March 25
TEXAS:
Pro-Con: Should the death penalty be abolished?
State Rep. Harold Dutton Jr., a Democrat out of Harris County, wants to ban the
death penalty in Texas - and he isn't alone.
Texas House Democrat Jessica Farrar, also out of Harris County, has authored a
bill to end the death penalty in Texas. She has written similar bills since
2007, and not one has passed the Texas Legislature.
Dutton authored a different bill for the 83rd Legislature to abolish the death
penalty, but it remains in committee.
Farrar's bill also is still in committee. In both bills, the Texas Penal Code
would allow judges and jurors to give a life term or life without parole
sentence to those convicted of capital murder with no mention of the death
penalty.
Some legislators contend the death penalty is simply too expensive.
The California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice, for example,
found the death penalty system "dysfunctional" for costing the state about $137
million per year. Both New York and New Jersey have abolished the death penalty
because of the high costs, which include an exhaustive appeals system.
Though no similar study has been released for Texas, a 1992 Dallas Morning News
report found that each Texas execution cost the state about $2.3 million, 3
times the cost of imprisoning someone in a single cell at the highest security
level for 40 years.
Despite the costs, others believe the death penalty is necessary for justice
and acts as a deterrent to crime.
With 2 men out of Victoria County currently on death row, the conflict hits
close to home.
(source: The Victoria Advocate)
NEW JERSEY:
Amick: Sen. Shirley Turner recalls effort to end death penalty in N.J. as other
states follow suit
5 years ago, when then-Gov. Jon Corzine's signature made New Jersey the 1st
state since the 1960s to abolish the death penalty legislatively, supporters of
the repeal predicted that it would encourage similar actions elsewhere in the
nation.
They were right. New Mexico followed suit in 2009, Illinois in 2011, and
Connecticut in 2012. 2 weeks ago, the Maryland Legislature completed action on
a measure to ban capital punishment for future crimes. When Gov. Martin
O'Malley signs it into law, as he has pledged to do, Maryland will join 17
other states that have ended executions.
Similar campaigns reportedly are making progress in Delaware, Colorado, New
Hampshire, Kansas and Nebraska. And many states with the death penalty still on
the books are using it more sparingly. "State after state is deciding that (it)
is simply not worth the risks and costs to retain,??? says Richard Dieter,
executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center.
The effort here to replace state-imposed death with life in prison without
parole was long and difficult, recalled one of its leaders, state Sen. Shirley
Turner (D-Lawrence). But she's proud of the outcome.
"It's one of the most important accomplishments I've had during my tenure in
the Legislature," she told me. "We brought New Jersey out of the Dark Ages. It
was just barbaric to think that for the state to lower itself to the level of a
common criminal, a murderer, constitutes justice."
The reformers were also strongly motivated by the awareness that an innocent
person could be put to death - the epitome of the irreversible mistake. A
reminder in the news was the case of Byron Halsey of Plainfield, who was
convicted in 1985 of the savage rape and murder of his girlfriend's pre-teen
son and daughter. The prosecution had sought the death penalty, but Halsey
ultimately was sentenced to 2 life terms plus 20 years.
In 2007, after 19 years behind bars, he was freed when DNA evidence showed that
another man had killed the children. Halsey's release came 2 years after
another long-term prisoner, Larry Peterson of Pemberton, became the 1st New
Jerseyan convicted of murder to go free based on DNA testing.
Both men "could easily have died for crimes they didn???t commit," Turner said.
The drive for change began in 2002, when Turner co-sponsored a bill to create a
commission to study all aspects of the death penalty and make recommendations.
It was passed by wide margins in the Senate and Assembly, but was vetoed by
then-Gov. Jim McGreevey on the last day of the 2002-2003 legislative session,
which made the veto impossible to override.
For Turner, McGreevey's action remains inexplicable - all the more so
considering that after his abrupt resignation in 2004, he embarked on a life of
humility, self-examination and service that includes counseling federal prison
inmates. The governor's stated reason, that the death penalty had been
"continuously studied in painstaking detail" and a new study would be unlikely
to provide any useful new data, was factually wrong and later proved to be
wrong as a forecast.
After Senate President Dick Codey succeeded McGreevey as governor, the
Legislature again approved the study bill, and Codey signed it into law. The
resulting commission included clerics, a police chief, county prosecutors, a
public defender and a representative of victims' rights groups. It held
extensive hearings and produced a near-unanimous report finding that the New
Jersey death penalty served no legitimate purpose, such as deterrence, that
couldn't be served by locking up convicted killers for life in maximum-security
institutions.
Such an alternative, it said, would "sufficiently ensure public safety," would
address other legitimate interests, such as the interests of murder victims'
families - and would end the danger of a fatal mistake. It also would save
millions of taxpayer dollars that were being spent on the extraordinary
procedures that the courts and the Legislature had loaded onto the death
penalty in a vain effort to make it foolproof, such as 2-phase trials, multiple
appeals and proportionality reviews to determine whether racial bias played a
part in sentencing.
A bill to implement the report was introduced, and, in late 2007, the
Legislature approved it by close votes. The final key to success was the
presence of Jon Corzine, who was New Jersey's 1st governor in memory to have
run as an opponent of capital punishment. He signed the measure into law, and
history was made.
It should be said that some still find it difficult to accept that society,
when a particularly heinous crime is committed, has lost the option of an
eye-for-an-eye punishment. Events such as the cold-blooded murder 2 years ago
of Lakewood police Officer Christopher Matlosz by a prior offender who had
vowed to friends he would kill a cop rather than go to prison - he ended up in
prison anyway, for life - inevitably lead to proposals to restore the death
penalty in New Jersey.
Officer Matlosz's senator, Bob Singer (R-Lakewood), and others have sponsored
bills to bring back capital punishment for specific crimes, such as murder for
hire or the murder of a police officer or a child, along with provisions that
attempt to provide enhanced safeguards against error. None of the proposals has
gotten as far as a committee hearing, however.
(source: nj.com)
CONNECTICUT:
Conn. Supreme Court taking up death penalty repeal
The Connecticut Supreme Court is expected to hear arguments next month on
whether the state's repeal of the death penalty for future crimes violates the
constitutional rights of the 11 men already on death row.
Justices are scheduled to hear the case after April 15. An exact date hasn't
been set.
The arguments come in the case of former Torrington resident Eduardo Santiago,
who was sentenced to death for the 2000 killing of a West Hartford man in
exchange for a broken snowmobile.
The state Supreme Court overturned the death sentence and ordered a new penalty
phase last year.
But that ruling came 2 months after the state repealed the death penalty for
murders committed after April 24, 2012.
(source: Associated Press)
MARYLAND:
The nation's oldest civil rights organization is celebrating the recent repeal
of the state of Maryland's death penalty.
In a statement released late last week, Ben Jealous, NAACP president and CEO,
said a major milestone for which the Maryland NAACP had worked toward for more
than a century, had been accomplished.
"Thank you Gov. [Martin] O'Malley, Lt. Governor [Anthony] Brown, and the bill
sponsors and supporters in the House and Senate that showed the backbone and
moral clarity to end this injustice,' Jealous said of the March 15 bill
passage. "Tomorrow we will wake up in a state where we will never again have to
worry if someone is put to death because of their color, class or in spite of
their innocence."
Gerald Stansbury, president of the Maryland State Conference NAACP, added that
the state had joined 17 other states and most of the Western world in banning
the death penalty.
"Thanks to the hard work of the Maryland CASE, Family Victims, and all the
other organizations that joined the NAACP in making this historic day
possible," Stansbury said. "This decision will make our justice system fairer
and more effective. I hope it will inspire leaders in other states to follow
suit."
The repeal bill passed by a vote of 82 to 56. The Maryland Senate has already
passed the bill. With Maryland, 6 states have repealed the death penalty in the
last 6 years and Maryland becomes the first state under the Mason-Dixon line to
repeal the death penalty.
The NAACP is also working in Colorado and Delaware where legislation to repeal
the death penalty was introduced a week ago.
(source: The Washington Informer)
********************
The much-needed demise of Maryland's death penalty
Maryland is set to become the 18th state to scrap the death penalty, the 6th
since 2007 and the 1st south of the Mason-Dixon line. The repeal, having now
passed both houses of the General Assembly, is a major achievement for Gov.
Martin O'Malley, who pushed hard for it, and for his fellow Democrats, who
dominate the state legislature.
The measure replaces capital punishment with a life sentence without the
possibility of parole; the governor is expected to sign the legislation in the
coming weeks. Maryland voters are likely to have the last word if, as expected,
death-penalty supporters collect enough signatures to petition the new law to
referendum, probably in 2014.
Plenty of legislation is debated partly or largely on emotional terrain, but
the arguments in favor of the death penalty stand out as almost exclusively
emotional, couched in terms of society???s justifiable outrage and entitlement
to vengeance.
A prime recent example was Scott Shellenberger, the state's attorney for
Baltimore County, who testified before lawmakers last month in favor of
retaining capital punishment. In marshaling his arguments for state-sponsored
executions, Mr. Shellenberger used the example of a convicted murderer who
taunted the families of his victims at his sentencing.
No question, that is incendiary behavior, designed to elicit revulsion and
white-hot hatred. But disgust and revenge are poor foundations for legislation
and policy.
As Mr. O'Malley and others have noted, the death penalty is not an effective
deterrent to murder. The homicide rate in Baltimore soared to stratospheric
levels in the 1990s but has fallen sharply in the last few years; in neither
instance is there any evidence that Maryland's death penalty had any effect.
Marylanders themselves understand that; by a 2-to-1 margin they agree that
executing people provides no deterrence to murder. Still, a solid majority
favors capital punishment, according to a recent Post poll.
With popular opinion generally in favor of retaining capital punishment, it
took guts for Mr. O'Malley and lawmakers to press for repeal. They will have to
summon even more spine to fight for its repeal at referendum if the question
gets on the ballot next year.
Until then, it is worth revisiting and reminding voters of the powerful
arguments for repeal - the lack of deterrence; the racial imbalance in the
administration of capital punishment; the steady drip of defendants wrongly
convicted in capital cases; the impossibility of undoing the execution of a
person who has been mistakenly condemned.
Since 1978, when capital punishment was reinstated in Maryland, just 5 people
have been executed in the state - none since 2005 - but untold millions of
dollars have been spent in litigating the cases of more than 50 others
sentenced to death. As Mr. O'Malley has recognized, that is a damning portrait
of ineffective and wasteful public policy.
It has taken years - and a sharply falling crime rate - to get to the point
where cooler heads have finally prevailed in Annapolis on the question of
capital punishment. The progress of repeal in one state capital after another
is evidence that the nation is finally lining up with most of the West's other
democracies.
(source: The Editorial Board, Washington Post)
PENNSYLVANIA:
Judge denies alleged sword killer's request to delay trial
An Upper Merion man who allegedly killed 3 family members with a sword cannot
delay his upcoming trial while he tries to gain access to his dead mother's $1
million estate to pay for his defense.
Joseph C. McAndrew Jr.'s request for a stay of the criminal proceedings has
been denied by Montgomery County Judge Gary S. Silow. That trial is expected to
be held this year.
McAndrew, 24, is awaiting trial on multiple charges of 1st- and 3rd-degree
murder in connection with a March 5 incident during which he allegedly wielded
a sword to stab to death his parents, 70-year-old Joseph C. McAndrew,
64-year-old Susan C. McAndrew and twin brother James McAndrew.
Earlier this month, lawyer Joseph J. Hylan, McAndrew's court-appointed
guardian, filed papers in county Orphans Court requesting that McAndrew be
granted access to the funds of the estate of his mother "for the purpose of
retaining counsel and expert forensic psychiatrists so as to defend against the
charges." According to court papers, Susan McAndrew's estate has a gross value
of about $1 million.
Hylan also had asked that the criminal proceedings against McAndrew be stayed
pending the outcome of the request in Orphans Court.
But First Assistant District Attorney Kevin R. Steele and co-prosecutor Nathan
J. Schadler fought the trial delay request claiming the request was a "proposed
intrusion" by Hylan, and if granted "would set a disastrous precedent."
Prosecutors maintained Hylan is a 3rd-party who has "no standing" to ask for a
delay in the criminal proceedings.
Last April, a judge appointed Pottstown area defense lawyer Paul A. Bauer III
to represent McAndrew in the criminal trial because McAndrew was considered
indigent at the time of his arrest. Bauer previously filed a notice of insanity
or mental infirmity defense on behalf of McAndrew.
Steele and Schadler claimed nowhere in Hylan's request for a stay is it
asserted that McAndrew is dissatisfied with Bauer's representation in the
criminal matter.
Orphans Court Judge Stanley R. Ott is responsible for addressing McAndrew's
request for access to his dead mother's $1 million estate. Those opposing the
request have until April 5 to file objections with Orphans Court.
A full hearing on the request could be held later this year.
In December, Ott appointed Hylan as McAndrew's guardian.
In the event McAndrew is awarded access to the estate funds, Hylan indicated he
will seek to retain private counsel of McAndrew's choice and private
psychiatrists of McAndrew's choice. Hylan, as McAndrew's guardian, also
indicated in court papers he "will endeavor to place the defendant into a
secure private psychiatric institution."
Hylan claimed McAndrew previously has been examined by 2 doctors, in
preparation for trial, who "concluded the defendant to have been criminally
insane at the time of the incident."
In court papers, Hylan argued Susan McAndrew "was presumed to have survived her
husband" and her son, James. Since Susan McAndrew died intestate, McAndrew is
an heir to her estate, Hylan argued.
However, under Pennsylvania's so-called Slayer's Act, a killer cannot in any
way acquire property or receive any benefit as a result of the victim's death.
But Hylan maintained McAndrew "is being denied his inheritance without having
been determined to be the slayer."
Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against McAndrew if he is convicted
of 1st-degree murder, which is an intentional killing. 3rd-degree murder, a
killing committed with malice, can carry a possible maximum sentence of 20 to
40 years in prison.
The victims, according to court documents, were found on the kitchen floor of
the family's Holstein Road home soon after McAndrew was seen standing outside
near the garage door. His pants and shoes were covered with blood, police said.
Investigators discovered a bloody sword with an 18-inch blade in the living
room, court papers indicate.
Prosecutors alleged the fatal attack involved a "very significant struggle" and
a chase throughout the house.
Since his arrest, McAndrew has been held in the Regional Forensic Psychiatric
Center at the Norristown State Hospital where he has received intensive
psychiatric treatment or at the county jail.
(source: Montgomery News)
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