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

[Rick Halperin]

Nov. 19



UTAH:

Conservative Coalition Questions Utah's Death Penalty Policy


A group of Utah conservatives concerned about the death penalty is hoping to 
encourage the public and policy makers to rethink death penalty policy in the 
state. The group is called Utah Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty 
and is a project of the Utah Justice Coalition.

Kevin Green is an attorney with the coalition and one of the founding members 
of the group representing a growing number of Utah conservatives questioning 
whether capital punishment is consistent with conservative principles and 
values. He says there is inefficiency, inequity, and inaccuracy in the system.

"Personally, for me is the possibility that an innocent person could be put to 
death," Green said. "That happens and will continue to happen as long as the 
system is the way it is."

"For a lot of victim families the death penalty just draws out their torment 
and anguish for decades. There are a lot of victim families who don't support 
the death penalty simply because of what they have to go through," he said.

At last count, 156 individuals nationwide have been freed from death rows due 
to wrongful convictions. This week the group invited one of those exonorees, 
Ray Krone, to come to Pleasant Grove, Utah to share his story to help educate 
the public about his 10 years in prison, 3 of those years were spent on death 
row for a murder he did not commit.

"He said it is not about those 10 years but about what I do in the next 10 
years. I think that resonated with a lot of people because he spent the last 15 
years now advocating for much needed change and telling his story all across 
the country," Green said.

Most of the group's education efforts are made through sponsored events they 
promote on their Facebook page. This a relatively new group working to 
encourage communities to take action. Green says this is not a lobbying 
organization but one that provides an education platform to discuss the death 
penalty.

(source: upr.org)






OREGON:

5 Oregon death sentences stem from murder of inmates


Of the 35 people on Oregon's death row, 5 are there because they killed another 
inmate while incarcerated.

Why are 1 in 7 people on Oregon's death row there for killing another inmate 
while in secured custody?

Avoiding prison violence is balancing act of staffing, security, searches, 
rewarding good behavior and respecting inmates' rights, prison officials said.

"DOC takes any assaults within our facilities very seriously, and each is 
thoroughly investigated," said Betty Bernt, spokeswoman for Oregon Department 
of Corrections. "The safety and security of our staff and those in our custody 
is our top priority."

Assaults in Oregon prisons appear to be gradually declining. The Oregon 
Department of Corrections reported more than 2,000 assaults in 2014. The next 
year, the number dipped to below 1,800.

Bernt said officials use various measures such as intake assessments, proper 
housing decisions and security presence to prevent misconduct. In 1990, the 
Office of the Inspector General was created to investigate suspected, alleged 
or actual misconduct within the Department of Corrections.

People connected with verified assaults are punished with sanctions, fines and 
loss of privileges. Prisons also implement anger management classes, and use 
non-cash incentives to encourage good behavior, Bernt said.

Five inmates have been indicted for homicide in the past 5 years, including the 
strangling death of 45-year-old Joseph Akins by his cell mate, Craig Bjork, in 
2013. Bjork, already a convicted murderer, was also found guilty off beating 
another inmate to death in 1997 at a Minnesota prison.

The 5 men on Oregon's death row who got there by killing a fellow inmate are:

--David Bartol, 45, who was sentenced to death Nov. 10. He will become the 35th 
person on Oregon death row and the 5th person since the state reintroduced 
capital punishment to be given the death penalty for killing another inmate. 
Bartol was convicted of stabbing Gavin Siscel, 33, in the eye with a shank 
fashioned from a plastic tote bin in 2013 while they were being held at Marion 
County jail.

--Gary Haugen, 54, and Jason Brumwell, 41, were convicted of stabbing and 
beating another inmate at the Oregon State Penitentiary and sentenced to death. 
Both were already serving life sentences for murder.

--Isacc Agee, 39, wrapped a cement rock with cloth and beat a man with it in a 
prison cell at the penitentiary.

--David Lee Cox, 51, was sentenced to death for stabbing an OSP inmate in a 
dispute over drugs.

To be convicted for aggravated murder, the only crime that allows for a death 
sentence, a suspect needs to have committed murder under aggravating 
circumstances. Murders for hire, murders with more than 1 victim, murders of 
young victims and murders involving torture all can be tried for aggravated 
murder.

According to Oregon law, a defendant also can be tried for aggravated murder if 
they committed the crime while confined in a state, county or municipal 
correctional facility.

After finding a defendant guilty, and before reaching a unanimous verdict of 
death, a jury must consider whether the murder was committed deliberately, 
whether it was an unreasonable response to provocation, and whether the 
defendant would continue to be a threat to society.

Often, the people convicted of murder while in custody have long criminal 
histories that demonstrate they will be dangerous in the future, said Marion 
County District Attorney Walt Beglau.

The prosecution takesthe defendant's violent history and the case evidence into 
account when seeking the death penalty, he added.

During Bartol's trial, Marion County Deputy District Attorney Matthew Kemmy 
argued that Bartol's dangerous behavior would not change, and he needed to be 
held accountable for the "nauseatingly violent" attack.

Prosecutors said incarceration on death row, where inmates are housed in single 
cells under maximum custody and segregated from the general population, would 
keep Bartol from harming other inmates.

People in prisons and jails have the right to be safe, Beglau said.

Oregon is among 31 states that have the death penalty, however four of those 
states, including Washington and Oregon, have a moratorium in place. In 
neighboring Washington, only 9 people are on death row; of those 9, none was 
sentenced to death for killing another inmate. Washington state law considers 
murdering someone while incarcerated a capital crime. According to the Bureau 
of Justice Statistics, 7 inmates died from homicide in Washington state prisons 
and correctional facilities between 2001 and 2013. In the same period, Oregon 
state and federal prisons reported 6 homicides.

Oregon is not alone in sentencing those convicted in inmate slayings to death. 
7 of the 62 people on federal death row were sentenced to death for killing 
while incarcerated.

With nearly 100 inmate homicides reported at state correctional facilities 
nationwide in 2013, the murder rate inside prison is much lower it was in the 
1980s. The Bureau of Justice Statistics reported that the rate dropped 93 % 
from 1980 to 2002.

In some states, including Oregon, the homicide rate in prison is lower than the 
national homicide rate of 4.9 per 100,000 people, according to the FBI.

(source: Statesman Journal)

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

Oregon Innocence Project asks for new DNA tests in death row murder case


The Oregon Innocence Project this week filed a motion in Marion County Circuit 
Court requesting that dozens of pieces of evidence in a 1998 murder either be 
tested again or for the 1st time, arguing significant advances in forensic 
science may lead to the exoneration of a death row inmate.

The case of Jesse L. Johnson is the 1st DNA-related challenge taken up by the 
Oregon Innocence Project.

Johnson, now 55, was sentenced to death in 2004 for the fatal stabbing of 
Harriet Lavern "Sunny" Thompson, 28, in her Salem house.

It took 6 years to try Johnson because prosecutors appealed rulings that police 
had illegally seized Johnson's boots and clothes. Johnson's attorneys argued 
that the delay denied him his constitutional right to a speedy trial.

The Oregon Innocence Project reviewed more than 200 requests and has taken just 
a handful of cases, including Johnson's, said legal director Steven Wax. His 
staff worked on the Johnson case for more than a year and a half, he said.

"Our review of the evidence and the potential for DNA testing suggested that 
there are sufficient questions that could be answered by the testing," said 
Wax, who served as the Oregon Federal Public Defender for three decades before 
retiring 2 years ago.

In a court filing this week, Johnson maintains his innocence.

He asks the court to order 38 pieces of evidence be tested for DNA or retested 
using the latest standards.

A forensic analysis of the items "would exclude me from commission of the crime 
of which I have been convicted and show someone else committed the crime," he 
said.

In an affidavit, he acknowledged he had been in Thompson's apartment, but none 
of the physical evidence "connected to me is significant with regard to the 
crime."

Walt Beglau, the Marion County district attorney, didn't respond to an email 
seeking comment.

The motion filed by the Oregon Innocence Project claims that the Oregon State 
Police crime lab used outdated techniques to test the evidence and didn't do a 
thorough forensic examination. The motion asks that a private lab carry out the 
analysis "because of the complexity of the tests required and the manner in 
which the Oregon State Police laboratories have handled the testing of Mr. 
Johnson's case to date."

Some of the evidence Johnson wants tested hasn't previously undergone DNA 
analysis. Some of the analyses were flawed or produced results that excluded 
Johnson, the motion argues.

The filing notes that DNA analysis and other testing of at least 11 items found 
no tie to Johnson. Among them: Cuttings from a gold towel found in the bathroom 
had blood from the victim and another person. Testing found Johnson wasn't a 
match for the second person. The blood and palm prints on a towel and the 
toilet tank were linked to the son of the victim's former roommate.

Pre-trial testing found that a blood spot in the dining room didn't come from 
Johnson, the court filing says. Johnson's shoe type wasn't a match for the 
print found at the crime scene. Hair samples collected from the scene weren't 
Johnson's.

While tests excluded Johnson, they didn't help identify other potential 
suspects, the motion states.

But Johnson said in the filing that "examination of physical evidence would 
exclude me from commission of the crime of which I have been convicted and show 
someone else committed the crime."

What's more, scientific analysis performed after Johnson's conviction was never 
completed but included tests on the victim's vaginal swabs showing a match to 
another man who Wax argues was "apparently not previously investigated in 
relation to Mr. Johnson's case."

That individual had a criminal history that includes assault and robbery, the 
court document notes.

Wax argued in the motion that of the nearly 2,000 people wrongly convicted of 
crimes nationwide since 1989, 347 were tied to DNA analysis. Since 2001, the 
Oregon Legislature has made it easier to obtain DNA testing after a person has 
been convicted of a serious crime.

The Oregon Innocence Project is part of the Oregon Justice Resource Center, a 
Portland-based organization that advocates for criminal justice reforms. The 
Oregon Innocence Project earlier this year filed a friend of the court brief 
raising questions about the conviction of Frank Gable, found guilty in the 
notorious 1989 murder of Oregon's top prison official.

(source: oregonlive.com)






USA:

Despite election results, death penalty less popular with prosecutors


To believe the results on Election Day, the American public is as gung-ho about 
putting those convicted of heinous crimes to death as ever.

Oklahoma put the death penalty in its state constitution, legalizing killing 
those sentenced to death by any method not specifically banned by the federal 
government. Meanwhile, Nebraska voted to repeal its ban on the death penalty 
and California voted to keep the death penalty for the 2nd time in 4 years.

And while Georgia goes through the process of executing prisoners on death row 
at what, until now, was an unusual rate, the appetite for capital punishment 
does not seem to be there among state prosecutors or Peach State juries.

As Jerry Word, director of the state Office of the Capital Defender, notes, a 
jury hasn't settled on the ultimate sentence in 2 years.

"I can say a couple things - there's not been a death verdict in Georgia since 
March of 2014," Word said. "So, we're approaching over 2 1/2 years since a jury 
has handed down a death verdict in Georgia. And we've had several death trials 
- we had 3 this year, in fact, that all resulted in life without parole 
verdicts. So, I think there's a combination of factors, in my opinion.

"I think juries are comfortable with life without parole as an alternative to 
the death penalty, and we're seeing that more and more with the jury verdicts 
we're seeing around the state. I think prosecutors are becoming more and more 
comfortable that life without parole is a good alternative for a couple of 
reasons. I think life without parole gives closure to the family (of the 
victim) and the person with life without parole is still dying in prison."

Cobb County District Attorney Vic Reynolds, who on Monday was in Brunswick to 
see a Glynn County jury convict Justin Ross Harris on all counts in his murder 
and sex crimes trial, said he continues to see a place for the death penalty in 
Georgia's criminal justice system.

"I still think it's necessary, and I still think we'll see prosecutors asking 
for it, but the reality now is that with the life (in prison) without (parole) 
option, that some cases which may very well have been considered for the death 
penalty are no longer considered," Reynolds said following the trial. "The way 
I look at it, and this is from a metropolitan county of more than 140,000 
people with some pretty heinous crime, the death penalty to me is a crime where 
the only reason you're trying it is to determine the sentence - guilt is not 
even an issue, it's only the sentence. And so, those cases are few and far 
between."

Reynolds chose not to seek death in the Harris case, and Harris will likely 
face life in prison with parole or life without, on whether the case survives 
appeal and depending on the sentence handed down by Cobb County Superior Court 
Judge Mary Staley Clark following her sentencing conference Dec. 5.

Word said that with a sentence of life without parole, the guilty party still 
won't die a free person.

"It's just a matter of whether they die from lethal injection, or whether they 
die from natural causes," Word said. "But it kind of gives closure - there's no 
more of these lengthy appeals, so I think there's a lot of things at work. I 
think there are more people opposed to the death penalty than there used to be.

"So, I'm not sure you can attribute it to one factor or another, but I think 
it's a combination of all those things that is maybe just making it less 
attractive to prosecutors. Plus, it's still expensive and very time-consuming 
and very difficult to try death penalty cases."

(source: The Golden Isles News)

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

Trump's CIA Director Wants Death Penalty For Snowden


President Elect Donald Trump has tapped Rep. Mike Pompeo to head the Central 
Intelligence Agency. Pompeo said recently that NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden 
"should be brought back from Russia and given due process," the "proper 
outcome" of which he thinks is a death sentence.

Pompeo called Snowden a "traitor" on C-SPAN, reports the Washington Examiner, 
and said that he "put people's lives at risk by divulging secrets about U.S. 
intelligence gathering."

Pompeo's call for capital punishment of Snowden echoes Trump's own view. "I 
think he's a terrible traitor," Trump said in a 2013 appearance on Fox and 
Friends, according to Time. "You know what we used to do in the good old days 
when we were a strong country? You know what we used to do to traitors, right?"

The republican congressman from Kansas, who has served on the House 
Intelligence Committee, and the Select Committee on Benghazi, has drawn fire 
from House democrats, according to CNN.

"The Department of Justice and the CIA need nonpartisan leaders the American 
people can trust implicitly," Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi said in a 
statement. "Yet Congressman Mike Pompeo, a leading cheerleader of the Benghazi 
witch hunt, is now being asked to fill one of the most serious and sober 
national security positions there is."

Trump has promised to improve relations with Russia, according to the Guardian, 
but Snowden says he's not concerned with the prospect of the incoming president 
striking a deal with Vladimir Putin to secure his extradition to the U.S.

"I don't worry about it," Snowden said in a webchat hosted by the Dutch 
privacy-oriented search engine StartPage. "It's possible. It would be crazy to 
dismiss the idea of this guy who presents himself as a big deal maker [Trump] 
as trying to make a deal."

Time reports that Snowded added: "While I can't predict what the future looks 
like, I don't know what's going to happen tomorrow, I can be comfortable with 
the way I've lived today," he said. "And no matter what happens, if there's a 
drone strike or I slip and fall down the stairs, that's something that won't 
change. As long as we do our best to live in accordance with our values, we 
don't have to worry about what happens tomorrow."

(source: opposingviews.com)

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

Sessions: Case of Central Park 5, later exonerated, shows Trump's dedication to 
'law and order'


Sen. Jeff Sessions said Thursday that Donald Trump's 1989 campaign to bring 
back the death penalty for the "Central Park 5" shows the Republican nominee is 
serious about "law and order," though all 5 of the men convicted in that crime 
were eventually exonerated.

"Trump has always been this way," Sessions told WAPI radio in Alabama. "People 
say he wasn't a conservative, but he bought an ad 20 years ago in The New York 
Times calling for the death penalty. How many people in New York, that liberal 
bastion, were willing to do something like that?"

Better known then as a construction magnate and socialite, Trump bought space 
in multiple New York City newspapers calling for the execution of the 5 black 
and Hispanic teens accused of raping a jogger in Central Park. The full page 
ads read, "Bring Back The Death Penalty. Bring Back Our Police!"

The men, all between the ages of 14 and 16 at the time of the attack, were 
convicted in a pair of trials in 1990.

But more than a decade later, serial rapist and murderer Matias Reyes came 
forward and confessed to the crime.

An examination of the evidence, including DNA samples, confirmed that he had 
acted alone. The "Central Park 5" were exonerated and in 2014, awarded a $41 
million settlement.

"He believes in law and order and he has the strength and will to make this 
country safer," Sessions continued, in an interview first surfaced by BuzzFeed. 
"And the biggest benefits from that, really, are poor people in the 
neighborhoods that are most dangerous where most of the crime is occurring. And 
I think people can come to understand that if the message continues to pound 
away."

As the negotiations neared a close, Trump wrote an op-ed in the New York Daily 
News calling the terms a "disgrace."

"40 million dollars is a lot of money for the taxpayers of New York to pay when 
we are already the highest taxed city and state in the country," he wrote. "The 
recipients must be laughing out loud at the stupidity of the city."

(source: CNN)