TEXAS DEATH ROW NEWS: 2012: Texas has enough lethal drugs for 23 executions, officials say By Mike Ward AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF May 18th, Forced to go public by an order from Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, state prison officials late Friday disclosed that they have enough lethal drugs on hand to carry out as many as 23 executions. The agency also said Friday that it does not prepare backup doses of the lethal drugs for each execution, as state officials have long said policy requires. In a brief statement issued without elaboration, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice said it has 46 2.5-gram vials of Nembutal on hand and similar amounts of two other drugs included in a three-drug cocktail used in executions at the Huntsville Unit. That could mean that Texas has the largest stockpile of the lethal drugs in the country, at a time when other states are scrambling to find suppliers for the same drugs. Death penalty critics have long suspected that Texas has not been following state policy on backup doses, but until Friday there was no official confirmation. For years, state officials have said agency policy calls for them to prepare double doses of the three-drug cocktail in case the initial round fails. If the backups were prepared, each execution would use twice the amount of lethal drugs as is needed if the first dose executes the prisoner. Prison officials have previously refused to comment on whether the backup doses were being prepared. But on Friday, officials said that they interpret the policy to require the drugs to be on hand but not in syringes. "The backup set of lethal injection drugs is not actually prepared, but an additional dose is available if needed," the brief statement said Friday. Abbott's opinion Monday was prompted by requests under the Texas Public Information Act filed by the American-Statesman and a reporter for The Guardian, a British newspaper. The attorney general rejected claims by prison officials that disclosure of the information could endanger the safety of prison employees and jeopardize Texas' continued ability to obtain the drugs — especially pentobarbital, a key pharmaceutical that is in short supply for executions because of increasing restrictions on its use. Abbott had issued a similar ruling in late 2010, forcing the agency to disclose how much of the drugs it had on hand. Prison officials since had insisted that a recent Texas Supreme Court opinion would allow them to keep the information and other information about suppliers secret, but Abbott again disagreed. The state said Friday that it is using the powerful barbiturate Nembutal, known generically as pentobarbital, which is in short supply. According to Texas execution procedures, a 5-gram dose — about 3.4 ounces — is used during each execution. The agency said Friday that it has a hefty amount of the other two execution drugs: 290 10-milligram vials of pancuronium bromide and 737 20-milliequivalent vials of potassium chloride. There was no word late Friday on whether the agency planned to disclose the details about its suppliers, as Abbott had directed, or planned to fight the matter in court. Officials declined to comment. Though the information made public late Friday was brief, it appeared to confirm details about Texas' execution drug supply that were revealed by the American-Statesman in late March. The newspaper reported that, facing a possible shortage of key drugs needed to keep the nation's busiest execution chamber in business, Texas prison officials a year ago had purchased tens of thousands of dollars' worth of lethal drugs. Contact Mike Ward at 474-2791 Texas has enough lethal drugs for 23 executions, officials say May 18th Texas prisons must disclose execution drug details Texas prison officials must disclose information about who supplies lethal drugs for executions and how much of the drugs the Department of Criminal Justice has on hand, the state attorney general's office ruled. The opinion this week came in response to public information requests filed earlier in the year by the Austin American-Statesman and the British newspaper The Guardian. Prison officials had argued that releasing the information could be harmful to employees and provide death penalty opponents with an avenue to harass the drug suppliers in the hope those firms would refuse to do business with the state. "We find your arguments as to how disclosure of the requested drug quantities would result in the disruption of the execution process or otherwise interfere with law enforcement to be too speculative," Sean Opperman, an assistant attorney general, wrote in the opinion. Texas Department of Criminal Justice officials did not immediately respond to a phone message left by The Associated Press seeking comment. The Austin paper, which first reported about the ruling Thursday, said prison officials said they hadn't seen the opinion yet and couldn't comment on it. The prison agency has 30 days to comply with the opinion or to challenge it in court, under state guidelines. Opperman said that while the attorney general's office "acknowledge(s) the department's concerns," the corrections department didn't show how disclosure of the information "would create a substantial threat of physical harm to any individual." Department officials have indicated they have a sufficient supply to handle upcoming executions. At least 5 so far are scheduled for Texas into the summer, including 1 early next month. Last year Texas had to change from sodium thiopental, one of the drugs used in the process, when it became unavailable after its European supplier bowed to pressure from death penalty opponents and stopped making it. No other vendor could be found and pentobarbital was used as a replacement. The physical effects of the new drug on condemned inmates have not been noticeable at executions in Huntsville but the financial cost to the state has risen considerably. Prison officials put the cost of the previous drug mixture, which also used pancuronium bromide and potassium chloride, at $83.35. It's now $1286.86, with the higher cost primarily due to pentobarbital. About 3.4 ounces of solution containing 5 grams of pentobarbital is used in the lethal injection process, followed by lethal doses of the other two drugs. In addition, the department's written procedures call for a matching set of drugs and syringes "in case unforeseen events make their use necessary." (source: Associated Press) May 15 Carlos De Luna Execution: Texas Put To Death An Innocent Man, Columbia University Team Says One of the strongest arguments against the death penalty is the frightening chance of executing an innocent person. Columbia University law professor James Liebman said he and a team of students have proven that Texas gave a lethal injection to the wrong man. Carlos De Luna was executed in 1989 for stabbing to death a gas station clerk in Corpus Christi 6 years earlier. It was a ghastly crime. The trial attracted local attention, but not from concern that a guiltless man would be punished while the killer went free. De Luna, an 8th grade dropout, maintained that he was innocent from the moment cops put him in the back seat of a patrol car until the day he died. Today, 29 years after De Luna was arrested, Liebman and his team published a mammoth report in the Human Rights Law Review that concludes De Luna paid with his life for a crime he likely did not commit. Shoddy police work, the prosecution's failure to pursue another suspect, and a weak defense combined to send De Luna to death row, they argued. "I would say that across the board, there was nonchalance," Liebman told The Huffington Post. "It looked like a common case, but we found that there was a very serious claim of innocence." Police and prosecutors treated the killing of Wanda Lopez at the Sigmor Shamrock gas station on February 4, 1983, like a robbery gone bad. A recording of the chilling 911 call from Lopez, a 24-year-old single mom working the night shift, captured her screaming and begging her killer for mercy. De Luna, then 20, was found hiding under a pickup truck a few blocks from the gory crime scene. A wad of rolled-up bills totaling $149 was in his pocket. Eyewitness testimony formed the bedrock of the case against him. Now, that testimony is perhaps most contested aspect of his conviction. Cops brought De Luna back to the Shamrock. A customer filling his tank before the murder told police that De Luna was the man he saw putting a knife in his pocket outside the store. Another customer who rushed to the store's entrance when he heard Lopez struggling identified De Luna as the man who emerged. A married couple saw a man running a few blocks away and later identified De Luna in police photos shown to them. With De Luna's record of numerous arrests for burglary and public drunkenness, plus a conviction for attempted rape and auto theft, it seemed like police had found the perp. But Liebman said De Luna took the fall in a case of mistaken identity. Among the key findings in the Columbia team's report: •The eyewitness statements actually conflict with each other. What witnesses said about the appearance and location of the suspect suggest that they were describing more than one person. •Photos of a bloody footprint and blood spatter on the walls suggest the killer would have had blood on his shoes and pant legs, yet De Luna's clothes were clean. •Prosecutors and police ignored tips unearthed in the case files that Carlos Hernandez, an older friend of De Luna, who had a reputation for wielding a blade, had killed Lopez. The defense failed to track down Hernandez, who bore a striking resemblance to De Luna. "If a new trial was somehow able to be conducted today, a jury would acquit De Luna" said Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, who read a draft of Liebman's report. "We don't have a perfect case where can agree that we have an innocent person who's been executed, but by weight of this investigation, I think we can say this is as close as a person is going to come." In 1983 and during the appeals process, officials handling De Luna's case saw the opposite -- a slam-dunk conviction. The prosecution and the court-appointed defense lawyer didn't put much stock in De Luna's claim that Hernandez plunged a knife into Lopez's chest. Record-keeping was so lax there's no clear evidence the gas station was robbed during the slaying, Liebman said. In trying to clear his name, De Luna didn't help himself. For months after his arrest, he refused to reveal the name of the real killer, because he feared Hernandez. His credibility plummeted when other parts of his alibi for the night of the murder were disproven by the prosecutor. The fateful night began, according to De Luna, when he went to a skating rink, where he met Hernandez and two sisters. De Luna admitted that he was near the gas station later, but said he was across the street in a bar. While he nursed his drink, Hernandez bought cigarettes in the Shamrock. He said he emerged from the bar to see Hernandez fighting with Lopez. Hearing police sirens, he said he fled, because he didn't want to get into trouble. The prosecution, however, discredited De Luna's version of events. One of the sisters who was allegedly with him at the rink testified that she was at her baby shower that night. "I had blown his alibi to bits," said Steve Schiwetz, one of the prosecutors. A guilty verdict was reached with little delay. The capital murder trial lasted 6 days in July 1983. "I'm open to the argument that somebody named Carlos Hernandez really did it," said Schiwetz, "but everything I know confirms the original impression that De Luna did it." The apparent random targeting of Lopez wasn't Hernandez's style, Schiwetz said. Hernandez's tendency was to unleash violence on the his girlfriends and wife, not strangers, he said. In 1986, Hernandez was accused of murdering another woman with a knife, but the case was dismissed. Several of Hernandez' family members interviewed for the Columbia University report said pictures of the murder weapon found at the gas station looked like the knife Hernandez habitually kept with him. In all of De Luna's numerous arrests, police never found him carrying a blade, according to the Columbia report. The relatives' portrait of Hernandez's disheveled appearance gelled with a description of the suspect seen fleeing the convenience store. Witness Kevan Baker said the killer looked like a "derelict," wearing a flannel jacket and gray sweatshirt. Hernandez's relatives said he often wore a flannel coat. De Luna was fastidious with his appearance and always wore black slacks and dress shirts, the report said. Liebman sought more scientific proof. Fingerprints taken from the knife and cigarette pack found at the crime scene were sent to a former Scotland Yard investigator for comparison with Hernandez's prints. But the evidence had been so poorly collected by police, Liebman said, that the results were inconclusive. The Columbia University team's report, more than 400 pages long, also is a biography of the central players, emphasizing the troubled upbringings and hard-drinking adulthoods of De Luna and Hernandez. Liebman learned about De Luna roughly 10 years ago, when he began examining convictions in which a single eyewitness testified. As he and a student delved into the files, they became convinced De Luna wasn't guilty. They turned over their findings to the Chicago Tribune which published a three-part series in 2006 that found evidence suggesting Hernandez killed Lopez. Multiple people told the Tribune that Hernandez -- who died in 1999 in prison from cirrhosis of the liver -- had confessed to killing her. Revisiting questions about Lopez's death would be too painful, her nephews said. "That's something our family has had to deal with," Louis Vargas told The Huffington Post. "We've had closure with it and we don't want to reopen it. We believe the justice system did what it had to do." One of De Luna's attorneys, James Lawrence, told HuffPost he doesn't count him among the clients who've been wrongfully accused of capital crimes. "The fact that he wouldn't help us and this was his life on the line -- that's the one thing that kept bothering the living daylights out of me," Lawrence said. Since the Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976, there have been 1,295 executions, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Texas leads with 482 executions. The ease with which De Luna was prosecuted and the obscurity of his death are what makes his case so important, said Liebman. "There are many cases out there that nobody has ever looked at and are probably at risk of innocence," said Liebman. "It's a cautionary tale about the risks we take when we have the death penalty." (source: Michael McLaughlin, Huffington Post) May 5th Death Penalty isn't Solution Re: "Think of victims instead" By Don Skaggs, Tuesday letters As Daniel Patrick Moynihan famously said, "Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts." In just 134 words, Don Skaggs manages to bring his own freshly minted facts to the death penalty discussion. He writes, "If you had a loved one raped, murdered and killed, you have to hold The News in contempt for its misplaced sense of justice." This is a doozy of a statement. Does Skaggs mean that newspaper editorials shouldn't be protected as free speech? More important, many families of victims supported the Connecticut repeal of its death penalty. Skaggs also repeats the old chestnut that the death penalty deters murders. The News' source editorial pointed out the the nonpartisan National Research Council has determined there is not enough information to either support or confirm this contention. Other studies over the years have echoed this conclusion. Kudos to Connecticut for abolishing the barbaric practice of capital punishment. More states are lined up bumper to bumper to do the same. Texas may be dead last in this long march, but it will happen. That's a fact. Tom Heines, Far North Dallas (source: Letter to the Editor, Dallas Morning News) May 4th It's time to abolish the death penalty Last week, Connecticut joined with 16 other states and with the rest of the civilized world when it abolished the death penalty. But the very next day, Texas chose to remain in darkness when it executed Beunka Adams, making him the 5th victim this year of the state's anachronistic practice of killing people. If not for a last-minute stay, on Wednesday Texas would have put another human being to death. Since the death penalty was re-instated in the United States, 1,295 human beings have walked that cruel corridor to the death chamber. Our country ranks number 5 among nations willing to kill people, surpassed only by Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Iran and China. What is almost as disturbing as the killing is the fact that 61 % of the American population approves of this barbaric practice. Many of the country's God-fearing Christians believe that killing someone who has been convicted of murder is a proper means to achieve justice. They incorrectly equate death with justice. Killing a human being is more tantamount to revenge. Families of murdered victims travel to Huntsville to watch the murderer of their loved one suffer the same fate. They call that closure. However, closure should come knowing that their family member is in the hands of God. According to the National Research Council, there is no evidence that the death penalty serves as a deterrent to murder. The major problem that death penalty proponents do not want to discuss is the possibility of killing an innocent person. There have been three very strong cases of possible wrongful execution in Texas. Todd Willingham, executed in 2004, Ruben Cantu in 1993, and Carlos De Luna in 1989, all went to their deaths with serious doubts of their guilt. Since 1975, there have been 140 people released from death row in 26 states, 12 of them in the state of Texas. They all could have easily been killed because of our need for revenge. If that many have been released, just imagine how many were executed who were innocent. Dr. Roger Barnes is chairman of the Sociology and Criminal Justice Department at the University of the Incarnate Word. He believes that we should be ashamed and hugely embarrassed that our country is the only Western industrialized democracy that uses execution, and Texas does it more than any other state. The late Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun, a conservative judge when appointed by President Richard Nixon, changed his mind about capital punishment. “I can no longer tinker with the machinery of death,” he wrote. “We are just not equipped to get this right.” It is time for Texas to join with Justice Blackmun and the rest of the civilized world and do away with the bloody practice of killing people. (source: Fred Williams, San Antonio Express-News) May 4th DEATH ROW INMATES SUE TEXAS GOVERNOR RICK PERRY AND SENATOR JOHN WHITMIRE FOR ABUSIVE CONDITIONS Thomas Whitaker, an inmate on Texas death row, has filed a class action lawsuit against Texas Governor Rick Perry, Senator John Whitmire, and the Texas Department of Criminal Justice for the inhumane and unconstitutional conditions under which the men on death row must live. Allegations include taking away wheelchairs from those who cannot walk, denying mental and physical health care, being held in solitary confinement for over ten years without any legal justification based on their conduct, dangerously unsafe living conditions, inadequate nutrition, inadequate exercise, denial of adequate access to telephones, destruction and loss of necessary legal documents, denial of religious freedom, denial of fair administrative process, failure to timely deliver mail including legal correspondence, and other abuses. In the case of Ruiz v. Estelle, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District held that conditions for the Texas prison system were unconstitutional but also held that the inmates of death row would need to bring a separate lawsuit to address their unique situation. That is the action now being taken by Whitaker. There have been acts of retaliation by TDCJ toward men who have been a part of this suit or similar litigation. Thomas Whitaker, No. 999522 age 32, from Fort Bend County, Tx----Residing on Texas Death Row since March 2007, convicted under the Law of Parties. Contact Information: Robert B. Wells, Co-Director Descending Eagles email: mfelps@descendingeagles.org P.O. Box 49339, Austin, Tx 78765 3724 Jefferson, Ste. 309, Austin, Tx 78731 _______________ The following acts and omissions of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice have caused irreparable harm to all residents of death row at the Polunsky Unit in Livingston, Texas. These acts and omissions continue to harm the residents of death row at the Polunsky Unit. All residents now housed at Polunsky, previously housed at Ellis, on death row were put in solitary confinement in administrative segregation improperly and in violation of the existing plan for incarceration of those persons on male death row. Although most of the residents had not been charged with or found guilty of any conduct that would be punishable by solitary confinement, they have been retained in solitary for over ten years (since 2000). No less than a full due process hearing is required to determine whether there is a valid reason for the continued confinement in solitary. No such hearings have been held. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice regulations require a hearing with attendance by the Plaintiff, the warden, and the Classification Committee of the unit to determine if administrative segregation is appropriate or to extend such conditions beyond a limited period. There have been no such hearings. Those so held do not meet the Texas Department of Criminal Justice [TDCJ] requirements for such confinement because there has been no determination that each individual is in need of segregation for his protection or safety; there is no violation of the regulations of TDCJ for which a hearing is pending, there is no reason to assume that all are "custody risks" when they have shown no signs of being such. The fact that another person attempted escape does not make this entire class any more of a custody risk than the average person incarcerated in the general population. By both action and inaction basic human needs of adequate food, safe shelter, adequate exercise, medical care and living conditions conducive to mental health are being denied every resident of death row. There are frequent failures to provide sufficient nutrition for the residents of death row in their daily food provision. Housing conditions include unsanitary living conditions due to inadequate cleaning of the cells and shower areas. At times, no cleaning product other than water is used by those performing general cleaning. Residents are not given access to cleaning products to maintain their cells in a sanitary condition and to kill black mold. Although security might dictate precluding caustic chemicals in the area housing those who might be a security risk, there is no reason to deny them ordinary cleaning products to keep their living area safe from disease causing bacteria. The food trays are often placed on the floors where there is sewage or spittle. The showers have inadequate ventilation causing it to be so humid and hot that residents have been made ill. The attorney visitation booths are not adequately ventilated for the residents. When an unruly resident is being gassed for misconduct, the other are exposed to so much of the caustic and harmful fumes as to also suffer from the contact. There is inadequate exercise. One hour a week is inadequate for the maintenance of physical health. There is no reason access to the outdoors and vigorous physical activity daily should be denied. The cells have inadequate ventilation and they effectively shut off the residents from all contact with the outside world. The occupants of the cells are subjected to harsh temperatures. The ceilings of some cells leak and there is black mold growing in some cells. Lights are controlled by officers who turn them off and on at their discretion exposing those trying to sleep to light that awakens them and prevents adequate rest. Food is served at hours not usually considered appropriate for meals with no justification for such a schedule. Clothing also is delivered at hours designed to interrupt sleep. Other than the brief periods they are allowed out to shower and one time a week they are allowed recreation, they are in solitary confinement 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The prolonged period of sensory deprivation has resulted in serious mental health conditions. No effort has been made to examine the residents of these isolation cells to see how they have been damaged by these conditions. There has been a frequent lack of care used in regard to legal documents. When their cells are searched for contraband, their legal documents are often tossed in with other property and subsequently lost or damaged. In violation of the regulations of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, "legal visits" between offenders in order to obtain needed assistance in their legal cases have been curtailed. Adequate postage is denied which prevents corresponding with legal counsel when necessary. Mail sent to or received from legal representatives has been opened and read. Access to law books is very limited and difficult as well as access to information that could be gained from having greater access to the library and to television. Telephone access so as to be able to contact their legal representatives is not permitted. Residents of death row are denied adequate telephone access to contact legal counsel. At times, the transport of the resident is so slow that they are denied access to legal counsel. Counsel often is forced to wait for up to an hour or completely denied a legal visit. Residents of death row have been denied reasonable treatment for diagnosed medical conditions. Medical staff exhibits indifference or is unavailable. Dental care is extremely inadequate as is care of vision. Those in need of wheelchairs are now being denied access to a wheelchair and required to walk using a walker out of an excessive reaction to one person having been a security risk because he was being transported in a wheelchair when a weapon was found in the wheelchair. There is a concerted effort to avoid identifying the mentally handicapped for fear it will lead to them getting their sentences reduced to life rather than execution. Further, the mentally ill are not housed separately as is required by the regulations. Those nearby are kept awake by the shouts of those who are psychologically disturbed. There is inadequate treatment of the mental health issues that incarceration in these conditions necessitates. There is totally inadequate screening to determine whether mental health issues have arisen. There is inappropriate supervision of the mentally ill in terms of their maintenance on the prescribed treatment. The seriously mentally ill are not transferred to more suitable facilities nor is staff trained to deal with them properly. Prescribed medications and "over the counter" medications are not provided promptly or consistently so as to allow maintenance of the health of all residents, both mentally and physically in need ofregular treatment. Both the mentally and physically ill have had the water turned off in their cells to prevent them from urinating due to dehydration. They have been denied food so as to not have fecal matter if the mentally ill individuals throw feces at guards. The physically ill had hemorrhoids and was bleeding excessively. At such time as each such sick individual became unable to move, they were finally given some degree of treatment at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Texas. Contrary to the ethical standards required, no physician or guard or warden reported these crimes of abuse. The elderly, diabetic or mentally ill have been abused because they could not move quickly or fell due to their fragile condition. The very severely mentally ill are incapable of completing their administrative appeals due to their condition. Everyone suffers emotional trauma from witnessing these episodes of abuse of weak and fragile individuals. The mentally challenged or mentally ill are subject to punishment for their failure to understand the regulations they must follow. Their non-compliance due to confusion leads to longer and longer confinement in segregation without clothes, mattress, linens, and inadequate food and medication. Guards are poorly trained in mental health so as to recognize whether there is real misconduct or a lack of comprehension. Those who are delusional are harassed and tormented by some guards. These guards are not disciplined or terminated, but are allowed to continue to abuse the mentally ill. Those who are mentally ill are incompetent to personally bring any grievance or complaint on their own behalf. Assistive devices such as braces, medical issue boots, and wheelchairs have been confiscated and not provided to those requiring them for proper function of their extremities or movement from location to location. Adequate pain medication is routinely withheld. All residents are denied activities that would be conducive to good mental health such as an opportunity to engage in creative work or crafts which are allowed those in the general population of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice and only denied to residents of death row, including those who have nearly perfect conduct records. They are further denied access to television. These activities were allowed until recently. Some men escaped from Ellis, as a consequence of their conduct - not the conduct of the current residents of death row at Polunsky, all previous activities that actually provided the residents with an incentive to improve their conduct so as to be able to engage in such activities, have been curtailed. It should be noted that the residents of death row purchase the materials with which to do crafts from the commissary operated by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice which provides money for the operation of the prison system. The men then were able to sell their work and spend the money paid for the completed craft project at the commissary, which actually recirculates the money again into the income of TDCJ. There is no security reason for denial of this activity. Furthermore, when a resident attempts to design his own craft activity, it is destroyed because using shoe strings or thread or plastic lids to make a craft is deemed using the item for a purpose other than the one originally intended. This is cruel and an absurd abuse of authority. The residents of death row are thwarted in their attempts to pursue their administrative appeals as these appeals are mislaid either accidentally or intentionally or by there being a denial of the right to pursue their administrative appeal to conclusion due to action designed to delay or circumvent the administrative process. Access to religious literature and other religious objects is denied in an indiscriminate manner. Those on death row are also denied the right to attend a religious service. No religious service is available for them to attend. Some are denied access to a representative of their faith as a spiritual adviser. In regard to adequacy of food, food that is Halal or Kosher is being exposed to pork grease. The mail room is one of the worst situations for those men on death row. Entire publications are being withheld because the newspaper or magazine contains one article that the particular person screening the mail found unacceptable without applying the written standard as set out in Department regulations. Correspondence is very, very frequently mishandled. There is an ongoing retaliatory process to prevent some residents from sending or receiving their mail or to delay receipt of their mail unnecessarily. The amount of postage actually physically permitted each individual has been unduly and unreasonably curtailed. Access to postage at all has also been unreasonably curtailed. Legal mail has been opened before being delivered and has been read. Outgoing legal mail has been read. The is no justification for denial of access to television. Television was available until death row was moved to the Polunsky Unit. Charitable groups have offered to donate televisions, there is an empty rack for holding a television in the day room, but no television. There is no valid security reason for denying access to the educational and recreational benefits of television. No other residents of penal institutions in Texas are denied televisions. This, on occasion, denies access to information that would be beneficial in regard to their legal defense. The opportunity to work in a job in the Department of Criminal Justice is now suspended. That suspension needs to be ended. Other men found guilty of murder who are in the general population are permitted to work. This would be a very strong incentive for the men to maintain good conduct. Many, if not most, men on death row would be eager to have an opportunity to perform work. This would reduce the cost of maintaining their pod. They would willingly clean their pod themselves. They would maintain their own living area better than it is now cleaned. Giving any person who is incarcerated incentives for good conduct is going to result in fewer disciplinary problems. Treating people fairly and with decent concern for their health and safety and emotional needs will result in a group that is easier to discipline. Those who do not respect the opportunity, then deserve to have opportunities denied. (source: Minutes Before Six) April 27th Death No More--Salute to Connecticut for banning executions In many corners of the nation, it was heartening news this week that Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Mally signed a bill outlawing the death sentence as an oprion of juries. His became the 5th state in 5 years to eliminate capital punishment, reflecting growing uneasiness about imposing an irrevocable punishment in light of deep flaws that continue to be exposed in the justice system. Malloy didn't come to his decision as a reform zealot or overcome by compassion. That's important. His perspective is that of a former prosecutor who once built cases against criminals, killers included. In time he saw how a well-meaning system of justice broke down despite the efforts and training of honest people. The DNA-driven scientific revolution has pulled the curtain back, and it's impossible in good conscience to ignore the truth and defend state-sponsored killing. Eyewitnesses are mistaken. Forensic evidence is misread or misinterpreted. Innocent people admit things they didn't do. Innocent people end up with bad lawyers and cut bad deals. Innocent people go to death row. Still, defenders of the death penalty constitute a majority in polls, especially in Texas, but also in Connecticut, where a new survey showed a 2-1 margin in favor. We salute political leaders such as Malloy who take a principled stand against the death penalty despite the political risk. That's not where enough Texas politicans are today, and it's a sad wonder. Texas is the epicenter of DNA exonerations, and stories of slipshod and corrupt prosecution curdle the blood. Despite this, Texas continues to have the nation's most active execution chamber since reinstatement of the death penalty, with more than 480 executions since 1976. But there is encouraging evidence that even in Texas prosecutors are losing eagerness to add to Texas' death row: Just 10 executions were scheduled this year -- less than half the annual average of 22 people executed in Huntsville over the past decade. Many of our fellow Texans who favor capital punishment do so in the belief it deters crime. Former Gov. George W. Bush, for example, once said: "I don't think you should support the death penalty to seek revenge. I don't think that's right. I think the reason to support the death penalty is because it saves other people's lives." To our fellow Texans who agree, we urge a pause to test assumptions. A study recently released by the National Research Council analyzed research on the deterrent effect of the death penalty since 1976 and came away with this: There is not enough evidence for or against the porposition that capital punishment actually prevents murder. With reason to suspect one of its core justifications, should the death penalty forever hold sway among Texans as a defining element of our justice system? We hope the time is drawing near that most people say no. (source: Editorial, Dallas Morning News) April 24 Family fights against death penalty appeals A family is calling for changes to laws that let death row inmates appeal their sentences over and over again. This comes after a stay of execution in a crime that impacted them. 2 men robbed a Cherokee County gas station in 2002. That robbery spiraled out of control and ended with 1 man dead and 2 women severely injured. One of the robbers, then-22-year-old Beunka Adams, got the death penalty. He was supposed to die Thursday, but now that's on hold. "She started talking and started telling me the reasons why," Nikki Ansley said. "And I had to have her repeat it because I didn't hear a word she said after she said he got a stay." It's not the 1st time Ansley has heard 29-year-old Beunka Adams would have his execution delayed. She and her family have watched appeal after appeal, and they say they're tired of seeing him kick the can down the road. "I'm outraged," Nikki's mom Melinda said. "I still am. I'm hurt. I want it fixed." Melinda describes it as a nightmare that you never wake up from. "Until you're caught in this web, you could never understand it," she said. Nikki says there's no doubt that Adams is the one who raped her and shot her in the back. A decade later, there's a scar on her shoulder, and a bigger one that you can't see. "To be strong today, I have to make it through for my two kids," Nikki said. The rest of the family have their own battles to fight as they search for a way to move on. "My father and I were in Houston when this happened," Nikki's brother Troy said. "I've never heard a grown man wail and cry like he did." "What's the point of going to court?" Nikki asked. "What's the use of me pointing the finger and saying he did it? It was useless." The family says victims get no communication--and no rights--while criminals are allowed to ask for second chances for free. They don't want to see other victims go through this. "I'll fight diligently helping [to change the laws]," Melinda said. "I'll work until I can't work anymore." "This is for every victim," Troy said. Together they hope to change the laws that let these cases drag on, as they work toward forgiveness. "It's not something you say lightly," Nikki said. "You know? It's harder said than done." The Ansleys are hoping a lawyer who knows a lot about the death penalty will see their story and be able to help them as they fight against the way things are. Adams is safe until the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals gets a chance to review his case and determine whether his original attorneys did an adequate job. Adams' accomplice in the robbery, Richard Cobb, was also sentenced to death in 2004. He is still on death row and his execution has not been scheduled. (source: CBS News) April 11 Time To End Death Penalty In Texas 2 events last week -- 1 in the Connecticut Senate chamber, the other in a Dallas courtroom -- helped once again to focus attention on 2 of the nation's most glaring flaws: wrongful convictions and capital punishment. In Dallas, 3 more men were exonerated for crimes they did not commit, bringing to 30 the total number of exonerations in Dallas County since 2001. One of the men had been sentenced to 99 years in prison for a 1994 violent purse snatching involving a 79-year-old woman. About 1,600 miles away in Hartford, the Connecticut Senate voted 20-16 to repeal the death penalty based partly on the growing evidence of wrongful convictions and the possibility that an innocent person could be executed. The state's House of Representatives is likely to approve the measure soon, and the governor has vowed to sign it into law. If the measure is enacted, Connecticut will join a growing number of states (the 5th in 5 years) to abolish capital punishment. California voters will weigh in on the subject in a ballot initiative in November. After the Dallas defendants were officially cleared in court, both District Attorney Craig Watkins and District Judge Lena Levario declared that it was time to have a discussion about race and justice, The Dallas Morning News reported. Actually we need a discussion about much more than that in America. The latest Dallas case again revealed that prosecutors withheld evidence from the defense and that police, during their initial investigation, subjected the suspects to prejudicial identification tactics. These kinds of injustices cry out for discussion. How many innocent people are behind bars based on overzealous police work, unethical prosecution or just honest mistakes? How many might be on death row? When it comes to executions, there are signs that the nation's thirst for blood is waning, bringing some hope to those of us who have been fighting against capital punishment for so long. Even in Texas, which has the busiest death chamber in the country, the numbers are decreasing. Texas juries are sentencing fewer people to death, and the population on death row is declining. Texas executed 13 people last year, the lowest number since 1996 when t3 people were killed by lethal injection. In 2000, a record 40 executions occurred in the state. 4 people have been put to death this year in Huntsville, bringing the total to 481 since 1982, when Texas resumed executions after the Supreme Court had declared capital punishment "cruel and unusual" in 1972. Today 298 people are on Texas' death row, including 9 women. The ethnic breakdown is: 29.2 % Anglo, 40.6 % black, 28.5 % Hispanic and 1.7 % other. At the end of fiscal 2001, the death row population was 446. Those are all good signs, but not good enough. If more states continue to lead the way, maybe the Lone Star State will eventually follow. New York, New Jersey, Illinois and New Mexico recently repealed capital punishment, and The Associated Press reports that Kansas and Kentucky are considering it. Many people acknowledge that we have a flawed justice system, and that's understandable with any structure that depends on human judgment and actions. But it is because of the fallibility of humans that we mortals should not be charged with deciding to take a life -- the one thing we can never give back in case of a mistake -- in the name of the state. The progress toward abolishment of the death penalty has been steady, but slow. It's now time to pick up the momentum. I'm ready to see the movement gather steam, wage an all-out legal assault and awareness campaign to change these barbaric laws one state legislature at a time. We are a nation that should be better than this. Let's vow to end capital punishment in this country, now and forever. (source: Column, Bob Ray Sanders, Fort Worth Star-Telegram) APRIL 08, 2012 Jesus Christ 'The All-Time Poster Child For The Innocence Movement' Grits offered up these musings about Easter last year and thought I'd reprise them today: Easter is strikingly filled with criminal justice themes, isn't it? The Christian religion was essentially founded on a repudiation of Roman capital punishment. Easter celebrates the sinless Man-God killed for His beliefs who triumphed over the grave, mooting, even while respecting to the end, the earth-bound laws that condemned Him. Jesus, a blameless man executed, is the all-time poster child for the innocence movement. Corrupt and biased prosecutors prevailed in His case because of a judge's personal indifference and deference to the mob. Christ's betrayal by Judas was the archetype cementing into Christian values a lingering distrust of snitches and informants. Romans accused the disciples of grave robbery. St. Peter committed assault with a deadly weapon in the Garden of Gethsemane then thrice lied about his identity to avoid arrest. And taken as a whole, the passion story documents Jesus' arrest, trial, and execution all taking place in an incredibly short span, as though criminal convictions could be obtained as quickly in real life as on an episode of Law & Order. Christmas is a story about family. Easter is a story about a wrongful criminal conviction, the misapplication of the death penalty, the overweening power of the state, and the irrepressible urge of humanity to resist it. Happy Easter, gentle readers. Enjoy this beautiful day. POSTED BY GRITSFORBREAKFAST April 4 TDCJ wants to block release of lethal injection drug info The Texas Department of Criminal Justice is refusing to disclose the size of its stock of a key pharmaceutical used in executions, saying doing so would endanger its drug makers and suppliers. The charge comes in a brief filed with the Texas Attorney General's Office in response to a December query by an British newspaper concerning the contents of state's death house medicine chest. The agency said releasing such information would provide ammunition for Reprieve, a British anti-death penalty group that successfully has pressured drug makers to stop selling to executioners. Likening Reprieve's campaigns to those of violent prison gangs, the brief written by TDCJ Assistant General Counsel Patricia Fleming asserts that releasing information "creates a substantial risk of physical harm to our supplier. ... It is not a question of if, but when, Reprieve's unrestrained harassment will escalate into violence..." TDCJ is seeking authorization not to answer questions posed in a December public information request by Ed Pilkington, the New York correspondent for The Guardian, a national British newspaper. An attorney general's response is expected this month. Pilkington sought to determine how much pentobarbital, one of three drugs used in executions, the death house had in stock. He also asked how the agency met requirements that a second "back up" dose of lethal drugs be available at executions. "I was very surprised by the language they chose to use, which was pretty inflammatory, really," Pilkington said. "Obviously, there is an international disagreement over the death penalty. ... Usually that discourse is conducted in a civilized manner." He called the claim that the prison system's drug suppliers were in jeopardy, "pretty far-fetched." 'Public interest' Joseph Larsen, a lawyer for the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas, said Pilkington's questions go to the "heart of how effectively TDCJ performs its official functions." "The whole idea behind the Texas Public Information Act is that the governmental bodies do not get to control the information that underlies political discussion," he said. "Specifically, the governmental body does not even get to ask why a requestor wants certain information. How then can a governmental body base its argument for withholding on what use it anticipates will be made of the information if released?" In a 2008 case, the Attorney General's Office sided with TDCJ in denying Forbes magazine the names of companies that supplied execution drugs, noting that "releasing the names of the companies would place the employees of those companies in imminent threat of physical danger." Drug's Maker Pressed An appeals court rejected that ruling the following year. Pentobarbital was added to the state's lethal cocktail in May 2011, replacing sodium thiopental after that drug's maker stopped production, in part because of Reprieve's anti-drug agitation. Reprieve followed by directing international pressure on Lundbeck, pentobarbital's Danish maker, obtaining a July 2011 agreement that the company no longer would sell to prisons in death penalty states. The production plant later was sold, but the new owner abided by the agreement. Reprieve also targeted a pharmaceutical company that had supplied sodium thiopental to Arizona. On its website, Reprieve posted photos of the supplier's office along with its tax returns and the name, phone number and address of its owner. Reprieve investigator Maya Foa said the group posted no information that was not already in the public domain. (source: Houston Chronicle) March 28 Texas Accuses Anti-Death Penalty Charity Reprieve of Fomenting Violence ----Extraordinary escalation in war of words as Texas prison service accuses charity group of behaving like a prison gang Texas, America's most prolific practitioner of the death penalty, has launched an extraordinary attack on the international anti-death penalty charity Reprieve, accusing it of intimidating and harassing drug companies and likening the group to violent prison gangs responsible for the eruption of prison riots. The attack comes from the Texas department of criminal justice, TDCJ, which each year carries out the lion's share of executions in America. In a letter to the attorney general of Texas, Greg Abbott, the TDCJ accuses Reprieve of "intimidation and commercial harassment" of manufacturers of medical drugs used in lethal injections. In astonishingly vivid language, the TDCJ says that Reprieve, which is headquartered in London, "crosses the line from social activists dedicated to their cause to authoritarian ideologues who menace and harass private citizens who decline to submit to Reprieve's opinion on the morality of capital punishment by lethal injection". Reprieve's tactics present the risk, the Texas prison service claims, of violence. "It is not a question of if but when Reprieve's unrestrained harassment will escalate into violence against a supplier." In the most colourful accusation, the TDCJ compares the human rights organisation to gangs operating in Texas prisons. It writes that Reprieve's methods "present classic, hallmark practices comparable to practices by gangs incarcerated in the TDCJ who intimidate and coerce rival gang members and which have erupted into prison riots". The Texas letter takes the war of words between US states still practising executions and anti-death penalty campaigners to a new level. Reprieve has long had fraught relations with states practising capital punishment in the US, but never before has it been accused of fomenting violence. Maya Foa, Reprieve's specialist campaigner on lethal injection, said the accusation was absurd. "Pharmaceutical manufacturers have been objecting to the use of medicines in executions since the lethal injection was invented – Reprieve didn't create these ethical scruples! And far from harassing them, Reprieve defends these companies and their ideals and we have excellent relationships with them. "Medicines are made to improve and save lives, not to end them in executions. This principle is at the core of the pharmaceutical profession, and companies have long objected to the misuse of their products by US departments of corrections." Texas makes its assault on Reprieve in a 15-page brief that it composed in response to a request for information from the Guardian relating to the quanitity of anaesthetic that the prison service had left in its supplies. The pool of anaesthetic – the 1st drug used in a cocktail of 3 chemicals that makes up the lethal injection – has been running low as a result of boycotts in Europe and other countries. In its brief, the TDCJ makes a case for withholding the information requested by the Guardian on security grounds. It says that to release information on drug stocks would help Reprieve identify the source of the medicines and that in turn would create "a substantial risk of physical harm to the supplier". As supporting evidence, the TDCJ cites the example of Lundbeck, a Danish drug company that is one of the world's leading producers of the anaesthetic pentobarbital, trademarked as Nembutal. Last summer the firm placed strict restrictions on the distribution of Nembutal to prevent it being used in executions in the US. Texas claims that Lundbeck imposed the restriction in response to intimidation by Reprieve. "Lundbeck acquiesced to Reprieve's unrestrained harassment and agreed to deny orders from prisons located in those states active in carrying out death penalty sentences," the brief says. But Lundbeck has told the Guardian that its move to impose restrictions on the end use of Nembutal had nothing to do with Reprieve. "We acted because we are a company that wants to help save people's lives and we are against the misuse of our drugs in prisons. We took our stance long before we were contacted by Reprieve." In a gesture that makes a mockery of the claim of intimidation, Lundbeck this week has signed a Hippocratic oath that pledges its commitment to advance the health of the public and avoid inflicting any harm. The oath was drawn up by Reprieve as part of its campaign to block the use of medical drugs in executions. Texas is the powerhouse of the death penalty in America. Since executions began in the modern era in 1976, the state has put to death 480 people – 4 times more than the next most plorific practitioner, Virginia, with 109. Last year, it executed 13 prisoners, again far more than any other state. The enthusiasm of Texas for judicial killings became an issue in the presidential race last September when its governor, Rick Perry, told a cheering TV audience at a Republican nomination debate that he never lost sleep over the thought that some of the 240 people who have been executed on his watch may have been innocent. (source: The Guardian) March 26 Death Sentence Gets Reviewed One of the infamous "Texas 7" fugitive gang has won an appeal at the U.S. Supreme Court and will have his death sentence reviewed. Donald Newbury and another Texas death row inmate won reviews from the nation's high court Monday on claims they had deficient legal help during initial appeals. The 49-year-old Newbury was to die Feb. 1 but won a reprieve while the Supreme Court was considering an Arizona case that raised the same issues. That inmate won his appeal earlier this month. Newbury and 6 other inmates killed a suburban Dallas police officer after fleeing a South Texas prison. 2 gang members already have been executed. (Source: Associated Press) March 26 Retrials Offer Some A Path Off Death Row Death penalty trials, beginning with weeks of hand-picking jurors, continuing through relentless questioning and concluding with arguments about justice and mercy, are exhausting and emotional. Yet, with more than a dozen death row cases from 20 years ago overturned in recent years for flawed jury instructions, Harris County prosecutors have been faced with doing them over again. Since 2009, three of the defendants have had their lives spared after Harris County District Attorney Pat Lykos allowed them to plead guilty in exchange for stacked life sentences. 3 other men whose capital murder cases were reversed have gone through a 2nd grueling trial and are back on death row, including Carl Wayne Buntion, who was again sentenced to death earlier this month. The death penalty cases tied to flawed jury instructions continue to come back to Harris County as they exhaust their other appeals. On Tuesday, Roger Wayne McGowen's case was sent back for a retrial. The 48-year-old, on death row for 25 years, was convicted of killing a 67-year-old woman during a bar robbery in 1986. 'We look at it Again' McGowen's case is typical of what the District Attorney's Office has to review before deciding whether to again seek the death penalty. "We look at it again, from start to finish, and decide if it is still a death penalty case," said Jim Leitner, the district attorney's first assistant. "We really have to look at who is the worst of the worst." The office has to balance the time and energy of redoing an old case against finite resources, which may mean a death row inmate can get a deal by pleading guilty to stacked life sentences. "Even though a jury once decided this is a death penalty case," Leitner said. "We look at what evidence we still have, access to witnesses, strength of the case and the willingness of the person to plead to something that will keep them out of commission forever." Some attorneys have been able to persuade prosecutors to walk away from the death penalty. "Death penalty trials take weeks and weeks longer, everything is amped up," said attorney Danalynn Recer. "It takes a huge amount of resources and exhausts everyone, including the victim's family, and then the case goes on forever." Recer, a staunch death penalty opponent, has worked with two death row inmates who slipped the hangman's noose. She said the defendants most likely to get off death row are the ones who accept responsibility. They also agree to waive time served and any appeals. "We structure the plea in a way that there's not ever going to be parole," Recer said. "And in those instances it's the smartest outcome for everybody." Recer was able to get Robert Tennard off death row in 2009 for fatally stabbing an acquaintance named Larry Neblett the night of Aug. 15, 1985. Tennard, then a 22-year-old rapist on parole, and 2 friends were drinking and smoking marijuana with Neblett at his home when Tennard stabbed the man 15 times. Tennard agreed to a life sentence for the death and a 2nd life sentence for another assault. He also waived his appeals. 'Penry Cases' The cases that are being reconsidered, like Tennard's, were tried before 1991 with jury instructions that did not allow jurors to properly consider mitigating evidence. They are commonly called "Penry cases," for Johnny Paul Penry, a capital murder defendant whose case twice went to the U.S. Supreme Court, the 2nd time for flawed jury instructions. Retrying the sentencing phase of a trial actually means redoing the case entirely because prosecutors want jurors to have the complete story. If the verdict is life in prison instead of death, jail time is governed by the law at the time of the slaying, so the killers could be eligible for parole. Of the Penry cases to come back to Houston, 3 inmates have been able to get off of death row. 3 others have been retried and again condemned to die by lethal injection. Buntion's Retrial One of the most notorious defendants to be retried was 68-year-old Buntion, who gunned down Houston police officer James Irby in 1990. "Sometimes we see, even though they're 60 years old, if we plead him, he could conceivably be out the next day, and he's just as bad today as he was back then," Leitner said. "Like Buntion." Attorneys for Buntion tried in vain to broker a deal for the career criminal to plead guilty to past wrongdoing in exchange for several life sentences stacked together. Casey Keirnan, one of Buntion's lawyers, said it was not fair that 1 death row prisoner can get a life sentence while others, including his client, wait for their death warrant to be signed. "No man should have to face the death penalty twice," Keirnan said. "If there was a mistake made in the law, all of those sentences should have been commuted to life." He said the law never envisioned defendants spending 20 years waiting to be executed then going through another death penalty trial. "That's cruel and unusual," Keirnan said. ... March 26 More than a dozen death row cases from 20 years ago in Harris County have been overturned in recent years for flawed jury instructions. --The Harris County District Attorney's Office has been faced with prosecuting the cases again or reaching plea deals with the convicted killers. Some of the Cases are Pending. So far 3 men have been retried on punishment in those cases and were resentenced to death: Carl Wayne Buntion - Fatally shot HPD motorcycle officer James Irby during a routine traffic stop in 1990. Brian Edward Davis - Robbed and stabbed 31-year-old Michael Foster in 1991 after meeting him in a bar. Raymond Deleon Martinez - Shot tavern owner Herman Chavis in the back during a 1983 robbery. 3 men have been allowed to plead guilty in exchange for life sentences: Theodore Goynes - Abducted, raped and fatally shot 25-year-old Linda Tucker in the head in 1990. Her body was found in an abandoned apartment complex. Roy Gene Smith - Went on a crack-fueled rampage in 1988 that ended with Smith killing James Whitmire for $4.27. Robert Tennard - Fatally stabbed Larry Neblett 15 times as a companion killed one of Neblett's friends with a hatchet in 1985. The four men were drinking and smoking marijuana together. Outcomes of Death Row Cases More than a dozen death row cases from 20 years ago in Harris County have been overturned in recent years for flawed jury instructions. The Harris County District Attorney's Office has been faced with prosecuting the cases again or reaching plea deals with the convicted killers. Some of the cases are pending. So far 3 men have been retried on punishment in those cases and were resentenced to death: Carl Wayne Buntion: Fatally shot HPD motorcycle officer James Irby during a routine traffic stop in 1990. Brian Edward Davis: Robbed and stabbed 31-year-old Michael Foster in 1991 after meeting him in a bar. Raymond Deleon Martinez: Shot tavern owner Herman Chavis in the back during a 1983 robbery. 3 men have been allowed to plead guilty in exchange for life sentences: Theodore Goynes: Abducted, raped and fatally shot 25-year-old Linda Tucker in the head in 1990. Her body was found in an abandoned< apartment complex. Roy Gene Smith: Went on a crack-fueled rampage in 1988 that ended with Smith killing James Whitmire for $4.27. Robert Tennard: Fatally stabbed Larry Neblett 15 times as a companion killed one of Neblett's friends with a hatchet in 1985. The four men were drinking and smoking marijuana together. (source: Houston Chronicle) March 21 Court Ruling Could Affect Texas Death Row Cases Death row inmate Jesse Joe Hernandez, set to be executed next week for the 2001 death of a 10-month-old boy in Dallas, is hoping that a ruling Tuesday from the U.S. Supreme Court could give him another chance to prove that the tragedy was not entirely his fault. The nation’s highest court ruled that the failure of initial state habeas lawyers to argue that their client’s trial counsel was ineffective should not prevent the defendant from making that argument later on. Lawyers across the country, including those for at least 2 Texas death row inmates, were eagerly awaiting the court’s ruling in the Martinez v. Ryan case out of Arizona, which could expand appeals access for inmates. “A procedural default will not bar a federal habeas court from hearing those claims if, in the initial-review collateral proceeding, there was no counsel or counsel in the proceeding was ineffective,” the court majority held. Habeas lawyers investigate issues that could or should have been raised during a defendant’s original trial. Brad Levenson, director of the Texas Office of Capital Writs, filed a petition with the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on Tuesday afternoon on behalf of Hernandez, arguing that his March 28 execution should be stayed, in part, because of the court’s ruling. Although the ruling applies to federal courts, Levenson said, Texas’ highest criminal court should take its cue from the nation’s highest court and hear Hernandez’s claims. Hernandez was convicted in 2002 for the death of a child who lived in the home where he lived at the time. Hernandez admitted he hit the child, who was rushed to the hospital, where he was put into a medically induced coma and then died after he was removed from life support. In a writ filed Tuesday with the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, Hernandez argues that his actions did not directly cause the child’s death. Instead, an expert who recently reviewed the medical records concluded that the hospital gave the child a lethal dose of the drug pentobarbital and that he was pulled from life support too soon. “There’s no way to tell at end of day whether he would have survived,” Levenson said. “Our expert said there’s a very real probability the child could have lived.” Levenson said Hernandez’s trial lawyers and his initial appeals lawyers were ineffective because they failed to do further investigation and hire their own experts to find out why the child died. Levenson, who took the case only three weeks ago, hired a doctor who reviewed the medical records and determined that the little boy had not been diagnosed as brain-dead before he was removed from life support and that he was given toxic doses of pentobarbital. “It’s not to say that Mr. Hernandez is not guilty of a crime, but he’s not guilty of capital murder,” Levenson said. Current law, though, could prohibit Hernandez from arguing that because his original trial lawyers were ineffective by not further investigating the cause of death that he should get a new trial. Those kinds of claims must be raised from the beginning of the appeals process to be valid later on. And Hernandez’s previous habeas lawyers did not argue that he was inadequately represented. Levenson said that even though Tuesday’s Supreme Court ruling applies to claims made in federal court — not state writs like the one he filed — the same principle ought to apply. “We’re saying the state courts should also take a look at these claims for the same reason the Supreme Court would take a look at them,” he said. The ruling could also be a boon for death row inmate Rob Will, who was convicted in 2002 of fatally shooting a Harris County sheriff’s deputy. Will says that the man he was with that night was the real shooter and that he is innocent. In January, U.S. District Court Judge Keith Ellison denied Will’s pleas for a new trial but wrote that he lamented doing so because of “disturbing uncertainties” raised about his guilt. Will is hoping the court’s ruling in Martinez will allow him to argue that he should get a new trial because both his trial lawyer and his state-appointed habeas lawyer were ineffective when they failed to track down several witnesses who have testified that the other man confessed to the killing. (source: Texas Tribune) March 6 Texas Execution: How Much is a Death Worth? The cost of lethal injection drugs used in the US to kill criminals on death row has risen dramatically over the past year. The increase comes as their manufacturers move to prevent them being used in executions. The state of Texas is scheduled to spend $1,286.86 (£811) to kill Keith Thurmond on Wednesday night. Thurmond, a 52-year-old former air-conditioning technician, was convicted in 2002 of killing his estranged wife and her lover in an argument over child custody. A little after 18:00 local time (midnight GMT), Texas prison officials will strap Thurmond to a gurney and pump a cocktail of 3 drugs into his arm. The cost of the death drugs has risen 15-fold since 2010, when the mixture cost the state $86 (£55). A toxic cocktail - drugs used in lethal injection Pentobarbital or thiopental sodium: Strong sedatives render the condemned person unconscious, administered in a dose intended to be lethal on its own Pancuronium bromide: Paralyses the muscles, causing breathing to cease and preventing involuntary movement during the death Potassium chloride: Stops the heart [source: BBC research] That is because the drug formerly used to sedate the patient, thiopental sodium, is no longer available, having been pulled off the market in 2010. As a result, Texas and several other states switched to another sedative, pentobarbital. The drug is significantly more expensive - and it may soon become impossible for capital punishment prisons to purchase. "Even though it is a small amount in the big scheme of things, it represents one more spiralling expense that makes the death penalty less reliable and more costly," says Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington DC. Rivas was sentenced to die for killing a man after a prison escape "From a cost-benefit analysis, the scales tip away from keeping capital punishment." Volumes of research have suggested the death penalty is significantly more expensive to taxpayers than the punishment of life in prison, due largely to the lengthy legal processes involved. Fundamentally, it stems from the use of what opponents say is a barbaric, antiquated mode of punishment within a sophisticated legal system ostensibly aimed at ensuring the rights of the accused, preventing punishment of the innocent, and executing human beings without causing them too much physical pain and suffering. Aside from Texas, most US states seldom carry out executions. But even those that do must spend billions of dollars to defend the death sentence against prisoners' appeals and to house the condemned securely and what they see as humanely. California, for instance, has spent about $4bn (£2.54bn) since 1978 to fund its capital punishment system, but has executed only 13 prisoners, Federal Judge Arthur Alarcon and Loyola Law School Professor Paula Mitchell found in a law review article. In that same period, at least 78 death row inmates died of natural causes, suicide or other causes while awaiting execution, they wrote. In Washington state, one prosecutor told a committee of the state bar association that capital cases are at least four times as costly to prosecute as a non-capital murder trial. "The rarefied nature of a death penalty case results in more motions being brought and more advocacy being presented, which further adds to the time and costs of a capital case," the commission reported in 2006. Medical supplies to end a life - North Carolina's costs, 2009: Syringes: $5.52 Saline solution: $2.13 IV kit: $37.26 Thiopental sodium: $81.12 Pancuronium bromide: $34.25 Potassium chloride: $7.75 Total: $168.03 [source: Independent Weekly of Durham, North Carolina; North Carolina Department of Correction] The on-the-day costs of the execution vary from state to state, but are relatively small compared to the costs the states incur on the way to the death chamber. The state of Washington spent $97,814 (£62,004) to execute Cal Brown in 2010. Most of that was staff pay, but the state also had to hire fencing and lighting for the demonstration outside the prison, a tent for news media, food for the special security teams, and counselling for staff, says Maria Peterson, a spokeswoman for the Washington department of corrections. Also, the thiopental sodium used to sedate the convicted murderer cost $861.60 (£546), she says. Ronnie Lee Gardner's 2010 execution by firing squad cost Utah $165,000 (£105,000). Most of that was staff pay, but $25,000 (£15,800) went on materials used in the execution, including the chair to which he was strapped and the jumpsuit he wore, a corrections spokesman told the Salt Lake Tribune. Washington state paid for counselling for staff after Cal Brown's execution The execution of rapist and murderer Robert Coe in 2000 cost Tennessee $11,668 (£7,395), according to a report by the state comptroller. That included medical supplies and personnel and the death drugs. The cost of the death drugs in Texas, Ohio, Oklahoma and other states has risen as manufacturers pull the drugs off the market, not wanting to supply pharmaceutical products used to end lives. Texas and other states switched the sedative used to render the condemned person unconscious from thiopental sodium to pentobarbital last year after the only US maker of the drug, Hospira, said it was pulling the drug off the market in order to avoid a row with authorities in Italy, where the drug was manufactured. In December, the European Commission ordered EU firms wanting to export drugs that can be used in lethal injections to ensure the product is not going to be used for executions. Indian producer Kayem Pharmaceuticals has also said it will no longer sell thiopental sodium drug to US prisons. It is unclear how long pentobarbital, the current replacement drug, will be available. The only company approved by US drug regulators to market the sedative in the US, Danish pharmaceutical giant Lundbeck, has just sold the drug to Illinois company Akorn, which has pledged to restrict distribution of it to prevent it being sent to prisons in capital punishment states. Executions in 2010: 96 countries have abolished the death penalty for all crimes 23 countries carried out executions China: 1,000s (lethal injection) Iran: 252+ (hanging) North Korea: 60+ (hanging) Yemen: 53+ (shooting) US: 46 (lethal injection, electrocution) Saudi Arabia: 27+ (beheading) Libya: 18+ Syria: 17+ (hanging) Bangladesh: 9+ (hanging) Somalia: 8+ (shooting) [source: Amnesty International, BBC research] Now, purchasers must sign a form affirming they will use the drug, normally used to treat epilepsy and other conditions, on their own patients and not resell it without authorisation. The difficulty obtaining the death drugs illustrates the problems inherent in lethal injection as an execution method, says Kent Scheiddeger, legal director of the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation, which supports the death penalty. "It amounts to medicalising a procedure that shouldn't have anything to do with medicine," he says. "It's supposed to be punishment - it shouldn't be this quasi-medical procedure. It just strikes me as wrong and now we have all these additional complications. Manufacturers, particularly in Europe, try to meddle in things that are none of their business and try to cut off the supply." Mr Scheidegger does not foresee a halt to executions forced by a lack of drugs, as the executioners can merely change the ingredients in the cocktail, he says. "Any barbiturate will do it," he says. (source: BBC News) Feb. 29 Death Penalty Unjust The state of Texas has scheduled the execution of George Rivas for Wednesday. Gov. Rick Perry has presided over about half of all Texas executions in the modern era since executions were resumed in 1982. It is appalling to us is that our governor identifies himself as a fervent follower of Jesus. The Religious Outreach Committee of the Dallas Chapter of the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty seeks to follow Jesus and the inspiration of other religions in our opposition to these killings. The death penalty falls unfairly on the poor, the uneducated, ethnic and religious minorities, and persons with mental and emotional illnesses. Jesus was executed at the hands of legalized authority. Jesus' courage inspires us to seek a better world in which we honor the sacredness of human life and the human capacity for redemption. David Noblin Sr., Dallas Chapter of the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, Garland (Source: Letter to the Editor, Dallas Morning News) Feb. 27 Add cost of drugs to death penalty debate Add to the list of topics for public discussion the high cost of dying. The American-Statesman's Mike Ward reported last week that the cost of chemicals used to execute condemned inmates has jumped from $83.35 to $1,286.86 each. The high cost of the drugs used to make the lethal injection is one concern Texas prison officials face. A related one is the shrinking availability of pentobarbital. That chemical, combined with pancuronium bromide and potassium chloride, is an ingredient in the fatal cocktail used in executions in Texas and other states. The manufacturer of pentobarbital announced that it will try to block the use of drugs in executions. The maker of thiopental — which had been one of the 3 ingredients used in making the lethal cocktail — stopped producing it in the aftermath of international protests over its use in U.S. executions. While capital punishment might be unpopular elsewhere, Texans strongly support it. A recent poll conducted by the University of Texas and The Texas Tribune showed a solid 77 percent support for the death penalty in Texas. That number, combined with the rising cost and availability of the chemicals used in executions, poses a dilemma for cost-conscious lawmakers. Prison officials are using those developments to try to keep information about the availability and drugs under wraps — a move that can't be adequately justified. Withholding information impedes a fully informed discussion on this topic. Though the cost of the drugs is steep on a percentage basis, the overall impact on the state budget is minimal. Nonetheless, the shrinking availability of pentobarbital will steer a discussion about alternatives that are cheaper or in greater supply or both. While public support for the death penalty is strong, Texans are also demanding less government spending. Death penalty opponents have always had a tough way to go in Texas and while the rising cost of executing inmates may give them another argument, the poll numbers show they still have a steep hill to climb. Mitigating the rising cost is the fact that more Texas jurors are opting for life-without-parole sentences as an alternative to the death penalty. Since the law was passed — over the strenuous objections of state prosecutors — Texas executions have been steadily decreasing. A prison system report issued in December showed that 13 Texas inmates were executed in 2011; 17 were executed in 2010. In 2000, 40 Texas inmates were executed. The decrease is attributed to a variety of reasons, including the overall cost of prosecuting capital punishment cases. No one should expect that the cost of the drugs alone will motivate Texas legislators to even consider making the death penalty of thing of the past. William "Rusty" Hubbarth, vice president of Justice for All, a staunch pro death penalty group told Ward: "There are ongoing attacks to try to frustrate the process, and since opponents could not overturn the death penalty in court, they are bringing pressure on the drug manufacturers — and this pressure goes beyond America. As for the rising cost, what price would you put on justice?" The tone and tenor of Hubbarth's reply confirms that this ongoing discussion is going to be as robust as ever and that's as it should be. An informed discussion, however, demands that relevant information about the cost of drugs and the supply be public. Prison officials are avoiding questions about most aspects carrying out executions, citing the fear of driving up costs and impeding their drug supply. Prison authorities want Attorney General Greg Abbott to allow them to keep most information about the execution drugs — where they come from and how much they cost — secret. An informed discussion is vital and not knowing about the drugs and their costs works against that. Texans have a right to know how their money is being spent. Abbott should open up those books, not close them. (source: Editorial, Austin American-Statesman) Feb. 15 Prisons Running Low On Execution Drugs Again, But Prison Agency Withholds Details A new report surfaced on Tuesday [read article below; Texas executions threatened as stocks of death penalty drug run low] that Texas again might be running out of a key drug used to execute its condemned criminals, but state prison officials said that they have enough to carry out the next 6 scheduled executions. What happens after that might be anyone's guess, thanks to a new no-disclosure policy imposed by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice on details about the execution drugs. 2 years ago, the prison system revealed its drug supplier and the amount of drugs on hand after Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott issued an opinion saying it was public information. The prison system had sought to keep the information secret, arguing that releasing details about the drug supply might trigger violent protests outside the execution chamber or embolden death penalty opponents. Prison system spokesman Jason Clark said Tuesday that the agency is seeking another opinion from the attorney general on the execution drug information "because the law has changed and due to changing circumstances." Specifically, Clark said, a state Supreme Court ruling last July could have changed the situation. The case, filed by the Austin American-Statesman and other newspapers, sought travel vouchers for the governor's security detail under the Texas Public Information Act. In that case, the Supreme Court ruled, for the 1st time, that safety concerns might trump laws mandating public disclosure of information that reveals how a government spends taxpayer money. Texas operates the busiest death chamber in the United States, executing more than twice as many prisoners last year as any other state — 13 in all. Its execution practices have made it a target of death penalty opponents for years. The Guardian, a British newspaper, reported Tuesday that Texas has only enough pentobarbital on hand to complete 6 executions "and may be incapable of carrying out further death sentences after June." The newspaper quoted Maya Foa, a London-based investigator for Reprieve, an international group that opposes the death penalty. Based on state inventory records from a year ago, she estimated that Texas probably has 27 vials of pentobarbital, more commonly known by the brand name Nembutal, left on hand — and the sole U.S. supplier of the powerful sedative has blocked its availability for use in future executions. Privately, some prison officials suggested Tuesday that Texas has enough pentobarbital for more than 6 executions. But even so, other public documents hint that Texas and other states face a new difficulty in obtaining pentobarbital in the future. In January 2011, the Danish pharmaceutical company H. Lundbeck A/S announced that it would prohibit sales of Nembutal for use in executions. That restriction was continued when the firm sold the trademark drug and 2 others to Akorn Inc., an Illinois pharmaceutical firm, in December 2011, according to a statement about the transaction. Echoing previous sentiments from other death penalty opponents and open government advocates, Foa said transparency in the process is a key. "Given the recent controversies over execution drugs — illegal imports, botched executions, faulty drugs, etc. — you'd think that a department of corrections would be doing all it could to show that it was acting legitimately and lawfully," she said in an e-mail from London. Texas faced the same problem 13 months ago, when the sole U.S. manufacturer of the sedative sodium thiopental permanently halted production after authorities in Italy, where it was made, demanded a guarantee that it would not be used in executions — a promise the company said it could not give. At the time, Texas and 33 other states used sodium thiopental in executions. In Texas, the drug was one of three used to sedate and paralyze a convict and then stop the heart. Texas subsequently switched to pentobarbital. A barbiturate, it is commonly used to euthanize animals — and other states, including Oklahoma and Georgia, now use it in executions as a replacement for sodium thiopental. (source: Austin American-Statesman) Feb. 14 Texas Executions Threatened As Stocks Of Death Penalty Drug Run Low----Most Prolific Judicial Killing State In America Has Only Enough Sedative For 6 More Executions – And Could Run Out By June Texas, the powerhouse of the death penalty in America which last year executed more than twice the number of prisoners than any other state, is running out of supplies of lethal drugs and may be incapable of carrying out further death sentences beyond June. The state prides itself on its robust approach to the death penalty, and last year administered the ultimate punishment to 13 death row inmates. The nearest competitor on the league table of judicial killings was Alabama, with 6. Yet Texas has only sufficient quantities in its stores of pentobarbital – the middle drug of the triple lethal injection – to serve in 6 more executions. That number of executions are scheduled to take place on the state's books over the next 4 months. The dwindling supplies in the nation's most prolific death penalty state underline the crisis that is sweeping the 34 states that still have the death sentence on their books. Last summer, Lundbeck, the Danish company that makes pentobarbital under the trademark Nembutal, placed strict restrictions on its distribution to prevent it falling into the hands of US executioners. Georgia, the state that caused outrage in September when it put to death Troy Davis despite considerable doubts about his guilt, is also running low on stocks of the drug it used to kill him. It has only enough pentobarbital to kill four more prisoners – the same number of executions as it carried out in 2011. The severity of America's lethal injection drought has been uncovered by the human rights group Reprieve. Using freedom of information appeals, its investigator Maya Foa has calculated the remaining stocks in Texas and Georgia of pentobarbital, a barbiturate used to put prisoners to sleep before they are administered a separate drug to stop their heart. Her calculations show that Texas has 27 vials of Nembutal left in its stocks, with each vial containing 2.5g of the sedative. The state needs 2 vials to inject into each condemned prisoner, and a further 2 as a back-up in case of problems with the first, as outlined in its official execution procedures. That is sufficient for 6.75 executions. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice declined to confirm how much pentobarbital it had in its stores, saying it was seeking to keep the quantity secret "for security reasons". Similarly, Georgia has 17 vials of pentobarbital left, Reprieve has calculated – just over four executions' worth. "These shows that the restrictions on sale of medical drugs to US corrections departments are starting to bite. States that practice the death penalty are now reaching a desperate situation," Foa said. "It's getting harder and harder for them to get hold of these drugs and eventually they will be forced to recognise that medicines should not be used to execute people." Difficulties over lethal injections has already put a halt to executions in several other states. California has a moratorium in place until at least 2013 as a result of legal wrangling over the procedure, while Ohio has also been forced to put its executions on hold because it was found by the courts to be straying from its own protocols in administering the drugs. The question hanging over death rows across the country is what happens when states like Texas run dry of pentobarbital. Will they move on to a new alternative sedative in the hope of bypassing restrictions on sales of the medicines, or will they try to procure Nembutal through circuitous routes? Legitimate channels through which the drug can be obtained are fast closing. A ban has been imposed since last December across the European Union on selling the constituent parts of the lethal injection to US prisons. The next execution in Texas is scheduled for 28 February, when Anthony Bartee is set to die for murdering a 37-year-old man in 1996. Rick Perry, who has presided over 238 executions since becoming governor of the state, wore that record as a badge of pride during his presidential run for the Republican nomination, telling a cheering debate audience that he had never struggled to sleep at night by the idea that anyone might have been innocent. (source: The Guardian) Feb. 14 Berlinale Behind Bars----Werner Herzog Looks for the Human Side of Death Row Their crimes are monstrous. But renowned German filmmaker Werner Herzog seeks to show that death row inmates in the US are not monsters. His new series of documentaries, showing at the Berlin International Film Festival this week, provides a different look at those up for execution. James Barnes sits in his orange colored prison jumpsuit and talks about how he's always been in trouble. As a youngster, he killed his family's cats, set fires and committed other crimes. Now, Barnes is sitting on Florida's death row awaiting execution for killing at least three women, including his wife, whom he strangled and stuffed in a closet. Barnes is 1 of 5 inmates featured in "Death Row," a film series directed by legendary German filmmaker Werner Herzog. The series is being shown at the Berlin International Film Festival this week. Barnes accepts full responsibility for his crimes and is repentant. In his conversation with the German film director, the inmate does not appear to be a monster at all. And that's just what Herzog wanted to show. The purpose of the series is to humanize the murderers, not to excuse their crimes, Herzog, 69, said in a statement released Monday. "The crimes of the persons in the films are monstrous, but the perpetrators are not monsters." 'I Respectfully Disagree' Herzog, a Munich native, is firmly against the death penalty, in line with the overwhelming sentiment of his fellow Germans. "A State should not be allowed -- under any circumstance -- to execute anyone for any reason," Herzog said in the statement. He referred to the millions of innocent people killed by the Nazi government of his native country during World War II. But the killing of innocents is a secondary issue, he said. Government-sponsored executions are just wrong. Still, says Herzog, his intent with his four-part series about death row, which portrays five people awaiting executions in Texas and Florida, is not to tell Americans what they should do about capital punishment. "As a guest in the United States, and being German, I respectfully disagree with the practice of capital punishment," he says. "I would be the last one to tell the American people how to conduct their criminal justice." Herzog doesn't excuse the crimes. He tells the story of Linda Carty, probably the most revolting of the series. Carty is one of 10 women on death row in Texas. She was convicted of masterminding a bogus home invasion on a Mexican-American couple with the goal of stealing the family's newborn child. The mother was found dead with duct tape over her nose and mouth and a plastic bag tightly sealed over her head. Though Carty denies any involvement in the gruesome and bizarre crime, there is overwhelming evidence supporting her guilt. Reviewing the Death Penalty Herzog, in a statement, denied there is any "activist's anger from my side" and said he doesn't commiserate with the inmates or in any way befriend them. "There is no false sentimentality," he said. But "there is a strong sense that these individuals are human beings." It is perhaps no coincidence that most of Herzog's portraits are of inmates in Texas. The state has been responsible for by far the most executions in the United States. According to the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC), a non-profit based in Washington, Texas has executed 478 inmates since 1976. The number 2 spot goes to Virginia, with 109, followed by Oklahoma with 97 and Florida with 71. Herzog's film comes at a time in which many state governments in the US are reviewing their death penalty statutes. Last year Illinois got rid of the death penalty. In 2009, New Mexico voted to abolish the death penalty. It was repealed in New York and New Jersey in 2007. In Oregon, Governor John Kitzhaber halted all executions last year, though the death penalty is still technically legal. The next state likely to abolish the death penalty is Connecticut, DPIC's executive director Richard Dieter said. Dieter said popular films may have more of an effect, but documentaries are becoming increasingly important and are attracting more moviegoers in the US. "Anything that will increase the discussion will add to the possibilities of getting rid of it," he said of the death penalty. Still an overwhelming majority -- 34 of the 50 US States -- still has the death penalty on the books. That disturbs not only Herzog, but many of his compatriots. The Human Side of Death Row Last year German Economics Minister and Vice Chancellor Philipp Rösler rejected US requests to provide a German-manufactured drug used in lethal injections to US states facing shortages, despite requests from then-US Commerce Secretary Gary Locke to help ease the shortage. "I noted the request and declined," Rösler said at the time. In September, Germany along with countries all over Europe, reacted with protests to the execution of African American Troy Davis, who was put to death in Georgia. Davis was convicted of killing a white police officer in 1989. He maintained his innocence until the end and his supporters said there were serious doubts about his guilt. Davis, 42, was executed by lethal injection. Hank Skinner, another subject in the Herzog series, was luckier. The Texas inmate was sentenced to death 18 years ago for the fatal stabbing of his girlfriend and her two mentally impaired sons. His execution has been scheduled three times -- the second time he got his reprieve only 23 minutes before his scheduled execution. Skinner, a vivid story teller, gives a harrowing account of his remaining minutes before he thought he was going to die. It's just one of the film series' many moments that shows viewers the human side of death row. (source: Spiegel Online) Feb. 3rd Death row inmate wins new punishment hearing The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has thrown out the death sentence of a convicted killer because jurors couldn't adequately consider evidence of his difficult childhood when they were deciding his punishment. Rodney Rachal has been on death row since March 1993 for the robbery and fatal shooting of Charles Washington at a Houston apartment complex in 1990. Rachal's trial in October 1992 came during a time before guidelines covering punishment phases of capital murder trials were refined by rulings from the U.S. Supreme Court. The appeals court in 2009 asked his trial court to review the case. The Austin court's decision Wednesday backed the findings of the trial court that the 41-year-old Rachal deserves a new punishment hearing. There was evidence that Rachel was a troubled and impoverished youth. (source: Associated Press) Feb. 3 Insiders speak out on the death penalty Since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that capital punishment was legal in 1976, the state of Texas has executed 478 people. For many Americans, the death penalty is seen as a part of a complex judicial system that ultimately protects the majority from a dangerous minority. Except in cases of extreme controversy like that of Troy Davis in September, the death penalty is an issue that often goes ignored by the American public. "If you think this is not your issue, I would urge you to get out of your naiveté," Rick Halperin, director of the SMU Embrey Human Rights program, said to a packed McCord Auditorium. In the upcoming presidential election, candidates on both sides of the aisle are for the death penalty. "You should really be aware of the implications of your voting. You are voting for people who have said they would kill someone," Halperin said. A panel discussion on the death penalty in Texas on Thursday night portrayed an often-untold perspective of capital punishment. Exonerees Anthony Graves and Clarence Brandley along with the Rev. Carroll Pickett, a former death row chaplain, presented their arguments against a punishment often described as inhumane. "Most of you weren't even born when I went through this hell 23 years ago," Brandley said. Brandley was wrongfully convicted of the rape and murder of a 16-year-old student. He spent 9 years on death row. His 1st trial ended in a hung jury. But just a few weeks later, he was sentenced to death. Brandley was desperate for media and legal attention when an overzealous prosecution convicted him. "I passed my polygraph test and no one cared," Brandley said. "But if I had failed, all the news media would have been all over it." He urged the crowd to carefully examine the merits of the justice system in America before deciding on the capital punishment issue. "Don't let anyone tell you that your vote doesn't count," Brandley said. "I don't understand how someone can sign a death warrant and go to bed that night. I don't know what kind of God he serves." Brandley's impassionate speech for political activism was followed by the Rev. Pickett's discussion on the evolution of his views on the death penalty. "I was in favor of the death penalty because my grandfather was murdered when my father was just 12," Pickett said. "I assumed that no one was just found to be guilty without cause." Pickett was known as the death chaplain at the Huntsville prison because he was the last religious figure that saw death row inmates before their executions. The former chaplain now regrets his former stance on the death penalty issue. "I buried 4,000 inmates who died in prison and watched over 95 executions," Pickett said. "The longer I was at the prison and talked to people, I realized that the death penalty was wrong." Pickett listed multiple reasons for why the death penalty was not a practical punishment. He listed the high public costs of the death penalty, cruel and unusual treatment of prisoners and the ineffectiveness of the death penalty as a crime deterrent as reasons to look at other punishment alternatives. However, Pickett saved his best reasons for last. "We have executed innocent people because of faulty eyewitness testimony," Pickett said. "And even worse, before someone dies, they strip search him and leave him naked in a 9-by-9 room waiting to die." A silent crowd, shocked by the horrors of capital punishment, listened to Anthony Graves' story on how he spent 18 years in jail. Graves was wrongfully convicted of killing four children, one teenager and an adult woman. "I didn't even know the family. I didn't live in that area," Graves said. A single personal statement caused the Texas Rangers to pursue Graves for the crime. "It was never about seeking the truth [in my case]. Someone just had to pay for the horrendous crime," Graves said. Graves criticized the lack of accountability and checks in the judicial system. "Prosecutors have total immunity. Politicians have no accountability," Graves said. "This whole notion of ‘innocent until proven guilty' should be thrown out the window." According to Graves, there is a very real racial problem in the American judicial system. "The post-racial era is a myth. Ask my mother if race doesn't matter when you go to prison and you'll know the truth," Graves said. In front of an audience that did not take its eyes off the emotional Graves, he called for individual action from everyone in the crowd. "No one here cared when I was locked up, and it's because all of this is being done in your name," Graves said. "You should never buy into the story that the death penalty makes society better and safer. All the power rests in your hands. It's time to hold people accountable." (source: SMU Daily Campus) Feb 3rd Exoneree: Guantanamo Bay Is "Peanuts Compared to What's Going On In" Texas As "the death chaplain" at Huntsville prison, Reverend Carroll Pickett has counseled 95 prisoners, one at a time, on the day the state has scheduled to end their life. Death by lethal injection, the chaplain found, is not a quiet exit. It's torturous. It's not fool-proof. And there's no guarantee that everyone put to death is guilty. "That cruel and unusual punishment starts the minute they walk in the death house ... It's not painless. It is not painless," Pickett said last night at SMU, where was joined for a panel discussion by death row exonerees Anthony Graves and Clarence Brandley. (Brandley also spoke at an SMU death row exoneree panel last year). "There are botched executions. I've been there. I saw it," Pickett said. He supported capital punishment when he started his job in 1982, but death after tortuous death wore away at him. "This one young man, they tried and they tried and they tried, and they couldn't find a place to put a needle in that would flow properly," he said. The man had abused drugs enough to know how to effectively tap into his veins. He was permitted to sit up and demonstrate the most effective way to put him to death. His instructions worked, the lethal liquids flowed, and his life drained. After 45 minutes of being stuck with needles, "he just wanted the pain over," Pickett said. Graves was sentenced to lay on the same gurney for a 1992 murder. The original suspect, who has since been put to death for the brutal small-town Texas homicide, told police that Graves was also involved. After awaiting trial for two and a half years, Graves went to trial in front of a jury of 11 white people and 1 black man. The black foreman of the jury tearfully handed the judge the verdict: guilty. Like his accuser, Graves was sentenced to death. He later learned that prosecutors had withheld the man's admission that he lied, and that the prosecution said they would charge the man's wife if he did not implicate Graves. "We have a failed and broken system today," Graves said, stressing a lack in accountability. "It changed my whole world. It changed the world of my family," Graves said. "I was the next dead man walking for a crime I did not commit." "All that stuff that's going on in Guantanamo Bay, that's peanuts compared to what's going on in your backyard," Graves said. "I was a good father, but the state of Texas took that from me in your name." In 2010, after 18 years in prison, police came to Graves's cell and walked him down the hall to meet his attorney. The charges against him had been dropped, she told him. That day, he walked out of prison unshackled and in civilian clothes. He called his mother from the parking lot. "Mom, what are you cooking?" he asked, as he always had from prison. This time, instead of imagining the food, he told her, "Your son is coming home." Across the United States, 3,200 people are currently on death row; Texas has put the most people to death "out of any jurisdiction anywhere in the free world," said Dr. Rick Halperin, SMU human rights program director. "The death penalty is not an act; the death penalty is a process ... of psychological torture that either can conclude in an execution or can conclude in a release," Halperin said. He added that the death certificates filled out when prisoners pass away have several options under "Cause of Death," and that a specific box is checked when a prisoner is purposefully put to death: homicide. (source: Dallas Observer) Feb. 2 SHSU Criminal Justice professor speaks out against death penalty---- Criminal justice prof. shows his anti-execution stance with solitary candle When someone hears that a criminal justice professor is at an execution, they may think he's doing research. Not holding a candle in support of human life, like Dennis Longmire, Ph.D. Texas has performed over 400 executions since 1976 According to the Death Penalty Information Center website. The 478th execution happened on Jan. 27 at the Walls Unit, and Longmire was there like he has been since he moved to Huntsville in 1984. Longmire, a criminal justice professor at Sam Houston State University, focuses his research primarily in capital punishment. He stood on the corner of Avenue I and 12th Street outside the prison with other pro death penalty supporters where the executions take place. "I don't come to the corner for any particular case," Longmire said. "The issue isn't innocence, [but] when we execute someone, we are taking human life." At about 5 p.m., the "vigilers" take post and wait for key signs that signal parts of the execution. Rodrigo Hernandez, an inmate convicted of rape and murder of a 38 year old woman, was was executed for his role in the crime. Hernandez was required to provide a DNA sample as part of his parole when he was released in 2002. He was serving time for "beating a man nearly to death", according to txexecutions.org. Hernandez's sample matched DNA found on a woman who was assaulted and strangled back in 1994. Longmire held a "mother of Mary" candle, while Kelly Epstein, another pro-death penalty "vigiler" were only two of several pro-death penalty persons at the corner. They share it with a few members of the Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement, including very vocal members such as Gloria Rubac and Pat Hartwell. Rubac and Hartwell set up poster boards with the words "Honk to Stop Executions" and "Gov. Perry Texas Owes $800,000 to Clarence Brandley." The supporters share a common belief that the death penalty is morally wrong, but take different extremes to get their message across. "If somebody's being murdered, you should yell and scream," Rubac said. "How many more millions does it cost to keep a prisoner on death row than it does for the amount of time you keep them in prison? It's less," Harwell said. Longmire believes that he is witnessing what he calls "the sin and injustice that's taking place." The group knows the moments leading up to execution by watching media, as well as family members, enter and exit the building. Standing on the corner passers-by can see straight into the top floor of the jail, where prisoners stand watching the pro-death penalty supporters. The prisoners can hear Rubac and others as they shout over the loudspeaker their beliefs. "I believe that no matter what the people have done, they're people," Longmire said. "They are humans, they're part of our spirit and soul. It's incumbent upon us to try to help the transition for them and ultimately it's our transition as well." (source: Houstonian Online) Jan. 30 EXONEREES, FORMER DEATH ROW CHAPLAIN REFLECT ON CAPITAL PUNISHMENT IN TEXAS 3 men whose paths were scheduled to cross in Texas’ execution chamber in Huntsville will be at SMU Feb. 2 for “The Death Penalty in Texas 2012,” a panel discussion that will highlight the state of the death penalty in Texas and how the lives of 2 condemned men and a prison chaplain took drastic turns. The free event, open to the public, will be: Feb. 2nd 7–9 p.m. at McCord Auditorium 306 Dallas Hall, on the SMU campus. 2 of the panelists, Anthony Graves and Clarence Brandley, were exonerated after serving 18 and 9 years, respectively, for heinous murders. They will join former death row chaplain the Rev. Carroll Pickett — who once had counseled both Graves and Brandley about being at peace with death as they waited for execution. Carroll went from supporting the death penalty to being ardently against it. “Watching people put to death who I later learned may have been innocent, and seeing more than 80 people who were almost killed but at the last minute were found innocent, made me begin to wonder if many of the others we executed while I was there were innocent as well,” Pickett says. “I knew I could no longer stand there and watch them die, listen to their last breaths, when there were too many doubts. And the sad thing is,” he adds, “even though Anthony and Clarence are alive, they’ll never be compensated for what happened to them.” Pickett retired in 1995 after working for the Texas prison system for 16 years and overseeing 95 executions. “All 3 of these people are part of this terrible system called ‘the conveyer belt of death,’ says Rick Halperin, director of SMU’s Embrey Human Rights Program, which is sponsoring the event. “Clarence Brandley and Anthony Graves are alive today to talk about their experiences not because of the system but in spite of it.” For more details about the event call 214-768-8347. (source: SMU News) Jan. 26 Rick Perry Death Watch----Perry becomes killingest governor tonight Texas is slated to carry out its 478th execution since reinstatement of the death penalty. For Gov. Rick Perry, the scheduled execution of Rodrigo Hernandez this evening will mark a milestone: the 239th execution he's presided over, meaning Perry will have overseen half of all Texas executions, securing his spot as the killingest governor in the U.S. Hernandez was convicted and sentenced to death for the abduction, rape, and murder of 38-year-old Susan Verstegen, a Frito-Lay saleswoman who disappeared in February 1994 while working a late-night shift. Her body was later found stuffed into a 55-gallon trash can behind a San Antonio church. Her murder went unsolved for 8 years until DNA found at the scene was matched to Hernandez, who reportedly supplied the DNA sample to jailers in Michigan, where he was incarcerated on an unrelated charge, as a condition of his release. (source: Austin Chronicle) Jan. 26 ‘Texas 7' Fugitive Gets Execution Reprieve One of the infamous “Texas 7? fugitive gang has won a stay from the U.S. Supreme Court 1 week before his scheduled execution. Donald Newbury was to die Feb. 1 for his part in the fatal shooting of a Dallas-area police officer. Justice Antonin Scalia granted the reprieve Wednesday. Attorneys argued that he should be spared while justices consider an Arizona case that questions whether death row inmates are entitled to better legal help during initial appeals. The court already has heard arguments on that case. Newbury and 6 other inmates fled a South Texas prison 11 years ago in the state’s biggest prison break. He would have been the 2nd of the gang executed for the Christmas Eve 2000 killing of Irving police officer Aubrey Hawkins during a robbery. (source: Associated Press) Jan. 20 Death Penalty Foes March On MLK Day “Clarence Brandley!” boomed over the loud-speaker system, and the crowds lining the downtown sidewalks answered, “Pay him now!” The Texas Death Penalty Abolition movement honored Clarence Brandley in the 34th Annual Martin Luther King Jr. Parade Jan. 16 in downtown Houston, sponsored by The Black Heritage Society. Brandley, who is known and loved by African Americans as well as activists of all nationalities around Texas, was exonerated off Texas death row exactly 22 years ago. But he is still fighting for compensation from the state of Texas for the 10 long years that were stolen from him. Abolitionists and progressive activists, along with their children, formed a spirited contingent in one of the largest MLK parades in the country. They not only demanded an end to the racist and anti-poor death penalty, but also demanded compensation for Brandley. Brandley and his brother, the Rev. Ozell Brandley, rode in the back of a pickup truck covered with signs about Clarence’s struggle with Texas. As children tossed candy to the crowds, activists distributed thousands of leaflets about Clarence Brandley and the death penalty, as well as leaflets about political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal. In 1995, after five years of struggling to find and keep a job, Brandley went to Philadelphia to support Abu-Jamal when he had an execution date. Brandley says he was glad to contribute to another innocent man getting a stay of execution, just as others had done for him. Today Brandley works with Witness To Innocence, an organization made up solely of people who have been exonerated off death row. (In the U.S., 130 people have been exonerated.) Brandley is fighting to abolish the death penalty in Texas. He says he will never forget his time on death row and will continue to fight for those he left behind. (source: Workers World) Jan., 20 When it comes to executions over the last 30 years in Texas, Harris County with 116 has the most. Surprisingly, at number 9 on that list is Potter County with 10 executions. What's also a surprise is, Randall County near the bottom of the list with 3. Both James Farren and Randall Sims have the same assumption as to why they think numbers have fallen here over the last seven years, and both feel the same when it comes to pursuing the death penalty in court. James Farren says when comparing the crime rates in Potter and Randall counties the numbers should be close to the same, but types of crime is where things differentiate. "Potter County certainly has more violent crime than Randall County, we have more property crime. Potter County has more drive by shootings, more drugs, more drug cases, more assaults, and more homicides." He says prosecutors must be very circumspect when it comes to seeking the death penalty. "The death penalty is appropriate in an appropriate case, but with life without parole now available and with changing attitudes people have towards the death penalty, we have to be really careful." And Potter county DA Randall Sims agrees. "The legislature changed it from the 2nd possibility of being life without parole, and that's also effected the decision making on some of the prosecutors part on whether to try and seek the death penalty or not." Farren says for the state to be serious about taking the life of a citizen, the crime must be *very* serious and the evidence has to be overwhelming. The last time someone was sentenced to die out of Potter County was in 2005, and in Randall County, it was just last summer. (source: connectamarillo.com) Jan. 17 3 Decades of Capital Punishment in Texas 35 years ago today, the state of Utah executed Gary Gilmore by firing squad and restarted the death penalty in the United States. Texas followed suit, reinstating capital punishment in 1982 and quickly becoming home to the nation's busiest execution chamber. A 1972 U.S. Supreme Court opinion that the states' use of the death penalty was arbitrary and capricious led to a de facto moratorium on the penalty across the nation. States began changing their death penalty laws, and the pause on executions ended with a subsequent high court decision in 1976. The 1st post-moratorium execution in Texas was in 1982. Charles Brooks Jr. was executed for the 1976 shooting death of a mechanic. Since 1982, Texas has executed 477 men and women, more than any other state. And there are more than 300 men and women in Texas awaiting execution now. Executions in Texas — and nationwide — eventually peaked and then evened out in the 1990s. In 1994, there were 328 death sentences issued nationwide, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Starting in 1999, though, use of the death penalty began to drop off dramatically, and by 2009 there were 109 death sentences. Last year, Texas executed 13 prisoners, the lowest number in more than a decade. And juries assigned 8 new death sentences in 2010 as well as in 2011, compared with 48 in 1999, according to the Texas Defender Service. Below, we've compiled some fascinating data from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice about the last 3 decades of the death penalty in Texas. In the 1st graph, we have charted both the frequency of executions and the racial makeup of the executed. The graph is broken into 5-year segments starting in 1980 and going through 2011. An interesting trend that becomes visible in this graph is the growing number of Hispanic inmates who are executed. Although the number of executions of black inmates has declined, the number for Hispanic criminals has risen. In 2010 and 2011, more Hispanic criminals were executed than black criminals. The 1st person set to be executed in 2012 is a Hispanic inmate, Rodrigo Hernandez, from Bexar County. Despite that trend, the number of black inmates on death row continues to exceed any other, as the graph below illustrates. There are 10 inmates who have been on Texas' death row for 30 years or longer. Of those men, six are black, including the longest-serving death row inmate, Raymond Riles, who was convicted in 1976 of robbing and murdering a used-car salesman. In 1985, Riles tried to commit suicide by setting fire to his death row cell, according to TDCJ records. Like many death row inmates, Riles is from Harris County. That county has sent more Texans to death row and to the execution chamber than any other county in the state. Of the 477 people executed since 1982, 24 percent — 116 inmates — were sentenced in Harris County. More than one-third of the 307 men and women on death row are from that county, a total of 104. Polls indicate that Americans, and Texans in particular, continue to support the death penalty. But Rick Halperin, director of Southern Methodist University's Embrey Human Rights Program, said in a news release that the drop in executions and death sentences shows that juries are less willing to impose capital punishment. High-profile exonerations and more public awareness of DNA science, he said, have made the public more willing to question the use of capital punishment. “We’re in the beginning stages of ending the death penalty in this country,” Halperin said. Number of Executions/Offenders on Death Row by County of Incident County of Incident ----# Executed--------# on Death Row Harris County--------116------------------104 Dallas County----------4-------------------36 Tarrant County-------36--------------------19 Bexar County---------35--------------------21 Nueces County--------14---------------------6 Jefferson County-----13---------------------2 Montgomery County----13---------------------3 Brazos County--------11---------------------5 Potter County--------10---------------------2 Lubbock County-------10---------------------4 Smith County----------9---------------------8 Travis County---------8---------------------7 Denton County---------6---------------------0 Cameron County--------6---------------------5 Galveston County------6---------------------1 Collin County---------6---------------------8 McLennan County-------6---------------------3 Fort Bend County------5---------------------2 Taylor County---------5---------------------0 Bowie County----------5---------------------6 Navarro County--------5---------------------1 Brazoria County-------4---------------------0 Anderson County-------4---------------------1 Gregg County----------4---------------------1 Liberty County--------3---------------------1 Tom Green County------3---------------------0 (source: Texas Tribune) Jan. 16 Death penalty doesn't work As president of Lake Highlands Libertarians and Youth for Ron Paul, I talk a lot of politics with my peers. One subject just kills me: the death penalty. Many of my Republican peers claim to be pro-life and pro-death penalty. I understand that unborn fetuses are innocent and victims of the death penalty aren't, but it still doesn't make sense. When a child lies, do you lie to the child as punishment and hope it will deter others from lying? When a child hits one of his/her peers, do you hit the child as punishment and hope it will deter others from hitting? I hope not. When an adult kills someone, do you kill the adult as punishment and hope it will deter others from killing? Unfortunately, in Texas, we do. Capital punishment is morally wrong, expensive, and ineffective as a deterrent. The death penalty must be killed. Now, to those who tolerate such an inhumane, cruel and expensive penalty, it may come as a shock to discover that capital punishment does not decrease crime. The New York Times examined FBI data and found that the states with the death penalty had average murder rates that were higher than the murder rates of states without the death penalty. No matter what the intentions behind the death penalty are, it clearly does not work. Mac McCann, senior at Lake Highlands High School, Dallas (source: Letter to the Editor, Dallas Morning News) Jan. 16 Charity Lee, SA death penalty opponent, to make her stand on Supreme Court’s stoop At the death penalty intersection, popular caricatures include both victim’s families pressing up to the glass for a better view of the lethal injection process and those rogue Catholics who’ve worked their way beyond abortion in their pro-life positioning holding signs and chanting outside. San Antonio’s Charity Lee has certainly earned a right to permanent front-row seats inside the killing chamber. Her own father was murdered when she was only 6. Then, as a young parent herself, her daughter was raped and murdered in 2007 by her son. Perhaps because of the nature of the intra-family assault, she has instead joined the anti-death penalty camp. “Inevitably, at some point if you have a child, they’re going to hit someone. Then you see these parents that are spanking their children and they’re screaming at them ‘You’re not supposed to hit people!’” Lee told the Current from Washington, D.C. “We say all the time, ‘You’re not supposed to kill, but if you kill somebody we’re going to kill you.’ There’s no logic to it.” Since her daughter Ella’s death, Lee established the ELLA Foundation, quickly entered the speaking circuit both in the States and abroad. The mission of ELLA is to “prevent violence and to advocate for human rights through education, criminal justice reform, and victim advocacy.” Today, Lee is preparing to protest on the 35th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court decision to reinstate the death penalty in the United States in an act of civil disobedience she expects to be arrested for on the Supreme’s front steps tomorrow. We interviewed her by phone earlier today. From your vantage point, what are the roots of violence that we can address as a culture? I really believe violence is a generational thing, and so in order to stop it we have to have more effective policy and law. But we also really need to focus on getting kids really early in the education system, and supporting families more, and not giving single moms that are working three jobs to make ends meet a hard time because their children might be running on the street. I don’t believe all these kids and adults that end up committing crime are bad seeds, you know? They’ve lived a lifetime not being educated, they might not have job skills, especially in San Antonio, you have 13 and 14 year old girls popping out babies right and left. I really think if we’re going to address the issue of violence, the first thing we need to do is address the issue of education, employability, sex ed, these basic fundamental issues that should start really, really early. We’re too judgmental, we’re too punitive, we’re too harsh. … I definitely agree a person should suffer for their crime, especially if it’s a crime like what happened to Ella. But our efforts at eliminating these problems too date have not worked. We need to start looking at these problems through a different lens. Not lock them up and throw away the key, but what can we do to help each other. Does fighting the death penalty mean forgiving the killers? No. I have many differernt colleages in the field of death-penalty abolition that don’t support the death penalty for many different reasons. Some think it can’t be applied fairly and it’s applied so arbitrarily. There are seriel killers out there who in exchange for their plea, in exchange for information about where the bodies are, a prosecutor will allow them to plea for life, but then a guy, like a friend of mine’s son in Delaware: her son grew up physically and sexually abused his whole life, he obviously abused his girlfriend, and then he ended up shooting her between the eyes. Well, he was given the death penalty. Well he only killed one person, and there were a lot of mitigating circumstances. It was not fairly applied. I know a lot of people who are opposed to [the death penalty] that still think these people are worthless pieces of trash. That’s not the mentality that I have, but that they have. Some people think it costs too much. Others, I know a lot of people who would support the death penalty if it could be applied fairly and they knew for a fact that nobody innocent could be executed. And then you have people like me who are just morally opposed to it on the grounds that killing is wrong. Have you forgiven your son? Yes. Yes, I have. I mean … yeah … it’s kind of hard. Our case is different because my son is incapable of remorse to date. … I mean my son is a predator, so it was never a question of forgiveness. Because that would be like forgiving a shark for biting me. He is wired to do what he does. I had to let go of a lot of rage and anger as time went on, but I never really saw it as a function of forgiveness. I have friends who tell me all the time that that’s what forgiveness is: let go of your anger, let go of your range, you don’t want revenge. But I never really saw it that way with my child. But I guess I have. I still only want what is best for him. What role does civil disobedience play on death-penalty protest? In contemporary America we have forgotten the fact that we were revolutionaries at one point and the First Amendment gives us the right to speak up for what we believe in. … We need to show people in America it’s still OK to take a stand for what you believe in — and that if you truly passionately believe in something enough, you need to put yourself out there. (source: San Antonio Current) Jan. 12 Death Lives On When John Holbrook put together a photo essay of Texas death row inmates for Fort Worth Weekly in 2008, he probably little suspected that its effects would still be rippling outward more than three years later. His eerie pictures have been exhibited in Geneva, Rome, and Oslo, and even in a lighthouse inside the Arctic Circle. Holbrook, a private investigator who has worked for attorneys defending death-penalty cases, has become an advocate for abolishing the death penalty — not because he thinks all the people sentenced to death are nice people or innocent of their crimes, but because he came to believe that, “The only way we can truly stop suffering is to love and forgive those who have caused the suffering.” More recently, Holbrook has worked with reporter Renaud Dumesnil of the French Arte TV channel, which Holbrook said is something like PBS in this country. Dumesnil has put together a 28-minute documentary on the death penalty, centered on a Texas death-row inmate. Hank Skinner was convicted by a Tarrant County jury of a 1993 triple murder in Pampa, in which his girlfriend Twila Busby was bludgeoned and her two adult sons were stabbed to death (the case had been moved here on a change of venue). Skinner has come close to being executed several times; currently his execution has been stayed while lawyers seek court rulings on whether new DNA evidence should be tested and allowed to be submitted as evidence in a new trial. In October, Dumesnil, who is based in New York, came to Fort Worth and, with Holbrook, interviewed two of the jurors in Skinner’s original trial. Both jurors, Holbrook said, told them that they would not have convicted Skinner had they known of the possibility of new evidence and witness recants. Holbrook will have a part in the documentary, which is expected to air in the next few months. More important to him, his Texas death-row photographs, including some of those that first appeared in the Weekly, will be shown. In keeping with the often-bizarre nature of his work regarding the death penalty, Holbrook said he and Dumesnil interviewed one of the two former jurors on Halloween with the lightheartedly ghoulish trappings of that holiday all around them. “It was a very strange dynamic,” he said. (source: Fort Worth Weekly) Jan. 05 Herzog takes us into abyss of death row Werner Herzog does something great reporters know how to do: He listens. He pays attention during conversation. He instinctively asks the natural follow-up question, and that's what often elicits the greatest honesty and the most unexpected emotion. In taking on a divisive topic like the death penalty -- especially in a place like Texas, where the punishment is more prevalent than in other states -- Herzog never seems to be judging the people on the other side of his camera in his latest documentary, "Into the Abyss." He simply lets them tells their stories. It's hard not to be moved by the horrifically needless crime he's exploring. In 2001, 3 people were shot to death over a red Chevrolet Camaro near Conroe, Texas: 50-year-old Sandra Stotler, her teenage son and a friend of the boy. The convicted killers, Michael Perry and Jason Burkett, knew Stotler's son and only meant to break into their house to steal the car, but the crime went horribly wrong. Perry was sentenced to death for Stotler's murder, and Herzog spoke to him in prison just 8 days before his July 1, 2010, execution. Perry found religion behind bars, as is so often the case. He smiles a lot. He's beyond calm; he's almost upbeat. Burkett, meanwhile, is serving a life sentence. There's a chilling stillness in his eyes. He speaks matter-of-factly. Regardless of your own stance on the death penalty, it's impossible not to be shaken by the senseless loss depicted in "Into the Abyss," the overwhelming sadness, but also the possibility of spiritual redemption. Herzog lets all these complicated dynamics speak for themselves, and then lets us decide. "Into the Abyss" -- an IFC Films release. PG-13 for mature thematic material and some disturbing images. Time: 106 minutes. Watch the Trailer HERE (source News-Leader) Jan. 03, 2012 No change in ‘capital of capital punishment'----Texas will continue as the nation's leading state for executions. With 6 executions scheduled for the 1st 3 months of 2012 — and more than twice as many executions as any other state last year — Texas continues to lead the nation in using capital punishment. That's despite dropping to a 15-year low in 2011, with 13 executions, even as questions are raised nationwide about the wrongful conviction of inmates and as petitions call on the United States to abolish capital punishment. Last year, 43 prisoners were executed nationwide. “Clearly, Texas is known as the capital of capital punishment,” said Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, based in Washington, D.C. “Ultimately, this stems from strong public support for the death penalty in Texas,” he said. “In almost every other state, the death penalty is used more selectively, more cautiously and with greater protections for defendants.” Alabama, which had the 2nd-most executions, put 6 to death in 2011. Other states with more than 1 execution were Ohio with 5, Georgia and Arizona each with 4, and Oklahoma, Florida and Mississippi each with 2, center statistics show. The national numbers are down from 2010, when there were 46 executions nationwide (17 in Texas) and from 2009, when there were 52 (24 in Texas), according to the center. “Executions have dropped by about 50 percent since the late 1990s,” Dieter said. “With a growing concern about whether some of those convicted are actually innocent, jurors, prosecutors, judges and legislators (are) more cautious about the use of the death penalty.” That gives hope to opponents of capital punishment that Texas and other states at some point will end executions. “I think that we are in the very beginning phases in Texas of the end of the death penalty,” said Rick Halperin, the coordinator of Amnesty International's campaign against state death penalties. “It won't happen in this state anytime soon, but we are reaching a point where, sooner or later, it is going to end.” Texas has executed more people than any other state: 477 since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976. The states closest to Texas in total number of executions are Virginia, with 109, and Oklahoma, with 96, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Recently, at least one drug used in lethal injections — sodium thiopental, a sedative — has been harder to obtain because the European Union began restricting its sale to countries that haven't abolished capital punishment. While officials say the supply shortage has delayed some U.S. executions, many states such as Texas had already switched to a different sedative, pentobarbital. But recent reports show that the only U.S.-licensed manufacturer of it is selling the product to a different manufacturer, which could affect the availability of the drug. More than 30 states still allow the death penalty, although only 27 have put someone to death in the past decade. Oregon, Illinois, New Jersey and New Mexico are among the states that stopped executions in recent years, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. At its peak in recent years, Texas executed 40 inmates in 2000. Since then, the numbers have fluctuated. Some attribute the wane to state prosecutors offering — and juries choosing — life-without-parole sentences, which became an option for those convicted of capital murder after Sept. 1, 2005. Since then, nearly 400 people have been sentenced to life without parole, state records show. In recent years, the 2004 execution of Cameron Todd Willingham prompted a renewed debate about the merits of capital punishment in Texas. Willingham was executed Feb. 17, 2004, for setting a 1991 house fire that killed his 3 young daughters. Through the years, he maintained his innocence, and he reasserted that in his final statement just before he was executed. Gov. Rick Perry, who described Willingham as a “monster,” and other officials said evidence supported the jury's decision. The state fire marshal has said the investigation was thorough and accurate; 2 arson experts who re-examined the investigation said it relied on outdated concepts and did not support a finding of arson. The Texas Forensic Science Commission reviewed the case, concluding in 2011 that discredited scientific methods were used in the investigation, but an attorney general ruling stated that the commission had no jurisdiction. (source: San Anotnio Express-News) 2011: Editorial: Death penalty on the wane Published: 29 December 2011 Use of the death penalty is losing favor with more and more Americans, and for good reasons, those undeniably being (a) shaken confidence in the system and (b) the alternative of life-without-parole sentencing. Lethal punishment is also being sought less often by Texas prosecutors and handed out less often by Texas juries, probably for the same reasons. The year-end snapshot of Death Row, USA, offers more upsides, from the perspective of this newspaper’s opposition to the death penalty. The number of executions continued to slide nationwide, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. And one more state, Illinois, joined the list of 16 non-death-penalty states and became the fourth to repeal the punishment since 2004. The number of executions continued to wane in Texas, but this state held on to its position of ignominious prominence: Texas executed, by far, the most people of the 13 states that used the death penalty this year. Thirteen prisoners were put to death in Texas, 30 percent of the 43 who died in the nation’s death chambers in 2011. Texas’ distinction as the No. 1 death-penalty state remains in unseemly juxtaposition to the embarrassing developments throughout our criminal justice system. For a second straight year, a Texas murder case unraveled in spectacular fashion, this one freeing Michael Morton of Williamson County, who spent almost 25 years in prison of a life sentence for his wife’s bludgeoning murder. The case against Morton ignored evidence that pointed elsewhere and, it appears from DNA tests, allowed the real killer to roam and kill again. Morton’s exoneration produced serious charges of prosecutorial misconduct this month. The year before — when Texas executed 17 of the 46 nationwide — the Anthony Graves murder case unraveled, freeing a man who was sent to death row in another instance of alleged prosecutorial mischief. Add to that the continuing parade of DNA exonerations across the state, and it’s evident why people have become squeamish about the death penalty. Supporters attest to the certainty of the court system, with its many steps of review, but it so often has taken volunteer lawyers and university workshops to pry free the truth. Are there cases where innocent people have slipped through that sieve and gone to their deaths in Texas? None have been proven, but there’s no justification for taking the chance. The justice system will never be foolproof, and, therefore, use of the death penalty is never justified. That sentiment seems to be taking hold nationally, with a Gallup Poll showing the lowest level of support in almost 40 years, with 61 percent in favor. That compares with 80 percent in 1994. A CNN poll found more support for life without parole than death for murderers. Qualms about how the death penalty is applied caused the governor of Oregon to call a moratorium and the chief justice of the Ohio Supreme Court to convene a study commission. In Texas, there are ample arguments for both of the above. A welcome decline New death sentences and executions in Texas: 2003: 28, 24 2004: 24, 23 2005: 14, 19 2006: 11, 24 2007: 14, 26 2008: 12, 18 2009: 9, 24 2010: 8, 17 2011: 8, 13 NOTE: In 2011, Dallas County sentenced no one to death for the first time in five years. The execution record since resumption in 1982 was 40, in 2000. SOURCES: Texas Departments of Criminal Justice, Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty Editorial: Death penalty on the wane December 28, 2011 2 condemned Texas killers lose appeals By MICHAEL GRACZYK THE ASSOCIATED PRESS HOUSTON — A federal appeals court has refused appeals from two Texas death row inmates, including one condemned for killing a corrections officer 12 years ago while already serving a life sentence for murder. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected arguments Tuesday from Robert Pruett, 32, and Bobby Lee Hines, 39. In December 1999, Pruett was at the McConnell Unit prison near Beeville in South Texas, serving 99 years for a slaying in Harris County, when prosecutors said he used a shank to fatally stab a corrections officer, Daniel Nagle. Hines was condemned to death for the 1991 rape-slaying of Michele Wendy Haupt, 26, at her Dallas-area apartment. He was 19 at the time and on probation from a 10-year burglary sentence after spending three months in a boot camp. Neither prisoner has an execution date. Their attorneys did not respond to calls seeking comment Wednesday morning. The 5th Circuit rulings can be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. Pruett had argued that prosecutors presented a summary to jurors at his trial for the corrections officer's slaying that was improper and erroneous. The summary described how Pruett tried to recruit friends and solicit his brother and father to murder a neighbor in Harris County in 1995, and said he tried to escape arrest, bragged about the killing, attempted to kill witnesses while in jail and showed no remorse. He contended the summary was used improperly to show he would be a continuing threat — one of the determinations jurors must make in deciding a death sentence. The appeals court agreed with lower courts and prosecutors that the summary, was prepared three years before the officer's murder, had been intended for prison classification purposes and didn't violate his constitutional rights. At Pruett's trial in Corpus Christi in 2002, evidence showed Nagle earlier had told Pruett he couldn't take his sack lunch to a recreation yard. Pruett testified he was upset that he had missed a hot lunch and said Nagle was writing a disciplinary report against him, but he denied killing the 37-year-old corrections officer. A fellow prisoner testified that he saw the officer killed and a second inmate said Pruett told him earlier that day he intended to kill Nagle. Hines came within two days of execution in 2003 before the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals stopped the punishment so he could pursue claims he was mentally impaired and ineligible for the death penalty under Supreme Court guidelines. His appeal before the 5th Circuit was intended to challenge the findings of lower courts that since then have ruled he's not mentally impaired. The appeals panel said there's no indication to show the findings were unreasonable and cited a state court opinion that found "broad and consistent evidence that Hines lied frequently and well when his self-interest demanded it." The victim in his case, Haupt, was found dead on the floor of her apartment in Carrollton, just north of Dallas. She'd been stabbed about 18 times with an ice pick and strangled with a cord from a stereo. DNA evidence tied Hines to the scene, he was found with items taken from the apartment and had bragged that he had keys to all apartments in the complex because he was staying with complex's maintenance man. 2 condemned Texas killers lose appeals Dec. 13, 2011 Rick Perry: death penalty delivers “ultimate justice” Texas Gov. Rick Perry is a staunch supporter of the death penalty. “In the state of Texas, if you come into our state and you kill one of our children, you kill a police officer, you’re involved with another crime and you kill one of our citizens, you will face the ultimate justice in the state of Texas, and that is you will be executed,” he said at a recent Republican presidential debate. Rick Perry makes no bones about the fact he strongly supports the death penalty. Since he took office as the Governor of Texas, he’s presided over 236 executions, more than any other governor in U.S. history. And while Perry views have drawn harsh criticism from those who oppose the death penalty, statistics would suggest his tough stance has helped decrease the number of executions. From a high of 33 carried out in 2002, executions declined to 17 in 2010. As 2011 draws to a close, the yearly total decreased to 13 executions. A recent report released by the Council of State Governments also showed the state’s crime rate had dropped one percent despite a two percent population increase. In addition, during Perry’s time as Governor the report indicated prison costs had declined. For many, the results speak for themselves and his hard line on crime has won Perry enormous praise. However, his position on the death penalty remains a different matter for many Texans. “He has done more good than any other governor we’ve ever had. He approaches criminal justice issues like a lay person rather than like a prosecutor or judge, which makes him open-minded and willing to embarrass the system. Unless, of course, it involves the death penalty,” Jeff L. Blackburn, chief counsel for the Innocence Project of Texas said. “On the death penalty, Rick Perry has a profound mental block.” The 2004 execution of Kelsey Patterson is a case that illustrates the complicated question of Perry’s concept of “ultimate justice”. Patterson was sent to death row for the 1992 double murder of a well-liked businessman and his secretary in broad daylight for no apparent reason. After the senseless killing, Patterson ran to a nearby yard and threw off his clothes. Horrified witnesses watched as he stood naked waving his arms and howling freakishly until police arrived. Patterson had been diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic and previously deemed incompetent to stand trial for shooting coworkers on 2 separate occasions. Despite his serious and obvious mental illness, Perry denied requests to commute his death sentence to life in prison. "Death penalty decisions are never easy, and this one is particularly difficult - not only because of the brutal murder of 2 innocent victims of this crime, but also because of Mr. Patterson’s mental and criminal history - including 2 prior charges of attempted murder,” Perry said in a released statement. At that time, a sentence of life without the possibility of parole wasn’t possible in Texas. "This defendant is a very violent individual. Texas has no life without parole sentencing option, and no one can guarantee this defendant would never be freed to commit other crimes were his sentence commuted,” Perry stated. “In the interests of justice and public safety, I am denying the defendants request for clemency and a stay." The question of the death penalty continues to haunt Texas’ longest-serving Governor. But, has Perry ever lost sleep over presiding over more executions than any governor in U.S. history? When asked the question at a recent Republican presidential debate, Perry remained confident about his stance. “I’ve never struggled with that at all. The state of Texas has a very thoughtful, a very clear process in place,” Perry said. “When someone commits the most heinous of crimes against our citizens, they get a fair hearing, they go through an appellate process, they go up to the Supreme Court of the United States if that’s required.” Saying the death penalty should be put into effect on a state-by-state basis, Perry again voiced his support for what he has referred to as the “ultimate justice.” “In the state of Texas, if you come into our state and you kill one of our children, you kill a police officer, you’re involved with another crime and you kill one of our citizens, you will face the ultimate justice in the state of Texas, and that is you will be executed.” (source for both: yourhoustonnews.com) Nov. 29 Nearly 400 capital murder convicts get life without parole In 6 years, Texas has built a "lifer's row" filled with 398 prisoners who will never be released through parole - a fast-growing group that already has outpaced the number of inmates serving a death sentence in the Lone Star State, a Houston Chronicle analysis of prison records shows. Harris County prosecutors, who historically have led the state in seeking death sentences, have so far also been the most aggressive in pursuing capital murder charges and obtaining mandatory life without parole sentences in capital cases. Texas became the last of the death penalty states to approve life without parole in September 2005, after Harris County prosecutors dropped their opposition to the change. The law applies only to offenders convicted of capital murder. For the first time, it gave jurors and prosecutors a non-death sentence that guaranteed someone convicted of killing a child, killing multiple victims, slaying a police officer or committing another capital crime could not be released on parole. In all, 110 Harris County offenders have been sentenced to life without parole since the law took effect, compared with 11 death sentences. "Harris County is a tough law and order county on the really bad actors. That hasn't changed," said First Assistant District Attorney James Leitner. The change has led to fewer death sentences in Texas and nationwide. 51 people were sentenced to life without parole in Dallas County. Tarrant County had 26; Bexar County had 22. Texas offenders convicted of capital murder were 6 times more often sentenced to life without parole than to death: 66 people got death sentences compared with the 398 lifers. The life without parole law has been used in about one third of all Texas counties at least once, the Chronicle's analysis of state prison records shows. Recent sentences Nationally, it's viewed as a less expensive option that offers the benefit of being reversible - unlike a death sentence - if innocence evidence or other information becomes available after the fact, said Richard Dieter, the executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center. "Texas is certainly down, and life without parole is definitely playing a role there," Dieter said. "And other states have found that as well." One of the most recent no-parole sentences went to former Houston Fifth Ward Pastor Tracy Bernard "T.B." Burleson, 44, convicted earlier this year of persuading his 21-year-old son to shoot his 56-year-old wife, Pauletta, May 18, 2010. "He could have been injected, but they gave him life, and I'm satisfied with that … I know I can't bring my sister back. But he's going to have ample time where he's going to think about what he did," said Fannie J. Aaron, the victim's sister. "And that's a lifetime. He won't be able to get out and take someone else's life." In August, Omar Javier Torres, arrested in North Carolina after 2 years on the lam, received a life without parole sentence for breaking into his ex-girlfriend's apartment and shooting her boyfriend. The no-parole option has been most controversial when used against juveniles; the U.S. Supreme Court last year issued a ruling in Graham v. Florida that banned the sentences for youths convicted of non-homicide offenses. Other appeals are pending. Juvenile offenders From September 2005 to September 2009, Texas allowed life without parole prison sentences for juvenile offenders who had been certified to stand trial as adults. The law was subsequently changed to bar such punishment. By then, 21 people sentenced for crimes they committed before age 18 had been sentenced, including 8 from Harris County. Chris Joshua Meadoux, the only juvenile offender serving life without parole from San Antonio, was convicted of killing 2 friends when he was 16. Meadoux appealed his no-parole sentence to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, arguing that "juveniles are unfinished creatures whom we cannot label as irretrievably depraved." He lost the appeal in November 2010. 17 women are serving life without parole. 2 were juvenile offenders. One is Ashley Ervin, a former Harris County area honor student sentenced for her role at 17 as the driver for a murderous robbery ring led by older males. Minority groups Marc Mauer, executive director of The Sentencing Project, a nonprofit critical of the national explosion in such sentences, argued the offenders are more likely to come from impoverished minority groups who sometimes get unfairly targeted by police. "We see that around the country that the race differences in life sentences are generally more extreme," he said. So far in Texas, 76% of the state's "lifers" are minorities, compared with 70% of death row inmates. (source: Houston Chronicle) Nov. 25 I’M IN HELL ON DEATH ROW BUT I DIDN’T KILL ANYONE... The 1st British woman to face the death penalty in 50 years has spoken from a Texan jail cell to insist she is innocent and her life is a living “hell”. Grandmother Linda Carty, 53, has been on death row for 10 years after being found guilty in a circumstantial case of kidnapping and murdering a mother to steal her newborn baby. Human rights groups and a raft of celebrity supporters have blasted her defence lawyer, claiming his handling of the case was shambolic. There was no forensic evidence linking her with the abduction and the men who carried out the crime, who claimed they were acting on her orders, only confessed to doing so after making a deal to serve lesser sentences themselves if they blamed Carty. The poor track record of her defence lawyer Jerry Guerinot – 20 people he has represented have ended up on death row – has led him to be dubbed “undertaker for the state of Texas”. Yet all Carty’s appeals have failed, meaning that at any moment a judge could sign her death warrant leaving her 90 days before a lethal injection. Her plight will feature in a TV documentary this month by filmmaker Steve Humphries. He travelled to Mountain View prison in Gatesville, Texas, to hear Carty’s story. From behind the jail’s razor wire, she said: “I know nothing about this murder, nothing about an abduction, I don’t even know the victim. This is the pettiest place I’ve been in. The people hate you for being different. It’s hell, hell.” Carty was convicted for the kidnap and murder of Mexican-born Joana Rodriguez in Houston in 2001. The 25-year-old was found bound, gagged and suffocated in the boot of a car while her 4-day old son was found uninjured in another. Both vehicles were either used by or belonged to Carty. The kidnappers said she was desperate to steal the baby to raise as her own. Police also found a pushchair, baby clothes, a baby bed and a baby bath in one car. They said scissors found in her bag would have been used to cut the baby from Rodriguez’s womb had she not already given birth. Carty denies it all and insists she lent the cars to 2 men, Oscar and Chris, who used them without her knowledge in a botched robbery on the Rodriguez home on May 16. At her trial, she said Guerinot did not even speak to her. Nor did he contact the British government, which he was supposed to under international law, because she was entitled to consular support having been born on the Caribbean island of St Kitts when it was under British rule in 1958. She said: “How would you feel if your trial attorney never spoke to you, never addressed you by your correct name and lied and said he had to bribe me with chocolate to get a conversation going with me when I’m allergic to chocolate?” Paul Lynch, British consul general in Houston, Texas, admitted: “It is a terrible failure of the system and all I can say is that the authorities have changed the system so that it won’t happen again. But that’s too late for Linda Carty.” Carty’s last hope lies with Michael Goldberg, of global law firm Baker Botts, who has taken up her case for free. He said: “If you throw out the criminals’ testimony, what does the state have? The state has nothing.” Also in her corner are celebrities including Bianca Jagger. Guerinot did little to even uncover circumstances that could be used in mitigation. Had he used the funds he was given to fly to St Kitts he would have discovered that Carty was raised in a well-off religious family and worked as a teacher, but was forced to leave when she gave birth to a daughter as an unmarried mother in 1982. In America she attended college while caring for her daughter, Jovelle. When she fell pregnant again after being raped, her life started to unravel. She put the baby up for adoption, but then fell into a series of troubled relationships. One was with a drugs kingpin, which led to her working undercover for the Drug Enforcement Agency. In her last relationship, she suffered 2 miscarriages, which supporters say may explain the baby paraphernalia in her car. Jovelle, now a mother of 2 boys, said: “My fears are that they’ll win and my mom won’t come home.” Carty no longer fears death but says: “If I have to die, I pray that my family, especially my mother and daughter, will not look and not feel ashamed. It isn’t because I am guilty, it’s because the state of Texas has failed and failed me badly.” The last woman in Britain to be executed was murderess Ruth Ellis in 1955. (source: Daily Mail) Nov. 22 Death Row Author Draws Ire of Some Is it free speech or a legal loophole? An inmate on Texas death row has written a book of poetry and essays. The book, published a month ago, is called "Witness To Murder." Its author, Tony Medina, is awaiting execution for his role in a southwest Houston drive-by shooting that killed two children, almost 16 years ago. Texas has laws that are intended to prevent criminals from cashing in. But it's not clear Medina's book violates those laws. "It doesn't look like there's any policies and certainly no statutes to prevent Medina or any other death row inmate (from) publish(ing) a book," says Houston Victim Advocate Andy Kahan. The Texas prison system can only step in if Medina's book is considered a "business." That is, if it's making money for him. "We have flagged this offender's account," says Jason Clark with the Texas Dept. of Criminal Justice. "And we're going to be looking at his trust fund account to see if there were unusual deposits being made." When asked by FOX 26 News about account activity so far, Clark replied, "It does not appear that there are any unusual deposits." The book's Britain-based publisher, Peter Bellamy, says “Witness To Murder” sold nine copies in its first two weeks of availability. "No profits are directly funded to Tony, but come to me in the UK," says Bellamy. "As a supporter, I may choose to increase my donations to his defense fund if I choose, but on the basis of 9 sales, and little prospect of the book ever reaching best seller status, the question is entirely academic." Not to Andy Kahan, it isn't. "Whether it's one copy, hundreds or thousands of copies, it's irrelevant," says Kahan. "Basically you're looking at constituting what i would consider to be blood money." Bellamy insists his author is innocent. Tony Medina claims he was framed by fellow gang members and then sandbagged by incompetent attorneys. So far, the courts have not seen things that way. (source: myfoxhouston.com) Nov. 4 Death Row Inmate Dies Natural Causes Catches Death Row Inmate Before Execution Texas prison officials have announced the death of a death row inmate who had been getting treatment at a psychiatric unit since 2010. John Selvage died late Wednesday after he was found unresponsive earlier in the day in his cell at the Jester IV Unit near Richmond, about 30 miles southwest of Houston. Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesman Jason Clark said Thursday that an autopsy will be performed to determine what caused the 61-year-old’s death. Selvage was sentenced to death for killing Harris County sheriff’s Deputy Albert Garza during a July 1979 Houston jewelry store robbery. He had faced lethal injection at least 5 times, but won stays each time. Selvage’s attorneys argued that he was mentally retarded and his death sentence was unconstitutional. (source: Associated Press) Oct. 23 Hundreds gather to stop the death penalty The State Capitol hosted another event in downtown Austin with a more serious tone this weekend. Led by 25 death row survivors, hundreds gathered Saturday afternoon for the annual March to Abolish the Death Penalty. Beginning with a street march, they ended up at the Capitol listening to speeches on why the death penalty should be stopped. Texas, along with 34 other states, currently allow capital punishment. Those marching want it stopped because the killing of one Innocent person is too much. "There's 139 former death row inmates that have been exonerated in the United States," said Kirk Bloodsworth, who was exonerated from death row. "That means actual innocence, and the truth is, if it can happen to me, an honorable discharged marine with no criminal record or history, it can happen to anybody." Texas leads all states in the U.S. in capital punishment since a Supreme Court ruling allowed it in 1976. Those in favor of it say that capital punishment deters crime, cuts down on prison costs and it's equal retribution against someone convicted in a crime. (source: KVUE News) Oct. 23 Exonerated death row inmates urge Perry to end executions in Texas In an emotional series of speeches on the steps of the state Capitol, about 2 dozen freed death row inmates from across the nation on Saturday called on Texas and Gov. Rick Perry to end the state's death penalty. "If I had been in the state of Texas, I'd be dead right now," said Derrick Jamison, who spent nearly two decades on Ohio's death row before his murder conviction was overturned because prosecutors withheld exculpatory evidence. "I have to come here and speak out about the death penalty, because not another person should die at the hands of the government," Jamison said afterward. "You can't bring them back from the grave if you make a mistake." The exonerated inmates then joined a few hundred supporters and death penalty abolitionists for Austin's 12th annual March to Abolish the Death Penalty. As part of their march through downtown, protesters stopped at the Governor's Mansion, where they called on Perry to return home from the presidential campaign trail and "do what's right." Lily Hughes, with the Austin chapter of the Campaign to End the Death Penalty, said Perry's presidential bid was an opportunity for death penalty opponents. "The national spotlight is once again on Texas," she said. "If we succeed here, the national abolition of the death penalty can't follow far behind." Texas leads the nation in the number of executed inmates with 475 since the state re-enacted its death penalty in 1974, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Of the 136 inmates freed from the nation's death rows since 1973, 12 were from Texas, according to the center. Many in the crowd carried mock Perry/Willingham campaign signs, a reference to Cameron Todd Willingham, a Corsicana man who was executed in 2004. In April, the Texas Forensic Science Commission determined that fire investigators, including a deputy fire marshal, relied on scientifically invalid techniques to rule that Willingham intentionally set fire to his Corsicana home, killing his 3 young daughters. The exonerated death row inmates, many of whom are touring the country to rally support for the abolition movement, sounded a consistent note as they addressed the crowd. "I'm here to tell you that if I had been in the state of Texas, I would not have been here. I would have been dead," said Juan Roberto Melendez, who spent more than 17 years on Florida's death row before being released in 2002. Ray Krone was sentenced to die in Arizona, but he was released in 2002 after DNA testing determine someone else committed the killing for which he was convicted. "Thank God for DNA, and thank God it wasn't in Texas," he said. (source: Austin American-Statesman) Oct. 22 20 Death Row Exonerees to Lead 12th Annual March to Abolish the Death Penalty The 12th Annual March to Abolish the Death Penalty will be held Saturday, October 22nd, 2011 at the Texas Capitol at 2 PM (on the north side of the capitol). A rally will begin at 2 PM followed by a march through the streets of downtown Austin at 3. The march will be led by 20 death row survivors who each spent many years on death rows around the U.S. despite being innocent. The 20 exonerees are coming to Texas as members of Witness to Innocence. Some of the exonerees are in Texas for a speaking tour across the state and all of them will be in Austin for the Witness to Innocence "Gathering" from October 20-23. Witness to Innocence is the nation's only organization composed of, by and for exonerated death row survivors and their loved ones. Many people at the rally and march will carry signs that say "Perry/Willingham 2012" to suggest that if Rick Perry becomes president of the U.S., it will be over the dead body of a person whose execution Perry allowed even though he was given information before the execution discrediting the forensic science used to convict Todd Willingham. After Willingham's execution, Perry abused his power as governor to interfere with the investigation of a governmental body into the Willingham case. Rick Perry's actions regarding Todd Willingham raise serious questions about Perry's character and judgement. Perry is not ethically qualified to be president of the United States. One of the signs marchers will carry is below: From Todd Willingham Before his execution, Todd Willingham told his parents,"Please don't ever stop fighting to vindicate me." Before his execution, Troy Davis told his supporters in a letter,"There are so many more Troy Davises. This fight to end the death penalty is not won or lost through me but through our strength to move forward and save every innocent person in captivity around the globe. We need to dismantle this unjust system city by city,state by state and country by country." Texas has executed 475 people since 1982 (as of Oct 16, 2011). Under current Texas Governor Rick Perry, 236 people have been executed, including some with a strong case of innocence. 12 people have been exonerated while on death row in Texas, the most recent being Anthony Graves in 2010. Since 1976, there have been 138 death row exonerations in the United States. A recent CNN poll showed that when given a choice of sentences between life in prison without parole or the death penalty for the crime of murder, more Americans (50%) would opt for the life sentence than for death (48%). "We will be urging all Texans to join us at the March to Abolish the Death Penalty on October 22 in Austin", said Ron Keine, formerly on death row in New Mexico. "As they see what the death penalty really means, in my case and others, more and more Texans believe that Texas can do without the death penalty," said exonerated death row survivor Clarence Brandley, from Conroe, Texas, who has been fighting for compensation from the state of Texas for over 20 years. Each October since 2000, people from all walks of life and all parts of Texas, the U.S. and other countries have taken a day out of their year and gathered in Austin to raise their voices together and loudly express their opposition to the death penalty. The march is a coming together of activists, family members of people on death row, community leaders, exonerated former death row prisoners and all those calling for repeal of the Texas death penalty. The annual march is organized as a joint project by several Texas anti-death penalty organizations and their allies: Texas Moratorium Network, the Austin chapter of the Campaign to End the Death Penalty, the Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement, Texas Students Against the Death Penalty, Witness to Innocence, Journey of Hope ... From Violence to Healing, Texas Civil Rights Project, International Socialist Organization, Amnesty International at The University of Texas, Kids Against the Death Penalty, The Austin Chronicle, NOKOA, Gray Panthers and Democrats for Life. (Source: Burnt Orange Report) Oct. 17 Wrongfully convicted men talk about death row Former death row inmates made a visit to the UH Law Center to speak with students about the challenges of wrongful convictions and what it was like to be on death row for a crime they did not commit. “Witness to Innocence,” a program founded in 2005 by exonerated death row inmates, aims to change perceptions and put an end to the death penalty by placing Americans face to face with those who have lived through the sentence. “We are here to educate; we plant seeds” said Ron Kleine, assistant director of the program. “We’ve single-handedly stopped the death penalty in Wisconsin, and we ended it in New Mexico with the help of a lot of other people because we can’t do this alone.” Kleine and 3 of his friends spent 2 years on death row in New Mexico for the 1974 kidnapping and killing of William Velten, a student at the University of New Mexico. “When we got arrested, we basically were given this attorney (who) walked up to us at arraignment and said, ‘Hi, I’m your attorney. We can make a deal with you—if you confess, we’ll get you life without parole.’” What Kleine and his friends did not know was that the whole thing was a cover-up for a cop. Kleine said that the prosecution went so far as to pay one witness, a doctor, $50,000 to testify, though he later admitted to lying. A hotel maid was also bribed to testify against the men. 10 days before Kleine was scheduled to be executed in New Mexico’s gas chamber, another man confessed to the killing. In addition to putting an end to the death penalty, “Witness to Innocence” also helps exonerees readjust to civilian life once they are released from prison. Even though they have been exonerated, many of these people struggle to find jobs because most employers only pay attention to the word “murder.” About 15 percent of funds raised by the program go toward helping members struggling with unemployment. “This is the problem with a lot of people who are out on exoneration — there’s nothing for them there,” said Kleine. “If you went to prison for a crime that you did, you get out on parole. You have a parole officer to make sure you can get a job, housing, a way to feed yourself — we don’t have that. I couldn’t even get a job at McDonald’s.” (source: The (Univ. Houston) Daily Cougar) Oct. 15 The last testimony: The final words of Texas death row prisoners In the state of Texas, condemned prisoners can deliver a final statement. Since 1982, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice has executed 475 death-row prisoners by lethal injection. Before they died, each prisoner had the chance to eat a final meal of their choosing (a right which last month was deemed not inalienable, and removed), and to speak their last words in the form of a recorded statement. A final testimony may be a tradition inherited from Britain, but freedom of speech is a concept as hardwired into the American constitution as the right to bear arms. Approximately seven minutes after delivering their statement, the speaker is dead, so these words are their arsenal: a last opportunity for the convict to give the world their view on the crime, often horrific, and usually committed many years before. Most of the statements, says Robert K Elder, author of Last Words of the Executed, conform in some way with the 'five stages of grief' theory: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance. And whether there is remorse for the victims or not, there will be grief for the actions that have brought them to their own point of death. "I would like to tell my Uncle Kyle that I am sorry," the 29-year-old convict Carlton Turner said in 2008. "I have been sorry for the last 10 years for what I did. I wish you could accept my apology... I know you can't give your forgiveness..." Few statements are long, but all are glimpses of much bigger stories. Some are apologies, flat acknowledgements of actions regretted, deeds unchangeable, the powerlessness to gather back a darkness unleashed. Many show a fractured character: a murderer, yet a caring husband; a killer, but a father who loves his children. "I wish I could... change it, but I know I can't," John Alba says in May 2010. He had murdered his wife nine years before, shooting her repeatedly with a pistol. He thanks his children for their support, praises them for turning into good adults, sends his grandchildren a kiss from their "Papa". And, of course, many find faith on death row. This new belief is often spoken of, too, as fervent as a childlike prayer for sleep at bedtime, as the clock ticks towards the end of life in this realm. Name: Steven Woods Executed: 13 September 2011 Age at the time of offence: 21 Age when executed: 31 Offence: Woods and a co-defendant killed a 21-year-old white male and a 19-year-old white female victim with shots to the head and by cutting their throats. "You're not about to witness an execution, you are about to witness a murder. I am strapped down for something Marcus Rhodes did. I never killed anybody, ever. I love you, Mom. I love you, Tali. This is wrong. This whole thing is wrong. I can't believe you are going to let Marcus Rhodes walk around free. Justice has let me down. Somebody completely screwed this up. I love you too, Mom. Well Warden, if you are going to murder someone, go ahead and do it. Pull the trigger. It's coming. I can feel it coming. Goodbye." Name: Humberto Leal Jr Executed: 7 July 2011 Age when executed: 38 Age at the time of offence: 21 Offence: Rape and murder of a 16-year-old "I am sorry for everything that I have done. I've hurt a lot of people... Lord Jesus Christ in my life, I know He has forgiven me, I have accepted His forgiveness. I have accepted everything. Let this be final and be done. I take the full blame for this. I am sorry and forgive me. I am truly sorry. I ask for forgiveness. Life goes on and it surely does. I am sorry for the victim's family for what I had did. May they forgive me. I don't know if you believe me, life goes on... Life goes on, it surely does. I ask for forgiveness. I am truly sorry. That is all. Let's get this show on the road. One more thing, Viva Mexico, Viva Mexico." Name: Michael Perry Executed: 1 July 2010 Age at the time of offence: 19 Age when executed: 28 Offence: Perry and a co-defendant fatally shot a 50-year-old white female, a 17-year-old white male and and 18-year-old white male. "... I want to start off by saying to everyone know that's involved in this atrocity that they are all forgiven by me. Mom, I love you... (crying) I am ready to go Warden. Coming home dad, coming home dad." Name: Cary D Kerr Executed: 3 May 2011 Age at the time of offence: 36 Age when executed: 46 Offence: Kerr sexually assaulted a 34-year-old white female, strangled her, then pushed her out of a moving vehicle, resulting in her death. "... Tell my sister Tracey, I love you. Nicole, thank you and I love you. Wanda and all of my friends, I love you and thank you for your support. To the State of Texas, I am an innocent man. Never trust a court-appointed attorney. I am ready Warden. Thank you, Brad, I'm sorry. Check that DNA, check Scott. Here we go. Lord Jesus, Jesus." Name: Karla Faye Tucker Executed: 3 February 1998 Age at the time of offence: 23 Age when executed: 38 Offence: with an accomplice, slayed two people with a pickaxe. The bodies of both victims had more than 20 puncture or stab wounds "Yes sir, I would like to say to all of you – the Thornton family and Jerry Dean's family that I am so sorry. I hope God will give you peace with this. Baby, I love you. Ron, give Peggy a hug for me. Everybody has been so good to me. I love all of you very much. I am going to be face to face with Jesus now. Warden Baggett, thank all of you so much. You have been so good to me. I love all of you very much. I will see you all when you get there. I will wait for you." Name: Reginald Blanton Executed: 27 October 2009 Age at the time of offence: 18 Age when executed: 28 Offence: Blanton and one co-defendant shot and killed a 20-year-old Hispanic male in his apartment. Blanton took jewellery from the victim which was later pawned for $79. "I know ya'lls pain, believe me I shed plenty of tears behind Carlos. Carlos was my friend. I didn't murder him... what is happening right now is an injustice. This doesn't solve anything. This will not bring back Carlos. Ya'll fought real hard here to prove my innocence. This is only the beginning. I love each and everyone dearly... They are fixing to pump my veins with a lethal drug the American Veterinary Association won't even allow to be used on dogs. I say I am worse off than a dog. They want to kill me for this; I am not the man that did this. Fight on. I will see ya'll again..." Name: Terry Lee Hankins Executed: 2 June 2009 Age at the time of offence: 26 Age when executed: 34 Offence: Hankins shot his 34-year-old wife in the head while she was sleeping, resulting in her death. The next day, Hankins shot and killed his 10- and 12-year-old stepchildren in the same manner. After his arrest, Hankins told authorities where to find the bodies of his 55-year-old father and his 20-year-old sister, whom he murdered in 2000. "Yes, I am sorry for what I've done and for all of the pain and suffering that my actions have caused. Jesus is Lord. All glory to God." Name: Dale Devon Scheanette Executed: 10 February 2009 Age at the time of offence: 23 Age when executed: 35 Offence: Scheanette sexually assaulted and strangled a 22-year-old black female. "Is the mic on? My only statement is that no cases ever tried have been error free. Those are my words. No cases are error free. You may proceed Warden." Name: David Martinez Executed: 4 February 2009 Age at the time of offence: 22 Age when executed: 36 Offence: killed girlfriend and her 14-year-old son with a baseball bat, let her 10-year-old daughter run away. No motive offered. "... Nothing I can say can change the past. I am asking for forgiveness. Saying sorry is not going to change anything. I hope one day you can find peace. I am sorry for all of the pain that I have caused you for all those years... I can't change the past. I hope you find peace and know that I love you. I am sorry. I am sorry and I can't change it." Name: Virgil Euristi Martinez Executed: 28 January 2009 Age when executed: 41 Age at the time of offence: 28 Offence: Martinez fatally shot a 27-year-old Hispanic female, her two young children, and an 18-year-old Hispanic male. "... First, Veronica's sister. I know what you've been told and that's all a lie. John Gomez killed your kids and sister. I know ya'll love John Gomez but he was a violent man. I wish I would have shot him in the leg, then he would be here. Those investigators were just trying to convict somebody." Name: Gregory Wright Executed: 30 October 2008 Age at the time of offence: 31 Age when executed: 42 Offence: Wright broke into the home of a white female and stabbed her with a knife, causing her death. Wright took many items from the home and left the scene in the victim's vehicle. "... John Adams lied...He made deals and sold stuff to keep from going to prison... John Adams is the one that killed Donna Vick. I took a polygraph and passed. John Adams never volunteered to take one. I have done everything in my power. Donna Vick helped me; she took me off the street... Donna gave me everything I could ask for. I helped her around the yard. I helped her around the house. She asked if there were anyone else to help. I am a Christian myself, so I told her about John Adam. We picked him up at a dope house. I did not know he was a career criminal... I was in the bathroom when he attacked. I am deaf in one ear and I thought the TV was up too loud. I ran in to the bedroom. By the time I came in, when I tried to help her, with first aid, it was too late. The veins were cut on her throat. He stabbed her in her heart, and that's what killed her. I told John Adams, 'Turn yourself in or hit the high road'. I owed him a favour because he pulled someone off my back... Two or three days later he turned on me. I have done everything to prove my innocence. Before you is an innocent man. I love my family. I'll be waiting on ya'll..." Name: Michael Rodriguez Executed: 14 August 2008 Age at the time of offence: 40 Age when executed: 40 Offence: While on escape from TDCJ [prison], Rodriguez and six co-defendants robbed a sporting-goods store at gunpoint; a police officer was murdered as the co-defendants left the scene. "... I know this no way makes up for all the pain and suffering I gave you. I am so so sorry. My punishment is nothing compared to the pain and sorrow I have caused... I am not strong enough to ask for forgiveness... I realise what I've done to you and the pain I've given. Please Lord forgive me. I have done some horrible things. I ask the Lord to please forgive me. I have gained nothing, but just brought sorrow and pain to these wonderful people. I am sorry. So so sorry... Father God I ask you too for forgiveness. I ask you for forgiveness Lord. I am ready to go Lord..." Name: Carlton Akee Turner Executed: 10 July 2008 Age at the time of offence: 19 Age when executed: 29 Offence: Turner fatally shot his adoptive parents whose bodies were discovered in their garage. "First of all I would like to tell my Uncle Kyle that I am sorry. I have been sorry for the last 10 years for what I did. I wish you could accept my apology. I know you can't accept my apology, I know you can't give your forgiveness; it's OK and I understand... I have done what I could to heal the rest of the family... I know I was wrong; I accept responsibility as a man. I take this penalty as a man. This doesn't solve anything, 'cause it hurts others that love me. I am sorry. I love you Kjersti. I love you too Roland. I love you too Uncle Kyle; I am still your nephew, no matter what you believe." Name: Mark Stroman Executed: 20 July 2011 Age at the time of offence: 31 Age when executed: 42 Offence: Stroman murdered a 49-year-old Middle Eastern male convenience store employee during an attempted robbery. "Even though I lay on this gurney, seconds away from my death, I am at total peace. May the Lord Jesus Christ be with me. I am at peace. Hate is going on in this world and it has to stop. Hate causes a lifetime of pain. Even though I lay here I am still at peace. I am still a proud American, Texas loud, Texas proud. God bless America, God bless everyone... it's been a great honour. I feel it; I am going to sleep now. Goodnight, 1, 2 there it goes." Name: Milton Wuzael Mathis Executed: 21 June 2011 Age at the time of offence: 19 Age when executed: 32 Offence: Mathis shot three victims in the head with a .45 caliber pistol at a known drug house in Fort Bend County, Texas. One of the victims, a 15-year-old Hispanic female, survived the shooting, paralysed from the chest down. "...To all my supporters, family and friends; I love y'all and appreciate y'all. To the ones representing me today, thank you for everything. The system has failed me. This is a miscarriage of justice. There are people on death row that need help. I love my family. I love you too, Mom... I asked the Lord to have mercy on me and I hope He has mercy on these people carrying out this mass slaughter. They have no respect for humanity. To Melanie, I never meant to hurt you. You were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. I am not asking for your forgiveness... I hope you get better and for the doctors to continue to take care of you. Take care of my mother for me..." Name: Lee Taylor Executed: 16 June 2011 Age at the time of offence: 20 Age when executed: 32 Offence: in a prison dayroom, Taylor, a member of the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas, fatally stabbed a black male offender multiple times with an 8" home-made weapon. "... Jennifer, I love you. Mom, I love you. Rick, take care of you. For all of you people, I defended myself when I killed your family member. Prison is a bad place. There was eight against me. I didn't set out to kill him. I am sorry that I killed him, but he would not have been in prison if he was a saint... I hope people understand the grave injustice by the state. There are 300 people on death row, and everyone is not a monster. Texas is carrying out a very inhumane injustice. It's not right to kill anybody just because I killed your people. Everyone changes, right? Life is about experience and people change... I hope you don't find satisfaction in this, watching a human being die." Name: Michael Wayne Hall Executed: 15 February 2011 Age at the time of offence: 18 Age when executed: 31 Offence: Hall and one co-defendant abducted a 19-year-old white female from a public street and drove her to a remote location where they shot her several times. They were caught at the border attempting to leave the state. "First of all I would like to give my sincere apology to Amy's family. We caused a lot of heartache, grief, pain and suffering, and I am sorry. I know it won't bring her back. I would like to sing, I would like to sing for that person's dead... As for my family, I am sorry I let you down. I caused a lot of heartache, and I ask for your forgiveness. I am not crying for myself, I am crying for... those that don't know God and have never been set free. I've been locked up 13 years. I am not locked up inside... Here I am a big strong youngster, crying like a baby. I am man enough to show my emotions and I am sorry. I am sorry for everything. I wish I could take it back, but I can't." Name: Larry Wooten Executed: 21 October 2010 Age at the time of offence: 37 Age when executed: 51 Offence: Wooten murdered an 80-year-old black male and his 86-year-old wife. Wooten stabbed the victims and cut their throats. Wooten then robbed the couple of $500-600 in cash. "No sir. Warden, Since I don't have nothing to say, you can go ahead and send me to my Heavenly Father." Name: John Alba Executed: 25 May 2010 Age at the time of offence: 36 Age when executed: 54 Offence: killed his wife, Wendy Alba, when she was aged 28 "... First I want to tell the victim's family, Wendy's family, I am sorry for taking something so precious to you and to my kids. I wish I could take it all back and change it, but I know I can't... Sabrina, you are a wonderful daughter, I am proud of you. Jr., John, you turned out to be a great young man. Hector, you too. Amy, thank you for always being there... To my family, I appreciate you always standing by me and everything ya'll have done. Tell, everyone I love them. I'll be OK. You will too. Remember what asked you. Give my love to the grandchildren. Tell Jake and Mia, Papa Alba loves them... OK Warden, let's do it, I love y'all. I can taste it already. I am starting to go." Name: James Edward Martinez Executed: 10 March 2009 Age at the time of offence: 26 Age when executed: 34 Offence: Martinez fired 20 shots into the victims' vehicle, resulting in the death of a 20-year-old white male and 29-year-old white female. "Yes sir, I want to tell my Mom that I love her and thank her for everything that she has done for me. Tell my sister that I love her too thank her for everything that she has done for me. I hope you can move on after this. I'll be fine. I'll be OK. I love you too. I love you too. Take care OK. That's all I have to say Warden. Thank you sir." All final statements taken from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice To view all death row inmates last statement click Here. (source: The Independent) Oct. 2 Is the death penalty about to die?----Millions of dollars wasted on capital punishment in Texas. In 2003 there were 28 death sentences handed down in Texas, and last year, only eight. Harris County, which accounts for more than 100 of the 314 people on death row, saw no new death sentences in 2008 or 2009 and only two in 2010. Bexar County has seen only three death sentences since 2007. It looks like Texas is having second thoughts about death sentences, and executions. In 2010, Texas carried out 17 lethal injections, the fewest since 2001. Texas isn’t about to abolish the death penalty, but it may be starting to move away from its infamous grip on the death penalty. There are 3 factors afoot: There is mounting concern about the execution of innocent people. No one wants to see an innocent person executed. With 12 individuals exonerated and freed from Texas’ death row since 1987, we know the system isn’t faultless. Has Texas actually executed an innocent person? No one knows for certain, but death penalty scholars point to 3 executed prisoners who had credible claims of innocence: Cameron Todd Willingham, Ruben Cantu, and Carlos De Luna. The Texas Forensic Science Commission’s April 15 report did not address Willingham’s actual guilt or innocence in the Corsicana house fire that killed his 3 daughters. However, 9 fire experts who reviewed his case concluded there was no evidence of arson. Investigative reporting by the Chicago Tribune on the De Luna case and by the Express-News and Houston Chronicle in 2006 on Cantu threw considerable doubt on the actual guilt of both men. It is immoral to have executed an innocent one. The financial costs of the death penalty are staggering. Fiscal conservatives question whether it is worth the price. The cost of a capital trial, the appeals process, time on death row and the execution itself cost an estimated $2.3 million in 1992, according to the Dallas Morning News. In today’s dollars, that would be more than $3.6 million. In short, millions of dollars are wasted on a capital sentencing system in Texas. The money could be much better spent on improving policing functions, expanding restitution programs and developing more drug treatment programs — all of which would do far more to enhance public safety than having a death penalty. Finally, there is an alternative to the death penalty — a sentencing option that Texas lawmakers adopted in 2005: life without parole. In 2010, Texas juries handed down three life-without-parole sentences in capital cases. The point is, juries don’t have to hand out death sentences. Texas may be the death penalty capital of the United States, but, even here, the tide may be starting to turn. (source: Roger C. Barnes chairs the Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice at the University of the Incarnate Word) Sept. 30 Former Death Row Chef Says Leave Last Meal Alone Amid the east Texas thicket on the shore of Houston County Lake, you will find a cafe and a kitchen run by the reluctant holder of a not-likely-to-be broken record. "I worked on 218 executions, prepared the last meals on 189 of those," former Texas inmate and death row chef Brian Price said. Long before Price and wife Nita opened the Way Station Cafe to the good folks around Crockett, he spent a decade focusing his considerable culinary skill on a much different clientele: the kind of diners who wouldn't be coming around for seconds. When other convict cooks dodged the duty, Brian discovered "a calling" and endeavored to deliver the condemned "Meals to Die For". Brian recalls the first review from a death row diner. "Hey Price, that guy that they killed last night sent a word of thanks back to you. Told the chaplain to thank you. He really enjoyed that." “Well that blew me away," Price said. While crafting burgers and chicken fried steaks at the Way Station, he recalled the intense burden carried by those charged with delivering state-sanctioned death. He says what frequently emerged behind death row walls were small measures of Christian compassion that often tempered a final and fatal reckoning. "Magically, I'd be about to prepare the meal and someone would hand me a bag of shrimp, 'Here, just don't tell anyone where you got it'," he said. Faith filled, happily married and free after completing his own 14-year stretch for assault, Brian Price wants his old job back. That's because the Texas Department of Criminal Justice has terminated the tradition of delivering a requested last meal, borne from the outrage of State Senator John Whitmire who was angered by the eight course supper that reportedly went untouched by executed murderer Lawrence Russell Brewer. "I think it's real hypocritical for the state of Texas to give someone the death penalty and then treat them like a celebrity just short of execution," Whitmire said. Price calls Whitmire’s action politically opportunistic and mean-spirited. "Let’s let the people vote on this. I don't think any one or two persons should have that type of power and if they do have that type of power, I see this as an abuse of it," he said. "Senator Whitmire, what if it was your son on that death gurney?" In the meantime Price, owner of the Way Station café, is offering to prepare and deliver, at no expense to taxpayers, any and all last meal requests made by the condemned men and women currently sitting on the Lone Star State's crowded death row. Why? "That old saying what would Jesus do? I believe this is just what he would do. Justice is being rendered; let’s not take it any further than that. A last meal requested by a condemned person, why not?" he said. The way he sees it: even in a state so thoroughly committed to an eye for an eye, killing and kindness shouldn't be mutually exclusive. (source: myfoxhouston.com) Sept. 28, 2011 The condemned in Texas can no longer choose their last meal On September 21st Lawrence Russell Brewer ordered up a feast: 2 chicken-fried steaks smothered in gravy, a supersized cheeseburger, an omelette, fried okra, fajitas, a pizza, a pound of barbecue, half a loaf of bread, and, for pudding, ice cream and fudge with peanuts on top. But when it arrived, he decided not to eat any of it. He may well not have been hungry. Mr Brewer, a white supremacist, was about to be executed for a murder committed in 1998, when he and two other men tortured a black man, James Byrd Jr, and dragged him to death behind a truck. It was one of the most notorious crimes in modern Texas history, and one that had already changed the law; in 2001 Rick Perry, the newly inaugurated governor, signed a bill mandating stricter penalties for hate crimes. Now Mr Brewer’s final request has brought another change to Texas justice. On September 22nd John Whitmire, a state senator from Houston, sent an angry letter to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. “Enough is enough,” he wrote; such privileges are “ridiculous”. The department’s director agreed, and announced that from now on all prisoners will get the same meal. The last meal has always been a strange aspect of executions. Eating is for people with a future. Some offenders resist the irony, and request nothing but a glass of water. But most accept some final comfort. And in reading their requests the bathos of the ultimate penalty is impossible to ignore. People facing execution want sugar, salt, fat, and phosphates—fried chicken, ribs, hamburgers, ice cream, pie, pop. This move by Texas comes at a time when many people are a little queasy about the death penalty anyway. Nearly two-thirds of Americans support capital punishment; but many of them were horrified during a Republican presidential debate last month, when the audience cheered the fact that Mr Perry had then presided over 234 executions as governor of Texas (Mr Brewer made the 236th). And last week hundreds of people protested outside a Georgia prison as that state executed a man, Troy Davis, who was convicted on testimony that was later recanted. Will American support for the death penalty soften as a result of any of this? As the Brewer case makes clear, the death penalty is a sickening business. The grim theatrics of an execution debase the executioner. But capital crimes are also repulsive. And so hopes for abolition are probably still unrealistic. (source: The Economist) Sept. 23, 2011 Death Penalty No Longer Includes a Last Meal in Texas Texas may lead the U.S. in executing criminals, but that doesn't mean the condemned are getting cushy treatment: Texas prison officials have halted the practice of letting death row inmates choose their last meal. Texas state Sen. John Whitmire, chairman of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee, was apparently incensed that Lawrence Russell Brewer, a white supremacist who was executed Wednesday for dragging a black man to death behind his truck, ordered a massive meal of 2 chicken fried steaks, a triple-meat bacon cheeseburger, fried okra, a pound of barbecue, 3 fajitas, a meat lover's pizza, a pint of ice cream and a slab of peanut butter fudge with crushed peanuts and then didn't eat any of it. "It is extremely inappropriate to give a person sentenced to death such a privilege," Whitmire wrote in a letter Thursday to Brad Livingston, the executive director of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Livingston swiftly responded to the criticism, nullifying the practice of offering prisoners a last meal within hours of receiving Whitmire's letter, according to The Associated Press. From now on, inmates about to be executed will be served the same meal as other prisoners. Texas has a longstanding practice of accommodating last meal requests so long as they can be cooked in the prison kitchen, using ingredients already on hand. Whitmire, a Democrat, said the practice was an attempt to diminish the magnitude of executing someone. "We're fixing to execute the guy and maybe it makes the system feel good about what they're fixing to do." said Whitmore. "Kind of hypocritical, you reckon?" (source: International Business Times) Sept. 22, 2011 Texas Prisons End Special Last Meals In Executions Texas inmates who are set to be executed will no longer get their choice of last meals, a change prison officials made Thursday after a prominent state senator became miffed over an expansive request from a man condemned for a notorious dragging death. Lawrence Russell Brewer, who was executed Wednesday for the hate crime slaying of James Byrd Jr. more than a decade ago, asked for 2 chicken fried steaks, a triple-meat bacon cheeseburger, fried okra, a pound of barbecue, 3 fajitas, a meat lover's pizza, a pint of ice cream and a slab of peanut butter fudge with crushed peanuts. Prison officials said Brewer didn't eat any of it. "It is extremely inappropriate to give a person sentenced to death such a privilege," Sen. John Whitmire, chairman of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee, wrote in a letter Thursday to Brad Livingston, the executive director of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Within hours, Livingston said the senator's concerns were valid and the practice of allowing death row offenders to choose their final meal was history. "Effective immediately, no such accommodations will be made," Livingston said. "They will receive the same meal served to other offenders on the unit." That had been the suggestion from Whitmire, who called the traditional request "ridiculous." "It's long overdue," the Houston Democrat told The Associated Press. "This old boy last night, enough is enough. We're fixing to execute the guy and maybe it makes the system feel good about what they're fixing to do. Kind of hypocritical, you reckon? "Mr. Byrd didn't get to choose his last meal. The whole deal is so illogical." Brewer, a white supremacist gang member, was convicted of chaining Byrd, 49, to the back of a pickup truck and dragging him to his death along a bumpy road in a case shocked the nation for its brutality. Whitmire warned in his letter that if the "last meal of choice" practice wasn't stopped immediately, he'd seek a state statute to end it when lawmakers convene in the next legislative session. It was not immediately clear whether other states have made similar moves. Some limit the final meal cost: Florida's ceiling is $40, according to the Department of Corrections website, with food to be purchased locally. Others, like Texas, which never had a designated dollar limit, mandate meals be prison-made. Some states don't acknowledge final meals, and others will disclose the information only if the inmate agrees, said K. William Hayes, a Florida-based death penalty historian. Some states require the meal within a specific time period, allow multiple "final" meals, restrict it to one or impose "a vast number of conditions," he said. Historical references to a condemned person's last meal go as far back as ancient Greece, China and Rome, Hayes said. Some of it is apparently rooted in superstition about meals warding off possible haunting by condemned people once they are put to death. The Death Penalty Information Center, a Washington-based anti-capital punishment organization that collects execution statistics, said it had no data on final meals. Since Texas resumed carrying out executions in 1982, the state correction agency's practice has been to fill a condemned inmate's request as long as the items, or food similar to what was requested, were readily available from the prison kitchen supplies. While extensive, Brewer's request was far from the largest or most bizarre among the 475 Texas inmates put to death. On Tuesday, prisoner Cleve Foster's request included 2 fried chickens, French fries and a five-gallon (19-liter) bucket of peaches. He received a reprieve from the U.S. Supreme Court but none of his requested meal. He was on his way back to death row, at a prison about 45 miles east of Huntsville, at the time when his feast would have been served. Last week, inmate Steven Woods' request included 2 pounds of bacon, a large 4-meat pizza, 4 fried chicken breasts, 2 drinks each of Mountain Dew, Pepsi, root beer and sweet tea, 2 pints of ice cream, 5 chicken fried steaks, 2 hamburgers with bacon, fries and a dozen garlic bread sticks with marinara on the side. 2 hours later, he was executed. Years ago, a Texas inmate even requested dirt for his final meal. Until 2003, the Texas prison system listed final meals of each prisoner as part of its death row website. That stopped at 313 final meals after officials said they received complaints from people who found it offensive. A former inmate cook who made the last meals for prisoners at the Huntsville Unit, where Texas executions are carried out, wrote a cookbook several years ago after he was released. Among his recipes were Gallows Gravy, Rice Rigor Mortis and Old Sparky's Genuine Convict Chili, a nod to the electric chair that once served as the execution method. The book was called "Meals to Die For." (source: Associated Press) Sept. 20, 2011 Court halts Texas execution of ex-Army recruiter The U.S. Supreme Court has blocked the execution of a former Army recruiter for the rape-slaying of a woman in Fort Worth nearly 10 years ago. 47-year-old Cleve Foster was set to die Tuesday evening in Huntsville. The high court twice earlier this year had stopped Foster's scheduled lethal injection as his punishment was imminent. This latest court ruling came less than 3 hours before Foster could have been taken to the Texas death chamber. Foster was 1 of 2 men convicted and sent to death row for fatally shooting a 30-year-old woman whose body was found in a ditch by pipeline workers in Fort Worth in February 2002. His partner died last year of cancer. (source: Austin American-Statesman) Sept. 20, 2011 Rick Perry Likes the Death Penalty----The Republican presidential candidate has a record of killing kids, innocents, blacks (for being black), and the mentally ill Rick Perry likes killing all kinds of people—kid people, innocent people, black people, mentally ill people, and just plain people people. It really doesn’t matter to him. The Kids: Napoleon Beazley was a 17-year-old honor student, football star, and senior class president with no criminal record. While trying to steal a car in 1994, he shot and killed a man. During his sentencing hearing in Smith County, the district attorney from the youngster’s Houston County community asked the jury for life instead of death. The trial judge later asked Rick Perry to commute the death sentence. But his reply was hell no, kill ‘em all! Napoleon was executed on May 28, 2002. Three years later, the conservative U.S. Supreme Court in Roper v. Simmons banned the death penalty for juveniles as “cruel and unusual punishment” in violation of the Eighth Amendment. The Innocents: Cameron Todd Williams was convicted of the 1991 arson deaths of his three young daughters. Dr. Gerald Hurst, a nationally renown arson expert, submitted an official report to Perry’s Board of Pardons and Parole (BPP)—which votes to approve or deny death sentence commutations—indicating that the prosecutor’s fire investigation was woefully flawed and that there was no proof of arson. Another expert, Louisiana Fire Chief Kendall Ryland, who also reviewed the entire case file, agreed. In 2005, the Texas Forensic Science Commission (FSC) was established to address this kind of tragic error. But just two days before the FSC was to hold a 2009 hearing on Hurst’s scathing report, Perry abruptly replaced three members and canceled the hearing. Finally, in 2011, the FSC recommended more education and more training for fire investigators. A lot good that did for Williams. He was already dead, having been executed on February 17, 2004. The Blacks For Being Black: Duane Buck was sentenced to death in 1997 for the 1995 murder of his ex-girlfriend. When questioned by prosecutor Joan Huffman during Buck’s sentencing hearing, Dr. Walter Quijano, who is the former chief psychologist of the Texas Department of Corrections, responded “yes” to the question whether “the race factor, black, increases … future dangerousness …” Yep. He sure did. And he did so without even cracking a racist smile. The Texas attorney general at the time, current Republican U.S. Senator and Perry ally John Cornyn, stated in his 2000 report that 6 cases have been so racially polluted by Quijano that Perry should schedule new sentencing hearings for each. In fact, federal courts have done just that in five cases. Even one of the trial prosecutors wants a new hearing because, in her words, “Race should never be put in front of a jury in any case, particularly a death penalty case.” But Buck will die very soon if Perry’s appointed BPP rejects the clemency request. The Mentally Ill: In June of 2002, Perry vetoed a ban on the execution of mentally ill inmates, contending, “This legislation is not about whether to execute mentally retarded murderers. It’s about who determines whether a defendant is mentally retarded in the Texas justice system.” And because he, like former Governor George W. Bush is “the Decider,” every inmate in Texas is determined to be Albert Einstein—like Walter Bell who killed two persons in 1974 and who a six-member team of state-employed mental health professionals along with a prison psychiatrist concluded was “mentally retarded.” Despite prosecutors’ repeated arguments throughout the decades, Bell was released from death row after a state judge in 2004, adhering to the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2002 Atkins v. Virginia decision declaring the death penalty for such persons to be “cruel and unusual punishment,” ruled that Bell fit the guidelines for “mental retardation.” But Perry and his gang of state-sanctioned killers, I mean death penalty prosecutors, already knew that. It didn’t take about 30 years of Bell deteriorating on death row for them to realize that. They were well aware that his I.Q. was in the mid-50s and that the threshold for “mental retardation” is 70. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, approximately seven percent of the Texas’s “Dead Men and Women Walking” have I.Q.s less than 70. What about the severely mentally ill Kelsey Patterson? After murdering 2 women in 1992 for no reason whatsoever, he wandered the streets dressed only in socks. A diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic, Patterson had been ruled mentally incompetent to stand trial on other charges. Even the BPP had voted 5-1 to commute his death sentence. But, alas, Perry once again replied hell no, kill ‘em all! Patterson was executed on May 18, 2004. During the September 7th Republican presidential debate, Perry was asked this about the 234 executions he approved as Texas governor: “Have you struggled to sleep at night with the idea that any one of those might be innocent?” He answered “no”—because he had determined that the process is mistake-proof. Does he expect us to believe that every single one of those 234 cases had perfect investigations, perfect arrests, perfect hearings, perfect trials, perfect sentencings, and perfect appeals regardless of income, race or gender? Is he aware that 273 American citizens have been exonerated throughout the country since DNA testing has been available (and that 166 of them are black)? Perry kills people who have already been captured and who have already been shackled in jail for life, but he claims to be an evangelical Christian. Yeah, that makes sense. And I’m quite sure that Jesus would do the very same thing. (source: Michael Coard, The Philly Post) Sept. 9, 2011 Rick Perry's Death Penalty Record is Nothing to Brag About There were a couple of telling moments in Wednesday's Republican debate. One was when a question about 9/11, and President Obama's decision to attack and execute Osama bin Laden drew not a single clap. The other was when Gov. Rick Perry, with an almost-feral expression on his face, bragged about executing 234 people in Texas, and a large portion of the audience applauded. It's entirely possible that Wednesday's audience was what Shirley Jackson envisioned when she wrote The Lottery. One of the people put to death, Cameron Todd Willingham, was quite possibly innocent. And if not for an exhaustive Texas Monthly investigation that freed another death row inmate, Perry would have been fine with Texas executing a provably innocent man, Anthony Graves, last year. Perry defensively touched on the Willingham case last when he mentioned offenders who kill children—Willingham was accused of murdering his three children by arson. Perry directly intervened to interrupt the exculpatory forensic process in the Willingham case, replacing three members of the Texas Forensic Science Commission, and kept the execution moving forward. He refused a stay of execution, despite mounting evidence against the arson accusation. Perry's eagerness and braggadocio on the subject are disturbing. He told moderator Brian Williams that he hadn't lost a wink of sleep at night over any of the executions. I don't know about you, but if I'd presided over the deaths of more than 200 people, it would be cause for more than a few moments of self-reflection Several years ago, one of my friends served as a cabinet member for a governor in another southern state. There were multiple appeals for clemency from prisoners on death row. None were granted, and the executions were carried out. But those responsible for making recommendations to the governor took their task to heart, did their due diligence, and were acutely conscious that they were signing off on the state putting a man to death. They lost plenty of sleep over it, and they weren't flip about it. I am, like many people, conflicted about the death penalty. I recognize that there may be some circumstances in which it can be justified. The world is a better place without Ted Bundy in it. But I also believe, despite our best intentions, it is beyond our flawed human capacity to implement the death penalty fairly, and that the Ted Bundys of the world are few and far between. Most death penalty cases are far more mundane and born of a combination of race, poverty, circumstance, and an overburdened judicial system. Too often the death penalty is an instrument of revenge, not justice. Rick Perry's enthusiasm to the contrary, bragging about how many people your state has executed isn't an applause line, and it doesn't qualify you to be president. (source: Laura K. Chapin is a Democratic communications strategist based in Denver, Colorado, advocating for progressive causes and candidates in the Rocky Mountain West; US News & World Report) Sept. 9, 2011 Exonerated Texas Inmate: “How Can You Applaud Death:? Anthony Graves read in the newspaper about the crowd at the Republican presidential debate applauding the fact that Gov. Rick Perry had authorized 234 executions during his tenure. “How can you applaud death?” Graves asked. Graves is 1 of 12 death row inmates who have been exonerated in Texas since 1973. Five of those exonerations occurred while Rick Perry was governor, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, a group that opposes capital punishment. “The state of Texas has a very thoughtful, a very clear process in place in which when someone commits the most heinous of crimes against our citizens they get a fair hearing, they go through an appellate process, they go up to the Supreme Court if that’s required,” Perry said during the debate Wednesday. Perry defended the use of the death penalty in his state and told the audience, “I think Americans understand justice.” But Graves said his mother would not be one of those Americans. Graves spent 18 years in prison and 12 years on death row as a convicted murder. In 2010 his conviction was overturned and he was released. “He should ask my mother about that,” he says. “She lost her son for 18 years.” Graves says he was stunned at the governor’s comments because he was exonerated less than a year ago. “I was exonerated from the very same system that he is boasting about. He’s a politician, but I’m an exoneree and I think I know more about the subject.” In fact Perry was quick to admit in 2010 that Graves’ murder conviction had been a miscarriage of justice. The governor worked to pass a bill that lead to Graves being awarded $1 million for his incarceration. But Perry also said last year that Graves case proves that the system worked. In 2010 the governor said of the case, ”I think we have a justice system that is working, and he’s a good example of–you continue to find errors that were made and clear them up,” according to an account in the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal. Graves had been convicted of assisting in multiple murders in 1992. In 2006, the US Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit overturned his conviction citing that prosecutors had made false statements. A special prosecutor hired for the second trial realized after months of investigation that Graves was innocent. Former Harris County Assistant District Attorney Kelly Siegler told the Houston Chronicle, “This is not a case where the evidence went south with time or witnesses passed away or we just couldn’t make the case anymore. He is an innocent man.” Graves says he appreciates the work that Perry did to work for his compensation. “He passed a bill that lead to my compensation, but he knows there is a problem with the criminal justice system.” (source: ABC News) Sept. 9, 2011 Rick Perry’s Lethal Overconfidence Despite loads of evidence, Rick Perry says he’s 'never struggled' with the idea that Texas has executed an innocent person. Lawyer David R. Dow on Perry’s foolish hubris. Jaws dropped when the governor of Texas, running for president, said on national television that he was “100 percent sure” everyone who had been executed on his watch was guilty. The governor was George W. Bush, appearing on NBC’s Meet the Press, during his first presidential run. 6 months before Bush’s election, Texas executed Gary Graham, who continued to protest his innocence even as the lethal injection was killing him and whose objections were almost certainly true. Then, just before Bush moved to the White House, Texas executed Claude Jones. Last year, new DNA testing on a hair found at the crime scene cast doubt on Jones’s guilt. Rick Perry likes to say that while President Bush went to Yale, he went to Texas A&M, which I guess is meant to imply that Bush is smarter than he is. But when it comes to their confidence in Texas’s executions, the two are equally idiotic. Asked at Wednesday night’s presidential debate if he ever worried that Texas had executed an innocent person on his watch, Perry answered, “I’ve never struggled with that at all.” Certainty is cheap if one achieves it by ignoring the actual facts, and indeed, Perry’s answer to the death-penalty question asked of him Wednesday night reflected a staggering inattentiveness to the facts. As the founder of the Texas Innocence Project, I’ve had a couple of dozen clients executed during Perry’s tenure as governor. There are some I think could well have been innocent—Frances Newton, for example, who supposedly killed her husband and two children without getting even a spot of blood or speck of gunpowder on herself; or Charles Nealy, who did not remotely match the description of the person who killed the convenience store clerk. But there was no DNA in either case, and so I am left being unsure. It is not weak to be unsure. It is the only reasonable position in those murder cases—and it is the vast majority of them—that lack DNA evidence. Without DNA, certainty is usually impossible. Murderers get convicted on the basis of confessions, which can be coerced; eyewitness identifications, which can be mistaken; and pseudo-science like fiber analysis, which is often junk. Perry, however, continues to voice his confidence despite widespread evidence that the system is flawed. Anthony Graves spent 14 years on death row before being exonerated and released in 2010. He’s not the only one: Ernest Willis, Michael Toney, Michael Blair, and Robert Springsteen are just a few of the others who have been released from death row during Perry’s tenure. Maybe Perry has a good reason for believing that these are Texas’s only mistakes, but if he has such a reason, I don’t have any idea what it is. Then there’s Cameron Todd Willingham, whose case suggests we probably don’t catch errors all in time. He was executed in 2004–on Perry’s watch–for killing his three children by setting fire to their house. The problem is, every national arson expert to have reviewed the facts (there have been at least four) has concluded that the fire was accidental. A committee investigating the case was preparing to hear from the nation’s leading arson expert who intended to explain why there was no evidence that Willingham had committed any crime. On the eve of the expert’s testimony, Perry dissolved the committee. But when it comes to their confidence in Texas’s executions, Bush and Perry are equally idiotic. As Perry prepares for his presidential run, he’s showing no signs of doubts. It’s not just his debate answer. Next week, the state is set to execute my client, Duane Buck. At Buck’s trial, the prosecutor urged the jury to sentence him to death on the basis that because Buck was black, he would be dangerous in the future. Earlier this summer, I had a client executed whose lawyer neglected to raise any issues during the very appellate process Perry lauded during Wednesday’s debate as a safeguard against mistakes. Two years ago, I had a client executed after prosecutors had removed all the blacks from the jury. One of my intellectually disabled clients was executed because his previous lawyer neglected to inform the court of the inmate’s IQ score. Another client was executed because the court of appeals refused to stay open past 5 p.m. so we could file a last-minute appeal. I don’t know of any definition of fair that could be applied to these cases. Despite Perry’s certainty, and his characterization of a broken and racist regime as fair, the people of Texas seem to have developed a different view. Twenty years ago, there were 35 or sometimes 40 new death sentences a year. Last year there were nine. The year before that there were eight. The very people who have to decide whether someone should live or die seem to know there is no such thing as certainty. The bad news for Perry is that those same people vote for president. (source: The Daily Beast) **************** Sept. 13--237--Steven Woods----------------------------474 Sept. 15--238--Duane Buck------------------------------475 Sept. 20--239--Cleve Foster----------------------------476 Sept. 21--240--Lawrence Brewer-------------------------477 Oct. 27---241--Frank Garcia----------------------------478--50% Nov. 9----242--Hank Skinner----------------------------479--50 + % (sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin) Sept. 8, 2011 Rick Perry's big applause moment: Where's the respect for human life? It was disturbing to hear people cheer last night when it was announced that Rick Perry had overseen a record number of executions in the modern era. I have to remind myself that these people are cheering justice, an abstract principle, not the ending of human life. On the flip side, though, can you imagine the same crowd's reaction if people at a liberal event cheered a record number of abortions? I realize it's apples to oranges, but there is a basic respect for human life. Even when Americans used to hang people from gallows, they did it with a basic level of dignity and humanity. Rick Halperin, Director, Embrey Human Rights Program at Southern Methodist University, had this response: "The fact that in 2011, Americans, or any audience in a civilized country, would give prolonged and loud applause at the fact that our governor has presided over 234 executions in one state -- more than any other governor in the history of a state -- is a disturbing and disgraceful commentary on America's unwillingness and inability to move beyond embracing violence as a cure for social problems. Inherent flaws in this state under Gov. Perry's tenure are well documented, and questions need to arise about executing those subject to racial prejudice, innocence and mental health issues. It's disturbing to hear Gov. Perry say he's never struggled with any case when so many questions continually arise regarding implementing the death penalty in this state under his tenure. It is well documented that the capital punishment institution in Texas is inherently flawed and mistakes have indeed been made in wrongly convicting, incarcerating and executing the innocent." On a related note, tomorrow night is a special SMU event at 7-9 p.m. in McCord Auditorium: "Ending the Cycles of Violence: Reflections on Compassion, Forgiveness and Healing." According to a press release: The event will feature a diverse gathering of religious and peace leaders, including 9/11-hate crime survivor Rais Bhuiyan of WorldWithoutHate.org; Mavis Belisle of the Dallas Peace Center; Bill McElvaney, professor emeritus of SMU's Perkins School of Theology; SMU Chaplain Stephen Rankin; Acharya Shree Yogeesh of the Siddhayatan [Hindu-Jain Tirth] Spiritual Retreat Center; Brother ChiSing, a Thich Nhat Hahn-ordained Buddhist minister and director of the Dallas Meditation Center; and Hind Jirrah, co-founder of the Texas Muslim Women's Foundation. The moderator will be Dianne Solis of The Dallas Morning News. The free event is sponsored by SMU's Embrey Human Rights Program in Dedman College and the Dallas Peace Center. (source: Michael Landauer/Editor, Dallas Morning News) Sept. 8. 2011 Execution By Race When the United States Supreme Court approved death penalty statutes, it did so on the promise that race would play no role in the decision to execute a person. That, of course, mirrors society's moral stance. Some people believe capital punishment is just. Some don't. But we can all agree that deciding who lives and who dies must not be determined by the color of their skin. Despite this broad agreement, our nation has failed to rid race from the decision to execute — take, for instance, the case of Marcus Robinson in North Carolina. And now, shockingly, Texas appears poised next week to execute Duane Edward Buck based on the fact that he is black. In Texas, imposing the death penalty in capital cases comes down to one question: is the defendant going to be a "future danger" if he or she is not executed? Mr. Buck was sentenced to die based on testimony by Dr. Walter Quijano, who told jurors that Mr. Buck was more likely to pose a future danger to society because he is black. Dr. Quijano's testimony came in 1997, more than 20 years after Texas promised the Supreme Court that "no correlation exists between the race/ethnic background of a defendant and the probability that he will be either convicted of capital murder or given the death penalty." The same psychologist gave similar testimony in a total of seven Texas cases. In 2000, then-Attorney General John Cornyn did something highly unusual for a prosecutor: he called for the retrial of all seven men who had been sentenced to death based on Dr. Quijano's testimony that their race or ethnic background made them more dangerous. This list of seven included Duane Edward Buck. Courts granted new sentencing trials to six of those inmates, but upheld Mr. Buck's unconstitutional death sentence on technical procedural grounds (which we have previously noted often lead to unjust results based on form over substance). Mr. Buck was therefore not granted an opportunity to have a new sentencing hearing unbiased by race. He is scheduled to be executed by the State of Texas on September 15, 2011. Attorney General Cornyn was a vigorous defender of the death penalty in Texas, but made it clear that he wanted no part of calling for executions that were based on this kind of racism: "The people of Texas want and deserve a system that affords the same fairness to everyone." It remains to be seen if the governor agrees. We must not allow the execution of a man on the basis of his race. You can help to prevent this injustice: go here to urge Texas Governor Rick Perry and to the board of pardons and parole to intervene before it's too late. (source: ACLU) Sept. 5, 2011 USA - Capital punishment a costly option “I no longer believe you can fix the death penalty. (It) throws millions of dollars down the drain. Give a law enforcement professional like me that $250 million, and I’ll show you how to reduce crime. The death penalty isn’t anywhere on my list.— New Jersey Police Chief James Abbott Those Jersey boys know how to lay it on the line. Abbott made that observation years ago when asked his opinion of whether his state should scrap its costly deathpenalty law. New Jersey did so in 2007. Forget all the arguments about the rightness or wrongness of capital punishment — if it is a powerful deterrent or morally repugnant, if its use is appropriate for worst-of-the-worst crimes. Should death-penalty laws eventually go by the wayside here and elsewhere, their demise won’t be based on philosophical debates. The issue will come down to the bottom line. In this era of fiscal peril, legislatures and voters must decide: Do they continue sustaining the nation’s most expensive punishment option — for a relatively small number of convicted murders — when other needs, including education, health care, infrastructure and public safety, go wanting? Budget cutbacks in Oklahoma since 2008 have resulted in layoffs and the drastic slashing of services and programs. The state’s safety net, which so many people rely upon, is ripping at the seams. Prisons are at capacity, yet the per-capita violent crime rate remains among the highest in the U.S. No reliable figures exist for how much Oklahoma deathpenalty system costs. Suffice it to say it’s tens of millions of dollars. Throwing political caution to the wind, some leaders have suggested dropping the death penalty. State Sen. Constance Johnson, DOklahoma City, was roundly ignored when she proposed scrapping that system and going to a far less costly lifewithout- parole system. A few states have abolished their systems in light of cost. In the 34 states with a death penalty, some are asking: Can the needs of so many be sacrificed to pay for punishment of so few? Death row numbers Nationally, about 3,200 people are on state and federal death rows, including 69 in Oklahoma. The average cost, from arrest to execution, for a single deathpenalty case ranges from $1 million to $3 million. Those costs, on a per-offender basis, rank as among the most expensive part of criminal justice systems. That fact has prompted countless studies, including an eye-popping one released in June in California. That state has the nation’s largest and costliest death row – 714 inmates. Since reinstating its death penalty in 1978, California has conducted nearly 2,000 capital trials and has executed 13 people. Over those 33 years, the death-penalty system cost the state $4.6 billion. Divided up, that equates to $308 million per execution. For a state teetering on the brink of financial collapse, here’s how the $4.6 billion broke down: pre-trial/trial costs, $1.94 billion, automatic appeals and state habeas corpus petitions, $0.925 billion, federal habeas petitions, $0.775 billion; costs of incarceration, $1 billion. In light of those costs, backers of a stalled legislative bill to abolish the death penalty recently kicked off a campaign to put the question on the November 2012 ballot. If approved, California’s death-penalty laws would become history. The measure would do something else, which could persuade voters to pass it: $100 million from the state’s general fund — the estimated savings from eliminating death row — would be distributed over the next 4 fiscal years to local police for solving more homicides and rapes. Death-penalty studies A North Carolina study also performed a cost-benefit analysis and found a $2 million difference between a death sentence and a lifewithout- parole sentence. In Texas, a death-penalty case costs about $3 million, 3 times the cost of imprisoning an inmate for 40 years. In Maryland, a death-penalty case costs about three times more than a case in which the prosecutor does not seek the death penalty, according to an Urban Institute study. Since 2000, death sentences across the U.S. have dropped precipitously. A 2008 poll of police chiefs, often cited by Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington, D.C., produced surprising answers. Almost all the chiefs surveyed ranked the death penalty last among their priorities for crimefighting, saying that they did not believe — based on murder rates — that it deterred homicides. Most rated it as the least efficient use of limited taxpayer dollars. New York abolished its death penalty in 2007. In the many years the law was on the books, no death sentences were upheld by its courts nor was any offender executed. New Mexico abolished its death penalty in 2009. The death penalty is widely favored in Oklahoma, which has the executions to prove it. For many, keeping it as an option is crucial — whatever the cost. But is that an informed stance? One need not put aside a philosophical beliefs about capital punishment to recognize the financial impracticality of the system. Oklahoma leaders should undertake a study to determine the cost of the deathpenalty system here. Relying on those results, Oklahomans could make a more informed choice about whether to keep it. Ultimately, the question comes down to priorities. (source: Tulsa World) Aug. 18, 2011 TEXAS: Rick Perry By The Numbers Amnesty International does not comment or take sides on elections. But everyone knows that Rick Perry, Texas Governor for over a decade, is now running for President. And everyone knows that during his tenure as Texas Governor, he has presided over a lot of executions. The total now sits at 234 (40% of all US executions carried out since Perry became Governor in December 2000). Many folks also know that at least 1 of those, Cameron Todd Willingham, was probably innocent, and that evidence of his innocence was ignored by Governor Perry in the days and hours before Willingham was put to death. And that an investigation into the dubious forensics that led to Willingham’s conviction was sidetracked when Perry suddenly put Williamson County District Attorney John Bradley in charge (Bradley is now being accused of withholding evidence of innocence in a case in his home county). But there have been other cases of possible innocence, and, as currently scheduled, Perry’s 240th execution would be of Henry Skinner, a man whose innocence claim the Lone Star State is refusing to examine. BY THE NUMBERS: 9 – The number of prisoners suffering severe mental illness who, according to a 2006 Amnesty International report, were put to death during the first half of Rick Perry’s tenure 8 – The number of Texas prisoners who “volunteered” to be executed under Rick Perry 7 – The number of foreign nationals executed under Rick Perry, most of whom were denied their rights under U.S. treaty obligations 4 – The number of juvenile offenders executed under Rick Perry (before the U.S. Supreme Court outlawed such executions in 2005) 2 – The number of men put to death under Rick Perry for crimes in which they were not the killer 1 – The number of clemencies granted by Rick Perry that were not required by court rulings (source: Amnesty International USA blog) Shooting survivor wants Texas execution stopped The Associated Press Published: July 14, 2011 AUSTIN, Texas — Attorneys for a former convenience store clerk shot and wounded nearly a decade ago have filed a civil suit in Austin against Gov. Rick Perry and other state officials seeking to stop the convicted gunman's execution scheduled for next week. Mark Stroman faces lethal injection July 20 for fatally shooting Mesquite convenience store clerk Vasudev Padel in 2001. He's one of two clerks killed by Stroman. Rais Buiyhan, whose attorneys filed the suit Wednesday, was shot in a third robbery but survived to identify Stroman. Bhuiyah's lawsuit argues his rights as a victim have been violated. His complaints include a contention he should be allowed to meet with Stroman under a remediation program. Stroman said he wanted to kill people of Middle Eastern descent after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Copyright 2011, The Associated Press. Shooting survivor wants Texas execution stopped SHOWDOWN: Rick Perry Defied The White House And Executed A Foreign Prisoner Tonight Steven Loeb Jul. 7, 2011 Barack Obama asks for Texas and Rick Perry to spare Mexican the death penalty Texas is preparing to execute a Mexican citizen for a gruesome 1994 murder on Thursday despite an appeal by Barack Obama to spare him because he was not granted the consular help required by international law. By Toby Harnden, Washington 05 Jul 2011 Humberto Leal, 38, a native of Monterrey, Mexico was convicted of the 1994 rape and murder of Adria Sauceda, 16, whose naked body was found with a large stick protruding from her. She had been bitten and her head crushed by a lump of asphalt. The United States Supreme Court is due to decide whether to issue a stay of execution, which Texas state lawyers insist should go ahead. If the Supreme Court does not intervene, Leal's fate will lie in the hands of Governor Rick Perry of Texas, who is currently pondering whether to join the 2012 presidential race. Texas executes more prisoners than any other US state. In his 10 years in office Mr Perry has refused clemency in 230 executions, almost half the 470 executions in Texas since the death penalty was reinstated in 1974. Among other evidence against Leal, a bite mark was matched to him and the victim's bloody blouse was found at his home. Leal told police that she had attacked him and had fallen and lost consciousness. Even Leal's lawyers concede that it was "plausible" he was responsible for Miss Sauceda's death. But they contend that if he had been given consular assistance rather than a state-appointed defence lawyer he would probably have been convicted of manslaughter. The Obama administration, adopting a similar stance to the one taken by President George W Bush's, believes executing Leal could endanger Americans abroad who are also entitled to consular assistance under the Vienna Convention. "This case implicates United States foreign-policy interests of the highest order," said Donald Verrilli, Mr Obama's Solicitor General in an amicus brief filed in the Supreme Court case. "The imminent execution of petitioner would place the United States in irreparable breach of its international law obligation." Executing him, he said, "would have serious repercussions for United States foreign relations, law enforcement and other co-operation with Mexico, and the ability of American citizens traveling abroad to have the benefits of consular assistance in the event of detention". There is legislation pending in the US Senate would allow federal courts to review cases of condemned foreign nationals to determine whether the lack of consular help made a significant difference in the outcome of their cases. The United Nations, Amnesty International and a number of former diplomats and military officers have requested that the sentence be commuted to life. Mr Perry has commuted the death sentences of 31 inmates. Of these, 28 involved cases in which the defendant was a juvenile at the time of the crime and Mr Perry acted after a Supreme Court ruling on the issue. Polls show that about 65 per cent of Americans favour the death penalty. Mr Perry's enthusiastic backing for the death penalty would be unlikely to be an issue that could harm him in the Republican primaries. It could, however, became an issue in a general election against Mr Obama, who supports the death penalty but is much more willing to consider exclusions. Barack Obama asks for Texas and Rick Perry to spare Mexican the death penalty Lawsuit: Void Texas’ new execution procedure By Mike Ward March 29, 2011 Texas’ new procedure for executing condemned murderers should be invalidated because prison officials did not comply with state law in adopting it, two condemned murderers alleged this morning in a new lawsuit seeking to block their scheduled date with the death chamber. In a suit filed in an Austin state court, attorneys for Cleve Foster and Humberto Leal contend that Texas’ new execution protocol — replacing sodium thiopental with pentobarbital as one of three drugs used in lethal injections — violated the state Administrative Procedures Act. Reason: Officials with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice did not follow proper procedure in adopting the new protocol. According to the suit, TDCJ announced on March 16 — less than three weeks before Foster’s scheduled execution — that it would change the drugs used. Foster is slated for execution on April 5. The lawsuit contends that since November 2010, Foster made numerous public information requests and pleas for information regarding the drugs TDCJ planned to use to execute him, but prison officials delayed their response and made the decision to change drugs without required public input — or input from Foster and other condemned convicts. “Executions, and the manner in which we carry them out, are of unique public interest and importance, and precisely the sort of decisions and procedures that should be aired in the light of day,” said Maurie Levin, Foster’s attorney. “The requirements of transparency, deliberation, and accountability reflected in the APA are even more imperative when we are carrying out the ultimate act that Texas can take against one of its citizens. In its rush to execute Mr. Foster, Texas has violated the law and circumvented the open government process.” Court officials said no hearing has been set in the case. If the Travis County court invalidates the change in drugs because state law was not followed, the state would be forced to resort to using the previous drug — which has become unavailable in the United States. Leal, a Mexican citizen, is scheduled for execution on July 7. Prison officials said they had no immediate comment on pending litigation. Some officials had earlier said they expected legal challenges when the execution drug was changed. Lawsuit: Void Texas’ new execution procedure Texas to change death cocktail for condemned inmates By PEGGY O'HARE HOUSTON CHRONICLE March 16, 2011 The state prison system is making the most substantial change ever to the ingredients of the lethal injections used to execute condemned Texas inmates since 1982 because one of its three main drugs, a powerful sedative, is no longer being manufactured in the U.S. But an attorney for a Tarrant County man scheduled to be executed next month said she is "appalled" and "horrified" by the decision because she is concerned the change has not been thoroughly investigated or subject to public scrutiny. The attorney anticipates challenging the matter in court. Administrators for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice decided this week to replace sodium thiopental — the sedative given to condemned inmates before they are executed — with pentobarbital, a drug that has similar properties. The change was necessary because the only U.S. company that manufactured sodium thiopental stopped making the drug, said TDCJ spokeswoman Michelle Lyons. Oklahoma made the same change recently to its so-called "death cocktail" and while some death row inmates' attorneys challenged the move in that state, courts upheld and supported the change there. "We're confident that it would also be upheld here in Texas," Lyons said Wednesday. TDCJ officials consulted with the Texas Attorney General's Office and its own general counsel and reviewed medical expert testimony from federal litigation challenging Oklahoma's death row cocktail change before making its decision, Lyons said. The appellate lawyer for Cleve Foster, 47, a Tarrant County man who is the next death row inmate scheduled to be executed on April 5, said she expects to launch her own legal challenge. "I am horrified — I am appalled at the lack of transparency in such an important process," said Foster's attorney, Maurie Levin, who has represented death row inmates in state and federal courts since 1993. "I think that state law and general concerns for openness in government require more than this. "My concern at this point is that TDCJ has known since at least early January that their current drug supply of sodium thiopental expired on March 1st and that the producer of that drug was no longer making it. And they waited until less than three weeks before Cleve's execution to either decide or announce the change," Levin said. Foster, an oil field worker and construction laborer, was sentenced to death for sexually assaulting and fatally shooting a 28-year-old woman in Tarrant County in 2002. The victim's body was later found in a ditch by workers who were installing pipe there. Levin dismissed the courts' approval of Oklahoma's new execution process as irrelevant to what might happen here in Texas. "Oklahoma is one thing, Texas is another," Levin said Wednesday from the University of Texas at Austin School of Law's Capital Punishment Center, where she is an adjunct professor. "They had some kind of vetting process in Oklahoma — they didn't have it here. They fact that it's been approved there is irrelevant to Texas' process and certainly irrelevant to the lack of openness here." While Texas has made small modifications to the dosage amounts of the three drugs used to execute an inmate since lethal injections began here in 1982, this is the most substantial change ever made to the so-called "death cocktail," Lyons said. "We were no longer able to purchase sodium thiopental domestically — the manufacturer in the U.S. announced they would no longer be manufacturing the drug. So we had to look for an alternate drug," Lyons said Wednesday. While TDCJ still has a supply of the long-used sedative on hand, it expires at the end of this month, so the agency had to find a new drug before Foster's scheduled execution on April 5, Lyons said. A lethal dose of the pentobarbital will be administered first to sedate the condemned inmate, followed by a deadly dose of pancuronium bromide, which acts as a muscle relaxant. The final ingredient, potassium chloride, is then injected to stop the inmate's heart. TDCJ has enough of the new sedative in supply to carry out the next five scheduled executions, Lyons said. peggy.ohare@chron.com Texas to change death cocktail for condemned inmates March 4, 2011 Editor discusses problems with death penalty Dave Mann spoke at MonkeyWrench Books about how false convictions relate to capital punishment Thursday. Mann doesn’t foresee the death penalty going away but does see changes in the review of convicted suspects. A considerable number of inmates sentenced to death or life in prison could be innocent, the executive editor of the Texas Observer said in a lecture Thursday. Dave Mann spoke at MonkeyWrench Books about the death penalty in Texas. Mann focused on specific cases in which he thought the evidence was insufficient to sentence a person to death, including that of convicted arsonist Alfredo Guardiola. Guardiola, a heroin addict, was on the scene of a house fire in Houston that killed 4 people, Mann said. Houston police brought Guardiola in for questioning as a witness, but he soon became a suspect, he said. “People often want someone to blame when there is a tragedy,” he said. Mann asked the audience of 20 people to be the jury in the case. The audience seemed convinced that Guardiola was guilty, agreeing with the jury that sentenced him to 40 years in prison. Mann then revealed that Guardiola gave a written confession after police interrogated him for 13 hours and showed him pictures of the children killed in the fire. A few days later, Guardiola retracted his confession claiming the interrogators coerced him to confess. Guardiola currently has 20 years remaining on his sentence. Mann said the case is like many others in which either because of police coercion or botched forensic science, innocent people end up in jail or on death row. Dallas has re-examined approximately 200 cases, and more than 20 convicts have been exonerated, Mann said. Some areas of forensics, such as blood spatter and ballistics, are currently not sound enough to sentence a person to death, Mann said. “We can’t have the death penalty until we are close to 100-% sure that [a suspect] is guilty,” he said. “Judges could be much more discerning when interpreting forensic evidence." Scott Cobb, president of the anti-death penalty group Texas Moratorium Network, said capital punishment is an inefficient policy. “We don’t have a need for it in the U.S.,” Cobb said. “The rest of the world has turned their back on it." Of the 20 audience members, the majority agreed the death penalty has flaws. Mann said a moratorium would be a viable solution to the death penalty. “It’s a mystery why these cases don’t catch on,” said Mann. “We could use more scrutiny from the media." Republican Party of Texas spokesman Chris Elam said the party stands by the death penalty as an option available to juries. “The appropriate legal authorities have declared it as a viable punishment,” Elam said. (source: Daily Texan Online) Mar. 2, 2011 Option of life means fewer get death In 1998, it took only 12 minutes for a Jefferson County jury to decide Elroy Chester should die. 12 minutes - 1 minute for each juror - to sentence a man to death. The jury's decision in the fatal shooting of Port Arthur fireman Willie Ryman III was the culmination of what was described as the worst crime spree in the county's history. And while the circumstances surrounding Chester's crime wave - in which prosecutors alleged five people were killed, five more were shot and three girls were raped - were extreme, such a verdict is less likely today. In fact, it is rare that a Texas jury even arrives at a death verdict anymore, experts say. Last year, Texas juries sentenced eight convicted killers to death, the lowest since 1976, when the U.S. Supreme Court approved new death penalty statutes, according to data from the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. By comparison, Death Penalty Information Center data show more than 25 new people were added to the ranks of the Texas death row each year between 1985 and 2004. Executions are also down. Texas executed 17 people in 2010, the lowest since 2001. By comparison, the Lone Star State executed a high of 40 people in 2000. District Attorney Tom Maness said he cannot readily remember the last death penalty conviction in Jefferson County. Texas prison information shows the most recent Jefferson County killer placed on death row under the state judicial system was more than 12 years ago. "Certainly, there is a momentum nationwide to legislatively abolish the death penalty," said Kristin Houlé, executive director for the Texas anti-death penalty coalition. "In Texas, there is a growing understanding of the flaws and failures of the Texas death penalty," she said. Writers for websites like prodeathpenalty.com, however, would debate there are no flaws with the death penalty except for some media accounts that "turn the death of a convicted murderer into a tragedy ... and the deaths and suffering of countless victims is only an easily ignored statistic." No matter what side of the debate you are on, data show death sentences in Texas have dropped more than 70 % since 2003. According to legal experts and groups passionate about the issue of capital punishment, the decrease can be attributed to the following: - A sentencing option of life without parole that became available in September 2005. - Studies showing that it is cheaper to imprison a killer for life than execute him. - A growing awareness and concern about the risk of wrongful conviction. - An improved quality of legal defense in the state. - A perceived shift in attitudes on the part of Texas jurors. In the last decades, Maness has seen the shift firsthand. "The most important reason is the fact that we have life without parole," Maness said. "That gave prosecutors another tool to use and it gave the jury another verdict to use." Maness emphasized that prosecutors consult with the victims' families before deciding on how to proceed with a capital case. He said increasingly, victims are comfortable with the jury assessing life without parole, knowing the killer will never get out of prison and be on the streets again. A victim's perspective That wasn't an option in Chester's case more than a decade ago and it isn't a decision that Erin DeLeon, one of his young victims, would be comfortable with today. For DeLeon - whose uncle was killed by Chester in 1998 when she was 17 - execution is the only just punishment. "That kind of person is never going to learn any better. There is no way to rehabilitate," she said in a recent telephone interview. The death penalty is not a pleasant idea, she said, "but it is a necessity for keeping society from going chaotic." "If you do something wrong, you have to take your punishment," she said. DeLeon, now 30, and her then-15-year-old sister were sexually assaulted by Chester at gunpoint in their Port Arthur home in February 1998. When their uncle, a decorated Port Arthur firefighter, walked into the house and tried to stop the attack, the gunman fatally shot him. Chester pleaded guilty to killing Ryman. The only issue the jury had to decide was life or death. The Enterprise doesn't normally identify sexual assault victims, but the sisters and their mother consented at the time of the trial. DeLeon also agreed to publishing her name for this report. DeLeon, who held her uncle's hand the night of the slaying as he lay dying on the kitchen floor, said she plans to witness Chester's execution. "I decided that back when I was 17 years old," she said. "We've just been waiting. I know it will be a hard thing. ... It's a hard thing to do." A mother now living in Lumberton, DeLeon disputes the perception that people's attitudes have shifted against capital punishment. "I think the majority of the people honestly believe in punishment. They are just not out there with signs and getting on TV," she said of anti-death penalty groups. "If there is no consequence, there is no reason not to do something wrong," she said. Ultimate penalty vs. bottom line For some states, the argument for abandoning capital punishment comes down to dollars and cents. Studies show that the ultimate cost of prosecution of a death penalty case, coupled with defending the subsequent appeals, is much higher than a non-death-penalty case, Maness said. A 1992 study by The Dallas Morning News showed the average cost of a Texas death penalty case is $2.3 million versus $750,000 for life in prison, Houlé said. In recent years, challenges to the death penalty have ranged from arguments that capital punishment is unconstitutional to claims that the three-chemical cocktail used to execute the condemned constitutes cruel and unusual punishment. Earlier this year, the sole U.S. maker of one of the lethal injection drugs announced it is ending production. Jason Clark, a state prison spokesman, said Texas had enough of the drug, sodium thiopental, to carry out executions through the end of February. After that, the state will explore other options, including possibly finding an alternate source for the drug or seeking an alternate drug entirely. There are currently four executions scheduled in Texas, one each in April and May and 2 in July. Meanwhile, Houlé, of the anti-death penalty coalition cites 138 exonerations of death row inmates nationwide, 12 from Texas, released because of evidence of a wrongful conviction. Also in Texas, Houlé points to 42 exonerations of defendants because of DNA evidence. While the vast majority of those cases did not involve the death penalty, Houlé emphasizes that had those inmates been executed, the outcome would have been irreversible. "There's no way to correct for that mistake," she said. Is it revenge or justice? For Beaumont resident Chris Castillo, national outreach coordinator for Murder Victims' Families for Reconciliation, revenge for his mother's 1991 slaying in Houston is not his goal. Castillo, a former Beaumont Enterprise reporter, said his mother, Pilar Castillo, 52, was strangled to death in her home. Officials suspect the killer or killers were men who were renovating her house who invaded it in the middle of the night and robbed her. To this day, the killers have not been caught. Castillo said he experienced myriad emotions after his mother's death, but ultimately decided he wanted to put aside his anger. "I don't want someone's execution to be my mother's legacy," he said. "I think it is kind of ironic: The way we get back at them is killing somebody else." Castillo envisions a day in which more and more states will do away with capital punishment. He acknowledged Texas might well be the last. To date, 15 states have done away with the death penalty, Houlé said, and Illinois - a state awaiting a governor's signature to abolish the death penalty - might soon join them. As for Jefferson County District Attorney Maness, he does not believe Texas should ever do away with the death penalty - what he describes as the ultimate punishment for the most horrific crime. As a hypothetical, Maness described a scene in which a gunman invades a McDonald's restaurant and guns down 20 kids at a birthday party. There is always going to be a case in which society demands the ultimate punishment, he said. (source: Beaumont Enterprise) Feb. 28, 2011 Rev. Carroll Pickett: The TT Interview Rev. Carroll Pickett holds the world record for witnessing the most state executions as a chaplain. He saw 95 men die by lethal injection during his career as the death house chaplain. In the years since he left the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Pickett has written a book and starred in an award-winning documentary that chronicled his work at the Walls Unit in Huntsville. He sat down with The Texas Tribune recently to talk about how he "seduced the emotions" of the condemned, why his views about the death penalty changed and how he now copes with all the death he has witnessed. Pickett: Death house is at the Walls Unit, and that’s where I was chaplain. The death house is used only for executions. And I was chaplain for 2,200 inmates on the unit and also when executions were reinstated in 1982 after they had been declared unconstitutional in ’64 I was assigned death house chaplain. TT: What were your duties as death house chaplain? Pickett: Well the warden’s assignment — and he and I got along really well — his main concern was to seduce his emotions so he won’t fight. It was to be honest with him, to talk to him. I would help them with their last letters, to write letters. If they wanted to make telephone calls, the warden gave me permission to go — we had to go through the secretary’s office to make telephone calls. And mainly it was just to keep them calm, to give them juice or drinks or whatever it was they want. If they wanted to talk about the Bible, we’d talk about the Bible. If they wanted to talk about the Quran, I had a friend up in Dallas who gave me the very most expensive Qurans, a whole case of them, to be used only in the death house. Of course, I only used three. Sometimes they just want to sing. I had one that sang all day long. And I did a bunch of little things that made them happy. For instance, if a guy wanted a Dr Pepper, Dr Peppers aren’t available in the death house but, you know, I’d go next door to my house and bring them one. Little things that to them were important. TT: What changed your mind about the death penalty? Pickett: The main reason I was in favor of the death penalty was because my grandfather was murdered. And my father never talked about it. I found out through one of his cousins. My father was very strongly in favor of punishment, punishment, punishment, hard punishment. So I live with that. Then I began to see that these fellows, first of all they were not the same people who committed the crime, if they committed the crime. You know, they change. We called it restorative justice. Everybody can change. And then I got to see how much it costs. You know, the third guy that was executed it cost that county $6 million. And then there were many of them — way too many — who I knew were innocent, who did not commit the crime. It is cruel and unusual punishment. It is not always painless. We have botched executions. TT: What changes are needed in death penalty policy? Pickett: Law enforcement agencies have to be a lot more careful. Policies and programs like DNA and blood work — [we need to] do this quicker and not wait 20 years like Anthony Graves and some of these other people. If we are going to continue killing people in the name of the state, let’s get them right. TT: Why should lawmakers keep prison chaplains in the state budget? Pickett: On our unit, our wardens believed when everything is going smooth in the chapel, the fights and the problems go down. If they didn’t believe in anything, and they came to believe in something — something greater than they were — that would change their life. And many, many lives were changed. I have 78 men that became Christians while I was there who are ministers in different churches throughout the United States. TT: How do you cope with all the death you've seen over the years? Pickett: I feel like my ministry today is to work with organizations and with people and to go places to explain to people exactly what it’s like. That last day is painful. They are sitting there in Cell One looking at that big, black iron door knowing that at midnight or 6 o’clock they are going in there and they are not coming out. (source: Texas Tribune) Feb. 25 TEXAS: David R. Dow's 'The Autobiography of an Execution' is exemplary: new in paperback The Autobiography of an Execution, Twelve, 276 pp., $14.99 Near the beginning of The Autobiography of an Execution, David R. Dow explains, "Because I used to support the death penalty, it's not so hard for me to have sympathy for the misguided souls who still do." Working out of Houston, where he teaches law, Dow has represented more than 100 Texas death-row inmates. Most he hasn't liked, many have committed monstrous crimes, yet he writes, "If you have reservations about supporting a racist, classist, unprincipled regime . . . then the death-penalty system we have here in America will embarrass you to no end." This clear, firm book is much more than a legal argument. It's about rising to do work each morning that will almost invariably fail, in the teeth of knowing that people die because "their lawyers neglect to dot the i's or cross the t's." It's also about the desperation of such work when the client is innocent, as Dow concludes for seven men he represented. His book's emotional resonance comes from the toll of this principled work on the author, his wife and young son. After a lunchtime phone call about missing an outing with his boy, Dow wonders, "Why is it that when my six-year-old son says, Okay, Dada, I feel like my entire life is a waste of time?" "The Autobiography of an Execution" is a finalist for a National Book Critics Circle award. (source: Cleveland Plain Dealer) Feb. 11, 2011 Prison director says execution drug will be found Texas' prison director says he's optimistic the state can find the drug sodium thiopental or an alternative to carry out executions after Texas' supply expires at the end of March. Rick Thaler, director of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Institutional Division, said Friday outside a state prison board meeting the issue has been a top priority within the agency for several months. Sodium thiopental is 1 of 3 drugs used in the lethal mixture given to condemned killers but the sole manufacturer in the U.S. has suspended production and supplies elsewhere have been scarce. 2 executions are scheduled this month, including 1 next week. Another is set for early April, days after the current Texas supply expires. Texas is the nation's most active death penalty state. (source: Associated Press) U.S. drug maker discontinues key death penalty drug By Andrew Welsh-Huggins Associated Press Posted: 01/21/2011 COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The sole U.S. manufacturer of a key lethal injection drug says it's discontinuing drug's production because it couldn't guarantee Italian authorities that it wouldn't be used in executions. Hospira Inc., of Lake Forest, Ill., said Friday that its plant in Italy was the only viable place where the company could produce sodium thiopental. Hospira spokesman Dan Rosenberg told The Associated Press that Italian authorities insisted the company prove the drug would never end up with states using it to put condemned inmates to death. Rosenberg said the company determined after discussions with Italy and Hospira wholesalers that it could not make such a guarantee. A shortage of sodium thiopental has disrupted executions around the country since last spring when Ohio nearly postponed an execution when it almost ran out. U.S. drug maker discontinues key death penalty drug 2010: Texas prisoner executed for killing cellmate May 19, 2010 Condemned Texas prisoner Rogelio Cannady has been executed for killing a cellmate while already serving 2 life sentences for a double murder. The 37-year-old Cannady didn't deny fatally beating his 55-year-old cellmate with a belt and padlock in October 1993. But he insisted the attack at the McConnell Unit prison in South Texas was in self-defense from an unwanted sexual advance. The lethal injection Wednesday evening made Cannady the 10th inmate put to death this year in the nation's most active capital punishment state. Cannady's execution came after last-day appeals failed in the federal courts. Cannady had argued his original conviction for killing 2 teenagers was tainted because of what he called a coerced confession. (source: CNN) 2009: EDITORIAL: CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM The yogurt shop case: Injustice for all November 01, 2009 When it comes to the yogurt shop slayings, calling our criminal justice system a system does great injustice to systems that actually work. The case has gone on longer than any of the four victims lived. For emphasis, let's put it this way: The parents of the four slain girls now have had to suffer through the botched investigation into their daughters' deaths longer than they were able to enjoy their daughter's lives. And there still is no resolution. After almost 18 years, several trials and untabulated costs, we again have little more than suspects in the horror that began on Dec. 6, 1991, when Austin Police Officer Troy Gay reported the fire that led to the discovery of the bodies of Jennifer Harbison, 17, her sister Sarah, 15, and their friends Eliza Thomas, 17, and Amy Ayers, 13, at the I Can't Believe It's Yogurt shop. We can't believe this is justice for anybody involved, including the former defendants, who, as a result of the latest courtroom maneuvering, are back to being mere suspects. The latest depressing twist in the case came Wednesday when Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg, faced with little choice, dismissed the charges against Robert Springsteen IV, 34, and Michael Scott, 35, as part of a plan to retry them. Springsteen, convicted in 2001, was sentenced to death, and Scott, convicted in 2002, was sentenced to life in prison. Both had confessed to the murders, but lawyers for both argued at trial that the confessions were coerced. Four years after the Springsteen conviction, his death sentence was changed to life in prison when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional to execute people who were juveniles at the time of the offense. Everything blew up for the prosecution when the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals threw out the convictions because the confessions of each defendant improperly were used at each other's trial. Problems with prosecuting Scott and Springsteen were complicated when, in preparing for retrials, updated DNA technology found a sample from an unknown male. Tests showed it came from neither Scott or Springsteen, nor from suspects Maurice Pierce or Forrest Welborn, Capital murder charges against Welborn were dismissed in 2000 when grand jurors declined to indict him. Charges against Pierce were dismissed in 2003. In June, prosecutors asked for and were granted a delay in the Scott and Springsteen retrials. In granting the delay, State District Judge Mike Lynch released Scott and Springsteen from jail on bond. And Lynch backed prosecutors to the wall on Wednesday with his warning that if they did not proceed to trial he'd consider dismissing the case for violations of the defendants' speedy trial rights. Lehmberg, faced with the possibility of a ruling that could preclude retrials, had little choice but to blink and move to dismiss the charges, for now. She called it "the best legal and strategic course to take" and noted it was the "best possible posture to ultimately retry both Springsteen and Scott." We're not all the way back to square one, but we may be closer to that than we are to justice that is long, long overdue. Fault? It has to all default to investigators who overzealously sought confessions and prosecutors who, to date, have been unable to successfully make the case. Victims? Everybody for whom the system has not worked. Unfortunately, that's everybody involved, from the slain young girls to the defendants and suspects. The case is far from closed, and all involved are far from closure — if indeed such is possible in a case this horrific. The victim list also includes everybody who counts on a functional criminal justice system. You can see one of those people in your bathroom mirror. The yogurt shop case: Injustice for all Charges dismissed in yogurt shop case By Steven Kreytak October 28, 2009 UPDATE Travis County prosecutors moved to dismiss the murder indictments against the two remaining defendants in the 1991 yogurt shop murders after announcing in court today that they are still looking for the person whose DNA was found last year in one of the four teenage victims. Assistant District Attorney Efrain De La Fuente said in court that the decision came because state District Judge Mike Lynch has ordered that a continuance in the case to conduct further DNA testing would not be considered. “We are still testing,” he said. The packed courtroom was quiet after Lynch ordered the dismissals. Defendants Michael Scott and Robert Springsteen, who were once both convicted in the case, hugged their lawyers and supporters in court. Outside the courtroom, lawyers for the defendants called on authorities to find the real killers. “Those men that did this back in 1991, they left DNA in there,” said Scott lawyer Carlos Garcia. .”And I don’t know if those guys are still alive …but we have your DNA and sooner or later we are going to match your face to it.” Springsteen lawyer Joe James Sawyer said that he and his client believe that it is the families of the slain girls who have suffered the most. “We should reserve our sympathy for the families of those girls,” Sawyer said. “That is paramount.” Scott, gripping his wife’s hand, was reserved outside court. “This has been a long time in coming,” he said. “I’m happy to be here.” At a press conference following the hearing, Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg issued a statement that said in part: “Make no mistake, this is a difficult decision and one I would rather not have to make. I believe it is the best legal and strategic course to take and is the one that leaves us in the best possible posture to ultimately retry both Springsteen and Scott.” EARLIER A critical hearing is set for this afternoon in the capital murder cases against two men accused in the 1991 killings of four teenage girls at a North Austin yogurt shop. If prosecutors try to avoid setting a trial date, then state District Judge Mike Lynch may consider dismissing the cases against defendants Robert Springsteen and Michael Scott based on their rights to a speedy trial, Lynch wrote in an August order. Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg could also decide to dismiss the case on her own. The hearing is set for 1:30 p.m. in Travis County’s 167th District Court. Lehmberg has scheduled a press conference following the hearing. In June, Lynch released the men from jail on their own recognizance after prosecutors said they wanted more time to identify the source of male DNA found in vaginal swabs taken from victim Amy Ayers, 13. Scott, Sprignsteen and two previous co-defendant were excluded as contributors of that DNA. Prosecutors have not yet determined whose DNA it is, according to defense lawyers who have been kept apprised of the testing. In a strongly worded order in written in August, Lynch said that the lawyers in the case must announce they are ready for trial today. “Extreme circumstances would be required to obtain a continuance,” he wrote. If either party announces they are ready for trial and later asks for more time, Lynch wrote, “it would be a violation of this order” if there was no new reason for the continuance request. Today’s hearing is the latest critical juncture for a case that has taken many turns since Dec. 6, 1991, when the bodies of Ayers, sisters Sarah and Jennifer Harbison, 17 and 15, and Eliza Thomas were found, each bound with their own clothing and shot in the head, at the I Can’t Believe It’s Yogurt Shop on West Anderson Lane. In 1999, Scott and Springsteen confessed. Their lawyers later said those confessions were coerced under psychological pressure and lengthy interviews by police. Both were convicted but those convictions were overturned when the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals found that Scott’s confession was improperly used at Springsteen’s trial and Springsteen’s confession was improperly used at Scott’s trial. Prosecutors ordered testing using new, previously unavailable DNA technology, and found the DNA on Ayers. Defense lawyers say that additional testing found the same unknown male’s DNA in a vaginal swab taken from victim Jennifer, and another partial DNA profile in Sarah, who was also killed in the crime. They also found additional unknown male DNA on clothing used to bind the wrists of Eliza. The DNA results were obtained using technology not previously available. The Y-STR profiles can not be run through databases of DNA taken from convicts and others and must be individually compared to known DNA profiles. Scott and Springsteen have been excluded as contributors of any of the DNA found at the crime scene. In June, Lehmberg said the DNA found on Ayers had been compared to DNA taken from 130 people, including associates of the defendants, crime scene workers and others. None matched, she said. Lehmberg in June would not say whether she go to trial without first identifying whose DNA was found on Ayers. Lynch wrote in his order that he would not grant the district attorney more time to prepare the case to conduct further DNA testing. If the cases are dismissed by either Lehmberg or Lynch it is likely that they could be re-filed after additional investigation. To read about the challenges the DA faces in prosecuting the case, go Here. Charges dismissed in yogurt shop case Oct. 27, 2009 28-year-old convicted in 2000 shooting executed A man convicted of murder in a San Antonio robbery more than 9 years ago was executed Tuesday evening after proclaiming his innocence. Reginald Blanton, 28, received lethal injection for the April 2000 shooting death of Carlos Garza at the 22-year-old man's apartment. In a brief statement after he was strapped to the Texas death chamber gurney, Blanton insisted his execution was an injustice and he was wrongly convicted. "Carlos was my friend," he said, looking at Garza's mother, wife and 3 sisters, who watched through a window a few feet from him. "I didn't murder him. What's happening right now is an injustice. This doesn't solve anything. This will not bring back Carlos." Blanton also complained the lethal drugs that would be used on him weren't allowed to put down dogs. "I say I am worse off than a dog," he said. "They want to kill me for all this. I am not the man that did this." Then he told friends he loved them and to continue to fight. "I will see y'all again," he said. He was pronounced dead at 6:21 p.m., 8 minutes after the lethal drugs began flowing. "Today is the day we have all been waiting for," said one of Garza's sisters, Sulema Balverde. "My brother Carlos Garza can finally rest in peace." The women held hands or wrapped their arms around each other while Blanton spoke. Some wiped away tears. "I miss my son dearly and have waited for this day to finally get here," said Irene Garza, the victim's mother. The punishment was carried out less than 2 hours after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected Blanton's last-day appeals. He had always maintained his innocence but a security video submitted at his capital murder trial showed him pawning 2 gold necklaces and a religious medal belonging to Garza about 20 minutes after the shooting. When he was arrested 4 days later, he was wearing more of Garza's jewelry. Blanton's twin brother, Robert Blanton, told police his brother broke into Garza's apartment, believing no one was home, and shot Garza when he appeared. Prosecutors said Reginald Blanton, who was 18 at the time, took some jewelry and left, then returned 20 minutes later to go through Garza's place. He took about $100 in cash. The necklaces got him $79 at a pawn shop. A neighbor called police after seeing the broken door and spotting Garza lying on the floor. Garza died later at a hospital. Robert Blanton's girlfriend tipped police about the shooting. Robert Blanton implicated his brother during questioning. Reginald Blanton argued his brother's statement was coerced by police. Robert Blanton wasn't charged in the case because authorities couldn't show he was involved in the break-in or shooting, but he's now in prison, serving a 2-year term for an unrelated drug conviction at the Huntsville Unit, the prison where the execution was carried out. Reginald Blanton's trial attorneys told a Bexar County jury he shouldn't be sentenced to die, saying he had a horrible childhood with little supervision and he could have been harmed as a fetus because his mother was pushed down the stairs. Witnesses testified Blanton smoked marijuana at age 11, spent time at a juvenile boot camp and joined gangs in San Antonio to seek protection his family didn't provide. He had previous arrests for shoplifting, weapons possession, auto theft and marijuana possession. When he was arrested on the capital murder charge, he had 4 bags of marijuana and a shotgun. He was accused of assaulting an inmate while awaiting trial. On death row, prison records show Blanton had several disciplinary infractions, including possession of a sharpened steel shank. He also was among death row inmates caught last year with illegal cell phones. Blanton became the 19th inmate to be executed in Texas this year. At least 6 more lethal injections are scheduled before the end of the year, including Khristian Oliver, 32, set to die next week for the beating death of a Nacogdoches County man during a burglary in 1998. Blanton becomes the 442nd condemned inmate to be put to death in Texas since the state resumed capital punishment on December 7, 1982. He is the 203rd condemned inmate to be put to death since Rick Perry became governor in 2001. Blanton becomes the 42nd condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 1178th overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977. On the Net: Texas Department of Criminal Justice Execution Schedule (sources : Associated Press & Rick Halperin) 10/25/09 Ex-governors death penalty skepticism a welcome step Former Texas Gov. Mark White did last week what he could never have done during his 2 campaigns for state attorney general and three bids for the governors office. He said it is time for Texas to rethink the use of capital punishment and replace the death penalty with life in prison. You see, no one can run a successful statewide campaign in Texas the death penalty capital of the country without being for capital punishment. Just ask any of the candidates already running for governor in next years election. They wouldn't dare come out against the ultimate legal penalty. Even the late Ann Richards, a compassionate soul indeed, felt compelled to talk tough like the good ol boys and declare her stand in favor of this barbaric practice. When White ran his 3rd race for governor, in 1990, facing Richards in the Democratic primary, he actually bragged about the people who were executed on his watch. 19 people were put to death by the state while he was governor, between 1983 and 1987. During an interview on National Public Radio last week, he was reminded of the commercial he ran in that race, which Richards ultimately won. Melissa Block, host of All Things Considered, began the conversation by saying, "I'm going to play for you part of a campaign ad from back in 1990 when you ran again. You lost in the Democratic primary, and the ad shows you walking along the portraits of people who were executed while you were governor. Let's listen." The sound bite from the ad has White saying, "These hardened criminals will never again murder, rape or deal drugs. As governor, I made sure they received the ultimate punishment: death. And Texas is a safer place for it." White's change of heart last week, coming after national news coverage about the 2004 execution of a man who might have been innocent, was heralded by death penalty opponents, including Amnesty International USA. "The evolution of Governor White's views on the death penalty in Texas is welcomed news, and it mirrors the change that is taking place nationwide," the human rights organization said in a statement. "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. Those who once supported the death penalty are now significantly less sure." With the growing number of exonerations of convicted people in Texas 2 others from Dallas County announced last week one can't help but wonder, "How many innocent people have been put to death for a crime they did not commit?" The Texas case getting a lot of scrutiny now partly because Gov. Rick Perry overreacted to a state commissions investigation of it is that of Cameron Todd Willingham, convicted of killing his 3 young daughters in a fire. He was executed 5 years ago. (source: Editorial, Fort Worth Star-Telegram) 10/25/09 Death penalty demonstrators march at State Capitol Hundreds rallied Saturday afternoon at the State Capitol as part of the 10th annual March to Abolish the Death Penalty. They came certain an innocent man was executed and called for an end to the death penalty. The protesters drew attention to the controversial case of Cameron Todd Willingham. He was tried, convicted and in 2004 executed for setting a fire to his house, killing his 3 young daughters. Despite not having a clear motive, investigators accused him of arson. But a new report, commissioned by the Texas Forensic Science Commission, says the expert evidence was wrong. Elizabeth Gilbert, a playwright and Willinghams former pen pal, is convinced of his innocence and was instrumental in helping his family find a fire investigator to examine his case. She believes an innocent man was put to death. "We executed a person who didn't commit a crime," she said. "I am hoping to bring attention that if 1 person is executed, thats more than enough." Governor Perry has come under fire for replacing several members of a state commission just days before it was to hear a report on the science used to convict Willingham of arson. He has dismissed the criticism as anti-death penalty rhetoric. He says the panel will move forward with the investigation and maintains Willingham was guilty. "Willingham was a monster," said the Governor. "This was a guy who murdered hi s 3 children, who tried to beat his wife into an abortion so that he wouldn't have those kids. Person after person has stood up and testified to facts of this case that, quite frankly, you all aren't covering." There were counter-demonstrato rs at the rally. Willingham's mother, Eugenia, had been scheduled to speak at the rally but organizers said lawyers had advised her not to attend. In a written statement handed out by organizers, she wrote: "At this time, my primary concern is that the Texas Forensic Commission be given the opportunity to continue the investigation into Todd's wrongful death." She wrote about receiving letters of support from death row inmates, saying her son's execution has caused appeals courts to take a closer look at their cases. This won't bring Todd back, but I take comfort in knowing that others may be freed because of him." (source: TXCN News) DEATH PENALTY Protesters march to call for an end to executions Recent remarks by Perry fuel anti-death penalty rally. By Joshunda Sanders AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF October 25, 2009 Anti-death penalty protesters gathered at the Capitol on Saturday in part to voice their disapproval of Gov. Rick Perry's remarks this month regarding Cameron Todd Willingham, the Corsicana man convicted of setting a fire that killed his three young children on Dec. 23, 1991. The 10th annual March to Abolish the Death Penalty occurred in the midst of a renewed debate over capital punishment, largely spurred by Willingham's case. Most recently, former Texas Gov. Mark White said the state should reconsider its use of capital punishment "so we don't look up one day and determine that we, as the State of Texas, have executed someone who in fact was innocent." White's comments came as Perry has been criticized for replacing four members of the Texas Forensics Commission and delaying consideration of a fire scientist's report questioning the 2004 execution of Willingham. Perry has described Willingham as a "monster" and said he is certain of his guilt. One of the lawyers who represented Willingham in his appeals disagreed. "Todd Willingham was a person who deserved to be treated fairly, and he didn't get that," said Walter Reaves, Willingham's appellate attorney. "No one could ever make the case that if we knew then what we know now that he would have been convicted, tried and executed." Jeff Blackburn, founder of the Innocence Project of Texas, a nonprofit group that works to overturn wrongful convictions, said that the Willingham case "represents an opportunity for Texas to fix a broken criminal justice system." Scott Cobb, president of the Texas Moratorium Network, a nonprofit organization that aims to mobilize support for a moratorium on state executions, said about 50 organizations were responsible for organizing Saturday's march. The event attracted hundreds of people, who carried signs with photographs of inmates currently on death row and posters bearing slogans such as "Stop All Executions." About a dozen protesters sat on the steps of the Capitol, holding white posters with lists of the hundreds of inmates who have been executed in Texas since 1982, when the state resumed executions. Austinite Jeanette Popp, 60, came to the march with a different perspective. On Oct. 24, 1988, Popp's 20-year-old daughter, Nancy DePriest, was found dead with her hands bound behind her back at the North Austin Pizza Hut where she worked. Two men were wrongfully convicted of her death and served 12 years in prison. They were freed in 2001, after DNA evidence implicated another man. The confessed killer, Achim Josef Marino, said that he had shot DePriest as part of a satanic sacrifice. Eventually, Popp lobbied for Marino to be spared the death penalty, which he was. Despite the time that has passed, Popp said, the conversation on capital punishment has not changed. "It's the 21st anniversary of my daughter's murder, and we're still talking about murdering people with the murdering machine," she said. jsanders@statesman.com; 445-3630 Protesters march to call for an end to executions Oct. 24, 2009 A change of heart: Sex offenders who kill deserve the death penalty This will be one of my shortest op-ed pieces within 9 years of writing them, but I must come clean. In as much as I say that I am pro-life where I have stated I am pro-life from cradle-to-grave, I must, I must take back that mantle especially when it comes to child sexual predators. These monsters will at times take the lives of innocent victims, namely children. Our precious children gone before the promise of their lives not realized to all of us. If a writer is to be honest with their readers, then they must be honest with themselves first and foremost. Over the years I have read up on pedophilia and have written of it. There are no words to adequately describe my feelings towards these predators. If I had to choose one word, it would be 'hate'. That word at times seems tame. In delving into the heinous world of pedophilia, one cannot take enough hot showers to clean themselves from reading story-upon-story of children raped and murdered by demons. I want these demons dead. I cannot stomach their apologists or those who try, try to explain away their deviant behavior. How dare they?! Let them face a child who has survived a predator or a parent whose child was taken by one. I do not want these demons out within our neighborhoods being told to register under Megan's Law, I want them locked up. Is that so much to ask of our stupid politicians who think this is the best way of dealing with sexual offenders? In doing so, it is their abdication of judicial responsibility to deal with these predators. They expect us to deal with them instead of them. I have stated that from the get-go, yet, yet no one listens. Tonight, I had to put out a tweet on Twitter.com and my Facebook.com page this entry: "My tears and anguish go out to Diena Thompson whose daughter Somer was killed by a child predator. Fry him!" It is my sincere hope that you sit and listen to Diena Thompson openly grieve fully knowing that her beloved Somer will not come back to her again and murdered at the hands of a predator. Whose rights should we as a society be protecting? The rights of the victim(s) or the rights of the predator(s)? Somer Thompson and children just like her namely Jessica Lunsford will not be coming back to their loved ones or to us and it is time we stand up for them. We as a society must demand of our politicos that if you sexually harm a child and are declared a level 3 sex offender, you are never getting out of prison. If you kill a child in the act of any sexual act, you will face the death penalty. It is the least we can do for those most innocent amongst us; our children. So, I guess I am not pro-life from cradle-to-grave; but justice for the most innocent amongst us rings louder in my ears. I hope that you hear them too. (source: Mary MacElveen, OpEdNews) 10/24/09 Death Penalty Is Too Expensive for States; Study Finds----State and Local Governments Facing Budget Crunches Can Realize Big Savings by Eliminating the Death Penalty A group opposing capital punishment is urging government officials to reassess the costs and benefits of the death penalty in light of America's economic troubles. State and local governments facing dire budget crunches can realize substantial savings by replacing capital punishment with a regime that sentences the worst offenders to life in prison without parole, according to a report released Tuesday by the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC). The number of death sentences handed down in the United States has dropped from roughly 300 a year in the 1990s to 115 a year more recently. Executions are falling off at the same rate, the report says. In the meantime, some 3,300 inmates remain on death row. "[T]he death penalty is turning into a very expensive form of life without parole," said Richard Dieter, DPIC executive director, in a statement. "At a time of budget shortfalls, the death penalty cannot be exempt from reevaluation alongside other wasteful government programs that no longer make sense." Despite the report's findings, the death penalty has the support of most Americans. According to an October 2008 Gallup survey, 64 percent of Americans favor the death penalty for a person convicted of murder. Thirty percent oppose it. Only once in the past 70 years (in 1966-67) did more Americans oppose capital punishment than support it, the poll results show. In that time span, 47 % opposed it, while 42 % supported it. The DPIC study does not address American attitudes toward capital punishment. Instead, the report focuses on the economic costs. A 2008 study in California found that the state was spending $137 million a year on capital cases. A comparable system that instead sentenced the same offenders to life without parole would cost $11.5 million, says the DPIC report, citing the study's estimates. New York spent $170 million over 9 years on capital cases before repealing the death penalty. No executions were carried out there. New Jersey spent $253 million over 25 years with no executions. That state also repealed capital punishment. Some officials may be tempted to try to cut capital-punishment costs, notes the DPIC report, but many of those costs reflect Supreme Court-mandated protections at the trial and appeals-court levels. "The choice today is between a very expensive death penalty and one that risks falling below constitutional standards," the report says. Nationwide, the report estimates, at least $2 billion has been spent since 1976 for costs that wouldn't have been incurred if the severest penalty were life in prison. The figure is based on an estimate in a 1993 North Carolina study that found the average extra cost of a death sentence in this state was $300,000. The average extra cost of capital punishment is significantly higher in several other states like California, Florida, and Maryland, the report says. Bills calling for an end to capital punishment have been introduced in 11 state legislatures this year. Also this year, New Mexico abolished the death penalty, and Maryland narrowed its use. The Connecticut governor vetoed a law that would have ended capital punishment. The DPIC report includes the results of a recent poll of 500 police chiefs nationwide. 57 % of the chiefs polled said they agreed with the statement that the death penalty does little to prevent violent crimes because perpetrators rarely consider the consequences when engaged in violence. 39 % of police chiefs disagreed with this statement. The DPIC study concludes that capital punishment is a wasteful, expensive program that no longer makes sense. "The promised benefits from the death penalty have not materialized, "the report says. "If more states choose to end the death penalty, it will hardly be missed, and the economic savings will be significant." (source: ABC News) Oct. 23, 2009 Abolish the death penalty today After spending 28 years in prison for a crime he did not commit, Mark Clements was finally set free in August. Here, he comments on the case of Reginald Blanton, who is scheduled to be executed on October 27 by the state of Texas. Texas is still under fire for the execution of Cameron Todd Willingham, but on October 27, 2009, the state is scheduled to execute Reginald Blanton, despite his claims of innocence. In the Willingham case, Texas Gov. Rick Perry carried out the execution. Now that new evidence has surfaced that strongly suggests Perry killed an innocent man, he wishes to insist that he do likewise in the Blanton case. Gov. Perry has ignored the opinion of millions around this nation who firmly believe that Willingham was indeed innocent. He has called him a "monster" even as he has disregarded key evidence by fire experts that Willingham never set the fire that killed his children, but rather that it was caused by some kind of accident. In the Reginald Blanton case, Blanton was convicted on faulty evidence--that a shoe print belonged to him. The shoe print is now known to have been two sizes larger than his shoe print. His trial attorneys were ineffective, and there was not one eyewitness in the case. The witnesses against Blanton have since come forward to claim that police forced them to sign statements. The Texas courts once again allowed African Americans to be excluded from the jury. This is a case that Gov. Perry should be pleased to reexamine, but he has told the media that he will carry out the execution of Reginald Blanton as planned--which amounts once again to a smack in the face of African Americans all across this nation. No other race has suffered injustice like African Americans in this country. In the state of Illinois, it is a known fact that innocent men have been beaten and tortured by racist police detectives-- framed and convicted, and placed on death row. History is repeating itself once again. Slavery still exists. If you think it does not, then try walking in the shoes of Reginald Blanton, Kenneth Foster, Troy Davis, Rodney Reed, Stan Tookie Stanley Williams, Stanley Howard and many others. The state of Texas' criminal justice system serves as the spotlight on why the death penalty in this country should be abolished today, not tomorrow. (source: Socialist Worker) 10/22/09 Uncomfortable jokes about executing prisoners by former Texas Death House warden Joking about executions was more than some students and college professors were ready to hear, especially when the stand up comic was in charge of executing so many Texas prisoners. The warden who oversaw the Walls Unit in Huntsville, giving the order to go ahead with 89 executions, joked about sending inmates to their death as he spoke to a University of Houston Downtown lecture Tuesday night, but some students and staff expressed discomfort as they talked about it outside the event. Jim Willett had copies of his two books for sale as he addressed the UHD Criminal Justice Lecture Series. Now head of the Texas Prison Museum in Huntsville, he never focused on one single theme or message as he addressed a room full of around 80 students, faculty and visitors. He began telling several stories and then stopped, midway, and told the audience he needed to back up or he had forgotten details. In answering one student's question, Willett said an inmate had clearly told the prison chaplain minutes before his execution that he was innocent of the crime he was about to die for. As the audience sat and digested his statement, he said he meant to say that the inmate had admitted his guilt. Willett was responding to a question about whether he ever gave the command to execute an inmate that he believed may be innocent. Willett said the inmate in his botched story had told the chaplain that he really was guilty, but he gave a final statement professing his innocence because he just couldn't stand the thought of telling his family he was guilty. While joking or making fun may be an understandable part of on-the-job stress relief for prison workers when no one else is around, Willett's jokes about sending prisoners to their death took students, faculty and others in attendance by surprise. He said that one inmate was strapped to the gurney and asked for a piece of gum because his mouth was so dry. In a move of compassion, the executioner stepped up and opened a piece of candy and plopped it into the inmate's mouth. The warden said that inmate just started chewing and chewing on that candy. Then Willett said he stepped around to the inmate's other shoulder and asked the inmate if that happened to be a Livesaver. While a few uncomfortable laughs were heard in the UHD auditorium, others looked to the floor. Willett then continued his story and said the inmate replied that he was hoping that it was, indeed, a Lifesaver, but he didn't think it was working. Willett also says he joked with another inmate who was about to die, over the gesture the warden would give to start the execution. He said that the inmate had heard a national radio interview, in which Willett said his signal to the executioner was to simply take off his reading glasses when the inmate's final statement was finished. When the glasses come off, the executioner starts the lethal drugs flowing through the IV. Willett gleefully said he asked this particular inmate how he'd know when the final statement was finished, and he said the inmate replied that he would just tell the warden to take off his glasses. But that joke wasn't over for the UHD crowd. Willett said he sternly told the inmate not to say such a thing during his final statement to the witnesses in the execution chamber. He said he was very firmly telling him not to do something, but he chuckled with the UHD college crowd and said he found it strange that he was threatening an inmate who was about to die. After all, said Willett, what could he possibly threaten this person with anyway? Willett's story about taking off his glasses to signal the executioner has been repeated many times since he started selling books. He told a KPRC Local 2 interviewer about his trademark move for a report that aired after his retirement from TDCJ. It was also immortalized in that radio broadcast that the now deceased convict had mentioned hearing, since that NPR broadcast received a Peabody Award. At the UHD event, he admitted that he copied that move from the past warden. Perhaps that past warden didn't take so much joy in telling about this move, which is why it's ripe for this warden to use as new material. Willett also said he followed the advice of that past warden by waiting exactly 3 minutes from the time the inmate appears to die before calling in the doctor to pronounce the inmate dead. He said the past warden had indicated this was 'just to be safe' so he figured he should follow that protocol. On the first execution he presided over, he said it was the longest 3 minutes of his life. Willett told several stories of how he was compassionate in the final hours or moments of a convict's life, almost as if he was bragging. In one case, he says he allowed a series of phone calls that are normally off limits, in other cases he says he allowed cigarettes for the condemned even though TDCJ has been smoke free since the 90's. At first, Willett said there were almost never any problems in finding a vein to insert needles on both arms of the inmate. Then later, he was asked a specific question and he admitted one instance where veins could not be easily found so only a single needle was inserted in one arm. After he gave the order to start the execution, he said the inmate turned to him and announced the needle had fallen out. Willett said he closed the curtains to shield the witnesses, and those witnesses were led out so that they could be led in to start all over again once the needle had been replaced. He said he often tapped people who are not state employees to help him with the difficult task of starting the final IV's for executions under his watch. When pressed for exactly what he meant, he remained vague but he said he would sometimes find people who had experience in starting IV's during the Vietnam War since they would be perfect for the task in the stressful Texas Death Chamber. On the subject of needing to round up help in executing convicts, Willett said several employees who executed Karla Faye Tucker asked to be removed from the execution detail. He said some called in sick the following day and others sought counseling, while others said it changed how they looked at executions. Tucker was one of two women to be executed on Willet's watch. The other, he said, went smoothly. However, Tucker's was complicated by the immense national media attention since she had claimed to be a born-again Christian and shots of her praying were all over the national news as her execution approached in 1998. She was condemned for a barbaric 1993 drug-fueled pickax slaying of 2 people. Willett said his entire 'strap down team' and anyone having any part of the execution always handled it with professionalism and that was always important to him. He said that he would watch carefully because anyone who seemed to enjoy executions had no place in the execution process. He said he would quickly call them in and take them off the execution detail if they seemed like they'd be unprofessional about such a somber task. In this reviewer's opinion, Willett should follow his own advice and take himself off the execution detail for his book tour. From a reporter who has been an official witness of 2 executions and covered dozens more: This UHD book-selling lecture was likely the worst example of insensitivity and glee from a TDCJ Death House employee being on display in such a disturbing manner. (source: Stephen Dean, Houston Examiner) Oct. 21, 2009 Death Row Inmates in Texas Tell Their Stories in New Book The U.S. state with the busiest death chamber and one of the largest prison populations is Texas, where public opinion polls show the death penalty is supported by more than 70% of the population. A new book by students at a Texas university compiles writings and art work done by condemned prisoners. The book, Upon This Chessboard of Nights and Days, Voices from Texas Death Row, was published by Texas Review Press, on the campus of Sam Houston State University in Huntsville - a city that is the location of one of the state's largest prisons and where executions are carried out. The book provides a rare look into the minds of men who await their moment in the death chamber. Texas courts have condemned nearly 350 men and 10 women to be executed. The men are kept in a high-security prison near Livingston, Texas, a short drive from Huntsville, where the execution chamber, known as Ellis Unit One is housed. One of the men on death row is 31-year-old Robert Will, who, at the age of 22, took part in a crime that resulted in the murder of a police officer. Robert Will When asked to write something for the book on Texas' death row, he chose not to write about himself, but about a fellow inmate who took his own life. "My friend was a genuinely good person who just made some bad choices in life," he wrote. Will says many inmates on death row struggle with guilt over the people they killed as well as the anxiety of knowing they are condemned to die." "There is more stress on a person's psyche, because you are living under a sentence of death and that can weigh heavily on a person's mind. I mean I have seen guys literally go completely insane," he said. In addition to writings, the new book contains art work done by death row inmates, many of whom Will regards as true artists. "There is so much talent back here. And I know that this might sound outrageous, but if someone reads that book, perhaps it will not sound so outrageous. You have individuals back here who, I mean, you have artists who are brilliant, absolutely brilliant artists," he said. Paul Ruffin with students The idea for the book on death row originated with Sam Houston State University English Professor Paul Ruffin, who teaches a class in which students develop a book from inception to printing. He says this book gives a voice to people who society has cast off. "What we wanted to do was give them an outlet for their work, for their expression. We wanted to know what it was like, day-to-day, living on death row," he said. Around 50 male inmates submitted writings and art work. But none of the condemned women responded, much to Ruffin's disappointment. He says they, like many male inmates, might have distrusted the motives of the people working on the book. A photo of a torn-up request for submissions is featured in the book. Paula Khalaf, student editor But one of the book's seven student editors, Paula Khalaf, says those who did contribute seemed to like the idea. "One of the inmates said, 'Thank you for the opportunity to show that we are not monsters; we are human beings,'" she said. Khalaf says that before working on this book, she never thought much about the death penalty, but she was deeply touched by reading the stories of men who often grew up in broken homes and who, as one inmate says, "became lost souls as children." "I have to say I have probably changed my feelings about the death penalty. Probably, if I had to come down as either for or against it at this point, I would be against it," she said. James Ridgway But fellow editor James Ridgway has mixed feelings about that issue and the prisoners themselves. "The first reaction is to be sympathetic, like, 'Oh, wow, these are really sad stories and I feel bad.' And then, the second thing that happens is you look up the crime and you are horrified," he said. Although the book does not describe the crimes committed by the inmate contributors, the information is provided online by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Ridgway says working on the book challenged him intellectually and emotionally. You are reading these things and this kind of dark mood sets over you and again, whether you are for or against the death penalty, that is not my point - it is that sifting through enough of that [writing] sort of puts that mood on you," he said. There is so much interest in the book that Professor Ruffin says his new class is already at work on a follow-up book that will include creative writing by inmates and various kinds of art work as well. One early submission is a dice game made of scrap material by an inmate who also included detailed, handwritten instructions on how to play the game he invented in his cell. Ruffin says one goal of this project has already been accomplished in that the condemned men are no longer just names and numbers. "They have become something like people we know now, whereas before they were obscure," he said. Copies of the Texas death row book were sent to the inmate contributors. Upon This Chessboard of Nights and Days, Voices from Texas Death Row is available for purchase in bookstores as well as online. (source: Voice of America News) Oct. 21, 2009 Texas Gov. Could Face Criminal Charges for Interfering with Death Penalty Review Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX) is facing questions about his responsibility for wrongfully executing Cameron Todd Willingham, convicted of arson for a fire that killed his daughters, despite new expert analysis showing there was in fact zero evidence of arson. An investigation into the execution has already found that Perry was given the new evidence to review which should have shown him that all the evidence of guilt was actually scientifically unfounded testimony but chose not to stay the execution pending review of the trial process and evidence. When the investigation began looking into Gov. Perry's review of the process, what he knew and when he knew it, he refused to reappoint the sitting chair of the commission and replaced him and two other members with conservatives sympathetic to his point of view. The new commissioner has canceled testimony from a leading arson expert that would discredit the case used to execute Willingham. Gov. Perry is locked in a serious challenge within his own party from Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, who says his politicization of the death penalty has put the entire system at risk. There are also mounting concerns the governor in fact saw the new evidence and even received a direct communication from Willinghams lawyer requesting a stay, but deliberately chose to ignore clearly exculpatory evidence for political reasons. If that is indeed the case, Gov. Perry might face legal consequences for knowingly putting an innocent man to death to further his own political career. That question has not been put forward explicitly by the state's investigators, and Gov. Perry's moves to change the makeup of the panel by appointing potential allies are a clear attempt to prevent it from being posed formally, but allegations the governor's office sought to halt the investigation suggest precisely the possibility he knew he was executing an innocent man and umis worried about the legal and political fallout should his actions be formally investigated. For his part, Gov. Perry is now aggressively attacking Willingham in the court of public opinion, seeking to make his death seem a welcome end to a reign of terror by calling him a "monster" and saying he beat his wife to force her to have an abortion. Perry hopes to persuade a majority of voters to see him as a man who did his civic duty in putting a murderer to death. But even Republicans are now questioning Perrys personal responsibility and commitment to the integrity of the system. Could a governor empowered by law to approve death sentences, but also to halt them before they are enforced, actually face homicide charges, should he be seen to have knowingly executed an innocent man for personal gain? Certainly federal law provides ways such a charge and/or verdict could come to pass for instance felony murder based on abuse of office, or violating a citizens civil rights by denying him his day in court (with the new evidence). What is perhaps more surprising than that this situation has arisen or that such questions are being raised this has long been expected to some degree, given the radically pro-death penalty political climate in Texas is the fact that Gov. Perry appears to have so brazenly and publicly sought to interfere in the process and evince his personal wishes that the matter never be fully reviewed. The point has many times been made, by both opponents and responsible proponents of capital punishment, that everyone, every citizen and every politician, had the same very real interest in making sure the system never permits an innocent person anywhere near death row. Perry, however, seems determined not to take any action that would ensure the integrity of the system. Either he does not claim and does not want any responsibility over the system, in which case, one imagines he is unfit to serve at the top of it, or he has taken it upon himself to impede the progress of justice, conceal evidence and unilaterally assert the reliability of a process, while refusing to use its last true humane tool to scrutinize the process and side with justice, in which case. It gets easier to see over time why Perry wants the investigation halted. He has put far more Americans to death than any living official. And Willingham was not the first case he simply shrugged off as settled and in no need of review. How many of those cases will suddenly become suspect, if 1) Willingham is formally found innocent and 2) evidence emerges that the governor ignored exculpatory evidence and executed an innocent man, not just as a result of a travesty of justice but with specific personal political and professional gain in mind? In how many of those cases did Perry consciously or even explicitly consider personal political benefit as tied to ending a human life? Opponents of the death penalty already smell blood in the water and are beginning to view Perry as easy prey. If they can show that the single most prolific executioner in the United States ignored evidence, gamed the system and put people to death banking on the political benefits of having done so, it will breathe new life into the abolitionist movement. Perry must fight not only that political battle, but also the perception that his attempt to end the investigation might be a criminal coverup. (source: CafeSentido. com) Oct. 21, 2009 Study: Death penalty is a waste of taxpayer money If you live in a state that provides a taxpayer-funded program no one is using, is it worth keeping? So why do we still have a death penalty? A new nationwide study puts things in stark terms: The death penalty is a waste of money: "A group opposing capital punishment is urging government officials to reassess the costs and benefits of the death penalty in light of America's economic troubles. State and local governments facing dire budget crunches can realize substantial savings by replacing capital punishment with a regime that sentences the worst offenders to life in prison without parole, according to a report released Tuesday by the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC)." --Christian Science Monitor The Death Penalty Information Center is a non-profit information warehouse on capital punishment that also opposes the death penalty. Execution Chamber, San Quentin (Sacramento Bee) Their study found that death penalty costs can average $10 million more per year per state than life sentences. The increased costs are due to more expensive security requirements and guaranteed access to an often lengthy appellate process. States often must assign public defenders and pay for the costs of the prosecution as well. Cases are more costly to prosecute and can take over four times longer to try, requiring additional moneys for lawyers, jurors, court personnel and other related costs. States can't afford that, so cases take longer, executions are fewer (down from a record 98 a decade ago to 40 so far this year), inmates remain on death row longer, where their incarceration is more expensive to maintain. Some 3,300 inmates remain on death row in the 35 states where capital punishment remains on the books. The death penalty needs to go. I'm not squeamish about executions. I just don't like wasting money, and the death penalty is a waste of money. New Jersey is a good test case. In December of 2007, Jersey became the first state in modern times to repeal its death penalty. It was 1 of 5 states where capital punishment remained on the books but has been unused for decades. Another 5 states have each executed only one prisoner during the past 40 years. With a blue-ribbon commission, the state of New Jersey came to what I think was a rational conclusion: capital punishment --which requires a more elaborate process at trial and in appeals-- costs too much, financially and emotionally, to maintain it as an empty gesture. The state had spent a quarter of a billion dollars above and beyond the cost of non-capital murder trials to try to satisfy the exacting standards for death penalty cases established by U-S Supreme Court and interpreted by skeptical lower courts. And in those appeals, of the 60 death sentences recommended by New Jersey juries under the current law, 57 have been reversed on appeal. The emptiness of a penalty that is so rarely imposed convinced state lawmakers that the death penalty served no purpose, and the state decided that a life sentence without possibility of parole can accomplish as much but without the added financial burdens. California, where I live, still has its death penalty. It has 678 death row inmates. We haven't executed anyone in four years. Since 1992, we've executed 13 people. From the time capital punishment was reinstated in 1978 until 1992, we've executed no one. A death penalty in which no one is put to death is not a death penalty; it's life without parole, just a more expensive form of it. Yet we pay for its upkeep. A California prison inmate in the general population costs the taxpayer about $50,000 annually. On death row, it's $90,000, over $60 million annually for all 678 inmates just for the jail cell. Last year, a blue ribbon panel put the entire cost of maintaining California's death penalty system at $137 million a year. Imagine the t-shirt: "We spent $137 million and all we got was a lousy 13 executions in 17 years." Why so much? Because a fundamental right in our system of government is due process and a defendant must have every opportunity to avail himself of all legal remedies before the state can take his life. There's no money to adequately fund the courts to quickly move defendants through the system. To do so, it would cost California taxpayers another $96 million, according to last year's panel. On the other hand, a system imposing a maximum penalty of life without parole would cost just $11.5 million per year. It's a simple choice: Spend $137 million on a death penalty system that executes no one, $233 million to execute more people more quickly, or $11.5 million to lock 'em up for good. And yet, the governor, who's been demanding budget cuts and keeps cutting state worker salaries, approved a plan to rebuild the state's death row at a cost of $356 million to the taxpayer. For what, to spend the next 17 years executing another 13 more death row inmates? States are starting to get it. The nation is moving towards abolition. Before repealing their death penalties in 2007, New York and New Jersey had spent a combined $433 million on capital cases over the previous 25 years. They executed no one. This year, New Mexico abolished the death penalty, Maryland narrowed its use and bills calling for an end to capital punishment have been introduced in 11 state legislatures. Should California follow suit? Even in Texas, passion for the death penalty is fading. Changing attitudes reflect broader changes in the cultural, political and social climate, and a key change in state sentencing laws now allow Texas juries to levy a life-without- parole sentence, dubbed LWOP. The LWOP sentencing provision, though vociferously opposed by the Texas prosecution bar, was passed by a conservative legislature and signed by a conservative governor in 2005. And again, there is the cost. In Texas, capital cases usually cost county government on average around $2.3 million each. That's three times higher than the locking up someone in maximum security for 40 years, around $770,000. Question: You have $2.3 million dollars. You can spend it on an execution, or you can spend 1/3 of it on life in prison without parole and the other two-thirds on something else that might benefit the taxpayer: Education, infrastructure like roads or public transportation, a valuable social service --whatever is of the greatest value while being cost effective. Do you want to spend $2.3 million for vengeance, or is it just as well to lock the criminal up forever with no chance of parole, get rid of the more-expensive- to-operate death row, even eliminate the possibility of executing an innocent person, and use $1.4 million normally spent in that endeavor for something that actually fulfills more of a need than a simple human emotion? Before you answer those questions, you might ask yourself some personal questions about capital punishment: a) How much of your support for the death penalty is strictly about personal revenge? b) Is the chance of executing an innocent person a small price to pay to eliminate the lengthy appeals process? c) Is the law of the land which requires due process, including the lengthy appeals process, important to you; that is, do you respect that we are a nation of laws and that we be civilized enough to abide by them, even if we don't like them? d) The cost, because if we are not executing prisoners on death row in a manner that is cost-effective to the taxpayer, it just may not be worth keeping? Would you say the death penalty is worth keeping if we're not even using it? Is it worth it for a state like California to spend another $96 million it doesn't have to make sure they do use it? Can you tell me how that makes sense when life without parole is just as effective at a fraction of that cost? The real question is: How is the greater public good served, or more specifically, how is the taxpayer being served? What are we buying for our tax dollars? As far as I can tell, not much. The death penalty is getting us nowhere and yielding us nothing. What's the point of spending money on something like that? (source: Bruce Maiman, The Examiner) Once Convicts’ Last Hope, Now a Students’ Advocate Tom Dunn worked with death row inmates; now he works with students like Halima Osman, a sixth grader in Atlanta. By JOHN SCHWARTZ Published: October 18, 2009 ATLANTA — “Pick your head up, buddy,” Tom Dunn said to Darius Nash, who had fallen asleep during the morning’s reading drills. “Sabrieon, sit down, buddy,” he called to a wandering boy. “Focus.” Mr. Dunn’s classroom is less than three miles from his old law office, where he struggled to keep death row prisoners from the executioner’s needle. This summer, after serving hundreds of death row clients for 20 grinding, stressful years, he traded the courthouse for Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School. The turmoil of middle school turns many teachers away, said the school’s principal, Danielle S. Battle. Students’ bodies and minds are changing, and disparities in learning abilities are playing out. “A lot of people will say, ‘I’ll do anything but middle school,’” she said. But this is precisely where Mr. Dunn chose to be, having seen too many people at the end of lives gone wrong, and wanting to keep these students from ending up like his former clients. He quotes Frederick Douglass: “It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.” The school has institutional architecture that brings prisons to mind, but Ms. Battle has warmed it with colorful paint and brighter light. Ninety-three percent of students are black and 5 percent Hispanic; some 97 percent qualify for free or reduced lunch. “I just walked in here and fell in love with the place,” Mr. Dunn recalled. His day begins at 8 a.m., when he stands by the school’s buzzing metal detector, checking bags, as nearly 600 students file through in a half-hour. It is not a popular job, but he uses the time like a politician working the plant gate at shift changes. Saying hello with a smile, he taps the bags, peeks inside, sends the students along. But he is also no-nonsense, with a “hey-hey-hey!” to pull back the ones who try to slip around the detector. Ms. Battle drops by to greet the students. As a lawyer, Mr. Dunn said, he saw his job as “telling stories,” to help judges see each client as a human being who may or may not have done terrible things, but who suffered wrongs at trial or earlier in life — and who deserved fairness under the rule of law, perhaps even mercy. He told clients’ stories while defense counsel in the Army Trial Defense Service, in Florida, in New York State and most recently at the Georgia Resource Center, the nonprofit law firm he led. Though the center does not keep a scorecard, the strategy has resulted in delayed executions, commuted death sentences and even overturned convictions, said Brian Kammer, who took over as executive director. “If you’re just talking about the legal niceties of the case, you’re boring the heck out of the audience,” Mr. Kammer said. “You’re squandering the moral force of your argument.” After decades of accumulating such stories, Mr. Dunn said, he recognized a common thread: the lack of a supportive authority figure like a teacher, of a helping hand that might have meant “the difference between a good life and a ruined life.” Illness forced his decision to leave the law. In 2006, he ignored a sore throat and worked through two months of grueling hearings in four cases back to back. Bacteria entered his bloodstream, causing toxic shock; the infection caused deterioration in his spine and led to congestive heart failure. He recovered, but not fully; this year, Mr. Kammer recalled, Mr. Dunn met with the staff and said: “I have the heart of a 70-year-old man. If I continue to do this work at the level I want to do it, I’m going to die.” The same day that he left the center, he showed up at the Atlanta training program of Teach for America. During his training, he focused on special education, recalling that he saw learning disabilities “in nearly every case” on death row. He now works mainly in classrooms that blend special education students with the general population. When he interviewed with the administrators at King, though, he encountered skepticism. “I was just baffled by why he’d want to come here,” said Barbara Shea, an assistant principal, standing with Mr. Dunn as the hallways cleared and an afternoon class began. “I tried to warn him — I wanted him to understand it was not an easy job.” Across the hall a classroom door opened, and the teacher pulled a tall, angry student out by his arm and asked Mr. Dunn for help. “He’s having a Taylor moment,” Ms. Shea said, referring to a girl in the class. “He wants to sock her in the mouth.” The boy walked toward the exit, but Mr. Dunn argued him back to a chair where he sat, stormy and silent. Mr. Dunn talked softly to him, helping him to settle down. Walked to his office, Mr. Dunn chuckled at the thought that Ms. Shea might have seen him as a dreamer. “You can’t be a starry-eyed idealist and do defense work in capital cases for 20 years,” he said. Propped against the wall in the office — actually, a converted teacher workroom that his colleagues pass through to get to a restroom — is a clipboard with a paraphrase of a quotation from former Justice Harry A. Blackmun of the United States Supreme Court: “From this day forward, I no longer shall tinker with the machinery of death.” It was from a dissent in a 1994 case in which the justice argued that “the death penalty experiment has failed.” Mr. Dunn was in the office in August when he got word that the Supreme Court had ordered a lower court to reconsider the case of one of his best-known former clients, Troy Davis. At that moment, being out of the game was “really hard,” Mr. Dunn said. But in the classroom, there is no hint of regret. In the afternoon, a student, Shamon Nations, abruptly asked, “What made you come to school and give up your other job?” He replied, “Because I love you guys.” Somehow, it does not sound saccharine. Shamon was not satisfied. “Yeah, but what about the money?” “I made a lot more money last year,” Mr. Dunn acknowledged. “But it’s not about money.” Between classes, as he walked down the halls and the class bell rang, he stopped stragglers who might have been tempted to keep wandering. “Hey, buddy,” he asked one. “Where are you going?” He slipped an arm around the boy’s shoulder, and used it for leverage to give a gentle shove in the right direction. Once Convicts’ Last Hope, Now a Students’ Advocate Oct. 18, 2009 Screams, flames among horrors of botched US executions US executions are meant to be clinical and humane, but for some they end up resembling medieval torture, complete with the smell of burning flesh, screams, and scenes so gruesome that witnesses faint. "We put animals to death more humanely," reporter Carla McClain said of a 1992 execution she witnessed, in which Donald Eugene Harding writhed and thrashed in an Arizona gas chamber for over 10 minutes before dying. Last month, Romell Brown became only the 2nd man to leave a US execution chamber alive, after 18 failed attempts to administer the lethal injection. Authorities in Ohio decided to halt his execution after officials spent two hours trying to inject him with lethal chemicals. Many of those executed in the United States in the last 25 years were not so lucky, suffering through executions in which flesh caught on fire, blood saturated shirts, and witnesses watched and listened as the condemned convulsed and screamed with pain. In 1999, Florida Supreme Court Justice Leander Shaw reacted with horror to pictures of Allen Lee Davis, who was put to death by electric chair. "The colour photos of Davis depict a man who -- for all appearances -- was brutally tortured to death by the citizens of Florida," Shaw wrote. Davis had been strapped into an electric chair especially designed to fit his 160kg frame. As he was electrocuted, but before he was pronounced dead, blood poured from his mouth, soaking his white shirt and oozing through the buckle holes of the strap holding him down. Michael Radelet, a professor at the University of Colorado, worked with the Death Penalty Information Centre to collect testimony on more than 40 botched instances from the witnesses required to be present at executions. Horror stories have emerged about all the execution methods commonly used in the United States, including the electric chair, lethal injection and gas chamber, with most of the disasters due to human error. In 1983 in Alabama, a 1st jolt of electricity caused the electrode attached to John Evans' leg to catch fire. Smoke and sparks also came from under the hood placed over his head, near where an electrode was strapped to his left temple. A 2nd jolt was administered, but despite the smoke and smell of burning flesh, doctors discovered Evans' heart was still beating and applied a 3rd jolt that finally killed him after 14 minutes. 2 years later, in Indiana, William Vandiver received 5 separate jolts of electricity over the course of 17 minutes before his heart stopped. Jesse Joseph Tafero was sentenced to death by electric chair in Florida in 1990, but a synthetic sponge that was used during his execution caught fire, causing 6-inch flames to erupt from his head. Sentenced to death by gas chamber in Mississippi in 1983, Jimmy Lee Gray had the misfortune to be put to death by an executioner who later admitted he was drunk. Gray's gasps and moans so horrified observers that the witness room was cleared by officials. In recent years, several lawsuits have challenged the lethal injection as "cruel," but it continues to be used by most US states practicing the death penalty and the Supreme Court upheld its constitutionality in 2008. But for Bennie Demps, who spent 33 minutes of agony as execution technicians tried to find a back-up vein that could support an alternate intravenous drip in case the first one failed, the pain was excruciating. "They butchered me back there. I was in a lot of pain. They cut me in the groin, they cut me in the leg. I was bleeding profusely. This is not an execution, it is murder," he said in his final statement. In Angel Diaz's case, in Florida in 2006, a single dose of the lethal cocktails that anesthetise, paralyse and then stop the recipient's heart was not enough. The 1st injection went through his vein and out the other side, dispersing the chemicals into his muscles, forcing a 2nd dose to be given. At times, the scenes have been gruesome enough to physically affect observers. In 1989, in Texas, which holds the record for the most US executions, a male witness fainted after watching Stephen McCoy's violent writhing. Some of the most recent horror stories come from Ohio, where Broom's execution was halted. "It don't work! It don't work," yelled a sobbing Joseph Clark in May 2006, as the vein that executioners had worked 22 minutes to find collapsed while the chemicals were being administered. A year later, Ohio authorities took 2 hours to successfully find veins and administer Christopher Newton the lethal injection. The process took so long, he was authorised to take a bathroom break. The only other person to have survived execution in the United States was young black man named Willie Francis who survived a Louisiana electric chair in the 1940s. He was later put to death on a 2nd attempt. (source: Agence France Presse) Oct. 5, 2009 Texans sent to death row by bad science On September 3, the Dallas Progressive Examiner reported on the conclusion reached by Maryland's Dr. Craig L. Beyler, that two men were sent to Texas' death row, because of bad science. Dr Beyler was hired by the Texas Forensic Science Commission, to run a study of the investigations of two fires resulting in deaths . Ernest Willis was convicted in 1987 of killing 2 women by setting a fire. In 2004, a new district attorney, suspected that bad science had been used in the original investigation. The D.A. ordered a new one, which cleared Willis. The 2nd case, was that of Cameron Todd Willingham of Corsicana, who was convicted in 1992 of setting the fire which killed his 2 year old daughter and 1 year old pair of twins. He was executed in 2004 The Commission was scheduled to hold a hearing on Friday, October 2 in Irving, at which Beyler was to testify about the study. 2 days before that hearing, Governor Perry removed the chairman and two others from the commission. The new chairman, reputed to be one of the most conservative prosecutors in Texas canceled the hearing, and refused to say whether it will be rescheduled. Beyler, a nationally-recogniz ed expert in fire science, released his findings in August. He found that there was no way that an investigator could determine that Willingham intentionally set the fire that killed his children. Willingham's prosecutor admitted that the fire science used to prove that Willingham set the fire was bad, but said there were other reasons he knew Willingham was guilty, such as the fact that Willingham's feet weren't burned, as they would have been, if he had tried to rescue his children. Beyler said that there was extensive documentation showing that Willingham was burned. Shortly before Willingham's execution, his attorneys found indications that the investigation had been flawed, and applied to the governor for a 30 day stay, so that they could submit their findings to the court. Perry denied the stay. He said that he didn't accept Beyler's findings and felt there was further proof of Willingham's guilt. Many experts condemned Perry's action of dismissing the commissioners. Barry Scheck of the Innocence Project compared the firings of the commission members to the Saturday Night Massacre, in which Richard Nixon fired special prosecutor Archibald Cox, before he was compelled to give Cox the Watergate tapes. Sam Bassett, the chairman of the commission who was replaced, said that forensic investigations should not be stopped by political ramifications. Gerald Hunt, a chemist with an explosives corporation who wrote Perry before the execution saying the investigation had been faulty, said he is not surprised by Perry's actions, but that he had not expected the governor to go so far. He thinks Perry doesn't want the public to hear from Beyler, because Beyler's professional credentials are impeccable. Perry's opponents in the gubernatorial race also spoke up. His Republican opponent, US Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, said that she is pro death penalty, but only when we are sure of the person's guilt. Democratic candidate Tom Schieffer said that "No one in public life should ever be afraid of the truth", and called for the hearings to be rescheduled. Most of the developed countries have abolished the death penalty. A list of the nations who execute the most people is telling. The top 3 in order are China, Saudi Arabia and the United States. Texas executes more people than any other state. (source: Dallas Progressive Examiner) Oct. 5, 2009 Welcome to Texas: The Death Penalty State You know those billboards you see on the side of freeways advertising new subdivisions built in rural areas outside of town? "If you lived here, you'd be home by now." Someone needs to throw up a similar one next to the "Welcome to Texas" signs you hit when coming in on I-10. "If you'd done what our Governor has done, you'd be executed by now." As the case against Cameron Todd Willingham, executed in 2004, sinks like a rock, the truth has started to float to the top and the rats are streaming out from all sides, led by none other than Texas Governor Rick Perry. Perry has reason to be running - his office denied clemency to Willingham just before he was executed, despite the fact that new information was submitted from arson experts stating that "no evidence of arson" was found (see Dare Devils: Governor Rick Perry and the Texas Death Panel----below). This is the same Rick Perry - as a native Texan who voted for the Democrat in that election, I feel honor-bound to remind you - who won with only 39% of the vote in 2006. Even Texans know that at best this makes him unpopular. It also means that our Governor, his hair a-glaze, has his work cut out for him in his re-election race. So it should come as no surprise that Perry is now pawing the ground like a cat in a litter box, covering his tracks. Inconveniently for him, the stink remains. As the state's Forensic Science Commission, which was set up to investigate the Willingham case, was preparing a report on the validity of the arson investigation, Governor Perry decided to replace three of the nine members appointed to the commission. The chairman of the commission was replaced with Williamson County District Attorney John Bradley, who the Dallas Morning News calls "one of the most conservative, hard-line prosecutors in Texas." The timing, according to the Dallas Morning News, disturbed the former chairman, Austin lawyer Sam Bassett. "In my view, we should not fail to investigate important forensic issues in cases simply because there might be political ramifications, " Bassett said. But political ramifications, particularly to a professional politician who's been called everything from a "cyborg" to "Tricky Ricky," are exactly what keeps our Texas Governor up at night, not the death of innocent people, under-funded public schools, teen pregnancy rates or children without health insurance. For the rest of us, Willingham's final words are a chilling reminder echoing in the news around the world this week nearly 6 years after his execution: "I am an innocent man convicted of a crime I did not commit. I have been persecuted for 12 years for something I did not do." But, ultimately, Governor Perry's statement regarding his not-so-covered cover up says it better than anything I could ever write. In one moment at a press conference this week, he took all that was taken from Cameron Todd Willingham - a breath of life, a beat in his heart, an air of innocence - and said, straight faced, that his decision to replace the board members was, simply, "Business as usual." Welcome to Texas. 10/05/09 Dare Devils: Governor Rick Perry and the Texas Death Panel I've chosen to ignore most of the health care rhetoric. I know what I believe -- the health care industry is so clearly broken that a thousand monkeys typing explanations of benefits could come up with that conclusion -- and I'm sick of hearing Republicans argue otherwise. But on the subject of death panels, which Sarah Palin dropped into her recent Wall Street Journal op-ed with a wink, like a 12-year old flashing a passing car -- "Dare me, guys?" -- I find the conservative argument bordering on the edge of delusional. Republicans like Sarah Palin need to stop playing truth or dare with people's lives. Since when do conservatives care about anyone dying? With the exception of their fetish for protecting a few eggs produced by women's ovaries every twenty-eight days, the Republican Party has historically shown zero regard for whether anyone lives or dies. People die every day, buried with medical bills and coughing blood from their graves. The slaughter of Iraqis is neither shocking nor awesome. Immigrants scrambling across the border are not deserving of a life in this country, legal or otherwise. Former Republican Party of Texas vice chairman David Barton, now enjoying an appointment by the Texas Board of Education, has so little regard for a human's life that he wants to strike Cesar Chavez from the history books. In Barton's "expert" review of Texas schools' social studies curriculum, he says Chavez "lacks the stature, impact and overall contributions of others." He forgot to add, "Who are white" after that statement. But the most disturbing representation of a life lost was the one sentenced to Cameron Todd Willingham, who in 1991 lost his three children in a house fire in Corsicana, Texas and was sentenced to death after refusing a plea-bargain for life in prison. The New Yorker recently took an in-depth look at the case, asking, "Did Texas execute an innocent man?" Willingham, who maintained his innocence up to his death, spent 12 years in prison going through the government's appeals process. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, whose presiding judge is conservative Sharon "We Close at 5 O'Clock" Keller, "was known for upholding convictions when overwhelming exculpatory evidence came to light." The court denied Willingham of his writ of habeas corpus and a month before his execution, his file landed on the desk of Dr. Gerald Hurst, an Austin scientist and fire investigator who began reviewing the case. Hurst's report, which concluded there was "no evidence of arson," (a conclusion which has since been reached by three additional investigations) was sent to Governor Rick Perry and the Board of Pardons and Paroles along with Willingham's appeal for clemency. The board members are not required to review any submitted materials, and "usually don't debate a case in person." Instead, they cast their votes by fax -- a process which, the New Yorker article states, "has become known as 'death by fax.'" Even more troubling: "Between 1976 and 2004, when Willingham filed his petition, the State of Texas had approved only one application for clemency from a prisoner on death row." It is, in fact, Texas' own death panel. Health care reform at best will offer an alternative to the people who need it the most, stymie medical costs, and create change within an industry that has been allowed to run rampant. At worst, it would be symbolic proof that the option can be supported and improved from there. In either case, it is not going to create a government panel to put people to death. We already have one. "The only statement I want to make is that I am an innocent man convicted of a crime I did not commit. I have been persecuted for 12 years for something I did not do. From God's dust I came and to dust I will return, so the Earth shall become my throne." - Cameron Todd Willingham's final statement, February 17, 2004 (source: Rachel Farris, Huffington Post) October 3, 2009 Texas governor accused of covering up innocent man’s execution The head of a Texas anti-death penalty group has accused that state's governor of scuttling an investigation into a possible wrongful execution for political reasons. "[Texas Governor Rick] Perry saw the writing on the wall," Scott Cobb, president of the Texas Moratorium Network, told CNN. "He moved to cover that up." The "writing on the wall" Cobb was referring to was the investigation by the Texas Forensic Science Commission into the execution of Cameron Todd Willingham, who was put to death in 2004 for the 1991 arson deaths of his three daughters. Forensic investigations done since Willingham's conviction have found no evidence of arson. Nonetheless, Perry refused to grant Willingham a stay of execution in 2004, even though credible questions had already been raised about Willingham's guilt. On Wednesday, Gov. Perry ordered the removal of three members of the forensics commission, and instituted a "political ally," as CNN described him, to head the committee. That ally is reported to have ordered the investigation into Willingham's execution delayed indefinitely, saying he "couldn't begin to guess" when the commission would reconvene. As CNN's Randi Kaye noted, since Willingham's conviction, "three forensic investigations found there was no evidence of arson. None." What's more, as RAW STORY reported in August, Gov. Perry was informed before Willingham's execution that the claim of arson made by fire officials and the prosecution in the 1991 trial was likely unfounded. Put together, those facts may make Gov. Perry "the first governor in history to preside over the death of [a known] innocent man," CNN stated in a report aired Friday. "Critics suggest he's trying to delay or maybe even derail the state's own investigation" into the Willingham case, CNN's Kaye stated. And the reasons for it may be quite obvious: The commission's final report would likely have arrived weeks before the primary gubernatorial election Perry faces next year. Asked about the removal of the three commissioners, Perry stated: "Those individuals' terms were up, so we replaced them. There's nothing out of the ordinary there." But, as the Fort Worth Star-Telegram notes, some of those removed had already had their terms renewed. CNN's Kaye noted that Perry "declined to make the time for an interview" for its report. ACLU: 'EXTREMELY SUSPICIOUS' TIMING "Gov. Perry said that the change was 'business as usual,'" the ACLU wrote on its blog Friday. "Unfortunately, his words ring all too true. Willingham is not the first likely innocent person executed by the State of Texas. Others include Carlos De Luna and Ruben Cantu. But the state has never acknowledged any of these tragic mistakes. Business as usual, all right." The ACLU statement described the governor's timing for the removal of the three commissioners as "extremely suspicious, to say the least." But some observers have gone further. Glenn W. Smith at FireDogLake states that Gov. Perry may have violated federal law when he shut down the investigation into Willingham's execution. Smith argues Perry could be prosecuted under USC.18.1001, which makes it a crime for anyone "in any matter within the jurisdiction of the executive, legislative, or judicial branch of the Government of the United States" to "falsify, conceal, or cover up by any trick, scheme, or device a material fact." The federal statute applies, Smith argues, because Texas takes money from the federal government for its justice system, and the funding guidelines refer to the law directly. "If firing three members of the commission and bringing to a screaming halt an investigation and hearing about the execution of an innocent man is not a trick to cover up material facts, nothing is," Smith wrote. Source: The Raw Story October 3, 2009 Executions enliven death penalty debate John Allen Muhammad's scheduled Nov.10 Virginia execution enlivens the debate over capital punishment, sampling the cadence of every high-profile death penalty case marching to the beat of the count-down "drum." Karla Faye Tucker, sentenced to death in the so-called "pickax murders," played unwitting but pleasant host to a media-frenzied event, attended by reporters, and festooned in satellite trucks beaming up images of demonstrators for and against the death penalty. In such cases, the "wisdom of crowds," bristling with symbolic "sticktights" and "hitchhikers" for their trouble, departs the field of screams. In other words, we are no better and no more enriched by hoopla, hype, and talking heads. The buzzing in our ears comes from too much sound, and not from the jury. Such grassroot convocations--whether flashlight-illumined or candle-lit, in fertile acres of controversy and grim reaper statistic-keepers--propagate a sub-culture of their own. You've seen their huddled masses. Outside prisons on the day of execution, in virtual or real-time attendence: popes and "nopes," cardboard sign-wielders and murmuring prayer groups, most whose hearts and thinking drive what they do. Back home, the death penalty should--and maybe has--become dinner table conversation, peppered with newscasts and children's questions: "Mommy, Daddy, what is a death penalty?" Grown-ups linger over coffee and dessert, wondering can the issue itself ever die? To that end, scholarship and organized discussion have much to add. Googling "death penalty" produces 4,500,000 results, while "capital punishment" yields slightly fewer, or 4,420,000 returns. Likely, the latter phrase reflects word usage and semantics. Often, the heart moves to little beyond the sound of its own beat. From brainstem to wishful thinking, be it the desire for life or for the life of the one who has taken another's, the issue is just that simple: it isn't. Looking at 2007 murder rate comparisons of the top 12 executing states (below), as compared to murder rates of non-death-penalty states, lively discussions ensue: According to the above graphs: [MY NOTE: 1. Louisiana, "landlord" of legendary penitentiary Angola's death chamber-- portrayed in the award-winning documentary, "The Farm: Angola USA" -- had the highest 2007 per capita murder rate of surveyed death penalty states. 2. Iowa--a non-death penalty state--had 2007's lowest murder rate at approximately 1.2 per 100,000 people. 3. Non-death penalty states Maine and Hawaii also experienced relatively-lower murder rates in 2007. 4. Arizona's 2007 murder rate per capita somewhat surpassed that of Texas. To which death penalty advocates might say that the highest number of executions--26 in Texas as compared to 1 in Arizona in 2007--acted as deterrents, when comparing the murder rates of the two states. What's more, according to the top graph, Texas death rates are actually below the average or mean of 6.89--just under 7 per 100,000 people of the "Top 12 Executing States." 5. Overall, both graphs may prompt a question: excluding drugs, impaired mental capacity and other medically-related bearings on murder, do criminals who kill in death penalty states have death wishes of their own? Or does race--not specified in these graphs--figure in? These are clearly complex issues. Moreover, at the time of their capital offenses, does knowing the state will likely convict and execute them influence, even drive some crimes? Could such aspects echo "suicide by cop" in a long-term sense? Such questions are for experts to answer; lay-persons interested in criminal behavior also might want more information. While a first impression of the graphs makes one case for abolishing the death penalty, such representations may generalize, when each crime is unique. It is impossible to rely solely on numbers, because people are neither numbers nor bars on a graph. Still, if "trending" is not just a Twitter creation, in a NY Times article by Dan Frosch, when asked if there is a general trend toward fewer executions, or to abolishing capital punishment altogether, the Death Penalty Information Center's Executive Director, Richard Dieter, states, " I wouldn't say that the death penalty is being rejected by the public, but there's definitely a reconsideration underway." For some survivors of the murdered, capital punishment is one guarantor of justice. For others, however, forgiveness and redemption offer measures of life's continuum, after the funerals and tears. (source: True Crime Examiner) Sept. 30 Local prosecutor has no idea why Perry removed him from Forensics Commission A lawyer in the Tarrant County district attorney's office has no idea why Gov. Rick Perry replaced him on the Texas Forensic Science Commission this week. Perry abruptly removed three members of the board, causing the cancellation of Friday's high-profile meeting in Irving on a report that a faulty investigation may have led to the execution of an innocent man. The panel was considering a report critical of the arson finding leading to Cameron Todd Willingham's 2004 execution for the deaths of his 3 daughters in a 1991 fire, according to The Associated Press. Alan Levy is one of 2 local members that Perry removed from the board Tuesday. The other, Aliece Watts, is a forensic scientist in Euless. Levy's term had expired Sept. 1 but he didn't know that Perry was going to replace him. "What his reasons for doing it, I have no idea," Levy said. "I feel like a jilted lover except that he's prettier than I am." Levy said he wasn't going to assume that Perry replaced the board members as a way of forcing the meeting to be canceled until after the March primary. "I've got my own thoughts but I don't have any way of knowing," Levy said. "It's just odd. I'll assume that this was just part of the normal process; but if it was, it certainly wasn't handled the way it should have been." Levy said he got a call Tuesday about 4:30 p.m. from someone in the governor's office. The person said the governor was "going in a different direction," Levy said. "I felt like a decaying fish they were trying to dispose of," Levy said. "Since the job doesn't pay anything, I've been thrown out of better places." Levy had high praise for the way Commission Chairman Samuel Bassett of Austin ran the commission. Levy said he had no idea why he, Watts and Bassett were replaced. "Sam and I were the two lawyers. Everybody else was a scientist," Levy said. "The only thing that links us is Governor Perry, which of course isn't much of a link anymore." (source: Fort Worth Star-Telegram) Perry replaces head of commission on execution By ALLAN TURNER Copyright 2009 Houston Chronicle Sept. 30, 2009 In a surprise move, Gov. Rick Perry today appointed two new members to a state commission investigating case of a Corsicana man who some believe was wrongly executed for murdering his children — forcing the cancellation of a meeting on the case scheduled for Friday. Named to head the Texas Forensic Science Commission was John Bradley, district attorney in Williamson County. Bradley cancelled Friday's meeting at which the panel was to accept fire expert Craig Beyler's analysis of arson investigators' work in the deadly December 1991 house fire. Three children perished in the blaze. Their father, Cameron Todd Willingham, was convicted of capital murder and executed. Bradley, who has been his county's chief prosecutor since December 2001, said he called off Friday's meeting because he didn't have adequate time to study the arson case. Beyler's report was extremely critical of the investigations by Corsicana and state arson investigators, concluding they based their arson ruling on outdated and sloppy procedures. Beyler's was the third review to fault the arson investigators. Outgoing commission chairman, Sam Bassett, an Austin defense lawyer, expressed “disappointment” at Perry's timing in the naming of new commissioners, but noted, “I understand that I serve at the pleasure of Gov. Perry.” Also replaced were commission members Alan Levy, head of the Tarrant County District Attorney's criminal division, and Aliece Watts, quality director at Euless-based Integrated Forensic Laboratories. Perry named Norma Farley, chief forensic pathologist for Cameron and Hidalgo counties to the panel, and will name a third member in the near future. A spokeswoman for the commission, which is headquartered at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, said the outgoing members' two-year terms technically expired on Sept. 1. Spokesmen for Perry's office did not offer immediate comments on the timing of the appointments. Levy, who, like Bassett, had served four years on the panel, called Perry's timing on the appointments “unfortunate.” “It will raise suspicions whether they are justified or not,” he said. “This is a very important case. What this is going to do is raise the temperature, and that will not be a good thing.” allan.turner@chron.com Perry replaces head of commission on execution Editorial High Cost of Death Row Published: September 27, 2009 To the many excellent reasons to abolish the death penalty — it’s immoral, does not deter murder and affects minorities disproportionately — we can add one more. It’s an economic drain on governments with already badly depleted budgets. It is far from a national trend, but some legislators have begun to have second thoughts about the high cost of death row. Others would do well to consider evidence gathered by the Death Penalty Information Center, a research organization that opposes capital punishment. States waste millions of dollars on winning death penalty verdicts, which require an expensive second trial, new witnesses and long jury selections. Death rows require extra security and maintenance costs. There is also a 15-to-20-year appeals process, but simply getting rid of it would be undemocratic and would increase the number of innocent people put to death. Besides, the majority of costs are in the pretrial and trial. According to the organization, keeping inmates on death row in Florida costs taxpayers $51 million a year more than holding them for life without parole. North Carolina has put 43 people to death since 1976 at $2.16 million per execution. The eventual cost to taxpayers in Maryland for pursuing capital cases between 1978 and 1999 is estimated to be $186 million for five executions. Perhaps the most extreme example is California, whose death row costs taxpayers $114 million a year beyond the cost of imprisoning convicts for life. The state has executed 13 people since 1976 for a total of about $250 million per execution. This is a state whose prisons are filled to bursting (unconstitutionally so, the courts say) and whose government has imposed doomsday-level cuts to social services, health care, schools and parks. Money spent on death rows could be spent on police officers, courts, public defenders, legal service agencies and prison cells. Some lawmakers, heeding law-enforcement officials who have declared capital punishment a low priority, have introduced bills to abolish it. A Republican state senator in Kansas, Carolyn McGinn, pointed out that her state, which restored the death penalty in 1994, had not executed anybody in more than 40 years. In February, she introduced a bill to replace capital punishment with life without parole. The bill gained considerable attention but stalled. Similar arguments were made, unsuccessfully, in states such as New Hampshire and Maryland. Colorado considered a bill to end capital punishment and spend the money saved on solving cold cases. But this year, only New Mexico went all the way, abolishing executions in March. If lawmakers cannot find the moral courage to abolish the death penalty, perhaps the economic case will persuade them to follow the lead of New Mexico. High Cost of Death Row Editorial: Perry's certainty about execution ignores science September 25, 2009 When a nationally respected fire engineer rebuked an arson investigation that sent a Texas man to his death, the country took notice. The question of whether our state executed an innocent man spurred a national discussion, as media outlets from Nightline to The New Yorker explored whether the fiery deaths of Cameron Todd Willingham's three young children were a tragic accident or capital murder. A growing number of experts have rejected the finding that the fire was arson, arguing that investigators relied on folklore and junk science to reach that unsupported conclusion. Most recently, an expert hired by the Texas Forensic Science Commission issued a scathing report that detailed the many failings of the original arson-murder investigation. Dr. Craig L. Beyler wrote that investigators' conclusions could not be supported by modern science. Beyler's emphatic rejection of the arson conclusion, coupled with similar findings by other forensic experts, have rightly compelled many to take a hard look at whether Texas got it wrong. On Friday, the Forensic Science Commission will take up Beyler's report and decide how to proceed in this case. But Gov. Rick Perry has not let expert reports or modern science shake his belief that Willingham must be a murderer. So certain is the governor that he's delivered his own guilty verdict without bothering to wait for the Forensic Science Commission's own conclusions in the case. Perry flippantly dismissed the findings of "supposed experts." Just in case his sarcasm wasn't evident, he added air quotes with his fingers to dismiss the nationally respected scientists. The governor says he's seen nothing that would cause him to question this capital murder conviction. That's disappointing. While it's difficult to say definitively whether a dead man was actually innocent, the prosecution' s original case appears to be unraveling. At the very least, Willingham would have sought a new trial and a chance to allow a jury to hear the more scientifically sound findings. Prosecutors have said that other evidence – such as Willingham's strange behavior at the time of the fire – proves his guilt. But if they could not credibly argue that this was arson, how did he kill his family? The very foundation of this case has been debunked, so it requires a leap in logic to argue that without proof of arson, Willingham somehow still was guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Just as advances in DNA science have shed new light on physical evidence from old cases, improved scientific methods have helped experts understand how fire behaves and have provided new insights into arson investigations. To ignore these advances is irresponsible and risks the possibility of the state making a fatal error. The governor would be wise to allow the commission to finish its work before making such definitive determinations. And as Perry considers this case, he should not allow reflexive certainty to trump science. Meeting this week: The Texas Forensic Science Commission will meet at 9:30 a.m. Friday at the Omni Mandalay Hotel at Las Colinas. On the agenda: a review and discussion of a new report that rebukes an arson investigation that led to Cameron Todd Willingham's capital murder conviction. The meeting will include a public comment period. Perry's certainty about execution ignores science Convicted Dallas-area cop killer wins reprieve By MICHAEL GRACZYK Associated Press Writer © 2009 The Associated Press Sept. 23, 2009 HUNTSVILLE, Texas — The U.S. Supreme Court Wednesday night stopped the scheduled execution of Texas death row inmate Kenneth Mosley a day before he was to receive lethal injection for the fatal shooting of a suburban Dallas police officer. The court agreed to halt the lethal injection until it resolves an Alabama death penalty case that Mosley's attorney said could affect his case. The Alabama case, to be heard by the high court in November, centers on whether a trial lawyer was constitutionally deficient in failing to raise objections during the punishment phase of the trial. Mosley's attorneys have raised similar claims, saying his trial attorneys were deficient for not objecting to victim impact testimony from the officer's wife and for not calling witnesses to testify about Mosley's drug and alcohol addictions. Mosley, 51, was condemned for the February 1997 shooting death of Garland Officer Michael David Moore. Moore was responding to a 911 call about a robbery at a bank. One of four bullets to hit Moore struck over the top edge of his protective vest. Mosley was shot in the wrist by another officer waiting outside and was arrested in the parking lot. Authorities found he was carrying a holdup note. "As far as him committing the actual crime, it was open and shut," said Jason January, a former Dallas County assistant district attorney who prosecuted the case. "Plus we had a videotape of the event taking place and eyewitnesses." Mosley declined to speak with reporters in the weeks preceding his scheduled punishment. He had an extensive criminal record he blamed on drug addiction. Evidence at his trial showed he sexually assaulted a woman, was arrested for possession of marijuana and illegal knives, got busted for stealing merchandise from a Home Depot and then returning the items for cash refunds and for robbing a Home Depot. At the time of the shooting, he was wanted for a fast-food restaurant robbery five days earlier in nearby Mesquite and had been fired from his last known job at a Coca-Cola bottler for testing positive for cocaine. Jurors who decided the Flint, Mich., native should be given the death penalty also heard how he told deputies guarding him during his capital murder trial that it would "make his day to kill another cop," according to court documents. Mosley's trial lawyers didn't deny the shooting but argued it was accidental, that as he was trying to surrender the weapon it went off five times. Moore was 32, married and the father of three. He went to high school in Middletown, Ohio, served four years in the Marines and in 1987 joined the Garland police force. He'd won numerous awards and commendations during his 10 years on the job. Tuesday evening, Christopher Coleman, 37, was put to death for the slayings of three people in a Houston drug deal robbery. Next week, John Balentine, 40, faces lethal injection for the slayings of three teenagers at a house in Amarillo in January 1998. Governor Rick Perry defends execution of Corsicana man some experts say was innocent September 20, 2009 By TODD J. GILLMAN The Dallas Morning News tgillman@dallasnews.com WASHINGTON – Governor Rick Perry today strenuously defended the execution of a Corsicana man whose conviction for killing his daughters in a house fire hinged on an arson finding that top experts call junk science. "I'm familiar with the latter-day supposed experts on the arson side of it," Perry said, making quotation marks with his fingers to underscore his skepticism. Even without proof that the fire was arson, he added, the court records he reviewed before the execution of Cameron Todd Willingham in 2004 showed "clear and compelling, overwhelming evidence that he was in fact the murderer of his children." These were the governor's first direct comments on a case that has drawn withering criticism from top fire experts. Death penalty critics view the Willingham case as a study in shoddy – or at least outdated – science, and they consider it the first proven instance in 35 years of an executed man being proven innocent after death. "Governor Perry refuses to face the fact that Texas executed an innocent man on his watch. Literally all of the evidence that was used to convict Willingham has been disproven – all of it," said Barry Scheck, co-director of the Innocence Project, a nonprofit group affiliated with the Cardozo School of Law in New York that has championed the case. "He is clearly refusing to face reality." Three independent reviews over the last five years, involving seven of the nation's top arson experts, found no evidence the fire was set intentionally. The most recent is a report commissioned by the Texas Forensic Science Commission. The author, renowned arson expert Craig Beyler, blasts the investigators who handled the Willingham case, finding that they misread the evidence and based their conclusions on a "poor understanding of fire science." The commission says it is reviewing the Beyler report and other evidence and will issue a conclusion next year. The fire took place two days before Christmas 1991, and claimed the lives of Willingham's three daughters: 2-year-old Amber, and 1-year-old twins, Karmon and Kameron. State fire investigators and Corsicana fire officials maintained that burn patterns, cracked windows and other signs pointed to arson. Willingham, 24 at the time and an unemployed auto mechanic, had only superficial burns. He said he'd run outside after Amber alerted him to the fire, looking for the others, and couldn't reenter because the blaze grew so quickly. He had a criminal record for burglary and grand larceny. He had once beaten his pregnant wife, and a jailhouse snitch said he'd confessed. At trial, prosecutors told jurors that Willingham had intentionally left his daughters to die in a burning home. But myriad scientists say that conclusion of arson was based on outdated training that, at the time of trial 15 years ago, had already been replaced by science-based methods that would have pointed to bad wiring or a space heater. Willingham protested his innocence to the end. Strapped to a gurney awaiting lethal injection on Feb. 17, 2004, he asserted that "I am an innocent man -- convicted of a crime I did not do." The Board of Pardons and Paroles, appointed by the governor, had rejected the appeal his lawyers had filed three days earlier. Hours before the execution, the lawyers appealed directly to Perry. The appeal included a report from a widely respected fire expert, Gerald Hurst, that cast serious doubt on the arson finding. Hurst, a Cambridge-educated chemist who was chief scientist for the nation's largest explosive manufacturer, says the signs used as proof that an accelerant had been poured were almost certainly the result of "flashover" – an intense heat burst that causes an entire room to erupt in flame. The effects of flashover can mimic arson. In 2004, the Chicago Tribune asked three fire experts to evaluate the case. Their testing confirmed Hurst's report. The case was recently featured in an extensive article in The New Yorker, launching a new round of questions. Perry, in Washington for a campaign fundraiser today and a speech tomorrow to conservative activists, said during an hour-long session with reporters that he does not believe the state executed an innocent man. "No," he said. "We talked about this case at length. One of the most serious and somber things that a governor of Texas deals with is the execution of an individual.… We go through a substantial amount of oversight." In 2006, the Innocence Project, using state open records law, obtained records from Perry's office regarding the last-minute appeal. The governor's office provided no documents that acknowledged the contents of the appeal or its significance, Scheck's office said – a "lack of action" that indicates the governor ignored critical analysis. Perry, whose authority as governor is limited to delaying an execution for 30 days, said he reviewed the case extensively. "I get a document that has all of the court process. It gives you all of his background, all of the court machinations on the legal side of it, and the recommendation of both my legal side and the courts. It's pretty extensive amount of information, " he said. "I have not seen anything that would cause me to think that the decision that was made by the courts of the state of Texas was not correct." Governor Rick Perry defends execution of Corsicana man some experts say was innocent Sept. 20, 2009 Last Words Last week, reports of executions one postponed in Ohio, one carried out in Texas punctuated the news more frequently than usual. These reports prompted me to reflect on an archive of executed prisoners' last words I found on the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Web site while researching parole terms. The archive's earliest entry dates from Dec. 7, 1982; the most recent was added after Stephen Moody was executed on Wednesday by lethal injection for murder. What follows are quotations taken from inmates' last statements in Texas. The statements, delivered before family members, relatives of victims, friends and the press, are compiled out of chronological order. CLAIRE CAMERON, the author of "The Line Painter" Go ahead? Nothing I can say can change the past. I done lost my voice. I would like to say goodbye. My heart goes is going ba bump ba bump ba bump. Is the mike on? I don't have anything to say. I am just sorry about what I did. I am nervous and it is hard to put my thoughts together. Sometimes you don't know what to say. Man, there is a lot of people there. I have come here today to die, not make speeches. Where's Mr. Marinos mother? Did you get my letter? I want to ask if it is in your heart to forgive me. You don't have to. I wish I could die more than once to tell you how sorry I am. Could you please tell that lady right there can I see her? She is not looking at me I want you to understand something, hold no animosity toward me. I want you to understand. Please forgive me. I don't think the world will be a better or safer place without me. I am sorry. I want to tell my mom that I love her. I caused her so much pain and my family and stuff. I hurt for the fact that they are going to be hurting. I am taking it like a man. Kick the tires and light the fire. I am going home. They may execute me but they can't punish me because they can't execute an innocent man. I couldn't do a life sentence. I said I was going to tell a joke. Death has set me free. That's the biggest joke. To my sweet Claudia, I love you. Cathy, you know I never meant to hurt you. I love you, Irene. Let my son know I love him. Tell everyone I got full on chicken and pork chops. I appreciate the hospitality that you guys have shown me and the respect, and the last meal was really good. The reason it took them so long is because they couldn't find a vein. You know how I hate needles. ... Tell the guys on death row that I'm not wearing a diaper. Lord, I lift your name on high. From Allah we came and to Allah we shall return. For everybody incarcerated, keep your heads up. Death row is full of isolated hearts and suppressed minds. Mistakes are made, but with God all things are possible. I am responsible for them losing their mother, their father and their grandmother. I never meant for them to be taken. I am sorry for what I did. I can't take it back. Lord Jesus forgive of my sins. Please forgive me for the sins that I can remember. All my life I have been locked up. Give me my rights. Give me my rights. Give me my rights. Give me my life back. I am tired. I deserve this. A life for a life. It's my hour. Its my hour. I'm ready, Warden. (source: Op-Ed, Claire Cameron, New York Times) Sept. 20, 2009 Should doctors be allowed to assist in the execution of death-row inmates?---- A not-so-lethal injection raises queries Hippocrates famously wrote that doctors should do no harm, but physicians are among those being consulted by Ohio prison officials as they look for a method to successfully put Romell Broom to death. Officials are talking with medical advisors about the possibility of using veins other than those in the arms and feet to administer a lethal injection to Broom, a convicted killer from Cleveland who last week became the 1st U.S. inmate since the 1940s to survive an execution attempt. Doctors are part of the discussion, said Julie Walburn of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction. Experts said that appears to be in violation of the American Medical Associations code of ethics, which forbids "an action which would assist, supervise or contribute to the ability of another individual to directly cause the death of the condemned" and "rendering of technical advice regarding executions." Broom's case underlines the dilemmas found at the intersection between lethal injection and medical ethics. "A problem inherent in lethal injection is, the persons most qualified are the ones who are unable to do it ethically," said Dr. Jonathan Groner, professor of clinical surgery at the Ohio State University College of Medicine. "People have called it the Hippocratic Paradox." Broom, 53, was sentenced to death for raping and killing a 14-year-old girl he abducted while she was walking home from a football game with friends 25 years ago. He stabbed Tryna Middleton 7 times. On Tuesday, Sept. 15, executioners at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility at Lucasville pricked Broom 18 times over two hours as they tried to find a vein that wouldnt collapse. In an affidavit filed in court Friday, Broom claimed he cried out in pain as executioners hit muscle and bone with intravenous needles. He assisted his executioners in trying to find a viable vein. Gov. Ted Strickland granted a one-week reprieve and said executioners should try again on Tuesday. But a federal judge on Friday ordered a temporary delay and set a hearing for Sept. 28 on defense attorneys' bid for a preliminary injunction against the execution. Brooms attorneys also have filed suit in the Ohio Supreme Court. They say a 2nd execution attempt would amount to unconstitutional cruel and unusual punishment. Broom is the only inmate to survive an execution attempt since the lethal injection method was introduced in 1982. But 2 other Ohio inmates, Joseph Clark in 2006 and Christopher Newton in 2007, endured lengthy executions as executioners labored to find usable veins. The state changed its execution protocol after those cases. "We have absolute faith in the process and the team members," Walburn said. But Ty Alper, associate director of the Death Penalty Clinic at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law, said, "I think what happened with Mr. Broom should give no one confidence in the process or the people. Mr. Broom had to help them. I mean, the whole thing is kind of ghoulish." Deborah Denno, a professor at Fordham Law School in New York, said the history of lethal injection "has been abysmal. It's been botch after botch after botch." The corrections department wont identify its executioners, but under its policy, the execution team must include people qualified under state law to administer injections who have at least one years experience as a certified medical assistant, phlebotomist, emergency medical technician, paramedic or military corpsman. Doctors arent involved, except to declare the inmates dead. Joan Wehrle of the Ohio Medical Board said state law outlines 40 grounds for disciplinary action against doctors, from reprimand to permanent license revocation, including breaches of the AMA ethics code. Holly Fischer, general counsel for the Ohio Nursing Board, said nurses also could face disciplinary action for assisting in executions. But Alper, author of an upcoming North Carolina Law Review article on the subject, said doctors have participated in executions, even directly, in other states. In fact, an Oklahoma anesthesiologist invented the three-drug lethal cocktail used by most states. "No doctor has ever been disciplined for participating in an execution in this country, and every court to consider the matter has concluded that state medical boards cannot impose discipline," Alper wrote. Walburn said prison officials are being advised on different procedures for inserting intravenous lines and whether those procedures require people with higher credentials than those on the execution team. She said officials won't disclose the names of those giving the advice. Groner said it usually requires a physician to put in central lines in the large veins in the neck, chest or thighs. "That would require a physician in the execution chamber," he said. He thinks direct or indirect physician participation in executions is a "stain on the face of medicine." "It defiles the profession in that they use the same skills they learned for healing to kill somebody," Groner said. "Thats what the Nazi doctors did." (source: Dayton Daily News) Sep. 19, 2009 Texas: The Kinder, Gentler Hang 'Em High State By Hilary Hylton / Austin Tim Cole couldn't tell his own story and so his family recounted the saga to the hard-bitten Texas legislators last spring. The convict had insisted he was innocent right up to the day he died. He had refused parole because that would have required him to admit he was guilty of raping a fellow student at Texas Tech University. The ordeal was wrenching: Cole wept during the nights as he awaited a trial that would sentence him to 25 years in jail. Twice during his prison term he was found unconscious in his cell, the result of the asthma that had plagued him since childhood. The third time he suffered an attack, Dec. 2, 1999, he died from heart failure. Then, in 2007, another man confessed to the crime and Cole was declared innocent. The Texas lawmakers wept at the tale; and as a result, the state that has the reputation of being toughest on crime came up with one of the most generous and supportive programs to compensate those wrongfully convicted: the Tim Cole Act. "I think Tim Cole's story moved a lot of people," says Lubbock attorney Kevin Glasheen, who represents 12 men exonerated after serving lengthy terms for rape. "As far as the politicians go, there are a lot of Republicans who do not like abusive government power." But the legislators from both parties did more than shed tears. Apart from the Tim Cole Act, they passed a second law this spring creating a well-funded office of expert appellate lawyers to represent death row inmates, a move to overcome the tales of sleepy defense attorneys and inept lawyering. The two new laws are now being implemented and their backers hope they will mitigate the state's hang 'em high image. (Read a story about the decline in the number of death sentences in Texas.) The Tim Cole law provides $80,000 for each year of wrongful incarceration and adds free college tuition, and financial and personal counseling. Unlike past lump sum payments, the new compensation will be paid out in a mix of monthly payments, an upfront lump sum and an annuity which can be passed on through a recipient's estate. The new law also sets up an investigative panel, the Tim Cole Advisory Panel on Wrongful Convictions. (Read how the tide is shifting against the death penalty.) Glasheen's 12 clients are among 38 Texas prisoners cleared by DNA testing thanks to the efforts of the New York-based Innocence Project. He filed federal civil rights lawsuits on behalf of his clients against several Dallas-area police departments and municipalities. Facing a long, arduous legal process, Glasheen also proposed a legislative solution to Dallas area civic leaders. The legal fight would be expensive for both sides, Glasheen told them, and the fundamental question was one of fairness. This spring, State Senator Rodney Ellis, a Houston Democrat and a longtime champion of the innocence projects, and State Senator Bob Duncan, a Republican and, like Cole, a Texas Tech alumnus, sponsored the Tim Cole Act. Glasheen, a self-described Republican from the "Libertarian wing of the party," hopes new DNA testing on old evidence will free more prisoners. However, that hope is limited: Dallas County kept evidence on file, hence the large number of exonerated prisoners from that area, but evidence in Houston was lost in a flood, and smaller counties across Texas did not keep evidence once the appeals process ran out. "There's a whole bunch of guys down there who were convicted on just eyewitness identification, " Glasheen says, as Cole was. There is now a national campaign to press a best practices written policy for lineups and eyewitness evidence. Dallas has adopted the new standards. The second law passed by the legislature will set up new standards and funding for indigent defense appellate counsel programs. Texas was embarrassed by the 2001 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that ordered a new trial for a death row inmate whose lawyer slept through much of his proceedings in Houston in 1984. It responded after the ruling by boosting funds for indigent counsel. Despite that, studies showed death row inmates were still often badly served by appellate counsel. "Since 2004, 2005 there has been documented some horrible lawyering," says Andrea Marsh, executive director of Texas Fair Defense Project. In one case, a habeas appeal was filed by an attorney who simply cut and pasted an old appeal and changed the defendant's name, leaving the facts of the old case in place, Marsh says. "These cases piled up and there got to be a consensus that something should be done," Marsh says. The conservative- dominated appeals court, the Republican-led legislature and Republican Gov. Rick Perry were not opposed to reform. "The courts, officials were tired of being embarrassed all the time," Marsh says. The new Office of Capital Writs, scheduled to be in place by 2010, will deal with new cases, not those already in the pipeline. The Tim Cole law and the new state-funded appellate office may not change the image of Texas justice beyond the state. How outsiders feel about Texas justice "probably depends on whether you are universally opposed to the death penalty," Marsh says. "But the hope [in Texas] is that we will stop seeing stories where the defendant never had a fair shot." Find this article at: Texas: The Kinder, Gentler Hang 'Em High State 09/19/2009 Error-prone death penalty system ensnares innocent By JOHN HOLDRIDGE and CHRISTOPHER HILL HOUSTON CHRONICLE Cameron Todd Willingham's unthinkable story has shocked the conscience of many Americans. The state of Texas executed Willingham in 2004 for supposedly murdering his three children by setting their house on fire. His conviction was based in substantial part on testimony by the state's arson experts about the cause of the fire. A recent report by a fire expert hired by Texas condemns the state's arson testimony as bogus and unscientific. In other words, Willingham almost certainly was innocent — as he desperately maintained until his last dying breath. The expert's damning report has led to an onslaught of publicity about the case. However, this publicity should not mislead Americans into thinking Willingham has been the only innocent victim of our error-prone system of capital punishment. There have almost certainly been at least nine others, and possibly many more given the flaws in our criminal justice system revealed by the recent explosion in DNA exoneration. These include Carlos DeLuna, Ruben Cantu, Gary Graham, Larry Griffin and, perhaps, Sedley Alley — names no doubt unfamiliar to most Americans. The state of Texas executed DeLuna in 1989 for stabbing to death a clerk at a convenience store. At his trial, DeLuna's lawyers attempted to show that the murder was committed by a man named Carlos Hernandez. The lead prosecutor called Hernandez a “phantom.” Hernandez was real. A post-execution investigation by the Chicago Tribune showed that Hernandez almost certainly committed the crime, and Hernandez's family acknowledged that he boasted about getting away with the murder. Cantu was executed by the state of Texas in 1993 for an attempted robbery-murder. His conviction was based on testimony from his co-defendant and a surviving victim of the attempted robbery. After Cantu's execution, both men recanted, and the victim disclosed that he had been coerced by police to identify Cantu. The prosecutor in Cantu's case, Sam Millsap, has since become a vocal campaigner against the death penalty. In 2000, the state of Texas executed Graham, who changed his name while in prison to Shaka Sankofa. The evidence against him consisted of one eyewitness who, after being subjected to a suggestive photo lineup, said she saw Graham through her car windshield in a dark parking lot from 20 to 40 feet away. Other witnesses stated that Graham was not the murderer because the murderer was much shorter than he was. Missouri executed Griffin in 1995 for a murder that occurred during a drive-by shooting. Prior to his trial, no one bothered to interview a surviving victim of the shooting who knew Griffin. When contacted after Griffin's execution, this victim stated categorically that Griffin was not involved in the crime. Also after Griffin was put to death, the first police officer on the scene gave a new account that thoroughly undermined the testimony of the one witness who had identified Griffin as the murderer. Not everyone is convinced that these men were innocent. Some assert that they have not been shown to be innocent beyond a reasonable doubt. That may be true in some of the cases. However, absent DNA evidence, which exists in only about 10 percent of murder cases, a death-row inmate often has a nearly impossible time proving beyond a reasonable doubt that they did not commit a crime. As the old saying goes, it can sometimes be impossible to prove a negative. That is one reason why our criminal justice system requires prosecutors to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, and does not require criminal defendants to prove their innocence. DNA evidence did exist in Alley's case but it didn't do him any good. The state of Tennessee executed Alley in 2006 for the rape and murder of a 19-year-old servicewoman. Alley had confessed to the crimes, but a leading expert on false confessions concluded that his confession was probably false. There was a simple way to find out. The Innocence Project, which took on Alley's case, asked the courts to allow it to test the DNA evidence to see whether Alley was innocent. The courts and the state of Tennessee refused. Alley was put to death, despite the serious doubts about his guilt. Willingham's case would be frightening enough if it were unique. The fact that there may be several innocent people who have been executed is abhorrent and should give any capital punishment proponent serious pause. The execution of an innocent person is an irrevocable event that, as Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun once wrote, comes perilously close to murder. No society should tolerate it. Of that, there can be no doubt. Holdridge is director of the American Civil Liberties Union Capital Punishment Project; Christopher Hill is state strategies coordinator for the ACLU Capital Punishment Project. Error-prone death penalty system ensnares innocent 09/18/2009 Forgotten Families? A Visit to Death Row Kevin's eyes were dark, wideand sad. Sad beyond anything I'd ever seen in one so young. It was obvious he had experienced far too much in his brief four or five years of life. And though he undoubtedly didn't understand why things were as they were, he knew enough to realize his life wasn't like that of other boys his age. I met Kevin briefly nearly 15 years ago, and I haven't seen him again since, though I've often wondered what became of him. A child who sees his father only once a month under such stringent conditions has a tough road ahead of him, to say the least. My one-time meeting with Kevin and several others, including his mother, took place on San Quentin's infamous Death Row, a place that has housed such inmates as Charles Manson and Sirhan Sirhan. I had been invited to come to the Row one Sunday afternoon, to meet and talk with one of the inmates and to learn more about the prison ministry in which I was so deeply involved at the time. Though I had mixed emotions about going, I readily accepted. As expected, I had to jump through a lot of hoops to get inside the Row's visiting area, more even than the usual number of hoops required to gain entrance into any other correctional facility. But the inmate I met with, whose wife had escorted me inside, had become a devout Christian since his arrest and conviction years earlier, so our visit was a joyful one. Even the correctional officers commented on the deep and genuine faith of this particular inmate, referring to him as "the preacher" and proclaiming how he freely shared that faith with anyone who would listenprisoner or guard alike. But it was the families of the inmates who most caught my attention. Though we occasionally hear of someone who was falsely convicted of a crime and eventually proven innocent due to new DNA technology or some other breakthrough, for the most part I realize that nearly every resident of San Quentin's Death Row is there because he murdered someone. But guilty or not, repentant or not, most have families somewheresome who at least occasionally come to visit them, some who don't. Whatever the personal family situations, I couldn't help but wonder at the pain those families endured. Now I've always been a strong victim's advocate, and my heart goes out to the families of those who have lost loved ones as a result of a violent crime. But that day on Death Row opened my eyes to the unique trauma experienced by those whose father or son, husband or brother, prayed for a miracle even as he counted his days until he walked the "green mile." As a result, I have become a supporter of Angel Tree and other ministries to families of those who are incarcerated. If you could have seen the look on little Kevin's face that day as he visited his daddy on Death Row, you'd understand and join me. Of course, I've had many experiences during my jail/prison ministry days that affected me just as strongly as my encounter with Kevin, one of which was the opportunity to interview Charles "Tex" Watson, formerly of the Manson Family. Though Tex was one of the actual murderers of both the Tate and LaBianca families that awful night so many years ago, he has now become a strong believer and ministers to many who live in the dark world that exists behind bars. On another occasion, I had the opportunity to help David Berkowitz (formerly known as "Son of Sam" but who has now become a Christian and as such is known as "Son of Hope") edit his prison memoirs, which are now published. I can tell you without hesitation that I have no doubt of the sincerity of either of these men's faith. Both of these experiences were real epiphanies for me, as I saw firsthand what God can do with those who would often be considered unredeemable. But as we know, with God nothing is impossible. I now pray for those within the prison system whose lives have been changed by a genuine encounter with Jesus Christ and who now work to share that encounter with others. Some of the greatest evangelizing and discipling I've ever witnessed is carried out by these transformed inmates. I know. I'm walking a fine line here, between justice and mercy, and I am not even getting close to expressing an opinion on the death penalty issue. I am simply trying to bring a fresh awareness of families whose loved onesfor whatever reasonare behind bars, families who might otherwise be forgotten. I pray the result will be that it helps us all reach out to the Kevins of this world, as well as the David Berkowitzes and Tex Watsons, even as we humbly respect the law, defend the victims, and deal justly and mercifully when it comes to crime. For isn't that what God has called us all to do? He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6:8, NKJV) (source: Kathi Macias is the author of nearly 30 books and numerous articles, including My Son, John, which deals with a woman whose mother is a murder victim and her grown son, the perpetrator. My Son, John contains resources for prisoners, their families, and those who minister to them. Kathi can be reached via her website at www.kathimacias.com or her blog http://kathieasywritermacias.blogspot.com/.----Crosswalk.com) 09/15/2009 Death penalty: a divided debate The official definition for capital punishment, the death penalty or execution, is the killing of a person by judicial process for retribution, general deterrence, and incapacitation. The debate over the death penalty has been going on for as long as anyone can remember. Either Americans are finding they believe the death penalty is a harsh and violent way to punish someone for committing a crime, or they believe that those sentenced with the death penalty deserve to be killed. In the end, it comes down to whether one believes the golden rule do unto others as you would have them do unto you or their own rule, which goes a little more along the lines of: Do unto others as they did unto others. Personally, I am not in favor of implementing the death penalty as a serious option, not only because of the moral and ethical beliefs that have been instilled in me but also because it isnt very economical to do so. It actually costs more to use the death penalty than it would be to keep that same person in prison for the rest of their life. In California alone, the death penalty system costs taxpayers $114 million per year beyond the costs of keeping convicts locked up for life. These taxpayers have paid more than $250 million for each of the states executions. In Florida, enforcing the death penalty costs taxpayers $51 million more than the cost of convicting their murderers to a life imprisonment in jail. In Texas, the cost of the death penalty is almost three times the amount of simply holding someone in a cell for 40 years. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, there are only 15 states that do not allow the death penalty to be used. That means that 70% of Americans believe murdering criminals is an appropriate way to punish wrongdoers. The top 5 death penalty states are Texas, Florida, Oklahoma, Virginia and Missouri. These 5 states alone accounted for 66% of all United States executions since 1976. Most of these states are located in the southern part of the United States and consequently, the South accounts for more than 80% of executions. According to Amnesty International, in 2008 the United States had one of the highest amounts of executions at a whopping 37 people. Funny how the United States is also in much more economic trouble than the rest of the world. According to a survey done in May of 2006, overall support of the death penalty was down to 65% from the 80% of 2 years before. In that same 2006 survey, it was discovered that when given the option between the death penalty and life imprisonment without parole, more people would choose life imprisonment over the death penalty. In 2009, a survey showed that 88 % of the people surveyed do not believe that the death penalty is an effective deterrent to crime. Outside of the United States, world leaders are also beginning to remove the death penalty. For instance, in Kenya this past August, President Mwai Kibaki announced that he was commuting all criminals who face the death sentence to life imprisonment. He said that the wait for those 4,000 criminals in his country to face the death penalty was "undue mental anguish and suffering." Even within the United States, more and more state governors are beginning to change their laws in objection to the death penalty. New Mexico's governor Bill Richardson said that ridding his state of the death penalty was "the most difficult decision in my political life." (New Mexico had previously banned the death penalty from its state, but it had been reinstated in 1976.) I can understand the dilemma people have on choosing which side they will stand on. I also realize that, for many people and many issues, things are not simply black and white there are some gray areas as well. But in my case, I simply see it as killing someone. No matter whether a person committed a horrible crime or not, what gives us the right to be able to choose when and how they die? How is what we are doing any different than first-degree murder? Even the definition of the death penalty itself states that it is the killing of a person. Although this person may have done something in the past and may have gone against the laws of the United States of America, it does not justify the killing of a living, breathing, thinking being. (source: Katrina Widener is a second-year magazine major, Drake University, The Times-Delphic) Sept. 14, 2009 Is Rick Perry Responsible for Texas' Wild Increase in Executions? Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX) presided over 200 executions between taking office in 2001 and June of this year. During that time, Texas executed 3 times more people than the next 3 states combined had executed since 1976. New investigations are now raising the question of just how many innocent people were sent to their deaths by a governor and a system that ignore legal obligations to examine new evidence or counter prosecutorial or judicial misconduct? Perry has been one of the most radical proponents of capital punishment in American politics, refusing to issue a posthumous pardon to Tim Cole, an innocent man, proven to be so, who died in prison and ignoring exculpatory evidence in what appears to be a standard procedure that mystically discounts the possibility of wrongful conviction in capital cases. Gov. Perry may either be a moral coward, afraid to offend a radical hard-right base that believes society will unravel without an aggressive death penalty system, or he may be more eager to put people to death than he is to achieve justice. As detailed in a lengthy New Yorker feature for the Sept. 7, 2009, issue, "Trial by Fire", Perry ignored a raft of damning scientific evidence showing an arson case against a man on death row was unsubstantiated "junk science." On 17 February 2004 after Gov. Perry refused to stay his execution and falsely claimed to have judged the "facts of the case" to show guilt, Todd Willingham was executed for a crime scientific examination appears to show he did not commit. For the first 18 years the Texas death penalty system was in place, Texas executed 238 people, or about 13 per year. Since Perry took office, the figure has risen dramatically, to 22 per year. That particular statistic raises questions about what has changed under Rick Perry's governorship. For one, more cases are coming to the fatal moment of execution that are affected by Republican control of the State Court of Criminal Appeals. Since 1995, when elected Republican judges won a majority of seats on the Court, the rate of execution has skyrocketed. And those judges openly pledged during their campaigns for elected judgeship to favor the prosecution and be "tough on crime", a strange claim for a judicial candidate whose job is to be tough on adherence to facts and to the law, not tough on the accused in particular, who are supposed to be presumed innocent. With at least one judge accused of professional misconduct for making summary judgment on a death penalty appeal and a review panel that is reported to essentially not carry out its investigative responsibilities, operating on the assumption that the system does not fail and never actually meeting to discuss a case, Texas is not only facing the likelihood it will be proven to have executed an innocent man; it is the state considered most likely to have failed its legal responsibilities in that way. That under Gov. Perry, the rate of executions has so dramatically accelerated has raised the ire of human rights groups that say the state's actions are putting the US on short lists of major violators of habeas corpus and fundamental judicial rights that include Iran, Yemen, Saudi Arabia and China. Some death penalty advocates say that only with aggressive application of the stiffest penalty allowed by law can violent crime be curbed, but there is mounting consensus among legal experts that Texas' system is riddled with serious due process flaws that significantly increase the likelihood of carrying out executions of innocent people. Opponents of the Texas system say instead of deterring crime, the open bias of politicians and judges toward the prosecution and toward the application of the death penalty means the state is collaborating in the escape of those who really did commit crimes that innocent people have been convicted of. With a growing problem of human trafficking and drug running, and the attendant violence, Texas may need to halt all executions until the system is fixed and at last there is a means for determining when prosecutorial mistakes or misconduct have let the guilty off by targeting the wrong suspect. (source: CafeSentido.com) Sept. 9, 2009 Another reason to abolish the death penalty The death penalty in the United States should be abolished because it functions as a potent agent of racism and class oppression. African Americans and Latino/as represent the majority of those on death row. And executions are reserved almost exclusively for the poor. 90% of those awaiting execution could not afford to hire a trial attorney. In addition, death penalty abolitionists have known for decades that many of those executed are also innocent. Now the corporate media has finally covered one such case in which recent evidence reveals that another innocent person was executedand where else but in the state of Texas. Craig Beyler, a nationally recognized arson expert, wrote in an August report for the Texas Forensic Science Commission that a 1991 fire which killed Todd Willingham's 3 young daughters was not arson. Willingham was executed for their murder in 2004. As he lay on the gurney in Huntsville, Willingham had said, "I am an innocent man, convicted of a crime I did not commit. I have been persecuted for 12 years for something I did not do." Todd Willingham was innocent and theres a simple reason for his 2004 execution: He was poor. We are taught in school that justice is blind, but in no civics book does it say how expensive it is. His stepmother, Eugenia Willingham, who raised Todd from the age of 13 months, spoke to hundreds in Austin, Texas, in 2006 at the Seventh Annual March to Abolish the Death Penalty. The marchers had left a letter at the gates to the Governor's Mansion for Gov. Rick Perry, asking him to investigate the case and stop all pending executions so that no other innocent person would be put to death. Today, Texas may become the 1st state in the modern era forced to acknowledge that it executed a legally and factually innocent person. Death penalty activists know the names of many other innocent people who have been executed: Shaka Sankofa, Frances Newton, Carlos de Luna, Joseph Nichols, Ruben Cantu and Carlos Santana, to name but a few. More than a few innocent people set to be executed are still living on death row and should be exonerated before they, too, are killed by the state: Mumia Abu-Jamal, Troy Davis, Howard Guidry, Cesar Fierro, Jeff Wood, Rodney Reed, Max Soffar, Darlie Routier, Anthony Graves and many more. Modern legal lynchings The U.S. was founded on the theft of Native land. It developed riches through the super-exploitation of enslaved Africans. From Reconstruction until the gains made by the Civil Rights Movement, Black people were frequent victims of vicious lynch mobs. Today"s executions are modern-day lynchingsand almost 90% of executions take place in former Confederate states. An innocent Black man in Conroe, Texas, Clarence Brandley, was picked up by cops along with an equally innocent elderly white man in the late summer of 1981 to be questioned about the rape and murder of a white teenager. The sheriff was under pressure to find the perpetrator of this awful crime before school started. He looked at Brandley and said, "You're the n-er, so you're elected." Brandley spent nine years on death row before being exonerated. As Shaka Sankofa lay strapped on the gurney in Huntsville on June 22, 2000, he said, "They know I'm innocent. They've got the facts to prove it. ... But they cannot acknowledge my innocence, because to do so would be to publicly admit their guilt." Sankofa continued, "Slavery couldn't stop us. The lynchings in the South couldn't stop us. This lynching will not stop us tonight. We will go forward . ... It's state-sanctioned lynching, right here in America and right here tonight. Our destiny in this country is freedom and liberation. We will gain it by any means necessary. We must avenge this murder and continue to move forward to stop all executions of the poor and of Black people." We must put Shaka Sankofa's words into action and abolish the racist and anti-poor death penalty. (source: Editorial, Workers World) Tabler blogging from death row Richard Tabler, the convicted murderer out of Bell County who last year was at the center of a controversy about cell phone usage by death row inmates, has again captured the attention of the state senator in charge of corrections in Texas - this time through a blog post. In a statement released Thursday, state Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, said he is upset that Tabler continues to get messages out from death row, some of which threaten him and his family. Less than 11 months ago, Whitmire, chair of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee, led a sweep of the Texas prison system for contraband after Tabler called him on a cell phone. Whitmire said then that Tabler made threatening comments to him and Whitmire vowed to clean up the Texas prison system and rid it of smuggled cell phones. But now Tabler has apparently found a new way to communicate and threaten people. Since May, he has had a letter posted on an Internet blog for inmates. In the letter he inquires about the health of one of Whitmire's family members and writes "that just because I'm on death row does not mean that you cannot be gotten to or your family." "Once again, I must express to you my utter dismay at the level of security that continues to be present at the Polunsky death row Unit," Whitmire said in a statement. "If Richard Tabler was a political opponent, I would ignore him; however, he is a convicted capital murderer." Whitmire made sure top officials in the Texas prison system heard his message Thursday. In his statement outlining his frustrations he mentioned by name Brad Livingston, executive director of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, and Oliver Bell, chairman of the Texas Board of Criminal Justice. The ability of a death row inmate to continually author these threats represents a threat to all Texans and our public safety, the statement said. "I specifically ask how an inmate on death row is allowed to openly send letters out to the public that are designed to intimidate,threaten and retaliate against an elected official or any citizen of this state. I am also appalled that no one within TDCJ has even contacted me concerning this issue," Whitmire said. The Web site that is posting the letters is dedicated to teaching the public about "the hearts of the coldest killers," according to a post that explains why the site was created. (source: Temple Daily Telegram) Editorial Questions About an Execution Published: August 30, 2009 People should have no illusions about the brutal injustice of the death penalty after all of the exonerations in recent years from DNA evidence, but the case of Cameron Todd Willingham is still shocking. Mr. Willingham was executed for setting a fire that killed his 2-year-old daughter and 1-year-old twins, but a fire expert hired by the State of Texas has issued a report casting enormous doubt on whether the fire was arson at all. The Willingham investigation, which is continuing, is further evidence that the criminal justice system is far too flawed to justify imposing a death penalty. After the fire, investigators decided, based in large part on burn patterns on the house’s floors, that it was intentionally set. Prosecutors charged Mr. Willingham, who escaped from the burning home, with capital murder. Mr. Willingham protested his innocence until the day the state killed him by lethal injection in 2004. The following year, Texas created the Forensic Science Commission to investigate charges of scientific mistakes or misconduct, and the panel began looking into the Willingham case. It commissioned Craig Beyler, a nationally recognized fire expert, to examine evidence. Mr. Beyler issued a report last week that painted an ugly picture of what passes for expert scientific investigation and testimony in a capital case in Texas. The report found that the official inquiry into the Willingham fire did not meet prevailing scientific standards of the time, much less current ones. The investigators “had poor understandings of fire science,” Mr. Beyler said, and their “methodologies did not comport with the scientific method.” He determined that the opinions of one main investigator were “nothing more than a collection of personal beliefs that have nothing to do with science-based fire investigation.” The report concluded that a “finding of arson could not be sustained.” The Forensic Science Commission is now asking the state fire marshal’s office for its response. It anticipates issuing a final report next year. The commission is to be commended for conducting this inquiry, but it is outrageous that Texas is conducting its careful, highly skilled investigation after Mr. Willingham has been executed, rather than before. A version of this article appeared in print on August 31, 2009, on page A18 of the New York edition. Questions About an Execution Houston woman's killer dies on death row By MICHAEL GRACZYK ASSOCIATED PRESS Aug. 30, 2009 HOUSTON — A convicted killer on Texas' death row for nearly three decades has died in prison, prison officials said. Danny Dean Thomas was found dead Saturday, a day before his 54th birthday, on death row at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Polunsky Unit near Livingston. Prison officials said an autopsy would be performed but initially were attributing his death to natural causes. Thomas changed his name to Shozdijiji Shisinday since his conviction for the July 1981 abduction and murder of a Houston woman. Sylvia Elaine Harrison, 19, was fatally shot and her body was dumped in the San Jacinto River in Harris County. Thomas' 1982 conviction for her slaying was overturned on appeal and he was retried and sentenced to death again in 1998. Last October, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to review his case. He did not have an execution date. He was 26 when he first arrived on death row and spent more than 27 years there. Thomas had won a second trial because the Texas attorney general's office missed a deadline to appeal a federal judge's decision to overturn his conviction. According to evidence at his trials, Thomas explained bloody clothing he was wearing by saying he'd hit a dog and that he and a friend had put the bloody animal in their car before dumping it in the river. He told others he had shot the dog because it would not stop whimpering. Thomas, however, later acknowledged that he and a friend, Zendal Peels, stopped to help Harrison, who was having car trouble. She thanked them for repairing her car and invited them to her home where court documents indicated they had drank beer and smoked marijuana. In his statement to police, Thomas said Peels unexpectedly struck Harrison in the head, knocking her out. Then the two took some items from her home, carried the unconscious woman to their car and drove around. When she regained consciousness, according to his statement, Thomas shot her in the head at close range. They drove to the river, removed her clothing and tossed her in the river after tying concrete blocks to her feet. Peels' family was upset to find blood in the car. Thomas was arrested after seeking psychiatric treatment at a hospital where he claimed people were blaming him for killing a person when he had killed a dog. A case against Peels, who was 17 at the time of the attack, was dismissed for lack of evidence. At his second trial, where jurors were deciding between life in prison or a death sentence, a life term would have made Thomas immediately eligible for parole because of time served for his first conviction. Defense attorneys had described him as mentally unstable, tired, hungry and scared when he spoke with police and signed a confession about 23 hours after he was taken into custody. The Harris County jury considering his case at the second trial decided he should die. Testimony showed Harrison repeated “God help me” until Thomas shot her in the head. Houston woman's killer dies on death row August 23, 2009 My thanks to maligned Judge Keller I'd like to express my gratitude to Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Presiding Judge Sharon Keller. She has made Texas' supreme court for criminal matters into a better institution. Unfortunately, she didn't do it by bringing organizational skills to a court that must deal more than any other state court in the nation with the pressures of last-minute appeals in death penalty cases. But she did it. The firestorm of criticism that followed her decision not to keep the clerk's office open for a late filing, based on a U.S. Supreme Court decision from earlier in the day, of a man scheduled to be executed an hour after closing time, has produced some improvements. According to her own testimony and that of other court officials during this week's four-day trial, the court had a protocol for dealing with execution day filings, but it was something of a secret. For one thing, it wasn't written. For another, the court staff was not given any formal training on it. Part of the procedure was the appointment, on a rotating basis, of a single judge to whom all communications regarding the pending execution would be directed. But the name of that judge was not to be disclosed to anyone outside the court, including lawyers for the condemned man. In Keller's 7 years as the court's chief judge, that was the state of things. Now, due to the allegations that she violated that procedure by not referring the call seeking to file a late plea for a stay of execution to Judge Cheryl Johnson, the assigned judge for that execution day, everyone knows the procedures. The court's judges, some of whom were waiting around in expectation of a filing and were angered to learn days later of Keller's actions, agreed to put the protocol in writing. And the protocol has been widely publicized in the controversy. There is another improvement. Ed Marty, the general counsel who took the request to Keller rather than to Johnson (who testified she would have accepted late pleadings), retired. His replacement, Sian Schilhab, said she contacts the appropriate attorneys days ahead of the prosecution to make sure they know she is available up until the execution takes place. She said she not only gives them her cell phone number, but forwards the office phone to her cell. She also says all outside communications not only "clearly go to the assigned judge, but I try to communicate them to all the judges, or at least their staffs." She said that's not because of the recent controversies, but because "I believe in more communication rather than less." If Keller had instructed Marty to do that, we wouldn't have had this firestorm. Keller's attorney argued this week that the defense lawyers had orchestrated media coverage creating the firestorm. Truth in advertising The coverage was not always fair and not always accurate, but I'd suggest that Keller herself made the ground fertile for belief that she would violate court policy to coldly reject the last-minute appeal. When she first ran for the court in 1994 she wrote in the Dallas Morning News that she was "pro-prosecutor. " It was truthful advertising. When DNA evidence showed a man imprisoned for raping a girl who was also murdered did not contribute the semen, she ruled against his appeal, saying he might have worn a condom. When prosecutors put on an expert in another case who testified a convicted man was a threat to society and therefore should get the death penalty because he was Hispanic, she voted not to require a new sentencing proceeding. The U.S. Supreme Court disagreed. When a district judge ruled that the evidence "unquestionably established" that a man had been pressured into falsely confessing to raping his stepdaughter, Keller voted with the minority against his release from prison. I'll say this for her. She is hard working. In the midst of this week's trial, she voted not to hear an appeal in a death penalty case. 6 of the 9 members of the all-Republican court voted the other way. (source: Commentary, Rick Casey, Houston Chronicle) August 23, 2009 Justices lost on death penalty According to a strict constructionist view of the Constitution, innocence is not enough to stop the government from executing you. All that matters is that you had a legally "fair trial." If you prove your innocence after that trial ends in a death sentence, too bad. Back the hearse up to the prison. Upholding the supposed integrity of the system is more important than your life, your innocence, or even the knowledge that the person who committed the crime is on the loose and probably committing others. That's the argument U.S. Supreme Court Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas recently made in a death penalty case. Seriously. "This court has never held that the Constitution forbids the execution of a convicted defendant who has had a full and fair trial but is later able to convince a habeas court that he is 'actually' innocent," Scalia wrote. Law professor Alan Dershowitz put Scalia and Thomas' logic into simpler terms: "If a defendant were convicted ... of murdering his wife and then came to the Supreme Court with his very much alive wife at his side ... these 2 justices would tell him, in effect: 'Look, your wife may be alive as a matter of fact, but as a matter of constitutional law, she's dead, and as for you, Mr. Innocent Defendant, you're dead, too, since there is no constitutional right not to be executed merely because you're innocent.'" From a legal standpoint, Scalia and Thomas don't seem to believe a person can actually be innocent, only "guilty" or "not guilty," because that's the only thing the system is designed to determine. That's an incredible view of our justice system, one that deserves much more debate. And to think, many spent weeks arguing against Sonia Sotomayor because she "hopes" a "wise Latina" can make better judgments on certain issues than white men. Let a Puerto Rican woman show pride in her heritage, and critics unleash a Category 4 hurricane of complaints, arguing Democracy itself is under attack. Let long-serving white and black male Supreme Court justices suggest the constitution provides no protection for "actually innocent" people, and the resulting outrage doesn't even amount to a tropical depression. Fortunately for Troy Davis, who was convicted 20 years ago of murdering off-duty police officer Mark MacPhail, the other justices displayed common sense. They forced a lower court to re-consider the evidence. No physical evidence linked Davis to the murder. More than 2 dozen former prosecutors and judges said Davis should get a new hearing. 7 of the 9 eyewitnesses used to convict him have recanted, saying they were pressured to name Davis. And according to a mountain of research, eyewitness testimony is notoriously inaccurate. I can't tell you if Davis is guilty. I can tell you it is beyond absurd to believe that even if he proves his innocence, he should still take a trip to Georgia's death chamber. But that's one of the problems with what we call the justice system. The outcomes aren't always about justice. Even in South Carolina, if you are innocent - meaning you didn't do it - but get stuck with a lawyer who isn't very good, the chances are almost zero you'll win an appeal. Why? Because appeals aren't about making sure justice prevails. It's often about making sure all the legal 't's' have been crossed and 'i's' have been dotted. If your lawyer didn't make the right objections during your initial trial - those that could later help prove your innocence or show things weren't fair - the appeals court may not even consider it. The legal logic says we shouldn't try cases into perpetuity, that it would put too much chaos in the system, that there has to be a point where cases end. According to Scalia and Thomas, the Constitution doesn't protect innocent men from death at the hands of the government, because the system the government created isn't designed to detect innocence. Good thing they didn't prevail, for if they had, Davis wouldn't have been the only casualty of such thinking. They would have effectively put a needle in the arm of justice, too. (source: Myrtle Beach Sun News) August 22, 2009 The Snitching Blog Snitching Blog is about a part of our criminal system that most people know little or nothing about: criminal informants, or snitches. At any given moment, thousands of informants are trying to work off their own criminal liability by giving information to the government. These informants may be in court, in prison, on the street, or in the workplace. Police and prosecutors often rely heavily on information obtained from snitches--especiall y in drug enforcement but also in white collar crime, organized crime, and terrorism investigations. In fact, it is impossible to fully understand the U.S. legal system without understanding snitching. Nevertheless, there is very little public information available about this important public policy. That's where Snitching Blog comes in. The Snitching Blog *See Related Article Below. Re-posted; August 22, 2009 July 30, 2008 The Rat Trap Death row exonerations expose failings of the ‘snitch system’ By Christopher Moraff Levon Jones was freed from North Carolina's death row in May after a paid informant recanted her testimony. Since 1973, 129 innocent people were released from death row -- more than 50 of whom were sentenced to death based partly or wholly on false informant testimony Levon Jones is supposed to be dead. If the state of North Carolina had its way, Jones, 49, would have been strapped to a gurney years ago, hooked to an IV and pumped full of a lethal, three-drug cocktail until he asphyxiated. Instead, on May 2, he walked out of prison a free man after spending 13 years on death row, and another 24 months locked up awaiting retrial — all for a murder he almost certainly did not commit. Jones — known to friends and family as “Bo” — was released with the help of the American Civil Liberties Union’s (ACLU) Capital Punishment Project after the prosecution’s star witness recanted her testimony against him. (Lovely Lorden, a former girlfriend, admitted she’d collected $4,000 in reward money in exchange for testifying against Jones.) He was an easy target: an African-American ex-con with a history of mental illness and violent behavior. When Lorden came forward with her story — a full three years after the 1987 shooting of a local bootlegger named Leamon Grady — Jones was doing time on an unrelated assault charge. The prosecution felt little obligation to question the veracity of Lorden’s claim. And if the witness is to be believed today, investigators actually helped her keep her story straight. As a result of Lorden’s testimony — and despite the lack of physical evidence tying him to the crime — a jury convicted Jones in 1993 and he was sentenced to die for Grady’s killing. What Jones’ attorneys didn’t know at the time — and, as it turns out, didn’t really bother trying to uncover — is that Lovely Lorden had made something of a career out of testifying against people close to her. By her own admission, she has aided law enforcement in dozens of investigations and says she helped police make cases against several other boyfriends, as well as her own brother and sons. What’s more, her work as a confidential informant didn’t stop after Jones was sent to death row. Jones’ attorneys sent In These Times copies of receipts that show Lorden was paid money at least seven times for her work as a confidential informant from December 2003 to April 2004, while Jones sat in jail. Today, Lorden contends she testified against Jones under pressure from the police, in particular Dalton Jones (no relation), the lead officer in the case. That doesn’t surprise Jones’ ACLU attorney, Brian Stull, who says it’s not uncommon for police to find a suspect first and worry about making a case later. “I think often times they look at the usual suspects,” Stull says. “I think Dalton Jones was thinking, ‘This is a dangerous person, and whether he did it or whether he didn’t, I’m going to get him off the street.’“ Jones owes his freedom in part to an astute federal judge who sensed something amiss with Lorden’s testimony during a 2006 penalty appeal. In granting Jones a new trial, U.S. District Judge Terrence Boyle, of the Eastern District of North Carolina, noted Lorden’s statements to police were “riddled with inconsistencies” and “reflect that Lorden is unable to fairly and reliably describe the circumstances of the offense.” Unfortunately, the case of Levon Jones is not an anomaly. He is the fifth death row prisoner to be exonerated in the past year. Since December, North Carolina alone has released three inmates from death row after it was determined that they did not commit the crimes for which they were convicted. Of these three men, two, including Jones, were convicted on the false testimony of snitches. The other, Jonathon Hoffman, was released in December 2007 after spending seven years on death row. His freedom came when the prosecution’s key witness — Hoffman’s cousin — admitted that he had lied to get back at Hoffman for stealing money and had been both paid for his testimony and given a reduced sentence for bank robbery. At the time of Hoffman’s trial, prosecutors withheld the deal from defense attorneys, the jury and even the judge. A recipe for disaster In a country where more than one out of every 100 citizens is now incarcerated, criminal justice advocates are scrutinizing the way in which police and prosecutors go about getting the information to pursue and prosecute suspects. This inquiry has increasingly focused on the extent to which incentivized informants and jailhouse snitches are contributing to the convictions of innocent people. A cursory review of the Jones case would be enough to suggest something is wrong. But a thousand Levon Jones stories don’t elicit the same amount of outcry as one Kathryn Johnston case does. In November 2006, Atlanta police gunned down Johnston — an elderly Atlanta grandmother — inside her home. The officers, who were from the city’s narcotics task force, claimed to be acting on information they received from a confidential informant that drugs were being sold from the house. That allegation turned out to be false. The Johnston tragedy shined a spotlight on the cavalier use of informant information to obtain arrest and search warrants. The Justice Department launched a federal probe and, nine months after the shooting, in July 2007, the House Committee on the Judiciary held a hearing on law enforcement’s use of confidential informants. “We’ve got a serious problem here that goes beyond coughing up cases where snitches were helpful,” said committee chair Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) at the hearing. “The whole criminal justice system is being intimidated by the way this thing is being run, and, in many cases, especially at the local level, mishandled. … A lot of people have died because of misinformation.” It isn’t known if any of those people have died at the hands of the state; but judging by some of the relevant corollary statistics, it’s plausible that some have. Falsified informant testimony accounts for nearly half of all wrongful convictions in capital cases nationwide, according to data from Northwestern University Law School’s Center on Wrongful Convictions. Since 1973, 129 innocent people were released from death row — more than 50 of whom were sentenced to death based partly or wholly on false informant testimony, according to the Center. Alexandra Natapoff, an associate professor of law at Loyola University and one of the country’s foremost authorities on the problems with paid informants, thinks that’s just the tip of the iceberg. “We have the most data on capital and homicide convictions because they are the most high profile,” she says, “so we have no idea how many wrongful convictions there are in larceny cases or assault cases or any other because nobody is paying any attention to those.” Natapoff has written extensively on the role of snitch testimony in wrongful convictions and says that informants have become law enforcement’s investigative tool of choice. “The government’s use of criminal informants is largely secretive, unregulated and unaccountable,” she says. “This lack of oversight and quality control leads to wrongful convictions, more crime, disrespect for the law and sometimes even official corruption.” She continues: “If the criminal system can’t get homicide cases right, then it’s very unlikely that we’re getting other things right.” A broken system With the expansion of the “war on drugs” during the crack epidemic of the late 1980s, police began to abandon traditional investigative work in favor of insider cooperation. Cops say it’s almost impossible to make a drug case any other way. But critics say the practice has led to a “dumbing down” of police work across the board. “The drug war has eroded law enforcement practices,” says investigative reporter Ethan Brown, whose recently published book, Snitch: Informants, Cooperators and the Corruption of Justice, traces the genesis of the informant culture and its effect on communities. Those who study the snitch culture trace the problem to a criminal justice policy that has created the perfect atmosphere for what Brown calls the “cooperator institution” to thrive. Most notably, Brown says, federal sentencing guidelines, adopted in 1987, have exacerbated the growth of the cooperator institution over the past two decades. Until a 2005 Supreme Court ruling gave judges more flexibility in sentencing, the guidelines made cooperating with authorities the only real option for defendants seeking leniency. “Those guidelines really forced drug defendants into cooperating,” says Brown. “Very few people will look at that kind of prison time and not cooperate.” But over the years, a practice once confined mainly to drug investigations has become standard operating procedure for the prosecution of all kinds of crime. The reasons are myriad, but the simple matter of resources looms large. In a system severely taxed by an unwinnable drug war, relying on informants is a cheap and easy investigative option. It can cost thousands of dollars to house, feed and protect an actual witness until trial, and, depending upon the offense and the defendant, such protection can carry on for years after conviction. By contrast, criminal informants are often compensated with leniency or are paid small sums, and often simply released into the same streets from which they came. “It’s all about this staggering misallocation of resources,” says Brown. “We have this incredible institution for cooperators and informants, yet, for the kind of cooperating we need the most, there are really no resources.” This mutually beneficial relationship between police officers and their informants is what Natapoff calls “a disturbing marriage of convenience.” Prosecutors and police know the pitfalls, but in many cases write them off as the cost of doing business and making cases. In a 1999 study published in the Fordham Law Review, Ellen Yaroshefsky, a law professor from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, interviewed a number of assistant U.S. attorneys from the Southern District of New York and found that while most said they made every effort to be diligent in assessing the veracity of informants, they admitted it’s easy to get in too deep and lose objectivity. In her study, Yaroshefsky described this as “fall[ing] in love with their rat.” “You’re not supposed to, of course. You are trained to maintain your objectivity,” an anonymous participant in Yaroshefsky’s study said. “But you spend time with this guy, you get to know him and his family, you like him. You believe that he has come clean. Hopefully the assistant has a skeptical mindset, but the reality is that the cooperator’s information often becomes your mindset.” Still, other times investigators are already working under an assumption of guilt and are simply seeking confirmation. “[Sometimes] prosecutors are convinced they have the guilty guy, then they go about seeking to convict and do not carefully look at things that are funny about their case,” one of Yaroshefsky’s sources said. Former prosecutor and now Howard University law professor Andrew Taslitz says that when he started out in the Philadelphia district attorney’s office, his youth and ambition often clouded his judgment when it came to reliance on informants who had received incentives. He says he thinks his experience is the norm. “Most prosecutors are very, very young, especially at the state level,” Taslitz says. “They’re new graduates of law school or they’ve done some other job for a few years but they’re mostly in their late 20s, early 30s tops, with very little experience. It’s one of the reasons that office policies that just tell them what to do are so important.” Another problem is that many of the assumptions that courts make about how witness testimony is received simply don’t pan out. The Supreme Court established the constitutional basis for using paid informants in 1966 with U.S. v. Hoffa, which decided that rewarding a witness for testimony does not violate due process. In its opinion, the court wrote: “The established safeguards of the Anglo-American legal system leave the veracity of a witness to be tested by cross examination, and the credibility of his testimony to be determined by a properly instructed jury.” But Natapoff says, in practice, those mechanisms are deeply ineffective at protecting defendants from lying informants. “Let’s say the government does disclose [compensation] and the jury knows about it,” she says. “You would think, and the Supreme Court certainly thinks, that that will make a difference. Well, psychological research has found that it makes almost no difference, that jurors ignore the fact that the witness is compensated.” And that’s only for the cases that go to trial. Because 95 percent of criminal cases are resolved through plea agreements, defendants rarely get the chance to challenge an informant’s story or credibility. “The Supreme Court has held that while defendants who go to trial are entitled to impeachment material about their informants, defendants who plead guilty are not,” Natapoff says. “So that means that most defendants will never see the deal that the informant got.” In spite of all the potential pitfalls, police and prosecutors say the benefits of informants outweigh the potential for abuse. Ronald E. Brooks, president of the National Narcotic Officers’ Associations’ Coalition, calls informants “indispensable investigative assets” and cautions against issuing a blanket judgment on the use of confidential informants by police officers for “a few instances of mismanagement or wrongdoing.” “When we appropriately manage informants, great cases, ones that make our community safe are the result,” he says. “When informants are improperly used, the results can be devastating. But without the ability to freely use informants, law enforcement would have very few significant investigative successes.” Levon Jones was freed from North Carolina's death row in May after a paid informant recanted her testimony. Since 1973, 129 innocent people were released from death row -- more than 50 of whom were sentenced to death based partly or wholly on false informant testimony A call for reform Since the 2007 House Judiciary Committee hearing in the wake of the death of Kathryn Johnston, little headway has been made in reforming the practice of using incentivized informants to send people to jail — and, possibly, execution. According to the American Bar Association (ABA), 18 states now require corroboration of an accomplice’s statements. Those that require corroboration for other forms of incentivized witnesses, however, are few and far between. Illinois currently mandates corroboration in capital cases, and courts in Nebraska and Oklahoma have required corroboration for jailhouse snitches. Texas, meanwhile, has a different requirement, not for jailhouse snitches, but for undercover drug operatives working for the police. Criminal justice reformers say they want to make sure police and prosecutors are following protocol in how and when they use paid or incentivized informants. Taslitz, who serves in the ABA’s Criminal Justice Section, says more transparency is needed during the discovery phase. For example, he’d like to see defendants who are negotiating a plea agreement have access to the information and witnesses being used against them. In a 2005 ABA resolution that Taslitz helped write, the association urged federal, state and local authorities to require that informants meet certain standards of credibility and that courts mandate corroboration in all cases that involve jailhouse snitches. But so far there has been little in the way of reform. “It’s a slow process,” Taslitz says, “and it doesn’t have to necessarily be a matter of legislation, but it could be a matter of individual prosecutors’ offices adopting specific policies; it can be a matter of local ordinances; it can be case law where judges start to intervene. It’s a slow process and, as of yet, there is no uniform informants act.” For cases that do go to trial, Natapoff has been pushing for “pre-trial reliability hearings” as a potential remedy. Under such a system, the burden would be on the government to prove witness reliability by a preponderance of evidence. Courts would be required to consider such factors as the criminal history of the informant, any compensation for their testimony, and other cases in which the informant has testified, among other things. “Given the prevalence of informant falsehoods in wrongful capital convictions, such hearings should be mandatory in capital cases, even where the defense intends to concede guilt and move directly to the sentencing phase,” Natapoff says. Considering that for every innocent person convicted of murder, a real murderer escapes justice, requiring such checks and balances is as much a victim’s rights issue as a matter of criminal justice. For his part, in spite of losing a decade and a half of his life, Levon Jones says he holds no grudge against the snitch that put him on death row. Rather, he attributes his ordeal to a miscarriage of justice. Says Jones: “It was the system itself.” Christopher Moraff is a writer and photographer who frequently contributes to In These Times, The American Prospect online and Common Sense magazine. He currently serves as a features correspondent for The Philadelphia Tribune and is associate editor of the finance magazine the Monitor, where he specializes in covering corporate fraud. He lives and works in Philadelphia. The Rat Trap Editorial An Unfit Judge Published: August 20, 2009 Judge Sharon Keller, the Texas appellate court judge who closed the clerk’s office before a death row inmate could file a last-minute appeal, is fighting to keep her job. At a hearing on Wednesday, she said in a crowded courtroom that if she had it to do again, she would do the same thing. That testimony is further proof of why Judge Keller needs to be removed from the bench. On Sept. 25, 2007, Michael Richard’s lawyers called the court clerk’s office to say they were running late in delivering the papers for his appeal. The Supreme Court had unexpectedly issued an order in another death penalty case that they believed provided grounds for putting off his execution. When the request to keep the office open reached Judge Keller, she insisted it would close promptly at 5 p.m. The appeal was not filed, and Mr. Richard was executed hours later. Judge Keller is now facing five counts of judicial misconduct and a possible recommendation that the state judicial system remove her from the bench. In court this week, Judge Keller lashed out at the condemned man’s lawyers, blaming them for the controversy. She argued that Mr. Richard could still have filed his appeal by seeking out another judge, but that misses the point. She did not follow appropriate procedures. And clearly, under any interpretation of the rules, given that a life lay in the balance, the clerk’s office should have stayed open. Judge Keller’s profound lack of appreciation for the seriousness of taking a life — and the obligations it places on the state — is similar to the disturbing dissent that Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas delivered this week in the Troy Davis case. They suggested there was no constitutional problem with executing a man who could prove he was innocent. We believe the death penalty is in all cases wrong. But people who support it should still insist that it be carried out only after a prisoner has been given every reasonable chance to make his case. Judge Keller’s callous indifference in a case where the stakes could not have been higher makes her unfit for office. A version of this article appeared in print on August 21, 2009, on page A26 of the New York edition. An Unfit Judge August 20, 2009 Here's a good case for killing the death penalty Opponents of the death penalty have reason for hope this week. 2 high-profile cases are exposing the sick, barbaric folly of execution in America. When the U.S. resumed executions in 1977, only 16 nations had abolished the death penalty; the number has since grown to 92. 5 nations now carry out more than 90% of the world's executions: Iran, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, China - and the United States. We're in pretty grim company. But this week, America took a step toward evolving in the direction of the civilized world. In Georgia, a man on death row got an extremely rare ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court. And in Texas, a high-ranking judge is herself on trial - prosecuted for misconduct after callously refusing to hear the 11th-hour appeal of a prisoner who was about to be executed. The latest development in the Georgia case of Troy Anthony Davis is awe-inspiring. For the first time in 50 years, the justices ordered a federal court to reopen a state murder case - even after a long line of appeals - and hear newly discovered evidence that might exonerate Davis. As I've written in columns since 2007, the evidence of Davis' innocence is overwhelming. He was convicted in 1991 of the point-blank shooting of a Savannah police officer in a case with scant evidence: There was no murder weapon found, no confession, no fingerprints or other physical evidence. Davis was sent to death row on the strength of 9 witnesses. 7 have since recanted in sworn statements, with many claiming police coercion. An 8th witness first told cops he didn't know who the killer was, then "remembered" it was Davis 2 years later. And the 9th witness, who originally pointed the finger at Davis, may be the real killer. Three new witnesses now say he was the shooter. (Details about the case are at troyanthonydavis.org.) It took marches, rallies, media coverage and an active international movement and appeals from well-known people - including former FBI Director Williams Sessions, ex-Rep. Bob Barr (R-Ga.), Desmond Tutu and Pope Benedict - to get the high court to act. The Supreme Court ruling signals that actual innocence counts for something in a land where so many scream for blood. Another encouraging scene is unfolding in Texas, where Sharon Keller, presiding judge of the Texas Criminal Court of Appeals, yesterday took the witness stand in her own defense. Keller has been charged with misconduct by the Texas Commission on Judicial Conduct and could be kicked off the bench for her actions on the night in 2007 that the state executed Michael Wayne Richard, a rapist and murderer. On the day Richard was scheduled to be killed, the U.S. Supreme Court ordered a halt to executions in Kentucky based on a claim that lethal injections might be painful and therefore an unconstitutionally cruel form of punishment. Richard's lawyers, frantically attempting to stay his execution based on the ruling in the Kentucky case, called Keller's aides shortly before the court's closing time, begging them to keep the court open for 15 to 30 minutes - long enough to allow papers to be filed. At 4:45 p.m., the request was passed to Keller, who presides over the very last stop for criminal defendants in the Lone Star State. "We close at 5," she said. Richard was executed at 8:23 that evening. And on the stand yesterday, Keller said that, if faced with the same situation, she'd slam shut the doors of the courthouse again. That stiff-necked indifference to fairness and justice make Keller - "Killer Keller" to her critics - a poster child, along with Davis, for why we must end the death penalty. (source: Opinion, Errol Louis, New York Daily News) Keller trial wraps up with harsh criticism Decision will come later on whether judge violated court rules regarding 2007 execution appeal. By Chuck Lindell AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF August 21, 2009 SAN ANTONIO — Dismissing most of Judge Sharon Keller's defenses as legally irrelevant, prosecutor Mike McKetta said the state's highest criminal judge failed to perform her job competently in one of the most crucial areas of the law: the death penalty. "What kind of telephone call can you get on execution day that could be more urgent than this one: 'We are trying to file'?" McKetta asked Thursday as Keller's four-day misconduct trial came to an end. And yet, he said, "we know she said no. ... We know she said no a second time. We know she said, 'We close at 5 p.m.' She knew a filing was anticipated, and what did she do? 'No. No.'" Defense lawyer Chip Babcock, in his closing arguments, blamed the charges against Keller on a well-orchestrated attack by death penalty opponents and lies repeated by lawyers for death row inmate Michael Richard, whose missed appeal and execution in 2007 formed the basis of the case against Keller. "To even suggest that this fine woman, this fine judge willfully violated the law is frankly an outrage," Babcock said. "She and her family — and the family of Mrs. Dixon, frankly — are being put through this ordeal because some very vocal people don't like the way Judge Keller rules," he said. Marguerite Dixon was raped and killed by Richard in 1986. Two of her daughters, Marijo and Paula Dixon of Austin, were in the courtroom Thursday. Keller's trial ended without a resolution.Under rules governing cases of alleged misconduct against judges, District Judge David Berchelmann Jr. will compile "findings of fact" for the State Commission on Judicial Conduct. The 13-member commission will rely on the findings to decide among three options: drop the charges, censure Keller or suggest that she be removed from office. A removal recommendation would be ruled on by a specially created panel of seven appellate court judges. In his closing arguments Thursday, McKetta urged Berchelmann to focus on conduct — "what Judge Keller knew, said, thought, decided, did and failed to do." Keller, he said, failed to follow the court's execution-day procedures, which required "all communications" about a pending execution be referred to Judge Cheryl Johnson, who was assigned to handle any late appeal from Richard. Knowing she was not the assigned judge, Keller still chose to address and dispose of a request from Richard's legal team for more time, McKetta said. "She circumvented procedures" that are an important safeguard against the misapplication of capital punishment, he added. "The death penalty can be accepted in a civilization only when people can have confidence that it be so carefully administered that it precludes premature or erroneous executions," McKetta said. "Executions cannot be undone." Babcock said the charges against Keller assume that "we live in a black and white world. I think our society, and what happened here, is a little more nuanced than that." By saying the court clerk's office closes at 5 p.m. — a time set by state law — Keller did not stop lawyers with the Texas Defender Service from filing any appeals, Babcock said. Those lawyers failed to remember, or did not know, that appellate rules allow the court's general counsel or any of its nine judges to accept pleadings, he said. "Judge Keller didn't close the court to anyone. Mr. Richard's lawyer never knocked on the right doors, and they gave up," Babcock said. On the day of Richard's execution, the U.S. Supreme Court said about 9 a.m. that it would examine the legality of lethal injections. Even so, Babcock said, TDS lawyers didn't begin writing briefs until shortly after noon. By then, 40 percent of the time until 5 p.m. had evaporated, he said. TDS also assigned the task of drafting four briefs to a first-year lawyer, Alma Lagarda, and offered her no supervision until TDS litigation director David Dow arrived in the Houston office about 2:45 p.m., Babcock said. Babcock's harshest criticism was reserved for "lies" told by TDS lawyers that, he said, produced a flurry of negative publicity and scathing media accounts. Prosecutors used those news stories to allege that Keller brought discredit on the judiciary. There were no computer problems that delayed the creation of Richard's legal briefs, Babcock said. The often-told claim that the court would not stay open for only 20 minutes is refuted by the Texas Defender Service's own admission that the briefs weren't completed until almost 6 p.m., he added. "This is a tactic of TDS — to attack the Court of Criminal Appeals," Babcock said. TDS lawyers rebutted many of Babcock's claims, sometimes angrily, in testimony this week. McKetta urged Berchelmann to look past many of Babcock's claims, noting that they had nothing to do with the charges against Keller's conduct. Keller, he noted, made her decision to close the court without knowing that TDS had claimed computer delays, had made legal choices that would be questioned later or would criticize her about the Richard case in the months to follow. "She blames TDS solely and in its entirety — that the only reason for criticism around the world was TDS, TDS, TDS, instead of acknowledging that her noncompliance with the execution-day procedures must have accountability," McKetta said. Berchelmann has no time limit to make the findings beyond a state rule that says he must act promptly. clindell@statesman.com; 912-2569 Keller trial wraps up with harsh criticism Judge Keller: No one did anything wrong By CRAIG KAPITAN San Antonio Express-News Aug. 18, 2009 SAN ANTONIO — Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Judge Sharon Keller on Tuesday disagreed with prosecutors about her perception of a phone call two years ago that preceded the execution of death row inmate Michael Richard. “I just don't think anybody did anything wrong,” said Keller, the state's highest-ranking criminal judge, at her ethics hearing. Keller faces possible removal from office after being charged with five counts of judicial misconduct, including the failure to follow the appellate court's execution-day protocol when she didn't notify fellow Judge Cheryl Johnson of the Sept. 25, 2007, request to accept a late appeal. Johnson testified earlier she was at the court after hours, waiting for the expected last-minute appeal. “You knew someone had called about that scheduled execution and at minimum (that they) were not ready to file?” asked special prosecutor Mike McKetta, to which Keller responded, “Yes.” Keller recalled the court's general counsel Ed Marty saying that night, “They wanted to file something, but they were not ready.” She responded, telling Marty to advise Richard's attorneys that the clerk's office closes at 5 p.m. Richard, convicted in the April 1996 rape and shooting death of a Hockley nurse, was executed three hours later. During her hourlong testimony Tuesday, Keller said she didn't believe she was making a decision regarding the court accepting an appeal, but an administrative one about the clerk's office hours. “I think it was not a substantive matter,” she said, “but I can see why other people think it was.” Prosecutors are expected to continue questioning the judge this morning. Prosecutors will likely rest their case by the end of the day, and it is possible the defense will as well, attorneys indicated Tuesday. Richard's sister, Betty, who traveled from Houston to watch the proceedings, choked back tears during a break in Keller's testimony Tuesday. “She knows it was wrong,” she said. “My brother was not an animal. He was a loved human being.” ‘You didn't ask' Keller's testimony came after a long and sometimes bruising exchange earlier in the day between Richard's appellate lawyer and her attorney. David Dow, a law professor and litigation director for the nonprofit Texas Defender Services, occasionally raised his voice as he fielded questions from defense attorney Chip Babcock that suggested Dow spun false allegations to the media and lied about computer problems the day he was trying to file a last-minute appeal for Richard. Babcock said Dow should have known to call Johnson or to call the court's general counsel that day after his paralegal was told the clerk's office closes at 5. “You weren't denied (the appeal),” Babcock said. “You didn't ask.” Keller later said, “I would have thought a good part of (the execution-day procedure) was known to defense attorneys who practiced in our court.” Dow said he wasn't aware at the time that he could call others. He assumed after talking to his paralegal no other options were available. “It's reasonable for me to believe the clerk's office is the court,” Dow said. “I don't draw a distinction between the clerk's office and the court the way you do.” Both agreed there could have been some confusion that day as a result of the chain of communication. Dow was giving orders to another attorney in his office, who was in turn talking to a paralegal in Austin, who called the court clerk, who called the general counsel, who called Judge Keller. A pointed question Babcock, whose previous high-profile clients include Oprah Winfrey and the Chicago Tribune, occasionally glanced into the audience as he offered his questions Tuesday. Keller sat at the defense table, occasionally taking notes. “Do you think Judge Keller should be removed from office because you didn't think about (calling others) that day?” Babcock asked. Dow gathered his thoughts for a moment before responding. “I don't have an opinion on whether Judge Keller should be removed from office,” he said. ckapitan@express-news.net Judge Keller: No one did anything wrong Aug. 17, 2009 The case against death row----Instead of imposing ineffective death penalty, we should build tougher jails Seeing another wave of violence, Israelis turn to the "deterrence Messiah" that would save all and cease fatal violence on the streets the death penalty. Seems tempting, I agree knowing that a criminal who murdered another human being would be killed himself by our hand feels somewhat soothing. Let the criminals know the revenge is coming. The public should not rush to decide on the issue, however. Let emotions subside and look straight at the facts. And here they are. The state of Texas has one of the highest executions rates in the United States. The Lone Star state had seen 439 persons executed by the judicial system since 1976, yet crime rates are still high, with 10,869 individuals murdered since 2000. Furthermore, in the past 14 years, murder rates hover around same range (between 1,217 and 1,693), with the Texan public suffering 5.9 murders per 100,000 citizens. This is in contrast with, for example, to Wisconsin, which sees 3.3 murders per same amount of inhabitants, with no single execution since 1976 and only a single death row inmate killed beforehand; Connecticut sees 3 murders per 100,000 with a single execution as well. While statistics certainly differ, they also clearly portray another picture more executions do not necessarily mean less violent crime. Georgia, having executed 45 inmates, holds steady at the 7.5 murders mark, with North Carolina trailing at 43 executions and 6.5 murders. The call for a death penalty law strikes a cord with many, but I believe the data presented clearly one point death rarely deters those willing to kill another human. Secondly, we must recall that the wheels of justice are ill-advised, at times. Inventors and scientists work tirelessly to discover new crime investigation technology that would uncover precise evidence in police's search for justice; technology that could exonerate those deemed guilty. Mistakes could be made. You cannot revive a dead man. So what is a better solution to the problem? Here is an idea: The government should establish an isolated, high-security, hard-labor prison, in the desert under military control. In the hot weather, prisoners should be forced to work 18 hours a day under harsh conditions. They should be given an hour of free time each week, on Saturdays. Radio and TV sets, as well as books should be barred from prison cells, with jailed individuals having access to those once a week, during the free hour. Moreover, the media should be called upon to visit the prison, with news crews filming the conditions and the suffering of the inmates. Other reporters should be allowed as well, with the option to interview pre-selected inmates. Too cruel? Perhaps. Yet never was law enforcement agencies' need for means to prevent crime as dire as it is now. The offered solution would therefore aim to show villains the true face of justice if you do the crime, the time would be long and painful. (source: Jonathan Boyko, Opinion, YNet News) Embattled judge faces own trial Judge Sharon Keller is expected to testify during this week's hearing. By Craig Kapitan - SAEN August 17, 2009 For almost two years, critics have called for the resignation of Sharon Keller, one of Texas' highest-ranking judges, over charges of unethical conduct after she refused to accept a last-minute appeal from a death row inmate. Starting today, a rare hearing will begin in San Antonio that could help settle the matter. Keller — the presiding judge of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the criminal equivalent to the State Supreme Court — will sit before state District Judge David Berchelmann Jr. at the Bexar County Courthouse as special prosecutors for the State Commission on Judicial Conduct present evidence against her. The process — which has never involved a judge as high-ranking as Keller — could result in the judicial misconduct charges being dismissed, or could be the beginning of a protracted legal battle to boot her from the bench. Keller is no stranger to controversy. In 1998, she wrote an opinion denying a new trial to a mentally disabled man who'd been convicted of rape and murder even though DNA tests appeared to clear him. The latest firestorm, a frequent launching point for criticism of Texas' death penalty policies, began with a short telephone conversation minutes before 5 p.m. on Sept. 25, 2007. The execution of death row inmate Michael Richard was scheduled to begin in less than 90 minutes, and his lawyers were racing to file an appeal after the U.S. Supreme Court had announced that morning that it would determine whether lethal injection constituted cruel and unusual punishment. Richard's lawyers wanted a stay of execution until the Supreme Court could decide the matter. “They want to hold the court open,” general counsel Edward Marty recalled telling Keller over the phone, according to documents that State Commission on Judicial Conduct prosecutors filed earlier this year. Keller refused, saying the clerk's office closed at 5 p.m. Despite several attempts that night to talk to the deputy clerk by cell phone, Richard's attorneys said they were stonewalled. At 8:20 p.m., Richard was executed for the August 1986 rape and shooting death of Marguerite Dixon, a Hockley nurse. Keller, who had gone home early that afternoon to meet a repairman, had an ethical duty to advise fellow Appeals Court Judge Cheryl Johnson of the conversation, according to the prosecutors for the Judicial Conduct Commission. As was policy, Johnson was on call that night in the event a last-minute appeal was filed. “Neither Judge Johnson nor the other judges who remained at the court after 5 p.m. were aware that Mr. Richard's lawyers had called to ask whether filings after 5 p.m. could be accepted,” prosecutors alleged in court documents. And because the U.S. Supreme Court had agreed that morning to review lethal injection practices across the country, Keller's colleagues had been expecting an appeal. The nation's highest court eventually rejected the notion that the practice constituted cruel and unusual punishment, but no death row inmate — in Texas or elsewhere — was executed during the six months of debate and review. But Keller never intended to obstruct Richard's attorneys from filing an appeal, said her lawyer Charles “Chip” Babcock. “If you believe this story that's been spun, it kind of looks bad for Judge Keller,” he said. But in truth, he said, the brief phone conversation she had with Marty was solely about office hours, not an appeal. “She picked up the phone and she answered a simple question,” he said. “There's just no way she violated any code of conduct.” Richard's attorneys could have easily filed the appeal by calling the on-duty judge, he said, adding that Keller can't be blamed for their dereliction of duty. Calls last week to Texas Defender Services, which handled Richard's appeals, were referred to Houston attorney Neal Manne. Placing blame on the respected nonprofit is a classic smokescreen tactic, said Manne, who represented the agency's staff during depositions for the hearing. “I understand why she wants to change the focus away from herself, but I think it's a cheap shot,” he said. “It's legally irrelevant. The focus is and should be on what she did or didn't do.” Keller, who couldn't be reached for comment last week, is expected to testify during this week's hearing. Others expected to testify include fellow Court of Criminal Appeals judges, Texas Defender Services staff and the court's former general counsel. The hearing will mirror a civil trial with the exception of its resolution. When concluded, Berchelmann will issue a report stating the facts of the case as he sees them to the 13-member State Commission on Judicial Conduct. The panel then will choose one of three options at a public meeting: dismiss the case; issue a public censure; or recommend to the Supreme Court that Keller be removed. If she appeals the commission's decision, attorneys said the process from there could take years. Keller is the 96th judge in the State Commission on Judicial Conduct's 44-year history to undergo formal proceedings. However, few of those cases have resulted in public inquiries because judges have generally accepted plea deals or resigned before the hearings could take place, Willing said. This week's hearing will mark the first such proceeding since 2003. Embattled judge faces own trial July 30, 2009 Catholicism 101 - Does the church allow the death penalty? Kelsey Grammer has been in the news for his planned appearance at the parole hearing of the man who murdered his sister in 1976. Detained by a weather delay at the airport, Grammer was unable to attend the hearing but sent word pleading that the man who abducted, raped, stabbed and left for dead, 18 year old Karen Grammer should not be set free. Since the original conviction of death in the gas chamber, Denver law changed. It is now possible for this man to be released. Another parole hearing is scheduled for 2014. The story is horrible and the crime, brutal. Such a crime not only brings death and destruction to the individual and their family but also harms the whole of society. It cries out for justice which can only take the form of punishment. What does the church say about it? Because of the commandment, you shall not kill which extends toward anger, hatred and vengeance, many believe that the church forbids capital punishment. That is not true. Love toward oneself remains a fundamental principle of morality. Therefore it is legitimate to insist on respect for ones own right to life (CC 2264). According to the Catholic Catechism (2265), "Legitimate defense can be not only a right but a grave duty for someone responsible for another persons life, the common good of the family or of the state." The church understands that the scale for punishment should reflect the gravity of a crime. "Preserving the common good of society requires rendering the aggressor unable to inflict harm." The traditional teaching of the church "acknowledges the right and duty of public authority to punish malefactors by means of penalties commensurate with the gravity of the crime, not excluding, in cases of extreme gravity, the death penalty" (CC 2266). The church ascribes to the correctional aspects of incarceration with an attitude toward reform. "The primary effect of punishment is to redress the disorder caused by the offense. When punishment is voluntarily accepted, it takes on the value of expiation. Punishment has the effect of preserving public order and the safety of persons. It (punishment) has a medicinal value and should contribute to the correction of the offender." (CC 2266) For feelings of vengeance, it is best to pray for healing for self, all victims and healing for the perpetrators as well. There have been miracles of conversion in prisons and converts such as Carla Faye Tucker, executed for her crime of murder, have died in the grace of God. But even if there is little hope for reform, the church advises using capital punishment only as a last resort. "If bloodless means are sufficient to defend human lives against an aggressor and to protect public order and the safety of persons, public authority should limit itself to such means, because they better correspond to the conditions of the common good and are more in conformity to the dignity of the human person." (source: Karen Dudek, Examiner.com) July 29, 2009 Life without parole helps build anti-death penalty support A report last week issued by the Sentencing Project, a national organization that works for a fair criminal justice system, pointed to the ongoing problem in the United States of racial disparities in sentencing and the challenges posed by the growing number of people who are serving life in prison without the possibility of parole. In light of the report, the Sentencing Project is calling for the elimination of life-without- parole sentences. While the organization' s desire to fix problems in the way justice is allocated is certainly laudable, abolishing life without parole as a sentencing option would be a mistake and undercut one of the strongest arguments against capital punishment that we as a society can keep the most dangerous prisoners off the streets permanently and punish them appropriately without resorting to state-sponsored executions. Reform, not abolition The Sentencing Project's report points out that nearly 1/3 of inmates serving life sentences some 41,000 have no possibility of parole. 2/3 of "lifers" are non-white. Such racial disparities, which are also evident in the way the death penalty is administered in the United States, point to the need for an overhaul of the criminal justice system so that it is indeed just for all, particularly the poor and people of color. Sentences of life without parole should be given to only the most dangerous and violent criminals who pose a persistent threat to public safety. They should be handed out carefully, judiciously and as infrequently as possible, but they shouldn't be eliminated as a sentencing option. While the intention of those who propose eliminating life-without- parole sentences isn't to increase support for the death penalty, it's not difficult to imagine lawmakers and the judicial system coming under added pressure to advocate for capital punishment if permanent prison sentences are no longer a guaranteed option. It would begin undoing the progress that has been made in recent years in some states thanks in large part to Catholics to enact capital punishment moratoriums and repeal death penalty laws. Such efforts have been successful in part because of the support of church leaders, such as Pope John Paul II, who called the death penalty "both cruel and unnecessary, " and the U.S. bishops, who rightly pointed out in their 2005 statement "A Culture of Life and the Penalty of Death" that "it is time for our nation to abandon the illusion that we can protect life by taking life." Choosing life over death Unlike the death penalty, sentences of life without parole, when administered properly, cost the public less and uphold the human dignity of crime victims as well as perpetrators who have an opportunity while in prison to reform and rehabilitate their lives. Life without parole is a better option than the death penalty, and it is a necessary one if efforts to abolish capital punishment are to be successful. (source: Editorial, Joe Towalski, The Catholic Spirit) Capital Writs office to give Texas death-row inmates help with appeals July 29, 2009 The Associated Press HOUSTON – Condemned killers in Texas will get more legal help with their appeals when a state-backed office opens in 2010. The Office of Capital Writs, with an annual budget of about $1 million and a nine-person staff, will be funded by redirecting money already in the state budget. Its attorneys are expected to handle most state appeals. An alliance of the State Bar of Texas, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals and public defense advocates endorsed the measure before the 2009 Legislature. State Sen. Rodney Ellis of Houston sponsored the measure creating the office in response to reports about how death row inmates' lawyers had mismanaged appeals. He said the lack of a public defender to oversee key death row appeals has been an "international embarrassment." He introduced the bill in 2007. Texas, the nation's most active capital punishment state, put 18 convicted killers to death last year. "I think that everyone agrees [death row inmates] deserve one fair shot at presenting their issues, whether they're meritorious or not," said Andrea Marsh, executive director of the Texas Fair Defense Project. "We saw too many cases where poor state habeas representation forced people to lose appeals." Capital Writs office to give Texas death-row inmates help with appeals The Associated Press July 28, 2009 State to handle capital appeals Texas, which executes more convicts than any other state in the nation, will open its 1st capital defense office next year to manage appeals for death row inmates after years of reports that appointed private attorneys repeatedly botched the job. "The status quo has been an international embarrassment," said state Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, who sponsored the law that created the office. It was supported by an unusual alliance between the State Bar of Texas, the Court of Criminal Appeals and public defense advocates, who all backed it in the last legislative session. The law was inspired by a series of stories about Texas inmates who lost crucial appeals after court-appointed attorneys missed deadlines or filed only so-called "skeletal" writs documents with little information often copied from other cases. It represents a significant reform for Texas, one of the only capital punishment states that lacks a public defender to oversee key death row appeals known as state writs of habeas corpus. The office, with an annual budget of about $1 million and a staff of 9, won't open soon enough to help any of the inmates whose appellate rights were squandered recently. "Better late than never," said Juan Castillo, 1 of 4 death row inmates whose state appeals were never filed by the San Antonio attorney assigned to represent them. "This is a start. There's a lot of cases" that have been screwed up. Ellis first introduced the bill in 2007 in response to reports about how death row inmates' lawyers had mismanaged appeals. But the bill was blocked then by last-minute lobbying from Harris County's former DA. Deadlines blown In the aftermath, appellate mistakes continued. The Houston Chronicle reported earlier this year that 3 attorneys had repeatedly blown state or federal appellate deadlines for their death row clients, effectively surrendering their clients' rights to appeal. The Court of Criminal Appeals recently found 2 attorneys in contempt of court for their shoddy work, including Castillo's lawyer, Suzanne Kramer, and referred them to the State Bar of Texas for possible disciplinary action. Kramer has not responded to repeated requests for comment. Governor signed bill By the 2009 legislative session, remaining opposition to establishing a state capital defense office had virtually disappeared, Ellis said. The law was approved late in the session and signed by the governor last month. "I think that everyone agrees (death row inmates) deserve one fair shot at presenting their issues, whether they're meritorious or not," said Andrea Marsh, executive director of the Texas Fair Defense Project. "We saw too many cases where poor state habeas representation forced people to lose appeals." The Office of Capital Writs will be funded by redirecting money already in the state budget: $500,000 formerly used to pay private attorneys for appeals and $494,520 from the state's Fair Defense account, already earmarked for indigent defense. Ultimately, its attorneys will likely handle most state appeals about 10 a year, if the current pace of death sentences continues. State writs of habeas corpus are considered the most critical step in death row appeals. It is at that stage that any innocence claim, allegation of prosecutorial misconduct, flawed trial defense or other issue involving omissions or case errors must be raised or the arguments cannot normally be raised later in the process. The state writ of death row inmate Keith Thurmond, a former Montgomery County mechanic on death row for the 2001 murders of his wife and her lover, first was assigned to an inexperienced attorney who badly botched it. He next was given a Houston attorney, Jerome Godinich, who failed to file his federal appeal on time. Godinich, who has missed deadlines in 3 federal death row appeals, has blamed the mistake in Thurmond's case on another lawyer and a faulty after-hours filing machine. Thurmond fears that he will be executed before his innocence claim, or any other challenges to the outcome of his 2002 trial, are ever heard by any appellate judge. "I'm lost," he said. "I don't know what to do. I haven't had no representation since I've been here." (source: Houston Chronicle) July 28th, 2009 Texas Seeks To Improve Image In Death Penalty Cases Texas, the death penalty capital of the country, seems to be looking to change its ways. The state has passed legislation creating a capital defense office next year, which will handle appeals for death row inmates, according to this article from the Houston Chronicle. The appellate office will have a staff of 9 and a budget of about $1 million. Texas has gotten roundly criticized over the years for its handling of capital murder cases. There have been strange capital murder tales coming out of the Lone Star state in recent years, including a capital murder defendant represented by a sleeping lawyer; a defendant sentenced to death by a judge who allegedly was having a secret affair with the prosecutor in the case; and a defendant who was executed after he was barred from filing an appeal after the 5:00 pm closing time of the state's highest criminal appellate court. That later case prompted a move to impeach Sharon Keller, a judge on the state's court of criminal appeals. The Chron reports that the legislation creating the capital defense office was inspired by stories of Texas inmates who lost appeals because their lawyers missed deadlines or filed "skeletal" writs, which contained only scant information often copied from other cases. "The status quo has been an international embarrassment," state senator Rodney Ellis, who sponsored the legislation, told the Chron. (source: Wall Street Journal) July 23, 2009 The Death Penalty for a Hate-Crime? The Matthew Shepard Act, as part of the 2010 Department of Defense Authorization Bill that it is attached to, has now officially cleared the Senate and is making its way toward President Obama's desk but first must make a stop at a conference committee to reconcile the differences between the House and Senate versions of the legislation before final votes in September, but it does so after having had four amendments made to it, one of which adds a death penalty provision. Details on the Four Amendments Made to the Matthew Shepard Act Approved on Monday, 3 of the amendments were conceived by Senator Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.); they accomplish the following: Authorizing the possibility of the death penalty for certain hate-crimes. Extending the hate-crimes law to include "injury" against U.S. military service members and their families. A requirement that all hate-crime prosecutions adhere to guidelines as set out by the Attorney General, and that they operate on a "neutral and objective" basis. A further amendment was then added by Senator Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) seeking to place conditions on the application of the death penalty provision, restricting the measure's use until the attorney general of the state where the hate-crimes law is being applied has created the appropriate standards for the use of capital punishment as a sentence for a hate-crime conviction. All 4 amendments were approved, 3 with unanimous consent, and the amendment to extend hate-crime protections to military service personnel passing with a vote of 92-0. According to this article by the Washington Blade, Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) explained that the amendments made to the Matthew Shepard Act were part of a deal with Republican Senators in order to have the hate-crimes provision clear the Senate. Leahy also states that he supports all 4 of the amendments "in modified form". How Have LGBT Groups Reacted to the Matthew Shepard Act Amendments? Not well. Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) groups have decried the addition of the death penalty. The American Civil Liberties Union have perhaps said it best through Christopher Anders, ACLU Senior Legislative Counsel, when noting: "The expansion of the federal death penalty stands in stark contrast to furthering the cause of civil rights in the United States" In a letter sent by a coalition of gay rights, civil liberties and religious groups amounting to 50 sponsors in total, the addition of the death penalty was denounced. You can read the letter here. The Human Rights Campaign group have called the the amendments "poison pills" introduced by Jess Sessions, a Senator that gave a 50 minute speech as to why hate-crimes should not be extended to include LGBTS, to kill the bill. This, in itself, also infers the bitter irony inherent in a man arguing that extending hate-crimes legislation to include LGBT protections could endanger the liberty of moral objectors and religious persons, then adding a federal death penalty clause. Personally, I think three of the amendments are ill conceived and arbitrary. One places undue demands on the Attorney General to redefine hate-crimes when there has long been a perfectly applicable definition in existing law. The second extends protections to military personnel and their families which, firstly, is a move poorly defined - what constitutes "injury", or, indeed, "family" - and secondly, is unneeded due to existing tougher penalties for attacks made on service members or veterans already being in place. The death penalty provision we will come to below. Lastly the final amendment designed to curtail the death penalty's enforcement is a reactionary damage limitation exercise from the Democrats indicative of the difficulty that making concessions to the Republican opposition has left them in. What's Next for the Hate Crimes Legislation? The Hate Crimes legislation will go to a conference committee where the disparities between the House and Senate versions of the bill will hopefully be reconciled. One thing is clear, a Matthew Shepard Act including the death penalty is an insult to the young man that it was named after, violating the spirit of the legislation as it was intended and making bitter any sense of victory or joy that could have been had from its long overdue passage. The Matthew Shepard act has already been attached to a DOD authorization bill, a move which no one really wanted. But we accept, we adapt and we move forward. On the issue of the death penalty provision, though, we can not accept, we can not move forward. Instead, we must fight for it to be removed. There is no other way. Luckily, there is now such a gulf between the House and Senate versions of the bill that there will be room to maneuver, but it is imperative that we make Senators and Representatives mindful of the fact that they must remove the death penalty provision from the hate-crimes legislation whilst still making it known how vital the nature of the Matthew Shepard Act, or what was once the Matthew Shepard Act, is. Take Action and Stop the Death Penalty Provision: You can reach the capital switchboard at 202.224.3121. You will be asked who you wish to speak to. Ask for your Senator or Representative's office. Don't know who they are? Find out here, where you'll also be able to access a list of email addresses and direct office phone numbers if you wish to contact your representatives that way. Once you are in touch with your Representative or Senator's office, reiterate your support for the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention legislation, but also urge them to work toward removing the death penalty provision when the bill goes to conference. You may wish to cite the general consensus opinion that the House version of the bill has always been more comprehensive, better structured and well targeted than its Senate counterpart. Reverting to that format would allow the hate-crimes prevention legislation to operate in the way that it was intended. Lastly, please pass on any emails or contact information you do have to friends and family and spread the important message that whilst we do want hate-crimes legislation and therein equal status, we do not want it with the spectre of the death penalty being allowed along for the ride. (source: Care2.com) July 22, 2009 Inmate set to die for '99 murder gets reprieve By MICHAEL GRACZYK Associated Press Writer HUNTSVILLE, Texas — The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on Wednesday stopped the scheduled execution of a condemned inmate after misplaced evidence surfaced related to the abduction, robbing and fatal shooting of a Dallas man a decade ago. Roderick Newton, 31, was set to die Thursday. Prosecutors and defense attorneys had anticipated a reprieve after Dallas County authorities gave Newton's lawyers a police questionnaire uncovered in a review of the case. The evidence was given to them within the last two weeks. Newton was condemned for the death of Jesus Montoya, 20, of Dallas, who in 1999 was abducted from a car wash, forced to make an ATM withdrawal, robbed of his jewelry and then shot and dumped in a vacant lot in Mesquite. Dallas County prosecutors cleared the way for the reprieve when they agreed Tuesday with Newton's attorneys that the courts should review the possible impact of the questionnaire, which was filled out by a key prosecution witness at Newton's trial but never given to Newton's trial lawyers. It was the first of three statements made to Mesquite detectives by a co-defendant who testified against Newton. Only two, however, were known to Newton's trial attorneys. The inmate's appeals lawyers, seeking to block the lethal injection, told the Court of Criminal Appeals it was improperly withheld and could have been used to discredit the co-defendant's testimony. Police arrested the co-defendant, Julian Paul Williams, whose fingerprints were found in Montoya's truck, and Williams told them of Newton's involvement in Montoya's slaying. He served a 10-year prison term and is now free. Newton got death. Prosecutors found the written questionnaire from Williams in a police file while recently reviewing the 10-year-old case. In the questionnaire, Williams told police he knew nothing of the slaying and wasn't involved, a story he changed in subsequent statements. The appeals court returned Newton's case to his Dallas County trial court for a hearing on the evidence issue. The appeals court also agreed with Newton's lawyers that their claim Newton was mentally impaired and ineligible for execution should be reviewed. The court dismissed other defense claims that Newton should have had a hearing on his competency to stand trial and that he had deficient legal help at his trial. Newton had more than two dozen misdemeanor and felony offenses on his record and was a probation violator when he became wanted for Montoya's slaying. He was arrested hiding in a garbage bin after fleeing on foot following a car chase that had ended with him crashing into a parked car. Texas leads the nation with 16 executions this year. At least 10 inmates have execution dates in the coming months. Scheduled to die next is David Wood, 52, a convicted serial killer facing lethal injection Aug. 20 for the slayings of six women and girls in the El Paso area over three months in 1987. Inmate set to die for '99 murder gets reprieve ___ Copyright 2009, The Associated Press. July 21, 2009 Respected magistrate hangs up his robes but will continue his research at UT-Arlington Allan Butcher was known as one of the top death-penalty attorneys in Texas and an advocate for poor criminal defendants when he became a magistrate quietly working away in the basement courtroom at the courthouse a decade ago. His switch from writing appeals for death row inmates to simply approving pleas on routine legal matters may have bewildered others, but it made sense to Butcher, who said the job gave him time to continue his research and teaching. "Most lawyers like the drama of the courtroom. I like the solitude of the library," Butcher said. Butcher, however, hung up his robes Friday after changes in the schedule forced him to work 5 days a week, every week. That made it harder to continue his research, especially into the courts indigent-defense system. "When I took the job, we worked 7 days on and had 7 days off," Butcher said. "That gave me a large block of time every other week to devote to my research." A 5-member judicial committee has screened about 35 applicants for the magistrate's job and picked 6 finalists, who were interviewed Friday. The county's 19 criminal court judges will make the final selection this week. University life By the time his successor takes the bench, Butcher plans to be back in his office at the University of Texas at Arlington, where he will continue researching the death penalty, indigency and judicial selection issues that have become synonymous with his name. Butcher had 3 careers before becoming a lawyer more than 30 years ago, and he tried a few cases before finding his niche as an appellate attorney. There, he earned a statewide reputation after winning reversals on 1/2 of the 18 death penalty cases he appealed. "He was probably the leading appellate lawyer that judges would use in death-penalty cases," said state District Judge George Gallagher, who practiced law with Butcher for 13 years. "He was considered the best because of his thoroughness and knowledge of the law." Butcher gave his best to all his clients, not just those facing the death penalty, Gallagher said. He recalled a case in which a defendant tried on a felony charge was convicted of a misdemeanor. Still, Butcher appealed the case on the grounds that the judge should have given the jury a legal definition of reasonable doubt. It took a year and a half before the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals agreed. Even though the court reversed itself 6 years later, Butcher continues to fight for his clients and the law, Gallagher said. "What struck me about this case is that it was really no big deal as far as the severity of the offense," Gallagher said. "But Allan seized on what he thought was a gap in the law and tried to change it." Gatekeeper Butcher gives the same careful attention to the hundreds of defendants with whom he interacts only briefly, his staff say. "He treats them as individuals," court coordinator Rita Dickerson said. "He tries to convey how important it is for them to get an attorney in time to do them some good but to get someone they're comfortable working with." Dickerson said Butcher is equally attentive to the police officers who bring him search and arrest warrants to sign. Butcher, a professor emeritus at UT-Arlington, acknowledges that his teaching side kicks in when hes trying to ensure that officers include details needed for him to sign the warrants. "I'm the person between the police who want to search and the civilian's right to privacy," he said. "The officer has to convince me he has the reason to do it. I like to think that Im rigorous yet sensitive to the rights of the defendant." For the near future, Butcher will return to his research on indigent defense, which already has improved poor defendants access to attorneys throughout the state. He'll also continue trying to find ways to ensure that the death penalty is imposed in a fair and consistent way, although he no longer is sure that is possible. "I'm not ready to retire," Butcher said. (source: Fort Worth Star-Telegram) July 20, 2009 Texas reporter's seen unrivaled number of U.S. executions Texas reporter has covered executions in Texas since the early 1980s Graczyk stopped counting, didn't want "notches on my gun belt" Inmates waiting to die have greeted him by name, called to check up on him He says he doesn't worry about the mental toll and has declined counseling. It takes 7 minutes to execute a death row inmate, according to the state of Texas. Mike Graczyk poses outside the Texas death chamber prior to an execution in January. At that rate, Mike Graczyk has spent about 40 hours of his life watching men -- and a few women -- die. Graczyk, a correspondent for The Associated Press, is believed to hold a macabre record. He's almost certainly watched more executions than anyone else in the United States. "I can't possibly imagine there's been someone present at more than Mike," said Michelle Lyons, the spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, which uses lethal injection at its execution chamber in Huntsville. Since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, no state has executed more inmates than Texas. And no one has witnessed more of them than Graczyk. He's on the witness list for 315 of the state's 439 executions -- more than any other reporter, prison employee or chaplain -- and no records were kept for another 80. In his early days, he kept count. But he eventually stopped. He didn't want to know. "In one circle, I was perceived as putting notches on my gun belt," the 59-year-old reporter said. "I didn't like that." Prison regulations in Texas require The Associated Press to be given one of the five designated media witness passes for each execution. Texas execution facts: Texas executions since death penalty was reinstated: 439 Cost per execution for drugs used : $86.08 Average time on death row before execution: 10.26 years Youngest inmate executed: 3 at 24 Oldest inmate executed: 66 Women executed: 3 Source: Texas Department of Criminal Justice Graczyk works in the AP's Houston bureau -- it's closest to the state's execution chamber in Huntsville. Since the early 1980s, he's made the hourlong drive north almost every time an inmate has faced the needle. The 1st was March 13, 1984, for the execution of James "Cowboy" Autry, convicted of shooting a female store clerk between the eyes with a .38-caliber revolver while arguing over a six-pack of beer. She died, along with a former Catholic priest that Autry killed at the crime scene. "The first time definitely leaves an impression on you," Graczyk said. There are others that stand out along the way. Graczyk remembers Bob Black, convicted of killing his wife and trying to collect the insurance money. "I walked into the death house, and he was strapped to the table and he said, 'Hey Mike, how are you doing?' It threw me for a loop." Graczyk said it's normal for him to know the name of the condemned and not uncommon for the reverse to be true. There have been others who greeted Graczyk by name with a needle in their arm. Once, while waiting to be let into the death house, a prisoner phoned him in the media holding area. It was the inmate whose execution Graczyk was about to witness. "He said, 'I just wanted to call and make sure you were OK.' I was flabbergasted." Over the years, the inmate's name has slipped from Graczyk's memory, but not the unexpected phone conversation. "I don't think he had any family to call," he said. There was Ponchai Wilkerson, who once nearly escaped from death row and, years later, coughed up a handcuff key as he lay dying from his injection. There was the "Candy Man," Ronald Clark O'Bryan -- convicted of poisoning his child's Halloween candy with cyanide -- and the gauntlet of college students wearing Halloween masks who showed up to cheer. And Karla Faye Tucker, the first woman executed in Texas since the 1800s. He remembers a network correspondent crying after her death -- and another blow-drying his hair. Of the entire death chamber ritual, Graczyk said, it's the final statements that stick in his mind. Some have been confessions. Others were denials. Poetry. Prayers. Bible verses. Curses. Emotions ranging from defiance to resignation. There was Jonathan Nobles, an electrician who stabbed 2 people to death. He sang "Silent Night." "Ever since then, I think of him on Christmas or Christmas Eve when I'm in church," Graczyk said. "That's the kind of thing that haunts you." The person who may come closest to Graczyk's status also felt things that haunted him. Don Reid, a writer for the AP and, before that, a Texas newspaper, witnessed 189 executions in the 1960s, when Texas still strapped inmates to "Old Sparky," the nickname for the state's electric chair. The experience changed Reid, who died in 1981, from a supporter of the death penalty to an opponent. He wrote a book, "Have a Seat, Please," chronicling that transformation. Graczyk said he doesn't worry about the mental toll of watching so many deaths. His bosses with the AP have offered counseling. He's declined. "To see someone go to sleep -- not to sound insensitive -- but the carnage at the murder scene is harder than what you see in the death house in Huntsville," he said. Over a 25-year career, Graczyk said, the executions have only been a small portion of his work. He finds balance in those other stories. As a journalist, Graczyk never answers the question when friends ask his own views on the death penalty. "I'm not sure I really know," he said. But as long as Texas keeps executing people, Graczyk said, it's important that he keep showing up. The next execution in Huntsville was scheduled for Thursday before the condemned, convicted murderer Kenneth Mosley, was granted a reprieve until September. If he execution goes ahead then, Graczyk plans to make the drive. "I would hate for the state of Texas to take someone's life and no one be there," he said. (source: CNN) Families of victims and families of mentally ill offenders release death penalty report Jul 06, 2009 Double Tragedies, a report detailing the impact of capital crimes committed by mentally ill people, is being released by the National Alliance on Mental Illness and Murder Victims' Families for Human Rights. The two organizations launched a campaign last year in San Antonio in opposition to the death penalty for the mentally ill. One of the Texas cases highlighted in the report is that of Larry Robison of Tarrant County who killed five people several years after being diagnosed as paranoid schizophrenic. His parents, Lois and Ken Robison tried for years to get help for him. "Everybody said they couldn't help him, because he wasn't violent," Lois Robison told the report's author Susannah Sheffer. "And if he ever got violent, then they would commit him to a mental hospital. And instead they committed him to death row." Larry Robison was executed in 2000. Sheffer, said she heard similar stories over and over. "Sometimes these families are perceived as "sort of neglectful and not involved," she says. But "it's not a case of somebody not trying-- they tried every conceivable thing and this is what happened." The groups stress "prevention not execution," calling for improvements in the mental health system to stop tragedies before they occur. Families of victims and families of mentally ill offenders release death penalty report July 4, 2009 USA Independence Day Across America today, on Independence Day, there will be traditional fireworks, parades, summer fun for children in swimming pools and at ballgames, and a pervasive national outpouring of patriotism, reflected in both flag displays and the singing of the national anthem at countless events. There are also almost 3,300 individuals who will not be any part of these festivities; they are mostly forgotten, despised and reviled.... they are America's condemned. They sit on death rows in 34 states, as well as in a military prison in Kansas and a fedeal facility in Indiana. Most are overwhelmingly guilty of vile, heinous, outrageous and terrible crimes. Many are mentally ill, even profoundly mentally ill, and a good number are innocent of the crimes for which they were convicted. Collectively, they are, in part, responsible for a great deal of anger, hurt, pain and rage in our society. They face death by firing squad, hanging, electrocution, cyanide gas, and lethal injection (there are more methods of legitimate state-sanctioned execution in the the USA than in any other country in the world). As this nation is trying to emerge from the worst global financial crisis in 70 years, it remains in desperate need of trying to find, uphold and defend its moral soul. We are a long way from accomplishing this important national task. Most of America's political and judicial leaders, both male and female, in both major parties, remain committed to upholding the ideology and practice of human extermination. As long as any nation in the world, inclduing the USA, retain and practice the barbarism of killing people in the name of the law, they can never be free. If people support, or are indifferent to the liquidataion of condemned individuals, how can we be surprised that other horrors, such as torture, hate crimes, and crimes against women, continue at such an alarming pace. To be sure, some advances in the abolition of the US death penalty have been achieved in the last decade: America has stopped executing its juvenile and mentally retarded offenders; New Jersey and New Mexico have legislatively ended the death penalty, and other states have, in recent years, come close to doing the same. Over 130 innocent people have been released from America's death rows to date, and more will emerge to the free world in the years ahead. But this "progress" has come at a frustratingly, agonizinly slow pace. Of the 1168 individuals put to death in America since executions resumed in 1977, 736 have occurred since 1998, including 200 just in Texas alone since Rick Perry became governor in 2001. There is no immediate end in sight to this horror. There will undoubtedly be the traditional praise and self-congratulatory editorials and op-eds in our newspapers today, from coast to coast, from our major cities to our small communities, reminding us of how lucky we are to live in such a great nation. And in many ways, that sentiment is correct. But it is a fallacy to believe that assessment when considering what is happening in this country regarding the issue of the death penalty. It is time to face the truth, admit national pain, and come to grips with the fact that on this issue, 233 years after the Declaration of Independence was proclaimed (and 402 years after the British first settled here), we are a national disgrace and failure. We remain wedded to the love of violence, and to the preposterous idea that some people in our society (and even around the world), can be classified as "lesser" or "other" humans, 'deserving' to be stripped of their human dignity, caged like animals for years, physically and psychologically tortured and terrorized, and then ultimately liquidated in the name of the law. On this day, when so much celebrating in America will occur, I hope and trust that people will take a hard look at the sobering realities of this nation and its nightmare of the death penalty. Now is the time for all people of conscience, everywhere, to re-dedicate themselves with renewed fervor to end this terrible scourge, so that America may join the ranks of most nations in the world that have long since recognized the links between advancing human progress with ending the death penalty. When the US does abolish the death penalty, it will then, and only then, have reasons to be proud and celebrate itself. Rick Halperin Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, and Amnesty International USA What to the Prisoner is Your Fourth of July? To commemorate the independence of the United States of America, Texas prison kitchens are fired up earlier than usual. The traditional Fourth of July meals are prepared by unpaid prisoners (can you say slaves?) whose only incentive for the extra work is leftover mashed potatoes and an extra oven-barbecued soybean patty, if they are lucky. By afternoon, Texas prisons are bustling with activities. But today the activity is not the thousands of slaves in the cotton fields. No, the hoe squads, which are normally sweating in the fields while being watched by their armed overseers on horseback, are resting today. Instead, volleyball nets are brought out and tournaments are organized around the basketball and handball courts. The big men work up a sweat on the weight pile, encouraged at times by female prison guards proudly displaying American flag patches on the shoulder of their confederate- colored uniforms. The American flag itself is flown at high mast along side the Texas flag for all to see. Even the men living in super max segregation, isolation, and sensory deprivation—the death row population who is not privy to the day’s celebration- -can climb up to the small slit of a window high in the back wall of their individual cage and watch those flags rip in the wind. Despite the irony, not enough of Texas’ 150,000 slaves seem to question the purpose of a celebration of independence in a prison. Prisoners were obviously not a consideration when the Declaration of Independence was written. In fact, the reality is that prisons are neocolonial concentration slave camps. For the plantation to run smoothly, the master is dependent on the docility and ignorance of the inmates/slaves. In Texas prisons, where the population is disproportionally Black and Latino, rehabilitation and educational programs are rare to nonexistent. The only thing a prisoner is guaranteed to learn how to be a better criminal, guaranteeing their return to enslavement, again and again.. For most prisoners, the July 4th holiday signifies a moment of relief, a day to eat, drink and be merry. For the 400 Texas death row prisoners, the Fourth of July is simply a day closer to our impending execution. God Bless America? By Howard Guidry, Innocent death row prison activist, organizer, poet and Panther July 1, 2006 July 1, 2009 Condemned inmate Rodney Reed loses appeal again Texas death row inmate Rodney Reed lost another appeal before the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, which on Wednesdsay rejected his claims that new evidence pointed to another man as the killer of a 19-year-old woman in Bastrop County 13 years ago. In a 6th petition to the state's highest criminal appeals court, Reed's lawyers argued they had evidence suggesting the boyfriend of Stacey Stites as the person who abducted, raped and murdered her. Stites' fiance, Jimmy Fennell, is a former police officer who later was jailed for abducting and having improper sexual activity with a woman in his custody. The court, however, said the information submitted by Reed failed to show innocence and failed to show that prosecutors withheld it. "The allegations of Fennell's misconduct and domestic violence do not exonerate (Reed)," the court said in a brief decision. "The totality of the evidence before us still supports a guilty verdict." The latest challenge cited Fennell's misconduct as he worked as a police officer in Georgetown and earlier in Giddings. It also pointed to a report of domestic violence from Fennell's ex-wife and an affidavit of a "possible sighting of the victim and (Reed) together," according to the court. Reed, 41, has insisted he and Stites had a continuing secret affair even though Stites was engaged to soon marry Fennell when her body was found along a rural road after she failed to show up for work at a supermarket in Bastrop, southeast of Austin. Reed is black and Stites was white and Reed's lawyers have described the racial aspects of the case as explosive. The also accused prosecutors of improperly withholding evidence. Prosecutors denied any wrongdoing and disputed the claims of a secret relationship between the victim and Reed. Reed was arrested almost a year after the April 1996 slaying of Stites after his DNA surfaced in the investigation of an unrelated sexual assault case. The court also turned down appeals in three other Texas death row cases, including a man whose death sentence for a murder in Smith County was thrown out by the court in 2005. This time the court upheld the second death sentence for Gregory Russeau, 39, convicted of killing a 75-year-old auto mechanic during a robbery in Tyler. Attorneys for Russeau raised 17 claims of error from his 2nd punishment trial, including insufficient evidence, improper psychiatric evidence, constitutional challenges and improper jury instructions. The murdered man, James Syvertson, was found at his shop by his wife, daughter and grandchildren. His wallet and car were stolen. Russeau was arrested in Syvertson's car in Longview the day after the May 2001 murder. His palm print and hair were found at the auto shop. Russeau had a previous conviction for burglary. His 1st death sentence was overturned after attorneys contended reports of his misbehavior while in prison improperly were presented to jurors when they were considering punishment. In another case, the court refused an appeal for Chuong Duong Tong, condemned for the 1997 slaying of Houston police officer Coung Huy "Tony" Trinh, who was working off-duty at his family's convenience store when he was shot during a robbery. Tong, 32, is a refugee from Vietnam. He raised 12 claims challenging his conviction and sentence. The court also refused an appeal from Patrick Murphy Jr., the last of the infamous "Texas 7" fugitives to receive the death penalty for the shooting death of an Irving police officer on Christmas Eve 2000. In his appeal, Murphy, 48, raised 8 challenges to his conviction and sentence and all were rejected. Murphy was serving 50 years for aggravated sexual assault when he and six other inmates broke out of the Connally Unit of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. About two weeks later, Officer Aubrey Hawkins was killed when he interrupted the escapees' robbery of an Irving sporting goods store. Murphy and 5 of his companions were captured the following month in Colorado. The 7th fugitive killed himself as police moved in. One of them, Michael Rodriguez, was executed last year. Murphy and the 4 others remain on death row. (source: Houston Chronicle) June 26, 2009 ON FILM: Death House Door puts penalty on trial By Philip Martin Watching At the Death House Door (Facets, $29.95), a 2008 documentary by Peter Gilbert and Steve James (best known for Hoop Dreams) released this week on DVD, I was reminded of the story of Albert Pierrepoint. Pierrepoint - portrayed by Timothy Spall in the 2005 film The Last Hangman (also known as Pierrepoint) - served as the United Kingdom's official hangman from 1932 to 1956 and presided at the executions of more than 400 people (including some 200 Nazi war criminals hanged after World War II). By all accounts, he was extremely precise and methodical, a true professional who dispatched his "clients" with as little ado as possible. He was a mercifully swift worker - rarely did more than 30 seconds elapse between the condemned's arrival on his gallows and execution. (Having done some work for the U.S. Army during World War II, he hated the way the Americans dithered around for 6 or 7 minutes reading lengthy charges while the condemned waited on the trap door.) Dealing in officially sanctioned homicide gave Pierrepoint a unique perspective on capital punishment. In the end, he became if not an abolitionist at least convinced that the policy had no deterrent effect. "I have come to the conclusion that executions solve nothing," he wrote in his autobiography, "and are only an antiquated relic of a primitive desire for revenge which takes the easy way and hands over the responsibility for revenge to other people." Pierrepoint's opinion is unlikely to change the minds of capital-punishment advocates - the issue is an emotional one, highly resistant to any evidence and all testimony. It may take something more dramatic than cold numbers to change anyone's mind about whether the state should have the power of life and death over its citizens. At the Death House Door starts out as a cinematic portrait of the Rev. Carroll Pickett, a Presbyterian minister whose views on capital punishment were shaped by a "hang 'em high" father, the absence of his murdered grandfather and, years before he worked at the prison, the killing of 2 of his parishioners - civilian library workers - during a 1974 prison siege. Pickett, once described by a Texas newspaper as "27 degrees right of Rush Limbaugh," thought the death penalty was appropriate and effective. During his 16 years as prison chaplain of the Texas State Penitentiary at Huntsville, Pickett witnessed 95 executions by lethal injection. Like Pierrepoint, he was changed by his experience from capital punishment advocate to opponent. From the beginning, Pickett was deeply affected by his duties, which required him to provide solace and counsel while at the same time pacifying the condemned so they wouldn't struggle at the end. When Gilbert and James interviewed Pickett, they discovered he had recorded his private thoughts, impressions, doubts and misgivings (there were at least 15 instances where Pickett believed the condemned prisoner was innocent of the crime for which he died) immediately after each ex ecution and archived them on audio cassette tapes. They naturally concluded they had uncovered a rich vein of material. But we don't really hear much of the tapes, as the focus shifts to the possible wrongful execution of 27-year-old Carlos De Luna in 1989. Pickett was convinced that De Luna was innocent - and, in 2006, Chicago Tribune reporters Steve Mills and Maurice Possley wrote a 3-part series that strongly suggested De Luna was the victim of mistaken identity and a prosecutorial rush to justice. Gilbert and James had originally set out to document Mills' and Possley's work on De Luna and only became aware of Pickett pursuant to that thread. So the shift between the 2 threads - from Pickett to De Luna's family, from a psychological portrait of amoral evolution to an expose of governmental misconduct - feels a little disconcerting. Yet if from a filmmaking standpoint the transposition is less than ideal, it makes great sense from a journalist's perspective. When he retired from the prison system in 1995, Pickett announced that capital punishment was "biblically wrong," which was the official position of the Presbyterian Church. He said he had kept his opinion to himself for fear of jeopardizing his job - and forfeiting his chance to minister to the condemned. Since his retirement, Pickett has become a vocal capital-punishment abolitionist, and as such he is suspect in the eyes of some advocates. But he has seen up close what executions look like. He's convinced the death penalty is no deterrent and in fact, contributes to a cycle of violence. There were 58 prisoners on death row when Texas resumed executions in 1982; now there are more than 400. (source: Arkansas Online) June 24, 2009 PLEASE CLICK ON LINK BELOW TO WATCH VIDEO Judge orders yogurt shop murder defendants to be released. COURTS Suspects in yogurt shop killings released Prosecutors not ready for trial after questions from DNA results. Jay Janner AMERICAN-STATESMAN Michael Scott, second from left, with wife Jeannine, and Robert Springsteen, right, leave the Travis County Jail with their lawyers Wednesday. The two men were released on personal recognizance bonds. Jay Janner AMERICAN-STATESMAN Michael Scott, with wife Jeannine, had been in jail since 1999. He was released Wednesday by state District Judge Mike Lynch after prosecutors said they weren't prepared to go to trial July 6. By Steven Kreytak AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF June 25, 2009 More than nine years after telling police they participated in the grisly slayings of four teenage girls at a North Austin yogurt shop in 1991 — confessions their lawyers say were coerced under psychological pressure — Robert Springsteen and Michael Scott were released from jail on bond Wednesday. State District Judge Mike Lynch ordered the men to be released on their own recognizance after prosecutors said they were not prepared to go to trial as scheduled July 6 given questions raised by recently discovered DNA evidence. Each man remains charged with four counts of capital murder. Scott, 35, and Springsteen, 34, were each previously convicted of capital murder, but those convictions were tossed on appeal. The men have been locked up since 1999, with Springsteen spending four years on death row. Scott had been sentenced to life in prison. Just before 3 p.m. Wednesday, Scott walked arm-in-arm with his wife from the Travis County Jail, smiling briefly when a handful of supporters cheered. He said nothing to a throng of assembled media. Behind him was Springsteen, who gazed wide-eyed at the crowd and up into the live oak trees outside the jail. After one of his lawyers, like Scott's before him, proclaimed his innocence, Springsteen was asked how it felt to be free. "It's wonderful," he said, "and I'd like to thank God, and my lawyers and my family for this opportunity." Prosecutors said they want to conduct more DNA testing to determine whose male DNA was found in a vaginal swab taken from 13-year-old victim Amy Ayers. DNA from the same male was later found in another victim. Defense lawyers say the male DNA could have been found in a third victim, but the profile is incomplete, and that another unknown male DNA profile was found on a wrist ligature used to bind a fourth victim. Tests show conclusively that none of the DNA belongs to Scott, Springsteen or two previous co-defendants, lawyers have said. Defense lawyers say the new DNA evidence exonerates Scott and Springsteen. Reading from a statement at a news conference, Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg said: "The reliable scientific evidence in the case presents one .... unknown male donor. Given that, I could not in good conscience allow this case to go to trial before the identity of this male donor is determined, and the full truth is known. I remain confident that both Robert Springsteen and Michael Scott are responsible for the deaths at the yogurt shop." Following an earlier promise that a prosecutor delay would mean freedom for the defendants, Lynch released them on personal recognizance bonds, which requires them to post no money. He said he must not only consider the charges and the importance of conducting further DNA tests but the rights of the men to a trial. Under the terms of their bonds, the men must not use drugs or alcohol, contact any victims or witnesses, and remain in Travis County. Scott's lawyers — Dexter Gilford, Carlos Garcia and Tony Diaz — opposed the trial delay, saying they think the state has little chance of quickly determining the contributor of the mystery DNA. Lehmberg said prosecutors have ordered the DNA to be compared with that of more than 130 people — including friends of Scott and Springsteen, as well as police and firefighters — but have not found a match. Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo, who was in court and at the news conference, said his detectives are continuing to work the case. "We do believe we have the right suspects in custody." The Dec. 6, 1991, killings of Ayers, Eliza Thomas, 17, and sisters Sarah and Jennifer Harbison, 15 and 17, horrified the city. The girls were found bound and gagged with bullets in the back of their heads. The killers set the crime scene on fire, an early complication to the police investigation. A string of confessions, which police later dismissed as false, further complicated the pursuit of the killers, as did the proliferation of details about the crime. Hundreds of tips poured in, but no arrests were made. One lead police dismissed was when Scott's friend Maurice Pierce told them days after the killings that a .22 caliber gun he was arrested for carrying had been used. Police in 1991 interviewed Pierce, Scott, Springsteen and their friend Forrest Welborn and apparently were satisfied that the men played no role in the crime. In November 1999, detectives called Scott at his Buda home and asked him to talk. Before that interview, police knew that ballistics tests showed that Pierce's gun was likely not used in the crime. Still, detectives mounted an interrogation of Scott that lasted for more than 20 hours over five days. After a few hours, Scott admitted to going to the yogurt shop with three friends, including Pierce, for a robbery turned bad. Police later went to West Virginia, where Springsteen had been living, and he agreed to speak with them, eventually admitting a role in the crime in an four-hour videotaped session. Prosecutors said that their accounts were similar and that they knew things only the killers would know. Defense lawyers said they were fed those details or had heard them in media reports. Scott, Springsteen, Pierce and Welborn were arrested, but Welborn was never indicted. Charges against Pierce were later dismissed. On Wednesday, lawyers for Springsteen — Joe James Sawyer and Alexandra Gauthier — said they want an acquittal or dismissal in the case. Scott's wife, Jeannine Scott, sounded a similar sentiment. "It's just another tactic; it's another delay," she said. "The evidence already shows they have the wrong men." None of the victim's relatives could be reached except Thomas' mother, Maria Thomas, who lives in Oregon. She remains convinced that Scott and Springsteen are guilty. "I am very upset about it," she said. "I can't believe that they really let them go." skreytak@statesman.com; 912-2946 Suspects in yogurt shop killings released June 22, 2009 Is There A More Humane Way To Kill? Does strangulation offer a better way to kill those on death row awaiting execution? This is the question being asked by Lawrence Gist, a professor and human rights attorney with the International Humanitarian Hypoxia Project. Following in the steps of professor Guillotin, who in 1789 proposed a "mechanism" that beheads painlessly," Gist proposes utilizing the latest research to ensure humane executions, not by beheading, but medical strangulation. Gist said that the proposed execution protocol is humane, and unlike other execution methods currently being used in the United States, this protocol maintains the viability of the corpse's organs and tissue. The bodily remains of those executed, says Gist, "may then be used to offer hope to some of the estimated 55,000 people currently waiting for life-saving transplants." The U.S. Supreme Court recently upheld the constitutionality of lethal injection, the most common method used for executions by the federal government and 36 states. However, it has been documented that the 3-drug lethal injection protocol is frequently negligently administered, causing extreme pain and suffering. In Gist's pending law review article, he advocates giving those on death row the option to choose between the potentially painful lethal injection protocol, or this new protocol which offers a humane and pain-free execution. Gist notes that the "protocol does not involve the type of slow painful strangulation most people imagine when thinking of strangulation in fact the protocol is far more humane than any previous method designed to end human life." Hypoxia it's called, when someone is deprived of the oxygen required to sustain life. So how can it be humane to deprive someone of oxygen to the point of death? Gist answers this question by stating the execution protocol he is advocating requires inmate to be executed wear a standard medical face mask and breath in pure nitrogen, devoid of any oxygen. Nitrogen is an odorless and tasteless gas which, without oxygen, will lead to asphyxiation without any feeling of suffocation. " Gist said that the new protocol "is inexpensive and could be easily preformed by prison guards without the need for a physician's supervision (other than to pronounce death), an allegedly violation of the Hippocratic oath to 'do no harm.'" While Gist is an opponent of capitol punishment, he believes that pending it's abolition, hypoxia is the perfect method for conducting humane executions. Gist went on to say that "because the corpse of an asphyxiated prisoner does not contain toxins left over from lethal injection or the gas chamber, nor physical trauma from electrocution, the bodily remains are fully available for life-saving organ and tissue donation." It would be highly unethical to use organs and tissue without voluntary consent, but Gist stated that his research suggest many of those awaiting execution would like the opportunity to redress a little of the harm they have done to society and give some meaning to their death by donating the gift of life to those awaiting life-saving transplants. Gist's proposal would allow death row inmates the option to choose execution by lethal injection or hypoxia and if hypoxia is chosen, giving them the additional option of making their body available for organ and tissue donation. The International Humanitarian Hypoxia Project, founded by Gist, is calling on governors across the country to grant a temporary moratorium on all executions, allowing time for debate and legislative consideration of this new execution protocol. Of particular interest to Gist is the upcoming July 16th execution of Kennith Mosley, the 201st person scheduled to be executed during the tenure of Texas Governor Rick Perry. Gist said during a recent interview that he doubts Governor Perry will be persuaded to grant Mosley a stay. The political reality, Gist said, is that "lethal injection has been held to be constitutional, and most politicians won't consider a new execution protocol, even if better, if subject to a new round of legal challenges." However, Gist remains optimistic, "groups on both the left and right share a common value, the respect for human life, and once the public becomes aware of this protocol, and it's incidental benefits, I believe previously divergent groups will join efforts and petition their state leaders for an immediate temporary moratorium on executions." Gist said that "there is really nothing to lose, and much to gain - a humane execution protocol offering life to the terminally ill it's really a classic win-win proposal." Contact Details: Lawrence J. Gist II -- Attorney at Law lgist@gistprobono.org 4105 Exultant Drive Rancho Palos Verdes, CA 90275 International Humanitarian Hypoxia Project at www.gistprobono.org/ihhp/ International Humanitarian Law Pro Bono Project at www.gistprobono.org (Source: Express-Press) Death penalty decisions loom for Obama By: Josh Gerstein June 21, 2009 For the first time in his career, President Barack Obama may soon confront one of the most weighty and unsavory decisions that a chief executive must make, whether to put a murder convict to death. The decision could land on Obama’s desk within a matter of months, due to cases winding their way through the federal courts. And while Obama is on record supporting the death penalty for particularly heinous crimes, that’s a far cry from deciding whether a specific man’s life should be taken or spared. “The death penalty in the abstract is one thing. The reality of the death penalty and all of its nasty details is a very different thing,” said Dianne Rust-Tierney of the National Coalition Against the Death Penalty. “This is something that this president is not the only one to face…..Having seen this thing in practice, you see it as a very different animal.” Already, with little press attention or protest from the anti-death penalty camp, Attorney General Eric Holder has authorized federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty for at least four defendants since Obama took office. In all, 55 men and two women are on federal death row, death-penalty opponents say. But the timing of Obama’s first death-penalty decision is likely to be dictated by a case pending in Washington, involving six federal death-row inmates at most imminent risk of execution. Their sentences were stayed by a federal judge, who is deciding whether to let their executions proceed, despite their challenge to federal execution protocols. The cases involve three members of a Richmond, Va., gang sentenced to death in 1993 for drug-related murders; two men sentenced to death for abduction, sexual assault and murder of a 16-year-girl; and another man convicted of killing a prison guard. All six defendants are black. If the stay is lifted and execution dates are set, any of the men could ask the president to step in. And clearly, death-penalty opponents hope they have a sympathetic ear in Obama, despite his support for the limited use of executions. They hope he will try to impose more safeguards in federal capital cases, and even spare some prisoners. And they note that Holder once authored a ground-breaking federal study that found racial disparities in death penalty cases. As a state senator in Illinois, Obama pressed for death penalty reforms, including a requirement that interrogations in capital cases be audio- or videotaped. He also opposed adding gang-related crimes to those which could prompt the death penalty. And in his book, “The Audacity of Hope,” Obama said he saw little evidence that the death penalty is a deterrent. The Politico 44 Story Widget Requires Adobe Flash Player. Still, he is on record supporting the ultimate penalty for “heinous” crimes — even in some cases where it has been found unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. During last year’s campaign, he said he disagreed with a 5-4 decision the justices issued holding the death penalty unconstitutional in a child rape case where the child was not murdered. “I have said repeatedly that I think that the death penalty should be applied in very narrow circumstances, for the most egregious of crimes,” Obama said following the court’s ruling last June. “I think that the rape of a small child, 6 or 8 years old, is a heinous crime, and if a state makes a decision that under narrow, limited, well-defined circumstances, the death penalty is at least potentially applicable, that that does not violate our Constitution.” As president, Obama has been silent on the topic. A White House spokesman said the counsel’s office is aware of pending death penalty cases but had not started a formal policy review of how Obama might deal with them. During the Clinton years, Holder helped oversee what he called a “very disturbing” study on racial disparities in the federal death penalty. Death penalty opponents would like to see Holder order a new study, return more autonomy for death penalty decisions to local federal prosecutors, and agree not to seek the federal death penalty in states which do not have it. “The Attorney General is reviewing department policies across the board, including those dealing with capital cases, and has made no final determinations with respect to any new policies. As he said at his confirmation hearing, he is open to the idea of a new study,” Justice Department spokesman Matthew Miller said. A new study would likely have the practical impact of deferring Obama’s first fateful decision on the death penalty. But death penalty proponents say they doubt Obama will take a major stand against the death penalty as president. “I don’t believe that Obama is going to rock the apple cart too much,” said Rusty Hubbarth of Justice for All. “The vast majority of Americans are fully in favor of capital punishment if the safeguards are there.” One longtime opponent of the death penalty noted that all crime issues have a far lower profile now than in the 1990s – making support or opposition to the death penalty far less of a hot-button for a Democrat like Obama. “Fear of crime was one of the top issues. Now, it’s off the radar. The economy is Number 1, 2 and 3,” said Richard Dieter of the Death Penalty Information Center. For much of President George W. Bush’s time in office, the federal death penalty was effectively halted while the Supreme Court considered cases challenging the so-called cocktail of lethal injection drugs used by most states and the federal government. In April 2008, the high court cleared away the main obstacle to further federal executions when the justices ruled, 7-2, that the lethal drugs didn’t present an unconstitutional risk of cruel and unusual punishment. Clearing the way for a death sentence was nothing new for Bush when he took office in 2001. He presided over 152 executions as governor of Texas and three as president. Likewise, President Bill Clinton was no stranger to what Justice Harry Blackmun once called “the machinery of death.” Clinton oversaw a total of four executions as governor of Arkansas. He famously underscored his tough-on-crime credentials by leaving the presidential campaign trail in 1992 to attend to the execution of a brain-damaged cop-killer, Ricky Ray Rector. However, no federal inmate was executed on Clinton’s watch, after he twice postponed executions scheduled during his final months in office. The execution of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh under Bush in 2001 was the first execution in the federal system in nearly four decades. Obama will likely be the first presidential novice to face the decision about whether to send a man to death since 1963, when President John F. Kennedy rejected a clemency request from a Michigan man sentenced to death in the federal courts for murder and kidnapping, Victor Feguer. He was hanged. Even if the Washington cases moved forward, and the six men were cleared for execution, it could take months before it comes to Obama. Execution dates are typically set by the Federal Bureau of Prisons at least 120 days in advance. Under federal regulations, a condemned inmate has 30 days from the notice to ask the president to commute the sentence, giving the president 90 days to mull the decision. Of course, the president can order a reprieve or commutation at any time, within or outside the official regulations. Other cases are still in the courts. In March, prosecutors in San Francisco said Holder “reauthorized” the request for the death penalty for a drug gang leader, Dennis Cyrus, charged with three drug-related murders. Jurors, who convicted Cyrus last month for the murders, are now considering whether to impose death. Holder also authorized seeking the death penalty for a U.S. soldier accused of war crimes in Iraq and for two inmates accused of killing a guard in a California federal prison. In other cases, Holder has authorized plea bargains and declined the death penalty, including at least one case where Bush Administration officials were pressing for death. More cases loom. On Tuesday, a federal judge in New York asked the Justice Department to move quickly to decide whether the government will seek the death penalty for a former Guantanamo Bay prisoner just flown into the U.S., Ahmed Ghailani, who is accused of involvement in the bombings of U.S. embassies in Africa in 1998. And Obama will have to decide whether to pursue the death penalty in new military commissions he has proposed for war-on-terror prisoners still housed at Guantanamo. Of course, deciding whether to grant clemency to a condemned inmate would not be the first life-or-death decision Obama has faced as commander-in- chief at a time of two wars. And in April, he authorized the use of lethal force against pirates holding a U.S. ship captain off the coast of Somalia. Three pirates were killed. © 2009 Capitol News Company, LLC Death penalty decisions loom for Obama June 19, 2009 States Without Death Penalty Have Lower Murder Rates Scientists agree, by an overwhelming majority, that the death penalty has no deterrent effect. They felt the same way over 10 years ago, and nothing has changed since then. States without the death penalty continue to have significantly lower murder rates than those that retain capital punishment. And the few recent studies purporting to prove a deterrent effect, though getting heavy play in the media, have failed to impress the larger scientific community, which has exposed them as flawed and inconsistent. The latest issue of the Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology contains a study by a Sociology professor and a graduate student at the University of Colorado-Boulder (Michael Radelet and Traci Lacock), examining the opinions of leading criminology experts on the deterrence effects of the death penalty. The results reveal that most experts do not believe that the death penalty or the carrying out of executions serve as deterrents to murder, nor do they believe that existing empirical research supports the deterrence theory. In fact, the authors report that 88.2% of respondents do not think that the death penalty deters murdera level of consensus comparable to the agreement among scientists regarding global climate change. At the same time, only 9.2% of surveyed experts indicated that they believed the death penalty results in a significant drop in murder cases (56.6% completely disagreed with that statement, while 32.9% thought the correlation between capital punishment and lower homicide numbers to be "largely inaccurate"; 1.3% were uncertain). The study builds upon previous research, published in 1996, in which the opinions of 67 leading experts in the field of criminology were surveyed. The most recent study sent the same questions to a new group of experts (a total of 73), among whom were fellows from the American Society of Criminology, as well as award-winning criminology scholars. A majority of respondents also expressed the opinion that death penalty states don't have lower homicide rates than states where capital punishment has been abolished. The authors point to empirical evidence that backs this up in 2007 murder rates in states that still had the death penalty exceeded those in states that have abolished it by no less than 42%. More than 18 % of surveyed experts went even further and actually expressed the belief that the death penalty leads to a higher rate of murders, something the authors call the 'brutalization hypothesis.; In addition, a majority of respondents involved in both the 2008 and the 1996 studies believe that "(d)ebates about the death penalty distract Congress and state legislatures from focusing on real solutions to crime problems." Overall, the authors conclude that there is no significant difference between the opinions of experts from the 1996 and the 2008 time periods and that "a vast majority of the world's top criminologists believe that the empirical research has revealed the deterrence hypothesis for a myth." Radelet and Lacock also discuss and point to significant inconsistencies in a number of studies conducted by economists, who have found the death penalty to have a deterrent effect. These inconsistencies lead them to conclude that "(r)ecent econometric studies, which posit that the death penalty has a marginal deterrent effect beyond that of long-term imprisonment, are so limited or flawed that they have failed to undermine consensus." (source: Opposing Viewpoints) June 19, 2009 Book Review; Book on one executed prisoner shows flaws in death penalty system Reading "A Saint on Death Row: The Story of Dominique Green," one keeps waiting for someone to straighten things out. Yes, Dominique Green was more than likely involved in a crime that resulted in the death of Andrew Lastrapes Jr. And Green might be called a saint by author Thomas Cahill but the young man was no angel. When he was arrested in 1992 by the Houston police it was his 4th arrest. It was that arrest that linked him to the armed robbery and murder that led him to death row. Still, he was arrested with 3 others who were involved in the crime that day. One was never charged and the other 2 were given reduced sentences. It was only Green who took the full force of the Texas justice system. Cahill's book shows that there were many mistakes and flaws leading up to the conviction. Green's lawyer acknowledged that "he drank a couple of Scotches every night and that, well, his recall just wasnt very good." Green passed a polygraph test that attested his innocence. However, after hours of interrogation, he finally confessed." So why did this young man spend 11 years in solitary confinement on death row? Why was he executed at age 30 when so many good people were working to overturn his conviction? Even Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa visited Green and tried to draw attention and mercy to his case. The Community of Sant'Egidio, based in Rome, interceded on Green's behalf. However, there was no last-minute reprieve. There was no recognition of the miscarriage of justice. Green died via a lethal injection in 2004. Cahill writes: "Dominique is where he is for 2 reasons only: because he is poor and because he is black." Cahill backs up his claim by citing Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun who said in 1994, "Even under the most sophisticated death penalty statutes, race continues to play a major role in determining who shall live and who shall die." Cahill notes that about 40 % of the people on death row in Texas are black as opposed to 12 % of the general Texas population. Cahill, who is the author of the best-seller "How the Irish Saved Civilization, " makes a compelling case for the elimination of the death penalty. He is honest in his portrayal of Green and notes that some might not want to call the accused killer a saint: "Dominique was hardly a saint in his early years, but I think we may speak of him in his last years as a fully achieved human being." He cites Green's patience and kindness and writes a compelling story of a young man born into poverty and other difficulties who grew in faith and hope while awaiting to be executed. More importantly, Cahill draws attention to the inequity and insidiousness of capital punishment. He concludes, "It may be stated unequivocally that there are no good arguments in favor of the death penalty." After reading Cahill's book, it would be hard to disagree. (source: Peggy Weber, Catholic News Service) Key DNA hearing under way in yogurt shop case By Steven Kreytak June 18, 2009 The hearing in Judge Mike Lynch’s court is under way. Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg is present, a rare courtroom appearance for her. Lynch said he wants lawyers to make general statements as to what the results mean and not get too bogged down in technical details. EARLIER:Today is the long-awaited hearing on yogurt shop murder defendant Robert Springsteen’s bid for freedom pending trial because of recent DNA test results that defense lawyers contend exonerate Springsteen and co-defendant Michael Scott and clears two former co-defendants. The hearing, initially set for tomorrow but moved up because of a scheduling conflict, is set for 1:30 p.m. in state District Judge Mike Lynch’s court in the downtown Blackwell-Thurman Criminal Justice Center. Lynch will take arguments from prosecutors and defense lawyers but will not hear from witnesses. He ordered that all evidence be presented in writing in advance. The affidavits from DNA experts have been sealed. The killing of Amy Ayers, 13; Eliza Thomas, 17; and sisters Sarah and Jennifer Harbison at the I Can’t Believe It’s Yogurt shop on West Anderson Lane on Dec. 6, 1991, was one of the city’s most shocking. The girls were bound and gagged with their own clothing. Each was shot in the back of the head, and the killers set the crime scene on fire, leaving little physical evidence. Scott, 35, and Springsteen, 34, were arrested in 1999 after both confessed to participating in the killings. Both men have recanted, their lawyers saying they caved to hours of psychological pressure, including unethical questioning, placed by Austin police detectives who interviewed them. Two men —Maurice Pierce and Forrest Welborn — were also initially charged in the case after being implicated by Scott and Springsteen, but those charges were later dismissed as prosecutors cited lack of evidence. Scott and Springsteen were convicted by juries of capital murder. Their convictions were overturned on appeal. Both men have been jailed since their arrests. Scott has not requested to be set free on bail, his lawyers choosing instead to focus on his trial set for the week of July 6. Springsteen’s trial date has not been set. Prosecutors in March 2008 informed defense lawyers that testing of the rape kit taken from Amy, the 13-year-old victim, detected the DNA of an unknown male. Later testing by the defense found the same man’s DNA in vaginal swabs taken from another victim and the DNA of another unknown male in vaginal swabs taken from a third victim, according to lawyers and court filings. Prosecutors have said they stand by their case, pointing to the confessions. When they first discovered the male DNA in Amy in 2008, prosecutors said they would find out whose DNA it was through testing, suggesting that it could belong to a crime-scene worker or medical examiner who worked on the case. More than 100 people’s DNA have been compared to that sample— including previous suspects, associates of the defendants and public safety workers — and none has been a match. Key DNA hearing under way in yogurt shop case YOGURT SHOP MURDERS A tragedy in pictures Developments 5.19.09: Yogurt shop DNA hearing delayed 5.13.09: First yogurt shop retrial planned for July 3.25.09: Yogurt shop DNA hearing set 3.1.09: Yogurt shop case DNA leaves jurors wondering 1.8.09: March hearing set on DNA in yogurt shop killing cases 1.1.09: Lawyer: DNA clears suspects 10.30.08: DNA tests delay retrial in killings 9.18.08: Lawyers: No answers in DNA 8.21.08: Defense wants dozens of new DNA tests done for yogurt shop retrial 7.16.08: Judge wants yogurt shop results 6.12.08: Yogurt shop defense goes on offensive 5.3.08: Man freed in yogurt shop case arrested 4.18.08: Yogurt shop DNA not tied to defendants 4.17.08: DNA test in yogurt shop cases 2.21.08: Yogurt shop murder retrial set 11.15.07: Yogurt shop evidence debated 10.9.07: No gag order in men's retrials 10.8.07: No reason for pre-emptive gag order in yogurt trial 9.20.07: Date set for gag order hearing 9.18.07: Gag order sought in new trial 8.11.07: Lawyer asks to be reappointed to defense in yogurt shop case 7.7.07: Defendant in murder case wants 3 charges dropped 6.7.07: Verdict tossed in teens' deaths 2.27.07: Yogurt shop case must be retried 9.28.06: Springsteen decision upheld 5.25.06: Yogurt shop conviction tossed 5.25.06: Other man's confession was key in court's ruling 3.25.05: Opinion by Texas Court of Appeals Judge Michael Lynch 3.2.05: U.S. Supreme Court strikes down death penalty for juvenile offenders 5.22.04: Man sentenced to one year for lying in yogurt shop inquiry 10.9.03: 5th man arrested in 1991 slayings 5.29.03: Confession targeted in yogurt shop case 1.30.03: Yogurt shop suspect not planning to sue city Statement (PDF) 1.28.03: Suspect in yogurt shop murders set free Recap of major events in the yogurt shop case 9.24.02: In penalty phase, two images of Scott 9.23.02: Scott guilty of '91 murder The yogurt shop defendants 9.22.02: Jury finds Scott guilty in yogurt shop murders Alternate on jury is wistful as he waits 9.21.02: Scott's fate in jury's hands 9.20.02: Jury deliberations to center on coercion vs. confession 9.18.02: Memories can be manipulated by police, defense expert says 9.14.02: Yogurt shop jurors hear of '91 media accounts 9.13.02: Witness: Yogurt shop slayings overwhelmed police 9.12.02: Defense calls flurry of witnesses 9.11.02: Officer notes similarities in two men's confessions 9.07.02: Jailer: Scott was unaware of pistol 9.06.02: Witness tells of encounter with two teens 9.05.02: DNA experts testify in yogurt shop case Witness alters story, ties Scott to gun 9.04.02: High school friend says suspect confessed to her 8.31.02: On videotape, Scott gives detailed account of events 8.30.02: Jury sees video of gun in Scott interrogation 8.29.02: Scott knew details of crimes, police say KXAN hands over copy of defendant's taped confession it used in news segment 8.28.02: On tape, Scott says he killed two girls 8.27.02: Youngest yogurt shop victim fought killers, witness says 8.24.02: Defense attacks fire investigation 8.23.02: Bodies were set ablaze, arson expert testifies 8.22.02: Fire investigator asked about determination of cause 8.21.02: Defense casts doubt on details of crime scene 8.17.02: Assistant fire chief testifies at yogurt shop trial 8.16.02: Scott's story is read to jury Statement of Michael Scott that was read to jury Aug. 15, 2002 8.15.02: Trial of 2nd yogurt shop suspect begins 7.29.02: Yogurt suspect in court today 6.02.01: Yogurt shop killer condemned YOGURT SHOP MURDERS June 18, 2009 Actor Stephen Collins Says Death Penalty for 'Politicians Who Like to Sound Tough' Stars gathered for the "Death Penalty Focuss 18th Annual Awards Dinner" at Hollywood's Universal Studios last month to honor New Mexico's Governor Bill Richardson with the 2009 Humanitarian Award. Founded in 1988, Death Penalty Focus is dedicated to the abolition of capital punishment. FOXNews.com talked to "7th Heaven" star Stephen Collins there about the controversial topic. The Iowa-born actor/writer, who, by the way, is the great-great- great grandson General James Baird Weaver, the 1880 Greenback Party presidential candidate and the 1892 Populist Party candidate for president, is a long-time contributor to the organization. FOX: What is your stand on the death penalty? Stephen Collins: It doesn't work. It's expensive, most people don't know that it costs more to execute a person than it does to put them in prison for life, so for people who say I'm not going to pay money to feed prisoners, it strangely enough is economically sound. But we're also one of two countries in the entire Western civilized world who have the death penalty, and there's so much research that shows the victims families don't end up feeling better because of it. I don't know who ends up winning with the death penalty, except politicians who like to sound tough. FOX: What do you believe the solution is? Stephen Collins: I'm old fashioned and I believe in rehabilitation. I also believe that there is too much evidence that shows we've executed people wrongly, and people who say 'well that's the price we have to pay,' no, we don't have to pay this price. America and South Africa are the only 2 western nations to execute people. Why do we have to pay that price? Why do we have to pay the price for being wrong occasionally? I used to do some work with a group that taught meditation at San Quentin prison and it was very interesting to close your eyes and meditate with people on death row. There was a guy there that was in for life, a famous prisoner named Geronimo Pratt, and he was basically framed for murder, he was a Black Panther who they framed, and he was in prison for 22 years before he got out, and much of that in lockdown, and we do make mistakes. At least Geronimo Pratt is alive and he's out. Its horrible that he had to spend that much time behind bars, but he wasn't executed. FOX: What about all of the talk about whether Jesus would have supported capital punishment? Stephen Collins: The death penalty solves nothing except a kind of understandable but misguided sense of justice and vengeance, and certainly Jesus never says anything about executing people. I go to church, I'm a Christian. I think its interesting that so many political Christians support the death penalty when Jesus Christ never says a single, slight word about putting people to death, never even slightly. I don't know where they're coming from as Christians. I don't understand. FOX: Can we make progress on this issue? Stephen Collins: People are saying prisons are crowded and there aren't too many states that are under budget, so we need to reexamine the dollars we are spending to indulge our lust to put people to death. It is interesting to see the states just missed a referendum in Colorado, but [the death penalty] has been overturned in a couple of states, and most of my life, the death penalty wasn't with us. If we could point to the last 25 years and say 'Yeah the death penalty is really working'? It was always in my gut and troubled me. As a Christian it troubles me, and Christ did not advocate putting people to death for any reason. (source: Fox News) June 16, 2009 Death Penalty Does Not Deter Murder, According to New CU-Boulder Study 88 % of the country's top criminologists do not believe the death penalty acts as a deterrent to homicide, according to a new study published today in Northwestern University School of Law's Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology authored by Professor Michael Radelet, chair of the sociology department at the University of Colorado at Boulder, and Traci Lacock, an attorney and CU-Boulder graduate student in sociology. The study titled "Do Executions Lower Homicide Rates? The Views of Leading Criminologists" undermines deterrence as a rationale for maintaining the punishment, said Radelet, one of the nation's leading experts on the death penalty. "These data show that deterrence, which in many circles is the strongest justification for the death penalty, falls on its face when closely examined by those who are best qualified to study and evaluate it," Radelet said. "Any justifications for the death penalty that might remain pale in comparison to drawbacks such as high costs, arbitrariness, executing the innocent and diverting resources from more effective ways to reduce crime and assist victims." The study was conducted by sending questionnaires to the most pre-eminent criminologists in the country, including fellows of the American Society of Criminology, winners of the American Society of Criminology' s prestigious Southerland Award and recent presidents of the American Society of Criminology. The American Society of Criminology is the top professional organization of criminologists in the world. The 77 respondents were not asked for their personal opinion about the wisdom of the death penalty, but instead to answer the questions only on the basis of their understandings of the empirical research available on the subject. 87 % of the expert criminologists also believed that abolition of the death penalty would not have any significant effect on murder rates, Radelet said. And 75 % of the respondents agreed that "debates about the death penalty distract Congress and state legislatures from focusing on real solutions to crime problems." "Our survey indicates that the vast majority of the world's top criminologists believe that the empirical research has revealed the deterrence hypothesis for a myth," Radelet and Lacock wrote. "The consensus among criminologists is that the death penalty does not add any significant deterrent effect above that of long-term imprisonment." The study was funded by Sheilah's Fund at the Tides Foundation in San Francisco and was arranged through the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington, D.C. (source: Univ. Colorado News) Local criminologist disagrees on study showing little deterrent value of death penalty Professor James Marquart, head of the criminology and sociology program at the University of Texas at Dallas disagrees with a recent study of criminologists nationwide that concluded the death penalty has little deterrent effect. According to a study by Michael Radelet, Chair of the Department of Sociology at the University of Colorado-Boulder and Traci Lacock, an attorney and Sociology graduate student, 88 % of the country's "top criminologists" don't believe the death penalty acts as a deterrent. Dr. Marquart, author of The Rope, the Chair and the Needle, and a former correctional officer, didn't participate in the study. He says academic findings "do support that, but in my own view...one must examine the facts in each case. It comes down to 'Do you have the right person?' And if you've got the right perpetrator, factually, legally and everything else, I believe that there is an individual deterrent value to it. And that means that if you have the right persons and that person is executed, they are deterred. End of story." (source: Dallas Morning News) Does God approve of capital punishment today? June 16, 2009 Capital punishment, even as corporal punishment, is a highly controversial subject. It should not be, but it is. Without an effort to determine what crime should or shouldn't be worthy of putting the perpetrator to death, our efforts in this article is to determine whether or not God approves of capital punishment under the Christian dispensation. We do know that things are quite different under the law of Jesus Christ when compared to the Old Testament law given to the Jews through Moses. Two different testaments, covenants or laws, whichever one may wish to refer to them. We need to be able to recognize the difference and why, in order to pursue our subject. God utilized different methods of rule for mankind at different times and due to different circumstances. The writer of the Hebrew letter explained that in the first 2 verses of that book: "God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;" (Hebrews 1:1-2) From Adam and Eve through the next 2500 years, God's plans and commands for man were given to the heads of households (actually tribesmade up of the descendants of these patriarchs) whose duty it was to pass these words down through their progeny and they were supposed to lead, or rule over, those children and guide them in the way of the Lord. But only a tiny minority did so. At the time of the universal flood, approximately, 1556 A.M. (Anno Mundi-age of the earth) there were only 8 souls found to be living faithful to God. Noah, his wife, his 3 sons and their wives. After the flood this same method of communication with man continued since the world had to essentially, start over. And once again they failed, for the most part, to live obediently to the will of God. After some 500 plus years, approximately 2100 A.M., there were only few righteous people and God chose Abram (Later called Abraham) because of his faithful righteousness, with whom to make a covenant that his descendants would be chosen to furnish the lineage to the coming messiah. After Abraham's son, Isaac grew and fathered twelve sons, the providence of God guided their fate into Egyptian captivity so that he could, through Moses, lead them miraculously out of that bondage and finally into the land he had promised Abraham, Canaan. As they moved out of Egypt and arrived at Mt. Sinai, God delivered the law for them to live by, the basis of which were the 10 commandments, but much, much more. The remainder of nations remained under the original patriarchal law, although virtually all had abandoned it. But unto the Jews were given the law of Moses, found in the first 5 books of the Bible with more admonitions and guidance throughout the books of prophecy. Importantly, there are several passages in the prophets writings of the coming of the messiah and of His originating a new law and plan of salvation for all men. One of the best prophesies of this is found in Jeremiah 31:31-34) Then Jesus came, taught His apostles for three years and then sent the Holy Spirit to them on the first Pentecost after his resurrection, to teach them all things and to bring to their remembrance all that he had taught them, (John 14:26). The fulfillment of that prophecy is recorded in Acts chapter 2. Now, under the law given to the Jews, they were commanded to administer capital punishment to their people for several crimes, primarily that of murder and of illicit sexual activities. Even earlier, while under the patriarchal dispensation we find these words from God: "Whosoever sheds mans blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God he made man" (Genesis 9:6) Many who try and argue against capital punishment, use the ten commandments as their proof text as in Exodus 20:13 "Thou shalt not kill" which when properly translated says "You shall not murder" which does not rule out killing in self defense or as punishment for a crime. On many occasions God commanded the Israelites to utterly destroy a nation evil people. Would He order His people to break His commandment to them? He even had them establish cities of refuge so that one who happened to kill another accidentally might go and have refuge untill a hearing was conducted. This because the dead man's relative had the right to take the killer's life if it was a case of murder. When we enter into the Christian dispensation, there are some different considerations. The basic rules of God remain but a different approach is taken for several reasons. Under the law of Christ, all others are mute. Christians are not to avenge themself of a wrong. It is his duty to approach and tell a person of his having wronged him but he can take no further personal action against him other than that of the civil law. The apostle Paul tells us in Romans 13:1 "Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God." Paul also tells us in Romans 12:19 "Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord." We are not to take the law into our own hands, regardless of how vile an act has been committed. This does not, however, exclude one's right to defend his life or well being of his family. Defense is entirely different to vengenace. The heart is where the difference lies. We should never feel pleased or happy if we have to defend our family at the hurt of others. We should pray for those who despitefully use us. God has always advocated the punishment of evildoers and even required it of his people. The prime difference now is that individual Christians do not take it upon themselves to punish criminals for their acts. It is the purpose for God's ordaining governments to protect their people and punish the wicked. It is the Christian's duty to pray for and seek to change the evildoer. (source: Joel Hendon, Birmingham Biblical Examiner) BOOKS, AUTHOR INTERVIEW, MARK OSLER, DEATH PENALTY, BAYLOR LAW ----Faith and the system: Law prof troubled by Christians' support of the ultimate penalty----Former prosecutor sees intriguing and disturbing similarities between the passion of Jesus and latter-day capital cases. A majority of Texans profess to love Jesus, or at least identify themselves as Christian. A majority of Texans also love the death penalty. And that got Mark Osler thinking. Osler, a former federal prosecutor in Detroit, moved to Waco to teach law at Baylor University in 2001 and found it to be a garden of intellectual delights, a place where he could "reflect on the big issues that I was not focusing on when I was prosecuting cases." Which led to a bold if not reckless idea: as an intellectual exercise, prosecute Jesus under Texas rules before the congregation of a Baptist church. "In retrospect, perhaps it wasn't such a great idea for an untenured professor at a Baptist school to prosecute Christ," Osler writes in "Jesus on Death Row: The Trial of Jesus and American Capital Punishment" (Abingdon Press, $16), "In a Baptist church. On Sunday. ... The experience was riveting as it exposed the sharp contrast between the central narrative of Christianity and the affection of most Texans for the death penalty." (After "lengthy and combative" deliberations, the jury hung.) And, Osler argues, there are striking parallels between Jesus' trial as recounted in the Gospels and the prosecution of capital crimes today in Texas and across the country surveillance, a swift arrest under cover of darkness and with overwhelming force, habeas procedures, the disproportionate number of poor defendants, the appeals process and the role of emotion in them, the fascination with last meals, the forfeiture of assets (in Jesus' case, his clothes), paid informants (Judas and his 30 pieces of silver), punishment and humiliation of the defendant and an execution in which the condemned is sedated (Jesus was offered wine and myrrh), immobilized and killed not unlike the deadly 3-drug cocktail used by states that use lethal injection. Although Osler allows that a biblical argument can be made in support of the death penalty, there's not much question where he stands. (Interviewing for his prosecutor's job, he told his prospective boss, the then-U.S. attorney, he wasn't death-qualified. ) And Jesus himself, after happening upon a perfectly legal execution, condemned it in "remarkably straightforward" language. Osler, 46, is saying that Christians should think long and hard about what Jesus said about capital punishment and how he later died. As he writes early in the book: "The fact that God's son came to Earth as a man subjected to capital punishment seems to reveal God's intent that we care about not only that man but also that process." So the book is not a polemic, but Osler can't help but heap scorn on Southern governors including by name former ones named Bush and Clinton who reject appeals for pardons or clemency, clinging to the "comforting, ridiculous fiction" that the system is perfect and that they are but a cog in it, as was Pilate, then go to church with their families and worship before an innocent who was executed. He stops just short of calling these players hypocrites. Moreover, he says, we're unquestionably executing innocents today. He writes: "If we choose to worship an innocent who was executed as a criminal, shouldn't we worry about the execution of innocents in our time ... given a faith that values each life so dearly?" If you believe God authored the story of Jesus, he says, he did so for a reason. That mob howling for the release of the murderer and insurgent Barabbas and the crucifixion of Jesus? That mob is us. Making such a case would seem to be a mighty hard sell around Baylor, but Osler says the reaction he gets tends to be thoughtful. (He's speaking at BookPeople tonight, where he might anticipate a warm reaction.) And that's what he's after. As he put it, "Nobody ever changed their mind because of a bumper sticker." "You may not agree with me about the message of Christ's execution," he said. "And I'm OK with that. But I'm bothered if you're not troubled by that." Osler is also an expert in, and operated under, federal sentencing guidelines that got crack cocaine defendants far stiffer sentences than defendants who peddled powder cocaine, and existing guidelines that can get 14-year-olds locked up for life. While once a reliable supporter of throw-the-book- at-'em justice, Osler has had a change of heart. His aim to open minds, to get people asking questions, comes from the knowledge that he once stood on the other side of an issue. "What links all my work together is that there needs to be a role for mercy in those parts of our justice system that are most staunchly retributive, where the rules don't bend and the individual isn't seen," he says. "If justice is treating people the same, and mercy is giving people a break, those two things are in tension. We probably should not pick only stern justice. Christ over and over teaches us that." (source: Austin American-Statesman) Historical Posters Peg Averill Capital Punishment-- --$20 One of the first of a number of historical posters we hope to be selling on Justseeds for the War Resister's League. This one is a classic Peg Averill design, with her signature illustration style used to great effect in railing against the death penalty. We believe this poster was produced in the early 1980's by the War Resisters League in association with Liberation News Service (or possibly Averill originally did the illustration for Liberation News Service, and it was then reproduced on this poster). It was printed by the union and movement print shop in Smithtown, NY called The Print Shop. For those not familiar with her work, Averill (1949-1993) created hundreds of political graphics in the 1970s and 80s, which were used by a large number of organizations working on a variety of political issues (anti-war, anti-nuclear, prisoner rights, anti-death penalty, etc.). Her illustrations were often used in the War Resisters League publication WIN. 2 color offset printed poster----16" x20" unsigned/unnumbered (although we only have a limited number of copies) Click HERE (source: justseeds.org) Protests condemn Texas governor’s 200th execution By Gloria Rubac Houston, Texas Published Jun 13, 2009 Chanting, “Perry says death row, we say hell no!” activists gathered in Austin, Huntsville and Houston on June 2 to protest Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s 200th execution since he was elected in December 2001. Perry has surpassed the previous record of 152 executions set by former Governor George W. Bush. Illustrating the legacy of slavery, Sister Krystal Muhmmad holds up a noose at Houston rally June 2 Photo: Gloria Rubac Activists gather at the site of the Old Hanging Tree in downtown Houston where the county courthouse stood at the end of the 1800s. The historical marker in front of the 400-year-old oak tree reads: “It is rumored that 11 criminals were hung here.” A speaker told the crowd: “Those of us who live in the South know who was hung in the trees outside of the county courthouses or on the town square—it was Black people who were lynched.” In all the cities, the 200 names of those put to death were read aloud. In European cities, protesters gathered outside U.S. Embassies. In Montreal a large die-in was held by activists dressed in black, wearing white plastic face masks and holding signs with the image of the state of Texas on them. In Huntsville, where prisoner Terry Hankins was strapped to a gurney and lethally injected at 6 p.m., the Kids Against the Death Penalty chanted, “What do we want?” The crowd responded, “Abolition!” “When do you want it?” “Now!” Huntsville protest, June 2 Photo: Terri Benn Sister Krystal Muhammad with the New Black Panther Party told the Houston crowd, “This execution tonight is nothing but a legal lynching. We know that Blacks and Latinos are the majority on death row, and we know that regardless of color, those on death row are poor. I call on you to each bring five more people with you to the next execution protest. We must stop these lynchings.” From Montreal, the Amnesty International organizer of that militant protest, Charles Perrouod, told Texas organizers that it was “a vibrant success with even the more ‘popular media,’ the ones never there to cover our events, coming in throngs!! Real strong coverage to say the least. The death penalty in the U.S. is fraught with corrupt DAs, lying cops, faulty crime labs, incompetent court-appointed attorneys and wrongful executions. Perry knows this because 40 people have been exonerated and released from prison after being granted DNA testing. Some of them had served over 25 years for crimes they didn’t commit. Perry knows that intensive newspaper investigations by the Houston Chronicle and the Chicago Tribune have discovered at least three people put to death in Texas who were found to be innocent—Todd Willingham, Ruben Cantu and Carlos de Luna. Texas leads the country with 439 executions since the death penalty was reinstated by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1976. (amnesty.org) Over 90 percent of all U.S. executions have taken place in former Confederate states. (“Why is Texas no. 1 in executions?” asked Ned Walpin on pbs.org.) In 2008, 95 percent took place in the South. In 2009, over half of all executions have been carried out in Texas. (deathpenaltyinfo.org) The struggle, however, to abolish the death penalty is gaining ground. Death sentences are down. Executions are down. Public support for capital punishment is down, even in Texas. And in 2008, Harris County, the leading jurisdiction that sends people to death row in the U.S., not a single person was sentenced to death for the first time in over 30 years. For more information see Protest 200 Executions To read article, click HERE June 11, 2009 Death penalty for capital punishment? With all that is going on in America today, you may not have noticed the death penalty is under attack as never before. It's not just the nomination to the Supreme Court of Sonia Sotomayor, a fervent opponent of capital punishment, that leads me to this conclusion. It's the fact that Barack Obama seems hell-bent on serving out his presidency as Europe's running dog lacky and the Euro-elite couldn't be more opposed to the death penalty. The United Nations, another place Obama looks for instructions, is equally opposed to capital punishment. The pressure is rising from the globalists, and Obama is their man in the U.S. Even more alarming to me is a trend I noticed only recently: "Conservatives" having 2nd thoughts about the death penalty. You might be surprised to learn that conservative stalwarts from Richard Viguerie to Ollie North are personally opposed to capital punishment. Some of these conservatives are actually huddling together to see how they can achieve their objectives in ending the death penalty in America. With all this in mind, I think it's time for a review of what's right about capital punishment. First of all, it's biblical. I don't know about you, but I get my ideas about right and wrong from the Bible. I defy anyone to read the Bible in its entirety and tell me God doesn't approve of capital punishment. In fact, God does not reserve it exclusively for the crime of murder. And He doesn't just approve of it, He prescribes it. I suggest to you the reason He does is because God so highly values life. The irony, of course, is that death penalty opponents believe they are valuing life by opposing it. But that's just more evidence of what the Bible frequently refers to as man being "wise in his own eyes." The very reason capital punishment is moral is because it places such a high value on innocent human life. It is the ultimate expression of how highly we value life. It is meant as a deterrent to those who might consider taking a life. And, there is not a doubt in my mind that if we used it more frequently and with more certainty in murder cases, it would serve as a formidable deterrent. It's common sense. Bringing about justice for heinous crimes is one of the reasons God institutes government. As usual, many in government want to abdicate their responsibility to performing the few duties for which government is useful like defending the nation, controlling borders, controlling currency and bringing justice for those who are victimized. Government prefers to meddle in affairs in which it has no business such as invading privacy, restricting firearms, controlling free speech, seizing and redistributing wealth and prohibiting the free exercise of religion. Executing duly convicted murderers is not only a legitimate role for government; it is a duty. The Founding Fathers understood this. They oversaw its implementation. There was no thought by any of them that this was "cruel and unusual punishment," as some revisionists seek to suggest. Of course, if further restrictions on capital punishment come to America, they won't come by way of an expression of the will of the people by popular or even by legislative action. They will come by way of judicial fiat as so many other unpopular ideas have been forced down the throats of the American public. It's also worth noting that so many of those most vehemently opposed to capital punishment seem to have no problem with the state's direct involvement in terminating the lives of the most innocent unborn babies and those, like Terri Schiavo, with disabilities. That's the world in which we live today where black is white, up is down, left is right and right is wrong. (source: Joseph Farah, WND.com) June 10, 2009 Flaws in the U.S. Judicial System Related to the Death Penalty On May 26, the United Nations released a report by the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, which highlights, among other things, some of the major flaws in the US judicial system related to the death penalty. The report focuses particularly on the sates of Texas and Alabama, where the research of the Special Rapporteur was concentrated. The report rightfully notes that the current judicial system in those 2 states is significantly flawed as it leaves room for the wrongful conviction and execution of innocent people, something that was confirmed even by interviews with public officials. In that respect, the author provides a detailed review of the judicial failings related to the death penalty. He notes that there are legal limitations preventing inmates from access to DNA tests once they have already been convicted. In addition, the defense attorneys appointed to death penalty cases often receive compensation far lower than what is necessary to construct an adequate defense. Appointed counsel also frequently have continuing professional relationships with the judges before whom they appear, which can be the source of "structural disincentives for vigorous capital defense." The access of defendants to federal habeas corpus proceedings, the report asserts, is also too limited. At the same time, finality in death penalty cases is often granted undue emphasis at the expense of a careful examination of the potential evidence related to innocence claims. The author notes that in Alabama, "officials would rather deny (the execution of innocent people) than confront criminal justice system flaws." Unfortunately, this is true not only in Alabama, as has become evident in the case of Troy Davis, who may soon face his 4th execution date in 2 years, despite the fact that the case against him was build predominantly on the testimony of 9 witnesses, 7 of whom have recanted their statements (and have alleged that they were coerced by authorities) since the time of Troy's conviction. However, despite opposition from human rights activists across the world, Troy has remained on death row for 18 years and has not yet received a hearing on the details of his case that have emerged since the time of his conviction. Moreover, the failure of the judicial system to hear the evidence in support of Troy's innocence means that the person truly responsible for the murder of which Troy was convicted, has not yet faced any legal consequences for his action. This danger was also highlighted in the UN report, according to which "wrongful convictions mean that true criminals remain at large." The UN report also points to the drawbacks in the electoral system for appointing judges in Texas and Alabama, which highly politicizes death penalty cases. In fact, the author cites statistics suggesting that the likelihood of a death penalty sentence is directly correlated with the imminence of judicial elections or with the lobbying efforts of groups that are supporters of capital punishment. He also pinpoints the particular problems with judicial elections in Alabama, where jury decisions can be overruled by elected judges, and where 9 out of 10 cases in which a judge overrode a jury decision resulted in a death sentence. Finally, the report uncovers the existence of racial bias behind the imposition of the death penalty across the country, something that is confirmed by the research of Amnesty International USA. (source: Evangelicals for Human Rights) 06/09/2009 Justice served Opponents of capital punishment noted the June 2 execution of convicted murderer Terry Lee Hankins in Huntsville. What makes Hankins' execution in any way unique is that it was the 200th under Gov. Rick Perry. Those who would like to see the ultimate form of punishment expire are quick to jump on such numbers, as if statistics should trump justice. Amnesty International, one of the more vocal anti-death penalty organizations, released a statement last week, proclaiming Hankins as "the 16th person to be executed in Texas this year out of a national total of 30." According to AI, there have been 1,166 executions in the U.S. since "judicial killing" resumed in 1977. Texas has 439. Speaking of killing - of the non-judicial type - Hankins was convicted of killing his girlfriend and her 2 children in Arlington in 2001. All were shot in the head. When it comes to capital punishment, the horrible realities of the gruesome acts committed by murderers are often overlooked in favor of numbers. However, since groups like AI use numbers to make the application of capital punishment look like a haphazard rush to judgment, here's a few that counter that perception: # In Texas, the average stay on death row is 10.26 years. # In Texas, there are 8 offenses that allow capital punishment, and 3 involve murder committed by someone already behind bars, such as during a prison escape. It is interesting that Perry is condemned for 200 executions carried out by the state during his tenure. A number much more difficult to measure would be the number of victims of these heinous crimes, along with the countless family members and friends who lost loved ones under horrific circumstances. That's the sad number. - Amarillo's Death Row The number of Amarillo-area offenders on death row and the number of executed offenders, according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice: Potter County 3; 10 Randall County 2; 3 (source: Editorial, Amarillo Globe-News) Human Rights and The Texas Criminal Justice System This June 2009 is the 11th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council. On June 2-18 the United Nations will again address major human rights issues in Geneva Switzerland. Nations from all over will disparage their grievances to the General Assembly on issues such as improving the rights of children, civil and political rights such as arbitrary detention, and the trafficking of human beings. With the constant talk today in the mainstream media of the United States about torture and where to put the terror detainees in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the UN Human Rights Council this year is the perfect venue to discuss these problems. Despite the United States being part of the UN Security Council, there are still issues that need to be addressed. According to the Report of the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Philip Alston wrote in his Addendum to the Mission of the United States of America that: "There is a good deal to commend about the record of the United States of America on extrajudicial killings: in most instances there is no lack of laws or procedures for addressing potentially unlawful killings and, at least domestically, data is generally gathered systematically and responsibly. I found, however, 3 areas in which significant improvement is necessary if the U.S. Government is to match its actions to its stated commitment to human rights and the rule of law. First, the Government must ensure that imposition of the death penalty complies with fundamental due process requirements; the current systems flaws increase the likelihood that innocent people will be executed. Second, the Government must provide greater transparency into law enforcement, military, and intelligence operations that result in potentially unlawful deaths. Third, the Government must overcome the current failure of political will and provide greater accountability for potentially unlawful deaths in its international operations; political expediency is never a permissible basis for any State to deviate from its obligation to investigate and punish violations of the right to life." It is widely acknowledged that innocent people in Texas have likely been sentenced to death and executed. In Alabama and Texas, there is a shocking lack of urgency about the need to reform glaring criminal justice system flaws. Texas should undertake a systematic inquiry into its criminal justice system and ensure that the death penalty is applied fairly, justly, and only for the most serious crimes. Deficiencies that should be remedied include the lack of adequate counsel for indigent defendants and racial disparities in sentencing. The system of electing judges in Texas should be reconsidered because it politicizes towards the GOP death penalty sentences and unfairly increases the likelihood of capital offenses. Given the inadequacies of state criminal justice systems, the United States Congress should enact legislation permitting federal court habeas review of state and federal death penalty cases on the merits. Human Rights is a serious matter that affects all of us not only internationally but locally in the Dallas Fort Worth area. How can we claim to be the beacon of constitutional freedom and equality as an example to other countries, but we find ourselves unjustly issuing the death penalty to cases that have flaws in the Texas criminal justice system. So whether you agree or disagree on how states administer their criminal justice in cases that are unclear, the issue of human rights and the criminal justice system need to be addressed before a mistake is made that can never be reversed. (source: Examiner.com) June 6, 2009 Texas does lots of things on a grand scale, including executing people Last Tuesday, as the state of Texas prepared to execute Terry Lee Hankins, people gathered in several U.S. cities and on 2 continents to mark a milestone in Rick Perry's tenure as governor. Hankins, by no means a sympathetic character because of his gruesome crimes, became the 200th person to be executed in Texas since Perry has been in office. He was the 16th to be put to death by the state this year. To mark the occasion, anti-death penalty protests were held in Huntsville; Austin; Houston; Albuquerque, N.M.; Paris; and Leipzig, Germany. Texas is notorious throughout the world for the number of executions it carries out each year, raising fears that the state has made mistakes and that innocent people likely have been killed in the death chamber. Hankins was guilty, having been convicted of killing 2 of his stepchildren. He also was charged with the murders of his wife, father and his mentally challenged half-sister who was pregnant probably by him, evidence showed. I'm often asked by people regarding such cases, "If anybody deserves the death penalty, don't you think he does?" Maybe. But you must understand that those of us against capital punishment don't believe the state should be in the killing business period, regardless of someone's crime. The state ought never to be engaged in carrying out systematic homicides. And, yes, execution is a homicide. While the state is obligated to administer punishment when crimes have been committed, it ought not to be carrying out vengeance. One of the speakers at the Huntsville protest last week was Jerry Williams, a sociology professor at Stephen F. Austin State University, whose sister was beaten to death on Mother's Day morning in 1985. Her assailant was given life in prison, but was released on parole after serving 15 years in prison. "I hated him," Williams said. "I wanted to see him die. I wanted to see him suffer in prison. And I thought justice would be done only in that way. But what I realized over time was that my hate really diminished me. It damaged me and did nothing for him." In anticipation of the 200th execution milestone, the most under one governor in modern U.S. history, Amnesty International last April issued a report on capital punishment in this country, focusing on "too much cruelty, too little clemency." Of course the major attention was on the Texas death penalty system, which the human rights organization said "remains one that is fatally flawed and not reserved for the so-called 'worst of the worst,'" due in part to the idea of "future dangerousness" whereby during sentencing jurors are asked to decide if the defendant will remain a threat to society. "'Future dangerousness allows junk science and irrational fears based on race, youth or mental illness to affect the outcome of death penalty cases," said Jared Feuer, southern regional director of AIUSA, in a press release. The Amnesty report noted, "Texas, where about seven percent of the U.S. population resides, and where fewer than 10 % of murders occur, has accounted for 37 % of the country's executions since 1977, and 41 % since 2001, when Governor Perry came into office." It went on to point out, "There were 152 executions in Texas during the nearly 6 years of the [George W.] Bush governorship (1995-2000). Now looming is the 200th execution during Rick Perry's term in office. The combined total of more than 350 executions in Texas under these 2 governors represents 30 % of the national total since executions resumed in the USA in 1977. Virginia is ranked 2nd to Texas in executions. In 30 years, Virginia has killed 103 people in its death chamber, 1/2 the number put to death in Texas in 8. This is geographic bias on a grand scale." We in Texas have long had a reputation of doing things on a grand scale. "How many of the 200 people executed under Perry's watch were innocent?" asked Scott Cobb, president of Texas Moratorium Network, which helped organize the protests. "Perry could have taken a large step to reduce the risk of executing an innocent person if he had supported a moratorium on executions. Now, he may have to answer for the execution of Todd Willingham, who most likely was innocent of the arson/murders for which he was executed in 2004." Despite the guilt or innocence of the condemned individual, how does anyone preside over 200 homicides and sleep at night? And I continue to wonder: When will we in Texas come to our senses and end this nonsense? (source: Column, Bob Ray Sanders, Fort Worth Star Telegram) June 5, 2009 How Austin dealt with our priority list When the 2009 Texas Legislature began way back in January, we outlined five major priorities. If lawmakers addressed them in the right way, we believed, they would improve the quality of life for Texans everywhere, including right here in North Texas. We have already opined about one of our priorities: giving communities the option to raise local funds to finance roads and rail. That effort failed miserably, and we took Austin to task. We also applauded the Legislature's decision to create more Tier One research universities. That, too, was an important goal. Here's how the rest of the list looks after 5 months of writing bills, conducting hearings and casting votes: Death penalty The odds against reforming much less stopping capital punishment in Texas are as long as they get in the tough-on-crime Legislature. Yet lawmakers made incremental changes that indicate they know that the criminal justice system is not airtight. What changed: One move had important symbolism: The House formed its first committee on the death penalty. Lawmakers also sent the governor a bill creating a new office to provide qualified counsel to indigent death row prisoners for certain appeals. What didn't change: It's regrettable that other vitally needed reforms fell short, like a bill that would have banned joint trials in capital murder cases and prohibited the death penalty for accomplices who did not kill. Another glaring shortcoming was lawmakers' failure to require police agencies to modernize their photo lineup practices. After years of trying, supporters of a special innocence commission to examine exonerations got a weakened bill. Pending the governor's signature, a new advisory panel will assist in a study on whether a full-fledged innocence commission with authority should be formed to tackle systemic changes in the justice system. With the record run of DNA exonerations in Texas, particularly in Dallas County, the need is clear. (source: Editorial, Dallas Morning News) Conservative Group Criticizes Sotomayor on Death Penalty Memo 06/05/2009 By Jerry Markon A conservative group is criticizing Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor for signing a 1981 memo that opposed the death penalty and said “capital punishment is associated with evident racism in our society." The Manassas, Va.-based Judicial Confirmation Network today said the document, written when Sotomayor was on the board of the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund, offers a window into her thinking on the divisive issue of capital punishment. The memo “provides an important data point to flesh out the picture of her that is emerging from her other writings, speeches and judicial opinions: a hard-left liberal judicial activist,’’ Wendy E. Long, the network’s counsel, wrote in a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee. Sotomayor was one of three board members of the Puerto Rican advocacy group to sign the memo, which recommended that the full board take a position opposing the restoration of the death penalty in New York State. Sotomayor served on the board from 1980 until she became a federal judge in New York in 1992. “The death penalty is final; it eliminates all possibility of the reform of the offender,’’ the memo said, adding that capital punishment is disproportionally applied to minorities and the poor and is not an effective deterrent to crime. Cesar Perales, president of the legal defense fund, now called LatinoJustice PRLDEF, said Sotomayor’s critics are taking the memo out of context. He said it is a “fair reading” of the document to conclude that Sotomayor was anti-death penalty at the time, but he said the authors were only “recapitulating” arguments against capital punishment made by religious and civic groups. Perales said the driving force behind the document was Joseph P. Fitzpatrick, a fellow board member and Jesuit priest who also signed it and is now deceased. He could not specify Sotomayor’s precise role. The Supreme Court on which Sotomayor may serve has been increasingly divided over the death penalty in recent years. The justices last year upheld lethal injection, a method of execution used by nearly all states, but they have clashed over decisions rejecting the death penalty for child rapists and juveniles. A White House spokeswoman did not return emails seeking comment. Conservative Group Criticizes Sotomayor on Death Penalty Memo June 4, 2009 Perry's 200th Execution Sparks Worldwide Protest Dozens of death penalty opponents gathered on the steps of the Texas Capitol Tuesday evening to protest the 200th execution under Gov. Rick Perry, which was scheduled for 6 p.m. Perry's approval of the execution of Terry Lee Hankins marks the highest number of executions performed by any governor in American history. Hankins, who shot his wife and child in their sleep, has previously described himself as a "non-caring monster." Austin's protest took place in conjunction with similar protests taking places in the country and around the world, including Houston, Albuquerque, Liepzig, German and Paris, France. The Austin protestors, holding signs and placards, crowded the Capitols entrance along Congress Avenue. A symbolic "burial" took place where 200 candles were placed one by one in a cardboard coffin. The names of each person executed, and the crime they had committed was announced at the sound of a bell. Alexis Konevich, a philosophy senior at St. Edwards University and intern for the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, said executions were ethically and morally wrong and do not support her personal moral beliefs. "By the standards of our Constitution, I believe it is cruel and unusual punishment," Konevich said. Scott Cobb, president of the Texas Moratorium Network said the protests, organized by anti-execution organizations, served to demonstrate that people are opposed to the use of the death penalty in Texas. "Texas just executes more people than other states," Cobb said. "When you travel abroad, and you say you are from Texas, the 1st thing that comes to mind is executions and maybe cowboys." Cobb said he would be protesting outside the Huntsville prison where Texas executes those on death row. "I think that people will have an effect on public opinion and policy makers," Cobb said. Kristin Houl, the director for the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, who was present at the Capitols protest, said as people become more educated on the topic and understand the complexity of the practice, support for the death penalty is starting to wane. "You can't help but feel a sense of sadness for the lose of life on both sides," Houl said 6 minutes before Terry Hankins was scheduled to die. (source: University of Texas Daily Texan) UN Investigator Says US Death Penalty Leads to Miscarriage of Justice By Lisa Schlein Geneva 03 June 2009 A U.N. Special Investigator is criticizing the application of the death penalty in the United States, saying it sometimes leads to miscarriages of justice. The expert, Philip Alston, calls for the United States to enact more stringent safeguards to protect the innocent. Philip Alston submitted a report to the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva. Special Investigator Philip Alston is not calling for the United States to end capital punishment. But, he urges the government to make sure the imposition of the death penalty complies with fundamental due process requirements. "It is widely acknowledged that innocent people have most likely been executed in the U.S," said Philip Alston. "Yet, in Alabama and Texas, the two States that I visited, I found a shocking lack of urgency about the need to reform criminal-justice system flaws." Alston says the U.S. Congress should enact legislation permitting a review of state and federal death penalty cases. The U.N. Special Investigator also criticizes the U.S. military and intelligence operations for a lack of transparency and accountability in relation to civilian casualties. He says targeted killings carried out by drone attacks on the territory of other countries are increasingly common and remain deeply troubling. "The government has failed to effectively investigate and punish lower-ranked soldiers for such deaths, and has not held senior officers responsible under the doctrine of command responsibility, " he said. "Worse, it has effectively created a zone of impunity for private contractors and civilian agents by only rarely investigating and prosecuting them." Acting Deputy Chief at the U.S. Mission in Geneva Lawrence Richter says he accepts Alston's observations on the need for safeguards in serious cases of capital punishment. But, he adds the U.S. system already has robust safeguards in place. "For example, if the death penalty were disproportionate to the severity of the underlying offense, it could be challenged under the 8th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution as being cruel and unusual punishment," said Lawrence Richter. "We fully share Professor Alston's concerns about the need to address the issue of wrongful convictions, and indeed the U.S. government has made this a priority. We are one of only five countries in the world that belong to the Innocence Network, a group of countries that are working to embrace modern forensic science and reforms to prevent wrongful convictions." Richter says Alston has gone too far in his criticisms of Washington in regard to its actions in the military sphere. He says the United States does not believe military and intelligence operations during armed conflict fall within the Special Investigator' s mandate. UN Investigator Says US Death Penalty Leads to Miscarriage of Justice June 2, 2009 USA: Death penalty needs reform Most do not relish having the death penalty on the table. We are the only Western country still invoking the death penalty. If the purpose of the death penalty is to deter heinous crimes, then it must be carried out quickly so that we remember the crime and the punishment. If the penalty is not for that purpose, then for what purpose? The May 21 article, "Death penalty path long and costly," indicates that this person has been on Death Row for 25 years! How can this be a deterrent? Who remembers the person, or more importantly, the crime? Another aspect of the death penalty that makes no sense: 1st-degree murderers who freely admit to the crime and are given the death penalty still must go through years of automatic appeals. Why? Obviously, the state has to seriously review and amend its policy on the death penalty, how it is carried out and how the appeals process can be corrected so that it is not only just, but also takes into account the victims of these horrible crimes. Sandy Shuster, Boynton Beach (source: Letter to the Editor, Sun-Sentinel) May 26, 2009 Attorneys overworked in capital cases----About 1/3 are over recommended limit on felonies Too Many Cases? A Chronicle analysis of Harris County 16,000 felony case assignments from 2004-2009 showed: More than 150 Felony Clients Per Year: 10 lawyers approved by judges to represent clients facing life or death sentences regularly exceed a nationally recommended limit of 150 felony clients per year. About 200 Violations: Lawyers apparently accepted more than 5 felony assignments per day more than 200 times, despite judges' rules. Frequent capital assignments: A dozen cases were assigned to the same lawyers less than 60 days apart, another violation of judges' rules. Lawyer Jerome Godinich, chastised by the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals this year for repeatedly failing to meet federal death penalty deadlines, has represented an average of 360 felony clients per year in Harris County a caseload that surpasses every other similar attorney. But even among other Harris County attorneys approved for death penalty cases, his heavy workload is no exception. In all, 10 of 32 Harris County lawyers approved by judges to represent clients facing life or death sentences regularly exceeded the recommended limit of 150 felony clients per year a standard established in 1973 and adopted by the National Legal Aid and Defender Association, the Houston Chronicle found. The lawyers, each assigned anywhere from 1 to 10 capital cases, simultaneously juggled 160 to 360 other felony clients each year, according to an analysis of official district court appointments from 2004-2009. Stephen Bright, an expert in capital case representation who has taught at Yale and Harvard law schools and reviewed the Chronicle's findings, said death penalty lawyers have no business handling nearly 400 clients in one year. "That's way too many cases and would not leave time for any other cases, particularly capital cases." Some felony cases are resolved in minutes, while death cases can take a year. Heavy caseloads limit the time an attorney can devote to each indigent defendant, a job paid for with tax dollars. Harris County District Court judges do not monitor caseloads of attorneys they appoint, even for death penalty cases. Through their rules, judges attempt to restrict how frequently felony and capital cases are assigned. Even those rules, adopted after one overloaded capital attorney committed suicide, have been repeatedly violated, the analysis showed. How rules violated The Chronicle review found 220 days in which capital-approved attorneys appear to have accepted more than the limit of 5 assignments per day. Some took as many as 10 cases. It also found a dozen examples where judges violated their own requirement that capital murder case appointments be spaced at least 60 days apart. In some cases, judges knowingly broke their own rule because of unusual circumstances. In others, there were "glitches" in an internal tracking system used to prevent that. One lawyer twice accepted 2 capital cases on the same day. The 1st time, Attorney Laine Lindsey said he accepted 2 appointments from the same judge to replace a lawyer stricken with cancer. Later, 2 different judges asked him to take cases on the same day. Lindsey said he didn't know about the rule and no one mentioned it. Godinich took 3 capital appointments in less than one 60-day period in 2008. One client was found incompetent to stand trial after drinking toilet water, disrobing and claiming he was Jesus Christ II while in the Harris County jail; another was a 15-year-old who pleaded guilty to felony murder charges and accepted a life sentence without possibility of appeal; the 3rd hired another lawyer. Godinich has agreed to take as many as 10 simultaneous capital cases over the past 5 years, though only a few were death penalty cases. Only 1 other attorney, Robert Morrow, has recently taken as many simultaneous capital cases, records show. But Morrow uses a team of legal interns and lawyers involved in a mentorship program to help with his assignments and specializes almost exclusively in capital work. 2 of the Harris County judges , Belinda Hill and Shawna Reagin, said it might help judges to receive reports on caseloads before making capital appointments, though both said numbers alone should not govern decisions. "I'm not saying it would always be the determining factor, but I would love to have that information, " said Reagin, who practiced capital case law before being elected a judge in 2008. Harris County District Court Clerk Loren Jackson said his staff or the court administration could build a tool to track attorney appointments. "We would love to be able to give that information to the judges. All they have to do is ask," he said. Godinich, who juggles federal cases and misdemeanors along with his 360 felonies, has refused interview requests. But in a letter to the Chronicle, he defended his indigent defense record, saying he aims to defend his clients "to the best of my ability." "That entails working 7 days a week and investing countless hours in preparation to ensure that my clients receive their rightful due process," Godinich wrote. "It is not an easy job, but it is work that is challenging and has given me enormous personal satisfaction. That is why my clients know who I am and depend on me to stay invested in the process." One of his hundreds of Harris County clients, Phillip Hernandez, has been awaiting trial for 18 months on child sexual abuse charges and claims Godinich has never visited him in jail to discuss his innocence claim. Hernandez's pre-trial hearing was scheduled earlier this month, but the inmate said he learned it had been postponed at the last minute from a bailiff. Godinich did not attend court that day, records show. Kyle Johnson, an attorney who shares an office with Godinich, said any criminal defense lawyer gets occasional complaints. Both he and Morrow praised Godinich's work. "I think he's excellent," Johnson said. "This job is Jerome's life." (source: Houston Chronicle) May 24, 2009 Texas increasingly out of step on death penalty Barring unexpected events, in the next few weeks Gov. Rick Perry of Texas will oversee his 200th execution since taking office in 2000. Perry has already allowed more executions than any other U.S. governor in modern history, far exceeding the 152 while George W. Bush was governor and the 50 overseen by Bushs immediate predecessor, Ann Richards. The United States is a global pariah for its continued embrace of the death penalty. In 2008 it was the worlds fourth-leading executioner, surpassed only by China, Iran and Saudi Arabia. Since executions resumed in 1977, after a hiatus of several years, more than 1,161 U.S. prisoners have been shot, hanged, electrocuted, gassed or put to death by lethal injection. Yet it is somewhat misleading to attribute this appalling record to "the United States." Unlike in most other countries, criminal justice in the United States is largely a matter of state law and policy. Only three executions since 1977 have been carried out by the federal government; the rest have been carried out by the states, and the vast majority by a mere handful of states. Texas alone, with 438 executions since 1977, accounts for more than 1/3 of the total. Just 3 states Texas, Virginia (103) and Oklahoma (89) together account for well over half of all U.S. executions in the modern era. At the other end of the spectrum, 15 states and the District of Columbia do not permit the death penalty. Of the 35 states whose laws authorize capital punishment, 2 have carried out no executions since 1977, and 5 have carried out only 1 apiece. There is a strong regional cast to the death penalty in the United States, with 960 executions in the South since 1977, compared with four in the Northeast. The reasons for these state and regional variations are no doubt multiple and complex. The important point is that they show there is nothing necessary or unavoidable about the death penalty, nothing inherent in the American character that demands it. Indeed, there are signs that Americans are turning against the death penalty. Just in the last 18 months, the citizens of 2 states New Jersey and New Mexico have, through their elected representatives, abolished capital punishment. The number of new death sentences imposed by juries has dropped dramatically in recent years, to about 1/3 the number imposed annually in the mid-1990s. What might account for this change? First and probably foremost is the question of innocence. Since 1973, 131 persons have been released from U.S. death rows after they were shown to be innocent of the crimes for which they had been sentenced to die. Some had come within days of execution. These exonerations have fundamentally shifted the debate on the death penalty, forcing even supporters to concede that innocent people have been sentenced to death, and that 1 or more may have been executed. Human Rights Watch opposes the death penalty in all circumstances because of its inherent cruelty and finality; the possibility that a person will be executed for a crime he or she did not commit is a risk no society should tolerate. There is also increasing awareness of the significant racial disparities in capital sentencing in the United States. Evidence continues to accumulate that those who kill white victims are far more likely to be sentenced to death than those who kill African-Americans or other people of color. A 2007 study of eight death penalty states by the American Bar Association concluded that "every state studied appears to have significant racial disparities in its capital system," but that "little, if anything, has been done to rectify the problem." Finally, as state and local governments face yawning budget deficits and are forced to slash education, health and other vital services, the tremendous cost of the death penalty has become more salient. Studies in various states have concluded that the decision to seek the death penalty increases the cost of a murder prosecution by 38 % to 70 %. Last year a California state commission estimated that maintaining the death penalty costs the state $126 million more each year than would abolishing capital punishment and replacing it with life in prison without possibility of parole. Texas will probably not abolish capital punishment anytime soon. But the good news is that more and more Americans seem to be getting the message that the death penalty is not necessary or inevitable. It's a choice and it's a bad one. (source: Editorial; David Fathi is director of the U.S. program at Human Rights Watch) May 22, 2009 CRIMINAL JUSTICE----Veto threat dooms change in death penalty law; Measure banning execution of people who haven't killed won't advance. Death penalty opponents have long decried a Texas law that allows the state to impose the ultimate punishment - execution - on people who have not killed anyone. Legislation to change that was working its way toward Gov. Rick Perry's desk Thursday, when its sponsor said a threatened veto forced him to drop the controversial provision that would have exempted participants in capital crimes who did not pull the trigger. "We wanted that provision to stay in, but the governor's office made it clear they would veto the bill if that went through," said state Sen. Juan "Chuy" Hinojosa, D-McAllen. Hinojosa amended the legislation to require only separate trials for co-defendants in capital murder cases in which one or more of the defendants did not kill anyone. Though he was not satisfied with the change, Hinojosa said, "we're not going to get any progress on this area of law until we get another governor. I realize that, so we do what we can." Perry's office did not return phone calls Thursday evening. Austin lawyer William "Rusty" Hubbarth, vice president of Justice for All, a national victim advocacy group based in Houston, applauded the veto threat. "I congratulate Gov. Perry for showing he has the courage to protect the interests of victims," Hubbarth said. The problem with the bill, he said, was letting all capital co-defendants off the hook if they didn't pull a trigger. As proof, he cited a 1992 case in which a husband hired a hit man through Soldier of Fortune magazine to kill his wife; the husband was convicted of premeditated murder and sentenced to death. As approved by the House last week, the bill would have made a significant change in the state's death-penalty law, a change vehemently opposed by prosecutors and cheered by death-penalty opponents. Under current law, multiple defendants in a capital murder case can face execution, even though not all caused a death. Texas has been criticized nationally in past years for cases in which the triggerman cut a deal with police and escaped execution, while a co-defendant who did not kill anyone was executed. Although other states also hold accomplices responsible for others' crimes under the so-called law of parties, few of those states have a death penalty. None executes as many people as Texas, which has put to death more than 400 people since the state resumed executions in 1982. Prosecutors in the past have argued that if defendants participate in a crime, even if they stood and watched an accomplice commit murder, they should be held equally accountable - and several have been sentenced to death. After the disputed wording was deleted Thursday, the bill was passed unanimously by the Senate Criminal Justice Committee, the last stop before the measure goes to the full Senate for a vote. When the measure passed the House on May 15, its sponsors tagged it the "Kenneth Foster Jr. Act," after a man whose death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment by Perry in 2007. A former member of a San Antonio crime gang, Foster was sentenced to die as an accessory to the Aug. 25, 1996, slaying of Michael LaHood Jr., a 25-year-old law school student who was gunned down during a botched robbery. Foster, then 19, drove the getaway car, which was parked 80 feet away. Foster's impending execution had drawn a flood of protests from around the world, with South African peace activist Desmond Tutu and former President Jimmy Carter among the hundreds who filed written protests to stop the execution - all arguing that Texas was taking the life of a man who had not killed anyone. In commuting the sentence, Perry noted that Foster was tried, convicted and sentenced alongside the triggerman, Mauriceo Brown. Perry said that could have tainted the jury's decision. "After carefully considering the facts of this case, along with the recommendation from the Board of Pardons and Paroles, I believe the right and just decision is to commute Foster's sentence," Perry said at the time. "I am concerned about Texas law that allowed capital murder defendants to be tried simultaneously, and it is an issue I think the Legislature should examine." (source: Austin American-Statesman) May 21, 2009 Veto threat alters death-penalty bill Facing a veto threat from Gov. Rick Perry, members of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee voted this evening to drop a controversial provision from a bill designed to keep defendants from being executed who were involved in a capital crime, did no killing themselves. As amended, House Bill 2267 now will require only separate trials for co-defendants in capital murder cases, where 1 defendant committed the murder and the other did not. Advocacy groups immediately decried the last-minute change, but said they still supported separate trials. As approved by the House last week, the bill would have been significant change in the states death-penalty law, one that was vehemently opposed by prosecutors and cheered by death-penalty opponents. Under current law, known as "the law of parties," multiple defendants in a capital murder case can face execution, even if they did not pull the trigger. Texas has been criticized nationally in past years for cases in which the triggerman cut a deal with police and escaped execution, after testifying against a co-defendant who did not pull the trigger but was executed. Prosecutors have argued that if defendants participate together in a crime, even if one stands and watches an accomplice commit murder, they should be held equally liable. "We wanted that provision to stay in, but the Governors Office made it clear they would veto the bill if that went through," said state Sen. Juan Hinojosa, D-McAllen. "At least we're changing it so co-defendants will have to be tried separately. You won't taint an accomplice by having them sit beside the triggerman in court at the same trial." While Hinojosa said he was not satisfied with the change, "we're not going to get any progress on this area of law until we get another governor. I realize that, so we do what we can." After the disputed wording was deleted, the bill was passed unanimously by the committee, the last stop before the measure will come for a vote by the full Senate. When the measure passed the House last Friday, its sponsors tagged it the "Kenneth Foster Jr. Act," after a man whose death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment by Perry in 2007. Foster was sentenced to die as a co-defendant in a case, even though he did not kill anyone. He was convicted in a trial with the killer. A similar case involving a condemned co-defendant, Jeff Wood, has been championed as a reason to change the law. Wood remains on death row, after his co-defendant the killer has been executed. "It will be an important reform to require separate trials in capital cases, but we will be disappointed if the provision to prohibit the state from seeking the death penalty in law of parties cases is removed from the bill. People who do not kill anyone should not be punished by death," Scott Cobb, president of Texas Moratorium Network, a death-penalty opposition group, said before the committee's vote. "This bill is very important because it touches the lives of innocent people that did not kill and are waiting to be executed for crimes that they did not commit." (source: Austin American-Statesman) May 19, 2009 Death Row phone number still working 7 months after prison officials busted death row convict Richard Tabler for calling a state senator on a smuggled cell phone, the phone number still works. And the senator who faced a death threat from Tabler over the phone caper is demanding to know why. "The number used should have been taken out of service forever," said state Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston. "I would hope whoever has it now would not be another inmate. But who knows. Here we go again." Whitmire said today he called Tablers number on Sunday after spotting it in his cell phone directory and was surprised when it went to voice mail, with a gruff-sounding man who warned: "Look, this is my phone. This is my voice mail. "So, if you're looking to leave a message, be sure that you're leaving a message for me, not nobody else." Whitmire said he immediately wondered if some other convict was still using the number. After all, prison investigators determined after his arrest that Tabler had borrowed the phone from another death row inhabitant. "As usual with the (prison) system, it's what I don't know that scares me," said Whitmire, who heads the legislative joint committee that oversees the prison system. John Moriarty, the prison system's inspector general, confirmed he is investigating who the still-active number is being used by. He would not discuss details. A callback left on the number by the Statesman was not returned. The voice did not sound like Tabler. "I find this amazing," Whitmire said this afternoon. So did Sen. John Carona, R-Dallas, who filed a bill earlier this session that would have required companies that sell cheap, untraceable cell phones to record identification from buyers. Corona said the bill was killed by cell companies. Moriarty and Whitmire said that having such a law would help authorities track illicit uses of cell phones, by criminals who are behind bars and still loose on the street. "This is a homeland security issue," Moriarty said. Tabler, 30, a convicted murderer from Killeen, was indicted on May 1 along with his mother and sister on felony contraband charges in connection in the cell phone smuggling case that sparked a statewide controversy and a rare lockdown of all state prisons. Tabler was also indicted by the East Texas juryon a felony charge of retaliation, accused of threatening to kill Whitmire after the lawmaker reported to Tablers calls to police. In the indictment, Tabler is accused of using another inmate's cell phone to make calls, and his mother and sister are accused of buying minutes for that phone. Tabler was given the death penalty for 2 Killeen slayings in 2004. His execution date has not been set. After Tabler called Whitmire in October 2008, Gov. Rick Perry ordered Texas' 112 state prisons locked down and searched for cell phones and other contraband. In the following weeks, officials found dozens of cell phones, drugs, tobacco and other items. He also called this reporter, and threatened to kill this reporter and Whitmire at their homes. (source: Austin American-Statesman) Yogurt shop hearing postponed until June By Steven Kreytak May 18, 2009 Tomorrow’s long awaited bail reduction hearing for yogurt shop murder defendant Robert Springsteen has been postponed, said Alexandra Gauthier, one of Springsteen’s defense lawyers. State District Judge Mike Lynch postponed the hearing after defense lawyers informed him on Friday that their DNA experts could not prepare written affidavits on the testing they have performed in the case in time for the hearing, Gauthier said. On May 5, Lynch ordered that all evidence in the case be presented in writing rather than in live testimony. That did not give DNA experts hired by Springsteen’s defense team enough time, Gauthier said. “My lab director can’t just drop everything for this case,” Gauthier said. “It takes longer to prepare an affidavit covering everything, all potential challenges,” then to just answer questions, she said. Lynch ordered the hearing in January after Springsteen’s lawyers filed a motion that claimed that recent DNA evidence exonerates him and co-defendant Michael Scott in the killings of four teenage girls at an Austin yogurt shop in 1991. The men are accused of killing Amy Ayers, 13; Eliza Thomas, 17; and sisters Sarah and Jennifer Harbison at the I Can’t Believe It’s Yogurt shop on West Anderson lane December 6, 1991. The girls were bound and gagged with their own clothing. Each was shot in the back of the head and the killers set the crime scene on fire, leaving little physical evidence. Scott and Springsteen both confessed to participating in the killings but later recanted and said they were coerced. Both were convicted of capital murder. Their convictions were overturned on appeal. New DNA testing conducted in anticipation of their retrials yielded previously undiscovered male DNA profiles on three of the victims, according to statements by prosecutors and defense lawyers and defense motions in the case. Those profiles do not match those of Springsteen, Scott or two previous co-defendants, said defense lawyers, who add that they believe that the recently discovered male DNA belongs to the real killers. Prosecutors, citing the confessions, have said they stand by their case. Gauthier said the hearing would be rescheduled for sometime in mid June. Lynch has ordered that the affidavits filed in the case would be filed under seal. He wrote in an order that each side will be able to argue the merits of the bail reduction. Scott’s case is tentatively set for trial in July. Yogurt shop hearing postponed until June May 17, 2009 Why death penalty is wrong Re: "Systemic guilt -- I put a man away for a crime he didn't commit, says James A. Fry," Friday Viewpoints. If 17 death row inmates have been proven innocent because of advances in DNA testing, it would be absurd to think that none of the 260 people executed in Texas in the last 10 years was innocent. Hard data show capital punishment to be more costly than life in prison without parole. When comparing murder rates in Texas against states that do not have the death penalty, it becomes obvious the death penalty is no more a deterrent than mandatory life sentences. Capital punishment simply makes no sense, and it's time for our country to join the rest of the civilized world and abolish it. Fry is clearly an honorable and thoughtful man who did what he thought was right at the time. John Latson, Dallas (source: Letter ot he Editor, Dallas Morning News) May 12, 2009 'Worst of the worst'? House will consider 'law of parties' in capital cases Should the death penalty be applied only to the worst of the worst, or also to those who associate with them? That's a question the Texas House will answer today when they take up and consider legislation to eliminate the death penalty for accomplices who didn't kill anyone based on the "law of parties." The issue rose in prominence last year when Governor Rick Perry commuted Kenneth Foster's death sentence under the law of parties and called on the Legislature to reconsider the issue of whether accomplices in capital murder cases should receive separate trials. The bill up today would require an accomplice in a capital murder case to stand trial separately from the actual killer and eliminate the death penalty for people who didn't personally murder anyone. As Scott Cobb described HB 2267 by Hodge on Burnt Orange Report: HB 2267 would require separate trials for co-defendants in capital trials in which the death penalty is sought and would prohibit the state from seeking the death penalty for people who do not kill anyone but are convicted under the Law of Parties. It is fundamentally unfair to sentence someone to death, like Kenneth Foster was, if they did not kill anyone. The death penalty is intended to be reserved for the worst of the worst killers. People who do not themselves kill anyone are not only not the worst of the worst, they are not even killers. The Law of Parties allows people who "should have anticipated" a murder to receive the death penalty for the actions of another person who killed someone. A person sentenced to death under the Law of Parties has not killed anyone. They are accomplices or co-conspirators of one felony, such as robbery, during which another person killed someone. However, in some cases a person can end up on death row under the law of parties even though they did not even know their co-defendant had any intention to hurt or even rob the victim, which is what happened to Kenneth Foster. A person who did not kill anyone, or intend anyone to be killed, should not be executed for the actions of another person. Non-killers convicted of capital murder under the law of parties could still receive life without parole, as I read the bill, but the death penalty would be off the table. See a good discussion of the legislation and its pros an cons from the House Research Organization. Relatedly, see also an open letter I wrote last year to the Governor and the parole board regarding Kenneth Foster and the law of parties, which declared in part that, "Increasingly I've come to believe that, if the death penalty is ever abolished, at least in this state, it will not be because its opponents succeed politically but as a backlash to its overzealous implementation." In that sense, arguably, this legislation does more to preserve the death penalty than to limit it. I hope they approve it. Posted by Gritsforbreakfast Labels: Death penalty May 7, 2009 Critics say Texas parole board pick lacks experience in criminal justice One of Gov. Rick Perry's nominees to the state Board of Pardons and Paroles is facing opposition from critics who say she has no criminal justice experience and is best known as a Republican campaigner and crusader against the sale of sex toys in Texas. At a Senate nomination hearing Wednesday, Shanda Perkins discussed her experience counseling women and children with family members in prison. Shanda Perkins, a retired banker from Burleson, was appointed by Perry in February to serve on the board that has the power to grant or revoke parole and to recommend when the governor should grant clemency or a pardon. If approved by the Senate, she would serve a term that expires in 2015. Opponents, including the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, say she is unqualified to serve on the board that sometimes makes life and death decisions. Perkins' banking expertise includes marketing, business trusts and retirement accounts. She is also a past ambassador of the Burleson Chamber of Commerce and has been a youth pastor and Sunday school teacher. Appearing before the Senate nominations committee Wednesday, Perkins said she is qualified to serve on the parole board because she has often counseled youth and women who have been through drug and physical abuse and had family members in prison. "I can bring empathy to the situation as well as uphold the law," Perkins said before her nomination was sent to the full Senate on a 4-1 vote. Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, D-El Paso, cast the only no vote. The panel also approved the re-nomination of board member Juanita Gonzalez and chairwoman Rissie Owens and the nomination of new member Thomas Leeper. The ACLU sent Perry's office a letter Wednesday saying Perkins has "no relevant qualifications for the position and no identifiable experience in the area of corrections policy" and her nomination should be withdrawn. Perkins' approval "will fail to promote fairness on the parole board or confidence in the criminal justice system," the letter said. No one testified against Perkins' appointment in the hearing. Shapleigh questioned Perkins about her role in a 2004 case in Burleson where police arrested a woman who was selling sex toys in apparent violation of a city ordinance and what was Texas law at the time. Perkins said she informed city officers about the city ordinance that prohibited the sale of sex toys as a business or near a school. Perkins said she did not file a criminal complaint that led to the arrest. The state law banning the sale of sex toys was ultimately ruled unconstitutional by a federal appeals court in 2008. In February, Perkins distributed fliers linking U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison to President Barack Obama and abortion rights. Perry, who is running for re-election, is expected to face a tough battle with Hutchison in the Republican primary. Perkins said her appointment was not political. Burleson Mayor Ken Shetter, who testified in support of her nomination, said the sex toy case isn't relevant to the work of the parole board. "To bring it up today, with all due respect, misses many larger points ... and focuses on one small event that she had little to do with," Shetter said. Shapleigh also asked how she would vote if there was new evidence that could show a death row inmate may be mentally disabled, which would prevent them from being executed. "I would vote against" execution, Perkins said. (source: Associated Press) May 2, 2009 Texas death row inmate indicted in cell phone case A Texas death row inmate and 2 relatives have been indicted for allegedly smuggling cell phones into a prison which led to a statewide lockdown. Special Prosecutions Chief Gina DeBottis tells the Austin American-Statesman that 30-year-old Richard Lee Tabler, his mother Lorraine Tabler and his 36-year-old sister Kristina Martinez were indicted Friday on charges of possessing contraband in a state prison. A 2nd inmate, 43-year-old Michael Roy Toney, was indicted on similar charges. A Polk County grand jury also indicted Tabler on a felony retaliation charge for threatening to kill state Sen. John Whitmire of Houston. Officials say Tabler sent a letter to Whitmire. Tabler was convicted of shooting a strip club manager and another man in 2004. (source: Boston Globe) UNITED STATES OF AMERICA----- Texas: One Governor, 200 Executions! On 2 June 2009, Texas is scheduled to carry out its 200thexecution under the governorship of Rick Perry. In a new report, Amnesty International looks back at a few of the cases of prisoners executed during Governor Perry's term in office and forward to a few cases that may yet come before him for clemency. The macabre milestone -- in an increasingly abolitionist world -- of the 200thexecution under an eight-and-a- half-year governorship should give pause for thought for officials with the power over life and death in the capital justice system. Any of them, whether judge or prosecutor, legislator or governor, can and should speak out for an end to this cruel and unnecessary punishment. Amnesty International urges Governor Perry to join such calls, and work with the state legislature to abolish the death penalty in Texas. Meanwhile, he and the parole board should do all in their power to prevent further executions in Texas. Amnesty International' s report considers a number of issues, and places them in the context of an executive clemency system in Texas which is far from the "failsafe" against injustice it purports to be: 17-year-old offenders. Before 2005 when the US Supreme Court outlawed the death penalty against children, the USA was a world leader in this international law violation, with Texas its leading perpetrator. 4 of the last 5 child offenders executed in the USA were put to death in Texas after Governor Perry and the parole board denied clemency. All four were African American, highlighting the issue of race, an ever-present aspect of the US capital justice system. 18- and 19-year-old offenders. The prohibition of the death penalty against under-18-year- olds recognizes the immaturities associated with youth and the capacity for change in a young person. 18 is a minimum standard -- such attributes continue beyond 17. Some 31 individuals have been put to death during Governor Perry's term in office for crimes committed when they were 18 or 19 years old. Nineteen of the 31 were African Americans, 13 of whom were executed for crimes involving white victims. Another 46 await execution for crimes committed at 18 or 19. One, Derrick Johnson, is due for execution this evening, 30 April, for a crime committed when he was 18. He and 26 of these 46 inmates are black. 8 are white. Executions of prisoners with mental illness. As in the case of young offenders, by the time Governor Perry took office, Texas was no stranger to killing condemned inmates suffering from serious mental illness. A number of such prisoners have gone to their deaths in the state execution chamber since then. International human rights bodies and experts have long called for the death penalty not to be used against individuals suffering from mental disorders. In 2004, in the case of an inmate suffering from very serious mental illness, Governor Perry rejected a rare recommendation for commutation by the Board of Pardons and Paroles. Inadequate protections for condemned inmates with learning disabilities. In 2002, in Atkins v Virginia, the US Supreme Court outlawed the execution of people with mental retardation. The Court left it to states to take the appropriate steps to comply with the ruling, thereby opening the door to inconsistent approaches. Seven years on, the Texas legislature has still not passed a post-Atkins statute, and Texas is one of the states causing concern about inadequate protection for mentally impaired death row prisoners, a situation exacerbated by ineffective clemency. Inadequate legal representation. The poor quality of legal representation that indigent capital defendants receive, both at trial and for state-level appeals, remains a recurring theme in Texas capital justice. Also recurring has been the failure of the clemency authorities to recognize the injustice and stop the execution. Some inmates have gone to their deaths after their lawyers missed deadlines for filing federal appeals. Several more in this position face execution. Future dangerousness. Every death sentence and execution in Texas is based on a finding of the condemned individual's "future dangerousness". Texas prosecutors have repeatedly resorted to the highly dubious use of "expert" testimony purporting to be able to predict the defendant's dangerousness. Research has shown such predictions to be wildly inaccurate. Questions about the future dangerousness scheme also include whether it has allowed fear, rather than a rational consideration of defendant culpability, to drive juror decision-making. Rehabilitation appears to be another issue that the clemency authorities fail to see as a valid reason to spare the life of the condemned prisoner. Foreign nationals denied their consular rights. In violation of international law, Texas has continued to execute foreign nationals whose right to consular access after arrest was denied. Executing the innocent. For many people, the death penalty's most intolerable flaw is the risk of irreversible error that accompanies it. During Governor Perry's time in office, Texas has continued to execute prisoners whose guilt remained in doubt. One of them was Cameron Willingham, convicted of arson murder. Experts now believe the fire may have been an accident. In another case, that of Richard Wayne Jones, the judge who sentenced him to death now believes he may have been innocent. The then Governor, George W. Bush, was out of Texas campaigning for the US presidency and left the case to his Lieutenant Governor, Rick Perry. The requested reprieve for DNA testing was denied and Jones was executed. Amnesty International is not suggesting that the Texas governor alone is responsible for the fate of those on death row. Many people are involved in capital justice -- from prosecutors to jurors, from legislators to prison staff, from judges to members of the clemency board, and the Texas governor's clemency powers are somewhat circumscribed. However, like his predecessor, Governor Perry has rarely exercised his power of reprieve, or used his authority to seek commutation of a death sentence, and continues to advocate strongly for capital punishment. On a positive note, there is reason to believe that the USA is turning against the death penalty. The number of people sentenced to death in 2007 was 1/3 of what it was in 1996 and the lowest since 1977. This pattern is reflected in Texas too. In the 5 years from 1995 to 1999, Texas juries sent 192 people to death row, at an average of 38 per year. In the 5 years from 2004 to 2008, they sentenced 71 defendants to death, at an average of 14 per year. This would seem to reflect a broader downturn in public support for the death penalty in the USA. An erosion of the public's belief in the deterrence value of the death penalty, an increased awareness of the frequency of wrongful convictions in capital cases, and a greater confidence that public safety can be guaranteed by life prison terms rather than death sentences have all contributed to the waning of enthusiasm for capital punishment. Politicians and legislators in Texas and elsewhere in the United States of America should seize this opportunity to break their country's death penalty habit and lead the USA towards joining the clear majority of countries that have abandoned this punishment. For further information, see 'USA: Too much cruelty, too little clemency. Texas nears 200th execution under current governor', 30 April 2009, available at Amnesty International (source: Amnesty International) COURTS Controversy erupts anew over appeal, execution Dallas killer executed despite questions on mental capacity. By Mike Ward AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF May 01, 2009 The execution of a convicted Dallas killer proceeded as scheduled Thursday despite reports that a new test showed Derrick Lamone Johnson may have been mentally disabled. In 2002, the U.S. Supreme Court banned the execution of anyone with mental disabilities. Derrick Johnson Executed for '99 slaying of Dallas woman. Controversy surfaced after a group of lawmakers, angered that the state Board of Pardons and Paroles initially confirmed Johnson's execution without reviewing the medical test information, asked Gov. Rick Perry to delay the execution. Perry declined, and Johnson was executed as scheduled shortly after 6 p.m. — soon after the U.S. Supreme Court refused Johnson's last-minute appeals. At 6:23 p.m., he was declared dead in the death chamber at Huntsville. Johnson, 28, a 10th-grade dropout, was convicted in the 1999 slaying of LaTausha Curry, who was kidnapped, beaten, suffocated and robbed of $10. Lawmakers vowed to continue asking questions about how the case was handled. They also said they might try to amend one of several pending clemency bills to prevent such issues in the future. "There is no reason why the State of Texas should rush to execute this man before it can be confirmed whether or not he is mentally retarded," said Rep. Sylvester Turner, D-Houston. Turner and Reps. Senfronia Thompson, D-Houston, and Terri Hodge, D-Dallas, petitioned the parole board late Wednesday for a second vote based on the new medical exam results just received in the case. Thompson and Hodge said the board voted before lunch Wednesday to deny a reprieve, even though they had been advised that Johnson's new attorney, who joined the case in early April, was rushing to submit new test results about Johnson's mental capacity. The attorney's filings with the parole board are not public, but Thompson, who was briefed on them, said the test showed Johnson was mentally disabled, with an IQ "in the low 70s." Hodge said Johnson's attorney got the information to the parole board at 12:38 p.m., after the deadline. "We've been through this before with Judge (Sharon) Keller (presiding judge of the state Court of Criminal Appeals) closing the doors at 5 p.m. and not allowing new information to be considered," Hodge said. "It looks like the parole board tried the same thing." Though the board initially declined to review its decision, lobbying from Thompson, Turner and Hodge brought another review of the case Thursday morning by the parole board. The board then reaffirmed its earlier 7-0 vote to let the execution proceed. The board confers in private and did not explain its vote. "It's amazing to me how callous this system can be," said Sen. Juan Hinojosa, D-McAllen. "After a cursory review of the file, they vote to hang 'em high no matter what the new information shows." In a letter of explanation to the lawmakers, board Chair Rissie Owens said the seven-member board reconsidered a request from Johnson's attorney for a 180-day reprieve and decided against it after "a full and careful review." "We should do everything we can to consider all evidence, even new evidence, in these cases before we put someone to death," Hodge said. "When you talk about the ultimate penalty, we shouldn't rush, even when it's the last minute." Late in the afternoon, the American Civil Liberties Union joined the lawmakers in asking Perry to give Johnson a 30-day reprieve. "Johnson has never had a full and fair hearing" on his mental disability claim, ACLU executive director Terri Burke said. Bruce Anton, Johnson's attorney, could not be reached for comment. Katherine Cesinger, Perry's deputy press secretary, said Perry — who had the authority to grant a reprieve and has done so in the past — decided not to act in Johnson's case. Controversy erupts anew over appeal, execution April 20, 2009 Death Row lawyers get paid while messing up Attorneys who continue to miss appeal dates are still getting cases Texas lawyers have repeatedly missed deadlines for appeals on behalf of more than a dozen death row inmates in the last 2 years yet judges continue to assign life-or-death capital cases and pay hundreds of thousands in fees to those attorneys, a Chronicle records review shows. Missing deadlines means their clients can be automatically denied constitutionally mandated reviews before their execution. Houston lawyer Jerome Godinich missed 3 recent federal deadlines, the Chronicle reported in March. One client was executed in February after the federal appeal was filed too late. In March, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals chastened Godinich for using the same excuse a malfunctioning after-hours filing machine for missing another deadline for a man still on death row. A recent review of the Harris County Auditor's billing records and district court records shows Godinich remains one of the county's busiest appointed criminal attorneys, billing for $713,248, including fees for 21 capital cases. He was appointed to handle 1,638 Harris County cases involving 1,400 different defendants from 2006-March 2009, court records show. He refused comment. Godinich is not the only attorney to miss death row deadlines. A San Antonio lawyer failed to file 4 state appeals on time, according to opinions last year by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. A Fort Worth lawyer has missed both state and federal deadlines in at least 5 recent cases, though he sought and was granted more time to prepare on 4 of them, according to court records reviewed by the Chronicle. The failure to file such appeals, called writs of habeas corpus, means death row inmates risk missing their last chance to submit new claims of innocence or evidence that could alter their conviction or death sentence. State judges can be flexible, but federal judges follow tight and sometimes confusing deadlines. Only one of three Texas lawyers who repeatedly missed such death row deadlines has faced fines or been forced to forgo fees by judges. Suzanne Kramer, of San Antonio, was removed in October 2008 from 3 state appeals she failed to file on time and was fined $750 by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. She is handling a fourth case over protests. "I know if this lawyer stays on my case I'll definitely get executed," death row inmate Juan Castillo wrote the Chronicle. "She's refused to respond to any of my letters she's never come to see me to discuss my case (and) my writ was due Dec. 11, 2006 and she never filed it." Appeal filed incorrectly The CCA allowed Kramer to continue representing Castillo after criticizing her claim that she mailed in his appeal on a Saturday to the office of a Bexar County judge. The appeal was never filed with the county clerk, as required. "Judges don't file lawsuits. I guess that would go on her credibility as a lawyer," said Gerry Rickhoff, district court clerk in Bexar County. Kramer, who did not return phone calls to her office, has been paid $86,577 in fees by Bexar County since 2007, but went unpaid for the 3 late appeals by CCA order. Jack V. Strickland Jr., a Fort Worth lawyer who specializes in capital case law, also has repeatedly missed death row deadlines. However, judges accepted his explanations and allowed late filings for 4 of 5 appeals. Being overwhelmed on capital cases was the excuse for 2 late 2008 filings. Strickland told the court that hed been hospitalized several months before the appeals were due, then "began a new death penalty trial right after his recuperation period, was in the process of preparing another death penalty writ application which was due mid-September, was preparing for trial in another case, and had presented 5 lectures and papers in the previous 60 days," according to a CCA opinion. In another case, Strickland missed both state and then federal deadlines for the death row inmate, Quintin Jones. Before losing his federal appeal due to lateness, Jones repeatedly tried to get another attorney. Strickland said he "almost begged the magistrate judge to appoint someone else. Jones and I had a very unpleasant relationship. " He was left on the case anyway. Strickland blamed the deadline error on miscalculating the due date. He earned $428,850.62 in court-appointed fees in Tarrant County from 2006-2009. More than a quarter were bills for late appeals, auditor's records show. (source: Houston Chronicle) April 17, 2009 Death penalty was wrong for Jesus, and it's still wrong today Reading during recent months of the surprising number of prisoners across the United States who have been declared innocent by the courts after years or decades of wrongful incarceration, I thought during this Lenten season of the most famous prisoner wrongfully accused, convicted and put to death. That person was Jesus Christ whose death and resurrection is remembered by billions of this planet's humans - the most mourned victim of the death penalty. Just last week Gov. Rick Perry met with the family of the most-recently exonerated prisoner. Timothy Cole died in a Texas prison while serving time on a rape he did not commit, which innocence was confirmed through DNA tests that were taken 10 years after his death. During recent years, 37 Texas men wrongfully convicted have been exonerated by DNA testing that occurred during their years of imprisonment. These shocking results are occurring during the "enlightened" times of today. One dreads to think what the statistics were during the century or more of the Jim Crow laws in Texas. Today, despite the fact that the vast majority of the world's nations have abolished the death penalty, capital punishment is still imposed in the United States as it is in China, Iran and North Korea. Currently, in the country, more than 3,000 men and women are on death row, awaiting their execution. Since 1973 hundreds of people in more than 25 states have been released from death row with evidence of their innocence. Identification evidence from victims has come under increasing attack by science as very often unreliable. Yet even in cases where the condemned is truly guilty of a horrendous crime, state-imposed execution in the name of the people is not the answer. Jesus saved the adulteress from death by stoning; and from the cross, asked his Father to forgive his own execution. Forgiving violence does not mean condoning violence. We cannot ignore terrible violence and must ensure that society is protected, but responding in kind doesn't make the violence go away. As we have journeyed through this season of Lent and contemplated the compassionate and forgiving Christ, let us now renew our efforts as Christians to challenge all forms of violence in the world, including violence carried out in the name of the state. (source: Guest Column: Richard J. Clarkson lives in Beaumont; Beaumont Enterprise) April 16, 2009 Death Row Inmate's story broadcasted live at UT Nashville, Tenn., inmate Timothy McKinney's voice broadcasted through a UT classroom holding a crowd of nearly 90 people "Live From Death Row." Students, activists and family members of death row inmates listened in the University Teaching Center as McKinney shared his story for the "Live From Death Row" national tour, sponsored by the Campaign to End the Death Penalty. "In 1997, I was accused of killing a police officer," he said. "Within 2 days of my trial, I was convicted of murder. There was no evidence that linked me to the crime." McKinney said his trial was unfair, racially biased and that he was the victim of an unjust, corrupt system. Unable to afford a lawyer himself, McKinney said the court appointed an attorney who did no investigation into his case. "My case in particular is politically motivated and race has a lot to do with it," McKinney said. "We're always looked at, pointed at. We're always stereotyped. Someone with money wouldnt be here." Family members of death row prisoners also spoke out against the death penalty system and the Texas law of parties, which states that if a person with someone when they commit a crime, he or she can be held accountable. "I don't understand how Texas can convict someone who didn't murder anyone," said Terri Been, whose brother sits on death row. Been said her brother was not long out of high school when he and his roommate decided to rob a convenience store in Kerrville on Jan. 1, 1996. Her brother changed his mind and backed out of the plan, she said. The next day the 2 stopped by the same store for some "driving munchies." While her brother waited in the car, his roommate shot the clerk and began to rob the store, she said. Been said her brother had been unaware of his roommate's intentions, was not present in the store when the murder was committed and was threatened by his roommate at gunpoint. "My brother's family and his daughter were also threatened," Been said. "[The roommate] said he would kill her if he ever turned him in. The state wants to know why he didn't call 911. Would you? If you had a daughter that was threatened, If you saw that your roommate just cold-bloodedly murdered someone and threatened your child at gunpoint?" Been said her family was gag-ordered by the court and not allowed to attend his trial, where her brother was convicted under the law of parties. "It practically makes you have to be a mind reader," she said, citing her brother did not have prior knowledge of the crime. "I don't know about you but I don't have ESP. And neither does my brother." Brittany Watson, a member of the UT chapter of Amnesty International, also spoke out against the law of parties and said she wanted to create awareness about the "evils of the death penalty." "It is the ultimate form of violation of humans rights, the ultimate form of torture and it is the ultimate form of cruel and unusual punishment," she said. But Eryn Baugh disagrees. Nearly 15 years ago, his 3-month-old son Brandon was murdered by his baby-sitter, Cathy Henderson. Henderson's original execution date was set for 2 years ago until a last-minute appeal put the decision on hold. Baugh said he feels justice has not been served and he and his family cannot find closure until she is executed. "Imagine yourself 15 years ago, and someone came up and put a knife to your back," Baugh said. "The pain is great. It doesn't leave, and you're just waiting for someone to pull it out of you so you can heal your wound." Henderson's attorneys claimed the murder was an accident and that she dropped the baby on its head, shattering his skull, according to Baugh. Baugh said he is not convinced. "She would have called emergency services," he said. "We don't know how long he suffered, how long it was before he died. He could have been badly hurt but maybe she could have saved him if she had taken him to the emergency room." Baugh said Henderson tried to cover up the death. "She put him in our wine cooler box, taped him up," he said. "She went to the bank, got an oil change with our son in her trunk, took him out to a field with some trees, patched out a hole and threw beer bottles on top of it." Baugh said he believes the death-penalty system is just and more humane than life in prison, and that lethal injection provides a less painful death than that suffered by victims of violent murders, or even those who die naturally. "Until she's dead, I'll never have true closure," he said. "I have to make sure she'll never get out of prison." (source: University of Texas Daily Texan) Letter to New Yorker April 13, 2009 An increasing number of jurists throughout the world have concluded that our system of capital punishment constitutes cruel and unusual punishment, in part because the vast majority of U.S. death-row inmates are required to remain alone in their cells twenty-three hours a day and denied virtually any human contact. Unlike other prisoners, however, they are made to endure these barbaric conditions not because of their conduct in prison but because they have been condemned to die, and they have no opportunity to end their isolation through good behavior. Rather, they are made to sit alone in their cells day after day and year after year, envisioning what they continually fear is their impending execution. Click Here John Holdridge Director, A.C.L.U. Capital Punishment Project Durham, N.C. April 9, 2009 A Good Friday Appeal to Abolish the Death Penalty 10 years ago on Good Friday, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops issued a statement and call to action: "On this Good Friday, a day when we recall our Savior's own execution, we appeal to all people of goodwill, and especially Catholics, to work to end the death penalty." Today, we are able to celebrate recent victories in triumph over the "culture of death" and victories for the "gospel of life." Just a few weeks ago, Governor Bill Richardson of New Mexico signed into law a bill that repealed the death penalty for his state. He said, "Faced with the reality that our system for imposing the death penalty can never be perfect, my conscience compels me to replace the death penalty with a solution that keeps society safe." New Mexico joined a slowly growing number of states without the death penalty. Then, just a week later, Maryland took a step closer to that point as well. The legislature passed and the governor signed a bill creating tight restrictions and high standards for death penalty cases. Both critics and opponents have said the same thing about the bill; the standards for a death penalty case will be so high that it will be nearly impossible to secure a death sentence. In New Hampshire, a bill to abolish the death penalty has passed the house and supporters are hoping to overcome a promised Gubernatorial veto if necessary. Other states including Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, and Montana all have significant opportunities to abolish the death penalty and have been winning new allies by making the moral argument along with an economic one. Advocates have shown that cases in which the death penalty is sought can be 5 times more expensive and cost more overall than cases pursuing life imprisonment. There is a growing energy, across political boundaries and especially among people of faith, to have a new national conversation on the death penalty. Watch this space for more on that movement as it unfolds. These words of Pope John Paul II in 1999 speak louder today than ever before: "A sign of hope is the increasing recognition that the dignity of human life must never be taken away, even in the case of someone who has done great evil. Modern society has the means of protecting itself, without definitively denying criminals the chance to reform. I renew the appeal I made most recently at Christmas for a consensus to end the death penalty, which is both cruel and unnecessary." May this hope that he felt continue to grow in our hearts as we remember and celebrate the death and resurrection of Christ on this Easter weekend. Praise God for answered prayers and strength to continue in the work that is still to be done. (Source: Jim Wallis is the author of The Great Awakening, Editor-in-Chief of Sojourners; The Huffington Post) *********** I will be the first to admit that I am not a biblical scholar and lay no claim to a particularly profound understanding of Easter from a theological perspective. Nevertheless, I would respectfully submit that Easter is an appropriate time to reflect on the institution of capital punishment. For one thing, Easter is when most Christians give more thought than usual to the implications of a legal and political system that has the power to authorize death as punishment. Whether one views the accounts of Jesus' trial and execution as historical or allegorical there is a deep understanding that in this case the system is about to make a cruel and arbitrary mistake. When it comes to our modern American system of capital punishment, mistake is it's hallmark. A Columbia University study of capital sentencing found that 68% of all death verdicts imposed and fully reviewed were reversed by courts because of serious error. Half of the reversals called into question the reliability of the death verdict with 82% of the cases ending in a sentence other than death on retrial -- including 9% ending in not guilty verdicts. These statistics take on real world implications when you consider that one hundred thirty individuals have been exonerated from death row -- some coming within hours of execution for a crime they did not commit. We identify with and understand the overwhelming grief and despair of Jesus' friends and followers. But most of all our hearts break at the thought of what his poor mother must have endured in the days and hours leading up to his death. I was taught that Jesus' role in the world was, in part, to take on and understand what it is to be human -- to learn our joys as well as the nature of our suffering. In so doing he learned and expanded his compassion for our condition. Christians remembering Jesus' suffering at Easter are instructed in compassion for self and others. So this is an appropriate time to seriously consider the ripples of pain that the death penalty brings mothers, daughters, sons and grandchildren, providing little solace in return for the suffering. This lesson in compassion also challenges us not to turn away, as we too often do from the pain of survivors of homicide -- but calls us to be a part of and actively promote services that are healing. But the transcendent message of Easter is that despite the frailties of the human condition -- our capacity to lie, turn our backs on and cruelly hurt one another -- there is also always the opportunity for hope, renewal, redemption and an earth shattering, rock rolling away capacity for love. One last reflection on Easter: Does retaining the death penalty or ending it bring us closer to its meaning? (Source: Diann Rust-Tierney (Executive Director, NCADP), The Huffington Post) April 9, 2009 Executions spark bill on stringent requirements Texas executes more people than any other state, and several lawmakers say more must be done to make sure police and prosecutors have the right person before a death sentence is carried out. State Rep. Harold Dutton, D-Houston, recently offered a bill that would require video recordings of confessions used in capital cases, to be sure they are not coerced. State Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, has filed a package of bills that he calls "the Innocence Project." The legislation would set up a commission to investigate wrongful convictions and to introduce stricter requirements for eyewitness testimony in criminal cases. One of his inspirations was Timothy Cole, a Lubbock man, who was exonerated of rape this week, 10 years after his death. A victim incorrectly identified Cole as her attacker. Cole maintained his innocence through 13 years of a 25-year prison sentence before he died of an asthma attack at age 38. A judge in Austin on Tuesday formally exonerated Cole, based on DNA tests and a confession from the real rapist. Texas has exonerated 36 prisoners since 1989 through DNA evidence. Like Cole, the vast majority were charged with sexual assault, but some legislators fear that innocent men or women could be sitting on death row in murder cases. Michael Blair, who was convicted in Collin County of a child's murder, spent 14 years on death row before being cleared of the killing in 2008 by DNA evidence. Blair, though, was guilty of other crimes. He received a life sentence for sexual assaults he committed as a young man. Still, some legislators say, such cases are proof that the system can misfire and put someone on death row unjustly. "The death penalty justice system is so flawed that people's minds are changing," said state Rep. Jessica Farrar, D-Houston, who has proposed abolishing the Texas death penalty. "No one can remember before in the last 30 years where we've even had a hearing on a death penalty bill." Various Texas lawmakers began discussions this month about legislation that would limit or abolish the death penalty after New Mexico became the 15th state to ban executions. Dutton's bill on videotaped confessions is one of several that have already come before the House Criminal Jurisprudence subcommittee on capital punishment. His measure seeks stricter standards for evidence when the death penalty is a possibility. District attorneys have criticized the measure for making the burden of evidence too high. State Rep. Joe Moody, D-El Paso, a former prosecutor, said additional requirements for videotaped confessions might be out of reach for small police departments. "I don't know if we're ready in some jurisdictions to require that level of technology," he said. In 2008, Texas executed 18 prisoners. Virginia was next with 4. More than 350 people sit on Texas' death row today, 100 fewer than at its high point in 2000. 32 states had prisoners on death row last year, but only 10 carried out executions. Texas accounted for 1/2 of those. (Source: El Paso Times) March 31, 2009 Kids Against the Death Penalty has won the 2009 Youth Abolitionists of the Year award given by Students Against the Death Penalty. The award was announced and presented to KADP at the Texas Capitol on March 24 by Hooman Hedayati, president of Students Against the Death Penalty and Jason Kyriakides, board member of Texas Students Against the Death Penalty. The award recognizes the hundreds of hours of activism performed by Kids Against the Death Penalty in the last year educating the public about the injustice of the death penalty. The hard work and passionate commitment of members of Kids Against the Death Penalty has greatly benefited the national movement to abolish the death penalty. Several members of KADP are relatives of Jeff Wood, who is on Texas death row convicted under the Law of Parties even though he did not kill anyone. Scott Cobb of Texas Moratorium Network, one of the many people who nominated Kids Against the Death Penalty for the award said, "Martin Luther King, Jr wrote in a letter from a Birmingham Jail that 'injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere'. That sense of injustice was what compelled Dr King to carry the gospel of freedom beyond his own home town. I have personally witnessed how Kids Against the Death Penalty have brought their message of justice beyond their own home town to cities throughout Texas. They have marched for miles along Texas streets holding anti-death penalty signs, through neighborhoods in Houston and down Congress Avenue in Austin to the State Capitol. They have stood vigil many times at the Texas Capitol when Texas has executed someone. They have visited the home of Texas Governor Rick Perry and pressed for justice. They lobbied members of the Texas Legislature on Lobby Day Against the Death Penalty March 24, 2009. Carissa Bywater of KADP testified to the Texas House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence Subcommittee on Capital Punishment on March 19. (The video of Carissa's testimony is viewable here, click forward to minute 57 and 50 seconds.) KADP has courageously spoken out on an issue in which relatively few other people in Texas, whether adults or children, have found the time or the courage to speak out about. By doing so, they are following in the footsteps of other children in America’s past who have stood up for human rights". "Children and teenagers played a significant role in the Civil Rights Movement. Barbara Johns was 16 in 1951 when she started a campaign for equal treatment at her school in Virginia. Her case became part of the landmark Brown v Board of Education decision by the U.S. Supreme Court that ruled that school segregation violated the Constitution of the United States. In 1963, more than a thousand children skipped their classes and marched in downtown Birmingham for equal schools. Many of them were arrested. Because of those kids’ actions during the civil rights movement, we live in a country today where candidates for president are not judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their platforms", said Cobb. "KADP has already inspired kids in other states to join the anti-death penalty movement. Because of KADP's hard work against the death penalty, both Texas and the U.S. have moved closer to the day when we live in a society where the state does not kill in order to teach the lesson that killing is wrong", said Hooman Hedayati. KADP members received commemorative medals and $100 to be used in their anti-death penalty work. Also Gislaine Williams of Rice for Peace (Rice University) and Ashley Kincaid (University of Indiana) each received a Certificate of Achievement by Students Against the Death Penalty. 2009 Youth Abolitionists of the Year: Gavin Been – Founder and President of KADP Nick Been – 1st Vice President Nathan Been -2nd Vice President Carissa Bywater – Secretary and Committee Chair Paige Wood – Board Member Cory Bywater - Board Member Deanna Nickell - Board Member Tanner Tucker – Board member Members of KADP holding their awards for 2009 Youth Abolitionists of the Year. Front row, Left to right: Carissa Bywater 14, Gavin Been 12 Back Row, Left to right: Deanna Nickell 13, Nathan Been 14, Nick Been 13, Cory Bywater 11, and Tanner Tucker 12 Below, members of KADP after receiving their award at the Texas capitol. From Lobby Day Against the Death Penalty - March 24, 2009 March 25, 2009 Speaking out from Death Row----Lee Wengraf reports on the "Live from Death Row" National Speaking Tour "IF THIS had been the 1950s, I would be hanging from a tree. I would be speaking to you as a ghost." With those words, Yusef Salaam, exonerated and freed from prison in the infamous Central Park jogger case, addressed a crowd of more than 110 people who attended the Harlem stop of a "Live from Death Row" national speaking tour to build opposition to the death penalty. Sponsored by the Campaign to End the Death Penalty (CEDP), the tour has made more than a dozen stops across the country, with many more slated for the spring. Headlined by death row prisoners speaking over speakerphone, the "Live from Death Row" tour brings their voices from behind prison walls to live audiences, allowing them to relate their stories of injustice, loss and struggle, and add to the growing national chorus for abolition of capital punishment. Featured speakers include Pennsylvania death row prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal, John Booth-El of Maryland, Timothy McKinney of Tennessee, Kevin Cooper of California and Stanley Howard of Illinois. It's not too late to catch the "Live from Death Row" tour, or host a stop yourself. For details about dates and locations of upcoming tour stops, visit the Campaign to End the Death Penalty Web site, or contact the national tour organizer at nyc@nodeathpenalty.org. Upcoming stops include: March 25: Peace Center, Albuquerque, N.M. March 31: Harold Washington College, Chicago, with police torture victim Darrel Cannon April 1: Rutgers University Law School, Newark, N.J. April 9: University of Maryland Law School, Baltimore, Md. April 14: Georgia State University, with Martina Correia, sister of Troy Davis April 14: San Jose State University, San Jose, Calif., with Kevin Cooper and Veronica Luna, whose uncle is on California's death row. April 15: University of Texas-Austin April 17: Binghamton University, Binghamton, N.Y. April 18: Left Forum Conference, New York City, with Lawrence Hayes April 28: Brooklyn College, Brooklyn, N.Y. The events to date have brought out large crowds--a sign that the brutality of the death penalty and criminal injustice system is sparking activism. The tour kicked off in September 2008 at the Critical Resistance 10 conference in Oakland, Calif., with Barbara Becnel, longtime collaborator with the late Stanley Tookie Williams, as a featured speaker. Later stops included Howard University in Washington, D.C., where Mumia Abu-Jamal spoke to an audience of 200; the CEDP's national convention in Chicago; and the Social Justice Conference in Binghamton, N.Y. Highlights from the spring included a stop at the University of California-Berkeley , with Jack Bryson, whose son was brutalized in the police attack that killed Oscar Grant; and one at the Seattle Human Rights Film Festival, where CEDP board member Derrel Myers spoke along with Angola 3 member Robert "King" Wilkerson at a screening of In Prison My Whole Life, a new film about Mumia Abu-Jamal. At the Harlem meeting, Salaam was joined by Lawrence Hayes, a former Black Panther and exonerated death row prisoner. Both men described the myriad injustices they experienced at the hands of the police, the courts and the media. In February, 70 people turned out at Pace University in New York to hear Hayes and Salaam. "There is no reason to kill," said Lawrence. "No reason for me to kill, no reason for you to kill, and no reason for the state to kill." John Booth-El from Maryland's death row and Stanley Howard, speaking live, gave powerful testimony about the dehumanization of everyday life on death row. The following day, Hayes and former Illinois death row prisoner Darby Tillis spoke to a crowd of 200 at Rowan College in Glassboro, N.J. "Death row is a place of horror," Darby told the audience. "It feels like hell, it looks like hell, it is hell." They were joined by Barbara Lewis, whose son Robert is on Delaware's death row. On March 10, 60 people turned out at Towson University near Baltimore to hear Barbara Becnel and a call-in from Kenny Collins, a former Maryland death row prisoner now serving life without parole. The recent abolition victory in New Mexico shows that momentum is with us to turn the tide against the death penalty for good. It needs to be ended now, and the "Live from Death Row" tour is part of bringing together the forces that can make that a reality. (source: Socialiar Worker) March 20, 2009 Death penalty opponents hope book will help end executions Religious opponents of the death penalty hope a new book about a Texas death row case by a best-selling author can help their efforts to end the practice of state-sanctioned executions. Thomas Cahill's just-published book, A Saint on Death Row, chronicles the life of Dominique Green, who at age 30 was executed by lethal injection in 2004 for his role in a robbery that resulted in one mans death. The victim's family asked that Greens life be spared, but he was executed anyway. "Dominique Green's was one of the many needless Texas executions," said Cahill, the author of such best-selling books as How the Irish Saved Civilization and The Gifts of the Jews. Among those championing the case of Green, who underwent what has been described as a sincere embrace of the principles of nonviolence, was Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate. Tutu, long a proponent of nonviolence and forgiveness, became a hero to Green and visited the young man while Green was on death row. At a recent appearance with Cahill at New York's Riverside Church, Tutu upbraided the United States for its continued practice of the death penalty. The South African cleric noted the United States, were it a European country, could not join the European Union because the EU bars membership to nations that condone the death penalty. "Why do you do this?" Tutu asked. "What are you doing to yourselves, you wonderful, generous people? You are brutalizing yourselves. ... It is making you an obscene nation." David Atwood, founder of the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, told the Riverside audience he and other death penalty opponents in Texas, many acting out of religious convictions, realize they are fighting an entrenched "system of death," but remain hopeful that ultimately the death penalty will end in Texas. Texas leads the nation in the number of executions. Atwood said 435 have been carried out in the state since 1982. 12 have been carried out this year, with the latest occurring the day Cahill and Tutu spoke at Riverside. (source: Religion News Service) March 20, 2009 Russ Feingold Introduces Legislation to Abolish Federal Death Penalty---- The Federal Death Penalty Abolition Act of 2009 comes just after New Mexico governor Bill Richardson banned capital punishment in his state. Senator Russ Feingold (D-Wisc.) reintroduced legislation Thursday to abolish the death penalty at the federal level. The "Federal Death Penalty Abolition Act of 2009" comes just after New Mexico governor Bill Richardson's decision to ban capital punishment in his state. "I oppose the death penalty because it is inconsistent with basic American principles of justice, liberty and equality," Feingold said in a press release, which notes Richardson's decision and also that capital punishment is illegal in 123 countries around the world. The release says the practice puts the United States in some unseemly company: "In 2007, only China, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan executed more people than the United States." The full release: FEINGOLD REINTRODUCES BILL TO ABOLISH FEDERAL DEATH PENALTY Feingold's Longtime Effort Comes as New Mexico Repeals Death Penalty Washington, D.C. -- As momentum builds in states to abolish the death penalty, U.S. Senator Russ Feingold reintroduced legislation today to abolish the death penalty at the federal level. Feingold's Federal Death Penalty Abolition Act of 2009 would put an immediate halt to federal executions and forbid the use of the death penalty as a sentence for violations of federal law. The use of the death penalty has been questioned by a range of prominent voices across the country, recently repealed in New Mexico and New Jersey, and abolished by 123 countries around the world. Feingold's bill would stop executions on the federal level, which are part of a death penalty system that has proven to be ineffective, wrought with racial disparities, and alarmingly costly. "I oppose the death penalty because it is inconsistent with basic American principles of justice, liberty and equality," Feingold said. "Governor Bill Richardson and the New Mexico legislature's action to abolish the death penalty in that state adds to the growing momentum behind ending the death penalty in this country. It is truly unfortunate that we are in a shrinking minority of countries that continue to allow state-sponsored executions." Feingold is not alone in his opposition to the death penalty. A range of prominent voices have questioned the system in recent years, including former FBI Director William Sessions, former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, law enforcement officials and many others across the political spectrum. In 2007, only China, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan executed more people than the United States. In 2007, Feingold chaired a Senate Judiciary Committee, Constitution Subcommittee hearing on oversight of the federal death penalty that highlighted the lack of transparency at the Department of Justice in the decision-making process about the death penalty and continuing problems of racial disparities in the federal system. Also in 2007, the American Bar Association called for a nationwide moratorium on capital punishment based on its detailed study of state death penalty systems, which found racial disparities, convictions based on bad evidence, grossly inadequate indigent defense systems, and a host of other problems with the implementation of capital punishment in this country. Feingold is not alone in his opposition to the death penalty. A range of prominent voices have questioned the system in recent years, including former FBI Director William Sessions, former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, law enforcement officials and many others across the political spectrum. In 2007, only China, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan executed more people than the United States. In 2007, Feingold chaired a Senate Judiciary Committee, Constitution Subcommittee hearing on oversight of the federal death penalty that highlighted the lack of transparency at the Department of Justice in the decision-making process about the death penalty and continuing problems of racial disparities in the federal system. Also in 2007, the American Bar Association called for a nationwide moratorium on capital punishment based on its detailed study of state death penalty systems, which found racial disparities, convictions based on bad evidence, grossly inadequate indigent defense systems, and a host of other problems with the implementation of capital punishment in this country. (source: Huffington Post) Mixed Opinions of a Judge Accused of Misconduct By GRETEL C. KOVACH Published: March 7, 2009 DALLAS — If Sharon Keller, the presiding judge of Texas’ highest criminal court, has ever doubted her judgment, she has not shown it. Elena Grothe/Austin American-Statesman Sharon Keller, who was first elected to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in 1994, is now its presiding judge. In 1998, Judge Keller wrote the opinion rejecting a new trial for Roy Criner, a mentally retarded man convicted of rape and murder, even though DNA tests after his trial showed that it was not his semen in the victim. “We can’t give new trials to everyone who establishes, after conviction, that they might be innocent,” she later told the television news program “Frontline.” “We would have no finality in the criminal justice system, and finality is important.” Gov. George W. Bush eventually pardoned Mr. Criner. To Judge Keller’s detractors, the Criner decision highlighted what they see as her strong and habitual bias for the prosecution. Many Texas defense lawyers describe her as a law-and-order zealot who rejects most appeals out of hand. Her defenders argue that she has been fair and impartial, though unabashedly conservative, in her interpretation of the law. Now, Judge Keller is again defending her actions, this time in a judicial misconduct case that could end her career. Seventeen months ago, lawyers for a man facing execution sought extra time to file a last-minute appeal. Judge Keller refused to delay the closing of her clerk’s office past 5 p.m., even though late filings are common on the day of a scheduled execution. The man, Michael Richard, was put to death by lethal injection a few hours later. Based on that case, the State Commission on Judicial Conduct last month charged Judge Keller with incompetence, violating her duties and casting public discredit on the judiciary. Judge Keller, who was first elected chief judge of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in 2000, faces a public trial and could be forced off the bench. Her lawyer insists that she did nothing wrong and that she was being blamed for the mistakes of the defendant’s lawyers and court staff. Judge Keller, whose current term runs through 2012, rarely grants interviews and did not respond to requests for comment. But others are taking up her cause. “Sharon is a hard worker,” said Dan Hagood, a defense lawyer and longtime friend from Dallas who served as her campaign treasurer when she ran for election to the court in 1994. “She never complains, never explains.” Judge Keller, 55, has always kept her own counsel; her colleagues at the court have given her the nickname Mother Superior because of her reserved and diligent demeanor and her devout Roman Catholic faith. Friends say she is witty and well read, an engaging conversationalist in one-on-one encounters over cocktails, but the quietest one at the table at weekly card games with fellow alumni of Rice University. What some consider rigid heartlessness in her legal opinions, others admire as calm confidence and the strength of her convictions. “She doesn’t have a callous bone in her body,” said Knox Fitzpatrick, a lawyer who works with her on the state’s Task Force on Indigent Defense. “She has the highest standard of ethics; she is the ideal judge. Emotions have nothing to do with it: She follows the law, she looks at the facts and makes a dispassionate opinion.” But Jim Harrington, director of the Texas Civil Rights Project, described Judge Keller as “unhearing.” “She’s just totally shut down on capital cases,” Mr. Harrington said. “It’s one thing to take a hard line in terms of punishments and convictions. It’s another to not be receptive to the idea that people are entitled to an appeal, that there may be error in this system.” Supporters point out, however, that under Judge Keller’s leadership as chairwoman of the task force, Texas has expanded the number of public defender offices to 15, from 7; increased the number of people represented by about 38 percent; and raised state spending on the program to almost $60 million, from $19 million. People also say they admire how Judge Keller has raised her son as a single mother and how close she is with her extended family, which financed the bulk of her campaign to join the court. Judge Keller had graduated from Rice with a degree in philosophy when her father, the founder of a Dallas chain of hamburger and beer drive-ins, encouraged her to study law, which she did at Southern Methodist University. After a brief stint as a defense lawyer, she joined the Dallas district attorney’s office in 1987 and became a star of the appellate division. In 1994, she campaigned for an opening on the Court of Criminal Appeals, describing herself as “pro-prosecution.” She was elected along with a number of conservative Republican female justices, the same year that Mr. Bush ousted Ann Richards as governor. Within a few years, the nine-member Court of Criminal Appeals had flipped from being all Democrats to all Republicans. And the rate of reversal of death penalty cases plummeted. “I think she epitomizes what a judge should be: a fair and impartial umpire,” said Mr. Hagood, the Dallas defense lawyer. But Charlie Baird, a Democrat who was voted off the Court of Criminal Appeals in 1998, said bitterly that Judge Keller remained true to her campaign promises. “It was always one-sided to her, and her side was the state always wins,” Mr. Baird said. “She was always advancing a purely political agenda on behalf of far-right Republicans.” Now Judge Keller is being forced to explain her actions of Sept. 25, 2007, the day Mr. Richard was executed. According to the judicial conduct commission’s notice of formal proceedings, Mr. Richard, who had confessed to the rape and fatal shooting of a nurse in 1986, was scheduled to be executed at 6 p.m. Earlier that day, his lawyers were busy drafting filings based on his mental capacity when the United States Supreme Court announced that it would hear arguments considering the constitutionality of lethal injections. Mr. Richard’s lawyers switched tactics to take advantage of the development. As 5 p.m. approached, lawyers with the nonprofit Texas Defender Service were having computer problems. They called the court and asked for a few extra minutes to file. Judge Keller had gone home early that afternoon to meet a repairman, and the court counsel, Edward Marty, reached her by telephone to ask if they could keep the clerk’s office open. A week later, in an interview with The Austin American-Statesman, Judge Keller offered her account of what had happened. “I got a phone call shortly before 5 and was told the defendant had asked us to stay open,” she said. “They did not tell us they had computer failure. And given the late request, and with no reason given, I just said, ‘We close at 5.’ I didn’t really think of it as a decision so much as a statement.” Another judge was waiting at the court for after-hours pleadings in the case but was never notified of the communications from the defense, as required by court policy, the commission concluded. Mr. Richard was executed at 8:20 p.m. Judge Keller’s lawyer, Charles L. Babcock, said that many people shared in a failure of communication that day and that her role was minor. “Hindsight being 20/20, I think Judge Keller is certainly sorry that the system broke down,” Mr. Babcock said. “As far as her overt actions, I don’t think she feels she did anything wrong. Nor do I.” Mixed Opinions of a Judge Accused of Misconduct March 4, 2009 Lots of death penalty talk in state legislatures ... while Texas keeps up record execution pace I am having a hard time keeping up with all the death penalty reform legislation making its way through statehouses these days, but here are headlines that seem to capture some of the latest highlights: From the Baltimore Sun here, "Senate endorses 'compromise' on death penalty repeal" From the Hartford Courant here, "Lawmakers revisit death penalty" From the Kansas City Star here, "Kansas death penalty bill on hold" From the Reno Gazette Journal here, "Bill puts death penalty on hold" It is not clear that all of this legislative activity will likely change the basic realities of death penalty administration in the United States because few of the states talking seriously about reform have a robust capital case docket or death row. Still, the fact that so many legislators in so many states now feel comfortable talking about reform or repeal serves as another sign of the changing capital times. Meanwhile, as this AP article details, Texas is about to execute another inmate tonight: The convicted killer of a Houston man gunned down during a botched burglary was headed to the Texas death chamber Wednesday evening. Kenneth Wayne Morris, whose 38th birthday was Wednesday, was condemned for the 1991 fatal shooting of James Adams, 63.... Morris would be the 10th condemned murderer executed in Texas this year and the second in as many nights to receive lethal injection in the nation's most active death penalty state.... Two more executions are set for next week in Texas. Texas is on a record pace to break its own modern record for the number of executions in one state in one year. Texas keeps up record execution pace Death penalty change sought Feb. 27, 2009 State Rep. Harold Dutton Jr., D-Houston, is calling on the Legislature to abolish the so-called "law of parties," which allows prosecutors to seek the death penalty against defendants who play sometimes minor roles in capital murder cases. The unique statute holds that each participant in a capital crime can be held equally responsible. In any other state, the person who actually killed another person might be eligible for execution, but the driver or other participants might not be. Dutton's House Bill 304 would prohibit the application of the death penalty unless the defendant had direct involvement in the killing. Dutton said at least 12 people have been executed in Texas under the "law of parties." (source: Austin American-Statesman) 02/27/09 High costs figure into death penalty debate, but Texas holds firm Death penalty opponents across the country are using the plight of strained state budgets as an added reason to abolish the final sanction. The argument appears to be gaining traction in some states but not in Texas, the nation's leading death penalty state. "I don't think it's driving the effort in Texas the same way we're witnessing in other states," said Kristin Houl, executive director of the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. Legislators in eight states are considering abolition bills, said Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, and the issue of money has been raised in all of those discussions. The cost of the death penalty includes not just the cost of high-security incarceration and the execution itself, but years of appeals. The issue of expense has been raised before but "resonates a lot more" because of the fiscal crisis, Dieter said. But "that doesn't mean it's the only issue people are considering." State Rep. Lon Burnam, D-Fort Worth, co-author of an abolition bill, said the cost issue is not his primary concern. "We're doing this on moral grounds," he said. But he believes capital punishment is "not worth what it costs. Our money could be better spent in the correctional system." He doesn't expect the cost issue to change many minds because, he said, state policymakers are more interested in vengeance. "It disappoints me that the very people that will talk about, 'We need to be rational and look at the cost-benefit analysis of everything we want to do,' are pandering to an emotion," he said. "And it's a bad emotion." Dieter said numerous studies show "the bottom line is, it's costly," but death penalty advocates are not convinced. They say such studies don't take into account the deterrence effect of the death penalty or the money saved through plea agreements spurred by fear of the death penalty. And even if capital punishment is more costly, expense "should not be the primary factor," said Dudley Sharp, who monitors death penalty legislation. "It's like saying, 'Incarceration costs more than probation, so we should get rid of incarceration and only probate people.' It's ridiculous." The primary reasons to retain the death penalty have nothing to do with cost, he said. "First is, it's just and deserved, and the 2nd is that it helps protect us. And so those 2 things take precedent over cost savings." (source: Dallas Morning News) 02/27/09 Condemned Inmate: Prison Officials Won't Let Guards Speak Out Willie Pondexter has spent nearly 15 years on death row. Now some of the people charged with guarding him would like to help save his life, if they can get the chance. Pondexter is scheduled for execution on Tuesday, 2 days before his 35th birthday. His attorneys have filed a last-minute civil rights lawsuit on his behalf, arguing that the Texas Department of Criminal Justice and the Polk County Sheriffs Office (death row is in Polk County) have intimidated prison guards to keep them from speaking publicly on Pondexter's behalf. The intimidation allegedly includes a bizarre incident in January in which the Polk County Sheriff's Department detained two legal interns working on Pondexters behalf for several hours after they had tried to interview a prison guard. Pondexter's attorneys are seeking a stay of execution for 120 days. They want more time to collect testimonials from prison guards at death row in Livingston about Pondexter's reformation in hopes to winning clemency and commuting his sentence to life in prison. A federal district judge turned down the lawsuit, and earlier today, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the case without comment. His legal team will appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. "The Polk County sheriff's department and TDCJ officials ensure that corrections officers are not going to cooperate with lawyers of death row inmates," said David Dow of the Houston-based Texas Defender Service, which represents Pondexter and filed the civil rights suit on his behalf. "They've created an environment of intimidation." Pondexter was sentenced to death for taking part in the 1993 killing of 85-year-old Martha Lennox in the northeast Texas town of Clarksville. Pondexter, then 19, and James Lee Henderson broke into Lennoxs home, shot her in the head and made off with $18, according to state records. Pondexter's guilt is not in doubt. In their case for clemency, his attorneys have contended that Pondexter has changed in his years in prison from a violent young gang member into a peaceful, responsible adult. Many condemned prisoners have made this argument. What makes Pondexter different is that prison guards on death row are vouching for him. Pondexter has endured almost half his life on death row. The correctional officers in the Polunsky Unit are the people who perhaps know him best. At least half a dozen of them told Pondexter they didnt want to see him executed and that they would speak up on his behalf. Last fall, after Pondexters execution date had been set, Dow and his legal team set out to talk with correctional officers who knew Pondexter. Hardly any were willing to talk for fear of retaliation. "Those prison guards that we have reason to believe would give affidavits that Pondexter is not dangerous, that hes fully rehabilitated, that theres no reason to execute him--they have been prevented from talking to us and we have been prevented from interviewing them," Dow says. Lloyd Coker, the only corrections officer who did speak with the legal team, told Kate Black, an attorney with the Texas Defender Service, that "Willie Pondexter has never posed any threat within the prison, even when given the opportunity, " according to an affidavit Black filed with the federal lawsuit. "I have seen some guys on death row who are extremely dangerous, and some of them I believe ought to be executed. Willie Pondexter isn't one of those people..he could safely live out his days in a structured environment. In fact, if Willie Pondexter were out here in the free world, I would be willing to give him a job working on my property." Although Coker spoke with Pondexter's attorneys, he told them he was too scared to sign any documents advocating for clemency for fear he would incur retaliation. "If people are not talking, it is probably because they are scared to lose their jobs or scared of being written up," Coker told Black, according to her affidavit. "And I likely wouldn't talk to you about another inmate either. But Willie Pondexter is one of the few inmates I'd be willing to speak up for. ... I would really hate to see him go." Michelle Lyons, a TDCJ spokesperson, told the Observer that the department has no policy forbidding correctional officers from speaking with attorneys or filing affidavits. "I cant imagine what the disciplinary action would be," she said. TDCJ does forbid guards from forming personal relationships or friendships with inmates because it can compromise security. "That being said, an affidavit saying an inmate hasn't had disciplinary problems would be allowed," Lyons said. Dow believes that TDCJ doesn't want its guards urging clemency for death row inmates. "It's pretty clear that there is an unwritten policy," he said. "We have people who have told us as much that guards are discouraged, if not forbidden from cooperating with lawyers like us, that other guards who have cooperated have been retaliated against." Ron McAndrewa prison consultant and former longtime warden and correctional officer in Florida who has filed a letter with the Board of Pardons and Parole supporting Pondexter's clemencysaid the code of silence among prison guards is well known. "They're very, very afraid to speak," said McAndrew, who in 1998 spent time studying the Texas system while overseeing Florida's switch to lethal injection from the electric chair. "It's not about being written up, it's retaliation in general." He said guards would risk being passed over for promotions, losing their jobs or incurring stiffer punishment for minor infractions. On Jan. 17, 2 Harvard Law School students, who were interning with Texas defender Service, were detained in East Texas by the Polk County deputies for several hours. The reason for their detention wasn't clear, but the law students had been trying to interview prison guards about Pondexter. Dow suspects one of the guards called the Polunsky Unit, which called the sheriffs department. When the students were pulled over, Deputy Terry White radioed in that he had found "the suspects," said one of the students, Ariel Rothstein, when reached by phone in Boston. No charges were filed, though the students were issued a warning for "criminal trespass." When they were finally released, deputies told the students they would likely be arrested if they tried to visit prison guards, and to contact the sheriff's office the next time they returned to Polk County. "It became pretty clear after they threatened us twice not to go back to the property that it was definitely a warning," Rothstein said. "It was a very strong warning never to go back or else." "I've never heard of anything remotely like this," said Dow, who's worked on numerous death penalty cases in Polk County. "We've never trained anyone on how to deal with being detained by law enforcement officers for legal conduct." Chief Deputy Byron Lyons with the Polk County Sheriffs Department said the department couldnt comment on the incident because of the pending lawsuit. Meanwhile, Dow hopes the Supreme Court will grant Pondexter a stay. Without testimony from the guards, he says, Pondexter can't make a strong case for clemency, which violates his due process rights. "[TDCJ] understand[s] that it puts pressure on the Board of Pardons and Paroles as well as the governor's office when you have guards who are saying that somebody who's been on death row for 15 years is not dangerous. If the reason that we as a state decided to execute this guy is because he's dangerous, then we've made a mistake. I don't think TDCJ wants their guards participating in that conversation." (source: The Texas Observer) Texas Legislature Bills By Subject General Subject Index: Crimes--Capital Punishment 81st Legislature Regular Session Report Date: 2/25/2009 Number of Bills: 24 HB 111 Author: Pena Last Action: 02/12/2009 H Referred to Criminal Jurisprudence Caption: Relating to the joint or separate prosecution of a capital felony charged against two or more defendants. HB 297 Author: Dutton Last Action: 02/17/2009 H Referred to Criminal Jurisprudence Caption: Relating to the abolition of the death penalty. HB 298 Author: Dutton Last Action: 02/17/2009 H Referred to Criminal Jurisprudence Caption: Relating to the admissibility of certain evidence in capital cases in which the state seeks the death penalty. HB 304 Author: Dutton Last Action: 02/17/2009 H Referred to Criminal Jurisprudence Caption: Relating to the extent of a defendant's criminal responsibility for the conduct of a co-conspirator in certain felony cases. HB 682 Author: Farrar Last Action: 02/18/2009 H Referred to Criminal Jurisprudence Caption: Relating to abolishing the death penalty. HB 788 Author: Thompson | Burnam Last Action: 02/19/2009 H Referred to Criminal Jurisprudence Caption: Relating to the creation of a commission to investigate and prevent wrongful convictions. HB 825 Author: Hochberg Last Action: 02/23/2009 H Referred to Criminal Jurisprudence Caption: Relating to prohibiting deferred adjudication community supervision for a defendant convicted of murder. HB 877 Author: Naishtat Last Action: 02/23/2009 H Referred to Criminal Jurisprudence Caption: Relating to the creation of a commission to study capital punishment in Texas. HB 913 Author: Dutton Last Action: 02/23/2009 H Referred to Criminal Jurisprudence Caption: Relating to the creation of a commission to study capital punishment in Texas and to a moratorium on executions. HB 916 Author: Dutton Last Action: 02/23/2009 H Referred to Criminal Jurisprudence Caption: Relating to standards for judicial review of certain writs of habeas corpus in capital cases. HB 921 Author: Dutton Last Action: 02/23/2009 H Referred to Criminal Jurisprudence Caption: Relating to jury selection in capital cases. HB 938 Author: Dutton Last Action: 02/23/2009 H Referred to Criminal Jurisprudence Caption: Relating to the admissibility of certain confessions in capital cases. HB 1148 Author: Thompson Last Action: 02/09/2009 H Filed Caption: Relating to the authority of the governor to grant one or more reprieves in a capital case. HB 1152 Author: Thompson Last Action: 02/09/2009 H Filed Caption: Relating to the applicability of the death penalty to a capital offense committed by a person with mental retardation. HJR 24 Author: Naishtat Last Action: 11/10/2008 H Filed Caption: Proposing a constitutional amendment relating to a moratorium on the execution of persons convicted of capital offenses. HJR 58 Author: Thompson Last Action: 02/09/2009 H Filed Caption: Proposing a constitutional amendment authorizing the governor to grant one or more reprieves in a capital case. HR 480 Author: Burnam Last Action: 02/23/2009 H Referred to Judiciary & Civil Jurisprudence Caption: Creating a Special Committee on Impeachment to consider the impeachment of Judge Sharon Keller of the Court of Criminal Appeals for gross neglect of duty and conducting her official duties with willful disregard for human life. SB 115 Author: Ellis Last Action: 02/10/2009 S Referred to Criminal Justice Caption: Relating to the creation of a commission to investigate and prevent wrongful convictions. SB 165 Author: Ellis Last Action: 02/10/2009 S Referred to Criminal Justice Caption: Relating to an annual report and analysis by the Office of Court Administration regarding cases involving the trial of a capital offense. SB 167 Author: Ellis Last Action: 02/10/2009 S Referred to Criminal Justice Caption: Relating to the applicability of the death penalty to a capital offense committed by a person with mental retardation. SB 169 Author: Ellis Last Action: 02/10/2009 S Referred to Criminal Justice Caption: Relating to the authority of the governor to grant one or more reprieves in a capital case. SB 426 Author: Shapleigh Last Action: 02/17/2009 S Referred to Criminal Justice Caption: Relating to the electronic filing of documents for capital cases in the court of criminal appeals. SB 839 Author: Hinojosa Last Action: 02/13/2009 S Filed Caption: Relating to the punishment for a capital felony committed by a juvenile whose case is transferred to criminal court. SJR 7 Author: Ellis Last Action: 11/10/2008 S Filed Caption: Proposing a constitutional amendment authorizing the governor to grant one or more reprieves in a capital case. Feb. 24, 2009 Death penalty opponents speak out in favor of bill Proponents for ending the death penalty in Texas spoke out Tuesday in support of a bill that would limit the reach of the punishment. State Representative Harold Dutton of Northeast Houston wants to limit who can be sentenced to die for a crime. His concern centers around the Texas Law of Parties which allows the courts to sentence someone to the death penalty even when they don't kill another person or intend to kill another person. Dutton says under this rule at least 12 people -- possibly as many as 20 -- have been executed. "Somewhere in the 80's we had a person who was given the death penalty who didn't kill the person and had no intention to kill but they were on death row. The person who actually did the killing had actually been released from prison. That is absolutely unacceptable, " Dutton said. Several family members spoke out in favor of the bill, including the family of Kenneth Foster who was set to die for a shooting death committed by another man. He was within days of being executed when a judge decided he shouldn't be put to death. People in favor of the Law of Parties argue criminals that don't kill can be just as responsible for not stopping a death. Dutton's bill is currently in committee. It is unclear if there is enough support for it to pass. (source: KVUE News) Feb. 23, 2009 Death row inmate's lawyers claim client being harassed The Texas Defender Service is launching an unusual effort on behalf of Willie Pondexter, who was convicted of killing Martha Lennox, 85, in Clarksville in 1993. Pondexter is slated to die next week and TDS is claiming correctional officers on death row are being intimidated into not talking about whether Pondexter has changed for the better in the last 15 years and deserves clemency. Court documents also claim 2 Harvard law students who attempted to interview officers were detained by the sheriff in Polk County, (home to death row), and warned not to come back. Perhaps one of the oddest claims in the mountain of paper work is that the Texas Department of Criminal Justice is harassing Pondexter by searching his cell and "knowing Mr. Pondexter to be especially concerned about hygiene, removed his sheets, wiped them across the floor and walls and replaced them on his bed, a practice they had never engaged in during Mr. Pondexter's 14 years of residence on death row." (source: Dallas Morning News) Death House Warden Suspended For Argument After Execution By Stephen Dean POSTED: January 30, 2009 HUNTSVILLE, Texas -- The senior warden who oversees all executions in the nation's busiest death house has been suspended for his comments following an execution, Local 2 Investigates reported Friday. Senior Warden C. Thomas O'Reilly, leader of the Huntsville Unit prison, will serve a two-day suspension without pay next week. After that, he will be on probation for three months. O'Reilly is being punished for using profanity during an argument with other Texas Department of Criminal Justice officials, including his superiors, after they had all gathered for the execution of Reginald Perkins. Perkins was condemned for the 2000 strangulation of his Fort Worth mother-in-law. He was pronounced dead at 6:24 p.m. on Jan. 22. TDCJ spokeswoman Michelle Lyons said the argument happened six minutes after Perkins was pronounced dead, after the officials had left the death house in the Huntsville Unit. One person who was involved in the argument told Local 2 Investigates that the argument had nothing to do with the execution, but he declined to characterize what sparked the harsh words. The Huntsville Unit was formerly named the Walls Unit, since it is surrounded by huge brick walls in downtown Huntsville. Prior to their execution, condemned inmates are housed on Texas Death Row, which is miles away in Livingston. O'Reilly is responsible for giving the final order to administer lethal drugs as inmates are strapped to the gurney. The inmate is given the chance to issue a final statement and a prison official of lower rank then advises the warden inside the execution chamber. The final words that most inmates hear are, "Warden, you may proceed." Death House Warden Suspended For Argument After Execution EDITORIAL U.S. Court stops execution that Texas courts wouldn't Experts believe condemned man Swearingen could not have committed the murder. January 27, 2009 Once again, a federal court has had to intervene to prevent Texas from executing a death row inmate whose conviction is in doubt. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday issued a reprieve to Larry Swearingen, whose execution by lethal injection was scheduled for today. And once again, Texas courts and officials did nothing to prevent a possible miscarriage of ultimate justice. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals had denied Swearingen's petition to hear new information from pathologists who reviewed the case. Nor did Gov. Rick Perry issue a reprieve. And Texas Attorney General Abbott opposed Swearingen's appeal to the 5th Circuit, which ruled that Swearingen's petition could be heard by a federal district court. Expert scientific analysis strongly indicates Swearingen might not have committed the 1998 murder of college student Melissa Trotter, 19. Based on a report by four pathologists, Swearingen's attorney appealed to the state criminal appeals court, the governor's office, the federal appeals court and the U.S. Supreme Court asking for a stay of execution to review the information. One of those pathologists with a new interpretation of the case is former Harris County Chief Medical Examiner Joye Carter, who performed the autopsy on the victim. Carter says her original estimate of the time of death was wrong, as do several other professionals. This case is about timing. Trotter was last seen leaving the Montgomery County Community College campus in Conroe with Swearingen on Dec. 8, 1998. Her body was found in Sam Houston National Forest near Conroe on Jan. 2, 1999. She had been strangled, and a portion of her panty hose was found around her neck. Swearingen was a good bet for the crime. He was twice accused of rape and had been seen with Trotter the day she disappeared. There was other circumstantial evidence implicating Swearingen, too. But if he had killed Trotter and left her in the national forest on Dec. 8 or soon after, the body would have been badly decomposed. Instead it was quite well preserved. Pathologists, including Carter, say the body could not have been in the forest more than 14 days and likely was there as few as four days before it was discovered. If true, that means Swearingen could not have killed Trotter and left her body in the woods because he had been in jail since Dec. 11 on outstanding traffic warrants. The science behind the claim that Trotter's body had not been in the forest for more than two weeks is strong. It is based on proven rates of organ decomposition, on insect infestation and other well-tested factors that pathologists use to determine times of death. This expert analysis presented a strong argument to delay Swearingen's execution until the information can be evaluated. Had the jury heard these scientific facts during Swearingen's trial, it might have rendered a verdict of not guilty. Despite that, neither the state appeals court, the attorney general nor the governor did anything to prevent the execution of a possibly innocent man. The lack of interest in fairness and justice by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in capital cases continues to baffle, frustrate and infuriate. U.S. Court stops execution 01/26/09 The Death Penalty: Executing the Innocent The U.S Supreme Court has held that it does not violate the U.S. Constitution to execute the innocent, so long as the condemned received a "fair trial." Read full story Here: College student killer get reprieve By MICHAEL GRACZYK Associated Press Writer © 2009 The Associated Press Jan. 26, 2009 HUNTSVILLE, Texas — A federal appeals court has stopped this week's scheduled execution of a man condemned for abducting, raping and strangling a 19-year-old suburban Houston woman 10 years ago. Larry Swearingen, 37, faced lethal injection Tuesday evening for the death of Melissa Trotter, whose body was found Jan. 2, 1999, in the Sam Houston National Forest south of Huntsville. The discovery came 25 days after she was last seen leaving the library at Montgomery College near Conroe. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued the reprieve Monday after Swearingen's attorneys raised questions about the timing of Trotter's death. Swearingen insisted he couldn't have killed Trotter because he was in jail for outstanding traffic warrants when newly evaluated forensic evidence indicates the woman's body was dumped in the woods not far from his home. College student killer get reprieve 01/26/09 Man Wrongfully Executed Today we also make broader reference yet again to that vexed matter, capital punishment. As we proceed, note well that certain new information we have concerns a celebrated case; that of Jose Ernesto Medellin Rojas. This man was killed by state authorities in Texas. Now we also know that in its unanimous ruling this Monday past, the ICJ, also known as the World Court, found "that the United States of America has breached the obligation incumbent upon it under the Order indicating provisional measures of 16 July 2008, in the case of Mr. Jose Ernesto Medellin Rojas." Now we note that, following the 2004 order by the World Court that new hearings be held for the 51 Mexicans on death row who claimed their consular rights had been violated, the Bush administration ordered Texas and the other states with such prisoners to comply with the order. We can also indicate that while serving the appearance of abiding by the ICJ ruling, the practical effect of Bush's order was to delay any ruling by the US Supreme Court on the issue and stall precedent being set on consular rights. In March 2005, the Bush administration then withdrew from the optional protocol to the VCCR. This meant that while remaining a signer to the Convention, the US would refuse to submit to international law to enforce it. Clearly, this stratagem signaled the Bush's administration intent to flout the 2004 order, which found its ultimate expression in the execution of Jose Medellin without determining whether the denial of his consular rights had impaired his defense. This was wrong as wrong can be. Today our hope is that Barack Obama's regime will be one that respects and honors international treaties and relevant laws. Evidently, our commentary this time around has to do with that Mexican man who was executed by state authorities in Texas; this despite the fact that an appeal had been lodged with the International Court of Justice in The Hague. In this regard, it is to be noted that the Court in question has ruled that the United States breached the court's order and violated an international treaty when a Mexican national was executed last year in Texas. Evidently, both federal and state governments in the United States thought it expedient to flout and disregard relevant international laws. Complicit in this we find the United States Supreme Court. As egregious is the fact that what is here illuminated happens to be official American flouting of an international convention governing foreign consular relations and the death penalty. As we now know, Jos Medelln, who has been on death row for 14 years, was barely 18 years old at the time of the crime (two co-defendants who were 17 subsequently had their death sentences commuted after the US Supreme Court outlawed the death penalty for under-18-year- olds in 2005). Crucially, we note that he was never advised by Texas authorities of his right as a detained foreign national to seek consular assistance, as required under article 36 of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations (VCCR). We are also convinced that because of this treaty violation, Jos Medelln was deprived of the extensive assistance that Mexico provides for the defense of its citizens facing capital charges in the USA. Evidently, we reference and comment on this one truly sorrowful case of but one Mexican man; this one wrongfully executed by the state of Texas. There is also an argument to the effect that the United States Supreme Court by way of crucial omission may have also been complicit in this act of death-dealing. Indeed, the Mexican Consulate did not learn about the case until nearly 4 years after Jos Medellns arrest, by which time his trial and the initial appeal affirming his conviction and death sentence had already been concluded. And for sure, it is also quite interesting to note that, "Medellin was executed less than three week's after the ICJ ordered the US to stay the imminent executions of five Mexicans on death row in Texas. In that ruling, the World Court ordered that the US should "take all measures necessary to ensure [they] are not executed pending judgment ... unless and until these five Mexican nationals receive review and reconsideration [of their sentences]. As we have been advised, the issue in these cases was US violation of Article 36 of the 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations (VCCR), which mandates that local authorities inform all detained foreigners "without delay" of their right to have their consulate notified of their detention. Washington ratified the VCCR in 1969, along with an optional protocol giving the ICJ jurisdiction over the convention. Crucially, note that the United States did in the matter involving Jos Medelln find a way of killing him; albeit without legal sanction. This they did by finding a way of wiggling out of what seemed its iron-clad responsibility to uphold and obey relevant international law. (source: The Bahama Journal) 01/26/09 Lethal Injection in Texas: A Three-fer Week Scheduled On Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday of next week Texas plans 3 lethal injections in a row. And in each case, there are troubling questions. On Tuesday, Larry Swearingen is scheduled to be executed for a crime that probably took place while he was in jail. Scott Henson reviews the facts at Grits for Breakfast. * * * On Wednesday, Virgil Martinez is scheduled to be killed for shooting to death an ex-girlfriend, her friend, and two children. An awful crime. But Martinez was arrested at a mental hospital where he had admitted himself for hearing voices ordering him to kill, and jurors were never told that he suffered from temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE). The Brazosport Facts published a good overview of the Martinez case in 2006. According to federal court records accessed by the Texas Civil Rights Review, a magistrate judge concluded in 2005, and a federal district judge agreed in 2006, that the trial attorney for Martinez could have made better use of medical evidence about TLE and "post-seizure aggression." The federal documents further indicate that Martinez did exhibit "bizarre and at times violent behavior" during his time at a mental hospital. But in 2007 a federal appeals panel argued that the trial attorney for Martinez was justified in not telling jurors that the defendant had a condition that could cause "savage and uncontrolled" aggressiveness. Such information, along with other facts about his history of aggression and jealousy, might persuade the jury that a death penalty would be most appropriate. The appeals panel agreed with the magistrate and district judge that the lawyer did not understand the difference between violence during a seizure and "post-seizure" aggression. But, giving strict attention to the question that was put to them, the appeals panel refused to label this failure as a mark of attorney incompetence. So it may still be the case that "post-seizure" aggression is a medical condition that affects Martinez, and which affected him at the time of the four killings. Setting aside the question about whether his lawyer was competent in selecting a defense strategy under the circumstances of the trial, the appeals record has produced a fact that is significant. Perhaps we can still expect a stay in this case. 01/26/09 Inmate will die for lethally injecting a cellmate with a triple dose of heroin On Thursday, Ricardo Ortiz is scheduled to be killed by lethal injection because he was convicted of lethally injecting a cellmate with a triple dose of heroin. The official account posted by Texas prison authorities says that Ortiz and two other cellmates cooked up three doses of heroin in an El Paso cell and that Ortiz injected all three doses into the victim who died of an overdose. The Texas Attorney General adds that Ortiz committed the crime in order to prevent his cellmate "from testifying against him" about some bank robberies. So here is what Texas officials tell us: they held a prisoner in an El Paso cell with someone who could testify against him. They allowed 3 doses of heroin into the cell, didn't smell it while it was cooking, and didn't notice a thing until the next cell count revealed a dead prisoner. Are Texas authorities so into lethal injections that they'd set up the ideal conditions for one and then use their own malpractice as a foundation to practice another? (source: Axis of Logic) CRIME & PUNISHMENT Four pathologists back death row inmate's innocence claim Swearingen, slated to die Tuesday in college student's 1998 murder, was in jail at time, 4 now say. By Chuck Lindell AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF January 24, 2009 Four forensic pathologists agree that Larry Swearingen, set to be executed Tuesday, could not have committed the 1998 murder that sent him to death row. The four include the medical examiner whose testimony helped secure Swearingen's guilty verdict. That medical examiner now says college student Melissa Trotter's curiously preserved body could not have lain in the East Texas woods for more than 14 days — and probably was there for a much shorter time. The results mean Swearingen was in jail when the 19-year-old' s body was left behind, the pathologists say. "It's just scientifically impossible for him to have killed the girl and thrown her into the woods," said James Rytting, Swearingen's appellate lawyer. "It's guilt by imagination." Prosecutors disagree, saying compelling evidence ties Swearingen to the crime, including a match between the panty hose leg found around Trotter's neck and the stocking remnant found in a trash dump next to Swearingen's mobile home. Also, hair and fibers show Trotter had been in Swearingen's truck and mobile home in Willis, about 40 miles north of Houston. But in court briefs seeking to keep Swearingen's execution on track, prosecutors do not attack the conclusions by the four pathologists beyond labeling them "opinion evidence based on experts' second-hand review of others' work and photographs." One of those pathologists, however, did Trotter's autopsy. In her original report, Dr. Joye Carter determined that Trotter's strangled body had lain in the Sam Houston National Forest outside Conroe for 25 days — coinciding exactly with the date of Trotter's disappearance from Montgomery County Community College, Dec. 8, 1998. Witnesses said Trotter left the campus library that day with Swearingen, whom she met two days earlier. The timing was important because Swearingen had been in jail since Dec. 11 on outstanding traffic warrants. But faced with conclusions from other pathologists that her 25-day time of death defied scientific analysis and common sense, Carter recanted her findings in a 2007 affidavit. "Ms. Trotter's body was left in the woods within two weeks of the date of discovery" on Jan. 2, 1999, she wrote. Reassessment of Trotter's autopsy began late in Swearingen's appeals process when a defense pathologist noticed that Carter found an intact spleen and pancreas. Both organs liquefy quickly after death, prompting a more thorough review: • Five recently discovered slides of heart, lung and nerve tissue from Trotter's autopsy revealed intact nuclei and red blood cells, said Dr. Lloyd White, Tarrant County deputy medical examiner. Red blood cells break down within hours, and nuclei in heart cells break down within days, White said. Also, levels of bacteria indicated the body had not been frozen or preserved, he said. White's conclusion: Trotter had been dead for two or three days before her discovery. • Trotter's mucosa — fragile tissue in the stomach and intestines that quickly disintegrates after death — was intact, noted Dr. Glenn Larkin, a North Carolina pathologist. The condition of the mucosa indicates with "medical certainty" that Trotter had been in the forest for less than 10 days and more likely three or four days, Larkin concluded. • Trotter weighed 109 pounds at a doctor's visit shortly before she disappeared, but her body weighed 105 pounds, a 4 percent decline. Larkin concluded that a body will lose up to 90 percent of its weight in less than 25 days under temperatures endured by Trotter's body: average highs of 62 and lows of around 40. • Unlike a body left outside for 25 days, Trotter's showed no sign of bloating or perforated intestines. Her clothes were unsoiled and slipped easily from her body during the autopsy. There was limited scavenging by animals in a forest inhabited by feral pigs, vultures and raccoons. "The following forensic conclusion is therefore not reasonably debatable amongst competent forensic pathologists: Without question, Mr. Swearingen was not the person who left Ms. Trotter's body in the Sam Houston National Forest," Larkin said in an affidavit. Thus far, only the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has seen the opinions from the four forensic pathologists. The state's highest criminal court, however, did not rule or comment on the information. Instead, the court dismissed Swearingen's petition for violating state laws that limit death row inmates to one petition for a writ of habeas corpus unless lawyers uncover information that was not available when the first appeal was filed. The appeals court has yet to rule on a stay of execution motion that repeats the forensic conclusions. The opinions from the forensic pathologists also were included in a plea to Gov. Rick Perry to issue a 30-day execution reprieve. Swearingen also has two federal petitions pending based on the forensic information. He is asking the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for permission to bring the findings to a U.S. District Court for review, and he is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review the case. Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott has opposed both requests, saying Swearingen has not met federal requirements to pursue an innocence claim and is, in fact, not innocent. Swearingen has presented no new DNA or indisputable evidence undermining his conviction, only expert opinion that could be challenged under cross-examination if presented at trial, Abbott said in briefs. In addition, Abbott said, the prosecution' s case against Swearingen was convincing: He was the last person seen with Trotter, whose autopsied stomach contained potatoes, which she ate for lunch the day she disappeared. The panty hose link Swearingen to the crime, and Swearingen wrote a letter from jail — in Spanish to divert police attention to another man — that presented a plausible narrative for the killing. Swearingen's lawyer, joined by the Innocence Project in New York, says he believes he has met the legal definition for an innocence claim: that it is unlikely a reasonable juror would convict him in light of the new evidence. "Someone else had that girl's body, dead or alive, and threw her in the forest. And that someone wasn't Larry," Rytting said. Swearingen would be the fourth Texan executed this year. clindell@statesman.com; 912-2569 Find this article at: Four pathologists back death row inmate's innocence claim Jan. 14, 2009 Nation's 1st execution of 2009 Wednesday in Texas Even a defense lawyer for convicted murderer Curtis Moore acknowledged the horrific nature of the 3 slayings that convinced a jury to send Moore to death row. "Facts-wise, it was difficult because of the nature of how the killings happened and the fact the bodies were burned," George Gallagher recalled. "You have an uphill battle." Moore, 40, was set for lethal injection Wednesday evening. His execution, the 1st of the year in the United States, would be the 1st of 6 scheduled for this month in Texas, the nation's most active death penalty state. Moore's appeals in the courts were exhausted. On Monday, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles rejected a clemency request that cited his possible mental retardation as reason to spare him. Moore already made one trip to the Huntsville death house. In 2002, less than three hours before he was to receive lethal injection, the U.S. Supreme Court stopped his scheduled execution so claims from his attorneys that he was mentally retarded and ineligible for execution could be reviewed. In October, the high court refused his appeal, clearing the way for Wednesday's execution date to be set. Moore was condemned for a pair of shootings in November 1995 in Fort Worth. Roderick Moore, 24, who was not related to him, and LaTanya Boone, 21, both of Fort Worth, were found shot to death in a roadside ditch across from an elementary school. The same night, firefighters summoned to put out a car fire found Darrel Hoyle, 21, of Fort Worth, and Henry Truevillian Jr., 20, of Forest Hill, shot and burned. Truevillian was dead but Hoyle survived and helped lead police to the arrest of Moore and his nephew, Anthony Moore, then 17. The 3 men were abducted after agreeing to meet Curtis Moore and his nephew at a stable where Roderick Moore boarded and trained horses. Then Boone was abducted from the apartment she shared with Roderick Moore, her boyfriend. Testimony at Curtis Moore's trial showed the shootings culminated a drug ripoff, that he doused Hoyle and Truevillian with gasoline and ignited them as they were bound and in the trunk of a car parked in a deserted lot outside a Fort Worth bar. Hoyle regained consciousness 6 days after he was attacked and gave information that led authorities to Anthony Moore, known on the streets in Fort Worth as "Kojak," and that Curtis Moore drove a pink truck. Curtis Moore was arrested about 2 weeks later, his hands and arms still showing burns suffered when authorities said he tried to keep Hoyle from fleeing the flames. "Curtis was trying to push him back in the trunk," said Joetta Keene, who prosecuted Moore. "Everybody got burned, including Curtis," Gallagher said. "That was hard to get around." At the punishment phase, prosecutors were able to show jurors Moore's violent past. "He had a huge criminal history," Keene said. "He kept giving us more evidence. He stabbed a guy in jail." Moore's record showed convictions for theft, robbery, and weapon and drug possession. The record also showed he repeatedly was paroled, then returned to prison with parole violations. Moore blamed his nephew for the slayings and said he tried to rescue the victims from the burning car. But he acknowledged holding them at gunpoint, ordering them hogtied and stuffed into the trunk of the car. Anthony Moore pleaded guilty to 2 counts of murder under a plea agreement and is serving 2 life prison sentences. (source: Associated Press) Texas Death Penalty Machinery Set to "High" as Executions Resume----14 Executions Scheduled Over the Next 4 Months The 1st U.S. execution of 2009 is scheduled to take place today in the state of Texas. Curtis Moore is set to be put to death for the 1996 murders of Roderick Moore, Latasha Boone, and Henry Truevillen in Tarrant County. Currently there are 14 executions scheduled to take place in Texas between now and April 7, including 6 in January alone. Among all other 35 death penalty states, only 10 executions have been scheduled for this same time period. The inmates with execution dates were convicted and sentenced to death in 8 different counties; 4 inmates were convicted in Tarrant County and 3 in Bexar County. "Once again the State of Texas is quick out of the starting gate in the race to execute," said Kristin Houl, Executive Director of the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (TCADP). "While other states are projected to carry out more executions than usual this year, none will even come close to overtaking Texas' status as the most active - and most notorious - death penalty state." In 2008, Texas accounted for just under 1/2 of the 37 executions that took place nationwide. Overall, it accounts for more than 1/3 of the 1,136 executions that have occurred in the United States since 1977. The accelerated pace of executions coincides with a time of increased public scrutiny and concern about the fairness and reliability of this ultimate form of punishment. According to TCADP, 11 people were sentenced to death in Texas in 2008, matching 2006 for the lowest number of new death sentences in more than 30 years. 9 people now have been exonerated from Texas' death row due to evidence of their wrongful conviction. This year, elected officials in numerous states are prepared to give serious consideration to abolishing the death penalty altogether. As the 81st Session of the Texas Legislature gets underway, TCADP urges lawmakers to take a hard look at this costly, broken government system and to support alternatives that protect society and punish the truly guilty. Other executions scheduled for January: January 21: Frank Moore January 22: Reginald Perkins January 27: Larry Swearingen January 28: Virgil Martinez January 29: Ricardo Ortiz TCADP members will hold vigils on the evening of every execution in multiple locations throughout the state. See for a complete list of vigil sites. (source: TCADP) Texas Reporter Witnesses Hundreds of Executions A Fort Worth killer is set to become the 424th inmate to be put to death in Texas. When he dies, Mike Graczyk will be there, just inches away. It is the job of the Associated Press reporter to cover capital punishment in Texas, and that translates into busy days on death row. Graczyk estimates that he has witnessed more than 300 executions in his 26 years covering lethal injection in the state. Graczyk may have witnessed more executions than anyone in the country because Texas sets the pace when it comes to lethal injection. "It's just part of my job. It just comes with the territory," says the reporter. Graczyk says many of the executions have stuck with him through the years, for various reasons. "I remember Gary Graham's execution with all the tension," he says. Graham's execution during President George Bush's first run for office brought out hordes of demonstrators. Graczyk also recalls the first execution he witnessed in 1983; a man who shot a convenience store clerk. And a priest was the second person executed after the death penalty was reinstated in Texas. "They strapped him to the gurney and put the needles in his arms and then he got a reprieve." he says. After that, Graczyk says, the state changed it's procedures to delay inserting needles until all legal hurdles are cleared. Gracyk has also seen three women executed, and those linger in his mind. But, he says, it's the personal nature of visiting the inmates for interviews on death row that he won't forget. "Many of times when I walk into the death house they will call me by name and ask how I'm doing and that just kind of sticks with you," he says. (source: Associated Press) Court overturns death sentence in 1978 Texas case A white man on Texas death row for nearly 30 years could be freed because an appeals court has ruled that prosecutors improperly excluded blacks from his jury in the belief that blacks empathize with defendants. Jonathan Bruce Reed was convicted and condemned for the November 1978 rape-slaying of Wanda Jean Wadle at her Dallas apartment. But now the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled Dallas County prosecutors improperly excluded black prospective jurors from Reeds trial and ordered him released unless prosecutors choose to retry him quickly. "Although we do not relish adding a new chapter to this unfortunate story more than 30 years after the crime took place, we conclude that the Constitution affords Reed a right to relief," a 3-member panel of the New Orleans-based court wrote in the ruling posted late Monday. Jamille Bradfield, a spokeswoman for Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins, said it was premature to comment on whether Reed would be retried. "We still need time to dissect the opinion," she said Tuesday. Reed has been on death row since September 1979, making him among the longest-serving prisoners awaiting execution in Texas. The 5th Circuit said Reed's case mirrored the capital murder case of Thomas Miller-El, on Texas death row for nearly 20 years until the Supreme Court overturned his verdict, citing racial discrimination during jury selection. Miller-El last year took a life prison sentence as part of a plea deal. The Supreme Court cited a manual, written by a prosecutor in 1969 and used for years later, that advised Dallas prosecutors to exclude minorities from juries. Documents in Miller-El's case described how the memo advised prosecutors to avoid selecting minorities because "they almost always empathize with the accused." "Reed presents this same historical evidence of racial bias in the Dallas County District Attorney's Office," the 5th Circuit panel said. Reed, now 57, was identified as the man who attacked Wadle and her roommate, Kimberly Pursley, on Nov. 1, 1978. He'd apparently entered their apartment by posing as a maintenance man. Pursley survived an attempted strangulation by feigning unconsciousness. 2 other residents identified Reed as the man they saw in the apartment complex just before the time of the attack. (source: Associated Press) Texas carries out nation's 1st execution of 2009 January 14, 2009 By MICHAEL GRACZYK Associated Press Writer HUNTSVILLE, Texas — A man convicted of murdering three people during a night of robberies more than 13 years ago in Fort Worth was put to death Wednesday evening in the nation's first execution of the year. In a brief, final statement, Curtis Moore, 40, thanked a woman who administers to the spiritual needs of death row inmates. "I want to thank you for all the beautiful years of friendship and ministry," Moore told Irene Wilcox as she watched through a window a few feet from him. Moore never acknowledged a man who survived his attacks or five relatives of the three who died. He was pronounced dead at 6:21 p.m., eight minutes after the lethal drugs began flowing. Moore exhausted his appeals in the courts and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles earlier this week refused a clemency petition that said he could be mentally retarded and ineligible for the death penalty. Courts earlier rejected similar mental retardation claims. Moore was the first of six prisoners scheduled to die this month in Texas, the nation's most active death penalty state. He already made one trip to the Huntsville death house, in 2002, but was returned less than three hours before he could have received lethal injection when the U.S. Supreme Court agreed his mental retardation claims could be reviewed. Last October, the high court refused his appeal, clearing the way for Wednesday's punishment date. Moore was condemned for the fatal shootings of Roderick Moore, 24, who was not related to him, and LaTanya Boone, 21, both of Fort Worth. The two were found shot to death in a roadside ditch across from a Fort Worth elementary school in November 1995. That same night, firefighters summoned to put out a car fire found Darrel Hoyle, 21, of Fort Worth, and Henry Truevillian Jr., 20, of Forest Hill, shot and burned. Truevillian, robbed of $5, was dead. Hoyle, robbed of $150, survived and helped lead police to the arrest of Moore and his nephew, Anthony Moore, then 17. The three men were abducted after agreeing to meet Curtis Moore and his nephew at a stable where Roderick Moore boarded and trained horses. Boone was abducted from the apartment she shared with Roderick Moore, her boyfriend. Testimony at Curtis Moore's trial showed the shootings culminated a drug ripoff, that he doused Hoyle and Truevillian with gasoline and ignited them as they were bound and in the trunk of a car. Hoyle, who regained consciousness six days after he was attacked, gave information that led authorities to Moore's nephew, who also was known as "Kojak." Hoyle also told authorities he didn't know the name of Kojak's partner but that he drove a pink truck. Curtis Moore had such a vehicle and he and his nephew were both arrested about two weeks later. Moore's hands and arms still showed burns he suffered when authorities said he tried to keep Hoyle from fleeing the flames. At the punishment phase, prosecutors showed jurors Moore's violent past, including prison time for theft, robbery and weapon and drug possession. Testimony showed he was responsible for a stabbing while in jail awaiting trial. "He kept giving us more evidence," Joetta Keene, who prosecuted Moore, recalled. Moore blamed his nephew, who pleaded guilty to two counts of murder in exchange for two life prison terms, for the slayings and contended he tried to rescue the victims from the burning car. But he acknowledged holding them at gunpoint and ordering them hogtied and stuffed into the trunk of the car. Moore's trial lawyer, George Gallagher, said once jurors convicted Moore, there was little he could to prevent them from deciding on the death penalty because Moore wouldn't allow him to put on an aggressive case during punishment. "When he was found guilty, he said if they want to kill me, let them kill me," Gallagher, now a state district judge, said. "He told us: Don't put on any mitigating stuff." He also didn't want family members put on the stand for him or any kind of psychiatric testimony that might be favorable to him. "Do you disregard the client's instructions?" Gallagher asked. "It's his case. It was an interesting, tough, ethical position he put us in." Keene, who described Moore as a mean cold-blooded killer, said it was nonetheless sad "when citizens say there's absolutely nothing redeeming about a person to save his life." Texas carries out nation's 1st execution of 2009 Court again denies appeals by Rodney Reed By Chuck Lindell January 14, 2009 The state’s highest criminal court today refused to grant a new trial to Rodney Reed, sentenced to death a decade ago in the Bastrop County murder and sexual assault of Stacey Stites, 19. In December, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals issued a 100-page opinion concluding that new information raised by Reed failed to establish his innocence and could not have swayed jurors to vote for his innocence if presented at trial. Today’s rulings denied two remaining state appeals by Reed, presumably clearing way for his case to proceed to the next level of review in the federal courts. But one of Reed’s appellate lawyers, Bryce Benjet, said he hopes to file another state appeal containing more information about “incidents of misconduct” by Stites’ fiance, Jimmy Fennell, a former police officer serving a prison sentence for kidnapping and improper sexual activity with a woman in his custody. “We believe this also needs to be presented to the Court of Criminal Appeals. We are preparing that, and it will be filed shortly,” Benjet said. Reed alleges that Fennell could have killed Stites. Fennell has consistently denied the allegation. In one appeal denied Wednesday, Reed accused prosecutors of suppressing evidence that Fennell abused and stalked an ex-girlfriend. The information, Reed argued, supports his theory that Fennell murdered Stites — a theory the Court of Criminal Appeals found unconvincing in its December opinion. The court ruled today, however, that the information from Fennell’s ex-girlfriend should have been raised in Reed’s first appeal. Because it was not, it is ineligible to be raised at a later date, the court said in an unsigned opinion. Reed’s second pending appeal, claiming to contain evidence of Reed’s innocence, also was denied. “The totality of the evidence before us still supports a guilty verdict,” the court ruled. Both appeals are addressed in a single ruling. Court again denies appeals by Rodney Reed Jan. 10, 2009 Death row inmate seeks to expedite execution Richard Tabler is on death row for the murder of two men, and is accused to making threating cell phone calls from prison. A man who wants to be put to death won't have his way just yet. Richard Tabler is on death row for killing four people in Bell County in 2004 and has repeatedly asked for his appeal to be waived so his execution could proceed. But Appeals Attorney Karl Krug says Tabler wont get his way until 2 proceedings take place. One of those, a jury trial, is already over. But the Court of Criminal Appeals is currently deciding the case. "So whether he wants to get executed right now is irrelevant," Krug said. Tabler has used multiple tactics to help seal his own fate. One of the most widely publicized was when he used a smuggled cell phone from inside his prison cell to call a State Senator from Houston, John Whitmire, to make threats against Whitmire's family. The incident prompted Governor Rick Perry to order a lockdown of all state prisons. "The object of those calls is not to intimidate these people, the point is to get himself executed as quickly as possible," Krug said. He has also written multiple letters to the court system in order to waive his appeals processes, as well as threatened several lawyers. Krug says she is not expediting a death sentence for her client faster than what Constitutional Rights allow. "It's not my job to get people killed. It's my job to make sure their constitutional rights are observed," says Krug. "It's not about what he wants, it's about what society as a whole wants." The case has been briefed and argued, and now Tabler's fate is up to the Criminal Court of appeals to decide. Once a decision is made, a death warrant could be issued for Tabler, and an execution would take place soon after that. Attorney Karyl Krug expects that a decision will be made and the execution would proceed from there. Tabler will have the right to change his mind and proceed with the appeals process as normal. (source: KEYE News) 01/10/09 The Science of Murder Someone killed Melissa Trotter and dumped her body in the Sam Houston National Forest. But according to 6 forensic experts, that someone was not Larry Swearingen. Innocent men in prison often have 2 things in common. They stubbornly refuse to plead guilty, even if it means a reduced sentence or freedom. And they never quit trying to prove their innocence, whether it's by writing letters to lawyers and journalists, filing writs on their own, or just camping out in the prison library studying law books or anything else that could help their cases. The wrongly convicted never give in, and they never give up. Larry Swearingen, an 8-year resident of Texas's death row, is almost certainly a member of this unhappy group. From the beginning, when he was arrested in December 1998 for murdering Melissa Trotter in rural Montgomery County, just north of Houston, he has insisted he didn't do it. He never asked for any kind of a plea deal, once saying, "I'm not going to plead guilty to something I didn't do." He took the stand at his trial and testified that he didn't kill Trotter. Ever since, he has worked diligently from his cell at the Polunsky Unit to prove his innocencefiling writs to the court system, writing letters to journalists, even poring over climatological charts to prove his case. But there are other reasons besides pride and perseverance to believe that Swearingen didn't kill Trotter. 6 different physicians and scientistsforensic pathologists and entomologistssay there's almost no way Swearingen could have done it. One of those doctors was instrumental in convicting Swearingen back in 2000 but has now changed her mind after seeing all of the evidence. Dr. Glenn Larkin, a retired forensic pathologist in Charlotte, North Carolina, says, "As a forensic scientist since 1973, I always kept an objective stance when called to testify; however, there comes a point when as a human, and as a Christian, there is a mandate to speak in the interest of justice. This is a moral issue now; no rational and intellectually honest person can look at the evidence and conclude Larry Swearingen is guilty of this horrible crime." And it is a moral issue with real urgency. Swearingen just got an execution date of January 27. His lawyers are frantically trying to get a stay of execution as well as DNA testing. If they don't succeed, it is entirely possible, even likely, that the State of Texas will execute an innocent man in 2 1/2 weeks. A Shaky Case Back in 2000, the prosecutors of Montgomery County used mostly circumstantial evidence, some of it remarkably weak, to convict Swearingen. Trotter was a 19-year-old student at Montgomery College in Conroe when she disappeared on December 8, 1998. An extensive search was organized, and her body wasn't discovered until January 2 in the Sam Houston National Forest by a couple of huntersin an area that had been already searched 3 times. She had been strangled with 1 leg of a set of panty hose. Around her neck and face there was some decomposition from maggots as well as evidence of rodent scavenging. She was clothed but her shirt had been bunched up around her neck, and though her torso was bare, it showed no evidence of having been scavenged by the wild pigs, crows, raccoons, or vultures that live in the forest. Her corpse was not bloated, and police reported no foul smell. In fact, the hunters had initially thought she was a mannequin. The body appeared to have been in its final resting place for only a short period of time. Swearingen, an ex-con who was working as an electrician, had met Trotter on December 6 and asked her out on a date. She stood him up the next day, but on December 8 they rendezvoused on campus. That same day she disappeared, making Swearingen one of the last people to see her alive. 3 days later, he was arrested for outstanding traffic warrants and put in jail, where he remained after becoming a suspect in Trotter's disappearance. When her body was found, Swearingen had already been in jail for 3 weeks. Though no one saw Trotter leave the campus with Swearingen, the state was able to stitch together a tenuous narrative that had Swearingen kidnapping her in his truck, taking her to his trailer, raping her, killing her, and dumping her in the forest. (In order to get the death penalty, prosecutors had to prove murder in tandem with another felony, such as kidnapping or rape.) The motive? Prosecutors brought forward testimony from construction worker pals of Swearingen's who said he had been furious at being stood up. As for proof about the kidnapping, there were witnesses who saw the two together on campus earlier that day, and there were fibers found on her jacket that "appeared to be" from Swearingens jacket and other fibers found on her and her clothes that were "similar to" carpet fibers from his trailer and truck seat. Swearingen made 2 cell phone calls that afternoon, and because the calls were routed through a tower near the crime scene, the prosecution said that proved he had dumped the body there. As for proof of rape, Harris County chief medical examiner Joye Carter, who did the autopsy, found no evidence of violent penetration of Trotter, but she did say there was some discoloration of the vaginal wall. Though this could have come from normal intercourse, the prosecution used this as evidence that Swearingen had raped Trotter. When the Court of Criminal Appeals later took up Swearingen's appeal, it admitted, even as it affirmed his guilt, "The forensic evidence is inconclusive." The most damning piece of evidence against Swearingen was another leg of panty hose found in the trash outside his trailer 4 days after Trotter's body was located. Even this was not as clear-cut as it should have been. When the fabric was found, the trailer had already been fruitlessly searched twice by half a dozen deputies who turned up nothing. It was matched to the piece around Trotter's neck by a DPS criminologist. Swearingen's appellate attorney James Rytting wrote in an appeal that the pantyhose matching "was not based on scientific or forensic principles. The pantyhose material . . . can be easily stretched or distorted, so 'matching' may easily be the artifact of the examiners manipulations, whether intentional or unconscious." The case wasn't entirely circumstantial. The state also called medical examiner Carter, who testified that she thought Trotter had most likely been killed on or about the day she disappeared. She based her opinion on the body's external conditionthe decomposition and maggot activity around the head and neck. She wasn't askedand didn't tellabout the condition of the body's internal organs, which were remarkably intact for a person who had supposedly been dead for so long. The defense had 2 important things on its side that should have given the jury pause. Most critically, blood was found underneath one of Trotter's fingernails and DNA analysis proved it was not Swearingen's. Also, a pubic hair found in a vaginal swab was found not to be his. But the defense pathologist didn't question why Trotter's body was in such good shape, nor did the expert question the prosecution' s theory that she had died on or around December 8. The jury found Swearingen guilty and gave him the death penalty in June 2000. The Science of Death It wasn't until Swearingen was given his first execution date, January 24, 2007, that he began to get medical science on his side. First came the bug guys, or forensic entomologists, who use insect larvae found in corpses to figure out time of death. On January 22, appellate attorney Rytting filed a habeas corpus appeal anchored by the testimony of an entomologist who said that, based on temperature reports that said the average temperature that month was 50 degrees with highs in the mid-70s, the earliest those maggots could have begun colonizing her body was December 18a week after Swearingen was put in jail. (Swearingen himself, while studying the temperature data, had found a crucial error in the numbers that showed it had actually been warmer than the climatologists had initially reported.) The CCA stayed the execution and called for a hearing to look into the matter in the trial court. At the hearing, another entomologist, James Arends, testified; he noted that there was no evidence of maggot colonization in the anal and vaginal regions, as would be expected in a body left in the wild for so long. He also pointed out that the body hadn't been picked on by the thousands of wild pigs, crows, and vultures that live and feed in the forest. (Or, as he wrote in an affidavit, "It is very common to find near to complete skeletonization, and bones scattered over a wide area by scavengers, in cases where remains of missing persons are not recovered for significant periods of time after being left in locations such as the location in this instant case.") Arends's conclusion? Trotter's body had been there no longer than a week. Pathologist Luis Sanchez, the current Harris County medical examiner, also testified at the hearing, saying that a body in the forest 25 days would show more decomposition, color change, bloating, and skin slippage. He also explained that the autopsy showed Trotter's internal organs had been in good enough condition to be pulled out and sectioned; however, organs begin to break down upon death. The pancreas, for example, usually liquefies completely within 24 to 48 hours. Sanchez's conclusion: The body hadn't been in the forest for more than 14 days. Unbelievably, the CCA denied that appeal without even commenting on the forensic science. Rytting filed another habeas appeal last year that included affidavits from Larkin and Lloyd White, the Deputy Tarrant County Medical Examiner. Larkin said, "December 23 is the soonest that Trotter's body could have been left in the woods, which is to say, 12 days after Mr. Swearingen was incarcerated." White thought the conditions of the organs made it more likely Trotter died close to January 2, 1999. He viewed photos of her heart; they revealed that "the muscle is still red and relatively fresh looking . . . the appearance of the heart is what one would expect to find upon an autopsy of a recently deceased individual." White also wrote, "Unfortunately, the conviction in this case rests upon misleading forensic pathological testimony." He was referring to the words of Joye Carter. She had moved on from Harris County, but Rytting tracked her down in Marion City, Indiana, where she was the chief forensic pathologist. He got her to reread the Trotter autopsy report and other materialssuch as the temperature reports. Carter realized she had made a mistake, and now she submitted her own affidavit, in which she admitted it. By her calculations, the body had been in the forest for only 14 days, not 25. Carter based her new opinion on the condition of Trotter's bare torso as well as her internal organs. Plus, she noted how Trotter had weighed 109 pounds at a doctors examination on November 23; when found, she weighed 105. As Larkin wrote in his affidavit, "even if a corpse is not scavenged, a body will lose up to 90 % of its weight in less than 25 days." Once again, the upshot of all of this is simple: Trotter was murdered while Swearingen was in prison. Rytting added other claims in the 2008 appeal that detectives knew Trotter was getting threatening phone calls from another man and that there was evidence that Trotter and Swearingen had actually been dating. The CCA again asked the trial court to hold a hearing to look into these allegationsbut only the latter ones, not the ones dealing with pathology or entomology. Again, the highest court in the state said nothing about the science or the doctors and their claims that Trotter was killed long after Swearingen had been locked up. "How can that not merit a new trial?" asks Rytting. "In order to merit a new trial, we have to show that, given the new evidence, no rational juror would have convicted Swearingen. There is solid forensic evidence to show this and there is nothing to counteract it on the other side except for Carter's testimony, which she has since recanted. The truth is, if they tried Swearingen today he would walk. You put the testimony of those physicians and scientists in front of a jury, they're going to acquit." Reckoning The CCA denied those final 2 claims in December, and Swearingen was given his new execution date: January 27. At this point, he doesn't have a lot of options. Rytting will petition the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit to try and get them to allow another federal appeal, though the federal standard for bringing in new evidence is tough. On January 7, Rytting, with help from the New Yorkbased Innocence Project, filed a request for a stay of executionas well as more DNA testing. The attorneys want to use modern-day short tandem repeat (STR) testing, unavailable in 2000, to compare the DNA profile taken from the blood found under Trotter's fingernail and put it into the federal CODIS database of DNA profiles of 6.3 million convicted offenders. They also want to use the new technology of "touch DNA"it can detect DNA left behind in skin cells (it recently exonerated the parents of JonBenet Ramsey)on the panty hose around Trotter's neck and on her clothes, under the theory that the killer left cellular evidence behind as he dragged Trotter's body through the forest. It would be nice if, at this late date, the CCA showed some respect for science and granted the testing. It would also be nice if the high court took a step back and showed some respect for all the medical science it has ignored in Swearingen's case. His conviction was based, as Dr. White said, on "misleading forensic pathological evidence"as well as flimsy circumstantial evidence. Of course, cases are tried on circumstantial evidence all the time (often, thats all law enforcement can find), but when circumstantial evidence is as tenuous as this was, and when it butts up against scientific evidencewhen one says one thing and the other says anotheryou would like to think that the highest court in the state would at least give the science a look. The bottom line: Someone killed Melissa Trotter and dumped her body in the Sam Houston National Forest. But that someone was not Larry Swearingen. (Source: The Axis of Logic) Here is a current breakdown of impending USA executions thus far in 2009: Execution By Month: January in Texas ---6 in rest of USA ---2 (8 total) February in Texas ---3 in rest of USA ---3 (6 total) March in Texas ---4 in rest of USA ---2 (6 total) April in Texas ---1 in rest of USA ---2 (3 total) Total: Texas = 14 rest of USA = 9 So...What is Texas trying to prove? Jan. 6, 2009 Is the death penalty a dying breed? Executions nationwide and in Texas were down in 2008. So were death sentences. The numbers don't lie but not everyone agrees on what they say. Defense attorneys think the statistics indicate a waning enthusiasm in the Lone Star State, the death penalty capital of the country, for the ultimate sanction. "It has taken a little longer for the transformation to be felt here," said Rob Owen, co-director of the Capital Punishment Clinic at the University of Texas at Austin. "I think we are seeing the leading edge of that national transformation." Prosecutors doubt that, saying the numbers simply reflect the cyclical nature of criminal justice. "A real sea change? I think it's too early to tell," said Michael Casillas, chief prosecutor of the appellate division of the Dallas County district attorney's office. "Things are, even in the criminal justice system, kind of cyclical." Whether the numbers indicate a temporary slowdown or a slow grinding to a halt, neither side thinks the death penalty will disappear any time soon. The 18 executions that took place in Texas in 2008 occurred in the last half of the year, following a decision by the U.S. Supreme Court that had temporarily halted capital punishment. And 13 executions have been scheduled in the next 9 weeks. Even in Dallas County, where District Attorney Craig Watkins has indicated his discomfort with capital punishment and the district attorney's office is reviewing the case of every inmate on death row from Dallas, prosecutors are going to start seeking execution dates again soon, said Lisa Smith, deputy chief of the appellate section. The review of several dozen cases, some dating back decades, is about halfway complete. "There are cases that are ripe to be set," she said. "Do I anticipate dates being set in the next few months? Yes, I do." Dallas County has always been sparing in its use of the death penalty, but that hasn't been the case in Harris County, which has led the state in death sentences for years. But in 2008, not a single person was sentenced to die in Harris County. That's a significant statistic, Owen said, "just because Harris County has been, for so long in Texas, the bellwether. They really have led the state's enthusiastic pursuit of the death penalty, and it's startling to have a year in which not a single death verdict comes out of Harris County." Perhaps more telling, said David Dow, litigation director for the Texas Defender Service, was the fact that a Harris County jury refused to impose a death sentence in the case of an illegal immigrant who killed a police officer. Whether Harris County will continue to limit its use of capital punishment is unknown: A new district attorney, former judge Pat Lykos, took office after the resignation of the previous district attorney, and observers aren't sure how strong her appetite is for capital punishment. But regardless of what happens in Harris County, Dow and Owen said several factors account for the apparently dwindling death penalty in Texas: a parade of exonerees in the state in the last couple of years, which has made jurors aware of the fallibility of the system; improved representation by defense lawyers; the high cost of prosecuting death penalty cases; and the availability of life without parole as an option. But Shannon Edmonds, staff attorney for Governmental Relations for the Texas District and County Attorneys Association, said it's too early to tell whether the life without parole option has made a difference, and he doubts that news of wrongful convictions in Dallas County affects jurors several counties away. In addition, the cost of capital trials has always been more of a factor in rural counties than in metropolitan areas, where most such crimes occur, he said. The quality of defense representation and available resources has improved, he said, but he suggested the reason for the declining number of death sentences and executions may be far more simple. "We have a lot fewer murders than we did," Edmonds said, so "you have a smaller pool of potential death row inmates from which to choose." According to the Texas Department of Public Safety, 2,149 murders occurred in Texas in 1993, while 1,415 occurred in 2007. BY THE NUMBERS 18 -- Executions in Texas in 2008 26 -- Executions in Texas in 2007 11 -- New death sentences in Texas in 2008 14 -- New death sentences in Texas in 2007 [sources: Texas Department of Criminal Justice; Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty] (source: Dallas Morning News) Jan. 5, 2009 Even killers don't deserve to die THANKS TO the Globe for pointing out good reasons to oppose the death penalty ("Cruel and more unusual," Editorial, Dec. 28). Left unmentioned, however, was any argument against a common justification for execution: murderers deserve to die because they freely choose to kill. Were we to take a fully scientific, cause and effect view of the genesis of a killer's character, motives, state of mind, and situation, we would no longer suppose that he could have done otherwise given his genetic and environmental history, and his current circumstances, internal and external. This view doesn't diminish the moral gravity of the offense or the necessity to protect society, but it calls into question the free will justification for retributive punishment. As psychologists Joshua Greene and Jonathan Cohen conclude in their 2004 paper, "For the law, neuroscience changes nothing and everything": "Free will as we ordinarily understand it is an illusion generated by our cognitive architecture. Retributivist notions of criminal responsibility ultimately depend on this illusion." Give up the illusion, and we've got another good reason to oppose the death penalty: Killers don't deserve to die. THOMAS W. CLARK----Somerville ; The writer is director of the Center for Naturalism. (source: Letter to the Editor, Boston Globe) 01/04/09 2008 decline in U.S. executions has states reflecting on capital punishment Death penalty proponents and opponents agree on at least one thing. Whether it proves to be a turning point or a footnote in the history of capital punishment in the United States, 2008 was a momentous year. The U.S. Supreme Court in April for the 1st time gave its constitutional blessing to the lethal injection method employed by most states and the federal government. But the year also brought renewed challenges and questions about capital punishment from across the country, and it ended with the lowest number of executions in 14 years. And the rush of executions some expected to follow that Supreme Court decision turned instead into a trickle everywhere except Texas, which carried out 18 of the country's 37 executions. The total was the lowest since 1994 and continued a decline since a 1999 peak, when executioners put 98 inmates to death. "Spending money on the death penalty is like building a bridge to nowhere," said Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center. "It takes millions of taxpayer dollars to arrive at a single execution 15 years after the trial." It is more likely, Dieter said, that death sentences will be reversed after lengthy litigation. The number of people sentenced to death in the United States also dropped in 2008 to the lowest number since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. State death sentences have decreased by more than 40 % since the 1990s, according to the Death Penalty Information Center's year-end report. The federal system has been an exception, with federal death sentences up 50 % during the same time period. Dieter sees the trend in state courts as a reflection of growing skepticism about the fairness and costs of the death penalty. But Dudley Sharp, a victim's advocate and pro-death penalty expert, said that the drop in new death sentences may reflect a decrease in homicides along with the reluctance of prosecutors to pursue death cases in states where judges tend to be anti-death penalty. In Missouri, 4 new inmates entered prison under death sentences in 2008, including Independence' s Richard Davis. Missouri now has 49 death row inmates. In Kansas, only 1 new inmate entered prison facing a death sentence, bringing the total awaiting death to 10. Kansas has not carried out an execution since 1965. Missouri's last execution took place in October 2005. After the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on the constitutionality of the lethal injection method, Missouri scheduled several execution dates, but court actions stayed all of them. Nationwide, more than 25 executions were stayed in 2008, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. A lawsuit filed on behalf of 17 of Missouri's capital punishment inmates is pending before the Missouri Supreme Court, which has scheduled oral arguments for Jan. 22. Although the courts have upheld Missouri's lethal injection protocol, the lawsuit challenges the way the protocol was adopted without the opportunity for public comment. State Rep. Bill Deeken, a Republican from Jefferson City, said he intends to introduce a bill in the upcoming legislative session to place a moratorium on the death penalty, so it can be studied to ensure that no innocent person is executed. "I'm for the death penalty, Deeken said. "But the last thing I want to see is an innocent person put to death." Several states convened commissions in 2008 to study the death penalty. Maryland's commission recommended that the state abolish it. A California commission found that it cost the state $138 million each year to maintain its death penalty system. State Supreme Court rulings in New Mexico and Utah also gave notice that death cases cannot be pursued unless legislatures provide adequate funding to represent indigent defendants. "At a time when states are cutting back on teachers, police officers, health care, infrastructure and other vital sources, citizens are increasingly concerned that the death penalty is not the best use of their limited resources," Dieter said. Sharp thinks that the coming year will see more states questioning the use of the death penalty. But he noted that despite a well-funded and organized anti-death penalty movement, New Jersey is the only state in the modern era that has abolished the death penalty. Sharp said not enough attention is paid to innocent victims of the killers. "To state the blatantly clear, living murderers in prison, after release or escape are much more likely to harm and murder again than are executed murderers," he said. (source: Kansas City Star) Jan. 3, 2009 Religions, American Public Differ on Death Penalty Many religious groups advocate the abolition of the death penalty. On the other hand, strong evangelistic church communities are in favor of it. The Pew forum has researched the different positions religious groups have about capital punishment across the United States. Their findings reveal that religions have different points of view on the subject of taking a life as a means of formal retribution. In the midst of war in many places, the issue of capital punishment is one that is being discussed, especially concerning acts of terror. In the United States, the issue of capital punishment has long been debated in churches and in the halls of government. With the increase in crime that experts maintain accompanies recessions, this debate is likely to be part of the discussion. The trend around the world is towards abolishing the death penalty, but in America most people are in favor of it. Since religious groups are thought of as exercising some moral authority on questions like these, it is important to know what they believe on the matter of the death penalty. Those religions thought of as having Asian influence, such as Buddhists and Hindus, have various beliefs on the matter of life and death as discussed in articles about the issue of the death penalty. Although there is no specific position for Buddhists about capital punishment, their tenets advocate nonviolence and appreciate of all life. It is rare that capital punishment is given for any crime. Hindus have no writings on the matter, and therefore adherents of Hinduism have different beliefs about it. The Catholic Church in the United States has repeatedly called for discontinuance of capital punishment in all situations. Although the Catechism says that the death penalty is possible under certain conditions, the formal church has taken a stand against it. Protestants are of differing views, depending upon denomination. The Episcopal Church has taken a stand against the death penalty since 1958. The Evangelical Lutheran Church has no official position about it, whereas its sister church, the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod has stated that capital punishment is in accord with the Holy Scriptures and the Lutheran Confessions. " Mormons leave the matter to the States or civil law. The National Association of Evangelicals supports capital punishment. The Presbyterians have been against capital punishment for nearly 50 years whereas the Southern Baptists believe in the death penalty so long as it is enforced equitably. The Unitarian-Universal ists and the Methodists are opposed to capital punishment, the former for decades and the Methodists since 2000. The umbrella group for Christians, the National Council of Churches, is on record as against the death penalty. With the violence in the Middle East on both sides, Jew and Muslim, perhaps it is important to know what these groups believe. In the United States there is no official Muslim position, but in Islamic countries capital punishment is undertaken if there is intentional harm or threat to the state or intentional murder or physical harm of another person. This includes the spread of terror. All of the major Jewish groups advocate either the abolition of the death penalty or a moratorium on its use. (source: Digital Journal) Jan. 3, 2009 7 executions set for January 7 executions to be carried out at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Walls Unit have been scheduled throughout the month of January. The first execution, that of Curtis Moore, is scheduled for Jan. 14, and the final of the six executions to follow is scheduled for Jan. 29. Moore, 40, was received from Tarrant County. According to their official Web site, TDCJ is awaiting information on the details of his offenses. Jose Garcia Briseno, scheduled for execution on Jan. 15, was 33 years old on the date of his offense. According to TDCJ, Briseno was convicted of the 1991 murder of Dimmit County Sheriff Ben Murray. Following a violent struggle with Briseno and his accomplice, Alberto Gonzalez, Murray was found dead in his home with numerous stab wounds. The wounds were inflicted with a butcher knife found buried in his chest. Briseno and Gonzalez reportedly killed Murray to avenge previous arrests he made against them. Frank Moore, who is scheduled to be executed on Jan. 21, was 34 at the time of his alleged crimes. In 1996, Moore was convicted of the January 1994 shooting deaths of 23-year-old Samuel Boyd and 15-year-old Patrick Clark. Prior to his arrest, Moore reportedly threatened to kill family members of witnesses if they cooperated with police investigation. Frank Perkins, 53, is scheduled for execution on Jan. 22. According to the TDCJ Web site, Perkins who at the time of the December 2000 offense was 45 years old strangled his 64-year-old step-mother, resulting in her death. Her body was found in the trunk of her vehicle in a parking garage. On Jan. 27, 37-year-old Lary Swearingen is scheduled to be executed for kidnapping and strangling a 19-year-old in 1998. Virgil Martinez, scheduled for execution on Jan. 28, was 28 at the time of his 1996 offense. Martinez was convicted in Harris County of fatally shooting a 3-year-old female, a 6-year-old male, an 18-year-old male and a 27-year-old female. Finally, 46-year-old Ricardo Ortiz is scheduled for execution on Jan. 29. At 34, while confined in El Paso, Ortiz and 2 other inmates were cooking heroin. The subject made a triple dose of heroin and injected it into a 22-year-old Hispanic male. The victim died of a heroin overdose and was found when officers did a count in the cellblock. (source: Huntsville Item) Jan. 1, 2009 Abatement of capital punishment continues in U.S. Executions and new death sentences each continued their sharp nationwide decline in 2008, as states wrestled with legal, moral and financial concerns about capital punishment. 37people were executed in 9 states, the lowest total in 14 years and a 62 % drop from the 98 death sentences carried out in 1999, according to statistics compiled by the nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center. A total of 111 death sentences were handed down, the fewest since executions resumed in 1976, according to the center, a repository of reports and research on capital punishment run largely by opponents. The total declined from 115 in 2007 and was barely a third of the numbers condemned each year in the 1990s. The economic realities of cash-strapped state and local governments have undermined capital punishment where moral and legal arguments have failed to alter majority support for the death penalty, said Richard Dieter, a Catholic University law professor and director of the information center. "I don't know that it will change public opinion but the practical effects of the economy are just that if you're a politician and you have to cut something, do you want fewer police officers on the streets "... or do you cut one death penalty and save a few million dollars?" Dieter said. "At a time when states are cutting back on teachers, police officers, health care, infrastructure, and other vital services, citizens are increasingly concerned that the death penalty is not the best use of their limited resources." A Gallup poll in October showed 64 % support for capital punishment. But even in Texas, where 18 of the 37 executions occurred last year, the number of death sentences issued has declined by 1/2 over the past decade. In New Mexico, the state Supreme Court ruled last year that death penalties couldn't be pursued unless the Legislature budgeted adequate funding for legal representation of condemned inmates who cannot afford attorneys. Utah judges also signaled that they would overturn death penalties for convicts inadequately defended. New Jersey and New York dropped the death penalty in 2007, and a vote expected early this year in Maryland on whether to abolish capital punishment has been driven in part by taxpayers' sticker shock at reports that each of the 5 executions there cost about $37 million. In California, home to 1 in 5 of the country's condemned prisoners, prosecutors are wary of seeking death penalties when life without parole accomplishes the objective of keeping killers off the street. San Quentin's death row, the nation's most populous, continued to grow last year, with 21 new capital judgments swelling the ranks of condemned prisoners to 677. Executions were suspended for legal review of the state's lethal injection procedures and reconstruction of the idled death chamber. (source: Los Angeles Times) 2008 Is Texas Changing Its Mind About the Death Penalty? By HILARY HYLTON AUSTIN Dec. 23, 2008 Texas has executed prisoners with a regularity and in record numbers that has earned the state worldwide attention. But, while Texas still led the U.S. in executions in 2008, juries in the state appear to have began to turn away from the ultimate punishment even for the most heinous crimes. Ten men and one woman were sentenced to death in Texas in 2008, according to the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. It was the lowest annual figure since the 1976 reinstatement of the death penalty. Texas handed out more than 20 death sentences in each of 2003 and 2004. In 2005, the number fell to 14, and it has not risen above that annual figure since. "The need for revenge, for vengeance is being curbed, the appetite is no longer there," contends Robert Hirschorn, a nationally known Texas attorney and jury consultant who has helped pick juries for many prominent clients, including, most recently, millionaire real estate mogul Robert Durst, who was found not guilty of killing and dismembering his neighbor. "The tide has changed," Hirschorn says. "It used to be fashionable to say, 'I support the death penalty.' It used to be unfashionable to say, 'I am against the death penalty.'" (See the Top 10 Crime Stories of 2008) Nationwide, and particularly in Texas, anti-death penalty sentiment has usually been centered on college campuses and within the Catholic Church, Hirschorn says, but is expanding beyond those communities — a trend he sees reflected in his jury questionnaires as well as in nationwide political polls. The number of people sentenced to death has been falling nationally since a peak of about 300 a year in the 1990s, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, to 115 people in 2007. The reduction comes as more states, such as New York, New Jersey and Illinois have passed death penalty moratoriums; while some, like Maryland, are considering whether to abolish executions altogether. Texas still accounts for 50% of the executions in the U.S., and with an appeal process of 10 years (the shortest among the states), the numbers are unlikely to decrease significantly. According to Kristin Houle, director of the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, the state averaged nearly one lethal injection per week over a five month period in 2008. There have been 423 executions in Texas since the state reininstituted the death penalty in 1982, and 374 condemned men and women are currently residing on Texas' Death Row. (One resident, Michael Blair, walked off death row this year after being exonerated by DNA testing.) (See the Top 10 Unsolved Crimes.) But now the number of new residents appears to be slowing. "[In 2008] officials' zeal for executions was not matched by public desire for new death sentences, as evidenced by the continued steep decline in the number of new inmates arriving on death row," Houle says. Nowhere was that more apparent than in Houston, a city dubbed the "capital of capital punishment" in a study by the NAACP. After years of being a major contributor to Texas death row numbers, thanks in part to high profile "tough-on-crime" prosecutors, Houston juries sent no new prisoners to death row in 2008. The Harris County prosecutor's office (which was roiled by the departure of its elected District Attorney over a sex-and-e-mail scandal) brought only two capital cases this year. One ended in a tough plea bargain and a 60-year sentence; the other, involving the vicious murder of a police officer, shocked the city's legal community when the defendant was convicted but spared the death penalty and given a life sentence. The changing attitudes reflect broader changes in the cultural, political and social climate, says Hirschorn. But another factor is a key change in state sentencing laws, which now allow Texas juries to levy a life-without- parole sentence, dubbed LWOP. The LWOP sentencing provision, though vociferously opposed by the Texas prosecution bar, was passed by a conservative legislature and signed by a conservative governor in 2005. "Cop killers, baby killers are poster children for the death penalty," Hirschorn says, "and without the option of LWOP you could guarantee the death penalty." In the Houston cop killing case, the lawyers for defendant Juan Quintero initially attempted an insanity defense, citing a traumatic brain injury. Though the jurors rejected it and found Quintero guilty, Mark Bennett, a Houston defense lawyer argued on his blog "Defendingpeople. com" that the head injury testimony lingered in the minds of some jurors, who may have regarded it as a mitigating factor in deciding on a life sentence rather than execution. But along with changes in sentencing guidelines, something else has changed in Texas, death-penalty opponents claim. In the past, both Democrats and Republicans for high office have embraced the death penalty as an issue, but in recent elections, Houle notes, the issue has been rarely raised. Improved access to better quality defense counsel and the realization that capital cases usually cost county government upwards of $2 million each, Houle says, have helped reduce the number of death penalty cases. Recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions striking down the death penalty in certain kinds of cases — the rape of a child — and concerns about the legality of executing mentally retarded or mentally ill individuals have also slowed the number of capital cases being brought. With broader legal options, the most execution-prone state of the union may increasingly be opting for some other punishment than a life for a life. Is Texas Changing Its Mind About the Death Penalty? Rodney Reed’s request for new trial denied By Andrea Lorenz December 17, 2008 The request for a new trial by attorneys for Rodney Reed, who faces the death penalty for the 1996 murder of Stacey Stites, has been denied. We will have a story up soon. In the meantime, read details here on this fascinating case. Reed had requested the new trial in July based on what his attorneys said was evidence Stites’ fiance, Jimmy Fennell, should have been investigated as a suspect. Read our July story here. Reed’s request for new trial denied Nov. 29, 2008 The Life Penalty---- In the execution capital of the free world, death sentences have declined precipitously thanks in part to the institution of life-without-parole sentences. Juan Leonardo Quintero was on the expressway to Texas death row. Prosecutors had the 34-year-old on video confessing to gunning down a police officer who had just handcuffed him and sat him in the backseat of his patrol car on September 21, 2006. Despite having his hands cuffed behind his back, Quintero had managed to get a grip on a pistol that 40-year-old police officer Rodney Johnson had overlooked during the pre-arrest pat-down. He shot Johnson 4 times in the back of the head while the 12-year police veteran and father of five was filling out the routine paperwork before taking his suspect downtown. Quintero was in custody in the 1st place because he had no driver's license when Johnson stopped him for speeding. Quintero had no license because he was in the country illegally, for at least the second time. Seven years before, the landscaping laborer had been deported back to Mexico after being convicted of indecency with a child. To make his fate look even more cut-and-dried, Quintero didn't kill just any Texas police officer. He killed an officer from Houston. That meant he'd be tried in Harris County. And since the U.S. Supreme Court gave the green light for a resumption of executions in 1976, Harris County has condemned 222 capital murderers to die. If Harris County were a state unto itself, it would rank 2nd behind the rest of Texas in the number of executions carried out in the modern era of the death penalty. On May 8 this year, jurors rejected out of hand Quintero's plea that he was insane on the day of the killing. They convicted him of capital murder. The jurors then had 2 options: Sentence him to die by lethal injection in Huntsville, or send him to prison for the rest of his life. Had Quintero been convicted 20 years ago, or even 5 years ago, a death sentence would have been all but automatic. Back then, a life-in-prison sentence meant that the killer could be eligible for parole 40 years after being locked up. And the notion that a cop killer could one day walk free was anathema to most Texas juries. But Quintero was convicted at a time when once rock-solid support for the death penalty was developing fissures in Texas and around the nation and shortly after the hard-fought 2005 passage of a state law that gives juries the option of sentencing murderers to life without parole. The Harris County jury chose that alternative. So instead of awaiting execution, Quintero is one of at least 14 killers in Texas who, having been convicted of capital murder, will live out their lives in prison. "You know there's a shift in attitude in Texas when a Houston jury sentences an illegal immigrant who shoots a police officer 4 times in the back of the head to anything other than death," says Larry Fitzgerald, who witnessed more than 200 executions as a Texas prison system spokesman from the mid-1990s until his retirement in 2003. In the 2 decades before the Legislature enacted the life-without- parole law, Texas courts sent an average of 35 murderers per year to death row. Despite the international spotlight shining on Texas as the execution capital of the free world, those numbers were showing no sign of abatement when state Sen. Eddie Lucio launched his effort in the late 1990s to give juries the life-without- parole option. Lucio, who represents a heavily Roman Catholic district anchored by Brownsville, is among a handful of South Texas Democratic lawmakers who express equal misgivings about the death penalty and about legalized abortion. "I'm Catholic and I'm pro-life," says Lucio. "So whether we are talking about taking the life of an unborn child or someone who has committed a terrible murder, I'm going to have some problems with it." It was not surprising when Lucio's initial bill went nowhere in 1999. A solid core of police groups, prosecutors and crime victims' groups was staunchly opposed. Their chief concern was that such a law would "weaken" the death penalty in Texas. Undaunted, Lucio filed his bill again in 2001 and 2003, with opponents bringing to bear the same arguments and the pace of executions in Huntsville continuing to make headlines. But by the time lawmakers convened in Austin in 2005, public opinion was starting to pull back from a broad embrace of capital punishment. And so, apparently, were the attitudes of at least some Texas prosecutors. Richard Dieter, who heads the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington, D.C., chalks up that shift to the escalating drumbeat of documented problems with the application of capital punishment. Between 2000 and 2004, at least 38 death row inmates around the country had been exonerated based on systematic re-examination of the evidence used to condemn them. The most dramatic examples came from Illinois, where then-Gov. George Ryan, a Republican, ordered a halt to all executions in his state and commuted more than 150 death sentences after a group of journalism students from Northwestern University reopened inmates' old files and found widespread evidence of faulty convictions. Meanwhile, the U.S. Supreme Court had delivered twin blows to the administration of the death penalty. The Supremes ruled in 2002 that executing mentally retarded inmates violated the Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment. 3 years later, they used the same rationale to prohibit the execution of inmates who had committed capital murder before their 18th birthdays. "What we began seeing in polling data was a re-thinking of public support for the death penalty," Dieter says. "A majority of people still supported it, but not the overwhelming majority that we were used to seeing." Evidence of that re-thinking manifested in Texas with a dramatic drop in the number of convicted killers being sentenced to death. In 2005, 14 death sentences were handed down, the fewest in nearly a decadeand less than half of what the state had been averaging since the 1980s. Steve Hall, who runs the StandDown Texas Project, which has long pushed for a moratorium on executions in the state, says it's hard to pinpoint a single reason for that decline. But he echoes a line of argument that attorneys often use in their efforts to exempt youthful offenders and those with diminished mental capacity. "I don't know that I would call it exactly an evolving standard of decency,'" Hall says, "though perhaps that captures it." That standard, he believes, has filtered down to many of the district attorneys who prosecute capital cases, as well as to the jurors who ultimately determine punishment. During the 2005 debate on Lucio's 4th attempt to pass life-without- parole laws, most of the state's urban prosecutors remained entrenched in oppositionat least publicly. "My problem is [juries] might use it as a compromise instead of reaching a true decision," Roe Wilson, an assistant district attorney in Harris County, told the Senate Criminal Justice Committee in March 2005. But by that time, Lucio had put together a bipartisan coalition of key lawmakers, including Criminal Justice Committee Chairman John Whitmire, a Houston Democrat, and Sen. Chris Harris, a hard-line conservative from Arlington. Pivotal to Lucio's argument were the well-documented flaws in death sentences around the country, along with his long-held assertion that life-without- parole sentences would spare crime victims' families the agony of reliving their tragedies each time a death row inmate attempted an eleventh-hour appeal. "It still gives victims' families the closure they need," Lucio says, "but it doesn't put them through that endless appeals process." Lucio says that "a lot of people who opposed my bill said I was trying to undermine the death penalty. The truth is, it was all these false convictions and exonerations that were undermining the death penalty." Hall says that Gov. Rick Perry, an ardent death-penalty supporter who has allowed more than 200 executions since taking office 8 years ago, provided some cover to his fellow Republicans in the Legislature. In May 2004, the notoriously hard-line Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles had recommended that condemned inmate Kelsey Patterson be spared execution on grounds that he was severely mentally ill. Perry rejected their suggestion that Patterson's sentence be commuted to life in prison, but his rationale was significant. "Governor Perry said at the time, 'Texas has no life-without- parole sentencing option, and no one can guarantee this defendant would never be freed to commit other crimes were his sentence commuted,'" says Hall, who has so far been unable to persuade legislative leaders to debate a moratorium proposal introduced by Rep. Elliott Naishtat. "I think Governor Perry, in saying that, was sending a clear message to the Legislature that he would sign a life-without- parole bill that landed on his desk." A year later, he did. It's unclear how much of the decline in death sentences in Texas can be linked to the life-without- parole option, or whether it's more a symptom of growing public uncertainty about the ultimate punishment. "Whether you can chalk that up to the life-without- parole statutes that have gone on the books in Texas and other states in recent years remains to be seen," Dieter says, pointing out that death sentences across the nation are down about 60 % over the past 5 years. "But all indications are that people, and juries, want that option. "When you present life without parole to juries, it lifts any confusion they might have about whether someone is ever going to walk the streets again. Even though a traditional life sentence in Texas meant there was no possibility of parole for at least 40 years, there's always that misapprehension that someone could be out in a matter of a few years. So there might not be any difference in the eye of a juror who's just seen those 8x10 glossy photos of a horrible murder scene who wants to be assured that the person responsible never walks free among us again." Juan Quintero's trial was a powerful example. When Harris County jurors began deliberating his punishment for killing Rodney Johnson, defense lawyer Danalynn Recer laid a foundation to show that despite her client's heinous act, his life still had value. Jurors were told that he had no record of past violence and was both deeply religious and deeply remorseful. The prosecution painted a starkly different picture. "You look for some humanity in this defendant. You look for some emotion, some heart, some soul in this defendant," said prosecutor John Jordan. "You can watch [his videotaped confession] 20 times and you won't find it." Despite pleas from Johnson's family and police colleagues that Johnson's killer be sentenced to die, the jury sided with the defenseand clearly responded to Recer's arguments. "I believe he has value," juror Letty Burkholder told the Houston Chronicle. "He's loved by many of his family and friends, and that was number one. I felt like he has potential." Added Tiffany Moore, another juror: "I still feel we came to the right decision. We could never bring Rodney back. I feel very sad for the family, losing a loved one." Recer declined to be interviewed for this story, but after the trial she told Scott Henson, an Austin activist who blogs about criminal justice issues at gritsforbreakfast. blogspot. com, that she had seen an obvious shift in attitudes about capital punishment during jury selection. Five times as many potential jurors were excluded for saying their consciences would not allow them impose a death sentence, she said, than were scratched for ruling out consideration of life without parole. She also told Henson, a consultant for the Texas Innocence Project, that Quintero was so guilt-ridden, he had considered abandoning his defense and waiving his appeals, essentially volunteering for the death sentence. But he had changed his mind, she said, when his children intervened, reminding him that "his life is not over, he's still a dad." For Texas prosecutors, the increasing appeal of the life-without- parole option might have as much to do with basic economics as with an evolution in opinions about the fairness of the death penalty. "The dirty little secret about life without parole is that it gives the DAs peace with honor, so to speak," says Henson. "Death penalty cases are getting so expensive, especially when you add in all the appellate costs, that it just decimates their budgets.But with life without parole, they still get a capital conviction without all that cost." The cost issue weighs heavily on county governments, says Larry Fitzgerald. Since his retirement from the prison system, Fitzgerald has been engaged by defense lawyers as an expert witness in several cases where prosecutors have pushed for the death penalty, assuring jurors that life without parole is really for life. "Basically, taxpayers are paying for both sides of the freight," says Fitzgerald, who supports the death penalty but believes that it has been overused in Texas. "The vast majority of the defendants are indigent, so they get court-appointed lawyers. Plus, with every death sentence, there's an automatic appeal, so that means the taxpayers are on the hook for that one, too." The cost to the state of lifetime lock-ups is far less by comparison, experts say. Since the mid-1990s, when lawmakers enacted sweeping get-tough-on- crime legislation that tripled the size of the prison populationto more than 150,000 nowthe Texas Department of Criminal Justice has added geriatric units and even a hospice system. "With the relatively small number of life-without- parole inmates we've received so far, there shouldn't be a significant impact" financially, says Michelle Lyons, the department's spokeswoman. But neither shifts in public opinion nor economic factors have swayed prosecutors like David Weeks, the Walker County district attorney, who fiercely opposed the new sentencing option every time Sen. Lucio introduced it. "I never thought life without parole was a good idea, but it hasn't affected my business here one bit," says Weeks, whose office prosecutes crimes committed on the prison properties of Huntsville. "We've only had one capital case since it went into effect, and we're pushing hard for the death penalty." That case involves a September 24, 2007, escape attempt by two prison inmates who managed to wrest a gun away from a correctional officer supervising an outdoor work crew. The inmates and guards exchanged gunfire, and one of the inmates took control of a prison pickup truck and rammed it into a horse being ridden by another officer supervising the crew. 59-year-old Susan Canfield was thrown from the horse and smashed into the truck's windshield. She died from her injuries. The horse was shot in the crossfire and later had to be euthanized. Both inmates were in prison for violent crimes but had behavioral records that qualified them for outside work. Jerry Martin was serving a life sentence for murder. John Ray Falk was doing 50 years for the attempted murder of a police officer. The escaped men were caught within a few hours. Weeks expects the pair to be tried together this spring. "If some folks are worried about the high cost of death penalty cases, I'm not," says Weeks, the legislative liaison for the Texas Association of District and County Attorneys. "I have no trouble going to the taxpayers and saying, 'We need to pony up and make sure justice gets done.'" But even though many prosecutors still don't like the life-without- parole statute, Weeks says he doubts that any serious effort will be made to repeal it. One of the compromises Lucio made to win passage of the bill was to eliminate the option for juries to hand down a sentence of life with the possibility of parole after 40 years in capital murder cases. Some lawmakers who had opposed keeping that option argued that it might confuse juries, and possibly anger crime victims' families who would worry about the killers' eventually gaining their freedom. But Lucio says that one unintended consequence of the bill in its final form was to give defendants who might have been parties to a killingbut not the actual killers an incentive to plea bargain for a lesser charge, which means that they might one day win parole and that their cases can be disposed of more swiftly. "The way it's working so far, we are still able to hold out that parole option in some of these unique circumstances, " Lucio says. During the years when he was gathering support for life without parole, one of Lucio's frustrations was that state leaders had no system for determining how many capital murder trials ended with death sentences and how many resulted in lesser sentences. So two years after the life-without- parole law took effect, he pushed successful legislation requiring that Texas' 506 district courts submit reports to the Texas Office of Court Administration documenting the outcome of each capital case. The early findings show that 58 capital cases were decided between July 31, 2007, and October 13, 2008. Jurors opted for life without parole in 15 of those cases and imposed the death penalty in six. One defendant was acquitted. (The others either involved cases where murders were committed before the new law took effect, meaning that life without parole could not be considered, or where convictions fell short of capital murder or were plea-bargained to a lesser charge.) In states like Florida, controversy has swirled over younger killerssome in their teensbeing sentenced to life without parole. In Texas, case reports are not broken down by ages, but 3 defendants under 21 -- the youngest being 18 -- have so far gotten life without parole in the state. Lucio says that if his law means underage killers spend 5 or 6 decades behind bars, it's all right with him. "Hopefully," he says, "these people who get locked up come to terms with that fact and manage to make something of their lives, even if it's in prison." Juan Quintero's life now goes on in the Polunsky Unit in Livingston, which is also home to death row. When capital offenders like Quintero are sentenced to life without parole, they are assigned to the general prison population and can be eligible for jobs within the system based on an evaluation that looks at such factors as education levels and in-prison behavior. One of a growing number of Texans given the chance to livein a case that not long ago would have meant near-certain executionQuintero now works on a supervised squad that tends to the crops grown on the unit's sprawling property. (source: Texas Observer---- John Moritz is a freelance reporter in Austin who has covered the Texas criminal justice system for more than a dozen years and has been a media witness to 20 executions in Huntsville. Cell phones hard to find on death row Killers have nothing to lose if they're caught, official says. By Mike Ward AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF November 23, 2008 If you think smuggled cell phones in Texas prisons are easy to track down, think again, say officials involved in the seemingly endless search. In recent months, phones been found tied inside plastic bags and buried in a jar of peanut butter. And secreted inside the tiny vent atop a shower stall. And hidden in a hollowed-out spot in the binding of a law book. Even stuffed inside a sock, pushed way up out of view inside a narrow crack in a concrete wall. And, in at least two cases, they have been found in a plastic sack inside someone's rectum. "A year ago, we were amazed to find an inmate with both a cell phone and a charger up there," John Moriarty, the state prison system's inspector general, said Thursday. "They have 24/7 to think of ways to hide cell phones so we can't find them. This is our biggest, most complex challenge right now: tracking these phones down." In the month since Richard Lee Tabler, a 29-year-old convicted double killer awaiting execution, called a state senator from death row and triggered the biggest scandal to hit Texas' prison system in years, officials have been scrambling to clean out all smuggled phones. So far, they have been unable to claim victory. In all, a total of 18 smuggled cell phones were found on death row in just 30 days — five since a massive lockdown and shakedown of all prisons was completed last week. Under Texas law, cell phones are illegal inside prisons to keep convicts from ordering new killings and other crimes while they're behind bars. Officials in other states such as California, Florida and New York say they have had no problems with smuggled cell phones on their death rows, which are much smaller than Texas', though they concede that cell phones in prisons are a growing threat. Statewide in Texas, officials have confiscated 137 phones from prisons in just a month, not counting the dozens of SIM cards that make the phones work, plus assorted chargers and batteries. That adds to the hundreds more found in preceding months, in what prison officials have labeled their biggest security headache. Not surprisingly, officials who would only talk privately because of the active investigation said that several convicts and guards remain under investigation in the smuggling cases and that prosecution is planned for those caught. So far, only Tabler, his mother and his sister have been busted on contraband charges. Not since a death row convict spit out a handcuff key just as his execution began, or when eight death row killers broke out in a headline-grabbing escape, has there been such high-profile hand- wringing and concern about security on Texas' death row, which holds 344 condemned men. Brad Livingston, the executive director of Texas' prison system, has labeled smuggled cell phones "a major security issue." Although Texas prison officials have been circumspect about detailing crimes that resulted from convicts calling the outside world, prison officials in several other states said the danger is great. South Carolina corrections chief Jon Ozmint blames smuggled cell phones for most of the escapes from his lockups. In Oklahoma, two convicts were killed and 20 others were injured in prison fights investigators say they think were organized by prisoners with cell phones. And Baltimore police say a man was gunned down outside his home last summer after a shooting suspect he identified ordered him killed from behind bars. Texas investigators have said they suspect that up to nine other death row convicts, some with criminal gang connections, made calls from Tabler's phone. "This is a threat that can be absolutely eliminated," said Ozmint, who stirred controversy weeks ago by suggesting that electronic jamming devices be brought in to block cell phone signals in his prisons — an idea that Whitmire and other Texas officials are pushing as well. The problem: Jamming is illegal under a 1933 federal law, and the Federal Communications Commission has warned against such tactics. On Friday, Ozmint scheduled a demonstration of a jamming device at a South Carolina prison. Texas prison officials were initially scheduled to attend but were called off several days before amid warnings that they could not spend state travel money to witness a federal crime. "This is a law we have to get changed, for the sake of public safety," said House Corrections Committee Chairman Jerry Madden, R- Richardson. "This is not just a temporary problem. ... It's a growing threat to security to our prison system and to the public at large." John Whitmire, the veteran Houston senator, is more blunt: "Jam the damn things now." Whitmire started the statewide crackdown on cell phones after he reported Tabler's calls to police. Tabler has since threatened to kill Whitmire and this reporter, who broke the story after also getting calls from the convict. "It shouldn't be this tough to get the cell phones out of there," Whitmire added, echoing sentiments from a growing chorus of state officials who have become increasingly critical of top prison officials. Not that simple, said those prison officials, admittedly red-faced from repeated top-to-bottom searches of death row cells, only to have more cell phones turn up afterward. "Inmates master the art of hiding contraband, and they make it as difficult as possible to find it," said Michelle Lyons, the prison system's spokeswoman in Huntsville. "But we're not letting up on the searches." On Wednesday, after two more cell phones were found on death row — one in an envelope dropped outside a cell, the other spotted as convict Raphael Holiday tried to flush it down his commode — more than 100 correctional officers were brought in from other lockups to death row at the Polunsky Unit near Livingston for a surprise shakedown, prison officials said. Half the cells were searched. Only a shank, a handmade weapon fashioned from a typewriter part, was found. Lyons said such searches will continue. In fact, she said the agency is forming regional teams to begin conducting surprise searches at all prisons to enforce a new zero-tolerance policy on contraband ordered by Gov. Rick Perry after Tabler's calls. But the hunt will be increasingly difficult, investigators say, as convicts find new ways to secrete cell phones and other contraband — as one seizure on death row last week showed. Explains Moriarty: "There is a gap in the wall, about a half-inch or so wide, and you couldn't see anything in there with a flashlight. It looked like the space was just about six inches tall. "But we kept looking. We brought in a tiny camera that we ran up inside that wall. And sure enough, there was a sock way, way up inside there with a cell phone in it. The inmate probably had a way figured about how to fish it back out. "But we got to it first." During the massive shakedown of all prisons for contraband, the biggest such search in a decade or more, authorities found cell phones, weapons, drugs and assorted other contraband in a variety of places. "Historically, we've found phones taped underneath benches, hidden inside cans of baby powder, behind electrical plugs, in holes and cracks in the walls," Lyons said. "About any place you can imagine hiding contraband, we've probably found it there." When a smuggled cell phone is confiscated, Moriarty and other investigators said, weeks of additional work begin — as phone records have to be subpoenaed, numbers and calls have to be traced, interviews have to be conducted and ownership of the phone and its components have to be verified to make a criminal case. And then, Moriarty said, "when we get a case made, we're faced with charging someone who's already under a death sentence. It adds nothing to what they're already looking at. "They have nothing to lose." On Thursday, eight of the state's 90-some investigators were assigned to death row cell phone cases in addition to all five of the prison system's investigation analysts. Special camera systems were reportedly on order to assist in searching the cracks and crevices inside cells, and high-tech cell phone detection gear was also being reviewed. "People are asking, 'How could they miss those all those phones when they did a search?' " Moriarty said. "The resources needed to go after every single phone in the system will be tremendous. But short of X-raying the walls of the cells and every inmate, we're using all the tools we have right now." mward@statesman.com; 445-1712 Additional material from The Associated Press. Cell phones hard to find on death row Nov. 16, 2008 Dallas County district attorney reconciles opposition to death penalty with the law Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins created a conviction integrity unit. He invited law students into his office to help probe for wrongful convictions. And there is at least one other way Watkins differs from most other prosecutors: He is personally opposed to capital punishment. In recent interviews, Watkins discussed those feelings and how he reconciles them with Texas law and the policies of his office. Why are you opposed to capital punishment? I'm a human being, and as a human being, I will not kill anybody. I don't want to use my position to take a life, even though you may go out and do a heinous crime. I may be even worse than you because I have the full weight of the government behind me. For me to use the full weight of the government to do the same thing that you did, is that justifiable? We just agreed to seek the death penalty against a guy that raped a 3-year-old girl and strangled her and left her under a bed. When I see that, the human side of me says, "Yeah, that guy should be killed." But then the government is the supreme being, right? You're in a supreme position. You're higher than human existence and you should carry yourself as such. Given your feelings, when your office seeks the death penalty, do you personally sign off on that? Professionally that's something I have to do ... for the citizens I represent. ... It's the law and I have to implement it. I can't let my personal views get in the way of what the public wants. Will your feelings about the death penalty ever affect the policy of your office? I would like to think that I have the courage to stand up and say no [to capital punishment]. But Im not at that point. I don't know if I ever will be. It's so early in my career as DA. I don't have any seniority. I don't have any credibility. ... That might be a fight that I should fight, but at this point it's too early. Do decisions on capital cases cause you any sleepless nights? All the time. Not just the ones that I make the decision on. Every time I read in the newspaper that someone is going to the death chamber, I don't sleep. . . . They just did one last week with one of the Texas Seven. I pay attention to that. That's something I struggle with, even though the person did something really bad. Are you concerned your position on capital punishment will hurt you politically? I think it will, obviously. I can foresee the attacks that will come my way. But at the end of the day, the public wants honesty and openness. The fact that I am publicly trying to come to a conclusion on this is good for the system, and it's good for politics. I dont think politicians are honest enough. (source: Fort Worth Star-Telegram) Texas death row search reveals another phone, drugs By PEGGY FIKAC Austin Bureau Nov. 13, 2008 AUSTIN — Just hours after the end of a prison lockdown prompted by contraband cell phones, a death-row inmate was found with a cell phone, a charger and a trace amount of a green, leafy substance believed to be marijuana, a prison system spokeswoman confirmed today. The items were found Wednesday and turned over to the prison system's office of inspector general, said Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokeswoman Michelle Lyons. "They will be looking into how he got these items," she said. Lyons added that prison officials have not ordered a new lockdown for now. The items were in the possession of death row inmate Mark Stroman when a TDCJ sergeant conducted a cell search, she said. Stroman was placed on death row's most restrictive custody level as a result, Lyons said. The lockdown was instituted last month after it was discovered that 10 death row inmates had made nearly 2,800 calls from a cell phone, including calls to a state senator. The lockdown ended Wednesday morning. Before Wednesday's incident involving Stroman, officials during the lockdown had found in the death row area alone 12 cell phones, nine chargers, three cell phone batteries, seven SIM cards and two weapons, Lyons said. Stroman was sentenced to death for the Oct. 4, 2001 slaying of a Mesquite gas-station attendant who was of Indian descent. He also was accused in the slaying of one Pakistani man and the wounding of another in shootings that he said were in retaliation for the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Police said Stroman told them he committed the attacks "to retaliate on local Arab Americans, or whatever you want to call them ... I did what every American wanted to do but didn't." pfikac@express-news.net Texas death row search reveals another phone, drugs Nov. 13, 2008 7 US executions scheduled in next 10 days Over the next 10 days, 7 death row inmates are scheduled to be executed in the United States. 5 of these condemned men are in Texas, a state that has carried out 15 of the 31 executions in the US so far this year. Barring a last-minute reprieve, George Whitaker III will die by lethal injection at 6 p.m. Wednesday evening at the Texas execution chamber in Huntsville, north of Houston. The next day, prisoner Denard Manns is set to be put to death. 3 more Texas executions are planned for next week: Eric Cathey on Tuesday, November 18; Rogelio Cannady on Wednesday, November 19; and Robert Hudson on Thursday, November 20. 2 executions are scheduled in other states: Gregory L. Bryant-Bey in Ohio, and Marco Allen Chapman in Kentucky. Chapman would be the 1st person put to death in Kentucky in 10 years. George Whitaker, 36, was convicted and sentenced to death for the 1994 murder of Shakeitha Carrier, his ex-girlfriend' s sister. His former court-appointed lawyer, retired state District Judge Jay Burnett, petitioned the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles to recommend that Republican Governor Rick Perry commute his sentence to life in prison or grant a 30-stay so that his petition could be reviewed. In his petition to the pardon board, Burnett argued that his client was unjustly condemned to death because the presiding judge in his case, Caprice Cooper, prevented the jury from being told that the alternative sentence would have been 40 years in prison with no possibility of parole. Burnett said he was reasonably certain that the jury "believe[d] in the popular myth that convicted defendants serve only short terms before being released from prison." Burnett also contended that Whitaker received poor legal representation because lawyers did not present expert testimony regarding lingering effects of a childhood brain injury. He also maintained that the crime did not meet the criteria for the death penalty in Texas, which requires the prosecution prove that a murder occurred during the commission of another felony offense. Prosecutors argued that the murder took place while Whitaker burglarized the family's home, but Burnett argued that the defendant had not entered the house to steal anything. Earlier this week, the pardon board recommended that Governor Perry reject Burnett's petition, making it increasingly likely that Whitaker's execution will go forward. Texas governors rarely act against the recommendations of the board. Rick Perry has presided over 181 executions, more than any other governor since the US Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976. Perry took over as Texas governor in December 2000 from George W. Bush, who left the office to assume the US presidency. Bush presided over the 152 executions during his 5 years as Texas governor, commuting only 1 death sentence. As governor, Rick Perry has taken a fervently pro-death-penalty stance, and has signed death warrants for the mentally retarded, foreign nationals, those convicted for crimes committed as juveniles, and many condemned prisoners whose guilt was in reasonable doubt. In June 2002, Perry vetoed a ban on the execution of mentally retarded inmates. On May 28, 2002, Texas executed Napoleon Beazley, who was convicted for a murder committed when he was 17 years old. Perry refused to issue a 30-day stay of execution when the pardon board voted against granting Beazley commutation of his sentence or a reprieve. (See "Texas executes man for crime committed at 17") The European Union, the American Bar Association, Amnesty International and other human rights groups opposed the execution, and called on Texas to stop it. As protesters demonstrated outside the governors mansion as the execution approached, Perry commented, "To delay his punishment would be to delay justice." The US and the state of Texas in particular have continually flouted both world opinion and international law in relation to its death penalty practices. On July 16 of this year the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered the US to stay the imminent executions of 5 Mexican nationals on death row in Texas. The 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, signed by the US, mandates that local authorities inform all detained foreigners "without delay" of the right to have their consulates notified of their detention. Governor Perry said of the ICJ ruling, "The world court has no standing in Texas and Texas is not bound by a ruling or edict from a foreign court." Less than a month later, Texas carried through on its defiance of the international court. On August 5, Mexican-born Jose Ernesto Medellin died by lethal injection at the Huntsville prison; and on August 7, Honduran national Heliberto Chi was put to death. (See "Texas executes Mexican and Honduran nationals") Condemning the executions scheduled in the US during November, Amnesty International stated, "It's only a week since Barack Obama's historic election win, but with a spate of executions scheduled in the USA this month we already have a chilling reminder of how much needs to be done to improve the countrys human rights standing in the world. "The death penalty is always cruel and unnecessary and carries the inescapable risk of irreversible error. We urgently need a US president prepared to speak out against executions." The new resident in the White House, however, will not champion this cause. In his book, The Audacity of Hope, Obama made clear his support for the death penalty in principle, writing: "I believe there are some crimesmass murder, the rape and murder of a childso heinous, so beyond the pale, that the community is justified in expressing the full measure of its outrage by meting out the ultimate punishment." During the presidential campaign, Obama denounced the June 24 US Supreme Court decision barring the death penalty for child rape, siding with the extreme-right justices dissenting in the ruling. His position on this case was one indication of his rightward political trajectory, and a demonstration of his efforts to assure the ruling elite that he is fit to govern and will represent their financial and political interests. (See "Obama attacks US Supreme Court decision barring death penalty for child rape") Commenting on the Supreme Court ruling at a Chicago press conference, he said, "I have said repeatedly that I think that the death penalty should be applied in very narrow circumstances for the most egregious of crimes. I think that the rape of a small child, 6 or 8 years old, is a heinous crime and if a state makes a decision that under narrow, limited, well-defined circumstances the death penalty is at least potentially applicable, that that does not violate our Constitution." If George Whitaker is executed tonight, he will be the 32nd person executed in the US this year and the 1,131st since the US reinstated the death penalty. His would be the 421st carried out in the state of Texas. The world looks on with horror as the US continues a practice that has been condemned and outlawed by the vast majority of the world's industrialized nations. (source: World Socialist Web Site) Waiting to Die: The Cruel Phenomenon of "Death Row Syndrome" By Michael J. Carter IPS News November 10, 2008 SEATTLE, Washington, — The length of time convicted murderers wait for their execution is steadily rising in the U.S., raising concerns that more will suffer from the mental illness known as "death row syndrome.” The United States' 3,300 death row inmates can now expect to wait an average of 12 years from the day of their sentencing to death by lethal injection or electric chair, a doubling of the time gap in the mid-1980s, according to the U.S. Bureau of Justice. This increase is mainly due to mandatory appeals introduced after capital punishment was reinstated by the Supreme Court in 1976 after a four-year suspension. These reforms have led to lengthier appeals, according to the Washington-based Death Penalty Information Center. The 667 death row inmates in California can expect to wait nearly 20 years. California's last execution was in January 2006. A month later, a judge halted the execution of Michael Morales, already on death row for 25 years, calling for measures to ensure no unnecessary pain during a state killing. The temporary moratorium put in place then has not yet been lifted. In other death penalty states, inmates have also sometimes waited a quarter of a century or more to know the date of their execution, reprieve or exoneration. On Sept. 16, Jack Alderman was executed in Georgia for killing his wife in 1974 after spending 33 years on death row. In April, Renardo Knight had spent nearly 25 years on death row before his conviction was reversed due to evidence tampering. Last year, Carey Dean Moore was moved from Nebraska's death row after waiting 27 years for the electric chair. The state's Supreme Court ruled this method of execution -- the only one on its statute books -- was unconstitutional. Typically, death row inmates wait out the years for their punishment alone in solitary confinement, spending 23 hours a day in their cells. They are excluded from prison training and recreation programs. Visits and exercise privileges are restricted. A few states, such as North Carolina, California and Georgia, allow varying levels of communication between death row inmates. "There is a distinct syndrome associated with solitary confinement," Stuart Grassian, a psychiatrist and former professor at the Harvard Medical School of Psychiatry, told IPS. In published research he has found that in the most severe cases this can lead to "agitation", "psychotic" and "self-destructive" behavior. The healthy "often" became mental ill. There was a "severe" deterioration in the condition of those already mentally sick. Grassian said the long appeals process of the condemned was "most worrisome". "There is an enormous agony in endlessly, and helplessly, waiting while others decide whether you live or die. "Generally, over time, the inmate learns he cannot afford to actually befriend his fellows; they keep disappearing into the death chamber. The horror of all that, the endless tedium and tension, often proves unbearable." Rights activists say an illustration of the mental damage being done is seen in the case of Raymond Riles, on the Texas death row for the past 33 years. No execution date has been set because he suffers from delusions and paranoia. But in 1975, there were no mental health barriers in the way of his sentencing. They also suggest "death row syndrome" may have played a role in the decision of 131 death row inmates since 1976 abandoning their appeals and "volunteering" for a quick execution. "Many inmates in these circumstances cannot stand it any longer, fire their attorneys, drop their appeals, and hence "volunteer" for execution, said Grassian. Seventy-five percent of these "volunteers" had a history of mental illness, according to John Blume, professor of law at Cornell University. Rights activists have also raised concerns at the difficulties inmates with "death row syndrome" may face when their appeals succeed and they are given a lesser sentence and transferred to cells in the general prison. Only Missouri does not segregate death row inmates from the rest of the prison population. The problems of adaptation and regaining their mental health may be more acute when they are exonerated and leave prison. So far this year, four death row inmates have been exonerated, bringing to 130 the number since 1973. Experts question the reasoning behind the austere, often mentally damaging conditions on death row. "The rational is that these inmates have nothing to lose and therefore they are potentially the greatest security risk," Grassian said. But it had been proven that they were "less violent and disruptive than many other groups". Ronald Tabak, a New York-based lawyer experienced in capital punishment issues, agreed. "They tend to be less dangerous than other prisoners," he told IPS, adding: "There is no public sympathy for those who are sentenced to death." Despite the growing debate about the "death row syndrome", the Supreme Court has yet to hear a case on the issue. But two justices -- Stephen Breyer and John Paul Stevens -- have questioned the constitutionality of the long delays between conviction and the carrying out of executions. The issue was "an important undecided one", Breyer said in 1995 during a ruling on the case of Clarence Allen Lackey. Lackey, who was executed in 1997, served almost 20 years on death row before his sentence was carried out. So far this year, there have been 30 executions in the U.S., the most recent in Texas on Oct. 30. © 2008 IPS News All rights reserved. View this story online at: Waiting to Die Oct. 29, 2008 Shameful record of executions Imagine being sentenced to 50 years in the state penitentiary. Then consider how you might feel what kind of person you might have become as you reached the halfway point of your scheduled time in prison, marking off the calendar year 25 of being behind bars. Now, imagine that you were innocent of the crime for which you had been convicted. You might think that it couldn't get any worse than that, right? Well, picture this: You're not just in a regular penitentiary cell, but on death row and even scheduled to die for a crime you did not commit. Horrible, nightmarish images all. Sadly there are too many people in this country, and particularly in Texas, who cannot only envision those and similar scenarios, but have lived them. Only God knows how many innocent people have been wrongly convicted, although any one would be too many. We do know there is a growing list of individuals who have been exonerated through DNA testing, generally coming after the "victim" of the state already has lost many years of his life locked away from family, friends and society as a whole. 24 ex-death row prisoners from across the country will meet Friday at the state Capitol in Austin to call for a moratorium on executions in Texas and for the creation of a statewide commission on wrongful convictions, said Kurt Rosenberg, executive director of Witness to Innocence, a Philadelphia- based organization of former death row inmates and their families. Their news conference will be at 2 p.m. in the Speaker's Committee Room. The men who will appear at the Capitol have served "a combined total of nearly 200 years on death row for crimes they did not commit," Rosenberg said in a statement announcing the news conference. "Last month, Texas became 3rd in the nation in death-row exonerations when Michael Blair was the 130th person exonerated from death row," he said. "Blair's exoneration came on the heels of a statement by Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins that he will re-examine nearly 40 death penalty convictions and would halt executions, if necessary, to give the reviews time to proceed." Watkins' announcement also came in the wake of Dallas County's record-setting number of overall exonerations 18 since 2001. "Witness to Innocence believes the rest of the state should follow Watkins' lead and halt executions while it studies its broken death penalty system, which has exonerated 9 people from death row since 1987, 3rd only to Florida and Illinois in death-row exonerations, " Rosenberg said. More and more leaders are recognizing that we do have a broken system in the Lone Star State. Last summer the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals announced the creation of a Texas Criminal Justice Integrity Unit to examine weaknesses in the criminal justice system. And, Chief Justice Wallace Jefferson of the Texas Supreme Court is among those calling for a statewide innocence commission. It makes sense that while we recognize an imperfect system with weaknesses that must be examined and corrected, there ought not to be any more executions in Texas until those issues have been fully addressed. The Star-Telegram is on record supporting a moratorium on executions. I, of course, have long been on record calling for the abolition of the death penalty in this state. Rosenberg points out that, as of Monday, "Texas has executed 417 people since the reinstatement of the death penalty, accounting for nearly 40 % of all executions nationwide, including 12 so far this year. An additional 16 executions are scheduled in Texas this fall and winter, and in the next few weeks the state is expected to set a record of 10 executions in 30 days." That is not a record of which we should be proud. Instead, it ought to be a badge of shame. (source: Column, Bob Ray Sanders--Fort Worth Star-Telegram) Court stays tonight’s execution of Woods By Chuck Lindell October 23, 2008 The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals issued a stay of execution this morning for Bobby Wayne Woods, a child killer who claims he is ineligible for the death penalty because he is mentally retarded. Maurie Levin, a University of Texas adjunct law professor who is representing Woods in his appeal, said the court’s order does not list an explanation for staying Woods’ execution. Presiding Judge Sharon Keller and Judge Lawrence Meyers dissented, also without explanation. Levin said she is awaiting further direction from the court, which may include an order for additional briefs or a remand to the trial court for additional fact finding. “We don’t know what’s coming,” Levin said. “I don’t anticipate hearing anything else today.” In an appeal filed Tuesday, Woods asked the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals for another chance to prove that he is mentally retarded, a condition that makes him ineligible for the death penalty under a 2002 U.S. Supreme Court ruling. The Court of Criminal Appeals considered, and rejected, Woods’ mental retardation claims in 2005. But in the new appeal, Woods blamed the adverse ruling on Fort Worth attorney Richard Alley. Alley, Woods alleged, failed to challenge the prosecutors’ IQ tests as antiquated, did not unearth an easy-to-find test showing Woods’ IQ was 60 and did not collect crucial affidavits from friends and family about Wood’s inability to fully communicate or take care of himself. The new filing has 10 such affidavits. “Mr. Alley failed in all aspects to adequately represent Mr. Woods,” the petition says. Alley was featured in a 2006 American-Statesman analysis of court-appointed lawyers for writs of habeas corpus, one of two appeals granted to death row inmates. The analysis found Alley copied large parts of his petitions from previous filings and from other appeals that cannot be considered in a habeas review. A federal court also reprimanded Alley for repeated unethical behavior and poor work on a death penalty appeal in 2002. Shortly after the newspaper report, the Court of Criminal Appeals removed Alley from its list of lawyers eligible to handle habeas petitions. Woods was sentenced to die for raping and killing 11-year-old Sarah Patterson of Granbury in 1997. He also tried to strangle her 9-year-old brother, who survived and identified Woods as his attacker. Categories: Appellate Courts Court stays tonight’s execution of Woods 2 new cell phones found on Texas' death row October 21, 2008 By EMILY RAMSHAW The Dallas Morning News eramshaw@dallasnews.com AUSTIN – Two more cellphones have been found on Texas' death row, the prison system's inspector general said today -- following Monday's arrest of a convicted murderer who obtained a phone and used it to make threatening calls. Texas prisons remain on lockdown while authorities conduct a massive sweep for contraband. State officials said each of Texas' 111 prison units and 156,000 inmates will be searched, and that family visitations have been suspended until further notice. Lawmakers including Sen. John Whitmire, the Houston Democrat who received several of the death row calls, will meet this afternoon to be briefed on the problem. States lack authority to jam prison airwaves "We're in system-wide lockdown at this point," said Jason Clark, a spokesman with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Authorities believe a guard accepted a bribe to give a cellphone to murderer Richard Tabler, who, along with at least nine other inmates – several of them affiliated with violent gangs -- made more than 2,800 calls over 30 days. In repeated phone calls to Mr. Whitmire, Mr. Tabler, who was sentenced to death in 2007 for fatally shooting two men in Killeen, appeared threatening, asking for personal favors and family visits while saying he knew the names of Mr. Whitmire's daughters and where they live in Houston. "No person should have to go through the experience I have over the last two weeks, repeatedly talking to a death row inmate," said Mr. Whitmire, D-Houston. "The impact goes on and on. This kind of activity is a danger to crime victims, to prosecutors, to judges. It's just intolerable. " On Monday, a weeks-long investigation by the TDCJ's Office of the Inspector General ended with Mr. Tabler's arrest – while he was talking on his phone in his prison cell. Authorities also arrested his mother, 61-year-old Lorraine Tabler at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport. They believe she aided him. It's a felony to help an inmate obtain a cell phone or to pay for minutes, which Ms. Tabler is suspected of doing. "It's unbelievably difficult to locate those phones, because they move them around so well and hide them so well," TDCJ Inspector General John Moriarty said. "We wanted to get him [Mr. Tabler] before he realized his mother was in custody." On Monday, Gov. Perry ordered an immediate lockdown of the prison system, and an extensive contraband search. But Mr. Whitmire said the problem isn't resolved – it's widespread. He said 19 phones have been seized on death row this year alone – a fraction of the nearly 700 found across the state's prisons. Mr. Tabler confessed to him he paid more than $2,000 for the phone, Mr. Whitmire said. Lawmakers will hold a hearing today to address the security breaches. Mr. Whitmire said he expects cell-by-cell searches, drug dogs and rewards for information – and that long term, guard hiring standards will need to be strengthened. Sneaking cell phones into prisons is not a new phenomenon but it's a dangerous one. They've been used in lock-ups across the country to negotiate drug deals on the streets, and to order violent hits on gang rivals. Mr. Moriarty said Texas' cell phone problem is worse than most, because the state is the last in the country to set up a land line phone system for inmates. Many of the cell phones found in prisons are used for simple "mom and pop, wife and kids calls," he said. While the legislature has approved a new phone system for state prisons, the hardware isn't in place yet. "This will greatly reduce the cell phones," Mr. Moriarty said. It's not clear whether Mr. Tabler's phone was used to commit a crime. Mr. Whitmire said in his conversations with Mr. Tabler, the inmate mostly talked about "being buddies" and finding ways to "help each other out," and requested additional visits for his mother and grandmother. While technology exists that knocks out cell phone signals, Texas officials say they haven't gotten the go-ahead from the Federal Communications Commission. The airwaves come under federal, not state, regulation, and without federal authorization, states have little power to regulate their use. 2 new cell phones found on Texas' death row Death row phone calls lead to arrests Lawmaker says he got calls from inmate; authorities think others in prison also used phone. By Mike Ward AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF October 20, 2008 State Sen. John Whitmire knew the phone call he received two weeks ago was far from ordinary when he heard clanging steel doors and hollering. The caller wanted to prove to Whitmire that he was in prison. On Texas' death row, in fact. Calling from what is supposed to be the securest part of Texas' prison system, the caller told Whitmire, the chairman of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee that oversees prison operations, that he knew that Whitmire had two daughters. The caller also knew their ages and where they lived in Houston, among other personal details the convict said he had gleaned from the Internet. "Frankly, that scared the hell out of me," said Whitmire, who quickly notified authorities. Over the next two weeks, the convict repeatedly phoned Whitmire to chat about his crime and pending appeals. He also asked for help in getting his grandmother in for a special prison visit, and let Whitmire know that he was calling reporters, too. This morning, in a cross-state police sting operation, authorities busted condemned killer Richard Tabler in his cell and jailed Tabler's mother after she arrived at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport on a flight from her home in Georgia. The charges: illegally possessing a cell phone in prison, and helping get a cell phone in. In all, investigators said, more than 2,800 calls have been made on Tabler's cell phone during the past month alone. Authorities suspect at least ten other inmates on death row also used the phone to make calls — more than 300 by one convict alone. At least four of the convicts who apparently used the phone to make calls were suspected members of prison gangs, including the Texas Syndicate, Aryan Brotherhood of Texas and the Crips, according to investigators. Having a cell phone in prison could allow a convict to orchestrate an assortment of crimes, even murder, from behind bars. It was unclear Monday whether Tabler's phone had been used in connection with any crime. Prison investigators suspect that guards are being bribed to help get the phones in. Whitmire said Tabler, 29, told him he paid $2,100 to get his phone onto death row. Authorities are still trying to determine how the phone got on death row. Prison officials confirmed that of the more than 670 cell phones seized this year, 19 have been found on death row. Cell phones have been a growing problem in Texas prisons in recent years, though they are illegal for inmates to possess. The problem has ballooned in the past year, with more than 800 cell investigations logged. Two months ago, more than 60 cell phones were found secreted inside a compressor being taken into the Stiles Unit near Beaumont. "I want to know how an inmate on death row gets a cell phone in the first place, and then how they and other inmates can make thousands of calls in a month without getting caught," Whitmire said this morning, calling for immediate action by prison officials to combat what he called "a lax attitude on contraband." "If this is the securest part of the prison system, then we've got a hell of a problem. There's more security at Houston's municipal court building than at our prison units." The arrests triggered a rapid-fire sequence of events this morning: Prison officials began an immediate sweep of Texas' death row for cell phones and other contraband, authorities took steps to protect Whitmire from possible inmate reprisals, and senators scheduled an emergency Capitol hearing for Tuesday to demand answers from prison officials. In 2007, Tabler was sentenced to death for the November 2004 shooting deaths of two men in Killeen. He also served time in a California prison for burglary and assaulting an officer, prison records show. The investigation began about two weeks ago after Whitmire and the Austin American-Statesman received several calls from an unidentified caller offering information on abuse issues on death row. Within a day, Whitmire became convinced the caller was a death row inmate, and he notified police. At one point, he said the caller identified himself as Tabler. "He called me several times during the next two weeks. He told me at one point that we were buddies and buddies helped each other," Whitmire said. "He didn't know what he could do for me, but he said he needed help getting his grandmother in for a special visit." Investigators learned that the phone, which had a Huntsville area code, was purchased from a Wal-Mart in Waco about a year ago. Subpoenaed records showed Tabler's mother had paid the cell phone bill, officials said. Soon after she was arrested as she arrived in Austin from a flight from Atlanta, Lorraine Tabler, 61, of Blackshear, Ga., was to be booked into the Travis County Jail on a felony charge of introducing contraband into a state prison. Tabler was arrested in his cell at about 10:30 a.m. today while talking on the cell phone. Authorities said Tabler had phoned at least three other reporters in recent weeks — including ones in Killeen, Temple and Dallas. At least one of those reporters also notified police. Immediately after today's arrests, Whitmire ordered an emergency meeting of his Senate committee at 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday for an explanation from prison officials. "Neither myself or anyone in society should have to put up with this, where inmates have open access from prisons to commit new crimes," Whitmire said. "This has to end right now." mward@statesman.com; 445-1712 Find this article at: Death row phone calls Oct. 14, 2008 Dear Sir or Madam, The death penalty isn't an easy issue to talk about. In fact, very few of us ever, truly, discuss or debate the issue. Why? Simply because, as you stated in your editorial, it is a "no-no" for dialogue, even on talk shows. Simply put, the death penalty is confusing, maddening and painful. And this is the very reason the death penalty SHOULD be discussed. The fact of the matter is that Texas executes more people than anywhere else in the United States; Texas alone is right up there with Iran, Iraq and China in terms of overall worldwide executions. Yes, there are people on death row who have done monstrous things, and, yes, they should spend life in prison with no chance for parole, but what about those executed with no voice or choice who were innocent? Shouldn't we be finding ways to deal with the guilty in modern ways that don't leave us with blood (or questions) on our own hands, as well? Aren't we capable, as a society, of using our heads to find new answers to old problems and broken systems instead of letting others make our decisions for us? This is why I agreed, as a musician, to spend one evening a month for 12 months traveling across Texas to get people for, against or confused by the death penalty to hear, talk, sing, cry and argue about it. Trust me, it wasn't easy or fun. But, as a Christian, I couldn't understand why there couldn't be thoughtful, diverse dialogue so we could educate one another and, perhaps, find new ideas. After all, Christ is the greatest example of an innocent man being put to death.... So, when I asked some of Texas' mayors to come out and speak, no matter what their stance, I was stunned that one of them actually responded AND began to attend. On his own dime and on his own time. That person was Mayor John Cook, and let me tell you why El Paso citizens should be proud of his involvement. Here is a man who took an oath to lead a city and to make the best decisions for his constituents. And that is what he is doing: leading. If, as you say, the death penalty is a "no-no" subject, then who better to create conversation around this issue, and other "no-no" issues, except someone in a position to lead and get people to think? Isn't that why we call them "leaders"? Shouldn't politicians be able to voice their concern and, yes, even their personal beliefs so that we, as citizens, can be educated to make our own decisions? To what end do bland, non-decisive canditates with no positions on anything bring us, as citizens, closer to attaining the ability to think politically, morally and ethically for ourselves if they just agree with the popular agenda of the day? It takes courage and conviction, patience and, yes, even wisdom to be able to see what could be a greater world for all of us and to share those dreams and conversations. It's easy to be a politician that just glides through their term and then waits for re-election. But it is the policy makers who challenge us to THINK that create change, growth and hope. We don't have to agree with everything a politician believes, but isn't it refreshing to know what one of them is thinking? As a paper, you are guaranteed the freedom to speak your mind because of our unique and amazing constitution. Because of our founding fathers---men who debated when diversity of thought was the order of their day--this same right should be extended to our current politicians, as well. Whether you agree with Mayor Cook's position or not, perhaps we can learn to be grateful that he has one. That alone takes courage in today's society of sameness and followers. Thank you for allowing me to share my feedback, Sara Hickman Mom/Musicia Austin, TX (source: Letter to the Editor, El Paso Times) Sept. 22, 2008 Is Watkins' goal justice or publicity? How could a reasonable person find fault with Craig Watkins' latest publicity venture, grandly reopening his predecessors' 40 not-yet-resolved death penalty cases? Taken at his word, Dallas County's district attorney only wants to be absolutely certain that those awaiting lethal injection actually deserve it, as 40 juries said they did. "It's not saying I'm putting a moratorium on the death penalty," Mr. Watkins said, even as he did. Not all death cases, mind you. Just the ones worked by those sketchy fellows who had the DA's office before we all became "smart on crime" and more interested in justice than convictions. One of my colleagues even wondered what the good ol' boys had to fear. Were they worried that he might turn up those unjust convictions they stashed among the righteous ones? Really, what's the harm? The harm is the breathtaking arrogance of a district attorney who wants to set himself up as the lone member of the Texas Court of Higher Than Any Appeals Court in the Land, an extra-judicial remedy to a problem that he might suspect but didn't bother to find evidence to support. If Mr. Watkins' goal were more than another newspaper headline if it really was about justice why go public before he knew of a single questionable death penalty case? Yes, the count of DNA exonerations in Dallas County is nearing 20. To say this implies inordinately poor justice ignores the fact that Dallas County, unlike most others, preserved DNA evidence going back decades. It also stands to reason that one might cast a skeptical eye at every other guilty verdict. Fair enough. Yet this assumes that a rape is a robbery is an aggravated assault is a capital murder. It asks us to forget that prosecutors, even the ones Mr. Watkins might not like, are loath to ask a jury to send anyone to death row without a slam-dunk case. What emerges as a death penalty trial survives a rigorous screening process, unlike noncapital cases. This isn't unique to Dallas County, but it's why county prosecutors seek death in barely 1 percent of the slaying indictments. We also must ignore the mandatory appeals process that gives the condemned, on average, a decade or more even in "bloodthirsty Texas" to find some technical reason to stay among the living. At every step, reasonable people pore over every stitch of evidence, looking for reversible error. That might be why no one has found that elusive first-innocent- put-to-death. Before Mr. Watkins committed to freeze all death sentences pending his signoff, he could have used his own special conviction integrity unit to plod through each case file, oldest to newest, page by page. "Bring me the ones that don't look right," he could have said. "I will seek justice." If 2 or 6 or 10 showed error or prosecutorial misconduct, Mr. Watkins could have marched into a Dallas County court and demanded of a judge: "These cases look bad. I have evidence." And that would be about the right time to go public, when he actually found the possibility of an innocent defendant. So what's the difference? Only this: Those 40 cases involve dozens of murder victims and dozens upon dozens of mothers, fathers, children, grandparents, aunts, uncles and lifelong friends. Which ones should have to wonder about justice for their loved one's killer? Should Lori Hawkins-Acosta? Irving police Officer Aubrey Hawkins was shot to death 7 years ago for responding to a robbery in progress at a sporting goods store by seven escaped Texas prison inmates. Pre-Craig Watkins prosecutors secured death sentences for the six survivors. Five still draw breath on death row. That's 5 cases Mr. Watkins didn't have to throw into doubt among many, many others and one widow who shouldn't have to worry whether the lawyer who should represent her interests is busier chasing a microphone. (source: Editorial--Mike Hashimoto is an assistant editorial page editor for The Dallas Morning News. This column reflects his personal opinion) EDITORIAL Latest tale of Texas justice rated E for embarrassment Charles Dean Hood may be guilty of murder and deserve execution, but the handling of his case by the Texas justice system is embarrassing and must not happen again. But probably will. September 12, 2008 Thanks to the Charles Dean Hood capital murder case, the Texas judicial system these days looks more like a Lifetime cable channel movie about the secret lives of people who wear dark suits and black robes — with a lot of leg showing — than a solemn institution trying to determine, fairly and objectively, guilt for a terrible crime. As Texans learned this week, the state district judge in Hood's 1990 trial at which he was found guilty and sentenced to die, Verla Sue Holland, was personally involved with his prosecutor, Tom O'Connell, who at the time was district attorney of Collin County. Because of that secretive relationship, Hood's lawyers argue, their client should be given a new trial rather than executed. They have a point, even if the evidence of Hood's guilt appears to favor the state. Certainly state prosecutors would complain of an unfair trial if they learned that the judge was personally involved with the defendant's lawyer. Holland and O'Connell did not come forward willingly but were compelled to testify this week. Though their testimony was not given publicly, Hood's lawyers cited it in a letter asking Gov. Rick Perry to grant Hood a reprieve from execution. Their testimony was ordered by a Texas judge, but only after another Texas judge, Robert Dry of Collin County, had scheduled a hearing for today on whether they had to testify — two days after Hood was scheduled to be executed. But then Dry recused himself because of prior business dealings with Earl Holland, Verla Sue Holland's former husband. Having kept quiet about their affair for 18 years, Holland and O'Connell had reason to think that Hood would die before they could ever be called to account. And why not? Holland had friends in high places — the judges on the state's Court of Criminal Appeals, on which she had served from 1997 to 2001. Hood's lawyers had asked the Court of Criminal Appeals to give them time to determine whether rumors of the affair were true, but the court declined. It rejected Hood's appeal, and he was scheduled to be executed June 17. He was saved that time only because the Texas Department of Criminal Justice couldn't carry out the execution warrant before it expired. As Wednesday's execution date neared, the office of Attorney General Greg Abbott, a former Texas Supreme Court justice, weighed in with a brief supporting Hood's request for more time to probe the allegations of an affair between Holland and O'Connell. For his diligence, Abbott was hit by a grievance filed with the State Bar of Texas by the assistant attorney general who had been representing Holland. The Court of Criminal Appeals on Tuesday suddenly stepped in to stop the execution, but not because of the Holland-O'Connell relationship. Instead, the court said, it wanted to reconsider whether the Hood jury had gotten proper instructions during the sentencing phase of his original trial, an issue the court had rejected previously. This latest action by the Court of Criminal Appeals looks like an attempt to get this fiasco of justice out of the headlines while holding a fig leaf up for one of its former members and the court itself. This court probably isn't embarrassed, but it should be. Texas justice rated E for embarrassment News: August 29, 2008 Yogurt Shop DNA Remains a Mystery By Jordan Smith It's been more than four months since Travis Co. prosecutors said they expected to quickly find the donor of unknown male DNA found in the body of Amy Ayers, the youngest of four victims brutally murdered in a North Austin yogurt shop in 1991. No match has yet been found – but apparently not because the state hasn't been looking. Courthouse sources say that as many as five dozen people have been tested, but still it appears no match has been found. The male DNA lifted from two vaginal swabs (one collected at the crime scene on Dec. 6, 1991, and the other collected later at the Travis Co. Medical Examiner's Office) has yet to be matched, prompting defense attorney Carlos Garcia to request that the state now test the DNA against samples taken from "alternate suspects" – including executed serial killer Kenneth McDuff. Indeed, Garcia and attorney Joe James Sawyer, who represent defendants Michael Scott and Robert Springsteen, respectively, argue that the existence of the unknown DNA – combined with the lack of any other physical evidence tying their clients to the scene of the grisly crime – supports their clients' claims of innocence. "They got the wrong guys," Garcia said outside court last week. Scott and Springsteen were each previously convicted in the case, but their convictions were tossed on appeal because prosecutors improperly used – and the judge improperly allowed into evidence – statements each man made as evidence against the other, in violation of the Sixth Amend ment right to cross-examine witnesses. As many as 50 individuals have confessed to the quadruple murder (some more convincingly than others), but whether prosecutors will seek to have the mystery male DNA profile checked against any of those suspects remains to be seen. Notably, prosecutors Gail Van Winkle and Efrain De La Fuente declined to respond to Garcia's open- court request. Still, it would seem that, at least publicly, the existence of the unknown male DNA isn't exactly causing prosecutors to lose much sleep, even though most court watchers agree that its discovery dealt a deep blow to the state's embarrassingly wobbly case. While no date for either man's retrial has yet been set, Van Winkle told the court Aug. 20 that the state is "pretty much done with the investigation of this case." Yogurt Shop DNA Remains a Mystery Copyright © 2008 Austin Chronicle Corporation The Jose Medellin exception The Mexican national's execution in Texas could come back to haunt Americans jailed abroad. August 17, 2008 Tuesday's execution of Jose Medellin, a Mexican citizen who was convicted of the 1993 rape and murder of two girls in Texas, ended the life of a vicious criminal. But it also flouted a treaty signed by the U.S. that will now offer less protection to Americans arrested and imprisoned abroad -- unless Congress acts. Medellin was one of 51 Mexican nationals on death row in the United States who weren't informed upon their arrest of their right to meet with consular officials from their home country, a violation of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations ratified by the U.S. in 1969. In 2004, in a lawsuit brought by Mexico, the International Court of Justice ruled for the prisoners and directed the U.S. "to provide by means of its own choosing, review and reconsideration of the convictions and sentences of the Mexican nationals." President Bush, who ironically was a strong supporter of capital punishment as governor of Texas, responded by essentially ordering Texas prosecutors to reopen Medellin's case and others affected by the ruling. Predictably, Texas and its courts refused, and in March, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Bush lacked the "unilateral authority" to force state officials to comply with a treaty. As a matter of constitutional law, that was correct. But then Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and the rest of the majority made an error of their own, holding that the Vienna Convention was not "self- executing" and could be implemented only through additional legislation. As Justice Stephen G. Breyer pointed out in a persuasive dissent, the Constitution' s supremacy clause says that "all treaties ... which shall be made ... under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the land; and the judges in every state shall be bound thereby." Alas, Breyer's view did not prevail, and Medellin is likely to be only the first of the Mexican prisoners to be executed. It's tempting, especially when the focus is on a killer like Medellin, to assume that no harm is done by the court's misreading of this country's treaty obligations. But, as former U.S. diplomat Jeffrey Davidow argued in a recent opinion article in The Times, thousands of U.S. citizens are jailed abroad every year and depend on U.S. consular officials to inform them of their rights and act as intermediaries. If U.S. officials don't feel obliged to honor the treaty, why should foreign jailers? After the Supreme Court's ruling, the only realistic hope for foreign death row inmates who were denied their rights -- including 28 in California -- is for Congress to pass the sort of legislation Roberts described in his majority opinion. Last month, legislation was introduced that would give effect to the World Court's decision. Bush should lobby Congress for its enactment with the same vigor with which he took on the courts of Texas. Copyright 2008 Los Angeles Times The Texas 7: History and appeal status By MICHAEL GRACZYK Associated Press Writer The infamous "Texas 7" were convicts who broke out of a South Texas prison in 2000. The gang was involved in the slaying of a police officer, then captured in Colorado after six weeks on the run. Here's a look at the seven, who, except for one who killed himself, were all convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death. ___ Michael Rodriguez, 45. Arrested with George Rivas, Randy Halprin and Joseph Garcia on Jan. 22, 2001, a day after police received a tip from a trailer park resident outside Colorado Springs, Colo. Born in Dallas, he was serving a life sentence for capital murder in San Antonio after his conviction for paying another man $2,000 to kill his wife so he could collect life insurance proceeds. Rodriguez's wife was shot in the head in July 1992 after she and her husband came home from a movie. She died on the floor of the garage at their San Antonio home. He has given up all appeals and is scheduled to die Thursday. ___ George Rivas, 37. The leader of the fugitives, at the time of the December 2000 prison break the El Paso native was serving 99 years for aggravated kidnapping and burglary. He and two other men robbed a sporting goods store in El Paso in April 1993. The robbers forced the employees to handcuff themselves and then escaped with money. More than a month later, they robbed a Toys 'R' Us but were caught while trying to escape. His appeal is at the federal district court in Dallas. ___ Joseph Garcia, 36. He was serving 50 years for murder in San Antonio. He stabbed Miguel Luna to death after the two men had a frustrating drive together and Luna gave bad directions. When Garcia stopped the car, Luna attacked him and grabbed his keys. Garcia chased Luna, jumped on him and stabbed him 19 times. Garcia, from Bexar County, said he acted in self-defense. His appeal is at the federal district court in Dallas. ___ Randy Halprin, 31, The Collin County native was serving 30 years for injury to a child, specifically, beating up a baby. He had met the mother in an Arlington homeless shelter in 1996 and moved in with the family. A month later, while the mother and two other children were playing in a different room, Halprin repeatedly beat the infant because, he later said, the baby would not stop crying. When the child was taken to the hospital the next day, doctors discovered broken arms, legs and a fractured skull. His appeal is at the trial court in Dallas. ___ Larry Harper, 37. killed himself in January 2001 inside an RV at a mobile home park 50 miles southwest of Denver as police closed in. He was serving 50 years for aggravated sexual assault in El Paso, raped three women over six months in 1993 and 1994. Each time, he surprised the women at their home, tied them up and repeatedly assaulted them. Harper's victims lived near the University of Texas at El Paso, where he attended marketing classes between 1986 and 1994. ___ Patrick Murphy Jr., 46. He and Donald Newbury surrendered at a Holiday Inn about 20 miles east of where their colleagues were captured two days earlier. He was serving 50 years for aggravated sexual assault with a deadly weapon in Dallas. The Dallas native entered the home of a 23-year-old woman he had known since high school and put a knife to her throat. Murphy then covered the victim's head with a pillowcase, cut off her nightgown and raped her, court records show. Three days before the crime, Murphy pleaded guilty to a burglary charge. His appeal is at the trial court in Dallas. ___ Donald Newbury, 46. Born in Bernalillo County, N.M., he was serving 99 years for aggravated robbery, robbing a woman at an Austin hotel in 1997 while armed with a sawed-off shotgun. Newbury was a three-time felon whose first armed robbery conviction came in 1981. He was convicted of armed robbery again in 1987, and was suspected in about a dozen other armed robberies in the Austin area in 1986 and 1987. His appeal is at the federal district court in Dallas. ___ August 13, 2008 - Copyright 2008, The Associated Press. Texas 7 Is 30 years too long on death row? POSTED: August 12, 2008 HOUSTON -- Note: The following story is a verbatim transcript of an Investigators story that aired on Tuesday, Aug. 12, 2008, on KPRC Local 2 at 10 p.m. Tonight, Local 2 Investigates digs into the case of an inmate from Houston who has been on death row for more than 30 years. So why hasn't Raymond Riles been executed? When you read and hear his first TV interview in more than 20 years, you may understand why. His case has sparked a debate of what to do with inmates spending decades waiting for an execution. Local 2 investigative reporter Amy Davis uncovers why Riles' case could change the future of Texas' death row. "They told me they were going to kill me unless I stopped preaching my mystic gospel," Riles told us during an interview from death row at the Polunsky Unit in Livingston. "God is the greatest and I didn't come to die on death row." As Riles speaks, you're almost able to read his mind -- by not understanding it. "They're trying to silence me because I know about the satanic secret societies of the TDC shadow government e-system," said Riles. His mind appears mixed-up, full of delusions and paranoia. This is the latest chapter of Riles' story -- 33 years of crime and punishment. Riles committed his crime back in 1974. He was convicted of killing Houston used-car salesman John Henry during a 1974 robbery. A Harris County jury sentenced Riles to death. But 33 years later, Riles still waits on death row with no execution date and no plans for one. "It's because he's incompetent to be executed," explained Roe Wilson, an assistant district attorney for Harris County. Wilson handles death row appeals and says Riles case is that simple. Mental health experts have ruled Riles doesn't understand why his execution is imminent, or understand exactly why he's being executed. That makes him mentally incompetent, according to the U.S. Supreme Court. "If you don't meet the standard, then you cannot be legally executed," said Wilson. During our interview, Riles told us he believes God committed his crime, thinks he was chosen to release men from death row, and believes a lethal injection would not kill him. Riles also blamed God for his prison suicide attempt in 1985. Riles set himself on fire in his cell. "God did that," said Riles. "God consumed me in fire." In 1986, Riles was inches from the death chamber in Huntsville and just minutes from execution. That's when a federal court issued a last-minute stay. It was the fourth time the state scheduled Riles' execution. A new date hasn't been scheduled for the past 22 years. "As long as he's living, I'm still living," said Helen Riles, Raymond Riles' sister. "We're still living." Helen Riles spoke to us from her Houston home. She's calls her brother's three decades on death row "bittersweet." While Raymond Riles hasn't been executed, Helen Riles is fighting to get her brother off of death row and into a mental health facility instead. "I don't think he could ever come all the way back," said Helen Riles. "I really don't. But he would able to feel more comfortable and get more rehabilitation." And that's the debate. If an inmate can't be executed, should he or she remain on death row? A new call is coming from a nationwide association of attorneys, death penalty opponents, and a U.S. group of mental health experts to change the way mentally ill inmates are treated on death row. They all say a life sentence is more appropriate. "It makes no sense for the state to keep someone on death row under severe conditions, when he's been recognized as severely ill," said Kristin Houle', with the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty in Austin. On death row, all inmates spend 23 hours a day in their cell. Houle' calls that cruel and unusual punishment for the mentally ill, claiming it gives inmates little access to psychiatric care. The state disagrees. "That really is not a factor in this case," said Wilson. "What the factor is, is that (Riles) was competent when he was tried and given a legal sentence. His confinement is still legal and he simply has a condition right now that makes him not eligible for execution. But that could change." That's right. Wilson says Riles is still periodically tested by doctors. His mental state and his future could always change. Right now, Texas law doesn't allow a death sentence to be replaced by a life sentence. Wilson argues Riles' punishment stands, no matter what his mental state is now. Many call that justice for the victims. So, at age 58, Raymond Riles remains on death row -- 33 years and counting. His family and activists say they'll continue to work to change the law that keeps him there. "I'm not just going to let him sit there and not fight for him," Helen Riles said. Courts and doctors have ruled five other death row inmates from Harris County are also mentally incompetent to be executed. Any change in Riles' case or state law could have a direct effect on many Texas inmates. However, those inmates are all tested periodically. If they are ruled competent at any time, an execution date can be scheduled. If you have a news tip or question for KPRC Local 2 Investigates, drop them an e-mail or call their tipline at (713) 223-TIPS (8477). 30 yrs too long? Copyright 2008 by Click2Houston.com The Death Penalty Viscerally, I support the death penalty. Rationally, I cannot. The Federalist Reason. In a democracy, the government's power comes from the people. Powers not conferred to the government are retained by the people. You'll note that every criminal action is styled "The State v. [Citizen]." When a people are considering what powers to confer to their government, they would be prudent to withhold from that government the power to kill the citizens, lest it be used unwisely. That power – the power to kill – should be reserved. The Justice Reason. Our system is designed to let nineteen guilty go free rather than convict one innocent. But that is not its track record. Scores of people have been exonerated by DNA and other evidence, including many convicted of capital crimes. Think of that horror: the wrongly convicted facing death at the hands of his government while the actual killer is still at large preying on the public. But if you acknowledge the failings of the system, you have to feel at least some consternation about exacting the ultimate penalty, death. The Legal and Moral Reason. What is murder? The intentional, premeditated taking of a human life without justification. That the death penalty constitutes the intentional and premeditated taking of the accused's life is obvious. The question, then, is whether the taking of that life is with or without justification. What is justification? A qualifying condition that makes what would otherwise be immoral conduct (murder) acceptable. In the real world, where you and I live, self defense can be a justification for killing another person. Self defense is not available to the government in the context of a death penalty execution. Revenge does not support a justification defense in the real world, although it might be considered in the penalty phase of a trial. Deterrence does not justify one citizen in killing another. Nor could a citizen claim a defense based on the popular wish that the person be killed. Simply put, no justification applies to the government's execution of the accused. The government's execution is simple murder, the premeditated and intentional taking of a human life without legal or moral justification. The Cost. Ah, if only we were in Stalin's Russia or Mao's China. A short trial, bereft of due process and justice, and a simple bullet to the head for execution. In our country, we have rights of due process and habeas corpus; people who study history and know of the atrocities governments have wrought on their own citizens hold those rights dear. But with those rights come costs, and when you seek to execute the accused, the costs are extreme. Further, imprisonment on death row is geometrically more expensive than in the general population. The death penalty is a false economy, if you were hoping the dismal science would support any argument for the death penalty. And when you are discussing the taking of a human life, bringing up the economics of the situation is distasteful. Decisions based on economics are divorced from the concerns of morality and justice that should drive policy on this matter. A Broader Perspective. Most countries and many states in the United States have abolished the death penalty. And they are not overrun with murder and depravity. The idea that the death penalty is holding back a crime wave or murder spree is refuted by the facts on the ground. In fact, if Texas is any indicator, the death penalty is at best non-correlative to violent crime; at worst, it has a positive correlation. The Victim's Perspective. I respect the sentiment that anyone must have upon the loss of a loved one to a murderer. If I suffered such a loss and knew the killer's identity, I doubt that I could restrain myself from exacting the death penalty personally. But revenge is not part of the grieving process. Frankly, the victim's loved ones are the least likely source for dispassionate consideration of this issue. That the victim's son, for instance, might want the murderer killed is hardly surprising and understandable, but not very helpful towards setting policy. Most people reach their views on this subject viscerally. I understand that, but policy should be set by people thinking rationally. Think of what our country's ideals are, or should be. Do we seek justice? What justice is there in exacting the ultimate sanction when our system of justice is imperfect? Do we seek peace? What peace is there in taking another life? Do we seek truth? What truth is found in another death? Posted By; Odyssey Law Odyssey Congresswoman Wants DNA Testing Of Inmates By Courtney Zavala POSTED: July 27, 2008 HOUSTON -- U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee called for federal government assistance for DNA testing of death row inmates as a way to ensure the right person is facing execution, KPRC Local 2 reported."We have a broken criminal justice system, not only in Harris County, but we have it in the nation. I have made this my personal cause," said Jackson Lee.Currently, there are 369 people on Texas' death row. Under the plan, not everyone would be eligible for DNA testing -- only those inmates who have proof of their possible innocence.Jackson Lee told Local 2 that restoring trust in the system is a priority. The Houston Police Department's DNA Crime Lab has been shut down twice in the last six years. Poor management and bad practices led to a massive review of thousands of cases handled by the lab. Three men convicted on faulty evidence were exonerated.But Jackson Lee wants to know what's being done about the thousands of cases under review."The public has never been given a full report that the District Attorney's Office, which is a prosecutorial arm, has gone over these cases and determined some of the DNA was faulty. Or maybe it was not, but we have not received that report," said Jackson Lee. The National Bar Association said it stands behind the congresswoman' s mission to secure federal funding to help test death row inmates. The announcement was made Saturday at a free legal clinic in the Acres Homes community.Jacquelin e Virgin went there to get some help, too. She's been fighting for 10 years for someone to listen to her story. Her son has been in prison for 10 years."There' s so many innocent people incarcerated for something they didn't do. My son is one of them," said Virgin. Congresswoman Wants DNA Testing If you would like to contact her concerning this issue, her info is listed below. Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee Web Site Houston Office 1919 Smith Street Suite 1180 Houston, Texas 77002 (713) 655-0050 Phone (713) 655-1612 Fax JULY 10, 2008 Blind to Justice: Evidence grows for a moratorium on death penalty DNA testing continues to show just how blind justice can be. Last week, Patrick Waller walked out of a Texas prison after spending more that 15 years in jail for a crime he didn't commit. The Associated Press reported that Walker had been behind bars since late 1992 on convictions for aggravated robbery and aggravated kidnapping stemming from the abduction of a Dallas couple. However, DNA testing conducted late last year proved Waller was innocent. The news service reported prosecutors say the DNA profile matched another man, who is free on parole. While justice was finally served in Waller's case, the troubling aspect of his release is that he is the 19th man in Dallas County since 2001 shown by DNA evidence to be innocent of the crime for which he was convicted. At least in Waller's case, he did not face the death penalty. Lester Leroy Bower Jr. does, and his case raises serious questions about the indiscriminate use of the death penalty, especially in Texas. Bower was convicted for the 1984 execution-style murder of four people in an airport hangar just north of Dallas. A jury deliberated just two hours before convicting him, then deliberated only two hours more the following day before deciding he should die for the murders. For the jury to convict and condemn so quickly, you'd think it was an open-and-shut case. It was anything but that. The AP reported no fingerprints put him at the scene, no witnesses saw him at the hangar, and the murder weapon was never found. Bower never confessed and has maintained his innocence. He was convicted and sentenced to die based on circumstantial evidence. DNA testing wasn't available in 1984. Last week, a state judge stopped his execution, which was scheduled for July 22, and agreed to consider Bower's request that evidence be examined to see if DNA testing could back up his claim of innocence. Bower might or might not be the killer. What is clear, though, is that he should not be on death row when there was no hard evidence linking him to the murders. The cases of Waller and Bower might not bring an end to the death penalty. However, they certainly reinforce the argument for a nationwide moratorium. Too many innocent people are now being freed from jail to have any confidence that the criminal justice system always executes the right man. Blind to Justice June 26, 2008 Computer predicts who dies on death row: study A computer program designed by U.S. researchers can predict with chilling accuracy the very few men among the thousands on America's death row who will actually be executed, according to a new study. It says the chief factor that determines whether a man will die is neither race nor poverty but education - the less schooling, the higher the chances of a lethal outcome. There are more than 3,200 men and women in U.S. prisons who have been condemned to death. Some have been on death row for decades, but only a relatively small percentage - 53 in 2006, for example - have been executed. Previous studies have argued that non-whites are disproportionately sentenced to death in the United States. But with little research as to whether there is any bias in deciding who will actually die, critics say the choice seems arbitrary. Stamos Karamouzis and Dee Wood Harper of Texas A&M University in Texarkana used a computing tool modelled after the human brain, called artificial neural networks (ANN), to search for patterns linked to executions. They created profiles for 2000 death-row inmates - half of whom had been put to death - and entered them into the program. Each profile included information on race, sex, age number and type of capital offences, prior convictions, marital status, and level of schooling. The researchers then fed in 300 profiles of other inmates from the same period, and asked the neural network to predict what had happened to them. It correctly predicted the fates of more than 90 % of this 2nd group. To find out which of the 18 factors best matched these outcomes, Karamouzis and Harper ran the analysis repeatedly, withholding one factor each time. Being a woman, it turned out, was the best guarantee against having one's sentence carried out - women are rarely executed. But the next most telling indicator was the number of years an inmate had spent in high school. "The results pose a serious challenge to the fairness of the administration of the death penalty," the pair write. The paper is published in a British-based journal, International Journal of Law and Information Technology, and features in a report this week by the British magazine New Scientist. (source: Agence France Presse) June 25, 2008 DEATH PENALTY RULING'S IMPACT ON TEXAS Most aspects of Jessica's Law are untouched By JANET ELLIOTT Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle Austin Bureau AUSTIN — Although they will not face execution, criminals who sexually assault Texas children will serve longer sentences without the possibility of parole under provisions of Jessica's Law not affected by Wednesday's U.S. Supreme Court ruling. No one in Texas has been sentenced to death under the provisions of the law, which went into effect last September. The death penalty provision — reserved for a narrow category of repeat child sex offenders — received the most attention last year when state lawmakers debated the high-profile bill. But the bill also made other significant changes, including mandatory minimum sentences and a new offense — continuous sexual abuse — designed to let prosecutors present cases involving a series of victims in one trial. "A lot of other things that are going to be used much more frequently are untouched by this decision," said Shannon Edmonds, governmental affairs director for the Texas District & County Attorneys Association. A clause in the law provides that the rest of it will stand if the death penalty portion was found unconstitutional. Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst made Jessica's Law a centerpiece of his legislative agenda. The law is named for Jessica Lunsford, a 9-year- old Florida girl who was kidnapped and slain in 2005 by a convicted sex offender living near her home. During the 2007 legislative session, the death penalty provision faced opposition from an unexpected group — victims advocates who feared the bill would result in fewer convictions. The Texas Association Against Sexual Assault said in a statement on its Web site Wednesday that it supports the Supreme Court's decision, handed down in a Louisiana case involving a similar law. "The issue of child sexual abuse is complex. Most child sexual abuse victims are abused by a family member or close family friend. The reality is that child victims and their families don't want to be responsible for sending a grandparent, cousin or longtime family friend to death row," the statement said. The Texas law tailored its toughest provisions for a specific type of offender, someone who raped a child under 6 or who used violence (such as a weapon or drug) to rape a child under 14. A first conviction under those circumstances would carry a minimum mandatory sentence of 25 years. A person who served a sentence, was released and offended again would have been eligible for the death penalty. With the Supreme Court's ruling, a repeat offender automatically would be sentenced to life without parole. janet.elliott@chron.com RULING'S IMPACT ON TEXAS Voice of death testifies for life Ex-spokesman on execution aids defense By Steve Mills Tribune reporter June 12, 2008 AUSTIN, Texas—For eight years and 219 executions, Larry Fitzgerald was the face of the nation's busiest execution chamber, a man who watched as men and women were put to death and then, often in the face of tough questions and controversy, explained what had happened. Now he is on the other side. Retired from the Texas prison system, where he was chief spokesman based at the death chamber in Huntsville, Fitzgerald helps death penalty attorneys trying to keep their clients alive by testifying about life in the state prison system. Fitzgerald's turnabout does not mean he is a capital punishment foe; indeed, he favors the death penalty in some cases. Yet his new role has prompted criticism from some, including a former warden who called him a traitor. "My testimony isn't for or against the death penalty. It's to show the prison system works. No matter how bad this person is, the Texas prison system can handle him," Fitzgerald said. Still, because the death penalty in Texas has come under such withering scrutiny and is the subject of much criticism, "there's an 'either you're for us or against us' mentality," he said. As the spokesman at the prison in Huntsville, Fitzgerald was known for his straight-talking manner—a byproduct, perhaps, of his years as a radio reporter in small towns across Texas and a stint as the news director at a station in Ft. Worth. Even after the most controversial executions, he stepped forward to provide an account of a prisoner's last hours and death. A 'PhD in prison life' Fitzgerald, who supervised reporters' interviews with inmates at the state's Death Row in Livingston, often got to know the condemned. Then "they'd be on a gurney getting executed." "That," he added, "was always difficult." Nonetheless, he said, "I handled it the way reporters are supposed to handle it. You're an observer." His job, he added, was merely to help the news media get the story from the execution. Fitzgerald retired in August 2003, leaving with what he calls a "PhD in prison life." Not long after, a defense lawyer asked him to testify in a death penalty retrial. Although the prisoner received another death sentence, other attorneys began to call Fitzgerald, and he started testifying. Since that first case, he has consulted in some two dozen trials. "He relates well to people. He has that intangible quality," said Ft. Worth lawyer David Pearson, who called Fitzgerald to the witness stand during the 2006 murder trial of a man charged with killing his parents. "He doesn't come across like he's selling something." Fitzgerald appears during the highly charged punishment phase of a death penalty trial, after a defendant has been found guilty but before the jury has decided whether he should live or die. He describes inmate life, talks about education opportunities in prisons and, most of all, how secure they are. "People," he said, "just don't understand all of what goes on inside a prison." Pearson sought Fitzgerald to testify for Andrew Wamsley, who was tried for plotting the shooting and stabbing murders of his parents in December 2003 to inherit their $1.65 million estate. Prosecutors were seeking death. Pearson and attorney Larry Moore were trying to persuade the jury to spare the 21-year-old Wamsley and give him a life sentence. Jurors voted for life; under Texas law, Wamsley has to serve 40 years before he can be considered for parole. "I needed somebody [who] could speak with firsthand information about how someone convicted of capital murder and sentenced to a life sentence would be handled," Pearson said. "So the jury would be assured the security system could handle someone like that. It was his business as spokesman to make sure he knew what was going on all over the prison system." Expertise disputed Prosecutors and others say Fitzgerald's experience does not qualify him as an expert, and increasingly, Fitzgerald said, prosecutors are subjecting him to tougher cross-examination. Allison Wetzel, a prosecutor in Austin, had to contend with Fitzgerald's testimony at the trial of Guy Allen, who was convicted of the stabbing murders in 2002 of his girlfriend and her daughter. Allen was sentenced to death. "I guess by the verdict, jurors rejected Larry Fitzgerald's view of things," Wetzel said. A.P. Merillat, who investigates prison crimes for the state and has testified for prosecutors at death penalty trials, said his work is more relevant than Fitzgerald's prison experience. "I don't like that he tries to portray himself as more knowledgeable than we are, when it's our business," Merillat said of himself and colleagues who investigate crimes committed in prison. Fitzgerald, though, is deeply knowledgeable about the death penalty in Texas. He was in the spotlight frequently during George W. Bush's first presidential campaign. At the time, Fitzgerald didn't offer a personal opinion. Now he acknowledges that he favors the death penalty. But, he says, he has come to believe Texas uses it "way too much." smmills@tribune.com Voice of death testifies for life By: Vincent Bugliosi The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder The Legal Framework for the Prosecution That the king can do no wrong is a necessary and fundamental principle of the English constitution. -Sir William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, 1765 No living Homo sapiens is above the law. -(Notwithstanding our good friends and legal ancestors across the water, this is a fact that requires no citation.) ...Although I have never heard before what I am suggesting -- that Bush be prosecuted for murder in an American courtroom -- many have argued that "Bush should be prosecuted for war crimes" (mostly for the torture of prisoners at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo) at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands. But for all intents and purposes this cannot be done. *Even assuming, at this point, that Bush is criminally responsible for the deaths of over 100,000 people in the Iraq war, under federal law he could only be prosecuted for the deaths of the 4,000 American soldiers killed in the war. No American court would have jurisdiction to prosecute him for the one hundred and some thousand Iraqi deaths since these victims not only were not Americans, but they were killed in a foreign nation, Iraq. Despite their nationality, if they had been killed here in the States, there would of course be jurisdiction. **Indeed, Bush himself, ironically, would be the last person who would quarrel with the proposition that being guilty of mass murder (even one murder, by his lights) calls for the death penalty as opposed to life imprisonment. As governor of Texas, Bush had the highest execution rate of any governor in American history: He was a very strong proponent of the death penalty who even laughingly mocked a condemned young woman who begged him to spare her life ("Please don't kill me," Bush mimicked her in a magazine interview with journalist Tucker Carlson), and even refused to commute the sentence of death down to life imprisonment for a young man who was mentally retarded (although as president he set aside the entire prison sentence of his friend Lewis "Scooter" Libby), and had a broad smile on his face when he announced in his second presidential debate with Al Gore that his state, Texas, was about to execute three convicted murderers. In Bush's two terms as Texas governor, he signed death warrants for an incredible 152 out of 153 executions against convicted murderers, the majority of whom only killed one single person. The only death sentence Bush commuted was for one of the many murders that mass murderer Henry Lucas had been convicted of. Bush was informed that Lucas had falsely confessed to this particular murder and was innocent, his conviction being improper. So in 152 out of 152 cases, Bush refused to show mercy even once, finding that not one of the 152 convicted killers should receive life imprisonment instead of the death penalty. Bush's perfect 100 percent execution rate is highly uncommon even for the most conservative law-and-order governors. The above is an excerpt from the book The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder by Vincent Bugliosi Published by Vanguard Press; May 2008;$26.95US/ $28.95CAN; 978-159315-481- 3 Copyright © 2008 Vincent Bugliosi Vincent Bugliosi received his law degree in 1964. In his career at the L.A. County District Attorney's office, he successfully prosecuted 105 out of 106 felony jury trials, including 21 murder convictions without a single loss. His most famous trial, the Charles Manson case, became the basis of his classic, Helter Skelter, the biggest selling true-crime book in publishing history. His forthcoming book, The Prosecution of George W. Bush For Murder, is available May 27. May 05, 2008 As execution dates resume, how many on Texas death row are likely innocent? After a brief moratorium in 1922 when Texas shifted executions from the hangings at county jails to electrocution at the state prison in Huntsville, five men were executed on the first day capital punishment was reinstated. Texas won't reach that clip anytime soon, but the execution dates are being set so rapidly right now TDCJ hasn't had time yet to update its website. CrimProf blog cites a New York Times article reporting that five Texans have received execution dates between June 3 (Derrick Sonnier) and August 20 (Denard Manns). Meanwhile, via Doc Berman I saw this AP story declaring that the "Mexican-born Texas prisoner whose death sentence set off an international dispute and a U.S. Supreme Court rebuke of the White House received an execution date Monday." States are slowly but surely working through what the Baze case means for them, and Texas' Court of Criminal Appeals is expected to approve the state's procedures in some form or fashion in the coming weeks in the Chi case. According to data from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice death row information website, Texas currently has 369 inmates on death row, and 405 have been killed by the state since 1982. Another 253 have actually left death row for a variety of reasons, including death by natural causes, murder by other inmates, a commuted sentence (often to life), and for a handful of prisoners, because their convictions were reversed. (By comparison, "When capital punishment was declared 'cruel and unusual punishment' by the U.S. Supreme Court on June 29, 1972, there were 45 men on death row in Texas and 7 in county jails with a death sentence.") Since the death penalty was reinstated in 1982, nine Texas death row inmates have walked away free men after a reversed conviction, and another whose conviction was reversed died in prison, according to these data. (Several more had convictions reversed but continued to serve time for other offenses.) Seeing that data, perhaps it's worthwhile to calculate a rough "innocence" rate. Let's make a few conservative assumptions, for example, that only those ten reversed convictions were actually innocent people sent to death row. Let's also assume none of the executed people were innocent (something I personally don't believe). Leaving aside those whose appeals are still in progress, Texas has executed or removed from death row 658 people, at least ten of whom were innocent. That's a rate of 1.52%. If those numbers hold up for the rest of the group, five or six people sitting on Texas' death row today are likely actually innocent people who've been wrongly convicted. Posted by Gritsforbreakfast Labels: Death penalty, Innocence How many on Texas death row are likely innocent? May 3, 2008 After Hiatus, States Set Wave of Executions By RALPH BLUMENTHAL HUNTSVILLE, Tex. — Here in the nation's leading death-penalty state, and some of the 35 others with capital punishment, execution dockets are quickly filling up. Less than three weeks after a United States Supreme Court ruling ended a seven-month moratorium on lethal injections, at least 14 execution dates have been set in six states between May 6 and October. "The Supreme Court essentially blessed their way of doing things," said Douglas A. Berman, a professor of law and a sentencing expert at Ohio State University. "So in some sense, they're back from vacation and ready to go to work." Experts say the resumption of executions is likely to throw a strong new spotlight on the divisive national — and international — issue of capital punishment. "When people confront a new wave of executions, they'll be questioning not only how people are executed but whether people should be executed," said James R. Acker, a historian of the death penalty and a criminal justice professor at the State University at Albany. Texas leads the list with five people now set to die here in the Walls Unit, the state's death house, between June 3 and Aug. 20. Virginia is next with four. Louisiana, Oklahoma and South Dakota have also set execution dates. Some welcome the end of the moratorium. "We'll start playing a little bit of catch-up," said William R. Hubbarth, a spokesman for Justice for All, a victims rights group based in Houston. "It's not like we have a cheering section for the death penalty." Mr. Hubbarth said. But, he added: "The capital murderers set to be executed should be executed post-haste. It's not about killing the inmate. It's about imposing the penalty that 12 of his peers have assessed." More inmates whose appeals have expired are certain to be added to execution rosters soon, including, in all likelihood, Jack Harry Smith, who, at 70, is the oldest of the 360 men and 9 women on Texas' death row (though hardly a row any more, but an entire compound). Mr. Smith has been under a death sentence for 30 years for a robbery killing at a grocery in the Houston area. "If it's my time to go, it's my time to go," said Mr. Smith, who maintains his innocence and was delivered by guards for a prison interview in a wheelchair. So far, at least nine others elsewhere, including Antoinette Frank, a former police officer convicted of a murderous robbery rampage in New Orleans, have been given new execution dates, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, an anti-capital punishment research group that puts the latest death row census at 3,263. Dozens more are likely to get execution dates in coming months, but most under death sentences have not exhausted their appeals. Yet public support for capital punishment may be dwindling. Death sentences have been on the decline, and a poll last year by death penalty opponents found Americans losing confidence in the death penalty. "There will be more executions than people have the stomach for, at least in many parts of the country," said Stephen B. Bright, president of the Southern Center for Human Rights in Atlanta, a leading anti-death-penalty litigation clinic. Last year, Texas accounted for 26 of the 42 executions nationwide. That includes the last two people executed before the Supreme Court signaled a moratorium on executions while considering whether the chemical formula used for lethal injection in Kentucky inflicted pain amounting to unconstitutionally cruel and unusual punishment. The justices ruled 7 to 2 on April 16 that it did not, while allowing for possible future challenges. But the scheduling of executions comes as prosecutors and juries have been turning away from the death penalty, often in favor of life sentences without parole, now an option in every death-penalty state but New Mexico. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, death sentences nationwide rose from 137 in 1977, peaked at 326 in 1995 and fell steadily to 110 last year. "We're seeing a huge drop-off," said Mr. Bright, attributing the decline to the time and trouble of imposing death sentences, and a recent wave of exonerations after DNA tests proved wrongful conviction. Close to 35 people have been cleared in Texas alone, including, just days ago, James L. Woodard, who spent more than 27 years in prison for a 1980 murder he did not commit. The first inmate now set for execution is William E. Lynd, 53, on Tuesday in Georgia. Mr. Lind was convicted of shooting his girlfriend, Ginger Moore, in the face during an argument in 1988, shooting her again as she clung to life, and a third time, fatally, as she struggled in the trunk of his car. After burying her, he attacked and killed another woman he had stopped on the road. With two other executions pending but not yet scheduled in Georgia, the state seeks "clearance of the backlog," said Russ Willard, a spokesman for Attorney General Thurbert E. Baker. "We will work our way though the system at a much more rapid pace than we would have." Virginia — which has executed 98 people since 1976, second only to Texas, with 405 — has the next scheduled execution: May 27, for Kevin Green, 30, for the 1998 slayings of Patricia and Lawrence Vaughn in their convenience store in Dolphin. Three other Virginia inmates also have been given dates in June and July. Louisiana has set a July 15 execution date for two inmates, including the former police officer, Ms. Frank, 30. She was convicted of killing a fellow officer, Ronald Williams, and two Vietnamese workers, Ha Vu and her brother, Cuong Vong, at their family's restaurant in New Orleans during a robbery in 1995. But appeals may delay her execution and that of the second inmate Darrell Robinson, convicted of killing four people. South Dakota, which has recorded only 15 executions since 1889, set a week's window of Oct. 7-13 for the execution of Briley Piper, 25. He pleaded guilty to the torture murder of Chester Allan Pogue, 19, who was forced to drink hydrochloric acid and then stabbed and bludgeoned to death in 2000. One accomplice was executed last year and another is serving life without parole. The first Texas inmate now re-scheduled for death, on June 3, is Derrick Sonnier, 40, convicted of stalking, stabbing and strangling a young mother, Melody Flowers, and her baby son in Humble, north of Houston, in 1991. Mr. Sonnier, who turned down a request this week for an interview, had forbidden his trial lawyer from calling family members as mitigating witnesses, costing him a chance for life in prison without parole, said his appellate lawyer, Jani Maselli. In another of the five latest scheduled Texas executions, a July 22 date was set for Lester Bower, 60, convicted of killing a former police officer and three other men near Sherman in 1983. Mr. Smith, the oldest death row inmate, lost his Supreme Court appeal in February and said he was resigned to an execution date soon as well. "I'd hate to go before my time," he said, a gaunt figure seated in a wheelchair and speaking by phone behind glass in the Polunsky Unit in Livingston, Tex., where the condemned are housed until the day they are driven to Huntsville to die. Asked if the prospect of an end to his confinement came as any relief, he said, "In a way it does." "Death is death," Mr. Smith said. "If they stick a needle in your arm or shoot you in the head, it's cruel and inhuman punishment, taking a human life." Yet, he said, "a life sentence is a whole lot worse — it's torture." Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company States Set Wave of Executions April 30, 2008 4 condemned Texas prisoners lose appeals By MICHAEL GRACZYK Associated Press Writer HOUSTON — Four condemned prisoners lost appeals Wednesday before the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, including a man identified as a leader of a gang authorities said was responsible for killing six men in a robbery-shooting spree in the Rio Grande Valley. Humberto "Gallo" Garza, 34, acknowledged planning the robbery of a marijuana cache from two houses separated by a dirt driveway on the same property in Edinburg but denied being among the gunmen in the shooting that left six victims dead. Garza, described as a leader in a gang known as the Tri-City Bombers, or "Bombitas," is one of three men on death row for involvement in the slayings. A fourth gang member was condemned for another shooting in 2002, four months before the Edinburg killings, that left four women dead. In all, 13 men were indicted for the January 2003 massacre. The victims were identified as members of a rival gang, the Texas Chicano Brotherhood. Others who moved closer to execution after being turned down by the court Wednesday were: _Barney Ronald Fuller Jr., of Houston County in East Texas, convicted of the fatal shootings of a man and woman who were his neighbors. _Chris Wayne Shuffield, of Bowie County in far northeast Texas, condemned for a fatal shooting and robbery. _Rodrigo Hernandez, convicted of the rape-slaying of a San Antonio woman whose murder went unsolved for eight years. In the Rio Grande Valley case, Garza in his appeal unsuccessfully raised 33 points of error from his 2005 trial on two counts of capital murder. Defense attorneys argued Garza at most was guilty of aggravated robbery. A jury found him guilty of one count of capital murder and one count of murder. Among claims in his appeal were that he was subjected to unconstitutional double jeopardy, that jury instructions were improper, that his legal help was ineffective, that the judge was biased against him and that evidence didn't support the jury's verdict that Garza would be a future danger. The future danger question is posed to jurors deciding on a death sentence. Evidence showed Garza's record included an attempted murder and burglary conviction that got him an 18-year prison sentence. He was paroled in April 2002 after serving 10 years. The Edinburg shootings occurred nine months later. None of the prisoners who lost their appeals Wednesday has an execution date. They all can appeal to the federal courts. Fuller, 49, is awaiting lethal injection for the 2003 shootings of Annette Copland, 39, and her husband, Nathan, 43, both of Lovelady. The couple's 14-year-old son also was wounded. The gunfire was the climax of escalating problems between the neighbors. Fuller was arrested after a standoff with police. He pleaded guilty to capital murder and the jury decided he should be given the death sentence. Among his 44 points of trial error in his appeal, all rejected by the court, were claims that his trial court lacked authority to impose the death sentence because there was no jury verdict form finding him guilty. Shuffield, 28, challenged the validity of his conviction and sentence for the 2001 shooting death of Lance Luke Walker, 36. He was shot at least three times and his truck was taken from his home. Shuffield confessed to the slaying. His defense at his trial was the charge should have been murder and not capital murder. Hernandez, 34, was arrested in 2002, more than eight years after the body of Susan Verstegen was found stuffed into a 55-gallon drum behind a church in San Antonio. Hernandez was about to be released from a Michigan prison when a then new law there required him to submit a DNA sample as a condition of his release. San Antonio police, using a national DNA database, matched his DNA to the Verstegen slaying. In his appeal, Hernandez challenged the validity of his conviction and sentence. 4 condemned Copyright 2008, The Associated Press. April 29, 2008 New Look at Death Sentences and Race By ADAM LIPTAK About 1,100 people have been executed in the United States in the last three decades. Harris County, Tex., which includes Houston, accounts for more than 100 of those executions. Indeed, Harris County has sent more people to the death chamber than any state but Texas itself. Yet Harris County's capital justice system has not been the subject of intensive research -- until now. A new study in TheHouston Law Review this fall has found two sorts of racial disparities in the administration of the death penalty there, one commonplace and one surprising. The unexceptional finding is that defendants who kill whites are more likely to be sentenced to death than those who kill blacks. More than 20 studies around the nation have come to similar conclusions. But the new study also detected a more straightforward disparity. It found that the race of the defendant by itself plays a major role in explaining who is sentenced to death. It has never been conclusively proven that, all else being equal, blacks are more likely to be sentenced to death than whites in the three decades since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976. Many experts, including some opposed to the death penalty, have said that evidence of that sort of direct discrimination is spotty and equivocal. But the author of the new study, Scott Phillips, a professor of sociology and criminology at the University of Denver, found a robust relationship between race and the likelihood of being sentenced to death even after the race of the victim and other factors were held constant. His statistics have profound implications. For every 100 black defendants and 100 white defendants indicted for capital murder in Harris County, Professor Phillips found that an average of 12 white defendants and 17 black ones would be sent to death row. In other words, Professor Phillips wrote, "five black defendants would be sentenced to the ultimate sanction because of race." Scott Durfee, the general counsel for the Harris County district attorney's office, rejected Professor Phillips's conclusions and said that district attorneys there had long taken steps to insulate themselves from knowing the race of defendants and victims as they decided whether to seek the death penalty. "To the extent Professor Phillips indicates otherwise, all we can say is that you would have to look at each individual case," Mr. Durfee said. "If you do that, I'm fairly sure that you would see that the decision was rational and reasonable." Indeed, the raw numbers support Mr. Durfee. John B. Holmes Jr., the district attorney in the years Professor Phillips studied, 1992 to 1999, asked for the death sentence against 27 percent of the white defendants, 25 percent of the Hispanic defendants and 25 percent of the black defendants. (Professor Phillips studied 504 defendants indicted for the murders of 614 people. About half of the defendants were black; a quarter each were white and Hispanic.) Mr. Holmes was, Professor Phillips said, selective but effective: he asked for the death sentence against 129 defendants and obtained 98.) But Professor Phillips said that the numbers suggesting evenhandedness in seeking the death penalty did not tell the whole story. Once the kinds of murders committed by black defendants were taken into consideration -- terrible, to be sure, but on average less heinous, less apt to involve vulnerable victims and brutality, and less often committed by an adult -- "the bar appears to have been set lower for pursuing death against black defendants," Professor Phillips concluded. Professor Phillips wrote about percentages and not particular cases, but his data suggest that black defendants were overrepresented in cases involving shootings during robberies, while white defendants were more likely to have committed murders during rapes and kidnappings and to have beaten, stabbed or choked their victims. When the nature of the crime is taken into account, Professor Phillips wrote, "the odds of a death trial are 1.75 times higher against black defendants than white defendants." Harris County juries corrected for that disparity to an extent, so that the odds of a death sentence for black defendants after trial dropped to 1.49. Jon Sorensen, a professor of justice studies at Prairie View A&M University in Texas, said he was suspicious of Professor Phillips's methodology. "It's bizarre," Professor Sorensen said. "It starts out with no evidence of racism. Then he controls for stuff." Moreover, Professor Sorensen said, Professor Phillips failed to take account of other significant factors, including the socioeconomic status of the victims. Professor Sorensen said he remained convinced that racial disparities, if they exist at all, "are victim-based only," as earlier studies have found. This discussion, at least where the courts are concerned, is entirely academic. Twenty-one years ago, the Supreme Court ruled that even solid statistical evidence of racial disparities in the administration of the death penalty did not offend the Constitution. The vote was 5 to 4, and the case was McCleskey v. Kemp. That ruling closed off what had seemed to opponents of the death penalty a promising line of attack, and they are still furious about it, comparing it to the court's infamous 1857 decision that blacks slaves were property and not citizens. "McCleskey is the Dred Scott decision of our time," Anthony G. Amsterdam, a law professor at New York University, said in speech last year at Columbia. "It is a decision for which our children's children will reproach our generation and abhor the legal legacy we leave them," said Professor Amsterdam, who worked on the McCleskey case and many other capital punishment landmarks. The majority opinion in McCleskey was written by Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr. After he retired, his biographer asked Justice Powell whether, given the chance, he would change his vote in any case. "Yes," Justice Powell said. "McCleskey v. Kemp." A New Look Posted: 4/25/08 EDITORIAL: Reversal builds case for moratorium Ironically, Thomas Clifford McGowan Jr. became a free man the same day the U.S. Supreme Court freed states to resume executions. McGowan's case illustrates why Texas and other states should maintain a moratorium on capital punishment. McGowan was a 26-year-old day laborer in 1985, when a 19-year-old rape victim picked his picture out of a police lineup. Tentative at first, when pressed for a decision by a police officer, the young woman said McGowan was the man who raped her. So, McGowan went to prison for more than 22 years—almost half his life. This spring, DNA tests proved McGowan did not commit the crime. Judge Susan Hawk recommended McGowan go free, and he's out of jail while the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals considers Hawk's decision. He became the 16th Dallas County inmate to be exonorated by DNA tests during the past seven years. The same day McGowan walked free, the Supreme Court ruled the three- step process Kentucky uses to administer capital punishment does not violate the Constitution' s ban on "cruel and unusual punishment." The ruling virtually freed states to move forward with lethal injection as a method of execution. Fortunately, McGowan's wrongful conviction couldn't earn him the death penalty. He might have died an innocent man. Strong advocates of the death penalty might counter that McGowan was not sentenced to execution, so his case has no bearing on capital punishment. Of course, they would be wrong. McGowan's case illustrates the fallibility of the U.S. justice system, which is fallible simply because human beings are fallible. Problem is, a mistake that takes a person's life is irreversible. And courtroom mistakes do happen. Nationwide, 215 people convicted of crimes have been exonerated by DNA evidence, according to The Innocence Project, an organization dedicated to reversing wrongful convictions. Sixteen of the people who have been exonerated spent time on Death Row. Without intervention, they could have been executed for crimes they did not commit. Thirty-two states have exonerated convicts. Texas leads the way, with 31 reversals. As science improves, the pace of exonerations increases. In the first 11 years DNA-based exonerations were possible, 63 people were set free. In the past eight years, 152 wrongful convictions were overturned. The Innocence Project identifies at least seven causes of wrongful conviction. Those causes and the number of cases involving Texans are eyewitness identification, 24; unreliable/limited science, 9; false confessions, 3; forensic science misconduct, 4; government misconduct, 3; informants/snitches , 2; and bad lawyering, 0. (The number totals more than 31, because some cases involved multiple causes.) While many Christians—for theological reasons—are among the strongest advocates of capital punishment, the McGowan case should prompt Christians and other citizens of goodwill to promote a moratorium on capital punishment. Several reasons stand out: • We seek justice. Justice for murderers is one of the strongest arguments for capital punishment. But in light of so many wrongful convictions, justice should be an equally strong argument for refraining. Putting an innocent person to death is the ultimate act of injustice that can be imposed by the state. • Life is precious. Set aside whatever you think about actual murderers and rapists, we cannot contend anything but that the lives of people who are wrongfully convicted are precious and should be protected, even if the guilty die in prison of old age instead of on a gurney by lethal injection. • We say we love others and want them to go to heaven. Then how can we consider the possibility of wrongfully sending an innocent person to eternity in hell? Reversal builds case for moratorium April 17, 2008 Harris County gets ready to execute 6 killers By ALLAN TURNER, ROSANNA RUIZ and RICHARD S. DUNHAM Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle Buoyed by the U.S. Supreme Court decision upholding lethal injection's constitutionality, Harris County prosecutors pledged Wednesday to move forward in seeking execution dates for six local killers. Among them are a man who stabbed a 72-year-old woman 15 times after a failed rape attempt and another who raped and strangled two teenage girls in a Houston park. The men, whose state and federal habeas corpus appeals have been denied, likely would be among the first to die at the state's Huntsville death house, where executions came to a halt in September after the high court agreed to hear a Kentucky challenge. The court's 7-2 ruling was a blow to death penalty opponents who had hoped justices would invalidate the lethal three-drug cocktail used by Kentucky and 35 other states, including Texas. In his ruling, Chief Justice John Roberts, joined by Justices Samuel Alito and Anthony Kennedy, wrote that Kentucky's execution protocol is "believed to be the most humane available." The Kentucky case was brought by killers Ralph Baze and Thomas Bowling, who contended the administration of an anesthetic followed by a muscle relaxant and a drug to stop the heart violates the constitution' s ban on cruel and unusual punishment. Key to their petition was the assertion that the second and third drugs could cause excruciating pain if the first failed to render an inmate unconscious. Justices David Souter and Ruth Bader Ginsburg dissented, with Ginsburg calling for safeguards to prevent severe discomfort in the inmate's final moments of life. 'Delayed justice' In Texas, Gov. Rick Perry hailed the court's decision, saying that "Texas is a law-and-order state, and I stand by the majority of Texans who support the death penalty as it is written in Texas law. It is an appropriate response for the most violent crimes against our fellow human beings." Jerry Strickland, spokesman for Attorney General Greg Abbott, said recent lawsuits have "delayed justice" for crime victims and their families. Scott Durfee, spokesman for Harris County District Attorney Kenneth Magidson, said execution dates for the first six Harris County killers would be sought "in due course." A 45-day waiting period is mandated for killers receiving their first death date; 30 days are mandated for those receiving subsequent execution dates. Among Harris County killers likely headed to the death house are Charles Douglas Raby, 38, who in October 1992 repeatedly stabbed 72- year-old Edna Mae Franklin, then cut her throat, after his rape attempt failed. Also facing execution is Jose Ernesto Medillin, 33, who in June 1993 kidnapped, raped and strangled Elizabeth Pena, 16, and Jennifer Ertman, 15, when they stumbled into a gang initiation rite at T.C. Jester Park. Does ruling settle issue? Jordan Steiker, a University of Texas law professor who argued a death penalty case before the Supreme Court last year, said the court's ruling doesn't necessarily slam the door on appeals against lethal injection. "The opinion leaves open the possibility of challenging execution protocols, but it requires increased evidentiary support as well as showing that a clear alternative is available," Steiker said. Richard Dieter, executive director of the nonprofit Washington, D.C.- based Death Penalty Information Center, said the "narrow" ruling does not settle the question of which execution method states should use. "The opinion," he said, "doesn't ... even provide the states with a road map to follow." University of Houston law professor David Dow, an attorney with the Texas Innocence Network, argued that just because the Kentucky death row inmates didn't meet the standard of a "substantial risk or significant harm" doesn't mean Texas inmates can't qualify. "Kentucky was the worst state for this case," Dow said. "It had executed exactly one inmate by lethal injection." Texas, which has put more than 400 people to death by lethal injection since 1982, would offer a much bigger sample. "If you could identify 10 cases where there has been some sort of error in implementation, is that a substantial risk? I don't know. That's something the courts in evaluating the protocols in Texas will have to grapple with." David Atwood, director of the Houston-based Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, expressed disappointment in the court's decision. "I don't know that it would have had a big impact on Texas anyway," Atwood said, "because we are so determined to go forward with executions in this state." Diane Clements, director of Justice for All, a crime victims' advocacy group, said the ruling "settles the issue once and for all." "Another obstacle is down, and execution is still in place. Lethal injection is not cruel and unusual." Chronicle reporters Clay Robison and Bennett Roth and San Antonio Express-News reporter Graeme Zielinski contributed to this story. allan.turner@chron.com rosanna.ruiz@chron.com richard.dunham@chron.com Harris County gets ready to execute 6 killers Death penalty gets new life By: SARAH MOORE, The Enterprise 04/17/2008 The page on the Texas Death Row Web site that lists executions was empty Wednesday, but it is not likely to stay that way long. And one of the men convicted in the infamous dragging death of James Byrd Jr. is likely to be high on the list after a seven-month execution hiatus. The U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for resumption of executions when it issued a ruling Wednesday upholding lethal injection as a means of carrying out a death sentence. Six inmates on Texas death row are there courtesy of Southeast Texas courts. Of these, Lawrence Russell Brewer, the second man to be sent to death row in the Byrd case, is perhaps the closest to being scheduled for execution. Brewer, 41, was convicted after being tried in Bryan on a change of venue. He has been on death row since 1999 for the June 7, 1998, death of Byrd, according to The Enterprise archives. Brewer's case has been denied review by the Supreme Court and there is no further legal recourse for challenging his death sentence, said his Austin-based appeals lawyer, Alex Calhoun. Calhoun, who opposes the death penalty, said he was "disappointed" by the Supreme Court's ruling. "Execution is not going to solve any problems, but the state's got to have blood for blood," he added. The Enterprise was unable to locate any of Byrd's relatives Wednesday for comment, but in the past, Byrd's son, Ross Byrd, was a vocal opponent of the death penalty. Jeff Feldman, an Alaska-based lawyer who is handling the retardation appeal of Elroy Chester, said even if the Supreme Court had ruled that lethal injection was unconstitutional, it would not have stopped the death penalty. "Obviously there's nothing good to be said about the Supreme Court endorsing a manner of killing," he said. Chester, now 38, was convicted and sentenced to death in the 1998 capital murder of Port Arthur firefighter Willie Ryman. Chester shot Ryman to death as Ryman was trying to keep his nieces from being raped by Chester. Chester's appeal, based on the claim that he is retarded and therefore not eligible to be executed, still is making its way through the courts. "This decision removes one roadblock to enforcing the death penalty," Feldman said, adding, "Our battle goes on very different grounds." Jefferson County District Attorney Tom Maness said he was not surprised by the ruling. "There was a lack of evidence that serious pain is inflicted before death (by lethal injection)," Maness said. "I've often felt it was kind of silly to worry about hurting someone a little bit before taking their life," he said. "And the people you would be hurting inflicted the most brutal pain on their victims." Max Dawson, a pastor and evangelist at Dowlen Road Church of Christ, said he thought lethal injection was a "very humane" method of execution, because one of the drugs used causes unconsciousness before the drugs that cause death are injected. Dawson said both Old and New Testament scripture support the death penalty. "God authorizes governments to carry out the death penalty," Dawson said. "Government serves as a minister for God to execute wrath on those who do evil." "Not only does the civil government have the right to judge crimes, but it also has a right to carry out the ultimate penalty." Robert Gazaway, president of the local chapter of the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, rued Wednesday's ruling because it opens the gates to a glut of executions. "Sooner or later, the citizens of Texas are going to have to come to grips that the death penalty is much more expensive than keeping people in prison for the rest of their lives." Gazaway cited the prevalence of people being executed for crimes they did not commit as a principal objection to the practice. "It just doesn't make sense for a civilized society to continue to use the death penalty when we have life without parole," he added. A brief written statement from the Texas Attorney General's Office said the moratorium had delayed justice for crime victims and their families, but the state soon would rectify that. "In the wake of today's decision, the Office of the Attorney General will take the legal action necessary to bring closure to these victims," said AG spokesman Jerry Strickland in the statement. A Kentucky inmate had argued that the combination of drugs widely used for execution in America constituted cruel and unusual punishment, a violation of the Constitution. Death penalty gets new life Posted on Apr. 14, 2008 Musicians take on death penalty BY JAY ROOT STAR-TELEGRAM STAFF WRITER AUSTIN -- In Texas, home of the busiest death chamber in the Western Hemisphere, the question is generally when, not whether, to execute condemned killers. But 25 years after the death penalty was reinstated in Texas -- and after 405 executions -- a group of homegrown artists and entertainers say it's time to take another look at capital punishment. Spearheaded by Austin singer-songwriters Sara Hickman and Trish Murphy, the entertainers are staging concerts and town-hall meetings around Texas, taking advantage of an unofficial moratorium on executions to get people talking about the issue. The concert series has been dubbed "Music for Life," and, as the name suggests, it's an anti-death penalty crowd on stage. But organizers will settle for anything short of silence on an issue they say has generated an almost stunning lack of controversy. "The whole point is just to open up a dialogue," said Murphy, whose albums include Crooked Mile and Rubies on the Lawn. "I don't think it's going to be done overnight, but that's no reason not to make the effort." Scheduling a concert in a different Texas city each month, the artists-activists have an event set in Fort Worth at the Jefferson Freedom Cafe in the fall. Former Death Row chaplain Carroll Pickett and Kinky Friedman, the musician-turned- writer-turned- politician, are among the speakers scheduled to participate in some of the forums. Hickman, a folk-rock singer whose albums include Motherlode and Shortstop, said the events sometimes spark heated, heart-wrenching debate. "It's definitely the hardest undertaking I've ever had, and it is very, very emotional for me. The music is very emotional," said Hickman, who performs a provocative song called The One, written from the perspective of an infamous killer's mother. "I just felt called to do it." For Friedman, who lost a bid for Texas governor in 2006, it's an opportunity to test the waters again: If he runs for governor in 2010, he says, he'll make abolition of the death penalty his top issue. "No other politicians are going to steal my idea here," he said. The former stand-up comedian said that Texans shouldn't give life-or- death power to the same politicians who "can't build a border fence, run a post office or evacuate New Orleans." Executions have been on hold nationwide since September, when the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear a constitutional challenge of execution by lethal injection. Texas inmate Michael Richard was executed the same day the court agreed to hear the case. No executions have been carried out in the state since. At issue in the Kentucky case is whether the drugs used can inflict excruciating pain and thus violate constitutional protections against cruel and unusual punishment. Robert Black, a spokesman for Gov. Rick Perry, predicted that executions would resume after the Supreme Court's review. Perry, who has presided over more executions than any other U.S. governor, believes that capital punishment has been applied fairly in Texas and that most Texans support it for heinous crimes, Black said. "As long as he is governor, he will defend it," Black said. Jay Root reports from the Star-Telegram's Austin bureau. 512-476-4294 jroot@star-telegram.com Peckerwood Hill: An artifact of the death penalty By RON FRANSCELL, The Enterprise 03/31/2008 ---------- The cheap, cast concrete markers that dot Peckerwood Hill's 22 acres bespeak lost lives and loneliness. None buried there had family or resources that could have buried them elsewhere. ---------- HUNTSVILLE - A shroud of low, ashen mist cuts a swath across Peckerwood Hill on a corpse-cold day in Texas. No matter. The Rev. Carroll Pickett knows the spot he seeks. The ground is spongy with night rain, sunken in some places where cheap pine-box coffins have rotted and collapsed, so he walks respectfully among the dead. A plastic grocery sack flutters in the highest branches of a yellow pine, a ghost guard keeping watch over almost 3,000 dead, indigent criminals Texas has buried here for the last 160 years. The history of the American death penalty is written across the handmade concrete headstones on Peckerwood Hill, Texas' biggest and oldest prison cemetery. It is as much an artifact of capital punishment as "Old Sparky," the Texas electric chair, now a museum piece. More condemned men - 180 - are buried here than 29 other states have executed in their entire history. Most share the ignominy of a nameless tombstone marked only with their inmate number, a death date and a simple "X" ... executed. This spring, the U.S. Supreme Court likely will deliver its latest opinion about the constitutionality of lethal injection - an execution method first used in Texas in 1982. The justices' ruling could affirm or adjust America's preferred death mechanism, or shake the institution of capital punishment to its core for the second time in the last 40 years. The dead on Peckerwood Hill are past caring. This place smells and feels different from other graveyards. It's dark and sour, as if bad men decay into bad earth. Not all were executed, but all were criminals doing time. The memories here aren't happy, and few mourners leave flowers, much less celebrate wasted lives. And Peckerwood Hill is little more than a 22-acre potter's field, since these dead prisoners had neither money nor family willing to claim their corpses. Pickett stops. As Texas' death house chaplain between 1982 and 1997, he escorted 95 men the last eight paces to their executions. The mildewed cross at his muddy feet is stamped, simply and coldly, "3-14-84 X 670." Pickett stood on this spot 24 years ago and conducted a secret funeral for Inmate #670 - J.D. Autry, a 29-year-old kid who shot a Port Arthur convenience store clerk in 1980 for a six-pack of beer. Autry's was only the second execution he'd attended. "They called him Cowboy and he was my friend," the white-haired, 78- year-old Pickett said, kneeling to brush dry leaves from a small plaque someone later placed at Autry's grave. "His time came and he was strapped in a little after 11. We were in that room together, just me and him, nobody else, for almost an hour. Then he got a stay just before midnight. He spent all that time strapped down, waiting to die. Then he didn't." Back on death row, the resurrected Autry became a hero of mythic proportion. He'd gone where nobody else had ever gone, into the death chamber, and lived to tell about it. Five months later, he walked the last mile with Pickett for a second time and didn't come back. After Autry, Pickett buried 20 more executed men on Peckerwood Hill (which the now-retired Presbyterian minister prefers to call by its proper name, Captain Joe Byrd Cemetery, for the assistant warden who personally cleaned up the overgrown boneyard and located hundreds of unmarked graves in the 1960s. But "Peckerwood Hill" - a reference to poor Southern trash - is what prisoners have called it for the last 100 years.) "To walk out here is to know these people had two or three deaths," Pickett said. "Going to prison is like dying, but when their bodies finally die, they're here all alone." Pickett remembers all of them. He can tell you something about each one. He carries a Bible and a log of their deaths. He can tell you what they ate, their last words and how they faced death at the end. As he walks down the line of gray stones, he pauses before the intermittent ones marked with the telltale "X." "Here's Jay Kelly Pinkerton," Pickett said. "I think he was about 17 when he raped and stabbed a 70-year-old nun. In those moments before he died (on May 15, 1986), I asked him why. He told me, 'I just wanted to know what it was like.'" Peckerwood Hill was an unused patch of private land when the new Texas prison in Huntsville mistakenly began using it as a burial ground in 1853. A couple of years later, the landowners deeded it to the State of Texas, reckoning a boneyard for scoundrels wasn't much use for anything else. No burial records were ever kept, but photos of Peckerwood Hill in 1899 show many graves, all marked with wooden crosses, according to Jim Willett, the former prison warden who now runs the Texas Prison Museum in Huntsville. When it comes to death and prison, Willet is an indisputable expert: In three years as warden between 1998 and 2001, he witnessed 89 executions, more than any warden in American history. Over its first hundred years, Peckerwood Hill was little more than an untended trash heap, spiritually and physically. Nobody cared much. Weeds and brush engulfed it, hiding graves while time and the elements rotted their wooden crosses. When Capt. Joe Byrd organized the massive cleanup in the 1960s, he located 922 graves, although nobody knows exactly who's in 312 of them. Many more were lost forever. "It's hard to believe they kept no records of who was buried here until 1974," Willett said recently. "They were burying people here for 120 years before anybody thought to write it down. I think there are about 260 people that we don't even know who they are." Peckerwood Hill's most famous "resident" busted out long ago. Kiowa chief Satanta, who was imprisoned in 1874 for leading insurgent raids on Texas settlers and inspired the character Blue Duck in Larry McMurtry's "Lonesome Dove," committed suicide by leaping from a prison window and was buried on Peckerwood Hill in 1878. In 1963, his grandson claimed his bones and reburied them in Fort Sill, Okla. A monument to Satanta remains. Until 1923, executions were carried out by county sheriffs in Texas, usually by hanging. Then the State of Texas assumed the morbid duty and the electric chair became the official death mechanism. Texas executed its first inmate by electrocution on Feb. 8, 1924 - followed quickly by four more within a few hours. Today, three of those five men are buried side-by-side on Peckerwood Hill, and Texas has executed a total of 911 inmates since 1923. Some 405 of those were executed by lethal injection before the U.S. Supreme Court decided to reconsider its constitutionality last month. Now as then, a grave is hand-dug by inmates, sometimes before there's a dead man to fill it. Funerals always begin at 8:30 a.m., and there might be two or three in short order. The dead convict is buried in his release clothes, a work shirt and khaki pants. He is transported by a proper hearse, not a state pickup. Four inmates act as pallbearers, then bury the casket after the death house chaplain said a few words. Sometimes mourners come, sometimes they don't. Another chapter of death-penalty history can be seen only by reading between the barely tidy lines of headstones. In 1964, Texas executions stopped while America wrestled with the humanity of death penalty, and they weren't resumed for almost 20 years. So visitors will find no X'd markers from the 1960s and '70s. At midnight on Dec. 7, 1982, killer Charlie Brooks became the first American to die by lethal injection. That night, America got a new kind of death. And that night, the Rev. Carroll Pickett said an earnest prayer and helped Brooks die a good death. Pickett has buried hundreds of men here. Not just a handful of executed killers, but small-time hoods with bad hearts, gangsters with AIDS, bed-sheet and razor-blade suicides, victims of shanks, cancer and old age. Pickett looks down at the ground, or perhaps the flawed souls concealed there. The heavy air is colder now. "Yes, I suppose they were bad," he said, "or at least did bad things. But I knew a man who stuffed a sausage down his son's throat and killed him. Later, he was active in the church and very generous. He changed. Some of them ... well, sometimes I've thought we might have been friends in a different situation at another time." Pickett pauses at another grave. Here lies Donald Franklin, who viciously raped and murdered a San Antonio nurse. Before he was executed 13 years later, he told Pickett he reckoned he'd be reincarnated as a tree in Tyler, Texas. Then he died. And a little further is the only condemned man who never talked to Pickett about his crimes, even at the end. In 1976, James Demouchette and his brother executed two Houston Pizza Hut workers so they could steal a bag of change and a stereo. Almost 16 years later, he had nothing to say in his last day on earth, no final words - except that he didn't want squash or okra with his final meal. But some tell everything, secrets that they won't take to their grave. Other murders, rapes or inhumanities. Pickett carries those secrets with him now because a clergyman he cannot betray their confidence, even though the weight of knowing he might be able to salve a family's anguish is sometimes to heavy to bear. His last stop before dark is Clifton Russell, one of two inmates executed on the same night in 1995. Pickett watched both of them die. Russell was first, simply because his inmate number was lower. The stultifying burden of ushering a man to his death, times two. "I don't know if I can ever get over that," Pickett said, pulling his collar up against the wet wind. A distant whistle blows at The Walls, the unit housing Texas' death chamber, named for its fortress-like parapets. A dog howls in response from the trailer park on the cemetery's southern edge. "As I walk through these acres and acres of thousands and thousands of convicts, I am bothered emotionally, spiritually and morally," Pickett said on the way back to his car. "Many times, I have struggled with my feelings about this place." That's not all Pickett has struggled with. The death house chaplain who escorted 95 men to whatever lay beyond for them, who walked the last eight paces with them and who listened to whatever they wanted to say before their last midnight, is now an outspoken opponent of the death penalty. His 2002 book, "Within These Walls," sketches his extraordinary path from a South Texas kid who believed in an eye for an eye to a gentle pastor who witnessed the reality of it, and came to abhor it. But Peckerwood Hill is an eternity from Austin and Washington. There are no politics in a graveyard. The criminal dead here don't care anymore, even if their X'd headstones reflect America's conflict - or lack of it - about capital punishment over the last 100 years or so. And most of those who care, well, they don't end up on Peckerwood Hill. "We all die somehow," Pickett said as he leaves. "A lot of these men were relieved to finally be done with it. If they believed in an afterlife, had any faith at all, this was freedom." Peckerwood Hill Second condemned killer commits suicide By LIZ AUSTIN PETERSON Associated Press Writer HOUSTON — A second convicted murderer awaiting execution killed himself in his cell just three days after another condemned man committed suicide, prison officials said Monday. William Robinson, 49, used a sheet to hang himself from a vent in his cell at a psychiatric facility on Friday, Texas Department Criminal Justice spokeswoman Michelle Lyons said. Only eight other condemned killers have taken their own lives since death row reopened in 1974, including Jesus Flores, who killed himself on Jan. 29. Robinson, who was sentenced to death for a 1985 murder, had been held at the Jester IV psychiatric facility in Richmond since September and had spent time there periodically throughout his years on death row, Lyons said. Officers found Robinson hanging at about 5 a.m., Lyons said. They cut the sheet and performed CPR. He was taken to a hospital alive but unresponsive and was put on life support. Robinson's mother decided to terminate life support after doctors said he was most likely brain dead, Lyons said. Lyons said privacy laws prevented her from discussing Robinson's medical records, but she said he did injure himself with a razor in 2006. Michael Charlton, Robinson's former attorney, said Robinson was a paranoid schizophrenic who repeatedly attempted suicide. "Despite years of that history, to leave William unsupervised and not on a suicide watch to me, it's just appalling," Charlton said. Lyons said officers at Jester IV routinely check on inmates every 15 minutes. It took a jury just 11 minutes to convict Robinson of capital murder for the shooting death of 26-year-old Steven Michael Creasey in a Houston apartment complex. According to prosecutors, Robinson and two other men robbed Creasey and a female friend and then tried to abduct the woman. Creasey was shot between the eyes when he tried to help her. The woman told police she was raped for hours by all three men before she was released. Prosecutors said Robinson had just gotten out of prison after serving seven years for robbery when Creasey was murdered. The killing was part of a crime spree that also included a carjacking and the robbery of three men, a shoe store, and a bus driver. Robinson admitted to raping the woman but said his co-defendent killed Creasey. In state and federal appeals that were pending when he died, attorneys for Robinson claimed he was mentally retarded and was not sufficiently represented his trial. Flores' suicide last week was the first by a death row inmate since October 2006, when Michael Johnson killed himself the same day he was supposed to be executed for the slaying of a convenience store clerk near Waco. A corrections officer found Flores' body in his cell at the Polunsky Unit, home of Texas' male death row in Livingston. He had lacerations on his throat and forehead, Lyons said. Another Suicide on Death Row February 4, 2008 Copyright 2008, The Associated Press. Apparent Inmate Suicide Jan 29, 2008 LIVINGSTON, Texas - State prison officials say a death-row inmate apparently killed himself in his cell overnight. A Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokeswoman says corrections officers found Jesus Flores in his Polunsky Unit cell about 4 a.m. Tuesday with throat and forehead lacerations. Spokeswoman Michelle Lyons says he was pronounced dead an hour later. Lyons says Flores tried to use his own blood to scrawl a message on his cell wall, but it was illegible. He was convicted of capital murder in the May 2001 shooting of Harris County Sheriff's Deputy Joseph Dennis. Officials say Flores shot Dennis in the head during a struggle. Flores is the first Texas death-row suicide since October 2006, when Michael Johnson killed himself. January 16, 2008 The punishment fits the times USA TODAY By Jonathan Turley The Supreme Court just heard the case brought to determine whether lethal injection constitutes Œcruel and unusual punishment.¹ But perhaps society isn¹t as caught up in the method as in the verdict itself. From the Brazen Bull to hanging to the electric chair, the death penalty has evolved through the ages. Have we? Nothing becomes politics quite like death. With a presidential election approaching and three important cases before the Supreme Court, the country is once again grappling with the death penalty. Politicians and citizens alike are debating how ‹ and whether ‹ we should kill those who kill others. It is a debate with particular importance to Ralph Baze and Thomas Clyde Bowling Jr., death-row inmates who are challenging the constitutionality of lethal injection as a method of execution in Kentucky. The court is set to issue its first ruling in more than 100 years on the method of executions. The debate over the mechanics of execution stretches back to the earliest forms of capital punishment. It seems that, like madness, there must be a method to our morality ‹ at least when it comes to executions. As the public has grown more uneasy with the death penalty, it has insisted on less painful methods of execution. Indeed, in the current cases, one of the drugs in the standard "three-drug cocktail" appears primarily for the benefit of onlookers by preventing any manifestation of pain by the subject, even if he is in agony. It reflects a long desire to somehow take the discomfort out of execution. But for whom, the executed or the executioners? Pain has long been a surrogate issue for a deeper unease with death as a punishment. At one time, pain was part of the purpose of the moral execution. Early practitioners sought ever more gruesome and prolonged methods. Phalaris, the tyrant of Agrigentum (571 to 556 B.C.), used his infamous Brazen Bull, which was designed so that a man placed inside over a fire would roast while his moans were amplified through a series of tubes as soothing music for the tyrant. The Romans punished parricide (murder of a parent) by putting the condemned into a sack with a dog, a rooster, a viper and an ape ‹ then throwing the sack into the water. In the USA, executions were recorded almost immediately upon the landing of Europeans. In 1608, George Kendall was executed in Virginia for plotting against the Crown. By 1612, Virginia Gov. Sir Thomas Dale enacted the Divine, Moral and Martial Laws, which mandated the death penalty for virtually any conceivable crime, from trading with the Indians to killing chickens. Colonial executions included hanging, beheading, drowning, burning and breaking at the wheel (where a person was tied to a wagon wheel and his limbs were broken; then the shattered limbs wrapped around the wheel spokes). With the age of enlightenment, the idea of executing someone in a way to heighten suffering came into disrepute as states sought uniform methods of capital punishment. A walk through the history of capital punishment in the USA is useful in considering where we've been ‹ and where today's discussion might lead us: Hanging: With uniformity now the goal, the preferred method quickly became hanging. By 1853, it was the method of execution in 48 states and territories. The ideal is to break the individual's neck at the end of the initial plunge down the rope. But if the rope is too short, the person is strangled to death and can linger for as much as an hour writhing in pain. If the rope is too long, decapitation can occur (as shown in the execution of Barzan Ibrahim, Saddam Hussein's half-brother). Hangings also became the focus of public disorder with large crowds and heavy drinking. The method robbed society of a sense of moral superiority as men twisted at the ends of ropes before drunken crowds. This led to the anti-hanging movements of the late 19th century. In 1885, New York Gov. David Bennett Hill condemned hanging as coming "down to us from the dark ages." He called upon legislators to look to science for a way of "taking the life ... in a less barbarous manner." A solution was suggested by none other than Thomas Edison: electricity. The electric chair: The use of the electric chair was as much a financial as a moral debate. Edison was in a fierce competition with George Westinghouse over the standard current. Edison wanted the electric chair to use Westinghouse' s AC current so that it would be associated with lethality (as opposed to his own DC current). He won both the fight over execution method and the standard current. The first to be dispatched electrically was William Kemmler in 1890 in New York for the murder of his mistress. It was his case that led the Supreme Court to adopt a hands-off approach on the methods of execution, despite nightmarish failures. Frederick Leuchter, a mechanical engineer who maintained electric chairs in the 1980s, admitted that, when certain problems occur, "you're literally boiling the person to death." In Wayne Robert Felde's execution in Louisiana in 1988, his flesh was burned off, exposing part of his skull to witnesses. The execution of Allen Lee Davis in 1999 in Florida resulted in blood pouring down his shirt. The chair can routinely cause hair to ignite, flesh to burn, genitals to explode and ears to burn away. The method is so cruel that it has been denounced in use on animals. Again, society became uneasy with a method that seemed to mirror the overt violence that led to the execution. Though it was used by 26 states in 1949, states soon discovered another appealing method: gas. Gas chamber: The first to die in a gas chamber was Gee Jon in Nevada in 1924. The state first tried to simply pump cyanide into his cell while he slept, but the bars allowed too much gas to escape. The modern desire to minimize pain found a poor outlet in gas. The effect of the gas is to cause "cellular suffocation" and acidosis (production of lactic acid), creating a sense of drowning or strangulation. As courts began to find it to be cruel and unusual, gas chambers fell out of favor as states again sought the ideal method of execution. Lethal injection: This form of execution was not particularly new when it became the rage in death circles. The idea of killing someone with injected poisons goes back to 1888. But the method seemed a perfect match for modern sensibilities. In 1973, California Gov. Ronald Reagan endorsed lethal injection from his personal experience with horses, noting that he knew "what it's like to try to eliminate an injured horse by shooting him. Now you call the veterinarian and the vet gives it a shot and the horse goes to sleep ‹ that's it." The public embraced the idea, figuring that if it was OK for a beloved mustang, it must be OK for a condemned murderer. Though in 1977 Oklahoma became the first state to adopt lethal injection, the first to die by the method was Charles Brooks in 1982 in Texas. Thirty-five states and the federal government now use lethal injection. Where the electric chair became the symbol of cruelty of death, lethal injection showed the banality of death. Indeed, the public continues to view it as a benign, antiseptic and scientifically based process despite its casual and unscientific development. The three-drug cocktail used in all states can be traced to the Oklahoma medical examiner, Jay Chapman. In 1976, a state legislator wanted to avoid the cost of repairing the state's electric chair or building a gas chamber and solicited his advice on alternatives. Chapman suggested the use of "an ultra-short- acting barbiturate" like sodium thiopental and a neuromuscular blocking drug like pancuronium bromide. A third drug, potassium chloride, was later added to stop the heart. Chapman later admitted: "I didn't do any research. I just knew from having been placed under anesthesia myself, what we needed." Even the amounts of these drugs in the standard protocol were based on convenience or accident. When a Texas official (who helped develop the procedure) was asked why he specified 5 grams of sodium pentothal, he admitted that "the only thing I had on hand was a 5-gram vial. And rather than do the paperwork on wasting 3 grams, we just gave all 5." The first drug, sodium thiopental, has proved a particular concern. It is so fast-acting and short-lived that patients have reported waking up in the midst of surgery and, while feeling the pain of surgery, being unable to cry out. In a 2005 study of 49 executions in the USA by the respected British medical journal The Lancet, researchers found that 21 individuals were probably conscious when they were killed by the final dose of potassium chloride. Notably, the second drug ‹ pancuronium bromide ‹ preserves the appearance of a peaceful and painless end. Yet, it also prevents a subject from manifesting pain. In Tennessee, it is a crime to use pancuronium bromide to kill pets, but it is used for human executions. Human error also remains a principal cause of botched executions. In Florida in 2006, prison officials succeeded in not only missing the veins of condemned Angel Diaz, but also shoving the needles through his vein and into his muscle. It took 34 minutes and two doses of chemicals to finally kill him. Also last year, Ohio officials took 27 minutes to find a vein on Joseph Clark, only to have the vein collapse. It then took 30 minutes to find another vein as Clark lay moaning on the gurney. He was declared dead 90 minutes after the beginning of the execution. Once widely accepted, capital punishment's support has been falling significantly in polls. When asked, only half of the public supports it when given the alternative of life without parole. Last month, New Jersey became the first state in 42 years to ban the death penalty. As many as 120 people on death row have been exonerated through DNA testing, and in the 36 states that allow capital punishment, executions have reached their lowest level in 13 years. (Last year, 42 people were executed.) Likewise, death sentences have dropped 60% since 1999. Given the current makeup of the Supreme Court, the Kentucky cases will almost certainly result in an endorsement of lethal injection. The court did not appear to have a majority in oral arguments for striking down lethal injection or even tweaking the three-drug cocktail. Indeed, Justice Antonin Scalia objected that "this is an execution, not surgery." As citizens demand less pain in delivering death, the focus of the capital punishment debate might be shifting. Reducing the levels of pain or error in executions will not alter the fact that this remains a violent act committed by society. In this sense, pain might have lost its viability as a surrogate for this deeper debate over capital punishment. Perhaps with the reduction of pain through chemicals and the increase of reliability through DNA, society will be forced to move beyond the surrogates and deal directly with the fundamental moral question: Has death itself become the intolerable element of the death penalty? Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University and a member of USA TODAY's board of contributors. Key rulings - - - - - The U.S. Supreme Court has evolved with society in its view of the death penalty. While upholding its constitutionality generally, the court has gradually restricted its application ‹ though with the two Bush appointees, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito, that trend could be either arrested or reversed. Here are a few of the most important rulings: * In 're Kemmler' (1890):Rejected challenge of the use of the electric chair as cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment; suggested that the method of execution is primarily a state issue. * Furman v. Georgia (1972):In a fractured 5-4 decision (with nine opinions), the court struck down Georgia's death penalty statute (which voided similar statutes in 40 states), thus suspending the death penalty and commuting the sentences of 629 people on death row to life in prison. * Gregg v. Georgia (1976):Upheld new state statutes that created a more careful application of the death penalty based on aggravating and mitigating factors. With such procedures, the court found that the death penalty does not violate the Eighth Amendment. * Coker v. Georgia (1977):Struck down a death sentence that was rendered for the rape of a woman. Because the woman was not killed, the verdict was deemed excessive under the Eighth Amendment. * Atkins v. Virginia (2002):Barred the execution of mentally retarded inmates as cruel and unusual (rejecting an earlier decision to the contrary) based on the evolving standards and new consensus of society. * Roper v. Simmons (2005):Barred the execution of individuals who committed their crimes as juveniles on Eighth Amendment grounds. The punishment fits the times Jan. 7, 2008 Not Animals! Supreme Court case exposes cruelty and illogic of three-drug lethal injection. Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle The Supreme Court heard arguments Monday in a case that raises constitutional issues and basic questions of humanity. At least the latter problem requires not a Supreme Court judge, but common sense. Both the U.S. Constitution and the rules of civilization prohibit unneeded cruelty during punishment. Kentucky's protocol fails both standards, yet a simple alternative meets them — and should go into use right away. The justices are weighing two Kentucky cases contending that the state's three-drug execution "cocktail" is unconstitutional: performed too often by unskilled workers and wrongly risking excruciating pain from errors. Central to the arguments was a question that had the judges struggling for reference points: How should trial courts assess legal challenges to states' lethal injection techniques? The other question (which the judges might not address) was narrower: whether Kentucky's three-drug death "cocktail" unacceptably violates the court's standard on cruel and unusual punishment and thus violates the Eighth Amendment. The answer to this is clearly yes, based on evidence from physicians and ethicists, frequent reports of bungled executions and the history of how the three-drug cocktail came to be. Like Texas, Kentucky uses one drug to make the condemned prisoner lose consciousness, another to paralyze him and a third to cause fatal heart failure. Thirty-five of 36 states that execute use this procedure. If the drug mix is not correctly administered and monitored, evidence shows the inmate will feel excruciating pain. A sense of suffocation and awareness that one is paralyzed are other reported sensations when the cocktail goes wrong. Nor are these injections performed at top competence by skilled, trained professionals. This inadequate standard means the state runs an unacceptably high risk of a bungled execution causing extreme pain. Indeed, many states have this problem, evidenced by grotesque mistakes: an inmate's head bursting into flames, execution teams carving at prisoner's arms in futile search of usable veins. But the strongest argument that the triple-drug cocktail is unconstitutionally cruel is that it is simply unnecessary. The protocol was devised in 1977, in Oklahoma, one year after the death penalty was revived nationally, according to The New York Times. It was billed as an alternative to the even more unreliable and violent electric chair. But even then, there was a safer, more certain technique: a single barbiturate overdose, used for years to humanely euthanize pets. But in Texas, as elsewhere, the medical director of the state corrections department rejected this simpler, saner alternative. "He said it was a great idea," a veterinarian recalled, "except that people would think we are treating people the same way that we're treating animals." For no rational reason, Kentucky, Texas and the other executing states to this day kill inmates instead with the complex, fallible potentially torturous three-drug mix. In Kentucky it is actually illegal to kill an animal this way. Somehow, across the United States, the decision to punish has for years now fused with willingness to take unusually high risks of inflicting extreme physical pain. This is not constitutional, and it is not justice. It is cruelty. Not Animals! In Texas, they're quick with the needle OUR OPINION: EXECUTIONS REQUIRE BEING FAIR AND GETTING IT RIGHT, TOO Posted Dec. 31, 2007 The state of Texas apparently didn't get the same message that the rest of the country got. Most states put executions on hold temporarily after the U.S. Supreme Court agreed in September to hear a case challenging lethal injections. Not Texas. On the day that the Supreme Court made its announcement, a Texas Court of Criminal Appeals judge ordered the court clerk's office to close promptly at 5 p.m., denying a Death Row inmate a last-minute appeal to the High Court. The inmate was executed hours later. Not a good example This rush to the death chamber helps to explain why 60 percent of all U.S. executions this year were in Texas. It's an example no state should emulate -- and, in fact, most states are doing the opposite. A recent report by the Death Penalty Information Center, which opposes the death penalty, found that while Texas led the nation in executions this year with 26, executions in the United States were at a 13-year low. The decline is attributed to a de facto moratorium by states that have decided to wait for the Supreme Court's decision in the appeal of two Kentucky Death Row inmates. The men say that lethal injections violate the Constitution' s Eighth Amendment protection against cruel and unusual punishment. The court will hear arguments on Monday. Of the 42 executions in the United States last year, almost all of them -- 90 percent -- were in the South, with Texas claiming the lion's share, the report said. These numbers show either that there is growing unease with executions across the country or, at the very least, that most states are willing to wait until all legal issues are resolved before resuming state-sanctioned killing. This is a prudent course -- one that Texas should adopt -- especially considering the growing body of evidence showing that mistakes occur more often than many people realize. Four years ago, former Illinois Gov. George Ryan commuted the sentences of more than 100 Death Row inmates. He cited DNA evidence that was used to exonerate 13 condemned prisoners across the country. Two weeks ago, New Jersey passed a law abolishing its death penalty, although this decision is seen as largely symbolic since there hasn't been an execution there since 1963. Rush to judgment Except for Texas, the trend is positive. Those who want quick executions after convictions argue for swift justice, for closure for victims and for the deterrent effect -- if there is any -- of a proximity between crime and punishment. These are valid concerns that promote justice. But inherent in justice is that it be fairly determined and correctly administered. Texas should join the rest of the country in slowing down the rush to judgment. In Texas, they're quick with the needle December 26, 2007 Texas is Bucking Execution Trend By ADAM LIPTAK This year's death penalty bombshells a de facto national moratorium, a state abolition and the smallest number of executions in more than a decade have masked what may be the most significant and lasting development. For the first time in the modern history of the death penalty, more than 60 percent of all American executions took place in Texas. Over the past three decades, the proportion of executions nationwide performed in Texas has held relatively steady, averaging 37 percent. Only once before, in 1986, has the state accounted for even a slight majority of the executions, and that was in a year with 18 executions nationwide. But enthusiasm for executions outside of Texas has dropped sharply. Of the 42 executions in the last year, 26 were in Texas. The remaining 16 were spread across nine other states, none of which executed more than three people. Many legal experts say the trend will probably continue. Indeed, said David R. Dow, a law professor at the University of Houston who has represented death-row inmates, the day is not far off when essentially all executions in the United States will take place in Texas. "The reason that Texas will end up monopolizing executions," he said, "is because every other state will eliminate it de jure, as New Jersey did, or de facto, as other states have." Charles A. Rosenthal Jr., the district attorney of Harris County, Tex., which includes Houston and has accounted for 100 executions since 1976, said the Texas capital justice system was working properly. The pace of executions in Texas, he said, "has to do with how many people are in the pipeline when certain rulings come down." The rate at which Texas sentences people to death is not especially high given its murder rate. But once a death sentence is imposed there, said Richard C. Dieter, the executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, prosecutors, state and federal courts, the pardon board and the governor are united in moving the process along. "There's almost an aggressiveness about carrying out executions," said Mr. Dieter, whose organization opposes capital punishment. Outside of Texas, even supporters of the death penalty say they detect a change in public attitudes about executions in light of the time and expense of capital litigation, the possibility of wrongful convictions and the remote chance that someone sent to death row will actually be executed. "Any sane prosecutor who is involved in capital litigation will really be ambivalent about it," said Joshua Marquis, the district attorney in Clatsop County, Ore., and a vice president of the National District Attorneys Association. He said the families of murder victims suffered needless anguish during what could be decades of litigation and multiple retrials. "We're seeing fewer executions," Mr. Marquis added. "We're seeing fewer people sentenced to death. People really do question capital punishment. The whole idea of exoneration has really penetrated popular culture." As a consequence, Mr. Dieter said, "we're simply not regularly using the death penalty as a country." Over the last three years, the number of executions in Texas has been relatively constant, averaging 23 per year, but the state's share of the number of total executions nationwide has steadily increased as the national totals have dropped, from 32 percent in 2005 to 45 percent in 2006 to 62 percent in 2007. The death penalty developments that have dominated the news in recent months are unlikely to have anything like the enduring consequences of Texas' vigorous commitment to capital punishment. A Supreme Court case concerns how to assess the constitutionality of lethal injection protocols. While it is possible that states may have to revise the ways they execute people, executions will almost certainly resume soon after the court's decision, which is expected by June. Similarly, New Jersey's abolition of the death penalty last week and Gov. Jon Corzine's decision to empty death row of its eight prisoners is almost entirely symbolic. New Jersey has not executed anyone since 1963. And while the total number of executions in 2007 was low, it would have been similar to those in recent years but for the moratorium, if extrapolated to a full year. There do seem to be slight stirrings suggesting that other states might follow New Jersey. Two state legislative bodies, the House in New Mexico and the Senate in Montana, passed bills to abolish capital punishment, and in Nebraska, the unicameral legislature came within one vote of doing so. Texas has followed the rest of the country in one respect: the number of death sentences there has dropped sharply. In the 10 years ending in 2004, Texas condemned an average of 34 prisoners each year” about 15 percent of the national total. In the last three years, as the number of death sentences nationwide dropped significantly, from almost 300 in 1998 to about 110 in 2007, the number in Texas has dropped along with it, to 13 or 12 percent. Indeed, according to a 2004 study by three professors of law and statistics at Cornell published in The Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, Texas prosecutors and juries were no more apt to seek and impose death sentences than those in the rest of the country. "Texas' reputation as a death-prone state should rest on its many murders and on its willingness to execute death-sentenced inmates," the authors of the study, Theodore Eisenberg, John H. Blume and Martin T. Wells, wrote. "It should not rest on the false belief that Texas has a high rate of sentencing convicted murderers to death." There is reason to think that the number of death sentences in the state will fall farther, given the introduction of life without the possibility of parole as a sentencing option in capital cases in Texas in 2005. While a substantial majority of the public supports the death penalty, that support drops significantly when life without parole is included as an alternative. Once an inmate is sent to death row, however, distinctive features of the Texas justice system kick in. "Execution dates here, uniquely, are set by individual district attorneys," Professor Dow said. "In no other state would the fact that a district attorney strongly supports the death penalty immediately translate into more executions." Texas courts, moreover, speed the process along, said Jordan M. Steiker, a law professor at the University of Texas who has represented death-row inmates. "It's not coincidental that the debate over lethal injections had traction in other jurisdictions but not in Texas," Professor Steiker said. "The courts in Texas have generally not been very solicitous of constitutional claims." Indeed, the Supreme Court has repeatedly rebuked the state and the federal courts that hear appeals in Texas capital cases, often in exasperated language suggesting that those courts are actively evading Supreme Court rulings. The last execution before the Supreme Court imposed a de facto moratorium happened in Texas, and in emblematic fashion. The presiding judge on the state's highest court for criminal matters, Judge Sharon Keller, closed the courthouse at its regular time of 5 p.m. and turned back an attempt to file appeal papers a few minutes later, according to a complaint in a wrongful-death suit filed in federal court last month. The inmate, Michael Richard, was executed that evening. Judge Keller, in a motion to dismiss the case filed this month, acknowledged that she alone had the authority to keep the court's clerk's office open but said that Mr. Richard's lawyers could have tried to file their papers directly with another judge on the court. November 11, 2007 Tyler Morning Telegraph Examines Lethal Injection Staff writer Lauren Grover reports, UTHSC Doctor Presents Lethal Injection Debate. Animals euthanized by veterinarians are treated more humanely than inmates killed by lethal injection. Dr. William Girard, professor at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Tyler, presented this and other findings on Friday supporting insufficient lethal injection protocol in U.S. prisons. “There is adequate evidence of deeply disturbing systematic flaws,” he said. A moratorium has been placed on all lethal injection executions, “even in Texas,” until the U.S. Supreme Court in January considers its constitutional integrity, Girard said. Recent lawsuits filed by death row inmates claiming lethal injection is cruel and unconstitutional spurred state and now federal judicial reaction. It also caused Girard to question the complaints’ legitimacy. What he found was shocking, he said. And: Girard compared egregious lethal injection conduct to the careful, expertly way veterinarians administer euthanasia. While lethal injection protocol varies by state, the American Veterinary Medicine Association issues and frequently updates a 39-page guideline for euthanasia. The most encouraged form of euthanasia involves one ingredient: a long-acting anesthetic called sodium pentobarbital. The animal is given a high dose which pushes them past loss of consciousness into apnea and then into cardiac arrest. Using an anesthetic assures vets that the animal is completely asleep when its heart stops. But, lethal injections used on inmates contain a short-acting anesthetic called thiopental, Girard said. And unlike lethal injections, vet guidelines discourage the use of a paralyzing agent, saying it could lead to death by asphyxiation which isn’t even appropriate once an animal is unconscious. “I concluded that the paralyzing agent is used in lethal injection for the benefit of the viewers, to keep the inmate from squirming if the anesthesia isn’t adequate,” Girard said. “Notice the vets’ emphasis on regularly training personnel to knowledgably assess anesthetic death.” And, as to physician participation in executions: “There’s no way a physician would not sully (himself) by participating in this process,” said Dr. James Stocks, director of UTHCT’s Center for Sleep Disorders. Stocks compared it to the German doctors who were a “vigorous part” of the extermination of the Jews during the Holocaust. TrackBack URL for this entry: Examines Lethal Injection Staying alive on death row, a daily battle (AFP) 6 November 2007 LIVINGSTON, Texas - In a wing of this ultra-modern prison complex surrounded by barbed wire and towers, clinging on to hope is a daily battle for the 360 Texan inmates on death row. More than 400 of their fellow prisoners have been executed in Texas since 1982, most after spending an average of 10 years on death row. But many languish there for more than 15 years, some for double that amount. And even if it appears that capital punishment has been suspended while the US Supreme Court rules on the constitutionality of lethal injections, most know it is only a temporary reprieve. "The key in this place is isolation ... If you let this place act like it's designed to, you're not really going to talk to anybody. It breeds the antisocial mentality within you," death row inmate Tony Ford told AFP. He has spent 16 of his 34 years on this earth in prison, and now faces the death sentence for a murder he says he did not commit. Like all other death row prisoners here, he spends his days alone, locked in a 60 square feet cell, allowed out only for showers or to spend an hour's recreation in a cell little bigger than his own. Human contact is mainly limited to a few words exchanged through the slot in his cell door which his meals are passed through. Twice a week he gets to exercise in a cell in the courtyard. Still on his own. But at least he can talk a bit with his neighbor in the next cage as they are only separated by some wire fencing. Many prisoners lose all hope and throw in the towel. They refuse to leave their cells for showers or recreation. "Even though we stay 23 hours a day inside, a lot of people won't come out of their cells, because they are broken. They are not whole," Ford said. "Here is almost like being in a rat cage, being in a cage with just a little circle, and the little rat gets up and runs around the wheel but he's not going nowhere. And that's what those cages are like. You can walk around, and walk around, but you're not going nowhere. "Some people here may fill their depression and despair by eating so you have a lot of overweight people over here," said Ford. For many, the overwhelming loneliness finally gives way to despair and for some even madness. A few weeks ago one prisoner began to throw his faeces and urine through the slot in the door, filling the building with the stink of human excrement. Until 1999, Texas's death row was based at Ellis Unit, a filthy, delapidated building about 15 kilometers (10 miles) from the execution chamber in Huntsville. Despite the state of the building, prisoners could gather in common rooms, do some sport and even some handicrafts. But since the move to the Polunsky Unit, a brand new prison in Livingston an hour's drive from Huntsville, all that has stopped, even television. Ford has already won two last-minute stays of executions, and has now become an amateur expert in DNA analysis. He maintains that traces of blood found on the coat of another suspect could prove his innocence. In calm, measured tones he describes his daily, disciplined routine aimed at staving off the despair. A practising Muslim, he always starts his day with a prayer and a cup of coffee and then some reading. "It doesn't necessarily have to be spiritual. It may be poetry, it may be Koran, it may be something politically positive. I've a Socialist newspaper back here that I get from time to time and I read that. Just something positive. It gives me something to focus on. "I like to say that I put myself to school three times a week. Monday, Wednesday and Friday are study days. So I'm going to study something. It's gonna be history, it's gonna be spiritual matters, it's gonna be politics, it's gonna be the economy ... but I want to study. I want to spend some time to study and try to learn." Two years ago he married Rachael, an Englishwoman, who wrote to him after coming across his website set up by his support group. Her letters were different from that of the "groupies, people who are not serious with the death penalty, they don't take it seriously. They don't understand we're in a real struggle." Now she comes to see him three or four times a year, for just a few hours of conversation conducted through a glass window via a telephone. "She just makes everything brighter. She helps me stay focused on what was important and not to give in to some of the despair. That's one thing I'll never give in to, this despair," Ford said. Staying alive Governor Commutes Sentence in Texas Mona Reeder/The Dallas Morning News, Via Associated Press Kenneth Foster during an interview on August 22 at the Texas Department of Corrections. By RALPH BLUMENTHAL Published: August 31, 2007 HOUSTON, Aug. 30 — Hours before his scheduled execution as a disputed accomplice in a 1996 murder, Kenneth Foster won a rare commutation to life in prison on Thursday after Gov. Rick Perry followed the recommendation of the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles and granted a death row reprieve. The case had raised international protests because Mr. Foster, 30, was not the gunman but the driver of a getaway car in a San Antonio robbery spree that ended in murder. He was convicted under a Texas law that makes co-conspirators liable in certain cases of homicide. “It makes me feel wonderful,” said Mr. Foster’s father, Kenneth Foster Sr., who had been visiting his son at the death house in Huntsville with other family members when word of the board’s clemency recommendation came. “He was very excited; he jumped for joy,” the elder Mr. Foster said. Since taking office in 2000, Mr. Perry has granted death row commutations recommended by the pardons board only twice before, and has once overruled the panel’s recommendation, the governor’s office said. Mr. Foster’s lawyer, Keith S. Hampton, who had run out of options except for a final — and sixth — appeal to the United States Supreme Court, said, “I’m very relieved, for Kenneth and all his supporters.” Mr. Hampton said Mr. Foster could conceivably be released from prison some day, perhaps after serving 30 more years. He has served 10. The pardons board, appointed by the governor, met Wednesday and announced Thursday morning that it had voted 6 to 1 to recommend commutation. Shortly afterward, Mr. Perry, a Republican, accepted the recommendation. “I believe the right and just decision is to commute Foster’s sentence from the death penalty to life imprisonment,” the governor said in a statement. Mr. Perry raised doubts about the law that allowed Mr. Foster and the triggerman to be tried together and urged the Legislature to re-examine the issue. Three years ago the pardons board, with one vacancy, voted 5 to 1 to recommend commuting the death sentence of another convicted murderer, Kelsey Patterson, who had been given a diagnosis of schizophrenia. Mr. Perry turned down the recommendation, and Mr. Patterson was executed by lethal injection in May 2004. The two earlier death row commutations by Mr. Perry at the pardons board’s request came this year and in 2004. In 2005, after the United States Supreme Court halted the execution of juveniles, he commuted the death sentences of 28 17-year-olds. But 163 other executions have gone forward under Mr. Perry. Mr. Foster was arrested with three accomplices after a night’s armed robbery spree through San Antonio that ended with one of his companions gunning down a 25-year-old law student, Michael LaHood Jr. The jury convicted Mr. Foster and sentenced him to die, along with the gunman, Mauriceo Brown, finding that he should have anticipated that the group’s crimes could lead to murder. Mr. Brown was executed last year. The two other accomplices are serving life terms. Sue Gunawardena-Vaughn, director of the Program to Abolish the Death Penalty of Amnesty International USA, hailed the reprieve. “Given the obvious — that it would have been virtually impossible to predict the murder of Michael LaHood — Foster was sentenced to death under the broadest and most appalling interpretation of the law of parties,” Ms. Gunawardena-Vaughn said. Norma LaHood, the murder victim’s mother, said she took the commutation as divine will. “I’m filled with peace,” Mrs. LaHood said by telephone from San Antonio. “I will mourn my son till I die, but I’m not forced anymore to relive his death.” Commutation Two Texas Inmates Go on Hunger Strike to Protest Their Executions Kenneth Foster Jr., And John Joe Amador By Dee Published Aug 23, 2007 Two inmates from Texas death row will begin a hunger strike on August 23 to protest their upcoming executions. Kenneth Foster Jr., and John Joe Amador are to be executed by lethal injection one day apart from each other. Amador is to be executed on August 29 for the murder of 32 year old Reza Ayari, a cab driver from San Antonio. Amador has been on death row since 1995 and was 18 years old at the time of his offense. Ayari was shot in the back of the head, and his companion was shot in the face, but survived the attack according to TDCJ's website. Foster is to be executed on August 30 for driving the car during a robbery in 1996 when Michael LaHood Jr. 25, was shot and killed during an attempted robbery. The man who shot and killed him, Mauriceo Brown has already been executed on July 19, 2006 for this crime. Brown confessed to the shooting and claimed he acted solely alone, and that the other defendants had no knowledge of the shooting. Although Foster never left the car, and never touched the gun, he was sentenced under "The Law of Parties", where a defendant can be sentenced to die for being at the scene of the crime. Two other defendants in this crime Julius Steen and Dewayne Dillard, however were sentenced to long prison terms. Fosters case has received notoriety through the media, because he was the get away driver, and not the trigger man. Family, friends and supporters of Foster have rallied for a clemency from Governor Perry. Foster's story has been on national as well as international news. The case will be reviewed by the Board of Parole and Pardons sometime around August 28th, just two days before Foster's scheduled execution. Foster is the founder of D. R. I. V. E. a non violent activist group with members on death row. The site is maintained by Charles Peroud, a long time supporter of Foster. They maintain they do not condone violence, and strive for change through peaceful measures. The two inmates have announced through an open letter circulated by the "Kenneth Foster Jr. Campaign Yahoo group" received from Foster that they will not eat any more meals served to them and they will only drink liquids, starting on August 23. They will be placed in "death watch" cells one week prior to their executions where they will be watched from video cameras. Since the reinstatement of the death penalty in 1982, Texas will soon execute Johnny Conner the 400th inmate. Texas leads the nation in executions and is called the nations "busiest killing state." Texas has executed 19 inmates in 2007, more than any other state. One other execution is scheduled for August 28, Daroyce Mosley. Sources: DRIVE MOVEMENT KENNETH FORSTER JR. CAMPAIGN TEXAS DEATH ROW HUNGER STRIKE July 7, 2007 JUSTICE DENIED But what about my client, Mr. Bush? Reformed killer denied commuted death sentence by the then-Texas Governor By DAVID R. DOW Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle 1994, when he upset the popular incumbent, Ann Richards. The following September, my client, Carl Johnson, was scheduled for execution. Johnson had killed a security guard during a holdup of a convenience store. The guard had opened fire on Johnson first, but Johnson did not use that as an excuse. He accepted responsibility for what he had done, and he was remorseful. He had been robbing the convenience store in the first place because he had an expensive heroin habit to support, a habit he picked up in Vietnam, after being drafted. Johnson had been represented at his trial by one of the most notoriously inept death penalty lawyers in history. The lawyer fell asleep in numerous trials, including Johnson's. He was eventually no longer permitted to represent capital murder defendants. Johnson's co-defendant pleaded guilty, and had long since been released from prison by the time Johnson's execution date rolled around. Johnson grew up in prison. He became religious and repentant. He did not falsely proclaim his innocence or blame anyone other than himself for his mistakes, which he acknowledged to be serious and perhaps unforgivable. At the same time, in his years in prison, he had no significant disciplinary violations. He worked in prison. He crafted religiously-inspired art. He got his high school equivalency diploma. I thought of Johnson on the day that President Bush commuted the prison sentence of I. Lewis Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, a man who was convicted of lying to a grand jury — that is, a man who was convicted of perjury. President Bush went to the White House saying he was going to bring integrity back to the Oval Office, a reference to President Clinton, who had been impeached for lying to a grand jury, the same as Libby's crime. President Bush got elected despite charges that he had used his father's connections to avoid service in Vietnam, the place where my client, Carl Johnson, found heroin. In Texas, the governor cannot commute a death row inmate's sentence without approval of the Board of Pardons and Parole. The governor still wields great power, however, because the governor appoints the members of the board, and they take their cues from him. When Gov. Bush wanted to commute the death sentence of Henry Lee Lucas, a man believed by some law enforcement officers to have been a serial killer but who probably did not murder the woman he was sent to death row for killing, he let it be known, and the board accommodated his wishes, recommending a commutation, which Governor Bush signed in 1998. I asked then-Gov. Bush to grant my client a 30-day reprieve, with the idea that he could thereby signal to the board his belief that Johnson's death sentence should be commuted to life. He denied my request, as he denied the other 56 requests that were made of him by lawyers representing death row inmates. Some of these inmates were mentally retarded. Some were juveniles when they committed their crimes. Gov. Bush always gave the same explanation: that the inmates had had full access to the legal system. He gave that same reason when he turned down a reprieve request made by the lawyers representing Karla Faye Tucker, whose reformation on death row was legendary, and when he rejected the reprieve request made by lawyers representing Gary Graham, who was probably innocent. My client, Carl Johnson, committed the worst crime that can be committed against another human being: He killed someone. And Lewis Libby committed the crime that is most injurious to our criminal justice system: He lied. Unlike my client, Libby, who was convicted by a jury of his peers despite being represented by the best lawyers that money can buy, has never shown any public sign of remorse. Nevertheless, despite all that, President Bush did not exceed his authority in commuting Lewis Libby's prison sentence. The Constitution gives him the power to do what he did. But it is possible for actions to be lawful and simultaneously in conflict with other constitutional principles. Last week's pardon deeply offends the constitutional value of equality, the idea that all citizens stand equal before the law. Lewis Libby had something in common with the other people George Bush has pardoned, and with people President Clinton pardoned as well: He is rich and powerful, and he has rich and powerful connections. People do not get pardons because they are mentally retarded, or because they were young when they committed their crime, or because they had terrible lawyers, or because they have reformed, or even because they are innocent. They get them because they have friends in high places. That might not be illegal, but it's still wrong, and a president who issues pardons and commutations on that basis has not done very much at all to bring integrity to the Oval Office. Dow is the University Distinguished Professor at the University of Houston Law Center. He can be e-mailed at ddow@central.uh.edu. Cathy Henderson decision Here is the news we got. Dear Counsel: I have reread the motions and memos submitted to the court. I seriously considered both parties positions over the weekend. I decided, althought not convinced of the legal correctness of the defendant's position; it is in the interest of justice and the criminal justice system of this state, that the execution date of April 18th be reset for June 13th, 2007. This should permit the defense adequate time to perfect any subsequent writ. Therefore I will instruct my clerk to recall the current death warrant and to issue a new one with the June 13th date. Sincerely, Jon Wisser Judge Presiding Jani J. Maselli Attorney at Law The Niels Esperson Building 808 Travis Street, 24th Floor Houston, Texas 77002 Tel: (713) 757-0684 Fax: (713) 650-1602 email: jjmaselli@aol.com Supreme Court to hear 3 Texas death penalty cases Possible rebuke of state court, UT connection fuel interest in arguments. By Chuck Lindell AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF Sunday, January 14, 2007 The U.S. Supreme Court will devote a significant portion of its shrinking docket to three Texas death row cases this week, signaling the court's continued interest in justice provided by the state that has executed the most inmates. All the cases involve a jury instruction that Texas has not used since 1991, and the guilt of the three men is not in question — pointing to little chance of sweeping changes to death penalty law. And yet the cases have drawn wider interest with some intriguing subplots. The nine justices will determine whether the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals flagrantly disregarded an order from the highest court in the land. Many observers will be parsing the questions posed by the court's newest members, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito, to discern their approach to death penalty jurisprudence. And there is the late entry by 21 states hoping that a Texas victory will limit federal meddling in state court systems. Finally, there is a uniquely local flavor to events that will unfold before the high court's mahogany bench. All three condemned men are represented by University of Texas professors with the Capital Punishment Clinic — a coup for an ambitious law school and an uncommon hands-on experience for a dozen law students in the clinic. Oral arguments will be Wednesday. A decision could affect as many as 47 of the state's 390 death row inmates and clarify a murky corner of capital punishment law. All three of the Texas cases are similar, but the Supreme Court's day will begin with arguments on the most intriguing: that of LaRoyce Smith, a Dallas high school dropout who tortured and killed a Taco Bell manager in a botched 1991 robbery. This will be Smith's second trip to the Supreme Court over the same issue, a jury instruction found to be unconstitutional because it precluded jurors from giving proper consideration to mitigating evidence — information such as childhood abuse or psychological problems that could lead jurors to choose a life sentence over death. In 2004, the high court ordered the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to fix the sentencing problem. The state court demurred, ruling instead that Smith did not deserve a new sentencing hearing because the constitutional problem was "harmless" and didn't strongly influence jurors. Only one judge dissented. "Our judicial power does not include the power to . . . ignore orders from the Supreme Court," Judge Charles Holcomb wrote. "Reversed means reversed." The 8-1 ruling shocked legal scholars. The Supreme Court had delivered its message to Texas in a "per curiam" opinion — an unsigned order reserved for issues that the court deems unambiguous. "It's one way of saying the resolution of this issue is pretty darn obvious," said Allan Ides, professor of constitutional law at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles. The Texas ruling smacked of hostility toward the Supreme Court, Ides said. "To me, it seems as if the (Texas) court is simply saying, 'We're going to do what we want, and we're going to find some clever way to write around it' — and it wasn't that clever." It is rare for a case to make it to the Supreme Court, which has accepted only 64 of about 8,000 appeals so far this term, continuing a downward trend from the 1980s. It is even rarer for a case to make a second appearance, perhaps signaling that the high court has lost patience with its Texas counterpart, Ides said. Ted Cruz, the state solicitor general who will argue the Smith case on the Texas court's behalf, said the judges faithfully tried to adhere to a rapidly changing, sometimes contradictory, line of Supreme Court reasoning. The Texas judges "are serious, principled jurists who have strived over the past two decades to faithfully apply the Supreme Court's rapidly evolving capital punishment jurisprudence, " Cruz said. Origin of an issue The issue before the Supreme Court traces its origin to 1972, when the U.S. Supreme Court banned capital punishment, saying death sentences were delivered in an arbitrary, and therefore unfair, manner. Thirty-five states responded by giving jurors specific questions to answer. Texas, which reactivated death row in 1974, developed two "special issues" questionsthat had to be answered "yes" before a death sentence could be assessed: •Did the defendant act deliberately to kill? •Is it probable the defendant would commit violent crimes in the future? Texas executed its first inmate under the new guidelines in 1982 and followed with about 30 more until the Supreme Court added a twist in 1989. The two questions, the court ruled in a case from Texas, did not let jurors adequately consider evidence that could produce a life sentence over death. Texas judges responded with the "nullification" instruction, telling jurors that they could change their special issues answer to a "no," making the defendant ineligible for death, if they thought the defendant deserved lenigncy. Defense lawyers complained that nullification essentially required jurors to lie. In addition, they said, mitigating factors such as mental health problems were likely to make defendants appear more likely to commit future crimes, making a "no" response highly unlikely. The Legislature followed up in 1991, adding a third question: Should the defendant live or die when the mitigating evidence is considered? Smith was sentenced under the pre-1991 instructions, as were defendants in the two other cases to be argued before the Supreme Court: those of Brent Ray Brewer and Jalil Abdul-Kabir, formerly known as Ted Cole. The three inmates are seeking new sentencing hearings. An additional 44 Texas death row inmates, sentenced under the pre-1991 guidelines, could be affected, depending on how the Supreme Court rules, Cruz said. Texas will attempt to preserve the three death sentences in the name of justice, he said. "In all three of these cases, each defendant carefully planned and viciously murdered his victim so he could carry out a petty theft," Cruz said. "The victims' families in all three cases have waited nearly two decades for justice, and the state is hopeful that these cases will conclude swiftly so the defendants' sentences can finally be carried out." Cruz will share his time in oral arguments with a representative of California, one of 21 states that intervened in the Smith case to try to preserve state control over their death penalty systems. "The state should be free to apply its own legal doctrines, consistent with due process," the states said in a court brief. But UT law professor Jordan Steiker, who is representing Smith, said the Supreme Court was crystal clear in its demand that Texas fix Smith's jury instruction. The argument advanced by the 21 states has nothing to do with the underlying questions the court will address, he said. "This case is much more about the Supreme Court's policing of its judgments," Steiker said. A change of heart The other two Texas cases, consolidated for a single argument before the court, focus on decisions by a different body: the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which handles cases in Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi. The 5th Circuit ruled that Brewer and Abdul-Kabir did not deserve new sentencing hearings based on the faulty jury instructions. UT law professor Rob Owen, who represents the two inmates, does not think the Supreme Court accepted the cases to rebuke the lower court. "The 5th Circuit has clung to its (earlier) decisions, essentially saying that if we are wrong about this, the Supreme Court is going to have to tell us so because we don't understand their decisions," Owen said. "That's why I think the Supreme Court (took the cases) — not to punish the 5th Circuit but to clarify for them." Last month, while the Brewer and Abdul-Kabir cases were pending in the high court, the 5th Circuit indicated that it had a change of heart, granting a new sentencing hearing in a similar case. The reversal could render a Supreme Court ruling moot. Owen and Steiker will ask the court to forgo issuing an opinion and instead return the Brewer and Abdul-Kabir cases to the 5th Circuit for a ruling under the lower court's new standard. "The court could very well decide its intervention is no longer needed," Steiker said. The Supreme Court announced recently that it will look at an additional Texas death penalty case, that of Scott Panetti, who was convicted of killing his in-laws, Joe and Amanda Alvarado, in their Fredericksburg home in 1992. Psychologists have determined that Panetti is delusional; he believes he will be executed for preaching the Gospel. The court will consider whether it is unconstitutional to execute somebody who is aware that he faces death but because of a mental illness does not understand why. The Texas death penalty cases make up 6 percent of the court's current workload, a significant portion of a shrinking docket (87 appeals were handled last year, down from about 140 a year in the 1980s). "This is an extraordinary year," Ides said. LaRoyce Smith Shift manager Jennifer Soto, 19, was closing a Dallas Taco Bell on Jan. 7, 1991, when Smith and several friends knocked on the door and asked to use the phone. Soto recognized Smith as a former employee and let him in. Smith followed Soto into the office and pistol- whipped her in an effort to learn the safe's combination. When Soto said she didn't know it, Smith shot her in the back and stabbed her several times, inflicting what prosecutors called torture wounds. Brent Brewer On April 26, 1990, Robert Laminack agreed to give Brewer and an accomplice a ride in his truck. Brewer, riding in the back seat, stabbed Laminack repeatedly in the neck. The Amarillo robbery netted $140. Jalil Abdul-Kabir Formerly known as Ted Cole, Abdul-Kabir and two accomplices robbed Raymond Richardson, 66, in his San Angelo home. Richardson, who was legally blind, was strangled with a dog leash, and $20 was taken from his wallet. The cases are styled Smith v. Texas, 05-11304 Brewer v. Quarterman, 05-11287 Abdul-Kabir v. Quarterman, 05-11284 clindell@statesman.com; 912-2569 Find this article at: Supreme Court to hear 3 Texas death penalty cases ONE ARGUMENT AGAINST DP Some Examples of Post-Furman Botched Executions in Texas Michael L. Radelet University of Colorado December 16, 2006 NOTE: The below list is not intended to be a comprehensive catalogue of botched executions, but simply a listing of well-known examples. March 13, 1985. Texas. Stephen Peter Morin. Lethal Injection. Because of Morin's history of drug abuse, the execution technicians were forced to probe both of Morin's arms and one of his legs with needles for nearly 45 minutes before they found a suitable vein.[7] August 20, 1986. Texas. Randy Woolls. Lethal Injection. A drug addict, Woolls helped the execution technicians find a useable vein for the execution.[10] June 24, 1987. Texas. Elliot Rod Johnson. Lethal Injection. Because of collapsed veins, it took nearly an hour to complete the execution.[11] December 13, 1988. Texas. Raymond Landry. Lethal Injection. Pronounced dead 40 minutes after being strapped to the execution gurney and 24 minutes after the drugs first started flowing into his arms.12 Two minutes after the drugs were administered, the syringe came out of Landry's vein, spraying the deadly chemicals across the room toward witnesses. The curtain separating the witnesses from the inmate was then pulled, and not reopened for fourteen minutes while the execution team reinserted the catheter into the vein. Witnesses reported "at least one groan." A spokesman for the Texas Department of Correction, Charles Brown (sic), said, "There was something of a delay in the execution because of what officials called a 'blowout.' The syringe came out of the vein, and the warden ordered the (execution) team to reinsert the catheter into the vein."[13] May 24, 1989. Texas. Stephen McCoy. Lethal Injection. He had such a violent physical reaction to the drugs (heaving chest, gasping, choking, back arching off the gurney, etc.) that one of the witnesses (male) fainted, crashing into and knocking over another witness. Houston attorney Karen Zellars, who represented McCoy and witnessed the execution, thought the fainting would catalyze a chain reaction. The Texas Attorney General admitted the inmate "seemed to have a somewhat stronger reaction," adding "The drugs might have been administered in a heavier dose or more rapidly."[14] April 23, 1992. Texas. Billy Wayne White. Lethal Injection. White was pronounced dead some 47 minutes after being strapped to the execution gurney. The delay was caused by difficulty finding a vein; White had a long history of heroin abuse. During the execution, White attempted to assist the authorities in finding a suitable vein.[28] May 7, 1992. Texas. Justin Lee May. Lethal Injection. May had an unusually violent reaction to the lethal drugs. According to one reporter who witnessed the execution, May "gasped, coughed and reared against his heavy leather restraints, coughing once again before his body froze ..."29 Associated Press reporter Michael Graczyk wrote, "Compared to other recent executions in Texas, May's reaction was more violent. He went into a coughing spasm, groaned and gasped, lifted his head from the death chamber gurney and would have arched his back if he had not been belted down. After he stopped breathing, his eyes and mouth remained open."[30] April 23, 1998. Texas. Joseph Cannon. Lethal Injection. It took two attempts to complete the execution. After making his final statement, the execution process began. A vein in Cannon's arm collapsed and the needle popped out. Seeing this, Cannon lay back, closed his eyes, and exclaimed to the witnesses, "It's come undone." Officials then pulled a curtain to block the view of the witnesses, reopening it fifteen minutes later when a weeping Cannon made a second final statement and the execution process resumed.[42] August 26, 1998. Texas. Genaro Ruiz Camacho. Lethal Injection. The execution was delayed approximately two hours due, in part, to problems finding suitable veins in Camacho's arms.[43] December 7, 2000. Texas. Claude Jones. Lethal Injection. Jones was a former intravenous drug abuser. His execution was delayed 30 minutes while the execution "team" struggled to insert an IV into a vein. He had been a longtime intravenous drug user. One member of the execution team commented, "They had to stick him about five times. They finally put it in his leg." Wrote Jim Willett, the warden of the Walls Unit and the man responsible for conducting the execution, "The medical team could not find a vein. Now I was really beginning to worry. If you can't stick a vein then a cut-down has to be performed. I have never seen one and would just as soon go through the rest of my career the same way. Just when I was really getting worried, one of the medical people hit a vein in the left leg. Inside calf to be exact. The executioner had warned me not to panic as it was going to take a while to get the fluids in the body of the inmate tonight because he was going to push the drugs through very slowly. Finally, the drug took effect and Jones took his last breath."[52] [Endnotes] [7] Murderer of Three Women is Executed in Texas, N.Y. TIMES, March 14, 1985, at 9. [10] Killer Lends A Hand to Find A Vein for Execution, L.A. TIMES, Aug. 20, 1986, at 2. [11] Addict Is Executed in Texas For Slaying of 2 in Robbery, N.Y. TIMES, June 25, 1987, at A24. [12] Drawn-out Execution Dismays Texas Inmates, DALLAS MORNING NEWS, Dec. 15, 1988, at 29A. [13] Landry Executed for '82 Robbery-Slaying, DALLAS MORNING NEWS, Dec. 13, 1988, at 29A. [14] Witness to an Execution, HOUS. CHRON., May 27, 1989, at 11. [28] Another U.S. Execution Amid Criticism Abroad, N.Y. TIMES, Apr. 24, 1992, at B7. [29] Robert Wernsman, Convicted Killer May Dies, ITEM (Huntsville, Tex.), May 7, 1992, at 1. [30] Michael Graczyk, Convicted Killer Gets Lethal Injection, HERALD (Denison, Tex.), May 8, 1992. [42] Cannon was executed for a crime committed when he was 17 years old. 1st Try Fails to Execute Texas Death Row Inmate, ORLANDO SENT., Apr. 23, 1998, at A16; Michael Graczyk, Texas Executes Man Who Killed San Antonio Attorney at Age 17, AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN, Apr. 23, 1998, at B5. [43] Michael Graczyk, Reputed Marijuana Smuggler Executed for 1988 Dallas Slaying, ASSOCIATED PRESS, August 27, 1998. [52] Sarah Rimber, "Working Death Row," N.Y. TIMES, Dec. 17, 2000, at 1 Botched Executions in Texas New death row rules open to interpretation Court still ironing out standards for dumping poorly performing appeals lawyers. By Chuck Lindell AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF December 13, 2006 The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals have adopted new rules to weed out lawyers who bungle death row appeals, but its nine judges have yet to determine how the stricter standards will be applied, interviews showed Tuesday. The situation could lead to disagreements over how judges administer the rules. The state's highest criminal court, criticized for tolerating shoddy appeals, changed its rules late Monday to identify poorly performing lawyers and remove them from a court-run list of attorneys eligible to file — at taxpayer expense — writs of habeas corpus for death row inmates. Though the judges held extensive discussions over the content of the new habeas rules, they have not yet debated how the rules will be administered, Presiding Judge Sharon Keller said Tuesday. For example, if a lawyer is removed from the list for filing a deficient writ application, would the death row client be given a new lawyer and a new writ? Probably not, Keller said, pointing to a state law that bars inmates from filing additional writs except for rare circumstances. Keller added, however, that the final answer would depend on each circumstance. But Judge Cheryl Johnson, who helped draft the new rules, said fairness dictates that an inmate be given a second chance if his first lawyer botched the job, a position Judge Tom Price also endorsed. "Our intent was, we'll never leave somebody in a lurch," Johnson said. "If your lawyer is really bad and he comes off the list, we will notify . . . the judge who appointed him and say you need to appoint somebody else." The differences of opinion will have to be worked out between judges. As with any business before the court, the majority of judges will determine how the rules are interpreted. Done properly, a habeas writ reinvestigates every aspect of the case to ensure that a death sentence was properly levied. An Austin American-Statesman examination of the state writ system, however, found lawyers who regularly submitted writs that were poorly copied from their previous appeals or from other attorneys, among other problems. Partly in response to the October examination, the court adopted rules allowing a majority of judges to remove a lawyer from the habeas list for any writ that exhibits "substandard proficiency. " Lawyers also can be removed for engaging in unprofessional or unethical behavior or if another court rules that they provided poor legal representation in a criminal case. Another question for the court is whether to publicize the removal of lawyers from the list. Johnson is opposed, but Price sees merit in giving the public all available information related to a lawyer's competence. The court also has not decided whether a lawyer removed from the list could keep working on a pending habeas application. "It's really hard for us to remove a lawyer in the middle of representing someone," Price said. "What if the accused wants to keep his lawyer and we say no? You can really set yourself up for a sticky situation." The court will unveil a shortened list of eligible habeas lawyers as early as next week. The court asked all 100 lawyers on the list, many of whom haven't filed a writ application in years, if they wanted to remain on it. About two-thirds asked to be removed or failed to respond and will be removed, judges said. clindell@statesman.com; 912-2569 Find this article at: New death row rules Death row lawyers put on notice Texas highest criminal court sets standards for dumping attorneys for shoddy work. By Chuck Lindell AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF December 12, 2006 The state's highest criminal court, criticized for tolerating shoddy appeals filed on behalf of death row inmates, adopted new rules Monday to begin weeding out attorneys whose work falls below professional standards. When the rules take effect Friday, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals will be able to sanction lawyers who submit sloppy, lazy, inferior death-row appeals — a significant shift for the nine-member court. The court previously had no mechanism in place to identify poorly performing lawyers or to remove them from a court-run list of attorneys eligible to submit, at state or county expense, writs of habeas corpus for death row inmates. Habeas writs are considered the more important of two appeals given to the condemned in Texas, but a recent Austin American-Statesman review of the appeals system found that the court tolerated lawyers who regularly submitted writs that were incomplete, unintelligible or improperly argued. The situation has persisted despite an 11-year-old state law requiring the Court of Criminal Appeals to ensure that death row inmates receive competent legal help for their appeals. Under rules adopted unanimously after extensive behind-the-scenes debate, a majority of judges can remove a lawyer from the court's habeas list for any writ that exhibits "substandard proficiency." Lawyers also can be removed for engaging in unprofessional or unethical behavior or if they are found to have provided poor legal representation in a criminal case. Interpreting the rules is left to the discretion of each judge. "We recognize the need to have at least somewhat more specific rules . . . to remove attorneys who are not fulfilling their obligation to their clients," said Judge Cathy Cochran, who initiated the rules change with Judge Cheryl Johnson. Mandy Welch, a Houston lawyer who teaches continuing education courses on habeas law, was heartened by the changes, though she wanted to observe the court's interpretation of the rules before offering wholehearted approval. "Reviewing a lawyer's performance is critical to ensuring that people are properly represented, and this is at least a move in the right direction," Welch said. The rules are meant to be a first step, Cochran said. The court is awaiting recommendations from a State Bar of Texas task force formed last month to recommend extensive fixes to the state's death penalty habeas system. "We're only partway there," Cochran said. "We are hoping the task force comes up with more specific recommendations. In the meantime, at least we have something in place." F.R. "Buck" Files Jr., a Tyler lawyer and co-chairman of the task force, said the 12-member group is eager to work with the court. "Everything that we have heard tells us the ball is in our court and (the judges) are waiting to hear from us," he said. The committee's first meeting was Dec. 1, and the goal is to produce a report by April, while the Legislature is still in session. The Court of Criminal Appeals had been kicking around changes to the habeas system for more than a year, but one of the sticking points was creating a fair process for lawyers being removed from the court's habeas list. In the end, the court declined to establish a formal appeals process, though lawyers may ask the judges to reconsider their decision within 15 days. Removed lawyers also may reapply to join the habeas list after two years, but only after demonstrating improved proficiency and professionalism and submitting three writs of habeas corpus in non-death penalty cases. "We have been thinking, talking about it for well over a year," Cochran said. "And, quite honestly, it was probably the Austin American-Statesman that caused it to move faster rather than slower." The Statesman series, which ran Oct. 29 and 30, examined habeas lawyers who simply copied from their previous appeals or from other attorneys, whether the facts applied to their current case or not, or who recycled claims that have been denied time and again while ignoring obvious avenues of investigation. One lawyer submitted a writ copied almost entirely from his client's letters from death row, including this memorable passage: "I'm just about out of carbon paper. As soon as I get some more typing supplies I have about thirty more errors I want . . . in my appeal." clindell@statesman.com, 912-2569 The Great Writ The writ of habeas corpus, known as the Great Writ, is meant to protect against illegal detention by asking the courts to re-examine the circumstances and legality of an inmate's confinement. Taken from the Latin for 'you have the body,' habeas corpus is derived from seven centuries of British law that required authorities to bring incarcerated people to court so their sentences can be reviewed. Habeas writs have been used to exonerate several men on Texas death row and led to U.S. Supreme Court decisions that fundamentally altered death penalty law across the nation. Find this article at: < a href="http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/12/12/12habeas.html">Death row lawyers Interview With A Death Row Inmate: Kenneth Foster From The Polunsky Unit In Texas By Doreen Hawk A great article written by Doreen Hawk- Abolishment Movement.... Please check out the link and vote... Kenneth Foster Texas is sending fewer to death row By Lianne Hart Times Staff Writer December 11, 2006 HOUSTON — Texas may lead the nation by far in the number of executions carried out each year, but figures released last week suggest that support here for the ultimate punishment may be on the wane. Over the last 10 years, the number of death sentences imposed in the state has dropped 65%, from 40 in fiscal 1996 to 14 in 2006, according to statistics compiled by the Texas Office of Court Administration. In that time, murders have remained about the same: State crime statistics show 1,476 murders in 1996 and 1,405 in 2005. The figures are in line with a national decline in death sentences, and show that "Texas is catching up with the trend," said Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center. A growing number of wrongly convicted inmates across the country and the use of DNA evidence to exonerate the innocent have made jurors increasingly reluctant to impose the death penalty, Dieter said. Because of the large percentage of death sentences that come out of Houston's Harris County, the drop in Texas could be traced in part to a scandal at the Houston Police Department crime lab in which botched test results were used to bring suspects to trial. In addition, a law was passed last year that gave Texas juries the sentencing option of life without parole in death penalty cases, he added. "There has always been the idea of Texas being tough on crime, but I think as people see how much potential there is for mistakes, they're less inclined to be so heavy handed," said Vicki McCuistion, program director of the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. But Lyn McClellan, head of the felony trial section at the Harris County district attorney's office, said observers shouldn't read too much into the figures. In Houston, the number of crimes committed that are eligible for the death penalty has declined — not prosecutors' commitment to get a death sentence when the case calls for it, McClellan said. "We are trying fewer cases, and the only way I can attribute that is fewer cases meet our criteria for what we think is a death- appropriate case. It's not like we're getting those cases and saying, 'We don't want to seek death,' " McClellan said. Harris County sends more defendants to death row than any county in the state. In fiscal 1996, Harris County jurors gave the death sentence to 16 defendants. But in fiscal 2006, three people were sent to death row from the county. The drop was enough to bring down the state average, said Angela Garcia, judicial information manager for the Office of Court Administration. Dianne Clements, president of the Houston-based victims rights group Justice For All, said the decline had more to do with U.S. Supreme Court decisions limiting the kinds of cases eligible for the death penalty than a major shift in thinking. "We have the death penalty on the books and it's obvious that Texas uses it," she said. "I don't see it as anything to be ashamed of." lianne.hart@latimes.com Copyright 2006 Los Angeles Times Report: Death Penalty Creates More Victims December 05 2006 Family members, especially children, suffer in the aftermath of an execution PFADP via BBSNews Cambridge, Mass. – Families of the executed are victims too, according to a new report that Murder Victims' Families for Human Rights will release on December 10. "Creating More Victims: How Executions Hurt the Families Left Behind" draws upon the stories of three dozen family members of people executed in the United States and demonstrates that their experiences and traumatic symptoms resemble those of others who have suffered a violent loss. "It's something you don't ever get over," said Pam Crawford, one of the family members featured in the report. Crawford, a Charlotte native, is the sister of a man who was executed in Alabama in 1996. She described the nightmares and other difficulties that her teenaged granddaughter still experiences in the aftermath of the execution. Other family members agreed that children, in particular, suffer as they struggle to understand a relative's death at the hands of the state. "What impact does this event have on children's impressionable lives, and what cost does society pay for that impact?" asks Robert Meeropol, another survivor featured in the report. Meeropol's parents, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, were executed in New York when Meeropol was 6 years old. As a victims' organization, Murder Victims' Families for Human Rights (MVFHR) researched and published the report to highlight the similarities between the experiences of survivors of homicide victims and survivors of people who are executed. "Family members of the executed are the death penalty's invisible victims," said Renny Cushing, executive director of MVFHR. "With each execution, we create a new grieving family who experience many familiar symptoms of trauma, some of them long-lasting. As a society, what are we doing to address the suffering of these families?" "Creating More Victims" includes recommendations for mental health professionals, educators, and child welfare advocates. MVFHR also plans to deliver the report to the United Nations High Commissioner on Human Rights and request that that office undertake further study of the impact of executions on surviving families. Comment on this story at Comment December 4, 2006 State Bar of Texas Adopts Texas-Specific Version of ABA Guidelines for Death Penalty Cases According to the November 2006 edition of the Texas Bar Journal published by the State Bar of Texas, the State Bar has adopted a Texas verion of the American Bar Association' s Guidelines for the Appointment and Performance of Defense Counsel in Death Penalty Cases. The introduction to the Guidelines follows: On April 21, 2006, the Board of Directors of the State Bar of Texas adopted the Guidelines and Standards for Texas Capital Counsel. These guidelines and standards articulate the statewide standard of practice for the defense of capital cases in order to ensure high quality representation for all persons facing the death penalty in the State of Texas. The Guidelines and Standards for Texas Capital Counsel are a Texas-specific version of the American Bar Association' s Guidelines for the Appointment and Performance of Defense Counsel in Death Penalty Cases, as drafted by the State Bar of Texas Standing Committee on Legal Services to the Poor in Criminal Matters. The adoption of these guidelines is an important accomplishment for the State Bar of Texas and the criminal justice system of the state. Through its research in this area, the committee determined that a clear outline of necessary defense attorney performance standards in capital cases would benefit not only defendants, most of whom are indigent, but also the legal profession and the justice system as a whole. As the guidelines point out, successful representation requires conducting a factual investigation, often involving highly specialized forensic science, cultivating a range of witnesses, utilizing mitigation specialists highly trained in mental health and mental retardation issues, and making use of a team approach that combines members from several disciplines. The committee, which includes defense attorneys, judges, prosecutors, and public members, determined the need for a comprehensive tool to guide counsel representing defendants in death penalty cases. To this end, the committee designed the Guidelines and Standards for Texas Capital Counsel, which provides detailed practice standards for com- petent representation in these critical cases. The committee adapted the ABA's guidelines to fit the needs of capital litigation in Texas. For example, recognizing that some people facing the death penalty in Texas are citizens of other countries, a section was added detailing the additional obligations of counsel representing foreign nationals in capital cases. In addition, the committee included an expanded section instructing attorneys on how to adequately investigate and present a writ of habeas corpus in capital cases. The Guidelines and Standards for Texas Capital Counsel provide guidance on the necessary qualifications of defense counsel and detail who should be included on a defense team. They warn that the workload of attorneysrepre-senting defendants in death penalty cases must be monitored and that attorneys should give priority to death penalty clients. The guidelines detail the types of training defense counsel should obtain and also instruct attorneys on funding and compensation matters. The guidelines then detail the steps counsel must take in trial preparation, the duty to seek an agreed-upon disposition, and the special issues concerning the penalty stage of capital trials. The duties of post-trial counsel, including separate sections for direct appeal, habeas, and clemency counsel, are also presented. The guidelines extensively detail each of these duties, in an easy to understand, step-by-step style. The committee appreciates the support of the State Bar of Texas Board of Directors in adopting the guidelines and standards. The committee is confident that these guidelines will elevate the quality of representation of indigent people, and all people, in capital cases in Texas. (STATE BAR OF TEXAS: GUIDELINES AND STANDARDS FOR TEXAS CAPITAL COUNSEL: STANDING COMMITTEE ON LEGAL SERVICES TO THE POOR IN CRIMINAL MATTERS ADOPTED BY THE STATE BAR BOARD OF DIRECTORS APRIL 21, 2006, 69 Tex. B. J. 966 (2006)). See Representation. Source : Death Penalty Information Center ABA Guidelines for Death Penalty Cases November 8, 2006 Texas Inmates Protest Conditions With Hunger Strikes By RALPH BLUMENTHAL HOUSTON, Nov. 7 — Likening themselves to prisoners at Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo Bay, a dozen inmates on death row in Texas have staged hunger strikes over the last month to protest what they call abusive conditions, including 23 hours a day of isolation in their cells. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice said that the first inmates began refusing food Oct. 8 and that two were still on hunger strikes in the Polunsky prison unit in Livingston, about 45 miles east of the execution unit in Huntsville. The Polunsky Unit houses death-row inmates until their executions. As of Tuesday, one inmate had missed 35 consecutive meals and one 17 meals, but no one has yet been force- fed, said a department spokeswoman, Michelle Lyons. Two other prisoners who had not eaten since Oct. 8 began taking food Oct. 27 and Nov. 4, Ms. Lyons said, and others abandoned their protests after a short time. But Vickie McCuistion, program coordinator of the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, said some inmates had been reported as eating when they were still refusing food. Ms. Lyons said that a prisoner needed to miss nine meals to be considered on hunger strike and that some who had refused meals had eaten snacks at visiting sessions. "Either conditions will improve, or we will starve to death," vowed one of the first hunger strikers, Steven Woods, in an Internet posting put up by groups opposed to the death penalty. Since death row was moved from an older and more open facility in 2000, he said, "We lost all our group recreation, art programs, and supplies" in addition to "work programs, televisions and religious services." Because the inmates are not allowed to have contact visits, "the only physical contact we'll get until they kill us is when the C.O.'s hold our restrained arms while escorting us," he wrote, referring to corrections officers. The protests are the latest disruptions at the nation's busiest execution complex, where 23 inmates have been put to death by lethal injection so far this year and another is scheduled to die Wednesday. Although California leads the nation in prisoners on death row, Texas executes them far more frequently, with 378 put to death since capital punishment was reintroduced in 1982. Virginia is second with 97. Prison officials say the harsher conditions on death row came in response to a notorious escape in 1998 and a move to the more secure Polunsky Unit. Ms. Lyons said Mr. Woods had refused meals the longest but began eating again on Saturday. Mr. Woods, 26, was convicted with a co-defendant of killing a man and woman in a robbery north of Dallas in 2001. The hunger strikes in the Polunsky Unit were already under way when Michael D. Johnson, a 29-year-old convicted killer protesting his innocence, used a razor blade to slash a vein and an artery on Oct. 20, committing suicide in his cell hours before his scheduled execution for the murder of a convenience store clerk. He used his blood to scrawl a message on the wall: "I didn't shoot him." John Moriarty, the inspector general for the prison system, said an inquiry was continuing into how Mr. Johnson had secreted the blade and used it in the 15 minutes between checks by officers on "death watch." The longest-striking inmate still refusing food, Ms. Lyons said, is William M. Mason, 52, who was convicted of murdering his wife and dumping her body in the San Jacinto River after he complained that she had played the radio too loud. After refusing 35 meals over 17 days, Ms. Lyons said, Mr. Mason has lost 20 pounds and now weighs 239. Also on a hunger strike, Ms. Lyons said, was Larry Estrada, 27, who was convicted with a co-defendant of killing a Houston convenience store clerk and shooting another during a robbery in 1997. Mr. Estrada has refused 17 meals over a week, she said. But she said neither inmate was at the point of needing to be force-fed, a determination made by doctors from the University of Texas Medical Branch. Mary Felts, a civil lawyer in Austin who helps the inmates with wills and other personal legal services, said she found many of the complaints valid. "Sensory deprivation is the worst kind of abuse," Ms. Felts said. "If I were the warden I'd want the men to have TVs; the women have TVs. It would cut down on mischief." Ms. Lyons, the prisons spokeswoman, said that while television sets could alleviate the monotony of solitary confinement, there was no place to hang the sets outside the cells where the men could see them. The old Ellis Unit, where death row was housed from 1965 to 1999, had a wall opposite the cells where the sets could be installed. "It's not something we've made a priority," she added. "We have not sought funding, and not many taxpayers would approve." Prison activists say the state has rejected offers of donated sets. Ms. Lyons also said the inmates "have not made any formal request" to have grievances heard, "so there's no formal response." Most of what officials know about the complaints, she said, "we've gleaned from the antideath-penalty postings." NYT Texas Seven's Joseph Garcia Releases Tell-All Book from Death Row, 'A Cry in the Wilderness' The Raw Confessions of Joseph Garcia Posted on: Mon, 06 Nov 2006 Author: Selma Kerren News Category: PressRelease DALLAS, Nov. 6 /PRNewswire/ -- Who can forget the most famous fugitive manhunt in U.S. history? On December 13, 2000, the notorious prison gang, tagged by the media as The Texas Seven, overpowered their guards and escaped from Connally Maximum Security just outside Kenedy, Texas. Along the way, The Texas Seven shot and killed Irving police officer Aubrey Hawkins. Joseph Garcia is now awaiting execution at Texas's Pollock Unit for his involvement in the shooting death of the slain officer. In the meantime, he has recorded in raw detail the sins he has committed and sins committed against his person from the time he was born. His story is told in the new book, "A Cry in the Wilderness.. .The Raw Confessions of Texas Seven's Joseph Garcia." In 2001, Garcia contacted Orange County, California co-writer, Selma Kerren, who saw merit to the story right away. "I didn't take on the project for Joseph the adult, but Joseph the little boy." Joseph Garcia was serving a fifty-year sentence at the Connally Unit for murder-one when he met charismatic leader, George Rivas, and fellow inmates, Larry Harper, Keith Newbury, Patrick Murphy, Michael Rodriguez and young Randy Halprin, all awaiting execution dates. Although the book is a chronicle of his life, Garcia is not calling it a memoir. "The word memoir is far too polite and well bred a term for Joseph's life," said Kerren. "The story is raw. He describes how he killed a man and how all of life killed his soul, long before the escape." "Garcia didn't write the book to glorify the crimes of The Texas Seven, nor was it written to rail against the Texas prison system. His message is that parents ought to take better care of their kids." About the Author Joseph Garcia is a writer and Texas death-row inmate with the rarest ability to take his readers through an intense range of motions. The result is a street-smart, heart-breaking, blue rhapsody. With the exception of his 14- year-old daughter, Garcia's entire family is either estranged or dead due to gang wars, drug overdose and disease. About the Co-Writer/Editor: Selma Kerren is an associate minister with Evangelical Messenger Association and writer with extensive counseling experience. Tell All Shoddy lawyering can prove fatal in death row appeals Web Posted: 09/24/2006 Maro Robbins Express-News Staff With his client's life on the line, the lawyer appointed to file the death row inmate's final state appeal cobbled together arguments that were incomplete, vague and, in at least one place, just plain wrong. They perplexed the prosecutor and provoked a 606-page response from the judge. "Applicant totally misinterprets what actually occurred in this case," State District Judge Noe Gonzalez of Edinburg wrote about one of the attorney's claims. Appalled by the lawyer's work, a committee of attorneys and citizens formally complained to the agency that polices attorney misconduct, the State Bar of Texas. The result? The attorney, Mark Alexander of McAllen, remains on the state's list of 136 lawyers who can be appointed to the cases that challenge convictions and help ensure no one unfairly convicted reaches the execution chamber. The State Bar dismissed the grievance against Alexander. His former client, Arturo Eleazar Diaz, remains on death row, arguing the courts never really reviewed his case because Alexander botched the appeal. Confusing as they may have been, Alexander's arguments are the last words Texas courts are likely to hear about Diaz. They remain fixed in the record, an example of a dilemma apparent to observers of all political stripes: Texas tolerates and even finances questionable legal work in the closing chapters of its death penalty cases — the court challenges known as applications for writs of habeas corpus. "It's a problem. It needs to be addressed," said Judge Cheryl Johnson, a Republican on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. "But I don't think there are any easy solutions to it." Examples of troubling habeas cases abound, activists say. Just last month, Texas executed Justin Fuller, whose appointed lawyer filed a habeas challenge with rambling claims, glaring typos and incoherent repetitions. Another execution is scheduled in January for an inmate whose appointed lawyer filed two pages — upward of 100 is more common — that raised only one claim, and experts say it was fatally flawed. Yet another habeas attorney failed to show the main witness against his client had recanted. With help from other lawyers, that inmate, Anthony Charles Graves, now is off death row and awaiting a retrial. The habeas attorney's job is to catch misconduct and mistakes made by the defendant's trial lawyers, as well as the investigators, prosecutors, judges and jurors who touched the case beforehand. If the state habeas attorney misses a detail, the inmate may never get another chance to raise it. An inmate can try filing in federal court, but, except in rare extenuating circumstances, federal judges won't consider anything that wasn't already raised in state court. It's an area of law that goes largely unchecked by traditional safeguards against shoddy legal work. For instance: The State Bar disciplines lawyers who file nothing at all for their clients, but not necessarily attorneys who file worthless paperwork. It leaves those to malpractice lawsuits. Lawyers who mishandle divorces, employment disputes or other civil matters can be sued by their clients. But not in criminal cases. The law essentially forbids malpractice claims from convicts. The Court of Criminal Appeals decides who's qualified to handle habeas appointments, but has done little, if anything, to ensure lawyers actually live up to their credentials. Trial attorneys in death penalty cases must, by law, perform to certain constitutional standards. When, for example, lawyers fail to adequately investigate, their clients can get do-overs. Not in Texas' habeas cases. By contrast, 14 of the nation's 37 states with the death penalty hold habeas attorneys to the same standards as trial lawyers. "We don't have any watchdog organization that checks for quality control" in capital habeas cases, said Catharine G. Burnett, a South Texas College of Law professor and a member of the committee that complained about Alexander. A poor track record Habeas corpus is the Latin term for the centuries-old legal tool that double-checks the fairness of a conviction or punishment. In capital cases, it acts as the executioner' s gatekeeper. Unlike the direct appeals that automatically follow every death sentence and examine what might have gone wrong at trial, applications for writs of habeas corpus dig deeper. Not confined to what occurred in the courtroom, habeas attorneys are supposed to consider the whole picture, from what detectives did at the crime scene to what jurors discussed in the deliberation room. It's a daunting responsibility, and many qualified attorneys steer clear of it, partly because they say the amount the state will pay — up to $25,000 — won't cover what's required for the sizable task. Comparable cases in federal court normally pay up to $35,000 in legal fees alone, not including investigative expenses. Texas started supplying habeas lawyers for death row inmates in 1995. Seven years later, a nonprofit monitor of capital cases, the Texas Defender Service, looked at what the state was getting for its money. Reading all but a dozen of the 263 habeas applications bankrolled by Texas, the nonprofit found nearly 40 percent had fatal technical flaws and provided "nothing for the courts to consider." Since the study, "nothing has improved," said Andrea Keilen, director of the Defender Service. Mark Alexander was preparing a habeas application around the time the Defender Service completed its study. His client, Arturo Eleazar Diaz, had been convicted of stabbing his victim dozens of times during a 1999 robbery in McAllen. Filed in 2002, Alexander's petition crammed 19 separate arguments into 35 pages. Its brevity came at the expense of clarity. When Alexander complained the prosecutor had made inflammatory remarks to the jury, he never cited specifics. Judge Gonzalez responded with a shrug, writing: "It is practically impossible to discern which particular comment, if any, he believes had been objectionable." When Alexander criticized the trial attorneys for failing to discover potentially significant evidence, specifically "the tape" and "all the witnesses," he never identified the tape. Or the witnesses. Two paragraphs long, his final assertion was that jurors hadn't been told how long parole laws would keep Diaz locked up if he received a life sentence — crucial information for any jury weighing between prison time and lethal injection. "Simply not true," the judge stated in his order rejecting all Alexander's claims. The record showed the jury had been given precisely that information. What Alexander's petition failed to include was Diaz's contention that his trial lawyer spent only 15 minutes discussing the plea bargain offered by prosecutors. Had Diaz better understood the plea and the risks of trial, the inmate says, he would have accepted a life sentence. When he tried raising this issue in federal court, the judge there said it was too late. No way to grade quality By chance, Diaz's case caught the attention of a State Bar group concerned about the quality of appointed counsel, the Committee on Legal Services to the Poor in Criminal Matters. Alarmed by the Defender Service's study, committee members decided to look at random habeas petitions. Overall, they weren't impressed. One case especially disturbed them. The committee's minutes show the group voted 8-1 to file a grievance. Committee members wouldn't name in interviews the subject of their complaint, but court documents identified Alexander as the target and, although he says it was unjustified, he acknowledged the grievance. Three months ago, committee members learned the State Bar's disciplinary office had dismissed the complaint against Alexander without a hearing. By its standards, his work didn't violate the bar's rules. "It was frustrating to us," said Michael K. Moore, a committee member and political science professor at the University of Texas at Arlington. "It never saw the light of day." Reached by phone, Alexander said the grievance, together with the heart attack he survived about a year ago, have convinced him to steer clear of capital cases. Alexander said his medical problems have blurred his memory so that he no longer remembers enough to explain every assertion in Diaz's case. But, he insisted he labored long and dutifully on the case. The $13,040 bill he submitted to Hidalgo County listed 326 hours of work, the equivalent of two months. Primarily, Alexander said, he knew the habeas represented Diaz's last chance to present new claims. As a result, Alexander said he alleged things he couldn't prove simply to put them on the record. That way, if someone eventually found evidence to bolster them, the issues could be resurrected in federal court. It wasn't a perfect legal brief, Alexander concedes, but in his defense he says it was only his second habeas case. "I was learning," he said. "It wasn't like I just neglected it or whatever," he added. "I had reasons for what I did. I think my reasoning was sound." Neglecting a case would violate ethical rules for attorneys. The State Bar regularly disciplines lawyers who collect fees and then file nothing or abandon a case before it's over. But if attorneys file glaringly bad claims, the bar typically does nothing. The bar's investigators find it difficult to prove that someone who worked on a brief for more than 100 hours neglected the case, said Betty Blackwell, chairwoman of the State Bar's Commission for Lawyer Discipline. Grading the quality of legal briefs is another challenge. "Are you going to discipline somebody for a C, D or F?" she said. "The rules don't really address that." Blackwell, like many others, believes the job of watchdog belongs to the Court of Criminal Appeals, the tribunal that reviews every habeas application and vets the list of attorneys who can be appointed to capital habeas cases. Members of the court, in turn, want the State Bar to take the lead. Cheryl Johnson, one of two judges at the court who vet the list of habeas lawyers, said the nine judges there disagree about what to do with attorneys who submit abysmal habeas petitions. Some believe that only a formal reprimand from the State Bar would justify yanking a lawyer's name from the roster. That was the issue with at least one attorney whose name, Johnson said, doesn't belong on the list. "I've been trying to get him off since I reached the court in 1999," she said, "and I cannot get any support for it because he has no disciplinary history with the bar." A check on the system As with anything involving the death penalty, personal biases cloud the discussion of habeas cases. Judges and lawyers comfortable with capital punishment won't necessarily be troubled by a habeas application that fails to make any reasonable arguments. In their eyes, lousy arguments in a habeas case are likely the sign of a defense lawyer grasping at straws because the conviction was fair and just. "I'm not aware of and I don't believe there are cases where there's gross injustices based on ineffective assistance at the post- conviction writ stage," said Williamson County District Attorney John Bradley, who once worked at the Court of Criminal Appeals. By contrast, opponents of the death penalty believe reasonable claims can be found in most capital cases. To them, superficial habeas applications signal a lack of effort or ability. "In every case I know of ... where someone didn't do their duty as a habeas lawyer and someone else came along and did it, there were new claims that were found," said Jim Marcus, a lawyer with the University of Texas Capital Punishment Clinic. Marcus can point to such a case in Bexar County. As much as any, it demonstrates why the quality of habeas counsel matters. Ricky Eugene Kerr was sentenced to death in 1995 for the murder of his new landlady and her 42-year-old son after they cut off his water and moved to evict him. His appointed habeas lawyer, Robert A. McGlohon Jr., had three years' experience as a lawyer and, though he had been a staff attorney for the Court of Criminal Appeals, he never had handled a death penalty case. Suffering from a debilitating illness and a serious misunderstanding of habeas law, McGlohon filed a single, generic claim critiquing habeas law. Nowhere did his brief say anything about Kerr's trial. The trial court, State District Judge Sharon MacRae, rejected the petition. So did the Court of Criminal Appeals. A few months later, Marcus, then with the Defender Service, interceded. He took the case to federal court, where he showed how McGlohon had mishandled Kerr's habeas application. The federal judge was appalled. Concluding that Kerr never had a fair habeas petition, U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia kicked the case back to the state courts. Confronted by the judge's ruling, the Court of Criminal Appeals relented and made an unusual exception. It allowed him to refile his habeas petition. The second time around, Kerr was represented by Marcus and Kathryn Kase, an attorney with the Defender Service. They had plenty to say about Kerr's trial. They showed that Kerr's trial attorneys had never shown jurors a full picture of the man on trial. The defense team had been so confident it would win, it only started preparing for the punishment phase after the guilty verdict. By then it was too late to complete the detailed research expected in capital cases. Kerr's relatives testified, but the jury never heard several potentially mitigating details about the tattooed defendant with a history of domestic violence and petty crimes. Kerr had endured an abusive childhood and had helped care for two brothers with mental retardation and an ailing grandmother. He had a history of head injuries, drug abuse and learning disabilities, possibly because of fetal alcohol syndrome. At least one juror said the new information might have convinced her to spare Kerr, and Judge MacRae revised her previous findings. Earlier this year MacRae sent her conclusions to the Court of Criminal Appeals, where they are under review. This time, she urged the court throw out Kerr's death sentence. mrobbins@express-news.net Staff Writer John Tedesco contributed to this report. Shoddy lawyering Will murderers kill again? Typically no, says Joan M. Cheever, in this eye-opening study of men who dodged the death penalty By DAVID R. DOW BACK FROM THE DEAD: One Woman's Search for the Men Who Walked Off America's Death Row. By Joan M. Cheever. Wiley, 308 pp. $24.95. In 1972 the death penalty in America briefly disappeared. By a 5-4 vote, in a series of nine separate opinions totaling nearly 250 pages, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the case of Furman v. Georgia that capital punishment constitutes cruel and unusual punishment, in violation of the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution. Four years later, in another case from Georgia (Gregg v. Georgia), the court reversed itself, reinstating the death penalty, and the modern era of executions began when the State of Utah executed Gary Gilmore by firing squad in 1977. But the court's reversal did not affect the fortunes of the 587 men and two women who had been on death row on that day in 1972 when the death penalty died its brief death. Joan M. Cheever graduated from St. Mary's law school in San Antonio. She served as a judicial law clerk and then went on to a distinguished career as a legal journalist, which has included being the managing editor of the National Law Journal. As best I can tell, she never practiced law for any length of time. Her one and only client was Walter Williams, death row inmate No. 999722. It may come as a surprise that an attorney with as little experience as Cheever could represent a death-row inmate in his appeals, but in the late 1980s and early 1990s hundreds of death-row inmates around the country, including hundreds in Texas alone, had no lawyers. Consequently, when judges and death-penalty advocacy groups looked for lawyers to represent these prisoners, experience counted less than willingness and enthusiasm. Cheever had those qualities in spades. She ended up representing Williams for nine years, until he became, on Oct. 5, 1994, the 82nd inmate executed in Texas since capital punishment was reinstated in America. After Williams' execution, Cheever kept thinking about the nearly 600 men who had been on death row on that day in 1972. In her assessment, they had won the lottery. The difference between them and her client was a sheer accident of history. She wondered what would have become of Williams had he gotten lucky and avoided death. This in turn led her to wonder about what happened to those who did get lucky. Many eventually left prison, having served out their sentence or been paroled. With a journalist's curiosity and zeal, she set off to find out. The result is this book, Back From the Dead. It is an extraordinary report in two respects, one having to do with who ended up back in prison, and one having to do with the attitude of those who didn't. Of the 589 lottery winners, Cheever focused on 322 who had been released from prison. Of those, about one-third — 111 in all — ended up either back in prison or eligible to be returned to prison. Of the 111, 33 committed a fairly trivial probation violation (by, for example, accumulating unpaid parking tickets, or being at an establishment where alcohol was sold). A total of 42 committed nonviolent crimes like burglary. That leaves 36 out of the original 322 who went back to prison for a more violent offense. Of those, 29 committed armed robbery or aggravated assault. That leaves seven. Two were convicted of attempted murder. Two were convicted of manslaughter. Three were convicted of murder. Most people, I suspect, tend to think that murderers will surely murder again. Cheever's story demonstrates the contrary. The second astonishing aspect of Cheever's story is how remorseful and well-adjusted are the members of what Cheever calls the Class of '72. Many of them obviously had difficulty holding jobs, maintaining relationships or avoiding substance abuse. But Cheever identifies scores of success stories, and by examining their lives, she concludes that education and human relationships — with family, friends, fellow church goers — were the decisive factors in helping convicted murderers stay out of prison and remain socially productive. There is, in this report, an implicit rebuke of our contemporary approach to punishment, which has largely abandoned rehabilitation and replaced it with the idea that we should give up on tens of thousands of inmates and just make sure we keep them incarcerated. I admired this book very much, although it does feel a little bloated to me. I learned more than I really wanted to about what Cheever ate for breakfast at a diner in South Carolina and for dinner at a McDonald's in Texas. I was not terribly interested in the quality of the motel rooms where she slept, or about how nervous she was in the presence of some of the murderers she tracked down to interview. She goes on for too long about the stressfulness of representing a murderer, the difficulty of juggling a demanding job with a new marriage and new baby, and her mother's incomprehension of Cheever's determination to pursue the story. Perhaps others will be more eager to learn these details, but in any case, those prolonged asides are not what the book is about. It is instead about a critically important fact that is all but lost in the contemporary death penalty debate: that somewhere between most and almost all residents of death row are capable of reform, and that somewhere between almost all and all are capable of living law- abiding lives outside of prison or nonviolent lives inside an institution. Cheever's writing is at times overwrought, yet what this book proves, with the cold, hard, unemotional data of laboratory science, is that every year we as a society, if we wanted to, could salvage 40 or 50 people instead of executing them. For reasons having to do with our own psychological needs, we want to see the people we execute as dangerous rabid animals. Cheever's book unmasks this lie. Her intimate reporting reveals them as human beings — flawed, to be sure, and deserving of punishment, no doubt, but human nonetheless. David R. Dow is University Distinguished Professor at the University of Houston Law Center. Will murderers kill again? Death Penalty Needs Fixing, Say Critics By Monisha Bansal CNSNews.com Staff Writer July 24, 2006 (CNSNews.com) - The death penalty should be changed or abolished because it is corrupting the U.S. system of justice at all levels, critics alleged on Friday. "It corrupts all of us. It is corrupting our courts, it's corrupting prosecutors, it's corrupting defense attorneys, it's corrupting juries, it's corrupting our society," said Bryan Stevenson, a defense attorney and professor of clinical law at New York University's School of Law. He was among those participating in a National Press Club discussion on the future of the death penalty. Stevenson said the system is so corrupt in Alabama that 80 percent of death row inmates face execution for committing crimes against white people, while 65 percent of all murder victims are black. "The people on death row are not terrorists. They are not Timothy McVeigh. The majority of them are poor, the mentally ill, the wronged," Stevenson said. Sam Millsap, former district attorney for Bexar County, Texas, said too many innocent people face the death penalty. "It's better that a hundred guilty men go free, than one innocent man gets sentenced to death. It's important that we remember that." Kenneth Starr, a former U.S. solicitor general and independent counsel who investigated the Bill Clinton/Monica Lewinsky scandal, said that while he favors the death penalty, it needs to be fixed. "I am not an abolitionist and never have been," he said. Starr said the president and governors have the power to grant pardons and clemency and should do so more frequently. It is a power that Starr said has not been used in California since Ronald Reagan was governor. "There is a frank unwillingness of virtually every governor to exercise that power," he said. But William Otis, former special White House counsel for President George H.W. Bush, said there are crimes that are too gruesome to be punished by a life prison sentence. "The burden of proof is on the abolitionists' side, and it is not really enough to show that there are questionable, or sympathetic, or problematic cases, as there are in every aspect of litigation," said Otis. "What they must show is that every execution is wrong." Otis added that while each case should be decided on its own merit, he believes more murderers should be sentenced to death. "It is the death penalty and not abolition that will save innocent life," he said. Make media inquiries or request an interview with Monisha Bansal. Death Penalty Needs Fixing Sun Jul 23, 2006 10:42 pm (PST) Old-fashioned electric chair, all but obsolete, may be used today By DAVID CASSTEVENS STAR-TELEGRAM STAFF WRITER STAR-TELEGRAM ARCHIVES/RON T. ENNIS The first electric chair used in Texas, "Old Sparky," sits in the prison museum in Huntsville. HUNTSVILLE -- Although it was built in the 20th century, the most infamous exhibit in the Texas Prison Museum could be a relic from the Dark Ages: a tall, high-backed, austere, solid oak chair, fitted with leather shackles, like some kind of dungeon throne. Washed in a spotlight's eerie glow, it appears almost medieval. The high-voltage killing machine was the end of the line for dead men walking. From 1924 to 1964, the Texas chair snuffed 361 lives. The electric chair is fading into obsolescence, a dying form of dying in America. It's an optional form of execution in four of the 38 death-penalty states and is the sole method in Nebraska, which has executed three people in the last 30 years. "The door is closing," said Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center. "Electrocution is seen more and more as archaic and barbaric." So an event scheduled today in Virginia is noteworthy. Barring intervention by Gov. Timothy Kaine or the U.S. Supreme Court, a 27-year-old man who opted for electrocution will become the first person executed in the electric chair in this country in more than two years. Brandon Wayne Hedrick is set to die for the 1997 killing of a 23-year-old mother who was abducted, robbed, raped and then killed by a shotgun blast fired into her face. Dale Alexander, the victim's mother, doesn't know why the killer asked for electrocution -- the chair hasn't been used in Virginia in more than three years -- but she resents the fact that he has a choice. Her daughter's killer, she told the Richmond Times-Dispatch, "didn't ask Lisa what did she prefer." In 2003, a Virginia inmate convicted of killing a family of four chose the electric chair as a form of protest. In a letter to a private investigator who had supported him, Earl Conrad Bramblett wrote, "I hope the SOBs who put me here will never forget what they see." The director of the Texas Prison Museum may understand as well as anyone can the thinking and the mind-set of Death Row inmates. Jim Willett worked for three decades in the Texas prison system and dutifully carried out 89 executions by injection during his tenure (1998-2001) as warden of the Walls Unit, that brooding fortress near downtown Huntsville, where condemned inmates are regularly, and efficiently, put to death. Who would wish to die the old-fashioned way, the hard way? "Maybe [Hedrick] just wants to jack with the [prison] staff," Willett said. "He could be saying, 'If you all are going to execute me, you'll have to go the gruesome way with me.' He figures either way it'll be pretty quick." A busy night The Texas electric chair opened for business Feb. 28, 1924. Charles Reynolds rode the thunderbolt into whatever eternity awaited him. Four others followed the same night. During the 1920s and '30s, the state sent four sets of brothers to the chair, one and then the other, a sibling doubleheader. While reading old newspaper accounts, researching Texas electrocutions, Willett thought about the families left behind. "I've wondered about the mothers," he said. "Was it worse to lose two sons the same night, or have one go 30 days after the first one?" The Texas electric chair faces a glass display case containing several artifacts, including a set of hair clippers that prison guards used to shave the crown of an inmate's head and his left leg to facilitate the electrical current. A sponge was soaked in saltwater and placed between the condemned man's head and an electrode. Assistant Warden Joe Byrd was the executioner for years. A museum photo shows Byrd, an elderly man with spectacles and wearing a cowboy hat, lips compressed, the corners of his mouth turned down. Given the signal, Byrd administered 1,800 volts, which, according to the museum display, knocked the inmate unconscious and paralyzed his brain. The voltage was reduced momentarily "to prevent the body catching fire or exploding." Then the executioner decreases the voltage to 500 for one minute. The generator purred to a halt. A ventilator fan overhead helped rid the small room of the smell of burned flesh. "I spoke with a guy who was a picket officer on the corner picket above the death house," Willett said. "That was a bad place to be back then on execution night." Don Reid, a former newspaper reporter and Associated Press correspondent, witnessed 189 Texas electrocutions and wrote about his experiences. His book title, Have a Seat, Please, repeats the formal words the warden spoke as each inmate entered the death chamber and faced the ceremony of his certain fate. Some went stoically. Some defiantly. Lashed to the chair, masked, others trembled, whimpered, prayed. Reid saw Herman "Humpy" Ross die. Three guards wrestled the hunchbacked killer into the chair. Adrian Johnson walked the last mile as payment for sexually molesting a young boy and stuffing him into an abandoned icebox, where the child suffocated. Baptized in prison, the killer went to the chair at peace, a smile on his lips. When Albert Edwards, puffing a cigarette, was asked if he had anything to say before taking a seat, the murderer launched into a long-winded meandering soliloquy. The warden didn't interrupt. Finally, Reid lost patience. "Edwards, you've talked for half an hour or more without saying one thing of importance to your case," Reid wrote, quoting himself. "If you have something to say worthwhile, I'll see that it gets printed." Reid recalled that the inmate tossed his cigarette butt to the floor, stepped on it -- an odd gesture under the circumstances -- and eased into the chair without another word. The reporter also watched Joseph Johnson, convicted of killing a grocer in a robbery-shootout, depart. When the executioner threw the switch, a white Bible resting on the prisoner's knees spun from his lap and landed in the witness area. He died at 12:08 a.m. on July 30, 1964, in the last electrocution in Texas. Execution by injection Willett, 56, first glimpsed the electric chair in the early 1970s, during the Supreme Court's moratorium on the death penalty. As a prison guard, he supervised a crew of inmates who cleaned and dusted the unused death chamber each Tuesday morning. His opinions about capital punishment changed little during the time he ran the prison unit and oversaw the executions by injection of 88 men and one woman, Betty Lou Beets. "I kind of sit on the fence," Willett said. "I hate that we do it, but on the other hand, if it were my wife or my daughter who got murdered, I'd probably ask for the death penalty. If someone in my family committed murder, I'd say prison is good enough. I tell everyone that the only way the death penalty will end in Texas is if the Supreme Court makes us stop." He agrees that lethal injection is perceived as more humane than electrocution, which death-penalty opponents argue is cruel and unusual punishment. During a 1997 Florida execution, flames shot from the inmate's mask. Still, some families express frustration that the injection is "too easy" or "better than they deserve." "Lethal injection is so much like just going to sleep," Willett said. "The person happens to die while they're sleeping. I think a lot of people who come [to executions] as victims' witnesses probably are let down. It's like nothing 'bad' happens to the guy at all. They're just not here anymore. "Some people don't get much satisfaction out of watching. And most of those are looking for some kind of vindication." A tourist attraction? A McDonald's restaurant billboard along Interstate 45 welcomes motorists to Huntsville. "Home of Big Sam, Ol' Sparky and War Heroes." Old Sparky a tourist attraction? "I think it's a blemish on the character of an otherwise positive community," said Dennis Longmire, a professor of criminal justice at Sam Houston State University and a staunch opponent of the death penalty. Longmire, a longtime Huntsville resident, says promoting the electric chair as a cultural attraction -- a reason to visit the city -- is as sadly inappropriate as the ballpoint pens that he said the prison museum sold years ago. They were shaped like syringes, he said. But people are curious, fascinated by the death seat and its place in history. "I want to see the chair," museum visitors sometimes announce as they purchase a $4 ticket, Willett said. When they venture to the back of the museum and it appears before them, some are astonished -- as if slapped into momentary silence. The chair is almost close enough to touch. A warning sign about an alarm has all but stopped museum visitors from vaulting the waist-high railing. In the past. several people entered the exhibit, a replica of the state prison's old red-brick death chamber, and plopped down as if onto the seat of some unplugged carnival amusement ride to pose, all smiles, for a snapshot, Willett said. He gazed thoughtfully at the polished artifact, an anachronism, a curiosity. "I run this place, so I've got the opportunity to go back there," he said. "But I've never wanted to have my picture taken with it. I just have no desire to sit in that thing. "I really don't." CAPITAL PUNISHMENT IN AMERICA 1608 -- Capt. George Kendall, convicted of spying for France, is shot at Jamestown in Virginia in the first recorded execution in the new colonies. 1692 -- Twenty people are executed after the Salem witch trials in Massachusetts. 1846 -- Michigan becomes the first state to abolish the death penalty for all crimes except treason. 1888 -- Seeking a more humane method of execution than hanging, New York builds the first electric chair. Other states soon adopt the method. 1924 -- Texas uses its electric chair for the first time. Charles Reynolds goes first, followed by four inmates the same night. Nevada executes the first inmate in a gas chamber. 1930s -- The number of executions in the United States peaks at an average of 167 per year. 1936 -- In the last public execution, Rainey Bethea, a rapist and murderer, is hanged in Owensboro, Ky. 1945 -- Army Pvt. Eddie Slovak is executed by firing squad for desertion, the first U.S. soldier executed by firing squad since the Civil War. 1972 -- The U.S. Supreme Court effectively outlaws capital punishment. The sentences of 45 Texas inmates are commuted to life in prison. 1976 -- The Supreme Court lifts the death penalty ban. 1977 -- Gary Gilmore faces a firing squad in Utah, the first U.S. execution in almost 10 years. His final words: "Let's do it." 1982 -- Texas resumes executions. On Dec. 7, Charlie Brooks Jr. of Fort Worth becomes the first person in the United States to be executed by injection. 1996 -- Utah uses a firing squad for an execution for the last time. Delaware uses hanging for the last time. 2001 -- Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh becomes the first federal prisoner executed since 1963. 2005 -- North Carolina executes Kenneth Lee Boyd, a double murderer. He is the 1,000th person executed since the ban was lifted in 1976. 2006 -- Executions nationwide since 1976: 1,031. In Texas: 369. SOURCES: Death Penalty Information Center, Wikipedia, www.clarkprosecutor.org --------------------------------- David Casstevens, 817-390-7436 dcasstevens@star-telegram.com Electric Chair DEATH PENALTY: Blacks with Stereotypical Features Executed Most Often Fritzroy A. Sterling NEW YORK, Jul 19 (IPS) - Juries in the U.S. tend to hand down the death penalty twice as often to black defendants with stereotypically black features like darker skin, bigger noses and fuller lips, than to those perceived to have less stereotypically black features, according to the findings of a new study. The study, published in the May 2006 issue of Psychological Science, the journal of the Association for Psychological Science, noted that previous research already has proven that black defendants in capital cases receive the death sentence more frequently than white defendants. The death penalty is, statistically speaking, unlikely when both the defendant and victim are black. When the victim is white, however, the matter of race as an influential factor in "death-eligible cases" is emphatically evident, according to the study. A team of educators headed by Stanford University Psychologist Jennifer L. Eberhardt conducted the study, titled "Looking Death worthy." "Race and the death penalty is a complicated topic," communications director of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (NCADP), David Elliot, told IPS. "In Maryland alone, 60 percent of all homicide victims are black, yet there is only one person currently on death row for the killing of a black person." The victims of the five defendants executed in that state between 1976, the year the death penalty was reinstated, and April 2006, were all white. Eberhardt and her team conducted the study by presenting black and white head shots, in slide show format, of black capital defendants in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania between 1979 and 1999. "Naïve" participants judged how stereotypical each of the defendants looked in the pictures by noting facial features such as lips, nose and skin tones. Each feature was rated on a scale of one (not at all stereotypical) to 11 (extremely stereotypical). Fifty-seven percent of the defendants considered by the participants as having extremely stereotypical had already received a death sentence by juries. Only 24.4 percent of defendants considered not at all stereotypical had received the death sentence. The fact that the issue of race continues be of great significance in the outcomes of capital and other criminal cases does not come as a surprise, according to death penalty opponents. "Sadly, this is not a new finding," Christina Swarns, director of the NAACP Legal Defence and Education Fund Criminal Justice Project, told IPS. The findings will do little to assuage the concerns of death row inmates who believe they have been sentenced unfairly because of a key precedent set in the 1987 U.S. Supreme Court decision in McCleskey v. Kemp. In that case, the high court rejected the arguments of Warren McCleskey, a black man convicted of killing a white Georgia police officer, even though his defence presented statistical data which proved that blacks convicted of killing whites in the state of Georgia were four times more likely to be sentenced to death than those who were convicted of killing non-whites. "McCleskey v. Kemp was one of the most rigourous examinations of the effects of race on capital sentencing, and the defence's arguments were similar to findings in this study," Swarns added. In fact, the majority opinion in McCleskey stated that "apparent disparities in sentencing are an inevitable part of our criminal justice system." Moreover, the Court also argued that rather than relying on broad statistical data to illustrate patterns of discrimination in the criminal justice system, black capital defendants must provide "exceptionally clear proof" that the people involved in their specific cases had discriminated against them in seeking the death penalty. The decision delivered a debilitating blow to death row inmates seeking to overturn their fatal sentences on the grounds that the sentences were racially motivated. McClesky v. Kemp has since been used as the precedent to overturn appeals from death row inmates in state Supreme Courts and Courts of Criminal Appeals in Illinois, Oklahoma, Missouri and South Carolina, according to a 2003 Amnesty International report on the continued significance of race in capital cases. The findings of Eberhardt's research underscore how deeply rooted the negative perceptions of stereotypes and black physical traits are in the psyche of many jurors. Further, they illustrate how those perceptions affect the outcomes of capital cases. According to the study, "in actual sentencing decisions, jurors may treat these traits as powerful clues to death worthiness." Defendants with stereotypically black features receive harsher sentences in other criminal cases, too. The study found that blacks with stereotypical features spend up to eight months longer in prison for felonies. "In modern history, the state of Texas," according to NCADP's Elliot, "has only executed one or two white defendants for the killing of a black person." Between 1976 and April 2006, the state of Texas executed 78 black defendants for the killing of a white victim, according to the spring 2006 quarterly report by the NAACP Legal and Educational Defence Fund. Texas has executed only two white defendants for the killing of victims of mixed race between 1976 and 2006, according to that same report. Those statistics expose blatant flaws in the criminal justice system, according to some critics. "It sends a powerful message in the criminal justice system that the lives of whites are more valuable than those of blacks," Elliot said. Eberhardt's report also notes that people, not just whites alone, "associate black physical traits with criminality." Still, many death penalty opponents are optimistic that through continued advocacy, policy change and legislative reform, the "apparent disparities" that the US Supreme Court acknowledged in 1987 as an "inevitable part" of the criminal justice system can be eliminated. "There's always hope," said Swarns. "The NAACP Legal Defence Fund is always looking at ways to successfully attack and remedy those disparities. " She points to Kentucky's Racial Justice Act as a model that should be considered by federal and state legislatures. That act allows capital defendants to use statistical data as evidence to prove that racial discrimination influenced the outcomes of their individual capital sentences. It was signed into law in Kentucky in 1998, 11 years after the McCleskey decision. Supporters of a nation-wide Racial Justice Act argue that some current death row inmates who believe their death sentence were racially motivated will be able to cite, for example, the statistical findings of Eberhardt study to prove that capital defendants with more stereotypically black features receive the death penalty more frequently than other capital defendants. "We need a national racial justice act," said Elliot. "The act will make it easier to tie individual cases into the broader context of racial discrimination." (END/2006) Stereotypical Death Penalty Doctors; PBS NOW Program Friday, July 14, 2006, at 8:30 p.m. on PBS. Should medical professionals play a part in state executions? This time on NOW. Should physicians be taking part in executions? As capital punishment becomes more clinical, doctors and nurses are being given medical responsibilities as part of the execution team. On July 14 at 8:30 p.m., NOW asks how this role can be reconciled with a physician's ethical duty to heal and the Hippocratic Oath, which states in part, "I will give no deadly medicine to any one if asked ..." The American Medical Association is vehemently opposed to this practice and courts are addressing the issue in California, Missouri, and elsewhere, bringing the issue to national attention. When does medical care end and killing begin? Also, David Brancaccio talks to Bunnatine Greenhouse, formerly the highest ranking civilian at the US Army Corps of Engineers, about this week's news of the US Army ending its exclusive contract with Halliburton. This time on NOW. See the NOW website at www.pbs.org/ now for an expanded interview with a nurse who participates in executions, a timeline of execution milestones and current data, and further insight into the moral intersection of a doctor's duty to heal and a state's mandate to kill. Posted on Fri, Jul. 14, 2006 Death penalty question clouds Texas abortion law By ANNA M. TINSLEY STAR-TELEGRAM STAFF WRITER Doctors who perform banned abortions in Texas, such as those late in pregnancy or on minors whose parents have not given consent, could face capital murder charges and the death penalty because of recent changes in state law, a prosecutors group contends. A Republican lawmaker from Dumas has asked Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott to clarify the issue with a legal opinion. "There is no evidence ... that the Legislature intended to bring such conduct within the scope of the criminal homicide statutes," state Rep. David Swinford, chairman of the House State Affairs Committee, wrote in his request for the opinion. At issue is a 2003 prenatal protection act that defines an unborn child as "an individual," giving it additional rights. Then last year, other changes to the law banned doctors from performing some abortions, such as those in a woman's third trimester, except in certain circumstances, or on a minor if the physician hadn't obtained the consent of a parent or a court order. Texas law already made it legal to prosecute someone for capital murder in the killing of a child younger than 6. The Texas District and County Attorneys Association interprets the changes as meaning that doctors who perform those abortions could face the death penalty. "Since those are now prohibited medical practices, they are not lawful practices," said Shannon Edmonds, director of governmental relations for the group. "We don't write the law. "The whole purpose of our interpretation is to explain what the law is." Edmonds said he knows of no case in Texas in which the death penalty was sought for a doctor performing abortions. Local lawmakers have mixed opinions about the situation. "I don't think any legislator thought this would be the intent," said state Rep. Lon Burnam, D-Fort Worth. "But we do have unintended consequences more often than we'd like to admit. "I opposed the legislation in the first place, because I don't think it's any of the government's business what a woman decides to do," he said. "If we did this by mistake, I wouldn't be a bit surprised if it stands." State Rep. Marc Veasey, D-Fort Worth, said Republicans for years have tried to limit the rights of women. "I wonder if this was just a step further in that direction, to limit their rights," Veasey said. "It's possible it may have been an unintended consequence. I'm not sure, though." No matter what, state Rep. Charlie Geren said this isn't a controversy he is going to worry about. "If they're performing illegal abortions, it's not a concern of mine what happens," said Geren, R-Fort Worth. "I don't think anyone should perform illegal abortions. If they do, they should face punishment. "If Swinford has asked for an opinion about this, I don't think any of us should waste our time speculating about it." Abbott has 180 days to issue an opinion, but his decision will not bind a court or prosecutor. Even so, Swinford said the decision will indicate what the intent of the law is. Joe Pojman, executive director of Texas Alliance for Life, said his group advocated for the new Texas laws and asked Swinford to request the attorney general's opinion. "When we were lobbying for all those laws, we were very clear that the penalty for physicians violating the law ... is either a Class A misdemeanor or a third-degree felony," said Pojman, of the statewide anti-abortion advocacy group. "It was not capital murder." No matter what, the law needs to be clarified to avoid a chilling effect, said Peggy Romberg, director of the Women's Health and Family Planning Association of Texas, a statewide family planning advocacy group that supports abortion rights. "Just the possibility that physicians could be charged with capital murder for making a [paperwork] mistake, ... that could result in physicians not providing care," Romberg said. "We already have situations where fewer doctors are willing to provide abortions because of harassment. "It's important to clarify this," she said. "Let's make sure the punishment fits the crime." ------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- Anna M. Tinsley, 817-390-7610 atinsley@star- telegram. com ------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- © 2006 Star-Telegram and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved. http://www.dfw. com Much has been made in the last day of the "railroad killer"'s execution. Delia Perez-Meyer, whose brother was wrongly convicted, is just one person who doesn't think justice was served. Austin's Channel 8 explains. 11:00 am Austin family sees setback in execution 6/27/2006 4:28 PM By: Allie Rasmus One Austin family wanted to see "The Railroad Killer," Angel Maturino Resendiz, live Tuesday. He was scheduled to be executed for the murder of a Houston-area doctor eight years ago. Authorities linked Resendiz, a native of Mexico, to at least 15 U.S. slayings, going back to a 1986 killing in San Antonio. "If we execute him today he's going to take a lot of secrets. And how many other innocent people are in jail for Angel's crimes besides my brother?" said Delia Perez-Meyer. Perez-Meyer believes her brother, Louis Castro-Perez, is just one of many people wrongly convicted for Resendiz's crimes. "My brother's finger prints were on none of the murder weapons," she said. Despite linking Resendiz to the other crimes, investigators were only able to convict him for one murder. Castro-Perez is on death row for the 1998 murder of two Austin women and a child. The Perez family believes Resendiz was the murderer. The family of a condemned man says a serial killer took the innocence of their relative to the grave. They also believe Resendiz confessed to the Austin crime to fellow inmates and a private investigator. But any hope of securing another confession went with Resendiz to the grave. "This is a travesty that we're going to execute him because he very distinctly states he's murdered a lot of people we don't know about," Perez-Meyer said. The Travis County District Attorney's office isn't worried about that; at least not in Castro-Perez' s case. Prosecutors say when it comes to the Austin murders, they've had the right guy all along. "I do not believe the evidence suggests anyone other than Louis Castro-Perez committed these murders," Assistant Travis County District Attorney Buddy Meyer said. At the request of the Perez family, the DA's office re-tested some crime scene evidence. They searched for a match to Resindez's DNA profile. "There was no match," Meyer said. "They did not do a 100-percent comprehensive test," Perez-Meyer said. The DA's office was selective in the evidence it chose to re- examine, she said. The new test results and Resendiz's execution are two setbacks for her brother's case. But she's not giving up hope. "This is definitely a stumble for us. But we will get to the truth. We will. We have to," she said. The Perez family and District Attorney's office are still waiting for some of the evidence test results. Officials had to send some strands of hair for DNA testing to a crime lab at the University of North Texas in Denton. They expect to have the results of those tests in about six weeks. From Rick Halperin June 25, 2006 TEXAS: Do healers have a place in the death chamber? Courts may hear call for clinical execution, but doctors sworn to save lives. If convicted murderer Angel Maturino Resendiz, known as the Railroad Killer, is put to death on Tuesday, he will owe his quiet end to medical science. Had doctors not concocted a lethal series of infusions more than 20 years ago, Texas prisoners still would be dying by electrocution. The profession charged with healing has worked to refine the business of killing since French surgeon Joseph Guillotin sought a more civilized execution for the condemned. In the more than 200 years since Dr. Guillotin's name became synonymous with beheading - an "e" was later added to the machine named for him - medical professionals have given guidance in making the death penalty more compassionate, whether by gas chamber, electric chair or, more recently, drugs. Yet medical ethicists long ago determined this is wrong. Execution, which is hardly in the best interest of the patient, is not the practice of medicine, and doctors are sworn to save lives, not take them. With the latest court challenges to lethal injection - challenges that cite the possibility of significant pain for the immobilized prisoner - the criminal justice system might need medicine's help to keep the death penalty constitutional. Physicians could again find themselves at the nexus of two conflicting values: society's moral and legal obligation to execute without cruelty, and a doctor's sworn obligation to do no harm. "The basic question is whether medicine has a role in addressing more competent and compassionate ways of executing people," Peter Clark, a medical ethicist at St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia, wrote this spring in the Journal of Law, Medicine and Ethics. Dr. Clark is a theologian. To him, the answer is clear. "I was appalled that the medical profession was even involved in this," he said in an interview. Many physicians, though, are more ambivalent. In 2001, a research team described a survey of 1,000 randomly selected doctors from rosters provided by the American Medical Association, the professional society that has unequivocally said involvement in execution is unethical. The doctors were asked whether they would be willing to participate in 10 aspects of lethal injection, 8 of which have been deemed wrong for physicians. To researchers' surprise, 41 % said they would perform at least one of the actions, which included placing the intravenous lines or supervising the administration of injections. What about personally giving the final drugs? "I suspected that I'd find that no physician would be willing," said Dr. Neil Farber of Christiana Care Health System in Delaware. Instead, 19 % said they would. These doctors usually were not motivated by the belief that they might relieve the suffering of someone who was going to die anyway, Dr. Farber said, though some felt that way. Overwhelmingly, those physicians willing to kill cited their obligations to a state that has said execution is legal and correct. "They're not seeing it as a conflict," Dr. Farber said. "This is a duty to society." So it is not that surprising that corrections officials have found physicians willing to participate in capital punishment - some states even require their presence. Dr. Atul Gawande, a surgeon at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, recently found four physicians and one nurse who would discuss their reasoning. Dr. Gawande wrote in the New England Journal of Medicine in March that these medical professionals typically didn't make a conscious decision to assume the role of executioner. "Virtually all of them were brought into the death chamber to pronounce death," he said last week. Merely being present seems straightforward enough. But executions don't always go smoothly. Technicians can have trouble finding a suitable vein. The dosage of the drug may be inadequate. "Suddenly all eyes turn to you," Dr. Gawande said. Their participation was an incremental journey, as in many descents into questionable behavior. Dr. Gawande supports the death penalty, as do the majority of doctors surveyed. But after talking to those physicians who have witnessed it, he says he began to wonder whether capital punishment is possible without medical supervision. After 859 lethal injections, it is viewed almost as a rote act. "The trouble is," he said, "there is a large percentage of the time that there is some complication in that regimented approach that requires medical expertise to sort it out." In 1982, during the 1st lethal injection in a Texas state prison, 2 doctors reportedly were on hand only to pronounce death. Yet they were asked advice about the proper injection site, Dr. Gawande said, and the prison official incorrectly mixed the chemicals. What if a physician finds a heartbeat when it is time to declare a prisoner dead? Offer advice on how to finish him off? If executions cannot be completed without physicians or nurses, Dr. Gawande believes the death penalty should be abandoned. Tending to the problems of lethal injection is not a doctor's job, he said, and violates public trust. He even would like to see physician involvement legally banned. "Since the total responsibility for execution rests with the criminal justice system, it's up to the criminal justice system to deal with it," said Dr. Steven Miles of the University of Minnesota Medical School. Dr. Miles has examined the circumstances that lead doctors to have a role in torture and execution. Corrections officials and the public desire a clinical patina to the administration of the death penalty, he said, largely to make people feel more comfortable. "We're trying to make it sterile," he said. "We're trying to tame execution." The legal question now is whether it has been tamed enough to meet the requirements set forth in the U.S. Constitution. Dr. Miles does believe that the current three-drug combination is probably a painful death, masked by an induced paralysis. If prisoners are suffocating, they would have the feeling of being buried alive, he said. If they are improperly anesthetized, the potassium chloride would send a searing pain through the veins as it flowed toward the heart. As a human being, these scenarios bother him, but as a doctor, he would not offer a solution. "The question of whether executions should be pain-free is a social policy question," he said, not a medical one. For that reason, Dr. Arthur Caplan, director of the University of Pennsylvania Center for Bioethics, believes that the profession should excuse itself from the entire debate. If people want flawless executions, he said, then states should create professional executioners. "The state wants them there," Dr. Caplan said of doctors, "so the state can feel more comfortable." Dr. Miles puts it this way: If a nation decided to punish adulterers by stoning, it would be wrong for a doctor to give the condemned anesthesia beforehand to lessen the pain. That would send a message of tacit approval and soothe the conscience of those imposing the sentence. Because a white coat can make capital punishment seem more palatable, some doctors who are involved with executions ultimately find themselves troubled. After the introduction of the guillotine, executions became routine in revolutionary France. Dr. Guillotin grew appalled by his infamy from a killing device. But execution was by then the will of the people, and beyond the influence of medicine. (source: Dallas Morning News) From Rick Halperin 25th June, 2006 TEXAS Supreme Court OKs challenges to lethal injections A U.S. Supreme Court ruling earlier this month that opened the door to challenging lethal injections has given renewed hope to condemned prisoners facing execution. It remains unclear whether the opinion, written by Justice Anthony Kennedy, will play a significant role in the cases of Waco death row inmates Billie Wayne Coble and Michael Dewayne Johnson, who have execution dates set in August and October, respectively. The Supreme Court ruled that inmates can challenge the method by which most states execute prisoners on the grounds that the chemicals used in lethal injections cause unnecessary pain and violate their Eighth Amendment rights against cruel and unusual punishment. The court ruled that those challenges can be brought in the form of civil rights lawsuits, even after prisoners have exhausted their regular state and federal appeals. The decision delayed the execution of Clarence Hill, a 47-year-old Florida death row inmate convicted of murdering a policeman in 1983. Hill was strapped down in the execution chamber with tubes in his arms when the Supreme Court halted his execution in January. Although the court said the inmates can file the special appeals, Kennedy wrote that they will not always be entitled to stays of execution. "Both the state and the victims of crime have an important interest in the timely enforcement of a sentence," Kennedy wrote in the June 12 opinion. The ruling does not address whether the method of lethal injection violated the U.S. Constitution. "It is a rapidly developing question of law which we are studying carefully," said Waco attorney Greg White, who represents Michael Johnson. Johnson is set to be executed Oct. 19 for the September 1995 shooting death of Jeff Wetterman at the Wetterman family convenience store in Lorena. White, who is preparing to file Johnson's next appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court before a July 11 deadline, said he is "not prepared to say" how the ruling might affect Johnson's case or if he plans to challenge the constitutionality of the execution process. Richard Ellis, an attorney from Mill Valley, Calif., who represents Coble, did not return messages left at his office during the past week. Coble was convicted of the April 1990 shooting deaths of his estranged wife's brother, Waco police Sgt. Bobby Vicha, and her parents, Robert and Zelda Vicha. His execution date is Aug. 30. White called the opinion "somewhat significant" because it offers another avenue to challenge the death penalty that is not necessarily encumbered by the "many limitations" associated with the normal appellate process. McLennan County District Attorney John Segrest said he expects defense attorneys and anti-death penalty forces to rally behind the Supreme Court opinion and rush to court with civil rights lawsuits. "We recognize that people will try to use this as a way to delay their execution, and that is not necessarily going to happen," Segrest said. "Just because you file a lawsuit, that doesn't mean that you automatically get a stay of execution. You have to cross that threshold and prove that your claims have merit." Jerry Strickland, a spokesman for the Texas Attorney General's Office, which represents the state in federal death penalty appeals, said Lamont Reese, who was executed Tuesday, filed such a claim and was denied. "We will continue to address legal challenges that are brought before the courts," Strickland said. Avoiding cruelty Segrest said a death sentence does not necessarily meet the standard to prove that the punishment is cruel and unusual as defined by the Supreme Court. "In a humane society, even a society that carries out the death penalty, you can do it in such a way as to not inflict needless pain and suffering. A civilized society says you must forfeit your life, but we are not going to do it in a way to make it cruel if we can do it otherwise," Segrest said. Michelle Lyons, a Texas prison system spokeswoman, said there are no plans to change the execution protocol. Prisoners are given 3 injections, and all 3 are delivered in a lethal dose, Lyons said. The 1st chemical is a sedative called sodium thiopental. The 2nd is a muscle relaxer called pancuronium bromide, which collapses the lungs and diaphragm. The third, potassium chloride, stops the heart. Death penalty opponents argue that the second chemical causes pain that is masked by the delivery of the 1st chemical. "The only reference that I have personally seen to the chemicals has been inmates who have referenced that they have a particular taste in their mouth," Lyons said. "They haven't said it is good or bad, they have just said they taste it." In the 1972 Furman v. Georgia case, Supreme Court Justice William Brennan wrote, "There are . . . 4 principles by which we may determine whether a particular punishment is 'cruel and unusual.'" --"The "essential predicate" is "that a punishment must not by its severity be degrading to human dignity, especially torture." --"A severe punishment that is obviously inflicted in wholly arbitrary fashion." --"A severe punishment that is clearly and totally rejected throughout society." --"A severe punishment that is patently unnecessary. " Texas has carried out 367 lethal injections since it resumed the death penalty in December 1982. (source: Waco Tribune-Herald) DEATH ROW DEBATE Sometimes, innocence is a distraction Capital punishment foes should focus instead on lawlessness of state's machinery of death June 24, 2006 By DAVID R. DOW Earlier this month, the Supreme Court decided, in a 5-to-3 opinion, that a Tennessee prison inmate named Paul G. House was entitled to prove he did not commit the crime for which he was sent to death row. On the same day, I received a letter from Centurion Ministries, which argued for more than a decade that a Virginia man named Roger K. Coleman had not committed the crime for which he was executed in 1992. The letter admitted that Centurion had been wrong. These cases have something in common: They pivot on the question of innocence. For too many years now, though, death penalty opponents have seized on the nightmare of executing an innocent man as a tactic to erode support for capital punishment in America. Innocence is a distraction. Most people on death row are like Roger Coleman, not Paul House, which is to say that most people on death row did what the state said they did. But that does not mean they should be executed. Focusing on innocence forces abolitionists into silence when a cause celebre turns out to be guilty. When the DNA testing ordered by Gov. Mark Warner of Virginia proved that Coleman was a murderer, and a good liar besides, abolitionists wrung their hands about how to respond. They seemed sorry that he had been guilty after all. I, too, am a death penalty opponent, but I was happy to learn that Coleman was a murderer. I was happy that the prosecutors would not have to live with the guilt of knowing that they sent an innocent man to death row. The day before the DNA results were reported in the Coleman case last January, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the Paul House case. In House's case, the DNA testing has already been done, and it tends to suggest that he is indeed innocent. During oral arguments, however, Justice Antonin Scalia (who was one of the three dissenters when the court decided the case this weekmonth) argued that disputes over factual findings in a case can't be endlessly rehashed. He is certainly right about that. As Justice Scalia has said elsewhere, of course we are going to execute innocent people if we have the death penalty. The criminal justice system is made up of human beings, and fallible beings make mistakes. But perhaps that is a price society is willing to pay. If the death penalty is worth having, it might still be worth having, despite the occasional loss of innocent life. Paul House might be innocent, but how long will we keep death row inmates alive, waiting to find out? In Coleman's case, the Virginia Supreme Court did not address the arguments that he had raised in his appeal, because his lawyer had filed the papers one day late. When the case got to the United States Supreme Court, the court, in an opinion by Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, began its analysis by saying, "This is a case about federalism." The case did have something to do with the relationship between the Supreme Court and Virginia's highest court. But is that what the case was really about? Coleman was saying that his trial lawyer had been incompetent, and that the Virginia courts were refusing to address the question of whether his trial lawyer had been incompetent because his appellate lawyer had filed the appeal a day late. Federalism might be a plot line in this story, but it hardly seems to be the major issue. When the Supreme Court brushed aside Coleman's appeal 15 years ago, the justices said that a death row inmate cannot complain when his lawyer misses a filing deadline, because the lawyer is the agent of the client, and clients are responsible for the failings of their agents. As a result of this syllogism, my client Johnny Joe Martinez was executed in 2002, because his court-appointed appellate lawyer neglected to file a proper appeal — a mistake he freely admitted to, attributing it to inexperience. When the Martinez case reached the federal courts, those courts, invoking the Coleman decision, said too bad for Martinez; the mistake of his lawyer was attributable to him. I could go on with other examples. Of the 50 or so death row inmates I have represented, I have serious doubts about the guilt of three or four — that is, 6 to 8 percent, about what scholars estimate to be the percentage of innocent people on death row. In 98 percent of the cases, however, in 49 out of 50, there were appalling violations of legal principles: Prosecutors struck jurors based on their race; the police hid or manufactured evidence; prosecutors reached secret deals with jailhouse snitches; lab analysts misrepresented forensic results. Most of the cases do not involve bogus claims of innocence, like the one that swirled for 15 years around Roger Coleman, but the government corruption that the federal courts overlook so that the states can go about their business of executing. The House case will make it hard for abolitionists to shift their focus from the question of innocence, but that is what they ought to do. They ought to focus on the far more pervasive problem: that the machinery of death in America is lawless, and in carrying out death sentences, we violate our legal principles nearly all of the time. Dow, a law professor at the University of Houston, is author of "Executed on a Technnicality: Lethal Injustice of America's Death Row." He can be e-mailed at ddow@uh.ed. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. A Nonviolent Movement at Texas Death Row Texas Civil Rights Review - A Nonviolent Movement at Texas Death Row News A Nonviolent Movement at Texas Death Row Date: Sunday, June 04 Topic: Civil Rights in Texas--General The D.R.I.V.E. Movement: Resources for Education and Action Prepared by the Austin Campaign to End the Death Penalty Introduction What follows is a discussion of facts and strategy associated with the horrific conditions on Texas' death row at the Polunksy Unit in Livingston. The men warehoused at this unit, aside from being sentenced to death by an unjust system, are living in conditions that, by any decent standards of human rights, constitute cruel and unusual punishment. Several of these inmates have heroically launched a non-violent protest against these conditions and have been met with a disproportionately violent response from the Polunsky administration and staff. It befalls all abolitionists and others committed to justice to stand in solidarity with these brave men. What follows, we hope, will serve as tools toward that end. Background From 1965 to 1999, Texas' death row was housed in the Ellis Unit. Inmates were allowed group exercise time and had access to the same resources as other prisoners. However, in 1999, the Texas Board of Criminal Justice (TBCJ) voted to move all condemned male inmates to Livingston. The official rationale for this decision was overcrowding at the Ellis Unit, as several death row inmates were sharing single occupancy cells. However, there was also considerable political motivation. In 1998, seven men attempted to escape the Ellis Unit and one, Martin Gurule, succeeded (though he was found drowned shortly thereafter). This was the first successful escape on death row in 64 years. While a prison board investigation blamed negligent correctional officers, they also commented that group recreation and work time provided opportunities to plan such escapes. The TBCJ subsequently voted to make the move to Livingston. Life on the Polunsky Unit After being moved to Polunsky, the men on Texas' death row lost virtually all the privileges they enjoyed at the Ellis Unit. The new facility keeps the inmates in 23-hour administrative segregation inside 60 square foot cells with sealed steel doors. They have lost all group recreation, work programs, television access (some inmates are allowed radios), and religious services. There are no contact visits allowed at Polunsky, meaning that the men on death row will never make physical contact with anyone other than prison staff as they move toward their execution date. Inmates are only allowed one five minute phone call every six months, their mail is often censored, the quality of food is particularly low, and they are given inadequate health and dental services. The fact that such conditions can have profoundly negative psychological impacts on inmates is well-documented. Many of these men are losing their minds, attempting suicide, and abandoning appeals. Such conditions also set a bad precedent for conditions across the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ). The D.R.I.V.E. Movement The Death Row Inner-Communalist Vanguard Engagement (D.R.I.V.E.) consists of several (approximately seven) men housed on death row at the Polunsky Unit. Through a variety of non-violent strategies, they have begun launching protests against the conditions at Polunsky, in particular, and capital punishment, in general. The following is taken from the D.R.I.V.E. website (http://www.drivemovement.org) and summarizes the strategy the inmates have been using: * Actively seek to consistently voice complaints to the administration * Actively seek to organize grievance filing to address problems * Occupy feeding slots when feeding procedures are improperly done (Lack of sanitation by officers) and when food is improperly prepared (meager, malnourished portions: under cooked, spoiled) until changed * Occupy day rooms when there is an act of abuse of authority by guards (verbal abuse; physical abuse; meals/recreations or showers being wrongly denied; unsanitary day rooms and showers being allowed to persist; medical being denied; paper work being denied; refusing to contact higher rank to address the problems and complaints) and when retaliation (thefts, denials, destruction of property; food restrictions; wrongful denials of visits; abuse of inmates) is carried out in response to our grievances, outside support and collective protest: *Initiate sit-ins in visiting rooms, hallways, pod runs and recreation yards (when the above takes place) *Deploy the use of Polunsky Unit video cameras so that protest may be documented (which can be accessed by the public) *Non-violently refuse to evacuate cells when the above mentioned problems occur. Occupation will persist until change is implemented *Seek to organize supporters on the outside to write petitions, letters, make phone calls, e-mail and send faxes to address problems and abuses at hand (and protests in front of the prison when possible) *Educate prisoners to intelligently handle cases of abuse, attacks and oppression Barriers to Victory The D.R.I.V.E. movement constitutes a bold challenge to the powers- that-be in the TDCJ and the Texas state government as a whole. However, these men face significant repression and other barriers, making it absolutely crucial that activists on the outside mobilize around this important cause. Officials at the Polunsky Unit have reacted harshly to these protests. When the D.R.I.V.E. activists occupy a space in protest of a fixable problem, they are often met by a SWAT team and tear gas. Often, when gassed, the men are not allowed to shower until a number of days after the incident, allowing the gas to corrode their skin. Other forms of repression include seizing of clothes, bedding, and other possessions from cells. A particularly disgusting punitive measure practiced in administrative segregation units throughout Texas is the food loaf. Rather than a standard meal, the inmate is given a baked lump of the day's cafeteria leftovers. By all accounts, it is inedible. Beyond these direct acts of repression, the TDCJ continues to turn a deaf ear to these protests. Officials are quick to claim that the D.R.I.V.E. protest has little to do with the conditions on the Polunsky Unit and essentially amount to nothing more than an anti-death penalty protest. TDCJ employees are also stubbornly committed to their job descriptions, drawing a very clear line between the issues they are qualified to address and those they are not. Throughout the Texas state government, one finds a number of convenient escape routes for officials, elected and otherwise, who would rather not address such uncomfortable issues. Diffusion of responsibility is common practice throughout the power structure in the state of Texas. Furthermore, the TDCJ is accountable only to itself. Prisons in the United States are under no legal mandate to submit to independent oversight, though most seek some form of accreditation. Texas, however, monitors itself, meaning that they create their own standards and determine whether or not they are following them. Ultimately, it is clear that the TDCJ and the state of Texas as a whole have constructed a system in which they need only answer to themselves. Toward Solidarity So, what is to be done? The anti-death penalty movement has a significant interest in challenging the horrendous conditions at Polunsky and the violent repression taking place there. The period leading to execution is a part of the death sentence and, thus, demands our attention. Furthermore, any demand for the rights of the condemned affirms what the state of Texas wishes to deny, the humanity of the people they have chosen to kill. Solidarity with D.R.I.V.E., thus, becomes an important intervention in the revailing discourse surrounding the death penalty. Moreover, the conditions on death row are symptomatic of a broader prison industrial complex that is rotten to its very core, both in Texas and nationally. The first step we can all take is to build a coalition around living conditions on death row. The Austin chapter of Campaign to End the Death Penalty (CEDP) invites all Texas anti-death penalty groups, as well as other organizations interested in human rights, criminal justice reform, racial equality, and other struggles for justice to join us in voicing our outrage at what the condemned are forced to withstand on a daily basis. It is crucial that we begin organizing and communicating in the interest of challenging this grotesque __expression of state power. If you are interested, please contact the CEDP at cedpaustin@gmail.com. Both as a coalition and as individual groups, we must put the TDCJ and Texas state government on notice. Nothing will change at Polunsky as long as those in power are convinced they can continue in this fashion with impunity. Individuals worth contacting include TDCJ Executive Director Brad Livingston, Texas Board of Criminal Justice Chair Christina Melton Crain, Correctional Institutions Division Director Doug Dretke, the Correctional Institutions Division Ombudsman, Polunsky Senior Warden, Lloyd Massey, and elected officials. While most of these people will deny it, they are all in positions to influence Texas' policies and are, therefore, all viable targets for protest. We have provided specific contact information in an attached appendix. Exploiting media resources is also important. Write letters to the editor to your local newspaper and encourage the editors to cover the horrors at Polunsky. As our coalition will ideally organize a number of events in solidarity with the D.R.I.V.E. movement, we should begin building good relationships with the media now. Finally, we must work with the men inside Polunsky. Establishing pen- pal relationships with and visiting the men of D.R.I.V.E. is not only a welcome reminder to these brave activists that they are not alone in their struggle, but also allows us to join minds and strategies toward forming a broad movement that challenges injustice within the TDCJ. If you are interested in getting a pen-pal and/or visiting a D.R.I.V.E. inmate, please contact CEDP member Randi Jones at RandiJ42@satx.rr.com. Conclusion The conditions on the Polunsky Unit are unacceptable and should concern all activists committed to human rights. The anti-death penalty movement, in particular, is well-positioned to challenge an apathetic TDCJ and state government, joining in solidarity with the man of D.R.I.V.E. and letting the powers-that- be know that we will not sit idly by as they mock the very notion of justice. Appendix: Contact Information Brad Livingston, Executive Director Texas Department of Criminal Justice P.O. Box 99 Huntsville, Texas 77342-0099 936-437-2101 936-437-2123 (Fax) Christina Melton Crain, Chair Texas Board of Criminal Justice P. O. Box 13084 Austin, Texas 78711 512-475-3250 512-305-9398 (Fax) Nathaniel Quarterman, Director Texas Department of Criminal Justice Correctional Institutions Division P.O. Box 99 Huntsville, Texas 77342 936-437-2169 936-437-6325 (Fax) Correctional Institutions Division Ombudsman Office Texas Department of Criminal Justice P.O. Box 99 Huntsville, TX 77342-0099 936-437-6791 936-437-6668 (Fax) Lloyd Massey, Senior Warden Polunsky Unit 3872 FM 350 South Livingston, Texas 77351 936-967-8082 Ext. 054 Campaign to End the Death Penalty Austin C/O Bryan McCann 924 E. 40th St. #204 Austin, TX 78751 309-310-5223 cedpaustin@gmail.com http://cedpaustin.blogspot.net Received via email from Bob Van Steenburg This article comes from Texas Civil Rights Review http://tcrr. benezet.org/phpnuke The URL for this story is: http://tcrr.benezet.org/phpnuke/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=521 My Way News Judge: 'Railroad Killer' to Be Executed Jun 21, 5:49 PM (ET) By MICHAEL GRACZYK HOUSTON (AP) - A judge ruled Wednesday that serial killer Angel Maturino Resendiz, who gained notoriety as the "Railroad Killer" linked to at least 15 murders across the country, is mentally competent to be executed next week for the 1998 rape-slaying of a Texas doctor. Resendiz' attorneys had argued that the 46-year-old Mexican national is delusional and believes he is half-man, half-angel and will return three days after going to the death chamber. "He knows he's been convicted of capital murder," State District Judge William Harmon said Wednesday at the conclusion of a three-day hearing. "He knows he's received a death sentence and he knows that today. And he knows he's going to be executed on Tuesday." Resendiz was convicted of killing Claudia Benton, a researcher at the Texas Medical Center, who was stabbed, beaten with a statue and raped in her Houston home. Overall, he has been linked to eight slayings in Texas, two in Illinois, two in Florida, and one each in Kentucky, California and Georgia between 1986 through June 1999. Most were near railroad tracks, drawing the nickname "Railroad Killer." Four occurred after the Border Patrol nabbed him as an illegal immigrant and returned him to Mexico, not realizing he was on the FBI's Most Wanted list. Resendiz's lawyer, Jack Zimmerman, said he would appeal Wednesday's decision. "I think the judge gave us a fair hearing," Zimmerman said. "Obviously, we think he reached the wrong conclusion." At another hearing this week, psychiatrists testifying for the defense said Resendiz is schizophrenic and delusional, fears government conspiracies and believes he will survive his lethal injection. They said he told them he would awaken three days after his execution and be in the Middle East to help Jews fight Arabs. Prosecution psychiatrists, however, said after examining Resendiz in jail over the past several weeks that while he may have delusions, he's not schizophrenic and should be eligible to be put to death. Resendiz sat at the defense table in handcuffs Wednesday and appeared to pay close attention during the hearing, occasionally chatting with his attorney. Since he has a history of self- mutilation, he is not allowed to have sharp objects such as razors, and he has grown a long beard. Zimmerman, whose firm was hired by the Mexican government to represent Resendiz, said his client's guilt and punishment weren't at issue, but he said the law mandates that people to be executed must understand they are going to die. Roe Wilson, a Harris County assistant district attorney, said Harmon's ruling addressed the basics of the legal test for execution. "It's not: Are you paranoid schizophrenic, are you delusional?" the prosecutor said. "It's: Are you aware you're going to be executed, and that it's imminent and the reason for it? And Resendiz showed that over and over and over by what he told all of the doctors." "Resendiz is eminently competent to be executed. This was a final maneuver in his yearslong manipulation of the system," Wilson said. If the execution takes place Tuesday, Resendiz, dubbed "Choo-Choo Man" by other death row inmates, would become the 13th inmate executed this year in Texas. Copyright 2006 Associated Press. All right reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. June 19, 2006 Panel focuses on death penalty Lawyers, journalists find issues include political motivations, representation for defendants,public opinion Daniel Stone, The Daily Texan A conference of lawyers and journalists came together Friday to debate the ongoing issues related to the death penalty. The sometimes difficult relationship between the two professions was discussed, as well as Texas' position as the country's leader in death penalty sentences. Since 1982, 366 people have been executed in the state of Texas, which is more than any other state in the U.S., according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Friday's panel focused on the prevalence of executions in the state. At the center of the conversation, the six panelists discussed the case of Ricardo Aldape Guerra who was sentenced to death in 1982 for the alleged murder of a Houston police officer. Scott Atlas, Adalpe's lawyer, described how the inmate was exonerated after the later re-evaluation of evidence. Jo Ann Zuniga , a journalist who reported on the case, said it caused shockwaves throughout the community. "It's one of the few death penalty cases I had ever reported on where I had a shred of doubt whether they did it or not," Zuniga said. The panel used Adalpe's case to highlight other issues connected to the death penalty, such as the political motivations behind it, poor legal representation for low-income defendants and the increasing public apathy concerning the death penalty. "There are several factors that affect that [high death penalty] number - one mainly being a political factor. Judges in the state are elected and having a supposed soft stance on crime can lose you an election," Atlas said. Houston accounts for more than 100 of the 450 people on death row right now, said Robert Owen of the UT School of Law and the Capital Punishment Clinic. Robert Pitman, a U.S. magistrate judge, said whatever the motivations, judges are still directly elected by the people. "Judges here in Texas reflect the public's values. The vote makes the culture's values a certainty," Pitman said. The panel agreed the legal representation for those on death row were often of poorer quality because of inmates being from a low-income status. "You will definitely see the difference between those who have a million dollars to spend versus nothing," Pitman said. The conference also focusd on the death penalty issue on a social level, and the growing apathy in Texas that is partly because of a lack of coverage by media outlets. "The notoriety has definitely worn off. People just don't seem to care. They usually reserve five spots for press at executions and usually only two show," said Mike Graczyk, an Associated Press reporter who covers death penalty executions and cases. The conference provided an opportunity for lawyers and journalists to understand each other and to establish better communication, which may not always exist, said Cynthia Cohen, an organizer for the event. "One hard thing about being a journalist is that you can't always tell the full story. In particular, lawyers are very difficult to get a hold of,"said Graczyk. "We wouldn't be so hard to get a hold of if you wouldn't blow things so out of proportion," quipped Bill Allison, a UT law professor. Source : The Daily Texan MySA.com Texas death penalty case headed for possible fourth trial Web Posted: 06/13/2006 Michael Graczyk Associated Press HOUSTON One of the longest and most contentious death penalty cases in Texas is heading back for yet another trial. The U.S. Supreme Court, acting Monday on an appeal from the Texas Attorney General's Office, refused to reinstate the death sentence of Johnny Paul Penry, clearing the way for another jury to consider punishment for a fourth time. Penry was convicted of raping and fatally stabbing a woman at her home in Livingston in 1979. Penry turned 50 last month and has spent more than half of his life on death row for the slaying of 22-year-old Pamela Moseley Carpenter. He confessed to attacking the woman and stabbing her with scissors, but his attorneys have contended Penry, who says he believes in Santa Claus, has the reasoning capacity of a 7-year-old. While psychological tests have put Penry's IQ between 50 and 60, at least five juries have found Penry to be legally competent to stand trial or have rejected defenses based on mental retardation. The high court in 2002 ruled mentally retarded people, generally considered having an IQ below 70, may not be executed. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals last October, in a 5-4 ruling, sent Penry's death sentence back for another punishment hearing, citing what judges said were improper instructions that prevented jurors from considering the full scope of Penry's retardation claims. It was that decision the attorney general's office appealed to the high court. "That's good news for us," said John Wright, of Huntsville, who has been one of Penry's lawyers since the beginning of his case. "We're looking at another trial _ if we can't settle it. And I would think by now we could." "There have been so many disappointments in regard to this case, you kind of become conditioned to adversity," said William Lee Hon, the Polk County assistant prosecutor who has been handling the case for more than two decades. "So you take these blows as they come, and you do the best you can." Hon said he was anticipating Penry's lawyers would suggest an agreement to a sentence less than death to avoid another trial but said there were "a whole lot of considerations to look at" before deciding for a fourth time to seek a death sentence. "The parole eligibility is huge and he might very well be parole eligible," Hon said. "Is there any guarantee to keep him in prison if we choose to seek a life sentence? I don't know. That's one of the big questions to resolve in the process." He also said the relatives of the victim, whose brother is former Washington Redskins kicker Mark Moseley, would be consulted. Penry was on parole about three months after serving two years of a five-year rape conviction when he was arrested for the 1979 attack on Carpenter, who lived long enough to identify him as her assailant. He was arrested later that day and has been in custody since. He's among the longest-serving of the 399 inmates on death row in Texas. "Why don't they just lock me up and throw away the key," Penry told The Associated Press in 2001. "That's all I want." In 2000, he got within about three hours of execution when the justices halted the punishment. The Supreme Court first agreed to hear Penry's case in 1988, and the following year overturned his death sentence on 5-4 vote. In that same decision, justices clashed over whether mentally retarded people can be executed. More than decade later, in a North Carolina case, justices took the issue up again and barred capital punishment for retarded killers. Penry was resentenced to death and in 2001 the Supreme Court on a 6- 3 vote voided that death sentence too. Both times the high court reasoned the jury was not allowed to properly weigh Penry's alleged retardation. A new trial in 2002 led to the death sentence that was reversed last year by the Court of Criminal Appeals. Hon said depending on the court's schedule, it was possible a new punishment trial could be held by late this year. Wright speculated a trial wasn't likely until next year. James Ragland: With daughter on death row, mother focuses on optimism June 6, 2006 Don't hold your breath for a death-row confession. At least not from Darlie Routier, the Rowlett mother convicted of fatally stabbing her 5-year-old son, Damon, in a June 6, 1996, attack that also claimed the life of her oldest son, Devon, 6. Darlie Routier's mother, Darlie Kee, broke her silence Monday and told me her daughter would never fess up, as police and prosecutors have beseeched her to do. "She'll never admit to something she didn't do," Mrs. Kee said. "Why would she?" Halfway through our hourlong telephone interview, Ms. Routier called her mother from the Dallas County Jail, where she's being held. "It's Darlie Lynn," Ms. Kee interrupted. "Hold on." How often does she call, I asked, while Ms. Routier talked to someone else. "For financial reasons, it's just once a day," Ms. Kee said. "It's about $6 a call." Through her mother, Ms. Routier declined to talk to me, citing advice from her attorneys. Frankly, at this point, I'm not sure what more Ms. Routier could say that would do her any good or shed any more credible light on her case. But imagine for a second that you are her mom. How do you hold it together after all of these years? "I'm the mama bear trying to protect my baby," she volunteered. "Mama bear" had a nervous breakdown three or four years ago and has been taking prescription drugs to cope, she said. For a while, Mrs. Kee noted, "we were all on Xanax and Valium" to combat anxiety and depression. Right now, Mrs. Kee and other family members are pinning their hopes on a federal writ of habeas corpus appeal. "I didn't expect this to get overturned in Texas," Ms. Kee said. "But I think at the federal level is where the good-ol'-boy system stops." Ms. Routier's attorneys also are pressing for new DNA testing, which they want to be done before the federal appeal is considered. "We're hoping the [state district] judge will allow all the DNA that couldn't be tested in '96, because they didn't have the technology, to be tested," Mrs. Kee said. "I think everybody is OK with that. You don't want to put somebody to death with circumstantial evidence." She went on to recount the problems she has with Rowlett police officers who investigated the murders from the way they handled the crime-scene evidence to their acknowledgement that they quickly suspected that Ms. Routier was responsible. (Police have steadfastly defended their handling of the case.) "Will we ever find out who did this?" she asked. "As long as the police and no one else is investigating it, no." I also wanted to talk to Ms. Routier's husband, Darin, but he didn't call back. Jail records indicate he hadn't visited his wife since December, but Mrs. Kee said the couple's trying to look after Drake, who was 8 months old when his brothers were slain. "She wants what's best for Drake," said Mrs. Kee. She called her daughter an "amazing person" who's willing to allow her husband to move on and remarry if that's in Drake's best interest. Drake, now 10, is living with his dad who's living with his parents in Lubbock. I did hear from Darin's mother, Sarilda Routier, who called Monday afternoon to defend her daughter-in- law and her son. "He's had a hard two to three weeks," she said, explaining why he wasn't doing interviews. Sarilda Routier said Drake "does seem to be doing OK." "I hope he's doing as well as he appears. He enjoys going to see Mommy," she said, and you could hear the agony in her voice. "But it's just sad, you know; he's never known her outside of that cage, outside of that box." Mrs. Kee said Drake's parents have told him what happened and why his mom is in jail. She said Drake often would kiss the glass separating him from his mom. Other family members, including Ms. Routier's two sisters, Dana, 26, and Danelle, 23, still believe in Darlie's innocence, Mrs. Kee said. Dana is more sensitive about the case, Mrs. Kee said, because it was her idea to bring Silly String to her nephews' funerals a move derided by those suspicious of Ms. Routier a decade ago. "She does not like to be talked about in the media at all," Mrs. Kee said. "I'm sure she feels so guilty for bringing the Silly String. But she was just a 16-year-old trying to make her nephews happy." Mrs. Kee said she had thought about showing up with Silly String again this year if nothing else, just to show the media that the family won't be cowed by unflattering, accusatory portrayals. Instead, she went to the cemetery Sunday evening and placed a poem she had written along with bright-colored daisies blue, purple and pink atop the boys' graves. On Monday, she left her home east of Dallas and said she won't return until Wednesday a day after the 10th anniversary of a crime that left two boys dead, a mother on death row and a family devastated. E-mail jragland@dallasnews.com Death penalty's drug cocktail rooted in Texas Other states adopted method chosen with little scientific basis. By Mike Ward AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF May 28, 2006 When states began reviving the death penalty 30 years ago, hanging, electrocution, the gas chamber and firing squads had passed out of favor, perceived as too brutal for a civilized nation. Lethal injection was embraced as the humane method of administering the ultimate punishment. Deciding exactly which mix of chemicals would most quickly and painlessly put someone to death would seem a question easily answered by science. But that's not how it was done. Instead, the procedure of death by needle was the creation of an Oklahoma medical examiner and was put into practice by Texas prison officials. Now, that chain of events, reminiscent of the stereotypical good ol' boy prison environment in the classic 1967 movie "Cool Hand Luke," could draw Texas into the cross hairs of a growing national legal battle over whether lethal injections are as painless as once thought. And whether they are unconstitutional. Both the U.S. Supreme Court and a federal court in California are reviewing death penalty challenges that rest on the argument that lethal injection, as it is being practiced, is constitutionally prohibited cruel and unusual punishment. "All roads lead to Texas on this one because the other states adopted the procedure on how to administer lethal injection based on what Texas came up with," said Sarah Tofte, a researcher for Human Rights Watch, a New York-based group opposed to the death penalty that last month released a report highlighting the growing legal questions over lethal injection. "It's hard to believe that this procedure was developed without any real input from medical professionals, but it was." Deborah Denno, a Fordham University law professor who is a recognized expert on lethal injection, agreed. "If we're going to execute people, we should do it as humanely as possible, but we don't know that the current procedure does that," she said, citing pending court cases in California and Florida. "As incredible as it may seem, the current procedure was developed by some officials just winging it, without any real medical basis for their decisions. So we really don't know how humane the process is." The U.S. Supreme Court is considering a case from Florida about whether an inmate who has exhausted all other appeals can return to court to challenge the cruelty of a specific method of lethal injection. In California, a federal judge earlier this year delayed an execution because of questions about whether the cocktail of three drugs used in that state was actually painless. A hearing is scheduled for September. And just last week, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the state's highest criminal appellate court, halted one execution after the issue was raised. But it withdrew its order two days later and allowed another execution to proceed after a review of similar claims. Legal experts on both sides of the issue say the procedure by which lethal injections are carried out promises to be an ongoing issue. "But it's much more humane than how their victims die," said William "Rusty" Hubbarth, an Austin attorney who is vice president of Justice For All, a Houston-based national advocacy group for crime victims. "This is just another attempt to have the death penalty declared unconstitutional, and to look at it any other way is naive." Texas prison officials say they have no reservations about their current procedure. "We're watching the cases in California and Florida very closely to determine if we, in the future, may need to change our execution protocol," said Michelle Lyons, spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. "We're confident in our process, though, that it doesn't constitute cruel and unusual punishment." In modern times, the Supreme Court has not ruled any specific method unconstitutional. Idea born in Oklahoma Although Texas carried out the first execution by needle in 1982, the procedure was born in Oklahoma in 1977. The nation's highest court had halted the use of the death penalty five years earlier, ruling in a Georgia case that its application was arbitrary and capricious. In 1976, the Supreme Court ruled that changes in Georgia law corrected the legal problems, but many states were facing public pressure to find a more humane method. Oklahoma was among those states. State Rep. Bill Wiseman, a Republican from Tulsa, suggested that there had to be a better way to execute criminals than electrocution, a process that had fallen out of public favor because it was increasingly viewed as brutal and violent. Wiseman consulted doctors, who refused to help, citing their oath to save lives, not take them. He got the same response from scientists and other medical professionals. "I muttered to colleagues that it looked as if I would need to find a veterinarian to tell me how to 'put down' condemned prisoners," Wiseman recalled in a 2001 article in The Christian Century magazine. Enter A. Jay Chapman, Oklahoma's state medical examiner, a doctor who had been responsible for pronouncing inmates dead after electrocutions in Colorado. Chapman had no pharmacological training, just an opinion and a willingness to help. During a meeting with Wiseman, he dictated what was to become the new national template: "An intravenous saline drip shall be started in the prisoner's arm, into which shall be introduced a lethal injection consisting of an ultra-short-acting barbiturate in combination with a chemical paralytic agent." Sodium pentothal and chloral hydrate were the suggested drugs, the former to cause drowsiness and unconsciousness, the latter to stop the heart. "No pain, no spasms, no smells or sounds. Just sleep, then death," as Wiseman recalled. Later, Chapman added a third drug: potassium chloride. "You just wanted to make sure the prisoner was dead at the end, so why not just add a third lethal drug?" Chapman was quoted as saying in Tofte's report. "I didn't do any research. . . . It's just common knowledge. Doctors know potassium chloride is lethal." Wiseman's lethal injection bill was soon passed into law. Texas lawmakers approved their version, with virtually identical wording, the next day. More than 30 other states soon followed suit, including California and Florida. Getting its start in Texas In Texas, the lethal injection procedures were a tightly held secret. But court testimony years later revealed that the events leading up to the first execution by needle on Dec. 7, 1982, of kidnapper-killer Charlie Brooks Jr., had little basis in medicine or science. In 1990, when Louisiana corrections officials developing a lethal injection protocol met with their Texas counterparts for help, they were surprised by what they heard. Texas had no strict policy on the amounts of drugs that were used, according to court testimony in a Louisiana death penalty appeal in 2003, and when asked why they were using 5 grams of sodium pentothal instead of 2, as other states were, Texas' prison pharmacy director laughed. "When we did our first execution, the only thing I had on hand was a 5-gram vial. And rather than do the paperwork on wasting 3 grams, we just gave all 5," the Texas director said, according to testimony by the Louisiana prison system's pharmacy director. Other Louisiana officials testified that Texas officials seemed to administer one drug after another "without pausing to ascertain whether the drugs were having their intended effect," according to the Human Rights Watch report. Some of Texas' earliest lethal injections went more smoothly than others. When Stephen McCoy was executed in May 1989, "the reaction to the drugs induced violent choking, gasping and writhing on the gurney — so much that one witness fainted," according to the book "The Rope, the Chair and the Needle," an account of the death penalty in Texas by James W. Marquart, Sheldon Ekland-Olson and Jonathan Sorensen. When Stephen Morin was executed in March 1985, it took officials 45 minutes to find a vein in which to insert the needle. When Raymond Landry was executed in December 1988, "two minutes after the solution was flowing, the syringe popped out, spraying the mixture of drugs across the room toward the witness window. The needle was reinserted and the execution proceeded 15 minutes later." Other states had similar problems. In Illinois, the 1994 execution of notorious serial killer John Wayne Gacy stalled for 10 minutes after the chemicals clogged in the IV tube, a mistake that left anesthesiologists aghast. In 1995 in Missouri, seven minutes after the chemicals began flowing, they stopped, and Emmit Foster began gasping and convulsing, which was blamed on gurney straps that were so tight they restricted the flow of the chemicals into his veins. He was pronounced dead 30 minutes later. Toxicology reports from executions in North Carolina suggest that some prisoners have been improperly anesthetized, according to published reports. Texas does not conduct autopsies on executed inmates. Earlier this year, it took Ohio officials 27 minutes to find a vein in inmate Joseph Clark's arm that was suitable for insertion of an IV. The vein collapsed, and it took 30 minutes to find another, during which time media witnesses reported hearing "moaning, crying out and guttural noises" from behind the curtain that had been drawn across the execution chamber window. Clark was declared dead 90 minutes after the execution began. Possible public shift In decades past, after hangings were botched, electrocutions ended with inmates' bodies afire and gas chamber deaths became a gruesome spectacle, the public eschewed those methods for something more humane. Death penalty advocates acknowledge that there have been problems with a small percentage of executions by lethal injection but say the method is as painless as it can be. "We are putting them to sleep like a beloved Labrador," Hubbarth said. "The arguments of opponents absolutely misses the point." Even so, opponents say that the dog could not have been legally euthanized with the chemicals used to execute convicts. The American Veterinary Medical Association issued guidelines in 2002 saying the mix of drugs is unacceptable for putting animals to sleep because one drug masks pain and suffering that might be caused by the others. But veterinary association officials say their recommendations have been misinterpreted and do not address lethal injection of humans in any way. The recommendations are now in state law governing euthanasia of animals in Texas. Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott's office, which handles death penalty and other capital cases when they reach federal court, declined to comment on Texas' procedure or the pending legal challenges in other states. So did prison officials, who referred questions back to Abbott. "This question has been raised in the past, and courts have looked at it and said there is not a problem," said Kathy Walt, a spokeswoman for Texas Gov. Rick Perry. Denno, the law professor, and others suggest that the growing questions over how lethal injection is carried out may be triggering another shift in public opinion, away from the current process of lethal injection. "Whether we are there yet, I don't know, but I think public opinion is moving in that direction," Denno said. "It's taken so long for the country to get to this point because states were very secretive about their process, and only now is the information coming out about how this process came about. "That's why it's all coming back to Texas." mward@statesman.com; 445-1712 Posted Apr. 24, 2006 Court stops scheduled Thursday execution MICHAEL GRACZYK Associated Press HOUSTON - The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on Monday halted the lethal injection of condemned inmate Derrick Frazier set for later this week to allow time to consider a new appeal. Frazier was scheduled to die Thursday evening for the June 1997 fatal shootings of Betsy Nutt, 41, and her 15-year-old son, Cody, at their home on a ranch in Refugio County in South Texas. Frazier, set to turn 29 on Friday, would have been the eighth Texas prisoner executed this year. He and another man, Jermaine Herron, showed up at the home under the guise that their car had broken down and needed to make a phone call. Court records showed the woman offered to take them to Refugio, about 10 miles away, and was shot along with her son. The men then fled with her pickup truck. Frazier's father once was a foreman on the ranch next door to the slaying scene. Herron, 27, is scheduled to die in three weeks. Frazier blamed the killings on Herron and insisted he wasn't present for the shootings. The U.S. Supreme Court, acting on an appeal filed in January, refused last week to halt the punishment. Frazier's lawyers were back in the courts Monday with an affidavit from a friend of Frazier who said that duing the trial she saw a juror improperly communicating with Jerry Nutt, whose wife and son were killed. The juror, according to the affidavit from Courtney LaFont, ensured Nutt that Frazier would be convicted and given a death sentence. Prosecutors argued they had affidavits from jurors saying the incident never happened. In a short three-sentence order Monday afternoon, the appeals court said it was granting the reprieve pending its review of the appeal. The victim's truck was found parked outside Frazier's apartment in Victoria, about 30 miles to the north. His fingerprints were inside the truck. Frazier gave police a videotaped confession in which he said he killed Betsy Nutt and Herron killed her son. He later said he was coerced by officers who told him he would get a shorter prison term if he admitted to the killing. The Paris News http://web.theparisnews.com Court upholds Wooten's death sentence Staff reports The Paris News Published April 23, 2006 The state's highest criminal appeals court has rejected an appeal by Larry Wayne Wooten of the death sentence he received in the Sept. 3, 1996, slayings in Paris of Grady Alexander, 80, and his wife, Bessie Alexander, 86. Wooten, 47, has been on death row since his May 12, 1998, conviction of capital murder and a jury's sentence that he be executed by lethal injection. In an appeal that reached the court Oct. 2, 2003, Wooten alleged he could not be executed because he is mentally retarded. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals said in an April 12 ruling that after reviewing the record it concurred with the ruling of State District Judge Jim Dick Lovett, who presided over Wooten's capital murder trial. "The convicting court did not hear testimony, but received affidavits from witnesses for both applicant and the state. The convicting court made findings of fact and conclusions of law. We have reviewed the record considered by the convicting court and find that the record supports the findings of that court," the court said. Wooten, the son of a former Paris police officer, was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to die by injection. The Alexanders were stabbed and their throats cut. Police said Bessie Alexander was beaten with a pistol with such force that the grips and portions of the trigger mechanism of the pistol broke off. Wooten then robbed the couple of $500 to $600 in cash, police said. Their bodies were found in their residence in the 300 block of Jackson Street. During an interview with police, Wooten called Alexander "Uncle Grady" but said he wasn't related to the Alexanders. He said he had gotten to know them well over a period of years and had frequently been in their home. "I would do work for him or keep his cars up or mow his yard or fix his doors for him. I would do all kinds of little work around the house for him, sometimes inside the house for him," Wooten said. At the time of the double murder, Paris police were searching for the person who killed Mary Moore Searight, 87, less than a month earlier after sexually assaulting her in her home in Paris. Wooten was investigated in connection with that murder, but was never implicated or charged in that case, which remains unsolved. Wooten's defense team raised the question of mental retardation; the prosecution argued that he was slow, but not retarded. During a videotaped jailhouse interview of Wooten on Sept. 9, 1996, Paris Sgt. Tim Moree asked Wooten if he had finished high school. Wooten replied that he graduated from high school, but "I can't read and spell that good." He needed help when he was asked to write down "Paris High" as the school where he graduated. "P-a-r-I-s? P-a-r-I-s?" Wooten asked, uncertain of the fourth letter in the name of the city. "Uh-huh," Moree replied. "High school?" Wooten asked. "Just put H.S.," Moree instructed. The session continued. Moree: "Can you read this bottom line? Can you do that?" Wooten: "Can ... what's that word?" Moree: "read." Wooten: "... read ... what's this?" Moree: "write." Wooten: "The ... what's this?" Moree: "English." Wooten: "What's that?" Moree: "language." Wooten: "language." Moree: "Do you understand what that means?" Wooten: "I can read and write the English language." Moree: "I mean, do you have difficulty reading this?" Wooten: "Yes." Moree: "Can you read this bottom line?" Wooten: "I have the right to ... what's this?" Moree: "terminate." Wooten: "... terminate and stop the interview or questioning at time." Moree: "at any time." Wooten: "any time." © 2006 The Paris News. All rights reserved. April 16, 2006 Livingston residents undaunted by prison Death row unit hasn't hurt growth at this lakefront area By ALEXIS GRANT Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle LIVINGSTON - When Rick O'Connor and his wife, Janet, bought a new house on Lake Livingston, they gave little thought to their new neighbors: inmates on death row. Like hundreds of other water-lovers who have flocked to this East Texas town, 75 miles north of Houston, the recently retired couple says the proximity of the prison, which is within sight of their neighborhood, doesn't bother them. "If they escape, they're gonna want to get the hell out of here," Rick O'Connor said recently as he cleaned his boat. Like most of the towns in Polk County, Livingston has been growing in population over the last several years. The 8-square-mile city had a population of nearly 6,400 in 2004, according to the latest estimate from the U.S. Census Bureau, compared with 5,400 in 2000 and 5,000 in 1990. Much of that growth can be attributed to a scramble for remaining lakefront property, which despite the neighboring prison is expensive and in high demand. A typical waterfront home there costs more than $300,000, said Realtor Patty Laviolette. But some growth likely was related to the arrival in 1993 of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice's Polunsky Unit. The sprawling, fenced facility employs nearly 800 people, some of whom moved to town for the job. The O'Connors' lakeside neighborhood, located behind the prison, is a dramatic contrast to the drab stretch of FM 350 in front of the facility. That area is dotted with trailer-home communities. Lakeside or not, the prison-area residents say they're not afraid. "All the bad guys are locked up here," said Peggy Smith, a convenience store employee. "In the city they're all out running loose." Although men on death row are held at the Polunsky Unit, executions take place 40 miles away in Huntsville, as required by state law. Livingston Mayor Ben Ogletree Jr. said the prison has had little effect on the community other than bringing jobs. "It's just out there," Ogletree said. "You just see a building, and you don't see any people. And whatever goes on there is within those walls." The community solicited the prison in the early 1990s, he said, because of the potential for economic development. Death row, which accounts for 400 of the prison's 2,900 inmates, arrived in 2000. "It has done exactly what we thought it was going to," he said. That is — aside from providing jobs and water and sewer contracts for the city — not much. There was little movement on prison property on a recent weekday, other than the occasional car driving in or out of the parking lot. The town, too, was serene. Some residents say that's what drew them to Livingston. "It's real peaceful," said Cindy Hill, 27, who moved into the neighborhood a month ago to live with her mother-in-law. "My little girl loves it." More businesses have popped up in the city since the inmates moved in, said Florida Harris, who owns a restaurant a mile from the prison. She remembers FM 350 as a country road, unlike the highway it has become. Extra traffic means more hungry customers. Much of her clientele is from out of town, passing through on the way to the lake or the prison, Harris said. "I don't really think anything bad is going to happen," Harris said. Indeed, no inmate has ever escaped from the prison, said Michelle Lyons, spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. "Housing the death row population is different than housing any of the other prison populations," Lyons said. "We are conscious that we are dealing with a population that really doesn't have anything to lose, so our security measures are pretty stringent." Death row inmates are held separately from other prisoners and face more restrictions, particularly in terms of mobility. The building is set back from the road and surrounded by fields and nonlethal electronic fencing. If there were an escape, prison officials would notify people living in the surrounding area by phone or by walking door-to-door, Lyons said. On some days, prisoners — not death row inmates but convicts who will be eligible for parole within the next two years — work outside in front of the prison doing yard work, maintenance or tending horses. Across the street, Sandra Gates feeds dogs at a makeshift animal shelter. "They don't even look in this direction," Gates said. "It's like we don't exist to them. We don't think of it really." Despite its growth, Harris said, Livingston still has a small-town feel. "Everybody looks out for one another," she said. She and her husband, after living in the town for 25 years, are building a new house — just down the street from the prison. alexis.grant@chron.com September 16, 2005 Executed without a fair trial Austin American-Statesman, Editorial Each time the state of Texas executes someone who had incompetent defense counsel, it undermines public confidence in the judicial system. That certainly is true in the case of Frances Newton, who was put to death on Wednesday despite doubts about her guilt that stem from the state's failure to provide Newton a competent defense lawyer. The case also is troubling because of the involvement of the now-discredited Houston Police Department crime lab that mishandled key evidence. Newton was convicted of shooting to death her husband, Adrian Newton, and their two young children, Alton and Farrah, in 1987. The 40-year-old woman became the first African American woman to be executed in modern Texas history. It wasn't race or gender, however, that prevented Newton from getting a fair trial. It was economics. Newton was too poor to hire a lawyer, so the state appointed one for her. Her defense lawyer at trial was Ron Mock, whose shoddy work in capital murder trials is well known in legal circles. Sixteen defendants represented by Mock have been sent to death row. The Houston lawyer has been repeatedly disciplined by the State Bar of Texas, and now is disqualified from handling capital murder cases. In Newton's case, Mock didn't do what many attorneys consider basic lawyering. He didn't conduct an investigation that might have turned up facts and evidence that were discovered later by Newton's appeals lawyers. When asked by a trial judge, he could not name a single witness he had interviewed on Newton's behalf. A competent lawyer should be provided for all defendants, but certainly for poor defendants facing the death penalty. Justice demands that much. We raised those issues prior to Newton's execution, and we bring them up now because there are other people on death row who had incompetent lawyers. Once the system is set in motion, it's difficult to reverse, even when new evidence is discovered. Appeals courts have taken the position that defendants should have raised those facts and evidence at the time of their initial trial, and therefore aren't entitled to bring them up later. Too often, facts and evidence aren't discovered until the appeals stage, when better-qualified attorneys get involved. It's tragic because cases such as Newton's aren't being decided on their merits, but on technicalities. The system has improved significantly since the Legislature passed the Texas Fair Defense Act in 2001, which set minimum requirements for attorneys representing capital murder defendants. But that was too late to help Newton and others who were convicted prior to 2001. No one can blame the public for distrusting guilty verdicts that arise from an unfair fight, where one party must do battle with one hand while the prosecution is slugging away with both. Someday executions such as Newton's will be looked upon with shame. Perhaps Newton was guilty of the triple murder. Perhaps not. That same question will haunt other death row inmates until the Legislature or the courts addresses the problem of death row defendants who were represented by incompetent lawyers. --- Source : Austin American-Statesman, Editorial http://www.statesman.com/opinion/content/editorial/stories/09/16newton_edit.html September 16, 2005 Texas Kills Again by Brendan Coyne, The NewStandard Ignoring evidence of a lawyer’s incompetence and pleas from a variety of groups, Texas officials and judges refused to grant a stay of execution to a women convicted of murdering her family eighteen years ago. Francis Newton, a 40-year-old black woman who had always maintained her innocence, became the 349th person put to death by the state of Texas since 1924; she was the thirteenth executed this year alone. Reportedly, Newton declined to offer a statement before the lethal injection was administered. The drugs took a full eight minutes to kill her, the Associated Press reports. Monday, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles declined to recommend commuting Newton’s death sentence. Two days later, Governor Rick Perry refused to grant a stay, and one hour before she was scheduled to be executed, the state Supreme Court unanimously turned the case away. Death penalty opponents and Newton supporters contend that the mother of two was served poorly by a state-supplied lawyer and did not murder her husband and children in 1987. Prosecutors argued in court that she killed her family to collect on a life insurance policy. Newton’s supporters said there was evidence that drug dealers killed her family, and many legal professionals said her case raised legitimate concerns over innocence and proper representation in Texas. Efforts to halt her execution repeatedly failed this year. According to the Texas Moratorium Network, an anti-death penalty group, Newton’s lawyer in the original case, Ron Mock, was "grossly incompetent." The group accuses the lawyer of ignoring important evidence, failing to prepare at all for trail, and being unable to recall witnesses’ names. Mock is no longer allowed to participate in capital cases, the network noted. A second group, the Texas Innocence Network, a project of the University of Houston Law Center, filed a habeas corpus petition claiming that the state was negligent and Newton’s innocence was readily demonstrated at trial. At the end of August, Michael Greco, president of the American Bar Association, sent a letter to Texas Governor Rick Perry asking the governor to stay the execution. Newton is the third woman to be executed since 1924 and the first Black woman legally executed by the state since the end of the Civil War. Ten people currently on death row in Texas face scheduled executions, according to the state Department of Criminal Justice. --- Source : The NewStandard http://newstandardnews.net/content/?action=show_item&itemid=2368 Robert Shields Invites the Governor to his Execution! Uncensored from Texas Death Watch by Robert Shields Robert Shield #999166 is scheduled to be executed on August 23, 2005 The following is a copy of what Robert Shields, 999166, to Governor Rick Perry of Texas. Said letter was mailed to Governor Perry on or about August 15, 2005 via Certified Mail Article Number 7005 0390 0004 9461 8044. My name is Robert Alan Shields Jr. and with this letter, I respectfully invite you to witness my execution, along with my family, set for August 23rd, 2005. I think it is important that you see with your own eyes that this is lives and devastation, not just another political stepping stone. Do you think you would have the same opinion of the situation after sitting down talking to me and being forced to see me as a person and not just another piece of paper being pushed across your desk? I would ask that you be there to answer my loved ones questions. Explain to them why they too had to become victims. It is time for you to have the courage of your convictions and stand there looking me in the eyes as those lethal drugs take my life. August 10, 2005 by Robert Shields #999166 On August 10th 2005 the state of Texas murdered another man-Gary Sterling! Knowing the state as I do I am sure it was all very clean and efficient. I was not in my cell to witness the Grey Suit grim reaper's do there death march or have there hand shaking contest. I did see Gary leave the visitation room with his head held high and a smile on his face as the rest of the guy's back there said there goodbye's to him and passed along words of encouragement. May you rest in peace Gary Lynn Sterling. Well folks I have less than ten days to go until my own state sanctioned murder. I have not heard any news but its not looking so good. Do you people see how insane it is to know the exact date an time of your own murder and sit patiently waiting for it. Its definitely playing with my mind. It will not be long before my blood too is greasing the wheels of Texas Death Machine. I'll talk to you again soon. Robert Shields #999116 Polunsky Unit 3872 FM 350 S. Livingston, TX 77351 The following are writings from Robert Shields #999166 which may also be found here. Thank you so much Scott for helping Robert post his contributions to Uncensored. Friday, August 19, 2005 Voting by Robert Shields #999166 If you had a business wouldn't you want the most qualified person to run it. Why do we throw that basic concept out the window when it comes to voting? Normally anyone who wanted a job would fill out a resume and the best person would get the job. So why do we allow all these candidates to get up there and tell us whatever about what they plan to do once they get into office without knowing if they even have a clue of how to do that? Shouldn't we ask what these peoples experience and track record are? No wonder our government is so screwed up. Now that we realize its our fault lets do something about it! Remember it is our government. Where is the Forgiveness? So this is what you wanted Me sitting here alone Unable to feel anything Not even myself going crazy Falling through this hole You carved into my chest I will never be the same Why can't you just forgive me And let my restless spirit go I am sorry for the pain That I have caused you But you still stand there and say That I won't get anything that I Don't deserve Well, I say you cannot forget What you will not forgive Maelstrom: What did you expect I am the one who you Thought would be nothing And now? Welcome to my world Everything is Black And so much colder Another time and place I kind of like it ugly Devoid of light The truth is sickening Grinding you down Blinded, screaming. Here This Cry: With a pain that no one will know Ripping away the remnants of my soul Teardrops falling from my eyes I can reel my heart beat Like a Distant drum. The verdict has come As a Judge shatters the last of my dreams My mind dissolves into violent screams This hollow shell collapsed into an Empty soul waiting to silently die. Cannot Even Think: As I sit in this lonely cell Pushed deeper and deeper Emptiness killing me with Agony It's so easy to get lost In the sadness and the dreams So that you can feel it? I hear a voice crying out A voice full of despair, Anger, and frustration. The voice undulates in waves and Then smashes down like a sledge hammer Pounding into my head. This cannot be real I cannot stand this hell I feel. The Wall: The wall around my heart Was built to keep out the pain But it has held in the tears Now I am drowning I swim to the top To grasp for a breath of air I burst forth and flounder there Like a fish out of water Dying in all the pain Now I have to tear down the wall Brick by Brick As I struggle to breathe in the pain Wading waist deep in tears I stand, slip, trip, and fall Face down in those tears Finding welcome solace from the pain So now do I drown in the tears Or die from the pain? James and Suzanne want to thank Tracy and Dave, owners of CCADP and Anti-Death Penalty Forum, which is geared toward support of families and friends of Death Row Inmates, for your press release and everything that y'all do to help abolish the death penalty WOMEN ON DEATH ROW: In August 1998 I began writing and publishing a newsletter about women on death row and women in capital trials both in the United States and abroad called "Women on the Row." The decision to do a newsletter came about as a result of my personal commitment to share information I gained through interactions with women on death row in the process of writing two books, Women and the Death Penalty in the United States: 1900-1998 (Praeger, 1999) and Women on the Row: Revelations from Both Sides of the Bars (Firebrand, 2000). The sole purpose of the newsletter is to disseminate information about women on death row or women currently involved in capital trials. Now in it's 6th year of publication, it is mailed out four times a year. The next issue will be March, 2005. Individuals working in prison ministry, chaplains, educators, lawyers, law students doing research or individuals involved in Peace and Justice issues will find this useful. The newsletter is currently sent by snail mail only. If you or your organization would like to receive this newsletter, please send a donation of $20 to be put on the mailing list. Please make checks payable to "Kathleen A. O'Shea" not to "Women on the Row". A donation above and beyond the initial $20 will help defray the cost of sending this newsletter free of charge to both male and female prisoners who request it. Thank you for your support of this project. Please pass this information on to someone else. Kathleen A. O'Shea, Editor KATHLEEN A. O'SHEA, a nun for 30 years and a Pulitzer nominee, is a social worker who does research on female offenders, with an emphasis on women on death row. She is a teacher, writer, activist, and lecturer. The spring 2003 issue of Ms. Magazine quotes her as the author of the most authoritative academic textbook on the subject of women on death row. O'Shea published Female Offenders: An Annotated Bibliography in 1997, Women and the Death Penalty in the United States: 1900-1998, in 1999, and Women on the Row: Revelations From Both Sides of the Bars, in May, 2000. She lives and works at Innisfree Village, a life-time facility for mentally handicapped adults in rural Virginia and is currently working on Hymns of the Revolution (a novel based on her memoirs of Chile, 1965-1973) and Against the Dying Light - an anthology of stories of nuns who have befriended death row inmates. MAILING ADDRESS: Kathleen A. O'Shea 5505 Walnut Level Rd. Crozet, Virginia 22932