Feb. 7 MISSISSIPPI: In pursuit of justice The Mississippi House passed a bill Tuesday that would make it a state crime for law enforcement officers to deprive people of their rights, injure or kill them, and the Senate should soon follow suit, followed by the governor's signature. The law rises from the ranks of state prosecutors, specifically from the absence of a law under which the state's prosecuting attorneys could pursue justice in the beating death of a Harrison County Jail inmate during the processing of a prisoner in early 2006. The state was unable to pursue prosecution in the death of Jessie Lee Williams Jr. because no applicable law exists. Williams died after a beating in the jail booking room. The bill, passed overwhelmingly in the House, would make "deprivation of rights under color of law" a state crime and would set penalties for jailers and other officers of the law who violate civil or constitutional rights. It should have been state law all along, but it is not. That is the reason the case from Harrison County has been pursued in a U.S. District Court. The bill is thoroughly bipartisan, but more importantly it is common-sense fairness for a state to seek justice against law enforcement officers suspected of depriving people of the most basic rights: protection and life. Mississippians frequently note a reputation for taking care of their own, and that should extend to even those held or about to be held. No longer would the state need to abandon its own pursuit of justice and defer to a federal court. The case from which the proposed law rises is a serious one: A U.S. District Court judge has given federal trial attorneys until Feb. 16 to decide whether they will seek the death penalty in the May 28 trial of Ryan Teel. The former officer in charge of the Harrison County jail booking room has pleaded not guilty to criminal charges involving Williams' death. House Bill 807 would make "deprivation of rights under color of law" a state crime and would set penalties for jailers and other officers of the law who violate civil or constitutional rights. The bill isn't about coddling prisoners or people charged with crimes. It is basic prosecutorial efficiency - establishing the ability to prosecute closest to a crime committed in a state setting. A Gulf Coast House member, Rep. Michael Janus, R-Biloxi, is a principal sponsor, and it was inspired by a conversation with a state prosecutor, Cono Caranna. Caranna told the Sun Herald newspaper the law could give state prosecutors the option to handle similar matters in their own jurisdictions without having to turn a case to the federal government. The law would set 3 levels of penalties, but it would not carry the death penalty provided by federal statutes: a life prison sentence without parole for a civil rights crime involving a death; civil rights violations causing physical injuries would be punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine; the maximum penalty for violations without physical harm would be a year in the county jail and a $1,000 fine. Plus, the bill has a life-without-parole provision for kidnapping, sexual battery, rape, attempted rape and attempt to kill. House Speaker Pro Tem J.P. Compretta, D-Bay St. Louis, co-wrote the bill. The full Harrison County House delegation has signed on in support. If it passes both House and Senate and becomes law, it would take effect July 1. We hope all Northeast Mississippi legislators support passage. (source: Editorial, Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal) USA: Death Penalty in U.S. Under Scrutiny The death penalty in the United States is under scrutiny. A third of thirty eight U.S. states that have the death penalty have delayed execution while legal and ethical challenges are underway. In several states, lawmakers and courts are currently debating whether the inmates on death row unduly suffer during execution, in violation of the American constitution that guaranties against cruel and unusual punishment. In 2006, the state of Florida halted executions after a convicted killer took 34 minutes to die when the needles carrying the drugs were improperly inserted. Surveys in the United States indicate that a majority of the American public supports capital punishment, but this number has dropped since in several states the courts adopted the option of life without parole. Last week, the European Parliament voted on a proposal for a worldwide ban on the death penalty, a move that was also backed by France and Germany. This week a conference in Paris will discuss the subject, and will focus especially on North Africa and the Middle East. It will also deal with worrying calls for return to capital punishment in European countries such as Poland. Please also see: Israel Rafalovich: E.U. to Push for Global Death Penalty Ban http://www.unobserver.com/index.php?pagina=layout5.php&id=3094&blz=1 World Coalition against the death penalty ------ http://www.worldcoalition.org/bcoalintro.html Globalizing the fight against the death penalty http://web.amnesty.org/pages/deathpenalty-010207-feature-eng (source: Israel Rafalovich----U.N. OBSERVER & International Report) *********************** Wider death penalty sought The execution chamber at San Quentin State Prison will not be used since U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel declared California's execution procedure unconstitutional Dec. 15. after hearing grim testimony of poorly trained operators. Other states, however, are looking to expand the use of the death penalty. At least a half-dozen states are considering broadening the death penalty, countering a national trend toward scaling back its use. Lawmakers have proposed legislation that would increase the range of crimes eligible for execution. In Texas and Tennessee, for example, legislators want to include certain child molesters who did not murder their victims. "The hope is that these monsters will see that Texas is serious about protecting children," says Rich Parsons, spokesman for Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst. Dewhurst, a Republican, is working with state senators to draft legislation that would make repeat offenders subject to capital punishment in some cases. "If they understand they could face the ultimate punishment, " they might "think twice," Parsons says. Virginia is considering bills that would make accomplices to murder, as well as killers of judges and court witnesses, eligible for the death penalty. "I'm a believer in the deterrent effect of the death penalty," says Republican Delegate Todd Gilbert, a state prosecutor who sponsored two of the measures. "I know a number of states are reconsidering their position on the death penalty. I feel confident Virginia's system is set up to work." Lawmakers or courts have temporarily halted all executions in 11 states in the past year, most of them over concerns that lethal injection is cruel and unusual punishment, says Richard Dieter of the Death Penalty Information Center, which he says takes no position on the death penalty but has been critical of how it is applied. In December, a convicted killer in Florida took 34 minutes to die and had chemical burns on his arms after a lethal injection procedure. After the execution, then-governor Jeb Bush created a commission to study possible improvements and halted executions until the commission releases its report. Other states with proposals to expand the death penalty: Missouri. Gov. Matt Blunt said in his State of the State address last month that he wants a mandatory death penalty for the murder of law enforcement officers. Blunt, a Republican, says the state must protect its public servants and the death penalty would be a deterrent. "This is the type of crime that calls for the death penalty," he says. Robert Blecker, a law professor at New York Law School who specializes in the death penalty, says the Supreme Court has found mandatory death sentences unconstitutional because they don't allow defendants to present mitigating evidence. Blunt says his measure will take that into account. Georgia. GOP state Rep. Barry Fleming has introduced a bill to allow a judge to impose the death sentence if at least 9 of 12 jurors not all 12, as now voted for it. Utah. The House passed a bill Tuesday making murder of a child under 14 subject to execution. State Rep. Paul Ray, a Republican, introduced a bill to allow the death penalty for killing a child during abuse, sexual assault or kidnapping, even if prosecutors cannot prove intent to kill. He expects the House to vote later this week. "We're going to send a message that if you kill our kids in Utah, we're going to kill you," he says. "In Utah, I don't think we use the death penalty enough." (source: USA Today) *********************** Certain murder cases deserve death penalty Although it has been a while since the execution of Saddam Hussein, capital punishment is again a topic of conversation. I admit, as I'm sure will many of you, that there was no love lost for this man. Although he was an evil human, he was still human, and that is where the controversy lies. It brought back the discussion of capital punishment in this country. The bleeding hearts decried the injustice of the appeal process for this man. What appeal process? Did he give the chance for appeal to the hundreds of thousands of men, women and children that he had killed? I praise the justice system of Iraq in this case. If anything, the U.S. should look at how quickly the appeals process took place there. We have people on death row in this country, proven killers who have sat in prison for more than 20 years. When someone is a proven killer and there is no doubt about it, why can't we have instant justice? Why should proven murderers be given an appeal? Why should you and I pay the tab for them? There are different types of killing. Premeditated murderers, as in the case of serial killing or a planned killing, should not be allowed life in prison. Sentences in these cases should not be allowed an appeal. They should be carried out just as quickly as the Iraqi government did in the case of Saddam. The real victims in these cases are the relatives of the victims. If you had a relative killed by one of these predators, you end up serving the same sentence that the killer does. Only the killer is given free room and board, free food, a recreation area, a complete library and law library and free medical care, all at our expense. If a murderer is given the death penalty, the victim's relatives have to serve 15 to 25 years waiting for the final sentence to be carried out. The appeal process is so long now that even the relatives and witnesses might die before justice is carried out. Even though there is final justice, the victim's relatives have to live the rest of their lives knowing what this person had done to their loved one. My dad passed away four years ago, but in the early 1990s, he unwittingly walked in on a murder. He was beaten to near death. Inexplicably, the killer excused himself to get a drink of water, which allowed my dad to crawl to safety. Another blow or 2 by a heavy globe lamp and I would have attended his funeral 10 years too early. Due to the circumstances of the beating and the killer trying to gouge both eyes out, my dad did lose one eye and had more than 170 stitches to hold his scalp on. This person is still in a mental hospital today but should have been put to death for the murder of his elderly mother. Sometimes you feel that our justice system is more for the perpetrator's rights than the victim's. I'm for justice and I know many times there are mitigating circumstances. People say the death penalty is not a deterrent. Excuse me, but if a proven killer is put to death, it is a deterrent for that person ever killing anyone else. How do we know it doesn't stop others from doing the same thing? We can't possibly know whether or not someone somewhere sees this and decides not to end up the same way. If it deters one person, thereby saving lives, is that not a good thing? The case for the death penalty will continue and some people will claim it is not the humane thing to do, but in Saddam's case and in premeditated murder cases, it is the human thing to do. (source: Opinion, Aberdeen News----Curtis Phillips, Bath, is a retired Air Force Tech Sergeant, former air traffic controller, 911 dispatcher, computer IT and radio broadcaster) ************************** Starr: Death-penalty cases merit better news coverage In Kenneth Starr's view, the press doesnt provide enough coverage of the death penalty, whether it be of individual capital cases and efforts to reform the system. The dean of Pepperdine University Law School expressed his views during a panel discussion, "The Press, the Public and the Death Penalty, hosted Jan. 26 by the First Amendment Center. Starr, well-known for his work as Whitewater special prosecutor, in recent years has done pro bono work for Kirkland & Ellis on death-penalty cases. Starr and the other members of the panel Judge Gilbert Merritt of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and Bradley A. McLean of the Tennessee Justice Project agreed that the press could do a better job covering death-penalty cases, including new efforts to use DNA testing to determine guilt or innocence in capital cases. The panelists said that often when the press doesn't cover individual cases, it cites the public's lack of interest in such reporting. However, the panelists said, the press has an obligation to report on capital punishment and the public should pay attention. The news media often "don't think that the public is interested in the intricacies of the cases," Merritt said. The depth of the reporting was also criticized by McLean, a Nashville attorney. "I've noticed in Tennessee, there has been a lower level of investigative reporting," he said. "The reporters are on the case for that day." Starr said certain decisions regarding the death penalty get little or unequal attention from the press. For instance, he said, when pleas for clemency are denied, those decisions get no coverage. "The press does a wonderful job when it comes to exonerations, but its the next step that is tough for the press," Starr said. That "next step" is reporting on cases in which inmates are not exonerated but still may be on death row although innocent. Starr said he did not believe the death penalty should be abolished because there are certain crimes that are so bad that death is society's only fitting response. He said, however, that the legal procedures and administration of capital punishment needed to be reformed. "Society has the right to self defense, but it should be limited," Starr said. The panelists said issues in addition to DNA testing that need to be addressed in debates over the death penalty and reform include: Geographical inconsistencies within individual states concerning how the death penalty is applied. Some counties seek the death penalty for capital crimes, while others do not. Cost. McLean, who supports abolishing the death penalty, said that if cost were discussed openly, death-penalty reform would be taken more seriously by politicians and the public. Execution methods. Some of the 38 states that have the death penalty use lethal injection. But questions have been raised by those urging reform as to whether or not this type of execution is cruel and unusual punishment. Starr said he thought "a more humane way" than injection should be used. Starr, who also served as judge for the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, said newspaper editorial boards should put forth more effort in trying to reform the system. He said editorial boards needed to "become thoughtful instruments of reform." The panel was moderated by Gene Policinski, vice president and executive director of the First Amendment Center, and co-moderated by Larry Bridgesmith, who heads the Institute for Conflict Resolution at Lipscomb University. The audience included a group of the Freedom Forum's Chips Quinn Scholars, Lipscomb and Vanderbilt University students and Vanderbilts Retired Learning participants. (source: First Amendment Center; Shandra West is a senior at Belmont University in Nashville, majoring in communication) MONTANA: Montana Senators Consider Abolishing Death Penalty David Kaczynski, brother of Unabomber Ted Kaczynski, testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee Wednesday supporting a bill to eliminate the death penalty in Montana. Photo by Dan Testa. There are days in the legislature when policy debates over the minutiae of issues like zoning, tax policy, and tuition cuts pale next to those of life and death. Wednesday was one of those days, as the Senate Judiciary Committee heard testimony over a bill to eliminate capital punishment in Montana. "During the wild and wooly frontier days, a collapsible gallows traveled around the state and executions were public spectacles," said the sponsor of SB 306, Sen. Dan Harrington, D-Butte. "Now they have become secretive, as if we, the public, are afraid to witness the sentence passed by the courts." Harrington's bill would replace the death penalty with a sentence of life in prison without parole as the most severe punishment available to prosecutors and juries in the state. Since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, there have been 3 executions by lethal injection in Montana. Convicted murderer David Dawson the most recent, executed in August of last year. In contrast, Texas has had 380 executions since 1976 and 24 executions last year. Church officials, legal experts, prison wardens, criminologists, the brother of the Unabomber and those with family members who have been the victims of violent crimes lined up to oppose the death penalty. Ed Sheehy, a Missoula public defender who has been involved in 8 death penalty trials, said the legal fees when a death penalty is involved in a trial are exorbitant. The American Bar Association requires, in a death penalty case, that legal specialists and mental health expertswho cost the state hundreds of dollars an hourbe present, Sheehy said. He went on to predict that two ongoing death penalty cases in Bozeman will virtually wipe out the budget of the Office of the State Public Defender. Ronald Waterman, a Helena attorney said there is a good chance a Federal Court will rule the use of lethal injection unconstitutional. An appeal is on its way to the ninth circuit court of appeals now, he added. Gary Hilton, a former warden of the New Jersey prison system said life in prison without parole is as much a deterrent for potential criminals as the death penalty. "I, personally, can think of nothing more horrific than growing old and eventually dying in prison," Hilton said. "The older you get, the more you become a target." Among the higher profile death penalty opponents to testify was David Kaczynski, the brother of convicted murderer, Ted Kaczynski, also known as the Unabomber. David, now a spokesperson for a New York anti-death penalty group, said turning his brother in provided a first-hand look at the imperfect justice system and how it treats the mentally ill. "Fortunately, my brother will spend the rest of his life in prison," Kaczynski said. "But Ted's life wasn't spared because he's any sicker than one hundred or so seriously mentally-ill people that have been executed since 1992. His life was spared because he had great lawyers." J.A. Ziegler of Billings, whose 78-year-old father was shot to death by 2 teenage boys, told the committee that while the murder devastated his family, he was able to eventually make peace with his father's murderers. "Nothing yesterday, today, or tomorrow will bring my father back," Ziegler said. "Taking the lives of the 2 youth that murdered my father would satisfy nothing and will only promulgate the 'Eye for an Eye' theory." But the questions of morality and religious belief were also central to the arguments of those who opposed Harringtons bill, in support of the death penalty. The Bible says if a murderer kills someone, he is to be put to death in front of 2 witnesses, said Butte businessman Bernard Ferch, adding that the legal system should do away with its lengthy appeals process. "Read the Bible. Understand the Word, and do what God commands us as Christians," Ferch said, adding that the Bible also says gays and lesbians should be "put to death." Retired Attorney Doug Nulle said a life sentence does not guarantee the incarcerated stay that way. "Sentencing laws can change," Nulle said. Dangerous inmates can harm other inmates and corrections staff while in prison, Nulle said. "Someone with a life sentence has nothing to lose by killing someone in prison." Sen. Dan McGee, R-Laurel, described how the legislature has wrestled with the death penalty issue for 12 years. A bill to eliminate the death penalty didnt make it out of committee in the 2005 session. McGee went on to describe how his best friend, a police officer, was shot to death in Missoula in 1984. The murder trial was lengthy and resulted in a hung jury because some on the jury didn't believe in the death penalty, McGee said. And since then, McGee said he has witnessed the man who murdered his friend repeatedly apply for parole. "He has used our system, our money, to continually apply to be released," McGee said. "At what point do we say a person has reached that point at which society says you dont have a right to be here?" McGee said he favors the death penalty, but plans to vote for the bill in committee because the issue deserves a debate on the Senate floor. (source: New West Politics) ********************* Speakers at forum question Montana's death penalty Unabomber Ted Kaczynski's brother told a group of about 100 Helena-area residents it was not his siblings mental illness that saved him from the death penalty but that he had good attorneys. This is not the same for many criminals facing execution, David Kaczynski said. Kaczynski spoke Tuesday night at a gathering to support a bill to abolish death-penalty sentences in Montana. He said that although he agonized over his decision to turn his brother into the FBI, he thought he was lucky. David Kaczynski said he was touted as a hero, which is not always to the case for those who have spoken to law enforcement about their family members possible involvement with crimes. He recalled the story of one California man whose only thank you was a front-row seat at his brothers execution. "I saw the part of the story I didn't have to live," Kaczynski said. The public panel discussion held at Carroll College was a preview of testimony scheduled to be heard by the Senate Judiciary Committee this morning. A group in support of the bill, called the Montana Abolition Coalition, which is comprised of a multitude of civil-rights organizations and church groups, put together the event. Kaczynski said he has always been against the death penalty and never imagined that he would be personally involved with the cause after his brother was a candidate for capital punishment. Executive director of the Montana Catholic Conference, and a member of the Abolition Coalition, Moe Wosepka said Montana's execution of convicted killer David Dawson last year may have helped to charge their efforts. Wosepka said although America's methods of dealing with criminals has improved from the days of "rope-wielding vigilantes" and public hangings, lethal injections the method of execution currently used by Montana are not the answer. Since the 1970s, the state has executed 3 people. Kaczynski is set to testify along with 2 family members of murder victims, Gary Hilton, a former warden of the New Jersey State Prison and former Texas district attorney Sam Millsap. Millsap prosecuted a man who at the time he was convinced was guilty. The case of accused killer Ruben Cantu was later investigated by a Texas newspaper, which uncovered evidence that made Millsap question not only that case but the death penalty in general. Millsap said his home state and Montana have much in common, with both states' having a bulk of cattle and love of football. But, one major difference is the number of executions in the 2 states. While Montana had 3 death penalties occur in the last 12 years, Texas has seen 3 in the month of January alone and another 6 are planned over the next 90 days, Millsap said. 2 prisoners are on death row in Montana. Millsap said he is embarrassed that he cannot remember if he dealt with 7 or 9 cases that led to execution. "It breaks my heart that I can't remember," he said during the discussion. He said he still has dreams of half of those cases where "questions linger." Millsap told the crowd that Cantus case was not included in those he wondered about. He said at the time, when he was a 34-year-old prosecutor, he thought the decision that Cantu should die was "crystal clear." Now, 25 years later, there are "shades of grey today that didnt exist." Cantu was found guilty with the testimony of 1 eye witness, Millsap said. People make mistakes, he added. "You can't undo an execution," Millsap said. (source: Helena Independent Record) ************************ Lawmakers hear arguments for and against death penalty The brother of Unabomber Ted Kaczynski headlined a large group of social activists who told lawmakers that Montana needs to abolish the death penalty. David Kaczynski told the Senate Judiciary Committee Wednesday that the death penalty could never be administered fairly. He spoke in favor of a bill by Sen. Dan Harrington, D-Butte, to commute death sentences to life in prison and abolish capital punishment in the future. "We have a death penalty that disproportionately impacts the poor, people of color, and the mentally challenged,'' said Kaczynski. "Do we really want a death penalty that is applied unfairly and risks executing the innocent?'' With Kaczynski's help, police where able to arrest his brother at a remote cabin near Lincoln in 1996. Ted Kaczynski is serving a life sentence for sending mail bombs that killed three people and wounded several others. David is writing a book about reconciliation with one of his brother's victims. Several opponents to the death penalty agreed with David Kaczynski that executions were impracticable. Former Texas prosecutor Sam Millsap told the committee that he was "no wild-eyed, pointy-headed liberal'' and had supported the death penalty most of his adult life. He changed his mind, he said, when he found out his successful prosecution of a possibly innocent man led to his death. "The undeniable fact is that the system we rely on in this country to prosecute capital crimes simply cannot be trusted to protect the innocent,'' Millsap said. Other opponents, including several religious leaders, said the death penalty is immoral. "To claim that the execution of any offender will be just retribution is to insult the immeasurable and irreplaceable worth of the victim,'' said Marietta Jaeger Lane of Three Forks, who said her daughter was killed 34 years ago. "For the state to kill in retaliation for my daughter's death is to violate and profane the goodness, sweetness and beauty of her life.'' Proponents of the death penalty say it serves as a deterrent to criminals, especially ones already incarcerated, who have little else but the death penalty to deter them from hurting other inmates or prison guards. Tom Berry of Roundup, whose 17-year-old son was murdered in 2000, said the death penalty also provided prosecutors a valuable tool for negotiating plea bargains. He told the committee that he thinks one of his son's murderers took a plea agreement that included a lengthy prison term only to avoid the death penalty if convicted. Harrington said he was not introducing the bill because he had any sympathy for criminals. Rather, he said: "Because it is your hand and mind and every adult Montanan that communally signals the end of a human life. Do we, as lawmakers, have the right to demand that every Montanan perpetuate that ugly tradition?'' Efforts to abolish the death penalty have failed in each of the past 3 legislative sessions. There are 2 prisoners are on death row in Montana. The state has executed 3 people since the death penalty was reinstated in the 1970s. The committee took no further action on the bill. Harrington's bill is Senate Bill 306. (source: Associated Press) UTAH: Death penalty for killers of children is approved Killers who murder children under 14 years of age would automatically be considered for the death penalty under a bill passed Tuesday by the House. HB228 by Rep. Carl Wimmer, R-Herriman, "simply puts the murder of a child" into a special section of the homicide code that includes automatic capital punishment consideration. Oddly enough, if someone kills a legislator, that also is already an automatic death penalty consideration. Wimmer, a police officer, listed a number of well-known murder cases in Utah including a father and mother who killed their child, yet were sentenced to 5-years-to life, with the possibility of parole after just 7 years. "The mere fact they could get out in 7 years terrifies me to no end," he said. The bill would include the murder of a child as either life-without-parole, the death penalty or 20 years to life sentences much harsher than current penalties. It now goes to the Senate. (source: Deseret Morning News) PENNSYLVANIA: Death Penalty Sought Against Suspected Murderer Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against a man accused of killing the brother of an Erie cop. David McHenry is accused of shooting 32-year-old Joshua DiBello in the parking lot of Herman's Cafe in late July. During a pretrial hearing in Erie County Court this afternoon, the District Attorney's office asked the court to consider combining a felony charge of robbery to a charge of first degree murder. If that request is granted, the DA's office can then uphold its request for the death penalty. Defense attorneys believe there is not enough evidence to prove McHenry robbed DiBello. (source: WJET News)
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----MISS., USA, MONT., UTAH, PENN.
Rick Halperin Thu, 8 Feb 2007 00:49:06 -0600 (Central Standard Time)
