April 14
TEXAS:
Department of Criminal Justice should permit clergy in execution chamber
Whatever Texans think of the death penalty – and most vigorously support it –
we've never questioned the right of condemned prisoners to have a clergy member
in the execution chamber.
Never, until last week, when the Texas Department of Criminal Justice started
an unnecessary, constitutionally shaky, and mean-spirited policy that bans all
clergy from the chamber.
The change in execution policies followed a 7-2 vote by the U.S. Supreme Court
to stay the execution of Texas Death Row prisoner Patrick Murphy, 57. Murphy,
who became a Buddhist almost a decade ago on Death Row, was scheduled to die by
lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville.
Texas had denied Murphy's request to have a Buddhist clergy member next to him
at the moment of execution. Before, TDCJ allowed its own chaplains in the
execution chamber. The department, however, employs only Christian and Muslim
clergy, raising the constitutional issue of religious discrimination.
Now, to circumvent the Supreme Court ruling, the department won't allow clergy
of any faith in the execution chamber. The new policy will affect mostly
Christians, who make up the vast majority of Texas' nearly 150,000 prisoners.
Courts will determine whether the department's new policy conforms to the
constitution, or unlawfully restricts religious freedom. Either way, Texas made
a short-sighted decision. It could have easily resolved this case by hiring a
Buddhist chaplain, or spiritual advisor, to perform last rites at Murphy's
execution.
Doing so would have enabled the state to move forward, without delay, with
Murphy's execution. Now, the state will have to wait until the appellate courts
hear Murphy's appeal.
A one-time contract with a Buddhist chaplain probably would cost the state
nothing. Ken Goldberg, chaplain of the Buddhist Center of Dallas, told the
Herald-Press editorial page he would perform the service without charge. He
already attends to dying hospital patients.
TDCJ could apply the same rigorous accreditation standards and background
checks to a contract with Goldberg, or another Buddhist chaplain, that it does
for its own clergy.
Instead of resolving the problem in a simple and humane way, the state decided
to, in effect, stand the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th amendment on its
head.
Murphy will elicit little public sympathy. After breaking out of a
maximum-security prison in 2000, he and six other escapees, known as the “Texas
7,” robbed a sporting goods store. During the robbery, a police officer was
shot and killed. Murphy, who acted as a lookout in the getaway vehicle, was
convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death.
But this isn't about Murphy. It's about the constitutional protection of
religious freedom and rights for everyone, even condemned prisoners.
For Christian inmates, the presence of a clergy in their final moment
recognizes the state of Texas has rendered its judgment — now, another judgment
awaits them. That's a moment the state should relinquish to a higher power, and
the U.S. constitution.
(source: Editorial; Palestine Herald-Press)
NORTH CAROLINA:
David Godwin guilty of 1st degree murder in death of Morehead City
woman----Both sides rest case in Godwin murder trial
A Carteret County jury has found David Godwin guilty of 1st degree murder in
the gruesome death of a Morehead City woman.
Jurors deliberated about 90 minutes Saturday afternoon.
Godwin has been standing trial for the July 4, 2016 killing of 37-year-old
Wendy Tamagne.
The woman's body was found in trash bags inside her Morehead City apartment.
The Newport man was found guilty on all counts. Those included 1st degree
murder with malice, premeditation, and deliberation; 1st degree felony murder
by means of robbery with a dangerous weapon; 1st degree felony murder by means
of common law robbery; 1st degree felony murder by means of felonious
dismemberment or destroying of human remains; and 1st degree murder by lying in
wait.
Prosecutors will now ask the same jury to give Godwin the death penalty.
The man's lawyers said the case was not about who killed the woman, but why.
Several of their witnesses testified that Godwin suffered from mental health
issues.
(source: WITN news)
TENNESSEE:
My stepfather killed my mother, but he shouldn't die for it ----Don Johnson has
become one of my last connections to my mother, and his execution, scheduled
for May 16, will not feel like justice to me.
When I was 7 years old, my mother was murdered in Memphis, and my life changed
forever. My brother and I moved in with my aunt while my stepfather was
convicted of my mother’s murder and sentenced to death.
From that point forward, my closest companion has been my anger toward my
stepfather. Every milestone of mine that my mother missed—my 1st date, my prom
night, my wedding day, the births of my children—only made me hate my
stepfather more. I strongly supported the death penalty because I believed he
deserved it.
Since the 1984 murder, time and time again, execution dates were scheduled and
then stayed, each time feeling like a slap in the face and upending any
progress I had made.
How I learned to connect with death row inmate Don Johnson
A few years ago, I had the opportunity to visit my stepfather for the 1st time
on death row. After almost 30 years of being trapped in my own hell that he had
caused, I was prepared to let him have it – and I did. I sat down in front of
him, shaking with anger and fear, and words flowed out of me that I thought I’d
never say.
Tears I forgot were inside me poured out as I threw every trouble and pain I’d
experienced for 3 decades on him.
That day, after the end of my tirade, I realized something I had never
considered before: all the hate that I had been carrying was only destroying
me. What I really needed to heal was to let all that anger go.
And maybe I did, or maybe God took it from me. Whatever happened, I don’t carry
it anymore. I’m finally free.
(source: Opinion; Cynthia Vaughn, The Tennessean)
MISSOURI:
Death row inmate deserves no sympathy
It never ceases to amaze us that, quite often, when a death row inmate is about
to be executed, he or she argues the method planned to be used to end his or
her life amounts to cruel and unusual punishment.
This is obviously a last-ditch effort – after years and years of appeals, often
on the taxpayers’ dime – to spare their lives or at least delay execution, but
we simply do not buy it.
We often ask ourselves when we hear of these criminals pleading for their
lives: What about the cruel and unusual punishment that their victims went
through? Didn’t the person they murdered, raped or tortured to death experience
cruel and unusual punishment?
Of course they did. It was cruel and unusual punishment committed against them
by these criminals. Those also suffering cruel and unusual punishment as a
result of these convicted murderers are the victims’ families. Many wait
decades for justice for their loved ones who were senselessly taken from them.
Some don’t live long enough because the appeals process takes so long.
This is very sad for them, in our opinion. They often can’t receive any closure
until they know that the monster who killed their loved one is no longer
living.
Consider the case of death row inmate Russell Bucklew in Missouri. He has been
on death row since 1996 for the rape and murder of a woman. For 23 years, the
family of the victim has waited for justice to be done. Bucklew and his
attorneys have tied up his death penalty case all this time, recently taking
their argument all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Bucklew’s attorneys did not dispute that Bucklew committed the crime; instead,
they argued before the high court that he has a rare medical condition called
cavernous hemangioma, which causes blood-filled tumors to grow around his head
and neck and that using lethal injection would cause Bucklew pain during the
execution, thereby resulting in cruel and unusual punishment.
It was clear that this very weak and desperate argument was a last-ditch effort
to save this cold-blooded killer’s life.
We didn’t buy it, and thankfully the majority of the high court didn’t buy it.
In a 5-4 vote, the majority said the Constitution’s prohibition on cruel and
unusual punishment does not mean that executions must be painless.
Justice Neil Gorsuch also concluded that under the court’s precedents in two
previous cases, Bucklew is required to present an alternative method of
execution that is feasible, readily implemented and likely to reduce the
chances of extreme pain.
Bucklew, whose lawyers suggested the largely untested method of nitrogen
asphyxiation as an alternative to lethal injection, failed to meet those
burdens, Gorsuch said. Alabama, Oklahoma and Mississippi have approved the use
of nitrogen asphyxiation, but it remains experimental.
In a dissent, Justice Stephen Breyer, joined by his fellow liberals, wrote that
the majority’s requirements could permit states to execute those who will
endure pain similar to that inflicted by burning at the stake.
To suggest that putting someone to death through the means of lethal injection
is comparable to being burned at the stake is a huge stretch, and frankly is a
rather ridiculous comment to make.
The majority of the high court got it right in this case.
Bucklew had choices in life, like we all do. In 1996, he made the choice to
rape and murder a woman. He showed her no mercy or sympathy on that day, but 23
years later he asks for sympathy.
He doesn’t deserve one ounce of mercy or sympathy. He chose his path in life.
He showed his victim very cruel and unusual punishment, and if he receives it
he is most certainly deserving of it.
(source: Editorial, Bowling Green (KY) Daily News)
ARIZONA----new death sentence
Jury sentences Missouri man to death for 2 Arizona murders
A Missouri man convicted in the 2012 murders of his sister-in-law and her
boyfriend in Arizona has been sentenced to death.
Yavapai County Superior Court officials say a jury reached its verdict
Wednesday and lawyers for 35-year-old Kenneth Wayne Thompson have already filed
an appeal.
Jurors began deliberating March 30 whether Thompson should get life in prison
or the death penalty.
He has been convicted Feb. 20 on 2 counts of 1st-degree murder.
Prosecutors say Thompson used a hatchet and knife to kill Penelope Edwards and
Troy Dunn in March 2012 and then poured acid on the bodies and then set his
sister-in-law's Prescott Valley home on fire.
Jurors rejected arguments by Thompson's attorneys that his motive for the
slayings was rooted in his upbringing as a Scientologist.
(source: Associated Press)
OREGON:
2nd suspect faces murder in 2018 Hermiston slaying
A 2nd Hermiston man is on the hook for the 2018 shooting death of Erik
Navarrete.
Vincent Wesley David Shermantine, 29, faced charges Friday afternoon of murder,
1st-degree robbery, felon in possession of a firearm and unlawful use of a
weapon. District Attorney Dan Primus said Shermantine’s arraignment was Friday
at 1:15 p.m. in Hermiston.
According to the indictment, Shermantine and co-defendant David Edgar
Sommerville, 19, also of Hermiston, robbed Navarrete at gunpoint on June 4,
2018, and Sommerville in the course of the crime shot and killed Navarrete.
Hermiston police on Thursday identified Sommerville as a suspect. Shermantine
and Sommerville have been in the jail since late March on charges unrelated to
the homicide. Hermiston Police Chief Jason Edmiston said investigators
identified the pair as suspects before the arrests but had to wait for the
analysis of some evidence. He also said “there is a family relation” between
Shermantine and Navarrete.
Sommerville faces charges of 1st-degree robbery, unlawful use of a weapon,
murder and aggravated murder in Navarrete’s death. Aggravated murder is the
only crime in Oregon that carries the threat of the death penalty.
The governor’s office in 2011 placed a moratorium on executions, but district
attorneys sill have to consider capital punishment. Umatilla County has not had
an aggravated murder case since 2015. The seriousness of the charge requires
lawyers with the expertise to handle death penalty cases.
The court appointed two Portland-area lawyers to represent Sommerville:
Benjamin Kim and Steve Lindsey. They defended Edwin Lara, 31, who in January
2018 pleaded guilty to aggravated murder for the 2016 killing of 23-year-old
Kaylee Sawyer of Bend. Lara is serving a life sentence at Eastern Oregon
Correctional Institution, Pendleton.
Sommerville’s attorneys filed a request for the court to order the district
attorney’s office to allow inspections of evidence and provide copies of police
reports, recordings, photographs and more. Primus said his office has set a
meeting with Kim and Lindsey.
(source: East Oregonian)
WASHINGTON:
Let voters decide fate of death penalty
In reading former Department of Corrections Secretary Eldon Vale’s column in
the April 6 U-B, much of his objection to the death penalty was focused on
protecting staff who are participants in carrying out these executions.
I had first-hand knowledge as the administrative assistant for the Washington
State Penitentiary superintendent for the Westley Alan Dodd execution in 1993.
Dodd kidnapped and murdered 3 young boys in 1989. At that time, I as well as
other staff, were given the option of participating or bowing out with no
objection.
I believe justice is served when people such as Dodd are executed. Were I a
parent of one of these 3 young boys who were murdered by Dodd and knew he was
continuing to live, I believe I would think every day that he was living while
my little boy was dead. If that were so, justice would not have been served.
Executions fit the crime of what convicted killers deserve, but that is my
opinion.
I hope the legislators will pass this on to the public to let the voters
decided whether or not to retain executions in the state of Washington.
Jerry Davis
Walla Walla
(source: Letter to the Editor, Union-Bulletin)
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