March 28
KANSAS:
U.S. Supreme Court declines to review Gary Kleypas case, death sentence
stands----Kleypas convicted of murdering 20-year-old woman in Crawford County
The U.S. Supreme Court declined to review the case of Gary Kleypas leaving his
capital murder conviction and death sentence intact, Kansas Attorney General
Derek Schmidt said Monday.
The case will return to Kansas courts for further proceedings under the Kansas
death penalty statute, Schmidt said. Under both Kansas and federal law Kleypas
has options for judicial review through collateral proceedings.
Kleypas, 61, was convicted of murdering 20-year-old Pittsburg State University
student Carrie Williams in 1997 and sentenced to death in 1998.
Kleypas was the 1st person sentenced to death after Kansas reinstated the death
penalty in 1994.
The Kansas Supreme Court affirmed Kleypas' conviction, but overturned his death
sentence in 2001 and ordered a new sentencing hearing. In 2008, a 2nd jury
recommended a death sentence. The Kansas Supreme Court upheld that death
sentence in October 2016, Schmidt said.
Kleypas is imprisoned at El Dorado Correctional Facility, according to
corrections records.
Kansas has 10 inmates on death row but hasn't executed anyone in more than 1/2
a century.
(source: cjonline.com)
NEVADA:
ACLU Wants to End The Death Penalty
The Nevada ACLU is getting behind a bill that would ban the death penalty in
the state. The bill is AB 237. The ACLU argues, with no company willing to sell
the lethal drugs, executions are already stalled. They also say a capital case
costs taxpayers half a million dollars more than non death penalty cases.
(source: KOH news)
IDAHO:
IDOC investigates death of inmate
An inmate at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution who was subject to the
death penalty has died of apparent natural causes.
At 7:00 a.m. on Monday, a correctional officer found Zane Jack Fields
unresponsive in his cell. Staff performed CPR and called 911, but Fields was
declared dead at 8 a.m. He was 58 years old.
Fields had been sentenced to death for stabbing a woman during a robbery at a
Boise gift shop for stabbing a woman in Ada County on March 7, 1991.
Investigators from the Ada County Sheriff's Office processed Fields' cell as a
crime scene, and will determine the cause of death.
IMSI is a 516-bed maximum security prison for men south of Boise.
There are now 8 people on Idaho's death row.
(source: KXLY news)
USA:
Luck and the Death Penalty
In 2002, the playwright Arthur Miller wrote the brief essay below to help the
Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern's law school in its campaign to
abolish the death penalty in Illinois. In it, Miller described the case of
Peter Reilly, a teenager who was convicted in 1974 of brutally killing his
mother. The essay, previously unpublished, is featured in a new anthology,
"Anatomy of Innocence," which features the testimony of several wrongfully
convicted people - some of their stories written for the book by Lee Child,
Sara Paretsky and other high-profile authors.
It is a small town so everybody knew the boy. He was approaching eighteen but
he was slight, blond and soft-spoken so he was referred to as a boy. His
mildness made it hard for many to believe that he had butchered his mother even
after the State Police announced that he had made a confession. In fact, the
longer his trial went on, the fewer the folks who felt convinced of his guilt.
Still, strange things do happen and he was convicted and was actually in a car
on his way to the State Penitentiary when a group of residents raised enough
money - some even mortgaging their homes - to lodge an appeal, and he was
returned to the local jail. Basically a conservative community, many people
there had rather unwillingly come to believe that the confession had somehow
been forced out of him by the police.
At the hearing to decide whether to give him a new trial, things did not look
good; the 2nd judge seemed a fair and sympathetic listener but the defense, now
under a new lawyer, was required to produce new evidence, not easy to get hold
of. But several days into the hearing the state's attorney who had gotten the
boy convicted dropped dead on a golf course and a substitute prosecutor
immediately took his place and began studying his papers on the case.
In the files the substitute discovered an affidavit from a witness who swore
that he and his wife had seen the boy in another part of town at the very
moment his mother was being attacked and killed. This affidavit had been
withheld from evidence, never introduced into the original trial despite the
witness being a policeman who had known the boy and had not the slightest doubt
that he had recognized him. Introduced into the hearing the very next morning,
the affidavit blew the state's case out of the water and the boy was freed.
If the state of Connecticut had had a death penalty, the boy may well have been
executed. The boy's mother had been nearly eviscerated, savagely mauled, and
feelings of disgust and anger were aroused. Indeed, it was only the
adventitious death of the prosecutor that saved the boy from a long sentence in
a penitentiary that would probably have destroyed him, gentle and mild as he
was. Connecticut is not normally considered a benighted state but one with a
very high income level, and a large proportion of educated people. Yet this
travesty happened there.
Any honest supporter of the death penalty simply cannot avoid facing the high
probability of mistaken verdicts, of which there are indeed many in this
country. The nation's conscience forbids the state to kill innocent people. The
death penalty makes the presumption that there are never going to be corrupt,
ambitious, cowardly prosecutors and police who, afraid to admit they were wrong
in arresting a suspect, go down to the end insisting on his guilt; that there
are never honest mistakes in judgment, never any visual misidentifications, but
that in each and every prosecution the guilty verdict is invariably deserved.
The boy, Peter Reilly, regained his freedom in Litchfield County because a
prosecutor died at the propitious time and because his neighbors believed in
him, and outsiders were moved to come to his aid. The life of the innocent
cannot be allowed to depend on that much luck nor the states dishonored by
pretensions of infallibility in absolutely every capital case that comes before
its all but overwhelmed courts.
(source: New York Times)
***********************
Federal death-row inmate had mitigating circumstances when he killed state
trooper, witnesses say
A Vian man on federal death row had an extensive history of chemical
dependency, psychological disorders and cognitive impairment at the time he
shot an Oklahoma Highway Patrol trooper during a drug raid in 1999, an expert
witness said Monday.
Testimony began Monday morning in an evidentiary hearing in U.S. District Court
in Muskogee on behalf of 55-year-old Kenneth Eugene Barrett. The 10th U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals had said in 2015 that he was entitled to the hearing
to determine whether his attorneys were deficient during the penalty stage of
his 2005 federal trial.
6 witnesses took the stand Monday before U.S. Magistrate Steven Shreder, who
will preside over testimony until at least Thursday.
Barrett's defense attorneys, David Autry and Joan Fisher, have argued that his
trial counsel failed to adequately compile information about Barrett's life to
present to a jury as mitigating evidence. The 10th Circuit - seemingly echoing
that sentiment - wrote that the attorneys "apparently did little" in that
regard.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Chris Wilson and Jeffrey Kahan asked the 6 witnesses a
series of questions Monday in attempts to show that despite having support
around him had he chosen to change, Barrett decided to engage in behaviors that
led to his receiving a death sentence.
Monday's star witness, Dr. George Woods, told Autry it would be fair to
describe Barrett's upbringing as "chaotic, dysfunctional and abusive."
Woods, who evaluated Barrett in 2009 and earlier this year, said he concluded
that Barrett has bipolar disorder and believes that Barrett was self-medicating
through his use of methamphetamine.
The U.S. Attorney's Office said in a February filing that its medical expert
evaluated Barrett in January and concluded that he did not have a mental
illness. Woods disputed that, saying the evaluation didn't properly account for
Barrett's family history of mental-health issues.
Barrett, Woods said, had been subject to abuse even before he was born because
his mother - now deceased - drank while she was pregnant, which likely limited
his cognitive abilities. He said Barrett's mother struggled with alcoholism
while she tried to care for Barrett and his siblings as a single parent;
Barrett's father was not a regular presence.
"There appears to be a deterioration in his (Barrett's) mental state in the
weeks and perhaps even the days before this event in 1999," Woods said.
Prosecutors will cross-examine Woods on Tuesday morning.
Barrett was found guilty in federal court in 2005 of shooting Trooper David
"Rocky" Eales on Sept. 24, 1999, while Eales and others carried out a no-knock
search warrant overnight in search of methamphetamine at Barrett's cabin.
Trooper John "Buddy" Hamilton was seriously injured in the gunfire but
survived. Barrett was shot in the leg by another trooper.
Federal jurors also found Barrett guilty of 2 related weapons crimes, and he
was sentenced in September 2005 to death and 2 consecutive terms of life
without the possibility of parole.
4 of Barrett's family members, including his stepmother and brother, testified
about their belief that Barrett needed mental-health treatment years before the
shooting. They said he appeared to have significant mood swings and struggled
with feelings of abandonment brought on by his parents' divorce.
"His life seemed to be a little chaotic," Barrett's uncle, Mark Dotson, said of
Barrett's adolescence, adding that at least 1 relative wanted to help him stay
sober and healthy.
During cross-examination, Wilson noted the seriousness of Barrett's case.
"And you'd agree with me, obviously, that Mr. Barrett didn't change his
lifestyle?" Wilson asked.
"I would say no," Dotson replied.
Barrett had faced murder and shooting-with-intent-to-kill charges in Sequoyah
County, but jurors returned guilty verdicts in February 2004 on lesser offenses
of 1st-degree manslaughter and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon. A
judge sentenced Barrett to 30 years in state prison, but he has been housed at
the U.S. penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana, on the federal convictions since
2005.
Several of the witnesses on Monday said they weren't approached by Barrett's
trial attorneys to testify in his 2005 federal proceedings but said they would
have detailed Barrett's mental health history if asked.
"There was so much mitigating evidence in this case," said attorney Jack
Gordon, who worked with Barrett during his 2004 state trial. Gordon became
emotional multiple times as he described how he thinks the mitigation case on
Barrett's behalf wasn't complete for either his state or federal trials.
He said 1 of Barrett's state attorneys worked on the federal case until he "got
sick of" having inadequate financial compensation from the court and a lack of
effort from his federal co-counsel. Once that attorney withdrew from the case,
Gordon said, no one working on Barrett's behalf contacted him until after his
appellate attempts began.
Barrett has a pending motion to vacate his conviction and sentence based on new
U.S. Supreme Court precedent. The Supreme Court in October declined to review
his case.
(source: Tulsa World)
********************
Challenging the Death Penalty in the South
"I understand this is a controversial issue but what isn't controversial is the
evidence that led to my decision," Florida state prosecutor Aramis Ayala said
this month as she announced she would not seek the death penalty for cases in
the Orange-Osceola jurisdiction where she was recently elected to serve as
Florida's first African-American state prosecutor.
The state's death penalty -- which was found unconstitutional by the Florida
Supreme Court in 2016 -- was reinstated just days before Ayala's March 16
announcement when Gov. Rick Scott (R) signed legislation requiring a unanimous
jury to sentence someone to death. Following Ayala's announcement, Scott
removed her from the high-profile murder case of Markeith Lloyd, who is accused
of killing his pregnant ex-girlfriend and an on-duty police officer. Scott is
reportedly also considering removing Ayala from her position.
Ayala is challenging in circuit court Scott's decision to take her off the
Lloyd case while standing by her own decision. "There is no evidence that shows
the death penalty improves public safety for citizens or law enforcement," she
said, "and it's costly and drags on for years for the victims' families."
Ayala cited an FBI report that found the South has the highest murder rate
while also performing 80 % of all executions, indicating the death penalty is
no deterrent.
The South also has the highest number of death-row exonerations, raising
serious concerns about executions of innocent people. Of the 157 people who
have been exonerated from death row since 1976, 81 are from the South overall
while 26 are from Florida alone.
Since 1999, death penalty sentences have dropped dramatically nationwide, but a
disproportionate number of those executions have taken place in the South. Of
the 20 executions in the US in 2016, 19 of them took place in just 4 Southern
states: Alabama, Florida, Georgia and Texas.
Of the 13 Southern states, only 1 -- West Virginia -- does not impose capital
punishment; it abolished its death penalty law in 1965. There are currently
over 1,400 people on death row in the South. Florida has the most at 400, but
over half of them may be eligible for resentencing because of the state Supreme
Court's ruling.
Arkansas, which has 36 people on death row, has not executed anyone since 2005
because of legal appeals on behalf of the inmates. The state also faces a
shortage of lethal-injection drugs. After being petitioned by Attorney General
Leslie Rutledge, Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R) decided to make use of the eight
remaining doses before they expire at the end of April; the state now plans to
execute eight men over 10 days next month. While Hutchinson has said the eight
men have exhausted their legal appeals, the state ACLU calls it a reckless plan
that could result in state-sanctioned torture before death. The Arkansas
Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty and other groups will hold a town hall
meeting this week on what it's calling a "historic mass execution."
Tennessee, which has 72 people on death row, also lacks the drugs necessary to
carry out lethal injections, resulting in a de facto moratorium since 2009.
South Carolina too has had trouble securing lethal-injection drugs.
Meanwhile, in every Southern state with the death penalty activists are working
to abolish it. They include civil rights activists who focus on the system's
racial bias, faith leaders who view the work as part of their ministry, and
even family members of victims who seek closure but not vengeance.
The controversies surround the death penalty have led to legislation that's
currently being considered in several Southern states:
The only state that does not require a unanimous jury verdict to impose a death
sentence, Alabama also allows judges to override a jury's recommendation of a
life sentence and replace it with a death sentence. The state Senate recently
voted to do away with the judicial override, and state House members will take
up the matter when they return to the capitol next month.
Earlier this year, the Mississippi legislature considered a bill that would
have brought back the gas chamber and firing squad as legal execution methods,
but it was defeated in the Senate. The state ACLU vehemently opposed the
measure.
Executions in Tennessee have been on hold since 2009 because of ongoing legal
challenges. A bill filed earlier this year would expedite the death penalty
appeals process by bypassing the Court of Criminal Appeals and sending appeals
straight to the Supreme Court.
In Texas, which has executed more people than any other state, a bill
introduced earlier this month in the legislature would end the death penalty
for people with severe mental illness. Lawmakers in 7 other states including
North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia have either introduced such legislation
or announced that they plan to do so.
(source: truth-out.org)
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