[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, FLA., LA., OKLA., IDAHO

[Rick Halperin]

Sept. 23


TEXAS:


SALVADORIAN MAN FACES IMMINENT EXECUTION

Alfredo Prieto, a Salvadorian man, is scheduled to be executed in Virginia on 1 
October.  He
was convicted in 2008 of two capital murders committed in 1988. There is 
evidence that he has
intellectual disability which would render his execution unconstitutional.

Click here to view the full Urgent Action in Word or PDF format, including case 
information,
addresses and sample messages.

Rachael A. Raver and Warren H. Fulton III were murdered near Reston, Virginia 
in December
1988. In 2005, Salvadorian national Alfredo Prieto was identified as a suspect 
through DNA
evidence. His first trial in 2007 ended in a mistrial due to juror misconduct. 
At his retrial
in 2008, he was convicted on two counts of capital murder. The two death 
sentences were
overturned in 2009 because of problems with the jury’s verdict forms. Alfredo 
Prieto was again
sentenced to death in 2010 and these death sentences have survived the appeals 
process.

The question of Alfredo Prieto’s intellectual functioning has been an issue 
throughout the
case. In 2002, the US Supreme Court banned the execution of individuals who 
have intellectual
disability (previously known as “mental retardation”). At the time of Alfredo 
Prieto’s trial,
Virginia law required a capital defendant to have an IQ of 70 or less in order 
to be
considered a person with intellectual disability. Of Alfredo Prieto’s three IQ 
scores, two
were well below 70 (64 and 66), but a third was 73. Prosecutors argued that the 
two scores
below 70 were invalid. The jury agreed and sentenced Alfredo Prieto to death, 
finding that
intellectual disability had not been proved.

In 2014, the US Supreme Court ruled in Hall v. Florida that states cannot use a 
fixed IQ score
as the measure of whether an inmate can be put to death. Intellectual 
disability, it said, “is
a condition, not a number… Courts must recognize, as does the medical 
community, that the IQ
test is imprecise”. It found that Florida’s rigid IQ of 70 cut-off, which 
blocked the
presentation of evidence other than IQ that would demonstrate limitations in 
the defendant’s
mental faculties, was unconstitutional. Alfredo Prieto’s lawyers argue that 
Virginia has erred
by relying on the unconstitutional definition of intellectual disability to 
reject Alfredo
Prieto’s claim, and that procedural technicalities are preventing them from 
arguing the claim
to the Virginia courts in a full and fair hearing.

Governor McAuliffe has indicated that he will make a decision on the case well 
in advance of 1
October.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

In Hall v. Florida issued on 27 May 2014, the US Supreme Court wrote of 
Florida’s rigid IQ of
70 cut-off law: “Pursuant to this mandatory cut-off, sentencing courts cannot 
consider even
substantial and weighty evidence of intellectual disability as measured and 
made manifest by
the defendant’s failure or inability to adapt to his social and cultural 
environment,
including medical histories, behavioral records, school tests and reports, and 
testimony
regarding past behavior and family circumstances. This is so even though the 
medical community
accepts that all of this evidence can be probative of intellectual disability, 
including for
individuals who have an IQ test score above 70.” Hall v. Florida reiterated the 
Supreme
Court’s view that dignity is the basic concept underlying the US constitutional 
ban on “cruel
and unusual punishments”, and asserted that this “protection of dignity 
reflects the Nation we
have been, the Nation we are, and the Nation we aspire to be.” Florida’s IQ 
cut-off law, it
ruled, “contravenes our Nation’s commitment to dignity and to its duty to teach 
human decency
as the mark of a civilized world”. The states of the USA, the Hall v. Florida 
ruling said,
“are laboratories for experimentation, but those experiments may not deny the 
basic dignity
the Constitution protects”.

Click here to view the full Urgent Action in Word or PDF format.

Name: Alfredo Prieto (m)
Issues: Imminent execution, Unfair trial, Legal concern
UA: 198/15
Issue Date: 23 September 2015
Country: USA

Please let us know if you took action so that we can track our impact!

EITHER send a short email to uan at aiusa.org with "UA 198/15" in the subject 
line, and include
in the body of the email the number of letters and/or emails you sent,

OR fill out this short online form to let us know how you took action.

Thank you for taking action! Please check with the AIUSA Urgent Action Office 
if taking action
after the appeals date. If you receive a response from a government official, 
please forward
it to us at uan at aiusa.org or to the Urgent Action Office address below.

HOW YOU CAN HELP

Please write immediately in English or your own language:
  *  Calling on the Governor to commute the death sentence of Alfredo Prieto;
  *  Noting evidence that he has intellectual disability and expressing concern 
that procedural
     technicalities are preventing this claim from being the subject of a full 
judicial
     hearing;
  *  Pointing out that the power of executive clemency is not constrained by 
procedural rules;
  *  Explaining that you are not seeking to downplay the seriousness of the 
crime or the
     suffering caused.

PLEASE SEND APPEALS BEFORE 1 OCTOBER 2015 TO:

Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia
Governor Terry McAuliffe 1111 East Broad Street
Richmond, Virginia, USA
Fax: 011 1 804 371 6351
Email: via http://1.usa.gov/1AMwO17 (for those out of the USA, use Virginia as 
resident State
and explain in comment that you are overseas)
Salutation: Dear Governor

Please share widely with your networks: http://bit.ly/1QyPJTG

We encourage you to share Urgent Actions with your friends and colleagues! When 
you share with
your networks, instead of forwarding the original email, please use the 
"Forward this email to
a friend" link found at the very bottom of this email. Thank you for your 
activism!

UA Network Office AIUSA │600 Pennsylvania Ave SE, Washington DC 20003
T. 202.509.8193 │ F. 202.509.8193 │E. uan at aiusa.org │amnestyusa.org/urgent



FLORIDA:

The death penalty isn't preventing deaths


A lot of people aren't getting the memo.

According to the Times-Union, homicides increased for the 3rd year in a row in 
Jacksonville last year. On top of that, those 121 slayings in 2014 were the 
highest since 2008.

Yet apparently those killers didn't get the memo, the one that shows if they 
are convicted in Duval, Clay and Nassau counties, they are more likely to wind 
up on death row than if they did their killings elsewhere.

They aren't getting the memo - the one that shows that with 58 people on death 
row, the 4th Judicial Circuit has a higher number of people there than any 
other judicial circuit in Florida.

And nationally, it has the 8th-highest number of people facing the death 
penalty.

The fact they aren't deterred is backed by many studies, such as one done in 
2012 by the National Research Council.

People who are bent on killing won't stop because they might get the needle.

TOO MANY WRONG CONVICTIONS

And it is one reason why Kristina Musante, coordinator of Justice 4 
Jacksonville Coalition, recently told the First Coast Tiger Bay Club that it is 
past time to rethink the use of the death penalty here.

It is an overused approach that doesn't scare criminals as much as it should 
scare taxpayers who are spending millions each year on capital punishment cases 
as well as those who are wrongly convicted.

That happens too often in Florida.

Of the 155 people freed from death row since 1973, 25 were from Florida.That's 
the highest number of exonerations of any state.

"The death penalty is bad public policy," said Musante, who debated Bernie de 
la Rionda, an assistant state attorney who has tried numerous capital cases, on 
the use of the death penalty.

"Florida would save $51 million a year if it abolished the death penalty for 
life without parole," Musante said.

"The money that is saved could go to solving cold cases and to proven crime 
prevention programs."

But de la Rionda argued that the death penalty is about ensuring that those who 
have killed won't do it again and to punish those who have committed 
particularly heinous slayings.

"Without the death penalty, it just encourages killers to keep killing," de la 
Rionda said.

WHAT ABOUT VICTIMS?

But the criminal justice system is supposed to do more than punish people.

It is supposed to discourage people from committing crimes in the first place. 
And it is supposed to minimize victimization.

The disproportionate numbers of people from Jacksonville who are sitting on 
death row, even as the city's murder rate increases, tells me that this isn't 
happening here.

It tells me that the death penalty isn't scaring people straight.

Because if it were, homicides in this city would be going down - not up.

That's why I agree with Musante.

It's time for a new way.

Justice 4 Jacksonville is pushing to establish a community advisory committee 
for this judicial circuit that would review cases where the death penalty might 
be sought and possibly help devise more prudent and less expensive 
alternatives.

It should be considered.

This judicial circuit is sending more people to death row than any other in 
Florida, it ranks 8th in the nation for sentencing people to death and yet 
people are still getting killed at the same rate.

The bottom line is that we taxpayers are wasting our money.

The murderers aren't getting the memo.

(source: Tonyaa Weathersbee, Florida Times-Union)






LOUISIANA:

Killing A White Person Is Almost The Only Reason Murderers Ever Receive The 
Death Penalty


Black men constitute 61 percent of homicide victims in Louisiana - nearly 
13,000 black men were killed in this state since the Supreme Court reinstated 
the death penalty in 1976. Yet only 3 people have been executed for killing a 
black man in all of this time. That's less than 6 % of the rate of executions 
for individuals who kill someone other than a black man, and 1/48th of the 
execution rate for people who kill white women, according to a study that will 
appear in the Loyola University of New Orleans Journal of Public Interest Law.

The study, by Frank Baumgartner and Tim Lyman, reveals stark racial disparities 
in death sentences and executions. Though African Americans make up 72 % of 
murder victims in Louisiana, people who kill black men or women constitute only 
33 % of those sentenced to death and only 21 % of those who are actually 
executed. White people, by contrast, make up 26 % of victims but their killers 
make up 79 % of people who are executed.

Though this study focused on data from Louisiana, other studies confirm that 
its findings stretch well beyond this 1 state. A study of the death penalty in 
Texas, for example, found that "defendants are 6 times more likely to receive a 
death sentence if they kill the highest status victims (whites or Hispanics who 
have college degrees, are married, and have no criminal record), compared to 
those defendants who kill the lowest status victims (black or Asian victims who 
were single, with a prior criminal record, and no college degree)." Another 
examination of national statistics found that "only 10 whites have been 
executed in the modern era for the crime of killing a black male, with 6 
additional cases where a black male was one of multiple victims, including 
victims of other races or genders."

(source: thinkprogress.org)






OKLAHOMA----impending execution

Hearing canceled over Oklahoma use of midazolam in execution


A federal judge has canceled a hearing this week on an Oklahoma inmate's 
request to stop his upcoming execution.

Richard Glossip is challenging his execution date, now set for Sept. 30, on 2 
fronts: a federal case over the execution drugs, and a state case in which he 
argues he's innocent in the 1997 killing of an Oklahoma City motel owner.

A federal judge granted a request Wednesday from his attorneys, who asked that 
Friday's hearing over the drug midazolam be canceled. They say they can't show 
an alternative drug would be available by next week.

The U.S. Supreme Court in June upheld the use of midazolam.

Glossip was scheduled for execution last week, but an Oklahoma court delayed it 
after his attorneys said they had new evidence.

(source: Associated Press)






IDAHO:

The death penalty remains an option for triple murder suspect John Lee


It's still an option for the triple murder suspect John Lee.

The Latah County prosecutor wants more time to decide if he'll seek the harsh 
sentence. On Friday, a county judge granted the extension.

Thompson's original deadline for a decision was October, but now it's December 
1.

On August 4, Lee pleaded not guilty to 3 counts of 1st degree murder charges 
and 1 count of aggravated battery.

Moscow police say on January 10, Lee shot and killed his adoptive mother, 
landlord and an Arby's manager, and wounded a Seattle man.

If convicted, he faces life in prison or possibly the death penalty. His trial 
is set for May 2.

(source: KLEW TV news)