[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----PENN., FLA., OHIO, MO., WYO., USA

[Rick Halperin]

June 26



PENNSYLVANIA:

Penn State researchers analyze death penalty findings


Penn State researchers studying whether racial bias affects the imposition of 
the death penalty have begun crunching the data, a move signaling the end of a 
4-year saga of waiting on a state report that has officially halted executions 
in the state.

The Penn State findings might be made public before year's end.

While the analysis is in the early stages, the professor leading the research 
said he expects similar findings to what the Reading Eagle reported last week 
on the distribution of death sentences in Pennsylvania.

"I think it'll be a good complement to what you've done, with some details that 
will flesh out the issues that you've raised," said John Kramer, a retired Penn 
State criminology professor. "I don't suspect that it will erase the (Eagle's) 
findings."

In an investigation spanning 5 months, the Eagle found Pennsylvania has 
sentenced 408 defendants to death since 1978, at a rate of 1.6 death sentences 
for every 100 homicides. The rate for counties varied from zero to more than 7, 
indicating wide prosecutorial discretion.

Following the U.S. Supreme Court's 1972 decision in Furman v. Georgia that 
found capital punishment unconstitutional, states created statutes that were 
intended to make its application less arbitrary, particularly for black 
defendants.

"Going back to the Furman decision, the question is: Have we controlled that 
kind of discretion adequately?" Kramer said. "I'm sure we will cite your 
article when we're reviewing our data."

The meticulous gathering of data on more than 900 first-degree murder cases 
from 2000 to 2010 in 18 counties has been tedious and painstakingly slow, 
pushing a state report that was expected 3 years ago back several times.

Kramer's team has been out in the field since 2012 poring over court files in 
counties stretching from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh to identify charging and 
sentencing patterns in 1st-degree murder cases. The death penalty is reserved 
almost exclusively for the crime of murder.

Researchers hope to learn whether race is a factor in who is charged capitally 
and ultimately sentenced to death in Pennsylvania.

This investigation will be folded into the study state lawmakers called for in 
2011. That report, by the Joint State Government Commission, isn't expected 
until six months after Penn State concludes its study for the Interbranch 
Commission for Gender, Racial and Ethnic Fairness.

As directed by lawmakers, the state report will examine 17 issues around the 
death penalty, including its cost, deterrence and quality of counsel.

The commission's reports often are completed within a year and include 
recommendations.

Recommendations in the long awaited report, however, will likely relate to data 
collection, which is sorely lacking. The Joint State Government Commission will 
not be recommending whether to continue to support or abolish the death 
penalty, said Glenn Pasewicz, executive director of the Joint State Government 
Commission.

"From the beginning, it was not the intent that the report would come up with 
some firm recommendations about what capital punishment should be in 
Pennsylvania," Pasewicz said. "We're going to leave the big questions to the 
Legislature itself. We'll provide them with as much information as we can, and 
they can sort it all out."

For years, Pennsylvania's death penalty system has been a source of 
consternation among those on both sides of the issue. Having sentenced hundreds 
in the modern era and executed only 3, it is widely perceived as dysfunctional.

Another round

It has been studied before.

In 1999, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court directed a study on whether racial or 
gender bias influences the judicial system, including the death penalty. In the 
committee's 550-page report in 2003, it made more than 170 recommendations, 
including issuing a moratorium on executions. Gov. Tom Wolf issued one last 
year, saying executions would not resume until the state report is completed.

"Based on existing data and studies, the committee concluded that there are 
strong indications that Pennsylvania's capital justice system does not operate 
in an evenhanded manner," the group's report said, noting the responsibility of 
ensuring equal justice under the law cannot fall to a single branch of 
government.

The committee also took aim at the quality of capital representation, which the 
Eagle explored last fall, finding nearly 1 in5 inmates sentenced to death in 
Pennsylvania the past decade were represented by attorneys disciplined for 
professional misconduct at some point in their careers.

The committee's report said of capital representation, "Unless the poor, among 
whom minority communities are overrepresented, are provided adequate legal 
representation, including ample funds for experts and investigators, there 
cannot be a lasting solution to the issue of racial and ethnic bias in the 
capital system."

The group also recommended original research to study the issue further.

"It's critical that we do our own studies," said Lisette McCormick, executive 
director of the Pittsburgh-based Interbranch Commission for Gender, Racial and 
Ethnic Fairness, which conducted the review at the Supreme Court's direction.

'There are gaps'

Established in 2005 by Pennsylvania's three branches of government, the 
Interbranch Commission for Gender, Racial and Ethnic Fairness is tasked with 
addressing inequities in the court system.

McCormick added, noting there is no systematic data collection on 
Pennsylvania's death penalty: "There are gaps. You cannot conduct a valid study 
with gaps."

The Penn State report - Kramer said an internal draft would be completed next 
month - was commissioned in part to address this gap. McCormick's group is 
funding the report at a cost of about $325,000.

The Eagle's cost and sentence-distribution findings, McCormick said, were 
consistent with other studies she's reviewed for the current state study.

The shortage of original research on Pennsylvania's death penalty system, 
Kramer and McCormick said, is directly related to the difficulty of winnowing 
out information buried, oftentimes in storage, in hundreds of case boxes across 
the commonwealth.

Kramer's data collectors could examine, at their quickest pace, a maximum of 5 
cases a day and averaged only 3 or 4. And some days, they would sift through 
case boxes and collect no pertinent data.

"There's just not any data that you can put together to do this study without 
investing a tremendous amount of time," Kramer said.

(source: Reading Eagle)






FLORIDA:

Markel Murder Suspect In Court No Bond Set

The man accused of killing FSU Professor Dan Markel, walked into a Tallahassee 
court on Friday and left in custody without bond being set.

Sigfredo Garcia, pled not guilty in court Friday June 24th, as defense 
attorneys argued there was not enough evidence to keep him in jail.

? Garcia, in handcuffs, appeared in court Friday morning for a hearing on 
whether there is substantial evidence for the state to deny a bond be set in 
the Markel murder case.

The hearing was supposed to determine whether there is significant evidence to 
deny setting a bond, but the defense argued that a lack of witnesses required 
the hearing to be pushed back to a later date.

The state argued they had clear evidence linking Garcia to the murder and 
recognized him as a flight risk, claiming that his indication to flee, along 
with his criminal history, makes Garcia a danger to the community.

Garcia's defense attorneys responded maintain the state has only presented 
hearsay statements that were not substantial evidence. Garcia's lead attorney, 
Jim Lewis, also argued that a proper hearing could not take place without 
questioning witnesses from law enforcement officials and asked that the hearing 
be moved until a subpoena could be issued.

The defense also asked to file motions regarding the state's plans to pursue 
the death penalty in the case, claiming his client should be provided with 
additional representation. He also asked to file a motion to improve Garcia's 
isolated living conditions in jail, which he claimed to be inhumane.

Judge Terry Lewis did not issue a ruling on the bond hearing, instead allowing 
for witnesses to be brought in for cross-examination. The court did not set an 
official hearing date, but it is set to be scheduled for next week.

Garcia is currently being held at the Leon County Jail under charges of 
1st-degree murder in the case of Dan Markel's death. Garcia was arrested for 
Markel's murder in Broward County on May 25th, then extradited to Leon County 
on June 1st.

Garcia, along with co-defendant Luis Rivera, were charged with first-degree 
murder following the death of Dan Markel who was found shot to death in his 
driveway in July of 2014. The FSU law professor was divorced from his wife, 
Wendi Adelson who moved to south Florida with their children after his death.

Police say her family's desire to have Adelson and the children live in south 
Florida may have been motive for his murder.

(source: WTXL news)






LOUISIANA:

20 years later, Baton Rouge child killer's death sentence has yet to be carried 
out as legal appeals proceed at snail's pace


20 years ago to the month, Dr. Stephen Speeg and 11 other residents of East 
Baton Rouge Parish convicted Frank Ford Cosey in the 1990 rape and murder of a 
12-year-old Baton Rouge girl and decided he should die for what Speeg described 
on the jury verdict form as "an especially heinous, atrocious and cruel" crime.

2 decades later, Cosey's appeals continue to move at a snail's pace in the 19th 
Judicial District Court, the very court where he was unanimously found guilty 
of 1st-degree murder by Speeg - the jury foreman - and his fellow jurors, and 
sentenced to death.

But much to the chagrin of at least one Louisiana Supreme Court justice, and to 
Speeg to a degree, the 56-year-old Ford is no closer today to the death chamber 
than he was 20 years ago.

Speeg said Thursday he is all for a defendant receiving his due process under 
the law. But, he added, "It's just absurd that it takes this long."

He said his only concern is with the victim's family.

"That's where my prayers are," Speeg said.

In a ruling earlier this month in Cosey's case, Justice Scott Crichton voiced 
concern over what he described as "the inordinate span of time" that has 
elapsed since the jury recommended in June 1996 that Cosey die for his crime. A 
Baton Rouge state judge formally imposed the death penalty 3 months later.

Crichton noted that after the state Supreme Court affirmed Cosey's conviction 
and sentence in 2000 and the U.S. Supreme Court refused to review the case the 
following year, Cosey himself filed in 2001 what is termed in legal circles as 
a "shell" application for post-conviction relief in the 19th Judicial District 
Court.

Crichton characterized Cosey's petition as "an apparent place-holder strategic 
maneuver."

Then, in 2012 and 2013, Cosey's post-conviction attorneys supplemented the 
bare-bones petition he filed more than a decade earlier.

Last year, state District Judge Don Johnson denied most of Cosey's claims, 
which include allegations that he received ineffective assistance from his 
trial and appellate attorneys.

"Now, in 2016 (after the savage murder, two decades after the verdict, and more 
than a decade after the ???shell??? application) this case, on collateral 
review, has finally reached this Court," Crichton wrote June 17. "In my view, 
this gamesmanship and delay is unreasonable and unacceptable."

Cosey's current attorney, Capital Post-Conviction Project of Louisiana director 
Gary Clements, believes gamesmanship is a poor choice of words.

"It's not a word I would have chosen. I wouldn't call it gamesmanship. I'd call 
it defense," he said.

Clements stressed that post-conviction cases are complicated and take time to 
resolve.

"The system has moved on," he said. "We're doing the best we can."

Johnson, the 19th Judicial District Court judge presiding over the Cosey 
post-conviction case, did offer Cosey perhaps more than a glimmer of hope in 
May 2015 when he ruled the condemned killer is entitled to an evidentiary 
hearing on his claim that he is intellectually disabled and thus ineligible for 
execution.

The state Supreme Court, on June 17, did not disagree with Johnson on that 
point.

Clements said it is possible the hearing on Cosey's claim of intellectual 
disability, formerly called mental retardation, could be held this year.

Cosey served time for an armed robbery conviction and was on parole when he 
raped and killed 12-year-old Delky Nelson on July 6, 1990. She lived across the 
street from Cosey on El Scott Avenue off Joor Road.

Cosey was accused of beating the child; stomping on her face so hard that the 
last 2 letters of the word "Reebok" were imprinted on her left cheek; slitting 
her throat and leaving her nude body spread-eagled on her back in her mother's 
bedroom.

Cosey's fingerprints were discovered near the body, and DNA results proved his 
semen was found on a blanket near her body.

Cosey contends, and his trial attorneys argued to Speeg and his fellow jurors, 
that another neighborhood man - now-deceased Patrick Jenkins - killed the girl. 
Jenkins committed suicide in 1994, 2 years before Cosey's trial, after killing 
his girlfriend and their 8-month-old child. Speeg said the jury was an educated 
group that looked at all of the evidence, which he called indisputable. He said 
the death penalty was a just decision.

The state Attorney General's Office has been handling the case since 2009, the 
year East Baton Rouge Parish District Attorney Hillar Moore III was sworn in 
and recused his office. Moore was 1 of Cosey's attorneys in the 1990s.

"In the best interest of our state, the Louisiana Department of Justice has and 
will continue to pursue this case fairly, diligently and efficiently," Ruth 
Wisher, a spokeswoman for Attorney General Jeff Landry, said Friday.

Cosey's trial attorneys included Tony Marabella, now a 19th Judicial District 
Court judge, and Frank Holthaus, a prominent Baton Rouge lawyer.

"That's counsel that you and I probably couldn't afford together,' Speeg said 
when told of Cosey's claim of ineffective assistance of trial counsel.

(source: The Advocate)






OHIO:

Another Bonnie and Clyde----This 1929 crime of the century started, and ended, 
in New Castle


When people hear the expression "The trial of the century," many undoubtedly 
think of the infamous 1995 O.J. Simpson double murder trial in Los Angeles. But 
the phrase often was used to describe another sensational trial nearly 7 
decades earlier ??? and much closer to the Mahoning Valley.

"It made national news, the [nationwide police] chase and the 2 murder trials," 
said Bill Warnock of Hookstown, Pa., whose love of history sparked his interest 
in the cases of Irene C. Schroeder and W. Glenn Dague, who were convicted in 
the 1929 killing of a Pennsylvania state trooper near New Castle and sentenced 
to death.

At least 20 newspapers from across the country as well as the Associated Press 
and numerous foreign correspondents covered Schroeder's 1st-degree murder trial 
in March 1930, the Beaver County (Pa.) Times reported in February 2011. Among 
those in the press corps was future longtime TV personality Ed Sullivan, then a 
syndicated columnist with the New York Daily News.

Locally, a Youngstown Vindicator reporter named Ella K. Resch covered the 
Schroeder trial, but was charged with contempt of court when she was called to 
testify and refused to reveal her sources for a story she had written, with the 
headline "Life of Irene Schroeder," which also was published in other 
newspapers. When she refused to answer, presiding Judge R.L. Hildebrand 
sentenced Resch to jail.

A while later - and after having remained in the Lawrence County jail - Resch 
was given a second opportunity to reveal where she had obtained her information 
but again dug in and refused to do so.

Also reinforcing Warnock's desire to learn more about the tragedy and the key 
players is the fact that his father, Theodore Warnock, a 27-year-old auto 
mechanic from East Brook, Pa., served on the jury that had convicted Schroeder.

Warnock recently shared his knowledge and insights of the long-ago case while 
next to a headstone that was dedicated to 25-year-old Cpl. Brady C. Paul of the 
Pennsylvania Highway Patrol, who was killed in a shootout with Dague, Schroeder 
and her brother, Thomas Coleman, on New Castle Road, now Old Butler Road, in 
Shenango Township. The headstone marks the spot where Paul, a 4-year veteran of 
the department, was gunned down along the road, which at the time was the only 
connector between Butler, Pa., and New Castle.

Warnock also had on hand a copy of the 2013 book on the case, titled "Family 
Secrets & Lies," by D.J. Everette, who is Schroeder's granddaughter.

According to reports, Dague, 33, Schroeder, 20, and Coleman had robbed the P.H. 
Butler Co. grocery store in Butler at gunpoint Dec. 27, 1929, after having 
driven to the area from Wheeling, W.Va., where she and Coleman had relatives.

Paul and another state trooper, Ernest C. Moore, who was in an attached 
sidecar, set up a roadblock on New Castle Road about 3 miles east of downtown 
New Castle after having received a description of the 2-door green Chevrolet 
containing the robbers. Soon after the holdup, Paul's boss, Sgt. Martin J. 
Crowley of the state police, passed along what information he had to the 
trooper, who was dispatched to the area on his motorcycle on the assumption 
that they were headed his way.

Paul and Moore stopped several cars, but when one matching the description of 
the suspects' vehicle arrived, Paul asked Dague for his driver's license and to 
step out of the car while Moore checked the rear license plate. Within seconds, 
Crawford, who was in the back seat, shot Moore in the face before Schroeder and 
Dague fired at Paul, hitting him 3 times. As Paul returned fire, they sped 
away.

Also in the car was Schroeder's 4-year-old son, Donnie.

Moments after the shooting, a local truck driver helped Paul into his truck and 
drove him back to New Castle. Moore survived his injuries, but Paul died a 
short time later in Jameson Memorial Hospital in that city.

"Tell the boys I did my duty; tell them I did the best I could. You will soon 
see Mother, because I am dying. Kiss Mother goodbye for me," Paul was quoted as 
saying just before his death.

After the shooting, the fugitives continued on to New Castle, where they 
carjacked a salesman, stole his Chrysler sedan near Cascade Street and left 
their bullet-riddled vehicle behind. The first of several pieces of evidence 
police found in the Chevrolet was a receipt for a scarf bought at a Wheeling 
department store and, after following up, authorities learned that the clerk 
had sold the item to a regular customer, Irene Schroeder, according to reports.

At the beginning of their run from the law, Schroeder and Dague left Donnie 
with relatives near Wheeling and nearby Bellaire, Ohio, and dropped Coleman off 
in the same area. Then they headed west and committed a series of hold-ups for 
a little extra cash - and didn't hesitate to shoot it out with any 
law-enforcement officer who got in their way.

"They were essentially a poor man's Bonnie & Clyde, robbing grocery stores, 
diners [and] filling stations in small-time jobs, seldom netting more than $100 
a job," wrote Robert Walsh, a freelance true-crime writer from West Cornwall, 
England.

Nevertheless, it was Schroeder's 4-year-old son who would be his mother's 
undoing.

"Mommy shot a cop like you," the youngster reportedly told an officer from the 
Pennsylvania state police who had acted on the department-store tip 4 days 
after Paul's killing. "Uncle Tom [Coleman] shot another in the head. He shot 
right through the windshield."

By Jan. 4, 1930, the wanted fugitives had made it to St. Louis, the home of her 
brother, Arthur Crawford, but their arrival was anything but uneventful. After 
an officer named William Kiessling had stopped them for driving too slowly, 
Dague reportedly shot at him 3 times and, during a struggle between them, 
Schroeder fired 2 shots as Dague knocked the officer unconscious. He received a 
minor injury in the fight with Dague, but somehow was not hit in the shooting.

After stealing Kiessling's service revolver, the pair continued through the 
southern Plains states, robbing gas stations and picking up hitchhikers.

By mid-January, Schroeder and Dague had reached Arizona, but it wasn't long 
before 2 law-enforcement officers would have the misfortune of crossing paths 
with them. When a Pinal County sheriff's deputy spotted Schroeder at a gas 
station, she and Dague took him hostage at gunpoint before the fugitives 
reached Chandler, Ariz., where they shot the deputy and tossed him from the car 
during their escape, according to some accounts.

In another shootout, they killed a Maricopa County sheriff's deputy before 
abandoning their car and hiding in a cave in the Estrella Mountains near 
Chandler. There, Dague and Schroeder engaged authorities in another gun battle 
before finally surrendering and being extradited Jan. 21 by train to New Castle 
to face 1st-degree murder charges in the Paul killing, according to Lawrence 
County historical records.

3 or 4 days later, Schroeder and Dague arrived at the Pennsylvania & Lake Erie 
Railroad train station near New Castle and were greeted by a crowd of several 
thousand who had assembled to catch a glimpse of the infamous duo, the account 
says.

"They basically waved the white flag," Warnock said of their surrender, noting 
that they likely gave up because they ran out of ammunition.

By most accounts, the deck was stacked against Schroeder early on.

The youngest of 8 siblings lost her mother - who apparently had tried to abort 
her - when Schroeder was 8, and much of her childhood was spent in poverty and 
being shipped from relative to relative.

The Benwood, W.Va., native married at age 15, but less than 2 years later, 
Schroeder's husband, Homer, left her (some accounts contend she walked out on 
him). For a while, she worked as a server in a Wheeling restaurant.

Dague, by contrast, seemed to live an ordinary if not respectable life.

Before turning to a life of crime, he had been a World War I veteran, a devoted 
father of 2 young children, a used-car salesman, a Sunday school teacher and a 
Boy Scout leader and Scoutmaster.

But as fate would have it, the 2 met in August 1927 - literally by accident - 
when Dague unintentionally bumped Schroeder with his car as she crossed a 
Wheeling street, then insisted on getting her to a nearby hospital or home. 
Soon after, they began a 2-year affair.

While together - during which time Dague had left his family permanently in 
April 1929 - the 2 apparently drifted between Pennsylvania, Ohio and several 
other states, where they scraped by working odd jobs that included everything 
from selling washing machines and cars to trimming trees. By most accounts, 
their patchwork of employment failed to pay the bills, and soon after Dague and 
Schroeder decided to rob small stores and gas stations in Ohio, Kentucky and 
elsewhere.

The Dec. 27, 1929, holdup at the Butler grocery store was the latest in the 
lovers' string of robberies - and the one that led to the ill-fated encounter 
with Brady Paul.

In separate trials, Dague and Schroeder were found guilty of 1st-degree murder 
in the Paul killing and given the death penalty. On Feb. 23, 1931, both were 
executed at the Rockview Penitentiary in Bellefonte, Pa. The 22-year-old 
Schroeder, who also had acquired nicknames such as "Iron Irene" and "The gun 
girl," was the 1st woman put to death in the state's electric chair.

After the trial and executions, Schroeder's 4-year-old son, Donnie, lived for a 
while with his father, who had remarried. As an adult, he joined the Air Force, 
where he became a decorated military veteran for his service as a gunner in the 
Korean War, according to D.J. Everette, 1 of his daughters and author of 
"Secrets & Lies." Later, he studied engineering, moved to Florida and worked on 
several space missions for NASA.

In December 2009, the man who evidently had spent most of his life 
painstakingly distancing himself from the past and trying to forget the fateful 
car ride died at age 84.

Warnock said it remains a mystery to him why his father had a change of heart 
that led the elder Warnock to send Pennsylvania Gov. Gifford Pinchot a telegram 
asking him to spare Schroeder's life - even after having been on the jury that 
voted for the death penalty. The telegram's whereabouts are unknown, Warnock 
continued, adding that in many ways, Dague's and Schroeder's crimes mirror 
those of Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, famously known as Bonnie and Clyde, a 
few years later.

Also interested in the decades-old case was John R. Baldwin of Volant, Pa., 
whose father, Leal Baldwin, was 12 and living on New Castle Road when he 
witnessed the roadblock.

"He had never talked about it," Baldwin said of his father. "I never knew about 
it until he was older and did more research. As a child, he was too young to be 
called in as a witness or to serve on a jury."

Nevertheless, another relative later testified that Schroeder had indeed shot 
Paul, Baldwin continued.

Warnock's father also was tight-lipped about the case, except to dispel rumors 
that someone other than Dague and Schroeder could have gunned down the young 
trooper.

Paul is buried in Mount Prospect Cemetery in his native Washington County, Pa., 
where some of his descendants still live, Warnock continued, adding that Dague 
is buried in a family plot near Dallas, W.Va.

Even in death, however, Dague continued to generate controversy.

His headstone faced the opposite direction as those of the rest of his family, 
evidently to express their disappointment, though a 2nd inscription was 
eventually added to the other side of the headstone, Warnock noted.

Schroeder's final resting place is in Greenwood Cemetery in Bellaire, but 
curiosity seekers who visit the property looking for her tombstone or for other 
macabre reasons likely will leave disappointed and empty-handed, Warnock said.

"She has no marker, nothing," he added.

(source: Youngstown Vindicator)






MISSOURI:

Time to abolish the death penalty


"Leon Taylor was one of several people who have been executed but would have 
been a great asset to society if he'd been allowed to live, even in prison." 
---- Rev. Sam Duckworth, chaplain

As a newly active member of the Springfield chapter of Missourians for 
Alternatives to the Death Penalty (MADP), I was excited to be part of a small 
delegation to the annual meeting held in Columbia on June 4, 2016. After a 
business meeting, there was a luncheon and, for me, the main event of the day, 
a panel discussion: "The Death Penalty and Prison Chaplains."

Three chaplains, Rev. Herb Conley, Rev. Sam Duckworth and Mrs. Patricia 
Duckworth spoke about the spiritual support they had provided to dozens of men 
on Missouriss death row. Each of the chaplains worked with death row prisoners 
at the Potosi Correctional Center, and the Duckworths witnessed the execution 
of Leon Taylor by his invitation. Rev. Conley took the unprecedented step of 
submitting affidavits to Governor Jay Nixon, unsuccessfully urging him to halt 
the executions of 2 men.

Asked the question, what is the purpose of capital punishment, Rev. Herb Conley 
stated that the actual use of the death penalty is detached from reality: "If a 
person is given the chance to restore himself in prison and does so, then 
eventually killing him serves no purpose. Instead, he should be given a 
permanent role in the prison community in the hope of restoring others in the 
prison population."

Each of the panel members expressed dismay that the good work some prisoners do 
to help and renew fellow inmates rarely prevents them from being executed. Leon 
Taylor was cited as being someone who was rehabilitated but was eventually put 
to death. Listening to the chaplains and their experiences working with death 
row prisoners provided the audience with additional reasons to oppose the death 
penalty.

Not only is it applied arbitrarily and subject to human error, it is often 
politically motivated. It has no demonstrated deterrent value, wastes the money 
of taxpayers and takes a toll on everyone involved. The death penalty is not 
logical.

Isn't it crazy that the prison system attempts to rehabilitate men, only to 
kill them eventually? The logical solution for the alternative to the death 
penalty is life without parole. Society deems some crimes the worst that can be 
committed. The people who commit those crimes are generally given the death 
penalty in Missouri.

Sentencing those offenders to life without parole makes it possible for healing 
for families to begin so much more quickly than the long death appeal process 
allows. Isn't it time for Missourians to abolish the death penalty?

(source: Opinion, Linda Green; The News-Leader)




WYOMING:

Utah man sought sex from 2 women in Wyoming motel, documents say


The Draper man accused of stabbing 2 women, 1 fatally, at a Wyoming hotel told 
police he was there seeking sexual services, according to charging documents.

Bradley Ross Fairbourn, 18, was arrested early Thursday and charged with 
f1st-degree felony murder for the slaying of 29-year-old Naisha Rae Story, as 
well as 1st-degree attempted murder. He could face the death penalty if 
convicted.

Charging documents say Fairbourn was staying at a hotel in Rawlins, Wyo., on 
Wednesday night as he made his way back to Draper. When he couldn't sleep, 
Fairbourn told police that he solicited prostitution services online.

Fairbourn allegedly found an advertisement offering "full service" for $300 at 
a nearby hotel in Rock Springs, according to the documents. He arrived about 1 
a.m. Thursday and went to the room the ad listed, charges state.

2 women were in the room - Naisha Rae Story, from South Jordan, and a friend. 
The friend told police that Fairbourn forced his way in and attacked them. 
Story's friend ran to the hotel lobby and called 911 about 1:20 a.m. after 
Fairbourn stabbed her in the chest, documents state.

When officers arrived, they spoke with the friend, who is expected to recover, 
and found Story outside the room also covered in blood with multiple stab 
wounds. Story was transported to a local hospital, where she died from the 
injuries.

The room, documents state, showed "evidence that indicated a struggle had taken 
place" and the women's injuries "appeared to be defensive in nature."

After the confrontation with Fairbourn, Story's friend called her boyfriend for 
help, according to charging documents. On his way to the hotel where the 2 
women were staying, the boyfriend drove past a man he said fit his girlfriend's 
description of their attacker. The boyfriend got out of the car and hit 
Fairbourn before alerting police, charges state.

Officers took Fairbourn to the hospital to get treatment for the minor injuries 
before booking him in jail. They later found a blade and sheath matching the 
weapon used in the attacks on the roof of a nearby building, according to the 
documents. Surveillance showed Fairbourn walking in the area before and after 
the incident.

In his initial appearance court on Friday, Fairbourn told Judge Craig Jones 
that he did not commit the crime. He is being held in Sweetwater County jail on 
$1 million bail and will have a June 30 preliminary hearing.

(source: Salt Lake Tribune)






USA:

It's Debatable: An appeal for, against appeals


This week, Arnold Loewy and Charles Moster debate the length of the appeals 
process for the death penalty. Moster is a former litigation attorney in the 
Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush presidential administrations who currently 
has offices in Lubbock and Amarillo, and Arnold is the George Killiam Professor 
of Law at Texas Tech School of Law.

Arnold: Appeals give chance to prove innocence

Our topic for today is whether the appellate and post-conviction processes for 
those condemned to death should be shortened. Specifically the concern seems to 
be that obviously guilty people are allowed to prolong their lives and delay 
their ultimate punishment for too long of a time and at too great an expense 
for the state. My answer to the propounded question is "no."

Undoubtedly my answer is informed by my more general opposition to the death 
penalty, predicated in part by our propensity to convict innocent people and 
our inability to distinguish the worst of the worst from the run of the mill 
murderer. At least the number of appeals and post-conviction remedies we have 
tend to ameliorate the harm of executing the wrong person (assuming you believe 
that there are some "right" people to execute).

Exhibit A is a young (at the time he was convicted) man named Juan Melendez. 
Juan was sentenced to death in Florida and remained on death row for 18 years 
until he was finally exonerated. Happily I got to know Juan when he appeared as 
a guest on my symposium on "Convicting the Innocent." He and I both spoke on 
the same panel: "The Death Penalty in a World where the Innocent are Sometimes 
Convicted." Juan was also a guest in my home at a pre-symposium dinner.

The reason this man was able to brighten up my symposium was he was not 
shortchanged on his ability to eventually establish his innocence. The fact it 
took him 18 years to do it is most unfortunate, but it sure beat the 
alternative.

Of course, one could argue that Melendez was innocent, what about those who are 
obviously guilty? Well, Melendez was convicted by a jury beyond a reasonable 
doubt. Indeed every person who was ever convicted of murder has been (in 
theory) found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

There are all sorts of reasons for this. Misidentification is very common. The 
witness who thinks she saw the defendant but got it wrong. False confessions 
are far more common than one might think, particularly in cases of a skilled 
interrogator and a not too bright or emotionally overwrought defendant. And, of 
course bad forensics (junk science), the invalidity of which takes years to 
determine. Finally jailhouse snitches frequently make up stories about fellow 
inmates in an effort to curry favor with the authorities.

But even if, contrary to fact, we never convicted an innocent person, there 
would still be the question of whether death was the appropriate sentence. 
Unfortunately not all defense lawyers are sufficiently skilled to bring up 
mitigating circumstances. And some prosecutors are sufficiently skilled to make 
an exceedingly ordinary murderer appear to be the worst person ever put on this 
planet.

But let's assume the clearest possible case. Imagine a mass murderer (similar 
to the Orlando nightclub killer, if he had lived and been brought to trial). 
One might legitimately ask: Why do we need to wait on him? He surely is the 
worst of the worst and a quick death is certainly appropriate.

Not necessarily. It is quite possible (maybe even likely) that such a mass 
murderer has some form of mental disease that while not a defense to the crime 
is a relevant circumstance that warrants something other than the death 
penalty. The true worst of the worst are probably Mafia contract killers who 
kill many people for big bucks and then turn on their superiors in exchange for 
a life of relative luxury in the witness protection program.

Charles: Worst of the worst deserve no appeals

Let's begin with consideration of what Professor Loewy refers to as the "worst 
of the worst," the cold-blooded mass murderers who commit the most heinous 
crimes such as the recent Pulse nightclub slaughter in Orlando that shocked the 
country and the world. The perpetrator, Omar Mateen, gunned down 49 people in a 
3-hour rampage. The total carnage hit 50 when this monster was taken out by law 
enforcement. Such result spared the families of the victims the torture of 
reliving these vile acts at the trial court level and endless appeals in the 
event Mr. Mateen were to be convicted. In my view, the appeal rights of those 
committing the most heinous acts should be cut off. There is no question in my 
mind that these murderers should be denied further appeals upon the fair 
disposition of their case by a jury or judge. Once convicted and sentenced to 
death, the penalty should be administered as rapidly as a gurney can be 
obtained and lethal cocktail made available.

As a preface to my argument, I would limit the cutoff of rights to appeal only 
in murder cases where the evidence is uncontroverted that the defendant 
committed the crime. I would exclude cases such as Mr. Melendez, who was 
wrongfully convicted, as well-pointed-out by Professor Loewy. I agree that the 
system can suffer egregious mistakes resulting from forensic errors, 
misidentification, and reliance on circumstantial evidence. In cases where the 
facts are in dispute, defendants should be granted full rights to appeal and 
judicial review. In fact, I would advocate for removing all impediments to 
allowing the consideration of post-conviction evidence that could lead to 
exoneration, including genetic testing.

My argument relates to monsters of civilization like Mateen, the Tsarnev 
brothers (Boston Marathon massacre), Adam Lanza (Sandy Hook), Dylan Storm Roof 
(Charleston church shooting), and Timothy McVeigh (Oklahoma City courthouse 
bombing). The one characteristic shared by all of these crimes is that the 
defendants did the evil act. The evidence that the crime was committed is 
uncontroverted given the nature of the heinous act, a myriad of witnesses, and 
oftentimes, the bragging rights touted by the perpetrator. In the event these 
defendants are convicted by a jury of their peers, all rights of appeal should 
cease at that point and any further effort is not only meritless but cruel. The 
readers will recall that several victims' families of the Boston Marathon 
massacre pleaded with the judge to avoid imposition of the death penalty given 
the unmitigated torture resulting from the onslaught of endless appeals and 
decades of reliving this hellish event.

The pursuit of meritless appeals also imposes an actual cost to society in the 
millions of dollars. Statistics in all states are evidence that the conclusion 
of a death penalty case from conviction to exhaustion of appeals runs into the 
millions of dollars. Each death penalty case in Texas costs taxpayers about 
$2.3 million. This is approximately three times the cost of incarcerating 
someone in a single cell at the highest level of security for 40 years.

The final issue to consider is whether defendants should be allowed to raise 
appeals relating to the use of the insanity defense. Professor Loewy suggests 
this is a relevant consideration at the sentencing phase. I agree. However, I 
would also cut off any rights to appeal when the evidence is uncontroverted 
that the perpetrator was not acting under a mental infirmity but sought to 
carry out a calculated agenda, political, religious or otherwise. Case in point 
is Timothy McVeigh???s statement justifying the mass death of the innocents who 
happened to be at the Oklahoma City Federal Courthouse that day. Said Mr. 
McVeigh, "I am sorry these people had to lose their lives, but that's the 
nature of the beast. It's understood going in what the human toll will be."

When the evidence of conviction is uncontroverted, it serves the greater 
interest of society and certainly the families of the victims to end the appeal 
charade and to administer the death penalty swiftly. I would urge that the 
sentence be carried out within 24 hours of conviction.

Arnold: Heinousness isn't same as uncontrovertable

Mr. Moster appears to conflate heinousness with certainty. In fact the most 
heinous crimes, including the ones he mentioned, are not among those for which 
the evidence was most certain. Nobody witnessed McVeigh's bombing. Rather he 
was tracked by his rental of a Ryder truck that was believed to be the one used 
in the bombing. And, his alleged cohort, Terry Nichols, claimed innocence.

The Tsarnev brothers were convicted based on innuendo predicated on a grainy 
photograph taken by bystanders at the Marathon. And Adam Lanza was originally 
misidentified as his brother Ryan, a Wall Street businessman.

But, more importantly, an uncontroverted murder case is exceedingly rare. 
Suppose, for example, Omar Mateen had escaped from the nightclub after 
murdering 49 people. Suppose further that the next day someone was captured who 
looked like Mateen who claimed that he was sleeping alone at home at the time 
of the killing and had been subsequently captured the next day. Suppose further 
that he said: "I didn't do it. I know the witnesses say they saw me, but it 
must have been someone who looked like me (which in this case it was). After 
all, witnesses make wrong identifications all the time."

After our hypothetical defendant is convicted, would we say his guilt is 
uncontroverted. I hope not. Now let's vary the hypothetical and assume Mateen 
is captured the next day. He tells the same story, is disbelieved and 
convicted. Is his conviction more uncontroverted than the hypothetical 
defendant who was actually innocent? I really don't think so.

So, because there is no correlation between uncontroverted and heinousness, 
because any defendant wishing to cut off the fast track to execution could 
simply say he didn???t do it, and because the procedure for determining when 
guilt is "uncontroverted" would likely be unseemly and time-consuming (and 
maybe itself subject to the appellate process), I think that Mr. Moster's 
proposal is a bad idea that should not be adopted.

Mr. Moster does, however, make a powerful case for abolishing the death 
penalty. He tells us (correctly) how much more expensive it is to execute a 
defendant than to incarcerate him in maximum security for 40 years. He also 
tells us how much additional suffering capital punishment would have caused the 
families of the Boston Marathon victims. Again, he is totally correct.

But his solution will not fix the problem. I have no doubt that the necessary 
hearings to determine whether guilt was "uncontroverted" will prolong and not 
reduce the time between conviction and execution, and the expense attached 
thereto.

Mr. Moster's proposal does have surface appeal. Wouldn't it be great to go back 
to the Wild West of Dodge City where if you didn't lynch him first, you 
arrested him on Monday, tried him on Tuesday and hung him on Wednesday? 
Alternatively, couldn't we at least do that where we know the defendant is 
guilty? The problem is that we know no such thing.

As I have shown, heinousness is no proxy for certainty. God may be certain of 
guilt, but humans lack that skill. We have to use the best tools available. 
Most of the time we get it right, but sometimes we don't. When we don't, and 
nobody knows when that is, we need to have procedures in place to rectify our 
errors, and not just pretend that the case is so "uncontroverted" as to be 
impossible of error.

Or better yet, we could join with the victims of the Boston Marathon massacre 
and ask that the death penalty not be used, or maybe even abolished.

Charles: When evidence is uncontrovertable, do it

Professor Loewy makes his case by using hypothetical situations that exemplify 
the lack of certainty in proving up heinous crimes. However, I am unclear 
whether Professor Loewy would endorse my plan to eliminate appeals in cases 
where the murderous act is accompanied by uncontroverted evidence, which he 
concedes is exceedingly rare, but not impossible.

Let's try this hypothetical on for size and see if we can get to the truth of 
the matter. Suppose in the aftermath of the Orlando massacre, Mr. Mateen 
survived along with four witnesses who could positively identify him as the 
perpetrator of the crime. Further suppose that Mr. Mateen had 2 Nazi swastikas 
tattooed on each side of his face in purple ink. Finally, let us suppose that 
three different video cameras captured images of Mr. Mateen executing his 
victims at 3 different locations at the Pulse nightclub with perfect views of 
his face and the tattooed swastikas. Given what I would offer up as 
uncontroverted evidence of murderous acts, would Professor Loewy still oppose 
my proposal to cut off all rights of appeal upon the conviction of this 
hypothetical monster by a jury of his peers?

>From a pure logic standpoint, there is no rational basis for allowing a 
convicted murderer in the above hypothetical situation the right to pursue 
appeals of the trial court decision. The evidence of the commission of the 
heinous act is 360 degrees and then some. What possible interest could be 
served by allowing this monster to avoid the immediate administration of the 
death penalty? To the contrary, immediate execution would spare the victim 
families the horror of reliving the endless facade of meritless appeals and 
save the taxpayers millions of dollars right off the bat.

Finally, I would add the additional retributive element in support of my 
proposal to eliminate appeals in cases where the evidence of murder is 
uncontroverted. It is appropriate and correct for society to mete out the 
ultimate punishment to individuals who commit the most heinous acts. Any lesser 
punishment would negate the value society places on protecting lives. One of 
the most compelling justifications for the application of retributive justice 
is the following incident of murder recounted by Robert Macy, district attorney 
in Oklahoma City. "In 1991, a young mother was rendered helpless and made to 
watch as her baby was executed. The mother was then mutilated and killed. The 
killer should not lie in some prison with three meals a day, clean sheets, 
cable TV, family visits and endless appeals. For justice to prevail, some 
killers just need to die."

The above quote says it all. The demons of society have no right to take 
another breath or walk the Earth for yet another day upon conviction in the 
presence of uncontroverted evidence.

(source: Editorial, Lubbock Avalanche-Journal)





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

Draft of Dems' policy positions reflects Sanders' influence


A draft of the Democratic Party's policy positions reflects the influence of 
Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign: endorsing steps to break up large Wall 
Street banks, advocating a $15 hourly wage, urging an end to the death penalty.

Hillary Clinton's supporters turned back efforts by Sanders' allies to promote 
a Medicare-for-all single-payer health care system and a carbon tax to address 
climate change, and freeze hydraulic fracking.

While the platform does not bind the Democratic nominee to the stated 
positions, it serves as a guidepost for the party moving forward. Party 
officials approved the draft early Saturday.

The Democratic National Convention's full Platform Committee will discuss the 
draft at a meeting next month in Orlando, Florida, with a vote at the 
convention in Philadelphia in late July.

Sanders said Friday he would vote for Clinton, the presumptive nominee, in the 
fall election, but so far has stopped short of fully endorsing the former 
secretary of state or encouraging his millions of voters to back her candidacy.

The Vermont senator has said he wants the platform to reflect his goals - and 
those representing him at a St. Louis hotel said they had made progress.

"We lost some but we won some," said James Zogby, a Sanders supporter on the 
committee. "We got some great stuff in the platform that has never been in 
there before." Added Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., a Sanders ally: "We've made 
some substantial moves forward."

Deliberating late into Friday, the group considered language on the 
Israel-Palestinian conflict, an issue that has divided Democrats. The committee 
defeated an amendment led by Zogby that would have called for providing 
Palestinians with "an end to occupation and illegal settlements" and urged an 
international effort to rebuild Gaza.

The draft reflects Clinton's views and advocates working toward a "2-state 
solution of the Israel-Palestinian conflict" that guarantees Israel's security 
with recognized borders "and provides the Palestinians with independence, 
sovereignty, and dignity."

In many cases, Clinton's side gave ground to Sanders. The document calls for 
the expansion of Social Security and says Americans should earn at least $15 an 
hour, referring to the current minimum wage of $7.25 an hour as a "starvation 
wage," a term often used by Sanders.

Sanders has pushed for a $15-an-hour minimum wage. Clinton has supported 
efforts to raise the minimum wage to that level but has said states and cities 
should raise the bar as high as possible.

Sanders' allies wanted the draft to specify that a $15 per hour minimum wage 
should be indexed with inflation. Clinton's side struck down that idea, noting 
the document included a call to "raise and index the minimum wage."

The committee also adopted language that said it supports ways to prevent banks 
from gambling with taxpayers' bank deposits, "including an updated and 
modernized version of Glass-Steagall."

Sanders wants to reinstate the Depression-era Glass-Steagall Act, which 
prohibited commercial banks from engaging in investment banking activities. 
Clinton does not, but says her proposed financial changes would cast a wider 
net by regulating the banking system.

Also in the draft is a call for the abolition of the death penalty. Clinton 
said during a debate this year that capital punishment should only be used in 
limited cases involving "heinous crimes." Sanders said the government should 
not use it.

Sanders, a vociferous opponent of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, was unable to 
get language into the document opposing the trade deal. As a result, the party 
avoided an awkward scenario that would have put the platform at odds with 
President Barack Obama.

Clinton and Sanders have opposed the deal. Committee members backed a measure 
that said "there are a diversity of views in the party" on the pact and 
reaffirmed that Democrats contend any trade deal "must protect workers and the 
environment."

In a setback for Sanders, the panel narrowly rejected amendments that would 
have imposed a tax on carbon and imposed a national freeze on fracking.

The panel deliberated for about nine hours following several late nights and 
long hours of policy exchanges between the 2 campaigns and the Democratic 
National Committee.

Sanders, in a statement, said he was "disappointed and dismayed" that the group 
voted down the measure opposing the TPP. But he was pleased with the proposals 
on Glass-Steagall and the death penalty - and vowed to fight on.

"Our job is to pass the most progressive platform in the history of the 
Democratic Party," he said.

(source: Associated Press)