Sept. 19
GEORGIA----impending execution
Parole board delays decision on Troy Davis' fate
The state Board of Pardons and Paroles on Monday delayed a decision whether to
grant or deny clemency to Troy Anthony Davis after hearing pleas for mercy from
Davis’ family and calls for his execution by surviving relatives of a murdered
Savannah police officer.
The state Board of Pardons and Paroles in Atlanta is scheduled to meet today to
decide whether Troy Anthony Davis is executed Wednesday.
Davis’ case has already taken more unexpected turns than just about any
death-penalty case in Georgia history and his innocence claims have attracted
international attention. Its resolution was postponed once again when the
parole board late Monday announced it would not be making an immediate decision
as to whether Davis should live or die.
Davis, 42, is scheduled to be put to death by lethal injection on Wednesday at
7 p.m. at the state prison in Jackson. He was sentenced to death for the 1989
murder of off-duty Savannah Police Officer Mark Allen MacPhail.
On Monday, Davis’ lawyers said they believed they’d made their case that there
is too much doubt in the case. But members of MacPhail’s family expressed
confidence the board would deny clemency.
After Davis’ lawyers made their 3-hour presentation, attorney Stephen Marsh
emerged from the hearing and said, “We believe we have established substantial
doubt in this case.”
Davis’ nephew, DeJaun Davis-Correia, pleaded for mercy from the board, Davis’
lawyers said.
Late Monday, Davis’ sister, Martina Correia, said her family is glad the parole
board is taking its time.
“I know they have a lot to consider,” she said. “We’re just praying for a good
outcome.”
As for her brother’s execution date being set on repeated occasions, “It’s been
like reliving a nightmare over and over. … But we believe in our brother’s
innocence.”
The surviving relatives of the slain officer presented a decidedly different
front. They resolutely told the news media they believe Davis is a cop killer
who deserves to die for what he did.
“He’s guilty,” MacPhail’s widow, Joan MacPhail-Harris, said. “We need to go
ahead and execute him.”
MacPhail-Harris expressed confidence the board would deny clemency. “What a
travesty it would be if they don’t uphold the death sentence. … It’s time for
justice today. My family needs justice. He was taken from us too soon, too
early.”
As for the case presented by Davis’ legal team that Davis was wrongly
convicted, she said, “It’s been a lie.”
MacPhail-Harris was flanked by her 23-year-old daughter, Madison MacPhail, and
22-year-old son, Mark MacPhail Jr., who were a toddler and an infant when their
father was killed.
“A future was taken from me,” said Madison MacPhail, unable to hold back tears.
“The death penalty is the correct form of justice. … Troy Davis murdered my
father, no questions asked.”
The officer’s mother, Anneliese MacPhail, said the family “has been through
hell without Mark. He did his duty. He loved his country.”
When asked about the possibility of Davis being granted clemency, she said, “I
don’t even want to think about it. Please.”
Officer MacPhail, a 27-year-old former Army Ranger, was moonlighting on a
security detail when he ran to help a homeless man, who had cried out because
he was being pistol whipped. MacPhail was shot three times before he could draw
his handgun.
The parole board has the sole authority in Georgia to grant or deny clemency.
Three years ago, the board denied clemency to Davis but it has 3 new members
since that decision. Davis’ lawyers say there is also new evidence that
indicates another man at the scene was the actual trigger man.
Over the past decade, the board has commuted 3 death sentences — Alexander
Williams in 2002, James Willie Hall in 2004 and Samuel Crowe in 2008. If the
5-member board grants Davis clemency, it would commute his death sentence to
life in prison with the possibility of parole or life without parole.
As the board considered the case Monday, dozens of protesters, many carrying “I
Am Troy Davis” and “Justice For Troy Davis” placards, held vigil outside the
Sloppy Floyd Building across the street from the Capitol. State troopers and
guards provided a robust security presence throughout the state office
building.
Among witnesses to testify on Davis’ behalf was Brenda Forrest, a juror who
voted to sentence Davis to death at the 1991 trial. She now says she has too
much doubt about her verdict and is asking the board to grant clemency. 2 other
jurors who voted to sentence Davis to death have signed affidavits asking the
board to spare Davis from execution.
Also testifying before the board was Quiana Glover, a Savannah woman who says
that she heard Sylvester “Redd” Coles, who was with Davis shortly before
MacPhail was killed, say he was the actual killer. Coles made the statement
during a party in June 2009 when he had been drinking heavily, Glover said in a
sworn affidavit.
Coles, the 1st to implicate Davis to the police, testified at trial that he
left the scene before shots were fired.
Calls for Davis to be spared execution have been made by numerous dignitaries,
including former President Jimmy Carter, Pope Benedict XVI, former FBI Director
William Sessions, former Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice Norman Fletcher
and Larry Thompson, the former deputy U.S. attorney general. Davis’ advocates,
including Amnesty International and the NAACP, have used social media to rally
worldwide support. Last week, Davis’ supporters presented the parole board with
the names of more than 663,000 people asking that Davis be granted clemency.
This is the fourth time the state of Georgia has set an execution date for
Davis. On three prior occasions, he was granted stays — twice just hours before
his execution was to be carried out.
On one occasion, the U.S. Supreme Court stepped in and ordered an extraordinary
hearing, giving Davis the chance to clearly establish he was an innocent man.
But a Savannah judge, after hearing 2 days of testimony, ultimately ruled that
while Davis’ new evidence “cast some additional, minimal doubt on his
conviction, it is largely smoke and mirrors.”
His legal appeals are exhausted, so his latest last-ditch effort before the
parole board appears to be his last chance to be spared execution.
(source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
***********************
No Decision on Davis Clemency Tonight
Steve Hayes from the Board of Pardons and Paroles issued this statment via
email:
There is no decision from the State Board of Pardons regarding the clemency
request for Troy Davis. No decision will be forthcoming today.
The Board can grant clemency and commute the death sentence to life without
parole, life with the possibility of parole or deny clemency, or issue a stay
to further consider the case.
(source: WSAV News)
**********
MLK's daughter enters fray of Georgia death penalty case
Bernice King, daughter of Martin Luther King Jr., has weighed in on the case of
Troy Davis, a murder convict who is sentenced to die in Georgia on Wednesday
and whose case has attracted attention around the world.
Rev. Bernice King, daughter of legendary civil rights leader Martin Luther
King, Jr., addresses an impromptu gathering at her father's memorial in
Washington on Aug. 26. CAPTIONBy Cliff Owen, APKing has written a letter to the
Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles dated Saturday in which she repeats
one of her father's famous quotes -- "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice
everywhere" and then writes, "It is with this in mind that I echo the cries of
hundreds of thousands of others in asking your distinguished body to grant Troy
Anthony Davis clemency and commute his sentence of death."
The panel is set to review Davis' case on Monday.
Davis, now 42, was convicted in 1991 for the 1989 murder of Mark MacPhail, a
Savannah, Ga., police officer. Davis supporters, who range from NAACP President
and CEO Benjamin Todd Jealous to former president Jimmy Carter, point out that
10 witnesses in the case have signed affidavits recanting their testimony and
saying they were coerced by police, and that nine people have signed affidavits
implicating another man.
Bernice King writes in the letter that her family is "well acquainted with the
suffering and agony of losing a loved one to murder and the desire to see truth
and justice prevail; as is the tragic case of Mark Allen MacPhail. " But, she
adds, "as we seek solace and justice, we must be careful not to perpetuate the
chain of violence for the sake of expedience. The law must seek justice knowing
that the two are not always synonymous. In the case of Troy Davis, it falls to
each of you to make it so."
King has carbon copied several notables on the letter, including President
Obama, Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., former U.N. ambassador Andrew Young and U.S.
Attorney General Eric Holder.
On Friday, representatives for the NAACP, Amnesty International USA and other
Davis supporters delivered more than 660,000 petitions to the state board
appealing to the panel for clemency. The groups have been joined by celebrities
and public officials in sending out several updates a minute via Twitter
calling for clemency for Davis under the hashtag -- or search term --
TooMuchDoubt.
(source: USA Today)
*************************
Declaration by the High Representative, Catherine Ashton, on Behalf of the
European Union on the Case of Mr. Troy Davis Sentenced to Death in the United
States
The European Union has followed with great concern the case of Mr. Troy Davis,
a U.S. citizen sentenced to death in the State of Georgia. It has now been
announced that date of Wednesday September 21, 2011 has been set for his
execution.
Serious and compelling doubts have persistently surrounded the evidence on
which Mr. Davis was convicted, and these were recognized by the appeal judges.
The European Union therefore calls for his execution to be urgently commuted.
While we are aware of the suffering of the victims of violent crime and their
families, we recall that with capital punishment, any miscarriage of justice,
from which no legal system is immune, represents an irreversible loss of human
life. As a result, the European Union reaffirms its principled and longstanding
opposition to the use of capital punishment under all circumstances.
For more information, see:
http://www.eurunion.org/eu/Hot-Topics/Death-Penalty.html.
(source: Delegation of the European Union to the United States)
****************************
Troy Davis May Be Innocent; It's Time to Rethink the Death Penalty
When I was younger, I supported the death penalty. I do not have much room in
my soul for people who commit horrible crimes, and perhaps through some defect
in empathy, my feelings only extend to the victims and their families, not the
criminals themselves. Part of that position is driven by an innate sense of
right and wrong, and of justice.
But it is that self-same sense of justice that now says it is time to end the
death penalty in the United States. With this ultimate sentence, there is no
appeal, there is no clearing the record, there is no fixing a mistake.
And there have been mistakes.
Since the U.S. Supreme Court reestablished the death penalty in 1973, 130 death
row inmates were exonerated and released. In Texas, questions persist in the
case of Cameron Todd Willingham, who was executed in 2004 for the arson deaths
of his daughters; forensic evidence used to convict him was later disproved,
with other experts indicating the fire could have been accidental. Willingham
maintained his innocence until his death.
Troy Davis, a Georgia man, is set to be put to death Wednesday in a case where
7 out of 9 eyewitnesses have recanted or changed their testimony. AFP reports
other witnesses say the crime was committed by another man who testified
against Davis. His proposed execution has sparked worldwide protest as Davis
may, in fact, be innocent.
Here in Illinois, 13 innocent men were released from Death Row, leading to the
abolition of the death penalty in the state. With the proof that the innocent
are convicted of crimes they have not committed, the risk of taking an innocent
life far outweighs any payment to society a death sentence exacts, and the
legislature acted accordingly. At least in my state, we are no longer running
the risk of executing the innocent.
Perhaps my opposition to the death penalty does come from a place of humanity,
but not that often-cited place that we, as mere humans, do not have the right
to decide another's fate, or our humanity requires superior treatment from us
than that exhibited by a criminal. My problem with the death penalty is simple.
(source: Isa-Lee Wolf, associatedcontent.com)
ALABAMA----impending execution
Victim's family says Derrick Mason's scheduled execution Thursday is justice
delayed
Anne Larrivee presses the index finger of each hand into her cheeks to point
out where Derrick Mason fired 2 shots that killed her daughter, Angela Cagle,
during a convenience store robbery in 1994.
"The bullet holes were where her dimples had been," Larrivee said. "To think of
the fear and terror she felt."
Larrivee, who will watch Mason's execution by lethal injection Thursday in
Holman Correctional Institute in Atmore, last week haltingly recalled how her
daughter looked in the morgue.
She remembers how her daughter's face was reconstructed for the funeral, and
how the family wasn't allowed to touch her face.
"I can watch Derrick Mason pay for doing that," she said.
It will have been nearly 6,400 days from when Cagle was shot twice in the face
while lying naked on a table in the store's storage room and Mason's execution.
Many of those have been hard days for Larrivee and others in Cagle's family.
"I lost 40 pounds," Larrivee said. "I couldn't eat. I couldn't sleep. I prayed
to God to take me home so I could kiss my Angie."
She said people have told her that she needs to get over it and get on with her
life.
"Those people don't have a clue what they're talking about," she said. "You'll
never get over it when your child is gone."
Larrivee fought back tears as she talked about how much she misses her oldest
child, and how Cagle's sister, Tammy Worsham, who is 28 but was 10 when Cagle
was killed, had nightmares about her sister's death until last year.
Mason, now 37, was 19 when he killed Cagle at the EZ Serve Citgo at 1450
Sparkman Drive. A customer found her body in the early morning hours of March
27, 1994.
Mason, who confessed to killing Cagle, was convicted of capital murder in June
1995 and sentenced to death by Madison County Circuit Court Judge Loyd Little 2
months later.
A forensics expert testified at the trial that Cagle was not sexually
assaulted. However, Scott Worsham, Cagle's brother, said Mason's pubic hair was
found in her thigh area and that he had ripped the buttons off her shirt.
Worsham was at work as a dispatcher with the Madison County sheriff's office
the night his sister was killed. He took the 911 call from the customer who
found her.
He said it took him a few minutes to realize that the woman lying in a pool of
blood was his sister. He said she normally worked at a store in Five Points but
was at the Sparkman Drive store that night to train a new employee. She had to
work the new employee's shift when he didn't show up, Scott Worsham said.
"After a few minutes, it dawned on me that was where she was supposed to be"
that night, he said.
The police wouldn't tell him over the phone who the victim was. "That pretty
much told me" it was Cagle, he said.
Cagle lived in Hazel Green and attended schools there most of her life but
graduated from Oakland High School in Murfreesboro, Tenn., in 1986. She had a
4.0 grade-point average at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, where she
was studying foreign languages, Larrivee said. She wanted to be a Spanish
language interpreter at the United Nations. However, Cagle had to drop out of
school after injuring her back and legs in a car wreck. She worked at the
convenience store because she needed a job where she didn't have to stand for
long periods of time, her mother said.
"She never liked to work in those (stores) because she was afraid something
like that would happen," Larrivee said.
Cagle had been married 5 years when she was killed and had no children.
She "was just the sweetest person" and would help anybody, Larrivee said.
"She believed in people," Larrivee said. "She thought everybody had good in
them if you just treated them right."
Larrivee was asked if she agreed with her daughter's optimism about people. Her
thoughts immediately went to Mason. "No, I don't believe that," she said.
The family has waited impatiently through the years consumed by Mason's trial
and numerous appeals, Larrivee said. She was relieved last month when the
Alabama Supreme Court set Mason's execution date.
"We will finally have as much closure as we could have," Larrivee said. "We'll
never have Angie back, but her killer will finally get the punishment he
deserves."
It's justice delayed for 17 years, Worsham said.
Larrivee received some unsettling news two weeks ago that Little, who is now
retired, had written a letter asking Gov. Robert Bentley to spare Mason's life.
He wrote the letter at the request of Mason's appeals lawyers, who will ask
Bentley to commute Mason's sentence to life in prison without parole.
"I couldn't believe it," said Larrivee, who went to Little's house after
hearing about the letter.
She said she told Little that he owed her an explanation.
"He told me that my daughter's death was not that bad," Larrivee said.
"We can't figure out how much worse it could have been," Worsham said.
Little said 2 weeks ago that he had been on the bench 6 months when he presided
over Mason's case. He said that subsequent capital murder cases over the years
made him realize that the death sentence for Mason was not appropriate when
compared to other cases in which the death penalty was imposed.
Larrivee, Worsham and other family members plan to watch Mason's execution.
Larrivee said she promised herself when she saw Cagle in the mortuary that she
wouldn't stop until justice was served for her daughter.
"I want to make sure he's dead," Larrivee said.
Larrivee and Worsham don't expect any last-minute apology or revelations from
Mason. "He's never once apologized," she said. "I'm convinced he's not one bit
sorry for what he did."
Worsham said that attending the execution of his sister's killer won't be a
happy occasion. "I feel it's a duty," he said. "We owe it to her to be there.
She can't stand up for herself."
Larrivee said, "As a Christian, I hate to see anybody stand before God like
he's going to have to stand before God."
Madison County executions
Derrick Mason's scheduled execution Thursday at Holman Correctional Institute
will be the 2nd execution of a Madison County convict this year, but only the
5th time someone from the county has been executed by the state.
Mason is scheduled to die by lethal injection at 6 p.m. at the Atmore prison
for the 1994 slaying of convenience store clerk Angela Cagle.
Earlier this year, Leroy White was executed for the 1988 shotgun slaying of his
estranged wife, Ruby Lanier White.
Before White's execution on Jan. 13, the state had executed only 3 men from
Madison County since taking over executions from the counties in 1927. Those 3
men are Walter Miller on June 19, 1936; William F. Bowen Jr. on Jan. 15, 1965;
and Steven A. Thompson on May 8, 1998.
Other than Mason, there are 8 people on death row who were sentenced in Madison
County. They are Nick Acklin, Benito Albarran, James Barber, Anthony Tyson,
Jeffery Rieber, Mohammad Sharifi, Jason Sharp and Joey Wilson.
(source: Huntsville Times)
********************
A death row inmate deserves one last chance
CORY MAPLES is not a sympathetic character. But even lawyers for the state of
Alabama, where Mr. Maples sits on death row, acknowledge that “it is hard not
to feel a little sorry for a petitioner like .?.?. Cory Maples, who loses his
chance to assert claims in federal court because of his lawyers’ errors.”
And what errors they were.
Mr. Maples was convicted of murdering 2 people in Alabama in 1995. He has never
claimed his innocence but has argued that he should not have been sentenced to
death. Among other things, he notes, his lawyers failed to introduce evidence
that he was highly intoxicated the night of the murders — a fact that could
have undercut the case for capital punishment. He appealed his case in state
courts but lost. Typically, defendants are entitled to take their claims to
federal court once the state process is exhausted. This is where Mr. Maples’s
case went wrong.
A judge’s order denying the last of Mr. Maples’s state appeals was mailed to
the office of the inmate’s 2 appellate lawyers in New York, but the letter was
returned, unopened, to the Alabama court clerk because the lawyers had not told
the court that they had left the law firm. The clerk’s office did not act on
the information; an Alabama attorney who was local counsel also received the
judge’s order but ignored it, assuming that the New York lawyers would continue
to take the lead.
As a result, Mr. Maples missed a deadline for filing a federal court challenge.
He took action as soon as he became aware of the error, but the U.S. Court of
Appeals for the 11th Circuit declined to let him proceed. The Supreme Court is
scheduled to take up Mr. Maples’s case next month.
Alabama argues that lawyers make mistakes all the time that defendants have to
live with. It cites a 1991 Supreme Court case that severely limited a
defendant’s ability to overcome a lawyer’s errors, including missed filing
deadlines. In our opinion, this decision in Coleman v. Thompson was harsh,
bordering on punitive, and the court should rethink its holding.
Mr. Maples’s 2 lead lawyers did not merely make mistakes; they essentially
abandoned their client. The Alabama court clerk’s office, too, shares
responsibility for the pitiful series of events. All of this was beyond Mr.
Maples’s control. It would offend the essence of fairness to allow a mailroom
error to deprive a death row inmate of his last, best chance to avoid
execution.
(source: Editorial, Washington Post)
**************
Christopher T. Johnson to be executed October 20th
An Atmore man who admitted beating his 6-month-old son to death is scheduled to
be executed on Oct. 20.
The Alabama Supreme Court on Friday announced the date for Christopher T.
Johnson.
Assistant Attorney General Clay Crenshaw said Johnson essentially volunteered
for execution because he refused to pursue any appeals and filed court papers
in May saying he didn't want anyone to seek any on his behalf.
Johnson served as his own attorney at his trial in Escambia County in 2006. He
testified that he intentionally hit and suffocated his son, Elias Ocean
Johnson, at their home on Feb. 20, 2005, because he hated his wife, didn't want
to be near her and didn't want to worry about her threats of putting him in
jail for alimony or child support.
He asked for the death penalty. The jury obliged by unanimously recommending
the death penalty and the judge agreed.
The Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals completed a mandatory review of his case
in December 2009 and upheld his conviction and sentence. After that, Johnson
refused to take his case any further in state or federal court.
(source: Projert Hope to Abolish the Death Penalty)
NEVADA:
DA’s panel to consider death penalty against daughter accused in mom’s
death----Attorney: Co-defendant’s statements that exonerated daughter weren’t
heard by grand jury
The case of a woman who is accused of being an accomplice in her mother’s
strangling death is expected to come Tuesday before the Clark County District
Attorney’s office’s death penalty review committee.
Statements made last month to the news media by a co-defendant might have an
effect on whether the district attorney’s office seeks the death penalty
against Autumn Cole, 44, 1 of 3 people charged in connection with the death her
mother, 68-year-old Katherine Cole.
Autumn Cole’s attorney, Special Public Defender Ivette Amelburu Maningo, told
the Sun today that she hoped to appear before the review panel to have them
consider an interview that Joseph Perez, 45, Autumn Cole’s boyfriend and
co-defendant, gave on Aug. 10 to a local news media outlet.
Perez, “has recanted,” Maningo said. “His story is now that Autumn Cole had
nothing to do with this. He has lied to police.”
Maningo said Perez has said he gave police that earlier statement because he
was upset with Cole, thinking she had been having a relationship behind his
back with the third co-defendant, Lorenzo Cardenas-Sanchez, 39.
“He was assuming they might be having an affair,” Maningo said. “He also said
that both of them said that if they were caught they would blame it on her.”
Maningo said the statements that Perez gave in a jailhouse interview with the
Las Vegas Review-Journal were not yet part of any court documentation. But
Maningo said she hoped the death penalty review panel would consider those
statements in making its recommendation.
“We’re really hopeful that based on the lack of our client’s criminal record
and some evidence of mental health issues and substance abuse issues that they
will not seek the death penalty (against Autumn Cole),” Maningo said. “She had
a previous DUI arrest, but no felonies or anything like that. ... It’s our
position that this evidence that the the co-defendant, Perez, has recanted his
statement to police should have been presented to the grand jury and it wasn’t.
We do think it’s something that should be addressed and challenged. And we do
intend on doing that.”
Although Perez gave a statement to police implicating her, Cole invoked her
Fifth Amendment rights and did not make a formal statement to police, Maningo
said.
All 3 defendants pleaded not guilty last Tuesday at their arraignments in Clark
County District Court.
The 3 were indicted Aug. 31 by a grand jury on charges of conspiracy to commit
murder, burglary, murder with the use of a deadly weapon on a victim 60 years
of age or older, robbery with the use of a deadly weapon on a victim 60 years
of age or older and grand larceny auto.
Cole and Perez were also each charged with 1st-degree kidnapping with the use
of a deadly weapon on a victim 60 years of age or older and possession of a
credit or debit card without the cardholder’s consent. Cardenas-Sanchez was
also charged with accessory to murder.
Cole asked for a speedy jury trial and Judge Valerie Adair set it for 9:30 a.m.
Oct. 24 in Clark County District Court.
All 3 defendants are being held without bail in the Clark County Detention
Center.
According to a Metro Police arrest report, Perez, Autumn Cole’s boyfriend, told
police a man took Cole to her mother’s home in Las Vegas at 5 p.m. July 29.
Perez told police that soon after that she called him to come to the house.
The indictment says the mother was first detained by using bedding and a
bathrobe sash twisted into ligatures, then was strangled with a twisted
pillowcase.
According to the original statement Perez gave police, when he arrived at the
home, the daughter was trying to put her mother’s body in the trunk of her car.
Perez said he persuaded Cole to leave the body in the garage, and then stepped
on her. The 2 then stole her mother’s white Acura Integra, “pushed her head out
of the way” and drove off, the police report said.
Perez told police he was the person who used Cole’s debit and credit cards at
an ATM and a Kmart. After carrying out a search warrant, police found the cards
in the car Cardenas-Sanchez was driving.
Cardenas-Sanchez told police he took both Cole and Perez to Katherine Cole’s
home on July 29.
Cardenas-Sanchez said both got out of the car, but that Autumn Cole came back
to the car and Perez remained in the house. Cardenas-Sanchez took Cole back to
her house and left. He said he later met up with Cole and followed her in her
mother’s car to Arizona Charlie’s, where they left the car.
Cardenas-Sanchez said he and Perez then went to an Arco AM-PM, Kmart, the ATM
and El Super Market using Cole’s debit cards to make purchases, the report
said. Police recovered the Acura in the casino parking lot, and casino
surveillance video shows a person leaving the car and exiting in a red van.
(source: Las Vegas Sun)
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