[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, VA., GA., FLA., ALA., KAN., USA

[Rick Halperin]

Oct. 19





TEXAS----stay of impending executions

'Tourniquet Killer' execution date reset to January 2018----'Tourniquet Killer' 
claims death row inmate convinced him to confess to murder



The execution date for Anthony Allen Shore, also known as the "Tourniquet 
Killer," has been reset for Jan. 18, 2018. He was scheduled to be put to death 
Wednesday.

On the eve of his scheduled execution, Shore told investigators that a fellow 
inmate attempted to persuade Shore to take responsibility for the December 1998 
abduction and killing of 19-year-old Melissa Trotter.

Larry Ray Swearingen was convicted of Trotter's murder and is scheduled to be 
executed on Nov. 16.

Shore, who confessed to four slayings, was scheduled to be executed Wednesday 
evening, but the date has been reset while an investigation can be conducted.

Montgomery County District Attorney Brett Ligon said investigators from his 
office spoke with Shore on Tuesday and he told them he decided to expose the 
scheme and not cooperate with Swearingen.

The prosecutor said Swearingen tried a similar scheme before his trial for 
Trotter's killing.

The U.S. Supreme Court refused an appeal from Swearingen last October. His 
attorneys have long wanted additional DNA testing of evidence they say could 
show he didn't kill Trotter.

During Tuesday's interview, Shore told investigators he initially refused 
Swearingen's request, but the 2 eventually became friends and he decided to try 
to exonerate Swearingen as a favor.

Shore told investigators that Swearingen gave him a hand-drawn map of the 
location where Swearingen left physical evidence of Trotter's murder.

Ligon asked Gov. Greg Abbott to grant Shore a single 30-day reprieve in order 
to process the contents of Shore's cell.

On July 21, authorities discovered a folder in Shore's cell containing 
approximately 10 items pertaining to Trotter's murder, including copies of 
court exhibits and scene photos, a hand-drawn page of a calendar for the month 
of December 1998 with handwritten notations regarding weather conditions, and a 
hand-drawn map which appears to depict the location where Trotter's body was 
found. The handwriting on the map appears to be Swearingen's, authorities said.

(source: click2houston.com)

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

Texas court halts execution to review claims that co-defendant lied at 
trial----The execution of Clinton Young, convicted in a 2001 Midland-area 
murder, was stopped by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. The courts will 
look into claims that Young's co-defendant lied in his testimony against Young.



The execution of a man who insists he was framed in a 2001 murder was halted by 
the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on Wednesday, 1 week before he was set to 
die.

The court sent the case of Clinton Young back to trial court to look into 
claims that Young's co-defendant, a main witness for the state at trial, lied 
in his testimony. Young's lawyers claim four jailhouse witnesses have sworn 
they heard the co-defendant, David Page, brag about killing Samuel Petrey and 
blaming it on Young.

"I'm very grateful to the Criminal Court of Appeals for granting this stay and 
for giving me a chance to prove my innocence in court," Young told his 
attorneys on the phone, according to a statement.

In November 2001, Young and Page, ages 18 and 20, took part in a drug-related 
crime spree that involved fatally shooting Doyle Douglas and Samuel Petrey and 
stealing their cars over 2 days on opposite ends of the state, according to 
court documents. Douglas was shot in Longview on Nov. 24. The next day, Petrey 
was killed in Midland, more than 450 miles away.

Young was convicted and sentenced to death in Petrey's murder in 2003, with 
Page testifying against him. Page took a plea deal and was given 30 years in 
prison under an aggravated kidnapping conviction, according to court filings. 
He is currently eligible for parole but was denied release last year.

At trial, Page said Young shot Petrey, but Young has said he was sleeping off a 
methamphetamine high when the man was killed. Seeking to prove his innocence 
and stop his upcoming execution, Young's lawyers filed an appeal earlier this 
month claiming Page's testimony was false based on the new witness statements. 
The statements all include Page mentioning how the gloves he was wearing while 
shooting Petrey allowed him to blame Young for the murder.

The appellate court sent the case back to trial court to resolve this new claim 
of false testimony.

"We are confident the court will conclude that Page lied under oath to save 
himself and that our client is innocent of the crime that put him on death 
row," said Margo Rocconi, one of Young's lawyers, in a statement.

The Midland District Attorney's Office did not immediately respond to comment 
on Young's case Wednesday.

(source: Texas Tribune)

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

Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present----26

Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982----present-----544

Abbott#--------scheduled execution date-----name------------Tx. #

27---------Nov. 8------------------Ruben Cardenas---------545

28---------Nov. 16-----------------Larry Swearingen-------546

29---------Dec. 14-----------------Juan Castillo----------547

30---------Jan. 18-----------------Anthony Shore----------548

31---------Jan. 30-----------------William Rayford--------549

(sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin)

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

Death row inmate Petetan wins rehearing for sentence



A death row inmate convicted of murdering his estranged wife in 2012 will 
receive a new hearing to determine if his death sentence was constitutionally 
appropriate following a U.S. Supreme Court decision questioning how the state 
determines intellectual disability.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals awarded Carnell Petetan Jr., now 41, a new 
hearing Wednesday after he was found guilty and sentenced to death in 2014 for 
the 2012 murder of his estranged wife, Kimberly Farr Petetan. The rehearing was 
ordered after a recent Supreme Court ruling questioning the state's definition 
of "mental retardation" in the 1980 conviction of Bobby James Moore, who 
murdered a store clerk in Houston in 1980.

In late March, the Supreme Court ruled Moore's guilt is apparent, but his death 
sentence is considered cruel and unusual punishment since he suffers from an 
intellectual disability.

The death penalty has long been off limits for people with intellectual 
disabilities. The Supreme Court decision in the Moore case calls into question 
Texas' methods for determining who meets the definition.

During his trial and sentencing, Petetan's attorneys, Russ Hunt and Michelle 
Tuegel, argued Petetan suffered from a mental deficiency and that the death 
penalty would be unconstitutional.

Petetan appealed his sentence, but the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed 
it in early March, while the Supreme Court was still considering on the Moore 
case.

8 judges on the Court of Criminal Appeals voted to reject Petetan's 30 points 
of appeal, while 1 judge dissented, saying she preferred not to rule on 
Petetan's case while the Texas standard for determining whether someone is 
intellectually disabled is in legal flux.

"The United States Supreme Court agreed in the Moore case that the Texas 
standard for determining intellectual disability violated the Eighth 
Amendment," Tuegel said. "This was something that we argued and objected to in 
Mr. Petetan's trial.

"The rehearing granted by the Court of Criminal Appeals today is encouraging 
and a validation of our work and the fight we put up for a client we believed 
to be intellectually disabled."

Petetan, a Port Arthur native, was convicted of breaking into his estranged 
wife's Lake Shore Drive apartment and shooting her in front of her daughter and 
2 men who rode from South Texas with him in September 2012. He was convicted of 
capital murder in 2014.

(source: Waco Tribune)

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

Court: Examine if Austin crime lab botched death penalty evidence----State's 
highest criminal court orders examination of questions raised about DNA 
evidence in Austin murder.



Areli Escobar was sentenced to die for the 2009 stabbing death of his neighbor, 
Bianca Maldonado, 17.

The state's highest criminal court on Wednesday ordered a closer examination of 
death row inmate Areli Escobar's claims that shoddy work by the Austin police 
crime lab compromised evidence in his case.

Escobar is seeking to have his conviction overturned, and a new trial ordered, 
after a Travis County jury sentenced him to death in the 2009 sexual assault 
and stabbing of his neighbor, 17-year-old Bianca Maldonado, an LBJ High School 
student who was attacked at her East Austin apartment with her year-old son, 
who survived, nearby.

In a brief order issued Wednesday, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals directed 
state District Judge David Wahlberg to examine claims that the crime lab 
produced false or misleading conclusions from DNA evidence in the case, 
particularly on tests performed on the shirt, jeans and shoes that tied Escobar 
to the murder.

Defense lawyers also argued that problems discovered at the crime lab after 
Escobar's trial - including poorly trained analysts, reports of 
cross-contamination of samples and questionable analytical methods - tainted 
the DNA results used to convict Escobar of capital murder.

"Areli Escobar's capital murder conviction rests on forensic evidence developed 
by incompetent scientists using bad science," defense lawyers with the state 
Office of Capital and Forensic Writs said in his latest appeal.

Austin police officials closed the DNA portion of the crime lab in June 2016 
after an audit by the Texas Forensic Science Commission, a state agency that 
includes leading forensic scientists, found that some staff members were not 
properly trained and that incorrect methods had been used to examine DNA 
samples.

"In light of these developments, a comprehensive, independent review of ... Mr. 
Escobar's case is critical," defense lawyers told the Court of Criminal 
Appeals.

The appeals court also ordered Wahlberg to examine 2 other claims raised by 
Escobar's lawyers:

-- Whether a fingerprint examiner relied on scientifically invalid methods to 
link a partial bloody print, found on a lotion bottle 2 feet from Maldonado's 
body, to Escobar.

-- Whether prosecution experts overstated the significance of cellphone 
activity - said to put Escobar in the vicinity of Maldonado's apartment when 
she was killed - based on calls and texts routed through nearby cell towers.

The case next returns to Wahlberg's court, where Travis County prosecutors will 
have a chance to respond to the claims raised by defense lawyers.

Wahlberg can order hearings and briefings to help him form a recommendation on 
whether he believes the Court of Criminal Appeals should toss out Escobar's 
conviction and order a new trial. There is no deadline for the judge to issue 
his findings or for the appeals court to issue its ruling.

During Escobar's 2011 trial, prosecutors argued that DNA evidence established 
his guilt after tests found Maldonado's blood on his shoes and shirt. In 
addition, blood on the inside of the victim's door was linked to Escobar, while 
tests on blood found in Escobar's car could not exclude the victim as the 
source, prosecutors told the jury.

However, tests performed last year on the same evidence were less certain - 
finding, for example, that the blood on the door could not be interpreted 
without additional testing, or the samples on the shirt and shoes were 
inadequate for comparison techniques, defense lawyers said.

"In stark contrast to what the jury heard, the (new testing) demonstrates that 
the results for these items are inconclusive and do not connect Mr. Escobar to 
the crime," the lawyers said.

In addition, the lawyers argued that Escobar, 38, deserves a new trial based on 
recent information detailing "gross incompetence and negligence at the APD 
lab."

Documents showed 11 "contamination incidents" of samples at the lab between 
2005 and Escobar's 2011 trial, they said, including seven by the analyst who 
tested items in the Maldonado case and 3 by the forensic scientist who screened 
evidence for the presence of DNA.

When combined with the forensic science commission's criticism of the lab's 
training and practices, the information raises significant doubts about 
Escobar's conviction, they told the appeals court.

"The widespread problems at the lab ... call into question all of the DNA 
evidence in Mr. Escobar's case," the lawyers said.

(source: Austin American-Statesman)

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

death penalty sought for 3 murder suspects



Nueces County prosecutors announced Wednesday that they will be seeking the 
death penalty against 3 suspects accused of capital murder.

30-year-old Adan Pena, 29-year-old Daniel Venegas, and 40-year-old Melissa 
Venegas are accused of killing 24-year-old Robert Flores in July of this year 
during an attempted robbery.

Bond for each suspect remains at $1 million.

(source: KIII news)








VIRGINIA:

Henrico man facing death penalty for fatal shootings of his parents still not 
competent to stand trial



A Henrico man charged with murdering his parents has not yet been found fit to 
stand trial.

Henrico Circuit Court Judge James Stephen Yoffy said at a Wednesday hearing 
that officials at Central State Hospital in Petersburg informed the court in a 
letter that William Roy Brissette, 24, remains incompetent but that the mental 
hospital believes further treatment can bring the defendant back to the point 
where court proceedings in the capital murder case can continue.

Brissette, who is facing the death penalty, has been diagnosed with 
schizophrenia, a psychosis that includes hallucinations and delusions.

In April, the defendant was found to be incompetent, meaning he does not have 
the ability to fully understand the proceedings or effectively help his 
attorneys with his own defense.

Daniel Sheneman, the assistant medical director at Central State, said at a May 
hearing that staff at the hospital suspected Brissette had been hearing voices 
although Sheneman said the defendant denied that was the case. Sheneman also 
said that the longer the defendant's psychosis went untreated, the more 
enduring his mental illness would become.

At a follow-up hearing a couple weeks later, Yoffy ordered staff at the mental 
hospital to begin administering anti-psychotic medication to Brissette to treat 
his mental illness so he can be made competent and the case can proceed. The 
staff began the involuntary administration of the drugs to the defendant on May 
30.

At Wednesday's hearing, the judge ordered that treatment to continue for 
another 6 months.

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against Brissette on capital murder 
charges in connection with the deaths of his mother, Martha B. Brissette, 56, 
and his father, Henry J. Brissette III, 59, on March 27, 2016.

Brissette's defense attorneys have objected to him being medicated, arguing in 
court papers that prosecutors want to restore his competency so they can 
ultimately ask a jury to sentence him to death.

Brissette's legal counsel has appealed Yoffy's original medication order to the 
Supreme Court of Virginia, asking that the judge's ruling be thrown out. 
Brissette's defense team contends the circuit court didn't follow proper 
procedures when ordering the involuntary administration of drugs. Prosecutors, 
in their own response to the state Supreme Court, rejected those arguments. The 
appeal is pending.

(source: richmond.com)








GEORGIA:

Man avoids death penalty in shooting of retired priest



He was sentenced to life in prison for the death of the Rev. Rene Robert.

The shooting happened in April 2016.

A man pleaded guilty Wednesday to the deadly shooting of a Florida priest in 
east Georgia, according to a prosecutor's spokeswoman, which will allow him to 
avoid the death penalty.

Steven Murray, 30, made the plea in Burke County Superior Court, according to 
Natalie Paine of the Augusta Judicial Circuit. The Waynesboro courthouse is 
near where Murray said he shot to death the Rev. Rene Robert, 71, of St. 
Augustine, Fla., in April 2016.

Prosecutors had said they would seek the death penalty if Murray was convicted.

Murray was sentenced to life without parole, Paine said. He pleaded guilty to 
malice murder, 2 counts of felony murder, possessing a firearm during the 
commission of a crime and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.

Murray told the Florida Times-Union last year that Robert, who spent his 
retirement ministering to the poor and misfits, was one of the few men who was 
good to him.

Murray abducted Robert in the priest's car, locking him in the trunk, during a 
trip to see family in South Carolina on April 10. He said he marched Robert 
into the woods in Burke County and shot him because he was afraid of going back 
to prison.

Murray was taken into custody a few days later, according to reports. On April 
18, Murray led officers to Robert's body, the Augusta Chronicle reported.

(source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution)








FLORIDA:

Prosecutors cleared to seek death penalty in slaying where victim baited by 
escort ad



Prosecutors will be seeking the death penalty against two men in the 2013 
murder of a Coconut Creek man allegedly lured to his death by an escort's ad.

The decision follows a Fourth District Court of Appeal ruling on Wednesday 
clearing the way for possible death sentences in that case.

Jefty Claude Joseph, 24, Ilmart Christophe, 23, and Koral Benshimon, 24, were 
arrested in the slaying of Gustavo Mora Falsetti Cabral, 31.

Detectives say Cabral was shot once in the head inside the garage of an 
abandoned home west of Lake Worth, hours after he showed up at a Super 8 Motel 
in Pompano Beach in response to an escort service listing by "Belle Ayrab 
Barbie/Sexy Angeline Latina."

Benshimon, who is accused of posing as the escort, last week was sentenced to 
10 years in prison plus 5 years of probation after admitting to her role in the 
deadly episode. The Greenacres woman pleaded guilty to kidnapping and robbery 
counts, and the State Attorney's Office dropped a charge of 1st degree murder 
with a firearm.

Benshimon, who got credit for nearly 4 years already spent in jail, agreed to 
testify if called upon by prosecutors for the trials of Joseph and Christophe.

Before resolving her case with the plea deal, Benshimon's attorney, Douglas 
Duncan, told the court the defense planned to argue at trial that she was 
forced into prostitution by the 2 men, who lived west of Lake Worth. Now she 
must cooperate with prosecutors or see her deal voided.

Joseph's trial had been postponed since February, when prosecutors appealed an 
order from Palm Beach County Circuit Judge John Kastrenakes that took the death 
penalty off the table.

Wednesday's appellate court ruling followed decisions in other cases where 
death penalty prosecutions were halted temporarily over arguments about grand 
jury indictments. Florida has since updated its death penalty law so that 
unanimous jury votes now are required to impose capital punishment.

Joseph's attorney, Robert Gershman, said he expects the trial to begin in the 
next few months.

The judge is expected to pick a trial date for Christophe at a Jan. 31 hearing. 
Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for him as well.

Koral Benshimon, 24, of Greenacres, on Oct. 12 pleaded guilty to kidnapping and 
robbery counts.

According to arrest reports, the victim called Benshimon several times before 
arriving at the parking lot of the Super 8, in the 2300 block of N.E. 10th St, 
at 5:08 p.m. on Dec. 1, 2013. She told detectives she advised Cabral her price 
was $100 for an hour and for him to come up to room 226 in a few minutes.

When Cabral entered the room, Joseph and Christophe were waiting and ordered 
Cabral to the ground at gun point, tied him up and took $400 in cash, credit 
cards and his cell phone, an arrest report states.

Cabral was "so scared he could hardly talk," and his life was threatened unless 
he provided his debit card PIN and complied with demands to call his credit 
card companies to increase his spending limits, according to the account that 
Benshimon gave investigators.

Christophe and Joseph then forced Cabral at gunpoint into the backseat of his 
black Toyota Camry for a ride to several banks in attempts to withdraw money, 
records show. Benshimon followed in another car, and was later advised to wait 
for them outside Christophe's mother's residence in the Indian Pines 
neighborhood north of Lantana Road.

A witness told deputies that 3 men entered the abandoned house on the 5900 
block of Ithaca Circle West and minutes later there was the sound of a gunshot. 
Only 2 of the men left the house.

At about 9:30 a.m., deputies found Cabral dead in the garage and minutes later 
caught up to Joseph and Christophe in the same neighborhood.

A search of Joseph's pockets yielded the Super 8 room keycard and 2 of Cabral's 
credit cards and driver's license, records show.

(source: Sun Sentinel)








ALABAMA----stay of impending execution upheld

Federal appeals court will not allow Alabama inmate's execution



A federal appeals court Wednesday denied a request by Alabama to lift a judge's 
order so it can execute death row inmate Torrey Twane McNabb on Thursday.

Chief U.S. District Judge W. Keith Watkins in Montgomery had issued a stay of 
execution for McNabb on Monday. But the Alabama Attorney General's Office, on 
behalf of the Alabama Department of Corrections, had quickly appealed to the 
U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals to unblock the stay so the execution could 
take place.

The appeals court on Wednesday said it could find no cause to lift Watkins' 
order.

The execution was scheduled for 6 p.m. Thursday at the Hollman Correctional 
Facility in Atmore.

McNabb has spent the last 18 years on death row, after being convicted of 
fatally shooting Montgomery police officer Anderson Gordon in September 1997. 
McNabb was convicted on 2 capital murder counts-- 1 for killing Gordon while he 
was on duty, and 1 for killing him as Gordon sat in his patrol car. McNabb also 
was found guilty of 2 additional counts of attempted murder.

The Attorney General's Office could appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

This is the 2nd time an execution has been stayed this month.

Death row inmate Jeffrey Lynn Borden, 56, was granted a stay of his Oct. 5 
execution. Borden was sentenced to death for the Christmas Eve 1993 shooting 
deaths of his estranged wife and her father in Gardendale.

Both McNabb and Borden are part of an inmate lawsuit challenging the 
constitutionality of Alabama's lethal injection drug combination. The 11th 
Circuit Court of Appeals on Sept. 6 had ordered Watkins to hold an evidentiary 
hearing in that lawsuit regarding the claims.

Watkins has not yet set a date for that hearing.

(source: al.com)

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

Alabama seeks to proceed with execution Thursday



Alabama is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to let it execute an inmate convicted 
of killing a police officer 2 decades ago.

The attorney general's office plans to ask justices to lift a stay blocking 
Thursday's scheduled execution of 40-year-old Torrey Twane McNabb.

McNabb was convicted in the 1997 shooting death of Montgomery police Officer 
Anderson Gordon. Prosecutors say McNabb shot Gordon multiple times after he 
arrived at a traffic accident that McNabb caused while fleeing a bail bondsmen.

A federal judge stayed the execution after an appellate court ordered more 
proceedings in an inmate lawsuit claiming the state uses an unreliable sedative 
at the start of lethal injections.

The attorney general's office argues the high court has allowed 4 executions 
with the drug.

(source: Associated Press)








KANSAS:

Oral arguments scheduled in Thurber death penalty appeal before Kansas Supreme 
Court



The Kansas Supreme Court has scheduled oral arguments in the death penalty case 
of Justin Thurber.

A Cowley County jury convicted Justin Eugene Thurber in 2007 of capital murder 
and aggravated kidnapping for the abduction and murder of 19-year-old Jodi 
Sanderholm near Arkansas City.

In a separate sentencing proceeding, the State alleged that the murder had been 
committed in an especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel manner.

The jury found that the State proved this aggravating circumstance beyond a 
reasonable doubt and that mitigating circumstances did not outweigh it.

Accordingly, the jury returned a verdict for death. In this direct appeal, 
Thurber raises 27 issues regarding alleged errors during the guilt-phase and 
penalty-phase proceedings.

Both the defense and the state will be allotted 60 minutes for argument. The 
oral arguments will begin at 9 a.m. October 27th in Topeka.

(source:Nick Gosnell is the News Director for WIBW News and the Kansas 
Information Network.








USA:

Abolish the death penalty and support the survivors----Survivors need healing 
and support services over the course of their lives.



Whether it's the latest mass shooting or a robbery gone awry, whenever I hear 
about a murder, my heart breaks again. I know what it's like to learn that the 
person you love and need the most is never coming home again. That pain and 
despair are real to me, because my pregnant mother was murdered when I was 5 
years old.

I was raised by my grandmother, a smart woman who shared details with me as I 
got older. My mom was 26 when she was murdered in Alvin by two teens with car 
trouble whom she tried to help. Because the killers were juveniles, they were 
not eligible for the death penalty.

I've thought a lot about my mom and what our lives might have been like had she 
not been murdered. I've also thought a lot about the teenagers who killed her, 
and I have participated in a victim-offender reconciliation program that 
allowed me to meet with one of them in prison.

Looking one of my mom's killers in the eye helped me understand that they were 
people, too. They made a terrible mistake for which they have paid the price. 
One died in prison, and the man my grandma and I met with was paroled. I 
recently received a message from his pastor, sharing that he is active in 
church and paying back to society. We're OK with that. There should be room for 
forgiveness and reconciliation.

I know some will disagree, and I don't speak for everyone who struggles with 
the aftermath of murder. I have no problem with a sentence of death by 
incarceration, which is what most killers get these days. We can be safe from 
dangerous offenders and hold them accountable without killing them.

I also recognize that those in prison or on death row and those who have been 
executed have families too. Those family members, especially those who were 
children when their loved one was arrested, experience pain and devastation 
similar to that which I felt. They, like me, didn't do anything wrong, but 
society need not make it worse by making them homicide survivors too.

As much as I've missed my mom, I'm fortunate that my grandma provided 
leadership for our family that steered us away from revenge. She understood 
that executing the killers wouldn't bring her daughter back. Given how long 
death cases take, I believe that not having to wait decades for executions 
allowed us to move on with our lives, and on some level, to heal. This is one 
reason I now advocate for ending the death penalty.

In our experience the death penalty system is not victim-friendly. It consumes 
huge sums of money which could be better used for direct victims' services, 
such as counseling, funeral expenses and educational help for the children left 
behind. These and other things would have been useful to my family.

Additionally, executions focus attention on the offender rather than on the 
victims. The headlines are always about the killer. We all know the name of the 
shooter in Las Vegas. Can we name one of his victims?

The biggest myth about the death penalty is the one promised by politicians and 
prosecutors. They say that victim's families need executions so that they can 
have "closure." That is a false promise, because no amount of killing will 
bring my mom back.

Worse, by holding up the death penalty as a commodity for victim's families, 
they are really saying that most homicide victims aren't valuable enough. The 
majority of murder cases are not death-eligible, and only a tiny percentage of 
those cases where death is possible actually end with an execution.

Anyone with a relative who has been murdered wants the right person to be held 
accountable. Beyond that, we need healing and support services over the course 
of our lifetimes. It's been decades since my mom was killed, but the trauma of 
losing her is triggered again almost daily.

The death penalty should be abolished and the funds currently used for killing 
should be redirected to better services for homicide survivors.

(source: Commentary; Ami Lyn White lives in Cleveland. She is a featured 
speaker on the Texas Journey of Hope ... From Violence to Healing in the 
Houston area which ends today. Details at 
www.DeathPenaltyAction.org/JourneyofHope.----Houston Chronicle)






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

Death Penalty Resolution: U.S. Vote Betrays American Values



On Sept. 29, the United Nations (U.N.) Human Rights Council passed a resolution 
condemning the unjust application of the death penalty worldwide. At the vote 
in Geneva, 13 of 47 council members voted against the resolution, including the 
United States.

Coverage of this resolution has mainly focused on its language opposing the 
death penalty as punishment for homosexuality. Major news outlets such as CNN 
and the Independent all ran incredulous headlines highlighting the apparent 
anti-LGBTQ+ elements of the vote.

But there's more to this resolution: it also asserts that religious crimes such 
as blasphemy, speaking against one's religion and apostasy, renouncing one's 
religious or political beliefs, are never capital offenses and condemns 
executions of pregnant women, minors and the mentally ill and the 
disproportionate use of capital punishment against the poor, minorities and 
political dissidents. The United States' failure to support this last point is 
particularly frustrating. Voting against this resolution goes against a 
fundamental tenet of American democracy: religious freedom.

This vote has inspired considerable backlash, and, in response, State 
Department spokesperson Heather Nauert said in a statement, "We had hoped for a 
balanced and inclusive resolution that would better reflect the positions of 
states that continue to apply the death penalty lawfully, as the United States 
does."

Nauert cited the resolution's advocacy for total abolition of the death penalty 
as a reason for the "no" vote - despite none of the resolution's text 
explicitly calling for complete elimination, only referencing a moratorium 
supported by the U.N. since 2007. This unsubstantiated justification only makes 
the vote more disturbing. The United States prides itself on freedom of speech 
and religion, and seeks to promote human rights abroad. So why is it so wedded 
to the continued use of the death penalty that it prioritizes its ability to 
kill its citizens over protecting people persecuted by oppressive, bloodthirsty 
regimes around the world?

This sort of vote is nothing new; similar votes were made during the Barack 
Obama administration. This precedent doesn't excuse this vote, but rather 
highlights the hypocrisy of the nominally pro-LGBTQ+ Obama administration. Such 
votes have harmful consequences for LGBTQ+ people and other persecuted 
minorities, which can't be hand-waved away. If the United States sincerely 
"unequivocally condemns the application of the death penalty for conduct such 
as homosexuality, blasphemy, adultery and apostasy," as Nauert claimed, passing 
up these opportunities to take concrete actions to that effect is baffling and 
upsetting.

Moreover, capital punishment will only breed more injustice upon its practical 
application, as evidenced by the goals of the UN resolution - to protect those 
most vulnerable from being unfairly affected.

"The color of a defendant and victim's skin plays a crucial and unacceptable 
role in deciding who receives the death penalty in America," the American Civil 
Liberties Union said in an analysis of race and capital punishment. This 
analysis showed that 77 % of inmates on the U.S. government's death row are 
people of color. Not only is the death penalty more likely to be applied when 
the convict is a minority, it's also more likely when the victim is white. It's 
unsurprising, then, that the United States would vote against a resolution 
"[d]eploring the fact that, frequently, poor and economically vulnerable 
persons and ... religious or ethnic minorities are disproportionately 
represented among those sentenced to the death penalty[.]" Even under a 
president whose campaign made deplorability a rallying cry, why would a state 
vote to deplore its own conduct?

I personally oppose the death penalty unconditionally; I believe that killing 
is always wrong, that capital punishment only increases total suffering and, in 
Pope Francis' words, "attacks the inviolability and the dignity of the person."

But even if the United States doesn't share this view, it should still 
recognize human rights as more important than the option to execute. At the 
very least, it should stand for its apparent values, rather than grandstanding 
one way and acting another.

This vote exposes a hollow and moldering pit where the heart and backbone of 
America's moral leadership should be. Every nation on Earth has a duty to 
advocate for human rights. Because America's influence and affluence increase 
the potential effectiveness of its advocacy, the severity of that moral 
imperative is also increased. Choosing not to join the U.N. in condemning 
unjust executions is a failure of that duty, and a cruel and unusual hypocrisy 
that undermines American posturing as a defender of human rights.

If the United States wants to be a part of the humane, optimistic future that 
the rest of the world dares to envision, we can start by reforming or, even 
better, abolishing our use of the death penalty - and then advocating for 
similar reform abroad. It's the right thing to do.

(source: Opinion, Carl Lewandowski; loyolaphoenix.com)