[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, VA., N.C., GA., FLA., LA.

[Rick Halperin]

Sept. 24



TEXAS----stay of impending execution

Execution date put off for Fort Worth killer


The execution of a convicted Fort Worth killer, scheduled for next month, has 
been called off while a state commission addresses concerns raised recently 
about DNA statistics and interpretation.

Tarrant County prosecutors filed a motion Monday in 297th District Court, 
asking the judge to recall the death warrant for Christopher Chubasco Wilkins, 
who was scheduled to be executed Oct. 28.

The prosecutors wrote that they were seeking the recall because the Texas 
Forensic Science Commission "is in the process of addressing emerging issues 
involving the calculation of DNA population statistics and DNA mixture 
interpretation."

"While the State has no reason to believe that these DNA issues are material to 
or have any effect on [Wilkins'] conviction and death sentence, the State 
believes that a stay of [Wilkins'] currently scheduled execution should be 
granted in order to allow the parties to more fully investigate these matters."

State District Judge David Hagerman signed an order that day, withdrawing the 
execution date and recalling the death warrant.

DNA, including mixed DNA, was among evidence presented at the 2008 trial of 
Wilkins, who was convicted of fatally shooting 2 men - Willie Freeman and Mike 
Silva - on Oct. 27, 2005.

Other evidence implicating Wilkins included fingerprints found inside and 
outside Silva's vehicle. A pentagram and the numbers 666 were carved into the 
hood of Silva's vehicle - matching tattoos on Wilkins.

But perhaps most damning was Wilkins' own testimony, in which he admitted to 
jurors that he killed Freeman out of revenge after Freeman ripped him off in a 
dope deal. He said he killed Silva, who had been with Freeman, simply because 
he was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Wilkins also told jurors that he killed another man, Gilbert Vallejo, the day 
before outside a south Fort Worth bar during a dispute about a pay phone.

He told jurors that he didn't care whether he lived or died, and he said 
whatever they chose for him was fine.

"I am as undecided as you are," Wilkins told jurors. "You've got a job to do. 
You tell the judge, 'Get a rope' or not. ...

"Look, it is no big deal. It is no big deal."

The jury chose death, and prosecutors still intend to see that the sentence is 
delivered, said Sam Jordan, a spokeswoman for the Tarrant County district 
attorney's office.

In an email responding to questions from the Star-Telegram on Wednesday, Jordan 
said the office has had the DNA recalculated and has received an amended report 
that confirms compliance with current lab interpretation and reporting 
protocols.

Prosecutors hope to proceed with the Wilkins case after the state commission 
meets in October, when the DNA mixture issue is expected to be addressed.

"It is our intention to enforce the jury's decision in this case," Jordan said.

Hilary Sheard, Wilkins' attorney, said, "That funny sound you hear is heads 
being scratched across the state as people try to figure this out."

"It is clearly a major issue in many cases, and I think that the state acted 
entirely appropriately in choosing to withdraw, or asking the court to 
withdraw, the warrant in these circumstances."

Sheard said she hopes the delay will "allow sufficient time for other issues in 
the case to continue to be litigated."

DNA concerns arise

Concerns arose this spring when the FBI notified all Combined DNA Index System 
laboratories that minor discrepancies had been identified in the DNA 
statistical population database used by labs nationwide since 1999.

The discrepancies in the database, which is used to calculate DNA match 
statistics in criminal and human identification cases, were attributed to human 
error and technological limitations.

The FBI has since provided corrected data to labs.

"The immediate and obvious question for the criminal justice community was 
whether the discrepancies could have impacted the outcome of any criminal 
cases," the Texas Forensic Science Commission wrote as part of a letter and 
attached memo to the criminal justice community. The letter was posted on the 
commission's website Aug. 21.

Concerns arose this spring when the FBI notified all Combined DNA Index System 
laboratories that minor discrepancies had been identified in the DNA 
statistical population database used by labs nationwide since 1999.

"The widely accepted consensus among forensic DNA experts is the database 
corrections have no impact on the threshold question of whether a victim or 
defendant was included or excluded in any result."

Mixed DNA interpretation

But adding to the concerns is that many labs have interpreted DNA mixtures 
found on evidence differently over the years.

The scientific acceptability of some of those approaches has now been brought 
into question, and several labs are adopting a new standard of interpreting 
mixed DNA, which involves evidence that contains more than 1 person's DNA.

In its letter, the commission recommends that prosecutors, defendants and 
defense attorneys with a pending case involving a DNA mixture should inquire 
with the testing lab whether new protocols were used.

If not, the commission advises requesting a recalculation using the new 
protocols.

"The extent to which any closed criminal cases my require re-analysis will be a 
subject of Commission review and subsequent notification to the stakeholder 
community," wrote Dr. Vincent Di Maio, the presiding officer.

Tarrant County's response

Amid the DNA concerns, Jordan said, the district attorney's office has been 
meeting with each of the labs to obtain a list of relevant cases during the 
time in question.

She said the office is also reviewing pending cases involving DNA, as well as 
the case files of death row inmates from Tarrant County, to determine any 
potential effects.

18 death row inmates from Tarrant County

According to Texas Department of Criminal Justice records, the county has 18 
inmates on death row, including Wilkins.

Jordan said labs used by Tarrant County agencies have told prosecutors that 
they are following current guidelines known as Scientific Working Group on DNA 
Analysis Methods. Staff members have participated in several lab meetings and 
multiple legal and Forensic Science Commission conferences to "understand and 
stay up to date on the evolving scientific protocols."

"We remain in regular communication with the labs and the Forensic Science 
Commission, which has assembled a panel of world-renowed DNA experts to 
determine the potential to define a single standard protocol," Jordan said.

(source: Fort Worth Star-Telegram)

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

Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present----10

Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982----present-----528

Abbott#--------scheduled execution date-----name------------Tx. #

11---------October 6----------------Juan Garcia-----------529

12---------October 14---------------Licho Escamilla-------530

13---------November 3---------------Julius Murphy---------531

14---------November 18--------------Raphael Holiday-------532

15---------January 20 (2016)-----Richard Masterson--------533

16---------January 27---------------James Freeman---------534

17---------February 16--------------Gustavo Garcia--------535

(sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin)

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

Panetti Case Argued Again Before 5th Circuit


The 23-year saga that is the Scott Panetti death penalty case returned to the 
U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals Wednesday as lawyers argued over whether the 
57-year-old is competent enough to be executed, and who should pay to determine 
that.

Panetti's attorney, Greg Wiercioch, argued before a 3-judge panel that his 
client does not meet the legal definition of competence needed for execution 
for the 1992 shooting deaths of his wife's parents. Panetti also has no money 
to hire experts to make his case, Wiercioch argued.

He asked the judges to return Panetti's case to a federal district court so it 
can decide whether Panetti can have federally appointed counsel and funds for 
an evaluation by a mental health expert.

Under Texas law, inmates must understand the crime they committed and know why 
they are on death row to be executed. Panetti has a documented history of 
mental illness going back almost 40 years, and his lawyers say he hasn't 
received a mental health evaluation for 7 or 8 years.

Without an evaluation, they argued, they can't file a case arguing his 
incompetence. Judge Patrick Higginbotham acknowledged Wednesday that Panetti 
has a history of "mental difficulties," and 2 judges appeared frustrated with 
both sides for failing to answer the question of his competency.

Higginbotham and Judge Priscilla Owen asked Panetti's attorney why they haven't 
filed a formal motion to have him declared incompetent. Wiercioch said Panetti, 
having no money, can't afford an expert and counsel to present the claims 
required to meet the threshold for the motion. The state won't pay for those 
resources, said Dustin Howell, an appellate attorney with the Office of the 
Solicitor General.

Owen expressed frustration with the notion that an indigent inmate on death row 
who might be mentally ill would have to fend for himself when trying to make a 
motion on competency.

"How in the world do they make a threshold showing?" she said, adding that the 
state could be denying defendants their due process under the law. "This is an 
impossible standard."

Higginbotham asked Howell why the state wouldn't just agree to help determine 
Panetti's mental state and move forward. Howell said no statute allows for it, 
and he could not commit to such an idea.

Panetti's case has been winding through the courts for years, creating a 
tangled legal trail of attempts to determine how - and why - Texas goes about 
executing a man with a long history of mental illness and aberrant behavior.

Court filings show that the Wisconsin native was diagnosed with schizophrenia 
when he was 20. At the time of the murders, he had been collecting federal 
disability checks because the illness prevented him from holding down a job.

Panetti represented himself during his capital murder trial, sometimes dressed 
in a cowboy outfit. He rejected an offer to plead guilty in exchange for a life 
sentence, and instead put on an insanity defense although he called no mental 
health witnesses. Panetti did try to call President John F. Kennedy, Pope John 
Paul II and Jesus Christ as witnesses.

Appeal filings over the years detail how Panetti was first diagnosed with 
schizophrenia in 1978 when he was taken to Brooke Army Medical Center following 
an accident in which he suffered electrical burns while working as an 
electrical lineman.

The diagnosis came shortly after Panetti spent only 10 months in the U.S. Navy. 
He would eventually be hospitalized at least a dozen times for mental illness.

According to an earlier filing before the U.S. Supreme Court, Panetti's 1st 
wife, Jane, had her husband committed in May 1986 to a psychiatric facility 
after he nailed curtains in their home shut, buried household furniture in the 
backyard and conducted an exorcism of the devil from their home that involved 
spraying water over valuables that he had not buried.

A flurry of subsequent hospitalizations followed at Kerrville State Hospital 
and the Veterans Administration medical centers in Waco and in Kerrville.

In 1990, 2 years before Panetti would kill the parents of his 2nd wife, Sonja 
Alvarado, he was involuntarily committed again at Kerrville State Hospital. The 
action was taken after Panetti began "swinging a cavalry sword around the house 
and threatening to kill" his wife, their baby, his wife's father and himself. 
Panetti's wife eventually left him to live with her parents.

On Sept. 8, 1992, Panetti shaved his head, put on camouflage combat fatigues 
and then, armed with a sawed-off shotgun and a deer rifle, went to the 
Alvarado's home and killed them both in front of their daughter and 
granddaughter.

"Mr. Panetti still has paranoid schizophrenia, and he's going to have it for 
the rest of his life," said Kathryn Kase, one of Panetti's attorneys with the 
Texas Defender Service. "This disease is not going to go away."

But the state sees it differently, consistently arguing that Panetti is aware 
of what he did and understands why he is on death row - the legal requirements 
for competence to be executed. Last year, a prison doctor said Panetti did not 
need treatment. Kase disagrees.

Panetti's condition has worsened, Wiercioch argued Wednesday, saying that 
Panetti has asked for anti-psychotic medication and believes that his execution 
is tied to speaking out against corrupt prison staff.

During the hearing, Owen also questioned whether Panetti's attorneys had 
exhausted their appeals in state courts before filing at the federal level. 
Owen said Panetti's team had the opportunity to seek what they wanted at the 
state level but they "didn't try."

"You want to bypass the state," she told Wiercioch, who responded that Panetti 
has issues that only the federal courts can help remedy. He said his goal is to 
petition for a writ of habeas corpus in a federal court, a procedural move that 
claims unlawful imprisonment.

(source: The Texas Tribune)






VIRGINIA:

Virginia's contempt for transparency


Virginia's Supreme Court has just handed a ringing victory, and a misguided 
one, to champions of secrecy in government. In doing so the court has misread 
the clear intent of state law and signaled its contempt for the public's 
legitimate interest in obtaining information about the workings of state 
agencies.

The ruling, in a case pitting a state lawmaker, Del. Scott A. Surovell 
(D-Fairfax) against Virginia's Department of Corrections, involved Mr. 
Surovell's request for information under the state's Freedom of Information 
Act, which has the explicit purpose of facilitating the release of information 
to the public, with certain discrete exemptions.

Mr. Surovell sought documents related to procedures and facilities used for 
carrying out the state's death penalty. A Fairfax Circuit Court judge - Jane 
Marum Roush, who has since been elevated to the state Supreme Court - ordered 
the material released. The state appealed, arguing that the information's 
release could jeopardize security at the state's death chamber, and the Supreme 
Court mostly agreed.

In siding with the state, however, the court went so far overboard as to 
effectively neuter Virginia's Freedom of Information Act. A majority of the 
justices said that if the material requested contained even a scrap of 
information exempt from disclosure under the FOIA, then officials, rather than 
simply redacting the exempt bits, could refuse disclosure entirely.

That's absurd, as a respected judge, former attorney general William Mims, made 
clear in a partial dissent. If there is no valid reason to shield the main body 
of requested information from disclosure, Justice Mims said, then a state 
agency "must release the requested record, and it may redact the exempt 
information in its discretion."

The court also erred on the side of secrecy in government - in contravention of 
the FOIA's stated purpose - by saying that government officials deserve 
"deference" about what to exempt from disclosure. Even a passing familiarity 
with some bureaucrats' penchant for gratuitous secrecy over-classification - in 
Washington, as in Richmond - would expose the danger of automatically granting 
such deference.

Virginia already has a well-deserved reputation as among the least open and 
accountable state governments; notoriously, 3/4 of the bills defeated in House 
of Delegates committees and subcommittees got no recorded votes this year, 
according to a report from the group Transparency Virginia. The court's ruling 
will only further entrench that reputation for 
government-behind-drawn-curtains.

(source: Editorial, Washington Post)






NORTH CAROLINA:

How to repeal the death penalty, from the Republican who did it


Colby Coash is a 39-year-old state senator in Nebraska. He's a father of a 
6-year-old boy and part owner of a microbrewery. He likes football and NASCAR, 
especially the drivers of Fords. Last week, just for fun, he gave wrestling 
names to all his colleagues in the Senate. His was "Chaos."

Coash also happens to be a bit of a rock star in anti-death penalty circles, 
because as a Republican legislator in a conservative state, he led the effort 
this year to repeal the state's death penalty.

Now, the unassuming Coash is getting invitations to speak and meet with people 
across the country, including in Charlotte, where he's the featured attraction 
at a luncheon today hosted by North Carolina Conservatives Concerned about the 
Death Penalty.

This morning, we sat down for breakfast in Uptown, where Coash talked about how 
a solid conservative got this non-conservative idea passed in his red state. 
It's simple, he says, at least conceptually. Repealing the death penalty is the 
conservative thing to do.

"You have to change the narrative," he says.

That means instead of offering up the traditional arguments against capital 
punishment - unequal justice and inequitable application of death sentences - 
Coash gave his fellow conservatives 3 reasons the death penalty violated their 
principles:

It's inefficient. Nebraska, like many states, hasn't executed a death row 
inmate in decades - 1995 was the last execution. Yet state and local 
prosecutors pay far more to prosecute capital cases and handle death row 
appeals. One Nebraska county, he says, was forced to put up its snowplows for 
collateral to borrow money for prosecuting a death penalty case. "If any other 
program was as inefficient as this, we would eliminate it," Coash says.

It misplaces power. "Conservatives want limited government," Coash says. "We 
believe in emphasizing the power of the people." The death penalty, he argues, 
represents a supreme power that's given to the state. "That's too much power 
for government," he says.

It doesn't deliver justice. Says Coash: "I got to know a victim - a woman whose 
brother's killer is on death row. He's been there for 30-something years. She 
came to me and said, 'How is it justice when the government tells me that for 
this horrific thing that happened, the state was going to execute him - and it 
never happens?'"

It worked. Coash gathered enough Republican support to pass repeal, then he 
kept enough votes intact to override Gov. Pete Ricketts' veto with a 2/3 
majority.

Could the same happen in North Carolina?

Coash says he had a few advantages back home that lawmakers might not have 
here. First, Nebraska's legislature is "unicameral," meaning it has just 1 
chamber, the Senate. That means there???s only one group of lawmakers to 
persuade, cajole and keep together when things get hot from public backlash.

Also, the Nebraska Senate had an influx of new Republican lawmakers who are 
more willing to entertain new perspectives on issues, including this one.

Finally, Nebraska has term limits - 2 4-year terms in the Senate and you're 
done. That can be liberating to a state lawmaker contemplating a controversial 
vote.

In the end, though, Coash believes the repeal passed because it was the right 
thing to do - no matter your party. "You don't have to turn in your Republican 
card because you support death penalty repeal," he says. "You can use what's on 
the back of that card."

It's a nice line, and it's one of a handful he has when he talks to repeal 
advocates and legislators. This week, he met with Republican Rep. Jon Hardister 
of Guilford County, who's trying to start similar conservations in the N.C. 
House.

All of which might seem like a longshot. Republican leadership in Raleigh is 
rooted and supportive of capital punishment.

But just as unlikely is Colby Coash, Nebraska conservative, finishing off a 
biscuit in Charlotte before he gives a pep talk to death penalty opponents.

"You're sitting there thinking 'Hell, no, repeal could never happen in North 
Carolina,'" he says.

"We were saying the same thing in Nebraska a year ago."

(source: Opinion; Charlotte Observer)






GEORGIA----impending female execution

Rally held to stop execution of woman on Georgia's death row


Hundreds of people protested Wednesday against the planned execution of the 
only woman on Georgia's death row.

Channel 2's Sophia Choi went to the rally where church leaders pleaded for 
mercy for Kelly Gissendaner.

Through song and prayer, the religious leaders hope the Pardons and Paroles 
Board will commute Gissendaner's death sentence.

"We're here to sort of plead and beg the board of paroles to spare Kelly 
Dissendaner," said Bishop Robert Wright, of the Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta.

A Gwinnett County jury convicted Gissendaner of planning her husband's 1997 
murder and getting her then-lover to do it.

Gissendaner will be the 1st woman in the state to be executed in 50 years. Her 
supporters say she will also be the first person to die by lethal injection.

"This breaks precedent, because she wasn't even there on site," Wright said 
about the murder Gissendaner is convicted of.

"There's no good for anybody. For her, for the state, for public welfare," said 
Daniel Vestal, pastor of the Peachtree Baptist Church.

Supporters, including 2 of her children, say Gissendaner is a changed woman and 
should be spared.

"She has been a positive force in prison. She is changing people and changing 
hearts," Wright said.

The group sent that message in a letter to the parole board in hopes of 
convincing them. Receiving life with no parole is an option for Gissendaner.

"The court is in the business now of trying to save face. They've continue to 
persevere in this execution and the opinion is now they just got to finish it. 
And get it done. But they don't have to," Wright said.

In March, Gissendaner got a reprieve when the state delayed her execution 
because a sedative used in lethal injections turned cloudy.

The state has since said the sedative is OK to use and will work fine.

(source: WSB TV news)

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

Gissendaner lawyers ask federal judge to stop execution


Kelly Gissendaner's lawyers on Wednesday asked a federal judge to stop her 
execution, set for next week, so there's time for him to reconsider his 
decision to dismiss a lawsuit she filed accusing state officials of violating 
her constitutional rights.

Lawyers for the state quickly countered with a filing that said there was no 
new information that would prompt U.S. District Judge Thomas Thrash to rethink 
his Aug. 10 decision to dismiss Gissendaner's complaint.

Last Friday, a Gwinnett County judge signed a warrant scheduling Gissendaner's 
execution, which is set for 7 p.m. Tuesday.

The filings Wednesday are most likely the 1st of a series of court challenges 
expected as lawyers try to stop the execution.

The issue that Gissendaner's lawyers say Thrash needs to give another look is 
whether her constitutional rights were violated on March 2 when her scheduled 
execution was delayed, canceled, scheduled again and then stopped once more 
because of a potential problem with the execution drug. They argue the 
on-again, off-again scheduling constituted cruel and unusual punishment.

The Department of Corrections called off her execution for the final time 
almost 3 1/2 hours after it was to have happened. DOC said it needed time to 
determine what was wrong with the drug. The pentobarbital was cloudy and 
contained clumps. DOC later said the drug's appearance changed because it had 
been stored at a temperature that was too cold. Otherwise, there was nothing 
wrong with it.

Gissendaner also complained in her lawsuit that Georgia's secrecy law prevents 
her legal team from verifying that the drug will do what it is designed to do 
without causing unnecessary pain because lawyers have no way of knowing who had 
makes the powerful sedative and under what circumstances.

Thrash dismissed Gissendaner's lawsuit last month, writing that prison 
officials did not deliberately cause her emotional distress so it was not 
unconstitutional. He also repeated what other courts have said - laws designed 
to protect the identities of those who provide lethal injection drugs do not 
violate the Constitution.

A Gwinnett County jury convicted Gissendaner of murder and sentenced her to die 
for Douglas Gissendaner's February 1997 death, even though she didn't 
personally kill him. Kelly Gissendaner persuaded her then-lover, Gregory Owen, 
to kill her husband while she was at a bar with friends. She gave Owen the 
nightstick and the knife he used to murder Douglas Gissendaner.

Eventually, Owen pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life with the possibility 
of parole after he has served 25 years, an offer Kelly Gissendaner rejected.

(source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution)






FLORIDA:

State to seek death penalty


While a Clay County Grand Jury has indicted Victor Lamar Cruger, 25, for 1st 
degree murder and other charges, the case remains under investigation.

Green Cove Springs Police Department Detective Jim Acres said while 2 witnesses 
saw Cruger shoot 59-year-old Ernestine Griner Hines at close range around 4:10 
a.m.

on Aug. 23 while sitting in a van, they continue to search for a motive in the 
killing. Hines' 2 daughters have since given police details of the events that 
unfolded during the murder.

"We know he did it because they were in the car and saw him do it," Acres said. 
"We're just fortunate they didn't become victims also."

Acres said the murder began by Cruger making a simple request from Hines whom 
he lived near.

"It all started with Victor showed up at Miss Ernestine's house wanting a ride 
to Washington Lane," Acres said.

After the got to the home in the 300 block of Washington Lane, Acres said, 
Cruger shot Hines while he sat in the van's back seat while Hines sat in the 
front passenger's seat. Within minutes, he chased 1 of Hines' daughters around 
the van attempting to shoot her after he shot Hines with what was believed to 
be a 9-millimeter handgun, which has yet to be recovered. The 2 women then fled 
the scene in the van, while Cruger ran away from the home on Washington Lane 
into a wooded area. He was captured on Aug. 28 inside a home in southeast 
Gainesville after being holed up there with a woman with whom he fathered a 
child, Acres said.

"That was one of the first places we knew to look," Acres said. "When the tip 
came in from Crime Stoppers, we sent the U.S. Marshals to go get him. He 
refused at first, but then we finally got him."

Described as having "a fairly extensive record, court records show, that in 
November 2010, Cruger was sentenced to 4 years in state prison for 2 counts of 
selling cocaine near a school. Along with the 1st degree murder charge, the 
grand jury, on Sept. 17, indicted Cruger on 2 counts of attempted murder in the 
1st degree for attempting to take Hines' daughters lives, armed burglary with 
assault or battery and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.

"By getting into the car with a weapon with intent to commit a crime, he 
committed burglary," Acres said.

Acres said since Cruger was extradited from Gainesville after being captured by 
U.S. Marshals on Aug. 28, he is not cooperating in the investigation.

"He won't say a word," Acres said. "We've been working with the State 
Attorney's Office from day one on this."

Jackelyn Barnard, director of communications for State Attorney Angela Corey, 
said the state plans to seek the death penalty when the case goes to trial, 
however, a trial date cannot be set while the case is still under 
investigation.

Acres said Hines' murder is the most gruesome in the city since 2008.

"We probably would have had 3 homicides on our hands if his gun hadn't jammed," 
Acres said.

Police continue to search for Cruger's weapon as well.

(source: claytodayonline.com)

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

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 % 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)