Sept. 16 TEXAS: Frances Newton: Another One of Texas's Scapegoats The United States Supreme Court declared that the reciting of the Pledge of Allegiance in schools was unconstitutional. Some will be happy about this, while many of us will not care in light of the fact that this same court struck down the appeals of an innocent woman on Texass death row. Last Wednesday night, the Supreme Court enabled the state of Texas to execute Frances Newton. Pat Robertson did not ask the governor to spare her life as he did with Karla Faye Tucker years ago, for only white women who frequently proclaim Jesus as their own personal savior need apply. Did the Supreme Court bother to read the appeals? There are many others to hate for this: Prosecutor Roe Wilson, who recently admitted that there was more than one gun at the scene of the crime, but she later recanted. Wilson and her fellow DAs would rather cover their asses and let an innocent woman die than to be publicly proven wrong and allow a little justice. Or Ron "Death Row" Mock, who has sent 16 people to death row, and now 13, including Frances, have been executed. 20 years ago, Mock took death row cases, many death row cases, in order to make a living and spent little time and effort on each one. Mock complained of being "too tired" to take Frances's case. He took it though and was obviously too tired to do his damn job. Mock also represented Gary Graham and fell asleep during Grahams trial. Graham was sent to death row and was executed on the testimony of one witness. Mock didnt call one of the many witnesses who could have testified on Graham's behalf. Mock has been disbarred twice and will not be able to practice law again until 2007. But why isn't he being tried for accessory to the murder for all of the innocents he has sent to death? Let him be represented by an attorney just like himself. And the corporate media did not exactly go out of their way to cover the inconsistencies in Francess case in any detail. The same night that Frances was killed, the media gave sparse attention to her while they were captivated by Britney Spears and her new baby. Rich, blonde pop stars who become mothers are sexier than poor, black mothers wrongfully convicted of killing their children. And who is this buffoon who wrote the article titled: "Texas Executes Woman Who Killed Three Family Members"? This "journalist" who, like many of his Britney-obsessed colleagues, was too lazy to do a little research and write about something substantial. Not a word about Mock, or DA Roe, or the faulty crime lab that has botched evidence in many Texas death penalty cases. He writes for, guess who? The New York Times, the one publication that will always have the back of the guiltiest in our society: the elites and politicians who rack up what the Times would call "collateral damage" for their own gain. To come home and find Alton, her 7-year-old son, and Farrah, her 21-month-old baby girl shot to death along with her husband. In the chaos of accusation, conviction, and incarceration, was Frances ever able to deal with the trauma and grieve for her slain family? People need time and distance from such an ordeal to cope and move on as best they can, but Francess freedom was taken after the murders, which was most likely the worst event of her young life, so the pain must have always been fresh and the suffering enormous. Another unjust blow dealt to a woman who should have been comforted, not convicted for her loss in order to further the careers of a bunch of lazy hacks. "Rick Perry is proud of his extensive record as a pro-life, pro-family conservative," the Texas Governor's website brags. We hear the same rhetoric from former Texas Governor George W. Bush who got his start killing on Texas death row and graduated to bigger projects such as killing Afghani and Iraqi civilians. Bush and Perry and their ilk treat life as a disposable commodity. After all, there is so much of it. We have 6 billion people. There are a few hundred dead here, and a million dead there. We won't run out. For those activists and attorneys who worked hard to save Francess life: take comfort in this sad time. We will one day celebrate the death of the death penalty for we are at the beginning of the end of capital punishment in the United States. This country will join over 80 countries that have abolished executions. Illinois is in moratorium, juveniles and retarded people can no longer be sentenced to death, and public support for the death penalty has dropped. But after we no longer have a death penalty, we will always remember Frances Newton, Gary Graham, Tommy Thompson, Leonel Torres Herrera, the Rosenbergs, Sacco and Vanzetti, and many, many others at the bottom who have been slaughtered by a system that leaves corpses in its path to domination and profit at the top. (source: Dissident Voice (Brandy Baker is a writer and activist living in Baltimore. She was a contributor to CounterPunchs book, Dimes Worth of Difference: Beyond the Lesser of Two Evils. She is also a contributor to Plastic Sugar Presss upcoming book: Yellow Fever: Searching for Meaning in Supporting the Troops. **************************** Texas Kills Again 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. 2 days later, Governor Rick Perry refused to grant a stay, and 1 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 2 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. Newtons 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, Newtons 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 2nd 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 Newtons 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 2st Black woman legally executed by the state since the end of the Civil War. 10 people currently on death row in Texas face scheduled executions, according to the state Department of Criminal Justice. (source: The NewStandard) ****************************** Executed without a fair trial 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 2 young children, Alton and Farrah, in 1987. The 40-year-old woman became the 1st 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. 16 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: Editorial, Austin American-Statesman) ********************* Murder suspect missed psych appointments Mark Brewer's violent fantasies may have landed him on probation last month, but that didn't stop him from landing in the midst of a bloody scene 4 days after he missed a court-ordered psychiatric appointment. Police arrested Brewer Wednesday in the slayings of his wife and another woman at Country Club Village, a North Side apartment complex for people with special needs. Christine Canady, 40, and Brewer's estranged wife, Lynda Barrett, 40, were found dead in Barrett's apartment. Barrett had been stabbed to death in the head and neck, and Canady died from sharp force to the head, neck and torso, according to the Bexar County medical examiner's office. Along with the decomposing women, police found Brewer facedown on the floor with blood on his hands and feet. He was nude, disoriented and suffering from a cocaine overdose, according to an arrest affidavit. Police also found a bloodied knife in the apartment, the affidavit stated. After being taken to University Hospital and placed on emergency detention, Brewer was charged Wednesday with 1 count of capital murder. Thursday, he was being held without bond in Bexar County Jail. It wasn't Brewer's 1st run-in with the law. About a month earlier, a man rang the doorbell at the offices of WOAI and told producer Dale Blasingame he had left a bomb in a tree near San Antonio College. "He started rambling," said Blasingame, who called police. "He obviously had issues." Police said the man then told them he put a bomb in a metal box in a parking lot at San Pedro and West Myrtle Street. After finding the box empty, police charged Brewer with a false-alarm report. On Aug. 29, a judge sentenced Brewer to 18 months' probation and ordered him to undergo psychiatric counseling and evaluation with the federally funded Genesis program on Sept. 9 and 12. He missed both appointments, according to court documents. And on Tuesday, four days after Brewer's first absence, police came across the foul-smelling and bloody scene at Country Club Village. Brewer's marriage had been as troubled as his recent past. According to court documents, Barrett and Brewer were divorced in 1993 and remarried in 1999. At the time of the slayings, the couple reportedly had been on bad terms. "All I know is they were separated," sobbed Olga Rosewald, a resident of the complex, as police on Tuesday investigated the bloodied apartment of her friend. (source: San Antonio Express-News) TENNESSEE----new execution date TN Reid Execution The Tennessee Department of Correction is now accepting applications from recognized news organizations to serve as statutorily required witnesses for the scheduled execution of death row inmate Paul Dennis Reid. The execution is currently scheduled for 1 a.m. CDT on Oct. 5, 2005. 7 media witnesses and 2 alternatives will be selected by the Tennessee Department of Correction during an open drawing to be held at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution located at 7475 Cockrill Bend Blvd., Nashville, Tenn. The drawing will take place Tuesday, Sept. 20, at 10 a.m. CDT. How to submit an application: 1. Download and complete the media witness application form available on the media page of TDOC's Web site at http://www.state.tn.us/correction/newsreleases/executions.html. 2. Fax the completed form back to Dianne Travis at Riverbend no later than 4 p.m. CDT on Friday, Sept. 16. (Fax number is 615-350-3400. 3. Save a copy of your transaction verification as confirmation that your fax has been received. The drawing will be conducted in accordance with the rules of the Tennessee Department of Correction Adult Services Division, Chapter 0420-3-4, under the authority of TCA 40-23-116, which are available for review on the TDOC Web site. Only one application will be permitted from each news organization. Contact: Amanda Sluss, 615-253-8144 (office), (source: Associated Press) USA: No evidence wrongful convictions worry Roberts Whatever else John Roberts might be thinking about the Senate confirmation hearings, he can't deny he has had plenty of time to present his point of view as thoroughly as he likes. He has had, you could say, what Americans tend to think of as their right: a day in court. If he's confirmed as chief justice of the United States, he'll help to decide how many other Americans get their day in court. Unfortunately, a genuine day in court is not something that everyone experiences. Too often, it's only after people become entangled in the criminal justice system that they realize their side of the story might never get a complete telling. It may be a mistake to read too much into Roberts' answers to the senators because his responses have been intentionally vague. But when the topic touched on the death penalty Wednesday, I found myself somewhat dismayed. Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) asked Roberts a question about Herrera vs. Collins, a case that became controversial when the Reagan administration argued that even though Leonel Herrera was facing a death penalty in Texas, he didn't have the right to present new evidence indicating that he might be innocent. The Supreme Court agreed, holding 6-3 in 1993 that Americans have no constitutional right to present new evidence of innocence to federal courts. Herrera was executed later that year. The Herrera case dealt with a tough issue. Death penalty lawyers view every legal delay as a victory, so they tend to use any tactic they can to drag the process out. Permitting them to keep bringing new claims would allow so many delays that you would see defendants dying in prison before they could be executed. But judges and politicians who have been trying to speed up the process in recent years often ignore a different, very serious problem. Too frequently -- especially in states that have not enacted reforms as Illinois has -- people charged with capital crimes never really get their day in court. In the early stages, they might be represented by overworked public defenders or private lawyers who just go though the motions. Potentially helpful witnesses aren't interviewed. Important evidence doesn't come to light. The defense lawyer might even sleep though the trial. A conviction becomes almost a foregone conclusion. A day in court for these people? Try 15 minutes of infamy. Then, when later investigation turns up solid evidence that throws doubt on the conviction, it's too late. At that point, it's much more difficult to turn things around than many people realize. The appeals process, which might appear to the public to provide endless review, isn't designed to re-investigate cases. New witnesses, conflicting evidence, lackluster defense at the first trial . . . ho-hum, what else is new? Conviction affirmed. Remember, appellate judges can't really spend the weeks or months it would take to thoroughly understand a particular case. That's why there are so many cases around the nation in which troubling evidence of innocence seems just to have been ignored. In recent years, all of the cases overturned because of DNA show that questions about new evidence are more than just delaying tactics by defense lawyers. So what did Roberts say about this? Leahy: "Does the Constitution permit the execution of an innocent person?" Roberts: "I would think not. But the question is never: Do you allow the execution of an innocent person; the question is, do you allow particular claimants to raise different claims, fourth or fifth or sixth time, to say at the last minute somebody who just died was actually the person who committed the murder, and let's have a new trial? Or do you take into account the proceedings that have already gone on?" Leahy pointed out that Roberts had argued in Herrera that "the Constitution does not guarantee the prisoner such a right [to seek judicial review of a claim of newly discovered evidence]," but Roberts simply ascribed that point of view to the Reagan administration, for which he was working, and declined to say what his own views are. He won't say what he thinks, so all we can do is analyze what little he said. To me, he seemed more upset by the "4th or 5th or 6th" claims from defendants than the cases in which new evidence of innocence never was seriously considered. I'd feel more comfortable if Roberts' background showed he understood there are many less-privileged people for whom innocence isn't necessarily protection from a guilty verdict. I think it would help if he had spent years as a defense lawyer fighting for some judge -- any judge -- to seriously consider new evidence that he believed could turn a case around. If new evidence emerges that shows Roberts really is upset about the numerous miscarriages of justice around the country -- and the need to seriously review evidence of innocence -- I'll be willing to re-open this issue and come to a new conclusion. In the meantime, lawmakers, judges, lawyers and particularly citizens need to keep fighting for that one thing all Americans deserve if the time comes when they need it. A day in court. (source: Chicago Sun-Times - Thomas Frisbie is co-author with Randy Garrett of Victims of Justice Revisited (Northwestern University Press, 2005), a book about the Rolando Cruz death penalty case.) *********************** State Executions: One component in the grand design of Global Corporate Empire It is not often, that the people here in Germany hear about criminal cases in the United States. So a few months ago, I was surprised to see news here in Germany that Edgar Ray Killen, was convicted of manslaughter in a case, dealing with racism, civil rights, the KKK and with injustice. Killen is an 80-year-old former Ku Klux Klansman who was convicted on June 21, 2005 of murdering three civil rights workers - in 1964, exactly 41 years after they disappeared. It was also interesting that Killens sentence was to serve 41 years in prison, obviously for the rest of his life. When reading about Killen's conviction and sentence, a number of thoughts came to my mind: How does the victim's family feel now? Are they able to find their inner peace regarding their loss? What is going on in the mind of the jurors, the lawyers and prosecutors and the judge who were involved in the case 41 years ago? I had other questions about a statement in the Associated Press report on the conviction at that time: "The prosecutors had asked the jury to send a message to the rest of the world that Mississippi has changed and is committed to bringing to justice those who killed to preserve segregation in the 1960s." Have these kinds of things really "changed" in State of Mississippi? Have these issues really changed anywhere in the United States? It is obvious that institutional racism is endemic in the United States, as it is in many other countries. The Case of Thomas Miller-El reflects decision on the part of the Supreme Court that appeared to offer some hope that blatant racism in the judiciary has a fail-safe at the top: On June 15, Worker's World Newspaper reported on the decision: "In a 6-to-3 decision on June 13, the U.S. Supreme Court sharply rebuked Texas prosecutors as well as Texas appeals courts, ruling that their excuses for racism in jury selection are unconstitutional." As a result, "The conviction of Thomas Miller-El, an African American man sentenced to death in Dallas in 1986, overturned. Now - after spending over 19 years on death row - he will be granted a new trial." However, that hope is swallowed up when one balances this one anti-racist decision on the part of the Supreme Court against the plethora of race-based death penalty convictions and executions with no reprieve at the federal level. As a supporter for death row inmates and an opponent of the Death Penalty, I obviously take great delight in the Supreme Courts decision in the Thomas Miller-El case. Likewise, I am please to read that Gov. Perry in Texas signed new legislation in June, 2005 - Life without parole, particularly as an alternative to the death penalty. On the governors website we read: "Gov. Rick Perry today signed Senate Bill 60, which gives juries in capital murder cases the option of sentencing a defendant to life without the possibility of parole." However, those of us who demand complete abolition of the Death Penalty in the United States will not rest until the barbaric state-killings in the United States are stopped, finally and forever. As many of you know, Texas and Florida have the largest death row populations and also have the highest execution rates in the nation. At Axis of Logic, we do not view state executions as merely a fault in the U.S. government. Rather, we view state executions as an extension of the U.S.-led global corporate empires policies of racism and oppression of the poor in many areas of life. When the state assumes the right to take or give life to anyone, regardless of their race, socio-economic status and even regardless of an individuals crimes, it is telling all of us that it holds ultimate authority to demand submission by inflicting the ultimate punishment - the taking of any of our lives. Whether through war machinery or the lethal injection table, we adamantly oppose the practice of state killings as their means to reach their objective of totalitarian rule. Most recently, we have witnessed what amounts to state homicide on the gulf coast of the United States. Call it intentional - call it negligence - Either way, it has become clear that the U.S. government did not give a damn about the lives of its poor African American working class or poor whites, trapped in the floodwaters, 10 feet below sea level when Hurricane Katrina stormed inland off the waters of the Gulf of Mexico. At the Death Penalty Information Center you will see that 18 people are currently scheduled for execution in the next 3 months. Of all persons on the death rows of the United states, 1432 are African American (41.7%); 1553 (45.5%) are white; 350 are Hispanic (10.4%); and 80 (2.3%) are described as "other". Please note that only 13% of the U.S. population was African American according to the 2002 U.S. Census but almost half of the people sentenced to die in state death houses are black. Some might try to defend these statistics by saying that African Americans are more prone to commit murders. Such a defense is at bottom, fundamentally racist. The fact is that there is no moral defense for this kind of disproportionate application of the death penalty. We are opposed to the death penalty simply because it is morally wrong in any case. But we are also opposed to it because we know that it never has been and never will be applied equally across racial lines. Also, you can be certain that the 1553 white prisoners on U.S. death rows do not come from the wealthiest families in the United States. Why? The United States may be 100 years or 100 hours from experiencing a revolution that will bring about true justice in their society. We cannot know how long it will be. But what we do know is that the U.S. appears to be nearing what is sometimes called the "tipping point". The rest of the world stands firmly against U.S. policies of war, occupation, colonization and their practice of state executions. With growing the opposition of U.S. citizens to the U.S.-led, racist, global corporate empire, we may be seeing the beginning of the end of what will be the shortest-lived empire in world history. I understand that many people in the United States will be confronting the government on September 24 for it's racist behaviors in its wars and its execution chambers. I hope that you, the reader, will join them in Washington for this demonstration for truth, justice and peace. "Why must I have to stand here at this court with a white judge, a white prosecutor to answer your questions? Why was I brought by a white guard to this trial. Could you believe that there is justice in this atmosphere?" - Nelson Mandela, 1962 (source: Axis of Logic; Britta Slopianka is the Florida Coordinator of the Innocent In Prison Project and Axis of Logic's correspondent on the abolishment of State Executions internationally. She works in several different venues for abolition of the death penalty. Britta regularly corresponds with prisoners waiting execution in the U.S. and has visited them on death row. She resides in Germany and edits Axis of Logic's News and Commentary on the Death Penalty) NEW MEXICO: Motion to dismiss Craig death penalty In Bernalillo, Thirteenth Judicial District Judge Louis P. McDonald denied a motion, Tuesday, to have the death penalty eliminated as a possible sentence when accused murderer Zacharia Craig goes on trial early next year. Craig was found guilty but insane in 2003 for the death of New Mexico State Police Officer Lloyd Aragon, but was ordered to undergo trial after he was declared mentally competent in 2004. According to the District Attorney's Office, a defense attorney motion in June claimed Craig's right to religious freedom will be violated if prosecutors are allowed to seek the death penalty in his case. "Judge McDonald denied the motion," said District Attorney (DA) Lemuel Martinez. A second motion made last week to dismiss the death penalty because the defendant was suffering from mental illness at the time of the crime was also denied on Tuesday, Martinez said. Judge McDonald agreed to a 3rd motion to move the trial's venue from Cibola County to Sandoval County, but denied a fourth motion to dismiss theft charges against Craig. The defense requests were all part of a three-day motion hearing held earlier this week as Craig prepares to go to trial. Martinez said a two-day "Ogden hearing," in which Judge McDonald will hear arguments about whether the circumstances of the 2001 crime are serious enough to warrant the death penalty, is scheduled for Oct. 11-12. Craig's trial date is tentatively set for January 2006, the DA added. "We're going to move forward and try to go for the death penalty," Martinez said. Craig stands accused of committing first-degree murder on Aug. 1, 2001, when he allegedly deliberately ran down and killed Aragon during a police chase initiated after Craig and his brother reportedly shoplifted $300 worth of merchandise from a Grants department store. In 2002 and 2003 doctors diagnosed Craig as suffering from a thyroid condition known as Graves' Disease and one or more other unknown physical or mental illnesses, which they said could have made him prone to violent behavior and incompetent to stand trial. On May 9, 2003, McDonald ruled that Craig was not competent to help his lawyers defend him in a court of law. However, he also ruled that Craig willfully, deliberately and by wanton and reckless actions committed first-degree murder. McDonald ordered Craig to spend the rest of his life in the state mental health facility in Las Vegas unless doctors there were able to successfully treat his mental and physical illnesses. If Craig were found competent at a later date, McDonald ordered that the defendant be brought before another court of law and tried for the murder. Judge McDonald declared Craig competent to stand trial on June 11, 2004. "This continues to be the most important case in Cibola County," Martinez emphasized. "We're going to try to have a jury impose the death penalty on Zacharia Craig for the death of Lloyd Aragon." (source: Cibola County Beacon)
