[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, N.H., GA., ALA., LA., OHIO, NEB. CALIF.

[Rick Halperin]

April 27



TEXAS:

Judge refuses new attorney for death row inmate who says lawyers abandoned him 
3 years ago



A federal judge on Thursday accused lawyers of "interfering" and "gamesmanship" 
in an order denying their plea to intervene in the case of a death row inmate 
who says his current attorneys abandoned him 3 years ago.

Earlier this week, the local branch of law firm Hogan Lovells filed a request 
to let Maryland-based attorney Lee Kovarsky bump the current lawyers off the 
case of Clifton Williams, an intellectually disabled and schizophrenic death 
row prisoner scheduled for execution in June.

In a 2-page decision, U.S. District Judge Ron Clark ruled that Texas attorneys 
Seth Kretzer and Wes Volberding would stay on the case, despite allegations 
that they hadn't visited or done work on the appeals since 2015.

"The manner and submission of Hogan Lovells' motion for substitution of counsel 
is indicative of gamesmanship and is not in the interest of justice," Clark 
wote. "The motion to reconsider reveals that Hogan Lovells has been in contact 
with Mr. Williams and is interfering with the relationship between an attorney 
and his client."

Kretzer lauded the decision as clearing a path to move forward and focus 
"zealously" on the case ahead.

"We did not abandon our client and we're not trying to brag but we're 2 of the 
most experienced capital habeas lawyers in the country," he said. "We aren't 
interested in battling off other law firms."

But some legal experts took issue with the court's apparent lack of concern 
over the abandonment claims.

"Orders like that are indicative of judicial unwillingness to understand 
reality," said Robert Dunham, director of the Death Penalty Information Center. 
"This has happened in other states - it's nothing new - but when courts speak 
of gamesmanship what they are really talking about is giving up the local 
culture in which there has not been zealous representation on behalf of the 
client."

Kretzer and Volberding admitted in filings that they didn't visit their client 
between 2015 and earlier this month. But, they said, that was because the case 
was tied up in state court over DNA analysis - and another lawyer was assigned 
to handle that process. Those proceedings ended in 2017.

After a judge signed off on a June 21 execution date this last month, Kretzer 
and Volberding filed a request to let Kovarsky and Hogan Lovells take over the 
case. On April 10 a judge denied that request, and that same day a Hogan 
Lovells lawyer - with Kretzer's permission - visited Williams on death row and 
asked him to weigh in.

"I thought Seth and West (sic) were off my case since 2015. I haven't heard 
from them since then," Williams scrawled in a hand-written note. "They didn't 
tell me when I got an excution (sic) date, not in 2015, and not this time. I 
don't want them to represent me now."

Then on Monday, Hogan Lovells attorneys entered a lengthy filing accusing 
Kretzer and Volberding of abandoning their client when they could have been 
preparing appeals based on his mental disability.

"With his execution fewer than 65 days away, Mr. Williams is effectively 
without counsel," they wrote.

Kretzer pushed back, saying he began work on an appeal soon after learning of 
the execution date, and accusing Hogan Lovells of "moonlighting in death 
cases."

On Thursday, in addition to tossing the request for a new lawyer, the court 
threw out Hogan Lovells' plea for a stay of execution.

After the decision, Hogan Lovells issued a statement saying the firm 
"respectfully disagrees" with the court, and clarifying that they'd been asked 
to step in by another legal group, the Texas Habeas Assistance and Training 
Resource Counsel.

"A number of firm attorneys have a long history of acting as pro bono counsel 
to inmates on death row, so we agreed to help," they said. "The only motivation 
of our lawyers was to attempt to ensure that someone who is currently scheduled 
to be executed was given every opportunity to raise his legal defenses under 
the law."

The East Texas man at the center of the legal fight was originally sent to 
death row in 2006 for robbing 93-year-old Cecilia Schneider before stabbing her 
and setting her body on fire.

The legal wrangling over his case mirrors a similar stand-off from 2015, when 
Kovarsky squared off with Kretzer and Volberding over the death row inmate 
Robert Leslie Roberson.

In that case, the courts initially refused to let Kovarsky and his team take 
over, though later they stepped in. Eventually, Roberson was granted a stay and 
the case sent back to a lower court.

In the Williams case, it's not clear what legal maneuvering lies ahead, though 
attorneys could potentially appeal Thursday's decision. Both teams have said 
they plan to raise claims about whether the East Texas man is too mentally 
impaired to be put to death.

But if the appeals fail and everything moves forward as planned, Williams will 
be executed June 21 in Huntsville.

(source: Houston Chronicle)

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

Isidro De La Cruz moved from Tom Green County Jail to death row; family member 
speaks out



Isidro De La Cruz sat in a windowless, grim holding cell and talked this week 
about his recent capital murder trial. He smiled, apologized and politely asked 
for his statements to be off the record.

De La Cruz, 27, who was convicted and sentenced to death April 17, 2018, was 
moved from the Tom Green County Jail to death row Thursday morning.

De La Cruz won't offer the public his story of what happened the night 
5-year-old Naiya Villegas died because an appeals court in Austin will 
inevitably review the case.

His sister-in-law, however, didn't mince her words.

"I'm very upset by the justice system" in Tom Green County, Xrystan De La Cruz 
said Monday, adding family members have held their tongues for nearly four 
years. "None of it was fair for Isidro."

Xrystan De La Cruz, 24, who is married to Isidro's youngest brother, recently 
began defending her brother-in-law publicly on Facebook. She contends he didn't 
inflict the neck wounds that killed his ex-girlfriend's daughter.

Naiya died after her throat was slit twice with a large kitchen knife at her 
mother's residence in the 2700 block of Houston Street on Sept. 2, 2014.

The De La Cruz family believes Naiya was accidentally killed during a scuffle 
after Isidro De La Cruz showed up at Tanya Bermea's house in the middle of the 
night to tell her he had fathered another child .

"That night, he intended to terminate the relationship with Tanya in order to 
pursue" a relationship with the mother of his child and high school sweetheart, 
said Elizabeth Rodriguez, his high school sweetheart's aunt.

A paternity test from the DNA Diagnostic Center showed Isidro De La Cruz's 
mother and father as the grandparents of the now-3-year-old boy.

Xrystan De La Cruz said the family believes Naiya's throat was cut when Tanya 
Bermea, enraged over the breakup, attacked Isidro from behind with a large 
kitchen knife while he put Niaya to bed in her room.

A Tom Green County Jury of 8 women and 4 men believed otherwise after about a 
month of trial.

Isidro De La Cruz's defense attorneys never explicitly introduced the idea of 
an accidental killing during trial, but they argued the 2 drunk adults fought 
in a dark house that night.

The jury heard evidence that a heavily intoxicated Isidro De La Cruz broke into 
Bermea's home through a bathroom window after hitching a ride with an 
acquaintance from a bar near Angelo State University.

Bermea told jurors she immediately fled the house to get help, leaving a 
sleeping Niaya behind because she never thought Isidro would hurt the girl. 
Bermea said she never set foot back in her home that night.

Prosecutors argued Isidro De La Cruz locked himself inside the house and took 
his rage out on the girl after an altercation with Bermea outside.

"We are not trying to reopen wounds for the Villegas family," Xrystan De La 
Cruz said. "We just want the truth out."

Both Xrystan De La Cruz and Elizabeth Rodriguez said they are unhappy with the 
court-appointed attorneys. Xrystan De La Cruz, who attended the trial, said she 
believes the jury had already condemned her brother-in-law long before reaching 
its verdict.

The women said "much has been biased" against Isidro De La Cruz from the 
get-go, such as the San Angelo Police Department arresting only Isidro De La 
Cruz and prosecutors and the court preventing certain information from being 
presented to the jury.

Xrystan De La Cruz said her brother-in-law was in the wrong place at the wrong 
time.

"I know good people, and I know bad people when I see them," she said. "I'm not 
obligated to do this. I'm doing this because it's the right thing to do."

Members of the De La Cruz family created the Facebook page "Justice For 
Isidro." The page drew almost 300 followers in several days.

An aunt-in-law of Naiya said the Villegas family is at peace now that trial is 
over. She said the family is glad justice was served and is ready to move 
forward.

William Boyles, one of Isidro's defense attorneys from the Lubbock Regional 
Public Defenders for Capital Cases, said Thursday he couldn't comment.

What happens next for IsidroDe La Cruz?

De La Cruz will live at the Allan B. Polunsky Unit while he awaits the appeal 
process, which could take more than a decade. The Texas Department of Criminal 
Justice reported after 1973, inmates spend on average nearly 11 years on death 
row before execution.

What's life on death row like?

Polunsky is a state prison operated by the TDCJ in West Livingston. It houses 
all death row inmates in the state who are men.

Stephen Bryant, a senior warden with the TDCJ, said during De La Cruz's trial 
that death row offenders are kept virtually in isolation.

He said they spend roughly 22 of 24 hours in solitary confinement, housed 
separately in single-person cells that each have a window.

Death-row offenders are generally isolated from all other prisoners, excluded 
from prison educational and employment programs and sharply restricted in terms 
of visitation, exercise and movement.

Bryant said 2 guards, for example, must escort the inmate to any activity, 
including showers, medical checkups or recreation.

Bryant said the day starts with breakfast about 3 a.m., when meals are brought 
to their cells. He said death-row offenders eat meals and spend recreation 
alone.

Bryant said managing an inmate who's on death row is staff-intensive compared 
other prisoners.

What is the appeal process and why does it take so long?

The 1st phase of appeals is the direct appeals stage to the Texas Court of 
Criminal Appeals in Austin, which is the highest criminal court in the state. 
Every death penalty sentence is automatically sent to the appeals court.

The court includes nine judges who hear each case. After deciding each appeal, 
the court delivers a written opinion that explains the reason for its decision. 
Their verdicts can range from affirming the trial court's verdict to 
overturning it and ordering a new trial and more.

(source: gosanangelo.com)








NEW HAMPSHIRE:

House sends death penalty repeal to governor's desk despite veto threat



The New Hampshire House approved a bill to repeal the state's death penalty 
Thursday, 223-116, sending the measure to the governor despite his vow to veto 
it.

The legislation, Senate Bill 593, would strike the words "may be punished by 
death" from the state's capital punishment statute, replacing them with "shall 
be sentenced to imprisonment for life without the possibility for parole." New 
Hampshire is one of 31 states to have the death penalty, according to the Death 
Penalty Information Center.

The measure passed the Senate 14-10 in March, but faces a veto from Gov. Chris 
Sununu, who said earlier this year that it would send the state "in exactly the 
wrong direction" and go against the wishes of law enforcement and victims.

In a floor debate ahead of the vote, representatives mulled the moral nuances 
of the punishment.

Rep. Jeanine Notter, R-Merrimack, invoked the case of New Hampshire's only 
death row inmate, Michael Addison, convicted for the 2006 killing of Manchester 
police officer Michael Briggs.

"What message are we sending our police officers and what we think of their 
life that we think people should be heroes in jail for being cop killers?" she 
said.

But others took philosophical issue with the practice of state executions, and 
cited the costs of keeping people on death row.

"I believe that vengeance has a cost," said Rep. Carol McGuire, R-Epsom. "And 
after a certain point it's not justice it's vengeance."

(source: Concord Monitor)

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

Death penalty repeal passes House; faces Sununu veto



The House of Representatives has joined the Senate in voting to repeal the 
death penalty in New Hampshire, but not by the margin needed to override an 
anticipated veto by Gov. Chris Sununu.

The 223-to-116 vote on Thursday came after a debate in which representatives 
restated many of the arguments made in hearings before House and Senate 
committees.

The state Senate voted 14-10 on March 16 to pass the death penalty repeal bill, 
SB 593.

Much of the debate has centered on whether such a move would affect the planned 
execution of the only convict on death row in the state.

The House has voted in the past to repeal the death penalty in New Hampshire, 
the only New England state with capital punishment still on the books. The 
Senate deadlocked on the issue 12-12 in 2016 and 2014.

Gov. Chris Sununu has already said he supports the current death penalty law 
and will veto the repeal effort if it gets to his desk. A 2/3 majority will be 
needed to override the veto.

The Senate was 2 votes short of the 16 votes needed to override.

The House will need around 255 votes to override a Sununu veto, depending on 
how many representatives are present when the vote is taken.

The state's death penalty has not been used since 1939, and no one was on death 
row for decades until Michael Addison was convicted in the murder of Manchester 
police officer Michael Briggs in 2008.

The prospect of Addison's sentence being reduced to life in prison without the 
possibility of parole dominated much of the debate, with opponents of repeal 
calling for justice on behalf of the officer's surviving family.

The bill states that repeal can only be applied moving forward, suggesting that 
Addison's death sentence remains in place even if the bill passes.

But opponents of repeal cited an advisory memo from Attorney General Gordon 
MacDonald, who said Addison's sentence would "probably not" remain in place if 
the death penalty is repealed.

MacDonald cited court rulings in other states where the death penalty has been 
repealed, and noted that no convict on death row has ever been executed in a 
state once it repeals the death penalty.

(source: Union Leader)

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

The insanity of the death penalty



If the death penalty deters crime, then why does crime still exist? The 
assumption that the death penalty deters crime relies on the belief that people 
always act rationally. That is not true.

Crimes punishable by death are based on passion and emotion, not reason. They 
do not result from a conscious cost-benefit analysis where a person considers 
the fact that if they commit a certain act, they could be put to death. People 
do not change the aim of their gun because they want a life sentence instead of 
the death penalty.

We are disgusted at crimes punishable by death. They are appalling, animalistic 
and atrocious. If taking a life is seen this way, why is it different when the 
person is strapped to a gurney or electric chair? The answer to an unreasonable 
act need not be unreasonable.

Humanity has spent centuries searching for "humane" ways to conduct executions. 
Ones that appear painless, so society need not be uncomfortable with the fact 
that the state is killing a human being. Executions are done at night because 
they are appalling. They are not conducted on Sundays because the state does 
not want to kill on the Sabbath. The death penalty will never be humane, 
tasteful or effective.

It's been thousands of years and the death penalty has yet to deter crime. If 
it's insane to do the same thing over and over again and expect a different 
result, then let's bring sanity to our justice system and repeal the death 
penalty.

GARRETT BEAULIEU

Concord

(source: Letter to the Editor, Concord Monitor)

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

It's Time to End New Hampshire's Death Penalty



New Hampshire is the only state in New England that still has the death 
penalty. That has to change. This archaic practice defies New Hampshire values 
and defies justice. The state has come close to repealing capital punishment in 
the past only to fall short.

There is now a renewed push to end this barbaric punishment in the current 
legislative session. A bill in the State Senate (SB593), which would replace 
capital punishment with life in prison without parole for convictions after 
January 2019, has broad support. It was approved by a 14-to-10 vote in the 
state Senate in March, and sailed through the New Hampshire House with a vote 
today of 223 to 116.

The bill now heads to the desk of Gov. Chris Sununu, who has threatened to veto 
it. Though he has stated his support for the death penalty, he would not be the 
first to change his views. Views among legislators on the death penalty have 
evolved in recent years, and the state Senate vote is a prime example. Many who 
supported the repeal bill this year had previously voted against repeal. They 
shifted because the best way to ensure that New Hampshire does not execute an 
innocent person is to repeal the death penalty. As one witness said at the 
House hearing on the repeal bill: "It is either dangerously arrogant or 
incredibly naive to believe that New Hampshire's criminal justice system is 
infallible."

The witness was Barbara Keshen, who now heads the New Hampshire Coalition to 
Abolish the Death Penalty. Several years ago, Keshen, who was a public 
defender, had been assigned to represent Richard Buchanan, who was charged with 
raping and murdering his girlfriend's young daughter, Elizabeth Knapp. All the 
evidence seemed to indicate that Buchanan committed the crime. The state 
Attorney General reassured people in the neighborhood that they need not be in 
fear as they had the guy who did it. Keshen has said even she believed her 
client was guilty. The prosecutor said he was going for the death penalty.

But for the DNA contained in a condom that was later found, tying the crime to 
a next-door neighbor, Buchanan would have almost certainly been wrongfully 
convicted and wrongfully sentenced to death. The case against Buchanan was such 
a slam-dunk that when the DNA evidence from the condom first came back, even 
Keshen said she did not believe it.

Some hold this case up as proof that wrongful convictions do not happen in New 
Hampshire. But the opposite is true. The Buchanan case shows the fallibility of 
the system and the potential for wrongful convictions in New Hampshire. If DNA 
evidence had not been discovered in the Buchanan case, the outcome could have 
been devastatingly wrong. It's chilling to think that a life depended on 
finding a single exculpatory piece of evidence.

So long as the death penalty stays on the books, there is a risk of a wrongful 
capital conviction. Yet supporters of capital punishment in the state House 
insist that it should remain as a form of "deterrence." That argument suffers 
from the same false logic of the "get tough on crime" philosophy that has 
driven criminal justice policy for decades. That philosophy has not made us 
safer; instead, it has led to mass incarceration and permanently subjected 
people with criminal records to 2nd-class status.

The same goes for the death penalty. It does not act as a deterrent. People who 
commit capital crimes do not stop to weigh prison time versus death row. If the 
death penalty were a deterrent, states that repeal the death penalty would see 
spikes in their murder rate, but they don't. In fact, states that do not have 
the death penalty have lower murder rates than states that still have it. On a 
national level, the United States has a per capita murder rate significantly 
higher than European nations, which abolished the death penalty years ago.

New Hampshire lawmakers have shown that the state is ready for abolition of 
this savage penalty. The only question is whether Gov. Sununu will defy the 
Legislature and demand that New Hampshire keep this ineffective, inhumane, and 
regressive practice on the books.

(source: Jeanne Hruska, Policy Director, ACLU of New Hampshire, aclu.org)








GEORGIA----impending execution

Clemency hearing set for condemned Georgia inmate



Georgia's parole board has scheduled a hearing to consider clemency for an 
inmate who is scheduled for execution next month.

The State Board of Pardons and Paroles plans to hold a closed-door clemency 
hearing for Robert Earl Butts Jr. on May 2. That's a day before the 40-year-old 
Butts is scheduled to be put to death at the state prison in Jackson.

Butts and 41-year-old Marion Wilson Jr. were convicted and sentenced to death 
in the March 1996 slaying of Donovan Corey Parks in central Georgia. The 2 men 
asked Parks for a ride outside a Walmart store and then ordered him out of the 
car and fatally shot him a short distance away.

The parole board is the only authority in Georgia with power to commute a death 
sentence.

(source: Fox5atlanta.com)








ALABAMA----new death sentence

Jury votes to impose death penalty for Peter Capote in Shoals teen's slaying



A jury Thursday recommended the death penalty for Peter Capote, 1 of 5 people 
accused in the 2016 slaying of Shoals teenager Ki-Jana Freeman.

Peter Capote has been convicted in the slaying of a Shoals teen.

The Colbert County jury voted 10-2 to impose the death penalty after convicting 
Capote, a 24-year-old Muscle Shoals man, of capital murder. He also was 
convicted of 1st-degree assault and shooting into an occupied vehicle.

Circuit Judge Hal Hughston Jr. will issue a formal sentence May 24.

Freeman was fatally shot March 1, 2016 as he sat in a Mustang with his friend 
Tyler Blythe outside Spring Creek Apartments in Tuscumbia. Blythe, 17, was 
injured in the shooting.

Colbert County Assistant District Attorneys Kyle Brown and Angela Hulsey 
prosecuted the case. After the verdict, Brown said he's thankful to get justice 
for Freeman's family.

"They've been through so much," Brown said. "Their patience and strength have 
been so impressive to me."

Capote is the 3rd man convicted in the case. Prosecutors said Capote and 
Benjamin Young, who was sentenced to death last month, were the trigger men. 
De'Vontae Bates pleaded guilty last year to criminal conspiracy and agreed to 
testify about the plan to kill Freeman. His sentencing is scheduled later this 
year.

2 others -- Riley Hamm Jr. and Thomas Hubbard -- are awaiting trial. Hubbard is 
set for trial in June. Hamm's case likely will go to trial next year.

Authorities have said the suspects arranged to either buy or sell an Xbox to 
Freeman, but the transaction was a setup. The suspects believed Freeman and 
another man had stolen an XBox and TV 2 days earlier in a burglary.

(source: al.com)

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

Pain and terror: America's history of racism----How I got 30 years on death row 
for someone else's crime



It was a 'legal lynching': after decades behind bars Anthony Ray Hinton was 
proved innocent - making him one of the longest-serving death row prisoners in 
America to be exonerated

It was nothing less than a lynching - a legal lynching - but a lynching all the 
same. The anger I had tried so hard to stuff down and pray away was back in 
full force.

My only crime was being born black, or being born black in Alabama. Everywhere 
I looked in this courtroom, I saw white faces - a sea of white faces. Wood 
walls, wood furniture and white faces. The courtroom was impressive and 
intimidating. I felt like an uninvited guest in a rich man's library.

It's hard to explain exactly what it feels like to be judged. There's a shame 
to it. Even when you know you're innocent. It still feels like you are coated 
in something dirty and evil. It made me feel guilty. It made me feel like my 
very soul was put on trial and found lacking.

When it seems like the whole world thinks you're bad, it's hard to hang on to 
your goodness. I was trying, though. The Lord knows I was trying.

I had been all over the Birmingham newspapers from the time of my arrest and 
then throughout the trial. The press had judged me guilty from the second I had 
stepped out of my mama's yard. So had the police detectives and the experts and 
the prosecutor - a sorry-looking man with a weak chin, saggy jowls and a pallor 
that made it look like he had never worked a day outside in his life.

Now, if I had to judge anyone as evil in that courtroom, it would have been 
prosecutor McGregor. There was a meanness that came out of his small, close-set 
eyes - a hatred that was hard and edgy and brittle. He looked like he could 
snap at any moment. Like some sort of rabid weasel. If he could have executed 
me right then and there, he would have done so and then gone about having his 
lunch without further thought.

And then there was Judge Garrett. He was a large man; even in his loose black 
robe, he looked overstuffed and uncomfortable. He had a ruddy color to his 
cheeks. He preened and puffed and made a big show out of everything, but it was 
all a farce.

Oh, sure, they all went through the motions. For almost two weeks, they paraded 
out witnesses and experts and walked us through the chain of custody and 
exhibits A to Z, all of which I guess gave legitimacy to what was already a 
foregone conclusion.

I was guilty.

Hell, as far as the police and the prosecutor and the judge and even my own 
defense attorney were concerned, I was born guilty.

Black, poor, without a father most of my life, 1 of 10 children - it was 
actually pretty amazing I had made it to the age of 29 without a noose around 
my neck.

But justice is a funny thing, and in Alabama, justice isn't blind. She knows 
the color of your skin, your education level and how much money you have in the 
bank.

I may not have had any money, but I had enough education to understand exactly 
how justice was working in this trial and exactly how it was going to turn out. 
The good old boys had traded in their white robes for black robes, but it was 
still a lynching.

"Your Honor, the state rests."

"Alright, any witnesses for the defense?"

I watched incredulously as my attorney declined to question the 2nd bailiff, 
who had just lied about me under oath. I never told either bailiff that I knew 
how to get one over on a polygraph test.

I had spent almost 2 years waiting for my trial - purposefully not talking to 
anyone about anything to do with my case - and now supposedly in the hallway 
outside the courtroom, I had confessed to a bailiff that I had cheated to pass 
my polygraph, a polygraph the state wouldn't allow to be admitted because it 
had proven that I was innocent? It didn't make sense. None of it made sense.

My attorney turned away from the judge and looked at me. "Do you want to 
testify?"

I could see the bailiff smirking as he got out of the witness stand. Did I want 
to testify? They were about to sentence me to death, and nobody was speaking up 
on my behalf. There were things that needed to go on the record.

My wrists were shackled and cuffed together, a heavy chain linking them to the 
leg irons around my ankles. For a moment, I imagined wrapping that chain around 
all their necks, but then I unclenched my fists and placed the palms of my 
hands together as if to pray.

I wasn't a murderer. Never had been, never would be. I looked over at the jury, 
at McGregor, who stared back at me with hatred and self-righteousness, at the 
judge, who looked overheated and bored. I had spent a good many years 
testifying for God in church, and now it was time to testify for myself in this 
courtroom.

I nodded at my attorney. "Yes," I said, a bit louder than I meant to. Inside my 
head I was screaming hell yes, and I accidentally banged my chains against the 
table as I stood up from my chair.

I walked up to the witness stand and turned around and looked out over the 
courtroom. I was happy to be able to see my mom and face her eye to eye. She 
smiled at me, and I could feel my heart tighten. God, how I was going to miss 
her.

I smiled back at my mom, and then I looked over at McGregor. He had been 
glaring at me for 2 weeks. It was a famous tactic of his. Stare at the 
defendant until he cowers. Show him who's the alpha dog.

Well, I wasn't a dog, and I wasn't about to cower. On the inside, I was scared 
to death. I wanted to go home. I didn't want to die. But on the outside, I had 
to be strong. For my mom. For my friends.

Martin Luther King once said: "A man can't ride you unless your back is bent." 
So I sat with my back as straight as possible in that courtroom, and when 
McGregor stared at me, I straightened my back even more and stared right into 
his eyes.

He was trying to ride me, all right, trying to kill me. And I wasn't going to 
make it any easier for him, or for any of them, than it already was.

"Judge," my attorney began, "let me make aware to the court that Mr Hinton has 
requested the opportunity to testify. I have no particular idea of the subject 
matter of testimony, so there's no way of questioning him. I don't see how it 
could make any difference if he just testifies."

He didn't know the subject matter? The subject matter was this court just 
convicted me of 2 cold-blooded murders without any evidence. The subject matter 
is my attorney just let them find me guilty of two capital offenses based on a 
third attempted murder that happened while I was at work. The subject matter 
was my attorney hired a ballistics expert who could hardly see and who was 
crucified on the stand. The subject matter was the state of Alabama wanted to 
strap me to Yellow Mama and murder me for crimes I didn't commit.

The subject matter was somebody was trying to kill me and I was fighting for my 
life. That was the subject matter.

I took a deep breath, closed my eyes and said the same prayer I had prayed in 
my head a thousand times. Dear God, let them know the truth of things. Let them 
see into my mind and my heart and the truth. Bless the judge. Bless the DA. 
Bless the victims' families who are in pain. Dear God, let there be justice. 
Real justice.

What do you say to a man when you find out he didn't do it?

It was time for the judge to sentence me. This was my fate from the second they 
arrested me. Someday they would know I didn't do it. And then what? What do you 
say to a man when you find out he didn't do it? What would they all say then? I 
sat up as straight as I could. I wasn't going to beg for my life.

"I'm not worried about that death chair. You can sentence me to it, but you 
can't take my life. It don't belong to you. My soul, you can't touch it."

It was a brief recess. Just 3 hours until they were bringing me back into that 
courtroom of rich wood and white faces for the last time. I listened as my 
attorney made 1 last attempt to object to them trying me for 2 capital offenses 
that were only related to each other by circumstance and not related to me by 
any evidence whatsoever. Somehow, the state of Alabama was able to consolidate 
the cases, relate them to a 3rd and put the death penalty on the table. This 
was the real capital offense.

The judge banged his gavel. Cleared his throat.

"It is the judgment of the court that the defendant, Anthony Ray Hinton, in 
each of these cases is guilty of the capital offense in accordance with the 
verdict of the jury in each of these cases. And it is the judgment of the court 
and the sentence of the court that the defendant, Anthony Ray Hinton, suffer 
death by electrocution on a date to be set by the Alabama supreme court 
pursuant to Alabama Rules of Appellate Procedure 8-D (1).

"The sheriff of Jefferson County, Alabama, is directed to deliver the 
defendant, the said Anthony Ray Hinton, into the custody of the director of the 
department of corrections and institutions at Montgomery, Alabama, and the 
designated electrocution shall, at the proper place for the electrocution of 
one sentenced to suffer death by electrocution, cause a current of electricity 
of sufficient intensity to cause death and the application and continuance of 
such current to pass through the body of said Anthony Ray Hinton until the said 
Anthony Ray Hinton is dead."

I dropped my head. Judge Garrett banged his gavel, and my attorney said some 
things about an appeal, but my stomach was in my throat and there was a buzzing 
in my ears like a swarm of bees had been let loose in that courtroom.

I thought I heard my mom crying as if in pain, and I looked back to see Dollie 
and our Rosemary circled around her.

The bailiffs were leading me toward the door that led out the back of the 
courtroom, but I turned and started to walk toward my mom. One of the bailiffs 
grabbed my arm below the shoulder, and I could feel each of his fingers digging 
in hard. There was no going to her. There was no way for me to comfort her.

They would kill me if they could. I couldn't let them. I needed to get back to 
my mom, and she needed to get me back. I was her baby. Dear God, I was her 
baby, and I was innocent.

I watched as if underwater as my friend Lester and my mom both stood. I saw the 
tears on Lester's face, and my mom reached her arms out to me just as they 
pulled me through the door. It was all too much for one man to bear.

Dear God, please let the truth be known. Dear God, do not let me die this way. 
Dear God, I am innocent.

Dear God, protect my mom.

I am innocent.

I am innocent.

God have mercy on my soul.

I never saw my mom again as a free man. She died in September 2002, 17 years 
into my incarceration.

It took an excruciating legal process, the extraordinary help of my friend 
Lester and my lawyer, Bryan Stevenson, and another 13 years before the US 
supreme court vacated my conviction and the charges against me were finally 
dropped.

I had been on death row for a crime I didn't commit for nearly 30 years.

I now live in my mom's house, the house I grew up in. People ask me how I can 
stay in Alabama. Why wouldn't I leave? Alabama is my home. I love Alabama - the 
hot days in the summer and the thunderstorms in winter. I love the smell of the 
air and the green of the woods. Alabama has always been God's country to me, 
and it always will be.

I love Alabama, but I don't love the state of Alabama. Since my release, not 
one prosecutor, or state attorney general, or anyone having anything to do with 
my conviction has apologized. I doubt they ever will.

I forgive them. I made a choice after the first difficult few weeks of freedom, 
when everything was new and strange and the world didn???t seem to make sense 
to me. I chose to forgive. I chose to stay vigilant to any signs of anger or 
hate in my heart.

They took 30 years of my life. If I couldn't forgive, if I couldn't feel joy, 
that would be like giving them the rest of my life.

The rest of my life is mine.

Alabama took 30 years.

That was enough.

>From The Sun Does Shine by Anthony Ray Hinton with Lara Love Hardin. Copyright 
2018 by the authors and reprinted by permission of St. Martin's Press. 
Published in the UK by Rider

(source: The Guardian)








LOUISIANA:

How Sister Helen Prejean became a leading advocate for the abolition of the 
death penalty



Sister Helen Prejean is a leading advocate for abolition of the death penalty. 
She's written 2 books on the topic, and 1 of them, "Dead Man Walking," became 
an Oscar-winning film. She's been nominated 3 times for the Nobel Peace Prize. 
Her new memoir, "River of Fire," will be published by Random House, probably in 
January.

You grew up in Baton Rouge. What brought you to New Orleans?

I joined the Sisters of St. Joseph in 1957, so I was 18. I've been in New 
Orleans ever since. Part of that was going to college at St. Mary's Dominican.

Did you know much about the city when you arrived?

Oh, yes. We would come on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. It was a 
holiday, and that's when we'd go shopping in New Orleans. It was a big deal. We 
would "motor" to New Orleans with mama and go to D.H. Holmes and Maison Blanche 
to do shopping.

In high school, we took a bus trip for Mardi Gras one year. ... The convent was 
kind of limited because we didn't get out much, but (we knew) the spirit of the 
city.

Life in the convent was sheltered, and your early years as a teacher were spent 
in Catholic schools. Were you familiar with the plight of the poor here?

I'm the typical kind of person who came up with privilege. My daddy was a 
successful lawyer in Baton Rouge. I knew there was a problem of poverty. I knew 
there were problems of racism, but I never attended to them much. They didn't 
seem to touch me much because I didn't know any real people. But when I moved 
into St. Thomas (housing project in New Orleans) and worked at a place called 
Hope House and I lived among the people, African-American people became my 
teachers.

Part of what privilege did in my life was it separated me from the suffering. 
I'd never encountered people where the police were beating them up, where they 
would be arrested and sit in jail for 3 years because they didn't have money 
for bond. I had no idea that all this was going on simply because of race. But 
it impassioned me because for the 1st time, I saw the suffering. I sat with 
people at Charity Hospital with a sick child until, finally, at 2 in the 
morning, some tired intern took on the job. I said, "There is something wrong. 
This is the United States."

That must have been a harsh awakening.

The harsh reality is that it was always going on, but I awakened to it and I 
knew I had to do something. It was at St. Thomas, working there at Hope House, 
that one day coming down St. Andrew Street, somebody from the Louisiana 
Coalition on Jails and Prisons said to me, "Hey, Sister Helen, do you want to 
be a pen pal to somebody on death row?"

I never dreamed this person was going to be executed. It was 1982, and we 
hadn't had an execution in Louisiana for over 20 years. There had been an 
unofficial moratorium. I wasn't even aware that in 1976, the Supreme Court put 
the death penalty back, and here it's the early '80s, so I write him. His name 
is Patrick Sonnier, and 2 years later, I am with him when he is electrocuted by 
the state of Louisiana.

It set me on fire. I came out and I realized people were going to read the 
account (of the execution) and say, "He did a terrible crime. He killed two 
teenage kids, and he paid with his life. Justice was done." But I got close to 
the process, and this is the story in "Dead Man Walking." That's the story, 
when (actor/director) Tim Robbins read it, he realized we had a way here, the 
journey of 1 person, descending into the depths (to make a film about the death 
penalty). He loved to say, "and the nun was in over her head." And I was 
because I didn't know anything about law and what it meant to have a good 
attorney. ... People could just be railroaded on through.

How many people on death row have you served as spiritual adviser?

I've accompanied 6 people to execution, and I'm with my 7th man now. His name 
is Manuel Ortiz, and he's innocent. Of the 7, 3 have been innocent. The 2nd 
book I wrote is called the "Death of Innocence," and I tell about the story of 
Dobie Gillis Williams, an African-American man with the IQ of 65 executed by 
the state. He couldn't get the legal help he needed in time, and he was killed. 
You talk about lighting the fire of your passion - it's to witness an innocent 
person executed. You can't be neutral anymore.

Look at the way the death penalty has been applied. Most of the executions, 
like 70 %, have happened in former slave states. Louisiana has the harshest 
incarceration rate in the U.S.; the U.S. has has harshest rate, especially of 
people of color, in the world; and Louisiana is at the top of that. And it came 
out of the legacy of slavery.

You've written books, conferred with popes and been nominated for the Nobel 
Prize. What do you consider to be your biggest accomplishment?

The privilege of being with human beings when it counted most. When nobody 
believed in their dignity and (the state) was killing them. And I got to be 
with them. That's it. That's the heart of it.

How has the city influenced your work?

I love the city. There's a warmth and goodness in New Orleans people. Not just 
New Orleans but Louisiana. It really is a life state; we love life. Music and 
food and our stories. We have humor. .. Music is healing and life-giving. The 
spirit of the people is strong. I wouldn't want to live anyplace else.

(source: The Advocate)








OHIO:

Sister pleads with Hamilton jury to spare her brother's life



Less than 24 hours after finding Michael Grevious II guilty of aggravated 
murder, jurors returned to a Butler County courtroom the sentencing phase of 
the trial.

Grevious, 25, of Hamilton, was found guilty at about 9:15 p.m. Wednesday night 
of aggravated murder for ordering a retaliation shooting at Central Avenue and 
Knightsbridge on Aug. 3, 2016 that killed 2 people.

On the other charges - having weapons under disability and felonious assault - 
Grevious was found not guilty. Those charges were related to gun violence that 
killed his step-brother during the early morning hours of July 24, 2016 at a 
Hamilton bar.

Prosecutors submitted exhibit and testimony from the trial that they say 
support the aggravated circumstances of Grevious' crime that will support the 
death penalty, but called no witnesses.

If the jury determines the aggravating circumstance for murder for hire 
outweighs any mitigating factors "you must impose death," Assistant Prosecutor 
Brad Burress told the jury.

But defense attorney David Washington said the jury would get a glimpse of 
Grevious and his up bringing through the testimony of family and friends.

"In the end you will find the mitigating factors outweigh the aggravating 
circumstances of the crime, Washington said.

The younger sister of Grevious took the stand Thursday and told the jury about 
her "best friend."

Courtney Grevious said she and her brother are about 1 year apart in age and 
people often think they are twins.

"He is my best friend," she said crying. "I love him so much."

Michael Grevious II became emotional in court today when a photo of his young 
son was shown.

Courtney Grevious said she, Michael and their older sister, Cassidy observed 
emotional and physical abuse while growing up between their mother and father.

Eventually they moved with their mother to Georgia where they often lived in 
hotels and shelters, she said.

"It was tough," she said, adding is was also difficult for Michael not having a 
father.

When the family moved back to Hamilton, Michael lived with his father and so 
did she for a short time.

"It was very negative," she said.

Courtney Grevious said her father pushed Michael and his step-brothers, Mondale 
and Kalif Goens, into "hustling CDs and T-shirts." He also belittled Michael, 
calling him a "Mama's Boy," she said.

Courtney Grevious said her brother has "so much to offer" and he wants to be a 
father to his son.

The defense showed the jury a photo of Grevious's 1-year-old son

"We call him little Mickey," she said.

Grevious began crying in court while looking at the photo of his son. The jury 
has 4 sentencing options, according to Butler County Prosecutor Michael Gmoser.

Those options are:

Life in prison with parole eligibility after 25 years served

Life in prison with parole eligibility after 30 years

Life in prison without the possibility of parole

Death

Grevious is a repeat violent offender because of a previous conviction for 
aggravated robbery and the aggravated murder charge included a gun 
specification. That means if the jury chooses one of the parole-eligible 
sentences, an additional 3 years will be added for use of a gun. The judge can 
also sentence Grevious to an additional 1 to 10 years for the repeat violent 
offender classification.

(source: Dayton Daily News)








NEBRASKA:

AG's office argues judge should dismiss latest lawsuit challenging death 
penalty



A Lincoln judge will decide if the latest death-penalty challenge - this one 
over how the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services established its 
execution protocol - should move forward or be dismissed.

The Nebraska Attorney General's office argued that Rev. Stephen Griffith and 
Omaha Sen. Ernie Chambers, 2 vocal death-penalty opponents who filed the case, 
lack standing because they aren't on death row.

"We believe the standing issue is very straightforward," Assistant Attorney 
General Ryan Post said Wednesday. "In order to challenge the validity of a rule 
or regulation, it has to apply to you."

The execution protocol does not apply to Griffith and Chambers, he said, in 
asking Lancaster County District Judge Lori Maret to dismiss the lawsuit.

But David Litterine-Kaufman, a New York attorney who represents Griffith and 
Chambers along with the ACLU, said the argument that only prisoners on death 
row have standing to challenge procedural violations in adopting the execution 
protocol "makes little sense."

The Nebraska Administrative Procedure Act (APA) requires that the materials be 
made publicly available in the Nebraska Secretary of State's office when it 
gives notice of the proposed execution protocol before adopting it.

"It goes without saying that death row prisoners cannot visit the office of the 
Secretary of State to review those materials. Nor can death row prisoners 
attend the public hearing," he argued.

Litterine-Kaufman said the state's interpretation would mean that nobody has 
standing to challenge APA violations in the adoption of the execution protocol.

"That cannot be the law," he said.

While the Legislature gave the department the authority to develop the protocol 
for carrying out death sentences, Griffith and Chambers say it exceeded its 
statutory authority by not following the hearing provisions set out for state 
agencies.

Litterine-Kaufman also took issue with the fact that Corrections didn't make 
any draft or working copies of the execution protocol available before the Dec. 
30, 2016, hearing.

"Candidly, plaintiffs think that defendant's representations are highly 
implausible. It strains credulity to suggest that NDCS did not consult with any 
experts or spend any time developing a protocol for a matter as serious and as 
complex as the taking of a human life by lethal injection," he said. 
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If it didn't, Litterine-Kaufman said, then the state's process was unreasonable 
and arbitrary.

Maret said she would rule on the motion later.

Outside the courtroom, Amy Miller of ACLU Nebraska said she feels confident 
that the statute is clear and that the state didn't follow it in this case.

Even if the lawsuit survives this hurdle and ultimately is successful, it only 
would mean a delay to the state carrying out the death penalty. Corrections 
simply would have to restart the process of developing an execution protocol.

It is one of several lawsuits involving the death penalty. Friday, Prisons 
Director Scott Frakes cited pending litigation as the reason he wouldn't be 
attending a May 8 hearing of the Legislature's Judiciary Committee to answer 
questions concerning the state's procedures for crafting its lethal injection 
protocol.

Committee chairwoman Laura Ebke said Wednesday a subpoena was ready to be 
delivered seeking to compel him to attend.

(source: Hastings Tribune)








CALIFORNIA:

Court Upholds Death Sentences In Pleasanton Woman's Murder



The California Supreme Court Thursday unanimously upheld the death penalties of 
a Sacramento couple for the murder, kidnapping and rape of a 22-year-old 
Pleasanton woman in 1997.

James Daveggio, 57, and Michelle Michaud, 59, were given the death penalties in 
Alameda County Superior Court in 2002 for kidnapping Vanessa Lei Samson on the 
morning of Dec. 2, 1997, raping her with modified curling irons and murdering 
her by strangulation with a rope.

During the sentencing, Superior Court Judge Larry Goodman called the murder 
"vile, cruel, senseless, depraved, brutal, evil and vicious."

The couple abducted Samson into Michaud's green Dodge minivan as she walked to 
her job at an insurance company and assaulted her during a trip to Lake Tahoe.

Samson's body was found 2 days later, in the snow on an embankment along state 
Highway 88 in Alpine County.

Daveggio and Michaud were also convicted in the 2002 trial of the oral 
copulation of Daveggio's daughter, then 16, and the daughter's friend, then 17, 
on Nov. 3 and 27, 1997.

Prosecutors alleged the crimes were part of a spree of "utter depravity" in 
which the 2 sexually assaulted a series of girls and young women during their 
13-month relationship in 1996 and 1997.

Goodman allowed prosecutors to present testimony during the trial from 4 other 
alleged victims of 1997 assaults that were not charged in the Alameda County 
case, but he excluded evidence of alleged sexual attacks on 11 other victims 
whom prosecutors had hoped to bring to the stand.

2 of the alleged victims who did testify were Michaud's daughter and a friend 
of the daughter, who were 12 and 13 when they were allegedly forced into sexual 
acts by the couple in the fall of 1997.

Another victim who testified was a then-20-year-old Reno college student who 
was kidnapped and assaulted on Sept. 29, 1997. Like Samson, she was abducted 
into the van as she walked by the side of a road.

Although that case was not charged as part of the Alameda County trial, 
Daveggio and Michaud were separately convicted of kidnapping in federal court 
in Reno in 1999.

The 2 were arrested by the FBI on Dec. 3, 1997, the day after Samson's murder, 
on kidnapping charges in the Reno case. After being convicted in the federal 
case, they were transferred to Alameda County for trial on the state charges.

In a 98-page decision, the state high court rejected a series of appeal 
arguments, including the defendants' claim that evidence from the uncharged 
cases should not have been allowed.

The court said the testimony was admissible to show the distinctive 
characteristics of the couple's motive and methods.

Justice Leondra Kruger, the author of the court's opinion, wrote, "The evidence 
concerning the uncharged incidents shed light on whether Daveggio and Michaud 
had a propensity to commit acts of sexual misconduct."

The couple's direct appeal to the California Supreme Court was the 1st step in 
the death penalty appeal process. They can continue appeals through habeas 
corpus petitions in the federal court system.

Michaud is 1 of 23 women among the 746 inmates on death row in California.

(source: CBS News)