July 30
TEXAS:
Does This Man Deserve to Die?----Jeffrey Wood was sentenced to death under the
Texas law of parties. But should someone who didn't pull the trigger be
executed?
A rally for Jeffrey Wood was held outside of the Texas Governor's Mansion on
July 23, 2016.
Jeffrey Wood and Daniel Reneau had only known each other for a couple of months
when, on the morning of January 2, 1996, Wood waited in the car as his new
friend entered a Texaco station in Kerrville. When Wood, a 22-year-old with no
prior criminal record, heard gunshots, he went inside the store to find the
attendant, Kris Keeran, shot dead. Wood says that Reneau then pointed his
.22-caliber handgun at him and forced him to steal the surveillance video and
drive the getaway car.
Witness reports led police to Reneau and Wood, and the pair was arrested the
next day. Reneau, who confessed to the crime, was convicted of capital murder
in 1997 and sentenced to death. He was executed 5 years later, in 2002. Wood
didn't pull the trigger, but prosecutors tried him for capital murder under the
Texas Law of Parties, which holds that someone can be held liable for an
offense committed by another person. A jury found Wood responsible for either
intending or anticipating the murder Reneau committed and sentenced him to
death. His execution is scheduled for August 24, 2016.
Both Wood';s family and his lawyer have long maintained that his trial was
flawed from beginning to end. A jury first found Wood incompetent to stand
trial, and he was committed to a psychiatric institution. Less than 3 weeks
later, Wood was determined competent by a psychiatrist to stand trial. After he
was convicted, he tried to represent himself during his sentencing, but the
judge denied that request, effectively finding him mentally incompetent to do
so.
Lucy Wilke, who prosecuted Jeffrey Wood in his 1998 trial, writes via email,
"He did not pull the trigger, but he was definitely the ring-leader [of the
robbery]." She confirms that Wood's lawyers did not present any mitigating
evidence and that they didn't cross-examine state witnesses during the
punishment phase of his trial. "The reason for that was because Wood
specifically, on the record, instructed his 2 very experienced and competent
attorneys not to present any evidence or cross-examine any State witnesses,"
Wilke writes.
"Unfortunately, even though the judge found him incompetent to represent
himself, nobody stopped the proceeding to inquire as to his competency to stand
trial at that point or to make these irrational decisions," counters Jared
Tyler, who took on Wood's case in 2008. "I believe Wood was incompetent to make
the decision not to defend himself. It was irrational and in line with the
evidence on which a jury had previously found him incompetent to stand trial."
Tyler adds, "I've never seen a case like Mr. Wood's, in which a person has been
executed or will be executed in which there was no defense at all on the
question of death-worthiness."
And it is precisely this - the question of death-worthiness - that should be
seriously considered in Wood's case.
Wood has an IQ of about 80, which is below average. According to school and
psychological records, he has always had trouble processing information. At
home he was severely beaten with a razor strap for his poor grades, and in
school he craved attention. When he was 12, a psychologist noted his
hyperactivity, impulsiveness and short attention span. He also described Wood's
anxiety and tension, his poor grooming and hygiene, as well as his
"exceptionally poor judgment" and his "faulty reasoning and reality testing."
In an affidavit to the state, his father wrote that Wood had problems planning
for the simplest things and that "[w]hen he was small, he would take the blame
and the punishment for something that another child had done so he would seem
to fit in." Wood was put in a Special Ed program and was never able to catch up
with his classmates. In his early 20s, he fell in with the wrong crowd. It was
easier for him to be around people with whom he didn't have to compete
intellectually. This is where Daniel Reneau, a 20-year-old homeless drifter
with an extensive criminal history, came into the picture.
"Mr. Wood was very vulnerable to the influence of Reneau," Tyler says, adding,
"[Wood] is the kind of person who will just acquiesce to questions of
authority. He is a boy in a man's body. Because of his psychological and
intellectual impairments, he does not understand the legal and other
implications of what he says. He is also not a reliable historian. I believe
Mr. Wood to be incompetent."
Many states have laws comparable to Texas's Law of Parties, but few apply them
to the death penalty; fewer still have actually executed people who didn't
directly cause someone else's death. Since the death penalty was reinstated in
1976, only 10 individuals who didn???t directly kill the victim have been
executed, 1 each in Florida, Utah, Oklahoma, Indiana, and Missouri, and the
remaining 5 in Texas. What sets these cases apart from Wood's is that most
capital defendants were present during the murder, sometimes even fired shots
or participated in torturing the victim.
"What you have is a statute that allows someone who is a party to be sentenced
to death under what I believe is a lesser burden than being the actual
triggerman," says Tim Cole, a law professor at the University of North Texas
and former district attorney of the 97th district. "I think there is a problem
with that. These days, defense attorneys are put under a microscope. This kind
of case would not be tried as a death penalty case in most places, probably not
even here in Texas."
Few people know that the death penalty can be applied when someone is convicted
under the Law of Parties - and among those who do, it has long been a
contentious issue. In 2009, Jeffrey Wood's sister, Terri Been, and a group of
advocates from the Texas Moratorium Network came close to having a bill passed
by the state Legislature that would have limited the death penalty as a
sentencing option under the Law of Parties. The Texas House of Representatives
approved the bill, but Rick Perry, who was governor at the time, threatened to
veto it if it went through the Senate. It will be reintroduced in the next
legislative session, in January 2017.
But let's give the law as it stands now the benefit of the doubt: If Wood
didn't suffer from emotional and intellectual impairment, one could potentially
argue that he should have been able to anticipate that Reneau would murder
Keeran. But even then, the Supreme Court has held that the death penalty "be
limited to those offenders ... whose extreme culpability makes them the most
deserving of execution." The death penalty is reserved for "the worst of the
worst," according to the Supreme Court. If Wood wasn't present for the
shooting, is he equally responsible as Reneau for Keeran's death? Is an
intellectually impaired man who drove the getaway car the worst of the worst?
Would a prosecutor seek the death penalty in Jeffrey Wood's case today?
"If I had this case to make a decision on today," wrote Wilke, who is an
assistant district attorney in Kerrville, "I would make the same decision." But
had Wood been tried today, it is unlikely he would be sentenced to death. In
1999 juries \sent 38 people to death row; in 2015 and 2016 combined, they
condemned just 5 new individuals to death, none of them under the Law of
Parties.
Wood's lawyer and family are now seeking clemency, but could it be granted?
Clemency is rare but not entirely unheard of. Since the death penalty was
reinstated, 280 death sentences have been commuted on humanitarian grounds,
often because of possible innocence, but also because some governors considered
the death sentence disproportionate to the crimes the prisoners were convicted
of, or because they acknowledged a "disturbing racial pattern." (Almost 42 % of
all people on death row are black, compared to roughly 12 % in the general
population. Wood is white.)
In Texas only 2 death row inmates have been granted clemency since 1976. (The
state has executed 537 people and counting in that time, more than any other
state in America.) In 1998, Governor George W. Bush commuted alleged serial
killer Henry Lucas's sentence to life without parole, citing possible
innocence. Lucas died in prison in 2001. In 2007, Rick Perry, under whose
tenure 319 individuals were killed, spared the life of Kenneth Foster who, like
Wood, was sentenced to death under the Law of Parties.
Since he was sworn in on January 2015, Governor Greg Abbott has not granted a
single clemency. 19 executions have taken place during his time in office, and
7 more death-row inmates are scheduled to die by the end of October.
"The commutation process in Texas has been criticized as being virtually
non-existent, and that has not changed significantly from Governor Bush to
Governor Perry to Governor Abbott," says Robert Dunham, director of The Death
Penalty Information Center and former capital defense attorney. Yet, Dunham
says, there has been a remarkable change in public opinion on capital
punishment. Today 61 % of Americans favor the death penalty, compared to 80 %
in 1994, according to a recent Gallup poll.
In general, people are more skeptical than ever of the variables that factor
into death sentences. "The single most likely fact that determines whether you
face the death penalty is what county did the offense take place in and what's
the prosecutor's view about the death penalty," Dunham says. "When you look at
the crimes committed by people who were sentenced to life and the crimes
committed by people who were sentenced to death you can find very little
difference between the 2. There's more and more evidence that the death
sentence has been administered arbitrarily and unfairly." Dunham adds, "And it
does not make the public safer. There is no evidence that the death penalty
deters."
Wood's chance for life now rests on the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles and
on Governor Abbott, who together have the power to commute his sentence. Wood's
clemency application is due by Wednesday, August 3, 2016, three weeks before
his scheduled execution. The TBPP releases its recommendation to the governor
48 hours before the scheduled execution. If a majority of the board recommends
clemency, the governor can grant a commutation of Wood's sentence to life in
prison or a 1-time, 30-day reprieve of execution.
"Mr. Wood understands that his execution is looming but he has difficulties
processing why it is happening to him," his lawyer, Jared Tyler, says. "He
doesn't understand why the state is trying to kill him." In the past Wood has
claimed that his death sentence was tied to a conspiracy by the Freemasons. In
2008, Wood's bizarre statements during trial and in prison prompted a federal
judge to stay his last execution.
Even supporters of the death penalty, which is supposed to be reserved for the
worst of the worst, should recognize the limits of relying on the flawed and
arbitrary procedures of yesteryear to kill a penniless man with reduced
intellectual capacities. This case is an opportunity for the Texas Board of
Pardons and Paroles and Governor Abbot to be empathetic and morally brave, to
examine past shortcomings and to save Jeffrey Wood's life.
(source: Op-Ed; Sabine Heinlein is a freelance journalist and author----Texas
Monthly)
********************
Texas recorded almost 7,000 deaths in custody since 2005
According to statistics made available by the University of Texas at Austin,
nearly 7,000 people have died in police custody or in prison in Texas since
2005. The information is contained in an online database published by the
school's Institute for Urban Policy Research and Analysis (IUPRA).
The Texas Justice Initiative was created by Amanda Woog, a postdoctoral fellow
in IUPRA. The data set spans 11 years and contains interactive features,
including the names, ages, demographics, time and cause of death.
The release of the data comes amid a relentless campaign by the media to
delegitimize protests against police violence in the wake of the shootings of
police officers in Dallas and Baton Rouge. However, it further substantiates
the case that the systematic and endemic brutality on the part of the police
against the US population is on the rise.
According to the latest figures available, police have killed 551 in the US so
far this year. Virtually no one has been held accountable for this toll. This
includes officers in Baltimore involved in the death of Freddie Grey, who have
now been cleared by the prosecutor's office.
According to the University of Texas study, 6,913 people died in state custody
in the state between 2005 and 2015, an average of 628 per year. Of those
deaths, 1,900 were individuals who had never been charged with a crime. 68 % of
deaths occurred in prisons.
Significantly, 1,118 people died in police custody before booking. Of those,
562 deaths were classified as justifiable homicides, a catch-all category that
includes victims of police violence. Another 16 % were classified as suicides
and 7 % as accidental injury. 90 % of these victims had not been charged with
any crime. And deaths in police custody are rising. The year 2015 saw the most
deaths in custody, with 683 fatalities.
Justifiable homicide was the leading cause of nonnatural death for
African-American and Latino men, accounting for 30 and 34 % of nonnatural
deaths respectively. Suicide was the leading cause of nonnatural death for
white males, accounting for 411 deaths since 2005. According to the database,
41 % of those who died in jails had been in custody for 7 or fewer days.
Altogether 772 people, 11 % of the total, died from suicide; 275 (4 %) died
from alcohol or drug intoxication and 255 (4 %) from other reasons.
While whites made up 31 % of the Texas prison population they accounted for 42
% of prison deaths. 90 % died of "natural causes," but the median age of those
who died was far lower than the 72-year life expectancy of the average Texan.
The huge fatality rate points to the extreme brutality of the criminal justice
system in the United States, where those accused of crimes, mostly poor and
working class, are treated with cruelty and indifference. Texas in particular
is known for its harsh treatment of prisoners.
The state carries out more executions than any other US state. According to the
Death Penalty Information Center, Texas has carried out 537 executions since
1976 with a current death row population of 263. Between 2005 and 2015, the
time of the study, the state executed 195 people.
According to the Sentencing Project, Texas has a prison population of 158,000,
with a prison incarceration rate of 584 per 100,000 people. Another 66,000 are
held in jails.
Jennifer Laurin, a law professor at the University of Texas at Austin spoke
with the World Socialist Web Site Friday about the Texas Justice Initiative. "I
am proud of the work that has gone into this project and that the University of
Texas can lay claim to this important initiative," she said.
"I think it is an extremely significant project that contributes to the
understanding about police use of force and deaths in custody.
"The state of Texas required after the last legislative session that reports be
submitted on deaths in custody to the attorney general's office. It is unusual
for police departments to make that data available. The contribution of the
Texas Justice Initiative was to make that data usable. What this does is render
it comprehensible to researchers and the public who want to know what police
departments are doing."
By way of contrast she pointed to the Obama administration's open data
initiative. "It is useless," she said. "It is not in an intelligible format."
She said that, from her experience, obstacles to the prosecution of law
enforcement personnel relating to deaths in custody were difficult for
plaintiffs or prosecutors to overcome. "The existence of more data can create
leverage," she added, "especially if you can see a consistent uptick over
time."
In a recent highly publicized case, Sandra Bland, a vocal opponent of police
violence, died in an East Texas jail in July 2015 under mysterious
circumstances. According to the official version of events, she used a trash
bag to hang herself in her jail cell. A few days earlier police had arrested
her in a brutal manner, without cause, following a traffic stop. Her death was
included in the total of 1,111 who died in jail during the time covered by the
study and is listed as "suicide."
Bland's family, however, rejected the possibility that she committed suicide.
Whatever happened in that Texas jail cell, the police are ultimately
responsible. The harsh treatment meted out to Bland is not atypical.
According to a report, in the 17 days following Bland's death another 4 black
women died in police custody in states across the US. Most had been in jail for
2 days maximum, held on minor charges like shoplifting.
Researchers compiled the data used in the IUPRA study from figures reported to
the Texas attorney general's office. The only other state where similar data
has been compiled appears to be California. According to those figures 684 died
annually in police custody between 2005 and 2014, about the same annual number
as Texas, although the population of California is 50 % larger (38 million)
than the population of Texas (26 million). Of the 6,837 deaths in custody in
California, 984, 14 %, were at the hands of law enforcement officers.
(source: World Socialist Web Site)
NEW JERSEY:
Assembly Minority Leader Jon Bramnick calls for NJ to reinstate death penalty
A state lawmaker is calling for New Jersey to reinstate the death penalty for
certain crimes.
Assembly Minority Leader Jon Bramnick is calling for New Jersey to bring back
capital punishment in the wake of the recent murders of police officers across
the country.
Bramnick issued a statement calling for the death penalty's return for
"predators that shoot and kill a police officer."
(source: news12.com)
TENNESSEE:
Trial set for killing of toddler
An Oak Ridge woman is expected to face a jury this fall for the 2011 abuse and
murder of her granddaughter, a toddler. The death penalty case is expected to
get underway during the week of Sept. 19.
Valerie Stenson, 51, formerly of 208 Teller Village Lane, Oak Ridge, was
indicted in 2012 on 5 separate charges in the April 2011 death of Manhattan
Inman, age 2 1/2, while she was in Stenson's custody. The 5 charges are
1st-degree murder and 4 charges of aggravated child abuse or neglect.
Stenson has been in the Anderson County jail since March 2012. She is being
held on $1,075,000 bond.
Information filed in Anderson County Criminal Court alleges that between April
15, 2010 and April 16, 2011, Stenson abused and tortured Manhattan and her 3
natural children. Stenson reportedly told the children she was especially hard
on Manhattan because she was possessed by a demon and that Stenson was married
to God.
Stenson allegedly required that the children participate in "extensive Bible
study, prayers and punishment." The court documents called the punishment the
children received from Stenson "excessive," such as standing all night long for
spilling a drink.
"The punishment was continuous and systematic, rising to abuse and torture,"
the documents said.
The 3 surviving children, who were older than Inman, reportedly told officers
that Stenson would abuse and torture all 4 children afterschool daily. This
action was reportedly done as punishment for real or imagined misbehavior.
Stenson's actions allegedly included forcing the children to stand all night
with their arms outstretched or their hands on their heads. The children were
reportedly left on their knees for extended periods of time without food,
according to the court documents. They also allegedly reported "being hit with
a ruler on their hands until bruised, being hit with a belt and being smacked
or punched by the defendant, their mother."
Additionally, Manhattan was reportedly at times made to sit on "the potty" from
the time she woke until bedtime, or made to stand with the other children. The
older children reportedly told investigators that to punish her, Stenson would
deprive Manhattan of food and then give her peanut butter and crackers "to make
her more thirsty." Then, Manhattan was given vinegar to drink to quench her
thirst.
One child reportedly told investigators that Stenson would pour water on
Manhattan's head in the bathtub to get her to stop screaming. On the night of
the toddler's death, Stenson allegedly had the other children help bind
Manhattan from "head to toe in bandages and tape, not breathing." The autopsy
said the cause of Manhattan's death from the autopsy was suffocation,
malnutrition and dehydration.
"Evidence discovered in the death investigation revealed a pattern of abuse
culminating in the smothering death of the child," according to the court
documents.
The documents also said 1 of the older children expressed regret for "carrying
out the orders of the defendant involving things done to Manhattan and for
failing to get help for her."
In March 2012, The Oak Ridger reported on Stenson's arrest and Anderson County
District Attorney General David Clark's decision to seek the death penalty
against Stenson. Those articles also identified Stenson as Inman's grandmother.
"I reached this decision (to seek the death penalty) considering all the
factors and after careful review and reflection," Clark said in a March 2012
news release.
The Oak Ridge Police Department investigated the case after the toddler was
found unconscious and not breathing by a family member. She was pronounced dead
at Methodist Medical Center of Oak Ridge and an autopsy was performed at the
University of Tennessee Medical Center at Knoxville.
The autopsy findings in the court documents reported, in addition to the causes
of death, "injuries consistent with sexual assault, acute and chronic."
The jail's website listed no prior charges against Stenson.
(source: oakridger.com)
ARKANSAS:
3rd attorney appointed to assist with Bella Vista murder case
A 3rd attorney has been assigned to the defense team of a Bella Vista man
accused of killing his 6-year-old son last year.
George Morledge of Little Rock will assist Jeff Rosenzweig and Bill James in
representing Mauricio Torres of Bella Vista.
Torres, 46, and and his wife Cathy Torres, 45, are charged with capital murder
and 1st-degree battery. The 2 will be tried separately and prosecutors plan to
seek the death penalty in both cases.
The Torreses are being held without bond in the Benton County Jail.
Maurice Isaiah Torres was pronounced dead at an area hospital March 29, 2015. A
medical examiner determined the boy suffered chronic child abuse and his death
was from internal injuries caused by rape, according to court documents.
Mauricio Torres was set to go on trial Aug. 22, but Circuit Judge Brad Karren
granted a delay until Nov. 1.
The delay is because of a medical issue with Rosenzweig, who recently told the
court he had been diagnosed with acute deep vein thrombosis and has blood clots
in his leg. Rosenzweig said he has been placed on blood thinners and his health
prevents him from traveling.
Nathan Smith, Benton County prosecutor, objected to the delay, but he also
requested Karren assign a third attorney so the trial wouldn't have to be
delayed again if Rosenweig is still experiencing health problems.
Gregg Parrish, executive director of the Arkansas Public Defender Commission,
wrote Karren that Morledge had been assigned to the case. Parrish told Karren
that Morledge meets the requirements to handle capital cases where the death
penalty is sought.
Cathy Torres was supposed to go on trial Nov. 1, but her trial has been
postponed. A new trial date hasn't been scheduled.
Mauricio and Cathy Torres could each be sentenced to life imprisonment without
parole or the death penalty if convicted of capital murder. They face from five
to 20 years if convicted of 1st-degree battery.
(source: Democrat Gazette)
OKLAHOMA:
Oklahoma Hired A New Warden After Botches, But Considered Execution Experience
Irrelevant
After a string of execution mistakes and resignations, the state is replacing
the personnel key to carrying out the death penalty in Oklahoma. But state
officials say they view execution experience as "immaterial" in the hiring.
posted on Jul. 29, 2016, at 11:16 a.m.
After a grand jury investigation found carelessness, secrecy, and ignorance led
the Oklahoma Department of Corrections to multiple botched execution attempts,
a department spokesperson told BuzzFeed News that a new prison warden's
execution experience was "immaterial" to his selection for the job.
Oklahoma officials pointed to no experience in the new warden's past with
executions, and BuzzFeed News has been unable to find any evidence that the new
warden has any experience with carrying out or overseeing death sentences.
On Wednesday, corrections head Joe Allbaugh, himself new to the position,
announced the selection of Terry Royal to run the Oklahoma State Penitentiary.
Both the warden and the director have many responsibilities under the state's
current execution procedures.
Neither Allbaugh or Royal appear to have any experience with executions.
When asked if Royal had any experience carrying out executions, a corrections
spokesperson responded that "[t]he execution question is and was immaterial to
his hiring."
Royal, who most recently ran the Lake Correctional Institution in Florida, has
25 years of corrections experience - but none in any prison that had
responsibilities for carrying out executions.
Royal's appointment will still have to be approved by the Oklahoma Board of
Corrections, which will meet in September. The Board is also expected to
discuss the grand jury's findings at the meeting.
Asked why the department believed Royal's experience or lack thereof was
"immaterial," spokesperson Terri Watkins told BuzzFeed News, "The warden under
the protocol doesn't have a role in executions. That is why execution
experience is immaterial to the hiring."
Under the current protocol, however, the warden has significant
responsibilities overseeing executions. The warden, along with another
corrections employee, chooses which execution team members are retained and
which are replaced.
The 34-page execution protocol closes out by stating that "[t]he wardens of
Oklahoma State Penitentiary and Mabel Bassett Correctional Center are
responsible for compliance with" the procedures.
Previously, the warden had also received the execution drugs, and was supposed
to verify their contents. In fact, the grand jury report singled out the
previous warden, Anita Trammell, who stepped down during the investigation into
how the wrong execution drug was used in the 2015 execution of Charles Warner.
Earlier, in 2014, Oklahoma took 45 minutes to execute Clayton Lockett in what
Trammell described as "a bloody mess." After an investigation run by the
Department of Public Safety, which reports to the governor, the state was
allowed to carry out another execution.
The state changed the protocol, however, giving the warden fewer
responsibilities.
This time, in January 2015, they used the wrong drug with Warner. The mistake
only became public when the state nearly used the same wrong drug in the
following scheduled execution, in September of that year.
This time, the investigation into execution mistakes was conducted by a grand
jury. The grand jury report placed much of the blame at the feet of Trammell
and former corrections director Robert Patton.
Before the grand jury, Trammell also tried to argue that it wasn't her
responsibility.
"Warden [Trammell] further testified [s]he was not responsible for what
happened at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary facility as it related to
executions, despite being the Oklahoma State Penitentiary's warden, because it
was the Director's job," the grand jury wrote.
"There are just some things you ask questions about, and there's some things
that you don't," Trammell told the grand jury. "I never asked questions about
the process" of getting the drugs.
Trammell also told the grand jury that "there were lots of things that took
place at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary that wasn't in the policy."
The grand jury report found that "Warden [Trammell] did not do [her] job and,
consequently, failed the Department and the State as a whole."
The grand jury also wrote that "the Execution Protocol explicitly states the
Warden of the Oklahoma State Penitentiary is responsible for compliance with
the Preparation and Administration of Chemical provisions of the Execution
Protocol."
Royal will inherit Trammell's execution responsibilities, provided the protocol
isn't changed.
"With the director's leadership and the rest of talented staff at the
department, we will face challenges head-on to ensure the goals and mission of
the facility and agency are met," Royal said in a statement. "I appreciate
Director Allbaugh's confidence in me to lead the Oklahoma State Penitentiary."
None of the prisons Royal has worked at carried out executions. The Florida
Department of Corrections did not respond to repeated questions about his
experience, and the Indiana Department of Corrections, where Royal started his
career, would not answer questions about its execution personnel.
Royal also spent time in Arizona, working at a minimum security private prison.
Patton, the Oklahoma corrections director that resigned in the middle of the
grand jury investigation, was the Division Director of the Arizona Department
of Corrections while Royal was in Arizona. As such, Patton was overseeing a
variety of things - including overseeing security assessments of the prison
were Royal was warden.
The grand jury report noted that there was significant overlap between Arizona
and Oklahoma's execution methods. Patton molded Oklahoma's protocol after
Arizona's, and also hired the Arizona warden that ran the prison where a 2-hour
execution occurred.
Allbaugh, the head of the Oklahoma Department of Corrections, also has no
execution-related experience. This is his 1st job in corrections, in fact.
Allbaugh previously served as director of the Federal Emergency Management
Agency under President George W. Bush.
When Allbaugh was selected earlier this year, the chair of the Board of
Corrections, Kevin Gross, said it "might be interesting" to have someone
without direct corrections experience run the prison system, according to the
Tulsa World.
(source: BuzzFeed News)
NEBRASKA:
Too many innocents end up on death row
I was on the fence about the death penalty for many years, but then
Northwestern University Law students did research and found so many on the
Illinois death row were in fact innocent.
I'm now convinced that even one innocent person executed is one too many. With
DNA and other tests, it seems we are hearing every few weeks about someone
being released after decades on death row.
I don't want Nebraska in that kind of news story. I urge that we vote to retain
the repeal of the Nebraska death penalty that the Legislature passed in 2015 by
a wide margin.
Delores Maycock, Omaha
(source: Letter to the Editor, Omaha World-Herald)
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