[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, N.C., ALA., OHIO, TENN., CALIF.

[Rick Halperin]

October 15



TEXAS:

It's wrong for an imperfect system to impose an irreversible punishment.



In the remaining months of 2018, the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is likely to 
reach a grim milestone. Of the 4 remaining scheduled executions in Texas, 3 
defendants were convicted in Fort Worth or Dallas.

The next of those executions to proceed will be the 100th execution resulting 
from convictions in Tarrant and Dallas counties since our state resumed 
executions in 1982.

4 other individuals convicted in Tarrant or Dallas counties face execution in 
the remaining months of 2018.

Historically, Tarrant and Dallas county juries have returned a combined 181 
death sentences in the modern death penalty era, more than any major 
metropolitan area in Texas except for Houston.

And while prosecutors across the nation are increasingly electing life without 
the possibility of parole over the huge expense of a death penalty trial, 
district attorney offices in Tarrant and Dallas continue to seek death 
sentences and advance executions, despite compelling evidence of waning public 
appetite for capital punishment.

Since 2015, prosecutors in North Texas have sought the death penalty 4 times 
but secured just one death verdict from a jury.

I was elected 4 times as district attorney for the 97th District of Texas. I 
can attest to the central role prosecutors play in the death penalty process.

As district attorney, I faced the decision whether to seek life or death 17 
times. Three times I chose to seek a death sentence. I was also responsible for 
seeking an execution date that resulted in the execution of Clifford Boggess, 
who was convicted of a murder in Montague County, Texas, and sentenced to death 
in 1987.

As the death penalty decreases in popularity and use, district attorneys owe it 
to their constituents to consider the questions surrounding the death penalty 
before proceeding to seek a sentence that many believe has been administered 
unfairly in the past.

Many of the arguments supporting the death penalty no longer hold up in 2018. 
Public support for the death penalty is now at a historical low in the modern 
era.

I've heard all the arguments in favor of the death penalty. I have made those 
arguments myself. But after years of Texas' aggressive use of capital 
punishment, we know that executions seldom deter violent crime in our 
communities.

And we are more aware than ever that our justice system is not perfect. 
Prosecutors, defense attorneys, juries and judges make mistakes.

When it comes to the death penalty, there is no acceptable margin of error 
because a mistake means that an innocent person may be executed. Since 1996, 
over 150 men have been released from death rows around the country after being 
exonerated by the results of DNA tests or other evidence. How many innocent 
people were executed that we did not discover before these advances in forensic 
science?

After years of confronting these decisions myself, I believe there is no longer 
an adequate justification for an irreversible punishment that does little to 
make our communities safer.

Our district attorneys should stop and consider this before seeking the next 
death sentence or setting the next execution date.

(source: Opinion; Tim Cole was elected to 4 terms as 97th district attorney 
(1993-2006) and has tried more than 150 jury trials. He also served as counsel 
to Gov. Clements in 1990 and general counsel for the Texas District and County 
Attorneys Association from 1988 to 1990----Ft. Worth Star-Telegram)








NORTH CAROLINA:

District attorney in northeastern N.C. pursues death penalty for prison 
killings despite odds



Despite the odds, a district attorney is pursuing the death penalty for the 4 
prisoners charged with killing a manager, a mechanic and 2 corrections officers 
in the deadliest prison escape attempt in North Carolina's history.

The case meets almost every standard for capital punishment, said Andrew 
Womble, the district attorney for northeastern North Carolina.

But the reality is that it has been 12 years since an inmate was executed in 
North Carolina, according to the N.C. Department of Public Safety. The state 
has 141 inmates on death row. The oldest case goes back to 1985, and the most 
recent one is from 2016.

"The death penalty is all but extinct in North Carolina," according to a report 
by the nonprofit Center for Death Penalty Litigation, based in Durham. "It is a 
relic of another era."

For the district attorney, the effort is worth pursuing. The circumstances of 
the brutal killings, he said, are enough to justify the punishment he wants.

"These 4 scream for the death penalty," Womble said in an interview last week. 
"I feel incredibly confident about this case."

On Oct 12, 2017, 4 prisoners started a fire inside the Pasquotank Correctional 
Institution north of Elizabeth City and attempted to escape. During the chaos, 
4 prison employees were killed with hammers and scissors from a sewing plant 
inside the facility off U.S. 17 where the prisoners worked.

The 4 inmates - Mikel Brady, Jonathan Monk, Seth J. Frazier and Wisezah Buckman 
- were charged with 1st-degree murder. Killed were Veronica Darden, the manager 
of the sewing plant; Geoffrey Howe, a mechanic; and Justin Smith and Wendy 
Shannon, both corrections officers. All 4 prisoners were serving time for 
violent crimes.

The prison was short 84 positions, about a quarter of the recommended staff, 
according to a report released in January by the National Institute of 
Corrections. One correctional officer and three staff members oversaw 30 
inmates at the sewing plant where they made high-visibility vests for highway 
workers and embroidered uniforms. Deadly tools such as scissors with 6-inch 
blades and claw hammers were distributed by inmates rather than staff, as 
required, according to the report. Prisoners were able to come and go from the 
sewing area without a search. Doors to other parts of the prison that should 
have been secured were left unlocked.

The prisoners used hammers and scissors to bash the victims in the head and 
chest, according to autopsy reports. One was stabbed more than 65 times, 
according to one autopsy report.

Prison administrator Felix Taylor and his second in command, Colbert Respass, 
were removed from their posts. Taylor was reassigned, and Respass retired.

On Wednesday, The Virginian-Pilot confirmed that the families of the victims 
have hired lawyers.

"This was a tragedy waiting to happen," Cate Edwards of the Raleigh law firm 
Edwards Kirby said in an email Wednesday. She is the daughter of former senator 
and presidential candidate John Edwards.

"We are working on taking broad legal action because 4 people needlessly lost 
their lives," Edwards said. "These people were public servants and deserved 
better, safer working conditions from this state."

Chicago lawyer Donnya Banks is a co-counsel for the families of Darden, Smith 
and Shannon. Banks had no comment.

In laying out his argument for the death penalty, Womble, the district 
attorney, said that 9 of 11 aggravating factors needed in such a case apply, 
though no trial date has been set. Those circumstances include that the acts 
were cruel, they endangered many people and they were committed against prison 
officers, he said. A jury only needs 1 factor to give a death sentence, he 
said.

The deadly escape was premeditated, Womble said. The people killed were 
"sympathetic victims," he said, rather than criminals killing other criminals. 
The prisoners were captured on the spot just after the killings.

"This is not a 'who done it' case," Womble said. "We got it all."

State Rep. Bob Steinburg, R-Chowan supports Womble. Steinburg, who represents 
Pasquotank County, said he has spoken extensively with family members and 
correctional officers about the escape attempt.

"These were brutal, brutal murders," he said. "One woman was nearly 
decapitated. I think as people become aware of the details of this case, it 
will change a lot of hearts and minds."

Executions in North Carolina have been stalled by lawsuits over racial bias and 
lethal injection drugs, said Gretchen Engel, the executive director of the 
Center for Death Penalty Litigation.

6 capital cases await a hearing before the N.C. Supreme Court to decide if race 
played a role in jury selection. A study showed that the state's prosecutors 
struck black jurors at roughly double the rate of others, according to the 
Death Penalty Information Center in Washington.

(source: Winston-Salem Journal)








ALABAMA:

Derrick Dearman joins 179 inmates on Alabama's death row



On Monday morning Derrick Dearman, the Citronelle man that murdered 5 people 
and an unborn baby, will become the newest member of Alabama's Death Row.

The exclusive club is spread out over 3 locations across the state. Of the 179 
people waiting to be killed by the state, 21 are located at the maximum 
security Donaldson Correctional Facility in Bessemer, Jefferson County.

All 5 women are located at the Julia Tutwiler prison for women in Wetumpka, 
Elmore County. The rest, 153 men, can be found in single cells at the Holman 
Correctional Facility in Atmore, Escambia County.

In total, there is 89 black men, 1 black women, 82 white men, 4 white women, 
and 3 other men of a different race.

Here is a look at some of the people on Alabama's death row.

INMATES ON ALABAMA DEATH ROW FOR 30 OR MORE YEARS Arthur Lee Giles

Giles, 59, and his accomplice Aaron Lee Jones were convicted and sentenced to 
death for the November 10, 1978 murder of Willene and Carl Nelson, who were 
shot and stabbed to death. The couple's 3 children, ages 10, 13 and 21, were 
critically wounded, but survived. Their grandmother, 85, also survived.

"Giles had worked for Carl Nelson picking vegetables, and after a night of 
drinking went with Jones to the Nelson house, intending to rob them," said a 
Birmingham News report from May 4, 2007, the day Jones was put to death. "The 
oldest of the children, Tony, who was 21 at the time, testified that he was 
awakened just after 3 a.m. when Giles turned on the light in the bedroom Tony 
shared with his 10-year-old brother, Charlie. Carl Nelson confronted Giles and 
told him to leave, but minutes later Tony Nelson found Giles at the house's 
back door, and Giles shot him twice. Jones and Giles then made their way 
through the house, shooting and stabbing its occupants. After a wounded Tony 
got to his feet and made his way to his parents' bedroom, he found Charlie and 
13-year-old Brenda, stabbed, shot and bloody, but alive at the foot of their 
parents' bed. Jones and Giles were tried separately, both receiving a death 
sentence."

Giles has been on death row since Aug. 1979.

William Bush

William Bush was convicted and sentenced to death after shooting convenience 
store clerk Larry Dominguez and Thomas Adams during 2 separate robberies on the 
evening of July 26, 1981, according to court documents and newspaper reports 
from the time. Various appeals in state and federal courts have upheld the 
conviction and sentence. A third convenience store clerk was wounded.

Also with Bush that evening was Edward Lewis Pringle, who did not shoot any of 
the 3 victims. He is currently serving life without parole in Holman Prison.

Because of a federal habeas corpus questioning the initial trial in 1981, Bush 
was tried again in 1984 and then again in 1991, according to court documents. 
He was found guilty both times. Since then Bush's current attorneys have filed 
numerous motions and petitions stating that Bush was inadequately represented 
during his initial trial and subsequent retrials. They believe that his low IQ, 
dysfunctional childhood, lack of education, and subsequent conversion to 
spirituality might have prevented him receiving the death penalty.

He is the 2nd longest serving death row inmate in the state, after Arthur Lee 
Giles.

He has been on death row since January 1982.

Harry Nicks

Harry Nicks entered a Bessemer Pawn Shop March 5, 1983 and shot owner Robert 
Back and his employee Debra Lynn Love in the back of the head as the lay on the 
ground. Nicks was attempting to rob the store at the time.

"One shot entered the back of Love's head; one entered the back of Back's head, 
penetrating his brain; and one went into a rubber mat on the floor. Back either 
died instantly or in a matter of minutes from the bullet wound to his head; 
however, the bullet fired into Love's head lodged in her skull and she 
survived," according to court documents.

Forensic exports concluded that the pistol used to shoot the 2 victims was 
probably just inches from their heads. Nicks attempted to plead insanity at 
trial but this was not accepted. He was sentenced to the electric chair in 
October 1984.

He has been on death row since August 1984.

Vernon Madison

Vernon Madison has been tried and convicted 3 times of murdering Mobile police 
Cpl. Julius Schulte, who at the time of his murder was responding to domestic 
disturbance call in April 1985, according to court documents. Madison snuck up 
behind Schulte and shot him twice in the head. He also shot his own girlfriend, 
who survived.

During his 1st and 2nd trial, Madison claimed he was mentally ill. At his 3rd, 
he argued self-defense.

The jury at his final trial recommended life without parole, but this was 
rejected by the trial judge who sentenced Madison to death. Alabama law has 
since changed meaning that judges can no longer impose a harsher sentence that 
recommended by the jury. His attorneys as recently as 2017 said his sentence 
should be commuted and he serve life without parole.

The state had most recently attempted to put Madison to death January 25 this 
year, but a last minute intervention by the Supreme Court ensures that he will 
remain on death row for now. His attorneys say that because his dementia 
prevents him from remembering why he's being punished the death penalty would 
constitute cruel and unusual punishment.

Madison has been on death row since Sept. 1985.

James Edmund McWilliams, Jr.

James Edmund McWilliams, Jr., raped, robbed, and murdered Patricia Vallery 
Reynolds on December 30, 1984 at store in Tuscaloosa.

"Patricia Vallery Reynolds was a clerk at Austin's, a convenience store. The 
defendant went into the store, locked the front doors, robbed Mrs. Reynolds by 
taking money from her possession, took her to the back room and brutally raped 
her, then shot her with a .38 caliber pistol. There were 16 gunshot wounds (8 
entrance, 8 exit). She was initially shot while standing, and also shot while 
lying on the floor," according to court records.

He has been on death row since Nov. 1986.

Earl Jerome McGahee

Earl Jerome McGahee was convicted of murdering his ex-wife and her classmate 
after entering the George C. Wallace Junior College in Selma, Alabama, on Sept. 
11, 1985 and killing them both.

After asking to see his ex-wife, Connie Brown, McGahee entered the classroom 
where she was studying and fired 1 shot. As students began fleeing the room, 
McGahee shot another student, Cassandra Lee. As Brown, who was shot 1st began 
to make her way to the classroom door, McGahee stamped on her head several 
times until she was incapacitated. He also began hitting and sexually 
assaulting a third student in the classroom, Dee Ann Duncan.

Brown died in the classroom, while Lee later died in hospital. Duncan suffered 
brain injuries that later affected her sense of taste and smell.

McGahee was sentenced to death Oct.10, 1986. He has been on death row ever 
since.

WOMEN ON ALABAMA'S DEATH ROW

Patricia Blackmon

Patricia Blackmon was convicted in the May 1999 capital murder of her 
2-year-old adopted daughter, Dominiqua Bryant in Dothan. The child's body 
sustained numerous injuries, including a fractured skull, and was stomped with 
such force that an imprint from a shoe was left on her chest, according to 
previous AL.com reporting.

Dr. Alfredo Parades, the medical examiner who conducted the autopsy, testified 
that Dominiqua died of multiple blunt-force injuries to her head, chest, 
abdomen, and extremities-he detailed some 30 injuries that he discovered on the 
child's body, according to court documents.

Blackmon was sentenced to death June 7, 2002.

Tierra Capri Gobble

Tierra Capri Gobble of Dothan was convicted in the death of her 4-month-old son 
Phoenix Jordan Parrish in the Dec. 15, 2004. The child suffered a fractured 
skull, 5 broken ribs, broken wrists and numerous bruises. An autopsy showed he 
died from head trauma consistent with child abuse, according to newspaper 
reports from the time.

"The autopsy showed that Phoenix died as a result of blunt-force trauma to his 
head-Phoenix's skull had been fractured," according to court documents. 
"Phoenix had numerous other injuries, including fractured ribs, a fracture to 
his right arm, fractures to both wrists, multiple bruises on his face, head, 
neck, and chest and a tear in the inside his mouth that was consistent with a 
bottle having been shoved into his mouth."

Gobble was sentenced to death Sept. 1, 2005.

Christie Michelle Scott

On Aug. 16, 2008, Christie Michelle Scott purposefully set fire to her house in 
order to kill her 6-year-old son so she could claim life insurance against his 
death.

Mason Scott died of smoke inhalation. Scott's other son, Noah, was sleeping in 
her room that night and survived the fire.

The life insurance policy was worth $175,000, according to reporting from the 
time. it was the 2nd fire Scott had been involved in within a year. Both her 
and her husband were insurance agents.

Multiple witnesses testified that Scott did not seem alarmed or desperate at 
the time of the fire, and that she wasted valuable time going to a neighbors 
house to phone 911. It was later revealed she was in possession of her cell 
phone when the fire started.

After being found guilty, Scott was sentenced to life without parole by a count 
of 7-5. However, the Franklin County judge at the time overturned the jury's 
recommendation and sentenced her to death.

She has been on death row since Aug. 2009.

Heather Leavell-Keaton

Heather Leavell-Keaton, originally of Louisville, Ky., tortured and killed 
Natalie DeBlase, 4, and Chase DeBlase, 3, with her common law husband, John 
DeBlase, in their residence at Peach Place Apartments in Mobile. John DeBlase 
was convicted of capital murder in their deaths in a separate trial in November 
2014.

Natalie's body was dumped in the woods March 4, 2010, while Chase was killed 
and dumped in woods June 20 the same year.

The couple mixed anti-freeze into their children's food.

She has been on death row since Aug. 2015.

Lisa Graham Carpenter

Lisa Graham Carpenter hired a hitman to murder her daughter Shea Graham in July 
2007. Carpenter told a friend that her daughter was ruining her life and needed 
her dead, according to court documents.

Kenneth Walton, a longtime family friend lured Graham from Columbus, Georgia, 
with the promise of providing her with a car. He shot her in the back of the 
head and then a further 2 times.

It took 5 years for the trial to commence in Russell County.

But after the start of the trial, the presiding Circuit Court judge called a 
mistrial because of his failing health. The 2nd trial commenced Feb. 2015.

While assessments of Carpenter's health found her to have an IQ of 77, meaning 
she would unlikely be able to consider the consequences of her actions, she was 
deemed mentally fit to receive the death penalty. It was also revealed during 
the trial that she suffered from schizophrenia and multiple personality 
disorders.

She has been on death row since Feb. 2016.

ALABAMA'S MOST RECENT DEATH ROW INMATES

Mobile County Sheriff's Office

Derrick Dearman

Derrick Dearman killed 5 people and an unborn child during a meth-induced 
killing spree with an axe and gun in Aug. 2016.

In March 2017, a grand jury indicted him on multiple counts of capital murder, 
both for murders committed during a burglary and a murder involving multiple 
victims. Dearman pleaded not guilty to the charges in May 2017.

After firing his attorneys in September, Dearman pleaded guilty. The move came 
after Stout deemed Dearman mentally fit to stand trial.

Peter Capote

Peter Capote and Benjamin Young were part of a group of 5 men that lured 
Ki-Jana Freeman to an apartment complex in Tuscumbia, Colbert County, March 
2016.

Freeman, who was shot as he sat in a Mustang with his friend Tyler Blythe 
outside Spring Creek Apartments in the city, believed he would be selling an 
X-box to one of the men.

Young already received the death penalty at an earlier trial. A third man, 
De'Vontae Bates pleaded guilty earlier this month and is expected to receive up 
to 20 years when he is sentenced in March next year. The so-called mastermind 
behind the killing, Thomas Hubbard was given life without parole during a trial 
in June. The final defendant Riley Hamm Jr. is expected to go on trial next 
year.

The group believed Freeman had stolen the game console and a TV from Hubbard a 
few nights before. They wanted to get it back and take revenge.

Blythe, 17, was injured in the shooting.

Capote has been on death row since May 2018.

Benjamin Young

The jury took less than 2 hours before reaching a guilty verdict Feb. 7 this 
year. The very next day, it took about 90 minutes to recommend the death 
penalty, which will be administered by lethal injection.

The Colbert County jury voted 11-1 when it recommended the death penalty for 
Young.

Young has been on death row since March 2018.

Jamal O'Neal Jackson

Jamal O'Neal Jackson murdered Satori Richardson by strangling and stabbing her 
at a Mobile apartment July 4, 2014. He later set fire to the apartment.

After taking officers in Gulf Breeze, Florida, on a high speed chase, he was 
eventually captured and extradited back to Mobile.

Investigators say Richardson was strangled with an electrical cord. An autopsy 
determined that Richardson was still alive after she had been stabbed.

Jackson has been on death row since July 2017.

Ryan Clark Petersen

Ryan Clark Petersen spent most of an August evening in 2012 at a nightclub in a 
small town just outside of Dothan. He was drinking alone and acting strangely, 
according to witnesses. Club security removed Petersen from the establishment 
after a dispute with an employee. He returned moments later armed with a 
handgun and opened fire, killing Cameron Paul Eubanks, 20, Tiffani Paige 
Grissett, 31, and Thomas Robins Jr., who was 59. He also shot Scotty Russell, 
33, of Opp, who survived his injuries.

"Justice needed to be served for the 3 victims that are deceased and the 1 
victim that was fortunate to survive," said the Houston County District 
Attorney at the time. "The actions that occurred took place that evening was 
inhumane. These victims are members of someone's family."

Petersen has been on death row since May 2017.

(source: al.com)








OHIO:

Ohio's broken death penalty



On Thursday, the Washington Supreme Court struck down that state’s death 
penalty due to racial bias and arbitrary application. Washington became the 
19th state to abandon the death penalty. Ohio lawmakers would be wise to follow 
suit.

In 1981, 3 short years after Ohio's death penalty was ruled unconstitutional in 
the case of Lockett v. Ohio, lawmakers resurrected the death penalty. Since 
then major problems with the state's death penalty have become clear.

The death penalty routinely sends innocent people to death row. Nationally, 163 
innocent people have been freed from death row. For every 10 executions 
conducted in the U.S., one innocent person has been released from death row.

Here in Ohio, the data are even more chilling. For every 6 executions Ohio has 
conducted, 1 person has been freed from death row. Ricky Jackson, Wiley 
Bridgeman, Kwame Ajamu, Gary Beeman, Dale Johnston, Gary James, Timothy Howard, 
Derrick Jamison and Joe D’Ambrosio are the 9 men wrongfully convicted and 
sentenced to death in Ohio. It is unlikely they are the only innocent people 
ever sentenced to death. Ohio's next governor already has 24 scheduled 
executions to deal with. How many of those condemned prisoners are innocent?

The death penalty is enormously expensive. The Beacon Journal examined the 
initial trial costs of 2 aggravated murder cases in 2017, 1 with death 
specification and 1 without. Both defendants were tried around the same time. 
The result was Summit County spent 10 times more on the death penalty case than 
the non-death case. Legislators have never examined what Ohio spends on death 
cases, but if they did they would find that the roughly 330 death sentences 
since 1981 have likely cost Ohio taxpayers over $1 billion.

Why don't we taxpayers notice what is being spent on capital cases? Good 
question, and one that deserves attention.

Just like in Washington state, Ohio's death penalty is biased and arbitrary 
with respect to race and geography. Given the costs, one would think every Ohio 
county was regularly seeking death sentences. To the contrary, Ohio's death 
cases (and the costs, errors and troubling inefficiency) come from just a 
handful of counties. More than 56 % of all death cases in the modern era come 
from 2 counties - Cuyahoga and Franklin. When we look at which counties execute 
the most, data show that 4 counties - Lucas, Summit, Cuyahoga and Hamilton - 
are responsible for more than 1/2 of all executions.

Equal justice is the foundation of our laws and society, but our justice system 
is administered by flawed individuals with implicit bias. Researcher Frank 
Baumgartner found that Ohio's death penalty is plagued by racial bias. 65 % of 
all executions in the modern era were for crimes involving white victims 
despite the fact that 43 % of homicide victims were white.

Baumgartner also found that homicides involving white female victims were 6 
times more likely to result in an execution compared to homicides involving 
black male victims. Equal justice under law has a different meaning for white 
and black homicide victims in Ohio.

Death penalty case outcomes are inefficient and unreliable. Under the current 
law, prosecutors have initiated over 3,200 death penalty cases according to the 
Ohio Supreme Court capital indictment records. Already deemed worthy of the 
death penalty, these thousands of cases resulted in 330 actual death sentences. 
Put another way, prosecutors fail to get the verdict they seek in almost 90 % 
of expensive death penalty cases.

Even when they do secure that rare death conviction, nearly 40 % of all death 
sentences are overturned by courts due to some error or somehow result in an 
execution never taking place. Most recently, a review of all the capital cases 
brought in Ohio between 2014 and 2017 reveals that nine of 10 cases end in 
something other than the death penalty. Taxpayers, however, are still on the 
hook for those exponentially more expensive death cases.

Forty years after the Lockett decision and after Ohio lawmakers tried to 
engineer a fair and accurate death penalty system, it is clear the most severe 
punishment we have is just not working. Reforms have been suggested by a task 
force of the Ohio Supreme Court, but those fixes have sat idle for years. As 
legislators fail to correct widely known deficiencies, they run the risk of an 
Ohio Supreme Court decision finding our death penalty unconstitutional just 
like what happened in Washington state.

(source: Opinion; Kevin Werner is executive director of Ohioans to Stop 
Executions and a panelist at the University of Akron law school symposium on 
the 40th anniversary of the Lockett v. Ohio ruling. The public is invited to 
attend or watch online, Monday, at 12:00 pm., at 
https://uakron.webex.com/uakron/onstage/g.php?MTID=e7e73056795277e38aa70048ad8d2436a----Akron 
Beacon Journal)








TENNESSEE:

Woman exonerated from death row to speak at DSCC Thursday



Sabrina Butler Smith will join a group of panelists at the Dyersburg State 
Community College (DSCC) Jimmy Naifeh Center at Tipton County Thursday, October 
18, 2018, at 10 a.m. for a discussion entitled 'A Broken System: Perspectives 
on the Death Penalty in Tennessee'.

In 1990, Sabrina Butler Smith, a teen mother from Mississippi, was convicted of 
murdering her nine-month-old son, Walter. She was later exonerated of all 
wrongdoing, and is 1 of only 2 women in the United States exonerated from death 
row.

On April 12, 1989, Smith rushed Walter to the hospital after he suddenly 
stopped breathing. Doctors tried to resuscitate the baby, but failed. The day 
after her son's death, Smith was arrested for child abuse because of bruises 
left by her resuscitation attempts. She was convicted of murder and sentenced 
to death.

The Mississippi Supreme Court overturned her conviction in 1992. The Court said 
that the prosecution had failed to prove that the incident was anything more 
than an accident.

At retrial on Dec. 17, 1995, she was acquitted after a very brief jury 
deliberation. It is now believed that the baby may have died either of cystic 
kidney disease or from sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). Smith spent more 
than 5 years in prison and 33 months on death row.

Other panelists at the event include Cynthia Vaughn, whose mother, Connie, was 
murdered in Memphis in 1984 and whose stepfather, Don Johnson, is now on 
Tennessee's death row convicted of the crime; Amy Lawrence, coordinator of 
Tennessee Conservatives Concerned about the Death Penalty; and Reverend Stacy 
Rector, a native of Dyersburg and executive director of Tennesseans for 
Alternatives to the Death Penalty (TADP).

"Since 1973, 160 people have been exonerated and released from death row in 
this country," said TADP Director Reverend Stacy Rector. "Since 2000, Tennessee 
has released four individuals who were wrongfully convicted and sentenced to 
death while executing 6. Mrs. Smith's story reminds us of just how real the 
risk of executing an innocent person really is, particularly as the State plans 
to resume executions this year."

This event is sponsored by DSCC's Criminal Justice department, Sociology 
department, Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society and the TADP.

The event will be held in the Baptist Memorial Health Care Academic Building 
Auditorium located at 3149 Highway 51 South in Covington. Admission is free to 
the public.

For more information regarding this event, please contact Michael Brooks, DSCC 
associate professor of criminal justice, at 901-475-3164 or brooks at dscc.edu.

(source: Covington Leader)

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

Gubernatorial Candidates Weigh In On Death Penalty, TBI Police Shooting 
Investigations



Both Republican Bill Lee and Democrat Karl Dean say the Tennessee Bureau of 
Investigation should continue to investigate officer-involved shooting deaths, 
but they disagree on whether that role should expand.

At Friday's final gubernatorial debate, Lee and Dean were asked whether they 
would support mandating the TBI to investigate all officer-involved shootings, 
not just those that end in fatalities.

Dean said he hopes the local police departments would ask an outside agency to 
investigate the shootings, before mandating it as governor. But, he said, "I 
would not be afraid to look at that and mandating that also."

Dean said he would consider allocating additional funding to pay for these 
investigations.

"For me, things like this - like basic justice, and how people respond to the 
criminal justice system, and how much they trust it, and how much people think 
the justice system is blind to racial issues, and other issues - (are) 
important, and it would be worth those dollars," Dean said.

Lee said he believes the state’s bureau should maintain its current policy of 
investigating fatal officer-involved shootings, but he said the state doesn’t 
have the resources to investigate those that don't end in death.

Lee said he would work with local law enforcement agencies to improve the 
system that investigates non-fatal shootings.

The TBI currently investigates officer-involved shootings that end in 
fatalities, like the case of Daniel Hambrick, who was killed by Metro Police 
Office Andrew Delke during a foot pursuit. But the TBI was also recently 
brought in to investigate an officer-involved shooting in Memphis that left 
Martavius Banks critically wounded. Even the Memphis Police Department asked 
the TBI to get involved, expressing concern that the officer who shot Banks had 
his body camera turned off.

Intervening In Executions

The gubernatorial debate at Belmont University was held the day after Gov. Bill 
Haslam granted a 10-day reprieve to death row inmate Edmund Zagorski, whose 
execution was scheduled for Oct. 11. Haslam has declined to commute Zagorski's 
sentence.

Both Lee and Dean said they would likely decline to intervene in executions. 
Lee said that, although a difficult topic, the law in the state allows for the 
the death penalty, something he said he agrees with in the "most heinous and 
egregious of crimes."

"I don't think that it would be my place to replace my judgement for the 
execution of justice through the criminal justice system," Lee said.

He recognized the possibility of flaws in "the system," and in those cases, he 
said he would consider dropping the death penalty.

Dean said the death penalty comes "as part of our democratic process," but that 
concerns about whether there could be additional evidence after an execution 
could have an impact on final decisions.

"All of that is available information that should be debated and discussed," 
Dean said. "But that is ultimately up to the people of Tennessee and up to the 
legislature and, as governor, I would follow the law."

(source: nashvillepublicradio.org)








CALIFORNIA:

Nevada County DA's office considers death penalty in Stan Norman murder case



The prosecutor in the Stan Norman murder case says he plans to meet with 
defense attorneys before determining whether to seek the death penalty. Sean 
Bryant, 52, and Michael McCauley, 42, face a murder charge in connection with 
the April death of Norman, 70. Both men were scheduled for court last Friday, 
through their hearing was postponed because Bryant's attorney, David Brooks, 
couldn't appear.

The men now are scheduled to appear Thursday in Nevada County Superior Court.

Assistant District Attorney Chris Walsh said he must speak with Brooks and 
defense attorney Kelly Babineau, who represents McCauley, before his office 
decides whether to seek the death penalty.

"It's really just having that meeting," Walsh said. "We want to consider 
whatever they may have to offer."

Possible considerations include the men's backgrounds and upbringing, Walsh 
said.

The prosecutor added that he wants a decision made and a preliminary hearing 
held for the men before year's end.

Authorities have said that Norman was last seen April 15. They arrested Bryant 
a month later on an unrelated charge. 3 weeks after that they charged him with 
murder after finding human bones in a Sadie D Drive burn pile. McCauley was 
arrested June 1.

Both men remained Sunday in the Nevada County Jail without bond.

(source: theunion.com)

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

Social justice movie night teaches students about the Death Penalty 
executioners



On Thursday, Oct. 11, Fullerton College political science department hosted a 
social justice movie night in Room 1420. The film, "There Will Be No Stay" was 
shown to students where they learned about those affected by the death penalty 
- the executioners.

This film presented all of the stages of the death penalty, more specifically 
what the executioners must go through. With no training or counsel they are 
thrown into the death rooms to commit a legal homicide. An intense moment in 
the movie was when an ex-executioner stated, "Society supported me turning into 
a serial killer."

Discussion time

The film was followed by a discussion where students got the opportunity to 
share their thoughts, ask questions, and discuss amongst each other about the 
death penalty.

"I was in the middle about this issue because I didn't know enough information, 
but now after watching this and seeing that we are teaching people not to kill 
by killing others, is like teaching a child not hit people and then hitting 
them," said FC student Sydney Anderson.

With elections coming up soon, political science professor Jodi Balma, made 
sure she kept students informed on how to vote.

“I think it's really crucial to get students engaged whether that's about 
social justice or local elections...getting them to know who to vote for. I 
think that's the most important thing is to educate people not just that they 
need to vote but also how to find information," said professor Balma.

For those who missed this event, but are interested in learning about voting on 
issues like this, Professor Balma will host an election forum on Oct. 30 at 
noon in Room 224. You can also visit https://deathpenalty.org to learn more 
about the death penalty.

(source: fullcoll.edu)