Oct. 11
TEXAS:
Texas will see lowest number of executions in 20 years
For the 1st time in 20 years, the number of Texas executions will fall out of
double digits this year.
The 7 men put to death this year are the fewest since 1996, when executions
halted amid legal challenges to a new state law intended to hasten the death
penalty appeals process, according to data from the Texas Department of
Criminal Justice. Only 1 more execution is scheduled for 2016.
"There is clearly a change going on in Texas," said Robert Dunham, executive
director of the Death Penalty Information Center.
Judges and appellate courts rescheduled or stopped executions 15 times for 11
people in 2016. At least 2 judges on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals have
said better lawyering by defense attorneys - including bringing forward better
arguments and challenging "junk science" convictions - has contributed to the
recent stays.
The state's highest criminal court sent multiple cases back to trial courts
this year to resolve claims relating to potentially faulty evidence, including
that of Jeff Wood, who didn't pull the trigger in a murder and claims his
sentencing trial was tainted by misleading testimony from a highly criticized
psychiatrist nicknamed "Dr. Death."
"Texas courts are now aware of the dangers associated with forensic sciences
and are closely scrutinizing this evidence," said Greg Gardner, a capital
defense attorney who represents John Battaglia, the man scheduled for the last
execution of the year for killing his 2 daughters.
2 death penalty cases pending in the U.S. Supreme Court could also be affecting
decisions on setting execution dates, Dunham said. Duane Buck and Bobby Moore
are currently fighting their death sentences in the nation's highest court.
Some experts think the enforcement of the death penalty - carrying out
executions - is an indicator of the status of the punishment.
"Looking at the number of executions as a measure of the usage of the death
penalty, it shows the death penalty is declining in Texas," Dunham said. "I
think even more importantly in the long term is that new death sentences
continue to be low. That means there will be fewer and fewer people on the row
subject to execution in the future."
The number of new sentences dropped significantly after 2005, when life without
parole became the alternative for jurors in death penalty trials, but the past
2 years have seen even lower numbers. Texas counties have sentenced 3 men to
death this year, and only 2 received the penalty last year, according to TDCJ.
Robert Kepple, executive director of the Texas District and County Attorneys
Association, said the answer may be as simple as fewer murders.
"Could it simply mean there are a lot less murders in Texas these last 15
years, so naturally the number of death-eligible defendants is way down as
well?" he said in an email. "That, coupled with life without parole option,
means less death penalties."
Murder rates in Texas steadily decreased from 1996 to 2013, dropping from 7.7
to 4.4 murders per 100,000 people, according to FBI crime data. The rate
increased slightly the next 2 years.
Aside from lower murder rates, national support for the death penalty is also
declining, according to a recent poll by Pew Research Center. Just under 1/2 of
Americans support the punishment, the lowest number in four decades. The poll
did not highlight Texas in its report.
While Texas is seeing a record low in executions, the country's dip is even
larger. Nationwide, there have been 16 executions, the fewest in 25 years,
according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
The decrease in Texas plays a major role in the national scope - the state
usually accounts for the largest share of the country's executions - but issues
with finding and using lethal injection drugs and a U.S. Supreme Court ruling
that invalidated Florida's death sentencing process have affected the numbers
as well, Dunham said.
In Texas, there are currently 243 men and women on death row, the lowest in
almost 30 years, according to the Bureau of Criminal Justice Statistics. The
number peaked at 460 in 1999 and has been steadily dropping since.
Experts were unsure if the drop in executions and new sentences would continue
in the future. The numbers seem to ebb and flow, Kepple said.
(source: KHOU news)
******************
Texas bishops call for abolition of death penalty
"Capital punishment vitiates our hearts' capacity for mercy and love," the
Texas bishops said in a statement released by the Texas Catholic Conference in
Austin. "The death penalty not only does not correspond to the common good, it
actually does great harm to it."
The Catholic bishops of Texas Oct. 10 called for the abolition of the death
penalty, denouncing its effects not only on victims and others immediately
affected, but also on society.
"Capital punishment vitiates our hearts' capacity for mercy and love," the
bishops said in a statement released by the Texas Catholic Conference in
Austin. "The death penalty not only does not correspond to the common good, it
actually does great harm to it."
The statement, released on the World Day Against the Death Penalty, comes at a
time when support of the death penalty among Americans - including Texans - is
declining.
Survey results released Sept. 29 by the Pew Research Center showed that
Americans' support for the death penalty is the lowest it has been in more than
4 decades. It said only 49 % of Americans currently favor the death penalty for
people convicted of murder. That's a drop from 56 % who said in March 2015 that
they supported it. The new survey shows 42 % of Americans now oppose the death
penalty.
In Texas in 2015, 56 % of people surveyed said they supported the death penalty
for convicted murderers, down from 75 % in 1993.
The bishops' statement also served as their annual address to Texas Catholics
during Respect Life Month, observed by the U.S. Catholic Church every October.
The month offers Catholics an opportunity to "reflect on the precious gift of
life and recommit ourselves to working toward a culture that truly welcomes and
protects human life in our society," the Texas bishops wrote.
"This year we bishops draw particular attention to our consistent call for the
abolition of the death penalty in Texas, as we recognize this is undeniably a
pro-life issue," they said.
In their statement, the bishops cited several ways they said carrying out the
death penalty inflicts harm:
-- Capital punishment "is used disproportionately on the poor, minorities and
people with mental disabilities.
-- Costs involved in capital punishment cases "are 3 times" that of cases in
which the convicted are sentenced to life imprisonment.
-- The "finality of death" does not allow for rehabilitation of prisoners, nor
does it provide "consolation for victims' families."
-- Studies have shown that states have executed innocent people and that crime
rates are not affected by a state's use of the death penalty.
"The death penalty negatively influences our children's moral formation and our
culture as it fails to allow for mercy and redemption," the bishops said.
"Our call to abolish the death penalty is not a call to deny justice," they
wrote. "On the contrary, it is a call to the whole community to recognize that
the death penalty does not fulfill justice, nor does it console the
inconsolable."
A news release said the Texas Catholic Conference, which is the bishops' public
policy arm, will be working in the upcoming session of the Texas Legislature to
improve the rights of jurors serving in death penalty sentencing cases.
According to Jennifer Carr Allmon, the conference's executive director, Texas
law "is intentionally misleading as it requires judges and attorneys to lie to
jurors about the level of unanimity required for a death sentence."
"While we will continue our efforts to end the use of the death penalty in
Texas, this legislation will at least improve the fairness of the current
system," she said in a statement.
Fewer Texas juries are giving death sentences than at any time in the past 2
decades, the Catholic conference said. Texas's highest court for criminal cases
- the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals - has granted a high number of reprieves
over the past 2 years, it said, because of concerns "about the fairness and
accuracy of death penalty convictions."
Texas has the highest rate of executions of any state. This year, the state
will carry out its lowest number of executions since 1996.
(source: cruxnow.com)
**************
Texas Ends 6-Month Streak Without Executions
Last week, the Lone Star State concluded a record-breaking gap in executions,
reports The Houston Press.
Before last Wednesday, the State of Texas had gone 6 months without putting
anyone to death. That's the longest stretch without an execution since 2008.
Back then, a moratorium had been called while the U.S. Supreme Court considered
the legality of lethal injections.
It's now been 40 years since SCOTUS reinstated the death penalty in 1976.
Kathryn Kase is Executive Director for the Texas Defender Service. She has
pointed to several death-penalty cases in which serious questions remain about
whether the punishment is appropriate. Kase said there seems to be greater and
greater questioning of capital punishment in Texas. "I just get this increasing
sense that this is hitting people, at all levels," she said.
(source: hppr.org)
FLORIDA:
Donald Smith scheduled for hearing in Cherish Perrywinkle death; trial faces
likely delays
Donald James Smith is scheduled to go on trial Jan. 17 in the abduction, rape
and strangulation of 8-year-old Cherish Perrywinkle.
But the chances of actually starting on time are increasingly remote. It's
possible Smith's trial will be indefinitely delayed Tuesday during a pretrial
hearing in front of Senior Circuit Judge Mallory Cooper because of uncertainty
over the status of the death penalty in Florida.
Prosecutors are seeking to put Smith on death row, but the death penalty is in
a moratorium as the Florida Supreme Court seeks to determine the
constitutionality of the state's new sentencing procedure and guidelines for
how juries should be instructed in such cases.
Until that happens, judges will be reluctant to move forward with any
death-penalty trials out of concern that any verdict would be overturned on
appeal.
It also is unclear whether the lead prosecutor, Assistant State Attorney Mark
Caliel, will still be a prosecutor when the case goes to trial. Caliel and
Assistant State Attorney's Patricia Dodson and Bernie de la Rionda comprise the
senior management team that help run the office for State Attorney Angela
Corey. Corey lost her re-election bid Aug. 30 to former Assistant State
Attorney Melissa Nelson and will be out of office the 1st week of January.
Nelson has not said whether the top people in Corey's office will keep their
jobs, but if she decides not to retain Caliel or if he decides he doesn't want
to work for Nelson, it will likely take another prosecutor months to get up to
speed on the case.
Nelson, who has told the Times-Union she will not comment on any pending cases
before taking office, also could seek a plea deal that waives the death penalty
in return for Smith pleading guilty to the crime.
Cooper also recently ruled that recordings of conversations Smith had with
another man facing death row, Randall Deviney, can be used in Smith's trial.
Caliel said the 2 men began communicating with each other via a pipe chase - a
tunnel-like space for hiding pipes or to run electrical conduit - that existed
between their t2cells. Both men were being kept in isolation and weren't
supposed to talk with other inmates.
When police and prosecutors were tipped off that the 2 were talking, a
recording device was put in the pipe chase.
Deviney later said he had information on another murder Smith committed and
offered to tell prosecutors if they let him avoid death row. Prosecutors for
both Deviney and Smith said they weren't interested.
Prosecutors say Smith befriended Cherish, her mother and siblings at a Dollar
General store in June 2013 and convinced them to go to Wal-Mart on Lem Turner
Road in his van after offering to buy them clothes and food.
Perrywinkle told police that Smith offered to buy the family hamburgers at the
McDonald's inside the Wal-Mart. Cherish went with him to get the food, and they
did not return.
Cherish's body was found near a creek off Broward Road the next morning.
(source: Florida Times-Union)
NEW YORK:
Death Row Inmate Describes Exoneration by DNA Evidence, Prison Reform Activism
"My name is Kirk Bloodsworth, and I'm the 1st person in the United States to be
freed by post-conviction DNA testing from a capital conviction. I spent a total
of 8 years, 10 months and 19 days in prison for a brutal crime I did not
commit."
With these words, Bloodsworth opened his talk in Myron Taylor Hall Thursday,
speaking to students in a Psychology and Law class taught by Prof. Valerie
Hans, law, and Prof. Jeffrey Rachlinski, law. Hans cited Bloodsworth's case as
exemplary case of issues with witness identification, police work and human
perception.
Bloodsworth described his life as a crab fisherman in Cambridge, Md. before his
imprisonment, as well as the events leading up to Aug. 9, 1985 - the day police
officers arrested him for the murder and rape of 9-year-old Dawn Hamilton,
whose body had been found several months earlier.
"I opened the door, lights are shining in my face. I hear, 'Step outside, Mr.
Bloodsworth. You're under arrest for the murder of Dawn Hamilton, you son of a
bitch,'" he said. "By the time it hit the news in The Baltimore Sun the next
day, I became the most hated man in the state of Maryland, if not the nation."
Detailing his interrogation by police, the evidence presented against him
during his trial and the nearly nine years he spent in prison, Bloodsworth
pointed out various errors and incidents of misconduct on the part of law
officials on his case. These included the lack of any physical evidence linking
him to the crime and a heavy reliance on eyewitness testimonies from 5 people -
2 of whom were young boys under the age of 10, whose initial descriptions did
not resemble him.
"This and many other things were falling through the cracks of the criminal
justice system and I was the one who fell along with them," he said.
Throughout the judicial process, Bloodsworth maintained his innocence to anyone
who would listen, but he said his protests fell on deaf ears.
"After 2 weeks [of trial] on March 27, 1985, the gavel came down on my life and
my sentence was life," he said. "The courtroom erupted in applause. They
shouted, 'Give him the gas, kill his ass!' People were laughing at my mother
and father in the front pew, laughing at me."
Bloodsworth spent the next 9 years in Maryland Penitentiary - 2 of them on
death row - where he said he received particularly brutal treatment from other
inmates due to the nature of the crime of which he had been convicted.
"When that 300-pound door slammed shut, my life was over," he said. "All they
wanted me to do was die. Somehow I had to figure out how to live."
When he wasn't writing letters - always signed 'Kirk Noble Bloodsworth, A.I.M.'
(An Innocent Man) - Bloodsworth spent a large amount of his time in prison
reading. He said he was struck by an idea after reading an account of a murder
case in England, in which DNA evidence was used to convict a perpetrator.
"That is where I had my epiphany," Bloodsworth said. "If [DNA] can convict you,
then why can???t it free me?"
Bloodsworth cited the difficulty of requesting a DNA comparison as another
shortcoming of the justice system. After he asked for access to the DNA
evidence, the original prosecutor informed him that the evidence had been
inadvertently destroyed.
"Something dawned on me at the point," Bloodsworth said. "I figured they just
didn't know were it was. And your life should not be relegated to a treasure
hunt."
When Bloodsworth's lawyer eventually found the DNA, he said he was released
from prison in 1993 and granted a full pardon.
Bloodsworth also discussed his activist work and involvement in instigating
death penalty reform around the country. He has been instrumental in the
abolishment of the death penalty in numerous states, according to Hans, and
currently serves as a board member of a Pennsylvania commission dedicated to
exonerating wrongly convicted individuals.
"My life has been changed indelibly by this. I've been in front of Congress. I
have a DNA law in my name, and we're trying to get that reauthorized. I've
helped to abolish the death penalty in my home state," Bloodsworth said. "I
wanted to kill the thing that almost killed me."
In a discussion with the class after the talk, Bloodsworth suggested ways in
which students can take part in prison reform and death penalty repeal
activism. These include supporting innocence projects around the United States,
conducting letter-writing campaigns and simply breaking the silence associated
with the subject.
"You must stand up for life," he said. "You have to stand up for what's right
in this world. You have to get up, sit up, hold your head up and never give
up."
Thursday's guest lecture marked Bloodsworth's 10th visit to Cornell.
(source: The Cornell Sun)
ALABAMA:
Sentencing for Henry County murder suspect to start Tuesday
The sentencing phase for a Dothan man recently convicted of multiple counts of
capital murder will begin Tuesday at the Henry County Courthouse in Abbeville.
A Henry County jury found 21-year-old Justice Knight guilty of 3 counts of
capital murder late last month. The jury found Knight guilty in the 2014
shooting death of Jarvis Daffin. The jury found Knight guilty of capital murder
during a robbery, capital murder during a kidnapping and capital murder during
the shooting of a vehicle.
During the sentencing phase of the trial, jurors hear evidence from the state
in support of the death penalty, and evidence from the defense in support of a
life without parole sentence.
Jurors must recommend the sentence for Knight from either the death penalty or
life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Prosecutors alleged during the week-long trial that Knight conspired to kill
Daffin in order to take his tax refund money. District Attorney Doug Valeska
said Knight and another man, Antwain "Duke" Wingard, participated in the
murder. However, prosecutors said evidence indicates Knight is the trigger man.
Knight's attorney, Shaun McGhee, argued that Knight was present but did not
participate in the murder and that prosecution witnesses had favorable
connections to Wingard and were motivated to point the finger at Knight.
Capital murder charges against Wingard are pending.
(source: Dothan Eagle)
OHIO:
Pew Survey Shows Lowest Public Support For Death Peanlty In 4 Decades
The state has scheduled a December 1 clemency hearing for the 1st inmate
scheduled for execution next year with a new lethal injection cocktail.
In 2013, the Ohio Parole Board voted against clemency for Ronald Phillips.
Meanwhile, A new survey by Pew Research shows 50 % of Americans do not support
capital punishment, the lowest number in 4 decades. Kristin Collins with the
Center for Death Penalty Litigation says with more than 150 people on death row
exonerated in recent years, including 9 in Ohio, shifting opinion often starts
with a broken system.
The survey shows that while support has declined across the political spectrum,
Republicans favor the death penalty by more than 2-to-1, compared with
Democrats. Collins says people are beginning to understand a life sentence is
not the "country club" atmosphere sometimes portrayed in movies.
There are 137 men and 1 woman currently on Ohio's death row.
(source: WCBE news)
ARKANSAS:
Lawmakers told to not look for new Arkansas execution method
The Arkansas attorney general's office warned legislators Monday not to explore
alternative execution methods after the state's lethal injection protocol and
execution secrecy law were found constitutional by Arkansas' high court.
The House Judiciary Committee heard a proposal for an interim study on hypoxia
- replacing the oxygen in a person's lungs with an inert gas like nitrogen - as
a backup method for executions. But the committee decided not to vote after the
attorney general's legislative director, Cory Cox, advised members to "let
sleeping dogs lie."
Cox said the office doesn't think it's necessary to pursue alternatives after
the Arkansas Supreme Court's ruling.
"We were curious, if we have a constitutional method of lethal injection, why
we would re-litigate that," he told the committee, saying an alternative method
could create new reasons for litigation. "We would caution as the attorneys for
the state that anything that might look as throwing doubt on what has been
declared as constitutional by the state Supreme Court could be problematic."
Supporters of the study said lethal drug supplies are drying up and new
approaches to executing death row inmates should be studied in case the state
runs out of options to obtain the drugs.
Rep. Mary Broadaway, who requested the study, said she doesn't generally
support the death penalty but thinks it's appropriate for Arkansas to "start
looking at other options" if lethal drugs become unavailable.
"This is not a referendum on the death penalty," said the Democrat from
Paragould in northeast Arkansas. "What this is about is Arkansas at this time
has chosen to have a death penalty and there has been a trend around the United
States with having problems implementing the death penalty."
The state's current execution law allows either a 1-drug barbiturate method for
lethal injection or a 3-drug method of midazolam to sedate the inmate,
vecuronium bromide to paralyze the lungs and stop the inmate's breathing, and
potassium chloride to stop the heart. The law states that if lethal injection
is ruled invalid, the state shall use electrocution to carry out death
sentences.
Attorneys for the inmates who brought the challenge of the law have until Oct.
19 to file a petition asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review the state Supreme
Court's split decision from June.
(source: Associated Press)
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