[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----MO., OKLA., CALIF., ORE.

[Rick Halperin]

May 26




MISSOURI:

Wrongful convictions: From death row to freedom


Joe Amrine selected the music for his funeral service.

He wasn't sick, nor was he elderly. He was on Missouri's death row awaiting 
lethal injection.

In November 2001, Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon asked the Missouri 
Supreme Court to set an execution date for Amrine and 9 other men on death row. 
The court complied in 6 cases, but delayed in Amrine's case. By then a 
groundswell of support built for his exoneration in part because of a 
documentary, "Unreasonable Doubt: the Joe Amrine Case," by a group of 
university graduate students.

The Missouri Catholic Conference, public policy agency of the state's bishops, 
distributed the video widely in their efforts to seek Amrine's release. The 
bishops' agency advocated on Amrine's behalf and now uses his example in citing 
reasons to oppose the death penalty.

Convicted in 1986 of the murder of fellow prison inmate Gary Barber at the 
Missouri State Penitentiary in Jefferson City, Amrine, now 60, was released 
from prison in 2003 after the Missouri Supreme Court overturned his conviction 
and death sentence. He'd spent 17 years on death row after being sent to prison 
originally in 1977 on a robbery charge. 3 fellow inmates who had testified 
against him later recanted, admitting that they lied in exchange for favorable 
treatment. 6 other inmates had testified earlier that Amrine was in another 
area of the prison playing cards when Barber was stabbed.

Amrine and fellow exoneree Reggie Griffin visited St. Louis May 20 to speak at 
a public event at the St. Louis Galleria hosted by Lush Cosmetics and the 
Missourians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty. The talk was consistent with 
views of Pope Francis, who last year encouraged all people to work not only for 
the abolition of the death penalty, but also for the improvement of prison 
conditions, "so that they fully respect the human dignity of those 
incarcerated."

Rita Linhardt, senior staff associate for the Missouri Catholic Conference and 
chair of Missourians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, said serious 
concerns have been raised about the death penalty as public policy because of 
wrongful convictions, questions of fairness and the costs of the death penalty. 
For every nine executions in this country, one person who received a death 
sentence was found to be wrongly convicted. Reasons innocent people are 
convicted, she said, include ineffective assistance of counsel, flawed 
evidence, faulty eyewitness testimony and police and prosecutorial misconduct.

Exonerations highlight flaws in the death penalty, Linhardt said: "We can see 
where mistakes are made."

Faith was a factor in his survival, Amrine said: "It would be hard for anyone 
to be on death row and not somehow get some faith. You gotta believe in 
something to survive on death row."

He appreciates the position the Catholic Church has taken against the death 
penalty and wants to see more follow its lead. "We need Christians, Muslims and 
everyone to come up and say they're against the death penalty under any 
circumstances," he said.

Amrine once was in favor of the death penalty but his experience showed him 
that it sometimes is imposed on innocent people, and "it can't be applied 
equally."

Griffin, 56, grew up in St. Louis and was sentenced to 20 years in prison for 
1st-degree assault, robbery and possession of drugs and stolen property. While 
at the Moberly Correctional Center, he was accused of the murder of inmate 
James Bausley, who had been stabbed in the prison yard. Griffin denied he'd 
been in the yard at the time but was convicted in 1988 on the word of 2 
jailhouse informants who received reduced sentences in exchange for their 
testimony.

In 2011, the Missouri Supreme Court overturned the death sentence because 
prosecutors had withheld a sharpened screwdriver recovered from another inmate 
immediately after the stabbing. Both of Griffin's co-defendants consistently 
said the 3rd person involved in the crime was that inmate, not Griffin.

Griffin, released from prison in 2013, said that "none of the things that 
happened for me and to me could not and would not have happened without the 
grace of God."

Amrine and Griffin - African American men who were convicted by all-white 
juries in trials that lasted just a few days - give 2 or 3 talks a week and 
have been to several Catholic schools, mostly in the Kansas City area. They'll 
be in St. Louis Sept. 28 to speak to student representatives of Catholic high 
schools at the Cardinal Rigali Center in Shrewsbury. Amrine said he speaks out 
because "the Lord blessed me to put me out here. He wasn't through with me. We 
speak out against the death penalty, gangs, drugs, lawyers ... I did 26 years, 
he did 33. That qualifies us as experts."

For someone wrongfully convicted, Griffin said, "when the state seeks the death 
sentence against you, you have a chance of losing your life. If the evidence 
comes out after you're executed, they can't bring you back."

Catholics respond

The Catholic Mobilizing Network (CMN) has launched a new initiative, named the 
National Catholic Pledge to End the Death Penalty. "Due to growing public 
opposition to the death penalty and especially in the aftermath of last month 
executions in Arkansas, CMN has launched this pledge to amplify the Church's 
work to end the death penalty," said Karen Clifton, executive director of CMN.

Catholic Mobilizing Network maintains the pledge as an important initiative 
that lifts up the value of all human life. The pledge is a way to lift up the 
call of the Catholic Church and Pope Francis in particular to end the use of 
the death penalty and promote a more restorative criminal justice system.

In the recent session of the Missouri legislature, the Missouri Catholic 
Conference supported three bills that would have ended capital punishment in 
Missouri. The Catholic Conference, the public policy agency of the U.S. 
bishops, referred to the "Catechism of the Catholic Church" (paragraph 2267) 
and stated that "the death penalty undermines respect for human life and errors 
in the judicial system can lead to the execution of innocent people."

The proposed legislation stalled in the legislative process. 2 of the bills in 
the House were read for a second time and the Senate bill was referred to a 
committee.

For information:

-- The National Catholic Pledge to End the Death Penalty, 
www.catholicsmobilizing.org

-- Missouri Catholic Conference Messenger on the death penalty, 
www.stlouisreview.com/bMF

-- Missourians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, www.madpmo.org

-- U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, www.stlouisreview.com/bML

Opposing executions

Joe Amrine and Reggie Griffin are 2 of 159 inmates in the United States and 4 
in Missouri who have been exonerated after landing on death row.

Last month Bishop Frank J. Dewane, chairman of the U.S. Catholic bishops' 
Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development, decried plans by the sate 
of Arkansas to execute 7 men in 11 days, saying that justice and mercy are 
better served by commuting their sentences to life imprisonment.

At a recent event in St. Louis in which Amrine and Griffin told their story, 
Maggie Baine of St. Joseph Parish in Cottleville explained that changing public 
policy on the death penalty is a cause she deeply cares about. Pope Francis 
made a passionate plea for a moratorium on executions during the Year of Mercy, 
reminding listeners that "Thou shalt not kill" (the fifth commandment) applies 
not only to the innocent but to the guilty as well. Baine said she agrees fully 
with Church teaching.

"For the innocent and well as guilty people, we believe there's not a reason to 
end their lives," Baine said.

The Pew Research Center reported last fall that the share of Americans who 
support the death penalty for people convicted of murder now is at its lowest 
point in more than 4 decades.

During a debate last year in the Missouri Senate, Sen. Paul Wieland, 
R-Imperial, said he too is guided by his Catholic faith and the need to be 
consistent in his pro-life beliefs to protect all human life, even those guilty 
of murder. He also raised concern about executing an innocent person. "All it 
would take is one mistake," Wieland said. "We're not operating it as a zero 
percent margin of error."

"One sign of hope is that public opinion is manifesting a growing opposition to 
the death penalty, even as a means of legitimate social defense. Indeed, 
nowadays the death penalty is unacceptable, however grave the crime of the 
convicted person. It is an offense to the inviolability of life and to the 
dignity of the human person; it likewise contradicts God's plan for individuals 
and society, and his merciful justice. Nor is it consonant with any just 
purpose of punishment. It does not render justice to victims, but instead 
fosters vengeance. The commandment "Thou shalt not kill" has absolute value and 
applies both to the innocent and to the guilty."

Pope Francis' message to 6th World Congress Against the Death Penalty on June 
22, 2016

(source: St. Louis Review)






OKLAHOMA:

McClain County Man's Death Sentence Upheld By Appeals Court


The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals has again upheld the death penalty of a 
man convicted of killing his girlfriend and her 2 children in 2010.

The court ruled Thursday that testimony by the victims' relatives saying Shaun 
Bosse should receive the death penalty shouldn't have been allowed, but was 
harmless error.

The court said "overwhelming evidence" proves the crime was heinous, atrocious 
or cruel.

Bosse was convicted of killing 25-year-old Katrina Griffin, 8-year-old 
Christian Griffin and 6-year-old Chasity Hammer. Their bodies were found in 
their burned mobile home in Dibble, 40 miles south of Oklahoma City.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in October that the relatives' testimony shouldn't 
have been allowed and sent the case back to the Oklahoma court.

(source: Associated Press)






CALIFORNIA:

Alleged Misconduct Jeopardizes Death Penalty For OC's Worst Mass Murderer


2 Orange County sheriff's deputies asserted their constitutional right against 
self-incrimination Thursday when called to testify in an evidentiary hearing 
alleging outrageous governmental misconduct in the case of Scott Evans Dekraai, 
the worst mass killer in the county's history.

Sheriff's Deputies Ben Garcia and William Grover, who have been on paid 
administrative leave for the past several months, took the stand and invoked 
their Fifth Amendment rights in refusing to testify.

Deputy Seth Tunstall is expected to do the same thing when he is called to 
testify next week.

Garcia's attorney, Bob Gazley, told City News Service his client has not been 
told why he was put on leave.

Tunstall and Garcia have previously asserted their Fifth Amendment rights in 
another murder case involving a jailhouse informant last year. That prompted an 
Orange County Superior Court judge to order a new trial for Eric Ortiz, who was 
again convicted of murder and is awaiting sentencing next week.

Most of the testimony Thursday came from employees in the sheriff's department 
who handle legal records. They testified to the process of keeping the records 
and when and why decisions are made to shred them due to a lack of storage 
space.

Dekraai's attorney, Scott Sanders, has raised concerns that records regarding 
the jailhouse informant program have been improperly destroyed.

Superior Court Judge Thomas Goethals, who has recused the Orange County 
District Attorney's Office from prosecuting the case, is now considering a 
motion to dismiss the death penalty against Dekraai, which would spur an 
automatic sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Dekraai pleaded guilty to 8 counts of murder and 1 count of attempted murder 
for killing his wife, her boss and 6 others, and wounding a 77-year-old woman 
who survived the Oct. 12, 2011, bloodbath at a Seal Beach beauty salon.

(source: Orange County Register)






OREGON:

Catholic inmate no longer on death row----Greg Bowen, 64, won a court appeal 
and is eligible for parole in 12 years. A new look at evidence changed his 
conviction from aggravated murder to felony murder, which carries a life 
sentence with possibility of parole.


A Catholic inmate on Oregon's death row was transferred to the general prison 
population in January. A lay Catholic minister at Oregon State Penitentiary 
says Greg Bowen has been joining other inmates for Mass, something he could not 
do while he was isolated as a candidate for execution.

"The joy, peace and humble gratitude that showed on his face during the service 
spoke volumes about his deep and abiding faith in Jesus Christ," lay minister 
Laura Kazlas said after Bowen attended liturgy for the 1st time.

Bowen, 64, won a court appeal and is eligible for parole in 12 years. A new 
look at evidence changed his conviction from aggravated murder to felony 
murder, which carries a life sentence with possibility of parole. Bowen 
accepted the result, though he insists that he shot his friend Donald 
Christiansen of Brookings by mistake in 2001. Bowen did admit to stealing guns 
from Christiansen???s home, but says he did not mean to kill his friend.

Evidence showed that Christiansen was shot from closer than 5 feet, 
strengthening Bowen's contention. Most murderers shoot victims from farther 
away.

"This is another reason why we are against the death penalty," says Kazlas. 
"There is always the possibility that our government could execute an innocent 
man." Since 1973, 158 prisoners have been exonerated from death row in U.S. 
prisons.

"We need to be in the prisons to support all of the inmates - but especially 
for the rare person who is incarcerated for a crime they didn't commit," Kazlas 
says.

Bowen is 1 of the men Archbishop Alexander Sample visited several times on 
death row. Bowen and 76 other Catholic inmates signed up for a retreat slated 
for April 4, but fighting in another population sparked a lockdown of the whole 
prison and the retreat was postponed.

Oregon has 34 inmates on death row, including 2 more awaiting new sentences. 
Voters approved the death penalty in 1984. Since then, 23 convicts have been 
resentenced, 4 have died while locked up and 2 were executed.

(source: Catholic Sentinel)