Nov. 14 USA: Death-penalty cases on hold pending Supreme Court review Prosecutor Matt Whitworth persuaded a jury to sentence Lisa Montgomery to death, but he isn't expecting the Kansas woman to die anytime soon. Whitworth, an assistant U.S. attorney in Kansas City, Mo., said that Montgomery, 39, should to be put to death for strangling a pregnant woman and then using a kitchen knife to cut the baby from her womb. On Oct. 30, however, the U.S. Supreme Court blocked the execution of a Mississippi murderer until it concludes a review next year of whether lethal injections constitute cruel and unusual punishment. And even before that, many states - including Texas and Missouri, two of the leaders in state-sanctioned killings - had imposed de facto moratoriums. "It'll be many years before it's all wrapped up," Whitworth said. After 1,099 executions since 1976, when the death penalty was reinstated, there's been an unusual lull in the nation's death chambers. There've been only 42 executions so far this year, the fewest since 1994. In Texas, which has led the nation with 405 executions since 1976, the execution chambers have ground to a halt. In Harris County, Texas, which includes Houston and accounts for 100 executions since 1976, Assistant District Attorney Roe Wilson said the uncertainty caused by the high court's review caused her to switch gears. Last week, she asked a court to withdraw the Feb. 26 execution that had been planned for Derrick Sonnier, who raped and murdered a woman and then stabbed her 2-year-old son to death in 1991. "We're just not going to go forward with execution dates, although we're still trying cases as death penalty cases," Wilson said. With executions all but on hold across the country, death-penalty opponents see an opening. The American Bar Association is promoting a nationwide moratorium on capital punishment. And despite the long odds against success, opponents want Congress to ban executions. "We should take advantage of this apparent pause in executions to consider the severe injustices within the system as a whole," said Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., who's introduced a Federal Death Penalty Abolition Act. The controversy over lethal injections comes as polls find more Americans questioning the use of the death penalty, particularly over concern about wrongful convictions. Experts say that's giving more ammunition to death-penalty opponents. "Right now, certainly the abolitionists are gaining some steam," said Daniel Medwed, a law professor at the University of Utah. "The lay of the land is that essentially everyone is waiting for the Supreme Court. A lot of states are just waiting and seeing how that process unfolds. They don't have to do that, but they're being very pragmatic." Thirty-seven states allow the death penalty. Lethal injections have been used in 85 % of the executions since 1976. The remaining prisoners were put to death by electrocution (14 %) and gas chamber (1 %), while three prisoners were hanged and two were killed by firing squads. The Supreme Court review, prompted by a Kentucky death-penalty case, is taking aim at what most people have long believed is the best way to execute prisoners. The lethal injections numb the prisoner's face and make it impossible to show pain. As a result, they're easier for observers to watch. Lethal injections involve three chemicals: sodium thiopental to induce unconsciousness, pancuronium bromide to cause muscle paralysis and potassium chloride to stop the heart. Opponents of the death penalty say that if inadequate levels of sodium thiopental are administered, the anesthetic effect can wear off before the heart stops. In a report issued last month, Amnesty International cited the case of Angel Diaz of Florida, who "appeared to be moving 24 minutes after the first injection, grimacing, blinking, licking his lips, blowing and appearing to mouth words." The curtains surrounding his stretcher eventually were closed. "The numerous recent botched executions have shattered the myth that lethal injection is a gentle process," said Sue Gunawardena-Vaughn, the director of Amnesty International USA's Program to Abolish the Death Penalty. "If lethal injection doesn't call medical ethics into question, what does? Health professionals are charged with saving lives, not ending them." Medwed predicted that death-penalty opponents would gain more traction if the Supreme Court concludes that lethal injections are cruel and unusual punishment. "Lethal injections have been in vogue for a long time," Medwed said. "What makes this unusual is that the most popular and prominent method of execution is being attacked. The interesting thing will be to see if the Supreme Court finds it cruel and unusual - what's left? What are states going to do? ... Some people think, in Utah at least, that the firing squad is the most humane because it's just one bullet to the head - it's quick." Wilson, the assistant D.A. from Texas who supports the death penalty, said she's eager to have the Supreme Court review lethal injections in an attempt to quell the controversy. But she defended them, saying they provide "the most painless way" to execute condemned prisoners. "It's basically like having major surgery," she said. "If you've ever had that done, you know that one second you're aware and the next second the operation's over." In Missouri, Whitworth expects executions to resume after the Supreme Court makes its decision. He said it's just a matter of time before the jury's sentence will be carried out. (source: McClatchy Newspapers) GEORGIA: Lawyers ask top Georgia court to give death row inmate new trial Attorneys for death row inmate Troy Davis asked the Georgia Supreme Court for a new trial, and warned that the wrong man is scheduled to be executed. In a case that has drawn fierce protest from death penalty opponents, Davis' attorneys argued Tuesday that new testimony proves their client's innocence and implicates another man. "This is a case of mistaken identity," said Jason Ewart, an attorney for Davis, who added that the amount of new evidence justifies a new trial. "There's no case like this." Prosecutors say the case is closed and new evidence cannot be considered. They chastised defense attorneys for holding the evidence in their "back pocket" and unleashing it days before their client was scheduled to be executed. Attorneys representing Davis are using a unique Georgia law which experts say is the only one of its kind in the nation that allows inmates to seek a completely new trial after exhausting other appeals. Davis was convicted of the 1989 murder of 27-year-old Savannah police officer Mark MacPhail. The officer, who was working off-duty as a security guard at a bus station, rushed to help a homeless man who had been pistol-whipped at a nearby parking lot. When he approached Davis and 2 other men, he was shot in the face and the chest and fell to the ground, mortally wounded. Witnesses identified Davis as the shooter. A jury convicted him in 1991 and sentenced him to death. At the trial, prosecutors said he wore a "smirk on his face" as he fired the gun, according to records. But Davis' lawyers say new evidence could exonerate their client and prove him a victim of mistaken identity. Several witnesses who initially testified against Davis have since recanted or contradicted their testimony. And three others who did not testify have said another man, Sylvester "Red" Coles who testified against Davis at the trial confessed to the killing. "He pointed the finger at Mr. Davis to save his own skin," Ewart said of Coles, adding that Coles had the "motive, opportunity and means" to commit the crime. Coles refused to talk about the case when contacted by The Associated Press during a recent Chatham County court appearance on an unrelated traffic charge, and he has no listed phone number. Prosecutors call the witness statements "suspect," and say some of the witness affidavits simply repeat what a trial jury has already heard, while others are irrelevant because they come from witnesses who never testified. David Lock, an assistant district attorney for Chatham County, said the defense is trying to convince the court there was a "grand conspiracy" by police to land a conviction. "It's easy to understand how in the future, over the years, witnesses who knew the defendant lived in the same neighborhood could be coerced themselves," he said. "If there's any conspiracy theory, it's after the trial, not before it." He also questioned the legitimacy of affidavits, which he said fail to prove that Davis should be granted a new trial. "They just submitted affidavits and did not go into the background of how they were obtained," Lock said of the defense attorneys. The outcome will be closely watched in the Georgia Capitol, where Davis' case is frequently cited by advocates of new statewide standards to govern eyewitness identification. Death penalty critics, meanwhile, present Davis as an example of the uncertainties of capital punishment. The packed courtroom was filled with observers. MacPhail's family and allies from the Fraternal Order of Police sat on one side and relatives and supporters of Davis on the other. A decision is not likely for weeks, but the significance of the hearing seemed to buoy Davis' relatives. "We were waiting on this for a long time. All we wanted was for Troy to have his fair trial," said his mother, Virginia Davis. "It is never too late to hear new evidence when someone is fighting for his life. We're going to have a new trial for Troy and we're going to free him." Even if Davis loses his request for a new trial it is unlikely that he would be executed until the U.S. Supreme Court rules on a Kentucky case challenging lethal injection as a means of capital punishment. On the Net: http://www.gasupreme.us FLORIDA: Injection issue may delay another execution The scheduled execution of a convicted child murderer in Florida on Thursday may test the notion that the U.S. Supreme Court has instituted an unofficial nationwide moratorium on the death penalty. Mark D. Schwab is to die by lethal injection for the 1991 death of 11-year-old Junny Rios-Martinez. He has appealed to the Supreme Court for a stay of execution. The high court has granted three such stays since agreeing to hear a challenge on whether the use of lethal injections constitutes a form of cruel and unusual punishment. Some states also have volunteered to place a moratorium on lethal injections pending the Supreme Court's findings. The issue of whether death by lethal injection represents cruel and unusual punishment stems, in part, from last December's execution in Florida of murderer Angel Diaz. Then-Gov. Jeb Bush ordered an investigation and issued a moratorium on executions after an autopsy revealed it took twice the normal time for Diaz to die because one of the needles missed the vein and pumped the deadly cocktail into his tissue. A panel revised lethal injection protocols, and the state ban was lifted in July. Gov. Charlie Crist chose Schwab as the first post-moratorium execution in the state. "It would not surprise me if it were delayed again," said State Attorney Norman Wolfinger, whose office prosecuted Schwab. "Any matter of death is always going to be an issue. I don't see it as cruel and unusual at all. The real issue should be, do you deserve to die." Wolfinger said he wished the state would return to using the electric chair. That, he said, was something criminals feared. On Tuesday night, a Florida judge refused to grant a new hearing or to throw out Schwab's sentence, rejecting a claim that Schwab has a mental disorder and was incapable of stopping himself when he killed Junny. (source: Florida Today) ********************* Motion to Stay Schwab Execution Denied Death row inmate Mark Dean Schwab was sentenced to death for the 1991 kidnapping, rape and murder 11-year-old Junny Rios-Martinez of Cocoa. Schwab, who had recently been released from prison for raping another child, targeted Junny after seeing his picture in a newspaper. A motion to stay the execution of Mark Dean Schwab set for this Thursday was denied late Tuesday in a State court in Brevard County. Schwab is scheduled to die by lethal injection for the murder of Junny Rios- Martinez. The 11 year old was kidnapped, assaulted, tortured and murdered in April of 1991. Schwab was convicted of the crime and sentenced to death in 1992. Lawyers for Schwab had argued that the psychologist in the original trial did not do a through enough examination and in fact had never met face to face with Schwab. They said that a psychologist recently interviewed Schwab and said that he may have been mentally ill when he committed the crime. In denying the stay, judge Charles Holcomb noted in his brief that 'The Defendant in this case has had many opportunities over many years to present his arguments to this and to other courts as to why he should not be executed.' Schwab's lawyers will now appeal to the State Supreme Court. The case Schwab is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection Thursday night at 6 p.m. at the Florida Sate Prison in Raiford. (source: MyFoxOrlando) TENNESSEE: AG: State cant use the chair unless prisoners want it Tennessee cannot currently use the electric chair on prisoners unless they chose that method of death, the state attorney general said Tuesday in a written opinion. Prosecutors have been calling on the state to use the electric chair as a back-up after a U.S. District Court in September found Tennessees lethal injection procedures to be unconstitutional. But in his 6-page written opinion, state Attorney General Bob Cooper said that the law "does not allow substitution based on rulings of a federal district court or a state trial court." The law says that the chair back-up is triggered only if the Tennessee Supreme Court or the U.S. Supreme Court find or let stand rulings that hold lethal injection unconstitutional, the opinion said. The opinion was issued in response to a question by state Rep. Mike Turner, a Democrat from Old Hickory. It also followed a debate by lawyers who questioned the state could go forward with executions using the chair after Tennessee Supreme Court Justice William C. Koch Jr. said the law allowed for substitution. An attorney who represents death-row inmates said she agreed with Coopers opinion in part. "While I don't agree with it on all 4 corners, I think that they are correct, electrocution cannot be used under the current state of the law," said Kelley Henry, an assistant federal public defender. Since U.S. District Judge Aleta Trauger found Tennessees lethal injection procedures unconstitutional, the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to that method of execution. Most legal experts believe that executions across the country will be delayed until the nation's highest court rules on the issues. "There will be no executions in Tennessee until the Supreme Court has decided this," said David Raybin, a Nashville attorney who wrote the state death penalty law. "There is a de facto moratorium in the United States." (source: Tennessean) CALIFORNIA: Jury ponders death penalty In Los Angeles, a jury will now decide whether 2 men should die or spend the rest of their lives in prison for the 2001 beating deaths of an elderly La Habra Heights couple. Prosecutors on Tuesday urged a Los Angeles Superior Court jury to mete out the death penalty while defense attorneys for Theodore Shove, 55, and Lewis Hardin, 35, asked for a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole during closing arguments in the penalty phase of the trial. The same jury convicted Shove and Hardin last month of the 1st-degree murders of Hubert "Bert" Souther, 81, and his wife, Elizabeth Ann, 79, with the special circumstance that the killings were done for financial gain. The couple's badly beaten bodies were found Sept. 17, 2001, in their home. Shove hired Hardin to kill the Southers because he wanted the couple's surplus hardware and tool business, Cal Aero Supply, according to prosecutors who said the murder weapon used was a tire iron. Deputy District Attorney David Walgren said Shove and Hardin committed the crimes for the most crass, revolting reason: greed. They wanted money but didn't want to do the hard work needed. "This is what they did, they took that couple and slaughtered them in their own home, in their own bed," he said. He said neither man deserves the jurors' mercy or leniency. "We are here for one reason only. We are here because of the choices of Lewis Hardin and Theodore Shove. They have put themselves in this position." Walgren reminded the jurors of the men's prior convictions and history of violent behavior. He said Hardin was convicted of kidnapping a woman at knifepoint and taking her on a "terror-filled ride" for several hours where he threatened to kill her and harm her daughter. He said Shove's ex-wives testified to being physically abused by him, a driver told of Shove pointing a gun at his head and threatening his life after a road rage incident and Shove's oldest sister, Mary Julian, related waking up to see him at a window pointing what looked like a gun at her and saying, "Bang. You're dead." When Walgren repeated that everyone was here because of the two men's actions, it prompted an outburst from Hardin. "That is a lie," Hardin said. Judge Kathleen Kennedy-Powell told Hardin not to say anything. Jeffrey Brodey, one of Hardin's attorneys, reminded the jury that no one knows what happened in that room and raised the specter of someone else being the killer, such as a cohort of Shove. He said the scenario presented by prosecutors was speculation. Brodey also pointed to unidentified footprints found in the Southers' house and noted the absence of Hardin's DNA and blood in the room and hallway. Spots of blood found in different places in the house were identified as Hardin's. But Brodey questioned the route prosecutors said his client took in that darkened house. Brodey said a mitigating factor in the jury's decision could be Hardin's childhood. He called Hardin a damaged man who was beaten as a child by his uncle and stepfather and lived on the streets when he was kicked out of the house at 14. But he has sons and family members who love and support him, Brodey added. "Please treat him as a human being," he said. Alex Kessel, Shove's lawyer, questioned the ex-wives' testimony and said they didn't seek medical aid. He said just because the prosecution asked for the death sentence doesn't mean they should get it. "You have to temper it with, 'Is this the worst of the worst?' " Kessel said, adding that jurors should ask themselves does this case rise to the level that they should impose the death penalty. "The prosecution doesn't want you to see Shove as a human being. He's not an animal," he said. "The death penalty is for the worst of the worst." (source: Whittier Daily News) ILLINOIS: Man can face death sentence In a last-ditch effort to bar a 27-year-old Wauconda man from death row eligibility, defense attorneys called the Kane County state's attorney as a witness Tuesday, charging he used the threat of capital punishment as leverage to entice murder suspects to accept plea agreements. Attorneys for Michael Calabrese, who shot and killed a man in 2005 over a dice game in Carpentersville, argued State's Attorney John Barsanti admitted to such coercion in a July 18, 2006, article in the Daily Herald. "The Supreme Court has said there is some line, somewhere. There is a line somewhere and the question is whether the line is crossed in a case such as this," defense attorney John Hanlon said. "The death penalty is supposed to be a narrowing process, the worst of the worst cases." Barsanti testified his statements in the newspaper were accurate, but he seeks the death penalty "whenever possible and appropriate." He also disputed defense attorney claims he used the death penalty to appease voters. Judge Philip DiMarzio said Barsanti's under-oath testimony was "far more compelling" than a newspaper article and denied the request from Calabrese's attorneys to bar the death penalty from a possible sentence. If Calabrese was not eligible, his sentence range would be between 45 and 85 years and he must serve 100 percent of it. The last person sentenced to death in Kane County was Luther V. Casteel for killing two and wounding 16 others during a shooting spree in 2001 at JB's Pub in Elgin. His sentence was commuted in 2003 when then-Gov. George Ryan emptied death row. A jury last month convicted Calabrese of slaying Edmond Edwards, 25, of Chicago Ridge after losing money during a dice game at the Fox View apartment complex May 1, 2005. Edwards was found face down in a parking lot with $140 in his hand and another $670 in his pocket. Calabrese waived his right to have a jury decide whether he should be put to death. DiMarzio determined that Calabrese was eligible for the death penalty because he is older than 18, personally pulled the trigger, knew the act would result in death or great bodily harm, and the murder was committed while another felony -- attempted armed robbery -- was taking place. After the ruling, Calabrese turned and whispered to his mother, "Will you come and visit?" Calabrese is due in court for sentencing Jan. 14. Then, defense attorneys will call medical experts and other witnesses to show DiMarzio that Calabrese has mental health problems and had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Prosecutors will present aggravating factors, such as the impact of Edwards' death on others and Calabrese's lengthy criminal record. Prosecutor Bill Engerman said Calabrese was convicted and imprisoned for burglary, theft and possession of a controlled substance and refused to participate in an out-of-state treatment program. At 14, Calabrese committed a criminal sexual assault on a 10-year-old and once kicked a pregnant woman in the abdomen at a sandwich restaurant after she claimed he was the father, Engerman said. (source: Daily Herald) *************** Wauconda man ruled eligible for death penalty A Wauconda man found guilty in a fatal shooting in Carpentersville 2 years ago learned Tuesday he might be sentenced to death. A Kane County Circuit Court judge ruled Michael J. Calabrese, 27, of the 1000 block of Grand Boulevard, is eligible for the death penalty after a jury found him guilty last month of two counts of first-degree murder for the shooting death of 25-year-old Edmund Edwards at an apartment complex in St. Charles Township. Calabrese would be the 1st condemned Kane County defendant since 2001. According to authorities, in the early hours of May 1, 2005, Calabrese and others were at the Fox View apa rtments playing dice, drinking and smoking marijuana. Witnesses -- most of whom had met him before -- said Calabrese lost a substantial sum of money that night, and even threatened to return to rob the dice game. Minutes after Calabrese left the area, a masked man wielding a revolver -- later identified by witnesses as Calabrese -- approached the group and demanded money. No one handed over any cash, but when Edwards got up to leave, Calabrese followed him and fired one round that struck Edwards in the back. Calabrese's sentencing proceedings could take several days, lawyers said. He is next scheduled to appear on Jan. 14. (source: Lake County News-Sun)
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----USA, GA., FLA., TENN., CALIF., ILL.
Rick Halperin Wed, 14 Nov 2007 11:23:28 -0600 (Central Standard Time)
