[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----MISS., NEB., USA

[Rick Halperin]

May 4



MISSISSIPPI:

Mississippi Man is Exonerated from Death Row



Willie Manning Becomes 153rd Person Added to the Death Penalty Information 
Center's Innocence List

May Have Been Wrongfully Convicted of 2 Sets of Murders - 2nd of q Cases Turns 
on FBI's False Testimony about Hair and Bullet Matches



The Death Penalty Information Center has added death-row inmate Willie Jerome 
Manning to its list of death-row exonerations after a Mississippi trial court 
granted the prosecution's motion to dismiss all charges against him arising out 
of the 1993 murders of an elderly woman and her daughter. Mr. Manning is the 
153rd person exonerated from death row since 1973 and the 4th from Mississippi.

Mr. Manning remains on death row pending the results of DNA testing that could 
exonerate him in the murders of 2 Mississippi college students after the FBI 
admitted that its agents provided 2 different types of flawed forensic 
testimony in that case.

"It is always stunning when a man is exonerated from death row with evidence of 
his innocence, but Mr. Manning's case presents the unimaginable possibility 
that an innocent man may have been wrongly convicted and sentenced to death in 
2 different trials for 2 different offenses," said Robert Dunham, Executive 
Director of the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC). "His cases present 
some of the classic hallmarks of innocence: racial overtones, unreliable 
witnesses, and police or prosecutorial misconduct. His 2nd case includes an 
additional horrifying dimension - 2 different types of junk science 
masquerading as forensic evidence of his guilt."

Mr. Manning's exoneration comes in the wake of a ruling by the Mississippi 
Supreme Court in February granting him a new trial because prosecutors had 
violated his rights by failing to disclose evidence that undermined the heart 
of the charges against him. At his trial, the prosecution's key witness claimed 
to have seen Mr. Manning enter the victims' apartment. However, police notes 
that the prosecution wrongfully withheld from the defense showed the apartment 
in which the witness said he lived with his girlfriend was actually vacant at 
the time of the murder and records from the apartment complex did not list the 
witness or his girlfriend as a resident. In a sworn affidavit and at an 
evidentiary hearing, that witness has since recanted his testimony.

In the 2nd case, Mr. Manning, who is African American, was convicted for the 
1992 murder of 2 white college students. In addition to the testimony of a 
jailhouse informant, the prosecution relied on an FBI expert who provided 
scientifically flawed hair-comparison testimony and an FBI ballistics expert 
who improperly testified that bullets found in a tree outside Mr. Manning's 
house had to have come from the same gun used to kill the students.

In 2013, Mr. Manning came within hours of being executed. The Mississippi 
Supreme Court stayed his execution because the Justice Department admitted in 
separate letters to his attorneys that the FBI's bullet and hair analysis 
"exceeded the limits of science and was, therefore, invalid."

Today, Mr. Manning's name was added to DPIC's Innocence List at 
http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/innocence-list-those-freed-death-row

For inclusion on DPIC's Innocence List, defendants must have been convicted, 
sentenced to death and subsequently either: (a) been acquitted of all charges 
related to the crime that placed them on death row, or (b) had all charges 
related to the crime that placed them on death row dismissed by the 
prosecution, or (c) been granted a complete pardon based on evidence of 
innocence.

(source: Death Penalty Information Center)








NEBRASKA:

After years without executions, conservative Nebraska edges toward abolishing 
death penalty



There's not a lot of sympathy for the 11 men on death row in Nebraska, but 
spurred by frustration about the growing difficulty and cost of carrying out 
executions, lawmakers are considering eliminating the death penalty.

If the Legislature outlaws capital punishment, Nebraska would become the first 
conservative in state in more than 40 years to abolish the death penalty. 
Capital punishment opponents are optimistic following an initial vote this 
spring to repeal the law but acknowledge they still face a challenge as 
opponents led by the governor scramble to block the change. Another vote on the 
issue could come this week.

An unusual coalition of Democrats and Republicans has formed behind the repeal 
effort.

While Democrats cite racial disparities of who is sentenced to death and the 
possibility of executing an innocent person, Republicans point to the legal 
hurdles that have prevented the state from executing anyone. Nebraska's last 
execution was in 1997.

"You always want to feel as a legislator that you're sticking up for the 
victims," said Republican Sen. Colby Coash, who said the death penalty wastes 
tax money and makes a false promise to victims' families. "I don't speak for 
the victims, but how is it justice if a state imposes a sentence that it's 
never going to carry out?"

The last conservative state to abolish the death penalty was North Dakota in 
1973. In the past 6 years, 4 more liberal states have ended capital punishment: 
New Mexico in 2009, Illinois in 2011, Connecticut in 2012 and Maryland in 2013. 
32 states still have death penalty laws.

Some legal experts believe a repeal by Nebraska could prompt other states to 
consider the move, especially those that rarely execute people.

"If New Hampshire wanted to abolish the death penalty, Nebraska could set a 
terrific precedent," said Frank Zimring, a law professor and death penalty 
expert at the University of California, Berkeley. "But it probably wouldn't 
work in Texas or Missouri."

Nebraska's debate shows the topic no longer is a "3rd rail" issue among 
conservatives, Zimring said.

Efforts in Nebraska to carry out executions have run into repeated roadblocks. 
In 2008, a state Supreme Court ruling outlawed the electric chair. Then, after 
Nebraska switched to lethal injections, the slow process of inmate appeals 
prevented executions for so long that the state's supply of sodium thiopental 
expired and officials couldn't restock its reserve.

Since Nebraska reinstated the death penalty in 1973, only 4 inmates have been 
executed. 1 inmate has been on death row for 35 years.

Capital punishment opponents pointed to an ACLU-sponsored study this year by 
Seattle University that found capital cases in Washington state cost about $1 
million more than first-degree murder cases where prosecutors didn't seek the 
death penalty.

In March, the Legislature voted 30-13 to repeal the death penalty, but 
lawmakers must vote on the issue twice more and Republican Gov. Pete Ricketts 
has promised a veto. The 30 votes are enough to overcome a veto, but 33 votes 
are required to defeat a filibuster that could kill the bill.

Death penalty supporters said they'll do whatever they can to retain capital 
punishment and execute those on death row.

"I wouldn't expect the debate on this to be short," said Republican Sen. Beau 
McCoy, who supports the death penalty. "If it were to get that far (to a veto 
override), I think you'll see some high-stakes drama the likes of which hasn't 
been seen in this building in quite some time."

McCoy said he's confident most Nebraskans support the death penalty, regardless 
of the state's inability to impose it.

"The ones who are on death row now deserve to be there," McCoy said.

This is the closest Nebraska has come to ending capital punishment since 1979, 
when Gov. Charles Thone vetoed a repeal measure. A recent Pew Research Center 
study found 55 % of Americans favored the death penalty, down from 62 % in 
2011.

Miriam Thimm Kelle started lobbying Nebraska lawmakers a decade ago to abolish 
the death penalty after a long legal fight over the man convicted in 1985 of 
torturing and killing her brother.

"When we started out, no one in the Legislature wanted to talk about it," Thimm 
Kelle said. "They just pointed to the worst of the worst and said, 'Get rid of 
them.' But I think now they're realizing it isn't healthy for victims' families 
to have to wait 30 years."

(source: startribune.com)








USA:

Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in tears as aunt takes stand in death 
penalty hearing



Dzhokhar Tsarnaev broke down in tears in court on 4 May during the trial that 
will decide whether he is put to death for his role in the 2013 Boston Marathon 
bombings.

Tsarnaev, 21, has maintained a largely impassive demeanour in court since the 
beginning of his original trial in January, after which he was convicted of 30 
federal charges, including 17 that carry the death penalty in Massachusetts.

But as his aunt took to the stand - sobbing uncontrollably, AP reported - in 
the sentencing trial that will decide whether he faces the death penalty, 
Tsarnaev wiped tears from his eyes as he sat some 10ft away.

His aunt was so distraught, the judge suggested the defence call another 
witness so she could compose herself.

Tsarnaev's lawyers have argued his brother Tamerlan, 26, was the mastermind of 
the bombings and persuaded his impressionable younger brother to take part. 
Tamerlan was killed soon after the attack in a shootout with the police after 
which Tsarnaev was captured.

Earlier, a cousin of Tsarnaev told the court the 21-year-old had been a gentle 
child who had once cried during watching Disney classic animated film The Lion 
King.

"I think that his kindness made everybody around him kind," Raisat Suleimanova 
said through a Russian translator.

5 more of Tsarnaev's relatives are expected to testify in the trial.

(source: International Business Times)