July 31
PENNSYLVANIA:
A new state grant program will help poor defendants in capital punishment
cases. Why aren’t reformers satisfied?
For the first time ever, Pennsylvania lawmakers have set aside state funds to
represent poor criminal defendants facing the death penalty.
The only problem, according to criminal justice advocates? It’s not nearly
enough money.
In June, tucked into a piece of budget legislation known as the fiscal code,
lawmakers approved a $500,000 allocation to reimburse counties for costs of
indigent criminal defense in capital cases.
The money will be distributed through a grant program administered by the
Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency.
Drew Crompton, a top lawyer for Senate Republicans, said this year’s allocation
is “in the spirit” of a 2018 recommendation from the Joint State Government
Commission, which found in a study of Pennsylvania’s death penalty that the
state didn’t provide sufficient resources for poor, or indigent, defendants.
While the $500,000 grant program might not cover all costs related to indigent
defense in capital cases, Crompton said, it could lead to larger investments in
the future.
“I don’t think we were looking to offset every dollar of capital cases,”
Crompton told the Capital-Star on Monday. “We’re just going to have to see how
the program works.”
Under the sixth amendment of the U.S. Constitution, anyone charged with a crime
is entitled to a lawyer. If a defendant is too poor to hire one, a court will
assign a public defender to their case.
Pennsylvania is the only state in the country that doesn’t allocate general
funds for indigent defense, according to a 2011 study by the Joint State
Government Commission. Those costs are borne entirely by the state’s 67
counties, which each maintain their own public defender’s office.
The system “is particularly burdensome to the poorer counties, which must
contend with the dual handicap of scant resources and high crime rates,” the
report reads.
Last year, an investigation by Keystone Crossroads found that those problems
had hardly improved. In addition to wide spending disparities among counties,
reporters found that the caseload for public defenders had risen, even as crime
has fallen across the state.
Phyllis Subin, a former public defender who now heads the Pennsylvania
Coalition for Justice in Philadelphia, has long called on Pennsylvania to
direct state funds to indigent defense. A $500,000 earmark for capital murder
cases, she says, isn’t nearly enough to ensure fair representation for the
state’s poor defendants.
“It’s a small and … an unrealistic appropriation,” Subin said. “This is pretty
much a drop in the bucket of what’s really needed in terms of appropriate and
systemic change.”
Marc Bookman, a lawyer and director of the Atlantic Center for Capital
Representation, an anti-death penalty legal aid group based in Philadelphia,
put it another way.
“Imagine there’s a terrible drought across Pennsylvania and the Legislature
decides to address the problem by opening up a lemonade stand in Harrisburg,”
Bookman said. “That’s what they’ve done here to address the state-wide problem
with capital punishment.”
Both advocates argue that a reimbursement program won’t encourage counties to
invest more in indigent defense, since they’ll only be able to claim money
they’ve already spent. Counties also can’t count on grants if demand for the
funds exceeds supply.
Crompton said there’s no guarantee that a county will recoup the money it
spends on a capital defense case. But he thinks the grant fund “will allow
counties some freedom” in crafting defense strategies.
While it’s hard to say how much the average capital punishment case costs in
Pennsylvania, cases in which prosecutors seek the death penalty are generally
among the most expensive to litigate, according to Vic Walczak, legal director
for the ACLU of Pennsylvania, which opposes the death penalty.
Defendants facing the death penalty need two lawyers, Walczak said: one to lead
them through the trial, and another to represent them during sentencing.
The cases are also subject to multiple rounds of costly appeals. What’s more,
prosecutors and defense attorneys often enlist multiple expert witnesses to
testify in court.
Walczak said public defenders have to consider the cost of these witnesses as
they build their cases. For that reason, he’d prefer a program that offsets
defense costs throughout the duration of a case, as opposed to one that offers
reimbursements after the fact.
In Northampton County, taxpayers have spent $80,000 litigating charges against
Dekota Baptiste, an indigent defendant who was convicted of 1st-degree murder
in May, the Morning Call reported Monday.
Prosecutors seeking the death penalty have paid more than $25,000 for expert
witnesses, including a psychiatrist and a forensic pathologist.
The county public defender’s office, meanwhile, has spent $50,000 representing
Baptiste. That covered two court-appointed lawyers, a private investigator, and
a ballistics analyst, among other expert witnesses.
Despite the mounting costs, the Baptiste case is so far the cheapest death
penalty case that Northampton County has litigated this decade, according to a
Morning Call analysis of county court records.
Since 2011, the costs in 4 separate capital murder cases have totaled between
$90,000 and $143,000.
Even if prosecutors secure a death sentence for Baptiste, there’s little chance
that Gov. Tom Wolf will sign off on it. Wolf, a Democrat, declared a moratorium
on executions when he took office in 2015.
The last execution in Pennsylvania was in 1999, according to the Death Penalty
Information Center, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit.
Nonetheless, Pennsylvania prosecutors sought the death penalty in 33 capital
cases last year, Walczak said.
The Joint State Government Commission estimated in 2018 that 80 % of defendants
facing the death penalty are indigent. Given the cost of their cases, Walczak
fears the General Assembly’s allocation may only cover defense costs for a
small handful of them.
“$500,000 is better than zero dollars, which is where [funding] has been,”
Walczak said. “But it doesn’t come close to even covering funding for capital
defense.”
(source: Pennsylvania Capital-Star)
GEORGIA:
I witnessed an execution and this is what I saw.----'I’ve been putting off
talking about what I saw in the execution chamber until this moment.'
On June 20, 2019, Marion Wilson Jr. became the 1500th person to be executed in
the United States since capital punishment was resumed in 1976.
Journalist Jeremy Campbell was asked to serve as a media witness for the
execution.
The new podcast, Number 1500: About to be Free, follows Campbell's journey as
he and a team of investigators learn all they can about the crime, the man
being executed, the victim and the controversy surrounding the death penalty in
America.
The following excerpt chronicles the hours journalist Jeremy Campbell spent
deep inside lockdown as the execution was carried out:
This is the part of the podcast I’m not at peace with. I’ve been putting off
talking about what I saw in the execution chamber until this moment.
I documented the experience minute by minute in a small 5 x 7 notebook, the
kind with the blue lines from elementary school. That’s all I was allowed to
carry into the prison. That notebook and two number two pencils are both issued
to media witnesses by the Department of Corrections. We’re asked to leave
behind everything else - all recording devices, cell phones, anything that
would communicate with the outside world.
Outside it’s pitch black. The prison van that’s transporting me pulls up to a
wall of barb wire that stretches at least 20 feet. A guard examines our van. He
uses a mirror to check it underneath and under the hood for safety before
entering the central most portion of the prison. Someone yells, “Open the
inside gate!” and just like that, we’re deep inside death row.
I’m quickly escorted into a small room filled with about 30 people. There are
as many armed guards as there are those of us without weapons. We all sit in
wooden pews that look like they could be from a church. There are three rows…
or maybe four. We sit shoulder to shoulder. I recognize the pink hair of a
woman sitting two seats down from me. I remember from my research that she
befriended Marion Wilson through pen pal letters to prison.
Everyone is staring at the glass window in the front of the room. It must be a
twenty foot window, about five feet tall, showing a panoramic view of the
execution chamber. The room is still and quiet, except for the hum of
fluorescent lights.
Marion Wilson is on the other side of glass in the center of the room on a
gurney that’s elevated - maybe by 40 degrees. He’s dressed in all white with
his arms outstretched displaying his wingspan, hands secured with clear tape,
wrapped around a platform on each palm. With arms open, and elevated to near
standing positions it almost looks like he’s on a crucifix I see the tubes in
one arm and the heart rate monitor on the other. He’s lucid. Looking around the
room. Making eye contact. Blinking. This is the man we’re about to watch die.
The warden asks Marion Wilson if he’d like to make a statement. Wilson already
declined once today. This is his last chance. He takes it, and this time he
says a lot.
Wilson says “I’d just like to say to my family and supporters I love you
forever. Death can’t stop it. Nothing can stop it. I never took a life in my
life. They think they know better than me. Nobody escapes this life alive. See
you all when I get there.”
It’s 9:40 p.m, and Wilson’s eyes keep moving from person to person. I wait for
some sort of indication things have started. That never comes.
Suddenly, Wilson shouts out “About to be free.” He repeats it, “About to be
free… I don't have to worry about a chain gang no more.” His voice was loud
enough to echo through the glass. It’s muffled, but clearly audible. He sounded
confidant like he was about to escape, not die.
He smiles. He seems to be staring directly at the woman near me with pink hair.
She’s quietly crying. Tears puddling down her face, eyes locked on him. She
blows him a kiss.
9:42 P.M.: His chest heaves. He’s breathing heavily. His eyes close.
9:43 P.M.: His chest jolts as his mouth seems to form a large yawn, like he
suddenly fell asleep. I look to see if he’s still breathing. His chest moves up
and down.
9:44 P.M.: I look to the doctor in the room, who is watching patiently. I can't
tell if Wilson is breathing anymore.
9:45 P.M.: The lady with pink hair is crying. I hear her sniffle. I think I
hear someone’s cell phone vibrate. How did they get it in the room? Maybe it’s
a guard.
9:46 P.M.: Marion looks like he’s sleeping. He’s still.
9:47 P.M.: His color is changing. His complexion seems to be a slight shade of
gray.
9:48 P.M.: I wonder when will this end.
9:49 P.M.: Still waiting. A guard holds in a sneeze on the left side of the
room.
9:50 P.M.: All 30 people in the room are still staring through that glass
window at Wilson. He hasn’t moved in minutes or shown any sign of pain.
9:51 P.M.: Time feels so slow. I'm wondering if it worked or if somehow he’s
just sedated. Should it take this long? Two more doctors quickly enter the room
from behind the glass. The warden rushes in too. They’re in white coats,
wearing stethoscopes They examine him, each listening to different parts of his
body, focusing on his chest.
9:52 P.M.: The loudspeaker is turned back on and the Warden speaks. He declares
9:52 p.m. as the time of death and announces that the execution of Marion
Wilson was carried out by law.
Curtains on the other side of the glass close. It feels like a theater and the
movie is over. I’m quickly escorted out of the room and back in the van with
the other media witnesses.
It feels like we’re speeding back to the media staging area - all of us
comparing notes to make sure we are accurately quoting the last words ever
spoken by Marion Wilson Jr.
Just like that, we’re all back in reporter mode. Confirming details,
dispatching information and on deadline. My live report will lead the 11
o’clock newscast in just under an hour.
(source: 11alive.com)
FLORIDA:
Death row convict Paul Beasley Johnson to be resentenced for killing 3 people,
including Polk deputy----This will be the 4th time in the 38 years since the
fatal shootings of three people, including a Polk County Sheriff’s Office
deputy, that Johnson will stand before a jury facing the death sentence.
For the 4th time since his initial conviction in 1981, Paul Beasley Johnson is
expected to stand before a jury next month seeking mercy for killing 3 people,
including a Polk County Sheriff’s Office deputy.
On Tuesday, Circuit Judge Donald Jacobsen denied the state’s motion to postpone
next month’s sentencing hearing. Assistant State Attorney Paul Wallace had
argued, in part, that a case pending before the Florida Supreme Court could
negate the need for Johnson’s resentencing, but Jacobsen said he remains under
a mandate to conduct a new penalty phase, and it needs to be held.
“The jurisdiction I have over this case is in accordance with the mandate sent
to me by the Supreme Court,” Jacobsen said during Tuesday’s hearing, “and that
is to retry the penalty phase portion of the case.”
The pending case Wallace referenced relates to a January 2016 ruling by the
U.S. Supreme Court that declared Florida’s death penalty process
unconstitutional. The ruling stated that Florida’s law allowing judges, and not
jurors, to decide if prosecutors have proven any aggravating factors supported
the death penalty during trial was flawed. As a result, the state Legislature
drafted new laws reflecting that change and others, including a mandate that a
jury’s vote to recommend death must be unanimous instead of a simple majority,
which had been the state’s law.
In light of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling, the state’s high court set aside
the death sentences of those condemned inmates statewide who didn’t have a
unanimous jury recommendation and whose sentences were affirmed by the Florida
Supreme Court after June 2002, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that jurors
should decide whether aggravating factors are proven. That would include
Johnson, who was resentenced to death in May 2014 on an 11-1 jury
recommendation.
But now, a case is pending before the Florida Supreme Court seeking to reverse
the earlier decision on retroactivity. If granted, it would mean those whose
death sentences were affirmed after 2002, including six from Polk County, may
not get new sentencing hearings.
Case timeline
A look at the key dates over the past 38 years in the Paul Beasley Johnson
death penalty case:
Jan. 8, 1981: Overnight crime rampage leaves 3 people dead, including Polk
County Sheriff’s Deputy T.A. Burnham.
Sept. 22, 1981: Johnson convicted of three counts of 1st-degree murder, jury
recommends death on all 3 counts.
Sept. 23, 1981: Sentenced to death on all 3 counts.
Dec. 11, 1986: Florida Supreme Court overturns convictions and sentences on
grounds of ineffective assistance of counsel.
April 22 & 26, 1988: Convicted on all counts, jury recommends death.
April 28, 1988: Sentenced to death on 3 murder counts.
Jan. 11, 2010: Florida Supreme Court overturns death sentences on grounds of
prosecutorial misconduct.
Feb. 20, 2013: Polk County jury votes 11-1 to recommend death sentence for each
of the 3 murders.
May 7, 2014: Sentenced to death on all 3 counts.
Dec. 6, 2016: Florida Supreme Court overturns death sentences after U.S.
Supreme Court declares state’s death penalty process unconstitutional. That
ruling has led to next month’s resentencing hearing.
Note: This timeline does not include any appeals that were upheld.
In his motion seeking to delay the Johnson case, Wallace noted that Chief
Justice Charles Canady has taken the position that the new death penalty laws
shouldn’t be retroactive to 2002. Beyond that, 3 of the justices who agreed to
retroactivity have retired from the state Supreme Court and have been replaced
by those who are more conservative, leaving only one who supported the ruling 2
years ago.
Johnson, 70, was convicted of killing 3 people in a night-long rampage that
began shortly after midnight Jan. 9, 1981, when a dispatcher heard a stranger’s
voice over a taxicab’s radio, saying cab driver William Evans had been knocked
out. When Evans’ body was found in a grove 5 days later, he’d been shot twice
in the head, his wallet and fare money were missing and his cab had been set on
fire.
About 3 a.m. Jan. 9, Ray Beasley and his friend, Amy Reid, offered Johnson a
ride, and he asked them to stop along a remote area of Drane Field Road so he
could relieve himself. Johnson was convicted of shooting Beasley on the side of
that road, and when Reid fled in the car to summon help, Johnson fatally shot
Deputy Theron A. Burnham 3 times with his own service revolver after he
responded to Reid’s call.
Johnson was arrested the following day after telling friends he had shot the
deputy, according to court records.
In addition to his initial trial, Johnson had appeared before 2 other juries
after winning appeals, but each time, juries have recommended that he be
executed for the killings. None has been by unanimous vote.
Johnson has remained on Florida’s death row for nearly 4 decades.
(source: The Ledger)
ARKANSAS----female to face death penalty
Prosecutor to seek death penalty in killing of former Arkansas senator
Prosecutors plan to seek the death penalty against a Randolph County woman
arrested last month in connection with the killing of former state Sen. Linda
Collins, Third Judicial Circuit District Attorney Henry Boyce said Tuesday.
Rebecca Lynn O'Donnell, 48, has an arraignment scheduled Tuesday afternoon on
charges of capital murder, abuse of a corpse and hindering physical evidence.
Boyce told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette that prosecutors will formally
announce their plans to seek the state's highest punishment at the hearing.
There are currently no women on death row in Arkansas.
Authorities haven't divulged what led police to arrest O'Donnell, a friend and
former campaign aide to Collins.
The former senator's body was found at her home in Pocahontas on June 4. A
local judge's order to seal the case days later has prevented police and
prosecutors from publicly releasing details about the murder, including the
cause of death.
The local judge later recused from the case. Collins' ex-husband was a judge
who served on the same circuit, and a new judge, David Goodson, has been
assigned to the case.
The Democrat-Gazette wrote a letter to Goodson earlier this month requesting
that the order to seal be lifted in light of rumors and innuendo about the case
that have circulated online.
(source: arkansasonline.com)
CALIFORNIA:
Suspect in San Fernando Valley Killing Spree Charged With Capital Murder
A man accused in a 13-hour killing spree pleaded not guilty Monday afternoon to
4 counts of murder and special circumstances in a possible death penalty case.
In addition to the murder counts, Gerry Dean Zaragoza, 26, was charged with 2
counts of attempted murder and 1 count of attempted robbery, according to the
complaint filed by the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office.
He was also charged with a special circumstance allegation of multiple murders,
making Zaragoza eligible for the death penalty. A decision on whether to seek
the death penalty will be made later.
Zaragoza is accused of fatally shooting his 56-year-old father, Carlos Ignacio
Zaragoza, and his 33-year-old brother, Carlos Pierre Zaragoza, at an apartment
in Canoga Park on Thursday.
He also allegedly shot his mother in the hand.
Zaragoza then went to North Hollywood where he is accused of killing a former
girlfriend, Azucena Lepe-Ayala, 45, at a gas station near the Burbank Airport.
Relatives said Lepe was a mother of 4 children, ranging in age from 12 to 18. A
man also was wounded in the attack, officials said. He cleaned the gas station
at night and did not know the suspect.
Members of the Zaragoza, Lepe and Ayala families were in court on Monday.
At one point before the arraignment, a woman who identified herself as a
Zaragoza sister began sobbing uncontrollably. Later she turned to Lepe's
widower and his sister and said to them, "I'm so sorry."
Lepe family members have said Zaragoza had stalked Lepe after she rebuffed him
and ended a brief relationship.
Outside the courthouse, a Lepe sister said that the stalking abrutply ended
about 6 months ago, and that his sudden and unexpected reappearance made her
death even more shocking and difficult to bear.
Zaragoza is also accused of trying to rob a man outside of a bank in Canoga
Park. He also allegedly shot to death Detwonia Harris, 55, aboard a bus that
had stopped in Van Nuys.
Police say that as Zaragoza was getting off the bus, he turned around and shot
Harris although there had been no interaction between them.
Zaragoza was later found and arrested.
The suspect is unemployed and described as being violent and having a history
of drug use.
The 1st shooting occurred at 1:50 a.m. Thursday at an apartment in the 21000
block of Roscoe Boulevard, near DeSoto Avenue, in Canoga Park, police said.
The 2nd shooting occurred at 2:30 a.m. at the Shell station in the 6700 block
of Vineland Avenue, near Vanowen Street. Both victims, who worked at the gas
station, were taken to a hospital, where Lepe was pronounced dead.
Michael Ramia, who was Carlos I. Zaragoza's boss, told reporters the suspect
was "very violent."
"He told me (Gerry Zaragoza) was violent in the house. He was very violent,"
Ramia told reporters outside the Canoga Park apartment. "And I told Carlos, I
said, 'Carlos, get rid of him, you know? Just take him to rehab.'"
About 7:20 a.m. Thursday, an attempted robbery believed to have been committed
by Zaragoza occurred outside a bank at Sherman Way and Topanga Canyon Boulevard
in Canoga Park, police said. The suspect allegedly pulled a handgun on a man
about 40 years old, but he fled when he realized the victim had no money,
police said.
At about 1:50 p.m., Harris was fatally shot aboard an Orange Line bus at
Victory Boulevard and Woodley Avenue in Van Nuys, and a suspect generally
matching the description of Zaragoza was seen running from the scene.
"He didn't even talk to his last victim," LAPD Capt. Billy Hayes, commander of
the LAPD's Robbery-Homicide Division, said at a Thursday afternoon news
conference. "He's getting off the bus and he turns and shoots the person. It
doesn't look like there was any interaction between them."
About 2 p.m. Zaragoza was spotted in Canoga Park, about 7 miles from the
location of the bus shooting. He was taken into custody after "a small use of
force" near the intersection of Canoga Avenue and Gault Street, according to
Hayes.
Zaragoza is due back in court September 3 to set a date for a preliminary
hearing to determine if there is enough evidence for trial.
(source: nbclosangeles.com)
USA:
Resuming Executions Puts US on the Wrong Side of History
Fueled by a recognition that the United States criminal justice system is
unfair and discriminatory, there has been a great deal of focus on efforts for
reform – many bipartisan, including by President Trump. Attorney General
William Barr’s decision to resume carrying out executions under the federal
death penalty is a slap in the face of this effort. It ignores concerns over
the death penalty’s equity and fairness, and is contrary to efforts around the
nation and the world to end this form of punishment.
The US has the highest incarceration rate of any country in the world, with
more than two million people behind bars. Now it will add to its legacy as an
outlier globally by restarting federal executions after a nearly two-decade
hiatus. More than 70 % of the world’s countries have abolished capital
punishment in law or practice. This decision positions the federal government
as the renegade, compared with the states. Twenty-one states have outlawed the
death penalty. Public attitudes are also changing. A 2018 Gallup Poll found a
decrease in the number of Americans who believe it is applied fairly.
Barr’s declaration came just months after Trump, with much fanfare, surrounded
by many formerly incarcerated people, signed the First Step Act, which makes
modest reforms to the criminal justice system. The death penalty is
inconsistent with the inherent dignity of the person and is an inherently cruel
form of punishment. In the US, it is inevitably plagued with arbitrariness,
racial disparities, and error. Since 1973, 166 people have been released from
death row after later being found innocent. Just last month, 2 California
prisoners, each with over 30 years on death row, were freed after appellate
courts found significant errors in their trials.
Numerous studies over the past several decades have found persistent patterns
of racial disparities in courts imposing the death penalty, with Black people
much more likely to receive such verdicts, especially if the victim is white.
Since Trump’s election, the US has been at the center of both nationwide and
global criticisms regarding eroding rights protections ranging from a newfound
disrespect for the rule of law to an immigration system that has led to family
separations, and harsh and dangerous detention conditions, including keeping
children in cages.
Barr’s decision only cements the image of the United States as a nation that
fails to respect people’s inherent rights and dignity.
(source: Human Rights Watch)
**********************
End the death penalty
Regarding “Resumed federal executions raise death penalty’s 2020 stakes” (July
27): The United States should reject resorting to an archaic system of justice
whereby modern society still paradoxically chooses to (premeditatedly) kill its
citizens for (premeditatedly) killing its citizens. Each execution is like a
wrecking ball to the pretense of a civilized society. Norms that allow for an
eye-for-an-eye bloodlust should have long since been left to distant history,
with no proper place for any vestiges in the 21st century.
Capital punishment is itself morally corrupt — all the more so given a system
of justice that calls out for reform to remedy the too-often intrusion of
matters of race, ethnicity and the shallowness of defendants’ pockets to afford
competent representation. The ideal, while achievable, system is one scrubbed
of excesses, absent skewed punishments like the death penalty.
“One ought not return injustice for injustice,” Socrates advised more than two
millennia ago. Let’s hope, 2,000 years later, the future augurs a
more-enlightened United States absent state-sanctioned execution.
(source: Opinion, Raleigh News & Observer)
*****************
Death penalty hangs over 10 defendants in Bronx drive-through murder of mobster
‘Sally Daz’ Zottola, failed hit on his son
Prosecutors, in a threat with new teeth, confirmed the death penalty remained
on the table Tuesday against the cabal of alleged co-conspirators in the
McDonald’s drive-through murder of a Bonanno crime family veteran.
9 of the defendants, including supposed mastermind Anthony Zottola Sr., paraded
silently into Brooklyn Federal Court wearing handcuffs and prison jumpsuits for
a pretrial hearing. Zottola was accused of plotting with the others to kill his
dad, Sylvester “Sally Daz” Zottola, and his older brother Salvatore in separate
attacks last year.
“All of the defendants as of now are death-eligible?” asked Federal Judge
Raymond Dearie.
“That’s correct, your honor,” replied Assistant U.S. Attorney Kayla Bensing.
Though the last U.S. execution of a federal inmate was in 2003, the Trump
administration recently announced that 5 death row inmates were now facing
execution this coming December and January. All were convicted of murdering
children, and are in custody at a high-security federal prison in Terre Haute,
Ind.
The 71-year-old Sally Daz died waiting for a cup of coffee at the Bronx
fast-food outlet on Oct. 4, 2018, in what was widely viewed to be a mob hit but
turned out to be a family feud over business. Authorities charged that the
greedy Anthony Zottola was at odds with both his relatives, and he even
proposed targeting the 2 in a single attack in a Christmas Day 2017 text
message.
“Can we get a doubleheader?” he wondered.
Zottola was indicted last month for arranging the attacks on both his father
and his older brother just 3 months apart last year. Salvatore survived a July
11, 2018, murder try outside his waterfront home in the same borough.
The cold-blooded Anthony joined his brother in delivering eulogies for their
father after allegedly ordering the old man’s execution.
Bensing said the government had asked all the defense attorneys to prepare a
mitigation submission for review of the possible capital case, with another
hearing set for October.
(source: nydailynews.com)
***********************
The only Native American on federal death row who killed a grandmother, 63, and
her granddaughter, 9, claims execution would be 'unjust' because Navajo Nation
disavows capital punishment and murders happened on tribal land
Attorneys for the only Native American man on death row, who is among the 5 men
scheduled for the 1st federal executions since 2003, have said that his death
would be a violation of tribal sovereignty.
Lezmond Charles Mitchell, 37, is set to be executed on December 11 for the 2001
murders of Alyce Slim, 63, and her nine-year-old granddaughter Tiffany Lee on
Navajo reservation land in Arizona.
His pending execution is one of five announced on Thursday by Attorney General
William Bar, in a surprise resumption of the federal death penalty after
decades of an effective moratorium.
The killer and both of the victims were Navajo tribal members - and now
attorneys for Mitchell argue that the federal government does not have legal
authority to carry out the execution.
'This is the only case in the modern history of the death penalty where the
federal government has denigrated tribal sovereignty in this manner, and Mr.
Mitchell remains the only Native American on federal death row,' attorneys
Jonathan C. Aminoff and Celeste Bacchi said in a statement to DailyMail.com on
Monday.
Although Mitchell is the only Native American on federal death row, as of last
October there were about 28 Native Americans on state death rows across the
country, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
The Navajo Nation is the largest tribal reservation in the US, covering about
27,400 square miles in Arizona, Utah and New Mexico, with a population of about
350,000.
The Navajo tribe opposes the death penalty and did not 'opt in' to federal
executions as required of tribal nations by the 1994 Crime Bill.
However, in 2015 the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Court ruled that while
the federal government could not impose the death penalty for rape and murder
on Navajo land, the carjacking charge against Mitchell made him eligible for
capital punishment.
'It does not matter that the crime occurred in Indian country, and therefore,
the opt-in provision of the Federal Death Penalty Act does not apply,' the
court said in its ruling. 'In other words, carjacking resulting in death
carries the death penalty regardless of where it was committed.'
The tribe's attorneys general and a chief justice have repeatedly written
letters to congressional members and to federal attorneys in Arizona and New
Mexico opposing Mitchell's execution.
The latest was a July 2014 letter by then-Chief Justice Herb Yazzie to John
Leonardo, who served as U.S. Attorney for the District of Arizona from 2012 to
2017, according to the Farmington Daily Times.
'Capital punishment is a sensitive issue for the Navajo people. Our laws have
never allowed for the death penalty. It is our belief that the negative force
that drives a person to commit evil acts can only be extracted by the creator.
People, on the other hand, are vehicles only for goodness and healing,' Yazzie
wrote.
Murders of Alyce Slim and Tiffany Lee
On October 28, 2001, Mitchell, then 20, and his 16–year–old accomplice, Johnny
Orsinger, were seeking a vehicle to use in a robbery they planned to carry out
on a trading post on the Arizona side of the reservation.
Grandmother Alyce Slim and her 9 year-old granddaughter Tiffany were traveling
to see a medicine woman on the reservation when they apparently picked up
Mitchell and Orsinger as hitchhikers.
When Slim stopped near Sawmill, Arizona, to let Mitchell and his accomplice out
of the car, the men began stabbing her a total of 33 times as she tried to
fight off the attack, according to court documents.
Once dead, her body was pulled onto the rear seat. The granddaughter was put
next to her.
Mitchell drove the truck into the mountains with the girl sitting beside her
grandmother's lifeless body.
In the mountains near Tsaile, Slim's body was dragged out of the truck
The girl was ordered out of the truck Mitchell told her 'to lay down and die,'
according to court testimony.
Mitchell cut the girl's throat twice, but she didn't die. When she did not die,
Mitchell and Orsinger each dropped large rocks on her head. 20-pound rocks
bearing the child's blood were later found at the scene.
Mitchell and Orsinger left the murder scene, but later returned to hide
evidence.
While Mitchell dug a hole in the ground, Orsinger severed the heads and hands
of both victims in an effort to prevent their identification.
The dismembered parts were buried in the hole and the torsos were pulled into
the woods. Mitchell and Orsinger later burned the victims' clothing and other
personal effects. Mitchell washed the knives with alcohol to remove any blood.
Mitchell's attorneys do not deny his involvement in the heinous murders, but
they do argue that he is less culpable than Orsinger, who was spared the death
penalty due to his age.
'A life sentence would have been consistent with punishments meted out to
similarly-situated defendants including Johnny Orsinger, Mr. Mitchell's
co-defendant in these killings,' the attorneys said.
'Mr. Orsinger, who initiated the killings, had a history of violence, and, in
fact, had previously murdered two people in an unrelated incident,' they
continued.
'Mr. Mitchell, on the other hand, had no significant criminal history, no
history of violence whatsoever, and was diagnosed by a board-certified
psychiatrist as being psychotic at the time of the crimes.'
3 days after the murders, Mitchell and 2 other men robbed the Red Rock Trading
Post at gunpoint, driving off in Slim's stolen GMC pickup truck, which they
later burned.
On May 8, 2003, a jury in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona
found Mitchell guilty of numerous offenses, including first degree murder,
felony murder, and carjacking resulting in murder, and he was sentenced to
death.
Mitchell is being held on federal death row at USP Terre Haute in Indiana.
His attorneys say that allowing his execution to go forward as scheduled on
December 11 'would be a grave injustice, an affront to the Navajo Nation's
values and sovereignty, and contrary to American values given our long history
of discrimination towards the Native American people.'
Full statement of Lezmond Mitchell's attorneys
Statement issued by attorneys for Lezmond Mitchell on July 29 regarding his
scheduled execution:
'Lezmond Mitchell is a Navajo man who was convicted of the 2001 murders of two
Navajo people on Navajo reservation land in Arizona. The Navajo Nation has
consistently maintained its opposition to capital punishment generally, and as
applied to Mr. Mitchell specifically. Despite the objections of the Navajo
Nation, as well as the objections of the victims' family and the local United
States Attorney's Office, the federal government insisted that Mr. Mitchell be
prosecuted capitally. This is the only case in the modern history of the death
penalty where the federal government has denigrated tribal sovereignty in this
manner, and Mr. Mitchell remains the only Native American on federal death row.
'The Government's violation of tribal sovereignty did not end with the decision
to pursue a death sentence against Mr. Mitchell. In addition to the charging
decision, the Government committed misconduct in the course of this prosecution
by stashing Mr. Mitchell in a tribal jail without affording him his federal
constitutional rights. For 25 days after his arrest, Mr. Mitchell was
continually interrogated by the FBI without being provided with an attorney.
Furthermore, in numerous different ways, the Government systematically excluded
Navajos from serving on Mr. Mitchell's jury.
'Mr. Mitchell accepts responsibility for his role in these crimes and offered
to plead guilty in exchange for a life sentence. A life sentence would have
been consistent with punishments meted out to similarly-situated defendants
including Johnny Orsinger, Mr. Mitchell's co-defendant in these killings. Mr.
Orsinger, who initiated the killings, had a history of violence, and, in fact,
had previously murdered 2 people in an unrelated incident. Mr. Mitchell, on the
other hand, had no significant criminal history, no history of violence
whatsoever, and was diagnosed by a board-certified psychiatrist as being
psychotic at the time of the crimes. Mr. Orsinger, who was 16 years old at the
time of the crimes, received a life sentence due to his age; yet Mr. Mitchell,
who had just turned 20 and was less culpable, received a death sentence.
'Under these circumstances, allowing Mr. Mitchell's execution to go forward
would be a grave injustice, an affront to the Navajo Nation's values and
sovereignty, and contrary to American values given our long history of
discrimination towards the Native American people.'
(source: dailymail.co.uk)
**********************
UN: Trump administration 'rolling back progress' with death penalty decision
A United Nations human rights spokesman expressed concerns on Tuesday about the
Department of Justice's decision to resume federal executions, saying it was
“rolling back progress."
“It’s also based on the unacceptable risk of executing innocent people,” Rupert
Colville said at a news briefing, according to Reuters.
“And there have been reports in the United States showing, using DNA evidence,
etc., that innocent people have been executed there,” he added.
Colville reportedly said there is no indication the death penalty serves as a
deterrent, noting that 25 U.S. states and 170 of 194 U.N. members have
eliminated capital punishment.
“I would also note that the decision by the U.S. attorney general very much
goes against the trends in the United States as a whole, as well as against the
international trend,” he said, according to Reuters.
Attorney General William Barr last week published a list of 5 inmates scheduled
to be executed, all of whom were convicted in the murders of children. The
first of the executions is scheduled for Dec. 5.
The U.S. government has not executed anyone since 2003, but there are currently
52 federal inmates on death row, including Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar
Tsarnaev.
The Justice Department's announcement last week drew swift condemnation from
several Democratic presidential candidates who noted the history of racial and
class disparities in how the death penalty is applied.
(source: thehill.com)
***********
NAACP Condemn’s William Barr’s decision to reinstate death penalty
“Attorney General William Barr’s new order to reinstate the federal death
penalty, after almost 2 decades, is a mark of regression in a time when our
nation desperately needs reform of the criminal justice system. The death
penalty is racially biased, inhumane, and risks the lives of innocent people.
It should be abolished, not resurrected.”
(source: naacp.org)
US MILITARY:
What death row executions may mean for these four soldiers at Leavenworth
There are 4 death row inmates at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas: Ronald Gray, Hasan
Akbar, Timothy Hennis, and Nidal Hasan.
The Department of Justice’s effort to clear the way for the federal government
to resume capital punishment after a nearly 2-decade pause won’t immediately
change the individual statuses of those on the military’s death row, but some
experts do view it as a potential sign of things to come.
There are currently four death row inmates in the military justice system:
Ronald Gray, Hasan Akbar, Timothy Hennis and Nidal Hasan.
All are former soldiers.
In 2009, Nidal Hasan was an Army major when he killed 13 people and wounded
more than 30 others in a mass shooting at Fort Hood, Texas.
“Attorney General [William] Barr’s announcement does not affect the individual
status of any of the 4 death row inmates,” a Department of the Army official
said on background. “The military will make an appropriate announcement if and
when an execution date has been scheduled for any of our prisoners."
The new policy under the Trump administration clears the legal path to resume
using lethal injection for federal death row inmates, which is also how the
military would perform an execution. The policy switches away from a three-drug
cocktail that was caught up in legal challenges to using a single drug —
pentobarbital — to execute inmates.
Although the statuses of the 4 individuals on military death row are not likely
to change anytime soon, the eagerness of President Donald Trump’s DOJ to change
the status quo could bode badly for the death row inmates at U.S. Disciplinary
Barracks, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.
“If I were on death row, I would consider this a very bad sign, but not a sign
that anything is happening immediately. There is going to be litigation over
this," said Eugene Fidell, a Yale Law School lecturer on habeas corpus and
military justice.
The military hasn’t executed a prisoner since 1961, though capital punishment
remains a legal penalty under the Uniformed Code of Military Justice.
Military death row was more populated in past decades, but legal challenges
stemmed the number of occupants.
In the 1970s, capital punishment was invalidated by the Supreme Court, only to
be later reinstated by that same legal body. And in 1983, the Armed Forces
Court of Appeals also ruled the penalty unconstitutional, only to be again
reinstated by an executive order from President Ronald Reagan the following
year.
Since then, more cases have wound their way toward and away from the death
penalty.
“Some have gone away because of clemency, or errors found on appeal,” Fidell,
who also served as a judge advocate in the Coast Guard, said. “So there’s been
a lot of cases that have gone through the system, but the system does tend to
winnow them out. And presidents have not fallen all over themselves to clear
the path for executions.”
Retired Lt. Col. Jeffrey Addicott, a former Army judge advocate who tried a
death penalty case that was ultimately commuted to life, said that he hopes the
DOJ guidance signals a change on the military side.
“Hopefully it is a harbinger of things to come,” Addicott said. “Obviously the
military appeal system is broken and hopefully the DOJ’s decision will energize
a revamping of the military’s appeal process so that the victims can have
justice.”
“Although the military rules of evidence are word for word the same as the
federal rules of evidence, the military appeal system takes a somewhat
different track than the Federal Court appeal system, but both ultimately merge
together at the U.S. Supreme Court," he added.
As it stands, Ronald R. Gray, a former Army private convicted in 1988 of
multiple murders and rapes, appears to be the closest to being put to death.
Gray was initially given an execution date in 2008 after then-President George
W. Bush approved it, but a stay was granted less than a week afterwards. That
stay of execution was lifted in 2016, but even he doesn’t face any immediate
execution date.
Hasan, the Army psychiatrist who opened fire in a shooting rampage at Fort
Hood, may also wait to learn of an outcome.
Hasan’s former defense lawyer, retired Col. John P. Galligan, told Army Times
that they spoke last week on the day in which the new DOJ guidance was
announced.
Galligan, a former Army judge advocate who still represents Hasan on some civil
cases, said that his client could be affected by the new guidance, but there
remain many avenues to appeal his sentence.
“[Hasan’s] case hasn’t even really gotten through the initial stages of the
appeal,” Galligan said. “The case is still being litigated on post-trial
discovery issues ... I think it’d be a long time before that [the death
penalty] becomes one of the pertinent issues to be addressed on appeal.”
Hasan Akbar is another former soldier on death row. He was sentenced to death
for a premeditated attack that killed an Army captain and an Air Force major
early in the morning of March 23, 2003, at Camp Pennsylvania, Kuwait, at the
start of the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
Also on death row is Timothy Hennis, a former master sergeant who was convicted
and sentenced to death for the murders of a North Carolina woman and her 2
children in 1985.
(source: armytimes.com)
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