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

[Rick Halperin]

June 9




TEXAS:

Bell County Capital Murder TrialAttorneys question neuroscientist in penalty 
phase of Bell County trial


David Risner's defense attorneys spent Wednesday bringing character witnesses 
to the stand to tell what a good husband, father, friend, church member and 
police officer Risner was.

Risner was convicted Monday of capital murder of a peace officer for shooting 
and killing Little River-Academy Police Chief Lee Dixon on June 19, 2014. Now 
attorneys are presenting evidence to help the 12 jurors decide if Risner 
receives the death penalty or is sentenced to life in prison without parole.

It wasn't until after mid-afternoon that Russell Hunt Jr., Risner's lead 
attorney, called a harder-hitting hired gun for his case, neuroscientist 
Jeffrey D. Lewine of Albuquerque, N.M., to the stand on Risner's behalf.

Lewine isn't a medical doctor, but he specializes in researching PTSD, 
traumatic brain injury and epilepsy. He said that proving mild traumatic brain 
injury is more difficult than severe injury.

"Sometimes an MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) shows mild traumatic brain 
injury, but it usually takes more than visual inspection," Lewine said.

He said more information can be helpful from looking at both the MRI and a 
patient's case history, as he did with Risner. Lewine said Risner definitely 
had ischemic disease and/or a shearing injury but, under cross-examination 
later by Bell County Assistant District Attorney Shelley Strimple, he admitted 
that he couldn't be sure that Risner had mild traumatic brain injury.

Lewine admitted that ischemic disease is common with the aging process and has 
nothing to do with traumatic brain injury.

The defense attorneys never mentioned any incidents during which Risner could 
have gotten a traumatic brain injury.

Lewine said treatment for someone with both PTSD, which Risner was proven to 
have, and a mild traumatic brain injury would be different than what Risner has 
received since 2009. He said PTSD is difficult to fake when someone is examined 
by trained personnel.

Risner does have markers for potential seizure activity and cognitive 
impairment confirmed by multiple tests, Lewine said.

Strimple asked him about the seizure activity Risner demonstrated during 
several instances evaluated by local trained medical personnel. More than 1 
individual alluded to possible faking, and one doctor in May 2010 said Risner 
did a "flamboyant presentation," Strimple said.

Lewine said some of the behaviors weren't true symptoms and said the 
seizure-like activity could have been faked or been pseudo seizures. Since he 
didn't have electroencephalogram (EEG) recordings of those instances and he 
wasn't present, Lewine said he didn't know which it was.

Strimple asked Lewine if he read in the defendant's workman's compensation 
records that Risner should not be around weapons. He said he didn't recall 
reading that specifically, but said it could be very dangerous for Risner to be 
around them.

"Are you aware of David Risner's dangerous behaviors?" Strimple asked. Lewine 
said he was.

"Was he very dangerous when he shot a police officer in the face?" she asked.

"Yes, he was very dangerous at that time," Lewine said.

Other testimony

Many of the witnesses Hunt and Jeff Parker, Risner's 2nd attorney, called to 
testify hadn't seen Risner in at least several years, including Richard Risner, 
the defendant's 1st cousin. Richard Risner and several others said David Risner 
changed when he came back from working as a contractor in Kosovo and Iraq.

Richard Risner only saw him 2 or 3 times after he returned, he told Strimple 
during her cross-examination.

Pat Jordan, a Van Zandt County constable since 1997, last had contact with 
Risner as a deputy sheriff before Risner went to Kosovo. He described him as 
particular in how he dressed, how he took care of business at work and how nice 
he was to people.

However, Jordan was shown just 2 days ago a very unfavorable resignation letter 
Risner kept in his Little River-Academy home that he didn't remember seeing 
before. Risner described Jordan as inefficient and unprofessional. Jordan said 
that shocked him.

Michael Meissner, a former police officer who worked with Risner, said he knew 
Dixon because he'd replaced Dixon once as the Little River-Academy Police Chief 
from early 2009 to late 2009.

Meissner described Risner as a very articulate, professional officer and said 
he had nothing negative he could say about him.

Risner changed drastically after Iraq, Meissner said. He saw him at a Temple 
gun shop and said Risner's behavior and language was so bad that he called 
someone and told them. Meissner said he never had heard Risner curse before 
that day, and he said Risner's negative attitude really shocked him.

Meissner also knew Dixon because Dixon helped him with a lot of advice after 
Meissner became the police chief in Little River-Academy. He described Dixon as 
a nice man who was well-respected, laid back, forgiving, patient and 
professional.

Strimple asked if Dixon should have called for backup on June 19, 2014, when he 
went to answer the call about Risner pulling a gun and putting it in a man's 
face.

"Sometimes you don't have time. It depends on the situation. But in Little 
River-Academy you're forced to handle things on your own for other reasons," 
Meissner said.

"The powers that be don't want a lot of agencies there. You're questioned about 
it if you call for help and treated like a little kid. But only 1 person would 
ask questions. That may have hurt Lee in this situation," Meissner said.

The sentencing phase continues at 8:30 a.m. today as the defense team calls at 
least 1 more witness.

(source: Temple Daily Telegram)

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

Man charged in shooting death of 7-year-old girl proclaims innocence----Frank 
Gomez: 'I was just at the wrong place at the wrong time'


A 28-year-old man charged in the fatal shooting of a 7-year-old girl said 
Wednesday that police have the wrong suspect.

Frank Gomez proclaimed his innocence in a jailhouse interview with KSAT 12 News 
reporter Jessie Degollado. "They gave me capital murder for something I didn't 
do," Gomez said. "I had no play. I had no part. I'm innocent, you know. I 
didn't do nothing. I was just at the wrong place at the wrong time."

Gomez said he ducked down in the car when he claims someone else fired the 
gunshots that killed Iris Rodriguez and wounded her mother during a 
confrontation June 1 between the woman's boyfriend and four men, police said. 
The girl and her mother were walking on San Fernando street to a store to buy 
candy when the gunfire erupted.

Police said witnesses reported seeing four men driving away from the scene, but 
only Gomez has been arrested.

"For whoever did it, not to come forward, and let me go down like this, that's 
wrong," Gomez said.

Public records show that Gomez had a record mostly involving a string of 
burglaries.

Gomez, who is on suicide watch, said he didn't know the girl had been killed 
until he saw it on Facebook. He also said he's sorry the little girl was 
killed. Garza knew he was a wanted man when he saw it on news reports.

"It wasn't meant for the little girl to get shot, no, it wasn't," Gomez said. 
"That little girl didn't deserve that."

The suspect, who was on parole at the time of his arrest, admitted to cutting 
off his ankle monitor.

Gomez said he is aware he could get the death penalty if he's convicted of the 
little girl's murder.

"I regret it. It bothers me at night," Gomez said.

He also had a message for other young men who may be fathers putting their 
children at risk by being involved in gangs.

"Just stop, stop the violence, man. Guns all that, put that away," he said.

(source: KSAT news)






MASSACHUSETTS:

eath penalty does not get at real issues


In once again advocating for the death penalty for cop-killers last month, 
Governor Charlie Baker went on to point to the real issue, which is leniency 
for criminals.

The governor renewed his call after Auburn police officer Ronald Tarentino was 
shot and killed in the course of what appeared to be a routine traffic stop. 
The accused, Jorge Zambrano, was shot and killed following a lengthy standoff 
with police.

Mr. Baker acknowledged that he didn't see anything changing in a state where a 
recent Boston Globe poll found that only 20 % of residents supported the death 
penalty for Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who received that 
sentence under federal law. The many examples of people sentenced to death and 
sometimes executed for crimes they did not commit have caused many states to 
pull back from the death penalty, as have the failures of drugs designed to 
kill those convicted quickly to do so. The death of the police officer was 
shameful, but so is any murder, and the state should not be in the business of 
eye-for-an-eye barbarity.

The governor wondered why Mr. Zambrano, whose lengthy criminal history included 
a charge of assaulting a police officer earlier this year and an arrest for 
driving without a license in early May, was out on the streets the day he 
confronted Officer Tarentino. The real issues are slowness in getting cases to 
court and light sentences for career criminals.

(source: Editorial, Berkshire Eagle)






NORTH CAROLINA:

Racial Justice Act back on the docket in Cumberland County


Much has changed in North Carolina in the 4 years that have passed since Marcus 
Reymond Robinson became the state's 1st death row inmate to see his sentence 
converted to life without parole under the short-lived Racial Justice Act. 
Republicans have gained control of both General Assembly chambers and the 
governor's office and have a 4-3 majority on the state Supreme Court.

On Thursday, 6 months after the state's highest court vacated the only 4 Racial 
Justice Act rulings that occurred before legislators repealed the law, 
attorneys arguing that racial bias infected Robinson's capital case will try to 
make the same points with a different judge.

But before the proceedings for Robinson begin again, attorneys representing the 
inmate are arguing that the judge assigned to the case - and that of the other 
3 inmates, Tilmon Golphin, Quintel Augustine and Christina Walters - should 
recuse himself.

The initial claims were heard by Judge Gregory Weeks, who retired from the 
Cumberland County bench in late 2012. In December 2015, the Supreme Court 
vacated the rulings by Weeks, saying he erred when he did not give prosecutors 
more time to respond to a statistical study about race in the North Carolina 
courts.

Now the case is assigned to Cumberland County's senior resident Superior Court 
Judge James Floyd Ammons Jr., an assistant district attorney in Cumberland 
during the 1980s when the death row inmates claimed prosecutors struck 
qualified black jurors from serving on juries at a higher rate than jurors of 
other races.

They cite 1 trial in 1988, when Ammons reportedly struck black jurors from the 
jury panel at 3.3 times the rate at which he excluded all other qualified 
jurors.

Ammons, the defendants contend in a motion for recusal likely to be discussed 
Thursday, could be a potential witness.

"No judge, including Judge Ammons, could be expected to fairly evaluate, or be 
perceived to be a fair arbiter of, whether his own conduct was racially 
biased," the motion for recusal states.

During the proceedings in 2012, defense attorneys called prosecutors or former 
prosecutors from Cumberland County to testify about the culture in the district 
attorney's office.

A Michigan State University study played a central role in the arguments that 
racial bias infected the cases. The study of capital cases in North Carolina 
between 1990 and 2010 showed that qualified black jurors were more than twice 
as likely as whites to be removed from juries by prosecutors with peremptory 
strikes.

When Weeks ruled in April 2012 that race had played a role in Robinson's case - 
the 1st heard and decided under the Racial Justice Act - his ruling touched on 
statistics about jury selection within Cumberland County and from across the 
state.

In challenging the decision, prosecutors argued that Weeks' ruling - and 
ultimately the Racial Justice Act - was based on a range of statistics that 
were too broad.

Prosecutors have disputed that race played a role in their decisions to strike 
potential jurors from panels. They have asked for the cases to be dismissed 
instead of moving ahead with the new proceedings in Cumberland County.

The Racial Justice Act, adopted in 2009 as groundbreaking legislation approved 
largely along party lines, was repealed by lawmakers in 2013, in part because 
of concerted effort from prosecutors. Despite its demise, questions linger 
about whether the law will have life after its death.

In addition to the 4 inmates who won relief under the act, all but a few of the 
152 death row inmates have cases pending in the court queues. Their challenges 
contend that racial bias had a role in their fate, and they plan to cull from 
studies showing, among other things, that African-Americans are systemically 
excluded from serving on death-penalty juries.

(source: News & Observer)

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

NC judge may decide if 4 convicted murderers deserve new hearing due to racism


Today a Cumberland County judge may decide whether four convicted killers will 
get new hearings because of alleged racial bias.

Marcus Robinson, Tilmon Golphin, Quintel Augustine, and Christina Walters were 
taken off death row back in 2012 under a now-repealed law called the "Racial 
Justice Act."

The 4 were convicted of murder back in the 90s and appealed the death sentence 
using the Racial Justice Act in 2009.

3 of them are at Central Prison in Raleigh serving out life sentences since 
2012 when they were taken off death row.

The North Carolina State Supreme Court threw out that decision in December 
because they said a judge didn't give prosecutors enough time to review a study 
which found African-Americans were intentionally left off the jury in death 
penalty trials.

The Racial Justice Act allowed a prisoner to get a life sentence instead of a 
death sentence if racism could be proven to be a factor at the original trial. 
The State legislature has since repealed all parts of the act.

The State has asked for the case to be dismissed.

The hearing is scheduled for 9 a.m. Thursday at the Cumberland County 
Courthouse.

(source: WNCN news)






FLORIDA:

Florida Supreme Court Justices Try To Sort Out Death Penalty Law


The Florida Supreme Court on Tuesday heard arguments in a case focused on 
whether the state's new death penalty law is constitutional, and, if so, 
whether it applies to cases already in the pipeline when the law passed in 
March.

Tuesday's hearing was the latest in the court's months-long scrutiny prompted 
by a U.S. Supreme Court decision in January that struck down Florida's 
death-penalty sentencing process because it unconstitutionally gave too much 
power to judges, instead of juries.

But the arguments Tuesday in the case of Larry Darnell Perry, who was convicted 
in the 2013 murder of his infant son, did little to clear up the murky 
situation surrounding the January ruling, in a case known as Hurst v. Florida, 
or the new law, hurriedly crafted by lawmakers and signed by Gov. Rick Scott in 
response to the decision.

"Clearly, at this stage in our jurisprudence, we want to make sure that the 
statute is construed in a constitutional manner so that we don't have another 
15 years of death penalty - if the state wants the death penalty, which 
apparently it does - in flux," said Justice Barbara Pariente.

Under Florida's old law, jurors by a simple majority could recommend the death 
penalty. Judges would then make findings of fact that "sufficient" aggravating 
factors, not outweighed by mitigating circumstances, existed for the death 
sentence to be imposed.

That system was an unconstitutional violation of the Sixth Amendment right to 
trial by jury, the U.S. Supreme Court decided in an 8-1 ruling.

Florida's new law requires juries to unanimously determine "the existence of at 
least 1 aggravating factor" before defendants can be eligible for death 
sentences. The law also requires at least 10 jurors to recommend the death 
penalty in order for the sentence to be imposed.

Of nearly 3 dozen states that have the death penalty, Florida is 1 of just 3 - 
including Alabama and Delaware - that do not require unanimous recommendations 
for a sentence of death.

The lack of a unanimous recommendation - a flashpoint for lawmakers, 
prosecutors and defense lawyers during debate on the new law - was the focus of 
much of Tuesday's hearing in the Perry case.

Because Florida's Constitution requires that jury verdicts be unanimous for 
convictions, defense lawyers have argued that the death penalty should require 
a unanimous jury recommendation. Prosecutors, including Attorney General Pam 
Bondi's office, disagree.

Chief Justice Jorge Labarga honed in on the issue Tuesday morning.

"As you know, 32 states in our country have the death penalty. There are three 
states who are outliers in this country, Alabama, Delaware and Florida that 
only require something less than unanimous. ... What is the history of Florida 
in requiring a unanimous verdict?" Labarga asked Martin McClain, a lawyer who 
has represented more than 250 defendants condemned to death and who made 
arguments Tuesday as a "friend of the court."

"It's always been that way in Florida. Since before it was a state, Florida 
required unanimity in criminal cases for convictions," McClain replied.

Since the Jan. 12 Hurst ruling, Florida's high court indefinitely put on hold 
two executions and heard arguments in more than a dozen death penalty cases, 
repeatedly asking lawyers on both sides about the impact of the U.S. Supreme 
Court decision. The Florida court has yet to rule on whether the Hurst decision 
should be applied retroactively to all, or even some, of Florida's 390 death 
row inmates.

Perry's case, meanwhile, hinges on whether the new law should apply to 
defendants whose prosecutions were underway when the new law went into effect. 
While Perry's lawyer, J. Edwin Mills, argued that the new law should not apply 
in his client's case, other defense lawyers are split on the issue. Mills 
contends his client should receive a life sentence.

Adding more pressure to the justices - who spend much of their time considering 
appeals in capital cases - lower courts have delayed hearings or decisions in 
death penalty cases while waiting for Florida Supreme Court to rule, both on 
the impact of the Hurst decision and on the Perry case.

"Until we get moving forward again, and get a determination from this court as 
to what Hurst actually means, everything is just sort of up in the air, which 
is not a good solution for anybody," Assistant Attorney General Carol Dittmar 
told the justices Tuesday.

The court's task won't be easy, McClain told reporters after the hearing.

"When you've got 2 ambiguous things that are confusing, and you are trying to 
pull them all together, it just makes it even more difficult. I think that, in 
watching the oral argument, the court is struggling to try to figure out a way 
to read everything in a coherent, consistent fashion," he said. "This is the 
1st time since 1973 that the death penalty statute in Florida has been 
rewritten. Whenever you rewrite something major like this, you go through a 
period of adjustment where you are trying to figure out what everything means."

(source: WUSF news)

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

Murder victim's mom on decades-long mission to see killers executed


Sally Slater has avoided driving on Kanner Highway for the past 34 years.

Her daughter's body was dumped on the side of that road April 28, 1982, after 
she had been stabbed and shot to death execution-style.

4 men were convicted of 18-year-old Frances Julia Slater's kidnapping and 
murder.

1 has been put to death. 1, who was given a life sentence, has been living out 
on parole on the Treasure Coast, in part because of Sally Slater's forgiveness.

But 2 others remain on death row.

While they continue to live, Slater said, her family has been falling apart.

Now 80 years old, she is on a mission to see them executed.

"I would like to live long enough to see it happen," Slater said. "They're 
sitting in prison protected while my family is going through all sorts of hell 
all the time."

MURDER AND COURTS

Slater, whose stepmother was singer and actress Frances Langford, has been 
retired for about 20 years. She was a real estate broker, worked at the Jensen 
Travel Agency, did some bookkeeping and opened a skin care clinic.

She doesn't do anything special on the anniversary of her daughter's death. 
This year, she scheduled 3 medical appointments to stay busy. She also has 4 
small dogs to keep her occupied.

She recently flipped through her table-sized scrapbook of newspaper clippings 
from the past 3 decades in the sunlit dining room of her Key West-style home on 
Indian River Drive in Jensen Beach.

It was the 1 day between the anniversary of her daughter's death and her 
daughter's birthday.

Articles recalled how Frances Julia Slater - or Frannie, as her mother called 
her - was working in a gas station north of Stuart alone about 2 a.m.

She had to work a double shift to cover that night for a kid who had put a nail 
through his leg, said Sally Slater.

4 men - John Earl Bush, J.B. "Pig" Parker, Alfonso Cave and Terry Wayne "Bo 
Gator" Johnson - robbed the store, kidnapped the 18-year-old and drove her out 
to the western part of the county. Bush stabbed her, Cave pulled her out of the 
car as she begged for her life, and Parker shot her in the back of the head.

The gun was thrown and never found, and the 4 men split whatever money they got 
when they returned to Fort Pierce. Records show Parker's split was between $20 
and $30, but the total amount isn't known.

Her mother believes they killed her because she saw them and would recognize 
them.

Bush was executed in 1996 at age 38, a decade after he filed his last appeal 
and after 15 years on death row.

Cave, 57, and Parker, 53, hold the record of Treasure Coast people on death row 
with 33 years and 34 years, respectively. Cave has exhausted his appeals, but 
Parker hasn't.

In 2012, Treasure Coast Newspapers reviewed 20 boxes of court records related 
to the Cave and Parker cases. Court papers showed taxpayers spent more than 
$348,000 on Cave's appeals, and Parker's tab exceeds $296,000. At about $65 
each day, housing both men on death row has cost an estimate $1.58 million, 
according to state officials.

PROTRACTED APPEALS

In 1982, Cave was sentenced to death after a jury voted 7-5 in favor of 
execution. In 1989, Gov. Bob Martinez signed Cave's death warrant, and records 
show he was within 2 days of being executed when a federal court issued a stay.

During his appeals, Cave again was sentenced to death in 1993 after a jury 
voted 10-2 for execution. During a 3rd penalty phase in 1997, he was returned 
to death row following a jury's 11-1 recommendation in favor of execution.

"Alphonso Cave has had 3 bites at the apple ... so that's why his case has 
dragged on for 34 years," said Assistant State Attorney Ryan Butler. "He has 
nothing pending in state or federal court. We're just waiting for the governor 
to sign a death warrant on Cave."

Meanwhile, Parker still is appealing his punishment after being sentenced to 
death in 1983 by a 8-4 jury vote. During another sentencing phase in 2000, a 
new jury favored execution 11-1.

Federal and state courts remain in the limbo with decisions about the death 
penalty and Parker's final appeal.

But Johnson, 59, who was passed out drunk in the vehicle and didn't participate 
in the murder, was sentenced to life in prison and now lives in Fort Pierce 
after being released on supervision in 2008.

He chose to return to Fort Pierce to be close to his mother, according to state 
prison officials, and will be supervised for the rest of his life.

Slater got to know Johnson's mother well during court cases and appeals. They 
sat near each other and would talk every day. Slater said she's a very nice and 
religious lady. After Johnson confessed Parker did the shooting, Slater wrote a 
letter to the parole board stating she didn't oppose his freedom.

"He served 27 years," Slater said, "and I thought that was fair."

Fort Pierce correctional probation specialist Sandra Jenkins, who supervises 
Johnson in Fort Pierce, said Johnson declined to comment for this story.

He considered the Slater murder a "dark chapter of his life" that he doesn't 
talk about, Jenkins said.

After Johnson's release, he worked at a Palm Bay stable as a day labor 
maintenance worker. He's currently employed by Labor Finders in Fort Pierce as 
a lawn maintenance foreman.

ON A MISSION

Slater has been fighting for justice ever since her daughter's death.

Even though Parker hasn't exhausted his appeals, Cave has. Slater said Gov. 
Rick Scott needs to order a clemency hearing so Cave can be executed. Clemency 
is the process by which convicted felons may be considered by the governor for 
relief from punishment, including commuting a death sentence. If Scott ordered 
a clemency review, the Florida Commission on Offender Review would conduct an 
investigation and victims of record must be notified an investigation is 
pending and that they may submit written comments.

It's unknown when Scott may do that. Offender Review officials said information 
related to a clemency petition is confidential.

Parker has a petition pending before a judge in the U.S. Middle District of 
Florida seeking a review of state court rulings in his case. The judge in 
August put his appeal on hold while the U.S. Supreme Court prepared an opinion 
released in January that found Florida's death penalty sentencing system was 
unconstitutional.

It's unclear when Parker's appeal will be put back on track. It could be 
delayed until after the Florida Supreme Court decides if a new death penalty 
law enacted in March applies to his case. If that happens, and because Parker's 
appeals are not final, legal experts have speculated it's possible a judge 
could rule that condemned prisoners with appeals pending should be sentenced 
again under the new law.

For now, all Slater can do is write the governor and the newspaper.

She wrote a letter to the editor for this newspaper's Opinion page, asking for 
Scott to take action.

Slater said she's frustrated and angry with him.

She believes there are circumstances when the death penalty is needed, such as 
in this case.

Too often, she said, murder victims and their families are forgotten.

"I don't have a daughter," Slater said. "I don't have grandchildren from her. 
She never got married. I can't enjoy her."

(source: tcpalm.com)






LOUISIANA:

On Death Row for a Murder that Wasn't?


Rodricus Crawford sits on Louisiana's death row, awaiting execution for the 
murder of his 1-year-old son, Roderius.

But although Roderius (affectionately called "BoBo") is dead, he likely was not 
murdered - not by his father. Or by anyone else.

Dale Cox was the Lousiana prosecutor against Crawford, a case which rested 
almost exclusively on the testimony of a state forensic pathologist who claimed 
that bruises on the child???s lip were consistent with death by smothering. It 
was undisputed that Bobo had fallen the day before, a fact confirmed by the 
child's mother and a fact that explained the bruised lip. More importantly, 
BoBo also was found to have pneumonia is his lungs, a fact that the same state 
forensic pathologist dismissed as mere "coincidence."

Another forensic pathologist, Daniel Spitz, disagreed. After reviewing the 
case, Spitz concluded that BoBo died of pneumonia. Spitz added that, in his 
opinion, there wasn't enough evidence to even put this before a jury. You 
didn't have anybody who thought this guy committed murder except for 1 
pathologist who decided that it was homicide on what seemed like a whim.

And it is not just Spitz. Other pathologists agree that BoBo likely died of 
pneumonia. The Innocence Network filed an amicus brief on behalf of Crawford, 
in which they too argue that BoBo died of an illness, not murder.

So why is Crawford still sitting on death row?

The answer may be as twisted, as it is true: he had the misfortune of being 
prosecuted by Cox.

Lousiana's use of the death penalty has been on the decline in recent years. 
But not in Caddo Parish, a county in Louisiana, which is responsible for most 
of the state's death sentences. Between 2010-2015, 8 out of 12 death sentences 
came from Caddo Parish. Of those 8 death sentences, Dale Cox was responsible 
for 4.

Cox is an ardent believer in capital punishment who proudly believes "we need 
to kill more people."

And he doesn't just believe in the death penalty. He believes that people who 
are sentenced to die should physically suffer, a philosophy long-ago rejected 
by the Supreme Court. After Crawford was sentenced to die, Cox wrote to the 
state's probation department: "I am sorry that Louisiana has adopted lethal 
injection as the form of implementing the death penalty," because "Mr. Crawford 
deserves as much physical suffering as it is humanly possible to endure before 
he dies."

Many folks who have reviewed Crawford's case would strongly disagree; it is no 
mere "coincidence" that Crawford has been featured as an example of the death 
penalty gone terribly wrong, and that he is currently the subject of 2 
different petitions to gain his release.

The potentially good news is that there's a new prosecutor in Caddo now.

James Stewart, an African American, was elected to be the District Attorney of 
Caddo Parish for the next 5 years. Cox is no longer with the office.

With a new DA, there is a new opportunity for a 2nd-look at Crawford's case. 
And with a just announced death penalty moratorium in Louisiana due to 
questions about its execution methods, now is the perfect time for Stewart to 
reexamine whether Crawford should even be in prison, let alone on death row.

10 people have already been exonerated from Louisiana's death row. Perhaps 
Stewart will help Crawford be its number 11.

(source: Jessica S. Henry, Associate Professor of Justice Studies -- Huffington 
Post)