April 6
NORTH CAROLINA:
Death penalty hearing set for Craig Hicks, accused in Chapel Hill shooting of 3
Muslims
Prosecutors will go before a Durham County Superior Court judge on Monday to
begin laying out their case for pursuing the death penalty against Craig
Stephen Hicks.
Hicks, 43, turned himself in to Chatham County law enforcement officers on Feb.
10, less than an hour after Chapel Hill police found Deah Shaddy Barakat, 23;
Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha, 21; and Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha, 19, dead inside a
condominium on the eastern edge of town.
Investigators contend Hicks, a neighbor of Deah Barakat and his wife, Yusor,
shot and killed the couple and her sister amid a long-simmering parking
dispute.
As news spread quickly and globally on social media about the violent deaths of
the 3 college-aged Muslims, questions grew about whether the motive for the
killings was religious bias.
The New York Times reported in February that photos taken the day after the
shootings showed that none of the cars that Barakat, his wife or her sister
used was parked in Hicks' assigned space.
Federal investigators are conducting an inquiry into whether case evidence
supports federal hate-crime charges, which are very specific and difficult to
prove. In such cases, where religious bias is alleged, the religion of the
victims must be the predominant motivating factor for the crimes for a
successful prosecution, legal scholars say.
On Monday, Durham County District Attorney Roger Echols will be asked to
provide some details of the case so Judge Orlando Hudson can decide whether
capital punishment could be an option if first-degree murder convictions are
won.
Though Durham prosecutors often push for the death penalty as an option, few
Durham juries have been asked in recent years to consider capital punishment.
Prosecutors often use the possibility of death to negotiate pleas that avoid
the cost, time and emotional strain of a trial.
None of the 149 North Carolina inmates currently on death row was convicted in
Durham.
Accused, victims were neighbors
The homicides happened at Finley Forest, a complex in a sliver of Durham County
that falls within Chapel Hill city limits.
Hicks, an unemployed community college student, lived in a 2nd-story unit at
270 Summerwalk Circle. His wife of 7 years owned the condominium when they
married.
Inside, he had a stash of guns that police seized during their investigation,
according to search warrants.
In 2013, Barakat's father bought 272 Summerwalk Circle, a ground-level unit on
the north side of the building where Hicks lived, so his son, a dental student
at the UNC-Chapel Hill, could live and study there while in school.
After a wedding in Raleigh on Dec. 27, Barakat and his new bride made the
condominium their home. Razan, the younger sister of Yusor, had driven from
Raleigh to Chapel Hill the afternoon of the shootings for a dinner date with
the 2.
Notes on parking
Family of the couple said they had taken steps early in the year to appease
their angry neighbor, who often patrolled the parking lot with a gun in a
holster on his hip.
Search warrants from the case show that Hicks kept pictures and detailed notes
on parking activity in the condominium complex.
It's unclear what else investigators have discovered in the computers and
phones seized in the hours and days after the killings. Since his arrest, Hicks
has been in Central Prison in Raleigh, where jailers can keep him isolated from
others and in what they describe as "safe-keeping."
Family, friends and strangers inspired by the community-mindedness of the
victims have worked since their deaths to honor their legacies with numerous
charitable efforts.
(source: newsobserver.com)
ALABAMA:
Attorney for freed former death row inmate says Alabama needs conviction
integrity units
Prosecutors are not using the word "exoneration" to describe former Alabama
death row inmate Anthony Ray Hinton's release Friday. But others, including his
attorney, are calling it just that.
Hinton on Friday became the 152nd former death row inmate listed on the Death
Penalty Information Center's website that catalogs wrongful convictions. He is
the 6th former Alabama death row inmate listed on the website that has
documented exonerations back to 1973.
Bryan Stevenson, the executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative who
represented Hinton, said the one thing he hopes comes out of Hinton's
exoneration is for Alabama prosecutors to join the growing trend of states
starting conviction integrity units, which review or investigate claims of
innocence.
The Maryland-based Center for Prosecutor Integrity stated in a paper in
December that there are 16 conviction integrity units located in 12 states and
the District of Columbia established since 2007. Processes for determining what
cases will be reviewed differ among the units.
Alabama is not among the states on that list. Alabama has a high rate of
incarceration, not every county has a public defender system and people on
death row don't even have a right to appellate counsel, Stevenson said.
"This is absolutely a state that needs conviction integrity units," he said.
The units already in place around the nation have different screening
procedures and criteria for when they will accept a case for review, according
to the Center's paper. The units typically only look at cases brought by an
inmate or an advocacy - or innocent project - group, according to the paper.
Some are staffed exclusively with prosecutors as part of their assigned duties,
while others include a combination of district attorneys and outside members
such as defense attorneys, according to the paper.
The conviction integrity unit in Dallas, Texas, formed in 2007 is recognized as
the 1st one established in the paper. Through 2013 that unit had reviewed 400
cases and had 33 inmates exonerate, according to the paper. A unit in Brooklyn,
N.Y., had the 2nd most exonerated with an estimated 10-plus, according to the
paper.
(source: al.com)
***************
Exoneration From Death Row Does Not Guarantee Justice----Anthony Ray Hinton was
exonerated after spending 30 years on death row.
In 1985, Anthony Ray Hinton was convicted of murdering 2 men in Alabama and
sentenced to death. For the next 3 decades, confined to a 5 by 8 foot death row
cell, he maintained his innocence. Finally, the state of Alabama agreed: On
Friday, Hinton's conviction was overturned and the 58-year-old was set free.
"The sun does shine," Hinton said upon learning of his release. But he did not
mince words in describing the injustice brought against him.
"They just didn't take me from my family and friends," he said. "They had every
intention of executing me for something I didn???t do."
"They had every intention of executing me for something I didn't do."
The evidence used to convict Hinton, who was found guilty of killing 2
restaurant workers in separate incidents in 1985, was flimsy in the extreme. No
eyewitness placed Hinson at the scene of the crime, and police found no
evidence of his fingerprints. Instead, prosecutors linked a set of bullets
recovered at the crime scene to a gun found at Hinton's mother's house - even
though they never proved that the gun fired those bullets. Hinton's defense was
little help. An "expert witness," hired for his low price, had one eye and
could not see through a forensic microscope. Nevertheless, a jury sentenced
Hinton to death. Only the work of the Equal Justice Institute, a non-profit
organization which works to exonerate falsely convicted criminals, led to his
eventual exoneration.
Hinton's experience is not uncommon in the American criminal justice system. A
2014 study concluded that 4 % of the 3,000 or so Americans on death row -
around 120 people in total - are not guilty, and that of the 7,482 sentenced to
death in the United States between 1973 and 2004, 13 % have been executed while
4 % have died in prison. A far larger percentage, 36 %, have their death
sentences commuted to life without parole, their cases largely forgotten. Only
2 % are found not guilty and freed.
Even those who are exonerated, however, struggle to obtain legal justice. A
week before Hinton's release, a Louisiana judge ruled that Glenn Ford, a
65-year-old released from death row last year following a 30-year-long term for
a murder he did not commit, was ineligible for compensation because he
attempted to dispose of evidence related to the murder. "While Mr. Ford does
not have the blood of [murder victim] Isadore Rozeman on his hands," the judge,
Katherine Dorroh wrote in her order, "He did not have clean hands." Also last
month, an Ohio judge ruled that Dale Johnston, wrongfully convicted and
sentenced to death for murder in 1984 and exonerated 6 years later, was also
ineligible for compensation due to a legal technicality - even though 2 others
confessed to the crime in 2008.
"If I am able to get everything that the state says I???m allowed to have,
that???s still an insult when you figure what I lost," Johnston told the
Guardian.
Capital punishment remains broadly popular in the United States, but support,
by some measures, has slipped. A recent study by Pew Research found that 37 %
of Americans no longer support the death penalty for murder, more than double
the percentage from 1996. Opponents of capital punishment often cite the risk
of executing an innocent person as a main reason to abolish the practice. But
as the experience of Ford and Johnston shows, even those inmates who are found
innocent are not guaranteed justice.
(source: The Atlantic)
OKLAHOMA:
Former attorney general criticizes Oklahoma's execution drug
A former Oklahoma attorney general who is now president of Oklahoma City
University has added his name to a legal submission that criticizes Oklahoma's
execution methods.
In papers filed with the U.S. Supreme Court, OCU President Robert Henry says
state lawyers picked an inappropriate drug for lethal injection because they
were on a tight deadline and under political pressure, The Oklahoman reported
from its Washington bureau Sunday (http://bit.ly/1GeQ0di ).
"Oklahoma's hasty, non-science-driven process for selecting midazolam as the
1st drug in its 3-drug protocol did not cohere with its solemn duty to ensure
its punishments are lawful," the submission signed by Henry says.
Henry, a former federal appeals court judge, joined the submission as former
attorney general of Oklahoma from 1987 to 1991. Former Vice President Walter
Mondale also signed it, along with along with former attorneys general from
Virginia, California and other states.
The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments April 29 in the Oklahoma case, which
is narrowly focused on the 1st drug used by the state in its 3-drug sequence.
Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, who is defending the state in the case,
plans to submit his written arguments to the court this week.
Henry joined a half-dozen friend-of-the-court submissions backing the Oklahoma
death row inmates' position that the sedative chosen by the state doesn't meet
the court's test for lethal injection drugs.
The case was filed by 21 Oklahoma death row inmates following the execution of
Clayton Lockett, who remained conscious after midazolam was administered. His
execution prompted an investigation of Oklahoma's protocols.
In their argument, Henry and the other former attorneys general say the
decision to use midazolam was made by a group of government lawyers from the
state Corrections Department and the Oklahoma Attorney General's Office "while
under significant time and political pressure."
Pruitt has challenged that assertion previously. Pruitt's office told the court
in January that Oklahoma "chose midazolam because it had been shown to work,
and work effectively."
Oklahoma is 1 of only 2 states along with Florida that used midazolam as the
1st drug in a 3-drug protocol, according to the Death Penalty Information
Center, which opposes capital punishment. Ohio and Arizona have used it in a
2-drug protocol. Missouri administered midazolam as a sedative before the
official execution protocol began.
(source: Associated Press)
UTAH:
Utah Brings Back Firing Squad Executions; Witnesses Recall The Last One
Last month, Utah Governor Gary Herbert signed a bill bringing back the firing
squad as a method of execution. The state abandoned firing squads in 2004 but
now, it's returned as the backup option - partly because of a shortage of
lethal injection drugs, the state's default execution method.
Utah is now the only state in the U.S. that authorizes execution by firing
squad.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Utah says the bill makes the state look
"backward and backwoods," while proponents argue the firing squad is more
humane, considering the recent botched lethal injection executions in Texas,
Oklahoma and Arizona.
What does a modern firing squad execution actually look like? The answer lies
in Utah's past - it's the only state to carry out such an execution in the last
4 decades.
The last time was the execution of Ronnie Lee Gardner in 2010.
He was put to death after the state abandoned the firing squad in 2004, but
because he had been sentenced before that decision, he was able to opt into the
older execution method.
The story begins on April 2, 1985, when Gardner was in court facing a murder
charge. During a failed escape attempt in the courthouse, he killed an
attorney.
That murder landed him on death row.
"There was a female friend of his that apparently was in on his escape attempt
and when he was being escorted through the hallway, she passed him and handed
him the weapon," says Sandra Yi, a reporter at KSL in Salt Lake City.
She covered Gardner's execution and remembers hearing the story of his
attempted escape 30 years ago.
The weapon was a .22-caliber revolver used to shoot and kill the attorney
Michael Burdell. Gardner also shot and wounded bailiff George "Nick" Kirk.
"[Kirk] ended up passing before Gardner was executed, but I remember his family
saying how much he suffered because of what had happened," Yi says.
While he was on death row, Gardner could choose how he would die, and he chose
the firing squad.
"This is the quote he said when he opted for that firing squad. He said, 'I
lived by the gun, I murdered by the gun, so I will die by the gun,' " Yi says.
His execution date was set for June 18, 2010, just after midnight.
Marcos Ortiz, a reporter at KTVX in Salt Lake City, was in the viewing room on
the other side of a bulletproof window.
"It certainly was some moments there that you really thought long and hard
about what you were about to witness," he says.
Then, the curtain opened.
"He was right there, Ronnie Lee Gardner. There he was," Ortiz says. "And you're
thinking, 'Boy, this is it - This is going to happen.' "
Yi was also in the viewing room.
"He was shackled, he had his head restrained, but I remember his eyes looking
around the room and trying to see who was there," she says. "I know he couldn't
see through the windows, but I remember that struck me quite a bit."
"And it was so quiet," Ortiz says. "It was so, so quiet."
"There was a hood placed over him, and a target placed over his heart," Yi
says.
"That was where they were going to shoot," Ortiz says. "There were five
marksman: They're all volunteers and they're police officer trained."
Of the 5 rifles, 1 is loaded with blanks so that no one knows for sure who
fired the bullets.
"And so you're just waiting there," Ortiz says. "And then all of a sudden there
was this, 'boom-boom-boom-boom.'"
"It happened pretty quickly, I think a lot of us were not prepared for when it
did actually happen," Yi says.
"And then Ronnie Lee Gardner's hands gripping and raising, and then coming back
down to rest," Ortiz says. "And that's when the medical examiner walked in and
felt his pulse. And I think it was at 12:17 [a.m.] they pronounced him dead."
Gardner was Utah's most recent execution by any method; the state, notes Robert
Dunham, executive director at the Death Penalty Information Center, "only
rarely executes people."
Today, there are nine inmates on Utah's death row. 3 of the inmates, sentenced
to death prior to 2004, already chose to die by firing squad.
Under the new law, firing squad isn't available at the prisoner's request;
instead, it depends on the availability of lethal injection drugs. The state
doesn't currently have any of the drugs on hand.
Just last Wednesday in Utah, Douglas Lovell was sentenced to death for murder.
If the drugs aren't available when his execution date is set, then under the
new law, he will be put to death by firing squad.
(source: ideastations.org)
CALIFORNIA:
750 People On Death Row: The Dark Side Of California
California is often portrayed in the media as an idyllic place, but there is a
dark side to this state.
In particular, California's death row is the largest in the U.S. With no
executions in nearly a decade and newly condemned men arriving each month,
there are now more than 750 convicts currently in limbo, awaiting death. And
there is no more room.
Governor Jerry Brown sees the solution as asking the California legislature for
$3.2 million to open nearly 100 more cells at San Quentin State Prison. Really,
Governor Brown? The Governor has included this request in his $113 billion
budget proposal.
Even though a federal judge ruled last July that the state's slow death row
system is 'unconstitutionally cruel'?
California's death penalty has been the subject of a decade of legal upheaval
with one case even leading to a halt in executions in 2006.
Many of us hoped that in November, 2012, California would become the latest
state to see the light and decide to get rid of capital punishment, but instead
52 % of California voters cast ballots to keep the death penalty. Nevertheless,
this slim majority indicates that Californians are growing increasingly
concerned with the costs and unfairness of the death penalty.
2 years ago, in March 2013, Maryland became the 18th state to abolish the death
penalty, giving hope to many that the tide is really turning, and the US is no
longer embracing the death penalty.
Along with China, Iran, North Korea and Yemen, the United States currently
leads the world in carrying out the most death sentences. What great company we
are in.
10 Excellent Reasons To Abolish The Death Penalty Now
As Death Penalty Focus explains, there are 10 excellent reasons to end the
death penalty now:
1. Innocence and the Death Penalty
The wrongful execution of an innocent person is an injustice that can never be
rectified.
2. The High Cost of the Death Penalty
It costs far more to execute a person than to keep him or her in prison for
life.
3. Death Penalty Can Prolong Suffering for Victims' Families
Many family members who have lost love ones to murder feel that the death
penalty will not heal their wounds nor will it end their pain; the extended
legal process prior to executions can prolong the agony experienced by the
victims??? families.
4. International Views on the Death Penalty
The vast majority of countries in Western Europe, North America and South
America - more than 139 nations worldwide - have abandoned capital punishment
in law or in practice.
5. Inadequate Legal Representation
Perhaps the most important factor in determining whether a defendant will
receive the death penalty is the quality of the representation he or she is
provided.
6. Deterrence
Scientific studies have consistently failed to demonstrate that executions
deter people from committing crime anymore than long prison sentences.
7. Arbitrariness in the Application of the Death Penalty
Politics, quality of legal counsel and the jurisdiction where a crime is
committed are more often the determining factors in a death penalty case than
the facts of the crime itself.
8. Religious Perspectives on the Death Penalty
Although isolated passages of religious scripture have been quoted in support
of the death penalty, almost all religious groups in the United States regard
executions as immoral.
9. Racial Disparities
The race of the victim and the race of the defendant in capital cases are major
factors in determining who is sentenced to die in this country.
10. Alternatives to the Death Penalty
In every state that retains the death penalty, jurors have the option of
sentencing convicted capital murderers to life in prison without the
possibility of parole. The sentence is cheaper to tax-payers and keeps violent
offenders off the streets for good.
Death Row In California
The legal fight of capital punishment has meant that California has not put an
inmate to death in nearly 10 years. That's when a court invalidated the state's
3-drug lethal injection system. Since then, no new protocols have been
developed.
Governor Brown's budget proposal anticipates an average of 20 new arrivals on
death row yearly and he proposes putting them in 97 cells on the first 2 tiers
of the 5-tier South Block at San Quentin. If approved, the expansion would
begin in July.
Deliberately taking another person's life is not justice, but nothing more than
a crude instrument of revenge. It is a cruel and degrading punishment, and the
US should banish the death penalty now.
Please, Governor Brown, reconsider your decision.
(source: Judy Molland, care2com)
USA:
Lawyers for Donald Fell prepare for death penalty retrial----Fell faces death
penalty retrial for 2000 death of woman
A man who spent nearly a decade on federal death row is going to be back in a
Vermont courtroom while attorneys prepare for another death penalty trial.
Last year a federal judge ordered a new trial for Donald Fell after it was
revealed that one of the jurors in the original 2005 trial had investigated the
details of the case on his own. The 34-year-old Fell was sentenced to death for
the 2000 killing of 53-year-old Terry King, of North Clarendon, who was
abducted when she arrived for work at a Rutland supermarket. Fell had offered
to plead guilty in exchange for a sentence of life without parole, but the deal
never materialized.
A pretrial hearing is set for April 10 in Burlington.
(source: WPTZ news)
_______________________________________________
DeathPenalty mailing list
DeathPenalty@lists.washlaw.edu
http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/listinfo/deathpenalty
Search the Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/deathpenalty@lists.washlaw.edu/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A free service of WashLaw
http://washlaw.edu
(785)670.1088
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
