[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----UTAH, ORE., USA

[Rick Halperin]

May 30



UTAH:

Death penalty appeal: Witnesses had to choose between testifying in favor of 
killer or obeying LDS Church


Several witnesses called to testify in Douglas Anderson Lovell's death penalty 
trial last year say they faced a hard choice: Either testify on behalf of a 
murderer they had come to know as a friend or appease their leaders within The 
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and stay silent.

Lovell is appealing the outcome of his 2015 trial in which jurors sentenced him 
to be executed for the 1985 killing of Joyce Yost. In newly filed appellate 
court papers, the death row inmate accuses the Mormon church and its attorneys 
of meddling in his trial by telling his former bishops not to testify or to 
limit what they said on the stand.

A former mentor even came to Lovell in tears the day before the start of the 
trial and asked the inmate to not call him as a character witness, Lovell wrote 
in an affidavit filed with the Utah Supreme Court. The man told Lovell that a 
"member above him" in the church had told him he could not testify.

"It was obvious to me that [he] was torn between testifying for me and his 
loyalty to obey his church leaders," Lovell wrote. "My heart truly ached for 
[him] because I knew him well enough to know that he was devastated."

'It got so ridiculous ... ' And he wasn't the only Mormon who was told not to 
testify. Lovell's appellate attorney, Samuel Newton, wrote in court papers that 
4 other bishops and a woman who was serving an LDS mission at the time of the 
trial also reported they were told to either not testify or give only short 
answers, so it would not appear they were representing the church while 
approving of a murderer. 1 bishop reported that a member of the Quorum of the 
70, a senior administrative body in the LDS Church, had contacted him and 
instructed him not to testify.

"The church, out of concern for its policies, pressured witnesses not to 
testify or cooperate with Mr. Lovell," Newton wrote. "And put witnesses in the 
position of having to disobey their church leaders to support Mr. Lovell."

When the 4 church members who did testify took the stand, attorneys on both 
sides made a point of letting jurors know they were there under subpoena and 
did not represent the views of the Utah-based faith, which has a neutral stance 
on the death penalty. 1 juror later wrote in an affidavit that the repeated 
references had a negative impact on him and the other jurors.

"It felt to me like [Deputy Weber County Attorney Jeffrey] Thomson was trying 
to make sure that, by the bishops 'forgiving and liking' Doug, it didn't mean 
the LDS Church would forgive/like Doug because he was a convicted murderer," 
the juror wrote. "It was like the prosecutor was trying so hard to make sure 
their testimony was separated from official church business and it got so 
ridiculous by the end."

Newton said the church's lawyers, with the law firm Kirton McConkie, have 
continued to interfere with Lovell's case by blocking the appellate attorney's 
attempts to contact those same bishops and get more information from them as he 
prepares Lovell's appeal.

In a written statement, LDS Church spokesman Eric Hawkins said any limitations 
to witness testimony were agreed to by the church and Lovell's trial attorneys.

"Church leaders do not generally participate in legal proceedings in which the 
church is not directly involved," Hawkins said. "In this case, these leaders 
were required by subpoena to appear in court. Their statements represent their 
personal experiences and opinions. They do not speak for the church. Our hearts 
go out to the victims of this unspeakable crime."

Through his attorney, Lovell declined to comment for this story because he did 
not want to cause "unnecessary pain" to Yost's family. Newton said in a 
statement to The Salt Lake Tribune that Lovell has great respect for the LDS 
Church and a love for the bishops who worked with him throughout the years and 
became his friends.

"He was saddened, however, that the church, institutionally, took steps to 
limit or prevent these bishops from testifying on his behalf at his trial and 
on appeal," Newton said. "He is hopeful that the church will, if the Supreme 
Court grants his motion for remand, allow these former leaders to fully testify 
about their love for Mr. Lovell, the changes they have observed in him and 
their belief that he could succeed in society."

Fired public defender Newton is asking the Utah Supreme Court to remand the 
case back to the 2nd District Court so an evidentiary hearing can be held and 
witnesses can be questioned as he mounts an ineffective-assistance-of-counsel 
claim.

In the motion, Newton also asserts that one of Lovell's trial attorneys, Sean 
Young, failed to object to the church interference until after the trial. The 
appellate attorney alleges that Young did virtually no work on his case and 
"wholly abandoned his role as counsel."

After the trial, Lovell received a number of letters from supporters who said 
they wanted to testify about how he was a changed man - but added that his 
defense team never contacted them. They would have said that Lovell's life had 
worth, and that Lovell was remorseful for his crimes and could be 
rehabilitated, according to their letters and affidavits.

Lovell's lead trial attorney, Michael Bouwhuis, wrote in an affidavit that 
Young, his co-counsel, was assigned to interview and prepare 18 witnesses, 
including former church leaders, Lovell's family members, and an inmate who 
said Lovell positively affected his life.

Of those 18, only 2 have said that they were contacted by Young before trial - 
but the conversations were brief and mostly concerned when they would testify, 
not the substance of what they would say.

(source: Salt Lake Tribune)






OREGON:

Head of victim family group to speak in Portland


Those who lose a loved one to murder feel unimaginable sadness, sorrow, rage 
and anger. But members of Murder Victim Families for Reconciliation explain 
that the death penalty doesn't help. Instead, they say things like: "Don't kill 
in my name", or "An execution is only more violence and does not bring 
closure."

The Rev. Jack Sullivan Jr., executive director of the nationwide organization, 
will be keynote speaker at the June 22 annual meeting and banquet of Oregonians 
for Alternatives to the Death Penalty. Representing more than 4,000 members 
from across the country, Rev. Sullivan, a native of Cleveland, speaks with the 
authority that comes with enduring the murder of someone you love. In 1997, his 
younger sister, Jennifer, was slain in Cleveland at age 21. No one was ever 
arrested in the killing.

"Stop the killing and invest in smart-on-crime solutions rather than the 
millions of dollars that Oregon taxpayers spend to keep a death penalty on the 
books," Rev. Sullivan says.

Aba Gayle of Silverton lost her daughter Catherine to murder. She became a 
member of Murder Victim Families for Reconciliation 24 years ago.

"An execution is a state-sanctioned, premeditated murder," says Gayle. "Murder 
is wrong whether it occurs in a home, on the street, in a school or in a 
prison. It is the ultimate violation of human rights. An execution would 
dishonor my daughter's memory".

In addition to the keynote speech by Rev. Sullivan, there will be presentation 
of the Sister Helen Prejean Award, an annual recognition of outstanding service 
to Oregonians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty and the efforts to repeal 
execution policy in the state.

The introduction of the keynote speaker will be handled by Portland resident 
Becky O'Neil McBrayer, who lost her mother and step-father to murder 10 years 
ago and now speaks of reconciliation and the futility of the death penalty.

The meeting and banquet are set for The Madeleine Parish Hall, 3123 NE 24th 
Ave. in Portland. It starts with a 5 p.m. reception. Dinner follows at 6 p.m. 
Tickets are available at oadp.org or by calling (503) 551-1349.

(source: Catholic Sentinel)






USA:

What Are the Implications of Sentencing Dylann Roof to Death?


How will executing Dylann Roof help the Black community?

Author Ta-Nehisi Coates pondered the irony of executing Charleston church 
shooter Dylann Roof in an interesting piece for The Atlantic.

On the evening of June 17, 2015, the white Nationalist quietly sat in on a 
prayer service at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church before opening 
fire on the unsuspecting worshippers killing 9, including state senator 
Clementa Pinckney.

In addition to a count of murder for each of the deceased, Roof faces 3 counts 
of attempted murder, possession of a firearm and federal hate crime charges.

U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch announced Tuesday that she would seek the 
death penalty in the case.

In the article, Coates argues that killing Roof flies directly in the face of 
the nonviolence trope American "powers that be" impose on victims of racial 
hostility and injustice.

"The symbol of this approach is, of course, Martin Luther King Jr. One problem 
with using King in this way is that the actual King had an annoying habit of 
preaching nonviolence, whether it was convenient or not. Whereas American power 
generally regards nonviolence as a means of cynically enforcing order, King 
believed protesters should be exemplars of nonviolence, but not its unique 
employers."

He allows that adopting King's mantra is no easy task for this country, making 
the assertion that the very formation of any nation is inherently violent. It 
is the duty of all governments to protect the interests of its citizens at all 
costs. Still, he argues, the US should strive to lead by example and sparing 
Roof's life is the ideal opportunity.

"If the families of Roof's victims can find the grace of forgiveness within 
themselves; if the president can praise them for it; if the public can be awed 
by it - then why can't the Department of Justice act in the spirit of that 
grace and resist the impulse to kill?"

Finally, Coates concludes that the execution will do nothing but support the 
same system that has disproportionately arrested, incarcerated and put to death 
millions of innocent African-Americans.

"Moreover, killing Roof does absolutely nothing to ameliorate the conditions 
that brought him into being in the first place. The hammer of criminal justice 
is the preferred tool of a society that has run out of ideas. In this sense, 
Roof is little more than a human sacrifice to The Gods of Doing Nothing. Leave 
aside actual substantive policy. In a country where unapologetic slaveholders 
and regressive white supremacists still, at this late date, adorn our state 
capitals and our highest institutions of learning, it is bizarre to kill a man 
who acted in their spirit. And killing Roof, like the business of the capital 
punishment itself, ensures that innocent people will be executed. The need to 
extract vengeance cannot always be exact. It is all but certain that a 
disproportionate number of those who pay for this lack of precision will not 
look like Dylann Roof."

Friday, the Atlantic posted a few responses to Coates' piece, including a 
rather interesting conclusion by reader Tim Tyson, that an execution may lead 
to a spike in mass killings by white supremacists.

"Capital punishment in this case will do nothing to deter similar violence. In 
fact, making a white supremacist martyr of Dylann Roof may ultimately cause 
more violence, just as the government's lethal violence at Ruby Ridge in 1992 
and Waco in 1993 inspired the white supremacist terror bombing of the federal 
building in Oklahoma City in 1995."

Does Tyson have a point?

There's a wealth of conspiracy theorist websites and youtube videos dedicated 
to debunking the incident as fake, a government-endorsed charade meant to 
inspire irrational fear and tougher gun control laws.

Hours after the shooting neo-Nazi leader Morris Gulett applauded Roof on his 
website, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.

"I, for one, am very glad to see young people like Dylan Roof acting like men 
instead of the old 60's era hippies stoned on weed and interracial love," 
Gulett wrote.

"We had better see much more of this type of activism if we ever expect to see 
our America return to it's [sic] rightful place in the world and our children 
grow up in a clean safe healthy enviroment [sic]."

Radar Online reported the Ku Klux Klan updated its recorded greeting for new 
recruits to a congratulatory message following the attack.

"The KKK would like to say hail victory to the young warrior in South Carolina, 
Dylann S. Roof who decided to do what the Bible told him. If we had 10,000 more 
men like this young man, America would not be in the shape that it is in now."

Is it unreasonable to assume that these hate groups would mobilize and finally 
make good on decades-long promises of a "race war"? Roof's trial is scheduled 
for Jan. 17 2017.

(source: Atlanta Black Star)