[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----USA
Sept. 7 USA: The Worst of the WorstJudy Clarke excelled at saving the lives of notorious killers. Then she took the case of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. "We meet in the most tragic of circumstances," Judy Clarke, the lead defense lawyer representing Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, began. She stood at a lectern, facing the jurors, in a dark suit accented by a blue-and-purple scarf that she wears so often it seems like a courtroom talisman. To her right, George O'Toole, the judge, looked at her over his spectacles. Behind her was Tsarnaev, the slim, soft-featured young man who was on trial for the bombing at the Boston Marathon on April 15, 2013 - the worst domestic terrorist attack since September 11th. Outside the courthouse, snow from successive blizzards had piled up in grubby dunes. Clarke, who lives in San Diego, despises cold weather, but she'd endured an entire New England winter. "Judy was in Boston for a year before the case went to trial, meeting with this kid," her friend Jonathan Shapiro, who has taught with Clarke at Washington and Lee University Law School, told me. It was early March, and nearly 2 years had passed since Tsarnaev, along with his older brother, Tamerlan, detonated 2 homemade bombs near the finish line of the marathon, killing 3 people and injuring 264; they then carjacked a Mercedes, murdered an M.I.T. police officer named Sean Collier, and engaged in a shootout with the cops. Dzhokhar, 19 at the time, accidentally killed Tamerlan, who was 26, by running over him in the getaway car. Dzhokhar was discovered, wounded and expecting to die, inside a dry-docked boat in the suburb of Watertown. While he was recovering in the hospital, Miriam Conrad, the chief federal public defender in Massachusetts, contacted Clarke, and Clarke decided to take the case. Clarke may be the best death-penalty lawyer in America. Her efforts helped spare the lives of Ted Kaczynski (the Unabomber), Zacarias Moussaoui (the so-called "20th hijacker" in the 9/11 plot), and Jared Loughner (who killed 6 people and wounded 13 others, including Representative Gabrielle Giffords, at a Tucson mall). "Every time Judy takes a new case, it's a soul-searching process for her," Clarke's old friend Elisabeth Semel told me. "Because it's an enormous responsibility." On rare occasions when Clarke withdrew or was removed from a defense team, a defendant received the death penalty. But in cases that she tried through the sentencing phase, she had never lost a client to death row. The administration of capital punishment is notoriously prone to error. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, 155 death-row inmates have been exonerated, and it stands to reason that innocent people still face execution. Clarke does not represent such individuals. Her specialty is what the Supreme Court has called "the worst of the worst": child rapists, torturers, terrorists, mass murderers, and others who have committed crimes so appalling that even death-penalty opponents might be tempted to make an exception. Tsarnaev was indisputably guilty; the lead prosecutor, William Weinreb, described in his opening statement a video in which Tsarnaev is seen depositing a backpack directly behind an 8-year-old boy on Boylston Street and walking away before it explodes. In January, 2014, Attorney General Eric Holder, who had publicly expressed his personal opposition to the death penalty, announced that the government would seek to execute Tsarnaev, explaining that the scale of the horror had compelled the decision. The prosecution referred to Tsarnaev as Dzhokhar, his given name, which is Chechen and means "jewel." But as Clarke addressed the jury she used the nickname that he had adopted as a high-school student, in Cambridge, Massachusetts: Jahar. In a capital case, a defense attorney seeks to humanize the client to the point that jurors might hesitate to condemn him to death. Clarke has said that her job is to transform the defendant from an unfathomable monster into "one of us." Her use of the nickname also signalled genuine familiarity. Clarke spends hundreds of hours getting to know reviled criminals. Her friend Tina Hunt, a federal public defender in Georgia who has known Clarke for 30 years, said, "Judy is fascinated by what makes people tick - what drives people to commit these kinds of crimes. People aren't born evil. She has a very deep and abiding faith in that idea." Most of Clarke's success in death-penalty cases has come from negotiating plea deals. She often cites a legal adage: the 1st step in losing a death-penalty case is picking a jury. To avoid a trial, Clarke does not shy away from the muscular exertion of leverage. In 2005, she secured a plea deal for Eric Rudolph, who detonated bombs at abortion clinics and at the Atlanta Summer Olympics, after Rudolph promised to disclose the location of an explosive device that he had buried near a residential
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----VA., FLA., OKLA., WASH.
Sept. 7 VIRGINIA: Lawsuit sheds light on death row solitary confinement For most people, sympathy is a scarce commodity when it comes to death row inmates. Save some miscarriage of justice that should be brought to light, these people are there because of the heinous act or acts they committed. But now the courts are taking a hard look at Virginia's longstanding practice of automatically placing death row inmates in solitary confinement as a possible violation of the Eighth Amendment's protection against cruel and unusual punishment. Capital punishment, in Virginia and elsewhere, is reserved for those who kill deliberately and with premeditation in conjunction with the commission of another felony such as rape or robbery, or commit multiple killings, or take the life of a law officer - to name just a few of the circumstances. Death row inmates generally spend years awaiting execution as the appeal process plays out. These days, in Virginia and elsewhere, that day may never come as the death penalty debate wears on and and the scarcity of trusted execution drugs leaves states hesitant to initiate a process that could have an ugly result followed by lengthy litigation. In the meantime, Virginia, whose death row has shrunk dramatically over the past 20 years, has continued to keep death row inmates in solitary confinement for up to 23 hours a day, the 24th spent outdoors in individual cages. Now, a lawsuit filed earlier this year by 4 death row inmates claims that extended periods in solitary cause severe mental distress to the point that it is cruel and unusual punishment. Virginia officials' effort to have the suit thrown out was denied in U.S. District Court. As a result, Virginia is relaxing death row solitary rules to provide for weekly visits by family members, for opportunities to mingle with other death row inmates and for more showering and recreation time. These changes hardly threaten to turn death row into country club incarceration, but they do begin to address issues that could otherwise cost Virginia taxpayers millions in endless litigation. Indeed, U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema has put the case on hold while attorneys for both sides pursue a negotiated settlement. In broader terms, the case demands a hard look at the moral issues of how humans treat other humans, regardless of the crimes they've committed. One of Virginia's 8 current death row inmates has been there since 1998, others for as long as 10 years. If there becomes no discernible difference between a death sentence and life without the possibility of parole, perhaps there should be some similarity in how the inmates are treated. A lesson taught by Virginia's last executed inmate, Robert Gleason Jr., ensures corrections officials will remain vigilant as the rules are eased. Gleason, originally sentenced to life, landed on death row after killing 2 fellow inmates. After vowing to continue killing unless he was executed, his execution wish was granted. It's important for the attorneys, courts and state officials to remember, as these negotiations over death row conditions continue, exactly the kinds of people they're dealing with. (source: Editorial, The Free Lance-Star) FLORIDA: Clay County death-penalty case appeal goes to Florida Supreme Court Very little of Leo Kaczmar's behavior makes sense in trying to understand it logically. Now the Florida Supreme Court must take Kaczmar's illogical behavior and come up with a logical ruling on whether the 31-year-old sex offender should remain on death row for the murder of his father's girlfriend in Green Cove Springs. Kaczmar was convicted of stabbing 49-year-old Maria Ruiz at least 50 times and then setting fire to the home in an attempt to cover up the crime. He was offered a plea deal of life without parole to avoid a death sentence. He rejected it. When the jury was tasked with making a recommendation of whether Kaczmar should get life or death, he refused to let his lawyers present any mitigation evidence on his behalf. With no argument for why he shouldn't be executed, the jury recommended death by a 12-0 vote and Circuit Judge Donald Lester complied. But Kaczmar does not want to die, said Assistant Public Defender Nada Carey, who appealed his death sentence to the Florida Supreme Court last week. "Mr. Kaczmar waived mitigation evidence and said he wanted to receive the death penalty to get legal counsel for appeals," Carey said during oral arguments to Supreme Court justices. The mitigation would have included evidence that Kaczmar had been abused throughout his life and has a serious addiction to drugs and alcohol. Justice Barbara Pariente expressed shock and confusion at Kaczmar's action. "Did he waive the mitigation because he thought he'd get a greater review of his death sentence?" Pariente said. "And did someone explain to him that's not the case?" Kaczmar
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
Sept. 7 INDONESIA: Hopes for mercy for British grandmother on death row in Bali fade after Indonesia's new anti-drugs boss sets out tough stance Lindsay Sandiford sentenced to death for attempting to smuggle cocaine A British grandmother on death row in a Bali jail for drug smuggling was yesterday told that Indonesia's new anti-narcotics chief plans to show no mercy to everyone involved with drugs. Lindsay Sandiford, 59, from Cheltenham, was sentenced to death by firing squad in January 2013 after attempting to smuggle 1.6million pounds worth of cocaine through Bali's international airport in May 2012. She has lost a number of appeals and has had no positive response to her pleas for mercy from Indonesian president Joko Widodo, who has taken a hardline stance on executing convicted drug offenders. Until now, people who have been able to prove they are addicts have been shown leniency, but the country's new anti-narcotics director, Budi Waseso, has now announced that he intends to bring in sweeping changes to the drug law, including an end to immunity from prosecution for addicts. They have until now been at the low end of the drug offenders list but they and those convicted of more serious narcotics offences now face execution. This is bad news for Mrs Sandiford, who has already been told that President Widodo intends to show her no mercy and she will be led to the firing squad sometime in the near future. 'If they now plan to execute addicts, what hope would someone who smuggles drugs have?' asked a visitor to Kerobokan prison, where Mrs Sandiford is being held. If she had been clinging to any hope, that appears now to have gone following Mr Waseso's pledge to dramatically change the drug laws and who has announced his total support for the President's no-nonsense attitude to serious drug offenders. The existing drug laws, Mr Waseso said, give dealers a loophole to evade prosecution by claiming to be a small-time user. "Dealers are flourishing because they're protected by the law if they admit to being a user,' the Jakarta Globe quoted him as saying in Jakarta. "Under the law, a user may only be put into rehab and not be prosecuted. "We need to change the law. There should be no more distinction about users ... so that dealers don't shield themselves behind the definition of a user.' Under the current Anti-Narcotics law, a user is qualified as someone who has no more than 8 ecstasy pills, less than 1 gram of crystal methamphetamine, or less than 5 grams of marijuana. To add to his tough comments, Mr Waseso denounced the government-run rehabilitation programme as a waste of taxpayers' money, claiming it was spent on 'fixing broken people'. Referring to President Widodo's hard-line stance on executing convicted drug offenders, Mr Waseso said it was a 'necessary measure' to reduce drug crimes. No date has been announced for Mrs Sandiford's execution. At a recent dance event in Bali's Kerobokan Prison where she is being held, she was said to have been the only female prisoner who did not come out of her cell to take part in the festivities to mark Indonesia's Independence Day. Fellow inmates said she was very depressed and in no mood to sit with people who, despite their confinement, were having fun. (source: Daily Mail) ** Prosecutors to make charges related to Engeline's murder The head of the Denpasar Prosecutor's Office, Imanuel Zebua, says the office has received 2 suspects who allegedly murdered Engeline Margret Megawe, an 8-year-old girl from Denpasar, Bali, along with evidence of the suspects involvement in the case from the Denpasar Police on Monday morning. The head of the Denpasar Prosecutor's Office, Imanuel Zebua, said a team of prosecutors would soon make charges against 2 suspects allegedly involved in the murder of 8-year-old Engeline.Imanuel said once the charge documents were completed the first trial for the 2 suspects would be held. "We received the case documents today and prosecutors will make charges against the 2 suspects as soon as possible so that their trial can be held immediately," Imanuel said as quoted by Antara in Denpasar on Monday. Imanuel said the prosecutor team from the Denpasar Prosecutor's Office took the 2 suspects along with evidence of their involvement in the murder to Kerobokan Penitentiary in Denpasar. Among the articles included in the case dossier for the 1st suspect, Agustinus "Agus" Tae Hamdamai, was Article 340 of the Criminal Code (KUHP) on the premeditated murder of Engeline, which carried potential sentences of 20 years to life or the death penalty. Agus was also charged with Article 338 of the KUHP on murder, which carries a sentence of 15 years in prison, and Article 181 on attempting to cover up a murder, which carries a sentence of 9 year's imprisonment, he added. Imanuel said Agus's case dossiers also included Articles 76 and
