Nov. 17 USA: Blinding Justice In recent years, DNA testing has shown that innocent people can be convicted of serious crimes, and even end up on death row. The main legal mechanism for saving wrongly convicted prisoners from execution, and for challenging other wrongful convictions, is the writ of habeas corpus. Although habeas traces to Magna Carta and is enshrined in the Constitution, Congress may be about to scale it back drastically. The proposed changes would make the criminal justice system less fair and far more likely to convict the innocent. Criminal prosecutions do not always work the way they should. Prosecutors may improperly reject prospective jurors on the basis of race. Evidence tying a defendant to a crime is sometimes trumped up, while evidence that casts doubt on a defendant's guilt is sometimes hidden. Habeas corpus allows state prisoners to go into federal court and raise constitutional objections to their convictions. Often they prevail. A few months ago, the Supreme Court overturned a capital conviction in Texas when it found that the prosecutor had kept blacks off the jury. Critics of habeas corpus petitions complain that they slow down the justice system, particularly the execution of convicts. There may be room for carefully calibrated modifications, but the changes Congress is considering are not that. The sponsors named their bill, which is now modestly different in the Senate and House versions, the Streamlined Procedures Act, making it appear to be a mere attempt at efficiency. In fact, the changes would take away important protections. One provision would prevent federal courts from reviewing convictions in a large number of capital cases. Another would keep federal courts from hearing challenges of virtually all state-court sentences, no matter how unfair they were. Respected legal organizations like the American Bar Association and the Judicial Conference of the United States oppose the bill. So does David Keene, chairman of the American Conservative Union, who warns that the changes would make it more likely that innocent people would be put to death. There was much discussion last week about the Senate's attempt to strip Guantnamo detainees of habeas rights. The effort to weaken habeas rights for ordinary American prisoners has drawn far less attention, but there is a real danger that this law will be passed. Even if it is not, its supporters may simply add parts of it to other bills as amendments. Members of Congress who want to make sure that the criminal justice system operates according to constitutional standards should be vigilant about keeping these provisions from becoming law. (source: Editorial, New York Times) MISSOURI: U.s. will seek death penalty against Lisa Montgomery----Woman accused of Bobbie Jo Stinnett murder will face federal trial in April United States Attorney Todd Graves announced Wednesday that he would seek the death penalty against Lisa Montgomery for the death of Bobbie Jo Stinnett in Skidmore last year. Montgomery, 37, who is accused of cutting open the womb of eig8nths pregnant Stinnett to remove the baby, is awaiting an April 24, 2006, trial in Kansas City. "We intend to prosecute federal defendants to the full extent of the law, and will not shy away from seeking the ultimate penalty for the ultimate crime," Graves said through a press release. "Our decision to seek the death penalty in each of these cases is made with careful deliberation so that justice is served." Graves, a northwest Missouri native who serves as the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, indicated earlier this year that he would likely seek the death penalty against Montgomery. On Wednesday, Graves' public affairs director, Don Ledford, said Graves is required to officially announce his intention to seek the death penalty prior to the start of the trial. A "Notice of Intent to Seek the Death Penalty" released Wednesday said "the government believes a sentence of death is justified, and the government will seek a sentence of death." The notice listed several "aggravating factors" as the government's basis for seeking death, namely that Montgomery "intentionally killed Bobbie Jo Stinnett" by strangling her "with a rope and then (using) a kitchen knife to cut her infant daughter (Victoria Jo Stinnett) from her womb." The notice also said Montgomery "killed the victim in an especially heinous, cruel, and depraved manner in that the killing involved torture and serious physical abuse to Bobbie Jo Stinnett." After cutting the baby out, Montgomery is accused of driving back to her hometown of Melvern, Kan. - making the crime federal by crossing state lines - and claimed the baby as her own, the climax of a long-developed plan to befriend Stinnett through an Internet chat room, fake a pregnancy and steal Stinnett's baby. Local, state and federal law enforcement officers tracked Montgomery to Melvern and arrested her. They also found the baby girl in good condition and returned her back to her father, Zeb Stinnett. Victoria Jo is now 11 months old. Earlier this year, Montgomery pleaded not guilty to the charge of kidnapping resulting in death. Her attorney indicated then that Montgomery would not employ an insanity defense. However, shortly after she was arrested, Montgomery allegedly confessed to the crime to investigators. According to the U.S. Attorneys office, the federal government currently has 36 inmates on death row, including four from the Western District of Missouri. (source: Maryville Daily Forum) ******************* Prosecutors to seek death penalty in drug-related slaying In Kansas City, federal prosecutors will seek the death penalty against a 42-year-old man accused of killing an Independence man to prevent him from cooperating with authorities investigating methamphetamine trafficking. The trial of John Phillip Street, formerly of Jackson County, is scheduled to start in February. He is accused in the 1998 killing of Douglas C. Weil, whose body was found in the trunk of a car parked behind a motel. U.S. Attorney Todd Graves formally notified judges that his office would seek the death penalty in court filings Wednesday. Street's attorney, Fred A. Duchardt Jr., said his client has denied the charges. According to the indictment unsealed in October 2004, Weil's murder involved "torture or serious physical abuse." Street was sentenced in July 2000 to 15 years in federal prison for conspiracy to manufacture methamphetamine and for possession of a firearm in relation to a drug-trafficking crime. (source: Associated Press) FLORIDA: Smith leaves defending up to lawyer----Prosecutors say Joseph Smith 'knew what he did was wrong.' He has pleaded not guilty in the murder trial of 11-year-old Carlie Brucia. In Sarasota, a man charged with kidnapping, raping and killing Carlie Brucia said Wednesday he agreed with his attorney's decision not to give a closing argument in his murder trial. Joseph P. Smith declined to testify before defense attorney Adam Tebrugge waived his right for an argument. When the judge asked him if he agreed with Tebrugge's unusual decision, Smith said: "I do." He has pleaded not guilty. The prosecution said in closing arguments that a litany of evidence points to the guilt of Smith. The February abduction of 11-year-old Carlie gained worldwide attention because it was caught on a car-wash surveillance video. Jurors have reviewed taped conversations of Smith, testimony about a jailhouse confession he gave to his brother, DNA evidence linking him to the crimes, the videotape and other proof, prosecutor Craig Schaeffer told jurors. "All together, all point to Joseph Smith as the person who committed these crimes," he said. Smith, a 39-year-old former auto mechanic and father of 3 daughters, is charged with 1st-degree murder, kidnapping and capital sexual battery. If convicted, he may face the death penalty. Schaeffer argued the long amount of time it took for Smith to strangle Carlie showed the crime was premeditated and he deserved to be convicted of 1st-degree murder. "He knew what he did was wrong," he said. Tebrugge showed a video of the defendant's brother, John Smith, asking about reward money in an effort to discredit his previous testimony in which he implicated his sibling. Defense attorneys played a videotape of John Smith asking an FBI agent during an interview about a reward that had jumped to $50,000 from $25,000 for information leading to Carlie. Several hours later, investigators, led by John Smith, found Carlie's body at a church property. "I was wondering what the split was?'' asked John Smith, who never got any reward money. Defense attorney Adam Tebrugge had argued out of the presence of jurors that John Smith's testimony on the videotape was inconsistent with his courtroom testimony in which he said his brother asked him to get the reward so a trust fund could be set up for Joseph Smith's children. John Smith also testified that during a jailhouse visit after Carlie's Feb. 1, 2004 disappearance, his brother confessed to raping and murdering her and told him where to find the body. Wednesday, defense attorneys called as witnesses a Florida Highway Patrol trooper and 2 tree-service workers who testified they had seen men late at night near the wooded area where Carlie's body was found. (source: Associated Press) ********************* Jury to get Carlie Brucia murder case----Trial comes to abrupt close when defense waives argument Jurors are to begin deliberating Thursday morning in a case made famous when a man was captured on a surveillance camera abducting an 11-year-old girl outside a car wash. A "mountain" of evidence points to the guilt of a former auto mechanic charged with kidnapping, raping and killing 11-year-old Carlie Brucia, a prosecutor said in closing arguments Wednesday. Defendant Joseph Smith did not testify, and his defense attorney offered no closing argument. Jurors heard taped jailhouse conversations in which Smith confessed to the crimes. "I didn't mean to do it, Ma," Smith said in one, explaining that he was high on drugs and the girl's slaying was an accident. Jurors also were presented with DNA evidence and, above all, saw the security camera images of a tattooed man in a mechanic's uniform grabbing Carlie by the wrist and leading her away, prosecutor Craig Schaeffer said. Carlie's disappearance from a car wash parking lot in February 2004 attracted worldwide attention because of the images, which were broadcast repeatedly on television. Her body was found more than 4 days later near a church. "All together, all point to Joseph Smith as the person who committed these crimes," Schaeffer said. Smith, a 39-year-old father of 3 daughters, is charged with first-degree murder, kidnapping and capital sexual battery. If convicted, he may face the death penalty. The trial came to a surprisingly abrupt close Wednesday afternoon when attorney Adam Tebrugge waived the right to make a closing argument. Later, outside the courthouse, Tebrugge conceded it was an unusual strategy but said a closing argument would serve no purpose. "I believe that I tried the best case possible," he said. "I believe that we got all the information out, that we told the truth." During the weeklong trial, defense attorneys faulted investigators for ruling out other suspects and raised questions about the reliability of an FBI lab where the evidence was analyzed. Earlier Wednesday, Tebrugge played a videotape of Smith's brother, John, asking about reward money in an effort to discredit the brother's testimony. John Smith tearfully told jurors that his sibling had confessed to "rough sex" with the girl and to killing her, and then told him where the body was. After the prosecution began its closing argument, Carlie's mother, Sue Schorpen, left the courtroom in tears. She rarely attended the trial. (source: CNN) ************************* Tennis gets the death penalty Jurors Wednesday afternoon decided on the death penalty for Gabby Tennis, the 25-year-old who was convicted of murdering a 91-year-old man. By a vote of 8 to 4, the panel of 7 men and 5 women decided that Tennis should be executed. In September, jurors found Tennis guilty of 1st-degree murder in the stomping death of disabled Hollywood war veteran Albert Vessella. The death was brutal. Bloody sneaker prints that matched Tennis' shoe size were left on Vessella's face and right thigh. His right ear had been ripped. His neck was broken. His head had been struck repeatedly. (source: Miami Herald) OREGON: Jury decides for death sentence in shooting 1991 killings - Michael Andre Davis is the 1st in 5 years in Multnomah County to face execution For the 1st time in 5 years, a Multnomah County Circuit Court jury imposed the death penalty, ordering the ultimate punishment Wednesday for Michael Andre Davis in the Nov. 2, 1991, aggravated murder of his ex-girlfriend Belinda Fay Flannigan. The jury also gave Davis, 49, life in prison without the possibility of parole for killing Gerald Glenn Phillips, who was with Flannigan at the Ara'bel Motel on Northeast Sandy Boulevard. The jury had convicted Davis of 12 counts of aggravated murder on Oct. 28. The 6 women and 6 men on the panel deliberated over the penalty for eight hours Tuesday and Wednesday. About 2:15 p.m. Wednesday, Courtroom 312 was filled with the prosecutors, the defense team, the families of the dead and spectators. The 6-foot-7 Davis sat between his lawyers, shackled hand and foot. The presiding juror handed the verdict form to the courtroom clerk, who passed it to Judge Michael McShane. He halted the hearing, took the verdict in his chambers to review and closed the door. One minute went by. No one spoke. People barely moved. Another minute went by. Jurors looked around the courtroom or stared at their hands. Then another minute passed. The only sound came from outside street noises. After another minute, McShane came back to the bench to announce the decision. 14 years and 2 weeks ago, Flannigan, 30, a mother of 3 who danced at the Five Spot strip club, and Phillips, 33, were found shot to death in Room 24 at the Ara'bel Motel. In the fall before the murders, Davis and Flannigan had lived together, but Flannigan ended the relationship to resume a romance with Phillips. Davis had been a suspect all along, but police did not have enough evidence to charge him. In the late 1990s, however, Davis confessed to the killings to several inmates while serving a prison term. Word of those statements reached prosecutor Rod Underhill in 2002, and he won an indictment against Davis. At trial, Underhill and prosecutor Jeff Howes presented the inmates to testify about what they had heard from Davis. Underhill also told the jury that a half brother of Davis had driven him to the Ara'bel Motel on the night of Nov. 2, 1991. The prosecutor then brought to the jury a witness who had been a passenger in that car and watched Davis load a handgun while threatening to kill Flannigan. The work of defense lawyers Tim Lyons and Katherine Weber of Oregon City was complicated by Davis' demand in the middle of trial to fire them. McShane told Davis the trial would proceed with his defense team in place. Lyons and Weber did not call any witnesses, relying instead on the argument that the state had not proved its case. During the sentencing hearing this week, the defense called in more than half a dozen friends and relatives to speak for Davis. His frail mother, Betty Davis Eason of Carson, Calif., turned to the jury and pleaded: "Please don't take my son." A defense psychologist testified that Davis registered an IQ of 76, well below average, and showed signs of being impulsive and immature with features of anti-social personality disorder. The prosecution brought in Davis' extensive record of arrests and convictions starting when he was age 9. Multnomah County Circuit Court juries are not inclined to hand down a death penalty. The last one imposed was in 2000 on Eric Running, convicted in the shotgun killings of a former girlfriend and another woman. After reading the verdict Wednesday, McShane dismissed the jurors, and they returned to the deliberation room. Flannigan's parents, Kirk and Barbara, who had been clutching each other's hand, stood up, and Kirk Flannigan said, "Thank God it's over." "We're so grateful," said Barbara Flannigan. "We were represented by great people. He won't hurt anyone else now." They stood around Phillips' mother, Ophelia, who wiped her eyes over and over. Underhill approached Phillips and the Flannigans to offer his view of how the jury came to its decision. "This jury did something interesting and insightful," he told them. Looking first to the Flannigans, Underhill said, "They decided that Mr. Davis set out to kill your daughter," then he turned to Phillips, "and your son just happened to be there." The family members nodded. Underhill told them to come back to court Dec. 5 for a hearing in which the judge will formally impose the death penalty on Davis. (source: The Oregonian) ALABAMA: Be sure this issue is not dead. Many Alabamians may not agree with their conclusions but the Birmingham News editorial staff has done a splendid 6-part series on the death penalty in Alabama and in the process has reversed the newspaper's position on that volatile issue. Said the Editorial Board: "After decades of supporting the death penalty, the editorial board can no longer do so. We can no longer in good conscience continue to advocate the death penalty in Alabama." (source: Alabama Scene) NORTH CAROLINA----impending execution Inmate's children face reality of execution in wait for clemency The children of Elias Syriani waited for word Wednesday on whether the governor will spare their father's life, a wait made more difficult by last week's execution of another inmate. "They heard the story of (Steven Van) McHone's execution and felt for his family," said lawyer Russ Sizemore. "Their hearts went out to that family. That just made it very, very real to them. "They are praying a lot. They are very much at the end of their tether in the sense that it's emotionally a very hard time. Gov. Mike Easley has granted clemency twice since taking office in 2001, but has not spared the life of any death row inmate since January 2002. North Carolina governors have granted clemency only 3 other times since the state resumed executions in 1984 after a hiatus while the U.S. Supreme Court determined its constitutionality. Nationally, clemency was granted 186 times - including 167 commutations by the Illinois governor in 2003 - between 2001 and 2005, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Syriani, 67, was sentenced to death for the 1990 death of his wife, Teresa Syriani, 40, who was stabbed 28 times with a screwdriver in Charlotte. She died 26 days later from the attack that started when she told her husband as they drove home that she wanted a divorce. A week ago, the couple's children - Rose, Janet and John Syriani and Sarah Barbari - met with Easley to plead for their father's death to be commuted to life in prison without parole. John Syriani comments were critical because he witnessed the attack, their lawyer said. Syriani's lawyer, Henderson Hill, said that he is dropped all legal action in the case and only pursuing clemency to save his client from execution. Prosecutors, who also have talked to the children, refused after meeting with Easley to say whether they favored execution. "I think we were able to tell him what was on our mind," Rose Syriani, 28, of Chicago, said after meeting with Easley last week. "We hope he listens to our plea. "We are here on behalf of our mother. She was a very loving and forgiving person. We just want to be able to remember those memories, the past that we shared with our mother and our father and be able to move on." Since then, the children haven't publicly commented about the case. The Syrianis hadn't seen their father on death row until two years ago and have since said they have forgiven him. Part of their forgiveness stems from learning about his traumatic upbringing as an Assyrian Christian in Jerusalem. Experts in child trauma and domestic violence say executing Syriani would additionally harm the children, Sizemore said. The children don't plan to witness their father's death if clemency isn't granted, he said. Official witnesses will be 2 detectives from the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department. 5 journalists also will watch: David Crabtree of WRAL-TV; Mike Doyle of WBT radio; Tommy Tomlinson of The Charlotte Observer; Andrea Weigl of The News & Observer of Raleigh, and Estes Thompson of The Associated Press. Syriani was moved Wednesday afternoon to a holding cell near the execution chamber. The children plan to visit him Thursday at Central Prison in Raleigh and then participate in an anti-death penalty vigil outside the prison, Sizemore said. Syriani appears to be a good candidate for executive clemency, according to a death penalty expert. "It is what clemency is meant to embrace. It's an exceptional case but one in which I hope clemency will be seriously considered," said Richard Dieter, executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based Death Penalty Information Center. "Clemency is a hard thing to pin down. It's an act of mercy." ON THE NET N.C. Department of Correction: http://www.doc.state.nc.us< Death Penalty Information Center: http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org (source: Associated Press)