[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----FLA., ARK., MO., CALIF., USA

[Rick Halperin]

August 21



FLORIDA----impending execution

Florida set to conduct its 1st execution in a year and a half



Ahead of a planned resumption of executions in Florida on 24 August, 18 months 
after the last one, Amnesty International is issuing a paper on recent 
developments relating to the death penalty in the US state.

"Death in Florida" outlines the state's response to the January 2016 US Supreme 
Court decision that Florida's capital sentencing law was unconstitutional, and 
the governor's reaction to a prosecutor's subsequent decision to reject the 
death penalty.

When State Attorney Aramis Ayala announced that she would not seek the death 
penalty due to its demonstrable flaws, Governor Scott immediately responded by 
ordering her replacement with a different prosecutor more willing to engage in 
this lethal pursuit. So far the Governor has transferred 26 cases to his 
preferred prosecutor.

Racial discrimination was 1 of the death penalty's flaws - along with its 
costs, risks and failure as a deterrent - cited by State Attorney Ayala, the 
1st African American to be elected to that position in Florida.

"Here are 2 officials taking very different approaches to the overwhelming 
evidence that the death penalty is a failed policy," said Erika Guevara-Rosas, 
Americas Director at Amnesty International.

"One says drop it, it is a waste of resources, prone to discrimination, 
arbitrariness and error. The other says crank up the machinery of death.

"One is acting consistently with international human rights principles. The 
other is not."

Background Information

The prisoner set to be executed on 24 August at 6pm is Mark Asay, who was sent 
to death row in 1988 for 2 murders committed in 1987. The last execution in 
Florida was of Oscar Bolin on 7 January 2016, 5 days before the US Supreme 
Court issued its Hurst v. Florida ruling that the state's capital sentencing 
statute was unconstitutional.

(source: Amnesty International USA)

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

Scott takes Kissimmee police deaths cases from anti-death penalty state 
attorney



Gov. Rick Scott has reassigned the homicide cases of 2 Kissimmee police 
officers from a state attorney who has said she would never seek the death 
penalty.

Scott signed an executive order taking the cases of Officers Matthew Baxter and 
Sam Howard from Aramiz Ayala and giving them to fellow state attorney Brad 
King.

"Fridan night's violence against our law enforcement community is reprehensible 
and has no place in our state," Scott said. "In Florida, we have zero tolerance 
for violence and those who attack our law enforcement. Today, I am using my 
executive authority to reassign this case to State Attorney Brad King to ensure 
the victims of Friday night's attack and their families receive the justice 
they deserve."

In March, Ayala stirred controversy when she said she would not seek the death 
penalty for Markeith Loyd, who is accused of killing Orlando police Lt. Debra 
Clayton and his pregnant ex-girlfriend Sade Dixon.

Ayala said then that she would not pursue the death penalty for any accused 
criminal.

"By choosing to seek life sentences over death, we can assure that violent 
offenders will never be released. They will never continue to drain resources 
from this state with decades of appeals," she said at the time.

Scott then took her off the Loyd case and assigned it to King.

Ayala appealed the decision to the state Supreme Court, saying the governor 
could not reassign the case because she is an elected official. The court has 
yet to issue a ruling.

(source: WTSP news)








ARKANSAS:

Echols says he suffered brain injuries on death row, his wife calls for end to 
executions



6 years ago Saturday (Aug. 19), Damien Echols woke for the last time on the 
wrong side of a set of jail bars. He spent 18 years in prison, convicted of the 
murders of 3 8-year-old boys in West Memphis in 1993. He, along with Jason 
Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley Jr., denied any involvement and there were 
question about the evidence against them.

Echols told Talk Business & Politics the scars from his incarceration are still 
real. Each day he copes with physical and psychological damage he suffered 
while in prison.,P> "I spent 18 years in prison under abject conditions," he 
said. "10 years was spent in solitary torture. The brain injury I sustained 
will always plague me."

The specific injury was not disclosed. Echols wife, Lorri Davis Echols told 
Talk Business & Politics her husband suffers from post traumatic stress 
disorder (PTSD). He has had bouts of depression, and has spent years 
acclimating to life outside of prison.

"It's been a roller coaster, but we've worked really hard to build a new life. 
It was and is like starting new," she said.

The couple lives in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City and have traveled 
the world, giving lectures at universities and other venues about a broad range 
of subjects including false convictions, the death penalty, and Echols' 
spiritual views. He wrote a New York best-selling autobiography, "Life after 
Death," and he and his wife helped to produce the critically acclaimed Showtime 
documentary, West of Memphis. One place he visited early this spring terrified 
him - Arkansas.

In April 8 men on Arkansas death row were slated for execution. Echols, had he 
not been released, would have been included. He journeyed to Little Rock with 
his friend, and avid supporter, actor Johnny Depp. The trip terrified him, and 
he suffered from a high level of anxiety while he was still in the Natural 
State.

"They tried to kill me," he told TB&P at the time.

uring the last 5 years there have been virtually no new leads discovered by 
Echols or the army of attorneys, private investigators, forensic scientists, 
and others who worked to secure his freedom.

THE WEST MEMPHIS KILLINGS

Echols, along with Baldwin, and Misskelley Jr., were convicted of the 1993 
slayings of 3 West Memphis 8-year-olds, Stevie Branch, Christopher Byers, and 
Michael Moore. The boys were riding bikes in their West Memphis neighborhood 
when they vanished around sunset. Prosecutors claim the boys entered a patch of 
woods near their homes, dubbed "Robin Hood Hills," by locals. The 3 boys were 
bludgeoned during an attack prosecutors claimed was inspired by Satanism or a 
belief in the occult.

1 month later the 3 teens, all from Marion, were charged with the murders after 
Misskelley confessed to the crime and implicated the others. The confession 
contained inaccuracies including the time and place of the murders, the manner 
in which they were performed, and he told police 2 of the boys were sexually 
assaulted when autopsy results showed no sexual assault took place.

Despite the inaccuracies, and no physical of forensic evidence tying the teens 
to the crimes, 2 juries found them guilty. Echols was sentenced to death while 
the other 2 received life terms.

The 3 teens dubbed "The West Memphis 3" languished in obscurity until the 1996 
documentary "Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills" was released 
by HBO. Doubts surfaced whether the teens, dubbed "The West Memphis 3" 
committed the crimes.

The documentary saved Echols life, he said during a 2010 interview. The 
circumstantial case and the lack of evidence raised doubts among a burgeoning 
support group that included Depp, Pearl Jam front man Eddie Vedder, Dixie 
Chicks lead singer Natalie Maines, and the director Sr. Peter Jackson. Millions 
of dollars was raised in an attempt the free the men.

NEW EVIDENCE, FALSE STATEMENTS

By 2011 Arkansas officials were under pressure to release the men. A new trial 
was about to be ordered in the case. New DNA evidence had been discovered 
implicating Stevie Branch's stepfather, Terry Hobbs. A hair found in the 
ligatures that bound Michael Moore was a virtual genetic match for him, and a 
hair found on a tree stump next to where the bodies were dumped was a genetic 
match for his alibi witness at the time of the murders, David Jacoby. Hobbs and 
Jacoby have denied involvement in the murders.

One witness who testified during Misskelley's trial, Victoria Hutcheson, signed 
a sworn affidavit saying she lied at the trial. During an interview in 2009 she 
told a TB&P reporter she was under pressure from police to provide evidence and 
was facing a credit card fraud charge. Her son, Aaron, was friends with the 
victims, and he claimed for a time to have witnessed the murders, but his 
statements proved false. She told jurors she attended a "witches gathering" or 
esbat with Echols and Misskelley. Testimony from another witness who claimed to 
have heard Echols and Baldwin talking about the murders at a softball game 
would have likely been disproved during a new trial, prosecutors admitted.

Prosecutor Scott Ellington agreed to release them under the terms of an Alford 
Plea. This unique legal mechanism allowed them to profess innocence while at 
the same time acknowledging the state might have enough evidence to convict 
them. It's essentially a no contest plea. Ellington has said numerous times if 
new trials had been ordered, the men would have been freed because of the 
changing witness statements, new scientific evidence, and "stale evidence."

'ARKANSAS MAKES MISTAKES'

Echols has had no contact with officials who worked to imprison him, he said. 
Lorri Echols said the state of Arkansas is not only culpable in her husband's 
wrongful incarceration, but it has been negligent in not finding and 
prosecuting the person or persons who killed the 3 boys. A new investigation 
needs to be opened, and the killer or killers need to be brought to justice, 
she said. Occasionally, Echols will encounter a troll on social media networks 
who believes he's guilty, but most people he interacts with believe in his 
innocence, she said.

"In our day to day life in New York, people tend to have done their homework," 
she said.

The couple has several creative projects they are working on. Echols is writing 
a book that will be published by Sounds True in 2018. Lorri will participate in 
an art show later this year in Chicago.

Arkansas officials announced Friday they plan to restart executions. Lorri 
Echols advises against it.

"Once again, Damien's case is proof that Arkansas makes mistakes. How many 
innocent men have they executed? Is there anything else that needs to be said?"

(source: KATV news)








MISSOURI----impending execution

Marcellus Williams faces execution despite new evidence



On Tuesday night, the US state of Missouri is planning to execute Marcellus 
Williams despite a new report from a DNA expert that his lawyers argue supports 
his claim to innocence.

In 2001, Williams, who is now 48, was convicted of the 1998 killing of Lisha 
Gayle. But his lawyers say new DNA evidence could exonerate him. The Missouri 
Supreme Court, however, has refused to review that evidence.

Williams' lawyer, Kent Gipson, has described the Supreme Court's decision as 
"baffling".

"We petitioned the court to look at the new evidence on August 14th, and less 
than 24 hours later they decided based on the court files that the execution 
should go ahead anyway. This is unprecedented," Gipson told Al Jazeera.

Williams, who has always claimed he is innocent, was sentenced to death in 
2001, three years after Gayle, a former newspaper reporter, was murdered in her 
home in a gated community in St Louis, Missouri. He was originally due to be 
executed on January 28, 2015, but Missouri's high court decided to postpone the 
execution to allow time for new DNA tests to be conducted.

Those tests showed that the male DNA on the murder weapon, a knife, was not 
Williams' but belonged to a 3rd, unknown person.

"There is no physical evidence, no eyewitnesses that directly connect Williams 
to the murder, the DNA on the weapon wasn't his, the bloody footprint at the 
murder scene wasn't from Williams' shoe and was a different size, and the hair 
fibres found weren't his," said Gipson. "It was someone else that killed Gayle, 
not Williams."

How was Williams convicted?

During Williams' trial, the prosecution based its case on the testimonies of 2 
people, Henry Cole and Laura Asaro. Cole had shared a cell with Williams after 
he had been taken into custody on suspicion of being involved in Gayle's 
murder. Cole said Williams had confessed to murdering the 42-year-old woman.

The other testimony was given by Laura Asaro, a convicted drug addict, who was 
Williams' short-term girlfriend at the time of the murder. She claimed, among 
other things, to have seen scratches on Williams neck that were made by the 
victim.

"These scratches would leave DNA traces on the victim, but Williams' DNA was 
not found underneath the victim's fingernails, just like it was someone else's 
DNA that was found on the murder weapon," said Gipson.

"She also claimed she saw Williams with the victim's driver's licence, which is 
impossible because Gayle's licence was left at the crime scene."

Gipson believes both may have been motivated to give false statements in the 
hope of receiving a financial reward. "The victim's family offered a reward of 
$10,000 for anyone with tips leading to the arrest of the person who murdered 
Lisha Gayle," Gipson explained. "They both got paid by the victim's family 
after their testimonies."

With no forensic or eye witness testimony linking Williams to the murder, the 
prosecution based its case on these 2 witnesses. "At the time, we didn't have 
the technology to do these DNA tests. But even now that there is indisputable 
scientific evidence exonerating Williams from the murder, the attorney general 
still thinks these testimonies hold more weight than the DNA evidence that 
shows Williams didn't commit this crime," Gipson said.

One of those following this case closely is Sister Helen Prejean, a well-known 
opponent of the death penalty who came to international fame after she wrote 
the book Dead Man Walking, which was later made into a film.

Griffin Hardy, a spokesperson for Sister Helen Prejean's anti-death penalty 
organisation Ministry Against the Death Penalty, told Al Jazeera: "The fact of 
the matter is DNA evidence shows that Marcellus Williams was not involved in 
this crime. That means that there is a killer who may still be out in the 
community at large. Missouri should use its resources to apprehend the real 
killer instead of executing a man who didn't commit this crime."

Black defendant, white victim, white jury

A significant factor in this case, according to Gipson and Griffin, is 
Williams' race. The victim, Lisha Gayle, was a white woman. Williams is a black 
man who, according to the prosecution, killed Gayle when she caught him 
burglarising her home in St Louis, Missouri, the same district where the 
Ferguson protests against police brutality took place in 2014.

"The jury that found Williams guilty consisted of mostly white people. This 
district has a history of getting African Americans off juries, especially when 
the victim is white," Gipson said.

There were 7 African Americans in the juror pool for Williams' trial, but the 
prosecution struck all but one of them off with the result that there were 11 
white jurors and one black juror at his trial.

Another issue is the funding of public defenders in Missouri. "This state ranks 
49th out of 50 with regards to properly funding public defenders. The public 
defender that got Williams' case has publicly stated that he wasn't able to 
prepare properly, so he simply didn't have the opportunity to properly 
discredit the shaky testimonies that were used to build this case around," 
Gipson said.

As to why the court has refused to examine the new evidence, Gipson said: "It's 
baffling to me how the Missouri Supreme Court denied our petition barely 24 
hours after filing it, with no hearing at all. Listening to what experts have 
to say about new evidence is particularly important in a case like this with 
scientific evidence. It is frightening that someone can have exonerating DNA 
evidence and a court would turn a blind eye to it."

Williams' execution can now only be stopped by the United States Supreme Court 
or the governor of Missouri, Eric Greitens. "He is a newly elected governor and 
he heavily campaigned on being pro-life. Anyone who says he is pro-life would 
not let anyone be executed, especially not when there is more than enough 
reasonable doubt like in this case," Gipson said.

Hardy hopes Governor Greitens will stop the execution and that a new 
investigation to find Lisha Gayle's killer will be launched.

"Society may debate the question of whether the death penalty is acceptable for 
guilty prisoners, but no one can argue with the fact that an innocent person 
should never be executed," he said.

Williams is due to be executed by lethal injection.

Al Jazeera contacted both the office of Missouri's attorney general, Josh 
Hawley, and the office of Missouri Governor Eric Greitens for this article. 
Neither had responded by the time of publication.

(source: Al Jazeera News)

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

Is Missouri about to execute an innocent man?



Editor, the Tribune: Marcellus Williams is scheduled to be executed on Tuesday, 
Aug. 22. He was convicted of the Aug. 11, 1998, robbery and murder of 
42-year-old Felicia Gayle in her St. Louis home.

I am against the death penalty on moral grounds, but on practical grounds it 
makes no sense as well. Consider that there are enormous costs to the state to 
carry through to an execution and that we have a patently-unjust judicial 
system, especially for the poor.

Missouri's death penalty is broken for many reasons, including but not limited 
to racial injustice, disparities in representation and sentencing, 
prosecutorial misconduct and public opinion. These issues are all present in 
Williams' case. If you are wealthy, white and connected you will surely "get 
off." If you are poor, a racial minority, and have no connections, you will 
surely receive the death penalty - guilty or innocent of the accused crime.

Is Missouri executing an innocent man? Very possibly.

According to information from the Marshall Project, there is no physical 
evidence linking him to the crime - none of the DNA evidence matches that of 
Williams. "The little bit (of testing) that???s been done excludes him. 
Marcellus has never confessed. There was no eyewitness testimony. The state's 
case rests on 2 snitches, who received monetary compensation. As well, 
Williams' post-conviction remedies have not been exhausted in federal court, 
which he intends to pursue. Missouri has set an execution date disregarding due 
process available to Williams.

Reading about Williams case, there is the question of why this execution is 
being pursued so vigorously by Missouri's Governor and Attorney General when, 
over many years, there have been so many missteps and clear uncertainty of 
guilt. One wonders if there are political careers attempting to be made on the 
backs of Missouri's most vulnerable.

You can learn more about the Marcellus Williams case at 
www.themarshallproject.org/next-to-die/mo or Missourians for Alternatives to 
the Death Penalty, www.madpmo.org/.

Contact the offices of Gov. Eric Greitens and Attorney General Josh Hawley and 
ask them to stop this execution. Let Missouri be a state of equal protection 
under the law, tempered by a highly-developed sense of justice.

Sometimes a death penalty case is lacking credibility at such an important 
level that someone must speak up to preserve what might remain of a civilized 
and lawful society.

Barbara Ross, Jefferson City

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

For Marcellus Williams, doubt exists

Editor, the Tribune: Is Missouri executing an innocent man on Tuesday, Aug. 22?

There is more than a "shadow of doubt" linking Marcellus Williams to the crime 
of killing Felicia Gayle in her St. Louis home in 1998. Williams was convicted 
based on the questionable testimony of 2 people who received a $10,000 reward. 
The fact that no DNA evidence on the weapon (knife), samples of blood, and 
clippings of skin tissue or hair matches the DNA of Marcellus Williams is 
troubling.

The Missouri Supreme Court on Tuesday denied a motion filed last February from 
attorneys to halt next week's execution of Williams. Williams' attorney, Kent 
Gipson, says testing in December 2016 indicated that the DNA matched some 
unknown person, but not Marcellus Williams.

Why do we have to be in such a hurry to execute someone that we don't have the 
time to check everything out? This is not justice. Many people have been found 
to be innocent because of DNA results. Well-known attorney Bryan Stephenson has 
obtained more than 30 retrials of innocent people who were sentenced to 
execution.

We should never allow an innocent person to be executed. How can we always be 
certain that an execution is justified?

This case illustrates how important it is to put an end to executions in 
Missouri.

Now is the time to call our humanitarian Gov. Eric Greitens (573-751-3222) and 
ask him to commute the sentence, as well as Missouri Attorney General Josh 
Hawley (573-751-3321), in order to investigate this case.

Linda Lou Brown, Columbia

(source: Letters to the Editor, Columbia Daily Tribune)

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

Midwest Innocence Project asks Missouri governor to halt Tuesday's execution



A nonprofit that seeks to overturn wrongful convictions has asked Missouri Gov. 
Eric Greitens to put Tuesday's scheduled execution on hold.

The Midwest Innocence Project says new DNA evidence presented last week shows 
Marcellus Williams didn't kill former St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter Felicia 
Gayle in 1998.

Williams' attorney, Kent Gipson, asked the state Supreme Court last week to 
consider two new tests, which he said show that Williams' DNA was not on the 
knife used in Gayle's death. The court denied the request for a stay of 
execution.

Midwest Innocence Project Director Tricia Bushnell told St. Louis Public Radio 
on Sunday that the organization wants Greitens to appoint a board of inquiry to 
look into the new evidence.

"This is a case that has so many questions in it, and the reality is, Mr. 
Williams has DNA evidence that says it is not him on the murder weapon, and no 
one has even let him have a hearing on those results," she said. "It seems 
impossible that we would execute someone, put someone to death, when there is a 
question that large, without even giving them a hearing. ... This question has 
a number of the hallmarks that we see in wrongful convictions."

Bushnell also was critical of the prosecution in the case, which was done in 
St. Louis County because Gayle was killed in University City. She said the 
prosecution relied on "what we would call 'incentivized informants.'"

In 2003, the state Supreme Court upheld Williams' conviction, saying there was 
sufficient evidence to support the jury's conclusion. Spokesmen for Greitens 
and St. Louis County Prosecutor Bob McCulloch didn't immediately return 
requests for comment.

Williams' original execution in 2015 was postponed. He is scheduled to be put 
to death Tuesday.

Missouri will use 2 of its 34 vials of the sedative pentobarbital on Tuesday 
when it executes Marcellus Williams, who was convicted in the 1998 killing of 
Felicia Gayle, a former St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter.

The state has enough pentobarbital for 17 executions, Williams' included, 
according to a document obtained by St. Louis Public Radio. No one except the 
state of Missouri knows where the stockpile comes from, despite lawsuits from 
inmates and media outlets.

(source: stlpublicradio.org)

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

Don't dishonor murder victim Lisha Gayle by executing Marcellus Williams



On Tuesday, Missouri is scheduled to execute a man in exactly the kind of case 
that makes even some supporters of the death penalty queasy.

Way back in 2001, Marcellus Williams was found guilty in the grisly 1998 
stabbing death of 42-year-old Lisha Gayle, a former St. Louis newspaper 
reporter so altruistic that she left journalism to become a volunteer who 
worked with the disenfranchised.

Williams, who is also serving multiple life sentences on unrelated burglary and 
robbery charges, had, according to prosecutors, been burglarizing Gayle's 
apartment when she stepped out of the shower, surprised him and fought back as 
he killed her.

Only there was never any physical evidence linking Williams to the crime, 
according to his attorneys and Amnesty International.

Now his attorneys say that new evidence, based on new testing that the court 
allowed, shows Williams is not a match for the male DNA found on the knife that 
was the murder weapon.

Instead, an analysis by Greg Hampikian, a Boise State University biologist, 
shows that the DNA is that of an unknown male.

Why allow the testing and then disregard what it finds?

Williams, who is 48, has always maintained his innocence and said the case 
against him is based entirely on the word of a former girlfriend and a former 
cellmate who he insists were only looking for a piece of the $10,000 reward 
offered in the case.

What harm would it do to make sure he's guilty?

We can't think of any, especially compared to the wrong of putting a man to 
death for a crime he didn't commit.

The Missouri Supreme Court has denied a petition to delay Williams' execution, 
so unless the governor or Supreme Court intervenes, he'll be given a lethal 
injection at 6 p.m. Tuesday.

A spokesman for Attorney General Josh Hawley said he's still confident that 
Williams is guilty.

But why not make sure the public can be confident of that, too?

We urge the court to appoint a special master to hear Williams' claim of 
innocence.

Missourians deserve to know for sure that he really is guilty before putting 
him to death in our name.

And the memory of Lisha Gayle, who worked with the poor and with children, 
would only be dishonored by an injustice carried out in retribution for the 
violence done to her.

(source: Editorial Board, Kansas City Star)








CALIFORNIA:

OC District Attorney responds to judge blocking death penalty in Dekraai case



The Orange County District Attorney's Office (OCDA) is disappointed that Judge 
Goethals made this unprecedented ruling and has denied the California Attorney 
General (AG) the ability to pursue the death penalty against convicted murderer 
Scott Dekraai. Given the pattern and tenor of his previous rulings, Judge 
Goethals' decision does not come as a surprise.

In 2014, the OCDA obtained a guilty plea, ensuring Dekraai would at a minimum 
be sentenced to life without the possibility of parole. The only question 
remaining was whether he should receive the death penalty for his repugnant, 
callous, and despicable acts committed while exacting revenge against his 
ex-wife.

Dekraai planned and murdered 8, nearly 9 innocent people, at the salon where 
his ex-wife worked, so she would experience the terror and horror of seeing her 
friends and clients murdered. Whether some members of the Orange County 
Sheriff's Department failed to produce tangential information in a timely 
manner has nothing to do with what Dekraai did and the fact that Dekraai 
deserves the death penalty. The AG made an independent decision to seek the 
death penalty when the OCDA was recused and should be able to proceed forward 
because Dekraai would have received a fair trial.

The article above was released by the Orange County District Attorney. Orange 
County Supervisor Todd Spitzer also released a statement - one that sounded 
more like a campaign speech, since he's running to replace OCDA Tony 
Rackauckas.

(source: oc-breeze.com)








USA:

Most American Indian tribes opt out of federal death penalty



In a heinous case on the Navajo Nation, an 11-year-old girl was lured into a 
van, sexually assaulted and killed. The tribe did not seek to have the man who 
recently admitted to killing her put to death.

American Indian tribes for decades have been able to tell federal prosecutors 
if they want a death sentence considered for certain crimes on their land. 
Nearly all have rejected that option.

Tribes and legal experts say the decision goes back to culture and tradition, 
past treatment of American Indians and fairness in the justice system.

"Most Indian tribes were mistreated by the United States under past federal 
policies, and there can be historical trauma in cases associated with the 
execution of Native people," said Robert Anderson, a University of Washington 
law professor and a member of the Bois Forte Band of the Minnesota Chippewa 
Tribe. "This allows tribes to at least decide in those narrow circumstances 
when there should be a federal death penalty or not."

In the Navajo case, Ashlynne Mike's body wasn't found until the next day. Her 
death in May 2016 renewed discussions there about capital punishment.

Ashlynne's mother has urged the tribe to opt into the death penalty, 
particularly for crimes that involve children. The tribe long has objected to 
putting people to death, saying the culture teaches against taking a human life 
for vengeance.

For years, Theda New Breast has seen the effects of domestic violence, drug 
addiction and poverty on her Blackfeet Reservation in Montana. The healer helps 
those who suffer from the associated trauma. But regardless of the nature of 
the crime, the 61-year-old is staunchly against capital punishment.

"Our beliefs, that I was raised with, say that no one has a right to take away 
a life except the Creator. Period," New Breast said. "End of story."

Congress expanded the list of death-penalty eligible crimes in the mid-1990s, 
allowing tribes to decide if they wanted their citizens subject to the death 
penalty. Legal experts say they are aware of only one tribe, the Sac and Fox 
Nation of Oklahoma, that has opted in.

Tribal leaders there hoped the decision would deter serious, violent crimes on 
the reservation in east-central Oklahoma, said Truman Carter, a Sac and Fox 
member, attorney and tribal prosecutor. "The tribal leaders have said yes over 
the years, and they left it alone," he said.

No American Indian has been executed in any case from the Sac and Fox 
reservation.

Still, the ability of tribes to decide on the death penalty doesn't completely 
exempt Native Americans from federal death row. According to the NAACP Legal 
Defense and Education Fund, Inc., 16 Native Americans have been executed since 
capital punishment was reinstated in 1976. The executions were for crimes 
occurring off tribal land or in the handful of states where the federal 
government does not have jurisdiction over major crimes on reservations.

That was the case earlier this year when a California jury imposed the death 
penalty for Cherie Rhoades. The former leader of the Cedarville Rancheria Tribe 
was convicted of fatally shooting 3 people and trying to kill 2 others.

Modac County District Attorney Jordan Funk said he didn't consult with the 
tribe and wasn't required to before deciding to pursue the death penalty. He 
said Rhoades expressed no remorse for the killings at a tribal meeting where 
officials were considering her eviction from the tribe.

"If they would have told me they don't want us to execute her, I would have 
done it anyway," Funk said.

Tribes also don't have a say over the death penalty when certain federal crimes 
like carjacking or kidnapping resulting in death, or killing a federal officer 
occurs on reservation land. Those carry a possible death sentence no matter 
where they happen.

That's how Lezmond Mitchell, a Navajo man, became the only American Indian now 
on federal death row. He was convicted in a 2001 case of killing a fellow 
Navajo tribal member and her 9-year-old granddaughter who were driving to see a 
medicine man. Their beheaded, mutilated bodies were found in a shallow grave on 
the reservation. Mitchell stole the woman's car and later robbed a trading post 
in Red Valley, Arizona.

? The Navajo Nation government objected to the death penalty on the murder 
charges. It had no choice on the charge of carjacking resulting in death.

Tamera Begay, a Navajo woman, has studied the Mitchell case and agrees the 
tribe should steer clear of the death penalty. "There's so much federal 
jurisdiction, that's worrisome," she said.

Laura Harris, executive director of Americans for Indian Opportunity and member 
of the Comanche Nation, said her tribe sees banishment as a much worse 
punishment than death because it cuts off a person's ability to be part of the 
community.

She said tribes also recall how the death penalty has been used against them. 
In December 1862, for example, 38 Dakota men who were at war with settlers in 
Minnesota were hanged in the largest mass execution in U.S. history. An annual 
horseback ride is held to commemorate the men, ending at the site of the 
hangings in what's now Reconciliation Park.

Today, the death penalty is more likely to be carried out in the case of a 
white victim than a victim of color. Native Americans make up less than 1/4 of 
1 % of victims in cases that result in executions, according to the NAACP Legal 
Defense and Educational Fund. For whites, it's 75 %, for blacks 15 % and nearly 
7 % for Latinos.

"It's not surprising you'd see a distrust of the judicial process similar to 
the distrust you see in the African American community," said Robert Dunham, 
executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center. "When you look at 
who is executed, you see that there are a class a favored victims and a class 
of disfavored defendants."

Melissa Tatum, a research professor at the University of Arizona in Tucson, 
said most tribes believe the criminal justice system in Indian Country doesn't 
work, "not in a sufficient way that they would opt into the death penalty, and 
the statistics bear that out."

Pursuing the death penalty in a federal case isn't taken likely, said Kevin 
Washburn, a University of New Mexico law professor and member of the Chickasaw 
Nation. A U.S. Department of Justice panel has to review the case.

Tribes also can't decide on a case-by-case basis, Washburn said.

"You can't have a murder that happens today and have the Navajo Nation 
authorize the death penalty tomorrow and have it apply to the murder that 
happened today," he said.

Ashlynne's family is looking toward future change. The Navajo man who recently 
admitted to killing her, Tom Begaye Jr., cannot get the death penalty at his 
upcoming sentencing. He faces life in prison without the possibility of release 
under a plea agreement with federal prosecutors.

After Ashlynne's death, Navajo leaders met with medicine people and talked for 
at least 2 hours about the tribe's general position on the death penalty and 
decided to maintain a position against it, Tribal Council Speaker LoRenzo Bates 
said.

"Navajos see life as precious, good or bad, and so we don't pick and choose," 
he said. "All life is precious."

Pamela Foster, Ashlynne's mother, has been gathering signatures online to 
convince the tribe to change its mind.

"If traditional teachings are squarely against the taking of human life, WHY 
are we allowing it to happen?" Foster wrote in an online post.

(source: Minneapolis Star Tribune)