[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----USA, KY., ALA., N.C.

[Rick Halperin]

Oct. 31


USA:

If Elected ...Records of Obama and McCain as Lawmakers Reflect Differences
on Crime


As an Illinois legislator for 7 years, Senator Barack Obama sponsored more
than 100 bills on crime, corrections and the death penalty, making
criminal justice one of his top priorities as a state lawmaker.

In his nearly 3 decades in Washington, Senator John McCain has had a
reputation for taking strong law-and-order stances.

But compared with many past presidential elections, Mr. Obama and Mr.
McCain have paid little attention to issues of criminal justice as they
compete for the White House.

The change is a reflection, experts say, of 15 years of declining crime
rates, an electorate less anxious about public safety and the fact that
crime and law enforcement issues are less partisan than they used to be.

"The political climate has shifted," said Marc Mauer, executive director
of the Sentencing Project, a nonprofit organization for criminal justice
reform. "Democrats and Republicans both embrace a more evidence-based
approach to public safety that looks at programs and policies that work."

Still, the 2 candidates positions on criminal justice have been defined
over their years in public life and provide some insight into how they
might govern as president.

In a speech before the National Sheriffs' Association this year, Mr.
McCain, Republican of Arizona, called for tougher punishment for violent
offenders and appeared to disagree with Mr. Obamas contention that the
prison population is too high.

"We still hear some academics and politicians speaking as if a rising rate
of incarceration and a reduction in crime were unrelated facts," Mr.
McCain said. "But, of course, when the most violent and persistent
criminals are in prison, crime rates will go down."

Mr. McCain has also opposed assault rifle bans and restrictions on certain
kinds of high-capacity ammunition magazines, positions contrary to those
of Mr. Obama, Democrat of Illinois.

Both candidates say they will increase financing to law enforcement
agencies  Mr. Obama has said he would like to reinstate the COPS grants
created by President Bill Clinton but abandoned by President Bush. Mr.
McCain said he would eliminate Justice Department earmarks, calling them
"the broken windows of the federal budget process."

"As it is, funds distributed by the Department of Justice are too often
earmarked according to their value to the re-election of members of
Congress instead of their value to police," Mr. McCain said.

Mr. McCain also favors tougher sentences for illegal immigrants who commit
crimes and more federal money to help local agencies detain them.

Both candidates supported the Second Chance Act of 2007, which provides
money for job training and for drug counseling and other re-entry
programs.

Mr. Obama has emphasized civil liberties, sensitivity to racial inequality
and tough penalties for the most violent felons. He was a state lawmaker
when the Illinois police and prosecutors were under siege. In 2003, doubt
was cast on the convictions of several Illinois death-row inmates leading
to a death-penalty moratorium that is still in effect.

Some critics say Mr. Obama's role in the death-penalty moratorium has been
exaggerated. Christine Radogno, a Republican state senator, said that Mr.
Obama took credit for work accomplished by Gov. George Ryan, a Republican
who imposed the moratorium, pardoned a number of death-row inmates, and
established a commission to study capital punishment.

"To claim that Barack was the impetus for those reforms is an
overstatement," Ms. Radogno said.

Recent disclosures have revealed that Chicago police officers had tortured
suspects into giving false confessions.

A member of the State Senate's judiciary committee, Mr. Obama on several
occasions was helpful in placating law enforcement officials while also
helping pass criminal justice legislation opposed by many of them,
according to Illinois police officers and prosecutors.

As a state lawmaker, Mr. Obama supported changes to the death penalty,
including a bill that let judges reject a death sentence for someone
convicted on the sole basis of an informants testimony.

He also opposed a measure that would have applied the death penalty for
gang-related murders because he feared that the law would be applied
unevenly.

"He had to bridge a very diverse constituency which included Hyde Park and
some very tough areas on the South Side," said Richard Devine, the Cook
County state's attorney, who at first opposed and then supported Mr.
Obama's videotaped interrogations measure.

"He had to keep the liberals happy, but also protect people in high-crime
areas," Mr. Devine said.

Among the most hotly contested measures was one that required police
officers to electronically record homicide interrogations, a requirement
intended to reduce the number of forced or false confessions.

Illinois was the 1st state to pass legislation requiring such a widescale
electronic recording, and it was initially resisted by the police and
prosecutors.

Mr. Obama shuttled between both sides at the Statehouse in Springfield,
eventually writing several compromises into the bill that helped gain its
passage. They included limiting the mandatory recordings to interviews
conducted at police stations, and providing money for smaller police and
sheriffs departments to buy recording equipment.

On other legislation, Mr. Obama has been criticized for not taking the
initiative and for voting "present" rather than yea or nay. One measure
would have increased penalties for dealing certain drugs and another would
have required adult prosecution for minors accused of firing a gun near a
school.

Richard Pearson, the chief lobbyist for the Illinois State Rifle
Association, called Mr. Obama "an amiable fellow" who was "the king of the
'present' votes."

Mr. Pearson said Mr. Obama was a consistent opponent of gun rights. He
said Mr. Obama, as a state senator, voted against a law that waived gun
registration laws for people who used their firearms in their own homes in
self-defense.

Since being elected to the United States Senate in 2004, Mr. Obama has
helped sponsor legislation intended to reduce the disparity in prison
sentences for crack cocaine versus powder cocaine because of his concern
that existing laws unfairly discriminate against ethnic minorities.

He has also said he would instruct the Justice Department  particularly
the Civil Rights Division  to change mandatory minimum sentences for
nonviolent drug offenders, create loan-forgiveness programs for law
students who become public defenders, and increase the number of police
officers nationally.

(source: New York Times)






KENTUCKY:

Is justice really served with the death penalty?


Earlier this week I received an e-mail inviting The News to nominate a
reporter to witness the Nov. 21 execution of Marco Allen Chapman. In 2002,
the 36-year-old man murdered a 7-year-old girl and a 6-year-old boy in
their family home in Warsae, Ky. Not only did Chapman brutly kill the 2
children, but he also raped their mother and attempted to murder her and
their 10-year-old sister.

The newspapers selected to witness the execution were drawn from a pool of
all the papers that responded to the invitation. Although The News was not
selected, and therefore I will not actually witness the execution, it
provoked me to explore my feelings on the death penalty because of the
interesting circumstances in Chapman's case. Chapman plead guilty in 2004
to all the charges. However, despite the fact that Chapman fired his
lawyers, public defenders have since continued to argue Chapman should not
be sentenced to death until all appeals have been filed and exhausted.

Here's the kicker: Chapman has actually sued the same public defenders
trying to save his life because he wants to be executed as quickly as
possible. According to a New York Times article, he is worried legal
issues may push back his date with death.

He may be in luck. According to the same New York Times article, the
"Kentucky Attorney General's office asked the state's high court on
Tuesday to call off any more competency tests and allow Chapman to be
executed."

He told the Associated Press earlier this week that he was ready to "get
it over with."

Since members of the press were invited to witness this semi-historic
occasion, I'm expecting the execution to be carried out.

Although, attorney's have asked the execution to be postponed until a
different case concerning the death penalty in Kentucky, which is still
pending before the Supreme Court, is settled.

Law officials in Kentucky haven't carried out an execution in almost 10
years, so the idea that I potentially had the chance to witness the death
penalty first-hand was surreal.

First of all, I don't even know how I feel about the death penalty, so the
thought of seeing it in person caused my stomach to churn. That uneasy
feeling toward morality, however, is actually a pretty accurate depiction
of our society today. My interest in seeing Chapman's execution is like
that morbid instinct humans have causing us to do things such as look when
passing by a car accident on the highway instead of avoiding it.

At first, I thought seeing the execution might be a once-in-a-lifetime
chance that, as a journalist, could make an incredible piece for The News
and my portfolio. But, those thoughts soon passed and I was left
questioning whether I could actually handle seeing someone's life being
taken right before my eyes, even if he did do something unthinkably evil.

I think that's where I found my answer, at least in regard to my feelings
toward the death penalty. Despite the unspeakable crimes some people carry
out, I want no part in something that involves taking another person's
life, even if it is "in the name of justice."

In Chapman's case, I hope he never gets his wish for a swifty execution
granted. I think for him at least, being forced to sit and think about the
monsterous things he has done for the rest of his life is far worse than
getting moral relief in death.

His victims weren't given a choice, and he shouldn't get one either. If
the execution is carried out, justice will not have been served.

(source: The Murray State News)






ALABAMA:

A.G. King seeks execution date for Piedmont man


State Attorney General Troy King filed a motion on Wednesday asking the
Alabama Supreme Court to set an execution date for the man convicted of
the 1983 murder of Rhonda Hardin in Piedmont. Danny Joe Bradley's victim
was his 12-year-old stepdaughter, who along with her younger brother, was
in Bradley's care while their mother had been hospitalized for more than a
week.

On Jan. 24, 1983, the young girl was raped, sodomized, and strangled, as
indicated by the numerous wounds and abrasions found on her neck. The
child's body was found the next morning in a wooded area. Forensic
evidence, including blood, semen and fecal samples, and fabric matches to
scrapings from his fingernails, tied Bradley to the murder.

Bradley was tried and found guilty of capital murder and sentenced to
death. He has been on death row for more than 25 years and has exhausted
his appeals. He is being held at Holman Correctional facility in Atmore,
Ala. The death chamber is located at Holman where all executions are
conducted.

King stated in his motion to the Supreme Court "after 25 years of
seemingly endless appeals, and with no valid allegations challenging his
conviction of sentence pending, it is the appropriate time for the Court
to enter an order setting a date to execute Bradley's duly-adjudicated
sentence."

King also filed motions on Oct. 21 requesting the Alabama Supreme Court to
set an execution date in the case of James Callahan who was convicted of
the 1982 murder of Rebecca Suzanne Howell in Jacksonville.

(source: The Piedmont Journal----Information provided by the Alabama
Attorney General's office)






NORTH CAROLINA:

Date set for death-penalty decision by Cooper prosecutors


Brad Cooper will learn on Dec. 5 whether Wake County prosecutors will seek
the death penalty if he is convicted of killing his wife.

A Superior Court judge signed an order Thursday afternoon setting the date
for what is called a Rule 24 hearing. That is the time that prosecutors
tell the court whether they will seek the death penalty, First Assistant
District Attorney Howard Cummings said.

A grand jury on Monday indicted Cooper, 35, for 1st-degree murder more
than 3 months after his wife's body was found in an undeveloped
subdivision 3 miles from the Coopers' Cary home. A state medical
examiner's autopsy found she had likely been strangled.

1st-degree murder is punishable by either the death penalty or life in
prison without parole. Prosecutors must serve notice if they are going to
ask for the death penalty.

Cooper told police Nancy Cooper went jogging around 7 a.m. on July 12 and
never returned home. Through his attorneys, he has denied being involved
with her slaying, but has admitted to police that he and his wife were
having marital difficulties.

Claiming Cooper was emotionally abusive to his wife in the months prior to
her death; Nancy Cooper's family filed for and was granted temporary
custody of the Coopers' 2 young daughters.

Cooper remained Thursday evening in the Wake County Jail without bond.

(source: WRAL news)

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

Cary police search Cooper home


Police again searched the home of Bradley Cooper this week, days after he
was arrested on a charge that he murdered his wife Nancy in July.

Cary Detective J.A. Young sought a judge's permission to return to the
Coopers' Lochmere subdivision home this week to look for "left" sneakers
that matched a set of 2 right-foot sneakers the detective found in the
Coopers' garage. Bradley Cooper had told detectives that his wife had gone
out for a run around 7 a.m. the day she disappeared.

Nancy Cooper was found strangled to death in July 14, her body dumped near
an unfinished subdivision in Cary. On Monday, a grand jury charged her
husband Bradley Cooper, 35, with 1st-degree murder.

According to a search warrant returned Friday, police recovered four pairs
of footwear from the home this week, but did not specify what kind.

They also secured a diamond pendant necklace that Nancy Cooper's friends
and family say she wore everywhere. Hannah Pritchard, a friend of Nancy's,
told a judge during a custody hearing this month, that she'd never seen
Nancy without it. Police said they've collected pictures of Nancy Cooper
wearing the necklace while swimming at the beach.

Brad Cooper had told police, according to the warrant, that the pendant
was in his possession. It has now been secured as evidence in Nancy's
murder.

Police also seized additional jewelry, phones, compact disks and receipts.

(source: News & Observer)