[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, N.H., NEB.

[Rick Halperin]

May 6



TEXAS:

Lawyer seeks disqualification of death penalty in Texas County case



An attorney for a Houston man charged with 1st-degree murder in the death of 
teenager last year northeast of Cabool is asking a judge to drop the case or 
disqualify the death penalty.

In a filing May 2, Andrew J. Vrba's attorney also wants to stop the attorney 
general's office involvement in the case. The office's participation is common 
in death penalty cases. Vrba is represented by a state public defender.

Vrba, 18, is charged with 1st-degree murder, armed criminal action and 
abandonment of a corpse in the September death of Joseph M. Steinfeld, who went 
by "Ally" and planned to transition to a female, according to family members. 
Authorities allege the victim was stabbed and the remains burned.

(source: Houston Herald)








NEW HAMPSHIRE:

Governor, end the death penalty



A society that kills people in the name of its citizens, not in self-defense 
but as punishment, cannot become a society that sanctifies life. It cannot 
create a culture in which violence is rare. There are many reasons to oppose 
the death penalty, but that one is fundamental.

For the 2nd time since the death penalty was reinstated by the U.S. Supreme 
Court in 1977, both houses of New Hampshire's Legislature have voted to repeal 
the state's capital punishment law. The 1st attempt died in the face of a 
threatened veto by then-Gov. Jeanne Shaheen. It was a dark hour in the state's 
history. New Hampshire is the only New England state to countenance the death 
penalty, indeed the only Eastern state north of Virginia whose laws call for 
putting transgressors to death.

This year's repeal vote faces a promised veto by Gov. Chris Sununu. We urge the 
governor to let the will of the people, as represented by the majority vote of 
their representatives, be expressed. He should sign the bill or let it become 
law without his signature. If he does neither, lawmakers should override his 
veto. In the House, one more vote would have given repeal proponents a 
veto-proof majority. In the Senate, just two more votes would have done the 
same.

John Breckenridge, a Manchester police officer who watched his partner, Michael 
Briggs, die from a bullet fired by Michael Addison, the only inmate on New 
Hampshire's death row, spoke against the death penalty 4 years ago when the New 
Hampshire House voted to abolish capital punishment.

"As a Catholic, I could not justify the very pre-meditated act of executing 
someone who - for all the evil of his crime and all the permanent hurt he 
caused others - still lives . . . in the possibility of spiritual redemption."

This year, another former Manchester police officer, Rep. Richard O'Leary, once 
the Queen City's deputy chief, voted for repeal. "I don't believe we have the 
right under any circumstances, except immediate self-defense, to take a life. 
Once the criminal has been subdued, arrested, segregated from society and 
rendered defenseless, I cannot see where the state has any compelling interest 
in executing him. It's simply wrong."

It is also costly. Because he was sentenced to death the state will spend 
millions to prosecute Addison for Briggs's murder. That's money that could be 
put to far better use. We urge Manchester Sens. Lou D'Allessandro and Kevin 
Cavanaugh to heed the words of Breckenridge and O'Leary and, if it comes to 
that, vote to override a Sununu veto. Others who voted against repeal should 
change their vote and at long last put New Hampshire on the right side of moral 
history.

Capital punishment is not a deterrent. Putting a murderer to death does not 
bring a lost loved one back. It rarely brings closure. Decades of appeals that 
precede an execution force family members to relive the crime.

Human beings, and the judicial systems they establish, can never achieve 
perfection. Since 1973, 162 death row inmates have been exonerated. The 
imposition of the death penalty, for reasons of race, mental illness and 
economic status, is not imposed equally on all and so should not be imposed at 
all.

A wrongful death committed in society's name cannot be undone. It's time for 
New Hampshire to join the enlightened states and nations that have abolished 
capital punishment.

(source: Editorial, The Concord Monitor)








NEBRASKA:

Hearing delayed in attorney general's death penalty lawsuit against the 
Nebraska Legislature



A judge postponed Friday's hearing on a lawsuit seeking to block a legislative 
inquiry into Nebraska's new death penalty procedure.

The 1st hearing in what could become a constitutional battle between 2 branches 
of state government is now scheduled for June 18 in Lancaster County District 
Court.

The delay also means the Legislature's Judiciary Committee won???t hold 
Tuesday's public hearing, in which it had ordered the state prisons director to 
answer questions about the lethal injection protocol. A new date for the public 
hearing has not been determined, said State Sen. Laura Ebke of Crete, 
chairwoman of the committee.

William Connolly, the lawyer representing the 16 senators named in the lawsuit, 
said Friday that he needed more time to prepare to argue against a motion by 
the state to quash the Legislature's subpoena of Scott Frakes, director of the 
Department of Correctional Services. The Attorney General's Office, which filed 
the lawsuit Tuesday, agreed to the continuance.

Connolly, a former Supreme Court judge, said the legal dispute raises 
significant constitutional issues, including the separation of powers between 
the legislative and executive branches. The Omaha attorney was retained by the 
senators Wednesday.

The office of Attorney General Doug Peterson sued the senators to prevent them 
from questioning Frakes about the lethal injection procedure. The lawsuit 
contends that members of the Legislature's Judiciary Committee and Executive 
Board made several legal errors in voting to approve the subpoena.

The senators planned to question the head of the Corrections Department next 
week about how his staff devised the untried 4-drug combination it intends to 
use to carry out the state's 1st execution in 21 years. Ebke said the public 
hearing was set as a part of the Legislature's oversight function.

The attorney general has notified 2 of the 11 inmates on Nebraska's death row 
that it has the drugs necessary to carry out their executions. A decision by 
the Supreme Court is pending on the attorney general's request for a death 
warrant for Carey Dean Moore, convicted of the 1979 killings of Omaha 
cabdrivers Reuel Van Ness and Maynard Helgeland.

(source: sandhillsexpress.com)