April 1 OKLAHOMA: Death penalty not ruled out for convicted child killer A Tulsa judge rules prosecutors may seek the death penalty at a resentencing trial for convicted child murderer Wayne Henry Garrison. The judge yesterday rejected a defense motion asking that prosecutors not be allowed to pursue the death penalty. The 46-year-old Garrison was convicted of the 1st-degree murder of 13-year-old Justin Wiles in Tulsa in 1989. A jury found him guilty in 2001 and sentenced him to death, but the sentence was vacated by an appeals court that ruled he had ineffective legal assistance. The judge set an October 2nd trial date for Garrison's resentencing hearing. (source: KTEN News) ILLINOIS: Wrongfully convicted man calls death penalty 'barbaric' Gary Gauger didn't kill his parents, but he was convicted and sentenced to death in 1994 for the murders. He was released from prison in 1996 on a technicality, and then a year later two men admitted to and were convicted of the 1993 murders in Richmond. There's a problem with the criminal justice system when something like this can happen, Gauger said during an event Tuesday at Northern Illinois University's College of Law. Called "Liberty and Justice For All?" the presentation was held in conjunction with the Innocence Project, an effort co-founded by former O.J. Simpson attorney Barry Scheck to use DNA testing to overturn questionable convictions. A false confession by Gauger - basically statements he made when trying to paint a scenario of what happened - sealed Gauger's fate, and in 1994 he was sentenced to death. Two years later he was released with the help of a Northwestern University law professor and his students. Local prosecutors said they had decided to drop the charges, but they maintained Gauger was guilty. In 1997, 2 Wisconsin men were indicted and later convicted of the murders. "That was my public exoneration," he said. Gauger said his attorney credits the case for leading to a state law that requires interrogations to be videotaped. Gauger has returned to his family farm and travels around the country speaking against the death penalty. "The death penalty isn't just wrong," he said. "It's barbaric." In 2000, then-Gov. George Ryan instituted a moratorium on executions in the state to investigate why more executions had been overturned than carried out. Since 1977, 12 people had been put to death and 13 had been exonerated. Though LaFonso Rollins was not sentenced to death, in 1994 he was sentenced to 75 years in prison for rapes and robberies he did not commit. He was exonerated in 2004 when DNA testing proved his innocence. Earlier this year, with the help of his lawyer, NIU graduate Robert Fioretti, he won a $9 million settlement from the city of Chicago. Rollins, now 30, had been expected to speak at the presentation, but Fioretti said his client still isn't ready to go out in public. "I think the criminal justice system has destroyed LaFonso," he said. "He got physically ill (earlier in the day)." (source: Daily Chronicle) WASHINGTON (state): Decison to go after death penalty against Matsen delayed until September Not until Sept. 29 will double homicide suspect Bryan Matsen be closer to knowing his fate. That day the Kitsap County Prosecutors Office plans to announce its decision of whether or not it will seek the death penalty. Matsen, 35, was arraigned on Feb. 27 and formally charged with 2 counts of 1st-degree aggravated murder for the November 2005 shooting deaths of his wife Evelyn Matsen, 34, and 13-year-old stepson Wahren Agonoy. The prosecution typically has 30 days from the arraignment date to make the decision, but the defense can request that time be extended. During the extended time the defense will compile a mitigation package to be submitted to the prosecutor's office. "In essence (a mitigation package) is to convince us not to seek the death penalty," said Senior Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Claire Bradley. A mitigation package is detailed information regarding a suspect's life history and is often obtained through interviews and record searches. Once that information is recieved by the prosecutor's office, it will be up to Kitsap County Prosecutor Russell Hauge to make the decision. Matsen's attorney, Roger Hunko, was not available for comment. Matsen's trial date was initially scheduled for April 19, but has been delayed until early January 2007. In the meantime, Bradley continues to work on the case. "We're going to keep plugging along," she said. Matsen remains in Kitsap County Jail with bail set at $1 million. After finding the bodies of Evelyn Matsen and Agonoy on Nov. 6, 2005, in their East Bremerton home, investigators quickly turned their focus to Bryan Matsen who was nowhere to be found. Four days after the manhunt began, he was apprehended in Albuquerque, N.M., where he was taken into custody by University of New Mexico police. He reportedly called the campus 911 system from a public safety telephone and had what authorities believed to have been self-inflicted stab wounds. Fighting extradition, a lengthy court process began and not until late February, when Matsen dropped his extradition fight, was he brought back to Kitsap County. (source: Central Kitsap Reporter) USA: 6 Executions Scheduled for the 2nd-half of April There are 6 execution dates lined up in April, all within 2 weeks of each other. 3 are from Texas and 1 each from Virginia, Oklahoma, and North Carolina. One of the Texas death row inmates is Pedro Sosa, who was granted a stay back in October 2005, and has been scheduled a new date. Pedro Sosa has been on death row for 23 years. His most recent execution date was stayed after his attorneys filed a motion, arguing that the courts had yet to consider evidence that Sosa is mentally retarded. Generally, a person with an IQ of 70 or below is considered mentally retarded. Sosa scored a 66. The case of Marvin Wilson also touches on the issue of mental retardation. The most recent measure of Wilson's IQ, presented by a psychologist at a 2004 state hearing, was 61. In this particular case, the attorney assigned to Wilson failed to meet a deadline laid out by the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA), which governs the habeas appeals process, and as a result, Wilson will likely be executed on a technicality. Read more about these and the other 4 cases below -- and ACT! ------------------------------------------------------------------- Do Not Execute Pedro Sosa! The State of Texas is scheduled to execute Pedro Sosa, a Latino, on April 25, 2006 for the kidnapping and shooting death of Ollie "Sammy" Childress, a white man and a Wilson County sheriff's deputy. There is good reason to believe that Sosa--who scored a 66 on his IQ test--is mentally retarded. Furthermore, Sosa maintains his innocence, denying any involvement with the kidnapping, bank robbery, or murder. Not only is the State preparing to execute a mentally retarded person, it is planning to do so on a weak case. There are several issues surrounding the case that cast doubt upon Sosa's guilt. Moreover, Sosa claims that law enforcement officials forced him to confess by threatening him and his wife, who was with Sosa at the time of his arrest. ACT NOW by contacting Gov. Rick Perry requesting that he stop the execution of Pedro Sosa! Read More and Take Action at: http://www.demaction.org/dia/organizations/ncadp/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=3221 ----------------------------------------------------------- Do Not Execute Marvin Lee Wilson! Marvin Lee Wilson, a black man, was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death for the kidnapping and murder of 21-year old Jeffrey Robert Williams, a police informant. Wilson's case highlights many of the most troubling issues of the U.S. death penalty system. In a December 2005 ruling the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals callously refused to consider Wilson's case despite their acceptance that Wilson made a prima facie showing of mental retardation simply because Wilson's court-appointed attorney failed to file the appeal on time. The average court-appointed capital defense lawyer is overworked and underpaid, so it is not surprising that those factors, combined with the somewhat incomprehensible statutes of the AEDPA, led to Wilson's attorney failing to file his appeal within the necessary time frame. ACT NOW by contacting Gov. Rick Perry and asking that Marvin Lee Wilson's execution be halted! Read More and Take Action at: http://www.demaction.org/dia/organizations/ncadp/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=3222 -------------------------------------------------------------------- See and act on all current Execution Alerts at http://www.ncadp.org/execution_alerts.html April 18: Richard Thornburg Jr., OK http://www.demaction.org/dia/organizations/ncadp/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=3262 April 21: Willie Brown Jr., NC http://www.demaction.org/dia/organizations/ncadp/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=3220 April 25: Pedro Sosa, TX http://www.demaction.org/dia/organizations/ncadp/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=3221 April 26: Marvin Wilson, TX http://www.demaction.org/dia/organizations/ncadp/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=3222 April 27: Derrick Frazier, TX http://www.demaction.org/dia/organizations/ncadp/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=3224 April 27: Dexter Lee Vinson, VA http://www.demaction.org/dia/organizations/ncadp/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=3223 (source: NCADP) ************************ Bible endorses death penalty This is in response to Daniel Capper's letter to the editor ("Death penalty contradictory," March 29). Although I am glad that you decided to back up your argument with the Bible, next time please find out what it actually says! A loving God hates the taking of innocent life, but a just God demands punishment for those who take the lives of others. For in Genesis 9:6 it says: "Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man." Obviously, God has no problems with murderers receiving the death penalty, and lethal injection is much quicker and much less painful than stoning. Joshua Turner, Hattiesburg (source: Letter to the Editor, Hattiesburg (Miss.) American)
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----OKLA., ILL., WASH., USA
Rick Halperin Sat, 1 Apr 2006 11:20:34 -0600 (Central Standard Time)
