[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----N.C., FLA., USA

[Rick Halperin]

August 28



NORTH CAROLINA:

Lawyers square off over death sentence being reimposed



Nearly 22 years after Tilmon Golphin and his younger brother gunned down a 
Cumberland County deputy and a state trooper on Interstate 95 near 
Fayetteville, Golphin’s lawyers went before the N.C. Supreme Court on Tuesday 
morning to argue for his life.

The question at hand: Was North Carolina wrong to reinstate the death penalty 
for Golphin after Cumberland County Superior Court Judge Gregory Weeks commuted 
his death sentence to life without parole in 2012?

The state Supreme Court faces this same question with 3 +other Cumberland 
County convicted murderers who also in 2012 had their sentences commuted to 
life without parole under North Carolina’s short-lived Racial Justice Act. The 
other 3 cases were argued before the court on Monday.

The court also on Monday heard arguments from two convicted murderers from 
other counties who were denied the opportunity to use the Racial Justice Act to 
try to commute their sentences before the legislature repealed the law in 2013.

The state legislature passed the Racial Justice Act in 2009 to address 
institutional racism thought to be in North Carolina’s criminal justice system. 
It gave death row defendants an opportunity to prove in court that racism was a 
factor in the conduct of their trials.

If they could prove this, the judge was to convert their death sentences to 
life without parole.

In the 4 Cumberland County cases, Weeks was persuaded that the prosecutors used 
their peremptory challenges during jury selection to prevent black jurors from 
being seated on their juries solely because they were black — a violation of 
the jurors’ constitutional rights to serve their communities. It was argued 
that this was done based on a perception that black jurors would be less likely 
to sentence someone to death.

The 4 inmates were removed from death row.

The Supreme Court overturned Week’s rulings in December 2015, saying he had 
made mistakes that biased his decisions. Golphin and the other three inmates 
were returned to death row.

In January 2017 another judge (Weeks having retired) dismissed the inmates’ 
Racial Justice Act claims because the Racial Justice Act had been repealed.

Lawyer Jay Ferguson told the justices that this was wrong.

He said that once Golphin’s sentence was reduced from death to life without 
parole, the state was legally and constitutionally barred from reverting the 
sentence back to death. Some of Ferguson’s key points from his arguments and 
legal brief:

• He believes that Golphin was technically acquitted of the death sentence when 
his sentence was converted to life in prison, and to re-impose the death 
sentence is a form of double-jeopardy — the state is not allowed to prosecute 
someone more than once for the same crime once jeopardy is considered to have 
attached to the case.

• He thinks the legislature’s decision to repeal the Racial Justice Act was 
aimed specifically at Golphin and the other three defendants. It’s 
unconstitutional to pass a law designed to punish specific individuals (a 
concept known as a “bill of attainder”).

• The constitution also prohibits “ex post facto” laws — those that impose a 
punishment retroactively. Ferguson contends Golphin, under the Racial Justice 
Act, was sentenced to life in prison. The repeal law of 2013, he said, can’t 
take that away without violating the ex post facto provisions in the state and 
federal constitutions.

• Golphin’s right to use the Racial Justice Act was “vested” with the passage 
of the law and the state can’t take away a vested right. For this, Ferguson 
cited a state Supreme Court of 1869 regarding a former Confederate soldier 
accused of committing murder during the war.

North Carolina had passed an amnesty for former Confederate soldiers for crimes 
they committed during the Civil War. Later the amnesty was repealed and the 
state tried to prosecute a soldier accused of murder. The Supreme Court said 
the amnesty was a vested right and could not be taken away, so the soldier 
couldn’t be prosecuted. In Golphin’s case, Ferguson says his life sentence 
can’t be upgraded to death.

Senior Deputy Attorney General Danielle Elder urged the justices to keep 
Golphin on death row.

“The defendant here has not been acquitted of the death penalty,” she said. 
Weeks’ ruling that changed Golphin’s sentence was procedural, and not his 
criminal liability. “Acquittal” happens when there is a determination that the 
prosecution’s evidence is insufficient to determine if someone committed a 
crime, she said.

Elder’s arguments and brief also contend:

• Golphin’s right to use the Racial Justice Act never became “vested” because 
he never received a final order that granted him the life sentence — this would 
have happened had the Supreme Court upheld the 2012 ruling instead of rejecting 
it in 2015.

• There is no ex post facto issue, she said. Specifically, neither the Racial 
Justice Act nor its repeal boosted the punishment for 1st-degree murder beyond 
the death penalty — and the death penalty was on the books for 1st-degree 
murder when Golphin killed the law officers.

• The law that repealed the Racial Justice Act was not a bill of attainder, she 
said, because Golphin’s death penalty had been imposed by a trial years before. 
Part of the reason bills of attainder are unconstitutional is that they punish 
specific people without a trial.

The Supreme Court chamber was filled with spectators on Tuesday for Golphin’s 
case. The slain trooper’s widow and younger brother were on the front row.

Only 6 of the 7 justices heard the case because Chief Justice Cheri Beasley 
recused herself. She was a defense lawyer for Golphin in 1998.

(source: Fayetteville Observer)

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

Death row inmates appeal to North Carolina Supreme Court, citing racial bias



The Supreme Court of North Carolina is set to hear the case of 6 death row 
inmates who say a repealed state law should still allow them to be re-sentenced 
to life without parole, since they were able to successfully demonstrate that 
racial bias was a factor in their death sentences.

The court is scheduled to hear arguments Monday and Tuesday in the cases of 4 
death row inmates who briefly were re-sentenced to life without parole when 
state legislators approved the Racial Justice Act in 2009, the AP reports.

Under the Racial Justice Act, four inmates had used statistics to prove that 
their race was a “significant factor” in their trials, thus leading to a judge 
converting their sentences to life without parole.

Legislators repealed the Act in 2013, and the four inmates were sent back to 
death row without a new hearing.

North Carolina's Supreme Court justices also will hear from attorneys for two 
other death row prisoners whose Racial Justice Act claims were not decided 
before the law was repealed, the AP says.

More than 130 inmates brought claims under the Act when it was law, but these 
four were the only cases adjudicated successfully and then mooted, Slate 
reported.

A statistical study conducted by Michigan State University’s College of Law 
found that prosecutors struck qualified black jurors in North Carolina at far 
higher rates than white jurors, AP reported.

North Carolina currently has 142 people on death row, 63% of whom are non-white 
in a state that is 29% non-white, the AP reports.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that the death penalty is today 
“inadmissible,” because “there is an increasing awareness that the dignity of 
the person is not lost even after the commission of very serious crimes,” and 
“more effective systems of detention have been developed, which ensure the due 
protection of citizens but, at the same time, do not definitively deprive the 
guilty of the possibility of redemption.”

(source: Angelus News)

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

2 Members of the ‘Exonerated Five’ to Speak at Duke Sept. 2----The event is 
free and open to the public, but tickets are required

2 members of the Exonerated 5, formerly known as the Central Park 5, will speak 
at Duke University on Monday, Sept. 2, in Page Auditorium.

The 7 p.m. event, “Now They Hear Us: Living Without Regret and Inspiring Future 
Generations,” will feature Yusef Salaam and Raymond Santana in conversation 
with professor Mark Anthony Neal, chair of Duke’s Department of African & 
African American Studies.

The event is free and open to the public, but tickets are required. Tickets can 
be obtained starting at 11 a.m. Aug. 28 from the Duke University Box Office, or 
online at tickets.duke.edu (a service charge will apply). There is a limit of 2 
tickets per person.

Parking is available in the Bryan Center Parking Garage for a fee of $5 per 
vehicle, cash only. The event is sponsored by the Department of African & 
African American Studies and Duke Law School.

The following day, Tuesday, Sept. 3, Salaam and Santana will participate in a 
12:30 p.m. panel discussion at Duke Law School, Room 3041, which is also free 
and open to the public. Tickets are not needed to attend. Professor James 
Coleman, co-director of the law school’s Wrongful Convictions Clinic, will 
provide introductions and law professor Brandon Garrett, a leading scholar of 
criminal procedure, scientific evidence and wrongful convictions, will 
interview them about their experience in the criminal justice system.

Visitor parking is available in the Science Drive lot.

“Mr. Salaam and Mr. Santana are powerful speakers with a remarkable story to 
tell. Their arrest and conviction was used nationally to characterize black 
youths as increasingly dangerous criminals, yet it was a flawed criminal 
justice system that terrorized these innocent young men,” said Jamie Lau, a 
clinical professor of law and the supervising attorney for Duke’s Center for 
Criminal Justice and Professional Responsibility.

“Their story is a cautionary tale for any aspiring or practicing lawyer, as our 
justice system fails to function properly when criminal charges and 
prosecutions are brought in haste, when we fail to recognize and mitigate 
against our own biases, and when we take shortcuts rather than fastidiously 
searching for the truth,” he said.

Many are already familiar with the story of Salaam, Santana and the three 
others -- Korey Wise, Antron McCray and Kevin Richardson.

As boys, they were tried and convicted for the brutal 1989 attack of a young 
woman jogging in New York City’s Central Park. In 2002, a convicted murderer 
and serial rapist, linked to the case by DNA evidence, confessed to the crime, 
exonerating the 5 men. By the time the court vacated their sentences, withdrew 
all charges and removed them from the sex offender registry, they had each 
served between 5 and 13 years in prison.

Santana, who served 5 years before he was exonerated, is an activist, producer, 
fashion designer and founder of Park Madison NYC. Salaam, wrongfully convicted 
at age 15, is now a motivational speaker and advocate who addresses disparities 
in America’s criminal justice system. He serves on the board of The Campaign to 
End the Death Penalty, and in 2016 received a Lifetime Achievement Award from 
President Obama.

Documentarians Ken and Sarah Burns raised awareness of their case in the 2012 
documentary, “The Central Park Five,” which told the story from the perspective 
of the five men. Filmmaker Ava DuVernay produced a four-part Netflix 
miniseries, “When They See Us,” that was released earlier this year to critical 
acclaim. DuVernay dubbed them the Exonerated 5 to better reflect their status 
and reclaim their humanity.

“The case highlights the urgency needed to address the many fault lines that 
exist in our criminal justice system and in the newsrooms and courts of popular 
opinion across the nation,” Neal said. “That Mr. Santana and Mr. Salaam, along 
with their peers, have been given this rarest opportunity to see some semblance 
of justice, years after the fact, and are brave enough to share the deep trauma 
that they are still attempting to transcend, should be inspiration to all.”

Co-sponsors are the Office of Black Church Studies, the Center for Muslim Life, 
the Dean of the Social Sciences, Duke Student Affairs, Duke Chapel, the Forum 
for Scholars and Publics, the Mary Lou Williams Center for Black Culture, the 
Office of Faculty Advancement and Trinity College of Arts & Sciences.

(source: duke.edu)








FLORIDA:

Murder defendant abandons representing himself



For the 3rd time since his arrest in January 2015 on allegations of 1st-degree 
murder, Jovan Lamb has abandoned his effort to represent himself on the 
charges.

His lawyer, Jaime Garcia of Tampa, had withdrawn from Lamb’s case during a 
hearing last Thursday, saying the 2 could not agree on a defense strategy. Lamb 
then told Circuit Judge Jalal Harb he wanted to proceed without a lawyer.

But on Tuesday, he changed his mind.

“I corresponded with my family, trying to hire an attorney,” Lamb said. “That’s 
not going to work. I did personal research at the facility there on that, and 
that’s not going to work. So that’s what persuaded me to make my opinion there 
on that today.

“I can’t represent myself,” he said. “At this point, I have no choice but to 
ask you to appoint counsel. I inquired with my family about hiring an attorney, 
and that’s not possible. I went through 2 attorneys already that we’ve hired, 
so that’s not possible. I was hoping that was possible. That was my main goal. 
But that’s not possible anymore. So from my standpoint, being incarcerated at 
the Polk County Jail, I don’t have the access to the materials I need to be 
adequate in representing myself, so I don’t think it’s in my best interest to 
do so.”

Lamb, 34, of Haines City, was scheduled to stand trial in two weeks on 
allegations of murder, robbery, grand theft and attempted murder of a law 
enforcement officer, and faces mandatory life in prison if he’s convicted of 
murder. On Tuesday, Harb agreed to delay the trial.

Lamb had been arrested Jan. 14, 2015, along with Michael Gordon, Terrell 
Williams and Devonere McCune, on allegations he had robbed an Auburndale pawn 
shop at gunpoint and had led officers on a high-speed chase to Haines City, 
where he and others had run from their car after it had crashed at the entrance 
to Candler Ridge subdivision.

Separate juries already have convicted Gordon and Williams, and Williams has 
begun serving a mandatory life sentence. Prosecutors are seeking the death 
penalty against Gordon, who was found guilty of brutally stabbing 72-year-old 
Patricia Moran and her daughter, Deborah Royal, 51, after forcing his way into 
their Candler Ridge home and stealing their car. The jury unanimously 
recommended the death penalty against Gordon for the killings, but Harb hasn’t 
imposed sentence yet.

The other 3 co-defendants also were charged with their murders on allegations 
they participated in the violent crimes that led to those killings. McCune is 
scheduled to stand trial in December.

Lamb first stated he wanted to represent himself in June 2015 — 5 months after 
his arrest. In a 13-page handwritten letter to the court, he cited a litany of 
reasons why he wasn’t satisfied with Lakeland lawyer Lee Adam Cohen’s 
representation.

Lamb represented himself for about a month before his family hired Tampa lawyer 
Guillermo Gomez Jr., according to court records. Three years later, in April 
2018, Gomez withdrew from the case, citing a conflict of interest, and Lamb’s 
family hired Garcia.

But in February, Garcia sought to withdraw from the case, citing irreconcilable 
differences between himself and Lamb. Harb granted the motion April 5, but at a 
hearing in May, Lamb’s mother testified that she had been talking with Garcia 
about returning to the case, and he had agreed. On May 9, Garcia filed a notice 
in court records stating he would be representing Lamb.

His representation remained in place until last week.

Lamb’s mother, Deborah, declined comment on her son’s case Tuesday.

(source: theledger.com)








USA:

New hearing, President Trump clemency sought for Kansas killer set to be 
executed----In 1998, Jennifer Long left high school early and disappeared. 
Years later, Wesley Purkey admitted to abducting, raping and murdering her in 
his Lansing home. 20 years later, she will have a memorial to honor her.



Attorneys for a federal death row inmate who confessed to killing a Kansas City 
teenager have asked for a chance to present claims that his trial lawyer was 
ineffective and failed to investigate his traumatic childhood, evidence the 
jury that sent him to death never heard.

Wesley Ira Purkey’s lawyers on Tuesday said they filed a petition for writ of 
habeas corpus and requested a stay of his execution, which is set for Dec. 13.

They also said they filed a petition seeking clemency from President Donald 
Trump, urging him to commute Purkey’s death sentence to life in prison without 
the possibility of parole.

Purkey’s attorneys have said his youth was marked by horrific abuse. The 
petition noted that as a child, Purkey was sexually abused by alcoholic family 
members and a Catholic priest, trauma that affected his development and 
contributed to his behavior, his lawyers said.

“Mr. Purkey is not ‘the worst of the worst,’” his attorney, Rebecca Woodman, 
said in a statement. “Had the jurors heard this information, at least one of 
them might have voted for a life sentence.”

Purkey is among 5 death-row inmates across the country set to be executed in 
the next 5 months. The executions, which were announced in July by the Justice 
Department, would be the 1st carried out by the federal government since 2003.

In 1998, Purkey drove into Kansas City from his home in Lansing, Kansas, where 
he spotted 16-year-old Jennifer Long. He asked the teen if she wanted to party, 
and she got in his pickup truck.

Later in his basement, Purkey raped Long, stabbed her repeatedly and used a 
chainsaw to cut her body into pieces. He burned her remains in a fireplace and 
then dumped her ashes 200 miles away in a septic pond in Clearwater, southwest 
of Wichita.

Nine months later, Purkey was arrested in the killing of 80-year-old Mary Ruth 
Bales, of Kansas City, Kansas. He pleaded guilty to her murder and was handed a 
life sentence.

Then in November 2003, a federal jury in the Western District of Missouri found 
Purkey guilty of kidnapping Long, resulting in her death. Prosecutors sought 
the death penalty.

Purkey has remained at the U.S. Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana.

Long’s mother, Glenda Lamont, was overjoyed when she learned Purkey was set to 
be executed, saying she planned to attend it.

“I don’t want to say that I’m happy,” Lamont said in July. “At the same time, 
he is a crazy mad man that doesn’t deserve, in my opinion, to be breathing 
anymore.”

In a statement Tuesday about the new filings, Purkey’s attorneys said his 
“traumatic upbringing” was never fully investigated by his trial attorney, who 
has had more clients sentenced to death in federal court than any other defense 
lawyer in America.

Among a “myriad” of legal violations in Purkey’s case, his trial attorney also 
hired a friend to conduct investigative matters after that person was fired 
from a public defender’s office for serious misconduct, according to Purkey’s 
attorneys.

Purkey’s habeas petition details his struggles with mental health and 
addiction, issues his attorneys say run in his family. In his clemency 
petition, Purkey asked that Trump consider his dementia diagnosis and his 
remorse for his crime, according to his attorneys.

“He has not forgiven himself, and so he cannot ask for forgiveness from you or 
your office,” Purkey’s attorneys wrote in his clemency petition, which included 
a photograph of Purkey with his daughter and her family. “He asks only for your 
intervention, which would simply permit him to die in prison, at this late 
stage of his life.”

(source: kansascity.com)

***********

Some Pittsburgh Jews upset by decision to seek death penalty in synagogue 
attack



2 of the 3 congregations that met inside the Tree of Life synagogue in 
Pittsburgh said they were saddened and disappointed with the news that federal 
prosecutors plan to seek the death penalty against a man accused of killing 11 
Jews at their place of worship last year.

Leaders of both the New Light and Dor Hadash congregations had written to 
Attorney General William Barr to beg him not to pursue capital punishment for 
Robert Bowers. 4 of the 11 people killed in the massacre, considered the 
deadliest attack on Jews in U.S. history, were members of those congregations.

But on Monday (Aug. 26), 5 federal lawyers filed a motion in the United States 
District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, saying Bowers’ alleged 
crimes justify a death penalty sentence. They cited 5 reasons, including 
Bowers’ lack of remorse, his religious animus toward Judaism and Jews and his 
substantial planning and premeditation.

Rabbi Jonathan Perlman of New Light Congregation vowed Tuesday to continue to 
fight the death penalty, which he believes is contrary to Jewish teachings. He 
also said it would re-traumatize the survivors of the Oct. 27 massacre.

READ: A rabbi pleads with AG William Barr: Don’t bring the death penalty to 
Pittsburgh

Perlman said he thought prosecutors were trying to curry favor with the Jewish 
community by seeking the death penalty.

“But what the administration needs to understand is that if they took a poll of 
the Jewish community they would find out Jews are very much opposed to this for 
religious reasons,” he said.

(source: Religion News Service)