[Deathpenalty] [POSSIBLE SPAM] death penalty news----TEXAS, WYO., MD., ILL., USA

[Rick Halperin]

Sept. 30



TEXAS:

Professors, judge, deacon present views on death penalty


On Thursday, Sept. 25, the University of Dallas School of Ministry hosted
a panel discussion on the death penalty. This panel was the third
installment of the ministry school's seminar series. The four panelists
were Candace M. Carlsen, a magistrate for the Criminal District Courts of
Dallas County; Dr. Richard Dougherty, associate professor of politics at
UD; Dr. John Norris, associate professor of theology at UD; and Deacon
Joseph Milligan, who has helped establish support groups for the families
of murder victims in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Religion reporter for the
Dallas Morning News, Jeffrey Weiss, moderated the discussion. Dr. Brian
Schmisek, dean of the School of Ministry, introduced the panel.

Carlsen spoke 1st, focusing on "what the law currently is" regarding the
death penalty. She explained how the Supreme Court has diminished the
situations in which the death penalty can be imposed and extended the
rights of the accused.

Dougherty's presentation focused mainly on correcting what he called the
"pro-life position," which he described as anti-abortion and pro-capital
punishment. The Catholic Church allows for capital punishment, he said,
citing Article 2267 of the Catholic Catechism, "if this is the only
possible way of effectively defending human lives against the unjust
aggressor." He then went on to argue that the country has not been
successful at keeping convicted criminals from committing more crimes,
citing several cases where the criminals broke out of prison and committed
more crimes.

Norris also explained the contemporary Catholic teaching on the death
penalty, arguing in favor of the position that if there's any way to
protect the innocent without taking a life, the state should not take that
life. He placed special emphasis on prudence and weighing potential
escapes with possible wrongful convictions.

Presenting last, Milligan spoke from an "experiential point of view." He
told the story of his acquaintance with Jeffrey Dillingham, a convicted
murderer who received a death sentence. Dillingham converted to
Christianity while in prison and then converted other inmates. Milligan
walked with him on the day of execution, and he ended his presentation
saying, "If you have never experienced an execution, I would suggest that
you do so and then make a judgment." At the end of the individual
presentations, Weiss, the moderator, took questions from the audience for
the panelists.

(source: University of Dallas University News)






TENNESSEE:

New juror bias motion filed in death penalty case


Defense attorneys in East Tennessee's 1st federal death penalty case have
requested a hearing on possible juror bias if the judge in Chattanooga
rejects a defense motion for a mistrial.

Rejon Taylor was convicted earlier this month of murder during hijacking
of a vehicle and murder during a kidnapping in the August 2003 fatal
shooting of Atlanta restaurant owner Guy Luck on a rural road near
Chattanooga.

The sentencing phase of Taylor's trial has been delayed to Oct. 6.

U.S. District Judge Curtis L. Collier has privately asked jurors about any
exposure to media reports. Those reports include a prosecutor saying the
black defendant in jailhouse phone calls referred to jurors as "racist
rednecks."

(source: Associated Press)






WYOMING:

Rolle avoids death penalty


A jury in Casper has decided against imposing the death penalty on Donald
Rolle, the man convicted last week of kidnapping and murdering a woman he
once dated.

The jury of 8 men and 4 women deliberated for 3 hours Tuesday before
reaching their verdict. Their decision means 47-year-old Rolle faces life
in prison without parole. The jury last week found Rolle guilty of
kidnapping and murder in the death of 40-year-old Jennifer Randel.

Natrona County District Attorney Michael Blonigen on Tuesday urged jurors
to give Rolle death, telling them that Randel suffered a cruel death.
Defense lawyer Vaughn Neubauer asked the jury to spare Rolle's life,
saying he had suffered an abusive childhood.

(source: Associated Press)

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

Rolle: 'I believe in the death penalty'


"Remember Nov. 3, and remember what Jennifer got."

Those were Donald Rolle's closing instructions to the jury that could
decide today whether he lives or dies.

"The law says that the death penalty is appropriate in this case," Rolle
said Monday afternoon, during a 9-minute statement that capped the 16th
day of his capital murder trial. "I believe in the death penalty."

Rolle, 47, didn't directly ask jurors to either impose the death penalty
or spare his life. Nor did he apologize to the family of Jennifer Randel,
the Casper woman he kidnapped and murdered on Nov. 3.

He did say Randel's killing "shattered people's worlds" and he believed in
"an eye for an eye."

"I'm guilty," he said, looking toward the jury from the witness box. "You
found me guilty. Now it's time for responsibility, and it's time to pay
the piper."

The statement came at the end of an emotional day of testimony that
included his siblings begging for his life and recounting incidents of
child abuse they said came at their mother's hands.

Jurors are expected to begin deliberating today whether Rolle should
receive the death penalty, or life behind bars. The same jury convicted
Rolle last week of beating Randel to death in a brutal attack prosecutors
say lasted hours.

Randel and Rolle had an on-again, off-again relationship, and on Nov. 3,
they went on a date to an Evansville bar. It abruptly ended when Rolle
attacked a man he suspected of having an affair with Randel.

Her body was found the next day in his truck, along a remote dirt road
west of Casper.

During the first part of the trial, Rolle took the stand and told jurors
he slammed Randel's head into his truck's dashboard and kicked her, but he
that did so only after she came at him with a knife. Several elements of
the story were contradicted by evidence offered by prosecutor Michael
Blonigen, who said Rolle beat, stabbed and strangled Randel.

In Monday's statement to jurors, Rolle turned again to the night of
Randel's death.

"As bad as that night was for me ... it was worse for the people out
there," he said, referring to his and Randel's families.

Rolle dismissed much of the evidence and witnesses his attorneys have
offered during the sentencing phase of the trial, including a witness who
suggested Rolle would be a low risk to commit serious prison violence.

"All of this testimony that we have heard, with the exception of my
family, is a distraction," he said.

Rolle also noted that jurors didn't get to hear from Randel's family
during the sentencing phase.

"It shattered their lives," he said.

Before finishing, Rolle referenced a statement his attorney made during
closing arguments. Vaughn Neubauer had asked jurors not to convict Rolle
of murder because they were angry with him.

"Right now you are mad at Donald Rolle," the defendant told the jury. "You
should be mad at Donald Rolle. If you are not mad at Donald Rolle, you
will diminish what I though of the jury."

The trial will resume today with closing statements from both sides. The
jury of 8 men and 4 women will then begin deliberations.

Trial Tracker

Last we knew: Defense attorneys continued to present evidence they hope
will convince jurors to spare Donald Rolle's life.

The latest: On Monday, Rolle told jurors he believed in the death penalty
and instructed them to do what happened to Jennifer Randel on the night of
her death.

What's next: The jury, which convicted Rolle of murder last week, should
begin deliberating today about his sentence.

On the Web

Visit www.trib.com/randel for daily updates on the murder trial and more
information on the Jennifer Randel case.

(source: Casper Star-Tribune)






SOUTH CAROLINA----stay of impending execution

Stay Of Execution Issued For Man Convicted Of Killing Greenville Clerk


A South Carolina man set to die this week for killing a store clerk has
been granted a stay of execution from the U.S. Supreme Court.

Chief Justice John Roberts signed the stay Tuesday, giving Freddie E.
Owens' attorney time to prepare an appeal of the case to the nation's high
court.

The 30-year-old Owens had been scheduled to die Friday in South Carolina's
death chamber in Columbia.

The stay grants Owens time to prepare an appeal. It does not say anything
about the merits of Owens' case or even if the court will agree to hear
it.

Owens has been sentenced to death 3 separate times for killing Greenville
clerk Irene Grainger Graves during a convenience store holdup in 1997. His
1st 2 sentences were overturned.

(source: Associated Press)






MARYLAND:

Md. ACLU seeks other targets of state police spying


The Maryland chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union said it filed
public information requests today to determine if state police spied on
organizations beyond the activist groups it has already admitted to
tracking.

ACLU attorney David Rocah said the requests cover 32 groups, including two
that the ACLU said it determined were also under police surveillance. The
others are groups that may have been tracked based on the reasons given by
state police for the surveillance of the anti-war and death penalty
opposition groups.

State police have said a pending execution prompted the surveillance,
which occurred in 2005 and 2006 and ended once the execution was
postponed. However, the ACLU has said that doesn't explain why anti-war
groups were targeted.

Rocah said the additional groups also fit the state police's "baseless"
criteria of potential for violent or disruptive protests because almost
all of the groups, working on a variety of causes including the death
penalty, feminist issues, animal rights and abortion, have organized
peaceful protests.

Md. State Police surveillance investigation "All of these are pretty
hot-button issues, so it will be interesting to see whether the MSP's
stated rationale was in fact the real rationale, and whether these groups
were spied on as well, which would be very troubling," Rocah said.

He said even if additional groups weren't being tracked, state police
still have "some more explaining to do on why they chose the groups that
they were going to spy on."

Tyrone Powers, a member of the Baltimore group Children First who
participated in an ACLU conference call on the filings, said detectives
from Baltimore City's intelligence unit visited his home Jan. 18, 2003,
looking for him. His wife and daughter directed them to a hotel where he
was giving a speech.

Powers said Det. Darrell Merrick and another detective, whom he did not
identify, asked what could be done to call off a protest the group was
planning outside school headquarters.

"They never indicated why they wanted it called off," said Powers, who
added there was a heavy police presence at the Jan. 21 protest about lead
in the school's drinking water system.

Powers said he told the pair that their conduct was unconstitutional and
as a former FBI agent he felt it was unusual. Powers said they told him
they already knew who he was and informed him that a file had been opened
on him and the upcoming protest.

Rocah said documents obtained in another suit show Baltimore police were
reporting to the National Security Agency, "something that they have
specifically denied, and I think the documents we have now call those
denials into question."

Rocah said the ACLU has also found that state police had conducted
surveillance on a worker-owned Baltimore bookstore named Red Emma's.

"The Maryland state police will address their requests and provide any
information we have that they are entitled to under the law," state police
spokesman Greg Shipley said.

A telephone call by the Associated Press to Baltimore police seeking
comment on the claims was not immediately returned this afternoon.

The attorney and other ACLU officials also said they were circulating
legislation in Annapolis that would specifically prohibit political spying
by state police, and said the legislation had drawn support from some
lawmakers, whom they declined to identify.

State Police Superintendent Colonel Terrence B. Sheridan said in July that
a preliminary review determined the officers involved did not break any
laws, although their judgment could be questioned.

Sheridan said the head of the state police's homeland security division
made the decision to begin surveillance after receiving a request from a
colleague in another division that was preparing for Vernon Evans'
execution. The surveillance of the groups ended in May 2006, and Evans'
execution was postponed about six months later, according to a timeline
handed out by state police.

The surveillance was revealed in documents released by state police after
they were sued by the Maryland ACLU, prompting members of Congress and
state lawmakers to call for an investigation.

A group headed by former Maryland attorney general Stephen Sachs plans to
release the results of its investigation of the surveillance on Wednesday,
but current Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler has said there have not
been any allegations of illegal activity.

The documents show undercover officers infiltrated meetings of peace and
anti-capital punishment groups for more than a year, spending nearly 300
hours on surveillance.

In August, the ACLU claimed in a court filing that state police have not
released all documents related to the surveillance. State police attorney
Sharon Benzil said in August that the all documents have been released and
the plaintiffs waited too long to sue.

(source: Associated Press)



ILLINOIS:

Treasurer Calls For Stricter Death Penalty Fund Limits----Illinois
Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias Says Lawyers View Fund As 'Blank Check'


Illinois Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias called for stricter oversight of a
state fund that helps pay expenses for lawyers and investigators in
death-penalty cases, saying some have regarded the fund as a "blank
check."

Giannoulias also wants to limit how much can be paid from the Capital
Litigation Trust Fund for such expenses as food, travel and hotels.

His announcement this week was in response to a story published Sunday in
the St. Louis Post-Dispatch detailing questionable charges to the fund,
which has an annual budget of about $10 million.

The newspaper said it found that some people working on death-penalty
cases in Illinois have charged the fund as much as $300 an hour for
driving to the jurisdiction of a trial. In one instance, a Texas
psychologist billed the state $270 an hour, beginning with the 80 minutes
it took to pack for his flight, the Post-Dispatch found.

The newspaper also said the fund was sometimes billed $300 a night for
hotel rooms.

The fund -- which no single state agency oversees -- has disbursed more
than $40 million since it was established almost nine years ago,
Giannoulias said. Trial judges are responsible for reviewing and approving
expenses, and there are no regulations limiting how much can be spent for
each trial.

Although Giannoulias' office administers the fund, it has no authority to
deny payments once they're approved by the courts, he said.

"Litigators and investigators should not get a blank check from taxpayers
when it comes to trying these cases," Giannoulias said, adding that he
plans to convene a group of lawmakers and professionals to discuss new
legislation, including guidelines for the fund. "We need to standardize
the charges and limit excessive and inappropriate costs so that the state
and taxpayers aren't robbed in the pursuit of justice."

No one has been put to death in Illinois since 2000 when then-Gov. George
Ryan imposed a moratorium on executions, citing more than a dozen cases in
which people were improperly sentenced to death. Gov. Rod Blagojevich
plans to continue the ban until it's clear reforms put in place are
working.

Illinois lawmakers created the Capital Litigation Trust Fund to ensure
that death-penalty defendants had access to competent counsel and could
mount a credible defense regardless of their ability to pay. The fund also
provides money for prosecutors to help defray the costs of such cases.

Giannoulias wants to create a 5-person panel of judges and lawyers to
review expenses deemed initially excessive or improper, ultimately holding
those billing the fund to the same reimbursement standards as state
workers.

Under Giannoulias' plan, meals would be capped at $28 per day and mileage
at 50 cents per mile, while reimbursement for hotel rooms would be $60 to
$140, depending on the location. Only standard coach airfare would be
eligible for reimbursement.

Exceptions would be considered if requested, Giannoulias said, and the
rates would be reset each January when the hourly reimbursement for
court-appointed defense attorneys is adjusted according to the Consumer
Price Index.

Randy Rosenbaum, Champaign County public defender and a former Illinois
Public Defender Association president, said setting limits on mileage and
hotel expenses could be acceptable. But he worries that second-guessing
hourly fees by defense-hired experts and investigators might discourage
their participation, possibly hurting a defendant's case.

"The way it's set up, trial judges are the gatekeepers. I don't think
anyone wants some (outsiders) telling them they can't do something," he
said. "Limits on travel, hotels and food could be reasonably done. But
setting caps or limits on essential evidentiary stuff, like experts? I'd
be very hesitant to sign off on that."

Giannoulias said the proposals will be introduced to the Illinois General
Assembly in January and, if approved, would not take effect until fiscal
year 2009. Giannoulias expects to ask Illinois judges to put the caps in
place voluntarily in November.

Messages left Tuesday with the Illinois Attorney General's Office and the
Illinois Prosecutors Bar Association were not immediately returned.

(source: Chicago Tribune)

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

Attorney considers seeking death penalty for Badenhorst


Iroquois County State's Attorney Jim Devine said Monday he has subpoenaed
the school and psychological records of 22-year-old Leonard Badenhorst, of
Stockland, to aid his consideration of whether or not to seek Badenhorsts
death for his alleged killing of his grandfather.

Badenhorst is accused of beating to death Hershel Fleming, 79, after
Fleming chided him to get a job. Badenhorst, who was adopted when he was
4, had only recently located his birth family in Stockland.

Devine said Badenhorst is being represented by Watseka Attorney Ron Boyer,
who is qualified by the state to defend those facing possible death
sentences.

Devine said Boyer's fee is being paid out of the states Capital Litigation
Fund, and not by county taxpayers.

Should Devine decide that he will not seek the death penalty, Badenhorst's
defense would likely be taken over by Dale Strough, the countys public
defender.

Devine said he has 60 days to determine on whether or not to seek the
death penalty.

(source: The Daily Journal)




USA:

A look at the death penalty----The Most You Ever Knew


Waiting in long lines can be a pain - unless you're on death row. Then,
it's OK, awesome even. Nonetheless, you'd rather be in a different line.

The methods of execution are so inhumane that death row inmates can now
sue under the civil rights law, according to a 2006 Christian Science
Monitor article. Some argue that suffering is the point of the death
penalty, but there's a little thing called cruel and unusual punishment.

Even today, people are hanged or face a firing squad. New Hampshire and
Washington play hangman, as do India and Japan, according to the BBC News
and Death Penalty Information Center Web sites. If the drop is too far,
hanging can cause decapitation, which happened to Saddam Hussein's half
brother.

Jailbirds can also die by a 5-person firing squad in Idaho, Oklahoma or
Utah, according to the DPIC Web site. And we're not talking about BB guns
here. Three men were sentenced to this type of execution in Indonesia just
last May, according to a 2008 Reuters article.

What's worse is that several prisoners get stoned to this day. Did I
mention that the prisoner is sometimes whipped first? And by the way, the
stones shouldn't be too small that they don't cause any pain nor should
the rocks be too large that they would kill the inmate with only 2 blows,
according to the Law of Hodoud, the Islamic Penal Code of Iran.

The law states that in the event the convict escapes, he or she is free to
go. However, it's easier for only men to do so. Men are always buried
waist-deep whereas women are submerged up to the neck. As of this year,
nine women are expected to get stoned in Iran, according to the Amnesty
International Web site.

The more modern methods of execution aren't any better. Inmates could die
of a lethal injection - as soon as the doctors can find a vein. Once they
do, the amount of barbiturates pumped in may not be enough to prevent the
inmate from suffering severe pain.

Thankfully, the doctors who are supposed to understand the procedure are
present  or are they? Sometimes "nurse practitioners" and guards replace
the ones with the white coats, according to a 2006 Time magazine article.

That's just a pinprick.

The dead men walking can have a seat in an electric chair or a gas chamber
should they desire a change in skin color. The chair prompts some inmates'
internal organs to fry and flames to appear atop their heads. Silent but
deadly, the chamber induces the same effects as a heart attack, cutting
off the convict's air supply, according to the DPIC Web site.

Every time a new method turned up, however, the reason was to make the
death penalty more humane.

It is the definition of irony.

Take Alfred Southwick for example. He pushed for the electric chair to
replace hanging as a way of preventing painful deaths, according to the
Medline Database Web site. He might as well have improved hanging by
changing the rope to licorice. That way, if something goes wrong - other
than a person dying - the convict can eat through it.

Refining the death penalty doesn't work. A method of execution by any
other name would smell just as foul.

The only thing mildly humane about the death penalty is some inmates get
to choose how they die. Keyword: some. Even then, several do so not
because it will be less painful but to make their own statement about
capital punishment.

In 1996, John Taylor chose to die by a Utah firing squad rather than a
lethal injection to create problems for the state by attracting unwanted
media attention and protesters, according to a New York Times article of
the same year.

Sen. Ernie Chambers named the electric chair Nebraska's only capital
punishment. "What was he thinking?" you ask. When the courts declare the
chair unconstitutional, Nebraska would be death row-free, according to a
2003 New York Times article. Chambers succeeded in February 2008 when the
Nebraska Supreme Court dismissed the method, according to a 2008 USA Today
article.

The good news stops there. The state of Georgia protects the medical
licenses of those involved with the executions, according to a 2006 Time
magazine article. If the doctor doesn't sedate the victim properly, the
state says it's OK to move on to another patient.

It's also been argued that the doctors who execute the death penalty are
guilty of breaking the Hippocratic Oath, according to the Time magazine
article. The modern version of the oath states, "Most especially must I
tread with care in matters of life and death.  Above all, I must not play
God."

America isn't getting off cheap either. According to a 2005 Los Angeles
Times article, every execution costs California $250 million. Capital
punishment is $4 billion more overpriced than prison life sentences in
California, according to a 2008 American Civil Liberties Union report.

Perhaps the death penalty's price tag is the reason that the Supreme Court
ruled out executions for child rapists. One of the majority's reasons was
that capital punishment would be "overwhelming" since 5,702 child rapes
were accounted for in 2005, according to a 2008 New York Times article.

It is unfortunate that the court was thinking about the financial costs
and not the devastating effects on children. The court's decision
illustrates another issue regarding the death penalty: It's inconsistent.

The inconsistency puts a dent in the deterrence argument. If capital
punishment can't deter child rapists anymore, where's the logic in keeping
it around?

How can 5 justices excuse the rape of a child by saying it isn't as grave
as taking a human life? When you rape children, you are stripping them of
their lives.

As the saying goes, it's better to set 10 inmates free than to send 1
innocent person to death row. To be exact, 129 people in the U.S. have
been exonerated, 3 of them as recently as this year, according to the DPIC
Web site.

The worst part is exonerations aren't allowed once the death penalty has
been carried out, according to the Amnesty International Web site. The
real guilty party could still be out there, and the innocent remains at
fault even after he or she is gone. The dead inmate's family goes on
believing that their loved one was a criminal.

Reputation is the hardest thing to get back, so this superpower nation
should at least help some of its citizens try. If you go by the reasoning
that the prisoners are dead so it doesn't matter anymore, why do we bother
celebrating Memorial Day?

It matters because capital punishment is harsh enough without reputations
being tarnished, unqualified doctors continuing to practice medicine,
women receiving unequal treatment and inmates' skins turning the color of
rainbows. It's time to kill the death penalty.

Firing squad, anyone?

(source: The Spartan Daily)