August 14
MISSOURI:
see:
https://action.aclu.org/petition/stop-torturous-execution-rusty-bucklew?social_referer_transaction=2897433&ms=sbsocial
(source: aclu.org)
UTAH:
With 3 death penalty cases, Weber County is paying hundreds of thousands for
defense lawyers
Over the next month, dozens of witnesses will testify in an Ogden courtroom
about death row inmate Douglas Lovell, who raped a 39-year-old woman more than
3 decades ago and later killed her in an attempt to stop her from testifying.
The evidence hearing could pave the way for Lovell to get a new trial - it
would be his 3rd for the same heinous crime.
The stakes are high and the cost to Weber County taxpayers is climbing.
The county has so far paid nearly $150,000 to Lovell’s appellate attorneys and
investigative experts, according to February estimates filed among court
papers.
It’s a bill the county could have avoided.
The Utah Supreme Court ordered this detailed evidentiary hearing after
questions were raised about the job performance of one of Lovell’s attorneys
back in 2015.
Lovell’s appellate attorney twice asked Weber County Attorney Chris Allred to
agree to redo the penalty phase of Lovell’s trial in an effort to save money.
Allred didn’t take the offer.
"It would have been irresponsible to simply assume that the court will find
that Lovell’s counsel was ineffective," he told The Salt Lake Tribune, "thus
putting the victim’s family through all the emotional drain of yet another
sentencing."
For years, Utah lawmakers have been debating whether to keep the death penalty.
And the costs of litigating these cases are frequently discussed in hearings.
Legislative analysts in 2012 estimated that a death sentence and decades of
appeals cost $1.6 million more than a life-without-parole sentence.
Weber County doesn’t keep track of how much it has spent to prosecute the case,
and lawyers with the attorney general’s office are the ones participating in
Lovell’s current hearing. But county officials estimate that it has spent more
than $370,000 on defense lawyers and experts for Lovell since his conviction
was overturned 8 years ago, according to court filings.
A man pleads guilty to killing a Utah County mother and son. Now the focus
shifts to finding their bodies. A man pleads guilty to killing a Utah County
mother and son. Now the focus shifts to finding their bodies.
Supporters of a Utah death row inmate give the testimony they were previously
denied. ‘Send him home with me,’ one says. Supporters of a Utah death row
inmate give the testimony they were previously denied. ‘Send him home with me,’
one says.
People convicted of death penalty offenses are almost universally indigent,
meaning that the potentially decades-long appeals are constitutionally required
to be provided by public defenders.
Legislators last debated the death penalty in 2018, and it’s expected to be
discussed once more during the next legislative session. The lawmaker who
sponsored the bill most recently is now a commissioner in Weber County — which
is not only funding Lovell’s defense but also paying 4 lawyers to represent 2
other defendants facing the potential of the death penalty.
That commissioner, Gage Froerer, said the cost of these cases was a driving
factor in his bid to end the death penalty.
"That was one of my concerns and major issues is the cost involved," he said,
"and the results usually aren’t very productive in solving the issues for
society or the victim’s family."
Froerer wasn’t a commissioner when the county approved defender contracts for
the 3 cases. But he said they will be looking into the county’s funding
mechanism in budget meetings this fall.
There are 2 ways in which Utah’s 29 counties fund defense lawyers in death
penalty cases: Most pay into a state-managed fund, a sort of insurance policy
from which officials can request money if they have a death penalty-eligible
case.
But Weber County is 1 of 5 - along with Salt Lake, Summit, Wasatch and Utah -
that don’t pay into the fund. Instead, each of those counties uses its own
money to contract with individual defense attorneys.
Weber County officials have flirted with the idea of paying into the
state-managed fund but have always decided to bear the costs. Bryan Baron, a
civil attorney for the county, said in a recent deposition that Weber would
have been required to pay in $300,000 initially to be part of the multicounty
effort, then $100,000 every year after.
"And so faced with that large number, the county decided to self-fund capital
cases," Baron said. "The commissioners believed if they set some money aside,
they would be better off paying for those cases themselves."
A transcript of Baron’s deposition was filed as part of a lawsuit lodged
against the county by Samuel Newton, an appellate attorney who sued after he
was fired for speaking publicly about the lack of funding in Utah death penalty
cases.
Newton had represented Lovell in his appeal but withdrew from the case, saying
payment issues were causing stress-related medical issues and a conflict of
interest. The county then ended another contract he had to represent other
defendants on appeal, deeming Newton’s public comments "harmful to the county’s
reputation."
County officials lamented that Newton spoke with The Tribune in email
exchanges, with Allred, the county attorney, writing that he was "sick of this
BS" and wanted to "expose" that Newton was making hundreds of thousands of
dollars from Lovell’s contract and another unrelated death penalty case he was
handling in Salt Lake County.
"All of this for a defendant who admitted to killing a person," wrote Dave
Wilson, a now-retired deputy attorney. "The world must laugh at our stupidity."
According to documents in this lawsuit, the county attorney’s office approached
every criminal defense attorney in Utah who had filed two or more criminal
appeals in a two-year period to find a new attorney to represent Lovell. The
office got only one applicant, according to documents. That was Colleen
Coebergh. She got the job and is now representing Lovell in his current
hearing.
In 2017, Lovell expressed frustration with the number of attorneys he has been
assigned over the years and how little they have been paid.
In one letter to the judge, he listed many of the attorneys who have
represented him over the years.
There was a lawyer in 1992 who represented Lovell for $49, whom he met once or
twice. There was another who represented him sometime in the 1990s, but Lovell
doesn’t remember ever seeing him in the courtroom. And he did eventually have
two whom he liked, but they asked to be taken off the case because it was too
complicated and they weren’t qualified.
"It’s to [the attorney’s] advantage to do as little work as possible, to talk
to me as little as possible," Lovell said in a 2017 hearing. "Because it’s
getting into that money thing. That’s happened time after time after time on
this case."
Along with Lovell’s appeal, Weber County is shouldering the cost of 2 other
death penalty cases. Miller Costello and Brenda Emile are accused of burning,
beating and starving their 3-year-old daughter in 2017, resulting in her death.
Their trial is set for 2020.
The county has approved contracts that max out at $100,000 for defense costs
for each of the defendants.
Could Weber County afford another death penalty case if one were to happen?
Froerer said the county would have no other choice but to pay for those costs -
it’s a constitutional right - but at some point, he said it may come to cutting
other items from the budget, like parks or roads, to fund it.
Utah prosecutors are seeking the death penalty in only 4 cases: 2 in Weber
County, 1 in Salt Lake County and another in Utah County. Along with Lovell,
another death row inmate, Douglas Carter, recently had his case remanded back
to the district court in Utah County.
Lovell’s current hearing is focused on whether his trial attorney, Sean Young,
adequately contacted and prepared witnesses who wanted to testify favorably on
Lovell’s behalf. He was assigned 18 witnesses, according to Lovell’s appeal,
but only two said they were contacted by Young before the trial.
Lovell also argues that Young did not object to interference from The Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which limited the number of prison bishops
who testified at Lovell’s trial.
At the end of the hearing, a judge will rule on whether Young "performed
deficiently," and Lovell’s attorney will use that finding as she mounts a claim
of ineffective assistance of counsel. The state’s highest court could reject
that claim, or it could order Lovell should get a new trial.
Lovell pleaded guilty to killing Joyce Yost in 1993 but was allowed to withdraw
his plea in 2011 after the Utah Supreme Court ruled the judge should have
better informed him of his rights during court proceedings. That led to his
2015 trial.
He is 1 of 8 men currently on Utah’s death row but is nowhere near execution. A
Monday ruling from the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals puts death row inmate
Ron Lafferty the closest to a firing squad, with state officials indicating his
execution could be months away.
Lafferty, like Lovell, committed his crimes in the 1980s. Lafferty is on death
row for the 1984 deaths of his sister-in-law and her 15-month-old daughter.
(source: Salt Lake Tribune)
***********
Utah man whose brother was executed by firing squad decries death penalty as
'inhumane'
A federal appeals court just denied the latest appeal from Ron Lafferty.
The now-77-year-old was convicted and sentenced for the 1984 deaths of his
sister-in-law and her baby daughter.
With this latest development, Lafferty is still on track to die by firing
squad.
2News sat down with the brother of the last man to die by firing squad in Utah,
Ronnie Lee Gardner. Randy Gardner says even though his brother’s execution was
9 years ago, it haunts him even now.
"I'm not a victim, I'm collateral damage of the death penalty," Gardner said.
He campaigns around the country to abolish the death penalty, saying it’s
inhumane and outdated.
The option of dying by firing squad was taken off the table for death row
inmates in Utah in 2003, but reinstated in 2015 — only when the drugs for
lethal injection are not available.
However, lawmakers say pharmaceutical companies won’t provide those drugs.
"I think it's hypocritical of them to say the drugs are not available because
the pharma companies aren’t allowing them," Gardner said.
Chances are if you are sentenced to die in this state, you will die by firing
squad, lawmakers say.
"It's a club nobody wants to belong to," Gardner said.
(source: KUTV news)
ARIZONA:
Conviction, death sentence upheld in massage parlor killing
The Arizona Supreme Court has upheld the convictions and death sentence of a
man convicted of murder in the 2010 stabbing death of the owner of a massage
parlor in Mesa.
The state's highest court on Tuesday rejected James Clayton Johnson's argument
that the state of Arizona didn't sufficiently narrow the class of 1st-degree
murders that are eligible for the death penalty.
Johnson was convicted in the stabbing death of Xiaohung Fu.
Authorities say Johnson fled the scene in a pickup truck and was arrested 3
days later in a robbery of a Christmas tree lot.
They say Johnson was linked to the killing through DNA collected at the massage
parlor and through cellphone tower data.
(source: Associated Press)
CALIFORNIA:
Trump’s death-penalty push puts House Dems like Josh Harder in tough spot
Attorney General William Barr says the Trump administration will propose
congressional legislation to accelerate death penalty proceedings for cop
killers and mass shooters. That could force House Democrats who represent
purple districts - like 1st-term Central Valley Rep. Josh Harder - into a
corner.
Harder, D-Turlock (Stanslaus County), is 1 of the 7 Democrats who flipped
Republican-held congressional seats in California last year, helping his party
to take the House for the 1st time since 2010. The GOP has targeted him for
defeat in 2020, and capital punishment could turn into a wedge issue in his San
Joaquin Valley district.
Nearly 2/3 of voters in Stanislaus County, which makes up much of Harder’s
district, opposed Proposition 62, a 2016 ballot measure to repeal the state’s
death penalty. 58 % supported Proposition 66, a measure on the same ballot that
was intended to speed up the appeals process for capital punishment cases. That
measure was approved by voters statewide, while Prop. 62 lost.
(source: San Francisco Chronicle)
USA:
A rabbi pleads with AG William Barr: Don’t bring the death penalty to
Pittsburgh
A chain-link fence shrouded with a black tarp surrounds the Tree of Life
synagogue in Pittsburgh these days.
The Jewish community in the city’s east side neighborhood of Squirrel Hill has
not yet decided the fate of the building in the wake of the Oct. 27 shooting in
which a gunman opened fire as Shabbat services were about to begin, killing 11
worshippers.
Many of the survivors - members of 3 independent Jewish congregations that met
in the synagogue - are still coming to terms with the anti-Semitic rampage,
considered the deadliest attack on Jews in U.S. history.
But the leader of one of those congregations has already formed an opinion
about what he knows will transpire in the coming weeks: a decision by federal
prosecutors about whether seek the death penalty in the case. And he wants to
prevent it.
To that end, Rabbi Jonathan Perlman and his wife, Beth Kissileff, recently
penned letters to Attorney General William Barr urging him not to seek the
death penalty for Robert Bowers, the alleged gunman.
"We are still attending to our wounds, both physical and emotional, and I don’t
want to see them opened any more," wrote Perlman, 55, rabbi of New Light
Congregation. "A drawn out and difficult death penalty trial would be a
disaster with witnesses and attorneys dredging up horrifying drama and giving
this killer the media attention he does not deserve."
Bowers pleaded not guilty to a 63-count indictment in U.S. District Court, but
one of his lawyers has suggested Barr might offer to forgo a trial in return
for a guilty plea if prosecutors drop the death penalty they are now weighing
and agree to a sentence of life without parole. On Monday (Aug. 12),
prosecutors and defense lawyers agreed to a 120-day extension in the case.
To Perlman, a lengthy trial in which the prosecution would highlight Bowers’
documented stream of anti-Jewish invective and conspiracy theories would be too
much to bear.
The alleged shooter’s social media activity is rife with tirades against Jews.
One post reportedly showed a doctored image of the entrance to the Auschwitz
concentration camp, in which the motto above the gate reads: "Lies Make Money."
Another post said: "Open you Eyes! It’s the filthy EVIL jews Bringing the
Filthy EVIL Muslims into the Country!!"
Perlman argues the community is better off putting this painful episode behind
it.
"Some people think I’m doing it because I’m opposed to the death penalty," he
said in a phone interview with Religion News Service. "I am opposed to the
death penalty but in this case, it’s very personal. I’m looking out for the
welfare of my community. I don’t want to see them re-traumatized."
A bivocational rabbi who works as a chaplain in the Department of Palliative
Care for the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center as well as leading New
Light, Perlman has been doubling up on his grief work - attending to the dying
in the hospital and to the families of 3 New Light members killed in the
shooting: Richard Gottfried, Daniel Stein and Melvin Wax.
The men were among the most active of the Conservative congregation’s 100
members who worked hard to keep the synagogue together. (Seven members from the
Tree of Life congregation died in the shooting as did a member of a third
congregation, called Dor Hadash, Hebrew for "A New Generation.")
Perlman, who hid in a storage closet during the shooting, said he and other
survivors and family members of the victims were all receiving ongoing
counseling.
He knows that Barr recently ordered the federal death penalty to be reinstated
and has directed the Bureau of Prisons to schedule the execution of 5 death row
inmates.
But Perlman hopes his plea and that of other rabbis and congregational leaders
will persuade Barr not to press for the death penalty in this case.
"I think it’s a moral issue," he said. "It’s time to stop the madness and think
of the victims first."
The 116-year-old New Light Congregation, which Perlman has led for nearly a
decade, has since moved to Beth Shalom, a large Conservative synagogue in the
heart of Squirrel Hill, where it rents space. It had made Tree of Life its home
after selling its own building in 2017 when maintenance and repairs became too
costly for the mostly older congregants.
Before sending his letter to Barr, Perlman sought out the congregation’s
co-presidents and its board who, he said, agreed with his reasoning.
Rabbi Jonathan Perlman, top center, speaks during a rally against gun violence
on the steps of the Sixth Presbyterian Church in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood
of Pittsburgh on Aug. 8, 2019. Courtesy photo
After posting the letter to Facebook, Perlman’s friend Jack Moline, executive
director of the Interfaith Alliance, asked if he could help Perlman build wider
support for the letter. To date, Moline has collected signatures from 30
Conservative movement rabbis who have backed Perlman’s letter. (Rabbi Jeffrey
Myers of Tree of Life was not among them and he did not respond to email and
phone messages. Dor Hadash, the third congregation, is member-led and has no
rabbi.)
Jewish tradition has mostly, but not always, opposed the death penalty. The
rabbis who shaped modern Judaism have reinterpreted the biblical injunction "an
eye for an eye" in multiple ways and introduced a number of brakes on the
imposition of the death penalty that suggested they were deeply ambivalent to
it.
So too, Perlman notes in his letter, did the Catholic Church — the faith to
which the attorney general subscribes.
"I know you are a committed Catholic and you will not let history remember you
this way," Perlman wrote to Barr, who is active in the Arlington (Virginia)
Catholic Diocese.
Last year, Pope Francis approved a revision to the catechism that says capital
punishment is "inadmissible" in all circumstances and that the church "works
with determination for its abolition worldwide."
Perlman and Kissileff, his wife, said they were driven to write their letters
to Barr after reading Jennifer Berry Hawes’ new book about the 2015 Charleston,
S.C., church massacre. For that shooting, Dylann Roof, an avowed white
supremacist who killed 9 church members at an Emanuel AME Church Bible study,
was convicted and sentenced to death.
Berry Hawes’ book, "Grace Will Lead Us Home," describes how painful Roof’s
trial was to the survivors and family members of the victims, who had to relive
the horrific event in court testimony and images.
Not all of the family members, however, said they regretted the trial for Roof,
who is now on death row in Terre Haute, Ind.
Sharon Risher, a trauma chaplain whose mother, Ethel Lance, was killed in the
shooting, said she too is opposed to the death penalty, but she added:
"I felt like there needed to be a trial. There needed to be accountability from
Dylann Roof. I felt like we needed to look him in the face, even though he
didn’t look us in our faces. We needed to have the time to read the victim
statements, for him to hear the pain in our voices, for him to be held
accountable."
Perlman and his wife are convinced otherwise.
So is Moline, who distributed Perlman’s letter among other rabbis.
"I am willing to trust the judgment of those in the midst of this who know and
love their congregations and who are interested not only in justice for the
perpetrator," he said, "but compassion for the survivors."
(source: religionnews.com)
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