[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----USA, OHIO, LA., KAN., N.H.

[Rick Halperin]

June 8


USA:

US: Exonerations Speed Change of Mind


After more than a decade of DNA tests, appeals and waiting on death row,
Texas prisoner Michael Blair is likely to be exonerated soon, further
undermining public confidence in the infallibility of the U.S. death
penalty system.

Recent extensive DNA tests on microscopic hair samples established no link
between Blair and a child who was murdered in 1993, according to state
prosecutors.

It is expected that the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals will grant Blair a
new trial and that state prosecutors will then dismiss charges against him
because they believe there is no evidence to convict him.

"There is no good faith argument to support the current conviction in
light of the facts and the law...," John Roach, chief prosecutor for
Collin County, said in an open letter to the press and public on May 23.

"All the DNA pointed toward his innocence," Philip Wischkaemper, Blair's
attorney, told IPS.

Blair -- convicted largely on the basis of microscopic examination of hair
samples -- was nearly executed in 1999.

"This case starkly shows that the system makes mistakes and that those
mistakes can have chilling consequences. Even more troubling is the
reality that the kind of evidence that led to Michael Blair's wrongful
conviction is used in countless cases nationwide every day," said Barry
Scheck, co-director of the Innocence Project, which assisted in the Blair
case.

The Innocence Project is a national organisation dedicated to exonerating
people using rapidly advancing DNA techniques. The 1st DNA exoneration in
the U.S. was less than 20 years ago.

A key factor in convicting Blair of murder was bias against him because of
his criminal history as a child sex offender, Wischkaemper said.

7-year-old Ashley Estell was found strangled in 1993 after being abducted
from a busy playground in Plano, Texas.

"There were no sightings of her with him (Blair), no linkage with him,"
Wischkaemper said. Blair admitted abusing children -- when exonerated he
will remain in prison for life for child sex offences -- but denied he had
ever murdered.

The crime was so emotionally charged that the trial had to be moved 300
miles away. At the time, everyone wanted "to kill Michael Blair",
Wischkaemper said. The legislature reacted by passing special laws, the
so-called "Ashley's Laws'', aimed at better tracking convicted child sex
offenders and imposing stiffer sentences.

If Blair is officially exonerated, he will join 129 other people who since
1973 have been found innocent while awaiting execution on death row in the
U.S.

"These are not simply cases in which the defendant's sentence was reduced
and he was later released. Nor are these cases where a subjective judgment
was made that the defendants were probably innocent, even though they were
found guilty," Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty
Information Centre (DPIC), said recently.

Rather, the justice system had reviewed the death sentences and concluded
that the people could not have been convicted of even the slightest
offence related to the crimes, he added.

Juries and judges in the U.S., apparently reflecting a growing public
unease, are handing down significantly fewer death sentences today
compared to a decade ago.

"The pace of exonerations has sharply increased in recent years and this
has raised doubts about the reliability of the whole system," the DPIC
said, commenting on this trend.

"I would say innocence is the most important issue in moving mainstream
Americans away from the death penalty," Judi Caruso, director of Voices
United for Justice, an abolition group, told IPS.

"They still believe that it's a moral punishment that someone should be
put to death. But they're re-evaluating the system and considering that it
is broken -- and broken beyond repair," Caruso added.

The Innocence Project, begun in 1992, focuses exclusively on exonerations
through DNA testing. It has helped free 16 people from death row.

Other state-based innocence projects and individual attorneys have been
behind most other exonerations in the U.S., many of which have not
involved DNA evidence. Their work was crucial as only between five and 10
percent of criminal cases have evidence available that can be DNA-tested,
according to the Innocence Project.

The evidence may often be too old -- some people on death row were
convicted of their crimes 20 or more years ago -- missing or inadequate.

In 2001, the Centre on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern Law School
analysed the cases of 86 of those exonerated and released from death row
and found there were many common reasons. These included false testimony,
mistaken identity and police and prosecutorial misconduct.

Poor legal representation and false testimony is what kept "Bo" Levon
Jones, a black man wrongly convicted of murder, on death row in North
Carolina for 15 years, until May this year.

"Jones received two (court)-appointed attorneys that spent virtually no
time or effort investigating the offence or his background," said federal
Judge Terrence Boyle, when he ordered a re-trial in 2006.

Jones was freed after the key witness recanted her incriminating testimony
and the district attorney subsequently dropped all charges against him.

"This case highlights the serious and rampant flaws inherent in the death
penalty," said American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) lawyer Cassandra
Stubbs, who represented Jones. If the system was incapable of protecting
the innocent, it "shouldn't gamble with life and death", she said.

36 U.S. states still have a death penalty and there are currently more
than 3,255 people on death row. Hundreds claim to be innocent but only a
handful receive the extensive legal assistance necessary to investigate
their innocence.

The Washington-based Justice Project has noted that for every nine
executions in the U.S., one person is exonerated, suggesting that a
significant number of people on U.S. death row may be innocent.

There is evidence that recently innocent people have been executed,
according to Dieter of DPIC.

Investigations by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored
People (NAACP), the Houston Chronicle and the Chicago Tribune have
identified 4 innocent people who were executed within the past few years,
Dieter said.

(source: IPS)






OHIO:

Another reason to halt executions


A federal appeals court ruled last week that a Cleveland man who has been
on Ohio's death row for 19 years must be given a new trial or freed from
prison.

The 3-judge panel said that prosecutors withheld from Joe D'Ambrosio's
attorneys several pieces of evidence that could have cleared him of a 1988
murder.

The range of evidence that defense attorneys didn't know about when they
were trying to save D'Ambrosio's life is remarkable. It included the fact
that the man who pinned the fatal stabbling of Tony Klann on D'Ambrosio
had a motive himself for committing the murder.

This ruling is yet another reason for Gov. Ted Strickland to declare a
moratorium on executions in Ohio.

Twice in the past 3 years, extensive studies of death-row cases in Ohio
have found serious irregularities in the process of trying
capital-punishment cases. After a certain point  execution day  the errors
caused by these problems cannot be undone.

Ohio can't allow its judicial system to get to that point.

(source: Editorial, Canton Repository)






LOUISIANA:

Garcia sentenced to die----Jury returns verdict after 26 minutes of
deliberation


Members of a West Baton Rouge Parish jury ordered the death penalty for
Michael Garcia on Saturday with the same speedy dispatch they displayed
Friday night in finding him guilty of 1st-degree murder.

District Attorney Ricky Ward of the 18th Judicial District said he had
never seen anything approaching the swiftness with which the jury acted in
bringing the states capital case against Garcia to a conclusion.

Ward also said this was the 1st time he has seen a jury hand down a death
sentence in his 18 years as top prosecutor in the 18th Judicial District,
which has jurisdiction in West Baton Rouge, Iberville and Pointe Coupee
parishes.

The 12 jurors deliberated for 26 minutes before unanimously agreeing to
the death penalty. On Friday night, they found Garcia guilty of 1st-degree
murder after deliberating 11 minutes.

Garcia was convicted and sentenced to die for the Feb. 8, 2006, 1st-degree
murder of Matthew Millican in a wooded area near Port Allen, not far from
the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway.

District Judge Robin Free asked Garcia if he wished to waive the 72-hour
sentencing delay, and be sentenced immediately, but the defendant refused.

Free scheduled sentencing for 8:30 a.m. on June 17.

After the jury decision was announced, a security crew from the Louisiana
State Penitentiary at Angola took Garcia into another room where he
quickly changed from the dark blue suit and tie he had been wearing during
the trial into an orange prison jumpsuit. They loaded Garcia into a prison
van and drove away.

Jurors noted the "aggravating circumstances" of armed robbery and
aggravated kidnapping on their verdict form to meet the legal requirement
for handing down a death penalty in Louisiana.

Garcia, 29, of Lansing, Mich., showed almost no emotion as the jury's
death verdict was read. Several members of his immediate family, who had
come to Louisiana for the end of the trial, listened quietly.

Garcia was arrested with his brother, Daniel Millican, and James Nelson II
after Millican and Megan Teresi were robbed and kidnapped when they were
awakened from sleep behind a motel on La. 415 in Port Allen. Millican and
Teresi were transients who described themselves as "travelers."

The couple was taken to a wooded area, where Millican was killed and
dumped into the waterway and Teresi was beaten and repeatedly raped.

Lead prosecutor Tony Clayton began Saturday's penalty phase of the trial
by entering evidence from the guilt phase to establish the aggravated
circumstances needed for a death penalty.

In an opening statement, Clayton reminded jurors that after Fridays guilty
verdict, Garcia had become "a convicted murderer."

Clayton said he would call three victim-impact witnesses but would have
few questions for the witnesses whom defense attorney Jerry DAquila would
present to try to persuade jurors to reject the death penalty in favor of
life imprisonment.

DAquila told the jury Garcia had been "a sweet, loving child," who was
affected by negative situations in his family and neighborhood.

Theresa Fawcett, Matthew Millican's mother, read a statement in which she
described her son as a man who chose to follow his dreams, chose a
different lifestyle and loved to travel.

Some jurors wept as she talked of Millican's plans to marry and settle
down, plans cut off by his murder.

Danny Millican, Matthew's brother, described the victim as his inspiration
and mentor, and said life would never be the same without him.

Megan Teresi said that when Millican was killed, she "lost a piece of my
soul." She said she dreams about him every night.

D'Aquila did not cross-examine the victim impact witnesses.

Danielle Granada, 27, of Lansing, Mich., Garcia's sister, was the only
witness to give more than brief testimony on behalf of Garcia.

She described how, as children, they were affected by their father's
frequent bouts of drinking. She said neither she nor any of her siblings
completed school, and said all became parents as teenagers. She said they
abandoned church attendance when their father said they no longer had to
go.

"You never killed anybody, did you?" Clayton asked Granada during
cross-examination.

"No," Granada replied.

"Osama was a cute baby," Clayton said in summing up the states opinion of
Garcia's crime for the jury. "Most people have some problems at home.
That's no excuse for what he did."

Clayton urged jurors to vote for the death penalty, saying, "if you come
out with life in prison, Michael Garcia will have won."

Defense attorney D'Aquila asked jurors to make their decisions from their
hearts.

He said imposing the death penalty on Garcia would "call for more pain and
suffering." "You can't bring Matthew Millican back to his family,"
D'Aquila reasoned. "Killing Michael Garcia won't bring him back either."

He said a death penalty decision would "only mean more pain for more
people."

In rebuttal, Clayton said the alleged abusive actions of Garcia's father
"did not make Michael a murderer."

"If this is not a fair time for a death penalty, I don't know what is,"
Clayton added.

While being interviewed by reporters after the trial, D'Aquila complained
about a meal that was served by Sheriff's Office personnel while the jury
deliberated.

He criticized, "the party atmosphere behind the courthouse," comparing it
to "the Roman days of persecution."

West Baton Rouge Sheriff Mike Cazes said he had his personnel prepare a
meal for security personnel and other courtroom workers when the trial
session went beyond the time most area restaurants serve meals on
Saturday.

(source: The Advocate)






KANSAS:

Trial could result in death penalty


The 44-year-old man accused of raping and killing an 85-year-old woman at
a Buhler retirement community has made his 1st appearance in Reno County
District Court.

Marvin J. Gifford Jr., of McPherson, faces the death penalty for allegedly
killing Pearl Arthaud in her independent-living apartment at the Sunshine
Meadows Retirement Community in Buhler on May 18.

In addition to Arthaud's murder, Gifford is accused of 2 sexual assaults
on elderly women in the Hutchinson area in late March and early April.

He was arrested after he began serving a 2-year sentence in McPherson
County for a 2006 conviction for lewd and lascivious behavior. He has also
been convicted of attempted aggravated sexual battery there.

Arthaud's murder and the sexual assaults put nursing homes in Reno County
on edge and prompted police departments in Reno County to form a task
force to investigate the crimes along with the Kansas Bureau of
Investigation.

Reno County Deputy District Attorney Steven Maxwell, who is prosecuting
the case along with Deputy District Attorney Tom Stanton, urged Judge
Richard Rome to schedule the preliminary hearing as soon as possible.

"We've got elderly victims in this case," Maxwell said, noting that one of
the victims is 90. "The state needs to proceed expeditiously."

Gifford's defense lawyers, former Reno County public defender Tim Frieden
and Jeffrey Wicks, said they were likely to file several motions with the
court before a preliminary hearing.

Maxwell said the preliminary hearing would probably last a full day. Rome
scheduled a date to hear pre-trial motions for July 23, with a preliminary
hearing scheduled for July 28.

(source: Associated Press)

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

Death penalty too inconsistent to be fair


Ted Burnett sat behind 14-year-old Chelsea Brooks in a car that was taking
her to the end of her brief life.

After the car stopped in a secluded area, Burnett looped a stereo cord
around the girl's neck, put his foot on the back of her seat for leverage,
wound the cord in his fists and pulled.

It may have taken Chelsea as long as 4 minutes to die as she clawed at the
cord for her life, according to testimony from Burnett's trial.

The now 51-year-old Burnett killed Chelsea and her unborn baby, Alexa, and
wounded the conscience of anyone who wants to believe we live in a fair
and just world.

Still, 2 members of a Sedgwick County jury decided last month that Burnett
should not die.

You could argue that Burnett deserves to die for what he did, even if he
was convicted on little more than the word of an accomplice . That if he
doesn't merit the death penalty, we shouldn't have one.

But it's not about merit. It's about whether he should be killed by a
system that dispenses justice inconsistently.

If the system can't apply it fairly, we shouldn't have it.

Three years ago, a lot of us must have wondered about this system of ours.

Around that time, Wichita police outsmarted Dennis Rader, the man we know
today as BTK, the vicious killer who terrorized the city for more than 30
years.

Rader will spend the rest of his life in the El Dorado Correctional
Facility for the 10 murders he committed in and around Wichita from 1974
to 1991. Some of his victims were children.

But because he committed his crimes before Kansas reinstated its death
penalty in 1996, Rader doesn't qualify for the needle.

How can we say with a straight face that our judicial system is fair?

With all of the variants, including where and how a murder occurs, who
gets killed and the makeup of the jury, the death penalty forces society
into the ridiculous practice of comparing tragedies and assigning a
sliding scale of value to victims' lives.

Is killing a child as heinous as killing a law officer, or more so?

Should we kill rapists?

Does the victim's race or the killer's race matter?

All of these factors, which we like to pretend don't matter, give the
death penalty a capriciousness that ought to make us sick.

It isn't just unfair, it is unfair and expensive. A death penalty
prosecution can cost taxpayers between $1 million and $2 million.

And it really doesn't seem like much of a deterrent.

The jury's decision last month to spare Burnett marked the 3rd time in 8
years a Sedgwick County jury has handed down a life sentence in a capital
murder case.

Our state hasn't executed anyone since 1965, and we simply can't execute
anyone anymore without inviting a million moral and ethical questions
about the system's fairness.

Illinois found innocent people on its death row and suspended executions.
You really have to wonder how many of the more than 400 people put to
death in Texas since 1974 died for crimes they didn't commit.

Judge Ben Burgess has scheduled Burnett's sentencing for June 25. We know
it will be a life sentence.

But what about Elgin Ray Robinson Jr., Alexa's father? Should Robinson die
if he is convicted later this year?

Should he, when the man convicted of doing the strangling gets to breathe?

Not if we're serious about both fairness and justice.

(source: Kansas.com)




NEW HAMPSHIRE:

Judge rejects more death penalty challenges


A judge has rejected 6 more challenges to New Hampshire's death penalty
law.

Defense lawyers for 28-year-old Michael Addison sought to bar the use of
the death penalty law, arguing it violates the prohibition against cruel
and unusual punishment, separation of powers, right to religious freedom
and Addison's due process and equal protection rights.

Hillsborough County Superior Court Judge Kathleen McGuire denied all 6
challenges Friday. On Thursday, she rejected defense arguments that racial
bias will taint the trial because Addison, a black man, is accused of
killing a white police officer.

Addison is charged with capital murder in the death of Manchester Officer
Michael Briggs, who was shot to death in October 2006.

(source: Associated Press)