Death Penalty and Execution News

NOVEMBER 6, 2009:

PENNSYLVANIA:

Death penalty question rattles prospective jurors

The lawyers and a Philadelphia judge today completed a third day of jury selection, getting the eighth of 12 jurors to hear the murder trial of a North Philadelphia man charged in the Oct. 31, 2007, shooting of police Officer Chuck Cassidy.

Common Pleas Court Judge Jeffrey P. Minehart, prosecution and defense lawyers have reviewed 200 prospective jurors since the selection process started Wednesday.

Minehart said jury selection will resume Monday with a new panel of 125 prospective jurors.

If the lawyers can find 4 additional jurors and 6 alternates, Minehart said, opening statements would be Thursday in what is expected to be a 3-week trial.

The Criminal Justice Center and city courts are closed Wednesday for the Veterans Day holiday.

The jury selection process is protracted because of the difficulty assembling a panel of people willing to consider imposing the death penalty if they find John "Jordan" Lewis guilty of 1st-degree murder.

The problem is finding people willing to consider imposing the death penalty - but who are not predisposed for or against it.

Just confronting the death penalty question is too much for some prospective jurors. The lawyers actually selected two jurors today - for a total of 9 - only to lose a female juror during the afternoon when she returned to the courthouse in tears.

Both sides agreed to excuse her. Minehart said in court that in a private meeting with him and the lawyers, the juror said she realized she could not handle the pressure of a capital case.

If the jurors find Lewis guilty of first-degree murder, they would begin a second proceeding to hear evidence of factors - aggravating aspects of the crime, and mitigating points in Lewis' background or personality - that they must weigh in deciding whether to sentence him to death.

Under Pennsylvania law, if the jury votes against a death sentence, or cannot decide, Lewis is automatically sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole.

Lewis, 23, is charged with murder and six armed robberies. The last robbery - a Dunkin' Donuts shop on North Broad Street near 66th Avenue - was interrupted when Cassidy walked in the door.

Cassidy, 54, a veteran of 25 years with the city police force, was shot in the head and died the next day.

(source: Phildelphia Inquirer)

ALABAMA:

Alabama Supreme Court gives death row inmate another review of claims of ineffective attorney

The Alabama Supreme Court has told a lower court to take another look at a death penalty case from Jefferson County.

The Supreme Court issued a 7-0 order Friday directing the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals to make another review of claims by Joe Nathan James Jr. that he had ineffective legal representation in his capital murder trial in June 1999 in Jefferson County.

James was convicted of the shooting death of his ex-girlfriend, Faith Hall, on Aug. 15, 1994. He was sentenced to death after the jury voted 10-2 for execution.

(source: Associated Press)

NEVADA:

Sentences pile up for man on Nevada death row

A man already on death row for killing a Las Vegas woman and her grandson with a claw hammer in 2005 has been given additional prison sentences of 18 to 46 years for other convictions.

Thomas Richardson again denied responsibility Thursday for the slayings. He instead blamed a teenage co-defendant, Robert Denhart, who pleaded guilty and testified against the 42-year-old Richardson at trial.

Denhart was sentenced last month to 24 to 80 years in prison.

Authorities say Richardson and Denhart came to Las Vegas from California over the 2005 Labor Day weekend with a plan to rob and kill 43-year-old Steven Folker. He who was staying with his 91-year-old grandmother, Estelle Feldman.

Police say the robbery netted Richardson and Denhart about $400.

(source: Associated Prss)

MASSACHUSETTS:

Capuano calls Coakley 'out of step' on death penalty

US Representative Michael Capuano this afternoon seized on Attorney General Martha Coakley's signing onto a legal brief in an Alabama death penalty case, calling her rationale "absolutely wrong" and saying it demonstrates that "she is out of step with the progressive values of the Commonwealth."

"The race for Senate is about succeeding Ted Kennedy, "Capuano said in a statement. "He would have never supported this position. Ted Kennedy understood that being a U.S. Senator is about being a leader not a lawyer."

The Globe reported this morning that Coakley, who says she is firmly against capital punishment, has drawn the ire of some death penalty opponents by urging the US Supreme Court to limit federal review of state court decisions, which opponents say could make it harder for defendants on death row to challenge their sentences.

Coakley, along with 18 other attorneys general, signed a friend-of-the-court brief in September asking that the nation’s highest court maintain restrictions on intervention by federal courts. Death penalty opponents worry that if Coakley's arguments prevail it could be more difficult for federal courts to overturn death sentences, as well as other criminal punishments, handed down in state courts.

"I've been opposed to the death penalty since the beginning," Capuano said in an interview. "I don't mind someone that supports it, that's someone's position. But you're for it or against it. Don't hide behind legal technicalities. I'm a lawyer too."

"This is not a technicality," he added. "If this case wins, this man will be put to death. That's finality. And everybody I know that’s opposed to the death penalty is on the other side in this case."

Coakley said that the brief she signed, though it is attached to a death penalty case, is limited in scope and is designed to address only the question of what role federal courts should have in reviewing state court decisions. The brief makes no mention of capital punishment.

"This, from our point of view, is unrelated to a death penalty or any of the issues around that," Coakley said. "A real concern was that we get a clear determination from the Supreme Court on what is the standard of review of a federal court looking at a state court decision."

"I have positions that I’ve presented during the campaign, but I'm still the attorney general and I have to do the job as attorney general that I was elected to," Coakley added. "If I did otherwise, would I not be criticized for doing something political?"

Capuano, when asked about Coakley's position that she is making a narrow legal argument that is unrelated to the death penalty, said, "I think you'd have to tell Mr. Wood that as they were narrowly putting a needle in his arm."

The case involves a convicted murderer from Alabama, named Holly Wood, who has appealed his case to the Supreme Court, on the grounds that his state-assigned lawyer failed to introduce crucial evidence that he is mentally retarded.

Many of the other attorneys general who signed the brief were from more conservative states in the South and Midwest. All but 3 states that signed it -- Iowa, Massachusetts, and New Mexico -- allow the death penalty.

"It would be one thing if she was standing with all the attorneys generals in the country or the progressive ones in New England," Capuano said. "She's standing with Alabama, Texas, Georgia…I don’t get it."

"Her office did not have to sign this amicus brief; only 18 others did," Capuano said. "All she had to do was remain silent and this wouldn’t be questioned."

But Coakley argues that the case would have far-reaching implications for Massachusetts and every other state, which would have to go to federal court and defend what it did in state courts.

Over the past year, there were about 100 new federal cases challenging state criminal convictions in Massachusetts, according to the attorney general's office. Coakley said those numbers would probably rise if the Supreme Court rules against the states. Some legal observers said Coakley's position made perfect sense, and she would be criticized if she did not sign onto the brief.

At issue in the Supreme Court case is the interpretation of the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, which in most instances bars federal reconsideration of legal and factual issues on which state courts have already ruled. A Supreme Court ruling in Alabama's favor could result in federal courts having to defer to state judgments in many instances. Death penalty cases from the states are among those frequently challenged in federal court.

Despite Capuano's contention that Kennedy would have never supported such a position, the late senator did vote for the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996.

This is not the 1st time Coakley and Capuano have squabbled over the death penalty. Capuano made an issue of Coakley’s stance in September, trying to highlight a change in her position.

Coakley previously favored the death penalty in 2 instances, including for those convicted of killing police officers, but about 7 or 8 years ago shifted her position over concerns about wrongful convictions.

"For many reasons, the death penalty is a mistake," Coakley told reporters last month. "I do not believe in it, and I do not have any exceptions to it."

(source: Boston Globe)

VIRGINIA:

Hope in life, even in the midst of despair----Bishop Loverde reflects on the death penalty as the Washington area sniper prepares to be executed.

On November 10th, John Allen Muhammad is scheduled for execution in Virginia. As many will recall, Mr. Muhammad orchestrated the 2002 sniper attacks in the Washington metropolitan area — a rampage that left 10 people dead, others wounded and entire communities in shock and fear. To say that these acts are horrific and appalling would be an understatement. Certainly, a person who committed such brutal acts should be punished severely, and many among us would surely desire revenge and would even say that such a person deserves to die for what he did. It is understandable for us — all of us, myself included — to have these reactions, and to be outraged at the way in which innocent lives were so senselessly taken, with their families left to mourn and to ask questions which have no satisfactory answers.

These emotions, however, are a beginning, not an end. We are called to be more, and to do more, than we could ever be or do without God's transforming grace. In seeking to "be more," we should begin with prayer for the families of the victims of the sniper attacks, beseeching Our Blessed Lord to help them experience the healing that only His hand can offer. And then, as we open our minds and hearts in prayer, we can prepare ourselves to ask Jesus: "Who are you calling me to be in this situation?"

During his public ministry, Jesus Himself was asked to make a statement on putting someone to death:

But early in the morning he arrived again in the temple area, and all the people started coming to him, and he sat down and taught them. Then the scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery and made her stand in the middle. They said to him, "Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery. Now in the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?" They said this to test him, so that they could have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and began to write on the ground with his finger. (John 8:2-6)

Many of those gathered probably wanted Jesus to reach the "inevitable" conclusion that stoning was the appropriate punishment under the law. Jesus' response, of course, surprised them all:

But when they continued asking him, he straightened up and said to them, "Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her." Again he bent down and wrote on the ground. And in response, they went away one by one, beginning with the elders. So he was left alone with the woman before him. Then Jesus straightened up and said to her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?" She replied, "No one, sir." Then Jesus said, "Neither do I condemn you. Go, (and) from now on do not sin any more." (John 8:7-11)

While recognizing the seriousness of the woman's offense and admonishing her to "not sin anymore," Jesus refused to choose death over life, or despair over hope. Although He understood the demands of justice, His emphasis was on mercy and the human dignity of the sinner.

Because each person is created in God’s image and likeness, each person retains an intrinsic human dignity — even someone convicted of a heinous crime. This dignity is what leads the Church — while acknowledging the legitimate defense of individuals and society — to teach that the death penalty cannot be justified when a government has other ways to protect its people adequately against an unjust aggressor:

If non-lethal means are sufficient to defend and protect people's safety from the aggressor, authority will limit itself to such means, as these are more in keeping with the concrete conditions of the common good and more in conformity with the dignity of the human person. Today, in fact, as a consequence of the possibilities which the state has for effectively preventing crime, by rendering one who has committed an offense incapable of doing harm — without definitively taking away from him the possibility of redeeming himself – the cases in which the execution of the offender is an absolute necessity "are very rare, if not practically non-existent" (Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 2267; Evangelium Vitae, 56).

In solidarity with this teaching and with the consistent appeals made by Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI for an end to capital punishment in modern society, we are called to choose hope — hope in the redemption of an immortal soul – over the despair embedded in the death penalty. If the woman had been stoned, she would not have had the opportunity to "not sin anymore." And so, despite the initial reactions we might have in seeking revenge, we must not opt for the death penalty.

When life without the possibility of parole in a maximum security prison is an option, we have no need for the death penalty. By sparing the woman caught in adultery, Christ taught us a lesson which Saint Paul later expressed: "do not be conquered by evil but conquer evil with good." (Romans 12:21). Christ did this in the temple where He was teaching, and He enables us to do this, with His help, within the temples of our hearts today.

In the needles of lethal injection, we see the manifestation of despair. And in this despair, in advocating the use of the death penalty, our society has moved beyond the legitimate judgment of crimes. Brothers and sisters, we are better than this. We are called to be more than slaves to despair; we are called to be heralds of hope!

We find a striking example of this hope in Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus, who, as a young girl, prayed and did penance for the conversion of a convicted murderer Henri Pranzini. Although he had repeatedly refused to repent, at the moment before placing his head in the noose, he kissed the crucifix held out to him three times. Through the prayers and penance of Saint Thérèse, a person judged to be lost was won for Christ!

Imitating Saint Thérèse, let us unite our prayers and penance for John Allen Muhammad that he may experience Christ's redemptive mercy, for the victims of his crimes and their families, and for the courage in our Commonwealth to choose the path of hope instead of despair.

Stop Scheduled Executions

Visit vacatholic.org and click on "Current Alerts" to contact Governor Tim Kaine.

(source: Arlington Catholic Herald)

OHIO:

Prosecutors will seek death penalty against Damien Gantz in slaying at ATM

Cuyahoga County prosecutors will seek the death penalty against Damien Gantz in the shooting death of Terry Fitten at an ATM in East Cleveland.

Gantz, 20, of Cleveland, was indicted on charges of aggravated murder, aggravated robbery, tampering with evidence, kidnapping and a weapons offense.

Gantz is accused of shooting Fitten 3 times on Oct. 21 at the US Bank ATM on Forest Hills Boulevard near Euclid Avenue.

Fitten, who lived in an apartment a half-block away from the machine, was withdrawing cash for gas when the robber walked up and demanded money. Fitten resisted and was gunned down.

The Cuyahoga County coroner said Fitten was shot in the left upper chest, abdomen and right thigh. The robber ran off, leaving Fitten's Ford Explorer in the parking lot.

(source: Cleveland Plain Dealer)

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Death penalty to be sought in Ohio woman's death

Prosecutors in Ohio intend to seek the death penalty against a woman accused of hiring a friend to kill her mother.

An indictment filed Thursday in Summit County court shows 20-year-old Taylor Marks of Akron faces one count of on aggravated murder. Police say Marks offered a friend $5,000 to kill 58-year-old Kristie Marks so she could inherit money.

Police say the daughter lured her mother to an apartment complex on Oct. 24, where the friend stabbed the older woman to death.

Police say they have confessions and found bloody clothes and a knife.

Marks is jailed and faces a Nov. 13 arraignment date.

Kristie Marks operated a Visiting Angels home health care business.

No attorney for Marks was listed in court records.

(source: Dayton Daily News)

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Group brings anti-death penalty message to Western's campus

Death penalty opponents brought their message to Western Kentucky University on Thursday night, prompting outrage and tears from the audience with personal accounts of wrongful imprisonment on death row and urging action on two death penalty bills pending before the Kentucky legislature.

The program, sponsored by WKU's Department of History, examined personal experiences surrounding executions and homicide as well as their implication by Journey of Hope, a national advocacy group led by murder victim family members joined by death row family members, family members of the executed, the exonerated and others with stories to tell.

The event was part of a state tour of colleges to raise public awareness about inequities surrounding capital punishment and featured Journey of Hope founder Bill Pelke, who supported the death penalty until his grandmother's murder; Shujaa Graham, who was released from death row after he was exonerated for the 1973 murder of a prison guard in Stockton, Calif.; and Terri Steinberg, mother of Justin Wolfe, Virginia’s youngest death row inmate.

The speakers were joined by Kentucky ACLU coordinator Kate Miller, who urged the audience of some 100 students at the Mass Media Technology Hall Auditorium to support legislation to end executions of the severely mentally ill as well as put an end to the death penalty in Kentucky.

"We can protect society without becoming the murderers we lock up behind bars," said Steinberg, who related the story of her son, who received a death sentence in 2001 on charges of murder for hire. Despite the confession by another man also in prison on charges related to the crime, Wolfe is still in prison because no court has agreed to hear new evidence of the confession, Steinberg said.

"The average stay on Virginia's death row is 7 to 9 years," Steinberg told the audience. "Justin is at 8 1/2, so there is the possibility that he will be executed in the next year."

Pelke, a retired steelworker, talked of his work to save his grandmother's assailant from execution.

"The death penalty is purely a matter of revenge and revenge is never the answer," he said. "It is cruel and unnecessary. Society has a right to be safe from violent individuals but we don't have the right to kill them."

There are many reasons the death penalty, a complex and political issue, should be abolished, according to group. Among them is the fact that the U.S. is keeping company with notorious human rights abusers as the vast majority of countries in Western Europe, North America and South America - more than 128 nations worldwide - have abandoned capital punishment in law or in practice, and year after year, only 3 countries execute more prisoners than the United States - China, Iran and Saudi Arabia.

Since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, there have been 1,136 executions carried out in the U.S. with the South accounting for 80 % of those executions, according to the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty.

Since 1976, 124 men and women have been released from death row nationally - some only minutes away from execution, according to Journey of Hope, and in the past 2 years, evidence has come to light that indicates that 4 men may have been wrongfully executed in recent years for crimes they did not commit.

(source: Bowling Green Daily News)

DELAWARE:

Jury urges death penalty in slaying

A Sussex County Superior Court jury has recommended the death penalty for Emmett Taylor III, the man convicted late last week in the bludgeoning death of his fiancée just days before their planned 2007 wedding.

The jury voted 11 -1 Thursday to recommend death rather than life in prison for Taylor.

Superior Court Judge E. Scott Bradley set a sentencing date of Jan. 8. Bradley has final say in Taylor's sentence.

The same jury on Oct. 30 found Taylor, 46, guilty of 1st-degree murder in the death of his fiancée, Stephanie V. Mumford, 44.

Mumford's body was found the night of Aug. 14, 2007, in the condominium she shared with Taylor at Fairfield at Long Neck, east of Millsboro.

Mumford's family got worried when the couple didn't show up for their wedding rehearsal and began to search for her.

The last anyone heard from her was just after 10 p.m. on Aug. 13, when she made four telephone calls to a family friend within an hour. She told the friend that Taylor was angry with her and had ordered her out of the house.

Taylor had been drinking with friends earlier that night and the couple started to argue. Taylor believed Mumford had disrespected him by not making dinner for him, according to court records.

In Mumford's last phone call, at 10:09 p.m., she was crying and her friend could hear Taylor yelling at her.

"Then the phone went dead," the friend told police in court records.

Investigators said neighbors also reported hearing loud banging and arguing about the same time that night.

Calls to Taylor's cell phone went unanswered and the 2002 Chevrolet Tahoe the couple owned was reported missing.

Taylor told a co-worker about a month earlier that Mumford had slapped him and "he became so angry that he punched her, knocking out one of her teeth, then he choked her to the point that she became unconscious for a short time," according to court records.

Neighbors also told homicide detectives they had seen Taylor punching Mumford about two weeks earlier while the couple was sitting inside the Tahoe in the parking lot.

An autopsy revealed Mumford died of blunt trauma to the head. Prosecutors said Taylor killed Mumford with a frying pan.

When her body was found in the bathroom, the $4,000 engagement ring Taylor had given her was missing from her finger, police said, though other pieces of her jewelry remained in the home.

(source: The News Journal)

PENNSYLVANIA:

Man facing death penalty loses appeal for killing 12-year-old girl

A farmhand facing the death penalty for killing a 12-year-old Greene County girl lost an appeal for a new trial after his public defender failed to file a memorandum supporting his claims.

Jeffrey Martin's post-sentence motions regarding his first-degree murder conviction in the death of Gabrielle Bechen were denied yesterday in an order by Greene County Senior Judge H. Terry Grimes.

First Assistant District Attorney Linda Chambers said prosecutors waited for more than a year for Martin's attorney, Harry Cancelmi, to file the memorandum supporting his Sept. 29, 2008, motions for a retrial.

Among Cancelmi's contentions were that Grimes, the trial judge, made several erroneous decisions, Chambers said.

At one point in June, Grimes suggested in an order that Cancelmi could face a $100-a-day sanction because of his delay in filing, but the penalty never was imposed, according to court records.

Cancelmi was not available for comment Friday because he was at a conference, according to the Greene County public defender's office.

With the judge's ruling, Cancelmi now will have a month to appeal Martin's case to the state Supreme Court, Chambers said. In Pennsylvania, defendants given the death penalty get an automatic appeal to the state's highest appellate court to review whether the evidence is sufficient to support the guilty verdict and sentence.

Chambers opposed Martin's motions in a brief filed Monday.

"The procedure of having the commonwealth file their memorandum before the defense is not addressed by the rules of court," Chambers said in a statement. "However, something had to be done to move this case to the Supreme Court for its review. It is not fair to the parents of the victim or to the defendant, for that matter, to allow the case to linger indefinitely."

Jurors convicted Martin, 52, of New Geneva, Fayette County, in May 2008 of the June 2006 rape and murder of the girl on a Dunkard Township farm.

Martin confessed to raping Gabrielle and burying her in a shallow grave, but the defense claimed that his statements were coerced by police. He told investigators he killed the girl after she threatened to tell her parents about the sexual assault.

On the witness stand, Martin claimed Gabrielle was murdered by an unidentified person who drove a white pickup truck and offered him $100 to help dispose of the all-terrain vehicle she was riding by burying it, too.

Besides the death penalty, Grimes sentenced Martin to another 23 to 46 years for other crimes, including rape, involved in the case.

(source: Tribune-Review)

SOUTH CAROLINA:

Death row inmate competent for 2nd trial

A man on the state's Death row for killing his girlfriend has been ruled competent to stand trial in a 2nd death penalty case.

The (Myrtle Beach) Sun News reported Thursday that Judge Steven John ruled Stephen Stanko is competent to be tried in the death of 74-year-old Henry Lee Turner.

Turner was found shot to death at his home on April 8, 2005.

Stanko has been sentenced to die for killing his live-in girlfriend, Laura Ling, and assaulting a teen on the same day. Stanko is being held on death row in Ridgeville, with no date set for his execution.

Stanko's trial is set to begin Monday. A gag order prevents attorneys from discussing the case.

(source: The State)

TEXAS:

Texas executes 20th inmate this year

A death row inmate convicted of fatally beating and shooting an East Texas man with a rifle in 1998 was executed Thursday as he recited Psalm 23.

In early appeals of his conviction, Khristian Oliver's attorneys argued that Nacogdoches County jurors improperly took Bibles into deliberations without the knowledge of the trial judge. The jurors likened the rifle to a biblical iron object. In Numbers 35:16, a murderer who uses an iron object to kill "shall surely be put to death."

Oliver's appeals attorney, David Dow, said there is nothing wrong with people taking their religious values into the jury room.

"But they must take great care to ensure that, in sentencing a murderer, they follow Texas law rather than religious law, and in this case, the jurors did not do so," he said.

But state and federal courts, including the Supreme Court, upheld Oliver’s conviction and death sentence.

Oliver's lethal injection, the 20th this year in Texas, came after the Supreme Court rejected another, last-day appeal, and Gov. Rick Perry refused to stop the execution.

"I know you're not going to get the closure you are looking for," Oliver told his victim's children, who watched through a window a few feet from him. "I wish you the best."

He said he prayed for them "every day and every night" and offered them "only the warmest wishes."

Then after telling his parents, watching through an adjacent window, that he loved them, he began praying the Psalm: "The Lord is my shepherd. . ."

He got through several verses before the drugs began to take effect. Oliver, 32, was pronounced dead at 6:18 p.m.

The crime

Oliver was condemned for the March 17, 1998, slaying of Joe Collins, 64. Collins interrupted a break-in at his rural home outside Nacogdoches by Oliver, then 20, and Benny Rubalcaba, 16. Rubalcaba’s 15-year-old brother, Lonny, and Oliver’s girlfriend were waiting in a pickup truck.

Collins was beaten so severely and so many times — and also shot 5 times — he was nearly unrecognizable when a neighbor found him dead in the front yard.

Testimony showed that Collins grabbed a rifle and shot Benny Rubalcaba in the leg. Oliver fired his pistol at Collins and then retrieved the man’s rifle and beat him with it.

One of the teenagers testified that he saw Oliver swinging the rifle at Collins.

Evidence showed that at least 2 of 5 shots that hit Collins came while he was on his back outside his house.

"We had a lot of evidence, a lot of DNA, a lot of testimony," said Tim James, the trial prosecutor.

(source: Associated Press)

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Khristian Oliver executed

For the 1st time since 1928, a man sentenced to death in Nacgodoches County has been executed.

Khristian Oliver, 32, was pronounced dead at 6:18 p.m. Thursday in Huntsville. He was convicted in 1999 of the brutal murder of Joe Preston Collins Sr. The case gained national attention after it was reported that jurors may have referenced Bible verses during deliberation.

In his last statement, Oliver said to the Collins' family that he knew they would not get the closure they were looking for, but that he wished them the best. He said, "I prayed for y'all every day and every night. I have only the warmest wishes. I am sorry for what you are having to go through."

To his own family, he said that he loved them and thanked his spiritual advisor, Wayne Whiteside.

He then began quoting Psalm 23 with his voice trailing off as he said "my cup over runneth," as the drugs took effect. His family cried softly as they stood in a small room looking through the glass at their son strapped to a gurney.

Joe Collins Jr. said in a press conference after the execution that he thought Oliver's last statement was more for self-healing than for the Collins family.

"He didn't admit to much'" Joe said. "He wanted us to feel better and have some closure, but it's kind of hard."

As for the actual execution, Joe said it was not difficult.

"Wasn't nothing difficult," Joe said about the execution. "I looked at him. I didn't see no real remorse in his eyes."

"Everything was good," Gary Collins said, describing his father. "A lot of good times (to remember).

"For 11 years he's been alive and doing things. For 11 years, I've been without a dad."

Gary and Joe Collins stated none of their family ever approached the district attorney or the Oliver family to seek a lesser sentence. They said they always wanted the death penalty. They said they have not had or wanted any contact with the Olivers.

"Justice was served," Gary said. "I feel a lot better. We can move on."

"There is not full closure," Joe said, referring to the 3 people with Oliver the night of the murder, "but it's better than what it was."

Collins was found dead in his yard on March 18, 1998, by his neighbor. According to court testimony, Oliver, then 20, and Lonny Rubalcaba were searching inside Collins' home off Camp Tonkawa Road the previous night looking for things to steal when Collins came home and surprised them. Collins shot Lonny, hitting him in the leg. Lonny testified that Oliver fled the room and he heard several more gunshots before Oliver returned. Oliver's girlfriend, Sonya Reed, and Benardo (Benny) Rubalcaba, Lonny's brother, were waiting in a vehicle parked on the side of the road. Benny testified that as he ran toward the home, he saw his brother on the ground and Oliver beating Collins with the butt of a rifle.

Both Rubalcaba boys took plea agreements with Lonny serving 10 years and Benny serving 5. Reed went to trial and is currently serving a 99 year sentence.

Dr. James Bruce, a Lufkin pathologist, said during the trial that any one of the gunshot wounds or the blunt trama could have caused Collins' death, according to previous Daily Sentinel articles.

The U.S. Supreme Court declined to review the case or to give him a stay of execution after a last minute petition just before 5 p.m. today filed by Oliver's defense lawyer, David Dow.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry did not intercede.

Oliver's execution was witnessed his parents, Kermit and Katie Oliver, of Waco, as well as his sister and brother-in-law, Kristy and Tony Pullings, his brother, Khristopher Oliver, and spiritual advisor, Wayne Whiteside.

The victim's children were in attendance, including sons Joe Preston Collins Jr., Gary Allen Collins, Alton Ray Collins, and his daughter, Elsie Faye Walker. One son, Alvin Lee Collins, was not present.

Nacogdoches County Sheriff Thomas Kerss and District Attorney Nicole LoStracco were present to support the family but did not witness the execution.

In 1928, Tom Ross, 35, was the 56th person executed by electrocution in Texas, according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Web site. He was convicted of murder in Nacogdoches. Edward Hagans was also sentenced to death but his sentence was commuted to life in prison in November of 1973 after the U. S. Supreme Court ruled the year before that capital punishment was "cruel and unusual" punishment.

Lethal injection consists of 3 injections. The 1st is sodium thiopental, a sedative. Second is pancuronium bromide, a muscle relaxant that collapses the diaphragm and lungs. Finally, potassium chloride is used to stop the heart. The cost of the drugs used for an execution is $86.08.

Oliver's death by lethal injection was the 20th this year in Texas, according to the Associated Press.

(source: Nacogdoches Daily Sentinel)

ARKANSAS:

Justices say Ark. death row inmate can ask lower court to review his conviction

The Arkansas Supreme Court has ruled that a death row inmate can ask a state court to rule that he was not competent to stand trial for the 2001 murder and mutilation of a woman.

Justices on Thursday granted Rickey Dale Newman's request to reinvest jurisdiction to Crawford County Court, where he was sentenced to death in 2002 for the death of 46-year-old Marie Cholette at a Van Buren transient camp.

Newman said that the doctor who said he was competent to stand trial later admitted in federal court that he made errors on the test. Newman also claimed that prosecutors withheld evidence in his case.

The court in May denied Newman's motion to end his appeals. Newman said in a motion filed without his attorneys that his death "is the only and right thing" for him.

(source: Associated Press)

MASSACHUSETTS:

Death penalty foes rip Coakley for signing brief----Martha Coakley said she was concerned about giving federal courts more discretion to review state court decisions.

Attorney General Martha Coakley, who says she is firmly against capital punishment, has drawn the ire of some death penalty opponents by urging the US Supreme Court to limit federal review of state court decisions, which opponents say could make it harder for defendants on death row to challenge their sentences.

Coakley, along with 18 other attorneys general, signed a friend-of-the-court brief in September asking that the nation's highest court maintain restrictions on intervention by federal courts. Death penalty opponents, who are watching the case closely, say if Coakley's arguments prevail it could be more difficult for federal courts to overturn death sentences, as well as other criminal punishments, handed down in state courts.

The case, which comes as Coakley is battling for votes in the Democratic Senate primary, involves a convicted murderer from Alabama who has appealed his case to the Supreme Court, on the grounds that his state-assigned lawyer failed to introduce crucial evidence that he is mentally retarded.

"There's no way this kid should be killed," said Stephen B. Bright, president and senior counsel at the Southern Center for Human Rights, an organization that opposes the death penalty. "It's old-fashioned Southern states' rights. I was shocked to see that she and the state of Massachusetts had joined that brief."

Many of the other attorneys general who signed the brief were from more conservative states in the South and Midwest. All but 3 states that signed it - Iowa, Massachusetts, and New Mexico - allow the death penalty.

"At the end of the day, if the state of Alabama wins, this kid with an IQ in the 60s will be executed," said Bright, who teaches at Yale and Georgetown law schools.

Coakley and her aides argue that her signing the brief had nothing to do with the death penalty and that they were purely concerned with the legal implications of allowing federal courts more discretion in reviewing decisions that state courts have already made, which Coakley asserts would take additional time, money, and resources.

Coakley said that the brief she signed, though it is attached to a death penalty case, is limited in scope and is designed to address only the question of what role federal courts should have in reviewing state court decisions. The brief makes no mention of capital punishment.

"This, from our point of view, is unrelated to a death penalty or any of the issues around that," Coakley said. "A real concern was that we get a clear determination from the Supreme Court on what is the standard of review of a federal court looking at a state court decision."

The case illustrates the tension between Coakley's role as the state’s top law enforcement official and her political ambition. Her involvement in the case could have political implications in a highly charged Senate race in which her past support for the death penalty has already come under fire. "I have positions that I’ve presented during the campaign, but I'm still the attorney general and I have to do the job as attorney general that I was elected to," Coakley said. "If I did otherwise would I not be criticized for doing something political?"

Coakley previously favored the death penalty in two instances, including for those convicted of killing police officers, but about 7 or 8 years ago shifted her position over concerns about wrongful convictions. "For many reasons, the death penalty is a mistake," Coakley told reporters last month. "I do not believe in it, and I do not have any exceptions to it."

US Representative Michael E. Capuano, a rival in the Senate race, made an issue of Coakley's stance on the death penalty at the time, trying to highlight her change in position.

The Alabama case involves a man, Holly Wood, who was convicted in 1994 of brutally killing Ruby Lois Gosha, his former girlfriend. A jury recommended, by a 10-to-2 vote, to sentence him to the death penalty.

After losing state appeals, Wood filed a federal habeas petition to take his case to federal court, arguing that his lawyers failed to present evidence of Wood's limited mental capacity.

A US District Court overturned the decision, concluding that Wood's court-appointed lawyers had failed him. The Atlanta-based US Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit then overturned the district court's decision in 2006. This year the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case; oral arguments were presented Wednesday.

"It's definitely a death penalty case," said Kerry Scanlon, the attorney for Woods. "I was surprised to see that Massachusetts had signed onto this brief."

At issue is the interpretation of the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, which in most instances bars federal reconsideration of legal and factual issues on which state courts have already ruled. A Supreme Court ruling in Alabama's favor could result in federal courts having to defer to state judgments in many instances. Death penalty cases from the states are among those frequently challenged in federal court.

"If you're concerned about the death penalty, then you have to be concerned about people being able to have their case reviewed in federal court," said Bryan Stevenson, executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative of Alabama, which opposes capital punishment. "The error rate, in my judgment, is shockingly high, so high that you want federal courts to be able to review these cases without a lot of restrictions."

In this case, Stevenson added, "Mr. Wood will be executed in a matter of weeks . . . It is not theoretical in Alabama."

In their brief, Coakley, and other states that signed onto it argued that the decisions already made by state courts should not be overridden.

"States have an obligation to protect the finality of the judgments entered by their courts - an obligation that is even more compelling when it involves criminal judgments," their brief reads. "Undoing finality in habeas corpus litigation in the federal courts can undermine the states’ interests in ensuring safety, deterring crime, and rehabilitating criminal offenders."

Otherwise, Massachusetts and every other state would have to go to federal court and defend what it did in state courts, the attorneys general argue.

Over the past year, there were about 100 new federal cases challenging state criminal convictions in Massachusetts, according to the attorney general's office.

Coakley said those numbers would probably rise if the Supreme Court rules against the states.

Tracey Maclin, a law professor at Boston University, said it "makes perfect sense" for Coakley to weigh in on this case.

"I'm against the death penalty, but it would be bordering on incompetence for an attorney general not to sign this case," he said. "If the Supreme Court makes it harder, that's more work that they would have to do. Unless she wants to make more work for her office, she has a vested interest."

(source: Boston Globe)

PENNSYLVANIA:

2 college students' killer spared death penalty

A southwestern Pennsylvania jury has decided against the death penalty for a former Pittsburgh man accused of fatally shooting two Ohio college students in 1999.

Yesterday's verdict means Terrell Yarbrough, 29, will spend life in prison for slaying Franciscan University students Aaron Land of Philadelphia and Brian Muha of Westerville, Ohio.

Yarbrough's attorney says he was neglected by his heroin-addicted parents and has such a low IQ that his execution should be barred by a 2002 U.S. Supreme Court decision banning the execution of the mentally disabled.

Yarbrough was previously sentenced to death in Ohio. He was retried and convicted in Washington County after the Ohio conviction was overturned because the killings happened in Pennsylvania.

(source: Associated Press)

GEORGIA:

Georgia's prison system still trying to pinch every penny----Putting inmates three to a cell and turning out lights not enough

Georgia prison officials are concerned they could run out of ways to save money before the state budget stops shrinking.

First the Department of Corrections closed prisons and housed 3 inmates in cells built for 2. Now the agency is turning out lights in its 2,200 buildings and finding other more sophisticated ways to save on its energy bills, thanks to $16.5 million in federal stimulus grants won in the spring.

With half the grant money, the agency will install meters that report to a central office if electricity usage rises above predicted levels so that unneeded lights or other equipment can be immediately turned off. The other half will go to inspecting every building to make sure all the equipment works in synchronization, said Larry Latimer, director of engineering and construction.

"You'd be surprised how often someone reversed the wires on a fan and the blades are turning the wrong way," he told the agency's board Thursday.

He anticipates savings of $4 million yearly, based on similar efforts in Missouri's system.

The department is also working with the Board of Pardons and Paroles on streamlining screening that could lead to reprieves for medical reasons. Releasing chronically ill inmates not only reduces the number incarcerated but also saves the department heavy medical costs.

All that still might not be enough, board members said. State tax collections have continued to slump, forcing the agency to deal with a growing inmate population and a budget 10 % - or $100 million - less than its peak. And $97 million in federal "stabilization funding" runs out after next year.

Corrections board member Jim Whitehead of Augusta said he expects more cuts after he met recently with Rep. Ben Harbin, R-Evans, who chairs the House Appropriations Committee.

"You can't ask the Board of Corrections as an entity to keep doing what we're doing if there is no way to fund it," Whitehead said.

Corrections Commissioner Brian Owens said the state was already withholding 5 % of each month's appropriations as it is this fiscal year for all agencies, but that the amount withheld was reduced to 2 % once projections showed a severe cash-flow problem for Corrections 6 to 7 months into the year.

(source: The Florida Times-Union)

ILLINOIS:

IVCC plans debate on death penalty

Illinois Valley Community College will recognize Constitution Day with a student sponsored "Death Penalty Debate" from 2 to 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 18, in Room C-316.

Students enrolled in American National Government classes will participate on the debate team, contribute research for their team or attend the debate. Neal Pierson of La Salle will lead the pro-death penalty team and McKenzie Price of Manville will lead the con-death penalty team.

"The death penalty continues to be a controversial subject in American politics," said Amanda Bigelow, faculty adviser and professor of political science. "The battle between Chicago prosecutors, Northwestern University"s School of Journalism"s ";Innocence Project" and Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia"s recent remarks that innocence is not a constitutional protection against the death penalty are all recent examples of how the nation remains divided over this issue."

The event is open to the public and admission is free. For information, contact Bigelow at 815-224-0203.

(source: My Web Times)

FLORIDA:

Exonerated man seeks cash for 27-year sentence

No bars or razor wire hold former Florida inmate No. 082629. Instead, William Dillon sits on furniture the color of ripe lemons, surrounded by cheerful animal statues and blooming plants, a prisoner no longer after 27 years.

He could get more than a million dollars in state compensation for his wrongful imprisonment, though how much he'll get - if anything - is up to lawmakers because he has a prior conviction for felony drug possession. A hearing on the matter took place this week in Tallahassee, though Dillon says it's impossible to put a dollar amount on his freedom.

"When I actually did walk down those steps, I was so lightheaded, felt like I was being lifted down those steps, I really did," Dillon recently told The Associated Press. "It was so awesome. I don't think I can ever replace that feeling, coming out of there after so many years of feeling I never, ever would."

Dillon, 50, walked out of the Brevard County jail last November after tests showed that DNA found on the killer's shirt - which investigators found at the crime scene, splattered with the victim's blood - wasn't his. A month later, prosecutors announced they wouldn't retry him for the 1981 bludgeoning death of James Dvorak, and his conviction was erased.

Dillon, one of more than 200 inmates exonerated by DNA nationwide, plans to move to Tallahassee soon so he can be available during those hearings. Under the state's automatic formula, Dillon would receive $1.35 million - $50,000 for every year in prison.

Eric Ferrero, a spokesman in the Innocence Project's national office, said 27 states currently have compensation laws on the books. Of those states, Florida is the only one where a roadblock occurs if the former inmate already had a felony conviction on his record.

Norman Wolfinger, the state attorney in Brevard County, said in a letter to the Legislature that while there isn't enough evidence to convict Dillon again, lawmakers should consider that his innocence isn't proven, either.

Dillon cried while testifying Monday at his first compensation hearing. Afterward, he said he forgave the jailhouse snitch who recanted his 1981 trial testimony that Dillon had confessed to the murder. Roger Dale Chapman testified Monday that detectives told him they'd send him to prison on a fabricated rape charge if he didn't lie.

Although it isn't feasible, Dillon said he would prefer that his compensation be paid by the prosecutors and law enforcement agents he believes railroaded him - not taxpayers.

"I think the people that did it to me - knowingly did it to me - should have to pay for it," he said.

Admittedly cocky during the 1981 investigation, Dillon was angry when he went to prison. He said he grew suicidal after a parole hearing a few years ago, when he was given a possible release date of 2043. He mourned the loss of children he would never have, a youth that was stolen and the holidays he would miss. But he "settled it" for himself when he realized rage would do no good.

Dillon walked out of jail last year wearing a T-shirt that read "Not Guilty" and a grin. At first, nothing was easy. After almost three decades under the dim glow of prison lights, Dillon was uncomfortable in the black of night. He couldn't eat unless he was told. When he tried to buy a dozen chocolate doughnuts at a grocery store, he held up the line for an uncomfortable lesson on debit card machines.

"Everything that was out here had completely changed to me," he said. "It was like I was Fred Flintstone that came out."

He ate lasagna with his family on his first day home, and he celebrated Thanksgiving with loved ones a few days later. In the year that followed, he gained a few pounds and grew some facial hair. He still plays guitar, an instrument he picked up behind bars, and now talks of going back to school.

Dillon and Wolfinger both place some blame on John Preston, a dog handler who claimed his animals could track scents months after a suspect was present. He testified his dog found Dillon's scent on the shirt and at the crime scene. He was later discredited and died last year. Preston's testimony was also used against Wilton Dedge, convicted in Brevard in the early 1980s of sexual assault. DNA evidence freed him in 2004, and the Legislature awarded him $2 million.

Now, Dillon focuses on his most powerful weapon against those who wronged him: telling his story to law students and law enforcement agents. He said he harbors no anger toward the system, but he wants the individuals involved in the prosecution and investigation to be held accountable.

"I feel like I'm the thorn in their side right now and I am the scariest thing that they have seen in quite a while compared to the system that they've been running," he said. "My mouth is a dangerous tool on them. Each day I think of more and more stuff that happened that shouldn't have happened. And each day I remember it, it comes closer and closer to getting in their closet."

(source: Associated Press)

SAUDI ARABIA:

Foreign nationals on death row in Saudi Arabia

At least 158 people, including 76 foreign nationals, were executed by the Saudi Arabian authorities in 2007, and at least 102 people, including almost 40 foreign nationals, were executed in 2008. Since the beginning of 2009, a further 61 people are known to have been executed, including 18 foreign nationals.

Amnesty International is aware of at least 137 people currently on death row in Saudi Arabia, of which 106 are foreign nationals. The true figures are believed to be much higher.

Those foreign nationals include the following individuals:

Siti Zainab Binti Duhri Rupa, a 41-year-old Indonesian domestic worker and mother of two, was arrested in September 1999 in connection with the murder of her female employer. She was convicted and sentenced to death despite lack of legal representation at her trial and reports that she suffers from a mental disorder. She is reported to have been convicted after she "confessed" to murdering her employer during police interrogation. Siti Rupa has not yet been executed as the employer's child has not yet reached the age of majority to request her sentence of death or pardon her. In qesas (retribution) cases, the heirs of the murder victims have the right to pardon the offender either freely or in exchange for compensation. The age of the child is unknown in this case. However, the president of the National Human Rights Commission in Saudi Arabia informed Amnesty International that her case had been referred for review to the relevant authorities but no other information has been received since.

Nigerian national Suliamon Olyfemi was sentenced to death in May 2005 for the murder of a policeman in 2002. He was one of 13 Nigerian nationals arrested in September 2002 in connection with the murder. He was forced to fingerprint a confession that he could not read as it was in Arabic, a language he does not understand, during the interrogation and this was used as evidence against him in the trial. During his trial, which was conducted in Arabic, Suliamon Olyfemi had no access to legal representation or consular assistance, and reportedly was not provided with adequate translation. He has exhausted all appeals and could be executed at any time.

Rizana Nafeek, a Sri Lankan domestic worker, was sentenced to death in 2007 for the alleged murder of her employer's baby. She was 17 at the time of the alleged crime. She had no access to lawyers either during interrogation or at trial, and it is believed that she confessed to the murder during police questioning but has since retracted her confession. Her case is still at appeal.

Indian nationals Sheikh Mastan and Hamza Abu Bakir were arrested in January 2004 on charges of drug possession and sentenced to death by a court in al-Dammam in June 2006. However, they had no legal representation throughout the judicial process. Very little is known about their trial except that their convictions and sentences are said to have been upheld on appeal. The sentences are awaiting the approval of the Supreme Judicial Council, which is headed by the King. If the sentences are approved, the 2 men could be executed within days.

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

Call for crucifixion execution to be halted

Amnesty International has issued an urgent appeal to the Saudi Arabian authorities calling for the intended execution and crucifixion of a 22-year-old man to be halted.

Saudi Arabia's Court of Cassation recently confirmed a sentence of beheading following by crucifixion against Muhammad Basheer al-Ramaly. Crucifixions - which are rare in Saudi Arabia - take place after beheading, with the body and the separated head placed on a pole in a public square to act as a supposed deterrent.

Amnesty International UK Director Tim Hancock said:

'Crucifixion plumbs the depths when it comes to grisly punishment and we're calling on King 'Abdullah to halt this execution, which he has the power to do.

'Rather than approving countless executions, King 'Abdullah should declare a moratorium on all existing death sentences and order urgent reforms to the Saudi justice system. We must not continue to see cases where people face execution after trials where they were denied even a lawyer.'

Under Saudi procedures Muhammad Basheer al-Ramaly's sentence will be passed to the country's Supreme Judicial Council, led by the King. The Council can approve death sentences or send them back to the Court of Cassation for review. Al-Ramaly could be executed at any time if the Council approves his sentence. According to a Saudi newspaper report, the authorities in the northern city of Hail - where Muhammad Basheer al-Ramaly is held - have already begun to prepare for his execution.

Al-Ramaly was convicted in Hail of the kidnapping and rape of 4 people in February 2009. In Saudi Arabia capital trials are extremely secretive and there is little information about his trial. However it is known that Al-Ramaly did not have access to a lawyer during his trial, and there are also reports that he may be suffering from a psychological disorder. If so, sentencing him to death would be in defiance of a UN Commission on Human Rights Resolution urging countries 'not to impose the death penalty on a person suffering from any form of mental disorder.'

So far this year at least 61 people are known to have been executed in Saudi Arabia - though the authorities do not release official statistics and the true number is likely to be higher. At least 102 people were executed in 2008, the third highest number of any country in the world. Amnesty has recorded over 1,700 executions in the Kingdom since 1985.

(source for both: Amnesty International)

NIGERIA:

Imo MPs Override Ohakim's Veto of Death Penalty

Speaker of Imo State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Goodluck Nana Opiah yesterday signed into law the death penalty bill for kidnappers and hostage takers. This follows the refusal of Governor Ikedi Ohakim to accent to the bill passed a couple of months ago.

Ohakim was said to have rejected the bill following pressure from international human right organisations not to accent to it.

Chief Press Secretary to the Governor Mr. Henry Ekpe told the Daily Champion yesterday that the Governor opted for life imprisonment as punishment for the kidnappers and hostage takers as a result of which he rejected the death penalty prescription of the lawmakers and therefore, refused to accent to the bill.

In signing the bill into law, Hon. Opiah explained that the number one citizen of the state returned the bill to the house indicating that international human right organisations particularly Amnesty International frowns at capital punishment for the offence. He therefore quoted relevant section of 1999 Constitution which empowered the assembly to pass such bill into law when the chief executive refuses to sign it.

He said Imo people should now be aware any person found guilty of kidnapping and hostage taking is liable to death sentence but pointed out that the method of execution of convict would be determined by the Judiciary.

According to him, it became necessary to sign the bill into law because neighbouring states have endorsed death penalty for the offence of kidnapping and if the Eastern Heartland refuse to toe the line, the state will be a haven for kidnappers and hostage takers.

The Speaker signed three copies of the bill to be made available to the executive arm, the Judiciary and legislator. But no member of the executive and the Judiciary witnessed the ceremony.

It will be recalled that many members of the house have fallen victim of kidnappers. The speaker had his 2 children kidnapped at ransom in Aba, Abia State, while member representing Obowo constituency Hon. Celestine Ngobiwu, was kidnapped 2 times and released at a huge ransom.

The action of the assembly was not the first of its kind on sensitive decisions opposed to by the executive arm. Daily Champion recalls that former Governor Achike Udenwa refused to approve a motion by the house for the engagement of members of the social security squad popularly known as Bakassi men because of the peculiarity of the state but the assembly under the leadership of Noel Chukwukadibia went ahead and recruited the boys.

When the state could not meet the financial requirement of keeping them, the bad boys went berserk and unleashed terror on traders at Owerri main market with their evil knives. Many of them were later arrested by the police and are still undergoing prosecution.

(source: Daily Champion)

MALAYSIA:

Time to send death penalty to the gallows

Malaysians Against Death Penalty and Torture (Madpet) is pleased that there is some realisation from the government, in particular the Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister A Kohilan Pillay, about the fact that '…young Malaysian girls, some fresh graduates, were easily conned by men from the syndicates to travel abroad with a package…'

The media report concerned also stated that '…Malaysian lasses are an easy lot to charm. They are easily smitten by sweet words and gifts, making them an easy target for drug-trafficking syndicates looking for mules…'

The report also stated that ‘there were currently 1,565 Malaysians jailed abroad and 60% of the cases were drug mules… "6 in China have been sentenced to death. Since 2007, about 30 Malaysians are in death row,"…'

Similarly, in Malaysia too, many on death row have been similarly conned into being drug mules, whereby many were not even aware that they were in possession of drugs.

The Malaysian Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, in particular section 39B provides that any person involved in the trafficking of drugs shall be guilty of an offence against this Act and shall be punished on conviction with death. The judges and courts, by reason of the mandatory sentence, are deprived of the option of imposing a lesser sentence, and Madpet believes that this is very wrong.

What makes it worse is that there are presumptions in the Act, amongst others, that one '…shall be presumed, until the contrary is proved, to be trafficking in the said drug...' if one is found in the possession of certain amounts of certain drugs. The onus of proving one's innocence then shifts to the accused. This is contrary to the normal rule where the onus of proving one guilty beyond a reasonable doubt is with the prosecution.

The reality is that those really involved in the business of trafficking of drugs are seldom caught and prosecuted, and it is usually the mules, who many a time are not even aware that they are transporting or keeping drugs, who end up being arrested, charged, tried, convicted and sentenced to death. This is very wrong and unjust.

The official report to the UN on the death penalty states also states as follows, "…the low rates of effectiveness of law enforcement, the relative immunity from the law of those who profit most from the trade in drugs and the higher risk of violence and death they most probably run from others engaged in the drug racket, all make it seem implausible that the death penalty in itself will have a marginally stronger deterrent effect than long terms of imprisonment..."

The imposition of mandatory sentences also is wrong as by doing so, the legislative branch of government ousts the powers of the judiciary and that is the power of courts and judges to impose fair and just sentences depending on the circumstances and the facts of the case. A person who has been conned into keeping and/or carrying drugs, especially those who are unaware of the fact, should never be sentenced to death. A prison term would suffice.

One of the reasons used often by governments, including the Malaysian government, to justify the mandatory death penalty is that deters serious crimes. This was what M. Kayveas, a deputy minister in the Prime Minister's Department told Parliament once. This is baseless and cannot be justified by any fact or statistical proof.

On the other hand, there have been studies conducted throughout the world over the past seventy years using various different methodological approaches that have failed to find convincing evidence that capital punishment is a more effective deterrent of crime than long-term imprisonment.

Studies conducted in Australia show that abolition of the death penalty had no effect on the homicide rate and in Canada there was, in fact, was a sharp decline in the homicide rate after the abolition.

In the US over the past 20 years, states with the death penalty in general have had a higher homicide rate than states without the death penalty.

The UN itself noted in 1988, 1996, and 2002, that '...research has failed to provide scientific proof that executions have a greater deterrent effect than life imprisonment. Such proof is unlikely to be forthcoming. The evidence as a whole gives no positive support to the deterrent hypothesis.'

Noting also that on Dec 18, 2007, the UN General Assembly endorsed a resolution calling for a moratorium on executions with a view to abolishing the death penalty by an overwhelming majority (Resolution 62/149), and on Dec 18, 2008, the UN General Assembly adopted with a bigger majority a 2nd similar resolution calling for a moratorium on the use of the death penalty.

Madpet calls for the repeal of all provisions in law that provide for the mandatory death penalty.

Madpet also reiterates its call for an immediate moratorium on all executions pending abolition, and for the abolition of the death penalty in Malaysia.

(source: Charles Hector; The writer represents Malaysians Against Death Penalty and Torture (Madpet)--Malaysiakini.com)

JAPAN:

Supreme Court upholds cult AUM Shinrikyo members' death sentences

2 former members of the cult AUM Shinrikyo, Toru Toyoda (41) and Kenichi Hirose (45), had their death sentences upheld by the Supreme Court on Friday for their involvement in the 1995 sarin nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subway system that killed 12 people and hospitalized thousands.

The Supreme Court rejected appeals made by Toyoda and Hirose against their sentences delivered by the Tokyo High Court in 2004 and Friday's decision is expected to be final, meaning the total number of AUM Shinrikyo members sentenced to death has now risen to 8.

Presiding judge Justice Yukio Takeuchi said Friday that the sarin attack on the subway system in 1995 constituted "organized and premeditated acts of indiscriminate mass murder" and that the crime was "extremely cruel and inhumane." The death penalty is inevitable for the 2 men even though they committed the crime under instructions from higher cult members, the justice concluded.

Toyoda and Hirose were among five cult members who released nerve gas on Tokyo's subway system on 20 March 1995 -- specifically Toyoda and Hirose are charged with carrying the sarin into the trains on the Hibiya and Marunouchi lines in plastic bags, which they then punctured with umbrellas, dispersing the gas on crowded subway trains in an act officials described as "indiscriminate terrorism."

Both Toyoda and Hirose had sought lighter penalties, arguing they were victims of the cult's leader Chizuo Matsumoto, better known by his cult designation, Shoko Asahara's mind control.

In addition to the gassing, Toyoda has been charged with attempting to kill former Tokyo Governor Yukio Aoshima in May 1995by mailing a parcel bomb to his office. The package exploded when Aoshima's secretary opened it, blowing off all his fingers on one hand.

Between 1994 and 1995, Toyoda, Hirose and Asahara also allegedly planned to manufacture 1,000 automatic rifles modeled on the Russian-made AK-47, but succeeded in producing only 1.

AUM Shinrikyo renamed itself Aleph in January 2000 and in 2007 a senior AUM disciple and his followers left Aleph to launch a splinter group called Hikari no Wa (Circle of Rainbow Light).

Crimes committed by AUM Shinrikyo and at the behest of Asahara also include the killing a Yokohama- based anti-AUM lawyer, his wife and their son in 1989, as well as another gas attack in a residential area of Nagano Prefecture in 1994 that killed 8 people and seriously injured hundreds of residents in the area.

(source: Xinhua)

TANZANIA:

4 sentenced to hang for killing albino in Tanzania

A court sentenced 4 people to death in northern Tanzania for the killing of an albino man who was targeted for body parts believed to have special powers, authorities said Friday.

The 4 were found guilty of killing the 50-year-old albino in the Shinyanga region and sentenced to die by hanging for removing his body parts, said Lucca Haule, assistant commissioner of police.

So far, 7 people have been sentenced to death for the killing of more than 50 Tanzanian albinos, including children, in the past 2 years, Haule said. Dozens more are awaiting trial.

Albinism is a genetic condition that leads to little or no pigment in the eyes, skin and hair.

Body parts of albinos are sought in some regions of Tanzania and other African countries, where some believe they bring wealth and good luck. Attackers chop off limbs and pluck out organs, selling them to witch doctors.

Killings have gone up in the east African nation, which has an estimated 200,000 albinos, according to the Tanzania Albino Center.

"People believe that albino body parts mixed with traditional medicine can make people rich," said Franck Alphonse, the center's director. "It is a thriving business ... witch doctors are asking business people to bring the body parts of albinos, who are not considered human beings."

Tanzanian government officials said they have mobilized police to help the embattled population, but admit it is hard to quell the attacks.

Most happen in rural areas, where there is not enough police presence, according to the police commissioner.

"We don't have the resources in those places ... it is not easy, but we are trying to map out locations where albinos live so that we can better protect them," he said. "We are hoping the convictions will serve as a lesson for the killers to stop."

The Tanzania Albino Center educates the public and provides albinos with basic services such as shelter, medication to prevent skin cancer, advocacy and awareness. Most albinos are stigmatized and do not go to school, leading to lack of employment and means to protect themselves, according to Alphonse.

He said politicians should go after albino killers more aggressively.

"We want to see justice done to everyone involved in the killings," Alphonse said. "They (police) only pick those who slaughtered albinos, what about those who send these people to kill?"

(source: CNN)

NOVEMBER 5, 2009:

TEXAS----execution

Texas man executed for beating death

A man convicted of fatally beating and shooting an East Texas man during a burglary almost 12 years ago was executed Thursday, in a case that gained notoriety because jurors may have consulted a Bible to justify his death sentence.

Khristian Oliver, 32, was pronounced dead by lethal injection at 6:18 p.m.

He told his victim's children, who watched through a window a few feet away, that he wished them the best. After telling his parents, watching through an adjacent window, that he loved them, he started reciting the 23rd Psalm, getting through several verses before the drugs took effect.

Oliver was condemned for the March 1998 slaying of 64-year-old Joe Collins who interrupted the break-in at his rural home outside Nacogdoches, about 140 miles southeast of Dallas.

A witness to the attack on Collins, in which the then-20-year-old Oliver beat and shot him with a rifle, compared it to someone getting bashed with an ax or a golf club. Oliver's lawyers argued that jurors who improperly brought Bibles with them into deliberations without the knowledge of the trial judge in Nacogdoches County likened the rifle to a biblical iron object. In Chapter 35 of Numbers, a murderer who uses an iron object to kill "shall surely be put to death."

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said evidence was contradictory on whether jurors consulted the Bible before or after deliberations and that several jurors testified that the Bible "was not a focus of their discussions."

Oliver becomes the 20th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Texas and the 443rd overall since the state resumed capital punishment on December 7, 1982. Oliver becomes the 204th condemned inmate to be put to death in Texas since Rick Perry became governor in 2001.

Oliver becomes the 43rd condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 1179th overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977.

(sources: Associated Press & Rick Halperin)

OHIO:

In 2nd trial for slayings, Yarbrough avoids death penalty

A Washington County jury today spared the life of a Pittsburgh man convicted of 1st-degree murder in the killing 10 years ago of 2 students from Franciscan University of Steubenville.

Terrell Yarbrough now faces an automatic 2 life terms in prison without chance of parole.

The decision by the jury of 9 women and 3 men was in contrast to an Ohio jury that had sentenced him to death in his 1st trial. That case was thrown out by an Ohio appeals court, which ruled the trial should have been held in Pennsylvania, where the bodies of Aaron Land and Brian Muha were found in 1999.

Mr. Yarbrough today apologized to the families of the victims for his role in the slayings, although he said he was not the shooter. He said he was changing his life.

Before the decision was returned, a livid Kathleen O'Hara said a defense attorney for Mr. Yarbrough "insulted crime victims everywhere" by implying that Mr. Yarbrough's embattled childhood and mental state should prevent him from receiving the death penalty for killing her son.

The lawyer, Kenneth Haber, also told jurors this morning that his client should be spared the death penalty because he could potentially save the life of a prison guard as he did for Squirrel Hill psychologist Barbara Vey, who nearly became the third victim of a crime spree that he participated in on Memorial Day 1999.

Mr. Yarbrough, 29, of East Liberty, was convicted of killing Ms. O'Hara's son, Mr. Land, and his roommate Mr. Muha, after kidnapping them from the off-campus apartment they shared at Franciscan University.

After those killings, Mr. Yarbrough and his alleged accomplice stole a vehicle from Ms. Vey, who had previously testified that Mr. Yarbrough protected her from his companion, who has not yet been retried in the case.

Ms. O'Hara, a Philadelphia psychotherapist, said Mr. Haber's attempt to deflect responsibility from his client, who he said played a "relatively minor" role in the crime, disgusted her. She made her remarks outside the courtroom after the jury began to deliberate the sentence.

"He minimized a brutal murder because Terrell had a bad childhood."

(source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

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

Prosecutors to seek death penalty in murder-for-hire plot

Prosecutors intend to seek the death penalty against a former Copley Township woman accused of plotting with friends to have her mother killed.

Taylor Marks, 20, and her friend, Troy Purdie II, 19, have been indicted for aggravated murder by a Summit County grand jury. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against Marks and Purdie under the state's murder-for-hire statute.

Marks' boyfriend, Brian S. Smith, 22, of Akron, is charged with aggravated murder.

Police said Marks offered Purdie $5,000 to kill her mother, businesswoman Kristie Marks, 58, who operated a Visiting Angels home health-care business.

Police said the plot was designed so that Taylor Marks could inherit her mother's wealth.

Kristie Marks' will, written in 2004 and filed this week in Summit County Probate Court, named her daughter as the sole beneficiary of her personal property and life insurance proceeds. The remaining money is to be placed in a private trust.

The will does not specify the beneficiary of the trust, but police said Taylor Marks anticipated receiving the entire estate.

Police said Taylor Marks lured her mother on Oct. 24 to a Springdale Street apartment complex where Purdie stabbed her as she stood near a parking lot.

Taylor Marks and Smith then called 911 to report the slaying as Purdie ran off, police said.

Within four hours, based on inconsistencies in their stories, police obtained confessions in the alleged plot. Purdie's bloody clothes and a knife were recovered near the scene, police said.

All a3 remain jailed pending their arraignment Nov. 13 in Summit County Common Pleas Court.

Friends say that Marks had been dating Smith for several months after moving from her mother's home in Copley Township earlier this year. She was living with Smith and his mother in an Akron Metropolitan Housing Authority apartment.

Taylor Marks graduated from Copley High School in 2008 and attended the University of Akron through last spring. She was adopted as a young child by Kristie Marks and her husband, Bruce, who died in 2002.

Prosecutors intend to seek the death penalty against a former Copley Township woman accused of plotting with friends to have her mother killed.

Taylor Marks, 20, and her friend, Troy Purdie II, 19, have been indicted for aggravated murder by a Summit County grand jury. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against Marks and Purdie under the state's murder-for-hire statute.

Marks' boyfriend, Brian S. Smith, 22, of Akron, is charged with aggravated murder.

Police said Marks offered Purdie $5,000 to kill her mother, businesswoman Kristie Marks, 58, who operated a Visiting Angels home health-care business.

Police said the plot was designed so that Taylor Marks could inherit her mother's wealth.

Kristie Marks' will, written in 2004 and filed this week in Summit County Probate Court, named her daughter as the sole beneficiary of her personal property and life insurance proceeds. The remaining money is to be placed in a private trust.

The will does not specify the beneficiary of the trust, but police said Taylor Marks anticipated receiving the entire estate.

Police said Taylor Marks lured her mother on Oct. 24 to a Springdale Street apartment complex where Purdie stabbed her as she stood near a parking lot.

Taylor Marks and Smith then called 911 to report the slaying as Purdie ran off, police said.

Within 4 hours, based on inconsistencies in their stories, police obtained confessions in the alleged plot. Purdie's bloody clothes and a knife were recovered near the scene, police said.

All 3 remain jailed pending their arraignment Nov. 13 in Summit County Common Pleas Court.

Friends say that Marks had been dating Smith for several months after moving from her mother's home in Copley Township earlier this year. She was living with Smith and his mother in an Akron Metropolitan Housing Authority apartment.

Taylor Marks graduated from Copley High School in 2008 and attended the University of Akron through last spring. She was adopted as a young child by Kristie Marks and her husband, Bruce, who died in 2002.

(source: Akron Beacon Journal)

MISSOURI:

Attorney Pleads Mental Deficiency To Avoid Death Penalty

The Missouri Supreme Court heard arguments Thursday over whether a convicted killer's death sentence should be commuted to life without parole.

Andrew Lyons was convicted of 2 counts of 1st-degree murder and one count of involuntary manslaughter for the 1992 shotgun killings of his girlfriend, her mother, and the couple's 11-month-old son. Lyon's attorney, Frederick Duchardt, argued before the High Court that his client is, quote, "mentally retarded."

"He had to live with others throughout his life for a brief period of time; he lived by himself, and basically, as his family put it, he lives like an animal.'"

The attorney for the state, however, says that Lyons scored 84 on an IQ test before his murder trial, and that the generally-accepted score for mental retardation is 70 or lower. The State Supreme Court will issue its ruling later.

(source: KBIA News)

NEVADA:

Court orders new penalty hearing for killer

Pedro Rodriguez, who once told his lawyers he didn't want to appeal his death sentence for the killing of a woman confined to a wheelchair, will have a new penalty hearing.

The Nevada Supreme Court, in a 4-3 decision, ruled the defense attorney for Rodriguez didn't present all the mitigating evidence at the 1st trial. The court said complete evidence was not presented to the jury, including his dysfunctional family, the physical abuse he suffered and that he may not have been the shooter in the killing.

Rodriguez, who is now 31, Robert Servin and Brian L. Allen invaded the home of Kimberly Fondy in Sparks in 1998, believing there was $35,000 in a safe. The woman was shot twice in the head.

Servin, now 28, was once sentenced to death but the court reduced that in an earlier ruling to life in prison without the possibility of parole because there was a question whether he was the shooter.

Allen, now 29, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 2 consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole.

Prior to his sentence Rodriguez told his lawyers he did not feel sorry for what he had done and told them not to appeal. A death penalty carries an automatic appeal. And Rodriguez was denied in his 1st appeal.

In his 2nd appeal, a majority of the court said only 1 witness testified in mitigation during the penalty hearing. The court said the defense lawyer failed to present evidence that the stepfather of Rodriguez beat and kicked him every day and forced the boy to steal for him to support a drug habit. Rodriguez was locked in a closet with other children and was not fed for days at a time.

The dissenting justices said the evidence that not presented at the penalty hearing was "in the same vein" as other testimony that the jury heard. They said although Rodriguez may not have been the shooter, he "knew and selected the victim, orchestrating the robbery that led to her murder."

Chief Justice James Hardesty, who wrote the dissent, said he was not convinced that the additional evidence to be presented at a new penalty hearing would change the outcome.

Joining with Hardesty were Justices Kristina Pickering and Ron Parraguirre.

After killing the woman, the 3 rifled the safe but there was no money.

There are presently 82 men on death row and the last execution was in April 2006.

(source: Las Vegas Sun)

OHIO:

Death penalty sought against daughter in mother's murder

Prosecutors intend to seek the death penalty against a former Copley Township woman accused of plotting with friends to have her mother killed.

Taylor Marks, 20, and her friend, Troy Purdie II, 19, have been indicted for aggravated murder by a Summit County grand jury. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against Marks and Purdie under the state's murder-for-hire statute.

Marks' boyfriend, Brian S. Smith, 22, of Akron is charged with aggravated murder.

Police said Marks offered Purdie $5,000 to kill her mother, businesswoman Kristie Marks, 58, who operated a Visiting Angels home health-care business.

Police said the plot was designed so that Taylor Marks could inherit her mother's wealth.

Police said Taylor Marks lured her mother on Oct. 24 to a Springdale Street apartment complex where Purdie stabbed her as she stood near a parking lot.

Taylor Marks and Smith then called 911 to report the slaying as Purdie ran off, police said.

Within 4 hours, based on inconsistencies in their stories, police obtained confessions in the alleged plot. Purdie's bloody clothes and a knife were recovered near the scene, police said.

All 3 remain jailed pending their arraignment in Summit County Common Pleas Court.

Suspects in the stabbing death of Kristie Marks, (from left) Taylor Marks, Troy Purdie and Brian Smith.

Prosecutors intend to seek the death penalty against a former Copley Township woman accused of plotting with friends to have her mother killed.

Taylor Marks, 20, and her friend, Troy Purdie II, 19, have been indicted for aggravated murder by a Summit County grand jury. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against Marks and Purdie under the state's murder-for-hire statute.

Marks' boyfriend, Brian S. Smith, 22, of Akron is charged with aggravated murder.

Police said Marks offered Purdie $5,000 to kill her mother, businesswoman Kristie Marks, 58, who operated a Visiting Angels home health-care business.

Police said the plot was designed so that Taylor Marks could inherit her mother's wealth.

Police said Taylor Marks lured her mother on Oct. 24 to a Springdale Street apartment complex where Purdie stabbed her as she stood near a parking lot.

Taylor Marks and Smith then called 911 to report the slaying as Purdie ran off, police said.

Within four hours, based on inconsistencies in their stories, police obtained confessions in the alleged plot. Purdie's bloody clothes and a knife were recovered near the scene, police said.

All 3 remain jailed pending their arraignment in Summit County Common Pleas Court.

(source: Akron Beacon Journal)

VIRGINIA----impending execution

Virginia bishop urges mercy for convicted sniper set to be executed

As Virginia prepared to execute convicted sniper John Allen Muhammad, Bishop Paul S. Loverde of Arlington called for mercy and urged that Muhammad's sentence be commuted to life in prison without possibility of parole.

"In the needles of lethal injection, we see the manifestation of despair," the bishop wrote in his column for the Nov. 5 issue of the Arlington Catholic Herald, his diocesan newspaper. "And in this despair, in advocating the use of the death penalty, our society has moved beyond the legitimate judgment of crimes.

"Brothers and sisters, we are better than this," he added. "We are called to be more than slaves to despair; we are called to be heralds of hope."

Muhammad, 48, was scheduled to die by lethal injection in a Virginia prison Nov. 10 for the Oct. 9, 2002, murder of Dean Harold Meyers, 53, one of 10 victims killed during a 3-week spree police said was carried out by Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo in the Washington area. 3 other people were wounded.

Malvo, 17 at the time of the shootings, is serving a life sentence in a Virginia prison.

Bishop Loverde acknowledged that the crime spree that left "entire communities in shock and fear" could lead many to "desire revenge and ... even say that such a person deserves to die for what he did."

"It is understandable for us - all of us, myself included - to have these reactions, and to be outraged at the way in which innocent lives were so senselessly taken, with their families left to mourn and to ask questions which have no satisfactory answers," he said.

But the bishop said "God's transforming mercy" calls people to move beyond such emotions.

"We are called to choose hope - hope in the redemption of an immortal soul - over the despair embedded in the death penalty," he added.

Bishop Loverde cited the Bible account of Jesus' treatment of the woman accused of adultery, who was to have been stoned to death according to Jewish law. Jesus asks the person who is without sin to throw the first stone, and, when no one does, tells the woman to leave and to not sin again.

"While recognizing the seriousness of the woman's offense and admonishing her to 'not sin anymore,' Jesus refused to choose death over life, or despair over hope," the bishop wrote. "Although he understood the demands of justice, his emphasis was on mercy and the human dignity of the sinner.

"If the woman had been stoned, she would not have had the opportunity to 'not sin anymore,'" he added. "And so, despite the initial reactions we might have in seeking revenge, we must not opt for the death penalty."

The Catholic Church has concluded today that capital punishment is not justified "when a government has other ways to protect people adequately against an unjust aggressor," the bishop said.

Quoting the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Bishop Loverde said "the cases in which the execution of the offender is an absolute necessity 'are very rare, if not practically nonexistent.'"

"When life without the possibility of parole in a maximum security prison is an option, we have no need for the death penalty," he said.

He urged prayers for the families of the victims of the sniper attacks, asking God “to help them experience the healing that only his hand can offer."

"Let us unite our prayers and penance for John Allen Muhammad that he may experience God's redemptive mercy, for the victims of his crimes and their families, and for the courage in our commonwealth to choose the path of hope instead of despair," Bishop Loverde said.

(source: The Catholic News)

FLORIDA:

Man Accused Of Killing Family Faces Death Penalty

Trial is underway for a convicted sex offender accused of raping and murdering his wife's 2 children before stabbing her to death.

According to prosecutors Grady Nelson, 52, stabbed his wife more than 60 times before slashing her throat and plunging a butcher knife into her skull.

Grady's sexual misconduct with his mentally handicapped 11-year-old step-daughter is possibly what triggered the killing spree, according to prosecutors. Nelson allegedly had sex with his step-daughter on a number of occasions. He was eventually charged and briefly jailed. Charges however were eventually dropped because prosecutors said the girl gave inconsistent statements, according to CBS4 news partners The Miami Herald.

After being released from jail, Nelson allegedly went home the next morning, where police found him with a knife, covered in blood.

Nelson reportedly admitted to Miami-Dade police detectives in a videotaped confession that he had sexually assaulted his 11-year-old step-daughter and 13-year-old step-son that day before killing them. Afterwards however he changed his story.

According to defense attorney David S. Markus, Nelson came home and discovered the bodies and was coerced by police into giving a false confession. Markus says the real killer was Andrew Hall, 62, the boyfriend of the children's grandmother. Prosecutors say there is no evidence to prove that Hall had any role in the murders.

Nelson worked for the Miami-Dade Human Services Department in 2000 despite a rape conviction on his record. Back in 1991 he was charged with the rape of a 7-year-old neighbor.

(source: CBS TV News)

CALIFORNIA:

Murderer laughs it up as jury calls for death

Edward Wycoff, who spent his murder trial cracking jokes and proudly admitting he had killed his sister and her husband in their El Cerrito home, should die by lethal injection, a jury said today.

The jury's decision came in spite of testimony by the couple's son, who said Wycoff was too "mentally childish" to be executed. Outside court, he said his parents had opposed the death penalty.

Jurors deliberated just 70 minutes in the Contra Costa County courthouse in Martinez before returning their verdict in the penalty phase of the trial.

The eight-man, four-woman panel took 45 minutes last week to convict Wycoff of two counts of first-degree murder with special circumstances for using a knife and a wheelbarrow handle to kill his sister, Julie Wycoff Rogers, 47, and her husband, Paul Rogers, 48. He killed the couple after breaking into their hillside home on Rifle Range Road before dawn on Jan. 31, 2006.

Wycoff said, "Heeeerrree's Edward!" and, "That's pretty quick," before the jurors filed in.

He showed no reaction when the verdict was read. Moments later, however, as sheriff's deputies led him out of the courtroom in chains, he proclaimed, "Dead man walking! Watch out!"

He asked to be formally sentenced Dec. 8 - his 41st birthday - by Superior Court Judge John Kennedy. The judge must first consider an automatic appeal for the punishment to be reduced to life in prison.

Earlier today, Deputy District Attorney Mark Peterson urged the jury to sentence Wycoff to death despite the testimony by the victims' eldest son, Eric Rogers, 21, that his uncle should be spared.

Peterson said during his closing argument that Wycoff's crimes affected not just the Rogerses' 3 children, but "all of society."

"You are the conscience of the community." Peterson told jurors. "Sympathy for the defendant does not mean sympathy for his nephew and niece."

Wycoff, acting as his own attorney, said during the trial that he should be rewarded for the killings, which he said had rid the world of 2 evil people who were too soft in raising their children. He was also upset they hadn't invited him over for Christmas.

Wycoff believed he could adopt the couple's children after the killings, but instead left them orphaned, the prosecutor said.

"He is a frightening individual," Peterson said outside court. "If he believes something is morally right, he's going to take action."

Rogers said he was disappointed with the verdict. He said he opposed the death penalty, as his parents did, and that he wanted Wycoff to be sentenced to life in prison without parole.

"I wish death wasn't on the table so it wasn't a decision they had to make," he said.

Wycoff, a trucker from the Sacramento suburb of Citrus Heights, made no effort to ingratiate himself with the jury or explain the killings as anything other than an act for which he should be praised.

"I'm a special kind of man," he said during his closing argument today. "I choose to better everyone else around me."

He added, "I'm the fixer. I'm the corrector. I corrected this. It's a shame that I got caught. Killing Julie and Paul didn't turn out to be the masterpiece that it was meant to be.

Before the jurors left to deliberate his fate, Wycoff gave them one last charge: "All right! You know what to do! Go vote for what is right!"

David Briggs, a private attorney serving as Wycoff's advisory counsel, said the jury "deserved a more dignified and thoughtful trial than the one they got."

(source: San Francisco Chronicle)

BRITAIN:

Why write to a killer on death row?----Nearly 3,000 Britons, mostly female, are penpals with men awaiting execution in the US. Our writer finds out what drives them and why some marry murderers

When you imagine women writing to murderers on death row it is difficult not to think of Catherine Tate's tragi-comic figure in her wedding dress preparing to tie the knot with a doomed penpal. What sort of weird, vicarious reason, you wonder, drives them do it? But when you meet someone who has done it, and she describes attending the execution of an inmate who was afraid of dying alone, all such thoughts seem terribly smug and cheap.

Jenny is a young-looking, 50-year-old secretary from Staffordshire, a mother of three with 2 grandchildren. Jenny is not her real name: like many correspondents, she keeps her pastime a secret believing her friends wouldn’t understand. In 1999, she began writing to condemned convicts in the US after reading an article on prison pen friends in a magazine. One of the men to whom she wrote had been found guilty of murdering an elderly person in Texas, a crime that he always denied. To protect Jenny’s identity, we will call him John.

"I had been writing to John for some time when he told me he was afraid there would be no one there for him at the end," Jenny says. "He asked if I would consider being there for his lethal injection. Well, it took me by surprise. I discussed it with my family and thought long and hard and, after about a week, I wrote to him at the Polunsky Unit — that's Texas's death row in Livingston — and said I would. It wasn't explicitly mentioned again, but every now and then he'd write: 'Do you remember your promise?' And I'd write back: 'Yes'." According to the Washington-based Death Penalty Information Center, there were 3,297 people on death row in January. Although no precise figures are available, it is thought that more than 2,500 Britons, at least 80 % of them women, have a convicted American pen friend, most of whom are convicted murderers.

35 of the 50 states in the US use the death penalty and since 1976, when it was reintroduced after a brief hiatus, 1,178 people have been executed. By the time you read this, that figure will probably be out of date. 4 people are scheduled to be killed this month in Texas alone.

The Lone Star state has executed more than any other (442 since 1976). Before John's execution, Jenny was able to spend time with him at Polunsky. "We laughed a lot and he spent time making me feel less awkward about the situation. There was a lot of uncomfortable small talk, but he seemed calm. Then, at noon, 2 guards walked up behind him and he must have seen the look on my face because he said: 'They're here, aren't they?'"

While John was taken to the Walls Unit in Huntsville, 45 minutes away, to be prepared for the execution, Jenny was escorted to the chaplain's house. They were allowed to speak with each other by phone for the rest of the day. "It is difficult to know what to say," Jenny says. "There tends to be a lot of cheerful kidology. Frankly, it was unbearable. Then they told him to get off the phone and he said: 'See you in 20 minutes'."

After a walk to execution that "seems like miles," Jenny found herself in a tiny waiting room with plastic chairs and vending machines. Guards came in to buy Coca-Cola and she remembers how incongruous it seemed for them to be chatting and laughing. Finally, she was taken through "a palatial office" with a picture of George W. Bush on the wall, then steered through a door into a room with a glass window. On the other side of it, she says, "I saw a table and John was strapped to it."

Since the reintroduction of the death penalty, execution by lethal injection has been the most popular method, used on 1,002 occasions; the remainder by electrocution, gassing, hanging and firing squad.

3 chemicals are used in the lethal injection process. Sodium thiopental is a barbiturate that is supposed to render the prisoner unconscious, although many witnesses claim that it doesn't always work. Pancuronium is a muscle relaxant that causes paralysis, including of the diaphragm, so even if the 3rd chemical, potassium chloride, wasn’t used, this would most likely cause death by asphyxiation. The 3rd chemical causes death by cardiac arrest.

The Texas Department of Criminal Justice says that the cost of the drugs used in lethal injection is $86 (£52). The real cost of killing an inmate varies from state to state, but it isn't cheap. During an average stay of 14 years on death row, the cost, including one legal challenge after another, has been estimated at up to $3 million an execution.

Unlike the Ohio child-killer Romell Broom, who was recently sent back to, and remains, in his cell after jailers spent 2 hours trying to find a vein in which to administer the lethal injection, John’s death was relatively quick. (Doctors are not allowed to give lethal injections).

"There is a microphone above the prisoner's head, so when he turns to try to say something, it doesn't pick up the sound and you can't always hear him," Jenny says. "But he thanked all the people who had written to him and supported him and he tried to smile at me and then he looked away. They put the drugs into him and after a while there was a horrible gasping noise and that was it.

"I remember going outside and feeling angry that the sun was shining and cars were still going by and dogs were barking and prison officers were getting into their vehicles and shouting 'Bye, y'all'. Somehow I hadn't expected life to go on."

Jenny insists that she had no romantic feelings towards John, but organisations such as LifeLines and Human Writes, which facilitate pen friendships with individuals and prisoners, face a battle against the stereotype of love-lorn women drooling over muscle-bound inmates.There is no denying, however, that romances occur. One British death row bride, now in her forties, married a condemned prisoner 15 years ago — even though she knew he had killed a woman. "A friend of mine introduced me to him as a pen friend and I began writing," she says. "I found his letters fascinating and I went to visit him, and then everything changed. I found him attractive and I remember leaving and thinking 'This can't be right'."

The murderer proposed and, after discussions with her family, she accepted. "We were married in the prison chapel," she says. "I wasn't in a wedding dress and the marriage was never consummated but it lasted almost a decade before I divorced him. We would speakthe phonewrite to each other, but looking back I must have needed certifying. I am a level-headed person — not a Catherine Tate-type at all — but I somehow got drawn in."

She divorced the killer after finding out that he had advertised for other women on a prison penpal website.

Kay Murphy, 66, the spokeswoman for Human Writes, says: "Of course, no one can determine what will happen when two adults begin corresponding, but for the vast majority forming that kind of relationship is simply unthinkable."

Murphy, a former advice worker and great-grandmother, wanted to get involved in care or charity work that she could do from home when she retired. She has since helped several pen friends and is the group's co-ordinator for Kentucky (there is a co-ordinator for each state).

"You mostly write about everyday life and let the prisoners know that they're not forgotten," Murphy says. "I wrote to one chap every month for about 4 years and got nothing back. Then I got a letter — he was in McAlester State Penitentiary in Oklahoma — and he said he hadn't replied because he was depressed and ashamed of what he had done and assumed everyone must hate him. He said I was the only person in the world who seemed to care." In common with all death row pen friends, Murphy remains non-judgmental and stresses that she understands that on the other side is a victim and his or her family. At each annual meeting of the group, two candles are lit: one for executed prisoners, one for their victims. The group says that it operates in the knowledge that victims' families are given support from other quarters. Members don't raise money for prisoners or their families.

"We occasionally send money orders for a few pounds so that inmates can buy writing paper and stamps," Murphy says. "They do sometimes try it on. I had one who asked me for money for a TV. I wrote back that we were just ordinary working people and had no money to spare. Later, I sent him a few pounds for paper, pens and stamps. He wrote back and said I should make sure I had paid all my bills before I ever sent him any more money. To me, that was a sign of character blossoming."

When a prisoner is executed, it can be traumatic for the pen friend. In September last year, Jessie James Cummings — Murphy’s most prolific correspondent — was executed for the murder of his sister and niece (he claimed that he was innocent until the end but, again, this is irrelevant).

"Human Writes has 3 counsellors who help people if they are affected by executions," Murphy says. "It was very traumatic after Jessie's death, but then a network of people emerged who had been writing to him from Italy, England, Germany and Australia. We decided to contribute money so that he could get a decent burial.

"People ask why we do this and some won't understand. But it is about showing the most wretched in society that people can care. Some of these people have never had a proper home, or loving parents. They may have been caught up in poverty, gang warfare or drugs. They may never have had an education or been taught to write, but when they want to improve, when they learn to feel remorse, then they can earn your respect and even admiration."

You get the impression that Jenny may never truly get over the death of her friend — because that is what he was, a friend whom she believed was innocent. But she can find comfort in the last letter that he wrote to her: "I'll stop writing now as it looks as though I'll be seeing you tomorrow, both in the morning and then again later for my final journey. I’ll get through this. Take care through life and thank you for listening to me for all these years and for the friendship and strength you've given me, even to the very end. May God bless you with eternal joy. You've touched my life more than you'll ever know."

Details have been changed to protect identities.

(source: The Times Online)

CHINA:

Beijing to adopt lethal injection for all death penalty criminals next year

Beijing will adopt lethal injection next year for all death row inmates, and a lethal injection room has already been set up in the capital, Beijing Youth Daily reported.

Law department officials in Beijing have inspected the lethal injection room, and are working on the route which will escort the condemned to the room.

Beijing reportedly has attempted for many years to use lethal injection for death penalty criminals. In the past, only Qincheng jail in Beijing which imprisons high level officials guilty of crime, used lethal injection.

The latest lethal injection in Beijing was performed on July 10, 2007 when China's ministerial-level official Zheng Xiaoyu, former head of the State Food and Drug Administration who was found guilty of taking bribes to approve untested medicine, was executed.

(source: China Daily)

CALIFORNIA:

Multiple killings lead to 6 life sentences for Kibbe

Convicted murderer Roger Reece Kibbe was sentenced today to 6 consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole today.

In September, Kibbe, 70, pleaded guilty to killing Lou Ellen Burleigh in 1977 and Lora Heedrick, Barbara Ann Scott, Stephanie Brown, Charmaine Sabrah and Katherine Kelly Quinones, all in 1986.

In exchange for the plea, which included special circumstances of rape, kidnapping and a previous murder conviction, prosecutors agreed they wouldn't seek the death penalty or charge him for additional crimes. Kibbe was already serving time for the 1991 slaying of 17-year-old Darcie Frackenpohl, a runaway from Seattle whose body was found in El Dorado County.

The decision not to seek the death penalty by the San Joaquin County district attorney was based on several factors, including Kibbe's age and the slow pace of executions in the state.

"Given the current state of the death penalty in the Ninth Circuit, and California in particular, seeking the death penalty against 70-year-old Kibbe would be an expensive exercise in futility," said District Attorney James Willett.

Willett said that the state's death row population is approaching 700 inmates.

"Serial killers should be subjected to the death penalty but even if a death sentence was imposed after trial, it is a certainty that Kibbe would die in prison of old age long before his appeal process was completed," said Willett.

(source: Sacramento Bee)

USA:

US lawmaker pushes death penalty appeals overhaul

A US lawmaker has introduced legislation to end "inhumane and unconstitutional" rules that prevent death row inmates from presenting newly discovered evidence to dispute their guilt.

"We've got folks on death row with no opportunity to show compelling new evidence of innocence," Democratic Representative Hank Johnson of Georgia said upon unveiling his proposal this week.

Johnson's measure, hailed by human rights group Amnesty International, would allow federal courts to give death row prisoners more opportunities to present newly discovered evidence that demonstrates probable innocence.

It would also let inmates file more habeas corpus appeals challenging their detention if and only if they offer new evidence that a panel of federal judges rules may be reasonably expected to demonstrate innocence.

If a federal court were to grant a habeas corpus petition, the case would likely return to the court where it was first tried for a retrial, supporters of the legislation say.

Underlining that current restrictions on appeals may lead to innocent people being executed, Johnson warned: "The status quo is inhumane and unconstitutional."

About 139 people have been wrongfully convicted and send to death row over the last 3 decades in the United States, according to Amnesty International, which advocates abolishing capital punishment altogether.

Legal in 35 of the 50 US states and used regularly in about 12 of them, the death penalty has been reconsidered recently in 11 states, largely because of the high costs associated with its use.

(source: Agence France-Presse)

OHIO:

Summit County Prosecutor: Daughter indicted in mother's murder

In Akron, a Summit County Grand Jury has indicted 3 people in the murder of a Copley businesswoman. 1 of the 3 is the woman's own daughter.

According to Summit County Prosecutor Sherri Bevan Walsh, the daughter, Taylor M. Marks, 20, was indicted on aggravated murder. The charge carries with it the possibility of the death penalty if convicted because Prosecutor Bevan Walsh says the death of Kristie Marks was part of a "murder for hire" plot.

Marks' alleged accomplice, Troy A. Purdie, 19, of Akron was indicted on aggravated murder and tampering with evidence charges. He too could face the death penalty if convicted.

Brian S. Smith, 22, of Akron was indicted on a charge of aggravated murder but does not face the possibility of the death penalty.

Kristie Marks was fatally stabbed on October 24.

(source: WKYC-TV News)

TEXAS----impending execution

Bible at issue in Texas execution case

A 32-year-old man convicted of using a rifle to fatally beat and shoot an East Texas man during a burglary is headed to the death chamber.

It's a case where lawyers questioned whether jurors in their deliberations may have improperly used a Bible to justify their decisions.

State and federal courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, have upheld the conviction and death sentence of Khristian Oliver. He's condemned for the 1998 slaying of 64-year-old Joe Collins at his home outside Nacogdoches.

Oliver's attorneys went back to the high court and have appealed to Gov. Rick Perry to halt the Thursday evening execution. It would be the 20th this year in Texas.

Since lethal injections began in Texas in 1982, Perry and his predecessors rarely have used their authority to issue a 1-time 30-day reprieve.

(source: Associated Press)

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

Life, death and the prodigal son

Every death penalty case raises big, Biblical themes: vengeance versus mercy, punishment versus redemption, the Old Testament versus the New.

But never have those themes been plainer than they are in the case of 32-year-old Khristian Oliver, who — pending a last-minute stay of execution — will be executed this evening.

Durings murder trial in Nacogdoches, jurors brought four Bibles into the jury room. To decide his fate, they turned to the Old Testament, to eye-for-an-eye verses including Numbers 35:19: The revenger of blood shall himself slay the murderer; when he meeteth him, he shall slay him.

Of course, jurors are supposed to interpret state law, not the Bible. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that those jurors “had crossed an important line” by using specific Bible verses to decide whether Oliver would live or die, that the U.S. Constitution prohibits that sort of "external influence." And last month, Amnesty International called to have Khristian's sentence commuted.

But so far, the Old Testament penalty stands.

Genesis

Biblical themes have long been the domain of Khristian's father, Kermit Oliver, a well-known painter and the first African-American artist represented by a major Houston gallery.

Kermit often used his family as models in his allegorical paintings: His fans recognize his wife, Katie, who is also a painter, and their 3 children. Khristian, the youngest, is the blond one, the boy who looks white, lighter-skinned even than his light-skinned parents. Not long after his birth, he was the central figure in Young Mitras in Gown Designed for His Presentation to the Temple.

In 1984, when Khristian was about 7, the Olivers left Houston for Waco, where Katie had inherited a house. Khristian didn't fit easily with either the black kids or the white kids in that black-and-white town, and he found little in-between. But he made OK grades, ran cross-country and belonged to a Catholic church.

Somewhere around his high-school graduation, though, he lost his bearings. He fought with his parents and fell in with a bad crowd. A roommate taught him burglary. He fathered a child. He smoked pot. No longer baby Mitras in grand robes, he became a different figure entirely: a prodigal son.

Sin

Every tragedy has a point of no return, and Khristian's came on March 17, 1998, when he was 21. He smoked a joint with Sonya Reed, the 23-year-old mother of his baby girl, and with two teenage brothers, Lonny and Bennie Rubalcaba. Then the 4 of them drove around Nacogdoches, looking for an empty house to break into. Khristian carried his gun but didn't plan to use it.

At a promising-looking house, they broke a window, making a lot of noise to see whether anyone would come investigate. No one did, so Khristian and Lonny ventured inside. Sonya and Bennie stayed in the car.

Soon, all hell broke loose. When the house's owner, 64-year-old Joe Collins, returned home, Khristian and Lonny ran for the back door. But it was locked from the outside.

Collins, carrying a rifle, had the boys cornered. He shot Lonny in the leg.

Khristian shot back.

Judgment

Charged with killing Collins, Khristian stood trial in Nacogdoches. Collins was white, and so was the jury.

The state designated Khristian's as "white," too, but the jury was free to draw its own conclusions. His darker-skinned parents sat behind him every day.

Khristian never denied shooting the homeowner, but among the issues in the trial was what happened immediately afterward. Collins was beaten with the butt of his own rifle, and the coroner couldn't say for sure what killed him: the shot to the torso or the blows to the head.

Khristian maintained that he didn't beat Collins, and no physical evidence connected him to the beating. After the shot, Khristian testified, he picked up Lonny, whose leg was bleeding, and carried him out to the car, where only Sonya remained.

At Khristian's trial, the Rubalcaba brothers testified that it was Khristian who beat the old man. Bennie now says that the prosecutors coached him and his brother. In return for their cooperation, the Rubalcabas received light sentences: 10 years for Lonny; five for Bennie.

Khristian was sentenced to die.

Salvation

In his 10 years on death row, Khristian earned a paralegal degree. He illustrated books for his daughter. And he began reading the classics that his father loves: the works of Plato, the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Significantly, the once rebellious son of painters began to paint, working with the cheap watercolor sets available in prison. On visits, his parents would give him "challenges" to sharpen his skills.

Alvia Wardlaw, who curated Kermit Oliver's 2005 retrospective at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, says that as Khristian developed as a painter his works filled with color and light. Like Kermit, he began to paint the allegories.

Supporters have sent letters to Gov. Rick Perry pleading for a stay of execution — time to run DNA tests on the rifle — or that his sentence be changed to life in prison.

On Wednesday, Houston friends of the family were considering where they could gather to wait for tonight's news. One possibility was Trinity Episcopal Church's Morrow Chapel, where the altarpiece is a painting Kermit made a few years after Khristian's trial. Resurrection is one of his most powerful works.

In the painting, a risen Christ faces the viewer. His head is wreathed in lilies; burial cloths float around him. Behind him is an apocalyptic-looking orange cloud: something horrible, but something past.

In a statement for the church, Kermit spent 4 pages explaining the painting's dense symbolism, its visual representations of rebirth, of triumph over death, of Original Sin atoned for, of fallen mankind redeemed.

But the statement didn't mention the most striking symbol: As the model for Christ, Kermit used Khristian.

(source: Houston Chronicle)

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

No separation between church and state in Texas execution

Waco Texas police departmentKristian Oliver is scheduled to be killed by lethal injection Thursday in Texas for the robbery and shooting death of a 64-year-old man in March 1998. But Oliver, 32, was sentenced to death after the jury passed around and consulted bibles as they deliberated. One person on the jury read aloud highlighted passages supporting capital punishment. One of those passages was "And if he smite him with an instrument of iron, so that he die, he is a murderer," followed by "the murderer shall surely be put to death."

The U.S. Constitution prohibits juries from "external influence," and many are questioning if Mr. Oliver should be executed, but every appeal Oliver has made has been ignored. High courts do not believe that the biblical passages influenced the jury. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case.

Amnesty International is pushing for Oliver's death sentence to be vacated. In their campaign to save Oliver, they say, "Even supporters of the death penalty will agree that no one should ever be executed if there is any suggestion of any unfair trial. Khristian Oliver's trial wasn't just unfair; it was a travesty." They add that "the Texan Board of Pardon and Paroles should now instruct the state governor to commute Mr. Oliver's death sentence and indeed he should himself stay the execution if the board fails to act." AI has an open appeal that can be signed at their website.

Jerry Ward, from The Armband Protest Against the Death Penalty, agrees, stating in a circulated email to his subscribers, that "This is clearly a violation of Mr. Oliver's federally guaranteed constitutional rights. Texas must not execute Khristian Oliver."

Even the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said that the jurors "had crossed an important line." Yet Oliver's death sentence was not vacated.

In 2005 Colorado's Supreme Court struck down Robert Harlan's death sentence after the jury consulted bibles before sentencing him to death.

Amnesty International and Jerry Ward are also protesting the November 10 scheduled execution of DC Sniper, John Allen Muhammad in Virginia.

(source: The Examiner)

GEORGIA:

Appeals Court Rejects Ga. Death Row Inmate's Claim

A federal court has denied the appeal of a Georgia death row inmate who argued he received ineffective counsel at his trial.

The ruling by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals clears one of the last remaining hurdles for Emanuel Hammond to be executed.

Hammond received the death penalty for the 1988 kidnapping and murder of preschool teacher Julie Love in Fulton County.

Georgia Attorney General Thurbert Baker praised the decision and called Hammond "a violent, career criminal who fully deserves the death penalty for this senseless and heinous crime."

Hammond can move to have the appeals court order reconsidered. He may also appeal to the United States Supreme Court before an execution date can be set in the Superior Court of Fulton County.

(source: Associated Press)

NORTH CAROLINA:

DA seeks death penalty in Fort Bragg stabbing

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against the husband and co-worker of a Fort Bragg soldier slain last year.

Multiple media outlets report Thursday that Assistant District Attorney Cal Colyer said authorities wanted the death penalty during a hearing Wednesday.

Authorities say Sgt. Richard Smith lured his wife into a trap he had set with Pfc. Matthew Kvapil in September 2008. Police say Kvapil told investigators he hid in bushes while Smith walked with his wife, Sgt. Christina Smith, near their Fayetteville apartment.

Kvapil says he jumped out and stabbed Christina Smith to death.

Both men have been charged with murder and conspiracy to commit murder. Richard Smith told authorities he'd mentioned having his wife killed to people several times, but only in fun.

(source: Associated Press)

SOUTH CAROLINA:

SC death row inmate ruled competent for 2nd trial

A man on South Carolina's death row for killing his girlfriend has been ruled competent to stand trial in a second death penalty case.

The Sun News of Myrtle Beach reports Thursday that Judge Steven John ruled that Stephen Stanko is competent to be tried in the death of 74-year-old Henry Lee Turner.

Turner was found shot to death at his home on April 8, 2005.

Stanko has been sentenced to die for killing his live-in girlfriend, Laura Ling, and assaulting a teen on the same day. Stanko is being held on death row in Ridgeville, with no date set for his execution.

Stanko's trial is set to begin Monday. A gag order prevents attorneys from discussing the case.

(source: Associated Press)

PENNSYLVANIA:

Jury selection begins in John Lewis murder trial

For most people, the death penalty is an issue for a political campaign or a topic for talk radio.

But for a group of 100 Philadelphians yesterday, the death penalty became less abstract; they were asked if they could impose it.

It was the 1st day of jury selection in the trial of John "Jordan" Lewis, the 23-year-old North Philadelphia man accused of killing Philadelphia Police Officer Chuck Cassidy in 2007, and the death penalty was the issue on the table.

By day's end, defense and prosecution lawyers had selected three jurors from a pool of 100 to hear Lewis' murder and armed-robbery trial, a case that will require them to vote on whether to impose the death penalty if they find Lewis guilty of 1st-degree murder.

Jury selection resumes this morning with a new pool of 100 prospective jurors.

The potential jurors, each wearing a yellow "Juror" tag and holding a numbered card, sat in a large courtroom as Common Pleas Court Judge Jeffrey P. Minehart asked the question: "Do any of you have any moral, religious, or conscientious scruples that would be a reason you could not impose the death penalty?"

The hands of more than half the jurors rose. It was not a get-out-of-jury-duty-free card. Many of those jurors - their names were not used in court - were called back individually during the day to be questioned in more detail by Minehart and the defense and prosecution lawyers about their feelings.

And for some, the decision they might be asked to make took on a sobering reality.

One young woman told the judge that she had always supported the death penalty - until she stepped into that jury box for questioning. Eventually, after rounds of explanations from the attorneys and judge, she said she could impose the death penalty if warranted.

But the defense attorneys used what is known as a peremptory challenge - a limited number of chances to dismiss a potential juror for no reason - and she was excused.

Another prospective juror also told the judge that she always had supported the death penalty - until the recent death of her 29-year-old son.

"I just can't do this," she said, and she was also excused.

Generally, the prospective jurors appeared to reflect last month's annual Gallup Poll on capital punishment. Of the Americans who were polled, 65 % said they supported the death penalty for people convicted of murder, while 31 % said they opposed capital punishment.

According to the state Department of Corrections, Pennsylvania has 221 people on death row, a total trailing only those in California, Florida, and Texas.

Not all prospective jurors were excused because of the death penalty. A third were excused because of some personal hardship that made them unable to serve for a trial expected to last until Thanksgiving.

"Please keep in mind that this is a civic duty," Minehart told the jurors. "We're going to be sending more young men and women to the mountains of Afghanistan. That is the highest form of service."

One prospective juror was dismissed because of the death penalty, but not because he opposed it. The juror said he believed that anyone who murdered another person should automatically be executed.

(source: Philadelphia Inquirer)

ARIZONA:

Law prof upholds murder conviction, sentence----UA student's murderer's death sentence upheld

Vince Rabago, a state prosecutor for the Arizona Attorney Generals office and a UA alumnus, has won a case upholding the death penalty of a former UA student who was convicted of beating, raping and murdering another UA student in 1980.

A UA graduate and adjunct faculty member has won a case upholding the death penalty of a former UA student who was convicted of beating, raping and murdering another UA student.

Vince Rabago, a state prosecutor for the Arizona attorney general's office, graduated with his undergraduate degree from the UA in 1989, nine years after the murder occurred.

On Sept. 18, 1980, Scott Drake Clabourne and Charles Langston lured Laura Webster, 22, to a party that didn't exist after meeting her at the Green Dolphin, a local nightclub that closed in the late '80s. Webster was then raped and beaten by Clabourne and Langston over 6 hours, then strangled and stabbed to death, and her body was dumped in the Santa Cruz Wash in Tucson.

The murder went unsolved for a year until Clabourne's girlfriend contacted the police and reported Clabourne's self-proclaimed involvement, according to Gabriel Chin, a professor of law at the UA.

Clabourne was convicted in November 1982 on 1 count of 1st-degree murder, 1 count of kidnapping and 3 counts of sexual assault and he was given the death sentence, according to an appeal from the Superior Court of Arizona in Pima County by Clabourne.

Since being convicted, Clabourne has been appealing the decision in every way possible.

In 2005, a federal judge ruled that Clabourne had been given insufficient representation.

"Here's a twist to all of this," Rabago said, "if the court changes any part of the case it gets sent all the way back to the state court for a re-sentencing proceeding."

A jury found Clabourne guilty of all charges and once again handed up the death sentence.

In 2005, Clabourne filed a federal habeas corpus petition in federal court hoping to overturn the previous sentencing.

"What happened recently in this case was that the federal judge upheld the death penalty sentence that was reimposed back by the state courts in 1997," Rabago said. "I represented the state and U.S. district court fighting to uphold the death penalty."

The case shows how long the death penalty takes to be enforced in the U.S. justice system.

"When I first got the case and worked on it I had certain thoughts about it," Rabago said. "Then I started teaching at the law school at UA and things changed."

Although the Clabourne case is unique in that the victim was a UA student and Rabago teaches UA students and remains affiliated with the university, he said that he devoted the same level of time and energy to the case as he would for any murder victim.

Despite a personal connection to the case, Rabago stands by his statement, "every case has its own story, but every victim deserves equal justice."

"The judge's long-awaited decision brings this case one step closer to justice for the victim Laura Webster and her family," he said.

Rabago is no longer working on this case, and has been assigned to state and national fraud cases.

"But I'm confident that whoever handles it will do a fine job," Rabago said.

Rabago supervises UA law students through the law school's clinic program at the Consumer Protection and Advocacy Section Office of the Attorney General.

(source: Arizona Daily Wildcat)

NEVADA:

Death sentence in Sparks killing overturned

In Carson City, a divided Nevada Supreme Court overturned the death sentence and ordered a new penalty hearing Wednesday for 1 of 3 men convicted of robbing and killing a paraplegic woman in Sparks.

Justices unanimously upheld the 1st-degree murder conviction of Pedro Rodriguez for the 1998 murder of Kimberly Fondy. But in a 4-3 split, they differed on whether the death penalty was appropriate.

The majority determined Rodriguez's trial lawyer was ineffective because he didn't do enough to find witnesses and present mitigating evidence about his client's background during the penalty phase.

While noting that Rodriguez was uncooperative with his lawyer and investigators, the majority concluded "that the scope of trial counsel's investigation in this case fell short of the prevailing professional standards at the time."

Justices Michael Douglas, Nancy Saitta, Michael Cherry and Mark Gibbons signed the majority opinion and remanded the case to Washoe District Judge Brent Adams in Reno for a new penalty hearing.

Fondy, 33, was paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair. According to court records, Rodriguez and 2 others—Robert Servin and Brian Lee Allen—ingested methamphetamine and went to her house because they believed she had money in a safe.

Allen, who testified against his accomplices, was sentenced to life in prison without parole. Servin, who was tried with Rodriguez, also was sentenced to death, but his penalty was later overturned by the state Supreme Court and he is now serving life without parole.

Testimony showed Rodriguez, who was 19 at the time, knew the victim and orchestrated the robbery that led to her murder, but was not the shooter.

Fondy was shot four times. Documents also said the three bragged about dipping the bullets they used into chemicals so that the victim would die a painful death.

In a written dissent, Chief Justice James Hardesty said while some additional evidence of the defendant's abusive childhood was presented during a post-conviction hearing, it was "in the same vein as the evidence heard by the jury."

Hardesty, joined by Justices Ron Parraguirre and Kris Pickering, said he was unconvinced the penalty outcome would have been different if additional mitigating evidence was offered.

(source: Associated Press)

VIRGINIA----impending execution

Attorney general says sniper showed no mental illness

The Virginia attorney general's office said yesterday that there is no evidence John Allen Muhammad's lawyers had reason to think he was mentally ill when he asked to represent himself at his 2003 trial.

To the contrary, Muhammad demonstrated his competence to stand trial, "to everyone in the courtroom," the attorney general's office said in its response to an appeal filed by Muhammad with the U.S. Supreme Court this week.

"The record of trial reveals that Muhammad not only represented himself lucidly and coherently for the first two days of his [trial] . . . but that he actively participated in his defense throughout," according to the brief.

Muhammad, 48, is set to die by injection Tuesday for the Oct. 9, 2002, capital murder of Dean Harold Meyers, 53, one of 10 murders committed by Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo in a 3-week period in Virginia, Maryland and Washington.

The attorney general's office also argued that Muhammad is not entitled to a stay of execution as requested by Muhammad.

On Tuesday, Muhammad's lawyers requested the stay and filed an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court. They contend Muhammad's trial lawyers failed to perform up to constitutionally acceptable standards.

The appeal contends that when Muhammad asked to represent himself at his trial, his lawyers, aware he was mentally ill, had a duty to request a competency evaluation of Muhammad even if Muhammad objected.

Muhammad represented himself during the first two days of his trial. Peter D. Greenspun, one of the trial lawyers, yesterday referred any comment to Muhammad's current lawyers.

Muhammad's appeal claims a psychiatrist could have provided expert testimony that while Muhammad could appear bright at times, he was not competent to represent himself. Also, his current lawyers say an MRI scan of Muhammad's brain showed "serious abnormalities."

In a 31-page response filed yesterday, the attorney general strongly disagreed.

The attorney general wrote that in 2007, the Virginia Supreme Court "reasonably dismissed Muhammad's ineffective assistance of counsel claim because Muhammad failed to demonstrate that [his trial lawyers] had in their possession any information showing him to be mentally ill, much less incompetent to represent himself."

The Virginia Supreme Court found that the record showed Muhammad understood the risks of representing himself and that his trial lawyers "found him to be 'a very bright man.'"

The attorney general also said a psychological report on Muhammad prepared before his trial concluded that Muhammad was not mentally disabled, had no psychotic symptoms or hallucinations, and that an MRI showed he had a normal brain.

There was no finding of mental illness, incompetence or brain dysfunction, the attorney general's office said. It was that report that Muhammad's trial lawyers had seen prior to his trial, the attorney general said.

The appeal contends Muhammad's "paranoid and delusional beliefs were clearly evident in, and had a devastating effect on, Muhammad's behavior in this case."

Among other things, his lawyers said Muhammad refused to cooperate with the state's mental-health expert, resulting in a barring of mental-health testimony on his behalf during the sentencing phase of his trial.

(source: Richmond Times-Dispatch)

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

Victims, relatives to witness sniper execution

Some ache for revenge, others simply for justice. There is frustration, too, and defiance.

For those wounded by the D.C. snipers and for the relatives of those killed, the emotions leading up to the execution of the mastermind behind the 2002 attacks vary as widely as those who found themselves in the cross hairs.

John Allen Muhammad, 48, is set to die by injection in a Virginia prison Nov. 10, 7 years after he and his teenage accomplice terrorized the area in and around the nation's capital for three weeks.

Some family members can't wait to see Muhammad take his final breath. Others plan to make the trip to Virginia but never step foot on prison grounds.

And there are those who plan to spend the night at home with their families, satisfied that Muhammad is paying for what he's done but indifferent as to how it will happen.

___

For Nelson M. Rivera and Marion Lewis, watching Muhammad's execution will be the closest they will ever come to revenge.

"I feel like it's going to be the last chapter of this book and I want to see what his expression on his face is. And I want to see if he says anything," the 38-year-old Rivera said. "I want to see his face and see how he likes that — confronting his death."

Lori Ann Lewis-Rivera, who was Rivera's wife and Lewis' daughter, was killed as she vacuumed her van at a Kensington, Md., gas station.

Rivera, a Honduran immigrant who recently became a U.S. citizen, has remarried and had two more children since Lori was killed, leaving behind a 2-year-old daughter, Jocelin. He now works as a public-schools groundskeeper in the suburbs of Sacramento, Calif.

Still, "there is not one day I don't remember what happened and I don't remember my wife. This is going to be with me the rest of my life," Rivera said.

Lewis, 57, a laid-off construction worker, said he would like to tell Muhammad how losing his 25-year-old daughter devastated their family.

"For the hurt, the pain that he's caused my family, I'd like to be his executioner, period," Lewis said.

___

Robert Meyers takes some solace in knowing that Muhammad's execution is out of his hands.

He and his wife, Lori, plan to be in the witness booth, but not out of any bloodthirsty lust to watch his brother's killer meet his maker. Rather, he considers it justice being served, a sentence being carried out.

"The reason why this life is going to be taken has everything to do with choices that he made and the process that those choices took him through," said Meyers, 56, of Perkiomenville, Pa.

Executions in Virginia, home of the nation's second-busiest death chamber, usually are intimate affairs observed by a handful of lawyers, prison officials, the mandated six citizen witnesses, a few reporters and family members.

But the sheer number of victims — 10 killed and three injured in and around the nation's capital alone — has the state scrambling to accommodate all the people entitled to watch. Corrections officials are tightlipped about the arrangements, though relatives say each victim's family was offered 2 spots in the roughly 10-by-10 witness booth.

Meyers said he owed it to his brother, Dean Harold Meyers, to be there and that he also wanted to be there for other victims' families.

Dean Meyers, 53, a Vietnam vet and civil engineer, was the youngest of four brothers. He was shot in the head while filling up at a Manassas, Va., gas station. Muhammad's teenage accomplice, Lee Boyd Malvo, later bragged to police, laughing that Dean Meyers "was hit good. Dead immediately."

It was Meyers' murder that sent Muhammad to death row.

"We're expecting justice being done, but not from a vengeful standpoint," Robert Meyers said. "It is more about the payment of his debt to society, because that was decided by others."

___

Charles Moore believes Muhammad deserves to die, and he's frustrated that Malvo will not be on a gurney beside him.

"The only thing that would give me closure would be if I knew that Lee Boyd Malvo was being punished properly," said Moore, 80, of Gainesville, Fla.

Malvo, who was 17 at the time of the shootings, was convicted and sentenced to life in prison for killing Linda Franklin, a 47-year-old FBI analyst who was shot as she and her husband loaded supplies at a Home Depot in Falls Church, Va.

"I don't see how someone can plan and plot and commit murder, one right after the other, and get off with just life in prison, I don't care what their age is," Moore said.

Moore, a retired bioengineer at the University of Florida, said his daughter used to call him every morning "to tell me to get out of bed and start chasing my wife around the house or something."

He struggles with Parkinson's disease now, and says he can't afford the trip to Virginia to watch the execution. He's not really sure he would make the trip if he could, though.

"When my daughter was first killed, if I would have had a gun I would have been willing to kill him but right now I don't know how I feel," Moore said. "I don't want him turned loose on society, that's for sure."

___

Caroline Seawell has refused to live the last 7 years as a victim.

Sure, her ribs are deformed and there's a piece of mesh covering a hole in her diaphragm. But Seawell has been blessed with no major medical problems since a sniper's bullet raced into her back and through a handful of organs as she loaded a scarecrow and other Halloween decorations into her minivan.

She and her family moved to South Carolina not long after the shooting outside a Fredericksburg, Va., Michael's craft store. Her youngest son, now 11, doesn't even know about the shooting.

"I've been really good about being able to kind of just put it behind me," Seawell said. "I've been able to just continue on with my life."

In that defiant spirit, Seawell said she will not travel to Virginia to watch Muhammad take his last breath. He deserves to die for what he's done, she said, but after watching both parents die from cancer, she has no desire to witness another death.

"There was enough killing already with all of us," she said.

If anything, Seawell says the shooting has made her a much stronger person. If given the chance, she'd like to tell Muhammad and Malvo just that.

"They didn't do what they set out to do because they haven't devastated my life," she said. "I've been able to move on and continue and raise my children, which is exactly what I wanted to do.

"I don't want them to have any satisfaction out of the fact that they shot me."

(source: Associated Press)

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

Death sentence the only justice in John Allen Muhammad case

November 5, 2009 Kill him next week or kill him some time thereafter, but John Allen Muhammad has to die, no matter what his lawyers say.

Muhammad was convicted in Virginia for the murder of Dean Meyers in October of 2002. Meyers' death was part of a 4-state, 1-city (the District of Columbia) killing spree. Lee Boyd Malvo, who was then in his teens and is now serving a life sentence for the crime, was the triggerman in the murderous rampage that left 10 dead. But Muhammad was the mastermind pulling the strings.

And if we can't execute a guy responsible for 10 murders, then what good is the death penalty?

Opponents of capital punishment would answer with a resounding "none!" of course, and as usual they’d be wrong. One thing the death penalty is certain to do, and that is to keep murderers from killing again. And as much as death-penalty opponents don't like to admit it, many murderers on death row aren’t there for their first killing, but for at least their second.

Muhammad's lawyers claim that the trial judge didn't allow expert testimony that would have shown their client suffered from brain damage incurred from childhood beatings and that the prosecution withheld exculpatory evidence.

That childhood abuse left Muhammad sane enough to join the U.S. Army, attain the rank of sergeant and serve in the 1st Gulf war. His attorneys have already asked Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine for clemency, and the Old Dominion state's chief executive might just want to ponder why Muhammad's mental illness didn't manifest itself in the early 1990s, but somehow popped up around 2002.

No, Muhammad is not my ideal case for a murderer who should be strapped to a gurney and given a lethal injection. There are others who I'd like to see get what we Marylanders call the "Thanos cocktail" before Muhammad. (Murderer John Thanos was the 1st death-row inmate in our state to die by lethal injection.)

I'd like to see any gang leader — be he from the Aryan Brotherhood, Black Guerilla Family, Nuestra Familia, MS-13, Mexican Mafia, Bloods, Crips — who murders in prison or orders murders while in prison be executed sooner rather than later.

Ditto for those inmates who murder corrections officers. That happened to corrections Officer David McGuinn at the Maryland House of Correction more than 3 years ago. The 2 suspects in that case haven't even gone to trial yet. In the meantime, Maryland's governor and legislators have made it all but impossible for either to get the death penalty.

Muhammad was captured in Maryland; unfortunately for him, then-Attorney General John Ashcroft managed to get him shipped out of the "kill our corrections officers with impunity" state and sent to Virginia. He may not be my ideal candidate for execution next week, but with 10 bodies under his belt he'll just have to do until somebody better comes along.

That means, basically, that I don't buy his attorneys' claims about his mental incompetence. That killing spree he organized was too well-planned and too well-executed for Muhammad to be anything but mentally competent. Muhammad is mentally competent, all right.

And if there's any justice in this world, by this time next week, he'll also be dead.

(source: Examiner columnist Gregory Kane is a Pulitzer-nominated news and opinion journalist who has covered people and politics from Baltimore to the Sudan)

USA:

US Supreme Court hears judicial misconduct cases

2 men wrongly imprisoned for life and a 3rd still facing the death penalty argued before the Supreme Court Wednesday that their sentences were the result of judicial misconduct and negligence.

The 9 judges, who will rule on the cases at the beginning of next year, first considered the case of 2 African American men who were sentenced to life in prison without parole as teenagers for the 1978 murder of a white police officer in Iowa.

After 25 years in prison, a court found the pair innocent and released them, ruling that the prosecutors in their case had dictated what their key witness would testify to having seen.

The prosecutors were also accused of having hidden from the all-white jury evidence that would have implicated another suspect.

The 2 former prisoners are seeking to sue the prosecutors, who argue the immunity that covers their trial conduct should also protect actions they took while investigating the case.

The 9 justices seemed sympathetic Wednesday to that argument and appeared worried about the effect of providing an opening for legal actions against prosecutors.

The other case before the highest US court involves a man named Holly Wood, convicted in Alabama in 1994 for the murder of his ex-girlfriend, who argues his defense lawyer was incompetent.

The attorney who represented Wood during his sentencing was a recent graduate with no experience in death penalty cases and failed to present evidence that Wood had the mental capacity of a child.

A jury recommended Wood receive the death penalty by a vote of 10 to 2 -- a sentence overturned by a federal court that found Wood's attorney had erred in not mentioning his client had an IQ measuring between 59 and 64.

The sentence was reinstated on appeal, and the Supreme Court then agreed to consider the case.

(source: Agence France-Presse)

CALIFORNIA:

Closing arguments begin in penalty phase of El Cerrito killer's trial

Convicted murderer Edward Wycoff — facing the death penalty for killing his sister and brother-in-law — stopped his nephew Wednesday from making a plea on his behalf that he spend the rest of his life in prison.

Closing arguments began Wednesday in Contra Costa County Superior Court in the penalty phase of the 40-year-old's capital murder trial.

Prosecutor Mark Peterson made his initial argument for death, while Wycoff, who has been defending himself, has testified that he was morally justified in killing his sister and brother-in-law, Julie and Paul Rogers, of El Cerrito, with a knife and wheelbarrow handle Jan. 31, 2006. He said the couple deserved death because of the way they treated him and the way they were raising their 3 children. His plan was to raise the orphans, Eric, Alex and Laurel.

Eric Rogers, now 21, petitioned the court to let him tell jurors that the majority of his family is against the death penalty, as were his parents, and such a sentence for his uncle would cause them further pain. Wycoff, of Citrus Heights, Sacramento County, was convicted Oct. 27 on two counts of murder with special circumstances.

Though Judge John Kennedy said such testimony has been deemed "irrelevant and inadmissible" by the higher courts, Eric Rogers argued he has the right to speak out under Marsy's Law, a 2008 ballot initiative that gave crime victims a greater voice in legal proceedings. Witnesses are able to opine on punishment based on a defendant's characteristics.

Eric Rogers did just that Monday, when he testified that Wycoff should receive life in prison because he is "mentally childish" and "immature." His comments, however, were cut short when Wycoff didn't question him further after a prosecutor's objection.

Rogers could have explained his views more thoroughly Wednesday, except that Wycoff objected to his nephew taking the stand based on his contempt for Ted Cassman, a Berkeley attorney representing Rogers for free. Wycoff said he hates Cassman because he didn't return his phone calls.

"I've killed 2 attorneys for screwing up my family, and this guy is ripping off my nephew," Wycoff said.

Both Julie and Paul Rogers were attorneys.

"He's so mentally ill and lacking in competency he doesn't understand it's not about me, it's about him," Cassman told the Bay Area News Group.

It was the 1st time Marsy's Law was used as a tool for victims in a capital case in California. Cassman said he expects an appeal will be filed on the issue.

The case resumes today with Wycoff's closing argument, followed by rebuttal arguments by Peterson and Wycoff, respectively.

(source: Contra Costa Times)

UGANDA:

IBAHRI Condemns Introduction of Death Penalty for 'Aggravated Homosexuality'

The International Bar Association's Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI) today condemned a proposal in Uganda to impose the death penalty for 'aggravated homosexuality' in the Anti Homosexuality Bill which was recently introduced into the Ugandan Parliament.

Under the Bill, 'aggravated homosexuality' is deemed to exist when a homosexual act occurs with disabled persons, persons below the age of 18 or when one of the parties is HIV-positive.

'Uganda's Penal Code already contains 15 capital offences and there are 637 prisoners on death row', said IBAHRI Co-Chair Martin Solc. 'This Bill adds sexual activity to that list.'

'Uganda is a party to the African Charter and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,' said Justice Richard Goldstone, Co-Chair IBAHRI. 'The Covenant stipulates that the death penalty may only be imposed for the most serious of crimes. Under United Nations resolutions, countries which retain the death penalty should introduce a moratorium on its use. This Bill is against that clear international trend,' Justice Goldstone added.

The Bill is contrary to international law, regional law in Africa, the Ugandan Constitution and Uganda High Court rulings.

Dr Phillip Tahmindjis, Deputy Director of IBAHRI, said: 'This Bill is an attack on human dignity at several levels. It provides life imprisonment for homosexuality and 7 years imprisonment for 'promoters' of homosexuality, such as publishers. The Ugandan Constitution provides for equality, privacy, freedom of speech and freedom from discrimination, and a Uganda High Court decision last December held that these rights apply to all people regardless of their sexuality or gender identity.'

'The provisions of international and regional human rights law, together with the Ugandan Constitution and these High Court rulings have been ignored by this Bill', Dr Tahmindjis said. 'Offences for "aggravated" behaviour are already adequately covered by the Ugandan Penal Code. The Bill is really an attack on sexuality rather than a protection for the vulnerable. Its name – the Anti Homosexuality Bill – indicates its real intention,' he added.

(source: AllAfrica News)

NOVEMBER 4, 2009:

TEXAS----impending execution

Bible plays role in Texas execution case

One witness who saw 64-year-old Joe Collins being beaten about the head by a rifle-swinging assailant compared it getting pummeled with an ax or a golf club.

Lawyers for his convicted attacker complained jurors improperly viewed the weapon as a biblical iron rod.

32-year-old Khristian Oliver, convicted of the March 1998 slaying during a burglary of the Collins home outside Nacogdoches in East Texas, was set to die Thursday evening in Huntsville.

Unsuccessful appeals have argued Oliver's constitutional rights were violated by jurors who may have consulted a Bible during deliberations.

Rebuffed in the courts, Oliver's attorneys are asking Gov. Rick Perry to grant him a 30-day reprieve.

(source: Associated Press)

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------------ 2 new execution dates --------------

Hank Skinner has been given an execution date for February 24, and Franklin Alix has been given an execution date for March 30; both dates should be considered serious.

(sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin)

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

Court upholds death sentence in 1986 murders

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has upheld the death sentence of a Houston man convicted of killing a woman and her 2-year-old son although 3 of the 9 judges believe he deserves a new trial.

Michael Wayne Norris was convicted and condemned for the November 1986 shooting deaths of 38-year-old Georgia Rollins and her son, Keith. At the time, Norris, now 51, already was out of prison after serving 7 years of an 8-year term for another murder.

Judge Paul Womack, joined Wednesday by 2 other judges on the state's highest criminal court, says he believes the law making multiple killings eligible for a death sentence was misapplied in this case because Norris didn't intend to kill the child.

(source: Associated Press)

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

Time running out for man facing execution after jurors used bible to decide his fate

'And if he smite him with an instrument of iron ... the murderer shall surely be put to death' - Biblical passage relied on by jurors

'The fact that a man's life hangs by a thread because of scripture is shocking' - Kate Allen

A man sentenced to death in the USA after a jury consulted the Bible to decide his fate is now only a day away from execution, warned Amnesty International, as it called on the governor in the state of Texas to intervene to prevent the execution.

32-year-old Khristian Oliver is set to be executed at 6pm Texas time (12 midnight GMT) in the Huntsville prison in Texas tomorrow. In Texas the Board of Pardons and Paroles has the power to recommend that the governor commute a death sentence, which it has not so far done. However, the state governor Rick Perry can still issue a stay of execution (and request that the paroles board reconsider its decision if it is a negative one), and Amnesty has issued an 'urgent action' appeal (www.amnesty.org.uk/deathpenalty) and its supporters are calling on Governor Perry to intervene.

Khristian Oliver was sentenced to death in 1999 for a murder committed during a burglary. While deciding whether he should live or die, jurors at his trial consulted copies of the Bible, including text supporting the death penalty, calling into serious question their impartiality.

In a post-trial hearing four jurors acknowledged to the judge that several Bibles had been present in the jury room, that highlighted passages were passed between jurors, and that one juror read aloud the following passage from the Bible to a group of fellow jurors: 'And if he smite him with an instrument of iron, so that he die, he is a murderer: the murderer shall surely be put to death.' However, the trial judge ruled the jury had not acted improperly, a view upheld by a Texas appeals court.

Further revelations have followed. In 2002, a journalist interviewed another juror who said that 'about 80%' of the jurors had 'brought scripture into the deliberation', and that the jurors had consulted the Bible 'long before we ever reached a verdict'. He said he believed 'the Bible is truth from page one to the last page' and that if civil law and Biblical law were in conflict the latter should prevail. He also said that if he'd been told he could not consult the Bible: 'I would have left the courtroom'. He described life imprisonment as a 'burden' on the taxpayer.

Amnesty International UK Director Kate Allen said:

'Time is running out for Khristian Oliver and we're calling on Governor Rick Perry to step in to stop this execution.

'Governor Perry must surely recognise that it's totally unacceptable for juries in Texas to use the Bible in their deliberations. A court of law is not a prayer meeting and the fact that a man's life hangs by a thread because of scripture is shocking.

'The governor must intervene to try to preserve the reputation of Texas and see that justice is now done in this case.'

Death row in the USA: some key facts

Texas is one of 35 US states to retain the death penalty

The USA has seen a fall in the number of executions in recent years, but it still executes dozens of people every year - last year there were 37 executions (the 4th highest number of any country in the world)

To date in 2009 there have been 42 executions (an average of almost 1 per week), 19 of these in Texas

Khristian Oliver is 1 of 358 inmates (348 men, 10 women) on death row in Texas

Since 1977 the USA has executed 1,178 people

From 1973 to the present 139 people have been released from death row in the USA on the grounds of innocence (an average of four exonerations per year)

Some 3,300 prisoners remain on death row in the USA

(source: Amnesty International)

OHIO:

Ohio Supreme Court sets 2 new execution dates

The Ohio Supreme Court on Wednesday set 2 new execution dates even as the state continues to rework its procedures for putting condemned inmates to death by injection.

The execution dates are the first in 4 1/2 months set by the court, which had been scheduling executions about once a month.

The death penalty is temporarily on hold in Ohio while the state develops the new policies. The update follows a botched execution on Sept. 15 that was halted after 2 hours when executioners couldn't find a usable vein on inmate Rommel Broom.

The court's decision Wednesday set a May 13 execution date for Michael Beuke, 47, convicted of the 1983 murder of Robert Craig, a man he met while hitchhiking on Interstate 275 in southwest Ohio.

Beuke shot Craig twice in the head and once in the chest, dumped his body in the bushes and stole his car.

The court also set a June 10 execution date for Richard Nields, 59, sentenced to die for the 1997 death of his girlfriend, 59-year-old Patricia Newsome, at their home in Finneytown in southwest Ohio.

Nields beat and strangled Newsome after she asked him to move out of her house.

The decision by Gov. Ted Strickland to stop Broom's execution was unprecedented since the United States resumed executions in the 1970s.

U.S. District Judge Gregory Frost further delayed Broom's execution pending a hearing on the inmate's request that the state not be allowed to try to put him to death again.

Strickland, a Democrat, then granted five-month reprieves to inmates scheduled to die this month and next, and Frost delayed a December execution while the state revises its injection policies.

Among the changes the state is considering is injecting lethal drugs into inmates' bone marrow or muscles as an alternative to — or a backup for — the traditional intravenous execution procedure. Broom complained in an affidavit following the execution attempt that execution staff painfully hit muscle and bone at times during as many as 18 attempts to reach a vein.

Broom was convicted of kidnapping, raping and killing a 14-year old girl in 1984.

Ohio has put 32 people to death since 1999, when executions resumed in the state.

(source: Associated Press)

ALABAMA:

Alabama death row inmate dies at 64

Alabama death row inmate David Larry Nelson, on death row for more than 27 years for a killing near Birmingham, has died of natural causes at the Holman prison infirmary, officials said.

Department of Corrections spokesman Brian Corbett said Nelson died Monday about 11 p.m.

He was convicted and sentenced to death for the 1978 shooting death of Wilson W. Thompson in Kimberly, a Birmingham suburb. Nelson was also convicted and sentenced to life in prison without parole for the fatal shooting of Birmingham cab driver James Cash the night before.

He twice avoided execution dates when stays were granted in 1996 and 2003.

The Supreme Court blocked the 2003 execution shortly before it was to take place, granting a stay to review Nelson's claim that he has collapsed veins and that lethal injection would be so painful it would be "cruel and unusual punishment."

He also received a stay in 1996 because of a physician's statement that he could be a kidney donor for a seriously ill brother -- an operation that did not take place. Before the 2003 stay, Nelson had been tried twice and had 4 sentencing hearings in what has been one of the longest death penalty appeals in Alabama.

According to court records, Nelson was accused of killing Thompson with a shot to the head while Thompson was having oral sex with Nelson's girlfriend, who was also shot but recovered. Nelson and his girlfriend had met Thompson at a bar and talked him into letting them come home with him. Authorities said it was a robbery plot by Nelson.

(source: Montgomery Advertiser)

INDIANA:

Turner's defense attorneys ask court to rule out death penalty

Attorneys for a young man accused of beating a toddler to death are trying to have a judge declare him ineligible for the death penalty, arguing that the man is mentally retarded and therefore shouldn't be subjected to execution.

In a motion filed Tuesday, attorneys for Joshua L. Turner, 19, whose last address was in Black Lick, asked Indiana County Judge Gregory Olson to schedule a hearing so they can present arguments that Turner is mentally retarded and unfit for execution under a 2002 U.S. Supreme Court ruling.

Turner is facing charges of aggravated assault and criminal homicide in the death of 19-month-old Leonard "L.J.'' W. McIntire III, whom Turner was baby-sitting one day in October 2008. Indiana County District Attorney Thomas Bianco is pursuing the death penalty, saying he believes it is warranted, given the boy's age and the circumstances of his death.

Turner's attorneys, however, are saying the death penalty should be taken off the table, citing the Supreme Court ruling. It that ruling, the court, asked to consider a Virginia murder case, found that sentencing a mentally retarded convict to death violates the Constitution's prohibition of cruel and unusual punishments.

The attorneys said in their motion that a psychologist, R. William Tallichet, examined Turner and in a report offers reasonable cause to believe that Turner "is a person with mental retardation.''

McIntire was fatally injured on Oct. 27, 2008, while his mother, Kimberly Shirley, whom Turner was seeing on and off, had been out running errands. She had left the boy with Turner, investigators said.

According to police accounts, Turner became enraged because the baby was acting up. He shook, bit and hit the boy repeatedly, police said.

According to testimony at Turner's preliminary hearing, Shirley returned home after Turner called her to say that the boy had tripped and fallen. When she arrived, she found her son unconscious and called for help.

McIntire was taken first to Indiana Regional Medical Center and then transferred to Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, where he died five days later. The Allegheny County Medical Examiner's Office listed the cause of death as blunt force trauma to the head, torso and limbs.

Trooper Timothy Lipniskis, a criminal investigator at the Indiana barracks, testified that Turner initially told police that as he was carrying the boy from the kitchen to the living room, the child bumped into a door frame and hit his mouth.

Lipniskis said Turner later changed his story, saying that he had the boy on his shoulders and that he fell off, hitting his head on a concrete floor. But upon further questioning, Turner confessed to biting and hitting the boy, Lipniskis said.

Turner has pleaded not guilty. His court-appointed attorneys, Gary Knaresboro and Michael S. Marshall, both of DuBois, had notified the court that they intended to mount an insanity or mental infirmity defense.

Turner's trial is scheduled to begin in December.

Turner's attorneys also have asked that an out-of-county jury hear the case, saying that Turner won't be able to receive a fair trial here. Olson, however, has put off ruling on the request until jury selection begins. Turner is being held without bail at the Indiana County Jail.

(source: Indiana Gazette)

NEVADA:

Attorney wants mistrial for death row inmate over juror questioning

A defense attorney for death row inmate James R. Walker says a mistrial should have been granted in Las Vegas when the only black juror was questioned by the prosecution about race issues.

JoNell Thomas, deputy special public defender, told the Nevada Supreme Court that questions about race can be asked but one black juror can't be singled out for the questions.

Thomas and Alzora B. Jackson, a deputy special public defender, are seeking to have the verdict and the death penalty overturned. But Steven Owens, chief deputy district attorney in Clark County, said there was no misconduct in the questioning and "this was not a close case as far as the evidence showed."

Walker, now 53 and serving his sentence at the state prison in Ely, was convicted of the stabbing death of Christine Anziano, who suffered 28 injuries. She was stabbed as she exited a grocery store near Lamb and Bonanza on Aug. 23, 2003. He took her purse.

Walker, who is black, was also found guilty of the robbery and stabbing of Kirk Lohe, whose throat was cut 10-14 times. But Lohe survived.

A co-defendant, Myrdus Archie, accused of driving the getaway car, was convicted of 2nd-degree murder. Archie, 57, and with 16 known aliases, is confined to the Florence McClure Women's Correctional Center and is serving time on multiple offenses. Her case was not before the court.

There are 82 men on death row and the last execution was in April 2006.

Thomas said the prosecution asked the black juror if he would feel ridicule from the black community if he voted to put Walker to death.

Justice Michael Cherry told Thomas that in the 1970s questions were allowed about race. But Thomas said in this case, the lone black juror was singled out and the white jurors were not asked similar questions.

Owens said the juror did not take offense to the question and he was excluded from the jury for other reasons. He said the juror had 14 relatives of which only 3 were not in prison and the juror also had a personal relationship with the defense lawyer.

Jackson argued the trial judge, Valerie Adair, should have granted a defense motion to separate the trial of Walker and Archie. She said the defense attorney painted Archie as an innocent bystander. Archie did not testify but the defense lawyer indicated she was present at the crime scenes and that Walker was there.

Owens said, however, a separate trial for the two “would have been a total waste of time.” He said the same witnesses would have been called and the same evidence presented.

Thomas said a jury instruction should have been given that Walker was under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Owens said there was no evidence presented at trial to back up the defendant was intoxicated or under the influence of drugs.

Owens characterized Walker as a "very violent individual." He said Walker was convicted in 1978 of shooting and wounding a man and 10 years later committed battery on a prison guard.

The court took the hour-long arguments under study and will rule later.

(source: Las Vegas Sun)

GEORGIA:

Death penalty sought in Johnson slaying case

District Attorney Ashley Wright will seek the death sentence for a suspect in the killing of a Hephzibah woman and the wounding of her husband during an August robbery.

Ms. Wright filed notice of her intentions Friday in Richmond County Superior Court, where Kelvin S. Johnson faces charges that include murder, aggravated assault, armed robbery and burglary.

Mr. Johnson, 24, was indicted Oct. 27. He has been held in jail since shortly after Martha and Tilman Coley "T.C." Greene were attacked in their Plantation Road home Aug. 26.

According to previous reports and court proceedings, Mr. Greene was working in his open garage when a man rode up on a bicycle and pulled a gun. Mr. Greene was shot in the face as he tried to wrestle the gun away.

Sheriff's investigators believe the assailant then entered the Greenes' home, where he shot Mrs. Greene to death.

The robber made off with a big-screen television and the couple's Chevrolet pickup.

Mr. Johnson was arrested that night at his Boykin Road home. He had been released from prison in May after serving 16 months of a 3-year prison sentence for forgery, according to an earlier report in The Augusta Chronicle .

Now that Mr. Johnson's case has become a potential death penalty case, his defense will be assigned by the Georgia Capital Defenders' office in Atlanta, unless he is financially able to hire his own counsel.

(source: Augusta Chronicle)

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

Death sentence upheld for Julie Love's killer

The federal appeals court in Atlanta on Wednesday upheld the death sentence against a man convicted of one of Atlanta's most infamous murders -- the abduction and killing of 27-year-old Julie Love.

In a 116-page opinion, Judge Ed Carnes detailed Emanuel Hammond's violent past before he abducted Love in Buckhead on July 11, 1988. The terrified preschool fitness instructor could not have known that this was just the latest in a series of violent attacks against women by Hammond, the judge said.

"She could not have known about his vow to make sure that no more of his victims would live to testify against him," Carnes wrote. "She did know, however, that Hammond was cruel, violent and dangerous. Love, who was only 5 feet tall and weighed just a hundred pounds, knew that because Hammond kept beating her."

Love's remains were found a year later in a northwest Atlanta trash dump. She had been raped, bound with coat hangers and shot in the head with a sawed-off shotgun.

On Wednesday, the appeals court unanimously rejected Hammonds' bid for a new trial. The court rejected one claim that Hammonds' lawyer was ineffective by failing to object when a prosecutor improperly told jurors that Hammond could one day be paroled if he was not sentenced to death.

Hammond, an auto mechanic, had abducted and assaulted at least 3 women before he killed Love. During one 1982 attack, Hammond shot his co-defendant, Antonio Stephney, after Stephney had twice raped their victim and then talked of killing her. Hammond drove this victim to police and told them what had happened.

Hammond's conscience may have saved a woman's life, the ruling said. "As far as the record shows," Carnes wrote, "that was the last time his conscience would make an appearance, belatedly or otherwise."

(source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

FLORIDA:

Let citizens decide limits for death-penalty appeals

Anyone accused of a crime is considered to be innocent until proven guilty. Once found guilty in a court of law by a jury of his or her peers, that person shall suffer the full sentence handed down by either that same jury or the presiding judge. When this was established many years ago, it didn't take into account the many nuances that the lawyers in today's courts have introduced. A case in point is one in the Oct. 29 Post regarding Paul B. Johnson.

This man was convicted of killing a sheriff's deputy and 2 other people in Polk County 28 years ago. Through the due process of appeal after appeal, he has managed to stay alive in prison all those years, and although it isn't the nicest of places to spend one's declining years, he still has been fed and clothed and been able to have court-appointed attorneys for those many appeals. Now the Florida Supreme Court has stayed his execution.

With the laws in Florida being rewritten all the time by our elected officials, many of whom are lawyers, don't we as citizens have the right to insist that something as important to society as the appeal system be changed so those found guilty of such heinous crimes not be allowed to live longer than a basic number of years to be agreed upon by voters and not by lawyers or judges? STANLEY ESKIN----Boca Raton

****

Set 5-year maximum for appeals

Paul B. Johnson is still waiting on death row with appeals pending. This is ridiculous; the sentence should have been carried out over 20 years ago.

The death penalty appeal system in this country is outdated. There should be a reasonable time limit placed on appeals. I would say a maximum of 5 years. If we can't do that, then the death penalty should be replaced with life in prison and no possibility of parole. Either one of those options makes sense. The procedures we've used for decades are too costly and ineffective.

VITO LEONARDI----Greenacres

(source: Letters to the Editor, Palm, Beach Post)

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

Casey Anthony case: Defense files more motions to dismiss charges

3 new motions were filed by Casey Anthony's defense team, including one regarding the check fraud charges against her and the other 2 involving the death penalty murder charges she is now facing.

The defense is asking Judge Stan Strickland to dismiss the indictment against her claiming the prosecution includes no facts in their indictment that would result in murder charges against their client.

Thus, the defense contends they cannot formulate a proper defense with prosecutors solely relying on accusations to make their case.

"These constitutional concerns are particularly critical given this is a capital case," according to Casey's defense team.

Furthermore, the defense questions the motives behind State Attorney Lawson Lamar's seeking the death penalty against their client, according to WESH. "If the death penalty is used to encourage guilty pleas… it is unconstitutional," the defense wrote referring to a U.S. Supreme Court opinion.

Regarding the check fraud charges against Casey, WESH reports the defense team argues that she was charged with "3 counts for each of the 4 bad checks she allegedly wrote." They claim the additional counts amount to double jeopardy, which is not permitted—thus, they say these charges should be dismissed.

Casey remains in jail, charged with the 1st-degree murder of her 2-year-old daughter, Caylee Anthony. Her trial is slated to begin June 2010.

(source: The Examiner)

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

Casey Anthony attorneys: Throw out murder indictment----Casey Anthony's defense attorneys say the indictment is so vague, and it must be dismissed.

Lawyers for Casey Anthony have filed new paperwork asking a judge to throw out the murder charge against her.

This time, they allege that prosecutors and an Orange County grand jury put so little information in their indictment that she cannot possibly defend herself.

"Instead of starting with the crime and figuring out who did it, the state has essentially started with who did it and is now trying to figure out what crime she might have committed," the defense paperwork reads.

Anthony, 23, is in the Orange County Jail, charged with murdering her 2-year-old daughter, Caylee Marie, in June 2008. The child was not reported missing for a month. Her body was found in a patch of woods in December, a few blocks from Anthony's home in south Orange County.

The indictment does not say how the child was killed or where, other than in Orange County.

As a consequence, Anthony's attorneys say Circuit Judge Stan Strickland should throw out the indictment, which charges their client with capital murder. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

Anthony also is facing another series of charges in a check-forgery case. Prosecutors allege that she stole 4 blank checks from a friend in July 2008, forged them and cashed them for more than $650.

Prosecutors have charged her with 13 crimes in that case, including grand theft, forgery, uttering a forged instrument and fraudulent use of personal identification.

Defense attorneys Andrea Lyon and Jose Baez filed paperwork asking the judge to dismiss nine of those counts.

The state is seeking to punish her for 4 acts, defense attorneys allege — forging 4 checks — so she should only be charged with 4 counts of forgery.

(source: Orlando Sentinel)

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

Judd to address stay of execution for deputy killer

The death warrant for a man convicted of killing 3 men, including a Polk County sheriff's deputy, had been signed.

The execution date had been set for today at 6 p.m. and Paul Beasley Johnson was going to die by lethal injection.

But the Supreme Court of Florida issued a stay of execution for Johnson on Oct. 28, delaying Polk Sheriff Grady Judd's wish for justice to be served.

This development in Johnson's case — along with the multiple appeals he has filed over the years delaying his execution — is among the issues Judd is expected to address at a news conference this afternoon.

Johnson, 60, was convicted for the killing of Polk Deputy Theron Burnham, 27; Winter Haven taxi driver William D. Evans, 55; and Lakeland painter Darrell Ray Beasley, 21, during an all-night crime spree on Jan. 9, 1981.

After smoking marijuana and injecting crystal methedrine, he told a couple of friends he was going to go out and get more drugs and money even if he had to shoot someone, court records show.

The 3 men were killed within a 5-hour period. Evans was robbed and killed and his taxi set on fire in a citrus grove in Winter Haven. Beasley was robbed and slain after he gave his killer a ride from a Lakeland restaurant, and Burnham was shot to death with his own gun when he confronted the suspect on a desolate road near Lakeland Municipal Airport.

At an Oct. 28 hearing, his lawyer, Martin McClain, argued Johnson's 3 murder convictions and death sentences should be reversed because newly discovered evidence — notes written by a prosecutor in 1981 — shows a jailhouse snitch had been improperly allowed to testify at trial.

Assistant Deputy Attorney General Candace Sabella said the notes are nothing new and it's too late to bring them up. She also argued other evidence is strong enough to sustain the death sentences without the snitch's testimony.

Judd's office launched an online petition on Sept. 30 asking Gov. Charlie Crist to sign Johnson's death warrant. The campaign on GoPetition.com has garnered more than 2,200 signatures.

Crist signed Johnson's death warrant on Oct. 7, exactly a week after the sheriff's office posted its online petition, but the governor's office said there was no connection.

In its short order announcing the stay of execution, the state Supreme Court said the stay was being issued to consider the defense's claims of prosecutorial misconduct.

McClain said it's the first time an execution had been ordered for an inmate who has not yet had a habeas corpus hearing in federal court since a 1996 law permitted death warrants without expiration dates.

(source: Tampa Tribune)

ARKANSAS:

Juror in TV anchor case won't vote for execution

The jury panel for a high-profile murder trial was reduced by one Wednesday after a juror said he could not vote for the death penalty.

The move leaves the court needing 2 jurors and 2 alternates for the trial of Curtis Vance, who has pleaded not guilty in last year's death of Little Rock TV personality Anne Pressly.

The juror, a Catholic, told the judge Tuesday he would consider the full range of penalties if Vance is convicted. In court Wednesday, the man said that, after reflection overnight, he could not vote for Vance's execution. The Catholic church opposes executions in nearly all cases.

Judge Chris Piazza excused the man from the panel, dropping the number of jurors to 10.

(source: Associated Press)

TENNESSEE:

Death penalty debate Nov. 9 at Vanderbilt Law School

A death penalty debate between two leading scholars on capital punishment is set for noon Nov. 9 in Vanderbilt Law School's Flynn Auditorium. The debate takes place the day before the scheduled Nov. 10 execution date for John Allen Muhammad, mastermind of the 2002 sniper attacks in Washington D.C. that left 10 dead.

Conducted in Oxford style, audience members will choose the winner by exiting through a door designated with the name of the debater they believe presented the best argument.

Debating are Ken Haas, professor of sociology and criminal justice from the University of Delaware, and District Attorney Joshua Marquis of Clatsop County, Ore. Law Professor Christopher Slobogin, an expert in criminal procedure, mental health law and evidence law, will moderate.

Haas, who will advocate the view that the death penalty should be abolished, holds a joint appointment at the University of Delaware as professor of sociology and criminal justice and professor of political science and international relations. He is the editor of Challenging Capital Punishment: Legal and Social Science Approaches (Sage Publications, 1988) and The Dilemmas of Corrections: Multidisciplinary Approaches (Waveland Press, 2006). His widely published scholarly work has been cited in books and journal articles and by the United States Supreme Court.

On the other side of the debate is Joshua Marquis, who has served as district attorney of Clatsop County since 1994 and is a member of the board of directors of the National District Attorneys Association. He has worked as a newspaper reporter in Los Angeles, speechwriter to California's attorney general, and in his 18 months as a criminal defense lawyer, represented three defendants in capital murder cases. Marquis is a frequent guest on national radio and television programs, where he has discussed the criminal justice system and the legitimacy of the death penalty.

The debate, which is free and open to the public, is sponsored by the Law School's Hyatt Fund and Law Students for Social Justice.

(source: Vanderbilt University News Network)

PENNSYLVANIA:

Jury: Man guilty in students' slayings

A Washington County jury will begin hearing evidence today as it deliberates whether a Pittsburgh man should receive the death penalty for the 1999 murders of two Franciscan University students. The jury of 9 women and 3 men on Tuesday found Terrell Yarbrough, 29, guilty of 2 counts of 1st-degree murder in the execution-style killings of Brian Muha, 18, of Westerville, Ohio, and Aaron Land, 20, of Philadelphia. The 2 were kidnapped from their off-campus apartment, robbed and driven to a hillside near Route 22 in Robinson Township, where they were shot.

Yarbrough's co-defendant, Nathan "Boo" Herring, still faces trial here.

Both men were convicted in Ohio in 2000 for the murders. Yarbrough received the death penalty, while Herring was sentenced to life in prison. However, the Ohio Supreme Court overturned the convictions because the killings occurred in Washington County, necessitating the retrial before Judge John DiSalle.

When asked if justice had been served, Land's mother, Kathleen O'Hara, responded, "Yes. 10 years, and finally we have justice," while thanking the jury.

The jury deliberated for about seven hours before being sent home late Monday. They returned Tuesday and deliberated for about an hour before reaching the verdict. Yarbrough also was found guilty of two counts of conspiracy to commit murder.

Yarbrough showed no emotion as the verdict was read. However, several members of Muha's family wiped tears from their eyes.

The jury will return today for the penalty phase of the trial. The prosecution will present aggravating circumstances in the crime that it believes justifies the death penalty, while the defense will present mitigating circumstances in arguing for a life prison sentence.

When asked if she wanted Yarbrough to receive the death penalty, O'Hara said, "I'm not as clear as I thought I would be on that. I think he should be punished to the fullest extent of the law, but I'll leave it up to the jury.

"Does a dead body balance the scales of justice?" she continued.

"Terrell has yet to show one ounce of remorse for this," O'Hara said, adding that his defense that he was acting as a lookout for Herring and a third man "is not the action of a remorseful person."

Muha's mother, Rachel Muha, said the jury "came up with the right verdict" and spoke about how hard it was to have to "dredge up all the horror Brian went through."

"There's no such thing as closure," she said as she stood with Brian's younger brother, Chris Muha. "You learn to live with sadness and living without Brian."

However, she does not want Yarbrough to receive the death penalty.

"We believe it's best for Terrell to spend the rest of his life in prison, hopefully thinking about what he did and asking for forgiveness."

Muha said she has forgiven Yarbrough, "but to forgive someone isn't to say he shouldn't be punished. We don't have hatred toward him, but the deep sadness that somebody would do that to someone else is what we live with."

District Attorney Steven Toprani said he was pleased with the verdict. He would not discuss the aggravating circumstances the prosecution will present at the penalty phase. Even though the mothers of the 2 victims have reservations about the death penalty, Toprani said, "We still have an obligation." Defense attorney Ken Haber declined comment until the trial is completed.

(source: Observer-Reporter)

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Woman might not get death penalty for 20-year-old murder

A former Pottstown woman will not face the death penalty if she's convicted of helping to kill her husband more than 20 years ago.

"At this time it does not appear to be a capital case based upon a lack of aggravating circumstances," Montgomery County Assistant District Attorney Steven Latzer said Wednesday as accused killer Jane Agnes Bailey was arraigned on charges of first-degree murder and murder conspiracy in connection with the 1984 death of her husband, Alan Earl Bailey.

Bailey, 53, most recently of Uniontown, Fayette County, waived her arraignment and entered not guilty pleas to the charges before Judge William C. Carpenter. She remains in jail without bail pending trial.

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Yarbrough Guilty For 2nd Time----Convicted of 1999 students’ murder in Pa.

Terrell Yarbrough sat slumped with his head down while the verdict against him was read. His victims' families prayed quietly while some of Yarbrough's family members softly wept.

Yarbrough was found guilty Tuesday of 2 counts of murder in the first degree and conspiracy to commit criminal homicide in the May 31, 1999, kidnap-slaying of Aaron Land, 20, of Philadelphia, and Brian Muha, 18, of Westerville, Ohio.

The verdict came at noon Tuesday in Washington County Common Pleas Court after seven and a half hours of jury deliberation.

Yarbrough, 28, of Pittsburgh had been charged with two counts of criminal homicide and two counts of conspiracy to commit criminal homicide in Washington County Common Pleas Court. Nathan "Boo" Herring also faces charges in the case. His trial is pending in Washington County.

Yarbrough faces either the death penalty or life in prison without possibility of parole. The penalty phase was expected to begin either late Tuesday or today.

Cathleen O'Hara, Land's mother, thanked the commonwealth, the people of Washington County and Washington County Assistant District Attorney Michael Lucas after the verdict was read.

"I felt that the people of Washington County saw through the fairy tale they were trying to sell us," O'Hara said.

She said she did not know if she was in favor the death penalty for Yarbrough.

"Is the death penalty the right thing? I am not as sure as I was. I think he should be punished to the fullest extent of the law. Does a dead body balance the scales of justice? Is there any justice for Aaron?" O'Hara asked.

O'Hara said she would accept the jury's decision whether to impose the death penalty and said she wanted what was best for the victims' families, pointing out some lengthy appeals process in death penalty cases.

Rachel Muha, Brian Muha's mother, and Chris Muha, his brother, said they forgive Yarbrough and were praying for him and wanted what was best for him while noting that forgiveness does not mean Yarbrough should not be held responsible for his actions.

"I am just very relieved that the jury did such a good job and came up with the right verdict. Being without Brian is lifelong and we miss him so much," Rachel Muha said.

She said the trial had been difficult as the family had once again been confronted with what Brian Muha endured.

Chris Muha said he often thought of his brother and that it was difficult to think of the milestones Brian would not be part of. The Muhas said they wanted to see a change of heart from Yarbrough which they had not yet seen.

"He needs to look inside and make changes within himself," Chris Muha said.

The family also spoke about the charitable work in memory of Brian - the Brian Muha Memorial Foundation, which provides scholarships for inner-city children to attend private schools, and the Run The Race Club, which provides after-school and summer programs.

Rachel Muha said the family was inspired partly by the upbringing of Yarbrough and Herring.

"They were not born killers," Rachel Muha said.

The family said they believed Brian would have approved because it was his goal to become a doctor and to help and heal. He especially wanted to work with children.

"It doesn't replace Brian. It is something we are doing with Brian. We feel him with us," Rachel Muha.

Land and Muha were students at the Franciscan University of Steubenville when they were kidnapped killed.

(source: Wheeling News-Register)

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Religious panel to discuss capital punishment

Pittsburgh Faith in Action Against the Death Penalty will sponsor an interfaith dialogue on the use of capital punishment Sunday at 1:30 p.m. in the John Knox Room of Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, East Liberty.

The speakers include the Rev. Frank Almade, pastor of Juan Diego Catholic Church, Sharpsburg; the Rev. Alma Faith Crawford, associate minister at First Unitarian Church, Shadyside; Rabbi Art Donsky, of Temple Ohav Shalom, McCandless; the Rev. Moni McIntyre, rector of the Episcopal Church of the Holy Cross, Homewood; and the Rev. David Morse, chairman of the board of ordained ministry for the United Methodist Conference of Western Pennsylvania.

The Rev. Donald Green, associate director of Christian Associates of Southwestern Pennsylvania, will moderate. For details, call 412-784-1677.

(source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

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Lawyers: Indiana Co. Man Accused In Toddler's Slaying 'Retarded'

Defense attorneys said a 19-year-old Indiana County man charged with fatally beating his girlfriend's toddler shouldn't be executed because tests show the man is mentally retarded.

State police said Joshua Turner, of Black Lick, told them he beat 19-month-old Leonard McIntire after the child bit Turner's finger and "wanted him to know what pain felt like."

Police said Turner first told them he was carrying the toddler on his shoulders when he fell and was hurt. But police said Turner eventually acknowledged beating, biting, shaking and punching the child on Oct. 27, 2008.

The toddler suffered a fractured skull, broken arm and had several bite marks on his body, police said. The medical examiner said Leonard died of blunt force trauma to the head.

Indiana County District Attorney Thomas Bianco said the victim's age is one reason why he's pursuing the death penalty if Turner is convicted of first-degree murder in the beating last October.

But Turner's attorneys said a psychologist last year determined Turner is retarded and the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2002 that retarded defendants cannot be executed.

A judge has not scheduled a hearing on the defense motion filed Tuesday.

(sources: WPXI & Associated Press)

NEW HAMPSHIRE:

Fatal New Hampshire home invasion sparks death penalty bill

A state lawmaker wants to make home invasion killings punishable by death after the machete murder of a Mont Vernon woman in her bed.

Republican Rep. William O’Brien said his bill would apply to anyone who enters a home with the intent to kill. He is naming the bill after Kimberly Cates, 42, who was killed in a burglary Oct. 4. Her 11-year-old daughter was also attacked but survived despite horrendous injuries. Four young area men were charged in the attack.

O’Brien said people have a right to go to their homes to rest and be safe. He said his bill is needed to send a message that society will protect the sanctity of the home and that home invaders will be punished harshly.

"We all go to bed to sleep and have the right to expect we won't wake up with a murderer standing over us with a machete," he said. "That's among the worst of acts."

Under the bill, prosecutors would have to prove home invaders entered with the specific intent to kill in order to apply the death penalty. Police have said the Mont Vernon attackers planned to kill anyone who got in their way.

New Hampshire's death penalty law has more restrictions than any state that allows capital punishment. It covers 6 types of crimes, including killing a police officer. Last year, a man was sentenced to die for killing a police officer - New Hampshire’s first death sentence in 50 years. The state's last execution took place in 1939.

(source: Associated Press)

USA:

Report Deems Death Penalty 'a Waste Of Money'

A newly released report from the Death Penalty Information Center has concluded that states could save hundreds of millions of dollars by abolishing the death penalty and diverting the funds to more effective anti-violence programs.

Accompanying the report was a nationwide poll of police chiefs, conducted by RT Strategies, that found that most law enforcement officials do not believe the death penalty deters violent crime, and they see it as the least efficient use of taxpayer money.

"With many states spending millions to retain the death penalty, while seldom or never carrying out an execution, the death penalty is turning into a very expensive form of life without parole," says Richard C. Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center and the report’s author.

He adds that "at a time of budget shortfalls, the death penalty cannot be exempt from reevaluation alongside other wasteful government programs that no longer make sense."

The center also cites Police Chief James Abbott of West Orange, N.J., who says the state spent $250 million on death penalty-related expenses over 25 years "with nothing to show for it," and added that New Jersey's murder rate has dropped since capital punishment was abolished.

(source: Personal Liberty Digest)

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Effective death penalty appeals act (H.R. 3986) offers first step in death penalty abolition

On Tuesday, November 3, Congressman Hank Johnson of Georgia presented a bill that will allow for death row inmates to file multiple habeas corpus petitions. Habeas Corpus is the right of someone to file for subsequent hearings to determine if they are lawfully or unlawfully detained. Current law prevents federal courts from providing habeas corpus to death row inmates except in limited situations. This can leave many people on death row even when new evidence comes to the surface.

Georgians know this all too well from the case of Troy Davis. Troy, convicted of killing a Savannah police officer, has had new evidence arise in his case which does show probable innocence. Since his conviction the majority of the witnesses have either recanted on their testimony or have substantially altered it in signed affidavits. There has also been new testimony that implicates one of the remaining 2 witnesses. Despite this, Troy had already gone through the appeals process, leaving him unable to seek habeas corpus when this new evidence came to the surface. On August 17th, however, the US Supreme Court ordered that a new evidentiary hearing be given to Troy. In this hearing his innocence will have to be clearly proven in order to proceed.

H.R. 3986 or The Effective Death Penalty Appeals Act will allow for a federal court to grant habeas corpus when evidence is found proving probable innocence. It also grants those on death row the right to file successive habeas corpus appeals. In order to file, however, they must have new evidence which a panel of federal judges rules to be "reasonably expected to demonstrate innocence." This will provide a much needed safeguard to keep innocent people from falling victim to the death penalty. It is not as good as all out abolition, but it is a start.

(source: The Examiner)

VIRGINIA:

D.C. sniper asks for reprieve----Muhammad seeks halt to execution

Attorneys for John Allen Muhammad, mastermind of the 2002 sniper attacks in the Washington area, which left 10 dead, asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday to stop his execution.

Muhammad, 48, is scheduled to die by injection on Nov. 10 at a Virginia prison. In court papers, his attorneys say the execution should be put off while the court considers whether his trial lawyer was ineffective.

Muhammad was convicted of killing Dean Harold Meyers at a Manassas gas station during a three-week spree in October 2002 that spanned Maryland, Virginia and the District.

Muhammad and his then-teenage accomplice, Lee Boyd Malvo, were also suspected of fatal shootings in other states, including Louisiana and Alabama. Malvo, now 24, is serving a life sentence.

Muhammad's attorneys also have asked Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine, a Democrat, for clemency, saying Muhammad is mentally ill and should not be executed.

In a 40-minute video to Mr. Kaine last month, attorneys, mental health specialists and witnesses describe Muhammad's illness. Muhammad's attorneys claim he has brain damage, brain dysfunction and neurological deficits, as well as psychotic and delusional behavior, exacerbated by the Gulf War syndrome he suffered as a sergeant in the 1st Iraq war.

They also submitted an interview with a juror who said that she would not have sentenced Muhammad to death if she had known of his severe mental illness.

The Supreme Court has banned executing the insane or the mentally disabled, measured by an IQ of less than 70, established by the age of 18, and the lack of basic adaptive skills.

Mr. Kaine has said that he knows of no reason he would commute Muhammad's sentence to life in prison, but that he would review the request. As a Roman Catholic, he is opposed to the death penalty, but as governor he has allowed nine executions to take place and commuted 1 sentence - a man who he said was too mentally ill to be executed.

Mr. Kaine usually waits for a condemned inmate to exhaust all appeals before acting on a clemency request. The court could act anytime before the scheduled execution.

(source: Associated Press)

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D.C. sniper should not be executed

John Allen Muhammad, the infamous Washington sniper, should not be put to death.

But Muhammad will die on Nov. 10 by lethal injection. He will be executed under the laws of the state of Virginia. No one will save him. Not the U.S. Supreme Court. Not Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine. Not President Obama. Each could do so but won't.

I understand why families of Muhammad's victims want him to die: He terrorized a city, he ruined lives and he destroyed futures. I was living in Washington at the time, and I can still recall my own fear for myself, my family and my friends that there was a random shooter on the loose.

But the justified anger of the victims' kin does not justify state-sponsored killing.

Capital punishment is morally wrong and irrational.

A recent report, titled "Smart on Crime" and published by the Death Penalty Information Center, exposes many of the basic problems with the death penalty.

First of all, it is not a deterrent.

According to "Smart on Crime," the nation's police chiefs rank the capital punishment last in reducing violent crime. Criminologists cited in the same report conclude that the death penalty does not effectively reduce murders in the United States. In fact, 88 % of the nation's top criminologists "do not believe that the death penalty acts as a deterrent to homicide," the report says. As proof, since the year 2000, executions have declined 60 % in the United States but the murder rate has also gone down, not up, as proponents of the death penalty would predict.

Second, the death penalty is arbitrarily applied. Back in 2005, the Associated Press studied capital cases in Ohio over a 2-decade period. It found that in 1 county, only 8 % of those charged with a capital crime got a death sentence, whereas in another county, the rate was more than 5 times higher.

Third, there is a pronounced racial bias. If you murdered a white person in Ohio, you were twice as likely to be sentenced to death than if you killed a black person, the AP study found.

Another major problem with the death penalty is the cost. For example, California, which was recently borderline insolvent, spends $137 million per year on its capital punishment program; yet, no one has been executed there in three and a half years. Other states report similar cost issues.

Then there is gnawing question of innocence. How can we ever be sure that the person who is executed is not innocent? Have we already put people to death who did not do the crime? Recently, the case of Cameron Todd Willingham again called our entire state-sponsored machinery of death into question. Willingham, executed in February 2004, was convicted of killing his own children by arson. However, the evidence used to convict him of deliberately setting the fire that killed his daughters has been proven to be not sustainable. In other words, Willingham did not set the fire that killed his daughters but was put to death for that very act.

Even if we are confident that the person is guilty, however, as in the case of John Allen Muhammad, capital punishment is still wrong.

It is premeditated murder, and that's immoral whether an individual is doing the deed or the state is.

(source: Allentown (Penn.) Morning Call; ABOUT THE WRITER----Brian Gilmore is a writer for Progressive Media Project, a source of liberal commentary on domestic and international issues; it is affiliated with The Progressive magazine)

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Juror: Jury didn't know of sniper's mental illness

With sniper John Allen Muhammad's scheduled execution 6 days away, one of jurors who sentenced him to death says she wouldn't have made that decision if she knew about the elder sniper's history of mental illness and abuse.

In an undated audio interview posted on the Web page of Muhammad's lawyers, juror Elizabeth Young says she's "absolutely convinced the death penalty is not the right punishment in this case."

In Tuesday's appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, Muhammad's lawyer Jonathan Sheldon of Devine, Connell, Sheldon & Flood argues jurors were never allowed to hear Muhammad has brain damage, brain dysfunction and neurological deficits, as well as psychotic and delusional behavior.

In Muhammad's 2003 trial in Virginia Beach jurors were not allowed to present doctors as witnesses to testify about his brain deficiencies, because Muhammad refused to be interviewed by prosecution doctors.

"I just cannot believe there was all this evidence of mental illness and childhood abuse and schizophrenia. All of that was known, and we the jury was not presented with that evidence," said Young.

Young's interview was submitted to the Supreme Court, as well as to Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine, who is still considering the request for clemency.

Other evidence submitted includes MRI brain scans, which defense witnesses say confirm Muhammad has 3 congenital malformations of the brain, two of which are found with greater frequency in people with schizophrenia.

Young, who had asked the judge whether she could research the death penalty before rendering her sentence, has since spoken out against the death penalty.

It's unclear when the Supreme Court or Kaine will act on Muhammad's appeals. He's scheduled to be executed by lethal injection the evening of Nov. 10, at the Greensville Correctional Center in Jarratt, Va.

(source: WTOP)

IDAHO:

Capital punishment may be gone for good in Idaho

Is the death penalty a thing of the past inthe Gem State? Sure looks that way. Ada County Prosecutor Greg Bower's recent decision not to seek the death penalty against the mother and her boyfriend accused of killing 8-year-old Robert Manwill last summer shows just how difficult prosecutors believe it is to convince a jury to put a convicted person to death in Idaho.

And there are other considerations as well. Recession-battered small counties simply can't afford the hundreds of thousands of dollars that prosecuting a death penalty case requires.

In 2002, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that juries - not judges - must impose capital punishment. For prosecutors, that's a much bigger hurdle.

To apply the death penalty, jurors must unanimously find that the aggravating factors - such as whether the defendant showed an utter disregard for human life or a propensity to commit murder - outweigh mitigating factors offered by the defense.

Mitigation is a murky concept. Defense attorneys can offer evidence of whatever they say may have contributed to what happened. Common mitigating factors include mental health issues or a history of childhood trauma.

Since juries took over deciding the death penalty, only two Idaho counties have asked for capital punishment in murder cases. Ada County - Idaho's biggest and most prosperous - hasn't pursued it since being denied twice in 2005.

In 2006, Jim Junior Nice avoided the death penalty after cutting a deal with Twin Falls County Prosecutor Grant Loebs to plead guilty to murdering his 3 children.

Loebs told the Idaho Statesman that he made the deal in the Nice case for a variety of reasons - including the fact that Nice's guilty plea means he will never leave prison. But he added that Nice's attorneys would have put on mitigation evidence that their client suffered from mental illness.

Just last month, Cassia County Prosecutor Al Barrus announced he would not seek capital punishment in the 1st-degree murder case of Gerry Salgado, who is charged with the shooting death of Liopoldo Amescua.

Polls have consistently shown that Idaho is one of the most pro-death penalty states in the nation, but just one person in half a century has been executed here - double-murderer Keith Eugene Wells, who dropped all appeals and demanded lethal injection in 1994.

Unless the Supreme Court changes the rules, capital punishment is the longest of longshots for Idaho prosecutors nowadays. And nobody in Idaho - not the governor, the Legislature, the attorney general nor prosecutors - is in a position to change that.

(source: Magic Valley Times-News)

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Idaho prosecutors opting not to seek death penalty----2 counties have pursued it since '03

Fewer Idaho prosecutors are seeking the death penalty in murder cases in recent years.

The Idaho Statesman reports that only 2 counties have asked for the death penalty in murder cases since 2003, and Ada County prosecutors haven't pursued capital punishment since jurors declined to find 2 defendants eligible for the death penalty in 2005.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 7 years ago that juries, not judges, must unanimously decide that a defendant qualifies for the death penalty – adding another factor prosecutors must weigh when determining whether to seek capital punishment.

Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompson decided last month not to seek the death penalty against 25-year-old Silas Parks, who is accused of murdering his pregnant wife, 28-year-old Sarah Parks, and setting their Moscow home on fire.

Thompson said he didn't think the available evidence was enough to meet all the requirements for capital punishment under Idaho law, which requires juries to consider factors that justify the death penalty against factors that make the defendant less culpable for the crime.

"Basically, we felt we would only be able to address one or two of the aggravating factors, and (that evidence) wasn’t really strong," Thompson said. "We felt any kind of mitigating evidence (collected by Silas’ attorneys) would outweigh that."

In 2 other recent high-profile cases, prosecutors also opted against pursuing capital punishment.

Elmore County prosecutor Kristina Schindele made the decision after Mexico said it would only extradite triple-murderer suspect Jorge Orozco to Idaho if the county agreed not to pursue the death penalty.

In the other case, Ada County Prosecutor Greg Bower decided not to pursue the penalty against Daniel Ehrlick and Melissa Jenkins, who are charged in the murder of Jenkins' son, 8-year-old Robert Manwill.

Bower said many legal and factual reasons were behind his decision but he declined to offer details.

(source: Associated Press)

ARIZONA:

Federal Hearing On "Death Row Debbie" Milke's Big Appeal Postponed

We've been getting a bunch of emails from folks inquiring about the status of the Deborah Milke murder case.

When we last wrote about the infamous case involving the mom convicted of orchestrating the murder of her 4-year-old son (she supposedly sent him "off to see Santa Claus"), we noted that a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals panel unanimously had ordered a federal judge in Phoenix to conduct a critical evidentiary hearing within 60 days.

That order came on September 29, and the Phoenix hearing was scheduled to start November 16. People have been wondering if we are going to be there, and the answer is yes.

But everyone will have to wait a bit longer.

At the request of Milke's attorneys, the big hearing has been postponed for another 45 days, which probably will move it to early January.

The federal appellate panel stunningly concluded that there is "no evidence" that Milke (pictured) "voluntarily, knowingly, and intelligently" waived her Miranda warning against self-incrimination before allegedly confessing to a Phoenix police detective back in December 1989.

If Judge Robert Broomfield agrees with the appellate panel, he is likely to toss out Milke's confession. That could lead to a retrial and, potentially, her freedom after almost 2 decades on Arizona's death row.

(source: Phoenix New Times)

CALIFORNIA:

Prosecutor scores key point in trial of accused East Palo Alto cop killer

An attorney prosecuting the 26-year-old man accused of killing East Palo Alto police Officer Richard May scored a significant victory Tuesday when a judge granted his request to present evidence that suggests a motive for the crime.

San Mateo County Superior Court Judge Craig Parsons listened to about an hour of testimony and arguments Tuesday morning before ruling he would allow defendant Alberto Alvarez's parole officers to tell jurors about a form the accused cop killer signed upon his release from prison.

The document informs parolees that under a federal "Trigger Lock" law they could serve 15 years to life in prison if caught with a firearm.

May was killed on Jan. 7, 2006, after chasing Alvarez near the scene of a fight at the Villa Taqueria on University and Cooley avenues. The 2 men ended up in a driveway on Weeks Street, where they scuffled and apparently exchanged shots.

San Mateo County Chief Deputy District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe has argued Alvarez shot and killed May after fleeing the scene of a fight to avoid going back to prison for gun possession — a violation of his parole.

Defense attorney Eric Liberman told the court Tuesday that the evidence shouldn't be submitted because it's "common knowledge" that federal authorities almost never prosecute anyone under the "Trigger Lock" law, which wouldn't even have applied to Alvarez given his relatively minor previous convictions on marijuana and concealed weapon charges.

During the hearing, attorney James Thompson, who has worked as a public and private defender on numerous death penalty cases, confirmed the law wouldn't have applied to Alvarez because it requires 3 separate, serious drug or violent felony convictions, and the defendant didn't even have one.

"A person is presumed to know the law," Liberman heatedly told Judge Parsons after Thompson completed his testimony. "The presumption is he would know this does not apply to him. ... There is no evidence before the court that Mr. Alvarez believed he was facing a 15-year sentence or a life sentence."

In a brief Wagstaffe submitted to the court, he called that argument specious, saying "it is not relevant whether the defendant actually faced a potential life sentence under federal law.

"The fact is that he was told twice that he did face a life sentence if he possessed a firearm, and this evidence of his state of mind provides strong evidence of his motive and his intent to kill," Wagstaffe wrote.

Parsons agreed and said he had already allowed evidence about Alvarez's parole status.

The evidence "is highly probative on the issue of motive and the defendant's state of mind when Officer May was killed," Parsons said.

"This motion, in my view, is simply a ratcheting up of the original motive evidence that I've already ruled on. What it does, if admitted, is tell the jury how high the stakes were with respect to being apprehended with a firearm with ammunition."

Lead defense attorney Charles Robinson was clearly shocked and asked Parsons to delay the trial so he could find former inmates and parolees who might have told Alvarez the federal law is virtually never applied.

"I'm absolutely stunned this evidence is being let in the courtroom," Robinson said, adding, "We didn't think we would have to disprove common knowledge."

Parsons denied Robinson's request, and the trial resumed with the testimony of criminalist Carlos Jiron, of the San Mateo County Sheriff's Office crime lab, and Alvarez's 2 parole officers.

Jiron has spent numerous hours on the stand since Monday afternoon, giving detailed descriptions of how he collected and analyzed physical evidence and displaying everything from spent shell casings to a pair of Alvarez's bloodstained underpants.

Several jurors looked at the clock repeatedly during his hours-long testimony, and others chuckled when he returned to the stand after a brief break.

After court adjourned at about 4:10 p.m., Robinson expressed dismay at Parson's ruling on the federal "Trigger Lock" law evidence.

"The bottom line is if that's a motive, so would be the fact that he could be getting the death penalty if he shot an officer," Robinson said.

Wagstaffe said he is pleased with the ruling, which he hadn't seen as a sure win beforehand.

"I certainly feel he went the correct way," Wagstaffe said outside the courtroom. "The defendant's state of mind is one of the big things in this case."

The trial resumes today with cross-examination of Jiron. Alvarez remains in custody on no-bail status.

(source: San Jose Mercury News)

DELAWARE:

Sentence pending for 2007 Millsboro murder----Del. man convicted of killing fiancée

A Sussex County Superior Court jury on Monday started the penalty phase in the capital murder trial of Emmett Taylor III, the man convicted late last week in the bludgeoning death of his fiancée just days before their planned 2007 wedding.

The penalty phase, in which the jury will recommend life in prison or the death penalty, is expected to take three or four days. Superior Court Judge E. Scott Bradley will have final say in the sentence.

The same jury found Taylor, 46, guilty of 1st-degree murder Friday afternoon in the death of his fiancée, Stephanie V. Mumford, also 44.

Mumford's body was found the night of Aug. 14, 2007, in the condominium she shared with Taylor at Fairfield at Long Neck, east of Millsboro.

Mumford's family got worried when the couple didn't show up for their wedding rehearsal and began to search for her.

The last anyone heard from her was just after 10 p.m. on Aug. 13, when she made 4 telephone calls to a family friend within an hour. She told the friend that Taylor was angry with her and had ordered her out of the house.

Taylor had been drinking with friends earlier that night and the couple started to argue. Taylor believed Mumford had disrespected him by not making dinner for him, according to court records.

In Mumford's last phone call, at 10:09 p.m., she was crying and her friend could hear Taylor yelling at her.

"Then the phone went dead," the friend told police in court records.

Investigators said neighbors also reported hearing loud banging and arguing about the same time that night.

Calls to Taylor's cell phone went unanswered and the 2002 Chevrolet Tahoe the couple owned was reported missing.

Taylor told a co-worker about a month earlier that Mumford had slapped him and "he became so angry that he punched her, knocking out one of her teeth, then he choked her to the point that she became unconscious for a short time," according to court records.

An autopsy revealed Mumford died of blunt trauma to the head.

When her body was found in the bathroom, the $4,000 engagement ring Taylor had given her was missing from her finger, police said.

(source: The News Journal)

ILLINOIS:

Dugan 'couldn't stop' himself from killing 10-year-old

Referring to a famous fictional villain, Brian Dugan told a psychologist he couldn't stop himself from kidnapping and murdering Jeanine Nicarico, even though he knew his actions were wrong.

"I turned into Mr. Hyde from Dr. Jekyll -- that's what it was," Dugan said in a recorded interview played Tuesday for the DuPage County jury that will decide whether he receives a death sentence for fatally bludgeoning the 10-year-old Naperville girl in 1983.

Defense attorneys trying to save Dugan's life played the Sept. 5 videotaped interview to bolster their claims that the 53-year-old Aurora man is a psychopath who can't control his actions.

Speaking in a soft voice, Dugan claimed he originally had planned to burglarize a home in Jeanine's Naperville subdivision, but then when he saw the fifth-grader home alone, he suddenly decided to kidnap, rape and murder her.

"I was terrified after I committed the crime, but it didn't stop me. I couldn't stop," Dugan said during the interview with forensic psychologist Kent Kiehl.

Dugan is already serving life sentences for the 1984 slaying of 27-year-old Donna Schnorr and the 1985 killing of 7-year-old Melissa Ackerman. If jurors choose not to sentence Dugan to death for Jeanine's murder, he will be sentenced to another life term.

On the videotape, Dugan also talked about what he called his "philosophical objection" to the death penalty -- although jurors didn't hear that testimony.

"It's useless. It's overkill," Dugan said. "It makes society as bad as someone who shows no remorse."

But he expressed ambivalence about actually being executed, referring to it as "early release" from his life sentences.

"I really don't care about dying," Dugan said. "It's like early release."

(source: Chicago Sun-Times)

SAUDI ARABIA----execution

Saudi Arabia beheads woman

2 Sri Lankans, one of them a woman, and an Indian were beheaded by the sword in the Red Sea city of Jeddah on Wednesday for theft and murder, the Saudi interior ministry said.

Mohammed Barmil from India and Sri Lankan Bandar Nikar entered the home of Mariam Hussein, a Saudi woman, suffocated her and stole money and jewellery, official SPA news agency reported, quoting a ministry statement.

They had entered with the help of Hussein's Sri Lankan maid, Halima Abdelkader, the ministry said.

The beheadings took to 59 the number of executions in Saudi Arabia this year. Last year, Saudi Arabia put 102 people to death.

Capital punishment can be imposed for crimes of rape, murder, apostasy, armed robbery and drug trafficking under the country's strict Islamic shari'ah laws.

(source: Agence France-Presse)

IRAN:

3 Men Await Execution for Alleged Homosexual Conduct When Children

"Killing people for what they did as children is wrong and repellent, and killing them for alleged homosexual conduct is just as wrong and repellent. The Iranian government has flouted its most basic human rights obligations in allowing these cruel death sentences."

Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights WatchIran should immediately halt the planned executions of three men under charges of male homosexual conduct allegedly committed when they were children, Human Rights Watch said today.

Mehdi P., from Tabriz; Moshen G., from Shiraz; and Nemat Safavi, from Ardebil, were accused in separate cases of committing homosexual acts when they were under age 18. No date has been set for their execution yet, but the lawyer representing 2 of the men fears that it could happen any day.

"Killing people for what they did as children is wrong and repellent, and killing them for alleged homosexual conduct is just as wrong and repellent," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch. "The Iranian government has flouted its most basic human rights obligations in allowing these cruel death sentences."

Mehdi P. and Moshen G. denied the charges, and no witnesses testified against them. Safavi was arrested at the age of 16 in 2006, and tried by a court in Ardebil, where he is being held.

The courts sentenced all 3 to death despite the requirement in Iran's shari'a-based criminal code that sexual offenses require a confession repeated four times or the testimony of 4 male witnesses. However, the code allows judges to use their "knowledge" in determining guilt where no such evidence is available, a dangerously elastic provision. Judges relied on such discretionary "knowledge" to sentence Mehdi P. and Moshen G. No information is available on the source of evidence for the 3rd judgment.

Iran leads the world in executing juvenile offenders - at least seven in 2008, and at least three so far in 2009. The execution of another juvenile offender, Safar Angooti, who was charged with murder, was scheduled for October 21 but postponed at the last minute for a month. In February, the United Nations General Assembly called on Iran to abolish the execution of persons who were under age 18 at the time of their offense.

The juvenile death penalty is prohibited in international law, and the prohibition is absolute. Both the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) specifically prohibit capital punishment of persons under 18 at the time of the offense. These provisions reflect the reality that children are different from adults, and lack the experience, judgment, maturity, and restraint of an adult. Iran ratified the ICCPR in 1975 and the CRC in 1994.

Lavat - consummated sexual activity between males, whether penetrative or not - is punishable by execution in Iranian law. Article 111 of the Code of Islamic Punishments or Penal Code states that "Lavat is punishable by death so long as both the active and passive partners are mature, of sound mind, and have acted of free will." Tafkhiz - the rubbing together of thighs or buttocks or other forms of non-penetrative "foreplay" between men - is punishable by one hundred lashes for each partner, according to Articles 121-122 of the Penal Code. Recidivism is punishable by death on the fourth conviction.

In addition, Article 123 of the Penal Code further provides that "If two men who are not related by blood lie naked under the same cover without any necessity," each one will receive 99 lashes. Articles 127 to 134 stipulate that the punishment for sexual intercourse between women is 100 lashes and if the offense is repeated three times, the punishment is execution.

The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights states that nations that have not abolished the death penalty must only impose it for the "most serious crimes." The Human Rights Committee, which authoritatively interprets the covenant, has said that should mean the death penalty should be a "quite exceptional measure." In its 1994 landmark decision in the case of Toonen v. Australia, the Human Rights Committee held that laws criminalizing homosexual conduct violate the rights to privacy and protection from discrimination.

In 2008, the Deputy Attorney General of Iran announced that Iranian judicial authorities would ban the juvenile death penalty for non-murder-related offenses, effective immediately, pending parliamentary approval.

Human Rights Watch opposes capital punishment in all circumstances because of its cruel and inhumane nature. Human rights principles and protections are founded upon respect for the inherent dignity of all human beings and the inviolability of the human person. These principles cannot be reconciled with the death penalty, a form of punishment that is unique in its cruelty and finality. The intrinsic fallibility of all criminal justice systems assures that even when full due process of law is respected, innocent persons may be executed.

"These three death sentences violate promises the Iranian government has repeatedly made, to the international community and to its own people, to stop executing people for crimes they committed as children," Whitson said.

(source: Human Rights Watch)

NOVEMBER 3, 2009:

TEXAS----2 new execution dates

Hank Skinner has been given an execution date for February 24, and Franklin Alix has been given an execution date for March 30; both dates should be considered serious.

(sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin)

NEVADA:

Attorney wants mistrial for death row inmate over juror questioning

A defense attorney for death row inmate James R. Walker says a mistrial should have been granted in Las Vegas when the only black juror was questioned by the prosecution about race issues.

JoNell Thomas, deputy special public defender, told the Nevada Supreme Court that questions about race can be asked but one black juror can't be singled out for the questions.

Thomas and Alzora B. Jackson, a deputy special public defender, are seeking to have the verdict and the death penalty overturned. But Steven Owens, chief deputy district attorney in Clark County, said there was no misconduct in the questioning and "this was not a close case as far as the evidence showed."

Walker, now 53 and serving his sentence at the state prison in Ely, was convicted of the stabbing death of Christine Anziano, who suffered 28 injuries. She was stabbed as she exited a grocery store near Lamb and Bonanza on Aug. 23, 2003. He took her purse.

Walker, who is black, was also found guilty of the robbery and stabbing of Kirk Lohe, whose throat was cut 10-14 times. But Lohe survived.

A co-defendant, Myrdus Archie, accused of driving the getaway car, was convicted of 2nd-degree murder. Archie, 57, and with 16 known aliases, is confined to the Florence McClure Women's Correctional Center and is serving time on multiple offenses. Her case was not before the court.

There are 82 men on death row and the last execution was in April 2006.

Thomas said the prosecution asked the black juror if he would feel ridicule from the black community if he voted to put Walker to death.

Justice Michael Cherry told Thomas that in the 1970s questions were allowed about race. But Thomas said in this case, the lone black juror was singled out and the white jurors were not asked similar questions.

Owens said the juror did not take offense to the question and he was excluded from the jury for other reasons. He said the juror had 14 relatives of which only 3 were not in prison and the juror also had a personal relationship with the defense lawyer.

Jackson argued the trial judge, Valerie Adair, should have granted a defense motion to separate the trial of Walker and Archie. She said the defense attorney painted Archie as an innocent bystander. Archie did not testify but the defense lawyer indicated she was present at the crime scenes and that Walker was there.

Owens said, however, a separate trial for the two “would have been a total waste of time.” He said the same witnesses would have been called and the same evidence presented.

Thomas said a jury instruction should have been given that Walker was under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Owens said there was no evidence presented at trial to back up the defendant was intoxicated or under the influence of drugs.

Owens characterized Walker as a "very violent individual." He said Walker was convicted in 1978 of shooting and wounding a man and 10 years later committed battery on a prison guard.

The court took the hour-long arguments under study and will rule later.

(source: Las Vegas Sun)

INDIANA----new execution date

Execution date set in Evansville killings

The Indiana Supreme Court has set Dec. 11 as the execution date for a man convicted of the 1994 slayings of his estranged wife and 2 of her relatives in Evansville.

The court said today that 49-year-old Matthew Eric Wrinkles has exhausted his state and federal appeals and is not entitled to an additional appeal of his death sentence.

Court spokeswoman Kathryn Dolan says Wrinkles still could ask Gov. Mitch Daniels for clemency. The U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear his appeal.

A message seeking comment was left for Wrinkles' attorney.

Defense attorneys argued that jurors were biased since they could see Wrinkles was wearing a stun belt during his trial.

Wrinkles was convicted of breaking into his brother-in-law’s home and killing his wife, her brother and his wife.

(source: Associated Press)

FLORIDA:

Casey's attorneys want death penalty, indictment, and check fraud charges dropped

Attorneys for Casey Anthony are asking a judge to rule out the death penalty in her murder trial and throw out most of the charges in the check fraud case against her.

In a motion filed October 30th, her defense says prosecutors are seeking the death penalty as a tactical advantage to get a "conviction prone" jury, despite not having evidence supporting a capital case. The motion claims the state does not have suficient evidence demonstrating "aggravating circumstances" or that 2-year-old Caylee was murdered in a "cold, calculating, and premeditated manner."

Anthony's team also asks the judge to dismiss the murder indictment, calling it defective and does not include "the essential facts constituting the offense charged."

"Without any facts to refute, Miss Anthony cannot formulate a defense," the motion claims. "Is Miss Anthony to try to dream up all these ways and marshall a defense to them all? Provide alibis for every potential scenario, every date and time the state might consider in the range of dates they discuss? The prospect is absurd."

The defense alleges the indictment shifts the burden to Casey Anthony, instead of prosecutors.

Another motion asks the judge to throw out 9 of the check fraud-related charges against Anthony. She's accused of using checks taken from her then-friend Amy Huizenga. But her defense says prosecutors filed 3 counts for each check she allegedly wrote, and thus is facing double jeopardy.

A date has not been set for a hearing on the motions.

(source: WDBO News)

NEW HAMPSHIRE:

Mont Vernon legislators: Home invasion murderers deserve death penalty

2 Mont Vernon lawmakers want to expand the state’s death penalty law to include murders during home invasions.

Their town was the scene of the shocking murder Oct. 4 of 42-year-old Kimberly Cates. 4 teenagers have been charged in connection with the home invasion in which police say she was killed in a machete attack that left her 11-year-old daughters seriously injured.

Prosecutors say the teens targeted the home at random, with a plan to kill anyone inside.

Rep. William O'Brien and Rep. Robert Mead, both Republicans, are asking that their bill be called the Kimberly L. Cates Law. They have asked the House Rules Committee to let them to bring their proposed bill even though the deadline for new legislation has passed. The committee is not scheduled to meet at this point.

"The message is this is one of the most horrible things you can do. If you engage in this, you will be subject to the harshest penalties we know of," O'Brien said.

He and Mead hope to have a bill in the Senate, which is still accepting new legislation.

A year-long study of the death penalty is just getting organized in the Legislature. That study could produce recommendations to expand or eliminate the death penalty.

O'Brien said he expects some resistance while a full study is underway.

"I think most people understand the need for a statement," O'Brien said.

Mead said that voters have told him they can't understand why an incident like the Mont Vernon murders isn’t subject to the death penalty under current capital murder law.

The death penalty can now be brought in cases of murder during kidnapping, rape or drug deals, in the murder of law enforcement officers and judges and murder for hire.

(source: The Union Leader)

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

Mont Vernon killing prompts call for death penalty in home invasion murder

A New Hampshire lawmaker is naming his bill to make home invasion killings capital offenses after a Mont Vernon woman was killed with a machete in her bed.

Republican William O'Brien said today his bill would apply to anyone who enters a home with the intent to kill. He is naming his bill after Kimberly Cates who was killed Oct. 4. Her 11-year-old daughter was also attacked but survived.

O'Brien said people have a right to go to their homes to rest and be safe. He said his bill is needed to send a message that society will protect the sanctity of the home.

4 young men have been charged with the attack on Cates and her daughter.

(source: Associated Press)

IDAHO:

Idaho Death Penalty Prosecutions Down

Idaho prosecutors are seeking the death penalty in fewer cases since a 2002 U.S. Supreme Court decision that said juries, and not judges, must rule in capital cases, according to Patrick Orr's report in the Statesman this morning.

"And rather than take death penalty cases to juries, prosecutors across the state are opting not to pursue executions at all or are agreeing to plea deals that put killers in prison for life," Orr reports.

And since the U.S. Supreme Court in 2002 said that juries, not judges, must issue the death penalty, prosecutors around the state have been forced into a guessing game: Even if jurors believe the accused committed the crime, will they pass a death sentence?

So far, only Ada and Canyon counties have asked juries to issue the death penalty, and less than half of those cases resulted in death sentences. Not one of Idaho's 42 other counties has taken a death penalty case to trial.

The subtext here, is that prosecutors in the "good old days" before 2003 had a better read on Idaho judges' feelings on the death penalty than they can now surmise from a jury of our peers.

(source: Boise Weekly)

TENNESSEE:

Kingsport man avoids death penalty in 2005 murder of toddler

A Kingsport man who potentially faced the death penalty if found guilty of killing his girlfriend's toddler son has agreed to a last-minute plea deal.

Shawn Anthony Mullins, 27, was headed to trial Monday morning on charges of 1st-degree felony murder and aggravated child abuse and neglect stemming from the 2005 death of 2-year-old Christopher David Smith by means of severe physical abuse.

Mullins was 22 on March 30, 2005, when Heather Collins found her 2-year-old son unresponsive at a friend's home on Robin Lane where the couple had been staying.

(source: Kingsport Times-News)

VIRGINIA----impending execution

Sniper attorneys to appeal execution to high court

Attorneys for sniper mastermind John Allan to file an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court in an effort to stop next week's execution.

Muhammad is scheduled to die by lethal injection Nov. 10 at a Virginia prison.

Attorneys for the 48-year-old have said they planned to file the appeal Tuesday. They asked Gov. Timothy M. Kaine for clemency last month.

Muhammad is to be executed for the slaying of Dean Harold Meyers at a Manassas, Va., gas station during a 3-week killing spree in October 2002 that left 10 dead in Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia.

Muhammad and his teenage accomplice, Lee Boyd Malvo, were also suspected of fatal shootings in other states, including Louisiana and Alabama. Malvo is serving a life sentence in prison.

(source: Associated Press)

MARYLAND:

Miller to propose death penalty changes----Bill would clarify whether fingerprints constitute 'biological evidence'

Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. said last week that he plans to introduce legislation in 2010 that would clarify last session's changes to the state's death penalty statute.

An effort to repeal capital punishment ended with a bill that restricts the death penalty to cases with certain kinds of evidence.

One kind was "biological evidence," and when the bill passed, lawmakers were unsure whether the term included fingerprints.

Miller's bill would spell out that fingerprint evidence would be sufficient.

The changes also called for videotaped evidence or confessions. Miller said Friday that his bill would allow photographic evidence, as well.

Miller (D-Dist. 27) of Chesapeake Beach said he thought the bill would pass the Senate, but he was unsure whether it would pass the House of Delegates.

Sen. Lisa A. Gladden, vice chairman of the Judicial Proceedings Committee and an advocate of a repeal of the death penalty, said she didn't think any changes should be passed yet.

A court ruling could decide that fingerprints are biological, she said.

"We don't want to make it easier to kill people," said Gladden (D-Dist. 41) of Baltimore.

Instead, any changes should wait until the 2011 session, the first after the 2010 elections, she said.

(source: Maryland Business Gazette)

DELAWARE:

Sentence upcoming for 2007 murder----Man already convicted of bludgeoning fiancée

A Sussex County Superior Court jury on Monday started the penalty phase in the capital murder trial of Emmett Taylor III, the man convicted late last week in the bludgeoning death of his fiancée just days before their planned 2007 wedding.

The penalty phase, in which the jury will recommend life in prison or the death penalty, is expected to take 3 or 4 days. Superior Court Judge E. Scott Bradley will have final say in the sentence.

The same jury found Taylor, 46, guilty of 1st-degree murder Friday afternoon in the death of his fiancée, Stephanie V. Mumford, also 44.

Mumford's body was found the night of Aug. 14, 2007, in the condominium she shared with Taylor at Fairfield at Long Neck, east of Millsboro.

Mumford's family got worried when the couple didn't show up for their wedding rehearsal and began to search for her.

The last anyone heard from her was just after 10 p.m. on Aug. 13, when she made 4 telephone calls to a family friend within an hour. She told the friend that Taylor was angry with her and had ordered her out of the house.

Taylor had been drinking with friends earlier that night and the couple started to argue. Taylor believed Mumford had disrespected him by not making dinner for him, according to court records.

In Mumford's last phone call, at 10:09 p.m., she was crying and her friend could hear Taylor yelling at her.

"Then the phone went dead," the friend told police in court records.

Investigators said neighbors also reported hearing loud banging and arguing about the same time that night.

Calls to Taylor's cell phone went unanswered and the 2002 Chevrolet Tahoe the couple owned was reported missing.

Taylor told a co-worker about a month earlier that Mumford had slapped him and "he became so angry that he punched her, knocking out one of her teeth, then he choked her to the point that she became unconscious for a short time," according to court records.

Neighbors also told homicide detectives they had seen Taylor punching Mumford about 2 weeks earlier while the couple was sitting inside the Tahoe in the parking lot.

An autopsy revealed Mumford died of blunt trauma to the head. Prosecutors said Taylor killed Mumford with a frying pan.

When her body was found in the bathroom, the $4,000 engagement ring Taylor had given her was missing from her finger, police said, though other pieces of her jewelry remained in the home.

(source: The News Journal)

IDAHO:

Death penalty cases costly; instead, seek life sentences

Stevens County is balking at accepting the death penalty case of Christopher H. Devlin, because of the enormous costs associated with mounting such cases. It’s a valid concern, because the county is already facing a $1.2 million deficit.

"I have no doubt that the defense cost of Mr. Devlin and the costs to prosecute this case would be a serious blow to the solvency of Stevens County," county prosecuting attorney Tim Rasmussen told The Spokesman-Review. He noted that a similar case cost Okanogan County $750,000.

While cost shouldn't be the only concern in prosecutions, it's become clear that a death penalty charge imposes a financial burden that isn't worth it. That's also true of larger counties, especially as they try to dig themselves out of deep budgetary holes. It can mean more pressure to reach plea agreements in other cases or employee layoffs or cutbacks in service.

The Devlin case was investigated by the Spokane County Sheriff's Office and the death penalty charge was brought by Spokane County, because the body of Daniel D. Heily was found near Deer Park. But investigators have since heard from a co-defendant who says the killing took place in Stevens County.

Spokane County Superior Court Judge Jerome Leveque ruled last month that because the crimes took place in 2 counties, the defendant could decide where to mount a defense. Devlin chose Stevens County.

Rasmussen contends that the judge wants Spokane County to prosecute the case with a Stevens County jury. He says Spokane County should pick up the tab. Spokane County Deputy Prosecutor Dale Nagy says his interpretation is that the entire case – costs included – shifts to Stevens County.

This financial hot potato shows why it is a wiser course to seek life sentences, with no possibility of parole, for defendants like Devlin. Despite popular misconception, it is cheaper to imprison and feed a "lifer" than it is seek an execution. Once such a conviction is obtained, a series of lengthy appeals will begin. Many more death row inmates die of natural causes than executions, but the delays are necessary because of the irreversible nature of the punishment.

Spokane County dodged a bill of $1 million or more when it decided against the death penalty for convicted serial killer Robert Lee Yates Jr. The same is true with Kootenai County in the case of Joseph Duncan.

We certainly do not weep for these killers, and if Devlin is guilty, we have no sympathy for him. But they will die in prison. Hastening that day just isn't worth it.

(source: Opinion, Spokesman-Review)

CALIFORNIA:

Melvin Brunetti dies at 75; federal appeals court judge----He sat on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals for 24 years. His key opinions include upholding Robert Alton Harris' death penalty and broader Pentagon scrutiny of homosexuals' security clearances.

Melvin Brunetti, a federal appeals court judge for the last 24 years whose opinions included upholding anti-hate crime legislation, broader Pentagon scrutiny of homosexuals' security clearances and the death penalty for Robert Alton Harris, has died. He was 75.

Brunetti died Friday at his home in Reno after a long battle with cancer, his family told the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, to which he had been appointed by President Reagan in 1985.

He had been on senior status with the appeals court since 1999, a semi-retirement in which a judge is replaced on the active roster but continues to handle a reduced caseload.

Brunetti came to the federal bench through the unusual path of an electrical engineering degree from the University of Nevada and seven years in the dairy industry before obtaining a law degree in 1964 from UC Hastings College of Law in San Francisco.

Brunetti returned to Nevada after law school where he worked in private practice for 15 years before his appointment to the appeals court. He also served as Nevada State Bar president the year before his appointment.

Circuit Judge Diarmuid F. O'Scannlain, a fellow Reagan appointee, credited Brunetti's business and accounting experience for his "knack in questioning counsel in a way that brought out fascinating aspects of a case."

"He was just a delightful colleague," said O'Scannlain, adding that Brunetti also had a good track record with the U.S. Supreme Court, which has a history of disproportionately overturning 9th Circuit decisions.

Brunetti's most notable opinion was probably the 9th Circuit panel ruling in 1990 upholding the conviction and death sentence for Harris for the murder of two San Diego teenagers in 1978. Harris was put to death in the gas chamber in 1992, the first execution in the state after a 25-year hiatus during which the penalty's constitutionality was reviewed and debated on the federal and state levels.

In 1996, however, Brunetti joined two other 9th Circuit judges in a historic ruling that the gas chamber "is inhumane and has no place in civilized society." All 11 subsequent executions in the state have been done by lethal injection.

In a 1990 ruling deemed a "disaster for gays" by civil rights advocates, Brunetti wrote for a three-judge panel that homosexuals aren't a protected class of individuals under the Constitution and that the Pentagon had "a rational basis" for subjecting them to greater scrutiny for secret and top-secret security clearances.

In 1997, Brunetti wrote an opinion that upheld a statute prohibiting racially motivated assaults, a case stemming from an attack on a Latino jogger in a public park in Cathedral City. In a case involving University City High School in San Diego, Brunetti wrote for the court that same year that a public school that makes classrooms available to secular student clubs during lunch hour must provide the same accommodation for a religious club.

Brunetti also was the chairman of the 9th Circuit's Space and Security Committee for many years, securing new courthouses and facility upgrades made necessary by the continuous expansion of the appeals court and its caseload, his fellow judges said.

The judge, who was born Nov. 11, 1933, in Reno, is survived by his wife of 44 years, Gail; daughter Nancy and son Bradley; two brothers, Larry of Boise, Idaho, and Frank of Castro Valley, Calif.; 2 grandchildren and 4 great-grandchildren.

Funeral services will be Saturday in Reno and a private burial is planned, the court reported in announcing Brunetti's death.

(source: Los Angeles Times)

ILLINOIS:

Dugan case opens questions about justice

Sometimes a case is so open-and-shut that you don't know if it should be open or closed. An example is the hearing under way in DuPage County to decide if Brian Dugan deserves the death penalty for brutally murdering Jeanine Nicarico, 10, of Naperville, in 1983.

Dugan has admitted killing Jeanine as well as Melissa Ackerman, 7, in 1985, and Donna Schnorr, 27, in 1984. The murders all were unspeakably horrible, and Dugan committed other serious crimes, including rapes, so it will be no surprise if the jury votes to execute him. An open-and-shut case.

Yet, this time the open-and-shut case has a leaky spot in its logic: Dugan knows he very likely wouldn't be facing the death penalty if he had kept his mouth closed after DuPage authorities rejected a plea agreement with him in 1985.

After he was arrested for Melissa’s murder, he had a chance to plead guilty to all his crimes in exchange for life sentences instead of the death penalty. Dugan admitted to 3 sex attacks and the 3 murders. Officials from other counties accepted the pleas, but DuPage authorities refused to accept a plea for Jeanine's murder. Back then, DuPage officials already had put 2 other men on death row for the crime and were pursuing the conviction of a 3rd man.

Dugan could have gone off to serve his prison sentence and said no more. The plea deal was off the table, but he kept talking. Under an agreement that his words wouldn't be used against him, he gave Illinois State Police enough information to tie him to Jeanine's murder. Had Dugan not spoken up, Rolando Cruz, one of the men originally sent to death row for the crime, in all probability would have been executed. Quite possibly 2 others, Stephen Buckley and Alejandro Hernandez, would have been executed as well.

From 1985 to 1991, 3 juries saw open-and-shut cases against Cruz and Hernandez. By talking, Dugan helped to reopen those cases. (Buckley got a hung jury in 1985. After the story about Dugan came out and other evidentiary developments, charges against Buckley were dropped.)

I'm guessing that Dugan thinks there's another open-and-shut case here. His argument would run something like this: By trusting his words wouldn't be used against him, even indirectly, he saved the criminal justice system from executing innocent people. Therefore, authorities should settle for the sentence he is already serving — life in prison with no chance for parole.

But besides Dugan's own lawyers, I haven't heard many people making that case. You could argue that the state has an interest in obtaining the death penalty for people whose crimes are heinous enough. And you could argue prosecutors aren’t using his words against him, just other information, including DNA, that came out after Dugan put authorities on his trail.

This case, however, puts the jury in a difficult position:

Vote to spare Dugan from the death penalty, and it feels like you are ignoring the pain his many crimes have caused.

Vote to give him a lethal injection, and the message you send discourages criminals from coming forward if others are being charged with their crimes. Perhaps more to the point, it discourages their lawyers from seeking a way to save innocent people if it means they’ll be betraying their own clients.

Look at the Cook County case of Alton Logan, freed last year after 26 years in prison when lawyers Jamie Kunz and Dale Coventry revealed that their client Andrew Wilson had claimed he committed the murder for which Logan was convicted. I bet Logan wishes there had been a way for Wilson's lawyers to get that information out without having to wait for Wilson to die first.

In recent years, we have learned there are lots of Alton Logans sitting behind bars for crimes committed by others. I bet those people, too, wish there were an easier way for the truth to come out.

If Dugan gets the death penalty, it will be hard for him to argue he's getting a worse deal than he gave his victims.

For the rest of us, though, the case really isn't so open-and-shut.

(source: Column; Thomas Frisbie is the Sun-Times nation/world editor and co-author of Victims of Justice Revisited, a book about the trials involving Rolando Cruz and Brian Dugan----Suburban Chicago News)

USA:

Ban the death penalty

Without a doubt, the death penalty is not a new discussion. Community activists, politicians, religious leaders, philosophers and the medical community debate, discuss and question the practice throughout our history.

Proponents of the death penalty will say it was created so society will know it will not tolerate heinous behavior. So the death penalty will diminish crimes of treason, spying and murder. Those against the death penalty will question what crime can be so heinous as to justify society killing a person who has killed another person. The challenge then becomes a procedure placed into our justice system. Should execution of a person's life take place and be a legal means of righting a wrong? Is this procedure being done in the name of revenge because a family, a community or a society is grieving due to a loss of a loved one? Is the person who did the killing any less loved?

What are the circumstances for which the person was murdered? Will killing another bring back the loved one or does killing another person make the hurt go away?

It is reported that between 1977 and 2006 that 1,057 people have been executed in the United States. In other parts of the world capital punishment is banned. Why isn't it banned in the most industrialized society in the world?

(source: The Signal)

SAUDI ARABIA:

Saudi to behead, crucify rapist

A Saudi court has ratified the beheading and crucifixion of a young man who raped 5 children, among them a 3-year-old boy left to die in the desert, a newspaper reported on Monday.

An appeal court in Riyadh approved the death sentence handed down in June by a lower court in Hail, where the convicted 22-year-old man carried out his crimes, Okaz newspaper said.

The man was arrested several weeks ago, the paper said, as he tried to seize another youth after offering him a ride home from school.

Saudi Arabia has executed 56 people this year under laws that allow the death penalty for rape, murder, apostasy, armed robbery and drug trafficking.

In extreme cases, the convict is executed and his body crucified in public.

(source: Agence France-Presse)

MALAYSIA:

Japanese woman faces death penalty on Malaysia drug charge

A Japanese woman faces the death penalty in Malaysia after being arrested on suspicion of trafficking 4.7 kilograms of methamphetamines, state media said Monday.

Azizah Ibrahim, customs director at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport, said the 30-year-old woman was detained last Friday for possession of "syabu" which is popular in the region.

Azizah said the drug, with a street value of 1.2 million ringgit (S$490,000), was found in a special compartment in her luggage after she arrived from Dubai, state news agency Bernama reported.

The unnamed woman has been remanded for investigation under Malaysia's tough anti-narcotics law, which stipulates a mandatory death sentence upon conviction. The death penalty is carried out by hanging in Malaysia.

(source: Agence France-Presse)

TANZANIA:

4 Tanzanians to hang for albino killing

4 Tanzanian men have been sentenced to death by hanging for the murder of a 50-year-old albino man.

More than 50 albinos have been killed in the east African country in the last 2 years because witchdoctors say their body parts make potent potions.

The four men were found guilty of the murder of Lyaku Willy, who was killed and had his head and legs removed before his remains were dumped in a village close to Lake Victoria in north-western Tanzania.

He was one of an estimated 200,000 albinos living there. Their condition means that they have no pigment in their skin, hair or eyes.

The rash of murders - including those of children - has shocked many in the usually stable and peaceful country.

"This is something which is bringing shame onto law-abiding people who live here," said an employee of a travel agent in Shinyanga town, where the men's case was heard, who gave his name only as David.

"It is good that the police and the judiciary are catching up with the perpetrators. Maybe this will stop others from copying what they did."

3 other men were sentenced to death by hanging in September over the murder of a 10-year-old boy.

The north-west of Tanzania is heavily steeped in traditional religions and as many as half of the population told a recent census that they believed in witchcraft.

No capital punishment has been carried out in the country since 1995. The men are likely to appeal their sentence. If it is upheld, they are expected to serve life in prison.

(source: The Telegraph)

IRAN:

Abdolhamid Rigi was Executed in Zahedan Yesterday

According to the Iranian Police news center, a member of the militant group "Jondollah", identified as Abdolhamid Rigi, was hanged in the prison of Zahedan yesterday morning.

He was convicted of moharebeh (at war with God) according to the report.

According to the state run news agnecy Fars, the man who was executed, was not the brother of Abdolmalek Rigi, leader of "Jondollah".

Jondollah, is a militant sunni muslim group that has been involved in armed struggle against the Iranian authorities in the southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchestan. The group has taken the responsibility of several deadly attacks against the revolutionary gurads in the past years.

In the past months, Iranian authorities have executed several people convicted of being members of Jondollah. However, according to our sources several of these people haven't had any connections to Jondollah.

Iran Human Rights had previously warned against arbitrary executions following a recent bombing in the Baluchestan province.

(source: Iran Human Rights)

NOVEMBER 2, 2009:

USA/EUROPEAN UNION:

New Agreement Allows Europeans to Refuse to Extradite Death Penalty Criminals to U.S.

American and European officials are negotiating a new agreement that would allow members of the European Union to refuse extradition of suspects to the United States in the event that they may be sentenced to be executed. Few details were provided on this portion of the pending extradition treaty, the first of its kind between the U.S. and the EU, however the agreement is due to take effect in February 2010.

The negotiations also cover matters related to international crime and the relocation of detainees housed at Guantánamo Bay. Attorney General Eric Holder said he hopes the EU will take some of the terrorism suspects, although he expressed doubts as to whether the Obama administration can make its self-imposed deadline of closing Guantánamo by January 22.

(source: Allgov)

TEXAS:

3 Texas death row inmates lose at Supreme Court

The U.S. Supreme Court has refused appeals from 3 Texas death row inmates, including one set to die this month.

The high court Monday refused to review the case of 45-year-old Gerald Cornelius Eldridge, facing execution Nov. 17 for the fatal shootings of his former girlfriend and her daughter in Houston almost 17 years ago.

The justices also rejected appeals from 37-year-old Rigoberto Avila, sent to death row for stomping his girlfriend's baby to death nearly 10 years ago in El dPaso, and from 40-year-old John Balentine, condemned for the slaying of three teenagers in Amarillo almost 12 years ago.

Balentine won a reprieve from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in September a day before he was scheduled to die.

(source: Associated Press)

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

El Pasoan's Death Penalty Appeal Denied

Rigoberto Avila will die for killing a 19-month-old boy.

Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court refused Avila's appeal, as well as appeals from 2 other Texas death row inmates.

Avila, 37, was sent to death row nearly 10 years ago after being found guilty of killing his girlfriend's toddler son by stomping the child to death. Medical experts testified the force of the blow to the boy's abdoment dislodged the boy's organs from his spine.

Avila testified he killed the child because he was jealous of the attention his girlfriend gave the young boy.

The high court also refused to review the case of Gerald Cornelius Eldridge, 45, who faces execution Nov. 17 for the deadly shootings of his former girlfriend and her daughter in Houston almost 17 years ago.

The justices also rejected an appeal from John Balentine, 40, who was condemned for the slaying of 3 teenagers in Amarillo almost 12 years ago.

(source: KFOX TV News)

ARKANSAS:

Trial Starts For Man Accused Of Arkansas Anchor Murder

Trial is underway today in the sensational beating and murder of a Little Rock TV anchorwoman.

Anne Pressly was killed just a little over one year ago, and a Marianna man was arrested in the case.

Jury selection is going on in the death penalty trial of Curtis Vance.

Division 2 of Pulaski County Circuit Court is filled with prospective jurors as the murder case against 29 year old Curtis Vance gets underway.

It's the first death penalty case tried here in 5 years and security is much tighter than normal in an Arkansas Courtroom, even for a death-penalty case. Neither cameras, nor any other type of recording devices are allowed in the courtroom, and doors are locked once court begins, only to be unlocked during breaks.

Laptop computers aren't even allowed in the courtroom.

Judge Chris Piazza has called between 100 and 160 potential jurors for the case. That's about twice the normal number.

These people will face questioning, 5 at a time, from prosecutors and defense attorneys about their view of the death penalty and how much they know about this case already.

Judge Piazza has bowed to the intense media coverage of this case in only one way. That is, that jurors don't have to be totally uninformed about the beating and murder of Little Rock TV anchor Anne Pressly, and Vance's arrest. They just need to be able to take an unbiased look at the case and consider the evidence impartially.

Jury selection is set to last at least a couple of days, with testimony expected to start possibly on Wednesday.

(source: WREG News)

NORTH CAROLINA:

Date set for death penalty hearing

Dec. 8 has been set for a hearing to notify double-murder suspect James Richardson if a death penalty case will be pursued against him.

Pitt County Superior Court Judge Russell Duke set the Rule 24 hearing at the request of prosecutor Clark Everett. The request came Monday during a monthly administrative hearing to review the status of dozens of cases.

Rule 24 hearings must be held to notify defendants and their attorneys whether persecutors will pursue capital murder charges.

If they intend to pursue the death penalty, prosecutors must list the aggravating circumstances they believe exist to justify such a case.

Everett declined Monday to state whether he's decided to seek the death penalty against Richardson, charged in the June 30 shooting deaths of Drew Kirby and Landon Blackley outside The Other Place nightclub in downtown Greenville.

He can pursue capital punishment if his investigation determines that evidence will support the presence of at least one of 11 aggravating factors outlined in state statues.

Aggravating factors

North Carolina requires prosecutors seeking the death penalty to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the crime included at least one of the following 11 aggravating circumstances:

It was committed by a person lawfully incarcerated.

The defendant had been previously convicted of another capital felony or had been in a juvenile proceeding for committing an offense that would be a capital felony if committed by an adult.

The defendant had been previously convicted of a felony involving the use or threat of violence to the person.

It was committed for the purpose of avoiding or preventing a lawful arrest or effecting an escape from custody.

It was committed while the defendant was engaged in the commission of any homicide, robbery, rape or a sex offense, arson, burglary, kidnapping, or aircraft piracy or the unlawful throwing, placing, or discharging of a destructive device.

It was committed for pecuniary gain.

It was committed to disrupt or hinder the lawful exercise of any governmental function or the enforcement of laws.

It was committed against a law-enforcement officer, employee of the Department of Correction, jailer, fireman, judge or justice, former judge or justice, prosecutor or former prosecutor, juror or former juror, or witness or former witness against the defendant.

It was especially heinous or cruel.

The defendant knowingly created a great risk of death to more than one person by means of a weapon or device which would normally be hazardous to the lives of more than one person. The murder for which the defendant stands convicted was part of a course of conduct which included the commission by the defendant of other crimes of violence against another person or persons.

Previous story on the Rule 24 hearing from Sept. 20:

Further investigation is needed before deciding to pursue the death penalty in a June 30 double homicide in downtown Greenville, Pitt County's district attorney said.

District Attorney Clark Everett said he is considering whether evidence against James Earl Richardson shows "aggravating circumstances" existed during the shooting of Drew Kirby and Landon Blackley outside The Other Place nightclub.

He can pursue capital punishment if his investigation determines that evidence will support the presence of at least one of 11 such factors outlined in state statues, he said.

"We're trying to determine if any aggravating circumstances exist and, if there are, whether they are sufficient to request the trial as a capital case," Everett said in an interview last week after Richardson was indicted on 2 count of 1st-degree murder.

Richardson is the lone suspect in the incident, according to police. Investigators say he fired a large number of shots at the club from white BMW driving on Fifth Street.

Kirby, a restaurant manager, and Blackley, an East Carolina University student, were among a crowd on the sidewalk near the club when the shots rang out.

The list of 11 aggravating circumstances includes factors such as the crime being especially heinous, atrocious or cruel; the crime being conducted during the commission of another crime; or the suspect knowingly creating great risk of death to more than one person.

Aggravating circumstances aren’t always as clear as people might think, Everett said.

"Our decision will be based on the facts of the case, the strength of the case and the number and strength of the aggravating circumstances," Everett said.

Although he believes there are potentially aggravating circumstances, Everett said he will not rush to a conclusion.

"We still have to thoroughly investigate and discuss that possibility in an orderly fashion with everybody involved, including the police, the families and our staff,” Everett said. "That's not just important for us, but for everybody involved. It's an investment in resources, and you don't seek the death penalty on a whim; we don’t just arbitrarily say we're going to seek the death penalty. There has to be an orderly process toward that decision."

There are several possible aggravating circumstances on the list that could satisfy state requirements for seeking the death penalty, he said.

"The public often doesn't understand that simple intent to commit murder, no matter how clear or premeditated, is not an aggravating circumstance," Everett said. "It might clearly be 1st-degree murder, but without the presence of one of those aggravating circumstances, it is not a capital crime."

Efforts to speak to Richardson and his family have been unsuccessful. Thomas J. Moore and Damien L. Tucker, associates in a Rocky Mount firm, have been appointed by the state to represent Richardson, according to court documents.

Administrative hearings are being scheduled to establish that his lawyers have no conflicts that prevent fair representation. The hearings also allow will attorneys to discuss plea possibilities that might arise and establish a scheduling agenda to proceed to trial.

A status hearing will then be conducted to discuss whether the case will be tried as a capital crime, Everett said.

Richardson and his attorneys will know well in advance if Everett intends to pursue the death penalty, he said.

"The death penalty statute is very structured, as is the entire trial process. It's not arbitrary," Everett said.

(source: Greenville Daily Reflector)

USA:

Truth of Youth: Is the use of the death penalty just?

The death penalty is a very controversial subject that has caused much debate in the 30 years that it has been reinstated. The death penalty has been carried out in some form for almost 4,000 years. Obviously the possibility of being put to death is not a real deterrent for those who are cold-blooded murderers, but I don't think someone who thinks in that capacity can be deterred in any way.

I don't think there is any way to look at capital punishment other than it is a just punishment for the crime committed. With today's technology, such as DNA testing, I think as long as there is no doubt that someone is guilty of the crime of murder, the death penalty is a just punishment."

Seth Thomas, junior **

"I think the death penalty should be eliminated. I think when murder is proven beyond doubt and confessed to, it is just for someone who took another person's life to lose their own — but I still think the death penalty should not be used. First, the accused should be examined by a doctor and blood tests should be done. If they have a chemical imbalance of any sort, that should be corrected and they should be observed for any changes in behavior. If it is judged that they regret what they did, they should do community service in the area where they committed the crime, while being heavily guarded.

Sometimes after being convicted the accused is proven innocent. To use the death penalty would be to take an innocent life in some situations.

Furthermore, whether or not they are innocent, we are not just punishing the convicted. They do have friends and families, and it is said that a mother's love knows no bounds. Death is final, but it is not they who suffer from the verdict. It is those who are left behind."

Erin Cline, eighth-grader

JoLane Middle School

**

"In Oregon, there are currently 35 men on death row, and eventually they will all be executed by lethal injection. All are on death row because they were convicted of the same thing – aggravated murder. Aggravated murder, or intentional homicide, is the only way that someone can receive the death penalty in Oregon. Some argue that the death penalty isn't fair justice because death row inmates have to wait for years before they are finally executed and become psychologically damaged during those years. Yet one would assume that a person is already psychologically damaged if they have intentionally raped, kidnapped or killed someone. The death penalty is just in that it gives the families and friends of victims a sense of relief and consolation that the person who killed their loved one will also be killed. Those who commit the heinous crime of intentional murder know that the punishment is death, and the death penalty was created because murder is not tolerated in any society." Laura Gordon, junior

Roseburg High School

(source: The Oregon News-Review)

CALIFORNIA:

El Cerrito victims' son: Don't execute killer

The man who murdered his sister and her husband in their El Cerrito home and hoped to adopt their children won an unlikely ally today in his effort to escape lethal injection - the couple's son.

Eric Rogers, 21, who cradled his mortally wounded father in their home on Rifle Range Road on Jan. 31, 2006, testified that the killer - his uncle, Edward Wycoff - should be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

"I think it would be wrong for you to get the death penalty," Eric Rogers testified in response to a question by Wycoff, who is acting as his own attorney in the penalty phase of his trial. "You, specifically, because you are mentally childish and immature for your age."

Rogers told the 40-year-old Wycoff, who held a grudge against the couple in part because they hadn't invited him over for Christmas, that he had the makeup of a 9-year-old boy.

The Contra Costa County jury considering Wycoff's fate in Martinez is the same panel that deliberated for only 45 minutes last week before convicting him of two counts of murder with special circumstances for using a knife and a wheelbarrow handle to kill his sister, Julie Wycoff Rogers, 47, and her husband, Paul Rogers, 48.

Superior Court Judge John Kennedy barred Wycoff and prosecutor Mark Peterson today from asking witnesses whether they opposed the death penalty and what the victims' views on the subject were. He said the U.S. Supreme Court had ruled that such views are "irrelevant and inadmissible in a capital trial."

But outside court, Eric Rogers said his parents were strongly opposed to capital punishment, and so is he.

"Killing and hatred is something I associate with my uncle, not my parents," he said. "Politically, I've always been against the death penalty."

Rogers said he recognized that it would be up to the jury to render judgment. "I trust the justice system," he said. "I understand that it's not up to us - it's the people."

The American Civil Liberties Union and other advocacy groups had hoped that Rogers would be able to explain his beliefs fully to the jury.

"Eric Rogers is a young man of tremendous courage and wisdom," California Crime Victims for Alternatives to the Death Penalty said in a statement. "In his willingness to speak openly to the jury about the dishonor that a death sentence would bring to the memory of his parents, Eric is wholly supported by the hundreds of murder victim family members across the state."

Wycoff, who also represented himself during the guilt phase of the trial, did not argue with prosecutors' assertion that he had killed the couple because he thought they were too liberal, were "too easy" on their children and had snubbed him on Christmas. He had hoped to adopt Eric Rogers and his two younger siblings, Alex and Laurel, after the killings.

"The parents raised these kids wrong," Wycoff said during the trial. "Since the parents were eliminated, I think Eric has cleaned up his life."

Rogers was followed to the stand today by Laurel Rogers, now 16, who testified that her father was "one of the most intelligent and compassionate people I've ever known."

She remembered the way his mustache would move up and his eyes would crinkle when he smiled. Her parents would always remain calm if they had to deal with a problem, and her mother was "very creative and really kind," she said.

Little things about her mother stand out in her mind - how she would call her daughter a "goofy nickname" while picking her up from school or do "a little dance" when she was excited about something such as a snowboarding trip.

Laurel Rogers said she tries to block out the last time she saw her father, as he was lying in pool of blood in a bedroom with a knife stuck in his back. His last words to her were similar to what he always told her, she said: "I will always love you, no matter what."

"I never really understood it until now," Laurel said as relatives in the gallery and at least one juror wept. "I miss everything about them. Even things that would annoy me then, I miss."

The girl said she has struggled with drinking and drug problems since the killings, and now has a "very cynical view of the world."

"I've sort of developed a hate for humanity," the teenager said. "I'm not happy. I don't want to wear happy colors."

(source: San Francisco Chronicle)

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

Does San Quentin need a new death row?

Calling it the 'Cadillac Death Row', Assemblymen Jared Huffman voiced his strong opposition at a recent public forum, to plans to build a new $400 million expansion of the death row facility on the western grounds of San Quentin State Prison.

Sitting on one of the most desirable pieces of real estate in all of Marin County, the imposing beige brick fortress-like prison complex--the oldest in the state-- is currently the only place in California where condemned inmates are executed.

That is, when they actually are executed, which is few and far between.

Notorious criminals like Richard Ramirez, the so-called "Night Stalker" serial killer pictured at right; Polly Klaas' killer, Richard Allen Davis, and the "Trailside Killer" David Carpenter, who murdered hikers on Mt. Tam, are all housed on death row and are all--many years later--awaiting execution.

The housing facilities on death row are old, overcrowded and deteriorating, and Sacramento wants to change that. They are moving forward with a proposal to build a $400 million expansion of death row that would house the burgeoning population of condemned male prisoners in California.

(source: San Francisco Gate)

OHIO:

High Court Rejects Warren Death Row Inmate's Appeal

The US Supreme Court has turned down an appeal from one of Warren's death row inmates. 37 year old Roderick Davie has been on death row since his conviction for a 1991 murder at a pet food warehouse in Warren. Davie killed Tracey Jefferies and John Coleman. The Trumbull County Prosecutor will file a motion to ask the Ohio Supreme Court to set an execution date for Davie.

(source: WFMJ)

IRAQ:

1,000 Iraqi detainees risk execution as premier rules out clemency

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki wants to have more than 1,000 Iraqi detainees executed before the general elections scheduled for January 2010.

The detainees were tried in Iraqi courts and tribunals and have been sentenced to death. Capital punishment is permissible in Iraq and apparently Iraqi courts find it easy to pass the penalty.

Maliki has been under immense pressure to show mercy but observers believe his determination to go ahead and implement the death sentences is politically motivated.

"Maliki wants to win over the electorate by showing that he is resolute in liquidating elements belonging to the former regime and the groups the government sees as terrorists," said an observer on condition of anonymity.

Among those sentenced to death are 8 senior aides of former leader Saddam Hussein.

Maliki does not hide his hatred of the former regime and its supporters and he is reported to have raised serious fears of the former ruling Baath party making a comeback once U.S. occupation troops leave the country.

Appeals for clemency have come from both domestic and international human rights groups and officials. But Maliki seems unperturbed.

Parliamentary Speaker Ayad al- Samarrai has asked the Justice Ministry, whose headquarters in Baghdad have been damaged in a massive car bomb attack recently, to at least delay the executions until after the general elections.

"The Justice Ministry should look into postponing the executions relying on some legal form so that they cannot be utilized in the general elections," the speaker was quoted as saying.

The elections will be held in January 15, 2010, and Maliki is seeking a 2nd term.

(source: Azzaman)

TEXAS:

Texas march spotlights executions----Laura Brady reports on Texas's Tenth Annual March to Abolish the Death Penalty--and the botched cases that are leading more people to question the death penalty.

NEARLY 500 people rallied against the death penalty in Texas as the issue of wrongful convictions and state killing of innocent people has come center stage.

Days after the march, anti-death penalty activists in the state lost one of their strongest fighters: Reginald Blanton. Blanton was executed by Texas Gov. Rick Perry on October 27, despite compelling evidence that he was innocent--including coerced testimony from witnesses and a shoeprint that did not match his.

Blanton's execution put Perry on the spot as the scandal around the 2004 execution of Cameron Todd Willingham continued to grow. Willingham, several experts have come forward to say, was innocent of the crime he was convicted of--a supposed arson that killed his 3 small children in 1991. Despite an arson report that exonerated Willingham before his execution in 2004, the governor's office never acknowledged it, allowing Willingham to go to his death.

Now, with overwhelming evidence mounting that Willingham is innocent, Perry took the remarkable step of firing several members of a Texas state panel in late September, just days before it was set to hear about the flaws in the scientific evidence and testimony that secured Willingham's conviction.

If more evidence of the corruption and incompetence of the Texas justice system was needed, on October 28, prosecutors finally dismissed all charges against Michael Scott and Robert Springsteen--convicted in the 1991 killings of 4 teenagers at an Austin yogurt shop. Springsteen was sent to death row in 2001, while Scott was sentenced to life in prison. Prosecutors were forced to drop the charges after DNA tests failed to match the men to the crime scene--and instead showed the presence of another man.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - SUCH LIFE-shattering errors were part of what prompted the demonstrators to turn out to the Tenth Annual March to Abolish the Death Penalty in Austin on October 24.

Protesters came together to demand a halt to the Texas killing machine, remember Cameron Todd Willingham, and fight for the life of Reginald Blanton. They rallied at the Texas State Capitol building and marched in the streets through downtown Austin, with a vibrant presence of banners, placards and photographs of executed loved ones. Chants for abolition rose in the air.

Family members of those on death row and exonerated prisoners led the march, as well as members of Kids Against the Death Penalty. Speakers at the rally portion included Shujaa Graham, Ron Keine and Curtis McCarty, who served more than 20 years combined on death row before being fully exonerated and released.

As Elizabeth Gilbert addressed the crowd, she spoke to a sea of listeners holding photos of the face of Cameron Todd Willingham. Gilbert was the pen pal of Willingham, and first pushed for his claims of innocence to be recognized, helping his family find a fire expert to investigate his case.

Since then, in three independent reviews over the last five years, seven of the nation's foremost arson experts have found that the forensic analysis that led to Todd Willingham's conviction and execution was completely wrong--that there was no scientific basis to find that the fire was anything more than a tragic accident. All of the non-scientific evidence against Willingham has also been discredited.

The most moving of all testimonials came from Anna Terrell, the mother of Reginald Blanton, who pleaded for the life of her child. "This is my son, my life, my blessing and I have strange people that do not even know my son who want to kill him," she told the crowd.

In a fitting tribute to her son's work behind bars, Anna spoke of the deplorable living conditions at the Polunsky Unit, Texas' death house. As a founding member of the DRIVE organization, a group of prisoners who nonviolently struggle against the abusive conditions of Texas death row, Reginald was a fighter until the end.

That Tuesday, in the midst of a last stand of about 60 protesters in Austin, Anna received word that the state of Texas had in fact murdered her son. With Perry away from the state in New York, Reginald refused to walk to his own execution in Texas.

The day after Reginald's execution, all charges against Yogurt Shop defendants Michael Scott and Robert Springsteen were dropped. It was a bittersweet victory as news reached mournful activists that the 10-year nightmare and wrongful incarceration of two innocent men had ended. Michael and Rob are now free men.

With over 50 organizations sponsoring and the second-largest turnout since its inception, the Tenth Annual March to Abolish the Death Penalty was a success. We celebrate our victory in the Yogurt Shop case. We remember Reginald, and we prepare to push the movement forward. As Reginald himself proclaimed:

I need people to use my plight as a means to further build the grassroots movement to abolish the death penalty. I need people...to be willing to take to the streets; to be my voice and the voice for the voiceless; to distribute literature on my plight everywhere they go...This is the only way I believe we can level this imbalanced scale of so-called justice.

(source: Socialist Worker)

PENNSYLVANIA:

Trial set to open in death of Officer Cassidy

It's hindsight, of course, but for many Philadelphia police officers, Oct. 31, 2007, is the day everything changed.

Philadelphia police had been killed before, but that day's shooting of Officer Chuck Cassidy echoes like the first muffled drumroll of a funeral cadence that continued through the killings of five more officers through February 2009.

Tomorrow, almost two years to the day after Cassidy's death, the man charged with shooting the 25-year veteran officer goes on trial for his own life in a Philadelphia courtroom.

John "Jordan" Lewis, 23, is charged with murder as well as counts related to 6 armed robberies - the last at a Dunkin' Donuts on Broad Street near 66th Avenue in West Oak Lane, which Cassidy interrupted when he walked through the door that morning and was shot in the head at point-blank range.

But the start of a trial does not mean the start of testimony, especially in a high-profile case such as this.

Lawyers say they don't believe opening statements will be delivered until next Monday.

Although a gag order has been imposed on the lawyers and others in the case, Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Selber, who with fellow prosecutor Edward Cameron will represent the commonwealth, and defense attorney Michael Coard did outline how the trial likely would play out over the next few weeks.

Coard, a Center City criminal defense lawyer, is probably best known for his work getting the National Park Service to recognize the lives of George Washington's slaves in the continuing development of the President's House on Independence Mall.

First up tomorrow will be a pretrial hearing on Coard's motion to suppress a statement that Lewis allegedly gave homicide detectives in which he admitted shooting and killing the 54-year-old policeman.

But suppressing Lewis' statement could turn out to be more complicated than usual in this case because of the very public circumstances under which it became known.

On Nov. 3, 2007, after Lewis was publicly identified as a suspect in Cassidy's shooting, he was driven to Delaware by a cousin and boarded a Greyhound bus for Miami.

After wandering the streets a few days, Lewis checked into a Miami homeless shelter under an alias on Nov. 6. But his allegedly evasive and nervous behavior and his photo on a news broadcast led a shelter employee to call police, and Lewis was arrested the same day.

That night, as Miami police led him from headquarters to go to a courthouse jail cell, Lewis was besieged by reporters and film crews.

He told reporters he had confessed to shooting Cassidy, then faced the cameras and said: "I apologize to his family. I never meant anything to happen like this."

Coard said he could not discuss defense strategy without violating the gag order.

The usual challenge to a confession or statement involves whether the suspect was capable of understanding his or her constitutional rights and able to make a decision to waive the rights to stay silent and obtain a lawyer.

At his arrest, Lewis was a high school dropout with a history of drug offenses. He was tired after three days of living on the streets as a fugitive.

Selber and Coard said jury selection would begin Wednesday before Common Pleas Court Judge Jeffrey P. Minehart.

That process could take the remainder of this week. Unlike in most cases, the jurors and alternates who hear the case against Lewis must be questioned about whether they are open to use of the death penalty.

Equally important is finding jurors who feel they can be fair after the massive publicity surrounding the Cassidy killing - and the killings of 5 Philadelphia police officers since.

Finally, there is the practical matter of finding jurors who can serve on a trial that could last 3 weeks. Selber said she was optimistic. "I think any big homicide has the same issues," she said. "We've picked juries for other cases just as big."

Big the trial will be. Last Friday, court employees began preparing to move Minehart from his usual sixth-floor courtroom to one twice as large on the 3rd floor of the Criminal Justice Center.

Cassidy is survived by his wife, Judy, 3 children, and a large extended family, and many are expected to attend daily. So, too, with Lewis' family.

The trial also is expected to attract many citizen spectators and a large contingent of police. The Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 5 has made a point of having a police presence in court at every hearing for anyone accused of killing a police officer.

FOP president John McNesby said Friday that either he or representatives of Lodge 5 would be present every day of the trial to provide whatever services the Cassidy family needed.

"I can tell you that every officer who will be in the building has been told to stop by and pay their respects to Mrs. Cassidy and the family," McNesby said.

For Minehart, 62, a former juvenile probation officer and trial lawyer who once was counsel to the city's firefighter and police unions, the trial may resonate in other ways.

Minehart, a judge since 2003, sentenced the last person convicted of murdering a Philadelphia police officer.

The officer was Gary Skerski, 46, a 16-year veteran. The killer, Solomon Montgomery, 25, pleaded guilty in a deal in which he exchanged a possible death sentence for life in prison without chance of parole.

Minehart accepted the plea and sentenced the same day, calling Montgomery an "urban terrorist."

It was the day before everything changed: Oct. 30, 2007.

(source: Philadelphia Inquirer)

TENNESSEE:

Death sentence for torture-murder ringleader

The convicted ringleader in the 2007 carjacking and torture slaying of a young Tennessee couple has been sentenced to death.

Memphis native Lemaricus Davidson, 28, showed no reaction after jurors concluded 4 hours of deliberations and announced the sentence Friday in a case that raised racial tensions and inflamed Internet bloggers because the victims were white and the defendants are black.

The same jury convicted Davidson on Wednesday of more than 30 charges, including premeditated murder and felony murder, for the January 2007 attack on University of Tennessee student Channon Christian, 21, and her boyfriend Christopher Newsom, 23.

"May you find peace with your maker," Knox County Criminal Court Judge Richard Baumgartner told Davidson after the sentence was read -- the first death sentence by a Knox County jury since 1997.

"That was hard for those 12 people to do, I know. It would not have been hard for me to do," Christian's father Gary Christian said of the jury sentence.

"I have to ask the thousands and thousands of people that have been praying for our families to pray for (the jurors)," he said.

Gary Christian's wife, Deena, added: "The Christians, the Newsoms and all of Knoxville got justice today."

The victims were on a date when they were carjacked from her sport utility vehicle by several armed men, including Davidson.

They were taken to Davidson's house, beaten and raped.

Newsom was later shot and his body set on fire alongside some railroad tracks. Christian was raped over the next day and then stuffed into a garbage can in Davidson's house -- where she suffocated.

The jury had a choice of a life sentence mandating a minimum of 51 years in prison, life without parole with no chance of release, or the death penalty.

The jury sentenced Davidson to death for two murder counts for each victim.

Prosecutors and defense attorneys declined comment as they left the courtroom after the 11-day trial.

The murders were beyond "heinous, atrocious and cruel," prosecutor Leland Price had told the jury before sentencing deliberations.

Defense attorney Doug Trant recalled testimony about Davidson's poor, neglected childhood, saying, "It's not an excuse, but it is an explanation for why he is here."

Davidson's brother, Letalvis Cobbins, 26, of Lebanon, Ky., was convicted in August for the same attack and is serving life in prison without parole.

2 other defendants from Kentucky are awaiting trial. The state intends to seek the death penalty against them, too, but authorities have said there is less forensic evidence tying them to the crimes.

Still, Newsom's father Hugh Newsom said the law "clearly states if you were there in the presence of a crime and did nothing to stop it, you are as guilty as the person that committed it."

With more trials expected, Gary Christian said he had no sense of closure from Friday's decision.

"Not yet," he said. But one day perhaps, he said, "Oh, God, I hope so."

(source: The Oak Ridger)

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

Death penalty in Knoxville torture, murder

On Friday, a jury sentenced Lemaricus Davidson to death for his part in the deaths of Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom, a young couple that was brutally killed in 2007.

Both were raped, Newsom was fatally shot and Christian suffocated after she was choked and stuffed in a garbage bag and trash can.

1 other defendant has already been sentenced to life. 2 others are awaiting trial.

(source: Kansas City Star)

FLORIDA:

Jury Recommends Death Penalty

After 2 hours of deliberations, a jury in Daytona Beach recommended the death penalty for Enoch Hall Thursday night. Eyewitness News has followed this story since the crime happened 16 months ago and was in the courtroom when the verdict was read.

The jury voted 12 to zero to send him to his death.

Last week, Hall was convicted of stabbing officer Donna Fitzgerald to death at Tomoka State Prison . Her family was in the courtroom. They told Eyewitness News it was the only just sentence for Hall, who even behind bars found a way to ruin lives.

"She deserved the justice for what she went through. She was fighting for her life. And that, that is the right verdict," said Dana Shaure, Donna Fitzgerald's sister.

Prosecutors detailed Fitzgerald's fight for her life to the jury, focusing on her 22 stab wounds from a sheet metal shank.

(source: Corrections.com)

CALIFORNIA:

Death penalty case returns to high court

The US Supreme Court is considering, for the 3rd time, the case of a California man who was sentenced to die in 1982 for the brutal killing of a young woman.

The California Supreme Court affirmed a death sentence for Fernando Belmontes 20 years ago, but since then the case has bounced back and forth in the federal courts. 3 times this decade, the Ninth US Circuit Court of Appeals overturned Belmontes' death sentence.

The case is the latest skirmish in the battle between California prosecutors and the Ninth Circuit over the death penalty - and it helps explains the oddity of capital punishment in California. While death sentences are common, executions are rare.

The Ninth Circuit, based in San Francisco, has a core of liberal judges who say it is their duty to carefully scrutinize capital cases.

In 1981, Belmontes broke into the home of Steacy McConnell, 19, and beat her to death with a barbell.

In a 2-to-1 decision last year, Judges Stephen Reinhart and Richard Paez ruled that Belmontes' lawyer had provided "ineffective assistance of counsel" because he failed to tell the jury of the "traumas that Belmontes faced as a youth."

In 2 earlier rulings, Reinhart and Paez had overturned Belmontes' death sentence on the grounds jurors may have thought they could not consider his conversion to Christianity in prison as a reason for leniency.

After each of the rulings overturning Belmontes’ sentence, California appealed to the Supreme Court. Twice before, the justices set aside the Ninth Circuit’s decision.

(source: Boston Globe)

SIERRA LEONE:

Armed robbery: President Koroma calls for death penalty

President Koroma has called for the death penalty and life imprisonment to be considered for armed robbers to serve as a deterrent to the current spate of robberies in the country.

He stressed that "such strong measures must be taken to serve as an open example to armed robbers and other criminals if examples must be set, these measures must be taken to send out the necessary signals."

The President added that if a criminal could inflict harm on an individual with impunity, that same criminal must be prepared to receive even more. "No doubt our laws must be reviewed."

President Koroma made these comments when senior officials of the Medical and Dental Council, Pharmacies, Nurses and Midwives Board paid a courtesy call on him at State House last week to brief him on general medical practice, training of medical personnel and the code of conduct for all medical institutions.

Meanwhile the Director of Amnesty International Sierra Leone Brima A. Sheriff has said talking about death penalty openly for armed robbers is scaring.

He was reacting to Awoko at Hill Valley Hotel past Saturday about the suggestion made by President Ernest Bai Koroma for the a death penalty for armed robbers where he also stated that the death penalty should not be used as a process of containing armed robbery.

Mr. Sheriff said it was shocking for him to hear that when there were lots of strategies in place to handle the issue of armed robbery. He also expressed the fear that any statement that comes from the President is a policy making it more scaring.

Already, the Director stated that it is still in the Constitution of Sierra Leone for the use of death penalty for aggravated robbery and murder. He also said: "we do not know what is going to happen in that direction as it will be misused as some people are now saying that shoot on sight perceived robbers.

There is a system that operates in this country through which people could be tried and if found guilty, punishment levied," he stated.

He warned that violence does not bring peace adding that "we should study the socio eco- economic situation in the country and there will be lots of implications if we begin to talk about it which is not good for our country" Mr. Sheriff said since 1998 no execution has taken place and such should not be spoken of at a time when the world is strongly frowning at it.

(source: Awoko)

RUSSIA:

Russian Supreme Court Believes No Death Sentences Can Be Passed Next Year

The Russian Supreme Court chairman believes Russia has to continue to abide by the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and its protocols on the abolishment of the death penalty.

"It is absolutely clear to us in the Supreme Court that we should abide by the provisions of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and those on the abolishment of the death penalty, which have been signed by Russia," Supreme Court Chairman Vyacheslav Lebedev said in an interview with Interfax.

Hence, in the Supreme Court's view, "our courts will not be entitled to hand down death sentences starting January 1, 2010," he said.

The Supreme Court recently asked the Constitutional Court to make it clear whether death sentences can be handed down in Russia next year, because judges "may wonder how to apply the Constitutional Court's [1999] judgment starting January 1, 2010," Lebedev said.

In February 1999, the Constitutional Court passed a judgment "Clause 5 of which says that death sentences cannot be pronounced until the right to a jury trial is guaranteed in the whole of Russia," Lebedev said.

This judgment is still in effect, Lebedev said. "However, starting January 1, 2010, jury trials will be in place in all regions of Russia without any exception. The Chechen Republic has been an exception so far, but a provision on introducing jury trials will take effect there on January 1 next year as well," he said.

"Therefore, in order to dispel any doubts, the Supreme Court has appealed to the Constitutional Court to explain its own judgment," Lebedev said.

While Russia signed the protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights on abolishing the death penalty in 1997, the Russian parliament has still not ratified it, he said.

"Nevertheless, in line with international legal standards, a country that has signed an international treaty, even if it has not ratified it but has not clearly expressed its desire to withdraw from it, should observe it," Lebedev said.

The Russian law stipulates that only the Constitutional Court, and not the Supreme Court, can explain and interpret its judgments, Lebedev said. "It would be incorrect, unethical, and absolutely wrong if other courts could explain Constitutional Court judgments," he said.

The Russian Constitutional Court is to convene on November 9 to consider a Supreme Court request that the Constitutional Court's judgment of February 2, 1999 be clarified as regards the possibility of passing death sentences after jury trials are introduced on the entire territory of Russia starting January 1, 2010.

The full version of the interview will be available later at www.interfax.ru.

(source: Daily News Bulletin)

NOVEMBER 1, 2009:

CALIFORNIA:

California killer's case back before Supreme Court----Fernando Belmontes was sentenced to death in 1982 for murdering a 19-year-old woman. The San Francisco-based 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has overturned his sentence 3 times.

The U.S. Supreme Court is considering, for the 3rd time, the case of a California murderer who was sentenced to die in 1982 for the brutal killing of a young woman.

20 years ago, the California Supreme Court affirmed a death sentence for Fernando Belmontes, but since then his case has bounced back and forth in the federal courts. 3 times in this decade, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has overturned his death sentence as flawed.

The case is the latest skirmish in the long-running war between California prosecutors and the 9th Circuit over the death penalty -- and it helps explains the oddity of capital punishment in California. Although death sentences are common, executions are rare.

California has by far the largest death row in the nation, with 685 inmates. Yet only 13 condemned prisoners have been executed since capital punishment was restored in 1977, far fewer than the 38 death row inmates who have died of natural causes.

By contrast, Texas has carried out 441 executions during the same period, and has 358 inmates on death row. Virginia has executed 103 people during that time and has only 18 inmates serving death sentences. Among them is John Allen Muhammad, who is scheduled to die Nov. 10 for one of the deadly sniper attacks that terrorized the Washington area in the fall of 2002.

The stark differences in execution rates reflect the contrasting approaches of the regional U.S. courts of appeals.

In the South, the Richmond, Va.-based 4th Circuit and the 5th Circuit in New Orleans are dominated by conservative judges who are inclined to reject appeals and to uphold death sentences.

The 9th Circuit, based in San Francisco, has a core of liberal judges who say it is their duty to carefully scrutinize capital cases.

"There is no greater burden that falls on a member of the judiciary than to sit in judgment on whether an individual shall live or die, and no greater responsibility than to make certain that every capital defendant receives the full protection to which he is entitled to under our Constitution and our laws," said Judge Stephen Reinhardt of Los Angeles, defending his decision to again set aside Belmontes' death sentence.

In a 2-1 decision last year, Reinhardt and Judge Richard Paez, also of Los Angeles, ruled that Belmontes' lawyer had provided "ineffective assistance of counsel" because he failed to tell the jury of the "traumas that Belmontes faced as a youth." Given this evidence, the jury might have spared his life, they said.

8 conservative judges of the 9th Circuit dissented and said the full appeals court should reconsider the ruling. However, it takes a majority vote of the circuit's 27 judges to re-hear such a case.

In 1981, Belmontes broke into the home of Steacy McConnell, 19, and beat her to death with a barbell. He stole a stereo and sold it for $100.

In two earlier rulings, Reinhardt and Paez had overturned Belmontes' death sentence on the grounds that jurors may have thought they could not consider his conversion to Christianity in prison as a reason for leniency. Police and prosecutors said Belmontes had shot and killed a man 2 years earlier, but that was kept from the jury.

After each of the rulings overturning his death sentence, the California attorney general appealed to the Supreme Court. Twice before, the justices set aside the 9th Circuit's decision.

The state's lawyers have been waiting for several weeks, anticipating the high court would act soon on their latest appeal. They are used to waiting, however.

"A great many people are frustrated by the pace at which these cases are resolved," said Ronald Matthias, a California assistant attorney general who oversees litigation on the death penalty. He noted that other Western states "face the same logjam."

The 9th Circuit hears cases from nine states, several of which have large numbers of prisoners on death row. They include Arizona (with 122 prisoners), Nevada (79), Oregon (35) and Idaho (18). None of these Western states has carried out an execution in the last 2 years, according to the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington.

In Arizona, "we've had just 1 execution since 2000," said Steve Wilson, a spokesman for the state attorney general.

In December 2006, a federal judge put executions on hold in California while the state revises its protocol for lethal injections.

Critics of the death penalty cite high costs and seemingly endless litigation as a good reason for abolishing capital punishment. Last year, the California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice called the state's death penalty system "broken" and "dysfunctional," and estimated it costs the state $137 million a year.

The justices met Friday to discuss pending appeals, including the Belmontes case, and may act on the case as soon as Monday.

(source: Los Angeles Times)

IRAQ:

Iraq parliament speaker calls for death penalty suspension

Iraq's parliament speaker on Sunday called for a suspension of executions until after elections set for January, to ensure that political parties do not use them as issues during the election campaign.

Iyad al-Samarrai put the request in to the justice ministry after receiving a letter from the head of parliament's legal committee, Baha Hussein al-Araji, who was concerned that Iraq's ruling parties may seek to bolster their support by claiming to have executed various criminals.

"Mr. Samarrai addressed this request to the justice ministry after a request from the chair of the legal committee," a parliamentary official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Araji is a member of the parliamentary bloc loyal to radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

According to the letter, a copy of which was obtained by AFP, Araji called on Samarrai to "direct the justice ministry to suspend executions which have already been approved (by the presidential council) so that they cannot be used politically by the parties in power."

The presidential council is made up of President Jalal Talabani and his 2 deputies, who must jointly approve every execution.

At a meeting on Sunday with families of people either killed or imprisoned by Saddam's Baath Party, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki urged the council to continue to allow executions.

At least eight former senior officials in the regime of deposed dictator Saddam Hussein have been condemned to death, including Ali Hassan al-Majid, known as "Chemical Ali," and 2 of Saddam's half-brothers.

Their death sentences were all greeted by celebrations among Shiites and Kurds, 2 communities violently repressed by Saddam, across Iraq.

Baghdad reintroduced the death penalty in 2004, after a brief moratorium immediately following the US-led invasion of the country in 2003.

The country has at least 1,000 people under sentence of death and hangs dozens of convicts, according to a September report by London-based human rights group Amnesty International.

(source: Agence France-Presse)

TEXAS:

Who's Rick Perry to judge?

Re: "The Willingham morass -- There's wishful thinking on both sides of the case, says Mark Davis," last Sunday Points.

Davis' defense of the execution of Cameron Todd Willingham is a sad lesson in the use of words to inflame, rather than inform. Why does he label opponents of this execution of being (in his words) a rabid, shouting, presumptuous pack of Holy Grail-seeking, panting anticipatory petulant narcissistic snarky fantasizers?

Is this the best way to establish a dialogue on whether an innocent man was executed? In my America and the America of all decent people, and the America whose justice system we uphold, a man is innocent until proved guilty.

So, if legitimate questions were raised before the execution, why not postpone this act of finality 30 days, as requested? Who is Gov. Rick Perry to sit in judgment of a man's life simply because he was "bad"? The time for lynchings is over.

Jerold Lancourt, Dallas

**

Who stands for the victim?

Re: "The Willingham morass -- In this test of Perry's character, he's not looking so good, says Rod Dreher," last Sunday Points.

According to Dreher, living in an imperfect world is a problem. I agree. This not only leads to the possibility of executing an innocent man, it also leads to killers who by the "thousands" murder, rape and torture innocent people. Let's not forget that there are innocent people suffering on both sides of the coin, and it is our responsibility to protect both.

Every time I hear of a convicted killer who is released, only to murder another innocent victim, I wonder who will be the victim's voice, and who will stand for them.

Bobbie Keith, Garland

**

I don't feel remorse

Re: "Dad's case has cracks -- Executed man's innocence in girls' deaths far from clear-cut, review of trial evidence finds," last Sunday news story.

The article about the Cameron T. Willingham case was well-researched and presented without political bias toward the death penalty.

I am sure there are rare cases of innocent people executed due to poor legal counsel, tainted evidence or the science not being available at the time of their trial. However, I also feel strongly that no good, honest citizen has been executed.

In all reports I have read of these cases, the convicted person had a life of crime, malfeasance and worthlessness.

I know our laws do not provide for the elimination of the multitude of lowlifes in this world.

But I feel no remorse for those who were executed who could have been saved absent a miscarriage of justice for the specific crime, but who were never going to be model, productive citizens in our society.

James R. Wooten, Fort Worth

(source: Letters to the Editor, Dallas Morning News)

PENNSYLVANIA:

Death Penalty----Protest to save Mumia’s life. Civil rights investigation demanded.

The International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal (ICFFMAJ) coalition convened an urgent meeting here on Oct. 17. Mumia supporters from Philadelphia, New York and Washington, D.C., were in attendance. It was a fightback strategy meeting of critical importance. Mumia, who has been on death row for over 27 years, is now, more than ever, faced with having his life snuffed out by the political powers that be.

At the Oct. 17 meeting organizers said that if the U.S. Supreme Court upholds the original 1982 death penalty verdict and overturns the current verdict of life without parole, then Mumia's execution is imminent.

History of injustice

Former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge signed Mumia’s death warrant. The execution was scheduled to take place on Aug. 17, 1995, Marcus Garvey’s birthday. That execution was stayed by a national emergency protest, and Mumia’s life was saved, pending further appeals.

However, in December 2001, Mumia’s 1982 death sentence was actually overturned by the federal court and subsequently upheld by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals this past April, though it nonetheless upheld his guilty verdict. He was thus granted life in prison without parole. The prosecution then appealed that ruling, again seeking the death penalty.

In April the U.S. Supreme Court refused to review an appeal demanding a new trial for Mumia. This court's next step will be to decide whether to reinstate the death penalty, which the Philadelphia District Attorney office is clamoring for, or to rule in favor of life in prison without parole. If the Supreme Court rules to continue with the current sentence of life without parole, the D.A. can choose to accept this decision or request a review of it and continue to pursue Mumia's execution. Neither decision is acceptable to Mumia supporters who are continuing to fight for his release or a new, fair trial at the very least.

A case currently being heard by the U.S. Supreme Court (Smith v. Spisak) could have implications for Mumia's fate, which now hangs in the balance. At issue is whether the judge's instructions to the jury were confusing and faulty regarding when a verdict is arrived at and if juries are being confused as to whether mitigating factors that could lead to greater leniency require unanimity. A 1988 Supreme Court case (Mills v. Maryland) ruled the judge erred in instructing the jury and overturned the lower court’s death sentence. Both Mumia and Spisak share this issue. The question is also whether that ruling applies to states other than Maryland.

Grave situation requires response The gravity of Mumia’s situation is compounded by other events. The current Philadelphia District Attorney has petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court for reinstatement of the death penalty. And the leading candidate running for the D.A. position, Seth Williams, an African American, is campaigning on the promise to sign a warrant for Mumia's execution, with the backing of Philadelphia's Fraternal Order of Police.

Additionally, current Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell was actively involved in Mumia's prosecution, and has made it eminently clear that he would sign a death warrant for Mumia if the Supreme Court affirms the death sentence. Another factor is the scheduled December release of a documentary film about Mumia by Tigre Hill, also an African American, called "Barrel of the Gun," which supports the police version of events on Dec. 9, 1981, that led to Mumia’s arrest.

The ICFFMAJ, the New York Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition, and numerous other organizations and collectives in Washington, New York and Philadelphia are presently mobilizing an international demonstration in Washington on Nov. 12 at the U.S. Department of Justice. There they will be delivering the collection of signed letters to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder demanding a civil rights investigation of the 28-year conspiracy to execute Mumia, an innocent man, for his political beliefs. Locally, Philadelphia activists will also be protesting against Seth Williams.

An urgent appeal is being made for all activists to participate in the Nov. 12 press conference and letter delivery actions in Washington. A civil rights investigation into this case could mean the difference between life and death for Mumia, and might open the door for his release from the hellhole of death row.

Massive outreach and publicity are needed. For transportation from New York City on Nov. 12, call 212-330-8029. For more information visit www.freemumia.com or call 212-330-8029, 215-476-8812, or 301-762-9162.

Join the fight against injustice and racism. We must act now before it's too late.

Free Mumia!

(source: Dolores Cox; Worker's World----The writer is an International Action Center volunteer in New York)

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

Mumia maverick----Filmmaker Tigre Hill's latest project infuriates Abu Jamal supporters, whom he sees as blinded by a bandwagon mentality.

Tigre Hill has only released the trailer to his film, "The Barrel of a Gun," but already Mumia Inc. has begun mobilizing against him.

At 57th and Christian Streets, over an offering of rice and beans and salad prepared by her grandchildren, Pam Africa labels Hill an attack dog, the 2nd coming of Wilson Goode, and says his film will be a racist "hit piece" against Mumia Abu-Jamal.

In Germany, writer and academic Michael Schiffman spent 5,600 words aimed at debunking the 3 1/2-minute trailer in a piece that circulated widely online. Schiffman wrote that the case made in Hill's film, at least as indicated by the trailer, "will be built on sand."

On death row, meanwhile, former radio newsman Mumia Abu-Jamal, 55, is as close as he's ever been to a final judgment on his original death sentence for the 1981 killing of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner. The U.S. Supreme Court in April rejected a last appeal for a new trial. A petition by the Philadelphia district attorney demanding reinstatement of Abu-Jamal's death penalty, which was thrown out by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, is pending.

But over convenience-store coffee, sitting in the backyard of his childhood home in Wynnefield where he still lives and where his film is being edited in a room upstairs, Hill is taking it all in stride in his trademark Ben Roethlisberger jersey.

He's laid-back, naturally friendly, and comfortable in taking on the sacred cows of black political, cultural and social-justice power structures, and he's knocking down a few assumptions himself as an African American with a love of George W. Bush and a Philly kid who roots for the Pittsburgh Steelers. He's a stocky guy who grew up playing ice hockey and admits to a fondness for the Carpenters (but also John Coltrane). At 41, he's still single (but involved with fitness expert Allegra Feamster). His first film, never released due to legal issues, was a drama about castration.

You might say Tigre Hill has made a career - and maybe even a personal life - out of "not what you were expecting."

His last film, The Shame of a City, started as a chronicle of the 2003 Katz-Street mayoral election, but ended up a stinging indictment of a Democratic Party and black political establishment that were depicted as cynically exploiting racial politics to turn the discovery of an FBI bug in Mayor John Street's office into a windfall of support - among voters and out-of-town bigshots - for Street.

His Mumia thesis is provocative: that placed in the context of prior acts by the Black Panthers, the history of political revolutionaries, various influences on Abu-Jamal's thinking, police killings in other cities that eerily presage Faulkner's, statements and actions Jamal had made before that night, the idea that Abu-Jamal may have set out to deliberately kill a police officer becomes chillingly plausible.

The trial included testimony from four witnesses at the scene, 13th and Locust Streets, where Abu-Jamal was found sitting on the curb, his gun nearby and a bullet from Faulkner's gun lodged in Abu-Jamal's chest.

"I have not come out as saying Mumia is guilty, but you can see where it's going," Hill says. "I'm not afraid of these people. There are African Americans who believe what I do, but are hesitant to say. I don't want to make it racial, even though it is racial."

After Shame, which Inquirer film critic Carrie Rickey called a "scrappy exposé" and a "civic Rorschach test," Hill turned to what is arguably the über-global story from Philadelphia: Mumia.

Hill said he felt drawn to the story of Mumia - who has become a potent symbol for anti-death-penalty activists - in part because of similar themes from Shame: race, manipulation of public opinion, and a breathtaking bandwagon mentality by big names eager to exploit a case they knew little about.

Hill, a graduate of Archbishop Carroll High School and Temple who says his cinematic idols run more toward Stanley Kubrick and Irving Thalberg than Spike Lee or Michael Moore, says people assumed that as a black man from Philadelphia, he would be pro-Mumia.

It took time to persuade both sides to talk to him, from Pam Africa to Daniel Faulkner's widow, Maureen Faulkner, to prosecutor Joe McGill (Hollywood was willing). But Tigre Hill, pronounced TEE-gray, is nothing if not a highly competent schmoozer - this is a guy who got 30 actors and local celebrities to appear in his low-budget castration fantasy, Casanova's Demise.

The Mumia story appealed to him as a great narrative, he says, not because it placed him in a familiar role as a black man debunking prevailing black and left-wing thinking.

"I really don't see that role," said Hill, the son of a Marine-turned-defense contractor from Pittsburgh (hence, the Steeler obsession) and a teacher mother, whose college texts from the '40s line the walls of his home, which he inherited after her death. "I look for real stories."

It was at the Pen and Pencil Club, a journalist hangout in Philadelphia, that a buddy introduced him to Bill Colarulo, now a police chief inspector, across the bar. Colarulo told a riveting story of seeing Faulkner in the hospital that night. "He'd only been a cop on the beat, a rookie out at night, and a cop was brought in shot in the head. It just traumatized him. He said, 'You could tell he was dead, there's a certain gurgling.' "

Always intrigued by the case, Hill was hooked. He says he understands the impulse to defend Abu-Jamal, to see him as a victim of larger forces, especially viewed through the lens of police brutality. "You see the way his story has been manipulated," he said. "People take him on as a hero like Che Guevara and other freedom fighters."

Hill says his goal was not so much to take the story out of its global gauze wrap and expose it as a straightforward Philadelphia homicide, but to place it in its larger context.

Hill believes Abu-Jamal, a former Black Panther and MOVE supporter, was influenced by prior violence by those groups against police. The film cites tactics used by the Chicago 7 and Panther activists Bobby Seale and Huey Newton to address police brutality - in part by provoking violent encounters.

"I believe Mumia and his brother [William Cooke] had it out for cops in the area," Hill said. "You're talking about 13th and Locust, a seedy area. [Cooke is] driving down the street in a beat-up car, tag hanging; it's no shock that he gets stopped. He starts a scuffle with the officer. Mumia comes running across the street. Why was he there? That's the million-dollar question."

William Cooke has never spoken publicly about the Faulkner killing. Hill said he had located Cooke in North Philadelphia but decided against pursuing an interview.

Joseph McGill, the trial prosecutor who has been vilified globally, says he welcomes Hill's analysis. McGill never established a motive, but believes the encounter between Faulkner and Mumia was set up as a political or revolutionary act.

"That's why I am very anxious to see this film," said McGill. "I was aware at the time of Jamal's affiliation with MOVE, aware of Bobby Seale Chicago 7 tactics. I was not aware of the really in-depth history regarding all of the movements."

"I have confidence in Tigre's analysis and his really authentic research," he said. "I've often stated that the further you get from Philadelphia, the less clear the entire case becomes."

Hill's critics say the title - from a Mao Tse-Tung quote, "Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun," that Abu-Jamal cited in a newspaper interview - is misleading. Abu-Jamal has said it was a commentary on police and government action against black and oppressed people, not a personal philosophy.

Schiffman, the German author, argues that Hill uncritically adopts theories of Maureen Faulkner and Inquirer columnist Michael Smerconish in their book, and says the title of the film perpetuates the notion that Jamal used the Mao quote as a statement of his own strategic plan. Schiffman calls that a "deliberate and toxic lie which, it appears now, will be the core thesis of an equally mendacious and toxic film."

Hill enlisted the help of JFK conspiracy debunker Gerald Posner and was funded by Philadelphia GOP bigwig Kevin Kelley and two partners. Among those interviewed are Ed Asner, Mike Farrell, Danny Glover, Pam Africa (after a lot of coaxing, they met at the Sofitel hotel), Gov. Rendell, anti-death penalty Sister Helen Prejean, Smerconish, the people of Saint-Denis, France, who named a street after Mumia, and Maureen Faulkner.

Hill did not speak with Abu-Jamal. He was interviewing Abu-Jamal's lawyer when Abu-Jamal called, and Hill has footage of the attorney, Robert Bryan from San Francisco, apparently being reamed out for suggesting that he get on the phone with Hill.. Also appearing is district attorney candidate Seth Williams, who says he would seek death if justices ordered a new hearing. Pam Africa has called Williams, who is black, and Hill the "Wilson Goode and Leo Brooks" of the Mumia case, referring to the black mayor and his managing director during the Osage Avenue MOVE catastrophe.

Buoyed by the reaction to the trailer, both positive and negative, Hill hopes to ready the film for a Philadelphia premiere on Dec. 9, the 28th anniversary of the killing.

Pro-Mumia activists will go to Washington on Nov. 12 to ask U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to review the case.

The U.S. Supreme Court, meanwhile, has yet to respond to the petition to reinstate the death sentence. The justices, though, have heard a capital case from Ohio that involves the same legal issue - instructions to the jury about mitigating circumstances - that is a key focus in Abu-Jamal's appeal.

(source: Phildadelphia Inquirer)

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

Erie death row inmate Treiber renews appeal

Death-row inmate Stephen Treiber was returned to Erie County Court this week to try to overturn his conviction for the 2001 murder of his 2-year-old daughter, Jessica Treiber.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court upheld Treiber's conviction and sentence in 2006.

He is now pursuing a wide-ranging habeas corpus motion that claims his right to a fair trial was violated because of errors by his lawyers, the presiding judge and the jury.

Treiber is asking Judge Ernest J. DiSantis Jr. to throw out his conviction and sentence and order a new trial or sentencing hearing.

Several days of testimony have already been heard on the motion. DiSantis, who presided at trial, will issue a ruling later.

Treiber, 40, was convicted of deliberately setting fire to his Millcreek Township house and killing his daughter to avoid paying $250 in monthly child support.

The state Attorney General's Office, which prosecuted Treiber, is fighting to uphold the conviction and death sentence. Treiber is represented by a team of lawyers from the Defender Association of Philadelphia, which specializes in death-penalty appeals.

Treiber has been on death row at the state Correctional Institution at Greene County, in Waynesburg, since his conviction in October 2002.

(source: GoErie.com)

MISSISSIPPI:

Miss. high court asks about death row appeals

The Mississippi Supreme Court intends to keep tabs on post-conviction appeals by death row inmates.

On Thursday, the Supreme Court questioned attorneys and judges on the status of nine post-conviction claims, some dating back 5 years. The Supreme Court asked trial judges why they have not ruled — or scheduled hearings — on those cases.

"The court has undertaken a systematic review of all pending post-conviction death penalty cases and has sought information on the status of cases for which there appears to be a lack of activity," Chief Justice Bill Waller Jr. said in a statement.

"We will systematically review the status of death penalty post-conviction cases...to assure that the fair and efficient administration of justice is being carried out."

The Supreme Court gave the trial judges and attorneys 60 days to respond to the orders. If not, the justices said they may force on the trial judges a timetable to render decisions.

In a post-conviction petition, an inmate argues he has found new evidence — or a possible constitutional issue — that could persuade a court to order a new trial.

At least 4 of the cases involve claims of mental disability by Willie C. Russell in Sunflower County, Ricky Chase in Copiah County, Ronnie Lee Conner in Lauderdale County and Kevin Scott in Bolivar County.

Court records show the Supreme Court ordered a mental disability hearing for Russell in 2003. Similar hearings were ordered for Chase and Conner in 2004, and Scott in 2006.

Regarding Scott, the Supreme Court said it wants to know from Scott’s attorneys and prosecutors why no hearing date has been scheduled. Scott was sentenced to death in the 1995 fatal shooting of Richard Lee of Boyle.

In the cases of Russell, Chase and Conner, the Supreme Court wanted to know why no ruling on mental disability had been issued.

Russell was convicted for the 1989 killing of Parchman prison guard Argentra Cotton. Chase was convicted for the 1989 slaying of an elderly Copiah County vegetable salesman. Conner was convicted for the 1990 kidnapping, robbery and killing of Celeste Brown in Lauderdale County.

In the remaining 5 cases, the Supreme Court asked why:

— No post-conviction motion had been filed for Fred Sanford Spicer Jr. in George County. In 2007, the court gave Spicer permission to seek a hearing on his claims that his attorney should have done a better job at his sentencing hearing. Spicer was convicted in the 2001 slaying of Edmond Herbert of George County.

— No decision had been issued in the case of Joseph Patrick Brown even though a hearing on Brown’s claims of ineffective counsel was held in 2004. Brown was convicted for the 1992 killing of a convenience store clerk in Natchez.

— No decision had been reached in Marlon Todd Howell's challenge to testimony that he was the shooter in the 2001 slaying of a Tupelo newspaper carrier during a robbery. The Supreme Court said Howell's petition had been pending in Union County since October 2008.

— Willie Jerome Manning's post-conviction petition in still pending in Oktibbeha County. The petition was filed in 2004. Manning was convicted of in the 1992 deaths of Tiffany Miller and Jon Steckler.

— No post-conviction petition had been filed for Clyde Wendell Smith in Leflore County on the issue of mental disability. In 2004, the Supreme Court gave Smith permission to file the petition. Smith was given the death penalty for the 1992 slaying of a package store owner.

(source: Associated Press)

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

Death penalty just too costly

Some criminals in Hinds County who may have been headed to death row just got a reprieve.

There hasn't been any change of heart when it comes to using the death penalty. It's just a matter of money. Hinds County District Attorney Robert Shuler Smith says the county can't afford to prosecute death penalty cases.

When is a crime a crime deserving of death? When the county can afford it, of course.

Therein lies another reason why the death penalty is wrong.

Smith is no opponent of the death penalty. It is just reality of the county budget. It costs more, a lot more, to prosecute a death penalty case.

Affordable justice

It's a matter of how much "justice" the county can afford. But if one county can "afford" to send someone to death row and another can't, isn't that another example of how inequitable the death penalty can be?

Death penalty supporters who argue that taxpayers shouldn't have to house a criminal for life might think again. According to an editorial in The New York Times, getting a criminal to the hangman is more expensive than locking him away.

It was estimated that it cost Florida $51 million more to kill prisoners than to keep the offenders locked up for life. In California, the costs are $114 million more. The Death Penalty Information Center estimated that California has spent $250 million each on the 13 people executed since 1976. North Carolina got a bargain. It only cost about $2.16 million per execution.

Jury location

But back to Hinds County. Ironically, it is very difficult to get a death penalty jury sentence in Hinds County anyway. Prosecutors have avoided seeking death for that reason. Yet, another jury in a different county with a different racial or gender makeup might not hesitate.

There are many troubling questions about the death penalty. There are questions of racial disparities. There are questions of the mentally ill. There are questions of mistakes.

This newspaper has long supported the death penalty. Polls show overwhelming support for it. Opposing the death penalty is not a popular position. But, I am opposed to the death penalty. Morally, I don't think the state should kill people. But I also don't think the death penalty is practical. It is not a deterrent to crime. It takes so long that any idea of timely justice is lost.

Some criminals certainly deserve it. All of us, including me, get so outraged over heinous crimes that we want the same for the criminal. It is a natural response.

But, is it the right response? The smart response? The best response?

The death penalty costs too much, literally and in many, many other ways.

(source: Clarion-Ledger; Editorial Director David Hampton)

RUSSIA:

Russia to Reinstate Death Penalty

The Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation is likely to review the issue of reinstating capital punishment at the November 3, 2009 Plenum session.

The Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation is likely to review the issue of reinstating capital punishment at the November 3, 2009 Plenum session, as a follow-up on reintroduction of jury trials, reports press service of the Constitutional Court.

On Thursday, the Supreme Court filed a request with the RF Constitutional Court for official interpretation of Article No. 5 of the Provisions of the Constitutional Court Ruling dated February 2, 1999 on the subject whether death penalty may be imposed as a punishment.

"In view of the emergency and overwhelming significance of the issue at question, the decision to put the request under consideration is likely to be made as soon as the next plenary session scheduled on November 3. If the Constitution Court agrees to accept the request for review the issue will be debated in an open plenary session" the official website of the Constitutional Court says. It will be recalled that the RF Constitutional Court set a moratorium on the death penalty on February 2, 1999 and decreed that death sentences would not be handed down until jury courts were introduced in all Russian territories. At present, the Chechen Republic is the only Russian region in which court by jury does not yet operate. The introduction of jury courts in the Chechen Republic is scheduled on 1st January, 2010. Therefore all technical barriers to restore capital punishment in Russia will be removed since the beginning of 2010.

(source: Vostok Media)

IRAQ:

Boy's killer to be first public execution since Saddam Hussein's rule

The Awenis lived in a two-storey house on a dusty road in western Baghdad. To their neighbours they were just another family — and no-one suspected that they were capable of abducting a local boy, collecting a ransom for his release, killing him and dumping his body in an acid bath.

The public response to the murder of 11-year-old Muntadher al-Mussewi has led the Iraqi Government to make plans for the 1st public execution since the fall of Saddam Hussein, The Times has learnt. In a departure from the legal practices that the West has tried to encourage, the Governor of Baghdad has declared his support for such an execution and an aide to Nouri al-Maliki, the Prime Minister, has discussed the matter with members of the boy's tribe.

Government officials said that they feared an outbreak of mass violence if proper vengeance was not seen to be exacted. Police have already broken up an armed stand-off between the Mussewi tribe and the kidnappers’ Aweni tribe. Both are connected to the top two Shia militia groups.

2 uncles of the leading kidnapper have given written pledges to the judge presiding over the case and the local police commander that they approve of a public execution in a bid to prevent further violence.

Officials have designated a spot outside the home of the dead boy for a hanging and have broadcast the location from the speakers of mosques in the neighbourhood of Hay al-Amel. No date has been set because the official sentencing has yet to take place, but that seems a formality.

The case illustrates how deeply violence has taken root in Iraq, as well as how important tribes are in Iraqi politics and how ambivalent many Iraqis feel about the values that the West has tried to promote since the war in Iraq in 2003.

On September 30, Muntadher left his parents' home in a rough part of Baghdad to visit his grandfather 2 streets away. On a street corner he was kidnapped by Muhanned al-Aweni and held captive only a minute’s walk away in his home. 2 days later the kidnappers sent the parents a picture of the boy and a ransom demand. During negotiations over the next 48 hours the demand was reduced from $80,000 (£49,000) to $25,000, which the family says it paid.

Munaf al-Mussewi, the boy’s father, said: "I delivered the money myself. I never saw the kidnappers, but they told us over the phone Muntadher would be released the next morning.

"We waited but he never came. I could never imagine I was betrayed by my own neighbours. Nothing is safe. The people you live among steal your children and kill them."

According to police sources, al-Aweni, aided by his mother Khaula and his cousins Taha and Ali, bludgeoned the boy to death on the 1st day, fearing that he could identify them. They tried to get rid of his body by dissolving it in battery acid, which they had access to in large quantities through their militia contacts, who had used it in sectarian killings several years ago.

A week later the remains of Muntadher were found in a plastic bag in the neighbourhood. Pictures of his blackened and partially decomposed body were printed on posters by the family and put up around western Baghdad.

Soon the Mussewi tribe started a hunt for the killers. The ransom negotiations had been conducted by mobile telephone and a court order helped the Mussewis to find telephone records that incriminated the mother of al-Aweni.

Dozens of armed men surrounded the house where she was known to live. Police intervened before the conflict escalated and arrested several of the Awenis. Within hours the house had been looted, the front peppered with bullet holes and the walls covered in red writing saying "owing a blood debt" and "the house of the abusers is destined for ruin."

After the Awenis made a confession, the father of the dead boy vowed vengeance. He said: "I want them to be executed right in front of my house. Only then will my heart, and that of Muntadher's mother, cool down again." For 15 days the Iraqi police sealed off the neighbourhood to prevent tribal warfare.

Bassam, a resident, said: "There was going to be a big battle. The Mussewis were ready to attack the Awenis."

The Awenis, who come from southern Iraq, were known for gun-running and sheep smuggling during the rule of Saddam. They have since been implicated in various criminal enterprises.

Several members are allegedly commanders in the al-Mahdi Army, the militia of Hojatoleslam Moqtada al-Sadr, the Shia cleric.

The Mussewis are more powerful. As direct descendants of the Prophet Muhammad, they are a dominant force in the other big Shia militia, the Badr Brigades, which is allied to the largest Shia party. Members of the tribe are found in parliament and the military's Baghdad command. The police chief of Basra and the dean of Baghdad university are Mussewis.

The police lifted the blockade of Hay al-Amel last week after the tribes agreed to a public execution. 2 senior Awenis, Jabar and Kareem, said in writing: "We strongly denounce this crime and demand the criminals’ execution nearby."

In return, Jacoub al-Mussewi, the uncle of the victim, said: "I accept that a public execution will reinstate my rights and dignity, which have been abused."

Separately, 37 sheikhs from the Mussewi tribe and commanders of the Badr Brigades have met Salah Abdul Razzaq, the Baghdad Governor, and Hassan Salman al-Saedi, a tribal adviser to the Prime Minister, to discuss the executions.

The Mussewis have calmed down for now, but if the executions are delayed then the tribes — and with them the 2 main Shia militias — could still come to blows.

Bassam, the Hay el-Amel resident, said: "The Iraqi Army has told people in the neighbourhood that the execution will be public. We have not seen that since Saddam’s time."

The former dictator held public executions regularly to terrorise the population and to appease powerful victims of crime. A government official involved in the Aweni case said: "We have received the demand for public executions and are prepared to support it."

State killings

Under Saddam Hussein's regime, mass executions were commonplace. On a single day, October 12, 1999, at least 100 prisoners at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison were executed

The number of executions carried out by countries around the world almost doubled in 2008, with an average of 7 people put to death every day The countries that use executions the most are China, Iran, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the US. These five account for 93 % of all state killings.

In China an estimated 8,000 people are executed every year — far more than any other country.

Iraq executed at least 34 people in 2008, and plans to put to death another 128 by the end of 2009 in batches of 20 at a time. At least 9 women are on death row.

The state of Texas executed 18 people in 2008.

(sources: London Times, Amnesty International)

OCTOBER 31, 2009:

TENNESSEE:

Community reacts to Davidson death penalty

Whether it's on TV, radio, or streaming online, people throughout Knoxville have been tuning in for the last two weeks following the Davidson trial. Friday was no exception as they waited to hear the jury's decision on the death penalty.

Lemaricus Davidson was convicted of the murders of Chris Newsom and Channon Christian.

Staff members at Joe Neubert Collision Center along Clinton Highway watched anxiously. Every computer in the shop was logged on and following the action as it happened.

Most of those watching the sentencing said they were looking for the death penalty, but after the Letalvis Cobbins trial, they weren't sure if it the jury would deliver it.

"They let the other one off too easy. I think he should have got the death penalty too," Carl Fain said.

As their decision was read, the crowd reacted. Some say the trial changed their thoughts on the death penalty.

"Before this trial I wasn't a fan of the death penalty. But because it has affected my life and changed the way I feel about things, I'm all for the death penalty," Rebecca Chait said.

Others were happy with the verdict, but were looking for a different sentence.

"Giving someone death is so hard, and I don't know that I've ever thought it builds to the healing process to take another life," Brooke Hyman said.

But the overall consensus supported the jury's decision.

"Justice was served today," Fain said.

(source: WBIR News)

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

Death penalty ordered in torture slayings

A 28-year-old man who took part in the torture and killing of a couple in Knoxville, Tenn., must be executed, a jury has decided.

The Knoxville (Tenn.) News Sentinel reported Saturday a jury sentenced Lemaricus Davidson to death for his part in the January 2007 slayings of Channon Christian, 21, and Christopher Newsom, 23.

Newsom's father, Hugh Newsom, applauded the jury's decision Friday in Knox County Criminal Court.

"We should take our hats off to them," he said. "We ought to give them a round of applause for the verdict they rendered. They were able to look at the evidence and render an unbiased verdict."

Authorities said Davidson and three other individuals kidnapped Christian and Newsom. Both victims were raped and tortured before eventually being killed by their assailants.

The News Sentinel said Davidson's half-brother, Letalvis Cobbins, was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. The other suspects, George Thomas and Vanessa Coleman, will face possible death sentences if also convicted on murder charges.

(source: United Press International)

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

Davidson transferred to death row

Lemaricus Davidson was transferred to a Middle Tennessee prison on Friday evening to begin serving his sentence on death row.

Davidson was given four death sentences by a Knox County jury Friday in the murders of Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom.

Late Friday evening, Dorinda Carter, communications officer for the Tennessee Department of Corrections, confirmed to Volunteer TV News that Davidson had arrived at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institute in Nashville around 6:00 p.m. CST.

Riverbend houses one of Tennessee's 2 death rows. It is home to the state’s death chamber.

(source: WVLT News)

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

The death penalty system costs too much

To the Editor:

It seems logical that we could save money by executing condemned criminals rather than keeping them in prison. However, states with no death penalty save millions.

The death penalty system is so expensive, in part, because we try not to execute the innocent. Yet the tragic execution of Cameron Willingham in Texas proves our fallibility.

What did it cost Tennessee to have sent 89 prisoners to death row? The state controller does not track the expenditures. We do know that California, for example, spends $137 million on the death penalty annually. However, a life sentence system, without parole, would cost California $11.5 million, a fraction of that.

New Jersey abolished the death penalty two years ago, after spending $253 million since 1983, $11 million annually, on the death penalty — and, moreover, no one was executed. Kansas spends 16 times more for a death penalty trial than for one about life without parole — appeals cost 21 times more.

Are we shortchanging families of victims by considering costs? Not all victims’ families feel the need for an execution. Moreover, actual executions are rare but the system of promising executions is exorbitantly costly.

In a nationwide poll, police chiefs have said we could be better protected from violent crime with well-placed funds for prevention.

Carol Tures, NASHVILLE 37215

(source: Letter to the Editor, The Tennessean)

ALASKA----federal death penalty

Wade attorneys dispute reasons for execution----SCHLOSS MURDER: Prosecutors say he killed a woman earlier.

Lawyers for Joshua Wade are challenging many of the reasons laid out by federal prosecutors as justification for the death penalty, including the government's assertion that he killed a woman back in 2000, long before the murder case he's now charged in.

An Anchorage jury acquitted Wade in 2003 of killing Della Brown but prosecutors still included her death as cause for the death penalty, stating in court papers that "he raped and murdered Della Brown."

Wade's defense team sharply disputes that and other "aggravating factors" cited by prosecutors.

Wade now is accused of torturing and killing his Sand Lake neighbor, Mindy Schloss, whose body was found in a patch of Wasilla woods in September 2007. His trial is scheduled to begin in March in Fairbanks.

If he's convicted of a capital crime connected to her killing -- he's charged with carjacking and using a firearm, both capital offenses under federal law when connected to a death -- the same federal jury would then hear evidence in a penalty phase. Aggravating factors put forward by the prosecution must outweigh any mitigating factors in Wade's defense. Jurors must be unanimous on the question of whether he would be put to death.

The defense now is trying to limit what evidence goes before jurors in a penalty phase, should it get to that. In a series of motions and memorandums filed this week in U.S. District Court, the defense argued that various factors listed by prosecutors are irrelevant, unreliable or unfair.

Prosecutors haven't yet responded and in complex cases like this often seek extra time. The defense is challenging assertions about:

• Prior conduct. A state court jury already has decided there wasn't evidence Wade killed Brown, and no physical evidence tied him to the scene, Seattle defense lawyer Gilbert Levy argued in a new court filing. Witnesses who said Wade confessed to them are lying crooks, Levy wrote.

"The Government's presentation of the Della Brown evidence and Defendant's response thereto will result in a trial within a trial, likely to last as long, if not longer, than trial of the crime alleged in the indictment," the defense argues.

• Whether Wade is a violent sexual offender. He's never been convicted of a sex crime, and there's no evidence Schloss was sexually assaulted, Seattle defense lawyer Suzanne Lee Elliott wrote in court papers.

"Thus, this allegation is simply an effort to inflame the jury against Wade based upon speculation and innuendo," Elliott wrote.

• Potential for rehabilitation. Irrelevant, the defense says. If Wade is convicted of killing Schloss and doesn't get the death penalty, he'll spend the rest of his life in federal prison, the defense says.

• Future danger. Prosecutors contend Wade "violently killed 2 women" so he would continue to be a danger. But the defense says Brown's killing can't be pinned on Wade. At any rate, the only future danger posed by Wade would be to other inmates, not the public, the defense says.

(source: Anchorage Daily News)

OHIO:

Ohio Attorney General speaks out about the death penalty in Toledo

Ohio's Attorney General spoke about the death penalty with the Toledo Bar Association Friday. He spoke about the current death penalty practice being on hold and what he sees in its future.

Part of the reason he came is because botched executions in recent state history caused a Toledo attorney to file suit on behalf of one of the death row inmates.

In May of 2006, Toledoan Joe Clark was sent to the death chamber for the 1984 murder of David Manning.

The process took 90 minutes because the execution team couldn't find a vein.

That caused local attorney Alan Konop to call the lethal injection practice torture. He filed suit.

But the Ohio Governor didn't stop this practice until this month. That's after the state failed to execute death row inmate Romell Broom altogether.

"This is the 1st time it happened with lethal injection. The execution team had trouble finding a usable vein," says Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray. "Cruel and unusual punishments are barred by the Eighth Amendment."

Cordray addressed Toledo attorneys, prosecutors and judges--people who all deal with these capital cases. They focused on the death penalty as a whole, like the benefits, the costs and the procedures.

"There was a time hanging was considered acceptable. It probably would not be now," says Cordray.

While some say lethal injection is inhumane, Cordray says results of the current review will likely not veer too far the method.

And Ohio's botched past will not jeopardize the death penalty's future.

"My guess is that we'll probably be at some version of what we have for the foreseeable future and a long time to come."

(source: WTOL News)

CALIFORNIA:

Prominent attorney joins Huckaby defense team

A prominent criminal defense attorney will help defend the Tracy woman accused of killing 8-year-old Sandra Cantu and stuffing the girl's body into a suitcase.

San Francisco attorney Michael Burt, who has represented the "Night Stalker" Richard Ramirez and Lyle Menendez among others, will work on Melissa Huckaby's case alongside public defender Sam Behar.

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against the 28-year-old former Sunday school teacher, who is charged with murdering, raping and kidnapping Cantu. She has pleaded not guilty to all counts.

Officials say the money to pay Burt will come from a special fund in the public defender's office for death penalty cases.

Meanwhile, Behar Friday filed motions to suppress evidence and dismiss the indictment against Huckaby.

(source: Associated Press)

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

Melissa Huckaby's attorney asks to dismiss indictment, gets help with defense

The defense of a Tracy woman accused of killing 8-year-old Sandra Cantu is getting some help, with an attorney experienced in defending high profile murder suspects joining the team.

Sam Behar, Melissa Huckaby's public defender, has enlisted the help of San Francisco attorney Michael Burt, who has been involved in defending suspects in high profile death penalty cases, including Richard Ramirez, Charles Ng and Lyle Menendez. Burt did not appear during a hearing for Huckaby in San Joaquin County Superior Court today, but will be at the defense table with Behar and Huckaby at the next court date Dec. 4, when a trial date could be set.

The money to fund Burt will come from a special fund within the Public Defender's Office in death penalty cases, said Robert Himelblau, spokesman for the San Joaquin County District Attorney's Office. He said it is not uncommon for the public defenders to seek private counsel as 2nd chair.

Also today, Behar filed a motion to suppress evidence and a motion to dismiss the indictment charging Huckaby, 28, with rape and murder in connection with Sandra's death. Judge Linda Lofthus ordered those files sealed from public access because they contain information from the grand jury transcripts, which she also ordered sealed.

No arguments were made about those issues. Feb. 12 is the date set to start the motion to suppress, which examines how evidence was obtained. A date for the motion to dismiss has not yet been set.

Lofthus she said she sealed the records in the interest of a fair trial both sides, as well as privacy for Sandra's family and the victim in the drugging case. Those issues override the public's right to know, she said.

Huckaby has been indicted by a grand jury on murder with three enhancements — kidnapping, lewd and lascivious acts on a child under 14 and rape by instrument — in connection with the Sandra's death. A 2nd count charges Huckaby with a sex crime with a child 10 years or younger.

Huckaby has also been indicted on 2 counts of furnishing a harmful substance and 1 count of child endangerment for 2 unrelated drugging cases involving another Tracy girl and a Hayward man.

She has pleaded not guilty to all counts. The San Joaquin County District Attorney's Office will seek the death penalty if Huckaby is convicted. A gag order prevents attorneys involved from publicly commenting.

Before the public hearing, Behar met privately with Lofthus for about 5 minutes to update her on his progress. In open court, she told prosecutor Thomas Testa and the public what she could about the brief discussion she had with Behar.

"I'm very pleased to reveal this. Mr. Behar is making tremendous progress," she said. Huckaby is his now his only case, she said, and he told her he is working on the case "more than 24/7."

Testa was not as impressed with the progress and reiterated what he has been saying along — set a trial date right away.

"Unlike Mr. Behar, I do have other cases, other special circumstances cases, that are percolating," he said.

Tracy police arrested Huckaby on April 10, 4 days after Sandra's body was found stuffed in a suitcase and submerged in a pond not far from the Orchard Estates Mobile Home Park, where Huckaby and Cantu lived.

Cantu, a 2nd-grader, was last seen alive March 27. A 10-day search ensued that received national attention.

Before she was arrested, Huckaby told a Tracy newspaper that she owned a suitcase similar to the one Sandra was found in. Huckaby said her suitcase disappeared the same day Sandra did.

(source: Contra Costa Times)

YEMEN----new death sentences

Yemen sentences 8 more Shias to death

A Yemeni court has given the death sentence to 8 more Shia fighters, for resisting a government offensive north of the country's capital last year.

The fighters were arrested during month-long clashes at Bani Husheish, 30 km (19 miles) north of Sanaa last year. Saturday's trial was the 6th of its kind for Yemenis involved in last year's fighting.

The court found the men guilty of "forming an armed gang aimed at implementing a criminal plot" as well as "causing the killing and wounding of many soldiers and policemen", AFP reported.

The court also sentenced 12 others to prison terms ranging from one to 12 years. 2 others, brought to trial were found innocent.

The latest trial brought the number of Yemeni fighters on death row to 34, as the government continues its all-out military campaign in the North. About 100 others are awaiting trial.

The military offensive against the Shia fighters, launched on August 11, has so far left hundreds of people, mostly civilians, dead. It has also displaced tens of thousands of civilians, forcing them to live in refugee camps.

While the Shia fighters, also known as 'Houthis', say they are defending themselves against social, economic, political and religious oppression, the government accuses them of seeking to restore a religious leadership which ended in a republican coup in 1962.

(source: Press TV)

CHINA:

China rejects EU criticism of Tibet executions

China has hit back at European Union criticism of the execution of 2 Tibetans over unrest in the Himalayan region last year and warned Europe not to interfere in the issue.

The response came after the 27-nation European bloc on Thursday issued a statement condemning the executions and questioning whether the Tibetans had received fair trials.

"We express strong dissatisfaction and resolute opposition to the statement issued by the European side," foreign ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said in a response posted on the ministry's website late on Friday.

Ma said on Tuesday that the 2 Tibetans had been executed for their role in deadly ethnic unrest that rocked the region in March of last year, the 1st known use of capital punishment over the violence.

Fierce anti-China protests erupted in Lhasa and spread across Tibet and adjacent areas with Tibetan populations, embarrassing the government as it sought to play up national unity in the run-up to the Beijing Olympics.

Ma repeated China's insistence that the unrest was planned and organised by what it calls a Dalai Lama "clique," a claim that it has never publicly backed up with any evidence.

He said China rejected "interference" in its domestic affairs.

"We ask that Europe adhere to the principle of equality and mutual respect, and not send wrong signals to 'Tibet independence' separatist forces, so that healthy and stable development of China-Europe relations can be maintained."

Beijing accuses the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, of agitating for independence in his homeland. He denies that, however, insisting he only wants greater regional autonomy for Tibet.

China has said "rioters" were responsible for 21 deaths in last year's violence, while its security forces killed only one "insurgent."

But the exiled Tibetan government has said more than 200 Tibetans were killed in the subsequent crackdown.

(source: Agence France-Presse)

OCTOBER 30, 2009:

TENNESSEE:

Davidson gets death penalty

A Knox County jury sentenced Lemaricus Davidson to death for killing Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom in January 2007.

A cheer went out over the courtroom when the first of four death penalty verdicts was read aloud by the jury foreman. Judge Richard Baumgartner quickly reprimanded court observers for the outburst, having previously warned that there should be no reaction whatsoever from the courtroom.

--

Related Facts:

Jurors must unanimously agree before the death penalty can be issued.

89 people are on death row in Tennessee. (Davidson is the 90th.)

Only 6 of Tennessee's death row inmates are from Tennessee. (Davidson is the 7th.)

--

Davidson's half-brother, Letalvis Cobbins, was convicted of killing Channon Christian, but not Christopher Newsom.

Cobbins, who faced a jury from Davidson County, did not get the death penalty for his crimes. Davidson specifically requested that his jury come from Knox County.

Both the Christians and the Newsoms expect more charges to be filed against carjack accessory Eric Boyd.

George Thomas and Vanessa Coleman are also set to stand trial for the January 2007 killings. In all, Davidson was handed 4 death sentences for the 1st degree premeditated murder and 1st degree felony murder of Channon Christian, as well as the 1st degree premeditated murder and 1st degree felony murder of Christopher Newsom.

"May you find peace with your maker," Judge Richard Baumgartner told Davidson before court was adjourned.

"The Christians the Newsoms and all of Knoxville got justice today," Deena Christian said after learning of jury's sentencing decision.

"I first want to thank 12 people--actually 14," Gary Christ to go see her, and tell her 'one down.' "

Gary Christian thanked local law enforcement and prosecutors, saying, "These are the people that we need in this community to protect us."

"The Jury was from Knox County. They are the pillars of our community," Hugh Newsom said. "We should take our hats off to them, and we should give them a round of applause."

Letalvis Cobbins, who was convicted in August of killing Channon but not Chris, did not get the death penalty. The jury in his trial came from Davidson County. George Thomas, the next suspect to go on trial for the murders, will be tried by a jury from Bradley County.

"I'm happy with the verdict. This is what we wanted," Mary Newsom said. "This is the justice we wanted for Chris."

"They were able to take the evidence, and make a decision, unbiased, and they rendered that verdict," Hugh Newsom said.

Asked about rumors that the defense is already talking about a mistrial, Gary Christian said he was hoping to get through the news conference without having to talk about "them" (defense attorneys).

"I do not have to respect--I respect that court, I respect these officers--I respect that court, I do not have to respect a couple of individuals because the court made them do something," Gary Christian said. "I do not have to respect the way they did it. I don't not respect anybody that attacks (the Newsom's) son or our daughter, for any reason."

"You once talked about struggling with hate in your heart," WNOX reporter Catherine Howell asked Gary Christian.

"Yes, Ma'am," he said.

"Does this help?"

"No, ma'am."

(source: Volunteer TV News)

FLORIDA:

Jurors vote death penalty in Florida girl's murder

In Panama City, a Panhandle jury is recommending to a judge that a registered sex offender be put to death for raping and killing a 13-year-old girl.

The jurors voted 8 to 4 Friday afternoon in favor of death for Matthew Caylor after convicting him on Thursday of killing Melinda Hinson. The girl's body was discovered by a maid in July 2008 at a Panama City motel where she was living with her family. Caylor confessed to killing her in a videotaped statement played for jurors.

Earlier Friday, Caylor's attorney tried to persuade jurors to let him die in prison while serving a life term. Jurors listened to Caylor's mother who said she and her husband were frequent drug users and that he grew up in a violent and drug-filled home.

The judge will make the final decision.

(source: Associated Press)

TEXAS:

Former Texas Gov. Mark White Now Doubts Death Penalty

In a recent interview on NPR, former Texas Governor Mark White discussed his lack of faith in the ability of the legal system to reliably handle death penalty cases, and emphasized the seriousness of handing down an irreversible sentence to a person who may later be proven innocent. While he was Governor, he oversaw a significant number of executions, but White now believes that: "What I see in retrospect is that our system is not as foolproof as I think it should be in order to carry out a punishment that’s irreversible."

White also stated that he has never believed in the death penalty as a deterrent, because: "Obviously, with 400 people on death row, there’s at least 400 people up there that didn’t deter."

As Amnesty International observed, Governor White's evolution on this question is part of a national trend: "As advances in DNA and forensic science have revealed the extent to which our criminal justice system is prone to error, judges, jurors, the public, and even some politicians, have begun to question the wisdom of resorting to capital punishment."

White's statements (he's a Democrat) also come at a particularly bad time for current Governor Rick Perry, who, in the middle of a re-election campaign, is now being scrutinized for his role in the execution of Cameron Todd Willingham, who appears to have been innocent and wrongly put to death.

In the past, you would only pay a political price if you didn't support the death penalty strongly enough. But in Texas, as everywhere else in the U.S., times have changed, and it would be quite something if the most prolific executing Governor in modern history wound up suffering politically because he supported the death penalty too much.

(source: Opposing Viewpoints)

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

'The death penalty? Shut it down!'

Electricity was in the air Oct. 24 as hundreds of people filled the south steps of the Texas Capitol in Austin to shout loud and clear: "Todd Willingham was innocent!"

Gathering for the 10th Annual March to Abolish the Death Penalty, abolitionists from all over Texas, around the country, and a few from overseas turned out in record numbers to demand that Texas Gov. Rick Perry immediately stop all executions in Texas.

In recent months the national media has written extensively that there was no credible evidence of arson, and therefore the 2004 execution of Willingham was the execution of an innocent man.

Willingham's mother sent a message to the march that read: "I sincerely appreciate the concern by everyone at today's 10th Annual March to Abolish the Death Penalty in your efforts to gain attention to the senseless execution of my son Todd and for his exoneration. I have received letters of support from some of the men on death row stating that Todd's murder is the reason the appeals court is taking more time going over their cases and they are getting stays of execution. This won't bring Todd back, but I take comfort in knowing that others may be freed because of him. Also thanks for making this Todd’s day."

Liz Gilbert, a Houston teacher and playwright, met Willingham after she got his name on a bus trip to Philadelphia for a Millions for Mumia Rally in 1999. As she began to know Willingham and learn about his case, she decided to begin her own investigation. She went to Corsicana, Texas, where Willingham's 3 young girls were killed in a fire in their home. She began to figure out that there was no evidence to prove arson and contacted a fire investigator and the Innocence Project in New York.

Their investigation has now catapulted Willingham's execution into national news and prompted a cover-up by Gov. Rick Perry, who presided over the execution. "I am hoping to bring attention to the fact that if only 1 innocent person was executed, that's enough," said Gilbert at the rally. "In Todd's case, Texas executed a person who did not commit a crime."

After the opening speaker got the protesters chanting "Todd Willingham was innocent!" the crowd of around 500 people screamed when asked if they remembered other innocents who had been executed like Shaka Sankofa and Frances Newton.

There was great applause and a rousing welcome for 3 men who have been released from death row because they were innocent. The Journey of Hope sponsored Shujaa Graham, who was on death row at San Quentin. Curtis McCarty did 22 years on Oklahoma death row before getting out in 2007. Ron Cuney, sponsored by Witness to Innocence, was on New Mexico's death row in the early 1970s and came within 90 days of execution.

'Save Reginald Blanton!'

Silence swept the crowd as Anna Terrell, the mother of Reginald Blanton, an innocent man set for execution in just 3 days, bared her heart and soul to all who could hear her voice.

With her voice and hands trembling with fear of the impending execution, Terrell said, "It is kind of hard to speak because of the pain that I feel—it is my son, my life, that they want to kill on Tuesday. When you take away a life and then later you find out he was innocent—how are you going to bring my baby back to me? How are you going to bring him back? You're punishing his whole family. You've already killed his father. His father and his uncles have fought in the military for freedom, but what kind of freedom do they give my son?

"I feel so much anger. I can't begin to tell you the life I am living, awaiting my son's death. It is true that if you have deep pockets, you can buy justice. My son has never stopped writing and screaming that he is innocent. They let me visit him for the 1st time in a year yesterday, and while we were talking, they told us the board denied a stay, refused to stop the killing. I haven't held my son for 10 years, and now they want to kill him, and he is innocent."

As the crowd fought back tears, they clapped their support and began an impromptu chant of "Save Reginald Blanton!" Terrell gained strength and loudly proclaimed, "Rick Perry, you are sitting in your ivory tower, but you are not going to get away with this. You are going to pay for your wrongs. You are evil and you have no right. Anyone who was selected for anything by George Bush—you know where Bush has gotten us. Those people all sleep together, but we can kick them out. We are dealing with no-good, low-down suckers, and we are going to get rid of them. This is a new era and change is coming. We're not going to stand for this anymore. We're going to bring this killing to an end."

Moving testimony of innocence

Families of many men claiming innocence also spoke. Sandra Reed has been publicly fighting for her son Rodney Reed for over 10 years. Regina Guidry told the crowd that her spouse Howard was innocent and still fighting for his life. Supporters and family of Clint Young also spoke about his case.

Connie Wright spoke almost a year after her spouse, Greg, was put to death despite overwhelming evidence of his innocence. She moved the crowd when she said she was willing to keep on fighting against the death penalty despite her loss. Former Congressperson Cynthia McKinney, who stood outside the death house to protest Wright's execution last November, sent a message of solidarity to Connie's family and to the march.

Delia Perez-Meyer spoke for her brother Louis Castro Perez, who has strong innocence claims, and is affectionately called "Big Lou" by his friends on the row. Perez-Meyers is on the Austin Human Rights Commission, which has passed a resolution calling for a halt to executions in the city of Austin. She then asked all death-row families to come to the front, and dozens and dozens of protesters surged to the top steps of the Capitol with signs and banners for their loved ones.

A number of families spoke for their loved ones who were convicted under Texas' law of parties, which condemns people to death row even if they allegedly were only accessories to a capital crime. Terri Been spoke for her brother, Jeff Wood, who did not kill anyone and was not even in the store where a person was murdered. Crystal Halprin spoke for her spouse, Randy, as did Marisol Ramirez about her spouse, Juan. Sylvia Garza came from the Rio Grande Valley to stand up for her son, Robert. She and Robert's sister distributed fliers about his case. Lydia Garza, also from the Valley, spoke about her son, Humberto.

A bus took activists from the Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement in Houston to Austin. From Jazzlyn Jefferson, 7, to Joanne Broussard, 74, the activists left the SHAPE Community Center with signs on the bus and coolers loaded with water and soda. Broussard's son, Windell, was executed in 2002. Jefferson's mom and grandmother were also on the bus; all 3 have been protesting the death penalty for years. An older Palestinian activist, Hasan, made the trip, as did Ray Hill, host of Pacifica Radio's The Prison Show broadcast in Houston. Several death row family members were on the bus as well.

"We hope that we will not be back for the 11th Annual March, but we will be here until the death penalty is totally shut down," said Laura Brady of the Campaign to End the Death Penalty, who co-chaired the rally with Scott Cobb of the Texas Moratorium Network.

Editor's note: Reginald Blanton was legally murdered by the state of Texas on Oct. 27.

(source: Worker's World)

OKLAHOMA:

Man's life sentence changed to death row

An Oklahoma man was sentenced to death row Thursday afternoon for killing his best friend. 32-year-old Ronson Kyle Bush was initially offered a different sentence. Prosecutors first offered him life in prison without parole but he refused and was sentenced to death.

"My son was a keeper like all my children; big in stature, great heart. He loved to help people," Billy Harrington's mother Kathleen Harrington said.

It was a treasured trait his family says lead to his death.

They say he was helping Bush who had been staying with Billy Harrington for only a week when he shot and killed him with a handgun.

Authorities say bloody footsteps show Harrington was still alive and made his way outside.

That's when Bush tied his best friend's feet and dragged his body around their home with a truck for about 600 yards then left him for dead.

Harrington's mother knew something was wrong when Bush answered her son's phone.

"I said, 'Where is Billy?' He said at that time he was about 50 feet from him. It was just like he walked to where he was at and said Billy couldn't talk anymore."

Bush repeatedly admitted what he did, including when he was booked into the county jail.

"I just shot my best friend with a .357 6 times," Bush told jailers. "I'm just saying what I did. I shot the motherfu**** 6 times with a .357."

"He's tried to escape from our county jail 3 times," Grady County District Attorney Bret Burns said. "He's threatened to hurt guards, jailers, anybody who gets in his way. He's upped the ante and walked himself into the death penalty."

"We're glad that the judge made the decision he made, at the same time it doesn't bring us any great relief," Harrington's brother Bobby Harrington said. "We still don't have Billy. There's still going to be an empty void that will never be filled."

Billy Harrington leaves behind an 11 year old daughter.

(source: KFOR News)

FLORIDA----new death sentence

Death Recommended For Officer's Killer

In Daytona Beach, a jury has unanimously recommended the death sentence for Enoch Hall.

Hall was convicted of killing Tomoka Prison officer Donna Fitzgerald. Hall was already serving 2 life sentences for kidnap and rape when he attacked Fitzgerald.

Thursday's jury deliberations were delayed by a few hours because of a Florida Supreme Court ruling regarding instructions given to jurors in death penalty cases.

State and defense lawyers came to an agreement on the ruling and proceeded with closing arguments.

There is no word yet on when the judge will rule on the jury's recommendation.

(source: Central Florida News)

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

Jury recommends death penalty in guard's murder

The fact that Enoch Hall was a good athlete and a good brother could not convince a 12-member jury Thursday to spare his life for the murder of a female corrections officer Hall beat and stabbed 22 times.

After 2 hours of deliberations Thursday at the end of Hall's penalty phase hearing, the panel decided unanimously the 40-year-old convicted murderer should die by lethal injection.

Hall -- who was already serving 2 life sentences for kidnapping and rape -- was convicted last week of acting with premeditation when he stabbed Donna Fitzgerald in a work area of Tomoka Correctional Institution. Fitzgerald, 50, was a 14-year veteran of the Department of Corrections who lived in Port Orange.

Thursday afternoon, the jury listened as Assistant State Attorney Leah Case and Assistant Public Defender Matt Phillips presented the panel with the facts surrounding Fitzgerald's murder and the positive highlights of Hall's life -- both of which weighed in the jury's decision.

As she spoke in an impassioned tone, Case held up a poster adorned with several ribbons and medals that Hall had won playing sports as a teenager in Milton in North Florida. Behind the ribbon-laden poster were several poster-sized photographs of a dead Fitzgerald's beaten, swollen face and body.

Case positioned the ribbons against one of the more graphic pictures of Fitzgerald. Jurors looked sullenly at the contrast between the two exhibits and Fitzgerald's mother and sister lowered their heads and cried.

"Does this outweigh this?" Case asked the jury.

Then, glaring at Hall in his oversized blazer and red tie, Case reminded the jury that the last face Fitzgerald saw before she died was the killer's as he wielded a makeshift knife.

The ribbons were later returned to Phillips; he said Hall's mother wanted them back as a keepsake.

Earlier in the hearing, State Attorney R.J. Larizza had argued that signs of attempted sexual battery also should be considered by the jury. When Fitzgerald was found, her body was draped over a work cart; her pants and underwear rolled to her knees. Though there was no physical evidence of a sexual battery, Larizza said Hall told investigators "he couldn't remember if he sexually battered Ms. Fitzgerald."

But Assistant Public Defender Jim Valerino countered the theory was "speculation on the part of the state."

After hearing from both sides, Circuit Judge J. David Walsh agreed, and did not allow the sexual battery argument to be considered.

Family members of the victim also testified earlier in the day. But during the afternoon session when Walsh asked Hall whether he wanted to testify, the defendant quietly declined.

The penalty phase of the case, which was supposed to begin at 1:30 p.m., was delayed when prosecutors, defense attorneys and the judge went line by line over new jury instructions issued by the Florida Supreme Court on Thursday in hopes of clearing up juror confusion in death penalty cases. The justices made the changes partly in response to an American Bar Association survey that showed large percentages of jurors misunderstood the law and their role in death penalty cases.

The next step in the case is a Dec. 7 hearing before Walsh, where the defense will make another effort to save Hall's life with more mitigating circumstances, Assistant Public Defender Phillips said.

But on Thursday, Fitzgerald's mother Joanne Dunn and her sister, Dana Shure, said the correct decision was already made.

"A 12-0 verdict is what she (Donna) deserved," Shure said, clutching 2 roses. "That is the right verdict."

(source: Daytona Beach News-Journal)

TENNESSEE:

Knox County jury deliberates life or death in couple slaying

A Knox County jury began deliberating Friday a possible death sentence for the ringleader in the torture slayings of a young Knoxville couple following a carjacking.

The same panel of seven men and five women who convicted Lemaricus Davidson, 28, in the 2007 attack on University of Tennessee student Channon Christian, 21, and her boyfriend Christopher Newsom, 23, were deciding his fate.

Davidson was found guilty of more than 30 counts, including felony murder and premeditated murder of each victim. The jury had a choice of a life sentence mandating a minimum of 51 years in prison, life without parole with no chance of release or the death penalty.

Christian and Newsom were carjacked in her sport utility vehicle by several gun-wielding men during a Saturday night date in January 2007. They were taken to Davidson's house, beaten and raped. Newsom was fatally shot within hours and his naked body set on fire along some railroad tracks. Christian was raped over the next day and then stuffed into a garbage can in Davidson's house, where she suffocated.

The murders were beyond "heinous, atrocious and cruel," prosecutor Leland Price told the jury. "That doesn't even begin to describe it."

He said there was no evidence the victims fought back. Instead, they were simply "overwhelmed" by their attackers.

"The only reason these kids were ultimately killed was because they knew too much" and could identify their assailants, Price said.

Those are some of the factors that Price argued should convince the jury to vote for a death sentence — something a Knox County jury hasn't done since 1997.

"You know what justice demands. These crimes cry out for the maximum punishment we have in the state of Tennessee," he said.

Defense attorney Doug Trant recalled testimony about Davidson's poor, neglected, abusive childhood in Memphis, and the promise that a group home manager and foster parents saw in him in his late teens before his arrest and 6-year prison sentence for aggravated robbery.

"It's not an excuse, but it is an explanation for why he is here," Trant said.

He also reminded the jury that a defense psychiatrist testified Davidson has shown that he can function well and know right from wrong when he is off drugs and in a structured environment, such as prison. Trant suggested Davidson could help inmates learn from his example.

"I am going to ask you to spare the life of Lemaricus Davidson," he said. "Please, I am begging you to do the right thing."

A jury brought from Nashville to avoid pretrial publicity earlier convicted Davidson's brother, Letalvis Cobbins, 26, of Lebanon, Ky., in the case and sentenced him to life without parole. Cobbins' friend George Thomas, 26, will be tried by a jury from Chattanooga in December. No trial date has been set for a 4th defendant, Cobbins' girlfriend Vanessa Coleman, 21.

A 5th conspirator, Eric Boyd, was convicted in federal court of being an accessory after the fact for hiding Davidson and was sentenced to 18 years.

The case raised racial tensions because the victims were white and the defendants are black, with some Internet bloggers contending the national media downplayed the case because it didn't involve white-on-black crime. Prosecutors, police and the victims families, however, have said race didn't seem to play a role in the attacks and that Christian and Newsom were random victims.

(source: Associated Press)

LOUISIANA:

Film describes failed La. execution

A new documentary tells the story of a 16-year-old Louisiana man who survived the state's attempt to execute him in the electric chair in 1946.

"Willie Francis Must Die Again" describes the electrocutions of Francis in 1946 and again in 1947 after he survived the first try without injury. Lawyer Bertrand LeBlanc took the state to court and came within one vote of getting the U.S. Supreme Court to stop the second execution.

Louisiana Public Broadcasting is premiering the documentary, which is narrated by actor Danny Glover, on its six-channel network Tuesday.

The film, written and directed by Allan Durand, received Best Documentary awards at the Memphis International Film Festival, the Santa Monica International Film Festival, Charlotte International Film Festival and the New York Independent Film Festival.

(source: Associated Press)

MISSISSIPPI:

Miss. high court asks about death row appeals

The Mississippi Supreme Court intends to keep tabs on post-conviction appeals by death row inmates.

On Thursday, the Supreme Court questioned attorneys and judges on the status of 9 post-conviction claims, some dating back 5 years.

The Supreme Court asked trial judges why they have not ruled - or scheduled hearings - on those cases.

At least 4 of the cases involved pending claims of mental disability.

The Supreme Court gave the trial judges and attorneys 60 days to response to the orders. If not, the justices said they may force on the trial judges a timetable to render decisions.

(source: Associated Press)

ARKANSAS:

Court clears way for Williams execution; AG in no rush

The state Supreme Court today ordered a lower court to dismiss a lawsuit that had effectively put executions on hold in Arkansas.

In a unanimous decision, the state's highest court ruled that Frank Williams Jr.'s lawsuit against the Arkansas Department of Correction is moot and directed a Pulaski County circuit judge to dismiss the lawsuit and lift an injunction on Williams’ execution.

Chief Deputy Attorney General Justin Allen said today it may be a month or more before the attorney general's office is ready to ask Gov. Mike Beebe to set an execution date for Williams. Allen said Williams could ask the state Supreme Court to reconsider its ruling or he could ask the U.S. Supreme Court to hear his case.

Jennifer Horan of the federal public defenders office in Little Rock said the office would have no comment on today's ruling.

Williams, sentenced to die for the October 1992 slaying of Lafayette County farmer Clyde Spence, filed his lawsuit last year. He alleged the Department of Correction failed to comply with the Arkansas Administrative Procedures Act when it adopted rules regarding lethal injection without subjecting the rules to public review and accepting public comments, as required by the act.

In August 2008, a Pulaski County circuit judge ruled in favor of Williams and granted an injunction blocking his execution. The attorney general's office has not sought execution dates for any death-row inmates while Williams' case has been pending.

Earlier this year, the state Legislature approved Act 1296 of 2009, which writes the state's lethal projection procedure into law and declares that the procedure is exempt from the Administrative Procedures Act.

In its appeal of the circuit judge's ruling, the state attorney general’s office argued that the new law rendered Williams' arguments moot. Williams argued that the law does not specifically state that it is to be applied retroactively, to people sentenced to death before it went into effect.

Williams also claimed the law is flawed because it is not specific enough in setting out the lethal injection procedure. The law leaves him in uncertainty as to whether he will be subjected to a manner of execution that causes pain, thereby increasing his punishment, he argued.

In its opinion today, the Supreme Court said retroactivity is not an issue.

"There was no need for the General Assembly to state that the act may be applied retroactively, because the act will not be 'retroactively' applied but will instead apply to all executions held after the act's enactment, including Williams'", Justice Jim Gunter wrote in the opinion.

Because it found that the law applies to Williams and renders his lawsuit moot, the court said it did not need to consider his other arguments.

Though Williams still has appeal options, 3 other death-row inmates in the state have exhausted all appeals, Allen said.

"As to those 3, there is nothing in place to stop an execution date from being set, and I expect one or more of them will have execution dates set in the not-too-distant future," he said.

Williams and three other death-row inmates have an appeal pending before the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that challenges the constitutionality of lethal injection in Arkansas, but no stays of execution have been imposed in that case, Allen said.

(source: Associated Press)

NEW HAMPSHIRE:

Death penalty 'teach-in'----Hampton Rep. Cushing featured

Students of Phillips Exeter Academy Amnesty International Club will host a "teach-in" on the death penalty featuring Hampton Democratic state Rep. Robert "Renny" Cushing. The event will take place tonight, from 6-7:30 p.m., in the Forum on the 3rd floor of the Phelps Academy Center on Tan Lane in Exeter. The event is free and open to the public.

Cushing, executive director of Murder Victims' Families for Human Rights, an international, non-governmental organization of family members of victims of criminal murder, terrorist killings, state executions, extra-judicial assassinations and "disappearances" working to oppose the death penalty from a human rights perspective. He is also a member of the recently established NH Death Penalty Study Commission, and became a victim himself when his father was shot and killed by a Hampton policeman in 1988.

That incident shaped Cushing's work as an advocate for crime victims and as an opponent of the death penalty. He serves as a pioneer in the effort to bridge death penalty abolition groups and the victims' rights movement. Cushing travels throughout the U.S. and around the world, speaking with and on behalf of victims who oppose capital punishment.

PEA Amnesty International Club Adviser Martha McEntee said that although the group is launching their first event this school year, they have big plans for the future.

"Our club members are hoping to make this teach-in the first of many human rights' events on campus this year," McEntee said. "The Troy Davis case is compelling judicial example, raising critical questions about the death penalty and the entire criminal justice system.

"It has drawn the attention of death penalty opponents worldwide, including Nobel Peace Prize winner and anti-apartheid activist Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Sister Helen Prejean, the author of Dead Man Walking," she said.

For further information, contact McEntee at 603-580-1379. For more information on other events, visit the Academy's community calendar or visit the Academy's web site at www.exeter.edu.

Anyone interested may also call the PEA public events line at 777-4309. Directions to Phillips Exeter Academy are available at 777-4330. (source: York Weekly)

CALIFORNIA----new death sentence

Jury recommends death in 2nd penalty phase for murderer

A Long Beach killer twice convicted for the slashing deaths of 2 local women was condemned to death Thursday by a jury in what could be record time.

Jurors deliberating the fate of Santiago Martinez Jr. were read jury instructions late Wednesday and returned the Long Beach Superior Court early Thursday to start their deliberations.

Within 30 minutes of convening they took a poll and agreed upon death, one juror said.

"We all voted unanimously, we were kind of surprised," said another juror. "We still talked about it, we wanted to make sure everyone was heard, but we knew our decision right away."

It was a long penalty phase for the jury, the 2nd such panel to hear the case.

Martinez, now 28, was first convicted in 2005 of killing 1 girlfriend, then convicted last year of killing 2nd girlfriend when she refused to help Martinez dispose of the 1st victim's remains. The 1st murder victim, Christina Wilkerson, 28, of Long Beach, was stabbed 20 times in the face, neck and body, then shot point blank with a .22 rifle on March 18, 2003. Martinez was sentenced to more than 50 years to life in prison for her death.

He was convicted last November for the murder of Myra Orozco, 24, of Long Beach.

Orozco was stabbed and slashed close to 30 times in the face, neck and body before Martinez pushed the mortally wounded woman from the car they were sitting in, then ran over her on March 30, 2003.

The jury in that case convicted Martinez of 1st degree murder and the special circumstance of committing multiple murders, paving the way for the possibility of the death penalty.

That same jury, however, deadlocked 11-to-1 in favor of death, requiring a new jury to be empaneled for a 2nd penalty phase that began Oct. 5.

New jurors credited the defense with doing the best they could with Martinez's case, but said the lawyers' claims that Martinez was mentally incompetent were simply unbelievable.

Defense Attorney William Ringgold acknowledged the case was extremely difficult for he and his co-counsel, Chris Ayers.

"All this stuff in county (jail) kept coming up," Ringgold said, clearly frustrated.

Indeed jurors cited Martinez's continued reign of terror while behind bars and the likelihood of him killing prison staff and other inmates as the primary reason they opted for death.

Among the number of stabbings and jail fights linked to Martinez during his last 6 years of incarceration jurors made particular note of Martinez being caught with jail-made shanks, or sharp blades, and a set of jail-made handcuff keys just two weeks before the start of the current penalty phase.

"I really think he was planning something," Deputy District Attorney Steve Schreiner said Thursday.

Despite such damning evidence, the defense worked hard to establish doubt that Martinez was the predator the prosecution portrayed.

A doctor called by the defense in the prior penalty phase ranked Martinez's IQ at 77, which the doctor said was only seven points above the classification for mental retardation. That doctor was brought back for the current penalty phase along with a 2nd physician who scored the lifetime criminal's IQ at an even lower rate, this time in the mid 50's.

Schreiner hit back hard at the claims, lining up a litany of witnesses - including more than 100 names - tracing far back into Martinez's earliest violent endeavors to show his criminal sophistication and cunning.

Jurors learned Martinez's 1st felony conviction was at the age of 11 for armed robbery.

Those brought in to testify ranged from other victims, such as a fellow juvenile hall inmate who was sexually assaulted by Martinez when the 2 were mere youths, to Compton Superior Court Judge Pat Connolly, the original prosecutor to try Martinez for the murders in 2005 and 2008.

Schreiner used records of Martinez's jail phone calls in which Martinez knew he was being recorded and used vague references and coded terms to talk about the case and how to get rid of potential witnesses to reveal the mind of a true predator.

The recordings, and Martinez's cavalier attitude about the lives he had taken, made jurors sick, one juror said.

The many years of stall tactics used by Martinez as he repeatedly switched from pro per status, or self defense, to wanting representation by court-appointed lawyers were also used to bolstered the DA's assertion that although Martinez may not have been formally educated he is as smart as they come in the world of violent felons.

"If I was going to lose this one it wasn't going to be because I wasn't thorough," Schreiner said.

Jurors said Schreiner's extensive work obliterated the defense's claims and made the difficult decision of sending a man to the death chamber one they could reach without a doubt.

As their verdict was read Myra's mother, Yolanda Villa, gasped and shook her hands in the air, her face tilted skyward as she appeared to utter a prayer.

Christina's mother, Loraine Wilkerson, sat looking serenely ahead. Prior to going into the courtroom Loraine appeared lighter and happier than she has during the many years of previous court appearances.

Martinez was also calm and spoke only to Ayers afterward, thanking the lawyer in a soft voice.

Martinez's father appeared to be his only relative to attend the verdict reading. As Martinez was escorted from the courtroom he did not stop to look at his dad, but he did turn and smile at the mothers of his victims.

It was the same smirk they saw throughout previous trials and it was not intended to offer comfort, the women said.

"He's not sorry, he feels no remorse, he's proud of what he's done" Loraine said.

While the case is not technically done - Martinez is scheduled to return to court on Nov. 19 for formal sentencing and the automatic appeals process for all death penalty cases has already begun - both mothers said they are grateful the trial is over and they have no plans to attend the November proceedings.

"In 25 years, when the state of California finally decides to execute him, if they decide to execute him, hopefully I'll still be alive and my son can push me up there in my wheel chair to (witness) his death," Loraine said. "Until then I'm not going to give Martinez a 2nd thought."

(source: Contra Costa Times)

RUSSIA:

To kill or not to kill, that's the Supreme Court's question

Russia's Supreme Court has asked the Constitutional Court to clarify whether the ban on capital punishment should be lifted on January 1, 2010.

The petition, which was approved at the Supreme Court's plenary session on Thursday, says the moratorium on the use of capital punishment was imposed by a Constitutional Court's ruling in February 1999. The ruling stated that the ban remains valid until jury trials are established throughout the country.

On January 1, the North Caucasian Republic of Chechnya will become the last region in Russia to introduce jury trials.

"The Supreme Court believes that the Constitutional Court's ruling may result in conflicting law enforcement practices in courts," the petition reads, according to RIA Novosti agency.

It's not clear whether courts will be able to impose capital punishment or not. Further complicating matters is the question of whether the death penalty contradicts international law.

According to a statement issued by the Russian Constitutional Court press service, due to the extreme importance and urgency of the issue, the court may examine the Supreme Court’s petition as soon as a November 9 plenary meeting.

An unidentified source in the Presidential Administration told Gazeta.ru that the Kremlin will find a way to avoid lifting the ban on capital punishment. Another similar source had earlier claimed that the announcement will be made in Medvedev’s address to Parliament on November 12.

Background

In 1994, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe called on member countries to abolish capital punishment or exclude capital punishment from their legislation.

Russia joined the Council of Europe on February 28, 1996 and made a commitment to establish a moratorium on capital punishment and to abolish the death penalty. The state also agreed to ratify within 3 years after joining the council the 6th protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights, which was signed in Strasbourg in 1983.

Article 1 of the latter reads: "The death penalty shall be abolished. No one shall be condemned to such penalty or executed."

Russia did sign the document, but hasn't ratified it so far. It's become the only of 47 member states of the Council of Europe that hasn't ratified the document.

According to the Vienna Convention of 1969 on the Law of Treaties, to which Russia is a signatory, a state is obliged not to do anything that contradicts a treaty even prior to its entry into force.

The Supreme Court said that taking into consideration that Russia signed Protocol 6 but hasn't ratified and, at the same time, hasn’t refused from joining it, it’s not clear whether judges can impose capital punishment or not.

Public opinion is divided

The Russian public, meanwhile, is split on the issue. According to a survey carried out by "Levada Center," only 14 % of Russians are against the death penalty while 37 % believe it should exist. 16 % of respondents believe the list of capital crimes should be longer, and would like to see pedophilia included on the list.

Many people in Russia believe that terrorists should be executed. The idea became particularly popular after the Beslan school siege.

20 % of Russians are happy with how things are and don't want any changes.

Meanwhile, there's also a political side to it, Konstantin Kosachev, head of the Russia's State Duma Foreign Affairs Committee, told Interfax agency.

The question is, "considering ourselves a democratic state, are we eligible to use the death penalty?" he said. The official said that he, personally, believes that capital punishment should be abolished. "For Russia this issue is undoubtedly a political choice," said Igor Bunin, Director of the Center of Political Technologies. Moscow’s relations with the West will depend on that choice.

The Interfax agency writes that senior Russian human rights activists are also against capital punishment.

"I have always been against the death penalty. Undoubtedly, it must be abolished definitively," said Lyudmila Alekseeva, head of the Moscow Helsinki Group.

The risk of mistaken death sentences is a good enough reason to abolish the punishment, said Lev Ponomaryov, leader of the For Human Rights organization.

(source: Russia Today)

INDIA:

Bajrangi's aide gets death penalty for murder

A local court in Uttar Pradesh today awarded capital punishment to one of the associates of Prem Prakash alias Munna Bajrangi in a triple murder case.

The sessions court of Jaunpur district awarded the death sentence to Alam Singh in a triple murder case of 1996, Additional Director General (Law and Order) Brij Lal told reporters here.

Singh along with Bajrangi and 5 others were involved in the murder of one R K Singh, Block head Kailah Dubey and Bankeylal Tiwari in Jamalpur Bazar of Jaunpur on January 24, 1996, he said.

Bajrangi, who was arrested by Delhi police yesterday, would be brought to Jaunpur for the trail in the case, the ADG said.

(source: Press Trust of India)

CHINA:

Chinese High Court upholds death penalty of Xinjiang riot convicts

A High Court in China’ Xinjiang province on Friday upheld the verdict of the 1st-instant trials in the Urumqi violence, which sentenced 21 people that included death penalty to 9.

The death sentences will take effect after review and approval by the Supreme People’s Court, the Higher People’s Court of Xinjiang said.

The higher people's court rejected appeals of Gheni Yusup, Ahmatjan Moming, Han Junbo and 12 others who were convicted of murder and other crimes in the deadly July 5 riot in Urumqi, Xinhua reports.

All the 3 second-instance trials involving death penalties were heard in open sessions on Friday.

The court also reviewed and approved the penalties of six others who did not lodge appeals against the 1st-instance trial erdicts.

(source: ANI)

OCTOBER 29, 2009:

FLORIDA:

Jury deliberates in death penalty case in corrections office murder

A Florida Supreme Court decision today delayed the penalty phase of a prison inmate who killed a corrections officer, but the jury was deliberating by 5:30.

The jury is expeted to decide tonight whether the recommend to the judge that Enoch Hall, 40, be executed for Corrections Officer Donna Fitzgerald's death. The case was slowed today when prosecutors and defense attorneys went line by line over the new jury instructions, put forth by justices in hopes of clearing up juror confusion in death penalty cases.

The justices made the changes today partly in response to an American Bar Association survey that showed large percentages of jurors misunderstood the law and their role in death penalty cases.

By a 4-3 split, though, the high court rejected a proposal to require that juries fill out special verdict forms to explain why they decided to recommend for or against a death sentence.

The majority of justices concluded they lacked the authority to require such forms. The 3 minority justices disagreed but urged the Legislature to change state law to permit them.

Hall was convicted last week of acting with premeditation when he stabbed Donna Fitzgerald more than 15 times in a work area of Tomoka Correctional Institution. Fitzgerald, 50, was a 14-year veteran of the Department of Corrections and lived in Port Orange. A jury will deliberate today whether Hall, who was already serving 2 life sentences for kidnapping and rape, should be put to death.

Although there was no physical evidence that Fitzgerald was sexually assaulted, her body was found leaned over on a work cart. She was found her with pants pulled down around her knees.

State Attorney R.J. Larizza argued today that signs of attempted sexual battery should be considered by the jury as an aggravator in considering the death penalty for Hall. Larizza said Hall told investigators "he couldn’t remember if he sexually battered Ms. Fitzgerald."

Assistant Public Defender Jim Valerino countered the theory was "speculation on the part of the state."

After hearing from both sides, Circuit Judge J. David Walsh said he would not allow that aggravator to be considered. "I find it borders on speculation," he said.

Larizza and prosecutor Leah Case also presented testimony from Fitzgerald’s family about their loss.

Among aggravators that prosecutors say make the death penalty ap­propriate for Hall are that the murder was especially heinous atrocious and cruel and committed in a cold , calcu­lating and premeditated manner. They also said the fact that Fitzgerald was a law enforcement officer and that Hall was already serving time for a violent felony, should be taken into consideration.

The judge will give the jury’s decision great weight, but will make his final decision after hearing further arguments from the defense and prosecution.

Although rare, judges do sometimes override juries on death penalty recommendations. Walsh did just that last year, the last time he considered a death penalty case.

Gregory Murphy, 45, was convicted of the 1st-degree premeditated killing of Erleen Albright in a March jury trial. The same jury later recommended by an 8-4 vote that Murphy should die, but Walsh sent the killer to prison for life.

(source: Daytona Beach News-Journal)

ARKANSAS:

Ark. Supreme Court upholds lethal injection law

The Arkansas Supreme Court on Thursday ordered a lower court to lift an injunction halting a death row inmate's execution, upholding a state law aimed at stopping his lawsuit challenging Arkansas' lethal injection procedures.

In a unanimous ruling, justices sided with the state and dismissed a death row inmate's complaint challenging a new law codifying Arkansas' execution procedures.

Federal public defenders filed the lawsuit on behalf of Frank Williams Jr., an Arkansas death-row inmate who had faced an execution date in 2008. His lawyers argued the state prison system failed to follow a rule requiring public hearings and notice when agencies change their policies.

The state Legislature passed a law earlier this year exempting execution procedures from the law.

Chief Deputy Attorney General Justin Allen said his office had not yet seen the ruling and did not have an immediate comment. A call to the federal public defenders office was not immediately returned Thursday morning.

A lower court judge issued an injunction in 2008 halting Williams' execution and the case quickly made its way to the state's highest court. While there, lawmakers this year passed a law freeing the state prison system from following the public notification and hearing rule when it came to execution procedures.

In the opinion issued Thursday, justices agreed with the state that the act would not be retroactive because it would apply to anyone awaiting execution, regardless of the date of their conviction.

"Williams was sentenced to death for his crime, and Act 1296 did not change either his criminal liability or his sentence," Justice Jim Gunter wrote in the court's ruling. "Thus, there was no need for the General Assembly to state that the Act may be applied retroactively, because the act will not be retroactively applied but will instead apply to all executions held after the Act's enactment, including Williams's."

Williams was given the death penalty for the 1992 killing of Lafayette County farmer Clyde Spence. Spence had hoped Williams, a work-release prisoner at his farm, would one day serve as a farm foreman. However, after Spence fired him, Williams returned to the farm at night and shot him with a .25-caliber pistol.

Arkansas has executed 27 death row inmates since the U.S. Supreme Court allowed states to resume executions in 1976. The state's last execution occurred in 2005, when officials executed condemned killer Eric Nance.

(source: Pine Bluff Commercial)

USA:

Justices will scrutinize life sentences for youths----Cases of 2 Florida juveniles raise questions about penalty for non-homicide crimes

It did not take long for the judge to determine that the convicted rapist in front of him was irredeemable.

"He is beyond help," Judge Nicholas Geeker said of Joe Harris Sullivan. "I'm going to try to send him away for as long as I can."

And then Geeker sentenced Sullivan to life in prison without the possibility of parole. At the time, Sullivan was 13 years old.

Now, 20 years after that sentencing in a courtroom in Pensacola, Fla., the Supreme Court will consider whether Sullivan's prison term -- and what his supporters say is an only-in-America phenomenon of extreme sentences for juveniles -- violates the Constitution's prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment.

The case -- which has drawn widespread notice and briefs from former senator Alan Simpson (R-Wyo.) and others describing their own youthful crimes -- is likely to be a cardinal criminal justice decision for the court this term.

It is a natural outgrowth of the court's bitterly divided ruling in 2005 that juveniles cannot be executed for murders they commit.

Those challenging sentences of life without parole for teenagers base their optimism on words in Justice Anthony M. Kennedy's majority opinion in that case: "The reality that juveniles still struggle to define their identity means it is less supportable to conclude that even a heinous crime committed by a juvenile is evidence of irretrievably depraved character. . . . It would be misguided to equate the failings of a minor with those of an adult, for a greater possibility exists that a minor's character deficiencies will be reformed."

Sullivan is represented by Bryan Stevenson of the Equal Justice Initiative in Alabama, who said his client's sentence is no different from the punishment the court found unconstitutional.

"They are both effectively death sentences," Stevenson said in an interview. "One is death by execution, and the other is death by incarceration, but they are both terminal sentences."

Only two 13-year-olds in the country have been sentenced to life without parole for crimes that were not homicides, Stevenson said, and both of them are held in Florida.

Florida officials would not discuss Sullivan's case before the November arguments, but their brief to the court said states are within their rights to lock up forever those thought to pose a perpetual threat to society.

"There is no consensus against life sentences for juveniles, particularly for heinous crimes such as sexual battery," Florida Solicitor General Scott Makar wrote.

Across the country, 111 people are serving life sentences without parole for crimes they committed as juveniles that did not result in a death, according to one report; 77 of them are locked up in Florida, for crimes including armed robbery and carjacking. The state took a get-tough approach in the 1990s in response to a crime wave that was "compromising the safety of residents, visitors, and international tourists, and threatening the state's bedrock tourism industry," Florida's brief to the court states.

That brief came in the case of Terrance Jamar Graham, a second petition the court accepted. Graham, of Jacksonville, received a life sentence after being part of a group that robbed a barbecue restaurant when he was 16; while on probation a year later, he was part of an armed burglary. Again, a judge doubted Graham's ability to ever change his ways; his accomplices served short sentences.

A range of issues

In accepting both cases and deciding to hear them separately, the court gives itself a wide range of issues to ponder. The justices may rule that such sentences are acceptable for 17-year-olds, for instance, but not 13-year-olds. They could look at the relative seriousness of the crimes, or differentiate the non-homicides in both cases with crimes in which someone is killed.

Sullivan, who his lawyer said had been living on the streets since he was 10, had a troubled history with the law. He had 17 offenses before the crime at issue. In 1989, he and two friends burglarized the home of a 72-year-old woman one day while she was away, then returned later. The woman was raped by one of the juveniles; she never saw his face, identifying him only as a "dark, colored boy." But she remembered that he said something like, "If you can't identify me, I may not have to kill you."

At the 1-day trial, Sullivan was made to say the words over and over. The victim listened and said: "It's been 6 months. It's hard, but it does sound similar."

The other boys singled out Sullivan as committing the rape.

"The conviction itself was very questionable," Stevenson said. "We do think he's innocent."

But that is not at issue in the case before the Supreme Court. Stevenson only seeks to have Sullivan, now 33, resentenced so that at some point he becomes eligible for release.

Stevenson contends that Florida made no conscious policy decision that 13-year-olds should be eligible for life without parole for a non-homicide. No state that has debated the question has set the age that low. Instead, he said, Sullivan and others were caught up in a legislative reaction to escalating crime.

"What happened is we lowered the minimum age for trying kids as adults and brought them into the adult system, and we expanded the range of very harsh sentences for an adult, and these two things have collided," he said.

Besides the 2 Floridians serving life sentences for non-homicides committed at 13, 7 others have received that sentence for crimes resulting in a death, Stevenson said.

'An index of mercy'

But the state of Florida and its supporters said that is evidence that the sentences are carefully applied to the worst of the worst.

"It is a rare and agonizing decision to sentence a juvenile to life-without-parole," said a brief filed by Louisiana and 18 other states. "But rare does not mean unconstitutional. Rather, rarity is an index of mercy -- of reluctance to take this severe step."

The National District Attorneys Association, supporting Florida, said that while life without parole for juveniles might be unusual, "permanent incarceration for the most violent, hardened juvenile offenders is by no means 'cruel.' "

Sullivan and Graham are supported by a wide-ranging group of organizations: the American Bar Association, the American Medical Association, the American Psychological Association, and academics and social scientists who argue that juveniles cannot be held responsible for their actions in the same way adults are. For the same reason, they say, younger teenagers are not entrusted with decisions such as voting, marrying or drinking.

A group of educators and social scientists told the court that such research was crucial to the 2005 decision that juveniles should not be subject to the death penalty. "The principal purposes of sentencing -- punishing the culpable and deterring the rational -- are not furthered by denying the possibility of parole to adolescents," the group said.

Graham and Sullivan are also supported in an unusual friend-of-the-court brief by former juvenile offenders such as Simpson, director and actor Charles Dutton, and a poet, a software executive and a former assistant U.S. attorney.

"At some point, you have to look at them again and ask, 'What have you done with your life?' " said Simpson, who said that as a youth he burned down an abandoned federal building, destroyed property and fought with a police officer. "Maybe 90 % of them you throw back in, but what about the other 10 %?"

The cases are Graham v. Florida and Sullivan v. Florida.

(source: Washington Post)

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

The death penalty is frightening - and not just on Halloween

Recently it was brought to my attention that some novelty item manufacturers make simulated electric chair executions. Life-like mannequins are strapped into realistic-looking devices which buzz and crackle as the figures convulse or scream with every "jolt." Some models include "smoke" emitting from the figures. A few videotaped examples are on the Internet - just in time for Halloween.

I understand the need to take a joke, but I'm much more scared by the real life capital punishment system, especially its history of mistaken convictions and executions. As of this week, 139 individuals have been exonerated after being sentenced to die - and some came terrifyingly close to execution.

For example, Anthony Porter of Illinois was mistakenly convicted for a double murder in 1983. Two days away from execution, his life was spared only because the court reviewed his mental competency, discovering that Porter's IQ is 51. Porter was released in February 1999 on the State Attorney's motion after another man confessed to the killings on videotape. Northwestern University journalism students investigating the case found that a witness was pressured by police to implicate Porter.

In another close brush with death, Joseph Green Brown of Florida, convicted for first-degree murder in 1974, was 13 hours away from execution. But the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, in dropping his charges, ruled that the prosecution knowingly allowed the introduction of false testimony at trial. Ronald Floyd, a co-conspirator who claimed he had heard Brown confess to the murder, later retracted his testimony and admitted he had lied.

Cameron Todd Willingham, the focus of NCADP's "Shouting from the Rooftops" campaign, should have been exonerated. In 2004, fire scientist Gerald Hurst reviewed the forensic evidence used to convict Willingham for the supposed arson fire that destroyed Willingham's house and killed his 3 children 13 years earlier.

Concluding that the evidence was worthless and the fire was accidental, not arson, Dr. Hurst rushed his report to authorities in a failed attempt to prevent Willingham's execution. Willingham was put to death on February 17, 2004, at 6 p.m., only 88 minutes after Texas Governor Rick Perry received report on whether Willingham should be granted clemency. It isn't known whether Perry read Dr. Hurst's findings.

Five years later, nationally-renowned fire-science expert Craig Beyler released a report, commissioned by the State of Texas, that reached the same conclusion. He noted that the "science" used to convict Willingham of murder by arson was more characteristic of "mystics or psychics." But local authorities continue to defend their decision to prosecute and convict Willingham, and Perry stands by the decision to execute him.

Any one of us could be days, hours, minutes, seconds away from wrongful conviction and execution - victims of mistaken identity by an eyewitness, prosecutorial or police misconduct, false testimony or ineffective legal defense.

This is no simulated Halloween horror. Unlike those fake electric-chair novelties, real people get hurt. It's time to abolish the death penalty.

(source: Diann Rust-Tierney----Executive Director of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty)

FLORIDA:

Fla. justices respond to death penalty confusion

The Florida Supreme Court revised standard jury instructions for death penalty cases Thursday in ways the justices hope will reduce widespread confusion among jurors disclosed by an American Bar Association survey.

An ABA team studying Florida's death penalty process 3 years ago found large percentages of jurors misunderstood the law and their role in deciding death cases.

About 35 % didn't realize they could consider any evidence - not just examples cited in the instructions - that would mitigate against a death sentence. More than 36 % wrongly believed they had to recommend death if they found a defendant's crime was "heinous, vile or depraved."

Also, 25 % had the misconception they must recommend death if they thought a defendant would be a future danger to society. In reality, that's a factor they cannot consider.

The justices wrote in an unsigned unanimous opinion that such confusion was "a cause for concern."

The high court accepted recommendations from its steering and criminal jury instructions committees, including some also suggested by the ABA team.

One new instruction says jurors should not be influenced by racial or ethnic bias, but the justices rejected an ABA recommendation to also order that jurors report evidence of discrimination in their deliberations.

"We agree, of course, that racial discrimination has no role in the jury deliberation process, but we are hesitant to craft any special instructions in this area without first being presented with specific proposals" by the Supreme Court committees, the justices wrote.

They added they may be open to such an instruction in the future.

By a 4-3 split the justices also rejected proposals for juries to fill out two special verdict forms showing whether they found a defendant guilty of premeditated or felony murder - both punishable by death - and explaining why they recommend a death sentence.

A defendant who didn't actually kill someone can be convicted of felony murder if he or she participated in a felony that resulted in death.

The majority wrote that premeditated or felony murder forms could result in even more juror confusion. They added that judges still could have juries fill out such forms but declined to require them.

Juries must unanimously decide guilt or innocence, but they can recommend death by a simple majority vote. Sentencing is up to judges, but they must give great weight to jury recommendations.

The majority didn't believe the high court had the authority to require explanatory forms, Justice Barbara Pariente wrote in a concurring opinion. She disagreed but also urged the Legislature to change state law to permit such forms. Justices Jorge Labarga and James Perry agreed with her.

The high court in a 2005 opinion also urged lawmakers to require unanimous jury votes for death recommendations, but the Legislature has refused to make that change. Some legal experts say federal courts may begin overturning Florida death sentences because the state lacks such a requirement.

(source: Associated Press)

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

Death Penalty Recommendations Ignored

The Florida Supreme Court ordered a stay of execution for a man convicted of a triple murder. The reason, Paul Johnson still has the right to appeal his sentencing. Governor Charlie Crist may have signed Johnson’s death warrant prematurely, but as Whitney Ray tells us, political pressure to speed up Johnson's execution was mounting.

On January 9th, 1981, Paul Johnson, shot and killed a Polk County Deputy and two others. He was sentenced to death for the murders, but the Florida Supreme Court is ordering a stay of execution, saying Governor Charlie Crist may have jumped the gun in Johnson's case.

Crist signed Johnson's death warrant even though the convicted killer hadn't exhausted his appeals, but political pressure was mounting on the governor.

More than 2,200 people signed a petition asking Crist to sign the death certificate. ACLU Attorney Larry Spalding doesn’t know why Crist was so eager but says politics should never taint such dire decisions.

"You shouldn't react on emotional calls to do things. You react rationally and responsible and working within the system," said Spalding.

A system many say is broken. Florida is the only state with capital punishment that allows a jury hand down the death sentence without a unanimous vote. 3 years ago The American Bar Association recommended changes to the system. Mark Schlakman was 1 of 8 lawyers working on the report. The recommendations have been ignored.

"It is apprehension by elected officials as the possibility of being branded as anything but tough on crime, but these issues don't go to whether one is tough on crime, they go to administration of justice," said Schlakman.

More than 20 death row inmates have been exonerated since executions resumed in 1979. Executions also come with a hefty price tag. On average 2 death row inmates are executed in Florida every year, at a cost of 51 million dollars to taxpayers. Life in prison for an inmate entering the system at 20 years old, costs an estimated 1.5 million tax dollars.

(source: Capitol News Service)

VIRGINIA:

see: http://takeaction.amnestyusa.org/siteapps/advocacy/index.aspx?c=jhKPIXPCIoE&b=2590179&template=x.ascx&action=13291

(source: Amnesty International)

MISSISSIPPI:

Miss. high court asks about death row appeals

The Mississippi Supreme Court has asked trial judges why they have not ruled on post-conviction claims of 9 death row inmates.

At least four of the cases involve claims of mental disability.

The Supreme Court issued the orders Thursday. The justices said they want to know what is taking so long on the cases and if they should force on the trial judges a timetable to render decisions.

In a post-conviction petition, an inmate argues he has found new evidence - or a possible constitutional issue - that could persuade a court to order a new trial.

The death row inmates with mental disability claims are Willie C. Russell in Sunflower County, Ricky Chase in Copiah County, Ronnie Lee Conner in Lauderdale County and Kevin Scott in Bolivar County.

Court records show the Supreme Court ordered a mental disability hearing for Russell in 2003. Similar hearings were ordered for Chase and Conner in 2004, and Scott in 2006.

Regarding Scott, the Supreme Court said it wants to know from Scott's attorneys and prosecutors why no hearing date has been requested.

In the other 3 cases, the justices want to know why no decision has been issued.

Russell was sentenced to death for the 1989 killing of Parchman prison guard Argentra Cotton.

Chase was sentenced to death for the 1989 slaying of an elderly Copiah County vegetable salesman.

Conner was sentenced to death in 1990 for the kidnapping, robbery and killing of Celeste Brown in Lauderdale County.

Scott was sentenced to death in the 1995 shooting death of Richard Lee of Boyle.

The other 5 post-conviction cases in which the Supreme Court raised questions involved death row inmates Joseph Patrick Brown in Adams County, Clyde Wendall Smith in Leflore County, Willie Jerome Manning in Oktibbeha County, Marlon Latodd Howell in Union County and Fred Sanford Spicer in George County.

(source: Associated Press)

CALIFORNIA----new death sentence

White supremacist sentenced to death----OC Court handed down the verdict this morning

White supremacist and Costa Mesa native Billy Joe Johnson has been sentenced to death.

Orange County Superior Court Judge Frank Fasel handed down the sentence this morning after a jury deliberated. Upon hearing the verdict, Johnson laughed and joked with his attorney.

"I wish the penalty would happen sooner rather than later," said Bonnie Miller, the mother of victim Scott Miller.

Johnson, 46, was convicted 2 weeks ago by the same jury for helping to kill fellow skinhead Miller in 2002. Johnson was already serving a 45 year sentence for killing a man with a claw hammer.

In testimony earlier this week, Johnson testified that he wanted the death penalty because death row prisoners are afforded more outside, recreational time than prisoners in the general populace.

Johnson also testified that he killed 2 other people, on top of the two that resulted in convictions, but refused to give details.

(source: Daily Pilot)

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

Long Beach jury recommends death in second penalty phase for murderer

A Long Beach jury took less than two hours to recommend the death sentence in a retrial of the penalty phase for a twice-convicted murderer who slashed two women to death.

Santiago Martinez Jr. was first convicted in 2005 of killing one girlfriend, then convicted last year of killing a second girlfriend when that victim refused to help him dispose of the 1st victim's remains.

The jury in the more recent conviction, however, was unable to come to a decision on the penalty Martinez should be dealt, deadlocking 11-to-1 in favor of death, so a new jury was empaneled for a 2nd penalty phase.

Martinez, now 28, was first convicted in 2005 of killing Christina Wilkerson, 28, of Long Beach on March 18, 2003. Wilkerson was stabbed 20 times in the face, neck and body, then shot point blank with a .22 rifle. For that crime, Martinez was sentenced to more than 50 years to life in prison.

Martinez was convicted last November for the murder of Myra Orozco, 24. Orozco refused to help the defendant dispose of Wilkerson's remains and was stabbed and slashed close to 30 times in the face, neck and body before she was run over on March 30, 2003.

That jury sat through a 2-week penalty phase trial but could not come to a unanimous decision because one juror "had a God complex," another juror said after the trial.

Martinez, who will be formally sentenced next month, has remained in jail without bail since his arrest in April of 2003.

(source: Press Telegram)

PENNSYLVANIA:

Protest to save Mumia’s life----Civil rights investigation demanded

The International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal (ICFFMAJ) coalition convened an urgent meeting here on Oct. 17. Mumia supporters from Philadelphia, New York and Washington, D.C., were in attendance. It was a fightback strategy meeting of critical importance. Mumia, who has been on death row for over 27 years, is now, more than ever, faced with having his life snuffed out by the political powers that be.

At the Oct. 17 meeting organizers said that if the U.S. Supreme Court upholds the original 1982 death penalty verdict and overturns the current verdict of life without parole, then Mumia's execution is imminent.

History of injustice

Former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge signed Mumia’s death warrant. The execution was scheduled to take place on Aug. 17, 1995, Marcus Garvey’s birthday. That execution was stayed by a national emergency protest, and Mumia’s life was saved, pending further appeals.

However, in December 2001, Mumia's 1982 death sentence was actually overturned by the federal court and subsequently upheld by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals this past April, though it nonetheless upheld his guilty verdict. He was thus granted life in prison without parole. The prosecution then appealed that ruling, again seeking the death penalty.

In April the U.S. Supreme Court refused to review an appeal demanding a new trial for Mumia. This court’s next step will be to decide whether to reinstate the death penalty, which the Philadelphia District Attorney office is clamoring for, or to rule in favor of life in prison without parole. If the Supreme Court rules to continue with the current sentence of life without parole, the D.A. can choose to accept this decision or request a review of it and continue to pursue Mumia’s execution. Neither decision is acceptable to Mumia supporters who are continuing to fight for his release or a new, fair trial at the very least.

A case currently being heard by the U.S. Supreme Court (Smith v. Spisak) could have implications for Mumia’s fate, which now hangs in the balance. At issue is whether the judge’s instructions to the jury were confusing and faulty regarding when a verdict is arrived at and if juries are being confused as to whether mitigating factors that could lead to greater leniency require unanimity. A 1988 Supreme Court case (Mills v. Maryland) ruled the judge erred in instructing the jury and overturned the lower court’s death sentence. Both Mumia and Spisak share this issue. The question is also whether that ruling applies to states other than Maryland.

Grave situation requires response

The gravity of Mumia's situation is compounded by other events. The current Philadelphia District Attorney has petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court for reinstatement of the death penalty. And the leading candidate running for the D.A. position, Seth Williams, an African American, is campaigning on the promise to sign a warrant for Mumia's execution, with the backing of Philadelphia's Fraternal Order of Police.

Additionally, current Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell was actively involved in Mumia's prosecution, and has made it eminently clear that he would sign a death warrant for Mumia if the Supreme Court affirms the death sentence. Another factor is the scheduled December release of a documentary film about Mumia by Tigre Hill, also an African American, called "Barrel of the Gun," which supports the police version of events on Dec. 9, 1981, that led to Mumia’s arrest.

The ICFFMAJ, the New York Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition, and numerous other organizations and collectives in Washington, New York and Philadelphia are presently mobilizing an international demonstration in Washington on Nov. 12 at the U.S. Department of Justice. There they will be delivering the collection of signed letters to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder demanding a civil rights investigation of the 28-year conspiracy to execute Mumia, an innocent man, for his political beliefs. Locally, Philadelphia activists will also be protesting against Seth Williams.

An urgent appeal is being made for all activists to participate in the Nov. 12 press conference and letter delivery actions in Washington. A civil rights investigation into this case could mean the difference between life and death for Mumia, and might open the door for his release from the hellhole of death row.

Massive outreach and publicity are needed. For transportation from New York City on Nov. 12, call 212-330-8029. For more information visit www.freemumia.com or call 212-330-8029, 215-476-8812, or 301-762-9162.

Join the fight against injustice and racism. We must act now before it’s too late. Free Mumia!

(source: Workers World; Dolores Cox----The writer is an International Action Center volunteer in New York)

INDIA:

PC recommends clemency to death row convict

In a decision that can lead to a final view on the clemency petition of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru, Home Minister P Chidambaram has recommended to the President commutation of the death sentence of a prisoner in Tamil Nadu.

This is the 1st of the 28 cases, including that of Guru, that is pending with the Centre for a decision on death sentence.

Union Home Ministry sources said Chidambaram has sent his recommendation to President Pratibha Patil to commute the death sentence of Tamil Nadu resident R Govindaswami to life imprisonment yesterday.

Govindaswami was accused of the murder of his uncle, aunt and 3 cousins in 1984. He was acquitted by a trial court in 1987, an order that was challenged by the state government in the Madras High Court which however convicted him and sentenced to death.

(source: Press Trust of India)

BELARUS:

Belarus man loses death sentence appeal

Amnesty International has urged Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka to prevent the execution of a death row prisoner convicted of a double murder.

Andrei Zhuk's appeal against his death sentence was rejected by the Supreme Court on Tuesday. It is the second death sentence that has been upheld in Belarus this month.

Once he receives written notification of the rejection, the 25-year-old will have 10 days to apply to President Lukashenka for clemency.

The Supreme Court also rejected Andrei Zhuk’s complaint that he was beaten in custody on 1 March while in pre-trial detention, despite medical records that substantiate his claim.

On 17 July 2009, Andrei Zhuk and 2 other men were found guilty of armed assault and the murder of a man and woman in February 2009. Andrei Zhuk was sentenced to death, while his accomplices got life and 13 years’ imprisonment respectively.

Andrei Zhuk's lawyer says there were procedural violations during his client's initial interrogation.

He has also cited the influence of the Belarus media, plus a statement by the Minister of Internal Affairs referring to Andrei Zhuk and his accomplices as "criminals" before they had been convicted, which violates the right to presumption of innocence.

Another death row inmate Vasily Yuzepchuk, who was convicted of murdering six elderly women, was given 10 days to apply for clemency on 13 October. As yet there is no news on whether his sentence has been carried out.

Background

The use of the death penalty in Belarus is compounded by a flawed criminal justice system that administers capital punishment in a manner that violates international laws and standards pertaining to the death penalty. There is credible evidence that torture and ill-treatment are used to extract "confessions".

Condemned prisoners are given no warning that they are about to be executed and they are usually executed within minutes of being told that their appeal for clemency has been rejected.

They are taken first to one room where, in the presence of the Director of the detention facility, the Prosecutor and 1 other Ministry of Interior employee, they are told their appeal for clemency had been turned down. They are then taken to a neighbouring room where they are forced to their knees and shot in the back of the head.

Their families will only be informed days or sometimes weeks after the execution that their relative has been executed, and they are not given the body or told of the burial site.

(source: Amnesty International)

BANGLADESH:

Commute death penalty of Huda, Mohiuddin

Ashutosh Sarkar A counsel for convicts in Bangabandhu murder case yesterday pleaded with the Supreme Court to commute his clients' death sentence to life imprisonment.

Abdullah-al Mamun, the lawyer for Bazlul Huda and AKM Mohiuddin, however maintained the 2 were not involved in the August 15 bloodbath.

He said they have been suffering agonising pain in the condemned cell for around 14 years due to delay resulting from some judges' feeling embarrassed to hear the case.

Citing a constitutional provision, he said executing them after all these years in jail would be inhuman and cruel.

Mamun was making submissions for AKM Mohiuddin before the 5-member Appellate Division bench hearing appeals by five convicts.

He said the convicts have long been on death row for something they have nothing to do with.

Citing article 35(5) of the constitution and precedents of the Privy Council of England, Jamaica and Trinidad, Mamun said the death sentence should not stand.

Article 35(5) states that no person shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman, or degrading punishment or treatment.

The court said the argument does not apply to Mohiuddin because he has not been in the condemned cell for that long a period.

He had been on the run before the trial court delivered the verdict, and brought back to Bangladesh in 2007, added the bench.

Mamun replied that he meant Bazlul Huda, who has been in the condemned cell since the verdict was delivered in 1998.

The court at that point said he [Mamun] had already concluded his submissions for Huda.

5 condemned convicts in the case--dismissed army personnel Syed Farooqur Rahman, Sultan Shahriar Rashid Khan, Muhiuddin Ahmed, AKM Mohiuddin and Bazlul Huda--are now behind bars.

4 of them were caught during the last Awami League rule. AKM Mohiuddin was brought back from the US in June 2007 by the caretaker government.

Quoting from confessional statements of convict Syed Farooqur Rahman, Mamun said Mohiuddin was not present at the Bangabandhu residence on August 15, 1975, and neither was he involved in any conspiracy.

He said that the day before the carnage Farooq incited his colleagues, saying Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, then president of the republic, would proclaim monarchy and cede the country to India.

Farooq also told them they would topple the government of Sheikh Mujib and establish an Islamic republic under the leadership of Khandaker Mustaque Ahmed.

Besides, he [Farooq] said Bangabandhu would be taken to the cantonment so he could not make any announcement.

Prodded, a band of army men attacked the Dhanmondi house-32 and killed Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and others the following day.

Mamun however said statements by other convicts and witnesses do not bear out Farooq's statement.

Mohiuddin in his statement said their goal was to have Mujib stand trial, not to kill him, and there was no conspiracy, Mamun argued.

If they had planned to kill Bangabandhu, they would not have brought him downstairs. They would have killed him immediately on the first floor, he added.

The court said the points raised by Mamun had already been put down at the High Court.

Adjourning the hearing till 9:30am Sunday, the SC bench told the defence lawyer he would be allowed an hour more to wrap up his arguments.

(source: The Daily Star)

RUSSIA:

Top Russian court asked to rule on death penalty moratorium

A plenary session of Russia's Supreme Court on Thursday asked the Constitutional Court to rule on whether capital punishment could again be legal in Russia from January 1.

The Constitutional Court said it could consider the issue on November 3.

"Because of the urgency and the extraordinary significance of the question posed, a decision to accept the consideration of the application could be taken at the next plenary meeting of judiciary on November 3, 2009," the court's press service said in a statement.

In February 1999, the Constitutional Court introduced a moratorium on the use of the death penalty, ruling that no court could sentence criminals to death until all courts had switched to jury trials.

However, jury trials have now been established throughout Russia. Chechnya will become the final Russian republic to institute jury trials on January 1, 2010.

Supreme Court Justice Vladimir Davydov said the possible use of capital punishment in Russia from 2010 would come into conflict with Russia's international commitments.

Russia still has capital punishment on its books, but undertook to abolish it in 1997, when it signed Protocol 6 to the European Convention on Human Rights. Russia is the only 1 of the 47 members of the Council of Europe not to have ratified the protocol, under which states commit to abolishing the death penalty except in times of war or the imminent threat of war.

(source: RiaNovosti)

EUROPEAN UNION/CHINA:

EU denounces China's execution of 2 Tibetans

The European Union on Thursday condemned China's execution of 2 Tibetans, voicing concerns over how their trials were conducted.

"The European Union condemns the recent executions of 2 Tibetans, Mr Lobsang Gyaltsen and Mr Loyak," the Swedish EU presidency said in a statement on behalf of the 27-nation bloc.

"The EU respects China's right to bring those responsible for the violence to justice but reaffirms its longstanding opposition to the use of the death penalty under all circumstances," the EU statement said.

"The EU reiterates its concerns about the conditions under which the trials were conducted, especially with regard to whether due process and other safeguards for a fair trial were respected," the EU presidency added.

The European Union has called for death sentences handed down on several other Tibetans to be commuted.

China said Tuesday that the 2 Tibetans had been executed for their role in deadly ethnic unrest that rocked the Himalayan region last year, the 1st known use of capital punishment over the violence.

Fierce anti-China protests erupted in Lhasa and spread across Tibet and adjacent areas with Tibetan populations in March last year, embarrassing the government in Beijing as it prepared to host the Olympic Games.

Beijing blamed the Dalai Lama -- the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader seen by authorities as a separatist bent on independence -- for inciting the unrest. He, however, insists he only wants greater regional autonomy for Tibet.

China has said "rioters" were responsible for 21 deaths, while its security forces killed only 1 "insurgent." But the exiled Tibetan government has said more than 200 Tibetans were killed in the subsequent crackdown.

(source: Agence France-Presse)

TEXAS:

Judge tosses charges against 2 men in 1991 Austin yogurt shop killings

A judge on Wednesday dismissed murder charges against 2 men awaiting retrial in the 1991 slayings of four teens at an Austin yogurt shop, after prosecutors admitted they weren't ready to take the case to a jury.

Robert Springsteen was sent to death row in 2001 after he was convicted in capital murder slaying of one of the girls. Michael Scott had been convicted in her death previously and sentenced to life in prison.

Both convictions were overturned when the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals said Springsteen and Scott were unfairly denied the chance to cross-examine each other. They had implicated each other in statements to investigators.

The men were released on personal bond in June after new DNA tests could not match them to the crime scene and revealed the presence of an unknown male.

Judge Mike Lynch had ordered Travis County prosecutors to say Wednesday whether they would be ready to proceed to trial by January.

District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg said the state is still testing the DNA to find a match and admitted prosecutors weren't ready for a trial. Her office filed the motion for dismissal of all charges, and Lynch approved.

"Make no mistake, this is a difficult decision for me and one I would rather not make," Lehmberg said after the hearing.

After Lynch ordered the charges dismissed, Springsteen and Scott smiled at each other and silently shook hands. Scott hugged his wife, Jeanine.

"This has been a long time coming," Scott said. "I'm happy to be here."

Bob Ayers, the father of 13-year-old victim Amy Ayers, was in the courtroom, but showed no emotion and did not comment to reporters afterward.

The investigation of one of Austin's most notorious crimes has been bedeviled from the beginning by damage to the crime scene, bungled interviews and prosecution missteps.

Amy Ayers, Eliza Thomas, 17, and sisters Jennifer and Sarah Harbison, ages 17 and 15, were bound, gagged and shot in the head at the "I Can't Believe It's Yogurt" store where 2 of the girls worked. The building was then set on fire.

(source: Associated Press)

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

Why is Perry hostile?

Re: "Truth Matters Most -- Willingham case is about accuracy of evidence," Tuesday Editorials.

This is why I'm going to vote for anyone but Gov. Rick Perry: Faced with evidence that he might have allowed the execution of an innocent man, Perry reacts angrily and sarcastically and refers to fire investigation experts as "supposed experts."

Perry should be concerned; instead, he's hostile and dismissive. This man is fine at sneering at people, but the office of governor requires more than that.

Perry makes a big deal about his faith. He's not actinglike a Christian who may have accidently caused a death. He's acting like a typical politician.

Bryan L. White, Duncanville

(source: Letter to the Editor, Dallas Morning News)

USA:

Death penalty in dollars----Capital punishment is capital-intensive, but we often overlook its literal cost.

In the long, heated debate about capital punishment, we go round and round about justice or revenge, as if the 2 ideas operate independently of each other. We talk about innocent people being sent to death, and the racial disparity between death-row inmates and the population. We talk about crimes so heinous that they cry out for the ultimate punishment.

But what if we talked about cost?

Last week, the Washington-based Death Penalty Information Center released a report that charts the cost - in dollars - of capital punishment. It's not cheap to kill people. By some estimates, the country has spent $2.5 billion on it since the death penalty was reinstated by the Supreme Court in 1976.

That's the conservative figure, and that's over and above what would have been spent had the maximum sentence for death-row inmates been life without parole, the report said.

Nationwide, some 3,300 inmates sit on death row. It is impossible to calmly look at the details of the crimes they were convicted of committing. But then, it's always the worst-case scenarios that make us examine how we punish.

"You have people who are angry about cases, but it's a very expensive anger," said Richard C. Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center. "And it's not just the financial cost. Something is being given up to keep the death penalty."

And that something just might be more effective in deterring crime.

Last year, a California justice commission said that cash-strapped state (which has the most death-row inmates in the country) was paying $137 million a year to maintain the death penalty; by comparison, the state would have spent $11.5 million a year if those inmates were sentenced to life without parole.

Once the death penalty is part of the equation, the wheels of justice turn more slowly - and at a higher cost. And still people get sentenced wrongfully, but that's another column.

Considering the potential for years of appeals, Dieter said that "during that time, lives could have been saved with, say, more police officers on the street. Or teachers. Whether it's police, teachers, or youth workers, these things actually reduce crime."

Even police chiefs aren't convinced that the death penalty is an effective deterrent. In a survey included in the report, chiefs from around the country placed increased use of capital punishment last on a list of deterrents. Increasing law enforcement resources was first, along with reducing drug and alcohol abuse. Only about a quarter of the chiefs surveyed said murderers consider their possible punishment before they act. 57 % said capital punishment did little to prevent violent crimes.

Dieter said the poll was "reassuring and not completely surprising."

"They are not afraid to say what a lot of politicians won't say: that the death penalty isn't working," he said.

In fact, Connecticut legislators said precisely that last spring. They sent a bill banning capital punishment to Gov. M. Jodi Rell, but she vetoed it. Earlier this year, New Mexico abolished its death penalty under a governor - Bill Richardson - who also supported execution as an option. (New Jersey abolished the death penalty in 2007, while Pennsylvania has 226 inmates on its death row.)

Dieter says every state that has stepped away from public executions has done so after stops, starts, and painful debate.

(source: Opinion, Susan Campbell, Philadelphia Inquirer)

OKLAHOMA:

Defendant's pursuit of death penalty prompts competency exam

A sentencing trial for confessed murderer Joshua Muller was interrupted Wednesday when he directed his lawyers not to present any mitigating evidence that would be designed to spare him from the death penalty.

Based upon that action, Tulsa County District Judge Clancy Smith ordered a mental competency evaluation for Muller, 35, of Tulsa.

Smith scheduled a review of Muller's mental status for Nov. 23.

It appears that Muller has "thought about this and wants to take the death penalty," First Assistant District Attorney Doug Drummond said.

When questioned by Smith, Muller acknowledged that he did not want any mitigating evidence presented.

"I just want to get this done with," Muller said. He told the judge that he wanted to "get to the finish line."

Mitigating evidence relates to a defendant's moral culpability in a case.

Chief Public Defender Pete Silva and Assistant Public Defender Gregg Graves had intended to present mitigating evidence on Muller's behalf, including expert testimony from a forensic psychiatrist who evaluated the defendant.

Silva has said Muller has a "long-standing history" of significant abuse as a child and has "severe mental health issues."

In ordering a competency evaluation, Smith is following procedural requirements mandated by the state Court of Criminal Appeals in capital cases where a defendant wants to waive his right to present such evidence.

Without any agreement with prosecutors to block the possibility of the death penalty, Muller waived his right to a jury trial and pleaded guilty on Sept. 23 to 2 counts of 1st-degree murder for the July 22, 2007, fatal shootings of Leah Harris-Fuqua, 12, and Derriko Ross, 16.

With no jury involved, it is up to Smith to decide Muller's punishment, and a nonjury trial on the sentencing issue began Tuesday.

Drummond and co-prosecutor Michelle Keely presented evidence in support of the lone aggravating circumstance that they say supports their death-penalty request — that Muller "knowingly created a great risk of death to more than 1 person."

Smith has ruled that prosecutors proved that aggravating circumstance.

Muller has indicated that he does not want anything to prevent him from getting the death penalty, Silva said.

The other sentence options for first-degree murder — which are still available in this case — are life in prison with or without the possibility of parole.

In court Wednesday, prosecutors played a recorded statement of Muller's interview with Tulsa police in July 2007, in which Muller indicated that he did not want to say anything that could "stop the death penalty."

Muller also pleaded guilty to a count of shooting with an intent to kill in the wounding of Sheridan Rand, then 12, who survived numerous gunshot wounds.

The shootings happened about 3 a.m. in a parking lot in the 1900 block of North Lewis Avenue.

After a manhunt, Muller surrendered to law enforcement officers in southwestern Oklahoma on July 25, 2007.

Prior to a 2008 preliminary hearing in the case, a special judge determined that Muller was mentally competent to be prosecuted. That finding was made after lawyers agreed to accept the results of a report from the Oklahoma Forensic Center in Vinita, where Muller had been treated.

(source: Tulsa World)

FLORIDA:

Florida death penalty process still desperately needs reform

3 years ago, the American Bar Association released a Florida Death Penalty Assessment Team report that raised serious concerns about the state's death penalty process. Since then, neither state government nor The Florida Bar have done much to remedy the problems.

The ABA assembled a highly credentialed eight-member team that was diverse and balanced to reflect prosecutorial, defense, judicial and academic perspectives.

The report was developed after almost two years of research and analysis, and findings and recommendations had to be unanimous to be included in the report.

The report neither supports nor opposes capital punishment, nevertheless individual team member perspectives ran the gamut.

Simply put, the report's findings and recommendations were intended to improve the administration of justice in Florida and promote fairness and accuracy in our criminal-justice system without regard to one's views on capital punishment.

Among the report's findings was that legal representation of death penalty defendants in post-conviction proceedings, particularly by certain private registry counsel, is often abysmal.

The report recommends reinstating the capital collateral regional counsel office, or CCRC, in the Northern Region of Florida.

That office was disbanded as part of a still-ongoing pilot project launched during Jeb Bush's tenure as governor which, in effect, privatized the northern office of the CCRC.

Gov. Charlie Crist has expressed support for reinstating the northern CCRC office.

Another recommendation embraces a Florida Supreme Court opinion that unanimously called upon the Legislature to revisit the state's death penalty statute.

The report, like the opinion, observed that Florida is the only one of 35 death penalty states that allows a jury to decide that aggravating factors exist and to recommend a sentence of death by a majority vote. Despite the court's strongly worded opinion, the Legislature has been unresponsive.

It was reported that Gov. Bush said that the issue was "definitely worth consideration" and cautioned legislators not to ignore the court; however, Gov. Crist has voiced opposition to the recommendation.

Another alarming concern is that Florida has the dubious distinction of exonerating more death-sentenced inmates than any other state since 1973. One inmate was exonerated after he died of cancer on death row.

The report also expresses concern about socioeconomic and geographic bias, the latter attributable in part to the fact that Florida's 20 state attorneys offices do not have uniform protocols to decide when to seek the death penalty.

When prosecutors from different judicial circuits assess substantially similar criminal cases, one circuit might opt for the death penalty while another might opt for life without parole, heightening concerns over whether the death penalty is applied consistently throughout the state.

There are many other recommendations. To access the full report, visit abavideonews.org/ ABA340/.

Last month, the Florida State University Center for the Advancement of Human Rights hosted an ABA-sponsored forum on Florida's death penalty process in Tallahassee to coincide with the three-year anniversary of the release of the ABA report.

Additional emphasis was placed upon the costs and fiscal implications of the death penalty against the larger backdrop of increasing shortfalls in the state budget.

Such issues are the focus of a national report released recently by the Death Penalty Information Center. To watch a reply of the forum visit http://campus.fsu.edu/ABA.

Floridians expect a system of justice that engenders confidence based upon fairness and accuracy; however, insofar as the state's death penalty process, that standard has proven to be elusive.

It's long past time to openly and honestly debate these issues and to consider possible solutions for the array of problems identified in the ABA report.

(source: Guest Columnist--Raoul G. Cantero III is a former Florida Supreme Court justice appointed by Gov. Jeb Bush and is in private practice in Miami. Mark R. Schlakman serves as senior program director for Florida State University's Center for the Advancement of Human Rights and as board chair for the Innocence Project of Florida. He was one of eight individuals who served on the ABA's Florida Death Penalty Assessment Team; News-Press)

MISSISSIPPI:

Penalty decision upsets slaying victim's family

The family of a Tougaloo College student killed in 2007 said it did not know the Hinds County District Attorney's office would not seek the death penalty in the case.

The twin sister of Antoine Reece said the suspect charged in the slaying should face the death penalty, if convicted.

"It's not right," Siobhan Reece of Jackson said of a jury not having the death-penalty option in the case of Shawn States, charged in the April 24, 2007, shooting death of then-26-year-old Antoine Reece and Justin Howard, 21, at their northeast Jackson apartment. "He took their lives without warning."

District Attorney Robert Shuler Smith recently cited the county's financial problems as one of the main reasons for not seeking the death penalty. Death-penalty cases are more expensive than others for reasons including that jurors have to be sequestered in a hotel and provided meals.

Smith also said his office considers the wishes of victims' families who may not want his office to seek the death penalty.

Cynthia Reece, Antoine's mother, said she talked to someone from the district attorney's office - perhaps in August - and remembers some discussion about the death penalty. But Reece said the discussion wasn't specific about whether to pursue or not to seek the death penalty.

"I'm not for or against the death penalty," said Cynthia Reece of Tacoma, Wash.

States' trial is scheduled for December but could be delayed.

Antoine Reece was found dead near the entrance of the Ridgewood Road apartment with a gunshot wound to the head and one to a shoulder. Howard was found dead in an upstairs bedroom, shot in the back of the head.

Prosecutors say robbery was the motive. States was driving a car owned by one of the victims when he was picked up in Miami in May 2007.

Smith said his office was under the impression that seeking life without parole in States' case would be satisfactory to Reece's family.

Smith didn't have specific numbers Wednesday, but he said his office has several capital murder cases pending. He could not say how many are being considered for the death penalty.

Siobhan Reece said it offends her that Smith's office would use the county's financial situation as a reason.

"It's their problem, not mine," Siobhan said.

Hinds County's projected revenue of $56.3 million for fiscal 2010 is less than estimated expenses of $57.2 million, officials have said.

In response, the county cut about 70 jobs, delayed the opening of a jail expansion, denied requests for new equipment, scaled back on contracted services and left less than $179,000 in reserve for the budget year that began Oct. 1.

Hinds County Circuit Clerk Barbara Dunn estimates the cost of a death-penalty trial at more than $15,000, depending on factors such as hotel and meal costs. The cost of a non-death penalty case would be significantly lower, she said.

Another additional cost is the use of expert witnesses.

Cynthia Reece said she simply wants to see justice for her son, whom she described as a good child. "I cry every day for my child," she said.

Howard's mother could not be reached for comment.

In addition to the case involving the 23-year-old States, the district attorney's office this month also said it wouldn't seek the death penalty against brothers Joshua and Zachary Mott in an unrelated case.

The Mott brothers allegedly beat ex-radio personality John Friskillo at his south Jackson mobile home on Nov. 29, 2007. Friskillo, 81, died in February 2008 from the injuries. Police said robbery was the motive.

Friskillo has no immediate family in this area.

(source: Clarion-Ledger)

KENTUCKY:

Ballard Spared Death Penalty

Convicted child killer Lewis Ballard may have been spared the death penalty. Jurors recommended yesterday he spend the rest of his life behind bars without the possibility of parole. The same jury returned a guilty verdict on Tuesday in the 2007 sexual assault and murder of a 6 year old Winchester boy. Wesley Mullins was found beaten to death in his grandfather's garage in Paris during the summer of 2007.

(source: WVLK News)

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

Course to focus on death penalty

CACTUS, or the Citizens' Assembly for Critical Thinking About the United States, will be tackling the idea of capital punishment and the death penalty in the upcoming 2010 spring semester. POL 301 could be a suitable addition to schedules if students are interested in political debates.

CACTUS debates will focus on whether or not the penalty should be kept, abolished or changed. The class will also approach the topic at a federal and state level, as well as discuss moral and ethical standpoints.

Glenn Rainey, co-coordinator of CACTUS, said they based their decision for the 2010 topic on a variety of things, such as complexity, student interest and the government's current interest to resolve the topic.

"[We] didn't want to choose a topic that was going to be resolved before we could make ours," Glenn said.

"[The death penalty] is a serious topic, but around that we do things in the class to have fun," said Jane Rainey, co-coordinator of CACTUS.

The class will be divided into three separate stages - learning, public hearing and deliberation. The learning phase will consist primarily of researching the death penalty and incorporating guest speakers into lectures. The public hearing stage will allow the public to weigh in on the subject, through speaking and public discussion boards. Lastly, the Assembly will enter a deliberation phase where students come to a conclusion based on consensus, and then type a recommendation.

Jane said the class' idea of citizens' assemblies essentially practices a lower model of government based on citizens' assemblies in Canada, where it was practiced in British Columbia and copied in Ontario.

Jane said the idea these assemblies are based upon is deliberative democracy, which essentially means government by discussion. Canada has had the biggest influence on this ideal, she said. Jane said CACTUS will develop strong skills within its participants, such as building confidence by working with others in small discussion groups, enhancing critical thinking and boosting communication skills.

Jordan Yurt, a junior double major in political science and French, took the class when students debated the value of the Electoral College. Yurt said he gained an overall appreciation for the topic.

"I learned the most about the electoral college and what it was meant to do," Yurt said. "Now, I can help others learn about the deep intricacies of the college itself."

"The ones who finish have a great time," Glenn said. "[Students] will walk out having more friends."

Jane said the class has created links between students and others.

"[We work toward] turning students into citizens," Jane said. "We try to avoid calling it a class. It's a class, but it's larger than a class. "

For more information on CACTUS contact Jane or Glenn Rainey or visit their Web site at www.cactus.eku.edu.

(source: The Eastern Progress----Eastern Kentucky University)

CALIFORNIA:

Misplaced priorities

EDITOR: Two stories on the front page of Saturday's Press Democrat:

1. The capital punishment system costs taxpayers $138 million a year ("Death row: Worth the cost?")

2. And Santa Rosa schools must chop $5.6 million from next year’s budget ("Drastic cuts proposed for SR schools")

Something is very wrong here.

ARLENE MILLER----Petaluma

****

Misspent money

EDITOR: This is insanity. We don't seem to be seeing the big picture here. Yes, there should be an appeals system to handle death row cases that are in doubt, so that no innocent person is executed. But it shouldn't include people like Richard Allen Davis or Ramon Salcido.

There is no doubt about their guilt. They weren't convicted due to some mistake on the part of their attorney or anything else. Davis and Salcido are clearly guilty, but by spending untold millions of dollars in this ridiculously long appeals process, open even to the obviously guilty it seems, we are denying the citizens of this state, those same millions that could be better used by our schools, the elderly, programs for disabled children and adults, etc.

Davis and Salcido are guilty of murder. We are guilty of protecting these murderers. So the next time you read about state programs for the elderly or disabled being discontinued, you can now explain this to your elderly parents or your disabled child. Change is needed here.

DENNIS H. DUNBAR----Santa Rosa

****

For life sentences

EDITOR: As a murder victim's family member, I can understand the rage and need for revenge that comes from surviving the monstrously violent loss of a loved one.

My brother, Bob Kerr, was killed in 2003 and, like 25,000 other murder-victim families across the state, I am waiting for someone to be charged.

When we choose to spend millions on the death penalty, we are also choosing not to spend resources on victim services, cold case units and getting killers off the street. The death penalty does not make anyone safer. In the final analysis, our actions in response to violence should not be about what victims’ families want. It’s about what we, as a society, choose to value. Permanent imprisonment costs less than the death penalty, acknowledges the need for revenge and allows for human fallibility in criminal justice proceedings.

JUDY KERR----California Crime Victims for Alternatives to the Death Penalty----San Francisco

****

Capital cases

EDITOR: Finally, Sonoma County has a district attorney who is willing to think of all victims in his charging decisions ("Passalacqua hasn't pursued execution," Saturday.) With California's unsolved homicide rate at more than 50 %, spending untold millions on prosecuting a handful of heinous offenders is not smart on crime.

These same offenders could, in the alternative, receive death by permanent imprisonment at the same level of public safety at a small fraction of the cost. Use those millions of dollars to honor all victims’ family members who are still living with their families’ killers walking free in their communities and investing in solving cold cases.

Stephan Passalacqua seems to have the foresight and understanding that all victims' family members need resolution, and we all want public safety. He is meeting both goals. Sonoma County is well represented and has a right to be proud they elected Passalacqua. Other counties should pay attention.

CHRISTINE THOMAS----Sacramento

****

Flat earth justice

EDITOR: My study of the death penalty for a master's degree (Sonoma State University, 1991) found this: Each execution costs state taxpayers more than $330 million. In the developed world, only the United States and Japan execute. The Japanese don't execute teens; we do. Texas kills those whose crime was committed at 17. Texas executes far more than any other state, yet still has the highest murder rate. States with the death penalty have 2.58 times the murder rate of those without. It is no deterrent. Murders are almost always done in the heat of emotion, by professionals (rarely caught) or by mental cases. None of these are deterred by capital punishment.

No one commits crimes thinking of getting caught. Gary Gilmore bragged he killed two specifically because he wanted to be executed. He was. Only minorities and the poor get executed. The rich do not. Some people should never be let loose in society.

Just a week ago, 2 boys executed in 1913 for a crime they didn't commit were pardoned. Innocents are often executed. My files are filled with examples of unjust convictions. Those who believe in the death penalty should be classed with those thinking the Earth is flat.

CHRIS CLARKE----Santa Rosa

****

Costs beyond cash

EDITOR: While your article on the death penalty Saturday correctly noted that taxpayers would save $127.5 million a year by replacing the death penalty with life sentences without the possibility of parole, it failed to discuss other important facts: Innocent people will be put to death, and our law is overbroad.

Nationally, 205 people (14 in California) were convicted of murder and later exonerated between 1989 and 2003. Of these, 74 were sentenced to death. DNA evidence alone has exonerated 245 people, 17 who served time on death row.

In California, 6 people who were sentenced to death and granted new trials were acquitted or the murder charges were dismissed for lack of evidence. Texas executed Cameron Willingham in Texas in 2004 for arson/murder. Afterward, experts re-examining the evidence concluded the fire was not deliberately set. The above demonstrates a chilling fact; juries make mistakes.

California has the broadest death penalty law in America. One need not intend to kill or be personally present to receive the death penalty.

With our financial crisis, we cannot spend so much money on this flawed system. It is time to tell your representatives to put the death penalty to rest.

STEVE FABIAN----Sonoma County chapter, American Civil Liberties Union----Santa Rosa

****

Why are they safe?

EDITOR: The general public was not safe from Richard Allen Davis or Ramon Salcido, why should they be safe from the general public in prison? They live and have more rights than the homeless.

JOE MARTIGNOLI----Sebastopol

(source: Letters to the Editor, Press-Democrat)

ILLINOIS:

Dugan didn't try to avert death penalty, defense team

Defense attorneys for Brian Dugan on Wednesday attempted to show he had no ulterior motives for suggesting his involvement in the 1983 murder of Jeanine Nicarico a few months after 2 other men had been convicted and sentenced to death for the crime.

But prosecutors countered that Dugan was an unreliable source of information willing to say almost anything to escape the death penalty.

Gary Garretson, first assistant state's attorney in LaSalle County when Dugan was negotiating a plea to the abduction, rape and murder of 7-year-old Melissa Ackerman, was on the witness stand for nearly 2 hours at Dugan's sentencing hearing in DuPage County.

Garretson, now in private practice, stated Dugan was pleading to the Ackerman crime and a similar crime involving 29-year-old nurse Donna Schnorr, of Geneva. During those talks in fall 1985, Dugan's attorney approached Garretson and said Dugan had information about his role in other crimes, Garretson testified.

Garretson said he then contacted 2 prosecutors in DuPage, Robert Kilander and Pat King, who drove to LaSalle County with questions for Dugan about the kidnapping, rape and murder of Jeanine, 10, of Naperville. They passed those questions to Dugan's attorney, Public Defender George Mueller, who returned with the written answers, Garretson testified.

"Mr. Kilander indicated he was not interested in the plea discussions and stated to Mr. Mueller that he did not believe Mr. Dugan," Garretson testified.

Refined DNA testing developed years later showed the prosecutors to be wrong. The 2 convicted men were cleared, and Dugan was indicted for the Nicarico crime in 2005.

He pleaded guilty in July. Jurors are considering whether to condemn Dugan to death or sentence him to life in prison.

(source: Chicago Tribune)

TENNESSEE:

Davidson eligible for death penalty in Christian-Newsom murders

The very first part of the verdict by a Knox County jury made Lemaricus Davidson eligible for the death penalty.

Davidson has been found guilty on each of the most serious of the subsequent charges, with the exception of the charges accusing him of directly raping Chris Newsom.

Instead, he has been convicted of facilitating the rape of Chris Newsom.

Hugh and Mary Newsom, parents to Chris Newsom; and Gary and Deena Christian, parents to Channon Christian; said today that their children finally had the justice they deserved.

The 4 said unanimously that the death penalty was the only acceptable punishment for Davidson.

They expressed outrage at the defense's characterization of the murder victims.

Sentencing is set to begin Thursday morning.

Comprehensive rundown of conviction

GUILTY: First degree felony murder of Chris Newsom during perpetration of robbery of Newsom

GUILTY: First degree felony murder of Chris Newsom during perpetration of robbery of Channon Christian

GUILTY: First degree felony murder of Channon Christian during the perpetration of robbery of Newsom

GUILTY: First degree felony murder of Channon Christian during perpetration of robbery of Christian

GUILTY: First degree felony murder of Chris Newsom during perpetration of kidnapping of Newsom

GUILTY: First degree felony murder of Chris Newsom during perpetration of kidnapping of Christian

GUILTY: First degree felony murder of Channon Christian during perpetration of kidnapping of Newsom

GUILTY: First degree felony murder of Channon Christian during perpetration of kidnapping of Christian

GUILTY: First degree felony murder of Chris Newsom during perpetration of rape of Newsom

GUILTY: First degree felony murder of Chris Newsom during perpetration of oral rape of Christian

GUILTY: First degree felony murder of Channon Christian during perpetration of rape of Newsom

GUILTY: First degree felony murder of Channon Christian during perpetration of oral rape of Christian

GUILTY: First degree felony murder of Chris Newsom during perpetration of theft from Newsom

GUILTY: First degree felony murder of Chris Newsom during perpetration of theft from Christian

GUILTY: First degree felony murder of Channon Christian during perpetration of theft from Newsom

GUILTY: First degree felony murder of Channon Christian during perpetration of theft from Christian

GUILTY: Premeditated first degree murder of Chris Newsom

GUILTY: Premeditated first degree murder of Channon Christian

GUILTY: Especially aggravated robbery of Chris Newsom

GUILTY: Especially aggravated robbery of Channon Christian

GUILTY: Especially aggravated kidnapping of Chris Newsom, accomplished with deadly weapon

GUILTY: Especially aggravated kidnapping of Chris Newsom with serious bodily injury

GUILTY: Especially aggravated kidnapping of Channon Christian, accomplished with deadly weapon GUILTY: Especially aggravated kidnapping of Channon Christian with serious bodily injury

GUILTY: Facilitation of aggravated rape of Chris Newsom by coercive anal penetration while armed with a weapon (NOT GUILTY of aggravated rape of Chris Newsom while armed with weapon)

GUILTY: Facilitation of aggravated rape of Chris Newsom by anal penetration with bodily injury (NOT GUILTY of aggravated rape of Chris Newsom by anal penetration with bodily injury)

GUILTY: Facilitation of aggravated rape of Chris Newsom by coercive anal penetration while aided and abetted by one or more persons (NOT GUILTY of aggravated rape of Chris Newsom by coercive anal penetration while aided and abetted)

GUILTY: Aggravated rape of Channon Christian by coercive anal penetration while armed with weapon

GUILTY: Aggravated rape of Channon Christian by coercive anal penetration while armed with a weapon

GUILTY: Aggravated rape of Channon Christian by coercive vaginal penetration while armed with a weapon

GUILTY: Aggravated arpe of Channon Christian by anal penetration with bodily injury

GUILTY: Aggravated rape of Channon Christian by oral penetration with bodily injury

GUILTY: Aggravated rape of Channon Christian by vaginal penetration with bodily injury

GUILTY: Aggravated rape of Channon Christian by coercive anal penetration while aided and abetted by one or more persons

GUILTY: Aggravated rape of Channon Christian by coercive oral penetration while aided and abetted by one or more persons

GUILTY: Aggravated rape of Channon Christian by coercive vaginal penetration while aided and abetted by one or more persons

GUILTY: Theft of property from Chris Newsom, valued at $500 or less.

GUILTY: Theft of property from Channon Christian, valued at $10,000 or more but less than $60,000. Previous: Verdict in

After a night's rest, jurors were ready to continue their deliberations by hearing from an accused killer.

At around 8:30 a.m. Wednesday morning, the Knox County jury asked to listen to Lemaricus Davidson talk to officers the day he was arrested on January 11, 2007.

During the interrogation, Davidson changed his story several times about how much he knew about the crimes that led to the murders of Channon Christian and Chris Newsom.

Judge Richard Baumgartner announced the jury would watch the 2 hour tape in the open courtroom, but that would still be part of deliberations.

He warned court spectators not to make remarks or show emotion during the time the tape would be played for the jury.

The judge's decision to show the interrogation in open court did not come without an objection from the defense.

David Eldridge said because the jury is still deliberating, the courtroom should be closed to spectators, to include the victims' families.

However, the judge disagreed and proceeded to bring the jury in to listen to the tape.

The video and sound quality on the tape make it difficult to get a good look at the defendant or understand what he said.

Prosecutors added highlighted subtitles to the video, but the foreman asked the judge Wednesday morning if there was any way to increase the volume or zoom in on the video.

The judge said nothing more could be done to the tape.

Jurors will have to sort through 41 pages of a verdict form make decisions about Davidson's guilt on 38 charges. There are 46 counts, but earlier this year some of the rape charges were merged.

Victims families outraged

On Wednesday morning, the Christian and Newsom's gathered in a corner of the court house to take aim at a Knox County judge, the media and the defense for an accused killer.

Gary Christian had to take several deep breaths as he explained his frustration with the legal system and how his family and his murdered daughter have been treated.

"I can not fathom when we screwed up so bad our system, that it allows what happened in that court in the last week, you saw it you know what they did," Gary Christian said. "And my wife can't say in a victims impact statement that they should have not been put on trial. What is up with that?"

Then Channon Christian's father criticized the defense strategy used by David Eldridge and Doug Trant. "Can attempt to drag our children through the mud, make them into dope dealers and hookers," Gary Christian added. "There are 2 trials here. I didn't do this i didn't start this but i am my daughter's attorney."

Chris Newsom's older sisters stood by Deena Christian's side as she began to explain her frustration about the defense's allegations that her daughter used drugs.

Christian said her daughter worked for a clinic called Specialty Select for 2 years or more. Channon Christian was drug tested for the job and her mother held up the results for the cameras to see.

Deena Christian also dissected her daughter's drug test that showed she had oxymorphone in her system. She said her daughter was on a prescription called Roxicet for a tonsilectomy as she also revealed that to the cameras.

During the proof portion of the trial, Deena Christian testified Channon Christian could not take hydrocodone because it made her extremely ill.

But defense attorneys continued to focus on an empty hydrocodone bottle found in Christian's SUV.

"We're all Channon has," Deena Christian said. "She's not here to tell you the truth herself we are her voice."

Davidson's attorneys have also alleged during the trial that Christian had consensual sex with the defendant.

"If it was consentual, look at the pictures that you can't even show on tv, do you think consensual sex looks like that when you get through," Deena Christian said. "She would roll over in her grave today if she thought anybody thought that of her either using drugs or being promiscuous because she was a young lady that cared about herself and she would not do that."

(source: WBIR News)

NIGERIA:

Ebonyi - Kidnappers Ignore Death Sentence, Abduct 7-Year-Old Boy

Less than 1 month after Governor Martin Elechi of Ebonyi State signed into law a bill that prescribed death penalty to kidnappers in the state, a seven- -year-old nursery school pupil and son of a banker with 1 of the new generation banks, was Wednesday kidnapped in Abakaliki, Ebonyi State capital.

A witness said the kidnappers numbering three went to the banker's residence in the afternoon and knocked at the door, and while the house help emerged, they inquired of Ifeanyi, who happens to be either the younger brother to the banker or his wife.

However, the report said the house help went inside the house to inform the madam that some people were asking of Ifeanyi, and innocently she asked the house help to allow them in.

That proved a mistake as the kidnappers cum armed robbers pulled out their gun immediately they came in and ordered the woman to hand over her handset and every kobo in the house, which she complied.

As the hoodlums were about to leave the house, however, according to reports, they saw the small boy climbing up the staircase and they grabbed him and ordered the woman to surrender her car key, Mercedes 190, and they drove away with the vehicle, taking the boy along with them.

The Police Public Relations Officer of Ebonyi State Police Command, Mr. Chris Anyanwu, an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP), who confirmed the incident said the Mercedes 190 was later abandoned by the kidnappers on Enugu-Abakaliki Expressway near Tycoon Hotels, Abakaliki, as they entered another waiting Mercedes 190 waiting for them.

Anyanwu said he was not aware whether the kidnappers have contacted the family as at the time of filing this report.

On October 13, Ebonyi State Governor, Chief Elechi signed into Law, a Bill that provides for death penalty for kidnapping and hostage-taking in the state.

"We derive no pleasure in killing but we are in a hurry to ensure that those who deny us our basic liberties are themselves assisted to hasten their own destruction. Extra-ordinary situations demand extra-ordinary handling," Elechi said during the signing ceremony.

The death penalty came less than a week after elder statesman, Chief Chris Nwankwo, who is also the elder brother of Elechi's wife, was kidnapped and later rescued in Cross River State. This is in addition to recent kidnap of mother of Ebonyi State Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Chairman, Dave Umahi, the mother to the member representing Ohaozara/Onicha/Ivo Federal Constituency, Hon. Darlington Okereke, the wife of the State Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Matters, Chief Mathias Adum ,among many others.

The new Law which was earlier passed as a bill by the State House of Assembly is entitled, "Ebonyi State Internal Security Enforcement and Related Matters Law, 2009".

The objective and purpose of the law which is deemed to have come into force on October 9, 2009 was to prohibit terrorism, kidnapping, hostage taking and use of bombs and other explosives, the governor stated. He said any person who kidnap, abduct or unlawfully detain another person would be sentenced to death.

"I will like to assure all Ebonyians that within 48 hours of the conviction of a kidnapper to death by a court of competent jurisdiction. I shall sign his executive warrant. No plea for clemency shall be entertained. Let no one therefore test our resolve. The security of our state is our destiny and we shall wedge it to our own chosen destination and not in a way criminals would want it," he said.

(source: All Africa News)

UNITED KINGDOM:

Death penalty appropriate for mass murderers, says DUP's Campbell

Mass murderers such as Ian Brady have forfeited their right to life, Gregory Campbell said yesterday.

The East Londonderry DUP MP said there were times when the death penalty was appropriate.

He acknowledged there was little chance of the reintroduction of execution in the UK because of the European Convention on Human Rights but blamed a cosy consensus of politicians for denying the people their wish.

"There are times when the death penalty, operated within a robust legal framework, is an appropriate form of punishment," he said.

"We can all think of mass murderers who through their evil acts forfeited their right to life.

"I have no compunction at all in saying that someone like Ian Brady, the Moors Murderer who murdered 5 innocent children, has forfeited their right to live through their actions."

Mr Campbell was addressing a Westminster Hall debate calling for a world-wide ban on capital punishment.

He added polls regularly showed a majority in the UK favoured the death penalty for crimes like premeditated murder.

Amnesty International criticised Mr Campbell.

Northern Ireland director Patrick Corrigan said: "Gregory Campbell is plain wrong in thinking that the death penalty has any place in a 21st-century justice system, whether in the UK or any other country.

"He should not be defending the cruelty of nations like Iran, Saudi Arabia and China in continuing this barbaric practice.

"Beheadings, electrocutions, hangings, lethal injections, shootings and stonings have no place in the modern world."

SDLP Justice spokesman Alban Maginness was appalled.

"I think there is a well-established view that capital punishment in the western world is regarded as abhorrent and unlawful and inappropriate," he said.

"Capital punishment doesn't work. Quite apart from that it goes against the modern view of human rights and indeed there's a protocol attached to the European Convention on Human Rights outlawing capital punishment."

(source: Belfast Telegraph)

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

'Bring back death penalty' - MP; Mr Campbell says the death penalty is appropriate in certain circumstances

The East Londonderry MP Gregory Campbell has said he supports the reintroduction of the death penalty.

The DUP MP was speaking during a House of Commons debate on a world-wide ban on capital punishment.

He said there were circumstances when the death penalty, implemented within a robust legal framework, was an appropriate form of punishment.

The MP said it would only be used as a punishment for the most serious crimes carried out by serial offenders.

But he said there was little chance the death penalty would be reintroduced in the UK because of the "cosy consensus" amongst politicians, even though he said opinion polls show the majority of people agree with him.

The director of Amnesty International in Northern Ireland, Patrick Corrigan, said Mr Campbell was "plain wrong in thinking the death penalty has any place in a 21st century justice system".

"He should not be defending the cruelty of nations like Iran, Saudi Arabia and China in continuing this barbaric practice.

"Beheadings, electrocutions, hangings, lethal injections, shootings and stonings have no place in the modern world," he said.

(source: BBC News)

OCTOBER 28, 2009:

TEXAS:

Exonerated inmates protest Texas death penalty system

3 exonerated former death row inmates showed up at the State Capitol Tuesday to protest the Texas death penalty system.

They presented a petition of about 6,000 names to Gov. Rick Perry's office to urge the governor to acknowledge the possible innocence of Cameron Todd Willingham.

Willingham was executed in 2004 for starting a fire in 1991 that killed his 3 children. Arson experts have reviewed the case, concluding the arson finding was scientifically unsupported.

Perry, however, has dismissed those findings, and has recently gained criticism for his move to replace board members on state commission overseeing a review of the case.

The first act of Perry's newly appointed Texas Forensic Science Commission chairman was to cancel the meeting to review a more recent analysis by a national arson expert, who also concluded the arson ruling was made under false grounds.

Those petitioning at the Capitol said they want Perry to suspend all executions and appoint a balanced and independent commission to examine the Texas death penalty system.

"Most of the people that deal with the death penalty, the anti-death penalty movement, they say Texas is a lost cause and there's no need to come here, so I'm here today to try to help the people of Texas to make them feel a better attitude about what they're doing, because people are dying in this state human beings that could be saved," exonerated death row inmate Shujaa Graham said.

The petition was held to coincide with the execution of Reginald Blanton.

The 28-year-old Blanton was put to death Tuesday evening for a slaying more than 9 years ago.

Blanton's lawyers went to the U.S. Supreme Court to try to halt the execution, arguing black people may have been excluded improperly as potential jurors at his trial in 2001. Blanton is black and his victim was Hispanic.

He was the 19th inmate Texas has put to death this year.

(source: Fox News)

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

Activists call for execution freeze----Protestors present death penalty moratorium petition to governor

Anti-death penalty activists joined 2 exonerated death row inmates Tuesday to deliver a petition for a moratorium on the death penalty to Gov. Rick Perry.

The protestors unveiled large papers covered with more than 6,000 signatures asking for a halt to executions in Texas.

After the unveiling, supporters joined former death row inmates Shujaa Graham and Curtis McCarty as they presented the petition to Perry's office.

Perry did not accept the petition himself.

Graham, a volunteer for Texas Moratorium Network, said he dedicated his life to the abolishment of the death penalty after being found guilty for the murder of a prison guard that he didn’t commit and spent 6 years shuffling between death row and county jails.

McCarty spent 19 years on death row despite winning 3 appeals that proved that he did not commit the murder of a woman he had barely known.

McCarty was exonerated after the FBI reevaluated his case and determined DNA evidence from the crime scene and victim’s body did not match his own. After 5 years on death row, the government released him from jail.

Graham and McCarty now travel around the country educating people about what they believe are fatal weaknesses in the death penalty system. Under the Texas Moratorium Network, they support the passage of a bill proposed by state Rep. Elliott Naishtat, D-Austin, that suggests a moratorium on the death penalty.

Naishtat has pushed for the bill since 2001.

"Sometimes it comes to court, sometimes even to hearing. We will keep filing it. That's the right thing to do," said Dorothy Browne, Naishtat's chief of staff.

Browne says that though the public majority is currently pro-death penalty, the majority is slowly shrinking, especially because of cases like Cameron Todd Willingham.

Willingham was executed in 2004 for the death of his three children in a house fire he was accused of starting.

In August of 2009, Texas Forensic Science Commission investigator Craig Beyler released a report evaluating the crime scene, details and case history, which concluded the fire was not arson, and therefore Willingham was not guilty on the charge of arson.

Anti-death penalty and pro-moratorium groups and individuals across the nation are hoping that Willingham's story will prevent another innocent man from being executed for a crime they did not commit.

A statement e-mailed by Perry’s office, said that, despite Beyler's report, "like most Texans, Gov. Perry supports the death penalty for those who commit the most heinous crimes."

McCarty said out of the 1,200 death row sentences since 1964, 138, or roughly 10 %, have been exonerated.

"Todd Willingham shows us we have to remember law enforcement officials, judges and juries are human beings. We want them to be perfect but they can't [be]. So we can't risk the death penalty. If your bank told you there was a 10 % rate of failure each month, you wouldn't put your money there. If the school buses had a 10 % chance of an accident, they wouldn't put their children there,” McCarty said.

Nicholas Prelosky, executive director of Young Conservatives of Texas, said he believes while Todd Willingham's case is unfortunate, it shouldn't justify the removal of the death penalty.

"Juries and judges should have options available to them. Because [they] can make mistakes doesn't mean they should be stripped of their right to [give] correct punishments," Prelosky said. "If there is the slightest doubt in a case, then maybe they should consider a different punishment. But if there is concrete evidence, if the crime is heinous enough to merit [the] death penalty, capital punishment should be on the table."

Anna Blanton, mother of Reginald Blanton who was executed Tuesday afternoon for a murder he professed he did not commit, came to a protest at the steps of the Capitol on Tuesday to support the moratorium effort.

Austin resident Scott Cobb, president of Texas Moratorium Network, hoped that the petition would convince Perry, who, despite the results of Beyler's report, refuses to clear Willingham of any guilt.

"Perry is trying to hide the fact that he is the 1st governor in the nation who sentenced an innocent person to death during his tenure," Cobb said.

(source: The (Univ. Texas) Daily Texan)

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

Nava trying to avoid death penalty

Efforts to avoid the death penalty continue for one Lubbock man.

Official statements say Jose Nava was the Texas leader of a street gang called the Latin Kings. His attorney's asked for and received $20,000 of government money, which will be used to hire experts on Nava's behalf.

Nava faces a possible federal death penalty after a drive by shooting in Big Spring which killed 3 and injured three others last year. The defense team hopes to use expert analysis to pursuade the Department of Justice to drop the death penalty as part of their prosecution.

Back in April, an FBI dive team found parts of an AK47 assault rifle east of Crosbyton which has been tied to the case in official records.

(source: KCBD News)

MARYLAND:

Repeal the death penalty

What a relief to hear that Baltimore County State's Attorney Scott Shellenberger has settled his most recent death penalty prosecution with a sentence of life without parole, thereby securing a speedy resolution for the victim's family.

The sad reality is that the death penalty handcuffs the surviving families of homicide victims to decades of legal procedures. In the end, the vast majority are resentenced to life without parole, which could have been sought at trial.

The new death penalty law that went into effect recently will likely narrow the risk of our state executing an innocent person. But the General Assembly, in passing the law, ignored another compelling finding of the 2008 Maryland Commission on Capital Punishment: "the effects of capital cases are more detrimental to (murder victims') families than are life without the possibility of parole cases." As a member of the commission, Shellenberger agreed with this finding, although he voted to maintain the death penalty.

The new law makes Maryland's death penalty ever more complex, which means a longer process.

As a mother who lost a son to murder, my heart goes out the family of [Correctional] Officer [David] McGuinn, whose alleged killers [are] still facing death for killing this correctional officer in 2006. It has been over 3 years and this case has yet to go to trial — precisely because it is a death penalty case.

If we are serious about helping victims' families, we should go ahead and repeal the death penalty, sparing them the agonizing wait for cases to come to an end. Eliminating the death penalty will also save the state money that could be reinvested to provide more meaningful care for the families of murder victims, something I know from personal experience is lacking now.

Vivian Penda, Silver Spring

(source: Business Gazette)

OHIO:

Man pleads guilty to murder; judge will determine sentence----Prosecution, defense unable to reach agreement in Pigge case

A Ross County judge will decide a man's prison sentence after the man pleaded guilty to murdering his girlfriend's mother.

Casey Pigge, 21, of 464 W. Second St., entered guilty pleas to seven separate charges -- including 2 counts of aggravated murder -- Tuesday in front of Common Pleas Judge Wm. Jhan Corzine. He will be sentenced Friday, Nov. 6.

The charges stem from the September 2008 death of Rhonda Sommers at her home. Sommers was killed and her apartment on West Second Street set on fire.

Prosecutor Michael Ater said his office and defense attorneys Lewis Williams and Gerald Simmons couldn't agree on the final sentence.

"Since we could not come to an agreement, sentencing will be left up to the judge," he said.

Ater said the maximum sentence that could be imposed is life without parole.

Pigge pleaded guilty to 2 counts of aggravated murder and 1 count each of aggravated robbery, aggravated burglary, aggravated arson, burglary and tampering with evidence.

Pigge also pleaded guilty to charges stemming from a second case that included escape and having a weapon while in a detention center. Those charges arose from an Oct. 16, 2008, incident in which he tried to hide 2 makeshift knives in loose blocks in his cell.

As part of the plea, Corzine dismissed charges of one count of gross abuse of a corpse and tampering with evidence.

In August, Ater asked to dismiss the death penalty specification after it was determined Pigge was mentally retarded.

After the slaying, the state sought all of Pigge's school records, psychological reports and prior children services reports. The results of that initial review caused Ater to hire a clinical psychologist to help determine the extent of Pigge's mental impairments.

The psychologist returned a finding that, based on the criteria established on a previous case, Pigge was mentally retarded.

In that case before the Ohio Supreme Court, the court ruled a mentally retarded person is not eligible for the death penalty.

(source: Chillicothe Gazette)

TENNESSEE:

Ringleader in Tennessee Couple's Rape and Murder Convicted, May Get Death Penalty

The man accused of being the ringleader of a carjacking that turned into the rapes and murders of a Tennessee couple was convicted of the most serious charges and now faces the death penalty.

The jury, which deliberated a little more than 8 hours before returning the verdict against Lemaricus Davidson, 28, Tuesday was hearing evidence Wednesday on whether to sentence him to death.

Davidson was tried on 38 counts, including premeditated murder, felony murder, robbery, kidnapping, rape and theft in the 2007 deaths of University of Tennessee student Channon Christian, 21, and her boyfriend Christopher Newsom, 23.

The only not guilty findings were on three counts relating to the rape of Newsom, and Davidson was found guilty of the lesser crime of facilitation on those counts.

Davidson showed no emotion as he heard the jury's verdict. Newsom's family followed the readings closely but showed little reaction, while Christian's father rocked back and forth and occasionally pumped his fist as guilty verdicts were announced.

Prosecutors contended Davidson was the ringleader in the attack. The defense portrayed him as a drug dealer and bystander to the crimes but not the killer.

The prosecution presented six days of testimony that linked Davidson to the crime through DNA evidence from semen on Christian's body and fingerprints in her vehicle, on her paycheck stub and on the trash bag where her body was found.

Jurors saw a videotape of police questioning Davidson in which he blamed the murders on others. "Selling dope, that's what I do. I don't kill people."

Christian and Newsom were carjacked by several gun-wielding men during a Saturday night date as they left a friend's apartment. They were taken to Davidson's rental house, beaten, raped and killed over several hours.

A few days later, his naked, bound and shot body was found partially burned along some railroad tracks. Hers was found hog-tied and stuffed in a trash can in Davidson's house. She suffocated in the trash can.

Davidson, who moved to Knoxville after serving a prison sentence for carjacking in western Tennessee, was arrested within days in an abandoned house 10 minutes from the crime scene. Police found Newsom's silver athletic shoes in the house and a .22-caliber pistol.

Related StoriesKentucky Man Convicted of Brutal Rape and Murder of Tennessee Couple Trial Under Way in Racially Charged Carjacking, Rape and Murder of Knoxville Couple The bullets were the same type that killed Newsom with an execution-style shot to the head, but forensic experts cannot say the pistol was the murder weapon, Eldridge said.

Davidson's brother Letalvis Cobbins was convicted in August of murder and related counts and sentenced to life in prison without parole. He testified during his trial that he participated in the carjacking and raped Christian but claimed he was going along with the crime out of fear of Davidson.

Another conspirator, Eric Boyd, was convicted in federal court of being an accessory after the fact and sentenced to 18 years in prison.

2 others, George Thomas and Vanessa Coleman, of Lebanon, Ky., are awaiting trial in state court on murder and related counts.

(source: Fox News)

CALIFORNIA:

Lifer requests death sentence for better amenities

A white supremacist gang member convicted of murder has told the Southern California jury deciding his penalty that he wants capital punishment because prison amenities are better on death row.