[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----PENN., S.C., FLA., ALA., LA., TENN., ARK., ILL.

[Rick Halperin]

Sept. 10



PENNSYLVANIA:

Pennsylvania Death-Penalty Moratorium Sparks Lively Hearing


Gov. Tom Wolf's death-penalty moratorium has stirred a lively discussion at a 
Pennsylvania Supreme Court hearing in Philadelphia.

A top lawyer in the Philadelphia district attorney's office argued Thursday 
that Wolf's use of a reprieve to block the execution of a convicted killer who 
has run out of options violates the state constitution.

Hugh Burns said Wolf's vow to use reprieves to block executions pending 
completion of a legislative study on the death penalty is too vague.

Justices Debra Todd and Michael Eakin questioned whether Wolf's strategy is a 
moratorium or merely a series of individual reprieves.

Geoffrey Moulton, the lead attorney for Wolf's legal team, acknowledged that 
Wolf cannot suspend the death penalty but said he clearly has authority to 
grant temporary reprieves without having to explain why.

(source: Associated Press)






SOUTH CAROLINA:

Don't seek death penalty


South Carolina is seeking the death penalty for Dylann Roof. I totally agree 
Roof should pay for his crime. Justice demands it and society needs to be 
protected from harm. However, justice can be served when Roof is secured in 
prison for a lifetime without parole; if the South Carolina prison system is 
adequate, he is no longer a threat to the safety of citizens. The families of 
the victims forgave him, choosing not to seek the death penalty. In seeking the 
death penalty, the prosecutor claims she is seeking justice. An "eye for an 
eye" is not justice, it is revenge, and revenge was never the intended role of 
our government.

It is fact that the legal fees from appeals in capital punishment cases costs 
on average about $1 million more than the cost of keeping a prisoner clothed 
and fed for his lifetime. Why not use our tax dollars elsewhere, maybe to hire 
more police to patrol our cities or pay for body cams, rather than to kill an 
unarmed man already locked in prison? It is also fact that the death penalty is 
not a deterrent for crime. What it does do is open fresh wounds for the 
victims' family members for the next 20 years or so every time the news reports 
the status of his appeals. For example, Missouri just executed a man last week 
that was on death row for 25 years. It seems more merciful for the families of 
the victims of Emanuel AME Church to allow them closure by sentencing him to 
life in prison.

As a Christian, I pray Roof, with the years he will serve in prison, will 
reconcile with God before his death.

But it is not ours to decide when that death will be. The death penalty is 
unnecessary, immoral, and fiscally irresponsible, and it should not be sought 
in the case of Roof. For that matter, perhaps it is time capital punishment is 
abolished in the state altogether.

Donna Pierce ---- Aiken

(source: Letter to the Editor, Aiken Standard)






FLORIDA:

Young Republicans will host death penalty opponent


Conservatives Concerned about the Death Penalty, a national network of 
conservatives and libertarians questioning the alignment of capital punishment 
with their principles, will be featured at the upcoming monthly meeting of the 
St. Johns County Young Republicans, according to an update received by Historic 
City News this week.

National coordinator Marc Hyden, a representative of the NRA in Florida prior 
to taking this position, will be making a presentation to the group about why 
conservatives in Florida and across the nation are re-thinking the death 
penalty.

"It is incumbent upon us as citizens to be educated on any law, policy or 
regulation that allows our government to remove any of our freedoms," said 
Elizabeth Amato of the St. Johns County Young Republicans. "The death penalty 
is one such power we have given to our government and the exercise of this 
power should rightfully be reviewed on a continuing basis."

To date, more than 150 individuals have been released from death rows across 
America because they were wrongfully convicted and Florida leads the nation in 
exonerations with 25.

"Increasingly, conservatives from across the country are opposing the death 
penalty because it fails to align with our principles," said Hyden. "It's 
simply a broken and incredibly costly government program that risks killing 
innocent Americans."

The meeting and program will be open to members and guests and will begin 
Tuesday evening September 15th at 7:00 p.m. in Murray Bros Caddy Shack, 455 
South Legacy Trail, Suite E106 at World Golf Village.

About Us

Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty is a network of political and 
social conservatives who question the alignment of capital punishment with 
conservative principles and values. Specifically, we are questioning a system 
marked by inefficiency, inequity, and inaccuracy. Conservatives concerned about 
the death penalty is a project of Equal Justice USA. EJUSA is a national, 
grassroots organization working to build a criminal justice system that works. 
For everyone. For more information contact Jon Crane at 203-982-4575 or email 
joncrane at criticalpr.com.

(source: historiccity.com)






ALABAMA:

Montez Spradley, an Innocent Man Once on Death Row, Is Free


Montez Spradley is finally free. He walked out of prison late last week, after 
spending more than 9 years behind bars - including 3 1/2 years on Alabama's 
death row - for a murder he did not commit.

I began representing Montez seven years ago, not long after joining the ACLU. 
>From the very first day that I met him, Montez maintained his innocence. No 
physical evidence ever tied him, a young Black man, to the 2004 murder of a 
58-year old white woman in Birmingham. The prosecution instead relied on the 
highly tainted and inconsistent testimony of his disgruntled ex-girlfriend as 
well as a jailhouse snitch, who both claimed he had confessed to them.

Montez's jurors did not want him to die. They voted 10-2 to sentence him to 
life, but the trial judge who presided over his 1st trial, Judge Gloria 
Bahakel, overrode their decision of life in prison and sentenced him to death, 
in a process known as "judicial override." More than 20 % of the men on 
Alabama's death row have been sent there by Alabama judges, even though their 
juries voted for life. While Florida and Delaware still have judicial override 
on the books, only Alabama continues to use it with disturbing frequency. And 
Alabama judges almost never use override to reverse a jury's death verdict to 
impose life. In fact, since 1976, death-to-life overrides have only happened 
nine times - and only once in the last 10 years - compared to 99 times the 
Montez way.

Montez was not the 1st innocent man to arrive to death row after a judge had 
overridden the jury's life vote, and until the practice is shut down, he will 
not be the last. Residual doubt about a defendant's guilt is often a major 
reason why a jury would vote for life. The fact that innocent people continue 
to be sentenced to death, especially when a jury would have spared their lives, 
is the very definition of a failed system.

Fortunately, in a rare victory, the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals 
recognized that Montez's 1st trial had been a "miscarriage of justice." Still, 
it took years to untangle the web of police misconduct and judicial misconduct 
by Judge Bahakel that led to Montez's conviction and death sentence.

Montez had heard rumors that his ex-girlfriend had been paid reward money, but 
it was not until we won his appeal, that we started to find evidence of the 
payments. And we learned that she had been paid an incredible sum for her 
testimony: $10,000. We learned that she had tried to back out before Montez's 
trial and told the police that Montez had never confessed to her. Rather than 
honoring the truth, they dangled the $10,000 over her head and threatened to 
take her children away and to prosecute her for perjury if she did not "stick 
with her original story."

Neither the police nor the prosecutors ever disclosed the payments to the 
defense. Judge Bahakel, before sentencing Montez to death, had signed off on a 
payment herself. Yet she never told Montez's trial lawyers about it, and her 
order authorizing the payment never made it into the court file. We also knew 
that the lead detective on the case - the same one who authorized the payments 
- had lied on the stand about the ex-girlfriend's statement to him. 
Unfortunately, such things are far too common in our system where the state 
often focuses on winning rather than justice.

Police and prosecutors are rarely held accountable for their misconduct. In 
fact, the lead detective on the case - the same one who lied on the stand at 
trial - was honored with an award from a victims' rights group for solving this 
cold case that led to Montez's arrest. No one should be rewarded for turning a 
blind eye to truth and justice, especially when it means an innocent person 
faces execution.

Montez is still a young man. More than anything, he wanted his freedom so he 
could be there for his children, and now he gets to be more present in their 
lives and watch them grow. But nothing can give him those years back, and he 
faces many challenges ahead.

Others have not fared as well. Innocent people, and people whose juries wanted 
them to live, remain on death row. For Montez and for them, it is time to 
reject the failed system of capital punishment.

(source: Anna Arceneaux, Staff Attorney, ACLU Capital Punishment Project, 
aclu.org)






LOUISIANA:

Child rapist who was spared death penalty in 2008 after Supreme Court ruled 
punishment was 'cruel and unusual' has new request for a retrial 
denied----Patrick Kennedy sentenced to death for brutal rape of stepdaughter in 
1998


Patrick Kennedy, the convicted child rapist who successfully argued in 2008 
that the death penalty was a 'cruel and unusual punishment' for his crime, has 
been denied a retrial of his case.

Kennedy, who was initially sentenced to death for the brutal 1998 rape of his 
eight-year-old stepdaughter, was given life without parole instead following a 
Supreme Court Ruling.

Kennedy continued to appeal his conviction, and recently lawyers argued that 
there was evidence of gender discrimination in selection the foreman of his 
grand jury, which was supported by a judge.

If the accusation of discrimination was upheld it could have meant Kennedy was 
released while a retrial was arranged, but the evidence was yesterday rejected, 
meaning he will go back to jail.

Kennedy's now-infamous case dates back to 1998 when police were called to his 
apartment in Harvey, Louisiana, in the early hours of the morning to reports of 
a rape.

Kennedy told officers that 2 black teens had broken into the home before 
brutally raping his 8-year-old stepdaughter. The girl's injuries were so severe 
that she required emergency surgery.

However, after 1 suspect was arrested and released without charge, suspicions 
fell on Kennedy, and it was later discovered he had called a carpet cleaning 
company to discuss getting bloodstains out of his rug before phoning police.

Kennedy's stepdaughter then confessed to officer that he had come into her room 
while she was sleeping and raped her, then coached her to lie to police 
afterwards.

In 2003 he was convicted of the crime and sentenced to death, becoming 1 of 
only 2 people in Louisiana on death row for a crime other than murder.

His lawyers appealed the decision, arguing that death constituted a 'cruel and 
unusual punishment' for rape, and in 2008 Supreme Court judges ruled 5-4 in his 
favor.

Kennedy's sentence was commuted to life in prison, despite outcry and 
opposition from Presidential hopefuls Barack Obama and John McCain, and then 
the initial conviction was also dismissed.

Faced with the prospect of releasing Kennedy, authorities worked to have him 
resentenced, and in January 2009, aged 44, he was again given life in prison.

He has continued to fight his conviction, moving to federal courts after 
failing at the state level.

In October 2013, a District Judge Helen Berrigan agreed there was evidence that 
women were often passed over to serve as foreman at Kennedy's grand jury trial.

Berrigan's order, which overruled a state court decision, called for Kennedy's 
release or re-indictment within 6 months.

However, she approved a delay pending the appeal of her ruling, agreeing that 
Kennedy had 'significant incentive' to flee if released, given his violent 
crime and the life sentence awaiting him.

The case was passed to a 3-judge 5th Circuit panel who examined whether the 
foremen and forewomen selected in Kennedy's case were drawn from a large enough 
pool of grand jury panels.

Delivering their ruling yesterday, the judges said that the state court had 
been correct in rejecting the appeal, and that Berrigan had wrongly decided 
that discrimination had taken place.

(source: dailymail.co.uk)


TENNESSEE:

Prisoners Make Therapeutic Art Monuments Addressing The Death Penalty


"Life After Death and Beyond" displays a series of monuments or memorials 
addressing the death penalty directly or abstractly. Its organizers, Robin 
Paris and Tom Williams, have put on 4 previous exhibits highlighting the works 
of prison inmates, but this is their first to confront the topic head on. This 
particular showcase comes at a time when, according to a statement from the 
organizers, the state of Tennessee has scheduled the deaths of ten prisoners -- 
after executing fewer than 10 in the past 55 years.

"These men have a lot to say about their experiences both inside and outside of 
prison, and their works show that they are much more than prisoners condemned 
to die," Robins told The Huffington Post. "We think it's important to get their 
voices into the world."

In conjunction with organizing these exhibits, he and Paris teach an arts 
program, focusing on artistic concepts as opposed to technical instruction. He 
ventures to guess that the act of creation is therapeutic for the inmates he 
works with, but asserts that the social value of projecting their voices is 
equally vital to his mission.

"Most of them would rather not make something that's about themselves," Robins 
said. "Nearly all of them would like to make a connection with the world 
outside using the modest resources at their disposal."

This desire to connect with the outside world is a theme Williams sees 
resonating from most of his students' work. This, he says, is due to the 
solitary nature of life on death row in Tennessee.

"Many of them haven't walked on the grass or seen the stars in over 20 years," 
Williams says. "Their lives take shape before a backdrop of concrete walls, 
razor wire, and chain link fences. As a consequence, they develop ways of 
escaping the realities that surround them. Some of them read. Some of them make 
art. Some of them turn to religion."

So, while Cone's spiral of literary tomes illustrates his desired escape, 
others create homages to their budding religious lives. One of the exhibit's 
pieces, a model built by Derrick Quintero, depicts a prison cell adorned with a 
dreamcatcher, scroll and Buddhist sculpture.

"When a person is under the sentence of death, it is the perfect opportunity to 
slowly build a life from scratch. Art is a perfect example of creating 
something new and developing your own existence from that piece of art."

Still others reject the concept of personal monuments altogether, instead 
opting to sketch designs for community centers, such as a prison yard 
recreation center or a sculpture of a prison uniform shoe, free in an open 
field.

Akil Jahi, the creator of the proposed shoe sculpture, wrote in a letter to The 
Huffington Post, "So many years have gone by without our very soles touching 
the grass." He views artistic creation as an act of therapy, writing, "It has 
become a way to express my deepest emotions without feeling sad or happy. I 
really enjoy bringing joy to another person's heart."

Ron Cauthern, another participant in the exhibit, chose to confront his 
objections to the death penalty directly, by crafting a model airplane covered 
in drawings of sinewy veins. A music box is affixed to the outside of the 
plane, meant to represent the gentle perception of capital punishment by the 
general public. In his artist statement, he wrote, "It's simple, nothing can be 
born out of a life for a life."

In a letter explaining his personal connection with building sculptures, 
Cauthern wrote, "When a person is under the sentence of death, it is the 
perfect opportunity to slowly build a life from scratch. Art is a perfect 
example of creating something new and developing your own existence from that 
piece of art."

(source: Maddie Crum, Huffington Post)


ARKANSAS:

Arkansas Governor Sets Execution Dates After 10-Year Gap


Arkansas will resume lethal injections after a 10-year gap starting next month 
with the first of four double executions, Gov. Asa Hutchinson said Wednesday.

Arkansas hasn't executed an inmate since 2005, largely because of court 
challenges to its lethal injection law and a nationwide shortage of drugs often 
used during executions. But last week, Attorney General Leslie Rutledge 
requested execution dates for 8 inmates because their appeals had been 
exhausted, and prison officials said they had an adequate supply of 
lethal-injection drugs.

Hutchinson set 4 dates through January, but acknowledged that challenges are 
likely.

"Quite frankly I would expect continued litigation in it, but it's my 
understanding that all of the appeals have been exhausted and that there is a 
finality in the judgment and that is the reason the Attorney General has asked 
for those dates to be set," Hutchinson said.

Several inmates have filed a lawsuit challenging a new state law that allows 
the Arkansas Department of Correction not to disclose how it obtains execution 
drugs. The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected similar arguments used by inmates in 
Missouri, Texas and other states that also allow prisons to keep their drug 
suppliers' names secret.

The lawsuit's lead attorney, Jeff Rosenzweig, said Wednesday that his team was 
already working on filing motions to delay the executions.

"We think the lethal injection lawsuit presents serious issues that need to be 
resolved 1st before any executions can take place," he said.

The 1st 2 executions are scheduled Oct. 21, for inmates Bruce Earl Ward and Don 
William Davis.

Ward, a former perfume salesman, was convicted in the 1989 killing of 
18-year-old Rebecca Doss, whose body was found in the men's bathroom of the 
convenience store where she worked.

Davis, who had an execution date set in 2006 that was later stayed, was 
sentenced to death for the 1990 robbery and death of Jane Daniels in northwest 
Arkansas.

The other executions are scheduled for Nov. 3, Dec. 14 and Jan. 14.

Arkansas has had multiple executions in the past, including triple executions 
in 1994 and 1997. At the time, the state Correction Department said multiple 
executions reduced stress on prison staff.

Last year's botched execution of Oklahoma inmate Clayton Lockett was the 1st of 
a scheduled double execution. A state review team later recommended that at 
least 7 days pass between each execution; the report said a veteran paramedic 
who placed Lockett's intravenous line had noted a sense of urgency in the air.

Hutchinson's spokesman, J.R. Davis, said late Wednesday that he didn't know if 
the governor had seen the Oklahoma study. But he said Hutchinson's staff had 
carefully considered the dates that were set.

"The governor sees this as his duty as governor to carry this out, as requested 
by the Attorney General, and set these dates. This is a duty, nothing more, 
nothing less," Davis said. "This isn't something that anyone enjoys talking 
about, but at the same time we are confident in our staff's thoughtful approach 
to these dates."

Arkansas' current execution protocol calls for a three-drug process that 
includes midazolam. The sedative was implicated after Lockett's execution, and 
executions in Arizona and Ohio last year, went longer than expected, with 
inmates gasping and groaning.

The U.S. Supreme Court approved continued use of the drug in June, rejecting a 
challenge from 3 Oklahoma death-row inmates.

Arkansas has executed 27 people since the U.S. Supreme Court reauthorized the 
death penalty in 1976.

The other Arkansas scheduled executions are for Terrick Terrell Nooner and 
Stacey Eugene Johnson, convicted in separate killings in 1993, on Nov. 3; 
Marcel Wayne Williams, convicted of a 1994 killing, and Jack Harold Jones Jr., 
convicted of a 1995 killing, on Dec. 14; and Jason McGehee, convicted in a 1996 
killing, and Kenneth Williams, convicted of a 1999 killing, on Jan. 14.

(source: Associated Press)






ILLINOIS:

Haine to reintroduce death penalty legislation in wake of police and mass 
shootings


State Sen. Bill Haine (D-Alton) said he intends to file legislation to restore 
the death penalty in limited cases involving "the most evil of crimes."

"As a former State's Attorney, I understand the complexities of seeking the 
death penalty for individuals who have committed heinous crimes," Haine stated 
in a press release.

"I have been shocked and appalled by the recent killings we have seen in 
churches and of police officers. The reality is there are some crimes in which 
the death penalty should be an option for a jury of our citizens to consider. 
Those who take the life of officers, or engage in mass killings, need to face 
the appropriate consequences."

According to a press release, Haine plans to reintroduce legislation he had 
proposed in 2013 in the wake of a "series of atrocious murders across the 
country, including the murder of a police officer in Illinois."

The original legislation came out of death penalty reform proposals from the 
Illinois Capital Punishment Reform Study Committee, the release states.

Provisions of the legislation would give state's attorneys the ability to seek 
the death penalty in first-degree murder cases by requiring them to provide 
notice of intent to seek or decline the death penalty as soon as possible.

The legislation would outline specific crimes which would be eligible to 
receive the death penalty such as; serial killings, heinous murders of a child, 
seniors or a person with a disability, murders of witnesses, correctional 
officers and law enforcement officials.

The release states that Haine plans to file the legislation when the state 
senate reconvenes in the coming weeks.

(source: madisonrecord.com)