[Deathpenalty] [POSSIBLE SPAM] death penalty news----S.C., MD., ILL., USA, GA.

[Rick Halperin]

Sept. 30



SOUTH CAROLINA----stay of impending execution

Stay Of Execution Issued For Man Convicted Of Killing Greenville Clerk


A South Carolina man set to die this week for killing a store clerk has
been granted a stay of execution from the U.S. Supreme Court.

Chief Justice John Roberts signed the stay Tuesday, giving Freddie E.
Owens' attorney time to prepare an appeal of the case to the nation's high
court.

The 30-year-old Owens had been scheduled to die Friday in South Carolinas
death chamber in Columbia.

The stay grants Owens time to prepare an appeal. It does not say anything
about the merits of Owens' case or even if the court will agree to hear
it.

Owens has been sentenced to death 3 separate times for killing Greenville
clerk Irene Grainger Graves during a convenience store holdup in 1997. His
1st 2 sentences were overturned.

(source: Associated Press)






MARYLAND:

Md. ACLU seeks other targets of state police spying


The Maryland chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union said it filed
public information requests today to determine if state police spied on
organizations beyond the activist groups it has already admitted to
tracking.

ACLU attorney David Rocah said the requests cover 32 groups, including two
that the ACLU said it determined were also under police surveillance. The
others are groups that may have been tracked based on the reasons given by
state police for the surveillance of the anti-war and death penalty
opposition groups.

State police have said a pending execution prompted the surveillance,
which occurred in 2005 and 2006 and ended once the execution was
postponed. However, the ACLU has said that doesn't explain why anti-war
groups were targeted.

Rocah said the additional groups also fit the state police's "baseless"
criteria of potential for violent or disruptive protests because almost
all of the groups, working on a variety of causes including the death
penalty, feminist issues, animal rights and abortion, have organized
peaceful protests.

Md. State Police surveillance investigation "All of these are pretty
hot-button issues, so it will be interesting to see whether the MSP's
stated rationale was in fact the real rationale, and whether these groups
were spied on as well, which would be very troubling," Rocah said.

He said even if additional groups weren't being tracked, state police
still have "some more explaining to do on why they chose the groups that
they were going to spy on."

Tyrone Powers, a member of the Baltimore group Children First who
participated in an ACLU conference call on the filings, said detectives
from Baltimore City's intelligence unit visited his home Jan. 18, 2003,
looking for him. His wife and daughter directed them to a hotel where he
was giving a speech.

Powers said Det. Darrell Merrick and another detective, whom he did not
identify, asked what could be done to call off a protest the group was
planning outside school headquarters.

"They never indicated why they wanted it called off," said Powers, who
added there was a heavy police presence at the Jan. 21 protest about lead
in the school's drinking water system.

Powers said he told the pair that their conduct was unconstitutional and
as a former FBI agent he felt it was unusual. Powers said they told him
they already knew who he was and informed him that a file had been opened
on him and the upcoming protest.

Rocah said documents obtained in another suit show Baltimore police were
reporting to the National Security Agency, "something that they have
specifically denied, and I think the documents we have now call those
denials into question."

Rocah said the ACLU has also found that state police had conducted
surveillance on a worker-owned Baltimore bookstore named Red Emma's.

"The Maryland state police will address their requests and provide any
information we have that they are entitled to under the law," state police
spokesman Greg Shipley said.

A telephone call by the Associated Press to Baltimore police seeking
comment on the claims was not immediately returned this afternoon.

The attorney and other ACLU officials also said they were circulating
legislation in Annapolis that would specifically prohibit political spying
by state police, and said the legislation had drawn support from some
lawmakers, whom they declined to identify.

State Police Superintendent Colonel Terrence B. Sheridan said in July that
a preliminary review determined the officers involved did not break any
laws, although their judgment could be questioned.

Sheridan said the head of the state police's homeland security division
made the decision to begin surveillance after receiving a request from a
colleague in another division that was preparing for Vernon Evans'
execution. The surveillance of the groups ended in May 2006, and Evans'
execution was postponed about six months later, according to a timeline
handed out by state police.

The surveillance was revealed in documents released by state police after
they were sued by the Maryland ACLU, prompting members of Congress and
state lawmakers to call for an investigation.

A group headed by former Maryland attorney general Stephen Sachs plans to
release the results of its investigation of the surveillance on Wednesday,
but current Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler has said there have not
been any allegations of illegal activity.

The documents show undercover officers infiltrated meetings of peace and
anti-capital punishment groups for more than a year, spending nearly 300
hours on surveillance.

In August, the ACLU claimed in a court filing that state police have not
released all documents related to the surveillance. State police attorney
Sharon Benzil said in August that the all documents have been released and
the plaintiffs waited too long to sue.

(source: Associated Press)






ILLINOIS:

Attorney considers seeking death penalty for Badenhorst


Iroquois County State's Attorney Jim Devine said Monday he has subpoenaed
the school and psychological records of 22-year-old Leonard Badenhorst, of
Stockland, to aid his consideration of whether or not to seek Badenhorsts
death for his alleged killing of his grandfather.

Badenhorst is accused of beating to death Hershel Fleming, 79, after
Fleming chided him to get a job. Badenhorst, who was adopted when he was
4, had only recently located his birth family in Stockland.

Devine said Badenhorst is being represented by Watseka Attorney Ron Boyer,
who is qualified by the state to defend those facing possible death
sentences.

Devine said Boyer's fee is being paid out of the states Capital Litigation
Fund, and not by county taxpayers.

Should Devine decide that he will not seek the death penalty, Badenhorst's
defense would likely be taken over by Dale Strough, the countys public
defender.

Devine said he has 60 days to determine on whether or not to seek the
death penalty.

(source: The Daily Journal)






USA:

A look at the death penalty----The Most You Ever Knew


Waiting in long lines can be a pain - unless you're on death row. Then,
it's OK, awesome even. Nonetheless, you'd rather be in a different line.

The methods of execution are so inhumane that death row inmates can now
sue under the civil rights law, according to a 2006 Christian Science
Monitor article. Some argue that suffering is the point of the death
penalty, but there's a little thing called cruel and unusual punishment.

Even today, people are hanged or face a firing squad. New Hampshire and
Washington play hangman, as do India and Japan, according to the BBC News
and Death Penalty Information Center Web sites. If the drop is too far,
hanging can cause decapitation, which happened to Saddam Hussein's half
brother.

Jailbirds can also die by a 5-person firing squad in Idaho, Oklahoma or
Utah, according to the DPIC Web site. And we're not talking about BB guns
here. Three men were sentenced to this type of execution in Indonesia just
last May, according to a 2008 Reuters article.

What's worse is that several prisoners get stoned to this day. Did I
mention that the prisoner is sometimes whipped first? And by the way, the
stones shouldn't be too small that they don't cause any pain nor should
the rocks be too large that they would kill the inmate with only 2 blows,
according to the Law of Hodoud, the Islamic Penal Code of Iran.

The law states that in the event the convict escapes, he or she is free to
go. However, it's easier for only men to do so. Men are always buried
waist-deep whereas women are submerged up to the neck. As of this year,
nine women are expected to get stoned in Iran, according to the Amnesty
International Web site.

The more modern methods of execution aren't any better. Inmates could die
of a lethal injection - as soon as the doctors can find a vein. Once they
do, the amount of barbiturates pumped in may not be enough to prevent the
inmate from suffering severe pain.

Thankfully, the doctors who are supposed to understand the procedure are
present  or are they? Sometimes "nurse practitioners" and guards replace
the ones with the white coats, according to a 2006 Time magazine article.

That's just a pinprick.

The dead men walking can have a seat in an electric chair or a gas chamber
should they desire a change in skin color. The chair prompts some inmates'
internal organs to fry and flames to appear atop their heads. Silent but
deadly, the chamber induces the same effects as a heart attack, cutting
off the convict's air supply, according to the DPIC Web site.

Every time a new method turned up, however, the reason was to make the
death penalty more humane.

It is the definition of irony.

Take Alfred Southwick for example. He pushed for the electric chair to
replace hanging as a way of preventing painful deaths, according to the
Medline Database Web site. He might as well have improved hanging by
changing the rope to licorice. That way, if something goes wrong - other
than a person dying - the convict can eat through it.

Refining the death penalty doesn't work. A method of execution by any
other name would smell just as foul.

The only thing mildly humane about the death penalty is some inmates get
to choose how they die. Keyword: some. Even then, several do so not
because it will be less painful but to make their own statement about
capital punishment.

In 1996, John Taylor chose to die by a Utah firing squad rather than a
lethal injection to create problems for the state by attracting unwanted
media attention and protesters, according to a New York Times article of
the same year.

Sen. Ernie Chambers named the electric chair Nebraska's only capital
punishment. "What was he thinking?" you ask. When the courts declare the
chair unconstitutional, Nebraska would be death row-free, according to a
2003 New York Times article. Chambers succeeded in February 2008 when the
Nebraska Supreme Court dismissed the method, according to a 2008 USA Today
article.

The good news stops there. The state of Georgia protects the medical
licenses of those involved with the executions, according to a 2006 Time
magazine article. If the doctor doesn't sedate the victim properly, the
state says it's OK to move on to another patient.

It's also been argued that the doctors who execute the death penalty are
guilty of breaking the Hippocratic Oath, according to the Time magazine
article. The modern version of the oath states, "Most especially must I
tread with care in matters of life and death.  Above all, I must not play
God."

America isn't getting off cheap either. According to a 2005 Los Angeles
Times article, every execution costs California $250 million. Capital
punishment is $4 billion more overpriced than prison life sentences in
California, according to a 2008 American Civil Liberties Union report.

Perhaps the death penalty's price tag is the reason that the Supreme Court
ruled out executions for child rapists. One of the majority's reasons was
that capital punishment would be "overwhelming" since 5,702 child rapes
were accounted for in 2005, according to a 2008 New York Times article.

It is unfortunate that the court was thinking about the financial costs
and not the devastating effects on children. The court's decision
illustrates another issue regarding the death penalty: It's inconsistent.

The inconsistency puts a dent in the deterrence argument. If capital
punishment can't deter child rapists anymore, where's the logic in keeping
it around?

How can 5 justices excuse the rape of a child by saying it isn't as grave
as taking a human life? When you rape children, you are stripping them of
their lives.

As the saying goes, it's better to set 10 inmates free than to send 1
innocent person to death row. To be exact, 129 people in the U.S. have
been exonerated, 3 of them as recently as this year, according to the DPIC
Web site.

The worst part is exonerations aren't allowed once the death penalty has
been carried out, according to the Amnesty International Web site. The
real guilty party could still be out there, and the innocent remains at
fault even after he or she is gone. The dead inmate's family goes on
believing that their loved one was a criminal.

Reputation is the hardest thing to get back, so this superpower nation
should at least help some of its citizens try. If you go by the reasoning
that the prisoners are dead so it doesn't matter anymore, why do we bother
celebrating Memorial Day?

It matters because capital punishment is harsh enough without reputations
being tarnished, unqualified doctors continuing to practice medicine,
women receiving unequal treatment and inmates' skins turning the color of
rainbows. It's time to kill the death penalty.

Firing squad, anyone?

(source: The Spartan Daily)






GEORGIA:

U.S. Supreme Court May Issue Statement On Troy Davis Case Wednesday


The U.S. Supreme Court will wait until at least Wednesday before
announcing whether or not they will hear an appeal by convicted cop killer
Troy Davis.

Davis is accused of killing, Mark MacPhail, a Savannah police officer from
Columbus.

On September 23rd, the U.S. Supreme Court gave Davis a late stay of
execution within just 2 hours of the scheduled execution time.

Since Davis's conviction of killing MacPhail in 1991, 7 of the 9 key
witnesses who helped put Davis on death row have since recanted their
statements.

The Supreme Court was originally supposed to announce Monday whether or
not they would hear the Davis case.

According to Georgia law, Governor Sonny Perdue's office says the governor
has nothing to do with the case, and cannot stop the execution or sign a
death warrant.

Davis' current death warrant, which expires at noon Tuesday, will expire.

Davis' attorney tells News 3 this afternoon the warrant must come from a
judge.

News 3 spoke to Mark MacPhail's mother Anneliese MacPhail. She says the
family has no official comment at this time. They are just waiting to see
what the Supreme Court will do.

(source: WRBL News)

******************************

Davis trial recanting proves nothing solid


An anguished gentleman writes from the British Isles to inquire as to why
Georgia intends to execute a convicted cop killer whose guilt is now
suspect because various witnesses have "recanted" their testimony.

The gentleman can be forgiven for his certainty that a miscarriage of
justice is about to occur. Its the odd nature of high-profile cases that
crucial misconceptions are repeated so often that spin becomes fact.

The Troy Anthony Davis case is a prime example.

The Georgia Supreme Court dealt thoroughly and authoritatively with the
alleged recantations in March.

The facts of the case, as recounted by Justice Harold Melton in the
majority opinion, are these:

In the early morning hours of Aug. 19, 1989, Davis was at a Savannah pool
hall with two friends, Sylvester Coles and Darrell Collins. When a
homeless man leaving a nearby convenience store declined to share his
beers with Coles, Coles followed him up the street, cursing. Davis,
Collins and Coles surrounded him. Davis, from behind, struck the homeless
man in the head with a pistol, badly injuring him. Collins fled. When it
became obvious that police were being called, Davis and Coles fled, too.

Officer Mark MacPhail, working off-duty nearby, gave chase, shouting for
Davis and Coles to stop. Coles did. MacPhail continued to pursue Davis.
"Davis kept running and fired a handgun at MacPhail, who was shot and
fell," Justice Melton wrote. "Davis then stood over MacPhail smiling and
fired again. Altogether, MacPhail was shot three times, once in the face,
once in the right thigh and once in the chest."

The father of 2, a former Army Ranger, was dead.

Earlier in the evening, another shooting had occurred. A bullet retrieved
by the hospital "was similar to bullets from the murder scene. Shell
casings retrieved from the 2 scenes were matched with greater certainty."
Davis was identified at trial as the man who shot the earlier victim.

The defense contended at trial that Coles was the shooter. But trial
evidence enabled the jury to conclude that Davis had clubbed the homeless
man and had murdered Officer MacPhail.

As to the recanting witnesses, the justices noted that sworn trial
testimony reflects fresher memories and includes public oaths,
cross-examination, a presiding judge.

A recantation certainly raises questions about the witnesses' trial
testimony and has to be weighed as to whether the original testimony was
pure fabrication.

An acquaintance of Davis, Jeffrey Sapp, testified at trial that he had
admitted striking the homeless man and killing the officer. He lied, he
said, because officers pressured him.

Another witness, Kevin McQueen, had testified that Davis had confessed to
him in jail he had murdered MacPhail because the officer had seen his
face. He said in a 1996 affidavit, after the trial, hed lied because he
was angry at Davis.

"We note," wrote Justice Melton, "that, even if the recantations  were
credited as true, they would show merely that Davis did not admit his
guilt to these witnesses, not that Davis was not guilty."

The homeless man, Larry Young, gave testimony "that tended to identify
Davis as the one who struck him." That was based on what the men were
wearing and where they were standing. A dozen years later, Young said in
an affidavit that he was "unable to remember what anyone looked like or
what different people were wearing and he "just couldnt tell who did
what."

Wrote Justice Melton: "This new expression of uncertainty fails to show
that Davis was not in fact the perpetrator "

Collins said at trial in 1991 that he saw Davis strike Young - important
because others testified that the same person who struck the homeless man
murdered MacPhail.

A dozen years after the fact, Collins said he did not witness Davis
striking Young. "This testimony does not in any way show that Davis was
not guilty of striking Young and shooting MacPhail " Melton wrote.

It boils down to this: Do you believe the witness testifying closest to
the murder - or the revised testimony and memories of a decade or more
later? Some of those who changed their testimony blamed police pressure.
But it's just as easy to believe that they felt pressure from opponents of
the death penalty to spare Davis from the justice his crime warrants. The
cop-out position now is: You cant be certain; besides, he'll never get out
of prison.

MacPhail is an abstraction, a long-dead husband and father whos not here
to plead for his life. He's not here with a public relations campaign and
legal team trying to revise history. He is dead. Davis killed him.

(source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution; Jim Wooten is associate editorial
page editor)

******************

This is a message from Troy Anthony Davis


I want to thank all of you for your efforts and dedication to Human Rights
and Human Kindness, in the past year I have experienced such emotion, joy,
sadness and never ending faith. It is because of all of you that I am
alive today, as I look at my sister Martina I am marveled by the love she
has for me and of course I worry about her and her health, but as she
tells me she is the eldest and she will not back down from this fight to
save my life and prove to the world that I am innocent of this terrible
crime.

As I look at my mail from across the globe, from places I have never ever
dreamed I would know about and people speaking languages and expressing
cultures and religions I could only hope to one day see first hand. I am
humbled by the emotion that fills my heart with overwhelming, overflowing
Joy. I can't even explain the insurgence of emotion I feel when I try to
express the strength I draw from you all, it compounds my faith and it
shows me yet again that this is not a case about the death penalty, this
is not a case about Troy Davis, this is a case about Justice and the Human
Spirit to see Justice prevail.

I cannot answer all of your letters but I do read them all, I cannot see
you all but I can imagine your faces, I cannot hear you speak but your
letters take me to the far reaches of the world, I cannot touch you
physically but I feel your warmth everyday I exist.

So Thank you and remember I am in a place where execution can only destroy
your physical form but because of my faith in God, my family and all of
you I have been spiritually free for some time and no matter what happens
in the days, weeks to come, this Movement to end the death penalty, to
seek true justice, to expose a system that fails to protect the innocent
must be accelerated. There are so many more Troy Davis'. This fight to end
the death penalty is not won or lost through me but through our strength
to move forward and save every innocent person in captivity around the
globe. We need to dismantle this Unjust system city by city, state by
state and country by country.

I can't wait to Stand with you, no matter if that is in physical or
spiritual form, I will one day be announcing, " I AM TROY DAVIS, and I AM
FREE!

Never Stop Fighting for Justice and We will Win!