Feb. 5
PENNSYLVANIA:
DA proposes changes in sentencing; Prison and bail reform, overhaul in
sentencing laws coming to Pa.?
Offenders who repeat the same crimes should serve more time, according to
Lancaster County District Attorney Craig Stedman.
On the other hand, offenders who behave for decades before re-offending should
get breaks.
Owning up to your crime right away?
Well, that should count for something, too.
Those potential changes are being considered by a statewide panel, which
includes Stedman, working to rewrite Pennsylvania's sentencing laws.
The Pennsylvania Commission on Sentencing - a panel of court officials and
professors convened last summer - will make recommendations to the legislature
in about a year.
Many of the commission's past recommendations became law.
Stedman was invited to this workshop to provide expertise on current, outdated
sentencing guidelines, said Mark Bergstrom, the panel's executive director. The
last rewrite was in 1984.
Stedman is pushing for more precision in guidelines, which judges use in
ordering sentences.
He's also involved in other discussions regarding an overhaul in the state's
criminal justice system.
Here's a glimpse at 5 major topics:
Tailor-made sentences
Stedman's pet project would include more specific sentence guidelines for more
types of crimes.
A defendant's level of involvement, acceptance of responsibility, and criminal
past would weigh more in the envisioned system.
"The guy who takes responsibility right away," Stedman said, "should get less
time than someone who doesn't."
Under Stedman's suggested guidelines, repeat behavior would be punished more
harshly.
On the flip side, a person who goes years, or decades, without a new offense
would have a lesser guideline sentence. Currently, a crime committed 20 years
after a 1st offense is treated the same as crimes committed days apart.
More definitive guidelines should ultimately lead to more guilty pleas - in
turn, fewer trials.
Defense attorneys could give clients thinking of pleading guilty a more
accurate prediction of their potential sentence.
Setting bail
A wide disparity exists from judge to judge in setting bail amounts.
There are 19 district judges in Lancaster County alone.
All set bail at their own discretion, based on a defendant's charges, criminal
past, family situation and mental-health status.
It adds up to quite a variance in bail amounts, Stedman said.
A crime-specific, statewide bail system is being discussed by the panel.
County vs. state
Defendants sentenced in Lancaster County to more than a minimum 1-year prison
term go to state prison, with very few exceptions.
Bergstrom said that might not be best for all defendants.
Authority over parole also is being discussed. Currently, the prison parole
board has power over inmates' release dates.
Federally, that power is with the judges.
The commission is discussing a collaboration of both systems.
Flat sentences
The long-running discussion continues over a possible switch to the federal
sentencing model in which defendants get a numbered sentence such as 40 months
rather than a range of 10 to 20 years.
Not happening here, Stedman said.
Flat sentences, he said, provide little incentive for prisoners to behave. In
the range system, the parole board decides when an inmate is released, with
behavior being the main consideration.
Bergstrom said the existing range system could be tweaked, though. As is, the
maximum sentence must be at least twice the minimum term. As being discussed,
the minimum term could be more than 1/2 the maximum.
Death penalty?
A long-debated facet of the state's criminal justice system: capital
punishment.
Today, Pennsylvania has nearly 200 prisoners on death row. Yet, there hasn't
been an execution here in more than 15 years.
It's prompted a constant criticism: Why have the death penalty when no one is
executed?
The debate, it appears, will continue for the time being.
Stedman said there are no plans for recommendations on the death penalty.
(source: lancasteronline.com)
*************************
Death-penalty system broken
While most conjure up images of the Deep South when they think of the death
penalty, our reliably blue, Northern state of Pennsylvania has the 5th-largest
number of inmates on death row in the country. The headlines we see may include
"Georgia frees innocent men after decades on death row," "Gutter politics
infect Texas pardon process," and "Alabama inmate abandoned by lawyer," but
Pennsylvania has some whopping dirty secrets of its own.
The blind eye the state Supreme Court turns toward these issues suggests it
thinks the commonwealth is immune to the problems that plague other states. In
fact, there is reason to think we do it worse.
Pennsylvania adopted its modern death penalty scheme in 1978. Since then, only
three condemned inmates have been executed, and all 3 volunteered to be put to
death by waiving their appeals. Over that 35-year period, more than 100
death-sentenced inmates who exhausted the appeals the law affords have seen
their cases overturned. Only 3 lost their appeals and are awaiting execution,
while 1 died and 1 was declared incompetent before his execution could take
place.
After a jury had convicted these defendants and sentenced them to death,
apparently in accordance with the law, another court in the appellate ladder
reversed their convictions or sentences because a grave legal error had
occurred. While the national reversal rate for these cases hovers around an
already shameful 67 %, in Pennsylvania it is closer to 96 % - the highest in
the nation.
Pennsylvania is 1 of only 2 states (Utah is the other) that refuses to pay for
the defense of the indigent accused, forcing financially pressed local county
courts to shoulder this cost. Naturally, counties look to cut expenses at every
turn. The easiest but most damaging way to cut is to severely limit defendant
access to the quality defense the law has required since the 1963 Supreme Court
decision in Gideon v. Wainwright.
Until recently, Philadelphia's compensation for court-appointed trial lawyers
was the lowest of any major metropolitan area in the country, and it still is
for those few willing to handle postconviction appeals in the state courts. The
number-1 reason for the almost unanimous reversal rate is that the defendants
had been denied the effective assistance of counsel at trial, in violation of
the Sixth Amendment. And since Philadelphia sends the lion's share of
defendants to Pennsylvania's death row, it's worth investigating whether the
city's system of compensating counsel is broken.
The state Supreme Court has had multiple opportunities to address this national
embarrassment and, regrettably, has decided to let it fester. Perhaps now that
three justices have vacated their seats, the new court will do something about
Philadelphia's woefully inadequate method of paying counsel.
The city currently pays these lawyers a flat fee of $10,000 to handle all
aspects of the litigation, from arrest through trial. The lawyers are paid
whether they do a good job or a bad one, whether they investigate the case
thoroughly or wait until the eve of trial to locate witnesses, whether they are
zealous defense advocates or patsies for the prosecution. That may sound like
decent money, but a capital case can take hundreds of hours over many months or
years. The more work you do, the less per hour you make.
Flat fees in these complex cases have been roundly condemned because they
clearly serve as a disincentive for good legal work. A lawyer who will be paid
the same whether he puts in the hundreds of hours the American Bar Association
estimates are needed to properly handle a capital case or does next to nothing
encourages the worst kind of corner-cutting. And we've gotten what we've paid
for - an epidemic of bad lawyering.
Much to the dismay of almost all stakeholders in the criminal justice system,
including police, the courts, and surviving members of the victim's family,
these inevitable reversals in capital cases come years, often decades, after
trial. Some would address these delays by restricting the number of appeals so
executions could be carried out more swiftly. But appellate reversals are
obviously necessary if so many legal errors, usually by defense counsel, are
taking place.
The overwhelming majority of the Pennsylvania cases that are reversed
eventually end up with sentences that are negotiated by the prosecutor for
something less than death. A system that banned the death penalty but allowed
for a life sentence to be meted out in the beginning of a case would save us
all the aggravation, heartache, and exorbitant expense of litigating these
cases for decades.
I have no philosophical quarrel with those of good conscience who justify the
death penalty on the ground that society has a legitimate interest in
expressing its collective moral outrage at those who would commit unspeakable
acts of brutal murder. I condemn capital punishment simply on practical
grounds: We have all the evidence we'll ever need to conclude that it is an
incredibly wasteful exercise in futility.
Continuing to pursue death sentences without allowing the accused to defend
themselves properly is simply immoral. If we don't have the resources required
to provide an adequate defense, or we're just unwilling to make them available,
then we should not have the death penalty.
(source: philly.com)
DELAWARE:
Widener law professor says Wright case should make us think about death penalty
A Widener law professor weighed in on the case of a Delaware death row inmate
who was recently set free after 24 years behind bars.
A judge threw out the sentence against Jermaine Wright saying he was high on
heroin during a video-taped confession, where he admitted to the 1991 murder of
an Edgemoor liquor store clerk Philip Seifert.
Ritter said the law requires that a confession be given voluntarily or it's not
admissible in court. She said with an involuntary confession, you can't rule
out the possibility that the person is innocent.
"It's not really just a technicality about Miranda rights and whether they were
properly given, because I know there was a finding that they were not, but if
it's coerced, if the person is really impaired in some way, there's always a
good chance that the confession isn't even reliable and it's not true or real,"
she said.
Ritter said this is a case that should make us think a lot about the death
penalty.
"It's certainly conceivable that after all these years he might've already been
executed and this stuff might have not actually come to light," she said.
(source: WDEL news)
VIRGINIA:
Panel won't restrict death penalty
To the dismay of Catholic advocacy groups, a Senate committee has killed a bill
to restrict capital punishment in Virginia.
The Senate Courts of Justice Committee voted 10-3 last Wednesday to "pass by
indefinitely" Senate Bill 1296, sponsored by Sen. Donald McEachin, D-Richmond.
The bill would have allowed the death sentence only when the conviction was
supported by DNA or other biological evidence or when a video "conclusively
connects the defendant to the offense" - for example, with a "voluntary
interrogation and confession."
The next day, members of the Virginia Catholic Charter, representing church
members from throughout the state, gathered in Richmond for Catholic Advocacy
Day, an annual summit addressing key issues before the General Assembly.
Measures to reform Virginia's death penalty have come before the assembly over
the past several years, but none have made it out of committee. SB 1296 was
aimed at reducing the risk of executing innocent people.
Since 1973, 150 people have been exonerated from death row nationwide,
sometimes because crucial evidence had been withheld. Virginia has exonerated
one in that time and approved clemency for another 8 inmates.
The state's procedure for issuing a death sentence has come under scrutiny from
advocacy groups such as Virginians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty. The
organization says capital punishment is unfair because of racial bias, problems
with evidence and other issues.
Michael Stone, executive director of the group, saw McEachin's bill "as a
symbolic measure that we hope will open up a dialog among legislators."
"There was no real hope of getting the bill through this session because of the
political makeup of the assembly, but the fact that it was introduced to the
committee by McEachin is still a good sign for us," Stone said.
"SB 1296 was an attempt to move Virginia to where Maryland was before it
abolished the death penalty."
Virginia was the 1st state in America to execute an offender. Capt. George
Kendall was put to death in the Jamestown colony in 1608 after being found
guilty of spying for Spain.
Since 1976, when the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty, Virginia
has carried out 110 executions, according to the Death Penalty Information
Center. The state has not executed anyone since 2013.
With a firmly pro-life stance, the Catholic church of Virginia is morally
opposed to the death penalty and advocates for alternative measures, such as
life in prison without the possibility of parole for those found guilty of
heinous crimes.
The Virginia Catholic Conference, the public policy group that organizes
Catholic Advocacy Day every year at the capital, shares views on social justice
that resonate with many concerned citizens outside the realm of religion.
The conference's priorities include preventing wrongful convictions, restoring
voting rights to non-violent felons, expanding Medicaid (the health insurance
program for low-income families), passing the Virginia DREAM act (which would
allow certain illegal immigrants to pay in-state tuition to attend college in
Virginia) and closing the "gun-show loophole," which exempts private firearms
sales from criminal background checks.
(source: Henrico Citizen)
ALABAMA:
Alabama Senator wants to revisit electric chair
"Get big yellow mamma back. Get them back in the electric chair and electrocute
them," said District Attorney Doug Valeska.
1 Alabama lawmaker, Cam Ward, is proposing a new bill to bring back the
electric chair for those on death row.
"An inmate can chose between lethal injection or the electric chair. However if
the drugs are not available then the fall back provision would be the electric
chair," said Ward on the proposed bill.
Last year executions were put on hold in Alabama, about a dozen to be exact,
because the medical cocktail was not available.
"One big issue has been the European countries that often produce the drug have
withheld sending them to the united states because they are anti death penalty
countries they will not sell drugs to countries that enact the death penalty,"
said Ward.
Doug Valeska, District Attorney for Henry and Houston County, is a man who
believes in the death penalty and thinks it's time to bring the chair back.
"I'm calling for justice. Once again these cases have been affirmed and they're
set before the Supreme Court of Alabama. It's time to get on with justice for
these families. I think it's a great idea."
Some call the method cruel and unusual punishment, but Doug Valeska asks: what
about the victims?
"Sure, it's not nice when you're electrocuted, but we forget the suffering and
torture and how horrible it was for the victim's in the cases."
There are currently 194 inmates on death row in Alabama, according to the
Department of Corrections. Of those inmates 15 are from Houston and Henry
County.
Legislation begins in march, so we could know as early as mid-summer if the
bill passes.
(source: dothanfirst.com)
OHIO:
Spencerville man enters insanity plea in toddler's death
A 20-year-old man facing the death penalty accused of killing a 17-month-old
boy pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity Wednesday.
Christopher Clayton entered that plea to preserve his right to use an insanity
defense, if needed, while also entering a plea of not guilty to the aggravated
murder charge against him.
Clayton politely answered questions asked by Judge David Cheney of Allen
Countyu Common Pleas Court. He told the judge he could not afford to hire an
attorney. The judge appointed Bill Kluge and Bob Grzybowski to represent
Clayton.
Clayton showed no emotion during the hearing but his voice cracked slightly
when Cheney explained the penalties and asked Clayton if he understood he could
be sentenced to death, which Clayton said, "Yes sir."
The judge explained that he is charged in the Jan. 15 slaying of Xavier Wurth.
The judge explained the charges that said Clayton purposely killed a child
under the age of 13 and was the principal offender or was the principal
offender who acted with prior calculation and design. Both are legal elements
necessary to seek the death penalty.
Cheney scheduled a Feb. 25 pretrial.
The child suffered blunt-force trauma to the back of his head, a forensic
pathologist ruled. Clayton told a 911 operator the child choked on his own
vomit and he believed the child suffocated, which did not match the autopsy
findings. The incident happened inside a house at 229 Wurster St. in
Spencerville, where Clayton lived with the child's mother, Alexis Long.
One of Clayton's attorneys hinted the trial may not take place for a year.
Attorney Bill Kluge said Clayton would waive his right to a speedy trial
through March 2016. Kluge said there likely will be more than 100 motions
filed.
"He has agreed and understands the necessity for that much lead time," Kluge
said.
Kluge did not seek a lower bail, which remains at $5 million.
(source: limaohio.com)
MICHIGAN:
Lawmakers Introduce Resolution To Bring Death Penalty Back In Michigan
Lawmakers in Lansing have introduced a plan to bring the death penalty back in
Michigan.
On March 1, 1847, Michigan became the 1st English-speaking territory in the
world to abolish the death penalty. In 1963, the death penalty was
constitutionally banned in Michigan.
But last month, state Attorney General Bill Schuette noted that a majority of
citizens across the country support the death penalty, especially when it comes
to certain offenders. Now, members of the Michigan legislature are considering
taking up a death penalty bill.
"Usually what happens with proposals like this is that a police officer is
killed or there is a heinous crime, and then lawmakers say 'Well, we better
trot out that death penalty thing again,'" said WWJ Lansing Bureau Chief Tim
Skubick. "In this case, we don't have that going on. I think this is just the
case of the legislature wanting to put it in the hopper and see what happens."
Senate Joint Resolution G, which was introduced Wednesday, would permit the
death penalty in 1st degree murder cases of a peace or corrections officer
killed while in the line of duty. The controversial measure isn't likely to
garner much support, Skubick said, based on previous voter opinion.
"This has been in and out of the legislative hopper a number of times over the
past 10 or 20 years and each time it has failed because it takes a 2/3 vote in
both the Michigan House and Senate to put this on the ballot and then the
voters would have to say yes," Skubick said. "Polling data over the years has
suggested that the majority of people in Michigan do not favor this but, of
course, there's been no campaign to push it either."
Skubick said there's no indication that other lawmakers would back the
resolution, which is sponsored by Sen. Virgil Smith (primary), Senate Majority
Leader Arlan Meekhof and Sen. Mike Kowall.
"The fact that it's been introduced is one story, but the bigger story is can
they compel together the votes to put it on the ballot and then, there would be
an aggressive campaign for a yes or no vote," he said. "In other words, lots of
hurdles to get over before this thing even moves in the state Senate."
The resolution drew a sharp rebuke from the Michigan Catholic Conference.
"The death penalty is an antiquated and inhumane method of punishment
representing nothing more than retaliation and more violence," Michigan
Catholic Conference President and CEO Paul Long said in a statement. "The
prohibition against capital punishment in the 1963 Michigan Constitution is
clear: the state has no right to decide who lives and who dies."
Long said his organization will devote its full weight "to oppose and defeat
any effort to allow for state-sanctioned murder."
"For a government with the power to kill is a government with too much power,"
he said.
(source: CBS news)
***************************
Would you approve the death penalty in Michigan?
Should Michigan reintroduce the death penalty?
Senate Joint Resolution G, introduced Wednesday, would employ the death penalty
but only in First Degree Murder cases of a peace or corrections officer killed
in the line of duty.
It would take a 2/3 vote in both the House and Senate to put the issue on the
ballot. Then it would be up to voters.
Would you approve the death penalty in Michigan? VOTE below:
http://www.wxyz.com/news/vote-would-you-approve-the-death-penalty-in-michigan
(source: WXYZ news)
WASHINGTON:
Federal Way senator pushes to abolish death penalty
Sen. Mark Miloscia of Federal Way sponsored a bill to abolish the death penalty
that was introduced in the state House and Senate on Jan. 6.
The measures from the bill build on Gov. Jay Inslee's efforts to impose a
moratorium on capital punishment.
Miloscia wants to replace the death penalty with a life sentence, with no
opportunity for parole.
"This is a bill I have been behind for the past few years," Miloscia said. "I
see it as an economic and moral issue."
House Bill 1739 and Senate Bill 5639 would also require those convicted to work
in prison in order to pay restitution to victims and their families.
"There was a major study that showed there were major economic consequences in
our judicial process in using the death penalty," Miloscia said. "Even in a
state like ours where we have generally only used the death penalty sentence
once every 8 years or so, it is so expensive."
Miloscia cited a recent study from Seattle University that found death penalty
cases in the state cost $1 million more than similar Washington cases where
capital punishment was not the outcome.
"This is one of the many ways we can be more budget conscience," Miloscia said.
Miloscia pointed out he doesn't personally believe in the death sentence.
"I happen to be a pro-life person and believe all human life is precious from
conception to natural death," he said. "My value lies in protecting human
life."
Currently 32 states and the federal government have authorized the death
penalty, including Washington and Oregon. 18 states have abolished the death
penalty, with Maryland being the most recent.
Last February, Inslee announced no executions would take place in the state
while he remained in office, despite the fact that the death penalty was legal.
Inslee told media he would issue a reprieve in any death penalty case that
crossed his desk, though he would not let any death row prisoners go free. A
future governor could reverse this action and order an execution to be carried
out.
"I believe that, if anything, working to pass these bills is a start of a
conversation," Miloscia said. "We expect this to be a journey and we hope to
bring people together to address the issue."
So far, 3 other lawmakers have signed on in support of the House measure
including Democratic Rep. Tina Orwall of Des Moines and Republican Reps.
Maureen Walsh of Walla Walla and Chad Magendanz of Issaquah. Two Democrats,
Sens. Jeanne Kohl-Welles and Jamie Pedersen, both of Seattle, are co-sponsors
on the Senate bill.
(source: Federal Way Mirror)
USA:
Someone wants to spend $7 million on the rope used to hang Saddam Hussein
According to a Lond0n-based Arabic-language publication, bidders are vying to
purchase the length of rope used to hang ousted Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein
in 2006.
An unnamed senior Iraqi political official told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that various
suitors, including a wealthy Israeli family, an Iranian religious organization
and two Kuwaiti businessmen, have approached the man who still keeps the rope.
That's Mowaffak al-Rubaie, Iraq's national security adviser between 2004 and
2009, who apparently keeps the rope around a bust of the fallen tyrant in
Rubaie's home in the Iraq city of Kadhimiyah.
Rubaie has received a $7 million bid, reports Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, but
supposedly wants more. There so far has been no direct confirmation or denial
from Rubaie or the Iraqi government that this grisly artifact is indeed up for
sale.
The official was present on the December day Hussein was executed more than 8
years ago.
"I had my men bring me back a segment of the rope after they cut Saddam down,"
he explained to the Independent in 2013, gesturing then at the large bust in
his home. "So I thought it appropriate to put it around the neck of Saddam's
statue."
Rubaie, a Shiite who spent many years in exile during Hussein's reign,
described the experience of watching Iraq's long-ruling dictator being taken to
the gallows.
"I was not looking for revenge for the three times his security thugs had
imprisoned and tortured me," he told the Independent. "I was hoping to see him
show some remorse for the terrible crimes, the hundreds of thousands of his own
citizens that he and his henchmen killed... But there was nothing. I could see
he was not a religious man. We had to remind him to say 'Allahu Akbar' ['God is
greatest'] as he was about to die."
Hussein was eventually buried in the town of Auja, his birthplace, 95 miles
north of Baghdad. As Iraq unraveled in the chaos of recent years, his tomb
became the site of a tacit struggle between Sunni tribal groups and Shiite
militias. According to a Reuters report last year, local tribal leaders ordered
the body to be secretly taken away in order to protect it from the ravages of
Shiite fighters, mobilized to ostensibly fight the jihadists of the Islamic
State.
"We moved him to a place far from the hands of his enemies," a leader from
Hussein's Albu Nasir tribe told Reuters. "Isn't it enough for them that they
killed him once. Now they are afraid of his body."
(source: Washington Post)
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