[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----IND., KY., CALIF., USA

Rick Halperin rhalperi at smu.edu
Wed Jun 21 09:08:20 CDT 2017






June 21



INDIANA:

'Is it justice or is it vengeance?' Indiana can't execute offenders right now. 
Does it need to?


The state of Indiana hasn't executed an offender on death row in more than 7 
years. Between a court injunction and declining public support for capital 
punishment, it may never conduct an execution again.

Matthew Eric Wrinkles was the last man to be executed in the death chamber at 
the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City.

Wrinkles was put on trial in 1995 for the murders of his estranged wife Debra 
Jean Wrinkles, and her brother and sister-in-law, Tony and Natalie Fulkerson.

Angry over their crumbling marriage and his inability to see his children - and 
displaying "erratic behavior" that saw him committed to a psychiatric facility 
for 3 days beforehand - Wrinkles dressed in camouflage and face paint on the 
night of July 21, 1994, and drove to his brother-in-law's home, in Evansville, 
Indiana, where his wife was staying.

Wrinkles cut the telephone wires and kicked in the back door. By the time he 
left, his wife and in-laws were dead - each shot multiple times.

He was convicted on June 14, 1995, and sentenced to death by lethal injection.

That sentence was carried out Dec. 12, 2009, at 12:39 a.m.

(source: WRTV news)






KENTUCKY:

Judge Denies Motion To Exclude Death Penalty


A judge has denied the motion to exclude the death penalty as a sentencing 
option for a man accused of killing a teen.

According to the Herald Leader, Terry Farrell was back in court on Monday.

He is accused of killing 18-year-old Jamaal Gossett in November of 2015.

The paper reports a judge denied attempt to exclude the death penalty as a 
sentencing option before his August 7 trial.

Farrell is charged with robbery and murder.

(source: lex18.com)






CALIFORNIA:

Man charged in fatal shooting at Lake Elsinore Circle K is eligible for death 
penalty


Charges filed against the suspect in last week's fatal shooting of a Circle K 
cashier in Lake Elsinore make him eligible for a death penalty prosecution, but 
the Riverside County district attorney is still weighing whether to seek that 
punishment.

James Curtis Coon, 26, of Lake Elsinore, was charged Friday with murder, 
attempted murder armed robbery and burglary, court records show. He remained 
incarcerated Tuesday with no option to post bail, and has not yet entered a 
plea, jail and court records show.

His arraignment was postponed to June 28 at the request of the Public 
Defender's Office. Court records show a mental evaluation has been ordered.

Coon is accused of killing 47-year-old Eric Whitcomb the morning of June 14. 
The victim of the attempted murder was another Circle K employee who was not 
injured, according to a sheriff's spokesman, who declined to provide other 
details about what happened to that person.

The special circumstances attached to the murder charge - acting in the 
commission of a burglary and a robbery and using a firearm in the commission of 
a felony - could warrant the death penalty if Coon is found guilty, said 
District Attorney's Office spokesman John Hall.

Hall said District Attorney Mike Hestrin has not yet decided whether to pursue 
that option.

About 5:20 a.m. June 14, Whitcomb was shot multiple times at the Lakeshore 
Drive convenience store where he'd worked for the past 12 years, in what Circle 
K corporate officials called "a senseless act of violence."

Court documents provided some details that sheriff's officials would not, 
including that the shooting happened during a robbery and that there was a 2nd 
victim.

Hours after the shooting, Coon was arrested at his home on Driftwood Lane about 
a mile from the convenience store.

(source: Press-Enterprise)

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

Divided California Supreme Court upholds death sentence


In an unusual outcome, the California Supreme Court split Monday over whether 
to uphold the death sentence of a man convicted of killing a jewelry store 
owner during a 1996 robbery in Fresno.

The court generally reaches unanimous decisions in death penalty cases.

With Associate Justices Mariano-Florentino Cuellar and Goodwin Liu dissenting, 
the court ruled that defendant Vaene Sivongxxay chose not to have a jury decide 
his case at the outset of his trial and had no right to be advised specifically 
that a judge would also decide the allegation that he committed murder during 
the course of a robbery.

That allegation made Sivongxxay eligible for the death penalty.

The trial court did not ask Sivongxxay separately whether he waived his right 
to a jury trial on the robbery and murder allegation. But the 5 justices in the 
majority said the error did not taint the trial since there was no evidence 
Sivongxxay would have chosen to have a jury decide the allegation.

The ruling upheld Sivongxxay's death sentence.

Kirk Jenkins, an appellate lawyer who studies the California Supreme Court, 
said it reached unanimous decisions on death penalty cases more than 75 % of 
the time in 2015 and an even higher percentage last year.

Still, Jenkins said there was evidence that the court was scrutinizing death 
penalty cases more closely in the past few years.

Cuellar and Liu said the trial court failed to explain to Sivongxxay that he 
was entitled to have a jury decide the allegation that he committed murder in 
the course of a robbery.

Cuellar and Liu also said the trial court failed to ask Sivongxxay separately 
whether he waived his right to a jury trial on the allegation.

Liu said the majority opinion "undermines an important safeguard of 
California's death penalty scheme."

Cuellar and Liu are relative newcomers to the court. Gov. Jerry Brown nominated 
Liu to the court in 2011. Cuellar joined in 2015.

(source: Associated Press)






USA:

Previous Evidence Questioned in ND Death Penalty Appeal Hearing----Alfonso 
Rodriquez has been on death row for 11 years

A federal inmate from Crookston convicted of killing UND student Dru Sjodin is 
appealing his death sentence.

2 forensic experts took the stand in the start of what could be Rodriguez's 
last appeal.

It's been more than 12 years since 64-year-old Alfonso Rodriguez was federally 
indicted for the kidnapping, murder and rape of Dru Sjodin.

After the body of Sjodin was found, this became North Daktoa's 1st death 
penalty case.

But years after his death sentence in 2006, attorneys for Rodriguez said a 
previous medical examiner could have been wrong.

In previous court cases, Dr. Michael McGee told attorneys they found male DNA 
on Sjodin's body and clothes.

This ultimately led to a rape conviction.

Prosecutors said rape evidence largely influenced the jury in the death 
sentence trial.

Forensic scientist Alan Keel took the stand.

He said the positive male DNA tests when the body was first found is 
presumptive evidence, meaning it was not confirmed.

Later tests did not confirm if male DNA was on the body.

It was only found on Rodriguez's jeans.

Dr. Mark Flomenbaum, the Chief Medical Examiner of Maine, told attorneys he did 
a new autopsy on the body and firmly believes she was killed with a rope around 
her neck.

He said marks which appeared to be knife wounds could have come from animals 
while the body was decomposing in the elements.

Rodriguez has been on death row for 11 years.

Of the 76 federal inmates on death row, only 3 were executed since the death 
sentence was reinstated in 1988.

The appeals trial could last up to 7 days.

Rodriguez waived his right to appear in court.

(source: KVRR news)

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

No Matter How You Try to Do It, The Death Penalty is Garbage


Back when I was a teenager, I used to write essays about why I hated Newt 
Gingrich and why I hated the death penalty. Now it's 20 years later and I'm 
still writing essays about why I hate Newt Gingrich and why I hate the death 
penalty. "Time is a flat circle," as Rust Cohle said.

Earlier this year, the state of Arkansas executed 4 men in 8 days, because the 
state's supply of lethal injection drugs was about to expire. Arkansas had 
originally scheduled 8 executions in 11 days, but this legal bloodbath was 
limited somewhat by the courts, which halted four of the executions on appeal.

Despite the recent publicity for Arkansas' bloodlust, the imposition of the 
death penalty in America as a whole seems to be entering a possibly permanent 
decline. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, the number of 
executions in America has been decreasing year after year, with only 20 
executions in 2016 - the lowest number since 1991. According to Gallup polls, 
61% of Americans support the death penalty, but that number is also at a 
40-year low, and among younger Americans age 18-29, only 51% support the death 
penalty. Although 31 states and the federal government still have the death 
penalty, most states do not use it, or use it sparingly - most executions are 
carried out by just a few states, such as Texas, Oklahoma, Virginia, and 
Florida. Shortages of lethal injection drugs have made it increasingly 
difficult for states to carry out executions; drug companies (often based in 
Europe or other countries that do not have the death penalty) do not want their 
drugs to be used to end human lives. The Supreme Court has shown a growing 
impatience with the death penalty, having already limited its use for juvenile 
offenders and for crimes other than murder. It's not too far-fetched to imagine 
that the Supreme Court could abolish the death penalty within our lifetimes; 
the death penalty may soon become a relic of history - a regional curiosity 
founded in Southern-style racist religiosity and "eye-for-an-eye" Old Testament 
vengeance.

Good. I'm glad that the death penalty is in decline. Because there is no "good 
way" to do the death penalty. No matter how you try to define it, the death 
penalty is garbage.

Here's why:

Innocent People Get Executed

America's criminal justice system has lots and lots of problems, and the death 
penalty is the most vivid example of what happens when we allow an imperfect 
system to make life-and-death decisions. According to the Death Penalty 
Information Center, "since 1973, more than 155 people have been released from 
death row with evidence of their innocence." And during 2000-2011, there were 
an average of 5 people exonerated from death row per year. This is a sign that 
innocent people truly do get convicted and sentenced to die. There's no "safe" 
or "accurate" or "fair" way to kill people without making horrible irrevocable 
mistakes.

Cameron Todd Willingham was a man who was executed by the state of Texas in 
2004 for murdering his 3 daughters by committing arson to the family home. 
Willingham always claimed that he was innocent, and went to his death saying 
that he had been persecuted for a crime that he did not commit. In the years 
since Willingham was killed by Texas, evidence has emerged that suggests that 
he did not commit arson, that the fire could have been accidental, that the 
fire investigators presented by the state during Willingham's trial got the 
story wrong.

Forensic science is an ever-evolving field. Sometimes the "can't miss" evidence 
that prosecutors and investigators bring to trial turns out to be based on 
flawed science; for example, the FBI announced in 2015 that, for 2 decades 
prior to the year 2000, its forensic experts had given flawed testimony in more 
than 200 trials where they claimed that "forensic hair analysis" of human hairs 
found at crime scenes indicated the guilt of defendants, even though we now 
know that the analysis was based on bogus science. These trials included 32 
death penalty trials where defendants were sentenced to death; 14 of those 
people have been executed or died in prison. Even well intentioned 
investigations can lead to fatal errors.

The death penalty is also rife with prosecutor misconduct and miscarriages of 
justice. Ledell Lee was 1 of the inmates executed by Arkansas in April: his 
defense team at trial had never hired any experts to test him for intellectual 
disabilities, and no appeals court ever objected to the fact that one of Lee's 
prosecutors was having an affair with the trial judge. No forensic evidence 
from the crime scene matched Lee, and he asked for DNA testing for decades but 
Arkansas never allowed it (DNA testing costs a lot of money). Ledell Lee went 
to his death still proclaiming his innocence; the same thing could have 
happened to Damien Echols (one of the famous West Memphis 3 who were released 
from prison after being wrongly convicted as teenagers of murdering three boys) 
but he was able to get DNA testing and further judicial review of his case.

Even when death penalty defendants aren't getting railroaded by bad evidence, 
crooked judges, or unscrupulous prosecutors, they're getting sentenced to death 
because of their own incompetent lawyers. Most people on death row are poor. 
Poor people in America tend to not get very good legal representation, 
especially in America's most bloodthirsty death penalty jurisdictions. If you 
can't afford your own lawyer and you are accused of capital murder, most 
American death penalty states are going to assign your case to the most 
hapless, low-paid, overworked, desperately alcoholic defense lawyers available. 
There are countless stories from death row of incompetent defense lawyers 
falling asleep during their client's trial, showing up to court drunk, failing 
to call any witnesses, failing to present "mitigation" evidence to make the 
jury want to show mercy, and otherwise botching their jobs. A disturbingly high 
percentage of death row inmates were represented at trial or on appeal by 
attorneys who were later disbarred or disciplined for failing to uphold the 
standards of the legal profession.

America's criminal justice system is supposed to be an adversarial process 
where criminal defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty, and where 
every defendant has a lawyer who is there to zealously advocate for their 
client's life and legal rights and force the state to prove its case beyond a 
reasonable doubt. Adequate legal representation against the power of the 
government is supposed to be 1 of the fundamental rights that we all have as 
Americans. But especially in death penalty hellholes like Texas and Oklahoma 
and Arkansas, it doesn't happen. The rich get good lawyers and the poor get 
lethal injections.

The Death Penalty is Racist

The death penalty cannot be separated from America's legacy of racism. It's the 
new form of lynching. Instead of being practiced by angry mobs, it's carried 
out by judges and juries and given a sheen of respectability. Black people are 
more likely to be executed than white people, and the states that are most 
enthusiastic about the death penalty also tend to have the worst histories of 
racist violence against black people. Yes, white people get executed too, but 
in general, the death penalty disproportionately values white life. In a 
country that has barely begun to face up to its historical legacy of mass 
murder and racist violence against black people, the death penalty is an 
indulgence that we cannot afford.

It's hilarious to me that so many Christians are in favor of the death penalty 
- because their entire religion is based on a wrongful execution. If you love 
Jesus, you should hate the death penalty. If you love the teachings of a man 
who hung out with beggars and prostitutes and outcasts, who was condemned to 
die in bloody agony on a cross of shame next to a couple of common thieves, who 
said to "love your enemies" and "turn the other cheek" to those who harm you 
and practice radical forgiveness and mercy, then you should be protesting 
outside of America's prisons every single day. Christians who support the death 
penalty are clueless moral hypocrites of the highest order. I'm not a 
Christian- I never want to set foot in a church again - but I feel like I'm 
still a better Christian than Christians who support the death penalty. Sure, 
the Old Testament says "eye for an eye." Big deal. The Old Testament also says 
we're not supposed to eat pork and shellfish and wear multiple types of fabric 
or whatever. Most of you Christians can't even read Ancient Hebrew, so don't 
act like you're experts in the Jewish scriptures. I can't believe I have to sit 
here and try to educate Christians about the basic fundamental tenets of their 
own faith. Christ!

The Death Penalty Degrades the State

The death penalty diminishes us all. I'm opposed to the death penalty for all 
criminals, even the worst of the worst, even the most obviously guilty, even 
the most despised and devilish people on Earth. Why? Because if killing is 
wrong, then it's wrong for the state to kill in our names. Period. The way to 
show people that killing is wrong is to make killing so rare, so forbidden, 
such an anathema, that people shudder to contemplate it. And I'm not saying 
this because I love criminals and because I'm a bleeding heart liberal; 
murderers are awful. They deserve to suffer forever. But we don't have to kill 
them: there are ways to immobilize and incapacitate even the worst killers with 
solitary confinement to make sure that they never harm anyone again. Have you 
ever read about the long-term effects of solitary confinement? It's awful - 
it's a profound sort of living hell. Instead of giving the worst murderers a 
glorious public death, let's put them in a cell the size of a parking space and 
let them rot, alone and forgotten, forever.

Even if the death penalty wasn't racist and unjust and otherwise incompetently 
administered, even if the death penalty could somehow be limited to only the 
worst offenders who were unquestionably 100% guilty, and could be carried out 
in a humane, painless, instantaneous-death sort of way, I would still oppose 
the death penalty. Because I don't want anyone to be ever be killed anywhere. 
The older I get, I'm becoming more of a radical pacifist: no human being 
deserves to be killed. I want humanity to strive toward a world where the death 
penalty doesn't exist, where war doesn't exist, where killing for political 
purposes (whether that's terrorism or Republicans running for re-election by 
bragging about how "tough on crime" they are) doesn???t happen.

Human beings are flawed, fallen creatures. But our great advantage as a species 
is that we keep trying to fix our flaws and improve our societies and get 
better over time. People used to carry out executions in public, with 
horrifyingly gruesome methods like burning at the stake, drawing and 
quartering, and crucifixion. Compared to that blood-soaked history, 20 
executions per year, carried out in sanitized conditions behind prison walls, 
represents massive progress. Executions are becoming more rare and less 
popular, and I believe that within my lifetime the death penalty in America 
will be abolished, by court ruling if not by popular vote. In the long run, I'm 
an optimist; I don't believe that the world is going to hell. If you look at 
the long arc of human history, there is such a thing as an evolving standard of 
decency. Despite the latest headlines about terrorism and war in Syria and the 
many damnable atrocities that are still too common in too many places, in many 
important ways, the world is becoming less violent, less divided, more 
peaceful, more humane, and more merciful. If we can change the way our society 
treats our most despised and broken people, that will be a sign of greater hope 
for us all.

(source: Ben Gran, pastemagazine.com)



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