Nov. 6 FLORIDA: State justices reject man's death sentence The state Supreme Court reversed the death sentence of a man in the slaying of his cellmate because the trial judge refused to excuse a former death row guard from the jury. The death sentence a prison inmate received for murdering his cellmate has been overturned by the Florida Supreme Court, which said the trial judge improperly refused to excuse a former Death Row prison guard from the jury. Elton Ard was strangled in his cell at Columbia Correctional Institution in Lake City in July 2000. Andrew Busby and another inmate were locked in the cell with Ard, who was serving a life sentence. Busby, 26, was serving a life sentence for attempted murder. He and the other inmate confessed to killing Ard. In Thursday's 4-3 ruling, Florida's high court said Busby's murder conviction and death sentence had to be vacated because the judge refused to dismiss a potential juror who had worked as a death row guard. That someone works as a prison guard is not reason by itself to dismiss the person from a jury, but the answers given by the former guard to questions from Busby's attorney raised red flags about his ability to be impartial, the decision said. When a defense attorney's request to have the guard rejected ''for cause'' was denied, the lawyer was forced to use a ''peremptory challenge'' to reject the juror. "Peremptory challenges," let attorneys excuse potential jurors without citing a reason, but they are limited in the number of such challenges. Busby's defense team ran out of peremptory challenges and had to accept another jury that it would have rejected had it not been forced to use a challenge on the former guard. (source: Associated Press) CALIFORNIA----foreign national gets death sentence Jury recommends death sentence for robbery-killing In Rancho Cucamonga, a jury recommended the death sentence for a Honduran immigrant who shot an acquaintance to death during a home invasion robbery as her horrified children listened from the next room. Johnny Morales was convicted Sept. 24 of killing Elia Torres Lopez in her Bloomington home after following her and her 4 children home from a market in Fontana in 2001. "It was a cold calculated crime by a cold calculated killer," said Deputy District Attorney David Mazurek. "He is one of the baddest people I have ever come across." Prosecutors said Morales and others followed Lopez and her children home, then forced their way inside and herded her children into a back bedroom as they ransacked the house. They said Morales, 26, confessed to killing her after she recognized him and called out his name. The jury that convicted Morales recommended Friday that he be executed. He is scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 21 by Judge Ingrid Uhler who has the option of giving him death or life in prison without possibility of parole. ************************ Amid debate, prison moves ahead with plans for new death row Standing on the roof of California's death row, Warden Jill Brown looks down at a row of exercise yards and sees troubling possibilities. One old wall and a strip of grass stands between condemned men and the glittering expanse of the San Francisco Bay. "It's a little bit scary," she says. Brown and state prison officials say the old-fashioned and crowded death row at San Quentin State Prison must be replaced, and soon. They are moving ahead with a planned $220 million complex that would be much more secure. But outside prison walls, opposition is mounting. "I would think that a state that is in terrible fiscal condition like California would be very careful about every expenditure," says state Assemblyman Joe Nation, D-San Rafael. "I'm hopeful that they will take another look at this." Nation, whose district includes San Quentin, agrees conditions at the prison are "terrible." But he says officials haven't looked at alternatives carefully enough, pointing to a state auditor's report which found the Corrections Department failed to adequately examine long-term costs and benefits of building a replacement facility. Arguments from people living in surrounding Marin County - affluent and liberal - include opposition to capital punishment and complaints the new facility will be a brightly lit eyesore. But the main contention, says county Supervisor Steve Kinsey, is that spending millions to shore up a 152-year-old facility is a mistake, particularly when that facility is sitting on a prime slice of waterfront. "You take a rotten site and you put a new facility on it, what you're doing is putting frosting on a rotten cake," Kinsey said at a recent public forum. In a telephone interview, Kinsey said he's not advocating that the prison be closed but he is adamantly against a new death row. "It denies the entire region a remarkable piece of land," he said. Prison officials say they have been looking at the situation for a decade and don't see any other options. They estimate it would cost far more - about $800 million - to move the prison and note that other counties aren't anxious to become the new home of death row. Meanwhile, the current death row, designed 70 years ago to hold 68, has grown to more than 600 men quartered in 3 aging buildings. "I would turn the question around. Can we afford not to build it?" says J.P. Tremblay, assistant secretary of the state's Youth and Adult Correctional Agency. Construction of the new facility, approved by former Gov. Gray Davis and supported by the current administration, could start in about a year. The new building would be built on San Quentin grounds, replacing a collection of small buildings known as "The Ranch." It would have 1,024 cells with the capacity for 1,408 inmates. The building would consist of two semiautonomous maximum security facilities, and would be surrounded by lethal electrified fencing. A recently completed draft of the environmental impact report found that the project would affect how the area looks as well as water use. However, the report said moving death row or closing the entire prison would be worse because of the environmental impacts those options would entail. The report also noted that neither alternative is within the Corrections Department's power. Prison spokesman Lt. Vernell Crittendon says the new facility, to be built on prison grounds, won't have a big visual impact and will "actually improve the area that we will be building on." Underscoring the debate is the ongoing argument over the merits of capital punishment. Recently, the Conference of Delegates of the California Bar Associations, representing prosecutors, criminal defenders and civil attorneys from dozens of bar groups, recommended a death penalty moratorium while an inquiry is held on whether the system is fair. Prison officials say the politics of the death penalty are outside their scope. "We have to deal with reality," says Crittendon. "And reality is there are 629 males sentenced to death in the state of California. And the state of California has a responsibility to provide adequate housing and services for that population." Their stay is likely to be a long one. While hundreds of death sentences have been handed out, only 10 men have been executed since capital punishment was reinstated in California 3 decades ago. Inside death row, reaction to the proposed new quarters varied. "You're going to be in a 4 1/2-by-10 (foot) cell no matter where you go," said Richard Wade Farley, 56, a former computer programmer in Silicon Valley who was sentenced to die for killing 7 people and wounding 5 others after he was fired for harassing a female co-worker. But Richard Moon, 37, who was sentenced to death in 1991 for killing 2 women, welcomed the idea of modern facilities that might provide work or educational programs as a reward for good behavior. "A lot of people up here don't feel like they have any self-worth because of where they are," he said. Moon and Farley are in the original death row, built in 1934 and the least crowded of the facilities. Other inmates live in a 1927 building that evokes an old prison movie with its 5 tiers of cells fronted by narrow walkways, and in the Adjustment Center, reserved mainly for the "baddest of the bad." The sprawling setup means officers spend hours transporting prisoners. Wheelchairs and walkers are now becoming common for the aging population, but the existing cells aren't handicapped accessible. Meanwhile, there are plenty of able-bodied inmates who pose a threat to officers. The new, self-contained facilities with remote-control locks and solid doors would minimize face-to-face contact and chance of injury, Crittendon says. Pinned to a wall of a death row office, racks of cards bearing the mugshots and names of inmates are a Who's Who of notorious criminals. There is Richard Allen Davis, who kidnapped and killed 12-year-old Polly Klaas in 1993. He is a prime target for other inmates because his crimes helped pass a law mandating stiff sentences for repeat offenders. Davis stays away from communal exercise yards, prison officials say. Also in the Adjustment Center are two inmates who tried to escape with a plan to scale the exercise wall that had Warden Brown so concerned as she toured the prison on a balmy fall day. After the foiled escape attempt, the wall was augmented by chain link fencing and razor wire so sharp it can shear off the wing of the unfortunate bird who flies too close. And, of course, there are armed officers always watching. "No warning shots fired in this yard," declare prominently posted signs. Still, Brown wonders what would happen in a strong earthquake. "That wall that you see there ... is the only thing that separates those inmates from the bay," she says. ON THE NET----http://www.corr.ca.gov/ (source for both: Associated Press) NORTH CAROLINA: Exonerated N.C. Man Starts Foundation A man exonerated after spending 18 years in prison on a murder conviction has started a nonprofit foundation to help investigate inmates' innocence claims. The Darryl Hunt Project for Freedom and Justice, incorporated in the past week, also will help freed inmates rejoin society. "I wanted to help other people, to give them a voice, because I know I was fortunate to have people supporting me and speaking up for me," Hunt said. "I was innocent, and I know how hard it is for people who are in prison to have voices on the outside to speak up for them." Hunt was convicted in the 1984 slaying of Deborah Sykes, a newspaper copy editor in Winston-Salem. DNA evidence proved in 1994 that Hunt was not the man who had raped Sykes, but he was released only this year, after the evidence led authorities to a new suspect they say acted alone in killing Sykes. Hunt said he wants to hire private investigators to look at cases in Forsyth County and expand the operation later. He plans to finance the foundation through fund-raisers and money he earns in speaking fees. (source: Associated Press) OHIO: Death Row Scot puts artwork up for sale Death Row Scot Kenny Richey is selling his artwork on the internet to raise cash for his campaign. Edinburgh-born Richey, who has spent nearly 18 years in an Ohio prison, has been churning out drawings and paintings from his cell. Now his partner, Karen Torley, is helping to sell his handiwork via online marketplace eBay. Two of the prisoners pictures, which follow a Scots theme, are currently up for grabs with bids starting at 4.95. One of the pictures on sale is a coloured pencil portrait of Scots boxer Andy Smith. The 2nd piece is a landscape entitled River and Boat - a painting on paper inspired by Richeys memories of the Scottish landscape. Ms Torley, who lives in Glasgow, is hoping the sale of the paintings will raise awareness of Richeys plight, as he awaits news of his appeal against a death sentence passed in 1987. She said today: "Kenny loves drawing and painting and making things - hes always been good at stuff like that. His dream is to build his own house. "He has done several pictures - most of them are of Scotland or have a Scottish theme. We have sold his pictures before and people tend to snap them up. The money we raise will pay for Kennys phone calls to me. I speak to him every day and it helps him cope." Mrs Richey also revealed that Kenny, who has diabetes, was recently in hospital following a stomach complaint. "His stomach completely swelled up and he was feeling unwell so they took him into hospital and took a biopsy from his stomach. Hes still waiting for the results. "Ive been so worried about him. Hopefully Ill be able to cheer him up a bit by telling him that the paintings have been sold," she said. Richey, 40, started drawing after jail bosses relaxed rules on condemned men being allowed to paint or draw. A friend sent brushes, paints and paper to his cell at Ohios Mansfield Correctional Institution. Bidding for Richeys two paintings ends on Tuesday, but the paintings can be bought immediately for 14.95 each. The description on the website for River and Boat says: "This item is an original hand-painted picture on paper. It shows a beautiful Scottish landscape, with a boat moored in the foreground and a backdrop of mountains." The message posted alongside Scottish Boxing Champ says: "This item is an original hand-drawn picture on paper with card backing. It depicts Scottish boxing champion Andy Smith in the ring, with a Scottish flag behind him." Richey was sentenced to death after being convicted of arson and the aggravated murder of a girl in 1986. Since his conviction, evidence has emerged casting serious doubt on Richeys guilt. Despite this, the state of Ohio intends to press ahead with the execution process. But federal judges believe prosecutors may have broken the law by seeking the lethal injection for the crime - aggravated felony murder - which did not carry the death penalty at the time of Richeys trial. If it is found that the prosecution acted illegally, Richeys lawyers may be able to force a retrial or completely overturn the conviction. Richey has always protested his innocence and even refused a plea bargain to serve 10 years in prison. (source: The Scotsman)
