Sept. 3
TEXAS----impending execcution
Fort Worth man who stabbed 2 elderly women set to be executed
A 64-year-old Fort Worth man could be days from facing death.
Billy Jack Crutsinger, who stabbed an elderly mother and daughter after he
entered their home on the pretense of doing repairs is scheduled to be executed
Wednesday at the Huntsville “Walls” Unit.
That is if the U.S. Supreme Court doesn’t step in.
Crutsinger, who has been on Texas’ death row since his conviction in 2003, is
asking the Supreme Court to halt his execution, arguing that his 14th Amendment
rights were violated. He alleges that his former legal counsel “failed to
adequately represent him” and had a “substantial history in the state and
federal courts of a lack of professionalism, unethical behavior, and an
inability to competently represent" death row clients.
Crutsinger was convicted of killing Patricia Syren and her mother Pearl “RD”
Magouirka. After entering the house, Crutsinger stabbed both women to death and
stole several items from the home, including credit cards and Patricia’s
Cadillac.
The decomposing bodies of Pearl "R.D." Magouirk, 89, and her 71-year-old
daughter, Patricia "Pat" Syren, were found inside their home April 8, 2 days
later.
The blood-stained Cadillac was found outside a Fort Worth bar. The bloody
clothes that Crutsinger wore during the killings were later recovered in trash
bin near another bar.
Crutsinger was arrested at a Galveston bar the day after the car and bodies
were discovered, when authorities began tracking purchases made on Syren's
credit card.
During the trial, defense attorneys argued that Crutsinger was illegally
arrested in Galveston and that a search warrant issued in Fort Worth to obtain
another DNA sample from Crutsinger also was illegal.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied Crutsinger’s request for a stay
last week.
“The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals failed to expressly and unambiguously
state that it had based its denial on an adequate and independent state law
ground, and instead answered the federal question in the negative,”
Crutsinger’s attorney Lydia M.V. Brandt said.
(source: itemonline.com)
****************
DPIC Analysis: 13 Texas Death Warrants Raise Troubling Questions About U.S.
Execution Practices
In a year in which few states have carried out any executions, the aggressive
execution practices of a single state — Texas — stand in sharp contrast. The
Lone Star State has scheduled thirteen executions for the last five months of
2019, more than the rest of the country combined. And a DPIC review of the
circumstances in which the warrants were issued raises troubling questions as
to whether the state is executing the most morally culpable individuals for the
worst of the worst crimes or the most vulnerable prisoners and prisoners who
were provided the worst legal process.
The cases of the 13 men scheduled for execution include 2 with strong claims of
innocence, 2 whom authorities admit did not kill anyone but were sentenced to
death under Texas’ controversial “law of parties,” and 7 who exhibited
significant mental or emotional vulnerabilities as a result of intellectual
impairments/brain damage, serious mental illness, or chronic trauma. 3
prisoners were age 21 or younger at the time of their crime. 4 prisoners
scheduled for execution had raised claims that their attorneys did not provide
them with constitutionally adequate representation, and six received other
forms of deficient legal process — including false testimony at their trials,
trial before a racially or religiously biased judge, or execution dates that
interfered with ongoing judicial review.
Texas’ aggressive execution schedule also illustrates its status as an outlier
in its use of the death penalty and the stark differences in approach between
the decisionmakers empowered to end prisoners’ lives and those evaluating
whether new defendants should be sent to death row. Nationally, executions have
remained near historic lows for the past 5 years, but Texas has carried out
more than any other state. In 2018, Texas executed more prisoners than the rest
of the United States combined and, if most of the scheduled executions go
through, could do so again in 2019.
Prisoners sentenced to death in Texas are executed at a rate triple the
national average. The process of rubberstamping — in which state court judges
adopt as fact the pleadings submitted by prosecutors — is commonplace, and the
Texas federal courts routinely defer to this state court “factfinding.” The
Texas state and federal courts are also outliers in denying resources to
defense counsel and in resisting enforcement of constitutional rights, even in
the face of clear directives from the U.S. Supreme Court.
The state’s disproportionate pace of executions continues even as prosecutors
are seeking and capital juries are imposing significantly fewer new death
sentences. New death sentences have fallen from an average of more than 40 per
year in 1998-2000 to five per year in 2016-2018. Fewer death sentences have
been imposed in Texas in the last 5 years than in any other 5-year period in
the modern era of capital punishment.
(source: Death Penalty Information Center)
*********************
Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present----44
Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982----present-----562
Abbott#--------scheduled execution date-----name------------Tx. #
45---------Sept. 4----------------Billy Crutsinger--------563
46---------Sept. 10---------------Mark Anthony Soliz------564
47---------Sept. 25---------------Robert Sparks-----------565
48---------Oct. 2-----------------Stephen Barbee----------566
49---------Oct. 10----------------Randy Halprin-----------567
50---------Oct. 16----------------Randall Mays------------568
51---------Oct. 30----------------Ruben Gutierrez---------569
52---------Nov. 6-----------------Justen Hall-------------570
53---------Nov. 13----------------Patrick Murphy----------571
54---------Nov. 20----------------Rodney Reed-------------572
55---------Dec. 11----------------Travis Runnels----------573
(sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin)
TENNESSEE:
New Deal Ends Decades-Long Legal Process In Nashville Death Penalty Case
Shawanna Norman was just 9 when Abu-Ali Abdur'Rahman stormed into her house in
February 1986. She trembled in a bedroom with her sister Katrina, who was 8,
hearing everything as their mother and her boyfriend were attacked.
The sisters were spared. Three decades later, so has the life of Abdur'Rahman.
Last week, a judge granted him a new sentence of life imprisonment, ending a
seemingly endless cycle of appeals just months before Abdur'Rahman was to be
put to death.
"I'm just glad that it's finally over," Katrina says. "We've had to deal with
it for a long time."
Judge Monte Watkins signed off on the unusual shift in sentence on Friday,
agreeing with Davidson County District Attorney General Glenn Funk that there
was enough evidence of misconduct during Abdur'Rahman's trial to throw out his
death sentence. Abdur'Rahman's defense attorney, Bradley MacLean, says his
client didn't get a fair trial because of racial bias during jury selection.
"Public officials who are elected or appointed to positions of trust must take
an oath to support the Constitution," MacLean says. "In this case, Judge
Watkins and General Funk adhered to their oath by removing the ugly stain cast
by a rogue prosecutor upon Mr. Abdur'Rahman's trial."
The Normans were relieved when Abdur'Rahman was given a death sentence in 1987.
But then came the appeals. The hearings. The endless letters from the
prosecutors. Katrina says she still dreads checking her mail.
"I don't want to talk about it. I don’t want to hear about it. If something
comes on the news, I'm going to cut it off," she says. "I don't want to deal
with it."
Last Friday, the sisters finally got closure when Abdur'Rahman waived his right
to all future appeals. He'll still spend the rest of his life behind bars, but
he won't face execution.
The long wait to resolve Abdur'Rahman's case compounded a trauma that began
when men held their mother, Norma Jean Norman, and her boyfriend at gunpoint.
They recalled shaking so hard, their beds knocked against the wall.
After the men left, the girls found their mother on the floor, bleeding from
stab wounds. She survived, but her boyfriend did not.
When Katrina learned about the prosecutor's misconduct during the 1987 trial,
she understood why the district attorney decided to offer Abdur'Rahman a new
sentence. But now, she and her sister are ready to move forward.
Death penalty opponent Stacy Rector says many victims suffer in capital cases
as the state tries to balance the sentence against the directive not to execute
people who are innocent.
"It's traumatizing," Rector says. "It goes on for so long. We're in and out of
court. It's in and out of the media. And what I often hear people say is, 'We
just want some finality.'"
The Norman sisters say they haven't forgiven Abdur'Rahman, and they were
looking forward to his execution in April.
But they think the new deal will finally deliver some justice to everyone
involved.
(source: nashvillepublicradio.org)
OREGON:
Readers respond: Death penalty won’t help victims’ families heal
I can only imagine the heartache visited on the families of murder victims.
(“Williamson doubles down on death penalty law: Steve Duin,” Aug. 28) There
must be an overwhelming desire to do something -- anything -- to counterbalance
the devastation experienced by their loved one. Thus, the ancient, if barbaric,
rule of an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. We no longer extract teeth or
put out eyes. Yet in murder cases, victims’ families cling to the archaic
demand: a life for a life.
A victim’s sister notes that the families “are not allowed to heal.” What she
doesn’t seem to realize, is that the only reason these appeals and hearings
keep continuing is because the death penalty was imposed. That penalty is so
extreme that the courts bend over backwards to make sure that no innocents are
convicted, allowing appeal after appeal, hearing after hearing. (Even then, DNA
evidence has shown that many convicted murderers are, in fact, innocent.) If
the sentence had been life without parole, the sister would not have had to
suffer through all those appeals. One, maybe. She would never forget, I’m sure.
But at least she would be left, as she says, to heal.
In times of overwhelming trouble, it's human instinct to strike out. This is
natural, and no reason for shame. But the rest of us, while sympathetic, should
not be ruled by such blind emotions. Killing is a bad business, whether done by
an individual or by a government. It will not help victims.
Elizabeth J. Hinds, Portland
(source: Letter to the Editor, The Oregonian)
USA:
Barr To Propose Fast-Tracking Death Penalty Sentences For Mass Shooters — But
Would It Work?----The Trump administration is planning a series of proposals in
response to a number of mass shootings that have occurred over the past 30
days. One idea may not be an effective means of stopping such behavior,
however, according to scientific research and analysis by criminology experts.
According to reporting from Reuters, Attorney General William Barr has drafted
legislation that would effectively allow for speeding up the process of
executing individuals who have been charged and convicted of mass murder. The
proposal is set to be part of a broader series of bills the administration will
be pushing in the future in order to address the issue of mass shootings.
The idea is simple: those who understand they could face the death penalty, and
do so in an expedited manner, will be less likely to commit the crime. There’s
just one problem — many of the shooters involved in these incidents are hoping
to die, either from a police officer’s bullet or from shooting themselves.
More than half of the perpetrators involved in mass shootings since 2006 have
died during their rampages, the Associated Press reported.
Gary LaFree, department head of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the
University of Maryland, spoke to the AP on the issue, saying that executing
mass shooters may indeed have the opposite effect, as it all but ensures those
who are arrested alive still wind up being killed — something that individuals
with terroristic ideologies might use to their advantages.
“In fact, in the case of terrorism, it might be worse than that because you
have the very real possibility of creating martyrs,” LaFree stated.
Many studies on the death penalty, in general, have also shown that it has not
worked as a deterrent for major crimes in states where the practice is legal,
even for crimes that are not related to mass shootings, the Washington Post
reported in 2014.
(source: hillreporter.com)
*********************
White House to propose expedited death penalty for perpetrators of mass
shootings
U.S. Attorney General William Barr has drafted legislation that would speed the
death penalty for people who have committed mass murder, a White House official
said on Monday. Marc Short, chief of staff to Vice President Mike Pence, told
reporters on Air Force 2 that the measure would be part of a package of gun
legislation that the White House intends to propose to Congress.
Pence, who is traveling in Europe, had been in contact with Barr about the
issue, Short said.
The White House has been working on measures to address gun violence after
several recent mass shootings. President Donald Trump has voiced support for
tackling mental health issues related to the violence while also looking at
expanded background checks, an issue on which he has wavered.
Leading Democrats have pushed Republicans in the U.S. Senate to take up
legislation already passed by the House of Representatives addressing the
issue. Lawmakers are expected to look at the legislative options more closely
when they return to Washington from their August recess.
(source: Reuters)
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