[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, ALA.

[Rick Halperin]

Sept. 28



TEXAS:

Texas Prison Guard Union Urges Death Row Reforms


In a move that surprised many in the prison reform community, the president of 
the local chapter of a Texas prison guards' union wrote a letter to the Texas 
Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) on January 20, 2014, urging officials to 
introduce major reforms in the state's handling of death row prisoners.

Lance Lowry, president of Huntsville's Local 3807 of the American Federation of 
State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), wrote the letter amid the 
TDCJ's review of conditions at the Polunsky Unit in Livingston, where Texas 
death row prisoners are held.

Prisoners at Polunsky are housed in solitary confinement, confined to their 
cells 23 hours a day. "Recreation" comes in the form of exercise 1 hour per 
day, alone in a dog-run type enclosure. Televisions are not permitted, nor are 
prisoners allowed to use the telephone or participate in education, work or 
religious programs.

While a 3-tiered classification system allows some condemned prisoners a radio 
and occasional non-contact visits, all prisoners remain on death row until 
their execution or, in the rare case, release, for several decades on average.

According to Lowry, the draconian conditions at Polunsky are a "knee-jerk 
reaction" to a 1998 escape from death row, in which convicted murderer Martin 
Gurule escaped only to drown in a stream nearby. 6 months later, the death row 
prisoners at the Ellis Unit in Huntsville were moved to Polunsky.

"This has not been a positive thing for the inmates or the staff," Lowry said. 
"There has been increased aggression toward the officers." In his letter to the 
TDCJ, Lowry wrote that "staff incompetency and lack of proper security 
equipment" were the biggest factors in the 1998 escape. As a result, "the 
agency ignored the root of the problem," and in the current death row 
management model, "inmates have very few privileges to lose and staff become 
easy targets."

The AFSCME letter called for greater privileges to be used as a management 
tool. Certain death row prisoners should be housed 2 offenders to a cell and 
[given] privileges such as work assignments and allowed TV privileges by 
streaming over-the-air television to a computer tablet using a closed Wi-Fi 
network." Lowry added, "Lack of visual r auditory stimulation results in 
increased psychological incidents and results in costly crisis management."

A coalition of prisoners' rights advocates including mental health groups, 
religious organizations, security experts and civil rights activists also sent 
a letter to TDCJ officials urging similar reforms. The National Alliance on 
Mental Illness (NAMI) said the TDCJ's current system of long-term solitary 
confinement causes suicide, depression, paranoia, psychosis and other 
anti-social behaviors. "Sticking with the status quo is alarming," stated NAMI 
policy coordinator Greg Hansch.

TDCJ spokesman Jason Clark said the agency is "currently reviewing and updating 
the [department's] Death Row Plan." As of September 9, 2015, 6 women and 247 
men were awaiting execution in Texas.

(source: Prison Legal News)

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

Texas Murder Trial Set to Resume After Shock Belt Used on Defendant 
Representing Self


A Texas capital murder trial is set to proceed Monday - but the defendant has 
already experienced a very small taste of how an electric chair might feel: He 
was given a shock in court for refusing to comply with a judge's orders.

James Calvert, 45, has represented himself in the possible death penalty case 
since 2012, when he was charged with killing his estranged wife and abducting 
their son.

Calvert was outfitted with a shock belt after Judge Jack Skeen raised security 
concerns and said Calvert was acting erratically, Reuters reported. The belt 
was used when Calvert didn't follow a judge's order to stand up.

Kathryn Kase, executive director of Texas Defender Service, told NBC News that 
Calvert appears to be mentally ill and shouldn't have been allowed to act as 
his own lawyer in the first place.

"The Supreme Court has ruled: People with a history of mental illness are 
supposed to show a much higher level of competence to represent themselves," 
she said.

It does not appear that Calvert has shown that level of competence, Kase said, 
adding that earlier in the trial, Calvert told the judge that all of his 
objections "will be phrased as 'foxtrot.'"

"That's something that someone with mental illness does," she said. "That says 
to me, someone is losing their grip on reality."

A sheriff's lieutenant told Reuters that the shock belt is used like a Taser, 
and it is less obvious to a jury than leg irons and handcuffs. It was unclear 
who ordered it to be used, Kase said.

Skeen did not respond to interview requests on Sunday, and Reuters reported 
that he issued a gag order on the trial.

After the shock was administered, Skeen told Calvert that would no longer be 
allowed to represent himself, Kase said.

But a 2-week break, she added, was hardly enough time for a new attorney to 
prepare his case.

"During all this time that Mr. Calvert was representing himself, he wasn't 
doing what a qualified lawyer [would be] doing," she said.

(source: NBC news)






ALABAMA:

Capital trial in 2-year-old's death set this week


The mother of a 2-year-old Gadsden boy and her boyfriend are expected to come 
to trial this week on capital murder charges for his death.

Trevaughn Lee Blount died Aug. 24, 2011, as a result of blunt force trauma to 
the head and other injuries.

His mother, Brandy Nicole Lee, and her boyfriend, Narshun Temar Smith, were 
charged with capital murder just days after the toddler's death.

The boy was unconscious and not breathing when his mother took him to a Gadsden 
hospital emergency room. Physicians there suspected the child had suffered head 
trauma and notified police.

After the child was stabilized, he was flown to Children's Hospital in 
Birmingham, where he later died.

The 2 remained in jail until April. Both were released on $50,000 bond after 
the prosecutors decided not to seek the death penalty against the pair. Under 
Alabama law, the murder of a child under 14 is a capital crime. Prosecutors 
have discretion in whether to seek the death penalty. Both are charged with the 
lesser offense of felony murder during aggravated child abuse as well.

Trials for the 2 were consolidated and will be heard by Etowah County Circuit 
Judge David Kimberley.

Potential jurors in the case will report to the judicial building today, and 
the trial is expected to begin Tuesday, according to Etowah County Deputy 
District Attorney Marcus Reid.

Defense attorneys has asked last month that the case be continued because the 
cases had been consolidated, and because both defendants were released on bond 
only a few months ago.

(source: Gadsden Times)