From rhalperi at smu.edu Sun Mar 1 15:24:30 2015 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Sun, 1 Mar 2015 15:24:30 -0600 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----VA., GA., OHIO, ARK. Message-ID: Mar. 1 VIRGINIA: Life or death in Virginia With a decisive 56-42 vote on Tuesday, the Virginia House of Delegates defeated a bill that would have shielded manufacturers of lethal injection drugs from public view. Senate Minority Leader Richard L. Saslaw, D-Fairfax, who sponsored the legislation, said it drew opposition from 2 potent constituencies: opponents of capital punishment and open-government advocates. That's true. We opposed the legislation since it proposed to conceal a procurement process undertaken by state government. But defeat of this legislation sets aside, for now, the more difficult question about the future of capital punishment in Virginia. And we firmly believe this is a discussion the state should undertake in a frank and straightforward manner. It is the ultimate power of the state to carry out an execution. The subject of public debate since the nation's founding, it is a power too awesome to be exercised in our names without our knowing how, exactly, it is done. Yet, that's exactly what our General Assembly proposed to do. You see, states are having trouble obtaining the drug cocktail used to conduct lethal injections because the pharmaceutical companies fear negative publicity. Manufacturers spend significant sums to associate their pharmaceuticals with healing, so they are understandably reluctant to have those same drugs used for executions. Drug-maker Hoffman-La Roche recently said it opposes the use in executions of a generic version of a drug developed to treat seizures. Par Pharmaceutical said Indiana's proposed to use one of its anesthetics in lethal injection executions is contrary to its mission, and moved to block its wholesalers from accepting orders from state departments of correction. Virginia still wants to execute its death row inmates. So, in an effort to obtain the drugs needed to carry out those sentences, Sen. Saslaw and a bipartisan coalition came up with a plan to hire compounding pharmacies to mix up the 3-drug cocktail used to execute convicted murderers. It's a path several other states have pursued because pharmaceutical companies are balking at selling the drugs to them. The problem from the viewpoint of open government advocates was that the bill would keep that pharmacy's name secret. It would also keep secret the names of the people or firms that supply the ingredients the pharmacy uses to make the three drugs in the state's lethal injection process. It would keep the names of those ingredients secret, too. That means the people of Virginia would have no way of checking that the drugs the pharmacy mixed up would actually execute criminals in a way that was not cruel or unusual. That's the test under our Bill of Rights, the fundamental protection of all of our liberties and lives. Importantly, it is not clear that every lethal injection process meets that constitutional test. A recent series of botched executions in Oklahoma and Ohio and a challenge now pending before the U.S. Supreme Court show there are big questions to be asked. How can we ask, if we don't know? On top of that, we wouldn't be able to know if taxpayers are getting a fair price for these deadly cocktails. We would not be able to know if the officials awarding the contract have any conflicts of interest in doing so. About the only positive thing to come from this failed attempt at legislation was the light it shined on our squeamishness over the continued use of capital punishment in Virginia. Public support for the death penalty is tested the moment Americans begin to question the manner in which we execute criminals. Stomachs turned when crowds that once viewed public hangings as entertainment were treated to the slow strangulation of a bungled drop, or more recently to tales such as 6 1/2 minutes of spasms witnessed in a recent Arizona gas chamber execution. In Virginia, there are signs of this unease. 15 years ago, we executed 14 people. We have not executed anyone since 2013 and have no executions scheduled this year. If that doesn't change, we would have put to death just 2 people in a 5 year period, the fewest for any 5 year period since the late 1980s. If we are to continue the death penalty, it is imperative that we trust it is carried out properly. The way to ensure that is to ensure our right to know about how it is done. But the future of the death penalty should be central to the debate, not on the periphery. If we are this uncomfortable with carrying out executions - if we have to go to such lengths to keep the details from public view - then it's time to ask if capital punishment is still what's best for Virginia. (source: Daily Press) GEORGIA----impending female execution After weather delay, Georgia ready to perform rare execution of a woman After getting a temporary reprieve when her execution was postponed because of winter weather conditions forecast to hit the state, the only woman on Georgia's death row is again set for execution Monday. Kelly Renee Gissendaner, 46, was scheduled to be executed Wednesday at the state prison in Jackson, but the Department of Corrections postponed it to Monday at 7 p.m., citing the weather and associated scheduling issues. Gissendaner was convicted of murder in the February 1997 stabbing death of her husband, Douglas Gissendaner. Prosecutors said she plotted his death with her boyfriend, Gregory Owen. Gissendaner told police her husband didn't return home Feb. 7, 1997, from dinner with friends in Lawrenceville, just outside Atlanta. His burned-out car was found 2 days later. His body was found about a week after that, roughly a mile from the car, in a remote wooded area. He had been stabbed several times. Kelly and Douglas Gissendaner had a troubled relationship, splitting up and getting back together multiple times, including divorcing and remarrying, according to information provided by the state attorney general's office. Kelly Gissendaner repeatedly pushed Owen in late 1996 to kill her husband rather than just divorcing him as Owen suggested, prosecutors said. Acting on Kelly Gissendaner's instructions, Owen ambushed Douglas Gissendaner at the Gissendaners' home, forced him to drive to a remote area and stabbed him multiple times, prosecutors said Owen pleaded guilty and received a life prison sentence with eligibility for parole after 25 years. He testified at Gissendaner's trial, and a jury convicted her and sentenced her to death in 1998. The State Board of Pardons and Paroles, the only entity in Georgia authorized to commute a death sentence, on Wednesday denied Gissendaner clemency. A federal judge in Atlanta rejected a request to halt her execution, and her lawyers have appealed that decision to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. If Gissendaner's execution happens, she will be the 1st woman executed in Georgia in 70 years. Lena Baker, a black maid, was executed in 1945 after being convicted in a one-day trial for killing her white employer. Georgia officials issued her a pardon in 2005 after 6 decades of lobbying and arguments by her family that she likely killed the man because he was holding her against her will. Baker was the only woman to die in the state's electric chair. Execution of female inmates is rare with only 15 women put to death nationwide since the Supreme Court in 1976 allowed the death penalty to resume. During that same time, about 1,400 men have been executed, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Prosecutors offered Gissendaner the same plea deal that was offered to Owen, but she turned it down. Post-conviction testimony from her trial lawyer, Edwin Wilson, gives some insight into why, Gissendaner's lawyers argued in a clemency petition. They quote Wilson as saying he didn't think a jury would sentence Gissendaner to death. "I guess I thought this because she was a woman and because she did not actually kill Doug," Wilson is quoted as saying, adding that he should have urged her to take the plea. Victor Streib, a retired Ohio Northern University law professor and an expert on the death penalty for women, said it's clear that women are condemned to die far less frequently than men, but that there are so few cases that it's tough to draw any general conclusions. "Statistically, yes, if you've got 2 cases and everything about them is exactly the same and 1 case is a woman and the other case is a man, the man is more likely to be sentenced to death," Streib said, but added that he wouldn't count on that as a legal strategy. One reason women aren't sentenced to death as often is that they don't commit as many murders and when they do they generally aren't the "worst of the worst" murders that lead to the death penalty, Streib said. Juries may also be more likely to believe a woman was emotionally distressed or not in her right mind at the time of a killing, which can spare them a death sentence, he said. (source: Associated Press) OHIO: Prosecutor wants death penalty in Ohio pizza slaying A county prosecutor says he will seek the death penalty for a man suspected of killing a pizza delivery driver in the northeast Ohio city of Lorain last December. 29-year-old Benjamin Davis of Lorain has been indicted on charges that include aggravated murder, felonious assault, aggravated robbery and tampering with evidence. The charges are related to the fatal shooting of 26-year-old Robert Caudill. Lorain police have said Davis called the restaurant where Caudill worked on Dec. 1 to have food delivered to a Lorain motel. Lorain is about 30 miles west of Cleveland. Davis was indicted Thursday. Prosecutor Dennis Will told the (Lorain) Morning Journal (http://bit.ly/1LWPH4N ) that his office will seek the death penalty for Davis. Davis' attorney could not be reached. (source: Sentinel-Tribune) ********************* Death sentence in Ohio becoming rare When a jury last week rejected the death penalty for a man who killed 3 including brutally beating 2 women, it left Prosecutor Juergen Waldick asking the same questions he???s asked for a number of years. What does it take to achieve a death sentence in Allen County? That same question can be asked around the state. In Allen County, Waldick said about 1/2 the cases he indicts with death penalty specifications go to trial. 5 have accepted plea deals for life in prison and in 1 a judge ruled a defendant was mentally retarded and could not face the death penalty under Ohio law. In the 5 cases that Waldick has tried, he has achieved the death penalty in 2, the Eureka Street killings in 2002 in which 2 girls, ages 3 and 17, were shot and killed. 4 others were shot in the head but survived. Cleveland Jackson is scheduled to be executed next year for his role while the case against Jeronique Cunningham may be headed back to Allen County to be retried. Waldick said achieving a death sentence is very hard and he rarely seeks the death penalty. "Juries are reluctant. Locally, we found that. Not many murders get indicted that way," he said. The director of the Office of the Ohio Public Defender Tim Young said only about 5 % of the cases indicted with a death penalty specification since 1984 have resulted in a jury choosing the death penalty. The big change came with Senate Bill 2 that went into effect July 1, 1996, and gave juries the chance to choose life in prison with no chance for parole instead of the death penalty. "It dramatically changed the death penalty status," Young said. Ohio has had a dramatic decline in the number of cases juries voted for the death penalty since 1996, Young said. "It's to the point it's very difficult to accomplish the death penalty," Waldick said. Before Senate Bill 2, some jurors in post-trial interviews who voted for a death sentence said they were worried the defendant may someday be released so they voted for death, Young said. Juries now have an alternative, he said. "Jurors reserve death sentences for very bad cases," Young said. "They want that person locked up but they don't want to take that person's life because of mitigation, that piece that makes the person human and makes them sympathetic." Ohio Northern University Law Professor Antoinette Clarke said life without parole is beneficial to the prosecution as a bargaining chip. "It gives prosecutors an out," she said. Young said some jurors are just uncomfortable voting for the death penalty. There has been the execution of an innocent man in Texas that cannot be undone, he said. Ohio has 141 inmates on death row with no executions planned for this year. In 2016 there is an execution planned each month, Young said. "In this country, for every 10 people we execute there is an innocent person released from death row," Young said. But Waldick said, and Young agreed, in recent years the trend in cases going to trial where prosecutors are seeking the death penalty has been those where guilt is not in question and deciding the penalty is the main issue as it was in the Hager Church case in Allen County this past week where the jury chose a life sentence. "The kind of cases that get a death specification are those that have overwhelming evidence," Waldick said. Young believes the death penalty is slowly vanishing in the United States. In the past decade, at least 6 states have done away with it as a form of punishment, he said. He said the process is unfair and biased, and he ultimately believes that will result in the end of the death penalty. "Nobody can define the worst of the worst. In some counties someone would get the death penalty would not be charged somewhere else," Young said. (source: limaohio.com) ARKANSAS: Arkansas lawmakers consider what's next for death penalty: Abolish it? Add firing squad? Arkansas is approaching the 10-year anniversary of its last execution and 2 lawmakers are trying to shape what comes next. Eric Nance was executed Nov. 28, 2005 for the 1993 murder and attempted rape of a Malvern teenager. Legal challenges to the state's death penalty procedures have kept 32 other inmates out of the death chamber since. A Senate committee last week advanced a bill that would eliminate the death penalty. That vote motivated a House member - the mother of a murder victim - to file a bill that would restart executions via firing squads. And while legislators sort out where they want to go with the death penalty, the state Supreme Court is already mulling whether the Arkansas Correction Department can resume executions under an existing protocol. Inmates challenged a 2013 law that they said give the department too much control in a process that should be reserved to legislators. Justices heard arguments last month and if they rule against the inmates, executions could resume - unless legislators change the law again. "If there's a vacuum something is going to fill it," said Sen. Jeremy Hutchinson, R-Benton, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Hutchinson said he expects the abolition bill to die before the full Senate and that if a bill from Rep. Rebecca Petty, R-Rogers, gets out of the House, it would likely has a poor chance for success with his panel, where Republicans and Democrats are split evenly. Petty's daughter, Andi, was murdered in 1999 at age 12 and her killer is on death row. Hutchinson said it was unlikely that other capital punishment proposals will come up. House Judiciary Committee Chair Rep. Matthew Shepherd, R-El Dorado, said he had heard of "limited discussions" but had seen no bills. Attorney General Leslie Rutledge last year emerged from a GOP field that differed not on whether Arkansas should have executions, but on which method should be used. She defeated a candidate who suggested a return to the electric chair. Both Rutledge and Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson last week reinforced their support of the death penalty and indicated a preference toward lethal injection. Rutledge didn't comment about how she specifically wants to restart executions, but her spokesman said she will continue to defend the current lethal injection law. "A decision upholding the current statute is the quickest way to get the process back on track," spokesman Judd Deere said. Larry Jegley, president of the Arkansas Prosecuting Attorneys Association, said he wasn't aware of any pending efforts to alter the state's capital punishment laws. 26 of the 28 Arkansas prosecutors said they were against the Senate effort to do away with the death penalty but Jegley said restarting executions isn't a legislative priority. "There are a lot of things that have far greater and more immediate impact on law enforcement," Jegley said, citing the need to address prison overcrowding and sentences for juveniles. If legislators and courts don't settle death penalty issues this year, it would likely be 2 years before the matter could come up again. Next year's session is reserved for fiscal issues. "I don't think you should expect anything this session," he said. "I don't think there's much chance of anything changing in the interim." (source: Associated Press) From rhalperi at smu.edu Sun Mar 1 15:25:18 2015 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Sun, 1 Mar 2015 15:25:18 -0600 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----UTAH, NEV., CALIF., ORE., USA Message-ID: Mar. 1 UTAH: Firing squad readies for round in state senate A bill to restore Utah's firing squad as a death penalty option barely cleared the state House, and not without lots of emotion. Now, HB11 is making its way into the state Senate for consideration, where emotions could rise again. "Nobody wants to put somebody to death, period," said Rep. Paul Ray, the Clearfield Republican sponsoring the bill. "The only thing is, the law calls for it." For now. Ray wants a "Plan B" in case the Utah Department of Corrections must stop lethal injections. "We already have it for if it's unconstitutional, so it's not a big leap to say, 'or if the drugs are not available,'" Ray said. The state prison doesn't stock the lethal drugs because they have a low shelf life, a spokeswoman said. Last year, death row inmates in 4 other states died slowly when the lethal cocktails didn't work properly. Even so, "(A firing squad) is a particularly graphic way of killing a person, and it makes us as a state look terrible in the eyes of our sister states," said Utah House Minority Leader Brian King, D-Salt Lake City. The option death by firing squad as an alternative to lethal injection could be back in Utah. We spoke with Rep. Paul Ray who says this would be used until we figure out where we can get our lethal injection drugs from. King has disgust for any form of the death penalty, let alone the firing squad. "The state medical examiner classifies death by firing squad, or lethal injection, as homicide," he said. HB 11 passed with just over half the support of the house, 39-34, and 2 abstentions, on Feb. 13, with 22 Republicans objecting. That's a red flag to the ACLU of Utah. "You just missed the opportunity to have a good dialogue about continually looking for ways for the government to kill people," said Anna Brower, the ACLU's public policy advocate. She wishes Utah would give up the death penalty altogether, saying it "is always a costly, lengthy legal battle because killing an innocent person is a mistake the government can't take back." But Ray said Utah doesn't have that problem. "We've never had an appeal on a death row inmate in Utah because of their innocence," he said. "They've all been technical appeals." "People are comparing (the death penalty) to what's going on with ISIS, and all the bad things that are happening over there," said Senate Majority Leader Ralph Okerlund, R-Beaver. He hasn't made up his mind about how he'll vote. "Oftentimes, you'll find that your opinions can be swayed," Okerlund said. "And so, I'm looking forward to the discussion like everyone else." 8 inmates sit on Utah's death row. 3 of them elected death by firing squad before the Legislature abolished it in 2004. (source: KSL news) NEVADA: The power of forgiveness Sometimes, a person does something so magnanimous and so unexpected that it can make even the most hardened soul have renewed faith in humanity. Cynthia Portaro delivered such a moment last week at the Regional Justice Center. Her actions were so moving that veteran public defender Joseph Abood said he'd "never seen anything like it." On the night of March 30, 2011, Mrs. Portaro lost her 22-year-old son, Mike. He was in the parking lot of the Tenaya Creek Brewery, selling tickets to his hip-hop group's show, when he was shot to death. Brandon Hill was convicted of the murder, as well as robbery with use of a deadly weapon and grand larceny auto. After initially denying all involvement in the crime, Hill, before the court, apologized to Mike Portaro's family. Mrs. Portaro could have ignored him. She could have told him to burn in hell. Instead, she forgave him. On Monday, Cynthia Portaro approached prosecutors, who were seeking the death penalty, and told them she did not want to see Hill executed. The district attorney's office honored her wishes, withdrew the death penalty and now plan to seek a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. "I got what I wanted - an apology from Brandon," Mrs. Portaro told the Review-Journal's David Ferrara. "I felt a sense of relief that there is no hatred, animosity, anger. Because if you live in Christ, you cannot live with those things." But Mrs. Portaro's compassion is more remarkable than it appears. She lost another child, her daughter Christina, in an ATV crash the same year Mike was killed. Her husband, Richard, died on Thanksgiving last year. Despite this loss, she found it in her heart to accept an apology from the man who murdered her son - and spare his life. "I personally didn't want to see another person die," Portaro said before hugging members of Hill's family. Those who support capital punishment, and those who have supported the executions of the killers of their loved ones, are not in the wrong. Capital punishment is not about revenge, and it certainly isn't a deterrent to murder. It's the ultimate public safety measure - it's about making absolutely certain a convicted killer can never harm anyone again. That said, the public would also be a lot safer if everyone had the grace and gravitas of Cynthia Portaro. (source: Editorial, Las Vegas Review-Journal) CALIFORNIA: 2nd suspect pleads not guilty in Eastside shooting death----Riverside police detectives have said they believe the 2014 shooting was gang-related and racially motivated. A 2nd defendant in a 2014 gang-related shooting death on Riverside's Eastside pleaded not guilty Friday, Feb. 27. It is the 2nd time in a month that prosecutors have made headway in filing charges in homicides blamed on the East Side Riva gang. 2 suspects were charged in early February with the 2012 shooting death of 14-year-old Lareanz Simmons. Then on Wednesday, Feb. 25, 19-year-old Michael Anthony Barbarin Jr. was charged with murder and special circumstances including gang violence and use of a firearm that caused great bodily injury and death. The Riverside County District Attorney's office added Barbarin to a felony complaint that previously charged Anthony Cienfuegos Valadez with the same crimes. Valadez was arrested shortly after the shooting, which killed Dana Parker, 40, of Riverside, on May 31, 2014. Parker was found sitting in a car in the 3600 block of Cranford Avenue across the street from John W. North High School. He died soon afterward at the hospital. Authorities say in court documents that Parker was targeted because Barbarin and Valadez thought he was affiliated with a rival gang. When the murder allegation was filed, Barbarin already was in jail for a carjacking case from July 15, 2014. The District Attorney's Office has not determined whether to seek the death penalty against Barbarin and Valadez, Supervising Deputy District Attorney Sam Kaloustian said. They could be eligible if they are convicted of murder and the sentencing enhancements. Barbarin and Valadez are next scheduled to be in court Thursday, March 5, for a routine hearing. (source: Press-Enterprise) OREGON: Seeking clarity on capital punishment Gov. Kate Brown expanded this week on her views regarding the death penalty in Oregon, and she made a couple of points we didn't take into account in an editorial that ran early this week. In an interview with The Oregonian, Brown reiterated her intent to continue former Gov. John Kitzhaber's moratorium on executions - but she didn't rule out that she might allow executions some day in Oregon. She noted in the interview that, as a practical matter, it might be difficult for the state to carry out an execution: U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has asked states not to carry out the death penalty until the U.S. Supreme Court rules on the constitutionality of certain drugs used in executions. That buys Brown some time. She pledged, though, that voters would know her stance on the issue if (or, more likely, when) she runs in 2016 to fill the last two years of Kitzhaber???s term. Voters should hold her to that pledge. (source: Editorial, Democrat Herald) USA: Criminal justice reform finds new champions, on the right----Once out of sync with tough-on-crime mentality, overhauling criminal justice gains support among conservatives In a corner of the subterranean exhibition hall at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference this week, nestled among the booths for libertarian think tanks, tea party groups and the sprawling display of the National Rifle Association, a nonprofit organization called Families Against Mandatory Minimums handed out yellow squirt guns labeled with the slogan, "Sentences that fit." The advocacy group, which has been working on criminal justice reform since 1991, opposes the harsh sentencing laws that have contributed to skyrocketing rates of incarceration in the United States. Long associated with progressive politics, a criminal justice group like this one once might have been unwelcome at a conference for GOP party activists, but judging from FAMM's reception at CPAC, that is no longer the case. Molly Gill, a government affairs counsel for the group, chatted at the booth with a young CPAC attendee who thanked her for giving a presentation on mandatory minimums. "There's been such a sea-change," she said. "In probably the last 3 to 4 years, conservatives have woken up to the fact that this is an enormous problem in their communities." Indeed, criminal justice reform has gone from a niche issue in conservativism - important mainly to libertarians concerned with the government encroaching on individual rights - into the mainstream. Some on the right are pushing for the GOP to make it a signature part of conservative ideology, as much a part of the movement as reducing the debt or repealing Obamacare. Gill said addressing the problem of mass incarceration and unfair sentencing has becoming an increasingly easy pitch to make to conservatives, who are concerned about the fiscal and moral cost of locking up millions of offenders and are increasingly persuaded by research showing that mass incarceration is not an effective remedy for crime. "People have to give conservatives credit on this issue," Gill said. "They speak and think about it in exactly the right way. This is big government in the courtroom; this is Washington, D.C. telling a judge in Washington State how to sentence." Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, an all-but-declared presidential candidate for 2016, struck a similar note during his address to CPAC on Friday, telling attendees that the GOP would be wise to recognize the problems that government overreach has created for low-income and minority communities. He cited the case of Kalief Browder, a Bronx teenager who was held in Rikers Prison in New York for 3 years without a trial. "If we want to get new people into our party and get libertarians and others who believe in privacy ... we have to say to people like Kalief Browder that big government is not only a problem as far as regulations and taxes," Paul said. "Big government is a problem for sometimes not giving justice to those who deserve it." Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty, a newer group, started in 2010, was also in attendance at CPAC. They have a tougher sell, asking members of a party who have traditionally been staunch defenders of the death penalty to take a closer look at the harshest punishment the criminal justice system has to offer. Marc Hyden, coordinator for the organization and a former campaign representative for the NRA, admitted that he was initially apprehensive about taking his new cause to conservative activists. "I was used to being kind of the darling of the conservative crowd," he said. "I was worried that my peers might not accept me, but it was the direct opposite. We were inundated by supporters that didn't know they could be conservative and against the death penalty." Hyden argues that opposition to the death penalty fits perfectly with conservative values. "I contend the conservative thing to do is to oppose the death penalty because of its risk to life and the high cost compared to life without parole," he said. "There's nothing limited about giving an error-prone state the power to kill citizens." Criminal justice reform has attracted a number of high-profile backers in recent years, including former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who made tough-on-crime policies a central part of his 1994 Contract with America; former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who, while championing the death penalty, has boasted of closing prisons in the state by redirecting funds to probation and substance-abuse programs; and Sen. Ted Cruz, who is part of a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers endorsing legislation to give judges full discretion in sentencing for certain drug offenses. Even Charles and David Koch, the billionaire GOP donors who have poured millions into traditional conservative causes, have given their backing to the Coalition for Public Safety, a new group that brings together the right and the left to push for criminal justice reform. Vikrant Reddy, senior policy analyst with the Austin-based Texas Public Policy Foundation, a conservative think tank that has been spearheading the "Right on Crime" campaign to advocate for criminal justice reforms across the country, said conservatives, traditionally thought of as "tough-on-crime," bring a new credibility to the issue. "The reason for all the energy is conservatives," Reddy said. "Liberals have been working on this issue for 20 years, they didn't get anywhere. Even libertarians, many here at CPAC, haven't gotten any traction on the issue, but when conservatives started stepping forward and said, 'This is a real problem,' all of a sudden you started seeing real movement," he said. "This is conservatives' bread and butter. I certainly hope in due time this is part of the conservative issue set." Still, there continue to be powerful opponents of a wholesale overhaul of the criminal justice system, including Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, who has called sentencing reforms "dangerous" and "lenient." Reddy sees the divide as generational, rather than ideological. "Some of the legislators who have been in office for a very long time and remember a time when crime rates were very high, when New York City was a cesspool of crime, they are still crafting policy for that era," he said. "It's not a left-right issue." (source: Al Jazeera) ****************************** Abolish the death penalty!: Here are 8 good reasons why ---- In Texas--of course--a man faces execution for a crime he probably didn't commit. We can do better, America The death penalty is back in the news. Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf (D) has fulfilled a campaign promise by placing a moratorium on executions in the state. Citing what he calls "a flawed system," Gov. Wolf has called for a special task force to report on capital punishment. From the governor's statement. I take this action only after significant consideration and reflection. There is perhaps no more weighty a responsibility assigned to the Governor than his or her role as the final check in the capital punishment process. To be clear at the outset, this reprieve is in no way an expression of sympathy for the guilty on death row, all of whom have been convicted of committing heinous crimes, and all of whom must be held to account. There are currently 186 individuals on Pennsylvania's death row. Since reinstatement of the death penalty, 150 people have been exonerated from death row nationwide, including 6 men in Pennsylvania. Numerous recent studies have called into question the accuracy, and fundamental fairness of Pennsylvania's capital sentencing system. Gov. Wolf goes on to cite a study done by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court that found gender and racial bias in the state's capital justice system as well as the high cost of maintaining the system. Meanwhile, in Texas, the execution capital of the western World, Rodney Reed, convicted of the 1996 murder of Stacey Stites, was scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on March 5. As of this writing the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has issued a stay. The court did not elaborate its reasoning for issuing this stay, but an examination of the filing by Reed's attorney, Bryce Benjet, shows compelling new forensic testimony. Reed's case is a prime example of the system gone wrong. Multiple independent investigators have come to the conclusion that Stacey Stites was murdered by her fiancee, then Giddings, Texas, police officer Jimmy Fennell. A Texas jury disagreed. Reed faced 2 nearly impossible hurdles in small-town Texas. Multiple sources confirm that Reed, an African-American, was having an affair with Stacey Stites, a white woman. This is dangerous enough in a small Southern town, but Stites was engaged to a white police officer, which sealed Reed's fate. He was convicted primarily on the strength of 2 pieces of evidence. Reed's DNA was found in the form of active semen in Stites. The other damning evidence was provided by medical examiner Roberto Bayardo's testimony on the time of death. Bayardo testified that Reed had been killed sometime after 3 a.m., which fit perfectly with the prosecution???s assertions. Bayardo also testified that the active sperm found in Stites had to have been deposited no longer than 26 hours prior, which contradicted Reed's claim that he had last had sex with Stites 2 days before. An all-white jury took only four hours to convict Reed. 2 weeks later the same jury sentenced him to death. Bayardo has since recanted this testimony. Investigative reporter Jordan Smith, who has covered the case for longer and in more depth than anyone, first as a reporter for the Austin Chronicle and now as a staff writer for the Intercept, Glenn Greenwald's investigative website, reports: In a declaration for the court, Bayardo, the same medical examiner who testified for the state at Reed's trial, said that it had been incorrect to assume that "spermatozoa can remain intact in the vaginal cavity for no more" than 26 hours. The fact that Bayardo saw "very few" such sperm were found in Stites suggests they had been there for a longer period of time. Moreover, while he still concluded that there was evidence that Stites had been sodomized, he said that her injuries were "more consistent with penetration by a rod-like instrument, such as a police baton." Based on video and photographic records of the crime scene, Bayardo has also recanted his time of death estimate. He now says he cannot pinpoint the time of death. In addition, in this latest appeal 3 eminent medical examiners have said Bayardo's time of death estimate is off by several hours. All 2 believe Stacey Stites must have been killed sometime before midnight. This is crucial, as Jimmy Fennell, the police officer engaged to Stites, has testified that she was alone with him up until 3 a.m. Fennell, who has a history of violence against women, also failed 2 polygraph examinations, specifically when asked if he strangled Stacey Stites. Investigators had considered Fennell the prime suspect, but dismissed this suspicion when DNA evidence linked Rodney Reed to Stacey Stites. This new testimony clearly incriminates Fennell, who is currently serving a 10-year prison term for beating and raping a woman he had taken into custody, on the hood of his police cruiser. None of this means the Court of Criminal Appeals will order a new trial for Rodney Reed. All of Reed's previous appeals have been rejected, including an appeal to the Supreme Court. The Texas court can lift the stay at any time. That Reed's execution has been temporarily stayed is cause for guarded optimism, but the court may well reject his appeal. If it does reject Reed's appeal his options will be exhausted and he will be put to death. Reed's case vividly highlights 2 of the major problems with the death penalty. Capital punishment is an issue that crosses party lines and ideologies; polls show support for the death penalty appears to be strong. There are liberal Democrats who support capital punishment and conservative Republicans opposed. The fact that 150 people have been exonerated from death row just since 1989 makes it clear we have almost certainly executed innocent people. This alone is reason enough to reexamine our capital justice system, but it's not the only reason. Racism, both in small town Texas culture and in our capital punishment system, has been a factor in Reed's case from the beginning. An honest assessment of the facts leads to one inevitable conclusion: Rodney Reed is innocent. His case is but the latest of many that demonstrate why America should join the rest of the civilized world and abolish the death penalty. 8 Reasons to Abolish the Death Penalty Ironically, the most common arguments in favor of the death penalty also provide the strongest arguments to abolish capital punishment. Here are the 8 most common arguments turned on their heads. 1. America is a democracy and a clear majority of Americans favor the death penalty. 32 states, the U.S. military and the federal government currently have the death penalty on the books. Overall, the number of states with the death penalty has been slowly declining, but some states, like California, have banned and then reinstated capital punishment. Gallup has been tracking attitudes about the death penalty since 1936. Currently, 60 % of Americans are in favor of the death penalty. This number has been steadily falling from the all-time high of 80 % in 1994. Tellingly, support for the death penalty declined most rapidly after WWII and continued to fall as the baby boomers came of age, hitting an all-time low of 42 % in 1967. It's clear that a majority of Americans support the death penalty. Or is it? Support for the death penalty appears to be strong, but a funny thing happens when you give people an alternative. A recent ABC/Washington Post poll found that given a choice, a majority of Americans, 52 %, favor life without parole over the death penalty. Given the current trend, it's clear that a majority of Americans support life without parole over the death penalty and that support will continue to grow. 2. Why waste money keeping a prisoner alive for life without parole when it's cheaper to execute someone? On its face this seems to be strong argument, and it would be except for 1 small detail. It's not true. When you factor in the costs of a capital trial, including the appeals process and the costs of maintaining a death row facility as well as the costs of the actual execution, it's less expensive to incarcerate someone for life without parole. Considerably less expensive. Costs vary by state, but in all cases life without parole is a less expensive alternative. In Texas, for example, by far the leader in executions, an investigation by the Dallas Morning News found that it costs about 3 times more to execute a prisoner than it does to incarcerate them at the highest possible security level for 40 years. The difference is even more pronounced in other states. 3. Executing a murderer guarantees he or she will never murder anyone else. The logic of this argument is flawless, but this is the easiest of arguments to dispel, as the same can be said of life without parole. Nor does resentencing prisoners to life without parole lead to a rise in prison murders. Numerous studies have shown prisoners resentenced to life without parole do not present more of a threat to other prisoners or guards than the general prison population. 4. The death penalty serves as a deterrent. There is no evidence that this is true or ever has been true. It might seem that it would be so to a reasonable person, but by definition murder is an unreasonable crime. In fact, the death penalty does not reduce murder rates. Nor does the lack of a death penalty increase murder rates. States that have abolished the death penalty have not seen a rise in murders. States that have abolished, and then reinstated, the death penalty, most notably California, have not seen murder rates fall. 5. Fair is fair. Taking a life should be punished by losing one's life. This is a philosophical argument, and as such it's a matter of belief, but at its root it's a rather poor philosophical argument, as it fails one very important test. Essentially, this is an argument in favor of vengeance, as the only purpose of the death penalty is to extract the ultimate punishment, the ultimate price, for the ultimate crime. Revenge may have some satisfaction for the family and friends of victims, but it's impossible to frame as an ethical remedy. If taking a life is wrong, how is taking a life in return right? Or, put more simply, 2 wrongs do not make a right. 6. We have the finest system of justice the world has ever known, including an appeals process that guarantees that the rare mistake will be corrected in the appeals process. We may well have the finest justice system in the word, but that does not mean we don't make mistakes. In recent years hundreds of convictions have been overturned, some decades later and long after appeals have been exhausted. 150 death row inmates have been freed by DNA evidence that was unavailable earlier, recanted testimony and other means. Earlier this year Glenn Ford was released after spending 30 years in appalling conditions on death row at Louisiana???s infamous Angola Prison. His conviction was vacated after prosecutors in Shreveport became aware of new evidence provided by a confidential informant. It's vanishingly rare for prosecutors to admit to errors in capital cases, but that's exactly what happened here. Few are the wrongly convicted who are so lucky. As a general rule, prosecutors fight tooth and nail to protect convictions, even in cases where it's clear that mistakes were made. In another recent case two mentally challenged half-brothers, Henry McCollum and Leon Brown, were declared innocent and released after spending 31 years on death row in North Carolina. They were cleared by DNA evidence decades after being convicted of a particularly gruesome crime, the gang rape and murder of 11-year-old Sabrina Buie, killed by having her panties shoved down her throat with a stick. Ironically, for years death penalty supporters, including Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, cited this case as an example of why the death penalty was warranted. Justice Scalia hasn't offered comment since the 2 were exonerated. How many other cases have there been where miscarriages of justice weren't caught? It's fairly certain that we have executed innocent men. How many is anyone's guess. Exoneration after 3 decades wasn't the only thing these 2 cases had in common. In both cases all-white Southern juries had convicted black defendants, which brings us to the next point. 7. Justice is blind. We'd like to think that justice is blind, but when it comes to capital cases it's not colorblind. Defendants of color are convicted in capital cases at higher rates and given the death penalty at much higher rates than are white defendants. Earlier this year a University of Washington study of 3 decades of capital cases in Washington state found that African-American defendants were 3 times more likely to be sentenced to death than white defendants, even though prosecutors sought the death penalty more often for white defendants. In a report titled "US: Death by Discrimination - The Continuing Role of Race in Capital Cases," Amnesty International found that while blacks and whites are victims of murder in roughly equal numbers, in 80 % of the executions since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, the victim was white. Amnesty also found that more than 20 %% of African-Americans sentenced to death were convicted by all-white juries. Many other studies have found that race plays a major role in determining who is convicted of capital crimes and who is sentenced to death, including reports by the ACLU, the University of North Carolina, and a Justice Department study of the federal death penalty system. 8. The death penalty is carried out in a humane way. In 1972 the Supreme Court suspended the death penalty in the United States in the Furman v. Georgia case, ruling that as applied it constituted cruel and unusual punishment, a violation of the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution. 37 states sought to amend their laws to address the concerns of the court and in 1976 the court clarified its earlier ruling in Woodson v. North Carolina, effectively reinstating the death penalty. In 2014 there's ample reason to believe that the death penalty is both cruel and usual. Among developed nations, it's extremely unusual. In fact, out of 34 developed nations, as recognized by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, the only other nation with a death penalty is Japan, and it uses it exceedingly rarely. In 2013 there were only 4 executions in Japan. By any possible measure or definition, in the modern world execution is an unusual form of punishment. But is it cruel? There are 5 methods of execution that are legal in the United States: lethal injection, electrocution, firing squad, hanging and lethal gas. In current practice, lethal injection has become the standard, in large part to curtail any legal claims of cruel and unusual punishment. Recently pharmaceutical companies have refused to sell states drugs for execution by lethal injection. This has forced states to buy drugs with other medical uses and come up with their own lethal cocktails, which they've kept secret from the public. This has led to several high-profile cases where executions were botched. In a recent case in Oklahoma, the man to be executed wheezed and convulsed for 2 hours before dying. The unavoidable conclusion is there is no way to execute someone that isn't cruel in at least some cases. As there's no way to know in advance when an execution will be botched, there's no way to guarantee the rights granted under the Eighth Amendment. In 2000 the State of Illinois suspended the death penalty. After careful study of many of the same facts presented here, Illinois abolished the death penalty completely in 2011. An honest reading of the facts brings one to the inevitable conclusion that none of the arguments in favor of the death penalty holds water. It's past time for us to join the rest of the civilized world in ending the death penalty once and for all. Better late than never. You can find much more information at the following links: http://deathpenaltyinfo.org/ http://www.innocenceproject.org/ https://www.aclu.org/capital-punishment/dna-testing-and-death-penalty http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/many-prisoners-on-death-row-are-wrongfully-convicted/ http://conservativesconcerned.org/why-were-concerned/innocence/ (source: salon.com) *********** U.S. appeals court says Boston Marathon bombing trial can stay in city A U.S. appeals court on Friday ruled the trial for the accused Boston Marathon bomber can go ahead in the city, over attempts from his attorneys to change the venue on the basis an impartial jury could not be seated so close to the site of the 2013 attack. The split 3-judge panel of the U.S. First Circuit Court of Appeals backed District Judge George O'Toole, who has 3 times rejected pleas by Dzhokhar Tsarnaev???s lawyers to move the trial out of Boston, where the bombing killed 3 people and injured 264. "We are unable to conclude that it is clear and indisputable that the petitioner cannot receive a fair trial by an impartial jury in the Eastern Division of Massachusetts," the judges wrote in the 80-page opinion. Thousands of Boston-area residents were crowded around the race's finish line when twin bombs went off on April 15, 2013. 4 days later, hundreds of thousands were ordered to remain in their homes while police conducted a massive manhunt for Tsarnaev. That degree of personal connection to the incident will make it very difficult to empanel an impartial jury in the city, said attorney Judith Mizner, who is representing the 21-year-old Tsarnaev. The final phase of jury selection is set to take place on Tuesday, when prosecutors and defense attorneys will whittle down the field of about 70 provisionally-qualified jurors to 18 people, including 12 jurors and 6 alternates. Tsarnaev, if convicted, could face the death penalty. In dissent, District Judge Juan Torruella supported the defense's arguments, saying that "almost the entire pool of potential jurors has been compromised" by the bombing. "I understand what this trial means for the community: an opportunity for closure, a sense of justice," he said. "Rather than convicting Tsarnaev and possibly sentencing him to death based on trial-by-media and raw emotion, we must put our emotions aside and proceed in a rational manner." (source: Reuters) From rhalperi at smu.edu Sun Mar 1 15:26:10 2015 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Sun, 1 Mar 2015 15:26:10 -0600 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide Message-ID: Mar. 1 INDIA: Bakery blast convict asks for transfer to Mumbai jail German Bakery blast convict Himayat Baig has moved an application in the Bombay high court seeking his transfer from Yerwada jail in Pune to Arthur Road jail in Mumbai, or any other jail, on the grounds that there was a serious threat to his life in Yerwada prison. The court is likely to hear his application on Monday. In December last year, Baig was transferred to Yerwada jail from Arthur Road on the high court's orders after the jail superintendent had requested the court that he may be shifted because his trial was not being heard and the Arthur Road jail was already over-crowded. In such a situation there was risk to his life in the Mumbai Central prison, he had said. However, earlier this week Baig alleged that he was attacked in Yerwada jail and there was a threat to his life. In his petition (a copy of which is with The Asian Age) he said that he had been falsely implicated in the case and has been receiving threats in the jail. The matter came to light when Baig wrote a letter to his father saying other prisoners attacked him on February 19, and he feared that he would be killed like Qateel Siddiqui, an accused in the same case. The petition also claimed that ATS (Anti-Terrorism Squad) officers are forcing him to withdraw his current lawyer. Baig's relatives have filed a complaint in regard to the alleged attack on him and the Yerwada police is investigating the matter. Yerwada jail superintendent Yogesh Desai did not speak on the issue. On February 13, 2010, 17 people, including 5 foreign nationals, were killed and 58 injured after a powerful bomb exploded inside the popular German Bakery in Pune. In April this year, the Pune sessions court convicted and awarded Baig the death penalty, observing the case to be rarest of rare. His appeal against the conviction is also pending in the high court. (source: The Asian Age) INDONESIA: Widodo considering different views on death penalty, Jakarta governor says ---- Political ally says he told Indonesian president the death penalty should be removed and replaced with life in jail as efforts continue to prevent execution of 10 inmates, including 2 Australians Jakarta's governor has reportedly said president Joko Widodo is considering different views on the death penalty, including his own advice that it should be removed from Indonesia's laws. Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, known better as Ahok, was Jokowi's deputy for 2 years at city hall, succeeding him when he became president. Visiting a prison in Jakarta on Saturday, Ahok revealed he had told the president he believes the death penalty should be removed from Indonesia's laws and replaced with life in jail without remission. "If from inside (jail) they're still controlling drugs, then execute them immediately that day," Ahok said, as quoted by local news website detik.com. "But if people want to change, give them a chance to live. "Maybe he can make other people more aware instead of punishing him with death ... I don't agree with the death penalty." The governor's comments come days away from the planned transfer of 2 Australians, Bali 9 ringleaders Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan, to the island where Indonesia wants to execute them, together with 8 other drug traffickers. Bali's chief prosecutor has said they could be taken from their cells in Kerobokan as early as Sunday and taken to one of several jails on Nusakambangan, known as Indonesia's Alcatraz. Tony Abbott phoned Jokowi last week regarding the Bali 9 pair's case. Afterwards Abbott told reporters the president was "carefully considering his position". According to detik.com, Ahok believes the same. "I know he's very careful and meticulous in hearing all inputs," he was quoted as saying. "That's my experience with him." But in his most recent public comments on the matter, Jokowi was sticking with his policy. "Our stance is clear. Our laws cannot be interfered," he told the business website Kontan on Friday. Australia is not the only nation concerned about Indonesia's death penalty regime, with leaders from France, Brazil and the Netherlands also speaking to the president on behalf of their citizens. Nusakambangan prisons coordinator, Marsidin, on Saturday told reporters everything was in place for the latest prisoners to be executed. "We're ready to receive convicts," he said. "The isolation cells are ready. Basically, we're ready." Chan and Sukumaran were to be transferred to Nusakambangan earlier except not everything on the island was ready for the execution of 10 people at once. The delay gave them another week to spend with family, some of whom - Sukumaran's father and siblings - returned to Australia on Saturday. (source: The Guardian) ***************** Bali 9 executions still some way off, says prison chief The head of the supermax prison on "death island" has revealed he does not believe the executions of Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran and 8 other drug felons will take place soon. Hendra Eka Putra, the head of Pasir Putih prison on Nusakambangan, said a meeting of police, grave diggers, the coffin maker, spiritual leaders, prison authorities and local government officials would be held on Wednesday in the seaport town of Cilacap. Information from that meeting would be conveyed to the Attorney-General's office, which would then send officials to visit the Nusakambangan prison compound. "So in my opinion it still takes sometime for the execution to take place," Mr Hendra said. "Having said this it is the Attorney-General's office that decides everything. It may be possible that they make a decision on Thursday, we never know. But I don't think it will take place soon." Meanwhile, 5 of the 10 drug felons facing imminent execution, including Chan and Sukumaran, still have ongoing legal cases before the courts. Their lawyers argue that under international principles of law, prisoners cannot be killed while they are exercising their legal rights. But in a portentous tweet on Sunday, the lawyer for Chan and Sukumaran, Dr Todung Mulya Lubis wrote: "We come closer to the end of our legal fight. Execution is coming. Why is it so difficult to forgive?" A close political ally of the president - Jakarta Governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama - said he believed reformed drug felons should have the death penalty commuted to life imprisonment without remission. "Let he who lives in prison and becomes a good person guide someone who just enters the prison to be a good person too", he said. "So there is one life that can be used to make another realise his mistakes. This is better than executing him", Mr Basuki said. Indonesian President Joko Widodo has expanded on a phone conversation he had with Prime Minister Tony Abbott. The Prime Minister interpreted his comments as Mr Joko "carefully considering Indonesia's position" on the executions. However Mr Joko said he merely expressed that he understood Australia's position. "I don't know what his interpretation of what I said was," he was quoted as saying in newswire detik.com. "The words may be soft but look at my actions." The timing of Chan and Sukumaran's transferral from Kerobokan jail in Bali to Nusakambangan is still unknown. Indonesian authorities have previously said they do not wish Chan and Sukumaran to spend much time on Nusukambangan island because it could unsettle other prisoners. Those on death row will be given 72 hours notice before their execution - however the men may be transferred to the island long before the notice period begins. Mr Hendra also said 2 doctors would this week come to the prison to assess Brazilian drug trafficker Rodrigo Gularte, who has been diagnosed with schizophrenia. "He looks healthy physically. He does not disturb people or create problems," Mr Hendra said. "The strange thing however is that he speaks to animals. For instance he talks to a cat as if it were a human. He asked the cat if it was hungry or sick. We try to treat him well. That's why two more doctors will be coming next week to examine his mental health, they are from the police and the Attorney-General's office." The Attorney-General, H.M. Prasetyo, has previously said there is no regulation preventing the execution of a mentally ill person. "There is only a regulation forbidding the execution of pregnant women and children under 18 years," he said. Mr Prasetyo has also vowed to proceed with the executions, saying that all 10 drug felons exhausted their legal avenues when the Indonesian president rejected their clemency pleas. On Sunday his spokesman, Tony Spontana, said all the prisoners were still on the execution list. He said the Attorney-General would officially announce when the executions would be held and everyone would have to wait until then. Cilacap priest Father Charles Burrows, who has been visiting Gularte in prison, said a Constitutional Court ruling advised that prisoners could not be executed while they were insane. "If they just execute someone because of spite that is going to be very negatively assessed by everyone," he said. Lawyers for Filipino migrant worker Mary Jane Fiesta Veloso, who was sentenced to death for smuggling 2.6 kilograms of heroin into Jogjakarta from Malaysia in 2010, have lodged a request for a judicial review into her case. There is a court hearing on Tuesday. Frenchman Serge Areski Atlaoui also has a case underway, with his bid for a judicial review to be heard on March 11. The father of 4 was arrested near Jakarta in 2005 at a laboratory producing ecstasy. He has always denied the charges, saying he was installing machinery in what he thought was an acrylics factory. And the lawyer for Nigerian Raheem Agbaje Salami, who was caught smuggling 5.3 kilograms of heroin into Indonesia in 1998, is trying to get the rejection of his clemency plea nullified on the grounds it was not rejected within the time limit. Meanwhile, Dr Mulya will lodge an appeal in the administrative court by March 10 on behalf of Chan and Sukumaran. The judicial commission is also investigating allegations that the judges who sentenced the Australians to death offered a lighter sentence in exchange for money. Dr Mulya said the Attorney-General had repeatedly insisted that the rejection of the clemency pleas was the final step before execution. However, he said this was a matter of life and death. "If you execute someone what if there was later found to be a lack of evidence?" he said. "The executions have to be delayed because of the actions taken by the parties concerned." (source: Sydney Morning Herald) SAUDI ARABIA: Raif Badawi, the Saudi Arabian blogger sentenced to 1,000 lashes, may now face the death penalty Raif Badawi, the Saudi Arabian blogger whose punishment of 1,000 lashes has prompted international condemnation, may now face the death penalty. Mr Badawi's wife, Ensaf Haidar, told The Independent in a series of messages that judges in Saudi Arabia's criminal court want him to undergo a re-trial for apostasy. If found guilty, he would face a death sentence. She said the "dangerous information" had come from "official sources" inside the conservative kingdom, where Mr Badawi has already been sentenced to 10 years in prison and 1,000 lashes - administered at a rate of 50 per week - for criticising the country's clerics through his liberal blog. In 2013, a judge threw out the charge of apostasy against the 31-year-old blogger after he assured the court that he was a Muslim. The evidence against him had included the fact that he pressed the "Like" button on a Facebook page for Arab Christians. The news that the charge may now be re-examined will come as a bitter blow to Mr Badawi's family and supporters, who had hoped that the international pressure over his case would prompt Saudi Arabia to reduce his sentence. Although he remains in prison, he has only been flogged once since his sentence was passed, with subsequent punishments being repeatedly postponed. (source: The Independent) SRI LANKA: Public Opinion On Death Penalty Minister of public order John Amaratunga has decided to call for public opinion regarding the re-introduction of the death penalty. The Minister is expected to present a cabinet paper in this regard in the near future. Minister Amaratunga further stated that public opinion will also be sought on how the death penalty should be carried out and for what crimes. He said that in 2001 when he was the internal affairs minister he had inspected the gallows at the Welikada prison and had even imported a special rope used for the hangings. However he said that since he did not get the approval of the then President Chandrika Kumaratunge, he was unable to implement it. Although the laws of the country have provisions for the enactment of the gallows, it has not been in practice as presidential consent has not been given so far. Minister Amaratunga also stated that he expected not only local responses for the proposal but international opinion as well. The minister also intends to visit the countries that currently carry out the death sentence and gather more information on the issue. At present there are 473 persons who have been convicted and sentenced to the gallows, while 534 persons who have been handed the death sentence have appealed against their verdicts. (source: The Sunday Leader) AFGHANISTAN----execution Afghanistan Hangs Reputed Mafia Boss A man described as one of Afghanistan's most notorious mafia bosses was hanged on February 28. Rais Khodaidad, also known as Rais Saiudullah, was arrested in September and convicted of multiple counts of kidnapping, extortion, robbery, and murder and sentenced to death by a Kabul court last month. He was hanged at Kabul's Pol-e Charkhi prison. He was the 1st person executed since the new Afghan government took power. (source: Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty) IRAN----executions 7 Men and 1 Woman Executed in Iran On 25th and 26th of February, 8 prisoners including 1 woman were executed in prisons of Kerman (Shahab), Bandar Abbas, Jiroft, and Adel Abad in Shiraz. According to the report of Human Rights Activists News Agency in Iran (HRANA), during 25th and 26th of February, 7 men and one woman were hanged in prisons of Kerman (Shahab), Bandar Abbas, Jiroft, and Adel Abad in Shiraz. Hossein Shahriari and Davood Jamal Barezi, who had been charged with drug related crimes, were executed in prison of Jiroft, on 26th February. Also, on the same date, Mansoor Kargar, who had been charged with Adultery and Murder, was executed in prison of Bandar Abbas. In addition, Ali Barsalamat, Moradbakhsh Saboki, Ali Dashtestan and Marzieh Hossein Zehi, were executed because of drug related crimes, in Kerman prison, also on 25th February, Amir Bagherpoor was executed in Adel Abad with charge of Murder. (source: HRANA News Agency) EGYPT: Egypt court lists Hamas 'terrorist group,' sentences Brotherhood members----Court said Hamas targeted civilians and security forces inside the Sinai Peninsula, allegations the group denies An Egyptian court designated the Palestinian group Hamas as a "terrorist organization," judicial sources said on Saturday, part of a sustained crackdown on opposition groups. In a separate case earlier in the day, a court sentenced the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood's top leader, Mohamed Badie, to life in prison, while other members of the group received the death penalty. Saturday's ruling comes just days after Egypt adopted a new anti-terrorism law allowing the authorities to close the premises of any declared "terrorist" organisation, and to freeze its assets as well as those of its members. Hamas was founded by the Muslim Brotherhood, which authorities in Egypt have also declared a "terrorist group." The army ousted one of its leaders, Mohamed Morsi, from the presidency as part of a 2013 coup. Morsi himself is facing several trials on charges that are punishable by death. Some 22,000 people have been arrested since Morsi's ouster, including most of the Brotherhood's leaders, as well as secular activists swept up by police during protests. The relationship between Egypt's authorities and Hamas has soured since Morsi???s ouster. The Muslim Brotherhood has been banned in Egypt since the military coup in 2013. Since then, Egyptian authorities have accused Hamas of aiding armed groups, who have waged a string of deadly attacks on security forces in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula. In January, an Egyptian court also declared Hamas' armed wing al-Qassam Brigades a "terrorist" group. The case was based on allegations that al-Qassam staged attacks to support the Muslim Brotherhood, and carried out deadly operations in the Sinai Peninsula in October 2014, allegations that the group denied. Armed groups in Sinai have killed scores of policemen and soldiers since Morsi's overthrow, vowing revenge for a crackdown on his supporters that has left more than 1,400 people dead. "The Egyptian court's decision to list the Hamas movement as a terror organization is shocking and is dangerous, and it targets the Palestinian people and its factions of resistance," Hamas said in a statement after the ruling. "It will have no influence on the Hamas movement," Hamas said. The ruling Saturday by Judge Mohamed el-Sayed of the Court For Urgent Matters said Hamas had targeted both civilians and security forces inside the Sinai Peninsula, and that the group aimed to harm the country. "It has been proven without any doubt that the movement has committed acts of sabotage, assassinations and the killing of innocent civilians and members of the armed forces and police in Egypt," the court wrote, according to state news agency MENA. While a court ruled in January that Hamas' armed wing was a terrorist organization, Saturday's broader ruling against the entire group has potentially greater consequences for the relationship between Cairo and Hamas, which dominates the Gaza Strip on Egypt's border. After the January decision against Hamas' Qassem Brigades, a source close to the armed wing signaled the group would no longer accept Egypt as a broker between it and Israel. Cairo has for many years played a central role in engineering ceasefires between Israel and Hamas, including a truce reached between the sides in August that ended a 50-day Gaza war. A spokesman for the Egyptian government declined to say what actions the government would take to enforce the ruling. Meanwhile, Badie, the top leader of the banned Muslim Brotherhood, was among 14 who were sentenced to life, alongside deputy leader Khairat El-Shater and leading figure Mohamed El-Beltagy. 4 lower-level members were sentenced to death for inciting violence that led to the killing of protesters demonstrating outside a Brotherhood office days before Morsi's ouster. 2 of those sentenced to death and three sentenced to life were tried in absentia. The death sentences are subject to appeal and many of the defendants are already serving lengthy sentences on other charges. Badie has already been sentenced to multiple life terms, and was one of hundreds given the death sentence in a mass trial that drew international criticism of Egypt's judicial system. (source: Al Jazeera) ********** Muslim Brotherhood Media Spokesman: Death Penalty Will Not Stop Revolutionary Movement----The Muslim Brotherhood's Mohamed Montaser assures flawed, vindictive verdicts and sentences will not stop the tide roaring against the fascist military junta and its corrupt gang. Egyptian judiciary Saturday issued its own death certificate with the latest unjust clearly-politicized court sentences that lack the minimum requirement of essential logic or reason just as they lack legal justification. A junta court ruled today for the execution of four Muslim Brotherhood members on false and flimsy fabricated charges, thus severing the last link between the Egyptian judiciary and the proud people of Egypt and their Revolution. Only recently, the same judiciary acquitted and exonerated ousted Mubarak's top officials, and sentenced to death many innocent revolutionaries. The death penalty will not stop the revolutionary movement or the tide raging against the military junta and its ruthless gang. In fact, this Revolution gets ever stronger, and more powerful, as it faces more intensified trials and tribulations - as the murderer, with his cronies and corrupt judges increase their oppression, persecution and tyranny. The judicial institution, with the latest sentences along with previous ones, for the execution of revolutionaries and acquittal of all those who killed the men and women of the Revolution, since January 2011, proves to the Egyptian people first, and the whole world too, that there is no hope in reform, and that the Revolution must cleanse the homeland of the "Sultan's judges" and restructure the judicial institution. The path of freedom and dignity is full of obstacles and adversity. The Muslim Brotherhood has pledged to all the Egyptian people, especially the men and women of the Revolution, to spare no effort in pursuit of freedom for this homeland, whatever this costs the group. We are ready and willing to sacrifice our blood and our souls for this country. We reiterate, yet again: whatever happens, there is no retreat and no compromise on the demands of the Egyptian people. We also stress that the blood of the revolutionaries will be a curse on the murderer, the coup commander, and his criminal cronies and corrupt judges. Revolutionary courts will exact retribution for this homeland, from all criminals, all those who stole and plundered its resources, and imprisoned its innocent people. To all the men and women of the Egyptian Revolution, unwavering in their steadfastness, who do not fear no threats nor are cowered by unjust death sentences: Continue the Revolution until we eliminate these oppressors. Continue until we stop this injustice, which has reached a horrifying crescendo. Be confident that the completion of your Revolution is what will stop this tyranny in Egypt forever. (source: ikhwanweb.com) AUSTRALIA: Death penalty never intended as deterrent The death penalty was never meant to be a deterrent, it is to remove those who are of no value to society, who denigrate society breaching laws committing unacceptable crimes. It cost about $2 million to keep a prisoner in jail for 20 years. Workers Compensation in no-fault accidental loss of life values that life at about $300,000, life and every part of your body has a value. Those who oppose the death penalty must be prepared to pay the jail costs by paying greatly increased tax of 40%. We live in a user pays society - someone has to pay this money and build new jails. GJ MAY, Forestdale (source: Letter to the Editor, Queensland Times) From rhalperi at smu.edu Mon Mar 2 11:08:14 2015 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Mon, 2 Mar 2015 11:08:14 -0600 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., GA., ARK. Message-ID: March 2 TEXAS: Higgins case follows recent trend ---- DA: Naylor's widow calls for life sentence In recent decades, sharp trends have illustrated the nation's changing opinions regarding the use of capital punishment. An increasing number of district attorneys across the nation are opting for alternatives to the death penalty, and in the case of Dan Higgins -- who shot and killed a Midland County deputy last fall -- Midland County District Attorney Teresa Clingman falls right in with this trend. Giving convicted killers a life sentence rather than the death penalty has become a popular option among district attorneys, according to Keith Price, an associate professor of criminology at West Texas A&M. In 1996, 315 convicts were sentenced to death nationwide, and as of 2013, that number dropped to 83 capital death sentences, according to data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics. "Capital death has so many requirements -- it's so expensive. Capital death: the convicted dies in prison by lethal injection. Capital life: the convicted dies in prison whenever his natural life is over," Price said. "From an incapacitation standpoint, the DA has accomplished the same thing. That particular person will never see the Texas public again." Pursuing capital litigation in Texas can cost an estimated $3 million more than non-capital cases and can be drawn out much longer, Price said. These costs can be onerous to counties with smaller budgets and emotionally burdensome for those involved. However, in the case of Higgins, the victim's widow, Denise Naylor, requested that the prosecution not seek the death penalty avoid costly protracted litigation and personal strain, Clingman said at a press conference Friday. "She also took into consideration that Mr. Higgins will now spend his time in general population rather than on death row in a single cell by himself for the rest of his life," Clingman said. "He was given a gift." Had Denise Naylor desired that the District Attorney's Office pursue capital punishment, Clingman believes a Midland jury would have sentenced him to death. "Had it not been for Denise's request, we would have sought death. I think that Mr. Higgins is death-worthy, and by that I mean I believe that a Midland jury, or any jury in the state of Texas, once they heard of his background -- the heinousness of the capital case, the continuous sexual abuse of a child case and his other criminal history -- would have sentenced him to death," Clingman said. Naylor and other officers were trying to serve Higgins with a warrant for continuous sexual assault of a minor on Oct. 9 at his home in the 3800 block of North County Road 1247. Naylor was shot in the head when he approached his home to talk with Higgins. Deputies then engaged in a 3-hour standoff with Higgins, and Naylor was declared dead later that day. Higgins pleaded guilty to the offense of capital murder of a peace officer and to aggravated assault on a peace officer with a deadly weapon. Higgins received a sentence of life without parole and a sentence of life, respectively, for the 2 charges. The state filed a motion to stack the sentences to ensure Higgins' capital incarceration. "Right now, we have life without parole as a sentence available in a capital murder case, but we cannot predict in the future what might happen in the Supreme Court of the United States or the state of Texas with regard to that law or what the Legislature might do. So we wanted extra insurance by filing that charge of aggravated assault," Clingman said. "To make sure that Dan Higgins will never set foot on a street in Texas or any other state again." During his capital murder plea, Higgins also signed a judicial confession of his guilt to the sexual assault of a minor charge, though the case has been dismissed and Higgins will not be sentenced for that case. "The reasoning is because we can't punish him any more than we're already punishing him," said Clingman. "It saves the victim in that case from having to go through a trial." "I think saving the county money, saving the heartache for the families involved is the best solution for this particular case," Sheriff Gary Painter said at the press conference. "The Midland County's Sheriff's Office not only lost a brother and a friend, this county lost a great employee. Only time right now can help settle the feelings right now." When asked if Higgins had expressed any remorse over his crime, Clingman said, "When he was arrested he made the comment to one of the Texas Rangers, I believe, to the effect of 'sorry fella, killed one of your own,'" Clingman said. "If you want to call that an expression of remorse, you can. I don't." Price believes that expressing remorse not only helps the victim's loved ones, but it also can help soothe the conscience of the convicted. "He's going to have to start dealing with this, and he's going to have to deal with the fact that the rest of his life and the end of his life is all going to happen in a Texas prison," Price said. Higgins, 37, likely will never be transferred to a low-security facility because of the severity of his crime, Price said. However, the likelihood of being moved to a medium-security facility depends on his behavior after a couple of decades of incarceration. "It was always surprising to me that you could settle into a place like a Texas prison and decide, 'This is OK, this is where I'm going to spend the rest of my life.' Will he have days of dark depression? Oh, there's no doubt about that, particularly early on; it'll weigh heavy on him. Think of how many years he's got, though. He's got decades and decades,??? Price said, reflecting on his time as a prison warden. "30 years from now or 25 years from now, will it be as heavy a burden on him, as it will be next month when he gets to the prison? Probably not." (source: Midland Reporter-Telegram) PENNSYLVANIA: For Wolf, Legal Fights Result From Murky Law Governor Tom Wolf is facing another legal challenge to his gubernatorial authority, less than a month into his term. The Philadelphia district attorney's petition to stop Wolf's effective moratorium on the death penalty comes weeks after state Senate Republicans hauled the new administration to court for firing the Open Records director appointed by Wolf's predecessor, Tom Corbett. Each case has brought indignant legal filings accusing Wolf of gubernatorial overreach, but legal experts say the disputes wade into unsettled questions. "Issues of gubernatorial discretion are really uncharted water in Pennsylvania," said Bruce Ledewitz, a professor at Duquesne University School of Law. Philadelphia's top prosecutor, Seth Williams, has asked the state Supreme Court to reject Wolf's death penalty moratorium. Wolf announced the effective moratorium last week, saying he would grant reprieves in each death penalty case at least until a task force studying capital sentencing in Pennsylvania had finished its work. Law enforcement groups take issue with the method of Wolf's effective moratorium. They say reprieves are must be time - and case-specific, and can't be used as a blanket refusal to carry out the death penalty. "If this were at the federal level, there were a lot of ways the president could do this, but the governor in Pennsylvania doesn't have the kind of authority that the president of the United States has," said Ledewitz. "We just haven't structured our executive power the same way under our state constitution. We have fractured the executive power and we have limited it in lots of ways." Bruce Antkowiak, a law professor at St. Vincent College, said it shouldn't surprise anyone that a Pennsylvania governor is sparring with the courts and the district attorneys over carrying out the death penalty. He doubts this case will go to "knock-down, drag-out litigation." "I think this is something where both parties need to express their views and then try to come to some reasoned accommodation on the matter," said Antkowiak. Cumberland County District Attorney Dave Freed said the state district attorneys association is still mulling its own challenge of the governor's moratorium-by-reprieve method. "He does not have the power under the constitution or any statute to simply wade in and say 'I'm granting a moratorium to everybody that's facing execution,'" said Freed. "So in each and every case, he'll have to grant a reprieve. And I would anticipate that there will be a challenge of this nature in each and every one of those cases when he grants the reprieve." Philadelphia DA Seth Williams is asking the state Supreme Court to decide whether Wolf has the authority to impose a death penalty moratorium by issuing reprieves. The court does not have to accept jurisdiction over the case. The legal challenge over Wolf's removal of the Office of Open Records director will go before a panel of Commonwealth Court judges in March. (source: WESA news) ******************** Carolyn King to be resentenced to life for 1993 murder Carolyn A. King, convicted of murdering a 74-year-old Palmyra man more than 20 years ago and sentenced to die, will be resentenced Tuesday to life imprisonment, District Attorney David Arnold said Sunday. Senior Judge David Grine from Centre County signed an order Feb. 12 scheduling King's resentencing hearing. King and Bradley Martin were convicted Oct. 14, 1994, of 1st-degree murder and other offenses and sentenced to die for killing Guy Goodman in his Palmyra townhouse. Both were granted new sentencing hearings by the state Supreme Court but were denied new trials. Martin was resentenced on Jan. 26 to life in prison without parole. Senior Lebanon County Judge Robert J. Eby ruled in December that he was precluding the prosecution from seeking the death penalty against Martin, because Martin had been offered a plea agreement as part of a package deal with King before their trial. King refused to plead guilty; the 2 went to trial and were convicted of 1st-degree murder for killing Goodman on Sept. 15, 1993. Arnold said Sunday that he did not appeal Eby's December ruling. After the Martin ruling, Arnold said he decided not to pursue the death penalty against King. He said that seemed like the appropriate path to take. The district attorney at the time of the 1992 trial, Bradford Charles, required Martin and King to both plead guilty in order to receive a life sentence. A package plea offer was made to Martin and King on Feb. 7, 1994, and was available to them when their trial began on Sept. 30, 1994. Eby, in his December ruling, said King had a pen to sign the agreement but changed her mind at the last minute, and the case was heard by a jury, which convicted both of them of 1st-degree murder and recommended both receive the death penalty. Martin was 22 at the time of the murder; King was 28. Martin, who had been incarcerated on a parole violation, was free on a 2-hour pass from the Lebanon County prison when he and King traveled to Goodman's home on Sept. 15, 1993. Goodman had visited Martin and written to him while Martin was in prison. Martin struck Goodman over the head with a vase, and the couple duct-taped a plastic bag over his head. Goodman's body was found by police 10 days later. Martin and King stole Goodman's car, credit card and checkbook and drove to Bismarck, N.D., where they abducted a 59-year-old woman, Donna Martz, later killing her in the Nevada desert. They were arrested in Arizona after a police chase on Oct. 5, 1993. Martin and King pleaded guilty to 1st-degree murder in the death of Martz and were sentenced to life in prison in Nevada. The Nevada sentence is consecutive to Martin's sentence for the Goodman murder. (source: Lebanon Daily News) GEORGIA----impending female execution Clemency Urged on Eve of Execution of Georgia Woman Kelly Gissendaner Hundreds of clergy urged courts Sunday to spare the life of Kelly Renee Gissendaner, the only woman on Georgia's death row, whose plea for clemency has been rejected even though she earned a theology degree and transformed her life while in prison. Gissendaner, 47, is scheduled to die Monday night for her involvement in the 1997 stabbing death of her husband, Douglas Gissendaner. Gissendaner had been scheduled to be executed last Wednesday, but the execution was postponed because of bad weather. A vigil was planned for Sunday night in Atlanta. Gissendaner's lawyers have argued that it's unfair to execute her when it was her lover who actually stabbed her husband - and he got only life in prison. Other advocates - including the almost 400 clergy who signed Sunday's open letter to state and federal judges and elected officials - point to her acceptance of full responsibility and her graduation from the program for incarcerated women at the Candler School of Theology at Emory University, in which she became a teacher. "Her journey is vividly demonstrated in her support of other inmates and her witness to young people in prison-prevention programs," they wrote. "On more than one occasion, Kelly has prevented another inmate from taking their own life." "I feel for the family of her husband, but this will not ease their pain," the Rev. Cathy Zappa, director of the prison theology program, told NBC station WXIA of Atlanta. "She cannot undo what she's done, but she's living her life in a way that shows she takes what she's done very seriously, She is trying to turn her life to good." (source: NBC news) ******************* Killing Kelly: An open letter to Georgia's Christian citizens----An open letter to Georgia's Christian citizens on the eve of a controversial scheduled execution. Dear Georgia's Christian Citizens: Unless something dramatic changes, tonight, March 2, your employees in the Georgia prison system, enforcing your laws, paid by your tax dollars, will take a Christian woman named Kelly Gissendaner from her cell and calmly kill her. This means, in a very real sense, you will kill her. That's because someone whose salary you pay will be the one to strap her to the gurney, and someone else you are paying will run the lethal chemicals into her body, and someone you elected made the laws that these prison officials are enforcing. So you are responsible. Actually, my fellow Georgians and fellow Christians, we are responsible. We will kill Kelly Gissendaner. We will kill her not because she poses any kind of threat to society, as she is disarmed and rehabilitated, and has been incarcerated peacefully - indeed, as a model prisoner and a real force for good in her prison - for years. We will kill her not because she is unrepentant for her crime, but even though she is deeply repentant. We will kill her not because Georgia kills all people convicted of murder, because no state, including Georgia, executes all people convicted of murder, but instead executes a tiny minority of murderers, mainly those characterized by socioeconomic powerlessness or bad legal decisions. We will kill her not because the death penalty functions as any kind of deterrent, because there is no evidence that such a sparse and randomly used penalty functions anywhere as a deterrent in the United States today. We will kill her not because executing someone can heal the wounds of grieving family members, because the long death penalty process and finally an execution more often worsens and inflames grief and unforgiveness. We will kill her not because Georgia's citizens are united in their support for the death penalty, because many Georgians, including many protesting today, are vehemently opposed to this penalty. We will kill her not because Georgia is participating in a surging national trend toward support for and use of the death penalty, but instead contrary to a strong national trend away from support for and use of this penalty. We will kill her not because Georgia benefits from national attention to our highly questionable implementation of the death penalty in high-profile cases, but despite the fact that it is not what Georgia's businesses and tourist sites and citizens want to be known for. We will kill her not because Georgia's largely conservative citizenry generally express support for strongly centralized state power, but despite the fact that Georgians generally distrust an overly powerful government. And there is no greater governmental power than the power to kill its own citizens. And, sadly, we will kill her not despite but because of the way many Georgians think about our dominant Christian faith. Here I part ways with my fellow Georgians who do support the death penalty, for I most certainly do not. But I think I understand the version of Christian faith that undergirds that support. I wish to reason with you as a fellow Christian and ask you to reconsider this position on principled grounds. Knowingly or not, many Georgia Christians support the death penalty because there is a strong tradition of Christian support for the death penalty in the United States. This is true especially in the South, which executes far more people than any other region. The letter I write today could just as easily be directed to nearly any state in the South and a few elsewhere. I urge my fellow Georgia (and Southern) Christians to pay attention to the sharply declining support for the death penalty among Christians in the rest of the United States and in the global Christian family - including the Roman Catholic Church, most mainline denominations, and a very large number of evangelical Protestants. Principled opposition to the death penalty is not an outlier position but instead widely held in the broader Christian world. Many Georgia Christian citizens support the death penalty because they take the laws of the Hebrew Bible (our Old Testament) seriously. But I urge my fellow Georgia Christians to pay attention to how most Jewish rabbis and scholars also take these laws seriously but for centuries have not supported the use of the death penalty. This is reflected in the fact that the modern state of Israel does not practice the death penalty, and has only executed 1 person, major Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann. I urge my fellow Georgia Christians to think about how little the death penalty is actually implemented even in the Old Testament itself, which offers several key accounts of murderers who are spared death for their crimes. Consider Cain, Moses and David. Perhaps this could lead my fellow Christians to the conclusion that the Old Testament death penalty statutes signal the extreme seriousness of murder and other crimes, and demand a proportionate punishment, but one short of death and tinged with some measure of mercy. I urge my fellow Christians to contemplate the unjust use of the death penalty to kill the great majority of the leading figures we meet in the New Testament, including John the Baptist, Paul, Peter, Stephen and, yes, Jesus himself. Closely studying these abuses of state power recorded in the New Testament might incline my fellow Christians to be much more suspicious of state claims that it is time, once again, for the state to kill one of its own. Some Georgia Christians support the death penalty because Genesis 9:5-6 seems to demand blood in retribution for blood. But I urge you to consider that this text does not envision a modern society with prisons where criminals can pay with their lives in a proportionate but very different way than execution - and urge you to again consider the clemency shown to major figures in the Old Testament itself, after Genesis 9. Some Georgia Christians support the death penalty because Romans 13:1-7 says we should respect government, which executes divine wrath on wrongdoers, making them pay for their crimes. But I urge you to think about the flaws of all existing human governments, their manifest errors and injustices, perhaps especially in the criminal justice system, and the need to limit rather than expand state power. Perhaps you could agree that life in prison without release is a mighty terrible penalty but one that sets at least that one crucial limit on the power of the state - the power over life and death. And you might dare to wonder how Paul himself would have interpreted Romans 13 a few years later when he was getting ready to be murdered unjustly by Nero. Above all, I urge you, my fellow Georgia Christians, to linger around our Savior Jesus. Jesus who was coldly executed by Roman power. Jesus who stood with those on the margins and the bottom of society. Jesus who forgave and forgave and taught us to forgive and forgive. Jesus who said that only those of us without sin are free to cast the first stone. My fellow Georgia Christians, I urge you to join those of us asking for mercy in this case - which means life in prison, not release, but also not execution. The case for that kind of mercy here is extraordinarily compelling. But ultimately, it's not about one particular individual and the details of one particular case. The issue is really that Georgia needs to join many other states and end the use of the death penalty once and for all. We don't need it. It isn't rationally or fairly applied. It's marked by race and class bias. It's more expensive than imprisoning someone for life. It doesn't make us safer. It doesn't deter murder. It doesn't heal our wounds. It doesn't make us proud. And Christians, when all is said and done, it doesn't fit with the Jesus whose forgiveness and mercy are the very ground of our lives. Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles, you could stop this particular killing - before night falls. In the name of Jesus, many of us are pleading with you to do just that. No more killings in our name, Georgia Christians. Not one more. (source: David Gushee, Baptist News) ******************** Witness to an execution On Monday, I will watch the state of Georgia kill a woman. In 23 years as a broadcast journalist, I've covered executions but never been witness to one. Going into this event, I wanted to write down my thoughts and see if they change once the execution of Kelly Gissendaner is over. By now, you've probably heard her story. She masterminded the plot to have her lover kill her husband, Doug, in 1997. For me, I keep thinking about the Gissendaner children. There are 3. 2 of the 3 have forged new relationships with their mother since she's been in prison. And by many, many accounts, Kelly has been a model prisoner who's continued her education and become a Christian behind bars. But she killed her husband. She's the one who put her children, her family, Doug's family and many friends in this situation to begin with. I'm also thinking about my own feelings on capital punishment. Is the death penalty a deterrent to crime? Most criminologists say no. I see the practical side to the argument that it doesn't 'work' as a law enforcement tool. But if someone hurt my family, my wife or my kids, I'd get medieval real quick. People scoff at Utah trying to reinstate firing squad executions but again if the crime involved my family, give me the gun. No need for a squad. Let me also be clear in that I admire, respect and truly marvel at people who can forgive a killer. Their hearts are bigger than mine and I readily admit it. I wish I had their capacity to forgive. Which brings me back to the Gissendaner children who are grown now. What in the hell are they going through right now? They had to deal with the crushing blow of their father's death in '97. Then learn their mother orchestrated the whole thing and was sent to death row. Now they're reliving this nightmare knowing their mother's last breath is coming Monday night. I simply can't fathom. I'm going to write down some thoughts after the execution and I promise to be just as open and honest. It's true that journalists become desensitized to crime over the years but there's a reason. We have to. It's the only way we don't break down and lose it. Like many journalists before me, I've covered fatal traffic accidents where even hardened police officers wince when putting a sheet over a body. Or a house fire where you know it'll take dental records to identify the family. Those scenes are horrific enough but it's different when killing isn't accidental. When another human being chooses to kill it exposes a vulnerability and powerlessness in me that I simply have to file away and ignore. If kids are involved, I still physically shudder sometimes when reporting their death. So, now, just a few hours before witnessing a planned execution, please forgive me when I say I'm thankful to witness it through my profession and not as father or husband. If that were the case, I have no idea what I'd think - or do. (source: Editorial, Scott Light, CBS news) ****************** In the past, Georgia would have let Kelly Renee Gissendaner live ---- Georgia temporarily abandoned capital punishment in 1976 over evident gender biases, among other reasons. Why has it forgotten these past lessons? For death penalty watchers, all eyes will be on Georgia today - much as they have been throughout the grim history of the American death penalty - as the state plans to execute 46-year-old Kelly Renee Gissendaner. Georgia is the state where the Supreme Court case Furman v. Georgia created a de facto moratorium to the death penalty in 1972, and also where Gregg v Georgia brought the death penalty back to life in 1976. Gissendaner's clemency appeal was rejected last week, despite "detailed testimony from inmates and former wardens" on her behalf. Her last petition to the Supreme Court was denied in October. According to the NAACP, she stands to be the 15th woman put to death by the government since 1976. In the same period, 1,368 men have been executed. While men commit far more violent crimes than women, there is a disquieting history of racial and gender dynamics to who is sentenced to the death penalty after being convicted for the same crimes. This disparate impact was at issue in Furman v. Georgia. In his majority opinion, Justice Thurgood Marshall made note of: overwhelming evidence that the death penalty is employed against men and not women. Only 32 women have been executed since 1930, while 3,827 men have met a similar fate. It is difficult to understand why women have received such favored treatment since the purposes allegedly served by capital punishment seemingly are applicable to both sexes. That purpose, ostensibly though easily refutable, is that the death penalty should prevent crime. But if that were the case, following the death penalty's lopsided application towards men, it would mean men would be deterred from committing about 85 % of all homicides and women would be running rampant. The 5 member majority of Furman ruled effectively, if temporarily, to end capital punishment because of "the discretion of judges and juries in imposing the death penalty" which enable it "to be selectively applied, feeding prejudices against the accused if he is poor and despised, and lacking political clout." Though the Furman case was argued mostly around William Henry Furman's inability to get a fair capital trial as a poor black man, Marshall noted the disparate impact of the death penalty on men, and the court ruled that "In a Nation committed to equal protection of the laws there is no permissible 'caste' aspect of law enforcement." The disparate impact of the Furman case did not only stop executions of blacks and the poor in Georgia; it ended them for all Americans. That was, until Utah upstaged Georgia with the 1st post-Gregg execution in 1977, of Gary Gilmore by firing squad. Indeed, Utah may again upstage Georgia's execution news, as its house of representatives just voted to resurrect firing squads. Much has been made of Gissendaner's conversion to Christianity and her relationship with prominent German theologian Jurgen Moltmann. But it's worth noting Gissendaner's rare execution as a woman. That women are far less likely to face execution than men does not demonstrate a "men's rights" defense of male murders; but the aberration does highlight an unjustly applied law which should be tossed out for everyone. We know that men, the mentally ill, and the poor are more likely to wind up on death row. A 2011 Stanford Law School report found that, "Minority defendants who murder white victims are 3 times as likely to receive a death sentence as white defendants who murder white victims." For the state and its agents who literally execute its death penalty, the convicted must be considered a monster. It is arguably harder to flip the switch on the electric chair when that "monster" is gendered female. And, though it's hard to say with such a small sample, it seems harder to see a woman enough as a monster to actually kill her - that is, unless she is lesbian, black, poor or all 3. The answer, of course, is not to execute more people. The answer is that the state of Georgia - and all states, and the federal US government - should stop executing everyone, for it is a legal, financial and moral failure that does not deter the crimes it professes to. While not technically a crime in America, the death penalty is a mortal injustice - and one that must be stopped. (source: Column, Steven Thrasher, The Guardian) ARKANSAS: A death penalty alternative This past week, retired Circuit Judge David Burnett, now state Senator David Burnett, D-Osceola, let his temper get the best of him. He openly castigated a remark made by 1 of the 3 elected Prosecuting Attorneys, who was apparently trying to play that old, shop-worn card about how "they do it down in Texas." Burnett, whose red hair is growing grayer these days, wasn't buying that old Legislative trick of comparison of Arkansas to the Lone Star State. "I don't give a damn about the whole state of Texas," Burnett shot back to the testimony about a lower murder rate in Texas. The Lone Star state leads the nation and the world in the number of executions since 1976, when the death penalty was reinstated by the U.S. Supreme Court. Texas has executed 521 individuals in the 39 years since the ban was lifted on executions. Arkansas has executed 27 inmates since 1976, but none since 2005. Not very senatorial in his remarks about Texas, but the message was succinct enough to end that discussion of what Texans "do and don't do." Still, Burnett's bill survived and passed out of committee. The bill Burnett champions, Senate Bill 298, which would abolish the state's death penalty, may face a tough challenge in the Republican controlled Senate and House of Representatives. And that may be despite the piety of many Republicans who lean heavily upon their religious beliefs. At a recent Legislative Forum in Fayetteville, the abolishment of the death penalty split right about party lines. Democrats saying they would abolish the death penalty and Republicans saying no. Arkansas has not conducted a state execution of a death row prisoner since 2005, under former Gov. Mike Huckabee, a Republican. Outgoing Democratic Gov. Mike Beebe on several occasions said he would sign a bill abolishing the death penalty if one reached his desk. No bill ever reached his desk, and no bill has gotten as far as Burnett's bill in modern times. Burnett told the senate committee the "...death penalty doesn't do anything to prevent murder of capital crime(s). I think the time has come for us to reconsider the death penalty as a form of punishment." This sponsor of this controversial legislation is no stranger to the death penalty in the circuit courts of Arkansas. Burnett was the sitting judge in the trial of the "West Memphis 3" - that trio of boys charged with the death of 3 younger boys in West Memphis. But let's set aside that tragically flawed case that was finally settled with all 3 defendants admitting guilt, but released by the courts as future trials and evidence caused their guilt to be in question. Burnett, a former prosecuting attorney, has tried 5 death cases as a prosecutor. As a retired Circuit Judge, he conducted trials of 5 more death cases. That's a record few others can break in modern day Arkansas judicial circles. And when Burnett speaks on the status of the death penalty in Arkansas, maybe we all should listen. "It's broken," Burnett told the committee. "It doesn't work because you do have not certainty." Veteran death row attorney Jeff Rosenzweig, who has defended many of Arkansas death row inmates who were executed and many more awaiting the lethal dose of state prescribed drugs, concurred with Burnett's remarks about the system being broken. "The courts are a human system where people make mistakes. It is a broken system and there's no way to fix it that is fair." Others disagree. 3 elected Prosecuting Attorneys, Cody Hiland of Conway; Tom Tatum of Danville and Dan Shue of Fort Smith, all spoke against the bill. All 3 said the death penalty was a deterrent to crime. Also the threat of the death penalty often helps prosecuting attorneys as a bargaining tool to elicit guilty pleas from those charged in these heinous crimes. In 2014, Texas and Missouri tied for the most executions in the United States with 10 each. Already in 2015, Texas has executed 3 inmates with 7 others set to die from lethal injection between March 11 and May 12, 2015, if court challenges do not set aside the death sentences. Since 1976, it should be pointed out the United States Government has conducted 3 executions. Oklahoma has put 112 individuals to death since 1976, Missouri 81; Alabama 56; Louisiana 28; Mississippi 21 and Tennessee just 6. Burnett's bill should be weighed also by the cost of maintaining and operating a "death row" in our prison system. The bill does not do away with a life sentence without out a chance of parole. But it does assure everyone of 1 thing - no innocent person will be put to death by the state, if no one is put to death by the state. Even those undeterred by all the Scripture, morals and laws telling humans not to kill other humans may need to stop and consider Burnett's bill as a message from a man who has seen killings and killers tried in our judicial system. Some of those outcomes came with mixed results. People do, sadly, kill other people for a myriad of reasons, none of which we fully understand. But Arkansas does not have to as a mechanism of justice put people to death under this new twist to the death penalty law. Maybe it is time to consider an alternative to the lethal injection to elicit justice. And yes, I, too, agree with Burnett. I don't give a damn about the whole state of Texas and what they are doing with respect to making law in Arkansas. (source: Opinion; Maylon Rice, thecitywire.com) From rhalperi at smu.edu Mon Mar 2 11:10:04 2015 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Mon, 2 Mar 2015 11:10:04 -0600 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----KAN., NEB., MONT., ARIZ. Message-ID: March 2 KANSAS: Preliminary hearing to begin for Missouri man accused of killing 3 at Kansas Jewish sites An avowed white supremacist accused in the fatal shootings of 3 people at 2 Jewish sites in Kansas is set to appear in court Monday to determine whether there is sufficient evidence to try him. 74-year-old Frazier Glenn Miller, of Aurora, Missouri, is charged with capital murder in the attacks on April 13, the eve of Passover. Johnson County prosecutors have announced plans to seek the death penalty. Miller is accused of killing a 69-year-old man and his 14-year-old grandson who were at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Kansas City for a singing contest audition. He also is accused of fatally shooting a woman who was visiting her mother at a Jewish retirement home in nearby Overland Park. None of the victims was Jewish. (source: Associated Press) NEBRASKA: Documentary on death-penalty executions is ex-stuntwoman's entree into filmmaking PATTY DILLON Born: 1976 in San Diego Lives near: 36th and Pacific Streets Education: Bellevue West High School grad, 1994; attended Chadron State, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Family: Single; mom is Carol Dillon of Omaha, dad, Bernie Dillon, is deceased; brothers Matt and Russell are also of Omaha Did you know: She worked as a snowboard instructor, film stuntwoman and talent agency manager before focusing on film production. 30 years ago, Patty Dillon moved to Omaha with her mother from her birthplace of San Diego. 20 years ago, she was voted most outgoing as a graduating senior at Bellevue West High School. 5 years ago, she moved back to Omaha from Montana to intern with Dana Altman at North Sea Films. Next week, Dillon, 38, will be on hand when her first documentary screens at the Omaha Film Festival. She served as writer, director and co-producer of the 71-minute film, which had its world premiere Feb. 12 at the Big Sky Film Festival in Missoula, Montana. "There Will Be No Stay" focuses on the process of death-penalty executions from the viewpoint of those who carry them out. The idea began when a doctor who ended up becoming her co-producer chatted with her about the absurdity of how the surface of the prisoner's arm is cleaned and disinfected before lethal injection is administered. "It seemed a ridiculous dichotomy," Dillon said. She wrote up a 13-part documentary series for television, tentatively titled "Dichotomy of Death." The idea became the start of the stand-alone movie. "The more I researched the process of execution, the more blown away I became," Dillon said. "And the more I learned, the more I had to find out. It became a sort of obsession." She discovered an alarming trend of suicides among executioners. The film centers on interviews with two former South Carolina executioners, a former Georgia prison warden and a former Texas prison chaplain, plus the relative of a murder victim. The young woman who killed his grandmother, 15 at the time, was on death row. The movie, made on a budget of about $200,000, took 7 years to fund and complete. Dillon's journey to directing was even longer. Dillon's mother, Carol, is a retired University of Nebraska at Omaha professor of linguistics and English composition. Her parents divorced when she was 3, and her father, a commercial mortgage broker, died in 2009. After graduating from Bellevue West, Patty says, she was "a total rebel" who couldn't wait to leave Omaha. She started college at Chadron State, then transferred to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where she studied theater performance, music and dance. She quit college, moved to Colorado and became a snowboard instructor. That led to movie stuntwoman school in Seattle. Her stunt credits include TV shows such as "Dawson's Creek," "One Tree Hill," "Eastbound and Down" and several small films. She decided she wanted to make movies, not be in them. Altman taught her the ropes of film production, starting in July 2010. "If I could put Omaha on a coast, I'd live here forever," said Dillon, who now is developing an episodic television series and a movie she calls a dark comedy. She said comedy had always been her forte in college, so people were surprised that she chose the topic of executions for her first film. "It's been taxing, for sure," she said, "especially now that it's time to expose your art to the world. It's a little terrifying." Her intent, she said, isn't to change anybody's mind about capital punishment. It's simply a platform for execution team members to share their stories. "The demons they're battling are palpable, every day," she said. "Everybody in the film is dealing with post-traumatic stress. It's heavy. It's taken a tremendous toll on these men." "There Will Be No Stay" screens at 8:30 p.m. March 12 at the Omaha Film Festival, held at Village Pointe Cinema. Dillon will take questions after the screening. (source: omaha.com) MONTANA: Life in prison for Smith----Ronald Smith should not be executed by the state of Montana, says the Herald editorial board. 1 slow step forward, and 1 hastily scurrying step back. That's the best way to describe the state of Montana's dances with abolishing the death penalty - a move that would affect Ronald Smith, an Albertan who's been on Montana's death row for more than 30 years. Last week, the Montana legislature got very close to joining the civilized world and abolishing the death penalty, but abolition was defeated by a single vote. The state's senate has already passed an abolition law, but the house hasn't, and this time, things ended in a 50-50 stalemate. That means the abolition proposal is sunk for this year???s legislative session. Smith is 1 of only 2 inmates on Montana's death row; 74 other inmates were executed over the years. The Red Deer man pleaded guilty in 1983 to 2 counts of homicide and 2 of kidnapping for his role in the deaths of Blackfoot Indian Reservation residents Thomas Running Rabbit, Jr. and Harvey Mad Man, Jr. Representative David Moore, who sponsored the abolition bill in the house, said he "couldn't imagine a worse fate than being locked up in prison for the rest of my life." Exactly. That's worse than death, and it certainly is a greater deterrent. To have one's freedom taken away forever and to spend the rest of one's days sitting in jail, living with the knowledge of having committed a horrible crime, is much more severe punishment than the oblivion death offers. It's also a far more humane and civilized way of dealing with criminals. Even U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, who is poised to leave his position, said he opposes the death penalty because "there's always the possibility that mistakes will be made." Indeed, there have been numerous highly publicized cases of innocent people being executed in the U.S. for crimes they didn't commit. In Smith's case, his guilt is not in question. He even requested the death penalty, but then changed his mind, and the intervening years have been basically a series of delays in executing him, including an appeal for clemency to the state's governor in 2013, who didn't act either way on it before leaving office. "Our system of justice is the best in the world," Holder said. We disagree. The best justice system in the world doesn't stoop to the level of the murderers it imprisons, by killing them. Research has shown that the inevitable years of appeals that follow a death-row inmate's conviction are far more expensive than simply maintaining him for life behind bars. Smith's roller-coaster death row ride should end and he should spend the remainder of his natural life in prison. (source: Editorial, Calgary Herald) ************************* Death penalty: Shot in arm is cruel, unusual? After laying awake several nights contemplating the death penalty in Montana I see today (Feb. 24) the legislature is deadlocked over a bill to end the death penalty. We have 2 prisoners on death row who cannot be killed because the American Civil Liberties Union says that sticking a needle in their arms is cruel and unusual, and the Supreme Court says they are absolutely correct. I wonder how many ACLU-ers permit their wives to take babies to a doctor to have needles stuck in them to prevent diseases. And our young military stand in line to be shot in the arm before going to war to prevent diseases. Even our elderly get a shot in the arm every year to prevent flu, but to stick a needle in a criminals arm is cruel and unusual punishment. How about a shot in the head with a .45? In all recorded history there is not one person who died this way who complained of pain! I know, our law says it is a crime for 1 person to kill another person, but it is permitted for the state to kill a person. It seems to me there is a conflict there but it is the law. Do away with the death penalty. There is absolutely no evidence that it deters crime, but there is ample evidence that 20 years of appeals costs the state millions. And in our state we cannot put a needle, for whatever reason, in the arm of a criminal. So there is no death for those who the state says deserves it. Fred S. Collins, Missoula (source: Letter to the Editor, The Missoulian) ARIZONA: Jury deciding punishment for Arias to resume deliberations Arizona jurors deciding whether convicted murderer Jodi Arias will get the death penalty or life in prison for killing her boyfriend resume deliberations Monday. The Maricopa County Superior Court jury in Phoenix didn't reach a decision Thursday after getting the case a day earlier. The case was in recess Friday. Arias was convicted of 1st-degree murder in May 2013, but jurors deadlocked on her punishment. If this new jury deadlocks, the death penalty would be removed as an option, and the judge will decide whether Arias serves natural life in prison or life with the possibility of release after 25 years. Arias' trial became a sensation with its tawdry revelations about her relationship with Travis Alexander. He was killed at his suburban Phoenix home in June 2008. (source: Associated Press) From rhalperi at smu.edu Mon Mar 2 11:10:54 2015 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Mon, 2 Mar 2015 11:10:54 -0600 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide Message-ID: March 2 SAUDI ARABIA: Saudi blogger Raif Badawi could be retried and beheaded, say his family ---- Judge who cleared Badawi of the capital crime of renouncing Islam has referred his case back to court, say his family, who call for a royal pardon Raif Badawi, the Saudi blogger who was sentenced to a decade in prison and 1,000 lashes for insulting Islam, now faces being beheaded for renouncing the religion, his family have said. They claimed to have learned of attempts within the Saudi judicial system to have Raif Badawi retried for the crime, which carries a death sentence. Amnesty International said it was looking into the claims, which could not be verified on Sunday evening. "Raif and his family must be thinking 'what new hell is this?'," said an Amnesty spokesman. We call on the world citizens and governments not to leave Raif dragged by such bigots to death "The torment of facing each week the possibility of another brutal public flogging is an unimaginable torture. These latest rumours that the death penalty is a possibility again add to the nightmare. "Over a million people have called for Raif's freedom. That should be the only development we're hearing about." In a statement, Badawi's family said that the Saudi supreme court has referred his case to the same judge who passed the sentence he is currently serving, whom they accused of being biased against him. He was previously cleared of apostasy - renouncing his religion - in 2013. In January this year, his case was referred to the supreme court by the former king in a move that his supporters hoped would eventually lead to his release. But his family, who cited "information from reliable sources" they did not name, now believe that the case has been referred on again to the country's Penal court under regulations introduced last autumn. "We have reasons to believe without any doubts that the same judge has again asked the head of the court of appeal to charge Raif with apostasy," they said in a statement. "It should be mentioned that this judge stated in his written verdict against Raif, that he has proof and is confident that Raif is an apostate. "We call on the world citizens and governments not to leave Raif dragged by such bigots to death. And we renew our calls to His Majesty King Salman to pardon Raif Badawi and allow him to leave for Canada to be united with his family there." Badawi received the first 50 lashes outside al-Jafali mosque in the port city of Jeddah in January. He was due to be subjected to 50 more each week but it was postponed after doctors said that his wounds had not healed and that he was unfit to have the sentence carried out. (source: The Guardian) ALGERIA: Death Penalty for the kidnapping and murder of Mebrek The 2 killers of young itinerant merchant, Amirouche Mebrek in January 2014, were sentenced to death. The verdict was pronounced late in the evening of Sunday, March 1. The 2 accused, Amroun Youcef and Oultaf Madjid have denied the facts and Amroun Youcef had tried to attribute the murder to terrorists but was caught by scientific evidence presented by the prosecutor, according to sources close to the file. The representative of the prosecution estimated, during his closing argument, that the Amirouche Mebrek case was as serious as that of the French tourist Herve Gourdel, who had been beheaded by terrorists in September. Hence the need of a sentence at the height of the shock suffered by the population and the torment lived by the family of the victim, the source added. (source: Ennahar Online) INDIA: Delhi bus rapist: Women should allow men to rape them if they want to live One of the men who brutally assaulted and raped a 23-year-old woman on a moving bus in New Delhi on Dec. 16, 2012 blames the victim for the savagery that he - and 5 other men - inflicted on her. Had she simply been "silent" and allowed the rape, "then they would have dropped her off after doing her," Mukesh Singh, one of the convicted in the horrific case, said in an interview from Delhi's Tihar Jail. It's been more than 2 years since a physiotherapy student, Jyoti Singh, was raped by 6 men. Later, she was left to die on the city's streets, as her male companion, who was also severely beaten up, sought help from passersby. The incident triggered nationwide protests and a demand for a lasting, sweeping change in rape laws. The judge who handled the case said that the rape had "shocked the collective conscience" of India. The assailants are now facing death penalty - but one of them, at least, feels absolutely no remorse. In an interview for a documentary called India's Daughter, Mukesh - who was also the driver of the bus in which the incident occurred - said that girls are to be blamed for most of the rapes that occur in India. "You can't clap with 1 hand - it takes 2 hands. A decent girl won't roam around at 9 o'clock at night. A girl is far more responsible for rape than a boy. Boy and girl are not equal. Housework and housekeeping is for girls, not roaming in discos and bars at night doing wrong things, wearing wrong clothes. About 20 % of girls are good." He went on to blame Jyoti for resisting rape. "She should just be silent and allow the rape. Then they would have dropped her off after 'doing her' and only hit the boy. The 15 or 20 minutes of the incident, I was driving the bus. The girl was screaming, 'Help me, help me.' The juvenile put his hand in her and pulled out something. It was her intestines ... We dragged her to the front of the bus and threw her out." Death penalty, in his opinion, will only make matters worse for future rape victims. "The death penalty will make things even more dangerous for girls." "Before, they would rape and say, 'Leave her, she won't tell anyone.' Now when they rape, especially the criminal types, they will just kill the girl. Death." The juvenile who Mukesh mentioned in his interview was 6 months shy of 18 at the time of the rape, and was tried separately from the other five men in a juvenile justice court. In August 2013, he was sent to a correctional facility for a maximum term of 3 years. At the reform home in Sept. 2014, he was found to be cooking, sewing, painting, playing volleyball, watching television or pigeons. Mukesh, who was 26 at the time of the incident, and 4 other adult perpetrators were given the death penalty by a fast-track court. Though the Delhi high court upheld the penalty in Mar. 2014, the perpetrators are waiting for Supreme Court's hearing on their appeal. The documentary will be broadcast in India and 7 other countries on BBC4 on March 08, International Women's Day. (source: qz.com) ********************** HC stays death sentence of man who killed five persons in 2004 The Delhi High Court today stayed the execution of a man convicted for the murder of 5 persons, including 2 children, in Chhattisgarh in 2004 and whose review plea had been rejected by the apex court. A bench of justices Sanjiv Khanna and Ashutosh Kumar restrained the prison authorities from carrying out the execution till April 7. The convict's "black warrant" (death warrant) was scheduled to be signed on March 4. The bench issued notice to the Centre and Chhattisgarh government seeking their reply on the plea of convict Sonu Sardar who has sought quashing of the President's rejection of his mercy plea. Senior advocate Indira Jaising and advocate Rishab Sancheti appeared for Sardar and contended there was delay of 2 years and 2 months by the President in deciding his mercy plea. Advocate Atul Jha, appearing for the Chhattisgarh government, opposed the plea, saying the Delhi High Court did not have the jurisdiction to entertain the petition. Sonu Sardar, along with his brother and accomplices, had killed 5 persons of a family, including a woman and 2 children, during a dacoity bid in Chhattisgarh's Cher village in November 2004. The trial court had slapped death penalty on him and the Chhattisgarh High Court had upheld it. The Supreme Court in February 2012 had concurred with the findings of 2 courts below and affirmed the punishment. Then in February 2015, the apex court also rejected his review plea. Sardar, in his petition, has also sought commuting of his death sentence to life imprisonment on account of delay in deciding his mercy plea as well as for allegedly keeping him in "solitary confinement illegally". (source: Press Trust of India) TANZANIA: Albinos 'Want Their Killers Executed' A delegation of people with albinism through the Tanzania Albinism Society (TAS) is expected to meet President Jakaya Kikwete on Thursday, this week, in which among others, will request the president to put into effect the death penalty on convicted albino killers. "There are about seven people who are on death row after they were convicted of killing people with albinism; we will ask the president to execute the capital punishment or convert the verdict to life sentence with hard labour," TAS Chairman Ernest Kimaya told the 'Daily News'. TAS had on February 19, this year, announced intention to hold peaceful march today to push the government to intensify the crackdown on criminals who abduct and kill innocent people whose only 'fault' is being melanin deficient. Mr Kimaya had indicated that TAS would engage representatives from political parties, religious leaders as well as civil society organisations in the peaceful march. However, Mr Kimaya told the 'Daily News' that President Kikwete had agreed to meet their delegation this week and thus the planned march had been shelved. "We had been making arrangements for the peaceful march, but as of yesterday evening (Saturday) the police were yet to issue us with a permit to conduct the demonstration. "On the same day, LAS was also contacted by the State House notifying us that the president would not be able to meet us on Monday (today) and instead arranged the meeting for Thursday," Mr Kimaya said through a telephone interview. Abduction, hacking and killing of people with albinism has been rampant in some parts of the country, particularly the Lake Zone, in which some 76 people with albinism were killed between 2005/2006 and this year. "During this period, we have seen 76 killed while 34 surviving but had some of their body parts hacked; there were also 15 graves of people with albinism which were dug up, ostensibly to cut the parts for the human sacrifices," Mr Kimaya noted with concerns. The TAS chair said the association will as well place a request to the Head of State to have the Judiciary fast-track 34 cases which are currently pending at the High Court. "These cases have dragged for a long time now; we think it is high time the cases are fast-tracked or a special court is formed to try cases related to albino killings," he stated. During the past 2 months, the country has witnessed 2 abductions of young children in the Lake Zone. They include Yohana Bahati (1) who was kidnapped on February 15 and her body recovered mutilated on February 17 in Geita Region, as well as Pendo Emmanuel (4) who was kidnapped in December and is still missing. (source: All Africa News) IRAN----executions 4 Prisoners Hanged in Iran 4 prisoners were hanged in 2 different Iranian cities, reported the Iranian state media.edam-isca According to the official website of the Iranian Judiciary in Hormozgan province (Southern Iran) 1 man was hanged in Bandar Abbas Thursday morning 26 February. The prisoner who was identified as "M. K." was convicted of murdering a man in 2010. 3 other prisoners were hanged in the prison of Rasht (Northern Iran) reported the Judiciary in Gilan province. 2 of the prisoners identified as "H.M." (40) and "H.R." (28) were convicted of murder and the 3rd prisoner identified as "D.F." (35) was convicted of drug trafficking said the report. (source: Iran Human Rights) THAILAND: Capital punishment concerns raised over Thai backpackers' murder case Human rights activists have expressed alarm after it emerged that British police might have breached legal guidelines by providing evidence to Thai authorities which could potentially help them execute suspects accused of murdering 2 British backpackers. The investigation into the deaths of Hannah Witheridge and David Miller in September on the holiday island of Koh Tao has already prompted concern following claims that the 2 young Burmese migrant workers arrested for the crime were tortured by Thai police to secure confessions, which they then retracted. The suspects, Zaw Lin and Wai Phyo, both 21, face trial in July, and Thai prosecutors say they will seek the death penalty. Under a British government protocol, British police and officials should not normally provide evidence when defendants face capital punishment in a foreign jurisdiction without getting assurances a death sentence will not be carried out. However, in an email to the rights group Reprieve, the Foreign Office (FCO) said it had learned that four English police forces conducted interviews about the case at the request of their Thai counterparts and passed on the information. Reprieve says it does not believe assurances over execution were sought. The FCO declined to comment on this point. More widely, Reprieve claims British police and officials have been giving "1-sided assistance" by handing information to Thai authorities but refusing to share any of it with the defence team. Witheridge, 23, was raped and beaten to death while Miller, 24, was struck on the head and left to drown in shallow surf. During a frantic 2-week investigation, Thailand's military prime minister, General Prayuth Chanocha, said he believed migrant workers were the culprits. Soon afterwards, 2 young Burmese men were arrested. Zaw Lin and Wai Phyo said they were beaten and scalded to get confessions, while other Burmese nationals on Koh Tao said they were also mistreated by police. Amnesty International and the British government were among those who raised concerns about the inquiry. Late last year, a Metropolitan police team was sent to Thailand to observe the case and prepare a report. In December, it told Reprieve it would not share the report with Thai police as it did "not provide information for use in a criminal process which lacks the necessary assurances about use of the death penalty". However, the Met said it could not account for the actions of other police forces, prompting Reprieve to seek clarification from the FCO. The FCO response said Hampshire, Essex, Hertfordshire and Jersey police had been asked by Thai police to interview Britons who were on Koh Tao with Witheridge and Miller. It added: "We now understand that UK law enforcement colleagues shared the contents of these statements informally with Thai police after they had taken human rights considerations into account." Asked by the Guardian whether Britain had first sought assurances that Zaw Lin and Wai Phyo would not be executed, the FCO declined to comment on the specific point. A spokeswoman said: "We have called for the investigation to be conducted in a fair and transparent way, in line with international standards. The British government opposes the use of the death penalty and has been clear on this with the Thai government." Lawyers acting for Reprieve have written to the government asking what information was shared with Thai authorities and for any details about human rights assurances. Separately, the organisation is challenging the Met's decision to refuse the Thai defence team access to its report into the case. Lawyers for the suspects have accused British officials of complicity in denying them a fair trial; under Thai law the prosecution is not obliged to divulge its evidence in advance. They are seeking the report under data protection laws, which the Met has refused. In a letter to the commissioner, Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, Reprieve's lawyers challenge this, saying the dual grounds for refusal - that police hold no personal data on the suspects and that divulging it could prejudice the trial - were contradictory. Maya Foa, director of Reprieve's death penalty team, said the organisation sympathised with the victim's families, who have expressed confidence in the Thai investigation, and understood their desire to see those responsible held to account. She said: "It is therefore essential to make sure that we see a fair trial. But this can only happen if there is a level playing field. "That is why the one-sided assistance provided to the Thai prosecutors by the UK police is so worrying - especially when they are aware that 2 young men could face the death penalty following torture and a deeply flawed trial." Hampshire police said it interviewed a witness over the case but that, as far as it knew, the information had not yet been passed on to Thai police. Jersey, Essex and Hertfordshire police referred the matter to the Met, who in turn referred it to the FCO. The FCO said it could not assist the defence: "The evidence to be presented to the court was and remains in the possession of the Thai police and prosecutor. Decisions about what and how this will be presented at any trial are for the Thai authorities to make. "The British government cannot interfere in Thailand's judicial proceedings, just as other governments are unable to interfere in our own judicial processes. (source: The Guradian) INDONESIA: Indonesia says legal appeals irrelevant as Bali 9 transfer date to be decided Tuesday The date of the transfer of Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan will be decided on Tuesday, Indonesian officials have revealed, as its government maintains there is no need to wait for legal appeals to be heard before executing the Bali 9 duo. Bali's chief prosectuor, Momock Bambang Samiarso, revealed the information after leaving Kerobokan prison late on Monday, where he met with prison governor Sudjonggo, Australian consul-general Majell Hind and lawyer for the pair Julian McMahon. "[The date] will be decided tomorrow at the co-ordination meeting," Mr Momock said. The comments come as HM Prasetyo, Indonesia's Attorney-General, said that numerous legal appeals would not affect the timing of the execution and were irrelevant. Chan and Sukumaran's lawyers plan to lodge an appeal in the next week. They are appealing the refusal of Indonesian President Joko Widodo to grant clemency to the Australian drug smugglers, saying he did not consider their case properly. Several others slated to be executed also have legal appeals in the works, including one case involving a Philippine woman, Mary Jane Fiesta Veloso, which is due to be heard on Tuesday. "The [clemency] request was rejected so it is the final decision. Actually, after clemency there is no more legal avenues left," Mr Prasetyo said. Counsel for the Australians, Julian McMahon, said Mr Prasetyo's stance would bring international condemnation upon Indonesia. It was important that his clients' case was tested on its merits and the rule of law was respected in Indonesia, he added. Mr Prasetyo said that preparations were "95 %" complete for the simultaneous killing by firing squad of the Bali 9 duo and 8 other drug felons. All up, 9 of those to be killed are foreigners. "Regarding the transfer [of Chan and Sukumaran from Bali], it will be done as soon as possible," he added. "It's all related to technical issues. Maybe there are still some things that need to be prepared. Earlier, the Bali chief prosecutor Momock Bambang Samiarso said a transfer this week to the execution island of Nusakambangan was "definite". Meanwhile, Minister for Justice Yasonna Laoly, whose ministry oversees the Attorney-General, told the ABC that the executions "should be no later than mid-March". A transfer later in the week, or early next week, seems most likely as officials and others involved in the execution are scheduled to visit Cilacap, the port town near Nusakambangan on Wednesday for a co-ordination meeting. Hendra Eka Putra, the head of Pasir Putih prison on Nusakambangan, said the meeting would include police, grave diggers, the coffin maker, spiritual leaders, prison authorities and local government officials. It would be held on Wednesday in the seaport town of Cilacap. Information from that meeting would be conveyed to the Attorney-General's office, which would then send officials to visit the Nusakambangan prison compound. "So in my opinion it still takes sometime for the execution to take place," Mr Hendra said on Sunday. Meanwhile, in the wake of Mr Joko's confidante - Jakarta governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama - urging him to reconsider the death penalty, other prominent Indonesians have spoken out against capital punishment and the morbid spectacle of the killing of Chan and Sukumaran. Jakarta Post senior editor Endy Bayuni warned Mr Joko he would make the "biggest mistake" of his presidency by putting the two reformed drug syndicate organisers before a firing squad. A referendum was needed on the issue, he said. "But by calling for a referendum on capital punishment, preceded by a national debate, this would give the perfect pretext for the government to stop all executions for now," he said. Meanwhile, Indonesia's former foreign minister Hassan Wirajuda called on the Indonesian government to tone down its seemingly gleeful rhetoric about plans for executing foreign nationals on death row, the Jakarta Globe reported. "[It is] as if we enjoy killing people," Mr Hassan said at the weekend. But Mr Joko has shown no sign of changing his hardline stance on the executions, saying the executions are needed to stop a "drugs crisis" and are a matter of Indonesian sovereignty. (source: Sydney Morning Herald) ************************* Commentary: Calling for national referendum on capital punishment With the government seemingly determined to execute all the remaining 58 people currently on death row, this would be a good time for the nation to launch a discourse on whether to retain or abolish capital punishment, and decide on the issue one way or another through a referendum. This life-and-death matter has become too important to be decided by one or a handful of persons. Let the people have their say, after hearing the arguments from both sides. And while we are at it, the government should impose a stay of execution for all death-row inmates. Indonesia recognizes capital punishment in its legal system, but the Constitution also confers on the president the power to grant amnesty to all inmates, including the power to commute death penalties. One would assume that the president would use this power with discretion. Not, as it turns out, with President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo. As soon as he came into office in October, he announced that he wanted everyone on death row, mostly for drug trafficking, executed. This amounted to a blanket rejection of all their clemency appeals, irrespective of their individual circumstances. Jokowi argues that Indonesia is in a state of emergency with the drug menace out of control. He declared war on drug trafficking and that means everyone already sentenced to death must die. 6 were executed last month and 10 more are to face the firing squad any day now. Foreign leaders, including from Brazil, the Netherlands, the Philippines, Australia and France, have all pleaded with the Indonesian President to spare the lives of their citizens among those on death row. Jokowi rejected them, each time invoking Indonesia's sovereignty and its legal system, and explaining to them that he was in the middle of waging a war against drug traffickers. These leaders have been around for much longer than Jokowi to be taught a lesson on national sovereignty. They were appealing to his sense of humanity and compassion and that he use his discretionary powers. Nothing more and nothing less. It is exactly what Jokowi expects when he pleads to Malaysian and Saudi leaders to spare the lives of Indonesians on death row there. By invoking sovereignty, Jokowi has fired up Indonesian public opinion, with many responding by jumping even higher. They see the international pleas as an interference or an imposition for Indonesia's internal affairs, and call for the swift execution of foreign drug traffickers. They want blood. Gone is the humble, all ears and soft-spoken Javanese man who captured the imagination of voters at last year's elections. In his place, we have a president who is projecting a tough and uncompromising image, and one that has little or no compassion so that he readily signs the death warrants of dozens of people on death row, without looking at their individual cases. Jokowi, or his diplomats, should have handled the dispute more tactfully. Instead, they are showing an easy and fast way of losing friends. How much real support the President does have in executing drug traffickers is difficult to gauge without a referendum. Current sentiments cannot be used to reflect the public's opinion about capital punishment, not in the absence of a full debate that hears the full arguments on both sides. President Jokowi's chief arguments for executing drug traffickers cannot be accepted at face value just because he has been parroting them: That 50 people die each day of drug addiction and that 4.5 million people in the country are victims of drug abuse. That Indonesia is a haven for drug traffickers may be true, but isn't this more the problem of law enforcement? When it comes to drug addiction, shouldn't the 1st line of defense be the family, school and community? Scapegoating and executing drug traffickers will not solve the problem. The jury is still out on whether or not capital punishment is an effective deterrent. Indonesia is one of 57 countries that still retain the death penalty while 140 others have abolished it. It came close to abolishing capital punishment in 2008 when the Constitutional Court ruled 5-4 in favor of retention. Given that the Constitution allows for a national referendum, it is time to let people decide whether to abolish or retain capital punishment. The abolitionists finally have an icon to lead their campaign. Jakarta Governor Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama has publicly spoken up against capital punishment. More public figures like him should come and join the campaign. Jokowi may find that some religious leaders willingly endorse his executions, but religious principles also give the most compelling reason to abolish the death penalty. Yes, some religions allow the killing of others under certain circumstances, but almost all major religions of peace, including Islam, encourage compassion, and that it is better to forgive than to slay your enemies. Obviously, it is difficult to expect President Jokowi to back off from his plan to execute those on death row, even if he wants to now, having personally set off the motion when he openly declared the war on drugs and drove public opinion to his side. But by calling for a referendum on capital punishment, preceded by a national debate, this would give the perfect pretext for the government to stop all executions for now. More than to save the lives of 2 Australians and all other foreigners on death row, a moratorium on executions would save Jokowi from making the biggest mistake of his presidency. Most important of all, it would save Indonesia. (source: Commentary; Endy Bayuni, Editor, Jakarta Post) ************************* Bali 9 member Martin Stephens says Indonesia's death penalty destroys hope ---- 'It is more humane to just take me out the back and shoot me like Andrew and Myuran,' says courier who was convicted to life in prison One of the Bali 9 drug smugglers sentenced to life in jail says he has lost hope under Indonesia's drugs policy and believes it would be more humane to execute him now, rather than let him die in jail. Martin Stephens was one of the couriers caught in the 2005 heroin trafficking plot for which Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran are awaiting execution. In a letter to the Australian newspaper, Stephens said the decision of the Indonesian president, Joko Widodo, to refuse the pair clemency made him wonder what hope there was for freedom or redemption for other drug offenders, like himself. "It is more humane to just take me out the back and shoot me like Andrew and Myuran," he wrote. "What frightens me now is that the new policy of Jokowi has destroyed hope." Stephens, 39, is serving his life term in a jail in East Java, where he is involved in teaching English. But the newspaper reported he regretted not being able to properly support his wife, Christine Puspayanti, whom he married while in prison, and was also sad about the impending executions of Sukumaran, 33, and Chan, 31. "It could be me being taken to Nusa Kambangan and being shot in the heart. It's a terrifying thought," he wrote. Bali's police chief, Albertus Julius Benny Mokalu, said he was still coordinating with the prosecutor, government agencies and the military regarding the transfer of Chan and Sukumaran to the execution site. The transfer is expected to happen within days. "We're doing the maximum preparation so that when the 2 death-row convicts leave Kerobokan prison for Batu prison, they'll go safely and comfortably," he said on Sunday. For safety reasons, he would prefer to transport the men during the day. "We're still coordinating to get the best results so there will be no problems," he said. The special mobile brigade police on Friday rehearsed the transport of the men under heavy security to Bali's airport, where the military could then fly them to Nusa Kambangan, an island off central Java. Widodo has said no number of representations from foreign governments on behalf of their death row citizens would stop him carrying out the executions. (source: The Guardian) *************** Crucial review on case of Pinay death convict in Indonesia set on Tuesday A district court in Yogyakarta will begin on Tuesday its crucial review on the case of a convicted Filipina drug smuggler who is facing execution in Indonesia, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said Monday. The review will determine whether the Filipino convict's death sentence will be commuted to life imprisonment or not. Foreign Affairs spokesman Charles Jose said "the process is already under way" after Indonesia's Supreme Court transmitted the Filipina's case records to the lower court. "We are hopeful that after completion of review, there will be a commutation of the death sentence," Jose said at a press briefing. The review was undertaken following a request from the Philippine government in a bid to save the unnamed Filipino from execution by firing squad. Jose said the DFA is not aware how long the review will last. All death penalty cases in Indonesia are entitled to at least 1 judicial review even if the case has already been upheld by the Supreme Court. "We have 1 more remedy in this case so let us await for the outcome," Jose said. "We are taking this 1 step at a time." The woman, who entered Indonesia as a tourist, was arrested by authorities at the Yogyakarta Airport on April 25, 2010 for trafficking 2.6 kilograms of heroin. Smuggling of large quantities of prohibited drugs is punishable by death in countries like Indonesia and China. Since 2011, 5 Filipinos drug couriers were put to death in China through lethal injection. In exchange for huge payments, reportedly ranging from $3,000 to $4,000, Filipino women and lately even men are reportedly being hired by West African drug syndicates to smuggle drugs mainly in Asia and South America, sometimes by ingesting it. A total of 805 Filipinos are detained abroad for drug-related offenses, according to 2014 DFA data. (source: GMA News) From rhalperi at smu.edu Mon Mar 2 17:04:03 2015 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Mon, 2 Mar 2015 17:04:03 -0600 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., N.C., GA., ALA., LA., NEB. Message-ID: Mar. 2 TEXAS: Supreme Court refuses Harris County death row inmate appeal The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to review the case of a 35-year-old Houston man sentenced to die for a fatal shooting during an $8 robbery nearly more than 16 years ago in Harris County. Lawyers for Juan Martin Garcia contended he had poor legal help during his trial in 2000 and that he's mentally impaired and ineligible for the death penalty. The high court Monday rejected the appeal without comment. Evidence showed the murder victim, 36-year-old Hugh Solano, was shot 3 times in the head in September 1998 when he was confronted while walking to his van at his Harris County apartment complex. Garcia does not yet have an execution date. (source: Associated Press) PENNSYLVANIA: End the death penalty and redirect savings to programs that help victims When my 24-year-old son, Scott, was murdered in 1987, I was devastated. Losing a loved one to murder tears apart the lives of the surviving family members, but I've come to realize that the death penalty does very little to help victims' families heal. For many victims' families, the death penalty traps them in a decades-long cycle of uncertainty, court hearings, and waiting. By getting rid of the death penalty, we could free up millions of dollars that could be redirected to programs that will actually help victims' families, such as grief and trauma counseling, compensation for lost income, and other much-needed services. When New Mexico replaced their death penalty with a sentence of life without parole, they were able to redirect the savings to provide support to children of murder victims, provide services and programs to murder victims' families, and create a murder victims' family services fund. They were also able to pass another measure that requires employers to provide time off for victims' family members to attend judicial proceedings. Forgiveness is not easy Since my son's murder, I have worked to eliminate the capital punishment. I have spoken in 20 states and the District of Columbia about my experience of losing a son to murder, and being prodded by God to forgive the person who killed Scott. But forgiveness and healing didn't happen overnight, and it was not an easy process. For almost a year after Scott's murder, my emotional state moved from rage to depression. I found it extremely challenging to fulfill my role as pastor of a United Methodist Church. I couldn't believe that one individual could do so much harm to my family, and I wanted him punished for a long, long time. I went to the sentencing hearing for my son's killer filled with anger, but something unexpected happened. The killer, Mike Carlucci, apologized for what he had done. Something in my heart told me he was sincere. If I had not heeded God's call to forgive, I would very probably be dead by now ??? if not physically, at least emotionally and spiritually. Death penalty fails us When I heard Governor Wolf's announcement that he was halting all executions in Pennsylvania until concerns about the fairness of the state's death penalty system can be addressed, I was once again reminded why the death penalty fails us all. Study after study shows that capital punishment is not a deterrent to murder and that it is far more costly than the alternative of life in prison without parole. Nationwide more than 150 men and women, including six from Pennsylvania, have been released from death row after new evidence emerged demonstrating that they had been wrongfully convicted. There are insufficient protections in place to protect against the wrongful execution of innocent men and women. Pennsylvania has established a study commission to take a closer look at the administration of the death penalty in this state, including the problem of wrongful conviction. It just makes sense to halt executions until the commission has finished its important work and its recommendations can be considered and implemented. It's my hope that Pennsylvania will realize that the death penalty simply can't be fixed, and will follow New Mexico's lead in replacing the death penalty with life without parole and redirecting the savings to programs that will actually benefit victims' family members. (source: Rev. Walt Everett lives in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania----newsworks.org) ******************** Take it from an ex-cop, the death penalty is as fallible as the humans who carry it out In the aftermath of a brutal homicide, particularly 1 involving multiple victims or children, there is enormous pressure on law enforcement to solve the case and to solve it quickly. The media often provides daily updates, opinions from so-called experts, and often name "persons of interest" who are all but convicted before they ever enter the courts. Investigating officers frequently have the unenviable task of examining the bloody crime scene and notifying the loved ones of the victims. The weight that law enforcement officers carry on their shoulders in these cases is substantial. Unfortunately, it's these very circumstances that can lead to the wrongful conviction of an innocent person. In the rush to solve these high profile cases it is easy to make mistakes, or to ignore evidence that points away from the "person of interest." As someone who has spent 32 years in law enforcement, both here in Pennsylvania and in London, England, I understand this issue all too well. I count myself fortunate that when I was investigating murders I never felt that this type of pressure. Mine, however, is not the typical experience. All murder is tragic, tragic for the victims and their families and those falsely accused and their families Because of this, I cannot support the death penalty. Mistakes happen too often, as evidenced by the fact that 150 men and women in the United States have been convicted and sent to death row - only to be released when conclusive evidence of their wrongful conviction emerged. These cases involved all sorts of error, everything from mistaken eyewitnesses and junk science to false confessions. 6 of those cases are from Pennsylvania. While DNA testing and new forensic methods have certainly helped prevent some wrongful convictions, biological evidence is only found in a small fraction of murder cases. In fact, it's only found in 5 to 10 % of cases, meaning we can never be conclusively sure of guilt in the vast majority of murder cases. Once an execution is carried out, there is no way to undo it. All murder is tragic, tragic for the victim and those family members and friends left behind. It is also tragic for the falsely accused and their families. Can you imagine the horror of receiving the death penalty for something you didn't do? Let us not forget that an innocent person in prison leaves the murderer free to live amongst us and free to kill again. Research also shows that the death penalty is not a deterrent to murder. In fact, states that have the death penalty have substantially higher murder rates than those without the death penalty. Furthermore, Pennsylvania has spent upwards of $350 million dollars on a death penalty system that has produced just 3 executions since 1999. All 3 of those executions involved men who voluntarily gave up their appeals. The system is obviously broken. If the state of Pennsylvania and its counties redirected the enormous financial and human resources that they currently spend on seeking death sentences to efforts that will actually make our communities safer. That includes improving our crime labs; solving unsolved rapes and murders; increasing access to mental health, drug, and alcohol treatment; and expanding programs that have been shown to effectively address the root causes of crime; we could actually substantially improve public safety. Isn't this a better use of the taxpayers' money than trying to execute a handful of perpetrators who are already safely behind bars? I'm very glad Gov. Tom Wolf had the courage to halt executions until problems with the fairness and accuracy of the system can be addressed. It's a great 1st step. I hope it will lead to a thoughtful public discussion about the flaws and realities of the death penalty, and ultimately its demise. As it is, we are in the same death penalty club as Saudi Arabia, China, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, and others. I suggest that we should not be a member of this group. Don't misunderstand me, I want the guilty to be convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment. I just don't want anyone, particularly the innocent, to suffer death in my name or under a flawed system. (source: Terence Inch is the former police commissioner of Hellam Township, Pennsylvania, where he served from 2010-2012. He had a 30-year career in law enforcement with Scotland Yard where he retired as a detective chief inspector. He left London for Lititz, Lancaster County, in 2002 and is currently a Professor at York College teaching Criminal Justice----pennlive.com) NORTH CAROLINA: Prosecutors to seek death penalty against suspect in Chapel Hill triple shooting Durham County District Attorney Roger Echols says he plans to seek the death penalty against a man accused of killing 3 people at a condominium complex near the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Craig Stephen Hicks, 46, faces 3 counts of 1st-degree murder in the Feb. 10 shooting deaths of his neighbors Deah Shaddy Barakat, 23, and his wife, Yusor Mohammad, 21, as well as her sister, Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha, 19. Police have said an ongoing dispute over parking appears to be a motive for the crime, but local and federal investigators haven't ruled out other possible motives, including religious bias. The victims were Muslim, and Hicks is an atheist. According to search warrants, police seized 14 firearms and a cache of ammunition from Hicks' Chapel Hill home at Finley Forest condominiums on Summerwalk Circle. Barakat was a 2nd-year dental student at UNC-Chapel Hill, and Yusor Abu-Salha was scheduled to begin dental studies there in the fall. She graduated last year from North Carolina State University, where Razan Abu-Salha was a sophomore. Although the shooting occurred in Chapel Hill, the Durham County District Attorney's Office is prosecuting the case since the address of the crime is in Durham County. (source: WRAL news) GEORGIA----impending execution Ga. Supreme Court denies execution stay for Kelly Gissendaner March 2, 2015 The Georgia Supreme Court has denied a stay for Kelly Gissendaner. The court's 5-2 decision was released shortly after 3 p.m. Wednesday, 4 hours before Gissendaner was scheduled to be executed at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson. Justices Robert Benham and Carol Hunstein were the high court's only dissenters, a spokeswoman said. No explanation of the decision was offered. Earlier Monday, Gissendaner's attorneys petitioned the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles to postpone her death sentence for 3 months. Gissendaner sought, and was denied, clemency last week and her only reprieve came from the weather when officials postponed the execution because of the threat of snow and ice. "This morning we filed an emergency request for the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles to grant a 90-day stay of execution to consider critical evidence that was missing from its evaluation last week," attorneys Susan Casey and Lindsay Bennett said in a statement. "This is an exceptional case requiring exceptional and immediate action. Kelly???s case cries out for the mercy power vested in the board." A Gwinnett County jury convicted Gissendaner in 1998 on charges stemming from the Feb. 7, 1997, murder of her husband, Doug. Gissendaner, now 46 years old, plotted the killing with her boyfriend, Gregory Bruce Owen, who committed the actual murder in a wooded area near Dacula. The latest attempts to save Gissendaner's life came hours after supporters gathered at Emory University's Cannon Chapel for vigil to pray for a miracle. As part of their request, Casey and Bennett asked the board to reconsider clemency as well. They said the board did not hear from "many vital witnesses" from the Georgia Department of Corrections who could have provided testimony that "would have left no doubt that a grant of clemency is supported in this case." Among the witnesses Case and Bennett feel the board should have heard from is Field Operations Manager Kathy Seabolt, who was warden for 6 years at prisons where Gissendaner has been held, and former board chairman Gen. James Donald. Donald is said to have encouraged Seabolt and Gissendaner to apply for clemency after the inmate spoke a graduation ceremony for a Certificate of Theological Studies program in October 2011, according to the application for the reconsideration of clemency. "The information and testimony needed for this board to exercise its power in full was not available to the board through no fault of the board," the lawyers wrote in their petition. "The board did not hear this because we, the lawyers, were unable to bring it to you. There were many witnesses who did not come forward due to their role as DOC employees." (source: Gwinnett Daily post) ********************* Georgia woman on death row files appeal effort hours before scheduled execution Lawyers for the only woman on Georgia's death row asked the State Board of Pardons and Paroles on Monday to reconsider her request to have her sentence changed to life in prison. Kelly Renee Gissendaner, 46, is set for execution at 7 p.m. at the state prison in Jackson. Gissendaner was convicted of murder in the February 1997 stabbing death of her husband. Prosecutors said she plotted his death with her boyfriend, Gregory Owen. Owen pleaded guilty and is serving a life prison sentence with the possibility for parole after 25 years. Gissendaner's lawyers note that the parole board heard during a clemency hearing last week from many people testifying about Gissendaner's faith and remorse. But, her lawyers argue, the board did not hear from many Department of Corrections employees whose perspective "would have left no doubt that a grant of clemency is supported in this case." Those employees, Gissendaner's lawyers say, were hesitant to testify. "Although DOC rules ostensibly say that employees are permitted to speak to counsel in capital clemency proceedings if desired, the reality of this rule is less than clear," Gissendaner's lawyers wrote. Gissendaner was originally set to be executed last Wednesday, but the Department of Corrections postponed her execution because of projected winter weather conditions and associated scheduling issues. If Gissendaner's execution happens, she will be the first woman executed in Georgia since 1945 and only the 16th woman put to death nationwide since the Supreme Court allowed the death penalty to resume in 1976. (source: Associated Press) ALABAMA: Jury Recommends Death Penalty For Geneva Native Zachary Wood----Wood Found Guilty Of First Degree Murder In Washington County. A Washington County jury Friday unanimously recommended the death penalty for Zachary Wood in the killing of James Shores. Wood, 24, of Geneva, Ala., was found guilty as charged Thursday of 1st-degree murder, burglary of a structure while armed with a firearm and robbery with a firearm. Assistant State Attorneys Larry Basford and Shala Jefcoat showed jurors during the weeklong trial that Wood and co-defendant Dillon Rafsky beat down, bound then executed Shores, 66, after he found them on his property the evening of April 19. Friday, Basford proved to the jury that the murder met 3 aggravating factors: it was done to avoid arrest; it was committed during a burglary or robbery; and was cold, calculated and premeditated. Jurors recommended 12-0 that Wood be put to death. Circuit Judge Christopher Patterson scheduled the next phase in the process for April 17, in which the judge will hear additional mitigating and aggravating evidence. Shortly after that Patterson will hand down Wood's sentence. Patterson does not have to follow the jury's recommendation, but he will give it great weight in deciding Wood's penalty. (source: WSFY news) LOUISIANA: Exonerated Angola inmate talks life after 30 years on death row Glenn Ford admits he doesn't sleep much. An hour or 2 or 3 gets him by. The rest of the 20 hours or so a day, he's up doing whatever he can to take in life. "I'm trying to make every day count," he said from his home in New Orleans. The need to measure every second zoomed into overdrive when he was diagnosed with Stage 4 lung cancer. On Feb. 23, doctors told him his life expectancy, once at 6 months to a year, had dwindled to 4 to 8 months. It was the 2nd death sentence for Ford. The 1st came on Dec. 5, 1984, when Ford, then a 33-year-old California-turned-Shreveport resident was convicted and sentenced to death for the Nov. 5, 1983, shooting death of Isadore Rozeman, a 56-year-old Shreveport jeweler who was robbed and killed in his Stoner Hill shop. Following his formal sentencing in March 1985, Ford became a resident of death row at Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola. Ford never stopped maintaining his innocence. On March 10, the state of Louisiana finally believed him. Information about the real Rozeman triggerman secured during an unrelated homicide investigation in 2013 caused the Caddo Parish District Attorney's Office to ask a Caddo district judge to vacate Ford's conviction and sentence. So on March 11, after spending 30 years and 4 months behind bars, Ford walked through the prison gates a free man once again. That's why the cancer dealt a gut-wrenching blow to his hopes of forging ahead with the 2nd phase of his life and more importantly re-establishing connections with family still in California. But in addition to a dogged determination to put up the biggest fight possible against his cancer, Ford is once again fighting the state of Louisiana. A law allows wrongfully convicted individuals to get compensation from the state if they meet certain criteria. In court documents, the Louisiana Attorney General's office says Ford is not entitled to any money because he cannot prove he is factually innocent. The Attorney General's office filed a motion opposing Glenn Ford's request for $105,000, representing the 1st payout of a possible $330,000 compensation package outlined by Louisiana law for wrongfully convicted individuals meeting statutory requirements. Ford's attorney, Kristen Wenstrom, of the Innocence Project in New Orleans, says the state is wrong in its opposition and points out it was the state's disregard of evidence that gave Ford a death sentence. A ruling on the compensation request was deferred during a Feb. 5 hearing before Caddo Parish District Judge Katherine Dorroh. Wenstrom said Dorroh said she would do her best to rule within 30 days. Wenstrom anticipates an answer in early March, but an appeal by the losing side is likely, which could further delay an answer for Ford. Meanwhile, Ford, now 65, realizes he is fighting the clock and the possibility of getting that money while he is alive is iffy. Attorneys that are included in a team of supporters working with him through Resurrection After Exoneration, a nonprofit organization created by another death row exonoree John Thompson to provide services to exonorees to get re-established in society, will explore if the money could be passed to Ford's family upon his death. "I want to leave everything to my grandkids," said Ford, who grins when he says that number is somewhere between 17 and 21. "There's no less than 17 and no more than 21." Daily life Ford is fortunate to have found help from Thompson's organization shortly after his release. Thompson, who spent 14 years on death row for a murder he did not commit, at first provided housing free of charge for Ford on the top floor of a print screen business that creates jobs for other exonorees. But he recently moved Ford into a house just down St. Bernard Avenue, allowing Ford to have full use of a downstairs apartment space. Ford, Thompson admits, has become a father figure. He wants to make Ford's life as comfortable as possible. He's hopeful if the end days come some of Ford's family can make it to New Orleans to be with him. The house, sitting like many others in this neighborhood just feet from adjacent ones, is across from a fast food eatery, a grocery and other stores, allowing Ford quick access to basic needs. Social Security disability and food stamps give him financial assistance. The support team enters the picture again when it comes to getting Ford to his many doctor's visits. He started 2 weeks ago with an aggressive chemotherapy treatment that quickly hospitalized him. Now, the treatments are coming in "short bursts," but will be done 5 days a week. After that, radiation. Ford is not giving up. He's adapting his diet and is about to join a gym to increase his exercise. "I'm going to do what it takes to live," he said. Cancer struck Ford while he was on death row. But he didn't know it at the time. "There's never no medical rush for death row," Ford said of his request for a doctor call. An initial diagnosis was a thyroid problem after Ford said he ballooned with a 40-pound weight gain within a month. The morning that he left Angola, a physician handed him a bottle of pills for his thyroid. Continued health problems following his release led to the cancer diagnosis in July. By then it was Stage 2. Down 70 pounds, Ford gives the outward appearance of a healthy man. A 2-hour interview in his home Friday found him dressed smartly in a gray beanie cap, coordinating sweater, creased jeans and dress shoes with a silver cross dangling from a cord around his neck. At least once, Ford wobbled when standing up. He apologized. The morning's chemo treatment made him a little unsteady. Talking about his possible demise this year didn't cause him any pause, though. He talked matter-of-factly about it, likely a by-product of the decades he sat in a cell with a death sentence hanging over his head. Behind bars Ford breaks out in a smile when recalling that day almost a year ago when learned he no longer was considered a convicted killer. He had known since 2013 that court documents filed in federal court opened the door to his innocence. He was always optimistic the key to his release would be in in federal court, not state court. But Ford experienced disappointment before when other appeals didn't fall in his favor. His attorney, Gary Clements, kept him apprised as the new information was under review. "But I had gotten to the point that I didn't have high hopes," he said. On the morning of March 11, Ford was playing chess with another death row inmate when a guard told him he had legal call. Clements was on the phone and told him he was about to be released. "I said, 'OK, what else is new?' He said, 'No, I'm serious,'" Ford said. He went back to his cell and resumed the chess game. "I said I wasn't going for that." Then the cell door opened and ranking prison officials were standing on the other side. "Then I knew it was true. ... I made my last chess move, threw my stuff everywhere and I flew out of there." What he described as a "whirlwind" hasn't stopped. "I've not had a chance to marinate, so to say - or breathe." Ford went to California to see his 4 sons and their families last Easter then make a return trip in July. That's when his illness kicked in, however, and it's been doctors' visits ever since. Ford concedes he's scared. When he does sleep, waking up with different symptoms triggers fears of the nearness of possible death. Still, Ford doesn't harbor ill feelings for his life's heart-breaking path. "Anger, I don't have no anger. I have anger that I have cancer. I have resentment Angola allowed this to happen. I guess everything is for a reason. I really don't know," he said. And whether his time left on Earth is long or short, what does he hope to accomplish?> "More life," Ford answered. "I would like to live a little longer that's all." (source: The Advertiser) NEBRASKA: Judge finds Nikko Jenkins competent for death penalty hearing Nikko Jenkins got 1 wish Monday: that a judge declare him competent to understand the court proceedings against him. He was clearly thrown for a loop when he didn't get his 2nd wish: that he be allowed to represent himself before the 3-judge panel. After declaring Jenkins competent, Douglas County District Judge Peter Bataillon rejected Jenkins' request to represent himself. Jenkins was incredulous. He questioned how Bataillon could allow him to represent himself and plead no contest in 2014 to 4 murders and 12 gun charges but not represent himself in the death-penalty phase. Bataillon hasn't set a date for the 3-judge panel that will decide whether Jenkins gets the death penalty. However, Jenkins' attorney, Douglas County Public Defender Tom Riley, has indicated that he will file a motion requesting that the judge allow Jenkins to withdraw his no-contest pleas to the murders. Within 3 weeks of his 2013 release from prison, Jenkins killed Juan Uribe-Pena and Jorge Cajiga-Ruiz on Aug. 11, Curtis Bradford on Aug. 19 and Andrea Kruger on Aug. 21. (source: omaha.com) From rhalperi at smu.edu Mon Mar 2 17:05:35 2015 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Mon, 2 Mar 2015 17:05:35 -0600 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide Message-ID: Mar. 2 UNITED ARAB EMIRATES: Death for man who murdered wife and unborn child----Defendant fled the country after stealing his brother-in-law's vehicle An Arab man has been sentenced to death for murdering his wife and her unborn child, the Court of Cassation ruled today. The defendant is also required to pay Dh10,000 to his wife's family in blood money for the child. Upon being asked by the judge responsible for ruling on inheritance money whether he had committed the crime, the defendant confessed to the murder. This exempts him from receiving any of his wife's money. The Court of Appeals had previously sentenced the man to 10 years in prison but the Court of Cassation overruled the verdict. The death penalty was also given because the deceased's family insisted on punishment for the husband and not blood money or forgiveness. The incident took place when an argument broke out between the couple over whether the defendant was the child's biological father and his wife's refusal to abort the foetus. The suspect's brother-in-law was called from abroad to resolve the dispute but the victim insisted on keeping the child and asked for a divorce. On the day of the crime, the defendant stabbed his wife to death and stole his brother-in-law's mobile phone and vehicle before heading to the airport. The man abandoned the vehicle in Bani Yas and took a taxi to the airport and left the country. After the victim's body was found by her brother, the defendant was apprehended at the Bahrain airport and charged. (source: Gulf News) INDONESIA: Bali 9 execution move edges nearer Bali's chief prosecutor has told reporters that Bali 9 ringleaders Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran will be transferred to the island this week where they will be executed. Authorities are discussing plans to move the pair within days, despite attempts by lawyers appealing the result of a legal challenge against the executions. Bali's prosecutor says he is only waiting on word from Jakarta to start them on their journey to the firing squad. Momock Bambang Samiarso told reporters he was yet to set 'D-day' - the day for transfer - but was ready to do it this week. 'I haven't set the D-day yet,' he said. 'Still waiting for ... Jakarta.' He was among the officials who visited Kerobokan jail on Monday afternoon, but afterwards denied they were meeting about transferring the Bali 9 pair. More co-ordination meetings were scheduled for Tuesday morning. In Jakarta, Attorney-General HM Prasetyo was not giving anything away about a date for the move to Nusakambangan, saying only that the executions would be this month. The penal island in Central Java, and other preparations, were '95 %' ready, he said, rejecting the idea they should be delayed for drug offenders such as Chan and Sukumaran who have legal appeals. 'If there's already clemency (rejected), there should be no more other legal challenges submitted,' he told reporters on Monday. 'What else? They have admitted they're guilty, they have accepted the sentence, and then they asked for forgiveness. 'Then the forgiveness is not given: that's the last decision.' Lawyers for Chan and Sukumaran were on Monday lodging an appeal against their latest court loss in the administrative court.Some of the other eight to executed also have future court dates. Chan and Sukumaran's barrister Julian McMahon warned that sending them for execution before the appeals could jeopardise Indonesia's reputation as a law-respecting democracy. 'It's unthinkable that people who are having their right to life litigated in a court could at the same time be taken away from that court by powerful people, but the executive, and simply executed,' he said. But President Joko Widodo believes executing drug offenders is important for national sovereignty. 'Don't let anyone try to intervene in our sovereign law,' he said before an audience of school students at the presidential palace on Monday. 'About the executions of drug offenders, this is our sovereign law.' The timeframe for moving the men has shifted several times, as Indonesia prepares to execute 10 drug offenders - the most it has ever executed at one time. The president has been contacted by leaders of various nations, including Australia, France, the Netherlands and Brazil, but has not been swayed. (source: Sky News) PAKISTAN: LHC upholds death sentence of convict in 7 people murder A Lahore High Court division bench on Monday upheld death sentence of a convict involved in killing of 7 people in Jaranwala area. The 2 member bench dismissed appeal of convict Ali Muhammad while upholding the sentence awarded by an Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) in 2013. During the hearing, the defence counsel pleaded the court to set aside the conviction as the ATC convicted the accused despite lack of evidence. He submitted that the convict was implicated in the case due to personal enmity. However, a deputy additional prosecutor opposed the request and submitted that the convict was awarded punishment on basis of available evidence whereas he was also found guilty during the investigation. The bench after hearing arguments of parties upheld the sentence and dismissed the appeal. A Faisalabad ATC awarded death penalty on 8 counts to Ali Muhammad for murdering 7 people. Ali Muhammad, a resident of Chak 356-GB, had shot dead his relatives, Imam Ali and Umar Hayat on August 1, 1999. Later, he also killed Ali's 5 family members. (source: Daily Times) *********** TWO MEN FACE EXECUTION, ONE CONVICTED AT 16 Two men are due to be executed in Karachi Central Prison on 7 March. One of the men was aged 16 when he was sentenced to death in 1999. Unless halted, this will take the number of executions to 26 since the moratorium was lifted in December 2014. View the full Urgent Action, including case information, addresses and sample messages, here. Death row prisoners, Muhammad Afzal and Muhammed Faisal are set to be executed on 7 March. Their death warrants were issued by the Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) on 23 February. They are currently in Sukkur Jail, Sindh province and will be moved to Karachi Central Jail where preparations for the executions are underway. Muhammad Afzal and Muhammed Faisal were sentenced to death by the ATC in 1999 for armed robbery and murder, offenses not related to terrorism. Muhammad Afzal was sixteen years old at the time of his trial, which was not taken into consideration during the trial. Both of them spent several months in a juvenile prison before being sent to an adult prison. Their current lawyers have expressed serious concerns regarding violations of their rights to a fair trial and protection from torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. Muhammad Afzal's trial records show that his allegations of police torture were never addressed during his trial. Their sentences were confirmed upon appeal by the Sindh High Court and the Supreme Court of Pakistan in 1999 and 2001 respectively. The panel of three Supreme Court judges that rejected their appeal included the same judge who sentenced them to death in the ATC. The Pakistan government has publicly stated that its policy to lift the moratorium on executions extends only to those prisoners convicted by the ATC of the most heinous acts of terrorism and with links to proscribed terrorist organizations. These executions would violate current government policy on the moratorium as Muhammad Afzal and Muhammed Faisal have neither been convicted of a terrorism-related offense or for any alleged links to terrorist organizations. Muhammad Afzal?s execution would violate the prohibition under international law against the execution of anyone below the age of 18 at the time of the offense. Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases and under any circumstances, regardless of the nature of the crime. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION Following the 16 December 2014 Pakistani Taliban attack on the army-run school in Peshawar, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif lifted the six year moratorium on executions. Since then, 24 prisoners have been executed and the Pakistan government has threatened to send to the gallows around 500 death row prisoners convicted on terrorism-related charges. At least 6,353 prisoners are on Pakistan?s death row. View the full Urgent Action here. Name: Muhammad Afzal (m), Muhammed Faisal (m) Issues: Death penalty, Imminent execution, Legal concern UA: 50/15 Issue Date: 2 March 2015 Country: Pakistan Please let us know if you took action so that we can track our impact! EITHER send a short email to uan at aiusa.org with "UA 50/15" in the subject line, and include in the body of the email the number of letters and/or emails you sent. OR fill out this short online form to let us know how you took action. Thank you for taking action! Please check with the AIUSA Urgent Action Office if sending appeals after the below date. If you receive a response from a government official, please forward it to us at uan at aiusa.org or to the Urgent Action Office address below. HOW YOU CAN HELP Please write immediately in Urdu, English or your own language: * Urging the authorities to halt the execution of Muhammad Afzal and Muhammed Faisal immediately, and re-establish the official moratorium on all executions in the country as a first step towards the abolition of the death penalty, in line with five UN General Assembly resolutions adopted since 2007; * Calling on them to review all cases of people under sentence of death with a view to their commutation and ensuring that no one who was under 18 years of age at the time of the crime is sentenced of death; * Calling on them to ensure that any measures taken to combat crime do not violate Pakistan's obligations under international human rights law and that all safeguards guaranteeing the rights of those facing the death penalty are respected. PLEASE SEND APPEALS BEFORE 13 APRIL 2015 TO: President of Pakistan Honorable Mr Mamnoon Hussain President's Secretariat Islamabad, Pakistan Fax: 011 92 51 920 8479 Twitter: @Mamnoon_hussain Salutation: Your Excellency Prime Minister of Pakistan Muhammad Nawaz Sharif Prime Minister House Secretariat, Constitution Avenue Islamabad, Pakistan Fax: 011 92 519 220 404 (PM Secretariat) Twitter: @PMNawazSharif Salutation: Dear Prime Minister Home Secretary Sindh Abdul Kabir Kazi Karachi, Sindh Pakistan Fax: 011 92 21 992 11549 Salutation: Dear Mr. Kazi Also send copies to: H.E. Ambassador Jalil Abbas Jilani, Embassy of The Islamic Republic of Pakistan 3517 International Ct NW, Washington DC 20008 Fax: 1 202 686 1534 ?I ?Phone: 1 202 243 6500 ?I ?Email: info at embassyofpakistanusa.org Please share widely with your networks:?http://bit.ly/1K90z4a We encourage you to share Urgent Actions with your friends and colleagues! When you share with your networks, instead of forwarding the original email, please use the "Forward this email to a friend" link found at the very bottom of this email. Thank you for your activism! UA Network Office AIUSA ?600 Pennsylvania Ave SE, Washington DC 20003 T. 202.509.8193 ? F. 202.509.8193 ?E. uan at aiusa.org ?amnestyusa.org/urgent From rhalperi at smu.edu Tue Mar 3 11:44:31 2015 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Tue, 3 Mar 2015 11:44:31 -0600 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----N.C., S.C., GA., ALA., OHIO Message-ID: Mar. 3 NORTH CAROLINA: DA to seek death penalty in North Carolina triple murder The man accused of killing 3 Muslim students in Chapel Hill last month kept pictures and detailed notes on parking activity in the condominium complex where the shootings occurred, according to a search warrant released Monday. Craig Stephen Hicks kept the parking lot information in 1 of 2 desktop computers seized from his condominium, according to a Feb. 13 application for a warrant to search 3 cellphones. The documents were released several days after Durham district attorney Roger Echols filed notice in court files that he plans to seek the death penalty against Hicks. Hicks is accused of murdering Deah Shaddy Barakat, 23; his wife, Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha, 21; and her sister, Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha, 19. Police have said the shootings Feb. 10 were over a long-running parking dispute between neighbors. Family of the victims - students at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and North Carolina State University - have suggested that religious bias played a prominent role in the violence. Federal investigators opened an inquiry shortly after the homicides to determine whether to pursue a deeper investigation into the allegation of religious bias and the possibility of federal hate crimes. Hicks is accused of 3 counts of 1st-degree murder. He also has been charged with discharging a firearm into an occupied dwelling. A hearing is set for April during which Echol will be asked to further elaborate on his reasons for pursuing the death penalty in the case. Prosecutors often start out pursuing the death penalty in a case and use the possibility of capital punishment as a bargaining chip to negotiate a plea deal for life in prison or a lesser punishment that spares the expense of a trial. Since his arrest, Hicks has been in Central Prison in Raleigh, where jailers can keep him isolated from others and in what they describe as "safe-keeping." (source: News & Observer) SOUTH CAROLINA: Death row murderer Stephen Stanko seeking new trial in Conway man's killing The attorney, who represented twice-convicted murderer Stephen Stanko, testified Monday he continues to support his defense theory that the 47-year-old suffers from brain damage that caused him to be insane during his 2005 double killing spree. However, members of the defense team in the separate murder cases in Horry and Georgetown counties testified they never thought such a defense was viable. Stanko, who is awaiting the death penalty in both cases, is seeking a new trial in the shooting death of 74-year-old Henry Turner of Conway. It took about an hour in 2009 for an Horry County jury to sentence Stanko to death after convicting him of Turner's murder, and the South Carolina Supreme Court upheld that conviction and sentence in 2013. Stanko is seeking post-conviction relief, which is the next step in the judicial process where a judge decides the outcome, and testimony began Monday in Conway. In this proceeding, Stanko claims his attorneys failed to properly defend him in the Horry County capital murder case. Stanko also was sentenced to death after being convicted in 2006 by a Georgetown County jury in the death of his 43-year-old live-in girlfriend, Laura Ling. Decisions in this week's proceedings will have not bearing on Stanko's conviction or his sentence in Ling's murder. Stanko's crime spree took place in April 2005, when Stanko killed Ling in the Murrells Inlet home that he shared with her and Ling's then-15-year-old daughter, who also was assaulted. Stanko took Ling's car, drove to Turner's home in Conway and killed him before stealing Turner's pickup truck. Stanko then fled to Columbia, where he claimed he was a New York millionaire and flirted with several women at a downtown restaurant. From there, Stanko traveled to Augusta, Ga., and met another woman and spent the weekend with her before he was arrested there. Stanko told the woman he was a businessman in town for a golf tournament. In both trials Stanko's defense was that he suffered a brain defect that caused him to not be aware of the criminal responsibility for his actions. Myrtle Beach attorney Bill Diggs testified for nearly 3 hours Monday about his representation of Stanko in both trials. "Stephen did some pretty terrible things. He doesn't seem like the kind of person who would do that. . . . I wanted to explain why he did that," said Diggs, who was suspended from law practice in October and is under investigation by the state Office of Disciplinary Counsel. Diggs testified his suspension doesn't impact Stanko's case or his truthfulness in the proceedings. The use of scans to detect Stanko's brain function and medical experts, who testified Stanko was insane at the time of his crimes, was new in criminal defense at that time of both trials, Diggs said. "At the time he pulled the trigger on Mr. Turner I don't think his brain was working," Diggs said Monday. "When he killed Laura Ling he walked through the house and cleaned up. He did all those events in a blackout state." During the trial in Turner's death, experts testified that the frontal lobes of Stanko's brain were damaged. They pointed to the complicated pregnancy Stanko's mother had with him and an episode when Stanko was 16-years-old and struck in the head with a beer bottle as the causes of the damage. The frontal lobe defense was used in both trials, and Diggs said Monday he never considered changing his strategy for the Turner trial. He also said he understood Stanko would argue he was ineffective when Stanko filed for post-conviction relief. "It's not something I focused on . . . I understand it was something he had to do," Diggs said. "I always understood Stephen to be happy with the defense because it allowed him to understand why he did those things." But 2 women, who worked as investigators for Diggs on both trials, testified they didn't think the defense was appropriate for the case. Dale Davis, who worked as a mitigation specialist on the Ling case, testified Monday that she refused to help with the Turner case because Diggs was using the same defense in both trials. "The theory was that [Stanko] was a psychopath and couldn't help but kill people," Davis said. "I thought it was a crazy theory to expect a jury to spare your client's life." Davis testified Monday she noticed similarities in Stanko's defense compared to that of Augusta, Ga., serial killer Reinaldo Rivera, who is awaiting his death sentence. An expert from that 2004 trial was used in Stanko's trial and deemed both defendants psychopaths, she said. "I was extremely upset in the way the case was handled. I thought it was a crazy defense. I thought it was a prosecution case, not a defense case. I thought it was like walking someone to death's door," Davis testified Monday. Vicki Childs, who was a defense investigator in both of Stanko's trials, said changing the defense was never discussed and there was no debriefing after the Georgetown County conviction and sentence, before they represented Stanko in the Conway murder. "I don't believe Stephen is insane," Childs said. "Stephen was happy there was some indication in his brain that helped him understand why he did what he did." Testimony resumes Tuesday. (source: myrtlebeachonline.com) GEORGIA----execution postponed Georgia woman's execution postponed because drugs appeared 'cloudy' For the 2nd time, a Georgia woman's execution has been postponed -- this time because of concerns about the drugs to be used. Kelly Renee Gissendaner was scheduled to die at 7 p.m. ET Monday. "Prior to the execution, the drugs were sent to an independent lab for testing of potency. The drugs fell within the acceptable testing limits," the Georgia Department of Corrections said in a statement. "Within the hours leading up to the scheduled execution, the Execution Team performed the necessary checks. At that time, the drugs appeared cloudy. The Department of Corrections immediately consulted with a pharmacist, and in an abundance of caution, Inmate Gissendaner's execution has been postponed." The 47-year-old was originally scheduled to die on Wednesday, but that execution was called off because of winter weather. Thousands of supporters A petition saying the mother of 3 has turned her life around, even earning a theology degree while in prison, had garnered about 80,000 signatures as of Tuesday morning. Organizers plan to deliver it to Gov. Nathan Deal, though in Georgia, the governor has no authority to grant clemency. Gissendaner has become a "powerful voice for good," the petition says of the woman convicted of orchestrating her husband's death in 1997. "While incarcerated, she has been a pastoral presence to many, teaching, preaching and living a life of purpose," the petition states. "Kelly is a living testament to the possibility of change and the power of hope. She is an extraordinary example of the rehabilitation that the corrections system aims to produce." On Sunday night, about 200 people attended a vigil at Emory University's Cannon Chapel, where they sang her praises. "Killing her is not going to bring anything back. It's not going to undo what's been done," priest Kelly Zappa told CNN affiliate WSB. The pleas did not sway Georgia's high court or its board of pardons. In a 5-2 decision Monday afternoon, the state Supreme Court denied her request for a stay, and it also dismissed a constitutional challenge claiming that her sentence was disproportionate. And the State Board of Pardons and Paroles said Monday evening that its decision last week to deny clemency in the case stands. A few days' reprieve Not since Lena Baker, an African-American convicted of murder and pardoned decades later, has Georgia executed a woman. The state was scheduled to snap that 70-year streak last week before Gissendaner's execution was first postponed. Just hours before she was scheduled to die by injection at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison in Jackson last Wednesday, the Georgia Department of Corrections announced it had postponed the execution until Monday at 7 p.m. "due to weather and associated scheduling issues," department spokeswoman Gwendolyn Hogan said. Gissendaner was convicted in a February 1997 murder plot that targeted her husband in suburban Atlanta. She was romantically involved with Gregory Owen and conspired with the 43-year-old to have her husband, Douglas Gissendaner, killed, according to court testimony. Owen wanted Kelly Gissendaner to file for a divorce, but she was concerned that her husband would "not leave her alone if she simply divorced him," court documents said. The Gissendaners had already divorced once, in 1993, and they remarried in 1995. A nightstick and a hunting knife Details of the crime, as laid out at trial and provided by Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens, are as follows: Kelly Gissendaner and Owen planned the murder for months. On February 7, 1997, she dropped Owen off at her home, gave him a nightstick and hunting knife, and went out dancing with girlfriends. Douglas Gissendaner also spent the evening away from home, going to a church friend's house to work on cars. Owen lay in wait until he returned. When Douglas Gissendaner came home around 11:30 p.m., Owen forced him by knifepoint into a car and drove him to a remote area of Gwinnett County. There, Owen ordered his victim into the woods, took his watch and wallet to make it look like a robbery, hit him in the head with the nightstick and stabbed Douglas Gissendaner in the neck 8 to 10 times. Kelly Gissendaner arrived just as the murder took place, but she did not immediately get out of her car. She later checked to make sure her husband was dead, then Owen followed her in Douglas Gissendaner's car to retrieve a can of kerosene that Kelly Gissendaner had left for him. Owen set her husband's car on fire in an effort to hide evidence and left the scene with Kelly Gissendaner. Story unravels Police discovered the burned-out automobile the morning after the murder but did not find the body. Authorities kicked off a search. Kelly Gissendaner, meanwhile, went on local television appealing to the public for information on her husband's whereabouts. Gregory Owen is serving life in prison for his role in the murder of Douglas Gissendaner. Her and Owen's story started to unravel after a series of police interviews. On February 20, Douglas Gissendaner's face-down body was found about a mile from his car. An autopsy determined the cause of death to be knife wounds to the neck, but the medical examiner couldn't tell which strike killed Douglas Gissendaner because animals had devoured the skin and soft tissue on the right side of his neck. On February 24, Owen confessed to the killing and implicated Kelly Gissendaner, who was arrested the next day and charged. While in jail awaiting trial, Kelly Gissendaner grew angry when she heard that Owen was to receive a 25-year sentence for his role in the murder. (Owen is serving life in prison at a facility in Davisboro, according to Georgia Department of Corrections records.) She began writing letters to hire a 3rd person who would falsely confess to taking her to the crime scene at gunpoint. She asked her cellmate, Laura McDuffie, to find someone willing to do the job for $10,000, and McDuffie turned Kelly Gissendaner's letters over to authorities via her attorney. Seeking clemency Kelly Gissendaner has exhausted all state and federal appeals, the attorney general said in a statement last week. In the clemency application, Gissendaner's lawyers argued she was equally or less culpable than Owen, who actually did the killing. Both defendants were offered identical plea bargains before trial: life in prison with an agreement to not seek parole for 25 years. Owen accepted the plea bargain and testified against his former girlfriend. Gissendaner was willing to plead guilty, her current lawyers said, but consulted with her trial lawyer and asked prosecutors to remove the stipulation about waiting 25 years to apply for parole. According to her clemency appeal, her lead trial attorney, Edwin Wilson, said he thought the jury would not sentence her to death "because she was a woman and because she did not actually kill Doug. ... I should have pushed her to take the plea but did not because I thought we would get straight up life if she was convicted." Her appeal lawyers also argued that Gissendaner had expressed deep remorse for her actions, become a model inmate and grown spiritually. They said her death would cause further hardship for her children. According to the Death Penalty Information Center: -- Between 1973 and 2012 -- the most recent data available -- 178 death sentences were imposed upon female offenders. These sentences constitute about 2% of all death sentences. -- 5 states -- North Carolina, Florida, California, Ohio and Texas -- account for over 1/2 of all such sentences. -- As of December 31, 2012, there were 61 women on death row. -- Women on death row range in age from 28 to 79. They have been on death row from a few months to over 26 years. Currently the only woman on Georgia's death row, Gissendaner would be the 2nd woman in the state's history to be executed. The 1st was Baker, an African-American maid who was sentenced to death by an all-white, all-male jury in 1944. She claimed self-defense for killing a man who held her against her will, threatened her life and appeared poised to hit her with a metal bar before she fired a fatal shot. 60 years after her execution, Georgia's parole board posthumously pardoned her after finding that "it was a grievous error to deny (her) clemency." Such pardons are rare, but so are executions of women. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, only 15 women have been executed in the United States since 1977. (source: CNN) ALABAMA: Public barred from jury selection in girl's running death Potential jurors reported amid secrecy Monday for the capital murder trial of an Alabama woman charged in her granddaughter's running death, with the judge refusing public access to process that typically is open. Dozens of prospective jurors assembled at the Etowah County Courthouse for questioning by attorneys in the trial of Joyce Hardin Garrard, 59, of Boaz. Jury selection will take days but it's unclear exactly how long, partly because Circuit Judge Billy Ogletree barred the media from being present as prosecutors and defense lawyers talked to would-be jurors. University of Alabama law professor Joseph Colquitt, a former circuit judge, said judges often allow attorneys to ask some personal questions of jurors in private, but he had never been involved in a case involving an adult defendant where the entire process was closed. "Basically the idea is that the proceedings in criminal cases are open to the public," said Colquitt. Authorities contend Garrard killed 9-year-old Savannah Hardin 3 years ago by making her run for hours as punishment for a lie about eating candy. The woman could receive the death penalty if convicted. Garrard has pleaded not guilty, and her attorneys blame the child's death on pre-existing medical problems and unspecified things that happened after her collapse. Jury selection will be critical. The panel must eventually decide whether the woman meant to kill the child. Criminal trials generally are open to the public, and the Alabama Rules of Criminal Procedure state that "all proceedings shall be open to the public, unless otherwise provided by law." Ogletree previously issued an order setting rules for media coverage of Garrard's trial, but it makes no mention of the public being banned from jury selection. Etowah County Circuit Clerk Cassandra Johnson told The Associated Press that judges in the county, located about 60 miles northeast of Birmingham, typically don't allow the public to witness jury selection. Attorneys involved in the case cannot comment publicly because of a gag order that Ogletree imposed following Garrard's arrest in 2012. (source: Associated Press) OHIO: Not guilty plea entered in death penalty case A man facing the death penalty for allegedly beating a man to death inside a Uniopolis apartment pleaded not guilty Monday. Joseph Furry, 30, of Van Wert, pleaded not guilty to 2 counts of aggravated murder and 1 count each of aggravated burglary, kidnapping and intimidation of a witness. Bond was continued at $5 million and a pretrial scheduled for April 6. Furry and 2 other men are facing the death penalty over the June 9 death of Charles Hicks, 54, who was found dead in his apartment at 2 Main St., Uniopolis. The indictment said Hicks was killed to prevent his testimony as a witness in a criminal case. (source: limaohio.com) From rhalperi at smu.edu Tue Mar 3 11:45:26 2015 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Tue, 3 Mar 2015 11:45:26 -0600 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----S. DAK., COLO., UTAH, IDAHO, CALIF. Message-ID: March 3 SOUTH DAKOTA: Supreme Court denies prison guard killer's appeal A South Dakota death row inmate scheduled to die in May still has legal options left to attempt to stop his execution despite the decision by the nation's highest court Monday to decline to hear his appeal. Rodney Berget can challenge his death sentence and lethal injection status by filing a habeas corpus action. The action could seek to determine if the application of the death penalty in Berget's case is lawful. Death row inmate Charles Rhines, the longest serving death row inmate, has a continuing federal habeas appeal for the 1992 stabbing death of 22-year-old Donnivan Schaffer during a burglary at a Rapid City doughnut shop. Berget was sentenced to death for the 2011 killing of the correctional officer during a failed escape attempt at the prison. At the time, Berget was serving 2 life sentences for attempted murder and for raping a convenience store clerk. Berget's initial appeal to the South Dakota Supreme Court claimed that the lower court should have accepted the additional evidence he wanted to present. His case was remanded for a limited re-sentencing in 2013 after the high court found that Judge Brad Zell had improperly considered evidence from a psychiatric report that hadn't been admitted into evidence. The admission of the evidence violated Berget's right against self-incrimination. Berget did not call the psychiatrist as a witness at the re-sentencing, but sought having new evidence admitted. He was again sentenced to death by lethal injection. "The United State Supreme Court has denied Rodney Berget's request to overturn this conviction and capital sentence for the murder of Correctional Officer Ronald 'RJ' Johnson," Attorney General Marty Jackley said. "I believe due process has been satisfied and that the interest of justice has been served." His lawyer, Jeff Larson, filed a motion on Feb. 13 asking for the execution to be delayed until Berget's application for appeal is reviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court. Berget and another prisoner, Eric Robert, killed Ronald Johnson during an escape attempt in 2011. Johnson was alone in an area where inmates work on projects. Robert put on Johnson's uniform and tried to move a large box with Berget inside it toward the prison gate. They were caught before making it out of the prison. Robert was executed in 2012. A third inmate, Michael Nordman, was sentenced to life in prison for providing plastic wrap and a pipe used to kill Johnson. Berget is scheduled to be executed the week of May 3. Jeff Larson declined to comment. Current death row inmates: Charles Rhines: Rhines, of Rapid City, was convicted in the 1992 stabbing death of 22-year-old Donnivan Schaffer during a burglary at a Rapid City doughnut shop. His death penalty case has been appealed. Briley Piper: No date has been set for Piper's execution. The Anchorage, Ak., man was convicted of the 2000 torture murder of Chester Allan Poage. Rodney Berget: The state will move forward with Berget's May 3 execution. The United State's Supreme Court decline to her Berget request to have his conviction overturned. He was sentenced to death in 2012 for the murder of Correctional Officer Ronald "R.J." Johnson. Recent death row inmates: Donald Moeller: The Sioux Falls man was executed in 2012 for the 1990 rape and murder of 9-year-old Becky O'Connell. Eric Robert: The Sioux Falls man was executed in 2012 after pleading guilty to murdering Correctional Officer Ronald "R.J." Johnson during a botched prison break. James McVay: McVay was found dead in his cell in 2014 after hanging himself with a bed sheet. McVay was convicted in the 2011 murder of Maybelle Schein. (source: Argus Leader) ************************* Death Penalty Stands for Convicted Murderer of State Prison Guard A South Dakota death penalty sentence stands. Rodney Berget was sentenced to die for his role in killing a state penitentiary guard. On Monday, Attorney General Marty Jackley said the U.S. Supreme Court denied Berget's appeal. Berget was convicted of killing guard Ronald Johnson during an April 2011 escape attempt. Berget is scheduled to die by lethal injection the week of May 3, 2015. Of the rejection of the appeal, Jackley said, "The interest of justice has been served." Another inmate charged in the guard's death, Eric Robert, was executed back in 2012. (source: newscenter1.tv) COLORADO: Time for abolition death penalty Despite its poor record on deterring violent crime, we've gone ahead in most states, including Colorado, maintaining a death row, arguing the efficacy of executions, spending millions to prosecute capital cases while shortchanging victims' families, rehabilitation programs, and cold cases. At last, departing U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has disavowed support for capital punishment and is weighing a nationwide moratorium on executions. The governor of Pennsylvania has just announced a death penalty moratorium in his state. This is not just folks jumping on a bandwagon. In fact, it's more like people - regular concerned citizens, officials, and community leaders - jumping off a bandwagon, off the senseless continuation of a grisly civic punishment regime that doesn't work and traumatizes those in law enforcement and prison administration who have to carry out the macabre dance of death. Let's abolish the Colorado Death Penalty and really take care of victims' families, law enforcement professionals, and criminals that can be rehabilitated. Ellen V. Moore Chair, Coloradans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty Amnesty International USA Colorado State Death Penalty Abolition Coordinator Nederland (source: Letter to the Editor, Daily Camera) UTAH: Firing squad bill passes Senate panel, prompts proposal to reconsider death penalty A bill to reinstate Utah's firing squad as a backup execution method easily passed in a Senate committee Monday. The bill advances closer to becoming law, but not without the committee making an official motion to submit a request to take up the issue of the death penalty after the legislative session. HB11 would legalize firing squad executions in Utah if drugs needed for lethal injections aren't available 30 days before the date of the death warrant, which would add to current Utah law that allows the firing squad if lethal injection executions ever become unconstitutional, said bill sponsor Rep. Paul Ray, R-Clearfield. Utah may require a backup method to lethal injections, Ray said, in wake of recent botched executions that have lead to a U.S. Supreme Court case that may cause lethal injections to become unconstitutional. He said Utah potentially faces the same costly litigation risks if the state continues to carry out lethal injections, as drugs previously used for lethal injections have become unavailable because European pharmaceutical companies that sell the drugs oppose the death penalty and refuse to sell to U.S. prisons, Ray said. Anti-death penalty groups spoke against the bill, saying the Legislature should instead be spending its time having serious discussions about the moral issue of the death penalty itself, especially as it considers moving the state prison. "That's the only way that we'll ensure we won't be back here over and over engaging in what is ultimately a doomed effort of deciding on a decent way for the government to kill people," said Anna Brower, public policy advocate with American Civil Liberties Union of Utah. Sen. Daniel Thatcher, R-West Valley City, said the purpose of HB11 is not to change the Utah law regarding to death penalty. "The fact of the matter is that is the law, and if we don't like it then that is a separate conversation to have," Thatcher said. "What we shouldn't be doing is allowing a manufacturer of a product to tell the state of Utah that because they don???t like our policy they will deny us the product and use that to get around existing law." Senate Minority Leader Gene Davis, D-Salt Lake City, proposed a motion for legislative leadership to address Utah's death penalty during the upcoming interim session. The proposal passed with 1 dissenting vote from Sen. Lyle Hillyard, R-Logan, who said the motion would just "clog up" the system with another "misfit bill" that no lawmaker wants to address. Davis said Utah's death penalty is an appropriate issue that an interim committee needs to debate. "If we can't get those cocktails, then we need to change the law," he said. "And it's looking like we cannot get those cocktails anymore - not without horrendous side effects." The Senate Judiciary, Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Committee voted 4-1 to favorably recommend HB11 to the full Senate. Sen. Luz Escamilla, D-Salt Lake City, was the sole dissenting vote. (source: Deseret News) ******************** Brother of executed Utah killer Ronnie Lee Gardner opposes reviving firing squad The brother of the last man executed by firing squad in Utah urged lawmakers Monday not to bring back the practice as an alternative to lethal injection, calling it cruel and unnecessarily brutal. "I got a chance to look at my brother's chest after he was shot," said Randy Gardner, the brother of Ronnie Lee Gardner, who was executed by firing squad in Utah in 2010. "I could have stuck all 4 fingers in his chest," Gardner said, adding he believed it blew his brother's heart through his back. "To me that's totally cruel and unusual punishment." But a committee endorsed 4-1 and sent to the full Senate HB11, which would make the firing squad the alternative to lethal injection if the state is unable to get access to the chemical cocktail used in the executions. The bill already passed the House. "[A firing squad] may seem a little more barbaric, but it does what we need it to do in the end," said the bill's sponsor, Rep. Paul Ray, R-Clearfield. Oklahoma, Arizona and Ohio have recently experienced botched executions by lethal injection, when the drugs administered did not kill the condemned men quickly, leaving them gasping or convulsing on the gurney. Ray said a study by the University of Utah found that there is a 34 percent chance executions using a new blend of lethal chemicals will be botched. So an alternative is needed if the state can't get the chemicals it has traditionally used, and that alternative, he argued, should be the firing squad. Groups like the American Civil Liberties Union, the Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake and the Coaltion of Utahns Against the Death Penalty argued that the state should look at doing away with all executions. The Utah prison inmate who may be the closest to execution is Douglas Carter, convicted of killing Eva Olesen during a 1985 robbery at her Provo home, although he still has legal actions pending in state and federal courts. (source: Salt Lake Tribune) IDAHO: Idaho Supreme Court rejects death row inmate's appeal The Idaho Supreme Court on Monday found substantial evidence existed to find Boise resident Azad Abdullah guilty of the 2002 murder of his wife, Angie, and setting the family home on fire with gasoline. Abdullah, now 37, was convicted in 2004 of 1st-degree murder, 1st-degree arson, 3 counts of attempted 1st-degree murder and felony injury to a child. He was the 2nd Idahoan sentenced to death under a 2003 Idaho law that requires juries to make that determination rather than judges. Abdullah is 1 of 10 men and 1 woman who now sit on death row in Idaho. The Supreme Court considered 23 challenges from the defendant during the guilt and penalty phases of his trial and another 15 post-conviction challenges, upholding his convictions and his death sentence. "In this case, the jury was instructed that the State must prove Abdullah engaged in conduct which caused Angie's death. The jury was provided with substantial evidence to make this finding. The State was not required to prove the specific cause of Angie's death," retired Justice Jesse Walters, who sat on the appeal case, wrote in the 189-page ruling. Abdullah, who continues to maintain his innocence, was accused of using a plastic bag to suffocate Angie Abdullah before setting the house - located at 2292 N. Siesta Way, near North Five Mile and West Fairview roads - on fire. The indictment accused him of killing his wife by suffocation and or Prozac poisoning. 3 children who were inside the house and another 1 sleeping outside were able to escape the fire and get to safety. The 3 attempted murder counts were brought in reference to the children inside the house. The defense suggested Angie Abdullah took a lethal dose of Prozac, a drug prescribed to her for depression. A forensic toxicologist testified at trial that Prozac may have debilitated Angie Abdullah and was a contributing factor in her death but that it was not a "competent cause of her death." Azad Abdullah originally told police he was in Salt Lake City at the time of his wife's death. During closing arguments at the end of the guilt phase of the trial, which lasted 6 weeks, his attorney said Abdullah lied to police and did return to Boise on Oct. 5, 2002, the night his wife was killed, but that he did not enter the house or kill his wife. The Supreme Court ruled that the Ada County jury could have found Abdullah killed Angela by suffocating her with a plastic bag. The justices ruled that "the evidence produced at trial revealed that it was unlikely that (her) overdose was self-imposed," Walters wrote. (source: Idaho Statesman) CALIFORNIA: Suspect in Forestville triple homicide seeks to avoid death penalty Sonoma County prosecutors are considering a bid by a Colorado man to avoid the death penalty in a case where he is charged in the execution-style slaying of 3 would-be drug dealers in Forestville 2 years ago. A lawyer for Mark Cappello, 49, presented information to a District Attorney's Office panel last month about why Cappello is not among the "worst of the worst" offenders and therefore not deserving of execution. The presentation came after District Attorney Jill Ravitch announced in May that she would seek the death penalty against Cappello. However, she left the door open to "mitigating factors" that might later arise. "It's under review," Chief Deputy Spencer Brady said Monday after an evidentiary hearing in the case. "We're looking at everything he provided us." He did not say when a decision would be made. Cappello's lawyer, Joe Stogner, wouldn't disclose details of his presentation, saying he wanted to "respect the process." It's assumed he might argue the victims died while participating in an illegal drug transaction with inherent risk. Both sides will return to court next Monday, possibly to set a trial date for Cappello and co-defendants Odin Dwyer, 40, also of Colorado, and his father, Francis Dwyer, 67 of New Mexico. All are charged with murder in the Feb. 5. 2013 slayings of Todd Klarkowski, 43, of Boulder, Colo.; Richard Lewin, 46, of Huntington, N.Y.; and Raleigh Butler, 24, formerly of Sebastopol. Only Cappello faces a possible death sentence. Evidence in a preliminary hearing suggests Cappello shot each man in the head with a .45-caliber pistol as they were packaging 50 to 100 pounds of marijuana at a house off Ross Station Road. Odin Dwyer told police he heard gunfire, walked into the room and saw Cappello holding the gun Francis Dwyer, who is accused of agreeing to help his son and Cappello transport the marijuana out of state, was not present at the shooting, according to evidence. His lawyer, Walter Rubenstein, is expected to negotiate a plea bargain with prosecutors. A trial in the case, now more than 2 years old, has been delayed by a number of factors, including the complexity of evidence and a change in Cappello's lawyer. Whether a jury will hear the case before the end of the year was uncertain, lawyers said. "A case of this magnitude always takes a long time," Stogner said. The last case in Sonoma County where a person was condemned to death was tried in 2 years. Robert Walter Scully was sent to San Quentin's death row in 1997 after being convicted in the 1995 slaying of Sonoma County Deputy Frank Trejo. 2 other Sonoma County residents, Ramon Salcido and Richard Allen Davis, have also been on death row since the 1990s. No executions have been carried out in the state since 2006 when a federal judge ruled there were flaws in the lethal injection process. (source: Press Democrat) From rhalperi at smu.edu Tue Mar 3 11:46:14 2015 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Tue, 3 Mar 2015 11:46:14 -0600 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalety news----worldwide Message-ID: March 3 INDONESIA: Death sentence of Bali 9 pair a stance taken by Indonesia? We accept that other countries follow different laws to Australia. Considering Andrew Chan's and and Myuran Sukumaran's 9-year plight on death row, questions about an arbitrary nature within the Indonesian justice system and if the draconian decision carries a message beg to be reflected upon, writes Chris Townsend. The death penalty is one of the most controversial sentences that can be imposed, sparking debate globally. Human Rights activists consistently campaign against its imposition, with Amnesty International often at the forefront of the same. (...) we can now reflect on the past 9 years and really question whether they have been afforded justice, as we know and accept that concept to be. Every day, all over the world, prisoners face execution. Men, women, children are faced with this cruel, inhumane method of punishment that has often been cited as ineffective as a deterrent. In Australia, by virtue of the Death Penalty Abolition Act 1973, such a punishment cannot be imposed. Further, the Crimes Legislation Amendment (Torture Prohibition and Death Penalty Abolition) Act 2010, made it so Australia cannot reintroduce such a penalty. We, as a people, as a community, made our stance clear. This however, does not stop our people, whilst abroad, from being subject to the laws of a country that does support the imposition of the death penalty. Indonesia is 1 of them. 2 of Indonesia's most currently publicised Australian prisoners are Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran. Well known in Australia, as members of the Bali Nine, in 2005, they were both arrested for attempting to traffic over 8kg of Heroin into Australia. Despite intelligence of Chan's and Sukumaran's plans being available to Australian authorities and the Australian Federal Police having had the opportunity, should they have chosen, to arrest them both upon returning to Australia, the AFP chose to give the intelligence to the Indonesian Police, and subsequently the pair was sentenced, in February 2006, to death. Both Chan and Sukumaran are now facing the firing squad, having had almost every legal avenue exhauste, including but not limited to, a request for clemency from the President Joko Widodo. After that was rejected we can now reflect on the past 9 years and really question whether they have been afforded justice, as we know and accept that concept to be. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), a treaty adopted by the United Nations, in force since 1976, commits parties to respect the right to life, freedom of religion and speech amongst other fundamental rights. Particularly Article 6 of the ICCPR states: "Every human being has the inherent right to life. This right shall be protected by law. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his life. In countries which have not abolished the death penalty, sentence of death may be imposed only for the most serious crimes in accordance with the law in force at the time of the commission of the crime [...]" Indonesia became a party to this treaty, in February 2006. Australia signed the treaty in 1972, ratifying it in 1980. Article 28A of the 1945 Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia aligns with such a right in stating: "Every person shall have the right to live and to defend his/her life and existence." Around the same time as Chan and Sukumaran received the decision of the Supreme Court of Jakarta (2011) reaffirming their fate, an Indonesian national had been through the same process. Hanky Gunawan, had been found guilty of mass producing the drug ice, having been found in possession of 11kg of the same. He had originally been, at first instance, sentenced to 18 years, however this was increased to the death penalty. In the same court that reaffirmed Chan and Sukumaran's penalty, Gunawan remarkably had a much different outcome. His death penalty was reduced to 15 years imprisonment, with Chief Justice Imron Anwari, citing the ICCPR, and the Indonesian Constitution. All 3 judges agreed on this point. Gunawan's appeal decision, handed down by the Supreme Court was published as No. 39 of 2011. Chan and Sukumaran's appeal decisions were No. 37 and 38 respectively. One can only wonder, what changed between the decision handed down in July 2011, and the 1 only a month later in August 2011. Ultimately Chan and Sukumaran will likely be executed. For what purpose, remains to be seen. Australia seeks to rehabilitate those convicted, and WA, by virtue of the Prisoners Review Board and the Sentence Administration Act 2003, reviews prisoners with the ultimate goal to return to the community, functioning and rehabilitated citizens. Had Chan and Sukumaran been imprisoned in Australia, and shown the extent of personal growth and rehabilitation they have in Kerobokan Prison, we as a community, represented by the appropriate authorities, would likely deem them fit to re-enter society. Alas, that is not the case in Indonesia. Australia as a country enjoys transparency in the conduct of judicial proceedings. Other countries are rife with corruption. Acknowledging that in order for justice to be done, it needs to be seen to be done, this principle is something embedded in our criminal justice system, and something that Australia ought to be thankful we adhere to where possible. Is that any consolation for Chan and Sukumaran, probably not. But we can all learn something from what will likely be their unnecessary deaths. (source: Commentary; Chris Townsend is a solicitor at Lewis Blyth and Hooper in Perth----The Age) IRAN: Executions top long U.N. list of human rights concerns in Iran Iran had a "deeply troubling" number of executions last year and did not keep a promise to protect ethnic and religious minorities, the United Nations said on Tuesday in its annual report on Tehran's human rights record. The report from the office of Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to the U.N. Human Rights Council cataloged U.N. concerns about rights violations in Iran against women, religious minorities, journalists and activists. The report was published as a deadline nears for Iran and major powers to agree a deal on its nuclear program, which Tehran says would end sanctions against it. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif complained to the Council on Monday about "double standards" and an "almost uncontrollable compulsion" to politicize issues. Iran was believed to have executed at least 500 people between January and November 2014 and possibly many more, the report said. Most victims did not get a fair trial and over 80 % of those executed were drug offenders, it said. "The Secretary-General remains deeply troubled by the continuing large number of executions, including of political prisoners and juveniles," it said, repeating a U.N. call for a death penalty moratorium and a ban on executing youths. It said Iran had not kept President Hassan Rouhani's promise to "extend protection to all religious groups and to amend legislation that discriminates against minority groups". "The above-mentioned commitments have not ... been translated into results," the report said. "Individuals seeking greater recognition for their cultural and linguistic rights risk facing harsh penalties, including capital punishment." Tehran also continued a crackdown on freedom of expression, having blocked 5 million websites and jailed journalists. A professional ban on human rights lawyers and harassment of activists were "a setback for the country as a whole", it said. Suspects were allegedly tortured, ill-treated, held for months in solitary confinement with no access to a lawyer and risked the death penalty for crimes such as "corruption on earth" and "enmity against God". The report said Iran was cooperating more on U.N. human rights treaties and had invited U.N. High Commissioner Zeid Ra'ad Al-Hussein to visit. But it had not invited the U.N. investigator on Iranian human rights, and 24 of 29 U.N. inquiries on specific cases had gone unanswered. 2/3 of women reportedly suffer domestic violence, the report said. Girls are forced to marry young, with about 48,450 between the age of 10 and 14 married in 2011, and at least 1,537 under 10 were married in 2012, the report said. (source: Reuters) ********************* 6 Kurdish Sunni Prisoners at Imminent Danger of Execution 6 death row Kurdish Sunni prisoners have been transferred to an unknown location. Families of prisoners have been asked visit met their loved ones for the last time. Right groups believe the prisoners might be executed within the coming 24 hours. Iran Human Rights (IHR) calls for immediate reaction of the international community and urges the Western leaders meeting with the Iranian Foreign minister today, to put pressure on Iran to stop these unlawful executions. Unofficial sources from Iran report that 6 Sunni Muslim prisoners, Jamshid and Jahangir Dehgani (brothers), Hamed Ahmadi and Kamal Molayee, Sedigh Mohammadi and Hadi Hosseini belonging to the Kurdish ethnic minority in Iran have been transferred out of their prison wards in Rajaishahr prison of Karaj to an unknown location. According to these reports the prisoners were brutally beaten and taken away while their hands and feet were tied and eyes were blindfolded. Some family members of the prisoners have confirmed to IHR that they have been asked by the prison officials to urgently visit death row family members. 1 of the family members has been told to come for the last visit. IHR is strongly concerned that the execution of the 6 Sunni Kurdish prisoners could be imminent. Hamed Ahmadi, Jamshid Dehghani and his younger brother Jahangir Dehghani, Kamal Mosunni-kordlayee, Hadi Hosseini and Sedigh Mohammadi are among 6 Sunni Muslim men from Iran's Kurdish minority who were sentenced to death after being convicted of vaguely-worded offences including Moharebeh (enmity against God) and "corruption on earth". IHR calls for a reaction by the international community to save these prisoners. Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, the spokesperson of IHR, said: These prisoners have been subjected to ill-treatment, unfair trials and are possibly sentenced to death as part of the Iranian authorities' crackdown of the Sunni minority in Iran. They are being executed while the Iranian Foreign Minister is meeting with the US Secretary of States and possibly other Western leaders in Switzerland. We ask the international community to use all the channels in order to stop the executions. The world must show that their dialogues with the Iranian authorities also benefits the human rights". Background: Jamshid and Jahangir Dehgani (brothers), Hamed Ahmadi and Kamal Molayee were arrested in 2009. They were accused along with 6 others of involvement in the assassination of a senior Sunni cleric with ties to the Iranian authorities. They have denied any involvement, saying that their arrest and detention preceded the assassination by several months. They were sentenced to death by the branch 28 of the Revolutionary Court in Tehran, convicted of "Moharebeh" (enmity against God) and "acts against the nation's security". Their trial lasted about 10 minutes and they haven't seen their lawyer, according to sources who have been in contact with Iran Human Rights (IHR). The 6 other prisoners were executed in December 2012, but the death sentences of the 4 prisoners were postponed. Their execution was scheduled to be carried out in on September 25, 2013, and June 15, 2014, but it was postponed possibly due to the international attention. In 2014 more than 19 human rights group called on the Iranian authorities to stop the execution of 33 Sunni prisoners. (source: Iran Human Rights) INDIA: Mukesh Singh just made the case for death penalty stronger Did Mukesh Singh just make the case against him stronger. The Supreme Court has stayed his death penalty in connection with the Nirbhaya rape and murder case. Singh who was awarded a death penalty had moved the Supreme Court which had stayed the sentence. The Supreme Court while hearing cases in which capital punishment takes a key aspect into account "is the accused beyond reformation and is there any remorse." Singh's statement to the BBC only goes on to show that he is beyond reformation and there is no remorse left in him for the gruesome rape and murder which had left a nation shocked. What Mukesh Singh had said? Singh in an interview for a BBC documentary blamed the victim (Nirbhaya) for the fatal sexual assault on her. He went on to add that women who go out at night had only themselves to blame if they attracted the attention of molesters. A girl is far more responsible for rape than a boy, he had also said in the interview. Did he make his own case weaker? The law of the land says life sentence is a rule while death an exception. Courts are extremely cautious while awarding a death penalty and take into consideration various factors before doing so. The nature of the crime and the conduct of the accused whether he is remorseful and beyond reform are key aspects while deciding a case of death penalty. The statement made by Singh clearly indicates that he is trying to blame the victim for the incident. Not once has he shown any sign of remorse or reformation. The prosecution while arguing before the Supreme Court to uphold his death sentence can well place before the court the statements he has made in connection with this case. Legal experts say that such statements have only made the case against him stronger and are a clear indicator that he ought to be a recipient of the death penalty as he has shown no signs of remorse or reformation. The aspects considered before awaring death penalty: Personality of the convict - Whether the convict is suffering from a mental disorder when committing the offence? - Had the court expressed any doubt regarding the evidence when handing out the sentence? - Has any fresh evidence cropped up to substantiate the claim of the appellant? - Was evidence considered before the sentence was handed out? - Was the death sentence given after a long delay in the trial and investigation? - Is the convict beyond reformation? - Is there any sense of remorse? Can death row convicts give interviews? The jail manuals in India clearly gives an option for convicts to give interviews subject to permission from the government and the jail authorities. Every prisoner shall be allowed reasonable facilities for seeing or communicating with, his/her family members, relatives, friends and legal advisers for the preparation of an appeal or for procuring bail or for arranging the management of his/her property and family affairs. He/she shall be allowed to have interviews with his/her family members, relatives, friends and legal advisers once in a fortnight. The number of letters a prisoner can write in a month shall be fixed by the Government under the rules. On admission, every prisoner should submit a list of persons who are likely to interview him/her and the interview shall be restricted to such family members, relatives and friends. The conversation at the interviews shall be limited to private and domestic matters and there shall be no reference to prison administration and discipline and to other prisoners or politics. The number of persons who may interview a prisoner at one time shall ordinarily be limited to 3. (source: One India) From rhalperi at smu.edu Wed Mar 4 14:17:41 2015 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Wed, 4 Mar 2015 14:17:41 -0600 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, MASS., PENN., VA., GA. Message-ID: March 4 TEXAS: Death penalty opponents take uphill battle to end executions to the Texas Capitol Death row exonerees on Tuesday called for lawmakers to abolish the death penalty - a long-shot bid in Texas where capital punishment has broad support. Death penalty opponents declared it the "Day of Innocence" with about 2 dozen exonerees and loved ones of death row inmates lobbying lawmakers to approve legislation that would abolish the death penalty and prohibit the law of parties from being used in capital cases. The law allows people convicted of aiding or abetting in a murder committed by another person to be sentenced to death. "I don't want the state executing people in my name," said Rep. Harold Dutton, D-Houston, who has again filed legislation to end the death penalty. "You can go all the way through the system and be factually innocent and end up on death row, which is evidence by some of the people here. How many people has Texas executed who might have been innocent?" Dutton has attempted to get the bills passed in the Legislature every session since 2003. The bills have not made it out of committee. Support for capital punishment runs deep in the Lone Star State. A 2012 poll indicated that more than 70 % of Texans are in favor of the death penalty. The state tops the nation in number of executions. Despite their uphill battle, death penalty opponents said they would visit "as many offices as possible" to ask lawmakers to consider a moratorium. In a news conference, Terri Been tearfully pleaded for her brother, Jeff Wood, to be removed from death row. Wood was convicted under the state's law of parties for a killing committed by his partner in a 1996 robbery in Kerrville. According to news reports, Wood waited outside of a gas station while Daniel Reneau entered and pointed a handgun at the clerk, Kris Keeran. When Keeran did not respond to Reneau's request, Reneau shot him. Wood then entered the store. He stole a surveillance video - his family says he was forced by Reneau to take the tape - and fled from the scene with Reneau. Wood has said he did not know Reneau would use force, according to reports. In 2008, Wood, who was found not mentally fit to stand trial, won a stay from a federal judge just hours before his scheduled execution. He remains on death row. Been said her brother's proposed execution has caused great anguish for the family. "It's very difficult as a family member to have come that close to your loved one being murdered before you," she said. The bills have not yet been scheduled for a committee hearing. (source: Dallas Morning News) *********** Texas Lawmaker Wants State To Kill Death Penalty On Tuesday, people who once faced a death sentence called on Texas lawmakers to end to the state's death penalty. They were supporting House Bill 1032, proposed by State Representative Harold Dutton, which would abolish the death penalty in Texas. "As a legislator I didn't want to be in the death penalty business," said Dutton. Sabrina Butler spent several years on death row before she was exonerated of the murder of her nine-month-old son. "I don't want anyone to be put in the same position that I was in," said Butler. According to the text, Dutton's bill would end capital punishment and convert sentences to life in prison without the possibility of parole. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice says there are 257 death row offenders currently in TDCJ custody. 251 of them are males and there are 6 females. (source: KEYE TV news) MASSACHUSEETTS: Bloodsworth Lecture Illuminates An Innocent Man???s Journey Through Death Row As students shuffled into Converse Hall's Cole Assembly Room last Wednesday night, a gray-haired, casually dressed, beefy, not-quite-6-foot-man with a Van Dyke mustache lounged in the front row of the auditorium. The Amherst Political Union, who hosted the event, soon introduced the man as Kirk Noble Bloodsworth, the 1st American on death row to be exonerated by DNA evidence. Bloodsworth took the podium, his presence commanding the audience's attention and striking each student silent and still in their seats. As he opened his mouth to speak, the sound system misbehaved and erupted in an intense, theatrical score from an open YouTube tab. The tension in the room abated and Bloodsworth playfully commented, "Just trying to keep things dramatic." That wasn't going to be hard. On a hot summer day in August 1984, Bloodsworth, then 22 years old and a former Marine, heard a hard knock on his front door. A squadron of police officers awaited him on the other side, welcoming him with a slew of words that explained his Miranda rights and placed him under arrest for the rape and murder of Dawn Hamilton, a 9-year old girl found dead and battered in the woods 15 days earlier. "They said to me, 'Kirk Bloodsworth, you're under arrest for the 1st-degree murder of Dawn Hamilton, you son-of-a-bitch", he said to the audience. Although there was no physical evidence against him, and his conviction rested entirely upon eyewitness identification, Bloodsworth was eventually convicted in 1985 and sentenced to die in Maryland. Once inside the maximum-security confines of the Maryland Penitentiary, which looms like a foreboding, medieval castle in East Baltimore, Bloodsworth recognized he would probably never see the outside world again. Yet for nearly 9 years of conviction in the state's most brutal prison, Bloodsworth relentlessly maintained his innocence while the media and public condemned him as a ruthless monster. In his lecture, he held the audience's attention with a vivid description of penitentiary life. From stories of fellow inmates stabbing their eyes with pencils to the constant slew of licentious threats to beatings via chains and Master Locks, his account hammered home the horrors and brutalization of prison life. While on death row, Bloodsworth worked as the prison librarian, reading everything from "Gestalt psychology to Stephen King novels," he said. One day, he came across a book about a man who was convicted of murder based on advanced DNA testing. "I thought to myself, if you could be convicted by DNA testing, why couldn't you be exonerated on the same grounds?" Bloodsworth said. After that realization, Bloodsworth committed himself to establishing his innocence via this new technology. Finally, in the summer of 1993, Bloodsworth was declared a free man and a sleek limousine arrived outside the penitentiary to pilot him home. The Baltimore radio stations played songs in his tribute all weekend long. Cigars, beer, crab, and a 3,000 dollar government stipend awaited him upon his return. Bloodsworth was a monster no more. His formal exoneration did not occur until a decade later, when DNA evidence came to his aid once again and identified the actual killer in the Hamilton case, Kimberly Shay Ruffner. Only weeks after the Hamilton murder, Ruffner had been arrested for an unrelated incident that involved a burglary, rape and attempted murder. He had been doing his time 1 floor below Bloodsworth at the Maryland Penitentiary. However, even after his release from prison and eventual exoneration, Bloodsworth could not shake the circumstances that led to his false conviction. He could not adjust back to a society with a justice system so flawed that innocent persons found themselves on death row. "If it could happen to me, it could happen to anybody," he said. Now 56 years old, Bloodsworth has dedicated his life to eradicating the death penalty in America and establishing the Kirk Bloodsworth Post-Conviction DNA Testing Program, which will help finance the cost of post-conviction DNA testing. He works closely with The Innocence Project, a non-profit legal clinic revolving around post-conviction DNA testing, and ardent supported of the Innocence Protection Act, the 1st federal death penalty reform in be enacted in United States criminal law. When asked by an audience member if he thought Ruffner, Dawn Hamilton???s actual killer, should face execution, Bloodsworth remained staunchly anti-death penalty. He reasoned, matter how many guilty men deserve to be on death row; capital punishment is not worth its inherent risks. Bloodsworth shared the credo that drives his dedication of ending the death penalty: "You can free an innocent man from prison, but you can't free him from the grave." (source: The Amhest Student) PENNSYLVANIA: Berks DA, RPD officer's widow speak out against death penalty moratorium Berks County District Attorney John Adams is among Pennsylvania prosecutors who are taking a stand against Gov. Tom Wolf's moratorium on the death penalty. Wolf said in February that the state's death penalty system is error-prone and expensive. He plans to issue reprieves while a legislative panel studies the issue. Adams and many of his colleagues across the state are unhappy with the governor's action, and they expressed their displeasure during a Pennsylvania District Attorneys Association news conference in the Capitol rotunda in Harrisburg on Wednesday. "I supported the governor in his election, but I'm disappointed that during the decision making process on the issue of the death penalty he did not consult with district attorneys or consult with the families of victims whose lives have been torn apart by the people who have been sentenced to death for their actions," said Adams, who served on the governor's corrections transition committee. Also at the news conference was Tricia Wertz, the widow of Reading police Ofc. Scott Wertz, who was gunned down in the line of duty in 2006. "I believe there needs to be some ultimate consequence for their actions and he was given that consequence, and I think it should be carried out," Wertz told 69 News of the 2008 sentence for her husband's convicted killer, Cletus Rivera. Pa. Rep. Barry Jozwiak, a Berks County Republican and former sheriff, and Pa. Rep. Jerry Knowles, a Republican who represents part of Berks County, also attended the news conference. Meantime, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court said Tuesday that it will decide whether the moratorium announced in February is legal. The court's order granted the request by Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams to review the policy. The court said it won't expedite the case. The justices want to hear argument about whether they should have taken up the matter at all, along with argument about how they should rule. 12 people convicted in Berks County, including Cletus Rivera, are among the 183 men and 3 women who currently sit on Pennsylvania's death row. (source: WFMZ news) ************************ Pennsylvania Supreme Court to take death penalty moratorium case----Philadelphia DA calls governor's actions lawless and unconstitutional The Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to take a case filed by the Philadelphia district attorney's office challenging Gov. Tom Wolf's moratorium implemented last month on capital punishment in the state. District Attorney R. Seth Williams asked the court to take up the matter involving a defendant named Terrance Williams, who was scheduled for lethal injection today. Although Seth Williams asked that the court take the case on an expedited basis, the court refused, and it will be heard on a standard calendar, which means that both sides will file briefs and replies over the next several months, and oral argument will be scheduled at a date in the future. It will probably be more than a year before any decision is reached, and University of Pittsburgh law professor John Burkoff said it could be even longer if the court decides it wants 2 new justices, who will be elected later this year, to consider the case as well. Mr. Wolf announced on Feb. 13 that he was instituting a moratorium on the death penalty in Pennsylvania, saying that it was not an "expression of sympathy for the guilty on death row, all of whom have been convicted of committing heinous crimes." Instead, he continued, it was "based on a flawed system that has been proven to be an endless cycle of court proceedings as well as ineffective, unjust and expensive." He cited nationwide statistics that show 150 people have been exonerated from death row, including 6 in Pennsylvania. A bipartisan commission was asked in 2011 to review the effectiveness of capital punishment in Pennsylvania, and Mr. Wolf said the moratorium will be in place until recommendations and concerns from that are addressed. Because of the governor's actions, Terrance Williams, who was sentenced to death for killing a man with a tire iron on June 11, 1984, received a temporary reprieve from his execution warrant, signed by former Gov. Tom Corbett. But in his filing, Seth Williams argues that Mr. Wolf's action was lawless and unconstitutional. "Merely characterizing conduct by the governor as a reprieve does not make it so," the prosecutor???s filing said. Instead, it continued, "At all times in Pennsylvania history a reprieve has meant 1 thing and only 1 thing: a temporary stay of a criminal judgment for a defined period of time, for the purpose of allowing the defendant to pursue an available legal remedy. The current act of the governor is not a reprieve. Nor, indeed, could it be. There is no remaining legal remedy available to defendant. He received exhaustive state and federal review. He sought pardon or commutation and it was denied. There is nothing legitimate left to pursue and no remedy to wait for." To halt the imposition of the death penalty on a defendant, the district attorney's office continued, the sentence must be commuted, which can be done only with unanimous agreement by the state Board of Pardons. Seth Williams accused the governor of usurping judicial function. But in the governor's response, his attorneys said what he was doing is temporary - a reprieve - and requires no input from the Board of Pardons. "The governor has 'exclusive authority' and 'unfettered discretion to grant a reprieve after imposition of sentence and on a case by case basis,'" they wrote, quoting an earlier court case. The response also notes that there is no time limitation included in the Constitution for how long a reprieve might last, meaning the governor may issue it as he sees fit. Cameron Kline, a spokesman for the Philadelphia district attorney's office, said he was pleased the Supreme Court took the case. Even though no one has been executed in Pennsylvania since 1999, Mr. Kline said, it is an important question. ???The district attorney has said his job is to enforce the laws on the books in Pennsylvania," he said. "Regardless of how infrequently the death penalty is used, it is still the law, and that is why he challenged the governor." Mr. Burkoff said that the full importance of the case - and how the court ultimately rules - is probably more for the long term than the short. "In the long run, it makes a big difference. Governors change. Attitudes change." (source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) ****************** Pa. High Court Takes Up Gov. Wolf's Death Penalty Moratorium Pennsylvania's highest court will decide whether Gov. Tom Wolf's moratorium on the death penalty is legal. A Supreme Court order issued Tuesday granted the request by Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams to review the policy announced by the governor last month. The court says it won't expedite the case. The justices want to hear argument about whether they should have taken up the matter at all, along with argument about how they should rule. The case centers on a reprieve issued by Wolf to state prison inmate Terrance Williams. He's on death row for the fatal tire-iron beating of a man in Philadelphia in 1984. Wolf says the state's death penalty system is error-prone and expensive. He plans to issue reprieves while a legislative panel studies the issue. (source: Associated Press) ********************** Gov. Wolf right on death penalty In my 52 years in Lancaster County, I have seen 1 good governor - the late William W. Scranton, who served 1963-67 - and now perhaps the 2nd. People like to snipe at those who have some power, so it is no surprise that our present governor is getting some flack for his action on the death penalty. I strongly suspect those who are in favor of the death penalty call themselves Christians in spite of the fact the Christian Bible mitigates against it. It reminds one of Pharisees. In addition, no evidence exists to support any value from it. It demeans all of us as a society. What would Jesus do? We also ought to be ashamed to have the highest portion of our population of any industrialized country on the wrong side of our criminal justice system. We would be far better off if we cut our prisoner population at least by half. We should get them back to functioning in our society and use the huge costs to support our values of education and health care. Willis Ratzlaff Conestoga Township (source: Letter to the Editor, lancasteronline.com) VIRGINIA: Diminishing supply of execution drugs puts Virginia in legal limbo ---- Supplies of the lethal injection drugs have dried up because the European manufacturers have objected to their use in the U.S. The demise in the General Assembly of a bill that would have kept secret the suppliers of death penalty drugs and other details of the lethal injection cocktail could lead to a halting of executions in Virginia. The state's supply of the drugs it uses in executions is set to expire in September. But none of the 8 people on death row in Virginia are scheduled to die between now and then. Not having approved up-to-date lethal injection drugs would "raise a lot of legal issues as it relates to the carrying out of executions here in Virginia," Gov. Terry McAuliffe told reporters Tuesday during a briefing called to highlight his administration's accomplishments during the General Assembly session. "I'm not sure where that puts the status here in the commonwealth," the governor added. "It does raise serious legal issues." Death penalty opponents agree. In fact, according to their reading of state law, not having the drugs would effectively stop executions in the commonwealth. Virginia currently has 2 methods of execution - lethal injection and the electric chair. "The state code says, in effect, that the preferred method of execution is lethal injection," said Steve Northrup, executive director of Virginians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty. "An inmate gets a choice, and if an inmate does not choose, he will be executed by lethal injection." Legislation that would have made the electric chair a default execution method if lethal injection drugs were not available failed in a Virginia Senate committee last year. Currently, under the statute, Northrup said "the only way the commonwealth could use the electric chair to electrocute someone is if the inmate chooses it." The Department of Corrections favored the bill to provide secrecy for lethal injection drug manufacturers and the pharmacies that compound them to form the execution cocktail. A McAuliffe ally, Senate Minority Leader Richard Saslaw, D-Fairfax County, carried the bill. Supplies of the drugs have dried up because the European manufacturers have objected to their use by the U.S. in executions. Compounding pharmacies have balked at producing the concoctions, fearing protests and reprisals from death penalty opponents. The situation has become even more inflamed in light of attempts to use different, more readily available combinations of drugs, which have been linked to so-called "botched" executions. McAuliffe opposes the death penalty but will uphold the law that makes executions legal in Virginia, said Brian Coy, a spokesman for the governor. It's a position similar to that held by former Gov. Tim Kaine, a fellow Roman Catholic who opposes the death penalty but did not stop executions from taking place during his term. When asked, McAuliffe said Tuesday he did not actively lobby for the death penalty secrecy bill, which drew opposition from an unlikely coalition of groups including tea party adherents, the American Civil Liberties Union and death penalty opponents. "I did not lobby - I did not personally make any calls on it at all," he said. But that did not keep the governor from making a point, several times, that the absence of a way to replenish the state's supply creates legal issues. (source: Richmond Times-Dispatch) GEORGIA----impending executions postponed Georgia postpones executions indefinitely so it can examine lethal injection drugs Officials in Georgia announced Tuesday that the state was indefinitely suspending executions while it tests the drugs that it had planned to use in an execution on Monday night. The decision came a day after Georgia called off the execution of Kelly Renee Gissendaner, the only woman on the state's death row, several hours after it was set to take place. This was the 2nd time the state postponed her execution in less than a week. Gissendaner, who was convicted of murdering her husband nearly 2 decades ago, was originally set to be put to death last week, but officials pushed it to Monday due to a winter storm. On Monday night, the Georgia Department of Corrections announced that it was postponing the execution because the lethal injection drug "appeared cloudy." After a pharmacist was consulted, the execution was called off, and a new date was not announced. The department said Tuesday it was indefinitely postponing the executions of Gissendaner and Brian Keith Terrell, who was scheduled to be executed next week, "while an analysis is conducted of the drugs" that were meant to be used Monday night. No new dates were announced for the executions. Instead, the department said that when it "is prepared to proceed," sentencing courts will issue new execution orders. This is just the latest issue facing a state that uses lethal injection. In recent years, problems with lethal injection drugs have cropped up across the country. A shortage of these drugs has caused the dwindling number of states still carrying out executions to scramble and improvise. 3 high-profile executions seemed to go awry last year, drawing additional scrutiny to this practice. The 3-drug combination that had been typical has been replaced by a patchwork system, and the U.S. Supreme Court will hear a case involving lethal injection in the spring after justices questioned one of the drugs adopted in recent years by Oklahoma and Florida for executions. As states have struggled to obtain the necessary drugs, some have also reworked their protocols multiple times. Ohio said earlier this year it was delaying all executions scheduled in 2015 to allow it to get new lethal injection drugs. (source: Washington Post) ******************** Death penalty delayed again Citing concerns about the drug to be used in a lethal injection, corrections officials in Georgia postponed the execution of the state's only female death row inmate for the 2nd time in a week. The execution drug was sent to an independent lab to check its potency and the test came back at an acceptable level, but during subsequent checks it appeared cloudy, Georgia Department of Corrections spokeswoman Gwendolyn Hogan said. Corrections officials called the pharmacist and decided to postpone Kelly Renee Gissendaner's Monday night execution "out of an abundance of caution," she said. No new date was given. Gissendaner, 46, was scheduled to be executed at 7 p.m. at the prison in Jackson for the February 1997 slaying of her husband, Douglas Gissendaner. Pentobarbital is the only drug used in Georgia executions. For other recent executions, the state has gotten the drug from a compounding pharmacy, but officials did not immediately respond to an email late Monday asking if that was the source in this case. Georgia law prohibits the release of any identifying information about the source of execution drugs or any entity involved in an execution. A request for a stay by Gissendaner's lawyers was pending when corrections officials decided to postpone the execution. Her lawyers sought a delay until the U.S. Supreme Court rules in a case out of Oklahoma. Late Monday, her lawyers added additional arguments for the high court: that it should consider a stay because Gissendaner didn't kill her husband herself. They also argued she had been thoroughly rehabilitated. Previously, courts had found Gissendaner plotted the stabbing death of her husband by her boyfriend, Gregory Owen, who will be up for parole in 8 years after accepting a life sentence and testifying against her. Gissendaner was originally set to die Feb. 25, but corrections officials delayed the execution until Monday because of projected winter weather conditions. Gissendaner would have been the 1st woman executed in Georgia in 70 years and only the 16th woman put to death nationwide since the Supreme Court allowed the death penalty to resume in 1976. About 1,400 men have been executed since then, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. The Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles, the only entity authorized to commute a death sentence, denied clemency last week and upheld that decision late Monday. Gissendaner's lawyers had urged the board to reconsider and "bestow mercy" by commuting her sentence to life without parole. ***************** Clemency hearing set for Georgia death row inmate canceled after execution postponed The State Board of Pardons and Paroles has canceled a clemency hearing for a Georgia man whose scheduled execution date has been postponed. The board on Tuesday set a March 9 clemency hearing for Brian Keith Terrell and then canceled it a few hours later after the Department of Corrections postponed Terrell's execution, which had been set for March 10. Terrell was sentenced to die after he was convicted of beating and shooting to death 70-year-old John Watson of Covington in June 1992. Georgia corrections officials on Monday postponed the execution of Kelly Renee Gissendaner at the last minute because of concerns about the lethal injection drug, which appeared cloudy. Corrections officials on Tuesday postponed the executions of Gissendaner and Terrell pending an analysis of the execution drug. (source for both: Associated Press) ********************** Documents: Georgia officials indecisive about execution Georgia officials were indecisive about whether to proceed with a cloudy lethal injection drug, at one point saying they weren't sure whether they checked "this week's or last week's" batch, according to a court filing. Ultimately, they postponed the execution of Kelly Renee Gissendaner late Monday night. A day later, they decided to temporarily halt executions until they could more carefully analyze the pentobarbital, which is supposed to be clear. The cloudy drug bolstered death penalty opponents, who have been vocal in their opposition after three botched executions in other parts of the country. Gissendaner, who was convicted of murder in the February 1997 slaying of her husband, had originally been set for execution last week on Feb. 25, but it was postponed because of a threat of bad weather. Attorneys for Gissendaner said in a filing with the U.S. Supreme Court that a lawyer for the state called them around 10:25 p.m. Monday to say the execution would be postponed several days because the state's pharmacist had looked at the drug an hour earlier and determined it was cloudy. The state's lawyer called back about five minutes later to say the prison wasn't sure which drugs they had checked, "this week's or last week's," and that they were considering going forward, the filing says. The lawyer called a 3rd time, saying "this particular batch (of drugs) just didn't come out like it was supposed to" and they weren't going to proceed, according to the court filing. About 11 p.m., the state told reporters an independent lab checked its potency and it was acceptable, but it later appeared cloudy and the execution was postponed "out of an abundance of caution." The back and forth was detailed in Gissendaner's emergency motion for a stay. Corrections spokeswoman Gwendolyn Hogan said "there was never any confusion within the department about the drugs which were to be used," but also indicated the department was not part of the conversations between the attorney general's office and defense attorneys. Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens said in a statement it is "essential that executions are carried out in a constitutional manner" and that he approved of the decision to temporarily suspend executions. The cloudiness could be contamination by bacteria or some impurity, said Michael Jay, a professor at the University of North Carolina's Eshelman School of Pharmacy. If the particles were big enough, they could clog blood vessels when injected or could lodge in the lungs, Jay said. It could also make the drug less potent, making an inmate very sleepy but not kill them, he said. "If it's a solution that's supposed to be clear and it's not clear, it should never be injected," Jay said. "So they did the right thing by not injecting it." Compounded drugs have a shelf life of 30 days, Jay said. Corrections officials declined to say when the department obtained the drug or when it was set to expire. Georgia and other death penalty states have bought execution drugs from compounding pharmacies in recent years after pharmaceutical companies stopped selling to U.S. prisons. And many of them have adopted laws to hide the identity of their drug providers, saying those laws are necessary to protect their suppliers and maintain a source of the drugs. Critics say executions should be as transparent as possible. The cloudy drug "raises significant concerns about Georgia's ability to carry out executions in compliance with the Constitution, but we don't know what really happened," said Megan McCracken of the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law's Death Penalty Clinic. "Because of the secrecy surrounding Georgia's procedures, it is impossible to say if this is indicative of a larger problem," she said. Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, which tracks data on executions, said he's never heard of an execution being halted at the last minute because of a problem with the drug itself. Missouri and Texas are also actively using compounded pentobarbital in a one-drug formula for executions, and South Dakota has also used this method, McCracken said. Other states have been using a 3-drug combination starting with the sedative midazolam. But executions in those states are mostly on hold pending a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in an Oklahoma case sparked by a botched execution there. Prosecutors said Gissendaner repeatedly pushed her on-again, off-again lover Gregory Owen to kill her husband, Douglas Gissendaner. Owen ambushed her husband while she went out with friends, forced him to drive to a remote area and stabbed him multiple times. Owen and Gissendaner then met up and set fire to the dead man's car. Both initially denied involvement, but Owen eventually confessed and testified against his former girlfriend. Owen is serving a life prison sentence and is eligible for parole in 8 years. (source: Yahoo News) From rhalperi at smu.edu Wed Mar 4 14:19:27 2015 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Wed, 4 Mar 2015 14:19:27 -0600 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----MO., KAN., NEB., OKLA., S. DAK. Message-ID: March 4 MISSOURI: Forum to focus on death penalty A free forum on the death penalty is scheduled for 2 p.m. Tuesday at Missouri Western State University. "The Death Penalty: On Trial" is free and open to the public at 2 p.m. in Kemper Recital Hall, Spratt Hall room 101. Danixia Cuevas, a professor at Miami Dade College, will speak about the 2 trials required by the death penalty. Her expertise included conducting a detailed psycho-social mitigation history for the defendant in order to identify and present mitigating factors. David Tushaus, professor and chairman of criminal justice, legal studies and social work at Missouri Western, will present information about who gets executed in this country and across the globe. (source: St. Joseph News-Press) KANSAS: White supremacist faces death penalty for Jewish centre rampage A judge in Kansas' Johnson County has ordered white supremacist F. Glenn Miller Jr. to stand trial for killing 3 people outside Jewish facilities last April in Overland Park, Kansas. After a day and a half of preliminary hearing testimony, District Judge Kelly Ryan found that prosecutors had established probable cause to try Miller for capital murder and 5 other felony counts related to the April 13, 2014, rampage. Prosecutors wrapped up their case with testimony linking firearms recovered from Miller's car with shell casings and bullet fragments left at the two shooting scenes. Other testimony focused on the autopsy results. Miller, 74, allegedly drove from southwest Missouri to Johnson County to kill Jewish people. Three victims, all Christians, ended up dead. Miller, also known as Frazier Glenn Cross Jr., is charged with capital murder in those deaths. Prosecutors have said they will seek the death penalty. William Corporon, 69, and his 14-year-old grandson, Reat Underwood, were shot outside the Jewish Community Center, where Reat was participating in a talent competition. Terri LaManno, 53, was killed a few minutes later outside the Village Shalom care center, where she had gone to visit her mother. All 3 victims suffered devastating injuries from shotgun blasts, deputy Johnson County coroner Charles Glenn testified Tuesday. Corporon and his grandson were shot in the head at close range, Glenn testified Tuesday. LaManno was shot in the neck and probably died within seconds, he said. Crime scene investigators with the Johnson County sheriff's office testified about efforts to collect evidence, including spent shotgun shells and bullet shell casings. Deputies who searched Miller's car after his arrest found 4 firearms and a large amount of ammunition. A 12-gauge shotgun and .38-caliber revolver were on the front passenger seat, according to testimony. Another 12-gauge shotgun and a .30-caliber rifle were found in the boot. David Wright, a firearms examiner with the Johnson County crime lab, testified that spent shells recovered from both crime scenes were fired from the shotgun recovered from Miller's car boot. Bullets and bullet fragments found at the community center were fired from the rifle and pistol later taken from Miller's car, Wright said. On Monday, several witnesses identified Miller as the man they saw shooting at people that day. Overland Park police officers testified that when they arrested Miller, the avowed white supremacist asked how many Jews he had killed. In addition to the capital murder count, Miller was ordered to stand trial on 3 counts of attempted 1st-degree murder, aggravated assault and criminal discharge of a firearm into an occupied building. Although criminal defendants typically are arraigned after their preliminary hearing, defense attorney Mark Manna asked for a delay to consult Miller about speedy-trial issues. The arraignment is scheduled for March 27. As he has during most of his court appearances, Miller spoke to court spectators as he was being taken from the courtroom, saying his motivation could be found on a particular website linked to white supremacist ideology. After the preliminary hearing, the court took up a defense motion to allow Miller Internet access to assist in his defense while he is in jail. Miller reacted angrily when the judge would not let him speak on the issue. "If I can't talk, fire them both," he said, gesturing toward his lawyers and adding that he would represent himself. Miller said he wouldn't "participate" in the trial if he wasn't allowed to speak. "You're not going to gag me at this trial," he said while pointing at the judge. Ryan did not rule on the request for Internet access, which the sheriff's office opposes. (source: stuff.co.nz) NEBRASKA: Press conference calls for end to the death penalty The debate over the death penalty is once again in the legislature. Today a press conference is scheduled for family members of murder victims who are asking lawmakers to put an end to capital punishment. They will be presenting a letter which urges an end to a public policy they say only inflicts more harm on surviving families. They're supporting a bill introduced by State Senator Ernie Chambers who has worked for years to end the death penalty in Nebraska. The bill would repeal capital punishment and replace it with life without parole. Families in support of the bill say the state spends millions of dollars every year on capital punishment, they're hoping that money could go to services for victims. Supporters of the bill say they don't like the idea of applying the death penalty to "heinous murders" because it suggests some murders are normal and others are not. The press conference is today at 11 a.m. in the capitol rotunda. (source: KLKN TV news) OKLAHOMA: Nitrogen Gas Executions Approved by Oklahoma House Oklahoma would become the first state to allow the execution of death row inmates using nitrogen gas under a bill overwhelmingly approved on Tuesday by the House of Representatives. The House voted 85-10 for the bill by Oklahoma City Republican Rep. Mike Christian, who began studying alternative methods after a botched lethal injection in the spring that led the U.S. Supreme Court to consider the constitutionality of Oklahoma's current 3-drug method. Christian said numerous studies have been conducted on nitrogen hypoxia, which is similar to what pilots at high altitudes can encounter when oxygen supplies diminish. He described the method as humane, painless and easy to administer. "I believe it's revolutionary," said Christian, a former Oklahoma Highway Patrol trooper and a staunch advocate of the death penalty. "I think it's the best thing we've come up with since the start of executions by the government." Christian said prison officials in several other states expressed an interest in his proposal, but he declined to name them. Rep. Kevin Matthews, who voted against the bill, said he wished the Legislature would spend more time trying to solve such problems as low wages, a lack of affordable health care and poor education outcomes. "I just don't have the stomach for looking for new ways to kill people," said Matthews, a Tulsa Democrat. The bill now heads to the Senate, where a similar measure passed a committee earlier this year with bipartisan support. Under the bill, lethal injection would remain the state's 1st method of execution, but nitrogen gas would become the second alternative method and be used if injection were declared unconstitutional or if the drugs became unavailable. Under current law, electrocution is the 2nd option, followed by firing squad. The bill would make electrocution the 3rd method, followed by firing squad. Christian said there would be no need to construct a gas chamber and that the nitrogen could be administered inside a tent or through a secure mask worn by the inmate. He said the problem death penalty states are having securing lethal drugs would be alleviated with the purchase of a nitrogen generator, which would give prison officials an everlasting supply of the ingredient necessary to carry out executions. Unlike traditional gas chambers that used drugs such as cyanide that caused a buildup of carbon dioxide in the blood, Christian said breathing nitrogen would be painless because it leads to hypoxia, a gradual lack of oxygen in the blood. Although some members questioned Christian about how the method would work, there was no debate against the bill. No state has ever used nitrogen gas or inert gas hypoxia to execute an inmate, and there has not been any reported use of the method in other countries, according to Amnesty International's most recent report on the death penalty internationally. The 2013 report did note that execution data from China, the nation that executes the most people, is not readily available. Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases. "Without more research, I think this would be a very risky experiment," said Richard Dieter, executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based Death Penalty Information Center. "This is a human life that's being tested, and the standard should be much higher than ... 1 or 2 people saying, 'I think this will work.'" Executions in Oklahoma are on hold while the U.S. Supreme Court reviews the state's lethal injection method. The legal challenge, which was sparked by a botched execution last spring, centers on whether the sedative midazolam properly renders an inmate unconscious before the second and 3rd drugs are administered. Oklahoma officials concede midazolam is not the preferred drug for executions, but death penalty states have been forced to explore alternatives as manufacturers of more effective drugs refuse to sell them for use in lethal injections. House Bill 1879: http://bit.ly/1vetcRn (source: Associated Press) SOUTH DAKOTA: South Dakota protocols for lethal injection Concerns about the quality of a lethal injection drug to be used in a Georgia execution gives 1 woman a temporary stay. With 3 men sitting on death row in South Dakota, it raises concerns for some about the state's death penalty process. There are some who say the state has the proper protocols in place to prevent that from happening, while others say a death sentence is not a just punishment. It was an unexpected ending to a Georgia execution as many stood vigil to protest. Georgia Department of Corrections Public Relations & Information Coordinator Gwendolyn Hogan said "the drugs appeared cloudy. The Department of Corrections immediately consulted with the pharmacists and in an abundance of caution inmate Gissendaner execution has been postponed." Southeast South Dakota co-chair Leona Wieland said "it makes me realize that at least some of the recent executions have failed terribly." Here in South Dakota, Wieland stands for peace in justice. "I'm so glad they stopped it, because how do we justify being brutal," Wieland said. Not knowing the effects of the faulty drugs in the Georgia execution could be considered cruel and unusual punishment. South Dakota attorney general Marty Jackley said the state has protocols in place to prevent a similar situation. "There needs to be proper steps to ensure that there will not be unnecessary suffering, which is the process in which the drug protocols are designed to better insure that the carrying out of such sentences are constitutional," Jackley said. Meanwhile, 3 men face death by lethal injection in South Dakota. "I would anticipate, that those same drug protocols, that same careful work to carry those protocols out, will be the case when it comes to any further capital sentences here in South Dakota," Jackley said. "I question whether they are safe. I've been at the last 3 executions, and I felt there was a time lapse, and maybe, at the time, it just seemed like we were waiting and waiting," Wieland said. The Pax Christi co-chair said she believes life in prison would be a better punishment because there is hope people can change. The Georgia Department of Corrections has stopped other executions scheduled for the time being, so it can figure out what went wrong with the drug it was using. (source: KSFY news) From rhalperi at smu.edu Wed Mar 4 14:20:06 2015 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Wed, 4 Mar 2015 14:20:06 -0600 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----IDAHO, CALIF., ORE., WASH., USA Message-ID: March 4 IDAHO: Idaho court upholds lower court's death penalty sentence An Idaho death row inmate will remain there following an Idaho Supreme Court decision upholding a lower court's ruling rejecting a post-conviction relief request. The Idaho Supreme Court in a 189-page decision released Monday ruled that 37-year-old Azad Haji Abdullah's death sentence for killing his wife and trying to kill 3 children will remain in place. Abdullah received the death penalty after being convicted in 2004 of 1st-degree murder, 1st-degree arson, 3 counts of attempted 1st-degree murder, and felony injury to a child. Authorities say Abdullah in 2002 killed his wife in their Boise home and then set fire to the house with 2 of their children and a young friend asleep inside. Another of their children was in the backyard. (source: Associated Press) CALIFORNIA: Lawyer Proposes Death Penalty For Gays In California With "Sodomite Suppression Act" San Diego lawyer Matt McLaughlin has proposed a ballot initiative that calls for the death penalty for homosexuals in California. The Sodomite Suppression Act, McLaughlin's submission to the state Attorney General's office, declares same-sex sex is a "monstrous evil that Almighty God, giver of freedom and liberty, commands us to suppress on pain of our utter destruction, even as he overthrew Sodom and Gomorrha [sic]." And he thinks us sodomites would be better off dead: "It is better that offenders should die rather than that all of us should be killed by God's just wrath against us for the folly of tolerating wickedness in our midst, the People of California wisely command ... that any person who willingly touches another person of the same gender for purposes of sexual gratification be put to death by bullets to the head or by any other convenient method." Perhaps McLaughlin didn't hear California outlawed the death penalty last year? In an ironic tip of the hat to Vladimir Putin, the SSA also bans the distribution of "sodomistic propaganda," and bars LGBT people from holding public office. Another provision of the measure: This law is effective immediately and shall not be rendered ineffective nor invalidated by any court, state or federal, until heard by a quorum of the Supreme Court of California consisting only of judges who are neither sodomites nor subject to disqualification hereunder. If McLaughlin wants his initiative to make its way onto a public ballot, he'll need to get some 350,000 signatures. For now, California Attorney General Kamala D. Harris is giving it a look. (source: NewNowNext.com) OREGON: Handing over the reins of Oregon's Death Row Despite rumors on the subject, former Gov. John Kitzhaber did not commute Oregon's 34 pending death sentences before resigning last month -- although it wasn't like it would have gotten him into any more trouble. Kitzhaber, who'd been governor during Oregon's only 2 executions of the last half-century, had made it clear he wasn't going to sit through any more, but didn't feel the need to extend the ban beyond his own tenure. That left incoming Gov. Kate Brown as the new landlady of Oregon's death row, and the subject came up almost immediately. Last week, Brown told Jeff Mapes of The Oregonian/OregonLive that she personally opposed the death penalty and expected to continue Kitzhaber's moratorium. But she wouldn't say an execution was impossible, explaining that her thinking on the issue had become "more nuanced." It's possible to overstate the uncertainty here; offhand, you might expect Kate Brown to sign an execution order when Earl Blumenauer trades his bicycle for a rickshaw. And as she says, "I think there are a whole lot of issues that need to be resolved. And one of them is, can we even carry this out at this point in time in this country?" Technique is everything. And lately, all over the country, there are issues about not only why but how we execute people. (Or in Oregon's case, of course, how we don't.) Supplies of the drugs that have been part of the three-drug combination used in most U.S. executions have been running out, as European manufacturers, opposed to capital punishment, have been refusing to supply them. (After Kitzhaber declared his moratorium, Oregon said it would sell its supply back.) Replacement drugs have produced extended, messy executions in Arizona and Oklahoma, and some states, such as Ohio, have declared their own moratoriums until the situation is sorted out. For various reasons, the feds -- who don't execute a lot of people anyway -- have declared their own freeze, and outgoing Attorney General Eric Holder has urged states to do the same. There's anticipation of a Supreme Court ruling on which drugs are and aren't acceptable. Last month, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf, another new Democratic governor -- and there aren't many new Democratic governors -- declared an execution moratorium, as he said he would during his campaign. There are more than 180 convicts on Pennsylvania's death row; since the reinstatement of the death penalty by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1976, Pennsylvania has executed exactly 3 people. During that time, going through the motions of capital punishment has cost the state an estimated $350 million. It's said that more people on Pennsylvania's Death Row die of natural causes than of execution. Since 6 residents have been freed on appeal, you could also say more have been released than executed. "This unending cycle of death warrants and appeals diverts resources from the judicial system and forces the families and loved ones of victims to relive their tragedies each time a new round of warrants and appeals commences," Wolf wrote in his moratorium order. "The only certainty in the current system is that the process will be drawn out, expensive, and painful for all involved." Pennsylvania's situation, in fact, has been greatly like Oregon's -- maintaining at considerable effort and expense a penalty virtually never used. Pennsylvania managed to execute one more convict over 40 years than Oregon did, but it had many more sentenced -- and unlike Oregon's, its executions may not have been voluntary. Both states, like all the others, are dealing with the drug shortage. Last month, Utah's House of Representatives passed a bill restoring execution by firing squad; it now moves to the state Senate, and Wyoming is also taking aim. It's not as easy to imagine Oregon going in that direction, although we could probably find volunteers. There is talk about putting a repeal of capital punishment on the 2016 ballot, where the odds might be against it; many voters like the idea of capital punishment, even if it hardly ever happens in practice. People on Oregon's death row have been convicted of doing hideous things, making it even more curious for Oregon to spend large amounts on a decades-long appeals process that ends up giving them the choice of departure. Now that process is muddied even more by the challenges of actually carrying it out, with legal and procedural complications joined by pharmacological ones. And despite the great deal of attention the idea has gotten recently, we're probably not going to take up beheading. Although on this issue, we've been in no hurry to use ours. (source: Opinion, David Sarasohn, orefonlive.com) WASHINGTON: California case reignites Washington death penalty debate----In California a man is suing the state for not executing his family's killer -- despite being sentenced to death decades ago. A family in Washington is undergoing a similar situation. 30 years after the murder of his mother, sister and 2 nephews, a California man is suing that state for not executing the killer, even though he was sentenced to death. It has some people in Washington state wondering if they can pursue the same option. Kermit Alexander said he trusted in the legal system for years. But, the killer is still sitting in prison decades later. Because of that, Alexander filed a lawsuit demanding California put in place an execution protocol and end the murderer's life. Alexander won a small victory last month when a superior court judge agreed that he had standing to bring the action, so there will be a hearing on the merits of the suit. Washington state Governor Jay Inslee put a moratorium on the death penalty last year, but the California case has some Washington families looking at their options. Jane Hungerford Trapp was found dead at the top of a stairwell in Tacoma in 1996. Cecil Davis was convicted of her murder, and another, and was sentenced to death. 20 years later, Davis remains in the state penitentiary in Walla Walla. "We grew up learning that if you break the law, the law will punish you," said Kathy Obert, Hungerford-Trapp's niece. "Where is his punishment? He gets a new free home, paid for by us. This is just outrageously wrong." Obert said her family will be following the California case closely as they work to figure out if there are any other options when it comes to getting Davis executed. Jessie Ripley is Hungerford Trapp's daughter. She said it's been exceptionally difficult having her children grow up without a grandmother and spending most of her adult life without a mom. "He (Davis) doesn't get to say, 'Oh I wish I could see my family,' because, guess what? His family can go visit him. I don't get any of that. My children don't get any of that," Ripley said. "I'm sitting here working. My family is sitting here working to support him in a prison. Somebody who took something from us. Now I have to support him? Where's the justice in that." Governor Jay Inslee's office declined comment on this story, but it is expected that as long as he is in office, the moratorium on the death penalty in the state will remain in place. (source: KREM news) USA: Louis "Lepke" Buchalter Gets the Chair On March 4th 1944, one of the most notorious crime bosses in US History was executed by electric chair at Sing Sing Prison in New York. Louis "Lepke" Buchalter's execution gave him the distinction of being the only US mob boss to receive the death penalty from the US Government. Born in the Lower East Side of Manhattan in February 1897, Buchalter's family were Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe. His mother gave him the nickname "Lepkeleh", which means 'little Louis' in Yiddish, it was later shortened to "Lepke". Following the death of his father and his mother moving to Arizona for health reasons, Lepke was left in the care of his sister in New York. The time spent in his sister's care saw Buchalter's first involvement with crime. In September 1915, he was arrested for burglary and assault, although the case was discharged. In February 1916, he was again arrested for burglary, and sentenced to a juvenile offenders institute until July 1917. In September 1917, he was sentenced to 18 months in the state prison at Sing Sing in New York (the very same prison in which he would be killed decades later). Following his release in January 1919, he was arrested and sentenced again a year later, this time to a 30 month sentence. Following his release from prison in 1922, Buchalter moved into the world of organised crime with his fellow youthful crook Jacob "Gurrah" Shapiro. The 2 supposedly met after both attempted to rob the same pushcart, they quickly decided to pool their resources in order to extort Manhattan's pushcart owners. Establishing themselves through their extortion and protection businesses, they eventually joined Jacob Orgen's gang. Lepke terrorised New York's garment workers, taking control of the city's textile unions and receiving bribery payments from both employers and the union members. As the 1920s wore on, Lepke's reputation and presence in the New York underworld continued to grow, and he turned his attention to alcohol bootlegging, illegal gambling and ultimately, the narcotics trade. In many ways, Louis Buchalter was representative of a drastic change taking place in the world of American organised crime during this period. Buchalter was of Jewish origin, but he was not restricted to just working with members of New York's Jewish community. He was a member of the large Mafia concern run by Charles Luciano, who in turn had a close business relationship with Mayer Lansky, a gangster from a Russian Jewish family. Whereas the early 20th century had seen criminal organisations in the USA split along ethnic grounds, by the 1930s it was increasingly common for the old racial prejudices between different ethnic groups to be set aside for mutual financial gain. Buchalter's notoriety came from his running of an organisation of hired killers, which later came to be known as 'Murder Inc.', in reference to the business like approach it took to killing. Murder Inc. made profit through killing troublesome gangsters within the mob, as well as eliminating eye witnesses to the mob's crimes. Inevitably, it is difficult to determine exactly how many hit men were on the organisation's pay roll, and how many deaths it was responsible for, but it made Buchalter one of the most powerful gangsters in the United States. The details of his arrest in 1939 are particularly interesting. Up until then he had used bribery and intimidation to keep himself free from the authorities. However, in August, word was received by the FBI that he was willing to surrender, if a deal could be struck. On 24th August, he arranged to meet FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover to hand himself in. Although Buchalter was arrested before he reached the agreed meeting spot, he was brought to Hoover, and taken away in the director's black limousine. Buchalter initially escaped the death penalty, instead being sentenced to just 14 years in prison for narcotics offences, with his links to Murder Inc. initially being overlooked. Exact details of the deal he struck with Hoover are unknown, but the benefits did not last long. Buchalter was eventually turned over to New York authorities, run by District Attorney Thomas Dewey, who had vowed to give Buchalter the death penalty. Buchalter was eventually betrayed by Abe Reles, a mobster who had become an informant. Reles implicated Buchalter in 4 murders, and in December 1941 the boss of Murder Inc. was sentenced to death. Conspiracy theories surround the decision to execute Buchalter. When he was first arrested, the Chicago Tribune published an article claiming Buchalter had only avoided the death sentence because he had made a deal to keep silent about links between the Roosevelt administration and Murder Inc. These conspiracy theories had further weight attached to them after Buchalter's execution was delayed by two days. Officially, the delay was the result of a final appeal by Buchalter's attorney, relating to the procedures of Buchalter's arrest and trial. At the time however, New York's newspapers speculated that Buchalter had more information to reveal. In particular, this related to Sidney Hillman, a member of Roosevelt's administration. Hillman was also president of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America. Buchalter's earlier involvement with garment workers' unions led some to theorise that he could have held incriminating information on Hillman. Information which would have inevitably proved damaging to the whole Roosevelt administration. Despite the delay, Buchalter was put to the electric chair on 4th March 1944. The anniversary of his death provides a timely reminder of the prominence of organised crime in the United States in the 1930s and 1940s, and how entwined criminality became with US society and politics. (source: newhistorian.com) ************************* Jury selection continues in Colorado theater shooting case with questions about death penalty Jury selection in the Colorado theater shooting trial is continuing with attorneys asking prospective jurors about their views on the death penalty and mental illness. As of Tuesday, Judge Carlos Samour had asked 47 potential jurors to return for more questioning. He hopes to have 120 from which to choose 12 jurors and 12 alternates. Those selected will decide if James Holmes was legally insane during the 2012 attack that left 12 dead and 70 injured. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty. On Tuesday, Samour dismissed a woman who said she could never impose the death penalty and a clairvoyant, out of concern that she would apply her skills during testimony. A nurse, a data analyst and a woman who has a friend who knew some of the victims were asked to return. (source: Associated Press) ************************** Jury seated in US death penalty trial of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev After 2 months of jury selection, a panel of 12 jurors and 6 alternates was seated Tuesday for the federal death penalty trial of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. The panel consists of 8 men and 10 women. Opening statements in the case are scheduled for Wednesday. Tsarnaev, 21, faces 30 charges in connection with twin bombings at the finish line of the marathon April 15, 2013. 3 people were killed and more than 260 were injured. He is also charged in the killing of a Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer days after the bombings. If the jury convicts Tsarnaev, the trial will move on to a 2nd phase to determine his punishment. The only 2 options available for the jury are life in prison or the death penalty. Judge George O'Toole Jr., prosecutors and Tsarnaev's lawyers questioned prospective jurors individually. Many potential jurors were excused when they said they had already formed an opinion on Tsarnaev's guilt or were morally opposed to the death penalty. Many others were dismissed because of personal connections to the bombings, including people who have friends or family who were near the finish line when the bombs went off or who knew first responders who treated victims. During the jury selection process, Tsarnaev's lawyers tried repeatedly to get the trial moved out of Massachusetts, saying he could not find a fair and impartial jury because of the emotional impact the bombings had in the state. O'Toole rejected 3 change-of-venue motions, saying the process of carefully questioning jurors to detect bias was successful in finding impartial jurors. The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals twice refused to order the trial moved. (source: Fox News) *********************** Tsarnaev's lawyer admits he carried out Boston bombing----Tsarnaev may face death penalty if convicted in Marathon bombing Dzhokhar Tsarnaev went on trial for his life Wednesday in the Boston Marathon bombing with his own lawyer bluntly telling the jury he committed the crime. But she argued that he had fallen under the influence of his older brother. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has pleaded not guilty to 30 charges connected to the April 2013 explosions that killed 3 people and wounded more than 260 others. "It WAS him," Judy Clarke, one of the nation's foremost death-penalty defense attorneys, said of Tsarnaev in a startling opening statement in the most closely watched terrorism trial in the U.S. since the Oklahoma City bombing nearly 20 years ago. Laying out an argument aimed at saving Tsarnaev not from a guilty verdict but from the death penalty, Clarke said that the defense will not try to "sidestep" his involvement in the "senseless, horribly misguided acts carried out by 2 brothers." "The evidence will not establish and we will not argue that Tamerlan put a gun to Dzhokhar's head or that he forced him to join in the plan," Clarke said, "but you will hear evidence about the kind of influence that this older brother had." She began laying out her case after prosecutors sketched out the scene of horror at the marathon and accused Tsarnaev of cold-bloodedly planting a bomb designed to "tear people apart and create a bloody spectacle," and then hanging out with his college buddies as if nothing had happened. "He believed that he was a soldier in a holy war against Americans," Assistant U.S. Attorney William Weinreb said. "He also believed that by winning that victory, he had taken a step toward reaching paradise. That was his motive for committing these crimes." A shaggy-haired, goateed Tsarnaev, 21, slouched in his seat and looked at Weinreb as the prosecutor launched into his opening statement. 3 people were killed and more than 260 hurt when 2 pressure-cooker bombs exploded near the finish line seconds apart on April 15, 2013. Tsarnaev is accused of carrying out the attacks with his older brother, now dead. About 2 dozen victims took up the entire left-hand side the courtroom, watching somberly as Weinreb described the carnage. Several hung their heads and appeared to fight back tears. Weinreb said Tsarnaev carried a bomb in a backpack, and it was "the type of bombs favored by terrorists because it's designed to tear people apart and create a bloody spectacle." Sketching out the horrific scene on the streets after the 2 shrapnel-packed pressure-cooker bombs exploded, Weinreb said: "The air was filled with the smell of burning sulfur and people's screams." The prosecutor described how 8-year-old Martin Richard stood on a metal barrier with other children so he could get a good view of the runners. "The bomb tore large chunks of flesh out of Martin Richard," and the boy bled to death on the sidewalk as his mother looked on helplessly, Weinreb told the jury, with the boy's parents in the courtroom. After the bombings, Tsarnaev "acted like he didn't have a care in the world," the prosecutor said. Weinreb said Tsarnaev went back to the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth and hung out with his friends. "While victims of the bombing lay in the hospital and learned that they would have to have their limbs chopped off to save their lives, the defendant pretended that nothing had happened," Weinreb said. Clarke, in an opening statement that took less than 20 minutes, ended by asking the jury to "hold your hearts and minds open" until the second phase of the trial, when the defense will try to save Tsarnaev's life by presenting evidene that could mitigate his guilt. Among the victims in the courtroom was Heather Abbott, who lost a leg in the attack. None of the victims came in on crutches or in wheelchairs; all appeared to walk under their own power. Tsarnaev's lawyers have made it clear they will try to show that at the time of the attack, Tsarnaev, then 19, looked up to his older brother, Tamerlan, 26, and was heavily influenced by him. They plan to portray Tamerlan as the mastermind of the attack. He died in a shootout with police days after the bombings. But prosecutors say Dzhokhar was an equal participant who acted of his own free will. They contend the brothers - ethnic Chechens who arrived from Russia more than a decade ago - were driven by anger over U.S. wars in Muslim lands. Tsarnaev faces 30 charges in the bombings and the shooting death days later of a police officer from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Seventeen of the charges carry the possibility of the death penalty. Tsarnaev's lawyers fought right up until the last minute to have the trial moved out of Massachusetts, arguing that the emotional impact of the bombings ran too deep and too many people had personal connections to the case. Their requests were rejected by Judge George O'Toole Jr. and a federal appeals court. The panel of 10 women and 8 men was chosen Tuesday after 2 long months of jury selection, interrupted repeatedly by snowstorms and the requests to move the trial. The trial will be split into 2 phases - 1 to decide guilt or innocence, the other to determine punishment. If Tsarnaev is convicted, the jury will decide whether he gets life in prison or death. The trial is expected to last 3 to 4 months. Clarke, Tsarnaev's lawyer, has saved a string of high-profile clients from the death penalty, including Atlanta Olympics bomber Eric Rudolph; Unabomber Ted Kaczynski; and Jared Loughner, the man who killed 6 people and gravely wounded then-Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in a 2011 shooting in Tucson, Arizona. (source: WCVB news) From rhalperi at smu.edu Wed Mar 4 14:20:50 2015 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Wed, 4 Mar 2015 14:20:50 -0600 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide Message-ID: March 4 PAKISTAN: Abolition of death penalty for drug offences urged The International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) has called for the abolition of death penalty for drug-related offences. Releasing the INCB's annual report for 2014, its president said on Tuesday: "While the determination of specific sanctions applicable to drug-related offences remain the prerogative of states", the board again "encourages those states which retain and continue to impose death penalty for drug-related offences to consider abolishing the death penalty for such offences." It notes that drug control measures do not exist in a vacuum and that, in their implementation of drug control conventions, states must also comply with their obligations under other treaties, including the international human rights obligations. The report says: Around 5.5 billion people still have limited or no access to medicines containing narcotic drugs such as codeine or morphine, leaving 75 % of the world population without access to proper pain relief treatment. Underlining this discrepancy, the report notes that around 92pc of morphine used worldwide is consumed by only 17pc of the population, primarily living in the United States, Canada, Western Europe, Australia and New Zealand. Addressing the discrepancy in the availability of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances for medical and scientific purposes is one of the obligations for governments while complying with the international drug control conventions. To achieve a balanced and integrated approach to the drug problem, governments also should ensure that demand reduction is one of the first priorities of their drug control policies, while they should put greater emphasis on and provide support and appropriate resources to prevention, treatment and rehabilitation, the report says. It points out that natural disasters and armed conflicts around the world can further limit access to essential medicines, and therefore reminds states that in cases of emergency medical care, simplified control measures can be applied. States should also be aware, the report says, that under international humanitarian law, parties to armed conflicts have to allow access to medical care, including access to essential medicine, for the civilian population in territories under their control. The report notes that there has been an increase of 11pc in the number of new psychoactive substances (NPS) with 388 unique substances identified as of 2014, compared to 348 the previous year. The extent of use of NPS worldwide illustrates the dynamic nature of the drug problem. The INCB report also notes an increase of around 66pc in the global consumption of methylphenidate, a stimulant primarily used in the treatment of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). This may be attributable to various factors, including: the increasing number of ADHD patients; a widening of the age group of the population likely to receive the treatment and lack of adequate prescription guidelines added to strong and influential marketing practices. The South Asia region, owing to its location between the 'Golden Crescent' (Afghanistan and Pakistan) and the 'Golden Triangle' (Lao, Myanmar and Thailand) continued to be particularly vulnerable to the trafficking of opiates and heroin. In addition, widespread trafficking of cannabis, synthetic drugs and new psychotropic substances persisted in 2013. The report says maritime routes that depart from ports in Iran and Pakistan are increasingly being utilised to smuggle Afghan heroin, as the use of physical barriers and monitoring posts along the eastern land border of Iran has made overland trafficking increasingly difficult. Seizures of heroin at seaports by the Pakistani authorities more than doubled over the previous year, approaching 1.2 tons. The Anti-Narcotics Force also reported seizures of cocaine in 2013 and provided intelligence that assisted in effecting significant seizures of cocaine abroad, it says. The annual prevalence of opiate abuse among Pakistanis aged 15-64 years has grown from 0.7pc in 2006 to 1pc in 2013, concurrent with increases in trafficking of opiates via Pakistan. (source: Dawn) BANGLADESH: Kamaruzzaman review petition Thursday The counsels of condemned war criminal Mohammad Kamaruzzaman have said they would file the review petition, challenging the Jamaat leader's death penalty, on Thursday. Tajul Islam, spokesman of the defence lawyers, said they would file the review petition on Thursday, the last day for filing the petition. Earlier in the day, they met the war criminal at the Dhaka Central Jail. A 5-member lawyer team entered the central jail around 10:30am, said Forman Ali, senior jail superintendent of Dhaka Central Jail. When asked about the topic of their meeting, the police official said: "They are discussing legal issues." Earlier on February 28, a total of 8 members, including Kamaruzzaman's wife Nurunnahar, visited him at jail. In talking to reporters after the 30-minute meeting, Mohammad Shishir Manir, counsel for the death-row convict, said the family members went to see Kamaruzzaman as part of a regular visit. "We'll appeal to the higher court, and hope to get justice," the counsel added. On January 29, the last meeting took place. On February 19, prison authorities read out the death warrant to Kamaruzzaman immediately after International Crimes Tribunal-2 issued it. On February 18, the Supreme Court released the full text of the verdict against the war criminal. The review petition challenging his death penalty has to be filed in 15 days from the day the death warrant was read out to the convict. On November 3, 2014, the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court upheld the tribunal verdict that had awarded death sentence to the Jamaat-e-Islami assistant secretary general for committing crimes against humanity during the Liberation War in 1971. M Kamaruzzaman was shifted to Dhaka Central Jail from Kashimpur Jail in Gazipur after the SC upheld his death penalty. (source: Dhaka Tribune) ****************** Women, Children Repression Prevention Act ---- SC to deliver verdict on provision of death penalty any day The Supreme Court will deliver a verdict any day on a government appeal challenging a High Court judgment that scrapped a provision of death sentence under the Women and Children Repression Prevention (Special) Act 1995. According to Section 6 (2), a person will be given death sentence if found guilty of killing any woman or child after rape. A four-member bench of the Appellate Division, headed by Chief Justice SK Sinha, kept the appeal waiting for a verdict, as the apex court has earlier concluded its hearing. The government filed the appeal in 2010 following an HC judgment which, on March 2, 2010, declared the section illegal and unconstitutional, saying that whatever the nature of a crime is, death penalty cannot be the only punishment for criminals as per the constitution. The HC order came following a writ petition challenging legality of the act which was filed jointly by Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust, a rights organisation, and Sukur Ali of Manikganj, who was given death sentence on July 12, 2001, in a rape and murder case. The HC in 2010 also stayed the execution of Sukur's death sentence who is now in Dhaka jail. Earlier, Sukur filed an appeal with the HC against the death sentence but the HC on February 25, 2004 upheld the judgment while on February 23, 2005, the Appellate Division also upheld the HC verdict. (source: The Daily Star) AUSTRALIA: Australian Parliamentarians against the death penalty The co-chairs of the Australian Parliamentarians against the Death Penalty group, The Hon. Philip Ruddock MP and Mr. Chris Hayes MP have received advice that the President of the Senate, the Hon. Stephen Parry and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the Hon. Bronwyn Bishop MP have formally approved the reforming of the group for the 44th Parliament. Recent events involving two Australians on death row in Indonesia has put the issue of the death penalty at the front of mind for many Australians. The re-forming of this group is in response to a number of politicians who feel Australia has a role to play in ending the death penalty internationally. "I have fought against the death penalty, as a matter of principle, for the entirety of my Parliamentary career. "This is still something I feel passionately about and will continue to raise among colleagues at home and abroad. Australia must take a firm stance against this barbaric practice", Mr. Ruddock said. Mr. Hayes holds equally strong views against capital punishment. "I oppose the death penalty wherever it occurs. To me, capital punishment is the most cruel and inhuman response to crime. It represents a violation of the most basic of all human rights; and that is life itself. "My opposition to capital punishment, including advocacy for its abolition, is universal and not only when it involves Australians???, Mr. Hayes said. So far 36 Federal Parliamentarians from across the Parliament have sought membership of this group. The group will be meeting with legal experts, foreign dignitaries, foreign parliamentarians and human rights groups to discuss the role Australia can play in advocating against the death penalty. THE HON PHILIP RUDDOCK MP, MEMBER FOR BEROWRA MR CHRIS HAYES MP, MEMBER FOR FOWLER (source: reversepr.com.au) GAMBIA: Rights Group Demands Action On Gambia's Rights Abuses Amnesty International has called on the UN Human Rights Council (HRC), its members and observer states to establish an investigation into human rights violations by the Gambian regime of President Yahya Jammeh. In a statement issued ahead of the 28th session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva where a report by the Special Rapporteurs on torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment in the Gambia will be discussed, the rights group said it has over the years documented numerous cases of intimidation, arbitrary arrest and detention, torture, enforced disappearance and unlawful killings of journalists, human rights defenders and political activists in Gambia. Torture The London-based organisation said although the Jammeh regime had in November 2014 denied the Rapporteurs access to the Security Wing of Mile 2 prison, where death row prisoners and others sentenced to long prison terms are held, their preliminary findings have revealed that torture is prevalent in the small West African country. It added that their reports on the deteriorating human rights situation including torture and other ill-treatment of people in the Gambia are similar to the findings of the Rapporteurs. It said the Rapporteurs have noted in their report that "the nature of the torture is brutal and includes very severe beatings with hard objects or electrical wires; electrocution, asphyxiation by placing a plastic bag over the head and filling it with water and burning with hot liquid. These methods of torture generally occurred over a period of days or even weeks." Prison Conditions The rights group added that the Rapporteurs have also expressed concerns about prison conditions in the Gambia and the lack of an effective complaints mechanism to address allegations of torture and other ill-treatment. Amnesty International said it has received information of recent arrests and torture of a homophobic nature and it has recorded that at least eight people, including 3 women and a 17-year-old boy, were arrested by the Gambia's National Intelligence Agency (NIA) and Presidential Guards in November 2014 and threatened with torture because of their presumed sexual orientation. "All those arrested were detained under investigation for "homosexuality" and were subjected to ill-treatment, such as beating, sensory deprivation and the threat of rape to force them to confess their "crimes", it added. "Amnesty International received information that a further 6 individuals were reportedly arrested in November and December 2014 on the same grounds; 3 of the men arrested are currently facing trial in the High Court of Banjul." The rights group added that it has also received information that Gambian law enforcement agencies including the NIA and Presidential Guard have arrested at least 30 persons, including a 16-year-old boy, since the beginning of January after a failed alleged coup attempt in the capital Banjul on 30 December 2014. It said the detainees are being held incommunicado and without charge and security forces have threatened to arrest anyone demanding the release or whereabouts of those arbitrarily detained. "Amnesty International is concerned about the use of arbitrary detention and torture and other ill-treatment against human rights defenders or opponents of the regime," the right group said. "It is also concerned about restrictions to the right to freedom of expression, in particular through successive legislation passed in recent years unnecessarily restricting this right and imposing increased punishments." It added that recent amendments to the Criminal Code in May 2013, which include the charge of providing "false information to a public servant" is broad and subject to abuse by law enforcement authorities, in particular the NIA. It added that the new law is also likely to result in the detention and interrogation of persons, in particular, journalists and human rights defenders and others who express dissent, all of whom are at risk of torture or ill-treatment during interrogation. Amnesty International added: "The shrinking space allowed for human rights activism and any form of political dissent is a major obstacle to exposing, preventing and addressing the use of torture and other ill-treatment in Gambia." Death Penalty The rights group said although the Gambia has put in place a conditional moratorium on the death penalty since the execution of 9 death row inmates in August 2012, prisoners continue to be exposed to "death row phenomenon", which is "a combination of circumstances that produce severe mental trauma and physical deterioration in prisoners under sentence of death". It added that the executions in 2012, which took place after a 27-year-long moratorium, were carried out without informing the prisoners, their lawyers or families in advance, and the authorities did not return the bodies of the executed to their families for burial. The right group called on the Jammeh regime to desist from reprisals and intimidation against persons cooperating with the UN in the field of human rights, improve the conditions of detention in all places of detention and ensure that prisoners and detainees have access to medical care, adequate and appropriate food, hygiene and exercise. It also called on the regime to investigate all allegations of torture or other ill-treatment and hold to account the individuals responsible, establish an independent mechanism that promptly and effectively investigates all allegations of torture or ill-treatment, establish a permanent moratorium on executions, with a view to abolition, commute all death sentences, and ensure that prisoners on death row enjoy fully their right to seek clemency. It further called on the regime to immediately end the policy of continued harassment, intimidation, arbitrary arrest and torture of people due to their perceived sexual orientation and of human rights defenders, journalists, political activists, and their families, repeal legislation that restricts freedom of expression inconsistently with human rights standards and ratify human rights treaties, including the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment and its Optional Protocol, the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, and the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance. (source: Jollof News) SOUTHEAST ASIA: The death penalty in SE Asia: is there a trend towards abolition? In 2013, scholars David T. Johnson and Franklin E. Zimring characterised Asia as the "next frontier" in the global campaign to abolish the death penalty. While hard data on death penalty practices is notoriously difficult to find, there are indications of a Southeast Asian trend towards abolition. The death penalty was abandoned in the Philippines in 2006, East Timor in 1999 and Cambodia in 1989. The last known executions in Laos and Myanmar were in 1989. Thailand has a high rate of clemency, which amounts to "de facto" abolition - its last reported execution was in 2009. Bucking this alleged trend, Malaysia executed 2 people in 2013 and an average of 1 person per year between 2007 and 2011. Indonesia resumed executions in 2013, ending a practical moratorium that began in 2008. Before that it executed between 1 and 10 people annually. So far Indonesia has executed 6 people in 2015 and 2 Australians, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, are being transferred on Wednesday to a prison island where they will be executed. Vietnam allegedly executes about 100 people a year. Singapore hanged 2 people in 2014, none between 2010 and 2013, and at least 1 each year from 2007 to 2009. Generalisations about the death penalty in Southeast Asia suggest abolitionist sentiments are increasing, yet practices vary substantially. To better understand the trends we must consider the context and political priorities of states that retain the death penalty. This is not to deny the significance of the death penalty reform movement, but to say that this activism must be understood in a local context. The death penalty in Vietnam In 2005, Vietnam reduced the offences to which the death penalty applies from 44 to 22. These reforms reportedly arose from an ambition to advance human rights. The debate in Vietnam about changing sentencing principles is ongoing. Proposed changes include an exemption from the death penalty for people aged over 70; a qualification that the death penalty only apply in "particularly serious cases"; and the possibility of a suspended death penalty provision. This last approach involves the court ordering the death penalty, but suspending its implementation pending proof of rehabilitation over a period of years. Vietnam also briefly suspended executions by firing squad. This followed a government decision in late 2011 that execution should be more humane and be done by lethal injection. Subsequently, the European Union imposed a ban on the export of a constituent chemical, Propofol, which resulted in a radical increase in the number of prisoners on death row and an impasse about whether to reinstate death by firing squad. In August 2013, executions by lethal injection began after ingredients were developed locally. In effect, Vietnam is reformist and reductionist - but it is premature to classify it as abolitionist. The death penalty in Singapore Arguably, Singapore echoes a reductionist, rather than an abolitionist, trend. Activists are seeking the abolition of the death penalty locally. In 2013 Singapore amended the Misuse of Drugs Act to remove the mandatory death penalty in drug cases. The act now allows for a life sentence and caning when an accused demonstrates that they were only a courier and that they provided "substantial assistance" to the authorities. The latter must be evidenced by a certificate from the Public Prosecutor. Government figures claimed that the reform targeted increased co-operation with police. It did not reflect an abolitionist agenda. Others argue that global condemnation of the Singaporean government in 2005, when it executed young Australian drug mule Van Tuong Nguyen, contributed to the removal of the mandatory death penalty for some drug offences. The next frontier? If Asia is indeed the "next frontier", what is the status of abolitionism today in Vietnam and Singapore? There are now live discussions about abolition throughout these countries, particularly among lawyers, and this is nurtured through pragmatic support. This is balanced by those advocating for its retention, particularly where drugs, terrorism or treason are involved. However, when jurisdictions want to execute foreign citizens they must navigate particular perils. This is especially true when global media are galvanised against them. Vietnamese practice suggests there has been differential treatment for some foreign nationals, made possible through the clemency process. Singapore rejects this approach, yet recent legal changes in Singapore offer "substantial assistance" as a means to avoid execution. Could this deliver the possibility of (foreigners) escaping the death penalty? Current practices suggest Vietnam and Singapore demonstrate practical ways to reduce the incidence of the death penalty, particularly where foreigners are involved, rather than abolitionist tendencies. It is important to distinguish social and global media focus on the death penalty, which can either assist or hinder abolitionism, from policy changes. At this stage, the death penalty remains in Singapore and Vietnam with little prospect of abolition. What we have seen are more humane approaches to execution (Vietnam) and reductionist reforms (both states). Over time, the prospect of foreign nationals escaping the death penalty seems likely to increase - although current experience in Indonesia exemplifies the danger of assuming this. (source: The Conversation) From rhalperi at smu.edu Wed Mar 4 14:21:45 2015 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Wed, 4 Mar 2015 14:21:45 -0600 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide Message-ID: March 4 INDONESIA: How Indonesia carries out the death penalty: rules of execution ----- As Australians Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran await execution along with nationals from Brazil, France, Ghana, the Philippines and Nigeria, Indonesia sets out the rules governing their deaths The convicted prisoner must be notified 72 hours before execution. While waiting, they must be held in a special prison. If the convicted prisoner wants to say something, the statement or the message must be received by the prosecutor. If the convicted prisoner is pregnant, the execution will take place 40 days after the child is born. Their lawyer can attend the execution. The execution is not performed in public and conducted in the most modest possible way unless determined otherwise by the president. The head of local police forms the shooting team, consisting of one non-commissioned officer and 12 privates, under the command of an officer. The convicted prisoner can be accompanied by a spiritual counsellor. They must dress modestly. The commander will blindfold them with a piece of fabric, unless asked not to. They can stand, sit or kneel. If necessary their hands or feet will be tied to a pole. There will be between 5 and 10 metres between the convicted prisoners and the shooting team. In previous executions, the shooting team has comprised 12 men with rifles - 3 of them with live rounds - who aim at targets over the convicted prisoner's heart. Using a sword for the signal, the commander will order "ready" by swinging his sword up, ordering the team to aim at the convict's heart. By swinging his sword down quickly, he orders "shoot". If the convicted isn't killed, the non-commissioned officer is ordered to shoot his pistol into the prisoner's head, above the ear. A doctor will confirm the death and a report will be prepared on the execution. The body is handed to family or friends for burial, or to the state, with attention paid to religious beliefs. (source: The Guardian) ******************************* Indonesia regresses with the use of the death penalty ---- The prospect of execution of two Australians in Indonesia has caught international media attention, amid Australian protest. But these are part of a wider official spasm, in a country dominated by a 'tough on crime' narrative. It had seemed Indonesia was moving away from resort to the death penalty: it ended a 5-year pause in the use of death penalty in 2013. Yet after little over 4 months in office, the president, Joko Widodo, has overseen the executions of 6 prisoners, with a further 11 planned in the coming month. The executions, all for drug-related offences, involve foreign nationals, including from Australia, Brazil, Nigeria, Spain, the Netherlands and Vietnam. And there has been strong external condemnation: Brazil and the Netherlands have recalled their ambassadors, while Australia is imploring Widodo to stay the executions of Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, due in the days ahead. As Diane Zhang has pointed out, just two months into 2015 more executions are set to take place in the country than in any previous year???indeed if the 11 go ahead as planned, as many on a single day as any prior annual toll in democratic Indonesia. Shocking The resumed use of the death penalty is shocking. The practice is increasingly deemed unacceptable internationally, with a record 114 countries now supporting a moratorium. There is, more than ever, a shared sense that this is an unjust penalty incompatible with the human-rights standards the international community expects states to uphold. It is also surprising: Widodo was mostly seen as a progressive reformer, with his trademark peace sign and promise to address government corruption following his election. The justice system is one area where corruption remains a prominent issue. Police powers and brutality have been common complaints among Indonesians and the decision by Parliament in January to appoint as national police chief an officer being investigated by the Corruption Eradication Committee led to public protests - the president has overruled the appointment. Tied humanitarian assistance is, of course, a very outdated approach to aid. Widodo however endorses Indonesia's established 'tough on crime' stance, citing the devastating effects of drugs in particular. Yet this can facilitate the very corruption, lack of professionalism and inefficiencies the president seeks to curb. 'Tough on crime' approaches empower the police and others within the criminal justice system, while weakening the position of suspects. In Indonesia they have been demonstrated to provide cover for harsh policing tactics, high levels of arrest, excessive pre-trial detention, weak presumption of innocence and heavy sentencing. They thus do little to curb corruption and abuse of power and support justice. And while it might seem logical to assume that being 'tough on crime' makes for a safer society, evidence suggests the opposite. Not helpful Yet the way the issue of the death penalty in Indonesia has been dealt with internationally has not always been helpful. The mounting pressure from Australia has highlighted important points - the capacity of offenders to reform and make valuable contributions to society, as well as the Indonesian government's own efforts to secure clemency for its citizens facing the death penalty overseas. But there have also been bungled efforts. The Australian prime minister, Tony Abbott, said he felt "let down" that Indonesia could execute 2 Australian nationals, given the AUD 1 billion of assistance his country had provided following the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami. The veiled threat has understandably not gone down well in Indonesia - prompting a 'coins for Abbott' campaign, with Indonesians donating money to give back to the Australian government. The very small role that Australian aid plays in the Indonesian economy also suggests that Australia is not likely to influence policies by using aid as a threat. Tied humanitarian assistance is, of course, a very outdated approach to aid. Such assistance benefits those most affected by disasters - usually the poorest and most vulnerable. It makes no sense to make them suffer further, by attaching political strings. More fundamentally, Abbott's comment misses the point. Indonesia should not end the use of the death penalty as a quid pro quo for development aid. The country should do so because it is an abhorrent practice which has no place in any justice system and is no longer accepted among the international community of states. It represents a sad, backward step for Indonesia's justice system and its human-rights record. (source: Lisa Denney, opendemocracy.net) **************************** Indonesia nearly ready to execute 9 foreign drug smugglers Indonesia is nearly ready to execute by firing squad 9 foreigners and an Indonesian condemned for drug smuggling as diplomatic squabbles persist over the executions. The preparations at the execution site have been completed and 4 foreign convicts will be transferred to Nusakambangan Island's maximum-security prison facilities this week, said Attorney General Muhammad Prasetyo. The 4 are Australians Andrew Chan, 31, and Myuran Sukumaran, 33, who are currently in a Bali jail, Raheem Agbaje Salami, 45, a Nigerian national who was born in Cordova, Spain, and 30-year-old Filipina Mary Jane Fiesta Veloso. "We are just awaiting a report of their transfer preparation," Prasetyo told reporters in the capital, Jakarta, but gave no date for the executions. Bali Chief Prosecutor Momock Bambang Sumiarso said Chan and Sukumaran would be moved Wednesday. The 4 convicts being transferred, 2 Nigerians and 4 men from Brazil, France, Ghana and Indonesia will be executed simultaneously by a firing squad on the prison island off Indonesia's main island of Java. The Nigerians face execution after their clemency requests were rejected by Indonesian President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo last month, said Attorney General's office spokesman Tony Spontana. They are Silvester Obiekwe Nwolise, 39, and Okwudili Oyatanze, 40, whose clemency was rejected after he was caught running drug transactions from behind bars. Jokowi has received phone calls from some foreign leaders asking that the executions be canceled, but rejected their requests. He vowed not to grant mercy to drug offenders because Indonesia is suffering a "drug emergency." The Indonesian government last week recalled its newly designated ambassador for Brazil, Toto Riyanto, to protest the abrupt postponement of the approval of his credentials by Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff amid tensions over the imminent execution of its citizen, Rodrigo Gularte, 42. Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has called on Indonesia to "reciprocate" for Australia's $1 billion aid package after the 2004 tsunami by sparing his 2 countrymen. Indonesia executed 6 drug convicts including foreigners in January. More than 130 people are on death row, including 57 drug convicts (source: Yahoo News) *********************** Lawyers for Filipina on death row: Her translator was just a student----Mary Jane Fiesta Veloso's lawyers argue that she deserves a case review because of this When Philippine citizen Mary Jane Fiesta Veloso was tried, convicted and sentenced to death in 2010 for smuggling heroin into Indonesia, the translator provided her was only a student. Lawyers for Veloso, a 30-year-old single mother of 2, told the Sleman District Court in Yogyakarta on Tuesday, March 3, that this should be grounds to grant the request for her case to be reviewed by the Supreme Court. If the court's 3 judges don't agree, Veloso will be sent to face the firing squad on Nusakambangan prison island along with 9 other convicts, including the Bali 9 pair from Australia. A case review request is the final legal option open to her. 'Only Tagalog' "The defendant does not speak English and Indonesian. She can only use Tagalog, but she was not provided a competent interpreter," lawyer Agus Salim told the court, according to Okezone.com. The interpreter provided was a student and did not have a license from the Association of Indonesian Translators, he added. Veloso, who comes from a poor family in Bulacan, north of Manila, only finished high school. She was in Malaysia supposedly to work as a domestic helper, but her would-be employer failed to meet her, the court heard on Tuesday. With 2 children back home, she agreed to an offer by foreigners to bring two suitcases to Indonesia. She was only supposed to bring the two suitcases with her on board the April 25, 2010, AirAsia flight from Kuala Lumpur to Yogyakarta, and someone was supposed to pick her up at the airport and get the package from her. But that last part never happened, because she was arrested before exiting the airport. Concealed inside the suitcases were packs of heroin wrapped in aluminum foil estimated to have a street value of IDR6.5 billion at the time (about $500,000 today). Veloso maintains she did not know the suitcases contained heroin, according to local news outlet Radar Jogja. But subsequent appeals have failed and, in January, President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo rejected her clemency request along with all others from drug convicts as part of his new administration's harsh stance on the death penalty. 'No correlation' Prosecutors did not agree with Veloso's lawyer, however. Any objection to the translator should have been filed at the beginning of the 1st trial, prosecutor S Anggraeni said. "The translator was also sworn in," he added, according to Okezone. "There are no rules about the interpreter having to meet certain qualifications." There was also no correlation between the status of the translator and the substance of the trial, he said, arguing that this meant Veloso's lawyers failed to present new evidence - the requirement for a case review to be granted. The trial will resume on Wednesday, with Veloso's camp expected to present witnesses to bolster her case. Indonesia's Attorney General has previously stated that Veloso was included in the next batch of 10 drug convicts to face the firing squad - the only woman and the convict who has spent the shortest time on death row in the list. However, Philippines Foreign Affairs spokesman Charles Jose said the execution had been "deferred because of the judicial review we requested." During a state visit to the Philippines on February 9, Jokowi and Philippines President Benigno Aquino III signed 4 agreements, including one to combat illegal drug-trafficking. Contrary to previous reports, Charge d'Affairs Roberto G. Manalo of the Philippine Embassy said Aquino brought up Veloso's case with Jokowi during the visit. Jokowi has issued a blanket rejection of all clemency requests from drug convicts on death row, citing Indonesia's drug emergency, despite mounting international pressure and calls for him to consider each case on its own merit. (source: rappler.com) ************************************ Indonesia may delay execution of 'mentally-ill' Brazilian convict Indonesian Vice President Jusuf Kalla says the execution of a convicted Brazilian drug smuggler could be postponed, if he is proved to be mentally ill. "If he has a certain illness, he has to be treated first, let alone mental illness," the Media Indonesia daily quoted the vice president as saying on Tuesday. Brazilian national Rodrigo Gularte, 42, was convicted and sentenced to death in 2005 for smuggling cocaine into Indonesia and is among 11 death-row prisoners who are expected to be executed this month. Inmates who are set to be executed include 2 Australians and 1 each from the Philippines, France, Nigeria, Indonesia and Ghana. Last year, Gularte's family managed to file a request for a thorough examination of his mental health with the help of the Brazilian embassy in Jakarta. Eventually, the offender's family appealed for a pardon on the grounds that he had been diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic, who is delusional with psychotic tendencies. However, Indonesia's President Joko Widodo has warned that nothing can derail the planned execution of the 11 convicts, calling on foreign countries not to intervene in the Asian country???s internal affairs. 6 of them were executed in January. Indonesia's Attorney General Muhammad Prasetyo said on February 27 that Jakarta may go ahead with plans to execute the Brazilian drug smuggler despite claims by the convict???s family that he is suffering from schizophrenia. "We are seeking a 2nd opinion from an independent doctor because the one who certified him as mentally ill was a doctor appointed by his lawyers," Prasetyo said. He added that Gularte could still face execution under the country's law regardless of his current health condition. Attorney General spokesman Tony Spontana said on Monday the inmates would be transferred to the Nusakambangan island prison complex off Java this week, where they are due to be shot. He, however, did not give a precise date for the executions. Indonesia is also currently engaged in a standoff with Australia over the execution plan of Andrew Chan, 31, and Myuran Sukumaran, 33, who were arrested in 2005 on charges of smuggling 8.3 kilograms of heroin out of the Indonesian resort island of Bali into Australia. Australia says the 2 convicts should be spared on the grounds that they have been fully rehabilitated. More than 138 people are on death row in Indonesia mostly for drug crimes. Drug offenders face harsh punishments including the death penalty in the country. About 1/3 of the convicted are foreigners. (source: Press TV) *************************** Bali 9 duo to be moved to execution site----Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, pictured in 2006 Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran are aware they are about to be moved 2 Australian drug-smugglers facing the death penalty in Indonesia will be transferred on Wednesday to the island where they will be executed, authorities in Bali have confirmed. The execution by firing squad of Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, is expected soon after the transfer. Australia's foreign minister said she would continue to press the Indonesian government for a stay of execution. Indonesia has some of the toughest drug laws in the world. "It [the transfer] is planned for tomorrow [Wednesday] afternoon. Everything is ready. We will use 2 planes for the convicts and security personnel," the head of the Bali High Court, Momock Bambang Samiarso, told journalists. Chan and Sukumaran will be transferred from Kerobokan jail in Bali to maximum security prison facilities on Nusakambangan Island, off Java, where the execution will take place. They will be accompanied by 2 other prisoners from the Bali jail, the Associated Press reported. The pair - a 45-year-old Nigerian man and a 30-year-old woman from Spain - are also facing execution. Indonesia's Nusa Kambangan prison, pictured in 2015 Indonesia's Nusa Kambangan prison, where the executions are due to take place The 4 will be simultaneously executed along with six others from Nigeria, Brazil, France, Ghana and Indonesia, AP said. Australia has mounted a sustained diplomatic campaign to try and stop the shootings going ahead. "I will continue to contact counterpart ministers to press for a stay of execution," Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop was quoted as saying by the Sydney Morning Herald. Chan and Sukumaran were convicted of trying to smuggle heroin out of Indonesia in 2005, but relatives and supporters have argued that they have been rehabilitated while in jail. Lawyers for the 2 men said they were still attempting to mount a legal challenge but Mr Prasetyo said on Monday that any legal appeals were no longer valid following the earlier rejection of clemency by Indonesian President Joko Widodo. Who are the Bali 9? The 8 men and 1 woman were arrested in April 2005 at an airport and hotel in Bali, Indonesia after a tip-off from Australian police. They were trying to carry 8.3kg (18lb) of heroin back to Australia In 2006 a court ruled that Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran had recruited the others and paid their costs. They were sentenced to death The other 7 are serving sentences of between 20 years and life, after some had death sentences revoked on appeal Chan and Sukumaran have repeatedly appealed against their sentences and say they are reformed characters - Chan teaches Bible and cookery classes in prison while Sukumaran is an artist Earlier in the month, all of Australia's living former prime ministers made a united plea for Indonesia to spare the lives of Chan and Sukumaran. Indonesia ended a 4-year moratorium on executions in 2013. (source: BBC News) IRAN----executions 6 Sunni Kurdish Prisoners Were Executed This Morning----6 death row Kurdish Sunni prisoners who had been transferred to an unknown location yesterday, have been executed. Iran Human Rights (IHR) strongly condemns this inhumane act and holds the Iranian authorities' leader Ali Khamenei responsible for this barbaric act. According to reliable reports from Iran, the 6 Sunni Muslim prisoners,Jamshid and Jahangir Dehgani (brothers), Hamed Ahmadi and Kamal Molayee, Sedigh Mohammadi and Hadi Hosseini belonging to the Kurdish ethnic minority in Iran were executed early Wednesday morning in Rajaishahr prison of Karaj. Their families and several well known human rights defenders and other people had gathered outside the prison several hours before the execution. Iran Human Rights (IHR) strongly condemns executions of the 6 prisoners and urges the international community to condemn this barbaric act. Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, the spokesperson of IHR said: "We hold Ali Khamenei, the Supreme leader of the Iranian authorities responsible for this inhumane act. The international community, and especially the countries involved in the dialogue with Iran must condemn these executions. Anything else will send the wrong signal to the Iranian people and the authorities. The world must show that their dialogue with the Iranian authorities also benefits the human rights". Hamed Ahmadi, Jamshid Dehghani and his younger brother Jahangir Dehghani, Kamal Molayee, Hadi Hosseini and Sedigh Mohammadi were sentenced to death after being convicted of vaguely-worded offences including Moharebeh (enmity against God) and "corruption on earth". They had been subjected to torture, ill-treatment and unfair trial. Background: Jamshid and Jahangir Dehgani (brothers), Hamed Ahmadi and Kamal Molayee were arrested in 2009. They were accused along with 6 others of involvement in the assassination of a senior Sunni cleric with ties to the Iranian authorities. They have denied any involvement, saying that their arrest and detention preceded the assassination by several months. They were sentenced to death by the branch 28 of the Revolutionary Court in Tehran, convicted of "Moharebeh" (enmity against God) and "acts against the nation's security". Their trial lasted about 10 minutes and they haven't seen their lawyer, according to sources who have been in contact with Iran Human Rights (IHR). The 6 other prisoners were executed in December 2012, but the death sentences of the 4 prisoners were postponed. Their execution was scheduled to be carried out in on September 25, 2013, and June 15, 2014, but it was postponed possibly due to the international attention. In 2014 more than 19 human rights group called on the Iranian authorities to stop the execution of 33 Sunni prisoners. ******************** 11 Prisoners Executed in Iran 1 prisoner was hanged publicly in Darab (Southern Iran) early Tuesday morning reported the Iranian media, and 10 prisoners were executed in the Adelabad prison of Shiraz according to the rights groups. Quoting Mousavi,the Prosecutor of Darab, the local news website Darab online reported that the prisoner who was hanged outside the city,s silo was convicted of rape. The prisoner was not identified by name. According to the "Human rights activists news agency" (HRANA) 10 prisoners were hanged in the Adelabad prison of Shiraz (Southern Iran) early this morning. 7 of the prisoners were convicted of drug related charges while the 3 others were charged with murder said the report. The official Iranian sources have not announced the 10 executions in Shiraz yet. (source for both: Iran Human Rights) **************** 21 Prisoners to Be Executed in Alborz Province by Tomorrow Morning 15 death row prisoners of Ghezel Hesar Prison in Karaj have been taken to solitary confinements. Considering 6 Sunni prisoners who are scheduled to be executed tomorrow, 21 prisoners are going to be executed in Alborz Province by the next dawn. According to the report of Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), 15 prisoners of Ghezel Hesar prison in Karaj who have been sentenced to death on charges of drug dealing have been transferred to solitary confinements to be executed by tomorrow morning. "The prisoners have been taken out of different halls of section 2 today at 9:30 am." A prisoner of Ghezel Hesar Prison told HRANA's reporter "This was all these prisoners' 1st detention record." The source said The authorities have called their families and told them to go to Ghezel Hesar Prison for the last visit. 4 of these prisoners were from hall 3 of section 2 of the prison. The trend in Ghezel Hesar Prison has always been to execute 10 prisoners together. 6 Sunni death row prisoners of Rajai Shahr Prison have also been transferred to solitary confinements today to be executed by tomorrow morning. These prisoners are: Hamed Ahmadi, Kamal Molai, Jamshid Dehghani, Jahangir Dehghani, Sedigh Mohammadi and Seyed Hadi Hosseini. (source: HRA News Agency) ************************ Man hanged in public see: http://www.ncr-iran.org/en/news/human-rights/18035-iran-graphic-photos-man-hanged-in-public-in-darab (source: NCR-Iran) UNITED ARAB EMIRATES: Death penalty upheld for tourist who killed ex-employer during robbery----Worker who stabbed wealthy man to death gets death sentence at Dubai court The death penalty for a man who stabbed a wealthy father of 3 to death was upheld by Dubai Court of Appeal on Wednesday morning. Afghan tourist B?S, 21, was handed the death sentence, while his countrymen TR, 21, and 22-year-old AA were given life sentences for plotting to rob their Iraqi victim, HK Their life terms were also upheld. BS had worked for the Iraqi for a short time and realised that he carried large sums of money. Records state that, on the night of November 6, 2012, the victim was attacked by the 3 men, who stabbed him with 2 knives, mainly in the back. In the scuffle, the Iraqi managed to take one of the knives and stab BS in the chest but he was soon overpowered and the trio continued to stab their victim until the blades of the knifes broke under the skin of his back. Shortly after midnight, a police patrol found a car driving around the Russian area of International City and stopped the vehicle. Speaking in court in June last year, YQ, a 45-year-old policeman, said: "We stopped the driver, BS, and noticed bloodstains on his shirt but he said he had bled from his nose while playing tennis." The officer then asked BS to hand over his driver's licence and vehicle registration but he replied that he did not have either to hand. BS was taken to a police station, where the stab wound in his chest was found. "He then confessed that he killed the car's owner because he tried to rape him," said the policeman. BS went on to say that he had worked for the victim for more than 20 days and had complied with the man's demands for massages. "On the day of the incident he asked me to have sex with him, so I punched him in the face and then he stabbed me in the chest and I grabbed another knife and stabbed him until he died," BS said in records. He said that he then called his 2 friends to help him escape. AK, a supervisor who had known the victim since 1998, said BS was given a job but, 5 days after he was hired, the Iraqi sacked him. "He told me that BS had often sought financial help from him and he repeatedly helped him and that, when he returned to the UAE from Afghanistan, he kept calling HK asking for his job back," said AK. "The defendant's claims that HK tried to rape him are baseless because HK was in my house until 5pm and, during his stay, BS called him to ask for a job but HK did not take his call and told me and another friend how BS was repeatedly calling, asking for a job." Other witnesses testified that the victim was a decent man and a good husband. The 3 Afghans were convicted of premeditated murder associated with robbery. TR and AA will be deported after completing their jail terms. (source: The National) SAUDI ARABIA----execution Saudi beheads rapist, murderers Saudi Arabia beheaded Tuesday a rapist and 2 murderers, bringing to 38 the number of death sentences carried out in the kingdom this year. Saudi Mohammed bin Ali bin Mohammed al-Bishi was convicted of raping his victim at gunpoint, the interior ministry said in a statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency. "He also committed a number of armed robberies causing panic amongst the society. He had entered a number of homes by force and tried to kidnap and rape women and children," the statement said. Bishi was sentenced to death "as punishment and to serve as a deterrent to others". Authorities carried out the sentence in the southwestern region of Asir. In a separate case, Hamoud bin Salih bin Falih al-Zubi was executed in Riyadh for gunning down a fellow Saudi during a brawl. And another native of the kingdom, Falih bin Misnad bin Rabea al-Inzi, was beheaded in Qassim region for a fatal stabbing. Drug trafficking, rape, murder, apostasy and armed robbery are all punishable by death under the Gulf kingdom's strict version of Islamic sharia law. Amnesty International said in its annual report last week that death sentences are often imposed "after unfair trials". The London-based watchdog said some defendants claimed to have been tortured or "otherwise coerced or misled into making false confessions" before trial. The kingdom executed 87 people last year, up from 78 in 2013, according to an AFP count. (source: Agence France-Presse) ************ Saudi Appeal Court Upholds Sheikh Nimr's Death Sentence A Saudi Arabian appeal court on Wednesday approved the death penalty of the prominent Shiite cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr. Saudi criminal court had earlier referred Sheikh Nimr's case to an appeal court, where the sentence was upheld on Wednesday, according to a Sky News report. Sheikh Nimr was detained in July 2012 following demonstrations that erupted in Qatif region, Saudi Arabia. He is accused of delivering anti-regime speeches and defending political prisoners. His arrest has sparked widespread protests in the Arab country, leaving several people dead. On October 15, Sheikh Nimr's family reported that a Saudi judge has found him guilty of "sedition" and sentenced him to death. Activists say there are over 30,000 political prisoners in Saudi Arabia. International human rights organizations have criticized Saudi Arabia for failing to address the rights situation in the kingdom. They say Saudi Arabia has persistently implemented repressive policies that stifle freedom of expression, association and assembly. (source: Tasnim News Agency) ************************************ Saudi Arabia execution rate 'truly unprecedented' - Amnesty Intl Amnesty International says there is no evidence the latest "alarming spike" in executions in Saudi Arabia is in any way related to the battle against terrorism in general or the Islamic State militant group in particular. 3 beheadings in a single day on Tuesday (1 for rape and 2 for murder) raised the total so far this year to 38, about 3 times the number over the same period in 2014, according to an AFP tally. "It would ... be a stretch to say that this is an attempt to deter violence," because almost 1/2 of this year's executions were for drug-related non-violent crimes, Amnesty's Saudi Arabia researcher Sevag Kechichian told the agency. Just last week Saudi Arabia beheaded an Indian ax murderer (convicted of killing a Yemeni by striking him in the head with the ax) and a Pakistani heroin trafficker on the grounds that it is "committed to fighting drugs of all kinds due to the physical and social harm they cause." Rape, murder, apostasy, armed robbery and drug trafficking are all punishable by death under Saudi Arabia's version of Islamic sharia law. The kingdom practices a strict version of Sunni Islam. London-based Amnesty recorded 11 executions from January 1-26 last year, 17 for that period in 2013, and nine in 2012. After 27 executions in 2010, the number skyrocketed to around 80 annually, with a record 87 last year, according to AFP. The figures are among the world's highest. Kechichian says that while one can hardly affirm what has been driving these staggering numbers, the current rate "has been truly unprecedented." "The Saudi authorities want to show everyone they are strong, people can rely on them to keep the security and the safety in the kingdom," the source, who did not want to be identified, told AFP. The source added that while the primary objective is to clamp down on violence, the state's policy has been associated with the kingdom's fight against the Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS). In September, Saudi Arabia began airstrikes against the IS in Syria as part of the US-led coalition. 3 supporters of the IS in Saudi Arabia have been arrested for shooting and wounding a Danish citizen in November. They allegedly "perpetrated their crime in support of the terrorist group Daesh," ministry spokesman General Mansour al-Turki said in a statement. In November, Saudi Arabia reportedly blamed IS-linked suspects for the killing of seven Shiites, children among them, in Eastern Province. In January, 3 Saudi border guards died in a clash with Saudis, alleged to be "terrorists" trying to sneak in from Iraq. While Amnesty is accusing the West of "double standards" towards the wealthy Gulf state, a diplomatic source has said "we need to work together" when asked whether countries which disagree with Saudi Arabia use of the death penalty should just stop dialogue with Riyadh about "terrorism" or economic issues on which they cooperate. Amnesty has been working to end executions since 1977, when only 9 countries had abolished the death penalty. Today, that number has gone up to 140 - nearly 2/3 of all countries. Executions around the world rose sharply in 2013, Amnesty wrote in its report, saying they know of at least 778 people executed in 22 countries around the world in that year alone. 5 states continued to be ahead of all others in executing their prisoners, such as China thousands, exact numbers unknown); Iran (369 minimum); Iraq (169 minimum); Saudi Arabia (79 minimum) and the USA (39). According to Amnesty, Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia accounted for nearly 80 % of all reported executions around the world. Meanwhile governments like China and North Korea "hide how and when they use the death penalty; some states simply don't record information around executions and death sentences; others like Syria are in a state of conflict, so figures are unknown." (source: rt.com) From rhalperi at smu.edu Wed Mar 4 16:27:48 2015 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Wed, 4 Mar 2015 16:27:48 -0600 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----PENN., NEB. Message-ID: March 4 PENNSYLVANIA: House resolution urges Wolf to reverse death penalty moratorium Tricia Wertz lost her husband to a gunman's bullet in 2006. Now Wertz, 44, a mother of 2 from Reading, wants Scott Wertz's killer, Cletus Rivera, permanently removed from death row. "I hope to see Scott's killer put to death in my lifetime," said Wertz, the widow of a plainclothes Reading police officer shot while responding to a convenience store fight. She joined lawmakers, district attorneys, and other victims' families on Wednesday to back a House resolution urging Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf to reverse his recent suspension of Pennsylvania's death penalty. The state Supreme Court has agreed to hear a challenge to Wolf's moratorium on executing 186 murderers on death row, filed by Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams, though it's not clear when the court will hear the case. Dauphin County District Attorney Ed Marsico said other prosecutors would file to support Williams' action, probably next week. "The governor is standing with some of the worst criminals in Pennsylvania and against their victims," said Rep. Mike Vereb, R-Montgomery County, the resolution's sponsor. Because it is a resolution and not a law, "sure the governor can ignore it," Vereb said. Wolf's spokesman Jeffrey Sheridan said the governor's decision to suspend the death penalty "is in no way an expression of sympathy for the guilty on death row, all of whom have been convicted of committing heinous crimes and all of whom must be held to account. The governor has nothing but the deepest appreciation for the work of victim advocates, and he sympathizes and stands with all those who have suffered at the hands of those in our society who turn to violence." But Vereb said passage of the resolution would assure victims' families that "at least 102 members are supporting you." That's the majority needed to pass a bill in the 203-member House. The House Judiciary Committee will hear from both sides of the issue March 26 in Philadelphia. Marsico said he and other death penalty supporters believe it requires a state law to block executions in a state. Pennsylvania has executed only 3 inmates since restoring the death penalty in 1976 and again in 1999. All 3 voluntarily stopped appeals. Wolf announced the executive action banning executions after granting a reprieve to inmate Terrence Williams, who is on death row for beating a man to death in Philadelphia in 1984. Wolf said the state's death penalty system is error-prone and expensive. He plans to issue reprieves while a legislative panel studies the issue. "The governor looks forward to carefully reviewing the report and recommendations of the Pennsylvania Task Force and Advisory Committee on Capital Punishment, a bipartisan task force established by the state Senate," Sheridan said. Wertz said she supported Wolf for governor and would have voted for him but was away from home and didn't cast an absentee ballot. Despite his action on the death penalty, Wertz said she would probably still vote for Wolf because she likes his stance on other issues such as education. (source: triblive.com) NEBRASKA: Murder victim relatives seek end to Nebraska's death penalty Nebraskans whose relatives were murdered are calling on lawmakers to abolish the death penalty, saying it prolongs the suffering of victims' families and wastes tax dollars on endless appeals. Relatives rallied at the Capitol on Wednesday came in advance of a legislative hearing on a bill to end capital punishment. Miriam Thimm Kelle, whose brother James Thimm was murdered by Michael Ryan at a farm near Rulo in 1985, says the death penalty has distracted from the needs of victims' families. The repeal bill was introduced by longtime Sen. Ernie Chambers of Omaha, who has fought for nearly 4 decades to end capital punishment. Of the 33 Nebraska inmates sentenced to death since 1973, 3 have been executed. The bill is LB268 (source: Associated Press) From rhalperi at smu.edu Wed Mar 4 16:28:44 2015 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Wed, 4 Mar 2015 16:28:44 -0600 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide Message-ID: my postings to this list will resume on Sat. March 14 or Sun., March 15 Rick ****************************** March 4 GLOBAL: 'No evidence death penalty deters any crime,' senior UN official tells Rights Council Despite progress in recent years to universally abolish the death penalty, major challenges persist, the United Nations top human rights official said today at a high-level debate in Geneva, expressing concern that the death penalty, in practice, is "too often applied to the poor and marginalized foot soldiers" rather than the powerful organizers of the drug business. "We can do better. We need not kill immigrants, minorities, the poor and those with disabilities to show that we are committed to fight crime," Ivan Simonovic, Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights, said in his opening remarks to the UN Human Rights Council on the third day and final day of meetings. The Council kicked off its 3-day High-Level Segment on Monday. This is the 47-member body's 28th session. At this afternoon's meeting on regional efforts aiming at the abolition of the death penalty and challenges faced, Mr. Simonovic underscored the need for a unified approach to the global abolition of what he called an "inhuman and outdated punishment." "Several countries continue to use the death penalty for drug-related crimes, with the argument that this harsh punishment is needed for deterrence purposes. However, there is no evidence that the death penalty deters any crime," he emphasized in his remarks. The Americas were the first to abolish the death penalty in Venezuela in 1867. Following that, many other countries in the region abolished the death penalty leading to the 1990 adoption of the Protocol to the Inter-American Convention on Human Rights. In Africa, many States have taken an abolitionist stance. Meanwhile, in the past 16 years, no death sentence has been carried out in any of the 47 member States of the European Union. And in the Middle East and Asia, national human rights institutions and civil society are moving the abolitionist movement forward. As it stands now, some 160 countries have either fully abolished the death penalty or do not practise it. In the last 6 months, the death penalty was abolished in Chad, Fiji, and Madagascar. However, despite these strides some countries are seeing a move towards the preservation and even reintroduction of the death penalty, said Mr. Simonovic, pointing out that in 2013, there were more executing States and more victims of execution than in 2012. "Some States justify the death penalty on the grounds that it is demanded by a large majority of the population, or that without it, it is impossible to fight drug trafficking or terrorism," he added. While the need to tackle drug-related offences has to be acknowledged, the focus of crime prevention should be on strengthening the justice systems and making it more effective. And while public opinion cannot be ignored, a country concerned with human rights should not merely accept opinion polls as a reason for retaining the death penalty. "Indeed, there is clear evidence of mistakes, abuses and discrimination. It has been empirically proved that the more the population is informed on facts, the less it supports the death penalty." In recognition of the crucial role that regional organisations play in promoting the abolition of the death penalty, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) plans to hold several regional seminars on moving away from the death penalty this year. "We hope to gather State officials, lawmakers, practitioners and civil society to discuss at the regional level the challenges aced in moved away from the death penalty and ways to overcome them," Mr. Simonovic said. (source: UN News Centre) From rhalperi at smu.edu Sun Mar 15 15:52:31 2015 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Sun, 15 Mar 2015 15:52:31 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----PENN., GA., FLA., TENN., MO., NEB. Message-ID: March 15 PENNSYLVANIA: The death penalty moratorium in Pennsylvania is warranted In response to your March 4 article "Pennsylvania Supreme Court to Take Death Penalty Moratorium Case," I commend Gov. Tom Wolf for using his power as governor to create this badly needed moratorium to allow the results of a study on the fairness and effectiveness of the death penalty to be made known. I question, however, Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams' request that the state Supreme Court hear a legal challenge to the moratorium on an expedited basis, especially since the study's results are expected in the 1st half of 2015. Why the rush to the Supreme Court before the study's findings are fully available? Is there an expectation that the study will affirm Gov. Wolf's concerns about the "fundamental fairness" of capital punishment? Perhaps the report will establish that Gov. Wolf's discomfort with the 150 people on death rows across the nation who have been exonerated, the system's racial biases or the court proceedings that Gov. Wolf described as "ineffective, unjust and expensive" is warranted. Could this be the reason that Mr. Williams is trying to beat a hasty path to the Supreme Court? If so, I applaud the Supreme Court's decision to hear the case on a standard calendar. We may or may not see an end to the injustice of the death penalty in Pennsylvania, but at a minimum, people in power will not be permitted to skirt the justice system to further a partisan political agenda. SISTER JUDITH E. CONNOR Sisters of Divine Providence Peace and Justice Committee Bellevue (source: Letter to the Editor, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) GEORGIA: Legal Fight Reopens Over Woman's Execution in Georgia----Lawyers for Kelly Gissendaner use botched attempt to argue for a stay Lawyers for a woman awaiting execution in Georgia are asking a federal court to stay her death sentence in the wake of a botched attempt to carry it out. Kelly Gissendaner's planned execution has been postponed twice over the past 2 weeks: first in late February due to a winter storm, then in the 1st week of March because the drug that was to be used for her execution looked unusually cloudy. Her supporters are using the postponements to revive pleas that her life be spared, though state and federal officials have declined such appeals in her case several times. She is the only woman on death row in Georgia and would be the 1st woman to be executed in the state in 70 years. Ms. Gissendaner has admitted to persuading a man with whom she was involved to kill her husband, Doug Gissendaner, in 1997. She was convicted of murder the following year. The man received life in prison without parole in exchange for testifying against Ms. Gissendaner. Lawyers for Ms. Gissendaner have said in various court filings that she should receive life in prison. They didn't return calls or emails for comment this past week. The family of her late husband says her execution would bring long-overdue justice. On Monday, Ms. Gissendaner's lawyers filed suit in U.S. District Court in Atlanta against Georgia Department of Corrections officials, asking for her sentence to be stayed while state execution protocols and procedures are investigated. In the complaint, the lawyers argue the hours of delay involved in the drug-related postponement in early March subjected Ms. Gissendaner to "mortal fear" and violated a prohibition in the U.S. Constitution against cruel and unusual punishment. "Ms. Gissendaner endured hours of unconstitutional torment and uncertainty - to which she had not been sentenced - while Defendants dithered about whether they could execute her," the lawyers said in the filing. The lawyers also challenged a 2013 law that declares the manufacturer of any lethal drug used in executions a state secret, arguing that under the law, the public can't know if the drugs are being made and administered to avoid cruel and unusual punishment. Death-penalty procedures have come under increased scrutiny nationwide in recent years. A few executions have been botched, including a high-profile case in Oklahoma, as some states turned to alternative drug protocols amid a nationwide shortage of traditional lethal-injection drugs. Some pharmaceutical firms have stopped selling them to states, saying they were uncomfortable being linked to executions. That development, as well as a recent U.S. Supreme Court case by death-row inmates challenging the constitutionality of Oklahoma's lethal-injection protocols, is spurring states to consider alternatives. On Tuesday, Utah legislators approved a bill to allow firing squads for executions. This past week, the Alabama House voted to keep execution drug-suppliers secret and to bring back use of the electric chair if lethal injections can't be performed. The Georgia Department of Corrections has postponed all executions while officials analyze what happened with the drug prepared for Ms. Gissendaner's execution, said spokeswoman Gwendolyn Hogan. Once the department is ready to resume executions, a state court would have to reissue a new execution order specifically for Ms. Gissendaner, Ms. Hogan said. "The time frame is unknown," she said. The state Board of Pardons and Paroles, a 5-member body appointed by the governor that has sole authority to grant clemency in Georgia, has declined Ms. Gissendaner's requests for clemency twice. The state attorney general's office hasn't yet replied to the latest complaint and a spokeswoman had no comment on the case. While in prison, Ms. Gissendaner has studied theology, earning a degree and corresponding with religious thinkers. As her execution approached, ministers and others opposing the death penalty wrote letters to the state and signed online petitions urging mercy. The victim's family has steadfastly urged that the sentence be carried out. "Doug is the true victim of this pre-meditated and heinous crime," the family said in a statement last week. "We, along with our friends and supporters and our faith, will continue fighting for Doug until he gets the justice he deserves no matter how long it takes." The latest woman to be executed in Georgia was Lena Baker, a black maid who was electrocuted in 1945 for killing her white male employer. In 2005, the state Board of Pardons and Paroles issued her a posthumous pardon, calling the 1945 board decision to ignore her claims of self-defense "a grievous error." (source: Wall Street Journal) FLORIDA: Witness to murder: Marquardt's Florida crime Paige Ruiz was a few days from her 4th birthday. She hid behind some curtains to surprise the person who came one morning in March 2000 to her grandmother's back door. She quickly ran under a table after hearing gunshots and screams. After hearing that person exit, she looked out the window and saw a car drive away. For the next 4 hours, she and her nearly 2-year-old brother, Trevor, played in this remote central Florida home where her grandmother and aunt had been shot and stabbed by Bill Marquardt of Fairchild. It wasn't until the girl's uncle called and she told him about blood and his wife lying on the floor that authorities and family members were aware of the tragic event that still haunts everyone connected with the case. Paige, now 18 and a college student interested in crime scene investigation, doesn't shy away from giving details of that eventful day, 15 years ago today. She also doesn't shy away from saying Marquardt, 39, on Florida's death row, deserves such a penalty. Paige, her mother, Pam Ruiz, and others also still marvel at the manner in which Marquardt was identified as the culprit - largely through the exhaustive investigative efforts of Jon Theisen, now an Eau Claire County judge, but district attorney in Chippewa County in 2000. "When I tell the story of all this, a lot of people are just amazed at how all this happened; how I can remember what I do at such a young age, and how it all came about that the man who did all this to our family was caught," Paige said in a recent interview in Florida. "Him on death row, well, you get what you deserve," she said. "You just can't come into someone's house, kill them and not expect to get a sentence like that." No execution date has been set for Marquardt. "I'll be there when they do it. I want to see this taken care of," Pam Ruiz matter-of-factly said. "I just thank God he didn't see the kids, or it could have been so much worse." 'Gunshot and screams' No one's really sure why Marquardt went to the home of Margarita Ruiz, where her daughter and son-in-law Esperanza "Hope" and Robert Wells also were living. Pam Ruiz, as usual, had dropped Paige and Trevor off at the residence around 7 a.m. for day care. A short time later, someone came to the door. "I remember hearing a knock at the door and my grandmother going to the door to answer it. I hid behind a curtain because I thought it was my uncle or a family member," Paige said. "I was going to jump out and scare him, but then I heard a gunshot and screams. "That's when I ran underneath the table (and tablecloth) and I remember people running to the back of the house and scattering," she recalled. Paige remembers someone walking out the back door. "That's when I got out from under the table and looked out the window and saw the green car backing out," she said, referring to a Ford Thunderbird that Marquardt previously had stored in Valdosta, Ga. "After that, I just remember playing with my brother. He was like in the corner playing with toys and stuff, kind of out in the open." Eventually, Robert Wells telephoned and asked about his wife, who had been ill. "I told him she was laying down, sleeping," Paige recalled. "He thought it was a joke and started laughing and hung up." Wells called back and asked if he could talk to Paige's aunt. Paige told her again that she was sleeping. "I remember putting the phone to her ear and picking it up and saying she's bleeding," Paige continued. "That's when he said to just be calm and he'd call the police. "I remember the police showing up and me running under the table again because I thought it was that guy. I remember them pulling me out from underneath the table and saying, 'It's OK; it's going to be OK.'" Police records indicate Marquardt fired shots through the screen door, hitting Margarita Ruiz, 72, who then ran toward the bedroom where Esperanza, 42, was resting. He shot and stabbed them both numerous times and left. "You get a call at work, and all of a sudden your whole life is turned upside down," Pam Ruiz said. "Your kids are being cared for by their grandmother and aunt, and then police call and say you need to go there as soon as possible. And they don't tell you why, just to go." Ruiz saw the yellow police tape and located her children in a police car. "When I heard what happened, all I could think about was that the kids were in that house for four hours and no one knew what had happened," Pam added. "How bad is that?" Diligent DA For 6 years, Florida police were unaware of Marquardt, who had been charged in Chippewa County with killing his mother, Mary Jane Marquardt, 54, 2 days before the double murder in Florida. A jury from Polk County found Marquardt not guilty of that murder. A knife found by police had 3 DNA samples, including Mary Jane's. The others were identified as related females. After the Chippewa County case verdict, a frustrated Theisen, who has library training, diligently researched possible double murders of related females between Wisconsin and Florida. Marquardt had testified that he traveled to Florida during the time of his mother's murder. Through his research, Theisen eventually learned of the double murder about 40 miles west of Orlando and contacted Florida officials. DNA on Marquardt's knife and other evidence, including a 9 mm handgun and blood in his car, eventually linked Marquardt to the murders. He was convicted and sentenced to death. "Obviously, it's one of those cases that will be with me my entire life," Theisen said Wednesday. "I guess I appreciate being a part of it. It seems like, from my perspective, everything worked out positively. I feel like I have special friends, a special connection now in Florida." Mary Jane's murder case is not considered an unsolved crime, Theisen said, recalling conversations he's had with Chippewa County authorities. If Marquardt had been found guilty in Chippewa County, would Theisen or others have been so diligent in searching for the other victims? "It's hard to say whether any more would have been done," Theisen said. "My earnestness stemmed from the hurt of losing, believing he was the one who killed his mom. The fact that we didn't know at the time of his trial here who that other blood belonged to was something we, and I'm sure the jury, considered. "That unidentified DNA was on the back of everyone's mind at trial, but I certainly wouldn't have been as earnest as I was had we won," he added. "I remember personally feeling there has to be an answer here, that you can't have DNA of unknown people on a knife." Questions remain Gale Carter, who lives across from the home where the 2 women were slain, said he never heard of any local suspects. "We never thought anyone in the area would have done it. I guess he just happened to stop there, and my mother lived alone in the house right across from them. It could have been her. No one will ever understand something like this. Who could?" Today, Paige is remarkably relaxed while describing accounts of the murder scene, the family's long wait for resolution and how it has impacted multiple relationships. She has given several school presentations about the tragedy. "When I did my first one in high school, people who were friends of mine never knew I was that girl in the house," Paige said. "People were in shock. "There are still a lot of people who ask me about it, but it doesn't bother me as much anymore. It's still so bad to think about, though. We'll always wonder why." Some reports over the years have speculated that Marquardt was visiting someone in Florida and stopped at the isolated residence because it might have reminded him of where he lived, some 1,450 miles away. "I don't think anyone will ever know why he stopped there, why he did what he did to 2 people who wouldn't harm anyone," Pam Ruiz said. "I know his family feels bad about it all; they lost someone they love too in all this. All of this is just so hard to believe, but it's true, and we live it every day. It never goes away. Never will." March 13, 2000: Mary Jane Marquardt is killed at her Chippewa County residence. March 15, 2000: Margarita Ruiz and Esperanza Wells are killed at their home near Orlando, Fla. March 17, 2000: Bill Marquardt is charged in Eau Claire County with 10 felonies, including 7 related to mistreatment of animals between March 9 and 13, 2000. March 18, 2000: Marquardt is charged in Chippewa County with 1st-degree murder in the death of his mother, Mary Jane. Feb. 5, 2003: He is found not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect of the Eau Claire County charges and institutionalized. May 26, 2006: Polk County jury finds him not guilty of murdering his mother. Dec. 15, 2006: He is charged in Sumter County, Fla., with 2 counts of 1st-degree murder for killing Ruiz and Wells near Tarrytown, Fla., on March 15, 2000, and 1 count of burglary while armed with a weapon. Oct. 12, 2011: He is found guilty of the Florida murders. Feb. 28, 2012: Marquardt is sentenced to death. 15 years ago today, a little girl in central Florida, hiding under a table, overheard the brutal murders of her grandmother and aunt by a Fairchild man. Now 18, she recalls that horrific day with the wish that the killer will die soon. (source: Leader-Telegram) TENNESSEE: Conviction upheld in dismemberment slayings of Walker County newlyweds Tennessee's Court of Criminal Appeals has upheld the 1st-degree murder conviction of Howard Hawk Willis, sentenced to death in the 2002 dismemberment killings of Walker County, Ga., newlyweds Adam Chrismer and Samantha Leming Chrismer. In the teens' slayings, a skull and a pair of hands were found in Washington County, Tenn.'s Boone Lake and the rest of their bodies were found stuffed into plastic containers in a Johnson City mini-warehouse. Willis challenged his conviction on 20 grounds, ranging from claims that the trial court shouldn't have let him defend himself or denied his motion to suppress his statements to challenges of various aspects of his 2010 trial and to assertions that the state's death penalty statute is unconstitutional. The appeals court rejected them all and confirmed Willis' conviction. He is on death row at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville. (source: Times Free Press) MISSOURI----impending execution Brain-Damaged Cop Killer Cecil Clayton To Die In 2 Days The state of Missouri is preparing to execute Cecil Clayton, a brain damaged man who has been on death row since the mid 1990s. The elderly inmate, who is now in his 70s, has a low IQ and suffers from mental illness - facts that have inspired media coverage as well as protest from those who are against the death penalty. Mother Jones reports that the convicted murderer is "psychotic and unable to function" yet the state of Missouri is in a rush to put him to death. Cecil Clayton is in bad mental shape and it probably has a lot to do with the fact that he is missing part of his brain. A large portion of his frontal lobe was removed after a terrible accident over 40 years ago - long before he committed the murder he committed in 1996. Doctors had to remove up to 20 percent of his brain, leaving him brain damaged and with an IQ nearly 30 points below average. The Daily Mail has also pointed out that Clayton is Missouri's oldest death row inmate at 74-years-old. Close to 30 years after nearly 20 % of the frontal lobe was removed from his brain, he committed the shooting death of Missouri police officer Christopher Castetter. It was a violent and impulsive crime that rocked the community of Barry County, Missouri. A family lost their loved one and a police force lost a partner. Clayton quickly became a convicted cop killer, and he was swiftly given the death penalty - regardless of his severely low IQ and the circumstances surrounding why his IQ was so low. Along with his attorney, his daughter Jena has spoken out against the upcoming execution - which is slated to take place on St. Patrick's Day. "Talking with him is like talking to a child. I do not believe we are the kind of country that executes the disabled." The frontal lobes of the human brain are responsible for numerous functions associated with spontaneity, impulse control, judgment and sexual behavior. In other words, it's the "moral" center of the brain that is vulnerable to injury or, really, any kind of tinkering that may take place (such as surgical removal). The Centre for Neuro Skills states that damage to the frontal lobes can manifest itself in either a depressive state or a psychopathic state. Cecil Clayton has been described as a "brain-damaged psychopath" in more than one media report covering his case. Do you think Missouri is right for choosing to execute Cecil Clayton? His attorney says that he is so mentally disabled that he questions whether or not the man even understands that he is going to die in just days. While he appears cognizant to the fact during conversations, he reportedly forgets shortly thereafter. This fact makes it hard to predict how he will react to his own execution when the day comes. (source: inquisitr.com) ************************ Governor should stop execution of mentally disabled inmate Missouri officials plan on March 17 to execute Cecil Clayton, a 74-year-old with severe damage to his frontal lobe, the brain's executive center. This case raises grave civil rights concerns about the use of the death penalty for people with disabilities. Missourians are urged to contact Gov. Jay Nixon to suggest he stay the execution and commute Clayton's death sentence to life without parole - or at least convene a board of inquiry about his competency. My background is in clinical neuropsychology, the study of brain-behavior relationships. Psychologists, physicians and other health professionals promote the well-being of all citizens and advance the state of knowledge regarding individuals, such as Clayton, with health and mental health impairments. Medical records indicate that in 1972, while Clayton worked at a sawmill in southwest Missouri, a piece of log pierced his skull. He arrived at Barry County hospital semiconscious with bone embedded in his brain, and 20 % of his frontal lobe was removed. 9 days later he was released from the hospital without long-term therapy. After the injury, he experienced marked personality and behavioral changes, could not maintain long-term employment and was deemed medically eligible for Social Security disability. He spent years in and out of mental health facilities. In 1996, Clayton fatally shot Barry County Sheriff's Deputy Christopher Castetter. We extend condolences for this horrible crime to Deputy Castetter's grieving loved ones. For the community's safety, Clayton requires long-term or permanent placement in a secure setting. However, his brain injury raises questions about his ability to check impulsivity, to deliberate and to appreciate fully the consequences of his actions - all necessary for legal imposition of Missouri's death sentence. Decades of research demonstrates the frontal lobe is pivotal in impulse control, judgment and deliberation. Health professionals have cataloged Clayton's brain damage, including organic brain syndrome, hallucinations and disorganized thinking. Physicians and psychologists examined Clayton at least 9 times since 2003 and deemed him incompetent to be executed. Neuropsychological testing showed significant cognitive deterioration, rendering him intellectually disabled, according to a January 2015 civil rights complaint. Clayton's 2005 evaluation yielded a full-scale IQ of 71. A 1983 evaluation had determined he was reading at a 4th-grade level. Multiple doctors over the past 10 years concluded Clayton suffers from dementia related to traumatic brain injury and lacks ability to make rational decisions and control impulses. Clayton is unable to assist in his own defense. Physician William Logan said in his 2008 evaluation: "Mr. Clayton believes his conviction was the result of a conspiracy by the legal system against him and that someone else killed Deputy Castetter." Logan's report continued, as Clayton's execution looms more likely, "he shows no concern and has an inappropriately elated mood. He cannot describe any issues on which his appeal is based." Clayton has repeatedly said God will prevent his execution, and he is unable to describe how he himself might assist that process. Clayton has a history of other injuries, beginning when he was dropped on his head as an infant, leading to blindness in one eye. Psychologist Daniel Foster reported in 2008 that "his impairment, consistently described and reported for 38 years, continues to be sufficiently profound and sustained so as to render him incompetent to be executed." Missouri law says that "no person condemned to death shall be executed if as a result of mental disease or defect he lacks capacity to understand the nature and purpose of the punishment about to be imposed upon him." The process for determining capacity relies solely within the correctional system, despite Clayton's long and well-documented history of neurologic injury. Whether one supports or opposes the death penalty, it is in society's interest to reserve such punishment for "the worst of the worst" who have full knowledge and insight into their actions. Cases like Clayton's demonstrate that too often, severely mentally disabled individuals face the harshest state sanctions. The American Psychological Association has called for a moratorium on executions because of wrongful convictions, inconsistencies in prosecutors' decisions to seek the death penalty, and the unfair role of race "until the jurisdiction implements policies and procedures that can be shown to ameliorate the (identified) deficiencies." Health professionals serve Missourians using the best available specialized expertise. Chapter 552.070 of the Missouri statutes allows the governor to convene a board of professionals to gather information on whether execution, reprieve, pardon or commutation of sentence is most appropriate. Urge Gov. Jay Nixon to exercise his clemency power to stay the execution of Cecil Clayton and commute his sentence or at least to convene a board of inquiry to make an independent evaluation. Contact Gov. Nixon's office at 573-751-3222. To execute this 74-year-old with significant brain injury would undermine Missourians' right to a fair system of justice. (source: Op-Ed; Laura Schopp is a professor with the University of Missouri Department of Health Psychology----Columbia DailyTribune NEBRASKA: Not all on board with growing push to end death penalty in Nebraska Christine Tuttle was a teenager when her mother, Evonne, was fatally shot inside a Norfolk bank in 2002. No money was taken. But 5 people died in a botched robbery that was over in less than 50 seconds. Tuttle, now a 30-year-old mother of 3, said she used to think it didn't matter if the 3 gunmen sentenced to death were eventually executed. Not any more. She said that paying the ultimate price for a horrific crime is a "traditional value" that shouldn't go away. "They talk about the high cost of the death penalty, but what if we factor the cost of me living without a mom? Or me paying for college by myself? Or for these (other) families carrying on without a parent?" Tuttle said. "I don't want them to not fear that they might die. I want them to be put to death," she added. Tuttle's support for the death penalty took on a new urgency recently when a legislative committee advanced a bill that would replace capital punishment with life imprisonment. The vote was 8-0, the 1st time a repeal bill advanced unanimously from the Judiciary Committee. Among those supporting repeal was Miriam Thimm Kelle of Beatrice, whose brother, James Thimm, was murdered by religious cult leader Michael Ryan. 11 senators have joined a longtime death penalty foe, State Sen. Ernie Chambers of Omaha, as co-sponsors of the repeal measure, Legislative Bill 268. The sponsors include not just traditional death penalty opponents who believe it's a barbaric and random punishment but also conservative Republicans who believe it's a broken, expensive policy that doesn't deter crime. "It's not much of a deterrent right now if you can sit on death row for 18 or 19 years," said State Sen. Mark Kolterman of Seward, one of the co-sponsors. "I've struggled with it - is it the right thing or not? If we're not using it, why have it." With Kolterman and 17 other new senators in the Legislature, it's hard to tell whether Chambers and others against the death penalty will be successful when the full body takes up the issue. That's not expected to happen until next month. The bill will need more than a simple majority of lawmakers to pass. Omaha Sen. Beau McCoy has already signaled a filibuster against the bill, meaning it will take 33 votes in the 49-member Legislature to advance the measure, rather than the normal 25. Gov. Pete Ricketts, a proponent of capital punishment, has been talking with senators and is working with Attorney General Doug Peterson to restore the state's ability to carry out the death penalty. Nebraska is one of 32 states that has a death penalty (Iowa does not), but there hasn't been an execution in the Cornhusker State since 1997. Carey Dean Moore, 1 of 11 men on death row in the state, has been there for 35 years. Since at least December 2013, Nebraska has been unable to carry out an execution. That's when its supply of a key lethal-injection drug, sodium thiopental, expired. A spokeswoman for Peterson said the attorney general has been seeking alternatives since he took office in January. Ricketts, a conservative Republican, said the state needs to keep capital punishment. "I support the appropriate use of the death penalty and will work with members of the Unicameral to uphold it," he said in a prepared statement. Nebraska and dozens of other states have struggled to obtain drugs needed to carry out executions by lethal injection. Major U.S. manufacturers have quit making sodium thiopental, a sedative commonly used in executions, and foreign sources have dried up amid opposition to capital punishment overseas and questions over the purity of such imported drugs. Alternative drugs that have been tried were part of botched executions in Ohio, Oklahoma and Arizona last year. Florida and Georgia just recently put executions on hold because of questions about the drugs used in those states. Frustrated, Tennessee last year re-instituted the electric chair as a possible method if execution drugs are not available. Oklahoma is now exploring the use of nitrogen gas. In Utah, a bill to bring back the firing squad awaits a signature by the governor. One result of the uncertainty: 2014 saw the fewest number of executions nationwide in 2 decades, 35. A national authority on the death penalty said that the options available for death-penalty states are growing slimmer. Even if they are found, it would take months to develop and pass new rules and regulations, and any new protocol would likely face a new round of court challenges. "It's becoming a crisis, or a decision point," said Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center. "Maybe a drug company will come forward (with a new drug supply) or compounding pharmacy. But there's not a lot happening." Executions are still occurring. Missouri and Texas have executions scheduled this week, though the Lone Star State will use its final dose of sodium thiopental, forcing it to seek alternatives. Kolterman said the problem of finding the necessary lethal injection drugs factored into his decision to support repeal of the death penalty, as did his "pro-life" views and conversations with several religious groups. The cost was also a consideration, he said. A 2014 report in Kansas concluded it costs 4 times more to defend someone facing the death penalty than someone facing life in prison. In Nebraska there have been conflicting reports. The Attorney General's Office in 2007, 2008 and 2010 estimated that repealing the death penalty would not reduce its office's expenses - estimates that opponents of the death penalty disputed. In 2013 a report by the ACLU, which opposes the death penalty, said capital punishment cases take twice as long to litigate and involve 5 times as many appeals, and thus are much more expensive - a report disputed by capital punishment proponents. Tuttle, who works with troubled juveniles in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, said cost is immaterial to her. People, she said, seem to have forgotten about the slayings in Norfolk and a later discovery that the ringleader, Jose Sandoval, was involved in 2 other murders. The death penalty, she said, may not be a deterrent to such crimes, but it needs to remain. "It's there to be a consequence for murder," Tuttle said. (source: Omaha World-Herald) From rhalperi at smu.edu Mon Mar 16 09:22:38 2015 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Mon, 16 Mar 2015 09:22:38 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, OHIO, MO., NEB., UTAH, USA Message-ID: March 16 TEXAS----new execution date Gregory Russeau has been given an execution date for June 18; it should be considered serious. (sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin) *************************** Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present----4 Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982----present-----522 Abbott#--------scheduled execution date-----name------------Tx. # 5------------Mar. 18-------------------Randall Mays---------523 6------------Apr. 9--------------------Kent Sprouse---------524 7------------Apr. 15-------------------Manual Garza---------525 8-----------Apr. 23-------------------Richard Vasquez------526 9-----------Apr. 28-------------------Robert Pruett-----------527 10-----------May 12--------------------Derrick Charles------528 11-----------June 18-------------------Gregory Russeau----529 (sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin) ************************** Texas Executed a Dad for Burning His 3 Young Kids to Death. Now a Letter is Casting Doubt He Did It. Convicted in 1991 for the alleged arson murder of his 3 young daughters at his home in Corsicana, TX, he maintained his innocence for 13 years until being executed by the state in 2004. Willingham claimed he woke up from a nap after inhaling smoke, and after looking around the house, he couldn't find his children. He left the burning house in a state of disorientation. Johnny Webb - his cellmate in state prison - had a different story; a spontaneous confession that was a significant factor in the trial: "...he had set the fire to cover up his wife's abuse of 1 of the girls. Autopsies of the girls showed no signs of abuse - but it was the strongest evidence the prosecution had other than the finding of arson by fire investigators. That finding has been discredited by a series of forensic experts." It was a high-profile case that caught national attention due to the fire's tragic outcome. As such, there was pressure to issue a definitive conviction. Recently, formerly undisclosed new evidence in the form of a letter has surfaced, undermining the validity of the prosecution and its key witness, Johnny Webb. In a recent interview with The Marshall Project, Webb stated: "I lied on the man because I was being forced by John Jackson to do so, I succumbed to pressure when I shouldn't have. In the end, I was told, 'You're either going to get a life sentence or you're going to testify.' He coerced me to do it." It may or not have been coercion, but regardless, Webb chose to testify: "Jackson pointedly asked Webb on the witness stand whether he had been promised a lighter sentence or some other benefit for his cooperation. Webb told the judge and jury that he had not." After the secured death penalty conviction, Webb wrote to the prosecutor from state prison, urging him to come through on his end of the secretive deal to have his own criminal sentence reduced. Soon after receiving the letter: "Within days, the prosecutor, John H. Jackson, sought out the Navarro County judge who had handled Willingham's case and came away with a court order that altered the record of Webb's robbery conviction to make him immediately eligible for parole. Webb would later recant his testimony that Willingham confessed to setting his house on fire with the toddlers inside." More controversy accounted in documents published by The Washington Post last year revealed that not only was Webb's prison sentence reduced by TX Criminal Justice officials - but an incriminating web of individuals helped secure Webb a financial incentive: "During and after Webb was in state prison, he received thousands of dollars in aid from a wealthy local businessman, Charles S. Pearce Jr. Webb said in interviews that Pearce had helped him at the behest of Jackson; Patrick C. Batchelor, the district attorney; and the county sheriff." Webb received such "high level attention" because he was "impatient" to get his sentence reduced, prompting the letters written to Jackson that threatened to go public with his falsified testimony. They urged him against such action, and persuaded him accordingly. But that did not help with Webb's own feelings of guilt. That a man was by all appearances put to death by corruption is a mockery of the justice system. Regardless of where one stands on the issue of capital punishment, it seems hard not to agree with those at the Washington Post, who, in their write-up of the documents stated: "Had such favorable treatment been revealed prior to his execution, Willingham might have had grounds to seek a new trial." The State Bar of Texas filed a misconduct complaint, falsifying official records, withholding evidence and obstructing justice last summer as a response to the outpouring of this evidence. (source: IJReview.com) OHIO: Kasich rarely uses clemency to pardon, commute sentences Gov. John Kasich's clemency record Cases received: 2,167 Cases decided: 1,521 Cases undecided: 646 Denials: 1,441 Pardons approved: 65 Commutations: 1 [source: Governor's office] In his first 4 years in office, Gov. John Kasich used his executive clemency power more sparingly than any other Ohio governor in the past 3 decades. He granted 66 of 1,521 requests, about 4.4 % of 1,521 non-death-penalty cases he received and acted upon from 2011 to 2014, according to information obtained by The Dispatch under a public-records request. That makes him the most conservative with clemency of any Ohio governor going back to the 1980s, when the state began tracking gubernatorial clemency. Last year, Kasich, a Republican who began his 2nd term in January, approved 17 of 433 clemency requests he reviewed, about 4 %. All of the cases approved were pardons, some going back to crimes committed more than 25 years ago. A pardon wipes out a past criminal record. Kasich commuted the death sentences of 5 killers during his 1st term, but allowed 12 to be executed. He recently used his executive authority to push back the entire execution schedule for a year, to January 2016, to allow time for the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction to obtain sufficient quantities of new execution drugs as permitted by a change in state law. Clemency is a unique executive power of Ohio governors, broad but defined by law. The governor can halt or postpone executions, commute or reduce a sentence so that a prisoner can be freed now or in the future, and grant pardons, erasing a past criminal record. In the past 30 years, Ohio governors have used clemency in different ways, sometimes reflecting personal ideological persuasions. Former Gov. Ted Strickland, a Democrat, approved 20 percent of 1,615 clemency requests he handled between 2007 and 2011. Most involved low-level, nonviolent offenses, but he did commute 5 death-penalty sentences to life without parole. No Ohio governor in modern history has commuted a death sentence and set a prisoner free. Republican governors George V. Voinovich (1991-98) and Bob Taft (1999-2007) each approved less than 10 % of the clemency requests they received. Gov. James A. Rhodes, a Republican, approved 17.5 % of clemencies in 1982, his last year in office. Democrat Richard F. Celeste, governor from 1983 to 1991, used his clemency power most liberally, commuting the death sentences of 8 killers on death row in his next to last day in office. He also granted clemency to 25 female prisoners, reasoning they were victims of "battered-woman syndrome" and deserved mercy. Celeste's actions caused an uproar, and the clemency process was legally challenged. The General Assembly changed the law to require governors to have a recommendation from the Ohio Parole Board before making any clemency decision. The governor doesn't have to agree with the parole board, but merely have a board recommendation in hand. In fact, Kasich differed with the board in 23 cases last year, each time rejecting clemency for inmates who had been favorably recommended. Only Kasich, Strickland and Taft faced life-or-death clemency decisions as governor. No capital cases made it to the desks of Rhodes, Celeste and Voinovich. (source: The Columbus Dispatch) MISSOURI----impending execution Missouri Supreme Court won't block execution of deputy's killer----Cecil Clayton scheduled to die Tuesday for 1996 shooting The Missouri Supreme Court refused on Saturday to halt the execution of a deputy sheriff's killer over claims that he is mentally incompetent because of a brain injury he suffered in a sawmill accident. Cecil Clayton, 74, is scheduled to be executed Tuesday for the 1996 shooting death of Barry County deputy Christopher Castetter. The father of 3 was 29 in 1996 when he went to Clayton's home near Cassville to check on a suspicious vehicle report. Authorities said Clayton shot the deputy once in the head even before he got out of his car. The defense, which sought a hearing to make the mental incompetence case, said the 1972 brain injury left Clayton mentally impaired with an IQ of 71. Clayton also has been diagnosed with several mental disorders, including dementia. But the court rejected the argument in a 4-3 ruling, with the majority finding that "even though the effects of his brain injury and increasing age make it more difficult for Clayton, there is no evidence that he is not capable of understanding 'matters in extenuation, arguments for executive clemency or reasons why the sentence should not be carried out' " as required under state statute. The dissenting opinion said Clayton's attorneys had "presented reasonable grounds to believe his overall mental condition has deteriorated and he is intellectually disabled." The opinion noted that Clayton had lost 20 percent of his frontal lobe from the traumatic brain injury and said that proceeding with the execution would be a violation of the Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment. (source: KMBC news) ***************** Local opponents to protest scheduled Missouri execution----Cecil Clayton, 74, scheduled to die by lethal injection Tuesday. The Springfield chapter of Missourians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty will hold a protest vigil on Tuesday to mark the scheduled execution of state prison inmate Cecil Clayton at about 6 p.m. the same day at the state prison in Bonne Terre. The vigil will be from noon to 1 p.m. at Park Central Square in downtown Springfield. Clayton, 74, is the oldest person on Missouri's death row. He was sentenced to die for the 1996 killing of a Barry County deputy. On Saturday, the Supreme Court of Missouri rejected Clayton's claim that he was incompetent to stand trial because of a brain injury he suffered 30 years before he killed the deputy. (source: ky3.com) NEBRASKA: End death penalty Thank you for the article you printed on March 5 letting us know how families of murder victims see the death penalty in Nebraska ("Supporters of eliminating Nebraska's death penalty turn out at hearing," March 5). This is an important and timely issue. Knowing what someone goes through during the grieving process, I believe it is critical for families to be able to move forward. At the same time, they must be assured that the murderer will remain in prison for the rest of his or her life. It is devastating to read the stories of people who have had family members murdered. I empathize with their pain. If, after everything they have been through, they can come to the conclusion that the death penalty should end, then I believe the rest of us can certainly agree with them. One hears about lots of problems with the death penalty, like innocent people being executed, but one often doesn't hear about its impact on families of murder victims. I learned a lot from your article regarding how these families can remain "stuck" emotionally, waiting for an execution. Instead, they need to be able to move on with their lives. I'm more opposed than ever to the death penalty. Nebraska must end the death penalty now. Charlotte Liggett, Lincoln (source: Letter to the Editor, Lincoln Journal Star) UTAH: New murder trial begins Monday for ex-death row inmate who confessed to killing----Douglas Lovell spent years on death row after admitting that he murdered a woman to silence her rape testimony against him. Yet the Utah Supreme Court allowed him to withdraw his guilty plea and a jury will decide his fate in a trial starting Monday. Douglas Lovell confessed to kidnapping and murdering Joyce Yost 2 weeks before she was scheduled to testify that he raped her. That admission came 7 years after the South Ogden woman disappeared from her home. He hoped the 1993 plea deal would keep him off of death row, but that deal hinged on police finding Yost's body. Even with Lovell along to help the bizarre 5-week search for the shallow grave he said he dug for Yost up Ogden Canyon in 1985 after he drugged and suffocated her, police could never find her body. A judge ordered him to die by lethal injection. Now, nearly 30 years after Yost disappeared and after Lovell spent years on death row for killing her, an Ogden jury will begin hearing evidence Monday to determine whether Lovell is guilty of murdering Yost. In 2010, the Utah Supreme Court allowed him to withdraw his guilty plea after he argued that he had not been properly informed of his constitutional rights when the plea bargain was made. Admitting to murder Death didn't silence Yost's testimony. Using transcripts of her statements from a previous preliminary hearing, a jury found Lovell guilty in 1985 of kidnapping Yost, taking her to his Clearfield home and raping her. He was sentenced to 15 years to life. He was serving time at the Utah State Prison when his ex-wife, Rhonda Butters, came to visit, secretly recording Lovell's confession for investigators. "I committed a 1st-degree felony to cover another felony," Lovell said in the recording. "It's the death penalty. At the very least they're going to give me life without parole. If I cooperate with them, and go with them." Prosecutors agreed to give Butters immunity, despite her admission that she had dropped Lovell off at Yost's home knowing he intended to harm the woman, then picked him up the next morning and helped him destroy evidence. According to Butters, Lovell had tried to hire 2 different people to kill Yost, but they backed out. So he decided to do it himself, telling Yost he was only going to keep her until the rape trial was over, forcing her to pack a bag to make it look like she had left town. Lovell was eventually charged with murder and pleaded guilty before a jury trial could begin. In a 1993 Associated Press interview, Lovell gave a detailed description of how he had murdered his accuser. Lovell had drugged Yost, 39, with so much Valium that she couldn't stand up, but he said he hadn't strangled her, like reports indicated. "Her hands were tied behind her back, sort of to her side, tied with part of a towel or a sheet. She struggled a little when I put my hand over her mouth and blocked her nose. Then her body went stiff, and then went limp and I knew she was dead." It was the deadly result of guilt and shame over the rape charges, Lovell said. Family and friends had turned on him, accusing him, and he was angry. "It's complicated. I was embarrassed, ashamed at what I did," he said. "It was an issue of pride with my family and friends and it just started gears in my head and a denial thing set in, like I almost didn't believe I did what I did." Cutting a deal Lovell pleaded guilty in June 1993 to aggravated murder in the death of Joyce Yost. "I've wanted to exactly do this for a long time," he said. In exchange, Lovell expected to be spared the death penalty. He was asked if he would tell investigators where Yost's body was buried, giving them a chance for closure and a funeral. (source: Deseret News) ******************* Bishop: State can offer no justification for taking life by execution Debate over the death penalty and a proposal to reinstate a firing squad in Utah "seems to suggest growing recognition among legislators of the precarious place any state occupies when it tries to take on a role best left to God," said Bishop John C. Wester. "At its core, the death penalty is repugnant to us because of our firmly held belief that only God can give life and, consequently, only God can rightly take it away," the Salt Lake City bishop wrote in the Intermountain Catholic, the diocesan newspaper. He made the comments in the Feb. 27 issue of the paper. On March 10, the state Senate passed a measure to reinstate execution by firing squad for those convicted of capital crimes. The state House passed it in February. Utah's lawmakers argued they needed a backup method of capital punishment if the drugs used in lethal injection are not available. There is a shortage of lethal drugs for executions and their use in carrying out the death penalty has become more controversial after the botched execution of Clayton Lockett in Oklahoma; he writhed in pain for 40 minutes before dying of apparent heart failure. In April, the U.S. Supreme Court will heard oral arguments in Glossip v. Gross, a case brought by four death-row inmates in Oklahoma. On March 9, the court said it would take a Florida case challenging the state's protocol for handing down a death penalty sentence. Currently, the 32 states that have the death penalty use lethal injections and many are looking at new methods for carrying it out. Utah would become the only state to allow firing squads if Republican Gov. Gary Herbert signs the measure into law. He has not said if he will sign it. "The death penalty in any form is abhorrent," Bishop Wester said, but with regard to the firing squad method, "strapping a person to a chair with a hood over his head and a bull's eye on his heart creates a disturbing image of the individual as little more than a target at a shooting range." "Our Catholic faith rests on a belief that every life is a gift, and every moment of life is an opportunity for God to work within each of us," he said. But if the state can choose to take life, "we give the state the power to shut down God's acts of grace within an individual," he continued. "God does not abandon even the most violent criminal. He offers salvation to everyone at all times, but when the state carries out an execution it terminates the convicted person's opportunity to return to a right relationship with God against God's wishes, thus aborting any chance the person may have had to repent and be forgiven for his or her crime." Bishop Wester said there is no justification the state can offer "for its continued practice of interfering with God's merciful judgment in order to impose the death penalty for capital crimes." Writing before the state Senate voted on the firing squad bill, he had expressed hope that given the floor debate over it, it seemed an "opportune time for legislators to discuss the sanctity of life and how it is denigrated by the current state policy of sanctioning the killing of people as retribution." He called for the lawmakers to abandon the bill and choose to commission an in-depth study of the death penalty in Utah. "With a little grace, a close look at the penalty will reveal its many flaws and result in the eventual abolition of the death penalty, returning Utah to the reverence for creation that God intended," Bishop Wester said. (source: The Pilot) USA: Death Sentences, With or Without a Jury In the states that continue to put their own citizens to death, virtually every part of the process is warped by injustice and absurdity. In Florida and Alabama, death row inmates are challenging perverse state laws on the jury'a role in capital trials. The Supreme Court, which has been intervening more often in death penalty cases, last week agreed to review the Florida law. In death penalty trials, juries that reach a guilty verdict are usually required in the trial's subsequent penalty phase to make factual findings, such as whether the crime was especially heinous, that will determine whether the defendant is sentenced to death. But Florida lets the judge make these findings, and does not require that the jury be unanimous in voting for a death sentence. After Timothy Lee Hurst was found guilty of a 1998 murder of a co-worker in Pensacola, his jury split 7 to 5 in favor of executing him, with no record of whether the majority even agreed on the reason. (Mr. Hurst claims he is intellectually disabled and thus ineligible to be executed.) In other words, Mr. Hurst was effectively condemned by a single vote by an unidentified juror. Alabama also allows death to be decided by a single vote: that of the judge, who may override a jury verdict of life in prison and replace it with a death sentence, relegating the jury's status to that of an advisory body. The Supreme Court declined to hear a challenge to the Alabama law in 2013, prompting a sharp dissent from Justice Sonia Sotomayor. She concluded that the state's judges, who are elected - and who have unilaterally imposed death sentences 101 times after the jury voted for life - "appear to have succumbed to electoral pressures." The Alabama law, Justice Sotomayor wrote, undermines "the sanctity of the jury's role in our system of criminal justice," and very likely violates the court's own rulings requiring juries, not judges, to find any fact that would increase a defendant's sentence. 2 new challenges to that law are before the court - one involving a death sentence imposed by a judge after a jury voted 12 to 0 for life - but it hasn't decided whether to take them up. This disregard for the jury's role is all the more offensive given the Supreme Court's reliance on jury verdicts as a key measure of America's "evolving standards of decency," the test it uses to decide whether a punishment is so cruel and unusual that it violates the Constitution. How can those "evolving standards" be accurately measured if the "verdicts" for death are so deeply divided or are in fact imposed by a judge who is rejecting the jury's call to spare a life? The Florida and Alabama jury laws are only more proof of the moral disgrace of capital punishment in this country. In Georgia, officials hide their lethal-injection drug protocol behind state-secret laws. Missouri has executed an inmate before the Supreme Court ruled on his final appeal. Texas has been trying for years to kill a man suffering from paranoid schizophrenia. Until capital punishment is abolished nationwide, the United States will remain a notorious exception in a world that has largely rejected state-sanctioned killing. (source: Editorial, New York Times) **************** The free-market case for opposing the death penalty There are lots of ways to execute a prisoner. But in the U.S., at least, the 32 states that still execute prisoners have decided on lethal injection. On its face, lethal injection seems like a clinical, modern, hopefully low-pain, and usually low-key way to kill somebody. Except when it isn't, as we saw in last year's crop of botched executions. The prolonged, evidently painful deaths of Clayton Lockett in Oklahoma, Joseph Wood in Arizona, and Dennis McGuire in Ohio were tied to experimental drug cocktails necessitated by a shortage of traditional death drugs. This shortage is due largely to a ban by European countries on exporting certain drugs to U.S. states that practice capital punishment. The free market is making a case against capital punishment. So far, the states that actively execute prisoners have been willfully plugging their ears. But now, Texas is down to its last dose of pentobarbital, the lethal injection drug it has used since 2012. As other states' supplies of proven drugs dry up, they're working toward dusting off old methods - firing squad (Wyoming, Utah), the electric chair (Tennessee), and even the gas chamber (Oklahoma). >From 1982, when Texas became the 1st state to use lethal injection, until 2011, the national 3-drug cocktail was essentially the same: a sedative to numb the prisoner (sodium thiopental), a paralytic agent (pancuronium bromide) to immobilize him, and a drug (potassium chloride) to stop the heart. Then, in 2011, Hospira, the only U.S. company that sold sodium thiopental, announced it would "exit the sodium thiopental market" entirely, after its Italian plant refused to send any of the sedative to the U.S. because of its use in capital punishment. When states' sodium thiopental stocks ran out, they turned to pentobarbital, used to induce comas and euthanize animals - until its Danish manufacturer, Lundbeck, found out and barred its sale to states that employ lethal injection. Other producers of the drug have also prohibited its sale to U.S. correctional facilities. States then started using the sedative benzodiazepine midazolam - Lockett and Wood were midazolam guinea pigs - despite the wishes of its originator, Roche. States have also been ordering pentobarbital and other lethal-injection agents from domestic compounding pharmacies - but the details of those deals are extremely hazy. With just a single dose of pentobarbital left and 317 inmates on death row, Texas is stocking up on midazolam. It's not clear if Texas can't get pentobarbital because the compounding pharmacies are refusing to sell it to them, or because they can't get the raw ingredients - the Professional Compounding Centers of America told The Texas Tribune that it stopped providing pentobarbital ingredients to its customers in January 2014. Most compounding pharmacies aren't regulated by the Food and Drug Administration, and their products are uneven. Which compounding pharmacies are Texas, Oklahoma, Ohio, Georgia, Missouri, and other states buying drugs from? They're not saying. Why not? "Disclosing the identity of the pharmacy would result in the harassment of the business and would raise serious safety concerns for the business and its employees," Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesman Jason Clark explained to The Texas Tribune last month. Georgia passed a law shielding its lethal injection drug sources from the public, and Missouri won a lawsuit from death row inmates who wanted to know what was in the lethal cocktail they were to be subjected to, who made it, and who quality-tested the drugs. In December, a Texas court ordered the state to reveal where it obtained its lethal injection drugs. (TDCJ is appealing, and doesn't have to name names during the appeals process.) In April 2014, after Clayton Lockett's 45-minute death, The Washington Post's Brady Dennis and Lena H. Sun explained how states obtained their new drugs: In their scramble to carry out death sentences, prison officials from different states have made secret handoffs of lethal-injection drugs. State workers have carried stacks of cash into unregulated compounding pharmacies to purchase chemicals for executions.... "It looks like a street-level drug deal," said Dean Sanderford, a lawyer for Lockett. "And they're keeping all the information secret from us." [The Washington Post] Just ponder that for a moment. Providing lethal injection drugs to state prisons is so toxic that no European country will do it and no American company is willing to do it openly. Gunmakers and abortion clinics advertise their services, but pharmacies and drugmakers won't publicly associate with a form of punishment approved of by 63 % of Americans. That's the market talking, and it's saying it wants no part of this. There are lots of reasons to oppose the death penalty. It is significantly more expensive than incarcerating prisoners for life. It doesn't appear to deter crime.* There's a good chance America has executed at least one innocent person. Capital punishment puts the state in control of life and death, and turns state employees into literal executioners. The American Board of Anesthesiologists and the American Medical Association prohibit their members from helping administer capital punishment. If you believe in free-market capitalism - and presumably a good number of the 76 percent of Republicans who favor capital punishment do - then the scarcity of lethal injection drugs should be a signal that life without parole may be a better option. But, you may argue, what about the other forms of execution? Well, states are only returning to them reluctantly. And the reason seems to be that shooting people, hanging them, electrocuting them, and gassing them are too flamboyantly deathly for many Americans. Lawmakers in Utah "stopped offering inmates the choice of firing squad in 2004, saying the method attracted intense media interest and took attention from victims," explain The Associated Press' Brady McCombs and Lindsay Whitehurst. And in 2010, when Utah's last prisoner "was put to death by 5 police officers with .30-caliber Winchester rifles," the execution "drew international attention." If you take away the lab coats and the sedatives, capital punishment begins to look uncomfortably close to its probable purpose: State-sanctioned, ritualized revenge killings. (That's largely why my colleague Ryan Cooper wants to bring back the guillotine, the gallows, and the firing squad - to remind us of what we're really doing.) Utah State Rep. Paul Ray (R) - the main proponent of bringing back the firing squad - says that when prison officials selected the 5 police officers to carry out past execution, they start in the areas where the crime happened. "We've always had a lot more volunteers than actually had spots," he tells AP. Revenge is a very human emotion, and people assigned the death penalty typically committed really atrocious crimes. But justice is supposed to be rational and impartial. When the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals declined to rehear a 3-judge panel's decision to stay Wood's execution in July 2014, Chief Judge Alex Kozinski, a Reagan appointee, dissented, arguing that Arizona "should and will prevail in this case" and correctly predicting that the Supreme Court would lift the stay. But his dissent turned into a history lesson on lethal injection, which he called a flawed "enterprise doomed to failure": Using drugs meant for individuals with medical needs to carry out executions is a misguided effort to mask the brutality of executions by making them look serene and peaceful.... But executions are, in fact, nothing like that. They are brutal, savage events, and nothing the state tries to do can mask that reality. Nor should it. If we as a society want to carry out executions, we should be willing to face the fact that the state is committing a horrendous brutality on our behalf.... If we, as a society, cannot stomach the splatter from an execution carried out by firing squad, then we shouldn't be carrying out executions at all. [Kozinski] If drug companies refuse to sell state prisons lethal drugs - perhaps they object to "subverting medicines meant to heal the human body to the opposite purpose," as Kozinski writes - the states may have no choice but to return to older methods, or risk subjecting their condemned wards to cruel and unusual punishment. * "Much psychological and sociological research suggests that many criminal acts are crimes of passion or committed in a heated moment based only on immediate circumstances, and thus potential offenders may not consider or weigh longer-term possibilities of punishment and capture, including the possibility of capital punishment," says a February 12, 2015, report from NYU Law's Brennan Center for Justice. "In line with the past research, the Brennan Center's empirical analysis finds that there is no evidence that executions had an effect on crime in the 1990s or 2000s." (source: The Week) **************************** The Firing Squad Makes a Comeback Utah's shocking decision to reinstate the firing squad as a method of execution is a response to embargoes and boycotts - and may accelerate the decline of the death penalty. Last week, Utah's legislature passed a bill reintroducing the firing squad as an alternate form of execution when lethal injection drugs are unavailable. The bill will go to Republican Governor Gary Herbert's desk this week. He has not yet said whether he will sign it. One thing is sure, however: Utah's firing squads cast a harsh light on the American system of death, which is an anomaly amid a global decline in capital punishment. In fact, Utah is not actually the 1st state to consider alternatives to lethal injection. Last month, the Wyoming House comparatively quietly voted to reinstate the firing squad, with the stipulation that the prisoner must be made unconscious beforehand - all this even though Wyoming's death row is empty. Oklahoma has proposed reversion to the gas chamber with the use of nitrogen gas to starve the body of oxygen. Why is all of this happening? Because of a nationwide shortage of lethal injection drugs. A European Union embargo on Danish pharmaceutical company Lundbeck's export of pentobarbital and Illinois-based Hospira's refusal to sell sodium thiopental to corrections facilities have helped create a nationwide shortage of the most common drugs used in lethal injection. As a result, Ohio has postponed all executions for the rest of the year, Georgia dramatically postponed the execution of Kelly Gissendaner just minutes before she was to be put to death because her lethal injection drugs were not mixed correctly, and many states (including Pennsylvania and South Carolina) are already out of the drugs. Texas used its 2nd-to-last dose Wednesday night. Thus, pressure is building to follow Utah's lead and reinstate another method of execution. Now, on a scientific level, it is not clear that the firing squad or gas chamber are necessarily riskier or more painful than lethal injection, properly performed. At a human level, however, the reintroduction of discarded methods of execution is troubling because it reminds us of the death penalty's morbid, anachronistic nature, like a product of an earlier time when justice was less discerning, less "civilized." That image is not inaccurate. In fact, the decline of capital punishment everywhere in the world has followed from this process. Globally, legal capital punishment is largely restricted to the Islamic world and East and Southeast Asia. In Europe, Latin America, and the South Pacific region, the death penalty is virtually extinct. Executions have even dwindled to only a handful each year in all of Sub-Saharan Africa and the former Soviet bloc combined. India carries out about one execution per decade. There are, to be sure, some surprising holdouts: The most obvious is Japan, a respectable liberal democracy, yet one with a secretive death penalty process and lack of public debate on the issue. But such exceptions are increasingly rare. Although lethal injection is the most widely used method of execution in the United States (and, for the moment, the only method actively used), just 5 other countries authorize death by lethal injection, according to Cornell University Law School's Death Penalty Worldwide: China, Vietnam, Thailand, Taiwan, and - although it no longer carries out executions - Guatemala. Each of these countries now faces the same shortage of lethal injection drugs as the United States. In 2013, Vietnam, like Utah, considered reverting to firing squad instead of lethal injection, but ultimately opted to concoct home-grown chemicals rather than rely on the international pharmaceutical market. If not by injection, how do the countries with the death penalty carry out executions? Hanging is the most common method, and remains on the books in 60 countries. Firing squad is the 2nd-most common form (29 countries), followed by firing by a single shooter (23 countries). Stoning is in 4th place: though legal in 9 countries (more than lethal injection), it is often restricted to only a handful of very specific offenses and rarely used. 5 countries authorize beheading. Meanwhile, only the United States uses electrocution and the gas chamber, making these methods about as unusual as "pushing individuals from an unknown height," a legal method of execution in Iran and prominently used in the Islamic State. The domesticated death penalty is becoming feral. The triumph of lethal injection in the United States is part of a much longer trend, going back 2 centuries, to "civilize" capital punishment. The English example is instructive. In 1824, condemned prisoners in England were no longer required to carry their hanging rope to the scaffold. Gibbeting, the public display of a hanged prisoner after death, ceased in 1832. Shortly thereafter, black curtains were draped around the base of the scaffold to prevent the public from seeing the gruesome death. In 1868, the practice of public execution ceased altogether, though it continued in the Empire for longer. It wasn't found unconstitutional in India until 1986. Methods of execution have continued this "civilizing" trend. The ax gave way to the guillotine's precision and consistency. Hanging was perceived to be an improvement on the violent methods of execution that predated it, and firing squad, electrocution, and gas chamber were said to be improvements on hanging. Lethal injection revolutionized the process of capital punishment by turning it into a seemingly medical procedure that was not apparently painful as a result of a hefty dose of a sedative. In this respect, Utah's legislation looks like a reversal of this civilizing process. The crisis of lethal injection has already led to experimental drug cocktails, procurement of drugs from veterinary clinics and unregulated compounding pharmacies, and several botched executions. The domesticated death penalty is becoming feral. One might argue that attempting to civilize executions a fool's errand. No "civilized" method of execution can reconcile the underlying problems with the capital punishment system as it currently exists: inadequate assistance of counsel, racial sentencing disparities, higher structural costs, and wrongful convictions. If that is true, then Utah's action may continue the global erosion of the death penalty by unmasking it for what it is: institutionalized death. Capital punishment has nowhere left to hide. (source: The Daily Beast) ********************* Crime and punishment Who can agree with the degree of sadistic cruelty toward one's fellow man in our justice system? Incarceration is, however, an effective deterrent to crime. Loss of freedom alone is a punishment beyond compare. Hazing, ridicule and these dehumanizing efforts lead to nullifying a positive rehabilitating tool and often the inmate is hardened, becoming worse than before. Change in criminal behavior must be the desired outcome. Otherwise, we exacerbate our society's ills. Murderers' and rapists' fates are sealed and the death penalty does (biblically) apply. All other crimes are fixable, with the respect and dignity the inmate regains at release. We must all live equally under the same laws and are subject to equal punishment under our just laws. Respect yourselves and each other, thereby assuring our nation's future. Russ Olenick Raeford (source: Letter to the Editor, Fayetteville (NC) Observer) From rhalperi at smu.edu Mon Mar 16 09:24:07 2015 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Mon, 16 Mar 2015 09:24:07 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide Message-ID: March 16 INDONESIA: Indonesia's Islamic authority calls for death penalty for gay sex Indonesia's Islamic authority has proposed the introduction of the death penalty for gay sex. The Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) on 3 March issued a fatwa calling for a range of punishments, from caning to the death penalty, for homosexual acts. Hasanuddin AF, chairman of the MUI???s fatwa commission, said the edict was issued because sexual deviance was on the rise and had even infiltrated schools. 'Sodomy, homosexuals, gays and lesbians in Islamic law are forbidden and [sodomy] is a vile act that is punishable by the death penalty,' he said. Hasanruddin said sexual perversion would hurt national morale, and called on the government to set up rehabilitation centers to 'cure' LGBTI people and eradicate homosexuality in the country. The MUI issued a fatwa in January condemning homosexuality as a 'curable' disorder and sodomy as a punishable offence. It also forbade the legalization of gay sex. Secretary of the fatwa commission, Asrorun Ni'am Sholeh, said sodomy was worse than adultery and extramarital sex and was punished with harsher sentences under Islamic law. The Indonesian penal code does not ban gay sex, though 2 local governments have passed bylaws that criminalize homosexual acts. In September, the staunchly Islamic Aceh province, passed sharia-based criminal code that punishes gay sex with up to 100 lashes of the cane and 100 months in jail. The city of Palembang in South Sumatra clumps all gay-related activity with prostitution, which carries a maximum sentence of six months imprisonment and a Rp5 million ($380) fine. These bylaws are generally seen as extremist sideshows, but the MUI carries more clout with both conservative and moderate Indonesians, even if its edicts are not legally binding. (source: gaystarnews.com) ***************** Jokowi fulfils clemency request of death row murderer in Pekanbaru President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo has granted the clemency request filed by Dwi Trisna Firmansyah, 28, an inmate convicted of premeditated murder, and changed his sentence from death to life imprisonment. Dwi's lawyer, Asep Ruhiat, said he received a copy of the Presidential Decree (Keppres) No.18/G/2015 on the clemency from the Gobah Penitentiary, Pekanbaru, where the convict has been incarcerated for the last 3 years, on Friday. The Pekanbaru District Court (PN) confirmed the granting of clemency. "President Jokowi, through the State Secretariat, decided the Presidential Decree in Jakarta on Feb.13," Asep told The Jakarta Post on Sunday. "The Presidential Decree does not detail considerations on why President Jokowi granted the clemency request, except saying that the convict is eligible to receive clemency," he went on.Dwi is one of three death row convicts involved in the robbery and planned killings of Agusni Bahar, owner of the Niagara Ponsel store on Jl. Kaharuddin Nasution, Pekanbaru, and his son, Dodi Haryanto. The 2 other convicts involved in the crime, Candra Purnama, a.k.a. Hendra, and Andi Paula, are also being held at the Gobah Penitentiary. The 3 convicts brutally killed their victims when they were performing the Subuh prayer on April 16, 2012. They robbed their victims of 1 Daihatsu Terios car, 2 motorcycles, 12 mobile phones, dozens of cell phone vouchers, vehicle ownership documents (BPKB), vehicle registration certificates (STNK) and 3 bags containing a sum of money. The 3 criminals later fled to Palembang, South Sumatra before the police arrested them. The PN Pekanbaru's judicial panel led by Ida Bagus Dwiyantara sentenced the 3 suspects to death in a trial on Sept. 25, 2012. The judge's sentence was harsher than that demanded by the prosecutors, who requested life imprisonment for all 3 suspects.The judicial panel ruled that Asep was guilty of spying on the victims' activities before he and the 2 other suspects perpetrated their crimes. The court also said Asep was proven guilty of participating in the murder of their 2 victims. The judge sentenced him to death for violating the Criminal Code's (KUHP) articles 340 and 55 on planned murder. Asep previously filed an appeal and for a case review - both were rejected by the Pekanbaru High Court and Supreme Court - before he requested clemency from the President. (source: The Jakarta Post) TANZANIA: Law reforms sought to allow media in prisons----Tanzania housing 1000s of inmates above capacity Tanzanian legislators are urged to make law reforms to allow press and public to visit prisons and prisoners as part of efforts to bring about reforms to the prison system in the country. Notably Kenya and Uganda already allow public and press in their prisons a fact that authorities their say has significantly helped put pressure on their governments to make the much needed reforms. In Tanzania, the Prisons Act of 1967 prohibits members of the press from visiting prisons a situation that has been cited as detrimental to reform efforts. The call for reform was made in a statement issued at the turn of the week in Machakos Kenya during a roundtable discussion titled 'Penal Reform in East Africa, Recent Development' convened by the Foundation for Human Rights Initiative (FHRI), Penal Reform International, and the International Commission of Jurists- Kenya Section (ICJ). The meeting spotlighted the entire East Africa Community citing that all the member states have large numbers of prisoners on death row with Kenya taking the lead with 2757 prisoners on death row followed by Tanzania with 410 and Uganda which has 222 inmates awaiting execution. The 2 days sessions brought together senior prison commissioners from Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda to build momentum on mainstreaming human rights in prison services. It further endeavoured to create a platform for debate and discussion as well as the exchange of experiences that will bring about prison reform in the region. It was also cited that Tanzania's prison capacity is only 29,552 prisoners but the country hosts in excess of 34,000 inmates rendering the prisons insufferable congestion. "The situation in Tanzania has forced inmates to sleep on floors like tightly packed cards and the only chance to turn over is in sequence at regular times controlled by other inmates," a press statement notes. It was noted that the three countries also abstained from voting in the UN resolution on moratorium on the death penalty in November last year. "As a result, there is an extreme level of prison congestion in the region," read the statement in part. The statement acknowledged that the three countries have ratified the UN International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and are therefore bound by the treaty whose Article 6 (2) recognises each person's right to life. "The Constitutions of the three countries provide limitations to the right to life," the statement says. It explains that, the right to life is infringed (limited) because the death penalty is prescribed for certain capital offences under the Penal Code Act where offences such as murder, treason and terrorism and robbery attract mandatory death sentences. Presenting a paper on 'Prison Infrastructure, Threats and Opportunities' Tanzania Commissioner for Prisons, Deonice Chamulesile said that most of prison structures in the country were built during the colonial era and have very poor ventilation coupled with even poorer sewage systems. "The space in most of the prisons is extremely small," he said. 'A room that was meant to accommodate 1 prisoner now caters for 5 to 6 inmates and there are no safety considerations in the structures as most prisons have only one door which is very unsafe in case of fire outbreak or any other similar hazards," Chamulesile warned. The Tanzania Commissioner for Prisons went on to note that prison improvement should go concurrently with improving number of staff and their living and working conditions. He cited that, as is the case with the prisoners, most staff at prisons sleep in a single room housing that accommodates 3 to 4 officers who work in shifts. "Our officers are forced to sleep on prison premises just to pass the night away due to shortage of housing," the Commissioner decried and attributed the problem to underfunding. The meeting noted that the situation is no different in Kenya as the country's Assistant Commissioner of Prisons Henry Kisingu admitted; "Our prisons are also operating way beyond their recommended capacity which is 30,000 yet they are housing some 54,000 inmates." Notably however and unlike Tanzania, he said Kenya has introduced an open door policy where members of the press can now visit prisons. "This has helped shade light over the actual situation and put pressure on the government to make concerted efforts to improve the situation," he said. On his part, Robert Munaniva the Commissioner for Prisoners in Uganda also conceded that the situation is none the better in Uganda's prison. He said they have the capacity to accommodate only 16,499 inmates but cater for 42,013, more than twice the number. "Some inmates are forced to sleep on their feet due to lack of space," he admitted citing however that like Kenya, Uganda also has an Open Door Policy when it comes to their prisons and the public as well as members of the press can visit prisons and prisoners, 'a situation that is likely to speed up reforms' he said. In Tanzania, to visit a prison or prisoner, the media is required by, the Act to write a letter to the Commissioner of Prisons in Tanzania and request permission and imposes fines and imprisonment terms for any violations. Notably, the media in Tanzania has been vibrant in enhancing positive changes in the country yet it has failed to do so for the prisons system owing to the law. Media stakeholders under the Media Council of Tanzania once listed 13 laws which infringe the right to information and the Prisons Act of 1967 was one of them. (source: The Guardian) PAKISTAN: Shafqat Hussain: Child offender to be executed in Pakistan He was sentenced to death at just 14 years of age. Shafqat Hussain was found guilty of killing another boy who was just half his age. His family say he was tortured into confessing the crime, while human rights groups have called for his execution to be called off given his young age when the crime took place. If his execution does go ahead as planned, he will be one of 8000 estimated inmates who are set to be executed on death row in the South-East Asian country. Pakistan has lifted its moratorium on the death penalty in all capital cases after restarting executions for terrorism offences in the wake of a Taliban school massacre. The interior ministry last week directed provincial governments to proceed with hangings for prisoners who have exhausted all avenues of appeal and clemency, a move which has been widely condemned by human rights groups. Meanwhile Hussain's elderly mother made an emotional appeal for authorities to halt the execution of her son. The then teenager was sentenced in 2004 by a court in the port city of Karachi after it found him guilty of killing another boy. In a telephone interview from the Pakistani-controlled section of the disputed Kashmir territory, Makhni Begum insisted that Hussain was innocent. "I request to the government and I beg to the judiciary to order the retrial of my son. Please spare his life. Don't snatch him from me," she sobbed. The woman said her son went to Karachi to work as a security guard, but one day she heard that he had been arrested in a murder case. Hussain's brother Manzoor alleged that his brother was tortured by police to force a confession. "My brother was subjected to the worst torture for admitting that he had killed another boy and dumped his body" near a drain in Karachi, he said. No police official was immediately available for comment. Manzoor, who uses only 1 name, said the jail authorities had summoned them for a final meeting with Hussain, who is scheduled to be executed on March 19. Phelim Kine, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said executing child offenders is a barbarous violation of basic decency and international law. "Sending someone to the gallows for an alleged crime committed as a child shows the Pakistani government's disregard for children's rights." Pakistan has ratified both the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which specifically prohibit capital punishment of anyone who was under 18 at the time of the offence. According to HRW, Pakistan's execution of an alleged child offender on June 13, 2006, when authorities in Peshawar hanged Mutabar Khan. A trial court in Swabi had sentenced Khan to death on October 6, 1998, for the alleged murder of 5 people in April 1996. A Pakistani human rights organisation has also called for Hussain's execution to be halted due to his youthful age when the crime was committed. In a statement, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said Pakistan's minister for interior had announced in January that an inquiry would be conducted into the concerns raised regarding Hussain's conviction. "No such inquiry has taken place," it said. Pakistan imposed a moratorium on executions in 2008, but partially lifted the ban in December after a Taliban attack on a school in the north-western city of Peshawar killed 150 people, mostly children. The death penalty moratorium was completely lifted this month with authorities making plans to execute all prisoners on death row. (source: news.com.au) IRAN: 2052 Executions For Drug-Offences in the Last 5 years in Iran According to a report published by Iran Human Rights (IHR) at least 2052 people charged with drug-related offences, have been executed by the Iranian authorities in the period of 2010-2014. During the past 5 years, drug-related charges have counted for the majority of executions in Iran.[1] Based on death penalty reports, at least 2052 people have been executed for drug-related charges since 2010 in Iran. In 2013, there was a relative decrease in the number of drug-related executions compared to the previous 3 years. However, the decrease didn't continue. In 2014, at least 367 people were executed for such charges. 123 of these executions were announced by the official sources. Iranian authorities claim that many of those sentenced to death for drug-related charges are involved in organized, armed smuggling. However, there is a general lack of transparency in the Iranian judicial system and all those convicted for drug-related charges have been tried by the Revolution Courts behind closed doors, and most of those executed are not identified by name. Human rights groups have received many reports on unfair trials and confessions under torture. An example is Saeed Sedighi[2] who was executed in October 2012 despite calls from the UN Special Rapporteurs to halt the execution.[3] Furthermore, many of those executed belonged to the most marginalized parts of society.REF The international fight against drug trafficking and executions The United Nations' Office for Drugs and Crimes (UNODC) has cooperated with Iran in the fight against drug trafficking for the past decades. Several European states have provided millions of dollars worth of support through UNODC to counter-narcotics forces in Iran. A recent report by Reprieve provides a direct link between the UNODC funding and thousands of executions in Iran.[4],[5] Together with several other right groups, IHR and ECPM have urged the UNODC on several occasions to freeze its counter-narcotic funding[6],[7] to Iran or condition it to a stop in drug-related executions. Several countries such as Denmark, Ireland[8] and the UK have stopped their counter-narcotic aid to the UNODC programs in Iran. However, the UNODC continues praising Iranian authorities for their efficient struggle against trafficking without taking into account the several hundred who are executed every year for such charges in Iran. Yury Fedotov, Executive Director of the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), told reporters that "Iran takes a very active role to fight against illicit drugs," [9] before an international meeting on global efforts to combat narcotics in Vienna on March 13-14. "It is very impressive," Fedotov said referring to the reports showing that in 2012, Iran seized 388 tons of opium, the equivalent of 72 percent of all such seizures around the world. Commenting on Mr. Fedotov's praise of Iran???s fight against drugs, IHR spokesperson Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam said: "The amount of seized drugs is the only positive result UNODC and the Iranian authorities can present. But there is no evidence that the UNODC cooperation with Iran has led to a decrease in drug trafficking. Besides, UNODC cannot be indifferent to the indiscriminate execution of hundreds of prisoners under the pretext of fighting the drug trafficking. UNODC must take its share of responsibility." [10] Although there has not been a significant reduction in the number of executions for drug-related charges, the growing international attention seems to have some impact on the Iranian authorities' rhetoric regarding this issue. Change in the Anti-Narcotic Law: a change in rhetoric or practice? In previous years, Iranian authorities proudly presented the high number of executions for drug offences as a sign of their efficient struggle against international drug trafficking. As late as March 2014, referring to the drug-related executions, Javad Larijani, head of the Iranian Judiciary's "Human Rights Council" said: "We expect the world to be grateful for this great service to humanity". He continued: "Unfortunately, instead of celebrating Iran, international organizations see the increased number of executions caused by Iran's assertive confrontation with drugs as a vehicle for human rights attacks on the Islamic Republic of Iran." [11],[12] However, the rhetoric has clearly changed in the last months of 2014. On December 4, in an English-language interview with France 24, Javad Larijani said, "No one is happy to see that the number of executions is high." Javad Larijani continued, "We are crusading to change this law. If we are successful, if the law passes in Parliament, almost 80% of the executions will go away.[13] This is big news for us, regardless of Western criticism." Interestingly, his statement was published also by the state-run Fars News Agency.[14] This has been echoed by the judiciary. Ayatollah Sadegh Larijani, Javad Larijani's brother and the head of Iran's Judiciary, addressed the need to change the country's drug laws. During a December 2 meeting of judiciary officials, he said, "On the issue of drugs and trafficking, it seems necessary that we need a change in the legislation because the ultimate goal of the law should be implementing justice, while in reality, this goal is often not realized".[15],[16] Based on these statements, one can conclude that the Iranian authorities have at least publicly admitted that the executions have not been an efficient mean in the fight against drug trafficking. However, it remains to be seen to what extent these statements represent a real willingness for policy change and are not just a change of rhetoric by the Iranian authorities. Iran's response to the UPR recommendations regarding the drug-related executions will be indicative of where Iran is heading. UPR Recommendations on drug-related executions: Several countries have recommended Iran to respect the ICCPR, which restricts the death penalty for the most serious offences. Below are the recommendations that directly mention the drug-related executions. --Amend the Penal Code to exclude drug-trafficking related crimes from those punished by the death penalty (Spain); --Consider introducing a moratorium on the death penalty, with a view to its abolition, in particular for drug-related offences and other crimes that cannot be labelled as "most serious" according to international standards (Italy); ----- [1]http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/MDE13/090/2011/en/0564f064-e965-4fad-b062-6de232a08162/mde130902011en.pdf [2]http://iranhr.net/2012/10/urgent-saeed-sedighi-and-several-other-prisoners-scheduled-to-be-executed-tomorrow-ihr-urges-un-and-eu-to-react-now/ [3] http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=12688&LangID=E [4] European Aid for Executions - Reprieve, 2014 [5] Daily mail, Special report, 14. December 2014 [6] http://iranhr.net/2014/12/human-rights-groups-urge-un-to-freeze-funding-of-iran-counter-narcotic-efforts/ [7] http://iranhr.net/2012/10/rights-groups-urge-un-to-cease-anti-drug-trafficking-funding-iran-death-penalty/ [8] http://www.thejournal.ie/ireland-iran-drugs-1166152-Nov2013/ [9] http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/03/11/uk-iran-drugs-un-idUKBREA2A0PA20140311 [10] http://iranhr.net/2014/03/despite-328-executions-for-drug-related-charges-in-2013-unodc-praises-irans-drug-fight/ [11] http://www.tasnimnews.com/Home/Single/302871 [12] http://www.iranhumanrights.org/2014/03/larijani-executions/ [13] Mohammad Javad Larijani's interview with France24, December 4, 2014 [14] http://www.farsnews.com/newstext.php?nn=13930914000637 [15] http://www.farsnews.com/newstext.php?nn=13930912000412 [16] http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/12/iran-end-death-penalty-drug-cases.html# (source: Iran Human Rights) From rhalperi at smu.edu Mon Mar 16 22:16:51 2015 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Mon, 16 Mar 2015 22:16:51 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., N.C., FLA., ALA., MISS., LA. Message-ID: March 16 TEXAS----stay of impending execution Texas court halts officers' killer's execution An East Texas man set for execution this week for a shootout 8 years ago that left 2 sheriff's officers dead has won a reprieve from the state's highest criminal appeals court. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals late Monday stopped the scheduled execution of 55-year-old Randall Wayne Mays. Mays was set for lethal injection Wednesday evening in Huntsville for the fatal shootings at his home in Henderson County, about 55 miles southeast of Dallas. The court agreed with Mays' lawyers that additional review is needed to determine if Mays is mentally competent for execution. His punishment would have depleted the Texas Department of Criminal Justice's supply of pentobarbital used for lethal injections and now difficult to obtain for capital punishment. At least 4 Texas executions are scheduled for April. (source: Associated Press) **************************** Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present----4 Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982----present-----522 Abbott#--------scheduled execution date-----name------------Tx. # 5------------Apr. 9--------------------Kent Sprouse---------523 6------------Apr. 15-------------------Manual Garza---------524 7-----------Apr. 23-------------------Richard Vasquez------525 8-----------Apr. 28-------------------Robert Pruett--------526 9-----------May 12--------------------Derrick Charles------527 10-----------June 18-------------------Gregory Russeau------528 (sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin) PENNSYLVANIA: Jurors selected in death penalty case After 3 1/2 days of jury selection for the Jordan Clemons homicide trial, attorneys have chosen 5 people for the 16-member panel. Jury selection began Wednesday with Washington County Judge Gary Gilman posing group questions to 151 potential jurors. On Thursday, potential jurors were placed into groups of 20 to be interviewed individually. Assistant District Attorney Chad Schneider said each potential juror is being asked a series of 85 questions that will touch on varying qualifications for the case. Additionally, potential jurors were required to fill out a questionnaire that posed questions about the death penalty, among other things. The prosecution is seeking the death penalty. 12 people will serve as jurors, with 4 others to be chosen as alternates. Clemons, 26, formerly of Canonsburg, is accused of killing his ex-girlfriend, 21-year-old Karissa Kunco of Pittsburgh, in January 2012 and dumping her body in a wooded area of Mt. Pleasant Township. Kunco was last seen alive Jan. 11, 2012. State police allege that after killing her, Clemons dragged her naked body into the woods along Sabo Road and covered it with leaves, brush and a tree stump. Kunco, whose throat was cut, had a protection-from-abuse order against Clemons. Defense attorney Brian Gorman has declined to say if Clemons would testify during the trial, which is expected to start May 4. Gorman intends to argue that head injuries Clemons suffered while playing football and in several vehicle accidents, plus years of drug abuse, diminished his mental capacity. Any brain injury Clemons experienced could have been a factor in his ability to form criminal intent, Gorman said in court documents. Schneider plans to call roughly 20 witnesses, including Kunco's parents. Clemons also faces charges from a home invasion in Canonsburg Jan. 8, 2012, and is charged with flight to avoid apprehension in connection with an alleged assault of Kunco in December 2011. Clemons remains in Washington County Jail without bond. Jury selection is slated to continue for the rest of the week. (source: Observer-Reporter) NORTH CAROLINA: New Hanover DA awaits death-penalty decision in Lingo Street arson case After announcing last week that the state will seek the death penalty against the suspect in a deadly Carolina Beach arson fire, the fate of another accused arsonist charged with murder in Wilmington is hanging in the balance. "The (death penalty) panel has not yet met to determine whether we are going to proceed capitally," New Hanover County District Attorney Ben David said Monday. "Once the case is indicted, we will meet and know within 45 days if it will be on pace for capital murder." Harry Levert Davis, 24, is being held without bail in the New Hanover County jail on 2 counts of 1st-degree murder, 3 counts of attempted 1st-degree murder and 1 count of 1st-degree arson. He stands accused of killing 2 people by setting fire to 1901 Lingo St. Makayla Pickett, 14, born blind and autistic, woke her family, but died in the blaze. Her great-aunt and guardian, Pamela Pickett, 51, collapsed and died outside the home after helping 3 others escape. In a newly obtained affidavit in support of a search warrant for Davis' phone, a Wilmington Police Department investigator states Makayla's cousin Shatara Pickett "had a falling out" and fought two days before the fire with a female neighbor. On the evening before the fire, Davis, who was friends with the neighbor, called Shatara repeatedly and tried to arrange for the women to fight again, according to the affidavit. About 4 a.m. on the morning of the fire Shatara was at another location when Davis showed up, and he was "advised to leave," the affidavit states. At 5 a.m., a friend who Shatara was with received a phone call from Davis saying Shatara's house was on fire, according to the court document. According to the Wilmington Fire Department the Lingo Street fire was reported at 4:30 a.m. A fire was set at both the front and back doors of the small bungalow. Investigators believe an accelerant was used in the blaze. The Lingo Street fire came just 17 days after 2 women were killed in an arson fire in Carolina Beach. On March 10, David announced his office intends to seek the death penalty against arson suspect Marshall Hudson Doran, 22. Doran is charged with setting the 3 fires Dec. 6, 1 of which was deadly. (source: Wilmington Star News) FLORIDA: Unanimous death sentences bill clears 1st Florida Senate committee A Senate panel has approved a change in Florida's death sentencing process that supporters say, if passed by the full Legislature, would bring the state in line with the rest of the country in its executions. The bill (S.B. 664) would require a unanimous vote by jurors to request the death penalty. Right now, all it takes is a majority of a jury - a 7-5 vote - to recommend the death penalty. According to legislative staff analysis, between 2000 and 2012, just 20 % of death sentences have been issued by unanimous jury votes. "In Florida, the only time a jury is not required to be unanimous is when jurors are considering a death sentence," said Sen. Thad Altman, R-Melbourne, the bill's sponsor. "This bill brings Florida in line with the vast majority of death penalty states." After explaining the agony of coming to an opinion on a question of this magnitude, members of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee approved the bill by a 5-0 vote. "There's someone who died unnecessarily, often horribly, and they have a family who survived, who demands and deserves justice," said Sen. Rob Bradley, R-Fleming Island. "Even though it's agonizing, I think it's time. I think it's time that Florida no longer be an outlier on this issue." During the hearing, Sen. Greg Evers, R-Crestview, the committee's chair expressed concern that people like Ted Bundy would not have been executed. Bundy's execution was not ordered with a unanimous vote after he was convicted of killing dozens of young women and girls in the 1970s. But Matthew Willard of the Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers said a change in the process wouldn???t change how guilt is determined and that the increased standard for executions might not change the number of death sentences that are given. Bill Cervone of the Florida Prosecuting Attorneys Association said it's helpful for judges, who have the final say in ordering a death sentence, to know what the vote of the jury was. (source: Bradenton Herald) ALABAMA: Bringing back electric chair would be unwise Leave Yellow Mama where it belongs - in deep storage at the Holman Correction Facility in Atmore. That's the only sane response to an effort to reinstate use of Alabama's infamous electric chair, nicknamed for its garish color. The electric chair bill, which passed the state House of Representatives last week, purports to offer a practical alternative to death by lethal injection, should that method remain unavailable. Lethal injection executions are now stalled in Alabama and elsewhere by legal challenges and because pharmaceutical companies increasingly refuse to supply states with the ingredients needed for fatal drug cocktails. Botched executions of death row prisoners in several states show why lethal injection is rightly under review by the U.S. Supreme Court on the grounds it may constitute cruel and unusual punishment. In a number of cases, injections using different drug combinations have led to long, atrocious death scenes, including that of an Arizona inmate in 2014 who took almost 2 hours to die. The solution to the stay on one questionable capital-punishment method, however, isn't to revive the even more barbaric electric chair option. Yellow Mama was retired in 2002 precisely because of legal challenges over gruesome cruelty including inmates roasting alive while strapped in. Bill sponsor Rep. Lynn Greer, R-Rogersville, says electrocutions will save Alabama money if a dearth of lethal injection drugs means inmates sit longer on death row. He's wrong. Death penalty appeals will only become more costly for taxpayers if the electric chair is brought back and opponents who believe it is inhumane inevitably challenge its constitutionality. But the Alabama Senate should refuse to take up reinstatement of the electric chair for a more fundamental reason: The rank role unfairness and bigotry play in application of the death penalty, particularly in Southern states. Study after study reveals that black defendants get the death penalty far more often than white defendants, for similar crimes. Black defendants convicted of killing white victims are put on death row in higher proportions than white defendants who killed black victims. Add to that the horrifying number of death-row prisoners who've been exonerated, victims of shoddy legal defense or misconduct by prosecutors more interested in winning convictions than the truth. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, 150 innocent death- row inmates have been exonerated since 1973, including 5 from Alabama. Yellow Mama, ugly artifact of a morally indefensible death penalty system, shouldn't be returned to service. Instead, Alabama lawmakers should follow the lead of Nebraska, where legislation to ban execution in favor of life sentences without chance of parole has received bipartisan support. (source: al.com) MISSISSIPPI: Mississippi fights order to identify execution drug supplier Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood is asking a Hinds County judge to keep secret the identity of Mississippi's execution drug supplier while the state appeals an order to release the name. Earlier this month, Hinds County Chancery Judge Denise Owens ruled that the state's public records law required release of the information, sought by death penalty opponents at the Roderick and Solange MacArthur Justice Center. In papers filed last week, Hood's office said the state prison system should be able to keep concealing the name, because if it's forced to release the information, there's no point in appealing. The justice center argues the state has little hope of winning on appeal, and that rights are being violated by the state's defiance of its public records law. Owens has yet to rule. Alabama lawmakers are also trying to shield the identities of companies who provide the state with execution drugs, but even without it, the Alabama Department of Corrections releases little information about the process of putting a person the death. The prison system declined to release the suppliers of execution drugs, as well as other information about the process of execution. The Associated Press requested information about drug purchases and the execution protocol, including the procedures to make sure an inmate is unconscious. The prison system cited ongoing litigation over the death penalty. In a letter dated Feb. 19, the department said it "generally considers execution related documents, including the purchase of execution drugs, confidential and exempt from public disclosure under Alabama law. "However, because of pending litigation, we will not release any execution information," the letter said. The department did not cite any statutes for the exemption. However, a lawyer for an inmate challenging the state's execution method said the state could release the information. "The state is free to do what it wants with this information, and it chooses to continue to shroud Alabama's lethal injection procedures in secrecy," said lawyer Suhana Han, who represents death row inmate Tommy Arthur. The Alabama House of Representatives on March 11 added the secrecy language to a bill that would allow the state to use the electric chair if the prison system was unable to find the needed drugs for an execution. Currently, the state puts inmates to death by lethal injection unless the inmate requests the electric chair. No one has done so. The bill's sponsor, Republican Rep. Lynn Greer of Rogersville, said Alabama and other death penalty states are having trouble obtaining the drugs because pharmacies fear lawsuits and backlash from death penalty opponents. European manufacturers have stopped selling the drugs to death penalty states, leaving some states unable to carry out death sentences or turning to drug combinations or compounding pharmacies for the drugs. The bill would prohibit the disclosure of the "name, address, qualifications, and other identifying information of any person or entity that manufactures, compounds, prescribes, dispenses, supplies, or administers the drugs or supplies utilized in an execution." The names would be off limits to the courts, except in death penalty challenge or injury cases, in which they would be put under seal. The proposal now goes to the Alabama Senate. Opposed lawmakers said the state had no compelling reason to keep the information secret. The House approved a similar bill last year, but the measure did not get a vote in the Alabama Senate. The last execution in Alabama occurred July 25, when Andrew Lackey was put to death. It was the state's first execution since October 2011. State officials acknowledged last year that Alabama had exhausted its supply of execution drugs. The state in September announced the adoption of a new drug combination. Arthur was to be the 1st inmate put to death with the new combination, but his execution was stayed. (source: Associated Press) LOUISIANA: Durst heir faces murder charge after documentary broadcast Robert Durst couldn't explain away similarities between his handwriting and a letter he said "only the killer could have written" that alerted police to his friend's shooting 15 years ago. Confronted with new evidence by the makers of a documentary about his links to 3 killings, the troubled millionaire blinked, burped oddly, pulled his ear and briefly put his head in his hands before denying he was the killer. Then he stepped away from the tense interview and went to the bathroom, still wearing the live microphone that recorded what he said next. "There it is. You're caught!" Durst whispered before the sound of running water is heard. "What the hell did I do? Killed them all, of course." That moment didn't just make for a captivating finale to a 6-part documentary on the eccentric life of an heir to a New York real estate fortune. It also may have given police and prosecutors more evidence in the long-cold case of a mobster's daughter. Susan Berman was felled by a bullet to the back of her head as investigators prepared to find out what she knew about the disappearance of Durst's wife in 1982. Los Angeles prosecutors filed a 1st-degree murder charge Monday that alleges Durst lay in wait with a gun and killed a witness - special circumstances that could carry a death sentence if prosecutors decide later to pursue it. Durst, 71, who was arrested at a New Orleans hotel on the eve of Sunday's final episode, agreed Monday to face trial for the murder of Berman, who had vouched for him in public after his wife vanished. Attorney Dick DeGuerin said outside court that Durst didn't kill Berman, and is "ready to end all the rumor and speculation and have a trial." The makers of "The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst" said Durst rejected his lawyer's advice to stay quiet before granting two lengthy interviews. They also said he knew he was being recorded throughout, and that they shared any evidence they gathered with authorities long before broadcasting the film on HBO. Legal experts said the bathroom tape could become key evidence. "Any statement that the defendant makes that they want to use against him, they can use against him," said Andrea Roth, a law professor at the University of California, Berkeley. "Even if it's sketchy, and only in context appears to make him look guilty." Kerry Lawrence, a defense attorney in Westchester County, New York, said Durst's lawyers will have to try to explain away his comments, perhaps dismissing them as a joke. "Prosecutors would argue it was a candid moment of self-reflection, and he I assume will argue that he knew he was still being recorded, and this was either said in jest or he was being facetious or sarcastic or was being provocative," Lawrence said. "I don't think it's quite the smoking gun." The bathroom recording was not part of the evidence presented to prosecutors before charges were filed because detectives were still trying to determine if the recording was tampered with in any way, a law enforcement official with knowledge of the investigation told The Associated Press. The official, who was not authorized to speak publicly because the investigation was ongoing and spoke on condition of anonymity, said the handwriting analysis was the key new evidence in the long investigation. The documentary showed filmmaker Andrew Jarecki confronting Durst with a copy of an anonymous letter that alerted Beverly Hills police to look for a "cadaver" at Berman's address. Durst offered that whoever sent it was "taking a big risk. You're sending a letter to police that only the killer could have written." Then, in the final episode, Jarecki revealed another envelope, which Durst acknowledged mailing to Berman, that has similar writing in block letters and also misspelled the address as "Beverley." "I wrote this one but I did not write the cadaver one," Durst said. But when shown an enlargement of both copies, Durst couldn't distinguish them. Former Westchester County prosecutor Jeanine Pirro seemed stunned when the filmmakers showed her Durst's previously unknown letter to Berman, saying "the jig is up." She believes it was her reopening of the cold case into Kathleen Durst's 1982 disappearance that provoked the killing of Berman, who had been Durst's confidante. Now, she said, his own words can convict him. "It was a spontaneous statement, a classical exception to the hearsay rule," Pirro told Fox's "Good Day New York." ''I don't hear it as a muttering. I hear it as a clear, unequivocal 'I killed them.' That means he killed his wife, he killed Susan Berman and he killed Morris Black." Durst - still worth millions despite his estrangement from his family, whose New York real estate empire is worth about $4 billion - has maintained his innocence in 3 killings in as many states. He was acquitted by a Texas jury in the 2001 dismemberment killing of his elderly neighbor, whose body parts were found floating in Galveston Bay. Lawyers said Durst - who fled Texas and was brought back to trial after being caught shoplifting in Pennsylvania - killed Morris Black in self-defense. Durst, however, acknowledged using a paring knife, 2 saws and an ax to dismember the body, and that may result in a delay of his transfer to Los Angeles, because he was arrested with a revolver on Saturday. That's illegal for felons, and Durst did prison time after pleading guilty to evidence tampering and jumping bail. Louisiana authorities filed weapons charges late Monday charging Durst as a convicted felon in possession of a firearm and with having a small amount of marijuana. When Durst approached the filmmakers and agreed to go on camera, he was still suspected in the killing of Berman, whose father was a Las Vegas mobster associated with Bugsy Siegel and Meyer Lansky, and the disappearance of his wife, who was declared dead long after she vanished in New York in 1982. Durst's longtime Houston lawyer Chip Lewis called Jarecki "duplicitous" for not making it clear to Durst that he would be sharing footage with police. "It's all about Hollywood now," Lewis said. But Jarecki said Durst signed a contract clearly giving the filmmakers the right to use what they gathered however they wished. Los Angeles Deputy Police Chief Kirk Albanese said the timing of the arrest had nothing to do with the production and that police were concerned Durst might flee the country. "We do police work based on the facts and evidence," Albanese told the AP on Monday. "I know there's lots of speculation about that. It had nothing to do with the show." By Monday, the filmmakers - likely witnesses at a trial - said they would make no more comments. (source: Associated Press) From rhalperi at smu.edu Mon Mar 16 22:18:06 2015 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Mon, 16 Mar 2015 22:18:06 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----OHIO, MO., NEB., UTAH, WYO., ARIZ., CALIF. Message-ID: March 16 OHIO: Penalty phase of trial begins for man convicted of killing ex-girlfriend, their son A jury has begun the penalty phase in the continuing Summit County capital murder trial of a man convicted in the 2013 slayings of his former girlfriend and their son. Last month, the same panel convicted Daniel Tighe, 41, of aggravated murder, murder, abuse of a corpse and other crimes after nine hours of deliberations over 2 days. The badly decomposed remains of Wendy Ralston, 31, and the couple's 5-year-old son, Peyton, were found Aug. 10, 2013, buried in the woods behind a Tallmadge duplex they shared with Tighe. A specific cause of death for both victims could not be determined by the Summit County Medical Examiner's Office, but prosecutors built their case on the strength of days of testimony involving extensive circumstantial evidence. Summit Assistant Prosecutor Jonathan Baumoel told the jury in closing arguments last month that Tighe and Ralston had a volatile relationship and that Tighe might have killed her, possibly by strangulation, during an argument or fit of rage. Tighe was homeless and unemployed at the time and had moved into Ralston's Stone Creek Drive duplex in Tallmadge 3 months before her death. Common Pleas Judge Lynne S. Callahan, who presided over the trial, is hearing what is known as the mitigation phase of the proceedings. According to Ohio law, prosecutors must prove that the aggravating circumstances of the crimes outweigh any factors that show the defendant should not be put to death. The jury then must decide whether to recommend capital punishment. It is up to the judge to impose a death sentence. Defense attorney Brian Pierce said Tighe will not take the stand nor give an unsworn statement in court. Proceedings are expected to conclude Tuesday. (source: Akron Beacon Journal) MISSOURI----impending execution Missouri to execute intellectually disabled man barring last-minute stay ---- Cecil Clayton, diagnosed as severely mentally impaired from a logging accident 40 years ago, to be put to death for killing a police officer in 1996 The scan of Cecil Clayton's brain succinctly tells the story. In the front left corner of his skull, where his frontal lobe would normally be found, there is a gaping black hole about the size of a fist. In 1972, Clayton was working on a log in a lumberyard in Purdy, Missouri, when a piece of wood broke off the saw mill and struck him in the head. It pierced his skull, sending shards of bone deep into his brain, and in the process of saving his life surgeons were forced to remove 1/5 of his frontal lobe - a vital area that controls judgment, inhibition and impulsive behavior. The accident had a devastating impact. A man who before it occurred had been a teetotal devoted husband and father of five, who preached and sang the gospel in his own ministry, developed severe memory loss and despair, sank into alcoholism and split from his wife, had hallucinations and displayed bouts of violent rage. 24 years after the accident he shot and killed a Purdy police officer, Christopher Castetter. When he was arrested, Clayton displayed signs of confusion, saying of his victim that "he shouldn't have smarted off to me", yet adding "but I don't know because I wasn't out there." Under the constitution of the United States it is forbidden to execute anyone who is insane and incapable of understanding the fact of his impending death and the reason for it. Under separate but equally clear rulings, it is also prohibited to execute an intellectually disabled prisoner. Yet at 6pm on Tuesday Missouri time, barring last-minute intervention, Clayton - a man who as a result of losing part of his brain has been deemed by a succession of medical experts to be insane and intellectually disabled - will be put to death by lethal injection. Attempts by his lawyers to have the execution delayed have so far failed, with the Missouri supreme court refusing even to allow a hearing into the inmate's mental condition to consider whether he is entitled to protection under the 8th amendment of the US constitution that debars "cruel and unusual punishment". The evidence of Clayton's mental impairments - and hence his constitutional right to protection - is considerable, dating back many years. In addition to that image of his brain scan, psychological evaluations stretching back to 1978 have chronicled the after-effects of his severe brain trauma. He has the reading ability of a 9-year-old, has visual and auditory hallucinations in which he is convinced that he is accompanied by a man and a woman wherever he goes, is incapable of simple tasks such as ordering food from the prison commissary, and is under the delusion that he will never be executed because God will intervene and free him so that he can return to his preaching and gospel singing. 3 forensic psychologists have spent time with Clayton in multiple visits spanning 2005 to this year, and have unanimously and consistently concluded that he is entitled to constitutional protections because of his mental incompetence. One of the psychologists, Daniel Foster, has written: "He is not simply incompetent legally, he would be unable to care for himself or manage basic self care, were he not in a structured environment that takes care of him ... he still does not comprehend, appreciate nor understand its approaching date for him". 6 times, Clayton's lawyers have petitioned the Missouri supreme court, the highest judicial panel in the state, calling for a full review of his mental condition to see whether he is entitled to 8th amendment protections. Each time they have cited the expert evidence of his mental dysfunction, but each time the court has rebuffed the request saying that the prisoner had not met the level of impairment necessary to justify a hearing. In effect, the inmate has found himself trapped in a Catch-22 where he has been unable to convince the Missouri justices that he is worthy of their attention. His final plea to the US supreme court, on which his fate now hangs, says: "The Missouri supreme court essentially required Mr Clayton to prove his incompetency in order to obtain a hearing on his incompetency." In a dissenting opinion from the Missouri court, Laura Denvir Stith said: "The denial of such a hearing deprives Mr Clayton of a fair opportunity to show that the constitution prohibits his execution." Missouri has become one of America's most aggressive death penalty states. Since November 2013 it has been executing prisoners at the rate of almost 1 a month, a rate rivaled only by Texas. Should Clayton's execution go ahead, he would be the 14th death row inmate to be judicially killed in the past 17 months. (source: The Guardian) ****************** Missouri Killer Cecil Clayton Fights to Halt Execution Over Brain Damage A convicted cop-killer who is missing a small part of his brain is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to halt his Tuesday execution, arguing mental illness and intellectual disability make him ineligible for the death penalty. Cecil Clayton's appeal to the nation's top court comes after the highest court in Missouri rejected his claims in a 4-3 decision over the weekend. Clayton, 74, was injured in a 1972 sawmill accident in which a piece of wood shot through his skull, forcing doctors to remove 1/5 of his frontal lobe - which amounted to just under 8 % of his brain. His lawyers contend that after the surgery, he became hallucinatory, suicidal, alcoholic, paranoid, depressed and prone to violent outbursts. In 1996, he shot and killed sheriff's deputy Chris Castetter while the officer was responding to a domestic disturbance. The defense says that 2 doctors have repeatedly deemed Clayton incompetent, but the Missouri court found that he understands why he has been sentenced to die, and therefore is considered competent for execution. 3 of the 7 judges disagreed and said he is entitled to a competency hearing. "This Court, nonetheless, rushes to reject his request for a hearing before a special master at which he can attempt to prove his incompetency claim and his claim that he is intellectually disabled," they wrote in a dissent. "The majority's decision to proceed with the execution at this time and in these circumstances violates the Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment." (source: NBC news) ********************* Nixon Weighs Clemency Request Ahead of Tuesday Execution Missouri's oldest death row inmate is appealing to the governor ahead of his execution, which is scheduled for Tuesday. Attorneys for 74-year-old Cecil Clayton argue he suffers from dementia, and the lingering effects of a 1972 sawmill accident that cost him part of his brain. Clayton was sentenced to death for the 1996 killing of a sheriff's deputy. Clayton was convicted of shooting deputy Christopher Castetter in Barry County, in Southwestern Missouri. Castetter was investigating a report of a suspicious vehicle at the time of the shooting. Clayton's attorneys are seeking a competency hearing because they say he's not mentally fit to be put to death. The state Supreme Court declined to intervene on Saturday, so it's ultimately up to Governor Jay Nixon or the U.S. Supreme Court to decide his fate. A spokesperson for Governor Nixon said Monday only that Nixon is weighing Clayton's request. (source: Associated Press) *************************** This Man Is Missing a Chunk of His Brain. The Missouri Supreme Court Says It's Okay to Execute Him. Cecil Clayton, a mentally ill Missouri man facing execution on Tuesday, was denied a crucial avenue to clemency this weekend: The Missouri Supreme Court ruled that Clayton is competent to be executed. But he's missing 1/5 of his frontal lobe. Clayton, 74, was sentenced to death in 1997 for murdering a police officer. 25 years before that, he suffered a horrific accident that caused the removal of significant parts of his brain, transforming his brain chemistry and personality. His lawyers are aiming to secure him a stay of execution and a hearing to evaluate his competency to be executed, but Missouri law makes it highly difficult to do so after the trial. In a 4-3 decision, the state's highest court found that Clayton's lawyers had not presented a sufficiently compelling case for the state to delay his execution and hold a hearing to evaluate his competency. The majority argued that though Clayton suffers from debilitating dementia, paranoia, schizophrenia, and a host of other conditions, "there is no evidence that he is not capable of understanding 'matters in extenuation, arguments for executive clemency, or reasons why the sentence should not be carried out.'" In their dissent, the 3 judges in the minority wrote that Clayton's lawyers presented reasonable grounds that his "mental condition has deteriorated and he is intellectually disabled." They noted that he is "incompetent to be executed and...is entitled to a hearing at which his competence will be determined." And they contended that the "majority's decision to proceed with the execution at this time and in these circumstances violates the Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment." A few options remain for Clayton. On Monday, Clayton's lawyers filed a petition to the US Supreme Court to stay the execution. Missouri Governor Jay Nixon (D) also can stay the execution and order a competency hearing. Clayton is scheduled to be put to death by lethal injection - a method his attorneys claim could cause him a "prolonged and excruciating" death - at 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday. (source: Mother Jones) NEBRASKA: Case against death penalty gaining more momentum One of the reasons that support for the death penalty is eroding was evident at last week's legislative hearing on the latest attempt to replace the death sentence with a sentence of life in prison without possibility of parole. Some family members of murder victims say the seemingly endless appeals in death penalty cases traumatize them again and again, and give unwarranted notoriety to the killer. Miriam Thimm Kelle's brother was murdered by cult leader Michael Ryan almost 30 years ago. Without the death penalty, Kelle said, Ryan would more likely have spent the past 3 decades in obscurity. Her family should be united in memory of her brother, Kelle said. Instead it is divided between those, like her, who want the penalty changed to life without parole and those who still hope to see him executed. That may never happen. Ryan has terminal brain cancer. Kelle said he may not survive the year. "He's going to cheat the executioner," said Sen. Ernie Chambers, who introduced LB268 to replace the death penalty. There was a time when the death penalty was an issue that divided liberals and conservatives. Now there is considerable support among conservatives for doing away with the death penalty, as shown by the fact that 7 Republican state senators are co-sponsoring Chambers' bill. The conservative argument against the death penalty is rooted in the view that government is too prone to error, too arbitrary and too inefficient to apply such an irreversible sanction. There's little doubt that the government's effort to use the death penalty is costly. Study after study has shown that death penalty cases are more costly. The average cost of an execution in Nebraska is estimated to be $15 million, according to Nebraskans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty. As retired Lincoln police Capt. Jim Davidsaver said in a Local View in the Journal Star last year, "The United States Supreme Court has dictated capital cases must be handled differently, so they are especially complicated and time consuming. The millions of dollars we've spent on the death penalty would have been much better invested in more police officers, additional resources or training for our current officers." The arguments in favor LB268 are objective, factual and overwhelming. (source: Opinion, Lincoln Journal Star) UTAH: Prosecutors portray man as calculated killer in 30-year-old death penalty trial Douglas Lovell's gruff inmate jumpsuit from so many previous hearings was gone, and in its place was a blue blazer worn over a collared shirt. Lovell sported slicked back hair and talked quietly with his defense counsel before the beginning of his new murder trial Monday, almost blending in with his surroundings. Lovell is no stranger to courtrooms. He spent years on death row for the very murder he's now on trial for. But it should be easy for the jury hearing his case to convict him since he's confessed to the crime and his own attorney even told jurors Monday that he did it. This jury, however, will be asked to decide whether he should return to death row or be given a life prison sentence. Prosecutors wasted no time Monday portraying Lovell as a calculating, heartless killer when opening arguments got underway in 2nd District Court. Deputy Weber County attorney Gary Heward described the agony of Lovell's victim, 39-year-old Joyce Yost, when Lovell raped her in 1985 four months before she was murdered. Lovell stalked Yost from an eatery in Clearfield to her front driveway in Ogden, he said. "(Lovell) forced his way into the car, threatened to kill her if she didn't consent to sex and grabbed her by the throat. ... Joyce is praying 'cause she doesn't know if she's going to live or die," Heward said. "She fights back, she honks the horn, she scratches him in the face with keys, which simply makes him more angry." Lovell also took Yost back to his home and raped her there, Heward said. That rape occurred in April 1985. But 2 weeks before she was scheduled to testify against Lovell in the rape case, she was kidnapped and killed. Years later, prosecutors charged Lovell with aggravated murder. He pleaded guilty to the crime as part of a plea bargain that he hoped would spare him the death penalty. As part of that deal, he was supposed to help investigators find Yost's body. But despite accompanying them on 5 trips to Ogden Canyon, her body was never found. A judge sentenced Lovell to death by lethal injection. However, the Utah Supreme Court allowed him to withdraw his guilty plea in 2010 after his attorneys successfully argued that he was not adequately informed of his constitutional rights at the time. The case was sent back to the district court and a jury began hearing the evidence against him Monday. Heward, who is seeking the death penalty anew, described Lovell's murder of Yost as the culmination of a 4-month plot with multiple false starts. Lovell hired 2 other hit men, Heward said, and stalked Yost to find a way to kill her. "He starts to scout her apartment. ... He goes up there on multiple occasions at night," Heward told the newly assembled jury of 8 men and 4 women. When Lovell's murder for hire plans fell through, Heward said, the Clearfield man broke into Yost's home on 40th Street in Ogden in August 1985. Heward cited Lovell's confessions to his ex-wife in the early 1990s to describe Yost's desperate pleas shortly before she was killed. "She is terrified. She is begging him," Heward said. "(She said), 'We can make a deal.' She is pleading for her life." Heward said Lovell lied to his victim, telling Yost he simply needed to hide her away so she wouldn't testify against him in court. Lovell drugged Yost so she would be too disoriented to call for help and then drove her to Ogden Canyon, where he "chokes her, stomps on her neck and puts leaves on her body," Heward told the jury. Lovell's admissions of guilt make the retrial an open-and-shut case, he said. (source: Deseret News) WYOMING: Lawyers appeal judge's decision allowing state again to seek death penalty against Dale Eaton Lawyers for a Wyoming inmate convicted of killing a Montana woman filed papers Monday appealing a federal judge's recent decision to allow state prosecutors again to seek the death penalty. U.S. District Judge Alan B. Johnson of Cheyenne in February denied a request from lawyers representing inmate Dale Wayne Eaton to bar the state from seeking the death penalty against him for the 2nd time. Eaton was convicted in 2004 of murdering Lisa Marie Kimmell, 18, of Billings, Montana. Eaton's lawyers don't dispute he killed her. Johnson in November overturned Eaton's original death sentence, ruling he didn't get an adequate defense at his state trial. The judge said prosecutors could seek to convince another jury to resentence him to death or send Eaton to prison for life without parole. (source: Associated Press) ARIZONA: Juror who saved Jodi Arias' from execution defends herself and tells how she receives death threats for being the single vote against sentencing her to death; Anonymous Juror 17, the 33-year-old Arizona woman and lone death penalty no vote says she's received death threats since the deadlock this month The juror who single-handedly saved the life of Arizona boyfriend killer Jodi Arias by voting not to give her the death penalty is speaking out in her own defense. The 33-year-old anonymously as Juror 17 says she's received death threats and widespread ridicule ever since she remained unmoved by 'brutal' jury room debates and an attempt to have her booted from the jury. In a multi-part interview with KPNX in which 17 will no doubt explain her obstinance, the mother of three maintained she entered the trial simply to serve her civic duty and denied allegations she was some 'stealth juror' intent on saving the infamous murder's life. Juror 17 also addressed her past encounters with Arias prosecutor Juan Martinez, facts that would not be revealed until after the March 5 deadlock announcement. 'It wasn't easy, I didn't ask for it, I didn't want it,' she said. 'All I did was answer the questions truthfully. I didn't want to be involved. I didn't want this pressure.' Mostly, those questions revolved around what Juror 17 knew about the case going in, which, she insists, was very little. 'I live in Arizona so I had heard about the case and I had seen just when they would come up on the news,' she told KPNX. 'I would hear people talk about it and it wasn't something I really wanted to get sucked in to.' When she arrived to the courthouse, Juror 17 recalls that there were many cases she could have been called to. In now way, she says, could she have manipulated it so she would. However, her detractors point to her previous connection to Juan Martinez as proof Juror 17 wanted to be in the Arias trial and wanted Martinez to lose. 15 years ago, Juror 17's then husband was tried and convicted for robbery by Martinez and then sent to jail. Juror 17 says she only recognized Martinez from television. Besides, she loathed her ex-husband and had been open about his abuse when question during jury selection. 'My struggles and my frustrations were always directed towards him,' she told KPNX. 'It's preposterous to me to hold a grudge or to blame somebody for doing their job.' Nonetheless, the conspiracy theorizing and social media vexation raged on. 'Not recognizing Juan Martinez is like saying you don't recognize Mickey at Disney,' tweeted @Kristyannasmom. Meanwhile, it was revealed March 10 that jurors had questioned the holdout's objectivity because she had previously watched a Lifetime movie about the Arias case, and prosecutors were upset at the juror's social media activity as she went on Facebook and liked several local TV stations and Nancy Grace of the HLN network. The juror said her views were being ignored by the 11 jurors who wanted Arias to be executed for murdering boyfriend Travis Alexander nearly 7 years ago. 'My opinion isn't being heard,' the judge quoted the holdout as saying. The holdout's identity was leaked through a Twitter account that also posted sympathetic comments about Alexander, while a pro-Arias website also published names of 11 people it said were the jurors who voted to sentence Arias to death for the 2008 killing. (source: Daily Mail) CALIFORNIA: Cabrillo High School Student's Alleged Teen Killer Could Face Death Penalty; An 18-year-old has been charged with capital murder in the stabbing death of Keshawn Brooks. An 18-year-old reputed gang member was charged today with capital murder and robbery in the stabbing death of a 15-year-old Cabrillo High School student who was targeted while walking home from school. Giovanny Montelongo, who allegedly stabbed Keshawn Brooks while trying to snatch his backpack last Thursday, was expected to be arraigned this afternoon at the Long Beach courthouse. He is facing murder, 2nd-degree robbery and attempted 2nd-degree robbery charges, along with a special circumstance allegation of murder during the commission of a robbery and gang and deadly weapon allegations. Prosecutors will decide later whether to seek the death penalty. The criminal complaint states that Montelongo goes by the moniker "Drowsy" and alleges that an attempted robbery against another victim last Thursday was also committed "for the benefit of, at the direction of, and in association with a criminal street gang." Brooks was attacked with a "sharp instrument" around 3:25 p.m. Thursday in the 2800 block of Santa Fe Avenue as he walked home from Cabrillo High, according to Long Beach police and prosecutors. Montelongo was arrested within hours at a residence in the 1700 block of West Columbia Street. Police said he had 3 outstanding warrants, including one no-bail warrant, all for alleged acts committed while he was a juvenile. Keeyon Layton, Brooks' father, said his son was an innocent victim. "My son was not a gang member," Layton said Thursday night. "This was murder ... and he didn't deserve this." Long Beach City Councilman Roberto Uranga offered his condolences last week to the victim's family and vowed to work with police and the Long Beach Unified School District to ensure the safety of students and community members affected by a scourge of racially motivated and gang-fueled violence. "The ongoing racial and gang tensions in West Long Beach are unacceptable in a city as diverse as Long Beach and I will not allow our communities to continually live in fear," he said. (source: patch.com) From rhalperi at smu.edu Mon Mar 16 22:18:55 2015 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Mon, 16 Mar 2015 22:18:55 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide Message-ID: March 16 UNITED ARAB EMIRATES: Woman's conviction for killing housemaid upheld An Emirati housewife who beat her maid to death has had her conviction upheld by the Cassation Court. HA murdered the woman on November 6 2013 by severely beating her with a cane. The Criminal Court previously sentenced her to 3 years in jail and ordered her to pay Dh200,000 in blood money to the victim's 16-year-old son - who chose the payment over a death penalty. The Appeals Court later cut the jail sentence to 1 year. Both the accused and public prosecution cassated the verdict. HA claimed that the maid had in fact killed herself by drinking bleach, and said she would not have been able to kill the victim due to her small stature, physical weakness and a permanent disability in her left hand. The court rejected her argument. She added that her confessions were made under duress by CID agents and should have been dismissed. She also claimed the murder weapon, a cane, was not the one she was using at the time. Forensic reports showed that the cane found at the scene had traces of blood on it with DNA matching the victim. The report also showed that the victim suffered injuries to her head and body, and were sustained on the same date as she was found dead. There was also dispute over whether the victim's son was of a legal age to make the decision regarding her sentence - the Cassation Court ruled that he was capable of making the decision. The decision to award blood money was upheld. (source: The National) EGYPT: Muslim Brotherhood chief, 13 others get death penalty An Egyptian court delivered on Monday death sentence to the chief leader of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood (MB) group, Mohamed Badie, and 13 other members over violence charges. The verdict was referred by Cairo Criminal Court to the Grand Mufti, the country's highest Islamic official whose opinion is usually considered a formality. The final verdict, which still can be appealed, will be issued on April 11, Xinhua reported. The MB spiritual leader and the other defendants were charged with running operations room to mobilise group members to target security forces and to spread disorder after the dispersal of the 2 major sit-ins in Cairo in August 2013. Since the ouster of former Islamist President Mohamed Morsi by the military in July 2013, the army-backed government has launched a massive security crackdown on his supporters and affiliates, leaving more than 1,000 killed and thousands others arrested. Morsi is now standing trial over charges including jailbreak, ordering the killing of protesters, spying and insulting the judiciary. (source: Business-Standard) **************** Egyptian court seeks death penalty for Brotherhood leader and 13 others: sources An Egyptian court is seeking the death penalty for the Muslim Brotherhood's top leader Mohamed Badie and 13 others, judicial sources said on Monday. The court formally referred the case to Egypt's Grand Mufti, the 1st step towards imposing a death sentence, as authorities continue a crackdown on Islamists. The state news agency MENA said that, in the files referred to the Mufti, Egypt's highest Sunni Muslim authority, the 14 were accused of attacking the state, spreading chaos, and attempted arson against police stations, churches and other property. (source: Reuters) SAUDI ARABIA----execution The beheading in Saudi Arabia of a man convicted of murder has taken the number of executions in the Gulf kingdom this year to 45. A man convicted of murder has been beheaded in the Saudi capital amid a steep rise in the number of executions in the ultra-conservative Gulf kingdom this year. The beheading of Saad bin Abdullah al-Jadid, who had shot dead fellow Saudi Abdullah bin Faraj al-Gahtani, took to 45 the number of executions since January 1, according to an AFP count. His execution was reported by the official SPA news agency, citing an interior ministry statement. Rights group Amnesty International says the country has regularly been among the world's top 5 executioners and is "well on track" to far exceed previous annual records for executions. Saudi Arabia has carried out around 80 executions annually since 2011, with 87 recorded last year by AFP. Rape, murder, apostasy, armed robbery and drug trafficking are all punishable by death under Saudi Arabia's version of sharia Islamic law. (source: AAP) ********************** Steep rise in Saudi Arabia executions as 2015 tally reaches 45----The Gulf kingdom has executed 80 people annually since 2011, with 87 recorded in 2014 A man convicted of murder was beheaded in the Saudi capital on Monday, amid a steep rise in the number of executions in the ultra-conservative Gulf kingdom this year. The beheading of Saad bin Abdullah al-Jadid, who had shot dead fellow Saudi Abdullah bin Faraj al-Gahtani, took to 45 the number of executions since January 1, according to an AFP count. His execution was reported by the official SPA news agency, citing an interior ministry statement. Rights group Amnesty International said the country has regularly been among the world's top 5 executioners and is "well on track" to far exceed previous annual records for executions. Saudi Arabia has carried out around 80 executions annually since 2011, with 87 recorded last year by AFP. Rape, murder, apostasy, armed robbery and drug trafficking are all punishable by death under Saudi Arabia's version of Sharia Islamic law. Earlier this month, it was reported Raif Badawi, the Saudi blogger sentenced to 1,000 lashes after being convicted of insulting Islam, could face death by beheading, according to his family. The case attracted worldwide condemnation when he was publicly flogged in January. His family said they have been told he is to be tried for apostasy. (source: The Telegraph) PAKISTAN: Court to hear case of Pakistani sentenced to death aged 14 A hearing will be held tomorrow in the case of a Pakistani who was convicted aged 14. The Ministry of the Interior previously promised to conduct an inquiry into the conviction but has failed to do so and scheduled the execution for Thursday. Shafqat Hussain was convicted of the kidnap and manslaughter of another child based on one piece of evidence: a forced 'confession' extracted after 9 days of police torture. A previous warrant was issued scheduling his execution for 14th January 2015 but after serious concerns over his age and the safety of his initial conviction were raised, the execution was stayed on 5th January. The execution of people convicted as juveniles is illegal in Pakistan, as is the use of torture evidence. In January, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar told the Pakistani National Assembly that he had ordered an inquiry into Shafqat's conviction. Despite this none of Shafqat's family or legal team have been contacted about the inquiry and his execution has been scheduled for Thursday. In an appeal filed by Shafqat's lawyers at the Justice Project Pakistan today (Monday), which will be heard by the Sindh High Court tomorrow, Shafqat's lawyers argue that the government's attempts to execute Shafqat are illegal. This is because of his conviction as a child, the fact his conviction is based on evidence extracted through torture, and that the scheduling of the execution despite the promise of a full inquiry into the facts of the case is illegal and arbitrary. It is not known how many of the more than 8,000 on Pakistan's death row were convicted as children. Maya Foa, Director of Reprieve's death penalty team, said: "The execution of anyone convicted when they were just a child is illegal, not to mention morally abhorrent. Shafqat's innocence, and the fact that his 'confession' was extracted after 9 days of brutal police torture, make the Pakistani government's attempts to kill this young man even more horrendous. Minister Nisar promised an inquiry into Shafqat's conviction because he knows that it was wrong to begin with - it is a shocking abuse of office that he has reneged on this commitment. Shafqat's execution - and all others - must be halted so that the inquiry that was so rightly promised can go ahead. If it does not, it will show exactly how much weight the rule of law now carries in Pakistan." (source: Reprieve.org) ****************** LHC dismisses plea to stop execution A Lahore High Court division bench Monday dismissed petition filed by a condemned prisoner for stopping his execution. The bench comprising Justice Syed Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi and Justice Syed Shahbaz Ali Rizvi heard the matter. The convict Qaisar Alias Billa in his petition submitted that Anti-Terrorism Court Faisalabad had awarded death penalty to him in a kidnapping and murder case registered under Anti-terrorism Act. He said that the Apex Court had upheld his conviction but, later, the heirs of the deceased pardoned him. The ATC accepted the pardon to the extent of murder charge and upheld death sentence in other charges, he added. He contended that the pardon was also applicable on other charges since it had been accepted in the main offence. He pleaded the court to set aside the death warrants issued by ATC. However, the prosecution opposed the request and submitted that the conviction awarded under Anti-Terrorism Act could not be absolved as a result of pardon by the heirs of the deceased. The bench agreeing with arguments of prosecution dismissed the plea. (source: Associated Press of Pakistan) INDONESIA: Indonesian president Joko Widodo spares the lives of 3 convicted murderers in Indonesia The ABC has been told Indonesia's president has spared the lives of 3 murderers at the same time he was rejecting bids for clemency by drug traffickers. Over the past 2 months, Joko Widodo had refused to grant clemency to a number of drug smugglers, including Australians Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan. However, during that time he commuted the death penalty for 3 men convicted of premeditated murder. On February 13 he granted clemency for a 28-year-old who helped rob and kill 2 people in Sumatra. A senior figure in the presidential palace said 2 other murderers had also had their executions reduced to life imprisonment by president Widodo. Chan and Sukumaran are among 10 death-row prisoners awaiting news of the timing of their executions. Several of them have ongoing legal appeals before Indonesia's courts and although the attorney-general says everything is almost ready for the executions to proceed, that will not happen until many of the legal processes are settled. A date has not yet been set for the executions and the attorney-general must give 72 hours' notice. (source: Yahoo News) ******************************* Indonesia must clean its house first As Indonesia prepares to execute a group of convicted drug traffickers, many of them foreigners, much of the domestic and international attention is focused on the issue of capital punishment. But there is a rising voice from within the country that says it is not enough for Indonesia to stand firm on carrying out the death penalty on drug dealers to deliver a strong message against drug use. Yes, Indonesia may have its sovereign right to impose the death penalty, but tackling the drug problem requires actions on many fronts, say human rights activists, lawyers and political analysts. And this means not just deterring would-be drug traffickers from abroad with heavy sentences including capital punishment, but also enforcing the law to contain and reduce the use of illicit drugs as well as rehabilitating drug offenders. There are also those who want proof that the drug problem in Indonesia is dire. "Talk about a drugs emergency is cheap - can we see actual proof of this? The authorities need to justify data they keep repeating," said Mr Haris Azhar, coordinator for human rights group Kontras, referring to what some analysts say are faulty statistics on drug use in Indonesia. "We also see cases of law enforcement officers tainted with drug cases, throwing up the question of integrity in our legal process. That means we have to clean our own house first and cannot just rely on harsh sentences to fight drugs." Indeed, it would seem Indonesia has some way to go before it can deal effectively with its drug problem, given that the law enforcers themselves are part of the problem: In late 2013, anti-graft officers investigating former Constitutional Court judge Akil Mochtar stumbled upon four sticks of ganja or cannabis - one of them used - and a purple methamphetamine pill in his office drawer during a raid. In November 2012, Achmad Yamanie became the first Supreme Court judge to resign after an ethics board found him guilty of tampering with court documents to lighten the sentence of a drug lord charged with running an ecstasy lab. In January, a former policeman - serving time for money laundering connected with drug sales - was jailed for life, for distributing 2.1 kg of methamphetamine and 14,000 ecstasy pills from within the prison, in the city of Medan in North Sumatra province. Just last month, 3 men in the air force were caught for possession of synthetic drugs totalling 245.6g. They are being investigated for links to a wider syndicate. Ms Poengky Indarti of human rights watchdog Imparsial said: "The police and military have been accused of having roles in drug rings and we need to see an urgent reform of these institutions to restore people's faith in them, especially the police." The National Narcotics Agency (BNN) is well aware of the problem. After a drug bust in April 2013 involving two policemen and a soldier in Central Java, BNN deputy chief inspector Benny Mamoto told reporters: "We are tracking other parties of these syndicates. They are a mix (of civilians and law enforcers)." Appallingly, 3 prison inmates have been found to be running drug distribution rings from within their cells using mobile phones which had been smuggled in to them. They were helped in their enterprise by prison wardens on the take. Indeed, BNN admits that the majority of drug distribution is coordinated from within prison. Clearly, there is a dire need to clean up not just drug use within the law enforcement system, but also the serious corruption that is rendering BNN's efforts ineffective. Moreover, by its own admission, BNN does not have enough manpower and equipment to deal with the drug problem. Given Indonesia's sprawling archipelago with porous borders, there is also a pressing need for stronger and more consistent inter-agency co-operation, between the coast guard, ground border patrol and Customs, among others. Some critics have suggested that the execution of drug dealers by firing squad is a way of distracting the public from these domestic weaknesses, by creating the image of a tough president staving off international pressure. But after the reports of the firing squad's guns have died down, President Joko Widodo will still have to face the deep-seated problems in his law enforcement agencies - both the corruption and the deficiencies. Only when he can fix these can he really address the expectations of his people: that he fix the problem he calls a "drugs emergency". (source: Asiaone.com) From rhalperi at smu.edu Tue Mar 17 10:44:23 2015 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Tue, 17 Mar 2015 10:44:23 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, N.C., MISS., OHIO, MO., OKLA., CALIF., USA Message-ID: March 17 TEXAS: RIP: Gerald Hurst, arson expert Gerald Hurst, the arson expert who blew the whistle in the case of Cameron Todd Willingham, has died. From the Innocence Project: Earlier this week, renowned arson expert Dr. Gerald Hurst died of complications with a prior liver transplant. Dr. Hurst was an instrumental figure in driving the state of Texas to reform its once-outdated arson investigation practices. In early 2004, Dr. Hurst wrote an in-depth fire investigation report which revealed that the Texas State Fire Marshal Office's findings around the Cameron Todd Willingham case were based on a flawed investigation and outdated science . . . Hurst disseminated his report to Texas officials - including Texas Governor Rick Perry - in the days before Willingham's execution, in hope of getting officials to grant Willingham clemency, but to no avail. Willingham was executed by lethal injection in April 2004. The same year that Willingham was executed, Hurst wrote another report, this time on the behalf of Ernest Willis, who was on death row after being wrongfully convicted of setting fire to a house that killed 2 women. Hurst was one of the experts who was able to prove that the same faulty arson science that had been used to help convict Willingham had also been used in the Willis case. Willis was released and exonerated in 2004 at the age of 59. Willis said of Hurst's passing, "I will forever be incredibly grateful to Dr. Hurst. That man helped save my life." Since then, arson convictions have been falling apart all over the country. Perhaps one day we'll have eliminated junk science from criminal trials, and we'll be able to look back and recognize people like Gerald Hurst and Michael Bowers for the heroic figures they are. (source: Washington Post) NORTH CAROLINA: Pardons Elude Men Freed After Decades in North Carolina Prison In the days leading up to the one last summer when Henry L. McCollum left North Carolina's death row, it seemed that inmates and staff members could not stop talking about what awaited him beyond Central Prison. The man who had spent almost his entire adult life awaiting execution would be able to go out for fried chicken, his favorite. Maybe he could strike a movie deal. At the very least, Mr. McCollum remembers, people told him that he would be a man of considerable wealth once the state paid him the $750,000 he could seek under North Carolina law because he had been wrongly convicted and imprisoned for decades. Mr. McCollum, 50, was released from prison last September after DNA evidence showed that he did not rape and murder a young girl in 1983. But since then, he and his half brother, Leon Brown, who was also exonerated and freed in the same case, have led anything but glamorous post-prison lives. Instead, because of legal decisions made to help accelerate their release, as well as Gov. Pat McCrory's deliberate approach to granting what is known here as a pardon of innocence, both men have clung to a minimal existence, absent substantive remuneration, counseling or public aid in transitioning back to society. "If the governor called me, I would tell him the reason why I need his pardon: I would tell him I deserve this pardon," Mr. McCollum said. "I did 31 years in prison for a crime I did not commit. I could have given up a long time ago and told the state to kill me." So far, though, Mr. McCrory has not acted on the pardon applications of Mr. McCollum and Mr. Brown, whose I.Q. scores were previously recorded in the 50s. Because of the approach lawyers used to secure swifter releases for the 2 men, neither is entitled to wrongful conviction compensation until he gets a pardon. The men were teenagers - Mr. McCollum was 19 and Mr. Brown, 15 - when they were arrested in Red Springs in September 1983 in the rape and murder of an 11-year-old girl, Sabrina Buie. They were convicted about a year later. But Judge Douglas B. Sasser of Robeson County Superior Court concluded last year that "no physical evidence, either at the time of their arrest or at any time since, linked Mr. McCollum or Mr. Brown to the scene or the commission of this crime." Judge Sasser also found that the case against the men, who are black, was built "almost entirely" on the inconsistent confessions that they quickly recanted. DNA recovered from the crime scene was linked decades later to Roscoe Artis, who is serving a life sentence for another 1983 rape and murder in Red Springs. (Mr. Artis has not been charged in the death of Sabrina Buie.) Mr. McCollum and Mr. Brown each received $45 when they left prison and have lived on charity since. They lived for a time at a home here, where Mr. Brown slept on a couch in 1 room and Mr. McCollum's mattress and box spring were on the floor in another. Without money for a car or any knowledge about how to drive one, the men walked to a grocery to buy subsistence fare like canned potatoes and pork and beans. Mr. McCollum, who was a janitor in prison, said he wanted to apply for a job but was reluctant until he had a pardon. Mr. Brown, who had been sentenced to life imprisonment, is far more reticent than Mr. McCollum, but he talked of starting a church or a radio ministry. Both say that until Mr. McCrory issues them pardons, they cannot fully set aside what happened over about 31 years. Theresa A. Newman, a co-director of the Wrongful Convictions Clinic at Duke University Law School, said such sentiments were common among men who had been cleared by judges but not by governors. She said the mostly closed nature of the lengthy process could prove demoralizing. "Just having some information would be very, very powerful, and I think it would hold these men up slightly," said Ms. Newman, who is not involved in the McCollum or Brown case. "Why would they trust the state to do the right thing?" In a statement last week, a spokesman for Mr. McCrory, Ryan Tronovitch, said: "Our extensive review is ongoing, and we need to ensure that we have gathered and considered all relevant information as part of our process. While we can't put an exact time frame on when a decision will come, this is a top priority for Governor McCrory, and he has made that abundantly clear to those involved." Lawyers here say the pardon process in North Carolina has been an enigmatic one for far longer than Mr. McCrory's term. But Ms. Newman said that when a client of hers had sought a pardon from Mr. McCrory, the governor had been an active participant while he weighed his options. He even "grilled" the man during an interview as part of a process that took about 6 months, she said. What remains unclear is how, exactly, Mr. McCrory's process unfolds, and how much he considers any opposition to pardon applications. In the cases of Mr. McCollum and Mr. Brown, there is some, namely from the retired district attorney who prosecuted them. The prosecutor, Joe Freeman Britt, who came to be known as the nation's "deadliest D.A." because he won death sentences so often, said, "There is no doubt in my mind that they're not entitled to a pardon, and there is no doubt in my mind that they're not entitled to compensation by the taxpayers." But the current district attorney, Johnson Britt (a distant relative of his predecessor), supported the men's bids for freedom last year and told Judge Sasser that "the state does not have a case" and would not prosecute them again. That support is partly why a lawyer for the men, Scott Brettschneider, said he hoped that "there isn't something more here than just bureaucracy" as they waited for the governor's decision. Recently, a bank bet that the delay was only administrative, and it wrote a large enough loan that the men last week began renting a home where each has a bedroom. Mr. McCollum, who, since leaving prison, has sometimes referred to a bedroom as a cell, picked one at the top of a stairwell. "This is my room right here," he said softly as he looked around one afternoon. "This is my room." He said his favorite feature of the room, more than twice the size of his former cell on death row, is the lock on the wooden door. He can lock it - and unlock it - himself. (source: New York Times) MISSISSIPPI: Mississippi wants execution-drug supplier's name kept secret Mississippi's attorney general is asking a judge to keep the identity of the state's execution-drug supplier secret while he appeals her order to release the name. Hinds County Chancery Judge Denise Owens ruled earlier this month that the state's public-records law requires officials to release the information, sought by death-penalty opponents at the Roderick and Solange MacArthur Justice Center. The judge hasn't yet ruled on Attorney General Jim Hood's latest request, made last week. States across the country are wrestling with similar issues as they face shortages of lethal-injection drugs and some drug companies are refusing to provide the drug if their identity is not kept anonymous. Mississippi lawyers say one such pharmacy has refused to sell them further drugs after its identity became known through a public-records request submitted by the MacArthur center. (source: Associated Press) OHIO: Death row inmates appeal rejection of 1st Amendment challenge to Ohio's lethal injection law 4 death row inmates challenging an Ohio law that shields the names of companies providing lethal injection drugs have appealed a judge's dismissal of their lawsuit. The inmates argue the new law violates free speech rights, contending in part that the measure restricts information that helps inform the public debate over capital punishment. U.S. District Court Judge Gregory Frost ruled last month the inmates lacked standing, saying their challenge was not tied to "actual or imminent injuries." The inmates appealed to the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last Thursday. Ohio's attorneys argue that nothing in the law infringes on prisoners' First Amendment rights or their ability to argue issues in court. (source: Associated Press) MISSOURI----impending execution Attorneys, family, argue whether killer of Barry County deputy should be executed by Missouri tonight It's been more than 18 years since Cecil Clayton fatally shot Barry County Sheriff's Deputy Christopher Lee Castetter. His attorneys argue that a brain injury he suffered 43 years ago means he shouldn't be executed for that crime, as is scheduled to happen today. In the 1972 accident a piece of lumber shot through the skull of Clayton, now 74, and doctors removed part of his frontal lobe. His attorneys say he was a changed man after that. They say he went from a happily married, religious man who had quit drinking, preached and sang gospel music, to a man who suffered from anxiety, loss of memory and focus, impulsive behavior, and hallucinations. His attorneys don't deny that Clayton fatally shot Castetter in November, 1996, when the deputy responded to a call from Clayton's girlfriend's sister, who was concerned about Clayton sitting in the driveway in front of her home following an argument with his girlfriend. Attorney Cynthia Short maintains that examinations by multiple doctors in the past decade show him to be incompetent to be executed under the U.S. Constitution and Missouri law. "If a person is unable to understand what his punishment is, or that he has been punished, or believes that the punishment is the product of a conspiracy that has been brought forth against him based on his delusional thinking," Short told Missourinet, "then it is not in society???s interest and certainly not in the interest of the impaired person to punish them in a way they do not understand." Short said Clayton's IQ has also diminished over the years to 71, and argues that to execute him would violate laws against executing the intellectually disabled. The state Supreme Court has rejected one of Clayton's attorneys' attempts to halt his execution, finding that he is competent to be executed and that he remembers, "details from 1996 quite clearly and is aware that both he and his counsel continue to search for arguments to preclude his execution," as written by Judge Paul Wilson in his opinion. It also found that he does not meet the state law's threshold for an intellectual disability. "I think it's B.S.," James Castetter, Christopher Castetter's brother, said of the claim that Clayton is incompetent. Castetter told Missourinet he believes Clayton knew what he was doing the night he killed his brother. "He knew he was wrong because he went to Cole's house to get him, let him know what he did, [to say] 'You're my alibi,'" said Castetter, referring to Clayton's friend at the time of the murder, Martin Cole. "If he would have stayed there, asked 'What did I do?' Said, 'Hey Cole, I did this. I can't believe I did this,' that might be one thing," said Castetter. "He knew what he was talking about, so that's a competent person." James Castetter, who is an emergency medical technician in Florida, is in Missouri today to witness Clayton's execution. "I think it's going to put closure," said Castetter. "Knowing that the evil that killed my brother is no longer walking this earth ... and remembering my brother the way he used to be." Castetter has named his daughter after his brother, and plans to bring her to Missouri some other time to see the section of highway in southwest Missouri that is named for him. Castetter hasn't told his daughter why he's in Missouri this week. "That's one thing I don't want her to know, at least now." Clayton's attorneys have asked the U.S. Supreme Court and the Eighth Circuit federal court to halt his execution and additional actions are pending in a U.S. Western District and U.S. Eastern District court. Governor Jay Nixon (D) has also been asked to commute his sentence to life in prison without parole. Nixon was Missouri's attorney general when earlier challenges to Clayton's death sentence were rejected, including when a federal appeals court upheld that sentence in 2008. "Deputy Castetter was protecting the law-abiding citizens of Barry County when he was shot and killed without warning by Cecil Clayton," Nixon said in a statement at the time. "The jury appropriately determined Clayton should face the ultimate punishment." Clayton's execution is set to happen between 6 p.m. tonight and 5:59 Wednesday. If it hasn't happened by the latter time, the execution warrant from the state Supreme Court will expire and the court would have to set a new date. His is the 1st execution since the 1930s that Missouri has scheduled for a time other than 12:01 in the morning. (source: Missourinet.com) OKLAHOMA: Oklahoma votes to execute prisoners by asphyxiating them with nitrogen ---- The process, which would require an inmate to be in a sealed chamber or wear a special mask, would slowly replace oxygen with nitrogen Politicians in the state of Oklahoma have come up with a new and largely untested way to execute death row prisoners - asphyxiation with nitrogen. After the US Supreme Court put on hold the execution of 3 inmates due killed by lethal injection and amid an ongoing struggle to obtain the drugs used in the injection, politicians voted overwhelmingly to allow nitrogen be used. State Representative Mike Christian, a Republican who sponsored the bill, claimed the process would be both painless for inmates and affordable for Oklahoma. "Nitrogen hypoxia is a better way. It's a more humane way," he told Reuters. "I believe the use of nitrogen hypoxia will be the thing of the future once it's passed in Oklahoma." Last week, the Oklahoma House of Representatives voted 85 to 10 to allow nitrogen be to be used. The process, which would require an inmate to be in a sealed chamber or wear a special mask, would slowly replace oxygen with nitrogen. The bill now has to be approved by the Senate. In January, the US Supreme Court said it was temporarily halting the execution of 3 Oklahoma inmates who are challenging the state's lethal injection procedure. The method has been under intense scrutiny since the flawed April 2014 execution of convicted murderer Clayton Lockett. He could be seen twisting on the gurney after death chamber staff failed to place the needle into him properly. The execution was halted and Lockett died about 45 minutes after it started due to a buildup of lethal injection chemicals in his tissue. Yet despite the politicians claims that nitrogen asphyxiation is safe and painless, it appears there is little hard data on its use; no other state uses this method for putting inmates to death although the Death Penalty Information Centre website reveals that a commission in Louisiana recently recommended using nitrous gas to kill condemned prisoners. The Washington Post said Mr Christian commissioned a report from East Central University which recommend it as "a humane method to carry out a death sentence". However, the paper said none of those who carried out the study had a background in medicine or biology while one of the professors helped Mr Christian in his election campaign. Amid the controversy over the use of lethal injections, many states have been looking to secure an alternative method of execution. Utah, which outlawed death by firing squad in 2004, voted last week to reinstate it while Tennessee and Alabama have voted to use the electric chair as a back-up method. (source: The Independent) CALIFORNIA: Decision by May on death penalty for bank robbery suspects A county prosecutor is expected to announce in May whether the District Attorney will seek the death penalty for the 2 men charged in the death of a bank robbery hostage, who police say was used as a shield in a shootout with law enforcement. Jaime Ramos, the suspected surviving gunman, appeared in court Monday for a motion hearing along with co-defendant Pablo Ruvalcaba, the man authorities believe dropped off the assailants at Bank of the West on Thornton Road the day of the heist. Deputy District Attorney Robert Himelblau stated at the hearing he intends to reveal the agency's decision on the death penalty on May 4. A grand jury has indicted the 2 on 47 charges, including 3 counts of murder under a provocative clause in the law and about 3 dozen counts of attempted murder, carjacking, kidnapping, robbery and numerous enhancements and other allegations Because prosecutors are attaching special circumstances to the murder charges, the defendants are eligible for California's capital punishment. Himelblau said the defense may submit mitigating letters in support of Ramos, which the prosecution can consider. However, he said in court, "I will have that decision (May 4) whether or not I get the letters." Prosecutors look at the person's life and criminal history in weighing whether to seek the death penalty. On July 16, 2014, three gunmen entered the Bank of the West branch just days before it was scheduled to close, and took 3 hostages - 2 bank employees and Misty Holt-Singh, a customer. The suspects led officers on a one-hour pursuit that ended in a flurry of gunfire at Thornton Road and Otto Drive. Assailants Alex Martinez, 27, and Gilbert Renteria, who were cousins, were fatally injured in the final exchange of gunfire. While 2 of the hostages escaped with injuries during the pursuit, Holt-Singh was killed by police gunfire as Ramos used her as a shield, according to Stockton police. Holt-Singh's family has filed a claim for damages against the City of Stockton, an action that usually is followed by a civil lawsuit should a claim be denied. At Monday's court proceeding for the suspects, Ruvalcaba's defense attorney ended an effort to have Judge Bernard Garber recused from the case. Garber previously had denied a motion filed by the attorney, Jeffrey Hirschfield, because co-defendant Ramos already had another judge removed. Only one such recusal is permitted per case. Hirschfield had asked the state Third District Court of Appeal to intervene, citing case law that makes an exception. The appellate court upheld Garber's decision prior to the Monday hearing, but it allowed Hirschfield more time to look into the possibility of challenging the trial judge. Hirschfield, however, said he is not pursuing further review. (source: Stockton Record) *********************** Jurors talk about Scott Peterson trial a decade after death sentence As Monday marked the 10 year anniversary of when Scott Peterson was sentenced to die for killing his 27-year-old pregnant wife Laci, KTVU spoke with 2 of the jurors on the trial about the decision they made a decade ago. Laci Peterson was 8 months pregnant with their unborn son when she died. Some say Peterson's case is an example of the slow pace of justice in the United States. Behind the walls of San Quentin Prison's original death row are the state's most notorious inmates. Scott Peterson has lived there now for 10 years. Prison officials said the 42-year-old's life is pretty monotonous. Every day he walks the yard on the roof. These days he doesn't get much mail. "I hope he's having a miserable time," said former juror in the Peterson trial Mike Belmessieri. "I hope he's suffering much as I'm sure his wife did." Back in 2004, Belmessieri and John Guinnaso spent nearly 6 months at the Hall of Justice in Redwood City as jurors for Peterson's trial. "It was unbelievable as far as looking at him in the courtroom versus the facts in the case," said Guinnaso. "By physical looks he didn't look like the type of individual that could carry out murder." The grim murder case captivated the nation. Captured in photos, a beaming Laci Peterson was pregnant with a baby to be named Conner. She vanished right before Christmas 2002. Months later, the 27-year-old's body and remains of a fetus were found on the shoreline of the San Francisco Bay. Her husband Scott Peterson was the main suspect after reports of infidelity surfaced. Jurors ultimately saw him as a young man who wanted to be free of a wife and child. "I believe that had Laci not been pregnant she'd still be alive today," said Belmessieri. After months of emotional testimony and weeks of deliberations, the jury found Scott Peterson guilty. The judge then agreed with the jury's recommendation that Peterson be put to death by lethal injection. State law does not allow news organizations to request on camera interviews with prisoners. According to Peterson's automatic appeal to the California Supreme Court filed 2 years ago, he maintains he's innocent as he did when KTVU interviewed him in 2003. "I had absolutely nothing to do with her disappearance," said Peterson in 2003. A decade on death row, the State Attorney General's Office just filed its response to Peterson's appeal in January. It took Peterson 8 years to file that appeal. "I think one of the things it tells us is that these cases are slow to come to justice," said Santa Clara University Law Professor Ellen Kreitzberg. Kreitzberg studies death penalty cases. She said these cases normally take years since there are not enough qualified and competent lawyers in California to handle them and the state simply doesn't pay enough. Right now, 749 inmates are currently on death row in California. The last execution was in 2006. According to a death penalty information center report, the state has spent more than $4 billion on the death penalty since 1978. The majority of the dollars are spent on pre-trial and trial costs. "I think the one thing everybody agrees on in California is that the system is broken and by everyone I mean whether you are for the death penalty or against the death penalty everybody agrees it doesn't work," said Kreitzberg. Last July, a federal judge ruled California's death penalty procedure is systematically flawed and therefore unconstitutional. Kreitzberg estimates Peterson will likely sit on death row for at least another 15 years as his appeals go through the state and federal levels. "I'm a little frustrated because we made the decision and it hasn't been followed through yet," said Guinnaso. "I think we have to take a look at how our system is built and reconstruct it to where it's a little more efficient than what it is," said Belmessieri. As these jurors wait, they live with no regrets on handing down the ultimate penalty. "No I don't have a second thought at all," said Belmessieri. "Every juror on that jury to this day will stand up and tell you we did the right thing." While it will be closure for them when and if Scott Peterson is executed, they realize it will never be for Laci Peterson's family. "They lost their daughter forever," said Guinnaso. "I'm sure they will want to be present when it happens but it will not bring their daughter back or their grandson back. They are going to have that heartache for the rest of their lives as long as they are here on this earth." (source: KTVU news) USA: Most death penalty sentences are overturned. Here's why that matters. If a person is given a death sentence, what is his or her chance of actually being executed? Based on a review of every death sentence in the United States since 1973, the beginning of the modern era of the death penalty, we have found that the most likely outcome isn't being executed or even remaining on death row as an appeal makes its way through the courts. In fact, the most common circumstance is that the death sentence will be overturned. Here is why that matters. >From 1973 to 2013, 8,466 sentences of death were handed down by U.S. courts, and 1,359 individuals were executed - only 16 %. Even excluding those who remained on death row as of 2013, only about 24 % of condemned inmates have been executed. Those sentenced to death are almost 3 times as likely to see their death sentence overturned on appeal and to be resentenced to a lesser penalty than they are to be executed. Here is a summary of the outcomes: --8,466 death sentences were imposed across the United States from 1973 through 2013. --3,194 were overturned on appeal, composed as follows. For 523, the underlying statute was declared unconstitutional. For 890, the conviction was overturned. For 1,781, the death penalty was overturned, but guilt was sustained. --2,979 remain on death row as of Dec. 31, 2013. --1,359 were executed. --509 died on death row from suicide or natural causes. --392 had their sentence commuted by the governor to life in prison. --33 had some other outcome or a miscellaneous reason for being removed from death row. Execution is in fact the 3rd most likely outcome following a death sentence. Much more likely is the inmate to have their sentence reversed, or to remain for decades on death row. Executions have never been the most common outcome of a death sentence. In the early years of the modern death penalty, many were removed from death row because the underlying statute under which they were condemned was ruled unconstitutional. In fact, of 721 individuals sentenced between 1973 and 1976, just 33 were eventually executed. Other reversals have come because inmates' individual convictions were overturned, and some were exonerated entirely. But by far the most likely outcome of a U.S. death sentence is that it will eventually be reversed and the inmate will remain in prison with a different form of death sentence: life without the possibility of parole. Why would reversal of the sentence be the single most common outcome of a death sentence? Capital trials have many unusual characteristics, but a key one is that there is an automatic (or "direct") appeal through the state appellate courts and, if the death sentence is not overturned by the state appellate or supreme court, a review by a federal judge. Throwing out a duly enrolled conviction is not something that state or federal appellate courts do because of a misplaced paperclip on a brief. State appellate courts and federal judges are not knee-jerk opponents of capital punishment; they participate in a system that imposes it regularly. But both Republican and Democratic appointees have voted to overturn these convictions because they so often involve such issues as evidence withheld from the defense, improper instructions to the jury, or other serious flaws in the original trials. States differ greatly in the degree to which they carry out their legal promise of death, but most operate systems consistent with the trends above: They sentence far more inmates to death than they actually execute. The graph below shows the 3 of death sentences that have been carried out, for all 40 states that have had the death penalty as well as for the federal government, which has executed 3 individuals but has condemned 71. The average state has a 13 % likelihood of carrying out a death sentence. Some states - such as Texas, South Dakota, Missouri, and Oklahoma - significantly higher rates, though none of these states reaches a level of 50 %. In fact, only one state, Virginia, has executed more than half of the inmates it has condemned. This rate of execution may stem in part from legal shortcomings, however: an American Bar Association report recently found many areas in which Virginia's "highly efficient" death penalty suffers from deficiencies: in access to post-conviction DNA testing, jury instructions, prosecutors' provision of evidence to the defense, and other areas. Several states listed at the top of the graph have not executed a single person, though New Jersey sentenced as many as 52. Pennsylvania and California have very large death penalty systems, but extremely low rates of executing those who have been condemned. Texas, Florida, and California have all condemned more than 1,000 individuals to death in the modern period. However, the numbers of executions in these states are 508, 81, and 13, respectively. Virginia has sentenced 152 individuals to die, and 110 have been put to death. The long string of dots along the bottom rows of the graph shows that, in general, no matter how many people the states say they are going to execute, in fact, very few are actually executed. Regardless of one's view of the death penalty in principle, these numbers raise questions about how the death penalty is applied in practice. The wide differences across states in the odds of carrying out a death sentence are potentially troubling from an equal protection standpoint. Indeed, David Garland has argued that if it were not for federalism and the strength of the Southern reaction to a series of U.S. Supreme Court decisions in the 1960s and 1970s, we might never have seen the resurgence of the death penalty in the post-Furman world. Also potentially troubling is the simple fact that most death sentences do not result in executions. In fact, a federal judge recently ruled that California's death penalty is unconstitutional because it is in fact a penalty of "life in prison with the remote possibility of death." Ultimately, the American system of capital punishment arguably creates unnecessary suffering for both those defendants sentenced to death and the surviving family members of the victims of the crimes for which the defendants were convicted. A system that ensures prolonged court time, automatic appeals for the convicted inmate - most of whom are eventually successful - and only a small chance of actual execution is a system built on false promises for everyone, and indeed one that seems to verge on torture. (source: Frank Baumgartner is the Richard J. Richardson Distinguished Professor of Political Science at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. Dietrich graduated from UNC-CH in 2014 and wrote a senior thesis on this topic; she now works for a U.S. government agency----Washington Post) ****************** Defense in Colorado shooting case asks judge to move trial Defense attorneys in the Colorado theater shooting case have again asked a judge to move the trial, writing in court documents released Monday that most prospective jurors already believe defendant James Holmes is guilty. The request came nearly 2 months into jury selection, as attorneys question individual candidates about their views on mental illness and the death penalty. In recent weeks, Judge Carlos A. Samour Jr. and attorneys on both sides have qualified more than 70 people for the final stage of selection. Still, lawyers for Holmes contend that intense negative publicity about the attack has biased the jury pool and made it impossible to find impartial panelists in Arapahoe County, where the 2012 attack left 12 people dead and 70 others injured. Holmes has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, and prosecutors are seeking the death penalty. In an effort to find people with no connection to the shooting, Samour initially summoned more than 9,000 prospective jurors - a number that experts called the biggest jury pool in U.S. history. In their request to move the trial, defense attorneys claimed about 68 % of the more than 3,500 prospective jurors who filled out questionnaires said they believe Holmes is guilty, and more than half of that group added they can't put that opinion aside. About 39 % said they believe Holmes was either sane or not mentally ill, the documents state. More than 30 % of the prospective jurors said they already believe Holmes should be sentenced to death, the lawyers contend. "The questionnaires reveal that the residents of Arapahoe County are deeply saturated not only with detailed knowledge and opinions, but bias concerning this case," defense attorneys wrote in the documents that include more than 1,000 pages of local news articles and opinion pieces they consider prejudicial. Promises by prospective jurors to set aside their knowledge and opinions are not enough to ensure Holmes gets a fair trial, the documents say. The attorneys initially sought a change of venue last year, but Samour did not rule on the request, saying attorneys should try to find impartial jurors within the county. Prosecutors have until March 27 to file their response to the latest defense demand to move the proceedings. Moving the trial could be costly and difficult. A courtroom in the Centennial courthouse has been remodeled at a cost of $26,400 to accommodate the 12-member jury and 12 alternates Samour is seeking. A new venue also would raise questions about housing and transporting Holmes. In Centennial, deputies can move him between the courthouse and neighboring jail relatively easily. In a separate ruling, Samour agreed to keep the public from seeing graphic autopsy and crime-scene photos during the trial. Victims' families said they would be traumatized by the images that will be shown only to jurors. (source: Associated Press) From rhalperi at smu.edu Tue Mar 17 10:45:56 2015 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Tue, 17 Mar 2015 10:45:56 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide Message-ID: March 17 IRAN----executions 5 prisoners including 3 Afghans hanged At least 5 men, including 3 citizens of Afghanistan, were hanged in 2 prisons in Iran over the past weekend. Farshid Jaafari was hanged on Sunday in Adelabad Prison in the city of Shiraz. He had been sentenced to death for drug-related offences. A group of 4 prisoners, including 3 citizens of Afghanistan, were hanged on Saturday in the central prison in the city of Zahedan in southeastern Iran. The Afghans - Seyed Alam Ozbak, 26, Nasimollah Ozbak, 25, and Soltan Ozbak, 30, - were hanged along with a 60-year-old Iranian man. Some 1,400 individuals have been executed in Iran under Hassan Rouhani. The victims included political prisoners, women, juvenile offenders and citizens of Afghanistan. The U.N.'s special investigator on Iran said on Monday that the human rights situation and repression of Iranian women and activists has worsened since Hassan Rouhani became president in 2013. Dr. Ahmed Shaheed said in Geneva on Monday: "in my view the overall situation has worsened, as indicated by the surge in executions." He lamented that Iran executes more people per capita than any other country in the world. "There is a lot of concern amongst the Iranian society that the nuclear file may be casting a shadow over the human rights discussion," Shaheed told the news briefing. Mr. Shaheed, a Muslim and former foreign minister of the Maldives, has not been allowed to visit Iran since taking up the independent post. (source: NCR-Iran) SOMALIA----executions 3 alleged Al Shabaab members executed in Puntland Authorities in Somalia's semi-autonomous region on Monday executed 3 convicted al-Shabaab suspects for alleged membership in the armed extremist group al-Shabaab and plotting attacks in the stable region, officials said. 3 men were executed by firing squad after a military tribunal found them guilty of carrying out attacks in the region blamed on al-Shabaab extremists. "All of them have been found guilty of being members of the terrorists," said the Minister of Security Hassan Osman Alore. The alleged members were sentenced to death by the court last month. In recent years, Puntland authorities have launched a massive crackdown on the network and its military has sentenced members and other individuals linked to the terror group tough punishments such as death penalty. (source: horseedmedia.net) INDONESIA: De Malmanche may face the death penalty Bali prosecutors have rejected claims their indictment for a New Zealander charged with drug smuggling should be annulled before his trial begins. Lawyers for Antony de Malmanche have found various faults with the indictment for the 52-year-old, who was arrested on arrival in Bali on December 1 with 1.7kg of crystal meth. They say he wasn't told his rights to a lawyer via a translator, as is the law, making the basis of the prosecution case invalid. De Malmanche could face the death penalty for smuggling the drugs, which he says he was unaware he was carrying. However, prosecutors say the trial must go on. The chief judge has retired to consider both sides and would make a decision on whether the trial would proceed next Tuesday. (source: New Zealand Herald) PAKISTAN----executions Pakistan hangs 12 death row prisoners Pakistan executed 12 death row prisoners early Tuesday morning, the latest executions since the government lifted a moratorium on the death penalty for all capital crimes. The executions were among 14 death sentences scheduled to be carried out on Tuesday at different jails in Karachi, Multan, Jhang, Gujranwala, Mianwali, Faisalad and Rawalpindi. 2 execution orders were stayed in Multan and Dera Ghazi Khan. Among the orders stayed was that of robbery and murder convict Waqar Nazir, who was pardoned by the victims family shortly before the execution was about to take place. Waqar had killed Taufeeq in Multan in 1996. Another death sentence was halted at the central jail in Dera Ghazi Khan after the victim's family pardoned the murder convict. A total of 39 people have now been executed in Pakistan since the government restarted executions in December. Murder convicts Malik Nadeem and Mohammad Javed were hanged at the Adiyala Jail in Rawalpindi. 2 death row prisoners were executed at the Central Jail in Karachi. Both men, Mohammad Afzal and Mohammad Faisal, had had committed a murder while carrying out a robbery in Karachi's Korangi area. Death sentences of three prisoners were carried out at the District Jail Jhang. Convict Riaz had committed a murder in 1995 during a domestic dispute. The other 2 prisoners, Mubashir and Sharif, had kidnapped and murdered a taxi-driver in 2012. Zafar Iqbal was hanged at the Multan Central Jail for sexually abusing and killing a 6-year-old girl. Prison authorities at the District Jail Mianwali hanged murder convicts Zafar Iqbal and Rab Nawaz. Iqbal had killed his father in 2003, while Nawaz had murdered a woman in the year 2000. 2 death row prisoners were also hanged at the Faisalabad and Gujranwala central jails. Reintroducing the death penalty was part of the Pakistani government's move to step up its fight against militants and criminals after Taliban attackers killed over 130 children at Peshawar???s Army Public School in December. The death penalty moratorium, in force since 2008, was initially lifted only in terrorism cases, but the government extended it to all capital crimes earlier this week. (source: geo.tv) *************************** SHC dismisses plea to halt Shafqat's execution Sindh High Court (SHC) on Tuesday has dismissed the petition filed to halt the execution of murder convict Shafqat Hussain, Dunya News reported. As per details, Justice Ahmed Ali and Justice Hassan Feroz heard the case in which they remarked that SHC cannot entertain any plea filed against Anti-Terrorism Court's (ATC) decision. Earlier, ATC has issued a death warrant for suspect Shafqat Hussain for being involved in a murder case of 7-year old minor Umair. Underage convict Shafqat abducted Umair for ransom and killed him. The suspect, 14-year old, Shafqat Hussain would be executed on March 19 as per court's order. (source: Dunya News) EGYPT: Muslim Brotherhood leader Badie sentenced to death in Egypt An Egyptian court has handed down death sentences to the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood movement and 13 others, state media has reported. Mohammed Badie and the other key members of the group were found guilty of planning attacks against the state. Badie is embroiled in several trials and has been sentenced to death before, although the sentences were later reduced to life imprisonment. Egypt's government declared the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist group in 2013. The court referred the case to Egypt's Grand Mufti, the country's senior Sunni authority, the first step in ratifying the death sentences. A final verdict is due on 11 April, although the defendants can appeal. The 14 were accused of setting up a control room to direct the movements of Brotherhood supporters across the country. Defence lawyer Ahmad Helmi branded the verdicts "farcical", in a telephone interview with AFP. He said the verdicts were handed down even though the defence had not finished its closing arguments concerning five of the defendants. Meanwhile, a court in the northern city of Mansura also sentenced to death eight Brotherhood members accused of setting up a "terror cell" and murdering opponents of the Islamist organisation, state news agency MENA said. Their verdicts were also referred to the country's top Sunni Muslim authority. The court is due to give a final verdict in that case on 22 June. Hundreds of people have been sentenced to death in a crackdown on Islamists following the removal of President Mohammed Morsi in 2013. Earlier this month, Egypt carried out its first execution over the violence that followed Mr Morsi's overthrow. Mr Morsi is facing several trials, some of which could result in the death sentence. Badie is a veterinary pathologist by training and assumed the leadership of the Muslim Brotherhood in 2010. (source: BBC news) From rhalperi at smu.edu Tue Mar 17 13:20:18 2015 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Tue, 17 Mar 2015 13:20:18 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, CALIF. Message-ID: March 17 TEXAS: The Berkeley Law Death Penalty Clinic, Cornell Death Penalty Project and University of Texas Capital Punishment Center cordially invite you to a symposium on "Latinos and the Death Penalty" at the University of Texas School of Law on April 10-11, 2015. The conference brings together experts from a variety of fields (law, sociology, criminology, psychology, linguistics, history, and international relations) to illuminate a relatively unexplored aspect of the American death penalty. The program, described below, is free and open to the public. LATINOS AND THE DEATH PENALTY PROGRAM, APRIL 10 & 11, University of Texas School of Law Friday, April 10 (All panels in Eidman Courtroom, University of Texas School of Law) Breakfast (8:45 a.m. - 9:15 a.m.) Eidman Courtroom Reception Area Welcome (9:15-9:30) Panel One (9:30 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.): Latinos, Discrimination, and the Death Penalty: An Historical, Political and Cultural Perspective Moderator: Jordan Steiker, University of Texas School of Law; Panelists: Richard Ainslie, Professor, Center for Mexican American Studies, University of Texas; William Carrigan, Professor of History, Rowan University; David Leal, University of Texas at Austin Government Department; Maurie Levin, Mexican Capital Legal Assistance Attorney; Lorena Estrada-Martinez, Assistant Professor of Urban Public Health, University of Massachusetts, Boston. Panel Two (1:00 p.m. - 2:45 p.m.): Litigating Capital Cases with Latino Clients: Distinctive Issues in Plea Bargaining, Mitigation Development, Jury Selection, and Trial Strategy Moderator: Elisabeth Semel, University of California,Berkeley, School of Law; Panelists: Stephen K. Harper, Florida International University School of Law; Dr. Antonio Puente, Professor of Psychology, University of North Carolina Wilmington & Clinical Neuropsychologist; Susan Berk-Seligson, Professor of Spanish Linguistics, Vanderbilt University; Naomi Terr, Texas Defender Service/Mexican Capital Legal Assistance Program. Break Panel Three (3:00 p.m.-4:45 p.m.): Litigating Capital Cases with Latino non-National Clients: Investigation Outside American Borders, Litigating International Treaty Claims, and other Challenges/Opportunities Moderator: Ariel Dulitzky, University of Texas School of Law; Panelists: Sandra Babcock, Cornell Law School; Greg Kuykendall, Director, Mexican Capital Legal Assistance Program; Alicia Amezcua-Rodriguez, Mexican Capital Legal Assistance Attorney /Mitigation specialist; Victor Uribe, Head of the Legal Affairs Section, Embassy of Mexico. Saturday, April 11 (All panels in Eidman Courtroom, University of Texas School of Law) Breakfast (8:30 a.m.-9:00 a.m.) Eidman Courtroom Reception Area. Panel Four (Saturday, 9:15 a.m.-10:45 a.m.): Latinos and the Death Penalty: Emerging Agenda for Future Scholarship and Empirical Study Moderator: Carol Steiker, Harvard Law School; Panelists: Catherine Grosso, Michigan State Law School; Sheri Johnson, Cornell Law School, Sherod Thaxton, UCLA School of Law. (source: UT School of Law) CALIFORNIA: death penalty job----see: https://chroniclevitae.com/jobs/0000873467-01 (source: chroniclcevitae.com) From rhalperi at smu.edu Tue Mar 17 13:21:20 2015 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Tue, 17 Mar 2015 13:21:20 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide Message-ID: March 17 PAKISTAN: Pakistan's return to the death penalty: 'knee-jerk' or necessary? Pakistan is at the centre of an international debate over its decision to reinstate the death penalty and widen its application beyond those convicted of terrorism. The trend worries human rights groups who say non-terror related cases are being fast-tracked in a country that has a weak judicial system and one of the highest number of death row inmates in the world - estimated to be more than 8,000, or 10 % of the total prison population, according to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan. On Tuesday, Pakistan executed 12 death row inmates - the most single-day hangings since the country partially restored the death penalty in the wake of a high-profile attack on a school last December. And on Thursday, Pakistan is to carry out a controversial death sentence that is sure to cause international outrage. Shafqat Hussain's lawyers say he was 14 at the time of his arrest 10 years ago for the kidnap and killing of a child. His lawyers argue that Pakistan's laws prohibit the death sentence for juveniles and that his confession to the killing happened after 9 days of police torture. Mr. Hussain's supporters have taken to social media and are tweeting under the hashtag #SaveShafqat and calling for a stay of execution and retrial. "Shafqat Hussain has now spent 11 years on death row on charges that have nothing to do with terrorism. He was not a militant; he worked, during his brief spell of freedom in Karachi, as a caretaker at an apartment building. He impacts national security in no way," said Fatima Bhutto, a Pakistani author and niece of late prime minister Benazir Bhutto, in New York Times op-ed Tuesday. Pakistan's return to the death penalty started last December following a deadly attack by militants. The attack on an Army-run school in Peshawar - a city frequently targeted by the Pakistan Taliban - left more than 150 dead. Most of the victims were school-age children. The attack sparked national outrage and was described by a senior government adviser as Pakistan's "mini 9/11." It also resulted in a change in government policy to partially reintroduce the death penalty - overturning a complete ban in place since 2008. Under new rules, those already convicted of terror-related offences would see their death sentences carried out. Also, a constitutional amendment in January this year removed the right to a civilian trial for terror suspects and instead empowers military-run courts to carry out speedy trials. Together, the changes represent a move by the government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to take decisive steps and tackle the militancy that has plagued the country. But, earlier this month, the partial reinstating of the death penalty was extended to all death penalty offences - a move that has alarmed human rights groups and more than 8,000 death row inmates. Of those, about 1,000 have had their court appeals and clemency requests rejected. Pakistan's death row population may only be surpassed by China, which, according to Amnesty International, recorded 7,003 death sentences in 2008 alone. But grasping annual death sentences and executions in China is difficult because the information is considered a state secret. In global death penalty data that excludes China, 3 countries - Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia - accounted for 80 % of the 778 global executions in 2013. Pakistan does not appear on the list of 2013's top 10 countries because the moratorium was still in effect. But that will likely change now. According to Reuters, 27 people have been executed since death penalty was reinstated - most of them militants. But of the 12 men hanged across Pakistan on Tuesday, most were convicted of murders during robberies and family disputes, according to the Dawn News web site. "This shameful retreat to the gallows is no way to resolve Pakistan???s pressing security and law and order problems," said Amnesty International's Rupert Abbott following Pakistan's decision to resume execution for death penalty crimes. "The use of the death penalty is always abhorrent, but it raises additional concerns in a country like Pakistan where trials are routinely unfair," he added. There are 28 offences under Pakistani law that carry the death penalty - including rape, murder, blasphemy and treason. Human rights groups say that many of Pakistan's death row inmates are poor, have little or no access to legal aid, or have faced police treatment that includes torture. Human Rights Watch has described the full reintroduction of the death penalty as a hasty and "ill-conceived" response to the school attack in Peshawar last December. "Government approval of a potential nationwide execution spree is a knee-jerk reaction to a terrible crime rather than a considered response to legitimate security concerns," said Phelim Kine, the group's deputy Asia director. (source: The Globe and Mail) ********** Pakistan Carries Out Largest Mass Execution Since Lifting Death Penalty Ban Pakistani officials on Tuesday executed 12 people in the country's single-largest day of executions since a moratorium on the death penalty was lifted in December, officials said. The executions are sure to raise concerns over due process and proper oversight of the country's troubled criminal justice system, which rights groups say often does little to protect defendants. Authorities at different jails in the country's largest province of Punjab hanged 10 people Tuesday who had been sentenced to death in murder cases, said the provincial Home Minister Shuja Khanzada. He said authorities planned to execute more convicted criminals in the coming weeks. "We have started a process, and it will continue," he told The Associated Press. The superintendent of the main jail in the southern port city of Karachi, Qazi Nazir, said they executed 2 convicted murderers and handed the bodies over to their families. Late last year, Pakistan's prime minister lifted the death-penalty moratorium specifically for terrorism-related cases after a December Taliban attack on a school in Peshawar killed 150 people, most of them children. Last week, in a controversial step, the government completely lifted the death-penalty ban for all cases. Human rights groups estimate Pakistan has roughly 8,000 prisoners on death row. One of the most closely watched execution cases is that of Shafqat Hussain, who family members say was 14 when he was sentenced to death by a court in Karachi for the murder of a seven-year-old boy. Hussain's family proclaims his innocence and Justice Project Pakistan, the legal group handling his case, says Hussain was tortured into making a false confession. Hussain is scheduled to be hanged on March 19. Meanwhile, unidentified gunmen shot and killed a former lawyer for the Pakistani doctor who helped the U.S. find Osama bin Laden. The lawyer Samiullah Khan Afridi was assassinated Tuesday in the northwestern city of Peshawar before fleeing, senior police officer Shakir Khan said. The lawyer was killed months after he announced that he will no longer be representing Dr. Shakil Afridi Afridi, who was convicted in May 2012 of "conspiring against the state" by giving money and providing medical treatment to militants, not for helping the CIA track down bin Laden. The lawyer left Pakistan in November after receiving threats from militants; Khan said the lawyer recently came back from abroad. A spokesman for the Taliban-linked Jamaat-ul-Ahrar group, Ahsanullah Ahsan, claimed responsibility for the killing in a telephone call to The Associated Press from an unidentified location. Dr. Afridi, ran a vaccination campaign in the northwestern city of Abbottabad as a cover for a CIA-backed effort to obtain DNA samples from a home where Osama bin Laden was later killed during a 2011 raid by U.S. Navy SEALs. (source: Huffington Post) From rhalperi at smu.edu Tue Mar 17 16:17:25 2015 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Tue, 17 Mar 2015 16:17:25 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----MISS., KAN., MO., NEB., UTAH, WYO., USA Message-ID: March 17 MISSISSIPPI: Appeals court denies state death row inmate's appeal A Mississippi man who pleaded guilty in the rape and killing of a waitress in 2000 has been denied a new trial by a 3-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Thomas Loden Jr. had argued his attorneys gave him poor legal advice during his Lee County trial. Loden pleaded guilty in the killing of 16-year-old Leesa Gray. He was sentenced to death for pleading guilty to capital murder plus 30 years on kidnapping and rape counts. Gray disappeared June 22, 2000, while on her way home from work as a waitress at her family's restaurant in the Dorsey community. According to court documents, her body was found the next day in Loden's van. Loden has previously argued his original defense attorney failed to fully investigate his mental condition and background and gave him poor advice that led him to plead guilty and waive jury sentencing. In 2013, U.S. District Judge Neal B. Biggers in Oxford, Mississippi, ruled Loden failed to prove his trial attorneys were inadequate. Biggers sided with the Mississippi Supreme Court's findings that Loden was given "the basic tools of an adequate defense," including funding to hire an investigator, a full evaluation by the forensic staff at the Mississippi State Hospital and the services of an independent psychologist. Prosecutors said Loden was aware of the proceedings that were taking place in the state court and actively participated in a question-and-answer session during his guilty plea. Appeals Court Judge Carolyn King wrote in the panel's decision that Loden's arguments are countered by his decision that his trial lawyers not question prosecution witnesses or put any evidence at a sentencing hearing to help him avoid the death penalty. King said Loden affirmed his decision under lengthy questioning by the trial judge. (source: Associated Press) KANSAS: Conservatives converge in Topeka for death penalty repeal, while Mo. execution looms Conservative leaders were meeting at the Kansas State House in Topeka the afternoon of March 17 to rally support for House Bill 2129, which would abolish the death penalty in Kansas, and replace it with life in prison without the possibility of parole. Previously, Rep. Steven Becker of Buhler, Kan., who introduced the bill in committee on Jan. 27, told NCR Feb. 4, "What I want to accomplish with that bill is to replace that death penalty with life in prison without the possibility of parole, only this time, as I put it, this time we would really mean it." In a March 16 release issued by the Kansas Coalition Against the Death Penalty (KCADP), Rep. Bill Sutton, R-Gardner, said, "I am pro-life across the board. That is non-negotiable. By ending the death penalty, Kansas can take an important step toward promoting a culture of life, as well as end a costly and ineffective government program." Gardner planned to attend today's event, along with former Republican State Rep. Anthony Brown. "More Kansas conservatives like myself are recognizing that the death penalty is unnecessary and in many ways harmful to the state," Brown said in KCADP's release. "Because of this growing conservative support, red states like Kansas are considering ending the death penalty." Meanwhile, neighboring state Missouri is scheduled to execute Cecil Clayton, 74, at 6 p.m. March 17. According to The Associated Press, Clayton, convicted of killing Christopher Castetter, a Barry County sheriff's deputy, will be the 2nd person executed in Missouri in 2015. AP reported that Clayton's attorneys are asking the U.S. Supreme Court and Gov. Jay Nixon for clemency, claiming that Clayton is brain damaged from a 1972 sawmill accident. >From AP: "Clayton's attorneys argue that he suffers from lingering effects of a 1972 sawmill accident in which a piece of wood shot through his skull. Surgeons removed about 8 % of Clayton's brain, including 1/5 of the frontal lobe that governs impulse control and judgment. His lawyers say Clayton has an IQ of 71 and that psychiatric evaluations indicate he doesn't understand the significance of his scheduled execution or the reasons for it, making him (source: National Catholic Reporter) MISSOURI----impending execution Missouri inmate asks for execution reprieve because part of his brain was removed More than 4 decades after an accident at a sawmill sent a piece of wood into Cecil Clayton's skull, costing him a portion of his brain, his attorneys are arguing that the episode should prevent the state of Missouri from executing him. Clayton, 74, has petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to delay his lethal injection, which is scheduled for Tuesday evening. His attorneys say that because of the sawmill accident, he has an intellectual disability and therefore cannot be put to death. He was sentenced to death for shooting and killing Christopher Castetter, a sheriff's deputy in Purdy, Mo., in 1996. Attorneys for Clayton are not arguing that he is innocent but instead point to his brain injury in asking the justices to act. In one of their filings to the Supreme Court, Clayton's attorneys wrote that the police were called about him trespassing around the home of his girlfriend's mother. When Castetter was dispatched, they say, Clayton shot him and later said that Castetter "probably should have just stayed home" and "shouldn't have smarted off to me." But they note that Clayton also said he "wasn't out there," before going on to outline issues involving his intelligence and memory. This argument has its origins in an accident that occurred in 1972. Clayton, who was a logger and sawmill operator, was working at his sawmill when a piece of wood broke off and stabbed into his head. He was taken to a hospital, where he stayed for 9 days, and he ultimately lost 7.7 % of his brain and 20 % of his frontal lobe, according to his attorneys. As his attorneys describe it, Clayton "changed drastically and immediately" after the injury. Before the injury, he was a married father who stopped drinking, became a preacher and traveled the country with his family, singing gospel and playing his guitar; afterward, he began drinking again, became depressed and violent, suffered memory loss and experienced hallucinations. The Missouri Supreme Court declined over the weekend to halt Clayton's execution, declaring in a 4 to 3 decision that he is competent to be executed. In part, the court noted that Missouri's law states that for a person to be deemed "intellectually disabled" - and, therefore, someone who could be spared execution under a Supreme Court ruling from 2002 - the condition had to emerge before the person turned 18. However, Clayton's injury occurred more than a decade after he turned 18. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2002 that executing the mentally disabled violates the Constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment. Last year, for the 1st time since that ruling, the court again considered the issue, this time determining that state laws relying heavily on IQ test results to determine this are unconstitutional. "Intellectual disability is a condition, not a number," Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in the majority opinion last year. He later added that the law requires that inmates "have the opportunity to present evidence of [their] intellectual disability." Clayton's attorneys have argued that he should have a hearing where his mental competence can be determined, but the Missouri Supreme Court decided against that argument. In a dissenting opinion, Judge Laura Denvir Stith of the Missouri Supreme Court wrote that the evidence presented by Clayton's attorneys and an expert medical opinion should be enough for him to receive this hearing. "The denial of such a hearing deprives Mr. Clayton of a fair opportunity to show that the Constitution prohibits his execution," she wrote. Attorneys for Clayton have petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court, asking that the execution be delayed and saying that he should be given a hearing to prove his intellectual impairment. Executing a person who has a mental disability "does not serve any legitimate goals of capital punishment," Clayton's attorneys wrote in one of their filings. "The impairments are what make the intellectually disabled undeserving of death." If it takes place, Clayton's execution would be the 10th so far this year nationwide. It would be the 2nd so far this year in Missouri, which executed Walter Storey last month. Storey had asked the U.S. Supreme Court to delay his execution until after the justices hear a case on lethal injection later in the spring, but the justices rejected his request. While the death penalty is generally on the decline in the country, multiple states - Missouri among them - have struggled to obtain drugs for executions amid an ongoing shortage. This shortage played a major role in why the Supreme Court is hearing an argument over lethal injections next month. As states have had problems finding the necessary drugs, they have experimented with different drugs and combinations. The justices have agreed to hear a case involving lethal injections in Oklahoma, which turned to the controversial drug midazolam because of the shortage. However, the Supreme Court has been unwilling thus far to halt all executions until after it considers this case, which speaks to the divided nature of the court and a quirk of how it operates. The same 4 justices who would have halted an execution in Oklahoma earlier this year also would have ordered Missouri to stop the execution of Storey last month. However, while it takes only 4 justices to accept a case, it takes 5 of them to stay an execution. There have been 4 executions since the court decided to consider lethal injection. (The justices delayed three scheduled executions in Oklahoma, while the Florida Supreme Court stayed an execution there because that state uses the same drug protocol as Oklahoma.) Executions in Missouri have typically occurred after midnight, but last month the state said it would begin scheduling executions after 6 p.m. local time. The death warrants authorizing executions will continue to remain in effect for a 24-hour period. (source: Washington Post) *********************** Lawyers: Death row inmate brain damaged, shouldn't be killed Missouri's oldest death row inmate is scheduled to be executed Tuesday for the 1996 shooting death of a sheriff's deputy. But attorneys for 74-year-old Cecil Clayton are asking the U.S. Supreme Court and the state's governor to spare his life, arguing that Clayton has brain damage from a 1972 sawmill accident and worsening dementia. Here's a look at the case: THE CRIME Clayton was convicted of fatally shooting Christopher Castetter, a sheriff's deputy in rural southwest Missouri's Barry County. Castetter, then 29 and a father of three, was investigating a suspicious vehicle near Cassville on the night before Thanksgiving in 1996 when he was shot in the forehead while he was in his car. His vehicle was found against a tree with the engine racing and wheels spinning. Castetter died at a hospital the next day. INMATE'S CLAIMS Clayton's attorneys argue that he suffers from lingering effects of a 1972 sawmill accident in which a piece of wood shot through his skull. Surgeons removed about 8 % of Clayton's brain, including 1/5 of the frontal lobe that governs impulse control and judgment. His lawyers say Clayton has an IQ of 71 and that psychiatric evaluations indicate he doesn't understand the significance of his scheduled execution or the reasons for it, making him ineligible for execution under state and federal law. LAST-MINUTE APPEALS Clayton's attorneys have appealed the case to the U.S. Supreme Court and asked the Missouri governor for clemency, insisting that the inmate's deteriorating mental health has left him convinced his conviction was a plot against him. They argue that Clayton also believes God will rescue him at the last minute, "after which time he will travel the country playing the piano and preaching the gospel." In part because of his dementia, his attorneys said in their appeal, the lethal injection would or would likely cause Clayton "excruciating or tortuous pain and needless suffering" and allow the state to use him as an experiment of its execution protocol on someone with severe brain damage. The state countered by saying Clayton would be executed "rapidly and painlessly" in accordance with the constitutional protections against cruel and unusual punishment. LEGAL SETBACKS The Missouri Supreme Court declined to intervene Saturday in a 4-3 ruling. The court's majority concluded there's no evidence that Clayton, despite his brain injury, isn't capable of understanding his circumstances. The dissenting opinion countered that Clayton's attorneys "presented reasonable grounds to believe his overall mental condition has deteriorated and he is intellectually disabled." SIMILAR CASES Clayton's claims of mental incompetence mirror those of Ricky Ray Rector, who was executed in 1992 in Arkansas for fatally shooting a police officer. His attorneys failed to sway then-Gov. Bill Clinton that he had been left brain damaged by a self-inflicted bullet wound prior to his arrest. MISSOURI EXECUTIONS If carried out, Clayton's execution would be Missouri's 2nd this year. The state executed a record 10 people in 2014. Clayton's execution also is the 1st to be scheduled in Missouri for 6 p.m. Tuesday after decades of having lethal injections set to begin at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday. (source: KFOX news) ***************** Missouri should not execute Cecil Clayton: he is missing a part of his brain Cecil Clayton, who is scheduled to be executed by the state of Missouri on Tuesday night, is a 21st century Phineas Gage: in 1972, while working in a lumberyard, a malfunctioning saw blade sent a large chip of wood hurling through the air and straight into Cecil Clayton's skull. He survived but lost 20% of his prefrontal lobe in the accident and everything changed. Whereas once he had a job and a family and was involved in his church, after the accident he became impulsive, suffered from fixed-hallucinations, and had several violent outbursts. One night, in the course of a familial dispute, Clayton shot and killed a police officer that had been dispatched to the scene. A Missouri jury sentenced Clayton to death. Phineas Gage suffered a similar accident in the 19th century: an accidental explosion at the railroad where Gage worked sent a long iron rod hurling through the air and straight into his skull. Gage, too, survived, but he transformed from a quiet and gentle soul into an impulsive and brash man. He was, according to those who knew him best, "no longer Gage". Because of Gage, neuroscientists now know exactly what caused these dramatic personality changes. The iron rod that entered Gage's skull caused extreme damage to his prefrontal cortex, which is the area of the brain responsible for decision-making. In healthy individuals with a properly functioning brain, the prefrontal cortex helps us to problem solve, abstract from past mistakes and make sound judgments. For individuals like Gage and Clayton, a damaged prefrontal cortex makes it difficult to reign in impulses or to reason through the problems that confront us. 3 different doctors have declared Clayton incompetent since he was sentenced to death. One physician noted that Clayton believes he is on a mission from Christ and that he will be released from prison once that mission is complete. Another physician concluded that Clayton does not "comprehend, appreciate nor understand" his coming execution date. The 8th amendment to the United States constitution tolerates capital punishment so long as its imposition is limited to the worst of the worst offenders. The US supreme court has held that a juvenile offender cannot meet this culpability threshold no matter how heinous the crime - and neither can an individual who is intellectually disabled. Clayton could not be executed if he had committed the homicide as a teenager, even though he had not yet suffered catastrophic brain damage at that point in his life - and if Clayton had an organic intellectual disability instead of a freak-accident that destroyed his prefrontal cortex, he could not be executed, even though the symptoms are similarly debilitating. A jurisprudence that anchors death-ineligibility not on the degree of one's functional impairment, but rather on the cause of the impairment is as arbitrary as it is morally absurd. It would be one thing if Cecil Clayton's case were an extreme outlier. But it isn't. Florida recently executed a paranoid schizophrenic man named John Ferguson who developed increasingly serious delusions after suffering from a gunshot injury to the head. Ferguson believed that the state was going to execute him for preaching the gospel, and that after his execution he would rise to sit next to Christ. Just this year, Georgia executed Warren Hill despite the fact that 7 different doctors - including 3 employed by the state - concluded that Hill suffered from an intellectual disability. Or consider Vietnam War veteran Andrew Brannan. His combat service saved the lives of numerous American soldiers, but it also resulted in a chronic, severe and debilitating post traumatic stress disorder. This January, Brannan was executed by the nation for whom he served. America routinely executes offenders with serious and persistent mental illness, people with significantly sub-average intellectual functioning, offenders who suffered from torturous sexual and physical abuse as children, and people who committed their crime when they were not old enough to buy a beer. Executions are not limited to the worst of the worst; we routinely execute the weakest of the weak. There is a lot of blame to go around for this state of affairs. It would be easier for a jury to consider the moral implications of serious functional impairments if the quality of trial lawyering in capital cases improved. There would be less of a burden on federal courts if state supreme courts engaged in the type of substantive proportionality review that many death penalty jurisdictions at least purport to require, or if elected governors in Missouri, Florida, Georgia used their clemency powers to prevent the execution of those for whom capital punishment is unnecessary. The ultimate obligation to guard against the imposition of excessive punishment rests with the United States supreme court ... and now that court is the only remaining hope for Cecil Clayton. It has the power and the prerogative to prevent this excessive execution. How many times can the justices choose not to intervene when a state seeks to execute a seriously impaired individual before the public loses faith in the court's moral legitimacy? (source: The Guardian) NEBRASKA: Nebraska's 3 Catholic bishops call for repeal of death penalty Nebraska's 3 Catholic bishops are calling for repeal of the death penalty in Nebraska. The bishops said in a statement released Tuesday that the death penalty is not necessary in Nebraska and that the "purposes of a criminal justice system are rehabilitation, deterrence, public safety and the restoration of justice." A Nebraska legislative committee advanced a bill that would replace capital punishment with life imprisonment. The vote was 8-0, the 1st time a repeal bill advanced unanimously from the Judiciary Committee. (source: omaha.com) UTAH: Death penalty opponents ask Herbert to veto Utah firing squad bill A group of Utahns on Tuesday delivered a petition at the state Capitol asking Gov. Gary Herbert to veto legislation that would allow execution by firing squad in the state. The MoveOn.org petition contains about 6,200 signatures, with more than 500 of them from Utah, according to its backers. The Utah MoveOn members delivering the petition included Ralph Dellapiana, who also is director of Utahns for Alternatives to the Death Penalty. Dellapiana said it is disgraceful that the discussion in the state is centered on how to kill people. "The alternative we should be talking about is an alternative without the death penalty," Dellapiana said. He added, "It's a moral issue. It violates the sanctity of life." The Senate voted 18-10 last week to pass HB11 and sent it to Herbert for his signature. It earlier passed the House 39-34, with just 1 vote to spare, after intense debate that focused mainly on whether to abolish the death penalty. HB11 allows the state to use a firing squad if the drug cocktail necessary for lethal injection is not available at least 30 days before a scheduled execution. Foreign manufacturers of the drugs used in lethal injection have worked to prevent their use in executions. Herbert has not yet said whether he will sign the bill. Austin Cox, his constituent services director, accepted the petition. The firing squad was legal in Utah until 2004, when the law was changed to make lethal injection the primary means of execution. Current Utah law allows a return to the firing squad only if lethal injection is ruled unconstitutional, although it is allowed as an option for those on death row who selected death by firing squad prior to the 2004 change. Oklahoma has a similar law ??? allowing a firing squad if lethal injection and electrocution are ruled unconstitutional. The last person put to death by firing squad in Utah was Ronnie Lee Gardner in 2010. His brother, Randy Gardner, was part of the group delivering the petition. "It's very, very barbaric," Gardner said of the death penalty. "It's not something we should be doing, killing our citizens." (source: Salt Lake Tribune) WYOMING: Lawyers appeal judge's allowing new death penalty hearing Lawyers for a Wyoming inmate convicted of killing a Montana woman filed papers Monday appealing a federal judge's recent decision to allow state prosecutors again to seek the death penalty. U.S. District Judge Alan B. Johnson of Cheyenne in February denied a request from lawyers representing inmate Dale Wayne Eaton to bar the state from seeking the death penalty against him for the 2nd time. Eaton was convicted in 2004 of murdering Lisa Marie Kimmell, 18, of Billings, Montana. Eaton's lawyers don't dispute he killed her. Johnson in November overturned Eaton's original death sentence, ruling he didn't get an adequate defense at his state trial. The judge said prosecutors could seek to convince another jury to resentence him to death or send Eaton to prison for life without parole. (source: Associated Press) USA: Below, find a job announcement for the position of Executive Director at Witness to Innocence. Please forward to your networks. Thank you, Steve Honeyman, Interim Executive Director Mariko Franz, Business & Office Manager ---------- JOB ANNOUNCEMENT Executive Director for Witness to Innocence Witness to Innocence ("WTI"), a 501 (c)(3), private, nonprofit corporation is the nation's only organization composed of and for exonerated death row survivors and their loved ones. WTI seeks an energetic and motivated leader to serve as the executive director of this unique organization.???The mission of WTI is to abolish the death penalty by empowering exonerated death row survivors and their loved ones to be effective leaders in the movement. WTI actively challenges political leaders and the public to grapple with the reality of a fatally flawed criminal justice system that sends innocent people to death row. WTI seeks ways to support death row survivors and their loved ones as they confront the challenges of life after exoneration. The detailed job description is posted on the organization's website www.witnesstoinnocence.org. Interested applicants should submit a letter of interest stating their experience and a resume to Steve Honeyman, Interim Executive Director, WTI, 1501 Cherry Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19102 or email to shoneyman at witnesstoinnocence.org. Application materials can be sent via e-mail or postal mail. All applications must be either e-mailed or postmarked by the deadline of 5 pm on Monday, April 6, 2015. WTI is an equal opportunity employer. Women and people of color are encouraged to apply. Salary is $65,000 to 75,000 per year, commensurate with experience. Benefits are provided. Sincerely, Board of Directors for Witness to Innocence Steve Honeyman, Interim Executive Director -- Mariko Franz Business & Office Manager Witness to Innocence 1501 Cherry Street,???Philadelphia, PA 19102 Phone: (267) 519 - 4589 -- Fax: (888) 317 - 2704 mfranz at witnesstoinnocence.org www.witnesstoinnocence.org From rhalperi at smu.edu Tue Mar 17 16:21:43 2015 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Tue, 17 Mar 2015 16:21:43 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide Message-ID: March 17 TAIWAN: 4 death penalties for metro killer is absurd & illogical Dear Editor, This letter is in response to the recent article discussing the Taipei MRT killer's sentence. Can a person die 4 times? The news of the Taipei MRT attack astonished Taiwanese society, and citizens have long-since condemned the killer, Cheng Chieh. Recently, the court gave him 4 death sentences. Nevertheless, in reality, it is impossible to inflict four death sentences on a criminal, as we know that people cannot be revived to be killed again. The idea from the judge is that Cheng killed four people in the metro, so he should pay for his deeds. However, the decree suggests that the authorities have been infected by the desires of the citizenry, because the number of death sentences is unattainable and is based on the belief that a punishment must match the injury - an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, and so forth. Since the media overly reported Cheng's bloody doings, people have become ireful and have almost recognized him as the devil; thus, the extreme penalty (just one capital punishment sentence may not be enough) for him is the will of the people. If the verdict were to be too soft, the people would be displeased and place the blame on the "dinosaur judiciary." Certainly what Cheng did is wrong, but it does not mean that the judgment should follow the sentiment of the public. If the verdict is only based on the minds of the citizens, why do we need judiciary? One death penalty given to a criminal is logical, but four capital punishment decrees handed down to a criminal is unrealistic and symbolizes an emotional decision. Overall, the judgment ought to be independent without the influence of the public so that sentences can be fair and sensible. Yours faithfully, Angie Chou (source: Letter to the Editor, China Post) IRAQ: 236 hanged over the last 2 years Despite the pressure by the international human right organizations, the Iraqi government continues to execute and hang convicts. Statistics show that a total of 236 execution sentences have been implemented during the last 2 years. A report by the Higher Commission for Human Rights in Iraq confirms that the Iraqi government hanged 169 convicts in 2013 who had been sentenced to death by various Iraqi courts. In 2014, the number of executions was 67. The report also states that there are 720 more convicts who have been sentenced to death and are awaiting execution. Majority of the cases are related to terror, and the Commission calls for limiting death sentences to terror cases. The Commission also states in the report that the ex- president, Mr. Jalal Talabani, did not use to sign execution orders and hence the Prime Minister was assigned to do that. But the new orders now are signed by the new President Mr. Fuad Massoum. (sources: The Kurdish Globe, Hands Off Cain) NIGERIA: Defence Asks Court to Drop Charges Against Child Bride Murder The Prosecution Counsel canvassing death penalty for the 14 years old Child bride, Wasila Tasiu over culpable homicide has told a Kano High court, Gezawa that the suspect can't escape justice through back door. The prosecution counsel, Lamido Abba Soron Dinki position came on the heels of a no case submission by the Defence counsel, Hussaina Aliyu Ibrahim that urged the court to acquit and discharge the accused person. Wasila Tasiu, 14 has been standing trial over the past 10 months for allegedly killing her husband and 3 others via the application of rat poison on the local delicacies she served her late husband. The prosecution lawyer told the court not to evaluate his evidence more especially that the Defence Lawyers is yet to enter their defence. The state Counsel further argued that "the issue about the credibility of our witnesses does not even arise because the law said the testimony of our witnesses should only be treated on case value". Abba Soron Dinki cited Supreme Court judgement on Agbo versus the state in 2013 that "a no case submission should be determined within the narrow compass of the legally admissible evidence produced by the Prosecution and as such should be based on a case value". He submitted that the no case submission can't stand on the case under review, adding that such step would pave way for the accused persons to escape justice through back door. However, the court has reserved ruling for March 31st on whether Wasila Tasiu, 14 has a case to answer under the law. The presiding Judge, Justice Muhammad Yahaya in his ruling said that "the court hereby fix March 31st for ruling on the application by the defence counsel on no case submission on behalf of Wasila Tasiu." (source: The Vvanguard) INDONESIA: Bali woman 'swaps faith' for inheritance----An Indonesian woman has been accused of lying about her religion in a bid to benefit financially from her Australian husband's murder. An Indonesian woman accused of ordering the murder of her wealthy Australian husband is claiming to be of another religion so she won't lose her inheritance, a lawyer says. Noor Ellis is facing charges carrying the death penalty after allegedly paying her maid's boyfriend to kill Robert Ellis, 60. The successful businessman's body was found in a Bali rice field in October 2014. Ellis told police her husband had neglected her and was denying her money she was entitled to - a claim that shocked family and friends who knew the couple. The lawyer for their 2 sons, Any Aryani, says even as she faces the death penalty, Ellis is making moves to protect her inheritance. Ms Any says Ellis is now stating her religion is Hindu, even though official documents say she's Muslim. Under family law, which closely follows religious custom in Indonesia, if a Muslim woman is convicted of her husband's murder, she loses her rights to benefit from it. "If Noor thinks 'I killed, I've been punished, but my inheritance rights remain', well that's not possible," Ms Any told AAP. "We have prepared for that. "As soon as the court states Noor is guilty of killing her husband, we will take legal measures that will ensure Noor will not get even the smallest bit of Bob's fortune." Ms Any says she's confident Mr Ellis's Perth-based sons Peter and John will be well provided for. The young men say they will support the court's decision if it sentences their mother to death for the crime, because they just want justice done. Peter Ellis learned about his father's death via the internet, and hopes to be better informed about the trial process as it continues. Police allege Noor Ellis paid a man known as Aril, the boyfriend of her maid, $A14,000 to kill Mr Ellis. They allege Aril and four others slashed Mr Ellis' throat in the kitchen of his villa while his wife was in another room. The trial last week heard from a friend of Noor Ellis who lent her the money to pay the killer. Ni Luh Yoskana Darmada thought the Rp 50 million was to buy ceramics for Ellis' hotel development. "I was terrified," she told the court. "A week after she borrowed the money the police came." Police officer Wayan Sujana told the court that when he informed Ellis that her husband's body had been found, her expression was "like that of a sick person". "The defendant said she knew nothing of the incident," he said. Police then examined the maid's text messages and found one from Aril that said: "Danger, I just want to go back home". He was caught trying to flee to his native island of Sumba. Ellis' trial resumes in Bali on Wednesday. (source: sbs.au.com) From rhalperi at smu.edu Tue Mar 17 22:16:32 2015 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Tue, 17 Mar 2015 22:16:32 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----GA., OHIO, KY., KAN., MO. Message-ID: March 17 GEORGIA: D.A. to seek death penalty in bus stop murder case The DeKalb County District Attorney's Office has decided to seek the death penalty against the man accused of killing a 19-year-old woman while she sat at a bus stop in November. Marcaysia Dawkins was shot while waiting for a MARTA bus in the 5900 block of Fairington Road in Lithonia. The Nov. 23 shooting was captured on a gas station's surveillance video. Police arrested 18-year-old Christopher Merritt. Investigators believe he may also be responsible for a string of sexual assaults and armed robberies. Merritt is facing several charges, including murder, armed robbery, rape and false imprisonment. Charisma Dawkins, Marcaysia's mother, says her daughter was going to get a MARTA card to use to get to work for the upcoming week. "My God. To see my daughter fight for her life. For nothing. For like $50," she said to Channel 2's Tom Jones. "She was just a sweet, innocent child. Innocent. She had so much to live for." (source: WSB TV news) OHIO: State opposes death row inmates' request for information about compounding pharmcies The state wants a federal judge to reject death row inmates' subpoenas of Board of Pharmacy information about drugs used for lethal injection in Ohio. Lawyers for Attorney General Mike DeWine says the request by the inmates' lawyers is too broad and would shut down the board for weeks or months as it provided thousands of pages of documents. The state said in a court filing Monday most if not all the documents being requested, including inspection of compounding pharmacies in Ohio, have no connection to a lawsuit challenging lethal injection procedures. At issue are attempts to find out more about the state's lethal injection process, which now calls for 2 drugs Ohio doesn't have and which may only be available in specialty doses created by compounding pharmacies. (source: Associated press) KENTUCKY: Death penalty story prompts motions in court----Judge denies request to change venue, keeps case capital A Davidson County Superior Court judge has denied a defense attorney's motions to change the venue of 45-year-old Carl Kennedy's death penalty case and declare it non-capital after she claimed a story on the state of capital punishment published Saturday in The Dispatch could prejudice a jury. Judge Christopher Bragg denied the motions Tuesday from Kennedy's attorney, Lisa Dubs. Kennedy along with 2 others - David Earl Manning and Leigh Williams, both 44 - have been charged with 3 counts of 1st-degree murder in the November 2011 deaths of Sharon F. Rushing, 61, Angela Dawn Soles, 43, and Gary Lynn Seward, 52, all of 101 Rotary Lane in Thomasville. The state is seeking the death penalty against all three people, but Kennedy's case is being tried first. In court, Dubs gave a thorough critique of The Dispatch's story, "Death penalty remains contentious issue in state." She argued the story was "problematic" as it mentioned a previous Davidson County death penalty case (Ricky Sanderson) and included an interview with the victim's father (Hugh Holliman) in the Sanderson case. She also raised objections in regard to comments made in the story from Davidson County District Attorney Garry Frank and other remarks made by Gene Morris, a retired prosecutor who formerly served as the Davidson County district attorney. In her arguments, Dubs recalled from the story that Holliman stated the execution of Sanderson in the death of his 16-year-old daughter, Suzi, brought him closure. She argued Holliman, a former representative in the N.C. General Assembly, talked about if the death penalty was a necessary punishment and about the method not being around much longer. "I would certainly argue that is prejudicial information," she said. Also, Dubs claimed the most problematic part of the story was the including of Frank's prepared statement in regard to the death penalty. The district attorney wrote to The Dispatch that while he's been the DA for 16 years he has expended more time than anyone in Davidson County evaluating the history, use and current application of capital punishment in the state. He explained he had developed opinions based on that experience, but didn't believe he could publicly express those opinions on the eve of the Kennedy trial. Frank explained it was his responsibility to do his best to deal with every defendant fairly and not to impact or prejudice any defendant with pre-trial public comments. He stated capital punishment in well-defined instances is the "law of the land" in North Carolina. Dubs said that Frank's statement was prejudicial. She said the jury could believe he evaluated the case and determined it was appropriate for the death penalty. The story also included comments from Morris. Dubs argued he was stronger in his beliefs on the death penalty. She said he talked about the gruesomeness of a past death penalty case and explained the only way a jury could make sure someone doesn't murder another person is to give the defendant the death penalty. Dubs said there was an issue of publicity with the trial. She explained she checked The Dispatch's website and noticed the story listed as one of the most read. Dubs asked Bragg to transfer the case to another county where The Dispatch doesn't have circulation. In response to Dubs, Davidson County Assistant District Attorney Alan Martin said it had been 16 years, two months and three weeks since Morris has been a prosecutor in Davidson County. He added there was nothing the DA's office could do about Morris' comments. Bragg said Frank's statement regarding capital punishment being the "law of the land" was an accurate reflection of the position from the N.C. Attorney General's Office. The judge said the story's paragraph on the status of the Kennedy trial was an accurate reflection of the case. "It doesn't even note the names of the victim, out of a total of 44 paragraphs in this news article," Bragg said, referring to the three deceased victims in the Kennedy case. Bragg said that Morris' comments were directly on the Sanderson case and did not make a comment on the Kennedy case. The court did not have any control over Holliman's statements, he said. As part of the jury selection, prosecutors and defense attorneys can question potential jurors on whether they read the story, Bragg said. He ruled a change of venue would not be proper at this time. But the judge said he might revisit the venue change issue if a number of jurors say they've read the story and believe they can't be fair and impartial. While the judge decided not to approve the motions for change of venue or change it to a non-capital case, he placed a gag order on all of the legal counsel involved. They are not allowed to make a statement to the media regarding the case during the trial and during the sentencing process. With the judge's ruling to continue trying the case in Davidson County, the attorneys began the jury selection process Tuesday. The process to pick a jury could take two weeks or longer as death penalty cases take more time to pick jury members. One juror was dismissed after her views concerning capital punishment were questioned for about 3 hours. (source: The Dispatch) KANSAS: Kansas Conservatives Speak Out Against Death Penalty To move forward with their beliefs, the Kansas Coalition Against the Death Penalty took to the Statehouse on Tuesday. They spoke to community members what they believe are the biggest issues with the death penalty in Kansas. One being the amount of money wasted keeping the death penalty in force, when no one has been executed in Kansas since 1965. "In Kansas, we haven't actually executed anyone in 50 years. So we get all of the benefits of paying for capital cases, and if there were any benefits to actually executing anyone, we're not realizing those anyways," said Representative Bill Sutton, Republican for District 43. Many anti-death-penalty speakers were at Tuesday's event, including two death row exonerees, who now use their experiences to teach. Ron Keine and Ray Krone were both falsely accused of a crime punishable by the death penalty, and were later found innocent. "Nobody can truly understand what we went through unless you go through it. You have to be in that cell. You have to see the guards beating people up. You have to see what they're doing there. You have to see the guy being dragged out of his cell to be killed," said Keine. The group wants to keep others from facing the death penalty after being wrongfully accused. They recently wrote a house bill that would eliminate capital punishment. "It replaces the death penalty with a hard 50. So instead of being able to be up on parole or anything like that, you have 50 years in prison," said Kansas Coalition Against the Death Penalty board member Jill Crazen. The group is hoping to set an example for the rest of the nation. "We as Kansans lead the nation. We've been leaders in so many issues in the state of Kansas, and I feel that this is another one where we can be leaders. It's very important that we repeal this and be leaders in the nation," said Crazen. We could find no death penalty supporters at today's meeting, and with the new house bill currently in committee, the Kansas Coalition Against the Death Penalty is hoping for a hearing within the next month. (source: WIBW news) MISSOURI----execution Missouri executes Cecil Clayton, killer who had brain injury Missouri executed its oldest death row inmate Tuesday, less than an hour after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to stay his execution. Cecil Clayton, 74, was executed by lethal injection beginning at 9:13 p.m. at a prison in Bonne Terre, according to a spokesman for the Missouri Department of Corrections. He was pronounced dead at 9:21 p.m. Clayton's fate had played out in an 11th-hour legal showdown that included questions over his mental state and stretched hours past his scheduled execution time. Clayton was convicted in the 1996 shooting death of Sheriff's Deputy Chris Castetter near Cassville, Mo., a rural town about 200 miles south of Kansas City, according to court documents. His attorneys contended that he was unfit to be executed because of a brain disorder. On Tuesday, they filed a brief claiming the Missouri Supreme Court made an error in finding him competent to be executed and asking the U.S. Supreme Court to delay Clayton's execution while his case played out in court. In a statement, Missouri Atty. Gen. Chris Koster said: "I share the outrage of every Missourian at the murder of [a] law enforcement officer, Deputy Christopher Castetter. Cecil Clayton tonight has paid the ultimate price for his terrible crime. Clayton's lawyers had said that in the 1970s he suffered a sawmill accident in which he lost 20% of his frontal lobe, resulting in mental instability. He did not understand the shooting and the death of Castetter, his attorneys argued in last-minute court filings. Physicians are cited in court papers as saying Clayton suffered from a "delusional disorder." The filings also cited comments from fellow prisoners that Clayton had trouble doing such basic tasks as using a telephone and purchasing supplies from the prison commissary. Over the weekend, the state's Supreme Court declined to intervene in the execution. A last-minute appeal from his attorney Elizabeth Unger Carlyle to the U.S. Supreme Court asked for the execution to be halted. Clayton's brain injury, his attorneys have argued, had "severely impaired his cognitive functioning, ability to adapt to daily life, and to meaningfully and rationally understand that the state is going to kill him." "If we're going to execute anyone, we should execute the worst of the worst," Carlyle told the Los Angeles Times before the execution. "This man [Clayton] has a hole in his brain; he suffers from dementia.... He's not the type of person who should be executed." Koster filed a response to Carlyle's brief Tuesday, saying that pending litigation "does not entitle a condemned inmate to a stay as a matter of course." Court documents also indicate that Clayton's attorneys had objected to Missouri's lethal injection protocol, which employs pentobarbital and offers a condemned inmate a pre-execution sedative, such as Midazolam, if one chooses to take it. Midazolam is part of Oklahoma's 3-drug cocktail used for executions, which has become the subject of controversy in recent months. Koster objected to the comparison with Oklahoma's protocol, saying that pentobarbital is "fast-acting" and that Missouri has used it to carry out 13 "rapid and painless" executions since November 2013. According to trial testimony, after the shooting Clayton went to a friend's house, took out a pistol and said, "Would you believe me if I told you that I shot a policeman. Would you believe me?" Clayton told his friend he needed him to provide an alibi, according to testimony. "Cecil Clayton shot a police officer, who had responded to a domestic dispute involving Clayton, point blank in the head, killing him, as the officer sat in his vehicle with his weapon holstered," Koster wrote in court documents submitted over the weekend. "Clayton asked a friend if he should shoot 2 other officers who came to the aid of the 1st ... but the friend said no, so Clayton did not shoot them." This year Missouri has executed 1 other inmate, Walter Storey, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Missouri officials have drawn criticism for executing 3 inmates before their final appeals had been exhausted. Herbert Smulls was executed last year before the U.S. Supreme Court issued its final decision on his application for a stay. The 2 prisoners executed before Smulls also had pending appeals, and 2 federal judges admonished the state for carrying out executions before the courts had fully vetted their cases. Clayton had been scheduled to be executed at 6 p.m. local time. The Supreme Court issued its decision around 8:30 p.m. Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen G. Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan were in favor of granting a stay of execution but were outvoted. Clayton becomes the 2nd condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Missouri and the 82nd overall since the state reumed capital punishment in 1989. Only Texas (522), Oklahoma (112), Virginia (110), and Florida (90 have executed more inmates since the death penalty was re-legalized in the US on July 2, 1976. Clayton becomes the 10th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 1404th overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977. (sources: Los Angeles Times & Rick Halperin) From rhalperi at smu.edu Tue Mar 17 22:17:20 2015 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Tue, 17 Mar 2015 22:17:20 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide Message-ID: March 17 PAKISTAN: Plea rejected: Saulat Mirza to be hanged The Chief Justice Nasirul Mulk on Tuesday rejected Saulat Mirza'a plea through which he had urged the Supreme Court to revisit its review about his death penalty. An Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) had awarded death sentence to Mirza in 1999 on charges of murdering the former managing director of Karachi Electric Supply Corporation, Shahid Hamid, along with his driver, Ashraf Brohi and guard, Akbar Khan, in July 1997, in DHA, Karachi. On Tuesday, the Chief Justice Nasirul Mulk resumed in his chamber the hearing of Mirza's plea who had urged the court to remove objection of the Registrar's office. The registrar's office had refused to entertain the plea on grounds that a review cannot be revisited. Sardar Latif Khosa, the counsel for Mirza, appeared before the Chief Justice and pleaded that his client may be allowed to file some additional evidence. The Chief Justice turned down the plea of Mirza on grounds that a review cannot be revisited in a matter twice. Mirza's death warrants have been issued for March 19 (today). PPI adds: The Sindh High Court on Tuesday threw out a petition seeking transfer of a convict, Saulat Mirza from Balochistan's Mach jail to Karachi. The SHC division bench directed the Balochistan's home secretary and IG police to ensure no hurdle is created in meeting of the convict with his family at the Machh Jail. The SHC bench had dismissed the appeal of the convict in 2000 whereas the apex court had also upheld the SHC ruling. The convict's mercy appeal had also been rejected by the president. The petitioner, Nighat, a sister of the death row convict, had moved the court seeking his transfer from Mach jail to Karachi Central Prison. The petitioner through her counsel submitted since the family members of Saulat were living at Karachi, hence they were unable to go to Balochistan to see the convict at Mach Jail. (source: Business Recorder) NIGERIA: '14-year old husband killer won't escape justice' The prosecution counsel, Lamido Abba Soron Dinki, canvassing death penalty for 14 years old child bride, Wasila Tasiu, who allegedly killed her husband and 3 others, via poisoning, has told a Kano High court, Gezawa that the suspect could not escape justice through back door. The position of the prosecuting counsel came on the heels of a no-case submission by the defence counsel, Hussaina Aliyu Ibrahim, who urged the court to acquit and discharge the accused person. According to him, the 14-year-old bride had been standing trial over the past 10 months, for allegedly killing her husband and 3 others, through the application of rat poison on a local delicacies she served her late husband. The prosecution lawyer informed the court not to evaluate his evidence, given the fact that the defence counsel was yet to begin his defence. While arguing over the issue, the state counsel noted that "the issue about the credibility of our witnesses does not even arise because the law said the testimony of our witnesses should only be treated on case value." Abba Soron Dinki cited Supreme Court judgement on Agbo versus the state in 2013 that "a no case submission should be determined within the narrow compass of the legally admissible evidence produced by the prosecution and as such should be based on a case value." He submitted that the no-case submission couldn't stand in the case under review, adding that such step would pave the way for the accused persons to escape justice through back door. The court has, however, reserved ruling for March 31, on whether Wasila Tasiu, has a case to answer under the law or not. The presiding Judge, Justice Muhammad Yahaya, in his ruling said, that "the court hereby fix March 31st for ruling on the application by the defence counsel on the no-case submission on behalf of Wasila Tasiu." (source: The Tribune) From rhalperi at smu.edu Wed Mar 18 10:49:26 2015 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Wed, 18 Mar 2015 10:49:26 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----PENN., S.C., GA., ALA. Message-ID: March 18 PENNSYLVANIA: Pushing the pause button on death penalty Governor Tom Wolf recently announced a moratorium on the use of the death penalty in Pennsylvania calling the practice "error prone, expensive and anything but infallible." Wolf plans to maintain the moratorium until a legislative study is completed. Wolf is not granting commutations of death sentences to the 186 prisoners currently sitting on death row. He is simply asking to study the process and to determine its cost and efficacy. Pennsylvania is 1 of 32 states which still imposes the death penalty. Pennsylvania has executed 3 individuals since 1976 and a total of 1,043 since the 17th century. But consider the bigger picture: The United States is only 1 of 37 nations that use capital punishment. All European countries have abolished this practice. With its retention of the death penalty, the United States is in the company of countries like Afghanistan, China, Iran, Iraq, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. Wolf is concerned about what he calls the "error-prone system." At least 150 people nationwide, have been exonerated from death row, including 6 men from Pennsylvania. It is unknown how many people have been wrongly executed in the United States over the years. A team of legal experts, led by law professor Samuel Gross, found that 4.1 % of death row prisoners are falsely convicted. A moratorium is not unprecedented. The Supreme Court instituted a 4-year moratorium on the death penalty in 1972 while the court determined how a degree of consistency could be applied to sentencing. States were required to examine their implementation of capital punishment to ensure it was not being administered in a capricious or discriminatory manner. Wolf is the 4th governor to institute a moratorium on executions in just the past 2 years. Governors of Colorado, Oregon and Washington have imposed moratoriums, citing similar concerns. The death penalty is not a proven form of deterrence. This can be illustrated by comparing state murder rates; per capita, states that impose the death penalty have consistently higher murder rates than those that do not. Perhaps its inconsistent application contributes to the lack of effectiveness. After all, not everyone who commits 1st-degree murder is sentenced to death. Many factors contribute to sentencing and fairness is not necessarily one of them. Studies show that the defendant's race, gender and income often have more influence than even the severity of the crime. Just as judging a black defendant harsher than a white defendant is wrong, valuing one victim over another is also wrong. Thus, the death penalty should never be used in an attempt to weigh the value of one life over another. The death penalty is costly; one study shows that seeking the death penalty can add an additional $1 million to prosecution costs. Another study found that cases applying the death penalty lasted 6 more days in court and took much longer to resolve than life without parole. There has been backlash to Wolf's moratorium. The Pennsylvania State Troopers Association is concerned that accused murderer Eric Frein, who took the life of 1 state trooper and critically injured another, will be spared a death sentence. The administration has confirmed that the moratorium would not prevent the jury from sentencing Frein to death. The Association is understandably distraught over these heinous acts, but would the death penalty, which obviously did not deter the crime, be simply perceived as retribution? District attorneys have also expressed anger over Wolf's decision. Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams has filed a lawsuit against the administration calling it a "lawless act." Although his lawsuit suggests an over-reach, it may have more to do with political firepower. The death penalty is an effective tool that prosecutors can use when defending their tough stance on crime to perspective voters. The death penalty is ineffective, inequitable, costly and inhumane. Wolf is not abolishing the process; he simply wants to study how the system is working. Pushing the pause button on a practice that has been abolished in the majority of nations is a reasonable action and should be praised. (source: Opinion; Nicole Faraguna is a founding member of the Susquehanna Valley Progressives----The Daily Item) SOUTH CAROLINA: SC lawmakers advance bill to shield execution-drug sellers The identities of drug companies that supply execution drugs to South Carolina would become secret under legislation approved Tuesday by a panel of state lawmakers. The legislation would add drug companies to the state's execution team and require their identities be kept secret, in the hope that providers will resume selling execution drugs to the state. The proposal also would exempt the companies from state health and purchasing rules. A Senate subcommittee voted for it unanimously. South Carolina has run out of 1 of its 3 lethal injection drugs, the anesthetic pentobarbital, and cannot find anyone willing to sell more. Corrections director Bryan Stirling has said that if their names were shielded from the public, as the names of individuals involved in carrying out executions already are, pharmaceutical companies might be willing to start selling the drugs again. State Sen. Paul Campbell, R-Berkeley, chairman of the subcommittee, said the measure was intended to protect the companies from protests and lawsuits but also would enable the state's prisons agency to complete its duty of performing executions. "It allows the Department of Corrections to carry out the verdict that was handed down by the court system," Campbell said. "Without this, they have a very difficult time carrying out those instructions." No one spoke in opposition to the bill, which will be considered by the full Senate Corrections and Penology Committee later this week. In an interview after Tuesday's meeting, Stirling said he was pleased the bill was moving forward and that, in the meantime, his agency continues its search for more pentobarbital. "We are actively trying to find a company that will sell us this drug for executions,'" Stirling said. The legislation was patterned after bills in other states that have run into problems obtaining execution drugs. Texas, the country's most active death penalty state, is working to find a supplier to replenish its dwindling inventory amid a pending court order that would no longer allow the state to protect the supplier's identity. Ohio is out of the 3 drugs it needs. In February, a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by 4 death row inmates there who challenged a similar shield law. Similar fights are ongoing in other death penalty states such as Oklahoma and Missouri. But courts - including the U.S. Supreme Court - have yet to halt an execution based on a state's refusal to reveal its drug supplier. (source: The State) GEORGIA: Deal: Effort to clear up Georgia's 'cloudy' lethal injection drug is on track There's no timetable yet for Georgia to resume executions, but Gov. Nathan Deal said efforts to clean up Georgia's death penalty drugs could soon be completed. He's referring to the state's decision to indefinitely postpone lethal injections after the chemicals that were to be used to execute Kelly Gissendaner for the 1997 murder of her husband were deemed to be "cloudy." The governor said Tuesday that prisons officials have taken "extreme efforts" to make sure the drugs work properly. "I am told they believe they are now on track to have a reliable source, one that will prevent the clouding of the drug, or any contamination or crystallization of the drug, which has also been a problem in the past," he said. "That's my only concern about it. That needs to be resolved, and hopefully they've found a way to do that." Gissendaner's attorneys contend the starts-and-stops that have led to repeated delays in her execution amount to "cruel and unusual punishment." Her case has also sparked a broader debate about a 2013 law that classifies Georgia's lethal injection protocol as "confidential state secrets." Death penalty critics have sought a reversal of the law, contending that the public deserves the right to know how executions are carried out. But Deal, who signed the proposal into law, cast it as an essential protection for the drugmakers supplying the chemicals and the doctors and nurses involved in the executions. "If I had the confidence that their would not be major groups boycotting these individuals and trying to do undue pressure on them, I would have not problem with that," he said. "But we know that's not the case. The reason we have the secrecy is to protect these individuals or companies who are, in effect, doing what the state has requested them to do." (source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution) ******************* Georgia prosecutors to seek death penalty in bus stop slaying Prosecutors say they will seek the death penalty for a man accused of gunning down a woman as she waited at a bus stop in metro Atlanta. WSB-TV reports that the DeKalb County District Attorney's Office will seek the punishment in the case against 18-year-old Christopher Merritt of Lithonia. DeKalb County police say Merritt shot and killed 19-year-old Marcaysia Dawkins on Nov. 23 while she waited for a Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority bus. Police have said video surveillance evidence helped identify Merritt as a suspect. (source: Associated Press) ********************** Can execution be halted? Though a variety of factors may be keeping Kelly Gissendaner alive, the local supporters who have waged a savvy media campaign on her behalf may be one of the most influential, drawing national attention. The execution of Gissendaner, the only woman on Georgia's death row, was delayed in late February because of a winter storm. A second try in early March was canceled when the drug that was to be used to kill her didn't look right. Her supporters are asking for a federal stay while state execution procedures are investigated. Gissendaner was convicted of the 1997 murder of her husband. She had persuaded her boyfriend to kill Douglas Gissendaner, and the boyfriend later testified against her. Since then, she has graduated from a theology program operated by a consortium of divinity schools in the Atlanta region and earned encomiums from guards, chaplains, and teachers alike as a powerful example of religious conversion. Her case has drawn attention not only from progressive death penalty opponents, but also from mainstream evangelical media outlets like Christianity Today and other believers with high media profiles. Using a multifaceted blend of digital outreach and old-fashioned local networking, her supporters turned a story that had already engaged many volunteers, both inside and outside Lee Arrandale State Prison, into a national clemency campaign. "Who knows why one thing gets social media attention and another doesn't?" asked Mark Oppenheimer, who described Gissendaner's relationship with famed German theologian Jurgen Moltmann in a New York Times column the same week the Georgia parole board denied her clemency. "She's a Christian in the South, and that goes far," Oppenheimer added. "It wins a lot of people's empathy and it's attractive to the media. It's easier to rally around a Christian than an atheist on death row." "We were really expecting clemency to go through," said activist Melissa Browning, who teaches contextual theology at Mercer University's McAfee School of Theology. But when that didn't happen - 2 requests for clemency have been denied at this point - Browning and others were prepared with a full-court press to save Gissendaner. Between her 2 scheduled execution dates, supporters had uploaded essays to the Huffington Post, launched a popular Twitter hashtag, and worked alongside the nonprofit Faith in Public Life to recruit 1,000 religious leaders to sign a clemency petition. Another petition, at www.groundswell-mvmt.org, attracted about 84,000 signatures in two days, Browning reports. Browning says that a number of conservative Georgia faith leaders and congregants (many of whom are death penalty supporters) have been advocating a life-without-parole sentence - on the condition that their names not be made public. Part of the reason the campaign became a national one, says Mercer professor David Gushee, was that Gissendaner put a face and narrative to what might have been an abstract story. "Any system in which they are locked away, and the general public never sees them again, human beings become invisible," he said. Now, many people know Gissendaner and her story. For Browning, who has about 700 Twitter followers, the days before Gissendaner's second execution date were an intense and fast education in creating social-media buzz. "It was a huge factor," she said, "because we did get information out and we got it out quickly." "Social media expands the circle of abolitionists," said Stephen Dear, executive director of People of Faith Against the Death Penalty. "More and more people become involved, engaged on the issue or by a case. Some may not stay involved, but some will." As Dear pointed out, the furor over Gissendaner takes place in a national environment in which death penalty cases have been on the decline. After posting an open letter to "Georgia's Christian citizens" on Baptist News Global, Gushee watched as his impassioned indictment against the death penalty, threaded with scriptural allusions, was shared hundreds of times on Twitter and thousands more on Facebook. "It certainly was a very loud campaign, and it would have been impossible for the decision-makers not to notice it," he said. Activists now wait to see if their pleas will make a difference, rippling beyond a state in which there are numerous ties among death penalty opponents across party lines. "To me, it's interesting how few clergy and theologians speak about the death penalty," Oppenheimer said, and "how strong a consensus there is among conservative evangelicals that it's acceptable. . . . The question is whether that will ever change." (source: Opinion, Elizabeth Evans; philly.com) ************************ Lawsuit filed in death penalty case After the postponement of 2 executions, lawyers for Kelly Renee Gissendaner, a woman from the Gwinnett County portion of Auburn who is on death row for her role in her husband???s 1997 murder, have filed a lawsuit against the Georgia Department of Corrections asking the federal district court to investigate the what went wrong with the drugs she was supposed to be injected with. Gissendaner, 47, was convicted in 1998 in Gwinnett County at the age of 30 for Douglas Gissendaner's death by stabbing and was sentenced to death, while her boyfriend, Gregory Owen, was sentenced to a life sentence in a plea exchange for carrying it out. He could eventually be paroled. Gissendaner was initially scheduled to die by lethal injection on Wednesday, Feb. 25. She was denied clemency at a hearing on Feb. 24, but due to an ice storm, her execution was postponed and reset for March 2. The Supreme Court, however, denied a stay of execution for in a 5-to-2 decision on March 2, but the execution was halted yet again, this time due to a problem with the lethal injection appearing "cloudy." According to the 47-page lawsuit, filed on Gissendaner's behalf, the attorneys are asking the court to produce a meaningful assessment of what went wrong with the lethal injection drugs; as well as to conduct a meaningful investigation into the events of March 2 and 3; and to "grant injunctive relief" preventing the defendants from proceeding with Gissendaner's execution until the court concludes that "their protocols and procedures are sufficient to protect her from similar and additional violations of her rights pursuant to the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments." The lawsuit specifically names Homer Bryson, commissioner of Georgia Department of Corrections; Bruce Chatman, warden of the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison; and unknown employees and agents as defendants. Attorneys for Gissendaner are Gerald W. King, Jr.; Susan C. Casey; and Lindsay N. Bennett. (source: Barrow Journal) ALABAMA: Drugmaker asks Alabama to return lethal injection drugs Illinois-based drug maker Akorn asked Alabama officials earlier this month to return any Akorn-made drugs the state may be planning to use in executions by lethal injection. "If your prisons have purchased Akorn products directly or indirectly for use in capital punishment we ask that you immediately return our products for a full refund," Akorn's general counsel Joseph Bonaccorsi wrote in a letter to the Alabama Department of Corrections on March 4. Akorn is a maker of midazolam, the drug Alabama has turned to in a years-long search for substances it can use to kill condemned inmates. Death penalty states have been scrambling in recent years to find execution drugs, due to drug shortages. Drug makers in Europe, where there's strong opposition to capital punishment, have for years refused to sell the drugs to prison systems in death-penalty states. Some American companies have followed suit. Alabama hasn't executed an inmate since 2013. State officials last year announced they didn't have the drugs on hand to perform an execution. In September, according to court documents, the state settled on a new 3-drug combination for executions: a dose of midazolam as an anesthetic, followed by rocuronium bromide as a muscle relaxer and potassium chloride to stop the heart. Less than a month after that new formula came to light a German company divested itself of $60 million of stock in Mylan, an American maker of rocuronium bromide. British activists claimed Mylan was a potential maker of Alabama's rocuronium bromide. Mylan didn't respond to reporters' questions about the issue at the time, but in an email to The Star on Tuesday, Mylan vice president of communications Nina Devlin said the drug is "not approved for, labeled for or marketed for use in lethal injections." Devlin said Mylan's rocuronium is made by a third party in India and distributed to wholesalers, and that the company doesn't sell directly to prisons and isn't aware of any use of its drugs in executions. State officials haven't commented on the sources of Alabama's lethal injection drugs. A bill that passed the Alabama House of Representatives last week would make secret the names of death penalty drug suppliers; supporters of the bill say they intend to protect drug makers from retribution by anti-death-penalty activists. The bill, which has yet to reach a vote in the Senate, would block the names of those drug makers even from discovery in court. Despite the lack of a current law making those names secret, corrections officials have denied requests by The Star and other newspapers for information on the sources of the state's execution drugs. Last month, however, Akorn's name emerged in court documents in the death penalty case of Thomas Arthur, an inmate whose scheduled Feb. 19 execution was stayed by a federal court. Lawyers for the Alabama attorney general's office included one of Akorn's manuals for use of midazolam in a court filing, twice referring to it as "the manufacturer's package insert" for the drug. After news of the court filing became public, Akorn - which had long remained silent on its policy on lethal injection - told The Star the company did not sell the drug directly to Alabama. The company also said it would not sell drugs to prison systems in capital punishment states, a measure intended to prevent their use in executions. Bonaccorsi, Akorn's lawyer, reiterated that stance in his March 4 letter to the Alabama Department of Corrections. "Akorn strongly objects to the use of its products in capital punishment," Bonaccorsi wrote. The letter warns that use of midazolam for lethal injection is "contrary to the FDA approved indications" for the drug and "may be in violation of the Controlled Substances act. Attempts to reach Akorn officials Tuesday for comment on the letter were not successful. Department of Corrections spokesman Bob Horton confirmed Tuesday that the department had received the letter, but had not yet responded to Akorn. "We have not responded to the letter, and we have not returned any drugs," Horton said. Asked if Akorn is the source of Alabama's midazolam, Horton said "we're still not able to discuss" the sources of execution drugs. "This appears to be a blanket letter sent to all the states with the death penalty," Horton said. The Wall Street Journal reported March 4 that Akorn was asking states for the return of their drugs. On the same day, The Star filed a public records request for letters from Akorn to Alabama officials. Corrections officials made the letter available Tuesday. (source: The Anniston Star) From rhalperi at smu.edu Wed Mar 18 10:50:23 2015 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Wed, 18 Mar 2015 10:50:23 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----MO., NEB., KAN., CALIF., USA Message-ID: March 18 MISSOURI: Missouri executes Cecil Clayton, state's oldest death-row inmate --- Inmate had appealed on grounds that he was diagnosed as severely mentally impaired The state of Missouri executed its oldest death row inmate on Tuesday - a man who was mentally impaired from a work accident that removed a large portion of his brain - after his final appeals failed at the US supreme court. The execution of Cecil Clayton, 74, was delayed for several hours, while the supreme court weighed appeals from Clayton's defense attorneys. Lawyers acting for Clayton, 74, had called on the nation's highest court to intervene and stay the execution. In a petition to the nine justices, they argued that it would be unconstitutional to execute the prisoner because under a series of rulings in recent years the supreme court has banned judicial killings of insane and intellectually disabled people. Clayton lost about a fifth of his frontal lobe in 1972 when a splinter from a log he was working on in a sawmill in Purdy, Missouri, dislodged and slammed into his skull. The damage has had a long-term impact on his character and behavior, with a succession of medical experts chronicling problems ranging from uncontrolled rage to hallucinations and depression. The frontal lobe has an important function in controlling impulse and emotion. In 1996 Clayton murdered a police officer, Christopher Castetter, who was called to a house where Clayton had broken in. There was no dispute about his guilt, though there was intense debate about whether he should have been protected from the gurney. Elizabeth Unger Carlyle, attorney for Cecil Clayton, said of the supreme court decision: Cecil Clayton had - literally - a hole in his head. Executing him without a hearing to determine his competency violated the constitution, Missouri law and basic human dignity. Mr Clayton was not a 'criminal before the sawmill accident that lodged part of his skull into his brain and required 20% of his frontal lobe to be removed. He was happily married, raising a family and working hard at his logging business. Medical experts who examined 74-year-old Mr. Clayton said he couldn't care for himself, tried but couldn't follow simple instructions, and was intellectually disabled with an IQ of 71. He suffered from severe mental illness and dementia related to his age and multiple brain injuries. The world will not be a safer place because Mr Clayton has been executed. In 2002 the US supreme court ruled in Atkins v Virginia that it was unconstitutional to put to death an intellectually disabled person (previously known as mental retardation) under the 8th amendment prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment. Last year that protection was strengthened in Hall v Florida which obligated states to consider several indicators of intellectual disability, not just an IQ cut-off score. (source: The Guardian) *********************** The execution of Cecil Clayton and the biology of blame In 1974, 2 months after having a portion of his brain removed due to an accident at the sawmill where worked, Cecil Clayton checked himself into a mental hospital, frightened by his suddenly uncontrollable temper. Previously, Clayton had been an intelligent, guitar-playing family man, relatives said. He abstained from alcohol, worked part time as a pastor and paid weekly visits to a local nursing home. But after the accident, which necessitated the removal of 20 % of his frontal lobe, everything changed. "He broke up with his wife, began drinking alcohol and became impatient, unable to work and more prone to violent outbursts," Clayton's brother Marvin testified at trial. In 1979, he visited William Clary, a doctor who examined him for extreme anxiety, depression and paranoia. "I can't get a hold of myself, I'm all tore up," Clayton told the doctor, according to court filings from his attorneys. Clayton's spiraling mental state and increasingly violent behavior came to a head in 1996, when he shot and killed Christopher Castetter, a sheriff's deputy responding to a domestic disturbance between Clayton and his girlfriend. Clayton was eventually convicted of murder, and executed via lethal injection in Bonne Terre, Mo., Tuesday night. His death brought to an end to nearly 2 decades of litigation during which it seemed that Clayton's brain, rather than the man himself, was on trial. "The effects of his 1972 accident left him blameless for the 1996 murder," read a petition filed by his defense, asking for a stay of execution from the U.S. Supreme Court. It was accompanied by an image of his brain scan, which shows a sizeable chunk of his brain missing from the right-hand side. Clayton's attorney, Elizabeth Unger Carlyle, reiterated the defense???s stance in a statement released shortly after he was executed: "Mr. Clayton was not a 'criminal' before the sawmill accident that lodged part of his skull into his brain and required 20 % of his frontal lobe to be removed," she said. In other words, Cecil Clayton wasn't responsible for the shooting of a police officer - not fully. Instead, attorneys claimed the root of the killing was in that missing piece of his frontal lobe. That argument - that a person's brain anatomy ought to change the way we assign guilt - has become an increasingly common one, according to Duke law professor Nita Farahany. "The more we understand about neuroscience we see that even subtle abnormalities can affect human behavior," she said in a phone interview. "People are using neuroscience to argue, 'It's not my bad character, it's my bad brain,'" she said. Farhany is a member of the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues and an expert in the growing field of neurolaw, which examines how brain science is and ought to used in the legal system. She monitors cases where neuroscientific data has been brought as evidence and found a marked upswing in the past few years. But as MRI scans and electroencephalogram recordings of brain activity are brought out of the examination room and into the courtroom, the focus of a trial shifts from assigning guilt to assessing mental and moral blame. "As we develop better technologies for probing the brain, we detect more problems, and link them more easily to aberrant behavior," neuroscientist David Eagleman wrote in an essay for the Atlantic. "... When a criminal stands in front of the jury's bench today, the legal system wants to know whether he is blameworthy. Was it his fault, or his biology's fault?" Neuroscience has revealed that humans have a lot less control over their actions than they like to think, Eagleman said. Brain injuries - particularly ones to the frontal lobe, like Clayton's - can radically reduce the ability to make decisions and check impulses. And though it didn't work for Clayton, that understanding has helped others avoid the death penalty in recent cases. In 2013, prison escapee and convicted murder John McCluskey was sentenced to life without parole rather than the death penalty after his defense presented MRI evidence showing significant abnormalities in his frontal lobe. The headline in Wired read "Did brain scans just save a convicted murderer from the death penalty?" 2 years earlier, a juror at the trial of a Florida man who stabbed his wife and step-daughter said brain scans convinced him not to vote for the death penalty. "It turned my decision all the way around," juror John Howard told the Miami Herald. Though there aren't enough of these cases for a large enough sample size for serious study, research has shown that scientific evidence about a hypothetical defendant's brain function is likely to limit a sentence's severity. A 2012 study in Science found that, on average, judges subtracted a year from an imaginary convict's sentence after being told he was genetically predisposed to violence. "Those who read about the biological mechanism subtracted a year, as if to say, 'This guy is really dangerous and scary, and we should treat him as such, but the biological evidence suggests that we can't hold him as responsible for the behavior," James Tabey, a co-author of the study, told the New York Times. Even though neuroscientific evidence has been shown to be increasingly compelling in recent years, Farahany isn't surprised that it wasn't helpful in Clayton's case. The more than 20-year gap between Clayton's accident and his crime weaken the argument that he was unable to control his behavior. And though Clayton's brain was clearly abnormal, there is not enough research to definitively say the missing part of his frontal lobe caused him to commit murder. "That piece is missing literally and figuratively," she said. " ... Once neuroscience gets to the point of causal explanations, in retrospect we might look back at it and say, 'Here's why he did what he did.'" It's an exciting - but also worrying - possibility for neurolaw researchers. On one hand, neuroscience may help judges figure out when treatment rather than imprisonment is the more helpful option for someone who, for biological reasons, can't control his or her behavior. On the other hand, neuroscience has increasingly shown that none of us can really control our behavior. "Saying, 'My brain made me do it' can be problematic because our brains make us do everything," Farahany said. "Your preferences, your desires, your will power - a lot of that you have no control over." Eagleman, in his essay, agrees. "The choices we make are inseparably yoked to our neural circuitry, and therefore we have no meaningful way to tease the 2 apart," he wrote. "The more we learn, the more the seemingly simple concept of blameworthiness becomes complicated, and the more the foundations of our legal system are strained." Then the inclusion of MRI and EEG scans as trial evidence is not just a scientific or legal question, Eagleman and Farahany believe, but a philosophical one. In a justice system predicated on the idea that people act with free will, what does it mean to recognize that so much of behavior is biological rather than rational? "Criminal law is going to have to grapple much more seriously with why people do what they do," Farahany said. (source: Washington Post) NEBRASKA: Death penalty costly in dollars and for victims' families It is very difficult and emotional to discuss the policies that are involved in matters relating to taking a person's life, whether they are addressing abortion or the death penalty. It is a lawmaker's duty to act with a great deal of thought and deliberation when coming to a decision on this topic. This is why I want to share with you where I stand on the death penalty and how I arrived at my position on this issue. Over the past few years, I have spoken with family, friends, clergy of various Christian denominations, constituents and people who have been affected by the death penalty. As a result of this process, I have come to the decision that I am against the death penalty. I have always been pro-life when it comes to the unborn and I believe that the State of Nebraska and its laws should be reflective of a pro-life culture. Though the people on death row are criminals, it should not be in the state's interest to end their lives, just as it should not be in the state's interest to end the life of an unborn child. Something that I found startling while researching this topic is the cost associated with the death penalty. Since 1976, when capital punishment was reinstated in the United States, Nebraska has spent an estimated $100 million on death penalty cases and has executed 3 people. This cost is so high because prosecution in death sentence cases costs $3 million, nearly 3 times as much as the cost of $1.1 million in prosecution for life without parole cases. As a fiscal conservative, I see this as your tax dollars being wasted. Not only is the death penalty expensive to the tax payers, it also yields no tangible result because our state has been unable to acquire the drugs necessary to perform an execution. This is why we have not carried out an execution in almost 2 decades. The death penalty is also unfair to the ones who are most traumatized by the murder, the victim???s family. On average, a death row inmate appeals their case 7.76 times. This forces the families to relive the case over and over, a process that takes decades and often ends without resolution. On the other hand, a life without parole sentence is only appealed an average of 1.64 times, giving the family a final sentencing outcome. For these reasons, I have signed onto LB268, a bill that seeks to change the death penalty to life without parole. I want to invite you to 2 town halls I will be having in the District on March 27. I will be having a coffee in Seward at the Civic Center located at 616 Bradford St., in the West Fire Place room that starts at 7:30 a.m. Later that day I will be having a lunch in York at Chance R located at 124 W 5th St., starting at noon. I look forward to talking with you about issues that are being discussed in the Unicameral. As always, I am honored by the faith that you, the voters of District 24, have placed in me. My door is open and I have made it a goal to be accessible to the constituents of our district. You may continue to follow me on Facebook at Kolterman For Legislature and on Twitter at @KoltermanforLegislature. My office in the State Capitol is Room 1115, which I share with my colleague Senator Bob Hilkemann from Omaha. Stop by anytime. My e-mail address is mkolterman at leg.ne.gov and the office phone number is 402-471-2756. Kenny Zoeller, my legislative aide, and Katie Quintero, my administrative aide, are always available to assist you with your needs. If I am not immediately available, please do not hesitate to work with them to address your concerns, thoughts, and needs. (source: Sen. Mark Kolterman, York News-Times) KANSAS: Advocates seek repeal of capital punishment Conservative Republican political figures and the president of a Benedictine College pro-life student group delved Tuesday into ramifications of Kansas law authorizing convicted killers to be sentenced to death. During a gathering on the 1st floor of the Capitol rotunda, voices of Bill Sutton, Anthony Brown and Laura Peredo were added to the complex, protracted debate about the stalled House bill repealing capital punishment in Kansas. These advocates also set the stage for Ray Krone and Ron Keine, who are intimately aware of life-or-death struggle occurring in states that embrace the ultimate penalty. They are among 150 people wrongfully convicted of murder, sentenced to die and later released from death row in the United States. "9 days from my execution, a police officer 4 states away was walking down the street," said Keine, who was convicted of murdering a University of New Mexico student in 1974. "He said he experienced a religious epiphany. He walked into the nearest church and he confessed to the crime I was on death row for." Krone, who works with Keine at the death-row survivor organization Witness to Innocence, spent 10 years in prison, including 2 years on death row, after being found guilty of killing a Phoenix bartender in 1991. He was freed when DNA evidence proved he wasn't responsible for the woman's death. The U.S. Air Force veteran had been working for the U.S. Postal Service when arrested. Seven months later, he was on trial for murder. "I had nothing to worry about, of course, because I was innocent," Krone said. "I was convicted by that jury. I was sentenced to death because I declined to show remorse. How do you show remorse for something you didn't do?" His admonition: "If they can do it to me, they can do it to anyone. Let your voices be heard." The 1st-person accounts were delivered at the invitation of the Kansas Coalition Against the Death Penalty, which is working to generate support for abolition of capital punishment. The pending legislation would replace the death penalty with life in prison without possibility of parole. It would not apply retroactively. In February, the coalition brought Catholic, Methodist, Lutheran, Mennonite and Episcopal church leaders to the Capitol to make the case state-sanctioned executions conflicted with God???s message of redemption and reconciliation. They also argued the death penalty didn't serve as a deterrent to crime and that prosecution of capital cases cost an estimated $395,000 each as opposed to $98,000 for a noncapital case. The death penalty was reinstated in Kansas in 1994, but the state hasn't executed anyone since 1965. Sutton, a Republican state representative from Gardner, picked up on these topics in remarks Tuesday. "I try to make sure every dollar spent by the Kansas taxpayer gets a return on that investment," Sutton said. "There are millions of dollars - millions of dollars - spent on death penalty trials and the appeals process. We don't have anything to show for it. There's exactly zero utility for the tax dollars spent." Brown, a former Republican House member from Eudora, said his service in the Legislature was tied to core principles that included a perspective on abortion that life started at conception. He believes state lawmakers need to respect all life created by God. "All life has the same value. Anything that interrupts that continuum of life is inherently wrong," he said. Peredo said many campus pro-life groups focused exclusively on abortion, but Ravens Respect Life at Benedictine College was committed to repeal of capital punishment and acknowledgment life extended from conception to death. Gov. Sam Brownback, an anti-abortion Republican who would hold the veto pen if the House and Senate passed a repeal bill, didn't participate in the rally. He did say in an interview prior to the event that anti-abortion activists had increasingly been drawn into the capital punishment conversation. "You hear it connected," Brownback said. "You hear it said more frequently now." (source: Capital Journal) CALIFORNIA----new death sentence Iftekhar Murtaza Gets Death for Attack on Indian American Family Iftekhar Murtaza, convicted of killing the father and sister of his ex-girlfriend in a fiery attack on the Indian American family's Southern California home, has been sentenced to death, reports AP. The OrangeCounty district attorney's office said 30-year-old Iftekhar Murtaza was sentenced March 3 in Santa Ana. He was convicted for the murders of 56-year-old Jay Dhanak and his 20-year-old daughter Karishma in 2007. Prosecutors say he killed the pair in a plot to reunite with his then-18-year-old ex-girlfriend Shayona Dhanak after she ended their relationship citing her Hindu family's opposition to her dating a Muslim. Authorities say Murtaza and a friend burned the family's Anaheim Hills home and kidnapped and killed Dhanak's father and sister, leaving their bodies in a park. A jury recommended Murtaza receive the death penalty. According to an earlier report in India-West, Murtaza was convicted in 2013 of the murders of the father and sister of his ex-girlfriend, and the attempted murder of her mother, in what prosecutors say was an ill-conceived attempt to reunite the couple. "We're very pleased with the verdicts," said prosecutor Howard Gundy at the time. Dhanak's mother Leela was stabbed and left for dead after the home was torched, but she survived. 2 of Murtaza's friends were convicted in the killings, and 1 of them was sentenced to life in prison. (source: indiawest.com) ******************** Robert Durst charged with 1st degree murder, may face death penalty Robert Durst, the son of New York City real estate tycoon Seymour Durst, has been charged with 1st degree murder of Susan Berman, and may even face death penalty. Durst first made news back in 1980's, when his wife, Kathie, disappeared, and again in the early 2000s when he was the subject of a multi-state manhunt but was released of murder, TMZ.com reported. Now, the L.A. County D.A. has charged Durst with 1st degree murder with special circumstances, as Berman, who had been a close friend of accused, was about to talk to NY investigators about the disappearance of his wife in 2000, but was found murdered in her house. HBO had released a documentary on the subject titled 'The Jinx,' which described Berman as a confidant of Durst and his mouthpiece, and the producers of the documentary are said to have helped authorities nab Durst. Prosecutors will decide later whether or not to seek the death penalty. (source: Business-Standard) ******************** Appeal seeks to overturn death sentence for child killer Duncan----Lawyers for Joseph Edward Duncan III, convicted of killing 10-year-old Anthony Martinez of Beaumont in 1997, work to overturn death sentences in 2005 murder of Idaho boy. The future of a condemned child-killer whom a now-retired Riverside County judge described as the most evil person he's ever met is now in the hands of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. Lawyers for Joseph Edward Duncan III, sentenced to life in prison in 2011 for the 1997 murder of 10-year-old Anthony Martinez of Beaumont, are trying to overturn a U.S. District Court judge's 2013 ruling that Duncan was mentally competent when he waived his right to appeal 3 death sentences imposed in Idaho for the 2005 kidnapping, rape and murder of a 9-year-old boy. Judges Susan Graber, Raymond Fisher and Milan Smith heard from them and Idaho federal prosecutors Tuesday in San Francisco; they could issue their ruling at any time. Duncan, 52, did not attend the hearing; he remains on death row in Terre Haute, Indiana. It could be the last major court procedure before federal authorities set an execution date: if the 9th Circuit sides with U.S. District Judge Edward Lodge's ruling, Duncan is out of options. That's welcome news in Riverside County, where a jury ruled nearly 6 years ago that Duncan was mentally competent. Veteran Superior Court Judge David B. Downing, who retired in 2013, sentenced him to 2 terms of life in prison after prosecutors agreed not to seek the death penalty because he'd already been condemned in the Idaho case. "The problem with the death penalty in California is it takes 30 years to carry out," Downing told The Press-Enterprise on Tuesday. "The federal death penalty is much faster." While Duncan's case here has long been resolved, Riverside officials still are involved in Idaho proceedings as witnesses. Many testified during a 7-week hearing in Boise 2 years ago, and Anthony's brother and mother testified during the 2008 capital trial. Duncan, who is among 62 people on federal death row, served as his own lawyer during that trial, though famed anti-death penalty lawyer Judy Clarke, now representing accused Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, sat by to assist at his request. But Duncan has since embraced legal representation: The Riverside County Public Defender's Office brokered his 2011 plea deal, and his lawyer during the retroactive mental competency hearing in Boise was Michael Burt, a noted anti-death penalty lawyer past whose clients include Lyle Menendez and Night Stalker Richard Ramirez. He's now represented by Joseph Schlesinger, chief of the death penalty appeals unit in the Federal Public Defender's Office in the Eastern District of California. Schlesinger told the 9th Circuit panel Tuesday that Lodge's 2013 ruling focused on Duncan's comptency in planning the crimes, interacting with jail guards and others instead of his state of mind when he waived his right to appeal. Schlesinger also has requested the 9th Circuit to allow Duncan to appeal even if they agree he was mentally competent, saying he was "clearly a disturbed individual" whose waiver was "very peculiar." "We don't have somebody who's clearly ready to accept their punishment," Schlesinger said. "We don't have somebody who wants to die, which makes this different from practically every other waiver in a death penalty case this court has ever had." But Idaho U.S. Attorney Wendy Olson noted that Duncan made a point of formally waiving his appeal instead of just not filing an appeal, and he told an FBI agent he did so because he knew his lawyers might file one without his permission. "The record is very clear that in November of 2008, this defendant did not wish to appeal," Olson said. Both attorneys spoke for just 20 minutes; judges also have detailed briefings from both sides to consider. Anthony's murder had gone unsolved until Duncan confessed after he was arrested at a Denny's in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, in July 2005, with 8-year-old Shasta Groene, 6 weeks after he kidnapped the girl and her brother Dylan. He had killed their mother, her boyfriend and her 13-year-old son. Dylan's remains were found at a remote campsite in the Lolo National Forest in Montana. Duncan told investigators he had an "epiphany" that stopped him from killing Shasta; that statement has been a focus of the mental competency proceedings. Though he has never been charged, Duncan also has confessed to killing two girls in Seattle in 1996, just after he was released from prison after raping a boy at gunpoint when he was 17. He was facing child molestation charges in Minnesota when he abandoned his apartment in Fargo, N.D, in May 2005, where he studied computer science at North Dakota State University, after completing a spreadsheet weighing out the consequences and benefits of embarking on a murderous rampage. Downing said the Idaho murders were the worst he's ever heard of, and he heard of many during his years on the bench. "He clearly is the evilist of the evil," Downing said. "If anybody deserves the death penalty, it's Duncan." (source: Press-Enterprise) USA: Poland wants US to rule out death penalty for Gitmo detainees Poland wants the United States to rule out the death penalty for 2 men who were tortured by the CIA in its territory before being transferred to Guantanamo Bay, according to a government letter released Tuesday. The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has condemned Poland for hosting secret CIA prisons, saying it knowingly abetted the unlawful imprisonment and torture of Guantanamo-bound detainees Abu Zubaydah, a Palestinian, and Saudi Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri in 2002-2003. "Given the decision in al-Nashiri vs Poland, the government has decided to ask the United States for diplomatic assurances in favour of the plaintiff," the Polish foreign ministry said in a letter addressed to the Warsaw-based Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights. "The government is also taking action to fulfil the obligations imposed (by the ECHR) on Polish officials in the two cases", the ministry added in the letter made public by the foundation. The ECHR warned in its ruling that al-Nashiri could be sentenced to death in the US and asked Poland to find a way to eliminate the risk of the penalty, which is banned in Europe except for Belarus. The trial of 49-year-old al-Nashiri, who allegedly led Al-Qaeda operations in the Gulf, could begin in September in the United States. A Council of Europe committee warned that al-Nashiri and Zubaydah -- 43 and allegedly Osama Bin Laden's right-hand man -- risk appearing before a military commission that could use evidence obtained under torture. Poland's former president Aleksander Kwasniewski acknowledged in December that the EU member hosted a secret CIA prison. (source: Agence France-Presse) *********************** Death-penalty expert joins defense for Benghazi attack suspect Abu Khattala Attorneys for Libyan terrorism suspect Ahmed Abu Khattala asked a federal court Tuesday for more time to review evidence after adding a death-penalty expert to the team. U.S. District Judge Christopher R. Cooper of the District agreed to postpone a scheduled Wednesday hearing to May 19, as both sides requested, to continue preparing for the trial of the suspected ringleader of the September 2012 attacks against U.S. outposts in Benghazi, Libya. Cooper's order continues a series of expected delays in the closely watched case, which presents federal prosecutors in the District with the rare but sought-after challenge of handling one of the country's most important terrorism trials and presents defense attorneys with the unusual prospect of a death-penalty case in the nation's capital. Abu Khattala was indicted in June for the Sept. 11, 2012, attacks that killed U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and 3 other Americans. U.S. Special Forces captured him in June during a raid in Libya. Abu Khattala pleaded not guilty in the fall to charges eligible for the death penalty, including murder, conspiracy and destroying a U.S. facility. The U.S. government has called Abu Khattala the commander of the Ubaydah Bin Jarrah militia, which sought to establish Islamic law in Libya. Prosecutors have turned over more than 17,000 pages of material, most of it classified, but expect to produce thousands more within the next week, Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael C. DiLorenzo wrote in a joint motion with Assistant Federal Public Defender Michelle Peterson. Meanwhile, Khattala's public defender team has added three attorneys since January who have had to obtain security clearances: Eric Leslie Lewis and Jeffrey D. Robinson of the Lewis Baach law firm, and New York-based death-penalty expert Richard Jasper. Federal law requires that capital defendants be appointed at least one experienced death-penalty lawyer. Since Congress reinstated the federal death penalty in 1988, only a handful of eligible cases have gone to trial in the District, and no D.C. jury has imposed a death sentence. As a result, federal defenders reached out to Jasper, who has represented 30 such clients , including 2 federal defendants, mafia boss Vincent Basciano and ex-postal worker Ronald Mallay, who was sentenced to life for racketeering and murder in the Eastern District of New York and elsewhere. Lewis's firm specializes in international investigations, with clients including Middle Eastern governments and Arabic-speaking Guantanamo detainees. Robinson, formerly with the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, has a background in civil rights, government affairs work and post-conviction capital defense. (source: Washington Post) **************** Columbine Shooting Survivor Is Potential Juror in Trial of Aurora Theater Shooter James Holmes When Juror #737 received his summons to report to jury duty in Colorado, he was overwhelmed with painful memories. Now in his early 30s, the juror had been a student at Columbine High School when Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris opened fire in 1999, killing 13 of his classmates and injuring 20 more. Among the victims: his prom date. The man was even more horrified when he was assigned to the jury pool of James Holmes, who is charged with the Aurora theater shooting that left 12 people dead and injured least 70 others. 'My knee jerk reaction was, 'I can't do this,' he said in court on Monday, according to CBS News. The juror says he had given the matter "tons of thought" and determined that he could be a more capable juror because he had experienced a mass shooting. The juror said that it took "a decade of therapy to get over the shooting," but that he would be able to be fair and impartial. The judge agreed, qualifying Juror #737 to move on to the final stage of jury selection. Holmes, who pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, faces the death penalty in the shooting. A final jury will be chosen in April. (source: The Denver Post) From rhalperi at smu.edu Wed Mar 18 10:51:08 2015 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Wed, 18 Mar 2015 10:51:08 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide Message-ID: March 18 ISRAEL: Almagor: Death Penalty for Terrorists as Part of Govt. Deal----The Almagor terror victims group called on Jewish Home and Yisrael Beytenu to demand a law for the death penalty for terrorists. With the election over, coalition negotiations are set to begin in earnest, and parties are laying down their conditions for joining the government that Binyamin Netanyahu will be looking to form. The Almagor terror victims group is calling on right-wing parties Jewish Home and Yisrael Beytenu to demand that the coalition support a law that would impose a death penalty for terrorists as a condition for their joining the coalition. Yossi Tzur, whose son Assaf was killed in a Haifa bus terror attack in 2003, said that party leaders Naftali Bennett and Avigdor Liberman, both of whom advocated for such a law during their campaigns, follow through and make passing a death penalty law part of their basic coalition conditions. "They must act to ensure that this promise not be swept away with yesterday's election propaganda," said Tzur. Almagor chairman Dr. Aryeh Bachrach, who lost his son Ohad in a 1995 attack in Wadi Qelt outside Jerusalem said that "many families of terror victims were encouraged by the proclamations of both these parties during the campaign that they would support such a law." "Bennet and Liberman must declare that they unconditionally demand that a death penalty law be passed as the 'price' for their joining the coalition," he added. (source: Israel National News) BANGLADESH: Subhan challenges his death penalty Jamaat-e-Islami leader Abdus Subhan today challenged the death penalty awarded to him by a war crimes tribunal for his crimes against humanity during the country's Liberation War in 1971. Subhan's counsel submitted an 89-page appeal with the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court around 12:30pm, seeking acquittal of all the charges brought against him. He also attached 1,182 pages of documents with his appeal mentioning 92 grounds on which the apex court may consider his prayer. Jamaat Nayeb-e-Ameer, Subhan, who led the anti-liberation elements in Pabna, was sentenced to death on 3 charges, imprisonment until death on 2 charges and 5 years' imprisonment on another by International Crimes Tribunal-2 on February 18. Supreme Court will later fix a date for hearing the appeal. (source: The Daily Star) SUDAN: Sudan pardons 5 rebel leaders convicted of death penalty Sudan's president Omer Al-Bashir has pardoned 5 rebel leaders convicted of death in the country, reports said on Tuesday.According to a presidential decree issued on Tuesday, 5 rebel leaders from the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), who belong to the faction which signed a peace agreement with Khartoum led by Bakheit Abdul-Karim Dabago, have been pardoned. The JEM prisoners were sentenced to death for participating in an attack on Sudan twin capital of Omdurman in 2008 before the split in the movement. The splinter faction signed a peace agreement with the Sudanese government within the framework of the Doha Document for Peace in Darfur in 2013 but the agreement did not see the light as a result of the assassination of its 1st leader Mohammed Bashar in battles with legacy JEM group led by Jibril Ibrahim. The movement then chose Dabago as its new chief after which it signed political and security understandings with the government and the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) which guaranteed the group a share in the government. It also embarked on security arrangements to accommodate JEM-Dabago soldiers in the regular government forces. (source: starafrica.com) INDONESIA: Bali Suitcase Murder Teenager Gives Birth ----- Heather Mack and her boyfriend are accused of murdering the girl's mother, whose body was found in a suitcase in Bali. A US teenager imprisoned in Bali on accusations of killing her mother has given birth to a baby girl. Heather Mack, a 19-year-old from the Chicago area, gave birth to the baby via caesarean section in an Indonesian hospital, said lawyer Anthony Scifo. The baby, whose name is Stella, is in good health. Mack could return to the jail as early as Thursday and care for her baby there, prison officials said. Mack and her boyfriend Tommy Schaefer could face the death penalty if found guilty of murdering Mack's mother, Sheila von Wiese-Mack, 62. The woman's battered body was found stuffed into a bloody suitcase outside a luxury hotel on the Indonesian island in August. Police in Indonesia said in September that Schaefer had confessed to killing Ms Wiese-Mack in an argument. Schaefer has been charged with premeditated murder and Mack is charged with assisting him. Mack denies the charges. She has sued in Cook County Court to get access to her trust fund to pay for her criminal defence in Bali. A judge has granted her $119,000 so far from the trust fund, and the next hearing on the matter is on Friday in Chicago. (source: sky.com) ************************* Killing father-in-law: Timorese loses appeal A Timorese field worker who stabbed his father-in-law to death for allegedly calling him a dog and pig yesterday lost his conviction for murder and death sentence. Kristianus Sawar, 40, was silent after the decision was handed down by Appeals Court judges Dato Balia Yusof Haji Wahi, Datuk Dr Hamid Sultan Abu Backer and Dr Badariah Sahamid, following arguments put forward by the prosecution and the defence. Rozainah Mohd Said, who was retained by the Indonesian Consulate as the counsel for Kristianus, had put forward the defence of sudden provocation. She urged the court to amend the charge to one of manslaughter, saying Kristianus was insulted by the victim, who had called him dog and pig. Deputy Public Prosecutor Mohd Mukhzany Fariz Mohd Mokhtar, in his rebuttal, said the defence of provocation was never raised during the prosecution's stage of the trial, but only brought up during the defence phase. In delivering the judgement, the court said there was no merit in the appeal, and hence dismissed. However, the sentence and conviction was affirmed. Kristianus was convicted and sentenced by the High Court in Tawau for the murder of Suis Gradus, whom he stabbed 7 times on July 20, 2011 at 5.30pm, at an unnumbered house in Ladang Pompous 2, Cenderawasih, in the district of Lahad Datu. The charge of murder on conviction as stated in Section 302 of the Penal Code is punishable with the death penalty. The facts of the case stated that the murder had taken place as the result of Kristianus' wife running over to her parents' house to seek refuge, claiming that she was being abused by her husband (Kristianus). Kristianus had showed up at the house on 5 separate days to ask his wife to return to their matrimonial home. (source: The Borneo Post) MALAYSIA: Apostasy under Kelantan's hudud carries the death penalty The hudud bill to be tabled by Parti Islam Se-Malaysia (PAS) before the Kelantan State Assembly prescribes the death penalty for the offence of apostasy, the Malay Mail Online reports today. The Syariah Criminal Code II 1993 classifies "intidah" and "riddah" as voluntary or deliberate pronouncements or utterances of words that violate a Muslim's creed, known has aqidah. These involve challenges to fundamental aspects of the Islamic faith of every Muslim, including Rukun Islam (Pillars of Islam), Rukun Iman (Pillars of Faith) and the distinction between halal and haram. According to the report, the enactment does not define what would constitute a violation of Rukun Islam or Rukun Iman. Under the proposed legislation, the immediate punishment for such an offence is imprisonment over a period to be determined by the Syariah Court "for the purpose of repentance." However, chillingly it goes on to say that if the offender fails to repent, the punishment may extend to execution. "Provided that when he repents whether the repentance is done before the death sentence is pronounced or after such pronouncement is carried out, he shall be free of the hudud sentence and his forfeited property shall be returned to him," the enactment says, as quoted by the report. A senior lawyer consulted by FMT suggests that the provisions were also against basic legal principles and also opens up the grave possibility of arbitrary exercises of the power by state authorities. "Firstly, what constitutes a violation of Rukun Islam and Rukun Iman appears not to be properly defined, leaving them open to interpretation," he suggests. "Secondly, the fact that the purpose of the punishment - even to the point of execution - is to secure repentance throws open the possibility of a citizen being coerced involuntarily into remaining in the faith," he adds. "It is a trite principle of law that admissions and confessions must be voluntarily given - they cannot be extracted by inducement, threat or promise." "Thirdly, and most importantly, it is a clear violation of the fundamental constitutional right of freedom of religion." The proposed introduction of the enactment by the PAS-led Kelantan State Government has brought two Pakatan Rakyat coalition parties into direct conflict with each other, with the Democratic Action Party (DAP) insisting that the implementation of hudud law was impractical in a multi-racial and multi-religious country and was against the Common Policy Framework agreed upon by the coalition. Political analysts suggest that one of the reasons why PAS is keen to table the bill was to paper over cracks appearing in its political stranglehold on Kelantan, where many Kelantanese are said to be dissatisfied with the State Government's recent performance especially in the wake of massive destruction caused by floods at the end of last year. PAS has long held sway in Kelantan, forming the State Government for 8 years between 1959 and 1977, and again for another 25 years since 1990. (source: Free Malaysia Today) INDIA: Double death penalty for triple murder A 32-year-old man who brutally killed a 26-year-old woman and her 2 little children last year will be hanged twice until death, the district mahila court ruled on Tuesday. Handing a double death penalty for the triple murder, mahila court judge M.P. Subramanian held that the accused, A. Senthil, was guilty of murdering M. Vatsala Devi and her sons - 6-year-old M. Mahilan and 11-month-old infant M. Pranith - on April 1 last year in Ganapathy. Vatsala Devi and Mahilan had suffered 21 stab injuries each and Pranith had been stabbed 12 times. The judge awarded a life term to the accused for the murder of Vatsala Devi and the double hanging for the murder of the 2 minor children. The prosecution said that Senthil, a former tenant of a house owned by Vatsala Devi???s husband Marudhamanickam in Ganapathy, had visited their house on April 1, 2014 around 11 am and collected a part of the advance money he had paid. He visited the house again at 5.30 pm, knowing that Marudhamanickam and his mother Govindammal were away. Senthil attempted to misbehave with Vatsala Devi and when she resisted, he stabbed her to death, the prosecution stated. He also removed a chain the victim was wearing. The woman's son Mahilan and her infant were also stabbed to death. The Saravanampatti police had arrested Senthil a day after the murder at Sulur and booked him under Sections 302 (murder) (3 times), 449 (house-trespass in order to commit offence punishable with death) and 404 (dishonest misappropriation of property possessed by deceased person at the time of his death) of the Indian Penal Code. Besides the double hanging, the judge awarded the life term for offences under Section 449 of IPC (house trespass in order to commit offence punishable with death) and 7 years' rigorous imprisonment for offence under Section 404. (dishonest misappropriation of property possessed by deceased person at the time of his or her killing) of the IPC. (source: Asian Age) PAKISTAN----executions 9 more murder convicts hanged across jails in Pakistan At least 9 murder convicts were hanged early Wednesday at different jails across Pakistan - the latest executions since the country resumed the death penalty for all capital crimes. The executions come a day after 12 death row prisoners were hanged Thursday, marking the largest number of executions in a single day since the moratorium on capital punishment was lifted in December. Death row prisoner Tahir Bashir was hanged in Lahore's Kot Lakhpat jail. Bashir had killed a man 15 years ago over a personal feud. Shaukat Ali and Mohammad Shabbir were hanged at the Adiyala jail in Rawalpindi. Their appeals had already been turned down by the higher courts and the president. Meanwhile, the execution orders of convicted murderer Qadeer Ahmed were stayed following a last-minute reprieve. 2 more death sentences - those of murder convicts Talib Hussain and Rab Nawaz - will be carried out at the Adiyala jail later tonight. Death row prisoner Asad Khan was hanged at the Attock District Jail. Khan was sentenced to death for committing 5 murders in 2 separate incidents. Ghulam Mohammad, sentenced to death for killing his brother-in-law in August 2000, was sent to the gallows along with convicted murderer Zakir Hussain at the District Jail Jhang. Murder convict Ahmed Nawaz was executed at the Central jail Mianwali. Nawaz was sentenced to death for killing a man in 1998 over a personal feud. Authorities at the district jail Faisalabad said 2 death row convicts were hanged till death at 5:30am. The prisoners, Shafaqat Ali and Mohammad Saeed, were convicted of killing two brothers in March 1998. A total of 48 people have so far been hanged since the government restarted executions in December. Reintroducing the death penalty was part of the government's move to step up its fight against militants and criminals after Taliban militants killed over 150 people - mostly children - at Peshawar's Army Public School on Dec 16. The death penalty moratorium, in force since 2008, was initially lifted only in terrorism cases. But the government extended the order earlier this month, directing provincial governments to proceed with hangings for all death row prisoners who had exhausted their appeals and clemency petitions. Rights groups estimate that Pakistan has over 8,000 prisoners on death row, a majority of whom have exhausted their appeals. (source: geo.tv) ********************** Govt ready to consider proof in 'juvenile's' conviction case Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said on Tuesday that the Interior Ministry is ready to consider proof in the case of Shafqat Hussain, who is said to have been convicted despite being a juvenile. In a statement on the floor of the House on the issue of convict Shafqat Hussain, he said for the past few months, social media has been abuzz with comments that a juvenile was sentenced to capital punishment in 2004 and that his punishment should be repealed. He said, "The issue has spread so much that I thought it appropriate to speak on this issue briefly, in the House. On my right side, a political party that rules Sindh has issued a formal statement on this issue 2 days ago. Another political party which is not present here today has also issued a formal statement. There are many other political leaders who have expressed views on this issue." "Everyone has right to express his views. Every political party has the right of expression. But let us keep politics aside on this important issue. This issue came before me as Interior Minister last year in December when it was almost decided that on a particular date the accused would be hanged. Till that time neither any representation was made before me nor was any record presented. But a group of civil society contacted me and as per the set procedure, and since some space was also available because the limited moratorium on death penalty that was lifted at that time and was only applicable to terrorism related cases, so I had the date for his capital punishment postponed." "Since then 2 months have passed. We are constantly in touch with the provincial government. I don't want to give details because then I would be blamed for political point scoring. "Since this incident is from Sindh so the capital punishment was awarded by Anti-Terrorism Court in Sindh in 2004. In 2006 the High Court maintained that punishment. The Supreme Court also upheld the sentence in 2007. And for the 1st time this case was put up before the Supreme Court that he was underage. The Supreme Court rejected this plea observing that this issue was not raised earlier," the minister added. Chaudhry Nisar said, "In the review petition, this was again rejected. And, I would like to bring to notice that this is not politics and I am bringing forth only the record. In 2012, during the previous government, the then president rejected his mercy appeal. And as far as I know I tried my utmost but no proof of birth could be brought before me." "I am not sure since it is not confirmed but I guess in the Mercy Appeal too, the concerned did not raise the issue of his being under age or being juvenile nor gave the relevant proof. In July 2012 after going through the entire process his capital punishment was maintained." Since there was moratorium on capital punishments and since our Government also continued that moratorium for some time so this issue remained there, he stated. The minister said, "in December when moratorium was partially lifted and he was sentenced for capital punishment so we exercising our authority, for 2 months or so, kept the orders pending." "And now when the entire moratorium has been lifted only then it has been decided that he would be hanged on 19th March. The date has been fixed according to the law and by the courts. I am constantly in touch with Sindh Government. I have held an inquiry into this matter. They say that inquiry has not been held. For the past 2 months inquiry was underway. I wish these people had awakened in 2004." "I appreciate that this might be a reaction but why was this issue not raised inside and outside of the court in 2004. Why was this issue not raised when appeal was made in the high court. Why was this issue not raised when this case went to Supreme Court in 2007. Why was this issue not raised when the mercy appeal was rejected by President Asif Ali Zardari," he added. (source: Daily Tinmes) ***************** EU urges Pakistan to reinstate moratorium on death penalty A spokesperson of the European Union (EU) said on Wednesday that the government of Pakistan should halt all executions as capital punishment violates international law and basic human rights. The spokesperson referred to the death penalty as an unjust and cruel punishment and said capital punishment should be eliminated globally. The government has executed 48 convicts since the moratorium on the death penalty was lifted following the horrific terrorist attacks on the Army Public School in Peshawar last year. The condemnation of the death penalty by the EU comes at a time when the government is set to hang underage convict, Shafqat Hussain on Mar 19, 2015. Hussain's case has triggered outrage from rights campaigners, who complain he did not get a fair trial and was only 15 at the time of the killing. The EU is only 1 of many international organisations urging the government to halt executions of convicts all over the country. Amnesty International and the Human Rights Watch have also called for a stop to the hangings. The EU had opposed the removal of the moratorium in December last year, and again expressed concerns during the First Pakistan-EU Local Human Rights Dialogue where the delegation met to discuss Pakistan's GSP Plus status. (source: Pakistan Today) ********************* Pakistan Should Re-Impose Moratorium on Death Penalty - Amnesty Int'l The Pakistani government must re-instate the moratorium on the death penalty following a series of mass executions on Tuesday, the Amnesty International's Deputy Asia Pacific Director said. The executions demonstrate horrific consequences of the decision made by the country's government in December 2014 to resume capital punishment, according to Griffiths. Earlier in the day, Pakistan executed 12 men convicted of crimes including murder and terrorism. "At this rate, Pakistan is turning itself into one of the world's top executioners - a shameful club no country should aspire to join. The government must immediately re-impose the moratorium on the death penalty with a view to its eventual abolition," Griffiths said in a statement posted on Amnesty International's website. Several juveniles are reported to have been among those executed, though the use of this type of punishment against minors is prohibited by international law. On December 17, 2014, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif lifted a death penalty moratorium that had been in existence for 6 years. The decision came a day after a deadly attack on a Peshawar school that killed over 150 people, mostly children. Last week, the Pakistani authorities declared that not only terrorism-related activities would be punished by death, but also other crimes. Since the moratorium on capital punishment was lifted 39 people have been executed, and another 8,000 people remain on death row. (source: sputniknews.com) From rhalperi at smu.edu Thu Mar 19 10:06:55 2015 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Thu, 19 Mar 2015 10:06:55 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, DEL., VA., N.C., S.C., FLA., ALA. Message-ID: March 19 TEXAS: Prosecutor accused of misconduct in disputed Texas execution case In a major turn in one of the country's most-noted death penalty cases, the State Bar of Texas has filed a formal accusation of misconduct against the county prosecutor who convicted Cameron Todd Willingham, a Texas man executed in 2004 for the arson murder of his 3 young daughters. Following a preliminary inquiry that began last summer, the bar this month filed a disciplinary petition in Navarro County District Court accusing the former prosecutor, John H. Jackson, of obstruction of justice, making false statements and concealing evidence favorable to Willingham's defense. "Before, during, and after the 1992 trial, [Jackson] knew of the existence of evidence that tended to negate the guilt of Willingham and failed to disclose that evidence to defense counsel," the bar investigators charged. The bar action was filed March 5 without any public announcement. It accuses Jackson of having intervened repeatedly to help a jailhouse informant, Johnny E. Webb, in return for his testimony that Willingham confessed the murders to him while they were both jailed in Corsicana, the Navarro County seat. Webb has since recanted that testimony. In a series of recent interviews, he told the Marshall Project that Jackson coerced him to lie, threatening a long prison term for a robbery to which Webb ultimately pleaded guilty, but promising to reduce his sentence if he testified against Willingham. Jackson has repeatedly denied that he made any pre-trial agreement with Webb in exchange for his testimony. The former prosecutor acknowledged that he and others made extraordinary efforts to help Webb, but said they were motivated only by concern for a witness who had been threatened by other prisoners because of his testimony. A lawyer for Jackson, Joseph E. Byrne, on Wednesday urged that people withhold judgment about the case until all the evidence was presented and took issue with the grievance filed against his client by the Innocence Project, a legal advocacy group. "I disagree with much of the information that was put together by the Innocence Project and do not find it to be objective," Byrne said. >From the time of the house fire that killed his children on Dec. 23, 1991, Willingham maintained his innocence. He said he awoke from a nap to find his home engulfed in smoke and flames, and that he could not locate the three toddlers before stumbling outside to seek help. Texas fire examiners concluded that the blaze was an arson, and Jackson later said it was "very likely" that Willingham had poured some accelerant on the floor in the shape of a pentagram, apparently as a symbol of Satanic worship. Willingham was executed on Feb. 17, 2004, after Gov. Rick Perry refused to grant a stay requested by Willingham's lawyers on the basis of a report by an independent arson expert who concluded there was no evidence the fire was intentionally set. Perry later called Willingham "a monster." Relatives and supporters of Willingham have long sought his vindication but have been frustrated by both the courts and the state government. The Innocence Project, which has investigated the case for a decade, sought a posthumous pardon for Willingham and to have his case re-heard by a court of inquiry. Both efforts were unsuccessful. In July, the group filed a grievance with the Texas bar accusing Jackson of conduct that "violated his professional, ethical and constitutional obligations" in his handling of the case. That complaint was the basis for the disciplinary petition filed on March 5. Told of the state bar's action, Willingham's stepmother, Eugenia, said, "John Jackson committed a crime, and I want him punished. If the appeals court had known the truth, Todd would probably be alive today." A staff attorney for the Innocence Project, Bryce Benjet, said the group was encouraged by the bar's disciplinary action. "Withholding exculpatory evidence and the presentation of false testimony in a death penalty case is quite possibly the most serious ethical breach for a lawyer you can imagine," he said. The disciplinary petition contends that "Jackson failed to make timely disclosure to the defense details for favorable treatment for Webb, an inmate, in exchange for Webb's testimony at trial for the State. "During a pre-trial hearing on July 24, 1992, (Jackson) told the trial court that he had no evidence favorable to Willingham," the complaint continues. "That statement was false." The Marshall Project disclosed earlier this month the existence of a letter sent by Webb to Jackson in 1996 asking Jackson to comply with what he called their "agreement" to reduce his judgment from aggravated robbery to robbery. Within a few weeks, Jackson obtained a court order that reduced the charge. The petition accuses Jackson of obtaining favorable treatment for Webb that included telling the Navarro County Clerk's Office to inform the Texas Department of Corrections that Webb was convicted of robbery instead of aggravated robbery even though Webb had pled guilty to aggravated robbery. In addition, Jackson obtained the court order in 1996 that officially changed the judgment to robbery and requested early parole for Webb with the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles. Jackson is accused of violating rules that prohibit making false statements to a judge as well as obstructing justice. The petition also accuses Jackson of concealing evidence that "a lawyer would reasonably believe has potential or actual evidentiary value." When early parole was denied, Jackson signed court orders for Webb so that he could be transferred from prison to the Navarro County jail. The petition accuses Jackson of violating several sections of the Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct and seeks that he "be disciplined as the facts shall warrant." Such discipline could range from no discipline to disbarment. Byrne, Jackson's lawyer, said last week that his client would ask to have a jury hear any accusations of misconduct against him, as state bar rules allow. Webb's testimony will likely be a key part of the state bar's case against Jackson, as well as letters between Webb and Charles Pearce, a now-deceased Corsicana rancher who funneled several thousand dollars to Webb after the Willingham trial. Webb has said the money was promised to him as part of his agreement with Jackson. No date for any hearing on the petition has been scheduled. (source: Washington Post) ****************** Texas state bar asks court to punish prosecutor for handling of 1992 death penalty arson case A prosecutor who handled the case of a Texas man executed for the fire deaths of his 3 daughters has been formally accused of misconduct over allegations that he concealed evidence during the 1992 murder trial. John Jackson was the lead prosecutor against Cameron Todd Willingham. He declined comment Wednesday on the accusations against him and referred questions to an attorney. The State Bar of Texas has asked a Navarro County court to discipline Jackson over his handling of the case that has become a flashpoint for death penalty opponents. A spokeswoman for the bar said the punishment could range from a reprimand to revoking his law license. Willingham maintained his innocence until being executed in 2004. The complaint was first reported by The Marshall Project, a nonprofit journalism group. (source: Associated Press) ********************* Lawyers are furious with Texas for suspending an effective death penalty defense attorney. Last week I wrote about the suspension of David Dow, one of the country's most prominent capital defense attorneys. He was benched for an entire year by Texas' Court of Criminal Appeals - the state's highest criminal appeals court - for allegedly filing a late petition in a death penalty case. The sanction was doubly bonkers, I argued, because other death penalty lawyers never seem to be sanctioned for sleeping, drinking, or otherwise rendering themselves incompetent at trial. In any event, Dow was barred from appearing before the CCA for 12 months. Which means that his death row clients - whom he represents pro bono, and who may not find other lawyers to do so - literally have their lives on the line because a motion may or may not have been filed a few hours late. Or, as 1 lawyer quipped after the piece was posted: "Apparently Texas finally found one lawyer to be incompetent: the one who is actually good at his job." On Wednesday an extraordinary petition was filed in the Texas Supreme Court by some 300 lawyers seeking a declaratory judgment or, in the alternative, a writ of mandamus, overturning Dow's suspension. The document is 263 pages long, of which many are signature pages. In effect, the petition asks Texas' Supreme Court to declare that the CCA exceeded its authority when it suspended Dow, or that the CCA exceeded its authority and violated Dow's constitutional rights when it suspended Dow absent fraudulent or dishonorable conduct or malpractice, and also failed to give Dow his due course and process of law. This is fancy Latin for asking the court to set aside the suspension. The gist of the petition has to do with the case Dow was handling on appeal. His supporters say that if the original trial counsel had done the things he was supposed to do at the original trial (like, say, put on mitigating evidence; explain to the jury that his client was mentally ill; call even a single witness at punishment phase), Dow would not have needed to step in at the last minute to try to stay the execution. In our topsy-turvy capital defense universe, Dow is being sanctioned for trying to (quickly and with an execution date looming) do what defense counsel should have done in the first place. Readers suggested that I had to be making things up. The petition contends that Dow filed within the timeframe mandated by the CCA's rules (which are ambiguous, because the rule says you have seven days to file, but an example laid out after the rule says you have 8 days), and notes the chilling effect this sanction will have on the rest of the capital defense bar: "The CCA's extraordinary construction of the rule, and decision that the penalty for the filing would be a one year suspension will undoubtedly cause other attorneys in Dow's position to decide not to file documents for inmates facing execution." The petition notes, simply, "As a result, people may die, some of them innocent, with valid claims their court appointed and publicly paid lawyers failed to develop out of fear of sanction by the CCA." The petition further argues that the Texas Supreme Court has the sole authority to regulate the practice of law, and that Dow was sanctioned in this extraordinary fashion without due process of law. Finally the petition argues that what the CCA did - in sanctioning Dow as severely as it did - was purely punitive: There is no question that Dow is a respected and effective advocated against the death penalty. He has appeared numerous times before the CCA and as mentioned, his criticism of its work has not always been kind. Yet, the ability to proffer and advocate differing opinions and for change is the essence of our judicial system. Lawyers are not only permitted to zealously and passionately represent their clients, but this is what the Bar strives towards. The fact that a court may find certain methods distasteful is of no consequence. Rather, only when an advocate crosses the line and acts fraudulently, dishonestly, or commits malpractice can he be punished for his actions. As detailed above, Dow's conduct did not reach such a threshold. I asked Laura Arnold, co-chair of the Laura and John Arnold Foundation and a former member of the national board of directors of the Innocence Project, about the new petition. She says the Texas Supreme Court, urged by literally hundreds of lawyers from across Texas, has the opportunity to do the right thing: "There is no question that the punishment imposed on David Dow by the TCCA was unprecedented, disproportionate and excessive. There is strong reason to believe that the magnitude of Dow's sanction was rooted in nothing more than sheer political retribution. The Texas Supreme Court, as the highest court in the state, has the opportunity - and, I would argue, the obligation - to right this wrong. Only then can we hope to restore credibility and fairness to our criminal appeals process." Casie Gotro, 1 of the 2 attorneys who authored the brief, puts it more succinctly: "Suspension for a late filing? If every court in Texas followed in the CCA's footsteps, I promise you there would quickly be a shortage of practicing lawyers. It is so disproportionate, it can only be personal." It doesn't happen often, but when I wrote about the Dow case last week, readers suggested that I had to be making things up because no court would possibly sideline a prominent lawyer for an entire year for narrowly missing a filing deadline. Except of course I wasn't making it up, it did happen, and 300 Texas lawyers are as astonished by that fact as the rest of us. Here???s hoping the Texas Supreme Court does the right thing. (source: slate.com) DELAWARE: Sen. Peterson: Top Dem blocking death penalty repeal State Sen. Karen Peterson said that the top House Democrat, Pete Schwartzkopf, a retired state trooper, is blocking efforts to repeal Delaware's death penalty. "This is supposed to be a democracy. The chamber should decide whether or not the bill comes to the floor," she said. "It's the equivalent of a desk drawer veto." "I can tell you that in the Senate if the majority members of our caucus wanted a bill out of committee, it would be out of committee," she said. "Leaders are supposed to facilitate, not dictate." Her comments came after a Wednesday press conference that announced the latest effort to repeal Delaware's death penalty. The proposed legislation, which is also supported by some Republican lawmakers, would repeal capital punishment, while adding an exception for 15 inmates currently on Delaware's death row, who would still face execution, according to a draft of the bill. The draft mirrors 2013 repeal legislation that cleared the Delaware Senate by an 11-10 vote before languishing in the House Judiciary Committee. Peterson, a Stanton Democrat, and Schwartzkopf, a Rehoboth Beach Democrat and speaker of the House, have long sparred over the legislation. Schwartzkopf said Wednesday evening said he has not blocked the bill now, or in the past. "They can say whatever they want, and when most people can't get something done in this building they tend to blame other people," he said. "The bottom line is this, I have not done anything to stop the bill." "I'm not stopping anyone from doing this," he added. "I don't agree with the bill. I was a cop for 25 years, I don't know why anyone thinks I would agree with the bill." Schwartzkopf has said that he would oppose any repeal legislation that did not include exemptions for those inmates convicted of killing members of law enforcement, including correctional officers. Not including those exemptions would endanger every correctional officer working in the state's prisons, he said. He added that he offered amendments to repeal legislation last year, but those requests "fell on deaf ears." He said that compromise is needed on the bill. Peterson, he said, is not willing to compromise. "This building is bigger than one bill," Schwartzkopf said. Delaware is one of 32 states in the United States that has the death penalty. It ranks 5th nationwide in the number of death sentences per capita, according to the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington, D.C. The state's death row houses 15 male inmates, with the most recent execution being in April 2012. Several of Delaware's neighboring states have considered or have taken action on the death penalty. Earlier this year, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf issued a moratorium on the death penalty until it could be reviewed more thoroughly. Maryland repealed its death penalty in 2013. (source: delawareonline.com) ********************* Delaware lawmakers revive effort to abolish death penalty Death penalty opponents in the General Assembly say they plan to reintroduce legislation to abolish capital punishment in Delaware. The legislation, which was discussed at a news conference Wednesday, mirrors a bill that passed the Senate in 2013 by only 1 vote before dying in a House committee. The legislation would remove execution as a possible punishment for 1st-degree murder, leaving life in prison without the possibility of parole as the only sentence for that crime. The 15 inmates currently on Delaware's death row would still be subject to execution. Attorney General Matt Denn said through a spokesman that he is not opposed to capital punishment in appropriate cases, but that state law should be changed to require a unanimous jury recommendation before a judge can impose a death sentence. (source: Associated Press) VIRGINIA: Shining a Light on VA's Death Row This week civic groups and nonprofits are taking a closer look at the importance of open government and freedom of information for Sunshine week. To that end, reporter Michael Pope is looking deeper into Virginia's death row. Sunshine is absent in the death chambers of Virginia, where the public has no access to basic information about how inmates are killed. Policies and procedures outlining the process are concealed from view. Training manuals are closely guarded. Even specific details about how executions are carried out are kept secret. "I'm not clear what there is to hide here." That's Delegate Scott Surovell, a Democrat from Fairfax County, who filed a lawsuit to force the Department of Corrections to hand over documents and information. "I just don't understand why killing a person -- why the processes and the drugs and the methods used to kill a person ought to be so secret. There's no really good public policy justification for it." Secretary of Public Safety Brian Moran says the need for transparency should be tempered by a need for security. "We want to ensure the safety of the individuals at corrections who perform this function, their identities, the procedures with respect to the details of how an execution is performed -- all of that has a legitimate public safety risk." Surovell is not interested in the names of those carrying out the executions, but he does question what kind of security risks would be created by sharing the policy manuals. "I've never really completely understood what the safety concern is." Moran says critics don't understand the safety concerns for a reason. "Well you wouldn't because we are not going to tell people what the security risks are. That's sort of the balancing that we are attempting to achieve." During the last General Assembly session, lawmakers considered a bill to keep the drugs used in lethal injection secret. That effort failed, playing out against a backdrop of a political debate about the merits of capital punishment. "There are many activists out there who think that capital punishment should be abolished." That's Senator Tommy Norment, a Republican from Williamsburg. He says opening up information about the drugs used in the process could give ammunition to critics of capital punishment. "It would further enhance potential arguments, spurious as they may be, that the specific mixture of that cocktail somehow constituted a cruel and unusual punishment." Even though legislation to shield information about the drugs failed in the General Assembly, Surovell says the process is still shrouded in secrecy. "There is no disclosure as to how the drugs are going to be administered, what process is going to be used, what type of person is going to be used, the qualifications and training and licensing of those people, which veins are going to be used to inject them." Details about the electric chair are just as secretive, leading Surovell to wonder how a death row inmate could possibly make a rational decision about which method of execution to choose. "I think these people deserve maximum information as to how they are going to be killed before they make that choice." Advocates for open government say the lack of transparency for documents outlining the death penalty shows a larger problem in the commonwealth. "Virginia has a reputation for having one of the weakest public access to documents and information laws out there." That's Bill Allison, senior fellow at the Sunlight Foundation. "In this day an age, when transparency is one of the metrics on which citizens judge their governments, Virginia should be doing a lot more to make information available." One judge in Fairfax County has already ruled that the Department of Corrections should turn over the information, although state leaders have managed to keep it secret as the case is appealed. The Virginia Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in April, and a decision is expected by June. (source: WVTF news) NORTH CAROLINA: Newlywed faces death sentence or life in prison for wife's slaying Shelton Van Lilly, 38, who faces an open count of murder after investigators say he shot and killed his wife Monday, may face the death penalty or life in prison. A sullen-looking Lilly faced District Court Judge Walter Mills for his 1st appearance Wednesday morning. Judge Mills explained that if convicted, Lilly's charge could lead to either capital punishment or life without parole. Lilly expressed his intention to consult a lawyer and said he understood the charges against him. Lilly is at the Craven County jail with no bond allowed. Judge Mills agreed for that to continue until his next court date scheduled for April 1. He is charged with felony premeditated murder, according to the warrant for his arrest. Lilly, of 805 Campbell Road, which was formerly known as Old Landfill Road, had been arguing with his newlywed wife, Jennifer Lilly, at their manufactured home southwest of Vanceboro before using a long gun to kill her, according to investigators with the Craven County Sheriff's Office. While 2 children may have witnessed the argument, they fled the home prior to the shooting, according to Sheriff???s Capt. Joseph Heckman. The young children - Jennifer Lilly's from a previous marriage = were home when the argument began. They are now with their biological father, according to District Attorney Scott Thomas. "The suspect fled in the woods after shooting his wife," Heckman said. The shooting occurred between 3:30 and 3:45 p.m. and resulted in a manhunt in which a Highway Patrol helicopter was called in to assist. Sheriff Jerry Monette said an off-duty deputy contacted Lilly by mobile phone and convinced him to surrender around an hour after the shooting. (source: New Bern Sun Journal) SOUTH CAROLINA: Death penalty opponents: SC should kill Senate bill An organization opposed to capital punishment wants to block legislation that would prevent disclosure of information about the manufacturers of lethal injection drugs. The bill is expected to come up for debate and a possible vote Thursday morning in a meeting of the full Senate Corrections and Penology Committee. Members of the South Carolina Death Penalty Resource and Defense Center are asking supporters to petition lawmakers considering S.553, a senate bill that won quick approval from a subcommittee Tuesday. Critics say the bill introduced by Senator Mike Fair (R-Greenville) would make information about the source of lethal injection drugs secret, even if targeted by a court order. The bill is designed to help the state obtain 1 or more of the 3 drugs used to carry out executions. A message released today by the anti-death penalty group says making the procurement process a complete secret, preventing even the legislature or governor from investigation "violates every standard of transparency and accountability." In February, Corrections Director Bryan Stirling said South Carolina has been unable to obtain pentobarbital, an anesthetic often used to euthanize animals and the 1st of the 3 drugs administered in the execution process. Many states have struggled finding supplies of lethal injection materials in the U.S. and had turned to foreign sources. But the British government and others banned such shipments. Hospira, the only American manufacturer of another widely used drug, sodium thiopental, stopped making it in 2011. South Carolina switched to pentobarbital after the supply of sodium thiopental ran out. The Palmetto State has executed 1 inmate in almost 6 years. (source: WIS TV news) FLORIDA: State would seek death penalty if father convicted of tossing daughter off bridge Prosecutors will seek the death penalty if John Jonchuck Jr. ultimately is convicted of killing his 5-year-old daughter, who police say was tossed off the Dick Misener Bridge. Last month Jonchuck was ruled mentally incompetent to stand trial by Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Court Judge Chris Helinger and ordered to a state hospital. Assistant state prosecutors said they believe his competency can be restored with treatment. Jonchuck is charged with 1st-degree murder in the death of his daughter, Phoebe. Police say he threw his daughter over the 60-foot bridge approaching the Sunshine Skyway on Jan. 8, an incident witnessed by a St. Petersburg Police officer on his way home from work after midnight. After his arrest, Jonchuck was evaluated by court-appointed doctors and found by 2 to be mentally incompetent to stand trial. Jonchuck has a history of mental health issues that are expected to play a role in the case. A report released by a state task force in February determined the people and agencies meant to help children in need failed Phoebe nearly every step of the way before her death. The intent to seek the death penalty was filed March 4. According to online records, a status check on Jonchuck???s competency is set for Sept. 8. (source: tbo.com) ALABAMA: Courtney Lockhart is an Iraqi war veteran now on Alabama's death row, but he shouldn't be. The jury that heard the prosecutor's request for his execution voted unanimously against it, opting instead for life imprisonment after hearing evidence of Lockhart's brutal tour of duty in Iraq. Lockhart served 16 months in Ramadi, Iraq - the deadliest part of Iraq - where he was attacked with a mortar strike and witnessed far too many friends and comrades die. Once home, he struggled with PTSD, hiding under his bed or in a closet and then living out of his car. His life spiraled into one of isolation and despair, and in 2008 he tragically shot and killed a college student. The jury voted unanimously to sentence Lockhart to life, based on his military service and PTSD. Yet Lockhart faces execution for the simple reason that his case was tried in the state of Alabama. Alabama is 1 of only 3 states that allow judges to override - literally veto - the decisions of juries in capital cases, and the only state to do so in practice. Serving on a jury in a capital case is hard work. Jurors have to miss work, be separated from their families for extended periods of time, and ultimately decide the fate of another human being. But in Alabama, the product of this expensive and difficult emotional journey is only advisory. The judge, who faces re-election, can - and in Alabama often does - substitute his or her judgment for the jury's. Delaware and Florida have judicial override on the books, but it is largely a relic of the past. Judges in Alabama, on the other hand, have overridden over 100 life verdicts by juries to impose death. At least 10 people have been executed by Alabama after a judge overrode the jury's verdict of life. This practice is not just wasteful and dismissive of jurors' time. It is actually unconstitutional. Override of a jury's determination violates the defendant's right under the Sixth Amendment to have a jury, not a judge, make factual findings in a criminal case. It also violates the defendant's right under the Eighth Amendment's prohibition against arbitrary punishments. The rest of the country has effectively abandoned override - recognizing that is it not an appropriate method of imposing the most serious sanction ever dispensed under the law. Alabama's outlier practice runs afoul of the nation's evolving standards of decency in direct contravention of the Eighth Amendment. 2 years ago the Supreme Court declined to hear a challenge to Alabama's outlier practice in Woodward v. Alabama, over the sharp objections of Justices Sotomayor and Breyer. As Justice Sotomayor explained, she thought the court should hear the case because of "deep concerns about whether [the practice] of override offends the Sixth and Eighth Amendments." Courtney Lockhart and another Alabama death row inmate, Christie Scott, have now asked the Supreme Court to look at Alabama's unreliable and unfair override practice, in a request that could be decided as early as this week. The court should take this opportunity to bring Alabama in line with the rest of the country, and the Constitution. (source: ACLU) **************** Fried Felons: Alabama Death Penalty May Return To Electrocution Imagine, if you can, being strapped into a wooden contraption designed to send powerful electrical currents through your body, causing your veins to explode, your organs to melt and your feeble, broken frame to seize and shake uncontrollably ... and then you die, your head still smoking from the electrodes hooked to the bald spot shaved into it, your limbs still trembling, mouth still frothing, the stench of burnt flesh permeating everything around you. Apparently, to the so-called "pro-life" conservatives in Alabama's House of Representatives, this scenario doesn't sound too bad. In fact, it sounds fantastic. One can only surmise this from the recent vote in the House to bring back the "Yellow Mama," the brilliant name given to the medieval torture device locked in a basement at Holman Prison, as a means of execution when lethal injection drugs can't be obtained. It shouldn't surprise any readers to know that I am staunchly opposed to the death penalty - it seems to stand in direct conflict to the old adage my mother taught me that "2 wrongs don't make a right." However, here in the South murdering murderers is something we take great pride in. In fact, I would wager that we could get a better turnout for a public hanging or stoning than we can for midterm elections. Anytime I have the discussion about the immorality and cruelty of the death penalty, I'm met with the same explanations and excuses: --"It saves tax money." --"It's better than having to feed them." --"If you kill somebody, you deserve to die." Past that, I've heard no moral reasoning as to why it's okay to kill someone, so arguing these points is not very difficult for a modestly enlightened mind. To the 1st and 2nd points, if we were really interested in saving money on our overcrowded prison system we would institute real prison reform - by discontinuing the incarceration of non-violent offenders, the number of prisoners in our system would drop dramatically and, as a result, save the state millions of dollars. We could also do away with "mandatory minimums," which can have a 20-year-old pothead in prison for more years than a convicted rapist or murderer. To the 3rd point, this mostly falls from the foolish lips of people too hypnotized by right-wing theology to think about what they are saying. For one, you don't rectify a crime by committing the same crime, particularly knowing that we regularly execute innocent people in this country. Further, where do humans get the audacity to think that we have dominion over another person's soul and can decide when, why and how they die? Arrogance, hate and ignorance - the same traits which make people hate social programs to help the poor or feed the hungry. Compassion is not something Alabamians are very good at, and it shows in the majority of our backwards policies concerning our most disenfranchised and desperate citizens. While our most savage offenders may certainly be unfit to mingle among the public, a concerted effort on the part of our lawmakers to make them productive, educated and content prisoners would be much better than turning them into bacon. (source: Adam Powell, mintpress.com) From rhalperi at smu.edu Thu Mar 19 10:08:33 2015 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Thu, 19 Mar 2015 10:08:33 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----ILL., WYO., UTAH, ARIZ., USA Message-ID: March 19 ILLINOIS: Don't bring back death penalty to Illinois We admire Rep. John Cabello, R-Machesney Park, who in just three years as a legislator has proved to be a hard worker and a quick study. Nevertheless, we respectfully disagree with Cabello's proposal, House Bill 4059, that would restore the death penalty in Illinois. With support for capital punishment eroding in the aftermath of botched executions - and with the U.S. Supreme Court scheduled to hear oral arguments next month in a case that challenges the most widely used lethal injection protocol - it seems an odd time to consider its return. The most compelling argument against, of course, rests on the alarming number of wrongful convictions that have sent to death row individuals later found to be innocent. Wrongful convictions, in fact, were what prompted Gov. George Ryan to impose a moratorium on executions in 2000 after a parade of men were freed from death row. Three years later, just before leaving office, Ryan cleared death row, sparing 167 people from execution. Most of their sentences were commuted, although a few received pardons. Finally, in March 2011, Gov. Pat Quinn signed a bill abolishing capital punishment in the state. To the best of our knowledge, Illinois never executed an innocent man. But it has happened elsewhere. In 2004, Texas executed Cameron Todd Willingham for the arson deaths of his 3 children. Months after Willingham's death, a nationally respected fire investigator concluded that the fire in which his children had died was not arson. More recently, a South Carolina judge threw out the conviction of George Shinney, a black 12-year-old who was put to death in the state's electric chair in 1944 for the murder of 2 white girls. There are other examples. That's not to say murderers should get a pass. Hardly. But the problem with the death penalty is that you can't take it back. Better to throw the worst evildoers in prison for the rest of their lives. And this month, four diverse Catholic publications - America magazine, National Catholic Reporter, National Catholic Register and Our Sunday Visitor - published a joint editorial with a single message: "Capital punishment must end." We agree, and we trust that a majority of Illinois legislators do, too. (source: Effingham Daily News) WYOMING: Death row inmate's federal appeal blocks state resentencing hearing A new round of federal appeals from a Wyoming inmate convicted of killing a Montana woman will block at least for now a new sentencing hearing on whether the inmate should receive the death penalty. Lawyers for inmate Dale Wayne Eaton this week filed an appeal of decisions by U.S. District Judge Alan B. Johnson. Johnson in November overturned Eaton's original death sentence, ruling he didn't get an adequate defense at his state trial. The judge said prosecutors could ask another jury to sentence him to death or send Eaton to prison for life without parole. Eaton's lawyers are appealing Johnson's ruling to an appeals court in Denver. Eaton was convicted in 2004 of murdering 18-year-old Lisa Marie Kimmell of Billings, Montana. Eaton's lawyers don't dispute he killed her. (source: Associated Press) UTAH: Former death row inmate convicted for 2nd time in 30-year-old killing A former death row inmate was convicted Wednesday for the 2nd time in a 30-year-old aggravated murder case after the Utah Supreme Court allowed him to withdraw his initial guilty plea. Lawyers for 57-year-old defendant Douglas Lovell didn't argue during the 2-day trial that he was innocent and instead focused on trying to keep Lovell from returning to death row when he is resentenced. The Ogden jury of 9 men and 3 women deliberated for about 90 minutes before convicting Lowell. The sentencing phase of the trial is expected to begin Friday. The last time a death sentence was imposed in Utah was in 2008. Prosecutors say Lovell stalked victim Joyce Yost to her driveway and raped her in 1985, then spent four months plotting to kill her to prevent her from testifying against him. Lovell broke into her home with a knife after his plans to hire a hit man fell through, Weber County Deputy Attorney Gary Heward said. Lovell ignored her begging, drugged her and drove her to Ogden Canyon, where he strangled her, stomped on her neck and buried her in leaves, Heward said. Even though Yost was missing, prosecutors still convicted Lovell of the rape by using Yost's testimony from a preliminary hearing. Lovell was serving 15 years to life when prosecutors say he twice acknowledged his role in the killing in recorded prison conversations with his estranged wife, who was secretly working with police. "When you put it all together the evidence is overwhelming," Heward said during his closing argument in the current case. Lovell had pleaded guilty in 1993 to avoid the death penalty, but a judge imposed it anyway after Lovell couldn't fulfill a condition of the plea deal to help investigators find the body of Yost. He cooperated, but the body was never located. He was sentenced then to die by lethal injection and sent to death row. The Utah Supreme Court allowed him to withdraw his guilty plea in 2010, ruling Lovell wasn't informed of his right to a presumption of innocence and a public trial. He was removed from death row. Lovell appeared Wednesday in court in a dark blue suit and had little visible reaction to the verdict. "What Doug Lovell did in 1985 is absolutely horrible. There's no excuse for it," defense attorney Michael Bouwhuis told the jury. However, he asked the panel to wait for more information during sentencing to make a decision on whether Lovell should be put to death. (source: Associated Press) ARIZONA: Arizona woman won't be tried again in son's killing An Arizona woman who sat on death row for more than 2 decades will not be tried again, meaning her case is closer to being permanently dismissed. The Arizona Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that Debra Milke cannot be tried again for murder because of double jeopardy. Milke was convicted of killing her song Christopher in 1989. That conviction was thrown out two years ago because prosecutors didn't disclose a history of misconduct by the case's investigator. In a statement today, Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery said it was a "...dark day for Arizona's criminal justice system." He went on to say the state supreme court has deprived victims, in particular Christopher Milke of their rights to a fair trial. Meanwhile, a Tucson attorney says Milke never got a fair trial. "It's a really sad and a travesty that she had to spend literally decades in jail on a case that was tainted due to prosecutorial misconduct," said Michael Piccerata. Piccerata has followed Milke's case over the years. When he was initially on trial, one key piece of evidence was unrecorded statements Milke made to a police officer. Turns out that police officer had a history of being untruthful, something Piccerata says the jury did know. The prosecution withheld that piece of evidence, Piccerata said, and if the jury had known the officer's past the outcome may have been different. While Tuesday's ruling is a win for Milke, Piccerata says it's an example of why the death penalty should be abolished. "Without more safeguards and without abolishment, people like this in a different time and without diligent lawyers which she finally had - there could have been a different outcome," Milke said. Milke filed a lawsuit last Friday against the city of Phoenix, Maricopa County and others because she says she didn't get a fair trial. (source: KGUN TV news) USA: Back to Firing Squads? Thank Death-Penalty Foes For a nation that almost never puts murderers to death - there were 14,196 homicides in 2013, but only 39 executions - Americans spend an awful lot of time debating whether and how to do it. The Utah legislature last week passed a bill reinstating the firing squad to execute death row inmates, as a back-up in case lethal-injection drugs aren't available. It was in Utah five years ago that the last death by firing squad in the United States took place, when Ronnie Lee Gardner paid with his life for the courthouse murder of attorney Michael Burdell in 1985. Utah's governor hasn't said yet if he will sign the bill into law - but his isn't the only state grappling with the question of how capital punishment should be carried out. In Wyoming, a proposal to restore the firing squad won initial approval earlier this year, though the state's legislative session expired before the law could be finalized. The Alabama House voted last week torevive the electric chair if lethal injection becomes untenable; in 2014, Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam signed a comparable measure passed overwhelmingly by lawmakers in Nashville. And in Oklahoma, the House and Senate have approved a return to the gas chamber, using inert nitrogen gas to induce death painlessly. This quest for substitutes to lethal injection is the result of a determined campaign by death-penalty opponents to keep pharmaceutical companies from selling the drugs used in executions to state prison systems. But it's one thing, it turns out, to impede the use of a specific method of executing murderers - even a method that had widely been regarded as the most humane alternative to electrocution or hanging. It's something quite different, something much more difficult, to overturn the longstanding American consensus that in the most terrible cases of murder, killers should pay with their lives. Until a few years ago, lethal injection had gained broad acceptance as the safest, least brutal means of putting a murderer to death. Of the 1,403 executions carried out in the United States since 1976, more than 85 % were by this method. The standard injection protocol used sodium thiopental or pentobarbital, powerful barbiturates frequently used to put down suffering animals and in cases of assisted suicide. But the last American manufacturer of the drug halted production in 2011, and a European embargo on exporting the needed drugs for use in executions made it impossible to get the drugs from overseas. Some states, forced to improvise as their inventory dwindled, turned to unnamed compounding pharmacies, or they formulated new and largely untested lethal-injection protocols. In some instances, such as the bungled execution of Oklahoma murderer-rapist Clayton Lockett last year, the results have been gruesome and disturbing. Perversely, death-penalty foes have succeeded only in making lethal injections less safe. "In pushing for outright abolition of capital punishment, we have undermined the countervailing effort to make it as clean and painless as possible," acknowledged Boer Deng and Dahlia Lithwick in an essay in Slate shortly after the Lockett fiasco. The upshot: "What was, until pretty recently, a fairly standard national method of lethal injection has been driven underground and into the dark by efforts in both the United States and Europe to end capital punishment altogether." If anything, the prospects for lethal injection are even dimmer now. Ohio has postponed all executions for the rest of the year, in order to give authorities time to find new drugs. Pennsylvania and South Carolina have depleted their supplies of pentobarbital, the primary lethal-injection drug. Even Texas, the state with the most experience in administering the death penalty, is about to run dry. But while lethal injection may become unworkable, strong support for the death penalty endures. Behind the legislation in Utah, Tennessee, Oklahoma and other states to authorize other execution methods as alternatives to lethal injection is not a primitive hankering to kill, but a civilized commitment to justice. However unfashionable it may be in some precincts to say so, most Americans intuitively understand that the death penalty is not only lawful but enlightened. Everyone knows that few murderers will ever face execution. But that no murderer should ever face execution? That would be intolerable. Society's attitude toward evil is revealed in how it penalizes those who commit evil. For greater crime there must be greater punishment; with the very worst punishment, death, reserved for the very worst crime: cruel and premeditated murder. There are some offenses so monstrous that those who perpetrate them forfeit their right to live. Justice requires a death penalty, even if we must debate how best to carry it out. (source: townhall.com) *********************** Faith of Jeb Bush: Aligned with Catholic hierarchy on most issues, but not on death penalty He arrived a few minutes early - no entourage, just his wife and daughter - and, sweating through a polo shirt in the hot morning sun, settled quietly into the 14th row at the Church of the Little Flower. A bit of a murmur, and the occasional "Morning, Governor," passed through the Spanish Renaissance-style church, with its manicured grounds and towering palms, as worshipers recognized their most famous neighbor, Jeb Bush. He held hands with the other worshipers during the Lord's Prayer, sang along to "I Am the Bread of Life" and knelt after receiving communion. "It gives me a serenity, and allows me to think clearer," Mr. Bush said as he exited the tile-roof church here on a recent Sunday, exchanging greetings and, with the ease of a longtime politician, acquiescing to the occasional photo. "It's made me a better person." 20 years after Mr. Bush converted to Catholicism, the religion of his wife, following a difficult and unsuccessful political campaign that had put a strain on his marriage, his faith has become a central element of the way he shapes his life and frames his views on public policy. And now, as he explores a bid for the presidency, his religion has become a focal point of early appeals to evangelical activists, who are particularly important in a Republican primary that is often dominated by religious voters. Holy ghosts have haunted some newspaper profiles of George W. Bush's younger brother, including an in-depth Tampa Bay Times piece back in January: The Times story mixes fresh reporting - including the scene at Bush's church and emailed responses to questions by the former governor ??? with excellent research on what Bush has said in the past about his religion: Many of his priorities during his 2 terms as governor of Florida aligned with those of the Catholic Church - including his extraordinary, and unsuccessful, effort to force a hospital to keep Terri Schiavo on life support, as well as less well-known, and also unsuccessful, efforts to appoint a guardian for the fetus of a developmentally disabled rape victim and to prevent a 13-year-old girl from having an abortion. He even, during his first year in office in 1999, signed a law creating a "Choose Life" license plate. He differed from his church, significantly and openly, over capital punishment; the state executed 21 prisoners on his watch, the most under any Florida governor since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. But he has won praise from Catholic officials for his welcoming tone toward immigrants and his relatively centrist positions on education - 2 issues in which he is at odds with the right wing of his party. "As a public leader, one's faith should guide you," Mr. Bush said in Italy in 2009, explaining his attitude about the relationship between religion and politics at a conference associated with Communion and Liberation, a conservative Catholic lay movement. Along with Bush's own words, the newspaper provides insight from Catholic clergy familiar with him ??? from the priest who officiated at his wedding to Florida bishops who recall his time as governor: The bishops who led Florida's 7 Catholic dioceses met annually with Mr. Bush, often opening their gatherings with prayer. Each year, the bishops would try to convince Mr. Bush that the death penalty should be ended in Florida, and each year they failed. "Anybody could see he was a devout Catholic - he was new to the Catholic faith and took his faith seriously," said Bishop John H. Ricard, who oversaw the Pensacola-Tallahassee Diocese when Mr. Bush was governor. "He approached the whole thing, especially the death penalty, with seriousness and respect, but we just agreed we would disagree. We were firm in our position, but I think he was sincere about his." But there is one significant journalism hole here. I wish that the Times had made clearer that the church hierarchy views the death penalty differently than, say, abortion or euthanasia. As I understand it, there are 2 levels of church doctrine and authority here. While recent popes have stated their opposition to the death penalty, as practiced in most modern societies, a Catholic's position on capital punishment is more of a matter of individual conscience. Opposition to abortion, however, is a matter of firmly stated doctrine. Thus, a Catholic politician who publicly opposes church teachings on abortion might be denied Holy Communion. That point aside, this story is must reading for anyone interested in faith's role in Jeb Bush's life and political career. (source: getreligion.org) *********************** Is Hillary Still Pro-Lethal Injection? It's not wildly popular anymore, and there's no real political imperative for a Democrat to back it. Are you listening, Madame Secretary? Michael Cavadias is a writer and Democratic Party activist in New York City. He has worked for and organized fundraisers for The Campaign to End the Death Penalty and New Yorkers Against The Death Penalty. Hillary Clinton is running for president. She's hired a lot of very important people. They've raised a lot of money for her. Everyone knows she's running, including Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, and former Maryland Governor Martin O???Malley, each of whom is making political gesticulations to her left, most notably on economic policy. Democratic primary voters will be paying excruciatingly close attention to whatever economic moves Clinton might make in the populist direction. There is, however, another issue dividing the progressive wing of the Democratic Party from the centrist Clintonian wing, which so far is getting no attention: capital punishment. The base is ambivalent, and has been for decades. Abolitionists were ascendant in the 1960s and 1970s; proponents made a significant comeback in the 1990s. Today, support for executions among the Democratic base is dwindling, verging on outright revulsion, in the shadow of several highly publicized botched executions. Hillary's record of support for capital punishment is long, and it's something she's used as a political wedge. But next year could get complicated for her if other candidates decide to make an issue of her position. In the final hours of his governorship, O'Malley commuted the sentences of the last 4 death row inmates in Maryland to life without parole, which followed his signing of a bill to repeal the state's death penalty, on May 2, 2013 - something he worked for years to pass into law. These actions reflected his personal convictions, and were also deliberate preparation for a possible run for the Democratic nomination for President next year. It wasn't so long ago that actions like these would have been seen as disqualifying. Sure, one could win Democratic primary votes being opposed to the death penalty, but it was considered general election suicide, especially after Michael Dukakis's disastrous answer to Bernard Shaw's question about capital punishment in a 1988 debate. Dukakis was the last Democratic nominee to oppose capital punishment Only a few years after Dukakis' run, executions were once again in vogue among the party's leaders. Dukakis became a cautionary tale of what happens to Democrats who can't prove they are as tough as Republicans on crime. But was it really that Dukakis opposed executions, or that he simply gave a tone-deaf answer to a question that required a deft show of compassion, outrage, and ultimately reason? Whatever the answer, Dukakis' misstep proved influential on Bill Clinton's 1992 campaign, in which he highlighted his support of capital punishment, as did Hillary. The 2016 primary campaign could be the first opportunity in a generation for progressives to make support for capital punishment an issue. Politics is full of craven politicians who toss aside principles in favor of expediency. But Bill Clinton's behavior in the case of Ricky Ray Rector is particularly disturbing. Everyone remembers - how Clinton decided to approve the execution during the heat of the New Hampshire primary as the Gennifer Flowers scandal was brewing around him, how the brain-damaged Rector left his dessert in his cell as he was taken to his death, telling the guards that he was "saving it for later." Later, as president, Clinton went on to sign the "Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996," which severely restricted death row inmates' access to habeas corpus proceedings. This augmented the 1994 crime bill, which expanded the list of federal death penalty crimes from only a handful to over 60, contributing to the highest execution rate in the modern era of American capital punishment. Perhaps because of this ambitious slate of executions, Democratic support of capital punishment abated, slowly, near the end of the decade, particularly in light of the release of several death row inmates who were proven innocent by exculpatory evidence, such as DNA testing. The most famous of these cases was Anthony Porter, who was set for execution in 1999, but who was exonerated just over 48 hours before his sentence was carried out. This prompted Illinois Governor, George Ryan - notably a Republican - to issue a state moratorium on executions. He eventually commuted the sentences of everyone on Illinois death row to life in prison. Six more states abolished capital punishment between 2007 and 2013. All these changes in public perceptions of the death penalty took place against the backdrop of a sustained, national drop in crime. In 2004, John Kerry was the first nominee since Dukakis to oppose the death penalty. In fact, during one of the debates Kerry proudly voiced his opposition to executions, citing his experience in Vietman, saying "I know something about killing. I don't like killing. I don't think a state honors life by turning around and sanctioning killing." Kerry lost of course, but his opposition to the death penalty was barely mentioned by the Bush campaign and was not seen as a contributing factor in his defeat. And although Barack Obama supports executions in very limited circumstances, he does so to a much lesser extent than most recent Democratic standard-bearers have, and it's barely been an issue. Where does this leave Hillary Clinton? Her publicly stated position is unchanged. She supports the death penalty. But a candidate like O'Malley, who's running as a strong anti-death penalty campaign, might prompt voters to question her commitment to human rights. In the past, Democrats have given pro-death penalty candidates a pass on the grounds that it's a necessary position to win general elections. But with low crime rates and ever-declining support for capital punishment, that should be less true in 2016. Thus, the 2016 primary campaign could be the 1st opportunity in a generation for progressives to make support for capital punishment an issue. And thanks to Elizabeth Warren, who has rattled the Clinton camp with her economic populism, the Democratic base is now emboldened and willing to demand more of their candidates. It's understandable that the base has largely ignored capital punishment in recent presidential cycles. They want to win elections, and are therefore pragmatic. However, the current political landscape is one in which a candidate can be both pragmatic and oppose the death penalty. Make no mistake, the Democratic base does care about the death penalty. It might have been put on the back burner for practical reasons in the past. But with issues around police brutality, mass incarceration, sentencing reform, and social justice motivating activists around the country, it's becoming more and more of a risk for candidates like Clinton to ignore this, and riskier still if candidates and interest groups actually stand up to hold her accountable. (source: The Daily Beast) From rhalperi at smu.edu Thu Mar 19 10:09:21 2015 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Thu, 19 Mar 2015 10:09:21 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news---worldwide Message-ID: March 19 INDONESIA: Bali 9: Indonesia unlikely to execute death row convicts for 'weeks or months', says vice-president Jusuf Kalla 2 Australian drug smugglers on death row in Indonesia may not be executed for some months, Indonesia's vice-president Jusuf Kalla says. Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran were listed for execution last month, but that has been delayed to allow the legal challenges of up to 11 death row inmates to finish. The men's lawyers are starting a court appeal against their execution today and others due to be executed with them have separate challenges underway. The Australians' team will challenge the president's blanket refusal to grant clemency for drug offenders. The appeal was adjourned last week after lawyers for the president were denied authorisation to represent him because they turned up without complete paperwork. 3 judges will hear both sides put their up their best arguments but a result may not be delivered until a later date. Mr Kalla conceded in an interview with the Reuters new agency that it could be "weeks or maybe months" until Indonesia's courts decide on the last-minute appeals of the condemned inmates, who are mostly foreigners. He said Indonesia was more cautious in handling the legal appeals following diplomatic efforts to save the prisoners. "We will always hear and consider opinions not only from Australia but also France and Brazil," Mr Kalla said. "That is why we are very careful in ... following the process of the law." He said: "We're waiting for the decision of the courts," adding it could take "weeks or maybe months". Last week, Indonesia's attorney-general Muhammad Prasetyo told Indonesian journalists the next round of executions would be carried out once all of the condemned inmates had finished their appeals. Chan and Sukumaran are among a group of 11 drug offenders due to face the firing squad. They were transferred from their Bali prison early this month to the Nusakambangan island prison off Java, in preparation for their execution. Australia continues calls for mercy for Bali 9 death row duo 5 foreigners were among 6 people executed last month, the 1st executions since president Joko Widodo took office in October. Australia has made repeated calls for mercy on behalf of Sukumaran, 33, and Chan, 31, but Mr Widodo has refused to budge. He has turned down an offer of a 1-off prisoner exchange and to have the Australian Government bear the cost of the convicts' serving life sentences. 4 death row inmates have appealed against their sentences after Mr Widodo rejected their clemency pleas late last year. Mr Widodo has pledged no mercy for drug offenders, saying Indonesia faces a "drug emergency". The country is a major destination for drugs trafficked in the region. Mr Kalla said relations with Brazil - whose citizens are among the group due to face a firing squad - had been harmed and Indonesia was now reviewing all its military contracts with Latin America's largest economy. "We're not reviewing contracts with other countries because Australia and the Netherlands, they did not harm our diplomatic situation, like Brazil," he said, referring to Brazil's refusal to let Indonesia's envoy take part in a credentials ceremony. Brazil and the Netherlands recalled their ambassadors in January after Indonesia executed their citizens for drug offences. A 2nd Brazilian national is among a 2nd group of prisoners due to be executed soon in Indonesia. Rodrigo Gularte's family has pleaded for clemency on the grounds of mental illness. Others facing imminent execution on the prison island of Nusakambangan include citizens of France, the Philippines, Ghana, Nigeria and Indonesia. Indonesia resumed executions for drug trafficking in 2013 after a 5-year gap. (source: ABC news) ******************** Bali 9 executions: Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran in legal action to prevent execution Andrew Chan, Myuran Sukumaran and others facing execution in Indonesia could still launch multiple legal actions to delay or prevent their executions, says an Australian legal expert based in Hong Kong. Dr Daniel Pascoe, from the School of Law at the City University of Hong Kong, has also flagged the possibility that Indonesia, which argues fiercely for its sovereign right to carry out the death penalty, may be in breach of international treaties. Dr Pascoe has written a paper outlining grounds for new legal challenges to save the death-row prisoners, in addition to the action that is currently afoot in the State Administrative Court of Jakarta. That action, to be heard today, argues that President Joko Widodo did not give proper consideration when in January he wholesale denied clemency to 64 death-row drug runners, including Chan and Sukumaran. The Australians' legal team in Indonesia, led by Todung Mulya Lubis, says President Widodo showed a poor sense of justice and procedural unfairness in hastily dismissing all the clemency appeals. Dr Pascoe, who has written extensively on death penalty law in South-East Asia, goes further. He sees grounds for an international challenge, given that in 2006 Indonesia became a signatory to the UN's International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which states that anyone "sentenced to death shall have the right to seek pardon or commutation of the sentence". He said that President Widodo's blanket rejections of clemency without considering each prisoner's individual circumstances "results in a violation of Indonesia's international obligations". Dr Pascoe notes that a number of cases relating to the death penalty - including cases taken on behalf of members of the Bali 9 - and challenges even to the method of execution itself have been heard and failed. But he argues there are several possible Constitutional Court actions that could drag out the cases, potentially for years. One is that most prisoners spend long years on death-row, which could go against the Constitution???s Articles 28G (2) and 28H (1), which set out the right "to be free from torture of inhuman or degrading treatment" and "the right to physical and mental wellbeing". One problem with this action is that if the Constitutional Court agreed, it would not help the person appealing the case, because the ruling would apply from the date of the decision. This means individuals have been reluctant to take this legal course, because they would not benefit from it. But Dr Pascoe argues such a case, which would presumably see international witnesses brought to testify about the mental anguish of being on death-row, would see "heavy moral and political pressure" falling on the President to grant clemency. Another potential challenge arises from 2010 amendments designed to streamline the clemency process. The amendments mandate a strict one-year time limit to apply for clemency after the legal process has exhausted. He says this could potentially be challenged in the Constitutional Court by arguing that the 1-year limit "inhibits the ability of a prisoner to make an effective petition (to the President)". This could be challenged on the basis of Article 28A in the Indonesian Constitution, which sets out the "Right to Life and to Defend Life and Existence'. Dr Pascoe cites numerous international treaties to which Indonesia is a signatory, which safeguard the rights of those facing execution. A final ground for challenge relates to the Peninjaun Kembali, or PK, the extraordinary judicial review by the Supreme Court, which every prisoner is entitled to apply for after being sentenced to death. Historically, every prisoner was only allowed to apply for one PK, and it had to be on the grounds of new evidence or an error at law by sentencing judges. The nature of the PK has changed after the Constitutional Court in 2014 struck out a law limiting a person to only one PK. Prisoners have also used the hearings to present arguments about rehabilitation. "The ability to have more than one extraordinary case ... if the requisite grounds can be found, has the potential to delay execution even further, allowing rehabilitative and political grounds for clemency more time to develop," writes Dr Pascoe. All this lends some hope to the 2 Australians and the others who have been listed for the firing squad. Even if today's hearing fails, expect to see new legal efforts made along these lines. Indonesia has been inconsistent on the entire execution process and it remains to be seen whether it will tolerate new cases. All that can be relied on are the words of Attorney-General HM Prasetyo, who said last Friday: "We are waiting for all the legal action (to conclude) because we don't want any trouble afterwards." (source: news.com.au) EGYPT: Egypt gives 22 Morsi supporters death penalty 22 supporters of ousted Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi have been sentenced to death by an Egyptian court. The sentence, which was passed on Wednesday, was in relation to an attack on a police station in the town of Kerdasa on the outskirts of the Egyptian capital Cairo which claimed the life of one police officer, AFP reported. The attack took place on July 3, 2013, the day Egypt's military chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who is currently the president of the country, announced Morsi's dismissal. The court's verdict will be confirmed or commuted on April 20 and the defendants have the right to appeal. In Egypt, death sentences must be approved by the country's highest Muslim religious authority, the Grand Mufti, who can revise verdicts, although the final decision is issued by the court itself. On Monday, an Egyptian court condemned the leader of the banned Brotherhood, Mohamed Badie, and 13 other senior members to death. The 14 were found guilty of planning attacks against the state. Among the convicts were Muslim Brotherhood spokesperson, Mahmoud Ghozlan, former Kafr-Sheikh governor, Saad El-Hossainy, and preacher, Salah Sultan. In November 2013, the Egyptian government enlisted Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization. (source: Pres TV) SAUDI ARABIA----executions Saudi Arabia Has Already Beheaded Half the People It Did in 2014 The government of Saudi Arabia executed t3 people on Tuesday via beheadings. The total number of beheadings in the strict Muslim country totals 48 in 2015 already, more than 1/2 the total beheadings in 2014. The government beheaded 87 people in 2014. Human rights organization Amnesty International claimed the country "is well on track to far surpass its previous annual execution records," as on March 11, Saudi Arabia executed 3 people to put the number at 44. Only 11 people were put to death between January and March in 2014. "This unprecedented spike in executions constitutes a chilling race to the bottom for a country that is already among the most prolific executioners on the planet," declared Said Boumedouha, Deputy Director of Amnesty International's Middle East and North Africa Programme. On March 11, officials executed men from Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Yemen for drug-related offenses. Of the 3 men on Tuesday, a Pakistani national was executed on drug charges. "The fact that around half of the executions carried out so far this year were for drug-related offences contradicts the Saudi Arabian authorities' claims at the United Nations Human Rights Council that the death penalty is imposed for only the most serious crimes," continued Boumedouha. "This claim is far from the truth, as international standards are clear that this means crimes involving intentional killing." Saudi Arabia implements Sharia law. Death penalty offenses include rape, murder, armed robbery, apostasy, and drug trafficking. 2 Saudis were also put to death on Tuesday, but not for drugs: Najr bin Farajal Azmial Otaibi, a Saudi, was put to death in the western city of Taif for stoning and caning to death another man, the ministry said in a statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency. Another Saudi, Moeid bin Ali bin Moeidal Saadal Qahtani, was beheaded by the sword in Eastern Province for gunning down a man. The ministry added that the execution of both Saudis was delayed until the children of their victims came of age to decide whether the sentences should be carried out. But the high number of executions under the new leader, King Salman, could be to show citizens that he can keep people safe and to show off his power. "The Saudi authorities want to show everyone they are strong, people can rely on them to keep the security and the safety in the kingdom," a source told AFP. In February, the Saudi government lashed out at critics who compared them to the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL), who also behead their victims in public. The country received loud international backlash after a video surfaced of 3 men beheading a woman in the middle of Mecca. They dragged her out into the street as she screamed her innocence. Interior Ministry spokesman Major General Mansour al-Turki told NBC News the punishments are not similar, since the Islamic State "has no legitimate way to decide to kill people." "When we do it in Saudi Arabia, we do it as a decision made by a court," he explained. "The killing is a decision, I mean it is not based on arbitrary choices, to kill this and not to kill this. When you kill somebody without legitimate basis, without justice system, without court, that is still a crime whether you behead them or kill [them] with a gun." In August 2014, Amnesty International reported the Saudi kingdom executed a person "almost every day" during the month. The charity claimed the kingdom carried out 22 executions "between August 4 and August 22, compared to 17 executions between January and July" of 2014. In total, the kingdom executed 87 people in 2014, compared to the 78 in 2013. (source: breitbart.com) BOTSWANA: Botswana MP calls for use of lethal injection for death row inmates Botswana Member of Parliament Kefentse Mzwinila on Wednesday called on the government to use lethal injection for those who have been handed the death penalty.Mzwinila made the proposal when debating the Ministry of Defence, Justice and Security budget proposal. He argued that although he supported the death penalty, there was need to make the process tolerable. Currently those who have been condemned to death are executed by hanging. Mzwinila said execution by hanging was traumatizing to officers given the task of hanging those who have been condemned to death. There have been calls from the international community for Botswana to abolish the death penalty and the government has promised that to consult the nation through a national referendum before deciding to scrap death penalty. (source: Star Africa) IRAN----execution A Prisoner Hanged in Adel Abad Prison in Shiraz A prisoner, who had been charged with drug related crime, was executed in the prison of Adel Abad, in Shiraz. According to the report of Human Rights Activists News Agency in Iran (HRANA), on 15th March, "Farshid Jafari", a prisoner of drug related crimes in the prison of Adel Abad in Shiraz, was executed by hanging. His 1st court verdict had been issued by the Revolutionary Court in Shiraz, and that verdict was precisely upheld by the Supreme Court which was carried out after the administrative procedure on 15th March. (source: Human Rights Activists News Agency) ****************** UN to fund Iran anti-drugs programme despite executions of offenders ---- United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime criticised for planning new 5-year aid deal with Tehran, which continues to use death penalty for narcotics offences The UN anti-drug agency is finalising a multimillion-dollar funding package, including European money, for Iran's counter-narcotics trafficking programmes, despite the country's high execution rate of drug offenders. Iranian authorities have hanged at least 2 people a day this year for drug offences, according to the human rights group Reprieve, which works for the abolition of death penalty. Ahmed Shaheed, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Iran, also warned this week that the Islamic republic continues to execute more people per capita than any country. At least 753 people were hanged last year in Iran, of whom more than 1/2 were drug offenders. Reprieve and a number of other organisations have repeatedly urged the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) to stop funding Iran's anti-narcotics campaign until Tehran ends its use of capital punishment for drug-related offences. But despite their concerns, the UNODC is agreeing a new 5-year deal with Iranian officials. Reprieve says its research shows that millions of dollars of support to Iran can be directly linked to the arrest and execution of thousands of people, including children. Iran has a notorious record of juvenile executions. "Iran has hanged more than a hundred so-called drug offenders this year, and the UN has responded by praising the efficiency of the Iranian drug police and lining them up a generous 5-year funding deal," said Maya Foa, strategic director of Reprieve's death penalty team. The UNODC seems to be isolated and out of step with other UN agencies----Danny Kushlick, Transform Drug Policy Foundation "The lion's share of this funding is set to come from European governments, who continue to condemn the death penalty while funding drug raids where those caught are hanged from cranes in public," she said. "This is a costly and untenable hypocrisy, and the time has come for European countries to make their counter-narcotics assistance strictly conditional on the states which receive it abolishing the death penalty for drug offences." The UNODC confirmed to the Guardian that it was finalising a country partnership programme with Iran. The agency, however, refused to reveal which countries were contributing to the upcoming aid package. "The funding is provided for two distinct areas," said David Dadge of the UNODC. "The first is that we are strengthening the capacities to interdict the illicit drugs but the country partnership programme also has a very strong social component. The focus is on prevention and treatment and that's got the support of numerous NGOs as well." Faced with human rights concerns, an increasing number of European countries have stopped funding the Iranian campaign, including the UK, Denmark and Ireland. France and Norway continue to fund, Reprieve said, but it was not clear if other countries that have previously given money, such as Italy, Norway and Belgium, were part of the new deal. Iran is a neighbour to Afghanistan, a leading producer and supplier of the world's drugs, and faces big challenges at home with a young population susceptible to a variety of cheap and abundant addictive drugs. Critics, however, say Iran's use of death penalty in this regard has done little, if anything, to address the issue. Reprieve, which has monitored Iran's anti-drugs behaviour closely, said a 15-year-old Afghan boy, identified as Jannat Mir, was hanged in 2014 for allegedly moving heroin across the border from Afghanistan to Iran. During the period the Afghan national was in Iranian custody, the UNODC was co-funding a $5.4m (3.6m pounds) project that included providing Iran with training to officers and drug detection dogs and vehicles, Reprieve said. Danny Kushlick from the UK-based Transform Drug Policy Foundation said the application of the death penalty is the result of the policy of the global drug war that, he added, serves to dehumanise all those involved in the trade and use of prohibited drugs. "The UNODC seems to be isolated and out of step with other UN agencies," he said. "It is the responsibility of all member states to reassert the UN principles of security, development and human rights as the foundation of all programmes emerging from the UN." (source: The Guardian) MALAYSIA: Malaysia Changes made to clarify punishment for apostasy, Kelantan MB says Kelantan has revised the English version of the Shariah Criminal Code Enactment II 1993 (Amendment 2015), which has caused confusion on the punishment for apostasy. The state's Menteri Besar Datuk Ahmad Yakob said to ensure there is no confusion, the English version, the death penalty mentioned will now be replaced with "hudud", as stated in the Bahasa Malaysia version. "Before I wind up, a correction must be made in a speech yesterday in which the amendments refer to the sentence for irtidad and riddah (apostate). "When corrected, Clause 23 which deals with cases of irtidad and riddah, the death penalty word will be replaced with hudud," he said. Yesterday, it was reported that the Bahasa Malaysia version, apostasy, if convicted under the amendments, was punishable with imprisonment. But the English version stated that while the immediate punishment was imprisonment, execution was possible if the apostate did not repent. Kelantan Deputy Menteri Besar Datuk Mohd Amar Nik Abdullah meanwhile said there was no contradiction in the 2 versions because hudud used in the Malay-language edition also meant a death sentence. He said the offenders would certainly face the death penalty if they refused to repent according to the Islamic law. "There's no difference. It reality it is the same. Punishment for apostasy is death penalty. Hudud punishment for apostasy is death. It is just that the word used was different. "So, we have adjusted... using 'hudud' in English as well. Just so that no one is confused," he said. (source: The Malaysian Insider) PAKISTAN----executions 11 more death row inmates hanged across Punjab As many as 11 more convicts were hanged at various prisons of Punjab on Wednesday taking the number of executions over the past 2 days to 23. President Mamnoon Hussain stayed the execution of Shafqat Hussain to investigate whether he was under age when he committed his crime. Meanwhile, the sentences of two prisoners have been stayed. The latest round in Punjab brings to 50 the total number of convicts hanged since the government resumed capital punishment in December after the Peshawar school attack. The partial lifting of the moratorium, which began in 2008, only applied to those convicted of terrorism offences, but was last week extended to all capital offences. In Faisalabad, Saeed Ahmad and Shafqat Ali were hanged at the district jail. They had been awarded the death penalty by a district court over a double murder committed on March 23, 1998 in Nankana Sahib. However, the execution of Ahsan Ilyas was stayed after his family submitted a settlement deal. Ahsan killed a policeman in the Tandlianwala area.Similarly, two more death row prisoners were executed at District Jail Jhang. One of them, Ghulam Muhammad, had killed his brother-in-law, Mustafa in 2000 over a family dispute, with Zakir Hussain killing Zulfiqar over the custodianship of a shrine in 1998. In Rawalpindi, 2 death row inmates - Shaukat and Muhammad Shabbir - were hanged for murdering a person over enmity. But the hanging of Qadeer Ahmed was postponed as the 2 sides struck a settlement. A murder convict, Tahir Bashir, was also hanged at Kot Lakhpat Jail, Lahore. He had shot dead Arshad Ali in Sabzazar over a minor dispute in 2000. It was the 1st execution of a death row prisoner in Lahore in a case not involving terrorism charges after the government lifted the moratorium on the death penalty. Also, Asad Khan, who shot dead 3 people including a woman in Khushab over a marriage dispute in 2002, was executed in Attock.Another killer Ahmed Nawaz of Chakrala was executed at Mianwali???s Central Jail. He had been sentenced to death for killing a person in 1998. Meanwhile, execution of another convicted person, Shafqat Hussain, set to be executed on Thursday (today) at Karachi jail, was delayed for an indefinite period after Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali appealed to the president to review the death penalty. Sindh Information Minister Sharjeel Inam Memon had also appealed to President Mamnoon Hussain to review his decision on the mercy petition of condemned prisoner, Shafqat Hussain.Meanwhile, the execution of Mandi Bahauddin???s Azhar Abbas was also stayed in Gujrat jail. (source: The News) ****************** Pakistan says executions won't impact EU trade deal: FO Pakistan firmly stated on Thursday that lifting the moratorium on death penalty would not impact the lucrative trade deal, GSP plus with the European Union. "This issue will not impact the EU GSP plus status for Pakistan," Foreign Office spokesperson Tasnim Aslam said, during her weekly press briefing in Islamabad, according to Radio Pakistan. The EU granted Pakistan "GSP+" status in 2014 conditional on Pakistan enacting certain commitments on human rights. The deal means firms pay no tax on certain categories of goods exported to the 27-nation bloc for 10 years. Responding to the European Union's concerns on capital punishment in Pakistan, the spokesperson said that it is not a violation of international human rights law. "Pakistan has its own Constitution and legal system which contains death penalty within the parametres of international laws," Aslam said. "It is the fundamental right of the State to protect the lives of its people," she added. The moratorium was partially lifted following the December 16 terrorist attack on the Army Public School, and sentences were carried out for those convicted in terror cases. So far, nearly two dozen convicts have been executed. The government recently decided to also lift the moratorium for those on death row for non-terror convictions. "According to Article 6 of International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights every human being has the right to live and that this right should be protected by law. The actions that Pakistan is taking are in pursuance to this article in order to protect the lives of the people," Aslam upheld. The spokesperson said Pakistan is engaged with the European Union and clarified its perspective on the matter. Aslam maintained the European Union also understands Pakistan's position under which it has removed the moratorium on death sentence. The EU called on Pakistan to reinstitute the moratorium and to respect fully all its international obligations, in particular the principle of fair trial. The EU is against capital punishment in all cases and without exception, and has consistently called for its universal abolition. The Union also recalled that Article 6(5) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Pakistan is a party, specifically prohibits the use of the death sentence for crimes committed by persons below 18 years of age. Mumbai attacks case Shifting her focus to the Mumbai attack case, the spokesperson said the trial is continuing and Pakistan wants to see culmination of this process at the earliest. "The trial got delayed not because of Pakistan but because New Delhi had not given access to our judicial commission to examine witnesses in India," Aslam said. She further said the trial in the Samjhota terror attack in which several Pakistanis were killed has not yet started. "We should not have double standards in acts of terrorism," she upheld. ****************************** Shafqat's execution halted for 30 days A last-minute heartrending appeal by the family has been heard. The hanging of Shafqat Hussain, a young man convicted of murder, was halted hours before he was to be executed at dawn on Thursday. In the early hours of Wednesday, 9 more condemned prisoners were executed in prisons across Punjab taking the number of convicts hanged over the past 2 days to 21, as the European Union condemned the executions and called upon Pakistan to restore a moratorium on the death penalty. Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan requested President Mamnoon Hussain through the office of the prime minister to stay Shafqat's execution for 30 days so that a controversy over his age was resolved. "We have learnt from multiple sources that the execution has been stayed," said Shahab Siddiqi, the communication specialist for the Justice Project Pakistan, which has been campaigning against the hanging. "I personally handed over a 2nd mercy petition to an official of the Presidency at 11:30pm [Wednesday]." A senior official at the Karachi Central Jail, where Shafqat is incarcerated, confirmed to The Express Tribune that the execution has been delayed. "We are 100% sure that he would not be hanged today," said the official. Lawyers for Shafqat say he was just 14 in 2004, when he was burnt with cigarettes and had fingernails removed until he confessed to the killing of a 7-year-old boy in a Karachi neighbourhood. On Wednesday, his family shared with the media a 'birth certificate' which 'confirms' that Shafqat was a juvenile when condemned to death by an anti-terrorism court. The death sentence cannot be used against a defendant under the age of 18 when the crime was committed. "For God's sake don't deprive me of Shafqat, he is my last child. He is innocent," his mother, Makhani Begum, told a news conference in Muzaffarabad, the city Shafqat hails from. Shafqat's elder brother Manzoor Ahmed, younger sister and Justice Project representative Yasir Sahbaz were also present at the conference. "Oh, my Allah, save my Shafqat from falling victim to injustice," Makhni wailed, raising her hands in prayer. His brother begged for a change of heart. "I request them, in the name of Allah, and in the name of humanity, to stop his execution," he said. The news conference came a day after Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan told lawmakers in the National Assembly that Shafqat's scheduled hanging should not be 'politicised'. He asked rights groups campaigning against the execution to come up with a proof of Shafqat's age within 36 hours. On Wednesday morning, 9 condemned murderers were executed in different jails of Punjab. Officials confirmed to The Express Tribune that Shafaqat Ali and Muhammad Saeed were hanged in the Central Jail Faisalabad; Zakir Hussain and Ghulam Muhammad were executed in the District Jail Jhang; Shaukat Ali, Muhammad Shabbir, Talib Hussain and Rabnawaz were sent to the gallows at Rawalpindi's Adiala Jail; while Asad Khan was executed the District Jail Attock. The European Union condemned the mass executions and urged Pakistan to restore a moratorium on the death penalty. "The EU calls on Pakistan to reinstitute the moratorium and to respect fully all its international obligations, in particular the principle of fair trial," said a statement issued by the EU spokesperson. The statement said the 28-nation bloc considers death penalty a 'cruel and inhuman' punishment, which fails to act as a deterrent against crime and which makes any miscarriage of justice irreversible. "The European Union is opposed to capital punishment in all cases and without exception, and has consistently called for its universal abolition," the statement added. "Contrary to the government of Pakistan's policy that only clearly identified terrorists would be executed, convicts not sentenced on terrorist charges are being executed," the EU noted. The EU recalls that Article 6(5) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Pakistan is a party, specifically prohibits the use of the death sentence for crimes committed by persons below 18 years of age. (With additional reporting by our correspondents in Faisalabad, Jhang, Rawalpindi and Attock) (source for both: Tribune) *************** Saulat Mirza makes grave allegations against MQM hours before hanging In a televised message, Saulat Mirza, the death row inmate and former Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) worker, has made startling disclosures and grave allegations against Altaf Hussain-led-MQM, hours before his scheduled hanging at 5:30AM Thursday. Saulat Mirza was handed down the death sentence on May 24, 1999 for killing the MD KESC Shahid Hamid. Shortly after the confession Wednesday night, Machh jail officials told the media that the scheduled hanging on March 19 has been postponed for 72 hours. The jail superintendent confirmed that they have received a written order to halt the execution. Mirza, in his video confession, said the order to kill the MD KESC had been passed on to him by Babar Ghauri, the then MNA of MQM. Mirza said the MQM chief Altaf Hussain used to carry his messages through Babar Ghauri. Saulat Mirza said after executing the murder when he came into the grips of law, the MQM disowned him and threw him away like a used tissue paper. He said whenever any party worker started to enjoy fame and popularity in public, it made the party chief Altaf Hussain upset and he removed them from the scene one way or the other. Saulat Mirza took the names of former MQM leaders Azeem Tariq and Mustafa Kamal as examples. Azeem Tariq was killed on the orders of Altaf Hussain and Mustafa Kamal was humiliated to such a level that he had to pack his bags and leave this country, he added. The former MQM activist also said that the party through Governor Sindh provides shelter to criminal MQM workers. He appealed to the government, saying: "I am not making an appeal for condoning my death sentence. I only appeal to the government to extend my death penalty for some time." Saulat Mirza said such an extension would allow him time to make more disclosures which may be helpful to the authorities to take appropriate actions and help bring peace to Karachi. He said a lot of people who are either part of the MQM or want to join it in future must take some lesson from him who has been made an example of horror for all. Saulat Mirza said he seeks forgiveness from the nation for whatever he did after being brainwashed by MQM. Meanwhile, MQM chief Altaf Hussain, leader Babar Ghauri and a spokesman of Governor House dismissed the allegations hurled at them, calling them a conspiracy to defame the party. (source: The News) ************************ Death penalty ban lifted, Christians sense trouble Pakistan's re-instated death penalty could mean trouble for followers of Christ. But, indigenous missionaries aren't backing down. "Every leader I met, every Bible student I met, they knew that death could be a reality," notes Sarla Mahara of Christian Aid Mission, your link to indigenous missions. "And yet, they're committed to serving the Lord." Death penalty: unbanned In December, Pakistani officials lifted a 7-year moratorium on capital punishment to rebuke masterminds of the fatal Peshawar school attack. "They were trying to bring justice to those victims and have the terrorists face the consequences," explains Mahara. "The whole country was just enraged for these actions from the Taliban." The death penalty moratorium was initially lifted for cases specifically related to terrorism. Nearly 50 convicts have been executed since December. However, in the rush to punish terrorists, Mahara notes, the government is actually putting more people at risk. The lift was expanded last week for ALL capital offense crimes, not just those connected to terrorism. That means Christians accused of blasphemy or apostasy - converting from Islam to another religion - will be put to death. Pakistani Christians at-risk Amnesty International estimates Pakistan's "death row" holds roughly 8,000 inmates. Among these prisoners are falsely-accused Christians like Asia Bibi, whose multiple appeals for justice have fallen on deaf ears. According to Voice of the Martyrs USA spokesman Todd Nettleton, blasphemy accusations are often used to persecute Pakistani Christians. "If you have a property dispute, if you have some kind of a relational dispute, you can simply accuse somebody of blasphemy and they get locked up for years even if there's no evidence, even if there's no case against them," Nettleton told MNN last fall. (source: Mission Network News) ***************** President stays Shafqat Hussain's execution: source On the eve of the scheduled execution of death row convict Shafqat Hussain, President Mamnoon Hussain late on Wednesday ordered to postpone the hanging upon appeals forwarded to him by Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar and Sindh Home Minister Sharjeel Memon. Sources told Geo News that Nisar had personally forwarded the application to the president seeking some more time to conduct thorough investigation into the matter. President Mamnoon reportedly stayed the hanging for an indefinite period of time approving the appeal. Shafqat, aged 14 at that time, had allegedly murdered a child in 2001 and was sentenced to death by an anti-terrorism court in 2004. Mercy appeals for Shafqat were rejected by the high court in 2006, Supreme Court in 2007 and the presidency in 2012. The question regarding Shafqat being a juvenile has recently been raised but only after the court proceedings and his mercy appeals were rejected by the presidency and various courts. (source: geo.tv) ************** Shafqat Hussain dodges the gallows again After protests from civil society on the roads and on social media, and pleas from Shafqat Hussain's family, the controversial execution was delayed a 2nd time just 5 hours before the hanging time. According to sources, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar requested President Mamnoon Hussain to delay the execution. The president, while acknowledging that no innocent should be unduly executed, allowed the delay. Earlier in the day, the family of Shafqat Hussain appealed to the government and judiciary to save the death row convict from his execution which is scheduled to take place at dawn on Thursday. In 2001, Shafqat had allegedly murdered a child named Umair, and was sentenced to death by an anti-terrorism court in 2004. He was 14-years-old at the time. Mercy appeals for Shafqat were rejected by the high court in 2006, Supreme Court in 2007 and the presidency in 2012. Shafqat's mother Makhni Begum, along with her daughter Samira bibi, held a press conference on Wednesday during which she claimed that her son was innocent. She said three suspects had been arrested in the case, but only her son was convicted while the other two were let go. Makhni Begum further said that no one was fighting her son's case which is why he was set to be executed. "For God sake don't bereave me of my Shafqat ... He is my last child ... Please don't snatch him from me," she pleaded. "Save my Shafqat from falling victim to injustice," she continued in what was a last-ditch attempt to influence the authorities to halt his execution. She reiterated that Shafqat was a minor at the time when he was sentenced to death, and that according to the law, a minor cannot be sentenced to a death penalty. She added that if her son was executed, it would be a great injustice. She called on human rights organisations and other institutions to play a role in saving her son. (source: Pakistan Today) ********* Unprecedented wave of executions underway, including of juvenile offenders FIDH and its member organisation in Pakistan, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), express our very serious concern and condemnation of the wave of executions that have taken place in Pakistan since the complete lifting of the moratorium on the death penalty last week. "This sudden and shocking wave of executions puts a terrible stain on Pakistan's human rights record," said Karim Lahidji, President of FIDH. "The authorities must reinstate the moratorium on the death penalty immediately." In the 8 days between March 10th and today, 15 executions have taken place. Of these, 12 have taken place in the past 2 days alone. This rate of executions is unprecedented, and shows no signs of stopping, as 40 more hangings are scheduled to take place in the coming 7 days. 5 of these upcoming executions are scheduled for tomorrow, Thursday 19 March, including the execution of juvenile offender Shafqat Hussain. There is publicly-available evidence that Mr. Hussain was a minor at the time of his supposed crime, including his birth certificate. Mr. Hussain was previously scheduled to be executed on 14 January 2015, but the execution was stayed after an intervention by the Minister of the Interior calling for a full inquiry into Mr. Hussain's age at the time of his arrest. However, no such inquiry has ever taken place. "Mr. Hussain's conviction violates international law, including Pakistan's obligation under the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) which prohibits state parties from imposing the capital punishment for offences supposedly committed by a person below 18 years of age," stated Zohra Yusuf, Vice-President of FIDH and Chairperson of HRCP. "We call on the government to immediately halt his execution and inquire into his case as promised." FIDH and HRCP reiterate their firm opposition to the death penalty for all crimes and in all circumstances, as they consider it inhumane treatment and a violation of the inalienable right to life. We call on the Pakistani authorities to immediately halt all executions and reinstate the moratorium on the death penalty for all crimes. In particular, we urgently call on the authorities to halt the execution of Shafqat Hussain and to undertake an inquiry into his and all death penalty cases potentially involving juvenile offenders. Background information : Between 16 December 2014 and 10 March 2015, 24 people were executed. This followed the partial lifting of the moratorium on the death penalty specifically for people convicted of terrorist activities. This decision was taken by the authorities after the Taliban attacked a school in Peshawar killing more than 100 children. (source: FIDH) From rhalperi at smu.edu Thu Mar 19 10:59:15 2015 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Thu, 19 Mar 2015 10:59:15 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----PENN., FLA., NEB. Message-ID: March 19 PENNSYLVANIA: Victim's wife: Keep me out of death penalty fight Since Gov. Wolf declared his moratorium on the death penalty last month, proponents of capital punishment have rallied around one case to push their cause - the scuttled execution of Terrance Williams, a Philadelphia man sentenced to die in 1986 for the beating death of a Germantown church volunteer. But on Thursday, the widow of one of Williams' victims, had a message for critics of the governor's action: Leave me out of it In a publicly circulated letter, Mamie Norwood, whose husband, Amos, was killed by Williams in 1984, accused state Rep. Mike Vereb (R., Montgomery) and Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams of using her husband's slaying for political gain. "You have never spoken to me and do not speak for me," Norwood wrote, adding that she had forgiven Terrance Williams long ago and did not want to see him put to death. She added: "Please don't use me . . . to get your name in the news. You should be truly ashamed of yourselves." Vereb and Seth Williams, who is not related to the convicted killer, have vowed to fight the death penalty suspension in the state legislature and courts, respectively. Neither were immediately available for comment Thursday morning. In court filings last month, the district attorney, a Democrat, likened Wolf's action to that of a despot and sought to have it overturned at the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. "Our constitution does not allow the governor to satisfy his own personal opinions by halting a capital murderer's sentence that was authorized by state statute, imposed by a unanimous Philadelphia jury, and upheld by state and federal courts," Williams said at the time. Vereb, a former police officer, has circulated a state House Resolution challenging the moratorium and condemning the governor's "astounding disregard for the additional and unnecessary heartache he has now caused to the family and loved ones of Terrance Williams' victims." Norwood called Vereb's statement a "lie" in her letter Thursday, which was distributed by a group of Terrance Williams' supporters, who operate the website clemencyforterrancewilliams.com. "I am shocked and upset that you and other politicians are using me and saying things that are not true," she wrote. "You are the ones now causing me unnecessary heartache." None of the 186 inmates currently on death row in Pennsylvania benefitted more from the timing of Wolf's February reprieve than Terrance Williams, 48, who had been scheduled for execution March 4. Wolf's predecessor, Gov. Tom Corbett, signed the man's death warrant in January. Terrance Williams' lawyers had been fighting for years to stop his execution, contending, among other reasons, that prosecutors withheld evidence that Amos Norwood - a 56-year-old Germantown church volunteer - had sexually abused Williams as a teen. The governor cited Terrance Williams' case in a memo last month explaining the reasoning behind his moratorium. "There is no question that Terrance Williams committed a grievous act of violence," he wrote. "The reprieve announced today does not question Williams' guilt. Rather, I take this action because the capital punishment system has significant and widely recognized defects." (source: philly.com) FLORIDA----new death sentence Deltona wife killer gets death penalty for Miami Subs attack A judge this morning gave the death penalty to a 44-year-old Deltona man convicted of murdering his estranged wife by slashing her throat outside a Miami Subs shop near Longwood 4 years ago. Dwayne Fitzgerald White was convicted in October of 1st-degree murder by a Seminole County jury. It also voted 8 to 4, recommending that he be put to death. >From mass slayings to strange attacks, these are pictures of the most bizarre and shocking crimes to happen in Florida. Circuit Judge Kenneth Lester Jr. announced his ruling this morning without fanfare during a 3-minute hearing. White killed 42-year-old Sarah Rucker on Aug. 29, 2011, with what authorities believe was a pocket knife. Her's was an especially brutal death. She had nearly a dozen wounds to her neck and bled to death. One was a 6 1/2-inch gash that severed her wind pipe and carotid artery. Medical Examiner Marie Herrmann testified that the killer likely needed 4 blows to make that wound. In his 13-page sentencing order, the judge noted the number of knife wounds, called her death especially cruel and wrote, "Dwayne Fitzgerald White, you have not only forfeited your right to live among us, but under the laws of the State of Florida, you have forfeited your right to live at all." White's sentence comes less than 2 weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to take up a challenge to Florida's death penalty from convicted killer Timothy Lee Hurst. He was found guilty of murdering a co-worker at a Pensacola Popeye's fried chicken stand in 1998. His lawyers contend that Florida is violating the rights of murderers by allowing judges to impose the death penalty without a unanimous vote for the same sentence by juries. In Hurst's case, the vote was 7 to 5. This morning one of White's attorneys, Jeff Dowdy, chief of operations for the Office of Public Defender in Sanford, asked Lester to consider the Supreme Court's pending decision in the Hurst case. "So noted," said the judge. Lester then asked Assistant State Attorney Jim Carter what sentence he wanted imposed. Death, Carter said. Lester turned to Dowdy and asked the same question. Life in prison, said Dowdy. Lester gave White one last chance to speak and when the defendant had nothing to say, pronounced sentence. A fight in the front yard A few hours before she was killed, Rucker had made a series of 911 calls from her home in Deltona. Jurors listened to recordings of her screaming at White and telling a dispatcher that he had just thrown a bottle at her, pushed her to the ground, hit her head and pulled a cell phone from her hand, but by the time Volusia County deputies arrived, he was gone It was just the latest in a series of violent episodes between the 2, she told a dispatcher. 2 to 3 hours later, 2 men meeting up to car pool to a job in Tampa found Rucker's body face down outside a now defunct Miami Subs shop at Interstate 4 at State Road 434. White told Seminole County deputies that he had not seen Rucker since their argument in her front yard about 2 a.m. But investigators found two bloody hand prints on the wall of the sub shop that matched White and used cell phone signals to show that he and Rucker had been in the parking lot at the same time that morning. At his trial White then changed his story, telling jurors that he was at the scene but that Rucker was already dead when he arrived. Authorities never found the knife, but prosecutors say White likely used a pocket knife with a 4-inch blade. In his sentencing order, the judge noted that White had been to prison before and had earlier been convicted of three acts of violence. In one, two decades earlier, he had hit Rucker with a wine bottle while she was pregnant. In another, White had nearly shot a former roommate, the judge wrote. Rucker was a surgery technician at Florida Hospital-Altamonte. The couple had two children, now adults. Neither was in court today. (source: Orlando Sentinel) NEBRASKA: Nebraska's Catholic Bishops Call for Repeal of Death Penalty Nebraska's 3 Catholic bishops are calling for an end to the death penalty in the state, saying it does not promote a culture of life when used out of vengeance. In a joint statement, the bishops call for the death penalty to be repealed in Nebraska. Bishop William Dendinger of Grand Island said church teachings allow capital punishment in some cases, but said those conditions do not exist in Nebraska. He said it is not in line with the bible's teaching. He said, "Dignity of people is from conception to death. It is contrary to the dignity of somebody to electrocute them. I just think that's the basis of it. We can keep people safe. We have secure ways to keep people who can't live in society, without the death penalty." The joint statement states, "Our position is rooted in the teachings of our faith. We ask those who disagree with us to reflect prayerfully on the words of Jesus Christ himself: 'love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your heavenly Father.'" The legislature's judiciary committee recently gave unanimous approval to a bill by Senator Ernie Chambers repealing capital punishment. The bill now moves to the full legislature, where it faces opposition from those who say capital punishment is necessary. (source: nebraska.tv) From rhalperi at smu.edu Thu Mar 19 17:01:14 2015 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Thu, 19 Mar 2015 17:01:14 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, KY., ARK., MO. Message-ID: March 19 TEXAS: Interfaith Statement of Opposition to the Death Penalty see: http://fb.me/30S4YfEUW (source: tcadp.org) KENTUCKY: Prosecutor could seek death penalty in Winchester murder case Clark County prosecutors say they could pursue the death penalty for the man who fired a stray bullet that killed a 19-year-old woman living in an apartment beneath him. A grand jury has indicted four people - Lillian Barnett, Christopher Robinson, Aaron Stailey and Lamont Wilkerson - in connection with the Dec. 23 slaying of Amber Caudill at a Winchester apartment. Police have said Robinson was involved in a robbery upstairs when he fired the fatal shot that went into Caudill's apartment. The 4 defendants were in court Thursday morning for an arraignment. Not guilty pleas were entered for all of them. The prosecutor told the judge they will likely seek the death penalty in the case. Kentucky law allows prosecutors to seek the death penalty when there are aggravating circumstances when someone is killed, such as an existing emergency protective order or it is part of a robbery. Winchester police Detective Tom Bell has said Wilkerson, Stailey and Robinson went looking for marijuana in possession of the man who lived upstairs. There was a shoot out, the detective said, and Robinson was shot in the chest. 2 others were shot inside that apartment and Caudill was hit by a bullet that went through the floor. (source: WKYT news) ARKANSAS: Arkansas Supreme Court upholds the state's lethal-injection law The Arkansas Supreme Court on Thursday said that the state's lethal-injection law is constitutional, upholding a state law that was passed after the justices struck down an earlier law on the subject. This ruling, which comes a decade after Arkansas last executed an inmate, could potentially allow the state to resume lethal injections. The state's current death-penalty statute "provides reasonable guidelines" to corrections officials who will figure out the precise way to carry out a lethal injection, Justice Karen R. Baker wrote in an opinion explaining the court's 4-to-3 decision. Because the current state law outlines the method of execution and the overall policy, as well as the drugs that will be used, including the order and the amount, it stands apart from an earlier death-penalty law that the justices struck down 3 years ago, Baker wrote in the order. "I am hopeful that this decision will allow the convictions of those on death row to move forward so that some closure and justice is brought to the families of the victims," Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge said in a statement Thursday. While she was a candidate last year, Rutledge said she thought executions should resume in the state. The Arkansas Supreme Court ruled in 2012 that the state's death-penalty statute was unconstitutional because it left the Department of Corrections in charge of the type of drugs that would be used in lethal injections, giving too much leeway to the department. In a dissent Thursday, Justice Robin F. Wynne wrote that the current law still has the same problems that led the court to strike down the earlier statute. While the new law does direct corrections officials to administer a barbiturate, pointing to a particular type of drugs, it is not specific enough because of "the wide range of barbiturates" that are available, Wynne wrote. This court ruling comes as the U.S. Supreme Court is preparing to take up the issue of lethal injection next month, which could alter the way executions are carried out in the country. The justices will hear a case involving executions in Oklahoma, which uses the controversial sedative midazolam in its lethal injections. They last considered this subject in 2008, when the court upheld the lethal injection formula used by Kentucky and dozens of other states. However, since that ruling, the lethal injection process across the country has fractured. A shortage of the drugs used in lethal injections has prompted states to turn to untested alternatives as they strive to continue carrying out executions. As a result, the process upheld in 2008 has been largely abandoned as states struggled to adopt new methods. Arkansas has carried out 27 executions since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, the 13th-highest total for any state in that span. The last person executed in the state was Eric Nance, who was put to death in 2005 for killing 18-year-old Julie Heath. There are 32 inmates on death row in Arkansas, a number that was reached when an inmate serving a life sentence was sentenced to death last year for killing a corrections officer. (source: Washington Post) MISSOURI: Death penalty is the 'worst of the worst' outcomes Defenders of the death penalty state that it is reserved for the "worst of the worst." What happened in Missouri on the night of March 17 may fit the statement that Missouri's execution was one of the "worst of the worst." Cecil Clayton was executed for killing a police officer. No question of his guilt. What is in question is the ridiculous notion that the governor of Missouri stood and watched as they executed a mentally disabled person. Clayton had suffered a head injury in a sawmill accident and doctors removed a portion of his brain. Clayton was never the same. He suffered hallucinations, paranoia, depression and violent outbursts. The U.S. Supreme Court outlawed the execution of mentally disabled individuals in Atkins v. Virginia in 2002. Maybe the governor thinks he is tough on crime by watching another person being executed, but when there is an execution in the name of the state, every citizen has their hand on the gurney. Life in prison without the possibility of parole is a better alternative. Ron Steiner Salem (source: Letter to the Editor, Statesman Journal) From rhalperi at smu.edu Thu Mar 19 17:02:20 2015 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Thu, 19 Mar 2015 17:02:20 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide Message-ID: March 19 INDONESIA: Death row gran Lindsay Sandiford continues to decline Foreign Office support as execution date looms Sandiford, who is originally from Redcar, is due to be killed by firing squad for smuggling 1.6m pounds worth of cocaine into Bali. The 58-year-old claims she was forced to transport it under duress because her son's life was being threatened by a drugs trafficking gang. Last month, she was sent a letter from Indonesian prosecutors, informing her she could face a firing squad as early as March. She claims to have received little help from the Foreign Office since her arrest but the office disputes this, saying it had consistently provided and offered consular support to Sandiford, which she is currently declining to accept. And today, a Foreign Office spokesperson confirmed that remained the case, with no updates on her situation. "Mrs Sandiford had regular contact with our consular officials in Bali until September 2014, at which point she declined to accept any further support. We stand ready to offer her consular assistance." Sandiford was found with the cocaine when she arrived in Bali from Thailand in May 2012. Without legal representation, she has been unable to fully challenge her death penalty and the right to file for clemency. Last month, British foreign secretary Philip Hammond, while on a visit to Indonesia, raised the UK government's opposition to the death penalty in a meeting with vice-president Jusuf Kall and foreign minister Ibu Retno. Her sister, Hilary Parsons, was also reported to have gone to Bali with three lawyers in a bid to try and save her. But so far, there has been no public suggestion of any change in Indonesia???s stance regarding Sandiford. A spokeswoman for human rights group Reprieve, which issued various press releases about Sandiford in the months after her detention, said today they have been "instructed not to speak about the case." (source: gazettelive.co.uk) PAKISTAN: UN urges Pakistan to reinstate suspension of death penalty The United Nations has expressed deep concern today at the increasing number of executions in Pakistan since December 2014, and at the Government's recent announcement that it has now withdrawn its moratorium on the death penalty for all cases, not only those related to terrorism. "It has also been reported that among those executed there are persons who were minors when the offence was committed. According to some estimates, there are more than 8,000 prisoners on death row," said a statement from the UN office in Pakistan. The UN expressed concern over cases where the death penalty was handed down to minors and welcomed reviews of these cases. "The UN has consistently called for an unequivocal end to the execution of anyone, anywhere, who is convicted of committing a crime when they are under the age of 18," the statement said. More than 160 UN Member States with a variety of legal systems and religious backgrounds have either abolished the death penalty or do not practice it. Moreover, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein has expressed deep regret at the resumption of executions in Pakistan, stressing that no judiciary - anywhere - can be infallible. There is no scientific proof, according to the UN, that the death penalty serves as a deterrent or contributes to combating crime or violent extremism. "While we appreciate the need for effective counter-terrorism measures to protect people, including children, such action must strengthen human rights and be proportionate and necessary in a democratic society," the UN said in today's statement. Under international treaties, in particular the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, Pakistan legally committed itself to ensuring due process and not imposing the death penalty. "The UN in Pakistan, therefore, urges the Government to reinstate its moratorium as soon as possible. We stand ready to support it in doing so and to assist in strengthening the existing justice system if so requested," the statement emphasized. (source: UN News Centre) CHINA: Death Sentence for Arsonist over Land Dispute A man has been sentenced to death in east China's Shandong Province for setting a fatal fire in a dispute over land rights in March 2014. Wang Yuefu was among 7 people charged with arson in the incident which left a 62-year-old man dead and three others injured in Pingdu city. The fire on March 21st followed a group of villagers occupying a patch of farmland to prevent its seizure for a construction project. They were dissatisfied with the compensation they had received. Wang and 4 others were hired by the real estate developer to threaten the group. They were later allegedly ordered by the village head, Du Qunshan, to set fire to a tent set up by the villagers guarding the farmland. At Thursday's sentencing, 2 other defendants including Du were given the life imprisonment while the other 4 received prison terms ranging from 6 to 15 years. Wang said he would appeal against the death sentence. The case gained wide attention in China and renewed concern over land disputes amid the country's urbanization drive. (source: CRIEnglish.com) ******************* Mother of executed teenager sees murder case files The mother of Nie Shubin, who was executed in 1995 after being convicted of raping and killing a woman in Shijiazhuang, Hebei province, left a court on Wednesday with copies of all the files related to her son's case. Zhang Huanzhi, 70, had been granted full access to the files for the 1st time. She was accompanied by her 2 lawyers as she read and copied the documents at Shandong High People's Court, and it took them 2 days to complete their work. "I want to tell Shubin that I am doing everything I can to fight for his innocence. The Shandong court has given me hope," said Zhang. One of her lawyers, Li Shuting, said, "For the first time, I saw smiles on Zhang's face." Nie was executed at the age of 21. In 2005, Wang Shujin, who was wanted in connection with three other rape-murder cases, confessed to the crime. Zhang then started campaigning to clear her son's name. However, despite more than 50 requests from her lawyers, the Hebei High People's Court refused to show them the complete documents. In December, the Supreme People's Court transferred the case to the Shandong court. The move is seen as a major development in the case by Li, who has been representing the family for the past 10 years. Zhang said: "The Shandong court not only allowed my lawyers to read Nie Shubin's case files but also Wang's case files. I believe the judges will give me justice." Li said, "The case is 100 % a wrongful execution." Li and the family's 2nd lawyer, Chen Guangwu, read 3 volumes of Nie's files, 8 volumes of Wang's files and 6 volumes of files covering reinvestigations of the case. The verdict on Nie still stands because the Hebei High Court, which approved the death penalty, rejected Wang's claim that he was the murderer. (source: ECNS) BELARUS: "Human Rights Defenders Against the Death Penalty" represent Belarus at barcamp in Kutaisi For 3 days, the 2nd capital of Georgia - Kutaisi - hosted an event that united guests from various non-governmental organizations of the South Caucasus, Belarus, Ukraine and other countries. The Czech NGO "Nesehnuti" organized a BarCamp, an international series of conferences, created by its participants. The event was held at the State University of Kutaisi. The opening was attended by representatives of the Embassy of the Czech Republic in Georgia, the Mayor of Kutaisi and Deputy Rector of University. Each of them delivered a welcoming speech. Activities included sharing of experience on topics of democratic changes using technology and recycling. Participants also discussed monitoring trade in arms in Slovakia, the situation with the LGTB community in Azerbaijan and other topics. Coordinator of the campaign "Human Rights Defenders Against the Death Penalty in Belarus" Andrei Paluda presented the activities of the Belarusian human rights activists to abolish the death penalty in Belarus. He told about the irreversible nature of the death penalty, the possibility of judicial errors, as well as the secrecy that exists around the capital punishment: relatives are not informed about the date of execution of the sentence and the burial place, which brings additional sufferings and is regarded as torture. Belarus is the last country in Europe and the former Soviet Union, which still uses the death penalty. (source: foreignaffairs.co.nz) ******************** MAN SENTENCED TO DEATH IN RECHYTSA The Rechytsa District Court sentenced Siarhei Ivanou, 21, to death on charges of murdering and raping a 19-year-old girl on 29 August 2013. Besides murder charges committed with special cruelty and conjugated with sexual assault (Part 2, Art. 139 of the Criminal Code), the death convict was accused of malicious hooliganism (Part 2, Art. 339 of the Criminal Code), robbery (Part 2, Art. 206), inflicting serious bodily injuries (para. 7, Part 2, Art. 147), theft (Part 2, Art. 205), other acts of sexual nature (Part 3, Art. 167). The trial was held behind closed doors and the charges were most likely heard by a court of a different level, since cases which may result in a death verdict are normally considered by Regional Courts. According to the BelaPAN news agency, the defendant had been repeatedly convicted and was intoxicated, including as a result of abusing psychotropic substances, at the time of the murder. (sources: Viasna Belarus Human Rights Center, foreignaffairs.co.nz) ************************* Rechytsa resident sentenced to death by firing squad In Rechytsa on March 18, 21-old local resident got a sentence who raped and brutally killed a 19-year-old girl on August 29, 2013. The court sentenced him to death by firing squad. In addition to homicide committed with special cruelty and involving sexual battery the young man was committed with malicious hooliganism (para 2, Art. 339 CC), robbery (para 2, Art. 206), intended infliction of grave bodily injuries (para 7, Art. 147, theft (para 2, Art. 205), and other actions of sexual nature (para 3, Art. 167). The trial was held behind closed doors, BelaPAN reports. It should be reminded that brutal murder occurred on August 29, 2013. A watchman found the maimed girl's corpse in the morning near the Youth Art Center in the Rechytsa centre. The girl died a violent death, the body was found with multiple injuries and with impact marks. That day a suspect - repeatedly tried local resident who was familiar with the girl - was detained. The investigation found out that for the moment of the homicide the accused had been drunk and used psychotropic substances. Young man attacked the girl to rape. The girl died of multiple grave injuries and blows. After the homicide the offender took the victim's valuables away. (source: charter97.org) IRAN----executions 2 more hanged in public 2 men have been hanged in public in the Iranian city of Jiroft ahead of the regime's New Year celebrations. The executions were carried out using a crane and mechanical fork loader in one of the city's main squares, with armed men guarding from rooftops around the area. The death sentences took place on the day after Fire Festival - known as Charshanbeh Souri - used by many Iranians to defy the clerical regime. Fearing of public protests, prior to the Fire Festival, a senior cleric described it as 'religiously forbidden' and warned people about 'crossing God's red lines'. In Tehran, people lit bonfires in public places, set off fireworks and launched wish lanterns as part of an annual ritual. Elsewhere, people threw portraits of the regime's Supreme Leader into fire and chanted 'death to the dictator'. The Iranian opposition and international rights groups have repeatedly stated that the regime is using public hangings as a way of suppressing public protests by inspiring fear in society. (source: NCR-Iran) From rhalperi at smu.edu Fri Mar 20 16:36:53 2015 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Fri, 20 Mar 2015 16:36:53 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, FLA., S.C., ALA., LA., OHIO Message-ID: March 20 TEXAS: Texas prosecutor accused of misconduct for role in famous execution case ---- State bar alleges that John Jackson 'knew of the existence of evidence that tended to negate the guilt' of Cameron Willingham, who was executed in 2004 The state bar of Texas has filed a formal misconduct accusation against the prosecutor who secured a conviction in one of the country's most dubious and disputed death penalty cases. Earlier this month the bar lodged a petition in Navarro County, near Dallas, alleging that John Jackson withheld evidence that pointed to the innocence of Cameron Todd Willingham, who was executed in 2004 for the murder of his 3 young daughters, who died in a house fire in 1991. "Before, during, and after the 1992 trial, [Jackson] knew of the existence of evidence that tended to negate the guilt of Willingham, and failed to disclose that evidence to defence counsel," it reads. Jackson was an assistant district attorney at the time, later becoming a judge. The petition, obtained by the criminal-justice journalism group the Marshall Project, alleges that he made multiple attempts to secure favourable treatment for an imprisoned informant named Johnny Webb, who testified that Willingham started the fire. They included taking steps to reduce Webb's charge from aggravated robbery to robbery, giving him a better chance of parole. The complaint also claims that Jackson dishonestly told a court that he had no evidence that could help Willingham's defence. It follows a grievance filed last year by the New York-based miscarriage of justice investigatory group the Innocence Project, which has investigated the case. Jackson has strongly maintained his innocence and insisted that Willingham, who was 23 at the time of the deaths, was guilty of arson. However, Webb recanted his testimony in 2000 and gave interviews to the Marshall Project in 2014 in which he said he lied on the witness stand so that Jackson would help reduce his sentence and arrange thousands of dollars in help via a wealthy local rancher. Also key to Willingham's conviction was forensic evidence from arson investigators that was subsequently discredited by experts as being based on a misinterpretation. Despite mounting concern that Willingham was innocent, the former Texas governor Rick Perry refused to stay his execution. In 2009, after an investigation by the Texas forensic science commission found that the arson evidence was faulty, Perry replaced the board's chairman and 2 other members and called Willingham "a monster". The execution was briefly a contentious topic during Perry's bid for the Republican nomination for the 2012 US presidential election. During a debate, Perry was asked whether the possibility of having executed an innocent person made it hard for him to sleep at night. "No, sir, I've never struggled with that at all," replied Perry, now a possible Republican presidential candidate again. In 2013 another former Texas prosecutor, Ken Anderson, was sentenced to 10 days in jail and 500 hours of community service as part of a plea deal related to evidence withheld in the erroneous conviction of Michael Morton, who spent nearly 25 years behind bars for murdering his wife until DNA evidence exonerated him in 2011. Among Willingham's last words in the Texas death chamber before the lethal injection took effect were: "The only statement I want to make is that I am an innocent man - convicted of a crime I did not commit. I have been persecuted for 12 years for something I did not do." If found guilty, Jackson could be disbarred. He retired in 2012. (source: The Guardian) FLORIDA: Prosecutors to seek death penalty for man charged with throwing daughter off Tampa Bay bridge Prosecutors in the John Jonchuck case say they will seek the death penalty if he ever faces trial in his daughter's death. Jonchuck is accused of throwing his 5-year-old daughter Phoebe off the southbound approach to the Sunshine Skyway Bridge on January 8. He is facing 1st-degree murder charges. Last month, Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge Chris Helinger ruled he was mentally incompetent to stand trial and sent him to a mental facility. Still, mental health experts believe his competency could eventually be restored with the right treatment. And that would allow the case to pick up where it left off. Another Jonchuck competency hearing is scheduled for September. (source: Bradenton Herald) SOUTH CAROLINA: Execution-drug seller bill also introduced in SC House Another bill that would shield the identities of pharmaceutical companies that supply execution drugs to South Carolina is being considered by the state Legislature. The House measure introduced Tuesday is a companion to a version already advancing in the Senate. The legislation would add drug companies to the state's execution team and thus require that their identities be kept secret, in the hope that providers will resume selling execution drugs to the state. Like its Senate counterpart, the House proposal would also exempt the companies from state health and purchasing rules. No debate on the new bill has been scheduled. A Senate subcommittee voted unanimously Tuesday to approve its version, which is set to be considered by the full Senate Corrections and Penology Committee on Thursday. South Carolina has run out of one of its three lethal injection drugs, the anesthetic pentobarbital, and has not been able to find anyone willing to sell more. Corrections Director Bryan Stirling has said that, if their names were shielded from the public, pharmaceutical companies might be willing to start selling the drugs again. The legislation was patterned after bills in other states that have run into problems obtaining execution drugs. Texas, the country's most active death penalty state, is working to find a supplier to replenish its dwindling inventory amid a pending court order that would no longer allow the state to protect the supplier's identity. Ohio is out of the 2 drugs it needs. In February, a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by 4 death row inmates there who challenged a similar shield law. Similar fights are ongoing in other death penalty states including Oklahoma and Missouri. But courts - including the U.S. Supreme Court - have yet to halt an execution based on a state's refusal to reveal its drug supplier. (source: greenvilleonline.com) ALABAMA: Alabama executions on hold A federal judge has ordered a stay on legal proceedings for all pending executions in Alabama until the U.S. Supreme Court rules later this year whether the state's lethal injection method constitutes cruel and unusual punishment. U.S. Middle District Chief District Judge Keith Watkins wrote in a Thursday order covering 9 pending capital cases that the high court's expected decision in Glossip v. Gross, challenging an Oklahoma execution method also used by Alabama, would have a significant impact on the cases before the court. The news was first reported by The Anniston Star. Like Alabama's 3-drug protocol, Oklahoma's execution method was based on a Florida process that uses the drug midazolam as a sedative to render the condemned inmate unconscious before drugs that paralyze the muscles and stop the heart are administered. Executions have been carried out in Florida without reported incidents; however, midazolam was present in at least 3 botched executions in Ohio, Oklahoma and Arizona last year. Attorneys for death row inmates have argued that midazolam will not render inmates unconscious in time to prevent them from feeling the pain from the other 2 drugs. That, they say, would be a violation of the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishment. "Glossip will address, among other things, Florida's lethal injection protocol, which is substantially similar to Alabama's, and will likely bear directly on the pleading and proof standards in Eighth Amendment lethal injection claims, as well as the scope and type of discovery that is relevant and appropriate in those cases," Watkins wrote. The state has asked the Alabama Supreme Court to set execution dates in all nine cases. Watkins noted in his order that that state attorneys have said they will not oppose a motion to stay the execution of Anthony Boyd, sentenced to die after helping burn a man to death in 1993 over a drug debt, until the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Glossip. A spokeswoman for the Alabama Attorney General's office said Thursday the office had no comment. The order effectively stays the executions until the U.S. Supreme Court's expected ruling in Glossip. The high court is expected to hear arguments in the case this spring, with a ruling coming sometime before the end of June. Following the decision, Watkins said attorneys for both sides will file briefs explaining how the decision will impact their cases. In February, Watkins stayed the execution of Thomas Arthur, convicted in 1982 as part of a murder-for-hire scheme. Arthur's attorneys have argued the execution method would violate the Eighth Amendment by keeping him awake while painful drugs were administered. The attorneys have also said Arthur's 14th Amendment due process rights would be violated, due to conflicting testimony from Alabama corrections officials as to whether a consciousness test is consistently administered to inmates before the lethal drugs are administered. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of a particular method of lethal injection in Baze v. Rees, a 2008 case. However, the sedative used in that method -- sodium thiapentol -- is no longer manufactured, and the Glossip plaintiffs argue that midazolam cannot render the "deep, coma-like unconsciousness" required by the U.S. Supreme Court. Due to legal challenges and shortages of drugs used, Alabama has not conducted an execution since July 25, 2013. The Alabama House of Represenatives last week voted to bring back the electric chair if lethal injection is ruled unconstitutional, or otherwise unworkable. (source: Montgomery Advertiser) LOUISIANA: Lead prosecutor apologizes, admits mistakes in Glenn Ford case----Stroud: Death penalty is 'abomination that continues to scar the fibers of this society' Editor's Note: Attorney A.M. "Marty" Stroud III, of Shreveport, was the lead prosecutor in the December 1984 1st-degree murder trial of Glenn Ford, who was sentenced to death for the Nov. 5, 1983 death of Shreveport jeweler Isadore Rozeman. Ford was released from prison March 11, 2014, after the state admitted new evidence proving Ford was not the killer. Stroud is responding to an editorial in the March 6 edition of The Times that urged the state to now give Ford justice by not fighting compensation allowed for those wrongfully convicted. RE: "State should give Ford real justice," March 8 This is the 1st, and probably will be the last, time that I have publicly voiced an opinion on any of your editorials. Quite frankly, I believe many of your editorials avoid the hard questions on a current issue in order not to be too controversial. I congratulate you here, though, because you have taken a clear stand on what needs to be done in the name of justice. Glenn Ford should be completely compensated to every extent possible because of the flaws of a system that effectively destroyed his life. The audacity of the state's effort to deny Mr. Ford any compensation for the horrors he suffered in the name of Louisiana justice is appalling. I know of what I speak. "Glenn Ford deserves every penny owed to him under the compensation statute. This case is another example of the arbitrariness of the death penalty. I now realize, all too painfully, that as a young 33-year-old prosecutor, I was not capable of making a decision that could have led to the killing of another human being." A.M. Stroud I was at the trial of Glenn Ford from beginning to end. I witnessed the imposition of the death sentence upon him. I believed that justice was done. I had done my job. I was one of the prosecutors and I was proud of what I had done. The death sentence had illustrated that our community would brook no tolerance for cold-blooded killers. The Old Testament admonishment, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, was alive and well in Caddo Parish. I even received a congratulatory note from one of the state's witnesses, concluding with the question, "how does it feel to be wearing a black glove?" Members of the victim's family profusely thanked the prosecutors and investigators for our efforts. They had received some closure, or so everyone thought. However, due to the hard work and dedication of lawyers working with the Capital Post-Conviction Project of Louisiana, along with the efforts of the Caddo Parish district attorney's and sheriff's offices, the truth was uncovered. Glenn Ford was an innocent man. He was released from the hell hole he had endured for the last 3 decades. There was no technicality here. Crafty lawyering did not secure the release of a criminal. Mr. Ford spent 30 years of his life in a small, dingy cell. His surroundings were dire. Lighting was poor, heating and cooling were almost non-existent, food bordered on the uneatable. Nobody wanted to be accused of "coddling" a death row inmate. But Mr. Ford never gave up. He continued the fight for his innocence. And it finally paid off. Pursuant to the review and investigation of cold homicide cases, investigators uncovered evidence that exonerated Mr. Ford. Indeed, this evidence was so strong that had it been disclosed during of the investigation there would not have been sufficient evidence to even arrest Mr. Ford! And yet, despite this grave injustice, the state does not accept any responsibility for the damage suffered by one of its citizens. The bureaucratic response appears to be that nobody did anything intentionally wrong, thus the state has no responsibility. This is nonsensical. Explain that position to Mr. Ford and his family. Facts are stubborn things, they do not go away. At the time this case was tried there was evidence that would have cleared Glenn Ford. The easy and convenient argument is that the prosecutors did not know of such evidence, thus they were absolved of any responsibility for the wrongful conviction. I can take no comfort in such an argument. As a prosecutor and officer of the court, I had the duty to prosecute fairly. While I could properly strike hard blows, ethically I could not strike foul ones. Part of my duty was to disclose promptly any exculpatory evidence relating to trial and penalty issues of which I was made aware. My fault was that I was too passive. I did not consider the rumors about the involvement of parties other than Mr. Ford to be credible, especially since the three others who were indicted for the crime were ultimately released for lack of sufficient evidence to proceed to the trial. The state admitted in 2013 that it had credible evidence Had I been more inquisitive, perhaps the evidence would have come to light years ago. But I wasn't, and my inaction contributed to the miscarriage of justice in this matter. Based on what we had, I was confident that the right man was being prosecuted and I was not going to commit resources to investigate what I considered to be bogus claims that we had the wrong man. My mindset was wrong and blinded me to my purpose of seeking justice, rather than obtaining a conviction of a person who I believed to be guilty. I did not hide evidence, I simply did not seriously consider that sufficient information may have been out there that could have led to a different conclusion. And that omission is on me. Furthermore, my silence at trial undoubtedly contributed to the wrong-headed result. I did not question the unfairness of Mr. Ford having appointed counsel who had never tried a criminal jury case much less a capital one. It never concerned me that the defense had insufficient funds to hire experts or that defense counsel shut down their firms for substantial periods of time to prepare for trial. These attorneys tried their very best, but they were in the wrong arena. They were excellent attorneys with experience in civil matters. But this did not prepare them for trying to save the life of Mr. Ford. The jury was all white, Mr. Ford was African-American. Potential African-American jurors were struck with little thought about potential discrimination because at that time a claim of racial discrimination in the selection of jurors could not be successful unless it could be shown that the office had engaged in a pattern of such conduct in other cases. And I knew this was a very burdensome requirement that had never been met in the jurisprudence of which I was aware. I also participated in placing before the jury dubious testimony from a forensic pathologist that the shooter had to be left handed, even though there was no eye witness to the murder. And yes, Glenn Ford was left handed. All too late, I learned that the testimony was pure junk science at its evil worst. In 1984, I was 33 years old. I was arrogant, judgmental, narcissistic and very full of myself. I was not as interested in justice as I was in winning. To borrow a phrase from Al Pacino in the movie "And Justice for All," "Winning became everything." After the death verdict in the Ford trial, I went out with others and celebrated with a few rounds of drinks. That's sick. I had been entrusted with the duty to seek the death of a fellow human being, a very solemn task that certainly did not warrant any "celebration." In my rebuttal argument during the penalty phase of the trial, I mocked Mr. Ford, stating that this man wanted to stay alive so he could be given the opportunity to prove his innocence. I continued by saying this should be an affront to each of you jurors, for he showed no remorse, only contempt for your verdict. How totally wrong was I. I speak only for me and no one else. I apologize to Glenn Ford for all the misery I have caused him and his family. I apologize to the family of Mr. Rozeman for giving them the false hope of some closure. I apologize to the members of the jury for not having all of the story that should have been disclosed to them. I apologize to the court in not having been more diligent in my duty to ensure that proper disclosures of any exculpatory evidence had been provided to the defense. "Looking back at that period of time in my life, I was not a very nice person, and I had no business trying a death case for the state. My unintended victim, Glenn Ford." A.M. Stroud Glenn Ford deserves every penny owed to him under the compensation statute. This case is another example of the arbitrariness of the death penalty. I now realize, all too painfully, that as a young 33-year-old prosecutor, I was not capable of making a decision that could have led to the killing of another human being. No one should be given the ability to impose a sentence of death in any criminal proceeding. We are simply incapable of devising a system that can fairly and impartially impose a sentence of death because we are all fallible human beings. The clear reality is that the death penalty is an anathema to any society that purports to call itself civilized. It is an abomination that continues to scar the fibers of this society and it will continue to do so until this barbaric penalty is outlawed. Until then, we will live in a land that condones state assisted revenge and that is not justice in any form or fashion. I end with the hope that providence will have more mercy for me than I showed Glenn Ford. But, I am also sobered by the realization that I certainly am not deserving of it. (source: Shreveport Times) OHIO: Court of Claims: Exonerated Murder Suspect Granted $1 Million for Wrongful Imprisonment Ricky Jackson v. State of Ohio Case. No. 2015-00127 A Cleveland man falsely imprisoned for 39 years will initially receive just more than $1 million from the state for his time behind bars, the Ohio Court of Claims ruled Thursday. The court granted partial judgment to Ricky Jackson, 59, for the 14,178 days he spent in prison for a murder he did not commit. The Court of Claims filed a request with the State Controlling Board to transfer $1,008,055.80 to pay Jackson. Jackson had his death sentence overturned and was released from an Ohio state prison in November 2014 after the key witness in the case against him recanted his story. Jackson was convicted of the 1975 murder of Harold Franks and maintained his innocence throughout his incarceration. Eddie Vernon, who was 12 at the time of the murder, revealed to a Cleveland newspaper in 2012 that he had lied about Jackson and 2 other men's involvement in the murder because he wanted to help the police. His remarks led to Jackson receiving a new trial. On February 12, a Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court ruled that Jackson established he was wrongfully imprisoned, and Cuyahoga County Prosecuting Attorney Timothy McGinty did not appeal the ruling. Jackson then presented the appropriate certification to the Court of Claims on Feb. 20. Court of Claims Judge Patrick M. McGrath ruled that pursuant to R.C. 2743.49 the state auditor's office calculated the current annual rate of compensation for a wrongfully imprisoned person is $51,902. During a status conference Wednesday, Judge McGrath said the state and Jackson's attorney Michele L. Berry, verified the number of days wrongfully incarcerated at 14,178. Judge McGrath then issued a preliminary judgment that calls for the payment of 50 % of the calculated damages, which amounted to just more than $1 million, and directed the money be sent to Berry to establish an annuity account to pay Jackson for "damages for physical injury caused by wrongful imprisonment." According to the National Registry of Exonerations, at the time of his release Jackson was considered the longest-serving person in the nation's history to be exonerated for his crime. The Court of Claims is given original jurisdiction to hear and determine all civil actions filed against the state of Ohio and its agencies. (source: Court News Ohio) ************ Ohio court awards wrongly imprisoned man over $1 million A man who was sentenced to death for a killing he didn't commit and spent nearly 4 decades behind bars will receive more than $1 million from the state for wrongful imprisonment, a court ruled Thursday. Ricky Jackson, 58, was 1 of 3 men sent to death row in 1975 after being convicted of aggravated murder in the slaying of a businessman outside a corner store in Cleveland. Cuyahoga County prosecutors at the time relied on the testimony of a 13-year-old boy to convict Jackson and 2 brothers who were Jackson's best friends. The boy, Eddie Vernon, said he saw the slaying, but he was in a school bus with other children about a block away when the businessman was shot. The now-grown Vernon signed an affidavit that the Ohio Innocence Project filed last March, saying police coerced him into testifying against Jackson, Wiley Bridgeman and Ronnie Bridgeman, now known as Kwame Ajamu. Based on the recantation and corroborating testimony that Vernon lied in 1975, a judge dismissed the charges against the three men in November. Jackson's payment comes after a judge ruled last month that all three men were entitled to compensation. The Court of Claims ordered the state to pay Jackson $1,008,055 for the nearly 39 years he spent in state prison. When Jackson was released in November he was believed to have served the longest sentence for someone wrongfully convicted. Neither Jackson nor his attorney could be reached for comment on Thursday. Wiley Bridgeman also was released from prison in November. He originally was paroled in 2002 but was sent back to prison several months later after an argument with a parole officer. Ajamu was paroled in 2003. Bridgeman and Ajamu haven't received their compensation yet. The men's slow march toward exoneration got its initial boost in 2011, after an investigation by Scene magazine. (source: MSNBC) From rhalperi at smu.edu Fri Mar 20 16:38:06 2015 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Fri, 20 Mar 2015 16:38:06 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----KY., ARK., MO., OKLA., UTAH, CALIF., USA Message-ID: March 20 KENTUCKY: Prosecutors may seek death penalty in apartment shooting case Prosecutors told the Clark Circuit Court Thursday they may seek the death penalty against suspects charged with the Dec. 23, 2014, shooting death of a woman at a Winchester apartment complex. Lillian Barnett, Lamont Wilkerson, Aaron Stailey and Christopher Robinson were arraigned before Judge Jean Chenault Logue Thursday. Not guilty pleas were entered for all 4 defendants and pre-trial conferences were scheduled for May 7. Christopher Robinson was indicted in February for capital murder, 1st-degree burglary and 2 counts of 1st-degree assault and Barnett, Stailey and Wilkerson with complicity on all counts in the death of 19-year-old Amber Caudill, who was shot after Wilkerson, Stailey and Robinson allegedly forced their way into an apartment on Oxford Drive. According to police, Barnett dropped the men off at the apartment where they planned to break in and steal drugs. Justin Meadows and Crayvone Ritchie were inside, and Meadows shot once and struck Robinson in the chest. Robinson returned fire, shooting and injuring Meadows and Ritchie. A stray bullet went through the floor, killing Caudill in the apartment below, investigators said. Assistant Commonwealth Attorney Heidi Engel said the prosecutor's office has not yet elected the death penalty in the case, though they are all eligible. Engel said the decision is up to Commonwealth Attorney David Smith, who will submit his decision in writing at a later date for all four suspects. Engel also said the death penalty has also not yet been elected in the cases of Aaron Spencer and Brandon Guy, who were charged with arson and murder in the 2012 death of Kenneth Payton Jr. Payton's home on East Broadway was set on fire after he was killed. (source: centralkynews.com) ARKANSAS----new death sentence Jury sentences man to death for 2011 killing A Garland County Circuit Court jury deliberated for just under 3 hours Thursday before sentencing a Pearcy man to death by lethal injection for the 2011 shooting death of a Hot Springs woman, his 3rd murder conviction since 1978. Randy William Gay, 56, was convicted Tuesday of capital murder in the May 10, 2011, death of Connie Ann Snow, 49, after the 9-woman, 3-man jury had deliberated for about 30 minutes. After testimony Wednesday and closing arguments Thursday, the jury recommended a sentence of death, which was accepted by Judge John Homer Wright. Wright denied a last-minute motion by Gay's attorney, Mark Fraiser, to set the recommendation aside in favor of a sentence of life in prison without parole. After Wright formally sentenced Gay -- who showed no reaction when the verdict was read -- Gay said, "Take care, judge," and Wright replied, "You, too." "We've been waiting for this for 1,437 days," Snow's daughter, Mary Beth Snow Lansdell, said moments after the verdict was announced. "My family can finally move on now, and my mother finally has justice." Lansdell said she was happy not only for her mother but also for "the rest of his victims. He'll never be able to hurt anyone else ever again, not even in prison." Gay had 2 previous convictions for second-degree murder: 1 in the 1978 shooting death of his father-in-law, James Kelly, and another in the 1991 shooting death of his own father, Glen Harold Gay. Even though Gay's sentence sets off an automatic appeals process that could take many years, Lansdell said, "We've waited a long time to get to where we're at today. This has been a long time coming." Prosecuting Attorney Terri Harris thanked the jurors, who sat through seven days of "graphic testimony" and had to consider more than 70 mitigating circumstances presented by Gay's attorneys, along with the three aggravating circumstances presented by the prosecution -- his 2 prior murder convictions and a felony terroristic threatening conviction in 2008. "This is not something that anyone takes great relish in, but based on the verdict I think justice has been served," Harris said. "The family can finally have some closure now. We've been working on this case for 3 1/2 years." In her closing remarks to the jury, Harris went back over Wednesday's testimony about Kelly, "a father, grandfather and musician who died a violent death at the age of 41" at the hands of Gay. She also noted the defense presented testimony about the abusive nature of Glen Gay toward his son. "The disconcerting part of the case was the attempt to minimize that murder and Randy Gay's reasoning behind why he killed his own father. "[Glen Gay] got beaten up in court and was not here to defend himself," she said. "Are we supposed to turn a blind eye to a second murder?" In his closing, Fraiser said there was evidence presented to support every one of the mitigating circumstances involved in the cases, especially concerning Gay's relationship with his father. He noted testimony that Gay's mother had tried to abort him and then abandoned Gay and his sisters at a young age, before their father grew abusive to them. Even when his father later tried to be his friend, he did so by encouraging him to drink alcohol and ignore his responsibilities. "I can't conceive what that must have done to a young mind," he said, noting that Gay's father was a big influence on him, which led to them being "too much alike. He didn't start out that way. He was made that way by how he was raised and treated." Fraiser noted that Gay was always a model prisoner during his previous prison terms and had qualified for parole each time. "This indicates that [Gay] functions best in a controlled environment where he is not allowed to be around alcohol because alcohol is the thread that goes through this whole case." He noted before the jury's deliberation that Gay "will never leave the Department of Correction alive. He is there now and will remain there until he is pronounced dead. It's up to you to decide if that day will be decided by God or by the state of Arkansas." In her rebuttal, Harris noted that "a lot of kids have been treated worse than [Gay] growing up. His father was strict. There's nothing exotic or unusual about being raised in that environment. There was no evidence of him showing up at school with black eyes or bruises." She said his abuse of alcohol was "a life choice" he made to avoid reality and facing "the day to day problems we all have to live with. That's a choice we all make." She said prison was "a substitute parent" for Gay, and if he had obeyed all the rules growing up like he did while in prison "he wouldn't be sitting here today." She noted prison would not be a punishment for Gay because "that's his home. All you're doing is sending him home." Harris said Gay "caused the violent deaths of three people for no particular reason." In asking for the death penalty, she told the jury, "The time for leniency for this defendant has come to an end, and it needs to end today." (source: Arkansas Online) ********************* Family of Randy Gay's 3rd victim rejoices over death sentence A Garland County jury sentenced Randy William Gay, 56, to death for the 2011 death of Connie Snow Thursday. Snow was killed and her body dumped in the Ouachita National Forest. Gay was charged for Snow's death Tuesday. Gay is now the 33rd inmate on death row in the state. The last people to be sentenced to death in Arkansas were in Lee and Lincoln Counties in 2014. Just moments after the verdict, Mary Lansdell, the oldest daughter of Connie Snow, and her husband Tracey told Channel 7 Gay's sentencing was a relief. "I feel anxious, grateful, anxiety, happy , relief, and just ... our family can get closure," Mary said. "Justice is finally served. I want to thank the courts and everybody that was in there and everybody that participated in helping us get this conviction and this verdict. I just want to thank them for their time. They have brought so much to my family." The Jury took a little over 3 hours to come to their decision. Both lawyers and Snow's family agreed that the trial took a toll on everyone. Both the state and the defense made their closing arguments Thursday. Both made thorough Cases. Gay's lawyer, Mark Fraiser, focused on Gay's upbringing and background, asking the jury to act with Mercy and Grace. Emphasizing that Gay can appropriately function in a controlled atmosphere like prison. "If you take an eye for an eye the whole world will be blind," Fraiser said in court Thursday. Prosecuting Attorney Terri Harris represented The state. She focused on Gay's history, emphasizing that Gay has used the corrections system as a substitute parent instead of choosing to change for the better making life in prison with no parole an inappropriate sentence. "All you are doing is sending him home," Harris said in court Thursday. Mary Landsdell said that the experience in court was strenuous. "The most horrifying thing we've had to experience. Wouldn't wish it on anybody. Losing somebody as brutally the way we did it's heart breaking, it's hard to explain," Tracey said. As for Snow's family they said Thursday night will be about celebration. "Tonight? Family dinner! Celebration," Lansdell said. "4 years, I think we are all going to unwind. This whole trial that we just had to experience and the details we have been exposed to...we are going to spend time together as a family like Connie would have wanted us to do," Tracey said. According to Chief Deputy Prosecutor, Michelle Lawrence the Gay's case will go into an automatic appeal. Gay exchanged final words with Judge John Homer Wright, moments before he was taken to ADC saying, "Take Care Judge Wright." The last person to be executed on death row in Arkansas was Eric Nance in 2005. Gay will be the only person from Garland County on death row. (source: KATV news) MISSOURI: Prosecutors seeking death penalty in Jonesburg triple killing Prosecutors are now seeking the death penalty against the man accused in a 2014 triple killing near Jonesburg. Shawn Kavanagh is accused of going on a stabbing spree while looking for his estranged wife on Valentine's Day in 2014. The woman survived, but an 8-year-old boy and 2 others were killed. Kavanagh's next court appearance is scheduled for June 25. (source: ABC news) OKLAHOMA: Can Executions Be More Humane?----A law professor suggests an untested procedure as an alternative to lethal injection. Michael Copeland has a unique resume: former Assistant Attorney General of the tiny Pacific island nation of Palau, professor of criminal justice at East Central University in Ada, Oklahoma - and now, the proponent of a new execution method he claims would be more humane than lethal injection. Copeland is one of the brains behind House Bill 1879 proposed by Oklahoma State Representative Mike Christian. The bill, passed by the Oklahoma House last week, would make "nitrogen hypoxia" a secondary method to lethal injection. Oklahoma State Senator Anthony Sykes will be introducing it to the senate shortly. Copeland explained the execution method last September to the Oklahoma House Judiciary Committee at Christian's invitation. Copeland says that Christian had been suggesting the firing squad, but Copeland thought there might be a better way. Along with 2 other professors from East Central University, Christine C. Pappas and Thomas M. Parr, he is drafting a white paper about the benefits of nitrogen-induced hypoxia over lethal injection. This isn't Oklahoma's 1st time engineering new execution methods. The modern lethal-injection protocol was first proposed by an Oklahoma state medical examiner named Jay Chapman in 1977. But Copeland, who spends most of his time teaching criminal justice policy, procedure, and research methods, has no background in medicine. This is his first foray into execution technologies. Hypoxia occurs when a person lacks an adequate supply of oxygen. "Normally, the air we breathe is 79 % nitrogen and 21 % oxygen," Copeland explains. Nitrogen hypoxia during an execution "would be induced by having the offender breathing a gas mixture of pure nitrogen." Copeland points out that "nitrogen is an inert gas, and therefore doesn't actually cause the death. It is the lack of oxygen that causes death." According to Copeland, death from nitrogen hypoxia is painless. "In industrial accidents, it often happens because the victim does not know they are in a hypoxic environment," he said. "That suffocating feeling of anxiety and discomfort is not associated with hypoxic deaths." He says nitrogen-induced hypoxia is well-researched, although the ideal delivery system for an execution has not yet been established. 2 ideas include a medical-grade oxygen tent around the head or a facemask similar to those used by firefighters. The condemned person might not even know when the "the switch to pure nitrogen occurs, instead he would simply lose consciousness about 15 seconds after the switch was made," he added. "Approximately thirty seconds later, he would stop producing brain waves, and the heart would stop beating about 2 to 3 minutes after that." Since the botched execution of Clayton Lockett last April, Oklahoma's death row has been in the national spotlight. Lockett died 43 minutes after the process began - far longer than a typical lethal injection - and appeared to writhe in pain. The Supreme Court is now reviewing the state's lethal-injection protocol to determine whether or not it is humane. Meanwhile, three scheduled executions in the state have been postponed. Copeland says that conditions for lethal-injection executions will only get worse. States are scrambling to find the drugs and the health professionals to use them, and both are required for lethal injection to take place. "You have anti-death penalty zealots around the globe that protest, that bring attention to the manufacturers of these drugs," Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt told a local chamber of commerce last summer. Pruitt said that as long as activists pressure manufacturers, there will be supply issues. As more drug manufacturers create end-user agreements that prevent states from using their drugs for executions, departments of corrections are searching for other ways to carry out death sentences. The situation is acute. Last week, Akorn became the latest drug company to make rules about how certain drugs are used, South Carolina announced it had run out of drugs, and Texas said it had only one dose of pentobarbital remaining. Oklahoma is not alone in its quest for new execution methods. The electric chair is Tennessee's new backup method, while Utah will use the firing squad if lethal injection is not possible. Other states, including Louisiana and Oklahoma, are researching methods involving gas. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, 4 states have gas chambers as backups to lethal injection: Arizona, California, Missouri, and Wyoming. >From its 1st use in the execution of Gee Jon in Nevada in 1924 to its link to Nazi gas chambers, lethal gas as method of execution has a problematic history. American lethal-gas executions typically used hydrogen cyanide as the mechanism of death. Inmates were strapped to chairs in gas chambers and the ensuing chemical reaction would cause visible signs of pain and discomfort: skin discoloration, drooling, and writhing. But nitrogen hypoxia would likely not produce the gruesome deaths that resulted from cyanide gas executions. Copeland says that "you don't have to worry about someone reacting differently." The condemned person would feel slightly intoxicated before losing consciousness and ultimately dying. Other death-penalty experts are more skeptical. "It's only been partially vetted, superficially researched, and has never been tried," said Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center. "Using it would be an experiment on human subjects." State death rows would be strapping someone down without any idea what would happen next, he feared. "We'd need testimony from the best experts on this," Dieter says. "Right now, this is sailing through a legislature and not a peer-review process. I'm no doctor, but let's hear from them. I don't completely dismiss the idea that this could become approved or that it's as good as they say because lethal injection is in a bind." If the bill becomes law and Oklahoma successfully executes someone using this method, it could spread from to state very quickly, Dieter says. Older methods like firing squads are a little too brutal for the American public, but something new could be accepted. If so, he says, "it could lead to an awkward spurt of executions." Copeland says he is not a death penalty absolutist. "I think the state has a unique obligation for justice - it's the state's obligation," he explains. "But I don't think the death penalty is a deterrent compared to life without parole." If we must have the death penalty, he argues, it should be humane. "Nitrogen is ubiquitous. The process is humane, it doesn't require expertise, and it's cheap." Christine C. Pappas, one of Copeland's co-researchers, echoes this point. In an email exchange, she said that if the Supreme Court invalidates lethal injection as an execution method, it would not necessarily mean the end of the death penalty. States could find other ways to kill. "If we are to have the death penalty, which is something that Oklahomans really want, I believe it should be as painless as possible," she argues. Pappas is opposed to capital punishment and says she's faced criticism from abolitionists who think she's in league with death-penalty advocates. "What's missing is the question of whether or not we should be executing people at all," said Ryan Kiesel, the executive director of the Oklahoma ACLU and a former 3-term member of the state House of Representatives. He argues that the state legislature is missing the big picture. "Instead, we???re having this bizarre academic exercise with professors playing doctors dressed up as executioners. Behind all of those masks, there's no legitimate expertise to help legislators consider this method." Kiesel says they need to step back and take a look at facts that are, in his words, an indictment of the death penalty itself. He points to the central role that race and class play into death sentences and to Oklahoma's 10 death-row exonerations. Those factors, he argues, should give legislators pause. "It's a fool's errand to inject humanity into something that at its very core is a brutal act," he added. "You can't make it more humane." But Copeland thinks that it is death penalty abolitionists who have made executions inhumane by restricting access to drugs. It will only get worse. Some corrections officials at the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections agree. On February 18, they submitted a report to the state House of Representatives proposing the use of nitrogen-induced hypoxia and cited Copeland's forthcoming paper. (source: The Atlantic) UTAH: Utah Governor Gary Herbert 'Leaning Toward' Firing Squad Utah's governor says he's "leaning toward" signing a bill that would make firing squad the method of execution if the state can't come up with the drugs for lethal injections. At a news conference on Thursday, Gov. Gary Herbert said he prefers the needle to the bullet but has to make sure there's a backup to carry out capital punishment. State lawmakers approved the bill a week ago, making Utah the latest state to look for alternative methods in the wake of nationwide drug shortages. Death penalty opponents have been urging the Republican governor to veto it. "I'm leaning toward signing it," Herbert told reporters. "The debate is really more than just the firing squad. It's should we have capital punishment or not?" A handful of death-row prisoners in Utah are eligible for the firing squad now, but only if they choose it. The bill would let the state impose it against an inmate's will. "It's not our preference, but we need to have a fallback," he said. States across the country are having difficulty obtaining the chemicals for lethal injections because manufacturers won't sell them for the purpose of killing someone, and new drug combinations devised to fill the void are under attack as too painful. (source: NBC news) CALIFORNIA: San Quentin Death Row Inmate Who Raped, Killed Teen Stepdaughter Dies In Hospital A San Quentin State Prison death row inmate convicted of the 1998 rape and murder of his stepdaughter in Sacramento County died Wednesday at a nearby hospital, state prison officials said Thursday. Leon Chauncey Cooper, 54, was pronounced dead at 4:40 p.m. Wednesday. His cause of death is pending the results of an autopsy, according to prison officials. Cooper was sentenced to death on May 25, 2001, for the rape and murder of his 15-year-old stepdaughter LaRhonda Johnson, a sophomore at Florin High School east of Sacramento, prison officials said. Cooper had also been previously convicted in 1996 for the sexual battery of Johnson???s then-18-year-old sister, according to prison officials. Since 1978, when California reinstated the death penalty, 66 inmates on death row have died from natural causes, 23 have committed suicide, 13 have been executed in the state, 1 was executed in Missouri, 6 have died from other causes and 2 are pending the cause of death, prison officials said. (source: CBS news) USA: 40 Years of Death Row: 1,359 Executed; 890 Convictions Overturned Being sentenced to death by the courts in the United States does not mean a convicted individual is going to die at the hands of an executioner. Quite the contrary. Federal statistics covering 40 years of the death penalty reveal that 8,466 people were sentenced to death from 1973 to 2013. But only 1,359 were executed during this time, according to Frank Baumgartner, the Richard J. Richardson Distinguished Professor of Political Science at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, and Anna Dietrich, a UNC-CH graduate whose senior thesis was on this topic. That translates into an execution rate of 16%. A total of 3,194 had their sentences overturned on appeal, with 890 having their convictions thrown out. Another 1,781 had their death-penalty sentence overturned, but guilt was sustained. 523 got off death row because the law was declared unconstitutional. The likelihood of carrying out a death sentence in an average state in the U.S. is 13%. Virginia is the only state to have executed more than 50% of the prison inmates it has sentenced to death. "Those sentenced to death are almost 3 times as likely to see their death sentence overturned on appeal and to be resentenced to a lesser penalty than they are to be executed," Baumgartner and Dietrich wrote. "Regardless of one's view of the death penalty in principle, these numbers raise questions about how the death penalty is applied in practice. The wide differences across states in the odds of carrying out a death sentence are potentially troubling from an equal protection standpoint," they added. (source: allgov.com) ******************* Capital punishment and the brutality of class rule in America The latest abomination in a US death chamber took place on Tuesday night in Missouri when Cecil Clayton, 74, was injected and killed with a single dose of pentobarbital. The condemned inmate was executed despite overwhelming evidence of his intellectual disability. In 1972, Clayton was working in a lumberyard when a piece of wood broke off the sawmill and struck him in the head. Surgeons were forced to excise a fifth of his frontal lobe - the area of the brain that controls judgment, inhibition and impulsive behavior - to remove shards of bone that had pierced deep into his brain. The accident had a shattering impact on Clayton's life. The former devoted husband and father developed severe memory loss and began to suffer from hallucinations and paranoia. A quarter century later, Clayton was convicted and sentenced to death for the 1996 murder of a Missouri sheriff's deputy. He remained on death row for nearly two decades as his appeals worked through the legal system. Numerous psychiatric exams revealed that the condemned prisoner had diminished intellectual capacity, social functioning deficits and dementia. But Missouri authorities were determined to see this intellectually disabled man put to death, despite his inability to comprehend "the nature and purpose of the punishment about to be imposed on him," as required by Missouri law. Clayton's attorneys' pleas for mercy fell on deaf ears. The Missouri Supreme Court denied his right to a competency hearing, Governor Jay Nixon (the same man who ordered out the National Guard against protests in Ferguson, Missouri last year) denied him clemency, and the US Supreme Court denied a last-minute petition for a stay of execution. Disturbingly, a complete record of the horrors of America's death row is too long to list here, but include the following: March 2, 2015: Kelly Renee Gissendaner came within hours of death for the second time in less than a week when her "execution team" in Georgia said the drugs to be used in her lethal injection "appeared cloudy." Gissendaner, who had only an indirect role in the murder for which she was convicted, clearly turned her life around in prison. Her new execution date has yet to be scheduled. July 23, 2014: Arizona inmate Joseph Wood was subjected to a nearly 2-hour lethal injection procedure utilizing untested drugs. According to a witness description: "He gulped like a fish on land. The movement was like a piston: The mouth opened, the chest rose, the stomach convulsed." April 29, 2014: Clayton D. Lockett suffered an agonizing execution after being injected with an untested lethal concoction of three drugs. The Oklahoma death row inmate shook uncontrollably, gritted his teeth, and mumbled 15 minutes into the gruesome procedure. Authorities called off the execution, but Lockett died 45 minutes after it had begun. Millions of people in the US and internationally have been rightfully shocked and outraged by these horrifying spectacles repeated time and again on America's death row. But the overwhelming response of state authorities, the courts at every level, and the federal government is to do whatever is necessary to keep the state-sanctioned killing machine in operation. The death penalty is defended at the highest levels of the government and the judiciary, from the Supreme Court to the Obama administration and both big-business parties. Since the US Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976 after a brief hiatus, it has consistently ruled to uphold the constitutionality of capital punishment. While ruling the execution of the intellectually disabled and those sentenced for crimes committed as juveniles unconstitutional, the court has repeatedly upheld the death penalty itself. And despite the ruling barring execution of the intellectually disabled, the justices have rarely halted an execution on this basis. Indeed, in the killing of the clearly mentally disabled Clayton, one senses that the state decided a certain principle was at stake: the principle of unlimited and unchecked power. It killed because it could, and wanted to make clear that it would. The barbaric practice of capital punishment is only one expression of the violent and criminal character of the American state. Police officers who kill unarmed people are immune from prosecution, while America's prisons are packed with 2 million human beings, more than any other country in the world. These are all symptoms of a deeply diseased society, corrupted through and through by social inequality and the aristocratic principle that the wealthy and powerful can do whatever they want, while the poor and powerless are to be humiliated and degraded. Italian philosopher Cesare Beccaria, a leading figure of the Enlightenment, wrote on the death penalty in his widely influential treatise On Crimes and Punishments in 1764: "What must men think, when they see wise magistrates and grave ministers of justice, with indifference and tranquility, dragging a criminal to death, and whilst a wretch trembles with agony, expecting the fatal stroke, the judge, who has condemned him, with the coldest insensibility, and perhaps with no small gratification from the exertion of his authority, quits his tribunal to enjoy the comforts and pleasures of life?" Reading these words, one can envision the black-robed Supreme Court Justices as they deny stays of execution, the governors who refuse to grant clemency or pardons, and the execution teams in prisons injecting concocted lethal mixtures into the condemned veins. One can also picture President Obama in the White House situation room drafting his "kill list" of those targeted for drone assassinations. The continued practice of capital punishment is at odds with the democratic conceptions held by the early American leaders, including James Madison and Thomas Jefferson. Madison, key in drafting the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights, a death penalty opponent, wrote: "I should not regret a fair and full trial of the entire abolition of capital punishment by any State willing to make it." Jefferson opined that the notion of "an eye for an eye" was a "revolting principle." The opposition of Jefferson and Madison to capital punishment was based on the Enlightenment principle of hostility and opposition to arbitrary state violence, which was associated with the Ancien R???gime and the feudal aristocracy of Europe. Some 2 1/2 centuries later, the current political establishment's support for state-sanctioned killing speaks volumes about the decayed state of class rule in 21st century America. The criminal character of the state is an expression of the class whose interests it represents: the corporate and financial oligarchy, whose wealth is derived from swindling and speculation, standing on top of a society riven by historically unprecedented levels of inequality. (source: World Socialist Web Site) ******************* Death penalty violates God's law Re: "Tsarnaev deserves public execution" (Letters, March 7) For the writer to call for the death of this man or any man shows just how slavish we have become. It is written that "Thou shall not kill." The writer must not be a believer in the word of God. It is also written that "We must obey the law in the land in which we dwell." So let the law do its work in this horrible matter. Also, the real citizens born and bred are the American Indians. CHARLES T. ASHLEY Jr. Camden (source: Letter to the Editor, Courier-Post) From rhalperi at smu.edu Fri Mar 20 16:38:53 2015 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Fri, 20 Mar 2015 16:38:53 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide Message-ID: March 20 BELARUS: EU Criticizes Belarus Over Death Sentence The European Union has sharply criticized Belarus, the only European country that applies capital punishment, for sentencing a man to death. In its statement issued on March 19, the EU said that a court in the southeastern city of Homel sentenced Syarhey Ivanou to death the previous day. Ivanou was convicted of murder and rape. The EU expressed its "deepest sympathy of the victim of these crimes." "Nevertheless, the European Union opposes capital punishment in all cases as it cannot be justified under any circumstances. The death penalty is a cruel and inhuman punishment, which fails to act as a deterrent and represents an unacceptable denial of human dignity and integrity," it said. The EU said that Ivanou's "right to appeal must be fully guaranteed." The last reported execution of a convict in Belarus took place in April 2014. Rights activists said the man, who was convicted of murdering his wife and her lover, was executed before the UN Committee on Human Rights examined his appeal. (source: Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty) GLOBAL: Pope Francis calls death penalty 'unacceptable,' urges abolition Pope Francis came out squarely against the death penalty once again, calling it "unacceptable" regardless of the seriousness of the crime of the condemned. Pope Francis met with a 3-person delegation of the International Commission Against the Death Penalty March 20, and issued a letter on the occasion urging worldwide abolition. Citing his previous messages against the death penalty, the pope called capital punishment "cruel, inhumane and degrading" and said it "does not bring justice to the victims, but only foments revenge." Furthermore, in a modern "state of law, the death penalty represents a failure" because it obliges the state to kill in the name of justice, the pope said. Rather, it is a method frequently used by "totalitarian regimes and fanatical groups" to do away with "political dissidents, minorities" and any other person deemed a threat to their power and to their goals. "Human justice is imperfect," he said, and the death penalty loses all legitimacy within penal systems where judicial error is possible. Increasingly, public opinion is against the death penalty, in view of the effective means available today to restrain a criminal without denying them the possibility to redeem themselves and of a "greater moral sensitivity regarding the value of human life," Pope Francis said. The death penalty is an affront to the sanctity of life and to the dignity of the human person, he said. It contradicts God's plan for humankind and society and God's merciful justice, he added. Capital punishment "is cruel, inhuman and degrading, as is the anxiety that precedes the moment of execution and the terrible wait between the sentence and the application of the punishment, a 'torture' which, in the name of a just process, usually lasts many years and, in awaiting death, leads to sickness and insanity." The pope went on to say that the application of capital punishment denies the condemned the possibility of making reparation for the wrong committed, of expressing their interior conversion through confession, and expressing contrition, so as to encounter God's merciful and saving love. Speaking about life imprisonment, Pope Francis said such sentences makes it impossible for a prisoner to "project a future" and in that way can be considered a "disguised death" as it deprives prisoners not only of their freedom but also of their hope. (source: Catholic News Service) MALAYSIA: Malaysian State Proposes Bill Issuing Death Penalty for 'Apostasy' The State Assembly of Kelantan, Malaysia, is considering a hudud (crimes against God) bill that will allow the state to execute anyone accused of apostasy, which is the abandonment of Islam. Free Malaysia Today reports: The Syariah Criminal Code II 1993 classifies "intidah" and "riddah" as voluntary or deliberate pronouncements or utterances of words that violate a Muslim's creed, known has aqidah. These involve challenges to fundamental aspects of the Islamic faith of every Muslim, including Rukun Islam (Pillars of Islam), Rukun Iman (Pillars of Faith) and the distinction between halal and haram. If a person is convicted of apostasy, he or she will receive a prison sentence. If the person does not repent, they could be executed. "Provided that when he repents whether the repentance is done before the death sentence is pronounced or after such pronouncement is carried out, he shall be free of the hudud sentence and his forfeited property shall be returned to him," says the bill. A lawyer, who was not named, told the publication these new provisions are "against basic legal principles and also opens up the grave possibility of arbitrary exercises of the power by state authorities." "Firstly, what constitutes a violation of Rukun Islam and Rukun Iman appears not to be properly defined, leaving them open to interpretation," he claimed. "Secondly, the fact that the purpose of the punishment - even to the point of execution - is to secure repentance throws open the possibility of a citizen being coerced involuntarily into remaining in the faith. It is a trite principle of law that admissions and confessions must be voluntarily given - they cannot be extracted by inducement, threat or promise. Thirdly, and most importantly, it is a clear violation of the fundamental constitutional right of freedom of religion." On Friday, the state's Menteri Besar Datuk Ahmad Yakob announced a revision. The current version, as written, said the penalty is imprisonment while in the English version, the penalty is imprisonment with possibility of execution. Yakob said in the English version "the death penalty word will be replaced with huded." "There's no difference," said Kelantan Deputy Menteri Besar Datuk Mohd Amar Nik Abdullah. "It reality it is the same. Punishment for apostasy is death penalty. Hudud punishment for apostasy is death. It is just that the word used was different. So, we have adjusted ... using 'hudud' in English as well. Just so that no one is confused." (source: The Malaysian Insider) RUSSIA: Pardon impossible to execute. Where's the comma?----Death penalty in Russia The question of death penalty appears to be one of the most debatable questions in the human society. For hundreds of years, disputes on the subjects have been driving a wedge between common people, lawyers, writers, thinkers and so on and so forth. Yet, criminals continue committing crimes, whether death penalty exists or not. When the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation ruled unconstitutional the possibility of bringing down death sentences in the absence of jury trials in Russia nationwide, the ban seemed to be merely a technical and a temporal one. However, years have passed, but nothing has changed. Opponents of death penalty have been more and more persistent. "In 1996, Russian President Boris Yeltsin signed a decree to phase out death penalty, - Professor of the School of Economics, Honored Lawyer of Russia, member of the Presidential Council for Civil Society Institutions and Human Rights, Sergei Pashn, said in an interview with Pravda.Ru. - The Constitutional Court only continued this trend. Russia has not executed convicts since August 1996. Why am I against death penalty? In Europe, death penalty is used practically nowhere. There are countries, where death penalty is preserved in the law, but no judge allows to resort to this. If Russia wants to be part of Europe, Russia should abandon death penalty. Especially because violent crimes such as murder or grievous bodily harm, have been increasingly shrinking year by year." Russia has not abolished death penalty completely Here is what well-known Soviet and Russian scientist and criminologist, writer and screenwriter, Doctor of Law, Professor, Honored Lawyer of the Russian Federation, retired police colonel and honorary police officer Daniel Koretsky had to say on the subject of the moratorium on death penalty: "This is not a moratorium, by the way. The moratorium was in effect when the president signed a decree on the temporary suspension of execution and sentencing to death. It was in 1996. I have written many times that abolishing death penalty was de facto illegitimate, because we have this kind of punishment in the Constitution and the Penal Code today. In order to cancel this form of punishment, it is up to the State Duma to make an adequate decision, because it is the State Duma that can change the Penal Code. The Russian Constitution says that death penalty is valid unless it is completely abolished. "To date, we have not provided an effective legal institution of death penalty in connection with the decision of the Constitutional Court. This is a paradox. Because the Constitutional Court may interpret the Constitution, but it can not change the Constitution. That is the case from the legal side of it." The position of the Russian Orthodox Church is well-known. The President has repeatedly stated that toughening punishment does not eradicate crime. Yet, no one says that death penalty should be used here and there. State violence can be used very carefully, as one should analyze every little aspect before making a decision to kill or not to kill a scoundrel. When Pravda.Ru asked this question to Sergei Pashin, he replied: "Actually, you quoted Cesare Beccaria. This eminent jurist and humanist of Renaissance said so in the XVIII century, and I am pleased that our president shares this point of view. A debate is of course possible, but the Russian Constitutional Court wrote in its ruling back in 2010 that the trend to abolish death penalty was irreversible. "In fact, the Constitutional Court's decision prevents the imposition of death sentences and the carrying out of executions. So it is possible to discuss, including selectively. But in general, from the point of view of our legal system, this discussion is useless. The intensity of death penalty does not affect the level of crime. There are countries where the abolition of death penalty led to a decrease in the number of murders. This happened in Canada in 1974." Death penalty does not eradicate crime There are other examples. In late December 2014, Pakistan lifted the ban on the execution of criminals convicted of terrorism. Can Russia do the same? Is it possible to execute for terrorism or - sex crimes - only incorrigible criminals that is? "It questions the reliability of the judicial system, - Honored Lawyer of Russia Sergei Pashin said in an interview with Pravda.Ru. - Firstly, our judicial system is not to be relied upon much. Secondly, we can not execute terrorists, because jury trial has not been provided for terrorists since 2008, and the 20th article of the Constitution implies that it is impossible to bring down a death sentence without a jury trial. In addition, the legal position of the Constitutional Court, for reasons of equity, prevents from imposing death penalty, even if at least one region of the country has no jury." Pravda.Ru asked Sergei Pashin to comment the remarks by well-known German poet and writer Goethe, a talented scientist and thinker, who also received the title of privy councilor and hereditary nobility for his public service in the duchy of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach in 1782. Here is what Goethe said: "If one could abolish death, we would not have anything against it, but abolishing death penalty would be hard. If it happened, we would have to reinstate it every once in a while." "That was said a long time ago, - Sergei Pashin said. - The current situation has changed. And then you know, Goethe was a minister, but Goethe was also a writer and poet. The story of Margarita from the tragedy "Faust," whom the author executed for the murder of a child, was tormenting him. When he was signing a similar death sentence in real life, it was incredibly hard for him. That is an outdated quote. In Germany, there is no death penalty, but Germany does not want to retrieve it." It just so happens that the thoughts of Cesare Bonesana-Beccaria, who died in 1794, still live today, while the aphorisms by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe that he published in 1829 are no longer relevant. Why so? Pardon impossible to execute. Are we going to finally decide where to put a comma there? (source: Igor Bukker, Pravda) PAKISTAN----executions 3 death convicts hanged in Adiala jail The authorities on Thursday hanged 3 murder convicts, including 2 brothers, at Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi. Brothers Ghulam Muhammad and Asghar Ali of Jalti were sent to the gallows at 5.30am in the morning, followed by the third convict Gulistan Khan, who hailed from Kallar Syedan. Earlier, the jail authorities had arranged last meetings with the family members and relatives after receiving the death warrants for the three convicts. Tight security arrangements were made in and around the jail at the time of hangings to avoid any untoward incident. The bodies later were handed over to the heirs who took them to their native towns for burial. Ghulam Muhammad and Asghar Ali were awarded capital punishment for killing 2 relatives in 1996 in Jalti whereas Gulistan Khan was convicted for a murder of a man belonging to his town in 1998. Many convicts on death row have been hanged over the past few weeks after Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif lifted the moratorium on the death penalty late last year. 9 murder convicts were hanged across the country on March 18 while another 12 were sent to the gallows on March 17. Holding ground: Islamabad defends capital punishment amid outcry Pakistan continues to defend its decision to lift the moratorium on death penalty even after the United Nations and the European Union (EU) have voiced their concerns over frequent executions of convicts in the country since December last year. "Pakistan is not violating any international law," said Tasnim Aslam, spokesperson for the Foreign Office (FO), at her weekly briefing on Thursday. "Our constitution and legal system allow death penalty within legal parameters and the condition of a fair trial." Her statement came after the UN and the EU sought immediate ban on the death penalty. The UN reminded Pakistan of its international obligations to ban capital punishment. Its statement said that under international treaties, in particular the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) as well as the Convention on the Rights of the Child, Pakistan had legally committed itself to ensuring due process and not imposing the death penalty. "Moving away from the death penalty will contribute to human development, dignity and rights." Admitting that Pakistan was a signatory to the ICCPR, the FO spokesperson said one of its provisions allowed countries that have not abolished capital punishment to impose the death penalty in most serious crimes. The UN also expressed concerns over reports that some of the executed convicts were minors when the offence was committed. "The right to life is a fundamental human right," said a statement issued by the organisation. "UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has stated that the death penalty has no place in the 21st century. According to some estimates, there are more than 8,000 prisoners on death row." The UN said it was concerned about cases where the death penalty was handed to minors but welcomed reviews of these cases, such as the recent case of Shafqat Hussain. The statement said the UN had consistently called for an unequivocal end to the execution of anyone, anywhere, who was convicted of committing a crime when they were under the age of 18. "There is no scientific proof that the death penalty serves as a deterrent or contributes to combating crime or violent extremism." GSP Plus status Responding to a question, the FO spokesperson said the government's decision to lift the moratorium on death penalty would not affect the GSP Plus status granted to the country by the EU for greater market access to its products. "The EU may not agree, but it understands our perspective. Our engagement will continue. We do not expect this issue would impact the GSP Plus status for Pakistan." The EU termed the death penalty an "inhumane and cruel act", insisting that capital punishment did not act as a deterrent against crimes. (source for both: Express Tribune) ******************************** Pakistan man on death row links MQM to killings The Mutthida Qaumi Movement (MQM) has landed in further trouble after death-row convict Saulat Mirza's statement that he killed people on the orders of the party chief Altaf Hussain - a statement that led the government to defer his hanging. The law enforcement agencies were on Thursday given permission to meet Mirza in person. "There is no time limit for the interrogation and it can be as long as the law enforcers want it to be", an official said. Mirza was scheduled to be hanged on Thursday. But the federal government deferred his execution by at least 72 hours on basis of his accusations against Mr Hussain and other people affiliated with the MQM. The statements recorded before the magistrate would later be used in the court for appropriate legal action. On Thursday, the government included the names of 8 MQM leaders on the exit control list after the revelations made by Mirza. According to the sources, the decision came after death row convict Mirza levelled grave allegations against Mr Hussain and other party leaders including Babar Ghauri and governor Sindh Ishratul Ebad. Meanwhile, Pakistan on Thursday hanged 4 more death-row prisoners, including two brothers, as it postponed by 3 days the execution of a man whose family alleged he was a minor at the time of crime and that his confession was extracted through torture. 3 prisoners were executed in Rawalpindi's Adiala Jail while the 4th was hanged to death in Mianwali Jail. Brothers Mohammad Asghar and Ghulam Mohammad were awarded the death penalty by a district and sessions judge for killing 2 of their relatives in 1996. Another convict Gulistan Zaman was hanged for killing a man in 1998. The execution of Shafqat Hussain was postponed for 72 hours just a few hours before his hanging was scheduled to take place Thursday morning. Hussain was convicted by an anti-terrorism court for kidnapping and killing a 7-year-old boy. Rights bodies allege that Hussain was just 14 at the time of crime in 2004 and that he was tortured to confess the killing, while the jail record showed him as 23 years old. (source: The Asian Age) **************************** UN asks Pak to reinstate moratorium on death penalty Expressing deep concern at the increasing number of executions in Pakistan, the United Nations has asked Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif government to reinstate the moratorium on death penalty as soon as possible. "The UN has consistently called for an unequivocal end to the execution of anyone, anywhere, who is convicted of committing a crime when they are under the age of 18," a statement from the UN office in Pakistan said. The world body also voiced concern at the Pakistani government's recent announcement that it has withdrawn its moratorium on the death penalty for all cases, not only those related to terrorism. Among those executed there are persons who were minors when the offence was committed and more than 8,000 prisoners are on death row, the statement added. "The UN in Pakistan urges the Government to reinstate its moratorium as soon as possible. We stand ready to support it in doing so and to assist in strengthening the existing justice system if so requested," the statement added. The UN expressed concern over cases where the death penalty was handed down to minors but welcomed reviews of these cases. More than 160 UN Member States with a variety of legal systems and religious backgrounds have either abolished the death penalty or do not practice it. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein has expressed deep regret at the resumption of executions in Pakistan, stressing that no judiciary - anywhere - can be infallible. There is no scientific proof, according to the UN, that the death penalty serves as a deterrent or contributes to combating crime or violent extremism. "While we appreciate the need for effective counter- terrorism measures to protect people, including children, such action must strengthen human rights and be proportionate and necessary in a democratic society," the UN said. Under international treaties, in particular the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, Pakistan legally committed itself to ensuring due process and not imposing the death penalty. (source: Deccan Herald) CHINA: Errors found in China murder case 20 years after execution Lawyers claimed on Thursday to have found errors during a rough review of a 1994 rape-murder case concerning Nie Shubin, who was executed 20 years ago. Li Shuting, an attorneys for Nie's families, told Xinhua that he found several "evident errors" while duplicating Nie's case files, most of which involve legal procedure. "I was astonished. The errors are so obvious that we can see them just at a glance," Li said. For instance, Nie was executed on April 27, 1995, but the signature on his petition for appeal was inscribed on May 13, which is patently impossible. He also said the handwriting appears different from Nie's. Nie was executed in 1995 at the age of 21 for the rape and murder of a woman in Hebei's provincial capital, Shijiazhuang. The case reemerged when another man, Wang Shujin, insisted that he was guilty and Nie innocent. Wang, 48, was apprehended by police in 2005 for three unconnected rape and murder cases, and confessed to a rape and murder with the same facts as in Nie's case. Hebei Higher People's Court, which approved the death penalty for Nie in 1995, rejected Wang's request for a retrial in 2013 and still believes Nie is the murderer. Judicial impartiality has been openly questioned recently in China and in December, the Supreme People's Court ordered the Shandong Higher People's Court to review the case. "We will go over the court files and submit our opinion as soon as possible," Li said. The Shandong court will reopen the trial if it is concluded that the case was wrongly judged. (source: Xinhua News Agency) INDONESIA: Bali 9 Executions: Indonesian Court Postpones Clemency Appeal Hearing For 2 Australian Convicts The impending execution of two Australian nationals convicted of drug trafficking in Indonesia has been delayed yet again, after a local court on Thursday postponed hearing a clemency appeal. The Indonesian government has rejected earlier requests for clemency for Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, the alleged ring leaders of the Bali 9 group. In the upcoming hearing, lawyers for the two convicts are expected to provide more information to the court in a bid to overturn the government's rejection of an earlier clemency plea. The hearing has now been pushed forward by a week to March 25, and the court will not decide the case until after April 1, media reports said. Indonesia's tough stance against drug trafficking, which it typically punishes with the death penalty, has been criticized by several countries, including Australia, and international human rights groups. "The hearing for both cases has been delayed until March 25 for our side to submit evidence. March 30 will be their (the defense) turn," Leonard Arfan, the convicts' lawyer, told Reuters. Chan and Sukumaran have been transferred from the Kerobokan prison in Bali to the prison island of Nusakambangan, where the executions are scheduled to take place. The 2 are among a group of 10 people convicted of smuggling drugs and scheduled to be executed by firing squad. The other convicts reportedly include citizens of France, Brazil, the Philippines, Ghana, Nigeria and Indonesia. The Australian nationals were arrested in 2005 and sentenced to death in the following year for leading a heroin-smuggling operation. Australia has been trying to negotiate a clemency deal for Chan and Sukumaran, who were originally scheduled to be executed in February. The country has also offered to pay Indonesia prison expenses to incarcerate the duo in return for the latter exempting the duo from the death penalty. However, Indonesia rejected the offer last week. "We emphasize that this is not an issue of negotiation," Armanatha Nasir, a spokesman for the Indonesian foreign office, said, at the time, adding: "This is upholding the law. If a country starts to negotiate law, that is a form of violation. So I emphasize that there is no negotiation." (source: International Business Times) ******************** Court delays decision on death row convicts 2 Australian drug convicts on death row in Indonesia will not be executed this month after a court on Thursday postponed their appeal hearing against the rejection of a request for presidential clemency. Australians Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan have already been transferred to the prison island of Nusakambangan, where the executions will take place. The 2 Australians are among a group of 10 drug convicts due to be executed together by firing squad on Nusakambangan. Others in the group include citizens of France, Brazil, the Philippines, Ghana, Nigeria and Indonesia. At least 1/2 of the convicts have ongoing legal challenges.Sukumaran and Chan were arrested in 2005 as the ringleaders of a plot to smuggle heroin out of Indonesia. Australia has been pursuing an 11th-hour campaign to save the lives of the 2 members of the so-called Bali 9, but President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo has refused to budge. "The hearing for both cases has been delayed until March 25 for our side to submit evidence. March 30 will be their [the defenses] turn," said Leonard Arfan, lawyer for the 2 Australians as quoted by Reuters. Judge Ujang Abdullah said final arguments would be heard on April 1 and a verdict would be announced soon afterwards. The attorney general has said he will not set a date for the executions until of the legal processes are completed for all 10 on death row.Vice President Jusuf Kalla told Reuters on Wednesday it could take weeks or even months for the executions to take place. Indonesia has harsh penalties for drug trafficking and resumed executions in 2013 after a 5-year hiatus. 5 foreigners were among 6 people executed in January, the 1st executions since President Jokowi took office in October. With the upcoming executions, Indonesia will have exercised the death penalty more times in a single year than ever before. *************************** National scene: Pakistani arrested for drugs The National Narcotics Agency (BNN) arrested on Thursday a Pakistani identified only as GS for allegedly attempting to smuggle 15 kilograms of methamphetamine and 22,000 ecstasy pills into the country through Muara Karang, North Jakarta. The drugs were wrapped in plastic and concealed in a box containing salted fish.The BNN also arrested an Indonesian identified only as IA, 45, who worked as a guide for GS. "The meth and ecstasy pills were allegedly from Malaysia. GS planned to take the drugs to Depok, West Java, where he lives," BNN spokesman Sr. Comr. Slamet Pribadi said in Jakarta. GS asked IA to be his guide because he did not know the way from Jakarta to Depok. As payment for his services, IA was to get 1 kilogram of meth. Both GS and IA will be charged under the 2009 Narcotics Law, which carried the death penalty, Slamet said. According to the BNN's preliminary investigation, GS was part of an Indonesian-Malaysian-Pakistani drug ring. He also reportedly has a connection to 3 Chinese drug dealers arrested with 44 kilograms of crystal meth in Central Jakarta last Friday. (source for both: Jakarta Post) From rhalperi at smu.edu Sat Mar 21 15:23:08 2015 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Sat, 21 Mar 2015 15:23:08 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----GA., ALA., LA., OHIO, NEB. Message-ID: March 21 GEORGIA: Media-savvy campaign pushes clemency for Gissendaner Though a variety of factors may be keeping Kelly Gissendaner alive, the local supporters who have waged a savvy media campaign on her behalf may be one of the most influential, drawing national attention. The execution of Gissendaner, the only woman on Georgia's death row, was delayed in late February because of a winter storm. A 2nd try in early March was cancelled when the drug that was to be used to kill her didn't look right. Her supporters are asking for a federal stay while state execution procedures are investigated. Gissendaner was convicted of the 1997 murder of her husband. She had persuaded her boyfriend to kill Douglas Gissendaner, and the boyfriend later testified against her. Since then, she has graduated from a theology program operated by a consortium of divinity schools in the Atlanta region and earned encomiums from guards, chaplains, and teachers alike as a powerful example of religious conversion. Her case has drawn attention not only from progressive death penalty opponents, but also from mainstream evangelical media outlets like Christianity Today and other believers with high media profiles. Using a multifaceted blend of digital outreach and old-fashioned local networking, her supporters turned a story that had already engaged many volunteers, both inside and outside Lee Arrandale State Prison, into a national clemency campaign. "Who knows why one thing gets social media attention and another doesn't?" asked Mark Oppenheimer, who described Gissendaner's relationship with famed German theologian Jurgen Moltmann in a New York Times column the same week the Georgia parole board denied her clemency. "She's a Christian in the South, and that goes far," Oppenheimer added. "It wins a lot of people's empathy and it's attractive to the media. It's easier to rally around a Christian than an atheist on death row." "We were really expecting clemency to go through," said activist Melissa Browning, who teaches contextual theology at Mercer University's McAfee School of Theology. But when that didn't happen - 2 requests for clemency have been denied at this point - Browning and others were prepared with a full-court press to save Gissendaner. Between her 2 scheduled execution dates, supporters had uploaded essays to the Huffington Post, launched a popular Twitter hashtag, and worked alongside the nonprofit Faith in Public Life to recruit 1,000 religious leaders to sign a clemency petition. Another petition, at www.groundswell-mvmt.org, attracted about 84,000 signatures in 2 days, Browning reports. Browning says that a number of conservative Georgia faith leaders and congregants (many of whom are death penalty supporters) have been advocating a life-without-parole sentence - on the condition that their names not be made public. Part of the reason the campaign became a national one, says Mercer professor David Gushee, was that Gissendaner put a face and narrative to what might have been an abstract story. "Any system in which they are locked away, and the general public never sees them again, human beings become invisible," he said. Now, many people know Gissendaner and her story. For Browning, who has about 700 Twitter followers, the days before Gissendaner's 2nd execution date were an intense and fast education in creating social-media buzz. "It was a huge factor," she said, "because we did get information out and we got it out quickly." "Social media expands the circle of abolitionists," said Stephen Dear, executive director of People of Faith Against the Death Penalty. "More and more people become involved, engaged on the issue or by a case. Some may not stay involved, but some will." As Dear pointed out, the furor over Gissendaner takes place in a national environment in which death penalty cases have been on the decline. After posting an open letter to "Georgia's Christian citizens" on Baptist News Global, Gushee watched as his impassioned indictment against the death penalty, threaded with scriptural allusions, was shared hundreds of times on Twitter and thousands more on Facebook. "It certainly was a very loud campaign, and it would have been impossible for the decision-makers not to notice it," he said. Activists now wait to see if their pleas will make a difference, rippling beyond a state in which there are numerous ties among death penalty opponents across party lines. "To me, it's interesting how few clergy and theologians speak about the death penalty," Oppenheimer said, and "how strong a consensus there is among conservative evangelicals that it's acceptable. ... The question is whether that will ever change." (source: The Philadelphia Inquirer) ***************** Death penalty case may be derailed by employee's sexting A Fulton County death penalty case could be derailed because of the inappropriate actions of one county employee. 11Alive's Investigators are digging into the personnel file of that employee, and what they have discovered is raising even more questions. The Investigators first reported that witness advocate Wesley Vann was suspended for allegations of sexting and threatening a witness in a death penalty case. Defense attorneys say because of the misconduct, they want the death penalty taken off of the table. This marks the 3rd time that Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard has suspended Vann from his job - warning each time, that it would be the last time. In court on Friday, accused double murderer Stephen Heller watched as his attorneys fight to spare his life. This is not his trial - they are asking a judge to throw out the death penalty in his case after their key witness was harassed and threatened. Defense attorneys claim Vann had been sexting Heller's former live-in girlfriend, even showing up drunk at her house demanding sex and making threats should she testify on Heller's behalf. District Attorney office employee accused of sexting, threats That was enough for Howard to suspend Vann for 20 days, saying, "Although I have chosen not to terminate your employment, your behavior in this instance raises serious questions as to your judgment." These are questions that have been raised several times before - like in 2012, when Vann was suspended from his county job 3 times. He was disciplined previously for inappropriate conduct with a witness, reprimanded for showing up to court while appearing to be under the influence, and ordered multiple times to seek help for drug and alcohol abuse. After Vann's 2nd suspension, Howard wrote that it was his final warning, saying in part, "If you continue along this path of addiction and misbehavior, I will have no other choice but to terminate you." Putting so many cases like this in jeopardy, some question how Vann has kept his job. The file shows it was Howard who directly pushed for the county to hire Vann and later promote him. Vann may have gotten a good word put in from his wife, former CNN anchor Lyn Vaughn. She was Howard's former spokesperson and still works in Fulton County government. Vaughn, according to her husband's personnel file, has been present for at least 1 of his disciplinary discussions with Howard. She appeared briefly at court in Friday morning, only to say they are working on bringing the truth out. Howard said in a letter to Vann that he was choosing to keep him on board because Vann was recognized by his peers in 2014 for his "excellent work." 11Alive News asked Howard's office on Friday for comment on Vann's work record. Howard said that given the sensitivity of this particular death penalty case, he would not comment at this time. (source: WXIA news) ALABAMA----female may face death penalty Grandmother Joyce Garrard guilty of capital murder for running granddaughter Savannah Hardin to death An Etowah County jury tonight found Joyce Hardin Garrard guilty of capital murder in the 2012 death of her 9-year-old granddaughter Savannah Hardin. Penalty phase will begin at 9 a.m. Monday. Garrard, 49, held her head down and cried after the verdict was read, with attorneys comforting her on both sides as deputies stood behind. Sobs rang out in the courtroom from her family, who have filled 3 pews in the courtroom nearly every day of the trial. Garrard faces life in prison or the death penalty for the crime. Prosecutors said Garrard forced Savannah to run for more than 3 hours in the yard of her Etowah County home on the afternoon of Feb. 17, 2012 as a punishment for lying about eating candy bars on a school bus. Savannah collapsed that evening and died days later in a Birmingham hospital. The verdict comes 3 years and a month, less a day, after Savannah's death. The jury deliberated for 3 1/2 hours, and spent about 12 hours at the courthouse today, first listening to closing arguments. Earlier in the afternoon, District Attorney Jimmie Harp told jurors, "Discipline that ends in death is never right." (source: al.com) LOUISIANA: Lawsuit Says State Prison Officials Broke Sunshine Law----The lawsuit claims the Department of Corrections broke the law because state officials convened as a legislative committee to help shape public policy, but they didn't invite the public to any of their meetings. The Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections violated state law by meeting in secret to discuss new ways to execute death-row prisoners, a new lawsuit alleges, even though a lawyer for the department said officials did nothing wrong. The lawsuit was filed Tuesday by the Promise of Justice Initiative, an organization that seeks changes in Louisiana's criminal justice system, particularly the abolition of the death penalty. It claims the Department of Corrections broke the law because state officials convened as a legislative committee to help shape public policy, but they didn't invite the public to any of their meetings, as required by the state's Open Meetings Law. James LeBlanc, secretary of the department, headed the study committee, which was tasked last year with finding the most humane way to administer the death penalty in Louisiana. Other members were State Penitentiary Warden Burl Cain, 5 other department employees and 2 lawyers that represent the department. Together, those state officials and lawyers submitted a report to the state House of Representatives in February after conducting a 6-month study of the death penalty, as mandated by a resolution passed last year. The report suggested executing inmates with a never-before used method - suffocation by nitrogen - as well as reviving a bill that would allow for more secrecy surrounding executions. While conducting the study, the committee met at least seven times in secret, with no public notice or opportunity for input, according to Sidney Garmon, plaintiff in the suit and director for the Louisiana Coalition for Alternatives to the Death Penalty. The lawsuit says that Garmon, as a member of the public, should have been able to attend these meetings in order to do a key part of her job - work with policymakers to implement alternatives to the death penalty. "It is essential to the maintenance of a democratic society that public business be performed in an open and public manner and that the citizens be advised of and aware of the performance of public officials and the deliberations and decisions that go into the making of public policy," the lawsuit says, quoting Louisiana's Constitution. The lawsuit says the committee's report is void because all of the meetings leading to it were conducted in private. Louisiana Open Meetings Law mandates that "every meeting of any public body" shall be open to the public, and shall be recorded with notes or minutes for the public to review later, with a few exceptions. One of those exceptions allows legislative committees to enter executive session - but only for certain purposes, such as discussing confidential communications. The committee also has to meet as a public body first before voting to go into executive session. After first reporting on the death-penalty study, The Lens asked committee members and Rep. Joseph P. Lopinto III, R-Metairie whether or not their meetings were held in public. The Lens also asked if the committee produced any agendas before or kept notes during the meetings. Lopinto, the chairman of the House Administration of Criminal Justice Committee, authored the resolution asking for the study. He also authored a secrecy bill last session, but then dropped it without explanation. Lopinto didn't respond to requests for comment. James Hilburn, a lawyer for the corrections department, avoided answering whether or not committee members met in public, but he said the state agency obeyed the law. "The Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections complied with all applicable laws in preparing the report in response to HR 142 as requested by the legislature," Hilburn said in an email. The committee's report comes 4 months before a hearing in federal court on the constitutionality of the state's method for executing prisoners, tied to another lawsuit filed by members of the Promise of Justice Initiative. In that lawsuit, lawyers for death-row inmate Christopher Sepulvado say that current death penalty practices violate their client's constitutional protection against cruel and unusual punishment. Sepulvado, who is convicted of killing his stepson by beating him and submerging him in scalding water, has won several stays of execution in the past 2 years. Recently, a federal judge put all executions on hold until June, until the state figures out the best way to kill its death row inmates. Regardless of the outcome of the lawsuit filed in state court Tuesday, the legislature is unlikely to make any "substantial" changes to death-penalty protocols this year, Lopinto told The Lens earlier this month. Lopinto said it was unlikely that a secrecy bill would emerge again in Legislature this session. He also said he hadn't yet weighed all his options regarding nitrogen, but that he was sure that any method would continue to prompt lawsuits in the future. "Even if we change to nitrogen, it's not like we're not going to have a legal battle," Lopinto said. "We still have a viable option in lethal injection. It's the way it's done in other states. We'll have to consider it next year." (source: govtech.com) ***************** Book, play compares death penalty to the crucifixion of Jesus Sister Helen Prejean compares the death penalty to the crucifixion of Jesus and uses the cross to illustrate her argument against it. "This is a really conflictual, really hard, moral issue - and you have to start with the crime," Prejean said. "Somebody in cold blood has taken the life of innocent people, and what as a society are we going to do with them? "How much power do we give our state and our government over lives?" she recently asked a group of Baton Rouge Community College student actors preparing to perform a theatrical version of her award-winning book, "Dead Man Walking: An Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty in the United States." "There are 2 arms on the cross," the 76-year-old Baton Rouge native says, spreading her arms wide as she speaks. "On the one side are the victims and their families and all their pain and suffering, and on the other side is the perpetrator. But he has a momma and family, too. "Jesus was killed by the state - by the Romans for being a troublemaker," said Prejean, a sister of the Congregation of St. Joseph. "You have to take the audience on a complicated journey." Her own complicated journey began in 1981, while working with the poor in New Orleans. She began writing letters to Elmo Patrick Sonnier, convicted of rape and murder, awaiting execution on death row at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola. She became Sonnier's spiritual adviser and was a witness to his execution in the electric chair in 1984. She then befriended and became spiritual adviser to Robert Lee Willie, also convicted of rape and murder, who was electrocuted in 1985. The book, written as if she is telling her story to a small group, details her relationships with the offenders, the traumatized families of both the perpetrators and the victims, and a larger examination of the death penalty issue. It has sold more than a half-million copies and is translated into 10 languages, according to Prejean's website. Hollywood actor and writer Tim Robbins in 1995 developed the book into a movie starring Susan Sarandon as Prejean. Robbins combined and fictionalized the stories of Sonnier and Willie into Matthew Poncelet, portrayed by Sean Penn. Robbins also fictionalized the families of both Poncelet and the victims to distill a 245-page book into a 2-hour movie. While the book is historically factual, Prejean said, "all the names in the film are different except for my name." The executions are also different. In the book, the men are electrocuted, but when the movie was produced in 1995, Louisiana had changed to lethal injection, and that is how Poncelet is executed. A polarizing issue Nancy Litton, an accomplished local actor who portrays Prejean in the BRCC production, said people she talks to either strongly support or strongly oppose the death penalty. "There is not a lot of gray area there. It is a very polarizing thing," Litton told Prejean, adding that people have told her they don't even want to see the play because it is too disturbing. "We have to stand with people in the outrage of the crime, but then we have to go into what does it mean to tell the state you can kill the person who did this," Prejean replied. Aaron Fontanilla portrays Poncelet and took that role, he said, because he is already familiar with a similar character - his stepfather has been serving a life sentence since 1988 at Angola for 2nd-degree murder. "I've been going up there my whole life," Fontanilla said. "Going up there and visiting him has made me who I am today." One of the hardest acting challenges, Fontanilla told Prejean, is to be remorseful for what his character has done. As the execution draws near, Prejean explained, the offender experiences what she calls "the God space," when Poncelet expresses remorse for his actions. In the book, Sonnier's last words are an apology to the families of his victims. Prejean said in her book that Sonnier and his brother, Eddie, abducted a teen couple near St. Martinville, on Nov. 4, 1977. They raped Loretta Bourque and then shot both her and David LeBlanc multiple times in the back of the head with a .22 rifle. Eddie Sonnier died at the age of 57 in Angola, a few days before Christmas in 2014. Willie, she said, died unrepentant. He and Joseph Vaccaro abducted, raped and stabbed to death Faith Harvey, 18, of Hammond, on May 28, 1980, a few days after she graduated from high school. Willie and Vaccaro were on an 8-day, drug- and alcohol-fueled crime spree across 4 states where they also kidnapped and raped several other girls. Vaccaro was sentenced to life. "The God that I understand, through Jesus, loves us in spite of all we have done," Prejean said. "I've been with 6 men at their executions, and their families and the victims' families, and everyone is worth more than their worst act." The actors' conflict Megan Robertson, a 23-year-old BRCC junior from Plaquemine, portrays a guard, a member of the Pardon Hearing Board and a member of victim support group the Sisters organized in New Orleans. "I see the death penalty both ways," Robertson said. "I am for and also against it." Lizz Haik, 26, a BRCC senior, portrays the mother of the rape/murder victim, and also the nurse who inserts the needle into Poncelet's heavily tattooed arm. "I couldn't do it (insert the needle). I'm a Catholic so I am against the death penalty," Haik said. "But if it was part of the job, I don't know ... The play definitely leaves you with an open-ended question, and it even made me call into question the way I feel because I can see both sides, I play both sides." The play has been performed in more than 235 colleges and high schools, according to the play's website. "The production does not take sides; rather, it seeks to promote discourse and discussion about the death penalty and all human rights issues." Theater professor and director Tony Medlin said there are 21 actors in the ensemble and 76 separate scenes and transitions, requiring a large cast and lots of technical requirements. Usually the female actor portraying Prejean narrates transitions, but for this production Prejean recorded them herself in the college's recording studio. "This makes it real. It is actually in her voice," Medlin said. "She is someone who has made a great impression on the world and made a very positive change." Racial justice Prejean, who lives in New Orleans, said she was glad to be back in Baton Rouge and is working toward what she calls racial justice. "When I was growing up under 'Jim Crow,' the only black people I knew were maids," she said. "The race thing is huge for me right now." She cited state budget crunches and a growing disparity between the poor, inner-city public schools and the well-funded, private schools in the area. "We can see the dividing lines in the schools," Prejean said. "I went to St. Joseph's Academy. It is an excellent school, but we need all schools to be excellent schools." "The Gospel of Jesus is about justice and being on the side of people who struggle," Prejean said. "We have to work for justice for everybody." (source: The Acadiana Advocate) OHIO: Jury spares life of convicted murderer Daniel Tighe; life sentence without parole The vote to spare the life of convicted murderer Daniel Tighe was "the most difficult decision that any of us has ever made," a juror said Friday. After 8 hours of deliberations over 2 days, the panel of 7 men and 5 women unanimously agreed that Tighe, 41, deserved a sentence of life in prison, without any chance of parole, for the 2013 slayings of his former girlfriend, Wendy Ralston, 31, and their 5-year-old son Peyton. Juror Deborah Young, 55, a nursing assistant from Cuyahoga Falls, was the only member of the panel who agreed to discuss why Tighe was not given a death sentence. "I guess 2 things: the childhood that he led, and the man that he had become - and this believe it or not is very important - he would never get out of prison. He's never going to be a free man," Young said. She described the tenor of deliberations - 6 hours of talks into Thursday night, followed by sequestration at an area hotel, then 2 more hours Friday morning - as "very solemn." "We wanted to make sure we looked at every single aspect, we understood everything, and that everybody got their say so we could hear every single point of view," Young said. In the end, she said the decision came down to what Ohio law demands when a death sentence is ruled out - the aggravating factors of the crime, she said, did not outweigh the mitigating factors from what Tighe's lawyers had described as his "horrendous childhood." He and his sister were abandoned by their biological mother - literally dropped off in the Newton Falls home of a woman the mother barely knew - when Tighe was 18 months old. Arthur and Reba McCracken raised the two children there in Mahoning County for 2 1/2 years. They had been planning to adopt them, but the children were "ripped away" from the loving home, attorney Brian Pierce said in his closing argument, after the mother contacted the McCrackens out of the blue, in a phone call. Testimony in the penalty phase of Tighe's trial also showed that he suffered repeated physical abuse by his father - and more hardships watching the unyielding military man slowly die from cancer. The combined effects of that type of upbringing, according to a clinical psychologist who testified Thursday, left Tighe with a volatile personality that affected virtually all of his future relationships. Even his closest family members, Pierce said, "have not spoken to him in 25 or 30 years." Tighe, 41, stood at the defense table, his head tilted slightly to the right, and showed no outward emotion as the sentencing decision was read by Common Pleas Judge Lynne Callahan. Afterward, a Summit County Victim Services worker said that Marie Ralston, the mother of the victim, and others who were with her did not wish to comment on the jury's decision. Pierce said it sent "a message that the death penalty has no place in a civilized society, whether it's an individual killing someone else or the state of Ohio. It's wrong," he said. "We hope this is another step to the elimination of the death penalty in the state of Ohio." Summit County Prosecutor Sherri Bevan Walsh said what Tighe did was "unspeakable." The remains of Ralston and the boy were found buried in the woods, in August 2013, behind a Tallmadge duplex they had shared with Tighe. "To kill his own son, and his son's mother, and then dump their bodies like garbage is horrific," Walsh said. She said Tighe has never accepted responsibility, nor shown any remorse for the killings, "and deserves to spend the rest of his life behind bars." Walsh thanked the jury "for seeing that justice was done for the Ralston family." (source: Beacon Journal) NEBRASKA: Papillion lawmaker proposes using firing squad to carry out Nebraska death sentences A state senator has proposed using a firing squad to carry out death sentences in Nebraska. While 1 lawmaker doubted that it was a legitimate proposal, State Sen. Bill Kintner of Papillion said he's dead serious about it. Kintner, in a text message Friday, said it wouldn't be totally accurate to call his proposal "death by firing squad," because the proposal would require the condemned inmate to be chemically sedated first. "My proposal is to put them to sleep so they are out cold, so they will feel no pain and then be executed by firing squad," he said. The proposal comes as several states, including Nebraska, are seriously considering alternatives to reactivate their death penalties. In many states, capital punishment is on hold because of difficulty in obtaining the drugs needed for lethal injections. In Utah, Gov. Gary Herbert said Thursday he is "leaning toward" signing a bill passed by that state's legislature that would bring back the firing squad, which was outlawed in that state in 2004. In neighboring Wyoming, a proposal to reinstate the firing squad passed in the Senate but failed in the House earlier this month. Tennessee last year re-instituted the electric chair as a possible method if execution drugs are not available. Oklahoma is exploring use of nitrogen gas. Lincoln Sen. Colby Coash, a death penalty opponent, said he doubted the amendment is serious. "It's part of a filibuster," Coash said. "It's not unexpected." An official with ACLU of Nebraska, which supports repeal of the death penalty, said she was disappointed by Kintner's proposal. "Supporters (of repeal) will not be distracted by these antics," said Danielle Conrad, the group's executive director and a former state senator. The Nebraska Legislature is scheduled to debate, possibly next month, a proposal that would repeal the death penalty. Omaha Sen. Beau McCoy has already filed 8 amendments to the proposal, Legislative Bill 268, which typically signals a filibuster. Kintner's amendment is the 9th. Filibusters are becoming more common in the Nebraska Legislature as a tactic for a minority of senators to block a bill from passing. Passing a bill normally takes the votes of 25 of the 49 senators. But it requires a 2/3 majority, or 33 votes, to stop a filibuster - an endless string of amendments - and advance a piece of legislation. Supporters of the death penalty, Coash said, "may be successful in killing the (repeal) bill, but they're not going to get the firing squad passed." Capital punishment in Nebraska has been in limbo since December 2013, when the state's supply of sodium thiopental expired. That is the 1st drug used in the state's 3-drug lethal injection protocol. Attorney General Doug Peterson recently said that the chances of obtaining a new supply were slim and that he was exploring alternatives. Omaha Sen. Ernie Chambers, who has made repeal of the death penalty his main objective during his 40-year career, could not be reached immediately for comment. He has sponsored a bill that would replace the death penalty with life imprisonment without parole. But Kintner's proposal would likely inflame arguments that a firing squad is barbaric and unconstitutional cruel and unusual punishment. Coash said that even if Kintner were successful in getting his firing squad amendment adopted to Chambers' bill ??? which Coash doubts would happen - Chambers would immediately move to kill his own bill because of it. Nebraska has never used a firing squad to carry out an execution. Hanging was Nebraska's 1st method of carrying out the death penalty. It was replaced by electrocution by 1920. In 2008, the Nebraska Supreme Court declared that use of the electric chair was cruel and unusual punishment. That prompted the Legislature, a year later, to switch to lethal injection. The state has not carried out an execution since 1997, when double-murderer Robert Williams was executed in the electric chair. 11 men now sit on the state's death row. (source: omaha.com) From rhalperi at smu.edu Sat Mar 21 15:27:35 2015 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Sat, 21 Mar 2015 15:27:35 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----UTAH, CALIF., USA Message-ID: March 21 UTAH: Defense attorney will focus on mitigating factors in effort to spare murderer the death penalty After a jury found him guilty for a 2nd time Wednesday for the 1985 murder of Ogden woman Joyce Yost. Douglas Lovell's life is in the hands of those same jurors. Douglas Lovell has been convicted for the 1985 murder twice now. First back in 1993 and again on Wednesday. "He has defined himself as a burglar," said Jeffrey Thomson, a deputy Weber County Attorney. "He's a convicted burglar. He's a convicted robber. He's a convicted kidnapper. He's a convicted rapist, and he's a convicted murderer." In the prosecution's opening statement during the sentencing phase, they quoted Lovell from a confession to his ex-wife in which he admitted he knew what he had done was punishable by death. Thomson said, quoting Lovell: "'Capital murder is the worst thing you can do, probably the death penalty. I committed a 1st-degree felony to cover up another felony, it's the death penalty.' Those words, all of those words, were his words." Lovell pleaded guilty to killing Yost back in 1985, saying he did so to keep her from testifying that he had kidnapped and raped her. Lovell's 1993 plea was part of a deal to keep him off death row, on the condition he led police to Yost's body. But Yost's body was never found, and a judge sentenced Lovell to die by lethal injection. In 2011, the Utah Supreme Court overturned the conviction. But his defense has never challenged his guilt. "Nothing that we present to you is intended to be a smoking gun," Defense Attorney Michael Bouwhuis said. "You aren't going to hear anything that's going to make you say, 'I get it. I understand why he raped and murdered this woman.' You're not gonna hear anything like that." Instead, in the sentencing phase, the defense said they plan to focus on mitigating factors like Lovell's family history and good behavior in prison. "It's intended to provide you with a reason not to kill him," Bouwhuis said. Greg Roberts, the son of Yost, was the 1st witness called to testify Friday. He said, "I'm haunted by a lot of guilt for leaving her unprotected." Roberts was away at college in Virginia in 1985 when his mother, who was just 39 at the time, was murdered. The last time a death sentence was imposed in Utah was in 2008. The penalty phase of the trial will resume Monday. (source: Fox News) ****************** Utah Representative Scared of Grandma's Opinions on the Death Penalty Utah lawmakers passed a bill last week that would allow the state to bring back the firing squad for executions if lethal-injection drugs were not available. The governor, Republican Gary Herbert, has until April 1 to decide whether it should become law - and he's leaning toward signing it. Utah currently has 8 inmates on death row and no lethal injection drugs. However, Herbert also said that it was unlikely firing squads would even be used if the law were passed, as the state is trying to procure the drugs. "The debate is really more than just the firing squad," he told reporters yesterday. "It's should we have capital punishment or not?" Many states have considered alternative execution methods in recent months, as drug companies here and abroad have grown more reticent to be associated with death. Utah is the 1st state to come this close to changing the law, however, and death-penalty opponents have flooded the governor's office with calls and comments in the past week. Since late January, Herbert has received at least 433 emails on the legislation; 396 opposed it, with many coming from a campaign started by the American Civil Liberties Union, according to the Associated Press. Many of them were from out of state, coming from places as far away as New Zealand. A petition with 6,200 signatures opposing the measure was also sent to the governor's office by Utahns for Alternatives to the Death Penalty. One man from Seattle threatened to "never again come to Utah to ski if this barbaric execution style is used again in your state." However, the office contends that they received far more comments over previous legislative fights concerning issues like same-sex marriage. Republican Representative Paul Ray, who wrote the legislation, says most of the response he has received has been positive. Others offered alternative methods of execution - one senior citizen from Florida explained how the state might want to create a death chamber. "She scared me," Ray told the AP. "I'm glad she's not my grandmother." Oklahoma's House recently passed a bill that would allow nitrogen hypoxia executions if lethal injection were declared unconstitutional. Last year, Oklahoma used a relatively untested cocktail of lethal-injection drugs in an execution, given shortages. It took more than 40 minutes for the man sentenced to die to stop breathing. The executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center told the Oklahoman that the new legislation "seems like another experiment" and "they're trying to find drugs and acceptable protocol, but I think this is too similar to what Oklahoma did last year, which is use a new drug without knowledge of what the right dosage was and what its side effects would be and what contingencies they should have in place if things didn't go right." (source: New York Magazine) ****************** It's time to reconsider the death penalty I am far away from home but would like to enter into this firing squad conversation back there as Provo is my hometown. Utah, on March 10 our lawmakers decided it was time to bring back the firing squad to execute inmates on death row, 11 years after they decided it was a decidedly outdated, inhumane method of killing those inmates. The problem is that our current chosen method of killing is a lethal cocktail of drugs that certain suppliers in Europe and right here in America have decided not to sell for the purpose of killing people anymore, so we risk not being able to kill our inmates unless we change our laws. Gov. Gary Herbert, in his public address on March 19, described the conundrum succinctly. "Utah is a capital punishment state," he said "That is the law of Utah. ... We have to be able to carry that out." Does this not seem like a weird statement to anyone else? Basically he said we have to change the law so we do not have to change the law. The law must change either way, so why not change it in the way that shows us to be more compassionate, more humane, more human than our friends in Iran, Saudi Arabia, Somalia and China? Utah, we are the only country in the Americas (well, us and Cuba) -- and among only a small handful of developed nations -- who still kill our inmates; and though we are still part of the majority, Utah stands defiant against those of our fellow states who have also decided the practice is no longer tolerable. How about we consider joining those of our partners at home and abroad who have taken the moral high ground in the world? Even better, how about we show how we can actually be the moral model we wish to be? Gov. Herbert also said, "The debate is really more than just the firing squad. It's should we have capital punishment or not?" That is a wonderful question, and it should be our focus across the nation with this shortage of deadly drugs. We should be asking if killing is even right rather than asking how we are going to go on killing. Gov. Herbert tells us we should harass the drug companies, force them to sell the drugs so we can follow our laws. Utah, how about we harass our public officials until they represent the best parts of ourselves instead of the blood-thirsty, barbaric sides of our society? But let's just say we cannot stomach the idea of being compassionate toward allegedly terrible people (some innocent souls have been killed for crimes they did not commit). What about our fellow upstanding citizens? What are we doing to the ones who have to tie down a fellow person, the ones who have to pull the triggers, the ones who have to take down the bullet-ridden body and replace the blood-soaked sandbags? Utah, the executioner is not a mercenary we hire from Chechnya: The executioner is us. Utah, I am your son, though I am right now far away. I am your son and I have spent several years in Iraq and Afghanistan. I have never killed another man, but I have had to clean up the blood, wash the faces and pavement, burn the clothes - and the memories haunt me still. The Internet is replete with similar stories from executioners the country over; executions destroy many of the people charged with carrying them out. Here's the deal, Utah: By our votes we destroy or save our fellow residents, both criminal and peaceful. Representative Ray, who introduced the bill sitting on the Governor's desk claims this is going to be more humane than our other options. He is basically saying that shooting a man in the chest and letting him bleed to death is proper, at least more proper than some things. Why do we not shoot for the head to end it quickly? Why do we put a hood on the inmate before we shoot them? Why, Utah, do we not just stick with the methods including hangings, guillotines or pushing one from a high place (as one country's capital punishment laws allow) we reject? Dead is dead after all. What does it matter how we do it? I posit that we do these things because we recognize, if only slightly, that we are disgusted, that killing our fellows, whatever they did, simply does not jive with who we think we are; it is cognitive dissonance in the deepest parts of ourselves. The truth is that it does not, in fact, match our values. We are better than this, Utah: Let's prove it by getting rid of capital punishment instead of worrying about how we will kill our fellow human beings. Let's be better than that. (source: Opinion; Jesse Card is a Utah resident and comes from a long line of Utahns. He is currently serving in the U.S. Army at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. His opinions are his own---The Herald) CALIFORNIA: 'Death Penalty For Gays' Ballot Initiative May Be Allowed To Proceed Under California Law A ballot proposal criminalizing sodomy and allowing the death penalty for anyone who "touches another person of the same gender for purposes of sexual gratification" is moving forward because constitutionally, there is really no way to stop it, despite the neo-Nazi nature of the proposed law. Huntington Beach attorney Matt McLaughlin filed papers to begin gathering signatures for the ballot measure, the "Sodomite Suppression Act" on February 26th. In California's "direct democracy" any citizen can follow procedures to propose just about any law. That doesn't mean that any law could pass, and even if passed, it doesn't mean that any law could actually go into effect. Even laws passed by a majority of California voters may been overturned by judicial review, as was the case in the Prop. 8 gay marriage debate. This latest initiative is creating news not because of what it would do if passed but because of the fact that it, so far, cannot be stopped at this stage. Along with the required $200 fee, McLaughlin's letter asking for certification of his initative, sent to the coordinator for Attorney General Kamala Harris, includes some bizarre language: "The abominable crime against nature known as buggery, called also sodomy, is a monstrous evil that Almighty God, giver of freedom and liberty, commands us to suppress on pain of our utter destruction even as he overthrew Sodom and Gomorrha." McLaughlin's ballot proposal continues, stating, "...the People of California wisely command, in the fear of God, that any person who willingly touches another person of the same gender for purposes of sexual gratification be put to death by bullets to the head or by any other convenient method." Harris' office may actually be legally required to write a title and summary of the legislation, allowing signature gatherers to stand in front of shopping malls and grocery stores inviting patrons to sign a petition to put a death sentence for gays on the statewide ballot. The Sacramento Bee reports that the Legislature's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Caucus has now written a letter to the State Bar calling into question McLaughlin's fitness to practice law. A petition to take away his law license already has over 6,000 signers. While submitting a ballot proposal costs just $200, the preparation of the proposal by the state can cost about $8,000. (source: CBS news) USA: Executing the Insane Is Against the Law of the Land. So Why Do We Keep Doing It?----Such "mindless vengeance," the Supreme Court points out, "simply offends humanity." 6 years before he shaved his head, donned camo fatigues, and fatally shot his in-laws in front of his estranged wife and daughter, Scott Panetti piled up furniture and valuables in his yard in Fredericksburg, Texas, and sprayed it all down with water to get rid of the devil he was sure had possessed the house. It was hardly the first time he'd done something bizarre. Starting in his early 20s, Panetti had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, delusions, auditory hallucinations, and manic depression - he was hospitalized at least 14 times. 2 years prior to the murders, he was involuntarily committed after swinging a cavalry sword at his wife and daughter. After he turned himself in for the 1992 killings, he blamed the crime on "Sarge," one of several personalities he was convinced shared his body. The state charged him with capital murder. "He wore a large hat and a huge bandanna. He wore weird boots with stirrups ... He looked like a clown." The trial was a farce. Over even the prosecutor's objections, Judge Stephen Ables let Panetti act as his own lawyer, and allowed him to continue representing himself after he went off his antipsychotic medication. The defendant showed up in court decked out in what a family friend described as a 1920s-era cowboy outfit: "He wore a large hat and a huge bandanna. He wore weird boots with stirrups - the pants were tucked in at the calf," she later testified. "He looked like a clown." Standing before the jury, Panetti called himself "Sarge" and rambled incoherently for hours about everything from the TV show Quincy, M.E. to castrating a horse, with little interference from the judge - who did, however, intercede to question the relevance of belt buckles. In addition to his veterinarian, Panetti subpoenaed Jesus, John F. Kennedy, and the pope, and issued a stream-of-consciousness description of the crime: Sarge is gone. No more Sarge. Sonja and Birdie. Birdie and Sonja. Joe, Amanda lying kitchen, here, there, blood. No, leave. Scott, remember exactly what Sarge did. Shot the lock. Walked in the kitchen. Sonja, where's Birdie? Sonja here. Joe, bayonet, door, Amanda. Boom, boom, blood, blood. Demons. Ha, ha, ha, ha, oh, Lord, oh, you. It's hard to blame the jury that sentenced Panetti to die. At the time, Texas had no option for life without parole, and some of the jurors stated they were scared he'd get out someday. But whether or not Texas executes a schizophrenic man isn't simply about that man and his crimes. It's about the moral ground on which America's legal system rests. Executing the insane, Justice Marshall wrote, "has questionable retributive value, presents no example to others ... and simply offends humanity." That's essentially what the United States Supreme Court ruled in the 1986 case of Ford v. Wainwright. Citing centuries of English common-law precedent, the court pronounced that a civilized society cannot condone the execution of a person with so weak a grasp on reality that killing him, as Justice Thurgood Marshall concluded for the majority, "has questionable retributive value, presents no example to others, and thus has no deterrence value, and simply offends humanity ... Whether the aim is to protect the condemned from fear and pain without comfort of understanding, or to protect the dignity of society itself from the barbarity of exacting mindless vengeance," the Constitution forbids it as cruel and unusual punishment. How is it, then, that Scott Panetti has spent nearly two decades on death row, even though the justices have since reaffirmed the ban on executing the insane - in a ruling on his specific case? How is it that he came within eight hours of lethal injection this past December, only to be saved by a last-minute stay? And how is it that numerous seriously mentally ill people have been put to death in recent years, in defiance of the law of the land? The short answer is that, despite its lofty rhetoric, the Supreme Court punted on how states should determine whether someone is sane enough to be killed. In fact, were it not for the persuasive powers of Marshall, who had handled capital cases as an NAACP lawyer, the court wouldn't have even taken the Ford case - let alone cast 5 votes in the petitioner's favor. But Marshall couldn't convince the holdouts, including Justice William Rehnquist, who pointed out in his dissent that death row inmates were liable to simply fake mental illness. Giving them an opportunity for a preexecution sanity hearing, he wrote, "offers an invitation to those who have nothing to lose by accepting it to advance entirely spurious claims of insanity." In the end, the court offered little guidance on how to define insanity for legal purposes. Marshall had suggested that a prisoner too impaired to assist in his own defense could not be executed. But the legal test that most of the lower courts ultimately adopted was that of Justice Lewis Powell: The offender had to be "unaware of the punishment they're about to suffer and why they are to suffer it." That is "an extremely low standard," explains Phillip Resnick, the director of forensic psychiatry at Case Western Reserve University's medical school. "You can be quite psychotic and still know those 2 things." "The law is still basing decisions on folk psychology," notes one death penalty expert. Further muddying the waters, the Supreme Court left the interpretation of its ruling to state court judges, who are often elected and who can share the public's misconceptions about psychiatric illness' - not understanding, for instance, that even highly delusional people can seem normal in certain settings. (Prosecutors in Panetti's case recently exploited this misunderstanding by citing lucid snippets from a taped conversation with his visiting parents to argue that he is not insane, even though, in the same conversation, Panetti recalls grooming steers with former CIA agent Valerie Plame.) "The law is still basing decisions on folk psychology," notes Christopher Slobogin, a professor of law and psychiatry at Vanderbilt University. Some judges, he says, "worry that mental illness is this very wide-ranging concept that could apply to a huge percentage of the population depending on how it's defined." The result of all of this ambiguity has been a steady stream of executions of profoundly mentally ill people, some of whom - like Nollie Lee Martin, a Florida man executed in 1992 - were literally missing pieces of their brains. According to a study published in the Hastings Law Journal this past June, 18 of the 100 most recently executed convicts had been diagnosed with schizophrenia, PTSD, or bipolar disorder. Another 36 had other serious mental-health problems or chronic addictions that in some cases had rendered them psychotic. Following his conviction, Panetti tried to waive his right to a lawyer for the appeal (a move akin to suicide), but Judge Ables ruled him too mentally incompetent to make that choice. After many more appeals, Ables set a 2004 execution date and ruled, without a hearing, that Panetti was sane enough to die. The case ultimately landed before the Supreme Court, where Texas Solicitor General Ted Cruz (now the state's junior US senator) defended the state's right to execute Panetti. In 2007, the court ruled 5-4 that Judge Ables not only had unjustly denied Panetti a hearing on his mental state, but that the federal court reviewing the decision had applied an incompetency standard that was too restrictive. It wasn't enough that Panetti knew the state was going to execute him for the murders of his in-laws, the court said. After all, it acknowledged, Panetti could regurgitate these facts. But he also sincerely believed that the state wanted to execute him to stop him from preaching the Gospel. "A prisoner's awareness of the State's rationale for an execution is not the same as a rational understanding of it." Writing for the majority, Justice Anthony Kennedy proclaimed, "A prisoner's awareness of the State's rationale for an execution is not the same as a rational understanding of it." The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals had ignored the reality that "gross delusions stemming from a severe mental disorder may put that awareness in a context so far removed from reality that the punishment can serve no proper purpose." The 5th Circuit was ordered to further investigate Panetti's mental state based on this new "rational understanding" standard. But the Supreme Court's attempt to codify and expand upon the vague guidelines it set out in the Ford case has made little difference in practice. Judges often ignore the new guidelines, or rule in a way that simply reiterates Ford. Cornell law professor John Blume recently did some number crunching involving "Ford claims," the last-ditch defense petitions arguing that a person is too insane to be executed. He found that the Panetti decision had little impact on the outcomes, especially in the states with the most active death chambers. Florida, 3rd in the nation in executions last year, has never found anybody too insane to execute. Nor have Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, or Utah. In Texas, the most prolific killer of convicts, the last time a prisoner prevailed on such a claim was back in 2006, a year before the Panetti decision - which so far hasn't even saved Panetti himself. So how do judges decide whether a prisoner is too delusional for a civilized society to execute? Often, it turns out, they rely on psychiatrists whose recommendations seem to have little basis in science - hired guns whose testimony can give pro-death-penalty jurists cover for rulings that otherwise would seem to contradict the dictates of the Supreme Court. Consider Dr. Alan Waldman, a forensic psychiatrist and neurologist whose testimony has helped send at least 3 mentally ill men to their demise, and whom Texas hired to evaluate Panetti in advance of a 2008 hearing on the prisoner's fitness for execution. Waldman spent his early career working in various hospitals and clinics, including a stint with the Florida Department of Corrections. Today, he works in private practice and serves as an expert witness for both prosecutors and defense lawyers, holding himself out as an expert in the detection of malingering - feigning or exaggerating symptoms of illness - although he admitted during the Panetti hearing that he'd never published anything on the subject in a peer-reviewed journal. In fact, the only published work since 1993 listed in Waldman's public resume is an article in a prosecutors' newsletter. When I reached out to Waldman, he directed his secretary to tell me that he would not talk to me under any circumstances and "don't call back." But he has a considerable public track record, having served on "competency commissions" - panels of psychiatrists convened to assess whether an inmate is too insane to execute - in 3 Florida death penalty cases. Like Panetti in Texas, each of these 3 prisoners had a long history of mental illness. But Waldman deemed all of them legally sane. To evaluate Panetti's sanity, Texas hired a psychiatrist who'd been arrested for threatening a teen with an AK-47 following a traffic incident. One of them was Thomas Provenzano, an Orlando man who signed documents "Jesus Christ" and showed pictures of Jesus to his nephews and nieces. "That's me," he'd whisper. "A five-year-old kid could tell my brother had mental problems," his sister, Catherine Forbes, told me. In the mid-1970s, Provenzano checked himself into a mental hospital because he was hearing voices. He was eventually released, but his behavior grew increasingly bizarre, to the point where his sister begged the doctors to have him committed. (They demurred.) In 1983, he was arrested for disorderly conduct after screaming obscenities at pedestrians and leading police on a car chase. Following the arrest, he started dressing like Rambo and hanging out at the courthouse, obsessing over his legal file and the officers who'd apprehended him. In early 1984, he smuggled 3 guns into an Orlando courthouse, where he shot and killed one man and critically injured 2 other people before an officer shot him in the back. In the ambulance en route to the hospital, he yelled, "I am the son of God! You can't kill me." In 1999, then-Gov. Jeb Bush signed Provenzano's death warrant and appointed a competency panel that included Waldman. After evaluating Provenzano, Waldman reported that he was malingering. The prisoner's sister was dumbstruck. She tearfully recounted to me how her brother had spent more than 15 years on death row sleeping under his cot with a box on his head because he was hearing voices. But the Florida Supreme Court sided with Waldman, and Provenzano was executed in June 2000. About 6 months later, Waldman had his own run-in with the law. He allegedly cut in front of a teenage girl at a red light, and she believed he'd clipped the front of her purple Saturn. But rather than pull over, she said, he took off when the light changed. Incensed, she followed him home to try to get his insurance information. According to a police report, Waldman emerged from his front door carrying an AK-47. He pointed the gun through the car window. "He was so close I could feel him spitting at me," she told me. She drove away and called the cops, only to be told that Waldman had reported her first, saying he was scared for his life. After corroborating the gist of her account, they arrested Waldman instead. The young woman, who asked me not to use her name, decided not to press charges, but says she's still traumatized by the episode. In 2012, Florida executed John Ferguson, who had a long history of paranoid schizophrenia. His last words: "I am the Prince of God and I will rise again." In 2012, Florida Gov. Rick Scott appointed Waldman and two other psychiatrists to evaluate John Ferguson, a prisoner with a 40-year history of paranoid schizophrenia who had once received free legal help from John Roberts Jr., now chief justice of the Supreme Court. Ferguson had killed 8 people after he was released from a mental institution over the warnings of state doctors, including one who said he was homicidal and "should not be released under any circumstances." After a 90-minute interview, Waldman and his colleagues concluded that Ferguson was legally sane. He was executed the following year. His last words: "I am the Prince of God and I will rise again." When Waldman evaluated Scott Panetti in 2007, the prisoner insisted on calling him "Dr. Grigson" after the late James Grigson, a.k.a. "Dr. Death"???the discredited Texas psychiatrist who inspired the Errol Morris film The Thin Blue Line. Grigson was known for testifying in capital trials, where he would almost invariably argue that the defendant was an incurable sociopath who would certainly kill again if allowed to live. Waldman noted in his report that Panetti had answered most of the questions about his crime with Bible quotes and made-up stories, and had claimed JFK had once cleaned his burns. He'd talked like a cowboy, and said the other inmates hated him for his faith. (Prison staffers told Waldman the inmates didn't like Panetti because "he screams and yells and is constantly disturbing the unit by preaching the Gospel.") Panetti also told Waldman that "Sergeant Iron Horse" was his in-laws' real killer. Nevertheless, Waldman claimed that Panetti demonstrated "organized" thoughts and displayed no evidence of serious mental illness. Furthermore, the prisoner's repeated references to Grigson proved that he was malingering. Waldman was unaware, he later admitted, that Grigson had in fact testified at Panetti's trial, and that Panetti had been obsessed with him ever since. For his efforts, Waldman charged the state at least $23,000. (The federal courts allotted Panetti a total of $9,000 to hire his own experts.) When Panetti's lead lawyer cross-examined Waldman in federal court before Judge Sam Sparks, she demonstrated that Waldman was unfamiliar with key details of the case and hadn't given Panetti a single test or standard psychological exam, even though such tests - including 1 to assess whether a patient is faking schizophrenia - are used regularly in the field. When the attorney asked about the AK-47 incident, Sparks cut her off. He found Panetti eligible for execution. Last November, a state court judge in Indiana offered a glimpse of what a competency process conducted in the spirit of the law might look like. Panetti's lawyers appealed again. But the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, which covers the busy death penalty states of Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi, ruled that Panetti was sane enough to die, quoting Waldman at length - even though he was the only 1 of 6 experts to testify that Panetti wasn't affected by any psychotic disorder. Last October, the Supreme Court declined to reconsider his case, and Texas moved to execute him on December 3. Only after a national uproar that drew in prominent conservatives - among them former Texas congressman Ron Paul, former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, and Maggie Gallagher, cofounder of the National Organization for Marriage - did the 5th Circuit hold up the execution. So what might a competency process look like if it were conducted in the spirit of the law? This past November, Jane Woodward Miller, a state court judge in Indiana, gave the nation's judiciary a glimpse. The Indiana Supreme Court had appointed Miller to determine the mental competence of Michael Overstreet, a man convicted of abducting, raping, and murdering a college student. Overstreet had shown symptoms of psychosis at 17, had been in a mental hospital prior to the murder, and, once in prison, was repeatedly diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia by state doctors. By 2013, he had intractable hallucinations of "shadow people" and firmly believed he was already dead and in a coma. He thought his execution would free him from purgatory and bring him back to be with his family - and this was when he was on his meds. To assess whether Overstreet was sane enough to execute under the Panetti standard, Miller held a hearing lasting 4 days (twice as long as Panetti's). It involved 13 witnesses and nearly 1,300 pages of medical records. The state, which acknowledged that Overstreet suffered from severe mental illness, could rally but a single mental-health expert, a doctor with limited experience in forensic psychology. "The idea that this convicted rapist murdering monster is too sick to be executed is nothing short of outrageous," a local prosecutor complained. Although the case itself was similar to Panetti's, the outcome was entirely different. The judge personally watched hours of video of the doctors interviewing Overstreet. She also scrutinized their credentials and grilled them on their understanding of the Supreme Court's Panetti decision. Her 137-page opinion determined that the state's mental-health expert's report wasn't especially thorough or his conclusions especially credible. And while Overstreet knew the state wanted to execute him and why (the test Powell had suggested in Ford), that wasn't enough to justify his execution under the Panetti standard. "This Court concludes Overstreet means exactly what he said: He is dead, in a coma," she wrote. "And that is a delusion...Delusions or other psychotic symptoms cannot simply be discounted because a petitioner has a cognitive awareness of his circumstances." One of the local prosecutors went ballistic, texting to the Indianapolis Star, "the idea that this convicted rapist murdering monster is too sick to be executed is nothing short of outrageous and is an injustice to the victim, her mother, the jury, and the hundreds of people who worked to convict this animal." But in December, state Attorney General Greg Zoeller announced that Miller had done such a good job of adhering to the Panetti ruling that there was nothing to appeal. Overstreet will remain in prison for life, and cannot be executed unless he one day recovers his sanity, which isn't likely. As for Panetti, he remains on death row, growing increasingly paranoid and delusional, according to court filings, as he waits for a panel of federal judges to decide whether the Supreme Court case bearing his name might, in fact, apply to him. (source: Mother Jones) ********************** Execution drug supply is running low, and states are looking for lethal backup plans----Nitrogen chamber? Firing squad? Electric chair? A bulky wooden chair outfitted with leather straps sits in Huntsville's Texas Prison Museum, still fully functional, but unused in its faux death chamber. But before its retirement in 1964 this electric chair, dubbed Old Sparky, carried out 361 executions. For visitors, the chair stands as an illustration of how far Texas has advanced in capital punishment - a relic of what some consider past barbarism. But with a dwindling supply of lethal injection drugs in the U.S., states have started looking to bygone execution methods - not unlike Old Sparky - as a backup plan. If Texas goes through with Kent Sprouse's execution April 9, it will have exhausted its last dose of pentobarbital, the lethal injection drug it has used since 2012. That leaves the state, which has the macabre distinction of being the nation's leading executioner, with 3 more April executions and no plan as to how to carry them out. Jason Clark, a spokesperson with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, said the department is "exploring all options, including the continued use of the pentobarbital or alternate drugs." But could "all options" also include plugging Old Sparky back in? That's what officials in other states are considering. This month, Alabama's House of Representatives voted on a bill that, in case of a continued drug shortage, would bring back the electric chair. And in May, the Tennessee Supreme Court will hear a challenge to the state's attempt to bring back the electric chair. And if the electric chair sounds antiquated in this age of lethal injection, just consider the firing squad. The Utah state legislature passed a bill this month that would reauthorize death by a firing squad if lethal injection drugs cannot be secured 30 days before an inmates' scheduled execution. Rep. Paul Ray, the bill's sponsor, decided to draft it after he learned last year that Utah had no execution drugs. "It became apparent at that time that we needed a plan B just in case," Ray said. "We're still 2 or 3 years out on our next execution, but my thought was, 'Well, let's get something in place now. Just in case we need it, it'll be there.'" Legislation to allow firing squads in Arkansas also was introduced this year, along with a failed attempt in Wyoming. Oklahoma, meanwhile, is toying with a new take on the gas chamber. The Oklahoma House passed a bill earlier in March that would allow nitrogen chamber executions. Like its predecessor, nitrogen chambers would involve an airtight chamber, but instead of filling it with poison gas, the nitrogen would cause death by asphyxiation. But it isn't some nostalgia for brutality fueling this wave of states seemingly backpedaling on progress. It's increasingly becoming a necessity. A recent GAO report shows that the U.S. faces a widespread drug shortage that started in 2007. As the stock of drugs began to dwindle, few domestic suppliers were able to to keep up with the deadly demand. So states turned to European pharmacies. It turned out to be a temporary fix, as 1 by 1 Italian, German and Dutch suppliers cut off drugs supplies when they discovered they were being used to kill. The companies' bans reflect a larger cultural difference - the U.S. is the only Western country that still carries out executions. Keeping dates with death But if the aim was to stymie executions, the plan looks like it backfired. "Our hand has kind of been forced without the availability of drugs," Ray said. "There's still support for the death penalty, so you have to have a way to do that." He continued, "The interesting thing is that these companies in Europe are opposed to the death penalty so they withhold these drugs. They seem to be opposed to the firing squad over there. But they're the reason we're using the firing squad. They need to understand that they might not like what we're doing, but they're the reason we're doing it." Most of the state legislation, however, is nothing but the sketching of a backup plan. Still, with the clock ticking for 2015's roster of death row inmates, 10 across the country and 6 in the state, Texas needs a solution - fast. Even for trigger-happy Texas, it's unlikely that there will be a sudden shift to another form of execution - or at least not in the next month. Meghan Ryan, a law professor at Southern Methodist University, pointed out that even if states dodge the problems that lethal injections pose, new methods would be open to judicial scrutiny. "The problem with going to other methods of execution is that there are potentially constitutional concerns about that, just like there are constitutional concerns about what states are doing now in experimenting with different lethal injection cocktails," Ryan said. "We're sort of in a state of uncertainty regarding executions in general." Ryan said that the state push for lethal injection alternatives could hit a snag under the Eighth Amendment's bar on cruel and unusual punishment. It is unclear if bringing old techniques out of retirement when lethal injections exist would hold up in court. "The idea that punishments ought to be evolving toward more humane methods of execution suggests that moving backward, such as toward the electric chair or firing squad, might be questionable or possibly unconstitutional," Ryan said. Texas does have a stockpile of the sedative midazolam that it could adopt into its protocol with the stroke of a pen. But the controversial drug, which replaced the depleted sodium thiopental in some states' drug cocktails, has been used in 3 botched executions. Most notably, it was part of the horrific death of Oklahoma inmate Clayton Lockett last April, which drew worldwide attention to lethal injection practices. "Every Department of Corrections in the country is looking at all of this," said Deborah Denno, a law professor at Fordham University and expert on lethal injections. "They're very aware that if they do anything wrong, and they're so capable of it, that this is going to set into motion a series of questions about this entire process." And if midazolam's link to botched executions wasn't enough, there's the upcoming Supreme Court case brought by three Oklahoma death row inmates that centers on the drug. The case, which is set to be argued April 29, has already led judges in Florida and Oklahoma to halt executions until the court reaches a decision. So for now, it seems that midazolam's reputation will keep Texas - or any other state - from touching its stash. "My sense is that they're probably scrambling to find a compounding pharmacy in this country that would make more pentobarbital for them. That would be my 1st guess," Denno said. The long-term solution to lethal injection drug shortages will take time and likely many court battles to sort out. But it's time that Texas, at least, doesn't have - unless it wants to do what Ohio did when it halted executions indefinitely after one was botched in 2014. The chances of that in the Lone Star state? Slim, especially since there have been no efforts for the state to take a break from its busy schedule. "Knowing the history of Texas and other states that are advocates of capital punishment, I think they will do what they can to try to keep executions in line and on schedule," Ryan said. Much like the rest of the country, the next steps for Texas are unclear. The Supreme Court's guidance on midazolam usage could clear pathways for states to use the drug. On the flip side, it could completely bar it, sending the U.S. on another pharmaceutical scramble. Or perhaps the frustration of switching from one drug to another, each step taken with unsure footing, will lead states to alternatives like in Utah. Meanwhile, Old Sparky is still on display. (source: Commercial Appeal) ***************** The drugs don't work----When lethal injection gets tricky, try guns or gas In 1996 the state of Utah put John Albert Taylor, a man who had raped and murdered an 11-year-old girl, to death by firing squad. Chris Zimmerman, a retired police officer who investigated the murder, witnessed the execution. "Off to our left was Mr Taylor, off to the right, behind a wall, was the firing squad," he remembers. "There was a countdown, and the firing squad were ordered to aim and fire. I heard a simultaneous explosion - you couldn't tell the guns apart. He clenched his fists, his chest rose a little, like it was suddenly filled with gas. Then he unclenched his fists, the doctor walked out with a stethoscope and checked his pulse, and it was over." Since 1976, when capital punishment was brought back in the United States, only 3 people have been executed by firing squad in America - all in Utah. The state banned the method in 2004 (though since the law did not apply to past cases, another man was shot in 2010). But on March 10th its legislature passed a law to bring back the guns. Utah is one of several states trying to ensure it can kill people if lethal injection, the preferred modern way, is not available. To the relief of abolitionists, not many are succeeding. Lethal injection has been becoming more controversial, and trickier, since 2011, when the European Commission banned the sale of eight drugs if the purpose was to use them in executions. Many manufacturers, including American ones, fearing bad publicity as well as regulatory problems, stopped making or supplying drugs too. The result has been an acute shortage of the chemicals with which it is legally possible to execute people in most of the 32 states that still have the death penalty. Last year 35 people were executed in America, the fewest since 1994. Several states have tried to acquire drugs in other ways - typically from crude "compounding pharmacies". But since this has not always worked, they must find alternatives. In Oklahoma, where a botched lethal injection took 43 awful minutes to kill a prisoner last year, the state House on March 3rd overwhelmingly approved a bill to allow the state to execute people by gassing them with nitrogen. On March 12th the Alabama House voted to reintroduce the electric chair. In Wyoming, the state House has passed a bill to bring back firing squads. Several states now also keep the names of their lethal-drug-suppliers secret, to protect them from protests. So far, however, few alternatives have passed into law. Several states retain the option of the electric chair, and a few the use of hanging, but such executions are now extremely rare, and almost only because the prisoner requests it (the last man to die by the electric chair was in Virginia in 2013). Wyoming's bill on firing squads was held up by a debate about whether prisoners should be sedated, and ultimately failed; Utah's barely made it to a vote, and may yet be vetoed by the governor. Only in Tennessee has a law reintroducing the electric chair made it on to the books. While executions are held up, some 3,000 condemned prisoners are left unsure of their fate. While waiting, they are in effect serving life sentences of solitary confinement, with few visitors allowed. Their number, however, is gently declining. In 2013, the latest year for which figures are available, more prisoners were removed from death row than were executed, mostly because their sentences had been commuted to life. The problem with resurrecting older methods of execution, says Robert Dunham, the head of the Death Penalty Information Centre, an NGO, is that they will instantly be challenged as unconstitutional "cruel and unusual punishment" - creating as much delay as the drugs shortage. This is why many states moved away from the electric chair in the first place. In addition, polls suggest that even death-penalty supporters are squeamish about most alternatives to lethal injection. "Don't we care about how Utah is perceived in the country and in this world?", asked 1 Utah state representative in the firing-squad debate. Notoriously, the state was the 1st to seize its chance to execute a criminal after 1976. The case of Gary Gilmore caused a media sensation; and so did the state's latest use of the firing squad in 2010. In reality, insists Mr Zimmerman, shooting is hardly more barbaric than poisoning with drugs. "There was no blood. He died so quickly he didn't bleed," he says of Taylor's execution. But whatever the alternatives, free-flowing drugs are not returning. On April 9th Texas is expected to use its last dose of pentobarbital, its preferred drug; earlier this month Georgia delayed an execution to check the quality of its supply. Death's proponents are not giving up, but life is getting harder. (source: The Economist) *************** Here's how hard it will be to put Aurora theater shooter to death Sentencing someone to death in Colorado is harder than you may think, as proven by the lengthy process involved in capital punishment cases. It's a process that thousands of potential jurors in the Aurora theater shooting trial have been getting an education in over the course of the last 3 months. Usually in a 1st-degree murder trial, if the jury returns a guilty verdict, the judge must return a sentence of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. However, in cases like the theater shooting trial, when the prosecution seeks the death penalty, as the Arapahoe County District Attorney is doing in this case, it's the jury that decides the sentence. This is why jury selection on capital punishment cases takes so long: The court has to ensure each and every juror can be fair and impartial throughout both the trial and the sentencing hearing, if there is a sentencing hearing. Following a guilty verdict, jurors have to be able to consider both penalties - life imprisonment and death by lethal injection - and follow a specific process to decide the appropriate punishment. Capital punishment sentencing hearing phases A sentencing hearing consists of 3 phases. In phase 1, the prosecution must prove beyond a reasonable doubt at least 1 statutory aggravating factor, or a fact or circumstance which makes a murder more serious than others. There are 17 aggravating factors in Colorado, including killing a police officer, killing a judge, an ambush, killing a child, and killing multiple victims, the latter of the 2 will in all likelihood be presented in the Aurora theater shooting case should it continue to the sentencing phase, as 12 people were killed in the shooting, including Veronica Moser-Sullivan, a 6-year-old child. In phase 2, jurors must consider mitigation, or any reason that might favor a life sentence over a death sentence. Mitigation can include mental illness, a defendant???s background or upbringing, the age of a defendant and a catch-all category that would detail any and all reasons a defense attorney might believe a jury should consider a life sentence. Jurors have to weigh each mitigating factor against any aggravating factors, and only if they are convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that the mitigation does not outweigh the proven aggravation does the hearing proceed to phase 3. In phase 3, each juror is called upon to make a moral evaluation of the defendant's character and crime. In this phase, each juror is asked to apply his or her individual reasoned, moral judgment as to whether death is the appropriate penalty, beyond a reasonable doubt. The process is set up in such a way that unless every condition is met and every phase is completed, the jury must return a verdict of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. The vote must be unanimous to return a death sentence. And therein lies the heart of jury selection in the theater shooting case. The defense is searching for that one juror who could vote for life in prison against 11 others who vote for death, and the prosecution is fighting just as hard to eliminate those sorts of jurors. Lawyers fight for death penalty jurors When prospective jurors for the theater shooting trial come in for individual questioning, they first watch a video in which Arapahoe District County Judge Carlos Samour discusses the aforementioned three phases of a sentencing hearing. He follows up with them as a group, making additional remarks to put the discussion in perspective. Then, the jurors are each questioned by the judge and both counsels to ensure they both understand the process and can be fair and impartial. To say it's thorough might be an understatement. Jurors must be willing and able to consider and decide the facts, fairly and impartially. Unlike following traffic laws, it's completely allowed - encouraged, in fact - for jurors to be honest and say they can't follow the law in being fair and impartial. They may just be better suited for a different kind of case, Samour says. Having a bias in favor of or against the death penalty doesn't necessarily disqualify a juror, though. The standard Colorado law applies is whether a juror's views on the death penalty prevent or substantially impair the performance of his or her duties as a juror in a sentencing hearing. "To put it even more simply, can you set that bias aside?" Samour says in his group remarks. Both the defense and the prosecution thoroughly question prospective jurors trying to prove a juror can or cannot set their preformed biases aside. The defense always ensures that jurors understand even though the court is talking about possible sentences, their client, James Holmes, the admitted gunman in the July 2012 theater shooting, is presumed innocent unless proven otherwise. The prosecution almost always asks jurors if they can sentence "that man" to death, pointing to Holmes and never naming him. That question is always accompanied by another question, with prosecutors asking the juror whether he or she could also sentence Holmes to life in prison. Jurors weigh in on sentencing process Most prospective jurors have found the sentencing process to be long and a tad tedious, but necessary. Some have even expressed relief that it's so difficult to sentence someone to death, saying that it's refreshing to see that the justice system doesn't take the death penalty lightly. "It seems long, but it's something that needs to be done. Without proper thought, something could go wrong," said a juror retained Thursday, a foster father of 5. Another juror retained Thursday started sobbing when one of the alleged aggravating factors in this case, the murder of a child, was mentioned. A mother of 3, she said it hit close to home but she could still consider both penalties. "It still doesn't mean he doesn't deserve a fighting chance. He's a human," she said, referring to Holmes. Even though the court has taken its time with individual questioning to make sure every juror kept can be fair and impartial, it has still retained jurors at a much faster pace than expected, moving the theater shooting trial date up to April 27 from the projected date in June. Group questioning, the final phase of jury selection, will take place on April 13, possibly spilling over into April 14. At that time, the court will narrow down a pool of 120-130 jurors to just 24. The trial is expected to last 4 to 5 months, Samour said. (source: KDVR news) **************** Dispatches: Saving US Children From the Death Penalty 10 years ago this month, the United States Supreme Court found the death penalty unconstitutional when imposed on people who committed crimes when they were younger than age 18. The decision, Roper v. Simmons, spared the lives of 72 inmates on death row at the time. It also paved the way for later decisions that addressed other abusive sentences. Until that moment, the US had been the world leader in executing juvenile offenders. In fact, just eight other countries had put juvenile offenders to death between 1990 and 2004, and the 19 executions of juvenile offenders carried out in the US during that period equalled the known total for the rest of the world combined. The court had considered the constitutionality of the juvenile death penalty before, but in 1989 ultimately decided that the punishment was acceptable for someone who was 16 or older at the time of the crime. So what had changed in a decade-and-a-half? Advances in neuroscience, for one thing. Research was beginning to show what we already knew from everyday experience: teenagers have limited comprehension of risk and consequences, and they are much more likely than adults to engage in risky behavior, particularly with peers. These studies confirmed that for most adolescents, risk-taking and criminal behavior is fleeting. That means that young offenders are particularly amenable to change and rehabilitation. International law also played a part. The court in Roper cited the Convention on the Rights of the Child and other human rights treaties and incorporated points made in the amicus brief submitted by human rights organizations, including Human Rights Watch. The Supreme Court has since gone on to apply these lines of reasoning to juvenile offenders sentenced to life without the possibility of parole - incrementally, to be sure. In Graham v. Florida, the court struck down life-without-parole sentences for juveniles convicted of crimes other than homicide. In Miller v. Alabama, the court determined that the mandatory imposition of life-without-parole sentences for juveniles, including those convicted of homicide, violates the US Constitution. The Supreme Court hasn't yet addressed the non-mandatory imposition of life without parole for juvenile offenders. It's also left open the question of whether resentencing was available to people already serving mandatory life-without-parole sentences for crimes committed when they were juveniles - although a case now before the court could resolve that question and apply the rule of Miller retroactively, as Florida's highest court has just done. Now that the US is out of the business of executing juvenile offenders, the shameful club of countries that put children to death has only a handful of members. Pakistan and possibly Iran have carried out such executions this year; Yemen also likely has juvenile offenders on death row. US juvenile justice practices still don't fully comply with international standards, but Roper and the cases that followed represent enormous strides forward. Roper also removes any cover for the few other countries that continue to engage in the abhorrent practice of putting people to death for crimes they committed as children. (source: Human Rights Watch) ********************* Mental competency report delays federal trial for man in 2007 fatal Bessemer bank robbery The federal trial of a man who faces a possible death sentence if convicted in the 2007 slayings of 2 Bessemer bank tellers and the wounding of 2 others has been delayed again after a government expert found the man is not competent to stand trial. U.S. District Court Judge David Proctor, in an order issued Friday afternoon, indefinitely delayed the trial of William Merriweather Jr. The trial had been slated to begin April 20. The judge ordered Merriweather to be taken to a federal mental health facility for a period of not more than 4 months to determine "whether there is a substantial probability that in the foreseeable future he will attain the capacity to permit the trial to proceed." Examiners are then to file a psychological report regarding Merriweather's treatment and their conclusions at the end of that period, the judge ordered. He also ordered that hundreds of people summoned to be in the pool of potential jurors for the trial be released from jury duty. The trial was expected to last 2 months and included a larger jury than normal. "The order reflects that there are still competency matters pending, but the government is still seeking the death penalty in the case," Peggy Sanford, public information officer for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Birmingham, said Friday afternoon. Richard Jaffe, one of Merriweather's attorneys, declined comment on the delay. Merriweather is charged in the May 14, 2007 bank robbery and deaths of Eva Lovelady Hudson and Sheila McWaine Prevo, and with the wounding of Anita Siler Gordon, Latoya Shaniece Freeman, all tellers at a Wachovia Bank branch in Bessemer. Merriweather faces 1 count of killing during the commission of a bank robbery and 2 counts of use of a firearm during a crime of violence. If convicted he could face the death penalty. Merriweather's trial has been reset multiple times as attorneys have argued the past 8 years that Merriweather is schizophrenic and is incompetent to stand trial. Proctor first ruled Merriweather competent in early 2013 - based on a 2011 hearing. The judge set a trial, but then delayed it as Merriweather's attorneys argued that previously undisclosed nurses notes from his mental evaluation at a federal prison plus a doctors' new concerns deserved new look at competency. Proctor held another competency hearing last summer and in October issued a 124-page ruling, again declaring Merriweather competent for trial. In his ruling Friday Proctor noted his previous rulings. But he wrote that the court must "remain alert" to any changes that would render Merriweather incompetent to stand trial. "The recent reports of a government-retained expert finding that defendant (Merriweather) is not competent presents just such a circumstance," Proctor wrote. The U.S. Attorney's Office has had what's called a "firewall team," made up of prosecutors unknown and operating separately to the trial prosecutors. That firewall team prepares for the possibility of a sentencing hearing involving the death penalty in the event of a guilty verdict. The government's firewall team arranged for a psychiatrist, Dr. Michael Welner, to evaluate Merriweather in Feb. 2015, Proctor states in his order. "As it turns out, before his retention by the Firewall Team, Dr. Welner had been assisting the government's trial team for more than 6 years," the judge stated. Dr. Welner had advised and assisted the trial team of prosecutors in evaluating and confronting the defense's mental health evidence, Proctor wrote. "As part of his earlier work with the trial team, however, Dr. Welner did not actually interact with defendant (Merriweather). In fact, he did not actually meet with -- and personally evaluate -- defendant until February 2015, when he did so on behalf of the Firewall Team." Welner reported that Merriweather's disorganized thought processes and speech were consistent with schizophrenia and that his current condition impedes his ability to rationally consult with this lawyers, Proctor wrote. Welner, however, also reported that Merriweather's condition is treatable with medication. "Dr. Welner's conclusions appear to hold that before December 2014 defendant (Merriweather) was not suffering from a mental disease so severe that it compromised his competency and that defendant has been selectively cooperative with evaluators," Proctor stated. "These opinions are consistent with the court's findings articulated in its previous competency opinions." But Welner reported that Merriweather's mental state had recently begun to deteriorate, Proctor stated. A fresh look at Merriweather's competency is warranted because a "competency finding is not static," the judge wrote. The more than 7-year wait for a trial has frustrated and angered the victims who survived and the families of the 2 tellers who died. Merriweather, wearing a green baseball-style cap, white shirt, tie, and slacks and shoes partially wrapped in electrical tape, walked into the Wachovia Bank branch on Ninth Avenue in Bessemer. Minutes later, Merriweather walked out of the bank with $11,255 cash and the bank manager in tow as a hostage after having killed and wounded the tellers. Merriweather didn't make it out of the parking lot after being wounded by a sheriff's deputy. (source: al.com) From rhalperi at smu.edu Sat Mar 21 15:28:44 2015 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Sat, 21 Mar 2015 15:28:44 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide Message-ID: March 21 GLOBAL: Amnesty International to release annual death penalty report on April 1 On April 1, Amnesty International will be lauching this 2014 report on death penalty developments and statistics from across the globe. The report is likely to cover the key global trends in the use of the death penalty in the past year, and it will look at how executions and death sentences increased and decreased in all countries. Amnesty International has been campaigning for the abolition of death penalty at global level. (source: sikhsiyasat.net) THAILAND: Death penalty for son convicted for killing parents and brother The Thonburi Criminal Court has sentenced the youngest son to death by execution following his conviction for the last year's murder of his father, mother and older brother. The judicial ruling cited prosecution evidence to find Kittinan "Toei" Homchong, 23, guilty of hiring 4 accomplices to kill his entire family in order to become a sole heir to inherit his father's estate, including Bt100-million plot. Kittinan recanted his confession given to police and denied all charges during trial. He got the mandatory capital punishment for the premeditated murder of biological parents and sibling. The 4 accomplices, including the gunman, also received death penalty before the court cited their confession as grounds for punishment reduction to life imprisonment. The murder took place last April at the Homchong family's home in Bang Khae district. The father, retired military officer Colonel Wichai, the mother, teacher Wanida and their oldest son, police officer Lieutenant Thammanat, were all shot in the head. The scene was tampered with to make it appear like a break-in. Kittinan said his brother's Bt53, 000 cash was missing. He also claimed to have an alibi for staying at his friend's home during the incident. Police found his statement and that of his friend, Sakkarin "Golf" Phankul, 23 to be suspicious and incoherent. Confronted with his conflicting statements, Sakkarin admitted he wanted to help Kittinanto gain access to the inheritance. He said Kittinan gave the key for the gunman to get into his home. His confession led to Kittinan's initial confession and the arrests of gunman Sirichai Permpoonsak, 43, taxi driver Chalard Thiangtham, 53 and look-out man Surapong Chuphan, 47. (source: thaivisa.com) INDONESIA: Attorney general says no change in execution plan The attorney general reaffirmed here Friday that a plan to execute drug convicts on death row has not been put on hold, although no exact date has been set for its implementation. "I have said that judicially it was close to the final stage, but new developments have emerged after several of the death convicts directly or through lawyers filed for appeals," Attorney General HM Prasetyo noted. 5 convicts have filed suits for a judicial review. They include Martin Anderson from Ghana, Mary Jane from the Philippines, and Serge Areski Atlaoui from France. 2 Australian death convicts Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran are also appealing against the Presidential Decrees that rejected their clemency pleas. Prasetyo remarked he should respect the ongoing legal processes, although they were already close to the final stage in terms of technical aspects. "We have to be patient and wait for certain non-judicial processes," he added. He pointed out he will not act arbitrarily and will still give an opportunity (for them to seek legal avenues), though their efforts are useless because their clemency requests have already been turned down. "No other legal avenues can be taken. The only question is when to implement the death penalty," he noted. The attorney general explained that similar to the 1st round, the executions will be carried out simultaneously as planned.(*) (source: Antara News) **************** Brazilian death-row drug convict mentally fit for execution: Attorney General Attorney General M. Prasetyo said on Friday that Brazilian death-row drug convict Rodrigo Gularte was mentally fit enough to be executed. "According to testimonies from fellow inmates and doctors, Rodrigo is not sick at all. This means there's nothing stopping us from executing him," he said at the Attorney General's Office in South Jakarta. Prasetyo repeated previous statements that the law only prohibited the government from executing pregnant women and children under 18 years of age. Previously, Yeni Rosa Damayanti of the Association of Healthy Souls called on the government not to execute Gularte because his medical records showed that he had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia back in 1996. Medical reports obtained by The Jakarta Post reveal that Gularte attended psychiatric appointments from March to November 1996 at the Clinica Quinta do Sol in Brazil, where he was prescribed antidepressants, antipsychotics and mood stabilizers. (source: asiaone.com) PAKISTAN----executions 2 brothers among 4 hanged 4 more death-row prisoners, including 2 brothers, were executed in Rawalpindi and Mianwali on Thursday. The authorities hanged 3 more murder convicts, including 2 brothers, at Adyala Jail. Those sent to gallows were Ghulam Muhammad and Asghar Ali sons of Muhammad Hussain of Jalti and Gulistan Khan son of Muhammad Zaman, hails from Kallar Syedan. Earlier, the jail authorities had arranged their last meetings with the family members and relatives after receiving the death warrants for the 3 murder convicts. According to details, the jail authorities first sent the 2 real brothers Ghulam Muhammad and Asghar Ali to gallows at 5:30am and then the 3rd convict Gulistan Khan was hanged by jail authorities. Later, their bodies were handed over to the heirs who took them to their native towns for burial. Tight security arrangements were made inside and outside the jail by the law enforcement agencies to avoid any untoward incident at the time of hangings. Ghulam Muhammad and Asghar Ali were awarded capital punishment by a court of law for murdering 2 of their relatives in 1996 in Jalti whereas the Gulistan Khan committed murder of a man at Kallar Syedan in 1998 and was held by police. So far, a total of 10 convicts including Khalid Mehmood, a former technician of Pakistan Air Force (PAF), have been executed in Adyala Jail since the Prime Minister of Pakistan Nawaz Sharif lifted the moratorium on the death penalty after armed attack by terrorists on a school in Peshawar. Another death row convict, Abdul Sattar, was executed in Mianwali Jail. Sattar was sentenced to death for killing a man over a personal feud in 1992. The appeals of all convicts had been rejected by higher and superior courts and their mercy petitions were also rejected by President of Pakistan. With the recent hangings, so far 54 convicts have been hanged across the country, after the deadly attack on the Army Public School on December 16, 2014. Some 8,000 convicted prisoners are in a death row in various jails across the country. (source: The Nation) ***************** The courtroom deaths. Executions by hanging in Pakistan continue briskly. In the past 4 days around 40 prisoners on death-row have been hanged in different jails of the country. On Monday, 12 death-row inmates across the country were sent to the gallows, the highest number of executions in a single day since the government lifted the 6-year moratorium on capital punishment last December, a day after the APS Peshawar attack. A day later another 9 condemned prisoners were hanged, bringing the total of such state-sanctioned killings to 39 in the intervening period. The Pakistani government had initially maintained that the lifting of the moratorium would apply only to those sentenced to death under the Anti-Terrorism Act. It is not difficult to understand that that the criminal justice system in Pakistan is deeply flawed and hence profoundly weighted against the poor and marginalised segments of society. From the filing of an FIR, the investigation of a crime, the trial and appeals process, to the conditions of incarceration - the outcome of every step is often directly co-related to the financial and/or political clout of the parties involved. Take the case of Shafqat Hussain, an under-aged boy of a poor family from Pakistan Occupied Kashmir went Karachi in search of work in 2003. Having struggled with a learning disability, Shafqat failed in school. He was 13 years old when he dropped out, barely able to read or write. He sought refuge in a metropolis that had no space to give and was quickly relegated to the city's fringes. He never saw his parents again. When he was 14, still 4 years under Pakistan's legal age of adulthood, Shafqat was detained illegally by the police and severely beaten. The boy was held in solitary confinement, his genitals were electrocuted and he was burned with cigarette butts. The policemen interrogating him removed 3 of his fingernails. Sadly, Shafqat's case was not the exception. It was the rule. He was told that he would never escape police custody or his torturers until he confessed to a crime he did not commit, the murder of a 7-year-old boy. Shafqat was then falsely convicted on charges of kidnapping and murder, and sentenced to death. The only evidence the courts had against him was a confession he made after 9 days of being tortured in a police cell. Shafqat was not tried as a juvenile. Nor was he given access to a lawyer when presented with the charges against him. His mother hasn't seen her son in 10 years. She cannot afford to travel to Karachi to see Shafqat now, before he is to be killed. There was no moment of reflection, no introspection, only a knee-jerk call for vengeance. In Pakistan, blood will always have blood. The state lifted the moratorium on the death penalty and introduced military courts - neither of which are known to be great deterrents to crime. There are currently more than 8,000 people on death row in Pakistan. Close to 1,000 convicts who have exhausted their appeals are set to face the gallows. 39 people have already been executed. Shafqat was scheduled to be hanged on Thursday. But a sustained campaign by media, social and civil activists and by many other people on social networking websites like FaceBook and Twitter has finally forced Pakistan government to postpone his hanging. Shafqat Hussain has now spent 11 years on death row on charges that have nothing to do with terrorism. He was not a militant; he worked, during his brief spell of freedom in Karachi, as a caretaker at an apartment building. It is no less than nonsense to claim that he is threat to national security. Pakistan government should revisit and reinvestigate cases like that of Shafqat and others to look its justice system works in tune with credible human standards. (source: The Kashmir Monitor) ************************ Interior Ministry requests halting executions for Saulat, Shafqat The Interior Ministry on Friday sent a request pertaining to a stay on Saulat Mirza's execution and pushed for another 90 days. On Thursday, the government decided to re-open the murder case of former KESC Managing Director Shahid Hamid, a day after Mirza hurled serious allegations at Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), hours before his hanging on Thursday. Saulat Mirza's execution was postponed shortly after his statement from a prison cell appeared on electronic media in which the convict accused Altaf Hussain of issuing orders for the killing of Shahid Hamid. Sources told Geo News that Interior Secretary Ashtar Ausaf called on Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's special advisor to discuss the Saulat Mirza case. Sources in the Interior Ministry said the government would re-open the murder case on a formal request of the Sindh government. Meanwhile, the Interior Ministry also sent a request today to halt underage convict Shafqat Hussain's death penalty for 30 days. (source: geo.tv) ************** Pakistan Reintroduced Death Penalty: Trade Deal with the EU Endangered Pakistan said yesterday (19 March) that its decision to lift the 6-year-old ban on the capital punishment would have no impact on the trade deal with the European Union. The death penalty was introduced again in December last year as part of Pakistan's struggle to fight against extremism that has soared after a Taliban massacre at a school in the city of Peshawar. The 28-country block has condemned this move. Since the re-introduction of the capital punishment, 52 individuals have been sent to the gallows. Referring to the EU-Pakistan agreement that makes it possible for firms to pay no tax on certain categories of goods exported to the EU, the country's foreign ministry spokesperson, Tasnim Aslam, commented that "we do not expect that this issue will impact Pakistan's GSP plus status". According to Pakistani data, GSP+ has helped to make the country's products more competitive, which has increased the country's exports to the European Union by more than a billion dollars. "It is a question of domestic law and legislation and we are engaged with European Union. We have told them clearly our perspective," Ms Aslam added. The GSP, EU Generalized Scheme of Preferences, has offered Pakistan generous tariff preferences under so-called GSP+ arrangement that seeks to support the country's sustainable development and good governance. In order to maintain GSP+, Karachi has to implement 27 core international conventions on human rights and labor right, good governance and environmental protection. The EU is Pakistan's most important trading partner, taking more than 21 % of the country's total exports. Pakistan mainly exports textiles, clothing, and leather products to the block. Textiles and clothing account for almost 3/4 of Pakistan's total exports to the EU. In contrast, the EU exports to Pakistan mostly mechanical and electrical machinery as well as chemical and pharmaceutical products. EU-Pakistan trade has gone up by about 4.7 % annually between 2007 and 2011. (source: eubulletin.com) *********************** The hanging fields----The state trying to live by creating fear syndrome "An execution is not simply death. It is just as different from the privation of life as a concentration camp is from prison. For there to be an equivalency, the death penalty would have to punish a criminal who had warned his victim of the date at which he would inflict a horrible death on him and who, from that moment onward, had confined him at his mercy for months. Such a monster is not encountered in private life."----Albert Camus, Reflections on the Guillotine, Resistance, Rebellion & Death These days, the morning welcome on television is reading the count of people hanged in various jails across the country. The spectacle is enacted in all its gory details making one wonder how low have we sunk in reporting matters concerning human sentiments and pain. This article is not a defence of crime. It, instead, is meant to spur a rational discourse with regard to the possible effectiveness or otherwise of the death penalty being a deterrent to crime. The European Union, in a strong-worded statement released on March 18 has asked the Pakistan government to restore the moratorium on death penalty. The statement said: "At least 39 people have been executed in Pakistan since December 2014 when the government lifted a moratorium on executions in place since 2008. Contrary to the government of Pakistan's stated policy that only clearly identified terrorists would be executed, convicts not sentenced on terrorist charges are now being executed". The statement concluded by "calling on Pakistan to reinstitute the moratorium and to respectfully all its international obligations, in particular the principle of fair trial". There are 2 distinct aspects of the case: capital punishment as an instrument of deterrence against crime after completing due process of a fair trial, and administering death penalty to those below 18 years of age at the time of occurrence of a crime. Pakistan exercised moratorium for over 6 years, but lifted it in the wake of the approval of 21st amendment in the constitution with the predominant intent of using it as a potent weapon in its war against terror. It also highlighted that article 6(5) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Pakistan is a party, specifically prohibits the use of death sentence for crimes committed by persons below 18 years of age. The United Nations has also reminded Pakistan of its international obligations to ban capital punishment. In a statement released it said that, under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights as well as the Convention on the Rights of the Child, Pakistan was legally committed to ensuring due process and not imposing the death penalty. It further stated that, moving away from death penalty will contribute to human development, dignity and rights. The government of Pakistan, on the other hand, has defended the capital punishment saying that it was not violating any international law: "Our constitution and legal system allow death penalty within legal parameters and the condition of a fair trial". In December, 2014 when the moratorium was initially lifted, the government had stated that criminals awarded death sentence for involvement in heinous acts of terrorism only would be executed, but death penalty has now been restored encompassing all crimes. While the government was quick to lift the moratorium on capital punishment and start sending convicts to the gallows, even some necessary initial work on the envisaged initiatives to secure long-term gains and control the nurseries of indoctrination and extremism has not started yet, this because of a combination of factors including the oft-advertised paucity of resources and lack of moral authority and political will on the part of the ruling elite. According to updated figures, 58 countries of the world practice capital punishment, Pakistan being one of them, 98 have abolished it de jure for all times, 7 have abolished it for ordinary crimes only and 35 have abolished it de facto for not having used it for at least 10 years and/or are under moratorium. Amnesty International considers most countries abolitionist. Overall, it considers 140 countries to be so either in law or practice. Practically all countries of the world except Saudi Arabia, Iran and Sudan prohibit the execution of individuals who are under the age of eighteen at the time of committing a crime. Executions of this kind are prohibited under the international law. There are 2 distinct aspects of the case: capital punishment as an instrument of deterrence against crime after completing due process of a fair trial, and administering death penalty to those below 18 years of age at the time of occurrence of a crime. Pakistan exercised moratorium for over 6 years, but lifted it in the wake of the approval of 21stamendment in the constitution with the predominant intent of using it as a potent weapon in its war against terror. The National Action Plan (NAP) listed twenty points that the government resolved to cover as part of this effort. Some of the envisaged steps including the lifting of moratorium on death penalty and the ongoing Zarb-e-Azb operation in the North Waziristan Agency were for securing immediate results, while some others were for addressing the nurseries of terror for long-term consolidation of benefits. These steps included: 1. Not allowing any armed organisation to operate; 2. Registering and regulating seminaries; 3. Eliminating of all sources of funding for terrorists and terrorist organisations; 4. Initiating action to stop religious extremism and protect religious minorities; 5. Stopping the banned organisations from operating under any other name; 6. Acting against literature, newspapers and magazines that are spreading hate, ideas of beheading people, sectarianism, extremism and intolerance; 7. Banning the airing of views of terrorists and terrorist organisations in the print and electronic media, and 8. Creating a special anti-terrorist force in the country. While the government was quick to lift the moratorium on capital punishment and start sending convicts to the gallows, even some necessary initial work on the envisaged initiatives to secure long-term gains and control the nurseries of indoctrination and extremism has not started yet, this because of a combination of factors including the oft-advertised paucity of resources and lack of moral authority and political will on the part of the ruling elite. Among the innumerable defences put forward to abolish the death penalty, the lack of equivalency factor is the most telling. In Pakistan, award of death penalty is also based on what are generally perceived to be flawed laws. The blasphemy law is one such aberration which has been responsible for the killing of scores of the accused at the hands of the religious fanatics, even inside prison houses. The state has failed to impose its writ to ensure provision of equitable justice to its citizens, most importantly those hailing from the impoverished and the underprivileged segments of the society. The criminal justice system of the state has practically collapsed. There are 2 examples that would amplify the forfeiture of responsibility within the state and the ruling elite. The first is the case of Mumtaz Qadri. The man was accused of murdering the former governor of Punjab Salman Taseer in cold blood. He even confessed to his crime. He was awarded the death penalty at the lower court level. The judgement given in the high court upheld the death penalty, but removed the anti-terrorism clause, thus freeing the state of any responsibility with regard to guiding the case to its logical end. It is now like another simple matter to be sorted out between the 2 concerned parties. But, there is another factor that needs consideration: that of the growing, and often violent pressure by the mostly proscribed religious organisations to force the aggrieved party to come to a settlement under the diyat law, thus allowing the killer to walk away a free man. Refusal by the aggrieved party to comply usually has a violent ending, the state again remaining an uncaring and unconcerned spectator. The other case concerns Shafqat Hussain who was allegedly a minor at the time when he is accused of having killed a child. Shafqat is a poor person who could not afford to hire a lawyer. During the process of hearing the case, the concerned judge is reported to have pointed out the aberration and, from among those present in the courtroom at that instant, asked one of the lawyers to represent him. This particular lawyer, though having agreed to do the needful, is reported to have taken no interest in the case. When he did not appear on behalf of the accused child on three consecutive appearances, he was sent a notice. The lawyer appeared before the judge and excused himself from the case. So, the poor child, having had to go through the motions of the case without any legal support, was sentenced to death for the alleged crime. It is, therefore, obvious that there was a dereliction of duty by the state in this matter and the process of law was not duly followed. It was a simple case of miscarriage of justice and the state alone bears the responsibility. As long as the state cannot ensure, without a shadow of doubt, the impartiality of its legal institutions and machinery in the matter of handling criminal cases transparently and justly and, as long as it cannot ensure provision of compatible aids to those who cannot afford these on their own, it loses the legal and moral right to inflict capital punishment. Unfortunately, the state of Pakistan has been recurrently guilty of this crime, and there does not appear a prospect for it to remodel its approach. That does not mean that it should virtually reduce the vast swathes of the country into insensate hanging fields. The interior minister's statement on the floor of the national assembly further perpetuates this dereliction of responsibility. He said that the government had made every endeavour to establish the age of the accused, but the provincial government in Sindh had not extended any help. Now, irrespective of who is to blame for the government's inability to establish key facts regarding the case, it defeats the very basis of the award of the death penalty. Even if there remains an iota of doubt with regard to the age of Shafqat, its benefit must go to the accused which should result in postponing the execution and initiating credible steps for a transparent ascertainment of age. But there is more. If, even after all its efforts, the government cannot establish Shafqat's age, it cannot execute him as that would be tantamount to judicial murder. Capital punishment, if at all, can only be administered when there is not even a shadow of doubt remaining in the award of the extreme punishment. Among the innumerable defences put forward to abolish the death penalty, the lack of equivalency factor is the most telling. In Pakistan, award of death penalty is also based on what are generally perceived to be flawed laws. The blasphemy law is one such aberration which has been responsible for the killing of scores of the accused at the hands of the religious fanatics, even inside prison houses. The state has failed to impose its writ to ensure provision of equitable justice to its citizens, most importantly those hailing from the impoverished and the underprivileged segments of the society. The criminal justice system of the state has practically collapsed. As long as the state cannot ensure, without a shadow of doubt, the impartiality of its legal institutions and machinery in the matter of handling criminal cases transparently and justly and, as long as it cannot ensure provision of compatible aids to those who cannot afford these on their own, it loses the legal and moral right to inflict capital punishment. Unfortunately, the state of Pakistan has been recurrently guilty of this crime, and there does not appear a prospect for it to remodel its approach. That does not mean that it should virtually reduce the vast swathes of the country into insensate hanging fields. (source: Pakistan Today) MALAYSIA: Why hudud law cannot be enforced----An analysis of state and federal powers on Islam and criminal justice I once asked my students "How many states in Malaysia enforces Islamic criminal law?" Some of them had no idea what I was asking and kept quiet but others, referring to the recent development in Kelantan, enthusiastically answered "1". I do not blame my students for their ignorance since many people in Malaysia are of the same opinion too. Every state in Malaysia enforces Islamic criminal law, not just Kelantan. In Penang, there are at least 40 offences listed in the Syariah Criminal Offences (State of Penang) Enactment 1996. Among them are: (a) sexual intercourse out of wedlock (b) male person posing as a woman for immoral purposes (c) indecent act in a public place Although criminal law is listed in the Federal List of the Federal Constitution, a state assembly is empowered to enact Islamic criminal law by the State List. Syariah courts are conferred with the jurisdiction to punish offences by virtue of the Syariah Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act 1965, extended to Sabah and Sarawak in 1989. Nevertheless, section 2 provides two limitations: (i) that Islamic criminal law shall only be enforceable on persons professing the religion of Islam and (ii) that such jurisdiction shall not be exercised in respect of any offence punishable with imprisonment for a term exceeding 3 years or with any fine exceeding MR5,000 or with whipping exceeding 6 strokes or exceeding any combination thereof. Neither Barisan Nasional nor Pakatan Rakyat component parties have any problem with such enforceability of Islamic criminal law. However, all hell broke loose when Kelantan, led by PAS, recently amended the Syariah Criminal Code (II) Enactment 1993. The 1993 Enactment was a controversial piece of legislation for introducing additional punishments like amputation of limbs and death penalty by stoning! Unlike other Islamic criminal law, the 1993 Enactment cannot be enforced even after the recent amendment: it goes against the provisions of the 1965 Act. The State List clearly provides that although state assemblies may create offences against Islamic precepts, Syariah courts shall only be conferred with the jurisdiction to pass sentences by federal laws, like the 1965 Act. For the same reason, Terengganu's equally controversial Syariah Criminal Offence (Hudud and Qisas) Enactment 2002, also remains unenforceable. Obviously, I am against death penalty by stoning in broad daylight. Crimes should be proved in accordance with modern methods of evidence, and punishments carried out behind closed doors. However, my opinion on hudud is simply irrelevant! Hudud means offences for which the punishments are fixed by Allah as stated in the Qur'an. No Muslim worth his salt will thus oppose hudud. If any non-Muslim opposes hudud, this act may be deemed as interference into the religious practice of another. If it was wrong for Ridhuan Tee Abdullah to condemn the erection of Lord Murugan's statue in Batu Caves, then it is also wrong for non-Muslims to tell Muslims to disregard what has been made mandatory by Allah in the Qur'an. Since law on hudud is an integral part of the Islamic religion, it is better for non-Muslims not to make any comments. There are some Muslim scholars with a different view on hudud. Even then, it is for the Muslims to debate and sort out their religious differences. If PAS wants to enforce the 1993 Enactment in Kelantan, then the 1965 Act has to be amended by removing the limitation and conferring extended criminal jurisdiction on Syariah courts to pass sentences like amputation of limbs and death penalty by stoning. This can only be done in the Parliament, and not in the Kelantan state assembly. I have a few concerns. First, only those who profess the religion of Islam may be subjected to Islamic criminal law and not all Muslims. Yet Penang's 2004 Enactment provides that a Muslim is not only a person who professes the religion of Islam but also any person: (a) whose either parent at the time of his birth was a Muslim; (b) whose upbringing was conducted on the basis that he is a Muslim; (c) who is commonly reputed to be a Muslim; (d) who has converted to the religion of Islam; and (e) who is shown to have stated, in circumstances in which he was bound by law to state the truth, that he was a Muslim, whether the statement be oral or written. In other words, a person who does not profess the religion of Islam (say, a child of a Muslim who has been brought up as a Christian all his entire life) can still be regarded as a Muslim by law. In my judgment, Islamic criminal law (hudud or otherwise) should not be applicable to him. 1nd, a Muslim person who commits any crime against a non-Muslim should not be charged under Islamic criminal law but under the Penal Code or other federal laws. This is to ensure that a non-Muslim does not have to go to Syariah courts to seek justice. 3rd, Article 121(1A) of the Federal Constitution must be amended so that only the High Courts shall have jurisdiction to decide whether or not a person professes the religion of Islam before he is charged in a Syariah court. This is important so that Syariah courts will remain inferior to such High Court. It is much better for all concerned parties to work together and find ways to resolve issues than to blindly support or object any motion pertaining to the enforceability of Islamic criminal law. Some members of the DAP are now urging the coalition to sever ties with PAS. Even though the 1993 Enactment has been there all along, yet the DAP had no problem in forming an alliance with PAS before the 2008 general election. Prior to the recent development in Kelantan, DAP had never asked PAS even once to repeal the 1993 Enactment. It is not fair on PAS. If DAP was so concerned about the "no-hudud" agenda, it should not have formed an alliance with PAS until and unless PAS repeals the 1993 Enactment. Also, some members of the MCA are condemning DAP for allowing PAS to amend the 1993 Enactment. May I remind the MCA that 12 Umno members did vote in favour. Also the Syariah Criminal Offence (Hudud and Qisas) Enactment 2002 is still very much valid in Terengganu although BN has been ruling the state for many years. Can the MCA and other component parties in BN persuade Terengganu to repeal the 2002 Enactment? If not, then they have nothing to complain about the DAP. (source:*Shamsher Singh Thind is a law lecturer in a private college*----With a firm belief in freedom of expression and without prejudice, FMT tries its best to share reliable content from third parties. Such articles are strictly the writer's personal opinion. FMT does not necessarily endorse the views or opinions given by any third party content provider; Free Malaysia Today) From rhalperi at smu.edu Sun Mar 22 15:30:34 2015 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Sun, 22 Mar 2015 15:30:34 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----PENN., FLA., ALA., LA. Message-ID: March 22 PENNSYLVANIA: DA Stedman disregarded my opposition to the death penalty I was shocked and saddened when I opened the newspaper several weeks ago and read an op-ed from Lancaster County District Attorney Craig Stedman ("Governor's moratorium violates his oath of office," Perspective, Feb. 22) in which he claims, "I have never pursued a death verdict when a family is opposed and/or simply wants to avoid the appeals." His words did not ring true for me. My father and stepmother were brutally tortured and murdered in 2001, and over my sister's and my strong objection, Stedman sought the death penalty for 1 of the 3 people who killed them. The conversation my sister and I had with Stedman in the aftermath of losing our father and stepmother was one I found very upsetting and bewildering. When asked how my sister and I felt about the death penalty, we responded that we didn't believe it would honor our father and stepmother. What could have been a conversation that made us feel included and respected ended with us feeling that our sentiments were deemed irrelevant and unreasonable. In contrast to what he said in his op-ed, Stedman was quite clear with us that despite our wishes, he would pursue the most aggressive punishment possible. Although my sister and I were my father's immediate family members, there were other relatives who supported the death penalty and their views took priority. During the trial, we met the family of 1 of the young men who was on trial. His family grieved with us and was desperately sorrowful about the acts that had occurred. Regardless of our clear opposition to the death penalty, it was continually said throughout the trial that justice was being sought for my family and me. When the death sentence was announced, I heard a cry rise up from the family of the young man who was condemned to death. It was a cry that I will never forget. It was a cry I felt in my bones, and one that I understood deeply. It was the same wail that I had cried upon learning of my own family members' deaths. It is haunting that another death could take place in the name of bringing me "justice." It is a burden I carry, and it is not something I need or have ever supported. In my family's case, 2 young men and 1 woman were convicted of murder; 1 of the men, Landon May, is on death row. The other 2 are in prison serving life without the possibility of parole. I do not feel that justice was served in 1 case over the others. To me, justice means keeping violent criminals in prison, restrengthening our communities after trauma, and investing in programs and services that prevent future acts of violence.It also means providing victims' families with help when it comes to understanding what to expect regarding grief, the funerals, the trials, and the future. Though some murder victims' families may not share my perspective on the death penalty, we do share many common goals. We all oppose innocent people being tried and executed for crimes they didn't commit. We all want a justice system that is financially prudent, fair and effective. The death penalty is exponentially more expensive than imprisonment for life, and it has been proven that the current system does not deter any more murders than locking up prisoners for life. Also, our current system has a track record of making mistakes - 6 men have been wrongfully convicted and sentenced to death in Pennsylvania since the 1980s. Our current system has an ugly history of being unfair, especially to the poor and minorities. Often, victims' family members are grouped into one category - one that desires another death to obtain justice. Speaking with other victims' families, I know we have different feelings about capital punishment, but another death will not assist in my healing. I will not feel justice when capital punishment has been implemented. It will not make me feel safer, or less angry, or facilitate healing. It will not bring me peace. It will not bring my loved ones back. As for victims' families, because we all feel differently, it seems appropriate to neutralize emotions from the debate and prudent to call a moratorium while exploring all aspects of capital punishment. (source: Linell Patterson became active in anti-death penalty work in 2002, shortly after her father, Terry Smith, and stepmother, Lucy Smith, were murdered in their Ephrata home in 2001. She currently lives in Virginia----Lancasteronline.com) FLORIDA: Jurors should be unanimous on death Although the U.S. Supreme Court recently agreed to review a case involving how Florida juries recommend death sentences, the Florida Legislature shouldn't wait for direction from Washington to ensure its system of sentencing is more rigorous and fair. Out of the 32 states that impose capital punishment, Florida is the only one that allows a simple majority of jurors to recommend death sentences. That standard in the penalty phase runs oddly counter to the earlier phase in which juries must be unanimous on the question of a defendant's guilt or innocence. The issue of life or death should be meted out with like certainty. It's unsettling that such a momentous decision can be made by such a narrow margin, with so much juror doubt. The Supreme Court last week chose to consider next fall the case of Timothy Hurst, 36, who in 2000 was convicted of the 1998 murder of Cynthia Harrison, his co-worker at a Popeye's restaurant in Pensacola. The jury voted 7-5 to recommend the death penalty, which was accepted by the judge. Hurst appealed the sentence on the grounds that the jury didn't adequately consider his defense's claim that he was mentally disabled, and that the divided jury vote was unconstitutional. The issue revolves around a 2002 Supreme Court case, Ring v. Arizona, in which the court required that a jury, not a judge, identify the aggravating factors necessary for increasing the maximum punishment. When Hurst's sentence was appealed to the Florida Supreme Court, the state justices upheld it on the grounds that Florida's sentencing system wasn't subject to the requirements of Ring v. Arizona. The U.S. Supreme Court has now decided to address that conflict between state and federal jurisprudence. However, the Florida Supreme Court, in its majority opinion, also urged the Legislature to re-examine the state's capital sentencing statute "in light of Ring and Florida's outlier status" and to bring Florida "closer to the mainstream of capital sentencing states in regard to jury findings." Thankfully, the Legislature is moving toward accomplishing that this session. Monday, the Senate's Criminal Justice Committee by a 5-0 vote approved a bill (SB 664) that would require unanimity in order for a jury to recommend that a death sentence be imposed. Furthermore, it would require a jury to certify in writing that each aggravating circumstance used to support its recommendation of death was found to exist beyond a reasonable doubt by a unanimous vote, and jurors would have to agree unanimously that aggravating factors outweighed mitigating factors. That's almost certain to reduce the number of death sentences in Florida. Of 296 cases the state heard from 2000 through 2012, only 102 of the death recommendations were based on supermajority or unanimous agreement from the jurors. It's fair to assume that many of those split jury decisions would not pass muster under the proposed new standards. The goal of the capital punishment system, though, should not be to put as many convicts on death row as possible. It should be to mete out the ultimate justice to those most deserving of it. That should be determined through the most thorough, deliberative and fair way possible. Passing SB 664 would not end the death penalty in Florida, and it most certainly would not let the guilty go free - eligible felons still could receive life in prison. Regardless of what the U.S. Supreme Court says regarding the Hurst appeal, Florida should change how its jurors dispense the death penalty by ensuring there is no reasonable doubt in both convicting and sentencing. If government is to exercise its power to take the life of a citizen it must be held to the highest standards of due process. (source: Dayton Beach News Journal) ALABAMA: Execution info needs to be kept in the light Sunshine Week, which ends Saturday, reminds us of the importance of access to public information and open meetings. It's particularly near and dear to the hearts of those of us in the news media. But in truth, reporters and other professionals who gather information have no more right to attend public meetings or look at public documents than anyone else. The right is afforded to all people. News media representatives just happen to exercise the right more frequently than most people. And we think it's particularly appropriate to take note of a bill introduced in the Alabama Legislature by Rep. Lynn Greer that would add the option of electrocution as a method of executing the death penalty. A floor amendment was added by Rep. Mac McCutcheon that would exempt all of the Department of Corrections' policies and procedures related to executions from Alabama's open records law. Just about everything with regard to the death penalty is controversial. Whether to favor or oppose the death penalty or favor or oppose using the electric chair as a method of execution could be debated endlessly. It is not the issue we choose to take on at the moment. Whether you oppose or favor the death penalty, most would agree that there could be no more serious use of state power than the power over life and death itself. It is the use of state power in its most extreme form. State government is supposed to be a projection of the people's will carried out by their representatives. Citizens have a stake in everything that it does, and it is their money that is used in all state functions. We can see nothing that would possibly justify keeping from the people every detail of the most serious and final of all state actions. The bill is intended to circumvent actions that have made drugs used in lethal injection executions difficult to obtain. We understand the frustration death penalty proponents feel about this situation. Basically, death penalty opponents, having failed to convince voters or their representatives to abolish the death penalty in many states, have harassed the manufacturers of various drugs to the point that they refuse to sell those drugs to states that use them for capital punishment. In doing so, they make it impossible for states to use a method of execution that most adopted in order to make executions less physically painful. We do not oppose a portion of the bill that protects the identities of the people involved in executions. And we understand why, given death penalty opponents' tactics, the state would want to keep its vendors' identities private. But the state is carrying out the executions in the name of the people of Alabama. And those people have a right to know about the process. It is too important to be kept secret. (source: Editorial, Tuscaloosa News) ************************** Efforts to reinstate electric chair may face court trouble Alabama lawmakers hope to save the death penalty by bringing back the electric chair, but legal experts said the move could open the door to legal challenges, or even the end of executions in Alabama. "Lawyers from all over the country will assemble to take on cases against electrocution," said Sharon Dolovich, a law professor at the University of California in Los Angeles. "You'd be able to bring out all the horrible evidence about people frying in the chair." Earlier this month, the Alabama House of Representatives passed a bill that would require the use of the electric chair to kill condemned inmates if the U.S. Supreme Court declares lethal injection unconstitutional, or if the state runs out of the drugs needed to conduct an execution. Both outcomes are possible this year. Executions in Alabama are effectively on hold until the U.S. Supreme Court reviews an Oklahoma case challenging the use of the drug midazolam in executions, on the grounds that it constitutes cruel and unusual punishment. Midazolam, which is also part of Alabama's execution protocol, was used in a botched execution last year in which Oklahoma inmate Clayton Lockett lived for 43 minutes after being injected. Drug makers themselves are also putting the squeeze on lethal injection. After the pharmaceutical company Akorn was named in court documents as a possible maker of Alabama's midazolam, the company asked for the state to return any drugs it bought for that purpose. In a statement to The Star last week, the drug company Mylan also expressed its opposition to the use of its drugs to kill inmates. Mylan is a maker of rocuronium bromide, another drug in Alabama's lethal injection protocol, though the drugmaker said it never directly sold any rocuronium to the state. Alabama's electric chair, nicknamed "Yellow Mama," has been in storage for more than a decade. It was the only method of execution until 2002, when state law allowed inmates to choose between electrocution and lethal injection. Every inmate since has chosen the gurney over the chair. Supporters of the current electric chair bill said it will save capital punishment from obsolescence. They said death penalty opponents, through suits and boycotts against lethal injection, run the risk of crowding out the least painful form of execution. "My understanding is that we adopted lethal injection because it was more humane," said Sen. Cam Ward, R-Alabaster, sponsor of the Senate version of the electric chair bill. "It's what we'd all prefer." Saving capital punishment The advantage of the electric chair, Ward said, was that it has never been struck down by the Supreme Court, despite past legal challenges. But 1 question lingers. If the court finds it cruel and unusual to inject inmates with deadly drugs, can a ruling against the chair - with its own history of botched executions - be far behind? Ward said that about half the lawyers he's spoken to about the issue expect significant legal challenges to the electric chair. Still, he expects fewer delays than with lethal injection, which can be challenged every time the drug combination changes. "We've had more challenges with the drug cocktails than we ever had with the electric chair," he said. 13 years ago, however, lawmakers seemed convinced a ruling against the death penalty was imminent. Back then, Alabama was one of only 2 states still using the chair as the sole means of execution. Other states were rapidly switching to lethal injection, largely because of high-profile mishaps, such as a 1999 incident when flames rose from a Florida inmate's head during an execution. "If we don't pass this bill, we're not going to have a death penalty in Alabama at all," then-Sen. Hinton Mitchem told the Associated Press in 2002, as he was pushing a lethal injection bill through the Senate. Evolving standards In fact, a court ruling against the chair wasn't exactly right around the corner. Nebraska retained the electric chair until 2008, when the Nebraska Supreme Court rejected it under a state constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment: a ban almost identical to the one that appears in the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. "Besides presenting a substantial risk of unnecessary pain, we conclude that electrocution is unnecessarily cruel in its purposeless infliction of physical violence and mutilation of the prisoner's body," the justices wrote. In the Nebraska case, the court found that electrocution can burn inmates' bodies, that it doesn't necessarily kill instantly, and that some inmates have lived through the initial prescribed jolt of electricity. Much of that evidence wasn't available to the U.S. Supreme Court when it considered its 1st challenge to electrocution, back in 1890 when the chair was 1st introduced as an alternative to hanging. Since then, law professors said, the nation's highest court has rarely taken up cases that challenge an execution method as unconstitutionally cruel. And the Supreme Court has never shot any method down. "It's difficult to say with any degree of certainty," said Meghan Ryan, who teaches Eighth Amendment law at Southern Methodist University's law school. "It's true they've never ruled against it, but the court also considers 'evolving standards of decency' in these cases." The court doesn't consider the "unusual" part of "cruel and unusual" separately, Ryan said. Still, the rarer a punishment, the more likely the court will say it doesn't fit modern standards of decency. "If you look simply at the number of states using a method, the outlook for the electric chair isn't good," Ryan said. Dolovich, the UCLA professor, said it might not take a Supreme Court case to end execution. If lower federal courts reject it with no disagreement between them, the Supreme Court might not take up the issue at all. While Supreme Court opinions are hard to predict, she said, there's a "good chance" there will be rulings against the chair in other federal courts. Ryan said the current situation, with states reverting to older methods of execution to avoid problems with lethal injection, is unusual in history. "For the most part, the movement has always been forward, to methods we felt were more humane," she said. (source: Anniston Star) LOUISIANA: Prosecutor apologizes for his role in sending innocent man to death row In a letter published Friday in the Shreveport Times, he pleads for compensation for the man exonerated last year but battling cancer. Marty Stroud was 33 years old when he fought to have Glenn Ford sentenced to death. Stroud was relatively new in his role as assistant district attorney in Caddo Parish, Louisiana, when Ford was indicted on a charge of 1st-degree murder for the 1983 killing of a watchmaker who ran a jewelry store in Shreveport. "The case took about a week and a half," Stroud recalls now. Ford, a black man before an all-white jury, was convicted and sentenced in 1984. He remained on death row for three decades. It was the 1st and only death sentence Stroud won as a prosecutor. A.M. "Marty" Stroud III of Shreveport, La., wrote a letter of apology, published Friday by the Shreveport Times, for his role in sending Glenn Ford, who has been exonerated, to death row for 30 years. Last year, Ford was declared a free man and released from prison. His attorneys said upon his release he was sentenced because of questionable testimony as well as inexperienced defense. The lawyers he had during his initial trial had not tried a case before a jury before, Stroud said. Other men had also initially been charged in the shooting of Isadore Rozeman, the watchmaker, but those charges were later dismissed. In 2013, Ford's attorneys say they were told that a confidential informant for the Caddo Parish Sheriff's Office pointed to one of those other men as the person who killed Rozeman, though precise details remain unclear. In March 2014, after prosecutors and Ford's attorneys filed motions to vacate his conviction, the state district court ordered his release. However, more than a year later, Ford is still fighting the state for compensation. He's also facing an advanced cancer diagnosis. Stroud knows all of this. He says he knows now that Ford was innocent and he knows Ford's trial "was fundamentally unfair." He knows Ford is dying, and he knows the state is not paying Ford for the decades he lost. "When he was exonerated last year, I was thrilled," Stroud, 63, said in a telephone interview Friday. "I thought that justice had been done." 'FULL OF MYSELF' A.M. "Marty" Stroud III, who grew up in Shreveport and is an attorney there, read about Ford's problems getting the state to pay him in the Shreveport Times. Stroud could not believe it, so he began working on a letter to the editor of the newspaper to try to put his thoughts together. All of the things that had bothered him about the case, and all of the things about the case that had built up in him over the sleepless nights, poured out into the letter. "I'm not one to write letters or get on soapboxes or anything like that," Stroud said. "But I felt that in this particular case, I had a unique view of what had happened, since I actually was there and had watched the progress through the system all these years." The result, which totals more than 1,500 words, was published online Friday by the Shreveport Times and widely circulated on social media. In the bracing letter, Stroud apologized for his role in taking away 30 years of Ford's life. He says he was "arrogant, judgmental, narcissistic and very full of myself." Stroud explained why he had turned against the death penalty he so eagerly sought in 1984, and he expressed both his remorse for what he did and his apology to Ford for what cannot be undone. "I was not as interested in justice as I was in winning," he wrote. He recalled that late in the trial, while arguing for the death sentence, he mocked Ford for wanting to stay alive to try to prove his innocence, adding: "I continued by saying this should be an affront to each of you jurors, for he showed no remorse, only contempt for your verdict." Stroud continued: "How totally wrong was I." He went on to work for a private firm after leaving the District Attorney's Office in 1989. Stroud has worked on a mix of civil and criminal cases, including mounting defenses in death-penalty cases. EXONERATION TALLY RISES "I have a stain because I participated in the proceeding that, looking back on, it was fundamentally unfair," Stroud said in the phone interview. He said he knew that Ford's attorneys had not practiced criminal law and that he knew "it was a mismatch from the beginning." Stroud also began seeing problems with a larger issue in the proceedings: The fact that Ford was not just found guilty, but found guilty and sentenced to death, which means he could have been executed before his innocence came to light. The letter from Stroud comes as prosecutors around the country are putting increasing resources into trying to overturn false convictions. The country had a record number of exonerations last year, a tally boosted by the efforts of prosecutors, according to the National Registry of Exonerations. Mistaken convictions are a particular concern when they involve death sentences. 6 of the people exonerated last year had been sentenced to death, the registry said. Wrongly executing someone is "the ultimate nightmare," Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. said recently. But Holder, who opposes the death penalty, called this an "inevitable" feature of the current capital punishment system, which relies on the judgment of people who can make mistakes. Ford was the 144th death row inmate cleared since 1973, and he had spent more time on death row than any of these other inmates, the Death Penalty Information Center reported. Stroud's unease with the death penalty has grown and deepened over the years, and he says Ford's case illustrates why he now opposes capital punishment. He said after being on both sides of the issue, he has determined that it does not work. "All it is is state-assisted revenge," he said, adding: "We can't do it. It's arbitrary, it's capricious. And I believe that it's barbaric." Stroud was confident in his case in 1984, but he wishes now he had done more to look into the rumors that other people were involved in the crime. In hindsight, he realizes he was an eager prosecutor less than a decade out of law school, one who wanted to make a name for himself. BARRIER TO COMPENSATION In Louisiana, the wrongfully imprisoned can receive up to $250,000 in compensation. Ford is trying to get the state to pay him for the years spent in prison, but court documents show that the state says he should not be given money because he went to a pawn shop to sell items that had been stolen from Rozeman's store. Attorneys for Ford said last year that one of the other men initially charged in the killing had given him jewelry to pawn. Ford has also filed lawsuits claiming he was wrongfully imprisoned and that he was denied necessary medical care after signs emerged he may have cancer. Within months of his release from the notorious Angola Prison last year, Ford was diagnosed with stage 3 lung cancer; he currently has stage 4 lung cancer, according to legal filings submitted in federal court this month. In his letter, Stroud calls for Ford to be given "every penny" called for by Louisiana's law governing compensation for the wrongfully convicted. He also says he hopes for compassion he does not believe he has earned. "I end with the hope that Providence will have more mercy for me than I showed Glenn Ford," he wrote. "But I am also sobered by the realization that I certainly am not deserving of it." (source: Press Herald) From rhalperi at smu.edu Sun Mar 22 15:31:17 2015 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Sun, 22 Mar 2015 15:31:17 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----OHIO, ARK., NEV., CALIF., USA Message-ID: March 22 OHIO: Records show Ohio governor uses clemency power infrequently compared to predecessors Gov. John Kasich used his executive clemency power during his first term far less frequently than any other Ohio governor in the past three decades, records show. Kasich, a Republican, granted 66 of 1,521 requests, or about 4.4 percent of the non-death-penalty cases he received and acted upon from 2011 to 2014, according to records obtained by The (Columbus) Dispatch (http://bit.ly/18HbEIl ) under a public-records request. That makes him the most conservative with clemency of any Ohio governor going back to the 1980s, when the state began tracking gubernatorial clemency, the newspaper said. Kasich commuted the death sentences of five killers during his first term, but allowed 12 to be executed. He recently used his executive authority to push the state's entire execution schedule into 2016 to allow the Ohio prisons agency to obtain new drugs for lethal injection. Clemency is a power unique to governors, broad but defined by law. In Ohio, the governor can halt or postpone executions, commute or reduce a sentence so that a prisoner can be freed now or in the future, and grant pardons, erasing a past criminal record. Ohio governors have used clemency in different ways over the past three decades reflecting personal ideological persuasions. Former Gov. Ted Strickland, a Democrat, approved 20 % of 1,615 clemency requests he handled between 2007 and 2011. Most involved low-level, nonviolent offenses, but he did commute 5 death-penalty sentences to life without parole. No Ohio governor in modern history has commuted a death sentence and set a prisoner free. Republican governors George V. Voinovich (1991-98) and Bob Taft (1999-2007) each approved less than 10 % of the clemency requests they received. Gov. James A. Rhodes, a Republican, approved 17.5 % of clemencies in 1982, his last year in office. Democrat Richard F. Celeste, governor from 1983 to 1991, commuted the death sentences of 8 killers on death row in his next to last day in office. He also granted clemency to 25 female prisoners, reasoning they were victims of "battered-woman syndrome" and deserved mercy. Celeste's actions caused an uproar and spurred legal challenges. The General Assembly changed the law to require governors to have a recommendation from the Ohio Parole Board before making any clemency decision. The governor doesn't have to follow the board's recommendation. Kasich differed with the board in 23 cases last year, each time rejecting clemency for inmates who had been favorably. (source: Associated Press) ************** Ohio should end death penalty It's time for Ohio legislators to put an end to the death penalty. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, since 2003, 20 Ohio inmates have been removed from death row "through exonerations, clemency, or sentence reductions because of intellectual disabilities." In December 2014, Ohio Supreme Court Justice Paul Pfeifer testified before the House Criminal Justice Committee. Justice Pfeifer stated "The death penalty in Ohio has become what I call a death lottery. ... It's very difficult to conclude that the death penalty, as it exists today, is anything but a bad gamble. That's really not how a criminal justice system should work.'' Ohio legislators are working on bills that would prohibit the execution of those with severe mental illness, create an indigent defense fund, require crime labs and coroners to be certified, and prohibit the execution of anyone convicted solely on the testimony of a jailhouse snitch. While these are great steps in the right direction, it is time for Ohio to altogether abolish the death penalty. As Justice Pfeifer rightly noted, the death penalty has become a death lottery. Those of means have the ability to hire competent defense attorneys, often resulting in the death penalty being taken off the table. The poor, who can't afford to hire an attorney, must rely on proper representation from a public defender. In many rural areas, the poor are often assigned an attorney with little capital case experience. While many public defenders do a great job defending indigent clients, there are times when they are not up to the task, lacking the necessary skill and time to adequately defend their client. When a person's life hangs in the balance, they deserve competent, aggressive representation. Attorneys who defend an indigent client are paid a pathetic fee and must often wait for months or years to be reimbursed by the state. If we are going to continue to use execution as the means to punish those convicted of a capital crime, then it is morally imperative that we make sure that those facing death have the same access to attorneys, expert witnesses, and crime labs, regardless of their ability to pay. Currently, 140 men and one woman are awaiting execution in Ohio. Due to controversy over the drugs used in lethal injections, it is unlikely there will be any executions until 2016. I would encourage Ohio legislators to use this time to find a way to bring an end to executions. Killing someone because they committed a crime is rooted in the barbaric eye for an eye justice of the Old Testament. While many Christian sects now oppose the death penalty, evangelicals and conservative Christians continue to demand death for those convicted of a capital crime. I ask, what happened to following in the footsteps of Jesus? Would Jesus, the Prince of Peace, approve of a criminal system that disproportionately punishes the poor and people of color? If evangelicals, who overwhelmingly vote Republican, would get behind abolishing the death penalty, we can end this abhorrent practice. Bruce Gerencser (source: Letter to the Editor, Crescent-News) ARKANSAS: Analysis: Hurdles remain for Arkansas death penalty process The Arkansas Supreme Court's decision upholding a 2013 lethal injection law clears a major hurdle to resuming the death penalty in a state that hasn't executed an inmate in a decade. But the path is by no means clear for capital punishment to make a return to Arkansas. A narrowly divided court overturned a Pulaski County judge's ruling that the Legislature's most-recent rewrite of Arkansas' execution law violated the state constitution by allowing the Correction Department to decide which barbiturate to use when putting inmates to death. "The delegation of authority contained within Act 139 is not unfettered and is bounded by reasonable guidelines from the Legislature," Justice Karen Baker wrote in the court's ruling. "Therefore we reverse the circuit court's conclusion that Act 139 is unconstitutional." The court's ruling removes one of the major obstacles to reviving a death penalty system that the state's former attorney general had bemoaned as broken after years of legal challenges and drug shortages. Arkansas has 32 inmates on death row, but hasn't executed an inmate since 2005. Former Gov. Mike Beebe, a Democrat, went through 8 years in office without an execution taking place and said he would have abolished the death penalty if lawmakers sent him legislation doing so. The challenges the state faces in resuming executions have been starkly illustrated in the rhetoric surrounding the debate over the death penalty during the past year. Attorney General Leslie Rutledge won the Republican Party's nomination last year after defeating a rival who called for the return of the electric chair for executing inmates. The only death penalty bill to advance so far this legislative session has been an ultimately doomed effort to abolish executions, and the sponsor of that measure said last week he wouldn't pursue the idea further. "It has no chance to pass on the Senate floor and it has even less of a chance in the House," said Democratic Sen. David Burnett of Osceola, a retired judge who introduced the proposal. A lawmaker whose 12-year-old daughter was murdered by a man now on death row, meanwhile, has said she's unsure whether she'll pursue legislation she has filed calling for firing squads for executions. Last week's decision could spur movement on another death penalty bill that, among other things, would make secret the names of suppliers of the drugs used in executions. Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson said he supported making that information confidential. "We still will have many challenges to face in carrying out the execution and mandate of the jury once the appeals are exhausted," Hutchinson told reporters after the decision. "There is still work to be done but this was a big hurdle." The next hurdles will come as the state begins crafting its lethal injection protocol. Federal agents in 2011 seized Arkansas' execution drugs amid questions about their British supplier. In 2013, Arkansas said it had enough lorazepam and phenobarbital to execute prisoners under a protocol in place at the time, but there's no guarantee the drugs will be on a new approved-drug list. Executions could also be further delayed by inmate challenges based on other grounds, which are all on different timetables. The head of the Senate Judiciary Committee warned that the ruling doesn't clear up the other logistical issues that have halted executions in recent years. "I think it'll still be a while before anything could be done, and (Arkansas) may not ever still be able to ever carry out an execution," said Sen. Jeremy Hutchinson, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee. (source: Assoicated Press) NEVADA: Man believed to be the getaway driver in 'road rage' shooting of Las Vegas mother Tammy Meyers is arrested; Derrick Andrews arrested Friday in connection to February 12 shooting; Erich Nowsch, 19, was already arrested in murder of 44-year-old Meyers----Both are facing the death penalty or life in prison after being charged with murder, attempted murder, firing a weapon from a vehicle and conspiracy A 2nd suspect is facing the death penalty after being arrested in connection to the February 12 shooting that left mother-of-4 Tammy Meyers dead. Police arrested Derrick Andrews, 26, on Friday in Las Vegas, Nevada, and charged him with murder, attempted murder, firing a weapon from a vehicle and conspiracy. Erich Milton Nowsch Jr, 19, is now facing the same charges following his arrest last month. Prosecutors allege Nowsch fired the shots from a vehicle while Andrews was at the wheel. Andrews' arrest came about an hour after he was named with Nowsch in an indictment. The trial is scheduled for May 26 and the defendants could get the death penalty or life in prison if convicted. District Attorney Steve Wolfson said: 'If you're a getaway driver, aiding and abetting another to commit a crime, you're equally guilty,' Nowsch pleaded not guilty on March 12 to the murder, attempted murder and weapon charges during an appearance at Clark County District Court. He is expected to plead not guilty to the conspiracy charge. The conspiracy charge stems from allegations that Andrews and Nowsch tried to erase their cellphone records to prevent police from linking them to the shooting. Andrews is accused of positioning his car so Nowsch could unload what Prosecutor David Stanton said police now believe to have been 24 shots at Meyers and her son Brandon. 1 bullet struck Meyers in the head and she died at a hospital 2 days later on Valentine's Day. Stanton characterized Nowsch as a neighborhood marijuana and anxiety medication dealer who hung out at a park where he encountered schoolchildren and sometimes Meyers. Las Vegas defense lawyer Martin Hart said he had spoken with Andrews in recent days but hadn't been hired to defend him. Hart said he might be appointed to the case when Andrews and Nowsch appear for arraignment next Thursday. He declined to comment on the case or the indictment. Nowsch's attorney, Augustus Claus, declined to comment about the indictment or the arrest of Andrews. Police initially suspected Meyers was shot in a road rage incident. But days later, investigators revealed she had enlisted her adult son and his gun for a late-night prowl to confront a driver who threatened her on the way home from a mother-daughter driving lesson in a school parking lot. In obtaining a no-bail warrant for Andrews' arrest, Stanton told Clark County District Court Judge Linda Marie Bell that Andrews responded in his silver Audi to a phone call from Nowsch. Nowsch feared that a green Buick Park Avenue sedan with tinted windows driving slowly back and forth in a nearby school parking lot was following him, Stanton said. The prosecutor said: 'He believed the people in the car meant to do him harm.' He said it was a coincidence that Meyers' 15-year-old daughter Kristal was practicing driving in the lot. BIZARRE SERIES OF EVENTS LEADING UP TO DERRICK ANDREWS' ARREST February 13 - Las Vegas police reveal a mother-of-four is shot during an alleged road rage incident. She was later identified as Tammy Meyers. She was teaching her 15-year-old daughter Kristal to drive at the time. February 15 - Her devastated husband, Robert Meyers, vows to find whoever did this to his wife. He turned off her life support after she failed to recover from her injuries sustained in the incident on Valentine's Day. February 16 - CCTV of the incident is released by police as they hunt for the alleged killer and his accomplice. Police also disclose a sketch of the suspect and say he is 6ft, mid 20s and 180lbs. February 18 - Questions are raised over whether Nowsch acted in self-defense amid claims Mrs Meyers drove back to her home, dropped her daughter off, grabbed her son Brandon and hunted down the car in question. In response, Mr Meyers insists his son is a hero and not a vigilante. February 19 - Following a tense stand-off with police Eric Nowsch is arrested. Mr Meyers claims he knew the suspect and said he knew the kid was bad. After the incident he claimed he wasn't aware who shot his wife. Added that his wife consoled the youngsters for hours and tried to teach him how to be a man. February 23 - Nowsch is arraigned on murder charges in Las Vegas. March 12 - Nowsch pleads not guilty to murder, attempted murder and weapon charges during an appearance at Clark County District Court. March 20 - Prosecutors unveil an indictment which names Derrick Andrews and Nowsch. It charges them both with murder, attempted murder, firing a weapon from a vehicle and conspiracy. Andrews is arrested an hour later. The coincidences mounted when the mother and daughter were driving home and encountered an angry driver in a silver vehicle who blocked their path, got out of his vehicle, and, according to Kristal, threatened them. Frightened, Meyers dropped Kristal off at home and instructed her 22-year-old son to come with her to find that driver, Stanton said. The prosecutor said the mother and son encountered Nowsch and Andrews in Andrews' silver sedan. Stanton said the cars Meyers encountered that night were similar in color and design but 'from the evidence presented, Mrs. Meyers was mistaken' (source: Daiy Mail) CALIFORNIA: 'This ship has sunk:' Families fed up with further delays in Scott Dekraai case The state Attorney General's Office on Friday appealed a judge's ruling removing local prosecutors from Orange County's worst mass murder case, saying the ouster was "legally inappropriate." The state's appeal in the Scott Dekraai case is expected to take at least a year, according to Deputy Attorney General Theodore Cropley. Dekraai already has pleaded guilty to killing 8 people at a Seal Beach salon in 2011 and awaits a penalty phase trial to decide whether he will receive a death sentence. Survivors of Dekraai's victims expressed frustration Friday at the latest twist in the case, with at least one blaming Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas. "Tony has let me down. ... This was a ship, and that's the captain of the ship," said Paul Wilson, whose wife, Christy Lynn Wilson, was among Dekraai's victims. "Right now, as we sit here today, this ship has sunk." On March 13, Orange County Superior Court Judge Thomas Goethals removed the district attorney's office from the Dekraai case, citing an apparent conflict of interest, and turned the trial over to the state attorney general. Goethals ruled that local prosecutors failed to properly supervise its agents, who withheld evidence and broke rules regarding the use of jailhouse informants. The judge also concluded that 2 sheriff's deputies either intentionally lied or willfully withheld material evidence during two court hearings. Despite the misconduct, Goethals did not agree to take the death penalty off the table in the upcoming penalty trial. Revelations of a secret network of paid jailhouse informants have derailed at least 2 murder and 2 attempted murder cases in recent months, while defense lawyers throughout Orange County are scouring their own cases for more problems. In interviews, Rackauckas conceded that sheriff's deputies made "inconsistent" statements in court, but fell short of saying they perjured themselves. He added that his own attorneys also made mistakes in handling informants. 1 of the biggest mistakes, he said, was not thoroughly checking the background of a jailhouse informant placed next to Dekraai after his arrest. Authorities placed recording equipment in Dekraai's cell and a paid jailhouse informant in an adjacent cell. Prosecutors later delayed turning over information gained by the snitch to the defense. The fight between Rackauckas and Goethals has intensified, with prosecutors boycotting the judge's court. (source: Orange County Register) ********************* O.C. Dist. Atty. Tony Rackauckas should halt filings against judge Kudos to the Orange County Superior Court judge who uncovered a long-standing pattern of misconduct in the district attorney's office - so "sadly negligent," according to the judge, that he took the extraordinary step of kicking the D.A. off the case of the county's highest-profile killer. The misuse of paid jailhouse informants and the withholding of evidence by prosecutors who should have handed it over to defense attorneys had already led to reduced sentences for some convicted criminals. Now, Dist. Atty. Tony Rackauckas has been removed from the death penalty phase of the trial for a former tugboat captain who pleaded guilty to gunning down 8 people in a Seal Beach beauty salon. The case was assigned instead to the state attorney general. The last person who should be feeling any fallout from this is the judge himself. Yet Judge Thomas Goethals has recently been targeted by prosecutors in Rackauckas' office who have filed paperwork to have him disqualified from their cases. Such filings are perfectly legal, originally intended to keep a case out of the hands of a judge who might be prejudiced, and no reason for doing so is required, making the process vulnerable to abuse. When it is done en masse, it's called "papering the judge," and it is at times intended to force a judge out of hearing criminal cases altogether and into civil trials. The D.A.'s office says it's not behind any purposeful effort to paper Goethals. But the actions against him sure quack and waddle like a vengeful duck. Over three years, 2011 to 2013, prosecutors filed such paperwork against him a total of five times. Since February 2014, when Goethals opened up a broad hearing into prosecutors' actions, he has been papered 57 times. This is ridiculous, a petty slur by prosecutors whose office was obviously in the wrong on repeated occasions. Rackauckas should denounce such tactics, both publicly and to the prosecutors who work for him. He should direct them not to seek Goethal's disqualification unless they have a specific reason for doing so that pertains to the case in question, and he should require them to make the case to him first. Rackauckas should give Orange County voters, who elected him to office, reason to think that he's interested in correcting his office's legal and ethical missteps. (source: Editorial, Los Angeles Times) **************************** This Ballot Measure Would Make 'Sodomy' Punishable by Death. California's Attorney General Might Not Be Able to Keep It Off the Ballot. There's an initiative in the works in California that would impose the death penalty for homosexual acts - and the state's attorney general might not be able to keep it off the ballot. The "Sodomite Suppression Act," proposed by Huntington Beach, California, attorney Matt McLaughlin in February, is testing the Golden State's ballot initiative process. Despite the fact that California's death penalty was declared unconstitutional last year and social tides have rapidly shifted on gay issues, McLaughlin's blunt bill - which would order that "any person who willingly touches another person of the same gender for purposes of sexual gratification be put to death by bullets to the head" - could wind up on the November 2016 ballot, all because McLaughlin paid his $200 fee. Election lawyer Tom Hiltachk told the Sacramento Bee that California Attorney General Kamala Harris has no authority to keep McLaughlin's proposal off the ballot. "While you might say that this initiative is 'clearly' illegal (and I would agree), the notion of what is or is not 'clearly' illegal is not always so cut and dried," Hiltachk wrote in an email. UC Davis law professor Vikram Amar had a similar assessment. "This one drips of evil, so the instinct is to say 'Well, there's got to be a way to avoid wasting everybody's time,'" he told the Bee. "But in the law we often have limitations that are built not for the easy cases but because we are worried about the hard cases." Besides the death penalty for "the abominable crime against nature known as buggery," McLaughlin's proposal also calls for million-dollar fines for those who distribute "sodomistic propaganda" and barring gays from public office. Of course, McLaughlin's proposal still has to get 365,880 signatures to qualify for the ballot, and even then it seems unlikely it would pass. KFOR-TV noted that the state's LGBT Caucus is calling for a review of McLaughlin, arguing that he's violating an attorney's responsibility to act in "good moral character," but David Cameron Carr, who spent 12 years at the State Bar disciplining lawyers and 14 years defending them, said it's unlikely McLaughlin would be booted from the legal profession over the proposal. "This is not obviously the kind of act of moral turpitude that calls into question his fitness to practice law," Carr told the Bee. (source: The Blaze) ****************************** Defense in double murder plans appeal in attempt to remove judge from case Lawyers for a Costa Mesa man accused in a double murder said Friday that they will appeal a decision that left the trial in the hands of a judge whom the defense team tried to remove from the case. A Los Angeles judge last week denied a motion asking that Orange County Superior Court Judge John Conley be barred from overseeing Daniel Patrick Wozniak's trial because the defense hoped to call Conley as a witness about the possible misuse of jailhouse informants. Public defender Scott Sanders has repeatedly accused the Orange County district attorney's office and Sheriff's Department of withholding evidence helpful to defendants and illegally sending snitches to coax incriminating information from Wozniak and other death penalty defendants. Conley opposed Sanders' recusal motion, and Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Kevin Brazile dismissed as "speculation" Sanders' contention that Conley could provide crucial details about the district attorney's use of informants. Conley is a former prosecutor who worked in the Orange County district attorney's homicide unit from 1980 to 1982. He said the last time he used a jailhouse informant in a case was more than 30 years ago. "Counsel for a party may not achieve disqualification of a judge by attempting to make a judge a witness in a proceeding unless there is a clear and compelling reason for the relevance of the judge's testimony," Brazile wrote in his March 9 ruling. Brazile was selected to rule on Conley's recusal because the defense and prosecution could not pick an Orange County judge they agreed could make an unbiased decision. Sanders' likely appeal of Brazile's decision could further delay the trial for Wozniak, who is accused of killing 2 Orange Coast College students in 2010. According to grand jury testimony from police, Wozniak confessed that he shot 26-year-old Army veteran Sam Herr in order to steal $50,000. Prosecutors say Wozniak then dismembered Herr's body in an attempt to hide it and killed Herr's friend Juri "Julie" Kibuishi, 23, staging her body to look as if Herr had sexually assaulted her. For months, Sanders has been crafting a motion to remove the district attorney's office from Wozniak's case and bar the death penalty as an option. Sanders alleges that Wozniak spoke to a prolific jailhouse informant, but the district attorney's office insists the informant was working on his own, not at the behest of prosecutors, which would be a violation of Wozniak's rights. Prosecutor Matt Murphy has said the argument about snitches is irrelevant because he immediately ruled out using any testimony from the informant as soon as he became aware of it. Last week, Orange County Superior Court Judge Thomas Goethals removed the district attorney's office from the case of Scott Dekraai - who has pleaded guilty to killing 8 people in a Seal Beach salon in 2011 - based on similar accusations brought by Sanders. Goethals left the death penalty on the table in that case. The state attorney general's office, which replaced the Orange County prosecutors in the Dekraai case, said Friday that it would appeal Goethals' decision. (source: Daily Pilot) USA: Question for supporters of capital punishment I have a question for Jeff Jacoby and those who support the death penalty ("Thank death penalty foes for firing squads," Op-Ed, March 18). It's known that innocent people have been executed in the past. My question: Would you be willing to die for a murder you did not commit and accept your execution - while regrettable and irreversible - as a necessary sacrifice for the common good? Graham Walker Lincoln (source: Letter to the Editor, Boston Globe) From rhalperi at smu.edu Sun Mar 22 15:32:05 2015 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Sun, 22 Mar 2015 15:32:05 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide Message-ID: March 22 PAKIStAN: Lies about Shafqat case being exposed ----- Jail, police record shows he was 23 when he killed child The Interior Ministry's initial probe into the age of condemned prisoner Shafqat Hussain negates the claim of certain NGOs and civil society that he was a juvenile when he killed a 7-year-old child in 2004. Not only does the jail and police record confirm that the killer was 23 in 2004, but his latest photo obtained by the Interior Ministry shows him to be above 30 now. His 2004 picture, taken soon after his arrest, also negates the propaganda which forced the government to defer his execution for 30 days. The authorities are now considering constituting a medical board to determine the age of the convict. The motives behind the campaign are also being looked into, as the case has also got the attention of the international community because of the NGOs' false propaganda. Facts show that Shafqat Hussain had not only killed the boy, but also demanded ransom from his parents. Shafqat, presently confined to the Central jail Karachi, had killed the 7-year-old child whose family lived in a flat of the same building where he served as a watchman (chowkidar). The NGOs' lately discovered Shafqat lured the child into his room and killed him. According to the killer's confession, he lured the child into showing him a rabbit. Since there was no rabbit and the killer's intentions were also wrong, the child shouted and tried to run away. Shafqat hit the child on his head with a rod, killing him on the spot. Later he threw the body in a nearby nullah. Since no one suspected him, he started making phone calls to the parents demanding ransom for the release of the child already killed. He was caught red-handed while collecting the ransom money, as the parents had already engaged the police. The phone record also spoke against him. Following the police interrogation, Shafqat not only confessed to his inhuman act, but also took the police to the nullah where he had thrown the child's body. According to the police record, the killer was admitted to the Central Prison Karachi on May 31, 2004. At the time of his arrest, the killer was 23 years of age. Because of his confessional statement and the relevant evidence, the Anti-Terrorism Court No III Karachi awarded him death on September 1, 2004. According to a police report, the convict filed an appeal with the Sindh High Court against his conviction but the court upheld his death penalty in May 2006. Later, Shafqat approached the Supreme Court, which dismissed his criminal appeal in October 2007. On July 11, 2012, the president also rejected his mercy petition and his execution was fixed for August 8, 2012 but was later postponed till June 30, 2013. His 2nd execution was fixed for August 22, 2013 but the same was also postponed following the Interior Ministry's letter which held in abeyance all executions. After the December 2014 decision of the government to end the moratorium on the death penalty, Shafqat Hussain's black warrant was issued on January 14, 2015. But again a letter dated January 6, 2015 issued by the Interior Ministry stayed his execution. Later, the Interior Ministry issued another letter to all the provinces directing them to proceed in cases of condemned prisoners strictly as per the law where all legal options and avenues had been exhausted and mercy petitions rejected. The Sindh Home Department again processed Shafqat Hussain's case for execution of his death penalty. A black warrant was again issued and he was to be sent to the gallows on March 19 at 05:30 am, but his execution was again postponed initially for 3 days and later for another 30 days. A reliable Interior Ministry source admitted that the NGOs' campaign to prove Shafqat Hussain a juvenile had forced the government to stop the execution. The source said a preliminary inquiry into the case showed the campaign was misleading. The source said the age factor, which has been the focus of the NGOs and civil society campaign, had never been an issue before the court or the law at any stage. "We minutely went through all the relevant police and jail records, which proved that the killer was 23 and not 14 in 2004," the source said, adding that the "juvenile" factor was a recent twist based on 'sheer lies'. The authorities also question the credibility and authenticity of the recent emergence of a birth certificate of the killer, whose old (2004) as well as latest photos have also been obtained by official quarters concerned to correct the facts. According to a report, Shafqat Hussain's birth certificate was issued by a local council in Neelum Valley only recently on the basis of an affidavit by the family. Although the police, jail and judicial record of Shafqat Hussain and his old and new photos strongly negate the propaganda, the government may decide for its own satisfaction to get Shafqat's medical examination done by a team of doctors. However, it is apprehended that the NGOs which are hell-bent on protecting the killer may try to create further complications by using the media. There have been several voices from the civil society and the media too to protect the killer on the basis of sheer lies, but no one has bothered to look into facts or show any feelings for the parents of the young child killed by Shafqat Hussain. However, the NGO campaign may continue and there have been several voices from civil society and the media too to protect the killer. (source: The News) ************************* A Patchwork Of Modernity The recent decision of the President to lift a 5-year old moratorium on the execution of all regular death sentences has attracted strong criticism from a number of human rights groups and activists. However, it is disappointing to note that, despite being a momentous occasion, it has not offered any promise of meaningful reform in the use of the President's discretion or the critic's privilege. While the human rights groups may want to take credit for initial imposition of the moratorium, the fact is that the moratorium was announced on 21 June 2008 to mark the 1st posthumous birthday of PPP's slain leader Benazir Bhutto. This moratorium was initially lifted in the wake of the attack on APS Peshawar last December so as to execute only "jet black" terrorists with or without the help of military courts. However, riding on that slippery slope, the Government has now restored the orders for execution of all death row prisoners without any hope of relief from the President. It is understandable that human rights groups and activists should oppose the death penalty. Their argument is simple: since it is humanly impossible to devise an infallible criminal justice so as to completely eliminate the risk of error in awarding the death penalty, we must not use this peculiar form of punishment. While this is a logically sound argument, it fails to realize that the argument against death penalty in its present form has evolved in Western Europe over the past 500 years and cannot easily be applied to Pakistan without accounting for the local historical and philosophical context. Indeed, their argument is relevant to Pakistan only because of the existence here of a modern-looking judicial system. The fact is that Pakistan is now operating on constitutionally protected Islamic criminal law that provides for justice under the principle of Qisas - that is, life for life unless pardoned by the heirs of the deceased. As it happens, this tribal approach to criminal justice adopted by Islamic law sits rather well with the cultures of biradri and ghairat prevalent in Pakistan. The fact that there are more than 40 other countries still using death penalty - including secular democratic countries like the United States, India, and Japan - further weakens the argument by way of universal morality. In these conditions, the demand for the repeal of, or a moratorium on death penalty appears to be premature, if not a misconceived and misdirected patchwork of modern jurisprudence on an essentially medieval social fabric. Having said this, though the problematics of an admittedly difficult situation cannot be ignored, it is morally repugnant to ignore the barbarity of questionable executions. There might be no one systematic point from which to begin reforming the system, but protesting unabashed injustice is a good place to start. (source: The Nation) THAILAND: Suspect 'tried to shut down bomb plot' The volunteer nurse accused of helping to plan a string of bomb attacks across Bangkok has denied any role in the plot, and said she warned her alleged co-conspirators against embarking on a campaign of violence. Speaking through her lawyer from a cell at Klong Prem Central Prison - formally called the Central Women's Correctional Institution - Nattatida Meewangpla admitted to being a member of the Line group called Thai Pakee ("Thai Assembly"), along with several of her co-accused. She alleged that fellow suspect Supaporn "Dear" Mitarak had informed her that the group members wanted to launch a string of bomb attacks in the capital as a "Valentine's Day present" to deposed former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra. Ms Nattatida's lawyer said that she opposed the plan, and tried to persuade the group to abandon it. "She told Dear that Mr Thaksin wouldn't appreciate it since he is not a violent person," her lawyer, Winyat Chatmontree, told the Bangkok Post Sunday. Mr Winyat said Ms Nattatida had denied any involvement in the planning or execution of the bomb attacks. "She said it is true that she knew people who were [allegedly] involved with the attacks, but she had nothing to do with the planning," he said. When her warnings were not heeded, Ms Nattatida said she left the Line group. She did not specify when this occurred, although she said it was before the twin blasts at Siam Paragon on Feb 1 and the Criminal Court grenade attack on March 7. However, she maintained her friendship with one of the group members, Surapol Iam-suwan, who she later asked for a loan of 5,000 baht to help cover the rent of a laundry shop she was running with her boyfriend in Muang Thong Thani. She said she intended to borrow from Mr Surapol's personal funds, and was not aware that the money transferred to her had allegedly come from donations made to the group by red-shirt supporters. Police have alleged Mr Surapol was hired by the group to plant bombs in five locations around Bangkok, for which he was to allegedly collect a fee of 50,000 baht. The comments were the 1st time Ms Nattatida, a key witness in the 2010 Wat Prathum Wanaram killing case in which 6 people were shot dead by soldiers, has spoken to the media since her release from military custody last week. She was taken from her cousin's home in Samut Prakarn by a group of soldiers on March 11, after which she claims she was blindfolded and moved to an unidentified military installation. During her detention, Ms Nattatida said she was kept in a windowless room. She told Mr Winyat that she faced threats of violence and feared she would be killed. The military initially denied it had played a role in Ms Nattatida's disappearance, but was later forced to admit it had "invited" her for talks which lasted 7 days. 4 of the 9 suspects in the case have claimed they faced torture during military detention, including one who showed photographs to the media of severe bruising to his chest. The army has threatened to launch legal action against anyone who alleges that the military tortured any of the suspects. Ms Nattatida's lawyer also suggested she had been mistreated. "She told me that one military officer took the phone from her and read her Line messages. He was trying to force her to admit that she was part of the bomb attack plan, but she refused," Mr Winyat said. "So that officer took the phone and hit her on her chest. She explained that she was terrified and cried a lot." She also said her initial request for her own lawyer was denied. The Thai Lawyers for Human Rights on Saturday demanded a full investigation into the allegations of mistreatment, saying in a formal statement members had seen "the traces of torture still visible on the bodies of some suspects". "Any attempt contrary to that, including the threatening of a lawsuit against the complainants... shall further intimidate the suspects making them too scared to seek any legal remedies," the group said. Ms Nattatida has been charged with terrorism, conspiracy to commit crime, possession of illegal war weapons, violating NCPO orders and lese majeste. Mr Winyat said she faces the prospect of the death penalty or life in prison. (source: Bangkok Post) MALAYSIA: Johor Sultan Grants Full Pardon To One Prisoner, Commutes Death Sentence To Life Imprisonment For 10 Others Sultan Ibrahim Almarhum Sultan Iskandar has consented to grant full pardon to a prisoner and commute the death sentences of 10 other prisoners to life imprisonment in conjunction with his coronation as the 5th Sultan of modern Johor Sunday. Johor State Secretary Datuk Ismail Karim said the prisoner granted full pardon, a juvenile offender when he committed a murder offence in 2004, was released on March 19 after an audience with the Johor Sultan. "Sultan Ibrahim had chaired a meeting of the Johor Pardons Board on March 5. "The meeting gave consideration to 10 cases for pardon on the death penalty under Rule 114, Prison Regulations 2000 and 13 cases for review of sentences every 4 years (KHETS) under Rule 54, Prisons Regulation 2000," he told reporters at the Sultan Ibrahim Building, Bukit Timbalan, here. Ismail said the meeting was attended by Johor Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin, Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul Gani and 3 other Pardon Board members appointed by the Sultan. He said on the advice of the Johor Pardons Board, Sultan Ibrahim gave the juveniles offender, now 28 years old, a reprieve and was released with the condition that he seek an audience with the Sultan to ensure he had repented. Following that, the prisoner released under KHETS, had an audience with the Sultan at noon on March 19, at Istana Bukit Serene here, in the presence of his parents and accompanied by prison officers. With the amnesty given, it was hoped that the pardoned prisoner would use his 2nd chance to contribute to his family, community and country, he said. For the commutation of sentences for the 10 prisoners, Ismail said Sultan Ibrahim had consented to pardon them on the death penalty and commute their sentences to life imprisonment for three prisoners who had committed an offence under Section 39B (1) (a) of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952. The sentences of 3 other prisoners who had committed offences under Section 3 of the Firearms (Increased Penalties) Act 1971 were also commuted to life imprisonment. "A prisoner who committed an offence under Section 3 of the Firearms Act (Increased Penalties) Act 1971 and 3 others who committed offences under Section 302 of the Penal Code also had their death sentences withdrawn and instead were commuted to life sentence without parole," he said. (source: Bernama) UNITED KINGDOM/SAUDI ARABIA: British money 'may be supporting' executions of drug mules in Saudi Arabia ---- Prisoners' rights group calls on Home Office to rethink funding for UN narcotics programme A United Nations agency that receives millions of pounds in UK funding has come under fire over its support for Saudi Arabia's efforts to combat drug trafficking at a time when the death penalty is increasingly being used against drug mules in the kingdom. The last 2 annual reports from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) both state that in the kingdom "UNODC has agreed to intensify its cooperation with the general directorate of narcotics control on drug control-related matters, including support to law enforcement efforts to combat illicit drug trafficking". The UK provides funding for specific UNODC programmes, although none of the money goes to Gulf countries. "The UK does not provide funding to any UN Office on Drugs and Crime programmes in Saudi Arabia," said a Home Office spokesman. "We oppose the death penalty in all circumstances as a matter of principle, and the UK government frequently states this position in the strongest terms." However, UK money does help pay for the general administration of UNODC, which has an annual budget of $600m (401m pounds). Critics question whether this support is consistent with the UK's opposition to the death penalty. "The Home Office, as one of UNODC's biggest donors, can no longer remain silent," said Maya Foa, director of the death penalty team at prisoners' rights group Reprieve. "Theresa May must urgently raise this matter with UNODC, and come clean over how British money may be supporting executions by some of the world's most abusive regimes." By 17 February this year, the Saudi authorities had reportedly executed 31 people, putting the country on course to surpass the 240 people executed in 2014. Of these, 11 appear to have been charged with drugs offences. According to Saudi media reports, a number of those executed were then "crucified", a practice that involves placing the severed head of the offender back on the body and mounting it on a cross for display. "This year has seen Saudi Arabia carry out executions at an alarming rate - 1/2 of which appear to be for non-violent drugs offences," Foa said. "This must ring alarm bells for those supporting counter-narcotics policing in the kingdom. The UNODC must stop helping countries like Saudi Arabia send ever-greater numbers to the swordsman's blade." UNODC's presence in the Gulf has grown as the region has become a big heroin-trafficking route. Seizures of the drug in Saudi Arabia have increased from one kilo a year in the early 2000s to 111kg in 2011. Much of the trade is overseen by terrorist groups who force mules into smuggling heroin and other drugs through the kingdom by holding members of their family hostage. Saudi attempts to combat the heroin trade are framed by UNODC executive director, Yury Fedotov, as a counter-terrorism measure. Fedotov has praised the kingdom's efforts to clamp down on drug trafficking and highlighted the need for all Gulf countries to step up their efforts against heroin smuggling. The Observer has repeatedly asked UNODC to comment about the nature of its work in helping Saudi Arabia combat drug trafficking but it declined. However, in a letter to Reprieve, UNODC said it shared concerns about Saudi use of the death penalty, but its cooperation with the kingdom was "focused on technical assistance and capacity building". (source: The Guardian) GLOBAL: Hung Jury ---- Buddhists aren't as unanimously opposed to the death penalty as you might think. The Dalai Lama had just finished speaking at an event on the Capitoline Hill in Rome when I sought him out and asked him to be one of the first signatories of the Community of Sant'Egidio's Appeal for a Moratorium on the Death Penalty. He accepted immediately and signed in earth-green ink, which came as no surprise. Who more than the Dalai Lama is identified around the world with the need to respect life? Indeed, all schools of Buddhism emphasize respect for life in all its forms. Though the Buddha did not specifically address capital punishment in his teachings, he encouraged his adherents not to do anything that could harm others, saying, "An action, even if it brings benefit to oneself, cannot be considered a good action if it causes physical and mental pain to another being." The respect for life that permeates Buddhism is inextricably connected to the principle of samsara, the infinitely repeating cycle of birth, suffering, death, and rebirth. Buddhists believe that samsara is the world's nervous system, and when the death penalty is applied, both the person whose life is taken and the person who takes that life are negatively affected. It follows that trying to gain recompense for evil and even for violent death by inflicting more death simply causes a greater imbalance; only rehabilitation can restore balance and harmony in this world and the world of the spirit. But, of course, the devil is in the details: in many countries where Buddhism is influential, such as Thailand and Japan, the death penalty is still thriving in spirit and in practice. What accounts for this contradiction? One explanation may be that there is a wide disparity between the practices of Buddhist monastic orders and lay Buddhist followers, as in any religion. In their article "Mercy and Punishment: Buddhism and the Death Penalty," crimonlogy professors Leanne Fiftal Alarid and Hsiao-Ming Wang argue that while "the death penalty is inconsistent with Buddhist teachings," historical reality is more complicated: Buddhist doctrines hold nonviolence and compassion for all life in high regard. The 1st precept of Buddhism requires individuals to abstain from injuring or killing all living creatures and Buddha's teaching restricts Buddhist monks from any political involvement. Using historical documents and interviews with contemporary authorities on Buddhist doctrine, our research uncovered a long history of political involvement by Buddhist monks and Buddhist support of violence. The website ProCon.org gathers opinions from different cultures and religions on capital punishment. In the case of Buddhism, one voice on the "pro" side is that of Tomoko Sasaki, a former member of the Japanese Diet. Writing in a Washington Post article titled "Why Japan Still Has the Death Penalty," he evokes "retribution" to justify his opinion: "A basic teaching [in Japanese Buddhism] is retribution. If someone evil does something bad, he has to atone with his own life." Sasaki assumes that capital punishment restores balance in karmic terms. But in reality, the death penalty creates a double negative: one life is lost, and then another follows. Capital punishment, seen in this way, is a violent disruption to the possibility of balancing different karmas and improving the world by favoring mercy and life. The flow and intercommunication of the reproductive karma, the supportive karma, the obstructive karma, and the destructive karma are dealt great blows by every death sentence. When the Dalai Lama subscribed to the appeal I submitted on behalf of the community of Sant'Egidio, he also submitted this message, read at an event organized by the Peace Center on April 9, 1999: The death penalty fulfills a preventive function, but it is also very clearly a form of revenge. It is an especially severe form of punishment because it is so final. The human life is ended and the executed person is deprived of the opportunity to change, to restore the harm done or compensate for it. Before advocating execution we should consider whether criminals are intrinsically negative and harmful people . . . The answer, I believe, is definitely not. However horrible the act they have committed, I believe that everyone has the potential to improve and correct themselves. Therefore, I am optimistic that it remains possible to deter criminal activity, and prevent such harmful consequences of such acts in society, without having to resort to the death penalty. (source: Mario Marazziti is the cofounder of the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty. He lives in Rome, Italy. Excerpted from 13 Ways of Looking at the Death Penalty [Seven Stories Press, 2015]----tricycle.com) ******************* Pope: death penalty is inadmissible no matter how serious the crime Pope Francis repeated the Catholic Church's total opposition to the death penalty today, during his audience with a delegation from the International Commission against the Death Penalty. Extracts from the letter the Pope gave to Federico Mayor, president of the Commission, follow. "I would like to take this opportunity to share with you some reflections on what the Church contributes to the humanistic efforts of the Commission. The Church's Magisterium, based on the Sacred Scripture and the thousand-year experience of the People of God, defends life from conception to natural end, and supports full human dignity inasmuch as it represents the image of God. Human life is sacred as, from its beginning, from the first instant of conception, it is the fruit of God's creating action". "States kill when they apply the death penalty, when they send their people to war or when they carry out extrajudicial or summary executions. They can also kill by omission, when they fail to guarantee to their people access to the bare essentials for life. ... On some occasions it is necessary to repel an ongoing assault proportionately to avoid damage caused by the aggressor, and the need to neutralise him could lead to his elimination; this is a case of legitimate defence. However, the presuppositions of personal legitimate defence do not apply at the social level, without risk of misinterpretation. When the death penalty is applied, it is not for a current act of aggression, but rather for an act committed in the past. It is also applied to persons whose current ability to cause harm is not current, as it has been neutralised - they are already deprived of their liberty". "The death penalty is inadmissible, no matter how serious the crime committed. It is an offence against the inviolability of life and the dignity of the human person, which contradicts God's plan for man and society, and his merciful justice, and impedes the penalty from fulfilling any just objective. It does not render justice to the victims, but rather fosters vengeance". "For the rule of law, the death penalty represents a failure, as it obliges the state to kill in the name of justice. ... Justice can never be wrought by killing a human being. ... With the application of the death penalty, the convict is denied the possibility to repent or make amends for the harm caused; the possibility of confession, by which a man expresses his inner conversion, and contrition, the gateway to atonement and expiation, to reach an encounter with God's merciful and healing justice. It is furthermore frequently used by totalitarian regimes and groups of fanatics for the extermination of political dissidents, minorities, and any subject labelled as 'dangerous' or who may be perceived as a threat to its power or to the achievement of its ends." "The death penalty is contrary to the sentiment of humanitas and to divine mercy, which must be the model for human justice. ... There is discussion in some quarters about the method of killing, as if it were possible to find ways of 'getting it right'. ... But there is no humane way of killing another person". "On the other hand, life imprisonment entails for the prisoner the impossibility of planning a future of freedom, and may therefore be considered as a sort of covert death penalty, as they deprive detainees not only of their freedom, but also of hope. However, although the penal system can stake a claim to the time of convicted persons, it can never claim their hope." "Dear friends, I encourage you to continue with your work, as the world needs witnesses of God's mercy and tenderness, and may the Lord Jesus grant the gift of wisdom, so that the action taken against this cruel punishment may be successful and fruitful." (source: Independent Catholic News) From rhalperi at smu.edu Mon Mar 23 10:26:46 2015 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Mon, 23 Mar 2015 10:26:46 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, S.C., FLA., ALA., ARK. Message-ID: March 23 TEXAS: Legislature must fix Texas death penalty Texans who support capital punishment might want to believe that the system has evolved into an excruciatingly fair, airtight application of society's utmost punishment. If only that were the case, this newspaper might not stand with opponents of state-sponsored killing. Each year brings a new set of execution dates that expose weaknesses in the system and offend the sense of justice. We trust that state lawmakers are alert to them and are willing to apply fixes. Take Texas law on executing the intellectually disabled. Actually, there really isn't a law, despite the Supreme Court's 2002 landmark imperative against executing people with low IQs. The Texas response relies in part on a Court of Criminal Appeals ruling suggesting that someone like the fictional, dull-witted character Lennie in Steinbeck's novel Of Mice and Men is the type who ought to be spared the executioner's needle. Allusions to American literature have no place in deciding life-and-death matters in Texas. The Legislature has neglected its duty to put greater specificity in the law, despite a steady flow of condemned inmates whose mental abilities have been in question. Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, has legislation (SB 226) to remedy this. It would have the courts treat questions of intelligence like sanity questions, impaneling a jury to decide the matter before trial. Today, the same jurors who decide guilt-innocence also decide whether a person they just convicted is bright enough to be killed. The Ellis bill would separate the matters and take emotion out of the mix. This bill should pass and fill an embarrassing void in Texas law. It was also embarrassing for the state when lawyers for mentally ill killer Scott Panetti discovered in the Houston Chronicle on Oct. 30 that his execution date had been set 2 weeks prior and was just weeks away. That's right: There was no direct, official notification to counsel that the state obtained a death warrant - and the clock was ticking toward an appeals deadline. The remedy for this shamefulness would be companion bills by Rep. Senfronia Thompson, D-Houston, (HB 2110) and Sen. Juan "Chuy" Hinojosa, D-McAllen, (SB 1071). Texans should not tolerate stealth death warrants. Nor should Texans tolerate the idea of an execution before all relevant evidence has been tested for DNA evidence that might bear on the case. Yet that's not a guarantee today, because of a screwy court decision requiring a defendant to prove "a reasonable likelihood" of biological material that could be tested. How might a defendant produce that proof if not through testing? Hence, a remedy by Ellis (SB 487) to eliminate this Catch-22 in state law. This list of fixes could go on, but we'll mention just 1 more: the right of Texans to know everything about the execution process. That means everything - right down to the drugs used, their supplier and expiration dates. A bipartisan bill (HB 1587) by Reps. Terry Canales, D-Edinburg, and Tony Tinderholt, R-Arlington, would secure the public's right to know. (source: Editorial, Dallas Morning News) SOUTH CAROLINA: Triple murder suspect says he needs new lawyers to get fair trial A Cherokee County man who could face the death penalty if convicted in a 2010 triple murder said he wants to fire his lawyers and get new representation. Cass Smith called the FOX Carolina newsroom Sunday from the Cherokee County Detention Center. He said he had filed a motion to get new representation that a judge is expected to hear this week. Smith is accused of shooting and killing his ex-girlfriend, Suzanne Bridges, her boyfriend, Harold Lick, and Bridges' 15-year-old daughter, Margaret Wenner, in April 2010. Investigators said Smith shot the 3 victims through a window of a mobile home on Emily Lane in Cowpens. Smith talked to FOX Carolina's cameras on the night he was arrested. He apologized for the shootings and said he didn't know the teenager was in the house when the shooting happened. Smith said he had been depressed and felt betrayed over the break-up. Smith, who has been held in the Cherokee County Detention Center since his arrest, said Sunday that he was unhappy with his state appointed lawyers' current defense strategy. "I wrote 4 motions to dismiss my attorneys in the last 4 years," Smith said. Smith said the presiding judge was expected to consider the request for new representation in hearing to be held the week of March 23. Smith said his lawyers want to argue that he suffers from an intellectual disability, which Smith said is untrue. "That is false defense that they're wanting to bring to the table because I've worked for 20 years in big industrial companies like Timken," Smith said. "I worked there 14 years. And see, the jury's not going to buy that..." Smith said his lawyers used a similar defense when they represented Ricky Lee Blackwell, who was sentenced to death in the 2009 murder of an 8-year-old girl. "I don't think that that was a fair trial for him (Blackwell), and I don't think they're trying to give me a fair trial in mine," Smith said. Smith's major point of contention surrounds a recording of a 911 call from the day of the murders. Smith said the call contains crucial information about the case and his lawyers do not want to use the call as part of their defense. "I think that it (the 911 call) really helps my case," Smith said. "I think that my attorneys have a personal issue with my case instead of a professional one. And I don't think that's fair toward me, because like in any situation of a case, there's a reason why things happen, you know, in a case. I know in the story that was publicized against me in the newspaper said that I went up there to my ex-wife's house in a jealous rage and, you know, because I had lost her to another man, but that wasn't true." Smith said there are many more details in the story that are explained in the 911 call. "I think the victims have a right to know what happened in the case," Smith said. "I think my family has right to know, and it's not going to be presented in that way if I'm represented by these attorneys because they're trying to go around everything that truly happened and I'm trying to tell the truth. You know, whether if I get the death penalty or not I just want a fair trial, and I don't think I'm going to get that from my attorneys." Prosecutors initially denied a request filed by Smith's lawyers in 2010 which Stated Smith would plead guilty to the killings and serve life in prison without parole if prosecutors would agree not to seek the death penalty. Former 7th Circuit Solicitor Trey Gowdy said that the state would seek capital punishment. "A jury needs to determine what the proper punishment is for an alleged triple homicide," Gowdy said in 2010. Since then, Smith said his lawyers had not attempted to make any other plea deals. "I don't really think that my lawyers are trying to work out a plea with me. They haven't done, you know, like any defensive strategy in my case," Smith said. "It's just really constitutionally unfair you know for me." Smith said he has the constitutional right to a fair trial and he will fight to make sure he gets one. "I was always a well-respected person in the community, Smith said. "I paid my taxes. I paid my child support. I always tried to do things right in my life until that situation that happened in April of 2010." If his request for new legal representation is denied, Smith said he will consider representing himself as a last resort. Smith said he has purchased a legal dictionary and has been researching ways to file motions and represent himself but does not feel confident that he could defend himself in a trial. "I really don't want to represent myself because I know that would be bad because I don't know how to do a trial," Smith admitted. (source: foxcarolina.com) FLORIDA: Setting death penalty standards A state Senate bill endorsed in committee last week would rectify a longstanding weakness in Florida's death-sentencing standards. The changes, if they become law, might make it harder for a court to hand down a death sentence because juries would have to show far more rigor in deliberating whether to recommend the "ultimate penalty." That would be an important advance from Florida's current process, which does not require a unanimous vote when juries recommend death. (In the earlier guilt-finding phase, a unanimous verdict is required.) The simple-majority standard makes Florida an ???outlier??? among the 31 states that allow the death penalty. Most set tougher standards. The U.S. Supreme Court has noted the discrepancy and will hear a Florida case about this in its session beginning next fall. Meanwhile, the state Senate's Criminal Justice Committee took up reforms last week, endorsing Senate Bill 664 by a 5-0 vote. The bill would require unanimity in order for a jury to issue a recommendation to a judge that a death sentence be imposed. But in procedures leading up to that recommendation, the bill would make another important change as the jurors weigh so-called aggravating factors - at least 1 of which is required to justify a death sentence. "The jury must certify in writing that each aggravating circumstance used to support its recommendation of death was found to exist beyond a reasonable doubt by a unanimous vote," according to the legislative analysis of SB 664. That's significant because, under the bill, the judge would be allowed to consider "only the aggravating factors unanimously found to exist by the jury," the analysis notes. Under current practice, the jury is required neither to list any of the 16 aggravating factors nor to agree unanimously on them. Under SB 664, jurors also would have to agree unanimously that aggravating factors outweighed mitigating factors. If signed into law, these changes would take effect for cases in which the sentencing process begins on or after July 1. The proposal could reduce the number of death appeals that crowd the state Supreme Court's docket. It also stands to reason that the jurors' deliberations would slow down - becoming more painstaking and cautious. According to the legislative analysis, "there may be more death penalty cases taken to trial, rather than pleas entered, because it will be less likely that a defendant will receive the death penalty under the bill's provisions." Of 296 cases in Florida heard from 2000 through 2012, only 102 of the death recommendations were based on supermajority or unanimous agreement from the jurors. Requiring unanimity, as SB 664 would do, might result in more life-without-parole sentences. That could rub voters the wrong way. A majority say they support the death penalty; many simply object to how long it takes the state to execute the condemned. Yet Florida also leads the nation in the number of death row inmates later let go because of post-conviction exonerations and dismissed charges. Coming so perilously close to executing the wrong people is a sign that the process needs more thoroughness, deliberation and clarity for jurors. SB 664 could help with all those aspects. We urge lawmakers to approve this legislation. (source: Ocala Star Banner) ALABAMA: Penalty phase of the Joyce Garrard trial set to begin Monday The jury that convicted Joyce Garrard of capital murder will be the same one hearing arguments Monday about whether the 49-year-old should receive life in prison without parole or be put to death. The penalty phase begins at 9 a.m. in the Etowah County Courthouse. The prosecution is expected to make arguments as to why Garrard should be executed. The defense is expected to counter with why her life should be spared. In order to recommend a death sentence, at least 10 of the 12 jurors must vote in favor of it. In Alabama, a jury's recommendation is just that, a recommendation. The ultimate decision will rest with the judge. Now the 49 year old was convicted Friday evening of capital murder. Prosecutors say Garrard killed her granddaughter in 2012 by forcing 9-year-old Savannah Hardin to run non-stop as punishment for lying about eating a candy bar. Savannah collapsed, and had a seizure. She died a few days later. If Garrard does receive a death sentence, she'll become the 4th woman currently on Alabama's death row. The child's step-mother, Jessica Mae Hardin, is also awaiting trial for her alleged role in Savannah's death. Prosecutors say she failed to intervene or help the 9-year old. (source: WBRC news) ********************* Action in Tommy Arthur case put on hold A federal court decision this week has put on hold any action in death-row inmate Tommy Arthur's case, including a May court hearing, until the U.S. Supreme Court hears arguments about the effectiveness of the lethal injection drug midazolam. The order last Wednesday from U.S. District Chief Judge Keith Watkins cites other delays in death row cases in Alabama. Watkins' ruling said, "... the state has conceded that the best course of action is to stay decisions on the lethal injection cases across the board until Glossip is decided." The U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in late April. A decision is expected by the end of June. Arthur was set for execution in February, his 6th execution date in more than 30 years on death row. It was stayed last month, and Watkins said Arthur was entitled to a trial on his objection to the state's lethal injection formula and to a final decision on the merits of his claims. That trial was to be held in U.S. District Court on May 5. Arthur is challenging the state's 3-drug lethal injection formula as possibly constituting cruel and unusual punishment. Specifically the challenge involves midazolam hydrochloride and whether it sufficiently renders an inmate unconscious before the other 2 execution drugs are administered. (source: Times Daily) ARKANSAS: AG Rutledge: 8 death row cases ready for execution phase With the Arkansas Supreme Court ruling this past week declaring the state's lethal injection procedures as constitutional, executions in Arkansas are set to move forward after a decade of being on hold. Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge, who appeared on this week's edition of Talk Business & Politics on KATV Ch. 7, said there are 32 inmates on death row, with 8 inmates having exhausted all of their appeals. Still, she said, carrying out the death penalty won't be immediate. "This is not something that's going to happen in the next couple of weeks. I know there's quite a bit of angst and talk about that because of the Supreme Court's decision," said Rutledge, whose office works with the governor's administration to coordinate state executions. She said the Department of Corrections must first obtain the drugs needed in order to carry out lethal injections. "Once they do that, we'll be able to send the names to the governor," Rutledge said. Prison systems around the country have had difficulty obtaining drugs for lethal injections as manufacturers have either refused to sell the drugs for execution purposes or they have decided against it to avoid the publicity and protests that accompany the sales. Even for those inmates whose appeals are exhausted, Rutledge said she expects new rounds of lawsuits to occur. "I am certain there will be litigation because of the seriousness of the issue at hand," she said. Rutledge also said she's working with the state legislature to find ways to strengthen Arkansas' death penalty law. "Some of the things that we're looking at are confidentiality of companies that provide the drugs necessary to carry out a lethal injection. Because of so many protests and public scrutiny that comes to those companies, many states have gone this direction in order to protect the private businesses," she said. (source: thecitywire.com) *************** Innocent and on Death Row: A Conversation With Death-Row Exoneree Gary Drinkard The National Lawyers Guild-UA Chapter will present Gary Drinkard on Tuesday, March 31, from noon to 12:50 p.m. in Leflar Law Building 342. Drinkard, a death row exoneree, will speak about his wrongful conviction and experience on Alabama's death row. Drinkard was charged with the robbery and the murder of a 65-year-old automotive junk dealer in Decatur, Alabama. Unable to afford an attorney, he was assigned 2 lawyers who had no experience trying criminal cases. Despite his presence at home at the time of the murders and his debilitating back injury, he was convicted and sentenced to death in 1995. Surprisingly, the conviction primarily rested on testimonies given by his half-sister and her husband. Both faced charges for unrelated crimes; however, in exchange for testifying, his half-sister's charges were dismissed. In 2000, the Alabama Supreme Court ordered a new trial due to prosecutorial misconduct and, with the help of the Southern Center for Human Rights, Drinkard won acquittal in 2001. The center later represented him before the United States Senate Judiciary Committee to illustrate the urgent need for competent lawyers for those facing the death penalty. Today, Drinkard lives and works in Alabama and remains active in the movement to abolish the death penalty. The National Lawyers Guild is a national non-profit legal and political organization comprised of lawyers, legal workers, law students, and jailhouse lawyers, now celebrating 75 years since the guild's founding. It represents progressive political movements, using the law to protect human rights above property interests and to attain social justice. This event is supported by the Student Activities Fee as a funded event by the Associated Student Government and is free to all currently enrolled University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, students who pay the student activities fee. For questions about the event or for accommodations due to disability please contact behime at uark.edu or 918-399-6153. (source: University of Arkansas news) From rhalperi at smu.edu Mon Mar 23 10:27:59 2015 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Mon, 23 Mar 2015 10:27:59 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----KAN., UTAH, ARIZ., CALIF. Message-ID: March 23 KANSAS: Kansas Supreme Court to hear 'Slavemaster' appeal----John E. Robinson convicted of 6 murders, admits 2 others A serial killer who used the Internet name "Slavemaster" and promises of work to lure women to his bondage and sadism practices will appeal his capital murder convictions and death sentence before the Kansas Supreme Court this week. An attorney for John E. Robinson Sr. will present oral arguments before the Kansas high court at 9 a.m Tuesday. A live video stream of the proceedings is available through the Supreme Court's website, live.kscourts.org. Robinson was 58 in October 2002 when he was convicted in Johnson County District Court on 2 capital murder charges in the killings of Izabel Lewicka, 21, and Suzette Trouten, 27. Their decomposed bodies were found in drum barrels on Robinson's La Cygne farm. Robinson also was convicted in Kansas of 1st-degree murder in the death of Lisa Stasi, whose body was never found after she was last seen in 1985. Robinson also was convicted on another charge involving the fraudulent adoption of Stasi's 4-month-old daughter. The same Kansas jury that convicted Robinson recommended the death penalty after a separate hearing. Robinson has been linked to the killing of 8 women in Kansas and Missouri between 1984 and his 2000 arrest in Kansas. In Missouri he pleaded guilty - as part of a plea arrangement to avoid that state's frequently applied death penalty - to the 1st-degree murders of Beverly Bonner, a former Missouri prison librarian Robinson befriended while serving time on a fraud conviction, and Sheila Faith and her disabled teen daughter, Debbie. The bodies of the 3 women were found - after the discovery of the bodies in Kansas - in a Raymore, Mo., storage locker rented by Robinson. As part of his Missouri plea agreement, Robinson also admitted killing 2 former employees, Paula Godfrey, 19, believed to be the 1st of his victims in 1984, and Catherine Clampitt, 27. Robinson was never charged in their deaths, and their bodies have never been found. Robinson's case attracted national attention after investigators uncovered evidence of his cyber-stalking of victims through Internet chat rooms. At his Kansas trial, jurors were shown a videotaped sadomasochistic sex scene with one of his victims. In his appeal before the Kansas Supreme Court, Robinson argues for a new trial based on alleged errors in the guilt and penalty phases of his trial. Among his arguments are the trial court's refusal to grant change of venue or suppress evidence, and the sufficiency of evidence to support multiple convictions. Robinson's hearing comes at a time when the Kansas high court is under intense political scrutiny after a series of recent decisions in which death sentences were overturned even as capital murder convictions were upheld. The most famous case involves the overturned death sentences of Reginald and Jonathan Carr, convicted in Wichita for the 2000 execution-style murders of 4 people who were forced to have sex with each other before they were led to a snow-covered field and shot. A 5th victim that night survived the wound to her head and became a chief witness in the trial, which included yet another murder conviction for the killing of a Wichita woman several days earlier. The Supreme Court ruled the Sedgwick County District Court erred in not giving the Carrs separate trials in the penalty phase. This past July, the Kansas court upheld the capital murder conviction of former Topeka resident Sidney Gleason for 2 murders in Great Bend, but also vacated his death sentence. Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review the Kansas decision for both the Carrs and Gleason. In 1 other case, the Kansas court overturned the conviction and death sentence of Scott Cheever in the shooting death of Greenwood County Sheriff Matthew Samuels. That decision was later overturned after Schmidt's appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, which said the Kansas court erred and remanded the case. In yet another case, the high court cited ineffectiveness of counsel in overturning the conviction and death sentence for Phillip Cheatham Jr., in the shooting death of 2 Topeka women and critical wounding of another. Prior to the start of his new trial, Cheatham - now known as King Phillip Amman Reu-El - recently pleaded guilty as part of a plea arrangement in which he avoided a possible death sentence. He won't be eligible for parole for at least 25 1/2 years after already serving 11 years in prison. The last execution in Kansas was June 22, 1965 when James Latham and George York were hanged on the same day. Their executions came 2 months after Perry Smith and Richard Hickock were hanged for the infamous "In Cold Blood" murders of the 4-member Clutter family in Holcomb. Gov. Sam Brownback is pushing for a change in the way Kansas Supreme Court justices are selected. Candidates to the bench currently are nominated by a select committee of state lawyers. The governor then makes a selection from the list of nominees. Brownback wants a change wherein the governor makes his own nomination that has to be confirmed by the Kansas Senate. (source: Topeka Capital-Journal) ********************** Case of convicted serial killer John E. Robinson Sr. to finally get appeal hearing It has been almost 15 years since a stream of crimson liquid, oozing from a metal barrel, revealed a serial killer's grisly handiwork. The discovery of a woman's body stuffed inside that barrel kicked off one of the biggest police investigations ever in the Kansas City area. It led to 8 murder convictions across 2 states and a Kansas death sentence for an Olathe grandfather named John E. Robinson Sr. Robinson's trial for 3 killings, the longest criminal prosecution in Kansas history, has produced an equally epic and complicated appeal. On Tuesday, it finally will be argued in front of the Kansas Supreme Court, 12 years after lawyers first filed the notice of appeal. Like the police, prosecutors, defense attorneys and jurors before them, the court's justices face a daunting task. "The state of Kansas has never seen a prosecution of this scale and magnitude," Robinson's attorneys wrote in a 2002 pretrial motion. They summed up the case this way: "The extraordinary allegations ... are unprecedented in Kansas history in the nature of the charges, the technical nature of the evidence, the span of time covered in the allegations, the extent of media coverage, and the volume of evidence generated by multiple federal, state and local jurisdictions that committed massive and unprecedented resources to the investigation." The appeal has generated what is believed to be another record: Attorneys for the state and defense have combined to file more than 800 pages of written legal arguments in advance of Tuesday's hearing. The trial transcript runs more than 12,000 pages. Robinson's attorneys have raised 101 issues on appeal, ranging from how police secretly took bags of trash from outside his house, to how jurors were chosen and instructed, to how the trial judge handled a juror bringing a Bible into the jury room during deliberations. The defense contends that a multitude of errors violated Robinson's constitutional rights and warrant throwing out his conviction and sentence. Attorneys for the state counter that Robinson received a fair trial and that any errors did not rise to the level requiring a reversal. The case first made headlines in June 2000 after authorities found 2 women's bodies stuffed into barrels on property Robinson owned in Linn County, Kan. Investigators later discovered other barrels, containing 3 more victims, in a Raymore storage locker Robinson had rented. The investigation also led detectives to suburban Chicago, where they discovered that the adopted teenage daughter of Robinson's brother was in reality the child of a Kansas City woman who disappeared in 1985 with her newborn daughter. Robinson was the last person seen with them. The sadomasochistic lifestyles of Robinson and some of his victims provided salacious details for national and international news organizations that reported on the case. Several of the women had moved from other parts of the country to be Robinson's sex slaves. Prosecutors painted Robinson as a serial philanderer who maintained the quiet facade of a devoted family man. His criminal history of financial crimes belied the extreme violence he perpetrated against his victims. Ultimately, he would be convicted of 8 murders, including those of three women who disappeared in the 1980s and whose bodies never have been found. One was Lisa Stasi, the mother whose daughter was raised by Robinson's brother and sister-in-law after Robinson engineered a sham adoption. 5 of those convictions were in Cass County, where Robinson pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life in prison. His Johnson County trial is the subject of Tuesday's appellate arguments. Jury selection alone took 3 weeks. "It was 103 degrees outside when we started jury selection," recalled Sean O'Brien, 1 of Robinson's defense attorneys who now teaches law at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. "And there was snow on the ground when the verdict came in." After another 3 weeks of trial testimony, jurors found Robinson guilty of capital and 1st-degree murder and unanimously agreed that he receive a death sentence. Robinson, now 71, is the only person sentenced to death in Johnson County since Kansas reinstated capital punishment in 1994. Several factors have contributed to the delay between trial and an appeal hearing. Both the defense and state requested additional time to research and address the myriad legal issues. The case was put on hold for a time during a challenge to the Kansas death penalty law that reached the U.S. Supreme Court. In addition, the Kansas Supreme Court has been careful to consider death penalty appeals only 1 or 2 at a time, and it took up the appeal of Wichita brothers Reginald and Jonathan Carr before setting Robinson's case for argument, said Joseph Luby, 1 of the lawyers handling Robinson's appeal. In scope and complexity, only the Carr brothers case has come close to equaling that of Robinson, court officials said. Assistant Johnson County District Attorney Steve Obermeier, who has handled Johnson County's criminal appeals for nearly 2 decades, will argue part of the case for the state. "Those are the longest briefs I've ever been involved in," Obermeier said. Luby, an attorney with the Death Penalty Litigation Clinic in Kansas City, was part of Robinson's defense team at trial. "There were a broad set of facts and a broad set of evidence," he said. "That necessarily implicates a broad set of legal questions." Though each side has been allotted 1 hour to make its oral presentation Tuesday, the court often engages attorneys in questioning that could extend the time, Luby said. "This court is known for exercising great care in death penalty cases," Luby said. "In a death penalty case, that's certainly what everybody wants." The case John E. Robinson Sr. was convicted of killing 8 women: Suzette Trouten, 27, and Izabela Lewicka, 21, were found in barrels on his Linn County, Kan., farm property; Beverly Bonner, 49, Sheila Faith, 45, and her 15-year-old daughter, Debbie Faith, were found in barrels in a Raymore storage locker; Paula Godfrey, 19, Catherine Clampitt, 27, and Lisa Stasi, 19, disappeared in the 1980s. Their bodies never have been found. (source: Kansas City Star) UTAH: Herbert has until April 1 to make up his mind Utah law allows Gov. Gary Herbert 20 days following the adjournment of the Legislative Session to review bills and decide whether he will either veto them or sign them into law. This year, that means Herbert has until April Fools Day to make up his mind. One would think that with the GOP overwhelmingly controlling both houses of the legislature and the governor's mansion in this state that a veto on a bill passed by this state's legislature would be rare, but Gov. Herbert has shown that he is not afraid to kill legislation he feels is bad for the state of Utah. Last year Herbert vetoed HB414, a bill that would have given the state legislature the power to enforce subpoenas - power they sought after the House's special committee investigating the allegations against former Attorney General John Swallow had trouble with several targets of that investigation refusing to comply with orders issued by the committee. Herbert felt the power would infringe on the civil rights of those being subpoenaed and that the power to enforce should remain with the courts. In 2013 he vetoed HB76, a much talked about bill that would have allowed concealed firearms to be carried without a permit in Utah. And in 2012 he vetoed a sex-education bill that would have outlawed classroom discussion tied to the topics of sexual intercourse, contraceptives and homosexuality. This year, there are 2 pieces of legislation that are generating the majority of discussion regarding a gubernatorial veto. The 1st is HB396, a bill that would prevent Utah's air quality boards from implementing seasonal wood-burning bans. Herbert has indicated that he's leaning toward vetoing this legislation. He said, "You know, to just take out of the hands of our air quality board that have a responsibility to help us develop rules that help our environment and air quality, seems to be an overkill," during a news conference earlier this month. "To say they cannot put in place parameters and rules and regulations about wood burning is probably a little short-sighted, so I'm going to take a hard look at that." We couldn't agree more with the governor's statements. While the issue of air quality is less of a concern in Southern Utah, to tie the hands of air quality authorities by limiting their ability to keep people from burning wood during the heaviest of inversion days seems beyond short-sighted to us. The other bill generating a great deal of talk regarding a veto is HB11, the bill that would allow the state to execute death row inmates by firing squad if lethal injection drugs are unavailable. Numerous groups that oppose the death penalty, including the Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake and a group called Utahns for Alternatives to the Death Penalty have urged the governor to veto the bill. However, the governor has indicated he is likely to approve the legislation. "I'm leaning toward signing it," Herbert told reporters. "The debate is really more than just the firing squad. It's should we have capital punishment or not?" On that point, the governor is correct. The Utah Department of Corrections currently has no supply of the drugs needed to carry out a lethal injection. While there are currently no death row inmates in Utah whose executions are imminent, when the time comes to carry out a death sentence issued by Utah's courts, will it be European drug makers who determine our stance on the death penalty? Whether death comes via firing squad or lethal injection is truly immaterial. What should be debated is capital punishment itself. It's time for a frank, open and in-depth discussion of the death penalty in this state. And if we, as a state, determine that capital punishment, even if it means death by firing squad, is in line with our common values, then the means to carry out those sentences should be made available. (source: The Spectrum & Daily News Editorial Board) ARIZONA: Juror treatment, conduct in Arias case raise questions In the wake of the Jodi Arias mistrial, trial watchers on social media have demanded that the lone juror who kept Arias from death row be investigated for juror misconduct. And Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery has said that his office will "review the matter." But Juror 17, the holdout for a life sentence, may have the legal upper hand. Her attorney, Tom Ryan, calls a probe conducted by the prosecutor during jury deliberations "an abuse of the office, and it's shameful." In the wake of the post-mistrial outing of her name and address on social media, Ryan said, "I believe a crime was committed by the release of confidential juror information, and we're going to the FBI to investigate." Juror 17 has been threatened, harassed and lives under police protection. She told The Arizona Republic, "No one else is being researched but the holdout. It's upsetting and it makes you lose faith. "I feel that as a juror I should have been protected." The Republic will not print the woman's name, even though it has been disseminated elsewhere. Legal experts are split as to whether prosecutor Juan Martinez acted appropriately by conducting an investigation into Juror 17 near the end of the Arias sentencing retrial, when it was revealed to the court that she was the only juror blocking a unanimous verdict. Martinez presented a screen grab of the woman's Facebook page with her name on it as evidence of perceived bias, but Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Sherry Stephens refused to remove her from the jury. The case proceeded to mistrial by hung jury. Minutes after the mistrial was declared, the same piece of evidence - the Facebook screen shot - was posted online and sent to journalists waiting in the courthouse to interview the 11 jurors who wanted to send Arias to her death. Juror identities are supposed to be protected. It is a crime to reveal them against their will. It is a short list of people who were in the sealed court hearing where Martinez presented the evidence: the judge and her staff; the prosecutor; the case detective; defense attorneys; Jodi Arias; and victim Travis Alexander's family. "When I find out who outed her, it is at least a civil case of invasion of privacy," Ryan said. "Whoever did this did it with intent to harm." Or it could be a federal case, possibly with civil-rights implications. "There is a constitutional obligation and a right to serve on jury duty," said Larry Hammond, a prominent defense attorney and former federal prosecutor. "To interfere with someone's privacy while they are serving on a jury may be actionable," Hammond said. The effect is chilling. "I think we all should be concerned with the integrity of the legal process if the prosecutors are allowed to investigate jurors simply because they don't agree with them," said Arias' defense attorney, Jennifer Willmott. "If the jury ends up saying that the community wants things a certain way, that may keep you from voting your conscience. Will you do jury duty if you will need police protection or if you need to hire a lawyer?" It is a felony to influence, coerce or threaten a juror to change his or her vote, but those Arizona laws presuppose a verdict has not already been decided. It is also in state law that juror names and biographical information are to be kept confidential unless ordered disclosed by the court. According to the Arizona Rules of Criminal Procedure, the guidelines for conducting trials, jurors may not be forced to disclose their reasoning, "the subjective motives or mental processes" that led them to vote one way or another. And in capital-case jury instructions, jurors are informed that they do not have to come to unanimous decisions as to the weight of mitigating evidence that may persuade them to vote for or against a death verdict. In fact, jurors are told repeatedly during instructions to vote their conscience. But the Arias case has blazed new trails, with trial watchers in cyberspace, both pro-Arias and anti-Arias, trying to bully, insult and influence media coverage and the outcome of the trial. Juror 17 is now essentially in hiding. "I'm not the person I was when I went into this," she said in a recent interview. 'NOT AN IMPARTIAL JURY' In June 2008, Arias killed her lover, Travis Alexander, who was found in the shower of his Mesa, Ariz., home with a bullet in his head, nearly 30 stab wounds and a slit throat. Arias eventually confessed to the murder, but she claimed self-defense. In May 2013, after a 21-week trial, she was found guilty of 1st-degree murder. The jury found the murder had been committed in an especially cruel manner, making Arias eligible for the death penalty. The jury was not able to reach a unanimous verdict on whether to sentence Arias to death or to life in prison, however. Angry Jodi Arias jurors say holdout had 'agenda' A new jury was impaneled in October 2014, not to redetermine guilt or innocence, but only to determine whether she should get a life or death sentence. Their initial vote on a sentence was split, with 7 wanting death, 4 undecided, and Juror 17 opting for life. As they discussed the case, Juror 17 brought up the made-for-TV movie. There were words thrown around. "Right away I got the feeling that they were not an impartial jury," she said. 2 NOTES SENT TO JUDGE 2 notes went to the judge which ultimately identified how the jury was leaning. Prosecutor Martinez asked that Juror 17 be removed in accord with other jurors' complaints. But Stephens noted that Juror 17 had disclosed having seen the film about Arias' case, and other things, on her juror questionnaire. Later that day, Martinez produced the Facebook page, which identified Juror 17 by name, and asked that she be removed. Martinez again asked Stephens on March 4, to consider removing Juror 17. She would not. The next day, Stephens declared a mistrial. Under state law, Arias could not be tried again. She would get life. "I was so emotional, I was sobbing," Juror 17 said. She claimed she had gone home crying several nights. For the last 3 nights of the trial, she was escorted out separately from the other jurors. IDENTITY MADE PUBLIC When jurors met with reporters, they lambasted Juror 17. They would not identify themselves. But Juror 17 had already been warned by the court that the public knew her name. "I deactivated all my social-media accounts," she said. But her relatives were caught unaware. Meanwhile, tweets and Facebook posts were going viral, listing her name and asking that it be passed on. "My phone started ringing off the hook, so I changed my number," she said. Her relatives started receiving threats and doctored photos. The trial watchers began scouring the Internet and revealing details of her life, including the convictions of her husband and ex-husband - and the surprise that the first husband had been prosecuted by none other than Martinez. That fueled speculation that she had been a "stealth juror" intent on undermining the prosecution's case. She now has police protection. "This woman is living in fear of her life," Ryan said. "And for what?" LEGAL COMMUNITY DIVIDED County Attorney Bill Montgomery would not comment on Juror 17 beyond a written statement issued last week. "In instances where there is credible information of misconduct, the Maricopa County Attorney's Office will review the matter, request an independent investigation, and then seek an independent review for any potential charges and then for prosecution," he said. He also called on trial watchers for reason. Whether Montgomery intends to pursue allegations of misconduct against Juror 17 remains to be seen. The legal community is split on whether Martinez should have investigated a juror keeping him from getting the verdict he wanted. Jury starts deliberating in Jodi Arias sentencing trial "You're telling people that their opinion really matters and that they should consult their consciences and understand that this is one of the most important decisions you can make," said Hammond, the defense attorney. "But please be forewarned that the prosecutor can conduct an investigation into your private dealings while you're doing that." Michael Terribile, a defense attorney who says outright that he is not a Martinez fan, thinks it's OK for a lawyer to investigate a juror. "I don't know if a lawyer does anything wrong by checking it out. It's what you do with the information later," Terribile said. "Where it broke down is, the judge didn't tell the other jurors that nobody has a right to tell anyone they're wrong." But there was no debate about revealing the juror's name and personal information. "That's more than troubling," said former U.S. Attorney for Arizona Paul Charlton. "If someone disclosed that information to intimidate her, that is of extraordinary concern. If it was done intentionally, then someone needs to answer for that." Juror 17, meanwhile, wants no more part of jury duty. "I don't ever want to do it again," she said. "You're asked to take an oath that you're going to be impartial and you're going to take everything under consideration. And you do, and get punished." (source: Arizona Republic) CALIFORNIA: A Review: "Chessman" - Pat Brown, Jerry Brown and California's Crime of the Century Crime never ceases to intrigue, especially its punishment. Half a century ago California executed convicted felons on a regular basis at San Quentin's gas chamber. That placed capital punishment at the core of the debate on crime and punishment in this state and the nation. Today capital punishment is an intellectual issue; the last execution in California was 9 years ago. But long time capital figure Joseph Rodota brings the issue back to life with a new play he has written called "Chessman", which deals with the controversial 1960 execution of Caryl Chessman. It was an event that absorbed all the political oxygen in California at the time. Rodota tells the story through the lives of five people: Chessman himself, and Gov. Edmund G. "Pat" Brown, his strong willed wife Bernice Brown, their young daughter Kathleen Brown, and, importantly, their son Jerry Brown. It is fascinating look at how one family deals both with a political and a moral crisis, for much as he hated it, Pat Brown had Chessman's life in his hands, and the moral battle over whether to spare his life was fought within Brown's own family. Rodota's play, in 2 acts, does this by flashbacks to the 1948 trial that found Chessman guilty interspersed with conflicts within the governor's own family on how to proceed as the execution neared. The facts on Caryl Chessman were pretty straight forward. By the time he was 25 he had a long rap sheet and several felony convictions. In 1948, he was arrested as the Los Angeles "Red Light Bandit," who used a red light to pull over cars and then robbed the drivers. But in 2 cases, he sexually assaulted young women. That brought his crimes under California's "Little Lindbergh Law", named for the 1930s kidnapping of famed flyer Charles Lindbergh's son. Kidnapping with bodily harm was a death penalty offence, and that put Chessman on death row, where he had been for a decade when Pat Brown became California governor in 1959. By early 1960, Chessman's numerous appeals seemed to have run out and his execution date was scheduled. But in the 12 years he had spent on death row he had become a famed author; his autobiography Cell 2455, death row was a runaway best seller; he graced the cover of TIME magazine. Chessman also came to symbolize the then bitterly divisive issue of the death penalty, of which Gov. Pat Brown was a well known opponent. His case had attracted a worldwide audience of everyone from Albert Schweitzer to Eleanor Roosevelt. As the play makes clear, had Brown been able to do so, there's no doubt he would have commuted Chessman's death sentence to a life term. But he could not because the governor could not commute the death sentence of a felon with multiple convictions without the approval of the California Supreme Court - Chessman had 5 felony convictions - and the Court had refused to allow it. In the play we see the anguish that Pat Brown goes through, and anguish is a good word. Rodota, who served 2 California governors and was Gov. Pete Wilson's cabinet secretary, has a good feel for how California government works and the limitations on a governor's power as well as the pressures a governor faces. Much of the play tracks the Pat Brown biography, California Rising, by journalist Ethan Rarick, who titles his chapter on the Chessman case "Anguish." Rodota uses actual transcripts and historical documents to illuminate this anguish and in doing so he presents a play with historical accuracy that also examines the Brown family very personal conflicts. Rodota said one of his main sources was Bernice Brown's oral history dictated years later. The play's subplot is the limits of political power in our system. Gov. Brown cannot commute Chessman's death sentence to life imprisonment because he needs 4 votes on the Supreme Court, and he has only 3. In the most compelling part of the play, Jerry Brown, the governor's 23-year-old son just departed from the seminary and overflowing with classical scholarship and moral indignation, convinces his father to provide Chessman 1 last reprieve so the legislature might repeal the death penalty. In the weakest part of the play, the legislature is portrayed as uncaring boobs who will not repeal the death penalty. In fact, the legislature had considered the death penalty over many years and the Senate Judiciary hearing on Chessman ran 16 hours with expert witnesses from both sides. Interestingly, a transcript of the Senate hearing still exists, showing that the Senators gave this case a thorough vetting. The play is still undergoing revisions and is only at the "reading" stage, so perhaps the author will enhance the section on the legislature's actions. The legislative leadership had made it clear they would not abolish the death penalty in the hysteria that surrounded the Chessman case. According to Unruh biographer Lou Cannon, powerful Assembly Speaker Jess Unruh was outraged that Gov. Brown tossed this hot potato into the legislature's lap, knowing they would not act. It was the beginning of a rift between Speaker Unruh and Gov. Brown, California's 2 most powerful Democrats, that eventually led to political defeat for both of them. Pat Brown paid a tremendous political price for the Chessman case, as he admitted to Cannon in later interview. It made him look weak and vacillating. The newly elected Kennedy Administration in 1961 ignored Brown and elevated Unruh. In 1966, Brown was portrayed as a bumbling incompetent by the forces of Ronald Reagan who ousted him from office by a million votes. In Rodota's play we see a much more sympathetic Brown, who knows he cannot spare this arrogant and irritating man's life, although he wants to. And in the end Pat Brown managed to earn the enmity of those who were for the death penalty and those who are against it. Rodota, with his own political background, might consider adding a little more on the political context of this crisis; while Chessman was quickly forgotten after 1960, the conflict lingered as a stain on Pat Brown's image from which he never really did completely recover. On May 2, 1960, Chessman was strapped into the metal chair within an old diving bell that was San Quentin's gas chamber, a bag of cyanide capsules were lowered into a vat of sulfuric acid, and Chessman was dead within minutes. The play effectively shows these final minutes. Perhaps the great tragedy of the Chessman-Brown dance of death is that it never had to happen. Brown had commuted two death sentences under the Little Lindbergh Law, but Chessman refused to admit his guilt despite the strong evidence and so he left Gov. Brown no out. As the play shows, Gov. Brown was trapped in circumstances beyond his control, knowing full well that his search for mercy for Chessman would deeply damage his political career, as indeed it did. (source: foxandhoundsdaily.com) From rhalperi at smu.edu Mon Mar 23 10:28:43 2015 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Mon, 23 Mar 2015 10:28:43 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide Message-ID: March 23 QATAR: Qatar Upholds Death Sentence for British Teacher Murder A Qatari court on Monday upheld a death sentence against a local man convicted of the murder of British school teacher Lauren Patterson. Doha's Court of Appeal confirmed the sentence against Badr Hashim Khamis Abdallah al-Jabar as Patterson's mother Alison, who had traveled from Britain for the hearing, watched on. Although the death penalty is still handed down as a punishment in Qatar, it has been 12 years since the last execution took place and they are usually replaced by long prison sentences. The last person executed in Qatar was killed by firing squad. Al-Jabar's accomplice Mohamed Abdallah Hassan Abdul Aziz also had his sentence of 3 years for helping to burn the 24-year-old's body and disposing of evidence confirmed at the same short hearing on Monday. Both men are Qatari citizens. Patterson, from Kent in southern England, was murdered in October 2013 after leaving a nightclub in central Doha with a female friend and the 2 convicted men. The friend had previously told a court that she was dropped off by the men first who then assured her they would drive Patterson home. That was the last time the teacher was seen alive. She was sexually assaulted, stabbed and her remains burnt and found in a desert location outside the Qatari capital. Both men were acquaintances of the young Briton. During the original trial, a court said that Patterson had been stabbed twice. Al-Jabar maintained he had accidentally stabbed Patterson after the pair had got into a fight which she had started. The 2 men were originally convicted in March last year. However they appealed their conviction on the basis that they had been tortured by prison guards and held in solitary confinement. Prosecutors had also argued for a longer sentence to be handed to Aziz. Patterson's mother was accompanied by friends and former colleagues of her daughter. The case is 1 of 2 high-profile murder cases involving foreign teachers currently passing through the Qatari legal system. Next month a verdict is expected in the long-running case of American Jennifer Brown, who was killed in November 2012. The 40-year-old was allegedly murdered by a Kenyan security guard just 2 months after she moved to the Gulf. Brown, originally from Pennsylvania, was also stabbed to death. The American's family have asked for Qatar to waive the death penalty and hand down a sentence of life imprisonment in the case of a conviction. The defense have asked for the court to consider a verdict of manslaughter rather than murder. (source: neharnet.com) UNITED KINGDOM/ETHIOPIA: 272 days and counting for Islington man on death row----In June 2014, political activist Andargachew Tsege was captured in Yemen and sent to a secret prison in Ethiopia. The wife of a British national on death row has been fighting a long legal battle to free her husband after he was rendered by Ethiopian forces last year. Islington resident Yemi Hailemariam has been petitioning Downing Street in order to put pressure on the Foreign Commonwealth Office, but says she has seen little improvement. The political activist Andargachew Tsege was flying from Yemen to Dubai on 23 June 2014 when he was captured in a Yemenese airport and sent to Ethiopia against his will. His family found out his whereabouts a week later when the Yemen government confirmed the operation. Hailemariam said: When I knew the truth, it was heart-breaking to say the least. It was the day that changed our lives. Tsege has a long history of animosity with Ethiopian politicians. He flew out of the country in 1979 at the age of 24 as a political refugee and found shelter in England, where he gained British citizenship status. He settled in Islington, but continued campaigning and visiting Ethiopia. He joined the movement GINBOT 7, which was formed in 2008 by politicians and activists in exile. The organisation was labelled a terrorist group by the Ethiopian government in 2011. Tsege has been charged with terrorism and sentenced to death in absentia twice, in 2009 and 2012. The legal battle Since her husband's imprisonment, Hailemariam has started a legal battle to free Tsege. Her campaign eventually gained the attention of Prime Minister David Cameron, who wrote to the Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn last October asking for consular access to Tsege and for the death penalty not to be imposed. Tsege was granted only two visits with the British ambassador, on 11 August 2014 and 19 December 2014, but has had no access to lawyers. Ethiopia has also vetoed a visit from Tsege's MP, Jeremy Corbyn, who was scheduled to travel to the country on 13 February. Hailemariam argues that the Ethiopian government has breached international law. She says: It was an illegal procedure. Citizens have legal rights; they can't be removed from a country against their will without informing their embassy. That's kidnapping. In its 2015 report, advocacy group Human Rights Watch called attention to Tsege's case: "The transfer violated international law prohibitions against sending someone to a country where they are likely to face torture or other mistreatment." A Foreign Commonwealth Office (FCO) spokesperson has also declared that Tsege's rights have not been respected. "We remain deeply concerned that Andargachew Tsege is being detained in Ethiopia without being granted his rights to regular consular visits or access to a lawyer. We have repeatedly raised this with the Ethiopian authorities and will continue to do so." 70,000 strong petition In February, Hailemariam handed a petition with more than 70,000 signatures to Downing Street to ask the British government to put pressure on Ethiopia. But she said that she is in the battlefield alone and that the FCO has been too lenient. "The FCO is driven by pressure, not by principles. And it infuriates me." But lenience might not be the only element in this diplomatic puzzle. Ethiopia is an important economic partner for the UK and a strong ally on counter-terrorism activities in the region. In the next 2 years, the UK is investing ???303 million in the country. "Ethiopia lies at the heart of an unstable region that has experienced almost continuous conflict and environmental shocks in recent decades", detailed the Department for International Development (DFID) in a document about investment in Ethiopia. It concluded that "a stable, secure and prosperous Ethiopia is critical to UK interests". "Ethiopian security forces are responsible for the kidnap, torture and death sentence of British national Andargachew Tsege" For legal charity Reprieve, the British government is putting economic and security reasons above international law. Maya Foa, director of Reprieve's death penalty team, said: Ethiopian security forces are responsible for the kidnap, torture and death sentence of British national, Andargachew Tsege. Instead of dodging questions and then secretly shelving embarrassing programmes, DFID [Department for International Development] should be explaining why it was using taxpayers' money to fund these forces in the first place - and what safeguards, if any, it put in place to ensure this 'high risk' funding did not enable abuses of the kind suffered by Mr Tsege. Despite the complexity of Tsege's case, Hailemariam says she has not given up hope. "The only thing I see is that we cannot stop. I believe something will work out because we live in a society where I understand civil rights matter. That is very important. Even if the government doesn't believe so, society believes this kind of thing is unacceptable. I believe we can make progress." The movement "Free Andargachew" is organising a protest in front of the FCO office this Friday to demand his immediate release. On Friday, Tsege will have spent 276 days in prison. (source: islingtonnow.co.uk) PAKISTAN: Clamour to hang Shafqat Hussain reflects vengeful mood in Pakistan after Peshawar attacks----The dirt-poor youngster may have been a juvenile at the time of his alleged crime. The case of Shafqat Hussain, tagged on social media as #SaveShafqat, highlights serious issues in Pakistan's criminal and juvenile justice systems, including the lack of access to a fair trial particularly for the poor and marginalised as well as the gaping differences of opinion about how to deal with terrorism and crime. These issues have taken on a fresh urgency since the Taliban's barbaric attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar on December 16, 2014, which killed about 140 students and 8 teachers. The widespread outrage and anger triggered by the attack led to Pakistan lifting its nearly 7-year moratorium on the death penalty . Since then, in a knee-jerk reaction and burst of vengefulness, Pakistan has already executed 48 prisoners, nearly 1/2 of them in just 2 days; 12 were hanged on March 17 and another 9 the following day. Pakistan's Juvenile Justice System Ordinance (2000) does not provide enough protection for juvenile prisoners - those who were under 18 when the crime was committed. Many have been subjected to corporal and capital punishment, including at least 1 on March 17 - Muhammad Afzal, 16 years old when he was sentenced to death. He had been involved in an armed robbery that went wrong. Another convict, Shoaib Sarwar, said to be 17 in 1998 at the time of the murder for which he was sentenced to death, was due to be hanged on September 18, 2014. His family says he was trying to protect his sister and her friends from neighbourhood harassment. The scuffle turned violent and the son of a police inspector was shot dead. Sarwar's execution was stayed at the last minute. Re-scheduled for February 3, 2015, it has again been stayed. Some 800 of the more than 8,000 prisoners on death row in Pakistan are estimated to be juveniles, convicted of crimes committed before they were 18 years old. Most are poor and unlettered, with little or no access to competent legal counsel. What Mohammad Afzal, Shoaib Sarwar and Shafqat Hussain and so many prisoners have in common is that they are youth from the poorest, most vulnerable sections of society who did not receive proper counsel at the trial level. Cause celebre Shafqat's case has generated an unprecedented storm of outrage - both for and against his execution, thanks to the controversy around his age that has been put in doubt by the "hang Shafqat" squad, consisting of those who believe that human rights activists deliberately misrepresented this in order to save him from the gallows. Hailing from a desperately poor family in Neelum Valley in Pakistan-administered Jammu and Kashmir, Shafqat had dropped out of school and went to Karachi for employment when he was about 13 years old, according to his family. The Karachi police arrested him in 2004 for the kidnapping and murder of a 7-year-old boy. The non-profit human rights group that highlighted Shafqat's case, Justice Project Pakistan, linked to the UK-based Reprieve, says that his confession was obtained after 9 days of police torture. His family is so poor that his sister borrowed clothes from a neighbour to meet a BBC reporter for an interview. Quoting his brother, the report also mentions the torture Shafqat endured: "Police took 3 of his fingernails out. He still has cigarette marks on his body," his brother says. "When I asked him about torture in custody, he started shivering and wet his pants. He put both his hands on his head and starting crying, saying, 'Don't ask, I can't tell you what they did.'" Shafqat was tried under the Anti-Terrorism Act on the grounds that the murder spread terror in the neighbourhood. In contrast, even though the Islamabad High Court upheld the death sentence to Mumtaz Qadri who assassinated Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer it said at the same time that the case did not amount to terrorism and could not be tried under the Anti-Terrorism Act . The irony is that a man who kills in public in the name of religion, whose act of violence leads to a wave of fear around the country as the 'religious' organisations and banned terrorist organisations openly glorify him and uphold him as a hero, is not tried under the Anti-Terrorism Act , while a boy held for kidnapping and manslaughter with no links to any terrorist organisation, whose guilt is established primarily from a confession, which human rights activists say was obtained under torture, is tried under Anti-Terrorism Act . Legal experts have questioned the criteria of classifying cases under the Anti-Terrorism Act , including Shafqat's. His case, and many others, they say, should not have been tried under the act. Cases tried under the act tend to have a higher rate of capital punishment and do not allow victim's families to pardon the perpetrator either of their own will or after accepting blood money, as is possible with civilian cases, thanks to the controversial Qisas and Diyat Ordinance. Mohammad Afzal and his co-accused had obtained pardon from the victim's family but were hanged anyway as their case came under the ATA. After Peshawar After the Peshawar attack, Shafqat was one of the first condemned prisoners in Pakistan set to be hanged, on December 23, 2014. I wrote a blog-post then, titled "Who is Shafqat, why is he being hanged, and why should we care?" Public outcry and hectic behind-the-scenes lobbying led to his execution being postponed. A new date was set in January but the execution was stayed again. After a 3-month lull, on March 11, 2015, the matter re-erupted when jail authorities approached an anti-terrorism court seeking orders for the execution. The court obliged with a fresh black warrant the following day. Shafqat's hanging was scheduled for March 19, 2015. Shafqat's elder brother, who was up with him all night praying, told Reuters that Shafqat had been dressed in a white uniform in preparation for the execution and told to write his will. "He wrote: 'I am innocent. They want to hang me for a crime I have not committed, to save others who have been freed.'" A presidential order staying Shafqat's execution came just hours before his scheduled march to the gallows. The stay came on the heels of a storm of protest online as well as on the ground. An online petition by Reprieve garnered over 10,000 signatures the day before Shafqat's impending execution. Major political parties as well as many prominent Pakistani individuals took up cudgels on behalf of Shafqat. The grandchildren of Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, who was hanged by military dictator General Zia ul Haq's regime on trumped up murder charges in 1979, wrote strong op-eds on the issue, both published on March 17 - Fatima Bhutto in the New York Times and Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, Jr., on Scroll.in. A moving little video released online the day before his impending execution titled "#SaveShafqat - What were you like when you were 14?" was "a desperate plea to prevent misuse of the death penalty". In the video, prominent activist and lawyer Mohammad Jibran Nasir describes Shafqat's trial a "trial of Pakistan's justice system". Justice system on trial Many Pakistanis disagree with Amnesty International's stand that the "death penalty is always a human rights violation". But even they would have a hard time refuting the assessment that "the serious fair trial concerns that riddle Pakistan's justice system makes its use there even more troubling", as David Griffiths, Amnesty International's Deputy Asia Pacific Director, said in a press statement. "Probably the only point of National Action Plan (against terrorism) being religiously implemented is the one dealing with the executions of death convicts," caustically wrote the well-known human rights activist Marvi Sirmed in her op-ed, 'Save Shafqat' on March 18. She was among the small group of mostly women, including journalist Quatrina Hosain and activist Tahira Abdullah, who tried to march to the presidency in Islamabad on March 18 to deliver the mercy petition. Blocked by the police, they refused to leave until someone received the petition. Photos of Hosain sitting down on the street in front of a posse of grinning policemen in riot gear made the rounds on social media. (See my Storify). "It's not just about Shafqat," she told me later. "We have to fight to change the system". "Yesterday, journalist Quatrina Hossain sat in front of the Police cordon refusing to move till she gets to speak to the Ministers to stop Shafqat's execution. It's because of commitment like this from so many Pakistanis that the Government was forced to stay his execution," reads the caption to the photograph posted on the Facebook page Never Forget Pakistan. This is the campaign launched by Jibran Nasir and others after the Peshawar APS attack to "ensure that we remember the thousands of brave souls Pakistan has lost due to terrorism and religious extremism." 'Hang Shafqat' camp But many voices are also clamouring for Shafqat to be hanged. They say he was not a minor when the crime was committed. Certainly in the photos they have obtained and are circulating he looks much older than Shafqat's lawyers say he is. But then again, poverty, torture, and 10 years on death row will age anyone. The "hang Shafqat" squad is also drumming up public opinion against him by claiming that he raped the victim. However, this was never mentioned in the original chargesheet. Shafqat was never charged with rape or attempt to rape, and has already completed his 5-year prison term for involuntary manslaughter. These people also accuse the government and NGOs of pandering to a foreign agenda. What and whose foreign agenda is fulfilled by saving the life of a poor, marginalised young Pakistani, is not made clear. Jibran Nasir has effectively refuted these points in his piece "Why am I speaking for Shafqat Hussain?" in The Express Tribune. Rehabilitation and reform What Shafqat Hussain's case highlights broader issues that Pakistan needs to examine. These include, as Lahore-based human rights advocate Asad Jamal says, the need for rehabilitation and reform versus harsh punishments that will not reduce the crime rate. "Pakistan needs to look into how juvenile trials should be conducted, along the lines of what India has done. There is a reason why there's an international consensus on the age for juveniles and why they should not be awarded the same punishment as adults." The question is: if re-examination proves that Shafqat is not a juvenile, that he was not a minor at the time of the crime, should he still be hanged? The humane answer, fulfilling the norms of justice, is no. There are too many doubts about the fairness of the trial - conducted with an uninterested defence lawyer - as well as Shafqat's confession obtained under torture. "Many jurists also consider poverty to be a mitigating factor," said Jamal, who believes this case should be used to highlight the basic problems of the system, under which the "poorest of the poor are denied access to a fair trial". "It's not just Shafqat. Poor people rarely have access to a competent counsel, so their right to a fair trial is undermined." Needed: hearings for sentencing Also missing in Pakistan is the concept of holding hearings for sentencing - separate proceedings at the end of a trial in which the defence and prosecution mount arguments about the pros and cons on the sentence, notes Jamal. "At present, sentencing is very arbitrary and left to the discretion of the judge." Leaving aside the individual case of Shafqat Hussain, whose age verification is still pending, the controversy could still lead to a positive outcome, if not for him as an individual, but for other cases in the pipeline. If the Pakistan government and all those calling to hang Shafqat or to save him are serious about the dignity and rights of all humans, including the poorest and most vulnerable sections of society, this is what the focus must be. (source: scroll.in) ********************* The tale of 2 non-hangings The tale of the 2 non-hangings is the tale of a criminal justice system largely discredited and irrelevant. Why is the state nurturing a penchant for quick convictions at the expense of our justice system's safety? Why are we picking sides not principles, and confusing revenge with justice? Why are those in power strengthening the cynical belief that given our system breakdown only 2 wrongs can make a right in Pakistan? The #SaveShafqat campaign resonated with many not because Shafqat's innocence has been definitively proven by the Justice Project. It resonated because the evidence presented created reasonable doubt whether Shafqat was an adult at the time of his offence and conviction. If this evidence bears out, Shafqat's trial and sentence would be miscarriage of justice. The reaction of those eager to see Shafqat hang without further inquiry is inexplicable. Wouldn';t verification of facts about Shafqat's age after his execution be largely pointless? This debate isn't about the utility or wisdom of the death penalty, or whether the killer of an innocent seven-year old should be punished, or the pain of the victim's unfortunate parents. The simple question is whether we should execute someone who might have been 14 when accused of committing a heinous offence or desist from inflicting death till we have confirmed the disputed facts one way or another. The primary objects of a punishment system are retribution, deterrence and reform. Retribution is based on the eye-for-eye logic. If you wrong a fellow citizen, the state on behalf of the one wronged will settle the score. Deterrence aims at societal control. If everyone is convinced of the certainty of punishment for wrongdoing, those with a delinquent gene will be dissuaded. The logic of reform is supported by belief in the basic goodness of humans: the state must try to reintegrate into society even those who go wayward. All these objects are rooted in the notion of human agency and rational choice: every person is free to choose his actions and those whose actions harm others ought to bear the consequences. Exceptions? Those who are either not free to choose or unable to understand the consequences of their actions. Thus you don???t chop off the hand of a starving man who steals bread to stay alive and you don't hang a lunatic who inadvertently causes death. Likewise you don't kill minors even for heinous offences because of their limited human agency. Social and economic inequalities load our criminal justice system against the poor. Legal systems are meant to ensure legal equality. But they don't. Social and economic inequalities load our criminal justice system against the poor. It is commonplace for police to round up domestic help if a crime is committed in an affluent household. What follows is generally torture. To find clues to crime our system relies on the subjective judgment of the police and their extensive experience of beating up suspects. In a nutshell we don't have an investigation-driven but a torture-induced confession-based prosecution system. The argument against inquiring into Shafqat's age is that the issue wasn't raised during his trial. Shafqat's mother didn't have the money to travel to Karachi to see her boy 1 last time before he swings. If he were indeed a minor at the time of offence, what resources could this youth-labourer commit to a half-decent defence? Many of us can't empathise with him because we have never been caught at the wrong end of the system. And we only relate to the innocent 7-year old because our kids aren't destined to be 14-year old watchmen. The story of Saulat Mirza, the other death-row convict whose noose came off last minute, is more dramatic. Reportedly, while held at Attock Fort Nawaz Sharif requested jail authorities to switch off the light above his cell to enable him to sleep at night, to be told that it was against the jail manual. But notwithstanding this manual we have had Saulat Mirza filmed days before his hanging, his incriminating choreographed video simultaneously released across TV channels to a dumbstruck nation hours before his execution, which was then suspended. Saulat Mirza has said on screen what is urban legend. MQM-led Karachi functions under a reign of terror, with politics of fear, extortion and censorship deeply entrenched. MQM???s representative credentials are not in question. But neither is the public perception about MQM's brutal and deathly ways, which augments the party's influence and control further. PPP (with its Uzair Balochs) and ANP might have followed in MQM's stead. But MQM contrived and perfected this form of politics. Saulat Mirza has corroborated what Zulfiqar Mirza alleged, what innumerable JIT reveal and what Supreme Court insinuated in a Karachi law and order case. This brand of politics - of blood, fear and extortion - must be extinguished. But has it existed thus far without the establishment's collusion? One general decided in the 1980s that MQM needed to be propped up, another in the early 1990s that it needed to be shut down or a rival MQM-H created, and another in the late 1990s that it needed to be rejuvenated and Karachi handed over to it. What are today's generals thinking? That this brand of politics is to be decimated or MQM's present leadership? The 2 suspects in Dr Imran Farooq's murder have allegedly been in ISI custody for some years, but not handed to the Brits. The Baldia-related JIT languished in ISI/Rangers' custody for over a year and half before making it to court. Why isn't the law allowed to take its course to bring Karachi to peace and justice? If the content of Saulat's allegations is true, why make it suspect by delivering it in a sneaky manner? We need a UK-style Criminal Cases Review Commission to investigate and send cases marred by fears of miscarriage of justice, such as that of Shafqat Hussain, back to the Supreme Court for reconsideration. But what we need more is unmolested rule of law. We need to build the capacity and credibility of our criminal justice system instead of delegitimising it further by using media trials to substitute formal legal processes as in the Saulat Mirza case. (source: Babar Sattar; The writer is a lawyer----Dawn.com) ******************************** A grave blunder On the 84th anniversary of the execution of Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru in Lahore, we reproduce our Editorial from the issue dated March 24, 1931 The news of the execution of Bhagat Singh and his 2 comrades, accused in what is known as the Lahore Conspiracy Case, will come upon the public as a rude shock. For, although the petition for mercy made on their behalf had been rejected by the Viceroy, applications had been made before the High Court with a view to get a judicial pronouncement on the legality of the Local Government's attempts to carry out the sentence on the prisoners in spite of the fact that the Court which, in the opinion of Counsel for the prisoners, was the only one competent to issue the death warrant, had ceased to exist. The issue raised by Counsel was obviously so complicated and the arrangements made on behalf of the prisoners to get the verdict of the highest tribunal available so advanced that the public felt that for some time at any rate...the execution could not come off and...there was still hope of the prisoners being saved from the extreme penalty of the law. That the Government had every need to proceed with caution will be evident if one recalls the extraordinary circumstances connected with the trial of the accused. The accused were put up for trial before a Special Magistrate 20 months ago for the offence of conspiracy to wage war against the King by murder, dacoity, manufacture and use of bombs and other methods and, so far as Bhagat Singh was concerned, of having murdered a police officer, Mr. Saunders of Lahore. Subsequently, on the ground that the police ill-treated them, the accused refused to appear in Court... the Lahore High Court... refused to be a party to dispensing with the committed proceedings ...the case was withdrawn from the jurisdiction of the ordinary courts, placed before a special tribunal and provision was made for the trial of the accused in their absence. In spite of these extraordinary arrangements, the accused attended the court of the special tribunal for a few days, but following an incident the police handcuffed them and indulged in a lathi charge in the court premises - proceedings which moved one of the judges of the tribunal openly to express his disgust at the police action. The accused thereafter refused to attend the court and the trial was proceeded with in their absence. The trial went on in their absence without any counsel representing them; without any cross examination of the approvers and without testing the evidence of other witnesses. Nor should it be forgotten that 2 of the 7 approvers subsequently retracted their earlier story. To carry out a sentence of death passed as the result of a trial in such extraordinary circumstances will have been in any case to incur a very grave responsibility. But in this case the additional point had been raised that there was legally no authority competent to give effect to the sentence... By the indecent haste with which they have proceeded in the matter they have defied public opinion and exasperated it in a manner that it is difficult to envisage the gravity of the reactions in this country to their latest blunder. As Gandhiji says, the Government "have lost a golden opportunity of winning over the revolutionary party. It as their clear duty, in view of the settlement, at least to suspend indefinitely the execution. By their action they have put a severe strain upon the settlement and once more proved their capacity for flouting public opinion". (source: The Hindu) CHINA: Lawyers question evidence, execution date in high-profile rape-murder case Lawyers involved in a high-profile rape-murder case are planning to reexamine the evidence after finding discrepancies in case files, including an appeal application dated 16 days after the man's execution. The date written on Nie Shubin's appeal was May 13, 1995, while he was reportedly executed on April 27, 1995, Li Shuting, one of Nie's attorneys, told the Global Times. A native of Hebei Province, Nie was convicted by the Hebei High People's Court for raping and murdering a woman surnamed Kang in a cornfield on the outskirts of the provincial capital of Shijiazhuang in 1994. However, Wang Shujin, who was separately convicted for the rape and murder of 3 other women, confessed in 2005 that he was responsible for Kang's death. Wang was also sentenced to death but has yet to be executed. Li raised doubts about the date of the execution, since Nie's handwriting on the appeal is consistent with other documents but the date was not marked on the photo of his execution. Li said he thinks it's unlikely that Nie incorrectly wrote the date, given the gravity of the situation. Nevertheless, Nie's other lawyer, Chen Guangwu, said he believes it's more likely the result of a slip of the pen, writing "May" instead of "April." "Nie may not have been in the right frame of mind under pressure from the death penalty," Chen told the Global Times. In addition, Li found that at least 6 signatures from Nie on the documents were not similar, suspecting that his signatures may have been forged or that the court documents were filed after the case was closed. Questioning Kang's actual cause of death, Chen said that they plan to reexamine the evidence, including a shirt that was believed used to strangle Kang to death, which Wang did not mention in his confession, as well as the victim's body if still available. Both lawyers said that it may take longer than expected to file an appeal to the High People's Court of Shandong Province, which was appointed to review the case in December 2014. They originally planned to submit it in 7 to 10 days. (source: Global Times) SAUDI ARABIA: Saudi Justice, Harsh but Able to Spare the Sword The murder that almost cost Bandar al-Yehiya his head started with an old debt to a close friend. Struggling to raise the cash, Mr. Yehiya invited the friend to his home and offered him a rifle as payment. But when the friend refused, Mr. Yehiya got angry and shot him in the chest, leaving him dead on the living room couch, the slain man's brother, Faleh al-Homeidani, said. Mr. Yehiya confessed to the murder, so under Saudi Arabia's strict interpretation of Islamic law, he would face the punishment that has made Saudi justice notorious around the world: beheading in the public square. But the execution never happened. Saudi Arabia's justice system is regularly condemned by human rights groups for violating due process, lacking transparency and applying punishments like beheading and amputation. Criticism has grown as Saudi cases have made news abroad: a liberal blogger caned for criticizing religious leaders; activists jailed for advocating reform; a woman held without charge for more than 2 months for driving a car. Such rulings have prompted comparisons to the Islamic State, which regularly beheads its foes and also claims to apply Shariah law. But Mr. Yehiya was saved because of checks in the Saudi system on the use of harsh punishments. His case wound its way through a yearslong odyssey of law and tradition. Mr. Yehiya reformed in prison, sheikhs and royals appealed for his life, and he was ultimately spared by a daughter of the man he had shot dead. Mr. Yehiya's reprieve was the product of a justice system little understood outside the kingdom, one that is based on centuries of Islamic tradition and that prioritizes stability and the strict adherence to Islamic mores over individual rights and freedoms. "The punishments that are in the Quran - after Allah, the gracious and almighty - are what preserve security in this country," said Faisal bin Mishaal bin Saud bin Abdulaziz, the prince of Qassim Province, where Mr. Yehiya's crime took place. "If there were no retribution," Prince Faisal said, "there would be total chaos." But built into the system as well, he said, are avenues for mercy. Some crimes and their punishments are clear in the Saudi system, like execution for murder, amputation for grand theft, and lashes for premarital sex or the drinking of alcohol. The Saudi state also has modern laws for offenses like drug trafficking and weapons use, as well as for cybercrime and terrorism, which human rights groups say the government often uses to punish nonviolent dissidents. But many crimes and their punishments are not clearly defined, including unarmed carjacking, attempted robbery, sex acts that fall short of intercourse, harassment and fraud. This gives great autonomy to judges, who are trained in Shariah and not bound by judicial precedent, to define crimes and issue punishments. Saudi lawyers complain that the lack of a definitive penal code results in vastly different rulings for similar crimes. Abdulaziz al-Gassim, a Riyadh lawyer, said he had seen rape cases lead to prison terms ranging from 2 years to 18 years. "That is a huge difference," he said. No aspect of Saudi justice draws more attention than punishments like beheading or amputation. But Saudi legal practitioners say that penalties are on the books to deter crime and that the system limits their use. In Saudi jurisprudence adultery and apostasy merit death, but executions for either are rare because the law makes it hard to secure convictions. Adultery, for example, can be proved by the testimony of witnesses, but they must be 4 Muslim men who see the sex act itself - proof nearly impossible to obtain. And while the Quran says the hands of thieves should be cut off, amputations are rare because of conditions put on the crime and because judges find it distasteful, said Ahmed Juhaimi, a Riyadh lawyer and former prosecutor. Just 1 amputation for theft was reported in 2014, for example. A Riyadh judge recalled a case of 4 thieves who had broken into someone's living room and stolen the furniture, television and refrigerator. The crime met the conditions for amputation, but the judge allowed them to confess to a lesser charge and sentenced them to 2 years in prison and 100 lashes each. "The goal is not to carry out these punishments, but to scare people," said the judge, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the news media. Observers say this discretion guided by deep conservatism often leads to harsh punishments for those seen as threatening the religious nature of the state, like liberals. Many Saudi lawyers believe the case against Raif Badawi, a liberal blogger who was sentenced to 10 years in prison and 1,000 lashes, was made because he attacked the religious establishment, an act believed to be more destabilizing than adultery, or even murder. "The judges are very conservative, so they tend to use their autonomy to give very conservative rulings that sometimes embarrass the royal family internationally," said Stephane Lacroix, an associate professor at the Sciences Po university in Paris who studies Saudi Arabia. Mr. Yehiya's murder of his friend, Mutlaq al-Homeidani, in 2002 shocked the people of Qassim, a province of sand dunes and scattered towns in central Saudi Arabia, where tribal ties are strong and residents are proud of their conservatism. The 2 men had often visited each other's homes, and Mr. Homeidani, an officer in the National Guard, had a wife and 6 children who lost their breadwinner. Both men were also from prominent tribes, raising the specter of revenge killings if the slain man's kin did not feel that justice had been served. "We have nothing but the rule of Shariah," said the victim's brother, Faleh al-Homeidani. That meant the public beheading of Mr. Yehiya. Since Mr. Yehiya's life was at stake, his case took a path through the courts established for harsh punishments. A 3-judge panel convicted him of murder, prompting an appeal to a 5-judge panel, which affirmed the ruling and passed it to 5 judges on the high court. If a majority of the judges at any level had doubted his guilt, the execution would have been stayed. But none did, so the case went to the royal court for a final review before the king could sign the execution order. Mr. Yehiya was sentenced to death as retribution, meaning that only the victim's heirs could pardon him. But he was spared immediate death because every one of the heirs must agree, and the victim's youngest son was only 3, making him years short of the legal age for consent, which is 15. So Mr. Yehiya went to prison to wait for the boy to grow up before he could agree to have his father's killer's head cut off. Many Muslims believe that saving a life, even that of a murderer, earns one rewards in heaven, so the possibility of a pardon by the victims' heirs has opened a realm of activism aimed at stopping executions. After Mr. Yehiya's conviction, his family campaigned on his behalf, and he became a religious leader in prison, earning the respect of clerics, who took up his cause. Much of the job fell to Sheikh Rashid al-Shalash, a wide-eyed, chatty cleric who heads a committee in Qassim Province that campaigns for pardons. During an interview, Sheikh Shalash defended beheadings on what he called humanitarian and social grounds. For the condemned, he said, decapitation brings death faster than lethal injection or the electric chair. And instead of apologizing for its gruesomeness, he said gore was the point because it deterred crime. "When you see the sword hit someone, don't you get disgusted?" Sheikh Shalash asked. "There are those who want to kill, but when they see that killing, they stop." But for religious reasons, he strives to secure pardons by visiting victims' families and raising money to pay those who choose to pardon. And since pardons are possible until the sword falls, cases sometimes end with high drama in the public square. Saudi Arabia executed 88 people in 2014, while 35 people were executed in the United States. Thirty of the Saudi executions were retribution sentences for murder, according to Human Rights Watch. While statistics on pardons are not publicly available, Sheikh Shalash has secured them in 13 out of 17 cases he has taken in recent years. About 1/2 of those involved no money, while some families received hundreds of thousands of dollars, he said. In one case, the heirs were paid $1.3 million. Word of Mr. Yehiya's case spread as the slain man's youngest son approached adolescence, and prominent clerics pleaded for mercy from the heirs. Royal family members visited and sent representatives, and powerful tribal leaders offered blank checks, said Mr. Homeidani, the victim's brother. His response never changed: "If it's about money, the man will die." But since any one of the heirs can grant a pardon, Sheikh Shalash investigated all 9 of them until he found a hint of sympathy: the victim's daughter Noura. Sheikh Shalash asked the principal of Noura's high school to sound the girl out and arranged to speak with her by phone, he said. She later signed an official pardon, when she was 17. Her family members knew nothing of it and were shocked when they found out, Mr. Homeidani said, but they accepted that it was her right. "If they kill him, how will it benefit my father?" he said Noura had told him. "God willing, there will be a reward for my father and he'll go to heaven." Sheikh Shalash worried that despite the pardon, the slain man's family could seek revenge if Mr. Yehiya was released, so his committee gave the family $800,000, with an additional $130,000 going to Noura because of her good deed. Noura is now a 2nd-year university student; her family declined to make her available for an interview. Mr. Yehiya, who left prison in 2011 at age 33, also declined to comment. He recently was married and earned a law degree. On a coffee table in Sheikh Shalash's living room sits an ornate silver and gold sword with a plaque thanking him for "saving the neck of the young man, Bandar al-Yehiya." The 2 men keep in touch. (source: New York Times) From rhalperi at smu.edu Mon Mar 23 16:29:27 2015 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Mon, 23 Mar 2015 16:29:27 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, FLA., ALA., MINN., UTAH, ARIZ., USA Message-ID: March 23 TEXAS: Supreme Court won't hear appeal of Texas inmate who has been on death row for 30 years The Supreme Court said Monday it would not hear an appeal from an inmate who has been on death row in Texas for three decades. This decision lifts a stay that has been in place since last month and opens the door for Texas to schedule and try to carry out an execution of one of its longest-serving death row inmates. Lester Bower, 67, was convicted of shooting and killing 4 men in an aircraft hangar in 1983. He shot 1 man while trying to steal an ultralight plane this man was trying to sell, then shot the other 3 when they unexpectedly arrived, according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Bower's long tenure on death row was among the reasons his attorneys argued he should be eligible for a stay. They say that his execution has been scheduled 6 times since he arrived on death row, and he has come within hours of heading to the death chamber before. "Executing Mr. Bower after he has served on death row for more than 30 years under these circumstances serves no penological purpose and constitutes cruel and unusual punishment," his attorneys wrote in a filing to the Supreme Court. Last month, 5 days before Bower's scheduled lethal injection in Texas, the full Supreme Court granted his request for a stay while it considered whether to hear his case. No explanation was offered, but the court's order said that if the justices decided not to hear the case, the stay would be lifted. The court's decision Monday not to hear the case comes weeks before the justices are scheduled to consider a different case involving capital punishment. The justices are going to hear a case focusing on Oklahoma's lethal-injection procedure, which relies upon a controversial drug that has been involved in problematic executions. Executions in Oklahoma, Florida and Alabama have been delayed until after the court rules in that case. After the court said it would not hear the case after all, Justice Stephen Breyer argued in a dissent that the court should hear it because of an issue involving Bower's sentencing. When Bower was convicted, the jury helping decide his sentence did not consider potentially mitigating evidence, something the Supreme Court later said was unconstitutional. As a result, Beyer says this should allow for a new sentencing hearing for Bower. "I recognize that we do not often intervene only to correct a case-specific legal error," Breyer wrote in the dissent, which was joined by Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor. "But the error here is glaring, and its consequence may well be death." If Bower had been executed last month as scheduled, he would have been the oldest inmate executed in Texas history, according to the state's Department of Criminal Justice. As it is, he has already spent 3 times as many years on death row as the average inmate in the state. The average death-row inmate nationwide has spent about 14 years under a death sentence, Justice Department figures show. A federal judge in California last year called that state's death penalty system unconstitutional and "completely dysfunctional," decrying a system he said was plagued by delays. U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney wrote this in an order vacating the death sentence of an inmate who was facing an execution nearly 2 decades after being sentenced, which Carney said violated the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishment. Texas state officials argued against granting Bower a reprieve, saying that because Bower has been fighting his looming execution in the courts for so long, his lengthy tenure on row "is purely of his own making." "Bower's claims are nothing more than a meritless attempt to postpone his execution," the office of Ken Paxton, attorney general of Texas, said in a filing to the Supreme Court opposing a stay. "The families of the victims of Bower's quadruple murder have been waiting to see Bower's sentence carried out for over 30 years now.' However, it is unclear when Bower may face the death chamber. Texas has half a dozen executions scheduled over the next three months and only one dose of its lethal injection drug left. As a result, if the state carries out its scheduled execution of Kent Sprouse on April 9, it will have no execution drugs left and 5 other executions on the calendar. States around the country are facing a shortage of lethal injection drugs, which has fragmented the way executions are carried out nationwide. (source: Washington Post) FLORIDA: Legislature should require unanimous jury vote in death penalty cases On March 16, the Senate Criminal Justice Committee voted 5-0 to pass SB664 to require unanimous jury votes in capital case penalty phase proceedings, rather than by simple majority, to recommend a death sentence Sen. Thad Altman, R-Cape Canaveral, sponsored this bill and similar versions during previous sessions. The impetus is State vs. Steele, a Florida Supreme Court opinion urging the Legislature to address a significant anomaly in the law. Steele characterizes Florida as the only state to allow penalty phase juries to recommend death sentences and find the presence of aggravating circumstances (a legal threshold for imposing death sentences) by simple majority, 7-5. By contrast, Florida law requires a unanimous vote to convict a defendant at trial, and while judges are the final sentencing authorities, judges must place great weight upon juries??? penalty phase sentencing recommendations (either death or life in prison without the possibility of parole). Some detractors claim serial killers like Ted Bundy would have avoided death sentences given less-than-unanimous penalty phase votes. Not necessarily. Research by Scott Sundby from the University of Miami School of Law indicates unanimity would prompt more rigorous analysis, changing the nature of jury deliberations - conceivably achieving unanimity, especially when nine or more jurors favor death (the situation involving Bundy). The Senate's analysis notes the U.S. Supreme Court recently agreed to review Hurst vs. Florida, involving a 7-5 penalty phase recommendation of death. The court will consider "whether Florida's death sentencing scheme violates the Sixth or Eighth amendments in light of [its] decision in Ring vs. Arizona, 536 U.S. 584 (2002)," which essentially requires juries to make crucial factual determinations that would subject a convicted murderer to death. The Florida Supreme Court hasn't applied Ring to Florida's sentencing scheme. The Florida Bar recently renewed its support for a comprehensive review of Florida's entire death-penalty process by all branches of government, a position it originally adopted in 2013 that we sought since 2011. In 2006, an American Bar Association Death Penalty Assessment Team released a report identifying a range of serious concerns regarding the fairness, accuracy and impartiality of Florida's death penalty process. Irrespective of whether one supports or opposes capital punishment, a comprehensive review by state officials arguably is long overdue. (source: Raoul Cantero, a former state Supreme Court justice appointed by Gov. Jeb Bush, practices law in Miami; Mark Schlakman is with Florida State University's Center for the Advancement of Human Rights----Florida Times-Union) ALABAMA: Girl's Mother Calls for Death Sentence in Run-to-Death Case The mother of an Alabama girl testified through tears Monday that the child's grandmother doesn't deserve to live after being convicted of running the youngster to death. Heather Walker took the stand in support of prosecutors who want the death penalty for her former mother-in-law, Joyce Hardin Garrard. Walker said the 49-year-old Garrard "shouldn't be spared" after being convicted of capital murder in the death of 9-year-old Savannah Hardin. "I personally feel like I see no remorse and she took away my baby's life," Walker said of Garrard. Seated just a few feet away at the defense table, Garrard showed no emotion. Meanwhile, much of Walker's testimony was hard to understand because she was sobbing uncontrollably. Walker, who is divorced from Garrard's son Robert and has since remarried, said she wasn't allowed to see Savannah during the last two years of the girl's life. Jurors convicted Garrard on Friday and now must decide whether to recommend death or life without parole, the only options under Alabama law. The final decision is up to the judge. The defense will begin presenting its case for a life sentence on Wednesday. Prosecutors said Garrard - with 8 surviving grandchildren and a ninth-grade education - should be put to death for making the child run around her yard and carry wood for hours as punishment for a lie about candy in February 2012. Under cross-examination by defense attorney Richard Rhea, Walker said she didn't believe Garrard "woke up that morning" planning to kill Savannah. Rather, she said, the situation seemed to get out of hand. "I think there was a point where she knew what she was doing," Walker said. Another witness, Samuel Hudgins, testified he saw the girl running laps around the house that day as Garrard stood by. Savannah collapsed from a seizure and died three days later in a hospital in Birmingham after doctors determined there was no brain activity and removed her from life support. An autopsy blamed her death on seizures cause by low sodium following extreme physical exertion. Walker described the mournful scene in the hospital room as a physician turned off a breathing machine as a test to see whether Savannah, who was unconscious, would breathe on her own. "During this time Joyce was just screaming at Savannah saying, 'Savannah, you need to breathe,'" Walker said. Within moments it was obvious Savannah wouldn't survive, she said. "I held her hand until her body stiffened up," said Walker, sobbing and barely understandable. But Garrard seemed more worried about herself than her granddaughter, Walker said. Later at the hospital, Walker said, Garrard grabbed the shoulders of the child's pregnant stepmother, Jessica Mae Hardin. Even though Hardin was in labor at the time and would later give birth, Garrard seemed intent on getting the other woman's attention, Walker said. "She said, 'Jessica, there's a lot on the line. You need to pull it together,'" Walker said. Walker said already had suspicions about what had happened to her daughter, and she became "more uneasy" after hearing Garrard's remarks to Hardin. Garrard and Hardin were both at the house the afternoon the girl ran, evidence showed. Walker said her ex-husband later told her of the arrests of Garrard and Hardin, who is charged with murder for allegedly sitting by as Garrard ran the girl to death. Savannah loved cheerleading and horses and wanted to be a veterinarian when she grew up, Walker said. "She was full of life. She was the sweetest little girl," said Walker. (source: Associated Press) MINNESOTA: Minnesota's 1st execution still a tantalizing tale Editor's note: This story was originally published in the Pioneer Press on March 23, 2000. Jim Ragsdale was a Pioneer Press reporter from 1984 through 2011. He died in November 2014 after a year-long battle with pancreatic cancer; he was 64. On the morning of March 23, 1860, a convicted murderer mounted a scaffold in downtown St. Paul, said a few last prayers as the noose was fastened, and stepped onto the drop. When the sheriff released the platform, the sad, spectacular story of Ann Bilansky passed into Minnesota history. Her body was allowed to hang for about 20 minutes, long enough for 1,500 to 2,000 people who blocked Wabasha Street with their carriages and hay wagons to get a glimpse of the swaying woman at the end of the rope. "I die a sacrifice to the law,'' the newspaper, the St. Paul Pioneer & Democrat, quoted Bilansky as saying seconds before she stepped into eternity. In an age of O.J. and court-TV crime entertainments, her words still have an eerie reverberation. Bilansky was convicted of killing her husband, Stanislaus Bilansky, by mixing arsenic in his food and drink in their rat-infested cabin. She did it, prosecutors said, so she could take up with a fair-haired, blue-eyed carpenter named John Walker. Her lawyers said Stanislaus, habitually drunk and in poor health, could have died of any of a number of ailments. They said John Walker was not her lover, but her nephew, who summoned her to St. Paul so she could care for him during an illness. Between her arrest in March 1859 and the hanging a year later, Bilansky's case sorely tried the limits of 19th-century forensic science; became one of the new state Supreme Court's first appeals; triggered an eight-day "woman-hunt'' when Bilansky escaped from a basement window of the city jail and headed west with John Walker; became a cause celebre for St. Paul society figures, who flocked to her jail cell; triggered a showdown between the pro-Ann Legislature and Gov. Alexander Ramsey; became the first execution under statehood, and the only time Minnesota ever executed a woman; and, finally, was one of our state's first sensational newspaper stories. "Bad enough to be a harlot, and bold enough to be a murderer,'' the Pioneer & Democrat said in a story about Bilansky's last day. It was headlined "EXECUTION! - Her Dying Words.'' I am not an innocent bystander in the story. For several years now, I have been involved in (and have been paid for) a project with the Great American History Theatre. The result is "A Piece of the Rope,'' a play that brings all the actors in that dark March drama back to life. Mary Ann Evards Wright arrived in St. Paul in the spring of 1858. She was in her late 30s or early 40s and said she was originally from North Carolina, where her parents still lived and where her 1st husband died in a railroad accident. She said she had never borne children and came here to care for her nephew, John Walker, during an illness. A police handbill issued during her escape described Ann as "tall in stature ... sharp-visaged, teeth a little projected ... very talkative, uses good language ... grey eyes, light hair, Roman nose.'' Walker had "light curly hair, blue eyes, light complexion'' and had been here for several years before Ann arrived. Perhaps through Walker, Ann soon met Stanislaus Bilansky, a "Polander'' in his early 50s who had come to St. Paul in 1842 and had run a bar and grocery in his lowertown cabin. Stanislaus went through several wives before he married Ann and was described as a short, heavy-set man with brown hair and a less-than-winning personality - "melancholy, abusive, unlovable,'' and also frequently ill, convinced he would die in March. It was only a few months after their wedding that Stan took to bed with a violent abdominal illness. He died at 3:30 a.m. Friday, March 11, after drinking a tumbler of liquor brought by his son. The next day, at an inquest in the cabin, his was ruled a death from natural causes, and the body was freed for burial Saturday evening. A neighbor and friend of the Bilanskys, Lucinda Kilpatrick, then made the report that turned the old pioneer's death into a murder case: She went to the police chief and said she and Ann had purchased arsenic a few weeks before the death. She said Ann Bilansky called her aside during the first inquest and asked that Lucinda not tell the coroner about that trip. With that new information, Stan Bilansky's body was exhumed and a second inquest a few days later ruled that he died by arsenic poisoning "administered by Mrs. Bilansky.'' Kilpatrick became a key witness against Bilansky in her trial in late May and early June. (One of the jurors was Justus Ramsey, whose brother, Alexander Ramsey, would be elected governor later that year and would have Bilansky's life in his hands.) Kilpatrick and Rosa Scharf, the Bilanskys' maid, brought out suspicious remarks and behavior by Ann, painting her as a woman who wanted Stanislaus out of the way so she could flee with John Walker, who (prosecutors alleged) was her lover, not her nephew. Local scientists offered an array of tests to suggest there was arsenic in Stanislaus' stomach. Ann Bilansky did not testify. John Walker did, said Ann was his aunt, and denied there were any improper relations. Others said Stanislaus was depressed and worried about debts, suggesting a motive for suicide. Kilpatrick, the neighbor whose testimony sent Ann to jail, was asked about her own relationship with John Walker, and about letters, a breast pin and a ring that she allegedly gave to Walker. She refused to give an answer - an answer that could have cast a new light on her accusation - and the trial judge did not force her to. The jury deliberated for 5 hours on June 3, 1859, before finding Bilansky guilty of 1st-degree murder. On July 21, the state's new Supreme Court upheld the conviction. 2 days after this last legal appeal was exhausted, Bilansky was visited in jail by Walker, and later that evening, she escaped through an open window and disappeared into the countryside. "In a very short time, every policeman in the city was made aware of the escape,'' the Pioneer & Democrat reported. "Watchmen were placed on all the thoroughfares leading out of town, and every vehicle inspected. A general search was also made throughout the city, but without success.'' For most of the next 8 days, John Walker and Ann Bilansky hid out near Lake Como and made preparations to escape. (They holed up for a time at the farm of a fellow jail inmate, George Lumsden, who had befriended her. 4 years later, Lumsden would be pardoned on the condition that he enlist in the Union army. He did, and was promptly killed at the Battle of Nashville.) Bilansky, wearing men's clothes, and Walker were finally captured on their way to St. Anthony, walking west. A month later, Walker appeared in court on a charge of aiding in her escape. According to the Pioneer & Democrat, there was insufficient evidence to convict him, and he was released. He disappeared forever from the city and the story. Bilansky was sentenced to death by hanging on Dec. 2. She "sobbed audibly while the judge was addressing her, and on receiving her sentence, she burst into tears,'' the Pioneer & Democrat reported. Between the sentencing and the execution, legislators and other prominent citizens paid their respects in Bilansky's cell. Cynics viewed her comments on her trial as wholly untrustworthy; they used the phrase, `You have been to see Mrs. Bilansky,' when someone was suspected of stretching the truth. On Jan. 5, 1860, Rosa Scharf, the maid whose testimony helped seal Bilansky's fate, was found dead in her bed. The night before, she had visited Lucinda Kilpatrick and was worried about what was happening to Bilansky. A coroner's jury ruled that Rosa took an overdose of laudanum, suggesting suicide; the physician said she died of apoplexy. Pressure began to build on the new governor, Alexander Ramsey, to commute Ann Bilansky's sentence. Ramsey signed the death warrant in late January, setting March 23, 1860, as the date of the execution. The Legislature passed a bill commuting the sentence to life. Ramsey vetoed the measure. In his message, he colorfully expanded on the evidence of the trial, suggesting, as no one at the trial did, that someone had actually seen Bilansky administer poison. "She sat by the bedside of her husband, not to foster, but to slay,'' Ramsey wrote. "She watched without emotion the tortures she had caused, and, by and by, administered no healing medicine, no cooling draught, but ever, under a guise of love and tender care, renewed the cup of death.'' In the days before her death, petitioners urging that Ramsey commute her sentence included the prosecutor, Isaac Heard, who said he had "grave and serious doubts'' about whether Bilansky had a fair trial, and Supreme Court Justice Charles E. Flandreau, who participated in the opinion denying her a new trial. Flandreau wrote that while he supported the death penalty, "it rather shocks my private sense of humanity to commence by inflicting the extreme penalty on a woman.'' In an excellent article on the case in Minnesota History magazine, author Matthew Cecil noted that Gov. Ramsey must have heard arguments for Bilansky's guilt from his brother, Justus, who had been on the jury and who was in business with the governor. Cecil also notes that commuting the sentence would be "likely to anger a public skittish about criminal justice.'' On the day of the execution, the town was clogged with gawkers, including an unusually large number of women, many carrying children. As soon as the body was cut down, the newspaper reported, "We noticed an individual making strenuous efforts to secure a portion of the rope, and succeeded, and there were many present who endeavored to get a piece of it as mementos, or as a remedy for disease.'' (source: twincities.com) UTAH: Utah death penalty trial: Prison volunteer calls Lovell a 'very positive' person In an effort to convince a jury that Douglas Anderson Lovell should not be put to death for killing a woman in 1985, defense attorneys started their penalty phase case by calling a former religious volunteer at the prison who said he admires Lovell "for what he has been able to do with his life, given the circumstances he finds himself in." John Newton testified Monday that he started talking to Lovell ??? who used to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints - about "fairly basic level" church teachings, and that Lovell asked questions about the Bible and Book of Mormon. "I think he's always been very positive and looking ahead," Newton told a 2nd District Court jury. Newton said that while he never discussed the murder case with Lovell, the inmate was "very remorseful. He just felt bad for the victim's family. Who would not?" Newton said Lovell turned down an offer to have the case publicized "because he felt bad about the family and what he'd done to them already." Newton said he had volunteered in the prison from 2006-2009, and that he still talks on the phone monthly with Lovell. Last week, the 12-member jury found Lovell, 57, guilty of aggravated murder for kidnapping and strangling 39-year-old Joyce Yost in 1985 to keep her from testifying against him in a rape case. Jurors now must decide whether Lovell should be executed for the crime. Lovell's defense attorneys did not contest the guilt-phase evidence that Lovell murdered Yost, saying they would instead focus on mitigating factors, including that Lovell's suffered head injuries as a child, as well as his family history, his model behavior as a prisoner and the low risk that he will re-offend. Last week, Yost's son, Greg Roberts, 51, testified that it was "tragic" that his mother died so young. "Joyce has missed all of these things with my kids," Roberts said. "She would have only been 69 years old. A young grandma. She could have taught them so much more." On Aug. 10, 1985, Lovell kidnapped Yost from her South Ogden apartment and took her to the mountains above Ogden, where he strangled her and hid her body. He later pleaded guilty to the murder in 1993 as part of a plea deal, where prosecutors agreed not to seek his execution if Lovell could lead authorities to where Yost was buried. But despite a search that year near the Snowbasin Ski Resort, her body was never found and Lovell was sentenced to death. But the Utah Supreme Court ruled in 2010 that Lovell could withdraw his guilty plea because he should have been better informed of his rights during court hearings. Though Yost was missing when Lovell's rape case went to trial later in 1985, a transcript of her preliminary hearing testimony helped to convict him. Prosecutors say that on the April night in 1985 when Lovell raped Yost, he had followed her home from a Clearfield restaurant and asked her out. When she declined to join the stranger for a drink, they say, he kidnapped her and sexually assaulted her. For the rape, Lovell is serving a 15-years-to-life sentence in the Utah State Prison. Lovell was not charged with the slaying until 1992, after his ex-wife recorded him confessing during a prison visit. (source: Salt Lake Tribune) ARIZONA: Woman who spent 22 years on death row has murder case tossed An Arizona woman who spent more than 2 decades on death row in her 4-year-old son's killing was exonerated Monday, bringing an end to a controversial case that relied almost entirely on the work of a detective with a long history of misconduct. Debra Milke hugged her supporters and sobbed as she left the courtroom, where a judge formally dismissed the case less than a week after prosecutors lost their final appeal. In a brief hearing, Judge Rosa Mroz also allowed Milke, who has been free on bond since 2013, to have her electronic-monitoring ankle bracelet removed. Milke emerged from a conference room a short time later without the device. "It feels good," Milke said, pulling up one pant leg to show her unencumbered ankle. Milke was convicted of murder in 1990 in the death of her son, Christopher. Authorities say Milke dressed him in his favorite outfit and told him he was going to see Santa Claus at a mall in December 1989. He was then taken into the desert near Phoenix by 2 men and shot in the back of the head. Authorities say Milke's motive was that she didn't want the child anymore and didn't want him to live with his father. Milke has maintained her innocence and denied that she confessed to the killing. The 2 men who led her child to his death were convicted of murder but refused to testify against Milke. An appeals court overturned Milke's conviction in 2013, ruling that prosecutors failed to disclose a detective's history of misconduct. Her conviction was based entirely on a confession Milke gave to the now-discredited detective, Armando Saldate. Multiple court rulings in other cases said the now-retired officer either lied under oath or violated suspects' rights during interrogations. In a scathing 2013 opinion, a federal appeals court leveled harsh criticism over the case. "No civilized system of justice should have to depend on such flimsy evidence," the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said. Michael Kimerer, one of Milke's attorneys, said Monday that he was still in disbelief that "a long, long journey with so many ups and downs" ended with his client's freedom. "She was innocent. It was all based upon a police officer that just totally lied," Kimerer said outside court. "To see her free today and totally free and exonerated, it's an unbelievable feeling - just unbelievable." Saldate has said he would not testify at any retrial, citing fears of potential federal charges based on the 9th Circuit's accusations of misconduct. Both county and federal authorities have said they don't intend to seek charges against the detective based on any accusations leveled by the federal appeals court. Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery last week called the decision not to let the case be retried "a dark day for Arizona's criminal justice system." Milke filed a lawsuit earlier this month against the city of Phoenix, Maricopa County and numerous individuals. She alleges authorities violated her civil rights. She also contends she was denied a fair trial and was a victim of malicious prosecution. (source: Associated Press) USA: Most Boston Residents Prefer Life Term Over Death Penalty in Marathon Case, Poll Shows Despite this city's immersion in a trial that is replaying the horrific details of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, the vast majority of Bostonians say in a new poll that if Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the admitted bomber, is found guilty, he should be sent to prison for life and not condemned to death. Given the choice of sentencing Mr. Tsarnaev to death or to prison for the rest of his life without the possibility of parole, 62 % of Bostonians chose life in prison, while 27 % said he should be put to death, according to a poll released Monday by WBUR, Boston's NPR news station. Previous polls have shown Bostonians opposing the death penalty for Mr. Tsarnaev. A Boston Globe survey conducted in September 2013, 5 months after the bombings, found that 57 % favored life in prison while 33 % wanted him put to death. Boston Police special operations officers patrolled outside the Moakley Federal Courthouse as the trial began in the Boston Marathon bombing. But the WBUR poll is the 1st to be conducted since Mr. Tsarnaev's lawyers admitted this month that he had participated in the crimes. And it was conducted in the midst of his trial, which has included survivors recounting the graphic details of their limbs being blown off, and of loved ones being killed. The poll clearly shows that Boston voters have nonetheless not changed their minds about his potential punishment, pointing to the enduring depth of sentiment here against the death penalty. Steve Koczela, president of the MassINC Polling Group, which conducted the survey for WBUR, said he initially expected support for the death penalty to intensify, given the grim testimony emanating from court. But, he said, the poll's results reflect the fundamental liberalism of the region and its longtime opposition to capital punishment. "It's largely driven by the city's liberal political makeup," Mr. Koczela said. "It seems voters stuck to their core values even in the face of this attack," the worst on American soil since Sept. 11, 2001. New England was in the forefront of the movement to abolish capital punishment in the mid-1800s. Massachusetts did not do so until 1984. But the state has not carried out an execution since 1947. And the state legislature has withstood attempts to revive the death penalty, even in the immediate aftermath of the marathon bombings. Mr. Tsarnaev is facing death now because he has been charged under federal law, not state law. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., who personally opposes the death penalty, nonetheless authorized it for Mr. Tsarnaev more than a year ago, saying that "the nature of the conduct at issue and the resultant harm compel this decision." The Justice Department is determined to get a death sentence and has refused overtures from Mr. Tsarnaev to plead guilty in exchange for a life sentence. Opinion here stands in sharp contrast to that of the nation as a whole. The most recent Gallup survey, from October, says that 63 % of Americans support the death penalty for convicted murderers. Gallup has not polled nationally on whether Mr. Tsarnaev specifically should be put to death. Support nationwide for the death penalty has been stable over the last several years, Gallup says, although it has dropped significantly among Democrats. It has dropped among Republicans and independents too, but not by as much. The WBUR poll found that opposition toward the death penalty was not as great in the Boston metropolitan region as it was in the city itself, but those in the metro area still preferred a sentence of life in prison over death: 49 % favored sending Mr. Tsarnaev to prison for life, while 38 % opted for death. This might hearten the defense, but the poll does not necessarily reflect the views of the jurors who will decide the case. The jury was selected from all of eastern Massachusetts, beyond the Boston metro region, where support for the death penalty is greater. In seeking to move the trial out of state, the defense team has complained that the jury is stacked with people who believe Mr. Tsarnaev is guilty and want to sentence him to death. In terms of overall interest, the WBUR poll found that about 1/4 of the people in Boston and the region were following the trial "very closely," and that about half were following it "somewhat closely." The poll interviewed a total of 504 registered voters from March 16 to 18 and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 5 % points. It interviewed 229 voters in the city of Boston; that portion of the poll has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 7 % points. (source: New York Times) From rhalperi at smu.edu Mon Mar 23 16:31:05 2015 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Mon, 23 Mar 2015 16:31:05 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide Message-ID: March 21 BANGLADESH: Man to die for killing brother A Sylhet court has awarded death penalty to 2 persons and handed down life imprisonment to another 1 for killing one Suruj Ali in 2009. Joint District and Metropolitan Sessions' Judge Iftikhar Bin Aziz pronounced the verdict on Monday afternoon. The death row convicts are Suruj Ali's elder brother Fazar Ali and relative Bashir Ali. Another brother of the victim Foyzul Ali was sentenced to life term in the murder case. The convicts have been fined Tk50,000 each, in default they will have to suffer one more year in jail. The court also acquitted 10 other accused as the charges brought against them could not be proved. According to the case statement, Suruj Ali was killed in a clash between his brother Babul Ali and Fazar Ali over land dispute on March 2, 2009. Later, Babul filed a murder case with South Surma police station the next day. (source: Dhaka Tribune) From rhalperi at smu.edu Tue Mar 24 11:10:44 2015 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Tue, 24 Mar 2015 11:10:44 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news---PENN., DEL, VA., LA. Message-ID: March 24 PENNSYLVANIA: Hearing held for death row inmate appealing conviction and sentence A former Uniontown man on death row for a 2002 quadruple murder appeared in Fayette County Court on Monday for the 1st day of an appeal hearing in which he is seeking a new trial and sentence. Mark Duane Edwards Jr., 32, represented by attorneys James Moreno and Peter Williams of the Federal Community Defender's Office, made allegations of prosecutorial misconduct in a Post Conviction Relief Act (PCRA) filed in 2010, and claimed his trial counsel was ineffective. Additionally the attorneys contend Edwards' intellectual disability renders him ineligible for the death penalty. A jury in 2004 convicted Edwards of killing Joanna and Larry Bobish Sr., as well as their pregnant daughter Krystal, and then burning down their North Union Township home. He was also convicted of attempted murder for shooting and stabbing Larry Bobish Jr., then 12 years old. Former Gov. Tom Corbett signed Edwards' death warrant in December, but the execution was stayed the next month when a Fayette County judge found that the 2010 PCRA was still pending. Gov. Tom Wolf has since issued a moratorium on executions. State police Cpl. John Marshall testified when he was investigating the Bobish murders, he recalled hearing that 1 of the neighbors reported seeing 2 people getting into a small red car shortly after the Bobish's home exploded, but he said the report didn't seem credible. Moreno asked whether, in the course of a normal investigation, an officer would follow up and look for a red car. Marshall said, 'We don't report negative reporting," meaning if they followed up and didn't find anything credible regarding the red car, the notes would not reflect that finding. Moreno asked Marshall about whether he followed up with another man, Jeff Johnson, who prosecution witness Recardo Williams reportedly mentioned in connection with the Bobish murders. Marshall told the court he did not personally interview Johnson, but he understood Johnson was with Edwards for part of the night, eventually leaving him alone. Edwards' trial attorney, Susan Harper, testified if she had been given information about statements allegedly made to police by 2 women who were present when Recardo Williams claims he heard Edwards make incriminating statements, she would have used it at trial to impeach Recardo Williams' testimony because the 2 women gave contradictory accounts. Peter Williams asked Harper if she would have also questioned Recardo Williams statement under oath that he lived with his mother, when he had in fact been placed in a psychiatric hospital at the time of trial, and Harper said she would have used that to impeach the witness' credibility as well. Moreno called forensic psychologist Dr. Lawson Bernstein to testify regarding his understanding of Edwards' mental capacity at the time of trial. Bernstein testified in Edwards' defense in the penalty phase of the trial. Bernstein said he was never asked to evaluate Edwards for mental retardation, a term that has since been replaced with intellectual disability. In 2002 the US Supreme Court found that the criteria used for determining intellectual disability were too narrow, and that more than the defendant's IQ should be considered. Bernstein said he was not asked to evaluate Edwards according to the criteria set forth in that decision. Bernstein said at the time he was unaware Edwards' father and uncle were intellectually disabled. He was also unaware Edwards' mother had consumed alcohol during pregnancy. Both, he said, would have been factors in the medical conclusions he drew at trial. However, several diagnostic tests were performed before the trial, Bernstein testified. He said a scan of Edwards' brain then revealed abnormalities in his temporal lobes, the part of the brain that affects critical decision making and intellectual ability. Bernstein added there were other factors contributing to Edwards??? intellectual deficiency. He came from a deprived household where he witnessed abuse and lacked a father, Bernstein said, and he suffered a clinically significant closed head injury when he was pistol-whipped in 2000. Additionally, Edwards had been using drugs near the time of the killings, particularly PCP, formaldehyde and marijuana, Bernstein said, which would acutely and generally make his intellectual impairments worse. Dianne Zerega, Edwards' court-appointed attorney for the penalty phase testified on Monday that Edwards' case was her 1st death penalty case. Zerega said at the time she was not familiar with the scope of a forensic psychologist's expertise and failed to direct Bernstein to take specific actions regarding his evaluation. She said she didn't understand the relevance of investigating family background, for example, which would have revealed Edwards' mother's prenatal alcohol abuse. "I was very unsure throughout the process," Zerega told the court. She said Edwards was "always cooperative, always pleasant," but that he never appeared concerned about his case. She has represented other death penalty clients since then, Zerega said, and they tend to be interested in their cases, ask a lot of questions and give directions. She said that was never the case with Edwards. Zerega said she had to explain the same concepts to Edwards repeatedly. "Over time, I began to notice he was using my words back," she said. "He wasn't explaining what was happening, he was parroting." That's when she said she began to see that Edwards may have significant mental impairments and asked for Bernstein's help. Assistant District Attorney Anthony S. Iannamorelli Jr. asked her if it was true that two experts said Edwards' IQ fell above 75, the threshold then for precluding a defendant from capital punishment, and Zerega said yes. Bernstein was the one who ordered another neuropsychological test, because he had concerns about the IQ, Zerega said. Through further testing, Bernstein determined Edwards' IQ could be as low as 72, according to testimony. Testimony will resume at 9 a.m. before President Judge John F. Wagner Jr. (source: Herald Standard) ****************** IQ concerns resurface in Fayette County death sentence appeal Former defense attorneys for a Fayette County man sentenced to death in 2004 for killing three members of a North Union family 13 years ago were among numerous witnesses testifying Monday during an appeal hearing before Common Pleas President Judge John F. Wagner Jr. Mark Edwards, 32, was convicted of 3 counts of murder for shooting and stabbing Larry A. Bobish, 50; his wife, Joanna,42; and their pregnant daughter, Krystal, 17, during a burglary and arson at the family's home April 14, 2002. The Bobishes' then-12-year-old son, Larry Jr., survived being shot and was able to escape the fire. A bullet remains lodged in his head. Now 25, Bobish told the Tribune-Review last year that he has forgiven Edwards and does not want him to be executed. During his 2004 trial, Edwards' defense attorneys contended he was mentally disabled and under the influence of drugs at the time of the killing, which prosecutors said occurred after Edwards stole several bottles of a drug called "wet" - PCP mixed with formaldehyde - from the elder Bobish several days earlier. When Bobish demanded payment for the drugs, Edwards decided to kill him, according to court records. Then-Gov. Tom Corbett in November signed Edwards' death warrant. Edwards was to be killed by lethal injection Jan. 13, but a motion seeking to stay the sentence was filed in December in Fayette County. Attorneys James Moreno and Peter Williams are representing Edwards. Williams asked Susan Harper, who defended Edwards at trial, about statements from witness Recardo Williams, then 15, who told the jury he heard Edwards planning the killings in Uniontown the night before. Harper said she could not recall whether she was provided with the full names of 2 females allegedly present. She said if she had been provided with statements from the females contradicting Williams' claims, she would have introduced them at trial. Harper said she was aware Williams had criminal and juvenile records, but had no information that he was not living in the residence he said he was when Edwards allegedly announced his plans. Attorney Dianne Zerega represented Edwards during the penalty phase, her first capital case, she said. She said she requested a mental health evaluation because her client "seemed too calm." "He did not react the way I would expect for someone facing the death penalty," she said. Zerega said she obtained school and medical records for Edwards, but not those of his other family members. She said she did not see any relevance at the time, but said it would have been helpful to know if there was a family history of mental disabilities. Zerega said she met with members of Edwards' family for several hours. She said she has since learned that building trust with family members and obtaining complex information can take "multiple" meetings, which is her current practice. While representing Edwards, she said, she came to believe that he did not understand what she was telling him and that he did not appreciate the seriousness of his charges. "He was parroting what I said to him. I've never had a client who did not make suggestions about how to proceed. ... He never really asked any of that," she said. In response to questions by Assistant District Attorney Anthony Iannamorelli, Zerega said she had 2 experts that said his IQ was above 75 at the time. "I had a concern he had some mental issues," she said. Also testifying at the post-conviction hearing was Pittsburgh neuropsychiatrist Lawson Bernstein, who evaluated Edwards before his trial. At the time of the trial, Dr. Bernstein said Edwards had an IQ of 77. IQ, or Intelligence Quotient, is a measurement of mental ability. Almost 70 percent of the population falls between scores of 85 and 115. Bernstein said Edwards' score put him in the 6th percentile, meaning his abilities put him behind 94 % of the population. "I don't even think he could hold a fast-food job," Bernstein said at the time. Complicating Edwards' limited reasoning abilities were his history of drug abuse and a brain injury he suffered in a pistol-whipping in August 2000, Bernstein said. Bernstein said he was unaware at the time whether any of Edwards' family members suffered intellectual disabilities, or that Edwards may have suffered from fetal alcohol syndrome. On Tuesday, he said a scoring error later determined Edwards' IQ possibly was as low as 72 and would have been a critical issue in death penalty consideration. "I'm now aware of information I was not aware of then," Bernstein said. Testimony will resume at 9 a.m. Tuesday in Courtroom No. 2. (source: triblive.com) DELAWARE: Bill seeks to abolish Delaware death penalty----State troopers group opposes bill as proposed Flanked by a bipartisan group of legislators, religious leaders from across the state and activists who oppose the death penalty, Senate Minority Leader Gary Simpson was 1 of nearly 2 dozen people calling for the abolishment of the death penalty in Delaware. During a March 18 press conference in the Senate Chambers of Legislative Hall in Dover, Simpson, R-Milford, said he's long believed Delaware should end the death penalty. The Senate minority leader said Gov. Jack Markell and his fellow legislators need to be brave and do the right thing. Simpson said prosecutors throughout the country believe they've convicted the right person sitting on death row, but, he continued, innocent people have been put to death for crimes they did not commit. "Until we can guarantee with 100 % accuracy that all of the people who are sentenced to death are guilty, I must support abolishing the death penalty," said Simpson. Simpson is one of 21 legislative sponsors, and the only one from Sussex County. Sen. Karen Peterson, D-Stanton, is the primary sponsor of Senate Bill 40. The bill mirrors a 2013 bill sponsored by Peterson that passed the Senate 11-10, but did not get out of committee in the House. The legislation would end capital punishment in Delaware, except for the 15 inmates already convicted and sentenced to death row. If passed, Delaware would become the 19th state without the death penalty. Peterson said since 1973, 150 death row inmates have been exonerated and released from prison. She said the death penalty is homicide, and "we're all accomplices." Peterson said data shows eliminating the death penalty will save taxpayers millions of dollars because of the additional costs associated with a death penalty trial. "We're not being tough on crime. We're being tough on taxpayers," she said. Peter Schott, Eastern Sussex County Democrat board president, was in attendance representing the Unitarian Universalists of Southern Delaware. Following the press conference, Schott echoed the speakers. He said statistics show the death penalty unequally affects people who are poor and can't afford proper representation. "We believe the death penalty is immoral," he said. Speaker of the House Rep. Pete Schwartzkopf, D-Rehoboth Beach, is a retired state trooper. He said if Peterson was willing to amend the bill to exclude the killers of police and correctional officers then he would vote in favor of the bill. Legislative Hall is a house of compromise, said Schwartzkopf, and if the sponsors are willing to amend the bill, it might pass. He said he didn't think the bill has the votes if no changes are made. Schwartzkopf said for the time being he'll wait until the bill makes its way through the Senate before getting too excited. When it does, he said, it will be put in a House committee and there will be some lively debate. Thomas J. Brackin, Delaware State Troopers Association president, said he opposed the previous bill and opposes SB40. He said his association, local Fraternal Order of Police chapters, the Correctional Officers Association of Delaware and the Delaware Police Chiefs Council are all against the removal of the death penalty, and together the four groups have formed the Delaware Law Enforcement Coalition. Brackin, a lieutenant in the state police, said the coalition believes that the death penalty is a necessary part of the punishment process in Delaware. "We believe that for the worst of the worst, capital punishment is justified," he said. Brackin said he's aware of the arguments made against the death penalty, because they're the same as 2 years ago. He argues that the costs associated with a death penalty case would be similar to ones associated with sentencing a person to life in prison because there would a similar exhaustive set of appeals. Brackin said an additional problem would be the 15 death row inmates. He said there would almost be no way a governor would have them executed, knowing the law has changed. Brackin said he believes the legislators in favor of abolishing the death penalty are acting on their own behalf and not on behalf of their constituents. He said he thinks the majority of constituents in Delaware are not in favor of abolishing the death penalty. Brackin said at the end of the day, the majority of the people looking to repeal the death penalty feel that way because they've never been put in a situation calling for them to think about it. It's a hard thing to accept, and there has to be a punishment, he said. As of Thursday, March 19, the bill had not been officially introduced or assigned to a committee. (source: CapeGazette.com) VIRGINIA: Gov. McAuliffe should impose a moratorium on the death penalty The U.S. Supreme Court is deliberating whether a botched lethal injection execution in Oklahoma constitutes cruel and unusual punishment. As a result, Oklahoma, Ohio and Georgia have put scheduled executions on official hold while issues with lethal injection drugs are sorted out. In Utah, officials might reload the firing squad in order to continue clearing the death-row inmate inventory. Oklahoma is looking at inhaled nitrogen as an alternative. Other than the defeated legislation in the General Assembly that would have shrouded companies that provide lethal injection drugs in secrecy, Virginia has been pretty quiet on the issue. Condemned inmates are given the choice between the electric chair and lethal injection. In January 2013, Robert Gleason chose the electric chair. A year later, given the lack of injection drug availability, the General Assembly considered using "Old Sparky," the state's electric chair, as the sole execution method, but the idea fizzled. Virginia hasn't executed anyone since Gleason and has used the death penalty only twice since 2011. With Virginia's pace slowed, Oklahoma last year took over the No. 2 spot behind Texas. Virginia's slowdown can certainly be traced to the questions about, and the lack of availability of, lethal execution drugs. Though Virginia's death row currently numbers eight inmates, there are no executions scheduled. Given the current unsettled status of capital punishment by lethal injection, as well as to formalize the legal status of capital punishment in Virginia, Gov. Terry McAuliffe should place an official moratorium on executions until the issue is straightened out. This is not something we need to be in any hurry about. By 2013, death penalty states were consistently using a lethal combination of 3 drugs - hence the term "cocktail." It included an anesthetic, sodium thiopental or pentobarbital; a paralytic agent to stop breathing, pancuronium bromide; and potassium chloride to actually stop the heart. The drugs were mostly imported from countries in Europe where capital punishment is not supported or practiced. Though the drugs have other medical uses, the manufacturers who were exporting them for use in lethal injection were getting backlash from consumers, and the flow of the drugs rapidly diminished. One of those drugs is pentobarbital, which is made in Denmark. Under Danish law its use for the death penalty is forbidden. Exports were halted. Pentobarbital was the 1st drug in Virginia's 3-drug protocol, and in its absence the state has looked at substituting the anesthetic midazolam. Faulty use of midazolam is the focus of the Oklahoma botched execution probe. The drug was being used in Ohio for the 1st time in a January 2014 execution that was unexpectedly prolonged. All of these questions and uncertainties point to a practice that needs to go on official hiatus. The majority of Virginians are thought to support use of the death penalty, but certainly most of those would prefer that it be carried out properly and efficiently. An official, temporary ban makes sense. (source: Editorial, Free Lance-Star) LOUISIANA: Former prosecutor's anti-death penalty letter is an indictment of Louisiana: Jarvis DeBerry Last year, soon after Glenn Ford was released from Louisiana's death row, I arrived at the office of Resurrection After Incarceration to interview him only to learn that he hadn't been informed about the interview. His plan that morning was to go and obtain a picture ID. John Thompson, the founder and director of the Resurrection office, made a small pitch on my behalf. He told Ford that I had interviewed "just about all of us." By "all of us," Thompson meant those men who had been let off Louisiana's death row when a court finally agreed that they had been put there unjustly. Consider what it means to live in a place where such a history defines a group of people. Ford initially said OK to being interviewed, but then asked if he could back out. He just didn't feel like talking that day, he said. I can't say this with certainty because he didn't talk to me, but I got the sense that he was still trying to make sense of his surroundings, still trying to make sense of exactly what had happened to him and why. One of the things that happened to him was that he ran into prosecutors who didn't want to consider the possibility that he was innocent. That's according to a former prosecutor who sent him to Death Row. "I was not as interested in justice, as I was into winning," A.M. Stroud III said in a letter that was originally sent to The Shreveport Times and then shared with NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune. Stroud said he was too passive, that he had the person he thought was the killer and that he wouldn't allow himself to consider the stories he'd heard about folks committing the murder to be credible. When you're so certain you're right, you find yourself more accepting of the obstacles that might prevent the other side from proving that you're wrong. Ford was stuck with an attorney who had never tried a capital case. In fact, he was stuck with an attorney who had never tried a criminal case of any kind before a jury. But that's OK, right? Because he did it, right?, and even a skilled capital defense attorney wouldn't be able to get him off. Wrong. Even though Shreveport has a particularly violent racist history, Stroud also didn't think it problematic to have Ford, a black man, tried by an all-white jury. "Pursuant to the review and investigation of cold homicide cases," Stroud writes, "investigators uncovered evidence that exonerated Mr. Ford. Indeed, this evidence was so strong that had it been disclosed during of the investigation there would not have been sufficient evidence to even arrest Mr. Ford!" Stroud now believes that the death penalty should be abolished because it can't be fair and impartially imposed by fallible people. I mocked Mr. Ford, (saying he) wanted to stay alive so he could ... prove his innocence." - A.M. Stroud III "In my rebuttal argument during the penalty phase of the trial," Stroud writes, "I mocked Mr. Ford, stating that this man wanted to stay alive so he could be given the opportunity to prove his innocence. I continued by saying this should be an affront to each of you jurors, for he showed no remorse, only contempt for your verdict. "How totally wrong was I." Ford has stayed alive long enough to prove his innocence, but he's dying of cancer, a cancer he claims prison officials knew about but didn't treat. Stroud knows he played a deciding role in everything that has happened to Ford. "I end with the hope that providence will have more mercy for me than I showed Glenn Ford. But, I am also sobered by the realization that I certainly am not deserving of it." Let's be clear, Ford suffered as he did not because of an individual named A.M. Stroud III, but because of a system that too often prizes certitude over investigation and thinks the end result of the death penalty justifies any shenanigans that preceded it. Imagine there not being enough evidence for your arrest and coming that close to execution. Ford isn't the only one who has suffered in this way. If he were, Thompson could not have used the phrase "all of us." (source: New Orleans Times-Picayune) From rhalperi at smu.edu Tue Mar 24 11:13:28 2015 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Tue, 24 Mar 2015 11:13:28 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----OHIO, MISS., NEB., UTAH, CALIF. Message-ID: March 24 OHIO: Youngstown murder convict to be re-sentenced He has been sitting on Ohio's death row for more than 17 years and has been behind bars even longer than that. But now a Youngstown man convicted of murder is hoping for another chance at life. Willie Herring, 37, sat in court Monday afternoon with one of his public-defender attorneys chatting with family members. In January 1998, Herring was convicted and sentenced to die for masterminding a robbery and shooting inside the old Newport Inn on Youngstown's south side. Herring was 1 of 5 men accused in the April 1996 robbery and shooting that left 3 people dead and 2 others wounded. 4 other defendants also were convicted, but none received the death penalty. Prosecutors at the time said Herring obtained the firearms used in the crime and passed the guns out to the other defendants. In December 2014, the Supreme Court of Ohio determined Herring's original defense team failed to provide enough information during the penalty phase of his trial. Now, prosecutors and defense lawyers are trying to determine whether another penalty phase of the case is needed. "That is what the statute calls for, that a jury would have to impaneled just to basically determine what the appropriate sentence would be," Mahoning County Prosecutor Paul Gains said. "It is a balancing act on finality as opposed to what we might see as justice with regard to the death penalty, or life in prison, and you've got different options here." The new sentencing hearing was held before Mahoning County Common Pleas Court Judge John Durkin, who presided over Herring's original trial. It was the judge's 1st death penalty case. State law at the time of the crime would leave only death or life in prison with parole eligibility after 20 years as potential sentences. Another hearing is set for May 28. For now, Herring will remain in the Mahoning County Jail. (source: WKBN news) ************* Attorneys meet in '96 murder case While attorneys discussed his fate behind closed doors Monday, Willie Herring chatted with friends and family in the Mahoning County Common Pleas courtroom of Judge John Durkin. Herring, who was convicted of three slayings during a 1996 robbery, was sentenced to death before an appeals court overturned the sentence but not the conviction. He looked at pictures on phones held by family members and also chatted with one of his attorneys for about an hour as a hearing took place to establish how to conduct a new sentencing process. No action was taken on the record Monday. Prosecutor Paul Gains said Herring's case is a unique challenge. That's because of a change by the state Legislature to allow people to still be sentenced to death - even after their death sentence is vacated - by ordering a new sentencing hearing. "It's all new," Gains said. A new pretrial hearing has been set for May 28. Gains said one of the reasons for that is because Herring has different attorneys for this phase of the case than he did for the appeal, and they need time to get know the case. Herring had been convicted of 3 counts of complicity to commit aggravated murder, 2 counts of attempted aggravated murder and 2 counts of aggravated robbery, all with firearm specifications, for the April 30, 1996, robbery and shooting at the Newport Inn, 179 W. Indianola Ave. Police said Herring and four others attempted to rob the bar and shot 5 people, 3 of whom died. They said the robbery was planned at Herring's home. Herring was 18 at the time of the crime. A jury recommended he be sentenced to death, and Judge Durkin agreed. But in December, the state Supreme Court vacated his death sentence, saying that improper mitigation was presented by Herring's defense lawyers to jurors during the mitigation phase of the trial. The high court decision affirmed a similar decision by the 7th District Court of Appeals. The high court ruled that a new sentencing hearing must take place to determine if Herring should receive the death penalty. Gains said Monday that would entail swearing in a new jury as it hears arguments on why Herring should be put to death and from his lawyers as to why his life should be spared. He said a new proceeding simply would be to decide what sentence Herring should be given, not about his guilt or innocence. Previously, if a sentencing hearing was vacated, a defendant was brought back and resentenced to either 20 years to life in prison or 30 years to life in prison, Gains said. Gains said he also is concerned about the 2 surviving victims in the case, both of whom he said have been contacted by his office and kept abreast of developments, and he wants to wrap it up as quickly as he can to give them some closure. "There has to be some finality here," Gains said. (source: Youngstown Vindicator) MISSISSIPPI: Mississippi Supreme Court hears arguments in death row inmate's appeal in rape case The attorney for death row inmate Charles Ray Crawford argued Monday before the Mississippi Supreme Court that the man's 1994 rape conviction should be tossed because he received poor legal representation at his trial. Defense attorney Glenn Swartzfager told the justices there were numerous errors in Crawford's rape trial including poor performance by the defense, prosecutorial misconduct and questionable rulings and jury instructions from the trial judge. He said Crawford's trial lawyer failed to challenge jury instructions and failed to object to inadmissible testimony and prejudicial prosecutorial comments. Crawford, now 49, is on death row for the 1992 slaying of Kristy Ray in the Chalybeate community in Tippah County. Crawford argues he received ineffective defense counsel to fight the rape charge, which was used by prosecutors to seek the death penalty. Prosecutors argued Crawford got a fair trial and that if there was any error, it was Crawford's for waiting 20 years to file an appeal. Assistant Attorney General Scott Stuart told the justices there was sufficient evidence to support the verdict. He said the court record shows there was no error at the trial and at no point before or during trial that Crawford was not represented by counsel. Crawford was arrested in 1992 and charged with rape and aggravated assault. While free on bond, he was arrested and charged with murder in the death of a young woman. He was convicted of rape in 1993 and sentenced to 66 years in prison. He was then found guilty of murder in 1994 and sentenced to death. Prosecutors had argued the death penalty was justified because Crawford's past as a rapist constituted an aggravated factor and called for the harshest of punishments. According to his lawyers, Crawford could get off death row - where he now resides on the unrelated capital murder conviction - if his appeal in the rape case is successful. The Supreme Court has said it will not set an execution date for the murder until the rape appeal is resolved. If the Supreme Court upholds Crawford's conviction in the rape case, Attorney General Jim Hood could petition the court to set an execution date. Crawford's lawyers argued the death sentence would be negated if the conviction is reversed. In 1993, Crawford was out on bond awaiting trial on charges of aggravated assault and rape. 4 days before his trial, the 20-year-old Ray, a student at Northeast Mississippi Community College, was abducted from her parents' home. After his family and attorney notified police that they feared Crawford was committing another crime, he was arrested. Crawford told authorities he did not remember the incident but later led them to Ray's body, buried in leaves in a wooded area. (source: Associated Press) NEBRASKA: Time to end the death penalty I am excited that our local leaders are getting on board with the effort to repeal the death penalty. Regardless of how one feels about the death penalty in theory, in reality, Nebraska's death penalty is broken. We risk executing innocent people, to date, 150 men have been released from death rows around the country. Nebraska isn't immune to this, and anyone who values innocent life should be greatly concerned. Nebraska's 3 Catholic Bishops called for repeal of Nebraska's death penalty on St. Patrick's Day, then 3 days later the Pope said it was "unacceptable" for states to impose capital punishment. Clearly momentum is growing, and I look forward to when Nebraska will be done with the death penalty forever. Carol Knierium, York (source: Letter to the Editor, York News Times) UTAH: Utah becomes only state in America to approve death by firing squad Utah Gov. Gary Herbert has signed a law authorizing the use of firing squads to carry out death penalty sentences if officials cannot acquire lethal injection drugs, making the state the only one in America to approve of the method. "Those who voiced opposition to this bill are primarily arguing against capital punishment in general and that decision has already been made in our state," said Marty Carpenter, spokesman for Herbert, as quoted by the Guardian. "We regret anyone ever commits the heinous crime of aggravated murder to merit the death penalty and we prefer to use our primary method of lethal injection when such a sentence is issued. However, when a jury makes the decision and a judge signs a death warrant, enforcing that lawful decision is the obligation of the executive branch." Although Utah is not expected to execute another inmate for years, capital punishment opponents have railed against the measure. "It's an embarrassment to Utah," Ralph Dellapiana of the group Utahns for Alternatives to the Death Penalty said to the Associated Press. "We should be taking the moral lead on this. You can' be both pro-life and pro-death." Last week, Herbert said he was "leaning toward" signing the bill so that the state could have a viable alternative to lethal injection when the appropriate drugs are not available. He has also called the use of a firing squad "a little bit gruesome,"though that did not keep him from signing the bill. "The debate is really more than just the firing squad. It's should we have capital punishment or not?" he said at the time, according to NBC News. "It's not our preference, but we need to have a fallback." The move comes as multiple states seek alternative methods for carrying out death penalty sentences, as many companies refuse to sell various drugs used in lethal injection combinations to state correctional departments. Currently, death row inmates in Utah can be executed by way of a firing squad, but they must choose the option themselves. Now, the state will be able to employ a firing squad regardless of the prisoner's choice. The last prisoner to be executed by firing squad in the state was Ronnie Lee Gardner in 2010. While Utah may be the only state condoning the use of this method, other states are also looking into different means of execution. Last year, Tennessee became the first state in the US to authorize death via electric chair in the absence of lethal injection drugs, though the law faces a legal challenge from inmates who argue the method is unconstitutional. Meanwhile, lawmakers in Oklahoma are considering a bill that would allow gas chambers to be used in executions.The Supreme Court is currently reviewing the state's lethal injection formula to determine whether it violates the Eighth Amendment???s protection against cruel and unusual punishment, since the state had a number of botched executions. (source: rt.com) ********************* Utah Enacts Firing Squads as Backup Execution Method Utah Gov. Gary Herbert signed a bill Monday making the firing squad the method of execution if the state can't come up with the drugs for lethal injections. State lawmakers approved the bill earlier this month, making Utah the latest state to look for alternative methods in the wake of nationwide drug shortages. Death penalty opponents have been urging the Republican governor to veto it. "We regret anyone ever commits the heinous crime of aggravated murder to merit the death penalty, and we prefer to use our primary method of lethal injection when such a sentence is issued," said Marty Carpenter, a spokesman for Herbert. "However, when a jury makes the decision and a judge signs a death warrant, enforcing that lawful decision is the obligation of the executive branch." The last person executed by firing squad was Ronnie Lee Gardner in 2010. Because he was convicted before 2002, he had the option of choosing the bullet over the needle. The new law will let the state impose the firing squad. Gardner's brother, Randy Gardner, called the move "pretty backwoods" and scoffed at claims by the law's proponents that the firing squad is more humane than other methods. "There's no humane way to execute anyone," the brother said. "I had the opportunity to see my brother after and 4 bullets hit his chest and I could have put my hand in anyone of the holes. It didn't look very humane to me. "He was tied down with a hood over his head. Terrorists around the world and ISIS -- when they execute people, that's what they do." Utah has 8 inmates on death row. Other states that have run low on execution drugs have considered the electric chair and gas chamber as backups. (source: NBC news) ******************** Utah's firing squad: How does it work? Gov. Gary Herbert on Monday gave his stamp of approval to a law that brings back the firing squad in the only state that has used it in the past 40 years - Utah. Under the law, firing squads will be a backup method if lethal-injection drugs aren't available. Utah and other states have struggled to keep up their inventories as European manufacturers opposed to capital punishment refuse to sell the components of lethal injections to U.S. prisons. A closer look at how Utah's firing squad works: ---- WHAT HAPPENS ON EXECUTION DAY? The prisoner is seated in a chair that is set up in front of a wood panel and in between stacked sandbags that keep the bullets from ricocheting around the room. A target is pinned to the inmate's heart. Shooters aim for the chest rather than the head because it's a bigger target and usually allows for a faster death, said Utah Rep. Paul Ray, who sponsored the proposal. The prisoner is offered a 2-minute window to offer final words. In 1977, Gary Gilmore used that chance to say, "Let's do this" before he died. 5 shooters set up about 25 feet from the chair, with their .30 caliber Winchester rifles pointing through slots in a wall. Assuming they hit their target, the heart ruptures and the prisoner dies quickly from blood loss. In 2010, Ronnie Lee Gardner was declared dead 2 minutes after he was shot. He was the last person killed by firing squad in the U.S. WHO ARE THE SHOOTERS? The gunmen are chosen from a pool of volunteer officers, with priority given to those from the area where the crime happened. There are always more volunteers than spots on the squad, Ray said recently. The shooters' identities are kept anonymous, and one of their rifles is loaded with a blank round so nobody knows which officer killed the inmate. HAVE FIRING SQUAD EXECUTIONS EVER GONE WRONG? Not in recent history, said Deborah Denno, a Fordham Law School professor who has long studied executions. Utah's 3 firing squad executions in the past 4 decades went as planned, she said. But the Washington, D.C.-based Death Penalty Information Center, which opposes capital punishment, warns a firing squad is not a foolproof execution method because the inmate could move or the shooters could miss the heart, causing a slower, more painful death. One such case appears to have happened in 1879, during Utah's territorial days, when a firing squad missed Wallace Wilkerson's heart and it took him 27 minutes to die, according to newspaper accounts. Denno said errant shots to Wilkerson's shoulder might have been intentional to make him suffer. CAN ORGANS BE DONATED AFTER FIRING SQUAD EXECUTIONS? Yes. Unlike a lethal injection that poisons the organs, the bodies of people executed by firing squad remain usable. Gilmore, executed by firing squad in 1977, agreed to donate his eyes, kidneys, liver and pituitary gland for medical use. His kidneys proved unusable because of bullet wounds. Gardner did not donate his organs. ARE ANY UTAH INMATES IN LINE FOR THE FIRING SQUAD? Yes. Ron Lafferty, who claimed God directed him to kill his sister-in-law and her baby daughter in 1984 because of the victim's resistance to his beliefs in polygamy, has requested the firing squad. Lawmakers in the state stopped offering inmates that choice in 2004, saying firing squads attracted intense media interest and took attention from victims. But Lafferty got the option because he was convicted before 2004. The other Utah death-row inmate who could be next up for execution, Doug Carter, has chosen lethal injection. Under the new law, Carter would get the firing squad if the state can't get its hands on the lethal injection drugs. (source: Associated Press) **************** Utah move on firing squads latest attempt to fix the unfixable Utah's decision to turn to the firing squad if it is unable to secure drugs for lethal injection is the latest attempt by a US state to keep alive a punishment that should have long ago been consigned to the history books, said Amnesty International today. "Whether by shooting, lethal injection, hanging, asphyxiation or electrocution, the death penalty is a cruel, brutalizing and outdated punishment that is a symptom of violence, not a solution to it. The Utah legislature should be expending its energies on abolishing the death penalty, not trying to fix the unfixable," said Rob Freer, USA researcher Amnesty International. On Monday 23 March, Utah Governor Gary Herbert signed a law allowing the use of firing squads when the drugs needed to administer the lethal injection was not available. This move clearly goes against the global and national trend towards abolition of the death penalty. Since 2007 six US states have abolished the death penalty for all crimes and the governors of Oregon, Washington and, in 2015, Pennsylvania have established moratoriums on executions in their states. The USA is the only country in the Americas currently executing prisoners and is 1 of the only 9 countries in the world to have carried out executions every year between 2009 and 2013. The other countries were Bangladesh, China, Iran, Iraq, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Yemen. On April 1 Amnesty International will publish its annual Death Penalty Report. The report covers the key trends in the use of the death penalty in the past year, and looks at how executions and death sentences have increased and decreased in all countries. (source: Amnesty International) CALIFORNIA----death row inmate dies After 28 years on California's death row, inmate dies of natural causes A California inmate sentenced to death 28 years ago died in hospice care this week, the state said Monday, bringing the total of condemned inmates who passed away from natural causes to 68 in a state that has not carried out an execution in years. The death of Teofilo Medina, Jr., 70, at a medical facility near Sacramento comes amid ongoing controversy in California over how the death penalty is administered, including a recent decision by a federal judge declaring the state's use of capital punishment unconstitutional, because inmates lingered on death row for years or even decades. "This is just another wake-up call to say that California's death penalty system doesn't work," said Ellen Kreitzberg, a death penalty expert at Santa Clara Law school near San Jose. "It doesn't contribute to any legitimate purpose for punishment." Medina had been on death row since 1987 for a California robbing and killing spree that began shortly after he was released from an Arizona prison on a rape conviction. He was the 2nd death row inmate to die of natural causes this month, the state said. The death penalty was voided in numerous states, including California, by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1972, but many soon adopted sentencing reforms that met the high court's requirements. Among them was California, which reinstated its death penalty in 1978. But a lengthy appeals process, along with a lack of political pressure to carry out executions, has left California with 751 people on death row. Since the penalty was reinstated, 13 inmates have been executed, 23 have committed suicide and 68 have died of natural causes, the state said Monday. 1 was executed in Missouri. The state has not put an inmate to death since 2006. In 2012, a ballot measure to abolish the death penalty lost narrowly, garnering 47 % of the vote. Last year, a Field Poll showed support for capital punishment at a 50-year low in California, with 54 % of voters supporting the death penalty, down from 68 % in 2011. Opposition to the death penalty has also grown amid concerns that the drugs used for lethal injections have led to botched executions and painful deaths. The exoneration of some inmates by the Innocence Project and other legal activists has also prompted new skepticism. The state announced Medina's death, but did not immediately comment on his lengthy stay on death row. (source: Reuters) ****************** Miguel Felix could get death penalty----Guilty verdict in decade old murder case Guilty is the verdict for a man on more than 20 charges in a deadly spree of home invasion robberies that resulted in the murder of a man in Desert Hot Springs a decade ago. Miguel Felix was convicted of killing Armando Gonzalez in Gonzalez's Desert Hot Springs home. The murder happened in August of 2004. The jury will now decide if Felix should get the death penalty for the crimes that happened between the summer of 2004 and the spring of 2005. The sentencing phase of the trial is now set for the second week of April. (source: KESQ) *************** Killer Scott Peterson living a 'cushy' life on death row 10 years after he was sentenced to death in a murder case that gripped the nation, notorious San Diego-born killer Scott Peterson is living what's been described as a "cushy" life behind bars. In a 1 hour-special this past weekend, Geraldo Rivera talked to journalist and author Nancy Mullane who has seen the killer in prison and described him as a "quite buff looking young man" as he played basketball shirtless in white boxer shorts with other inmates outside. She said the scene looked like "some college athletes out on a neighborhood court." 'An exclusive life inside San Quentin' Mullane further said that Peterson is being housed in what she called the best section of the prison that includes a basketball court, an outdoor shower and toilet, tables and a roof shielding the inmates from the sun. The author, who wrote "Life After Murder: 5 Men in Search of Redemption," is also executive producer of the radio show "Life of the Law." He said there are men on death row who are in their cells 23 to 24 hours per day and rarely see another person. "They are not having the life Scott Peterson is having," she said. "Scott Peterson has an exclusive life inside San Quentin." Peterson, 42, was convicted of killing his 27-year-old wife Laci, who was 8 months pregnant with the couple's 1st child, at their Modesto home in 2002 on Christmas Eve. He then dumped her body and that of her baby boy, already named Conner, into the San Francisco Bay. Their badly decomposed bodies - all that was left of Laci was her torso - washed ashore 4 months later. Peterson was arrested in La Jolla in 2003. He had dyed his hair blond and was carrying $15,000 in cash at the time. The former fertilizer salesman and University of San Diego High School grad was convicted in 2004 and sentenced to die by lethal injection on March 16, 2005. He was then transferred to San Quentin State Prison where he has been living ever since. His case is being appealed. There are currently 745 inmates on death row in California, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. The last execution was that of Clarence Ray Allen who was convicted of organizing the murders of 3 people. At the time of his death on Jan. 17, 2006, Allen had been on death row for 23 years and 1 month. There have been just 13 men executed in the state since 1978. Capital punishment in California was put on hold in 2006 due to what federal courts ruled were numerous problems with the lethal injection method. In 2014, a U.S. federal judge handed down a decision that said the state's death penalty was unconstitutional calling it an "arbitrary and irrational system that serves no legitimate purpose." That decision, by U.S. District Judge Cormac Carney of Santa Ana, is being appealed. According to a report in the San Francisco Chronicle, if the case is upheld it could end capital punishment in the state even though voters have three times approved the capital punishment system. In the meantime, the man whose crime was called "cruel, uncaring, heartless and callous," by the judge who sentenced him, is playing basketball in the prison that overlooks the bay in which he dumped his wife's body. (source: Union-Tribune) From rhalperi at smu.edu Tue Mar 24 11:14:08 2015 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Tue, 24 Mar 2015 11:14:08 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----USA Message-ID: March 24 USA: How Drug Manufacturers Are Impacting The Death Penalty Debate Polls generally show that the majority of Americans are on board with the death penalty. In October 2014, Gallup reported that 63 % of Americans were in favor of capital punishment while 33 % were opposed. But when it comes to carrying out executions in recent years, the vote of 1 group of individuals - drug manufacturers - has begun to hold more sway. Public pressure on drug manufacturers to stop selling the chemicals coupled with some companies' opposition to the practice has cut off supplies, leading to shortages of the drugs used in lethal injections. Now, several states scrambling to figure out if and how they'll be able to be able to go ahead with scheduled executions. Why Manufacturers Matter Lethal injection became the standard of executions about 33 years ago, after it was widely accepted as more humane than firing squad, the electric chair or hanging. Most states use a deadly combo of 3 drugs - 1 sedative, 1 muscle relaxer and 1 heart-stopping drug. But other states have used a 1-drug method of a barbiturate that's administered as an overdose. But scrutiny of lethal injections started gaining steam in 2005, when a study reported that it was possible inmates were experiencing extreme pain during executions. Then in 2006, 1 inmate in Florida took 35 minutes to die after being given his lethal dose, raising new questions about the cruelty of the practice. Since then, several other botched executions have dispelled the idea that injections were full-proof and peaceful. Then in about 2011, the bans started. First the EU clamped down on exports of drugs used for capital punishment. The same year, Hospira, the only U.S. company that sold a sedative used in lethal injections, sodium thiopental, announced it would stop selling the drug after its Italian plant refused to manufacture it. Afterwards, states began switching to another sedative - pentobarbital. But then its Danish manufacturer, Lundbeck, discovered it was being used in lethal injections and banned its sale to U.S. correctional facilities. States then turned to a different sedative - midazolam - and again, its manufacturer in Illinois, Akorn, announced a few weeks ago it would stop selling the drug to correctional facilities. With big pharma putting the squeeze on states to reconsider their options, many have turned to smaller drug compounding companies - but now in some cases, they're becoming an unreliable source. Pentobarbital is the key drug Texas has run out of, either because compounding pharmacies won't sell it or because they're struggling to get the raw ingredients needed. The smaller compounding pharmacies are also operating with the threat of being outed as a lethal drug injection maker could expose them to public condemnation - making one wonder how much longer they'll choose to stay in the market. So, now what? Will The Future Lead to The Past? In a twist that has got to have abolitionists wincing, instead of states choosing to consider ending executions in light of drug shortages, many might revert to old methods. A few weeks ago, Alabama's House of Representatives voted to use the electric chair if they can't secure a supply of new drugs. Virginia and Tennessee are also considering electrocution, while Oklahoma is discussing the gas chamber. Texas was recently down to its last dose of the lethal cocktail, leaving hundreds of death-row inmates waiting to find out what the future holds. Meanwhile, a lack of drugs in Utah has prompted legislators to approve bringing back execution by firing squad. It's likely an unintended consequence of cutting off the drug supply - but the situation has set off a fresh wave of debates that's likely to force many Americans to once again assess their comfort level with the sometimes gruesome realities of executions. A firing squad chamber. After the fire squad bill was introduced in Utah a few weeks ago, Gov. Gary Herbert, a Republican, received hundreds of messages urging him to veto it. (Today he announced that he'd sign the bill into law anyway.) The move shows that for now, when it comes to executions, many states may just change course, rather than abandon it. But with more than 3,000 prisoners on death row, how long will Americans be able to stomach hearing about inmates dying from firing squads and electric chairs? And even though the death penalty isn't going anywhere yet, many believe that being cut off by drug manufacturers has contributed to a slowdown in executions nationwide. In almost every year since 2009 - which is about when drug shortages started to become a problem in many states - the number of executions in the U.S. has dropped. In 2009, America executed 52 prisoners, and by 2014, the number was down to 35. Which begs the questions: Will the pressure from manufacturers spawn a new moment of reckoning for Americans? At some point, will the slowdown related to drug manufacturers help bring executions to an end? As the story unfolds in the coming weeks, drug manufacturers will continue to play their role in how the 32 states that allow the death penalty choose to proceed. While this latest shortage may not mean that manufacturers have the final say in the matter, their actions are clearly helping to steer the conversation. (source: manufacturing.net) *************************** 5 Death Penalty Cases Tainted by Racism----From race-baiting prosecutors to Confederate courthouse displays. The intersection of race and justice on the street has loomed in the headlines this past year or 2, with racially charged killings - Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Eric Garner, and Tamir Rice, among others - sparking widespread protests and highlighting stark police biases: A recent Justice Department investigation, for instance, found that blacks in Ferguson, Missouri, accounted for an overwhelming majority of traffic stops, traffic tickets, and arrests over a 2-year period - nearly everyone who got a jaywalking ticket was black. When black drivers were pulled over in Ferguson, the DOJ found, they were searched at twice the rate of white drivers. Racism in the courtroom has received far less attention recently. Yet it is virtually impossible to walk into a courthouse anywhere in the United States without seeing its impact. The prejudice is seldom overt these days; you'll find it reflected instead in the underfunded, undertrained, overworked, and sometimes incompetent lawyers appointed by the courts to represent criminal defendants who can't afford counsel. Even so, the fates of countless men and women - see my in-depth piece on the case of Kenneth Fults in Georgia - have been affected by plain, old-fashioned racism. Consider these 5 examples. Watch your daughters In 2005, Andre Thomas, a black man with a history of severe mental illness, was convicted and sentenced to death in Texas for killing his estranged wife (who was white) and her 2 children (1 of them his). To obtain the all-white jury that sentenced Thomas, prosecutors Kerye Ashmore and Joe Brown utilized an only-in-Texas procedure called a "shuffle," which eliminated most of the potential black jurors from consideration. In a jury questionnaire, 4 white prospective jurors indicated their opposition to miscegenation - 1 man emphasized that he "vigorously" opposed people of different racial backgrounds marrying and/or having children and was "not afraid to say so," and further wrote on the questionnaire: "I don't believe God intended for this." Court-appointed defender R.J. Hagood, who had the responses in front of him, neglected to question or challenge these jurors, all of whom ultimately sat in judgment of his client. During closing arguments, prosecutor Ashmore gave the jury this loaded ultimatum: "Are you going to take the risk about him asking your daughter out, or your granddaughter out? After watching the string of girls that came up here and apparently could talk him into - that he could talk into being with him, are you going to take that chance?" Thomas remains on death row. King Kong and the "blond lady" In 2000, Johnny Bennett, a black man, was sentenced to death in South Carolina for stabbing and killing a friend. During the trial's sentencing phase, prosecutor Donald Myers spent a great deal of time talking about Bennett's conviction, a dozen years earlier, for a cross-racial assault. The prosecutor offered a not-so-subtle reminder to the all-white jury that the defendant had dated a white woman. He called to the stand one of the victims, who testified that he'd dreamed "black Indians" were chasing him. Myers himself referred to Bennett as "King Kong" and a "beast of burden," and elicited from another witness that Bennett's prior girlfriend had been "a blond lady" - a not-so-subtle reminder to the all-white jury that the defendant had dated a white woman. The state Supreme Court would later rule that the black Indians reference "merely described" the victim's "emotional injury." It recognized that the blond lady and King Kong references could have racial connotations, but the key question was whether these comments "so infected the trial with unfairness" as to taint the verdict - and they did not, the court determined. 1 juror, asked later what he thought might have prompted Bennett's seemingly motiveless crime, responded: "Because he was just a dumb nigger." Bennett remains on death row. "Offensive to some" Felton Dorsey was convicted of murder and sentenced to death in 2009 in Caddo Parish, Louisiana. Dorsey complained that the courthouse, located in Shreveport, had created a racist atmosphere by maintaining a Confederate flag memorial on its grounds. 1 prospective juror indicated that he could not serve in a courthouse with a Confederate display. The flag, his lawyers argued, was placed there to remind anyone entering of an era when the lynching and enslavement of blacks was permitted by law. Indeed, 1 prospective juror indicated that he could not serve in a courthouse with a Confederate display nearby. The state Supreme Court rejected Dorsey's claim, concluding that, while the display might be "offensive to some," his lawyers didn't object at the time of the trial, so the claim was improperly before the court. The judges also rejected a statistical claim offered by the Louisiana Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, which had studied 120 jury trials over a 12-year period and determined that Caddo Parish prosecutors dismissed black jurors at more than triple the rate of white jurors. 2 months after the Dorsey ruling, Caddo Parish commissioners voted 11-1 to remove the Confederate flag. Dorsey remains on death row. "They deal crack over there" Victor Walther was one of 12 white jurors who sentenced a black man, Gary Sterling, to death in 1989 for murdering a white man in the course of a robbery. Robert Dunn, Sterling's lawyer, had known Walther for decades and knew he "probably" was a racist. In fact, Walther subsequently provided an affidavit during Sterling's postconviction proceedings that left little doubt about his sentiments: There are some niggers who live [a] couple blocks over. They deal crack over there. Sometimes those niggers will start hollering and cursing. And pretty soon they'll start shooting. One of them stays in jail all the time. He'll be in jail a few days and then he'll be right back out. A couple of 'em shot each other last Juneteenth over a card game. Yet at the trial, attorney Dunn never asked the jurors about their racial attitudes, explaining later that he didn't think they would answer the questions honestly. It's hard not to question his rationale, given that Dunn himself was faulted in another case for calling his Salvadoran client a "wetback" in front of the jury. The 5th Circuit ruled that Dunn's failure to question Walther on his racial views did not fall "outside the wide range of reasonable strategic professional assistance." Sterling was executed in 2005. Racist representation Demetrie Mayfield received a death sentence in California for killing a neighbor and her companion in 1983. He later alleged that his attorney, S. Donald Ames, had failed to represent him properly because of his race. There was compelling evidence that Ames was a virulent racist. As one of his own daughters put it: "His contempt for us was exceeded only by his contempt for people of other races and ethnic groups." His contempt for us [his family] was exceeded only by his contempt for people of other races and ethnic groups. He especially ridiculed black people, referring to them with racial invectives. He used such terms and phrases as "nigger," "schwartze," "jig," "jungle bunnies," "trigger the nigger," and "shoot the coon to the moon." Ames' former secretary, a superior court employee, and an investigator all confirmed his frequent use of racial epithets to describe clients, lawyers, and secretaries. But the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals was unmoved. The judges noted that Ames' racial animus was not aimed specifically at Mayfield, and that any prejudice Mayfield suffered could not be traced directly to his lawyer's hatred of blacks. The court did, however, find that Mayfield deserved a new sentencing because Ames, whom he first met on the morning of his trial, had not provided adequate representation. Mayfield is still in prison, but no longer on death row. *************************** "That's What That N----- Deserved; A prejudiced juror, a racist lawyer, and a death sentence no court is willing to reconsider. "The one place where a man ought to get a square deal is in a courtroom, be he any color of the rainbow, but people have a way of carrying their resentments right into a jury box." - Lawyer Atticus Finch in Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird In April 2005, nearly 8 years after Kenneth Fults was sentenced to death for kidnapping and murdering his neighbor Cathy Bounds in Spalding County, Georgia, 1 of the trial jurors made a startling admission under oath: He'd voted for the death penalty, he said, because "that's what that nigger deserved." It shouldn't come as too much of a surprise, given the circumstances - a black man admitting to the murder of a white woman in the deep South -that some white jurors might secretly harbor racist views. The surprising part was that this juror, Thomas Buffington, came right out and said it. And what should have been the most surprising development of all (alas, it wasn't) came this past August, when a federal appeals court, presented with ample evidence, refused to consider how racism might have affected Fults' fate. In fact, state and federal courts have routinely avoided the evidence and consequences of racism in the criminal-justice system. (See "5 Death Penalty Cases Tainted by Racism.") Consider one of the most famous examples, the 1987 Supreme Court case of McCleskey v. Kemp, in which lawyers for Warren McCleskey, a black man sentenced to death for killing a white police officer, presented statistics from more than 2,000 Georgia murder cases. The data demonstrated a clear bias against black defendants whose victims were white: When both killer and victim were black, only 1 % of the cases resulted in a death sentence. When the killer was black and the victim white, 22 % were sentenced to death - more than 7 times the rate for when the races were reversed. Prosecutors sought death for black defendants in 70 % of murder cases with white victims, but just 15 % of cases in which the victim was black. It wasn't just jurors who were biased. Prosecutors sought the death penalty for black defendants in 70 % of murder cases when the victim was white, but only 15 % when the victim was black. The Supreme Court was less than impressed with all of this. Justice Lewis Powell, in a 5-4 majority opinion he would later call his greatest regret on the bench, wrote that McCleskey could not prove that "the decisionmakers in his case acted with discriminatory purpose." In short, evidence of systemic racial bias had no relevance in individual cases. Further on, Powell got down to his true concern: "McCleskey's claim, taken to its logical conclusion, throws into serious question the principles that underlie our entire criminal justice system." Justice William Brennan dissented with one of the most memorable statements of his iconic career: "Taken on its face, such a statement seems to suggest a fear of too much justice." He went on: "The prospect that there may be more widespread abuse than McCleskey documents may be dismaying, but it does not justify complete abdication of our judicial role." Georgia executed McCleskey in 1991, but the McCleskey rationale - which the New York Times labeled the "impossible burden" of proving that racial animus motivated any particular prosecutor, judge, or jury - has been used by dozens of courts to reject statistical claims of discrimination in capital cases, even though today's numbers are not much better. The Fults case was different, though. Here was an actual juror explaining his decision to impose the death sentence through a blatantly racist lens. It was precisely the sort of evidence the Supreme Court claimed was lacking in the McCleskey case. So why has Kenneth Fults not been granted a new sentencing? Fults during a prison visit with his son Justice Powell's concerns are understandable. After all, what part of the criminal-justice system is untouched by racism? Some death penalty critics, in fact, view capital punishment as a direct descendent of lynching. The phrase "legal lynching" first appeared in the New York Times during the infamous 1931 Scottsboro Boys trials, in which nine black youths were charged with raping 2 white women in Alabama. Their lack of counsel, coupled with the explicit exclusion of black jurors, led the Supreme Court to intercede twice and reverse convictions. It's hard to read those opinions today without feeling a sense of horror. Within 2 weeks of the alleged crime, eight of the 9 young men had been sentenced to death in 3 separate trials by the same jury. Although there was no shortage of black men in Scottsboro County who were legally eligible to serve on juries, there was no record of any of them ever serving on one. Perhaps most remarkably, none of the defendants had a lawyer appointed to represent him until the morning of trial. In 2013, more than 80 years after the arrests, the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles posthumously pardoned the 3 Scottsboro Boys whose convictions still stood. Do "not take Jews, Negroes, Dagos, Mexicans, or a member of any minority race on a jury, no matter how rich or well educated," reads a 1963 Dallas prosecution manual. We have not come nearly as far from these outrages as you might think. People of color are still dramatically underrepresented on juries and grand juries, even though excluding people based on race is illegal and undermines "public confidence in our system of justice," as the Supreme Court put it in 1986. Prospective black jurors are routinely dismissed at higher rates than whites. The law simply requires some rationale other than skin color. "Question them at length," a prominent Philadelphia prosecutor suggested to his proteges after the Supreme Court banned race as a reason for striking jurors. "Mark something down that you can articulate at a later time." For instance, a lawyer might say, "Well, the woman had a kid about the same age as the defendant, and I thought she'd be sympathetic to him." In 2005, a former prosecutor in Texas revealed that her superiors had instructed her, if she wanted to strike a black juror, to falsely claim that she'd seen the person sleeping. This was just a dressed-up version of the Dallas prosecution training manual from 1963, which directed assistant district attorneys to "not take Jews, Negroes, Dagos, Mexicans, or a member of any minority race on a jury, no matter how rich or how well educated." The 1969 edition of the manual, used into the 1980s, promoted a more subtle brand of stereotyping, noting that it was "not advisable to select potential jurors with multiple gold chains around their necks." But it hardly mattered: Overt, covert, or in between - the result was the same. North Carolina prosecutors were striking black jurors at twice the rate of whites; the odds of that being race-neutral were less than 1 in 10 trillion. Virtually every state with a death penalty has dealt with accusations that black jurors have been improperly kept off juries. During the 1992 death penalty trial of a defendant named George Williams, for example, a California prosecutor dismissed the 1st 5 black women in the jury box. "Sometimes you get a feel for a person," he explained, "that you just know that they can't impose it based upon the nature of the way that they say something." The judge went even further, noting that "black women are very reluctant to impose the death penalty; they find it very difficult." In 2013, the California Supreme Court ruled that these jury strikes were not race-based, and deemed the judge's statement "isolated." Williams remains on death row. After North Carolina passed its Racial Justice Act, a 2009 law that let inmates challenge death sentences based on racial bias, a state court determined that prosecutors were dismissing black jurors at twice the rate of other jurors. The probability of this being a race-neutral fluke, according to 2 professors from Michigan State University, was less than 1 in 10 trillion; even the state's expert agreed that the disparity was statistically significant. Based on these numbers, the court vacated the death sentences of three inmates and resentenced each to life without parole. 6 months later, the state legislature repealed the Racial Justice Act. Perhaps You're Still wondering, despite all of the above, how Thomas Buffington ended up on the Fults jury. The answer is simple. He lied: Defense attorney: Do you have any racial prejudice resting on your mind? Buffington: No, sir. Defense attorney: Does it make any difference that in this case the defendant is black and the victim was white? Buffington: No, sir. Even this sort of cursory questioning wasn't required by the Supreme Court until 1986, and then only in capital cases - and when the defense requests it. In order to function, the justice system has to presume that jurors will tell the truth under oath, just as it presumes lawyers are competent. And what of the lawyers' role? Since 1976, when mandatory death sentences were ruled unconstitutional, the decision of whether to seek execution has rested entirely with the local district attorney. In practice, this means a white man usually gets to decide who should face the death chamber. A 2009 study found that more than 85 % of chief prosecutors in the United States were white, and the majority were male. Prosecutor William McBroom wasn't the type to fret over moral ambiguities: He sought death sentences at every opportunity. In the Fults case, that white man was William McBroom, district attorney of the Griffin Judicial Circuit. McBroom had already put two men on death row by the time he prosecuted Fults, and continued to aggressively seek and obtain death verdicts until 2004, when he lost his reelection by a hair. He wasn't the type to fret over moral ambiguities: McBroom sought death sentences at every opportunity, thereby avoiding allegations of discrimination in the charging process. His tough approach found an unlikely ally in Johnny Mostiler, the Spalding County public defender, who happened to be representing Kenneth Fults. "We're finding ourselves facing crimes we think are Atlanta big-city crimes," Mostiler proclaimed at one point. "We're a law-abiding town. We want our criminals prosecuted." McBroom and Mostiler knew each other so well that the Fults transcript sometimes reads like old friends reminiscing: McBroom points out how Mostiler is going to respond, mentions an argument his rival made in an earlier case, and refers to him by first name before handing over the floor for closing arguments. "Mostiler was the toughest trial lawyer in Spalding County," McBroom recalled some years after the Fults trial. "He would take cases where you didn't think defendants had a chance, and you'd be fighting for your life." He had every reason to praise Mostiler. A death verdict is invariably followed by appeals in which the defense attorney's work comes under close scrutiny. Prosecutors routinely hail their adversaries as giants in the field of capital defense to make it harder for any defendant to claim his lawyer was incompetent. And McBroom, who had obtained death verdicts against Mostiler in several prior cases, needed to defend some deplorable behavior: For all intents and purposes, Johnny Mostiler, like Thomas Buffington, was a racist. Spalding County, 40 miles south of Atlanta, has but a single public defender to represent criminal defendants who can't afford an attorney - and a great majority cannot. All through the 1990s, Mostiler was that defender, responsible for handling as many as 900 felonies a year. He also maintained a significant civil practice on the side and took on serious felony cases outside of Spalding County. But he was hardly your humble, nose to the grindstone type. According to a 2001 profile in The American Prospect, he stood out in a black cowboy hat; a silver beard with handlebar mustache; 6 gold, silver, and onyx rings; and three gold bracelets. He also drove a mustard-green 1972 Cadillac El Dorado convertible - with cattle horns as a hood ornament. Clients and fellow lawyers recalled Fults' defense attorney using the N-word. Of one client, he allegedly said: "That little nigger deserves the chair." But Mostiler's true legacy - he died of a heart attack a few years after the Fults trial - involved the case of his former client Curtis Osborne, who was tried in 1991, found guilty of murder, and finally scheduled for execution in 2008. As the clock wound down on Osborne's appeals, a former US attorney general, a former Georgia chief justice, and former President Jimmy Carter (previously the governor of Georgia) all spoke out against the execution. They had heard the allegation by another one of Mostiler's clients, a white man named Gerald Huey, that Mostiler had told him, speaking of Osborne, that "that little nigger deserves the chair." Some time later, a Georgia lawyer named Arleen Evans stepped forward with a sworn recollection about Mostiler's personal conduct: I recall 1 occasion when I was in the lawyer's lounge at the Spalding County Courthouse. There were a number of other lawyers there including Mr. Mostiler. Mr. Mostiler began telling racist jokes filled with racial epithets like "nigger." Some of the lawyers would laugh. Some would laugh nervously. Some would try to ignore it. And others would leave the room to get away from it. On another occasion, I remember walking into the lawyer's lounge and Mr. Mostiler was again telling racist jokes. Ms. Nancy Bradford, who is now deceased, looked at me, noticed that it was making me uncomfortable, and told me "that's just Johnny." Osborne's lawyers soon dug up yet more evidence: a transcript from the trial of Derrick Middlebrooks, a black defendant who was so troubled by the racist talk that he asked the judge to dismiss Mostiler as his public defender: "He indicated to me that he wouldn't - he couldn't go up there among them niggers because them niggers would kill him," Middlebrooks said. "Now personally I don't know if he meant anything really by it. But I find it, you know, kind of hard to have an attorney to represent me when he uses those type of words. It doesn't help my confidence in my attorney." "I honestly don't remember," Mostiler responded when the judge asked him about it. "I don't use those terms out in public. And I probably - if I did use it I certainly am sorry. I didn't mean to indicate that it was any - or any racial overtones. I think my - I think my record on race is..." "Well documented in this court," the judge interjected. Mostiler was long dead by the time his racist language became an issue in the Osborne case, but several prosecutors, including McBroom and his successor, District Attorney Scott Ballard, spoke up in his behalf. Mostiler had presented a "very adequate defense" of Curtis Osborne, Ballard argued. He urged that the execution go forward. Small counties tend to have incestuous legal communities. Public defenders and assistant district attorneys often swap sides and socialize together too; top assistants become bosses, and, most predictably, district attorneys end up on the bench. Such was the case with Johnnie Caldwell, Fults' trial judge. Caldwell had preceded McBroom as district attorney of the Griffin Judicial Circuit. As both a prosecutor and a judge, Caldwell was well aware of the racism allegations surrounding Mostiler. It was he, in fact, who had heard Middlebrooks' claim and used the opportunity to assure the public defender, saying: "It's unchallenged in this court with your actions concerning the races and certainly of standing up for the rights of all individuals regardless of their race or color or religious preference." Turning to Middlebrooks, he added: "I find nothing in Mr. Mostiler's conduct of this trial or in representing you that would cause me to disqualify him." "I find nothing in Mr. Mostiler's conduct of this trial or in representing you that would cause me to disqualify him." By suggesting that the public defender of Spalding County???a man hired year after year by the county commissioners - was a racist, Middlebrooks had also, unwittingly, impugned the dignity of the prosecutor and the presiding judge. Caldwell was clearly put out: Middlebrooks: My motion for a new attorney is denied? Caldwell: Yes, sir. Middlebrooks: Okay. Thank you. Caldwell: And I know you're sitting over there reading a book on ineffective assistance of counsel, you read it real well and write everything down, okay. Middlebrooks: Yes, sir. Caldwell: I'm directing you to. You write everything down and you write it well. You've been reading that book ever since you've been sitting over there. Middlebrooks: Judge, that has- Caldwell: Sir, don't say anything else. Middlebrooks: Yes, sir. When race became an issue in the Osborne case, Caldwell didn't step forward to disclose his interactions with Mostiler, nor did any of those other lawyers in the lounge, who had certainly heard the same racist jokes and comments Arleen Evans had. (Caldwell had his own problems: He resigned his judgeship in 2010 in light of allegations that he was soliciting female attorneys in open court. He was nonetheless elected, soon after, to the Georgia Legislature.) Ultimately, neither local nor federal courts were moved by the consistency of the race testimony. In 2006, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals soundly rejected Osborne's claim that Mostiler was ineffective due to racial animosity. (Osborne was executed two years later.) Citing McCleskey, the court said it was the racial animus of the decision makers???the prosecutors and the jurors, not the defense attorney - that mattered. So what would the same court say 8 years later, when lawyers for Kenneth Fults came before it with claims of racial animus involving a decision maker, the juror Thomas Buffington? In September 2013, a 3-judge panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals convened in Miami to hear Fults' claim. Half of their questions focused on legal hurdles, such as procedural default, cause and prejudice, impeachment of the verdict, and waiver. The other half dealt with the inexcusable nature of Buffington's admission. The state wanted the court to reject Fults' bias claim on a procedural technicality involving the rules of evidence, and Adalberto Jordan, the most outspoken of the judges, was struggling to understand why. "When you have a claim of a juror potentially recommending a sentence of death because of flat-out racial bias," Jordan asked, "why would the state of Georgia not want that claim heard on the merits?" Assistant Attorney General Sabrina Graham insisted that Georgia law was clear on the issue. A verdict could not be reversed based on jury deliberations, no matter what any juror had to say about them afterward. In the process, she spent some awkward moments trying to persuade Jordan and Judge Stanley Marcus that what Buffington said wasn't as damning as it sounded. Graham: I think there could not be any prejudice. Marcus: Tell me why there wouldn't be prejudice, if in fact the juror was tainted with racism that affected his decision-making process? Graham: I don't think you would have enough information to show that. Certainly Mr. Buffington uses a racially derogatory term. I do not think that his particular affidavit shows that he sentenced Mr. Fults to death based upon his racism. People have many prejudices - Jordan: "I knew I would vote for the death penalty because that's what that nigger deserved." You want something more specific than that? Graham: I think you do want something more specific. Jordan: Like? Graham: That was 8 years after - Jordan: Like? Like what? Graham: Like "I sentenced him to death based upon his race - Marcus: Let's suppose, just to take this to its logical conclusion, that there were 12 affidavits from all 12 jurors who voted for death, and each and every one of them said the same thing ... Even if every juror says, "I voted to execute him because he was black," you say, "That's the law"? Graham: That is the law. That's when Jordan, seemingly surprised by Graham's answer, suggested that there was a "safety valve under Georgia law." That is, if an evidentiary rule resulted in a violation of a defendant's constitutional rights, it might justify an exception to that rule. Graham conceded that such a ruling might be possible. "They have left that possibility open, but they have never actually done anything about it." She then pointed out that there are many reasons to trust a juror's answers during jury selection rather than statements the juror might make after a verdict of death is returned: "Fine, you want to say Mr. Buffington lied during voir dire. [But] you have the trial court, and you have defense counsel all watching these jurors." She was suggesting, in essence, that Johnny Mostiler, who had been accused of racism more than once, and Judge Caldwell, who'd belittled the claim of racism against Mostiler before being removed from the bench for harassing women in his own court, were suitable watchdogs to ensure an impartial jury. Was it possible she didn't realize who they were? The 11th Circuit was not entirely unfamiliar with juror bias. Back in 1986, a man named Daniel Neal Heller had been convicted of tax evasion in Florida. Evidence showed that Heller, a Jewish man, was the butt of anti-Semitic jokes in the jury room that consistently prompted "gales of laughter." The trial judge, when confronted by vague claims of discriminatory comments by the jury, cursorily asked each juror if he or she was "affected by prejudice." The 11th Circuit's three-judge panel reversed Heller's conviction, writing that the jurors' religious prejudice was "shocking to the conscience," and concluding: "The people cannot be expected to respect their judicial system if its judges do not, first, do so." The judges hearing the Fults case seemed to have forgotten the lessons of Heller. Despite their pointed questioning during oral arguments, the opinion they released 11 months later expressed neither shocked consciences nor fear of diminished respect for the system. If they were offended by Buffington's admission, it was lost amid all of the procedural arcana. The prevailing narrative about legal technicalities is that they open jailhouse doors. Quite the opposite. The prevailing narrative about legal technicalities, thanks to Hollywood portrayals and posturing politicians, is that they open jailhouse doors - which is one reason crime sometimes seems to be on the rise when in fact it is plummeting. In reality, though, legal technicalities are far more often used to preclude people from having their postconviction claims heard. The Fults opinion, written by the outspoken Judge Jordan, is a virtual primer on how the law has evolved to block, rather than illuminate, allegations of injustice. During oral arguments, Jordan seemed to be advocating a hearing to determine the circumstances of Buffington's admission. In his opinion, however, he condemned the defense for failing to provide sufficient detail about how or when Buffington's prejudice was discovered. While he had earlier questioned why Georgia didn't want a claim of "flat-out racial bias" heard on its merits, his opinion articulated every reason the claim had not been properly presented, and now could not be considered. Finally, "in an abundance of caution," he addressed the argument he seemed to be championing 11 months earlier: that the failure to consider Fults' racial-prejudice claim would be a miscarriage of justice. Once again, Jordan felt compelled to explain that this claim had not been properly presented. In any case, he concluded that Fults had not shown that his sentence was a miscarriage of justice. For while it's true that in Georgia a single juror can stop a death sentence from being imposed - the jury has to be unanimous - the bar is much higher for a death row inmate seeking to overturn his sentence. Fults' legal burden was to demonstrate that no reasonable juror would have voted to give him the death penalty. And this, in the court's view, he had not done. So how, exactly, does a "reasonable juror" think? It's difficult to think of any decisions more subjective than who should live or die. Every death penalty state has a statute with language intended to objectify the determination, but when all is said and done, it's highly personal: Will the person be a danger in the future? Do the circumstances of the crime trump the defendant's background? Do the reasons for a life sentence outweigh those for a death sentence? And how might this hypothetical reasonable juror regard Kenneth Fults? The man pleaded guilty to a horrible crime. He committed two burglaries and stole some handguns, all with the intention of killing a man involved with his former girlfriend. Instead, he ended up shooting a neighbor, Cathy Bounds, 5 times in the back of the head. But, as the Supreme Court has pointed out, there are "potentially infinite" reasons a juror might want to sentence someone who has committed a heinous crime to something less than death. Kenneth Fults' history was packed with them. "We stayed there alone without any adults watching over us so long that the power company had turned off all the utilities." "I just lost sight of raising my kids," his mother, Juanita Wyatt, told a state court judge, explaining the result of her crack and alcohol addictions. She was court-martialed from the military for writing bad checks to buy drugs, moved her children from house to house and state to state, abused them with switches and belts and electrical cords - using the plug end when the cord itself ceased to have the necessary impact. Whatever boyfriend happened to be with her at the time often joined in. As for Kenneth's father, the man was no more than a name to him. Kenneth's mother didn't just lose sight of raising her children - she lost sight of them entirely. His younger sister remembered how their mom had abandoned the kids after moving the family to Houston: We stayed there alone without any adults watching over us so long that the power company had turned off all the utilities. We didn't have heat or lights; I don't remember if we had water. I don't remember how long we were alone ... I know it was at least a couple of months. I was really scared. Kenny and Michael tried to make it like it was fun and we were just camping out or something. I know they started stealing for us to have something to eat, because we did not have any money. I also remember that Michael had them dig a hole in the ground in the backyard to bury some of our food to try and keep it cold when our electricity was turned off. Legally speaking, the most compelling reason not to sentence Fults to death is that he may be intellectually disabled. 3 separate IQ tests over a 16-year period, one of them seven years prior to the murder, all fall within the range for mental retardation. By 7th grade, Fults was testing near the bottom in basic skills. In eighth, he was placed in a "special class ... for slow learners." In that class, a former teacher recalled, Kenny was the "poorest performing student." There also was abundant testimony that he was incapable of keeping his money straight or filling out job applications. And as a child, he related to far younger children. Even Judge Jordan, in rejecting Fults' claim of intellectual disability in the 11th Circuit, acknowledged that his lawyers' argument was "not without some force." But again, procedural rules came into play: Since the state court had rejected the claim, its decision was presumed correct, and only "clear and convincing" evidence could overturn it. The IQ tests, the academic struggles, the affidavits of family members and teachers and friends detailing his "slowness," none of that was enough. As for what a reasonable juror might have done with all of this information, we'll never know. Johnny Mostiler didn't present any of it to the jury. Kenneth Fults has one last stop before his appeals run out. The likelihood that the US Supreme Court will review any matter is remote, but there could be a tiny sliver of hope for him in a civil case, Warger v. Shauers, that the court decided last December. On its face, the unanimous ruling seems as though it would be to Fults' detriment: Justice Sonia Sotomayor's majority opinion echoes what lawyer Sabrina Graham had argued on Georgia's behalf in the Fults case: that what a juror says later cannot be used to attack the verdict. How do we know when we've crossed the line, when our justice system can't tolerate a result that its technical rules encourage? You have to read the fine print, footnote No. 3 to be exact, to find the passage that could be Fults' saving grace: "There may be cases of juror bias so extreme that, almost by definition, the jury trial right has been abridged. If and when such a case arises, the Court can consider whether the usual safeguards are or are not sufficient to protect the integrity of the process." As much as Georgia wants to make the case about a rule of evidence, it is not really about that at all. It is, instead, about Footnote No. 3, and that most extreme form of juror bias: sentencing a man to death based on racial hostility. And maybe it's also about how far we are willing to go, and how many procedural barriers we are willing to erect, to avoid dealing with the ramifications of such behavior. How do we know when we've crossed the line, when our system of justice simply can't tolerate a result that its technical rules encourage? Here's Buffington's full statement: "That nigger got just what should have happened. Once he pled guilty, I knew I would vote for the death penalty because that's what that nigger deserved." Racism doesn't get much clearer than that. Now it'll be up to the Supreme Court to decide whether the rules of evidence might, just this once, take a backseat to the principle that no man should be judged by the color of his skin. (source for both: Marc Bookman, Mother Jones) ****************** The Difficulty Of Picking A 'Death Qualified' Jury The trial continues in Boston this week for the man accused in the bombing of the Boston Marathon. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev faces the death penalty for those crimes. And next month, a pre-trial hearing in Vermont will begin in the case of Donald Fell, who faces the death penalty for the murder of a Clarendon woman in 2000. Neither Vermont nor Massachusetts are states that have the death penalty, but having a trial that could end with capital punishment in those states is not an uncommon occurrence. "Some offenses are both state and federal offenses. And in those circumstances where there is concurrent jurisdiction in the state and federal systems, generally what happens is that the prosecutors in both systems get together and make a decision about who will prosecute the offense, and sometimes it's both," said Jessica West, director of the Experiential Advocacy Program and an associate professor at Vermont Law School. Under the federal system there is a possibility of capital punishment. Both cases involve federal offenses as well as state offenses. The Tsarnaev case is considered an act of terrorism, which is a federal offense. Donald Fell, meanwhile, was charged with committing the murder of Terry King, but before allegedly killing her he transported her from Vermont to New York, and West said that is the justification for a federal offense in that case, which makes Fell eligible for the death penalty. Fell also killed his mother and her friend earlier before kidnapping King from a parking lot. Fell's accomplice in the crime, Robert Lee, killed himself in prison before being tried. Donald Fell is getting a second trial because one of the jurors went and visited the crime scene and told other jurors about his visit. West said the juror's actions were troubling because the judicial system controls the evidence that is presented, or not presented, to the jury. "In a circumstance where a juror, here Juror 143, goes out and visits a scene that juror can come back and provide additional information that's not able to be cross examined or refuted, or rebutted or weighed or balanced by the other jurors," West explained. "So it does in some circumstances, and did here, result in a new trial." West said jurors are given instructions to follow, including not to decide or think about the case in a way of deciding the outcome until all of the evidence is presented. "Yet, social scientists will tell us that's not in fact the way the brain operates." West said it's clear in the Fell case, however that Judge William Sessions had instructed jurors not to try to collect their own information, and Juror 143 violated that in something that was more than just negligence. The jury will need to decide for a second time whether Fell committed the crimes and they'll have to make another determination on sentencing. "I don't think they're going to have a hard time coming to a conclusion with regard to the guilt or innocence of Mr. Fell," West said. "But the issue of the appropriate penalty is probably one that they're going to struggle with all over again." West said picking a jury in a death penalty case presents its own challenges, in part because they are difficult cases to sit on, and jurors are reluctant to do that, both because of the length of the trials, and because of the emotional weight of making a sentencing decision. "It's one of the things that abolitionists, people opposed to the death penalty point to, is the burden on those people who need to decide, the burden on the system, those kind of issues," West explained. "In a place like Vermont where there isn't the death penalty, where there may be a number of people opposed to the death penalty, the system has a mechanism for weeding those people out. A jury in a death penalty case must be 'death qualified' meaning the could impose the death sentence." If you are picking people who are willing to oppose the death penalty are they biased in favor of the death penalty? West said that argument is made all the time. "And it's true. They are biased in favor of conviction, and they are biased in favor of the death penalty. But the system doesn't know another way to navigate the fact that it wants to have a set of jurors who can and are able to impose the law." (source: Vermont Public Radio) From rhalperi at smu.edu Tue Mar 24 11:14:59 2015 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Tue, 24 Mar 2015 11:14:59 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide Message-ID: March 24 QATAR: Court upholds death penalty for citizen A higher criminal court yesterday upheld a death sentence against a citizen convicted of the murder of a 24-year-old British school teacher. The Criminal Court of Appeals confirmed the sentence as Lauren Patterson's mother Alison, who flew here from England to attend the court proceedings, watched on. The court, however, ruled that it was not within its jurisdiction to consider Alison's plea for a monetary compensation of QR20m ($5.5m), reports Al Sharq. "That jurisdiction lies with the civil court." A prominent lawyer, Yusuf Al Zaman, told The Peninsula that the main convict can challenge the verdict of the higher criminal court in Qatar's Supreme Court (the Court of Cassation) within 60 days. He said that if the convict fails to challenge the ruling of the Criminal Court of Appeals the Public Prosecution must do that within the above timeframe. "This is because the sentence involves death. It is not an ordinary sentence, so the highest court must review the ruling," said Al Zaman. So, for the next 60 days the verdict of the Criminal Court of Appeals will remain suspended, the lawyer added. When told that the last death sentence was carried out in Qatar 12 years ago, in March 2003, Al Zaman said he wasn't sure. Arun Abraham, an Indian, had killed a woman family friend Lija Abraham, also an Indian, late in April of 2001 and was sentenced to death 2 years later. Meanwhile, the Criminal Court of Appeals sentenced an accomplice of the convict, also a young Qatari, to 3 years in jail for helping burn Patterson's body and destroy the evidence. Patterson, from Kent in England, was murdered in October 2013 after leaving a bar in a star hotel here with a female friend and the 2 convicts after midnight. She was friendly with the convicts and it seems they were together in the bar. Patterson's female friend insisted that she stay with her overnight since she was heavily drunk. But the main convict dropped Patterson's female friend at her home and promised her that he will be dropping her (Patterson) also home safely. But police investigations, according to Al Sharq, revealed that the main convict took her to a rented house of his accomplice, the 2nd convict. According to investigation he had intercourse with Patterson forcibly and then stabbed her with a knife in the chest. "The crime took place just because the convict became crazy and wanted to have intercourse with the victim ... And, moreover, she was killed unnecessarily," the Public prosecution said in its charges filed in the court. The convicts wrapped Patterson's body in a carpet which had blood stains, put it in a car and drove to a deserted area and put it on fire using charcoal and wood. They also put Patterson's mobile phone and handbag with her body to destroy evidence completely. Some people in the area where the victim's body was burnt said they smelt the stench of burning flesh and saw the 2 men moving in a car nearby. Al Sharq said during investigations the duo confessed to the crime and even re-enacted the gory episode which the police, understandably, had video-graphed to produce in the court. The Prosecution told the court it wanted death penalty for the main convict as the victim was murdered in cold blood and a "knife was used not for self-defence". (source: The Peninsula) PAKISTAN: Death warrant re-issued: Court orders to hang Saulat Mirza on April 1 An anti-terrorism court in Karachi has re-issued black warrant for death row convict Saulat Mirza today (Tuesday), Dunya News reported. The court has ordered to execute Mirza at 5:00am on April 1, 2015. The administration of Machh central jail had sent a letter to the court, seeking fresh death warrant of Saulat Mirza. He was handed death penalty in a case pertaining to killing of managing director of then named Karachi Electric Supply Corporation Shahid Hamid, his driver and guard in 1997. Earlier, the convict was scheduled to be hanged on March 19 at 5:30am, but his hanging was postponed at 11th hour following a presidential order. Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar informed the National Assembly that Mirza's execution was postponed due to his health condition.In a video message from death cell on April 18, the convict alleged that he killed former KESC Director Shahid Hamid on the directives of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) chief Altaf Hussain. Mirza alleged that he received the order to kill him from Altaf Hussain at MQM leader Babar Ghauri's residence through telephone. He further alleged that people whom the party wanted to save from police torture are provided protection by Sindh Governor Ishratul Ebad. In response, the MQM Coordination Committee denied all the allegations. (source: Dunya news) From rhalperi at smu.edu Tue Mar 24 17:40:27 2015 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Tue, 24 Mar 2015 17:40:27 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----PENN., FLA., KAN., NEB., UTAH, USA Message-ID: March 24 PENNSYLVANIA: Death penalty costly, ineffective Each day consists of opportunities to make known our voices for those who cannot. Today, I speak in further encouragement of the seeking of justice; I ask for the 186 inmates in the state of Pennsylvania to no longer await execution in prison's hot seats of death row. The continuation of the death penalty, a brutal and morally degrading law, should receive careful reconsideration due to the hefty expenses it accumulates and its lack of use in Pennsylvania within the past 15 years. As 18 states, including the District of Columbia, have abolished the death penalty, it is time for the Keystone State to join the list. Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf promised his citizens an examination of the death penalty's overall fairness and potentially a repeal of the law. As Berks County District Attorney John Adams states in the Reading Eagle, Dec. 14, "Definitely, the death penalty extremely strains our resources." Additionally, the cost of the state's death penalty is estimated at around $350 million. Inspired by the neighboring state of Maryland, which issued a cost study resulting in the abolition of the law, a report was commissioned by state legislators back in 2011; however, it was never carried out. According to The Patriot-News, a recent cost study, sponsored by state Sen. Stewart Greenleaf, calls it "historic." Based on Maryland's study, which shows $2 million more toward those on death row rather than life sentencing, Pennsylvania could possibly save up to $370 million. Millions of dollars are thrown away, so why should this inactive law remain? As I previously mentioned, the last execution in Pennsylvania occurred 15 years ago, and only 3 have taken place within the past 35 years. While the death penalty exists and yet lacks enforcement, what purpose does it serve? As time urges examination of outdated concepts and reformation of state finances, do not hesitate to speak up. Support our state leaders today in their commitment to seek brighter futures for Pennsylvania, saving money, time and lives. Thank you. Kelsea Dvorak, New Freedom (source: Letter to the Editor, York Daily Record) FLORIDA: Low Bar For Florida Death Penalty Juries Triggers High Court Review The Supreme Court will examine Florida's capital punishment system in its next term, and legal experts believe Florida's death penalty itself may be in danger. A solution could be in a legislative fix now moving slowly through the Capitol in Tallahassee. It's been passed by one Senate committee but the House is showing little interest in the companion bill. The Supreme Court case involves a murder conviction and death sentence from Escambia County and whether it violates the court's 2002 holding in Ring vs. Arizona. That decision emphasized Sixth Amendment jury responsibility for death sentences, even when they are only recommendations to the judge. Until now, subtleties in Florida law had seemed to keep the state in a grey area in which Ring did not apply. But since Florida -- alone among the 32 death-penalty states -- allows jury recommendations of death by simple majority and doesn't require a provably rigorous examination of aggravating and mitigating circumstances, state law is now seen as requiring too little of its 1st-degree murder juries. Juries must determine guilt unanimously. Between 2000 and 2012, according to a Senate staff analysis, juries recommended death penalties by 12-to-0 in only 60 of 320 cases. 96 others were decided by votes of 11-to-1 or 10-to-2. In the Escambia County case, the jury vote for death was 7-to-5. The jury left no record of whether it had even considered defendant Timothy Hurst's claim that he was mentally disabled. In Tallahassee, most of the discussion about the death penalty bills is about the unanimity requirement and whether it contributes to Florida's status as the number-one state for death row exonerations. "Florida is an outlier," said Senate bill sponsor Thad Altman (R-Brevard County). "You require a unanimous jury vote for guilt in a capital case. Why would you not if you're going to take a human life?" Altman is a conservative Republican who has some misgivings about the death penalty but would rather not see it struck down. His bill would impose a unanimity requirement on jury penalty recommendations and proof of the aggravating and mitigating factors to the same standard as the rest of the trial evidence. Jurors would have to approve those, too, also unanimously. The same requirements are in the House bill sponsored jointly by State Rep. Jose Javier Rodriguez (D-Miami Dade County) and Clovis Watson (D-Alachua County). Rodriguez says the politics are complicated and no committee has agreed to hear it. "There are those of us who are very intent on reform and there are some people who see this reform measure as sort of soft on crime," Rodriguez said. "It's really not at all that." Like Altman -- with whom he generally disagrees -- Rodriguez thinks if there must be a death penalty, it must be fairly applied. And that's a view shared by one of the death penalty's most implacable opponents, the Catholic Church. "We support the bill, very, very much," said Ingrid Delgado, who lobbies the Legislature for the Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops, which is often against the death penalty. "Our bishops for a very long time have been saying that it shouldn't exist in our state that we should discontinue it in our state. However, as long as we do have the death penalty, then the process should be as just and reliable as possible. Perhaps predictably, the bill is favored by defense lawyers and opposed by prosecutors. At a meeting of the Senate committee that ultimately passed Altman's bill, they argued over how requiring unanimity might affect murder case juries. Rex Demming of the Florida Public Defenders Association said the current simple majority rule makes it too easy to condemn the defendant. "Jurors are exhausted by the time they get to the penalty phase. They've sat through days or weeks of testimony and they're ready to get it done. When they hear, 'All you have to do is go back there, get a simple majority vote and come back,' they're more than anxious to do that," Demming testified. But Alachua County State Attorney William Cervone, speaking for the Florida Prosecuting Attorneys Association, said requiring unanimity would remove nuances that can help the sentencing judge. "It is very instructive for the judge to know that the jury felt 12-to-0 or the jury felt 7-to-5 in making this ultimate decision on this very important question," Cervone told the committee. If the death penalty reform bill doesn't pass and the Supreme Court rules as predicted, Florida's death penalty could collapse of its own weight. (soruce: WLRN news) KANSAS: John E. Robinson death penalty appeal hearing takes 3 hours in Topeka After more than a decade of preparation, lawyers for convicted serial killer John E. Robinson Sr. got a little more than 1 hour Tuesday to make their case for a new trial. During oral arguments before the Kansas Supreme Court, the defense raised a multitude of factors they say prevented Robinson from getting a fair trial. Attorneys for the state countered that Robinson's 2002 prosecution in Johnson County was handled fairly and his convictions and death sentence should be upheld. The justices questioned prosecutors about how they construction the 2 capital murder charges that put Robinson on death row. In each count, prosecutors cited the same deaths of 4 other women in Missouri as being were part of a continuous scheme or course of conduct, 1 of the factors that allows prosecutors to seek the death penalty under Kansas law. If the court finds that structure to be a problem, the state could lose 1 of Robinson's 2 capital murder convictions. Jurors also convicted Robinson of 1st-degree murder in a 3rd woman???s death after the longest criminal trial in Kansas history. Robinson, now 71, killed the 3 women over a 15-year period. He later pleaded guilty in Cass County to killing 5 other women and was sentenced to life in prison in Missouri. The Johnson County convictions - the subject of Tuesday's hearing - involved the deaths of a 27-year-old Michigan woman, Suzette Trouten, and a 21-year-old Indiana woman, Izabela Lewicka. Both moved to the Kansas City area after meeting Robinson online. Their bodies were found in June 2000 stuffed inside barrels on property Robinson owned in Linn County, Kan. Robinson also was found guilty in Kansas of killing Lisa Stasi, a 19-year-old Kansas City woman last seen by her family in 1985. Her body has not been found, but authorities discovered that her infant daughter had been raised by members of Robinson's family after he arranged an adoption that they believed was legitimate. Kansas has not executed an inmate since the state re-instituted the death penalty in 1994. (source: Kansas City Star) NEBRASKA: Conservative group hosts death row survivor Nebraska Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty and the Creighton University chapters of the Young Americans for Liberty and Students for Life will host an evening of discussion with former death row inmate Ray Krone Tuesday in Omaha. A lifelong Republican and an Air Force veteran, Krone was a death penalty supporter until he was wrongfully convicted of murder in 1992 and sentenced to death in Arizona. A decade later, DNA tests proved his innocence and led authorities to the actual killer. "It's too dangerous to give the government the power to kill us under any circumstances," he says in a news release. Krone is one of the 151 people to be released from death rows across America and is director of membership and training for Witness to Innocence, an organization led by death row exonerees. The discussion with Krone is set to begin at 6 p.m. in the ballroom of the Harper Center at Creighton. More, contact Matt Maly of Nebraska Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty, 402-650-4485 or matt at nadp.net. (source: Lincoln Journal Star) UTAH: Utah Citizens Group Pushes to End Death Penalty in US The debate over the US state of Utah decision to allow executions by a killing squad needs to bring to light the issue of ending the death penalty in the United States once and for all, Utah Citizens' Counsel member Dee Rowland told Sputnik on Tuesday. "My hope is that this discussion of the method of execution in Utah will result in lifting the awareness of the fact that with modern abilities to separate an accused murderer from the public, the use of the death penalty will finally be seen as obsolete and will cease," Rowland said on Tuesday. On Tuesday, the American Civil Liberties Union of Utah told Sputnik they were opposed to Herbert's move, and hoped for a wider conversation on the death penalty and the detractors of it. The Utah Citizens' Counsel is an independent, non-partisan group of senior community advocates dedicated to improving public policy on complex issues through dialogue and consensus building. (source: sputniknews.com) ********************* Utah's authorization of firing squads to carry the death penalty bucks international trend Utah's decision to reintroduce the firing squad as an execution method if lethal injections drugs are unavailable bucks an international trend. The change in law makes Utah only the 2nd U.S. state to adopt firing squads in executions after Oklahoma, which relies on it only as a method of last resort. The U.S. is the only country in the Americas to allow the use of firing squads in civilian cases besides Cuba. Many countries that use firing squads usually reserve them for military cases or during war time. An exception is Indonesia which is preparing to execute 10 drug smugglers, 9 of them foreigners, by firing squad after judicial reviews are complete. China, where thousands of people are believed to be executed each year, traditionally used firing squads. But in recent years China has begun using lethal injections and that is now believed to be the main technique. The exact number of executions in China is a state secret, but it is thought to be the most in the world. Firing squads remain the preferred method of execution in Somalia and Equatorial Guinea and are known to have been used in Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia. North Korea is believed to use them. According to Amnesty International at least 778 executions, excluding China's, were carried out around the globe in 2013 - the last year for which numbers were available - compared to 682 in 2012. The organization did not provide a breakdown of executions methods. At least 1,927 people were known to have been sentenced to death in 57 countries in 2013, up from 1,722 death sentences in 58 countries in 2012, according to Amnesty. ASIA Videos smuggled out of North Korea reportedly show public executions by firing squad. South Korea's spy agency believes North Korea used a firing squad last year to execute several people close to leader Kim Jong Un's uncle, Jang Song Thaek, who was considered the country's second most powerful person before his sudden purge and execution in December 2013. Vietnam, with nearly 700 people on death row, switched from firing squads to lethal injection on humanitarian grounds in 2011. Since then it has only executed a handful of people because of the difficulty in acquiring the required drugs. Taiwan's death row total stands at more than 100. The number of executions, carried out by handgun shooting either to the heart or to the brain, declined after 2000 due to public opposition, with none between 2006 and 2009. They resumed in 2010 following a change in president and renewed sentiment in favor of the policy. Thailand executed prisoners by a machine gun or automatic rifle fired by an executioner until 2002, when the method was changed to lethal injection. There have been no executions since 2009. MIDEAST In Iran, Saudi Arabia and Iraq, 3 countries that have some of the highest execution rates in the world, firing squads are rarely used. In Saudi Arabia, the usual method of execution is beheading by a swordsman. In 2013, a firing squad was used in the execution of 7 men convicted of looting and armed robbery. Press reports at the time suggested it was because a swordsman was not available. During Iran's 1979 revolution, the Islamic clerical regime that came to power used firing squads to execute some senior military officers from the regime of the ousted shah. But the method is rarely used now, and the vast majority of executions are by hanging. Hanging is also the method most commonly used in Iraq, although there have been cases where firing squads have been employed. The United Arab Emirates uses firing squads for all executions, but death penalty sentences are rarely carried out. The most recently reported execution was in January 2014. EUROPE Capital punishment has been completely abolished across Europe with the former Soviet nation of Belarus being the sole exception. Abolition of the death penalty is a pre-condition for entry into the European Union. The EU's Baltic Sea member Latvia was the last country to retain capital punishment for murder, but only during wartime. It was abolished in 2012. The exact number of people executed in Belarus is believed to be three in 2014, according to human rights' groups, but there is some uncertainty about that figure because of the general lack of transparency there. It is believed to have been below 10 executions in the past decade. Execution is done by shooting in the back of the head, but the death penalty's use is shrouded in secrecy. SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA Somalia and Sudan routinely execute the most people in this region. In 2013, Somalia executed 34 people while Sudan put 21 to death, according to Amnesty International. Somalia generally uses firing squads to carry out its death sentences; two soldiers were executed by shooting on Tuesday, according to the country's military court. The death penalty is legal in more than a dozen other countries in the region, although only 5 carried out executions in 2013. In recent years, the only other country in the region to use firing squads was Equatorial Guinea, which shot 4 people last year but then issued a moratorium on future executions, Amnesty said. LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN In general, the death penalty has been abolished across the region, if not by law in each country, then on a de facto basis, according to the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty. The last known execution in the region was in Cuba in 2003 by firing squad. (source: Associated Press) USA: Death penalty dilemma in U.S. leads Utah to allow firing squads----Utah recently passed law allowing firing squads for capital punishment Utah became the only jurisdiction in the United States to allow firing squads to carry out death sentences on Monday. The governor signed a bill that makes the method a backup option when lethal injection drugs aren't available. 32 states authorize capital punishment, but it is becoming increasingly difficult to carry out because of a shortage of the drugs used in lethal injections, the primary method used. States have been trying new combinations of different drugs, and executions haven't always gone smoothly with the new protocols. Numerous legal challenges have been launched, and some executions have been botched, leading some states to review their methods and to seek alternatives. Other states simply aren't carrying out capital punishment because their governors are opposed to it. Here is a look at what's happening with some of the states that have the death penalty on the books. Arizona, Ohio, Oklahoma These 3 states have put executions on hold because of botched executions last year. It took Joseph Wood nearly 2 hours to die in Arizona. In Ohio, Dennis McGuire gasped and snorted for an extended period before dying. Clayton Lockett in Oklahoma had a heart attack soon after being injected. Pennsylvania Calling it a "flawed system," Gov. Tom Wolf made Pennsylvania the most recent state to impose a moratorium in February. It will remain in effect pending the results of a task force that is reviewing the punishment. Pennsylvania has one of the largest death row populations in the country - 188 people - but has carried out only three executions since 1976. Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber imposed a moratorium in November 2011 saying he wanted no part of the "inequitable" system and vowing that no executions would be carried out as long as he is in office. An inmate was scheduled to die within weeks of that decision. 37 people are on death row. Washington Gov. Jay Inslee imposed a moratorium in February 2014, affecting 9 people on death row. State legislators opposed to the death penalty introduced a bill in January seeking to abolish it. They have tried and failed before, but are hoping the governor's personal moratorium will help build support this time. Washington is the only state where inmates are offered the choice of death by hanging instead of lethal injection, the default method. No one has been executed since 2010. Colorado The state has rarely used the death penalty and hadn't executed anyone since 1997 before Gov. John Hickenlooper imposed a moratorium in 2013. He said that if the death penalty is to be carried out it should be done so "flawlessly," but the system is not flawless. Three inmates are on death row. Delaware Legislators opposed to the death penalty introduced a bill earlier this month to repeal it. If it passes, Delaware would be the 19th state to ban it, but the 15 people currently on death row could still be executed. Opponents have tried and failed before to overturn the death penalty in Delaware. Florida Florida's death penalty will be on trial at the U.S. Supreme Court this session. It agreed to hear a case about how juries recommend death sentences and whether the rules are constitutional. In Florida, juries do not have to be unanimous in their recommendation. California The state has the country's largest death row population, more than 700 people, but the state imposed a moratorium in 2006 after a successful court challenge that forced the state to change its lethal injection protocols. New regulations were introduced in 2010. Last summer a federal judge in the state declared the death penalty unconstitutional, but the ruling only applied to a single case. Tennessee In 2014, Gov. Bill Haslam signed a law that authorizes the use of the electric chair if lethal injection drugs are not available. Some states give death row inmates the option of the electric chair, but Tennessee's law now makes its use mandatory if drugs can't be used. Kansas, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, Wyoming There are no formal moratoriums, but these states have not carried out an execution in more than 5 years. Kansas, for example, hasn't imposed the sentence since 1965. New Hampshire hasn't executed anyone since 1939. It has one person on death row. The legislature came 1 vote short of abolishing the death sentence last year. Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Montana, North Carolina These states have put executions on hold pending court challenges over the drugs being used in lethal injections. Missouri Missouri's oldest death row inmate Cecil Clayton was executed on March 17. The 74-year-old convicted murderer had an IQ of 71, according to his lawyers, who argued that he should have been ineligible for the punishment because he wasn't mentally healthy. The part of the brain that controls impulse and judgment had been removed from Clayton after a sawmill accident. The last-minute appeals all failed. States with the death penalty Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, Wyoming. States without the death penalty Alaska, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia, Wisconsin. (source: CBC news) From rhalperi at smu.edu Tue Mar 24 17:41:12 2015 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Tue, 24 Mar 2015 17:41:12 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide Message-ID: March 24 BELARUS: YEAR?S FIRST DEATH SENTENCE IN BELARUS A 21-year-old man, Siarhei Ivanou, has been sentenced to death in Belarus. He is the first person sentenced to death in the country this year. View the full Urgent Action, including case information, addresses and sample messages, here. Siarhei Ivanou, a 21-year-old man, was sentenced to death on 18 March by the Homel Regional Court for the murder of a 19-year-old woman in August 2013. The court had found him guilty of ?committing murder with particular cruelty?, ?hooliganism with the use of violence?, robbery and theft. According to the Investigative Committee, Siarhei Ivanou had been under the influence of alcohol and psychotropic drugs when he brutally beat and raped the woman, who died from her injuries. Siarhei Ivanou was also found guilty of stealing her belongings. In a closed trial, Siarhei Ivanou was represented by a state-appointed lawyer. He can appeal the decision. Belarus is the last country in Europe and Central Asia still applying the death penalty. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION Death sentences are often imposed in Belarus after unfair trials which include forced confessions; they are implemented in strict secrecy and without giving adequate notice to the condemned prisoners themselves, their families or legal representatives. The authorities refuse to return the bodies of those executed to their relatives or even tell them where they are buried. Executions are carried out despite requests from the UN Human Rights Committee to the government not to do so until the Committee has considered the cases. The Human Rights Committee and others have found that the application of the death penalty in Belarus violates the human rights of those condemned and their families. View the full Urgent Action here. Name: Siarhei Ivanou (m) Issues: Death penalty, Legal concern UA: 66/15 Issue Date: 23 March 2015 Country: Belarus Please let us know if you took action so that we can track our impact! EITHER send a short email to uan at aiusa.org with "UA 66/15" in the subject line, and include in the body of the email the number of letters and/or emails you sent. OR fill out this short online form to let us know how you took action. Thank you for taking action! Please check with the AIUSA Urgent Action Office if sending appeals after the below date. If you receive a response from a government official, please forward it to us at uan at aiusa.org or to the Urgent Action Office address below. HOW YOU CAN HELP Please write immediately in Belarussian, Russian or your own language: * Urging President Lukashenka to halt any planned executions and immediately commute the death sentence handed down to Siarhei Ivanou and all others sentenced to death in Belarus; * Calling on him to establish an immediate moratorium on the use of the death penalty with a view to abolishing it; * Urging him to ensure that up-to-date information about the use of the death penalty in Belarus is publicly available and that prisoners? families and lawyers are given full access to them and information about their cases. PLEASE SEND APPEALS BEFORE 4 MAY 2015 TO: President Alyaksandr Lukashenka Vul. Karla Marksa 38 220016 Minsk, Belarus Fax: 011 375 17 226 06 10 011 375 17 222 38 72 Email: contact at president.gov.by Salutation: Dear President Lukashenka Also send copies to: Charge d'Affaires Mr. Pavel Shidlovsky, Embassy of Belarus 1619 New Hampshire Ave NW, Washington DC 20009 Fax: 1 202 986 1805 ?I ?Phone: 1 202 986 1606 ?I ?Email: usa at mfa.gov.by And copies to: Prosecutor General Alyaksandr Kaniuk Vul. Internatsianalnaya 22 220050 Minsk, Belarus Fax: 011 375 17 226 42 52 (Say "fax" clearly if voice answers) Email: info at prokuratura.gov.by Salutation: Dear Prosecutor General Please share widely with your networks:?http://bit.ly/1Huppt3 We encourage you to share Urgent Actions with your friends and colleagues! When you share with your networks, instead of forwarding the original email, please use the "Forward this email to a friend" link found at the very bottom of this email. Thank you for your activism! UA Network Office AIUSA ?600 Pennsylvania Ave SE, Washington DC 20003 T. 202.509.8193 ? F. 202.509.8193 ?E. uan at aiusa.org ?amnestyusa.org/urgent CHINA----executions China executes 3 for Kunming railway station attack which killed 31 ---- China's Supreme People's Court announces the deaths on microblog saying the 3 were part of a terrorist organisation China has executed 3 people for a mass stabbing that killed 31 people last year, the country's top court said Tuesday, with authorities blaming the attack on separatists from mainly Muslim Xinjiang. Iskandar Ehet, Turgun Tohtunyaz and Hasayn Muhammad were put to death for "leading a terrorist organisation and intentional homicide", the Supreme People's Court said in a microblog post. China uses both lethal injection and shooting for executions, but the method used this time was not specified. The bloodshed in Kunming, in the southwestern province of Yunnan, also saw more than 140 people wounded and was dubbed "China's 9/11" by state-run media. Beijing blamed it on "separatists" from the resource-rich far western Xinjiang, where at least 200 have died in attacks and clashes between locals and security forces over the last year. Incidents have grown in scale and sophistication and spread beyond the restive region, with the Kunming mass knifing the biggest such attack against civilians outside Xinjiang. A female attacker, Patigul Tohti, was pregnant at the time of her arrest and was sentenced to life in prison. Rights groups accuse China's government of cultural and religious repression they say fuels unrest in Xinjiang, which borders Central Asia. Beijing defends its policies, arguing it has boosted economic development in the area and that it upholds minority and religious rights in a country with 56 recognised ethnic groups. China executes more people than the rest of the world combined, according to rights organisations. The country put an estimated 2,400 people to death last year. (source: The Guardian) SOMALIA----executions Somalia's military court executes soldiers over killings 2 Somali government soldier have been executed on Tuesday after they were found guilty of murdering 3 civilians in Mogadishu. Somalia's military court Chief Colonel Liban Yarow told journalists in the scene that the court found evidences that both soldiers had committed the crime that they had been accused for. Dozens of people watched about several soldiers open fire at the 2 soldiers, identified as Abdirahman Issa Ahmed and Abdullahi Ali Abdi Igal, who had been blindfolded and tied to 2 poles. Somalia uses its military court to punish members of al-Shabaab militant group which wants to overthrow the government and its soldiers who commit heavy crimes. But the court has also prosecuted civilians who have been accused of minor cases and later on went to face harsh punishments. Death penalty is legal in Somalia, a mostly lawless state in East Africa. Last year, the European Union urged Somali authorities to place a moratorium on the death penalty. (source: horseedmedia.com) PAKISTAN----execution 1 more execution in Multan Another convict was executed today at the Multan Central Jail taking the total number of executions up to 49 across the country since Pakistan lifted self-imposed moratorium on death penalty. Nasrullah, convicted of murdering a man in 1994, was executed at Multan Central Jail early morning today, said prison authorities stressing not to be named. (source: The Nation) ********** IHC stays death sentence of murder convict The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Tuesday stayed the implementation on death sentence of a convict in the double murder case till March, 30. The counsel for the convict Zulifkar Ali Khan pleaded that as per the court verdict his client was given the death penalty through firing squad, but it was being planned to execute him by hanging. After hearing the arguments, the court ordered to stop implementation on the death sentence and adjourned the hearing till March, 30. The convict was to be executed on March, 25. The Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) had announced death penalty to Zulifkar Ali Khan in a double murder case in 1999. (source: Daily Times) From rhalperi at smu.edu Wed Mar 25 10:28:24 2015 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Wed, 25 Mar 2015 10:28:24 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----PENN., DEL., LA., OKLA. Message-ID: March 25 PENNSYLVANIA: Death-penalty defendant now gets life Derrick White, the only defendant sentenced to death by a Philadelphia jury in 2012, was sentenced to life in prison on Monday. White, 24, was expected to face a new penalty-phase hearing this week, but a judge ruled that because of a "technical defect in a legal filing," prosecutors could not seek the death penalty against White, White's new defense attorney, Gary Server, said yesterday. White was 20 years old on May 6, 2010, when he fatally shot Abdul Taylor, 33, because White allegedly wanted to prevent him from testifying as a prosecution witness in another murder case. In 2012, a jury sentenced White to death after convicting him of 1st-degree murder following a trial before Common Pleas Judge Carolyn Engel Temin. A prior defense attorney appealed to the state Supreme Court. It sent the case back to the lower court to decide whether White should get a new penalty hearing because his age was not brought up as a mitigating factor during his penalty hearing. Common Pleas Judge Barbara McDermott, assigned the case after Temin retired, determined White should get a new hearing. Server was to argue this week before McDermott and a jury that White should be sentenced to life in prison without parole. But on Friday, Server said yesterday, the judge noticed a "technical defect" in the commonwealth's notice of aggravating circumstance, when it originally sought the death penalty. The notice said White killed a witness in White's own murder case. So, on Monday, before jury selection was to start in the new penalty-phase hearing, McDermott sentenced White to life in prison without parole. (source: philly.com) **************** Defects identified in Fayette County man fighting death penalty in slayings A Fayette County man on death row for a 2002 triple homicide has facial, physical and mental defects that are associated with fetal alcohol syndrome, a Seattle doctor testified Tuesday during an appeal hearing. The mother of Mark Duane Edwards Jr., 32, told the doctor that she drank alcohol for 2 months before realizing she was pregnant, Dr. Julian Davies testified. "This is a period of time before most women know that they're pregnant," said Davies, a pediatrician and fetal alcohol syndrome diagnostician. "The 1st trimester is the most vulnerable period in pregnancy for alcohol damage." Edwards was sentenced to death in 2004 for shooting and stabbing Larry A. Bobish, 50; his wife, Joanna, 42; and their pregnant daughter, Krystal, 17, during a burglary and arson in the family's North Union home on April 14, 2002. The Bobishes' 12-year-old son, Larry Jr., was shot but managed to escape the fire. A bullet remains lodged in his head. A death warrant was signed in November by then-Gov. Tom Corbett, but a motion seeking to stay the sentence was filed in Fayette County the next month. Prosecutors said Edwards stole bottles of drugs from the elder Bobish days earlier. When Bobish demanded payment, Edwards decided to kill him, according to court records. Edwards' trial defense attorneys and a neuropsychiatrist who evaluated him before the trial testified Monday, the 1st day of the appeal hearing. His defense attorneys, James Moreno and Peter Williams, are seeking a new trial and/or a sentence of life imprisonment without parole. Davies testified Tuesday that Edwards' small stature, a cluster of facial anomalies, and brain damage and impairment led him to diagnose him with fetal alcohol syndrome. Colorado psychologist Stephen Greenspan determined that Edwards is intellectually disabled and has an IQ score as low as 72. The top preventable cause of intellectual disability is prenatal alcohol use, Greenspan testified. IQ, or intelligence quotient, is a measurement of mental ability. Almost 70 % of the population falls between scores of 85 and 115. A defendant whose IQ falls below 70 is considered mentally challenged under a 2002 U.S. Supreme Court ruling and cannot be put to death because it would constitute cruel and unusual punishment. Edwards repeated 2 grades, was bullied and teased by classmates, and dropped out of high school as a freshman, Greenspan testified. He characterized Edwards' academic record as "one of the worst I've seen." "He couldn't read. He couldn't master school work," Greenspan testified. "He just couldn't keep up." After Greenspan's testimony, President Judge John F. Wagner Jr. conferred with the attorneys, who outlined their claims. "If you were to make the finding that he suffers from intellectual disability and he did at the time ... then he would be ineligible for execution?" Moreno argued. "Clearly, that's what the doctor said," Wagner answered. Wagner asked if a sentence of life imprisonment without parole would satisfy the defense. "It would get him off death row and put him in general population," Moreno said. Assistant District Attorney Anthony Iannamorelli told Wagner that he doesn't plan to call any witnesses. "There are still issues that can be decided by the court," Iannamorelli said. Testimony is scheduled to resume Wednesday morning. (source: triblive.com) DELAWARE: Senate Panel Eyes Bill to Abolish Delaware Death Penalty A bill reviving attempts to abolish capital punishment in Delaware after an earlier failed effort is teed up for its legislative hearing. The Senate Judiciary Committee was scheduled to meet Wednesday to consider the legislation, which mirrors a bill that passed the Senate in 2013 by only 1 vote before dying in a House committee. The legislation would remove execution as a possible punishment for 1st-degree murder, leaving life in prison without the possibility of parole as the only sentence. The 15 inmates currently on Delaware's death row would still be subject to execution. Attorney General Matt Denn says he is not opposed to capital punishment in appropriate cases, but that state law should be changed to require a unanimous jury recommendation before a judge can impose a death sentence. (source: Associated Press) LOUISIANA: Give Ford real justice: Ban death penalty The tragic case of Glenn Ford is the perfect illustration of why the death penalty should be banned, not only in Louisiana, but nationwide. Ford is the former Angola inmate who was convicted in the 1983 murder of local jeweler Isadore Rozeman. He spent 30 years on death row before new information in an unrelated case proved his innocence in 2013. He was released in March 2014, and now is fighting to get financial compensation for those lost decades. A Louisiana law says Ford is entitled to that compensation, but predictably, the state is dragging its feet, claiming that since Ford cannot prove that he is "factually innocent" of the crime, he isn't entitled to compensation. Clearly, the state is wrong in denying Ford the compensation he is entitled to. Instead of admitting its mistake and doing what is right, the state appears to be more interested in saving face. That's outrageous. The truth is, the $330,000 Ford is seeking is a small price for the state to pay in exchange for stealing 30 years of a man's life. And if the state were really interested in giving Ford justice it would be just the beginning. To truly do right by Ford, Louisiana should join with the 18 states that have already done so and ban the death penalty. Ideally, the death penalty should be banned nationwide. Capital punishment has no place in a civilized society. To put it bluntly, it is state-sanctioned murder. The death penalty has little or no deterrent value. If it did, we should have seen a sharp decline in the murder rate since it was reinstated by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1977. That hasn't happened. Death penalty cases cost states significantly more to prosecute. According to Amnesty International, this is due to the increased investigation costs, the costs for expert witnesses and the fact that capital cases have two phases: the actual trial and the punishment phase. Many proponents of the death penalty advocate eliminating the numerous appeals that inevitably follow a capital conviction. But even if this were done, capital cases would still cost significantly more to prosecute. In fact, some prosecutors in states with the death penalty have admitted that a single capital murder case could bankrupt a county as opposed to seeking life imprisonment. Then, there's the issue of the death penalty's unfair application. According to Amnesty International, since 1977, 77 % of death row inmates were sentenced to death for killing a white person, even though African-Americans and minorities make up around 50 % of homicide victims. Most defendants facing death can't afford their own representation and are saddled with overworked, underpaid public defenders, many of whom have no experience with capital trials. Add to that the dozens of inmates who have been executed despite having a provable mental illness, and I have to ask: Is this truly justice? Or is it simply vengeance? I believe the death penalty is more about vengeance than actual justice, and that's wrong. What right do we have to decide who lives or dies? And what happens if the state gets it wrong, as Louisiana did in Ford's case? Once an inmate has been executed, there's no going back. What happens if that person is later found to be innocent? That's inexcusable. Since 1973, there have been 140 people sitting on death rows across the nation who have been found to be innocent. And who knows how many more haven't been found yet, or have been executed by mistake? I am pro-life. I am against abortion in all cases except in cases of rape, incest or harm to the mother. But to me, pro-life also means being against the death penalty. The right to give or take life belongs to God, not the state. And as long as there's even the smallest chance that a person sitting on death row might be innocent, the state has no business playing God and executing anyone. (source: Commentary; Peter Watson lives in Shreveport----Shreveport Times) ********************* Prosecutor's regret for bad conviction includes revulsion for death penalty A.M. Stroud sent the wrong man to prison for 30 years. The man is free now, but what if he had been executed? A few words about the high-priced education of Marty Stroud. 31 years ago, A.M. "Marty" Stroud III was a prosecutor in Louisiana's Caddo Parish. He was arrogant, narcissistic, judgmental and full of himself. This assessment of Stroud's character, you should know, comes from Stroud himself. It is contained in a remarkable letter to the editor of The Shreveport Times regarding a 65-year-old black man named Glenn Ford whom Stroud tried for murder in 1984. When the all-white jury sentenced Ford to death, Stroud and his team went out drinking to celebrate. Meantime, Ford went to Louisiana's notorious Angola prison. Last year, he was set free. The current district attorney asked a judge to vacate Ford's conviction and sentence in the wake of evidence that he was, as he had steadfastly maintained for over 30 years, innocent of the robbery and murder of Shreveport businessman Isadore Rozeman. The exact nature of that evidence has not been revealed, but that it is conclusive is attested to in the district attorney's capitulation. We do know this much: Officials are now said to believe another man did the killing. In a motion seeking Ford's release, they say that if the state had known then what it knows now, "Glenn Ford might not even have been arrested or indicted for this offense." Which seems pretty ironclad. And yet, incredibly, Louisiana is fighting Ford's request for compensation for his 30 lost years, a total that amounts to a relatively measly $330,000 under state law. One is reminded of Florida's equally ignoble 2011 refusal to compensate Derrick Williams after railroading him into spending 18 years behind bars for a rape he didn't commit. But even if he wins, Ford is unlikely to ever enjoy the windfall. He has Stage 4 lung cancer - he says it went undiagnosed while he was at Angola - and doctors say he is unlikely to be alive by Thanksgiving. Ford wants to leave any monies he receives to his grandchildren. The state says he should receive nothing because he hasn't proven himself "factually innocent." In a March 8 editorial, the Shreveport Times called that "hogwash." In his letter to the editor, Stroud co-signed that judgment. But he went further. There is insufficient space here to do justice to what he wrote. But you will find it - along with a remarkable video interview - at shreveporttimes.com. Suffice it to say, the man is being eaten alive by remorse. He rebukes himself for multiple sins, for being too "passive" to follow up on evidence suggesting Ford's innocence, for never considering the unfairness of striking black jurors from the panel that judged an indigent black man, for not caring that Ford was represented by "counsel who had never tried a criminal case, much less a capital one," for placing "junk science" into evidence, for caring less about justice than about winning. He apologizes to the jurors, to the court, to the family of the victim, and to Ford "for all the misery I have caused him and his family." And Stroud, now a 63-year-old attorney in private practice, also says this: "No one should be given the ability to impose a sentence of death in any criminal proceeding. We are simply incapable of devising a system that can fairly and impartially impose a sentence of death because we are all fallible human beings." Some of us consider that a self-evident truth. Yet learning that truth cost Stroud his good opinion of himself, and 30 years of another man's life. His experience should serve as a warning to those who persist in believing the death penalty is justice. The death penalty, writes Stroud, is "an abomination." The death penalty is "state-assisted revenge." He didn't always feel that way, but he has paid a high price for his education. And he will continue to pay. After all, Glenn Ford eventually walked free. Marty Stroud never will. (source: Leonard Pitts is a columnist for The Miami Herald----Press Herald) OKLAHOMA: Oklahoma bill to allow nitrogen gas in executions approved without debate Oklahoma would become the country's 1st state to allow the use of nitrogen gas to execute death-row inmates under legislation given preliminary approval on Tuesday, as state lawmakers look for alternatives amid a growing shortage of lethal injection drugs. The gas proposal was introduced at a time when fewer pharmacies and drug manufacturers are willing to supply drugs used in lethal injections, the primary method of execution in Oklahoma and other states. The US supreme court is also reviewing how Oklahoma conducts executions, which are currently on hold in the state, following the botched injection of an inmate last year. The bill, along with a similar proposal in the Oklahoma house, would allow the state to use nitrogen gas - which when inhaled leads to hypoxia, the gradual lack of oxygen in the blood - if lethal injection is ruled unconstitutional. Lethal injection would remain the state's primary execution method, but nitrogen gas would be the state's 1st backup method ahead of the electric chair, which the state has not used since 1966, and a firing squad, which has never been used in an Oklahoma execution. Neither the house nor senate version of the plan has been publicly debated, and that lack of open discussion continued on Tuesday when the senate judiciary committee voted 8-0 for the house bill without debate or testimony. The legislation, which has already been approved in the house, now moves to the full senate. The senate version has already been passed by the senate and is pending in a house committee. The co-author of the legislation, representative Mike Ritze, did not immediately return a telephone call seeking comment on Tuesday. Ryan Kiesel, executive director of Oklahoma's American Civil Liberties Union chapter, said lawmakers are taking the wrong approach. "It's a fool's errand to even engage in this utterly bizarre process of searching out new ways to take people's lives against their will," Kiesel said, noting that nitrogen gas is not used by any other states in executions. "We would be experimenting on the condemned using a process that has been banned in many states for the euthanasia of animals." According to Amnesty International, which opposes the death penalty, no state has ever used nitrogen gas or inert gas hypoxia to execute an inmate. The organisation said there have been no reports of the method being used in other countries, though execution data from China - the country that executes the most people - is not readily available. A group of Oklahoma death row inmates is challenging the state's lethal injection method in federal court. They sued following the botched execution last April of Clayton Lockett, who struggled against his restraints after attendants administered lethal drugs through a poorly placed intravenous line. The case involves whether midazolam, a sedative, properly renders an inmate unconscious before the second and third drugs are administered. Oklahoma officials concede that midazolam is not their preferred execution drug, but that death-penalty states have been forced to explore alternatives because manufacturers of more effective drugs are refusing to sell them for use in lethal injections. The governing body of the American Pharmacists Association is considering a policy that would oppose pharmacists' participation in executions, including providing the drugs used in lethal injections, according to group spokeswoman Michelle Spinnler. In an email, she said the proposed wording of the policy states that the association opposes such participation in executions, "either directly or indirectly, on the basis that such activities are fundamentally contrary to the role of pharmacists as providers of healthcare". A vote on the policy is scheduled this weekend. (source: The Guardian) ******************* Bill approving nitrogen gas executions advances in Oklahoma Senate Oklahoma lawmakers are pushing for the state to become the 1st to allow the use of nitrogen gas as a back-up method to execute death row prisoners. The bill passed the state Senate Judiciary Committee and will now head to the floor for a vote. The Committee voted 8-0 on Tuesday to move forward with a House-passed measure that would grant the use of nitrogen gas in executions. Under the bill, lethal injection would remain the state's primary method of execution, but using a gas chamber would be an alternative should lethal injection be declared unconstitutional or the drugs become unavailable. Last year, Oklahoma State Rep. Mike Christian (R) introduced a bill making death by firing squad an alternative for the state. Under current Oklahoma law, electrocution is the 2nd option, followed by firing squad. Christian's bill would make electrocution the 3rd option, following death by firing squad. Christian said that unlike traditional gas chambers that used drugs like cyanide, which cause a build-up of carbon dioxide in the blood, breathing nitrogen would be a painless death because it leads to hypoxia - a gradual lack of oxygen in the blood, similar to what can happen to pilots at high altitudes. Execution via "nitrogen hypoxia" is a method advanced in the National Law Review paper in 2005 by Stuart A. Creque, which is seemingly based on the fatal outcomes of 2 chemical accidents involving nitrogen. There do not seem to be any instances of nitrogen having being used in executions to date. The search for alternative methods for executions comes during an upheaval in the manufacture of the drugs. A decade-old ban in the European Union prohibits EU nations from exporting execution drugs, and the subsequent shortage that it spawned in the US has prompted prison officials to seek out compounding pharmacists to mix and develop new sorts of cocktails to carry out death sentences. (source: rt.com) From rhalperi at smu.edu Wed Mar 25 10:29:20 2015 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Wed, 25 Mar 2015 10:29:20 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----UTAH, ARIZ., WASH., USA Message-ID: March 25 UTAH: Utah 'Missed Opportunity' for Dialogue on Death Penalty - Catholic Diocese----Utah Governor Gary Herbert signed the Utah Firing Squad Bill into law on Monday. The law stipulates the Utah authorities can execute convicted individuals by firing squads if there are no lethal chemicals available for execution by lethal injection. US state of Utah Governor Gary Herbert and the state's legislature missed a golden opportunity to have a conversation on whether the death penalty should remain a part of the US criminal justice system, Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake City Government Liaison Jean Hill told Sputnik. "[G]overnor Herbert and our legislature missed an opportunity to have the much more important conversation about whether we should even maintain the death penalty as part of our criminal justice system," Hill said on Tuesday. "The method is barbaric, but the entire concept of state-sanctioned executions as a form of official punishment is even more primitive." Governor Herbert signed the Utah Firing Squad Bill into law on Monday. The law stipulates the Utah authorities can execute convicted individuals by firing squads if there are no lethal chemicals available for execution by lethal injection. Hill said the death penalty is about revenge, and Utah should be protecting human life and public safety while not seeking vengeance. She also said the new law is not needed anyway, because the next lethal injection execution in Utah is several years away. "The time spent debating methods [of execution] could have been much better spent discussing whether a modern state should execute its citizens," Hill stated. Hill expressed hope that instead of sentencing more individuals to die and permitting more firing squads, the Utah government leaders to place a moratorium on future death sentences until US lawmakers are able to completely erode the death penalty away. *************** New US Law Could Lead to Elimination of Death Penalty - Former Mayor The US state of Utah law allowing executions to be carried out by a firing squad might lead to the eventual elimination of the death penalty in the United States as a growing number of people view it as illogical and immoral, 2-time Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson told Sputnik. On March 10, the legislature of Utah passed a bill allowing executions to be carried out by firing squads if chemicals used in lethal injection cocktails to kill prisoners are not available. "I do think this law could lead to the elimination of the death penalty if for no other reason that it has revived a discussion about the death penalty generally," Anderson said on Tuesday. Anderson argued that given the rate at which people that have been exonerated - 150 since 1976 - the arbitration with which executions are carried out, the economic costs involved and the general trend against executions, the death penalty may finally be erased in the United States. The 150 exonerated is than 1 in 10 people on death row, he added, leaving no doubt that more innocent people are being convicted. "No doubt innocent people have been executed, and we all know that without exception, most people are too poor to afford effective counsel and have received effective counsel." Utah resident Ronnie Lee Gardner was killed by firing squad in 2010, Anderson stated, but jurors said they would have not voted for the death penalty had they seen evidence that Gardner's attorney failed to present in court. "It's very sobering for people to hear especially with judges from federal and state courts that Gardner had received ineffective assistance of counsel, but that concern was just disregarded by the appellate courts," he said. In the last 7 years, 6 US states eliminated the death penalty, 5 declared a moratorium on the death penalty, and 2 governors have declared moratoriums. Only 7 US states carried out executions in 2014 - a 20-year low. Anderson stated that the controversy surrounding the death penalty prompted Utah legislators to ask for an interim committee to evaluate it through further study. "This discussion about the means of executing people actually led to a broader discussion concerning whether we should have the death penalty at all," he added. Anderson also stated that the death sentence costs $1.6 million more than all procedures of cost of life imprisonment for a defendant's lifetime, an audit of a court case revealed. Given those facts, he argued, Utah's Firing Squad Law is a big step backwards. "It's astoundingly embarrassing we are returning after more than a generation to this barbaric means of the state killing people." There are enough good people in the legislature that have tremendous reservations about restoring the means of state murder, he concluded. (source for both: sputniknews.com) ********************** The Case for the Firing Squad ---- As Utah brings back execution by bullet, and other states weigh a change, some argue that the firing squad is the most humane method Ronnie Gardner had to be punished. He escaped twice while serving a 1980 sentence for robbery in Utah State Prison. During his 2nd escape, he killed a man before police could again put him in handcuffs. During a 3rd escape attempt in 1985, he killed a 2nd man, wounded several, and was arrested for the last time by 6 officers with guns drawn outside the Metropolitan Hall of Justice in Salt Lake City. For the mayhem he caused, Gardner was sentenced to death. On June 17, 2010, his execution was carried out by the State of Utah. The method: firing squad. It was his choice - death row prisoners in Utah convicted before 2004 could still opt to be shot. When asked why he requested bullets instead of a lethal injection, he told the Deseret News, "I like the firing squad. It's so much easier ... and there's no mistakes." Having done away with the firing squad in 2004, Utah legislators passed a bill on March 10 to bring it back. The bill keeps lethal injection as the state's principal execution method but allows the firing squad as "a backup plan," the bill's sponsoring state representative told the Associated Press. On Monday, Utah's governor signed the bill into law, despite his having found the firing squad "a little bit gruesome," according to the AP. Utah's decision mirrors Oklahoma laws that allow the firing squad as an execution option. Arkansas lawmakers are considering a similar proposal. The idea of a firing squad makes people uncomfortable. A firing squad bill failed to pass in Wyoming's state house on March 12, but the state's senate judiciary chairwoman told Wyoming Public Radio that it would likely re-emerge in future legislative sessions. "There was just a tough cloud over it" whenever it came up in a committee meeting, the Wyoming legislator told WPR. "People get thinking about the seriousness, and it's a very sobering conversation." If the firing squad is gruesome, lethal injection isn't necessarily humane. After major drug companies began refusing to deliver execution drugs, states were forced to negotiate often-secret contracts with compounding pharmacies to get them. Grisly botched executions, in which condemned killers gasped for air and writhed in pain for an hour or longer before dying, called lethal injection further into question. The most recent came in July 2014. "In lethal injections, you [typically] have prison personnel acting as medical professionals," says Dr. Jonathan Groner, a professor of pediatric surgery at Ohio State University who speaks and writes about lethal injection issues. "That's outside their usual scope of practice." In Arizona, after receiving lethal injection drugs, Joseph Wood gasped 640 times over a period of an hour and 40 minutes, according to the Arizona Republic, before he finally died in July. In Oklahoma, Clayton Lockett died 43 minutes after his lethal injection execution began last April - but not from the drugs. He died from a heart attack. That's troubling, considering that the Supreme Court upheld the death penalty's legality in 1890 as long as it didn't involve "a lingering death" or "something more than the mere extinguishment of life." Some experts say bullets are just better. "Every law enforcement officer and every prison guard knows how to fire a gun," Groner says. "Death by firing squad is fast. When a person's heart stops pumping, that person loses consciousness. We believe that's when they stop feeling pain. That's what a firing squad does. You put a few bullets in someone's heart, it stops pumping. They lose consciousness almost immediately." Paul G. Cassell agrees. A law professor at the University of Utah who consults with attorneys general nationwide about death penalty issues, Cassell calls Utah's firing squad law "pure common sense." When John Taylor was executed by firing squad in Utah in 1996 - the 1st in the nation since 1977, when Utah executed Gary Gilmore by firing squad - it caused a national furor and took the focus off Taylor's crimes. For that reason, legislators pushed to eliminate the firing squad as an execution option. It took 8 years, but in 2004 Utah's legislature banned the firing squad for death penalty cases. A state representative who introduced the 2004 bill told the Deseret News that death row prisoners' choice of the firing squad was "one last magnificent manipulation of the system to bring attention to themselves." In Cassell's view, the furor now lies with lethal injections, and if it develops into a "de facto abolition of the death penalty by eliminating lethal injection," Utah needs an alternative. Austin Sarat offers a further alternative: Stop executing people. Sarat, who calls Utah's decision "a step backwards," is a jurisprudence and political science professor at Amherst College who published the book Gruesome Spectacles: Botched Executions and America's Death Penalty in 2014. Gruesome Spectacles discusses the ways in which capital punishment has gone wrong. Chapters in Sarat's book discuss bungled executions by hanging, electrocution, the gas chamber, and lethal injection. Not 1 chapter focuses on the firing squad. One reason for that, Sarat says, is that it's so rare. From 1972 to 1976, the death penalty was unconstitutional in the U.S. Since then, only 3 out of 1,228 capital sentences have been carried out by firing squad, each of them in Utah. None were mishandled. But Sarat doesn't believe that the firing squad's relative success should take more states down Utah's path. There have, in fact, been cases of botched firing squad executions. During a Utah execution in 1879, Wallace Wilkerson moved just enough to cause shots fired at his chest to miss his heart; he bled to death 27 minutes after the execution began. "This is the story of a broken system," Sarat says. "The death penalty is in a very different position than it was, even 10 or 15 years ago. The number of death sentences is way down." In 1999, 98 executions were carried out in the U.S.; in 2014, there were 35. Utah's decision to bring back the firing squad, he says, is "part of a bigger story about people having doubts about the punishment phase of the criminal justice system." (source: bloomberg.com) ******************** 3 of Utah's 8 death row inmates have chosen firing squads Republican Gov. Gary R. Herbert signed a law Monday that makes the firing squad the approved method of execution if drugs needed to carry out a lethal injection are unavailable. Utah is the only state where a firing squad is the backup method. Oklahoma makes firing squads a 3rd choice after drugs and electrocution. The issue is more than a theoretical one for Utah, which has used firing squads in the past. The state is out of drugs used in lethal injections with no real hope of getting more, according to Rep. Paul Ray, the Republican who sponsored the legislation. "We are completely out of the drugs," Ray told the Los Angeles Times on Tuesday. "We found out last year that there we had no ability to purchase more drugs. So looking down the road, we had to come up with a backup plan. "We decided to make it automatic to go to the firing squad to avoid the extra costs of additional litigation," Ray said. "It was the obvious choice since we had done it before, the protocols and facilities were already in place and nothing required a change." Ray said he was aware of complaints by opponents of the death penalty that a firing squad was less humane than lethal injection, but that argument was discounted because drugs are not available. "We could argue all day about what is more humane," said the lawmaker, who said he specializes in criminal justice issues. "I think any time you have to take a human life, there may be a way to dress it up and make it look nice, but my concern is make sure that there is justice for the victim." The new Utah law reinstated the use of firing squads, a practice that ended in 2004 amid public complaints that it was inhumane. The mechanics of using the firing squad are well established in Utah. 5 sharpshooters are set up behind a wall about 25 feet from the condemned inmate, sitting in a chair with a target pinned to his chest. The inmate is offered 2 minutes to say his last words. Gary Gilmore famously used that period to tell his executioners, "Let's do this." The sharpshooters open fire through slots in the wall. One unknown rifleman fires a blank so it won't be known which person fires the death round. Herbert signed the bill even though he has said that he finds the firing squad "a little bit gruesome." "We regret anyone ever commits the heinous crime of aggravated murder to merit the death penalty and we prefer to use our primary method of lethal injection when such a sentence is issued," gubernatorial spokesman Marty Carpenter stated. "However, when a jury makes the decision and a judge signs a death warrant, enforcing that lawful decision is the obligation of the executive branch." Some Utah inmates on death row, who were convicted before 2004, have still been able to choose firing squad. Ronnie Lee Gardner, a convicted murderer who shot and killed a lawyer during a prison escape attempt, was the last inmate executed in Utah by a firing squad in 2010. There are currently 8 inmates on death row, according to the state Department of Corrections. 4 inmates have chosen lethal injection. 3 have selected the firing squad and 1 inmate's choice is unspecified. The execution dates for 6 on death row are at least 5 years away. But 2 could be executed within the next 2 to 3 years depending on appeals. Ron Lafferty, who killed his sister-in-law and her baby daughter in 1984 because the woman questioned his beliefs on polygamy, has already requested the firing squad. The other inmate, Douglas Stewart Carter,convicted of stabbing 57-year-old Eva Olesen to death during a home-invasion robbery in 1985 has chosen lethal injection. He could become the 1st to be involuntarily executed by firing squad if the state can't procure the lethal injection drugs, Ray said. All of the states that have capital punishment and the federal government use lethal injection as their primary method of execution, though the protocols vary. The most common method involves 3 injections, including an anesthetic or sedative, followed by pancuronium bromide to paralyze the inmate and potassium chloride to stop the heart. The 1- or 2-drug protocols typically use a lethal dose of an anesthetic or sedative. Lethal injection was considered a humane advancement over other forms of execution including poison gas, electrocution, hanging and firing squad. But drug companies, many in Europe where capital punishment is banned, have objected to the use of their drugs to kill people. In addition, a series of recent executions in Oklahoma, Arizona and Ohio raised questions about whether inmates suffered under some applications of lethal injection. The U.S. Supreme Court this term is scheduled to hear arguments on an Oklahoma case seeking guidance on lethal injection procedures. (source: Los Angeles Times) ************************* Utah death penalty trial: Witness says killer has become 'a gentleman, a kind man' More than 7 years ago, Rebecca Douglas' charity received a letter from a death row inmate in Utah. The inmate had seen a documentary while in prison about Rising Star Outreach, Douglas said Tuesday, and wanted to know if he could sponsor a child in India. Since then, inmate Douglas Anderson Lovell has donated $820 to help Indian children and families affected by leprosy, by sending $5 a month of his $30-a-month prison income. "When I added it up that's almost 1/3 of his income," Douglas testified Tuesday at Lovell's death penalty trial. "It just seemed like an incredible amount of money." Along the way, Douglas said she formed a friendship with Lovell through letters and a face-to-face meeting in 2012. She said Lovell has asked frequently about the children in India, and about her own family. Douglas said she only very recently googled Lovell and saw what his crimes were, which felt to her "like a punch in the gut." "I was overwhelmingly sad," Douglas testified. "This was caused by one of my friends." But Douglas said that if Lovell was somehow paroled, she would welcome him into her home and help him, adding: "I have no fear [of him]." "In 30 years of prison, he has become literally a gentleman, a kind man," Douglas said. "In 7 years, if this is all an act? It's been flawless." Douglas was called by Lovell's defense team, as they try to convince a 2nd District Court jury that the now-57-year-old defendant should not be put to death for kidnapping and killing 39-year-old Joyce Yost in 1985. The charity founder testified Monday that she felt Lovell has become a different person than the man who murdered Yost to prevent her from testifying against him in a rape case. Douglas said she felt the prisoner's donations were an effort to redeem himself. "He expressed so many times that he could not do any good," Douglas said. "He felt like he had done so much evil, that he had to do as much good as he can possibly do. ... I believe he wants to be reconciled with God, whatever way he can be." Last week, the 12-member jury found Lovell guilty of aggravated murder for Yost's death. Jurors now must decide whether Lovell should be executed for the crime. Lovell's defense attorneys did not contest Lovell's guilt during the 1st phase of the trial, saying they would instead focus on the mitigating factors in the case. Mark Cunningham, a clinical forensic psychologist, testified for the defense on Tuesday about how Lovell's childhood and family history affected who he became as an adult. Cunningham said he set out to answer the question, "How did we get here?" "What happened growing up?" Cunningham said. "What damaged him along the way?" Cunningham said the defendant has ADHD, suffered multiple head injuries as a child and had a history of mood disorders and depression within his family. While pregnant with Lovell, his mother also took amphetamines in the form of diet pills, Cunningham added. (source: Salt Lake Tribune) ARIZONA: Woman who spent 22 years on death row to speak out An Arizona woman who spent 2 decades on death row in the killing of her 4-year-old son will speak out for the 1st time since she had her case dismissed. Debra Milke was scheduled to hold a news conference Tuesday, a day after a judge formally dismissed a controversial case that relied almost entirely on the work of a detective with a long history of misconduct. Milke, 51, was convicted of murder in 1990 in the death of her son, Christopher. Authorities say Milke dressed him in his favorite outfit and told him he was going to see Santa Claus at a mall in December 1989. He was then taken to the desert near Phoenix by two men, one of whom was Milke's roommate, and shot in the back of the head. Authorities say Milke's motive was that she didn't want the child anymore and didn't want him to live with his father. Milke has maintained her innocence and denied that she confessed to the killing. James Styers and Roger Scott, the 2 men who led Christopher to his death, have been on death row and have refused to testify against Milke. While Milke sat on death row, the Arizona Supreme Court had gone so far as to issue a death warrant for her in 1997. The execution was delayed because she had yet to exhaust federal appeals. An appeals court overturned Milke's conviction in 2013, ruling that prosecutors failed to disclose a detective's history of misconduct. Her conviction was based entirely on a confession Milke gave to the now-discredited detective, Armando Saldate. Multiple rulings in other cases said the now-retired officer either lied under oath or violated suspects' rights during interrogations, according to the federal appeals court. One of Milke's attorneys, Michael Kimerer, said Monday that he was still in disbelief that "a long, long journey with so many ups and downs" ended with his client's freedom. "She was innocent. It was all based upon a police officer that just totally lied," Kimerer said outside court. "To see her free today and totally free and exonerated, it's an unbelievable feeling - just unbelievable." Saldate's history of conduct included a 5-day suspension after he stopped a female motorist in 1973 and "took liberties" with her before agreeing to meet her later for sex. According to court documents, he questioned a suspect in 1982 who was strapped to a hospital bed and was so incoherent he didn't even know his own name. Saldate had said he would not testify at any retrial, citing fears of potential federal charges based on the 9th Circuit's accusations of misconduct. Both county and federal authorities said they did not intend to seek charges against the detective based on the accusations, and a state appeals court later ruled that Saldate would be compelled to testify even against his will. Milke sued the city of Phoenix, Maricopa County and numerous individuals earlier this month, alleging authorities violated her civil rights. She also contends she was denied a fair trial and was a victim of malicious prosecution. Milke, whose mother was a German who married a U.S. Air Force military policeman in Berlin in the 1960s, has drawn strong support from citizens of that nation and Switzerland, neither of which has the death penalty. (source: Associated Press) WASHINGTON: Jurors deliberate in Carnation killings trial The case of Joseph McEnroe is in the hands of a Seattle jury. McEnroe is accused along with his former girlfriend of killing 6 members of her family on Christmas Eve 2007. Jurors began their deliberations Tuesday. King County Deputy Prosecutor Scott O'Toole told jurors in closing arguments Monday that the rampage in Carnation, east of Seattle, was well-planned and clearly premeditated. The Seattle Times reported that O'Toole urged jurors to convict McEnroe of 6 counts of aggravated 1st-degree murder, a verdict that could result in the death penalty. Defense attorney Leo Hamaji hasn't disputed McEnroe's role in the killings. But he argues that McEnroe was coerced by his former girlfriend, Michele Anderson, into the killings. McEnroe and Anderson are accused of shooting her parents, brother, sister-in-law, 5-year-old niece and 3-year-old nephew. (source: Associated Press) USA: Prosecutors: Gary Lee Sampson raging and remorseless on death row Serial killer Gary Lee Sampson's outbursts over the past 10 years on death row at a federal prison in Terre Haute prove he is a violent, unapologetic murderer who should be put to death, prosecutors stated in a court filing yesterday. "Do you know what the definition of a serial killer is?" Sampson asked a woman who runs the unit he is housed in, according to a court filing. "Me. I'm a stone cold killer." Prosecutors said Sampson has assaulted one guard, attempted to attack other guards numerous times - once with a sharpened broom handle - and lunged at a dental hygienist who told prison staff Sampson is the only death row inmate she fears. A prison councilor described him as one of the 5 most aggressive prisoners in Terre Haute. Prosecutors said Sampson is unapologetic in jailhouse telephone calls. "I'm gonna die in prison, but I'm going to die with a smile on my face," Sampson said in one recorded phone call transcribed in a court filing. "They can bury me with my face down and this whole world can kiss my Yankee white ass." Sampson - who is known at the prison for having a large commissary account - kicked 1 guard in the head in July 2013, threatened to kill another inmate in February 2013, and threatened to stab a medical assistant in February 2014, prosecutors said. Sampson killed 3 men in a week-long 2001 crime spree, and was sentenced in federal court to die. However, federal Judge Mark Wolf tossed his death penalty conviction in 2011 after it was discovered a juror lied on a questionnaire. Yesterday's filing is related to Sampson's upcoming death penalty retrial. (source: Boston Herald) ******************* Pharmacists Are Getting Closer To Cutting Off Access To Death Penalty Drugs It may soon become harder for state officials to get their hands on the drugs they need to execute inmates, as major pharmacist organizations keep inching closer toward ceasing to supply that medication. Pharmacists seem like unlikely targets in the political and ethical debate over the death penalty. But, since they're the ones who manufacture and distribute lethal drugs, they actually play a key role in the executions of condemned prisoners. For the states that are regularly executing inmates, American pharmacies have become particularly critical in the wake of growing international opposition to capital punishment. As European companies refuse to sell drugs for use in executions, there's somewhat of a lethal drug shortage here at home. Officials have started turning to so-called "compounding pharmacies," which are facilities that mix and repackage drugs to keep down the cost of filling prescriptions, for their supplies. But that option might not be available for much longer. The Wall Street Journal reports that the leading trade group for compound pharmacists is now discouraging its members from supplying the drugs necessary for lethal injections - in what represents the 1st official stance the International Academy of Compounding Pharmacists (IACP) has ever taken on death penalty issues. The group, which represents about 3,700 pharmacists across the country who compound drugs, is mainly worried about potential legal repercussions in this area. Since a handful of drug makers have started taking steps to prohibit their products from being used in executions, compounding pharmacists might be liable if they repackage those drugs for the states that want to execute inmates. David Miller, the chief executive for IACP, told the Wall Street Journal that "we have concerns about what may occur" if compound pharmacists continue to manufacture death penalty drugs. In addition to potential legal issues, Miller is worried that pharmacists may face harassment if their identities are disclosed. And later this week, in a move that could have further repercussions for capital punishment, the American Pharmacists Association (APhA) will meet to discuss a similar policy. If the APhA decides to follow in the IACP???s footsteps and discourage its members from dispensing lethal drugs, that decision will affect about 62,000 professionals across the country who work in traditional pharmacists rather than in compounding facilities. Most medical groups - including the American Medical Association, the American Public Health Association, the American Board of Anesthesiology, and the American Nurses Association - already prohibit their members from assisting in executions. But there's nothing in the American Pharmacists Association's code of ethics that explicitly prevents pharmacists from dispensing death penalty drugs. Right now, pharmacists are allowed to dispense lethal medication for use in executions if a "licensed doctor writes a legitimate prescription." It's an unusual loophole in the medical field that has caught the attention of human rights activists. Last spring, several human rights and anti-death penalty groups sent a letter to the APhA pressuring the group to forbid their members from assisting in the execution of inmates. "Participation in executions undermines the position of trust that pharmacists enjoy in this nation," the letter said. If states' access to lethal drugs dwindles even further, they will likely be left looking for alternative ways to end the lives of their prisoners. This week, for example, Utah became the only state to authorize the firing squad as a legal method of execution when lethal injection drugs are not available. Lawmakers in other states like Missouri and Wyoming have also recently suggested bringing back the firing squad. Alabama, Tennessee, and Virginia have proposed reinstating the electric chair. (source: thinkprogeress.org) ******************** All the ways it's actually still legal to execute people in the U.S. Utah Gov. Gary Herbert approved a bill on Monday that will allow the state to execute death row inmates by firing squad, bringing back an execution method previously on the brink of extinction in the United States. The bill only allows Utah to use a firing squad if the chemicals required for lethal injection are unavailable, which is not far-fetched, given that many companies that manufacture such chemicals are refusing to sell them to prisons because they don't want to be associated with executions. Utah is now the only state legally allowed to execute prisoners via firing squad, though Oklahoma has kept the option on the table if lethal injections and electrocutions are both outlawed, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. ---- Firing Squad Including firing squads, only 5 methods of execution are legal in the U.S. The others include lethal injection, electrocution, hanging and placement inside a gas chamber. Lethal injection Lethal injection is by far the most common method; it has been used to kill 1,229 inmates since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. It is the primary execution method for all 32 states that still permit the death penalty, though inmates in several states can request other options. Connecticut and New Mexico have abolished the death penalty in recent years, but the removal of the punishment was not retroactive, meaning inmates on death row are still going to be executed. The primary method of execution in those states is also lethal injection. Electrocution 8 states still have legal clauses that allow electrocution, and 158 inmates have been executed this way since 1976, making it the 2nd-most common method since then. Inmates in Alabama, Florida, South Carolina and Virginia can request electrocution instead of lethal injection. ---- Hanging and gas chambers Arizona, California, Missouri and Wyoming are the 4 states that have clauses in state laws allowing inmates to be killed in gas chambers. In California, inmates can pass on lethal injection in favor of this method. Inmates can also still be hanged in New Hampshire and Washington. Hanging was historically the most common method of execution in the U.S. Hanging was historically the most common method of execution in the U.S. That started to change at the beginning of the 20th century, when electrocution became more frequent, which eventually gave way to lethal injection in the 1980s. Other methods of execution in America dating back to colonial days include burning, bludgeoning and pressing, which often involved tying a person down and placing heavy stones on him until he could no longer breathe. Utah is the only state that has executed a man by firearm in the past 4 decades. The last inmate to be executed in such a manner was Ronnie Lee Gardner in 2010. (source: mashable.com) **************** Sister Prejean: Reinstatement of firing squad in Utah may hasten end of death penalty Utah's reinstatement of the firing squad as a backup means to lethal injection to carry out executions may hasten the end of the death penalty, a renowned capital punishment opponent and author said Tuesday. "I think the firing squad is more honest in a way and transparent, that you're actually killing a person," Sister Helen Prejean said following a luncheon at Westminster College with students from the college and 2 Catholic high schools. "You're going to see the blood dripping from the chair. I think, in a way, it's more transparent. I think it's going to help end it quicker." Prejean's appearance comes a day after Utah Gov. Gary Herbert signed HB11 designating the firing squad as Utah's backup means of execution. Utah is the only state that will allow that form of execution. Oklahoma will permit it only if lethal injection and electrocution are found unconstitutional. Prejean, author of "Dead Man Walking: An Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty in the United States," was in Salt Lake City as a guest of Westminster College's Tanner-McMurrin lecture series. Prejean has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize three times. She is working on her autobiography, "River of Fire: My Spiritual Journey." Support for the death penalty is plummeting nationwide, she said. "People don't see the practical effect of it. They don't see it being a deterrent. It's enormously expensive. So I think people are beginning to work their way out of the death penalty," she said. Most people don't think about the death penalty. Many people are insulated from the reality of capital punishment, much as Prejean was as a teenager growing up in Louisiana. Little did she know that the mobile electric chair used by the state for executions was stored near her suburban home. "I was just aware of being a kid and getting through high school," she said. Prejean, a member of the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph, has accompanied 6 condemned men to their deaths. She wrote about 2 of them in her 2nd book, "The Death of Innocents: An Eyewitness Account of Wrongful Executions." There are common characteristics among men and women who are sentenced to the death penalty. Most grew up poor, in chaos and experienced abuse as children. "It embodies all the deepest wounds we have in society," she said. The death penalty is unfairly applied, she added, noting people of color are far more likely to be executed than white people, particularly if the victim is white. While all Americans fundamentally have the same rights and protections, much depends on the skill and commitment of a defendant's attorneys. "Those are just words of paper if someone's not there to actualize that for you," Prejean said. When people learn about the injustice of capital punishment and brutality of executions and remain silent, they are accomplices in allowing it to continue. "After the person is killed, who is responsible?" she asked the students. That point resonated with Paul Oliver, a senior at Judge Memorial Catholic High School. "I walk away with a desire to learn more about it, learn more about the issues behind it and figuring out ways I can help," he said. Westminster College student Elizabeth Donnelly said Prejean's presentation reinforced a great deal of what she has learned about issues of race and poverty. Donnelly, a public health major, said she has been involved in recent demonstrations about officer-involved shootings, which has given her an understanding of Prejean's call to action. "When you start to protest, when you get out there and say what you think and try to make a positive impact on the world, it's life-changing and it's very addictive, too," Donnelly said. The Most Rev. John C. Wester, bishop of the Diocese of Salt Lake City, said Herbert's decision to sign HB11 was disappointing. "It seems as if our government leaders have substituted state legislation for the law of God. They argue that, because executions are lawful, they are then moral. This is not so. No human law can trump God's law. Taking a human life is wrong; a slap in the face of hope and a blasphemous attempt to assume divine attributes that we humble human beings do not have," Wester wrote in a statement issued Tuesday. "The real issue here is the death penalty itself. Only God can give and take life. By taking a life, in whatever form the death penalty is carried out, the state is usurping the role of God. Execution does violence to God's time, eliminating the opportunity for God's redemptive and forgiving grace to work in the life of a prisoner." Prejean said her experience working with men facing the death penalty has deepened her resolve to work to abolish it. "I'm fighting like heck for their life. I don't just take my role as spiritual adviser to be able to accompany them to death and go quietly into their death. I get the legal team whatever is needed so they're not killed. I resist their death in every way I can. When they have been killed, it either paralyzes you or galvanizes you. It galvanizes me." (source: KSL news) From rhalperi at smu.edu Wed Mar 25 10:30:05 2015 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Wed, 25 Mar 2015 10:30:05 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide Message-ID: March 25 VIETNAM: Vietnam considers scrapping death penalty for 7 crimes The abolition of the death penalty has been proposed for 7 crimes under the current Penal Code, Deputy Minister of Justice Dinh Trung Tung said in a seminar on Tuesday, citing an amendment to the code. Meanwhile, another amendment has been proposed to include three new crimes in the code, Tung said. The deputy minister released the information at a seminar held by the National Assembly Justice Committee in the northern province of Hoa Binh to discuss a number of basic orientations for amending the Penal Code. One of the major amendments to the Penal Code is to limit the scope of capital punishment, Tung told the seminar. He said the board drafting amendments to the code has advised that the death penalty be scrapped for seven crimes, including plundering property, destroying important national security works and/or facilities; disobeying orders in the military; surrendering to the enemy which is applicable in the army; undermining peace, provoking aggressive wars; crimes against mankind; and war crimes. Besides, capital punishment has been recommended to be maintained only for the crime of "illegally trading in narcotics" and be abolished for all the other drug-related charges, Tung said. He told the seminar that death sentences should be applied to offenders who have committed especially serious crimes that infringe upon human life - such as murder in a cruel manner, murder and robbery, murder and rape, or murder for mean purposes - or pose serious threats to social order and safety and to the development of society, as possibly seen in drug-related cases. If the amendments are approved, the number of crimes subject to the death penalty in Vietnam will be reduced to 15 from the current 22. Death should be maintained for corruption convictions Most of the seminar attendees agreed to these proposed amendments, but emphasized that they should not be extended to corruption-related crimes, which the country is trying to prevent and fight. Speaking at the event, Associate Professor Dr. Nguyen Tat Vien, a standing member of the Central Steering Committee for Justice Reform, said, "There have many opinions saying that the death penalty should be abolished for corruption or embezzlement charges, but I think that such an abolition should not be approved given the current situation." Nguyen Son, deputy chief judge of the People's Supreme Procuracy, also said that maintaining death sentences for corruption crimes is one of the ways to prove the resolve of the Party and State to combat corruption. 3 new charges proposed In the spirit of respecting and ensuring full enforcement of human rights as well as citizens' basic rights and obligations specified in the 2013 Constitution, another amendment has been proposed to include three new charges in the Penal Code, Deputy Minister Tung said. The new charges include infringing upon citizens' voting rights in referendums held by the State; altering referendum results; and infringing upon the right to freedom of speech, the right to freedom of the press, and citizens' rights to demonstration, Tung said. In addition, heavier penalties have also been suggested for a number of existing crimes mentioned in the code, including infringement upon citizens' places of residence; infringement upon other persons' privacy or the safety of their letters, telephone and/or telegraph; illegally forcing laborers or public employees to leave their jobs; infringement upon citizens' rights to assembly and association, rights to freedom of belief and religion; and infringement upon the rights to complain and/or denounce, the official said. Lethal injection for death penalty In terms of execution methods, Vietnam switched from firing squad to lethal injection in November 2011, under Decree 82/2011 by the government. However, the new execution method took years to implement due to a failure to import the needed drugs from the European Union, which banned the exportation of lethal injection drugs because it considers capital punishment a violation of human rights. The Vietnamese government then issued Decree 47/2013 to amend Decree 82, allowing domestically produced drugs to be used for executions. Decree 47 took effect on June 27, 2013 and the 1st execution by lethal injection was carried out in Hanoi on August 6, 2013. (source: Tuoi Tre News) BANGLADESH: Govt appeals for Jabbar's death penalty The government today appealed to the Supreme Court seeking death penalty for convicted war criminal Abdul Jabbar. The International Crimes Tribunal-1 on February 24 sentenced Jabbar to imprisonment till death for committing crimes against humanity during the 1971 Liberation War. The attorney general's office submitted the 379-page appeal to the Appellate Division, challenging the "inadequate sentence" given by ICT-1 to Jabbar. Citing from the appeal, Deputy Attorney General Bashir Ahmed told The Daily Star that the 1st option of punishment for a war criminal is death sentence, which the ICT-1 did not follow though the war crime charges against Jabbar had been proved beyond reasonable doubt. 10 reasons have been cited in the appeal for which the SC may consider to sentence Jabbar to death, he said. (source: The Daily Star) PAKISTAN----executions 6 death row convicts executed across Pakistan Pakistan executed 6 more death row convicts in different cities of country on Wednesday morning, ARY News reported. The executions started with 2 hangings in Sukkur Central Jail where Abdul Razzaq Chohan and Jalil alias Jalal Morejo were hanged to death. Jalil was awarded death penalty for killing a relative in 1997 while Abdul Razzaq killed a secondary level student by slitting his throat. Sahiwal Central Jail witnessed 1 hanging while another hanging was delayed as the aggrieved family said to be pardoned the murderer. Shahbaz was executed while Jaffar's hanging was delayed. Shahbaz killed a citizen Asim Baig in a gun attack back in 1998. Jaffar who killed his brother Khaleel and sister Saeeda was pardoned by the family. Muhammad Khan was hanged to death in Mianwali Central Jail while another convict Khubdar Shah???s execution was delayed after receiving a 'compromise agreement'. Death row convict Ayub was hanged in Lahore's Kot Lakhpat Jail while a rapist cum murderer Ghulam Yaseen was executed in Bahawalpur Jail. (source: arynews.tv) ********************* Execution of 4 More Convicts While implementation of courts orders of Capital punishment 4 more criminals were executed this morning in different cities, PakistanTribe .com reported. In Sahiwal's Central Jail, Shahbaz Ali inmate on death penalty was executed. In 1998, a 7-years-old Asim Baig was shot dead by Shahbaz on land conflict. The district court sentenced execution to the offender and when his all appeals were rejected by higher courts, the President had also rejected his appeal for clemency. Other 2 criminals Abdul Razzaq and Jalal were executed in Sukkur jail. Jalal, a residential of Noshero Feroz, killed his cousin Haroon Muryju, on personal enmity. The district Court of Noshero Feroz sentenced the offender a death penalty. The murderer Abdul Razzaq Chohan was a student in a local religious madrasa when in 2001 he slaughtered a boy Aftab Marani. Sukkur District Court sentenced the convict to hang. Both the criminals were applied against conviction which were dismissed and few day ago the death warrants were issued to them. On the other hand, a criminal guilty to rape and murder Ghulam Yaseen, the residential of Ahmed Pur Sharqia, is executed today in central jail Bahawalpur. The guilty killed a woman after raping her. Yaseen was sentenced to hang by District Court Bahawalpur over the convict of rape and murder. Pakistan government took the decision of abolition of moratorium on death penalty on March 10, 2015 in the result of December 16, attack of Taliban militants on Army Public School, Peshawar where they gunned down more than 150 people, most of them were children. The European Union (EU), Amnesty International (AI), the United Nations (UN) and the Human Rights Watch are very critical about the government's decision. It should be clear that civil death plenty was ban in the country since 2008. (source: pakistantribe.com) ********************** Case of twisted facts to get death penalty banned in Pakistan Amid reports that the condemned killer Shafqat Hussain's case has been taken up by some foreign-funded NGOs and international media with twisted facts as part of a campaign to get the death penalty banned in Pakistan, the interior ministry has referred the case to FIA for inquiry. FIA would inquire into the age controversy of the killer of a 7-year old boy and the related matters but there is no indication of questioning those foreign funded NGOs, which had intentionally used local and international media and even befooled the UN to propagate that the killer was a juvenile when he committed the heinous crime. In police, jail and court record Shafqat Hussain was 23 years of age at the time of the crime he committed - the fact which has never been contested at any stage by the culprit or any of his representatives at any official or judicial forum. The culprit's photo taken by the jail authorities in 2004 also show him a grown up man instead of a 14-year old boy. Geo News staffer Syed Arifeen was accompanying the police raid team along with his cameraman at the time of arrest of the killer in 2004 for ransom and murder. When approached, Arifeens said that Shafqat at the time of arrest never looked like a 14-year old child. He also confirmed that the 2004 jail picture of Shafqat, which was published in The News a few days back and is also in great circulation on the social media, is true and that was what he appeared at the time of his arrest. In Arifeen's view, even otherwise at the time of raid, Shafqat behave like a crook and shrewd criminal as he had tried to trick the police repeatedly but ultimately confessed his crime.The NGOs, media and some local and international so-called rights organisations took up the twisted case of Shafqat Hussain only after December 2014 Peshawar school attack when Pakistan decided to end 6-year old moratorium on the death penalty. It is believed even by the official circles that the whole 'save Shafqat Hussain campaign' was launched on the basis of fabricated information but with the motive to pressure Pakistan to re-impose ban on the death penalty. During the last 11 years, the age factor of the culprit had never been an issue but all of a sudden recently a town committee in AJK issued Shafqat's birth certificate, which instead of settling the issue raised serious questions about the authenticity and validity of the document. According to a journalist, who had probed the matter, the birth certificate is also part of the campaigners??? agenda to present distorted facts and pressure the government to get the death penalty banned yet again. In one of his recent blogs the journalist wrote, "Birth certificate, if obtained much later, has to be substantiated by some records. Records can be birth & death registers, hospital records, midwife records, school entering or leaving records, official examination cards, property documents with dates of birth or Form-B of the pre-NADRA era Registration Authority. In this case, a town committee in Neelum Valley has issued a birth certificate simply on the basis of an affidavit by the family." He added, "This battle (of NGOs) that has fooled so many educated Pakistanis was never about 'innocence' or mistaken identity. The NGOs never claimed that Shafqat Hussain did not seduce and murder a 7-year old Umair Siddiqui who, if alive, would have been 18 now. What about their child's right to life? What about their right to seek justice? The NGOs are fighting this case on technical ground that Shafqat Hussain was a juvenile, he was only 14 when convicted. This was nothing but dishonest afterthought to exploit loopholes in the system. Imagine how easy it is to fool people if you dress modern and speak a bit of English that so many people on social media, without seeing any evidence whatsoever of age 14, actually believe that the state of Pakistan has to give an answer on age issue. How come a juvenile of age 14 was tried! To support this contention they have managed to obtain a birth certificate from Neelum Valley." Meanwhile documents show that on December 22, 2014, the town committee Kail of district Neelum issued a birth certificate claiming Shafqat to have born on 1-10-1991. A day before the issuance of the certificate one Sumaira bibi, who claimed to be the sister of the killer, got an affidavit that in 2004 she was 15 and that Shafqat was one year younger than her. After the issuance of the birth certificate, Shafqat's mother Makhani Begum on January 5, 2015 in her affidavit claimed that her killer son was born 1 or 2 years after the birth of her daughter Sumaira. The mother claimed that her daughter is now 25.Besides these affidavits of Shafqat's family, there is no official document available which may confirm that Shafqat was 14 and not 23 in 2004. However, it is interesting to note without any verification and ignoring the police, jail and judicial record, a campaign was launched in the national and international media against Pakistan and its policy of death penalty. Slogans like "Don't hang child offender" were attractive enough for the west and the so-called human rights organisations to issue serious warning to Pakistan and portray the country negatively in regard to its policy of death penalty. Such has been the influence of the propaganda that even a UN group got befooled as its "human rights experts" in a statement said, "Mr. Hussain was 14 years old when he was arrested in connection with the disappearance of a young boy." The UN group even went to the extent of saying that Shafqat's confessions were obtained after he was reportedly tortured over 9 days by police officers after his arrest in 2004. These so-called human rights experts of the UN neither had the time to go through the court case of the culprit nor knew the basic fact that the dead body of the deceased child was recovered from a nullah on the pointing of the killer. Anti-Terror Court had awarded him double death penalty. In the Sindh High Court, Shafqat Hussain took the plea that he did not want to kill Umair, he did not have the intention and high court judge accepted that and commuted his death sentence under Section 302 to 5-year imprisonment. However he could not get rid of conviction under 365-A of ATA, which relates to "Abduction for Ransom". (source: The News) MAURITANIA: Call to release Mohamed Mkhaitir, blogger sentenced to death for apostasy We, the undersigned human rights and civil society organisations, call for the immediate and unconditional release of Mohamed Cheikh ould Mohamed Mkhaitir. We consider him a prisoner of conscience who has not committed any crime but was merely peacefully exercising his right to freedom of thought, conscience, expression and religion. International law prohibits any coercion that would impair the rights to have or adopt a religion or belief, including the use of penal sanctions to compel believers or non-believers to adhere to any religious beliefs, to recant their religion or belief or to convert. We further consider that this provision of the Mauritanian penal code, imposing the death penalty, violates Mauritania's international obligations. Mohamed Mkhaitir, a 29-year-old blogger who was held in pre-trial detention for almost 1 year, was sentenced to death for apostasy[1] at the Nouadhibou Court on 24 December 2014 in northwest Mauritania. He had posted an article online on the Aqlame newspaper's website, in December 2013, which was later taken down as it was deemed blasphemous towards the Prophet Mohamed. The article was addressed to the members of his Moualamine (meaning blacksmith) social category and criticised those who use religion to marginalise certain groups in Mauritanian society. Though article 306[2] of the Mauritanian penal code provides for leniency in case of repentance, none was shown to Mohamed Mkhaitir in spite of the fact that he repented during his pre-trial hearing at the gendarmerie (military police) station. During his trial at the Nouadhibou Court the judge told Mohamed Mkhaitir that he was accused of apostasy for "speaking lightly" of the Prophet Mohamed. Though Mohamed Mkhaitir repented again during his trial, explaining that his article was solely intended to denounce those who use religion to belittle others, he was shown no leniency. This is the 1st death sentence imposed in Mauritania for apostasy since independence in 1960. His lawyers have since appealed the decision to hand down the death sentence. A fundamental human right The right to freedom of expression is a fundamental human right. According to the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights (ACHPR), established pursuant to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights to which Mauritania is a state party, freedom of expression under the charter has 2 primary elements: the right to receive information and the right to express and disseminate opinion. The United Nations Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief notes in particular that freedom of religion or belief and freedom of expression are 2 mutually reinforcing human rights.[3] He also further notes that similar to freedom of expression, freedom of religion or belief has a strong communicative dimension, which includes sharing one's convictions with others, receiving and disseminating information about religious or belief issues and trying to persuade others in a non-coercive manner.[4] The United Nations Human Rights Committee (UNHRC) established pursuant to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) in its General Comment No.34[5] notes also that, "Prohibitions of displays of lack of respect for a religion or other belief system, including blasphemy laws, are incompatible with the [ICCPR], except in specific circumstances where individuals are advocating "national, racial or religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence" (article 20 of the ICCPR).[6] We also take this opportunity to remind the Mauritanian authorities of the recent recommendation made by the UNHRC, which stipulates that Mauritania "should remove the crime of apostasy from its legislation and authorize Mauritanians to fully enjoy their freedom of religion, including by changing religion."[7] Death penalty violates right to life We the signing organisations, oppose the death penalty in all cases without exception, regardless of the nature or circumstances of the crime, the guilt, innocence or other characteristics of the offender or the method used by the state to carry out the execution. The death penalty violates the right to life as proclaimed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR); and it is the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment. Mohamed Mkhaitir's death sentence is also a clear violation of Mauritania's obligations under the ICCPR to respect the right to freedom of expression. [1] The abandonment and criticism of one's religious faith, belief or cause. [2] Article 306 of the Mauritanian penal code provides that, "any Muslim guilty of the crime of apostasy ... will be asked to repent within a period of three days...if he does not repent within this time; he shall be sentenced to death as an apostate." This article also states that "Any person guilty of the crime of apostasy (Zendagha), shall be sentenced to death, unless he repents beforehand," and also that, "...if he repents before the execution of this sentence, the prosecutor will seize the Supreme Court, to the effect of his/her full rehabilitation, without prejudice to any sentence provided in the 1st paragraph this article [3 months to 3 years in prison and a fine of 5,000 to 60,000 UM]." [3] Report of the Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, 13 August 2012, paragraph 17, http://daccess-ods.un.org/access.nsf/Get?OpenAgent&DS=A/67/303&Lang=E, (last consulted 2 March 2015). [4] Ibid, paragraph 27. [5] UNHRC, General Comment No 34 on the ICCPR, 12 September 2011, paragraph 48, http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrc/docs/gc34.pdf, (last consulted 2 March 2015). [6] ICCPR, article 20, http://www.ohchr.org/en/professionalinterest/pages/ccpr.aspx, (last consulted 2 March 2015). [7] UNHRC, Concluding observations on the initial report of Mauritania, 21 November 2013, article 21, CCPR/C/MRT/CO/1, http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/treatybodyexternal/Download.aspx?symbolno=CCPR/C/MRT/CO/1&Lang=Fr, (last consulted 2 March 2015). (source: bizcommunity.com) INDONESIA: Bali 9 pair's lawyers to present evidence for fresh appeal----'We still have hope for Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran,' says lawyer for the pair who says there were errors in the court's rejection of a clemency appeal Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan's lawyers are set to make their case on Wednesday for an appeal of the presidential decree that denied them clemency. The state administrative court last month threw out the challenge to the clemency rejection, which has sent the pair a step closer to the firing squad over their 2005 heroin smuggling bid. The court threw out the challenge on jurisdictional grounds. Doly James, a lawyer for the Australians, said his team on Wednesday would present documented evidence to support the case for the administrative court to hear the appeal. "We still have hope for Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran," he said. "There were errors in the issuing of the clemency rejection. "I'm not denying the prerogative rights of the president. But the president must also comply with the ethics and principle of good governance. "The decision is still the president's prerogative but the process should not be reckless either, the president must be responsible." Last week the court laid out a timetable for the appeal, asking that it wrap up on 1 April for a decision soon afterwards. If they are granted the appeal, lawyers for Chan and Sukumaran will argue Indonesia's president, Joko Widodo, did not properly assess their clemency case - including their well-documented rehabilitation - before issuing a blanket rejection to the Australians as drug offenders. Indonesia's attorney general, HM Prasetyo, has committed not to execute Chan and Sukumaran before their legal avenues are exhausted. 7 of 10 prisoners in line for execution are pursuing court action and Prasetyo said he would respect all of their legal processes. Meanwhile, Chan and Sukumaran wait on Nusa Kambangan where the simultaneous executions are planned. Australia's foreign minister, Julie Bishop, said she did not expect to be updated on the situation until the legal appeals were complete. Indonesia's foreign ministry said it has passed on a request from Australia's prime minister, Tony Abbott, to speak by phone to Joko, and it is now in the hands of the presidential palace. (source: The Guardian) ********************** Bali drug trial of Kiwi Antony de Malmanche will go ahead A Bali court has decided to continue with the trial of a New Zealand man accused of smuggling 1.7 kilograms of crystal meth into Indonesia. Lawyers for Antony Glenn de Malmanche, 52, argued there were various errors with the prosecution indictment. They said the 52-year-old wasn't told of his right to a lawyer when he was intercepted at Bali's airport on December 1, making the basis of the prosecution case invalid. But Chief Judge Cening Budiana on Tuesday sided with the prosecution and determined the trial should proceed. "The judges think that on December 1 to 4, 2014, which is when the investigation started, the investigator had conveyed to the defendant his rights to be accompanied by lawyer," he said. "The investigator even appointed a lawyer, Nyoman Sudiantara, but the defendant said he wasn't prepared for a lawyer yet. "The defendant finally appointed a lawyer of his own on December 16, 2014." De Malmanche could face the death penalty for bringing drugs into Indonesia, where President Joko Widodo is proving especially hard on drug offences. The New Zealander said he thought he was going on his 1st overseas trip to meet a woman he met online, but was instead sent to China at the direction of a man claiming to be the woman's personal assistant. There he was given a bag - that unknown to him contained the drugs - and was told he would finally meet his new girlfriend in Bali. The trial will begin on Tuesday (local time) with prosecution witnesses from the customs office. (source: AAP) From rhalperi at smu.edu Wed Mar 25 11:43:56 2015 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Wed, 25 Mar 2015 11:43:56 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide Message-ID: BAHRAIN: BAHRAIN SENTENCES TWO BANGLADESHIS TO DEATH Two Bangladeshi men have been sentenced to death in Bahrain for murder. They have the right to appeal the sentence. View the full Urgent Action, including case information, addresses and sample messages, here. A High Criminal Court in the capital, Manama, sentenced two Bangladeshi men, Salam Julas and Suzan Badsha, both aged 29, to death on 22 March for the premeditated murder of another Bangladeshi national, Taher Antez, with the intention of robbing him. According to local media reports, the two men had been charged in April 2013 with the premeditated murder of the victim in a row over prostitution earnings, residing in the country illegally and being involved in prostitution: cleaners found the victim?s body inside a suitcase near a rubbish container. The two men admitted they had committed the murder before the public prosecution. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION Bahrain has applied the death penalty only a few times in the past few years. The last person executed in Bahrain was a Bangladeshi man, Jassim Abdulmanan, who was put to death in 2010. However, since 2011, at least 11 people have been sentenced to death, although some of the death sentences have since been quashed on appeal. View the full Urgent Action here. Names: Salam Julas (m), Suzan Badsha (m) Issues: Death penalty, Legal concern UA: 68/15 Issue Date: 24 March 2015 Country: Bahrain Please let us know if you took action so that we can track our impact! EITHER send a short email to uan at aiusa.org with "UA 68/15" in the subject line, and include in the body of the email the number of letters and/or emails you sent. OR fill out this short online form to let us know how you took action. Thank you for taking action! Please check with the AIUSA Urgent Action Office if sending appeals after the below date. If you receive a response from a government official, please forward it to us at uan at aiusa.org or to the Urgent Action Office address below. HOW YOU CAN HELP Please write immediately in English or Arabic: * Urging the authorities not to execute the two Bangladeshi nationals and immediately establish an official moratorium on executions with a view to abolishing the death penalty; * Acknowledging the Bahraini government?s responsibility to protect the public and bring to justice those who commit crimes, but insisting that this should always be done in accordance with international law and Bahrain?s international human rights obligations; PLEASE SEND APPEALS BEFORE 5 MAY 2015 TO: King Shaikh Hamad bin ?Issa Al Khalifa Office of His Majesty the King P.O. Box 555 Rifa?a Palace, al-Manama, Bahrain Fax: 011 973 1766 4587 Salutation: Your Majesty Prime Minister Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa Prime Minister Office of the Prime Minister P.O. Box 1000, al-Manama, Bahrain Fax: 011 973 1753 3033 Salutation: Your Highness Minister of Justice Shaikh Khaled bin Ali al-Khalifa Ministry of Justice and Islamic Affairs P. O. Box 450, Manama, Bahrain Fax: 011 973 1753 1284 Salutation: Your Excellency Also send copies to: H.E. Ambassador Shaikh Abdullah Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Khalifa, Embassy of the Kingdom of Bahrain 3502 International Dr. NW, Washington DC 20008 Fax: 1 202 362 2192 I Email: ambsecretary at bahrainembassy.org Please share widely with your networks: ?http://bit.ly/1OyU7mD We encourage you to share Urgent Actions with your friends and colleagues! When you share with your networks, instead of forwarding the original email, please use the "Forward this email to a friend" link found at the very bottom of this email. Thank you for your activism! UA Network Office AIUSA ?600 Pennsylvania Ave SE, Washington DC 20003 T. 202.509.8193 ? F. 202.509.8193 ?E. uan at aiusa.org ?amnestyusa.org/urgent From rhalperi at smu.edu Wed Mar 25 15:18:42 2015 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Wed, 25 Mar 2015 15:18:42 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., ALA., UTAH, CALIF. Message-ID: March 25 TEXAS: Texas Prison Agency Replenishes Execution Drug Supply Texas prison officials have acquired a small supply of pentobarbital to replenish their dwindling inventory of the execution drug so lethal injections set for next month can be carried out. Four condemned inmates are set to die in April. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice had enough pentobarbital for only the first one, scheduled for April 9. Spokesman Jason Clark said Wednesday the agency now has a sufficient amount of the sedative for the other 3. Pharmaceutical companies, under pressure from death penalty opponents, have stopped selling U.S. prisons drugs for lethal injections. So Texas, the nation's most active capital punishment state, and other states have turned to compounding pharmacies for made-to-order drugs. As in the past, prison officials are refusing to identify the provider of the new supply. (source: Associated Press) PENNSYLVANIA: Pa. has good reasons to hesitate in using the death penalty I am a senior high school student writing with concern regarding Pennsylvania's use of capital punishment. Having recently become an adult, I support both Senator Greenleaf's sponsored bill seeking a study of death penalty efficacy and Gov. Wolf's commitment to staying executions pending investigation. I am concerned about the lack of evidence supporting executions, as well as questions of ethical merit, disparity of usage, irrevocability, and degree of deterrence. Even if we remove the subjective ethical argument from the equation, from an economic standpoint alone, the death penalty is not a practical method of punitive recourse in today's society. Author Dan Brooks of Common Dreams News reports that, due to the added costs associated with trials, appeals, and security, death penalty cases are 3 times more costly than life-without-parole. News columnist Gary Alvord of the Economist Online states that, of the 3,082 condemned prisoners in United States in 2011, only 43 were executed. The majority will die of natural causes, yet society supports their incarceration at a far greater cost on death row. Life-without-parole is effective in keeping violent criminals incarcerated, and it does so at a lower cost while retaining recourse for those later proven innocent. This is particularly pertinent to the 144 death-row prisoners who have been exonerated nationwide. I am pleased to live in a state that reflects collective hesitancy by not having executed an inmate since 1999. I strongly urge joining the civilized ranks of 139 countries that have deemed capital punishment to be "cruel and unusual" and have abolished the costly and ineffective practice. MEGAN GROSSMAN, Silver Spring Twp. (source: Letter to the Editor, pennlive.com) ******************* In new poll, Pa. residents narrowly support Wolf's death penalty moratorium Prosecutors, cops and crime victims may not be fans, but a majority of respondents to a new poll say they're behind Gov. Tom Wolf's decision to halt executions in Pennsylvania while a special commission studies society's ultimate sanction. 50 % of respondents to a new Public Policy Poll commissioned by a York College criminal justice professor offer full or partial support for the moratorium, compared to 44 % who oppose it and the 5 % who say they're unsure. Hewing to national trends, a clear majority (54 %) say they prefer some version of life in prison to the death penalty. Just 42 % of the 632 state voters in the poll said the death penalty was their preferred method of punishment. Pennsylvania currently has more than 180 men and women on death row. But the state has not executed a condemned inmate since 1999. Debate over capital punishment flared anew earlier this year with the capture and arrest of accused cop-killer Eric Frein. Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams, who, like Wolf, is a Democrat, is suing in state court to have the moratorium overturned, arguing that Wolf overstepped his authority. Earlier this month, a group of Republican lawmakers also introduced a non-binding resolution calling on Wolf to rescind the moratorium. (source: pennlive.com) ALABAMA: 2 execution methods that don't involve Yellow Mama or lethal injection: Utah and Oklahoma options Alabama's Legislature recently cleared the way for its electric chair known as "Yellow Mama" to return if the state can't secure the drugs needed for lethal injections. Alabama is not alone - the lack of drugs used in executions has promoted delays across the country. Earlier this month, Alabama agreed to suspend executions until after the U.S. Supreme Court issues its ruling on lethal injection procedures and drug combinations. The delays and issues have states looking around for solutions. Here are 2: Firing squad Like Alabama, Utah has found itself struggling to secure drugs needed for lethal injections. While Alabama has turned to the electric chair, Utah has approved the return of firing squads. "We regret anyone ever commits the heinous crime of aggravated murder to merit the death penalty, and we prefer to use our primary method of lethal injection when such a sentence is issued," Gov. Gary Herbert spokesperson Marty Carpenter said. "However, when a jury makes the decision and a judge signs a death warrant, enforcing that lawful decision is the obligation of the executive branch." Proponents of the system said marksmen are trained to execute a kill shot, removing some of the uncertainty that comes from lethal injection. Utah stopped offering inmates the choice of a firing squad in 2004. Entirely new method The Oklahoma State Legislature is considering a bill that would completely change the method of execution used in the state. The method, suggested by a professor of criminal justice at East Central University in Ada, Oklahoma, is "nitrogen hypoxia" as a backup to its existing methods of lethal injection, electrocution and firing squad. If lethal injection drugs aren't available, the nitrogen hypoxia method would become the primary means of executions, the bill states. The Oklahoma Senate has already passed the measure and it's now before the House. The method would include an offender breathing a gas mixture of pure nitrogen. The death would be painless, proponents contend, with the offender losing consciousness about 15 seconds after the nitrogen is turned on. Death would take about 3 minutes. Opponents of the bill are many. "It's a fool's errand to even engage in this utterly bizarre process of searching out new ways to take people's lives against their will," said Ryan Kiesel, executive director of Oklahoma's American Civil Liberties Union chapter. "We would be experimenting on the condemned using a process that has been banned in many states for the euthanasia of animals." (source: al.com) UTAH: US Rights Organization Pushes for Debate on Death Penalty----American Civil Liberties Union of Utah Legislative and Policy Counsel Marina Lowe said that the US should consider the issue whether the country should have death penalty at all. The United States needs to hold a debate on whether the use of the death penalty makes any economic or moral sense instead of finding different ways to kill people, American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Utah Legislative and Policy Counsel Marina Lowe told Sputnik. "Rather than have this debate over what is an acceptable way to kill someone, it's time to ask why we have the death penalty at all," Lowe said on Tuesday. "Is it OK for the state to kill in the name of the law?" Lowe issued the comments amid a controversy in US state of Utah, which resurrected execution by firing squads if the authorities run out of lethal injection drugs. "The state could have looked at other questions, and make strides forward in the criminal justice system that are constitutionally sound, but instead, we've decided to go in another direction," Lowe said. The ACLU Counsel noted that questions concerning the existence of the death penalty arise from the US Constitution, which outlaws cruel and unusual punishment, as well as the due process and laws in the United States criminal justice system. "Questions about who lives and who dies depend on the skills of attorneys, race and age, and socioeconomic status," she said. "Because of all these factors, that makes the death penalty unfair, and it is no way for it to stands as constitutional." Moreover, Utah had already outlawed firing squads as a form of execution in 2004, Lowe argued, and bringing them seems like the state is going backwards. "What's so disturbing in Utah is they enacted the smarter on crime legislation that looks at reducing penalties and giving additional treatment for crime and mental health issues," Lowe said. "It's Disturbing that Utah makes real progress on criminal justice reform, but sad not on the same line of thinking with the death penalty." Lowe also pointed out it costs a million dollars more to put someone to death than if the person receives prison sentence. The ACLU Counsel said she remains hopeful that the state of Utah and other US states will soon start looking at the death penalty differently. The ACLU is a non-profit organization whose goal is to defend and preserve individual rights and liberties in the United States guaranteed by the US Constitution and the country's laws through litigation, lobbying and community empowerment. (source: sputniknews.com) CALIFORNIA: Robert Dunson convicted of '07 snowbird murder An ex-convict who fatally beat and slashed a Canadian businessman during an Indio robbery was convicted Tuesday of 1st-degree murder. A Riverside jury deliberated just over a day before finding 33-year-old Robert Lee Dunson guilty of the November 2007 slaying of William George Dobbs of Tsawwassen, British Columbia, who owned a vacation home in Indio. Dobb's wife, Toni, testified at the beginning of Dunson's trial, but returned to Canada after finding it too difficult to sit through the rest of the proceeding. She was alerted to the verdict through email on Tuesday. "It was like a car being lifted off my chest," Toni said. "This has been a long time coming ... the penalty phase still has to happen, but I feel now like it is finally over. And Billy can rest in piece." Along with the murder count, jurors convicted Dunson of witness intimidation and found true special circumstance allegations that he committed the murder during a kidnapping and a robbery. Dunson is facing a possible death sentence. Riverside County Superior Court Judge Charles Koosed directed jurors to return on April 8 for opening statements in the penalty phase of the trial. 4 co-defendants -- Jackie Lynn Dunson, a sister of Robert Dunson, Fernando Antonio Benavidez, Ronald Wesley Handwerk and Rogelio Leon Zuniga -- were convicted of murder in 2012 in connection with Dobbs' killing and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. According to prosecutors, Benavidez met Dobbs at a Coachella casino on the night of Nov. 26, 2007, luring him away with the prospect of a sexual encounter with Jackie Dunson. Benavidez took the victim to her apartment on Sage Street in Indio, where Dobbs expected to pay the woman for sex, according to investigators. Handwerk and Robert Dunson ambushed Dobbs when he arrived at the residence, choking, kicking and punching him until he gave them his credit card and PIN number, according to trial testimony. The beating broke four of the victim's ribs, puncturing internal organs. According to the prosecution, Dobbs pleaded for mercy, saying, "Oh God, please somebody help me, please somebody help me." Robert Dunson put a plastic trash bag over Dobbs' head and secured it with duct tape to keep him quiet, prosecutors allege. Jackie Dunson and Handwerk then drove Dobbs' Cadillac Escalade to a bank to withdraw cash. Zuniga and his girlfriend also later used the card to withdraw around $1,200 from several ATMs, according to the prosecution. Robert Dunson and Handwerk became concerned that Dobbs could identify them, so Dunson and Zuniga threw the victim into the back of his Escalade and drove him to a dump near Dillon and Landfill roads in a remote area of Indio. Dobbs' hands were tied and the trash bag was still on his head when the men slashed his neck 14 times, almost decapitating him, according to prosecutors. Dobbs' body was discovered the next day. According to court records, Robert Dunson has prior felony convictions for check fraud and burglary. (source: Desert Sun) From rhalperi at smu.edu Wed Mar 25 15:19:56 2015 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Wed, 25 Mar 2015 15:19:56 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide Message-ID: March 25 INDONESIA: Deathrow Gospel Singer: Last Minute Efforts To Save Okwudili Ayotanze From Execution In Indonesia A tiny ray of hope has risen for Okwudili Ayotanze, a Nigerian gospel singer on Death row in Indonesia after being found guilty of smuggling Heroin. A last minute diplomatic intervention is being pushed following meetings between the Indonesian Ambassador to Nigeria, Harry Purwanto, and the permanent secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Danjuma Sheni. Ayotanze, 40, was arrested in 2001 while trying to smuggle 1.15 kilograms of heroin at the Soekarno-Hatta international airport in Jakarta. He is on the execution list alongside 2 other Nigerians, Jamiu Owolabi Abashin who was caught smuggling Heroin using a false name Raheem Agbaje Salami, and Silvester Obiekwe. Dili as he's fondly called by inmates released his 1st album in 2008 entitled 'God You Know' and boasts of over 70 written songs to his credit. Some of his band mates include fellow inmates and a prison guard all of whom has worked with him on songs such as 'God Bless Indonesia' and 'Never be afraid'. Responding to the permanent secretary, the ambassador affirmed that Indonesia still upheld death by execution as the penalty for drug related offenses, as the country had made it clear that engaging in drug trafficking into Indonesia is risking death. "We still recognize the death penalty in our criminal justice system in some serious crimes including terrorism and narcotics and some other things," he stated. He added, however, that the execution penalty does not apply to children and other vulnerable persons. "We do apply these executions to those who are adults and we will not apply it on children or pregnant women or mentally ill persons and we have already made this known that doing this trafficking of narcotic in Indonesia is risking your death penalty before even coming into Indonesia" he said. (source: Expressng.com) From rhalperi at smu.edu Thu Mar 26 12:44:12 2015 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Thu, 26 Mar 2015 12:44:12 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., DEL., VA., ALA., OHIO Message-ID: March 26 MARCH 26, 2015: TEXAS: Texas prison officials acquire drug to carry out lethal injections Texas prison officials have acquired a small supply of pentobarbital to replenish their dwindling inventory of the execution drug so that lethal injections set for next month in the nation's most active death penalty state can be carried out, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice said Wednesday. The agency now has a sufficient amount of the sedative for the 4 inmates set to die in April, a spokesman confirmed. (source: Washington Post) *************************** Questionable Texas execution leads to bar complaint against prosecutor ---- Texas likely executed an innocent man, and now the prosecutor faces a misconduct complaint A couple of days before Christmas 1991, Cameron Todd Willingham would later tell investigators, he awoke from a nap to a house filled with smoke and flames. He couldn't reach his 3 toddlers who had been in a back bedroom, and the intense heat sent him stumbling outside as fire consumed the house. Arson, fire investigators determined, and the police quickly zeroed in on Willingham as the one who started it. Willingham was convicted of murder, sentenced to death, and the execution was carried out in 2004 despite significant questions about whether the fire had, indeed, been intentionally set. Since then, more questions have been raised about the role of a jailhouse informer named Johnny E. Webb, who testified at trial that Willingham had confessed to him. Webb and the prosecutor, John H. Jackson, told the court that no deal had been worked out for Webb's testimony, something Webb now says was a lie. The evidence is substantial that in killing Willingham, Texas executed an innocent man, adding yet another layer of tragedy to the horrific deaths of the 3 children. And the evidence is pretty convincing that the prosecutor, who has stood by the conviction, lied about making a deal with Webb in return for the now-recanted testimony. Earlier this month, the State Bar of Texas quietly filed a disciplinary complaint against Jackson in Navarro County District Court, Maurice Possley reports at the Marshall Project. Specifically, the bar accuses Jackson of withholding evidence of Willingham???s innocence before, during and after the trial. From the Marshall Project: A lawyer for Jackson, Joseph E. Byrne, on Wednesday urged that people withhold judgment about the case until all the evidence was presented and took issue with the grievance filed against his client by the Innocence Project, a legal advocacy group. If found guilty, Jackson could be disbarred -- not much of a penalty if he was indeed culpable for the execution of an innocent man. But it's somewhat remarkable that a disciplinary body is even trying to hold a prosecutor accountable for apparent misconduct during a trial. That an innocent man was likely executed may put more weight on this case, but there have been other similar acts of misconduct in death penalty cases, actions that rarely receive more than a courtroom rebuke. Though I should note that misconduct and prosecutorial errors are not necessarily intentional. According to the National Registry of Exonerations, official misconduct was involved in 46% of the 12,569 exonerations it has tracked since 1989. Politico wrote about some of the post-conviction review units that a handful of prosecutor's offices have adopted to try to ensure the innocent have not been wrongly convicted, something I've written about before. But that's just a step. I take it as a given that most prosecutors are focused on justice. But until prosecutors know they face accountability for their infractions, there is little to stop the bad actors from acting badly. (source: Opinion; Scott Martelle, Los Angeles Times) PENNSYLVANIA: York College-commissioned poll shows Pa. voters narrowly against death penalty A poll commissioned by a York College professor and released on Wednesday shows a slim majority of polled Pennsylvanians support Gov. Tom Wolf's decision to temporarily put a hold on executions. 54 % of the pollees also prefer some form of a life sentence rather than a death sentence, according to the poll done by Public Policy Polling of North Carolina. Eric Ling, an associate professor of criminal justice, said he commissioned the poll to see how attitudes were shaped by the governor's decision to put a moratorium on the death penalty in February. "Pennsylvanians are moving with the time," he said of the results. "I think now's the time for reconsideration." The poll: Of the 632 registered voters polled, 29 % strongly support and 21 % somewhat support Wolf's decision, while 15 % somewhat oppose and 29 strongly oppose. 5 % of those polled weren't sure, according to the poll. 32 % said they prefer a sentence of life in prison with no possibility of parole for someone convicted of murder, while 42 % said they prefer the death penalty. Additionally, 13 % said they prefer a sentence of life with a chance of parole after 20 years, and 9 % said they prefer a sentence of life with a chance of parole after 40 years. 4 % said they aren't sure, the poll says. The poll has a 4.2 % margin of error and also addresses fiscal aspects of the death penalty. It is the 1st of its kind since the governor said he won't sign death warrants, which authorize executions to be carried out, until a report on the death penalty by the Pennsylvania Task Force and Advisory Commission is completed and reviewed. Since Wolf won't sign death warrants, the secretary of corrections, John Wetzel, must sign a notice of execution and schedule a time to carry out the execution. But Wolf has been granting reprieves to death row inmates who have executions scheduled. Swayed: Richard Long, executive director of the Pennsylvania District Attorneys Association, said he saw the poll and believes the phrasing of the questions swayed pollees toward giving an anti-death penalty answer. For example, the question about Wolf's decision lists "concerns about the risk of executing innocent people, the high cost of the death penalty and serious issues of unfairness" as reasons why Wolf imposed the moratorium. "I believe the phrasing of the questions are suggestive," he said. "I think that influences the answers you're going to get." The association has come out against Wolf's decision, saying that as governor, he is violating state law by not signing death warrants. Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams filed a lawsuit against Wolf, arguing the moratorium is unconstitutional. National trend: Though the recently released poll shows Pennsylvanians appear to back Wolf's decision, it bucks the national trend of support for the death penalty. A Gallup poll released in October shows 63 % of those polled favor the death penalty for someone convicted of murder, while 33 % oppose it and 4 % aren't sure. The death penalty is legal in 32 states. There are 186 people, 13 of whom were convicted in York County, on death row in Pennsylvania, the fifth-largest population in the nation. However, the last execution in the state was carried out in 1999. Proponents have long said the death penalty serves as a deterrent and brings closure to victims' families. But that's not always the case, Ling said, considering almost all death sentences are appealed. That causes families to rehash the crime each time an appeal is filed. Appeals also cause the convicted to sit on death row for years, if not decades, at the expense of taxpayers. It costs more to house an inmate on death row as opposed to that inmate serving a life sentence, Ling pointed out. "The thing about the death penalty is it's a false promise," he said, adding there's always the possibility that a guilty conviction in a capital case could be overturned because new evidence could clear the presumed guilty inmate of the crime. However, Long said the death penalty is necessary for some cases, particularly heinous murders. "We believe the death penalty is the appropriate punishment in the worst of the worst circumstances," he said. (source: York Dispatch) *************** Judge: Edwards ineligible for death penalty A Fayette County judge set aside a death sentence for Mark Duane Edwards on Wednesday and ordered him to serve the equivalent of 4 consecutive life sentences. President Judge James F. Wagner Jr. determined that Edwards, 32, was ineligible for the death penalty under Pennsylvania law and a U.S. Supreme Court decision because of an intellectual disability. Edwards was convicted in 2004 of killing Larry A. Bobish, 50; his wife, Joanna, 42; and their pregnant daughter, Krystal, 17, during a burglary and arson at the family's North Union home on April 14, 2002. The Bobishes' then-12-year-old son, Larry Jr., survived being shot and escaped the fire. A bullet remains lodged in his head. A death warrant had been signed in November by then-Gov. Tom Corbett, but a motion to stay the sentence was filed in county court and resulted in a 3-day hearing and Wagner's ruling. Edwards' attorney, James Moreno and Peter Williams of the Community Defenders Office in Philadelphia, declined comment, as did Assistant District Attorney Anthony Iannamorelli. (source: triblive.com) DELAWARE: Duel over the death penalty Activists and law enforcement officials made their voices heard Wednesday on what has become one of the legislature???s most polarizing issues: capital punishment. With a bill to repeal the death penalty getting its 1st committee hearing of the legislative session, dozens of citizens flocked to the Senate chamber in Legislative Hall hoping to influence what figures to be a close vote. Introduced last week by Sen. Karen Peterson, D-Stanton, Senate Bill 40 would replace capital punishment with life without parole. After an hour of discussion featuring more than a dozen public speakers, the Senate Judiciary Committee released the bill to the Senate, marking 1 step in a long process. Sen. Peterson spoke first, arguing the death penalty is not a deterrent. She said death-penalty states have a higher murder rate than those that have eliminated it, a statement touted by other speakers. Sen. Peterson wants Delaware to become the 19th state to abolish capital punishment. "Albert Einstein once said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. We keep killing people to teach them that it's wrong to kill people, and it's not working," she insisted, adding the death penalty is "barbaric." Public defender Brendan O'Neill focused on the monetary costs. The Public Defender???s Office and the Office of Conflicts Counsel spent a combined $2.6 million defending individuals facing the death penalty in fiscal year 2014, he said. Several others cited the cost as well, arguing that with the need for multiple defense lawyers and the frequent appeals that come with a death sentence, capital punishment is several times more expensive than life without parole. But the claims of some of the activists were disputed by the only anti-repeal speaker. Lewes Police Department Chief Jeffrey Horvath, who???s also the 2nd vice chairman of the Delaware Police Chiefs' Counsel, expressed doubt that eliminating the death penalty would save the state large sums of money. More importantly, the death penalty is a deterrent, he said, contrary to the claims of several who have called for repeal. "We hear the cost of the death penalty is exuberant," Chief Horvath said. "We would like to see how these high numbers are reached. We think they're exaggerated. "With that said, the death penalty is reserved for the most shocking crimes against real people, people in our society and our community, people that we know. These are not minimal crimes and saving money should not be a priority." In response to arguments the death penalty is disproportionately used on minorities, he said the majority of homicides in Delaware are committed by blacks. He also disagreed it is a cruel practice, noting the Supreme Court has ruled "certain crimes are themselves so grievous an affront to humanity that the only adequate response may be the penalty of death." Sen. Peterson shot back in response to Chief Horvath's claim that individuals who were exonerated from death row are successes. Citing Jermaine Wright, who was freed from a Smyrna prison in January after 20 years, she said he should not be held up as a paragon of the system's excellence. She also claimed that black Delawareans are seven times more likely to get the penalty for killing a white man or woman than another black individual. Kirk Bloodsworth, who was sentenced to death in Maryland and became the 1st American to be exonerated from death row based on DNA evidence, said the death penalty does not protect citizens. He said 151 individuals have been freed after being judged to be wrongly sentenced to death. "If it could happen to me, it could happen to anybody in America," he said. With the bill released from committee, it could be voted on soon - possibly as soon as today. A similar version passed the Senate 11-10 in 2013. While capital punishment may ultimately be repealed or seconded by the 62 members of the General Assembly, Chief Horvath has a different idea. "Why can't this go to a vote, to a referendum?" he said. "Why can't we hear what the public wants instead of what my interest group wants and what the other interest groups in this room want?" (source: delaware.newszap.com) ****************** Bill to abolish Delaware death penalty clears Senate committee in renewed repeal effort A bill to abolish Delaware's death penalty cleared its first legislative hurdle Wednesday, with members of the Senate Judiciary Committee releasing it for debate and a vote by the full Senate. The legislation, which was the subject of an hour-long hearing, mirrors a bill that passed the Senate in 2013 by only one vote before dying in a House committee. The legislation would remove execution as a possible punishment for 1st-degree murder, leaving life in prison without the possibility of parole as the only sentence. The bill would not apply to the 15 inmates currently on Delaware's death row, who would still be subject to execution. Chief sponsor Sen. Karen Peterson, D-Stanton, who also led the failed repeal effort 2 years ago, said opponents believe that the death penalty is arbitrary, discriminatory against minorities, costly to taxpayers and ineffective as a deterrent to crime. "We keep killing people to teach them that it is wrong to kill people," Peterson said. "It's not working." Peterson specifically rejected arguments from opponents of the legislation that the death penalty serves as a deterrent to attacks on law enforcement officers and prison guards. Of the 13 people who signed up to speak on the measure, 12 were supporters of the repeal effort, including clerics representing several Christian and Jewish congregations in Delaware. Brendan O'Neill, head of the state public defender's office, said death penalty cases are costly to taxpayers, to the tune of $2.6 million in defense costs in fiscal 2014. "If we pass this bill, we won't have all of these expenses," O'Neill said, noting that death penalty cases require 2 defense trial attorneys, expert testimony on mitigating circumstances as arguments against imposing a death sentence, and costly and lengthy appeals. Lewes Police Chief Jeffrey Horvath, representing the Delaware Police Chiefs Council, was the only person to speak against the bill. Horvath suggested that some of the statistics used by death penalty opponents in support of the repeal effort, including the number of death row inmates who have been "exonerated," are false or misleading. "Being removed from the death penalty does not equate to innocence," Horvath noted, saying many former death row inmates are serving life in prison. He also said cost should not be a factor in the argument over capital punishment. "The death penalty is reserved for the most shocking crimes against real people. ... These are not minimal crimes, and saving money should not be the priority for getting rid of the death penalty." Attorney General Matt Denn says he is not opposed to capital punishment in appropriate cases, but that state law should be changed to require a unanimous jury recommendation before a judge can impose a death sentence. (source: Associated Press) VIRGINIA: Police Charge 2 Men with Capital Murder for Fatal Shooting in Ironbound Square Park 2 people accused of fatally shooting a man while attempting to rob him of drugs are facing the death penalty. A grand jury indicted Jaiquan Keonta Smith, 18, and Terrance Andretti Martin Jr., 20, on a charge of capital murder in the commission of a robbery last week for the November shooting death of 26-year-old Tyler Anthony Cole. In Virginia, capital murder cases involving the willful, deliberate and premeditated killing of another person during a robbery are punishable by the death penalty or life in prison. Smith and Martin - along with 22-year-old Wilbert McKenley Walker - are accused of shooting Cole while attempting to rob him of drugs in the 300 block of Carriage Road in the Ironbound Square Park neighborhood of James City County on Nov. 7. Phone records show Walker, Smith and Martin arranged to meet Cole to buy drugs, according to a criminal complaint filed against Walker in Williamsburg-James City County General District Court. Walker drove the other 2 to Ironbound Square Park, located off Ironbound Road, and waited while they approached Cole in his car to rob him, the court documents show. The 2 men then shot Cole twice and stole unidentified items from him before leaving the scene in Walker's car, the court papers said. James City County Police responded to a call of shots fired at around 8:05 p.m. and found Cole in his car - which had crashed into a home on Carriage Road - suffering from multiple gunshot wounds. Cole was transported to Sentara Williamsburg Regional Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Martin was served with the capital murder charge Wednesday in Virginia Peninsula Regional Jail, where he is currently being held on 7 felony counts for an incident that occurred May 21, in which he and a 17-year-old boy are suspected of entering a home on Ernestine Avenue while wearing a mask and robbing at least 2 people of drugs. He was arrested on those charges Feb. 6. Court records show he was also sentenced in 2012 for robbery and conspiracy to commit robbery in Williamsburg-James City County Circuit Court. He received a suspended sentence of 15 years for those charges. Smith was arrested in his home on Sidewinder Court in the Brookside Haven neighborhood in the Grove area of James City County on Tuesday. Walker was arrested March 5 and charged with 2nd-degree murder. He and Martin are being held at Virginia Peninsula Regional Jail without bond, while Smith is being held at Western Tidewater Regional Jail in Suffolk without bond. Smith and Martin are scheduled to appear in Williamsburg-James City County Circuit Court for a review hearing at 10 a.m. April 1. Walker's preliminary hearing is scheduled for 1 p.m. April 23 in Williamsburg-James City County General District Court. (source: Williamsburg Yorktown Daily) ALABAMA: Prosecutor: Joyce Garrard deserves the death penalty An Alabama woman is spending her birthday in court learning whether jurors want her to be executed for running her granddaughter to death. Closing arguments in the sentencing phase of Joyce Hardin Garrard's trial began Thursday, Garrard's 50th birthday. She was convicted of capital murder last week in the death of 9-year-old Savannah Hardin. Assistant District Attorney Marcus Reid asked jurors to recommend the death penalty, adding that he's never prosecuted a case like this one. "This case is the only case I know of where the perpetrator forced the victim to participate in her own death," he said. "Joyce Garrard forced Savannah Hardin to help kill herself." Prosecutors contend Garrard made the girl run as punishment for telling a lie about candy, and refused to let Savannah stop running even after the girl was vomiting and begging for an end to the exercise. In court, they cited a school bus surveillance video that captured Garrard saying she would run the girl and teach her a lesson. Reid told jurors that Garrard had cried in the courtroom at the mention of her birthday, but didn't cry when jurors were shown the soiled blue pants Savannah was wearing the night of her collapse. "Savannah is dead. Joyce Garrard is pitiless. She doesn't believe she did anything wrong," he said. The defense, which was set to make its closing arguments after Reid finished, says Garrard was a good grandmother who suffered abuse in her own upbringing. Garrard, of Boaz, testified last week she had no intention of harming the girl and denied she had forced her to run. Garrard said during cross examination that Savannah wanted Garrard to help her get faster for races at school, and they both ran "a bunch" before Savannah collapsed. Because Thursday was Garrard's birthday, deputies allowed her to hug relatives across the short wall that separates the front of the courtroom from the spectators before court opened in the morning. Joyce embraced her husband Jonny Garrard for several minutes, rubbing his back and the back of his head as she and her relatives wept. Afterward, she sat down at the defense table and stared at her son and Savannah's father, Robert, who was in the courtroom for the 1st time. He sat directly behind the prosecution table and did not appear to return the eye contact. Jurors will recommend either death or life without parole. A vote of at least 10 of 12 jurors is required for the panel to recommend death. A simple majority can recommend life. The final decision will be up to Circuit Judge Billy Ogletree. (source: Associated Press) OHIO: Agreement reached over death row inmates' request for information about compounding pharmacies An agreement has been reached over death row inmates' subpoenas of Board of Pharmacy information about drugs used for lethal injection in Ohio. At issue were attempts by inmates' lawyers to find out more about the state's lethal injection process, which now calls for 2 drugs Ohio doesn't have and which may only be available in specialty doses created by compounding pharmacies. Lawyers for Attorney General Mike DeWine said the request, including pharmacy inspection records, was too broad and would shut down the board for weeks or months as it provided thousands of pages of documents. Lawyers for the state and for inmates said in a court filing Wednesday without giving details that the dispute has been resolved. (source: Associated Press) ***************** Cuyahoga County prosecutors will keep Akron quadruple murder a death-penalty case Prosecutors will continue to pursue the death penalty in an Akron quadruple murder case in which an earlier conviction was thrown out. Cuyahoga County prosecutors appointed to take over the case said Wednesday during a hearing that the county's capital review committee voted to keep pursing the death penalty against Deshanon Haywood, 23. Haywood was convicted of being 1 of 2 men who killed 4 people in a heroin-theft related case. Summit County Judge Paul Gallagher vacated the convictions amid allegations of misconduct by prosecutors. Defense attorney Joe Gorman said he and attorney Brian Pierce hoped the review committee would drop death penalty specifications against Haywood. "In light of the fact his co-defendant was likely the principal offender in the case and he got life in prison, we believe it would be unjust for (Haywood) to even face the death penalty," Gorman said. Assistant Cuyahoga County prosecutor Mahmoud Awadallah said that the capital review committee, which considers all death-eligible cases in Cuyahoga County, decided to continue with the death specifications after meeting twice. Prosecutors decided to take the Akron case through their normal procedures for capital cases after being appointed. Prosecutors declined further comment after the hearing. Jury selection in the case is scheduled to begin May 11. Testimony is scheduled for May 26. It will be the 2rd jury selection in the case where the death penalty has been a divisive issue. The case first stalled in June when prosecutors accused Summit County Judge Mary Margaret Rowlands of being biased against the death penalty in complaints to the Ohio Supreme Court. Rowlands eventually recused herself from the case, which was then sent to Gallagher. Haywood's jury conviction was vacated after defense attorneys accused prosecutors of purposefully withholding information about deals struck with the 2 men who testified against Haywood. Hawyood is accused of killing Ronald Roberts, 24, Kem Delaney, 23, Maria Nash, 19, and Kiana Welch, 19. His co-defendant in the case, Derrick Brantley, 23, was convicted by a jury and sentenced to 4 consecutive life sentences. (source: cleveland.com) From rhalperi at smu.edu Thu Mar 26 12:45:56 2015 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Thu, 26 Mar 2015 12:45:56 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----OHIO, CALIF., WASH., USA, US MIL. Message-ID: March 26 OKLAHOMA: Michael Portillo inspires Oklahoma to consider execution by nitrogen----As US states look for alternatives to lethal injection Oklahoma is on the verge of becoming the 1st to allow for asphyxiating death row inmates Oklahoma is moving forward with plans to become the first US state to allow executions using nitrogen gas after being inspired by a BBC documentary in which Michael Portillo suggested it was the most painless way to implement capital punishment. States where the death penalty is imposed are scrambling for alternative methods as pharmacies that provide drugs for lethal injection increasingly refuse to do so on ethical grounds. Later this week Oklahoma's Senate will vote on allowing death by "nitrogen hypoxia". The proposal has already been approved by a large majority in its lower house and it would become the state's first back-up option if lethal injection drugs run out. Mike Christian, the Republican state politician behind the plan, has said his opinion on using nitrogen was "solidified" after he saw a 2008 BBC Horizon documentary called How to Kill a Human Being in which Michael Portillo, the former British Cabinet minister, searched for the most humane execution option. In the film Mr Portillo, who as an MP voted both for and against the death penalty, said: "After some investigation I think I've come up with a perfect killing device, an entirely humane way of killing a prisoner who is under sentence of death. It's nitrogen, which renders him at first euphoric, and then makes him unconscious pretty quickly and he dies entirely without pain." Mr Christian said recently: "I believe it's revolutionary. It's probably the best thing we've come up with since the start of executing people by government. You can pick up nitrogen anywhere they use it. Industrially, you can pick it up at a welding supply company." Condemned prisoners would be asphyxiated by putting a mask on them which would be used to replace oxygen with inert nitrogen. Supporters say the person would experience brief euphoria, lose consciousness after about 10 seconds, and their heart would stop beating within 2 minutes. According to Amnesty International no US state has ever used nitrogen gas to execute an inmate and it had no reports of the method being used in other countries. Ryan Kiesel, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union in Oklahoma, said: "We would be experimenting on the condemned using a process that has been banned in many states for the euthanasia of animals." In Oklahoma, where three people were scheduled to die next month, executions are already on hold following a botched lethal injection last year. Clayton Lockett, convicted of murder, took 43 minutes to die. The US Supreme Court is reviewing the state's lethal injection procedures after remaining death row inmates claimed they were inhumane. Earlier this week Utah approved the firing squad as its back-up method if it runs out of lethal injection drugs. (source: The Telegraph) CALIFORNIA: Attorney General Reportedly Moving To Block 'Death Penalty For Gays' Ballot Initiative California Attorney General Kamala Harris is reportedly moving to prevent a ballot proposal criminalizing sodomy and allowing the death penalty for anyone who "touches another person of the same gender for purposes of sexual gratification" from ever appearing on the California ballot, according to Patrick McGreevy of the Los Angeles Times. Huntington Beach attorney Matt McLaughlin filed papers to begin gathering signatures for the ballot measure, known as the "Sodomite Suppression Act," on February 26th. Harris??? move would effectively prevent signature gathering. In California's "direct democracy" any citizen can follow procedures to propose just about any law. That doesn't mean that any law could pass, and even if passed, it doesn't mean that any law could actually go into effect. Even laws passed by a majority of California voters may been overturned by judicial review, as was the case in the Prop. 8 gay marriage debate. This latest initiative is creating news not because of what it would do if passed but because of the fact that it, so far, stopping it has not been possible. Along with the required $200 fee, McLaughlin's letter asking for certification of his initiative includes the following language: "The abominable crime against nature known as buggery, called also sodomy, is a monstrous evil that Almighty God, giver of freedom and liberty, commands us to suppress on pain of our utter destruction even as he overthrew Sodom and Gomorrha." The Sacramento Bee reports that the Legislature's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Caucus has now written a letter to the State Bar calling into question McLaughlin's fitness to practice law. A petition to take away his law license already has over 40,000 signers. (source: CBS news) WASHINGTON: Life or death? Penalty phase next for McEnroe, found guilty in Carnation slayings The same jurors who concluded Joseph McEnroe killed 6 members of a family in Carnation will now decide if he should live or die. The King County jury on Wednesday found McEnroe guilty of 6 counts of 1st-degree aggravated murder in the fatal shootings during a holiday gathering on Christmas Eve 2007. The jurors found the murders included aggravating circumstances, because of the number of victims, because they were part of a common scheme or plan and because some were committed to conceal a crime. As a result, McEnroe faces 1 of 2 possible sentences: life in prison without parole, or death. Starting on Tuesday morning, the jury will determine the sentence during a 2nd trial called the "penalty" phase. During the trial, which is expected to last 3 weeks, the defense will present mitigating evidence about McEnroe's troubled past in hopes of winning leniency. It's the state's job to prove "there's not enough mitigating circumstances to warrant life," said King County Senior Deputy Prosecutor Scott O'Toole, who tried the case. But at the end of the day, what happens to McEnroe "will be (the jury's) call." If the jury decides on a death sentence, McEnroe will be the 1st person condemned to death in King County since 2010, when Conner Schierman was convicted of killing a Kirkland family of 4. The jury returned the 6 guilty verdicts in a hushed and crowded Seattle courtroom just after 1:30 p.m. Wednesday after deliberating for about a day and a half. McEnroe, 36, appeared to show little emotion when the verdict was read. Pam Mantle, the mother of Erica Anderson, one of the victims, said the verdict was a relief, while acknowledging there will never be any closure for relatives of the 6 victims, who included 2 young children. "I needed to hear somebody say 'guilty,'" she said. "We're very pleased with the verdict that came back from the jury," added O'Toole. "There's still more to go." During 2 months of testimony and closing arguments earlier this week, jurors heard grisly details of the mass slayings, which took the lives of 3 generations of the Anderson family during a holiday gathering. It was the deadliest act of violence in King County since Kyle Huff, 28, fatally shot 6 people and wounded two before taking his life on March 25, 2006, on Seattle's Capitol Hill. Because of taped confessions and jailhouse interviews given by McEnroe and co-defendant and former girlfriend Michele Anderson, the facts of the slayings were hardly in dispute during the trial. Anderson, 36, who is also charged with 6 counts of aggravated murder and could also face the death penalty, will be tried later this year. Horrific crime According to testimony, McEnroe and Anderson armed themselves and drove their pickup to the home of her parents, Wayne Anderson, 60, and Judy Anderson, 61, on the afternoon of Dec. 24, 2007. Once inside, McEnroe distracted Judy Anderson, who was wrapping Christmas gifts, while Michele shot her father, O'Toole told the jury. After Michele's gun jammed, McEnroe then killed Wayne and Judy Anderson, O'Toole said. The 2 then hid the bodies and carefully cleaned the home and waited for Michele Anderson's older brother, Scott, his wife, Erica, both 32, and their 2 young children, O'Toole said. Once the family arrived, Michele Anderson shot her brother, according to O'Toole. McEnroe then shot Erica Anderson and the children, 5-year-old Olivia and 3-year-old Nathan, because he didn't want witnesses, O'Toole said. The bodies were discovered 2 days later when a co-worker of Judy Anderson's went to the home to see why she was absent from work. While King County detectives were at the property, McEnroe and Michele Anderson drove up and were questioned and arrested. O'Toole told jurors the motive for the killings was money and Anderson's belief she had been slighted and mistreated by her parents and brother. McEnroe and Anderson were angry because her parents wanted the couple to pay rent for the trailer where they lived on the family's property. They also believed that Scott owed his sister money for a car, O'Toole said. "Joseph McEnroe is the reason these murders happened," O'Toole told the jury during his closing argument Monday, noting McEnroe shot 5 of the 6 victims, including Nathan, who was still in diapers. The defense's case McEnroe's defense team blamed the slayings on Anderson, claiming she wielded such psychological control over McEnroe that he was essentially powerless to defy her plans to kill her family. Defense witness Dr. Donald Dutton, a professor of psychology at the University of British Columbia, testified that McEnroe and Anderson together suffered from "folie a deux," a rare mental disorder in which 2 people share similar delusional beliefs. Living with Anderson in isolation, with her voice constantly in his ear, McEnroe became convinced that she was telling the truth when she said she had been abused by her parents and that her father was sadistic and vicious, Dutton told jurors. Defense attorney Leo Hamaji, addressing jurors on Monday, said McEnroe was at most guilty of second-degree murder. During the years leading up to the trial, defense attorneys had repeatedly said McEnroe would change his plea to guilty if the prosecution took the death penalty off the table. But in announcing his office would seek the death penalty in October 2008, King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg had said the number of victims and the ages of the 2 children warranted the death penalty. "Given the magnitude of these alleged crimes, the slaying of 3 generations of a family, and particularly the slaying of 2 young children, I find that there are not sufficient reasons to keep the death penalty from being considered by the juries that will ultimately hear these matters," Satterberg wrote in a statement. Costs near $10 million McEnroe met Anderson on an online dating site in about 2002 while he was living in Glendale, Ariz., his mother, Sean Johnson, of Minneapolis, told The Seattle Times in 2007. He moved to the Puget Sound region shortly after they met and planned to marry Anderson, Johnson said. The cases against both McEnroe and Anderson experienced a number of delays, largely due to repeated trips to the state Supreme Court. The justices have reversed Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Ramsdell???s orders on 3 separate occasions, including 2 challenges to the death penalty. The delays helped push the combined cost of the prosecution of both McEnroe and Anderson to close to $10 million through October. At that time, the defense cost had totaled $4.06 million in McEnroe's case, and $4.58 million in the case against Anderson, according to the King County Department of Public Defense. The combined cost of prosecuting both defendants - which does not include costs associated with the criminal investigation or work done by the State Patrol's crime lab - was roughly $1.06 million through November, according to the Prosecutor's Office. If McEnroe is sent to death row, he will not be executed while Gov. Jay Inslee is in office. Last year, Inslee announced that no one would be executed while he's governor, although there is the potential for future governors to reinstate the death penalty. The last person to be executed in Washington state was Cal Coburn Brown, in September 2010, for abducting and killing Holly Washa near Seattle-Tacoma International Airport on May 23, 1991. (source: Seattle Times) USA: "We're seeing it among Evangelicals": How death penalty politics radically, shockingly changed ---- Death row's days are numbered, the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty's Diann Rust-Tierney tells Salon The recent release of Debra Milke, an Arizona woman who spent 23 years on death row for a crime she did not commit, is 1st and foremost a tragic story of injustice. But it's something else, too: another arresting example of how the reality of the criminal justice system in the U.S., which has come under increasing scrutiny in recent years, falls well short of its supposed intentions. As Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, who was appointed by law-and-order drug warrior Ronald Reagan, told Congress earlier this week, the system is, "[i]n many respects ... broken." Politicians on both sides of the aisle are more willing to discuss making serious changes to American justice than they have been in more than a decade, but one of the most stark and disturbing manifestations of the system's flaws still often goes unmentioned. We're thinking, of course, about the death penalty. But if one considers the great attention paid by the media and the public to recent botched executions in Oklahoma and Arizona - as well as Utah's decision to bring back firing squads - there's reason to think that, too, may soon change. Recently, Salon spoke over the phone with National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty executive director Ann Rust-Tierney about her group's work and the changing politics of capital punishment. Our conversation is below and has been edited for clarity and length. If you had to describe the current politics of the death penalty in America, how would you say things have changed from, say, the '90s? I would say that the most significant change since the '90s is that the death penalty is really being looked at and approached for the 1st time as a real public policy issue. For many years, the death penalty was an idea, an abstract conversation point, and it wasn't held to the same kinds of standards we hold other policy institutions to. I think one of the things that's happened most significantly is that policymakers are looking at the death penalty in virtually every state that has it, and they're beginning to hold it to the same standards to which we hold every other program in our country to - is it effective? Does it work? Is it cost-effective? Is it consistent with our values? When you look at the death penalty and hold it to those standards, it can't survive. I think that's what we're seeing state after state that takes a careful look at the death penalty rejecting it. It seems like the debate has shifted away from arguing over values and now has more of a focus on metrics - i.e., instead of fighting about whether the death penalty is right or wrong, it's a fight over whether it works even on its own terms. But are there any dangers to having a conversation about making it work if you fundamentally would rather it not exist at all? Our organization is not engaged in the business of making the death penalty work; we believe it's unworkable and we think 30-plus years of experimenting has shown that it can't work. There's the idea that we can have a fair system that sends people to death row and executes them in a way we can all feel comfortable with, but what we've seen over and over again is that that's just not possible. What we're trying to do is help the public and policymakers really focus in on the death penalty in practice. The conversation that was talking place before now was really about the death penalty in the abstract but the abstract idea that it's possible to do this well is not consistent with the reality. The difference now is that we're confronting the reality of the death penalty. We're confronting the fact that it is not possible to do it in a way that ensures that we don't execute innocent people; that it is not possible to do it in a way that ensures that race doesn't influence the decision. This country is in the midst of a discussion about the impact of race on our criminal justice system and the fact that citizens living in the same community have very different experiences with the criminal justice system based on their race. That's not a system that any one of us can believe will produce a result we can stand by. Plus, we have nothing to show for all the effort and pain we've put into the death penalty. The states that have the death penalty and use it can't boast that they have lower homicide rates; in fact, some of them have higher rates. It's not keeping us safe and it is undermining our other values about racial justice and about making sure that justice isn't based on how much a person can pay. For us, this is not a conversation about getting it fixed, it's a conversation about exposing to the public the way in which this institution operates and showing them that it doesn't operate close to how they would hope or expect. The issue of mass incarceration in general has become a major topic of debate, nationally. Do you think that broader conversation has something to do with the recent increase in attention paid to death penalty cases and issues? I do think it's part of a broader reevaluation but I can't say that there's more movement on the death penalty because of the new focus on mass incarceration. It is evidence of an evolution, I think, in our thinking as a country and as a society. The focus on mass incarceration is at its heart about reevaluating how we see people and about reaffirming the value of human beings. Many of the conservatives that are very engaged in the effort to address mass incarceration come to that perspective from a faith-based view that the criminal justice system has to contemplate that rehabilitation is possible and redemption is possible, and that same understanding undergirds a conversation about the death penalty. I think it's an incredibly positive thing that we're really looking at these difficult issues in a serious way and, more importantly, that communities that had not up to this point been engaged in really looking at the root causes of crime and violence are becoming engaged in looking at prevention measures. All of that is very positive when it comes to the death penalty, because the death penalty represents a failure to do those things. If we are really going to focus on the root causes of crime and on making sure we care for all victims of crime and give them what they need to heal, we're going to have to recognize that we have to recognize people's humanity and provide opportunity for redemption and rehabilitation. I see that going hand in hand with amending the death penalty. Has there been a shift within religious communities over the past generation or so in terms of how they approach the death penalty? I think so. I saw this happen with Michelle Alexander's book "The New Jim Crow." We saw churches reading that book as a book club and discussing it - not just reading the book but then taking action. I do think there has been a resurgence in the faith community going back, in some ways, to their roots of ministering to those in prison and helping families in communities. I do think there is a new energy coming from people of faith across the board. We're seeing it among Evangelicals, we're seeing it among Catholics; all across the board people are going back to the core values of faith, which has always been about caring for the least of us. Millennials, as we know, are looking for ways of making a difference and they see that as part of their mission. We're seeing young people getting engaged and seeing that it's their time to take up the mantle, so it's really very positive and I do think the faith community is a big part of it. In terms of the increased media focus on pending executions - and problems with those executions - do you think that's a byproduct of technology making it easier for people to report on and read about these things? Or are botched executions happening more often? Or both? I think it's a combination of both. The flaws we've been seeing and focusing in on - racial bias, people with mental illness facing the death penalty, the botched executions - have always been part of the problem, but I also think that the technology has really enabled advocates and others to get this in front of the public in real time. I'm thinking about the botched execution in Oklahoma, which came out on Twitter; that opportunity to give people an almost real-time experience of what was going on had an enormous impact. One of the biggest challenges we've had is that most people don't think a lot of the death penalty on a daily basis, and I think that's in large part what I consider to be passive acquiescence towards it, if not support. When you put it right in front of people, they see that they can't square it with the things they really believe, with the abstract ideas that it can work cleanly and effectively. When you confront people with the reality, that's where you see the increase in opposition to the death penalty and, I think, a weakening in support for it overall. The problems have always been there, but the new opportunity for people to see in real time how the system breaks down on a daily basis is something that has been really helpful. For people who aren't as plugged into the issue, what are some the next steps you're taking to address the larger, overarching goal of a nationwide conversation about ending the death penalty? We've launched a campaign called the 90 Million Strong campaign, the goal of which is to really engage more and more people in the struggle to end the death penalty. There is an enormous public out there that knows that the death penalty is wrong and needs to get engaged, so what we've done is reached out and gotten 50 national organizations to collectively get the information out and encourage people to speak with their networks and their friends to get them engaged. We???re encouraging people to be active in state efforts to end the death penalty, in state efforts to stop individual executions. Our job really is to continue to mobilize what we believe is a significant number of people in the country who know that the death penalty is wrong and are going to say that now is the time to stop it. Through this next year we want to double the number of organizations engaged in this effort and further expand the number of people who are engaged. We want to see more states move towards ending the death penalty, and we want to provide the information necessary for them to do that. We believe that this is an idea whose time has come, and our job over the next year is to enlist more and more people in this effort from all across the political spectrum and from all walks of life to really make this a grassroots effort to end the death penalty. (source: Elias Isquith is a staff writer at Salon, focusing on politics) ***************************** Why we execute people is the big question, not how "There's no nice way to kill someone," a man facing execution once told me, raising heavy eyes. >From my work as a licensed death penalty investigator, I know this too, which is why Utah's decision to reinstate the firing squad for executions doesn't trouble me the way it might trouble others. Attorneys hire me to find out the truth. I'm the one who ferrets out long-lost witnesses, digs into dusty basements to unearth ancient records, and finds the evidence that exonerates, or - more often - explains. I love my job, because I am the 1 person who gets to understand why. Why do people do such terrible things to each other? Why is our country so enthralled with murder that we bookend one death with another? For many years, lethal injections were the popular way to execute people in the US. Lethal injections seemed humane, whereas gas chambers were too grotesquely evocative of the Holocaust, and guillotines just too French for a country that prides itself on provincialism. But there have been problems with lethal injections, as several recent botched executions of writhing, convulsing men demonstrated. In 2014 a man being executed in Oklahoma spent his final moments writhing and thrashing in a scene that witnesses said was like a horror movie. Medical companies began refusing to supply the drugs, unwilling to be manufacturers of death. Enter Utah, which on 23 March returned to the firing squad as an alternative, if no such drugs are available. For some, the firing squad has a certain 2nd-amendment, bloody finality about it, with the punch of bullets on a backboard, and no end to the men who volunteer for the honour. But for others, it causes qualms. There is nakedness to the firing squad; it is an unequivocal act. Someone gets shot, obviously, and other people, most likely inmates, have to go in later and clean up the blood and brain matter. Even Utah's governor, Gary Herbert, admitted it is "a little bit gruesome". This is why I think Utah is doing us a favour. One of the unexpected curses of lethal injection was that it cloaked executions with the veneer of medical legitimacy. Executions were depicted as painless, gentle - even kind. Death lost its punch. The myth of the humane execution began with lethal injections. If doctors were willing to administer executions, the public began to think, then executions must be OK. Executions retreated behind a medical curtain, residing in the shadowland where the American public hides most death. By bringing back the firing squad, Utah has brought executions from behind the curtain. They unholstered the gun. Executions are real again, and that means we can talk about them. I believe we need to start with why so many people support executions. Even in countries such as the UK, where capital punishment has been outlawed for years, up to half of people still favour executions. I have sat with families of victims, and felt their terrible, all-encompassing pain wash over me. One cannot imagine such pain, and yet one knows it instinctively. It is our absolute worst fear. If one of my children was hurt I'd want revenge, too. The myth of the humane execution began with lethal injections I believe any starting point to discuss capital punishment has to honour this desire for revenge. It is deep, human and rooted in our impossible love for each other. Only then can we can talk about justice. We can talk about what law enforcement agencies need to do their job properly. We can talk about the flaws in capital punishment, including the 151 people exonerated while on death row in the US. Those are the ones who weren't executed before they were proved innocent. We can talk about a financially driven prison industry. We can talk about how crimes still go unsolved, and what we can do to change that. We can talk about the needs of victims to be heard and seen and have their loved ones honoured. We can talk about creating a society where the names of victims are remembered more than the accused. Maybe we can even talk about what connects us - our love for our families - and perhaps about creating a society that prevents death instead of adding to it. Sometime soon, a person facing execution in Utah will stand in front of a firing squad, instead of having a lethal injection. They might be guilty. They might not. But they won't die nice. No one ever does. (source: Rene Denfeld, The Guardian) ********************* No humanity in the death penalty Debra Milke can finally take a breath of fresh air without guards watching her every move. After being on death row for 22 years in Arizona, a judge declared her innocent of all charges. Her crime: conspiracy to murder her son for a $5,000 life insurance policy - her roommate and his friend remain on death row after being convicted of taking her son to a secluded ravine and shooting him 3 times in the head. Her conviction was based on the testimony of a shady detective who said she had confessed to the conspiracy. The detective, Armando Saldate, had a history of lying under oath. Now, at the age of 51, Milke is a free woman. It's not fair to say justice has been served (now she is free!), as not only did she lose her son, but she lost 22 years of her life. Further, had she been denied her appeals, she may never have be exonerated. Perhaps that's the one good thing about the death penalty - the appeal process is practically indefinite (and extremely costly). On the other hand, though, being only the second woman to be exonerated and freed from death row, the odds were not in her favor and she may have been more likely to have ended up dead rather than free. Adjacent to Arizona, however, Utah is not only firm on the apparent justice that death penalty convictions carry out, but the governor has brought back death by firing squad. But it???s not as if Gov. Gary Herbert did so just for the spirit of blood sport. Lethal injection drugs are merely hard to come by these days. So instead of reforming the death penalty by opting for a more humane solution - such as life in prison - Herbert apparently thought that pummeling the convicted with bullets is a much better approach. We wonder what Milke has to say about that. In a world where we still witness the most despicable treatment, where a man was set on fire and left to burn in a cage, where a woman was stoned to death for accusations of adultery by a mob of men, including her own father, where a child was shot in the face for her commitment to getting an education - most of which was caught on video and put up on the internet as some sort of trophy - one would think the U.S., a land full of the heirs of immigrants who made arduous journeys to escape such deprivation, would boast of our tolerant and actually humane treatment of the criminally minded. Instead, if we can't kill them with gentle ease through injection, then - shoot 'em! Have we gone mad? We are relieved for Milke's exoneration but we can't mask our disgust regarding the barbaric practice of an-eye-for-an-eye treatment. We are supposed to be more civilized than those we convict and imprison. In what way is the death penalty any better than those who commit murder? Even worse, how many like Milke must waste away in prison with death as the ultimate punishment on the horizon due to corruption in the ranks of those paid to serve and protect us? The death penalty is archaic, barbaric, inhumane in every way. It's time to move forward with actual humane ways to treat the worst offenders. It's time to stop justifying murder as justice. (source: Editorial, Ventura County Reporter) US MILITARY: Death penalty rarely used for desertion conviction----Army charges Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl with desertion The Army announced Wednesday that Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who disappeared from his unit in Afghanistan in 2009, has been charged with desertion and misbehavior before the enemy, offenses which could send him to prison for life. What punishment could Bergdahl face? Military authorities will have to weigh a range of factors, including what Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl did, the effect on his fellow soldiers and what's best for the U.S. military as a whole. The Department of Defense broke the law when it traded Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl for 5 Taliban prisoners in May, the Government Accountability Office said in a legal opinion issued Thursday. While the death penalty is a possible punishment in cases of desertion or misbehavior before the enemy - the charges leveled Tuesday against Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl - that sentence has rarely been imposed. "On the books, it is an option," said Noel Tipon, an attorney in Hawaii who specializes in defending servicemembers facing Article 32 hearings and courts-martial. But it would be an "unlikely event" for a case to be referred as capital where a death was not directly involved, he said. Under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, the death penalty may be imposed for either desertion or misbehavior before the enemy - but only during times of declared war. When the Army announced the charges against Bergdahl, it did not address the issue, saying only that his maximum penalty could be life in prison. The only U.S. servicemember to be executed for a purely military offense - desertion - since the Civil War was Edward D. Slovik, who was executed by firing squad in January 1945 in France. In a letter to Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, Slovik pleaded for leniency. But the American forces were rife with desertions at that time, and Eisenhower wanted to stem the tide by making the private's execution an example. Congress issued formal declarations of war on Germany and Japan for World War II, which clearly created a "time of war" in regard to the UCMJ's requirements. But the Authorization for Use of Military Force passed by Congress and signed by President George W. Bush on Sept. 18, 2001, is a slightly different creature than a "declaration of war." Tipon said it is "unclear" whether the 2001 authorization rises to the level of a declared war in regard to application of the death penalty. He said it's the prerogative of the court-martial convening authority to decide whether the charges will be referred as capital. Desertion could lead to the death of soldiers left behind in certain extraordinary cases. "I understand that argument," Tipon said. "Sure, if something had gone wrong, then it could have led to the death of other soldiers, other servicemembers." But without Bergdahl being directly involved in one of those soldiers' deaths, the convening authority would not likely refer it as a capital case, he said. "The decision to refer something capital, especially in a case where an action didn't lead to the death of another individual as a result of that misconduct, is undertaken very soberly and very deliberately," Tipon said. Some soldiers who served with Bergdahl say some soldiers died in the search for Bergdahl after he walked off his post in Afghanistan in June 2009. Some of his platoon mates have publicly held him responsible for those deaths. "That might be a game changer for the powers that be who are making the decision whether or not to refer capital," Tipon said. "But again, that's such a tough call to make because typically a death-penalty-eligible case is for murder. It isn't 2nd- or 3rd-order effects, as they say in the military, of what the misconduct was." Some in the military law community have questioned whether desertion still meets society's expectation of a capital crime. Navy attorney Lt. Cmdr. Rich Federico wrote a 2013 paper in the Berkeley Journal of Criminal Law calling for Congress to abolish the death penalty for unique military, nonhomicide offenses. Since the military revamped its death penalty policies in 1984, no servicemember has been tried capitally for a crime that wouldn't carry a death penalty in a civilian court, according to Federico. The last servicemember to walk away from his unit in a combat zone was Marine Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun, who disappeared from a U.S. military base in Iraq in 2004 and who abandoned his Marine unit at Camp Lejeune in 2005. In February, he was found guilty of 2 counts of desertion and sentenced to 735 days in prison, reduction of rank, forfeiture of pay and allowances and dishonorable discharge. Federico argued that crimes like desertion do not fit "the modern civilian view that the death penalty must be limited to a narrow class of defendants who commit ... the most serious crimes and whose extreme culpability makes them the most deserving of execution." (source: Stars & Stripes) From rhalperi at smu.edu Thu Mar 26 12:46:40 2015 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Thu, 26 Mar 2015 12:46:40 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide Message-ID: March 26 INDIA: 121 death petitions disposed off by President since 1981: RTI A total of 121 death petitions involving more than 163 persons were disposed off by the President of India in the last 34 years. In response to an RTI query, Ministry of Home Affairs (Judicial Division) said that since 1981, there were 124 cases, whereupon 90 cases were rejected and 31 were extended relief as their death sentences were condoned as commuted to life imprisonment, J P Agrawal, Joint Secretary, Judicial & CPIO said. 3 death petitions are still under examinations, 1 is of Balwant Singh Rajoana from Chandigarh and Tote Dewan from Assam; both filed in 2012 and that of Antony from Kerala whose petition was filed in 2013, he said. Among the convicts waiting for the gallows, is Davinder Singh Bhullar of the Khalistan Liberation Force convicted for killing nine people and injuring 31 in a bomb blast in 1993. His mercy petition was filed in January 2003 and rejected on 25.5.2011 and is yet to be hanged. The petition of Balwant Singh Rajoana, convicted for the assassination of former Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh on August 31, 1995, is still under examination, the RTI reply said. However, no information was provided with regard to number of prisoners who were awarded death penalty but set free after mercy from the President of India, Aggarwal said. Whether the prisoners who were pardoned of death penalty; were set free or still behind the bars was also not provided by the Division. Information regarding the number of death row prisoners confirmed by the Supreme Court of India, who have never sought mercy from the President was also left out from the RTI reply, with the authority stating that the concerned states may provide the details of the same. (soruce: Deccan Herald) MALAYSIA: Aussie mum frustrated as Malaysia drug case delayed again The case of an Australian woman facing a possible death sentence for drug trafficking in Malaysia was postponed again Thursday, with a lawyer describing the defendant as frustrated with the repeated delays. Maria Elvira Pinto Exposto, a 52-year-old mother of 4, was arrested on December 7 after arriving at Kuala Lumpur International Airport en route from Shanghai to Melbourne, with a bag containing what authorities said was crystal methamphetamine, or "ice". A chemist report on the substance was to be submitted to the court Thursday. If it confirms the substance was "ice" the case would then be elevated to a higher court, launching the death-penalty case. But the court outside Kuala Lumpur was told that the chemical analysis, which has been repeatedly delayed, was still incomplete and that a new date for its submission was set for April 30, said defence lawyer Tania Scivetti. "She is down and she wants the case to move fast so that she can go home," Scivetti said of his client, who declined to comment when leaving the court. The defence team says Pinto Exposto travelled to Shanghai after falling for an online romance scam, and was then duped into carrying a bag - which she believed contained only clothing - by a stranger who asked her to take it to Melbourne. Customs officers discovered 1.5kg of suspected "ice" hidden in the bag. The defence is yet to enter a plea until the case reaches a higher court. Drug-trafficking carries a mandatory sentence of death by hanging upon conviction in Malaysia. 2 Australians were hanged in 1986 for heroin trafficking - the 1st Westerners executed in Malaysia - in a case that strained bilateral relations. But few death-row prisoners have been executed in the country in recent years. After an 18-month legal battle, Dominic Bird, an Australian truck driver from Perth, was acquitted of drug trafficking in 2013. He had been arrested for alleged possession of 167 grams of crystal meth. (source: The Malaysian Insider) BANGLADESH: War Crime Trials ---- Govt appeals to SC seeking death for Abdul Jabbar; Probe report submitted to prosecution against eight Jamalpur 'Al-Badr men' The government yesterday filed an appeal with the Supreme Court, seeking death penalty for Abdul Jabbar for committing crimes against humanity during the 1971 Liberation War. The International Crimes Tribunal-1 on February 24 sentenced the fugitive Jatiya Party leader to imprisonment until his death considering his old age. Assistant Attorney General Bashir Ahmed told The Daily Star that 10 reasons have been cited in the appeal for which the Appellate Division of the SC may consider for sentencing Jabbar to death. Meanwhile, the investigation agency yesterday handed over to the prosecution of the International Crimes Tribunal a probe report on eight Jamalpur "Al-Badr men" who were allegedly involved in crimes against humanity. Matiur Rahman, the investigation officer of the case, gave the probe report, statements of witnesses and other documents to the Chief Prosecutor Ghulam Arieff Tipoo in his office. The suspects are Ashraf Hossain, 64, Prof Sharif Ahmed, 71, Abdul Mannan, 66, Abdul Bari, 62, Mohammad Harun, 58, Abdul Hashem, 65, Shamsul Haque aliast Badr Bhai, 75, and SM Yousuf Ali, 83. Scrutinising the documents, the prosecution will file formal charge(s) against the suspects if the findings are satisfactory. Of the 8, 2 are now in jail while the rest are on the run. (source: The Daily Star) INDONESIA: Bali murder trial: Australian's wife gave signal for ambush, court hears An Indonesian woman accused of premeditating the murder of her Australian husband, Robert Ellis, told his alleged killers to ambush him in their kitchen, and gave them the signal when he arrived home, her trial has heard. Julaikah Noor Aini, also known as Noor Ellis, faces the death penalty for ordering the hit on Robert Ellis, whose body was found in a Bali rice field in October 2014. In Denpasar district court on Wednesday, her maid's boyfriend, Andreanus Ngongo, alias Aril, was questioned about the arrangement with him and 4 others accused of the murder. Aril said Noor Ellis contacted him because she was "looking for someone to kill her husband". She met him and his 4 co-accused - men known as Martin, Rangga, Urbanus and Yohannes - in a hut in Sanur to discuss the matter for 2 hours, Aril said. "The ones talking were Martin and Mrs Noor," he told the court. "About the price. Martin asked for 150m rupiah ($14,220). "Mrs Noor then said that would give downpayment of 50m rupiah and the rest of payment will be given in villa after the execution." On the day of the killing, the men waited for 2 hours in the couple's Sanur villa for Robert Ellis to arrive. Ellis's wife then gave the men a signal, Aril said. "She said 'Mr Bob has come' ... so that we were prepared," he said. "We were told to move to the kitchen by Mrs Noor. Mrs Noor gave a towel and pillow to Rangga and Martin to hold Mr Bob's face." Through Martin, she had requested the act not be done "sadistically". They used 2 knives, Aril said, "to stab and to slit Mr Bob's neck". Ellis later gave the men plastic and blankets to wrap her husband's body before driving them to a rice field where they could dispose of it, he said. The court heard she gave the downpayment to Martin and a 2nd payment in cash to Aril the day after. Asked if she disputed any of the evidence, Ellis told the court there were many errors. "I never ordered them to kill, only to take care of things," she said. The trial continues next week. Ellis's 7 alleged accomplices ??? the 5 men and 2 maids - all of whom also face charges carrying the death penalty, will be tried separately. (source: Australian Associated Press) ******************* Yusman's death sentence may be reviewed Women's Empowerment and Child Protection Minister Yohana Yembise has called for a review on a death sentence handed to Yusman Telaumbanua as he was apparently only 16 years old when he was declared guilty of murder. "If this is true then he should not have been given the death penalty. That's why his case has to be reviewed to make sure of the truth and to ensure justice is done," Yohana told reporters after visiting Yusman at Batu Penitentiary on Nusakambangan prison island, Central Java, on Wednesday. Accompanied by National Commission for Child Protection (Komnas PA) chairman Arist Merdeka Sirait, Yohana said Yusman had confirmed that he was indeed only 16 years old when he was sentenced to death. Meanwhile, Arist said there were inconsistencies in Yusman's legal case and a review was needed for the sake of justice. "During our meeting just now, Yusman said he did not understand the death penalty. He also was not accompanied by a lawyer during his questioning. That's odd," he said. He said it was not a matter of bargaining over the death penalty but that Yusman should not have been sentenced to death if the information about his age was true. "Neither Indonesian nor international law justifies a death penalty for children. The maximum penalty for them is 10 years' imprisonment," he said. Quoting Article 37 (a) of the Child Rights Convention and Article 6 (5) of the Political and Civilian Rights Convention, Arist said the death penalty and life imprisonment could not be given to children. This accounted for why Komnas PA would support a review of Yusman's case to save the inmate from execution, he said. Yusman of Nias regency, North Sumatra, was sentenced to death by the Gunungsitoli District Court in 2013 for the premeditated murder of 3 local gecko sellers in 2012. Police are reportedly reinvestigating the case involving Yusman and another convict, Rihala Hia, especially the report that Yusman had been a minor at the time. North Sumatra Police supervisory and operations head Adj. Sr. Comr. Gunawan Eko Susilo said he had been instructed to get details of the case at the Nias Police headquarters in Nias Island due to an earlier report by the Commission on Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) about the case. "We have been instructed by the North Sumatra Police chief to reinvestigate the case," Gunawan was quoted as saying by kompas.com last week. He said the investigation would include looking into alleged violence during the questioning of the suspects at the Nias Police station three years ago. He said the police had preliminary data, including from Kontras, which had provided Yusman's baptism certificate issued by the Bethel Church showing that he had been 16 years old at the time. "We are collecting information on which Bethel church issued the baptism certificate," he said. Gunawan denied that any violence occurred during the questioning of Yusman at the Nias Police station. "The defendants' lawyers have also stated that they had accompanied the suspects during their questioning at the time," he said. Yusman's oldest sister, Yosa'ati Telaumbanua, who was born in 1985, has reportedly told the police that Yusman was currently 26 years old. Yosa'ati, who is the wife of the convict Rihala Hia, said Yusman was only 4 years younger than her. (source: Jakarta Post) ****************************** Indonesian President Unyielding on Death Penalty When Indonesia's law and human rights minister visited one of the country's prisons in December last year, he met a Nigerian convict on death row for drug trafficking, who performed songs for him before leaving him with a parting gift. "He sang [...] beautifully," Yasonna Laoly, the human rights minister, tells IPS. "He first quoted from the Bible before he gave me a souvenir when I left - it was a painting, a beautiful one." "There are no statistics of a deterrent effect with the death penalty. Jokowi is using the death penalty [...] to prove to his critics that he is firm." -- Haris Azhar, coordinator of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) A month ago, at one of the weekly Christian services held at his ministry in the capital, Jakarta, a pastor came up to the minister to plea for some prisoners facing the death penalty. She brought up the Nigerian man Laoly had met last year, stressing that he had reformed, converted to Christianity and become a good person. "She asked me, 'Why can't you help?'," explains the minister, who has also received an album of songs from the Nigerian death row inmate. "I told her that, psychologically, it bothers me, but I have to face the case," Laoly tells IPS, adding that he "does not believe in capital punishment". "I spoke to the Attorney General [H.M. Prasetyo], who was with me when I visited him and he just replied: 'This is the law of the country and we have a policy'." The government of this archipelago nation of 250 million people has a no-tolerance policy when it comes to drug trafficking and smuggling, and has no qualms about using the death penalty for such offenses. Just after midnight on Jan. 18, 6 drug convicts were executed by firing squad, the 1st imposition of capital punishment since President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo took office last October. Another 10 drug convicts - citizens of Australia, France, Brazil, the Philippines, Ghana, Nigeria and Indonesia - are slated to be executed next, following their transfer to the island prison of Nusakambangan. Prior to Widodo's presidential election victory last year, capital punishment in the archipelago had declined. 4 people were executed in 2013 after a 5-year hiatus and no capital sentences were carried out by the state in 2014. Still, there are currently 138 people - 1/3 of them foreigners - on death row, primarily for drug-related offenses. The government claims its hard-line stance has to do with the growing drug menace in Indonesia - at present, 45 % of drugs in Southeast Asia flow through this country, making it the largest drug market in the region. Citing statistics from the country's National Narcotics Board (BNN), Troels Vester, country manager of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) put the number of drug users at 5.6 million this year. Government statistics further indicate that drug abuse kills off some 40 Indonesians every day, a figure hotly disputed by local rights groups. Officials say that rampant drug use also fuels a demand for medical and health services, putting undue pressure on the government to expend public resources on treatment and counseling, HIV testing, and anti-retroviral therapy for those people living with HIV/AIDS. But the United Nations says that the use of the death penalty will not necessary reduce Indonesia's drug woes, and has urged the country to stopper the practice of capital punishment in line with international law. Earlier this month some 40 human rights groups from around the world dispatched a letter to the Indonesian president, reminding him, "Executions are against Article 28(a) of the Indonesian Constitution, which guarantees everyone's right to life." The letter further stated, "They are also in breach of Indonesia's international legal obligations under Article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which recognises every human being's inherent right to life." Such efforts have so far failed to sway the president, or stay the country's harsh hand of justice. Ignoring international pressure Widodo has also rejected political bids for clemency, including entreaties from foreign governments to spare the lives of their citizens; 5 of the 6 drug convicts executed in January were foreigners. In January, King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands personally requested Widodo to pardon Dutch national Ang Kiem Soe - convicted of being involved in a scheme to produce 15,000 ecstasy pills a day - but Widodo was unmoved. Brazil and the Netherlands recalled their ambassadors from Jakarta after their nationals were executed in January, while Australia has been campaigning furiously to save 2 of its own citizens, with the country's foreign minister, Julie Bishop, attempting an 11th-hour prisoner swap, which was rejected. Widodo has met all such efforts with a simple answer: there will be "no compromise" on the issue. Human rights advocates like Amnesty International have slammed the Indonesian president's "backwards" stance on capital punishment, accusing him of manipulating data to support his decisions. "He says that 40 to 50 people are dying every day from drugs, but where is that figure coming from?" asks Haris Azhar, coordinator of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), adding that the president's actions came as a surprise as he never shared his views on capital punishment during his campaign. "The hospitals, doctors and the health ministry aren't giving us data. These figures are from the anti-drugs body BNN, but they have never been proven," Azhar adds. Other activists like Hendardi, head of the Setara Institute, believe the president is using the death penalty to protect his image and regain public support following criticism over his government's weak performance in law enforcement. "There are no statistics of a deterrent effect with the death penalty," the human rights defender tells IPS. "Jokowi [a popular nickname for the president] is using the death penalty [...] to prove to his critics that he is firm. I think he is trying to gain back popularity as the death penalty is still favoured among Indonesians." While there has been no comprehensive nationwide poll to assess public opinion on, or popular support for, capital punishment, surveys conducted by the media suggest that some 75 % of the population is in favour of death sentences, primarily for terrorism, corruption and narcotics charges. Death sentences are typically carried out by a firing squad comprised of 12 people, who shoot from a range of 5 to 10 metres. Prisoners are given the choice of standing or sitting, as well as whether to have their eyes covered by a blindfold, or their face concealed by a hood. Inmates are generally informed of their fate just 72 hours prior to execution, a practice that has been blasted by human rights groups. While the human rights minister admits that the death penalty may not solve all the country's drug problems, he believes that a firm policy is the 1st step to preventing millions from falling "into ruin" at the hands of narcotics. UNODC estimates that there are 110,000 heroin addicts and 1.2 million users of crystalline methamphetamine in Indonesia. But experts like Azhar feel the problem cannot be 'executed away'. Instead, the Kontras coordinator suggests the country adopt a humane approach to law enforcement. According to Amnesty International, some "140 countries have now abolished the death penalty. Indonesia has the opportunity to become the 141st country." However, if the president's resolve remains unchanged, this is unlikely to happen in the near future. (source: Inter Press Service News Agency) THAILAND: Thailand toughens trafficking law with death penalty, steep fines Thailand's parliament voted overwhelmingly on Thursday to introduce harsher punishments for human traffickers, including life imprisonment and the death penalty in cases where their victims had died. Thailand's move came a day after Britain passed a law that could see traffickers face life imprisonment, and marked the latest step to combat a multi-billion dollar trade in human misery. Thailand's National Legislative Assembly (NLA) voted to amend the country's Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act in the 3rd reading. The changes will allow prosecutors to seek the death penalty and fines of up to 400,000 baht ($12,281) for those convicted of trafficking offences, Police General Chatchawan Suksomjit said. "If the trafficked person dies in the hands of the trafficker then the sentence can now be life in prison or even the death penalty," said Chatchawan, who headed the committee responsible for amending the act. If a victim of human trafficking is severely injured, those responsible can be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison and fined up to 400,000 baht, he said. "The fine has now increased and goes up to 400,000 baht if the trafficker causes grievous bodily harm to the trafficked person." The U.S. State Department last year downgraded Thailand to the lowest category in its annual ranking of countries based on their counter-trafficking efforts. Thailand's military government said in January it was "confident" it had met the minimum standards to improve its ranking. But a government report aimed at lifting Thailand from the list of the world's worst offenders showed Thailand identified fewer victims of human trafficking last year than in 2013 and convicted fewer perpetrators. Thailand is a source, transit and destination country for human trafficking. (source: Reuters) VIETNAM: Amended law reduces eligibility for death penalty The proposal to reduce the number of crimes subject to the death penalty in an amended Penal Code sparked heated debates at a conference held yesterday in southern Hoa Binh City. The National Assembly's Judicial Committee had proposed the amendment and its deputy head, Duong Ngoc Nguu, said the number of crimes subject to the death penalty in the amended Penal Code would be reduced from 44 to 22, with plans to lower it even further to 15. Deputy Minister Dinh Trung Tung from the Ministry of Justice said the death penalty will only apply in cases involving crimes of extraordinary brutality and illegal drug dealings. While agreeing with the government's effort to cut back on the use of the death penalty, Deputy Chief of the Police Department Lt. General Nguyen Phong Hoa argued that further consideration should be given to other crimes, such as drug trafficking. "The situation is dire on the border front. Some nights, we get reports of up to 60 drug trafficking operations. Traffickers in these cases were armed and ready to open fire on law-enforcement forces," the deputy chief said. Minors, pregnant women, mothers of children aged under three and elderly people aged 70 or above were not to be subjected to capital punishment, he said. The amended Penal Code aims to remove the death penalty for an additional 7 types of crime other than corruption. Associate Professor Dr. Nguyen Tat Vien, a member of the Steering Committee for Judicial Reform, said, "In light of rampant corruption across the country, maintaining the death penalty for crimes related to corruption and bribery is necessary." The Supreme People's Court Deputy Chief Justice Nguyen Son agreed and noted that the move confirmed the Government and the Party's resolute stance in the fight against corruption. The amended Penal Code also proposed the criminalisation of additional activities, including manipulation of public opinion polling, violations of freedom of speech and freedom of the press and obstruction of the citizens' right to access information and carry out peaceful protests. (source: news.asiaone.com) PAKISTAN----execution Prisoner executed in Faisalabad A convicted murderer has been executed in the Central Jail Faisalabad on Thursday morning. Muhammad Afzal, a resident of Sialkot, had been remained on death row for around 2 decades. He was found guilty of shooting a man, Muhammad Saleem, dead in 1995 over an old rivalry. and awarded the death sentence by district and session courts on May 25, 1995. The review petitions of the accused were turned down by the higher and superior courts. President of Pakistan had also rejected his mercy appeal. The last meeting of the condemned prisoner with his family had been arranged on Wednesday. Some 8,000 condemned prisoners are still in a death row in various jails across the country. Earlier the ruling PML-N government had lifted the moratorium on the death penalty on Dec 17, 2014, in terrorism related cases only, in the wake of a Taliban attack at the Army Public School in Peshawar, which claimed 141 lives, most of them children. Later, the government completely reinstated capital punishment for all offences that entail the death penalty. The United Nations, the European Union, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have urged the government to re-impose the moratorium on the death penalty. (source: Dawn) UNITED KINGDOM: Support for death penalty drops below 50% for the first time Support for the death penalty in Britain has dropped below 50% for the 1st time on record, an annual opinion survey says. The NatCen British Social Attitudes Report found 48% of the 2,878 people it surveyed were in favour of capital punishment. It is the lowest figure since the survey began in 1983, when around 75% of people were in favour. The death penalty was legally abolished under the Human Rights Act in 1998. Capital punishment has long been an issue over which Parliament and the public were at odds. In 1965, a year after the last executions in the UK, MPs voted 200 to 98 to suspend the death penalty for murder, even though opinion polls suggested the vast majority of electors wanted it kept on the statute books. It was last debated in Parliament in 1998 during the passage of the Human Rights Act. On that occasion, a provision of the Act outlawing capital punishment for murder except "in times of war or imminent threat of war" was backed by 294 votes to 136. In the same year, the Criminal Justice Bill removed the death penalty from the sentencing options for high treason and piracy with violence, the last 2 crimes remaining on the statute books that were punishable by death. The British Social Attitudes survey has been carried out every year since 1983, with questions repeated periodically to assess how opinions change over time. For this year's report, NatCen interviewed a representative, random sample of 2,878 adults in the UK between August and November 2014. (source: BBC news) From rhalperi at smu.edu Thu Mar 26 15:09:39 2015 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Thu, 26 Mar 2015 15:09:39 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, UTAH, ARIZ., USA Message-ID: March 26 TEXAS----new execution date Execution date set for convicted killer Lester Bower Another execution date has been set for convicted killer Lester Bower. Grayson County District Attorney Joe Brown says Bower is now scheduled to die on June 3, 2015. Monday, the Supreme Court denied an appeal from Bower. He was scheduled to be executed on February 10 but it was put on hold 5 days earlier. Bower was convicted in 1984 of murdering 4 men in a Sherman plane hangar. (source: Associated Press) ********************************** Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present----4 Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982----present-----522 Abbott#--------scheduled execution date-----name------------Tx. # 5------------Apr. 9--------------------Kent Sprouse---------523 6------------Apr. 15-------------------Manual Garza---------524 7-----------Apr. 23-------------------Richard Vasquez------525 8-----------Apr. 28-------------------Robert Pruett--------526 9-----------May 12--------------------Derrick Charles------527 10----------June 3--------------------Les Bower------------528 11-----------June 18-------------------Gregory Russeau------529 (sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin) UTAH: Why people volunteer to take part in firing squads There's a funny fact about firing squads: People volunteer for them. When it comes to lethal injection though, it can be difficult to find an expert to with the right expertise to oversee the procedure. In 2006, Missouri state officials told a judge that they sent letters to 298 anesthesiologists, asking if they would help with the state's executions. All refused. Now, as Utah considers a bill that would allow the state to use firing squads in the case that it runs out of lethal-injection drugs, we thought we would take a look at those who participate in both. The mindsets of firing-squad volunteers and lethal-injection team members are the polar opposite with how most of those not involved in the process feel. After all, lethal injection is the first choice among all states that have the death penalty; other methods, including firing squads, can seem barbaric in comparison. A look at the psychology may also help inform a small part of the debate about whether American states should use firing squads at all. There's not much academic study comparing the psychology of shooting versus injecting, but participants in both have talked with journalists and social scientists. In 2010, when Utah wanted to execute death-row inmate Ronnie Lee Gardner, it used five anonymous police officers who all volunteered for the job. 2 other volunteer police officers stood by, in case anyone in the original five wanted to back out at the last minute. (None of the five officers got cold feet.) About a week before Gardner's execution, CNN talked with another officer who had volunteered for the firing squad that executed convicted murderer John Albert Taylor in 1996. The officer considered the job a rare chance to effect "100 % justice." "There's just some people we need to kick off the planet," he said. He described the process as instantaneous, professional, and not unduly gruesome. In contrast, getting medical professionals - the equivalent of trained marksmen for lethal injections - to join death penalty teams can be difficult. Doctors, after all, take an oath to "first, do no harm." Doctors' groups, including the American Medical Association and the American Board of Anesthesiology, say physicians shouldn't participate in capital punishment. "The ABA has not taken this action because of any position regarding the appropriateness of the death penalty. Anesthesiologists, like all physicians and all citizens, have different personal opinions about capital punishment," the American Board of Anesthesiology's statement reads. Instead, it's about being "members of a profession dedicated to preserving life when there is hope of doing so." Although some had hoped that including medical professionals in chemical executions would reduce the number of botched procedures, "there are simply not enough doctors or nurses willing to perform the job," ABC News reported in 2007. The workers who end up on lethal-injection teams may have no medical training and, perhaps because they're hired to perform executions more than one time, seem to deal with more negative psychological effects. A 2005 survey of more than 200 members of execution teams - often states will include many people on such teams, so no one person feels responsible - found they deal with stress and cope by distancing themselves from the moral aspects of their work. ABC News talked with one man who executed 62 people by electrocution and lethal injection over his career. "To make that transformation from corrections officer to executioner ... it was hard,'' he said. "You have to get away from yourself. You have to eliminate yourself." The psychological effect of being part of an execution team is just one piece of the debate about firing squads. Opponents to Utah's firing-squad bill consider it backwards and cruel. Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, thinks using firing squads would send the wrong message about the United States' values to other nations. "The world is watching what we're doing, just as we watch when terrorist groups execute people," he says. Dieter's center collects data about the death penalty in the U.S. and opposes capital punishment. Yet lethal injection has its own problems. In recent years, several cases of botched executions have come to light. Improperly performed chemical executions can leave the condemned conscious, yet unable to move or speak, while they die. In 2013, journalist Vince Beiser argued in Pacific Standard that if the U.S. is going to use capital punishment, it should in fact just do it by firing squad. "A bullet to the head is a quick and painless way to die, far quicker and more certain than lethal injection, or any of our other historically favored methods," he wrote. Research may actually back Beiser up. Executioners botch lethal injections about 7 % of the time, compared to 3 % for other death-penalty methods, Amherst College political scientist Austin Sarat argues in his book Gruesome Spectacles. Of course, firing squads can go badly, too, for example, if the prisoner moves before the squad fires and doesn't get hit in the heart. Then he must bleed to death over a longer period of time. "I think eventually we'll get out of this whole business," Dieter adds. "This controversy might hasten that because it underscores the harshness of the taking of human life. There's no easy, pretty way of doing so." (source: The Week) ***************** Utah bishop decries governor???s decision to sign firing squad measure By reinstating the use of a firing squad as a method of execution in Utah, "it seems as if our government leaders have substituted state legislation for the law of God," said the state's Catholic bishop. "They argue that, because executions are lawful, they are then moral. This is not so. No human law can trump God's law," Salt Lake City Bishop John C. Wester said in a March 24 statement. "Taking a human life is wrong; a slap in the face of hope and a blasphemous attempt to assume divine attributes that we humble human beings do not have." "The real issue here is the death penalty itself," he said. A day earlier, Republican Gov. Gary Herbert signed into law a bill that reinstates execution by firing squad for those convicted of capital crimes. It was passed by the state Senate March 10 and by the state House in February. Utah's lawmakers argued they needed a backup method of capital punishment if the drugs used in lethal injection are not available. There is a shortage of lethal drugs for executions and their use in carrying out the death penalty has become more controversial after the botched execution of Clayton Lockett in Oklahoma; he writhed in pain for 40 minutes before dying of apparent heart failure. Bishop Wester said he was "very disappointed" that Herbert signed the measure on firing squads. The death penalty itself is the issue, because "only God can give and take life," he said. "By taking a life, in whatever form the death penalty is carried out, the state is usurping the role of God. Execution does violence to God's time, eliminating the opportunity for God's redemptive and forgiving grace to work in the life of a prisoner." Utah is now the only state that has the firing squad as a method of execution. "The death penalty in any form is abhorrent," Bishop Wester said in an earlier statement, but with regard to the firing squad method, he noted that "strapping a person to a chair with a hood over his head and a bull's eye on his heart creates a disturbing image of the individual as little more than a target at a shooting range." The Associated Press quoted Herbert's spokesman as saying that enforcement of capital punishment is "the obligation of the executive branch. We regret anyone ever commits the heinous crime of aggravated murder to merit the death penalty, and we prefer to use our primary method of lethal injection when such a sentence is issued," spokesman Marty Carpenter said. Bishop Wester March 24 noted that the next scheduled execution in Utah will not take place for several years, so "our legislators and governor might still repair the damage caused by the death penalty." He urged Herbert and the Utah Legislature "to place a moratorium on further death sentences and pass legislation to abolish state-sanctioned destruction of human life." (source: Catholi cNews Service) ARIZONA: Jodi Arias Trial Update: Mistrial, Pains of a Hung Jury Revolve on Justice System; Is Death Penalty to Happen? For a crime that was committed 7 years ago in 2008 and for all the media circus that it has spawned - not to mention death threats thrown, it seemed rightful that the Jodi Arias trial reach a well-deserved conclusion a few days back, and be put to rest. However, 1 female juror decided otherwise and with 1 dissenting opinion in a vote of 11-1, swept the death sentence out urging the judge to declare a mistrial and sending the whole process back to square one. To a large extent, all this has pulled the intense debate and speculation a notch higher, prompting many to ask the merits of the US justice system in general. All told, $3,000,000 has been spent by the prosecutor and Arias' public defense team on the case, according to Associated Press. The Power of One Never has the power of 1 dissenting vote been so deafening and heart-wrenching. As reported on ABC News 1 juror detailed, "Eleven of us strived for justice for Travis, but to no avail." Further she added, "We absolutely thought [the punishment] should be death." Reportedly, the group didn't buy the whole death sentencing for Arias from the onset. Rather they were split down the middle. But they were able to make up their minds in the end - all except one. 1 male juror expressed disgust about the holdout saying he felt that "the one holdout had her mind made up from the beginning." Further he detailed that "the biggest thing that angered me was that she alluded that the death penalty would be a form of revenge." Changing Hands Jurors who appeared before the media did not bother showing their emotions and many broke to tears in the middle of the news conference. Many were vocal about getting justice served for the Alexander family saying "like they put Travis on trial, [and] focused on that rather than the reason we were there." It's understandable what immense pressure - and emotional distress - the jurors has been undergoing lately. The trial has dragged on and on with 1 female juror pointing out, "We've had nightmares," adding "I think every single one of us has had nightmares and I hope they go away." For now, the nightmares, may have to stay for a little bit longer than expected. Now, the ball is in Judge Sherry Stephens' hands. However, she decides death sentencing may never be part of the option. All because of 1. (source: vcpost.com) USA: No method of execution is humane enough to be legal Executions are not, and never will be, humane. Disguising executioners in white lab coats and allowing them to shoot prisoners with chemicals instead of bullets does not constitute humanity. Rather, it allows us as a society to sleep soundly at night, free from the guilt we might feel if the government killed people using gas chambers or electric chairs. Yet despite the inherent barbarity of putting someone to death, lawmakers have historically employed the concept of "humaneness" as justification for the currently available methods of execution. Until the late 1800s, nearly every state carried out executions by hanging, a punishment utilized worldwide for thousands of years. Eventually, however, a series of botched hangings caused most legislatures to forgo the practice in favor of electrocution. By 1915, 12 states had adopted electrocution statutes under the theory that the electric chair was less painful and more humane than the noose. When Oklahoma became the first state to legalize lethal injection in 1977, death penalty proponents hailed the practice as a superior alternative to electrocution. Many states followed suit, praising death by lethal injection as quick and painless. Today, the state of Oklahoma continues to be a pioneer in the field of execution technology. On March 3, Oklahoma's House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly in favor of HB 1879, a bill that would allow the state to conduct executions via nitrogen hypoxia if the proper lethal injection drugs are unavailable. Republicans Mike Christian and Anthony Sykes, the bill's sponsors, claim that nitrogen hypoxia might ultimately prove more humane than lethal injection. What exactly is nitrogen hypoxia? It is a type of asphyxiation that is induced by breathing nitrogen instead of oxygen. Nitrogen, an inert gas, is not actually toxic, and therefore does not directly affect bodily functions. However, breathing nitrogen in an oxygen-deficient environment prevents cells from obtaining oxygen and ultimately leads to death. The procedure has not been thoroughly researched as a mode of execution. Ultimately, regardless of whether a prisoner is hung from a tree or deprived of oxygen, all forms of execution yield the same result: death. And death is a painful process. Lawmakers who propose new, "better" forms of execution are not acting out of compassion for the condemned, but out of a desire to mask the sheer brutality of capital punishment. Nobody wants to accept responsibility for an execution that sets a man's skin on fire or breaks his neck; nobody wants to witness the death of a man who spends his final minutes writhing and screaming in pain. But when death seems quick and painless, as though it is simply a form of prolonged sleep, it is easy to pretend that executions are not acts of cruelty. Despite Oklahoma's push for an improved execution method, most state laws make it clear that "humaneness" is nothing more than a superficial pretense used to justify capital punishment. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, several states allow electrocution, gas chambers or firing squads to be employed if lethal injection is ever declared unconstitutional. The continued existence of alternative methods in state statutes reveals stunning hypocrisy; if lawmakers genuinely cared about treating death row inmates humanely, they would abolish such methods altogether. Pretending that executions can be humane effectively prevents us from engaging in meaningful dialogue about the death penalty. Until we accept the reality that all forms of execution amount to simple revenge killing, capital punishment will continue to negatively impact criminal justice in the U.S. (source: The Daily Wildcat; Elizabeth Hannah is biochemistry sophomore) From rhalperi at smu.edu Thu Mar 26 15:10:48 2015 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Thu, 26 Mar 2015 15:10:48 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide Message-ID: March 26 INDONESIA: Indonesian court rejects appeal of Filipina on death row----In her application for judicial review, Mary Jane Veloso's lawyers argue that she was not provided with a capable translator during her 1st trial Indonesia's Supreme Court has rejected an application by a Filipina on death row for a judicial review of her case, taking her a step closer to being executed along with several other foreign drug convicts. "We appreciate the Supreme Court for its decision to reject the judicial review of Mary Jane," Tony Spontana, the spokesperson of the Attorney General's Office, told Rappler in a text message. "This is in line with our expectation and understanding because her clemency request has already been rejected. She should not have any more legal remedies." As well as the Filipina, Mary Jane Fiesta Veloso, 2 high-profile Australian inmates and convicts from France, Brazil, Ghana and Nigeria are set to face the firing squad after they recently had requests for presidential clemency rejected. In her application for a judicial review, Veloso's lawyers had reportedly argued that she was not provided with a capable translator during her first trial. But the Supreme Court's website said that judges on Wednesday, March 25, rejected Veloso's application for a review of her sentence. It did not provide details about the ruling and a court spokesman could not immediately be contacted for comment. Veloso was caught at Yogyakarta airport, on the main island of Java, carrying 2.6 kilograms (5.73 pounds) of heroin on a flight from Malaysia. Jakarta plans to execute all 10 of the convicts - 9 foreigners and 1 Indonesian - at the same time, but has said it will wait for any outstanding legal appeals to conclude. Australians Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, leaders of the so-called "Bali 9" drug-smuggling gang, as well as Frenchman Serge Atlaoui, currently have appeals that are working their way through the courts. Chan and Sukumaran have lost 2 previous attempts to get judicial reviews of their cases, but their legal teams have lodged a further, rare appeal. Indonesia has some of the toughest anti-drugs laws in the world, and President Joko Widodo has vowed there will be no clemency for traffickers on death row, as the country is facing an "emergency" due to rising narcotics use. Jakarta put to death 6 drug convicts, including five foreigners, in January, sparking a diplomatic storm. (source: rappler.com) ********************** Bali 9: Mary Jane Veloso's key legal case delaying executions is rejected One of the key legal cases delaying the executions of 10 drug felons in Indonesia including the Bali 9 duo has been rejected by the Supreme Court. The case review of Filipina maid Mary Jane Veloso was expected to take up to 3 months, buying time for all those on death row including Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran. However Supreme Court spokesman Ridwan Mansyur confirmed the judicial review request had been rejected on Wednesday. Although others facing the firing squad still have outstanding legal proceedings, Veloso had been considered by her legal team to have a strong chance of having her death sentence commuted. "She is innocent, she did not know what she was doing," lawyer Agus Salim told Rappler in an interview on March 20. "She's a victim." Veloso, a mother of 2, was sentenced to death in 2010 for attempting to smuggle 2.6 kilograms of heroin from Malaysia to Yogyakarta. She maintains she was deceived by an acquaintance and did not know the drugs were in the lining of her suitcase. Her lawyers argued she deserved a case review because the translator during her trial was only a student who did not have a license from the Association of Indonesian Translators. Mr Ridwan said the ruling had been published on the Supreme Court's website however the legal consideration leading to the decision was still being processed. A spokesman for Attorney-General H. M. Prasetyo confirmed officers from the Attorney-General's office were visiting Nusakambangan - the site of the executions - on Friday but denied the visit was related to the executions. Spokesman Tony Spontana said the decision on Veloso did not necessarily mean the executions would be held soon. "We are still waiting for all legal processes to be completed," he said. Lawyers for Chan and Sukumaran will return to the administrative court on Monday with an expert witness who will argue that the court has the jurisdiction to hear the men's appeal. The court has previously thrown out their legal challenge to President Joko Widodo's rejection of their clemency pleas on the grounds it does not have the authority to make a ruling. This is now being appealed in the same court. A decision is expected in early April. Others with legal processes still underway include Frenchman Serge Atlaoui, Martin Anderson from Ghana and Nigerian Raheem Agbaje Salami. The Indonesian government has repeatedly said its preference is to kill all 10 drug felons simultaneously because staggered executions would affect the psychological state of those on death row. (source: Sydney Morning Herald) ***************** Bali 9: Chan And Sukumaran's Lawyers Present New Evidence To Court Lawyers for Bali 9 pair Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran have presented new evidence in administrative court. The Australians??? legal team will return to the Jakarta court with an expert witness to help them with their case. Chan and Sukumaran's lawyers filed an appeal in the administrative court in February, challenging Indonesian President Joko Widodo's blanket ban on clemency that affected 64 death row inmates. The Bali 9 duo's lawyers argued that the president did not review individual cases on their merits as required by law, adding the leader failed to follow the due process by denying all the appeals at once. The administrative court rejected their application, saying that it did not have jurisdiction to hear the case. The lawyers have then filed an appeal. And on Wednesday, lawyer Leonard Arpan revealed that they have presented new evidence on laws on the president's prerogative rights to the Jakarta court. They will return to court with an expert witness on Monday. It is expected that the witness will give evidence relating to the dismissal of the appeal. If not, Rusdihadi Teguh, a lawyer for the state, told reporters that they would object. Chan and Sukumaran were transferred from the Kerobokan prison to Nusakambangan Island earlier in March in preparation for their execution. However, they may have to wait for months before the grim event. The Supreme Court has decided to review the case of Mary Jane Fiesta Veloso, a Philippine national set to be executed alongside Chan and Sukumaran, and the entire proceeding may take around three months to complete. Attorney-General spokesman Tony Spontana said that they would wait for all legal procedures to be over before they would proceed with the execution. Simultaneous executions are believed to be "more efficient and effective." With Veloso's case under review, the Bali 9 pair, as well as the other 7 death row convicts who would face the firing squad with them, have been given more time. Chan and Sukumaran remain in Nusakambangan Island as they wait for all their legal avenues to be exhausted. Meanwhile, Mr Widodo is too busy to take Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott's call about the Bali 9 pair in death row. The Asian country's envoy in Australia, Nadjib Riphat Kesoema, said on Thursday that the Indonesian leader had not talked to his Australian counterpart ever since their initial phone call. "The 2nd and the 3rd time - the President was so busy," Kesoema said in Canberra. He added that the president's 1st program is to visit his people in the provinces. (source: IB Times) INDIA: President commutes death sentence of Assam death row prisoner The death sentence of a condemned prisoner belonging to Assam has been commuted to life imprisonment by President Pranab Mukherjee. The President has commuted the death sentence of Man Bahadur Dewan, alias Tote Dewan, who hails from Assam's Dibrugarh district, to life imprisonment, official sources said today. This is one of the rare cases where Mukherjee has commuted the death sentence after becoming President in 2012. The relief to the condemned prisoner came after the President rejected mercy petitions of 22 death row convicts at a stretch. Dewan was sentenced to death for killing his wife Gauri and 2 minor sons, Rajib and Kajib, in September 2002. The prisoner had also killed one of his neighbours, Bidhimaya, and surrendered before the police after the multiple murder. The death sentence of 1993 blast convict Yakub Menon, whose mercy petition was rejected by the president, had been stayed by the Supreme Court. Nithari serial rape and murder convict Surender Koli's mercy petition, too, was rejected by Mukherjee but he got relief from the apex court. In Dewan's case, Mukherjee is believed to have relied upon the opinion of the Home Ministry which had advised him to take a lenient view of the case. The Ministry is learnt to have advised Mukherjee that Dewan is from a poor background and murdered his wife, sons and a neighbour due to abject poverty and unemployment. (source: Business-Standard) PAKISTAN----executions 3 death row prisoners executed A murder convict was executed in Kot Lakhpat Central jail on Wednesday. Ayub, son of Bashir, was sentenced to death by a sessions court of Sheikhupura after finding him guilty of killing a man. The court had issued black warrants for Ayub after the government lifted moratorium on executions on Dec 17. In Bahawalpur, convict Ghulam Yaseen was hanged at the new central jail. There was high security around the jail at the time of the execution in the early hours. In order to cope with any emergency, law-enforcement personnel remained deployed on roads and residential areas around the jail till the body of Yaseen of Allah Rakha village, Ahmedpur East Tehsil, was taken to home by his family. In Mianwali, a death row prisoner was hanged at central jail while execution of another convict was cancelled due to a compromise with heirs of the deceased. Muhammad Khan of Chak 8-ML, Piplan tehsil, had shot dead his relative Nawaz in 2000 over a family feud and he was awarded death sentence by the Mianwali sessions court in 2001. After rejection of all appeals, the judge issued his black warrant and he was hanged early in the morning. His body was handed over to the family. The execution of Mohibdar Husain Shah of Chidro was cancelled on Wednesday due to a compromise with heirs of deceased. Mohibdar had killed his relative Agha Husain in 2000 and he was awarded death penalty in 2001. On Tuesday, Agha's family members appeared before the sessions court and recorded statement of compromise. (source: Dawn) *************************** 44 women inmates on death row in Punjab await clemency Following the lifting of moratorium on death penalty, the government has been putting convicts to death. The clemency pleas of as many as 44 women inmates on death-row are awaiting President's response. According to the jail sources, the clemency appeals of 2 women inmates have already been rejected; however, the concerned courts have not yet issued their death warrants. Both the women will be executed as soon as the death warrants are issued. The jail sources told our correspondent that most of the women inmates on death-row are convicted for crimes like murdering husbands with the help of lovers or the domestic disputes turning fatal. The sources said that very few women are sentenced to death in other crimes. Some of the death-row inmates are young women who had killed their lovers over infidelity. IG Prisons Mian Farooq Nazir said that none of the female inmates are pregnant and neither are any children of death-row inmates in the prison. (source: Dunya News) CHINA: East Turkestan: WUC Condemns Recent Executions and Takes a Stand against the Death Penalty In the past few years, Chinese authorities have targeted the Uyghur population and sentenced some of its leaders under non-transparent charges. Following an attack in the Yunman Province in March 2014, in which several people were killed, 3 Uyghurs were executed on 24 March 2015 on charges of terrorism and providing knowledge on terror activities to the actual perpetrators of the aforementioned attack. The World Uyghur Congress takes a strong stand against these executions and asks for more transparency and, more in general, for Beijing to abolitish of the death penalty. Below is an article published by The World Uyghur Congress: The World Uyghur Congress condemns the recent execution of 3 Uyghurs from East Turkestan who were allegedly associated with 4 men and 1 woman involved in an attack outside a train station in Kunming 1 year ago. As is typically the case, very little information has been released by the state about the nature of their relationship, or if there are legitimate grounds for punishment. Although justice must be done for those who choose violence as a means of recourse to state repression, the WUC is consistent in its opposition to the use of the death penalty and calls for its abolition. On March 1, 2014, 4 men and 1 woman killed 31 and injured another 141 in an attack outside a train station in Kunming, Yunnan Province. On Tuesday, March 24, 3 men, Iskandar Ehet, Turgun Tohtunyaz and Hasayn Muhammad, were put to death after China's Supreme Court upheld their convictions for the crimes of murder and "organizing and leading a terrorist organization". Police reported that although the three men were not directly involved in the attack, they had been involved in training others for "terror activities". No further information concerning the relationship between these men and the attackers was ever provided and their own specific activities were never disclosed, apart from vaguely worded court statements alleging some participation. As has been seen over the past year, it has become increasingly common for the Chinese government to sentence Uyghurs without the proper observance of legal procedures. Death sentences doled out in 2014 have shown that the majority, if not all, of these decisions are implemented troublingly quickly by Chinese authorities. None of these sentences have been delivered transparently or with any opportunity for external scrutiny by 3rd parties. Very little evidence is ever made public and there are few signs that suspects are ever provided legal representation - a clear breach of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which China is a signatory (but has yet to ratify). Amnesty International has called the death sentence "the ultimate denial of human rights" and reminded us that its use is in clear violation of the right to life under the Universal Declaration. The WUC reminds the international community that China has consistently been in clear violation of a number of internationally recognized human rights norms and continues to disregard the essential principles of freedom of speech and assembly as well as the right of legal due process. China remains the world leader in the use of the death penalty, executing more people than any country last year combined. Executions rose from 682 in 2012 to 778 in 2013, according to Amnesty International, suggesting that China continues to move against the overwhelming trend away from its practice. Although Amnesty's estimates are based on factual information taken from inside the country, many have suggested that the real figure is likely much higher. The WUC also remains rightfully concerned with the most recent adoption of China's new counter-terror legislation which looks to further criminalise quotidian behaviour and cultural or religious activities. What now falls under the ambit of the new law may include "speech or behaviour" that looks to "influence national policy making". The actions of parents encouraging their children to take up religious practice may also now be characterized as "terrorist or extremist tendencies" under the new law. The WUC therefore urges China to rethink its counter terror policy as well as its continued use of the death penalty, which neither serves to act as a deterrent nor is an acceptable method of punishment in the 21st century. The international community must also play an important role in pressuring the Chinese government to move away from its practice. (source: Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization) From rhalperi at smu.edu Fri Mar 27 10:54:50 2015 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Fri, 27 Mar 2015 10:54:50 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., DEL., S.C., FLA., ALA. Message-ID: March 27 TEXAS: Passing legislation is step toward death penalty reform Re: "Death Penalty Fixes Needed - Bills address embarrassments in Texas' system," Monday Editorials. As the chair and members of the American Bar Association's Texas Capital Punishment Assessment Team, we appreciated your recent editorial. Our team, which consisted of attorneys, legal scholars and former judges, spent 2 years reviewing current death penalty laws and practices. In 2013, we issued a comprehensive report detailing dozens of recommendations for improving the fairness and accuracy of our state's death penalty system. These include enacting a statute banning the application of the death penalty to people with intellectual disabilities and increasing access to DNA testing - the subject of 2 bills cited in your editorial. The report also emphasized the need for greater transparency to support public confidence in Texas' death penalty. Requiring prosecutors to notify defendants of requests to set execution dates - another bill cited in your editorial - is an obvious component of transparency. Texans cannot accept a capital punishment system with structural impediments to fairness, transparency and assurance that wrongful convictions and executions do not take place. Passing the legislation cited here is an important 1st step toward correcting significant shortcomings, and we urge all lawmakers to support these critical reforms. Jennifer Laurin, Royal Ferguson and Paul Coggins, Austin (source: Letter to the Editor, Dallas Morning News) PENNSYLVANIA: Families of victims speak out on death penalty moratorium Families of victims whose killers sit on death row had the chance to testify on Thursday afternoon about Governor Tom Wolf's moratorium on the death penalty. Each family had a different view, but all agreed ... something needs to change. One by one, those who've suffered the loss that some of us can't ever imagine, spoke from the heart. "Trista's killer is alive and well. Being able to see the sun, able to sleep every night," said Morgan Eng, the brother of Trista Eng. "A capital prison inmate is given a capital sentence, not life in prison for a reason," said Suzanne Eng, the mother of Trista Eng. The mother and brother of a York County teen who was killed in 1993 say the governor's imposing of a moratorium on the death penalty has taken away their closure. "How would you feel if for 21 1/2 years there was still no closure to your loved ones? We now feel that Governor Wolf is now making sure our family and every other victim's family has no closure," said Morgan Eng. Representative Ron Marsico, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, agrees with the Eng family. He thinks Gov. Wolf has over stepped his boundaries. "I think it's wrong. I think that we have laws on the books right now. That those that are convicted by prosecutors and found guilty by juries and sentenced to death by this commonwealth. We should go ahead and follow through with this law," said Rep. Marsico, who represents part of Dauphin County. But, not every victim's family whose killers sit on death row want that death sentence. "I don't need that to heal, and I don't want any part of it and I don't want that for me. That's not what justice is for me," said Linell Patterson, the daughter of 2 victims. Linell Patterson's step-brother and 2 of his friends were convicted of killing her father and step-mother. She made a connection with the family of one of her parent's killers. She realized, they would have to suffer the same loss. She says that's not justice. "I need to heal, the death penalty won't help me heal," said Patterson. But besides each family's different view, both agree the way the system works now, is broken. "The appeals process must be drastically changed. It needs to be reworked both on the state and national levels," said Suzanne Eng. When Gov. Wolf issued the moratorium last month, he announced that he wants to hear recommendations of the Pennsylvania Task Force and Advisory Committee on capital punishment before making any further decisions. That committee's report is expected by the end of the year. (source: Fox News) DELAWARE: Death Penalty Repeal to Full Senate in Delaware The repeal of Delaware's death penalty inched forward this week with a Senate committee approving the legislation that excludes the 15 inmates currently on death row. Senator Karen Peterson is cosponsor of the measure. And, the Stanton Democrat along with other supporters of repeal says that capital punishment is not only costly but has been applied in a morally discriminatory fashion. This is not the 1st time that repeal has headed to the full Senate for approval. But, the measure faces strong opposition in the state House of Representatives from law enforcement and top Democratic leaders. House Speaker Pete Schwartzkopf is a retired state trooper who opposes the measure without a provision that would apply the death penalty to those who killed police and correctional officers. (source: Delmarva Public Radio) ********************** Bill to abolish Delaware death penalty clears Senate panel A bill to abolish Delaware's death penalty cleared its 1st legislative hurdle Wednesday, with members of the Senate Judiciary Committee releasing it for debate and a vote by the full Senate. The legislation, which was the subject of an hour-long hearing, mirrors a bill that passed the Senate in 2013 by only one vote before dying in a House committee. The legislation would remove execution as a possible punishment for 1st-degree murder, leaving life in prison without the possibility of parole as the only sentence. The bill would not apply to the 15 inmates currently on Delaware's death row, who would still be subject to execution. Chief sponsor Sen. Karen Peterson, D-Stanton, who also led the failed repeal effort 2 years ago, said opponents believe that the death penalty is arbitrary, discriminatory against minorities, costly to taxpayers and ineffective as a deterrent to crime. "We keep killing people to teach them that it is wrong to kill people," Peterson said. "It's not working." Peterson specifically rejected arguments from opponents of the legislation that the death penalty serves as a deterrent to attacks on law enforcement officers and prison guards. Of the 13 people who signed up to speak on the measure, 12 were supporters of the repeal effort, including clerics representing several Christian and Jewish congregations in Delaware. Brendan O'Neill, head of the state public defender's office, said death penalty cases are costly to taxpayers, to the tune of $2.6 million in defense costs in fiscal 2014. "If we pass this bill, we won't have all of these expenses," O'Neill said, noting that death penalty cases require 2 defense trial attorneys, expert testimony on mitigating circumstances as arguments against imposing a death sentence, and costly and lengthy appeals. Lewes Police Chief Jeffrey Horvath, representing the Delaware Police Chiefs Council, was the only person to speak against the bill. Horvath suggested that some of the statistics used by death penalty opponents in support of the repeal effort, including the number of death row inmates who have been "exonerated," are false or misleading. "Being removed from the death penalty does not equate to innocence," Horvath noted, saying many former death row inmates are serving life in prison. He also said cost should not be a factor in the argument over capital punishment. "The death penalty is reserved for the most shocking crimes against real people. ... These are not minimal crimes, and saving money should not be the priority for getting rid of the death penalty." Attorney General Matt Denn says he is not opposed to capital punishment in appropriate cases, but that state law should be changed to require a unanimous jury recommendation before a judge can impose a death sentence. (source: Associated Press) SOUTH CAROLINA: Senate committee kills bill to hide execution drug sellers A bill that would keep secret the names of companies that sell execution drugs to South Carolina died Thursday in a Senate committee, but the idea remains alive in the Legislature. The Senate Corrections and Penology Committee voted 7-7 on the bill Thursday, preventing it from passing. Voting against it were Democrats who thought condemned inmates should know who makes the drugs that are supposed to kill them and conservatives who thought the state should wait for legal challenges elsewhere to be resolved first. State prison officials favor the bill because they said South Carolina has run out of 1 of its 3 lethal injection drugs, the anesthetic pentobarbital, and negotiations with pharmaceutical companies are going nowhere. "The conversation usually stops when we tell them we are a Department of Corrections and why we want the drugs," Corrections Department Director Bryan Stirling said. The committee's vote doesn't kill the idea. Sen. Mike Fair is trying to get a similar proposal passed as part of the budget, and a companion bill has been introduced in the House. The legislation was patterned after laws enacted in other states that have run into problems obtaining execution drugs. But some of those laws have been challenged in court. Also, next month the U.S. Supreme Court is hearing a case from Oklahoma about whether the 3 drugs it uses to kill inmates violate the U.S. Constitution's ban on cruel and unusual punishment. Sen. Tom Davis, R-Beaufort, joined Democrats in voting against the bill. He was worried in part about hiding the companies that sell drugs used in a public execution, but also wanted to see how the court cases shake out. Speaking against the bill Thursday was a defense attorney organization that said the best way to make sure companies sell the best quality execution drugs is to keep the process public. The state's Death Penalty Resource and Defense Center urged lawmakers to take their time and see what happens in courts, while a Catholic organization likened the ever-changing mixture of drugs other states are using to execute inmates to human experiments. The panel approved an amendment by Sen. Karl Allen allowing companies that sold bad execution drugs to South Carolina to be held responsible. The Democrat from Greenville then voted against the bill, saying the constitutional rights of all inmates must be protected. "At least they get the dignity of the Eighth Amendment," Allen said. Fair, who is pushing the bill, said if the state has always kept secret the names of the doctors and nurses involved in execution, why shouldn't that confidentiality extend to who provides the drugs. "There is no intent to hide anything from the person being executed or the defense team," said Fair, R-Greenville. "All that could be given to them confidentially." South Carolina has executed 43 people since the death penalty was reinstated in 1977, but just 1 inmate since May 2009. (source: Associated Press) FLORIDA: Gary Hilton Could Testify at Upcoming Hearing A convicted serial killer on Florida's death row could take the stand and testify in his upcoming appeal. Gary Michael Hilton was sentenced to death for kidnapping and murdering Cheryl Dunlap in December 2007. A hearing in his latest appeal was set for today, but it was cancelled at the last minute after Hilton's attorney said he needed more time to prepare. "Typically they're pretty protracted proceedings because the courts need to make sure they review the case thoroughly," Hilton's attorney Alex Morris said. "Obviously it's the ultimate penalty and the courts take a pretty keen look at things." "He murdered Cheri within probably a couple of days or less. So she didn't get to have any appeals or any pleadings for a long time," Cheryl Dunlap's cousin Gloria Tucker said afterward. "So when they speak of justice ... there just is no justice when someone can murder someone and live for 10, 20, 30 years." The judge set a new court date for September. The defense lawyer says "Hilton is likely to testify" at that hearing. (source: WCTV news) ALABAMA: Alabama Grandmother Gets Life Without Parole For Running Girl To Death A jury sentenced Joyce Garrard, the "drill-sergeant from hell," to life without parole for the 2012 murder of her granddaughter, Savannah Hardin. A jury in Etowah County, Alabama, has recommended a sentence of life without the possibility of parole for Joyce Garrard for the 2012 murder of her granddaughter, Savannah Hardin, the 9-year-old who was forced to run until she collapsed as punishment for eating candy bars on the school bus and lying about it. Hardin died in the hospital 3 days later. Last week the same jury found Garrard guilty of capital murder. On Monday, the sentencing phase of the trial began, where the jury - made up of 8 men and 4 women - considered aggravating and mitigating circumstances to decide whether Garrard should be executed or spend life in prison. To recommend a death sentence, the jury was told they must find that Garrard's crime had been especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel when compared to other capital murders. While most states require a unanimous decision, in Alabama - the state with the highest death sentencing rate per capita in the country - just 10 of 12 jurors must vote in favor of imposing the death penalty. In Alabama, a judge has final say over sentencing. That sentencing hearing was set for May 11. Garrard had asked through her attorneys for the jury to impose a sentence of life without parole. "The worst punishment is to send her to the state penitentiary as the grandmother who ran her granddaughter to death," Defense attorney Richard Rhea said during final arguments today. During the 1st phase of the trial, the 50-year-old (today was in fact, her birthday) grandmother took the stand in her own defense. Contradicting a number of earlier witnesses who testified they saw Savannah running with cinder block-sized pieces of firewood and Garrard meting out the corporal punishment, Garrard contended under oath that she would "rather die" than hurt her granddaughter and had not been punishing Savannah when she collapsed. Neighbors and witnesses testified that Garrard had shouted at Savannah to "keep running" as the 2nd-grader ran 50-foot sprints for close to 3 hours. Neighbors and witnesses testified that Garrard had shouted at Savannah to "keep running" as the 2nd-grader ran 50-foot sprints for close to three hours. Even when Savannah fell to her knees, broke down in tears and vomited on the lawn, Garrard was staunch. "I didn't tell you you could stop," witnesses testified hearing Garrard say. The defense made its case for life imprisonment on Wednesday after an unsuccessful attempt to get the case thrown out entirely. Defense attorney Dani Bone asked circuit court Judge William "Billy" Ogletree to dismiss Garrard's verdict on account of unspecified "widespread juror misconduct" by at least 4 jurors. The jury was not sequestered in a hotel room, but had been instructed by Judge Ogletree to stay off social media including Facebook and away from the news - orders that Bone said had been ignored. After a 2-hour investigation the defense's request was seemingly ignored and the defense called its witnesses to testify on Garrard's behalf. According to local reporters in the courtroom, Joyce Garrard wiped tears away as her husband, daughter and sisters testified that despite a tough upbringing in a poor home with an alcoholic father and a history of physical and sexual abuse, Garrard had been a loving mother and grandmother, though with a gruff demeanor that others might mistake for a lack of caring. Garrard's daughter, Nicole Selvage, begged the jury to spare her mother's life. "She's my best friend. She has a heart of gold," Selvage said on the stand. Her husband of 20 years, 54-year-old Johnny Garrard, told jurors "You won't see a better grandmother," and said that his wife had nursed him back to health after an accident with a mixer truck left him unable to walk. Crying on the stand, Johnny Garrard said, "I hope y'all spare her life." Neuropsychologist Dr. Carol Walker also testified to Garrard's 9th-grade education and low IQ of 71 (the current cut-off for mental retardation is 70) and noted the history of abuse in Garrard's childhood home, citing specifically a grandmother who made the children fight for the fun of it. Dr. Walker further told the court Garrard's age and family support made her unlikely to engage in violence while in prison. On Monday, the prosecution presented 3 witnesses. County Sheriff Todd Entrekin testified that Savannah's case was one of the worst he'd seen telling jurors, "This is definitely a death penalty case in my opinion." Samuel Hudgins, a witness who saw Savannah running in the yard, noted that a neighbor told him Garrard had once threatened to "blow his brains out." The most persuasive witness for the prosecution was Heather Walker, Savannah's mother, who recounted her child's final moments and the years-long alienation from her daughter by her ex-husband. Walker spoke at length with The Daily Beast in an exclusive interview published a day before the guilty verdict was handed down. "I feel like she's guilty," Heather told The Daily Beast. "It might not have been her intention, but ultimately it all falls on Joyce ... As an adult and a parent and a grandparent, you should know when enough is enough. Even if Savannah really did do what they are saying she did, you don't punish a child like that." Walker also said then that she didn't want Garrard to be executed for Savannah's death. "I think she should sit in jail for the rest of her life...and let her conscience be her penalty," Walker said. But it seems closing arguments and seeing Garrard face-to-face again had an effect on Walker's opinion. During the sentencing phase, the Florida woman told the jury that Garrard showed no remorse for her daughter's death. Walker said in a tearful testimony, "Her life shouldn't be spared because she didn't think twice about what she was doing." A death sentence would have made Garrard the fourth female incarcerated on Alabama's death row, on which 194 total death row inmates currently wait. If Judge Ogletree takes the jury's recommendation for a life sentence, Garrard will be remanded to a state prison where she'll join approximately 1500 others serving life sentences without the possibility of parole in Alabama - a segment that makes up about 5 % of the state's total prison population. Savannah's stepmother, Jessica Hardin, was present at the time of the little girl's collapse and was later arrested with Garrard following Savannah's death. Hardin will still face a lesser charge of murder at a yet-to-be-decided date for failing to intervene. Her lawyers say she is innocent. (source: thedailybeast.com) From rhalperi at smu.edu Fri Mar 27 10:56:33 2015 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Fri, 27 Mar 2015 10:56:33 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----LA., ARK., OHIO, MO., NEB., UTAH Message-ID: March 27 LOUISIANA: Debate continues over Glenn Ford, death penalty----ADA Dale Cox on death penalty: 'I think we need to kill more people' No one in the Caddo Parish District Attorney's office ever said Glenn Ford is an innocent man even though a murder conviction and death sentence handed up by a jury in 1984 were dismissed and vacated in June. "He may very well be or he may not be," said First Assistant District Attorney Dale Cox, who signed the dismissal papers leading to Ford's freedom from death row. Even Cox's boss, District Attorney Charles Scott, said there is "considerable evidence" Ford, freed from Louisiana State Penitentiary on March 11, 2014, "may have been a principal to armed robbery in the Nov. 5, 1983, shooting death of Shreveport jewelry Isadore Rozeman. "The reason that is potentially important is under armed robbery he could still be in the penitentiary. I'm not saying he is guilty of armed robbery, I'm saying the evidence might have led to a charge of armed robbery," Scott said. So bottom line, does Scott, who was not the DA when Ford was convicted in December 1984, think Ford should be a free man? "No comment," Scott responded. While Scott has remained guarded and tight-lipped in his response to questions about Ford, Cox was more forthcoming in 2 separate interviews this week, including lengthy explanations about changing viewpoints on the death penalty as a punishment for 1st-degree murder convictions. National exposure Cox's stated support of the death penalty and other comments about Ford's case are largely in response to a letter written to The Times last week by attorney A.M. "Marty" Stroud III, the man who formerly held Cox's position as 1st assistant DA and as such was the lead prosecutor in convicting Ford. Stroud, now anguished over his part in a man not guilty of murder sitting on death row almost 30 years, has apologized to Ford via the letter. The wrongful conviction, he said, serves as an example of the need to repeal the death penalty, which he calls "barbaric." But the dueling opinions are an example of the national dialogue created when portions of Stroud's letter were repeated through perhaps hundreds of online and print reports, stretching from coast to coast and across the ocean. Many complimented Stroud for his willingness to publicly apologize for his role in the conviction of a man who spent decades behind bars for a murder he didn't commit, while others once again debated the pros and cons of the death penalty, especially the possibility that a man not guilty of murder was slated for execution. Ford's reaction to Stroud's apology and the firestorm it created is unknown. Because of his declining health, all interviews have been suspended until further notice, attorney Kristin Wenstrom said. Ford, 65, is being treated for Stage 4 lung cancer in New Orleans and may only have eight months or less to live, according to a physician's diagnosis in February. He only learned of his fate following his release from Angola, even though health problems plagued him prior to that. 'Kill more people' In his letter, Stroud questioned whether the justice system can be "fairly and impartially" imposed with the death penalty still in play. He calls it "state assisted revenge." Cox disagrees the justice system is defective, saying it is only as good as the people who work in it. Even so, convicting an innocent man is a prosecutor's worst nightmare, he said. He remains committed to the death penalty as a morally justifiable punishment even though his personal position has changed from an anti-stance to support over the past 35 years, just as Stroud started out in favor of it then moved to opposition. Cox said he's too often witnessed the "enormous toll" homicides take on the victim and survivors. "Barbarians" with no remorse for their crimes, serial killers, baby killers of all races and genders demonstrate to Cox more barbaric behavior over a planned execution. However, Cox is not a believer the death penalty serves as a deterrent to other homicide cases. "It's not a deterrent if it goes fast, but we can't get it done fast enough." "I'm a believer that the death penalty serves society's interest in revenge. I know it's a hard word to say and people run from it, but I don't run from it because I think there is a very strong societal interest as a people," Cox said. "I think (revenge) is the only reason for it." "I think we need to kill more people. ... I think the death penalty should be used more often. It has come to the place in our society where it is used less often, and I think crime in our society has expanded so expeditiously ... that we're going the wrong way with the death penalty that we need it more than ever and we're using it less now," he said. 'Not the shooter' Approximately 10 months passed from the time Caddo Parish prosecutors learned in 2013 of new information implicating someone other than Ford in Rozeman's homicide until Ford was released last March. Would quicker access to oncology specialists have made a difference for Ford is among the questions being asked. But Cox and Scott are in agreement that the timeframe from the new evidence discovery to release was not wasted. "Every effort" was made, Cox said, to reach the point of determining if the information from an informant was credible enough to lead to Ford's freedom. "It concerned me the most that we handled it timely; don't sit on this another year or 2. You can out-think yourself on this stuff. ... You've got one DA saying to another administration, 'What you did was wrong and I'm fixing it,'" Cox said. "There was no way we could ever retry the case against Glenn Ford. There was no way he could marshal a defense after spending 30 years in solitary confinement. It would be cruel and unusual to make him do that." Still, Cox said he can't say for certain Ford is factually innocent because he believes Ford had information or may have been a participant but not necessarily the gunman. "There was evidence at his trial that no one contradicted, evidence he purchased a gun shortly before this," Cox said referring to Rozeman's murder. Ford knew Rozeman, did work for him and would have been a familiar face to get past Rozeman's security system, Cox said. Ford was in Rozeman's shop prior to his death, and later the same day "fenced" jewelry stolen during the robbery and homicide. "None of that proves that Glenn Ford was the shooter. But neither does that exclude him as a participant in some fashion. So when I say innocent I mean that in the broadest possible case," said Cox. "I'm relatively certain he was not the shooter based on everything." Ford is seeking state compensation for his wrongful conviction. The Louisiana Attorney General's office is fighting him. Citing pending litigation, spokesman Steven Hartmann denied a request from The Times for an interview with Attorney General Buddy Caldwell about the state's position. Conflict or discussion Was there conflict in the DA's office about how to proceed with the new evidence leading to Ford's exoneration? Yes, according to Cox, in that there was a recognition of the seriousness of the information and what should be done. But no, said Scott, who described the talks as a "very, very careful and deliberate review of the issue." "Here we have a jury verdict and have a death sentence that we have been defending against post-conviction relief applications for 30 years. So it was a large step to go from ... taking a verdict away from a jury, which was unanimous, then reverse course. The discussion was that's a very serious step to take," Cox said. Another thought was to give the information to the defense and let them file a motion with the court to seek Ford's release. "I ultimately thought that was the wrong thing to do. I said we have credible information and we need to release the man; don't need to go through any more delays. That position is what we ultimately took," he said. Cox added: "There was a real sense of earnestness that this was going to be something that was going to cause a lot of consequences for a lot of people and it has and it will continue to. In the end to me, there was no question about it. I feel so strongly about it, if we hadn't released the man I would have quit. I would have quit and gone to the FBI." Scott would only say he was "on board" with the filing of the dismissal of charges against Ford. He declined to elaborate any more on the other behind-the-scenes decision-making. Shielded information Specifics of the information an informant provided are under seal by order of the court. And it remain so because of a real concern about the person's safety, Cox said. Quite a bit of time was spent in the months before Ford's release verifying the information before all were convinced it was reliable. Cox stressed the undisclosed information was not known to Stroud, his co-counsel Carey Schimpf or former DA Paul Carmouche. "I inadvertently discovered it while interviewing a witness in another homicide. This is not information that any possessed in 1983. I think if they had had this information this would have altered their charging decision," Cox said. Cox points out 3 other people - brothers Jake and Henry Robinson and George Starks - were indicted at the same time as Ford in connection with Rozeman's death. Charges were dismissed against the three, leaving only Ford to stand trial. The Robinsons have been arrested in the months since Ford's release on other cold case homicides. "Soon," is all Cox would say as to when another grand jury might hear evidence in the Rozeman case. Keeping the confidential informant safe in the interim is a concern of Cox's. "We've heard a lot of rumbling from the Robinsons about that. In that regard you may even see additional charges for the Robinsons forthcoming. If not from us, then the feds," Cox said. (source: Shreveport Times) ARKANSAS: Death-penalty waiver sought The special prosecutor in Rickey Dale Newman's capital murder case wants to waive the death penalty, according to Crawford County Circuit Court records. Attorney Ron Fields of Fort Smith filed the motion Tuesday with Circuit Judge Gary Cottrell. "Previous court rulings found that the defendant is mentally impaired to the extent that under existing law from the United States Supreme Court and the Arkansas Supreme Court, he is not an appropriate candidate for execution," Fields wrote in the 1-page motion. Capital murder is the only offense for which the death penalty is an option in Arkansas. The only other punishment for a capital murder conviction is life in prison without parole. Newman, 57, is awaiting retrial in Crawford County in the Feb. 7, 2001, mutilation death of Marie Elaine Cholette, 46, at a transient camp on the western outskirts of Van Buren. Newman was sentenced to death after a one-day jury trial in June 2002, during which he testified that he killed Cholette, and asked the jury for the death penalty. After his conviction, Newman successfully waived his appeals and asked to be put to death. 4 days before his scheduled July 26, 2005, execution, he allowed federal public defenders -- including his current attorney, Julie Brain -- to intercede for him, request a stay of execution and renew his appeals. In January 2014, the state Supreme Court ordered a new trial for Newman, ruling that he was not mentally competent to assist his attorney in preparing for the 2002 trial. Cottrell ordered Newman to undergo mental evaluations upon his return to Crawford County, telling attorneys he had to know whether Newman now was competent to stand trial and, if not, to order treatment to restore his fitness to proceed. Newman has not cooperated in those evaluations at Brain's direction. She contends that Newman is mentally competent and that an evaluation would violate her client's Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination by an involuntary evaluation, and his Sixth Amendment right to a speedy trial since Cottrell said he could not put Newman on trial again until he has a determination that Newman was competent. Earlier this month, Cottrell called off Newman's trial scheduled for April 6. Brain wrote in a March 18 brief that she would consent to Newman being tested as long as no statements he made during the evaluation were used in the case against him. Fields filed a response Tuesday to Brain's assertion of her client's fitness. He wrote that he agreed with Cottrell that Newman should be evaluated at the State Hospital and that he be treated until he is restored to mental fitness. He wrote that Newman continued to write letters to the judge and Fields in his own defense and without his attorney's knowledge. Fields noted that defense experts and the Arkansas Supreme Court took Newman's letter writing into account when determining that he was not fit to assist his attorney in preparing for his trial in 2002. (source: Arkansas Online) OHIO: Deshanon Haywood, suspect in quadruple-murder case, to go to trial again in May; death penalty specifications intact A review of the continuing case of Deshanon Jammal Haywood has determined that the death penalty specifications will not be eliminated from his Summit County indictment. Haywood, 23, was convicted last year of multiple counts of aggravated murder for helping to carry out a quadruple slaying at a Chapel Hill-area townhouse in 2013, but those convictions were vacated in October over defense claims of prosecutorial misconduct and false testimony by 2 material witnesses during his trial. Special prosecutors from Cuyahoga County subsequently were appointed to take over Haywood's case for his new trial. In a hearing Thursday in Summit County Common Pleas Judge Paul Gallagher's court - the same judge who ordered the retrial - special prosecutor Mahmoud Awadallah said Cuyahoga County's capital review committee examined Haywood's case and concluded that it should proceed with the death penalty specifications intact. Awadallah said the committee met twice to go over the case, with Haywood's defense lawyers also present, before a decision was made. The previously scheduled trial date, April 27, was moved to May 11, when jury selection will begin in Gallagher's court for the 3rd time. The shootings occurred in April 2013 during a robbery linked to a $50,000 heroin delivery to the townhouse. Derrick Brantley, 23, was the 1st man to be convicted of the crime under a capital indictment. But he was sentenced in July to life in prison for the slayings of Ronald "Dutch" Roberts, 24; his good friend, Kem Rashad Delaney, 23; Maria Nash, 19; and Roberts' girlfriend, Kiana "Kiki" Welch, also 19. Judge Mary Margaret Rowlands had Haywood's case when his 1st round of jury selection started soon after Brantley's conviction. Rowlands later voluntarily stepped down after Summit prosecutors filed Ohio Supreme Court papers seeking her disqualification, claiming she was predisposed against the death penalty. Then Gallagher took over, a 2nd jury actually was seated and Haywood was convicted last fall. But as he was awaiting his sentencing hearing, defense lawyers Brian M. Pierce and Joseph Gorman won a new trial. They claimed prosecutors were guilty of misconduct by not disclosing potentially exonerating evidence that could have been used to discredit the testimony of 2 important state's witnesses. Gallagher sided with the defense and granted the retrial. Pierce and Gorman said after Thursday's hearing that they were disappointed in the committee's move to continue pursuing a capital indictment. "In light of what happened to Brantley, the co-defendant in this case, I think all of the evidence indicates that he was the principal offender and he received a life sentence," Pierce said. Proportionately, Gorman said he feels it's unjust that Haywood even faces a capital indictment after Brantley's jury unanimously decided he should not be put to death. (source: Beacon Journal) MISSOURI----new execution date Missouri sets execution date for contract killer----Kimber Edwards hired man to kill woman over child support squabble The Missouri Supreme Court has scheduled a May 12 execution for a former St. Louis jailer convicted of hiring someone to kill his ex-wife in 2000. The state's high court set the execution date Thursday for Kimber Edwards, who turns 51 on Sunday. 35 year-old Kimberly Cantrell was shot and killed in August 2000 in her apartment in University City near St. Louis. The man Edwards was convicted of hiring, Orthell Wilson, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison. Prosecutors said Edwards wanted Cantrell dead to relieve him of paying overdue child support. Edwards insisted at trial he had been framed and had no motive to harm his ex-wife because the former couple had worked out a deal to make up the child support. (source: KMBC news) NEBRASKA: Man exonerated by DNA, freed from death row will speak at Creighton A man who was exonerated after spending a decade on death row will speak at Creighton University on Tuesday night. Ray Krone was wrongfully convicted of murder in 1992 and sentenced to death in Arizona. Years later, DNA tests proved he was not the killer and he was freed. Krone's arrival is timely, as a bill in this session of the Nebraska Legislature proposes repealing the death penalty. Legislative Bill 268, introduced by Sen. Ernie Chambers, would replace the death penalty with life in prison without parole. 12 other senators have signed on as co-sponsors. Krone is one of 151 people across the country who have been released from death row since 1973 because of wrongful conviction, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Now he is the director of membership and training for Witness to Innocence, an organization led by exonerated death row prisoners working to repeal the death penalty. The event is sponsored by Nebraska Conservatives Concerned about the Death Penalty and the Creighton chapters of Young Americans for Liberty and Students for Life. Krone will speak Tuesday at 6 p.m. in the Harper Center ballroom at Creighton University. The event is free and open to the public. (source: omaha.com) From rhalperi at smu.edu Fri Mar 27 10:57:18 2015 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Fri, 27 Mar 2015 10:57:18 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----UTAH, NEV., ARIZ., CALIF. Message-ID: March 27 UTAH: Utah comes under "fire" for reinstating death penalty by firing squad as backup Utah is now the only state to allow firing squads for executions when the primary method of lethal-injection drugs aren't available. The state currently does not have any lethal injection drugs on hand. Governor Gary Herbert signed HB 11 into law on March 23, 2015. "Those who voiced opposition to this bill are primarily arguing against capital punishment in general and that decision has already been made in our state," said Marty Carpenter, spokesman for Gov. Herbert. Prior to this, the firing squad was an option, but was only allowed for inmates who chose this method before it was eliminated in 2004. The American Civil Liberties Union and other opponents of the death penalty say that measure is a step backwards in time. Members of Utahns for Alternative Death Penalty gathered over 6,000 signatures on a petition against the bill urging the Governor to veto it. Despite a close vote in the House, The Utah legislature passed HB 11, the "Firing squad" bill, by a nearly 2/3 majority. Opponents call the bill, 'state-sponsored murder' and want future legislatures to reconsider execution all together. In the past 40 years, Utah is the only state to carry out such a death sentence with 3 executions by firing squad since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976. In total, 34 states use capital punishment. All those states use lethal injection as the primary method of execution. 8 states have electrocution as a secondary method for execution, 4 use the gas chamber, 3 use hanging and 2 use the firing squad. Oklahoma offers firing squad only if lethal injection and electrocution are found unconstitutional. (source: KCSG news) **************** American prelates criticize death penalty Bishop John Wester of Salt Lake City criticized Utah's reinstatement of death penalty by the firing squad. "No human law can trump God's law," he said. "Taking a human life is wrong, a slap in the face of hope, and a blasphemous attempt to assume divine attributes that we humble human beings do not have." Bishop Wester's remarks followed recent statements by Archbishop Jose Gomez of Los Angeles and the bishops of Nebraska calling for the repeal of the death penalty. "Catholic teaching allows the use of the death penalty under certain clear and specific conditions," said the state's bishops. "We do not believe that those conditions exist in Nebraska at this time. For this reason, the Catholic bishops of Nebraska, guided by prudence and the teaching of the Church, support legislative efforts to repeal the death penalty and reform our criminal justice system." (source: catholicculture.org) NEVADA: Nowsch defense prepares for death penalty hearing For the 1st time, both suspects charged in the murder of Tammy Meyers appeared in court on Thursday. When the accused accomplice of Erich Nowsch tried to say something, the judge told him to be quiet. At this point, nobody knows what Derrick Andrews was trying to say to the courtroom, and what he told police after he was arrested has also not been revealed. The defense team for Nowsch, the accused trigger man, says that's problematic for their case. Andrews and Nowsch are both accused of the same crimes, murder and attempted murder, in the shooting death of local mother Tammy Meyers. District Attorney Steve Wolfson has made it clear the state isn't ruling out the death penalty at least for Nowsch. His defense is preparing for a hearing before the committee next week. Right now they're in hot water because they say the state hasn't released all the evidence in the case, including anything his alleged co-conspirator told police about that night. "When you ask how he's going to influence the impact of this case it's really impossible to tell, and the state has made it impossible by withholding evidence with regard to Mr. Andrews," Defense Attorney Conrad Claus told Action News. Claus also said the state hasn't provided all of Nowsch's interview with police. The defense team is working to figure out if Nowsch said anything prior to being read his rights. "It looks like there's a gap in our audio tape at the jail," he said. Andrews tried to speak to the courtroom Thursday but the judge intervened, saying he needed to protect his rights. District Attorney Steve Wolfson said he's not ready to comment on whether he will seek the death penalty for Andrews. (source: KTNV news) ***************************** Court schedules death penalty hearing for Nowsch A hearing on the death penalty for 1 of the suspects in the shooting death of a Las Vegas mother in February has been scheduled for April 1. Erich Nowsch pleaded not guilty to the charges this morning at the Regional Justice Center. His trial date had earlier been scheduled for May 26. Derrick Andrews, who police say was the driver for Nowsch on the night of Feb. 12 that led to the shooting of Tammy Meyers, 44, also appeared in court. A public defender was assigned to him. At one point, Andrews stood up and asked, "Can I say something, your honor!" The judge replied that he can at the next court hearing. Conrad Claus, one of Nowsch's attorneys, requested several items from Metro connected to the case, including crime pictures and radio traffic logs. He said in court that he has concerns since the death penalty committee meeting soon. He says he needs to see what police have on case. Prosecutors allege that Nowsch fired the fatal shots from a vehicle with Andrews at the wheel in what police initially suspected was a road rage incident. Days later, investigators revealed that Meyers enlisted her adult son and his gun to confront a driver who threatened her and her daughter after a driving lesson in a school parking lot. Andrews and Nowsch each face murder, attempted murder, weapon and conspiracy charges. (source: mynews3.com) ARIZONA: Debra Milke: Why freedom feels so elusive to death row exonerees----Released after spending 22 years on Arizona's death row, Debra Milke called her exoneration 'bittersweet.' Legal experts say the plight of exonerees such as Milke has played into how juries view the ultimate sanction. Until this week, Debra Milke, who spent 22 years on Arizona's death row, remained a ward of the state. After a Maricopa County judge on Monday dismissed all charges related to the 1989 murder of her son, Christopher, a deputy removed an ankle monitor. At that moment, Ms. Milke became a member of an exclusive club no one would voluntarily attend - one of the few who were walked by the US justice system to the threshold of state-sponsored death only to be fully released after courts found their conviction wrongful. The Milke case, which comes amid a string of death-row exonerations from North Carolina to Louisiana, has put renewed focus on what is for many one of the most troubling parts of the death penalty regime in the US: The living, walking proof that there are flaws in the system. Just weeks before Milke's ankle monitor was removed, a Louisiana death row inmate, Glenn Ford, walked away from prison a free man. Such stories of injustice have given Americans new insights into what University of North Carolina political scientist Frank Baumgartner, a death penalty critic, has called a "system built on false promises for everyone." Moreover, the difficulty exonerees face in getting compensated or even finding a job and an apartment - in short, to get their life back - has contributed to a gnawing concern among many Americans regarding less the ethics of the death penalty, but the justice system's ability to fully correct life-and-death mistakes. "The fact that there's innocent people in prison or death row has transformed people's understanding of the death penalty," says Mr. Baumgartner, author of "The Decline of the Death Penalty and the Discovery of Innocence." "Your opinion about the death penalty in the abstract is one thing, but meeting exonerees changes the death penalty from an abstract principle to a very practical issue of: Can the government do it right every single time?" Among the public, there appears to be a growing awareness of the imperfectness of the legal system. March's 2 death-row exonerations come after a record 125 Americans were absolved in 2014 of the crimes for which they had been convicted. To be sure, prosecutors - as well as many ordinary citizens - take a skeptical view of many of the now 151 death-row inmates who have been cleared of charges since the 1970s. "In many cases, the view is, 'We know who did it, it was him, and he got away with it" - that's what an exoneree has to live with in their hometown," says Ray Krone, who in 2002 became the 100th death row inmate exonerated in the US since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. Mr. Krone, who was released after DNA evidence conclusively showed another man committed the murder for which he was convicted, says that he had it "relatively easy" upon his release, given the deep support of his family and his Pennsylvania hometown. But even Krone, who was known in the press as the "Snaggletooth Killer," struggled with his freedom. He was detained trying to cross into Canada after his name was flagged in an FBI database as a convicted murderer. Fortunately, he says, he had a magazine with a cover story about his release that proved enough to allow Canadian authorities release him. His legal battles for remuneration also took a toll, he says. "I wouldn't trade 10 years for $2 million, but, remember, they didn't give that money to me. I had to fight to take it from them." Once released, many exonerees have to deal with moving back to small towns where neighbors and police harbor skepticism. Then there is the difficulty of escaping the memories of being wrongfully imprisoned just yards from the death chamber. "Psychological research of the wrongfully convicted shows that their years of imprisonment are profoundly scarring," according to a 2009 report by the Innocence Project, which uses DNA testing to seek the release of innocent inmates. "Many suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, institutionalization and depression, and some were victimized themselves in prison. Physically, they have aged ahead of their peers, and often their health has suffered from years of sub-standard prison health care." Going forward, many of those who are exonerated based on wrongful convictions also enter a sort of fugue state. For example, Henry McCollum, who spent 31 years on death row in North Carolina before being released last September, referred to his post-prison bedroom as a "cell" in an interview in March with The New York Times. Mr. McCollum and his half-brother Leon Brown were exonerated, based on DNA evidence, of the 1983 murder of a child. Since their release last September, writes the Times, "both men have clung to a minimal existence, absent substantive remuneration, counseling or public aid in transitioning back to society." The 2 men were each given $45 upon their release and lived on charity. They recently received a bank loan that allowed them to move into an apartment. In various studies, including the recent book "Life After Death Row," exonerees say trauma and anger from false imprisonment compounded by lack of guidance and help after release often leads to a sense of unresolved displacement and isolation. "We all have different types of pigeonholes we put people in - whether it's religion, sexual orientation, there's always some kind of label," says Mr. Krone. "But for an exoneree, there's no mark on a job application, there are no benefits, there's no tax write-offs, in large part because the justice system can't admit it made a mistake." That certainly appears true in the case of McCollum and Brown. As North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory mulls whether to give the men a pardon, and thus compensation worth $1.5 million, the prosecutor who put them on death row hasn't changed his opinion. "There is no doubt in my mind that they're not entitled to a pardon, and there is no doubt in my mind that they're not entitled to compensation by the taxpayers," Joe Freeman Britt, who prosecuted the pair, told the Times. Support for the death penalty has hovered at around 63 % of the American public since 2000, according to Gallup. 4 % of death row inmates may be innocent, according to work published by University of Michigan law professor Samuel Gross. Questions remain whether the US has ever executed an innocent person in the post-1976 era, but the Death Penalty Information Center has a list of 10 people who were "executed but possibly innocent." Conversely, many prosecutors object to the assumption that exonerees are automatically innocent. In Milke's case, for example, the failure of prosecutors to acknowledge shoddy detective work in the trial was cited by the judge as the reason for her release. It's always been known that Christopher Milke was killed by 2 men currently on death row, but the question of whether his mother was a conspirator won't soon go away, even though the lead detective has been discredited. Prosecutors have offered no apologies, and Milke is suing for remuneration. Indeed, even cases steeped in scientific surety, such as DNA proof that someone else committed the crime, are often questioned by governors, who in many states have to pardon a former inmate before they can receive compensation. 25 states have specific compensation statutes for exonerees, but many require the defendant prove their innocence. That's a high bar for many former death row convicts, especially those convicted largely on circumstantial evidence. Earlier this month in Louisiana, a court exonerated Mr. Ford, who had been convicted in 1983 for killing an elderly woman, after determining that there had been unconstitutional suppression of evidence and lingering concerns about the inexperience of his defense counsel. Now dealing with serious health problems, Ford has met opposition from the state attorney general in his attempts to obtain compensation for his wrongful conviction and lost freedom. "My sons, when I left, was babies ... now they grown men with babies," Ford said earlier this month as he left the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola. Yet Ford, for one, found an unlikely ally: the prosecutor who helped convict him in 1983. In a column published Friday in the Shreveport Times, A.M. Stroud III questions whether a justice system run by fallible humans can fairly adjudicate death. The case was also shadowed by race, as Ford, a black man, was convicted by an all-white jury. He was released after a confidential informant provided evidence that another man committed the murder for which Ford was convicted. "Glenn Ford deserves every penny owed to him under the compensation statute," Mr. Stroud writes. "This case is another example of the arbitrariness of the death penalty. I now realize, all too painfully, that as a young 33-year-old prosecutor, I was not capable of making a decision that could have led to the killing of another human being." Such admissions of prosecutorial doubt are rare, and are often met with official incredulity. "We do not understand Mr. Stroud's opposition to our request that the Louisiana judiciary review the record in this case and make a factual determination in this matter," spokesman Steven Hartman said in an e-mail. At issue, according to the attorney general's office, is Ford's failure to prove that he did not illegally posses items stolen in a robbery that ended in the murder. Jacksonville, Fla., prosecutor Bernie de la Rionda, who has headed several death penalty prosecutions, told the Monitor last year that exonerations are part of the system's safety valve, but shouldn't be seen as an argument for abolition. Mr. de la Rionda pointed to 1 serial killer against whom Florida did not seek the death penalty. The man eventually killed 2 more people in prison. But the question of innocence, as embodied by death row inmates set free, continues to agitate the death penalty debate. For one, capital convictions in 2014 marked a 40-year low, suggesting to some experts that juries and prosecutors are responding at least in part to concerns about the potential for wrongful convictions. Moreover, death penalty exonerees have testified in front of lawmakers and governors in all 6 of the US states, including Illinois and Maryland, that have abolished the death penalty in recent years. Even if Milke wins her lawsuit and receives compensation for her 2-decade imprisonment, her ability to reengage with society likely hinges on perhaps a death row exoneree's greatest challenge: acceptance of all that's been lost. "I live with an abiding sense of loss and a chunk of my heart is gone, but Christopher's spirit is with me always, which is a comfort to the remaining pieces of my heart," Milke said in a statement after her release. (source: Yahoo news) CALIFORNIA----death row inmate dies Court upholds death sentences, but Mother Nature had the last word 2 Southern California juries decided that Teofilo Medina Jr. should be executed for committing 4 murders in a 1-month crime spree in 1984, and a federal appeals court agreed Thursday. But this time, Mother Nature had the last word. Medina, a death row inmate since 1987, had been moved to hospice care at a Vacaville prison in January after surgery for cancer that had spread to his brain, his lawyers said. He died there Sunday at age 70. He was the 2nd condemned inmate to die of natural causes in the last week, and the 67th overall since California reinstated the death penalty in 1977, prison officials said. The state has executed 13 prisoners since 1992. Because of Medina's death, defense lawyer Robert Amidon said attorneys will probably ask the federal courts to vacate their rulings affirming his 2 death sentences, which would still remain on the books in state courts. His name is also on a 1992 U.S. Supreme Court ruling upholding California's procedures for determining mental competency in death penalty trials. The court ruled 7-2 that it was constitutional for a state to require a defendant to prove he or she was incompetent to stand trial and assist the defense lawyer, rather than putting the burden of proof on the prosecution. Medina was released from an Arizona prison in August 1984 and began his killing rampage soon afterward. Between Oct. 13 and Nov. 7 of that year, according to the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, he held up a drive-in dairy and 2 gas stations in Orange County and a service station in Riverside County and killed someone in each of the robberies. He was arrested Nov. 7 after another robbery attempt in which he shot at 2 people but missed, the court said. Medina was also a victim of childhood abuse. He was whipped by his father and mother and by nuns at a Catholic school, the court said. He suffered other injuries at birth and during childhood, and while in prison in California and Arizona was diagnosed at least 11 times with paranoid schizophrenia and other mental disorders. But the jury in Orange County found him competent to stand trial and also found that he was sane when he committed the murders. Defense lawyers argued that Medina's trial attorneys had represented him incompetently by failing to discover and present information about his childhood abuse and failing to raise an insanity defense in the Riverside County trial. But the appeals court said Thursday that Medina's attorneys had presented considerable evidence about his mental condition to both juries, which nevertheless found him responsible for his crimes. The 3-0 ruling, written by Judge Kim Wardlaw, also noted that Medina had a record of kidnapping and rape before the murders and had attacked some inmates in prison. The court said it had written and submitted the ruling on Friday, with the usual lead time for publication, and learned only this week that Medina had died in prison. Although the ruling remains on the books for now, Amidon, Medina's lead defense counsel, said he would probably ask the judges to clear Medina's federal court record, the normal procedure after the death of a defendant whose case is still on appeal. Amidon said Medina's case also exemplifies the situation described by U.S. District Judge Cormac Carney of Santa Ana, who declared California's death penalty law unconstitutional last July. Carney said the state is at least partly responsible for appeal periods that last 20 years or longer and have turned the law into an arbitrary procedure in which the punishment is no longer connected to the crime. His ruling applies only to a single case but could have statewide effect if upheld by the Ninth Circuit. (source: sfgate.com) From rhalperi at smu.edu Fri Mar 27 10:58:10 2015 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Fri, 27 Mar 2015 10:58:10 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----USA Message-ID: March 27 USA: Executions, Doctors, The U.S. Supreme Court, And The Breath Of Kings Editor's note: This post is part of a series stemming from the 3rd Annual Health Law Year in P/Review event held at Harvard Law School on Friday, January 30, 2015. The conference brought together leading experts to review major developments in health law over the previous year, and preview what is to come. A full agenda and links to video recordings of the panels are here. The relationship between medicine and capital punishment has been a persistent feature of this past year in health law, both at the level of medical ethics and Supreme Court review. Our story starts in Oklahoma, where the execution of Clayton Lockett was botched on April 28, 2014. National Institutes of Health (NIH) bioethicist Seema Shah described the events in question: Oklahoma was administering a new execution protocol that used the drug midazolam, a sedative that is often used in combination with other anesthetic agents. Oklahoma had never used this drug in executions before; in fact, only a few states had experience with using the drug in lethal injection. Florida had previously used this drug in lethal injections, but with a dose five times higher than what was indicated in Oklahoma's protocol. If the execution had gone as planned, Clayton Lockett would have first received midazolam; been declared unconscious, then received vecuronium bromide (a paralytic/neuromuscular blocking agent that would restrict his movements), and finally received potassium chloride (the drug likely to end his life). A few minutes after officially being declared unconscious, Lockett mumbled statements including the word, "Man." He "began breathing heavily, writhing, clenching his teeth and straining to lift his head off the pillow." Prison officials prevented the witnesses from seeing the rest of the proceedings by closing the curtains. The Department of Corrections then called off the execution and unsuccessfully tried to resuscitate Lockett, and Lockett eventually died of a heart attack more than 45 minutes after the execution began. Although a Department of Corrections official stated that Lockett's veins "exploded," an autopsy examination performed by a forensic pathologist hired by death row inmates appears to contradict official reports. This report concluded that even though prison officials decided to inject the drugs into Lockett's femoral vein (which is a more difficult and risky procedure), Lockett's surface and deep veins had "excellent integrity." Another execution that was scheduled to occur that same night has now been stayed for 6 months, pending an investigation into Mr. Lockett's execution. On July 23, 2014, Arizona encountered a problem with the same drug in the execution of Joseph Wood, wherein the condemned inmate allegedly gasped for almost 2 hours before dying. The executions have prompted 2 important but different kinds of responses. In this post I write about the role of medical ethics and the U.S. Supreme Court's response. Medical Ethics In an opinion from 1994, dissenting from the denial of certiorari in the death penalty case of Callins v. Collins, Justice Harry Blackmun famously wrote, "From this day forward, I no longer shall tinker with the machinery of death," and concluded that he was instead "obligated simply to concede that the death penalty experiment has failed." 2 decades later, in May 2014, shortly after the botched Oklahoma execution, Bob Truog, Mark Rockoff, and I argued in The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) that physicians should take a similar position: that they should no longer tinker with the machinery of death and avoid participation in executions altogether. Our argument received significant discussion in the media, on Rachel Maddow's MSNBC show, and elsewhere. We hope it will prompt further changes. In our article, we advance several reasons why physician involvement in execution is problematic. This involvement co-opts the medical profession in a problematic way: "History is replete with examples of efforts by governments to co-opt the power and status of the medical profession for state purposes that are not aligned with the goals of medicine. For example, physicians have engaged in interrogations involving torture, at least in part because the skills and knowledge of these professionals enables them to maximize the prisoner's temporary pain and suffering while minimizing the risk of permanent disability or death." It also medicalizes retribution. That is, "[e]xecution is, intrinsically, the involuntary taking of the life of another human being, an act that can never be aligned with the goals of medicine. Regardless of whether execution is justified - and there are those who contend that in some circumstances capital punishment may be - it must never be perceived as a medical procedure. By playing on the imagery of a scene that is almost indistinguishable from the everyday practice of anesthesiologists when they 'put a patient to sleep,' there is an attempt to cover the procedure with a patina of respectability and compassion that is associated with the practice of medicine." In this respect (and now I am speaking only for myself not my co-authors), this is a kind of kabuki theater. It would be far better to go to what we instinctively view as more barbaric methods, for example, the firing squad, that are decidedly non-medical, if we could ensure painless death. The patina of medicine helps us avoid confrontation with the barbarism of what we are doing, killing someone against their protestation. There is also the matter that medicine needs to live up to its own professional standards. The Code of Ethics of the American Medical Association (AMA) has for decades "specifically forbidden participation by physicians in executions" and similar "positions are held by professional societies of nurses, emergency medical technicians, and correctional health care workers." But these prohibitions are not being fully enforced. Again in our May 2014 JAMA article, we argue that a more effective pathway to enforce ethical standards is through the system of board certification. "Even though board certification is not required to practice medicine, in many fields it is a de facto requirement for physicians to practice within their specialties. For example, the American Board of Anesthesiology has taken the courageous step of adopting a policy that its certified members who participate in lethal injection for capital punishment are subject to having their board certification revoked. The boards of other specialties should consider taking the same action." That said we note the potential for legal challenges to this approach: "Whether this approach will ultimately withstand inevitable legal challenges remains to be seen, but unless the profession is willing to stand up in defense of its own ethical principles, it will lose the authority to call itself a profession." Supreme Court Review The Supreme Court has also agreed to take a look at the Oklahoma drug protocol in a case now captioned Glossip v. Gross. 4 men initially asked for a stay of execution while the Supreme Court could review the petition for certiorari to analyze their case. That stay was denied on January 15, over a written dissent authored by Justice Sotomayor joined by Justices Ginsburg, Breyer, and Kagan. After this decision most (including this author) thought the case was over, since the denial of a stay is usually an extremely good predictor of denial of certiorari in a capital case. However, very surprisingly, certiorari was granted a week later. This probably means that one justice (whose identity we will never know) voted against the stay, only to later vote for certiorari. In the interim one of the men was put to death. In other words, the delay between the stay and granting certiorari meant that 1 of these 4 men was treated differently from the other 3 and he is now dead. To quote the Bard from Richard II: "Such is the breath of kings." Arguments in the case will now be heard on April 29, 2015, with a decision expected in June. I want to draw a contrast with my earlier medical ethics discussion because, as is often the case when medical ethics makes it to the Supreme Court, the Court has agreed to take on a much narrower legal question. Here is how the Court wrote the questions presented: (1) Whether it is constitutionally permissible for a state to carry out an execution using a 3-drug protocol where (a) there is a well-established scientific consensus that the 1st drug has no pain relieving properties and cannot reliably produce deep, coma-like unconsciousness, and (b) it is undisputed that there is a substantial, constitutionally unacceptable risk of pain and suffering from the administration of the second and third drugs when a prisoner is conscious; (2) Whether the plurality stay standard of Baze v. Rees applies when states are not using a protocol substantially similar to the one that this Court considered in Baze; And (3) Whether a prisoner must establish the availability of an alternative drug formula even if the state's lethal-injection protocol, as properly administered, will violate the Eighth Amendment. To help digest these questions, it is useful to go through Justice Sotomayor's opinion dissenting from the refusal to grant a stay since it gives us a good clue about how she and the other 3 who joined her will approach this case. Let me quote her opinion's account of the botched execution and its aftermath: Soon thereafter, the State adopted a new execution protocol. The protocol contains a number of procedures designed to better ensure that execution team members are able to insert properly an IV line and assess the condemned inmate's consciousness. The protocol also provides for 4 alternative drug combinations that can be used for lethal injections, 1 of which is the same midazolam/vecuronium bromide/potassium chloride combination that was used in the Lockett execution. Whereas the prior protocol called for the injection of only 100 milligrams of midazolam, the new protocol now calls for the injection of 500 milligrams of that drug. The State has announced that it plans to use this particular drug combination in all upcoming executions. The petitioners challenged this in court as a violation of their Eighth Amendment under Section 1983. Sotomayor characterizes what happened: 2 expert witnesses for the plaintiffs testified that although midazolam could be used to render an individual unconscious, it was not and could not be relied on as an anesthetic because the patient could likely regain consciousness if exposed to noxious stimuli - such as the injection of potassium chloride. For that reason, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has not approved the drug for use as an anesthetic. One expert argued that "midazolam is subject to a "'ceiling effect'" such that, no matter the dosage, it reaches a point of saturation and has no more effect, and at this saturation point the drug cannot keep someone unconscious. According to these experts, this feature distinguishes midazolam - a benzodiazepine, like Valium or Xanax???from barbiturates such as pentobarbital or sodium thiopental, which are often used as the 1st drug in a 3-drug lethal injection protocol. The State's own expert argued to the contrary. The district court ultimately agreed with the state and denied a preliminary injunction finding inmates to be unlikely to succeed on the merits because "The proper administration of 500 milligrams of midazolam . . . would make it a virtual certainty that any individual will be at a sufficient level of unconsciousness to resist the noxious stimuli which could occur from the application of the 2nd and 3rd drug." Therefore, the lower court found that the challengers failed to establish a likelihood of being able to show that the protocol "presents a risk that is 'sure or very likely to cause serious illness and needless suffering.'" That is a standard from Baze v. Reese, 2008, the last major Supreme Court case on lethal injection. According to Sotomayor's dissent, the lower court also concluded: That there was a 'separate reason' the plaintiffs had failed to establish a likelihood of success: They had not identified a "'known and available alternative'" by which they could be executed, as the State had 'affirmatively shown that sodium thiopental and pentobarbital, the only alternatives to which the plaintiffs ha[d] alluded, are not available to the' State. An aside, why a shortage? Amid intense pressure by anti-death-penalty activists, the last American drug maker to produce sodium thiopental withdrew from the market in 2011. State officials scrambled to find alternative sources in overseas markets, leading to a European Union embargo of lethal-injection drugs and raids by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency to seize stockpiles of sodium thiopental that had been imported without a license. The Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit affirmed, and that is how the case made it to the U.S. Supreme Court. Sotomayor's opinion argued that there were serious constitutional questions with the way Oklahoma had proceeded. Here are her key points: --The Baze opinion said that a challenger must show that the risk of severe pain is "substantial when compared to the known and available alternatives." That, however, "pertained to an Eighth Amendment claim that the procedures employed in a particular protocol were inferior to other procedures the State assertedly should have adopted." By contrast, "the same requirement should not necessarily extend to a claim that the planned execution will be unconstitutionally painful even if performed correctly; it would be odd if the constitutionality of being burned alive, for example, turned on a challenger's ability to point to an available guillotine." --Second, both lower courts alternatively held that the use of midazolam did not create a substantial risk of unnecessary pain. But in the Court's earlier case, Baze, the Court "understood that the 1st drug in the 3-drug cocktail - there, sodium thiopental - would work as intended." But Sotomayor and her fellow Justices in the dissent found "the District Court's conclusion that midazolam will in fact work as intended difficult to accept given recent experience with the use of this drug. Lockett was able to regain consciousness even after having received a dose of midazolam - confirmed by a blood test - supposedly sufficient to knock him out entirely. Likewise, in Arizona's July 23, 2014, execution of Joseph Wood, the condemned inmate allegedly gasped for nearly 2 hours before dying, notwithstanding having been injected with the drug hydromorphone and 750 milligrams of midazolam - that is, 50 % more of the drug than Oklahoma intends to use." --She also expressed skepticism of the evidentiary findings of the district court noting scientific studies of the ceiling effect. "It is true that we give deference to the district courts. But at some point we must question their findings of fact, unless we are to abdicate our role of ensuring that no clear error has been committed. We should review such findings with added care when what is at issue is the risk of the needless infliction of severe pain." These points give us a pretty clear outline of what she and the Justices joining her opinion think of the case. What is likely to happen? To use a quote often ascribed to Yogi Berra, but sometimes to Niels Bohr, among others: "It's tough to make predictions, especially about the future." But here goes: I think the court will strike down as unconstitutional Oklahoma's method of execution in a narrowly written opinion, and remand the case for new fact-finding on the drug itself. I think the more interesting question is whether they get to the question of pointing to a better alternative protocol. That is, will the state's lethal injection protocol be evaluated on its own terms as to whether it will cause an unconstitutional amount of pain or will the challenge have to point to an alternative protocol against which it is to be judged. This is Justice Sotomayor's point that it would be odd if the constitutionality of being burned alive, for example, turned on a challenger's ability to point to an available guillotine. My guess is that only some of the Justices will reach that question and we won't get a definitive resolution, but it is only a guess. We will have to wait until June to find out the answer. (source: I. Glenn Cohen, healthaffairs.org) ***************** Bring Back the Firing Squad The likelihood that a state might execute an innocent person -- something that has almost certainly already happened in the U.S. -- is reason enough to abolish the death penalty. But while states continue to use it, they could at least be honest about what it means and choose a method that doesn't inflict additional unnecessary suffering. It isn't difficult to kill a prisoner swiftly. A bullet to the heart, or lopping off the head, does the job. Yet states have chosen to disguise the brutality of the death penalty by adopting lethal injection -- a method that purports to be more humane but, because it doesn't work reliably, is actually more cruel than, say, death by firing squad. The desire to sanitize execution has made a terrible policy even worse. Last July, the authorities in Arizona took almost two hours to kill Joseph Wood. Some witnesses said he was writhing and gasping for air throughout that time. The state attorney general???s office insisted he was sleeping soundly. What sounded like gasping was just snoring, they said. Wood is no longer available for comment. 2 months before that, Clayton Lockett, a prisoner in Oklahoma, writhed and groaned in a way that officials recognized as problematic: They called off the execution, but he died anyway. As a result of that incident, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear an appeal next month by 3 other Oklahoma death-row inmates, who argue that the state's use of lethal drugs constitutes a "cruel and unusual punishment" banned by the Constitution's Eighth Amendment. This is not the 1st time the court has looked at the question. In 2008, it upheld Kentucky's use of lethal drugs. Since then, though, the company that manufactured one of the ingredients in that cocktail has ceased producing it, and the European Union has banned certain drugs from being exported to the U.S. to halt their use in executions. States have been turning to alternatives. So the Supreme Court now finds itself in the absurd position of micromanaging the drugs used in lethal injections. States should stop using the death penalty, but if they can't bring themselves to do that, they should return to older, swifter and more reliable methods of execution. This week, Utah became the 1st state to bring back its firing squad, but it plans to use this method only if lethal injection is unavailable. It would be better to switch to death by firing squad and be done with it. Through most of history, the death penalty was designed to inflict maximum pain and suffering. People were crucified, buried alive, burned at the stake, and hanged, drawn and quartered -- to name just a few of the methods conjured by the human imagination. The French introduced the guillotine in 1792 as a more modern way to cut off somebody's head than using a sword or ax. In the name of progress, cleaner and more clinical-seeming methods followed. Yet if there can be such a thing as a humane execution, what counts is speed: The faster, the better. Executions have only gotten slower. The electric chair, gas chamber and lethal injection can all lead to intense and prolonged suffering. Each is designed, in truth, to spare the society that inflicts the punishment the sight of blood and guts. These methods are kinder to the executioners than to the condemned. States should stop trying to mask the violence of the act. Executions are unavoidably brutal. Either scrap the death penalty, and the possibility of gross and irreversible injustice that goes with it -- or, for pity's sake, accept its brutality and make it quick. (source: Editorial, Bloomberg View) ***************** The death penalty in America is sexist It took only 1 juror to spare Jodi Arias the death penalty for the brutal murder of her ex-boyfriend Travis Alexander in 2008. Considering the United States has executed only 13 women in the last 40 years, a death sentence would have been highly unusual. Women committed less than 10% of all murders in America between 2000 and 2010, a Wall Street Journal analysis of crime data found. Women defendants, however, only make up 2% of death row, according to a recent report by the NAACP. Even fewer women actually get executed, Death Penalty Information Center executive director Richard Dieter told Business Insider. "There's just less enforcement of the death penalty at almost every stage for females," he said. 2 major factors contribute to the low number of women who get capital punishment: the nature of the crime and how juries view women in general. The death penalty is often used for killers who also commit other felonies like robbery or rape, law professor Victor Streib has previously told the LA Times. Many of the murders women commit, on the other hand, involve people they're related to. While women commit about 10% of murders, they were responsible for 35% of murders of intimate partners between 1980 and 2008. Most juries consider these crimes of passion arising from disputes - 1-time offenses, Dieter said. Because of the high rate of domestic violence against women, though, juries don't give men the same benefit of the doubt. On the other hand, most states consider killing a child an aggravating factor, or a reason for prosecutors to seek the death penalty. Hiring someone to do the work could also land a woman on death row. "If a woman hires someone, there's a coldness, a calculation. It's different than something that arises out of an argument," Dieter said. Teresa Lewis, for example, plotted to kill her husband and stepson for the insurance money. "Instead of pulling a trigger on a gun, she pulled a couple of young men in to pull the trigger for her," prosecutor David Grimes told a judge at the time, The Washington Post reported. She was the 1st woman Virginia sentenced to die in more than 100 years. But the 2nd factor - the jury's perception of the "fragile" female psyche - can overpower aggravating factors. "It's just easier to convince a jury that women suffer emotional distress or other emotional problems more than men," Streib told the LA Times. Take Susan Smith. She killed her 2 sons by backing her car into a lake while they sat in the backseat. But when the jury heard about her abusive childhood, they took pity on her, Dieter said. She only got a life sentence - with parole. In TruTV's coverage of her story, the headline reads: Child Murderer Or Victim? "These 12 people [the jury] are asked to see if this person has any redeeming qualities. And they often see their own mother or wife or grandmother, not someone who will continue to be a threat to society," Dieter said. "Jurors just see women differently than men." Of course, most women aren't going to argue for gender parity in the death penalty, Dahlia Lithwick has written in Slate. Only 59% of women favour the death penalty compared to 67% of men, according to a 2013 Gallup poll. "For equality's sake, you think that women would want the death penalty pursued more often," Dieter said. "But of course, they don't." (source: Business Insider) ********************** Bullets or Needles? Death Penalty Faces New Scrutiny as States Mull Changes (215)----On Monday, Utah Gov. Gary Herbert signed a bill to legalize a 5-person firing squad as the official back-up method of execution for the state. Firing squads, gas chambers and the electric chair may seem like methods of state-mandated execution of the past, but some states in the U.S. are bringing them back, prompting a debate about the most humane form of the death penalty, or whether the very idea is a contradiction in terms. "I think we're at a critical point right now where the myth that lethal injection was swift, effective and painless has been destroyed," said Robert Dunham, director of the Death Penalty Information Center. "And there's kind of an irony here, because lethal injection was the choice when states were moving away from other more extreme, more overtly violent forms of execution." On Monday, Utah Gov. Gary Herbert signed a bill to legalize a 5-person firing squad as the official back-up method of execution for the state, should it be unable to obtain the 3 drugs necessary for lethal injection. Utah is not alone in rethinking its death penalty. Recent problem-marred executions in states including Ohio, Oklahoma and Arizona, coupled with a shortage of the necessary drugs have several other states reconsidering the lethal injection method as well. Alabama is looking to revive the electric chair, which became the back-up method of execution in Tennessee last year. In 4 states - Wyoming, Arizona, California, and Missouri - gas chambers are the legal back-up method of execution after lethal injection. And in New Hampshire and Washington, hanging is a legal option. The shift to alternative means of execution in some states is forcing society to confront the uncomfortable reality of the death penalty, Dunham told CNA. "Here's the bottom line: Executions are by their very nature a violent act," he said. "When you are terminating the life of a person against their will, that's a violent act, and people are uncomfortable with sanctioning violence." "They were less uncomfortable with lethal injection when it had the appearance of being peaceful. That is no longer tenable." State Rep. Paul Ray, R-Clearfield, who sponsored the firing squad legislation in Utah, told the Los Angeles Times that he was aware of complaints about the firing squad being less humane. "We could argue all day about what is more humane," he said. "I think any time you have to take a human life, there may be a way to dress it up and make it look nice, but my concern is make sure that there is justice for the victim." But while some states are arguing over which methods of execution are most humane, others are looking at moving away from the death penalty altogether. The death penalty has been trending down in the country for some time. There are 26 U.S. states and jurisdictions with no executions carried out in at least 10 years. Just last year, the country executed 35 inmates, a 2-decade low. Fewer states carried out executions and there were fewer people sentenced to death in the 1st place, according to the Death Penalty Information Center's 2014 end of the year report. Some of the shift away from capital punishment has been the result of botched executions. Last year, inmates in at least 3 different states were observed gasping for breath, choking, convulsing and clenching their fists. In 1 case, an inmate took nearly 2 hours to die. In another, an inmate died of a massive heart attack half an hour being administered the lethal drugs. Lethal injection is generally performed using a 3-drug mixture. The 1at drug is an anesthetic, the second is a paralytic, and the third is the killing agent. The paralytic, Dunham said, is not present for any medical purpose, but rather to give the appearance of a peaceful passing, regardless of what may be going on interiorly in the person. But when some of all of the drugs fail in some way, it shatters the illusion of a non-violent death. "These latest botched executions have destroyed the myth that lethal injection is peaceful; and lethal injection was preferred because it was less disturbing to the public," he said. Further driving states away from lethal injection is the inaccessibility of the lethal drugs. Dunham said many pharmaceutical companies do not want to be associated with the taking of life, and have therefore stopped providing the lethal drugs. This causes states to look for companies abroad, but since the European Union holds the death penalty as a violation of human rights, it is illegal for European pharmaceutical companies to sell the drugs to the United States. Some states obtain the drugs through what are known as compounding pharmacies, which are less regulated. Dunham voiced concern over the lack of quality assurance with these pharmacies, adding that they have been known to distribute contaminated drugs in the past. Furthermore, many doctors refuse to participate in executions, as they say they violate the Hippocratic Oath. This means whoever is administering the lethal injections may have sub-par medical training. Combine this with the questionable drugs, and the margin for error and botched executions is pretty significant, Dunham said. Given all of these problems, many states are struggling with what to do next. 3 states - Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania - have already put a temporary halt to the death penalty. And while state returning to firing squads and electric chairs make good headlines, there are at least 13 states where bills have been introduced to abolish the punishment altogether. Bishop John Wester of Salt Lake City expressed his dismay at his state's return to the firing squad in a statement released Tuesday, March 24. The real issue, he said, is not the method of killing but the death penalty itself. "Only God can give and take life," he said. "By taking a life, in whatever form the death penalty is carried out, the state is usurping the role of God. Execution does violence to God's time, eliminating the opportunity for God's redemptive and forgiving grace to work in the life of a prisoner." Bishop Wester encouraged Utah's governor and legislature to pass a moratorium on the death penalty, and to look at moving away from the "state-sanctioned destruction of human life" altogether before the next execution occurs. Pope Francis has also addressed the issue of the death penalty on several occasions, most recently in a letter last week to Federico Mayor, president of the International Commission against the Death Penalty. "There is discussion in some quarters about the method of killing, as if it were possible to find ways of 'getting it right.' ... But there is no humane way of killing another person," the Pope said, emphasizing, "Nowadays the death penalty is inadmissible, no matter how serious the crime committed." Under Catholic teaching, the death penalty is a matter of prudential judgment, but the Catechism of the Catholic Church offers guidance in how to think about its application. The Catechism teaches that the death penalty is acceptable "if this is the only possible way of effectively defending human lives against the unjust aggressor." However, it adds, such cases today "are very rare, if not practically nonexistent," wording that was added from Pope John Paul II's 1995 encyclical, Evangelium Vitae (The Value and Inviolability of Human Life). Anthony Granado, who serves as a policy adviser for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' domestic social development office, told CNA he believes that United States definitely falls under the category of countries in which the death penalty should be "practically nonexistent." "The issue about violent criminals killing prison guards or other prisoners is not an argument for further use of the death penalty, but for reforming prisons," he said, "and the bishops here in the United States are very much in favor of criminal justice reform." The Church does not teach against life in prison without parole, Granado noted, but these cases should be decided very carefully and on an individual basis. Dunham agreed that the death penalty is generally speaking not necessary in to protect the public in the U.S. He pointed to studies indicating that a country is no safer when the death penalty is in place. "We're not dealing with the Wild West and whether a dangerous criminal can be safely held in a small-town sheriff's lock-up," he said, "we're dealing with super maxes." Part of the problem, Dunham argued, is that most people in the United States have not thought seriously about the death penalty. Europeans, who experienced more immediately the horrors of World War II, were quicker to abolish the death penalty because taking life had become "unpalatable," he said. Once people become more informed, they tend to favor abolition of the death penalty, Dunham said. "I think as each of these different issues comes to light, the public becomes more informed. And as the public becomes more informed, its views change. And its views have been changing consistently in the same direction." The issue may soon take the national stage, as U.S. Supreme Court hears arguments next months in Glossip vs. Gross, a botched execution case out of Oklahoma. The court is expected to rule later this year whether lethal injection amounts to cruel and unusual punishment. (source: ncregister.com) From rhalperi at smu.edu Fri Mar 27 10:59:01 2015 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Fri, 27 Mar 2015 10:59:01 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide Message-ID: March 27 UNITED KINGDOM/PAKISTAN: Calls for ministers to intervene in the case of a Pakistani blasphemy accused Ministers are facing calls to intervene in the case of a Pakistani Christian woman condemned to death for blasphemy. Human rights campaigners said ministers could use their links with the country to demand a reprieve for Asia Bibi who was convicted of blasphemy in 2010 after an argument with Muslim co-workers. The call comes as a UK-wide petition calling for the release of the woman tops half a million signatures. Aid to the Church in Need, a global charity which aims to halt the persecution of Christians across the globe, has also called on the Consulate of Pakistan in Glasgow to encourage its government to carry out a review of the case. Lorraine McMahon, head of operations in Scotland for the charity, said: "What is the Scottish Government doing to hold the Pakistan Government to account? "It must utilise the strong business and cultural links between Scotland and Pakistan and the relationship External Affairs Minister Humza Yousaf has built up with Pakistani Government." She added that the UK Government had doubled aid to Pakistan to over ???400 million per annum and had "expressly stated that this money is aimed at tackling extremism". She said: "However, over that same period our research shows that acts of intolerance and violence have increased and that few if any steps have been taken to alter current legal frameworks that clearly intimate religious minorities and only make the situation worse." The Change.org petition was organised by university student Emily Clarke, who was moved by the plight of Ms Bibi, the 1st woman to be sentenced to death in Pakistan, with the number of signatures rising to more than 570,000. The High Court in Lahore upheld her death sentence last October while her family is making a last chance appeal to Pakistan's Supreme Court. Minister for Europe and International Development Mr Yousaf said: "The Scottish Government strongly opposes the death penalty in all circumstances, and believes it to be the most fundamental violation of human rights. Scottish Ministers have consistently raised this issue through the UK Government and with the authorities in Pakistan. "Scotland has a strong and enduring commitment to securing democracy, the rule of law and fundamental human rights across the world. "Respect for human rights, the rule of law and democratic principles is critical to the stability of all nations and territories, and the Scottish Government is committed to ensuring we make a contribution to that effort as a good global citizen. "We are deeply concerned by all incidents of religious persecution and have called on the Foreign Secretary to outline how the UK Government plans to engage further with international governments and faith leaders to tackle the persecution of religious minorities around the world." (source: heraldscotland.com) ********** IHC stays triple-murder convict's execution A Division Bench (DB) of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) Thursday granted stay in the execution of capital punishment to Raees Ahmad, a convict of triple-murder, after his counsel adopted before the court that a settlement is being struck between his client and the victim family. The IHC dual bench comprising Justice Athar Minallah and Justice Aamir Farooq stayed the execution of death sentence to the triple murder convict and directed the counsel to produce the compromise deed before the court till March 30 and deferred the proceedings in this matter till then. Presently, the convict Raees Ahmad is imprisoned at Adiala Jail Rawalpindi and he was scheduled to be hanged on the morning of March 27 (today). An Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) awarded death penalty to him in 1999 for charges of triple murder. Raees Ahmed of Bara Kaho was awarded death sentence by a local court in 1999 for triple-murder. Later he had filed appeals against the sentence that were dismissed by the high court and Supreme Court of Pakistan. His brother and father were also awarded sentence of imprisonment and they died inside the jail while serving the sentence. The counsel for Raees appeared before the IHC dual bench and informed the court that a settlement is being struck with the victim family. Therefore, he requested the court to issue directions to halt the execution of death sentence to his client. After hearing the arguments, the division bench stayed the execution and adjourned the hearing in this matter till March 30 for further proceedings. (source: The Nation) INDONESIA: Executions near as Indonesia's supreme court rejects petition Attorney General M. Prasetyo praised the Supreme Court's (MA) decision to reject a second case review petition filed by Philippines national Mary Jane Fiesta Veloso, adding that the decision helps clear the way for the Attorney General's Office (AGO) to carry out a second batch of executions. Prasetyo said that the AGO would announce the date of the executions after the Supreme Court issued rulings on 2 other case-review petitions filed by 2 other drug convicts; Serge Areski Atlaoui of France and Martin Anderson alias Belo of Ghana. Atlaoui is currently challenging his death penalty verdict, which stems from a November 2005 arrest where he was found in possession of 138.6 kilograms of methamphetamine, 290 kg of ketamine and 316 drums of drug-making ingredients at a factory in Cikande, Tangerang, Banten. Anderson was sentenced to death after being arrested with 50 grams of heroin in Kelapa Gading, Jakarta, in November 2003. "From the very beginning we were prepared to conduct the executions, but we also must respect the legal process. The executions will be conducted as soon as we hear the result of the legal process of [the 2 other convicts]," Prasetyo said on Thursday. Prasetyo added he hoped both appeals would be rejected so the AGO could proceed with the executions. "I think the Supreme Court has the same spirit as us and we have to appreciate what it has ruled [on Veloso]," Prasetyo added. Separately, Supreme Court spokesman Suhadi confirmed the rejection of Veloso's case-review petition, saying the panel of three justices - comprising Timur Manurung, Andi Samsan Nganro and Mohammad Saleh - ruled Wednesday that Veloso's petition failed to meet the requirements for a case review as stipulated in the Criminal Code (KUHP). "The arguments [of the bench] are that the petition failed to meet requirements for a case review," Suhadi said on Thursday. Veloso was sentenced to death after she was found guilty of attempting to conceal 2.6 kg of heroin at Adisucipto International Airport in April 2010 in Yogyakarta. Veloso, Anderson and Atlaoui are 3 of 10 convicts who are set to be executed in the near future on the isolated Nusakambangan prison island near Cilacap, Central Java. The other drug convicts facing imminent executions are Bali 9 duo Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan of Australia, Rodrigo Gularte of Brazil, Zainal Abidin of Indonesia and Raheem Agbaje Salami of Nigeria. Also slated to be executed are three convicted murderers of Indonesian nationality: Syofial alias Iyen bin Azwar, Harun bin Ajis and Sargawi alias Ali bin Sanusi. President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo has reportedly declined multiple phone calls from Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, who has very publicly pleaded with Jokowi to spare the lives of Sukumaran and Chan. Abbott told reporters on March 5 he made such an appeal to Jokowi by phone and had been unsuccessful. Indonesian Ambassador to Australia Nadjib Riphat Kesoema on Thursday brushed off intimations of a kind of snub. "The President was too busy," the AP quoted the ambassador as telling reporters in the Australian capital of Canberra. "Because, as you know, the President's 1st priority is his own people, to the provinces. Not only in Java, in Kalimantan or Sumatra, but also in Papua. So he is making a lot of trips," he said. "I've certainly put in a request because the government and the people of Indonesia need to know that this is important to us," Abbott said in early March. (source: asiaone.com) ********************** Bali 9: Indonesia denies judicial review for fellow death row inmate Mary Jane Veloso Indonesia's high court has denied a judicial review for a woman who is due to be executed alongside 2 Australians, despite her not having a proper translator when she was sentenced to death. The lives of convicted drug smugglers, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, depend on their current court challenge but also on the legal challenges mounted by those listed for execution alongside them. Indonesia has delayed the executions until all legal options have been exhausted. One of their fellow death row inmates, Mary Jane Veloso, from the Philippines had applied for a Judicial Review because she was not provided with a proper translator during her trial and did not understand proceedings. But a spokesman for the Supreme Court said her application was rejected. Had it been granted, it could have delayed the executions for months. The 2 convicted drug smugglers' legal appeal returns to court on Monday. (source: ABC news) THAILAND: Thailand ranked in middle related to death penalty abolishing Thailand ranked somewhere in the middle when it comes to abolishing death penalty among nations in the Southeast Asian region and the kingdom was criticized for a 'lack of tangible advancement' towards abolishing death penalty in a latest United Nations report released Friday. Although Cambodia, the Philippines and Timor-Leste have abolished death penalty, Thailand still maintains its death penalty although no execution has taken place since 2009 and is regarded as a 'rententionist state'. As of 30 June 2014, there were at least 612 people under sentence of death in the kingdom and the year 2013 alone saw 294 people sentenced to death. Crimes punishable by death in Thailand includes offences against royalty, internal and external security, and liberty, and offences relating to sexuality causing death. (source: The Nation) EGYPT: Egyptian faces death penalty for crimes he did not commit, lawyers say ---- Hany Amer has been convicted of attacks on police his family and legal team say happened after he was 'disappeared' into a military prison Lawyers fear an Egyptian prisoner will be executed in the coming days for crimes they say he could not have committed because they took place months after he had been "disappeared" into a secret military black site. Hany Amer, a 35-year-old computer programmer, has been sentenced to death along with 8 others by a military court for taking part in attacks on a police van and an army checkpoint in March 2014, and for being a leader of Ansar Beit al-Maqdis (ABM), an extremist group that later pledged allegiance to Islamic State (Isis). Among other allegations, military prosecutors said Amer and his co-defendants "agreed between each other on a hostile attack against one of the army's personnel transportation vehicles while military personnel were inside it" and were arrested days later on 19 March. But Amer's lawyers and family say that he was arrested on 16 December 2013, well before any of the attacks took place, and likely taken to Azouli, a secret military prison that was the subject of a Guardian investigation in June 2014. In a message apparently smuggled from prison, Amer wrote that his conviction constituted "the highest degree of infidelity and tyranny ... by accusing us of participating in incidents that took place while we were under arrest". Egypt's military judicial authority repeatedly said no one was available to respond to the claims, while a spokesman for the defence ministry declined to comment. Egypt's main mouthpiece, the State Information Service, said it was not authorised to respond on the army's behalf. In 2 messages seen by the Guardian, Amer's family sent a telegram to prosecutors on 17 December, demanding to know his whereabouts, while his lead lawyer, Ahmed Helmy, sent a similar demand in January 2014. Neither message got a response. But in February, prisoners from Azouli who were attending a separate trial told Helmy's colleagues that Amer was one of up to 400 people being held outside of civilian oversight at the jail, which is inside the headquarters of Egypt's 2nd army, 62 miles (100km) north-east of Cairo. Helmy said: "7 people came from Azouli, so we used to ask them who they saw there, and we made a list of that. His name was on the list." Helmy believes that Amer and others were forced to confess under duress. Azouli survivors interviewed by the Guardian claim they were electrocuted, beaten, and hung naked from their wrists for hours to get them to give up information. Helmy says that some prisoners, including Amer, were repeatedly tortured until they made specific confessions. "You can't know if these people have committed these crimes or not," Helmy told the Guardian last year. "Under the pressure of torture you can admit to anything. It's clear that some people are admitting to things because of the torture." Egypt has faced a series of major jihadi attacks since the overthrow of the Islamist president, Mohamed Morsi, in June 2013. But Amer's brother claims he was not involved and was likely targeted because the police had failed to arrest the real culprits and needed to find easy scapegoats. His brother believes Amer drew attention because he was a known supporter of Hazem Abu Ismail, a popular Salafi preacher jailed in the days after Morsi's ousting. Amer's brother said: "The government is treating prisoners like my brother as a strategic reserve so that whenever there is a big terrorist attack and they can't find the actual militants, they bring people like Hany from prison and charge them so that it doesn't look like they actually failed. "The charges from the military case were all from March - but my brother was in Azouli since December. Others were inside since November. But the problem is that there is nothing that proves they were in Azouli. The government always denied they were there. The only proof we have are the telegrams we sent before. "I don't know for certain if any of them were involved. But for sure Hany and several others were in Azouli - and they couldn't have escaped just to do these crimes." Under the former army chief Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, the Egyptian government has launched a crackdown on all forms of political and militant opposition that Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch say is "on a scale unprecedented in Egypt's modern history". At least 1,000 dissidents have been killed since Morsi's overthrow, while security officials have told the Associated Press that at least 22,000 people have been arrested. According to rights groups, many of them have been subject to miscarriages of justice. Only 1 man has been executed so far, but hundreds are appealing death sentences that were given en masse after trials that lasted less than an hour. Spokesmen for the Egyptian government deny any judicial impropriety and have frequently praised "the independence, fairness, and transparency of Egypt's judiciary". They say the crackdown is justified as a legitimate response to jihadi attacks, which have killed hundreds of policemen and soldiers. (source: The Guardian) CHINA: China Domestic Violence Law May Spare Spouse Murderers from Death Penalty With China expected to begin review of its first national domestic abuse law in August, various parties, including the public, have begun to weigh in on how the law should handle the perpetrators and victims of domestic violence. China's Supreme Court and Procuratorate has recommended that courts should no longer seek the death penalty in cases of domestic violence where men murder their wives in self-defense, Beijing Today reported Thursday. The court's recommendation came as a reaction to a similar policy enacted in 2014 that removed capital punishment as a possible sentence in cases where wives had killed their husbands after prolonged abuse. Allowing only women to be exempt from the death penalty was seen as discriminatory, the story stated. Should the Supreme Court's recommendations be passed, assailants both male and female will be charged with "excessive defense" instead of murder. The sentencing guidelines are also the result of what is seen as a disparity between the punishment of domestic violence perpetrators. 2 examples reported by Women of China illustrate this situation: Dong Shanshan was beaten to death by her husband after less than a year of marriage. He was sentenced to 6 years and 6 months in prison. Li Yan killed her husband after years of abuse and several appeals to the police for assistance. She was sentenced to death, which was upheld on appeal, but finally commuted to an as-yet undefined, non-capital sentence by the Supreme Court. (source: thebeijinger.com) IRAN----executions 7 prisoners hanged At least 7 prisoners were hanged on Thursday in a prison in the southern city of Shiraz. The prisoners who had been arrested on drug related charges were hanged in the city's main prison known as Adelabad prison. The victims had been transferred to Isolation last Thursday, a day before the Iranian New Year and hanged in secret this week. Many prisoners have been hanged secretly during the last few months in prisons across Iran. According to a report, a group of 4 men also were hanged last month in a prison in the city of Maragheh, in northwestern Iran. They were identified as Bahram Ashtari, Atef Ranjbar, Karim Sadat and Vali Najafnia. Some 1,400 individuals have been executed in Iran under Hassan Rouhani. The victims included political prisoners, women, juvenile offenders and citizens of Afghanistan. The U.N.'s special investigator on Iran said on March 16 that the human rights situation and repression of Iranian women and activists has worsened since Hassan Rouhani became president in 2013. Dr. Ahmed Shaheed said in Geneva: "in my view the overall situation has worsened, as indicated by the surge in executions." He lamented that Iran executes more people per capita than any other country in the world. "There is a lot of concern amongst the Iranian society that the nuclear file may be casting a shadow over the human rights discussion," Shaheed told the news briefing. Mr. Shaheed, a Muslim and former foreign minister of the Maldives, has not been allowed to visit Iran since taking up the independent post. (source: NCR-Iran) JAPAN: 1 year since Hakamada's release, how much has really changed for Japan's death row inmates? Exactly 1 year ago today, 78-year-old Hakamada Iwao walked out of the Tokyo Detention Centre after a District Court in Japan granted him a temporary release and retrial. Hakamada ??? the world's longest serving death row prisoner -- had spent more than half his life on Japan's death row. His conviction had been based on a "confession" he made under repeated torture, and with evidence that the court ruled could have been fabricated. Yet, despite the fact that this high-profile case shook people's confidence in Japan's prison and justice systems, 1 year on, little has changed. Japan's criminal justice system is still deeply flawed and conditions on death row remain inhumane. Solitary confinement When Hakamada emerged from detention into the glare of the media spotlight on 27 March last year, what news cameras captured was not an image of jubilation, but of a slightly stooped elderly man wearing a blank expression. After more than 45 years confined alone in a 5 square metre cell, Hakamada left prison mentally ill. His speech makes little sense and he often withdraws into himself. At other times, he suddenly flies into a temper. Hakamada began showing signs of disturbed thinking and behaviour back in 1980, when the Supreme Court confirmed his death sentence. His lawyer reported that it was difficult to communicate with him, which made meetings with him ineffective. Conversations with his sister, Hideko, and letters he wrote also showed disordered thinking. "After more than 45 years confined alone ... Hakamada left prison mentally ill."----Hiroka Shoji In Japan, death row prisoners are kept secluded from the outside world, which in addition to solitary confinement also means little contact with family members. Hakamada lived under such conditions for not just years, but decades. Mental health ignored Hakamada is not the only inmate to have become mentally ill while on death row. Matsumoto Kenji, facing execution since 1993, also saw his mental health slip while detained. This was on top of an intellectual disability that he was born with. Like Hakamada, Matsumoto began showing signs of irrational thought following detention. In 2008, a supporter said he received a letter from Matsumoto in which he claimed to have received prize money from the Japanese Prime Minister and the US President, events that had not taken place. Because of his mental disability, his lawyers said that he is unable to understand and participate in the legal proceedings in his case, nor can he help them prepare appeals in his defence. International law and standards clearly state that the death penalty should not be used on people with mental or intellectual disabilities. Yet, Japan has no effective safeguards to stop this from happening, so that prisoners like Matsumoto with pre-existing intellectual disabilities are still condemned to death. And the prison conditions that have caused so much damage to Hakamada and Matsumoto's mental health remain unchanged. "International law and standards clearly state that the death penalty should not be used on people with mental or intellectual disabilities."----Hiroka Shoji Need for change In a public statement following his release, Hakamada said: "It is absolutely unacceptable for a nation state to kill its people." His case raises potent questions. For example, can locking someone up in a cramped cell, alone for decades ever be justified? Does the Japanese criminal justice system as it stands guarantee fair trials and provide enough safeguards against forced confessions? And if the risk of executing the innocent is always present, will there ever be enough safeguards? Experience from the great majority of countries in the world shows that the answer is no. In the past year, Hakamada has shown signs of improvement. Now living in Shizuoka, Japan, with his sister, Hideko, he has become more open to having conversations with her. Occasionally, a smile even breaks through. "It is absolutely unacceptable for a nation state to kill its people."----Hakamada Iwao Hakamada's case still sits with the high court pending a ruling on a retrial, but for now, he is back home. Reforms to the justice system and improvements in conditions on death row are needed to be sure, but the ultimate change must be an end to the death penalty. My hope is that reform in Japan will not come too late for Matsumoto and others like him still on death row. (source: Amnesty International) From rhalperi at smu.edu Fri Mar 27 17:06:09 2015 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Fri, 27 Mar 2015 17:06:09 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----MD., N.C., UTAH, IDAHO Message-ID: March 27 MARYLAND: Bring back the death penalty in Md. ---- The man authorities describe as 'Public Enemy No. 1' will likely spend the next 50 years in prison at taxpayer Baltimore's very own "Public Enemy No. 1" has been sentenced to life plus 240 years for a double murder ("Killer gets life plus 240 years, flips off top prosecutor," March 24). As a result, 27-year-old Darryl Anderson, who has "a long rap sheet," will likely spend the next 50 years or so living off the Maryland taxpayers who were so inclined to ban the state's death penalty in 2013. Capital punishment was largely repealed because liberal forces were successful in getting voters to believe the lie that it was a racial issue instead of a judicial issue. Those voters believe the magic money tree will pay to cage up these animals. Fools. This creep is the poster boy for the death penalty: In the words of Assistant Baltimore City State's Attorney Angela Diehl, "It is apparent from his 10-year history [in the state prison system] it has done nothing to rehabilitate Mr. Anderson." To all those who were so overjoyed to see capital punishment repealed in our state, just think about all the Darryl Andersons you are supporting. Maybe our new governor can reintroduce a bill to repeal the death penalty ban. One can only hope. Brian Spector, Easton (source: Letter to the Editor, Baltimore Sun) NORTH CAROLINA: Death penalty sought in murder case A Hamptonville man who was charged with murder in the death of his mother pleaded not guilty in Yadkin County Superior Court this week. The state will be pursuing this as a death penalty case, said Yadkin County Clerk of Court Beth Holcomb. Andy Eric Collins, of 4161 Emily Drive, was charged with the 1st-degree murder of his mother, Azelyne Collins, on March 13, 2014. According to a press release from the Yadkin County Sheriff's Office, Azelyne Collins, 82, of 4748 Old Highway 421, Hamptonville, was reported missing on Oct. 15, 2013. Collins was reported missing by her daughter, Cindy McQueen, who arrived at her mother's home on Oct. 15, 2013 to pick her up to attend the High Point furniture market where the 2 had a sales booth. Investigators determined that Collins had attended the High Point furniture market on Oct. 14, 2013, and was last seen driving away from Darwin's Restaurant on Hoots Road in Hamptonville later that day. A silver alert was issued and a search conducted by the Yadkin County Sheriff's Office and local and state agencies. On Oct. 16, 2013 investigators discovered Collins' body in her silver Honda van in a heavily wooded area off Rocky Branch Road in Hamptonville. Sheriff Ricky Oliver said it was obvious upon discovery of the body that she did not die of natural causes. The medical examiner ruled the cause of death as strangulation. Investigators with the Yadkin County Sheriff's Office and the State Bureau of Investigation canvased the neighborhood and began interviewing the family of the victim. It was determined that the last person to see Collins alive was her son Andy Collins, who lived a short distance from where the van was discovered. According to court documents, the district attorney recently submitted a 2,800-page investigation report from the State Bureau of Investigation. Collins' attorney also withdrew from the case this week. His new appointed attorney will be David Freedman of Forsyth County. As the case is now a capital case, Collins also will be appointed a second attorney. His next scheduled court appearance is June 1. (source: yadkinripple.com) UTAH: Why We Should Finally End The Death Penalty - For Good The state of Utah just approved killing prisoners via firing squad - a development that's at once deeply horrifying and, in a strange way, encouraging. It's horrifying, because rather than recognizing the barbarism of the death penalty, Utah is moving toward even greater barbarity in the service of executions. But, perhaps the brutal image of a group of armed executioners standing before a human being and pulling the trigger will help convince us, once and for all, to finally bring an end to the death penalty. The death penalty in America is already, rightfully, fraught with plenty of controversy. After all, among the nations of the world, the U.S. is in the distinct minority that still practice capital punishment. According to Amnesty International, in 2013, only 22 countries carried out executions. The list includes Sudan, Iran, Yemen, China, Somalia, and the United States. And, our executions, arguably inherently inhumane, are getting more so: In 2014, a year in which the United States executed 35 people, at least 4 of the executions were "botched," to use New Republic editor Ben Crair's words, making it "the worst year in the history of lethal injection." In July, Arizona attempted to execute Joseph Rudolph Wood III, but the drugs pumped into his veins took almost two hours to work. A reporter who witnessed the execution said Wood gasped 660 times before he died. In April, executioners in Oklahoma pushed an IV through a vein in Clayton Lockett's groin, causing the lethal drugs to accumulate in his tissue rather than his bloodstream. In court documents, the prison warden described the scene as "a bloody mess"; blood squirted onto Lockett's clothing as he writhed and groaned in pain. The state was apparently going to stop the procedure, but then Lockett had a heart attack and died - but not before a scene that a victim services observer described as "like a horror movie." But, rather than abandon the death penalty altogether, the fine leaders of the State of Utah have enacted legislation mandating that, if the drugs for lethal injection cannot be obtained - or, say, if the federal government soon bans such drugs after the rash of botched executions - Utah will now just shoot people. In the face of such a shortage, death by bullet is being presented as an option to inmates there. "We are completely out of the drugs," Rep. Paul Ray, the Republican legislator who sponsored the law, told the Los Angeles Times. Lethal injection remains the state's default execution method, but 3 of the 8 inmates currently on Utah's death row have reportedly opted for the firing squad. Even if you don't object to firing squads specifically, there's a compelling reason to stop capital punishment altogether: We often kill innocent people. Utah's move to expand its death penalty methods comes just a few weeks after Glenn Ford, a man sentenced to death for 1st-degree murder in Louisiana in 1984, was exonerated and released from prison after 30 years. Ford joined a list of now 151 people who have been proven innocent and freed from death row since 1973 - 151 people who otherwise would have been killed. In the wake of Ford's release, attorney Marty Stroud wrote a lengthy apology for his role as the lead prosecutor in the murder trial. Stroud decried the criminal justice system's knee-jerk enthusiasm for prosecution and conviction, even in the face of innocence. He also decried the death penalty: "No one should be given the ability to impose a sentence of death in any criminal proceeding. We are simply incapable of devising a system that can fairly and impartially impose a sentence of death because we are all fallible human beings." In fact, every 3 days in America someone is exonerated after having been wrongfully convicted and sent to prison or death row. Since Black defendants are significantly more likely to be subject to the death penalty and sentenced to die - especially when the alleged victim is white - than white defendants on trial for similar crimes, there's a discriminatory element to these deaths, also. "The clear reality is that the death penalty is an anathema to any society that purports to call itself civilized," Stroud wrote. "It is an abomination that continues to scar the fibers of this society and it will continue to do so until this barbaric penalty is outlawed. Until then, we will live in a land that condones state-assisted revenge, and that is not justice in any form or fashion." Utah previously banned executions by firing squad in 2004, but death row inmates sentenced before then could still request the method. The state last executed someone by firing squad in 2010. In 1977, Utah was also the 1st state to execute someone after the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976. That execution was also by firing squad. The process then, which presumably will be duplicated now, entailed literally pinning a target on the chest of the condemned and positioning 5 sharpshooters behind a wall about 25 feet away. One of the shooters would fire a blank so that none of the shooters knew who actually deployed the lethal round. It's a fascinating series of efforts to insulate the shooters, and by extension the state, from confronting the obvious heinousness of this act. But, it may be good for the American people to finally confront what the death penalty really is - a way for an often biased and definitely flawed government body to end a human's life. It is brutal and violent and, well, "like a horror movie." Utah Rep. Paul Ray defended his new legislation by quipping in that L.A. Times interview, "We could argue all day about what is more humane." And, he has a point: Is it more "humane" to execute someone by injection than by bullet? Is that even the right question to be asking? It's clear that the most humane option by far is to stop executions altogether. (source: refinery29.com) ***************** Why Utah is bringing back the firing squad for executions The future of executions in Utah may not be lethal injections, but rather 5 professional shooters firing at a prisoner's heart. On Monday, Utah became one of the few states to allow firing squads for executions after Gov. Gary Herbert signed a law approving this controversial method as a backup if the state can't restock its depleted supply of lethal injection drugs. During a firing-squad execution, a prisoner is seated in a chair that's stacked with sandbags to prevent bullets from ricocheting, according to the Associated Press. 5 shooters, picked from a pool of trained volunteers, aim their rifles through slots on a wall and target the prisoner's chest (because it's a larger target than the head). If the shooters hit, the prisoner's heart should rupture and cause a relatively quick death from blood loss. It's unclear whether Utah will run out of execution drugs and actually use the firing squad on any of the 8 prisoners on death row who didn't choose the form of execution before 2004, when the state last allowed the option. But the state's fallback to what seems like such a gruesome and outdated form of execution demonstrates the depth and danger of the lethal injection drug shortage, which has left the future of the death penalty unclear in Utah, Texas, Oklahoma, and the 29 other states where the practice is legal, and added a new angle to the perennial debate about the morality and effectiveness of capital punishment. European pharmaceutical companies are making it really hard to get lethal injection drugs Over the past few years, a shortage of sodium thiopental, a key drug in lethal injections, has left states scrambling for alternative ways to execute prisoners and has inspired some to shroud the process in secrecy. The shortage began around 2010, when drug suppliers around the world, including the US, began refusing to supply drugs for the injections - out of either opposition to the death penalty or concerns about having their products associated with executions. "The drugs were being cut off right and left," Deborah Denno, a death penalty expert at Fordham University, said. Hospira Inc. was the sole US supplier of sodium thiopental, according to Denno. But Hospira stopped producing the drug in 2011, after struggling to procure active ingredients for its production and fielding legal threats from authorities in Italy, where the death penalty is vehemently opposed. Some states still managed to import sodium thiopental from shadier overseas sources. But beginning in 2012, the US District Court of the District of Columbia issued several rulings banning imports of the drugs, deciding that the imported supplies didn't meet FDA regulations. As the shortage continued, states turned to other European companies for alternative drugs, such as phenobarbital and propofol, that are typically used as sedatives for surgeries. But these companies - under pressure from a European Union export ban, activists like Reprieve, and foreign governments that prohibit the death penalty - over time refused to supply the drugs. As these companies either stopped supplying drugs or were unable to export to the US, states began to look for new - and sometimes untested - ways to execute prisoners. Unregulated compounding pharmacies made up for the shortage With pharmaceutical companies out of the picture, states resorted to compounding pharmacies to make the drugs, which until now escaped most regulations since they did small, mostly out-of-sight transactions with individuals, not major customers. The US-based pharmacies began to produce experimental, sometimes secretive cocktails for states' executions. Compounding pharmacies were originally meant to make custom drugs for individual people, not major buyers like state governments, Denno said. As a result, their drug cocktails can often be very shoddy - Georgia stopped an execution because its lethal injection drug was "cloudy" - and have been decried as experimental and dangerous by civil rights groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union. But even compounding pharmacies may soon stop providing execution drugs to states. The International Academy of Compounding Pharmacists on March 24 announced that it "discourages its members from participating in the preparation, dispensing, or distribution of compounded medications for use in legally authorized executions." Producing lethal injection drugs "is only going to invite further scrutiny" The stance may be a way for compounding pharmacies, which are largely unregulated, to avoid the extra regulatory scrutiny that can come with producing lethal injection drugs. "These compounding pharmacies already have enough of a [public relations] issue," Denno said. Massachusetts, for instance, in 2014 passed a law cracking down on compounding pharmacies after a local company's drugs were implicated in the deaths of more than 60 people. Producing lethal injection drugs, Denno said, "is only going to invite further scrutiny." But instead of stepping up regulations, some death penalty states have adopted measures to shield compounding pharmacies that provide lethal drugs from outside scrutiny. In December, Ohio passed a law that will keep suppliers of lethal drug injections anonymous. John Murphy, executive director of the Ohio Prosecuting Attorneys Association, which supports the law, said last December that the changes are not meant to make the execution process more secretive. "This just protects the identity of the people involved so they don't get harassed, intimidated, or attacked," he told me. Several states botched executions in the past year The drug shortage hasn't only led to concerns about market forces, regulations, and supply and demand. It's also raised important constitutional questions about cruel and unusual punishment, as the shortage has led some states to try experimental and unpredictable drugs for executions. Since 2014, there have been several high-profile botched executions - described in gruesome detail in the press - all of which have involved secretive, experimental uses of midazolam, a sedative critics such as the ACLU say is unfit for executions. Here are some of the cases: Dennis McGuire, Ohio: McGuire took 26 minutes to die after the state used a mixture of hydromorphone and midazolam, according to Cincinnati's CityBeat. McGuire gasped and snorted before he died. Clayton Lockett, Oklahoma: Lockett struggled violently and groaned after the state injected a combination of midazolam, vecuronium bromide, and potassium chloride, the Guardian reported. State officials halted the execution, but Lockett died of a heart attack 43 minutes after the drugs were injected. Joseph Wood, Arizona: Wood took nearly two hours to die after the state used a mixture of hydromorphone and midazolam, according to the Guardian. Wood, who gasped and gulped before he died, was injected with 15 times the amounts called for in the state's execution protocol by the time he was pronounced dead. These botched executions drew criticism and put an unwanted spotlight on the use of experimental lethal drugs, which critics say is a violation of constitutional protections against cruel and unusual punishment. Some states, including Ohio and Oklahoma, have delayed further executions as they review their practices. Denno expects these problems to continue as states struggle to replace superior drugs like sodium thiopental. "Every time a state changes to a new drug, it introduces a degree of uncertainty," Denno said. "These drugs aren't the 1st choice." Untested drugs are dangerous, but botched executions aren't new Botched executions have been around as long the death penalty. About 7 % of lethal injections and 3 % of all executions between 1890 and 2010 were botched, according to Austin Sarat's Gruesome Spectacles. Part of the reason states began using lethal injection drugs is because the previously preferred method of execution for many states, electrocution, often had horrifying results, including the eruption of burned flesh and even live fires as prisoners gasped for air and slowly died. "We have really incompetent people doing this" But lethal injections carry problems beyond the drugs used for the procedures that may make them even more prone to being bungled. For one, most doctors - who are likely the most qualified to administer the deadly drugs - won't participate in executions because administering a deadly drug to kill someone would violate professional ethics. In 2010, the American Board of Anesthesiologists voted to revoke the certification of any member who participates in executing a prisoner. As a result, states aren't typically able to bring in the best-trained doctors, particularly anesthesiologists, to administer drugs that are very dangerous when mishandled. "We have really incompetent people doing this," Denno said. In Oklahoma, the doctor and paramedic who participated in Clayton Lockett's botched execution said they received no training, the AP reported. The execution team administered needles that weren't long enough for the procedure, and caused what a state official called a "bloody mess" when the doctor tried to set an IV line in Lockett's groin and blood gushed out. In addition to physically botching an execution, it's always possible the state will execute an innocent person. An April 2014 study published in PNAS, a scientific journal, suggested that at least 4 5 of people sentenced to death in the US are likely innocent. At least 6 people were exonerated of death sentences in 2014, according to a January report from the National Registry of Exonerations. States are looking for other ways to execute people So far, Denno of Fordham University has tracked 3 states that are moving toward alternatives to lethal injection should they run out of drugs. Tennessee reinstated the possibility of the electric chair, Utah has allowed the firing squad again, and Oklahoma is considering using gas chambers. These methods of executions were largely abandoned 50 years ago. After the Supreme Court forced states in 1972 to reform their execution procedures to be less racially discriminatory, states began mostly using lethal injections. States could potentially seek out different drugs to continue using lethal injections and avoid execution methods that are widely seen as more gruesome. But states are also likely wary of repeating the same problems they've experienced with the current batch of drugs. "The same thing is going to happen," Denno said. "This has been a cycle: every time states have tried to do it, they've been cut off." But many of the methods of execution that don't involve injected drugs have major problems. Denno predicted the gas chamber will likely turn into "a disaster." She said it has the same issues as lethal injection drugs: it's unclear where states would get the chemicals required for the executions, and whatever chemicals are used may not be suitable for a quick, relatively painless death. It also recalls ghastly memories of World War II, when the Nazis used gas chambers to kill prisoners in death camps. The firing squad is "the quickest, the surest, and you have trained executioners to do it" Electrocution and hanging were abandoned in the first place because they often resulted in botched executions. Electrocutions caused burned skin or live fires during multiple executions, and hangings could go very wrong when the rope broke or the prisoner was decapitated. Denno argued Utah's method, the firing squad, may turn out to be the most humane of the available options, even above lethal injections. "It's the quickest, the surest, and you have trained executioners to do it," she said. Rob Dunham, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center said states are dealing with the reality that there's no humane way of killing someone. "All the methods of execution have problems," Dunham said. "The involuntary termination of another person's life by execution is an inherently violent act." Of course, states may be able to come up with another method entirely ??? or repeal the death penalty altogether. But at least for now, states appear to be sticking to the traditional ways of executing prisoners. Why the death penalty persists Capital punishment persists through drug shortages and botched executions because it still has strong public support in the US, which puts pressure on lawmakers to find alternatives to lethal injection drugs rather than abolishing the death penalty in the 32 states where it's still legal. America's support for the death penalty stands in sharp contrast with Europe, where only Belarus, a pro-Moscow dictatorship, still allows capital punishment. An October 2014 Gallup poll found 63 % of Americans support the death penalty, while 33 % oppose it. Support for the death penalty gets a little more complicated when Americans are asked about specific methods of execution. An NBC News poll from May 2014 found nearly 2/3 of voters support alternatives to lethal injection if the needle isn't an option. But most US adults told YouGov in a February 2015 survey that the gas chamber, electric chair, firing squad, hanging, and beheading are cruel and unusual punishment, while lethal injection isn't. Support for the death penalty also varies from state to state. Executions are much more culturally and legally ingrained in the South and, to a lesser extent, the West than in the rest of the country. 18 states have abolished the death penalty, most of which are in the Northeast and Midwest, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. So while popular support generally pressures lawmakers to find alternatives to lethal injections, that's not necessarily true in all parts of the country, and most US adults don't appear to support all methods of execution. Regardless of what lawmakers do, it's also true that the number of executions has been dropping for years. A report from the Death Penalty Information Center found the number of executions hit a 20-year low in 2014. The Supreme Court will hear a challenge from Oklahoma about lethal injection drugs After Oklahoma botched the execution of Clayton Lockett, 3 prisoners sued the state to challenge its method of execution. The underlying question for the Supreme Court is whether midazolam, the sedative used in Lockett's execution, is a suitable lethal injection drug. In 2008, the Supreme Court ruled in Baze and Bowling v. Rees that a different 3-drug lethal injection protocol used by states at the time was constitutional. But inmates argue that any protocol with midazolam isn't substantively similar to the previous method of lethal injections, since it appears to be less effective. That should be grounds, the inmates argue, for ending the use of midazolam. Experts are very cautious about predicting how the Supreme Court will rule. But it's likely, Dunham of the Death Penalty Information Center said, that the court will focus exclusively on midazolam and Oklahoma's protocol, instead of making sweeping judgments about the death penalty as a whole. "The Supreme Court's general rule is to only decide what's before it," Dunham said. "So it's probably not going to have global implications. It's only going to address the constitutional issues in Oklahoma." Still, if the Supreme Court rules against midazolam, it could force states to speed up searches for other execution methods - and that could lead to more states bringing back old tactics, like Utah's firing squad. (source: vox.com) IDAHO: 9th Circuit dismisses Duncan's appeal of death sentence The 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has rejected claims from attorneys for multiple murderer Joseph Duncan that the killer was incompetent to waive appeals of his death sentence, and dismissed the appeal that defense attorneys filed on his behalf. The attorneys still could seek an en banc rehearing from the 9th Circuit or appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, but the ruling is a significant step in the case of Duncan, who faces the death penalty 3 times over for the 2005 kidnapping, torture and murder of a 9-year-old North Idaho boy, Dylan Groene. "They upheld our arguments," said Rafael Gonzalez, first assistant U.S. Attorney for Idaho. "We're very satisfied with the court's ruling." Duncan, 52, is on death row at a federal prison in Terre Haute, Ind. He pleaded guilty to all charges after his murderous attack on the Groene family at their North Idaho home, in which he killed 3 family members before kidnapping the 2 youngest children, 1 of whom he later also killed. Only the youngest daughter, then 8, survived. He has received multiple life sentences for his crimes, in addition to the triple death sentence. At his federal death penalty sentencing trial in 2008, Duncan dismissed his attorneys and insisted on representing himself. On Nov. 15, 2008, he wrote a letter to U.S. District Judge Edward Lodge saying, "This is to inform the court that if any appeal is initiated on my behalf, it is done contrary to my wishes." His standby defense attorneys maintained he wasn't mentally competent to waive his appeal, and filed an appeal to the 9th Circuit on his behalf, against his wishes. 2 years later, in 2010, Duncan said he'd changed his mind about appealing, based on his mother's wishes; his defense attorneys have pressed his case since then. A 3-judge panel of the 9th Circuit ruled that Judge Lodge correctly determined, after a lengthy competency hearing in open court, that Duncan was mentally competent when he waived his right to appeal. And they ruled that it was too late to change his mind 2 years later, and dismissed the appeal. "For the victims, it's a long road," Gonzalez said. "But we just keep taking it step by step to ensure that justice is done." U.S. Attorney for Idaho Wendy Olson, who was traveling on Friday, personally argued the case to the 9th Circuit on March 17. "Competent defendants can waive their right to appeal, even in a capital case," she told the appeals court in San Francisco. The speedy ruling, just 10 days later, shows the judges agreed. (source: Spokesman-Review) From rhalperi at smu.edu Fri Mar 27 17:06:50 2015 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Fri, 27 Mar 2015 17:06:50 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----ARIZ., CALIF., USA Message-ID: March 27 ARIZONA: 2009 capital punishment case back in local court A Mohave County judge ruled on several motions Wednesday concerning the county's only death row inmate. In December, the Arizona Supreme Court overturned Darrell Bryant Ketchner's conviction and sentencing for 1st-degree murder and burglary and remanded those charges back to Mohave County for a new trial. His conviction on 3 counts of aggravated assault and attempted murder was affirmed by the court. Ketchner, 57, was convicted in March 2013 of the 6 charges and sentenced to death for the murder charge. He previously pleaded guilty to a weapons charge and was sentenced to 15 years in prison on that charge. Ketchner's 1st hearing since the December ruling was held Wednesday before Superior Court Judge Rick Williams at his Bullhead City courtroom. Ketchner remains on death row at the state prison. The judge set the next hearing for April 27. In 1 defense motion, the judge denied a motion to extend time to file a motion to remand the case back to the grand jury. The judge also allowed the court to provide grand jury transcripts to Ketchner's attorney, David Goldberg. A 2nd attorney, required in death penalty cases, may be appointed at the next hearing. Williams heard Ketchner's 1st murder case and has been assigned to the case again. Williams was reassigned to Bullhead City in January and Ketchner will be his only felony criminal case. Ketchner again faces the death penalty for the murder charge. Justin Rector is the county's only other death penalty case, for allegedly murdering an 8-year-old Bullhead City girl in September. Ketchner entered his ex-girlfriend Jennifer Allison's Kingman home on the night of July 4, 2009, where she sat at the kitchen table with her 18-year-old daughter, Ariel Allison. Another daughter, her boyfriend, and three younger children belonging to Ketchner and Jennifer Allison were in another room. Ketchner started to hit Jennifer Allison, chased her outside and shot her in the head as she lay in the driveway. Ariel Allison was stabbed 8 times in her mother's bedroom. She later died. The other children escaped out a window. Jennifer Allison survived her wounds but had no memory of the attack. The Supreme Court ruled that testimony from a prosecutor's witness was inadmissible evidence that required Ketchner's conviction and sentence to be reversed. The prosecutor argued that Ketchner entered Jennifer Allison's home to kill her to take control of the family he was losing. Ketchner's defense attorneys admitted that their client killed Ariel Allison and the attack on her mother, but they argued that the murder was not premeditated but rather a sudden, volatile quarrel with heated passion and should not have been subject to a death sentence. (source: Mohave Daily News) CALIFORNIA: Kinder, gentler forms of capital punishment are still barbaric; No amount of sugarcoating will change the fact that the death penalty is immoral -- Capital punishment is intrinsically inhumane, no matter the "cleaner" ways we carry it out today The state of Oklahoma, which developed the nation's 1st lethal injection protocol for executions, may soon approve what lawmakers say is a new, even more humane way of killing people. Following the advice of a criminal justice professor who is also a former assistant attorney general of Palau - note the lack of medical background - the state Legislature now wants to try a method called "nitrogen hypoxia.". Utah is also changing the way it ends the lives of condemned prisoners. This week, Gov. Gary Herbert signed a bill allowing execution by firing squad when no drugs are available to create lethal injection cocktails. Opponents immediately denounced the plan as "barbaric" and "brutal." In California, the state has wrestled with updating its lethal injection protocol ever since a judge imposed a moratorium on it. Another judge ruled that California's capital punishment system is too arbitrary and too slow. In both cases, the judges said the state was violating the U.S. Constitution's ban on cruel and unusual punishment. There's nothing new about this debate over how to make executions kinder, gentler and less painful. And in one sense, that's reasonable. If the state is going to kill people, it should certainly try to minimize the moaning and writhing that has characterized so many recent executions. But on another level, this is a fool's errand, an exercise in sugarcoating. You can't make humane something that is intrinsically inhumane. The United States should long ago have joined most of the rest of the world in abolishing the death penalty. Not so much because there might be (and often is) pain and suffering involved but because capital punishment is flawed, expensive, subject to manipulation, applied disproportionately to minorities, not an effective deterrent and, at the end of the day, irreversible. It is fundamentally immoral for the state to punish killers by killing them. Some methods of execution might be less painful than others, and the illusion that someone might be gently sent off to permanent sleep may make us feel more civilized about a process that has, in the past, involved hanging, electrocution, beheading, firing squad and poisonous gas. But even when it's all dressed up - even when it's talked about in terms of science and protocols and humaneness - capital punishment remains a barbaric act. California corrections officials currently are trying to devise a new protocol to meet court objections to the way it has been conducting its lethal injections. The Legislature should bring this farce to an end by pressing for an initiative to abolish the death penalty, as 18 other states have already done. (source: Editorial, Los Angeles Times) USA: Argument preview: Mental disability and death sentencing At 10 a.m. Monday, the Supreme Court will hold one hour of oral argument on the procedure to be used to determine if an individual is mentally disabled and thus cannot be given a death sentence. In Brumfield v. Cain, arguing for the Louisiana death-row inmate will be Michael B. DeSanctis of the Washington, D.C., office of Jenner & Block LLP. Representing the state warden will be Premila Burns of Baton Rouge, an assistant district attorney for the East Baton Rouge Parish. Each lawyer will have 30 minutes of time. Background Over the years, the Supreme Court has created a fairly short list of categories of individuals who cannot constitutionally be executed for their crimes. The list includes juveniles, the mentally insane, anyone who commits a crime other than murder, and, most recently, an individual who is mentally disabled. Although each decision in this series supposedly imposed a flat ban on a death sentence for the individual or the crime, the Court has struggled the most with clarifying the mental disability category. It returns to that effort next week. In its decision in 2002 in Atkins v. Virginia, the Court ruled that the Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment bars the execution of a person who was mentally disabled. (In that ruling, the Court used the phrase "mentally retarded," but it has since followed the medically preferred phrase "intellectually disabled.") At that time, the Court remarked that "not all people who claim to be mentally retarded will be so impaired as to fall within the range of mentally retarded offenders about whom there is a national consensus [against their execution]." So the Court said it was leaving to the states "the task of developing appropriate ways to enforce the constitutional restriction upon its execution of sentences." Since then, the Court has told the states that they may not use a single factor - the score an individual gets on an IQ test - to make the decision. But it has yet to define what procedure the Eighth Amendment may require a state to use to determine whether a person is eligible to be treated as mentally disabled. In the new case of Brumfield v. Cain, the Court has agreed to decide whether it is unconstitutional for a state to make that decision based solely on the evidence that was presented at the death sentencing procedure following a conviction for murder. The appeal in this case seeks a ruling that the Eighth Amendment requires that there be a separate hearing, focused only on evidence - for and against - a finding of mental disability. This case involves Kevan Brumfield of Baton Rouge, who is on death row for the 1993 murder of a police officer who was moonlighting off-duty as a security guard for a Baton Rouge supermarket. Brumfield and 2 other men allegedly had lingered around that grocery store, checking it out to see if they could stage a robbery. The store manager was Kimen Lee, while Corporal Betty Smothers, in uniform, was there as a part-time guard. When the store closed, Smothers drove her patrol car, with Lee as a passenger, to a bank's night depository with the day's proceeds from the store. Brumfield and another man allegedly hid in the bushes at the bank, then fired shots at the patrol car, killing Smothers and gravely injuring Lee. The men fled without taking the bank deposit bag. Brumfield was tried for the murder of Corporal Smothers, after he had given a videotaped confession. Lee survived her wounds and testified at the trial, helping prosecutors prove that Brumfield was one of the shooters at the bank. Brumfield's defense lawyer did not raise the mental disability claim at the trial. After Brumfield was convicted, a separate death sentencing proceeding was held. The defense lawyers called to the stand a psychologist and a social worker to testify about Brumfield's abused childhood and mental deficiencies, but at no time argued that he was actually mentally disabled. A death sentence was imposed. In a state court challenge after his conviction became final, a defense lawyer, relying on the Court's decision in Atkins v. Virginia, did raise the mental disability claim, but the state court rejected it, finding that the evidence at the sentencing proceeding was sufficient to show that Brumfield was not mentally disabled. The state court also refused a request by Brumfield's lawyers for funds to cover the cost of gathering evidence about his mental state. Brumfield then pursued a federal habeas challenge. After a trial, the district court judge ruled that the evidence at the sentencing hearing was not sufficient to determine the mental disability claim, and held 7 days of hearings on that question. In the end, the judge concluded that Brumfield did fit into that category. However, the state appealed, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit overturned the district court ruling, concluding that the penalty-phase evidence was sufficient to decide the question. The Fifth Circuit also ruled that Brumfield was not entitled to funds to hire an expert to develop mental disability evidence. Brumfield's lawyers appealed to the Supreme Court last May, urging the Court to rule that it was unreasonable for the state court to base its determination that he was not mentally disabled on the evidence at the penalty hearing. Separately, the petition urged the Court to declare that an individual who lacks the money to pay to hire an expert to develop evidence on that issue has a right to such funds. The Court scheduled Brumfield's petition for consideration eight times before finally voting to grant it, on December 5. Briefs on the merits Brumfield's brief on the merits noted that the death sentencing proceeding in his case had been held before the Supreme Court had made mental disability a defense against a death sentence, and before Louisiana courts had developed any standards for judging that question. It was no surprise, then, the brief said, that the issue really did not come up at that time. Given those circumstances, the brief contended, it was unreasonable for the state court - after the Atkins decision had come down - to treat the sentencing proceeding as adequate. The federal district judge, it added, was thus justified in gathering evidence and then actually finding that Brumfield was mentally disabled. The Fifth Circuit, the brief said, should not have overturned that result. Moreover, the brief asserted, the Fifth Circuit was wrong in upholding the denial of funds to investigate Brumfield's mental state. The Supreme Court, it added, has made clear that those facing a potential death sentence must have access to expert testimony to evaluate the convicted individual's mental state. A former state chief justice for Louisiana, joined by legal advocacy groups in the state, filed an amicus brief urging the Court to overturn the Fifth Circuit's ruling. This filing laid out how the state courts have now established procedures for fully evaluating a mental disability claim, making Brumfield's case an aberration. Louisiana's brief on the merits used much of its contents to lay out all of the details in the various state court proceedings, to make the point that Brumsfield had a more than fair chance to make a mental disability claim, but failed in that at every turn. Moreover, the state argued, Brumfield's appeal has misstated the record in arguing that the denial of his disability claim was based solely on what was said at the death sentencing proceeding. That issue, the filing said, is a highly factual one, and the record fully supports the rejection of his claim. The state also contended that federal habeas law explicitly limited a federal habeas petitioner to challenging the record that was made in state court proceedings. The Supreme Court has made clear, the state said, that the only record that counts in habeas is the evidence that unfolded in state court. On Brumfield's separate claim that he had a constitutional right to state funding to help develop a mental disability record, the state contended that Brumsfield's lawyers failed to press that argument when his case was in state courts. In addition, the state argued, the Supreme Court's Atkins decision did not establish any procedural rights - such as a right to funding for an investigation of an issue - but left that question to states to work out the procedures. In a final thrust, the state contended that Brumfield simply is not mentally disabled, noting that he "was subjected to 6 evaluations before the age of 18 and not one diagnosed him" as disabled. (source: SCOTUS blog) From rhalperi at smu.edu Fri Mar 27 17:07:35 2015 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Fri, 27 Mar 2015 17:07:35 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide Message-ID: March 27 INDONESIA: No clemency for death row convict Indonesia's Supreme Court rejected an appeal by a Filipina on death row for a judicial review of her case, bringing her closer to being executed along with several other foreign drug convicts. But in a bid to save the life of Mary Jane Veloso, Vice President Jejomar Binay renewed his appeal to Indonesian President Joko Widodo for the commutation of the death sentence of Veloso who was caught carrying a suitcase containing illegal drugs in Indonesia. Binay and the Department of Foreign affairs vowed to exert all efforts to save the life of Veloso whom they believe was innocent of the crime and was a mere victim of a drug smuggling syndicate. "I am once again appealing to President Widodo's good heart for the commutation of the death sentence of our kababayan, Mary Jane Fiesta Veloso, who is scheduled be executed in Yogyakarta," Binay said in a statement. Veloso's request for clemency was among the 16 rejected by Indonesia's newly elected leader, President Widodo, on January 9. "I ask this, with the deepest bond of brotherhood and friendship of our peoples, a bond that I am confident will only grow stronger in the years to come," Binay said. "We are saddened that the Indonesian Supreme Court has chosen not to grant Mary Jane's lawyers' request for a judicial review of her case. Nonetheless, we reiterate the Philippines' full awareness and respect for Indonesia's laws and legal system," the Vice President said. In their appeal for judicial review, Veloso's lawyers argued that the Filipina was not provided with a capable translator during her trial. "It should have been court appointed translator. Maybe he is not qualified during that time. That might have had an impact on the proceedings that happened before in relation to the accuracy of the translation," Jose said. Binay stressed that Veloso, a widowed mother of 2, was not part of any organized drug syndicate, saying she, too, was a victim. "She was unwittingly taken advantage of by a person whom she gave her complete trust and confidence when the latter asked her to hand carry a piece of luggage containing illegal drugs," Binay said. The vice president previously wrote Widodo earlier this month to "convey to Widodo the Filipinos' hope and prayer that the Supreme Court of Indonesia will look kindly and with compassion on the circumstances surrounding the case of Veloso." The United Nations human rights office has previously called on Indonesia to refrain from executing convicted drug smugglers, saying the death penalty won't stop the trafficking of illegal drugs. Last January 18, 6 drug convicts - 5 foreigners and an Indonesian - were executed, the 1st under Widodo's term. Veloso was earlier included in the next batch of death-row convicts scheduled to be executed in Nusakambangan Island. The list reportedly includes 3 Indonesian murder convicts, and convicted drug traffickers from Indonesia, Brazil, France, Ghana and Spain. Jakarta plans to execute all 10 of the convicts - including Veloso - at the same time, but said it will wait for any outstanding legal appeals to conclude. 3 Australians who are known as part of the Bali 9 drug-traffickers group had earlier been transferred to the island. The cases of Australians Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, leaders of the so-called "Bali 9" drug syndicate, are currently on appeal. (source: Manila Standard Today) *************** Indonesia prepares to transfer Philippines drug convict for execution Indonesia is preparing to move a Filipina death row inmate for execution after she lost her appeal in the Supreme Court earlier this week, the attorney general's spokesman said on Friday. The planned executions of Mary Jane Fiesta Veloso and nine other mostly foreign drug traffickers has drawn international criticism after repeated pleas for mercy from the United Nations and various governments have gone unheeded by President Joko Widodo. Veloso will be moved from the city of Yogyakarta to the maximum security prison on Nusakambangan Island in Central Java, where the rest of the group awaits execution by firing squad. "We can say that (Veloso's) case is done," the attorney general's spokesman Tony Spontana told reporters. "There will be preparations to move her soon because the plan to execute all (10 convicts) at once hasn't changed." The attorney general's office has yet to announce a date for the executions. 4 other foreign nationals in the group have also lodged last-minute appeals against their death sentences, forcing the attorney general to hold off on the executions until all legal processes are seen through. 2 Australian prisoners are among those appealing their sentences. The Australian government has been pursuing an eleventh-hour campaign to save their lives, but Widodo has refused to budge, ramping up diplomatic tensions between the neighbors. Indonesia has harsh penalties for drug trafficking and resumed executions in 2013 after a 5-year gap. (source: Reuters) ENGLAND: If British democracy worked, we would have had a referendum on the death penalty Nice to know, isn't it, that public attitudes are finally catching up with MPs'. It seems, from the Social Attitudes survey, that finally, half a century after parliament suspended the death penalty, 48 % of people no longer want the death penalty reintroduced. Opinion has been stubbornly in favour of it ever since 1965, and that was also true in 1998 when the Human Rights Act forbade capital punishment outright. In other words, until now, MPs have been wildly at odds with the opinion of most voters on an undeniably important issue. I'm unsure exactly where I stand on the issue myself, though I've always felt the guillotine would have been my own choice of method if it came to it. I'm instinctively squeamish about state executions, though I'm sympathetic to the case for executing police killers. In fact the case for and against has rarely been better put than in Dead Man Walking - that movie with Susan Sarandon as a nun with a mission to death row - where the grimness of the execution was paralleled by matching footage of the murder that elicited the sentence. It was miles more powerful than what would have been the British equivalent: a 1-sided depiction of the horror of the lethal injection. But the point is that MPs have not just been apologetically at odds with public opinion on this one; they've rather congratulated themselves that they occupy a higher moral plane than most voters. Whenever anyone has raised the possibility of having more recourse to referendums rather than democracy at one remove, the knockout argument has been, you can't possibly - people would only want hanging back. Well, I don't buy it. In Switzerland, the constitution forbids capital punishment but there have been a couple of attempts to reintroduce it in limited circumstances by recourse to a referendum - efforts which failed. Which is rather the point. At least there had to be an attempt on both sides to win over public opinion, rather than simply assuming that MPs would ensure that the views of the morally unwashed never got into law. But then Switzerland, where you can have referendums if there is sufficient demand for them, is a country that comes as close as you can get to the direct democracy of ancient Athens. Electoral reform pundits talk endlessly and tediously of a citizens' democracy. But only, it seems, so long as the views of the citizens chime with those of the political class. The non-representation of the majority view on capital punishment in parliament for the last 50 years just goes to show the limitations of democracy as it operates in Britain - representative but only up to a point. (source: Commentary, Melanie McDonagh----The Spectator) THAILAND: Thailand among group in Southeast Asia not abolishing death penalty: UN report Thailand ranks somewhere in the middle among nations in Southeast Asia when it comes to abolishing the death penalty, with the Kingdom criticised for a "lack of tangible advancement" towards abolishing executions in a United Nations report released yesterday (Fri). Although Cambodia, the Philippines and East Timor have abolished the death penalty, Thailand still maintains it, although no execution has taken place since 2009 and the country is regarded as a "retentionist state". As of June 30 last year, there were at least 612 people on "death row" in the Kingdom and the year 2013 alone saw 294 people sentenced to death. Crimes punishable by death in Thailand include offences against royalty, internal and external security, and liberty, and offences relating to sexuality causing death. The 44-page report by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights' regional office for Southeast Asia, titled "Moving Away from the Death Penalty: Lessons in Southeast Asia", noted that Thailand, in its most recent review by the Committee against Torture, had stated that it would consider a moratorium on the death penalty. "Abolition of the death penalty was included in the draft of [Thailand's] Third National Human Rights Action Plan (2014-2018), but there has since been a lack of tangible advancement in abolishing the death penalty, and a high number of death sentences were passed in 2013, almost half of them [for] drug-related offences," the report stated. It said recommended that Thailand impose a moratorium on the death penalty with a view to abolition, as outlined in the current National Human Rights Action Plan. The outlook in Southeast Asia is mixed, as the report stated that of the 11 countries in the region, Cambodia, East Timor and the Philippines had consistently voted for UN General Assembly resolutions on moratoriums on the use of the death penalty. But Brunei, Malaysia, Myanmar and Singapore have consistently voted against such resolutions. Thailand voted against the moratorium in 2007 and 2008 but changed its position by abstaining from voting in 2010 and 2012. Despite this, the report noted that Southeast Asia is generally part of the global trend against practising the death penalty. All countries in Southeast Asia have legislation that ensures exceptions to the death penalty for children, pregnant women, and people with mental or intellectual disabilities. The report also noted that while some 160 countries had either abolished the death penalty, observed a moratorium or ceased practising it, a minority of countries still execute people. "In some of these countries, the death penalty is mandatory for drug-related offences. The mandatory death penalty is problematic because it goes against the prohibition of the arbitrary deprivation of life and violates the right to fair trial." (source: The Nation) PAKISTAN: LHC converts death penalty of 6 convicts into life imprisonment A Lahore High Court (LHC) division bench on Friday converted death penalty of 6 convicts into life imprisonment. The division bench headed by Justice Abdul Sami Khan passed the orders on appeals filed by the convicts Muhammad Shahid, Hassan Nazir, Malik Shahid, Muhammad Bilal, Muhammad kamran and Bilal Ahmad. Earlier, petitioners' counsel submitted that the trial court had awarded them death penalty despite differences in statements of the witness and lack of solid evidence in a kidnapping for ransom case. He pleaded the court to set aside the sentence. However, Deputy Prosecutor General Khurram Khan opposed the request and submitted that the trial court awarded sentence on basis of evidence against the convicts, He pointed out that 60 million ransom amount as well as cars used in crime were recovered from the convicts. He said that the convicts were identified by the witnesses during the identification parade. He pleaded the court to dismiss their appeal. But, the bench after hearing arguments of both parties converted death penalty of convicts into life imprisonment. ATC-III Lahore awarded death penalty to the convicts in a case registered against them at Town Ship Police Station for kidnapping Chairman High Tech Industries Dr Muhammad Arshad and his driver for ransom in 2010. (source: brecorder.com) From rhalperi at smu.edu Sat Mar 28 17:33:13 2015 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Sat, 28 Mar 2015 17:33:13 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., N.C., FLA., ALA. Message-ID: March 28 TEXAS: Legislature must fix Texas death penalty; THE POINT - Lawmakers have neglected their duty to put greater specificity in the law. Texans who support capital punishment might want to believe that the system has evolved into an excruciatingly fair, airtight application of society's utmost punishment. If only that were the case, this newspaper might not stand with opponents of state-sponsored killing. Each year brings a new set of execution dates that expose weaknesses in the system and offend the sense of justice. We trust that state lawmakers are alert to them and are willing to apply fixes. Take Texas law on executing the intellectually disabled. Actually, there really isn't a law, despite the Supreme Court's 2002 landmark imperative against executing people with low IQs. The Texas response relies in part on a Court of Criminal Appeals ruling suggesting that someone like the fictional, dull-witted character Lennie in Steinbeck's novel Of Mice and Men is the type who ought to be spared the executioner's needle. Allusions to American literature have no place in deciding life-and-death matters in Texas. The Legislature has neglected its duty to put greater specificity in the law, despite a steady flow of condemned inmates whose mental abilities have been in question. Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, has legislation (SB 226) to remedy this. It would have the courts treat questions of intelligence like sanity questions, impaneling a jury to decide the matter before trial. Today, the same jurors who decide guilt-innocence also decide whether a person they just convicted is bright enough to be killed. The Ellis bill would separate the matters and take emotion out of the mix. This bill should pass and fill an embarrassing void in Texas law. It was also embarrassing for the state when lawyers for mentally ill killer Scott Panetti discovered in the Houston Chronicle on Oct. 30 that his execution date had been set 2 weeks prior and was just weeks away. That's right: There was no direct, official notification to counsel that the state obtained a death warrant - and the clock was ticking toward an appeals deadline. The remedy for this shamefulness would be companion bills by Rep. Senfronia Thompson, D-Houston, (HB 2110) and Sen. Juan "Chuy" Hinojosa, D-McAllen, (SB 1071). Texans should not tolerate stealth death warrants. Nor should Texans tolerate the idea of an execution before all relevant evidence has been tested for DNA evidence that might bear on the case. Yet that's not a guarantee today, because of a screwy court decision requiring a defendant to prove "a reasonable likelihood" of biological material that could be tested. How might a defendant produce that proof if not through testing? Hence, a remedy by Ellis (SB 487) to eliminate this Catch-22 in state law. This list of fixes could go on, but we'll mention just one more: the right of Texans to know everything about the execution process. That means everything - right down to the drugs used, their supplier and expiration dates. A bipartisan bill (HB 1587) by Reps. Terry Canales, D-Edinburg, and Tony Tinderholt, R-Arlington, would secure the public's right to know. (source: Editorial, Odessa American) PENNSYLVANIA: Montgomery County taxpayers pay $105K to defend double killer Montgomery County taxpayers will have to pick up a tab of more than $100,000 in legal fees for a man who insisted on representing himself at trial and ended up with 2 death sentences. Judge William R. Carpenter has ordered the county to pay defense attorney Stephen G. Heckman, the court-appointed trial counsel for Raghunandan Yandamuri, $60,000 for his work in Yandamuri's behalf, and defense lawyer Henry S. Hilles III, Yandamuri's court-appointed penalty phase counsel, $45,600 for his efforts to save Yandamuri's life. A jury last October convicted Yandamuri on 2 1st-degree murder charges stemming from the October 2012 stabbing death of 61-year-old Satyavathi Venna and the suffocation death of Saanvi Venna, her 10-month-old granddaughter, in a botched kidnapping-for-ransom. Heckman, appointed trial counsel by the court in November 2012, performed 952.8 hours of legal services for Yandamuri including 165 hours of in-court time and 787.8 hours of out-of-court time, according to a detailed billing that Heckman provided the court. In capital cases, Montgomery County pays court-appointed lawyers $75 an hour for out-of-court work and $150 an hour for in-court time, according to Court Administrator Michael R. Kehs. However, each case is also reviewed on an individual basis by the president judge and administrative judge, Kehs added. The court last July set a cap of $30,000 but that does not pertain to this case since both lawyers were appointed prior to the cap, he added. After repeated attempts to change Yandamuri's mind, Judge Steven T. O'Neill granted Yandamuri's request to represent himself at trial. No reason was offered in open court as to why Yandamuri wanted to represent himself but it was apparent at earlier hearings both Yandamuri and Heckman disagreed on what avenues of defense should be pursued in the case. At the same time O'Neill gave the OK for Yandamuri to represent himself, the judge directed Heckman to serve as Yandamuri's standby counsel to aid Yandamuri in legal matters and to be prepared to take over the case if Yandamuri changed his mind. Hilles' billing covered the 681.7 hours of legal services he performed in Yandamuri's behalf including 165 hours of in-court time and 516.7 hours of out-of-court time. Unlike Heckman, Yandamuri did allow Hilles to represent him during the death-penalty phase of the trial. When the trial concluded with the jury handing Yandamuri 2 death sentences, Hilles said he believed that Yandamuri, who worked in the information technology field, could have spared himself the death penalties if he had allowed Heckman to represent him at the trial and followed Heckman's recommendations. The charges against Yandamuri stem from an incident that began on Oct. 22, 2012, at 1:15 p.m. when Upper Merion police were dispatched to the Marquis Apartments complex in response to a 911 call reporting both a killing and a missing child. When they arrived, they found the lifeless body of the grandmother in the kitchen. The grandmother, a native of India, had arrived in the United States in June 2012 for a 6-month visit to see her new grandchild. Police could not find the baby but they did find a ransom note asking the parents for $50,000 in cash. That note included the nicknames of the parents, nicknames known only to close family friends. Authorities, including township police, county detectives and the FBI, held out hope through the week that the child would be found alive. Yandamuri was brought to the police station for questioning on Oct. 25. After initially denying any involvement in the incident, Yandamuri allegedly admitted he was responsible for the death of the grandmother and the baby, according to the criminal complaint. Acting on information that Yandamuri gave them, authorities found the baby's body in an unused sauna in another building at the apartment complex at about 4 a.m. on Oct. 26, 2012. Yandamuri gave both a written and videotaped confession but later maintained those confessions were coerced from him by detectives. (source: The Intelligencer) NORTH CAROLINA: NC lawyers face bar complaints for Racial Justice Act work 2 defense attorneys face accusations of professional misconduct for a piece of their work on the first successful challenge under the Racial Justice Act. Gretchen Engel, director of the Durham-based Center for Death Penalty Litigation, and Cassandra Stubbs, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union Capital Punishment Project, were among a team of attorneys who used the short-lived law to convert a North Carolina death row inmate's sentence in 2012 to life without possibility for parole. Now the attorneys face possible punishment from the N.C. State Bar. Some legal analysts have characterized the allegations of wrongdoing as so minor and "questionable" that they think politics could be at play. It is unclear who filed the complaints against the attorneys. That's not part of the public record. At issue is whether Engel and Stubbs violated professional codes of conduct in relaying information to the courts after interviewing 2 African-American men excluded from serving on the 1994 jury that decided the fate of Marcus Reymond Robinson. Robinson, an African-American male, was sentenced to death almost 2 decades ago for the 1991 killing of Erik Tornblum, a white teenager. In April 2012, Judge Gregory Weeks issued a landmark ruling in Cumberland County Superior Court saying prosecutors across the state had engaged in deliberate and systematic racial discrimination when striking black potential jurors in death penalty cases. Under the Racial Justice Act, Weeks was able to reduce the death sentence for Robinson to life in prison with no possibility for parole. Prosecutors, according to a Michigan State University Law School study that was part of the record in the Robinson case, used peremptory challenges to remove blacks from juries more than twice as often throughout North Carolina as they used them for whites. In Cumberland County, it was almost 3 times as often. Prosecutors have disputed those statistics and immediately banded together not only to appeal the Weeks ruling but to orchestrate the overturning of the unique North Carolina law that allowed inmates to use statistics to bolster claims of racial bias. Engel and Stubbs recently found out that someone filed complaints against them with the State Bar, the organization that oversees North Carolina lawyers. The bar allegations focus on sworn statements the attorneys introduced from the men who had been part of the 1994 jury pool but not selected for the panel. The bar complaint contends the lawyers included inaccurate information for the court to consider that ranged from a wrong address to a recollection from one of the potential jurors that did not jibe with the official trial transcript. When Engel and Stubbs received notice of the allegations against them, according to their attorneys Amos Tyndall of Chapel Hill, and Brad Bannon and Alan Schneider of Raleigh, they brought them to the attention of Judge Weeks. "He noted that the affidavits were not introduced for substantive purposes, and the purpose for which they were introduced was not even in dispute," Bannon and Schneider, the attorneys for Stubbs, said in a joint statement. "He gave them no weight, and he did not rely on them in 378 pages of orders explaining his rulings." The Racial Justice Act proceedings for Robinson extended over 20 days of testimony. Eighteen witnesses testified, and more than 298 exhibits were included in the record. "Weeks also made another important finding," Bannon and Schneider said in a statement echoed by Tyndall, the attorney for Engel. "[I]f there were any inaccuracies in the 2 affidavits, they were not the product of intentional misconduct, willfulness or bad faith." Engel and Stubbs plan to ask for hearings before the State Bar to fight the complaints. Legal scholars and analysts with no ties to the cases of Racial Justice Act proceedings questioned whether the high-profile nature of the Robinson case might be playing a part in the misconduct allegations. "The State Bar does not explain publicly why it chooses to proceed on some complaints from the public and not on others, so we have to guess," said Bernie Burk, a UNC-Chapel Hill law professor with expertise in ethics and professional responsibility. "The Racial Justice Act case at issue is very high-profile and extremely controversial, with many people holding strong views on both sides. And the complaints suggest that the people who accused the defense lawyers believe that the discrepancies they've identified were, in the words of the ethical rules, 'prejudicial to the administration of justice.' "Given the high profile and intensity of the controversy and the gravity of what the accusers claim, the Bar may have felt that the best course is to hold a formal proceeding that will result in an evidentiary record and a reasoned decision, so that everyone will understand the reasons for the result." Michael Frisch, a Georgetown University law professor who worked for 18 years as a bar prosecutor for the District of Columbia, wrote about the 2 cases on a blog he started to offer insight into such proceedings. "I look at this prosecution, and I see the charges looking very questionable to me," Frisch said in a telephone interview Friday. "I wouldn't see them prosecuting this if it was Joe Schmo on the street or a prosecutor. And as a result, this is leading me to believe this is a politically motivated prosecution." (source: Charlotte Observer) FLORIDA: We must review, improve state's death-penalty process Florida's death-penalty process needs improvement. Recently the Florida Senate Criminal Justice Committee voted 5-0 to pass Senate Bill 664, a bill that would require, in capital-case penalty-phase proceedings, that a jury vote unanimously, rather than by a simple majority, to recommend sentences of death. Sen. Thad Altman, R-Viera, filed this bill, as he has done during the past several legislative sessions. This is the 1st time the bill received a vote. Altman's effort responds to State v. Steele, a state Supreme Court opinion that urges the Legislature to revisit the death-penalty statute to address a significant anomaly in the law. The state Supreme Court noted that Florida is an outlier - the only state to allow penalty-phase juries both to recommend death sentences and to find the presence of aggravating circumstances surrounding a capital crime (a legal threshold for imposing death sentences) by a simple majority. Florida law requires juries to vote unanimously to convict a defendant at trial; and while judges are the final sentencing authorities, they must place great weight upon juries' penalty-phase sentencing recommendations (either death or life in prison without the possibility of parole). The backdrop is compelling. More death sentences reportedly were imposed in Florida recently than in any other state; more executions have been carried out during the administration of Gov. Rick Scott than during the administrations of any of his contemporaries within a comparable time frame; and according to the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington, D.C., more exonerations have occurred in Florida than in any other state since 1973. The Senate's Bill Analysis and Fiscal Impact Statement notes that the U.S. Supreme Court recently agreed to review Hurst v. Florida, a capital case in which the jury recommended a sentence of death by a vote of 7-5. The court will consider "whether Florida's death sentencing scheme violates the Sixth or Eighth Amendments in light of that court's decision in Ring v. Arizona, 536 U.S. 584 (2002)." The Ring decision required that juries, not judges alone, must make the crucial factual determinations that would subject a convicted murderer to the death penalty. The Florida Supreme Court has not applied Ring to Florida's non-unanimous jury recommendations. If the Legislature ultimately passes - and Scott signs - Altman's bill, Florida would more favorably align with virtually every other capital-punishment state in the U.S. All require some form of unanimity. Beyond the unanimous jury legislation, the Florida Bar Board of Governors recently renewed its support for a comprehensive review of Florida's entire death-penalty process by all branches of government. Irrespective of whether one supports or opposes capital punishment, a review by state officials arguably is long overdue. (source: Op-Ed; Raoul Cantero, a former state Supreme Court justice appointed by Gov. Jeb Bush, practices law in Miami. Mark Schlakman, of FSU's Center for the Advancement of Human Rights, was on the ABA's Florida Death Penalty Assessment Team. Tallahassee Democrat) ******************* Father of starved infant to stay in Polk County Jail Roy Stephens, who's accused of starving his newborn infant to death last December, will remain in jail without bond until he stands trial, a circuit judge ruled Friday. Circuit Judge Donald Jacobsen stated in his ruling that the presumption of guilt is great enough to justify holding Stephens in custody. In a hearing earlier in the day, Stephens' lawyers had sought pretrial release for him, saying the medical examiner who conducted the autopsy on the 22-day-old baby, Betsey Kee Stephens, hadn't adequately explored other causes for her death. But Jacobsen rejected that argument. Defense lawyer Byron Hileman, representing Stephens, said he wasn't surprised by the judge's ruling, in part because the state is seeking the death penalty against his client. "The granting of bond in a death penalty case is extremely rare," he said Friday. "I know of one case in 40 years. But the hearing did give us an idea of the state's theory in the case, and that will help us in preparing our defense." Stephens, 48, and his 23-year-old wife, Ruby, of Tennyson, Ind., were visiting family in Polk County last Christmas when they told emergency responders in Lakeland their 22-day-old baby, Betsey, had stopped breathing. An autopsy revealed the baby weighed only 4 pounds and 1 ounce, and she had no food in her stomach or intestines, indicating she hadn't been fed for at least a day, according to testimony Friday. Stephens and his wife told authorities the baby had been fed regularly since she was born Dec. 1, and had been breastfed as recently as 2 hours before she died, police reports said. Both Ruby and Roy Stephens are charged with 1st-degree murder, aggravated child abuse and aggravated manslaughter of a child, and prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for both. Both will be back in court for a status hearing May 7. In Friday's hearing, Associate Medical Examiner Vera Volnikh testified the baby had lost 36 % of her birth weight by the time she died on Dec. 23. "She was extremely dehydrated," Volnikh said. "There is no fat tissue on the baby. You can see the outline of the bone under the skin. There's no fat in the cheeks." Most babies lose about 5 percent of their birth weight in the first couple weeks of life, she said, but 36 % was extremely abnormal. Hileman asked Volnikh if she considered other causes for the child's condition, including failure-to-thrive syndrome. He suggested through a litany of questions that the medical examiner didn't probe far enough before ruling the cause of death as starvation by neglect. "Her investigation of causability was limited to routine tests," Hileman said in his argument to Jacobsen. Volnikh said she checked for parasites and infection in the baby's gastrointestinal system, and looked for genetic abnormalities. "This child didn't have any," she said. She said those issues generally lead to a slow decline in health. "This child was 22 days old," she said. "Any mother could see that this baby is not gaining weight." Assistant State Attorney John Waters argued the baby's empty stomach and bladder provided medical evidence that she wasn't being fed. He also cited the Stephens' efforts to collect on a $10,000 life insurance policy on their daughter the day after she died. "That goes to the mindset of these individuals," he said. (source: Panama City News Herald) ALABAMA: Bill would shroud executions in secrecy Among the functions of state government, nothing even approaches the significance of execution, of taking the life of an individual as the ultimate punishment for crime. The solemn weight of that responsibility should never be discounted and if there is any action of government that should be open and transparent, surely it is this one. Yet the entire process - the death of a human being at the hands of the state - would be shrouded in secrecy if a bill now before the Legislature passes in its current form. That cannot be allowed to happen. This is not about whether the state should impose capital punishment, although our state certainly could use some serious debate of that issue. It is about whether the death penalty is to be imposed in secrecy, whether a person may be executed by the state in a process hidden from its citizens. We find the prospect profoundly disturbing. And we also find disturbing the unjustified insertion of language into a bill that began as a measure dealing with the identity of companies or persons who make the drugs used in lethal injections. That at least is a debatable matter, but the bill has been dramatically transformed to empower the Department of Corrections to operate in a legally impenetrable atmosphere. The bill now states that "any person who participates in an execution or performs any ancillary function related to an execution" is covered by the same shield of secrecy as the drug manufacturers and thus "shall be confidential, shall not be subject to disclosure, and shall not be admissible as evidence or discoverable in any action of any kind in any court or before any tribunal, board, agency or person." Such sweeping language is troubling enough, but a briefer insertion in the bill is even more damaging to the public interest. In fact, it likely renders that blanket secrecy language redundant. This portion of the bill states that DOC "policies and procedures" regarding executions are exempt from "Section 36-12-40." Most people, probably even most legislators, wouldn't know that Section 36-12-40, not otherwise identified in the bill, is the state's open records act. The effect of this bill would be to deny Alabamians any opportunity to know anything about executions carried out by the DOC. No matter how hideously botched an execution might be, no matter what legitimate questions there might be about injection drugs or electrocution, no matter how much a situation might cry out for inquiry, the door to information is locked as tight as a maximum-security cell. That is utterly wrong and cannot be condoned. The bill goes before a Senate committee this week, where this shameful, secretive language should be stricken at once. (source: Montgomery Advertiser) From rhalperi at smu.edu Sat Mar 28 17:34:28 2015 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Sat, 28 Mar 2015 17:34:28 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----KAN., OKLA., UTAH, IDAHO, CALIF., USA Message-ID: March 28 KANSAS: Man accused in Kansas Jewish site killings pleads not guilty A Missouri white supremacist has pleaded not guilty to charges that he gunned down 3 people last year at Jewish sites in the Kansas City area. 74-year-old Frazier Glenn Miller entered the pleas Friday during a court appearance in Johnson County, Kansas. He was ordered earlier this month to stand trial on charges of capital murder, 3 counts of attempted first-degree murder, and one count each of aggravated assault and criminal discharge of a weapon at a structure. Prosecutors plan to seek the death penalty if Miller is convicted. Miller has said he felt a duty to kill Jews before his death, which he believed to be imminent because he suffers from emphysema. A judge Friday denied Miller's request for Internet access while he's jailed awaiting trial. (source: Associated Press) OKLAHOMA: Lockett case shows dilemma of doctors involved in executions As the doctor entered the prison, he was already torn about his role in the execution of Clayton Lockett. Warden Anita Trammell said she met the doctor as he arrived at Oklahoma State Penitentiary last April 29. "I'm just glad I happened to be down there or (he) may have just walked out," Trammell said. "(He) said, 'I'm just filling in anyway. I don't know why I'm even, why I even, you know, agreed to do this." 2 other doctors had already said no to attending the double execution planned for that night. The physician - identified only in investigative transcripts as "doctor" - agreed to step in only days earlier. Such duty challenges the oath that doctors take upon entering their profession. They pledge to do no harm and minimize suffering, yet when asked to serve as a sword of justice, they can find themselves conflicted. That contradiction, between Hippocratic Oath and capital punishment, is the source of heated controversy within the medical community. Most physicians groups - including the American Medical Association - strictly forbid members' involvement in such acts, with the exception of prescribing sedation beforehand or, later, signing a death certificate. For those reasons, states are finding it harder to recruit doctors to participate in executions, said Dr. Steven Miles, an internist and professor of medicine and bioethicist at the University of Minnesota. "Executions are not considered a medical act," he said. "Basically a doc's role is that of a healer, and this is not a healing act which is serving the patient's interest." (source: Effingham Daily News) UTAH: Utah's firing squad law reveals crisis at the heart of US capital punishment ---- Historically each new execution method is presented as more humane but with judicial killings having almost ground to a halt, the state is returning to the past The last time anybody was executed by firing squad in the US, in June 2010, the 5 assigned sharpshooters equipped with Winchester .30-30 rifles decided for a reason that remains known only to them to pull the trigger on the count of 2. Not 1, but 2 "5," a warden shouted. "4." "3." Wham. At that second 4 live bullets (1 was dud) were propelled from the distance of about 25 feet at Ronnie Lee Gardner, a convicted murderer, entering his heart. We know that's where he was struck because shortly before the countdown began a medical doctor entered the death chamber, located Gardner's heart using a stethoscope, and placed a red target right over the spot. At the end of the proceedings, the target was inspected and found to be riddled with holes. Gardner chose to die by this arcane method, explaining his decision with the memorable phrase: "I lived by the gun, I murdered with a gun, I will die by the gun." His death was reminiscent of the most famous execution in modern American history - that of Gary Gilmore, whose death in Utah in 1977 was turned into literature by Norman Mailer in The Executioner's Song. "Gary never raised a finger," Mailer wrote. "Didn't quiver at all. His left hand never moved, and then, after he was shot, his head went forward, but the strap held his head up, and then the right hand slowly rose in the air and slowly went down as if to say, 'That did it, gentlemen.'" Gilmore also died by firing squad, a method that Utah abolished for all new death row inmates in 2004 (Gardner was condemned before that cut-off date so could still opt for it.) But on Monday the state revived the controversial technique, enacting a new law that resurrects it as an alternative should the preferred method of lethal injections be unattainable. Utah's decision to take a step back in time and return to a mechanism last regularly used in the early 20th century is the sharpest indication yet of the crisis that has engulfed the death penalty in the US. Across the country, states are turning away from the ultimate punishment altogether, or being forced to consider a return to older, largely discredited methods. 18 states have formally abolished capital punishment, and a further eight have staged no executions in more than a decade. The number of active death penalty states has receded to little more than a handful, and even they are in dire trouble. You only have to look at the roster of upcoming executions that is curated by the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC). In the month of March, it records 14 executions scheduled in 7 different states - Albama, Georgia, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Texas. Every single one of those scheduled executions have been marked "Stayed" - that is, put on hold. In short, the American death penalty has virtually ground to a halt. "What we have seen in Utah this week with the revival of the firing squad is in a very real sense a measure of the failure of the lethal injection protocol in the US," said DPIC's executive director, Robert Dunham. The main cause of this unintended and unofficial moratorium has been the struggle of states in acquiring medical drugs used in lethal injections. In the wake of a worldwide boycott of US departments of correction, led by the European Union, active death penalty states have been turning to increasingly creative ways of filling their syringes, from commissioning thinly regulated "compounding pharmacies", to experimenting with previously untested cocktails of drugs. That, combined with a rash of new secrecy laws designed to prevent the public finding out what killing techniques are being deployed in their name, has led to a predictable outcome: a succession of shockingly botched executions. When concern over the use of one previously untested drug, midazolam, reached fever pitch, the US supreme court stepped into the furore and announced that it would review the state of the lethal injection protocol to see whether it violates the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment. With the supreme court set to hear oral arguments in its review on 29 April, there is a sense of barely contained chaos hanging over the death penalty states. As Deborah Denno, a specialist in execution methods at Fordham University in New York, put it: "American executioners just don't know what they are doing, and it's transparent now to the entire world. Our flaws have been exposed for everyone to see." Viewed through the longer lens of history, the current turmoil is merely the latest manifestation of an age-old conundrum: how to separate America's fondness for judicial killing from the cold-blooded murder committed by the very same people it puts to death. In his book, Gruesome Spectacles, the Amherst professor Austin Sarat describes the historic search over the past 100 years for a technique that was safe, painless, in some sense civilised - and the eventual failure of each new approach. "With the use of each new technology - whether hanging, the firing squad, the gas chamber, the electric chair, or now lethal injection - the same claims have been made. The new method would be humane, it would avoid the constitutional ban on cruel or unusual punishment," Sarat told the Guardian. (source: The Guardian) ******************** Is Death By Firing Squad 'Cruel And Unusual'? Try Asking Someone Who's Been Given The Choice Earlier this week, Utah Governor Gary Herbert signed a bill allowing the state to use firing squads to implement the death penalty, if the state cannot procure the drugs needed for lethal injection at the time of the execution. The move disgusted critics. Randy Gardner, the brother of the last man to be executed by firing squad in Utah, told the AP, "When you take somebody and you tie them to a chair, put a hood over their head, and you shoot them from 25 feet with 4 rifles pointed at their heart, that's pretty barbaric." I say "potato." You say "pretty barbaric." If someone thinks that all capital punishment is barbaric, then barbaric the firing squad is. But compared to some of the recent death-chamber mishaps when states have executed inmates by lethal injection? Randy Gardner's description of the firing squad sounds rather benign next to the deaths of Clayton Lockett or Michael Lee Wilson. In January 2014, Wilson reportedly said that he could feel his "whole body burning" after being injected with a pentobarbital cocktail. In April 2014, witnesses reported seeing Lockett revive after his initial loss of consciousness, later groaning, straining against the restraints, and gritting his teeth. Recent problems with death by lethal injection are largely attributable to shortages of sodium thiopental and other drugs used in the standard lethal injection protocol. While the European Union's embargo on the drugs was intended to stymie American capital punishment, the ban has led states to experiment with new, less reliable chemical combinations. The history of the death penalty in the United States is riddled with plenty of gruesome stories, botched lethal injections aside. There are the inmates who reportedly caught fire during electrocutions. There are the ones whose deaths by asphyxiation lingered longer than expected. There is Jimmy Lee Gray, who reportedly died banging his head against a steel pole in the gas chamber. Is firing squad worse? Comparing methods of human execution is not like comparing cell phone providers. The execution comparison does not lend itself to side-by-side line-item analysis. You can't ask people who have experienced the alternatives to tell you about what worked and what didn't. And you certainly don't want to try things out on your own. How then do we decide how to carry out death sentences? How do we determine which ways are pretty barbaric and which are acceptably barbaric and reliably lethal? Eighth Amendment analysis requires a whole lot more than a gut-level response to these questions. But the public debates about whether the death penalty is worth it and what means of execution are acceptable often do start with this step. Based on the vocal dissent in Utah this week, people can't agree enough to move past this step yet. How do we know whether Utah's firing squad is crueler or kinder than Utah's lethal injection? Maybe we should ask the people for whom the decision matters most, namely, the condemned inmates themselves. Or, more properly, we ought to take into account the history of choices made by past prisoners who chose the method of their own deaths. In states where condemned inmates choose the method the state will use to execute them, plenty of people have opted for means other than lethal injection. For example, Randy Gardner's brother, Ronnie Lee, was the last man to be executed by firing squad in Utah. Before his death in 2010, Ronnie Lee picked the method his brother calls "pretty barbaric" over dying by lethal injection. In 1996, Delaware hanged Billy Bailey, the state's last inmate executed at the gallows. Bailey chose hanging over lethal injection. Bailey said, "I'm not a dog. I'm not going to let them put me to sleep." Bailey sneered at lethal injection back when the procedure was considered reliable and humane, even fashionably so. At the time, Delaware had recently introduced the injection option and many observers were pretty surprised that Billy Bailey didn't jump on the opportunity. Imagine what he would have to say about lethal injection now, in an era of clumsy experimentation with new drug cocktails by states that can no longer obtain the tried-and-(mostly-)true ones. Why should we care what a few inmates think is the better or worse way to die? Perhaps we shouldn't listen to them because the condemned aren't medical experts, not anesthesiologists or coroners. The inmates who have chosen methods of execution other than lethal injection don't really know how painful their deaths will be. They may be heavily invested in making the least-painful choice, but they don't actually know how one or the other way of dying feels. Well, neither do you. That's the mystery of death. The lack of first-hand, subjective knowledge is going to stay a problem. For however much it matters, the recipients of the death penalty have themselves intentionally ended the lives of other human beings, something that no physician should be able to claim. Committing murder surely does not make these prisoners experts in death, but neither does being a doctor. Perhaps we shouldn't care what inmates think of execution methods simply because doing so suggests a softening of our attitudes toward death row criminals. The inmates' victims did not chose the manner of their deaths; why should murderers be afforded that dignity, one might ask? Whether killers deserve this choice or not, there is a substantial history of giving those sentenced to death an option about the method to be used in their own individual cases. There is also a history of states drawing conclusions based on patterns of inmate preferences and adjusting general policy accordingly. For examples, we need look no further than Utah, the locus of the recent death penalty skirmish. Until 1888, people sentenced to death in Utah could pick among 3 options: hanging, firing squad, or beheading. No condemned prisoner ever picked beheading. So, in 1888, Utah nixed this option. There are economy-of-scale problems with all that guillotine upkeep, I suppose. Utah continued to offer inmates the choice between firing squad and hanging until 1980, when the state swapped hanging for lethal injection. Only in 2004 did the Utah legislature take this choice away from the condemned. Only those denizens of death row who had chosen firing squad before the new legislation passed, such as Ronnie Lee Gardner, would be permitted the option of dying by firing squad. Moving forward, all death sentences would be carried out via lethal injection. That is, until this week. Inmates' ideas about the relative barbarism of execution methods should not, by themselves, determine a state's capital punishment policy. But states shouldn't completely disregard that information either. After looking at the death penalty through the eyes of those facing it, alternatives to lethal injection, even the firing squad, might not look quite so objectionable. (source: Tamara Tabo is a summa cum laude graduate of the Thurgood Marshall School of Law at Texas Southern University, where she served as Editor-in-Chief of the school's law review. After graduation, she clerked on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. She currently heads the Center for Legal Pedagogy at Texas Southern University, an institute applying cognitive science to improvements in legal education----abovethelaw.com) IDAHO: 9th US Court of Appeals dismisses Duncan's appeal of death sentence A federal appellate court has dismissed the appeal of a man who was sentenced to death for kidnapping, torturing and killing a young northern Idaho boy after killing several of members of his family. Joseph Edward Duncan III faces the death penalty for the 2005 murder of 9-year-old Dylan Groene. He also faces several life sentences for the murder of three family members and the kidnapping of his then-8-year-old sister. Duncan represented himself at his sentencing hearing and later waived his right to appeal. But he has since changed his mind and his defense attorneys say he wasn't mentally competent to waive his rights. On Friday, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected that claim. The court said a lower court had correctly found Duncan competent. The justices said it was too late for Duncan to change his mind. (source: Associated Press) CALIFORNIA: Sodomite Suppression Act proposal sparks controversy A controversial referendum in California calls for the death penalty to anyone who participates in homosexual activities but what are the odds it actually gets signed into law? Experts said the Sodomite Suppression Act's chances are slim to none but regardless of its plausibility it is sparking intense reaction throughout the country. "Absurd. The guy is crazy," said Liz Bradbury with Allentown's Bradbury Sullivan LGBT Community Center. The referendum sponsored by a California attorney calls for any person who willingly touches another person of the same gender for sexual gratification to "put to death by bullets to the head." "It's not constitutional," Allen Tullar with the law firm Gross McGinley said. California law allows anyone with $200 to propose a bill of any kind. Once the attorney general writes a title for it, the petition needs more than 350,000 signatures to be put on the ballot. "I would hope the response of the general public would be to heap ridicule on something like this, not take it seriously," Tullar said. But even if it reached the ballot Tullar said courts would swiftly strike it down. There's also a California referendum called "The Intolerant Jackass Act" in response to the Sodomite Suppression Act. It calls for penalties against anyone who introduces a ballot measure calling for the death of gays and lesbians. Experts said that's not likely to pass either. (source: WFMZ news) USA: Defense moves into spotlight in Boston Marathon bombing trial The Boston Marathon bombing trial shifts sharply in tone next week when prosecutors rest their case against Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and turn proceedings over to his lawyers, who have already admitted he planted explosives at the finish line in April 2013. One of Tsarnaev's lawyers, death penalty specialist Judy Clarke, opened the trial on March 4 with a blunt statement to the jury that "it was him" who killed 3 people and injured 264 in the attack. Clarke contended, however, that the 21-year-old played a secondary role to his older brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, in planning and executing the plot. Her goal: Persuade jurors in federal court in Boston that Tsarnaev deserves a sentence of life in prison rather than the death penalty. It is an argument the defense team, which includes death penalty specialist David Bruck and Boston's top court-appointed lawyer, Miriam Conrad, will not be able to make in earnest until the jury decides if Tsarnaev is guilty. Until then, they are left to poke holes in the prosecution's case and work in as many allusions to 26-year-old Tamerlan's influence as the judge will allow, according to legal experts. The jury got a taste of the approach in the past week when an FBI agent who searched Tsarnaev's college dorm room described finding metal BB pellets, which were packed into the bombs that ripped through the crowd. Prosecutors also said the brothers practiced shooting with BB guns. 3 days after the April 15, 2013 attack, they fatally shot a police officer. Conrad asked the agent, Kimberly Franks, if the search had turned up actual firearms or just BBs. Franks testified that no guns were found. When a 2nd FBI agent described finding the Tsarnaevs' Cambridge, Massachusetts, apartment empty, Conrad noted it had not been vacant when agents arrived 4 days after the bombing. "You're not aware of the fact that Tamerlan Tsarnaev's wife and child were there at the time when the search team arrived?" Conrad asked FBI special agent Christopher Derks. Derks replied that he had been down the street when agents blasted the door open early on April 19, 2013. By that time, Tamerlan had died of injuries sustained during a gunfight with police. Questions like that, legal experts said, are intended to plant doubt in the jury's mind about the strength of government's case. "Impeaching the quality of the investigation can help support their view that it was the older brother who was running the show," said Mark Pearlstein, a former federal prosecutor in Boston who has faced Conrad in criminal cases. LONG EXPERIENCE The defense team has long experience representing clients in death penalty and terrorism cases. Clarke and Bruck rose to national prominence two decades ago when they defended a South Carolina woman, Susan Smith, who a jury found guilty of killing her 2 sons but spared her a death sentence after Clarke argued that her actions reflected deep depression rather than malice. The pair's research unveiled Smith's troubled history of sexual abuse and attempted suicide, some of the mitigating factors that lawyers use to persuade a jury to consider a more lenient sentence. Clarke went on to defend "Unabomber" Ted Kaczynski and 1996 Atlanta Olympics bomber Eric Rudolph. She also served as a defense consultant to al Qaeda operative Zacarias Moussaoui, one of the conspirators in the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. All 3 ultimately pled guilty and are serving life sentences. Conrad defended Rezwan Ferdaus, who in 2012 pleaded guilty to planning to fly an explosive-laden remote control plane into the U.S. Capitol, and Aftab Ali Khan, who was deported from the United States after pleading guilty to helping transfer about $5,000 from his native Pakistan to a man who tried to set off a car bomb in New York's Times Square in 2010. One major difference between those cases and Tsarnaev's is that prosecutors have not agreed to a plea deal, instead trying to put the ethnic Chechen, who immigrated to the United States a decade before the attack, to death. But the same skills that have allowed the defense team to secure plea deals could help them persuade the jury to sentence Tsarnaev to life in prison without possibility of parole, legal experts said. In either case, the lawyers need to present the same sort of "mitigation" evidence, said Barry Scheck, co-director of the New York-based Innocence Project, which uses DNA evidence to exonerate convicted people. In a delicate balancing act, Tsarnaev's attorneys have taken care not to appear belligerent towards the bombing victims, declining to question any of them. That could help protect their credibility in the jury's eyes, said Scheck, who said he has known Clarke for three decades: "You have to trust the messengers as much as you trust the message." (source: Reuters) ****************** Prominent Latino Evangelical Group Joins Effort to Repeal Death Penalty in Groundbreaking Move In a groundbreaking move, the National Latino Evangelical Coalition (NaLEC) on Friday became the 1st national association of Evangelical congregations to join the effort to repeal the death penalty. Speaking at a press conference in Orlando, FL, Rev. Gabriel Salguero, President of NaLEC, stated, "We are here on this historic moment to announce publicly that we and our partners around the country are taking a public stance against the death penalty; we are calling for the abolition of the death penalty." Since 1973, 150 people who were found guilty and sentenced to death row were later exonerated, leading NaLEC to argue that the death penalty has not been carried out in a just manner. Additionally, studies have shown that the race of the victim has a profound effect on which crimes receive the death penalty. "People convicted of murdering a white victim are many times more likely to get sentenced to death than people convicted of killing Latinos or African Americans. In California, Latinos are murdered at twice the rate of white people, yet 11 of the 13 people executed in the state were convicted of killing a white person," Heather Beaudoin, National Advocacy Coordinator of the Equal Justice USA, told the Gospel Herald in an email. "Nationally, Latinos are murdered at twice the rate of white people, but less than 7% of victims in pending death penalty cases are Latino. A recent study from the University of Nebraska Lincoln shows that Latino defendants are more likely to be sentenced to death by white jurors. In 96% of the states where there have been reviews of race and the death penalty, there was a pattern of either race of victim or race of defendant discrimination or both." The members of NaLEC believe that repealing the death penalty is not just a social issue, but more importantly, a Biblical one. "We are a pro-life organization and we believe the death penalty is an anti-life practice," Rev. Salguero said. "As Christ followers, we are called to work toward justice for all. And as Latinos, we know too well that justice is not always even-handed. The death penalty is plagued by racial and economic disparities and risks executing an innocent person. Human beings are fallible and there is no room for fallibility in matters of life and death." NaLEC, a group which seeks to "respond to a real need for Latino and Latina Evangelical voices committed to the common good and justice in the public sphere," has focused on a variety of criminal justice issues since their formation. However, the death penalty conversation escalated when Equal Justice USA had the opportunity to speak with them and highlight current problems with the death penalty. "After prayer, reflection, and dialog with anti-death penalty organizations like Equal Justice USA, we felt compelled to add our voice to this important issue," Rev. Salguero explained. While there is much more work to be done, the members of NaLEC take comfort in the major strides already taken to repeal the death penalty, and are urging the group's 3,000 member congregations to support them in working towards ending capital punishment across the United States. "The good news is that people across the ideological spectrum are coming together and calling for an end to the death penalty," Ms. Beaudoin told the Gospel Herald. "In the last few years 6 states repealed the death penalty. In the last 2 years Republicans in Montana, Kentucky, Wyoming, South Dakota, Kansas, Nebraska and New Hampshire sponsored bills to repeal in their states. We are hopeful that more faith leaders will join NaLEC and the end of the death penalty is not far away." (source: gospelherald.com) ******************* Catholics on Left and Right Find Common Ground Opposing Death Penalty As the editor of The National Catholic Reporter, a national biweekly, Dennis Coday reads his competitor, The National Catholic Register. But he does not have to agree with it. The Reporter is seen as somewhat liberal in theology and politics. The Register, a competing biweekly with a confusingly similar name, is popular with more theologically traditional Roman Catholics, who often fall to the right politically. But last year, seeing the amount of attention that The Register was giving to arguments opposing the death penalty, Mr. Coday came up with an idea: Maybe the 2 newspapers could collaborate on an editorial calling on Catholics to oppose the death penalty. "What struck me the most was Oklahoma Archbishop Paul Coakley came out strongly against it," Mr. Coday said. "And his comments were covered by The National Catholic Register." Indeed, The Register had covered Catholic death-penalty opposition last May, after the botched execution of an Oklahoma inmate, Clayton Lockett, and again in July, after the protracted execution in Arizona of Joseph R. Wood III, who took nearly 2 hours to die. Eventually, Mr. Coday got three other publications, including The Register, to join him. On March 5, "Catholic Publications Call for an End to Capital Punishment" ran on the websites of The Reporter; The Register; Our Sunday Visitor, which is considered conservative; and the Jesuit magazine America, which is considered liberal. The editorial was written principally by Mr. Coday, with the involvement of the four editorial boards. The editorial was an unusual show of unity among publications that speak for often antagonistic niches of Catholic public thought. Editors at the publications agreed, in interviews this week, that such a joint effort would be unlikely on other topics, like same-sex marriage or abortion. With the death penalty, the time seemed right. According to last year's major Pew survey, support for the death penalty is slipping nationally. At the same time, different branches of Roman Catholicism are uniting behind a message that has been consistently delivered by Pope Francis and his predecessors Benedict XVI and John Paul II. "We, the editors of 4 Catholic journals," the editorial begins, "urge the readers of our diverse publications and the whole U.S. Catholic community and all people of faith to stand with us and say, 'Capital punishment must end.'" "The Catholic Church in this country has fought against the death penalty for decades," it says. "Pope St. John Paul II amended the universal Catechism of the Catholic Church to include a de facto prohibition against capital punishment. Last year, Pope Francis called on all Catholics 'to fight ... for the abolition of the death penalty.' The practice is abhorrent and unnecessary." The Register's editor, Jeanette De Melo, said that when Mr. Coday first broached the idea last fall, they could not quite make it work. "The Register's take on the death penalty," Ms. De Melo said, "is to talk about it in broader context of the life issues," like abortion and euthanasia. "We wanted to contextualize it last fall in that broad context." Ms. De Melo said that she and Mr. Coday could not agree on an editorial that brought in so many contentious issues. But when, in January, the Supreme Court agreed to take up the case of Glossip v. Gross, which challenges Oklahoma's use of lethal injection, she thought that maybe it was time for an editorial solely on capital punishment. "Since the Supreme Court took up this case," Ms. De Melo said, "it seemed maybe we could look at it in a narrower context. I felt it was important to stand on something we can stand together on, these diverse publications with diverse audiences. We do agree this should end." Some readers questioned Ms. De Melo's decision to join with more liberal publications. On March 16, she wrote her own editorial, placing her death penalty opposition in the context of issues that are important to conservatives. "Euthanasia, abortion, war and capital punishment differ in moral weight, but they all threaten human dignity, and we must work to end them," Ms. De Melo wrote. The church now teaches that the death penalty could be justified only for self-defense in the narrow sense of preventing a killer from committing a future killing. So in the modern state, the argument goes, with effective prisons and life sentences to keep killers off the street, there is no morally valid reason to use it. According to the Catholic theorist Robert George, who teaches at Princeton, capital punishment is not as bad as abortion or euthanasia, but it nonetheless needs to end. "Although I do not regard capital punishment to be on a moral par with the deliberate killing of innocent persons - including killing unborn babies by abortion and killing elderly or handicapped persons in euthanasia - I believe that the abolition of killing as a punishment will promote a culture of life," Professor George wrote in a Feb. 19 letter to the governor and legislature of Kansas. Coming from Professor George, who is admired by the Catholic right, the letter was another indication that on this particular issue, a unified position may be emerging. Not everyone agrees. The Rev. John McCloskey, a conservative priest, wrote this month that "the Catholic Church's Magisterium does not and never has advocated unqualified abolition of the death penalty." He invoked Augustine and Thomas Aquinas in support of the death penalty, as well as Pope Pius XII. Then there are the 59 % of white Catholics who, according to the Pew survey, favor capital punishment - 4 points higher than the average for all American adults. Matt Malone, who edits America magazine, said Catholic journalists were starting to reach across these political divides. He pointed to a symposium his publication hosted in December, which drew journalists from the Register, the liberal Catholic magazine Commonweal, U.S. Catholic, and the conservative magazine First Things, popular with Catholics. "I think it's part of a general trend where we're less afraid to reach out to each other and do things than we used to be," Father Malone said. Greg Erlandson, the publisher of Our Sunday Visitor, said that Catholics needed to keep talking to one another, lest they become as dysfunctional as the secular world. "The ideological polarization that has paralyzed American political life has seeped into the church, unfortunately," Mr. Erlandson said. "So something like this" - the joint editorial - "is an important signpost for the church." (source: New York Times) From rhalperi at smu.edu Sat Mar 28 17:35:17 2015 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Sat, 28 Mar 2015 17:35:17 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide Message-ID: March 28 IRAN----executions Execution of 4 Prisoners in Maragheh Prison 4 prisoners with drug related charges were executed in Maragheh prison on February 27. According to the report of Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), 4 prisoners with drug related charges has been executed in Maragheh prison on February 27. These prisoners were Bahram Ashtari, Atef Ranjbar, Karim saadaat and Vali Najafniya and were sentenced to death for drug related charges. An informed source told HRANA's reporter, "27 prisoners are in death row in Maragheh prison, who would be executed in the Iranian New Year". (source: HRA News) INDONESIA: Philippines working to save Indonesia death row inmate The Philippine government is exhausting all efforts to save a Filipina from execution in Indonesia over a drug smuggling conviction, an official said Saturday. The statement comes after Indonesia's Supreme Court rejected Wednesday a petition by Mary Jane Viesta Veloso for a judicial review of her case. Abigail Valte, deputy presidential spokeswoman, told state-run dzRB radio Saturday, "the government is doing everything within the legal framework of Indonesia to be able to push for her case." Referring to an earlier pledge by Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario, who recently visited Veloso in prison, Valte said, "the Philippines will continue to push other legal avenues." Veloso, a single mother of 2 who sought work in Malaysia as a maid, was arrested while smuggling 2.6 kilograms of heroin at Yogyakarta airport, Java island, in April 2010. Her family has insisted that the drugs seized from Veloso's luggage were secretly placed there by a relative. Her earlier plea for clemency was rejected by Indonesian President Joko Widodo, who has adopted a tough stance on drug traffickers while the country faces a "drug emergency." In a statement Saturday, del Rosario said a 2nd appeal for judicial review is being considered, expressing his confidence that executions would not occur within the next 2 weeks. Indonesian authorities have been preparing to move Veloso to the Nusa Kambangan prison island, where 9 other drugs convicts -- including 8 foreigners -- have already been transferred awaiting execution by firing squad. Indonesia's attorney-general office has said that the executions will be delayed as the inmates' lawyers continue exploring available legal avenues. The death penalty was resumed in 2013 after a 5-year gap, according to Amnesty International. Earlier this year, 6 drug offenders -- including 5 foreigners -- were executed despite diplomatic pleas. In February, Indonesia and the Philippines agreed to strengthen collaboration in exchanging information on intelligence materials, methods of drug trafficking and their possible routes, and new forms of illegal drugs. (source: aa.com.tr) *************** Inmate may evade death penalty after underage claims surface Death row inmate Yusman Telaumbanua is to be transferred to a prison in Medan and his case reviewed given a report that he may have been a minor when sentenced. "The Directorate General of Correctional Institutions has agreed to it, so we are just waiting for the right time to do the transfer," said Law and Human Rights Ministry Central Java correctional division head Yuspahruddin, after visiting Nusakambangan prison island in Cilacap regency, Central Java, on Friday, together with members of the House of Representatives Commission III overseeing legal affairs. Yuspahruddin said Yusman would be transferred from Nusakambangan to Tanjung Gusta Penitentiary in Medan. Yusman's case made headlines as he was reported to have still been 16 years old when he was sentenced to death by the Gunugsitoli District Court, Nias, in 2013. Both the Indonesian and international justice systems allow minors to be given a maximum 10 years' imprisonment. Article 37 (a) of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and Article 6 (5) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights state that the death penalty and life imprisonment shall not be imposed on children. The case saw Women's Empowerment and Child Protection Minister Yohana Yembise visit Yusman at LP Batu Penitentiary on the prison island on Wednesday to confirm his age. "Yes, we have met. He said he was still 16 when he was sentenced," said Yohana after meeting Yusman. Meanwhile, the North Sumatra Police said no procedures had been violated in Yusman's investigation, especially in regard to his age. North Sumatra Police spokesperson Sr. Comr. Helfi Assegaf said his office had re-examined the investigation process and had found no violations had been committed by the Nias Police. Assegaf said no document had been found that stated Yusman was underage during the legal procedure. Even Yusman's eldest brother, he said, had confirmed that Yusman was an adult when he was investigated. "The facts show that the police's investigation into Yusman was correct," Assegaf told The Jakarta Post on Friday. The Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) North Sumatra branch, however, presented different information. Kontras North Sumatra coordinator Herdensi Adnin said Yusman was a minor when he was investigated by the Nias Police, as shown by his baptismal certificate. "We received the certificate 3 weeks ago from Yusman. It was issued by the Indonesian Bethel Church, Nusakambangan, Central Java," said Herdensi, adding that the document stated Yusman was born on Dec. 30, 1996. "We will demand that the Supreme Court reviews the case," he said on Friday. Earlier, Kontras also suspected that Yusman had been subject to violence during the investigation and had not been accompanied by any lawyers during questioning. The police denied employing violence during the investigation and said Yusman was accompanied by lawyers. Yusman and his brother-in-law, Rusula Hia, were sentenced to death by the Gunungsitoli District Court, Nias, on May 21, 2013. They were convicted for the premeditated murder of their 3 employers, Kolimarinus Zega, Jimmi Trio Girsang and Rugun Haloho, on April 24, 2012. (source: thejakartapost.com) VIETNAM: Death Penalty Reviewed in Vietnam Vietnam is heading today for a review of the crimes that can be punished with death penalty, which was applied in few cases in the last times, reported the newspaper Than Nien. During a meeting with legislators this week, the vice-minister of justice, Dinh Trung Tung, said that the process of amendment of the current penal code seeks to strengthen the dissuasion and make it more human. The governing organism proposed to abolish the maximum sentence, replacing it by life imprisonment for a number of criminal acts, which include thefts, heroine smuggling, destructions of goods of importance for the national security and surrender to the enemies of the country. In accordance with the project the death penalty will be kept for the aggravated drug trafficking, brutal murders, which are committed along with violations, thefts with crimes in the first grade and acts that threaten the human development and the public order as the corruption. In the meeting the member of the Permanent Committee of the Justice Reform, Nguyen Tat Vien, appreciated that the penal legal system of the country is very severe, but not necessarily effective and it is necessary to limit the effect of the death sentences. The amendments to be introduced in the reference Code emphasize the procedural guarantees for accused and guilty people. (source: Prensa Latina) ENGLAND: Death penalty debate is finally swinging the right way ---- Britons who support the return of capital punishment are now in the minority. Let???s hear it for common sense and decency, writes Alan Tyers. Good news for fans of the civilised world today as it emerged that public support for the death penalty has fallen below 50% for the 1st time in a generation. The NatCen British Social Attitudes study has asked people for their views on the death penalty since 1986. Some 48% of people now back the death penalty for "some crimes", down from 54% in 2013. In 1986, it was as high as 74%. By 1998 it was 59%. So is this cause for celebration? In my opinion, yes. When you read of the miscarriages of justice that have taken place in this country and abroad it just makes you thankful that we do not execute people. Any number of innocent people could have been put to death if we still had the death penalty. Even one such death would be reason enough not to have it. Coverage of the appalling ends suffered by death penalty victims in the USA - with people taking two hours to die after lethal injection ??? may also have hardened our attitudes to killing people in the name of the law. There is no really compelling evidence that executing people acts a deterrent to crimes. Maybe British people are also reacting to the barbaric acts we see around the world such as war crimes, the beheading of innocent prisoners by terrorists. How could Britain claim to be revolted by those, or to take moral leadership against them, if we ourselves were killing people? Obviously you read any number of appalling cases in the papers involving murders or harming children and it's natural to wonder if society would be better off without the criminals. But would the death penalty deter people from committing the very worst crimes? If the death penalty is about retribution and revenge then fair enough, but let???s not pretend this is about justice. For the 1st time in nearly 30 years a majority of Brits oppose the state killing of people. That has to be a good thing. (source: bt.com) PAKISTAN: Minors and death penalty in Pakistan< >From drawing rooms to social media forums, Pakistan recently debated at length whether Shafqat Hussain was a minor when convicted of the alleged criminal offences and whether he should receive the capital punishment like the many terrorists facing the death sentence at the moment. A recent report by Reprieve and Justice Project Pakistan tells us that there could be as many as 800 other child offenders on death row in Pakistan. In Shafqat's case, the execution of his death sentence has been delayed for another 30 days and a committee formed to ascertain his age at the time of the offence. It is interesting to note that Shafqat was originally convicted for murder by the trial court but the High Court overturned the same in 2007 and now he faces death only for the offence of "kidnapping for ransom" under Section 6(2)(e) of the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1997. Not many seem to realise this position and that it is because of the 'terrorist' nature of Shafqat's alleged offence that he faced the death row earlier this year in view of the (partial) lifting of the moratorium by Pakistan. As of 03 March 2015, Pakistan has lifted the moratorium on death penalty across the board as long as all legal avenues and options have been exhausted and mercy petitions have been rejected by the president. Accordingly, it is likely that many child offenders could potentially face the capital punishment irrespective of the nature of their alleged offences as long as they have been convicted of a crime punishable by death. There is divided opinion in Pakistan on whether we should continue to be counted amongst states that still have capital punishment and whether death penalty should be restricted to cases where the 'terrorist' nature of the offence is beyond doubt. However, there should be no confusion regarding our position in relation to the non-applicability of capital punishment in the case of minors. This is not my personal opinion or the position of a segment of our civil society; it is the position of our country as reflected by Pakistan's ratification of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the promulgation of the Juvenile Justice System Ordinance 2000. Pakistan ratified the CRC on 12 Nov 1990 and Article 37 (a) of the CRC states that state parties shall ensure that "no child shall be subjected to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. Neither capital punishment nor life imprisonment without possibility of release shall be imposed for offences committed by persons below 18 years of age". Similarly, Pakistan ratified the ICCPR on 23 June 2010 and Article 6 (5) of the ICCPR states that "sentence of death shall not be imposed for crimes committed by persons below 18 years of age and shall not be carried out on pregnant women". Moreover, Juvenile Justice System Ordinance 2000 covers orders that shall not be passed with respect to a child, and Article 12 (a) states that "no child shall be awarded punishment of death...". It is also worth pointing out that the Pakistan Penal Code states in section 82 that "nothing is an offence which is done by a child under seven years of age" hence establishing the minimum age of criminal responsibility. Section 83 of the Penal Code goes on to state that between 7 and 12 years a child can only commit an offence when he has attained sufficient maturity of understanding to judge of the nature and the consequences of his conduct. Therefore, if there is a clear state position that minors can't be given death penalty then why do we have as many as 800 child offenders, as per the report released by Reprieve and Justice Project Pakistan, on death row? The problem, in my opinion, is that of lack of awareness, incompetency and perhaps even professional negligence. It is not just a matter of the lack of awareness among alleged child offenders and their guardians regarding the legal position relating to trials involving minors but also a grave reflection of the lack of proper legal representation by their lawyers (whether appointed by them or the state) and ignorance (whether negligent or otherwise) of the alleged child offender's rights by the prosecuting authorities and the trial courts. If the report published by Reprieve and Justice Project Pakistan is even partially correct, someone should investigate how we ended up in a situation where we might have to face, to quote Fatima Bhutto, a 'moral catastrophe' potentially over 800 times. In recent judgments, Pakistan's Supreme Court has laid down clear principles which the courts should consider while deciding the question of age. The Supreme Court has pointed out that the plea of minority by an accused is a special plea intended to take the accused off the noose and onus is thus on him (the accused) to prove the same and that such a plea of minority must be taken by the accused at the earliest possible opportunity, preferably during the course of investigation so that the requisite evidence about the age of the accused could also be properly collected and any delayed claim on the said account should be met by adverse inferences. Whenever such a question of age is raised or arises at the trial, the courts should not deal with the same in a cursory or in a slip-shod manner but must proceed to hold an inquiry in the matter as commanded by the provisions of section 7 of the Juvenile Justice System Ordinance, including medical examination of the accused for the purpose. Therefore, in legal terms, the burden of establishing the age lies with the accused child offender. However, on the same basis that a minor should not be sentenced to death even in the case of crimes punishable by death due to his young age, this should not be seen as the sole responsibility of the child offender but that of all the adults involved in prosecuting and defending such an alleged offender. On the other hand, all those who assist criminals in misusing this legal protection for minors, by falsifying records and hence creating difficulties for genuine cases as well, should held for perjury and receive strict punishment. It should be the moral (and perhaps legal) responsibility of the defence and prosecution lawyers and even the trial court judges to prevent miscarriages of justice and inform the child offenders of their rights where it is evident that the alleged offender is a minor. Whether Pakistan should continue to have death penalty for certain offences is another debate, however, until such time that the law of the land provides for capital punishment and also places limitations in relation to its application in the case of minors, all necessary steps should be taken to uphold Pakistan's international and domestic commitments in this respect. (source: Taimur Malik; The writer is a partner at an international law firm and former Executive Director of the Research Society of International Law Pakistan----Pakistan Today) From rhalperi at smu.edu Sun Mar 29 15:31:32 2015 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Sun, 29 Mar 2015 15:31:32 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----PENN., DEL., FLA., ALA., MISS., TENN., LA. Message-ID: March 29 PENNSYLVANIA: Defense attorneys: Pennsylvania's death penalty system puts unfair cost burden on counties At his office in the Cumberland County Courthouse on Friday, Cumberland County Chief Public Defender Timothy Clawges discusses the need for public defenders for death penalty defendants who can't afford a private attorney. Pennsylvania is the only state in the country that does not provide funding for the defense in capital cases, according to Robert Dunham, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center. Because of that, it's on the counties to foot the bill of potential death penalty cases. For chief public defenders like Cumberland County's Timothy Clawges, that's a hefty bill that can equate to "tens and tens of thousands of dollars" for 1 case. "It's hard to budget for," he said. "You might have a year without any, and then the next year, you might have a year with 3. The issue at hand involves "indigent offenders," or those who are poor and would be unable to afford a private attorney to cover the cost of defense in a capital case. Clawges said most capital case defendants fall into that category. "Very rarely does a person in that kind of offense have any funds," he said, estimating that a private attorney bill could be in the 6-figure range. "They wouldn't have enough money to hire an attorney and (pay for) expenses. There (are) very few people who have that kind of money." "Certainly someone can pay for an attorney, but because so much work is involved, it's usually only wealthy individuals who can afford a private attorney," said Jay Abom, a Carlisle defense attorney certified for death penalty cases. Defendants who can't pay for a private attorney can either be defended by the county public defender's office or receive a court-appointed attorney. Abom, who has been appointed by the court for Cumberland County death penalty cases, explained that the county still pays for the defense, though in this case, it's through an hourly or settled rate with the appointed attorney. Investigations The reason why the defense of a capital case can be costly is also one of the reasons why a case can take so long to get to trial. Clawges explained that defendants in capital cases face 2 phases at the county level - a guilt phase and a penalty phase. Like other criminal defendants in the county system, a capital case defendant will have a trial to determine guilt. If that defendant is found guilty of 1st-degree murder, however, then the case will move to a penalty phase immediately after the trial. During that phase, the defense will make the argument that the defendant should receive life in prison instead of a death sentence. The same jury will be present in both phases and will determine guilt and the sentence. The 2nd penalty phase would not be necessary if a defendant is found not guilty, or guilty of 2nd- or 3rd-degree murder. A 2nd-degree murder conviction automatically results in a life sentence, and a judge will determine the sentence in a 3rd-degree murder conviction, which is usually 20 to 40 years in prison. While the defense attorney or public defender will have to prepare for the trial phase like any other case - though one that potentially carries a heavy price - the penalty phase requires a lengthy investigation into the defendant's past. "From a defense perspective, it's not just about addressing the guilt or not guilt on an act or conduct, but (we also have to) complete an investigation into social history and medical history," Clawges said. "It requires experts. Social history is a lengthy, time-consuming and expensive process." Dunham, who is a former federal defender in Pennsylvania, said the penalty phase investigation can involve researching past sexual abuse and child abuse, as well as talking to experts in forensic science, such as for ballistics, arson or DNA analysis. "Suddenly you're not looking at a $5,000 or $10,000 or $15,000 or $20,000 case," Dunham said. "It's substantially more expensive for capital cases." Since guilt would have been established in the first phase of the court hearing, Dunham said, the defense in the penalty phase would have to look at 2 things - if the crime was in character of the defendant or out of character. "If it's in the character of the defendant, you know something in the individual's background, genetic makeup or (injury) has caused someone to behave in that manner. There are some psychological disturbances that need to be explored," he said. "For out-of-character (defense), you look at what was going on in that situation. That requires a psychological and psychiatric investigation." Staff Given that kind of work, it's recommended that capital cases must have 2 defense attorneys. "There's not a law that says that has to be that way," Abom said. "Some have agreed that having 1 person responsible for everything is so overwhelming considering the situation. Often in Cumberland County, judges will appoint 2 attorneys." Clawges said having 2 attorneys is particularly important since the level of investigation could not be performed by one person, and a 2-person team would eliminate the need for one attorney to have to prove the defendant innocent in one phase and then argue the extent of his or her guilt in the next. However important, it's a hard task to take 2 public defenders away for an extensive case when Cumberland County has a full-time staff of nine - not all of whom are certified in death penalty cases - and a full caseload of defendants in other criminal cases. "The strain on the staff can be very serious," said Clawges, who has been a public defender for almost 25 years. He also noted that there are requirements as to who can defend a capital case offender. Attorneys would need a certain number of serious cases under their belts before they can become certified, and attorneys must then undergo continuous training on education of capital crime. Public defenders do not see the same kind of salary as private attorneys despite the work, Clawges said. "Absolutely that has an impact," he said. "There aren't a whole lot of private attorneys that do capital cases. The stress level is unparalleled. You really don't know how it works until you're doing one of these cases. Our attorneys don't receive anything extra for doing these cases, despite essentially being tasked with keeping somebody alive. "There's nothing else like it," he added. "You're trying to leave no stone unturned. You can't imagine what it's like to sit in that defendant's seat." Issues Dunham said that kind of pressure on a small county staff that is not funded by the state leads to a stronger likelihood that capital cases could be reversed or overturned. And if a case is sent back to Cumberland County, that costly social history investigation would need to be repeated at the expense of the county if it returns to a public defender. Since 1978, when the death penalty was re-established in Pennsylvania, Dunham said, "150 death penalty cases have been overturned. Of those, the most frequent reason is ineffective assistance of counsel." "If you attempt to do something on the cheap at trial, it will be more costly in the long run," he said. Dunham said studies have indicated that about 100 cases were reversed at the post-conviction stage, and another 50 more were reversed at the habeas corpus stage - in federal court. Of those 150 cases, Dunham said, 115 went back through the system, and only 4 of those defendants are still on death row. The other 111 were resentenced to life in prison or less, and some were freed. "More have been freed than are on death row," he said of the reversed cases. That additional cost has pushed some, including Gov. Tom Wolf, to estimate that the cost of the death penalty is $300 million. Dunham, however, said that is likely much smaller than the actual amount since those numbers do not include the cost of trials that did not result in a death sentence. "Nobody knows how much it is costing the state," he said. "In Pennsylvania, there is still no central data collection site, so nobody knows how often prosecutors seek the death penalty in Pennsylvania. There is no central way of getting data." A March 2008 study from Urban Institute, an organization that conducts economic and social policy research, showed that Maryland taxpayers between 1978 and 1999 paid about $186 million more than what those cases would have cost if the death penalty had not been sought. Maryland has only had 5 executions since the late 1970s, when the death penalty was re-enacted. Dunham said the Atlantic Center for Capital Representation, which provides resources for capital case defense attorneys, has been tracking capital cases in Pennsylvania for the past 4 years. According to the center's data, in the last 300 or more cases in which the death penalty was sought, the death penalty was imposed 16 times. "For every time in which a death sentence is obtained, it is not obtained 19 times," Dunham said. "That 5 % death penalty rate suggests that it's not particularly cost-effective." Abom said of all the defendants he's represented in Cumberland County in which a death sentence was sought by the prosecution, none of them went to trial. He said all of his cases ended with a plea agreement for a life sentence or a lesser incarceration sentence. Cumberland County District Attorney David Freed said it would have to be an unusual case where he would not consider a plea deal if the defense was interested, but he also noted that cost cannot be a factor when determining how to proceed with prosecuting a 1st-degree murder. "I do not consider costs," he said. "It can't come down to the cost. You have to do the job." (source: cumberlink.com) **************** End Pa. moratorium on the death penalty Last month, The Morning Call had pictures of 12 men who are murderers on the front page. Gov. Wolf announced he had a moratorium on the death penalty in Pennsylvania. The men have no remorse for what they have done. Most of their appeals are that they are mentally unstable. The system is not broken. It is the misuse of the system that is broken. The liberal lawyers and Gov. Wolf claim it costs more for the appeals than to stay in prison for life. Another letter written by Mr. Getz informing us all once again that he is a former police officer. Hey Merle we all know already you can stop now. I won't disagree that there is not some abuse in the way that the death penalties are appealed as some seemingly slam dunk cases seem to drag... While I was a police officer in Bethlehem, my partner, Philip Fahy, was murdered in 1969 by a man named Bebley Wells Jr. I shot the murderer three times, and he survived and was given life in prison, not the death penalty. I estimate that at the time it cost $42 a day to keep a murderer in prison for life. Wells spent 35 years in prison before he died in 2004. This could have been a cost of about $536,550. The complaints about the death penalty are that the people on death row are lonely, the way they are to die is inhumane, and they should not have to suffer. What about the victims? Were their deaths humane? The victims don't get any appeals and will never see their family again. Wake up, Gov. Wolf, and get with the program - but not the liberals' program. Merle Getz Bethlehem Township (source: Letter to the Editor, Morning Call) DELAWARE: Delaware should keep death penalty for heinous crimes When you write a column of commentary, history and other assorted local and national subjects, you're bound to repeat topics as they return to the forefront. It's been certainly true here in my 26 years at this spot. Some subjects I feel almost obligated to write about almost annually, such as my gratitude to the United States for sheltering this columnist's escape from Nazidom on Thanksgiving Day, 1939. I feel the same about regularly remembering a friend killed on a plane that hit the World Trade Towers on Sept. 11, 2001. The latter brings me to today's subject: the death penalty. As some readers of this column must know by now, I support capital punishment in certain cases. Had we somehow caught some of the murderers involved in those fatal 9/11 attacks, there should be no hesitation in executing them. I feel the same about such mass murderers of innocent civilians as most recently the gunmen in the Tunisian Museum, the executioners of ISIS and the butchers of Boko Haram of Nigeria. ISIS and Boko Haram picture themselves as warriors for an Islamic caliphate but they are really just evil killers. The countries that have abolished the death penalty, and that includes most of the western world, have allowed mass murderers to get off lightly. In Norway, for example, a man who murdered 77 people on a vacation island was sentenced in 2012 to the maximum penalty: 21 years in prison, considered a form of preventive detention that only required a minimum of 10 years incarceration. The debate has resumed in Dover about whether Delaware should abolish its death penalty, a fight once again led by the redoubtable Sen. Karen Peterson. Her S.B. 40 eliminates the entire capital punishment Section 4209 of the Delaware Code's Title 11, with the exception that persons convicted of 1st degree murder after the law goes into effect would serve the rest of their natural life in prison "without benefit of probation or parole or any other reduction." The 15 men who have already been sentenced to die could still be executed, but their various appeals mean they'll be in prison for many years anyway. Delaware police organizations have come out strongly against the end to capital punishment, and a majority of Delawareans probably feel the same. The latest national Gallup Poll shows 61 % of Americans believe in the death penalty, a percentage pretty much unchanged in more than a decade. The trouble with the poll is that the question is asked without the necessary qualifications. The numbers would be much higher if people were asked if such mastermind mass killers as Hitler, Stalin and Mao should be sentenced to prison or execution. Or what would the answer be if you ask about the men who raked the classrooms at Sandy Hook Elementary School and Virginia Tech University with their automatic weapons. Anyone who kills a police officer - and remember we just had 2 New York City cops killed in cold blood as they sat in their patrol car - or a corrections officer should be executed. Else what would keep them from killing again? Someone who kills a witness against a murderer has also committed an unforgiveable crime. What the General Assembly should do is modify the conditions under which a jury or a judge can now vote for the death penalty. It should be reserved for the most heinous killers, and should assure absolute evidence of guilt, not just a fallible eyewitness or forced confession or a stoolies' statement. Too many of those have turned out to have the wrong person jailed or executed. A state Senate committee last week voted the bill out unanimously on its merits and it's bound to pass that chamber again. This year the 41 representatives should be given a chance to take a stand. (source: Editorial; Harry Themal, delawareonline.com) FLORIDA: Holy Week is time to reflect on Florida's death penalty "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." These last words of Larry Lonchar, who was executed by the state of Georgia in 1996, echo the last words of another man executed as a criminal: Jesus of Nazareth. "Forgive them" are words that both break and challenge the hearts of Christians during the observance of Holy Week and Eastertide. Indeed, forgiveness is at the heart of the many faiths that recognize, as Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa has said, that "without forgiveness, there is no future." Pope Francis maintains that the death penalty is "inadmissible," and he calls upon all nations to abolish it, as do other faith traditions. In our view, it is time for all people who seek justice and the common good to ask: Do we know what we are doing? Jesus was innocent, as Larry Lonchar was not, by his own admission. However, the 25 former inmates of Florida's death row who have been exonerated - more than in any other state - are innocent of the crimes for which they were almost put to death. We do not know how many other innocent persons have been executed in the more than three decades since Florida reinstated the death penalty, which former Gov. LeRoy Collins deemed "Florida's gutter of shame." Still, even if the 393 men and women now on our state's death row are entirely guilty of the crimes for which they have been sentenced to die, does society execute justice by killing them ... or is justice itself on the gurney? Gov. Rick Scott insists that he thinks about the victims when he signs a death warrant. "Victim" Agnes Furey, one of the Tallahassee Democrat's 25 Women You Need to Know and a tireless advocate for restorative justice, is an eloquent opponent of the death penalty. Not only has she forgiven and befriended the man who murdered her daughter and grandson, but she also co-authored with him the award-winning book "Wildflowers in the Median." And "victim" Kathy Dillon, whose New York State Trooper father was murdered in the line of duty and who speaks publicly against the death penalty, has written, "And for me, it always comes down to my belief that humans shouldn't have the power to decide who lives and who dies. I feel that it is wrong for one person to take the life of another, either in an attack of violence or in response to violence." (Dillon will speak in Tallahassee on April 13.) The victims of state-sponsored homicide are the family members of executed prisoners, particularly their children. No law brings closure to their pain and agony. Only the mercy of God can comfort them. Do we know what we are doing? We do not, for only God has complete knowledge of our hearts. Yet Jesus prays that we may be forgiven. With public support for the death penalty waning across the nation, and with long-overdue investigations into the sentencing and executing of human beings underway, it is time to stop, to reflect and to seek greater wisdom. Father, forgive us. (source: Opinion; The Rev. Marda Messick (pastorststephens at embarqmail.com) is pastor of St. Stephen Lutheran Church and a member of Tallahassee Citizens Against the Death Penalty. The Rev. Emory Hingst is pastor emeritus of St. Stephen. The Rev. Brant Copeland is pastor of First Presbyterian Church----tallahassee.com) ALABAMA: Executions and secrecy 2 things are absolutely clear about a death-penalty bill making its way through the 2015 session of the Alabama Legislature: 1. Supporters of the measure in question (HB18) want to ensure the state's death-row inmates are executed in the name of Alabamians. The method is not so important. "We can choose not only the electric chair, but any other method available - hanging, firing squad, gas chamber or whatever," said Rep. Lynn Greer, R-Rogersville, the bill's lead sponsor. 2. HB18's supporters would just as soon Alabama residents know as little as possible about the executions done in their name, keeping confidential almost all aspects of an inmate's death. The bill passed the House earlier this month on a 76-26 vote, and the Senate is expected to take it up soon. Recent Gallup polling finds that 63 % of Americans support capital punishment - down from a high of 80 percent in 1994. Regardless of whether you are pro-death penalty or anti-death penalty, it matters how the state goes about killing inmates. There's no going back if it's later discovered the deceased was wrongly convicted. Over the past 42 years, more than 130 death-row inmates across the United States have been released after new evidence came to light, according to advocates at the Death Penalty Information Center. The trials that convict men and women are held before the public. Just imagine the distrust we'd have in a system that tried and sentenced the accused in secret proceedings. Likewise, executions are open for family members and members of the news media to witness the killing of an inmate. News stories following an execution are important, as reporters relay information about the crime, the victim and the scene as the convict breathed his or her last. That openness is being tested by the marketplace, particularly when it comes to the favored execution method of late - lethal injections. Global drug manufacturers whose products are used in U.S. executions find themselves under pressure from activists opposed to the death penalty. That's especially true across Europe, where capital punishment is largely out of favor. The drug companies are thus reluctant to sell their products to states that use them for lethal injections. It's bad for business. This helps explain the nearly 2-year pause in executions in Alabama. Capital punishment states such as Alabama are having a hard time finding drugs necessary for a lethal injection. With HB18, Alabama is attempting a work-around. If the drug companies can't stand the bad publicity, then just keep secret what drugs are used in an execution's lethal cocktail. In fact, thanks to an amendment by Rep. Mac McCutcheon, R-Huntsville, Alabama's HB18 appears to put a shroud over the entire process of killing an inmate, making it a state secret. "The name, address, qualifications, and other identifying information of any person or entity that manufactures, compounds, prescribes, dispenses, supplies, or administers the drugs or supplies utilized in an execution shall be confidential, shall not be subject to disclosure, and shall not be admissible as evidence or discoverable in any action of any kind in any court or before any tribunal, board, agency, or person. The same confidentiality and protections shall also apply to any person who participates in an execution or performs any ancillary function related to an execution and shall include information contained in any departmental records, including electronic records, that would identify the person." That's a mouthful, but what it essentially does is exempt executions from the state's Open Records Act. In other words, the bill asks Alabamians to trust the state. That's too much for a government to ask when it comes to the state taking a life. (source: Bob Davis is associate publisher/editor of The Anniston Star) MISSISSIPPI: Mississippi Supreme Court affirms DeSoto death sentence A split decision by the Mississippi Supreme Court has affirmed the death sentence given to a man for the death of a 13-year-old DeSoto County girl killed with her mother and grandmother. The Memphis Commercial Appeal (http://bit.ly/1yfWlgy ) reports that 4 judges signed the majority opinion in the case of Sherwood Brown, whose attorney argued in October that mild mental retardation barred his execution. 3 judges dissented and 1 did not participate. The U.S. Supreme Court in 2002 barred states from executing mentally disabled inmates. Brown got the death penalty for killing 13-year-old Evangela Boyd, because jurors found that he killed her in 1995 while committing felony child abuse. He got life sentences for the deaths of the child's mother, 48-year-old Verline Boyd, and her 82-year-old grandmother, Betty Boyd. (source: Associated Press) TENNESSEE: Attorneys: TDOC does not have lethal injection drugs The Tennessee Department of Corrections will not say if it has the chemicals needed to execute inmates via lethal injection. Attorneys for inmates challenging the state's protocol say the drugs are not on hand. And an opportunity for the attorneys to ask prison supervisors about the drug supply did not take place as planned Friday because of a canceled court hearing. As an increasing number of national medical organizations oppose participation in the controversial executions, it could be a challenge for Tennessee to find the drugs it needs. "It's certainly clear that it has become more difficult for states to find the drugs that their protocols say they are supposed to use," said Robert Dunham, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, which opposes the death penalty. "What the response to that will be is unclear." Drug supply Attorneys for Tennessee and attorneys for more than 30 death-row inmates - who are challenging the state's lethal injection and electrocution procedures - had planned to gather in front of Davidson County Chancellor Claudia Bonnyman on Friday. The inmates and their attorneys say the state's protocols are unconstitutional and violate protections from cruel and unusual punishment. The state filed a motion for a Friday hearing, asking Bonnyman to stop any court proceedings related to electrocutions. That issue is pending before the Tennessee Supreme Court. Attorneys: 'White out' glitch reveals lethal injection pharmacist Attorneys for the inmates used it as a chance to file documents suggesting the state is unable to carry out lethal injection executions. The Tennessee Department of Corrections has said it is confident it will be able to carry out executions, but when previously asked by The Tennessean, did not say whether the lethal-injection drugs were on hand. The inmates' attorneys say in court documents that they subpoenaed Riverbend Maximum Security Institution leaders Tony Parker and Charles Carpenter to bring proof the state has the drugs. The execution chamber and death row inmates are housed at Riverbend in Nashville. Attorneys for the inmates expected both men who oversee the prison to testify during a hearing that the Department of Corrections does not have a supply of the drugs. The state withdrew its request for the Friday hearing. And then it asked the Tennessee Supreme Court to intervene. National opposition The battle happening inside the Nashville courtroom unfolds as an increasing number of national groups oppose lethal injection. On Monday, the leaders of the American Pharmacists Association will take a final vote whether to oppose pharmacist participation in executions. The APA is the largest group of pharmacists with 62,000 members. The policy under consideration says that "such activities are fundamentally contrary to the role of pharmacists as providers of health care." The American Medical Association, American Board of Anesthesiologists, American Nurses Association and National Association of Emergency Medical Technicians each discourage their members' participation in executions. "The 1st rule for doctors is the Hippocratic Oath: Do no harm," Dunham said. In response to botched executions and public pressure, manufacturers of the lethal-injection drug pentobarbital barred their products from being used in executions. States have turned to compounding pharmacies, which alter manufactured drugs, for a supply. But last week the International Association of Compounding Pharmacists issued a statement discouraging its 4,000 members from supplying compounded lethal injection drugs. The statement reflects increasing concern that states will alter the chemicals and cause pharmacists to face legal problems, according to the association. Still, that does not mean the drugs are unavailable and executions will halt. "I think that will further restrict the availability of these drugs," Durham said. "And it will create further incentives for those few compounding pharmacies that are acting against the generally accepted view of their community, it will create more incentives for them to be secretive about their involvement in this activity." In early March, Texas announced it was running low on pentobarbital. On Wednesday, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice announced it had found a pharmacy to temporarily supply the chemical, and executions would continue. OTHER EVENTS IN THE DEATH PENALTY CASE -- Davidson County Chancellor Claudia Bonnyman ordered documents revealing the name of pharmacists supplying lethal injection drugs be returned to the Tennessee Department of Corrections. Federal public defenders got the documents, with 1 of the names poorly redacted, through a public records request. They sealed the documents and notified the court on March 20. -- The state has asked the Tennessee Supreme Court to stop any Chancery Court proceedings related to the condemned inmates' claims that the electric chair is unconstitutional. The Supreme Court is set to hear arguments May 6 whether challenges to the electric chair can be made. The state argues since no inmate is currently set to be executed by electrocution, the inmates' claims are invalid. -- The Tennessee Supreme Court has asked the state to show why 4 executions scheduled for later this year should not be rescheduled, given that the Chancery Court case likely will not be resolved by then. -- What's next: A hearing to address pending motions in the case is set for April 10. Trial is set for July 7. (source: The Tennessean) LOUISIANA: Baton Rouge cop killer's mental capacity at issue in case before U.S. Supreme Court 13 years after barring the execution of mentally disabled inmates and 10 months after nullifying a strict IQ limit for determining who can be executed, the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday will wade once again into the ever-evolving death penalty waters when it hears arguments in the 1993 ambush slaying of Baton Rouge police Cpl. Betty Smothers. Kevan Brumfield, 1 of 2 condemned triggermen in the killing of the 36-year-old Smothers outside a Jefferson Highway bank depository, claims he is intellectually disabled but was prevented from showing that by a Baton Rouge state judge who denied him a hearing and state funds to pursue his claim. District Judge Richard Anderson's 2003 ruling came the year after the high court, in the case of Atkins v. Virginia, forbade states from putting mentally disabled prisoners to death. U.S. District Judge James Brady later gave Brumfield a hearing in Baton Rouge federal court, along with federal funds, and ruled in 2012 that Brumfield is intellectually disabled and ineligible for the death penalty. Last year, that decision was reversed by a 3-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, setting the stage for Monday???s showdown at the Supreme Court. Smothers, a mother of 6 children, was working an off-duty security job and had driven a grocery store assistant manager to the bank to make a night deposit when she was fatally shot shortly after midnight on Jan. 7, 1993. Smothers was shot 5 times and died. Kimen Lee, the Piggly Wiggly employee, was shot 4 times in the crossfire of 2 gunmen but survived. Juries convicted Brumfield and Henri Broadway, who also is on death row, of being those shooters. Brumfield, who turned 20 the day he killed the police officer, was accused of shooting Smothers. Broadway, who was tried after Brumfield, was accused of firing some of the shots that wounded Lee. The state's attorneys argue in their Supreme Court brief that Brumfield scoped out the bank days in advance of the crime, rented a car and acquired both guns that were used. Before the Supreme Court, attorneys are grappling with 2 questions: Is it unreasonable for a state court to determine whether an inmate is intellectually disabled based on evidence from the penalty phase of his trial? Has a state court that denies funding to an indigent inmate with no other means of obtaining evidence of his alleged intellectual disability denied the defendant his "opportunity to be heard" and his constitutional right to be provided with the "basic tools" for an adequate defense? Son to attend arguments Former Catholic High School, Florida State University and NFL running back Warrick Dunn, the oldest of Smothers' children, will attend the Supreme Court arguments, said retired East Baton Rouge Parish Assistant District Attorney Prem Burns, who prosecuted the capital murder case and will argue the case at the high court as special counsel. Dunn's mother was killed 2 days after his 18th birthday. He declined to comment for this article through the DA's Office but in a 2012 letter to The Advocate made clear that he supports the death penalty for Brumfield. "From my view, his use of 'mental retardation' as a defense is offensive and morally wrong," he wrote. Brumfield's attorneys want the justices to reverse the 5th Circuit. The state's attorneys are asking the top court to affirm the appeals court and Brumfield's death sentence. Capital Post-Conviction Project of Louisiana Director Gary Clements, who handles numerous Atkins-related issues but is not involved in the Smothers case, said Thursday he's eager to see how the high court resolves the case. As for whether the Brumfield case could have larger implications about how all courts decide whether someone is intellectually disabled and thus not eligible for execution, Clements said, "It isn't going to be the sea change that came out in 2002 (in Atkins) or in Hall." Last May, in Hall v. Florida, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down that state's law that prohibited anyone with an IQ of 70 or higher from being classified as mentally disabled, regardless of other evidence to the contrary. Louisiana does not have an IQ cutoff for intellectual disability. Prior to the Hall decision, at least nine states had a strict IQ limit, an indication of the absence of a national consensus on how to determine mental disability. Clements suggested the nation's top court may have decided to hear Brumfield's case so it can further refine the court's restrictions on the death penalty. In the Hall opinion, Justice Anthony Kennedy concluded that states should look to the clinical consensus for determining whether inmates are intellectually disabled and not fixate too strictly on an IQ cutoff. In Brumfield's case, there is no clinical consensus. 2 psychologists testified in federal court that Brumfield is intellectually disabled. A psychiatrist, a psychologist and a neuropsychologist testified he is not. Brumfield's attorneys and the lawyers representing the state agree that the Louisiana Supreme Court - shortly after the Atkins decision in 2002 - adopted the clinical definition of intellectual disability endorsed by the high court in Atkins. The U.S. Supreme Court, however, left to the states the task of adopting an appropriate standard for intellectual disability. The Louisiana Supreme Court concluded that a diagnosis of mental disability has 3 distinct components: subaverage intelligence, as measured by objective standardized IQ tests; significant impairment in several areas of adaptive skills; and manifestations of the neuro-psychological disorder in the developmental stage, or before the age of 18. In reversing Judge Brady in January 2014, the 5th Circuit said Anderson considered the intellectual functioning and adaptive behavior prongs of Louisiana's test for intellectual disability and properly rejected Brumfield's request for an evidentiary hearing on his claim that he is intellectually disabled. Clements noted that not every inmate facing the death penalty is entitled to a so-called Atkins hearing. "There's no such thing as an automatic Atkins hearing," he said. Disputes about disability Lawyers representing Brumfield argue in written briefs that Anderson, who was not Brumfield's trial judge, relied on the court record from the penalty phase of Brumfield's 1995 capital murder trial - a trial where intellectual disability was not an issue. "No witness testified as to whether Brumfield was intellectually disabled or whether he met any of the clinical criteria that define intellectual disability. No witness was ever asked," the defense attorneys, who include Nick Trenticosta, of New Orleans, and Michael DeSanctis, of Washington, D.C., point out. "7 years after Brumfield was sentenced, this Court recognized the nation's 'evolving standards of decency' and articulated for the 1st time that the Eighth Amendment prohibits the execution of an intellectually disabled person," they note. But even during the pre-Atkins penalty phase of his trial, Brumfield's attorneys contend, it was shown that Brumfield had scored an IQ of 75, that he has at best a 4th-grade reading level and spent much of his schooling in special education classes. "The state court's determination that these facts did not even require a hearing on Brumfield's intellectual disability was patently unreasonable," his attorneys argue. They say Louisiana courts recognize that an IQ of 75 indicates the possibility of intellectual disability. Brumfield, who dropped out of school in the 9th grade, had an abusive childhood and 6 different stepfathers or other temporary father figures, his attorneys argue in their Supreme Court brief. Brumfield was committed to 6 out-of-home institutions beginning at the age of 12, they say. Prosecutors insist Brumfield, who briefly held down jobs and fathered five children with 3 different women, is not intellectually disabled. They say he was evaluated at least 6 times before the age of 18 and not once was he diagnosed as intellectually disabled. "His behavior as an adult shows Brumfield has adequate adaptive skills. Brumfield's ability to orchestrate the sophisticated armed robbery that resulted in the cold-blooded murder of Corporal Betty Smothers provides definitive proof," Burns and Assistant District Attorney Monisa Thompson argue in their brief. The state's attorneys also say Brumfield was given state funding prior to trial for investigation, mitigation and examination by psychologists. In an interview, Burns acknowledged Brumfield is in the mildly intellectually disabled range. "The IQ is not the issue to me," she added. "It's how he lives every day. He can certainly function on his own in society. He always took care of his wants and needs." Brumfield, 42, has drawn support in his case from a high-powered coalition. Monday's hearing will mark the 1st time in the history of the East Baton Rouge Parish District Attorney's Office that the office will orally argue a case before the nation's highest court. (source: The Advocate) From rhalperi at smu.edu Sun Mar 29 15:32:12 2015 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Sun, 29 Mar 2015 15:32:12 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----UTAH, CALIF. Message-ID: March 29 UTAH: Reinstating firing squad signifies Utah's faltering moral standing The death penalty by way of firing squad is the wrong option for dealing with criminals. Utah should stay steadfast in the moral sense as an example to other states and abandon this form of capital punishment. Gov. Gary Herbert's signing of HB11, which reinstates the firing squad, represents the acceptance of a misleading sales pitch to Utah voters. That bill was neither needed nor based on sound policy reasons. It will cost taxpayers millions of dollars while doing nothing to deter crime. More importantly, the bill diminishes Utah's moral standing in the nation and in the world as reflected by the near unanimous rejection of the firing squad. Its time has come and gone. Despite supporters' claims, re-implementing the firing squad is based on false premises. By even supporters' estimates, an execution could not possibly occur for another 4 years, and likely much longer. Regardless, several other states are litigating lethal injection protocols now. That litigation will sort out the legality of how executions are conducted. Until that litigation is resolved, no urgency exists. Further contrary to supporters' claims, HB11 is not a simple housekeeping measure that will protect the state from protracted litigation. Legislators who have spoken in favor of the measure claim that the firing squad simply creates a contingency plan should drugs used for executions become unavailable. The fallacy in this argument is the false assumption that the firing squad would not be subject to legal attack and would, therefore, spare the state from litigation costs. The reintroduction of the firing squad would do just the opposite. Under United States Supreme Court precedent, the death penalty is subject to "evolving standards of decency" as determined by common practices by the states. Only one other state (Oklahoma) relies on the firing squad in any form. The other 48 states have rejected it. Because the firing squad is a relic of the past and is infrequently used, it is vulnerable to constitutional challenge. Rather than avoiding litigation, reinstating this device guarantees protracted legal proceedings and enormous costs to the state. Of even more concern, supporters' claim that reinstating the firing squad does not challenge the legitimacy of the death penalty itself is patently false. By supporting the firing squad as a tool of death, Utah endorses not only the killing of others by the use of an outmoded tool, but it also supports the taking of human life generally. International opposition to HB11 illustrates that reintroducing the firing squad in Utah endorses capital punishment itself. Indeed, in the few days since HB11 was passed by the Legislature, national and international journalists have accused Utah of cruelty and indifference to human life. Utah risks losing its moral standing and influence among other states and nations by reinstating this cruel execution device. Utah leaders frequently portray Utahns (accurately so) as compassionate, caring and fair-minded. But the state's reliance on the death penalty stands in direct opposition to accepted principles of decency and enlightened thought. Utah should be a leader in the world on moral issues and not seek to turn back the clock to a more insensitive, debasing time. Further, Utah's endorsement of capital punishment diminishes its role as a criminal justice reform leader. The Legislature's recent adoption of criminal justice reform reflects a growing awareness that current policies are failing the people of this state, including offenders, and waste millions of taxpayer dollars. The reform movement also reflects an awareness that research-based approaches to crime not only save money but also improve people's lives. In contrast to these policies, research shows that the death penalty does not deter crime and, in fact, costs far more money to administer than imprisonment. The death penalty and the firing squad rely on old ways of thinking that result in extraordinary expense and wasted human potential. Utah should join the clear trend among other states to abandon the use of the death penalty and to identify more effective ways to prevent crime and deal with human frailty. Just in the past few years, several states have abolished the death penalty and more are lining up to do so. Utah will be left behind in this effort and become even more isolated morally. With so much to gain and so much to lose in the fight over capital punishment, the clear decision is to choose better ways to deal with violence. (source: L. Monte Sleight is president of Utah Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. Kent R. Hart is executive director; Deseret News) CALIFORNIA: Attorneys in death penalty case still seeking jury info, possible change of venue With little more than two weeks before the start of a death penalty trial for a Fairfield man accused of killing a Vallejo police officer in 2011, defense attorneys continue to litigate numerous motions related to Solano County jurors and the possibility of moving the trial elsewhere. Attorneys for Henry Albert Smith, Jr., accused of the Nov. 17, 2011, slaying of Vacaville resident and Vallejo Police Officer James Capoot, have been trying to obtain data related to Solano County's jury pool leading up to a separate argument in favor of moving the trial. Smith, who is set to begin a jury trial April 15, is accused by prosecutors of robbing a Vallejo bank before leading officers on a high-speed pursuit that ended with the gunshot slaying of Capoot. Solano County prosecutors are seeking the death penalty. Yet defense attorneys, who were previously denied in an attempt to distribute a 1-page questionnaire given to prospective Solano County Superior Court jurors in unrelated cases, have not laid the issue to rest. On Friday, Smith's defense team went before visiting Judge W. Arvid Johnson to get a ruling on their request for names of all prospective jurors in Solano County. According to courtroom arguments, Smith's defense counsel would like the information to hire a private company to perform a survey of jurors, similar to a census. 1 of Smith's attorney's, Chief Deputy Public Defender Oscar Bobrow, had previously stated in court that an informal study revealed that 8 % of the jury pools in Fairfield appeared to have African Americans jurors, while 13 % appeared in Vallejo, he testified. Smith is African American, and Bobrow has argued that the trial should be held in Vallejo, where the alleged crime occurred and where his client is more likely to receive a fair trial. On Friday, it appeared Johnson would allow Smith's defense team to have the names and addresses of all potential jurors in Solano County based on a 2014 list. The list of potential jurors is based off of voter registration information and DMV data. However, attorneys for Solano County's jury commissioner objected to such a release. "We don't know what's going to be said to these people," said Sarah L. Overton, attorney for the jury commissioner. Overton expressed a scenario in which the jury pool in Solano County could be tainted by allowing the defense team to have contact with them prior to trial. Johnson, in an attempt to minimize that possibility and protect the privacy rights of the jury pool, ordered that the 2014 list of all Solano County jurors would not be released until Smith's defense team provided the court and counsel with their proposed questionnaire. If Smith's defense team chooses to do so, it would set up another round of legal arguments, one that may not be allowed to happen with a little more than 2 weeks left before the start of trial, given statutory time periods for attorneys to respond in writing before coming into court. "This motion should have been made a long time ago," Johnson said. Another issue defense attorneys are preparing to argue is for a change of venue. Smith's attorneys have indicated they are prepared to present testimony from a witness, Edward Bronson, a retired Chico State University professor and expert on change of venue motions. Bronson and Judge Peter B. Foor, who is presiding over Smith's trial, are no strangers to change of venue motions in Solano County. Perhaps coincidentally, Foor, as a Deputy Public Defender, worked with Bronson in the late 1980s on a change of venue motion that was granted. Foor, at that time, represented Shawn Melton, a Vallejo man accused of the kidnap and murder of 6-year-old Jeremy Stoner. In that case, Bronson surveyed jurors in Solano County, and the case was ultimately moved to Sacramento County, where 2 jury trials ended with hung juries. The change of venue motion in Smith's case is set to be heard on April 1. Smith, who remains in Solano County Jail without bail, has pleaded not guilty to murder, robbery and being a felon in possession of a handgun in connection with the case. He is alleged to have robbed a Bank of America branch on Springs Road, leading to a pursuit through the city that ended in North Vallejo, where Capoot, 45, is believed to have chased him into a back yard on Janice Street. According to testimony at a November 2012, probable-cause hearing, arriving officers found Capoot lying on the ground in an open area of the yard, having been shot. Smith was apprehended down the street from where the shooting occurred with a .40-caliber Glock semi-automatic handgun in his left-front pocket that ballistics experts matched to shell casings found in the yard where Capoot was shot, police testified. (source: The Reporter) From rhalperi at smu.edu Sun Mar 29 15:33:07 2015 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Sun, 29 Mar 2015 15:33:07 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide Message-ID: March 29 NEPAL: There is a need to revive the provision of death penalty for inhuman crimes like rape-cum-murder and gang rape The rape-cum-murder resulting in the death of a seven-year-old girl in Bara has triggered a debate on whether or not Nepal should revive the death penalty for particular crimes. I am not a lawyer but as an observer of socio-political dynamics, I am in favour of the partial revival of the death penalty for the actualisation of social reforms. Right to live During the royal rule, there was a provision of death penalty for high treason against the state, meaning against the royal throne, which was used to put some democratic political activists to death. In the 1990 constitution, which institutionalised parliamentary democracy with limited powers for the monarchy, the provision of death penalty was dropped. But there was a deep-seated dissatisfaction among some sections of society, who thought that it was a premature decision for a country like Nepal, where people take more pride in breaking laws rather than following them. While some countries in the world have death penalty provisions, many others provide capital punishment for various crimes. The basic question is whether the state has the inherent right to take the life of a person. The contractual origin theory of the state presupposes a contract between the individual and the state wherein individuals surrender rights to the state to receive security in return. But the contract does not include surrendering one's right to live. In fact, it is a special right protected by the state. No political philosophy proposes the death penalty as a basis for social order. If so, from where does the state get the right to take away the life of its citizens? A corollary question can be asked: does anyone have the right to defy the law of the land and commit a crime devoid of all humanity? Do males have the right to demand submission and loyalty from women through a one-sided decision and perpetrate inhuman crimes against women for having tried to evade men? If everyone has an equal right to live and be protected, why does one person take away the right to life of another person? If the state cannot protect an innocent from being killed by a criminal, how can it justify its inherent right to receive loyalty from its citizens? Can the state, then, not take recourse to the death penalty as a deterrent against the evil designs of bad people? There could be several angles to such thinking that defend death penalty. Whose responsibility? Let us now turn to some practical aspects of social disorder. Violence against women comes to the forefront. Though there are laws to curb such violence, its occurrence is frequently revealed. Sexual abuse is one glaring example. Raping seems to have been the fondest pastime of depraved males. Women of all ages have been raped here and there, but raping of minors, ranging from toddlers to teenagers, is even more heinous. Comparable violence could be the abuse of a daughter-in-law to extract dowry from her parents, failing which the helpless girl is burnt to death and it is called suicide. Of late, children as well as adults are abducted for ransom, failing which the hostage is killed. Sometimes, even when the ransom is paid to the abductors, the hostage has been found to be murdered. Journalists are killed for the simple reason of revealing the truth behind the evil designs of powermongers. Political opponents are killed for revenge. Innocent people have been killed on mere suspiocion of being informers for secret organisations. These are but some of the gruesome examples of social depravity. Who is responsible for such despicable acts of human beings? Who has the responsibility to control such behaviour? While the state has the ultimate responsibility of controlling social depravity, it should start at the family level. It is the family that teaches a child how they should behave. But in this age, the family has failed to provide such an education because the child is exposed to a variety of social influences beyond family control. New values have evolved in conflict with existing values of the family, which creates friction, leading to a generation gap. The child lives and grows with a sense of insecurity in this turmoil, unable to discern good from bad. To some extent, the child learns from the bad examples of the guardians on how to behave and yet, escapes punishment. These multiple factors create a seedbed of crimes in the mind of the man. To the gallows Many girls are unsafe in their own household because they are abused by relatives, at times by their own fathers and grandfathers! Mothers have been found to influence their husbands to rape their own daughters. In schools, many children face sexual abuse. At work, women are often victimised by their senior male colleagues. All of this must stop. The state has several options to respond to such crimes. Courts exist to uphold laws to punish crimes. The police exist to enforce the decision of the courts. But when all these institutions become corrupt, society becomes a mess. That is what we are passing through. There is licensed impunity when the prime minister of a country defies the order of a court and protects a criminal with his political clout. There is outright impunity when a former prime minister dares the court to take action against him for giving the order to murder in whatever name it may be. In such a situation, laws fail to act as deterrence against crime. All said, there is a need to revive the provision of death penalty in certain extreme cases of inhuman crimes like the rape-cum-murder, gang rapes, abduction-cum-murder of innocent people, and the like. But there should be checks and balances in its implementation. A way to do so would be to have a provision for a jury of neutral persons who can decide through a unanimous vote whether the crime deserves the death penalty. I see the need for a provision which seeks public opinion on whether a crime deserves death penalty. This will not only add to the strength of the judge but also act as a means of informing and educating society as to the ultimate consequences of social depravity. (source: Khagendra Sharma is a freelance political analyst; ekantipu.com) IRAN----executions 12 prisoners secretly executed in a day The Iranian regime's henchmen secretly hanged at least 12 inmates on Thursday (26 March 2015) in prisons in cities of Shiraz and Mashhad. A group of 5 prisoners were hanged in a prison in the city of Mashhad in northeast Iran while another 6 were collectively hanged in Pirnia Prison in the city of Shiraz in southern Iran. On the same day, another prisoner was also hanged in Adelabad Prison in the same city. In Shiraz, the prisoners were transferred to solitary confinements two days prior to the Iranian New Year (Nowruz), therefore, the victims spent the New Year's day in isolation awaiting execution. The religious dictatorship ruling Iran has refrained from publishing any report or information on the prisoners. The growing number of executions, including many carried out in secret, are just trivial examples of the nationwide repression that continues to take place in Iran since Hassan Rouhani became president of the clerical regime. Mr. Ahmed Shaheed, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran, reported on March 25 that some 1000 executions had been carried out during the past 15 months in Iran. Prior to that, on March 16, he told a news briefing in Geneva: "There is a lot of concern amongst the Iranian society that the nuclear file may be casting a shadow over the human rights discussion." The U.N.'s special investigator added that the human rights situation and repression in Iran has worsened since Hassan Rouhani became president. (source: Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran) INDONESIA: Supreme Court expedites death row appeals The Supreme Court guaranteed on Friday that all justices would expedite hearings on case-review petitions filed by several death row, as the international community was observing the process. The court decided on Wednesday to reject a 2nd case review petition filed by Philippine national Mary Jane Fiesta Veloso, a drug convict in the 2nd batch of executions to take place. 2 other drug convicts - Serge Areski Atlaoui of France and Martin Anderson alias Belo of Ghana - are still challenging their death penalty rulings via case-review petitions. Attorney General Muhammad Prasetyo praised the court's decision to reject Veloso's 2nd case review petition, adding that the decision helped clear the way for the Attorney General's Office (AGO) to carry out the 2nd batch of executions. Supreme Court spokesman, justice Suhadi, said hearings in lower courts took up most of the time in the case-review process. Suhadi later pledged that all court justices handling the cases would prioritize them. "It is automatic. All justices know what to do [in prioritizing] those cases because it has drawn so much public attention," he said on Friday. "Rest assured, we are working professionally." The Criminal Law Procedures Code stipulates that a case review should be filed first with a lower court, which will later hear and study whether the petition meets all the requirements. A case review can only be considered if new evidence or conflicting facts are found, or if judges are deemed to have erred in applying the law.The 1st hearing of Veloso's 2nd case review petition took place at the Sleman District Court on March 3. The lower court later submitted the documents to the Supreme Court on March 12. Atlaouli's case review petition was first heard at the Tangerang District Court on March 11, however, the court has adjourned the hearing to March 25. The 1st hearing of Anderson's case review took place at the South Jakarta District Court on March 19. Prasetyo expressed hope that court proceedings could be wrapped up soon so the AGO could announce the dates of the executions. Veloso, Anderson and Atlaoui are 3 of 10 convicts set to be executed in the near future on Nusakambangan prison island near Cilacap, Central Java. The other drug convicts facing imminent execution are Bali 9 duo Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan of Australia, Rodrigo Gularte of Brazil, Zainal Abidin of Indonesia and Raheem Agbaje Salami of Nigeria. Also slated to be executed are 3 convicted murderers: Syofial alias Iyen bin Azwar, Harun bin Ajis and Sargawi alias Ali bin Sanusi, all from Indonesia. Separately, Vice President Jusuf Kalla urged the public to wait for the AGO, which has authority over the executions, to decide when the executions would take place. AGO spokesman Tony Spontana said it would take a while before the executions could take place. ???I can assure you it will not be this week. I'm not sure if it will be this month. We must wait." Meanwhile, House of Representatives Commission III overseeing laws and human rights checked Nusa Kambangan prison island to see if it was ready to host the executions. Commission III chairman Azis Syamsudin said after the inspection that the prison was prepared and that it was only a matter of time before the executions would take place. "All preparations for the executions of the drug convicts are complete, but the prosecutors are still waiting for the completion of the legal process," he said. 2 death row convicts from France and Ghana are still challenging their sentencesJustices have been told to prioritize case-review petitionsAGO still uncertain on timing of executions. (source: Jakarta Post) From rhalperi at smu.edu Mon Mar 30 10:13:38 2015 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Mon, 30 Mar 2015 10:13:38 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, FLA., KAN., UTAH, CALIF., WASH. Message-ID: March 30 TEXAS: ON DEATH ROW State has execution drugs through April ---- Status of Michael "Spider" Gonzales still unknown TIMELINE April 22, 1994: Bodies of Manuel and Merced Aguirre found at their 220 W. Schell St. home. May 1994: Gonzales arrested and charged with capital murder. Nov. 27, 1995: Jury trial begins. Dec. 8, 1995: Gonzales sentenced to death. June 3, 1998: Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (the highest criminal appellate court in Texas) affirms the judgment against Gonzales. March 10, 1999: Court of Criminal Appeals denies Gonzales' habeas corpus application. Oct. 26, 2000: State files notice regarding the use of race during Gonzales' sentencing phase. A witness was found in several other trials to be racially biased. Dec. 19, 2002: Federal district court grants sentencing relief. July 31, 2006: U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit upholds guilt phase judgment. May 4, 2009: Gonzales resentencing trial begins. May 7, 2009: Jury sentences Gonzales to death a 2nd time. Jan. 14, 2013: Federal judge stays Gonzales execution set for March 21, 2013. July 31, 2014: Motion to return to state court for further appeals granted. Sept. 8, 2014: Application for post-conviction writ of habeas corpus filed in 358th District Court, the original trial court, but will be sent from clerk's office to Court of Criminal Appeals. March 26: Hearing by Court of Criminal Appeals not scheduled on docket. The State of Texas, like many of the other states in the nation that use lethal injection as capital punishment, is looking at what to do with inmates on death row once the supply for lethal injections runs out. Because of the shortage, and the ongoing court case of Ector County's only death row inmate Michael Dean "Spider" Gonzales, there is uncertainty what will happen if and when he ever gets an execution date. Texas is 1 of 8 states that uses pentobarbital in a 1-drug method of execution. The state moved from a 3-drug cocktail mix in 2012 to using the 1 drug. Since that time, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice has said they have been close to running out. One of the most recent announcements was on March 11 when the department announced it only had 2 doses left. However, TDCJ spokesman Jason Clark said the department received a new batch of drugs to allow them to continue through next month. "The Texas Department of Criminal Justice has obtained a new supply of pentobarbital which will allow the agency to carry out executions that are scheduled for the month of April," Clark announced in an emailed statement. "The drugs were purchased from a licensed pharmacy that has the ability to compound. We continue to explore all options including the continued use of pentobarbital or alternate drugs to use in the lethal injection process." The company was not named and despite a state district judge telling the agency in December to name the supplier, it still has not done so. Gonzales' case has been going back and forth in the courts for almost 21 years. Gonzales was originally charged in the April 22, 1994, stabbing deaths of Manuel and Merced Aguirre at their 220 W. Schell St. home, and sentenced to death on Dec. 8, 1995. He was resentenced on May 7, 2009, after an appeal brought the case back to Ector County. Even though Gonzales has been sentenced to death twice, former federal District Court Judge Robert Junell granted a stay of his execution that was originally scheduled for March 21, 2013, pending a federal habeas petition. The writ of habeas corpus can serve as a way to get cases back in court if all the direct appeals have been exercised. According to a Jan. 14 filing, Gonzales' attorneys filed a petition in state court on Sept. 9, which was transferred to the Court of Criminal Appeals. The hearing, as of Thursday, was not listed on the docket. In the filing, attorneys for Gonzales said he did not receive "virtually any assistance by counsel in his original trial and was incompetent to be tried in his resentencing trial." Calls to Gonzales' attorney Mandy Welch were not returned. Rick Aguirre, who lives in San Antonio and is one of the slain couple's sons, said it has been frustrating that the case is still ongoing while other inmates on death row, who have been there for less time than "Spider," are getting execution dates. "We hope he will be executed; it's been a very long time," Rick Aguirre said. When asked about the possibility of Texas running out of execution drugs, he said he hoped there is "another source somewhere." With Texas lawmakers, Rep. Brooks Landgraf (R-Odessa) said the issue of finding a new form of capital punishment has not been brought up. This year in Utah state lawmakers voted to bring back firing squads, while in Oklahoma lawmakers there are discussing the use of gas chambers. Any decisions made regarding the future of capital punishment in Texas, Landgraf said, should be consulted with TDCJ. He said he was not in favor of abolishing the death penalty. "I think we're a long way from that determination," Landgraf said. "That's not what I would advise." (source: Odessa American) FLORIDA: Supreme Court to weigh in on unanimous juries for Florida's death penalty The U.S. Supreme Court might do to Florida's death penalty what the state Legislature has failed to do for years: demand jurors to vote unanimously that a person deserves to be executed. Here are the defendants from Volusia County charged with 1st-degree murder and facing a probable death sentence. No death penalty circumstances are currently on the docket in Flagler County. Luis Toledo of Deltona is accused of killing his wife Yessenia Suarez and her kids in 2013. The 3 bodies have not been found. Anthony Farina was convicted of initially-degree murder and sentenced to death for his part in the killing of Michelle Van Ness in the course of the robbery of a Taco Bell in 1992 at Beville Road and Clyde Morris Boulevard. Farina has twice been sentenced to death but courts have twice overturned the sentences and he is back in circuit court in Volusia County for resentencing. His brother, Jeffrey Farina, was the triggerman but his death sentence was lowered to life by the Florida Supreme Court since he was a minor when he killed Van Ness. Justen Charles and Christian Cruz are accused in the residence-invasion robbery and murder of Christopher Jeremy in Deltona in 2013. Mikkia Lewis and Joe McCaskell are accused in the 2013 killing of Lewis's 4-year-old son, Ke'Andre, who investigators stated suffered horrible abuse just before his death. James Guzman was convicted a second time in 1996 for stabbing David Colman to death in 1991 with a samurai sword in a Daytona Beach motel. Guzman was on death row in 2011 when a federal appeals court affirmed a reduced court's order that he get another trial, saying he did not get a fair trial in 1996. Frank Fernandez That would make it much tougher to send a murderer to death row and an eventual date with a lethal needle - even in Volusia and Flagler's most heinous crimes. And it really should be tougher, a lot tougher, say defense attorneys who cite Florida's status as the only state where an individual can be sent to death row on a basic majority vote. Public Defender Jim Purdy stated he would welcome making it much more tricky to impose the death penalty. Of the 32 states in the nation with a death penalty, Florida and Alabama are the only 2 without having needs for a unanimous jury vote for the death penalty. Alabama demands a supermajority of at least 10-2. It's time for the men and women of Florida to join the rest of the states and call for a unanimous jury verdict," said Purdy, who serves the 7th Circuit that contains Volusia and Flagler counties. A unanimous recommendation could make it challenging to impose death in cases here and across the state. The jury in St. Augustine was not unanimous in 2006 when it advisable death for Troy Victorino, the ringleader of the 2004 Deltona mass murder of 6 people today in a dwelling. Jurors also have been not unanimous in Orlando in 1980 when they advisable serial killer Ted Bundy be place to death for the 1978 killing of a 12-year-old Lake City girl. Seventh Circuit State Attorney R.J. Larizza opposes changing Florida's death penalty. He mentioned unanimity would bog down juries. "I think that the way that the method is set up performs well," Larizza stated. "The judge in the end has the final say on the aggravators and no matter if or not they apply. The jury doesn't make a decision to impose the death penalty, it just recommends." And Florida's death penalty is after once again drawing attention from the state Legislature. Bills now in the House and Senate would require a unanimous recommendation from jurors rather than a basic majority. The present Florida bills require jurors to unanimously choose on an aggravator supporting the death penalty, such as the crime was heinous, atrocious and cruel. Then jurors would have to unanimously recommend death. While the U.S. Supreme Court is not anticipated to issue a ruling until next year, if the bill in the Florida Legislature passes it would take effect this summer season. It would make it tougher to impose death sentences in circumstances like that of Luis Toledo, the Deltona man accused of killing his wife, Yessenia Suarez, and her 2 young children, Thalia, 9, and Michael, 8. Toledo could face the death penalty if convicted of initially-degree murder in the children's slayings. The bodies of the 3 are nevertheless missing. Yessenia Suarez's stepfather, Ruben Perez, stated it would be wrong to make it tougher to impose death. "I consider that's an injustice to the household members who have lost loved ones to a substantial crime," Perez mentioned. "That's not fair to family members that you shed a particular person to such a heinous crime. If the majority come across in favor of the death penalty, I think that it should be imposed." The bill's sponsor is Rep. Jose Javier Rodriguez, a Democrat from Miami who mentioned the bill has received 2 favorable reports from committees in the Senate, but has however to be heard amongst his colleagues in the Property. "If we are going to have a death penalty it demands to be trustworthy," Rodriguez stated. "Florida is an outlier." He mentioned the bill was not anti-victim. "For these who want to make sure we have a death penalty, the most effective way to make certain that we have a death penalty is just to make positive that it complies with constitutional requirements so that the Supreme Court doesn't have the chance to invalidate it," Rodriguez stated. If the Florida Legislature doesn't make the change, the U.S. Supreme Court may. The nation's highest court has agreed to evaluation a Florida case in which jurors in 2012 advisable by a 7-5 vote that Timothy Lee Hurst be place to death for the 1998 slaying of Cynthia Lee Harrison, a manager of a Popeyes Fried Chicken in Escambia County. That was the 2nd time Hurst was sentenced to death. A jury in 2000 voted 11-1 for death but Hurst won an appeal and his case was sent back for resentencing. Hurst also worked at the Popeyes. Hurst robbed the retailer and stabbed Harrison numerous times with a box cutter. He left her bound and gagged in the freezer exactly where her physique was identified. Hurst's lawyer appealed in element saying the Florida case violated the Sixth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and violated the case of Ring v. Arizona, for the reason that Florida does not call for the jury to unanimously discover an aggravating circumstance supporting rising the penalty to death, nor does it call for that the jury unanimously suggest death. Ring was convicted of killing the driver of an armored van for the duration of a robbery in 1994. In Ring v. Arizona, the U.S. Supreme Court held in 2002 that jurors should determine just as they determine guilt, regardless of whether an aggravating circumstance exists to justify a death sentence. The Supreme Court said letting a judge decide an aggravating circumstance violates a defendant's Sixth Amendment proper to a jury trial. In Florida as in other states and the federal method, death penalty trials have 2 parts: jurors very first choose if a individual is guilty and if so jurors enter the penalty phase, voting on irrespective of whether to advocate death. But only in Florida is a vote of 7 or more adequate for a recommendation for death. The judge then schedules what is known as a Spencer hearing, which is an more opportunity for the defense to argue against the death penalty and present mitigating circumstances. Right after the Spencer hearing the judge holds a hearing to announce the sentence. Even though a judge have to give a jury's recommendation terrific weight, the judge is not obligated to impose a death sentence. Nevertheless, judges generally do not override death sentence recommendations. A lot of juries are not unanimous in their death suggestions, even for particularly heinous crimes. Jurors were not unanimous in the case of Troy Victorino and Jerone Hunter, 2 of 4 males convicted for employing baseball bats and knives to kill 6 folks in a Deltona house. Jurors in St. Augustine voted that Victorino deserved death for 4 of the 6 slayings by votes ranging from 10-2 to 7-5. They voted that Hunter deserved death for 4 of the slayings in votes of either 10-2 or 9-3. Jurors in Orlando recommended death by 10-2 for Ted Bundy, a notorious serial killer who was electrocuted in 1989 for the 1978 killing of 12-year-old Kimberly Leach of Lake City. In 1979, a majority of jurors at a trial in Miami recommended death for Bundy for the 1978 slaying of 2 Chi Omega sorority sisters at Florida State University. Purdy said requiring a unanimous vote would not bar imposition of the death penalty. Rather it would mean jurors would deliberate additional. "If it necessary a unanimous jury recommendation of death, you would have the exact same process by the jury as in deciding guilt, they would have vote soon after vote till they reached a unanimous decision or were hung," Purdy mentioned. Purdy said that about 80 % of the death penalties throughout the final decade have been imposed on a significantly less-than-unanimous vote. There had been 60 unanimous death suggestions by juries involving 2000 and 2012, according to a Florida Senate bill evaluation. Purdy said that life in prison devoid of parole for initially-degree murder is just as strong a punishment as injecting lethal chemical compounds into somebody's arm. "In one particular case the state puts you to death, in the other case the state puts you in prison till you die of natural causes," Purdy stated. "Either way it's the death penalty." He stated the Legislature has proposed bills to call for a unanimous jury vote considering the fact that 2006, when the Florida Supreme Court suggested the transform, but none has passed. And Purdy is skeptical that the bill will go anyplace this year in the state Legislature, especially because the U.S. Supreme Court has decided to review Florida's law. State Lawyer Larizza also stated requiring votes on aggravators would force jurors to tackle complicated legal concepts created more than years by lawyers. "I'm not certain how effectively equipped a person is to evaluate the complex law that applies on aggravating aspects,"Larizza said. Assistant Public Defender Matt Phillips stated defense attorneys have been arguing since Ring v. Arizona that Florida's death penalty is unconstitutional. Phillips recalled the case of Cornelius Baker, who was sentenced to death in 2009 for killing 56-year-old Elizabeth Uptagrafft soon after kidnapping her from her home in Daytona Beach throughout a dwelling-invasion robbery in 2007 and shooting her to death in rural Flagler County. The jury voted 9-3 for death and Baker still sits on death row. "I would appreciate to practice in a state where if my client gets 1 particular vote for life my client doesn't go to death row," Phillips stated. (source: Herald Recorder) KANSAS: U.S. top court agrees to hear 'Wichita Massacre' appeals The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday agreed to take up appeals concerning two brothers convicted in a 2000 execution-style murder of 4 people on a snowy soccer field in Kansas. The 2 brothers, Jonathan and Reginald Carr, and prosecutors appealed for different reasons after a July 2014 Kansas Supreme Court ruling that threw out death sentences imposed on both men but left various convictions in place. Jonathan and Reginald Carr were sentenced to death for the murders in 2002. Their December 2000 crime spree, known as the Wichita Massacre, included the kidnapping of three men and two women in a home invasion that included rape and sexual humiliation. The 5 victims were shot in the head. One survived. The appeals court affirmed some of the convictions against the 2 brothers, including murder, but vacated the death penalty for both of them, sending the case back to district court for new sentencing. Separately, the high court agreed to hear the state of Kansas' appeal in another murder case. The defendant, Sidney Gleason, was convicted of a double murder in 2004. Oral arguments and rulings in all three cases are due in the court's next term, which starts in October and ends in June. ************************** White Supremacist Pleads Not Guilty In Kansas Jewish Center Killings A Missouri white supremacist charged with fatally shooting 3 people outside 2 Jewish centers in a Kansas City suburb last April and trying to kill others pleaded not guilty on Friday. Frazier Glenn Cross Jr., 74, a former senior member of the Ku Klux Klan who had expressed a hatred for Jews, could face the death penalty if convicted of capital murder for the shooting spree April 13 in Overland Park, Kansas. Cross, in a wheelchair and using an oxygen tank, pleaded not guilty in a Johnson County court to 3 charges of capital murder and three of attempted murder. He asked for a speedy trial, over the objections of his lawyers. Johnson County District Court Judge Thomas Kelly Ryan set the trial to start on Aug. 17 after Cross invoked his rights under Kansas law to be tried within 150 days. "I want my day in court and to speak," Cross told Ryan. But public defender Mark Manna said the short time frame was not enough to mount a thorough defense, especially in a death penalty case. "We'd be unprepared, ineffective and incompetent," Manna said. Cross said he wanted to fire both his lawyers and represent himself but the hearing ended with no change of lawyers and with a scheduling hearing set for April 3. Cross is charged with killing Reat Underwood, 14, and his grandfather, William Corporon, 69, outside the Jewish Community Center of Greater Kansas City, and Terri LaManno, 53, outside the nearby Village Shalom Jewish retirement home. None of the victims were Jewish. Cross is also charged with attempted murder for allegedly shooting at 3 other people outside the 2 facilities. Cross has repeatedly made derogatory remarks in the courtroom about Jewish people. (source for both: Reuters) UTAH: Firing Squad Justified: Utah Has Quite A Few 'Justifiable' Reasons To Bring Back The Gruesome Death-By-Bullet Method The state of Utah approved a rather gruesome method of killing a death-row inmate by using a firing squad. While it may seem and feel barbaric, there are quite few reasons, Utah points out, that justify bringing back the death-by-bullet method. On Monday, Utah became one of the surprisingly many states to allow executions of prisoners sentenced to death by using firing squads. Gov. Gary Herbert signed a law approving this controversial method as a backup if the state can't restock its depleted supply of lethal injection drugs. Though it may seem Utah is resorting to primitive ways of killing its death-row inmates, clearly there are a few caveats that have to be addressed before the inmate is strapped to a chair and shot at. However, even though it's quite evident that none of the 8 prisoners presently on death row will face a firing squad, there are a few plausible justifications the state has to support the method of taking a man's life by firing bullets at him. Quite A Few States Have Firing Squads As A Backup Method, But Will Prefer To Use Lethal Injections, If Available It's near-impossible to get the lethal drugs: Utah, Texas, Oklahoma, and the 29 other states where the practice is legal, are finding it really difficult to restock the lethal injection drugs. Over the past few years, an acute and mysterious shortage of sodium thiopental, a key drug in lethal injections, has left states scrambling for alternative ways to execute prisoners. Since 2010, drug suppliers around the world, including the U.S., have been refusing to supply drugs for the injections. While the exact reasons aren't exactly clear, few have voiced their displeasure about the death penalty, others are more concerned about their products earning the notoriety of being associated with executions, or being labeled as the "angels of death." Such is the shortage, some states imported sodium thiopental from shadier overseas sources, forcing courts to issue bans on imports of these lethal drugs. The situation did not alleviate when states turned to other European companies for alternative drugs, such as phenobarbital and propofol, which are typically used as sedatives for surgeries. Owing To Acute Shortage Of Drugs And Qualified Doctors, The Lethal Injection Has Become A Risky Proposition Firing-squads are way better than botched-up executions: During a firing-squad execution, a prisoner is seated in a chair that's stacked with sandbags to prevent bullets from ricocheting. 5 precision shooters, hand-picked from a pool of skilled and trained volunteers, aim their rifles through slots on a wall and target the prisoner's chest (because it's a larger target than the head). If the shooters hit their mark correctly, the prisoner's heart ruptures and causes a relatively quick death from blood loss. Lethal injections, on the other hand, have been a hit-and-miss, with many botched executions still haunting the states. This is because doctors, who can correctly administer the lethal injections, refuse to do so as it violates their professional ethics. Combine that with states using unreliable and not-thoroughly-tested drugs, makes a very dangerous combination that has horrible results, but not a painless death. Looking at the mess these lethal injections, which promise a painless death, have caused in the past, perhaps the firing squad seems like a more humane option. (source: Inquisitr) CALIFORNIA: As death row runs out of room, Brown eyes space of those newly sprung With no executions in nearly a decade and newly condemned men arriving each month, the nation's largest death row has run out of room. Warning that there is little time to lose, Gov. Jerry Brown is asking the California Legislature for $3.2 million to open nearly 100 more cells for condemned men at San Quentin State Prison. The proposed expansion would take advantage of cells made available as the state releases low-level drug offenders and thieves under a new law voters approved last year. California's death penalty has been the subject of a decade of litigation. One case led to a halt to executions in 2006. Another resulted in a federal judge's ruling last July that the state's interminably slow capital appeals system is unconstitutionally cruel. Through it all, the death row population has grown from 646 in 2006 to 751 today. "Until the litigation is resolved, this cost-effective proposal allows [the state corrections department] to safely house condemned inmates going forward," corrections department spokeswoman Terry Thornton said last week. Legislators would have to approve the governor's funding request as part of the state's $113-billion budget. But critics of Brown's handling of the state's stalled death penalty say his proposal doesn't address deeper problems with the California system. "This is a failure of Gov. Brown to do the things within his power to move things forward," said Kent Scheidegger, legal director of the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation, a group that has sued California seeking to force the state to resume executions. There are 731 men and 20 women on California's death row. The women are housed in a maximum security unit at the Central California Women's Facility near Chowchilla, and Brown's proposal would not affect them. Condemned men live at San Quentin, housed apart from other inmates in three cellblocks that Brown's budget plans note would have overflowed already if the state last summer had not, under court order, opened a 25-cell psychiatric unit for death row inmates. San Quentin's death row can accommodate 715 inmates. Last week, prison officials said, 708 inmates were in those cells. 23 others were scattered across the state for court hearings or held in long-term medical facilities or at prisons in other states. The governor's budget proposal anticipates an average of 20 new arrivals on death row yearly. He proposes putting them in 97 cells on the first 2 tiers of the 5-tier South Block. A small portion of the funding would go to beef up security, including modifying showers so condemned inmates can be shackled as they bathe. The majority of the money would be spent to increase staff, and the expansion would begin in July. "Based on the critical nature of the bed shortage, it is not feasible to delay the approval and implementation of this proposal," the governor's budget document states. If expansion is delayed, "San Quentin would not have beds to accommodate the condemned should any return from court, outside medical facilities, or if SQ receives any newly condemned inmates." The proposed expansion of death row is possible because California's prison population outside of death row has fallen sharply, a result of court-ordered releases to reduce overcrowding and a measure approved by voters last fall allowing the release of some low-level felons. Meanwhile, without executions, the ranks of California's condemned continue to swell. State and federal courts since 2006 have barred the state from using its three-drug lethal-injection protocol. Brown in 2012 asked an advisory board to investigate a single-drug method, but none has been proposed, and the state lacks a court-approved method for executions. The constitutionality of the state's capital punishment system is also being challenged. A federal judge last July ruled that the appeals process is so slow that executions have become unlikely and random. Condemned inmates often wait years for lawyers to be appointed to their appeals and years more for the state Supreme Court to decide their cases. Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris is challenging the ruling in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. She argues that the lengthiness of the appeals process prevents capital punishment from being arbitrary. 49 inmates have died of cancer, drug overdose, suicide or other causes since the last execution, including two this month. Teofilo Medina Jr., 70, who murdered 3 store clerks for petty cash during a robbery spree in 1984, died of cancer March 22. Leon Cooper, 54, convicted of the 1998 rape and murder of his stepdaughter, died March 18 at a Marin County hospital. Officials have not said what caused his death. Brown's proposal is scheduled for a hearing in late April before a budget subcommittee led by Sen. Loni Hancock (D-Berkeley), a vocal opponent of the death penalty. This month, she and other lawmakers told a federal court that the state cannot adequately fund its capital punishment system and should abandon the effort. But because the process continues, Hancock said in a written statement to The Times, the Legislature must pay for more death row cells. "California is in a Catch-22 situation. We are required by the Courts to address prison overcrowding and we are required by law to provide certain minimum conditions for housing death penalty inmates," Hancock wrote. "The Legislature can't avoid its responsibilities in these areas, even though the courts are currently considering the constitutionality of the death penalty, and I hope will agree to end it." (source: Los Angeles Times) WASHINGTON: Carnation family's killer expected to testify in trial's penalty phase When jurors return to court Tuesday to determine whether Joseph McEnroe should face death by lethal injection they will hear the most personal details of the 6 murder victims as well as testimony from McEnroe himself. Joseph McEnroe, convicted last week of killing 6 members of a family in Carnation, is expected to testify during the penalty phase of his trial that will determine whether he is sentenced to life in prison or death. During the penalty phase, which begins Tuesday, the same jury that convicted him of 6 counts of aggravated 1st-degree murder will hear from witnesses speaking on behalf of McEnroe and the victims. At the end of testimony, which is expected to last about 3 weeks, jurors will decide whether McEnroe will become the 10th man on Washington's death row or be sentenced to life in prison without parole. A death sentence requires a unanimous verdict. On Wednesday, after a 2-month trial, McEnroe was found guilty of the fatal shootings of Wayne Anderson, 60; his wife, Judy Anderson, 61; their son Scott, 32; his wife, Erica, also 32; and the younger couple's 2 children, Olivia, 5, and Nathan, 3, during a holiday gathering on Christmas Eve 2007. Prosecutors allege the victims were killed because of a dispute McEnroe's former girlfriend, Michele Anderson, was having with her parents, Wayne and Judy Anderson, and her brother Scott about money. Michele Anderson also claimed she had been mistreated by her family, according to prosecutors. Anderson, who will be tried later this year, also could face the death penalty if she is convicted. King County Senior Deputy Prosecutor Scott O'Toole, who tried McEnroe, explained the state and defense are limited in what they can present to the jury during the penalty phase. "The state can talk about the facts of the crime and the victim impact. The defense can talk about the character of the defendant and the circumstance of the crime," O'Toole said. Generally, prosecutors will call one witness to speak about the character of each victim, O'Toole said. He plans to have various relatives and friends testify about the victims, including the 2 children. "The defense has the right to put on their mitigation information, and it's usually much more extensive than the state's presentation," O'Toole said. O'Toole said that the state has been notified that McEnroe will testify during the penalty phase, which will allow him to be cross-examined by the prosecution. Defendants facing the death penalty traditionally wait until closing arguments in the penalty phase to explain why their life should be spared, O'Toole said. McEnroe, 36, did not testify during his 2-month trial. William Prestia, one of McEnroe's lawyers, said in an email that the defense anticipates calling McEnroe's family and former co-workers to testify on his behalf. While Prestia did not specify which relatives will testify, details about his upbringing and life will likely be presented to jurors. McEnroe was born in San Jose, Calif., and was diagnosed with a serious blood disorder, his mother, Sean Johnson of Minneapolis, told The Seattle Times shortly after his arrest. At the time, she said the family had lost touch with McEnroe about 5 years earlier. Johnson said McEnroe never showed a violent side, though sometimes he had fights in school. She said she was protective of her son because of his health problems, which included chronic nosebleeds. Instead of sports, she said, McEnroe read a lot and played imaginative games. She said after his grades slipped in high school, he dropped out and worked at Burger King. When he was 18, the family moved to Burien for a time, where he worked at Safeway. They then moved to Arizona. McEnroe was living in Glendale, Ariz., when he met Michele Anderson on an online dating site around 2002, Johnson said. He moved to the Puget Sound region shortly after they met and planned to marry her, Johnson said. "Mr. McEnroe is presumed to merit leniency, which would result in a sentence of life in prison without possibility of release or parole," Prestia wrote in the email. "Mr. McEnroe will only face the death penalty if all 12 jurors unanimously agree that the State has proven, beyond a reasonable doubt, that there are not sufficient mitigating circumstances for Joe to merit the leniency of a life sentence." Prestia explained that a mitigating circumstance is "any fact about either the crime or about Mr. McEnroe which in fairness or in mercy may be considered." Conner Schierman, who killed a family of 4 in Kirkland in July 2006, was the last criminal defendant in King County to be sentenced to death. O'Toole prosecuted Schierman as well. Schierman, who waited until the penalty phase to testify, tearfully pleaded for leniency. The defense maintained that Schierman was in an alcohol-induced blackout and had no recollection of the slayings. He was sentenced to death in 2010. (source: Seattle Times) From rhalperi at smu.edu Mon Mar 30 10:15:17 2015 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Mon, 30 Mar 2015 10:15:17 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide Message-ID: March 30 CHINA: More corrupt Chinese officials kill themselves than get death penalty The number of Chinese officials who commit suicide soon after they are placed under investigation for corruption is increasing - greater than the number who are ultimately sentenced to death for graft, reports our Chinese-language sister paper Want Daily. 39 such officials committed suicide in 2014 compared to seven in 2013, according to the Financial Times, which was quoted in a January 2015 article by Sound of Hope (SOH), a Chinese-language news website based in San Francisco. China's non-transparent legal system and governmental pressure given on officials fingered for graft have contributed to the increasingly high suicide rate, according to the Financial Times. >From August 2003 to April 2014, the Financial Times counted 112 Chinese officials who committed suicide in 26 provinces. Over 70% of them were department chiefs and below. Among these officials, over 20% were allegedly involved in corruption cases. In the 39 officials who committed suicide in 2014, 10 were either indicted or suspected of corruption. Figures about corrupt officials' suicides have also been concealed by the authorities because of the potential negative effects on their family members, according to Financial Times. The official numbers are therefore only a conservative evaluation, hiding an even larger number of government officials who committed suicide. On the other hand, the number of government officials who were sentenced to death for corruption had on the opposite decreased. China's criminal law stipulates that an official who makes illegal gains of up to 5,000 yuan (US$800) would be sentenced to one year in prison, and their sentence would be increased by a year for each further 10,000 yuan (US$1,600) they pocketed. Officials who obtained more than 100,000 yuan (US$16,000) through graft may be subject to a life sentence. Above that and they could potentially face the death penalty. SOH reported however that only a very small number of corrupt officials are sentenced to death - and the death sentence is often commuted to life imprisonment after 2 years. There were only 15 officials sentenced to death between 2000 and 2011. Between 2012 and 2014, only one official was executed for corruption - Zhang Xinhua, a former general manager for Baiyun Agricultural, Industrial and Commercial United Company in Guangzhou, who reportedly took 400 million yuan (US$64.4 million) in bribes. The Communist Party mouthpiece People's Daily questioned why so many government officials would commit suicide when placed under a graft probe. Qian Lieyang, a lawyer for Liu Zhijun, the former railways minister who was given a death sentence with reprieve in 2013, said he does not think the death sentence is enough of a deterrent and the suicide cases are proof that corrupt officials are not afraid of dying, as that might the best choice for them. Liu, who oversaw the development of China's high-speed rail network and skimmed mightily off the top in the process, was sentenced to death with a reprieve on July 8, 2013. Death sentence with reprieve is a criminal punishment only found in China, whereby death row inmates have their execution suspended for 2 years and are only executed if they are found to have intentionally committed further crimes during that time. The sentence is otherwise automatically reduced to life imprisonment. The suicide of officials fingered for corruption is frustrating to legal investigations due to the loss of testimony from the subject about their crime and the diminished chance of catching others who may be implicated. Members of the public are often pleased when officials kill themselves, seeing it as a natural form of justice that the system cannot pervert, reflecting a lack of trust in the party's discretion to investigate internally before handing officials over the courts. (source: wantchinatimes.com) BANGLADESH: 7 given death penalty for killing Swechhasebak League's Manir Uddin Manu A trial court has ordered death sentence for seven accused for the murder of Swechhasebak League leader Manir Uddin Manu. In its verdict on Monday, Dhaka's Fourth Speedy Trial Tribunal found 8 people guilty of the 2006 murder in the capital's Mirpur area. It ordered life imprisonment for 1 of them. Those awarded the death penalty are 'Shahadat', Md Mintu, Md Masudur Rahman Tota alias Totla Masud, Liton Hossain Lotus alias Nuruzzaman, Md Noban Ibne Bashar alias Babu, Masudur Rahman Sohel and Md Hossaun Sarwar Ziku. Another 'Jahanara' got life-in-prison. Sohel and Ziku were present at the court on Monday, while the others are absconding after securing bail, said Prosecutor Taslima Yasmin Dipa. Swechhasebak League leader Manu was murdered in front of his home at Mirpur on Aug 15, 2006. He was shot 8 times and died on the spot, according to the case details. Swechhasebak League is the volunteers' front of the ruling Awami League. (source: bdnews.24.com) INDONESIA: UN recommends abolition of death penalty The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) for Southeast Asia has called on countries to reduce or halt capital punishment in their pursuit of justice.In its latest report, the OHCHR found a declining global trend in the implementation of the death penalty, but said Southeast Asian countries faced complex challenges to abolishing the punishment. Some states, namely Cambodia, the Philippines and Timor Leste, were fully abolitionist while others, comprising Brunei Darussalam, Laos and Myanmar, were abolitionist in practice. Thailand had an unofficial moratorium in place. Malaysia and Singapore are undertaking efforts to reduce executions and implement other reforms. Meanwhile, Indonesia and Vietnam still apply the death penalty, but the future of the policy is uncertain. "We hope this publication can be a resource for further discussion in the region and help establish moratoria on the use of the death penalty and ultimately its abolition," said OHCHR Regional Office for Southeast Asia representative Matilda Bogner. (source: Jakarta Post) *************************** Bali 9: Lawyers in bid against clemency refusal must call expert witness before court today Lawyers for Bali 9 death row inmates Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran have been given until today to produce a so-called expert witness as part of the pair's latest legal challenge. The 2 men are challenging Indonesian president Joko Widodo's refusal to consider granting them clemency. The witness was due to present evidence as part of the bid last week, but failed to appear in court. Chan and Sukumaran's lawyers have until today to call the witness before the court. The president's lawyers will then get a chance to defend him. The Australians have been on death row for 10 years after being convicted for their role in a plot to smuggle heroin into Australia. The men were originally due to face the firing squad last month but the Indonesian government put that on hold until the legal challenges of all those listed in the next round of executions were complete. They were transferred to the Nusakambangan island prison off Central Java from their Bali prison in early March in preparation for their executions. (source: ABC news) ************************* VP pushes 2nd plea for Pinay in Jakarta Vice President Jejomar C. Binay on Sunday said the Philippine government will file a 2nd petition for judicial review of the case of a Filipino who was sentenced to die by firing squad for smuggling heroin to Indonesia. In a meeting with the parents of the convict at the Makati City Hall, Binay assured them the government is exhausting all legal remedies and options to save their daughter Jane Veloso. Binay, Presidential Adviser on OFW Concerns, informed Veloso's parents--Celia and Cesar Veloso -- about the government's next move to spare their daughter from the death penalty. During the meeting, Binay called up Assistant Secretary Minda Calaguian-Cruz of the Department of Foreign Affairs' Office of Asia & Pacific Affairs who told him about a 2nd petition for judicial review. "Let us check what we can do. (Veloso) is a 1st time offender and a widow with 2 young children," the Vice President told Calaguian-Cruz. Jakarta has said it will wait for any outstanding legal appeals to conclude before executing all 10 drug convicts - including Veloso - at the same time. Veloso was arrested at Java's Yogyakarta Airport in April 2010 for carrying 2.6 kilograms of heroin in her luggage. An emotional Celia denied the heroin seized from her daughter's luggage belonged to her. She stressed it was discreetly placed there by a certain Christine, who she said, was the wife of her daughter's godbrother. "My daughter did not know about it. She wasn't aware," the grieving mother told Binay. She said her daughter was just carrying 2 small bags. But she said Christine was indeed clever and tricked her by buying several clothes for her daughter. When her daughter was about to leave for Indonesia, Christine gaver her a luggage, where she supposedly placed all the clothes she bought for her. The victim's parents sought the help of the Vice President after the Indonesian Supreme Court rejected the Philippine government's request for a judicial review of Veloso's case. In an earlier appeal for judicial review, Veloso's lawyers argued the convict was not provided with a capable translator during her trial. Binay recently renewed his appeal to Indonesian President Joko Widodo to commute the death sentence of Veloso. He also wrote Widodo earlier this month to "convey to him the Filipinos's hope and prayers that the Indonesia Supreme Court of Indonesia will look kindly and with compassion on the circumstances surrounding the case of Veloso. (source: Manila Standard Today) ****************** The Sad Story of 3 Nigerians On Death Row in Indonesia - Ambassador Purwanto In this interview, the Indonesia Ambassador to Nigeria, Harry Purwanto, shares the story of Indonesia legislation that recognises capital punishment for serious crimes. In your CV, I saw that you were once a Deputy Chief of National Counter Terrorism Agency. What was your experience like working with the agency? Terrorism in Indonesia is not a joke, it is really there. We experienced terror attacks in Indonesia with more than 400 dead. The danger in terrorism actually is not in the attacks. The danger is in the impact, the population is intimidated, that is the 1st. The 2nd, they try to destabilize the economy, offer the people their ideology. Terrorism in Indonesia is mostly ideological-driven. Indonesia has suffered from terrorism since independence. This agency is relatively young; it was established in 2011, it is doing a lot. We apply a 2-pronged approach - the hard approach and the soft approach. On the hard approach, we try to crush, destroy, decapitate terrorist groups. We are not only destroying them, we are also bringing them to justice. We have brought more than 1,000 people to justice and more than 400 are in prison. Some have been executed, some are to be released because they have fulfilled their terms of jail. On the soft approach, we try to empower the society, so the people can have the confidence to challenge the terrorists who try to influence them. We also try to give the people counter narrative because, without appropriate counter narrative, they are easily influenced by extremists. Sometimes people are so convinced because if you are talking about religion, you are talking about something that can convince the people. Now we have done the first part. We have crushed the terrorists cells. Meanwhile,what they are doing now is trying to use information technology to spread their lies and also try to make government look bad. And they are also trying to use the democratic environment in Indonesia, the freedom of press to disseminate this kind of information and this is a real challenge for us. In Indonesia, we have so many societies, so many ethnic groups, if we are not empowering the people, I think we are going to fail again. There are 3 Nigerians awaiting execution in your country for drag trafficking. The Federal Government recently wrote a letter of clemency to your government on the matter. What is the reaction of your government? There are 9 foreigners on the list including 3 Nigerians. There are 20 Indonesians as well. Indonesia legislation recognises capital punishment for serious crimes. We apply death sentence in only serious crimes like terrorism and narcotics. We remind foreigners going to Indonesia on the flight before they land that trafficking in Indonesia carries the death penalty, but there are certain amounts of the narcotic they can be sentenced to capital punishment for. This is not a government who sentences people to capital punishment. It is done through due process of law. When people are apprehended for trafficking, they are tried for the sake of it in the district court; after that, convicts can go on appeal to the upper court. If they are not satisfied with the upper court, they can still appeal to the Supreme Court. After the Supreme Court, there is still 1 more step which is clemency. So people go through the three steps but the request for clemency now is being denied by the President because we are on the emergency of the danger of trafficking. Under the due process of law, is there no negotiation at all? Well, actually, the government of Indonesia operates on the basis of separation of power between the executive, the legislature and the judiciary. The executive does not intervene in the affairs of the other arms of government. Meanwhile, after a person has been tried, the role of the executive comes in at the end when clemency is required. And of course the President, when giving clemency, tries to seek advice from the ministries. Negotiation, that is rather not common in Indonesia. Perhaps, what you do is to ask your legal team or the embassy to make case for clemency on your behalf. You obviously cannot intervene in the legal process. I am very sorry that we are facing this kind of situation where 3 Nigerians are now almost being executed. Is the Indonesian government looking at prison swap to assist these convicted Nigerians? Yes. We are already negotiating with some countries including Nigeria. But the negotiations are not yet concluded because, in Indonesia, we are rather hesitant on prisoner swap. When I met the Nigerian Foreign Affairs Ministry Permanent Secretary, I really appreciated his appeal and I have sent his appeal to Jakarta and, of course, can appeal like this will not be only responded to by one institution. There will be inter-agency consultations before you have a response on these Nigerians who are in Indonesian prisons and a decision can then be taken on whether or not they can be sent back to Nigeria to serve their sentences. We are waiting for the response from Jakarta. This issue was raised by your country previously when we had our bilateral meeting but the response from the institutions in Indonesia was not so clear. Has there been records of clemency because this is not the 1st time Nigerians have been executed? In January, we had 2. In 2013, we had 1 Nigerian as well. What are the commonest crimes committed by Nigerians in Indonesia? Trafficking. Well, not all traffickers are sentenced for capital punishment. Only those who are drug dealers and producers or brought huge amounts of narcotic into Indonesia face the death penalty. They are aware of the consequence that if they do, they will face the death penalty. What lessons can Nigeria learn from Indonesia in its bid for industrialization? How we can learn from each other! Indonesians can learn many things from Nigeria. And we can also share our experiences with Nigeria. In Indonesia, our import is smaller compared to our export. We are industrializing our country, we do also invite more direct investment to Indonesia. These help not only to create jobs but also aid to transfer technology because we have the capacity to absorb; this makes many foreign companies to rely on Indonesia. (source: Vanguard) IRAN: No Information About 5 Death Row Prisoners After A Month There is no news about the faith of Saman Nasim and 5 other prisoners of Uremia prison. According to the report of Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), Saman Nasim, Sirvan Naxhavi, Ibrahim Shapouri, Ali Afshari, Habibolah Afshari and Younes Aghayan were transferred to an unknown location from ward number 12 of Uremia prison in order to be executed, during last February. These prisoners have never had contact with their families and judicial officials never publicized any news about them. According to HRANA, the family of Saman Nasim confirmed that they have received the personal properties of him from prison, but they are still hopeful. A relative of Saman Nasim told to HRANA's reporter, "all of his personal properties, including his diary, are delivered to a relative in Uremia and then posted for us". Meanwhile unconfirmed news mentioned that these prisoners may have been transferred to Zanjan prison. Saman Nasim was a juvenile when he was arrested. Lack of transparency and response of judiciary has raised many criticism and concerns regarding this issue. (source: Human Rights Activists News Agency) SE ASIA: SE Asia 'moving away' from death penalty: OHCHR Southeast Asia appears to follow global trends in "moving away" from capital punishment while facing complex challenges, according to the latest publication on this matter by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) for Southeast Asia, as reported by The Jakarta Post. The challenges include the application of the death penalty for drug-related crimes and pressure to return to executions after a period of moratorium. "Fundamentally, it is a positive picture of progress and one consistent with the worldwide trend. The continuation of this trajectory should be encouraged so this region may eventually be free of capital punishment," William Schabas said regarding the publication on Friday. Some states, namely Cambodia, the Philippines and Timor Leste, are fully abolitionist while others, comprising Brunei Darussalam, Laos and Myanmar, are abolitionist in practice. Thailand is named as a country with an unofficial moratorium in place. Malaysia and Singapore are 2 countries still undertaking efforts to reduce the numbers of executions and other reforms. Meanwhile, Indonesia and Vietnam are countries still applying the death penalty whose direction seems more uncertain. The report provides an extensive review of global trends in the application of the death penalty, a summary of the applicable international legal standards, and the current status of legislative reform related to the death penalty in the region. (source: thaivisa.com) AUSTRALIA: The fight against the death penalty Time for a reality check. For all of Tony Abbott and Julie Bishop's lecturing of the Indonesian government over the planned execution of 2 Australian citizens, it is worth recalling that, as late as the 1960s, Liberal state governments in Victoria, South Australia and Western Australian were still carrying out ghastly executions by hanging. The death penalty was not abolished in Australia because our rulers were more civilised or morally superior to their Indonesian equivalents. Determined mass protests backed up by strikes by workers put an end to the brutality. Liberal premiers excelled in whipping up law and order hysteria to provoke a lynch mob atmosphere. The notorious Victorian Liberal premier Henry Bolte, during his 1962 campaign to hang Robert Tait, who had been convicted of murder, publicly advocated administering the lash (it was still on the books as a punishment at the time). Bolte was not some isolated figure in the Liberal establishment. He had the unanimous support of the cabinet and party room for hanging Tait. Nonetheless, a wave of public opposition erupted to oppose the hanging. The trade unions campaigned against it, and even the murdered woman's son spoke out against the execution. When Bolte and his education minister went to open a secondary teachers' college building next to Melbourne University, he was greeted by defiant students who let down the tyres of the two ministerial cars and padlocked the gates so that they could not get out. Famously, a female student managed to write "Hang Bolte" on the windscreen of his car in coral-pink lipstick. Despite all this opposition, the Liberal government refused to defer the execution - even though various legal appeals were still in train. In an extraordinary step, the High Court intervened to order the government to issue a stay of execution until the appeals had been heard. Tait was eventually declared legally insane. Bolte was incensed that he had been thwarted in his quest for blood. He was determined to get his revenge and to ensure a hanging was carried out on his watch in Victoria. In 1967, his victim was to be Ronald Ryan. He had been found guilty of killing a warder during a prison escape. The campaign against the Tait hanging had had a significant impact on public opinion. A Gallup Poll in February 1966 showed that support for hanging had dropped dramatically, from 69 % 12 years previously to 42 %. The numerous anti-hanging petitions that were circulated received a broad response. The anti-hanging committees formed during the Tait case were quickly reactivated, and there was a new round of even more militant protests. Students set up a permanent vigil on the steps of parliament in the lead-up to Ryan's hanging. Then, on 27 January 1967, 1,000 demonstrators led by Melbourne's militant waterside workers stormed parliament while chanting "We want Bolte!" and "Hang Bolte!" Wharfies carrying a wooden frame on which their union banner was displayed forced their way through police lines and began beating on the doors. Vicious fights broke out between workers and police. The following Sunday, 8,000 protesters marched to Pentridge prison carrying placards reading "Hang Bolte" and "Bolte Murderer". What particularly provoked workers' anger was that Ryan came from the bottom of the pile - a very poor Irish Catholic working class family - and thus was the perfect target for the Liberals' reactionary agenda. Initially, there were a few waverers in the Liberal cabinet. But they soon fell into line behind Bolte; the final cabinet decision to reaffirm the hanging was unanimous. One Liberal backbencher, Brian Dixon, publicly opposed the hanging. He was ostracised by other party members, and there were moves to expel him. The night before Ryan was hanged, there was an all-night vigil outside Pentridge, at which Bolte's effigy was hanged. Well before the execution at 8am on Tuesday, 3 February, the crowd had swelled to 3,000 booing, chanting, angry protesters. There were repeated clashes with the 300 police guarding the prison and more than 90 arrests. A nationwide 3-minute silence was observed at the exact time Ryan was hanged. Ryan's fellow prisoners staged their own protest - they refused to get out of bed, staged a sit-in, refused to work or obey orders. There was an eerie silence throughout the prison. Bolte had the grisly execution he had so desired, but it was to be the last in Australia. The protesters and striking workers had not saved Ryan, but they had demonstrated to the ruling class that any future state executions would face resistance. (source: redflag.org.au) From rhalperi at smu.edu Mon Mar 30 13:45:53 2015 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Mon, 30 Mar 2015 13:45:53 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----OHIO, TENN. Message-ID: March 30 OHIO: Report: 3 sentenced to death in Ohio in 2014 An annual report on capital punishment in Ohio says three people were condemned to die last year, bringing the total number under Ohio's 1981 law to 323 death sentences. The report by Attorney General Mike DeWine says 53 inmates have been executed, 19 have had their sentences reduced to prison time, and 26 have died before execution from suicide or natural causes. The report released Monday says Ohio has 146 active death penalty cases, including James Conway of Columbus, who received two death sentences for different slayings. Death sentences are increasingly rare in Ohio and nationwide as prosecutors file fewer death penalty cases and juries choose the option of life without parole. No executions are scheduled this year. (source: Associated Press) ***************************** Backup of killers awaiting execution is building Midway through Ohio's 2-year death penalty moratorium, a backup of men awaiting execution is building. There are 20 inmates either scheduled for execution or for whom prosecutors are seeking execution dates from the Ohio Supreme Court, according to the Capital Crimes Annual Report released today by Attorney General Mike DeWine. State law requires the attorney general to submit a summary of Ohio's capital punishment activity annually by April 1. Capital punishment ground to a halt following the troubled execution of Dennis McGuire on Jan. 16, 2014. State officials scrambled to come up with a new drug supply to replace the 2 used for the 1st time to kill McGuire. Instead, they were forced to change state law. Prison officials can now sign secret contracts with "compounding pharmacies" to provide execution drugs. Lawsuits remain pending in which death row inmates are contesting the lethal-injection process. The changes prompted Gov. John Kasich to push back the entire execution schedule until next year. The 1st man slated to die using the new protocol is Ronald Phillips, of Summit County on Jan. 21, 2016. There are 10 more executions scheduled thorough the end of next year, including 3 killers from Franklin County: Alva Campbell (March 23, 2016), Warren Henness (June 22, 2016) and Kareem Jackson (Sept. 21, 2016), DeWine's report said. There are 9 other inmates for whom prosecutors have requests pending with the Ohio Supreme Court to set execution dates. None are from central Ohio. DeWine's report said Ohio has issued 323 death sentences since 1981 and executed 53 people who killed 85 victims, including 19 children. The average age of those executed was 46; they spent an average 16.6 years on death row. There were 19 death sentences commuted to life without parole by 4 governors. Republican Gov. John Kasich commuted 5 as did Democrat Ted Strickland. Bob Taft, a Republican, commuted 1 sentence, and Democrat Richard F. Celeste commuted 8. The report said 26 inmates died while awaiting execution, including Billy Slagle, who committed hung himself in his cell shortly before his execution in 2013. There were 69 cases removed from death row because of court action. Meanwhile, Ohioans to Stop Executions issued its annual report today which it said reflects a declining use of capital punishment. "What we see is the institution of the death penalty crumbling before our eyes," said Kevin Werner, executive director. (source: Columbus Dispatch) TENNESSEE: Time to reconsider the death penalty Last week, Utah's governor signed into law a bill allowing the use of the firing squad for executions. Welcome to the Wild, Wild West, y'all. What spurred them to do this? It seems that the drug manufacturers in Europe won't sell the drugs if they know they will be used to kill people. This is Utah's way of continuing the ridiculousness that is state killing. In just a few days, Christians will celebrate Good Friday, when Christ himself was a victim of state killing, the one who stopped a woman from execution, the one who said forgive, not just 1 time, but 70 times 7, and love your enemies. Yet so many Christians forget the message of their God, the message of compassion and love. Besides, most studies show it is more expensive to execute people than to have them imprisoned for life. Fiscal conservatives, take note! Instead of killing people who kill people to show people that killing people is wrong, states like Utah and Tennessee should invest that money in preventing violent crimes in the first place by spending that wasted money on things like law enforcement, education, mental health and mentoring for at-risk youth. This would be a much better use of our tax dollars and would promote the common good instead of revenge. Brent Fernandez, Nashville (source: Letter to the Editor, The Tennessean) From rhalperi at smu.edu Mon Mar 30 17:00:39 2015 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Mon, 30 Mar 2015 17:00:39 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----LA., USA Message-ID: March 30 LOUISIANA: US top court to hear execution case of mentally disabled man The US Supreme Court will on Monday consider whether a man deemed mentally handicapped should be sentenced to death. In a 2002 decision -- "Atkins versus Virginia" -- the Supreme Court forbade the execution of people with intellectual disabilities. Then, the court found that such an execution would amount to the "cruel and unusual punishment" banned by the US Constitution's Eighth Amendment. But it left it up to individual US states to determine what constitutes a mental handicap. The case the top court is to hear Monday involves Kevan Brumfield, who was sentenced to death by a state court for killing a police officer in Baton Rouge, Louisiana in 1993. Though the issue of the suspect's mental capacity did come up at trial, the law did not prohibit mentally disabled people to be sentenced to death at the time. After the Supreme Court's ruling in 2002, Brumfield's lawyers argued he should be spared death due to intellectual disability. He appealed for a hearing and funding to conduct an intelligence assessment, but the Louisiana state court denied his request, saying Brumfield's IQ was 75 and therefore he was not considered mentally disabled. An IQ of lower than 70 is considered an intellectual disability, according to the Supreme Court's 2002 decision. But a US federal court later approved the intelligence assessment and concluded that Brumfield was in fact intellectually handicapped and therefore ineligible for execution. The New Orleans Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, then ruled that the state's original sentence should be upheld and that Brumfield should remain on death row. Capital punishment sentences normally fall under the purvey of state law, and this case could determine whether the federal courts can block a state's death sentence if the punishment is considered "unreasonable." "If the state court does not give adequate process by denying hearing and funding, you've been unreasonable and you're not entitled to deference," said one of Brumfield's lawyers, Amir Ali. If the Supreme Court rules that a federal court cannot overturn a state court's sentence, it would be a historic decision. Another lawyer for Brumfield said he should be spared death on the grounds that the top court's 2002 ruling that mentally impaired people should not be executed. "We know something very important today, Kevan is not eligible to be executed," insisted Nicholas Trenticosta. Rob Dunham, the director of the Death Penalty Information Center, agrees that Brumfield's sentence is not in line with modern law. "As death sentences and executions decline across the country, it is increasingly important that older cases such as Mr Brumfield's be reviewed with the increased scrutiny demanded today," Dunham said. In January, a convicted rapist and killer with an IQ of 67 was executed in the state of Texas, after an appeal to the US Supreme Court to stay the death sentence was rejected. Earlier that month, the US state of Georgia executed convicted killer Warren Hill, whose lawyer had argued he was intellectually disabled with an IQ of 70. The European Union, lawyers, doctors and former US president Jimmy Carter had called for mercy for Hill. (source: Daily Mail) USA: The Volokh Conspiracy----The Sixth Circuit reversed yet again in a habeas case The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit has developed a reputation as the "new Ninth." Over the past several years, the Sixth Circuit has been reversed in an extraordinary number of cases. At one point, the Sixth Circuit had been reversed in over 20 consecutive cases in which cert had been granted. A substantial percentage of the Sixth Circuit's reversals have come in the criminal justice context. Habeas cases, in which criminal defendants seek to challenge state court convictions or sentences in federal court, have been particularly likely to catch the Supreme Court's attention. The Sixth Circuit - or, more likely, a substantial portion of the circuit's judges - is out-of-step with the Supreme Court's current majority. This morning the trend continued as the Supreme Court released a unanimous per curiam opinion in Woods v. Donald, reversing a Sixth Circuit grant of a habeas petition. At issue here, as in many such cases, was whether the state court conviction was "contrary to, or involved an unreasonable application of, clearly established Federal law," as determined by the Supreme Court. This is the standard imposed by the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA). Without reaching the merits of the underlying issue - whether a criminal defendant is denied effective assistanceo f counsel because his attorney was "briefly absent" from the courtroom during testimony concerning other defendants - the Court unanimously concluded that because no prior Supreme Court opinion had so held, there was no basis for awarding habeas relief in this case. And so, the Sixth Circuit was reversed yet again. (source: Commentary--Jonathan H. Adler teaches courses in constitutional, administrative, and environmental law at the Case Western University School of Law, where he is the inaugural Johan Verheij Memorial Professor of Law and Director of the Center for Business Law and Regulation; Washington Post) From rhalperi at smu.edu Mon Mar 30 17:01:25 2015 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Mon, 30 Mar 2015 17:01:25 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide Message-ID: March 30 INDONESIA: How a 30-year-old Filipina ended up on death row in Indonesia Mary Jane Veloso, 30, was caught trafficking drugs when her flight from Malaysia landed in Jogjakarta in April 2010. She had on her 2.6 kilograms of heroin with a street value of US$500,000. She was sentenced to death in October 2010 and the Philippine government has vowed to exhaust all means to save her. Her initial appeal for judicial review - she says she did not have a capable interpreter during her trial - was rejected last week and on Friday we reported that Indonesia is preparing to move her for execution. A 2nd petition will be filed by the Philippine government. Veloso's plight comes on the heels of another high-profile drug-trafficking case in Indonesia involving Bali 9, a group called as such because its conspirators are 4 Indonesians and 6 foreigners. The alleged masterminds, Australian citizens Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, are set to be executed soon by gunfire despite top-level intercessions from the Australian government and human rights advocates. These are what you need to know to better understand the case of Mary Jane Veloso, a Filipina on death row: 1. Mary Jane Fiesta Veloso is from the village of Caudillo near Cabanatuan City, where she grew up impoverished, with her parents and siblings. She is a single mother of 2. 2. Among the siblings, it was only Mary Jane who was able to go to high school - but she only attended 1st year. 3. Instead, she seeked employment abroad as a domestic helper, lasting only 10 months in the United Arab Emirates because she fled when her employer tried to rape her. 4. At 25, she was going to try her luck again, this time as a domestic helper, a job she heard about from her kinakapatid Cristina. When she landed in Kuala Lumpur, however, Cristina told her the job was already filled but there was another vacancy in Jogjakarta in the island of Java if she was still interested? 5. Before the flight to Jogjakarta, Cristina took Veloso on a shopping spree where she bought her new clothes and luggage. They took the same flight but Cristina disappeared when Veloso's suitcase set off the security alarm while she was clearing customs. 6. Hidden inside Veloso's luggage was 2.6 grams of heroin wrapped in aluminum foil, with an estimated street value of US$500,000. She had been set up as a drug mule and was arrested by the police in April 2010. In October 2010, she was convicted as a drug trafficker and sentenced to death. There was no word on her execution during the term of president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. But Joko Widowo, Indonesia's new president since October 2014, has been taking a hard stance on drugs and has denied presidential clemency for drug offenders. 7. Veloso's execution was deferred by the Indonesian government in February 2015 following a formal appeal from our Department of Foreign Affairs. Veloso claims she did not have a capable interpreter during her trial. Last month, the Indonesian government allowed her family - her mother, sister and 2 children - to see her in prison. 8. On Mar 26, Indonesia's supreme court rejected Veloso's appeal for a judicial review, with no explanation. According to a Reuters report, the Indonesian government is now preparing to move Mary Jane from Yogyakarta to the maximum security prison on Nusakambangan Island in Central Java. 9. The date of her execution has yet to be announced. 10. Veloso's plight comes on the heels of another high-profile drug-trafficking case in Indonesia involving a group dubbed Bali 9. They were attempting to smuggle 8.3 kilograms of heroin out of Bali in 2005. Despite pressure from international media and appeals from the Australian government on behalf of the 2 Australian ringleaders in the group, their execution by gunfire has not been overturned. (source: manila.coconuts.co) ************* Indonesian Church prays for a Filipino on death row but believed innocent The Jesuit priest Fr. Bernhard "Teddy" Kieser, professor at the Catholic University of Sanata Dharma (USD) of Yogyakarta in central Java, has promoted prayer vigils for a young Filipino woman, who was sentenced to death in Indonesia for drug trafficking. She is believed innocent by many. The Supreme Court (MA) has rejected the request for clemency made by the 30 year-old Mary Jane Fiesta Veloso, who should be executed in the coming days in the maximum security prison of Nusakambangan, the so-called Indonesian "Alcatraz". The priest and professor, spiritual father for the young woman on death row, has launched a personal campaign for her release. Fr. Bernhard also addressed to the Bishop of Purwokerto Msgr. Julianus Sunarko, head of the parish of Cilacap and area of ??Nusakambangan, asking him to promote the prayer campaign throughout the diocese. He is also looking to involve the Philippine Embassy in Jakarta, which so far has not attempted to help the fate - judicial and personnel - of its citizen. Mary Jane Fiesta Veloso, a simple woman and mother of 2 children, at age 25 moved to Malaysia to work as a domestic worker. A local boss, active in recruiting migrant workers and placing them among various families, entrusted her with an assignment: to carry a suitcase - the contents of which the young Filipino knew nothing- and deliver it to some people who would have met her at the Yogyakarta airport in Indonesia. On reaching her destination, Mary Jane was checked by border police who discovered, 2.6 kg of heroin in the bag, worth a total of about 500 thousand dollars. That was in April 2010 and since then the woman's judicial and personal ordeal began. During the trial she was not given adequate assistance, and only recently, thanks to the efforts of the priest, has her drama began circulating within the Catholic community first, and then public opinion. Among other things at first the young woman hid her situation from her family and, only recently, her relatives were allowed to meet her in prison. This is a far cry from the global outcry that surrounded other cases such as that of the mentally disabled Brazilian also likely to be executed. Both judicial cases are a result of the "zero tolerance" campaign launched by the Indonesian authorities against drug trafficking, which often ends up affecting only common criminals or innocent victims. (source: asianews.it) INDIA: Abu Salem moves Supreme Court against conviction in Pradeep Jain murder case A month after the special TADA court here sentenced extradited gangster Abu Salem to a life imprisonment in builder Pradeep Jain murder case, he has moved the Supreme Court with an appeal. "We have filed an appeal saying that as per the extradition treaty (with Portugal), the court cannot hand down life imprisonment to Salem," his lawyer Saba Qureshi told PTI. Under TADA, the appeal is filed directly in the Supreme Court and not the High Court. Judge GA Sanap had noted in his February 25 ruling that the court has to apply the Indian law while the government can exercise its power in the matter of execution of sentence (by commuting it, etc). Qureshi also said the offence of criminal conspiracy cannot be invoked against Salem. "Moreover, the judgement is based on Salem's confession which he did not give voluntarily," she said. In January 2012, Portugal's Supreme Court had upheld an order which cancelled Salem's extradition for "violation" of deportation rules by Indian authorities who slapped new charges against him which attract death penalty. Salem's driver Mehndi Hassan was also given a life imprisonment, while co-accused, builder Virendra Jhamb's sentence was set off against stay in prison as under-trial. On March 7, 1995, Jain was shot dead in suburban Juhu after he refused to hand over his property to Salem (who was then outside the country). The court had, in January last year, dropped some charges against Salem after the prosecution said it needed to withdraw them so that India's relations with Portugal were not affected. Salem, also an accused in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case, was extradited from Portugal on November 11, 2005. (source: Press Trust of India) From rhalperi at smu.edu Tue Mar 31 10:51:32 2015 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Tue, 31 Mar 2015 10:51:32 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., DEL., N.C., ALA., LA. Message-ID: March 31 TEXAS: Reverse the Texas Criminal Court of Appeals Suspension of Death Penalty Attorney David Dow and Reinstate Him Texas based David Dow is one of the best and highly regarded death penalty defense attorneys in the United States. He and his team have represented over 100 death row defendants, many pro bono. 2 defendants were innocent and completely exonerated. 20 defendants sentences were commuted from death to life sentences. Over 20 years ago Dow founded Texas's oldest Innocence Project, The Innocence Network. Currently he runs the Death Penalty Clinic, staffed by law students, at the University of Houston Law Center where he is also the Cullen Professor. He has dedicated his life to representing prisoners on death row and inspires new generations to do the same. He now needs your help. The Issue: In January 2015, the Texas Criminal Court of Appeals (CCA) suspended David Dow for a whole year for filing a petition of a stay of execution 30 minutes late, 1 week before the execution was scheduled. This means he can not represent death row defendants before the Court until early 2016! A dissenting judge, Elsa Alcala, wrote, "Dow's pleadings were 30 minutes late under the plain language of the rule." She further wrote, "I would not hold Dow in contempt for filing pleadings only 30 minutes late under the circumstances in which this Court still had essentially 7 days to consider the pleadings." The CCA's deadline rule is that a petition may not be filed "...fewer than 7 days before the scheduled execution date." Dow's petition was filed at 6:30 pm on October 21, 2014 and the defendant's scheduled execution was after 6:00 pm on October 28th. Also, the lateness of Dow's filing is up for debate because the CCA's own example of a late filing is 8 days, which obfuscates their rule. Other Texas death penalty lawyers have committed far worse offenses such as falling asleep or being intoxicated at trials and and were never sanctioned. Attorney Jerome Godinich missed three filing deadlines without a contempt ruling against him. Why the excessive, unprecedented punishment? Well, it's complicated. This was Dow's 2nd "late" filing. In 2007, he and his defense team petitioned the CCA for a last minute stay on the scheduled day of an execution. Their computers crashed and they asked the presiding judge, Sharon Keller, to keep the clerk's office open an extra 20 minutes. Judge Keller had already gone home to meet a repair person and said, "We close at 5." The defendant was executed that night. Judge Keller's actions set off a tsunami of anger and protest. It is an unwritten Texas tradition for judges to deal with last minute death penalty pleadings from home after hours when lives are at stake. The press attacked her, Republicans disparaged her and people protested in front of her house. Lawyers asked her to step down. Even her friends became her detractors. Fast forward to January 2015. Who is the presiding judge of the Texas Criminal Court of Appeals? Judge Sharon Keller. This could be a cruel coincidence, but Dow's suspension reeks of retaliation. His passion and skill defending death row prisoners for over 2 decades has made him a thorn in the CCA's judges sides. David Dow is one of the good guys. The CCA's ruling prevents him from presenting the cases of, at this writing, a dozen death row clients in their courtroom. A 12 month suspension is a draconian punishment that doesn't fit the "crime," if indeed there even is a crime. It can also have a ripple effect and deter attorneys from working on capital cases. Please sign the petition to the Supreme Court of Texas and ask them to overturn the CCA's ruling and reinstate David Dow. Let them know many eyes are upon them. It is literally a matter of life and death. (source: change.org) PENNSYLVANIA: Officials argue need for reform to Pa.'s death penalty system----Some officials and associations believe that not enough is being done to ensure those on death row actually committed the crimes or deserve the punishment of death The death penalty is a tool prosecutors use to punish those who commit the most grievous crimes against society. Some officials and associations, however, believe that not enough is being done to ensure those on death row actually committed the crimes or deserve the punishment of death. Through studies and reviews of Pennsylvania's death penalty system, some have found lacking and underfunded defenses as well as strong racial biases where black defendants were committed to death row more often and for the same crimes as white defendants. For some, though, the death penalty is an important tool in the criminal process. Death penalty The potential for a death penalty starts with a homicide and a prosecutor's determination of whether that can be prosecuted as a 1st-, 2nd- or 3rd-degree murder. Cumberland County District Attorney David Freed said if he and his office believe it is a strong 1st-degree murder case, then he has to determine if there are "aggravating circumstances" that meet the standards for a death penalty case. Some potential circumstances include a history of violence, killing during the commission of a felony, or killing a child or elderly person, Freed said. If any of those circumstances fit, then it's up to the prosecutor to decide if it should be a capital case that could result in the defendant's execution. In his career of almost 20 years as a prosecutor, Freed said he has been involved in 30 homicide cases. In those that have fallen in the last 10 years, Freed has more often than not made the decision himself in whether to seek the death penalty. He explained that his office will initially file a criminal homicide charge without detailing what degree or murder they intend on seeking. With some time, he will then determine the degree and aggravating circumstances to be ready at the formal arraignment in the case. Not every prosecutor will opt for the death penalty, and Death Penalty Information Center Executive Director Robert Dunham said there aren't many district attorneys who consider it, even in states that allow it. "The DA always has discretion," Dunham said, noting that studies show that only a small percentage of counties end up seeking the death penalty, which then increases the rate for an entire state. Carlisle defense attorney and former prosecutor Jay Abom said he's also seen less of an interest in pursuing a death penalty. "I think prosecutors in my opinion are much more judicious in applying the death penalty case," he said. "Anecdotally, its seems like it's being sought less frequently. Maybe they want to reserve (the sentence) for those who deserve it. And that may change over time." "...I am willing to consider the development of mitigating evidence at any time during the proceedings," Freed said in an email. "I am confident that I make the decision to file aggravating circumstances after appropriate deliberation and only in the most egregious cases." Freed noted that though cases involving the death of an infant - often in shaken baby cases - it's difficult to prove intent even with aggravating circumstances, so cases like that of Justin Thompson often aren't pursued as capital case options. In that particular case, Freed said the district attorney's office revised its decision and did not pursue the death penalty. Thompson was later found guilty by a jury of 3rd-degree murder. Thompson, 36, of South Middleton Township, was charged after the September 2011 death of his 5-week-old daughter. Aggravating circumstances were initially filed in this case, but they were repealed before the trial this past February. A jury convicted him of 3rd-degree murder, and he was sentenced to 16 to 40 years in prison. When a death sentence is sought, a jury must decide both the guilt of the defendant in the trial and the sentence in the penalty phase if the defendant is convicted of 1st-degree murder. The jury would then decide if the defendant should be sentenced to life in prison or death row. After that trial in the county, an inmate then has the right to file an appeal. If that fails, the inmate can file post-conviction relief. If the ruling is not overturned at that stage either, the inmate can then go through the federal review of habeas corpus. Problems Defenders and organizations argue that there are numerous ways in this process where an innocent person can be convicted, and that the system is generally bogged down in the state, costing taxpayers millions. The American Bar Association conducted a Pennsylvania Death Penalty Assessment report in October 2007 and noted recently that what it found then are still problems today. "Over the course of the past 30 years, the American Bar Association has become increasingly concerned that capital jurisdictions too often provide neither fairness nor accuracy in the administration of the death penalty," the association wrote in the report. The report said many of Pennsylvania's shortcomings were "substantial." Among the issues the association took with the state's death penalty system were inadequate procedures to protect the innocent, the state's refusal to fund indigent capital cases, lack of collective data in the state, significant juror confusion and a racial bias. The report said Pennsylvania did not mandate the preservation of biological (DNA) evidence for as long as the defendant remains incarcerated, it did not provide state funding for capital indigent defense services, and it did not collect data on capital cases to ensure proportionality in charging or sentencing. 2 of the biggest faults it found in the system were juror confusion and racial bias. The report said 82.8 % of capital case jurors did not believe that "a life sentence really meant life in prison." The jurors said they thought a defendant could get parole if they were sentenced to life during the penalty phase of a capital case, which is not the case. The report also said 68 % thought they needed to be unanimous in finding the existence of mitigating circumstances, and 58.7 % failed to understand they could consider mitigating circumstances during the penalty phase of the case. The report found racial bias was also an issue in capital cases, saying there were "strong indications" that the death penalty system did not operate in an "evenhanded manner." The committee analyzing the system found that 1/3 of the black death-row inmates in Philadelphia County would have received sentences of life imprisonment if they had not been black. Freed argued that this report, and a similar one from the Pennsylvania Joint State Government Commission, are biased with staunch opponents to the death penalty and defense attorneys making up those committee boards. "The last (joint commission) report hasn't resulted in any legislative action," he said. Freed said the system has gotten better in training public defenders to appropriately defend capital case defendants, and the system allows for highly trained court-appointed attorneys to pick up a case if a public defender cannot. He noted that local attorneys have proven themselves more than capable over the years in defending their clients. He also noted that the association's take on a racial bias has not come up in Cumberland County. He noted that of the 4 inmates on death row from sentences in the county, 2 are black and 2 are white. "We haven't seen the racial disparity here," he said. Appeals process Dunham said a concern for him is the way Pennsylvania issues death warrants. Dunham explained that a 1994 piece of legislation required death warrants to be issued "during times it will not be carried out." The death warrants, which would signify the impending execution of an inmate, are issued before certain stages in the appeals process - the post-conviction relief and habeas corpus review. A case going to either stage would cause the death warrant to be stayed, and the execution date canceled. "At both stages, it's clear the death warrant serves no legitimate purpose," he said. "The defendant will not be executed." >From 1978 when the death penalty in Pennsylvania was re-established on through the Corbett administration, Dunham said governors have signed 433 death warrants. "Of those 433 death warrants, all but 3 were stayed or reprieved. Only 3 times were (the death warrants) carried out, and they were mentally ill defendants (who dropped their appeals)." In a publication on death penalty stewardship that he wrote in 2013, Pennsylvania Supreme Court Chief Justice Thomas Saylor of Camp Hill said that in 2013, 74 % of prisoners on death row in the state have been there for more than 10 years. Freed agreed that there is a problem with the "bottleneck" of cases tied up in the appeals process, and that should be the question addressed in the discussion about the death penalty and reform. Solutions The American Bar Association in 2007 called for a nationwide moratorium on executions until serious flaws in the system are identified and eliminated. Gov. Tom Wolf instituted such a moratorium shortly after taking office this year, and Freed has been vocal in his opposition to Wolf's moratorium, saying it was not in the governor???s purview to make such a decision. "It's the law of the commonwealth of Pennsylvania," he said. "He's tied it to the Joint (State Government) Commission report, which is stacked with anti-death penalty (advocates). ... This is open-ended and outside of the law." Wolf's moratorium is in front of the state Supreme Court, and until a decision is made - which judges said would not be immediate - the moratorium in Pennsylvania will stay in effect. In addition to a moratorium, the bar association in its 2007 report recommended some things that Pennsylvania could do to make the system better and less likely to execute an innocent person. Among the recommendations were a requirement for "innocence protection" that included evidence preservation and videotaped interrogations, a statewide data collection on all death-eligible cases, a state authority in charge of training and monitoring defense attorneys, state funding for capital indigent defense, clearer jury instructions and a comprehensive study about racial disparities in the system. Dunham said that report has done little to change how the Pennsylvania death penalty system works. "The fact is studies have shown in Pennsylvania that problems are long existent and haven't been addressed," he said. Freed said he gives credit to those who take a stance in the death penalty debate, regardless of what side they take, but he noted that any changes to the system need to be met with considerations on how it would affect the judicial process. "I have nothing but respect for those who have a very strong opinion against the death penalty," he said. "It's hard to argue there isn't a problem (with the system). What I want is to get (solutions) out there based in reality, not just conventional wisdom." (source: correctionsone.com) ********************** Officials argue over need for death sentence as inmates continue to sit and wait Cumberland County Chief Public Defender Tim Clawges would love nothing more than to see the abolishment of the death penalty. Serving as a public defender for almost 25 years, Clawges has first-hand experience talking to defendants facing death row and researching their histories of potential abuse, drugs and mental illness. Clawges said that even criminals in the most serious cases "have some real humanity. Everybody's got some good parts to them." It's the bad parts, however, that is the concern of Cumberland County District Attorney David Freed. Freed emphasized that he and his office put serious consideration into whether they should pursue a death penalty case. While those cases must prove to have "aggravating circumstances," he said his office goes beyond that to consider how much evidence is against the defender. "I feel in the cases we've (prosecuted), there's been no question of guilt or if they were appropriately handled," he said. The argument for some boils down to whether the death penalty is a deterrent to crime, and some officials say there is no data that points to that being the case. "It's nothing but vengeance," Clawges said of capital cases. Deterrent Among the arguments of a broken system and taxpayer burden, some say the death penalty simply does not deter people from killing others. Both Clawges and private defense attorney Jay Abom of Carlisle said the death penalty is not something that comes up in the process of a crime. "I don't think a (defendant) is necessarily thinking about consequences while engaging in that activity," Abom said. Robert Dunham, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, said there are medical factors as to why criminals don't process their crimes with reasoning of consequences. A former federal defender, Dunham said that the majority of those convicted and sentenced to death are in their mid- to late 20s. He said medical research indicates that people younger than 25 are still at a stage of life where their frontal lobe - the part that registers consequences - is still developing and maturing. "The part of the brain that would be responsive to deterrents is not developed. If that's the case, we can't expect that (the death penalty) would be a deterrent," he said. A study released Feb. 12 from the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law addressed reduction of crime and took a closer look at how the death penalty or longer incarceration in general affected crime rates across the country. The report found that increased incarceration had a limited effect on reducing crime for the last 2 decades. The report estimates it had somewhere between 0 to 10 % effect on reducing crime from 1990 to 2000, but almost zero effect on crime since then. "They found there is no evidence at all that shows the death penalty has an effect on crime levels," Dunham said. "Crime rates rose in approximately the same rate in the states that had the death penalty and in the states that didn't. Crime levels fell in approximately the same rate in the states that had the death penalty and in the states that didn't. Homicide rates were generally lower in states that did not have the death penalty." The report argued that factors that did prove successful in crime reduction were increasing numbers of police officers, changes in income, decreased alcohol consumption and more use of data-driven policing techniques. Prison life Some may argue that a death sentence might not be a deterrent to criminals, but the bleak picture of what is in store for death row inmates can make a difference in whether a defendant wants to take a plea deal. Pennsylvania Department of Corrections spokeswoman Susan McNaughton said that Pennsylvania's death row inmates are housed in three facilities - State Correctional Institution Greene and SCI Graterford for men, and SCI Muncy for women. She noted that all men regardless of their sentence enter the corrections department through SCI Camp Hill. So, there are times where SCI Camp Hill might house a death row inmate. According to the department's records, SCI Camp Hill is the temporary home of Raghunandan Yandamuri, 29, who was sentenced in Montgomery County in November for the death of a 10-month-old girl and her grandmother. In the state Department of Correction's monthly population report, which included data as of Feb. 28, there were 186 death row inmates and 5,353 inmates serving life sentences. The total prison population in the system was 49,019. McNaughton said the department will place male capital case inmates in Greene or Graterford depending on bed space availability, which she said is not an issue for its death row population. That inmate most likely will spend the rest of his life at that facility unless he needs to be moved because of court appearances or because he is problematic for the facility. SCI Rockview is the state prison where inmates are executed. Amenities are limited to those on death row. McNaughton said death row inmates are provided services from counselors, religious staff, barbers and health care providers, and food is served to them in their cells, as opposed to being eaten in the inmate dining hall. Capital case inmates may also purchase items from the prison's commissary, though those orders are more limited than the other prisoners' options because of security levels. McNaughton said the inmates on death row will spend most of their time in their cells. "Capital case inmates are housed in capital case units with other capital case inmates," she said in an email. "They are locked in their cells 22 hours a day. They are permitted out of their cells for exercise or out-of-cell use of the unit law library, visits, etc. Each time a capital case inmate is out of his/her cell, at least 2 officers escorts them, and they are handcuffed and shackled." As a comparison, McNaughton said prisoners serving life sentences are housed among the general population throughout all of the prisons in the state system. They have the ability to work, attend classes, participate in programs and have contact visits just like all of the other inmates. That kind of outlook may change what defendants do before they get to their county trials. "I speak to clients about what life would be like," Abom said. "They say, 'Well, I'll die in prison anyway.' But I'll talk about quality of life. Ultimately that is the choice of the defendant and not ours." For those who go through with the trial and end up on death row, the price McNaughton mentioned for extra security does mean a slightly costlier price tag for taxpayers. Because of the need for additional staff, McNaughton said a capital case inmate costs about $47,000 per year to house - about $10,000 more than an inmate in the general population. (source: The Sentinel) DELAWARE: Columnist draws wrong conclusion on death penalty Don Flood's column of March 24 is an emotional appeal to repeal the death penalty. Emotions can make you "feel right" for all the wrong reasons. I prefer reasoning. Senate Bill 40, which, if passed by the General Assembly and signed by the governor, would end capital punishment in Delaware. Passing this bill would be an emotional, not a reasoned decision. Don cites 2 books, John Grisham's "The Innocent Man," and Bryan Stevenson's "Just Mercy." Both tell the true-life story of murders. There is enormous pressure to bring the killers to justice. In each book, the law and judicial branches are complicit in convicting innocent people for the murders. Conspiring by lying in court, providing false evidence, or suppressing real evidence, are crimes in themselves, and the consequences in these 2 cases involve innocent lives. While I haven't read either book, they do not present a case for abolishing the death penalty, but rather they present a case for prosecuting those responsible for abusing and manipulating the justice system we depend on. These 2 books are a sad commentary on the loss of integrity in these times. Mr. Flood draws the wrong conclusions from the wrong books. Don writes that it is obvious that human nature does not change at the state border, and we Delawareans make mistakes too. What should also be obvious is that human nature will not change in any other criminal or civil court case; shall we argue then to throw out our whole justice system, and give up on the idea of law and order altogether? Our Constitution calls for protecting the rights of its citizens, and punishing criminals proportionately. In cases of murder, the death penalty fits the crime. This has been supported by Judeo-Christian philosophy for millennia and agrees with almost everyone's sense of fairness. The problem is the degree of finality and demands the most rigorous efforts on the part of the justice system as well as the best policies man can devise to protect the innocent. We have a very elaborate system to protect the accused, including a defense team and a jury of peers, any number of Constitutional protections, and the ideas of "innocent till proven guilty" and "the benefit of the doubt". There will never be a guarantee of being right in every case, but if the people involved in the justice system are virtuous, justice stands an excellent chance of success. Don's column is full of counterfeit arguments, some noted above, but race is still another. There are some legitimate racial arguments to be made, but the central racial argument is an ideological fabrication. The idea of racial animus is predicated on the disproportionate incarceration rate of blacks to the general population rate of blacks. There is no correlation of one rate to the other. Should the incarceration rate ever fall below the population rate, should we all call for more incarceration of blacks, whether proven guilty of a crime or not? Incarceration should never be a quota system. This argument is more about violent fatherless males, and not about race. Violence will land you in jail sooner or later, regardless of race. Don labels the death penalty as an "indefensible position." It is not. But there is at least 1 great problem with our justice system, and I credit Don for mentioning it, and that is the influence of money, celebrity and power. If our justice system is to be fair, then address the problems, not the agenda of a small faction of people who are vociferous but have precious few workable solutions to real problems. Armand Carreau, Bridgeville (source: Letter to the Editor, CapeGazette.com) NORTH CAROLINA: Will Jason Owens Face Death: Local DA Weighs In Investigators continue to build their case against 37-year-old Robert Jason Owens for the alleged murders of Cristie and JT Codd and their unborn child. While Buncombe County District Attorney Todd Williams isn't allowed to publicly discuss the case, Henderson County District Attorney Greg Newman believes the Owens case does have factors that would qualify for a death sentence case. "If it's proven he dismembered individuals and destroyed their bodies by burning them and so forth," Newman said. "Then the heinous nature of the crimes can certainly be considered. The number of individuals murdered can also be considered." But Newman also said he and other district attorneys know the national sentiment against death sentences is significant and reflected in prosecutions. "We're seeing fewer and fewer death penalty trials in North Carolina," Newman said. "I believe if we could chart it we would see a decline in the number of cases where it's being sought statewide." There are 10 convicted murderers from Buncombe County who were sentenced in the last 25 years and are still sitting on state and federal death rows. The last person put to death from Buncombe County was convicted murderer Zane Hill in 1998 who killed his son. He was put to death by lethal injection. In 2004 Charles Wesley Roach was put to death for the mass slayings of a Haywood County family. As for what Owens will face, the decision lies with DA Williams. Williams told News 13 he could not comment on the case or whether he'll seek the death penalty for Owens. Newman said North Carolina court rules do allow for a prosecutor to take their time in deciding if they will pursue the death penalty in a capital murder case. (source: WLOS news) ALABAMA: Alabama Judges Override Juries and Order Death Sentences ... if There's an Election Coming Up The worst time to be tried for murder in Alabama is in an election year, when state judges are prone to upgrade punishment to death in capital cases in order to curry favor with voters. Alabama is 1 of 3 states (Delaware and Florida being the others) that grant judges the authority to override jury sentences and impose the death penalty. Since Florida rarely uses the judicial override and Delaware has abolished the death penalty, Alabama is the only state to use the option on a routine basis, according to the Christian Science Monitor. Statistics show that Alabama judges, who are elected to the bench, have overridden juries in murder cases 111 times since the death penalty's reinstatement in 1976. Of that 111, judges have upgraded the sentences to death 101 times. In the remaining 10 cases, the judges downgraded the sentence to life in prison. More than 20% of the inmates on death row in Alabama are there as a result of judicial overrides. "Judicial candidates frequently campaign on their support and enthusiasm for capital punishment" because it is popular among the voting public, according to the Equal Justice Initiative. Consequently, "political pressure injects unfairness and arbitrariness into override decisions." The Alabama Criminal Defense Lawyers Association says in the 111 death-penalty upgrade decisions, 80% occurred in the year leading up to a judge's reelection. For that reason, the organization is lobbying the state legislature to remove the override option. The U.S. Supreme Court may decide to review 1 or 2 Alabama death row cases (Scott v. Alabama or Lockhart v. Alabama [pdf]), which could result in the court taking "a new look at the unusual power Alabama gives to its judges," Adam Liptak wrote at The New York Times. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor has already given a clue to her perspective on the matter in a footnote that she wrote in her dissent in a 2013 case, Mario Dion Woodward v. Alabama. "The only answer that is supported by empirical evidence," she wrote, "is one that, in my view, casts a cloud of illegitimacy over the criminal justice system: Alabama judges, who are elected in partisan proceedings, appear to have succumbed to electoral pressures." She supported her view by citing a study which shows that judicial overrides are more common during election years. It has also been shown - based on a study of the Delaware judicial system - that judges, even those who are appointed, tend to apply the death sentence more often than juries do. (source: allgov.com) LOUISIANA: Justice still elusive for exonerated death row inmate The only thing Glenn Ford has received from the state of Louisiana after spending 30 years on death row as an innocent man is a $20 debit card. After being exonerated of murder last year, he walked out of Angola prison with $20.24; the 24 cents was the money left in his prison account. Ford is now fighting to get compensation. In November 1983, Ford was a young man living in Shreveport, Louisiana. He sometimes did yard work for Isadore Rozeman, who owned a jewelry and watch repair shop. On November 5, Ford went to Rozeman's house to ask him if he had work for him; Rozeman did not. Later that day, an acquaintance found Rozeman face down and shot to death inside his store. In a trial before an all-white jury, defended by 2 inexperienced counsel who had never argued before a jury, let alone made a case in a murder trial, Ford was convicted of Rozeman's murder. 'A minor mistake' >From his cell in Angola prison, Ford maintained his innocence. An attorney at the public defender's office worked on his appeal, and in 1991, attorneys at the Loyola Death Penalty Resource Center took over the case. They went all the way to the US Supreme Court in May 2011, arguing that Ford's constitutional rights had been violated. The Supreme Court declined to hear the case 4 months later. Ford's case changed when prosecutors went to federal court with evidence that someone else had confessed to Rozeman's murder. In March 2014, they filed a motion to exonerate Ford due to evidence "supporting a finding that Ford was neither present at, nor a participant in, the robbery and murder of Isadore Rozeman". Ford was released a few days later. After three decades on death row, the prison did little to note his release back into society. The warden, he says, told him "...it was a minor mistake on their behalf and he was sorry". He found a home in an airy brick house in New Orleans owned by the non-profit organisation Resurrection After Exoneration (RAE), which helps exonerated prisoners re-establish themselves. RAE was founded by John Thompson, himself an exonerated prisoner who spent 18 years in prison, 14 of them on death row in the same prisoner where Ford was incarcerated. Without Thompson's help, Ford imagines he would "...probably be under a bridge somewhere". Because of Thompson's help, he lives in a large basement room in a group house. Even with help from RAE, adjusting to life outside of prison has been difficult. When Ford was incarcerated, the internet, cell phones, and computers were not widespread technology. Ford told Al Jazeera the rapid pace of technology is staggering: "When I left, a computer was almost as big as a refrigerator or something. Come back now you can put them in your pocket ... as fast as information moves now overwhelms me. The records you can keep in your pocket overwhelms me. Everything. I can't go into a grocery store and buy groceries." A dying man's wish Since his release, Ford has been fighting the state for compensation. Restitution for wrongful imprisonment is not a given in Louisiana; Ford is eligible for a maximum of $330,000. Prisoners who are wrongly incarcerated in Louisiana not only have to petition for compensation from the state, they have to prove they are innocent of the crime for which they were convicted. Ford has to prove a negative, that he did not commit the murder of Rozeman. Louisiana law states exonerees must "...prove by clear and convincing evidence that they are factually innocent of the crime for which they were convicted". Now even the man who sent Ford to prison has recognised the injustice of this system. Last week lead prosecutor in Ford???s 1984 trial, A. M. "Marty" Stroud, wrote a letter to the editor in a local newspaper in Shreveport, the city where Ford was convicted. He called on Ford to be "...completely compensated to every extent possible because of the flaws of a system that effectively destroyed his life". Stroud also admitted there was evidence in 1984 that would have cleared Glenn Ford, that he did not do enough to uncover it, and that his "...inaction contributed to the miscarriage of justice in this matter". Stroud ended the letter apologising to Ford for the misery he has caused him and his family. Prison took decades of Ford's life, and it has been punishing to his health. Soon after he was released, Ford was diagnosed with lung cancer. The day Al Jazeera interviewed him in February, his doctors had just told him it had spread to his bones. Since then, his health has declined precipitously, his cancer leaving him weak. One of Ford's lawyers, Gary Clements, told Al Jazeera, "People are on a vigil with him around the clock." Al Jazeera contacted 1 of Ford's original trial attorneys, Paul Lawrence, to ask him about the circumstances of the trial and Ford's struggle for compensation. Lawrence declined to speak about the case, saying simply; "My life has moved on." Ford does not have long to live. His hope is he will receive some compensation from the state that sent him to prison before he dies, money he can give to his family, something to recognise the years stolen from his life. (source: Yahoo News) From rhalperi at smu.edu Tue Mar 31 10:55:26 2015 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Tue, 31 Mar 2015 10:55:26 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----KAN., CALIF., WASH., USA Message-ID: March 31 KANSAS: High court may reinstate death penalty The nation's highest court agreed Monday to hear Kansas' appeal seeking to reinstate death sentences for 2 brothers convicted of robbing and forcing 4 people engage in sex acts before being shot to death naked in a Wichita soccer field in 2000. The U.S. Supreme Court also agreed to review a separate Kansas Supreme Court decision overturning the death sentence of a man convicted of killing a couple in Great Bend in 2004. The justices said they will review the Kansas high court's rulings that threw out the sentences of Jonathan and Reginald Carr and Sidney Gleason. The Kansas court hasn't upheld a death sentence since a new capital punishment law was enacted in 1994. The state's last executions, by hanging, took place in 1965. The U.S. Supreme Court will consider instructions given to jurors in the sentencing phase of capital trials about evidence favorable to the defendants, as well as whether sentencing the Carr brothers together violated their rights. Sedgwick County District Attorney Marc Bennett said the Carr case is "important to us, important to the victims, important to this community. In terms of legal importance, well, I guess that is in the eye of the beholder. The U.S. Supreme Court obviously thought it merited their attention." But Sarah Johnson, an attorney with the state capital appellate defender's office who represents Gleason and Jonathan Carr, said they were "honestly a little surprised" that the court agreed to hear the cases. "We don't think this is an issue that really is worthy of the U.S. Supreme Court's time and attention, but we are confident that once they get into it they will recognize that the Kansas Supreme Court acted well within its discretion," Johnson said. The Kansas Supreme Court in July upheld one conviction of capital murder with respect to the Carr brothers, but overturned their death sentences. That same month, the court also upheld Gleason's conviction, but reversed his death sentence. "We have carefully analyzed the opinions of the Kansas Supreme Court and we do not believe they have correctly applied the U.S. Constitution," Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt said in a written statement. "I am encouraged the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to review the cases." The brothers broke into a Wichita home in December 2000 and forced the 5 people there to have sex with each other and later to withdraw money from ATMs. The 2 women were raped repeatedly before all 5 were taken to a snow-covered soccer field and shot. 4 of them - 29-year-old Aaron Sander, 27-year-old Brad Heyka, 26-year-old Jason Befort and 25-year-old Heather Muller - died. 1 woman survived a gunshot wound to the head and ran naked through the snow to seek help. Gleason was convicted for in the 2004 murders of Mikiala Martinez and her boyfriend, Darren Wornkey. She was a potential witness against Gleason in an earlier crime. The cases will be argued in Washington in the fall. (source: Hutchinson News) CALIFORNIA: California's death row faces no-vacancy situation California's death row, the largest in the nation with newly condemned inmates added to the system every month but no one executed in almost a decade, has filled virtually to capacity as the state seeks money to build more cells for them. As of last week, a total of 708 male inmates were confined to death row at San Quentin State Prison north of San Francisco, the only penitentiary authorized under state law to house men who are sentenced to death. That tally represents 18 more than the prison is already budgeted to handle and just 7 fewer than its absolute maximum capacity, Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation spokeswoman Terry Thornton said on Monday. Another 23 condemned California inmates are being housed elsewhere under special circumstances - about 1/2 on "out-to-court status" and the rest under long-term medical care or serving other sentences in other jurisdictions, she said. If those inmates were to suddenly return to San Quentin, "they would be out of room," Thornton said. One factor has been California's failure to execute anyone since 2006, even as the courts continue to sentence a growing number of convicted killers to death. San Quentin anticipates a net increase of 13 death row inmates per year, based on a 6-year annual average of 20 new arrivals partially offset by condemned prisoners who either die while incarcerated or have their sentences overturned. In recent months, according to the corrections department, San Quentin has averaged at least 2 new death row arrivals a month. To deal with the crisis, California Governor Jerry Brown has asked state lawmakers to approve $3.2 million in special funding to furnish San Quentin with 97 additional death row cells. Thornton said she did not know of any contingency plans for accommodating new arrivals if the number of condemned inmates suddenly exceeds space available. Capital punishment has come under mounting criticism in California, where a federal judge ruled last year that the state's system for administering the death penalty is so long and drawn-out that it amounts to cruel and unusual punishment and is thus unconstitutional. Another 20 condemned women are housed at a prison in Chowchilla, bringing California's total death row population to 751 - by far the largest of any state. Florida ranks No. 2, with just over 400 condemned inmates as of last October, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. (source: Reuters) ****************** California's Death Row, The Nation's Largest, Runs Out Of Room The country's largest death row has run out of room. As NPR member station KCRW reports, that's because a legal fight has meant that the state has not put an inmate to death in nearly a decade, leaving more than 750 of them on death row in the state. KCRW reports: "Gov. Jerry Brown is asking the Legislature for more than $3 million to open 100 new cells for condemned men at San Quentin Prison. The request is included in Brown's $113 billion budget proposal. "The governor says prison officials should use cells that are opening up as lower level inmates are released under a new law passed by state voters last year. The majority of the money would go to increase staff, since condemned inmates require more security. "The capital punishment system has been in limbo since a court invalidated the state's three-drug lethal injection system nearly a decade ago. No new protocols have been developed." The Los Angeles Times reports that San Quentin's death row, which can accommodate 715 inmates, is currently just below capacity. But at the moment, 23 other death row inmates are scattered across the California prison system. The Times adds: "The governor's budget proposal anticipates an average of 20 new arrivals on death row yearly. He proposes putting them in 97 cells on the 1st 2 tiers of the 5-tier South Block. A small portion of the funding would go to beef up security, including modifying showers so condemned inmates can be shackled as they bathe. The majority of the money would be spent to increase staff, and the expansion would begin in July. "'Based on the critical nature of the bed shortage, it is not feasible to delay the approval and implementation of this proposal,' the governor's budget document states. If expansion is delayed, 'San Quentin would not have beds to accommodate the condemned should any return from court, outside medical facilities, or if SQ receives any newly condemned inmates.'" (source: npr.org) WASHINGTON: Judge won't delay Carnation killer's penalty-phase trial A judge on Monday denied a motion by the defense team for convicted killer Joseph McEnroe to delay the penalty phase of his trial that will determine if he is sentenced to life in prison or the death penalty for killing 6 people in Carnation in 2007. Defense attorney William Prestia asked King County Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Ramsdell to give them more time to prepare for the penalty phase trial, which is scheduled to begin Tuesday. Prestia said he and co-counsel Leo Hamaji needed more time to interview the 7 witnesses who will be called by the state. Ramsdell denied their motion as well as a second to exclude the 7 witnesses from taking the stand. The 7 witnesses - friends and family of the 6 victims - will be calledto the stand by Senior Deputy Prosecutor Scott O'Toole after O'Toole and the defense give opening statements Tuesday morning. The jury will also view a memorial video of the 6 victims. Last Wednesday, McEnroe, 36, was convicted of killing his former girlfriend's parents, Wayne and Judy Anderson; her brother and sister-in-law, Scott and Erica Anderson, and the younger couple's children, Olivia, 5, and Nathan, 3. Jurors deliberated for about a day and a half before finding him guilty of 6-counts of aggravated 1st-degree murder. McEnroe is also expected to take the witness stand during the penalty phase of his trial. The defense is also expected to call his friends and family to testify on his behalf in hopes of winning leniency from the jury. If the jury determines there are not enough mitigating factors to warrant a sentence of life in prison, McEnroe will be sentenced to death. If the jury decides on a death sentence, McEnroe will be the 1st person condemned to death in King County since 2010, when Conner Schierman was convicted of killing a Kirkland family of 4. (source: Seattle Times) USA: Prosecution rests its case against Boston Marathon bomber----Boy's clothing shown as prosecution rests case against Dzhokhar Tsarnaev Prosecutors rested their case against Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev on Monday after jurors in his federal death penalty trial saw gruesome autopsy photos and heard a medical examiner describe the devastating injuries suffered by an 8-year-old boy killed in the 2013 terror attack. But Tsarnaev's lawyers began their defense by quickly trying to show that his older brother was the mastermind of the plan to detonate pressure-cooker bombs near the finish line of the famous race. One of the first witnesses called by the defense was a data analyst who said Tsarnaev's cellphone was being used in southeastern Massachusetts - where he was attending college - while pressure cookers were being purchased north of Boston more than 2 months before the bombing. The analyst also testified that large quantities of BBs were purchased a little over a month before the attack in 2 Walmart stores in New Hampshire, at a time when Tsarnaev's cellphone was again being used near UMass-Dartmouth. The defense has made it clear from the 1st day of testimony on March 4 - when his lawyer admitted he participated in the bombings - that their strategy is not to win an acquittal but to save Tsarnaev from the death penalty by arguing that his brother, Tamerlan, was largely responsible for the bombings. Prosecutors ended their case on an emotional note. At least three jurors cried and wiped their eyes with tissues as they looked at photos of 8-year-old Martin Richard, who went to watch the marathon with his parents and siblings on April 15, 2013, and was killed when the 2nd of 2 bombs exploded near the finish line. The boy's parents watched somberly from the 2nd row of the courtroom. Bill Richard kept his arm around the shoulder of his wife, Denise, throughout the testimony. Dr. Henry Nields, chief medical examiner for Massachusetts, said Martin received injuries to virtually every part of his body, including lacerations of his liver, left kidney and spleen, broken bones and 3rd-degree burns. His stomach was also ruptured. Nields said he removed small nails, metal pellets, fragments of wood and black plastic from the boy's wounds. He also displayed the blood-stained, shredded clothing that Martin was wearing when the bomb exploded. 2 other people were killed and more than 260 were injured in the bombings. Prosecutors believe the brothers were seeking retaliation against the U.S. for wars in Muslim countries. The 1st defense witness was Michelle Gamble, an FBI field photographer who testified earlier Monday for prosecutors, describing various photos and a video showing the scene of the 2nd blast both before and shortly after the explosions. In one of the photos, Martin Richard, his sister and several other children stand on a metal barricade. Tsarnaev appears to be just a few feet behind Martin and his sister. While cross-examining Gamble, Tsarnaev's lawyers showed other photographs with several people in between Tsarnaev and the children, an apparent attempt to show that Tsarnaev didn't purposefully target them with the bomb. When the defense called Gamble as its first witness, Tsarnaev's lawyer, Miriam Conrad, asked her about a book titled "Wiring" that was found during a search of the Tsarnaev family's apartment in Cambridge. Gamble said the book was found under the living room couch. Tsarnaev's lawyers have tried to show that he was not living in the apartment when the bombings occurred because he was attending college. Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, was living in the apartment with his wife and their young daughter. During their case, prosecutors presented heart-wrenching testimony from survivors who lost legs in the bombings. A string of first responders described a chaotic mix of smoke, blood and screams just after the bombs went off. The defense will try to show that Tamerlan Tsarnaev was more culpable in the attack and in the killing 3 days later of Massachusetts Institute of Technology police Officer Sean Collier. The defense case is expected to be relatively short. Once that is complete, jurors will deliberate on whether Tsarnaev is guilty of the 30 federal charges against him related to the bombing, the killing of Massachusetts Institute of Technology police Officer Sean Collier 3 days later and a violent confrontation with police in Watertown. Tamerlan Tsarnaev was killed during the Watertown confrontation. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, then 19, was found more than 18 hours later hiding in a boat parked in a yard. If the jury convicts Tsarnaev - an event that may be a foregone conclusion because of his admitted guilt - the trial will move on to the 2nd phase, when the same jury will hear more evidence to decide whether Tsarnaev should be put to death or should spend the rest of his life in prison. During this 2nd phase of the trial, Tsarnaev's lawyers will present evidence of factors they believe mitigate his crimes, such as his age at the time and the influence of his older brother. The Tsarnaevs - ethnic Chechens - lived in the former Soviet Republic of Kyrgyzstan and the volatile Dagestan region of Russia before moving to the U.S. with their parents and 2 sisters about a decade before the bombings. Prosecutors will present evidence of aggravating factors, such as the brutality of the attack and the death of a child, to argue that Tsarnaev should be executed. (source: WCVB news) ************* Aurora theater shooting trial: James Holmes' parents speak against death penalty for mentally ill With less than a month until opening statements in the Aurora movie theater shooting trial, the suspect's parents are speaking out against the death penalty. Bob and Arlene Holmes recently spoke to the Del Mar Times in California - their first interview since the shooting that left 12 dead and 70 others injured in July of 2012. James Holmes' parents said they feel guilty for not recognizing their son was mentally ill and needed treatment. However, they say their son was never violent. "We never owned a gun," Arlene Holmes said. "[He] showed no interest in guns." Arlene Holmes added, "Because so many people like to blame the parents if a child is mentally ill, we have to reaffirm to ourselves every day that we were good parents and good people, and this still happened anyway." Now they hope their son's life can be spared through a plea deal with prosecutors. "I do not know why you want to pursue execution of a mentally ill man," Arlene Holmes said about the prosecutors. "But I pray for you, so that you will find peace in your life. I pray you will change your mind. Please stop this quest for death so you may focus on those who are alive." Arlene Holmes spoke to the Times about a prayer book she wrote, called "When The Focus Shifts: The Prayer Book of Arlene Holmes." The book is available now and Arlene Holmes said the proceeds will be donated to mental health services, not to her son's case. In the book she prays for the victims daily - and by name. Caren Teves, whose son Alex was killed in the theater, called Arlene Holmes' words an "insult to our son's memory and to our family," Yahoo News reported. "I struggle to understand how this individual could possibly pray for, by name, the thousands upon thousands of innocent people who continue to be directly impacted by her son's evil, premeditated acts," she told Yahoo News. Teves called the book "nothing more than a calculated attempt to influence members of the jury." "Almost 3 years after Alex was executed in that theater, she has never even extended the decent act of a simple apology," Yahoo News quoted Teves as saying. (source: thedenverchannel.com) *************** Death penalty complication: Pharmacists group discourages providing execution drugs The American Pharmacists Assn. on Monday adopted a policy that discourages its members from providing death penalty drugs. The new guidelines could make it tough for death penalty states such as Texas that have been looking at made-to-order execution drugs from compounding pharmacies as the answer to a nationwide shortage of execution drugs. The association's governing body approved the policy at a meeting in San Diego. The group lacks the legal authority to bar compounding pharmacies from selling execution drugs. But its policies set ethical standards followed by pharmacists, just as the American Medical Assn. does for doctors. Prisons have had to buy made-to-order execution drugs from compounding pharmacies in recent years because the pharmaceutical companies they used to buy their drugs from refuse to sell them for use in lethal injections after coming under pressure from death penalty opponents. But now the compounded version is also difficult to come by, with most pharmacists reluctant to expose themselves to possible harassment by people who oppose the death penalty. Texas' prison agency scrambled this month to find a supplier to replenish its inventory, then found a supply from a compounded pharmacy it would not identify. Also this month, an execution in Georgia was postponed when prison authorities questioned the appearance of the compounded pentobarbital they planned to use. After a troubling use of a 2-drug method last year, Ohio said it would use compounded versions of either pentobarbital or sodium thiopental in the future, though it doesn't have supplies of either drug and hasn't said how it will obtain them. All executions scheduled this year were pushed to 2016 to give the state more time to find the drugs. Others states are turning to alternative methods. Tennessee has approved the use of the electric chair if lethal-injection drugs aren't available, and Utah has reinstated the firing squad as a backup method if it can't obtain the drugs. Oklahoma is considering legislation that would make it the 1st state to allow the use of nitrogen gas as an execution method. (source: Associated Press) From rhalperi at smu.edu Tue Mar 31 10:56:22 2015 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Tue, 31 Mar 2015 10:56:22 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide Message-ID: March 31 IRAN----executions 3 Prisoners Hanged in Mashhad 3 prisoners were hanged in Vakil Abad Prison in Mashhad. According to the report of Human Rights Activists News Agency in Iran (HRANA), on Thursday morning, 26th March, 3 prisoners in Vakil Abad Prison in Mashhad were executed by hanging. According to HRANA's sources, the 3 men who had been convicted of drug crimes have not been identified yet and judiciary officials also have not given any information about them. These executions are happening while, according to Ahmed Shaheed, UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Iran, the death penalty in Iran over the past decade has been rising from 99 cases a year in 2004 to 687 in 2013. Ahmad Shaheed in his latest report described the increasing rate of executions in Iran as "alarming" and urged to stop this process. (source: Human Rights Activists News Agency) PAKISTAN----executions 4 condemned prisoners hanged in Punjab jails 3 condemned prisoners were hanged in jails of Attock, Mianwali, Sargodha and Rawalpindi on Tuesday. Sargodha Central Jail - established in 1910 - saw its 1st execution in 105 years when prisoner Mohammad Riaz, a resident of Khushab District, was hanged. Riaz was convicted of killing a man in 2000 during a robbery. He was charged with death penalty by a Rawalpindi's anti-terrorism court. He had been sentenced under the section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA). Two death row prisoners hanged in Attock, Rawalpindi Prisoner Akram-ul-Haq, convicted for kidnapping a 3-year-old girl, was hanged in Attock Jail, DawnNews reported. Separate cases of kidnapping for ransom and terrorism were registered against Haq in police station of Fateh Jang - tehsil headquarters of Attock District. Read: Nawaz removes moratorium on death penalty Meanwhile, prisoner Mohammad Ameen, convicted for killing a person on personal enmity, was also hanged in Central Jail Rawalpindi - also known as Adiala Jail. Another execution in Mialwali Death row prisoner Hubdar Shah was hanged till death in Mianwali Central Jail early on Tuesday. The convict was awarded the death sentence for killing 2 persons in 2000. Pakistan lifted its moratorium on the death penalty in all capital cases on March 10. Initially executions were resumed for terrorism offences only in the wake of a Taliban massacre at an army-run school in Peshawar which had claimed the lives of more than 150 persons, mostly schoolchildren, on December 16, 2014. The United Nations, the European Union, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have called on Pakistan to re-impose its moratorium on the death penalty. (source: Dawn) ******************* 4 death cell inmates executed in Punjab 4 death cell inmates have been executed separately in Attock, Sargodha, Mianwali and Rawalpindi in Tuesday's wee hours, SAMAA reported. A convict, Ikramul Haq was put to gallows for kidnapping a baby girl. He kidnapped 3-year, Amina, from Fateh Jang on July 4, 2002 and demanded her family a ransom worth 5 million rupees. Convict Haq threatened to take the life of little Amina if he was not paid the ransom money. However, Fateh Jang police apprehended him from Kohat at a time when the ransom money was being delivered to him. It should be mentioned here that a special local court awarded him death penalty in 2003. During his 13-year confinement, 19 death warrants were issued for him. Meantime, another death house internee, Muhammed Riaz, has been hanged till death in Sargodha for twin murders. Riaz killed 2 brothers during a robbery attempt in Sargodha area of Choa Sedan Shah in 2000. It is worth noting here that Haji Fazal Hussain - brother of the 2 killed brothers, Muhammed Aslam and Muhammed Afzal - said he pardoned the blood of his brothers. He, along with the widows of 2 brothers and their daughters, had their statement recorded before jail officials and the judge. But, the judge said it is beyond his jurisdiction to stay the hanging. In Miawali also, a convicted prisoner, Habdar Hussain Shah, has been executed for double killings. The criminal killed 2 relatives for honor on October 8, 2000. A sessions judge decreed him death sentence on October 12, 2000. A settlement deed was produced by the aggrieved party; but, son of the deceased did not accede to it. On this death warrant was re-issued on March 27. Meantime, Rawalpindi's Adiala Jail also witnessed another convicted criminal, Muhammed Ameen, hang at the gallows. The convict had a murder case against him registered at New Town police station. (source: Samaa News) ********************* Saulat Mirza's execution delayed for 30 days The execution of Saulat Mirza has been delayed for 30 days, said superintendent Machh Jail Ishaq Zehri on Monday. The report quoted superintendent Machh Jail Ishaq Zehri as saying that prison authorities had received orders regarding a delay of 30 days in execution of Saulat Mirza. As per fresh orders, Saulat will be hanged on April 30. Last week, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had sent a summary to President Mamnoon Hussain recommending one-month extension in Mirza's execution. President Mamnoon Hussain had extended Mirza's execution after a video surfaced barely hours before his hanging in which Mirza had hurled accusations at the top MQM leadership. An earlier media report however said that Machh Jail administration had not received orders to extend the execution date of Saulat Mirza, a former Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) worker convicted in a triple murder case, jail officials said on Monday. A senior officer of the prison told local media that preparations had been finalised for execution of Mirza as per the new black warrants on April 1 at 5:30 am. "Saulat will be hanged on April 1 as per the fresh black warrants," the officer said. An anti-terrorism court (ATC) in Karachi had issued fresh black warrants following the postponement of the death row convict's execution. Mirza was originally scheduled to be hanged on March 19. Mirza was found guilty of murdering then managing director (MD) of Karachi Electric Supply Corporation (KESC), now K-electric, Malik Shahid Hamid, his driver Ashraf Brohi and his guard Khan Akbar outside Hamid's residence in Karachi's DHA on July 5, 1997. Separately, the wife of Saulat Mirza on Monday revealed that her husband was in contact with MQM chief Altaf Hussain just before he was apprehended by the authorities in Karachi. In an interview with a private TV channel, Mirza's wife said she visited the party headquarters Nine-Zero for the last time in the previous month (February). "Since then we were not even allowed to move beyond Mukka Chowk (a roundabout located about half-a-kilometre from Nine-Zero)," she added. She said MQM leader Farooq Sattar told her that party's role in connection with Mirza's case was over and "now you are on your own". She termed MQM's announcement of disowning Mirza as a 'big joke'. "Had the party not disowned Saulat Mirza, he would not have opened his mouth," she said, demanding that her husband's statement be investigated. She said her husband did not give the statement under duress. She said there were 4 people involved in this case but they are not being apprehended. "Why aren't they brought before the court," she asked. Meanwhile, 5 death row convicts will be hanged till death in Punjab today. As per record of the Prisons Department, Zulfiqar will be executed in Kot Lakhpat Jail for murdering 2 people while Amin will be hanged till death in Adyala Jail Rawalpindi today. Another death row prisoner will be executed in Mianwali on Tuesday morning (today). A death row convict will be hanged in Sargodha on Tuesday morning. For the 1st time in the history of District Jail Sargodha, Riaz, a resident of Chua Saiden Shah, will be hanged today. He was handed down death penalty for committing a double murder. All the arrangements for this execution have been finalised. The convict has been transferred to death cell. Security has been beefed up around the prison. In this connection, relatives of Riaz had a last meeting with him before his execution. Another death row convict Ikrmul Haq, condemned for kidnapping a 3-year-old girl for ransom, will be hanged in Attock District Jail today (Tuesday). As per District Jail Attock sources, Ikramul Haq had kidnapped a 3-year-old girl Amna in 2002 for ransom. He was later arrested and produced in court. The court found him guilty of the crime and awarded him capital punishment in 2003. His mercy plea was also turned down by President of Pakistan. The jail authorities arranged last meeting between him and his relatives. Family members of the convict said that the issue was already settled with the family of the kidnapped girl and the affected family also pardoned Ikram but the President of Pakistan even then turned down his mercy plea. They demanded that death punishment of Ikramul Haq be converted into life imprisonment. (source: The Nation) INDONESIA: Indonesia Prosecutors Not Seeking Death Penalty For Chicago Couple Indonesian prosecutors on Tuesday sought jail sentences of 18 years for an American man and 15 years for his girlfriend if they are found guilty of murdering the woman's mother while vacationing on the resort island of Bali last year. The prosecutors told the court that Tommy Schaefer and Heather Mack, who appeared in court with their 2-week-old daughter, were guilty of premeditated murder. The panel of judges could ignore the sentencing request and decide to impose the maximum, death by a firing squad, if it convicts them. "The defendant has committed sadistic acts to her own mother," chief prosecutor Eddy Arta Wijaya told the court at Mack's trial. "However, we've decided to be lenient because she repeatedly expressed remorse and has a newborn baby." The badly beaten body of Sheila von Wiese-Mack, 62, was found in a suitcase in the trunk of a taxi outside an upscale hotel in August. Wijaya asked the judges to declare the defendants guilty with the fact that Schaefer deliberately brought a metal fruit bowl when he came to the room at the St. Regis where Mack and her mother were staying, on a different floor from his own room. Mack helped stuff her mother's body in the suitcase by sitting on it to enable Schaefer to close it, prosecutors said. Schaefer, 21, and Mack, 19, both from Chicago, are being tried separately at the Denpasar District Court on Bali. The judges and prosecutors are the same in both trials. The defendants sat quietly with Schaefer on the verge of tears as the sentence request was read. The defendants and their lawyers will respond to the prosecution's case next week, and verdicts are expected in late April. Schaefer has testified that von Wiese-Mack was angry at him when she learned about her daughter's pregnancy. He said at previous court hearings that she insulted him and Mack, wanted her to get an abortion and strangled him in a heated argument before he struck her several times with the fruit bowl. At Tuesday's hearing, another prosecutor, Ni Luh Oka Ariani Adikarini, said testimony and evidence showed that Schaefer deliberately planned to kill the victim. "There is no excuse for the deeds of the defendant,' Adikarini said and recommended the court to sentence Schaefer to 18 years in jail. The prosecutors did not explain why they sought less than the maximum penalty for him. The court had delayed the hearing last week because the couple's baby, Stella, became sick in prison, but doctors said the baby has recovered from jaundice. (source: The Associated Press) ********************* Neil Dalton: Man faces death penalty after being found guilty of murdering Derbyshire student A fishmonger faces the death penalty in Borneo after being convicted of murdering Derbyshire medical student Neil Dalton. Fishmonger Zulkipli Abdullah, 24, reportedly showed no reaction when the guilty plea was announced this morning, according to the Malaysian Insider. Zulkipli, from Kampung Gersik, has also been convicted of murdering Neil's colleague Aidan Brunger in an attack on August 6 last year. Neil, of Ambergate, and Aidan, of Kent were both 22 and had been working in a local hospital. (source: Derby Telegraph) DENMARK: 1/5 of Danes want the death penalty----Opposition party constituents particularly keen Denmark, which is known as a leader when it comes to human rights, abolished the death penalty way back in 1930 (although it was briefly brought back from 1945-50 to punish Nazi collaborators). But a new Megafon survey conducted on behalf of Politiken newspaper and TV2 shows that 20 % of Danes would vote in favour of bringing back the death penalty in Denmark. In particular, people who voted for the opposition parties at the 2011 election are in favour of the death penalty. Some 36 % of Dansk Folkeparti voters said they would vote yes, as did 34 % of Liberal Alliance voters and 32 % of Venstre voters. No chance But despite their voters' opinions, DF, LA and Venstre have no intention of adding the death penalty to their election campaign this year. "I can understand why many believe that the judicial system needs to toughen up after the terror attack in Copenhagen," Peter Skaarup, the DF spokesperson for judicial issues, told Politiken. "But I don't think that it gives society the right to take another human being's life, even if that person has committed a really serious crime. Our justice system is built on principles that I don't think we should discern. That would be in breach of everything we stand for." Among Konservative voters, 22 % were in favour of the death penalty, as were small percentages of the other parties: Socialdemokraterne (9), Socialistisk Folkeparti (8), Radikale (4) and Enhedslisten (4). (source: Copenhagen Post) From rhalperi at smu.edu Tue Mar 31 11:11:04 2015 From: rhalperi at smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Tue, 31 Mar 2015 11:11:04 -0500 Subject: [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide Message-ID: March 31 ISRAEL: Yisrael Beytenu Delivers with Terrorist Death Penalty Bill----Campaign promise acted on immediately in new bill to have Arab terrorists executed; 'it is clear to all this law must pass.' Avigdor Liberman's Yisrael Beytenu lost absolutely no time in fulfilling its campaign pledge of a death penalty for Arab terrorists, with the party's MK Sharon Gal submitting a bill on the subject even as the 20th Knesset was sworn in on Tuesday. While Israel already has a death penalty on the law books, it has only been implemented once in the case of Nazi leader Adolf Eichmann, who was put to death back in 1962. The new bill would alter the law, requiring that those found guilty of murder for terrorist reasons be executed. In addition, the bill includes a clause specifying that those murdering Israeli civilians through terrorist activities in Judea and Samaria - which remains under martial law given that Israel has yet to annex the region following its liberation in the 1967 Six Day War - will also be liable to the death penalty. Currently only a unanimous vote in Judea and Samaria military courts can lead to a death penalty, a result that has yet to be recorded. Instead the new law would require only a majority to rule the death penalty, and likewise it will prevent the regional IDF commander from being able to lighten the sentence. Just last Thursday an Arab terrorist who murdered 25-year-old Dalia Lemkos was let off without a death sentence in the military courts, receiving instead 2 life sentences. "We promised, and we are determined to deliver," said Gal, the MK behind the new law. "We have to change the reality and eradicate terrorism. The death penalty law will strengthen Israeli deterrence - it is moral and ethical to legislate it to preserve the lives of our citizens. This has wide support among the people - it is clear to all that this law must pass." In an effort to address the situation whereby Arab terrorists sit in jail in privileged conditions before being released in terror swaps, such as the 2011 Shalit deal that saw 1,027 terrorists go free, in the last coalition Jewish Home initiated a "life without parole" law that was passed last November. However, Meir Indor, head of the Almagor terror victims organization, revealed to Arutz Sheva last year that the law is "practically ineffective." One of the key flaws he pointed out is that it doesn't address terrorists sentenced in military courts in Judea and Samaria, where the majority of attacks and concurrent trials occur. Another shortcoming he noted was that the law didn't apply retroactively to terrorists who were already sentenced prior to its passage, and that it leaves it up to the judge's discretion whether or not to sentence a terrorist without chance of parole. (source: Israel National News)