drug 
conspiracy charge, to run concurrently to the state case, for a total of 24 
months.

He will be credited for the time he has already served.

(source: Daily Journal)








KANSAS:

Religious leaders speak out against the death penalty



Looking over the crowd assembled in the Kansas Capitol, Donna Schneweis noted 
"people of all political stripes."

There were also people of a wide variety of religious backgrounds gathered the 
afternoon of Feb. 10.

And as emcee for the press conference, Schneweis, chairwoman of the board of 
directors for the Kansas Coalition Against the Death Penalty, introduced each 
religious leader.

All spoke with a common goal in mind - to ask state legislators to repeal the 
death penalty, which was reinstated in Kansas in 1994.

Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann of the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas 
represented the Catholic bishops across the state. He was joined by 
representatives of other faiths in presenting a letter imploring state 
legislators to repeal the death penalty.

In the letter, the signees argued that the ideal is to show compassion for the 
loved ones of murder victims while holding the perpetrators of the crimes 
accountable in an appropriate manner. But the death penalty, they continued, 
does neither.

The more than 430 faith leaders who signed the letter are advocating for the 
passage of House Bill 2129, which would replace the death penalty with life in 
prison without possibility of parole.

"We know that capital punishment is wrong," said the Right Rev. Dean E. Wolfe, 
ninth bishop of the Episcopal Diocese in Kansas. "Even our youngest children 
know that it's wrong to take a human life."

It is also, he argued, ineffective.

"It is not used fairly; it has failed to make society safer," agreed the Rev. 
Leonard Dale, director of evangelical mission for the Central States Synod of 
the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

It reflects a message of "brutality and violence," he said.

The Rev. Kay Scarbrough, Topeka district superintendent with the Great Plains 
area of the United Methodist Church, touched on the idea that the death penalty 
ends the possibility for change, repentance and reconciliation in a person's 
life.

"We believe that all human life is sacred and created by God, and therefore we 
must see all human life as significant and valuable," she said.

She also noted the importance of doing all that is possible to bring comfort to 
the families and friends of victims in the aftermath of a violent crime.

Human fallibility and bias can lead to the killing of an innocent person 
anywhere the death penalty occurs, said the Rev. Peter Goerzen of the Western 
District Conference of the Mennonite Church USA, who is campus pastor of Bethel 
College.

"Our vision of justice is not retaliation, but restoration," he said.

Archbishop Naumann emphasized that in speaking against the death penalty, he 
does not attempt to take away from the pain anyone has suffered in losing a 
loved one.

Nor does he speak for all victims of murder when he shares the story of his own 
family.

His father was murdered when his older brother wasn't yet 2 years old, and his 
mother was pregnant with him.

"There are many problems with the implementation of the death penalty," he 
said.

He noted the potential to execute an innocent person, an appeal process that 
can force a family to continue to relive the pain of their loved one's death, 
and the costs of appeals that outweigh the amount of money it takes to 
incarcerate someone for life.

The religious leaders presented the letter to Rep. Steven Becker, R-Buhler, who 
introduced the bill. Sharing the podium were Sen. David Haley, D-Kansas City, 
Kansas; Sen. Carolyn McGinn, R-Sedgwick; and Rep. William Sutton, R-Gardner.

"3 weeks ago Kansas was called the most pro-life state in America," said 
Becker, referring to Gov. Sam Brownback's remarks on the anniversary of Roe v. 
Wade Jan. 22.

"That cannot be true," he continued. "That cannot be true as long as the death 
penalty is in the pages of our law books."

There is also work for people of faith to do, said Archbishop Naumann.

"I think our people are called to pray for this," he said.

He also encouraged contact with state legislators on the matter.

"Our legislators really need to hear from their people, from their 
constituents," said the archbishop. "So I think it's very important for all 
those concerned - whatever their faith - to write, to contact their state 
senators and state representatives."

(source: The Leaven)








OKLAHOMA:

Trial to begin in fatal stabbing at downtown Oklahoma City bus 
station----Isaiah Glenndell Tryon, 25, is accused of stabbing to death the 
mother of his child, Tia Bloomer, 19.



A death penalty trial is scheduled to start Monday for a man accused of 
stabbing to death the young mother of his child at the downtown Oklahoma City 
bus station while she was on her way to seek a protective order against him.

Isaiah G. Tryon, 25, is accused in the stabbing death of Tia Bloomer, 19, in 
front of multiple witnesses. He was charged with 1st-degree murder in Oklahoma 
County District Court in March 2012.

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty, claiming the slaying was especially 
heinous, atrocious or cruel.

A known gang member, Tryon was on probation at the time of the slaying having 
been convicted previously of 4 counts of assault with a dangerous weapon and 
possession of a firearm after juvenile adjudication, court records show.

Prosecutors claim Tryon is a continuing threat to society.

(source: The Oklahoman)








USA:

Tsarnaev's Lawyer Has Saved Notorious Clients From Death



With her arm around the young man's back, she gives him a gentle pat and leans 
in to whisper something to him. Judy Clarke could be his mother, with this 
simple, comforting gesture, but she is not.

She is a defense lawyer and he is accused of bombing the Boston Marathon.

Clarke has defended those accused of horrific and infamous crimes, including 
Unabomber Ted Kaczynski, Atlanta Olympics bomber Eric Rudolph and Arizona 
shooter Jared Lee Loughner, who killed 6 people and injured 13 others, 
including U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, in 2011. She saved all of them from the 
death penalty and hopes to do the same for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the man accused 
in the 2013 marathon bombing that killed 3 people and injured more than 260 
others.

In what has become a familiar refrain in Clarke's career, she faces tough odds. 
Tsarnaev, 21, faces a total of 30 charges in the bombings and the killing days 
later of an MIT police officer; 17 of the charges carry the possibility of the 
death penalty.

Lawyers who have worked with her say the same gentle quality she has shown with 
Tsarnaev has helped her connect with her other clients and, in turn, helped 
save their lives.

"During a time when the world was focused on my brother as a monster, she was 
able to see him as a human being and provide him with that kind of human 
contact and emotional support at a time when he had very little sympathy from 
anyone," said David Kaczynski, who made the difficult decision to turn in his 
brother after he suspected him in a series of bombings that killed 3 people and 
injured 23 others between 1978 and 1995.

"She really sees each human being as a human being and defines them not in 
terms of what they may have done or how sick they may be or how fanatical they 
may be, but through a kind of human core," David Kaczynski said.

Clarke, who grew up in Asheville, North Carolina, later told her local 
newspaper that she knew she wanted to be a lawyer at a young age.

"In the 7th grade, I decided I should be Perry Mason or Earl Warren," she told 
The Asheville Citizen-Times in 1995.

Clarke said she found it natural to devote her career to defending the accused.

"You're dealing with liberty," she told the newspaper. "It's the ultimate in 
legal issues to me, whether or not someone is free."

Clarke began her career as a federal public defender in San Diego and Spokane, 
Washington. A staunch death penalty opponent, she agreed in 1994 to help 
represent Susan Smith, a South Carolina woman who drowned her 2 young boys by 
letting her car roll into a lake with her children buckled into their car 
seats.

Prosecutors portrayed Smith as a selfish woman who killed her children because 
she saw them as an obstacle to being with a man who had broken off their 
relationship a week earlier.

But Clarke described Smith as "one of the walking wounded" and told the jury 
about her troubled childhood: her father committed suicide when she was 6, she 
was molested by her stepfather, and she made 2 suicide attempts of her own as a 
teenager. Clarke said the drownings of her boys were part of another failed 
suicide attempt by a woman who "tried to cope with a failing life and snapped."

Lead prosecutor Tommy Pope said Clarke began to humanize Smith well before the 
jury had to make a decision on whether she received the death penalty. He 
recalled Clarke telling jurors the defense wasn't looking for their sympathy, 
but for their "understanding" of Smith.

"I think she took advantage of opportunities so by the time they got to the 
courtroom, I think the jury was more willing to hear the softer side or the 
human side of Susan Smith," Pope said.

In the Loughner case, Clarke negotiated an agreement with prosecutors that 
spared him the death penalty in exchange for a guilty plea to 19 charges.

Jon Sands, the chief federal public defender for Arizona who recommended Clarke 
for the job, said she understands the pain the victims have suffered as well as 
the turmoil her clients have experienced.

"She often is very good at letting the prosecutor and the victims know why 
settling is in their interest, and you saw that in Loughner," Sands said. "She 
and her team ... were constantly meeting with Loughner and getting experts 
until the prosecution understood that he was terribly, terribly mentally ill 
and it was in everyone's best interests for him to take a plea."

In the Tsarnaev case, the U.S. Department of Justice has given no indication 
that it will entertain a plea agreement that would spare Tsarnaev's life. 
Prosecutors are going forward with a federal death penalty trial. Jury 
selection began Jan. 5.

Clarke and the rest of Tsarnaev's defense team began signaling their defense 
more than a year ago, indicating in court documents that they plan to argue 
that Tsarnaev was influenced - maybe even coerced - into participating in the 
bombings by his older brother, Tamerlan, who was killed in a shootout with 
police days later.

In court, Clarke has been soft-spoken and respectful when questioning 
prospective jurors.

With her plain, monochromatic suits, pageboy haircut and no makeup, Clarke, 62, 
has a modest, unassuming way about her. She declined a request to be 
interviewed, but instead suggested a story on her co-counsel, David Bruck, or 
the team of federal public defenders also working on the Tsarnaev case.

In a rare public speech about her work, Clarke told an audience at Loyola Law 
School in 2013 that many people charged with capital crimes have suffered 
severe trauma and cognitive development issues. She said many of her clients 
have been reluctant to plead guilty when she first meets them.

"They're looking into the lens of life in prison in a box," she said. "Our job 
is to provide them with a reason to live."

(source: Associated Press)