Aug. 17 USA: Wrong guy to make the call----Gonzales' record on executions not good. On Tuesday, the Los Angeles Times reported that the Justice Department intends to expand Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' authority to expedite federal executions. However you feel about the death penalty, the changes are a mistake as Gonzales' record so amply illustrates. The rules would allow states to increase haste in reaching the most serious, irreversible decision a court can make, reducing the time for inmates to file appeals to 6 months from a year and imposing strict deadlines on judges' consideration of petitions. More disturbing, the entity that would have to approve these "fast track" programs, and thus the states' systems of legal representation, would not be a disinterested federal judge, but the nation's lead prosecutor, the attorney general. We think we see a conflict of interest in having the nation's No. 1 prosecutor judge provisions for defense. For this particular attorney general, however, we see a conflict of near-comic proportions. In Gonzales' recent testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, he was questioned, among many other things, about the firing of U.S. Attorney Paul Charlton for "insubordination" after Mr. Charlton sought further investigation before imposing the death penalty to cases in his jurisdiction. When questioned about one specific case, Gonzales, characteristically for those hearings, was unable to recall anything, indicating either outright dishonesty or a reckless inattention to death penalty cases; neither of which inspires confidence in his ability to carry out his proposed duties. Gonzales' casually reckless approach to death penalty matters was visible nearly a decade ago when, as general counsel in Texas, he delivered memos and briefings to then-Gov. George W. Bush, informing the governor's decisions to grant or deny clemency. The final decision was generally "deny," and the 152 executions under Bush's 6 years as governor set an all-time record. Critics have since raised serious questions about several of these cases, casting the application of the death penalty, if not the verdicts, into doubt. Gonzales' hand in these matters was revealed when journalist Alan Berlow obtained the memos and related documents Mr. Bush used to make clemency decisions. As Mr. Berlow reported in the Atlantic Monthly, the documents showed that Gonzales "repeatedly failed to apprise the governor of crucial issues in the cases at hand: ineffective counsel, conflict of interest, mitigating evidence, even actual evidence of innocence." That Gonzales could now accelerate executions by rendering judgment on the states' handling of the very issues he ignored as general counsel, is the new regulations' unfortunate implication. The period for public comment to the Justice Department has been extended to Sept. 24 due, among other reasons, to problems with the Web site where the rules are posted: www.regulations.gov. We urge those concerned to make their voices heard; if not through the Web site, then by writing Policy Advisor for Adjudication Danica Szarvas-Kidd at Bureau of Justice Assistance, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice, 810 Seventh St., NW, Washington, DC 20531, calling her at 202-305-7418, faxing at 202-307-0036, or e-mailing at OJP_Fed_Reg_Comments at usdoj.gov. Be sure to cite OJP Docket No. 1464. (source: Editorial, Orange County Register) ******************** Death Penalty: Slow AG down How does one repay a public official such as Attorney General Alberto Gonzales? If you're President Bush, you give him more power, of course. We're sure Gonzales is not yet done making a mockery out of the Justice Department he's polluted with his Bushwhacked politics. Regardless, the administration is hard at work, reports the Los Angeles Times, creating a fast-tracked death penalty system, giving Gonzales "expanded powers" over cases. So what if he's not a federal judge? So what if he has a creepy history of being almost enthusiastic about the death penalty? In June, The Washington Post reported that Paul Charlton, one of the nine U.S. attorneys Gonzales fired, told Congress that his former boss "has been overzealous in ordering federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty, including in an Arizona murder case in which no body had been recovered" (emphasis ours) and that Gonzales was "eager to expand the use of capital punishment." The new system, an express lane to the death chamber, if you will, gives inmates less time to appeal their sentences in federal courts (6 months instead of a year), and federal judges would have less time to consider those cases. Gonzales can try to obscure the truth with his lies and peculiar form of amnesia, but we can all see, with horrific clarity, what George "Let's-have-'Sanctity-for-Human-Life'-Day" Bush is trying to perpetrate in his last months in office. He must be stopped, and we're sure the 3,350 inmates currently on death row agree. (source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer Editorial Board) ********************* There is no fast track for the death penalty Today's paper sports a headline that would almost be laughable were it not so deadly serious. It announces that under a little-noticed provision of the Patriot Act, the attorney general is seeking to exercise powers granted to him to "fast track" state executions of prisoners on death row. Alberto Gonzales? A man whose judgment has been questioned by friend and foe alike, who remains in his job only because his lame duck boss is impervious to criticism, now given new life-and-death power? This at a time when DNA evidence has repeatedly been used to prove the imperfections of the system of determining guilt, and medical questions about lethal injection as a method of execution have led to moratoriums in several states? The new provision is the latest chapter of the ongoing effort by death-penalty proponents to speed up the period between a sentence of death and its execution, which in some states can take not years but decades. Under an earlier version of the law, new limits were established requiring a prisoner sentenced to death under state law to seek review in federal courts within a year (now 6 months) of the time he has exhausted his state appeals, and imposing time limits on how long federal district judges and appellate courts could take to decide the cases. The catch was that the states had to establish that they were providing adequate assistance of counsel in state courts, which they have failed to do, according to the federal courts charged to review these claims. What the new law does is take that decision-making authority away from the federal courts and invest it in the attorney general. His decision is subject to review only by the federal appellate court in Washington, rather than in courts around the country (most notably the Ninth Circuit, based in California) that have been consistently hostile toward the death penalty. Depending on your perspective, many have provided exacting scrutiny or dragged their heels in such cases, refusing to approve the state systems. It should go without saying that no one should be executed where there remains any reasonable doubt about guilt or innocence. It should also go without saying, but often doesn't, that the system needs to be at its best, with well-prepared (as opposed to slumbering) lawyers and carefully reviewed decision making in cases where there is no room for mistakes. "Death is different," the Supreme Court observed many years ago, in insisting that the states develop new and fairer rules for its imposition. If a state chooses to impose the death penalty, it should be obliged to establish and follow procedures that only allow executions in the most heinous and clear-cut cases. Opponents of the death penalty contend that there is no such thing as a good enough system and, in many cases, no such thing as a bad enough criminal. It is there that I find myself parting ways with the critics. I am happy to join any efforts to improve the quality of counsel, review dubious cases or provide funds for DNA testing that can resolve doubts. But there are cases where death is a just punishment. The same day's paper contains a report of an attack so gruesome and horrible that I can think of no reason why the perpetrator, once convicted, should be fed, clothed and cared for for the rest of his life, rather than put to death. Calvin Sharp, 27, has been arrested for hacking to death a 6-year-old boy with a meat cleaver on Sunday night in a quiet neighborhood of Thousand Oaks, Calif. His mother sought to save the boy's life. Neighbors first tried to stop Sharp, and then called 911 in horror. Sharp has been charged with both murder and attempted murder. Sharp is presumed innocent. But that is a legal presumption, not a statement of fact. There is simply no excuse for what he did, and no reason I can think of that the just, certain and swift punishment should not be death. Death is different, but so are some savage criminals. (source: Tallehassee Democrat) ********************* Another stealth provision in USA Patriot Act----Congress should strip provision that gives Gonzales power over death penalty cases In the guise of passing legislation to fight terrorism, Congress has been willing to hand over an amazing amount of power to the executive branch -- and particularly to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. One last-minute change to the USA Patriot Act Reauthorization in March 2006, a law first approved after the Sept. 11 attacks to fight terrorism, allowed the attorney general to choose replacement U.S. attorneys without Senate confirmation. That was not part of the original bills passed by the House and Senate and never got a hearing. Now we find another eleventh-hour provision slipped into that reauthorization. Sen. John Kyl, R-Ariz., inserted a provision that strips key authority in death penalty cases from federal courts and gives it to Gonzales. Neither chamber voted on the item. It was inserted during the conference committee process to reconcile House and Senate bills. The provision has nothing to do with combating terrorism. If Congress wants to make improvements to the system of federal death penalty appeals, the House and Senate should hold hearings and consider a bill. The stealth Kyl provision doesn't belong in the USA Patriot Act. Congress should take it out. Under the Kyl provision, the federal courts no longer certify whether states have mechanisms in place to meet requirements for effective assistance of counsel in death penalty cases, a trigger for fast-track review of death penalty appeals. Effective representation is necessary because the justice system can make mistakes and the penalty is irreversible. The Kyl provision shifted the decision to certify to the attorney general. On June 5, the Department of Justice proposed regulations to implement the provision, with a public comment period ending Aug. 6. But after the hue and cry, Justice made the deadline Sept. 24. Sens. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Arlen Specter, R-Pa., want a delay until Oct. 5. The proposed regulations include no definitions of "competent counsel" and no standards of competence. Certification of state counsel systems would be an arbitrary decision by the attorney general. Gonzales' record on this issue is not reassuring. Alan Berlow in the July/August 2003 edition of Atlantic Monthly analyzed 57 memos that Gonzales prepared for then-Gov. George W. Bush on death penalty inmates facing execution after exhausting their state and federal appeals. "Gonzales repeatedly failed to apprise the governor of crucial issues in the cases at hand: ineffective counsel, conflict of interest, mitigating evidence, even actual evidence of innocence," he wrote. More recently, Specter asked Gonzales about the case of a man facing execution for a murder where no body was found and no direct evidence linked the man to the crime. Specter was flabbergasted that Gonzales spent all of 5 to 10 minutes on this issue. Does anyone believe that Gonzales would be a more neutral fact-finder or a more independent adjudicator than a federal judge in certifying state counsel systems for death penalty cases? The attorney general is a prosecutor, not a neutral arbiter on death penalty issues. Congress plainly erred in stripping jurisdiction from the federal courts. Lawmakers should fix it by removing the Kyl provision from the USA Patriot Act. (source: Editorial, The Sacramento Bee) FLORIDA: Convicted killer facing death penalty claims he was victim of sex abuse Doctors called by his defense attorney said Thursday that Howard Steven Ault is a sick man, painting a grim picture of the child killer in an attempt to spare him from the death penalty. A Broward County jury heard testimony from defense witnesses who said the convicted pedophile suffered from a post-traumatic stress disorder because of sexual abuse and other sadistic acts inflicted by his older brother when Ault was 7 years old. The jury will recommend whether Ault, 41, should stay in prison for life or be executed for raping DeAnn Mu'min, 11, and then killing her and her sister Alicia Jones, 7, in 1996 in his Fort Lauderdale home. Dr. David Ross, a neurologist, told jurors Ault has an abnormal brain and that issues from the "dysfunctional parts" include apathy and problems with impulse control and judgment. Psychiatrist David Kramer told jurors Ault suffers from the effects of suicide attempts, learning problems, multiple head injuries and being a child of divorced parents. Ault told Kramer that his older brother had raped him "there were at least 20 or more incidents," Kramer said and related that his parents were "powerless or unable to stop it." His "post traumatic disorder and pedophilia developed from his childhood experience of victimization," Kramer said, adding that a large number of such people go on to commit crimes. But Kramer also said, under probing by prosecutor Tim Donnelly, that Ault told people he had been a victim of sexual abuse only after murdering the sisters. Kramer met with Ault just once, for 2 hours. Donnelly read testimony from Ault's 2000 trial given by psychologist Sherrie Bourg Carter, who was unable to come to court Thursday. She told the original jury she had given Ault a psychological test but the results were meaningless because he was "deliberately dis-reporting" his illness and "saying everything was a problem." She accused him of "feigning mental illness." "He is faking mental illness to avoid responsibility" for the crime, she said, according to the transcript Donnelly read, with a secretary from his office standing in for Carter. "He lied about so many things, it's hard to know what really happened to him." Just after the 1996 killings, Ault told a detective in a taped confession that he was afraid the girls would tell on him and he could have faced 25 years in prison for violating his probation on an unrelated sexual assault charge. He stuffed their strangled bodies in his attic, threw their schoolbooks in the trash and then went to pick up his wife from work. Ault was convicted of the murders in 2000 and the jury recommended death. The Florida Supreme Court upheld the conviction but vacated the sentence, saying a potential juror had been wrongfully removed. That ruling set the stage for the current penalty phase. The hearing continues Monday, when jurors are expected to begin deliberations. (source: Sun-Sentinel) CALIFORNIA: Death penalty foe gets 5 years in prison----A former defense investigator faked documents to try to delay four executions. As she was led off to prison in handcuffs Thursday, former inmate advocate Kathleen Culhane had few regrets about falsifying documents in an attempt to spare the lives of 4 convicted murderers. Earlier during a brief hearing -- shortly before she was sentenced to 5 years in prison -- Culhane had called capital punishment "a brutal legacy of lynching," adding that "I cannot have remorse for a government that kills at midnight and invests millions of dollars in the process." When she left the courtroom of Sacramento Superior Court Judge Gary E. Ransom, she held her head high. To prosecutors, Culhane had committed one of the largest frauds against the legal system in California history. A law school graduate and former San Joaquin County resident, Culhane worked as an investigator for lawyers appealing the cases of death row inmates. What possessed her to invent declarations that were dispatched to the California Supreme Court, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the defense attorneys she worked for? In an interview last week as she awaited sentencing, she said she was acting on principle when she committed what she called an act of civil disobedience. "I felt I had to try something proactive to bring about a sure, or at least a very likely, delay in order to slow down the march toward execution," said Culhane, 40. Was she successful? On a gray and windy afternoon at San Francisco's Ocean Beach, Culhane, a petite woman with brown hair, blue eyes and an easy smile, acknowledged, "I don't think I made a ping in the legal system." Defense attorneys as well as prosecutors said they were shocked by Culhane's actions, which they said only compounded the suffering of friends and family of the condemned men and their victims by, as one put it, "trying to win on lies." "What she did is an affront to the entire legal system," said Senior Assistant Atty. Gen. Mike Farrell. "The scariest people are the ones who think the ends justify the means -- that's Kathleen Culhane." Also burned was former Whitewater independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr, who in February 2006 joined the effort to delay the execution of Michael Morales. Morales was sentenced to death in 1983. His execution has since been postponed amid legal challenges to California's application of lethal injections. Starr declined to comment on Culhane's sentencing, except to say, through a spokeswoman, that her case was "ineffably sad." Culhane's closest friends and relatives portray her as a compassionate woman who has always been eager to help those in need. In high school, Culhane joined a group that assisted disadvantaged people in Mexico. Of her falsehoods, Culhane's lifelong friend Mary Keelty said, "Legally, it's wrong. But morally, we have to ask: Why is taking a life through execution righteous, and defying the law to save a life egregious?" Later, Culhane worked as an investigator for prisoner rights programs, sometimes tracking down relatives and witnesses in the slums and hinterlands of Mexico, Central America, West Africa and Haiti. In 2002 she went to work for the Habeas Corpus Resource Center in San Francisco. In a frustrating legal world where the chances of winning a reversal in a capital case are nearly nil, Culhane said, "a delay was a win because it meant more years of life for the defendant." The pressure to stall was especially intense in the case of Morales, 47, of Stockton, who was convicted of the 1981 rape and murder of Terri Winchell, 17, a Lodi high school student. In January 2006, a month before Morales was to be executed, his lawyers received support from a highly unusual source: The judge who had condemned him to die asked Schwarzenegger to grant clemency. Ventura County Superior Court Judge Charles R. McGrath said in a letter to the governor that he believed the conviction was based on false testimony from a jailhouse informant. Armed with McGrath's letter, Culhane tracked down the jurors who had convicted Morales in hopes they would agree with the judge. They didn't. Frustrated and desperate, Culhane said she holed up in an Oxnard hotel room and "spent a few all-nighters" composing a series of bogus affidavits and declarations to suggest that five jurors questioned whether Morales was guilty. "I turned them in to the defense team over the course of a week," she said. "The lawyers seemed pleased." But not for long. The scheme unraveled when the 5 jurors told prosecutors under oath that they had never been contacted by anyone from the Morales legal team and had no idea who Culhane was. Culhane also said in sworn declarations that she had met several times with a key witness in the case, Patricia Felix, in January 2006 at her Stockton home. Felix had not lived at the address Culhane cited since 2005. Initially, defense attorney David Senior refused to believe that his investigator had lied. But after reviewing the evidence provided by prosecutors, Senior recalled, the truth sank in. "It took us one hour and 45 minutes to withdraw anything associated with her from our case files," Senior said. A 1-year investigation culminated in a 45-count, 17-page complaint against her. Under terms of a settlement deal, Culhane pleaded guilty to two counts of forgery, one count of perjury and one count of filing false documents. Looking back, Culhane said she felt "betrayed by former colleagues" who "rolled over for the prosecution" and actively assisted in the case against her. "I didn't expect that," she said. Culhane says she is prepared for prison. "After I turned myself in [in February 2006], the guards referred to me as a celebrity case, which was a drag because the other prisoners didn't like that," she recalled. "But when I told one prisoner what I'd done, she said, 'Right on.' " (source: Los Angeles Times) ILLINOIS: Death penalty sought in 5-year-old's death Prosecutors will seek the death penalty if a couple is convicted of murdering their 5-year-old daughter, who was allegedly physically abused and malnourished before her death. Carlos Beltran, 31, and his common-law wife, Mila Petrov, 30, are charged with the March 14 death of their 5-year-old daughter, Melanie Beltran. Prosecutors on Thursday filed a petition announcing their intention to seek the death penalty, according to Cook County States Attorneys office spokeswoman Tandra Simonton. The couple is slated for a status hearing Sept. 18 before Cook County Circuit Judge Garritt E. Howard at the Skokie Courthouse. Beltran and Petrov, both of 8900 block of Kennedy Drive in northwest suburban Maine Township, pleaded not guilty to 6 counts each of 1st-degree murder. Petrov is accused of slamming Melanie's head into a wall in the family's apartment on March 13 because she was angry at the girl for throwing up, according to prosecutors. Instead of calling 911 when the girl became unresponsive, prosecutors alleged she called her husband and cleaned the home. About 7:15 p.m. on March 13, police were called to assist an ambulance at the home. Melanie was taken to Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge, where she was pronounced dead at 3:10 p.m. on March 14, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner's office. The same day Melanie died, Petrov gave birth to a baby boy at Westlake Hospital in Melrose Park. Prosecutors allege Melanie suffered months of abuse, including having hot sauce or jalapenos put in her mouth when she told a lie and having a belt wrapped around her legs because she was running around too much. An autopsy determined Melanie suffered multiple injuries and blunt trauma, and her death was caused by child abuse and failure to thrive due to parental neglect, according to a report from the medical examiners office. After the incident, the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services placed the then-newborn and Melanie's 6 brothers and sisters with relatives, according to authorities. Petrov and Beltran remain in jail after she was denied bond and bond for him was set at $5 million. (source: Chicago Sun-Times)
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----USA, FLA., CALIF., ILL.
Rick Halperin Fri, 17 Aug 2007 10:43:48 -0500 (Central Daylight Time)
