[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, DEL., FLA., ALA.

[Rick Halperin]

May 1



TEXAS:

Gonzales' latest appeal denied



A federal appeals court has denied the latest in a string of challenges from a 
man who currently waits on Texas' death row for the murder of an 18-year-old 
Bandera County woman.

On Friday, April 10, judges on the United States Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals 
in San Antonio denied Ramiro Felix Gonzales' claims of procedural errors in his 
original trial in Medina County for the shooting death of Bridget Townsend.

The court's decision nudges Gonzalez a step closer to his execution. He is 
currently being held in the Walls Unit at the Texas State Penitentiary in 
Huntsville.

Gruesome backstory

According to court documents, on Jan. 15, 2001, Gonzales, then 18, went to the 
home of his drug supplier in Wharton's Dock to steal cocaine - fully aware that 
only Townsend, his supplier's girlfriend, was at the residence. Additionally, 
Gonzales and Townsend were acquainted. They had been classmates in middle 
school before Gonzales dropped out in the 8th grade.

Nevertheless, according to court documents, Gonzales pushed Townsend down, 
dragged her into a bedroom, tying her hands and feet with nylon rope from a 
closet. He also stole between $150 and $500 in cash. After carrying the 
still-bound Townsend to his pickup truck, Gonzales drove to a large ranch in 
Medina County off FM 1077 in northern Medina County, where he lived; retrieved 
a high-powered .243-caliber deer rifle equipped with a scope; and forced the 
girl to walk into the deserted brush.

When Gonzales loaded the rifle, Townsend began begging for her life. In 
response to her offer of sex in exchange for her life, Gonzales unloaded the 
rifle, took her back to the truck where he raped her. After Townsend redressed, 
he walked her back into the brush and shot her, leaving her body where it fell.

Returning to his grandparents' house, Gonzales removed the empty shell casing 
from the rifle and threw the casing away. He returned the rifle to his 
grandfather's ranch truck from which he had originally retrieved it and 
proceeded to interact with his family as though nothing had happened.

Given death penalty

However, during the September 2006 trial, it was revealed that Gonzales had 
repeatedly returned to the scene of Townsend's murder. Court records also 
stated that as a youth, Gonzales "on numerous occasions shot animals and then 
watched their bodies decay over time."

These facts were never disputed during the trial. At that time, Gonzales' was 
the 1st death penalty case held in Medina County in more than 2 decades.

Ultimately, Gonzales was convicted of intentionally causing Townsend's death by 
shooting her with a firearm during the course of committing or attempting to 
commit aggravated sexual assault, kidnapping, or robbery. The jury took just a 
little over 34 minutes to find him guilty of capital murder and approximately 3 
hours to sentence him to death.

Previously, Gonzales had been found guilty in 2002 of kidnapping and aggravated 
sexual assault with deadly weapon of another Bandera County woman. For those 
crimes, he was sentenced to serve 2 life sentences.

Confessed to murder

While in the Bandera County Jail waiting to be transported to prison, Gonzales 
told then-Sheriff James MacMillan that he had information about Townsend, who 
had been reported missing almost two years earlier.

Accompanied by Gonzales and a jail administrator, MacMillan drove to the ranch 
where Gonzales and his family lived, eventually walking to a remote 
cedar-covered hillside where Gonzales indicated they would find Townsend's 
remains. At the site, the sheriff and the jail administrator discovered a human 
skull and other bones that had been scattered by wildlife, as well as jewelry 
that had been previously described by Gonzales. Townsend's body was discovered 
Oct. 7, 2002. She was positively identified using dental records.

During Gonzales' murder trial, then-Texas Ranger Skylor Hearn testified that 
Gonzales' final account of the murder was consistent with evidence discovered 
during a subsequent investigation. Additionally, Gonzales had given law 
enforcement officers an audio-taped and transcribed statement, which he signed. 
Hearn read the statement at the trial and the audiotape was played as well.

In an earlier pre-trial hearing, 38th Judicial District Judge Antonio Cantu had 
denied motions to suppress Gonzales' written confessions.

The case was tried in Medina County because that was where Townsend's remains 
had been found - although the decision was rife with controversy at the time.

Mitigating circumstances?

During the trial, Gonzales' defense attorneys blamed their client's behavior on 
childhood neglect, drugs and sexual abuse. According to court records, his 
mother had used drugs during her pregnancy then abandoned him at birth, leaving 
him to be raised primarily by his grandmother. Additionally, as a child, 
Gonzales had been sexually abused by a male relative and was using alcohol and 
drugs by the time he was 12.

Speaking after the murder trial, Gonzales' 2nd victim, who had been taken to 
the same ranch in Medina County, told the court she believed Gonzales would 
also have murdered her had she not been able to escape from a cabin where she, 
too, had been bound and imprisoned.

Most recent challenge

During Gonzales' most recent appeal, his attorneys challenged testimony from a 
forensic psychiatrist who had testified that there was a serious risk that 
Gonzales would continue to commit acts of violence in the prison setting.

However, at the time, the psychiatrist had also acknowledged that predictions 
of future dangerousness were "highly controversial" and that the American 
Psychiatric Association had taken the position that such predictions are 
unscientific and unreliable.

Additionally, Gonzales' court-appointed defense attorneys charged "ineffective 
assistance of counsel" during the original trial because his attorney failed to 
present evidence that Gonzales might have suffered from Fetal Alcohol Spectrum 
Disorder (FASD).

According to the appellate court's finding: "Defense council presented 
substantial evidence at trial that Gonzales's mother abused alcohol, marijuana 
and inhalants while pregnant with Gonzales. There is insufficient persuasive 
evidence that Gonzales actually suffers from FASD."

To Gonzales' claim that his trial counsel failed to secure an abuse expert, the 
court countered that Dr. Daneen Milam, a neuropsychologist and sex offender 
treatment provider, had testified for the defense on the psychological 
consequences of the neglect, abuse and drug use on Gonzales. "Beyond Dr. 
Milam's extensive testimony, additional testimony by an abuse expert would most 
likely have been cumulative, and Gonzales does not show otherwise," the court 
stated.

For these reasons and more, the appellate court denied Gonzales' most recent 
appeal.

A local attorney opined that many more appeals would be filed with higher 
courts. One of Gonzales' previous appeals went all the way to the United States 
Supreme Court before being denied. "He's doing this simply to avoid the death 
penalty and to prolong the process," the attorney said.

(source: Bandera County Courier)

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

No Decision Made On Whether 3 Area Teens Will Face Death Penalty



3 teenagers were named in indictments Wednesday charging capital murder in 
connection with the February murder of a Freestone County man.

Amber Halford, 19, O'Jarion McLenon and Lawson Abram, both 18, were named in 
the indictments handed up in connection with the shooting death on Feb. 9 of 
Douglas Carr Hurst, 45, who was Halford's uncle, Freestone County District 
Attorney Chris Martin said.

Halford and Dustin Sanoja, who was Hurst's nephew, also were named in 
indictments charging them with burglary of a habitation.

Halford remains in the Freestone County Jail in lieu of bonds totaling 
$530,000; McLenon and Abram are held in lieu of $500,000 bond each and Sanoja 
has posted a $30,000 bond on the burglary charge and been released, jail 
records showed.

Martin has not yet decided if he will seek the death penalty for any of the 
capital defendants, he said Thursday.

Texts detailed in an arrest warrant affidavit released shortly after the 
arrests suggest Halford was responsible for planning the break-in in which her 
boyfriend was killed in an exchange of gunfire with her uncle.

"It's my fault this happened. I shouldn't have said go back," Halford said in a 
text she sent just before 4 a.m. March 9 to her boyfriend, Joshua "JD" Donnell 
Mulkey, 19, more than 2 hours after the shooting.

Hurst, who was married on March 3, was in Galveston on a honeymoon trip with 
his new wife and family and had returned to secure his home after a break-in on 
March 7, Chris Martin said.

He was alone in the house at around 1:30 a.m. March 9 when Mulkey and 2 other 
teenagers broke into the back door of his rural home at 135 Private Rd. 871 
just off Highway 84.

He was awakened by the noise of the break-in, grabbed a semiautomatic pistol 
and exchanged gunfire with Mulkey, who was found dead of a gunshot wound to the 
chest in the backyard of the home.

Hurst was taken to Baylor Scott & White Medical Center in Waco where he later 
died after he was removed from life support.

Arrest warrant affidavits released in response to an open records request 
indicate that Halford, 19, planned both break-ins.

Halford, was arrested later in Thornton.

McLenon and Abram were arrested on the day of the shooting.

A 4th suspect, Hurst's nephew, Sanoja, of Teague, was arrested on his 19th 
birthday and was charged with burglary in connection with the 1st burglary in 
which 2 laptop computers, 2 rifles, and 2 pistols were taken.

Halford told an investigator that she, Mulkey and Sanjoa decided to break into 
Hurst's house on the night of March 7, the affidavits say.

She said the 3 of them got into her vehicle and drove to the house where she 
dropped off the other 2 teenagers, the affidavits say.

Mulkey and Sanoja broke in through the back door and took the computers and 
firearms, the affidavit says.

Halford then drove back by the residence and picked them up, the affidavit 
said.

>From there, they drove to Groesbeck where all three spent the night at the home 
of her grandmother-Hurst's mother-Nadine Hurst, the affidavit said.

She told the investigator that she and Mulkey sold an AR-15 .223 caliber rifle 
and 1 of the pistols and that Mulkey kept a Glock 31 and the other rifle.

A Glock 31 .357 caliber semi-automatic pistol was found Monday lying on the 
ground next to Mulkey's body, the same make and model of handgun as one that 
was taken in the 1st break-in on March 7.

Investigators also found several texts on Mulkey's cellphone from Halford 
including two sent early on the morning of March 8.

The 1st, sent at around 10:35 a.m., read "Just go by there tonight and see if 
the lights are on and all that."

The 2nd, sent a minute later, read, "Well go by there tonight just be careful 
and take someone who won't hit licks on 'em," according to the affidavits.

A third sent just before 4 a.m. March 9, more than 2 hours after the deadly 
break-in, said, "It's my fault this happened. I shouldn't have said go back. I 
shouldn't have even let the first lick happen."

McLenon, who, along with Lawson and Halford, was identified as a suspect 
through interviews with Mulkey's brothers, mother and friends, told 
investigators that Mulkey had asked him and Lawson to accompany him to commit 
the burglary early March 9, the affidavits said.

He said the 3 walked to Hurst's home from a nearby trailer park at 1091 U.S. 
Highway 84 and Mulkey, who was the only one who was armed, went through the 
back door first, the affidavits say.

When the gunfire erupted, McClenon said he and Lawson ran back to the trailer 
park and into the home of Lawson's girlfriend, the affidavits say.

He identified Sanoja as a participant in the 1st break-in at the home on March 
7, the affidavits say.

(source: KWTX news)

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

Young Kiwi law grad heads to Texas to help save death row inmates



Otago University law graduate Andrew Row will travel to Texas in January to do 
voluntary work on death row cases. A young Kiwi law graduate is heading for 
Texas with the hope of saving a human life next year.

While his fellow graduates settle into roles at law firms, Row, 23, will be 
volunteering for University of Houston professor David Dow, founder of the 
Texas Innocence Network, which campaigns to spare the lives of prisoners on 
death row.

Crisis appeals, made in the last few months before an inmate's scheduled 
execution, are the types of cases Row will be working on, and where he hopes to 
help the most.

"I guess the ultimate thing would be saving someone, but I'm quite realistic 
that the odds are extremely slim.

"I've always been against the death penalty. I think every human being has got 
something more to offer ... I mean you look at those guys in Bali - they turned 
into exemplary citizens. One had become an ordained pastor and the other an 
amazing painter."

Only this week, Dow and his team managed to spare the life of prisoner Robert 
Pruett. "He was going to be the 7th person executed this year in Texas, but 
David Dow got him a stay of execution just a few hours before he was killed," 
Row said.

He has been saving money to fund the trip through his job as clerk to Justice 
Susan Glazebrook at the Supreme Court, where he has worked for 2 years.

"I initially had a fund for travel, but I think it's going to be less travel, 
and more work and volunteering"

When he finishes his internship with the Innocence Network, he hopes to do his 
postgraduate studies in the United States, looking at the the 
over-representation of minorities in prisons all around the world.

"Some people might call me young and naive, but I want to use my law degree for 
good."

BY THE NUMBERS

6 people have been executed in Texas this year

276 inmates currently on death row in Texas

42 % of inmates on death row in the US are African-American

13 % of US citizens are African-American

INMATES OF DEATH ROW

Anthony Ray Hinton walked free in April 2015 after spending 30 years on death 
row in an Alabama prison, often in isolation.

Robert Pruett was given a stay of execution on Wednesday, just hours before he 
was to be killed. David Dow and his team convinced a judge to allow more time 
for DNA testing in the case, in which Pruett was convicted of killing a prison 
guard as revenge for being punished for eating his lunch in an unauthorised 
area.

Walter McMillian was exonerated in March 1993 after spending 6 years on death 
row in Alabama. He was jailed in 1988 for the shooting death of an 18-year-old 
white female store clerk.

Australians Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan were executed on Tuesday morning 
after being convicted of drug-trafficking in Indonesia as member of the Bali 9. 
They spent 9 years on death row.

(source: The Dominion Post)

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

Portrayal of only Argentine on US death row falls flat



Argentine Victor Saldano left the city of Cordoba as a young man in 1989 and 
took a long journey across Latin America, which lasted until 1995 when he 
arrived in the US. He had long wanted to see the whole wide world, and so it 
seemed his desire was to be fulfilled. After a brief stay in New York doing odd 
jobs, he moved to Dallas with Jorge Chavez, a Mexican friend of his with whom 
he got hooked on drugs and crime. Following some heavy partying, on November 
25, 1995, Saldano and Chavez kidnapped 46-year-old US citizen Paul Ray King 
with the intention of robbing him. But as King resisted the assault, Saldano 
killed him with 3 shots to the chest and 1 to the head.

Saldano has stood trial twice since then. With enough evidence against him, he 
pleaded guilty in both occasions, and was sentenced to capital punishment in 
both trials. He was first given the death penalty because, as a Hispanic, he 
was regarded as very likely to commit another crime in the future - that is, 
according to the legislation of Texas, which was later on modified.

In the 2nd trial that took place after 12 years of inhumane imprisonment on 
death row, as Saldano's mental state was bordering psychosis, he was 
nonetheless considered a sane adult, eligible for the death penalty and not an 
asylum.

>From a legal standpoint, this is a case with the right charges and the right 
conviction, no doubt about that. But it has been alleged that he's been wrongly 
sentenced to the death penalty because of racial and discrimination issues. As 
he couldn't afford experienced lawyers, he was initially granted a poor defence 
by the State. As of today, Saldano awaits execution.

Raul Villaruel's documentary Saldano, el sueno dorado (Saldano, The Golden 
Dream) provides a very basic panorama of the entire affair, with testimonies 
from Saldano's mother, his US and Argentine lawyers who took the case at 
different stages, Argentine government officials and other legal experts. It 
also includes footage from the police interrogation of Saldano the night he 
committed the crime. So if you want to be informed in broad strokes, you will 
be. Yet from a cinematic standpoint, Villaruel's film is very flat and poorly 
conceived.

A series of talking heads alone don't make for good cinema, lack of subtext and 
few insights into potential layers as well as telling details render it obvious 
and formulaic, and a didactic stance towards viewers doesn't allow them to 
reflect upon the material. And while the formal values - cinematography, sound 
design, editing - are not a total mess, they are merely correct, at best.

And yes, the documentary does raise uneasy queries about injustice in a legal 
system and the inhumanity of the death penalty, but it's been done before many 
times and in much better shape. As it is, many of the particulars of this case, 
including a full portrayal of Victor Saldano, the man, are left unexplored.

(source: Buenos Aires Herald)

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

Widow of 'American Sniper' author writes in new book of her struggle with death 
penalty



The widow of famed "American Sniper" author Chris Kyle says in her upcoming 
book that she struggled with the idea of whether her husband's killer should be 
executed.

Taya Kyle writes in "American Wife," which will be published next week by 
William Morrow, that she concluded she would be fine with either the death 
penalty or life in prison. "That was as far as I could go toward forgiveness," 
she wrote.

Kyle describes her life with the famed former Navy SEAL sniper and coping after 
his 2013 death at a Texas gun range. The Associated Press purchased an early 
copy of the book, written with Jim DeFelice, who also co-authored her husband's 
bestselling memoir of his Iraq tours that was turned into an Oscar-nominated 
movie.

Kyle and his friend, Chad Littlefield, were shot to death by former Marine 
Eddie Ray Routh, whose mother had asked Kyle to help him. The prosecutor 
decided not to seek the death penalty, so Routh was automatically sentenced to 
life in prison after his capital murder conviction in February.

Taya Kyle said that while she still believes in the death penalty, she also has 
"come around to the view that life without parole may in fact be a worse 
punishment than death."

Trial testimony revealed Routh had been hospitalized for psychiatric treatment 
and prescribed medication to treat schizophrenia. But jurors found the insanity 
defence mounted by his lawyers failed to meet the legal threshold: a mental 
illness so severe he didn't know right from wrong.

Erath County District Attorney Alan Nash told the AP Thursday that he decided 
not to seek the death penalty after weighing several factors, including that 
the jury and higher courts could consider Routh's military service and mental 
health records. He said it also led to a faster conclusion as opposed to years 
and years of appeals.

Chris Kyle met Routh for the 1st time the day he was killed, Taya Kyle wrote, 
adding: "Chris didn't know the young man, nor was he told the vast depths of 
his problems."

She writes about deciding to have her husband laid to rest at Texas State 
Cemetery in Austin instead of Arlington National Cemetery. They had talked 
about it after a friend's funeral and she wrote that her husband told her: "I 
just want to be wherever is best for ya'll."

He also told her: "I want a big funeral. I'm gone, right? Blow it out." 
Thousands attended his memorial service held at AT&T Stadium, where his coffin 
was placed at the Dallas Cowboys' star at midfield.

(source: Associated Press)








DELAWARE:

It's time to abolish the death penalty in Delaware



Our justice system must recognize the value of every human life.

I retired to Delaware. I was impressed by the caring and concern evidenced in 
my dealings with all in the community. Peace and justice are affirmed daily by 
our citizens. Protection of life, practice of mercy and rejection of vengeance 
are hallmarks of a just society.

Currently we are all called to support the passage of SB 40. The repeal of the 
death penalty will improve the lives of all our citizens.

Our justice system must recognize the value of every human life.

In all media coverage, one can find evidence that our current administration of 
the death penalty is unjust.

I urge every citizen to study the evidence and act to preserve the dignity and 
value of all our citizens.

Elizabeth Richardson

Bethany Beach

(source: Letter to the Editor, delmarvanow.com)








FLORIDA:

End the death penalty



The FBI and Justice Department have pledged to review more criminal cases that 
may have involved flawed and erroneous evidence and testimony by FBI experts. 
(FBI analysts gave flawed testimony, April 20).

That 95 % of the cases studied thus far had fundamentally flawed and erroneous 
testimony and that the highest number of these cases that resulted in death 
sentences were in Florida, calls for more than a review. It calls for 
termination of the death penalty.

Florida, after all, is the state with by far the most exonerations of those 
wrongfully convicted, sent to death row and later released - 25 so far and some 
after 10 to 20 years of trying to prove their innocence.

Even with all these mistakes, trying to execute already-locked-up prisoners 
costs Florida taxpayers an estimated $1 million a week over and above the cost 
of sentencing the same people to life in prison without the possibility of 
parole. There are much better ways to spend these millions to protect Florida 
families and help those affected by violent crime. We can put down the needle, 
go get the handcuffs and solve some of the more than 14,000 unsolved Florida 
homicides. We can fund proven, effective crime-prevention programs. We can help 
families of murder victims with immediate needs to improve their shattered 
lives.

It's time to end Florida's fatally flawed and hugely expensive program for 
killing prisoners.

Mark Elliott, executive director, Floridians for Alternatives to the Death 
Penalty, Tampa

(source: Letter to the Editor, Miami Herald)








ALABAMA:

Death penalty capital: Alabama has nation's most death row inmates per capita



Texas often is called the death penalty capital of America, and California 
actually has the most death row inmates. Neither of them come close to Alabama, 
though, when it comes to sentencing criminals to death.

According to a recent report by the Death Penalty Information Center, Alabama 
has the nation's biggest death row as a percentage of the state's population. 
And No. 2 is not even close.

The 198 condemned prisoners in Alabama represent 40.8 for every million 
residents. Nevada, which has 77 people on death row, is 2nd with a rate 27.1 
per million.

The national average, among the 32 states that have the death penalty, is 12.7 
per million.

"Alabama has the 4th-largest death row in the nation in sheer numbers," said 
Robert Dunham, the death penalty center's executive director, contrasting the 
figures with the state's relatively small population. "It's a combination of 
everything," Dunham said. "Judicial override is a significant factor."

The U.S Supreme Court is considering a related issue from Florida. The justices 
are weighing whether a jury's recommendation of the death penalty must be 
unanimous. Dunham said a ruling by the high court could have a significant 
impact on the death penalty in Alabama, where nearly 1/4 of death row inmates 
had recommendations of life-without-parole sentences overruled by judges.

"You end up with a death sentence that would not be tolerated in most of the 
states that have the death penalty," he said. "The dynamics of juries are 
different in places where you have judicial overrides."

Greater death distribution

A study 2 years ago by the death penalty center indicated that most of 
America's death row inmates come from a small number of jurisdictions. Some 56 
% of people on death row were convicted in just 2 percent of the nation's 
counties.

In many states, 1 large jurisdictions accounts for a large chunk of that 
population. In Pennsylvania, for instance, nearly 1/2 of death row inmates are 
from Philadelphia County.

That is not the case in Alabama, however. Jefferson County, including the 
Bessemer Cutoff, has produced 33 death row inmates. That is about 16 % of death 
row, roughly comparable to Jefferson County's share of the population. 43 of 
Alabama's 67 counties have at least 1 death row inmate. 14 have at least 5.

That kind of widespread use is not seen in many states.

"I would imagine judges apply it a whole lot more," said state Sen. Cam Ward, 
an Alabaster Republican who chairs the Judiciary Committee. "We elect our 
judges. I don't know if that makes a difference."

Sen. Hank Sanders, D-Selma, said he thinks it does make a difference. He said 
another possible factor is the "skimpier" rules governing legal representation 
for capital defendants. He said if the state provided a more robust defense for 
low-income defendants, it would affect the death penalty cases in 2 ways.

"You would have prosecutors using it a little less, and you'd get a little less 
(conviction) results," he said.

Tide turning?

There is evidence that support for the death penalty is waning. A Pew Research 
Center survey released last month indicated that 56 % of Americans favor the 
death penalty. That is the lowest level of support in four decades.

Dunham, of the Death Penalty Information Center, said he thinks much of the 
reason for that decline is the advent of DNA evidence, which has exonerated 
scores of death row inmates across the country.

Smaller Majority Supports the Death Penalty

Dunham said many of those exonerations have come in cases with seemingly strong 
evidence, including eyewitness identifications and even confessions.

"It's undermined confidence in a lot of the evidence," he said.

Both death sentences and executions also have been going down. Death sentences 
peaked in 1998, when judges imposed the ultimate penalty on 295 defendants 
nationwide. Since then, it has been on a fairly steady downward trajectory. 
Last year, 73 defendants got the death penalty.

Executions hit a high-water mark in 1999, when 98 death row inmates were put to 
death. That number fell to 35 last year, the lowest number since 1994.

Dunham argued that the death penalty is ineffective. He pointed to studies 
concluding that it does nothing to deter violent crime.

"It doesn't even do what it's supposed to do," he said.

And, he added, the process is fraught with error and abuse He referenced data 
from the Bureau of Justice Statistics showing that execution is only the 3rd 
most likely outcome for death row inmates - behind exoneration and continued 
life on death row.

Alabama statistics from 1973 through the end of 2013 paint a similar picture - 
115 sentences or convictions overturned vs. 56 executions.

The state has seen several recent examples. Anthony Ray Hinton, convicted in 
Jefferson County for the 1985 murders of a pair of fast food workers, walked 
free from prison on April 3 after prosecutors decided not to retry him amid 
evidentiary problems. The Alabama Supreme Court had ordered another trial. New 
forensics testing indicated that bullets found at the scene could not be 
matched to gun police found at his mother's house.

Several weeks later, William Ziegler got out of prison after he pleaded guilty 
to an amended charge. Prosecutors faced the prospect of a risky retrial after a 
Mobile County judge found prosecutorial abuse and other problems related to his 
2001 murder conviction. Ziegler had been on death row until Circuit Judge Sarah 
Stewart overturned his conviction.

Dunham said he believes certain mistakes are more common in capital cases 
because the stakes are so much higher. The pressure on police and prosecutors 
for a conviction is much higher in those cases and the tendency to cut ethical 
corners is greater, he said.

Dunham said support for eliminating to curtailing the death penalty is gaining 
steam even among Republicans. He pointed to heavily Republican Nebraska, where 
the legislature has taken the first steps toward repealing the death penalty. 
He said Republicans increasingly are coming to view the death penalty as just 
another flawed program that the government cannot be trusted to get right.

"It also offends traditional conservative values," he said.

Alabama's take

Support remains strong for the death penalty among Alabama's lawmakers, though.

"We're just the reddest of red states," said Ward, the state Senate Judiciary 
Committee chairman. "I don't think (a shift in public opinion) is happening 
here in Alabama."

Ward said he is troubled by the fact that some innocent people have ended up on 
death row. He said he favors expanded use of DNA testing as a safeguard. But he 
said state forensics labs struggle with insufficient funding.

"The issue is we're overwhelmed (as far as) forensic science," he said.

Miriam Shehane, who founded a Victims of Crime and Leniency after three men 
raped and murdered her daughter five days before Christmas in 1976, said the 
death penalty offers the only final closure for relatives of murder victims. 
She said that of her daughter's killers, only one was executed. Another had his 
sentence changed to life in prison without parole and one is serving life with 
a chance for parole.

"I have to go at least every five years and beg the parole board not to parole 
him. And I shouldn't have to do that," she said. "I certainly do not want 
anyone executed who is innocent. But I do not think that we need to get rid of 
the death penalty."

Sanders, the state senator from Selma, has sponsored legislation every year 
since 2000 to repeal or reform the death penalty. The proposals have gone 
nowhere.

"I'm traveling on faith every time I introduce it," he said. "To me, it's a 
moral issue. I don't try to calculate what chance we have."

State Rep. Merika Coleman-Evans, D-Birmingham, has introduced a bill to mandate 
a 3-year moratorium while the state studies the death penalty. She said she 
does not know all of the reasons why Alabama leads the nation in per capita 
death sentences.

"That's the reason why we need the moratorium, so that we can study the 
numbers," she said.

(source: al.com)