July 7 MISSISSIPPI: Prison unit unlivable----MDOC chief denies charges The American Civil Liberties Union and the Mississippi Department of Corrections are continuing their sparring over allegations of poor conditions at Unit 32 at the Parchman state penitentiary. In a June 29 letter to U.S. Magistrate Jerry Davis, ACLU lawyer Margaret Winter describes Unit 32, which houses about 1,000 maximum-security inmates including those on death row, as one of the most inhumane in the country. The ACLU's National Prison Project sued the state in 2005 over treatment of prisoners in Unit 32. Conditions of a 2006 settlement had not been met, the ACLU declared in previous documents filed in the U.S. District Court. Winter claimed in the letter to Davis that Unit 32 has regressed to the point where prisoners are living in excrement in darkened cells amid a "bedlam" of insane fellow inmates. "Prisoners are being moved into cells without lights, fans, properly functioning toilets, disinfectant or any other cleaning supplies," the letter states. "The cells are filthy. Food trays are delivered filthy. Prisoners have been fed a diet of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for days." Corrections Commissioner Chris Epps said he was at the prison on Monday and the lights are on and cells are being regularly cleaned. "What the ACLU will do is take what inmates say (as fact). I've never met an inmate who (said he) was guilty of the crime. Why don't they go to 32 like I did?" Epps said. "I went to every building, and 32 is doing fine," he said. "This is a group that is unpleasable. All they are doing is racking up attorney fees for you and for me (to pay for) in tax dollars." Winter said the ACLU plans to conduct more regular inspections of the prison on less notice. According to a 2006 consent decree, the ACLU can inspect the prison given "proper advance notice." What constitutes advanced notice is not defined in the agreement. "We've always given them more than 24 hours notice to give them time to plan ahead," she said. There will be less notice from now on, she said. The ACLU has alleged that mentally ill inmates were sent to Unit 32 because of poor discipline, but a 23-hour-a-day confinement only made them more insane. The ACLU also alleged physical abuse by guards, poor sanitary conditions and extreme heat during the summer months. NEW HAMPSHIRE: Defense lawyers file 3 more motions challenging death penalty Lawyers for the man accused of killing a Manchester police officer have filed 3 more motions challenging the constitutionality of the death penalty. The motions field Thursday are the latest in a series of arguments filed with Hillsborough County Superior Court seeking to bar the imposition of the death penalty against Michael Addison. Addison 27, is charged with capital murder in the Oct. 16 death of Officer Michael Briggs, 35, a father of 2 who was shot while on patrol. One of the latest motions challenges the aggravating factors prosecutors have laid out hoping to show why Addison deserves death if convicted. Addison's lawyers argue that the factors are too broad. For example, the attorney general's office claims Addison killed Briggs to avoid a lawful arrest and that he created a "grave risk" to others while committing the crime. But defense lawyers argue that the terms "lawful arrest" and "grave risk" are too vague. "At a minimum, Mr. Addison needs to know how his jury will be instructed with regard to the aggravators so he can prepare factual defenses," public defender David Rothstein wrote. Addison's lawyers also argue that the state's death penalty law gives greater weight to aggravating factors because jurors consider such factors before hearing mitigating factors, or reasons why a defendant deserves life in prison instead of death. In the third motion, defense lawyers argue that denying capital murder defendants the choice between a jury trial and a trial before a judge alone is unconstitutional. A defendant may want a bench trial because he's concerned that jurors who say they are open to the death penalty may be more likely to convict, Addison's lawyers said. The lawyers have until Monday to file more challenges to the death penalty law. The attorney general's office then will have 30 days to respond. A hearing is set for Aug. 15. (source: Boston Globe) SOUTH DAKOTA----impending execution//volunteer Clergy, parishioners examine feelings on death penalty Clergy differ on the death penalty as South Dakota prepares for its 1st execution in 60 years next week. 25 year-old Elijah Page of Athens, Texas, is to be executed for the 2000 torture slaying of Chester Allan Pogue (POHG) of Spearfish. Death penalty opponents say capital punishment only draws people into another cycle of violence. But some pastors say capital punishment has the sanction of God. Sioux Falls Seminary professor Paul Rainbow points to passages in both the Old and New Testament. Bishop Andrea DeGroot-Nesdahl, bishop of the South Dakota Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, says she plans to attend a prayer service in Sioux Falls at the time of Page's execution. The Synod has passed a resolution against the death penalty. And South Dakota's two Roman Catholic bishops have issued a statement describing the execution as an act of violence in which all state residents are taking part. (source: Associated Press) ****************** Reaction to Upcoming SD Execution For the 2nd time in less than a year, Elijah Page is just days from death. He was sentenced to die after he and 2 other men tortured and killed Chester Allan Poage in 2000. Last year, Governor Rounds called off the execution because of a conflict involving the number of drugs being used to kill Page. Next week's execution is already causing mixed emotions. Last year, cheers erupted outside of the South Dakota State Penitentiary as protestors against the death penalty learned Governor Mike Rounds had temporarily called off Elijah Page's execution. People supporting the execution felt he still deserved to die. And just days away from his 2nd scheduled execution date, there are still 2 sides to the issue. Sioux Falls resident Grace Thompson says, "I think he did a horrendous thing and I think he should pay for the crime...I really do." Grace Thompson and her daughter Christine feel whether Page wants to die or not, lethal injection should take place. Christine says, "If this is what he wants, it's not like we're giving him a gift or something. We're taking his life away and if that's what he wants and that's what the court decides, then ultimately it's whatever the court decides." But others feel life in prison is suffering enough. Graeme Jannaway who is against the death penalty says, "It's something I don't think we have any right in taking peoples lives. If the crime is so horrendous then just keep them away from the rest of us." And while the law has been changed to correct any potential problems with the method used to put Page to death, there's still speculation the Governor may choose to step in again to stop South Dakota's 1st execution in 60 years. Thompson says, "If it's legally within his right to stop it and there's a reason to stop it, then I could see that happening again, I could." While we know Page is scheduled to die by lethal injection this coming week, we don't know when exactly it will take place. The warden must publicly announce the day and time 48 hours in advance. ****************************** Execution Protocol While we know the execution is scheduled to happen sometime next week, we still don't know when. That's because the warden is required to announce the day and hour of the execution at least 48 hours in advance. Page is currently on death row in the newer Jamison Annex, but at some point will be taken to a holding cell at the old death row in the penitentiary. There he will be allowed visitors. Immediate family can visit until 6 hours before the scheduled time of execution. But Page will still be allowed to see his attorney and clergy until 1 hour before he's killed. If no last minute appeals are initiated and the Governor has not ordered a stay of execution, Page will be moved into the execution chamber and secured to the table. He'll be hooked up to I-V lines and the witnesses will be brought into the witness rooms. When the Warden opens the curtains outside the witness rooms, Page has a chance to make a final statement. A public transcript will be made of that statement. After he's given the three drugs, the county coroner will examine Page, declare his death and the witnesses will be escorted out. A news conference will then be held at the prison. (source for both: Keloland TV) ******************** S.D. prepares to execute man who asked for death for killing friend in 2000 Elijah Page will be the 1st inmate executed in South Dakota since 1947 if his execution proceeds next week. More than a year since a South Dakota death row inmate asked to be executed for kidnapping a friend and beating him to death, the admitted killer may finally get his wish next week when the state carries out its 1st death sentence in 60 years. Elijah Page sent a letter to the state Supreme Court in spring 2006, asking to waive his appeals and proceed with the sentence that a judge handed him in 2001 for the brutal murder of Chester Allan Poage, 19. Page, who was also 19 at the time, and three co-defendants admitted to kidnapping Poage on March 12, 2000, so they could steal property from the Spearfield home he shared with his mother and sister, who were on vacation. The men said they forced Poage to drink a mixture of hydrochloric acid, crushed pills and beer before bringing him out to the snow-covered woods of rural South Dakota, where they tortured him for nearly three hours and left him to die. Though the trio's accounts varied regarding who did what, the group told police they stabbed Poage, slit his throat, kicked and stoned him in the head repeatedly before leaving him in a creek, where a passerby discovered his remains nearly a month later. After leaving Poage, the group returned to the home he shared with his mother and sister and stole his PlayStation, stereo equipment and jewelry. During the week of July 9, in accordance with state law, the warden of the South Dakota State Penitentiary will announce the exact time and date of Page's execution no more than 48 hours beforehand. Page, now 25, was originally scheduled to be executed Aug. 29, 2006. With just a few hours to spare, his execution was stayed until the legislature revised the lethal injection protocol. Earlier this year, the legislature updated the protocol to provide for the use of a 3-drug cocktail instead of the 2-drug method that was written into law in 1984, but has never been used. Additionally, the new statute designates the warden as the official to determine which substances to use and whether to use a 2- or 3-drug cocktail. Because Page and the four other inmates on death row were sentenced before the revised protocol, they will be able to choose which they prefer. As the 1st execution since 1947, Page's execution marks a series of milestones in the short history of capital punishment in South Dakota. Only 11 others have been put to death since South Dakota entered the Union in 1889. The most recent execution took place in 1947, when George Sitts was sent to the electric chair for killing 2 lawmen. A jury sentenced Darrell Hoadley to life for his part in Poage's slaying. Until 1992, when Donald Moeller was sentenced to death for the rape and murder of 9-year-old Becky O'Connell, the state's death row stood vacant for nearly 3 decades, after the death sentence of a member of the American Indian Movement was commuted to life. The relatively low number of death sentences handed down seems consistent with the low crime rate in South Dakota, where 18 murders occurred in 2005, according to FBI statistics. "Prosecutors seek the death penalty, but part of it is getting 12 people to agree on it," said Sara Reburn, public information officer for the office of South Dakota Attorney General, Larry Long. "They just don't hand them down very often." Earlier this year, a Sioux Falls jury spared Daphne Wright a death sentence for cutting up her deaf lesbian lover with a chainsaw and spreading her remains throughout the area. Page, originally from Athens, Texas, will not only be the 1st inmate executed under the revised statute, he will be the first to undergo lethal injection. Page and his co-defendant, Briley Piper, both chose to forgo a jury trial and instead pleaded guilty to first-degree felony murder, robbery, kidnapping and grand theft in 2000. A 3rd co-defendant, Darrell Hoadley, stood trial and was convicted of 1st-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison by a jury. After a 5-day hearing, in which Page was portrayed by his lawyers as an abused child whose parents prostituted him and his sister in exchange for drugs, a judge sentenced him to death, remarking that he would not want to see a dog subjected to the treatment Page endured as a child. In post-sentencing appeals, lawyers for both Page and Piper, 2 of 4 inmates on South Dakota's death row, argued that their sentences were disproportionate to the punishment Hoadley received for his involvement. Piper's appeals are still pending. (source: Court TV) ******************************* South Dakota executes a tricky life-death dance----Elijah Page and Briley Piper admitted taking 19-year-old Chester Poage into the snowy remoteness of western South Dakota, where they plunged him into an icy stream. For two hours, they taunted and tortured him until he was dead. Elijah Page and Briley Piper admitted taking 19-year-old Chester Poage into the snowy remoteness of western South Dakota, where they plunged him into an icy stream. For 2 hours, they taunted and tortured him until he was dead. For their viciousness 6 years ago, they were sentenced to die by lethal injection, and today they sit on death row at the state prison in Sioux Falls - the only death row in the 5-state Upper Midwest. As South Dakotans gird for what may be a protracted and bitterly divisive struggle over their recently enacted near-total ban on abortion, its neighbors also are likely to watch with interest as the execution date approaches for one of Poage's killers. The South Dakota Supreme Court in January confirmed the death sentences for Piper, now 25, and Page, 24, and last month Page said he's ready to accept his punishment and will seek no more delays. A judge set his execution for August. If Page is put to death, it would be the state's 1st execution since 1947. Page would be the 15th person executed in the state since Jack McCall was hanged in 1877 for shooting Wild Bill Hickock. Dottie Poage, of Rapid City, the murder victim's mother, wants South Dakota to grant Page's last wish - to die. "I'm proud I live in a state that has the death penalty," she said. Death in Minnesota Minnesota hasn't had the penalty since 1911, North Dakota since 1930, but death as a judicial option could take center stage in July when Alfonso Rodriguez Jr. goes on trial for his life in Fargo, N.D., for the 2003 murder of Dru Sjodin, of Pequot Lakes, Minn. The case against Rodriguez, a convicted sex offender, is being heard in federal court - and is subject to the federal penalty - because he is alleged to have taken Sjodin across state lines and killed her in a depraved manner. Federal prosecutors have resisted all attempts by Rodriguez's defense to forestall a potential death penalty in his case. Richard Ney, a death-penalty specialist from Kansas appointed to aid in Rodriguez's defense, sought to have the penalty excluded as racially biased. But U.S. District Judge Ralph Erickson ruled the defense "failed to prove a racial motive" in the decision to seek death if Rodriguez, who is Hispanic, is convicted. In an interview, Ney asserted that the death penalty "is racially skewed. ... It is incredibly expensive and ... fallible," as shown by the freeing of more than 100 death-row prisoners cleared in recent years by DNA evidence. Said Ney, "I don't think society should play God. Even some conservatives ... who talk about the sanctity of life are taking a hard look at their support for the death penalty." In adopting the abortion ban last month, the South Dakota Legislature and Gov. Mike Rounds invoked the state's duty to protect all life. While some conservatives say they can distinguish between protecting the life of the innocent unborn and ordering the forfeit of a convicted killer's life, others do see a contradiction. Abortion foes "should be consistent and ... care about life after birth," said Karl Kroger of Sioux Falls, a member of the Interfaith Task Force Against the Death Penalty. "If we're going to value life, we need to value all life, not just the lives we like." But Larry Long, the state attorney general, said that a 30-year career in prosecution convinces him that execution "is an appropriate response in some cases," and South Dakota takes extraordinary steps to ensure that "only the right people" reach death row. Rounds could commute Page's sentence. The governor is Catholic, and the U.S. Council of Catholic Bishops has declared its opposition to the death penalty. In an interview last week with the Rapid City Journal, the bishop of the local diocese said he has seen "no hard evidence that there is a need to take the life of people on death row." Rounds told the Journal, in an article Sunday, that he agrees "that we should do everything we can to eliminate the need for the death sentence..." but "I do not believe there is anything that says the death sentence is not acceptable today." One argument that lawyers for Piper and Page made to the state Supreme Court was that their clients - who pleaded guilty - received harsher terms than a third man who participated in Poage's killing but fought the charge. A jury convicted him but sentenced him to life in prison. In its 3-2 decision upholding the death sentences, the Supreme Court majority noted that Piper and Page "planned and initiated" the murder. Reviving death In a 5-4 decision in 1972, the U.S. Supreme Court voided federal and state capital punishment laws as "arbitrary and capricious" and unconstitutional. In response, states fine-tuned statutes and capital punishment resumed in 1977 when convicted killer Gary Gilmore faced a Utah firing squad. More than 1,000 executions have been carried out since. National polls have reflected steady support for capital punishment, though the margin narrows when people have a choice between execution for convicted murderers or life in prison without parole. When it was put that way in a Minnesota Poll after Sjodin's disappearance, people split evenly. Minnesota's last execution was a botched hanging in 1906; the defendant took more than 14 minutes to die. The public outcry persuaded the Legislature to abolish the penalty. Reacting to the Sjodin case, Gov. Tim Pawlenty called on the 2004 Legislature to put capital punishment to the voters, but that stalled and Minnesota remains one of 12 states without it. A definition of torture 2 other men sit on South Dakota's death row. One kidnapped a 9-year-old girl, raped her "and chopped her up," Long said. The other executed a young man with a knife, nearly beheading him. Those men deserve to die, Long said. And "if the word `torture' has any meaning at all, Page and Piper defined it." Patrick Duffy, Piper's Rapid City attorney, said the two men "were boys who committed a crime before they were 20 and now are sentenced to be strapped down in a gurney and put to death." They pleaded guilty, he said, but "there's not the moral equivalent of cigarette paper" between them and the 3rd killer. "We are a state drunk on punishment. We've convinced ourselves we'll be happier, richer and safer if we gorge ourselves on punishment." Samantha Poage was 17 when her brother died. "Sometimes it doesn't seem right that we're putting someone else to death," she said. "But they killed my brother. They didn't give my brother an opportunity to decide whether he lived or died." (source: Minneapolis Star Tribune) **************** History of South Dakota's death penalty - 1877-1882: 4 hangings recorded before statehood. - 1889: Capital punishment legal at statehood. - 1892-1913: 10 men hanged. - 1915: Death penalty abolished. - 1939: Capital punishment reinstated and 1 execution carried out in 1947 by electrocution, the last on record. - 1969: Death sentence of Thomas White Hawk commuted. - 1977: Death penalty abolished after U.S. Supreme Court ruled existing death penalty laws unconstitutional. - 1979: Law reinstated and method changed to lethal injection. - 1993: Charles Rhines sentenced to death. - 1997: Donald Moeller sentenced to death. - 1999: Robert Anderson sentenced to death. - 2000: Elijah Page and Briley Piper sentenced to death. - 2003: Anderson hangs himself. - August 2006: Gov. Mike Rounds stops Page's execution because of a conflict over the number of drugs to be used. - January-February 2007: Lawmakers change the law to allow prison officials to choose which drugs to use, Rounds signs bill. - July 1, 2007: New law takes effect. - Week of July 9, 2007: Page scheduled to be executed. (source: Associated Press) US MILITARY: Hennis' rape charge may die----Officer: Murder case should go on A soldier who was pulled back onto active duty after retirement in connection with a 1985 triple murder case is one step closer to a court-martial. A senior officer at Fort Bragg has recommended that Master Sgt. Timothy Hennis be tried on murder charges but that the Army drop a rape charge against him, Bragg officials announced Friday. That recommendation was sent to Lt. Gen. Lloyd J. Austin III, the commander of Fort Bragg and the 18th Airborne Corps, who will make the final decision. If convicted, Hennis could be sentenced to death again. He is accused of hacking to death Kathryn Eastburn and her two daughters, Erin, 3, and Kara, 5, at their Fayetteville home. Eastburn's husband, Air Force Capt. Gary Eastburn, was in Alabama for training. Hennis had visited their home a few days earlier to adopt a dog. He was tried in 1986, convicted and sentenced to death. He spent more than 2 years on death row before his conviction was overturned by the N.C. Supreme Court, which ruled that the first trial had been poorly handled. Hennis was acquitted after a second trial, in 1989. In 2005, Cumberland County investigators asked the State Bureau of Investigation to use modern DNA analysis techniques on sperm taken from Eastburn's body. After getting the results, they asked the Army to court-martial Hennis in order to dodge in a state court any issue of double jeopardy -- the constitutional protection against being charged with the same crime after an acquittal. Hennis' civilian attorney, Colorado-based Frank Spinner, could not be reached for comment Friday afternoon. If Austin decides to order Hennis court-martialed, the decision to drop the rape charge isn't expected to affect the prosecution's case or the admissibility of its evidence, said Col. Billy Buckner, a spokesman for Fort Bragg. That's important because DNA evidence solely retrieved from sperm is the reason the Army decided to prosecute Hennis. A DNA expert with the State Bureau of Investigation said at a preliminary hearing in May that DNA in the samples sent to her office by Cumberland investigators matched Hennis'. Hennis' defense team signaled in the hearing that if there is a court-martial, it would challenge the Army's jurisdiction. His attorneys also began to attack the chain of control of the evidence in the case over the past 22 years, portraying it as sloppy. They also claim investigators and civilian prosecutors are biased against Hennis because of anger over his acquittal. The recommendation to drop the rape charge, Buckner said, was based on military law at the time of the killings. In 1985, the Uniform Code of Military Justice had a three-year statute of limitations for rape. That was changed in 1986, but the change was not retroactive, so the three-year limit applied to the recent rape charge against Hennis. Austin can accept the recommendations, change them or drop all charges. It usually takes at least a few weeks for military officials to make such decisions, but military law does not set a time limit. (source: News & Observer)
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----MISS., N.H., S. DAK., US MIL.
Rick Halperin Sat, 7 Jul 2007 22:33:28 -0500 (Central Daylight Time)
