[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----FLA., ALA., OHIO, TENN., UTAH, IDAHO, CALIF., USA

[Rick Halperin]

Nov. 27



FLORIDA:

Cathedral to hold 'Cities for Life' event


The Cathedral Basilica will "light up" at 6 p.m. Monday for "Cities for Life: 
Praying for Life, Mercy and Reconciliation."

The event will advocate for an end to the death penalty.

Pastor of the Cathedral Basilica, the Rev. Tom Willis, will preside over the 
Holy Hour, and the homily will be given by Deacon Jason Roy, Catholic Chaplain 
on Florida's death row.

This event is in collaboration with the worldwide Community of Sant'Egidio 
campaign to end the use of the death penalty.

More than 1,900 cities have declared themselves "Cities for Life" and show 
their commitment to the abolition of the death penalty by lighting up 
cathedrals and other significant religious and civic landmarks (i.e., the 
Coliseum in Rome) every Nov. 30.

This year, the Bishops of Florida have decided to participate in all 7 Florida 
Catholic dioceses. All are welcome to attend.

(source: St. Augustine Record)

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

Oscar Ray Bolin, Jr. asks Florida Supreme Court to stay execution


A death-row inmate facing execution in January for a murder in Pasco County 30 
years ago is asking the Florida Supreme Court for a stay in the case and to 
grant a hearing so his attorneys can argue "newly discovered evidence," which a 
circuit court recently rejected.

Republican Gov. Rick Scott signed the death warrant for Oscar Ray Bolin, Jr., 
last month, scheduling his execution for Jan. 7.

Bolin killed 3 women in the Tampa Bay area in 1986. He was sentenced to death 
for 2 of them and is serving a life sentence on the third. The scheduled 
execution is for the murder of Teri Lynn Matthews, whom he abducted from the 
Land O' Lakes Post Office in the early morning hours of Dec. 5, 1986.

In a motion to the Supreme Court filed late Monday, Bolin's attorneys argue 
they have new evidence that needs to be heard, including that an Ohio inmate 
"confessed to having committed the murder." Download 
Filed_11-23-2015_Motion_Briefing_Schedule

A circuit court last month denied Bolin's request for an evidentiary hearing on 
the matter, reasoning that the "confession was not evidence of a magnitude that 
it would probably produce an acquittal or a sentence other than death if 
admitted at a retrial."

After Scott signed Bolin's death warrant, Bolin appealed his case once more to 
the Sixth Circuit Court, and on Friday, the court denied Bolin's motion for 
rehearing and a request to vacate the death sentence.

Bolin was convicted of abducting Matthews and then bludgeoning her with a 
wooden club, spraying her with a water hose and loading her into a truck to 
dispose of her body. She was found wrapped in the sheet on the side of the road 
in Pasco County later that day with severe head injuries and stab wounds in her 
neck and body.

Bolin previously appealed his case to federal court but his petition was denied 
in 2013, and the 11th Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals also denied to 
review the case.

Bolin has been convicted of 2 other murders in Hillsborough County. He is 
currently sentenced to death for the 1986 murder of Stephanie Collins and is 
serving a life sentence for the 1986 murder of Natalie Holley.

(source: Tampa Bay Times)






ALABAMA----death row inmate dies

Attorney: Alabama inmate seeking freedom from death row dies

An Alabama death row inmate who was seeking to overturn his murder conviction 
has died, one of his attorneys said Thursday.

Attorney Cissy Jackson said Donnis Musgrove died Wednesday night at the 
Donaldson Correctional Facility in Bessemer, Alabama. Jackson said Musgrove was 
suffering from lung cancer.

"It was a privilege to know and represent Donnis," Jackson said in an emailed 
statement. "My husband and I have been working for his release since 1997, and 
we are so sorry that he did not live to be exonerated."

Musgrove, 67, was sentenced to die for the gunshot killing of Coy Eugene Barron 
in 1986.

However, Musgrove has steadfastly maintained his innocence, and his attorneys 
contend the prosecution falsified the evidence against him, including witness 
statements and a shell casing that was used to link him to the slaying.

The attorney general's office previously has declined to comment on Musgrove's 
legal arguments.

Musgrove was trying to become the 3rd inmate freed from Alabama's death row 
since April. Lawyers asked U.S. District Judge David Proctor to rule quickly 
because of Musgrove's ill health.

2 other men have been released from Alabama's death row since April after 
winning appeals. 1 of them, Anthony Ray Hinton, was tried by the same Jefferson 
County prosecutor and judge who handled Musgrove's case, and the same 
ballistics expert was involved in each case.

Musgrove contended that the evidence of wrongdoing in his case is more 
extensive than in the case against Hinton.

The state had argued that rules prohibited Musgrove from making new claims 
about being innocent and bar him from questioning evidence used in his trial, 
but prosecutors didn't directly addressed his arguments contending that he was 
wrongfully convicted based on bogus evidence conjured up by prosecutors and 
police.

(source: Associated Press)






OHIO:

Ohio prosecutors are turning away from the death penalty in favor of life in 
prison----Since taking office, Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Tim McGinty has asked 
for death in just 5 cases


Ohio prosecutors have filed 77 % fewer death penalty indictments since 2010, 
preferring instead to seek life without parole.

Ohio's declining death penalty numbers are part of a national trend, and the 
Plain Dealer reports that life-without-parole nearly doubled in the past 5 
years. In Cuyahoga County, Prosecutor Tim McGinty has asked for the death 
penalty in just 7 % of cases that would qualify. His predecessor, Bill Mason, 
asked for death in 78 % of cases.

Retired University of Akron Law Professor Dean Carro says one of the main 
reasons is likely the cost.

"You're talking about a direct appeal, post-conviction appeals, Habeas Corpus, 
petitions for A Writ of Certiorari?, so there may be 5, 6, 7 [or] 8 appeals. 
All of which have their attendant costs. I would guess somewhere in the nature 
of $100,000, at least.

"The public has been moving away in terms of public sentiment away from the 
propriety of the death penalty. And the growing number of people who have 
initially been determined to have been guilty, and it later turns out that 
they're innocent."

Since taking office in 2012, Prosecutor McGinty has asked for death in just 5 
cases. 3 plead guilty and are in prison, while 2 are still pending.

(source: WKSU news)






TENNESSEE:

Time has come for Tennessee to re-evaluate death penalty


I was pleasantly surprised and greatly encouraged by the recent statement 
adopted by the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) concerning the death 
penalty.

I am a conservative evangelical pastor. I used to support the death penalty, 
but now I believe the time has come for its complete repeal.

I am glad to know there are other like-minded evangelicals and that their 
numbers are growing. Earlier this year the 3,000-member National Latino 
Evangelical Coalition voted to support the repeal of the death penalty, 
becoming the first evangelical association to take this position. Now the NAE 
has shifted its position as well.

The NAE represents more than 45,000 churches from nearly 40 denominations. The 
organization has always been in favor of the death penalty.

In 1973 it adopted the following resolution: "We call upon Congress and state 
legislatures to enact legislation which will direct the death penalty for such 
horrendous crimes as premeditated murder, the killing of a police officer or 
guard, murder in connection with any other crime, hijacking, skyjacking, or 
kidnapping where persons are physically harmed in the process."

Conservative pastor changes mind on death penalty

While the new resolution does not completely eradicate the 1973 resolution, it 
does take a significant step forward by acknowledging there is a legitimate, 
biblical difference of opinion among evangelicals on the death penalty.

In part, the new resolution, adopted in October, reads: "Evangelical Christians 
differ in their beliefs about capital punishment, often citing strong biblical 
and theological reasons either for the just character of the death penalty in 
extreme cases or for the sacredness of all life, including the lives of those 
who perpetrate serious crimes and yet have the potential for repentance and 
reformation. ... We affirm the conscientious commitment of both streams of 
Christian ethical thought."

I have come to believe that while one could argue from Scripture the death 
penalty is just in some cases, we are incapable of doing it justly so we should 
not do it all - especially if there is another sentence (life in prison) that 
would be just and allow for redemption and reconciliation.

The new NAE resolution makes the same point, stating that all human systems are 
fallible.

Death row inmates oppressed by tyranny of the majority

Nonpartisan studies of the death penalty have identified systemic problems in 
the United States.

These include eyewitness error, coerced confessions, prosecutorial misconduct, 
racial disparities, incompetent counsel, inadequate instruction to juries, 
judges who override juries that do not vote for the death penalty, and improper 
sentencing of those who lack the mental capacity to understand their crime.

The time has come for the Tennessee legislature to take another look at the 
death penalty in light of all of these concerns and determine if this is a 
policy that is actually serving the cause of justice or the citizens of 
Tennessee.

(source: Opinion; The Rev. Kevin Riggs is senior pastor of Franklin Community 
Church----The Tennessean)






UTAH:

Judge annuls evidence ruling in death penalty case


The judge presiding over a St. George murder case has annulled his ruling that 
authorized the defense to begin seeking deposition testimony from prosecutors 
in all of Utah's 29 counties as well as the state Attorney General's Office, 
and will instead require more evidence before issuing a decision.

Attorneys Gary Pendleton and Mary Corporan, who represent Bloomington Hills 
resident Brandon Perry Smith, announced a plan last week to call on Utah 
prosecutors past and present to explain why they did not seek the death penalty 
in murder cases stretching back to 1992.

Pendleton informed Judge G. Michael Westfall that 150 state prison inmates are 
serving life without parole terms because prosecutors didn't seek the death 
penalty in their cases. Pendleton's claim forms the bedrock of a motion to 
declare the death penalty unconstitutional in Utah on the basis of unequal 
application.

"Why is the death penalty not being sought in those cases but it is being 
sought in this case?" he asked at the time.

Smith, 34, is accused of killing 20-year-old Jerrica Christensen 2 weeks before 
Christmas 2010 in a brutal downtown incident.

Smith's codefendant in the case, Paul Clifford Ashton, avoided the death 
penalty and was instead sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of 
parole for killing the other victim in the case - Brandie Sue Dawn Jerden, 27 - 
as well as for the attempted murder of James Fiske, 33, during the incident. 
Ashton was also sentenced for the unrelated murder of homeless resident Bradley 
Eitner, 43, which occurred a few weeks earlier.

The murders took place at Ashton's 600 South residence, and evidence gathered 
in Smith's case indicates Ashton called on Smith to help him the night of 
Christensen's and Jerden's deaths, although Pendleton has argued the evidence 
also shows Smith was manipulated or coerced into becoming involved in Ashton's 
scheme without prior knowledge of what Ashton was planning.

Westfall's amended ruling issued Tuesday states that U.S. and Utah Supreme 
Court rulings have established that a "credible threshold showing" of 
discrimination must be made in three test areas - in other words, the defense 
must present sufficient evidence to convince the court that inmates at the 
state prison had cases similar to Smith's in specific detail, that Smith is in 
a classification that is different from those inmates such as having a 
different ethnicity, and that Smith has been treated differently than the 
inmates who meet the first 2 criteria.

Westfall's new ruling states the defense claims that have been presented thus 
far were insufficient to justify deposing all of the state's capital crime 
prosecutors to obtain evidence about their decision making.

"When a defendant is granted permission to do (evidence) discovery on a 
selective prosecution claim, the discovery requires the government 
(prosecutors) to assemble files and respond to a case of discrimination or 
arbitrary imposition of the death penalty," Westfall wrote.

"This process diverts government resources and requires prosecutors to disclose 
prosecutorial strategy," he wrote. "Because of this, the Supreme Court has 
initiated extremely rigorous standards before a defendant may be granted 
discovery and question prosecutors about their prosecutorial strategy."

Westfall states that once the defense has made a credible showing that the 
three tests have been met, the court will consider anew the request to depose 
all Utah prosecutors who had a hand in deciding potential death penalty cases 
since 1992, or to summon all the prosecutors to St. George for an evidentiary 
hearing in court.

In the meantime, the court will schedule a status conference to determine 
deadlines for further proceedings in the case, including for the threshold 
showing and for all other motions in the 5-year-old case.

"If feasible, the court will also discuss with the parties potential trial 
dates," Westfall writes.

A previous trial date was established for two weeks in September of this year, 
but the trial was postponed indefinitely as new defense motions were filed in 
the case.

Christensen's mother, Ellen Hensley, has previously expressed concerns about 
the length of the court process and held a candlelight vigil at the courthouse 
on the last anniversary of her daughter's death to call for swifter justice for 
the victims of crimes.

Westfall addressed the concerns of the victim's family at last week's hearing, 
but Pendleton responded that he was also concerned about providing adequate 
representation for Smith "on all the legal issues."

Pendleton's motion to declare the death penalty unconstitutional amounts to a 
challenge about whether anyone should be sentenced to death unless everyone who 
could legally be sentenced to death receives that ultimate penalty, barring a 
specific explanation from prosecutors about why someone receiving a life 
sentence qualifies as an exception.

Pendleton noted that the United States declared the death penalty 
unconstitutional between 1972 and 1976 "on the basis that it was imposed 
irregularly and without objective standards." The nationwide ban was lifted 
when prosecutors resolved the high court's concern with a new definition of 
"aggravating circumstances" that set the standard for deciding on the death 
penalty.

The death penalty has since been allowed on a state-by-state basis, and Utah 
established 8 aggravating circumstances to define death penalty cases that have 
since grown to 22 or 23 aggravators, Pendleton said.

But he argues that the death penalty is only imposed in 3 % of potential death 
penalty cases, meaning the prosecution is still using some type of arbitrary 
and undeclared decision process in making that determination.

(source: The Spectrum)






IDAHO:

Death penalty decision looms for admitted Sgt. Moore killer


A district judge said prosecutors have until the New Year to decide whether to 
pursue the death penalty for Jonathan Renfro, who is accused of killing Coeur 
d'Alene Police Officer Seargent Greg Moore and stealing his patrol car in 
northern Idaho.

District Judge Lansing Hayes extended the capital crime deadline until January 
4 on Wednesday. The deadline was previously set to expire on Friday.

Investigators allege that Jonathan Renfro, who was on parole, shot Sgt. Moore 
on May 5 as the officer questioned him because he feared Moore would find a 
handgun in his pocket - a parole violation.

After his May arrest, Renfro admitted to authorities after that he killed Sgt. 
Moore during an early-morning traffic stop. He is facing 1st Degree Murder 
Charges.

Sgt. Moore was taken to a local hospital after he was shot and he later died 
from his injuries. A doctor testified during the hearing that Moore was shot in 
the mouth.

Authorities said Sgt. Moore called into dispatch reporting that he had stopped 
a "suspicious person." Police said it was somewhere after that moment that 
Moore was shot.

Renfro admitted to taking Sgt. Moore's firearm during his interview with 
investigators. Court documents said he also admitted to taking two pistol 
magazines and a flashlight from Sgt. Moore. Renfro also told investigators that 
he left the shooting scene in Moore's patrol vehicle. He confessed to ditching 
the vehicle in Post Falls because he knew authorities were looking for him.

John Adams, Renfro's lawyer, has also filed a motion seeking to exclude 
cellphone evidence from the trial.

Renfro's trial is set to begin in September 2016.

(source: Associated Press)






CALIFORNIA:

Judge: Kerman man can't be executed for 1979 murder


A Kerman man who has spent more than 3 decades on California's death row for 
raping and killing his 12-year-old stepdaughter is ineligible for the death 
penalty because he is intellectually disabled, a Fresno County Superior Court 
judge has ruled.

Instead, Judge Wayne Ellison said Donald Griffin should spend the rest of his 
life behind bars.

Ellison's ruling is the 1st of its kind in Fresno County Superior Court and 
gives death-penalty opponents new fuel to ban capital punishment in California.

"We are a civilized society," said Fresno lawyer Barbara Hope O'Neill, who 
defended Griffin in the 1990s. "This ruling just shows how ridiculous the death 
penalty is, not just for Mr. Griffin, but for the family of the victim who has 
to agonize over every twist and turn in the case."

Ellison's ruling earlier this month came after several experts testified that 
Griffin was intellectually disabled before he turned 18 years old.

When Griffin became intellectually disabled is key. A 2002 U.S. Supreme Court 
ruling called Atkins v. Virginia bans the execution of mentally disabled 
defendants because it violates the Eighth Amendment's prohibition against cruel 
and unusual punishment.

Court records say Griffin was 30 when he was accused of raping and killing his 
stepdaughter, Janice Kelly Wilson, who was known as Kelly, in December 1979. He 
was convicted and given the death penalty in November 1980.

"This court finds that the convincing force of the evidence supports the 
conclusion that petitioner (Griffin) does have a condition of significant 
sub-average general intellectual functioning within the meaning of Atkins and 
Penal Code 1376," Ellison wrote in his Nov. 12 ruling. Penal Code 1376 also 
addresses a defendant's intellectual disability and the California death 
penalty.

"Based on the foregoing findings of fact and conclusions of law, this court 
rules that petitioner is ineligible for imposition of the death penalty under 
Penal Code 1376 and Atkins," Ellison wrote.

Ellison then sentenced Griffin, who waived his right to attend the Nov. 12 
hearing, to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Steve Wright, an assistant Fresno County district attorney, said this week he 
could not comment because the case is still pending; the District Attorney's 
Office is consulting the California Attorney General's Office about whether to 
appeal Ellison's ruling.

One of Griffin's appellate lawyers, Mary McCombs, also declined to comment, 
saying the case is pending a decision by the prosecution.

But O'Neill said Tuesday: "This is absolutely the right ruling."

Until the prosecution makes its decision, Griffin, 66, will remain on death row 
in San Quentin State Prison.

Since 1978, when California reinstated the death penalty, 13 death row inmates 
have been executed. The last was Clarence Ray Allen, who received a death 
sentence in 1982 for masterminding Fresno's notorious Fran's Market slayings of 
Bryon Schletewitz, 27, Douglas White, 18, and Josephine Rocha, 17.

By the time he was executed in 2006, Allen was 76, a diabetic, legally blind, 
using a wheelchair and had survived a near-fatal heart attack at San Quentin. 
His accomplice, Billy Ray Hamilton, 57, never saw the executioner. He died the 
following year of natural causes, prison officials said.

Death-penalty watchers say the last time a death row inmate from Fresno County 
was re-sentenced to life in prison without parole was in 1998.

Peter Edelbacher was sentenced to death in 1983 for killing his wife, Lela, but 
the penalty was overturned 6 years later by the California Supreme Court.

Citing courtroom errors, the state's high court ordered a new trial for 
Edelbacher on whether he should be executed.

After years of legal wranglings and several false starts, a jury was chosen in 
October 1998 to hear evidence against Edelbacher. But on the day testimony was 
scheduled to begin, the District Attorney's Office informed Judge Ralph Nunez 
that it could no longer seek the death penalty. In their decision, prosecutors 
cited several rulings by Nunez to exclude certain evidence the prosecution had 
wanted to present against Edelbacher.

Edelbacher, 60, remains behind bars in Pleasant Valley State Prison in 
Coalinga.

The only other death row inmate from Fresno County to escape the execution 
chamber was Michael Todd Leach. But that was a jury's decision.

In October 1979, Leach and Patrick Allen Jones lured 17-year-old Michael Messer 
to a fig orchard at DeWolf and Ashlan avenues, east of Fresno. There, they 
robbed Messer and stabbed him to death.

Jones pleaded guilty to murder and was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.

Leach was given the death penalty after a jury convicted him of murder during 
the commission of a robbery. At the time, he was 18 and the youngest death-row 
resident in the United States.

But on Dec. 31, 1985, the state Supreme Court under Rose Bird overturned the 
death penalty for Leach and 10 other defendants. The penalty phase of Leach's 
trial was retried, and a jury concluded that he should receive life in prison. 
In 1988, Judge Mario Olmos sentenced Leach to life in prison without parole. 
Leach, 54, remains behind bars at Salinas Valley State Prison in Soledad.

Donald Griffin, who admitted to killing Kelly but denied raping her, was tried, 
convicted and sentenced to death in November 1980.

In the Griffin case, court records say Kelly's mutilated body was found by a 
motorist Dec. 13, 1979. The girl had been raped, sodomized, stabbed in the 
neck, strangled and cut open with a hunting knife, prosecutors said.

Griffin admitted to killing Kelly but denied raping her, court records say.

Given a death sentence, his case has been tangled in a lengthy legal fight. In 
1988, the California Supreme Court upheld the conviction but overturned the 
death sentence, ruling that the jury in the 1980 trial was wrongly told that if 
they sentenced Griffin to life in prison without possibility of parole, the 
governor could modify that sentence so Griffin eventually could be paroled.

In his 1st trial, Griffin was represented by Fresno attorney Robert Rainwater. 
In his 2nd trial in 1992, Griffin was defended by O'Neill and Fresno attorney 
Peter Jones. A new jury gave Griffin the death penalty again, but during the 
trial O'Neill and Jones raised the mental retardation issue.

Because his intellectual disability was part of the record, Griffin's appellate 
lawyers, after years of legal fighting, were able to bring his case back to a 
Fresno courtroom this year after the California Supreme Court ruled they had 
presented enough evidence on Griffin's behalf to qualify for a hearing under 
the 2002 Atkins ruling.

The hearing took place in Ellison's courtroom in July.

Griffin, who did not attend the hearing, was represented by McCombs, a 
supervising deputy in the state Public Defender's Office, and San Francisco 
attorney Michael Laurence, executive director of the Habeas Corpus Resource 
Center. They contend Griffin, who had no prior criminal record before the 
killing, has been intellectually disabled since childhood.

Prosecutors Robert Mangano of the Fresno County District Attorney's Office and 
George Hendrickson of the Attorney General's Office represented the victim's 
family. They contend that while Griffin may be borderline mentally disabled, he 
still knew what he was doing when he raped and killed his stepdaughter.

During the hearing, experts for Griffin said he suffered physical abuse as a 
child under his father's harsh discipline. In addition, Griffin was subjected 
to "severe and violent sexual abuse" within his extended family, court records 
say.

Griffin's witnesses include J. Gregory Olley, a professor at the University of 
North Carolina and expert in the field of forensic psychology as it relates to 
intellectual disability and the death penalty. Olley testified that Griffin was 
the product of an impoverished home: his parents were cotton pickers and 
Griffin could not read while growing up in the Tranquillity area. He barely 
reads at 1st-grade level today, Olley told the judge.

"He was a loner and withdrawn. He was disheveled in his appearance," Olley 
testified.

Because of his speech impediment, Griffin was reluctant to go to school. "Kids 
would call him 'dummy' and 'retard,'" the psychologist told Ellison. Though he 
was friendly, Griffin could not make friends because he was not a good 
conversationalist, Olley said.

On cross-examination, Mangano suggested that Griffin was smart enough to plan 
Kelly's murder. But Olley said that wasn't the case; Griffin never cleaned the 
victim's blood off his shoes, clothing and truck. Authorities also apprehended 
Griffin quickly, Olley testified.

In his Nov. 12 ruling, Ellison said the prosecution expert, Andrew Cavagnaro, 
who obtained his graduate degrees from Fresno State and the California School 
of Professional Psychology, did not provide "a sound basis for concluding that 
petitioner is not intellectually disabled."

"The court therefore finds that the petitioner (Griffin) has met his burden to 
prove that it is more likely than not that he is intellectually disabled," 
Ellison wrote.

(source: Fresno Bee)






USA:

Capital punishment


The recent execution of Marcus Ray Johnson has re-opened the debate over 
capital punishment in our country.

While Johnson maintained his innocence, the Dougherty County jury was right to 
sentence Johnson to death after finding he brutally murdered Angela Sizemore 
more than 21 years ago.

"I have no doubt in my mind that Marcus Ray Johnson is guilty and the jury has 
spoken. And believe based upon the facts and the law that this was the 
appropriate punishment for the crimes," said Dougherty D.A.Greg Edwards.

The death penalty should remain a viable form of punishment when it involves a 
crime as heinous the murder of Angela Sizemore.

We do believe anyone who receives such a sentence should be afforded every 
reasonable appeal, but where does reasonable end and just playing the system 
against itself begin?

How can it be argued that the death penalty is a proper deterrent to terrible 
crimes if it takes 21 years to be carried out?

This issue must be addressed in the future, so everyone can be assured the 
punishment fits the crime.

(source: Editorial, WALB news)





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

Obama struggles with stance on the death penalty


President Barack Obama is making a hard case for overhauling the U.S. criminal 
justice system, but where he stands on the death penalty is unclear.

Obama has hinted that his support for capital punishment is eroding, but he has 
refused to discuss what he might call for.

A Justice Department review has dragged on for 18 months with little mention or 
momentum. The president recently repeated he is "deeply concerned" about the 
death penalty's implementation, though he also acknowledges the issue has not 
been a top priority.

"I have not traditionally been opposed to the death penalty in theory, but in 
practice it's deeply troubling," Obama told the Marshall Project, a nonprofit 
journalism group, citing racial bias, wrongful convictions and questions about 
"gruesome and clumsy" executions. His delay in proposing solutions, he said, 
was because "I got a whole lot of other things to do as well."

Obama said he plans to weigh in, and considers the issue part of his larger, 
legacy-minded push for an overhaul of the criminal justice system. White House 
officials say the president is looking for an appropriate response and wading 
through the legal ramifications.

Capital prosecutions are down across the United States. A shortage of lethal 
injection drugs has meant de facto freezes in several states and at the federal 
level. Spurred in part by encouragement from Supreme Court justices Stephen 
Breyer and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, advocates are debating whether the time is 
right to push the court to take a fresh look at whether the death penalty is 
constitutional.

A solid majority - 61 % - of the public supports the death penalty in murder 
cases, but that share has crept downward while opposition has inched up, 
according to a Gallup poll last month. Obama isn't alone in struggling with the 
issue.

"We have a lot of evidence now that the death penalty has been too frequently 
applied and, very unfortunately, often times in a discriminatory way," 
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton said. "So I think we 
have to take a hard look at it." She also said she does "not favor abolishing" 
it in all cases.

For Clinton's Democratic presidential rival, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, the 
issue is settled. "I just don't think the state itself, whether it's the state 
government or federal government, should be in the business of killing people," 
he said.

On the Republican side, candidate Jeb Bush says he's swayed by his Catholic 
faith and is "conflicted."

"We should reform it," he told NBC's "Meet the Press."

In September, Pope Francis stood before Congress and urged that the death 
penalty be abolished. Obama specifically noted the comment when talking about 
the speech to aides. White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Obama was 
"influenced" by what the pope said.

Such hints have death penalty opponents likening Obama's deliberations to his 
gradual shift toward supporting gay marriage.

Charles Ogletree, a Harvard law professor who taught the president, said: 
"Though not definitive, the idea that the president's views are evolving gives 
me hope that the he - like an increasing number of prosecutors, jurors, judges, 
governors and state legislators - recognizes that the death penalty in America 
is too broken to fix."

White House officials caution that any presidential statement disputing the 
effectiveness or constitutionality of the death penalty would have legal 
consequences.

For example, would the administration then commute the sentences of the 62 
people currently on federal death row to life in prison?

Every lawyer representing a death row inmate would make that case in an appeal, 
said Douglas Berman, criminal law professor at Ohio State University's Moritz 
College of Law. Among those inmates: Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, convicted of murder in 
the Boston Marathon bombing.

"There's not been a president who in the modern use of the federal death 
penalty has indicated a disaffinity for it," Berman said. "And if this one were 
to say, 'I don't think it's something we ought to be doing,' that's a policy 
statement and personal statement, but it is also one that indisputably would be 
put in the legal papers and would require courts to grapple with its 
significance."

If Obama went further, perhaps formalizing the federal freeze, it could affect 
other major terrorism cases. The Justice Department has yet to decide whether 
to seek the death penalty in the prosecution of the man charged in the attack 
on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, for example.

A moratorium might serve as a model for the states - where most capital 
prosecutions occur - and would make more of a mark than expressions of concern, 
advocates argue.

"On an issue like this, it's important to make judgments on what people 
actually do," said Robert Dunham, executive director of the Death Penalty 
Information Center, which opposes the death penalty. "We have seen in many 
states governors who say they are against the death penalty, nonetheless 
denying clemency in controversial cases. ... Whether people say they're 
personally supportive of the death penalty or not doesn't really matter. It's 
what they do that matters."

(source: Associated Press)